Apple PowerPC (56K)

[Avid6eek]

I've been busy this week starting work on a new system. It won't be totally new, as I will be recycling some hardware. I've spent the better half of this year overclocking and tweaking to no end. This system was designed to be powerful, but most importantly quiet. It'd be nice to hear myself think while I'm doing homework.

Nothing says style and power better than the PowerMac G5, so that has been my inspiration so far:

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC01.jpg

I ordered just an empty case on ebay. Got it for an affordable $138. Not bad for an aluminum case. Lian Li's and Coolermaster cases can be much more expensive, and not look nearly as good. The best part about the case is that it came with a PSU and all the internal Mac wiring. I will be able to sell this stuff on eBay and get most of my money back.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC02.jpg

You know your case will have great airflow when you can see right though it :D

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC03.jpg

After gutting the case, the first step was to dremel the motherboard standoffs. If you've ever scene the inside of a PowerMac, the motherboard is as wide as the whole case. The standoffs were almost an inch tall, and are build directly into the motherboard tray. My only option was to use a cutoff wheel and chop them off.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC04.jpg

Since the standoffs were so tall, I had to start building up the back of the case to support the new motherboard tray. I bought a bulk pack of Dynamat Xtreme on eBay. While I've found noise dampening to be fairly pointless in the past, every little but helps so I decided to go with it. This picture is after the first layer, just to get an idea. 4 more layers were added before I installed the new motherboard tray.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC05.jpg

A picture of the new motherboard tray. It was cut from a 24" x 48" x 1/16" sheet of aluminum, also ordered from eBay.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC06.jpg

The new motherboard tray installed over the dynamat. I've also continued slowly adding the dynamat to the rest of the system. It's a boring job, so I don't do very much at once.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC07.jpg

A picture of the back of the Mac chassis stripped of all components before I had my way with it.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC08.jpg

A dremel, reinforced cutoff wheel and 3 minutes later and there's a nice hole that will be the new home of the custom I/O panel to be added later. This evening I had to make this hole a little larger than what is pictured here. to allow the new I/O panel enough room to be installed.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC09.jpg

The new motherboard tray is not ATX compliant.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC10.jpg

A better picture of the new standoffs. I used Arctic Silver Epoxy to attach them to the motherboard tray. Bad idea. Great thermal conductivity, bad as a true epoxy. I just had a couple tubes of it laying around so I figured I'd put it to use. I've since added more high strenght epoxy to the standoffs to make sure they hold the weight of the system.

These pics are a couple days old, so I'll post some more up to date ones tomorrow. So far the project is moving along nicely. I've scene a few PowerMac mods in some different forums, but so far they've all looked like crap. I hope to do a better job. There are still a few things, primarily the installation of the DVD Burner that I have no idea how I'm going to do it. Maybe some inspiration will come in my sleep...that's how I figured out the I/O panel.:D

[omga14]

good luck with all that modding. you did a very decent job with the lian li you did the custom water deal with.

[AzN]

you are such a crazy mofo avid.... thats why i look up to you lol :p

[bluegreenshxt]

Hehehe, I'm going for silence too. I'm almost there. The loudest thing is the WD Raptor :(. I'm waiting for my RMA'ed 165 though. The G5 looks awesome btw.

[Slumpy]

Another extreme Avid mod. From what iv'e seen over the years. It'll be up on ebay and sell for like 4k when he's done with it.I wish i had the time to do it myself. nice work so far.

[yahooadam]

im assuming there are menna be pics there

cmon avid, get your ass in gear ;)

[stangz]

im assuming there are menna be pics there

cmon avid, get your ass in gear ;)
Hmmm, seems that the domain isn't registered to anyone ... he might have forgotten to re-register the domain name. I always forget to do that, but I am the first to know since my mail doesn't work ... hehe

[Avid6eek]

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC11.jpg

Probably the hardest part of the mod so far was getting the back I/O panel setup correctly. Now that it's done, I'm feeling much more confident everything will move along smoothly. I still have two big problems to find a solution to...mounting the DVD-RW, and trying to figure out how to setup front panel connections. The I/O shield is the only exterior mod I wanted to do, as I want to keep the case looking as original as possible.

