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GalwayLAN Server Specs

  • 30-01-2004 01:14AM
    #1
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭


    www.komplett.ie
    =======================================
    SKU 109639
    MSI K7D Master-L Mainboard Socket A, MP
    AMD760MPX, Dual, ATA100, ATX 266MHz FSB
    Euro 191 Inc VAT

    SKU 114111
    Sapphire Radeon 7000 64MB DDR
    AGP, ATI 7000, DVI, TV-Out, Retail
    Euro 38.72 Inc VAT*

    SKU 119922
    Chieftec Matrix Big Tower w/door blue
    Case w/360W MA-01BL-D P4 / AMD (UK)
    Euro 113 Inc VAT

    SKU 109593
    Western Digital Caviar 120GB IDE 7200RPM
    Special Edition 8MB cache WD1200JB
    Eur 101 Inc VAT **

    SKU 117468
    Samsung CD-burner IDE 52x/24x/52x/16x
    Bulk,SM-352BEAB ,Combo, Black design
    Euro 71 Inc VAT

    4x SKU 107185
    EKL PAPST case fan 80x80x25mm
    with 5,25" power plug
    Euro 50.68 Inc VAT****

    2x SKU 107186
    EKL PAPST case fan 120x120x25mm
    with 5,25" power plug
    Euro 33.56 Inc VAT****


    www.overclockers.co.uk
    =======================================
    2x AMD Athlon "Thoroughbred" XP 2400+
    (Socket A) OEM (CP-029-AM)
    Euro 153 Inc VAT

    2x Akasa AK824cu Copper Base CPU Cooler
    Blue LED (Socket A) (HS-004-AK)
    Euro 42.33 Inc VAT***


    www.crucial.com
    =======================================
    Crucial 1024Meg PC2100 ECC Reg DIMM
    Euro 270 Inc VAT

    *Dunno if I'll get this card or not, might be able to just pop in my GF2 Pro.
    The only reason I'm even considering it is because for Eur50 we can have two displays running off her, which could be useful for some of the stuff I'm planning.... ;)
    ** The 160Gig models are only €4 dearer now, but I'm not sure if the controller of the MSI board (AMD Chipset) will support drives over 127Gigs
    *** Don't acutually know if these HSFs will fit snugly without any modification, or indeed, if they'll actually be able to cool the two 2Ghz cpus.
    They should have Red/Blue/White/Green LEDs on them aswell.
    **** might be getting 5 80mms and 1 120mm, or 5 80mms and 1 92mm isntead, depending on what I can do to the case.
    Ideally I'd like them to be LED fans, but that's not terribly important right now.

    Was thinking of getting some blue lit/UV reactive rounded cables aswell, but they can come later.

    Anyways, total cost is now running at about Eur1070
    By about June/July I hope to be able to buy an Adaptec/3Ware/LSI 4 or 8 channel RAID5 SATA card (probably going to be SATA1.0, maybe 2.0 though) and 4 160Gig 7200rpm 8meg cache drives (maybe 200Gig if they're cheap).
    Which will cost about 600-700 Euro and give us at least a half-terrabyte of RAID5 storage for stuff.

    Will also be popping one of those Adaptec 4-port 100Mbit cards on the 32-bit PCi bus (will take up 100MBytes of the 132MBytes available at full tilt), with the RAID5 card taking up the PCI64-bit/66Mhz bus.


«1

Comments

  • #2
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    I'm considering spraying the internal chassis to complement the blue case exterior.
    I will be getting a pre-fabbed window-mod door for the case aswell at a later date.
    The motherboard is Red, dunno what colour the graphics card is.
    The LAN card will be standard green
    The RAID card (when we get the money for it) will probably be green too.
    The HSFs will be either copper or aluminium.

    1) Anyone know if the top covers on Chieftec Matrix towers can be removed easily or are they rivetted on?

    2) Which would look best:
    Blue Exterior
    Yellow interior
    Blue LED fans on the cpus
    Blue UV reactive rounded cables
    UV reactive nail varnish/paint along the edges of the cards

    Red Exterior
    Yellow interior chassis
    Blue LED fans on the cpus
    Red UV reactive rounded cables
    UV reactive nail varnish/paint along the edges of the cards

    Blue Exterior
    Red interior to match mobo
    Blue LED fans on the cpus
    Blue UV reactive rounded cables
    UV reactive nail varnish/paint along the edges of the cards

    some other colour combination.


