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Goodbye Intel

Steve Bargelt — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:30:00 GMT

I will never buy another Intel processor. Ever. AMD… I love you!

The Intel Chip. For years, it’s been trapped inside PCs, inside dull little boxes dutifully performing dull little tasks when it could have been doing so much more. Starting today, the Intel chip will be set free and get to live inside a Mac. Imagine the possibilities.

Is anyone else in the PC world pissed off by the new Mac/Intel ads? Apparently Intel thinks that it is perfectly acceptable tell me (through the Apple ad) that the thousands of dollars that I’ve personally (not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars that I’ve approved or recommend to various employers, clients family and friends) spent on their processors over the past couple of decades were a complete waste of money because I (as the ad accuses) only do dull little tasks on dull little boxes. Well f-you Intel and f-you Apple.

So not only is AMD wiping the floor with Intel ion the technology arena (AMD’s dual-core story is better, AMD’s 64–bit story is better, AMD’s power consumption story is better) now Intel is alienating the folks that put them on top. Rookie move, Intel.

And you know what? Rookie move, Apple! Why? Apple is effectively telling the people that you want to convert (WinTel users) that that have only been doing dull little tasks on dull little boxes. I think a basic rule of sales and marketing is to not belittle your perspective client base!

Well Intel – I guess this is goodbye. It has been a wild ride. Thanks for stabbing me in the back.

TB Server: Processors, RAM, Video & System Drives

Steve Bargelt — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:10:00 GMT

I thought I would combine a few components that really aren’t all that special. Don’t get me wrong, these are pretty important components but I’m not going to tell you much that you don’t know about an AMD Opteron.

Processors: (2) AMD Opteron 246
The decision was between the Intel Xeon and the AMD Opteron. I was swayed over to AMD by three facts.

Opterons use less power than an equivalent Xeon.
Opterons create less heat than an equivalent Xeon.
I like AMD’s dual-core strategy / architecture better than Intel’s (even though I didn’t opt for dual-core processors)

Why did I select the Opteron 246 and not super-duper dual-core Opteron 280s? This decision was based almost exclusively on price. I paid a little under $240 per proc while dual-core 280s go for over $1300 each. Even the cheapest dual-core Opterons (270) sell in the $870 range. I figure in 12–18 months I can upgrade to dual dual-core processors and relegate my two Opteron 246s to media center front-end boxes – or sell them on ebay. This will also give me time to determine if the applications I use take advantage of multiple processors and then I can decide if I will benefit from multi-core processors.

RAM: (4) Corsair 1GB DDR SDRAM ECC Registered DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Not much to say here. The Tyan Thunder K8WE S2895 motherboard needs ECC Registered RAM. Corsair makes a solid product and these are reasonably priced for ECC Registered RAM. I decided on 4GB since I will be running, or at least experimenting with, 64bit operating systems. The Tyan motherboard also serves each processor with it’s own RAM… I’m not sure how that looks to the O/S… but 4GB of RAM seems like a good number.

Video: Leadtek Geforce 6200TC
Pretty simple. This was the cheapest PCI Express video card that newegg.com sells. I am not going to game with this machine… although my options are open and once I get this server up and running and do some performance benchmarking I may decide to put this machine under my desk instead of in the server closet. If I do decide to replace my current workstation I can upgrade to dual BFG GeForce 7800GTs in SLI while relegating the Leadtek to a media front end or to the “parts bin” as a backup card.

System Drives: Maxtor 200GB L01M200 8MB Buffer Serial ATA (SATA)
You will notice a theme. I picked up these drives at Fry’s for $69 each out the door. No mail-in-rebate to deal with. I will run these two drives in RAID 0, attached to the SATA RAID on the motherboard. These drives will only contain the O/S other easy-to-reinstall applications.

Next Post: The RAID Adapter and the data drives

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID

TB Server: The Motherboard

Steve Bargelt — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:11:00 GMT

I have chosen the Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) dual AMD Opteron motherboard as the basis for my TB Server. MaximumPC chose this board to power their 2005 Dream Machine (aka DMX) and PlanetAMD64 picked this board for their ultimate graphics workstation. Yeah, I really wish I would have found the PlanetAMD64 article sooner – it would have saved me many hours of research into motherboards and cases! This was really a no-brainer selection as the Thunder K8WE has it all – the detailed specifications are here.

Supports dual AMD Opteron™ 200 series processors
Support for Registered DDR400 memory with ECC, ChipKill
DUAL PCI Express x16 slots with FULL SPEED x16 lanes
Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, and ActiveArmor™ support
Built-in multi-channel audio
4-port SATA ports with SATA-II NVRAID™
1394a FireWire ports
NVIDIA nTune™ performance tuning support

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID, motherboard, Tyan

TB Server: Getting Started

Steve Bargelt — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 12:58:00 GMT

In my first post on this subject, I Need More Hard Drive Space I casually state at the end that “I am seriously considering a complete server retrofit (Option 4?) in order to get a 64-bit PCI or PCI-X slot or both.” Well folks I decided to take the plunge, that it was time to completely retire my two old workhorse servers Apollo and Athena which are both dual PIIIs with 512MB of RAM and assorted 120GB – 200GB IDE hard drives. And yes – by retire I mean make them useful Linux boxes of some sort. Nothing ever hits the graveyard around here.