[yahooadam]

Probably the hardest part of the mod so far was getting the back I/O panel setup correctly. Now that it's done, I'm feeling much more confident everything will move along smoothly. I still have two big problems to find a solution to...mounting the DVD-RW, and trying to figure out how to setup front panel connections. The I/O shield is the only exterior mod I wanted to do, as I want to keep the case looking as original as possible.
sombody needs to fix those pics

nice website u have there

http://img418.imageshack.us/img418/2513/n00b8hv.jpg

[Avid6eek]

The domain just expired yesterday. It has been renewed, but while the renewal is going on, I used a different domain so everything should be working for you. Let me know if it's not.

[yahooadam]

The domain just expired yesterday. It has been renewed, but while the renewal is going on, I used a different domain so everything should be working for you. Let me know if it's not.
ok they all came up there ;)

Edit
*Goes and looks now*

Edit 2
Looks pretty cool, how u gonna mount the PSU too ;)

[Avid6eek]

Looks pretty cool, how u gonna mount the PSU too ;)I will be using a Server 1U 500w PSU to power the system. It will be mounted to an aluminum plate on the bottom of the chassis.

[Avid6eek]

Updated Pics:

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC12.jpg

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC13.jpg

I finished lining the case with Dynamat Extreme. With all the work I put into it I really hope it helps to cut down noise. It added quite a bit of weight to the case, but I'm not really worried about how much it weighs.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC14.jpg

I didn't like the aluminum finish on the back I/O shield, so I painted it silver. Looks much better IMO. You can also see the aluminum plate on the bottom of the case which the PSU will be mounted to.

[yahooadam]

cool stuff

do u work on that kiddie chair thing or somthing :D :D :cool: :cool:

[chris000001]

Do you know how the original dvd burner was mounted?

[gokusimpson]

That mod job is so sick....it makes we want to throw up.

Great job, even though its a mac.

[Avid6eek]

Do you know how the original dvd burner was mounted?I lucked out and found that there are scew holes on the bottom of my burner that match up to pre-drilled holes in the case. The only problem I'm having is that there is no way to get to the eject button. I'm gonna run up to Radio Shack tomorrow to see if I can find a simple switch I can mount somewhere to eject the drive.

[Assimilator87]

If the "PowerPC" rig is this crazy, I can't wait for Antiomga rig :D

[stlouis1]

at least its not a real mac this time

looks good btw, cant wait to c the final production

[yahooadam]

I lucked out and found that there are scew holes on the bottom of my burner that match up to pre-drilled holes in the case. The only problem I'm having is that there is no way to get to the eject button. I'm gonna run up to Radio Shack tomorrow to see if I can find a simple switch I can mount somewhere to eject the drive.
how did the original drive work then ?

usually if u take of the bezel or somthing there should be a button on the case (somtimes u dont need to take off the bezel)

anyway, post some more pics ;) (when u do some more work)

looking to be an interesting project

btw where are the mods that dont looks too good, i aint seen too much work on apple cases ;)

[stangz]

I lucked out and found that there are scew holes on the bottom of my burner that match up to pre-drilled holes in the case. The only problem I'm having is that there is no way to get to the eject button. I'm gonna run up to Radio Shack tomorrow to see if I can find a simple switch I can mount somewhere to eject the drive.

You could just go button-less. If you right click on the cd-drive in my computer there is an eject button.

[chris000001]

how did the original drive work then ?


Macs eject drives by an eject button on the keyboard or by unmounting the CD by dropin and draging it to the trash bin

[Avid6eek]

You could just go button-less. If you right click on the cd-drive in my computer there is an eject button.That's great an all, but kind of impossible to install windows w/o a drive that opens outside of the OS. I thought about going with your plan, but I would prefer to not make any compromises.