    Is it possible to to spraypaint expansion cards (Obviously removing HSFs and putting tape over the slugs etc) using standard acrylic/vinyl (car) spraypaints?


  • #3
    KinSlayer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 112 ✭✭KinSlayer


    why go for a single chip for the ram?
    2 x 512 cas 2.5 costs about 150
    2 x 512 cas 2 costs about 170


  • #4
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Originally posted by KinSlayer
    why go for a single chip for the ram?
    2 x 512 cas 2.5 costs about 150
    2 x 512 cas 2 costs about 170
    It has to be Reg ECC and the board has 4 slots, and will take up to 4Gigs of ram.
    I'm doing it this way so that the upgrade potential is maximised.


  • #5
    Ronan|Raven
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,158 ✭✭✭Ronan|Raven


    33 euro for case fan's oh the misapropiation of funds my lord!

    No longer will skittles be the colour of the rainbow! Behold the galwaylan sunburst!


  • #6
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    I'll be getting 2 Thermalright SLK900A heatsinks instead, so will have to get another 2 80 or 92mm case fans.


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  • #7
    strat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,005 ✭✭✭strat


    nice specs but i think you'll need a pair of athlon MP's for it, unless you break out the soldering iron :)


  • #8
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Waaay ahead of you man :)
    Scrape off a little bit of plastic coating over the L5 bridge pins, carefully plonk a bit of silver trace repair pen along the joint to connect em, leave it to dry and test the chips.
    Could even unlock them / hard-set the multiplier.

    Alternatively, I could do the socket pin mod instead, little bit fiddly, but easily reversible.


  • #9
    strat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,005 ✭✭✭strat


    :o:o:o
    good stuff :D


  • #10
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Now considering getting 1024meg of CAS2.5 PC2700 Corsair ECC Reg off komplett.ie for €284 instead of the crucial because:
    a) I've heard bad reports about the crucial and the AMD 760MPX chipset
    b) I can get PC2700 for cheap from komplett along with the other stuff instead of having to order from the states and having virtually no come-back and extra shipping costs.

    Anyone want to let me pass ~a grand through their business account with komplett and Overclockers.co.uk just drop me a PM.

    Considering putting an Antec TruPower 550W PSU on the order to Overclockers aswell...not sure though, could leave it till later.


  • #11
    Fobia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,958 ✭✭✭Fobia


    what happened to the terabyte harddrive? :(


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  • #12
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    That won't be bought for about 6 months, as currently there are no cards that support the features I want (Tagged Command Queuing, 8-channels, Hardware XOR engine, high-performance bug-free Linux support, array migration, native SATA support) so I'm going to have to wait till ~Sept 2004, which means by that time I should be able to start off with a Terrabyte and eventually get it up to 2TB of RAID5.

    In the mean time I'm going to buy a second 120Gig hard drive.


  • #13
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Also, the server will look something like this (same case, mobo and roughly same hdd arrangement), but without the watercooling setup.

    pcs.jpg


  • #14
    Fobia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,958 ✭✭✭Fobia


    fair jesus that's cool, I've GOT to learn how to build computers


  • #15
    electrofelix
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 273 ✭✭electrofelix


    Originally posted by SyxPak
    Waaay ahead of you man :)
    Scrape off a little bit of plastic coating over the L5 bridge pins, carefully plonk a bit of silver trace repair pen along the joint to connect em, leave it to dry and test the chips.
    Could even unlock them / hard-set the multiplier.

    Alternatively, I could do the socket pin mod instead, little bit fiddly, but easily reversible.


    Last time I checked the "Thoroughbred" core could have its bridges connected using the old pencil trick which was valid with the original Athlon core, which can be removed with an eraser. Its just the Palmino core that required better conductive material for the connection due to its lower internal resistances.

    Unless I'm mistaken?


  • #16
    Caliden
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,981 ✭✭✭Caliden


    whats the progress on this syxpak?

    is there any chance it will be ready for Glix?


