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Denny wrote:I agree with you on Viewsonics. I used a 19" CRT in my office for about 10 years and one of my clerks still is using it. Exceptionally well built monitors. I initially had wanted to replace it with a Viewsonic 2235 but got a better deal on a Dell 22, so I went with the Dell. The company also has a contract with Dell, so buying the Dell was a lesser hassle. Hope you enjoy your niew Viewsonic!Quote:
My Viewsonic 15" has really been a good monitor.
That feature was always there with Win NT and 2000 also, just it was hidden, you have to run code in the command prompt to run the protocol. win XP system restore is just a GUI, for the old protocolQuote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
I had a wirelesss mouse, was an off brand only Walmart sold, but had a charging
dock and a boatload of hotkeys on the side. it worked ok, I went thru 1 set of rechargables, then I let it go w/ my old laptop when I sold it. I'v used the same keyboard for the past 10 years. a IBM severe duty clicking keyboard, it was made in 1989 but still works great.
Good ol IBM keyboards - I love 'em. I have one as a spare when my $20 clunkers crap out. I'd keep it hooked up all the time, but my wife like the "silent" keys.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt167
As a note, I'm putting my new bits and pieces together and will do a post shortly on what is going on.:CRY: :LOL: :LOL:
A couple of 'gotchas' last night while putting it my PC together.
I ordered an NEC OEM $6.99 floppy disc drive (FDD) - no flat ribbon cable was supplied. Also. this drive has a 3.5 inch form factor rather then a 5" that the CD drives use - oops, now I need an adapter to fit the 5" hole as my card reader is filling the single 3.5 hole. Soooooo, my cheap FDD is now ~$17 with some pieces coming via EBay.
My home building PC learning curve is still steep but starting to level just a bit
IC2, what are you using for a case? I thought I could just use my old Compaq Pentium III case because it looks nice but I am not sure an ATX board will fit in there and I would need a new Power supply as well. When I started a search on places like Newegg for cases which offer reviews I find that there are literally hundreds of choices for cases and power supply combinations. So far I like the price range of
1. Broadway Com Corp 82-4HL Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply ($46 + $16 shipping) (first choice but may have a problem with the front fan?)
2. LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply ($35 + $16 shipping)
Still all these cases under $100 seem to have some flaw. I don't mind the Area-51 alien eyes on the LOGISYS box but basically I want something that works reliably in the $70 range. I like the kind of mother board which allows hotrodding/overclocking as in the
Gigabyte GA-M61P-33, AM2 socket, full size ATX (award winner!), $75
My plan is to build a fairly fast central PC based on an AMD 6400 X2 5200+ overclocked or a higher chip in that series because the 5200+ is the lowest in the series with a 1 GB cache. I would try to have 4 GB to 8 GB of memory on this board and a 250-300 GB SATA hard drive. If/when this rig checks out I will add a 8-port Gigabyte Ethernet switch and then add three very cheap boxes with AMD 6400 X2 4000+ which have no drives just 1 GB or 2 GB of memory each. The Prof. at Calvin College avoided cases altogether but my grandson visits and he is at the "fingerpoken" age so I need cases around this stuff. I have measured my present "Computer Caddy" and the three extra boxes will fit underneath with the "Master Box" in place of my old Compaq pentium III. I realize this is a distraction from finishing my roadster but I hope to do this during the cold months when I would not be able to do much on the car anyway. So what about this PC case problem?
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
It looks like you have gone up in computer expectations!!! Do you really need all that, or just want something to do your 3-D experimentation (games??)Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
I narrowed my computer cases down to one of the Antac's or a Cooler Master 534 and ended up with the Cooler Master along with the Cooler Master Extreme Power 500 watt power supply. I did a bunch of review reading both in Newegg and wherever I could find someone talking about them and both of these manufacturers seemed to have excellant ratings by the "geeks".