[Avid6eek]

Adding the DVD-Burner to the system turned out to be much easier than expected. The screw holes on the bottom of the burner matched with mounting holes already in the case. The only problem was the eject button which was solved with a button from Radio Shack, and a little bit of solder.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC15.jpg

Soldered the button to a piece of wired I pulled from a 3pin fan connector. I then soldered that to the bottom of the switch on the inside of the Burner

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC16.jpg

Closed everything up

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC17.jpg

w00t - First piece of hardware installed in the new case I've got do a bit of wire management to hide the wire to the eject button, but I just wanted to get everything installed first to see how it fits.

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

could you make a wireless eject button?? like a remote car starter...i guess that would be cooler for a power switch....

[bluegreenshxt]

could you make a wireless eject button?? like a remote car starter...i guess that would be cooler for a power switch....

Losing the remote would be a PITA but it is possible. There are products out there that do this already :p

[Avid6eek]

A wireless eject button is an awsome idea, but it isn't really functional. It would add some cool points, but the computer is right next to you. You can always just hit the button, which is smaller, and you can't loose.

[blueice]

I saw your case, Senior Post Master Avid, the other day at Micro Center. It sure is high quality and handsome, indeed.

[yahooadam]

could you make a wireless eject button?? like a remote car starter...i guess that would be cooler for a power switch....
this has been done for the PS2 quite a bit

if you have a HDD in it, then you can add a remote control so u dont have to get off you BFA and press the button on the console

basically its called a "doorbell mod" and its pretty easy to do

seach www.ps2-scene.org if you want for it (though you have to register)

[Avid6eek]

I only have two steps left in the project, and that is to get the PSU installed once it arrives, and then try and figure out the front panel connectors. I should be all set by next weekend assuming everything works the way it's supposed to.

[chris000001]

is there any cabling on the front panel or is it jus the connectors in the case?

[Avid6eek]

I'm going to have to manually make cable for the front panel connectors. I'm not worried about the front USB or Firewire port, but I would like the power button and LED to work.

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

You could splice the wires and have the button and remote...i might try it just so i can be like "check this out" :cool: lol

I made my own front panel connectors...i swapped LED's, and made a new power switch out of a jumper switch...If i can do it, Avid can for sure...

[Avid6eek]

Can you see the Burner eject button? Small black button in the middle of the case under the drive door...

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC18.jpg

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

i see it!! i see it!!! :p

Is there a motherboard in there, by any chance??

[Avid6eek]

Is there a motherboard in there, by any chance??oh damn...you can see it. Almost gave away more info than I wanted to :)

[bluegreenshxt]

oh damn...you can see it. Almost gave away more info than I wanted to :)

What is it? What is it? Too tough to call inside the case like that :(

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

yeah i could just see that it was there, i tried to pick out details but i couldn't....

[Avid6eek]

One of the first pictures I posted has the motherboard installed when I took a pic of the I/O shield as well. Surprised nobody did any investigating on that.

[bluegreenshxt]

One of the first pictures I posted has the motherboard installed when I took a pic of the I/O shield as well. Surprised nobody did any investigating on that.

Heheh, I saw it...and made a mental note that it couldn't be a Lanparty :p

Edit: ASUS K8N-DL Extended ATX Server Motherboard

[chris000001]

its not that asus board...in the pics avid showed there werent any audio ports and that asus board has 6 audio ports on it

Plus i have seen pics that u guys havent :p

[Avid6eek]

That is a very nice guess. Chris knows quite a bit about this project, since he is a Mac man himself. :)

[yahooadam]

well its not the mobo he had laying around

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/Computer/rigpix5.jpg

cos that has audio on it ...

so hes purchased a new mobo for this project

could, oh dear god NO, he be going INTEL (dum dum dummmm)


Edit
Btw i didnt comment on there being a mobo in it as i figured u were just trying it for size, not that you had actually got a new one ...

