After a little more mucking around inside the case, I got the power LED working - another inspection of the mobo layout revealed there was a second power LED header that had the required 3-pin layout. Why they didn't just leave 3 slots on the system header, I don't know... So, now the power LED is back on and ready to once again blind me at night. =p

Killed the onboard audio and installed the SB Live! Value, which really did improve sound quality... a lot. It really says something about the quality of the AC97 when an older SB Live! Value blows it out the water in... well, everything. I lost the ability to use the case's front audio ports in making this switch, but no big loss. It's not really that much effort to just lean over and reach for the back of the case, especially since I'm not using that full-size tower anymore. =p

So, until I can afford some more hardware, I'm done for now. The only things left to do, money permitting, is to get a new video card (which, since I'll need to capture, will almost certainly be an ATI All-In-Wonder 9600) and possibly deal with the noise. Yes, the computer still sounds like a jet engine. I've managed to narrow down the major noisemaker to the Thermaltake CPU fan. I have the option of either getting a larger fan and adapting the current heatsink to fit, or just getting a new HSF altogether...

I'm also, once again, blanking out on apps I could need. (I still don't have Photoshop or Office, but I didn't have those things before either.)

I also wish Windows file/printer sharing wasn't a piece of crap.

Oh yeah, and I pretty much bombed the Art History quiz I had today, because I didn't get a chance to study for it the whole weekend. Argh.