Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

What a legendary sleeper rebuild!
Although I don't usually like black cases, I think this one came out looking absolutely classy with the try-color scheme, mixing classic and modern together in a really tasteful way.
I think you've really outdone yourself this time with this build.

Gracias! Given the condition of the case (rusted up), my choices were a little more limited as to what I could do and not have it look like a run-down gillapi....but too unique of a case not to build. The new term; "PC Artistry"!!

...since it's a cheapo poser Alienware case.

I have one of those sitting on the floor here with the window on the side. Window cracked/broken in many places, case looks like it's survived a hail storm, and a skt939 board in it with bad caps..... The guy wanted it fixed!!

...the customer is always right, so I fixed it...and the bill didn't scare him!

Now that's a hardcore case restoration.

It was just on a whim more or less....I was going to originally paint the metal using a hammered steel looking silver/gray paint, which would have looked more original bare metal and also hidden a lot of the flaws without me having to disassemble it the way I did....but I said heck with it, lets be a little different.

Nice! Now you need to put in the system those old full-height SCSI HDDs I sent you, so that when you power up the PC, it would sound like a true airplane engine spooling up.
(I guess that's the only thing those HDDs are useful for.)

Those are being saved for true retro builds; P2-era and older stuff. Ironically, Hondaman gave me a big box full of random SCSI HDD's plus yours....I have a ton of them now. They're worth ~$50/drive on fleabay (old world SCSI stuff that's still good is getting scarce)....but I don't resell things that are gifted to me, lousy thing to do....so in time they will get used!

Glad you didn't paint beige front. Looks way more classy this way, IMO. Like you said, can't really tell until you look at the back of the case.

Yea, when I saw that assembled the first time, that impulse very quickly went away.

Would have been spot-on if that PSU was black, though, just to match the rest of the case. But I guess SM PSUs would rather throw money in quality components than shiny paint job and LEDs...

SM (usually OEM'd by Ablecom or eMacs) doesn't go for bling in their PSU's. Raw metal enclosures of thick steel and tons of wires....no modular connectors....just raw beast!

Eh, not worth it IMO, even if prices got low. Given the system specs, probably even a GTX 1060 will be enough to make those CPUs bottleneck. Also, I can't remember the last time any [practical] software benefited from SLI / dual GPUs. I guess if you are a crypto miner, sure (but I honestly dislike all of the crypto-mining BS.) Otherwise, one good GPU is enough and more efficient power-wise. nVidia and ATI/AMD need to drop SLI/X-fire support from their new GPUs for good.

I agree, really. SLI/crossfire is pretty much a thing of the past these days, I still have no idea why it's still so widely supported. I'm not sure how well it's still supported among new motherboard, but I ran it on this one because it can. I do see in the next few years SLI/x-fire becoming a true thing of the past, and then in the decades to follow, the hardware that ran it drying up (dying, recycled, otherwise destroyed)....and that's how classics are born!! Remember the SLI Voodoo2's? A working setup is worth more today than they cost new.

No, I do not crypto mine, that was just nothing that really ever piqued my interest. This system will just be another child of my weird 'Fleet'....

Hey, no shame in that. I still put the original Counter-Strike (v1.1) + Half-Life on just about every PC I own, along with Need For Speed 4 & 5, and Collin McRae Rally 04 - games that will also run just fine on a Pentium III (save for the last one, as that's a little newer.)

FWIW, the bots on the hardest difficulty in Q3A or UT still kick my ass bad.

That said, if you wanted to try something more modern but still classy (and kind of going with that "late 90's" theme), I think Black Mesa Source (BMS) would be a good fit :
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...ck+mesa+source
Besides, those FX4800's and the CPUs should pretty much shred that game.

Noted.

Probably will need to go more in-depth to understand how the PSU is working.
I suspect the small transformer on the green PCB next to those two torroids, is perhaps what is generating a standby rail. And from there, it would probably involve more tracing to find out the secondary side supervisor/controller and see what signal line triggers it.

