Splash: What are you using for new systems at work?

[Mercutio]

Don't you hate it when you've just gotten into your bunny suit and walked into the class 4 clean room, and then realized you hafta take a leak?

 

[Santilli]

Very funny. Comtex? Something like that. They make the ram for apple computers.

Apparently the MacGuy I go to has some sort of in with Comtex, calls them up, and orders direct, without apple in the middle. The maker requested the numbers on the ram, and the type, to make sure they match, and work in the Supermicro motherboards. I suspect they might make the ram for some of the distributors Splash mentioned, but, I could be wrong.

Whatever.

Anyone know if the cable resistance is the same for LVD 2 and 3? 132 ohms?

Wondering if I can use my Granite Digital cables and terminators from LVD 2, for 3?

Have to call Ken otherwise.

Memory is on it's way. Due Monday.

Pulled the drives dropped them at the shop. Decided the existing box would be just fine for some stuff, and, since I've already got onboard scsi 320, and a raid 0 setup, I used my ATTO card to hook up to the 3rd generation cheetah from my mac. In the mac, it was only slightly faster
then the Diamond Plus 9 Maxtor I installed today, at least in SDT according to ATTO Tools. However, it just didn't have that instant cache, scsi snap.

Hoping in my PC I'll get the performance the drives capable of.

Figure a pci video, and tempo trio card, along with a cheap cable, and terminator, and a used ATTO LVD u2 card, somewhere in that puzzle is why it only does 60 mb/sec. Or, it could be the mobo chipset really sucks, which I know it does.

Just got done cleaning out the cable and wire mess from hell under my two computers, and desk.

Sore back.


Formatting the cheetah right now...

Splash: Is the included cable with the Supermicro mobo any good?

Hows the sound on the motherboard?

When I start adding up all the stuff on the motherboard, I think the only PCI cards I need are firewire 2, and that's it.

After I look at all of the features on the Supermicro motherboards, no one should be saying they are under priced. When you add up all the onboard stuff, the motherboard is the steal of the century.

That's great, since I can leave all my other stuff on the the Asus, and have another nice computer.


I was going to fix up my girlfriends Dell, but, she's happy with it, and why bother with success?

The only hang up is getting the Parahelia. It's back ordered...

s

 

[Corvair]

The maker requested the numbers on the ram, and the type, to make sure they match, and work in the Supermicro motherboards. I suspect they might make the ram for some of the distributors Splash mentioned, but, I could be wrong.

In the case of Crucial, their parent Micron, makes the RAM for their DIMMs. The others can be anyone from Samsung to Infineon to Toshiba. I can tell you that don't like Kingston RAM. I have used Crucial and Viking DIMMs with success.

Anyone know if the cable resistance is the same for LVD 2 and 3? 132 ohms? Wondering if I can use my Granite Digital cables and terminators from LVD 2, for 3?

Yes, the er... impedance is the same for both busses.

Splash: Is the included cable with the Supermicro mobo any good?

It is a deluxe terminated 5-position Ultra320 cable -- either a flat one or a rounded one.

Hows the sound on the motherboard?

As good as any modern onboard desktop sound. It's simply bog standard Intel E7501 chipset sound that you'll find on any E7501-based mobo.

If you have a need for more, there's the 32-bit PCI slot into which you could put a relatively inexpensive M-Audio studio card (or other brand) capable of recording better-than-CD quality audio.

I don't know what your audio needs are, but if you are going to be recording from external sources and want decent audio quality, there's not an "onboard" audio solution capable of doing a decent job, nor will *any* stinkin' Soundblaster card work -- no matter what they claim on he exterior package.

After I look at all of the features on the Supermicro motherboards, no one should be saying they are under priced. When you add up all the onboard stuff, the motherboard is the steal of the century.

Hmmm... Supermicro has never been too keen on meeting price points per se (budget market), though they have gotten a bit better in the past... oh... 4 years. They used to be quite pricey going back into the early '90s when they burst upon the mobo scene making one of the best and fastest general purpose mobos you could buy then for industrial, data comm, or specialised workstation usage. The mobo shootouts in those old PC Tech, PC World, PC Mag, Computer Shopper magazines always had some Supermicro mobo taking first, second, or third place in speed benchmarks. Quite typically, mobos that were faster than some Supermicro mobo had compatibility problems with certain software or add-in hardware.