[Skorp]

Btw i didnt comment on there being a mobo in it as i figured u were just trying it for size, not that you had actually got a new one ...

No, he bought a new one, just to try for size. :D

[omga14]

coming along quite nicely ther shizzy my man. definitely improving the skills there. i hope i can be of some challenge in august:D i miss having the battles for scores and speed:D it'll be fun. as was mentioned if this is pre-antiomga then i will have to stick to my research until the build for sure to make a go of a serious challenge. not a 3 day challenge with you stomping me on the 4th, lol.

[Avid6eek]

I just guessed for the August timeframe but I have no idea when the new technology is supposed to be available, and then I'll have to wait for the exact hardware that will be able to accomplish what I'm looking to do.

[Avid6eek]

Just my daily update. I got my custom power supply today. It is a 500w 1U PSU. I had them add only the wires I needed, and down to specific lengths so they aren't all over the case.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC19.jpg

A 1U PSU can ve very loud becuase of the small high speed fans it uses. I took mine out of the casing and mounted it to a metal plate, which was then attached inside the case.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC20.jpg

Tomorrow I will be cutting up some old aluminum Athlon 64 heatsinks and with arctic silver epoxy I'm going to glue them onto the aluminum heatsinks already build into the PSU. This should allow me to keep it cool in a low airflow environment.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC21.jpg

Below is a pic of theback of the case where I will be plugging in the PSU.

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC22.jpg

[bluegreenshxt]

Don't be accidentally touching that when it's turned on ;). I remember swapping fans for my Noisetaker, got a nasty shock because I didn't pull out the powerplug first and forgot that the fans would run after the system turns off.

[Avid6eek]

I have such a bad habit of cutting myself on moving fans, the last thing I should do is have live electical components inside my system. I'm asking for trouble. :)

[yahooadam]

I have such a bad habit of cutting myself on moving fans, the last thing I should do is have live electical components inside my system. I'm asking for trouble. :)
lol

i have never had any problem shoving my finger in a fan ;)

but live electrics, DAMN

i zapped myself on the LARGE capacitor in the PS2 when i was modding it - ouch

it had been disconnected for 5 or so minuites, and it still had masses of charge in it :eek:

[Nataku]

I am torn a little here. I can't believe you are raping a mac like this.

On the other hand this is turning out ot be a really cool project.

[chris000001]

He only bought the case...some one else raped it before avid got to it

[Avid6eek]

Like Chris said, I bought a new, but empty PowerMac case. I didn't scrap any Mac parts.

[yahooadam]

which would have been alot more fun ;)

[Avid6eek]

which would have been alot more fun ;)...and quite a bit more expensive.

[NotMyBest2Day]

Yeah, moving fans: hurt. I was messing with a test rig and the 4800rpm CPU fan bit the tip of my finger. Put a nice slice in that area of skin just underneath the fingernail. It would've been a lot worse, but my nail absorbed most of the shock, and had a nice little "dent" in it for a few days. When that bit me, I flinched and got my knuckles in the 3200rpm casefan that was about 3 inches away. Chain reaction. You better believe there were some obcenities being mumbled.

[dog2525]

Yeah, moving fans: hurt. I was messing with a test rig and the 4800rpm CPU fan bit the tip of my finger. Put a nice slice in that area of skin just underneath the fingernail. It would've been a lot worse, but my nail absorbed most of the shock, and had a nice little "dent" in it for a few days. When that bit me, I flinched and got my knuckles in the 3200rpm casefan that was about 3 inches away. Chain reaction. You better believe there were some obcenities being mumbled.

the same exact thing happened to me. LOL

[yahooadam]

ive never had a problem sticking my finger in fans (though i wouldnt want to do it with a big one, non case fan type)

although once i slipped and a screwdriver went in a CPU fan, snapped off one of the blades, that sucked

[Avid6eek]

Crap...I ran out of epoxy, and the last thing I want to do is run to the store and get some more. The way things are moving along, I should be able to have my first attempt at powering the system up Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed though.

