Rollcall: who is running what?

[mubs]

Nah, I stole the pic from googling. No wax statue of me; I ain't famous and plan to stay that way.

 

[tazwegion]

Hmmm... this'll be my first post @ these forums, so why not start here with a systems breakdown


Main Rig/ICS host

Athlon 2500+ @ 2.2Ghz
Abit NF7-s Rev 2.0
Seagate Barracuda 80Gb SATA
Dual sticks of 256Mb Crucial XMS-3200
Gigabyte R9600XT 128Mb DVI
Lite-on CD/DVD-rom
Juster 2.1 Sub' sound system 3D-603
Realtec 10/100 NIC
Colour coded floppy
CoolerMaster Centurion case
Dell 17" CRT
Labtec accessories


Secondary system

Abit KT7 & Athlon 1100
256Mb Generic PC-133
10Gb Quantum Fireball IDE
Riva TnT2pro 32Mb AGP
LG CD/RW
Floppy
Realtec 10/100 NIC
Genius 5.1 PCI sound card & Compro ACS1000 speakers
Generic Beige ATX case
15" Velta CRT (original 'Red Hill' purchase )


Kids Retro Gaming system

AMD K62-500 (CXT core)
EPOX EP-MVP3C2
64Mb PC-100
4.3Mb Quantum Fireball IDE
16Mb VooDoo Banshee PCI
Creative Labs AWE 32 SoundBlaster ISA
Generic (artistically modified) AT case
Generic 40x CD-rom
15" Philips 105E CRT


Server #1 (SETI@home)

AMD K62-550
Aopen AX59pro
64Mb PC-100
4.3Mb Quantum Fireball IDE
Rage3D IIC AGP
Realtec 10/100 NIC
5.25" & 3.5" floppy drives
Generic 50x CD-rom
Generic AT (modified to ATX) Server case


Server #2 (SETI@home)

AMD K62-500
IBM 263pro (ATX) SiS530 chipset (video/audio)
4.3Gb Quantum Fireball IDE
Realtec 10/100 NIC
Generic 40x CD-rom
IPEC Generic case


Server #3 (Folding@Home)

Intel CeleronA 400@500Mhz
MSI 6161 rev 1.03
Rage3D IIC AGP
64Mb PC-100
3.6Mb Quantum Fireball IDE


Testing rig

Cyrix MX 200
FIC VA-502
32Mb PC-100
1.2Gb Quantum Fireball IDE
Trident 512K VGA
Generic Beige desktop case

As you can see, I've got a problem letting go of systems... and hence have been adding to the 'Retro Collection' ever since my first PC, with even still more components waiting in the sidelines :roll: BTW running a variation of Win 95/98SE & Lite, 2K & XPpro on these systems :wink:

 

[GMac]

Still using the rig I built a couple of years back (Feb '03):

Ahtlon XP 2100+ (T'Bred - 1733MHz)
Thermalright SK7 with Papst 120mm fan
Epox 8RDA+ (NForce 2 chipset) mobo
2*512MB Crucial PC2700 DDR
Enermax 430W PSU
Fujitsu MAJ3182 10K SCSI (System)
Maxtor Atlas 10K III 18GB (Apps & Data) and 73GB (Music, Games)
Tekram 390U3W SCSI controller
ATi Radeon 9500Pro 128MB AGP
Hercules DigiFire 7.1
NEC 3500AG DVD-RW
Plextor 1210S CDR
Mitsubishi LS120
Lian-Li PC 60 case
Hansol H710 17" TFT
Altec Lansing ACS33 speakers
DLink DSL router
Win XP SP2

Been absolutely rock solid from a reliability standpoint - it'll stay in as a media server when I build a new box next year sometime.

GM

 

[Santilli]

Giant:
Does the 942 case, and power supply, make much noise?

Thanks

g

 

[Mercutio]

Welcome New Guy!

Are you a friend of Tannin's?

 

[time]

Sounds more like a disgruntled former customer. :lol:

Welcome, we're a bit light on for Aussies since James left and Pradeep emigrated.

 

[Buck]

Welcome ex-Redhill customer.

 

[Bartender]

A quick hijack of this thread - Drinks on the house for our new Oz friend.

 

[tazwegion]

Welcome ex-Redhill customer.

