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    The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (BEYOND COOL BUT PIC HEAVY)

    I was going to gut this thing....but after tinkering with it for a little bit, I completely decided against that! It takes a pretty amazing system to get me excited about a computer, but this thing is very cool! Here's some quoted copypasta from the cheap/free score thread:

    Originally posted by Topcat View Post
    Scored this for basically the shipping. Dolby DP600 "program Optimizer"....whatever the hell that is.... All the drives were missing....but inside lay a Supermicro X7DAL, in working order. The interesting part is the cute little 7" touchscreen display on the front, also in working order. The CPU's are e5450's (3GHz, 1333FSB).

    Cute toy anyway..... If the trays can be found, it could make a pretty cool NAS....waste of power though, I'd put a lesser motherboard in it and relegate this one to some heftier duties most likely.

    Anyway...











    Till the next time...
    This will make a really nice dedicated media server, since its useless to me for its original purpose....and may the build begin!
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    #2
    Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

    I started disassembling it today for cleaning and general checking out....

    I removed the sticker goo from the front. Its in great shape and very well built!


    Motherboard removed for cleaning & testing.


    Testing motherboard. It had 2gb RAM. I up'd it to 48GB. It seems those silly Fully buffered memory modules reproduce in the parts bin!


    The VGA dongle, kind of a goofy thing....also removed one of the PSU's


    Getting down to the nitty gritty! EMACS PSU opened. Caps are all Rubycon & UCC, all non-problematic series....and the PSU's breathe well. They look like a real bitch to disassemble, so I won't be recapping them pre-emptively.


    Optical hiding behind the display. The optical will be removed for some custom stuff I have in mind....




    Now the challenge....the SAS cage that I need to find the drive rails or caddies (not sure which it uses) for....I've had no luck so far. I could make them if I have to....but I'd rather have the right parts.



    Now the goodies that run the display. This is the touchscreen control board.


    Signal processor board is on the side, and the inverter is the one on the bottom.



    The PSU's all cleaned out, and the cute little Matrox GPU that came with it. I'll reuse the GPU, no reason to upgrade for a media server/NAS.


    The ass end where the PSU's go...


    That's all for today! ...but stay tuned!
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      #3
      Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

      ...and this one is about to wrap up...and it's been a really fun and educational build. ....but first things first... I tried several times to contact Dolby to track down the SAS cage drive caddies....but the bastards were too good to even respond to me....so I guess I'm on my own...

      The solution cmae in the form of some spare Enlight drive rails.

      Test fitting:







      By golly, this can work!! ..so lets mutilate them a little!





      WIN!


      Retainer bracket back in place:


      Now to get rid of that useless optical drive and replace it with something else more practical and some custom necessities...





      Front board with LED's & USB.


      Part of making this system work the way I need it to, I have to add a power switch for the display, or it'll always be powered up....even if you put the display to sleep in windows, the backlight remains lit, which is a waste. I need to be able to shut off the display completely when not in use....so enter this little mod. Bear in mind, the mods I've done to this system were done to a spare 5.25 adapter, not the case itself. If this system ever needs to be returned to its original state, it can be done easily.



      That was the 110/220 switch from a junk power supply. Made for a nice flushmounted switch, you'll understand in a minute why it needed to be that way.


      A thanks to Ratdude for this one....a spare Supermicro 5.25 to 3.5 adapter...it was the sacrificial lamb.






      So far so good, assembling it!


      Now we're cookin'!!




      Installed. The other button is the ATX power. In its native form, it was always powered up when it had line. I didn't want it that way, so I had to add an ATX power switch.


      We all know how damn hot those FB DIMM's get....added an extra fan at the baffle.


      OS drive added. 73gb Raptor.


      Cover back on.


      Installing S2K12 R2.


      Now for the educational part. Since the board has dual gigabit NIC's, I always use the Intel teaming drivers....but for the life of me couldn't get them to work, and I know the NIC's are compatible... Come to find out, S2K12 has native teaming support within the OS, and it works wonderful!!

      Right now, its just being set up as a backup to the current media server. Once I get all the data transferred, I'll probably shut it off and store it for later on....but its been a fun build.
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        #4
        Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

        ....and this thing is finally off my bench!!

        Running in the corner right now transferring all my media data to it. Once the data is transferred, I'll shut it off indefinitely until I complete the twin motherboard NAS. This one will be the lifeboat during the transition....and after that, no idea.....but I'm creative, I'll some up with something.



        Windows NIC teaming....works very nice.

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          #5
          Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

          Originally posted by Topcat View Post
          I was going to gut this thing....
          Anyone remember this corny build?

          ...and I ended up gutting it... As much fun it was to build, it never got used as the NAS it was originally intended, as the NAS I have is far better...and was otherwise pretty useless. So it was stuck on a shelf immediately after completion and hasn't been touched since.

          Now that several years have gone by, I've come up with a useful plan for it....which means utter destruction of it as a PC.

          It's now completely gutted. The motherboard/CPU/RAM were made into a workstation in a normal case and sold (client needed a budget-friendly workstation to work from home, cv19 thing). The PSU will be reused. It's a stout PSU (Zippy / Emacs 500w redundant) with all the oddball connectors and good caps. Each module has 2x 40mm 12v 8500 RPM fans....obnoxiously loud. I opened each module and rerouted power from the 12v rail to the 5v rail, which quieted them down.





          I wanted to use the case for this project because of its solid aluminum construction. It's light and easy to cut/modify.....hint hint!!





          ...and perhaps a small hint of what's to come...



