I had posted a picture of the hard drives in my server (dubbed Deathstar) a while back (try to find the post about my CM Stacker case), but I'll post up a front-side view of this computer's suspended hard drives later on tonight.




Correction - that's how Socket A/370 heatsinks go on.

Yes - it's an ISA slot. Really old stuff, eh? And yea, the video card is slightly bent. It was that way when I got the system, but everything works as it is. I'm guessing it's just from the motherboard and rear panel being off by maybe a millimeter or so... *shrugs*

talking about hdd suspending, my friends antec solo came with hdd suspension built in i had no idea, and its amazing.

Yep - Antec Solo review by SPCR. Quite an amazing little case. It's probably what I'm gonna end up buying for my next purchased system.

i would highly recommend it
i got my friend a ninja with it too

ISA! whoo, my board has two ISA, 5 PCI and an AGP slot...thats super old school i guess...i'll have pictures by the weekend i think, my sister is home with her comp so i can take pics and upload them faster.

heres a spoiler:
Soundblaster AWE64 ISA card
USB2.0 PCI card
WMP11 wireless internet PCI card
trendnet ethernet PCI card
GeForce MX/MX 400 32MB AGP card
Dual Pentium II Xeon processors
640MB of SDRAM
DVD+RW DL burner
DVD drive
1x Hitachi Deskstar 40GB drive
1x Hitachi Deskstar 80GB drive
5 Case fans
4 4700RPM fans [two per processor]
1 4500 RPM fan [graphics processor]
Apevia X-Dreamer case with side window
300W PSU


thats the rundown really...its not the newest or coolest [in terms of heat] system there is, but people at my school loved it when they saw it today [music server died at the radio station so i did backup for 6 hours]

it holds up nice, with 4 different clock modes, OC at 503MHz per processor, default at 451MHz per processor, power save at 381MHz, and then another that i haven't tried. its a hot system, and its overheated on me before which is why its got all those fans.

if anyone knows a way to calibrate heat sensors on motherboards, please PM me or something, i have two remote temps that are blazing hot, but i don't know where they are, and i think they may be way off because normally the case interior is about 76-80 F, so i don't understand why it overheats so often at 503MHz.

And here it is...


It's actually quite easy to do, and once you've got some quiet fans on there, it makes a really big difference to the overall noise levels.

ooooh isa
whats the slot just above the isa that is half the size of the pci slot

the suspended hdd reminds me of when i had a hdd on a piece of paper because i didnt have enough room for a third hdd.
It was funny because i would say i have 3 hdd's and people would be like wow you have a lot, than i would admit i had 2x quantum fireball 3gb and 1 x 4gb (seagate?)

i bet i have an older computer than you Jeremy, i have two amstrad CPC 464 which have built in tape drives and 4 colour monitors the screen says its from 1984

and theres the slot that came before isa the 8bit slot, does anyone know what its called

It was actually called just that, 8-bit ISA...

ok
My computers Specs

Aopen case
IBM 6266G6A Motherboard
Pentium III 866Mhz
256MB Smart Modular PC133 SDRAM
15GB Seagate (ST315320A) 7200RPM HDD
40GB Seagate (ST340014A) 7200RPM HDD
LITE-ON DVD-ROM Drive
Nvidia Geforce 4MX 420 PCI
Creative Vibra 128 Soundcard

Nice. Pretty simple and efficient way of doing it. Huh, Fruit of the Loom, who woulda figured.

DL

i've got pictures finally! but they're a little out of focus...first time using such a nice camera...don't ask.





[the switch in the back is what turns the fans on/off]

bonestonne looks nice but hard to see.

thanks DigeratiPrime, its all a work in progress, i'll have more pics this weekend, once i get the chance to turn a fan around.

@bonestonne: Maybe I'm not a reference since I like blue lights but, the side looks really nice !

@awergh: ah... Amstrad CPCs... Now that was something. I still got my ol' 6128+ . It still works and it's still fun!

it looks good now, i'm thinking of getting UV cables/cathode...depends on the money flow...i'm a pretty cheap DJ right now for my friends [only because i don't have quite everything i should, so i can't really easily charge much [no PA system]]

eventually i'll really trick this thing out...running a pair of PII's isn't as bad as some people would think...its just as fast as my celeron, with more RAM...thats a plus

Just built my new "Beast 2" machine. (The successor to a machine that got nicknamed "Beast" about 7 years ago, 'cos it was rather shiny for the time.)

