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Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

So, as some people may remember I was decommissioning my old web server. I've decided to move from a Celeron E1200 + microATX P5KPL-CM to a Pentium Dual Core E2180 + P5Q, sum total of $100 purchased from PhaedraCorruption.

To start with, let's say goodbye to the old web server.

Note the old case front, a sturdy AOpen job I got for free from my work's discard bin way back.

The insides are a cable management nightmare with that bloody huge RAID controller but I did use round cables I bought at NCIX about a year back to try and improve things a bit.

Finally you can see a top view of all the bits and bobs I pulled out:

P5KPL-CM + Celeron E1200
ATX plate on top of my SATA DVD-ROM drive (I think it's LG or Lite-On)
2 x 1 GB Kingston DDR2-800 5-5-5-15
Cooler Master 430W PSU (the flash overexposed the sticker giving the specs. Alas)
In the 5.25" holders you can see the two 80 GB Seagate Barracudas I was using for my RAID 1 setup.
The 80 GB Maxtor I was using for my XP SP3 install
Finally, the huge honkin' 3Ware RAID controller I got way back in 2001 as a birthday present from a friend of mine.

Next post will show the initial stages of my assembly of the parts

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

On we go to the next step - the new server

First, I'll show you the case I got for about $50 at NCIX to put this thing into. Observe the plain cardboard box, and the rather slick appearance of the front. Also, I laughed when I saw the exhaust fan. The cheap bastards put a stupid little 80mm fan in, instead of a proper 120mm fan.

Next off, you can see the new server parts, taken from the view of my chair:

Asus P5Q motherboard + E2180
2 x 1 GB Kingston DDR2-800 makes a re-appearance
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with the MX-2 + ArcticClean 1+2 I used to prep the base of the heatsink
The Cooler Master 430W PSU also re-appears
The DVD drive is back and I'm showing the floppy drive and its round cable, which I forgot to include with the old server parts
Finally I've taken one of the Seagate Barracuda 80 GB drives and I'm going to wipe it, and put XP SP3 on it.

Pics of some of the other pieces will come later as my camera battery died and I wanted to test the system anyway before moving on. Currently it's sitting at the BIOS temperature monitor screen showing a CPU temp of 33 C. I've never been that good at putting heatsink compound on a CPU and so I may have put just a smidge too little on.

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

So this morning I woke up and continued my work now that I know the CPU's temperature stays pretty steady for the partial load the BIOS puts on the CPU.

Since the P5Q doesn't have integrated video I just put in a cheap HD4350 I had lying around. That's the first picture.

Then I knocked out the two front panel covers and put in the floppy and DVD drive. You can see the case is a bit cheap since the bottom of the DVD drive doesn't quite sit flush with the front panel, so you can see the metal grating of the slot cover.

Next up you can see the two WD caviar 500 gig drives I will make into my RAID 1 array.

The floppy drive has also been connected up with its spiffy neon green round cable.

meticadpa · 1 Week Ago

Looking good man.

+

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

I forgot to mention in the previous post that it was a doozy trying to get that bloody power cable in. It's too short by about an inch, and made cable management of that thing a right nightmare. It didn't help that in that era the power connector was usually placed close to the ATX connectors rather than near the memory.

I have an Enermax 535 W PSU and I strongly considered swapping the Cooler Master for it, but decided that with a low-power CPU (the nominal TDP of an E2180 is like 65W if memory serves), video card, and not aggressively pushing my RAM, I should be OK with three hard drives in this computer on a 430 W PSU.

So on we go.

You can see a couple quick shots I took before I got everything assembled together, and the final two shots show the entire system all ready to roll.

So... does it all work? *cross fingers*

. . .

WE HAVE LIFTOFF

I'm now memtest86+-ing with 2.11 cuz i can't find my 4.00 disk, and I'll let 'er roll for a pass or two before XP-ifying and RAID-izing.

I was concerned that the ICH10R controller(which I set to RAID mode) wouldn't distinguish the DVD drive from the two Caviar drives, but luckily it did. So that's sorted.

PhaedraCorruption · 1 Week Ago

QQ, I'm going to miss that board, it took my Q9550 to 4.25GHz without breaking a sweat. May it live a long, stable, and cool life

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

It will. In fact I even moved the jumper back which would have allowed me to overvolt the CPU and the North Bridge cause guess what, I don't need to.

The final budgetary outlay for this new server consists of:

P5Q + E2180 - $100
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - Free (christmas present from last year)
Asus HD4350 - $25
Kingston 2 GB DDR2-800 RAM - $50
Seagate Barracuda 80 GB - $40 two/three-ish years ago when I got it as part of a pair for the old RAID
2 x WD Caviar Black 500 GB - $110
Compucase 6C28B - $45

GRAND TOTAL: $370

I suppose I could consider the Seagate Barracuda 80 GB as a sunk cost since I paid for it for the old web server and it didn't cost me anything to put it in the new one, and ditto for the RAM. In that case the grand total would be $280.

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

Update:

I did a little more cable management and I also had to remove the shroud from the side panel of the case. Here's what it all looks like with the case covers on

(and a few other photos too)

Getting XP on as we speak. And thus ends (for now) my build log.

Quantum Reality · 1 Week Ago

So here's the config as it stands today. Nothing special.

Quantum Reality · 6 Days Ago

Small update: I got rid of that stupid 80mm fan the cheapos put on and put in a 1600 RPM Scythe 12mm thick 120mm fan I bought today.

Also prepared the RAID array, which was as easy as cake. Just finished partitioning/formatting. Now off to go install xampp.

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