          More as this develops....albeit it will be a slow project, it'll take some time.
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            #6
            Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

            Originally posted by Topcat View Post
            I wanted to use the case for this project because of its solid aluminum construction. It's light and easy to cut/modify.....hint hint!!
            Oh noes, I hear the dremmel spooling up. Run for your lives!

            Originally posted by Topcat View Post
            ...and perhaps a small hint of what's to come...
            The Supermicro tree dropped something interesting again?

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              #7
              Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

              Originally posted by momaka View Post
              The Supermicro tree dropped something interesting again?
              Nope....it won't even be a PC anymore...

              Yea, this one is going to be a doozy of modification & hackery!!
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                #8
                Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                Originally posted by Topcat View Post
                Nope....it won't even be a PC anymore...
                Whaaa??
                If it's not going to be a PC then what could it be? Maybe a massive drive-filled NAS? At least it doesn't look like you're going to transform this into anything like test equipment or some car component - just doesn't make sense. But I guess we will see when you show more.

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                  #9
                  Re: The Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                  Originally posted by momaka View Post
                  ...like test equipment...
                  Now you're cookin'!
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                    #10
                    Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                    if your going to base it on dos, make sure you install "Dazzle"
                    or a game called "spheres of chaos"

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                      #11
                      Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                      it's worth about ~$400 on ebay working.
                      Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
                      ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

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                        #12
                        Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                        Originally posted by Topcat View Post
                        Now you're cookin'!
                        So my guess about what I least expected it to be is what it's going to be, lol.

                        With a case that large, the only thing I can think of is some kind of a load tester / active load device for PSUs???

                        Originally posted by Uranium-235 View Post
                        it's worth about ~$400 on ebay working.
                        As in, you saw some of these actually sell for that price recently?

                        I wouldn't go by what some sellers have as the asking price. Rather, I prefer to go by auctions that ended recently or BIN listings that show how many were bought and how many more available. More specifically, if you see a recent listing that has had a lot of "sold" items compared to how many are available still, you know it's probably a realistic asking price.

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                          #13
                          Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                          Originally posted by Uranium-235 View Post
                          it's worth about ~$400 on ebay working.
                          Despite its good condition, too much was missing from it....mainly the OS HDD and its proprietary Dolby software, which impossible to find....albeit the USB license key was still there. Also missing were the RAID cage drives and the rails for it....which are impossible to find.....

                          Originally posted by momaka View Post
                          So my guess about what I least expected it to be is what it's going to be, lol.

                          With a case that large, the only thing I can think of is some kind of a load tester / active load device for PSUs???
                          More will be coming out soon!! ...but it was spawned from an idea I had when I first started BCN nearly 2 decades ago....and I was either too busy or otherwise preoccupied with other things and just never got around to it....but you're on the right track with a strange setup for load testing/monitoring. It'll be a rather frivolous venture, but it will serve a purpose....not to mention it will be an enjoyable project.
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                            #14
                            Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                            Some more tinkering..... This project is in its infancy, there's a long way to go...

                            ...but anyway, a recapped & modified small (200w) ATX PSU. This will function as the main/standby PSU to power critical internal devices that need power when the big PSU is off. I only needed the +5 and +12v rails. The output wiring of all the others has been removed. The supply will power on upon application of mains voltage.



                            2x IDE to CF adapters for some cool things....



                            A sacrificial lamb. This is a data switch for running 2x old world parallel printers on one port. All that will be used from this is the switch itself. The parallel connector and the metal case will be discarded.



                            Part of the original fascia & 5.25" cage. This will be reused, but modified.



                            The original 7" display, this will also be reused. I actually tried removing the "DP600 Program Optimizer" print, figuring it was some kind of powdercoat or paint....nope.... MEK wouldn't even touch it....its apparently etched into the aluminum somehow.



                            Another sacrificial lamb....an old Antec HE550 that has some issues.....I never could figure out what was wrong with it...so it's going to donate it's modular panel.





                            Still a long way to go....and what a confusing array of mess!



                            To be continued!
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                              #15
                              Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                              i always looked on dolby as some sort of noise reduction for audio . now i am not so sure .

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                                #16
                                Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                                Originally posted by petehall347 View Post
                                i always looked on dolby as some sort of noise reduction for audio . now i am not so sure .
                                That's how they got started, specifically the DNR system on tapes (boost the levels of tape noise's frequencies when recording, then knock them back down on playback to snuff out the noise).

                                Later on they expanded into surround sound and other audio enhancement technologies, which is where this machine came in.

                                Right company, wrong era.
                                sigpic

                                (Insert witty quote here)

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                                  #17
                                  Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                                  I ordered a few things for this project today....I will say, it is not going to be an expensive project.
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                                    #18
                                    Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                                    More goodies....

                                    Buttons & switches....



                                    One of a few weird adapters....



                                    One sacrificial lamb sacrificed.



                                    There has to be gauges!!

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                                      #19
                                      Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                                      Refining control panel layout has possibly allowed for a larger 15" display panel. The small 6" only does 640x480, which for some instances creates some issues. This one can do 1024x768; true 4:3.





                                      This contraption is rapidly becoming a bigger time waster than rehashing that old Alienware case.....far more thought & effort is going into it than it'll ever be worth....but damn, it's just a lot of fun!
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                                        #20
                                        Re: The (now the death of) Dolby DP600 Build (OK, this one is BEYOND COOL)

                                        I am still mystified.
                                        So it is sort of like a computer... but it also has voltage gauges??
                                        I guess we will see what it is when it's done.

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