Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Emachine cases don't do much for me no matter what you put in them.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Came home from work and got to work... First, I cut down the HDD cage and now it fits:



Also, I looked up the specs on the San Clemente chipset... it's good for 6 ranks per channel, so all of my 24GB should work... upon a reseat, it does indeed:





One step at a time...

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

^
I'm running 32gb in one of mine (the Dell one) in 4x modules. It will run 48gb if I populated the other two slots....but fewer modules = less heat....and 32gb is more than plenty. Lookin' good.

Emachine cases don't do much for me no matter what you put in them.

Ohh come on man, you know these 2 cases (Dell & Compaq) were exciting & awesome!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=66256

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

I have a couple old school NEC Towers I may remove the slot 1 boards and stick in something a bit beefer.

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Maybe I can fit in a Super micro board and a pair of Xeons.

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Have 4 X5492 Xeons and a couple SM boards and pile of ram, just can't get motivated to build them.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Emachine cases don't do much for me no matter what you put in them.

That's the point... SLEEPER. Looks like a real turd (albeit a polished one), but is a speed demon inside. The fact that all the front I/O is a direct match is icing on the cake.

The original plan was to put it one of the really old (late 90's) emachine cases, but the layout of such isn't condusive (not to mention I was having trouble sourcing one at the time, and I had this case sitting in a junk pile).


That's the beauty of this board (and the few other dual processor uATX boards out there)... kinda useless compared to an ATX/EATX board, but with varying degrees of effort they can be fit into all sorts of wonderful tiny cases that nobody would ever expect to be a full workstation in disguise.

Not your thing? Don't build one.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

I have a couple old school NEC Towers I may remove the slot 1 boards and stick in something a bit beefer.

If that's what I'm thinking of, they're roomy alright. My dad used to use a socket 7 one at work (1997 Pentium MMX, windows 95 ) up until 2007 or so (He was an employee of the State of Indiana, real cheapasses, but that's for another thread). MASSIVE case but the board inside was tiny (can't remember when or why we had it open one day when kiddo me was over).

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

I'm running 32gb in one of mine (the Dell one) in 4x modules. It will run 48gb if I populated the other two slots....but fewer modules = less heat....and 32gb is more than plenty. Lookin' good.

Thanks. I got the RAM for peanuts, and looking at the price of 8GB modules, I said "F*ck it" and went for the 6x 4GB route. 24GB is what Main rig V6 has (ECC DDR3 triple channel) and it does fine. Hell not even the $2700 Precision CAD laptop I use at work has that much (16GB IIRC, but there is a company provision to upgrade if the latest Autodesk ever requires it).

Ohh come on man, you know these 2 cases (Dell & Compaq) were exciting & awesome!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=66256

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery... that's my story at least

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Just passed a Memtest... No issues.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Have 4 X5492 Xeons and a couple SM boards and pile of ram, just can't get motivated to build them.

Nice... those be the 1600 FSB ones that are a real b*tch to get boards for. Hence why the E5472's out of the X7DWA-N didn't go here (1333 max). Even nearly 10 years later they still pull well and had I not had intermittent issues with the aformentiond board, I'd still be running my main rig on them.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Found a power supply:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antec-EA-65...ion=4&LH_BIN=1

Supposedly (as per the johnnyguru reviews) these are made by delta and are good... knowing my luck this was one of the units where they send rev 1 to all the reviewers, and sold everybody else cheaped out rev 2's... I can't remember the exact timeline on when that crap hit the fan years ago...

[Topcat]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Found a power supply:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antec-EA-65...ion=4&LH_BIN=1

Supposedly (as per the johnnyguru reviews) these are made by delta and are good... knowing my luck this was one of the units where they send rev 1 to all the reviewers, and sold everybody else cheaped out rev 2's... I can't remember the exact timeline on when that crap hit the fan years ago...

While I am definitely a fan of Delta PSU's, you'll likely still have to recap that. They're known for swollen teapos....same with Antec's Seasonic builds.

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

While I am definitely a fan of Delta PSU's, you'll likely still have to recap that. They're known for swollen teapos....same with Antec's Seasonic builds.

Agree

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

While I am definitely a fan of Delta PSU's, you'll likely still have to recap that. They're known for swollen teapos....same with Antec's Seasonic builds.

I'll take a look... sadly I'll be back up to Canada again when it comes in... so there will be another two week hiatus.

Given my options for a PSU it's the best deal I could find. It's a bit overkill, but that means I'll have room for a good GPU if I ever find one. I have plenty of case room in that dept... just not plenty of budget

Also, the chipset is only good for PCIe 1.0 speeds, but that only bottlenecks the fastest of cards out there if memory serves. For what I'm thinking (Maybe a Geforce 960 or 950? Or a 700 series if I'm really broke), that shouldn't be an issue.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Look what I found:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=321819231529

That's the same case. The plastics are shot/missing, but all I care about is the steel. Spare card readers are nice too.

If they'll do local pickup, that's a deal since these cases seem to be a needle in a haystack to find. That would allow me to recut the back panel the way I originally wanted to, now that I know not to use tin snips.

Ordered it. No time to pick up, but considering fuel prices $20 isn't bad for shipping. When I return to the states, I'll re-cut it (and possibly weld/solder the cut for extra strength). Needed? No. Proper? Yes, considering that the board is not at all mechanically stable in the current case

[brethin]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

$40 for a Emachine case? ��

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

$40 for a Emachine case? ��

Sadly, yes. Complete systems (in that style case) go for $60 shipped at a minumum (you look for yourself )... unless one gets lucky and thrift stores a system, which is how I got the first one for a measly $10. Unfortunately, the latter isn't viable these days as most thrift stores partner with Dell or the like to rehab and rehome donated PCs rather than sell them directly... no bueno

That said, a lot of their stuff actually was decently made. Another system of that vintage that I used to own actually had a partially denutted (no Pci-e 16x slot) intel 775 board in it... other than time-bomb bestec PSUs, I couldn't fault the build quality. For it's age it was old technology, but compared to the original eMachines, it was a massive improvement.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Back in the USA

PSU came in... Rev 2 unit. Nothing bloated inside, so I'll let it be for now. I know, famous last words

Did some power testing... and found that the PATA to SATA adapter doesn't play well. New plan for the DVD drive: Main Rig 4.1 has a compatible (same faceplate layout, also a lite-on) Lightscribe burner, so I've ordered a similar drive and will trade them out... and move over the faceplate. Double sleeper!

The case never shipped... I'll try to work it out with the dude, otherwise I'm getting a refund. Bullshit...

The power supply is a bit cable-excessive... which normally isn't an issue, but here it's a bit of a pain. I'll try again at finding an OEM psu or the like that has the cables I want and none of the ones I don't... I don't have the balls to recable the unit I bought as it's overkill and would be better suited to another rig.

[ratdude747]

Re: Workstation Pocket Rocket: Another Ratdude Project?

Bought this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Delta-Po...W/202442379663

That's a 600W unit out of an HP envy. Has only 1 PCIe (6+2 pin), but otherwise it's a better match for what I'm doing. That may not even be an issue since I won't be putting a king kong GPU in it.

The Antec Earthwatts 650W is better suited to a new ATX/eATX build and will probably be used for such.