I packed all the original hardware away, its a great classic setup if working....someday I'll tangle with it again!

Be careful looking at other people's stuff. I got my eyes burned in / flashed with the type of pr0n I wasn't interested in. Now can't unsee what has been seen.

Yup, been there.....done that!!

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

What a legendary sleeper rebuild!
Although I don't usually like black cases, I think this one came out looking absolutely classy with the try-color scheme, mixing classic and modern together in a really tasteful way.
I think you've really outdone yourself this time with this build.

Rusty bottom & case floor....looks like it probably was sitting in a leaky basement or maybe a dirt floor barn....no telling over the last 22 years.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1628635457

Yeah, that looks quite rusty... though I have seen worse. Actually, I have a case sitting outside in the yard that needs restoration work. But it's an extremely cheap case, so I'm actually still contemplating on whether I should or shouldn't restore it. Kind of want to, just for shits and giggles, since it's a cheapo poser Alienware case.

I didn't count....but I'm guessing about ~30 rivets just got drilled out....

Now that's a hardcore case restoration.

The reason, I didn't like the original power button, it was a flimsy microswitch....and I had plenty of clearance, it won't interfere with the door....I already checked...so enter in an aviation-grade momentary. These are engine starter switches from a larger twin piston engine aircraft (cessna 414/421).
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1628699313

Nice! Now you need to put in the system those old full-height SCSI HDDs I sent you, so that when you power up the PC, it would sound like a true airplane engine spooling up.
(I guess that's the only thing those HDDs are useful for.)

The system never had a reset....it does now.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1628699313

Always handy for older machines or experimental-OC PCs.

Now here's where it's going to get fun!! I'm sure some of you will want to gag....but I can care less. This machine is worth zilch for its 'vintage' value or originality....we're going to get a little creative, but still keep it sleeper. Bear in mind, none of this is visible with the door closed unless you look at it from the back (the IO area). This is a rich burgundy in satin sheen....my wife decided our front door needed to be this color last year and I had a can leftover.

Hey, anything but black is fine by me.

Now the rear panel painted black.

Oh.
J/k, the tri-color scheme of the finished case looks really good actually.

Today I completed reassembly of the case. When I saw it reassembled with the beige pieces, the little devil on my shoulder that wanted to paint the beige parts quickly disappeared! Sheer beauty!
...
This turned out pretty good. Different, but good!

Good? No. Great? ALBSOLUTELY!

Glad you didn't paint beige front. Looks way more classy this way, IMO. Like you said, can't really tell until you look at the back of the case.

A Supermicro being powered by no less than a Supermicro! 865w no less.

Would have been spot-on if that PSU was black, though, just to match the rest of the case. But I guess SM PSUs would rather throw money in quality components than shiny paint job and LEDs... which is how it should be. Otherwise, you could always get one of those old flashy Powork Deamons (or whatever they were called way back in the day when PSUs with LEDs first started coming out)... and end up with a lot of magic smoke every time you hit the power button.

The Temporary GPU's; 2x FX4800's... I really wanted a pair of 1080ti GPU's.....but at the prices they're fetching right now, I'll wait...

Eh, not worth it IMO, even if prices got low. Given the system specs, probably even a GTX 1060 will be enough to make those CPUs bottleneck. Also, I can't remember the last time any [practical] software benefited from SLI / dual GPUs. I guess if you are a crypto miner, sure (but I honestly dislike all of the crypto-mining BS.) Otherwise, one good GPU is enough and more efficient power-wise. nVidia and ATI/AMD need to drop SLI/X-fire support from their new GPUs for good.

I did play a little Q3A and UT on it....that's about as new as I've tested; games that will run on a pentium3!

Hey, no shame in that. I still put the original Counter-Strike (v1.1) + Half-Life on just about every PC I own, along with Need For Speed 4 & 5, and Collin McRae Rally 04 - games that will also run just fine on a Pentium III (save for the last one, as that's a little newer.)

