While I was on spring break I met up with Junk Parts... and he gave me a Tyan S2885 mobo plus 2 2.4ghz Opterons and coolers. The good news is that it is more powerful than my current maxed out Supermicro X5DAL-TG2 rig (and if not, it has the potential). The bad news is that it's EATX.
The first small hurdle is that unbeknownst to JP, 3 of the 22 KZG caps on the board went bad while the board sat collecting dust! (and you though Sacon FZ was bad...) I already ordered caps... so for the rest of this post let's assume the board is recapped and working.
If I were to build this into main rig V3, the following parts would be moved over from main rig V2:
-GPU (it's the most badass AGP card I've ever owned)
-HDDs and 3ware card (plus the 4th spare hdd pending case space)
I may also move the following over
-RAM (unless I find 8 or 16GB in 333/400)
-PSU (unless I find a better fit or more powerful unit, or the case comes with something usable)
-Opticals (pending case color, I have a white bezel for the lightscribe drive I could use)
Anything pulled from V2 would have some functional replacement added, as V2 took so much work to make run and I'd like to see that it gets used elsewhere; it's too good to waste.
In order to make it run, I for sure would need to buy:
-EATX case with enough space
-I/O Shield (JP didn't have it, he wasn't sure if Topcat ever sent it or even had it in the first place)
-Front I/O adapter
Possible upgrades:
-CPUs (a pair of x2's would be nice)
-RAM (already mentioned)
-TV Tuner (if I could get one of the few QAM capable PCI cards)
The worst part seems to be the EATX case... ebay was pretty much useless... at newegg, the best deal I could find w as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811152168
That would work... but $140 is a tad hard to swallow. Yeah, it includes PSU, but'ts only a 500W 80+ bronze... Going with that, I'd move over the lightscribe drive from the V2 unit and add this to 5.25" bay 2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820132021
I don't like the e-sata (since my board has no e-sata), but the fact the the 3 USB ports + card reader has a hub built in is a huge plus (since the board only has one front USB header). Another plus is AC 97 support, which is needed for this board.
I'd personally rather find a used server/workstation case and add an I/O adapter to that; however, it seems that ebay has nothing nor does anybody I know personally. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a decent chunk of change for a decent used case...
Anybody have suggestions or comments?
The first small hurdle is that unbeknownst to JP, 3 of the 22 KZG caps on the board went bad while the board sat collecting dust! (and you though Sacon FZ was bad...) I already ordered caps... so for the rest of this post let's assume the board is recapped and working.
If I were to build this into main rig V3, the following parts would be moved over from main rig V2:
-GPU (it's the most badass AGP card I've ever owned)
-HDDs and 3ware card (plus the 4th spare hdd pending case space)
I may also move the following over
-RAM (unless I find 8 or 16GB in 333/400)
-PSU (unless I find a better fit or more powerful unit, or the case comes with something usable)
-Opticals (pending case color, I have a white bezel for the lightscribe drive I could use)
Anything pulled from V2 would have some functional replacement added, as V2 took so much work to make run and I'd like to see that it gets used elsewhere; it's too good to waste.
In order to make it run, I for sure would need to buy:
-EATX case with enough space
-I/O Shield (JP didn't have it, he wasn't sure if Topcat ever sent it or even had it in the first place)
-Front I/O adapter
Possible upgrades:
-CPUs (a pair of x2's would be nice)
-RAM (already mentioned)
-TV Tuner (if I could get one of the few QAM capable PCI cards)
The worst part seems to be the EATX case... ebay was pretty much useless... at newegg, the best deal I could find w as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811152168
That would work... but $140 is a tad hard to swallow. Yeah, it includes PSU, but'ts only a 500W 80+ bronze... Going with that, I'd move over the lightscribe drive from the V2 unit and add this to 5.25" bay 2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820132021
I don't like the e-sata (since my board has no e-sata), but the fact the the 3 USB ports + card reader has a hub built in is a huge plus (since the board only has one front USB header). Another plus is AC 97 support, which is needed for this board.
I'd personally rather find a used server/workstation case and add an I/O adapter to that; however, it seems that ebay has nothing nor does anybody I know personally. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a decent chunk of change for a decent used case...
Anybody have suggestions or comments?
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