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

[Topcat]

My 3U file server (the Rackable Systems machine you gifted me back in 2017) is in a similar place. I went the "newer smaller board" option and while it was an improvement, it's also a bit of a letdown. And this is way worse in that regard. One of these days that system will be retired for a slimmer/quieter/lower power setup... mainly after the noise reduction.

Anyway, I vote to retire it with dignity... knowing that it can be powered up for fun later.

I've been looking at this case: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335465339861

...but the pricetag is a bit hard to swallow...not to mention 1U ITX PSU's that aren't junk are not easy to get.

Not sure of this theory will work....but using big bertha (this build), remove the casters, and put it in that massive beige rack I got from you a few years ago. Sitting it on one of the flat slide trays that are in it; in the lowest mount point of the case....it would extend far enough to be able to get the sides off if I needed to work inside it....otherwise, all drives are accessible from the front and all maintenance is done remotely. Plenty of room in the cabinet....along with network gear and a couple rack mount UPS's. The case will fit the cabinet's width, just need to see how it'll clear the tray. Looking at the slides on the tray, they could easily take the weight....and in the end would save $300+ in costs. The PSU's would run these SOC boards with zero effort or strain.

[ratdude747]

Waking up this thread yet again... Yes, I know I am not on much anymore.....been crazy busy! I just added onto my building.

Anyway, this beast has come to a fork in the road....it's facing either retirement or upgrade. If being retired, I'll roll it into the lobby, it'll make a nice display piece. It has served faithfully and with 100% reliability for nearly 10 years since I reacquired it (creating this thread). It is a power hogging pig though....

If upgraded, here's where it gets wonky. The PSU's are 5V and 3.3V heavy, they're light on the 12V rails; 17A per module (34A load balanced). If I pull a module, which of course breaks load balancing, the one remaining groans a little by itself but does carry the water!

Anyway, the board I've selected is an ITX 8 core SOC (Supermicro A1SRI-2758F) that would spank this thing and use maybe a third of the power. Of course these PSU's would power those and not bat an eyelash.....but how insulting would it really be to put an ITX motherboard into this monster.... Times have changed!! All this machine does anymore is DHCP & time server, file server, and NAS for local HTPC's. Load is very light....one of the main reasons for phasing out these power sucking motherboards.

My 3U file server (the Rackable Systems machine you gifted me back in 2017) is in a similar place. I went the "newer smaller board" option and while it was an improvement, it's also a bit of a letdown. And this is way worse in that regard. One of these days that system will be retired for a slimmer/quieter/lower power setup... mainly after the noise reduction.

Anyway, I vote to retire it with dignity... knowing that it can be powered up for fun later.

[Topcat]

Waking up this thread yet again... Yes, I know I am not on much anymore.....been crazy busy! I just added onto my building.

Anyway, this beast has come to a fork in the road....it's facing either retirement or upgrade. If being retired, I'll roll it into the lobby, it'll make a nice display piece. It has served faithfully and with 100% reliability for nearly 10 years since I reacquired it (creating this thread). It is a power hogging pig though....

If upgraded, here's where it gets wonky. The PSU's are 5V and 3.3V heavy, they're light on the 12V rails; 17A per module (34A load balanced). If I pull a module, which of course breaks load balancing, the one remaining groans a little by itself but does carry the water!

Anyway, the board I've selected is an ITX 8 core SOC (Supermicro A1SRI-2758F) that would spank this thing and use maybe a third of the power. Of course these PSU's would power those and not bat an eyelash.....but how insulting would it really be to put an ITX motherboard into this monster.... Times have changed!! All this machine does anymore is DHCP & time server, file server, and NAS for local HTPC's. Load is very light....one of the main reasons for phasing out these power sucking motherboards.

[Topcat]

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

...you said that you did clean the PCB contacts în them, which is likely what kept them running.

Seems you have to do that with any WD these days...

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

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

Eh, having worked in data recovery, you were lucky with those Greens and also you said that you did clean the PCB contacts în them, which is likely what kept them running.

[TechGeek]

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

Topcat: Wrong last image in that post?

[ratdude747]

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

Better than my 1.75TB 14 drive RAID 10 setup... made of 250GB 7200 Seagate's. Wanna talk about outdated bullpuckey

[Topcat]

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

So this thing is back in the news....this time it's cycling out HDD's that are 10+ years old.



