New Über-Über Box
 

Well, <b>tier</b> got written off (more on this later), and I was asked to come up with a replacement. Here's what I'm going to be building (99% certain). Suggestions are welcome, of course. I'll explain everything in more detail later (as to why I've picked it, etc). All prices from NewEgg.com and PCMods.com

http://msdelta.net/~dave/images/comp...and_prices.jpg

http://msdelta.net/~dave/images/comp...system-key.jpg

Notepad is going to positively smoke on that thing!

(I know, I know... as will Q3A RA at 1600x1200 32-bit, or whatever the latest shoot-em-up is)

(He knows I'm just dead-on jealous for all the SCSI angle. It's so awesome! I'd use the SCSI as the main drives and back them up to the IDE at night. But that's just me.)

(And anyway I just found the first game that's sluggish on my system at 1600x1200: SimCity4.)

I will most likely (at first, anyway) use one SCSI disk as my boot drive, one IDE disk as my storage, and ghost to the other two every couple of days. If I run out of space before I build a new system, I'll probably just add a FireWire drive, seeing as that can be done so cheap (cost of drive + $50 for case). I do love SCSI, but I want the system to be both backed up and chock full o' disk space. I think this is the best way to accomplish that.

Ok, I'll bite. I still favor nVidia cards for the drivers and stability. ATI hardware is mad, but the software isn't there yet.

I'd recommed a full gig of memory though, or at least 768 MB. I use more than 400 regularly (and I've only 384 installed). Fire up a game, and it's thrash city.

He's going with 2 Gigs bitman.

All I can say is "I want one"

Yeh, a gig is what I run in all my "serious" systems nowadays (PowerBook == 2x512MB, PowerMac == 2x512 & 1x128, tier == 4x256MB).

The cool thing about the P4G8x is that it's dual-channel DDR. Even though it's only PC2100, it still beats PC2700 based boards (and not by just a little, from the benchmarks I've seen). PC2100 is cheaper than PC2700, so I can go ahead and stick 2 gigs in and be within my budget (about $3,400, which is what <b>tier</b> was valued at).

Now, here's the funny thing... <b>tier</b> was written off because it had <b>a dented case</b>. It's been cleaned, tested... works fine. The filter on the Lian Li case kept pretty much all of the smoke particles out of the computer. The electronics company that cleaned it said "man, inside was almost pristine. I have to get some of that stuff for the front of my case. That was amazing." Anyway, I was bitching because the cleaning people (different company - four separate companies are taking care of electronics, other personal possessions, clothing and the house itself) stepped all over the side of the case (which I had taken off after the fire to retrieve some super-important hard drives that I didn't want leaving with <b>anyone</b>). The guy goes "Oh, well you need to get that replaced." I said "yeah, I gotta claim a case side for $30" and he goes "No, the whole computer's supposed to be written off for that." I about shit my pants. He said "tell me what it's got in it." I did, they priced it conservatively at $3,400 and said that's what I was going to get for it. Yay!

So I bought a new case for it (Lian Li PC-61) and started moving it in. I'll use <b>tier</b> as my Linux workstation (since Linux makes so much better use of SMP than Windows), use the new box as my Windows workstation... yeah, computer setup should be pretty sa-weet. :)

My God...that looks like it's going to be a beautiful computer.

They have a nearly 3 gig P4 now? Wow. Lemme guess though...still not as fast as a G4, right Dave?

They have a 3.06 GHz P4 now. I'm just not getting one. :)

No, I'm sure it smokes the pants off a G4. At most stuff, anyway. Each processor has its advantages. The G4, for one, uses far less power than a P4 or Athlon does.

If we turn this into a Mac-vs-PC debate, well... you can go either way. Each system is good for its own things. I prefer a Mac for pretty much everything except gaming and IRC. I just think it's a better operating system, and I can accept the speed tradeoff for the advantages I feel it offers me. The Mac will be faster for some things (many things in Photoshop, for example) and, in general, the apps will allow you to work faster (iMovie vs Windows Movie Maker, for example). I get more done and have more fun on my Macs, and that's why I'll continue to buy 'em.

See, I don't know fucking anything about computers...just how to use them. :)

What about your Mac machine? Did it come out okay? Any chance of a top-of-the-line OS X box?

I'm surprised to see you giving Linux another go. I thought it was too much of a pain-in-the-ass?

As a main operating system, yes. But as a "I have a spare computer to fuck around with", I can do it. I am still most used to my GNOME desktop and probably nothing will ever beat how comfortable I was with it.

As far as Macs... I'll write all that up later. But yes, I'm doing okay there.

