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Topfield TF5800 Upgrade 2
I've upgraded the toppy fan again as there was some noise trouble and the performance of having the fan in that location was questionable. However, I've found that core 2 CPUs have reasonably good fans, so it was out with the old and in with the new. The Core 2 fans have 4 wires. Concern yourself with only the black and yellow ones (0 and +12V respectively). The others are RPM sensing and PWM control and arn't needed.
I attached the fan to the top of the topfield case using wire ties, though double sided foam tape would be better, mostly because it'd damp the noise and wouldn't look so messy, but the ties do the job, so that's that.
Topfield TF5800 Upgrade
The standard topfield comes with 160GB hard disk, and after some time, you may find yourself running out of space. The solutions are to burn DVDs, make video tapes or even delete the files! But you can upgrade the hard disk very easilly. All you need is an IDE (PATA) hard disk that's nice and large. The more observant amongst you will have realised that SATA hard disks are cheaper (as some of the larger ones now use perpendicular recording). There is a way around this, which is to use an IDE-SATA bridge, though I havn't tried and will require some special cabling. I got a 400GB drive, which should be enough without being excessivly expensive. Remove the metal cover off the topfield, unscrew the caddy and unplug the cables. Replace the old drive with your new one and you're set to go!. It's actually that easy. The topfield will notice and format your new drive. You can then use your old drive somewhere else. I noticed the hard disk gets hot so I put a cooling fan in. Find those thin ones off P3s or Athlon CPUs, as they make ideal fans. I screwed mine on the bottom of my caddy and ran it off 7V (12+, 5+). It's not elagent, but it works and is quiet. Here are some photos:
