Not a mod, just a log

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07-14-2006, 03:52 AM
Airbozo

Not a mod, just a log

My first project log (for practice). Not really a mod unless you count the simple things. This post is mainly for practice and may even be in the wrong place. Let me know it wont hurt my feelings... :D

Ok, so this is my first ever worklog although I have been doing mods on computers since the early '80's. This is the first one I really documented since my company may have to make half a dozen of these a month, and I will have to duplicate most of the work or at least train someone to do it.

First a little background:
We were contacted by a customer that usually buys sgi octanes and fuels to interface to thier digital editing and transfer system, to provide them with a high powered linux system. They were evaluating several boxes(hp, Dell), but thier comment was "These boxes are boring, give us something with a little more flash!", so we spec'd out a moderately flashy system for them with top of the line electronics. Once they evaluate the system we will be in a design review meeting to iron out the details.

Here are the specs:

Case: Thermaltake Armor VA8000SWA
Power supply: Green Power NSP-550P4DL-XEON
Motherboard: SuperMicro H8DCE
Processor: 2x AMD dual core Opteron 2.6 Ghz
Graphics Card: Nvidia quadro 4500 (one for now)
Memory: 8gb (4 per proc)
Disk: Seagate 500gb sata (performance doesn't matter here)
Keyboard/mouse: No name brand since this will probably change anyway
OS: RedHat elWS4 update 3

So I pulled the work order and did a quick inventory on the parts. Turns out the PNY nvidia 4500 was on backorder so we substituted a cheaper card until we get the proper one. The unit ended up shipping with the cheaper card and I will have to re-do some of my cabling to get the power to the 4500 when we install it at the customers site. No big deal and it gives me and the sales guy an excuse for a trip to socal...

This is a pic of the case:

This is the first issue I ran into and will affect future power supply purchases. Two things to note here, first, the sales person ordered a black power supply for a silver case... Second and more important is the fact that the support member for the power supply sits very tight against the power cables. (see pic);

A pic of the cable mess before installing the mobo;

some of the most usefull tools in my toolbox.

Screw holder.
This thing is probably older than some of you...;

Tie wrap gun.
This tool is GREAT for dealing with tiewraps. It tightens them (adjustable) and cuts them off without the little nasty sharp bit on the end.

Again this is probably older than some of you...;

Here is a pic with the mobo installed. I thought I had run all the cables and thought of everything, but I ended up removeing and installing the mobo 4 times...;

and a pic of the backside where I ran most of the cables. (note) If this was my personal system, I would have spent more time on tidying up the cables in the back, but I'm anal like that and I did end up making them neater, but didn't take any snaps of it.;

This is the system powered up the first time. Note the cold cathodes installed on the left and behind the support crossmemeber. Also note I repaced the stock ide ribbon cable.;

System after the OS load...;

And finally the finished system as shipped to the customer;

That's it! My first official worklog and the quickest mod I have ever done. Took about 6 hours total, including the os install time and dealing with the paperwork for the order. My goal is to get a reproducable setup that can be done in less than 3 hours. Of course this is _only_ a demo system for the customer and I expect them to ask for some changes including a custom etched side panel with thier logo. We will be doing a design review with the customer next week and I will update this log with thier thoughts.

MY conclusions:

The next system will have a silver powersupply and one that does not interfere with the support memeber. I will also work on some cabling issues and the size of the cold cathodes since the one on the left _slightly_ interferes with the top door latch, but not enough to worry about for this demo. We will also be supplying a different keyboard/mouse combo as this one has all the fancy keys for windows apps, but they will be running linux. My thought was the saitek backlit keyboard since the blue color matches thier logo and the case lights, and they will be using these systems in editing rooms so there will be minimal light. If we could find a DVD rom/rw with a silver face that would be nice too, but so far no luck and we probably will not get into painting it unless they request it and pay for it. They also may be asking for an SLI version (did you know you could use these 4500's in sli mode? (think $5000 of 3d cadd quality graphics!)), so the power supply may have to be upgraded to more than 550 watts.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be great and if we use them you will get credit for your ideas (at least on paper)

I will be posting a review of this case in the near future, since there are some gotchas and some unique features.
07-14-2006, 08:25 AM
nil8

Re: Not a mod, just a log

This is such a rarity in business. So few companies will shell out the bucks for custom computers.

Those ziptie guns work wonders. I have a little cheap one.

If they want specific keyboards that glow, you might consider el wire.
07-14-2006, 09:32 AM
KMorphosis

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Very nice, I just ordered the parts for a system almost identical to this for me. I am using 6 250 gb HD in raid, and am using the Seasonic S12 600 watt psu and a Lian Li PC-V2100APlus II. Going with only one 4500 for now, I mean at $1800 a pop didn't think I needed two at this time.
07-14-2006, 12:51 PM
Airbozo

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Yes it is a rarity for custy's to order custom systems. Since this system will be paired with thier editing hardware, they wanted a little flash (they are in hollywood afterall). The sales guy talked with them yesterday and they like the initial case setup but they want to talk with us about some design changes to make it look more like thier product. AND they may go with the 4500x2 or even the 5500. They also liked my idea about the custom engraving of thier logo on the side panel, but we may have to change the case to get thier design to fit.

