"Rate my Rig" thread

[Xon]

RAID6+hotspare is quite nice. With such a large array, RAID5 is practically worthless.

What OS are you going to run it on? As depending on which OS, you may wish to use software RAID1 of the OS partition but motherboard RAID1 is generally quite good.

Also, you want your OS drive(s) running off the motherboard so there are not competing for the Areca controller's cache.

[Uraniun235]

I was going to run Windows Server 2008. I snagged it for free off of Dreamspark.

Forgot to mention that I have a 74GB Raptor on hand that I was planning to use for an OS drive. RAID-1 hadn't occurred to me... though, hard drives are cheap enough that I should probably consider it.

[Xon]

I was going to run Windows Server 2008. I snagged it for free off of Dreamspark.

I've got a mini-fileserver/VM host box waiting for Win2k8 r2 to hit dreamspark so I can shutdown my VMs without requiring a hardreset of the host OS or some wacky scripting. Atm it is running the release candiate with the key so I have till March 2010

Forgot to mention that I have a 74GB Raptor on hand that I was planning to use for an OS drive. RAID-1 hadn't occurred to me... though, hard drives are cheap enough that I should probably consider it.

Windows 2008 software RAID1 is actually quite reliable, and more importantly will correctly failover to a good drive if a drive dies on reboot and is a supported configuration by Microsoft.

[phongn]

Remember to enable TLER on those drives lest you get drive dropouts.

OS-level RAID is generally quite mature (and often very fast) these days. As for hardware controllers, I generally prefer 3ware controllers though it may not be in your budget.

As an alternative case, there's the Chenbro SR107 or SR110 (both are a bit pricey, though, especially if you go with their hotswap solutions)

[The Grim Squeaker]

I'm debating laptop offers for my upcoming University (computer engineering) studies, as well as serving as a desktop replacement:

4510S HP
NA923EA
1050$ (15.5% VAT not included)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7370 (2GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 1064MHz FSB)*
RAM:1024,+ 2048
HD:320GB 5400 RPM
screen: TFT HD Anti-Glare 15.6 1366 x 768

GPU:ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330 512‎ MB
Windows Vista‎®‎ Business 32-bit‏
2.59 kg
8-cell Li-Ion battery

My main worry is the weight, but decent 14.1 inch options with a GPU push the price up unacceptably. Thoughts? I'm leery about the size/weight and the CPU mainly, but the price is good.

[Uraniun235]

Remember to enable TLER on those drives lest you get drive dropouts.

OS-level RAID is generally quite mature (and often very fast) these days. As for hardware controllers, I generally prefer 3ware controllers though it may not be in your budget.

As an alternative case, there's the Chenbro SR107 or SR110 (both are a bit pricey, though, especially if you go with their hotswap solutions)

Oh yes, that's why I'm specifically getting WD drives - that way I can enable TLER and use inexpensive consumer drives in a big RAID array.

I don't think the SR107 will quite do... the SR110 would be pretty awesome, but holy Arcadia it looks like that beast costs over $1000! Looks like the SR109 might be worth looking into, though.

[phongn]

Oh yes, that's why I'm specifically getting WD drives - that way I can enable TLER and use inexpensive consumer drives in a big RAID array.

I think I'm going to go the lazy route and use a NAS for my next device - it'll cost more, but I'm getting a bit tired of setting up a server from scratch. A lot quieter, too

[Uraniun235]

Someday, after I've outgrown that Twelve Hundred, I might consider moving up to a Lian-Li 343B.

Though, if I'm somehow in a house by then (which I doubt), I might buckle down and just set up a rack.

[Xon]

Oh yes, that's why I'm specifically getting WD drives - that way I can enable TLER and use inexpensive consumer drives in a big RAID array.

Make sure you disable autopark on the WD green drives. Otherwise they will agressively park themselves which rapidly depletes thier rated stop-start count. The app you need is called "wdidle3" for that.

Someday, after I've outgrown that Twelve Hundred, I might consider moving up to a Lian-Li 343B.

I have a Lian Li PC-A77B for my current fileserver at home, I'm in the process of getting some 4x 4-in-3 hotswap bays(Lian Li ex-h34) to replace the 3-in-3s have in that case. Should give me the capacity for ~20 harddrives. Once SSD prices drop some more, I'm planning to get one or two for my VMs to run on.