Coolermaster Stacker 830 case - black, of course
HP-modified Tyan Thunder K8WE motherboard, with onboard U320 SCSI and dual 16x PCI-E slots
Two dual-core AMD Opteron 270s @ 2Ghz/core
4GB DDR RAM
2 Fujitsu U-320 15000rpm 140GB SCSI hard drives
2 nVidia 7900GTX graphics cards in SLI and overclocked (going to upgrade to 8800GTXs later this year when I get Vista)
SLI output split across 3 19" TFT monitors with a Matrox Triplehead2Go adaptor
Card reader, DVD drive, writer, etc, etc.
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard
(Logitech G5 mouse to come and replace my Raptor M2)
Lots and lots of 12cm Thunderblade fans - 9 or so (red ones - gives a very sexy diffused red glow through the Stacker's black grills). Loud as hell.
Bought some cathodes to go in it, but even with that big a case, they just won't fit!



If the I-RAM 2 ever makes it to market, I'm going to get one or two of those and use it as a system drive.

It's a rather nice system, and it outputs games superbly. Nothing quite like F.E.A.R. at 3840x1024. Fantastic for my development work, too. Apologies for scaling/compression on the attachments. Straight up screenshots came out at 2.2MB each.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Nice rig!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers.

Cost a fair bit, mind. Still reckon I saved thousands over buying it retail.

have a picture?

also, those thunderblade fans, what are the RPMs on those?

Not any good ones, yet. Just the screenies. Going to a LAN match in a few weeks. I'll get some better ones then.



http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/custom...?productid=2783

2000RPM (+/- 10%)
78CFM
21dB

They're pretty good, but when you've got 9 of them in a case, it sounds like an aircraft taking off. I think I may have to eventually go water cooled. They do look very cool through the Stacker's grill, though.

nice pc btw got a link for the wallpaper?

ooh, i need to update...i've played musical cases/computers so i have 2 rigs down here.

The dual Pentium II/III server has been revamped with a few new fun toys, the Pentium 4 tower was given a new case.

i'll start with the server.

Dual Pentium III Xeon processors 700Mhz 100mhz FSB 2Mb L2 cache
1152MB of SD RAM
Hitachi Deskstar 41.1GB right now just one, but the other one i have will go in when i have to part with my first AMD system.
Matrox G450 Millenium Dual head AGP graphics card, slot is only 2x, so its a little restricted, but its not performance based, so no biggie.
Soundblaster Live soundcard, better than the ISA Soundblaster, but not permanent in the setup.
Benq 16x DVD+/-RW "Superdrive" [this is an old drive too, surprisingly]
PCI USB2.0 card
Its housed in the Coolermaster Elite 330, no lighted fans or cathodes, just a simple setup.
Pics:

^the whole setup, this pic is probably from before i got the G450

^troubleshooting

^fancy duct idea i came up with

the other rig:
Pentium 4 1.4Ghz [socket 423]
256MB RD RAM [this stuff is impossible to find around here]
52x CD-RW
16x DVD drive
GeForce MX/MX 400 32Mb graphics card
Linksys WMP11 WiFi card
80GB Hitachi Deskstar
Apevia X-Dreamer with side window

Pics:

^general exterior shot

^ghetto GPU HSF setup

^ghetto'd up CPU HSF

^this is a very weird angle, thats looking up to the top of the case.
-------------
other than the fact that the servers got this weird thing about giving me bad audio no matter what i do, it runs fine.
the P4 rig is effectively silent except for a hint of turbulance that you hear.

my other system is this 1.4Ghz AMD rig that i threw together, 512mb of RAM, my other 40gb hitachi...it'll be getting my old maxtor drive and going back to my friend. my other other system is a linux box, 1.1ghz celeron, 256mb of RAM, 20gb Barracuda, onboard everything but LAN, which is covered by a trendnet PCI LAN controller.

and the final system that i'm having issues with is:
ECS K7S5A Pro board, AMD Athlon XP 2200+, right now 128MB SD RAM [to get it working] and my old ATi Rage 2C for basic graphics. to date, the system has not ever reached post for me. i have no DDR to try with it.

An Athlon XP 2200+ is newer then my 2000+ Polamino, shouldn't you be able to put that one on a motherboard that supports DDR RAM? A 2200+ is a Thoroughbred, right?

EDIT. didn't read carefull enough, sorry.

i'm trying to throw the system together so it replaces the P4, but it might need DDR for it, in which case i'll need to get enough money to buy some....if i get DDR, i'll be getting a pair of 512s, as i'm sure thats the most that the K7S5A can handle...it'll then be my editing computer...my server handles editing ok, but theres seems to be this issue with sound, during playback in winamp, or anything that plays audio, it seems to give this strange crackly effect, it bugs me beyond belief because it happens with any soundcard i put it, and however i play with the BIOS, it doesn't go away.

i really need to get 2 monitors, does anyone else feel that way? i do soo much website coding, it would just make it so much easier. not to mentiion how sweet games will be

yea, i feel that way...i have a dual head graphics card on one of my computers that i would totally move around just to use dual....at my schools radio station i was using two dell 17" LCDs while doing some recording/editing, you have no idea how nice it was...then i came home.

i have a big CRT upstairs, but its too much to bring down here and use....i wish i had it...audio editing on two monitors is amazing, stretching out the waveform so much that you see the entire thing...gah..

oh well...all in due time...i either save up for two monitors or i save up for a new computer..i'm split.