[NotMyBest2Day]

although once i slipped and a screwdriver went in a CPU fan, snapped off one of the blades, that suckedI've got four or five 80mm case fans with missing blades. That's what happens when you take the panels off whilst they're running. :rolleyes: Well, my case, at least.

[Avid6eek]

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC26.jpg

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC27.jpg

http://davidjturnbull.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC28.jpg

[bluegreenshxt]

Neat freak :rolleyes:.......I like :D

[yahooadam]

very nice dude

see the PSU is still nicely exposed ;)

nice otherwise :cool:

[1337NuB5!]

This is turning out to be a really nice project Avid; How long did it take you to measure everything out for the power supply cord lengths?

[NotMyBest2Day]

Neat freak :rolleyes:.......I like :DHey, there's nothing wrong with being a neat freak. When I'm helping my brother wire up a new house, I'll spend twice as long making the wires look neat, even though they'll never be seen again after the drywall goes up. Wish you could see the jobs I do in the breaker panels.

When it comes to wiring, I'm a neat freak, but things like..desk organization...pff. :rolleyes:

[yahooadam]

im exactly the same

i had to put up trunking to hold my SPID/f cable to 5.1 amp, ethernet for PS2, speaker cable, ariel

looks so much better, i allways wire stuff up like uber neat

look at my electronics project ;)
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/6956/adam18xm.jpg
p.s. this was taken with a college camera, so it looks ************************E !

[Avid6eek]

This is turning out to be a really nice project Avid; How long did it take you to measure everything out for the power supply cord lengths?Measuring cord lenghts only took about 5 minutes. I had to install anything that needed power before I could do the measurements, and then I had to take it all out to continue modding.

I've finally got the system up and running. WinXP Pro x64 is installed, and I'm doing my application installations. I did install America's Army and it played great.

[yahooadam]

Measuring cord lenghts only took about 5 minutes. I had to install anything that needed power before I could do the measurements, and then I had to take it all out to continue modding.

I've finally got the system up and running. WinXP Pro x64 is installed, and I'm doing my application installations. I did install America's Army and it played great.
so what mobo is it ;)

[Skorp]

MERCY!!! Dear GOD, thats a large image!

[yahooadam]

almost big enough to fit on my screen

guess im getting used to this 20" monstrosity ;)

[Nataku]

This is nice avid... you have justified doing this to a mac case (yes I already new he just bought the case). :-)

What is the purpose of this computer? (if you can tell us) is it going to be a gaming server? or what? Or do I hear the ebay commercial calling?

[Avid6eek]

This is going to be my gaming system. I'm working to try and get WinXP x64 installed and working correctly, but I'm having problems. I may try to see if I can get the 32bit version working later today. Once I get those drivers straightened out, I won't have to worry about software compatability.

[3DGuy]

XP61 took a couple days to get working smoothly, but ive not had a single glitch or anyting after its been updated ad drivers sorted out since install. its wicked

[Avid6eek]

I was able to get all the drivers installed without any problems, it's more of an application compatability issue I'm having. Not all programs will install and work correctly on the OS. Installing the .NET 1.1 framework also has known compatability issues, but I have to run it for several applications.

[NotMyBest2Day]

Something I've noticed is that the .NET framework v.2.0 is out, but practically nothing supports it. It doesn't go backwards-compatible. Programs that either install 1.1 or need it, won't recognize/utilize 2.0. I don't really like .NET all that much anyways. Only reason I use it is because of the one C++ class I took used Visual Studio .NET 2003. I try to use good ol'e VS 6.0 since it doesn't need .NET. I haven't tested it yet, but supposedly the exe's that v6.0 make will work on any x86 architecture. I have a 386 in the attic..I was thinking of seeing if they would work on that.

