Elliot

Allen,

Somehow I have not noticed your response until tonight. I also agree with you. We are a small company and we are just wasting too much money on technology. Our clients, architects and mechanical engineering firms, are also complaning of the same cost for keeping up with technology.

I looked at the Apple's today. They certainly look impressive. But, What do I do with the thousands on PC software.....

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

bigcahunak

Elliot.
I definitely agree with that $1400 saving.
everythinh you listed could be a good saving and still very powerfull for your needs.
I'll send you some quite heatsinks links later.
Itzik

Elliot

Itzik,

Thanks again for your comment. After reading a lot about the special space and cooling requirements I started leaning towards the Supermicro case. However, last night I read 2 reports stating that this case is very noisy. If there is one thing I want to make sure it is not repeated on this workstation is the noise level produced by the last one.

Upon reading a lot of reviews I am still leaning on the Xeon's. Greg Hess is right. The chip may be better but apparently there is no motheboard platform to support it correctly. No motherboard to use PCI express or DDR2. AMD followers claim DDR2 is not good and they rather wait for DDR3. Some smart reviewer claims the latency on DDR2 it is not caused by the memory but by the lack of on board memory controller like on the AMD Opteron.

After reading the techno kid reviews I am starting to think that the difference between the two chips is in the order of trillions of a second....Hi Hi At the end it is just a marketing hype......!

If you have information on the heatsinks it would be greatly appreciated. One of the main issues is how to cool these chips in a quiet manner.

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

bigcahunak

Heatsinks... yeah its all about noise...
check the new Cooler Master Heatsink model E3W-NPTXS-04 on http://ecd.coolermaster.com/product/...age=2&cat_id=3
Its a passive copper heat pipes with aluminum fins surrounding the pipes with no fans (passive, right...). You can read a review on http://www.ctechnet.com/hardware/Coo...w-nptxs-04.htm
And, as far as I know the only store that sells them is http://www.orbitmicro.com/products/a...W-NPTXS-04.htm for $41.60 each. I tried to get them here, as I'm currently building a xeon system as well, but its imposible and shipping from orbitmicro is double the price of the goods (I checked...)
FYI: I got the Antec 1080 case. I love this case.
Good luck.

Elliot

Itzik,

I finally had it with the Intel dealers in the US. All of these dealers that have the Xeon 3.6ghz they are trying to see how much they get you for. They all advertise between 960.00 to 1200.00 per chip. However, when you call they say either out of stock or only sold as part of a system.

Friday I had with the last one. He insisted that I send to him 7,400.00 and it will take him 3 weeks to have the machine. If you shop around you can get a nice system for about 6,700.00.

Well after reading a lot and listenin to Devin and his experience. I went and bought all of the components and assembled a dual Opteron 250. I gues this is like a Pentium 3.4 to 3.5 Ghz. The main problem for the lower speed as compared to a 3.6ghz Xeon is that there is no motherboard available for these chips that will use the PCI Express. From what I have read before the end of this year there will be a board for the Opterons with PCI Express. I guess at that point I will throw this board away and move the component to the other board.

Forget the survey and all these analysis showing trillions of a second of difference. I put together the machine in about 5 hours. No problem. There was a slight delay with the SCCI and the Ultra 320 controller. The store gave me the hardrives wrong.

This thing is fast fast fast fast fast..... but it is a NOISY BEAST. In fact so noisy that I will not use it. This problem will have to solved. The Opterons are running so cold that I can touch them with my fingers... But too noisy. Now I am in operation "FAN RESEARCH" trying to see what can be done. I started looking at your last message and reviewed the sites you recommended. Do you have any experience with these passive coolers with no fans.... The sales brochures went short of calling them a Miracle.

I placed all the components on a regular standard case.... with the 645 watts Power Supply. The PS is quiet, the problems is the fans supplied by the motherboard manufacturer.

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

bigcahunak

Nope sir, I dont have any personal experience with these passive coolers, yet... but it seems like a trend among other heat sink manufacturers as well. these passive pipes coolers seem to do job just fine, but I heard of ppl mounting a big and quite fan infront of them two cooling towers and that even increases performance while still keeps it very quite.
Good luck with your new toys...