No pics, there's nothing pretty about it as it's just a closed case. Here are the specs:

ASUS P5N32-E SLI
SoundMax HD sound card onboard
Supports DTS, Array Mic, 5.1, etc.
Dual Gigabit Ethernet adapters.
Nifty little heat pipes.
and all the other stuff the board has.
Core2 Duo 6600 (2.4GHz)
2x 1GB sticks of Kingston DDR2-533 in dual channel mode.
WD Raptor SATA drive. 150GB, 10,000rpm.
SATA DVD Burner/reader combo drive.
eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB DDR3 RAM. Not sure of the GPU specs).

This was a huge upgrade from my very old 6+ year old AMD system (A7V266 with a 1.4GHz Athlon XP first generation). I went from playing new games at 20FPS with a low of 5-10FPS during heavy chaos, to 60+FPS with a low of 40FPS during heavy chaos. I don't care about overclocking... I'm just stoked I can play games with eyecandy AND performance! It was a long overdue upgrade.

a 8800? I want one !!

Anyway, here's my (main) buddy:
I used to have plain grey boxes and...I got fed up of it! So, when I had to buy a new case, I took great care of all the outside of the PC. And in the same time, I tried to reduce the noise to the lowest level.


- Superflower SF-561T2BL Case (impossible to find now...must have bought the very last one in europe)
- Led Coolermaster fans (8cm -front- / 12cm -back-)
- Led Zalman fans (GPU+CPU)
- Forton 400watt power supply
- Akasa Fan monitor
- Special silver pannel for my DVD-writer
- Special led lights for molex plugs
- Round IDE cables that glow in the dark

The inside is quite complicated...

The goal was to be able to use Win98 (for everyday use and older games) + WinXP (for newer games), so, I took a mobo with both AGP and PCI-e ports to enjoy the latest graphic cards on PCI-e and keep backward compatibility with 98.

- Asrock 939Dual-Vsta
- GeForce 6200 AGP (used by Win98)
- x800GT PCI-e (used by XP) (maybe a nice little 7900 or even 8800 soon...)
- Athlon 64 3800+
- Creative 5.1 soundcard
- Lots of hard disks
...

I'm satisfied. It's quiet, I can use both 98 and XP, play latest games and...I can finally show my PC in the room. No need to hide it anymore!

No pics yet, but my specs will be [as soon as the CPU comes]
MSI P965 Neo-F Mobo
Pentium D 925 [3.0Ghz]
1Gb DDR2 667Mhz G-Skill dual channel kit [2x 512mb]
250GB SATA WD drive
LG CD-RW [52x32x52x]
DVD drive [read only]
Apevia X-Dreamer with Side window

CPU hasn't arrived yet due to shipping f-up...the claim better fix it...there was a small price drop i took advantage of...price is now $86, it started at $100, dropped to $84 [when i went for it].

build will definately run Ubuntu SE, possible dual boot with Vista Ultimate, windows XP will be emulated in Linux, maybe a third boot on Mac OS-X. depends.

Been upgrading my system cooling, new Zalman case fans, and couldnt resist my new RAM cooler:

This RAM cooler looks nice! I didn't know this kind of stuff existed.
Makes me wanna get one too ! (like my case isn't blue enough...)

NO PC pictures this time...only some screenshots of current configuration

Intel C2D E6300 1.86GHz @3.04 GHz


OCZ Platinum EL XTC DDR2-1077 MHz 2 GB Dual Channel Kit @5-5-5-5

That's a pretty sweet overclock

yes it is!

what is being used to cool it? temps?

all on air, using Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro + arctic silver 5 thermal paste. but it doesnt matter to lowering temp. caz it is 45 C temp. now a days here. so it isnt making much diff.

temp. are 54 C idle, 67 C full load ( its of CPU not of cores temp. ) and still without overclocking it is 52 C idle 64 C full load.

Very sweet clock!

just got an evga 8800gts 320mb today
and why does everyone complain at the 8800gts's high temps!?
im getting 51C idle and ~65C load. the fan on it is extremely quiet.




and last week i got a set of Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers

tomorrow i'll post the pictures, but these are the specs of my new computer [finally done!]

