New rig.

[Napoleon54]

Well here it is, new work machine built by yours truly.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/Napoleon54/Front.jpg

On the outside:

Coolermaster Centurion case
Sceptre x22wg 22" widescreen LCD
Logitech MX 3000 RF keyboard and laser mouse


Probably will be adding a second (identical) monitor in the near future.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/Napoleon54/Side-small.jpg

And the innards (annotated).

Running WinXP x64 solely to provide support for >4GB memory. I went with the 2x2GB sticks so that I can add another pair at a later date for 8GB total.

I have to tie up the cables a bit, they're currently a mess. There's a big wad stuffed into the space below the optical drive that is seriously hampering air flow from the top front case fan. The modular cabling on this PS is a beautiful thing though, it would be much worse without it.

I admit that this machine is a little excessive for what I need. But not by as much as you may think. It will be used primarily for image analysis, pattern recognition stuff. I'll throw several hundred images, 1MB each, into the program and ask it to find patterns. That takes a lot (A LOT) of resources, especially memory. And the current project is still in the early stages- later on we'll have thousands of images. My old Dell (1GB memory, 3.2GHz P4 w/HT) choked at about the 400 image mark. So this one should do quite a bit better.

I've never had a machine that was worth running benchmarks on, but now I do and I'd like to see how this thing stacks up. What should I run, suggestions anyone? I don't know squat about benchmarks.

[Markel]

Aww...you should have waited until next week (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37536)! :heh:

I can't see your pictures from here at work - what kind of processor do you have?

[Napoleon54]

Aww...you should have waited until next week (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37536)! :heh:
Aww sweeet, that should be a new thread!

I can't see your pictures from here at work - what kind of processor do you have?

System specs for anyone who can't see the pics (sorry!):


Asus P5W DH Deluxe mobo w/ WiFi
Intel QX6700 2.66GHz quadcore processor
Zalman CNPS9700 heatsink
4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill PC6400 (800MHz) memory
Silverstone ST75F 750W power supply with modular cables
BFG GeForce 7900GS 256MB graphics card
(2) WD Raptor 150GB HDs in Raid1 (for OS)
(2) WD Raptor 150GB HDs in Raid1 (for storage)
Lite-On optical drive
(3) 120mm case fans

[a-10tankkiller]

Just curious where you bought the parts? Various vendors or a preferred? Also If you don't mind what did the tab come to? I'm in the process of figuring the parts I want for mine and want to get started ordering next week. I may stick with a Core 2 duo, but the Quad would be kind of a fun extra!

[zippyjuan]

The two best places for parts are www.newegg.com and www.zipzoomfly.com but watch the ads for deals on hard drives. A good place to check on that is http://www.salescircular.com/ca/computer/hdiskp.shtml

[DarkFury]

I've even started buying some parts at TigerDirect.com (as well as NewEgg and ZipZoomFly....)

They must have a distribution center in the Midwest, because I can order a part there today before 12:00 noon and it's on my doorstop tomorrow. :wow:

[Napoleon54]

Just curious where you bought the parts? Various vendors or a preferred? Also If you don't mind what did the tab come to? I'm in the process of figuring the parts I want for mine and want to get started ordering next week. I may stick with a Core 2 duo, but the Quad would be kind of a fun extra!

Everything for this came from NewEgg, the total was ~$3600.

I really really like the motherboard, highly recommend it. It has a lot of nice extras- RAID support, WiFi, a remote control for playing media and such, great support for OCing (though I'm not doing any OCing on this).

[InfiniteNothing]

Shouldn't you be in raid 0 not 1. Any reason why you're running a big graphic card on a work machine.

[Napoleon54]

Shouldn't you be in raid 0 not 1.
Naw I'm much more concerned about data integrity. If I lost my data due to a faulty drive then everything I've worked on since September '05 would be gone. So RAID 1 (mirroring) is the wise choice. As is, I'm still going to also get an external to back everything up on.

Any reason why you're running a big graphic card on a work machine.
It's still a sub-$200 card and it wasn't much of an investment to get this as opposed to something less. Short answer: 'cause I can. :heh:

[InfiniteNothing]

Naw I'm much more concerned about data integrity. If I lost my data due to a faulty drive then everything I've worked on since September '05 would be gone. So RAID 1 (mirroring) is the wise choice. As is, I'm still going to also get an external to back everything up on.

I've never liked raid 1 for data protection because of viruses and other environmental stuff. It makes sense in servers for up time and what not but for data protection I prefer periodic Ghost like backups to an external drive.

Have you considered raid 5 (3 or 4 drives) and two hard drive partitions ;)


It's still a sub-$200 card and it wasn't much of an investment to get this as opposed to something less. Short answer: 'cause I can. :heh:
LOL

[Napoleon54]

I've never liked raid 1 for data protection because of viruses and other environmental stuff. It makes sense in servers for up time and what not but for data protection I prefer periodic Ghost like backups to an external drive.

Have you considered raid 5 (3 or 4 drives) and two hard drive partitions ;)

LOL

Ugh, don't get me started. (oops, too late...) I originally got the 4 drives so I could do RAID 10 (1+0), which this mobo supposedly does support. Turns out that the 6 SATA ports on the board are controlled by 3 different RAID controllers and in order to do an array with 4 or more drives, the controllers have to be cross-configured. I messed around with it for several hours and could not get it to work. :throw: I did have a RAID 5 with three drives up and running, OS installed, etc, then one time on startup it wouldn't recognize one of the drives anymore. I dunno why. So I went with a simple RAID 1 and that seems to be working long-term. I had never dealt with RAID before and was looking at using this as a learning experience. Still might pick up a controller card and do the RAID 10, but honestly I'm fed up with it at this point. That'll be a rainy day project for sometime in the future.

[ShawnLee]

I like the setup, and I figure if you have an external drive you should be fine, no? Are periodic backups to an optical drive a feasible answer or are you talking large file sizes?

As it is, I see that I feel something I haven't really felt since the end of high school, maybe beginning of college.
Hardware envy.

[Napoleon54]

I like the setup, and I figure if you have an external drive you should be fine, no? Are periodic backups to an optical drive a feasible answer or are you talking large file sizes?

As it is, I see that I feel something I haven't really felt since the end of high school, maybe beginning of college.
Hardware envy.

I have been backing up my files to DVD up to this point, but it's a total of 10GB so far and that option is becoming impractical. So yeah, I'm looking at external drives now.

[cruelpupet]

I have been backing up my files to DVD up to this point, but it's a total of 10GB so far and that option is becoming impractical. So yeah, I'm looking at external drives now.


Id suggest a nice portable laptop drive in an enclosure. It'll run off of USB and you wont have to mess with power cords. (Speaking of which, Ill get that drive to you soon)

[InfiniteNothing]

Me too. It's much more convenient than optical media.