As far as trying to use an old case - new ones along with a good power supply are just too inexpensive to consider.
Probably since your old Pentium was built, there was a change in the way mother board are mounted - and HP, in their infinite wisdom, use a proprietary bolt in pattern according to my reading. All new non OEM cases use a system wide pattern, depending on size - mine will bolt in all versions of mother boards.
The Cooler Master case has 2x120mm fans, one in the back, the other on the side with provisions for a third in the front panel. The CPU adds another ~70mm fan.
I do have significant space to add more hard drives, video cards, graphics and so on. The Western Digital 320 Gig hard drive is ~3.5 x 5" and I have room for 2-3 more. The 500 watt power supply will also handle anything I can throw at it (it was on special $50, less a $10 instant rebate then a $30 mail in so it only will cost me $10)
A couple of things that in my naivete that I overlooked was the number of 3.5" form factor bays I needed for front mounted components - I need 2 but got one as seen above so I'll be a few days behind finishing up. I have a built in flash card reader that is fit there now.
My biggest complaint - the manual for the Cooler Master case is crap for no better choice of words but the power supply, from the same mfr. isn't bad, so between that and the mother board manual, I'm about done with my wiring - with one final check before I put the power to it for the "smoke test".
As far as "breadboard" computers - I'm guessing that they might have some cooling problems with the heat that CPU's make now and you really need a good directed flow of cooling air.
This entire exercise has been fun with a lot of new terminology and skills being learned - and relatively inexpensive for a computer that will outperform almost any off the shelf unit from the OEMs:D :cool:
if the lights don't work on the front, flip them around the other way on the connector, and they will.. they don't mark P and - normally.
I fired a computer up and it smoked once.. I had plugged a power connector into the sound card, thinking it was the cd rom cable that allows cd's to play. still worked after that.. it was an old ISA soundblaster 16 compatible card, a cheap knockoff.
The only wires that I'm concerned with(so far) are the fan wiring - I have them jumpered together as it appears to be the only way to make 'em both work then connected to the front panel via a pair of green and white wires that disappear into the on-off/USB/light panel. I'm assuming that white is ground thru out the computer and for sure will check it out before the first 'smoke test'. I do need to make one last complete wiring check yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt167
you can't jumper them togther.. you should have a 3 pin CPU fan plug and a 3 pin chassie fan plug on the mobo.. if you don't have the chassie fan plug, you need to get a fan that uses a molex conector ( 4 pin power supply )
PCs are like cars- everybody will tell you what YOU ought to buy because that's what THEY have. The rule since the 1980s has always been get the most power and memory you can afford.
The question what are YOU going to do with the PC not what Leadfoot Louey is going to do with it. Trust me you aren't going to sit and watch movies on it- maybe once for the novelty. You got your $40 WalMart DVD player in the living room where you can put your feet up and drink beer so why would you sit in an office chair and watch?
Forget about Uber video cards and massive RAM. I got 512MB card and 2.5gig of RAM only for gaming.
The fact is that none of my other software like Windows, several word processing programs, 2 different image manipulation programs, Google Earth, Adobe Acrobat, etc.- none- load or function any faster than my old PC with puny by comparison specs.
You can run most stuff with a basic 1.8 gig CPU, 1 gig RAM and a 128MB video card. Buying a Ford GT to drive in traffic to work at 22MPH doesn't make sense.
Very good point, Twitch!
But in my case, I like having a machine with a twin 750 fixed drives, 8 gigs of DDR2 PC8500 Ram, 768mb video card, along with two built in DVD burners, plus a host of other feel good goodies. :whacked: Don't need it but do like having it sitting on the desk. Kind of like having a blown dual plug 528 Hemi in the garage. Great to look at, but not necessarily practical.