The only hang up is getting the Parahelia. It's back ordered...

Even though the Parhelia is a decent graphics card, it's basically overpriced. Unless you are running some CAD package, which the Parhelia is quite good at, I'd recommend the Millennium P-650.

The P-650 (and P-750) are ultra-capable 2-D graphics adaptors. They have excellent pixel performance for zooms and pans, have the best D/A convertors on the market for crystal clear text, objects, and acurate pictorial display, and are fully capable of operating in 30-bit RGB mode (that's a palette of 10 BILLION colours as opposed to 24-bit/16.7 million colours) as well as 24-bit, 16-bit, and 8-bit.

The P-650 has a Parhelia core, but lacks some of the special hardware-based shader capability and some other really minor core features that only a CAM or CAD person would care about. It also has dual-head, not triple-head graphics connectors. As for the P-750, it unfortunately has a little 40mm cooling fan on it which I would rather avoid if I could (passive cooling makes no noise and can't wear out) and the P-750 costs like US$50 more for just a tad more speed over an already more-than-fast-enough (2-D) P-650 along with aforementioned triple-head monitor connectivity.

If you are indeed using an analogue video monitor (with a typical high-density DB-15 connector on the monitor), something else you *should* buy is a new video cable. You don't have to buy this but should for reasons that you'll find out about later. The cable you need is a 6 Ft. DVI (male) to VGA (male) Display Cable. The graphics card end will have the larger DVI connector and the monitor end wil have the high-density DB-15 connector. You get a pair of little screw-on DVI -to- HDDB-15 convertors (one for each of the twin-head connectors) with a P-650, but I've found that these convertors can put a pretty fair amount of mechanical stress on the graphics card from the leveraged weight of the cable attached to it, whereas the cable with the proper DVI cable on it does not. And, being a pair of extra connections, the convertor could -- in theory -- cause image degradation at high frequencies.

...the only PCI cards I need are firewire 2, and that's it.

If you want the best 800 Mb Firewire card, the Firewire Direct cards are it. They have "bilingual" Firewire cards -- ones with BOTH the older 6-pin 400 Mb ports and the new 9-pin 800 Mb ports. They also have a "Nitro" model with Fireewire 800 and USB 2.0 all on one card. By the way, Firewire Direct was formed from the ashes of Power Computing -- the most successful of the Mac cloners (before Steve J cutoff their air supply in 1997).

Just some of the features on their Firewire 800 card:

* Backwards compatibility with Firewire "A" standard devices and among the only cards to feature a legacy port

* PCI 64-bit Bus Burst Mode up to 133MB/s

* Industry leading onboard 800Mbps link controller chip from Texas Instruments

* 18 watts of power supplied to the FireWire bus for running low power FireWire devices

http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewire/products/adapters.shtml




They also have some really handy and unique Firewire cables

http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewire/products/cables.shtml#buying

 

[Santilli]

Hi Splash

I was after the 3 heads of the Perihelia, because I can totally see myself running 3 21 inch monitors, or, adding a couple LCD's when they come down a bit in price.

My current sound card is a Phillips PSC 706. I've got Klipsch Pro Media 5 speaker 5.1, IIRC. I use that for some games, but a lot for DVD playing, and, listening to music.


Are the Firewire direct cards the same as the cards Ken is selling at Granite Digital?

WWW.granitedigital.com

I may use the 650 in my girlfriends' work computer. Have to check the price.

Also decided that using a third generation X 15 as a storage drive is sacrilege, somewhat like having Rembrandt paint houses.

I'm going to use it as the boot drive in the Athlon 1.4 ghz, and that leaves it a pretty quick computer.

It's formatting right now, on the ATTO dual channel card.

This project is like a government normal project, about 40% over budget.

I may add in the extra 2.8 ghz Xeon this weekend...

s

 

[Pradeep]

I believe each monitor is limited to 1280*1024 max rez when running Parhelia tri-head. And you can't do three DVI, I believe it's two DVI one analog, or perhaps two analog and one DVI, I can't remember. Think it's the latter.

 

[Mercutio]

IMO Matrox has priced itself out of mainstream markets. If they made a modern equivalent to the G100 I'd buy them day and night.

IMO you'd be just as well off with a dual-head something-or-other and a PCI video card.

 

[Santilli]

Hi
I decided on the G550, and with the money I saved, bought another 2.8 ghz Xeon.