That said, if you wanted to try something more modern but still classy (and kind of going with that "late 90's" theme), I think Black Mesa Source (BMS) would be a good fit :
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...ck+mesa+source
Besides, those FX4800's and the CPUs should pretty much shred that game.

Floppy ribbon folded up and tucked away....yea, floppy...

Hey, don't be dissin on floppies!
I still have (and use) memtest on a few. Also have ATI flash on another, and nVidia's GPU flasher as well. Even have a low-level format tool that I use once in a while too. And let's not forget a plain DOS startup disk - always handy!

but honestly, how often do we use reset buttons these days?!

Depends on the system.

I curse every time I'm testing a video card in my GPU test system, and it ends up crashing unresponsive to a black screen... or used to, until I installed a temporary reset switch on the side, with wires just hanging around.

The power supply powers up, has voltage in the primary (AT side is fed by DC voltage from the ATX side; read 107vdc)...but information on this PSU (Delta DPS-280bb Rev 2) is pretty much nill; such as pinouts, standby voltages, schematics, etc..... I have no idea what triggers it, it may be the issue, not the motherboard.

Probably will need to go more in-depth to understand how the PSU is working.
I suspect the small transformer on the green PCB next to those two torroids, is perhaps what is generating a standby rail. And from there, it would probably involve more tracing to find out the secondary side supervisor/controller and see what signal line triggers it.

Poked through all the found TIF's.... Apparently this machine was owned by a printing/advertising company....nothing but a lot of templates for perhaps business cards, flyers, and stuff like that...nothing exciting and no naked ladies.

Be careful looking at other people's stuff. I got my eyes burned in / flashed with the type of pr0n I wasn't interested in. Now can't unsee what has been seen.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

The drives themselves appear to be rebadged cheetah's.

Yes, the Cheetahs, too!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Looks like WD Velociraptor rebadges.

Nope, they're just in Velociraptor 'ice trays'.

The drives themselves appear to be rebadged cheetah's.

Get a PCIe USB 3 card with a front header. Stash it between the GPUs. that'll get your USB3 ports up front working the way they were intended

Yea, I may eventually....

[TechGeek]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Does HP really make HDDs or rebadge them, like Dell with CRTs?

I've been wondering if those 15K RPM HDDs are IBM/HGSTs...

Looks like WD Velociraptor rebadges.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Does HP really make HDDs or rebadge them, like Dell with CRTs?

I've been wondering if those 15K RPM HDDs are IBM/HGSTs...

[ratdude747]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Get a PCIe USB 3 card with a front header. Stash it between the GPUs. that'll get your USB3 ports up front working the way they were intended

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

...and going together.....





Floppy ribbon folded up and tucked away....yea, floppy...



Some goodies for the 'media bay' 5.25" critter...



HD Audio header extension (Supermicro put this plug in a horrible place)...and an adapter to make the front panel USB3 connecter work with the onboard USB2....



Front panel connectors done...





Tidied up...





The Temporary GPU's; 2x FX4800's... I really wanted a pair of 1080ti GPU's.....but at the prices they're fetching right now, I'll wait...so Ratdude keeps his title for now!!



Yay, it POST'd!



These cute little contraptions. They look cool and and move a lot of air....the sucky part, when the system is powered down, they don't store settings....and are off upon next powerup....yea, every time the system is powered on, these have to be turned on as well. Booo.





Case going back together while installing OS.



It definitely has a different look.....damn I'm good!!!



...yet still a sleeper!!



Of course a butt shot...or two....





This post of course made from it!!





...and done!! I did play a little Q3A and UT on it....that's about as new as I've tested; games that will run on a pentium3! ...but here's to a restoration of what would otherwise be junk/scrapiron case, yet still very functional by modern standards and one of my better sleeper builds!