Buh, math is hard. Strangely I found myself glossing over the qty column several times. Just wish I could justify a new uberbox for home, but I just don't *need* one. New work machines should arrive in a couple weeks tho.

I don't need one either, but this insurance money is "use it or lose it", so... :)

So they wrote off the box because it had a dented case, and then you're allowed to keep it AND get another one with the insurance money?!?!?

Bloody hell.....

I had a similar experience when I wrecked my car in 1994.

At the time, my car was 14 years old, and the only thing that was really wrong with it was that the passenger door was all dented up (though still operational). The damage to the car was $1600, so the insurance company gave me $1100 and let me keep the car. That paid for what I owed during my first semester of college. :)

How about an AMD Athlon-64? I understand that the slated release is sometime in the next month or two.

Or even the Barton that I've been waiting so long for. I hear that they plan to push the Athlon-64 out until March just to give the Barton a little market time. By the time the 64 is out, expect the Barton to push 3500+. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on the tech sites for reviews. Let me know if you hear anything.

Well, I got approval from the insurance company to go ahead and spend up to $3,273 - so I started buying parts. Here's what I've ordered so far:

Lian Li PC-61 case, Radeon 9700 Pro video card, Adaptec 19160 U160 card, power supply, 2 gigs of Crucial RAM, the floppy, the 2 73GB U160 drives, the 2 120GB 8MB Cache WD drives, the CD-RW drive, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum, the black face plate for the Audigy drive and 4 Panaflo 80mm case fans. Total, with shipping, came to $2,519.99 and I'm still due to come out under budget (but just barely). I didn't order the motherboard because it was unavailable until 2/5/2003, and I didn't order the CPU because price cuts are just around the corner.

New Intel chips will be out in March; I'm debating as to whether or not I should wait and pick up a 3.06GHz at current 2.8GHz prices. The only thing the wait buys me is Hyper-Threading, which could conceivably be a bonus (time will tell). Since this will probably be the last PC I build for a long time, I want to make sure it's got top-end components. Especially since I'm not paying for it.

Anyway, parts should be here Friday and I'm looking forward to getting started with 'em. I'll keep this thread up to date.

Man we're all upgrading - I'm looking forward to a P4 2.8/1GDDR/1.2Tb(6x200G in RAID 5 - so actual space is 1Tb), 12" Powerbook and 802.11g setup =)

Yeh, it seems like I do this every year now. But I have a good excuse. :)

It's about friggin' time.
Anyone else interested to see how this thing turns out? I've heard some rave things about it. Seems to be a winner. Anyone??

In this column, Bob Cringely feels it will lead to nothing short of a demand from Microsoft that Intel license the technology from AMD.

I thought about that, and how it would get AMD a place closer to the hand of the Don once is gets the nod from Bill. I just hope that Hector Ruiz didn't piss him off at LinuxWorld. We know how much MS has been trying to squash the potential of that for so long.
Then again, Dell offers Linux installations on many of their products. Does that matter to MS' bottom line? They're still making money it seems.

I've taken some pictures of the parts I have so far (basically all of the main system except the DVD-ROM drive, processor and motherboard). I went ahead and uploaded 'em to here:

http://d.gaveup.org/images/p4box/

They're relatively large, but they'll be no problem for broadband users. A few choice shots:

Hard drive cage - 476k - This shows the hard drives that are going in to the system. There are two 120GB Western Digital "Special Edition" drives (left) with the 8MB cache. The other two are Fujitsu 73GB 10,000 RPM Ultra 160 SCSI. Each pair of drives will be cooled by a Panaflo 80mm high-output (39 CFM) fan. I realize that having them so close together may be an issue, so I'm going to monitor temperatures, and if they get too warm, I'll mount the two IDE drives in the other cage and spread the SCSI out. All told, I'll have 386GB of disk space in this machine.

Power Supply - 310k - This is an Enermax 431 watt PSU. It's got a lot of cool things about it, but one of them is that the fan in the back of the PSU can be controlled via a knob - so if the machine is running cool, I can turn down the fan to keep the noise down. The fan on the bottom of the PSU (visible) connects to a power source via a 3-pin standard fan header. I will be plugging it in to a PCMods.com Rheobus mounted in one of the 3.5" external slots, allowing me to control it in this manner. The PSU itself is a very dark blue, which I think looks cool. :)

Front bezel (close) - 618k - This shows the 52x CD-RW drive, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum drive and the floppy. I wanted to get the Audigy 2 Platinum retail (includes drive) for a few reasons. One is that I had to spend $3,300 on a computer. :) The other is that it has front FireWire, Toslink optical in & out and audio in that's easily available. I'll be using this machine and my PowerMac to do some pretty serious video editing and I can appreciate having all of the available ports.