Dave - Are the parts coming in slow?? Thought you'd have that bad boy up and running by now.:eek: Should only take about 3 hours to slap it together and another 24 to run the burn in tests.:LOL: :LOL:
Bob,Quote:
Originally Posted by mopar34
My case will hold all those goodies - maybe someday - not that they'll ever all be used:eek:
It's all togther with the exception of the floppy 5" form factor adapter and cable(sorry good ol' Dell, you're going to lose a seldom used funtion) and is in 'final' wire check mode. The fact that there are zero, zip, nada worthwhile case wiring diagrams/color codes has made it real interesting to figure out. Above I said that I had the fans jumpered together and Matt took exception - that's 'fixed' and the suspect green and white wires, they just grab a wee bit of power for the front idiot lights(generator and oil pressure:LOL: ??).
All together, you are correct, 3 hours for screwing my Corolla (not quite a Yugo) together would be about right IF the manufacturers could get their acts together and provide decent wiring diagrams and use the same color code and device conventions. I've spent an inordinate amount of time translating from the motherboard to the case to the power supply then the various drives with pin connectors. Plus it has 4 fans(2 case, 1 PS and 1 CPU)
Not sure what I load first, the OS or the drivers (and at least for the time being, I'll be using XP Home as Newegg wont take back an OEM version for exchange for XP Pro which I really wanted).
Denny,Quote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
The motherboard isn't the biggest problem - even with the electron microscope readable printing. The case has several wires that were not identified - anywhere. And since the PS and fans are the same company, they were not intuitively labeled either. Everything is hooked up now and I'm about to do the "infamous" smoke test. If there isn't any smoke and the monitor lights up, I'm gonna crack a cold one (in this weather??) shut it down until morning then go at loading it up - I guess starting with the drivers then the OS. I want to down load any driver updates tonight for the morning run.
Got my fingers crossed:D :D
I took the bull by the horns and did it - the monitor lights up, and it appears to identify all the devices but wants some sort of boot directions - which tells me I have to do my updated downloads to a CD then upload them to my new toy. The fans come on and the LEDs on the front lit as they should. The problem with a couple of the wires is that they disappear into a small front panel box that can't be opened easily and a continuity test made - so I physically traced them back. So far so good - more later - but so far....:DQuote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
IC2, you and Denny are really good but I am going bleary-eyed reading tech-specs on the internet. I commend your talent at putting the pieces together but I came across the following deal on the Tiger site:
MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 Barebone Kit - AMD Athlon 64 FX 5400+ 2.80GHz, 1GB DDR2 PC5400, ATX Mid-Tower Case, Clear Side, 600 Watt Power Supply Add A Review
More MSI Computer Products
Item Number: M452-2822 C
Availability: In Stock
Price: $379.99
Less Rebate: - $15.00
Final Price: $364.99*
This still needs a SATA hard drive and disk R/W but it looks like the 5400+ can be overclocked safely to 2.9 GHz and I will still need to buy three cheap cases for the diskless CPUs (probably AMD X2 4000+) and the 1 gigE switch. There is an even faster "bare bones" kit on the Tiger site for an AMD X2 6000+ but it has a smaller power supply and the 6000+ needs a bigger PSU and they seem to require an elaborate heat sink. I will probably still need an aftermarket heat sink for the 5400+ but at least it has the same large 1 GB cache as the 6000+. I want to get a substantial "Master" PC for two reasons. First I will have a good PC when not running parallel calculations and second, the program I really want to set up (General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System, GAMESS; free from Argonne National Lab) will have a fair amount of computing that is not subject to parallel computing so speed counts there too. As to WHY(?) I admit that is a good question. In the past there was always the "Publish or Perish" aspect so anything publishable was good for the end-of-year report which is not the case now, but mainly I guess that I still think about that type of calculation anyway and I have a colleague to collaborate with in the hope of publishing results. Finally, I always wanted to try some parallel programming so it is mainly a hobby activity and maye I can write another book on how to do parallel computing for Chemistry on the cheap with these fast inexpensive components. Anyway the Tiger kit looks pretty good to me and avoids most of the assorted setup steps but I will still have to mount a heat sink and install some drives as well as build the three satellite boxes for the parallel part of the "microWulf" and then learn the LINUX software setup. I think I can set up a dual boot with either WINDOWS-XP home on the 5400 or boot up to UBUNTU LINUX for the parallel applications. Right now the weather is too cold for garage work anyway and we had some snow today so the Winter is the time to "Git-Er-Done" with the computer upgrade. Oh yes, most of this equipment is already obsolete and will be more so in a year, but never before has so much computing power been available at a low cost; who would have thought "sand" could be so useful 30 years ago!