The specs are:

Supermicro H8DA3-2 (my last one)
2x Opteron 8393 Quad-core CPU's @ 3.1GHz
64gb Reg/ECC RAM
2x Quadro FX4800 in SLI (for now)
2x 150gb 15,000RPM 2.5" SAS HDD's in a RAID0
The rest you already know.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

I haven't had much time for this over the last week....but I puttered with it a little today.....

A Supermicro being powered by no less than a Supermicro! 865w no less.







Last bay filled....



GPU's...not what I really want....but until prices normalize, this is it....



New PWM case fans, keep noise down.





That's all for today.....



Till next time!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

...and here we go! Can't go any further without revealing some of her secrets... All Ratdude's fault (again)!!

Motherboard & RAM....



Getting ready to install.



I painted the drive rails as well...maybe silly or overkill...but I did it anyway.



Now for some more fun! These are the 2x new-old-stock black Vantec HDD coolers my wife found at Salvation Army not long ago....along with the drives to be installed; which are 2x 15,000RPM 147gb SAS drives.....and of course a floppy.









Drive installed. It came with a clear sticker thingy that's holding the temp sensor to the drive, obviously didn't show up in the pic.





Nice feature, those silicone standoffs....it'll keep the drives quiet.



Ready to go!





Now that's sexy!! I've got a bin full of those black headed coarse thread hex screws from the bazillions of Dell's I've scrapped over the years..... Not a bad use for them!



The two bottom bays covered up. I'm still waiting on something that will go into the middle bay, it's just not here yet...





...and still a sleeper!!!





Till next time!

[eccerr0r]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

The problem I had with the DDR2 is that they were bad. See the number of posts I did on soldering crap to the modules to get them to work. During the debug time it was very frustrating as sometimes the machine gets stuck while testing with the existing modules to see which were bad.

I did notice there was one more problem with the 2GB module - there's a few bad bytes according to memtest86+. Perhaps increasing voltages would help, but I ended up just telling Linux to just not use that bad page. Lost a whole 4K RAM - one in a 2 million pages - of course out of 8GB this is like nothing, but I found a few applications that would hit this bad page and then puke.

I have another like board (and CPU) that has no problem with 4x2GB DDR2 modules with default configuration. There is two pairs of different branded modules if I recall correctly. The other 4x2GB DDR2 modules in the previous machine were of the same brand and model. Go figure.

(And yet another board I have 2 matched 1GB and two mismatched 2GB modules. This also works just fine at default voltages, and still works in dual channel...)

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

^
I've never had that issue and I've put 4x 2gb DDR2 configurations in many many 5400-series Xeon modded C2D/C2Q systems.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

(C2D -> C2Q and 4x1GB=4GB -> 4x2GB=8GB).

4x2GB for 8GB, likely requires the VDIMM being set to 1.90V, if DDR2.
Or else, it apparently is much more likely the BIOS crashes. (freezes)
(hard freezes before it even gets to loading an OS of any kind)

Ironically, my Radeon RX 5600 XT, usually just freezes solid, when the GPU core isn't stable. It usually don't show much video corruption, if at all! (or I get a driver-timeout error message from Adrenalin) (or I get a failed-to-init-DirectX error message from the game, especially GTA V, and that message pops up when it was already loaded, that's how I know the GPU core is unstable)

Not the raster-mess (usually squares all over the place) that I remembered getting with an unstable GPU core.

[ratdude747]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Dang. I was really annoyed my HTPC microatx case had no reset button while working on trying to get a new processor and RAM in it (C2D -> C2Q and 4x1GB=4GB -> 4x2GB=8GB).

Had bad 2GB sticks and CPU settings tweaking - and the reset button would have had save me from pulling the plug or the more annoying long press of the power button... Grr.

Was that close to attaching one hanging off the side temporarily, alas it's all done now.

One of my supermicro EATX cases doesn't have a reset... my massive tower cases with midplanes do though.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Dang. I was really annoyed my HTPC microatx case had no reset button while working on trying to get a new processor and RAM in it (C2D -> C2Q and 4x1GB=4GB -> 4x2GB=8GB).