When I save up more money, I'll order the Perehelia, and put the G550 in either my server, or, in my girlfriends computer.

I love it when a plan comes together....

s

 

[ddrueding]

Putting a G550 in a server seems like...oh, I don't know....massive overkill!

Besides the unnecissary power consumption, it's a pretty big waste of cash...

If your GF doesn't want it, I might be able to take it off your hands

 

[Santilli]

DD: Come to think of it, I agree.

I think I'll leave the TNT 16 mb card in it, pull the DVD player, and forget it.

Anyone know if the heat sinks shipped with the retail package Xeons are any good?

Thanks

gs

 

[Platform]

...If they made a modern equivalent to the G100 I'd buy them day and night...

The G200 is really a much better card than the somewhat short-lived G100. On the used market, I suspect the G200 is about the same price as the G100. Driver development is still alive with the G200/400/450/550.

 

[Platform]

I was after the 3 heads of the Perihelia, because I can totally see myself running 3 21 inch monitors, or, adding a couple LCD's when they come down a bit in price.

I have used a pair of Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 22-inch CRT monitors at home (DP-2040U) for a while, running Sonic Foundry Vegas and a few other applications that could take explicit advantage of dual monitor setups. I used the two side-by-side monitors with the (then) Matrox G450 desktop arrangement in Windows 2000 (later XP) as a "stacked" or super-tall desktop. The left monitor was the upper half of my desktop and the right monitor was the lower half of my desktop. It really worked out well for running Sonic Foundry Vegas (nowadays, Sony Vegas), but I can't say I benefited all that much when just doing "ordinary" work. The large virtual desktop could be handy at times if I had a bunch of applications running concurrently, where I could shuffle windows around the two monitors, but that really wasn't too often. I eventually quit using two monitors on the one computer and now it sits nearby unused at the moment.


LCD versus CRT: If you do any photo work, you will be better off with a CRT. However, if you really need the space, you simply can't beat an LCD. A large LCD display will be pricey, in fact, about twice the price (or more) than a 22-inch Diamond Pro CRT. And, one thing I'll say for sure, no LCD can touch a 22-inch Diamond Pro in image quality. The Diamond Pro monitors have a much wider colour gamut than any LCD display.

The latest 22-inch Diamond Pro is the DP-2070. If you've not seen one of these in person before, the DP2070 is not physically huge like the 21/22-inch monitors of the past. It is capable of a really wide dynamic range, as in very bright to total black simultaneously. The display is totally flat.

http://www.necmitsubishi.com/produc...t=232&ClassificationFamily=1&Classification=1



The price for this level of quality is really quite low, at about US$600 + shipping (for mailorder).

example:
http://www.provantage.com/buy-7necm...ubishi-monitors-crts-dp2070sb-bk-shopping.htm

Are the Firewire direct cards the same as the cards Ken is selling at Granite Digital?

No. The Firewire cards that Firewire Direct sells are unique. Nobody else makes cards with the features that their higher-end cards have. They are not expensive either. Their basic Firewire card costs US$39 and has an internal connector. A similar Adaptec card sells for US$49 and has no internal Firewire connector. And, rest assured, they only use the TI Firewire chipset, not the Via, NEC, or Sanyo Firewire chipsets.

An internal Firewire connector may not be of use to you, but it is of use to me, as I use a USB2 + Firewire internal hub that is mounted in a 5¼-inch drive bay so that I have *easy* front panel access to both USB2 and Firewire connectivity. I use a Firewire Direct USB2 + Firewire card (host bus adaptor) with both internal and external USB2 *and* Firewire connectors. Inside the computer chassis, I simply use a regular external USB uplink cable and a regular external Firewire cable to attach the host bus adaptor to the front panel hub. A spare drive power cable inside the chassis powers the front panel hub.

 

[Mercutio]

...If they made a modern equivalent to the G100 I'd buy them day and night...

The G200 is really a much better card than the somewhat short-lived G100. On the used market, I suspect the G200 is about the same price as the G100. Driver development is still alive with the G200/400/450/550.

As far as I recall, the G100 and G200 were released at the same time in... 1998, I think. They were both the subject of massive print advertising campaigns, and they were both lauded as excellent products, because they were.
IIRC the main differences between G100 and G200 were memory capacity and limitations to 3D capabilities for the G100 (i.e. the G100 didn't have any to speak of, like the Milleniuim before it).