In my first post my only real requirements were “I need more space and I need some level of fault tolerance. I think I’ve decided what I want is 1+ TB in RAID 5.” Since I’m going to be spending a rather large sum of money on my new server I am going to up the ante a bit.

Here are my new requirements:

2TB + in RAID 5
Dual processors with dual core possibilities
64bit support
Handle multiple VMs or VPCs
Low heat dissipation
Low power consumption
Case

Space for 10+ drives
Excellent cooling
Not too expensive (sub $400)

I’m not asking for much, am I?

Over the next few days I will post mini-reviews about each of the chosen components. Review is probably not the right term – I will speak to each component and highlight the features that led me to the choice. Next, I will create a series of posts tracking the build of my new TB server. Finally I will blog some performance numbers after the server is up and running.

Here is a synopsis of the hardware I have selected for my new system:

ORTHANC PHASE I
General Description	Item Detail	QTY	Price Each
Case	COOLER MASTER Stacker 810 RC-810-SSN1 Silver	1	$165.00
Motherboard	TYAN S2895A2NRF SSI EEB 3.0	1	$424.50
Processor	AMD Opteron 246 800MHz FSB	1	$239.00
RAM	CORSAIR 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM	2	$129.00
Video	Leadtek Geforce 6200TC PX6200 TC-64-H	1	$ 59.00
System HDD	Maxtor SATA Ultra 200 GB	2	$ 69.00
RAID Card	3ware 9550SX-8LP 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X SATA II Raid Controller Card	1	$509.00
RAID HDDs	Maxtor MaXLine III 300GB SATA	8	$133.00
Drive Cages	CoolerMaster	2	$ 16.95
Power Supply	Ultra X-Connect 500W ATX Modular Power Suppy	2	$14.99

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID

I need more hard drive space space!

Steve Bargelt — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 04:29:00 GMT

I am quickly running out of hard drive space. My current home network consists of four PC workstations – a combination of desktops and laptops, two Xboxes and two servers. The servers are all old (dual proc P3s) bust still serve a purpose. Every time I need more drive space I buy whatever is on sale at Fry’s and shove it in one of my servers. No RAID, no redundancy. I do run nightly backups of the important stuff (digital pictures etc.) to another drive and then move those off to DVD every few weeks… but I’d really (REALLY) hate to have to rip my entire 300+ CD collection again. So I need more space and I need some level of fault tolerance. I think I’ve decided what I want is 1+ TB in RAID 5. I’ve been doing some research and here are the options as I see them:

OPTION 1: NAS
(1) ReadyNAS X6 Diskless @ $599.00
(4) Seagate 7200.8 400GB Drives @ 236.00 each total of $944.00

Total = $1543 for 1.6TB (1.2 TB usable) or $1.28 per usable MB
Sidenote: I almost had myself talked into the same idea but with 4 of the Hitachi 7K500 500GB drives. But they are still going for $375. So I would get 1.5TB usable for $1897. IMHO not worth ~$350 for 300GB of useable NAS space.

OPTION 2: Single Server Retrofit
(1) Promise FASTTRAK S150 SX4-M PCI SATA Controller Card @ $209.00
(4) Seagate 7200.8 400GB Drives @ $236.00 each total of $944.00
(2) Thermaltake Drive Cages @ $18.99 each for a total of $38

Total = $1191 for 1.6TB (1.2 TB usable) or $0.99 per usable MB

OPTION 3: Double Server Retrofit
(2) Promise FASTTRAK S150 SX4-M PCI SATA Controller Card @ $209.00 each total of $418.00
(8) Maxtor MaXLine III 300GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 @ $133.00 each total of $1064.00
(4) Thermaltake Drive Cages @ $18.99 each for a total of $75.96

Total = $1558 for 2.4TB (1.8 TB usable) or $0.87 per usable MB

Since I have two old servers that only have PCI slots (not PCI-X or 64bit PCI) I am, to my surprise, very limited in my 4 port SATA RAID 5 adapter card options. I can only find one, made by Promise Tech that fits the bill. In a way this scares me. Makes me wonder if the throughput is just so bad that no one makes PCI SATA RAID cards? I am seriously considering a complete server retrofit (Option 4?) in order to get a 64-bit PCI or PCI-X slot or both.

NewEgg is out of stock on the Promise FastTrack I guess I’ll wait and see if they get it it anytime soon - which is fine. Gives me time to research Option 4.

AMD Dual Core CPUs

Steve Bargelt — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:06:00 GMT

Confused by AMD's dual-core CPU offereings? I sure was that is until I read this awesome article on anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2397&p=1

Opteron Map:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2397&p=3

Athlon Map:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2397&p=4

Surround Headphones

Steve Bargelt — Thu, 12 May 2005 15:18:00 GMT

Turtle Beach has entered the surround headphone market. Both models look very nice... http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/earforce/

I currently own the Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones and I LOVE them. I bought them right before 11/9/2004 (Halo 2 Release) so I coudl play into the night without disturbing others. I've been in love with them ever since! Speed-Link has a new USB offering that it seems would be much easier to setup.