I'm not an ex-customer, perhaps a regular might be a better description... the reason I listed the Velta CRT (and it's point of origin) was merely to indicate it's age (1997) and service life, not to mention the fact I horde PC technology (much to my wife's disgust LMAO)

I suppose it would be fair to say that the 'proprietor' is at least a little responsible for the fueling my 'PC addiction' as it were, initially with my first ever upgrade an XT -> i386... then finally a fully built custom system in '97

I've learned a lot since then building all my own systems since, but have found the afore mentioned individual, a helpful source of information as much as components, and for his style of customer interaction, I've recommended the store more times than I dare to imagine

Geez, it's starting to sound like a service plug! :roll:

Thanks for the drink Bartender... what a curious but interesting forum/site you've got yourselves here, I just need to get used to the whole inability to edit/delete posts though (acute grammar perfectionist) :lol:

 

[Buck]

I just need to get used to the whole inability to edit/delete posts though (acute grammar perfectionist) :lol:

The worst is when the Grammar Police come out, they're a real pain in the behind. Fortunately, they've been inactive for months, sort of like a volcano - you never know when they're going to blow.

 

[Tannin]

(various nice things)

Damit Tea, that's another bottle of scotch we have to remember to send.

 

[Santilli]

Giant:
Does the 942 case, and power supply, make much noise?

Thanks

g

:bounce: :cooler:

 

[The Grammar Police]

Thou shalt not edit posts.
Thou shalt not make mistakes.
Thou shalt not be human.
Thou shalt not ask forgiveness.
Thou shalt suffer terrible punishment.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. We miss nothing. We are everywhere. We have no mercy.

 

[OT: Polizei]

<yawn>

 

[iGary]

Does the 942 case, and power supply, make much noise?

It depends on which power supply you choose. The expensive Supermicro 600-watt and 750-watt triple-redundant power supplies can mimic a hurricane fairly well. I use (if I recall correctly) a Supermicro 450-watt redundant cooling (2 fans, one active until the other fails) power supply.

As for the fans in at the front of the chassis, they are easily enabled or disabled by just pulling them in or out of their hot-plug fan slots. The rear vent fan slides in and out of a slot as well, but you have to plug its power cable into the mobo. The (105mm ?) stock rear fan is quiet, but I replaced it with an slow spinning aftermarket fan. I only use the one fan in the back of the chassis.

By the way, I forgot yet another component in my "System I" box. I also have a Koutech USB2 + Firewire400 front connector panel in one of my 5¼-inch drive bays for plugging USB and Firewire devices or cables into. The Koutech connector panel is interfaced to the internal connectors of my FirewireDirect multi-port USB2 + Firewire400 host bus adapter.

I use all NINE of those 5¼-inch slots on the front of my SC942 chassis! 4-bay SCA box, 2-each ATA drive bays, 1-each 68-pin SCSI drive bay, CD-R/W, USB2+Firewire connector panel, and Imation SuperDisk floppy drive. The SC942 chassis works perfectly for me because is not very high or wide. However, it is quite deep, but that is not of concern for me. It's also convertible from pedestal form factor to 19-inch equipment rack form factor.

 

[tazwegion]

The worst is when the Grammar Police come out, they're a real pain in the behind. Fortunately, they've been inactive for months, sort of like a volcano - you never know when they're going to blow.

Hmmm... speak of the devil eh?

Damit Tea, that's another bottle of scotch we have to remember to send.

A bottle of scotch eh? thanks but not necessary, just giving credit were it's due :lol: :roll:

Ah well, I'll be off again... back to tinkering with this VA-502/Cyrix MX combo... need sleep! :eekers:

 

[Tannin]

Hey, I remember sleep! Sleep used to be good, back in the old days.

Bring back sleep!

 

[tazwegion]

Hey, I remember sleep! Sleep used to be good, back in the old days.

Bring back sleep!

Yes, sleep was good... something we used to get a lot of during the 'Century of the Lizard', but not much since :lol:

BTW thanks to the massive information resource we call the Internet... I located a PS/2 mouse wiring diagram which allowed me to modify a 4 pin -> 5 pin motherboard interface, and now it's off to swap out the VGA cards :roll:

w00t w00t!

Socket 7 rules! :aok:

 

[Pradeep]

Seeing how Supermicro was mentioned:

http://www.supermicro.com/aplus/

Opteron speed + SuperMicro quality = goodness.

 

[e_dawg]

Merc,

I am having trouble counting, but do you have 11 TB of storage at home? :eekers:

 

[LiamC]

e_dawg, I only figured it as ~7TB

I think Mercution is too tame a nick. Maybe it should be Merc the Slayer, or the Mercinator (hmmm, definite Arnie theme here). ÜberMerc?