[Avid6eek]

Since the full version of .NET 2.0 was just released, it will take some time before applications are developed on this platform.

[yahooadam]

stupid not to make it backward compatible

.net also adds alot of overhead to your programs

VB6 is actually much better aslong as it does what you want it to

microsoft just want u to move off the umm shell ? platform (i dunno) and onto the .net

but windows and office and all MS's main apps use teh shell ? platform

P.S. cant remember what it is, shell doesnt sound right .....

[omga14]

coming along very nicely there shiz. are we looking at water on this one?

[NotMyBest2Day]

stupid not to make it backward compatible

.net also adds alot of overhead to your programs

VB6 is actually much better aslong as it does what you want it to

microsoft just want u to move off the umm shell ? platform (i dunno) and onto the .net

but windows and office and all MS's main apps use teh shell ? platform

P.S. cant remember what it is, shell doesnt sound right .....In Linux and UNIX, they call it "termnal", but I think in the IBM world, it was called DOS. That's just the command prompt anyways. The reason M$ wants everyone to go over to .NET is because it's "safer" and patches a lot of loopholes and backdoors that M$ is very well known to have. With VS6, the exe actually gets compiled down to machine language, but with .NET, it gets compiled down to something similar to Assembly, and then the framework translates it line by line as you run it.

[yahooadam]

definetly not dos

i cant remember what it is

though i guess it could be based around dos

there are still bugs with .NET

im using VB6 so w/e works ;)

[Avid6eek]

coming along very nicely there shiz. are we looking at water on this one?No water on this system. Water would have made the mod far more difficult that I wanted it to be. Maybe I'll save that for the AntiOmga rig. :)

[stlouis1]

so if its running? wheres the rest of the pics

[Avid6eek]

so if its running? wheres the rest of the picsI'll have all the pics today. I've just got it up and running with WinXP 32bit installed and everything is running great. I've got to clean up a little bit if wiring, and I think I'm going to add a couple fans. Then I'll post the pics.

[Avid6eek]

Well...I'm finally done...

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC29.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC30.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC31.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC32.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC33.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC34.jpg

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/PowerPC/PowerPC35.jpg

Power, Style, and Extremely Quiet. :)

[NotMyBest2Day]

Very nice. I see you went with a dual-CPU setup. Dual-core Opty in a Dual-CPU board..making quad core. Nice, indeed. Then when the quad-core Opty's come out..swap 'em out and you've got octo-core. That actually looks like it's worth about $2500. Well c'mon! Let's see some benchies! :D

[yahooadam]

u ****ing slag

dual dual optys

i hate u, did i mention u have too much money ?

BTW why are u running it on XP ?

XP can only use 2 cores, so ure wasting an entire proc atm ....

[chris000001]

i hate u, did i mention u have too much money ?


exactly the response i was expecting

[yahooadam]

exactly the response i was expecting
why ?

the "i hate u" bit or the "you have too much money" bit, or the whole thing ;)

[Skorp]

http://skorp.ecwhost.com/Icepick!.PNG

[Avid6eek]

i hate u, did i mention u have too much money?
The whole system cost me around $2,605. Not too bad, but it is the most expensive PC I've built so far. The AntiOmga system may beat it this summer depending on what type of hardware is available.

BTW why are u running it on XP?
Yes, it is running Windows XP Professional.
XP can only use 2 cores, so ure wasting an entire proc atm ....
There is no hard limit on how many cores Windows can use. There is a limit to the number of processors that the software is licensed to run on. Microsoft licenses by the socket. WinXP Home supports 1 socket, WinXP Pro supports 2 sockets, no matter how many cores are in each one. Windows fully recognizes and utilizes all 4 cores in my system. If you want me to post a task manager screenshot I will. :)

[chris000001]

why ?

the "i hate u" bit or the "you have too much money" bit, or the whole thing ;)

The whole thing.

i knew sumone was gonna say it...im surprised the i hate avid thread hasnt been resurected

[Avid6eek]

Here is an image of task manager as I open, then close, PaintShop Pro 8, Adobe Professional, Outlook, MSN Messenger, AIM, and 50 instances of Internet Explorer. It runs it all flawlessly...not so much as a hiccup. The bottleneck in opening all those applications was the 150GB Raptor, and that's a damn fast drive.

