My Current Setup (Nibby Bait)

"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4) 09/19/2018 at 20:39 • Filed to: None

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I started building this computer about a year ago, and it’s finally to the point where I feel comfortable saying it’s pretty much complete. Minus the case and related parts, p o wer supply, and USB card, everything is either used off eBay or scavenged . This replaced the “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” as my main system, and I must say it has been a joy to work on and use. It may not be the latest and greatest, but that’s how I roll.

The Specs:

Supermicro X8SAX motherboard

Intel Xeon W5590 @ 3.33 Ghz (Turbo to 3.60 Ghz)

Supermicro SNK-P0035AP4 (lapped)

Supermicro 500W PS (PWS-502-PQ)

12 GB Samsung DDR3 10600 RAM (6 x 2 GB)

Nvidia Quadro 4000, 2 GB

250 GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD, primary drive

1 TB Seagate Barracuda, secondary drive

Mailiya USB 3.0 PCI-E card

2x TSST SN-208BB DVD-RW drives

Iomega ZIP250 IDE with Cables2Go IDE to USB cable

3.5" Floppy drive (TEAC?)

Supermicro CSE-732i-500B case

2X Chenbro SK41202

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

The Peripherals:

Dell 2208WFPt with AS501 speakers

Keytronic E03601 PS/2 keyboard

Logitech M570 trackball

Sony SLV-N51 (not hooked up currently, as my Falcon2 died recently)

That’s about it; what’s everyone else’s current setup?

Yes, the ZIP250 drive is actually functional (even with the 100 mb disks I have) :

And for those wondering, here’s the lock screen background:

DarkCreamyBeer > Boxer_4 09/19/2018 at 20:49

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I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Zip discs.

Nibby > Boxer_4 09/19/2018 at 21:42

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holy shit those drive bays with the DVD + floppy/zip drive combo is really well done! Any shots of the interior? How’s the noise?

Those Xeons were great... still hold their own a bit these days.

My desktop is this

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Boxer_4 > DarkCreamyBeer 09/19/2018 at 22:11

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I still love how mechanical the ejection sound is. “ Thunk ”

Wacko > Boxer_4 09/19/2018 at 22:35

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But why the Zip drive? Flash drives  made them irrelevant a long, long time ago.

Boxer_4 > Wacko 09/19/2018 at 23:58

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I needed something to balance out the floppy drive... Plus, I still have a machine or two that don’t quite work with flash drives... i.e. they don’t have USB ports.

Zip drives are still quite useful on Windows 3.1 era machines for transferring files .

Boxer_4 > Nibby 09/20/2018 at 00:43

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I’m glad I stumbled upon those drive bay adapters. I wanted to get 3.5" floppy in this machine (the X8SAX still has native floppy support, including 1.2 mb and 360k, believe it or not...) just for fun, though, I didn’t want to lose the option of having two optical drives. That’s the only downside I’ve found with this case; only two 5.25 bays.

Getting the USB 3.0 ports up front took some work, too. I believe these drive bays were designed with USB 2.0 headers in mind. Those are a bit smaller. Nothing that drilling a hole in the bay adapter, taking a hacksaw to the header cable, and a bit of superglue couldn’t solve.

I’ve been really happy with the W5590. I believe there is still some headroom for upgrades, as this board supports the 6-core processors of the era with a BIOS upgrade (IIRC) . The prices on the 2nd to top tier (X5680) seems to be coming down in price from the last time I looked, too...

There’s not too much exciting with the inside of this machine. Cable management could certainly be improved.

When I originally bought the motherboard, it came with an i7 950, coupled with this Rosewill heatsink:

That style heat sink is loud to begin with, and it turns out it was undersized for the 950, too. You can barely hear it run with the current heat sink. I’m thinking of adding an additional fan for added cooling. There are provisions for installing one on a bracket in the front lower compartment. I only have the fan on the heat sink, the fan at the very back of the case, and the fan in the power supply (ok, there’s a fan on the graphics card, too). The temps are currently ok, but they could be better.

That’s a nice build you have! Nice and tidy, too.

Nibby > Boxer_4 09/20/2018 at 08:28

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Thanks! You got plenty of drive bays as well so you can add ALL the HDs! Case looks really roomy. Nice work there! For the GPU have you redne the thermal paste?

Boxer_4 > Nibby 09/21/2018 at 20:36

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Apparently, there is an optional 2.5" bay rack, too! For 2X ALL the HDs!

Full-size towers are my personal favorite. Plenty of room, as you said, plus they are impressive and imposing just sitting there. It’s still shorter than my Gateway2000 P5-90! Though, I think this one is a bit wider, and longer.

I really should redo the thermal paste on the GPU.  As far as I know, it is original.  The GPU runs hotter than my CPU at this point! 

Nibby > Boxer_4 09/21/2018 at 21:55

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nice rack bro, can i touch