 

[LiamC]

*sigh x2*

Mercutio, not Mercution

I really am going to have to start previewing

 

[Tea]

I vote for the Mercinator!

 

[Mercutio]

I am having trouble counting, but do you have 11 TB of storage at home?

Not really. I basically have a great deal of redundant storage.

 

[Buck]

Seeing how Supermicro was mentioned:

http://www.supermicro.com/aplus/

Opteron speed + SuperMicro quality = goodness.

The AW4020C-T should make for a nice server.

 

[Santilli]

The H8DCE looks REALLY cool....

s

 

[iGary]

Seeing how Supermicro was mentioned...

Supermicro Operton mobos and complete rackmount server packages have actually been around for a few weeks now, but they are all "disguised" as something else! One such example would be certain "Monarch" mobos:

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc..._Code=M&Product_Code=110289&Category_Code=OMB


Supermicro is apparently -- at this point in time -- dodging the potential wrath of Intel by selling all their Operton mobos and servers as "OEM" only. Here's some insight into their dilemma:

• Supermicro spent a lot of money developing a line of Opteron server board... Details and support info were made available on Supermicro's site (manuals, drivers, bios, etc.). Shortly thereafter, every bit of info on the Supermicro boards disappeared from Supermicro's site...
  
  Why would a company spend money developing and producing 7 different board designs, H8DAR-8, H8DA8, H8DAR-i, H8DAE, H8DAR-T, H8DAR-E, H8DCE, and then suddenly start making every attempt to NOT sell them, while continuing to sell them?...
  
  One of my suppliers told me that the Supermicro boards had been ready for nearly a year, but that Supermicro was waiting for an agreement with Intel to expire before the boards could be made available...
  
  Intel is an active extortionist, and a blatant one at that. The Supermicro events took place in the past couple of months. They went way too far, and they're going to be nailed hard in court...

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=21499692

 

[Santilli]

WOW!! That's a great price on a Supermicro motherboard :excl:

Then I look at the processor prices :roll:

Intel, anti-competitive business practices? Say it ain't so, Joe... :wink:

s

 

[iGary]

Intel, anti-competitive business practices? Say it ain't so, Joe... :wink:

A couple of the key witnesses in the upcoming Intel anti-trust trial are certainly going to be Dell and Supermicro -- probably Gateway, too. Undoubtedly, the Guv will rigourously question Dell and SuperO about Intel strong-arming tactics.

The ghosts of Intergraph and Cyrix might even be present to twist the knife. :lol:

 

[Adcadet]

Most Used: Palm Tungsten C (in the hospital/clinic/on the road). 512 MB SD card, built-in Wifi +Snapper Mail to check my various school accounts and Gmail, Repligo and numerous chapters from textbooks available through my biomed library, and Merck, MDConsult, and loads of software, both free and provided graciously by companies courting my favor (because I'm my school's techy dude and I asked nicely). I'm very happy with this little thing.

Desktop: MSI K8T Neo FISR, Newcastle 64-bit 3000+, 512 MB RAM (I really should go to 1 GB), WD 740 GD, WD 2000JB, WD1200JB, ATi 8500 and 2*19" CRT's.

Laptops: had to turn in my school-provided Dell Latitude 600m, now back to my Dell 8200.

 

[Handruin]

Primary System:
(donated by the SF crew)
Athlon XP 2200+
Abit NF7-S Ver 1
1GB Crucial PC 2700
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
2x WD 80GB
1x WD 120GB
Pioneer A06 DVD-RW
Samsung 16x DVD-ROM
Antec P160 with Neopower 480 PS
Dell 2001FP

Backup Server:
Dell PowerEdge SC420
Celeron 2.53GHz
512 DDR2
80GB SATA
IIyama 19" VM Pro 450

Laptop:
Dell Latitude D600
512MB RAM
Tiny hard drive
Slow CPU

 

[CougTek]

Just gave my previous system mentioned earlier in this thread. Now equipped with the following :

• Pentium 4 "Prescott" 505 2.66GHz/533MHz FSB
  Asus P5P800 i865-based
  512MB (2 DIMMs) PC3200 (Corsair)
  Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB (same as before, put a Radeon 9250 in my old box)
  WD2000JB 200 GagaBytes HD
  2x WD400JB 40GB HD (from old box)
  LG GSA-4163B black DVD writer 16X (same old drive, put a NEC 3500 in the old box)
  Antec Sonata II case
  AND NO MORE FLOPPY (so proud)

Monitor, printer, keyboard and mouse didn't change.