  • #17
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    There's a slim chance, but I've got my exams starting in 2 weeks, so the server might get built, but having something running on it might be stretching my time limit a bit :)


  • #18
    Asok
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,628 ✭✭✭Asok


    tbh just point me at stuff while im sleeping in various places around the house and i'll install/config what ever im able to.


  • #19
    tman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭tman


    Originally posted by SyxPak
    The motherboard is Red, dunno what colour the graphics card is.
    should be green judging by the pics of sapphire radeons i've seen so far...
    ugly looking cards tbh


  • #20
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Might not be getting that card after all :)


  • #21
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    specs have been finalised, will hopefully be ordering shortly.

    Komplett.ie shopping list


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  • #22
    zAbbo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,985 ✭✭✭✭zAbbo


    Let me know how this goes, might be building one myself soon, oh and a 5k budget

    the pickles will eat me for sure


  • #23
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    bastard :)

    Get a big stomping RAID array for the drives anyways.
    With €5K dual 64-bit Xeon or Opterons would be nice accessible, with a few gigs of ram and a nice gigE nic.


  • #24
    zAbbo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,985 ✭✭✭✭zAbbo


    Alas, where to source such equipment. For a mission critical server which will be running 24/7 365days, Its quite hard to get the right kit, and even then to match prebuilt servers. While it would be huge hassle.

    I`m hoping to put a decent enough server together for around 2.5k or less and free up assets for something else.

    I havent looked into the Disk Array properly yet, but maybe sata raid with some of those Raptors.


  • #25
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Tbh, if you have 4+ 7200rpm sata drives in a hardware RAID5 or even 0+1 array you're going to get more I/O throughput than a GigE card can handle, so Raptors aint essential, unless the 5 year warranty appeals to you, in which case i'd still suggest the 7200rpm disks (with 3 year warranty) and buy a few as hot-swap/redundant online (as in allready running and in the machine, but not yet part of the array) replacements which would cut down on downtime compared to RMA'ing one of the raptors or give you far more capacity.
    It depends what your needs are and what they will be 18months from now.

    Also, as regards the actual RAID card, LSI hav e alovely 8-channel sata hardware RAID5 model coming out in June/July. You'd be looking at ~€500-600 ex-VAT, but it would be quality and expandable.

    How soon do you need the machine built for?


  • #26
    zAbbo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,985 ✭✭✭✭zAbbo


    We`re going down the Citrix/Terminal Services route at work, and its either buy a server at 4-5k which would be generic to our requirements, or I`ll build one for half that and get some 9800xt`s for the lads ;)

    Yeah I was looking at sata controllers on komplett, but all are 4 channel, apart from this

    I reckon i`ll have to hold off to after exams(june time)

    Good luck with yours tho, when is she due?


  • #27
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    I'll have to wait a short while longer till I can purcahse it, but it will be ready for the next LAN after GL9.

    RE: Purchasing the RAID card.
    Can you get stuff ex-VAT?
    Look at some of the suppliers around Ireland, or try Europe.

    3Ware, Adaptec or LSI are good makes, all are bootable afaik and all have linux/UNIX drivers.

    Stay the hell away from Promise, unless you want your array running slower than a PIO2 540meg hdd.


  • #28
    zAbbo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,985 ✭✭✭✭zAbbo


    We buy it plus Vat and claim it back(if bought in Ireland)

    I got some quotes for Servers, which are coming in at the 4-5k range, this is from the software vendor whose applications we need to run, so im sorta tied as to what they reccommend. But im gonna put together a spec, show them and see what happens

    As per this thread , we are being advised to purchase this

    Which i think is overkill, and if i can cut that price in half(we got quoted £2917 STG / €4,335.46 EUR) it would be great.

    Also backup is an issue, I`d rather stay away from tapes, possibly an externel HDD


  • #29
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    RAID50 :)


  • #30
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    http://www.compsoc.nuigalway.ie/~syxpak/galwaylan/shopping%20list.html
    This what we're looking at right now.
    -Minus the motherboard and the fans.
    The graphics card (backup frame buffer really) is a pos nVidia GF2 MX 200 32meg.
    Doesn't need a fan :)

    The fans will probably have to be bought off Farnell or Radionics, unless Peats are willing to cut a deal ;)


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  • #31
    Fobia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,958 ✭✭✭Fobia


    Nice, is that speed processor really necessary tho?


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