I normally don't run them past 5, but time got away from me and there were no bells & whistles from the RAID controller... Whoever says WD Greens are junk can go eat some crow. 11yrs of flawless service, as well as some WD RE3's. I had a bunch of 1tb & 2TB's in RAID10's. I simplified a little this go-round with some 4TB's in simple mirrors. This go-round I tried some 4TB HGST 'Coolspin' 5300RPM drives, I got a stellar deal on 8 of them; which is half what I had in the system before. I've had very good luck with HGST drives. Speed is not crucial on this system, it's nothing more than a file server & local stream server. This cut the drive quantity in half; phasing out many 7200rpm RE3's. In the end, fewer drives = less power and twice the capacity.

The new drives!



NAS 2 (the backup server) got it first. This way I can dump NAS1 to this one and I know everything is current.

Removed.





New ones installed and now there's plenty of empty bays!



...and done!!



The rest I can do from my office. The controller said HI!



Arrays built, partitioned, and formatted.



Most the night last night was spent transferring data over.....and now fast forward to this morning....

NAS1's turn!





Last 4 new drives.



The pile!! I did reuse 2 of the 2tb Greens in a RAID1 for dedicated DVR drives....before it was all shared.



Cleaned the filters while I had the doors open...



...and done! These all need to be wiped and the rehomed....



...and all finished... The transfer & resetting all the shares went smoother than usual for as many as there were.....Until next time with this jewel!!

[Topcat]

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

If you got "0x0000000A", then it probably is a failed CPU, FYI, unless it was an unstable CPU overclock.

Reread the thread....

Long since diagnosed and corrected.

[RJARRRPCGP]

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

well there went 5 hours of my life I'll never get back. Installing the OS on SYS-B kept yielding BSoD's....after eliminating all the RAM, I focused on the motherboard and processors....long story short, I finally saw a second bad intel processor in my computer career that spans more than 2 decades! Wonky Prestonia 2GHz CPU. I had a pair of 2.4GHz Prestonias in an old Dell workstation. Issues went away. I managed to narrow it down to which one it was....so I could properly salute it...

If you got "0x0000000A", then it probably is a failed CPU, FYI, unless it was an unstable CPU overclock.

Loss of RAM stability, OTOH, is likely to be "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA" or "BAD_POOL_HEADER" (Possibly 0x0000008E as well)

[Topcat]

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

He hangs out over at Vogons.
Here is a thread where I linked a Vogons post where he posted:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=86188

Glad to know the old chap is ok...

[Per Hansson]

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

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

I think there was a dispute between him and another member, though I don't remember the details too well and over what.

Then again, I've seen a lot of good people come and go ever since I joined here.

I think Mathog ran him off with his far left weirdness.... I hope he's doing ok....IIRC he was up in the years and not very healthy....and it's probably been a good 10 years since he's been on.

He hangs out over at Vogons.
Here is a thread where I linked a Vogons post where he posted:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=86188

[Topcat]

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

Just how many computer do you have because in one of the pictures I saw a lot of them on a shelf

I really don't know. What was shown on that shelf isn't even the tip of the iceberg. There's gotta be over 100 of them around here....they breed at night, along with monitors & keyboards... Some of the more useless/bad systems I've been dismantling and ebaying or recycling...otherwise this stuff will run you out of your own shop!

I appreciate you for putting affordable computer system together for people in this pandemic and the hardships that people are facing “ Thank You ”

When the panic set in, I sold every laptop I had, and finally started selling desktops when the laptops ran out. I got to the point I had no more decent desktops available/ready that I lent out THIS BUILD to a customer that needed a pretty powerful workstation with multi monitor support.... It worked for several months while the customer gathered the funds for a more modern build, and I got the hobbyist build back when the new one was ready. It kinda made me smile inside a little knowing that something that was built to be a time-wasting toy ended up helping some in need.

[sam_sam_sam]

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

TopCat

Just how many computer do you have because in one of the pictures I saw a lot of them on a shelf

But very nice work ——> you must enjoy what you are doing <—— keep up the good work

I appreciate you for putting affordable computer system together for people in this pandemic and the hardships that people are facing “ Thank You ”

I find your comments about problems that you run into that take a long to figure out [ a waste of time ]
Very funny I have had the same thoughts a few times myself

[TechGeek]

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

He last signed on in May 2012.

[Topcat]

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

do those optiplexes even sell?

I'd say they probably do.
At least here in my area, PCs have been selling a lot more since Covid-19 hit and people started working/learning from home.

Surprisingly well, especially when the panic set in with the Wuhan cooties! Cheap work-from-home systems were going like crazy!

Oh, nice!
More than good enough for modern use.

