Research Notes
|
| Asetek is headquartered in
Denmark. |
| Innovatek is headquartered in
Germany |
| ATi is headquartered in
Canada |
Aqua Computer is
headquartered in Germany
|
Brandon @ Netgear wrote back to me on 7/17/2005
to say that the
Netgear
FVS124G is
not rack
mountable, throughput will be 12.5 Mbps without VPN use,
and the internal Gigabit switch does not support Jumbo
Frames. |
| Thermaltake
AquaBay
M2 2U Bay
Radiator (w/ 120mm fan) only has connectors for 1/4" ID
and 3/8" ID tubing |
Dillard @ Asus wrote back to me on 7/28/2005 to
say that the
Asus A8N-SLI Premium supports 2 x16 PCIe slots and 1 x1
PCIe slot, which did not answer my question. |
Administrator @ Keyspan wrote back to me on
7/28/2005 to say that the
Keyspan
4-port
USB Print Server only supports Windows XP and Mac OS
X, and does not have any Linux support |
| GigaFast
EE171-PR
Print Server
supports 100MBit Ethernet, USB 1.1 & LPR |
3Com 2816-SFP Plus does not
support Jumbo Ethernet frames
|
| Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9
Motherboard has a Vitesse Gigabit copper ethernet NIC
(unknown chipset) |
| NetGear WPN824 MiMo Wireless
Router has severe connectivity problems |
Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT Dual
nVidia 6800GT video adapter will only work in a Gigabyte
brand motherboard
|
| Plextor
PX-716AL has serious reliability issues according to a
number of reviews on NewEgg and Amazon. |
| Icy Dock MB911B does not
support SAF-TE & is the manufacturer is headquartered in
England |
Matsushita (Panasonic) never releases updated
firmware for their optical drives, their onboard firmware
also explicitly disallows regional code bypassing
|
Arctic Cooling is
headquartered in Switzerland
|
| Logitech is headquartered in
Switzerland |
PowerFile R200DL
is similar to the Sony VGP-XL1B2, but is considerable too
expensive. ~$7800.00 (MSRP $8999.00)
Dimensions:
5U
8.75"
x 17.00" x 20.00" (Height by Width by Length)
EMC ArchiveXtender
(ARCX) is one Jukebox control package that works with this
system. It runs on both Windows and Linux.
Pricing for ArchiveXtender is unknown. (Level
A, B, C, D, & E are the pricing
"levels". A
starts at around $900.00 PowerFile C200E is a level
"F" device)
|
Acronova Dupliq DVD
robot is a 25 Disc capacity robot ~$700.00
Connection: USB 2.0
Power Requirements: 100-240VAC 50/60Hz,
External Adapter
Warranty: One year
Removable USB cable
Arm duty cycle is unknown
What backup software can be used, how
does it span backups across more than one piece of
media? Can it write unchanged files to media, while
preserving directory structures? What is the restore
process like? QQboxx may
support data backup to the Duplix. Acronova may have
written QQboxx |
Fujitsu 6GB 15K SAS Hard
Drive (MAX3036RC) with
Dual Port SAS interface has seriously reliability issues
|
- Asetek 12V Pump/Reservoir
physical dimensions: 4.803" x 1.968" x 6.102" (Height by
Width by Length). WaterChill Xtreme [12V] Base Pump
Unit includes 1/2" OD connectors and grey parts; part number
03-L-1254 [1/2" OD fittings]. LCD Display Black
part number 03-L-1270. Asetek WaterChill "Xtreme
edition" Pump/Reservoir supports controlling two separate
fan banks (3 fans in each bank, up to 8W power usage per
fan)
|
| - Intel Pentium D is a
dual-processor CPU, it connects via a LGA775 socket. |
| - Belkin
2-port
USB Print Server (F1UP0301) has 16MB of RAM and
supports 100Mbit Ethernet, USB 1.1 & LPR |
| - The Aspire X-QPACK-AL/420's
power supply, while labelled as being 420 watts, is actually
considerably lower than 420 watts. Expect to replace
it with a different power supply. If a standard size
ATX power supply is installed in the case, a standard-length
optical drive can not fit in the top 5¼" bay.