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/4CoreSupport.jpg

[yahooadam]

oh right cool stuff

suprised only 2gb of ram ;)

i mean if u have quad core, u need the ram to go wiv it ;)

thats only like 512mb ram per core

i have 2gb for 1 core ;)

as for the i hate avid thread, i think its all been said ;)

$2.6k is loads, u rich whore, HOW CAN U AFFORD ALL THIS

did u rob a ****ing bank or somthing

[bluegreenshxt]

Tt? :p

The bottleneck in opening all those applications was the 150GB Raptor, and that's a damn fast drive.

i-RAM i-RAM :D :D

[Avid6eek]

Tt?Tell me about it. I am very anti-TT, but they simply had the best cooler for the setup I needed.

2048MB of RAM is more than enough...Wow...you have more RAM/core...let's compare bandwidth numbers...

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/bandwidth.jpg

[Skorp]

ow. 'Scuse me, I think I just had a minor aneurysm. Thinking of those numbers hurts my brain. 9.5GB/second...

ow. There it is again.

[yahooadam]

i tried to run sisoftsandra

however it said i was using too much ram and should close some programs

from my 425MB overhead down to 150 odd, IT STILL SAID IT

so i couldnt do the benchmark :mad:

[bluegreenshxt]

i tried to run sisoftsandra

however it said i was using too much ram and should close some programs

from my 425MB overhead down to 150 odd, IT STILL SAID IT

so i couldnt do the benchmark :mad:

Hehehe, I ran it too...and got pwned. I got a bit over 5k....wait till I get my Opty back. I'll run it again :)

[NotMyBest2Day]

I just ran it. Got a hair over 3. :o It's actually right on par...for single channel. It came back as about half of what dual-channel should get.

cpu_bench.gif [gif; 21,213 bytes; 473x450] (http://www.lifelessempathy.net/pics/pcstats/cpu_bench.gif)
mem_bench.gif [gif; 28,661 bytes; 556x490] (http://www.lifelessempathy.net/pics/pcstats/mem_bench.gif)

Not too horrible, but it's enough for me.

[Avid6eek]

The highest I was ever able to get with any system before that was 7.2GB/sec, and that was with alot of work. With this rig I just set the FSB to 210Mhz and did not other tweaking other than that. I'm very happy with that score. In terms of memory and processing capabilities, this system is awsome. Now let me get some SMP enabled games going and there is no way my video card will be processor/bandwidth limited.

[Avid6eek]

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/cpubench.jpg

[ElrichMeister]

all i gotta say is jesus christ!, Apple user eat your heart out

[stlouis1]

did u rob a ****ing bank or somthing
HEY, lets watch it with the bank jokes, i'm sensitive u know

seriously, good job on the modding....judging by the hardware i think i have some catching up to do

[3DGuy]

get a Apple Power G5 in here and put them head to head :P, the Apple Power Pc putting the apple mac to shame and ironically while in hte same case :D

[Avid6eek]

get a Apple Power G5 in here and put them head to head :P, the Apple Power Pc putting the apple mac to shame and ironically while in hte same case :DIt also draws less power, is quieter, and has a Video/Sound processing capability that Mac users only dream of :D

[yahooadam]

awesome stuff

why is the bandwidth for your ram SOOO high though ?