Maybe it isn't really an upgrade from my last box (except for the enclosure), but I hope my FAH stats will improve a little. After all, my new P4 is running at more than 1GHz over my previous 1.533GHz Athlon XP 1800+. I can't believe it won't be at least a little bit better.

 

[zahira1]

what am I running - an ancient ark of a pentium II

HP Pavilion 8315
350Mhz processor with MMX
100MHz FSB
512KB 1.2 cache
48MB SDRAM
6GB hard drive
Sound Blaster 24 Bit soundcard
upgraded RAM -but to what - not a clue

the tech that put the sound card in said that the case was actually built as a server - probably explains why it is so huge!

new system ummm maybe a Compaq Presario being offered by one of our stores with $100 cash back. Looks like a handy system, I've thought about an Acer, but feel a bit uneasy with that.

 

[CougTek]

...and you feel at ease with Compaq :eekers:

 

[LiamC]

Got around to updating the rig
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
Samsung 193T Flat Panel

120GB PATA Samsung, 120GB SATA Maxtor DM9+, 160GB SATA Samsung
Abit 128MB Radeon 9550 AGP
LiteOn 1653S DVDRW
52X Mitsubishi CD ROM

There is something to be said for dual cores--smooth

 

[Santilli]

Got around to updating the rig
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
Samsung 193T Flat Panel

120GB PATA Samsung, 120GB SATA Maxtor DM9+, 160GB SATA Samsung
Abit 128MB Radeon 9550 AGP
LiteOn 1653S DVDRW
52X Mitsubishi CD ROM

There is something to be said for dual cores--smooth

Liam: isn't the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 a single processor only board, with
Nvidia 3 chipset?

I didn't think it supported the X2 processor...

Thanks

GS

 

[Tannin]

HP/Compaq = worst possible idea. Seriously, the days when HP made quirky but solid systems are gone. Long gone. They are appallingly bad. I'd never recommend that anyone bought a retail vomit box, but if you are dead set on something like that (lord alone knows why), then at least get one of the slightly less worse ones, such as Acer or IBM.

But you won't get anything like as good a system as you get with a made-to-order one. Poorer quality, slower components, very expensive to repair, often impossible to upgrade .....

Don't do it.

 

[LiamC]

Liam: isn't the Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 a single processor only board, with
Nvidia 3 chipset?

I didn't think it supported the X2 processor...

Greg, you need the F6 BIOS update or better. My board shipped with the F5 BIOS, so the X2 appeared as "Unsupported CPU". It booted fine and Windows worked just fine--was able to install everything etc.--but it appeared to Windows as a single core.

Flashed BIOS, launched Windows and Windows recognised the second core--it installed a new HAL (I guess)--rebooted and now its a dual core job.

Saved me the expense of going PCI-e. So far, given the shortening of compile times, I'd say that this has been a pretty good upgrade.

Oh, did I mention cool running. I use a Zalman 7000C AlCu cooler--very silent. At idle, my C0 S754 2800+ was running 33~36 C. And would get into the high 50's, low 60's under full load. The X2 runs at 23~24 C idle and gets to a whopping 34 C under load--with both cores flat out!

Because of the much better thermals, I haven't had a PC this quiet since the K6-2 days.

Zalman 7000 at minimum (1300 rpm) is near silent. At max (2500 rpm) it is a very quiet low pitched hum.

AGP card is passive cooled.

Unfortunately, the NB on the Gigabyte is active--on the Abit S754 it was passive. The Abit cooler looks like it will fit.

The case--Antec SLK1650 has a single 120mm exhaust, and that seems to keep case temps cool. Much better than the 3 x 80mm in my Lian Li PC60.

The only advantage of the Lian Li was that the two inlet fans used to blow over the HDD cage.

P.S. Call me Bill

 

[Santilli]

Thanks Liam.

I didn't see the GA-K8ns Ultra 939 on the X2 supported list on Gigabyte's website. Looks Like the current bios upgrade is the F7, and, you just gave me really good news. I CAN upgrade a Nvidia 3 motherboard to X2, and, considering I have that board, and a Gk8nSC 939, and, now both of the boards support duals.

That means this is the cheapest way to go dual cpus pretty much in history.

AWESOME! A dual board for 85 bucks. It's amazing how things have changed.

Thanks again.

s

 

[LiamC]

There is an F8 BIOS on the Taiwan site, but there have been some rumblings that the F7 & F8 BIOS' can be a little trouble. I haven't struck anything yet though. The F9 is due soon, and the beta testers are liking it a lot.