[Uraniun235]

How do you get 20 hard drives out of four 4-in-3 hotswap bays?

Also I almost got an A77B... but the guy on Craigslist never got back to me. >:(

[Xon]

How do you get 20 hard drives out of four 4-in-3 hotswap bays?

There is room for four 4-in-3's in the front, and a drive cage in the top-back which has a 3-in-3. I will have a spare 4-in-3 which I can put there.

Also I almost got an A77B... but the guy on Craigslist never got back to me. >:(

My only complaint is the power button on the top of the case. I needed to disconnect it because my cat sat on the sucker and powered my fileserver off.

[Zixinus]

I'm soon to have my birthday soon and I want an updated Graphics card.

This is the one I looked out:
http://webaruhaz.fcs.hu/index.php?page= ... 6&id=18500

Althought, I wonder about this one as well, especially whether there is a significant enough performance difference to be worth the extra 5000 forints:
http://webaruhaz.fcs.hu/index.php?page= ... 6&id=18459
I know the difference is the cooling system, but I'd like my new card to last.

First and foremost, how my computer can take either card?

I think my motherboard is a ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (can't be sure of the manufacturer, but the specs for it definitely match with what cpu-z gives me).

[phongn]

That's a fine GPU, though the main issue will be if your PSU can deliver enough current.

[Zixinus]

How can I know that it does?

[Xon]

How can I know that it does?

What brand & model and wattage PSU?

[Zixinus]

Codagen Display 300W
ATX 2.03(P4)
Modell: 300X

I've also written down the output frames. Do you need those too?

[phongn]

That'd be helpful.

[Zixinus]

DC output:
+3,3V / +5V / +12V / -5V / -12V / +VSB
20A / 20A / 16A / 0.5A / 0,8A / 2A
120 W MAX / - / 9,6W MAX
300W

Is that helpful?

[Zixinus]

I did a little searching and it turns out that either sapphire card will require a new PSU. I just hope this will work out for that: http://webaruhaz.fcs.hu/index.php?page= ... 0&id=11122

As far as I can tell from the manufacturer's page, this one should do the trick and if I choose the less cooled card, this shoud come out roughly at 40000FTs.

[phongn]

Low-power server:

Intel D945GCLF2D Motherboard w/ Atom 330 CPU
2GB DDR2-667 RAM
4xSeagate Barracuda LP 1.5TB 5900RPM SATA-II HD
Chenbro ES34069 Mini-ITX case w/ 4 hot-swap bays + 180W PSU
Syba PCI 4-port SATA-II adapter (Sil 3124)
Slimline SATA 8X DVD±RW
Transcend 8GB IDE industrial flash module

[Uraniun235]

What OS were you thinking of running, Phong?



Also, I went ahead and ordered the server - sans hard drives. I figured I'd wait and make sure all the parts (namely, the motherboard and RAID card) played together nicely before sinking another ~$1300 in hard drives.

[phongn]

What OS were you thinking of running, Phong?

I think I'm going to play with Debian 5.0 this time. My present (dying) server is running CentOS 5.3, which is a bit long in the tooth and I want to try a non-Red Hat style Linux.

[Uraniun235]

Phong, if you go for Samsung 1.5TB drives, Newegg's got a wicked deal on them right now; if you buy two or more, the per-unit price gets chopped down to $99.

[Zixinus]

A question: I got an XFX 4850 (with 1gig ram), upgraded to Windows Vista (32-bit) and most of my games run fine except Bionic Commmando, with what I get minor graphics corruption at first and then a crash to the deskup saying "display driver stopped responding". All my other games (Operation Flashpoint, Evil Genius, Call of Juarez Bound in Blood) run fine. A browse in the bionic commando forums does not show a similar problem, but elsewhere shows that this error can mean either a software fault or even that my card has insufficient power or that its overheating (the fan works fine and I still get this problem with this game if I manually set the fan speed to 100%).

All of my drivers are up-to-date (except perphaps the drivers for my Audigty SE, an 1.4 but the Creative site and autoupdate tells me that I don't need that). I have a 500W power supply, although it doesn't have an built-in 6-pin connector, but it worked with the adapter that was supplied with my card.

Is it my config or that Bionic Commando uses more system resources than otherwise or simply that the game is broken for me for some reason?

[Xon]

What brand PSU? The wattage is almost irrelevant compared to that.