Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Cool. Make sure you use good quality HDDs, though. Otherwise, with that many HDDs, even a single failure or two can make the system misbehave.

A few months ago at work, someone brought us their customer computer to troubleshoot it. It had 14 HDDs in it - some software RAIDed, some not. He wanted to know why his computer took so long to boot or load anything. It took 2 days on our bench to get it to boot (it was sitting on the Windows 7 loading screen, lol). Once it booted, it was extremely slow. We found that it had at least 3 badly-failed HDDs, and a few working but not very healthy. Once we got it stripped down to bare essentials and just one HDD (the OS), it ran fine. But what a fine mess that thing was.


I think TG was asking about the rocker switches on the top.

The bays are empty at the moment, so drive-wise, it's a blank slate. The OS drives will be a pair of SSD's in a mirror (raid1) on the motherboard's ICH10 controller, which will be mounted internally. The externals are on a 3ware controller, which is great about sniffing out bad drives and alerting you.....it'll email you and make a whole lot of racket with a buzzer too! I've been eyeballing WD reds for NAS functions.... Speed isn't a huge factor for what this machine will be doing (DVD streaming to HTPC's, DVR for a medium-size security system, and just a big ass file server). Slow spinners = efficient & reliable (as a rule anyway). Efficiency makes life easy on the power supplies and keeps heat down....and those factors culminate into reliable over time.

The two big switches are master power, one for each system. The 4 smaller momentary rocker switches are ATX power & reset. Obviously each system gets two. The 2 SPST's are not assigned to anything.....but I'm sure I'll think of something for them to do.

[momaka]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

now all the external bays are filled and will reach capacity of each system's 12 port RAID controller.

Cool. Make sure you use good quality HDDs, though. Otherwise, with that many HDDs, even a single failure or two can make the system misbehave.

A few months ago at work, someone brought us their customer computer to troubleshoot it. It had 14 HDDs in it - some software RAIDed, some not. He wanted to know why his computer took so long to boot or load anything. It took 2 days on our bench to get it to boot (it was sitting on the Windows 7 loading screen, lol). Once it booted, it was extremely slow. We found that it had at least 3 badly-failed HDDs, and a few working but not very healthy. Once we got it stripped down to bare essentials and just one HDD (the OS), it ran fine. But what a fine mess that thing was.

Multiple motherboards means multiple switches?

I think TG was asking about the rocker switches on the top.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Yes.

FWIW, I have some stuff for you next time you make it this way.

hah, wish I was close enough to get free shit!

[ratdude747]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

What's with the power switches on the top of the case?

Multiple motherboards means multiple switches?

[TechGeek]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

What's with the power switches on the top of the case?

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

A couple changes and completion of external SAS trays. I removed the internal fanned HDD holders and replaced them with SAS trays that have USB ports in them, which match (minus the USB ports) the other icydock trays....now all the external bays are filled and will reach capacity of each system's 12 port RAID controller. The OS HDD's will be mounted internally on the motherboard side. All NAS data drives are accessible without any system disassembly, all you'll need is the key. THis worked out nicely....and on top of that, it looks really cool!!







Now to start with the internal stuff.... I need to track down some good heatsink/fans and memory.



....to be continued!

[momaka]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

That's one damn solid build! I imagine it weights a ton too. Not like the new gamer cases nowadays that look all big, but are feather-light and built from cheap metal.
I love solid old cases.

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

This project is still ongoing....but very back burner. I finally scored 2 more of the Icydock Flexcage SAS bays on ebay...used, for less than half the new price. I need one more, so I'll keep looking.



Only one empty double-bay remaining!


The stockpile of parts:


FWIW, I had a chance to sell this system as it sat for a good chunk of change.....I couldn't bring myself to sell it....



More to come...

[kc8adu]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

to drive the 4 speakers in the cabinet.

Why!?

[TechGeek]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

just rebuilt another mane cabinet for a friend.hipro 300w,ABIT VP6!
i guess these were popular in mame systems as its the third i have seen.
both cpu fans were frozen solid as well as the psu fan.
fanless system from before this was a thing....
his kids were talking about ufo sounds from the speakers in standby.
it has a small car stereo amp running from +12.

Why!?

[momaka]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Hipro is actually a decently built PSU with good hefty sinks, they just used garbage caps. This one is a 250W. I do repair these, as I use them in my retro builds, plenty suitable.

