Aquarius - Main system, gaming rig
CPU and Cooling
- Intel Pentium 4E Processor 3210mhz, Hyper threading (Prescott Core)
- Over clocked to 3808mhz, (16×238)
- Swiftech H20 Apex Ultra Water Cooling
- ABit IC7-Max3 (S478 Intel Canterwood i875P ATX) Motherboard
- Crucial Technology 512MB 184DIMM PC3200 ECC CL3 x4 (2048MB Total)
- Zalman Multi Fan Controller
- Previous: Zalman CNPS7000-Cu (lapped) CPU Cooler
Addon Cards
- ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Sound Card
- Advansys SCSI Host Adapter
- WinXP Promise Ultra133TX2 IDE Controller
- Ralink RT2500 Wireless LAN Card
Display
- Samsung SM910N 19″ TFT Display
- HP F1523 15" LCD Display
Case and Power
- CoolerMaster Stacker][ Case
- Antec TruePower II 550W P.S.U
Storage
- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB SATA150
- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus10 300GB SATA150
- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus11 400GB SATA300
- Maxtor DiamondMax 6 120GB Ultra IDE
- Quantum Fireball 30GB IDE
- Maxtor 3000DV 80GB Firewire
- LG HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-4120B SCSI Cd-Rom Drive
- Sony CDU701-F SCSI 32x Cd-Rom Device
Input Devices
- Logitech MX700 Cordless Optical Mouse
- Logitech UltraX Flat Keyboard
- Logitech Dual Action Game Controller
- Logitech G25 Racing Steering Wheel
- Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad N52
Additional Devices
- Belkin 12-in-1 USB2 Memory Card Reader
- Belkin Bluetooth Adaptor
- Canon CanoScan FB630U Scanner
- HP PhotoSmart Photo Scanner S10
- pActive USB Pen Tablet
Operating System
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
I found the old case (now Detritus - made of leftover parts) to be very cramped inside, with no room for expansion. Also, running boinc for a few hours would overheat the system and become unstable. The fan controller looked very nice, but each time I turn the pc on, I had to adjust the fan speeds again. Also the inside of the case was very dusty when I took it apart (as you can see in the last picture) Mainly because of the case modifications that I had done to open the front aperture, allowing more air to flow inside.
My main aims for a new case were cooling and space. The CoolerMaster Stacker was chosen because of the large drive capacity (11 drive bays) with support for up to 3 120mm fans in the front, and several more at the back. This will allow for much expansion and the possibility of a water cooled system in the future.
The first thing I noticed with the Stacker was the build quality. I’m not saying that the Antec case was poor in any way, it was a very good case (especially for £40), but the stacker had a lot more quality to it (as you’d expect from a case that costs x2 more). There were nice ‘clicks’ as things slotted into place, the brackets were very tough and the attention to detail was superb. Everything was easy to install, although I did have a problem trying to work out how to mount the fans in the front - thinking that I had some brackets missing or something. I worked it out in the end though!
My only problem with the stacker now is dust build-up on the outside! but at least it is caught by the filter ad not clogging up the fans and gathering on the components.
Detritus - Web server, Print server, Test machine
- AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Palomino Core)
- MSI K7T266Pro2 U Motherboard
- nVidia Geforce 2 MX
- Kingston 184-pin DDR PC2100 Memory 256MB
- Antec SLK2650BQE Case
- Zalman 400W Silent PSU
- Maxtor DiamondMax6 80GB Harddrive
- CD-RW
- DVD-ROM
- Windows 2000
This is the old case from Aquarius, and houses the components mainly of my old computer which wasn’t ready for retirement. As a website developer it is necessary to have a test box to test alterations and new ideas, rather than change the live system. Since I needed a web server and database I use an old PC so as not to cripple my main box with too many applications. I use Apache, MySql and PHP for web development and I can use this box to safely test my new ideas. I also use this machine to crunch Seti@Home boinc data.
Nautilus - BOINC Cruncher
- AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Palomino Core)
- MSI K7T266Pro2 U Motherboard
- 3DFX Voodoo Banshee
- Kingston 184-pin DDR PC2100 Memory 256MB
- Generic Beige Case
- Unknown 250W PSU
- Maxtor DiamondMax6 80GB Harddrive
- CD-Rom
- Windows 2000
This machine has been build with parts left over from previous machines. The motherboard was removed to replace a broken one in Detritus so it has now retired.