The G100 was a $50 card with the same stunning quality as Matrox cards before it, head and shoulders over its contemporaries (ATI Rage, Riva128, S3 Virge) and equal to, in my observation, its big brother the G200.

The weird thing is, Matrox spent a ton of money marketing that card, and it disappeared literally instantly from the channel. G100s were available for maybe 3 months. In fact, I can remember PC Magazine running ads for it, even though I could no longer find a source to purchase it.

 

[GIANT]

As far as I recall, the G100 and G200 were released at the same time in... 1998, I think...

The G100 came out roughly in early 1998 and the G200 came out about mid-1998. The G200 has better memory bandwidth, as I can pan and zoom high-res images better on the G200 compared to the G100. Way back when, I suspect Matrox's G100 development project was significantly delayed for some (unknown) reason, but the G200 project wasn't. Once the G200 released, demand for the G100 probably dropped precipitously, thus manufacturing of the G100 was halted and replaced by the G200.

When needed, driver updates occur for the whole G200/400/450/550 card family as a unified driver, they haven't for the G100 in a long while.

 

[Santilli]

Splash: I would like to say thank you for all your help. I refer to you, first, and Tea second :wink: , for my computer advice-information, and, even though I may ask a thousand questions, I would really like to thank you, Tea, and all for the time you spend answering my juvenille questions.

Just heard of a guy that took the Cal Bar 48 times, passed it on the last one :bigeek:

Wow!

Tomorrow the matched memory from the Apple memory maker should arrive.

That should be the last component on the machine. The guy putting it together has had a problem with his son over the weekend.
Wasn't at work Monday.

Not much to do, just install the ram, format, and check it.

I'm completely jazzed. Two Xeon 2.8 ghz processors, 2 gigs of ram, a supermicro mobo, my raid setup, running on a 320 controller...Well, I expect it to double my Athlon 1.4 ghz system in speed, and, everything is onboard, except firewire.

My only question is, will it run Quake 3 better then my old system??? :mrgrn: :wink: :?:

GS

 

[Santilli]

ALSO THANKS TO ALL WHO POSTED ON THIS TOPIC. AWESOME HELP, AND, I LISTENED TO EVERY WORD.

THANK YOU.

S

 

[Santilli]

Got the second stick of memory, a pain, since in small print, the mobo requires matching dimms.

Final stats, depending upon final discussion should look something like this:

2 Xeons, 2.8 ghz, with intel fans and sinks
2 gigs of PC 2100 memory, made by the maker of Apple system memory.
Supermicro board, posted above.

Depending upon mobo config, and how the Scsi raid card works, probably boot off a dual channel, 4 drive raid.

Use 29160N Adaptec 160 scsi card for backup to an XL 18.

Scsi,Zip, cdrw Plextor, Plextor CD reader, and Pioneer DVD, scsi.

Problem maybe adding the scsi drive makes the space for the SCA drives unavaliable. Don't use it much, but have it working on mac, and, if on PC
it would be fine for transfering files.

I don't fine the box objectionable, since it reminds me of R2D2 and, it's on wheels.

Video Card is a Matrox G550, and, if I like it, it's going into my girlfriends computer while she's on vacation, since she uses hers for mainly text, on a 21 inch dell monitor.

Next is either a 21 inch LCD, or 21 inch monitor, and a Parahelia.
I want to be able to watch a full screen DVD, while I scan endless garbage from work, for my credential program...

I do need a firewire card for the machine. May use the one I currently have from GD.

Anyway, with 2 gigs of ram, two processors twice as fast as my current
Athlon, a Supermicro mobo, XP, and 4 Cheetahs, working on a raid ) 320, instead of LVD channels, I suspect it might meet my criteria for an upgrade, being at least twice as fast, if not 5 times(processor rule, most of the time).

I'm hoping this will be sufficent for a LONG time to come...

gs

 

[Santilli]

More info:

The Adaptec 2010S is setup, but, with the 4 drives, it's only doing, max, 70 mb/sec.

Ready to reinstall the ATTO card, and go with two Fst Gen X15's to boot from.

Apparently I have an odd man out. One of the 4 X 15's has firmware 002, vs. 003 for the other three. That drive is clicking a bit more then it should.

Suggestions???

HELP!!!

I do have the storage XL 18 up on the 29160N.