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
That's not a bad deal.. that ultra case is known to run really cool because of the CPU duct on the side.. and the Ultra PSU's are lifetime warranty, and have the modular cable connections on the back
The key to computer speed is the internal buss speed, if that is slow no matter how fast the cpu it will be limited by that. like cramming 25 gallons of water through a straw, that straw will only allow so much flow.
Matt, Thaks for your comment. I am worried however because the reviews on the motherboard are not great. It looks like that
MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2
motherboard is an older model that had some problems. Originally it was offered for the earlier 3800+ CPU and here it is set up for the 5400+ with a bigger power supply. What are the rumors about that motherboard?
Pepi, that is why I have been straining my eyes reading the fine print. I need to have a motherboard that provides the maximum LAN ethernet transfer speed of 1000 Mbits/sec = 1 Gbits/sec for the transfer of packets between the various core CPUs of the parallel system. Only a few of the motherboards offer the Gbit/sec ethernet speed and when they do they also offer the maximum bus speed. I am also looking for a motherboard that allows messing with the voltages and frequencies for "tuning".
Denny, I have a busy day but I will need to check out your references before I order. My wife says that will be my Christmas present.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
reviews on the motherboard look fine to me.. MSI is a well known brand.. the bad reviews the board got could have been from ppl not being carful w/ static. the people that seem knowladgble, give good reviews. it's got 4 stars overall, and only 2 of the 11 reviews are bad.
Thanks Matt, There is another barebones kit from Tiger with a 6000+ for only $499 but I like the MSI motherboard because it has TWO GigE ports and maybe someday I could add even more satellite PCs! Besides the prices is lower and with a little overclocking the speed will be (2.9/3.0) compared to the 6000+; still pretty fast.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
you could get into overclocking ram and liquid cooling, and overclock even more, and remain stable..
I know i have been away from the Forum again, but i have had to proof read last year's book effort and finish ordering parts for a computer I am going to call "ChemWulf" which is a small 8-core beowulf cluster based on AMD duocore processors: one AMD X2 5400+ duocore in the Master box and three satellite boxes with AMD X2 4200+ duocores all conected by an 8-port 1 Gig Ethernet switch. The goal is to load and run the parallel version of the GAMESS Quantum Chemistry program to calculate electronic structure of molecules. I plan to use the Ubuntu LINUX/UNIX system but still be able to access the Internet from the Master box. I need to get this done while the weather is cold so I can get back to the roadster when the first signs of Spring bust out. In the meantime I have been going through a thought process worrying about the petroleum supply versus three wheel vehicles. Unfortunately I recall riding with a friend in his Chevrolet Monza pwered by an early version of the Buick 231 on I-95. We were coming home (Richmond) from Dulles Airport at 3 AM and there was little or no traffic and yet the Monza struggled with the hill at Fredericksburg on I-95! Thus if folks propose three wheel vehicles with small engines to get more than 100 mpg, I have to wonder whether such vehicles will be able to keep up with normal hills on relatively small hills. I recall there was a smaller version of the Buick 231 V6 and maybe the Monza had that smaller V6, but it clearly was underpowered even in the small Monza body so how are we going to raise the mpg using small motors and still function on slight hills? Fortunately I have reviewed US stocks of Artic petroleum and Shale oil in the continental US so that we are probably safe for 500 years on using petroleum but maybe only for aircraft. The best bet for the long run is electricity generated from nuclear power and plug-in-the-garage electric vehicles. Hey I hope to finish this roadster this year while gas is still available?