Case: Apevia X-Dreamer black with side window [already owned]
PSU: Fortron Source Green 300W 80% efficiency
Motherboard: MSI Neo P965 chipset
CPU: Pentium D 940 3.2Ghz 2x2Mb L2 cache [EMT64 + Virtualization Tech.]
RAM: 1GB DDR2 [333mhz 5-5-5-15]
HDD: Western Digital 250GB SATA
Graphics: [temp] GeForce FX5200 PCI 128mb DDR
Media: DVD+/-RW 16x superdrive

pictures later, its bedtime after i finish one thing, and the cameras battery is charging for a truck show tomorrow.

PIII - 450 MHz
nVidia RIVA TNT 16 MB AGP
Sound Blaster 16 (ISA)

512 MB PC133 SDRAM
2 x 40 GB Seagate Barracuda PATA RAID 0
16X Sony DualLayer DVD±RW

lol, you're such a joke
but it's still fater than my dad's computer..

^routing of the ATX cable...strange positioning...i'll be sleeving that cable soon.


^fan to do several things. 1) cool the HDD 2) cool the gfx card 3) cool the southbridge...it runs at 7v to stay silent.


^the back. soon i'll be cutting the grill that blocks that fan, and i'll be making a backplate for the mobo unless a friend has one...its a waste to buy one. waste of money. the PCI slot cover was removed under the graphics card to allow hot air to escape.


^temporary HDD, will be replaced with a SATA 3.0gb/s Samsung 320gb drive. not mine, so thats why it wont be staying.


^side shot with cathode on. looks relatively neat, could use a longer floppy cable, and the front panel audio cable needs to be plugged into the headers as soon as i figure it out.


^CPU-Z and Speedfans readings. North and South bridges are hot...need to find a way to cool them better...soon i'll stick a Scythe Kama Bay in there to help a little, and as i said before i'll be chopping off the crappy metal blocking my fan, and put a fan grill there to protect it.

its a mix of show and workstation performance, not high end gaming or anything. it does what i need it to, and has some fun goodies to go along. for less than $300 USD, its not that bad eh? my only rant about it is that i wanted a Pentium D 925 as it was only 3.0ghz...with a FSB set at 800, why would i want to go crazy? i ended up getting 3.2 because the 925 went out of stock. eventually there will be more mods, but for now this is my main computer, my old workstation will be used for digitizing vinyls and then files will be transferred to this computer for remastering [as its faster]. i also installed my sisters photoshop, so i can play with that from time to time [i'll be getting an 8.2mp digital camera soon i think, so i'll be learning photoshop sooner or later]. i use VMWare and Microsoft Virtual PC, but when i get the new hard drive, it'll be running x64 Ubuntu, and i'll emulate Vista and XP, and if possible OS X for testing/comparing.

Antec P180
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Edition
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Thermaltake Volcano 9
OCZ 1gb (2x512mb) DDR Dual Channel Kit
Ultra X-Connect 500w
ST-3120026A (Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 120-GB, Ultra ATA/100)
ST-3160211AS (Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 160-GB)
WDC WD2000JD (200GB Special Edition Serial ATA drive)
BenQ DW1620 DVD+/-RW
Samsung SH-S162L DVD+/-RW RAM
Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT

not exactly new but I just finished getting the last parts lately so here are the pics :-)

• Shuttle XPC SK22G2 SE
• AMD X2 3800 (Windsor)
• Gigabyte 8600GT
• Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2-800
• Lite-On SH-16A7S
• Samsung HD501LJ
• Viewsonic VX924
• Logitech Z-4
• Logitech MX518
• Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard Black

I've had a lot of people ask me what my setup looks like at home. Well no one need wonder any more, this is what my desk looks like:

Click to view attachment

It's pretty ordinary looking, but some people seem to get impressed by the dual VX922s I have. Oh and the white thing behind the right monitor is my voltage regulator.

Even I didn't know you had dual monitors!!!! Sheesh... some friend you are...

I'll have to take pictures of my systems when I get my place cleaned up... which will be in the near future... at some point.

which keyboard is that jcarle?

It's a Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000. It has a laptop softness to it but it's a full size keyboard that has a slight curve in it (vs the old completely split Microsoft Natural Keyboards). It's amongst the most silent keyboards I've worked with so far. Although the space bar suffers the same metal bar cling that every keyboard suffers, it's far less then any other keyboard I've ever heard.

Jcarle, did you ever look at Dual LCD Monitor Mount/Stands?

They save space underneath your screens that can be used for open books for example.
I think it looks nicer too.

thanks jcarle looks like a nice inexpensive keyboard, might pick one up.