Had bad 2GB sticks and CPU settings tweaking - and the reset button would have had save me from pulling the plug or the more annoying long press of the power button... Grr.

Was that close to attaching one hanging off the side temporarily, alas it's all done now.

[TechGeek]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

I still use a reset button every once in a blue moon when some piece of software manages to make the system go totally loopy, but the occurrence rate of that is exceptionally low on the various *nix systems I use. Every now and again, something manages to snag the KB/mouse and maintain an iron grip on it, but I can generally REISUB out of that. Windows systems, however, have always tended to be a bit more shaky about how they handle massive software crashes, generally resulting in the entire system going shaky until I reboot it (or hard reset it, depending on my mood).

Overclocking is another thing that makes a reset button handy, for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Today I completed reassembly of the case. When I saw it reassembled with the beige pieces, the little devil on my shoulder that wanted to paint the beige parts quickly disappeared! Sheer beauty!

...but here's where it got difficult...apparently during this system's time in production, it was in an office with a VCT floor (vinyl composite tile), and the janitor would slop fresh wax on it....and got floor wax all over the lower portion of the front & right side of the case. It was a real nightmare trying to clean that off without damaging the plastic or the beige paint....but I got it.....

Feast your eyes!!







The only exterior clue that things may not be as they appear!



This turned out pretty good. Different, but good!



I do like my new buttons.....and actually having a reset...but honestly, how often do we use reset buttons these days?!



Snazzy!



...and the bottom...



The next step is actually assembling the new system in it.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Did some light assembly today, as the paint isn't completely cured out yet....

Rear panel and IO & card slot pieces riveted back together.





A couple standoffs removed to fit the new board.





5.25 drive cage re-riveted.







IO shield installed.



Rear panel pinned into place. The main frame of this thing is very flimsy & tricky to work with when disassembled. Always best to pin everything together before fastening....otherwise you'll find yourself drilling out rivets again if something is off...





All is well, and fastened!





Now for the front panel reinstall...





Buttons & LED panel reinstalled. These are located between the 5.25 cage and the non-removable side of the interior case frame. with the cage and/or the front panel installed, they are impossible to get to....







Pinned together & test fitted.





Fastened....



....and done for today. Very different look....but so far so good!





The little devil on my shoulder wants to paint the beige portions of the case as well....but I'll see how this turns out first... If I don't like the beige parts mixed with this, I can always paint them later....but if I paint them and don't like it, there's no going back....so I'll wait and see.

[TechGeek]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Lookin good!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Acer Dual Slot 1 Server? - The Acer Altos 1100

Now the fun really starts!!

All remaining stickers & residue cleaned off. Front & rear panels wire wheeled where the rust was.....then washed.





This 3-sided frame was tricky to work on. I couldn't get the wire wheel in a lot of the crevices, so most had to be done by hand with scotchbrite pads.





This piece will be deleted from the equation, as for my config, it is not needed and pretty much just obstructs air flow.



For the case bottom and floor, I used a Rustoleum rust-inhibiting primer treatment first and let it set up.





Now to primer the front, rear, and IO panels.







Now here's where it's going to get fun!! I'm sure some of you will want to gag....but I can care less. This machine is worth zilch for its 'vintage' value or originality....we're going to get a little creative, but still keep it sleeper. Bear in mind, none of this is visible with the door closed unless you look at it from the back (the IO area). This is a rich burgundy in satin sheen....my wife decided our front door needed to be this color last year and I had a can leftover.

Insides painted & allowed to set up.





Now the rear panel painted black.





Now back to this bastard, which was coated in primer.... Coating it in primer was easy.







Coating it in gloss black and it not looking like shit; not so easy.....

The bottom shot first.





The rest was shot....but I didn't take pics along the way. It has a few flaws in it....hopefully most flow out.





Going to let this get good & cured out....the best way to FUBAR a painted case is to assemble it too early. I left some fingerprints on the bottom carrying it in here....