That's pretty much all I've taken pictures of now - the other in the directory are just different angles and what not. Once I get the motherboard and processor, I'll put it all together and take more. Enjoy. :)

I ordered the motherboard, processor and DVD-ROM drive today.

The P4G8x Deluxe is stupidly rare and therefore stupidly expensive. The price went up from $229 to $289. Hooray!

To compensate, I cut back to a Pentium 4 2.66 GHz CPU.

I decided to buy today because I really want to get money back from the insurance company (I have already spent over $3,100) and I figured it was better to spend $600 today and get the money back next week than wait a month and spend $500 (and be without the money in the mean time).

Plus, I want to have a fucking computer. I still have to clean the hard drives from <b>tier</b>.

Anyone got any name ideas for this box? I needa call it something. :)

Charlene?

THIS IS MY PENTIUM. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS LIKE IT BUT THIS ONE IS MINE.

My favorite quote from the movie, however, is this:

"And why are you not allowed to have a jelly donut, Private Pyle?"

"Because I'm heavy, sir!"

"Because you're a disgusting fat body, Private Pyle!"

http://users.erinet.com/30561/chris5.jpg

"Hell hath no Fury...like Christine."
"How do you kill something that can't possibly be alive?"

First post from <b>sonne</b>.

It's definitely pretty fast. I still have some modding to do to the case and a better organization of the wires, but the OS is installed and everything seems to be working fine. I'll know more after I get it home and hook it up to a real setup - I'm at work now. But so far, so good.

Why "sun?"

Calling a Microsoft system "Sun" would be bad karma, in theory, but German-izing it makes it OK.

Duh:

http://utenti.lycos.it/ilsitodibisto...TLER-GATES.jpg

Yeah, but the system isn't called "Sun". It's called <b>sonne</b>. :)

<b>nebel</b> was the other choice, but I think that'll be my next system.

And yet, you have failed to answer the question posed, you evasive bastard.

"Fog?"

It's not called "sun", and the next one won't be "fog". It's <b>sonne</b>, and the next one will probably be <b>nebel</b>. You're Americanizing it. It doesn't need to be translated. The word is <b>sonne</b>, and the fact that when Germans think "sonne" they think the German equivalent of "that big star that the Earth revolves around" is irrelevant. Don't think of it as "sun", because that's not what its name is. :)

I picked it because it's easy to pronounce, I like the way it sounds, it's short and it's easy to type. "<b>syphon</b>" means nothing - I just like the spelling and the sound. <b>tier</b> just happened to be an accurate description of the previous computer. :)

Anyway, don't bother translating the words because that's not why they were picked. :) Just read them in German and that's it. Don't think about what they mean.

Now see...was that so hard? You could have just said that in the first place. Like I'm a mind reader and know that your computer names don't really have any significance beyond what you mentioned.

Now you're telling me what to think and do...you're like a wife! Like I'm not allowed to ask questions or something...man, you're a real asshole! :)

Sonne is easier to type than Sun? And word's <i>don't</i> have meaning if they're co-opted and re-cast as names? Riight..

Man, am I going to get it! :)

"Sonne" does not mean "sun". "Sonne" is a German word. "Sun" is an English word. They describe the same star, but it's not like, when someone was coming up with the word Sonne, they said "Let's make this mean 'the German word for 'sun'.'" Languages don't work like that. "Sonne" is a German word, "Sun" is an English word. "Sun" was never a naming option.

I think, to a degree, you're skirting the issue. Yeah, "sonne" is a name. It's a sound, with 5 letters that correspond to it, that you can use to identify some object. But, "sonne" is also a German word. You may not be saying "this box will be called 'sun', but in German!", but by naming it the same thing as what the Germans named the daystar, I think you create some sort of link that cannot be simply severed with a quick dismissal of the German language.

Just to continue making no point at all, let's take a 100% hypothetical example. Say some people have a daughter, and name her Zoë. Now, that word means 'life' in Greek. Under what situation can they, as you've attempted to do here, disavow the connection to the Greek word? Can they say "yeah, it's a word in Greek, but that's not why we named her that"? Can some other couple do the same, but with, say, 'Asshat'?

Skunks -

Following your example, sycamore would be saying that her name was "life". The name isn't "life". It's "Zoë".

I'm hardly skirting the issue. He asked why it was called "sun" and I said "It's not 'sun'. It's 'sonne'."

Evidently we view language differently. I don't look at other languages as a translation of English. When I think "Sonne", I do not think the English word "sun".

When a Mexican says "Mi casa es su casa", they're not saying "My house is your house." They're saying "Mi casa es su casa".

CodeBlue - you did fine. Don't worry about it. :)