Ordered My New System

R

rottweiler

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 13, 2000
Messages
1,126
Ok, after lots of advice, I have finally ordered everything for my new system.
Please give me any comments and/or suggestions.

MSI K8T Master2-FAR
2x AMD Opteron 242 1.6GHz 1MB
TWINX2048RE-3200
2x 200GB Seagate 7200.7
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510 XE
ATI AIW 9800PRO
Dell 2001FP 16ms response LCD!!!

I decided to only go with 242s because I want to get dual-core CPUs at the end of next year.
And I think dual 1.6s are plenty for the next year and a half.
I decided that PCI-X and PCI-E were also not going to mean enough to me to get them right now.
I'll probably get them in my next big upgrade though, hopefully at least 3yrs. away.

So, what do you think?
Am I missing anything important, or should I get anything else?
I already have a decent case, Pioneer DVR-105, and Lite-On 40x CDRW.
Everything is new except the AIW which I got from a fellow [H] member.

Thanks for all the help.
 
Nice. Personally, I'd have a PCI ATA100/133 card in there just so I can run all my drives on their own channel, but that's just me.

Good choice. Have fun, dude!
 
Oh yeah, the drives are SATA.
So everything should be on it's own channel.
And I'm gonna do a RAID-0.
 
rottweiler said:
Oh yeah, the drives are SATA.
So everything should be on it's own channel.
And I'm gonna do a RAID-0.
Click to expand...

RAID-0 Is great for a sacrificial machine. Remember, one disk fails, the whole system fails. Anyway, always back that sucker up on external media or another HDD in the system. Another option is the dark side: RAID-1 (or RAID 1+0 with 4 disks). :D
 
i'm interested in a similar system; how's the master-2 working out? (reads post again) oh. well, when it get there, let us know how it works out.
:rolleyes: n00b is me. looks sweet though.
 
unhappy_mage said:
i'm interested in a similar system; how's the master-2 working out? (reads post again) oh. well, when it get there, let us know how it works out.
:rolleyes: n00b is me. looks sweet though.
Click to expand...

well my master2 showed up yesterday and if the shinnyness of the box is any indicator of performance than this thing is gonna own :D
 
lol, i actually am interested in how the MSI does also... seems like a pretty decent board, but those HSF's had me worried
 
I've spent so much time setting this thing up and playing with it, I forgot to update.
I got everything running and it's great.
I have decided to go to a Raid 5 for better security though, which means I need a good controller card.
The Master2-FAR is great, very easy to setup.
However, I don't know if it was MSI or MonarchComputer, but my CPU2 HSF had bent fins.
A few were basically touching.
They still worked pretty well though.
I don't know what dual opteron temps are like, but mine stay around 42-44c.
I haven't put them under load yet
I did 7volt mod the fans though, they were pretty loud, and that raised the temps to 44-46c.
Basically my 2nd CPU is always 2c warmer, it is a smaller HS and fan.
I had a weird problem installing the AIW, not sure if it was mobo or OS(XP).
But after I installed it, my wireless PCI NIC was uninstalled, and I couldn't install drivers for it.
I moved it down a PCI slot, and now it's working fine.
I thought I read a while ago, when XP was just coming out, that XP didn't have IRQ conflicts.
That's what it seemed like to me though.
Although I haven't tried any other PCI cards in the slot.

It was easy to setup and is running great.
I still need to run some tests to see where it sits, but it feels fast to me.
It's the heaviest my case has ever been though.

Although this is great I'm thinking of possibly exchanging my Master2 for a Tyan K8W(S2885)
The sata raid controller I'm looking at could use the 64bit PCI and it seems like the seperate memory could make it even faster.
If not right now, in the near future.
Although I think I'd have to exchange my PSU too and get the AG.
The Tyan is ~$230 more, but I've spent this much already, why not go all the way.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
ya the tyan is indeed very sexy... im still not convinced tho, think my dual AXP 2500+'s @ 2ghz will be ok for a while :)
 
my odd heatsink has betn fins as well perhaps they aren't as gental with it as the should be.
 
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