KMorphosis: You are getting agreat deal on that card. They usually sell for over $2k, even to resellers... also the final config of this system calls for 8 76gb 15k-rpm scsi drives in a striped raid setup for speed and storage. May even push them to an external FC raid array for better performance.

BTW I am right now working on another high end system for another company that does medical imaging. Dual, dual core xeon 5050 procs in a Tyan Tempest i5000XL S2692 mobo (got one of the first engineering samples for this custy), with dual ATI x1900xt cards. The initial impressions that they got was that the system was too noisy. DUH! WTF do they think a system like this should sound like? Even in auto mode the fans scream once the os has been running for a little bit. And have you tried to find after market coolers for the xeons? Only one I have found and you cannot put two of them on this mobo, since the procs are so close together. This one is going to be fun, since the government regulates thier industry and once you spec a system, it almost takes an act of god to get it changed.

Woops, (ramble ramble ramble)...

EDIT: UPDATE: The system I was building for the medical imaging company hit a snag. Turns out they want to use MS server 2003, and ATI will not support that os with the ati cards. I was able to load the drivers, but got a random error during install about the 3d accelerator not being recognised, but after loading I ran 3Dmark05 and it ran fine. also turns out that the engineering sample mobo we got from tyan is an sli mobo NOT crossfire capable (like they custy wanted). I just sent it out the door to the customer and we should get some feedback next week. I was hoping to have both systems side by side to benchmark, but no luck. Would have been a good dual: dual opteron 8gb nvidia quadro fx 4500 vs dual xeon 8gb ati x1900xt.
07-14-2006, 05:41 PM
leprosy

Re: Not a mod, just a log

wow that mobo is sick , 8gbs a ram is rediculus , thats awsome lol , what would you use a pc like that for , running servers or somthing?
07-14-2006, 06:22 PM
nil8

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Cad, graphic editing work, any sort of medical imaging system.

Basically real damn big intensive files.
07-14-2006, 06:57 PM
Airbozo

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Quote:

Originally Posted by leprosy

wow that mobo is sick , 8gbs a ram is rediculus , thats awsome lol , what would you use a pc like that for , running servers or somthing?

Whats interesting is that it is 4gb PER cpu, not just a total of 8gb (capable of 32gb with 2gb dimms). Cool thing about the amd opteron.

The customer is going to use this system for digital video editing. They have it hooked up to a 42" screen right now with plans for hooking it up to an HD monitor. I may be heading down to socal at the end of next week for a design review meeting.

We got some feedback from them today and with one exception they all liked it. The only major complaints were the noise (we can fix that) and it is probably too bright for an editing booth (we can fix that too), but they all liked being able to see the guts. They liked that feature so much, they are thinking of putting in some clear panels on thier editing hardware. Not sure they like the front of that case though. They seem to think it looks unfinished...
07-16-2006, 02:42 AM
simon275

Re: Not a mod, just a log

hmm...

That computer + photoshop rendering < Time = Win!

Damm the of cost of that system. What type of ram did you use latency, frenquency etc?

Its good to see that companies are appreicating computers and wanting to try and market themsleves by buying custom computers with side panels. Also its good to see more linux rather then every one use windows xp (pain in the ass) edition.
07-16-2006, 09:09 AM
DaveW

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Quote:

They have it hooked up to a 42" screen right now

Drool...slober...looks good man. I have an AMD Opteron in my computer, only because a) it's oberclockable as hell and b) it's got 1meg of l2 cache

=toot sweet performance

-Dave
07-17-2006, 01:22 PM
Airbozo

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveW

Drool...slober...looks good man. I have an AMD Opteron in my computer, only because a) it's oberclockable as hell and b) it's got 1meg of l2 cache

=toot sweet performance

-Dave

I am starting to find out just how good the opteron is. This is the first WS I have built using thsat processor and was quite impressed with the performance.

Unfortunately I did not have the time to do benchmarking on it. It would have been nice to benchmark the dual opteron system AND the dual xeon (5050) system side by side since they were _almost_ the same setup. May have a chance once the design review is finished.

simon275: You know I did not even check the timing on the memory, or the make (completely forgot), but I will check.
08-30-2006, 11:31 AM
Airbozo

Re: Not a mod, just a log

Ok, just got an update on this:

While I was on vacation, the customer requested another video card (2x quadro fx 4500 running in sli mode), and since they had issues with one of the onboard nic's they added a dual GigE card. Yesterday they accepted the overall system but we are having a design review meeting next week to finalize this system for production. Once we have the contract in hand I will post a picture of the company's product and website...

Good news for us as this will be a high profile system in MANY video editing houses. They are currently using an sgi Octane2 connected to the system. Sorry sgi!