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
I'd be even happier if the commodity speculators that have driven the price of crude and gold so high would find something else meaningful to mess with. Something like peanuts and grapes. I can do without a PB&J sandwich but I can't gasoline - along with most other folks.:HMMM: Thankfully, I heat my home with still fairly reasonable natural gas - but those folks that are using heat pumps/electricity and oil have to be suffering.:CRY:Quote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
Don,
What do you plan on using your new Cray size computer for - controlling the space shuttle or just going to use it for "gaming"?:LOL: :LOL:
I'm running UBUNTU Linux 7.10 on my desktop right now. discs are free ( they also pay shipping ) but they take 2 months to receive, I got mine from a friend who is a contributor ( programming/ translation ) and ordered 20 discs to distribute. I have since loaded it twice as I goofed up the first install.. and I have KDE desktop 3.5 installed, replacing GNOME desktop.. If you install without internet connected, you will have some problems with the sources.list file, it will need edited for the installers to get the correct dependencies for the deb files, if you get to that point. I can very easilly help you thru getting that fixed, it's really easy to fix it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
also, WINE will run most any windows application.
Hi Matt, I have been busy ordering electronic stuff while my garage is cold. I have a copy of the "Ubuntu Linux Bible" with a CD. It is a year old but I understand that it can be updated over the Internet. Are you running the Firefox browser? If so what anti-virus software is available for Firefox? Also I was interested in your remark about WINE being able to run Windows programs. It is very interesting to be able to get Ubuntu for free and then still run Windows applications. Regarding "The need for Speed!" in computing I am hoping to have an 8-core cluster with two cores from an AMD X2 5400+ running at 2.8 GHz (or more) and 6 other cores using three AMD X2 4200+ running at 2.2 GHz, all connected through a 1 Gig Ethernet switch. It should be slightly faster than the 27 GFLOPS achieved by the microWulf.
On the roadster I mocked up the heater on the inside of the firewall and was working on it when Christmas came along and then it really got cold, so that work remains untill the first glimmer of Spring along with the final connection of the steering.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
I don't know what version of UBUNTU you have but it could be 6.06 which is the latest LTS version ( long term service ) which is 2 years of supported bianaries, regular versions like 7.10 ( Gutsy Gibbion ) are supported for 16 months. I'd reccomend ither getting 7.10 or holding out for 8.04 which will release in April 2008. 7.10 came out in November 2007 ( all UBUNTU and KUBUNTU version numbers are just the release dates ) so it will be supported for a longer period than 6.06 as 6.06 will be replaced in April. 8.04 is the next LTS version.
they can't update versions over the internet, but what most people do is do 3 partitions rather than 2 partitions.. you need at least 4 gb for the root partition and 256mb for the swap.. but most ( and I did ) also create a small partition over 1 gig ( I did 10 gig ) and mount it as /home.. this will allow you to store all your configuration and system files on
that seperate partition and UBUNTU will pick it up and configure it to do just that, if you have a partition mounted as that.
Firefox comes with UBUNTU, and yes, it is what I use. There are like 2 viruses that are programmed to effect linux and they both have fixes cause they have been out so long. so there is no need for an antivirus, but there are antivirus programs that will scan files going out to windows machines. the most well known program is called Clamav
as for more info on Wine, just go here.. Wine has been out for a while. http://www.winehq.org/
Quick question for the REAL computer pros - without markings, how can I tell which USB cable is a 2.0 version. Is it the "pitchfork" on one end? I just got my little 80 Gig external hard drive, and it came with a USB that is only about 18 useless inches long, so I went to my extras box where I have several spares - and dug out a longer one that has the "pitchfork". Is this correct? If so, I need to dump any other 1.1 versions.
