When I first started with my casemod project, I had the intention to put switches on the case to control my CCFL and fans. In a later thought I came up with the idea to control them via relays from my pc with software. I started to look around to find out how I could do it. My first thought was to use my parallel port, but there was a problem which was that I already have a parallel zip drive which I need on a daily basis for school, and a parallel printer, so the parallel port is always in use.

The solution would be to find a circuit that would work with the serial port, or better with the USB headers on my mainboard. I posted a thread about it on some electronics forums. There I found that I could use a PIC processor, which would enhance the project more. Searching for more information about these, I found out that the popular Matrix Orbital LCD Displays had GPOs, General Purpose Outputs.

After talking to Henry from Matrix Orbital and explaining to him what I wanted to do, he sent me a LK202-25V with black PCBay insert. (BLK202A). It has 6 GPOs so it will be perfect. So, I went ahead and built my power distribution unit, and it ended up like this.