Figure I can send the Adaptec card back, use the ATTO UL3D to boot from, with two drives, and use the onboard channels to connect the remaining drives for storage.

Or, I could take my 15.3, boot from it, alone, on a single channel, and use them all for storage...

I don't know what to do on this one.

gs

 

[Santilli]

Sort of figured out the problem. RAM. As Splash said. I checked, and the 2 gigs of ram is showing up as one gig, despite promise the ram would work from maker. Returning now, with specific requirements.

Could explain poor hard drive tests as well.

Decided to keep the SCSI 2010S, since it works, and, it has 48 mb of ram on it for cache.

s

 

[GIANT]

Sort of figured out the problem. RAM. As Splash said.

Well, I wasn't kidding you one bit about proper DRAM. In fact, I'd almost bet that those DIMMs won't work in a lot of computers that would otherwise handle a pair of 1GB DDR DIMMs.

I still think that you are wasting money going with 2 GB or RAM. 1 GB is more than enough unless you are serving up a large real-time database or doing some serious NLE video work (multiple clips open, etc). 2-each compatible 512 MB DIMMs are relatively inexpensive and easy to get.

Could explain poor hard drive tests as well.

Drive results are just about what I'd expect. In other words, the RAID controller is providing 4x capacity with roughly the same throughput as one drive -- meaning that it's meeting minimum standards for performance.

Decided to keep the SCSI 2010S, since it works, and, it has 48 mb of ram on it for cache.

I'd suspect it is capable of doing decent RAID-0 and RAID-1 performance. You might try dropping the channel rate, yes, DROPPING DOWN the channel rate. The overall array performance might very well go up. Every stage of the RAID needs to properly load balance.



By the way:

Apparently, there is now a triple head Matrox P-650 (the one that's way cheaper than a Parhelia and has no fan):

http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2004/02_feb/reviews/matrox_triple.htm

 

[Santilli]

G 550 rocks :excl:

While not blinding, the graphics in Quake 3 are pretty amazing. WAY better then the 5500 Voodoo. The dual monitors work well, but, I can't use the second monitor for playing DVD's, as intended, with the DVD playing software I have.

Overall, this setup really moves. Bought a gig of Micron ram, for about 200 bucks, and a 19 inch Sony refurb monitor, with adapter for 85 dollars.
Splash, you are right, I wasted money on the ram. I could have bought the same 2 gigs of ram, with 512's, using the 3 two dimm banks, for about 40% cheaper then the two 1 gig dimms cost.
If I'm lucky, the guy will give up, and I'll get my money back.

It's pretty amazing how some tasks that really stretched my Athlon don't hit over 10 percent on this rig, for processor usage.

I did install a program, pretty sure it's PC maclan, trying to get my printer to work, that required reinstalling the entire os.

For some reason, I can't get XP to go into safe mode, while hitting F8.

Any suggestions? It's really weird this way.

The fan is mildly noisy, as are the server intel fans. Still, the sound card is very good, and, pretty much everything I need is on the motherboard.

The array setups is THREE X 15's on the dual channel, 48 mb cache, Adaptec 2010S. While the numbers in ATTO are about 75 mb/sec, overall, the system feels faster then that.

And yes, it does play Quake 3, in stunning graphics, though not blindingly fast, at high resolution. I really can't wait to put this card, a refurb that I thought didnt work, that I paid about 60 bucks for, in my girfriends computer, and upgrade to the 3 head 650 or 750. I would like to see Quake in Billions of colors, with a considerably faster processor, and more ram...

Watching the start of Barbwire, featuring Pam Andersen and her Jessica Rabbit body. AMAZING, in color quality, clarity, and sound. Actually, with the Klipsch speakers, it's almost as good as the living room, sound wise, but the visual quality of the DVD on the 21 inch Hitachi monitor really can't be beat. The Sony 19 inch I'm typing this on is even clearer.

WOW!
"Don't call me babe!!!"

s

 

[ddrueding]

Media player classic (free) will allow you to watch DVDs on either (or both) screens.

 

[Santilli]

THANK YOU :excl:

Solved that problem. Awesome. This setup rocks!!!

Splash: YOU ARE THE DOLPHIN :excl: :mrgrn:

GS

 

[Santilli]

Never fails, something has to be really screwed up. My copy of PCMACLAN Blue screens Windows XP.