Thanks
PS: Don S., it's a balmy 12*F here right now!!
Denny,Quote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
That's what I was afraid of - I transferred some pictures to my new external hard drive and I really took much longer, IMO, then it should have if it was a 2.0. And yes, my new mobo and case USB connections are totally 2.0. I do have a USB that I just found in another batch of "odd wires" that for sure is 2.0 and will exchange and try again with another similar size folder.
Thanks
EDIT - OF COURSE, of the 5 extra USB cables I have, I had to grab the only one that wasn't 2.0. I think it was a 1.0, just to make it the worst possible case. It's 'history' now and the drive seems to like the 2.0.
IC/Dave, I am trying to catch up to the rapidly changing hardware so the best I can do is suggest you look up USB PS2 cables on the Internet and figure out if you have one like the one in the picture of that cable.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Hi Don,
That was the first thing I tried - and why I posed the question as to the 'pitchfork' diagram. I ended up finally researching the part number on one for confirmation. Others that I dug out from another pile of wiring treasures later had the 2.0 designation - and scrapped the unidentifiable cable.
Dave, I have never had a problem with any USB cable working correctly unless it is damaged. They can be damaged especially ones that are removed frequently. Those little pins need to be pulled straight out, pulling to one side will bend or break them. (Especially true with flash drives!)
The 2.0 certificaion is in the USB sending and receiveing units and also in any hubs. Hubs have to be 2.0 certified to work properly and many are not backward compatible. But a good quality cabel will work with just about anything. I usaally get mine at Sam's club where they are cheaper than most office supply houses plus they have gold connectors.
Bob,Quote:
Originally Posted by mopar34
All of the USB cables are backwards compatible so while the 1.0 or 1.1 cable that I had installed and have since scrapped, it had an extremely slow transfer rate. I ran about 300 photos to my external drive and it took over a minute. Using the 2.0, and about the same number of pictures in another folder took less then half that time. So, there is a difference there. Why do I care - well computer patience is not my best point:D As far as hubs, my new PC has at least 6 USB connections and I have a secondary hub with 6 more. Lots of toys can be run on this PC. Where did I get 'em? Not a clue - but they work fine.**)
The @#$% memory card reader just died!!!! I have just ordered a new one from Newegg - they are too cheap to try to go back to the manufacturer at $10-12 each. Luckily I have a 3-4 year old USB cable powered version as a back up.:mad:
I'm using MS Internet Explorer 6 (I think) and have for a long time on this PC and the last gotten 6025 error messages which kicks me out - tho doesn't disconnect my Earthlink. Any suggestions for a better web browser??:o
I like Firefox and with few exceptions every thing runs better.Quote:
Originally Posted by IC2
Quote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
I'd venture to say that the video board in that thing probably cost more than my whole system. :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
DennyW,
If you like small, compact and fast, one day when you have free time you should check out Opera (www.opera.com). The Opera browser has been around for years, used to be competitive with IE 3.0 and Netscape 3.0. wheich was about 10 years before the birth of Firefox. Originally it was a text based browser that graduated to a GUI. It is also a free download. I prefer both Firefox and Opera to IE, but IE is the only supported by the IT unit at work. At home I use whichever one strikes my fancy at the time.
There are some websites that just work better with Firefox. I know several car sites that recommend Firefox over IE because Firefox gives the user better control.
For whatever reason, occasionally a forum picture wont show - and really have no clue why - except IE. Denny, your kids computer was/is one of them
I'll have to look at the other browsers suggested. I did try IE 7 a while back and after some pain reloaded IE 6. Thanks for the tips and I'll try 'em all
So now it's on screen -Quote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
It only happens here, on this forum, nowhere else. ( Haven't we had something close to this conversation before:toocool: :toocool: )
Are you sure that's only a computer and not a shuttle controller:eek: :D
Gee time flies and for some reason I have not been getting notices from this thread. As far a my ChemWulf goes I have been learning and making some progress. I did get all the needed components:
Tower case
AMD X2 5400+ duocore @ 2.8 GHz
Three AMDX2 4200+ duocore @ 2.2 GHz
The rest are pretty much as in the microWulf components.