Yup, they perform well for what they are....if you don't mind the big lunky tower....and for the price, nobody seemed to mind. The nice part about them, the 380 runs DDR3 and can take up to 16gb (2x 8gb modules), I've been sticking 8gb in them...and the bare board can be had for ~$10 shipped (I paid $50 shipped for 5 of them when I hatched this idea, I did have to recap them...but hey, kept them out of the landfill or the shredder). The 330 is DDR2, and max @ 4gb, which IMO is inadequate for Win10 these days... 4gb seems to be 'standard', but I really think that 8gb and a SSD is 'entry level' for a smooth-running Win10 system today. I outfit these with e5450's (3GHz/1333 quadcore harpertown), 8gb RAM, and usually a 240gb SSD, they're screamers!! The modification for the Harpertown CPU is minimal. I have roughly $70 in each system after this, and I sell them for ~$199 for a complete (tower, monitor, and KB/mouse). Everyone has loved them!

LOL!
Fool me once, shame on you!
Fool me twice, shame on me!

(And it probably won't be long before there's a 3rd time, given my lazy brain cells. )

Maybe it was the change of venue...I retired that system a couple years ago....but I still had to LOL

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

I think there was a dispute between him and another member, though I don't remember the details too well and over what.

Then again, I've seen a lot of good people come and go ever since I joined here.

I think Mathog ran him off with his far left weirdness.... I hope he's doing ok....IIRC he was up in the years and not very healthy....and it's probably been a good 10 years since he's been on.

[momaka]

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

Those are Optiplex 330's. I've stuck optiplex 380 boards and resold quite a few of them (identical BTX layout, all connectors, PSU, fans/shrouds are the same)....they'll run 5400-series Xeons. They are freight trains!

Oh, nice!
More than good enough for modern use.

That's the second time that system has fooled you!

LOL!
Fool me once, shame on you!
Fool me twice, shame on me!

(And it probably won't be long before there's a 3rd time, given my lazy brain cells. )

do those optiplexes even sell?

I'd say they probably do.
At least here in my area, PCs have been selling a lot more since Covid-19 hit and people started working/learning from home.

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

I think there was a dispute between him and another member, though I don't remember the details too well and over what.

Then again, I've seen a lot of good people come and go ever since I joined here.

[Uranium-235]

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

do those optiplexes even sell?

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

[Topcat]

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

What's sitting on top of the server case?

Another part of the NVR setup....I actually need to take this home, it's not needed here anymore.

Looks like 2017 was the last time it was off... so about 3.5-4 years of 24/7, give or take. Yup, sounds about the right time to do a cleaning. I power-cycle my systems quite often (usually don't leave them On if I won't be using them for over 30-60 minutes), yet rarely go more than 2-3 years before I pull them out and de-dust. As such, I don't find much dust on them or their fans, but I don't like to anyways.

It's a NAS and a NVR for a security system...I can't just shut it off.... The lower system is just a backup to the top one, it's off all the time. I fire it once or twice a year so the two can sync up.

I see quite a few Core 2 era Optiplex 755's, 620's, and 760's - good ol' office workhorse computers.

Those are Optiplex 330's. I've stuck optiplex 380 boards and resold quite a few of them (identical BTX layout, all connectors, PSU, fans/shrouds are the same)....they'll run 5400-series Xeons. They are freight trains!

I also see the beige systems get the "top shelf".
That said, I usually keep mine on the bottom, since they tend to be heavy. Several of them could probably crush a cheapo modern case, lol.

That MicronPC in the upper-left corner of this picture sure does bring back some memories from high school (that's what we used to run - Pentium II and Pentium 3 MicronPC's.) My high school was all old Dell's in the library and some of the teacher's PCs. But the computer rooms had P4 HPs and Compaq's.

That's the second time that system has fooled you!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...t=17830&page=2

[momaka]

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

First time it's been shut down since this thread...it's been rebooted a time or two for maintenance & updates, but never shut off. Good time to clean it!!

Looks like 2017 was the last time it was off... so about 3.5-4 years of 24/7, give or take. Yup, sounds about the right time to do a cleaning. I power-cycle my systems quite often (usually don't leave them On if I won't be using them for over 30-60 minutes), yet rarely go more than 2-3 years before I pull them out and de-dust. As such, I don't find much dust on them or their fans, but I don't like to anyways.

After the shelving.....this was only phase 1....and the systems in these pics are barely the tip of the iceberg....

I see quite a few Core 2 era Optiplex 755's, 620's, and 760's - good ol' office workhorse computers.

I also see the beige systems get the "top shelf".
That said, I usually keep mine on the bottom, since they tend to be heavy. Several of them could probably crush a cheapo modern case, lol.
That MicronPC in the upper-left corner of this picture sure does bring back some memories from high school (that's what we used to run - Pentium II and Pentium 3 MicronPC's.) My high school was all old Dell's in the library and some of the teacher's PCs. But the computer rooms had P4 HPs and Compaq's.

Anyways, I really like that organization - looks really neat!