Elliot

Itzik,

Thanks.... I had not even heard of the passive coolers until last week....! I have to solve the problem with the noise. It is just too much.

This motherboard doesn't have that much space and as a result they include their coolers. However since there is not much space, they put a smaller footprint fan and run it a 5,500 RPM.

Let see how I progress with this thing. I still have my reservations about the AMD. On true life...... It is fast.....

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

Elliot

Hello,

Can anybody help me with a questions about Raid Systems?

If I have two 74gb SSCI drives on a RAID 0. What is it that should I see upon booting up the computer. Will I see two hard drives each of 74gb (Drive C & D) or will I see a single drive "C" of 74gb or a single drive "C" of a 148gb....?

The last machine I put together had Raid 0,1 that allowed me too see a single "C" drive of 74gb. On the new machine I am using a different controller card and I configured it as Raid 0 without the comma (,) 1. Now I see on this new box two drives each 74gb. The machine is still very fast but I wonder if I am really using the Ultra SSCI at the full 320. Or is it that the machine is seeing just 2 single SSCI drives.

I was upon the impression that Raid 0, 1 was stripping with redundancy so you needed two drives and this configuration basically wasted one of the drives. No mirroring safety. Somebody told me to do just plain Raid 0 (without the ,1) and this way, upon saving the information, it was evenly splitted in an almost simultaneous manner between the two drives. This arrangement will speed up the machine by saving on the writing and retrieving time.

I am confused at what is it that I am seeing. Since I see two indepent drives of 74gb each, I am wondering if the machines is really on a Raid system. The docummentation on this LSI Ultra 320 controller (last one was an Adaptec 2010s) is very poor for a person like me, with limited computer knowledge. However, the machine is very fast, it is like transitioning from a propeller driven Cessna 150 to a modern jet fighter plane with excess disposable thrust.

If my question sounds to simple for you techno-kids, please remember that I am almost 55 years old..... That places me at a time before the invention of TV..... back to the vacuum tube age.... When digital technollogy was invented, Yes, digital technology..... Morse Code..... (di-di-di da-di-da) At any rate I am totally lost on this one.

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

Elliot

Hello,

Another question from an old techno kid.... All the computers I have put together ussually bring a software that can read the temperature on the processors. However, only one computer had what I call a sensor (thermocouple) on the base of the processor.

This motherboard that I have with dual opteron has not visible thermocouple. But it brings a software that acts as an alarm if it gets too hot. Could there be a thermocouple embeded in between the multiple layers of the motherboard PCB. How is it that they can take a temperature reading without the actual sensor.

I asked that question to a "smart" salesman at the local computer store and he told me to get a Thermolake Alarm sensor devise that will let me know the temeprature. This small device brings a thermocouple sensor that is sopposed to be placed between the base of the CPU and the CPU. Then wired into a box that have an LED that reads the temperature. In my old way of seeing things..... this is a sensor....!

The software that came with the motherboard has a temperature reading and an alarm setting point. The temperature reading on chip 1 is 40 and on chip 2 it is 42 degrees centigrade..... Is that normal....? Then it has a system temperature reading of 32 degrees centigrade.... Where is it getting that reading from.......?

I can touch the CPU bases with my fingers, it is just slightly warm.... The box is just too noisy...... Like flying a jet fighter without the helmet..... if gives you the feeling that you are sitting on top of the turbine....! It is so noisy that I have turn it off to prevent getting a headache.....! (Not exagarating) It is a complain reported on the internet under K8 noise.

Any suggestions will be very appreciated..... Does anybody has experiences with the noisless water cooled devices.....?

Thanks
Elliot

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Elliot

wda

Elliot,

How loud are the scsi drives? I have a 10,000rpm that just screams. It's as loud as two cooler fans (one is in front), and a P4 cooling fan. It sounds like you stuck your head into a circa late 1970s TV.

As far as noise beyond quiet solutions what about Isolation and Insulation?

WDA

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