DA Charged For Building A Gaming Rig

best part about the whole thing is it'd be a really lousy machine to use as a server............ servers need high-end RAID cards; RAID5 or better arrays, and massive amounts of RAM as well as things like PCI-X slots............ they tend to use integrated video and no audio at all.................. If it were to be used in a server role, it'd be pretty unreliable on the whole; and I dunno about most people, i'd want to be pretty sure my BACKUP server came through for me when I needed it most............... the money may have been MUCH better spent on a virtualized cluster (with 2 ESX servers hosting the virtual servers for redundancy).............. would have cost more, but also actually done what it was supposed to do.............. no arguing it, the dumbass built a gaming PC......... straight and simple...............
 
Ockie said:
I don't know what people are thinking when they build a company server with leds and uv products, lol
Click to expand...

Well, I need to see the insides of the server when it's dark cause I'm getting all old and stuff and my vision is failing. Gotta know what part smokes and when. As for the LED's, heck, it's the only way you can know a hard drive has failed.:)
 
coolie_d said:
best part about the whole thing is it'd be a really lousy machine to use as a server............ servers need high-end RAID cards; RAID5 or better arrays, and massive amounts of RAM as well as things like PCI-X slots............ they tend to use integrated video and no audio at all.................. If it were to be used in a server role, it'd be pretty unreliable on the whole; and I dunno about most people, i'd want to be pretty sure my BACKUP server came through for me when I needed it most............... the money may have been MUCH better spent on a virtualized cluster (with 2 ESX servers hosting the virtual servers for redundancy).............. would have cost more, but also actually done what it was supposed to do.............. no arguing it, the dumbass built a gaming PC......... straight and simple...............
Click to expand...

man...funny the servers at my work sound nothing like what you just described...well ok they have onboard video...well most of them do
 
8fingers said:
it's BTX...
Click to expand...

maybe upsidedown mounted board.... but good eye...



but there must be more to the story, they're saying he was buying parts and selling them personally... so that may be bad...

the guy was probably bragging to some angry employee about how many frames he was getting in crysis and pissed off the wrong people...

i mean in texas? if i saw this rig in a DA's office here in north carolina, the people are so laid back they wouldn't give a crap... and certainly not enough to take the guy to court...

i mean i'm not gonna deny it was misappropriation of funds... but there are much much worse cases out there that they could be spending thier time on...


and my god.. it has "TWO hard drives!!!!!" GASP...it SHOULD have a few more...
 
I don't mean to spoil all the fun but you probably shouln't be directly post the penny-arcade comic in the forums, but instead just put a link to it.

I know its a downer, but must realize that you are denying Tycho and Gabe their web traffic and hits to their site and their right to show banner adds from their sponsors with the comic, which is not right.
 
This is by far the funniest thing I have read in a logn time. Words cannot describe.
 
As much as I hate lawyers - the guy deserves a little slack.

Who knows - maybe he was just listening to some *cough* advice from a forum on how to build a good server. And maybe he was just running through a few demo loops of a game to see if it was stable.

And as mentioned no serious gamer would use a wireless connection, for that matter no serious network admin would use a wireless connection either.

So I think it could be chalked up to a little bit of incompetence, and not so much wasting money.
 
It's not a backup server, it's a backup workstation....one to be used if the other goes down.

Sounds like he bought parts at discount and put it together himself for the same price as a regular machine...not a good idea when it's not your money.
 
coolie_d said:
best part about the whole thing is it'd be a really lousy machine to use as a server............ servers need high-end RAID cards; RAID5 or better arrays, and massive amounts of RAM as well as things like PCI-X slots............ they tend to use integrated video and no audio at all.................. If it were to be used in a server role, it'd be pretty unreliable on the whole; and I dunno about most people, i'd want to be pretty sure my BACKUP server came through for me when I needed it most............... the money may have been MUCH better spent on a virtualized cluster (with 2 ESX servers hosting the virtual servers for redundancy).............. would have cost more, but also actually done what it was supposed to do.............. no arguing it, the dumbass built a gaming PC......... straight and simple...............
Click to expand...
Largely wrong in this case. His intentions weren't for a high-end database machine or file server, it was just somewhere he'd take case-files from his work machine and store them in case of loss, probably via ZIP-Disk.
 