[Avid6eek]

Both Opterons have their own bank of dual channel memory which gives them 6.4GB/sec of memory bandwidth. They also have access to the other processors memory banks as well, so theoreticially, each processor has quad channel RAM, for a total of 12.8GB/sec of bandwidth. Even with Registered/ECC RAM, this type of setup can easily outgun the fastest single processor setup, and it can do it with a level of stability that isn't required for a desktop system. As soon as more multi-threaded apps are released, this system is going to really shine.

[yahooadam]

thats pretty awesome

so ure using 4x 512mb sticks then ?

as that would mean each opteron has its own dual channel of memory

or is it 2x 1gb ? sharing the memory but each having dual channel ?

[Avid6eek]

I'm using 4x512MB Corsair XMS.

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice...i must say...like stlouis put it though....i've got alot of catching up to do...

[NotMyBest2Day]

We all do.

[Skorp]

Man, I used to have a PC similar to Avids. Now he's gone dual-processor, got an XT (flashed for the extra X), then used a NUMA-compliant motherboard. And now the freakin' Numa Numa song is in my head. I hope you're happy, Avid!

[Avid6eek]

Man, I used to have a PC similar to Avids. Now he's gone dual-processor, got an XT (flashed for the extra X), then used a NUMA-compliant motherboard. And now the freakin' Numa Numa song is in my head. I hope you're happy, Avid! Your Welcome! I'm glad I was able to set myself apart. One of the great things about building your own PC is that you can create something that nobody else has. It seems like everyone was using the same old hardware and that just wasn't unique. Now I feel like I've got myself a unique system I can be proud of. :)

[stangz]

How about showing us some of the other benchmarks ... i.e. superpi, 3DMark and PCMark?

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

my rigs unique in a "not so great" sorta way :D ...lol, but i just looked at the pics again...so i have to go change my underpants....:o

[NotMyBest2Day]

Yeah, mine's uniquely ghetto-fied. I'm proud of it though.

[Avid6eek]

How about showing us some of the other benchmarks ... i.e. superpi, 3DMark and PCMark?
SuperPi - Single threaded - same as all 2.1Ghz Opterons
3DMark - Already posted scores from the X1900 - not installing that BM
PCMark - Working on getting it running. I kept failing a test, but I found the problem. I always switch WinXP to the classic view, and PCMark requires it to use the WinXP theme, but for some od reason I can't go back. Not sure what the problem is, or what setting I changed somewhere.

[yahooadam]

it allways suprises me that people switch XP back the the classic view, i prefer the new view myself ;)

[NotMyBest2Day]

I hate the new view. Switching back to Classic still has the service of "themes" running. I say if you're going to run XP and put it in classic, you might as well just stick with 2k. :p

Somebody needs to figure out how to make a multi-threaded PiFast or SuperPi.

[yahooadam]

well XP also has a whole load of stuff, and the networking is much better IMO

on the view side, unto each his own i think

maybe its just cos im used to the new view now, but i like it, its pretty speedy, and looks orite, i dont care too much abotu the overhead as all that is ignored when ure doing full screen app's

on my desktop i have more then enough resorces to launch a space shuttle :p im not worried if having it look pretty slows it down ... :)

[NotMyBest2Day]

I prefer the networking on 2k over xp anyways. I think it's speedier. Linux networking blows Windows out of the water though. It's just about instant in comparison to 2k or xp. But yeah, we used to have wireless/wired wars on here before, back a little after I signed up and before long, we came to the agreement of "to each his own."

[Bonham]

a bit late in the game for comments perhaps, but nice lookin' rig. I've always been fond of the powermac look. i bet i could play a mean smooth game of solitaire on that beast.

[3DGuy]

Bring Back Pong :D i say

[PCgeek]

I'm gone for a couple of weeks and shiz comes up with a whole new rig!!!
Nice job man I really like it. As I was looking through the first images I thought you should have sleeved the PSU wires but after I saw it complete I changed my mind.
IMO the only thing its missing is ducts from the CPU heatsinks to the fan holes in the back. I know it will be a minimal difference if any in temps but it would just be cooler that way.