When I open in safe mode, which I managed to do once, I am not allowed
to run the deinstaller to remove the program. :evil:

So, for the second time, after recovery failed to restore the system, I'm reinstalling, and reconfiguring.

This time I have the firewire card in the computer, and I'm going to burn my downloads, so it's faster.

FUN

s

 

[Santilli]

What does bother me, is I can't figure out how to setup Outlook so that I can back up my favorite emails,and my favorite web addresses, and my email list.

Help! How do you do this?

s

 

[ddrueding]

Outlook or outlook express?

If the former, just do a search for *.PST and copy the big one.

If the latter, it's a PITA

 

[Santilli]

It's Outlook, and thank you again, for your help. Windows Media Player Classic is beyond cool.

gs

 

[ddrueding]

It's Outlook, and thank you again, for your help. Windows Media Player Classic is beyond cool.

gs

NP, IIRC I got the suggestion from honold

Did the Outlook backup work for you?

 

[Santilli]

Haven't done it yet, since I lost any stuff I had saved in the last couple reinstalls.

Happily, the raid is plenty fast, even if the numbers don't look great.

s

 

[Santilli]

DD:
Just tried the *.PST search, and no file.

Wonder what I'm doing wrong?

s

 

[SteveC]

In the search window, you have to click on "More advanced options" the click the box for "Search hidden files and folders."

 

[Santilli]

Update:

Final config:
Dual Xeon 2.8's, with stock fans, supermicro mobo,
Adaptec 2010S with 3 x 15's for boot raid: I don't like the speed, but the cache, 48 mb, seems to help, speedwise.

Adaptec 29160N mounting Cheetah 10 K XL 18, Plextor 32 x scsi writer, 40 x reader, pioneer DVD reader, and scsi zip drive.

Sony CPD400 19 inch, Hitachi Superscan elite 802 plus 21 inch, a gig of Micron ram, pending is the rest of the ram, 3 gigs, but, canceled.

Refurb Matrox G550.

Lite on firewire writer. 400 Firewire card from Granite Digital,
R2D2 case, 17 drive bays, and pending....

I'd like the Parahelia core, so I could play new age High Density stuff, no problem.

Klipsch 4 speaker plus woofer, 5.1, on the supermicro mobo on board sound, just fine.
Realtec 97.

Razer mouse, simply rocks.

Watching JLO "Let's get Loud" while typing.

Wow.....

Neighbors hate me...

Boot raid is 3 X15's, in raid zero, first generation, off the Adaptec card.

s


My God: JLO doing Selena is awesome, simply incredible...


"I could fall in love with you..."

 

[Pradeep]

Is there a reason you bought Micron ram from some backyard operation, and not from crucial.com? Cheaper price?

 

[Santilli]

Yes, a bit of stupidity. I ended up returning the 2 a gig sticks. Hopefully money will be refunded tomorrow.

The store that helped put the computer together, giving me near cost, or cost, on most of the items, had some quality Micron Ram, that checked against the recommended ram on the Supermicro website.

I also didn't realize I needed matching dimms, until after I bought the first one, for another computer.

I realize now that with 3 dual dimm banks, I can use, as Splash said, 512 mb dimms, and save a bunch of money...

s

 

[Santilli]

R2D2: Yeong Yang YY-0221 Cube Case EEB3.0 Version

Here's a link to the case:

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/reviews/yeong_yang_cube_server_case/index.shtml

s

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

Yes, I've seen cases like that one.

The Supermicro case that I recently bought (discussed earlier in this subject) is the same height, half as wide, but about 6 inches DEEPER.

Just about the whole front of the case is drive bays.

 

[Santilli]

Well, this sucker rocks. If I can RMA my clicking, firmware version 2 X 15, I can raid 4 drives to boot from.

Haven't decided if the ATTO UL#D Dual channel hardware raid card is better for raid 0, or the current adaptec 21010S or whatever it is.
It returns, with 3 drives, 85-95 mb/sec using ATTO, which, when using 3 drives, isn't bad.

Have to figure out which PCI slots are on which channel, and keep the slow stuff off the raid channels, and, I figure one of these days, LSI will drop PCI-x dual channel cards down in price, and I'll go with one.

Meanwhile, I'm real tempted to buy a Firewire DVD burner, 180 at Costco, for a 4X, and, looking at the Matrox cards, I'm trying to convince myself that it's worth waiting for the the bucks to buy a 256 mb VRAM Parahelia. About 550 most places. The more I look at stuff, the more I'm convinced that the new MSFT systems will need lots of VRAM, likewise new games. For my uses, it would assure being able to run pretty much anything.

