Poser

The time has come to set the Iron Llama to pasture and retire her to folding/home media server status. She had served me well and will be treated gracefully in retirement

So here was the dilemma at hand, it was time to upgrade...but I still had an untouched opty175 of ccbbe 0617 fame (not to mention a never opened/tested A64 4000+ LAB9E that I palmed on the lo-lo.). But s939 is on its way out...would it be financially responsible to go with a new build that was based on tech that is being phased out?

So I compromised...being a noob, and constantly edumicating myself, I felt that I wasn't ready for a conroe or kentsfield (nor deserving). So I opted to build an exoskeleton that was future-proofed and upgrade ready, that was powered by the classic heart and mind of a soul crushing, vapor leaving, shun your neighbor 939 system.

Heres the rundown:

Mobo: DFI Lanparty SLI-DR Expert -newegg
CPU: Opteron 175 ccbbe 0617RPMW - the mantle above my daughters bookshelf
DRAM: 2*1GB gskill pc4000 HZ - The llama
PSU: PP&C Silencer Quad 750w - Newegg
Case: Coolermaster Stacker w/ windowed side panel - Frozencpu
Cooling: Thermalright ultra 120 w/ Scythe S-Flex 120mm 1800RPM - Heatsink factory/Newegg
: 4 x scythe s-flex 120mm 1800RPm - newegg
: 1 x silverstone fm121 - newegg
: Thermalright HR-05 SLI chipset cooler - newegg
VGA: eVGA 8800gts 640 -newegg
Display: viewsonic 2230 22" wxga+ -newegg
Sound: Creative Xifi Gamer -newegg
Optical: Samsung 20xDVD+R SATA -newegg
HDD: WD 500GB SATA 3000mb/s - The Llama
Extras: UV psu sleeving, zalman baybus fan controller, dual 12" UV cctl kit, fan grills and dampeners (heatsinkfactory/frozencpu)

I think as the system comes together...it will get the most out of my s939 components while leaving the door open to, dare I say K10 upgrades (mobo, cpu, dram).

Anyway...tons of pics and play by play to follow.

ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME

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Penicilyn

Looks great to me but perhaps going for dual 250Gb harddrives in RAID0 will give you better performance

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Poser

I couldnt possibly agree with you more...but I only had a grand (anything more...and I would be looking for a new wife) to spend, so I had to make do with some stuff I had lying around...hence the 500gb WD. In a perfect world, I plan on either going with 4 x 250 WD RAID 0+1 or 2x74 raptors RAID O w/ 500 gb WD for storage.

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Nebulous

I cuncur. Ever since I went raid several years ago, i never went back to single harddrive. A nice performance boost with raid indeed.

Figured using the harddrive from his old system will save him some $$ I guess.

Poser

so I got the call from the wife today... you know the one that goes like this

"hey babe"
"hey..."
"what you up too?"
"...nothing...you know, just work and stuff"
"you got a bunch of boxes in the mail"
"I AM ON THE WAY HOME RIGHT NOW!!!!"

HOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE A NERD REASON #314:
A bunch of nondescript, brown parcels arriving at your doorstep is not better than, but damn close to good s3x

So anyway, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl, barely able to wait to see my new pirate's booty (see...I was able to make two s3xual allusions in the last sentence..I WIN). Its like Christmas in March, and Santa doesnt even come by my house anymore (Saint Nick welshed on a bet and is a poor loser, you see he fancies himself a drinker....)

so heres a pretty pic:

Yeah...most people just see boxes...but if you squint real hard and have mad phat overclocking skillz and legit nerd cred...than you can see inside the boxes...here try below:
clearly you got the cred...and mad phat skillz, cuz you see BOOTY

I have enlisted the aid of a personal assistant for this project. What she lacks in experience, she more than makes up in enthusiasm...just look:


so everyone is pretty much excited about this project...
...well except the Llama. She isnt jealous so much as she seems a little depressed. How do you know if your rig is bummin' hard...well a little observation and you can see she is blue:


Its okay Llama, you're not being replaced...just given more specific responsibilities (home media status....)so buck-up little soldier, your days are far from done.


Anyway...I did the inventory of my goodies and much to my chagrin the Experts user documentation is in Japanese (or so I think). So I'll be doing a whole lot of reading just to get the board stable.

I think the first steps, while waiting on the case...will be to lap the base of the TR-120 and see if I can test the sytem for startup and the such.

Maybe sleeving the PSU too. Question for modders: my pp&c psu comes sleeved in a morbid black, should I just run my UVblue over it...or remove it and then sleeve?

edit: 22inch vg2230wm viewsonic kicks serious arse!

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DontPassTheFence

http://www.diy-street.com/forum/index.php will be your new home now to get that Expert running.

I suggest TMods BIOS disc, and try OCZ Tonys BIOS or Merlin's newest BIOS.

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Poser

I actually joined DIY (DFI) street this morning, and I downloaded TMODs iso the day I chose the expert. I have heard about BIG TOE and MERLIN as well as OCZ TONY, but have little knowledge about their respective strengths/weakeness's....

...any tips or hints???

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The Duke

Your posts are a joy to read
Cute kid too!

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Poser

You are too kind...my smarts aint gettin me anywhere, so I'd better at least be entertaining.

As far as my daughter...looks can be decieving, she is sociopathically maladjusted counterstrike insane fragging machine. Seriouslly, people want to rolll with her instead of me. I feel like the fat kid in dodgeball

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Poser

So today I wanted to dive in and start prepping my rig for its first test fire...(mobo,cpu,cooler,psu,HDD,optical,and sound and grafx cards). I know this expert is gonna kick my ass

So I decided to lap my TR ultra 120 (since its a mindless activity that would let me plan some of my case mods in my head).

The cooler itself is impressive and formidable in size. However the finish was absolutely crap, Thermalright...try Thermalrough.


So I broke out one of my www.easypckits.com premium lapping kits (pictured below) and set out to do the dirty. Off topic: yes, another shameless plug...but Dave aka insulglass@easypckits.com is an absolute pleasure to deal with, and if you are planning on lapping anything...his site is the only place to go.

after about 10 minutes @ 400grit sandpaper, I was shoked to see just how concave the base was. It took me the better part of 90 minutes to just create a flat surface (the time it usually takes me to lap a processor and heatsink!!!). My mistake may have been not using a coarse kit (grits 100, 150, 200, 320) before jumping to the 400, it may have saved me a considerable amount of time...and possibly sanity.

anyway after about and hour and half this was what we were facing

yeah I know its not so impressive, but at least it was getting flat...you know like the world, or something.

Once I was finished with the 400 grit...the process began to be a breeze, here's the midway point


again not quite looking at a naked girl...but at least you could see copper and what appears to be a flat surface.

the finished product, however, was worth the frustration


sorry for the boring play by play...but I said I would document everything. Unfortunately I was stuck at work to 1am...and didnt begin this project until after 2am and it is now a little after 5am

I need to get a life

anyway...more to come...soooooon

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