Lite-On's shorter length optical drives will fit according
to a few people. N.B. Lite-On unit quality is
terrible. Use a laptop drive in a 5 ¼" adapter
bay instead. |
| - The MF Digital Baxter
DVD robot is a rebranded version of the Acronova Dupliq
(CD&DVD version) |
| - The Giga-Byte GH-WIU01
watercooling kit is made of very fragile plastic. Both
the CPU water block and the reservoir are prone to cracking
and leaks. |
- Tripp Lite PowerAlert
software does not properly share the USB connection with
Window's APM. After about 2 days, the UPS' battery
status can not be read by either the PowerAlert software or
Window's APM. An uninstall/reinstall of the UPS
software is required to fix this error condition; rebooting
does not resolve the problem.
|
- nVidia
7950
GX2 [image]
is not a viable video card for Odin and HPC Slave
It only works in motherboards where the
motherboard BIOS has been updated to recognize the card.
An nVidia 8800 GTS card gives
approximately the same, or better, performance. The
boards support "Quad" SLi, but software support for that
feature is untested & incomplete as of February 22,
2007. Approximate length is 9".
nVidia's list
of compatible motherboards N.B. Odin's planned
motherboard does not have the BIOS required to operate this
card.
|
- Video adapters for HPC
Slave
OEMs: eVGA
(640-P2-N821-AR, has
HDCP), XFX (has HDCP & is ugly), BFG (has HDCP & is
ugly), MSI
(NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD OC, ugly), Asus (has HDCP & is ugly), FoxConn GeForce 8800 GTS OC
(Ugly), PNY (VCG88GTS32XPB,
has HDCP & references consumers on their website) |
- Research the MSI Geminium-GO
upgradeable graphics card.
An updated
version
of the card was displayed at Computex 2006 on 6/8/2006.
The length of the card was shortened by
placing one MXM slot on the back of the PCB.
Per glossy materials: "Performance is directly
dependent on the video chip modules installed onto the
board." and
"Power
use and fan noise are diminished when compared to
dedicated "desktop" video cards when the same video
chipset."
The
board, in its current state, may be too long to physically
fit inside of a Micro-ATX case.
MSI has a reputation for demonstrating
products that will never be sold to customers. |
- Linksys 24 port smart
switches have serious reliability problems. Since
Cisco now controls Linksys, they are probably making them
build rejects
|
Livescribe Pulse "Smart Pen"
Specifications
The technology is from Sweden.
|
Stardock Systems Samurize
is not a potential secondary display information tracker
It only works on Windows Operating
Systems. There is no Linux support. |
- PC Power & Cooling
1200W ESA Power Supply is not a viable power supply for HPC
Slave
Turbo-Cool 1200 ESA (T12W-ESA)
PC Perspective preview
The
power supply's fan is much too loud.
|
| - Research VScape as a potential
local MMO engine |
nForce 9400 chipset does not
support ECC Memory
|
- Search for a motherboard for Androcles that
has one PCIe x16 slot and onboard video.
mATX can have a maximum of 4 expansion
slots.
[A] Asus M2N-VM
HDMI is a potential motherboard for Androcles.
It has socket AM2+ Phenom support, Onboard Networking: 1 GbE
[unknown chipset], Video chipset nVidia GeForce 7050P,
Maximum memory: 4 @ 2GB DDR2-533/667/800/1066 ECC DIMM [image].
It
has multi-video out via D-SUB, DVI, and HDMI connectors,
S/PDIF audio connector support, 1 @ PCIe x16 slot and 1 @
PCIe x1 slot located south of the PCIe x16 slot.
After-market heatsinks can be mounted to the southbridge
chip. Crucial Memory
Selector. The
motherboard
does not have a connector to display network activity on
an external LED.
|
- Research the Intel
EXPI9404PT 4-Port Ethernet adapter for Zeus
[Froogle]
$450.00
|
- Research the possibility of
replacing the 40mm fans in the Enlight SCSI drive bays with
ones that are quieter
Onboard diagnostics will sound a fan
failure alarm if either fan's speed drops below
approximately 5500 RPM
IPMI management software may allow the
RPM alarm threshold to be modified.
Research if the modified value persists
across a power cycle.