With multiple monitors, the lower vram clearly affects preformance in games, and HD movies.
Not to mention Longhorn is supposed to recommend 128 mb/vram.

Splash, where would I find slot to channel info on the motherboard I'm using? I'm trying to find out which slots are on which separate bus. Not that easy to figure out, reading their manual or related info.

Any suggestions on quiet 120mm case fans, and, how do the Swiftech Xeon coolers work, and which fans do you use to quite the system down?

Other then being a bit noisy, that a blanket might help. This setup rocks.

Thanks Splash.

s

 

[Pradeep]

Meanwhile, I'm real tempted to buy a Firewire DVD burner, 180 at Costco, for a 4X, and, looking at the Matrox cards, I'm trying to convince myself that it's worth waiting for the the bucks to buy a 256 mb VRAM Parahelia.

You can get an 8x NEC dual format DVD+-RW drive from Newegg for $92. Say another $50 for an external FW enclosure and you are still better off. I wouldn't waste my money on a 4x at the present time, with dual layer drives becoming available in the next month or two the 8x single layer drives will only drop further in price.

 

[Santilli]

"Dual layers"?

?????
s

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

...and, I figure one of these days, LSI will drop PCI-x dual channel cards down in price, and I'll go with one.

Well, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon, that's for sure. Maybe a drop of US$20 by December. The top-of-the-line and mid-range MegaRAID models all sell far too well at the price they are currently at for them to even consider dropping the price any lower.

By the way, the pricing nowadays for the top-of-the-line and mid-range MegaRAID models is a lot lower than it was for the top-of-the-line and mid-range MegaRAID models just a couple of years ago, not to mention what it was 6 or 7 years ago for the top-of-the-line and mid-range MegaRAID models!

...looking at the Matrox cards, I'm trying to convince myself that it's worth waiting for the the bucks to buy a 256 mb VRAM Parahelia.

I'm still convinced that all you need -- if you want a modern Matrox card of any type -- is the basic dual-head Millennium P-650. US$150-ish. Otherwise, there are all those nVidia and ATI cards out there -- probably even cheap used ones.

The more I look at stuff, the more I'm convinced that the new MSFT systems will need lots of VRAM, likewise new games. For my uses, it would assure being able to run pretty much anything.

Well, if you are talking "Longhorn," then you are talking a few years from now, meaning it's WAY likely you would want a whole new graphics card, or even a whole new 'puter by then!

I had a novel idea a while back about -RENTING GRAPHICS CARDS- but I don't think it would work as well as renting video tapes, etc.

Thinking of the "renting graphics cards" idea reminds me of an original joke I was telling last summer about how the human of the future would become prosthetically enhanced with various computer components... yada yada yada... they could see visions of computer graphics overlays via patching into their optical nerves... yada yada yada... Well the punch line was something about how the human of the future would also have to stay up-to-date by going to the doctor every 3 months for their required "quarterly nVidia nEma." I've since sort of since forgot the rest of the joke, fortunately.

Splash, where would I find slot to channel info on the motherboard I'm using? I'm trying to find out which slots are on which separate bus. Not that easy to figure out, reading their manual or related info.

They are colour coded, but the one or two of the PCI-X slots are on individual buses, the regular 64-bit PCI slots are on another bus, and the 32-bit slots are on yet another PCI bus segment.

Any suggestions on quiet 120mm case fans, and, how do the Swiftech Xeon coolers work, and which fans do you use to quite the system down?

Well, I went a shopping at this local establishment once, and they had fans and stuff like that out the wazoo -- quiet and not. Their quietest are the Vantec fans which YOU should easily find locally:

http://www.directron.com/quietfans.html


I recently bought a couple of REALLY fans at another local outlet that doesn't have an Internet presence (at least none that I've found), but this place (and others) have the same fans -- called Stealth Pro:

http://www.coolerguys.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=122


Strangely enough, I have the recently-released Swiftech Xeon fans on order at work. These are for a couple of small dual-Xeon (604-pin Xeon) image processing workstations.

 

[Pradeep]

"Dual layers"?

?????
s

DVD+R DL will allow you to store 8.5GB of data on a single side, just like the dual layer commercial movie DVDs you buy.