Modding a server for work. This guy is [H]ard! (If he didnt get in trouble for it, lol)
 
He bought computer equipment for his own use and to resell for personal profit, among other illegal expenditures, they have said.
Click to expand...

It sounds like it was a lot more than just making a server into a gaming rig.
 
I would have built a shuttle XPC with 4 250GB notebook drives in a RAID 1+0, and a lightscribe DVD burner so I can etch my balls onto the backup DVDs. Subtle, high-dollar...but I doubt anyone would complain.

Just tell them it's a space-saving model, stackable on top of the current tower PC, it's got data redundancy for recent backups, and DVD backup for long-term storage. If they don't like it, show us one comparable unit more suitable or STFU.
 
the real question here is, even though he built this, was he using it as a server, or a gaming rig when he was caught.
 
Dummy should've used a Lian li case, no one would've suspected a damned thing. Wonder if he got a logitech G-15 for it too.. Or maybe even 5.1 audio. :D
 
coolie_d said:
best part about the whole thing is it'd be a really lousy machine to use as a server............ servers need high-end RAID cards; RAID5 or better arrays, and massive amounts of RAM as well as things like PCI-X slots............ they tend to use integrated video and no audio at all.................. If it were to be used in a server role, it'd be pretty unreliable on the whole; and I dunno about most people, i'd want to be pretty sure my BACKUP server came through for me when I needed it most............... the money may have been MUCH better spent on a virtualized cluster (with 2 ESX servers hosting the virtual servers for redundancy).............. would have cost more, but also actually done what it was supposed to do.............. no arguing it, the dumbass built a gaming PC......... straight and simple...............
Click to expand...

Uhh....no. It would have the following features if it was a small-scale backup server:

1) integrated video
2) wired NIC (gigabit if the infrastructure exists for it)
3) enough memory to do what it needs to (in this case, 512MB would probably do)
4) fast hard disk (possibly a Raid, but not needed unless it's being used for file access, in which case it's a primary and not a backup server)
5) tape drive/DVD burner (for a long-term backup, pick which one best fits capacity and longevity needs)

Your config is the "perfect" config, but that's not practical in a world where you have a finite bank acct and are expected to provide world-class service with it....you have to make do with the beans when you can't afford the meat, so to say.
 
mustang_steve, I guess you're right, I kind of idealized the situation............... My situation at work is a mission-critical high availability type of deal, where downtime costs the college money (online class infrastructure, we have students from all over) and thus basically calls for identical systems in a failover cluster with offsite backup and virtual servers (we're still planning/implementing some of the infrastructure)............. still, the DA shouldn't have built a gaming rig (or at bare minimum he could have made it LOOK like a server, and maybe actually had it configured like one?............. of course, the (ex) Governor of my state shouldn't have gotten caught banging a hooker, but he did; so I guess crap happens...............
 
And we all know that high ranking officials tend to buy laptops so they can put lots of confidential and sensitive information on them so later it can get "lost". That was probably the first clue of wrong doing.
 
mustang_steve said:
Uhh....no. It would have the following features if it was a small-scale backup server:

1) integrated video
2) wired NIC (gigabit if the infrastructure exists for it)
3) enough memory to do what it needs to (in this case, 512MB would probably do)
4) fast hard disk (possibly a Raid, but not needed unless it's being used for file access, in which case it's a primary and not a backup server)
5) tape drive/DVD burner (for a long-term backup, pick which one best fits capacity and longevity needs)

Your config is the "perfect" config, but that's not practical in a world where you have a finite bank acct and are expected to provide world-class service with it....you have to make do with the beans when you can't afford the meat, so to say.
Click to expand...

I'd still go with RAID, that way your backup server wouldn't be rendered dead by a harddrive failing on it.
But other than that and the memory that sounds about like the one we have at work. Although i am hoping to upgrade it a new machine with about 1 - 1.5TB of space and better cpus and start doing continous backup. Although the cost keeps me at nightly tape backups instead.
 
I think if you are a DA then you can afford to build your own rig without having taxpayers foot the bill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top