That's good to hear. I was a bit worried, since I have a soft-spot for these older HiPro PSUs . They are indeed very solid performers, both for old 5V-heavy PCs and for new low/mid-range PCs. Most of my own PCs are powered by these.

Once dried, I recapped it....then disassembled the fan, cleaned the shaft & bushings, repacked it with grease, then resealed the dust cap.... It's now putting out nice clean power. I reused it in a VP6 build that was minus a PSU....as a matter of fact, this post was created from it.

Yay!

[kc8adu]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

just rebuilt another mane cabinet for a friend.hipro 300w,ABIT VP6!
i guess these were popular in mame systems as its the third i have seen.
both cpu fans were frozen solid as well as the psu fan.
fanless system from before this was a thing....
his kids were talking about ufo sounds from the speakers in standby.
it has a small car stereo amp running from +12.

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Interesting.
Typically, it's the HDD that goes first, due to rarely having proper protections against extreme ripple. You sure the motherboard didn't go ballistic and the PSU fan was already stuck a long time ago? Given the CPU went, the CPU VRM could have easily been the cause.
Well, either way, I am guessing that stuff was fed to dumpster, wasn't it?
If only you were closer, I would have been picking your dumpsters and trash cans daily.

No, it was definitely the power supply. Every teapo cap in the secondary was swollen up bigger than a teenage boy in a strip club! The fan was completely frozen. Hipro is actually a decently built PSU with good hefty sinks, they just used garbage caps. This one is a 250W. I do repair these, as I use them in my retro builds, plenty suitable. I hotwashed this one in the sink, it was that skuzzy. Once dried, I recapped it....then disassembled the fan, cleaned the shaft & bushings, repacked it with grease, then resealed the dust cap.... It's now putting out nice clean power. I reused it in a VP6 build that was minus a PSU....as a matter of fact, this post was created from it.

[momaka]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

long story short, I finally saw a second bad intel processor in my computer career that spans more than 2 decades!
...
I managed to narrow it down to which one it was....so I could properly salute it...

lol, poor old CPU provided the system with so many hours of work, and that's how you give it retirement?
I would have put it on the wall... in a glass frame... with BIG letters "2nd bad CPU I encountered in 20 years."

No, thats a customers. The hipro PSU fan quit, overheated, and went ballistic. Took the motherboard & processor out with it. The memory & HDD were the only survivors. I was just recovering data for him.

Interesting.
Typically, it's the HDD that goes first, due to rarely having proper protections against extreme ripple. You sure the motherboard didn't go ballistic and the PSU fan was already stuck a long time ago? Given the CPU went, the CPU VRM could have easily been the cause.
Well, either way, I am guessing that stuff was fed to dumpster, wasn't it?
If only you were closer, I would have been picking your dumpsters and trash cans daily.

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Westmere's?

Yes.

FWIW, I have some stuff for you next time you make it this way.

[ratdude747]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Possible course correction mid-stream.....



I have a matching pair of these.

Westmere's?

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

Possible course correction mid-stream.....



I have a matching pair of these.

[keeney123]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

^
I think the bad PSU's were probably the cause of the bad CPU. This is the second bad intel CPU I've ever seen that wasn't caused by a failed overclock or otherwise user inflicted. the other unexplained failed one was ironically enough another netburst xeon. I did manage to kill a pair of coppermine P3 700/100 s370 in the process of trying to make them run in powerleap adapters in a BP6.

Yes, these are serverworks boards. Very stable.

Sometimes you got to up with cantankerous old friends.

[Topcat]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

^
I think the bad PSU's were probably the cause of the bad CPU. This is the second bad intel CPU I've ever seen that wasn't caused by a failed overclock or otherwise user inflicted. the other unexplained failed one was ironically enough another netburst xeon. I did manage to kill a pair of coppermine P3 700/100 s370 in the process of trying to make them run in powerleap adapters in a BP6.

Yes, these are serverworks boards. Very stable.

[dan8139]

Re: Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

I've also only seen half a dozen bad CPUs (which weren't killed by external factors) in 20 years.

Of those, 4 AMD (or Cyrix or blah) and 2 Intel. Both Intels worked, but would not run stable at their default clocks.

Intel fucking know how to fab a chip, they are amazing devices.