Linux comes with a command-line IPMI
interface |
- Research the nVidia MCP78U
/ MCP78S / MCP78H chipsets for Odin
MCP78U:
GeForce
8300 video chipset and nForce 730a motherboard chipset
Target market: Performance users, release
date is unknown
3DMark06 rating: 327 marks (per this
site)
MCP78S: GeForce
8200 video chipset and nForce 730a motherboard chipset
Target market: Cheapskate users, release date is unknown
MCP78H: nForce
730a motherboard chipset - By itself, it does not have an
onboard video interface
Target market: Cheapskate users, release date is unknown |
- Software-based Linux
firewall
IP Cop has a built-in
DHCP server that can serve:
1) static IP addresses based
upon the MAC of the client
2) a boot image via DHCP
3) It does not have built-in
support for an LCD status display, but a third party Linux
plugin named LCDProc
provides this
LCDProc VFD interface
NetLCDClient
plugin for LCDProc
CheckConnect IPCOP
network reset script
cron
instructions
4) Support for Crystalfontz
LCDs USB
models
I will need to update the 'CFontzPacket_output()' function
in CFontzPacket.c to add side LED intensity control.
Binary-only (ON/OFF) control of the Red & Green LEDs is
already supported via an 8-bit integer
First
4 LOW bits are the green LEDs, and the last 4 HIGH bits are
the red LEDs
E.G.
0x1016 = 000100002
LED 0 Red
E.G.
0x0116 = 000000012 LED 0
Green
E.G.
0x2216 = 001000102 LED 1
Yellow
E.G.
0xDD16 = 110111012 LED 0 Yellow LED 1
Unlit LED 2 Yellow
LED 3 Yellow
Page 39 in the manual describes how to modify PWM intensity
for the LEDs
Notes: LED Hardware uses a 100 Hz PWM signal to control LED
intensity.
I will use 3 bits to set intensity. 000: Off - 0% (0x0)
001: 14%
lit (0xE)
010: 28%
lit (0x1C)
011: 43% lit (0x2B)
100: 57%
lit (0x39)
101: 71%
lit (0x47)
110: 86% lit (0x56)
111: On - 100%
(0x64)
A
24-bit wide bitfield to control all 4 LEDs would work best;
6
bits per LED - the low bits control green intensity and the
high bits select red intensity
It
will convert Integer data to the bitfield
E.G.
1677721510 = 2 ^ 24 - 110 = 1111111111111111111111112
= 0xFFFFFF16: All 4
LEDs lit Yellow
E.G.
0: All LEDs off
Prefix
the data, using either a Decimal (base 10) or a Hexidecimal
(base 16) number, with an negative sign ( - ) to indicate
the alternate output format?
Data
format:
|
LED
3
Red
GPO[6]
0x6
|
LED
2
Red
GPO[8]
0x8
|
LED
1
Red
GPO[10]
0xA
|
LED
0
Red
GPO[12]
0xC
|
LED
3
Green
GPO[5]
0x5
|
LED
2
Green
GPO[7]
0x7
|
LED
1
Green
GPO[9]
0x9
|
LED
0
Green
GPO[11]
0xB
|
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
0 0 0
|
Color legend:
LED Unlit [000
000]: Interface not physically available
LED Red
[111 000]: Interface available, but not physically connected
LED Orange [111 010]: Interface available,
physical connection works, but not configured (includes no
IP address assignment failure, & DHCP failure)
LED Yellow [111 111]: Interface available,
physical connection works, configured, but uplink router
reports blocked
LED Green
[000 111]: Interface available, physical connection works,
configured, uplink router works
LED Blinking
Green [000 000 & 111 000]: Activity
5) IP Cop does not have
built-in support for status LEDs, but a third party Linux
utility named CIFLED
provides this |
- Firewall computer should
also be the network monitor
|
- ASUS GeForce 8800 GT 1GB
video card
The
RAM chips on the reverse side of the card can not be
liquid cooled. They need to have heatsinks installed
for cooling.
|
- Research NetQoS Netcosm
graphical network monitor
It
isn't commercially available as of 1/18/2008 and was
nothing more than viral marketing to attract attention
It aggregates data collected by NetQoS's
SuperAgent
software
YouTube video 1
YouTube video 2
(simulated slashdotting)
|
| - XtremeSystems Forums: Radiator
Cleaning |
- Yahoo Zimbra
Collaboration
Suite is not a viable IMAP mail server
Distribution license: Yahoo Public
License
The Free Edition is crippleware; Reviews
suggest that only the pay-for Network Edition is usable.
Avoid it like the plague because
Microsoft wants to buys Yahoo. |
- Performance-PCs' website
will silently substitute similar products when connected to
from Google Product Search, if the original item is out of
stock.
This caused me to purchase 3-pin instead
of 4-pin PWM fans.
|