Microwulf: A Personal, Portable Beowulf Cluster
Microwulf: Hardware Manifest
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This page provides a detailed list of the hardware components we used to build Microwulf. Prices given are from Jan 1, 2007, and were at that time lower than those available from newegg.com.
Component Product Unit Price Quantity Total
Motherboard MSI K9N6PGM-F MicroATX $80.00 4 $320.00
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ AM2 CPU $165.00 4 $660.00
Main Memory Kingston DDR2-667 1GByte RAM $124.00 8 $992.00
Power Supply Echo Star 325W MicroATX Power Supply $19.00 4 $76.00
Network Adaptor Intel PRO/1000 PT PCI-Express NIC (node-to-switch) $41.00 4 $164.00
Network Adaptor Intel PRO/100 S PCI NIC (master-to-world) $15.00 1 $15.00
Switch Trendware TEG-S80TXE 8-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch $75.00 1 $75.00
Hard drive Seagate 7200 250GB SATA hard drive $92.00 1 $92.00
DVD/CD drive Liteon SHD-16S1S 16X $19.00 1 $19.00
Cooling Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Case Fans $8.00 4 $32.00
Fan protective grills Generic NET12 Fan Grill (120mm) $1.50
+ shipping 4 $10.00
Support Hardware 36" x 0.25" threaded rods $1.68 3 $5.00
Fastener Hardware Lots of 0.25" nuts and washers $10.00
Case/shell 12" x 11" polycarbonate pieces
(scraps from our Physical Plant) $0.00 4 $0.00
Total $2,470.00
Non-Essentials
Component Product Unit Price Quantity Total
KVM Switch Linkskey LKV-S04ASK $50.00 1 $50.00
Total $50.00
The prices are lower now and I guess I only have about $1400 in it so far. I really lucked out on three ATX cases from the Geek site with 480 watt power supplies for $9.99 each! I went back and tried to buy more thinking I could build some for sale on Ebay but there were no more so I got a good deal there. I did upgrade the SATA drive to 300 Gb for only $89. Hooking up the four boxes was a learning experience but I finally got three of them to boot up to the stage of asking for the primary boot device but the fourth just would not come up. I finally ordered a new motherboard and a new AMD X2 4200+ since I want to get it runnung soon. In particular I will have a few questions about Ubuntu and I see several of you are running Firefox successfully. I now think that maybe my problem might have been a bad memory card or maybe I ruined one stick with static. At the moment I have 2 Gb of memory in each satellite box and 4 Gb in the big box with the 5400+ duocore. In comunication with Prof. Adams who built the microWulf each motherboard has an extra 1GigE PCI card for two and he found out that the duocores can be addressed separately even though they are on the same chip. I don't know how this works but the duocores can handle two Ethernet connections so that makes the system of four duocores really act as 8 cores. My goal is to reach 30 GigaFLOPS with the faster CPUs but the 1GigEthernet may be the limiting factor, we will have to find out. At the moment I am trying to figure out how to connect a 100 foot cable from my home wireless router to the new system by wire. It seems for all I can find out that a wire connection is esier to set up than a wireless connection to the Ubuntu system. I should have known not to start two projects but every once in a while we have a warm afternoon and I go out to the garage and putter around on the roadster but it is still too cold for full time work on it. I did find out that my stainless top irons are the correct 2" chopped irons for my chopped windshield. Although there is still a big job to wire the roadster, finish the steering column and get the radiatior and hood on but there are so many things to do I can just go out and work on any of them and that is progress. Hopefully this response will get me back on the list for this thread since I still have a LOT to learn about the computer hardware.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder