Chad's Ramblings

Just a quick update - the Intel Matrix Storage Drivers version 7.8 does indeed appear to have cleared up the random lock-up/rebooting problems from the previous post. 

Posted by chad at 08:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it seems there's a problem with my new Media Center PC...  The system is sporratically locking up and it requires a physical reboot using the power button when it does this... The problem happened a couple of times while I was building the system, but increased significantly last night after I got the SATA cables to install the 3rd and 4th hard disks.  (It's about time those cables showed up!) It seems the problem is documented here: http://www.flyingnerd.com/intel-raid-problem-under-windows-vista and the old addiage: install the latest drivers before you do anything applies.  Intel claims to have it fixed in their latest storage drivers by disabling some new power management features: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-025783.htm.  I've updated my Intel RAID drivers to 7.6, let's hope this fixes it...

Posted by chad at 12:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, my new job as a consultant pretty much requires that I set up my own test lab.  At my last company, the VMWare box I had cost ~$25,000 three years ago...  Here's the one I built for closer to $2,500.

Photos of the various parts are posted to http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=s6046yj.b4jo0jtb&x=1&y=-40qvc3

This is the first PC I've built in more than 10 years (kept buying laptops).  This time, things were MUCH smoother than I expected based on my past experiences.

As with any project, this project had to start with gathering a list of requirements:

• Media Center Case
• 4 Processor Cores
• 4 GB of RAM (at least this is the spec I started with...)
• 4 Hard disk drives
• Quiet system
• "Fits in" with my AV equipment

Note that video performance was not important to me from the beggining as I planned to interface the PC directly to the TV and manage it primarily through terminal services.

To start with, I did most of my system research at newegg.com, where I purchased the vast majority of the hardware as well.  Alot of my research centered as much around the acoustics as it did for performance. 

In the end, I settled on this configuration from NewEgg:

 

11-163-076	CASE SILVERSTONE|GD01B-MXR BK RT	1	$249.99	$249.99
13-121-315	MB INTEL BOXDG33TLM G33 775 R	1	$126.99	$126.99
22-136-178	HD 500G|WD 7K 8M SATA2 WD5000AAJS	4	$109.99	$439.96
19-115-017	CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R	1	$279.99	$279.99
20-231-122	MEM 2Gx2|GSK F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ R	2	$119.99	$239.98
17-115-022	DVD-R PHILIPS|DM4L6B25F/17 LS 16X	1	$12.99	$12.99
17-130-018	CD-R VERBATIM|95460 52X LS 25PK R	1	$10.99	$10.99
20-223-087	CARDREADER ROSEWILL|RSD-CR106 BLACK	1	$11.99	$11.99
17-152-026	PSU RAIDMAX| RX-630A 630W RTL	1	$109.99	$109.99
27-151-141	DVD_BURN SAMSUNG|SH-S183L LS SATA	1	$29.99	$29.99
35-186-134	CPUCOOLER|ARCTIC P4|ACFZ7-PRO R	1	$36.99	$36.99
11-998-020	SILENX HDD GROMMET 4 PACK|IXA-GM4 R	1	$5.99	$5.99
20-134-478	FLASH 2G|KST MICSD SDC/2GB R	1	$20.99	$20.99
11-999-209	ACCES FAN | VIBRAT-DAMP VDK-80 RT	2	$2.99	$5.98
33-340-002	BLUTOTH ADPT AZIO|BTD603-132 CLS1 R	1	$16.99	$16.99
11-999-212	ACCES PS | VIBRAT-DAMP VDK-PSU RT	1	$4.55	$4.55
35-186-020	THERMAL COMPOUND AC|MX-2 R	1	$6.99	$6.99
23-126-008	KB LOGITECH|DINOVO EDGE RT	1	$151.99	$151.99
32-116-215	S/W MS WIN VISTA 64BT ULT 1P DVD	1	$179.99	$179.99
	Total			$1,943.32

The following Cables were ordered from CablesToGo.com:

530-03	3 Foot Molded Booted Cat5e 350 MHz Patch Cables	7	$1.09	$7.63
SATA-22P-2	2 SATA DATA & POWER CABLE (Dual) Available with Red, Blue or No-LED	2	$11.99	$23.98
C7550BK	7.5 inch 50lb. Black Cable Tie (Bag of 100)	1	$4.25	$4.25
S/PDIF	Python Brand S/PDIF Digital Audio Cable 6'	1	$12.99	$12.99
132CX-000	Premium VGA/SVGA Extension Cable (Male/Male) 10'	1	$6.75	$6.75
				$48.85

Then, after realizing that I hadn't ordered a PC Tuner Card (Hauppage WinTV-HVR-1600) and needed a USB wireless adapter (NetGear WG111 V3) to use while setting the system up (something I could re-use for the kid's PC), I went to a local PC builder (Hard Drives Northwest) for about $160.  This was a bit over-priced, but it was quick and allowed me to finish the build up.

The actual build process went really smooth, as I experienced only a few minor complications:

1. This was the first time I've built an ATX system.  I thought that the back case cover snapped in from the back, so I had the system nearly entirely built and I had to then loosen all of the motherboard screws in order to get enough space to install the bracket.
2. When taking the TV off the wall, I realized that my model didn't have a VGA port!  I then had to change gears and buy a DVI-HDMI converter from Radio Shack ($30) in order to get it connected.
3. Since the DVD burner was an OEM kit, it did not come with software, so getting the LightScribe software necessary and installed in the right order wasn't terribly intuitive.  I still get an error at 99% of printing, but it seems to (mostly) work.
4. The cablestogo.com order didn't ship in a timely fashion.  I'm actually still waiting for the Ethernet cables and SATA cables.  I'm running with older (too long) Ethernet cables and only 2 active hard drives at the moment.
5. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't have ordered the following parts:
• CPU cooler (new CPU's ship with them these days)
• Thermal Compound (the CPU cooler has this built in)
• The Hard Disk Drive mounting screws (kit only had 4, they didn't fit in the case, and the case came with rubber screw grommets anyways).
• I originally mounted the hard drives 1 bay apart for air-flow reasons, but realized that the drives themselves covered the mother board's SATA ports (doh!) so I had to move all of the drives to the power supply side of the case.  This case is 'rated' for 6 internal HDD slots, but technically 7 could fit if the motherboard was smaller or if the front left corner of your motherboard doesn't need to be accessible.

Since I found a reasonable deal on RAM, I went ahead and stocked up on 8 GB of RAM and Vista Ultimate 64 bit to support that RAM.  I was surprised to not have any serious driver issues (except maybe the LightScribe issue listed above) as I had heard Vista 64 could be problematic.

The system is up, running Virtual Server 2005 r2 flawlessly, and it's actually quieter than my laptop!  The case takes a lot of credit for the sound, as it ships with lining around the hard disk mounting areas. 

Posted by chad at 06:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I've had FiOS from Verizon for about 4 months now.  It's blazing fast, but the one drawback was that the sub-par ActionTec MI424WR router Verizon bundled with the service would lock up about once a week.  The fix: Replace the router.

As a part of a new PC I'm building, I purchased Vista Ultimate, with that came a free D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router.  I knew I'd be able to at least replace the wireless functions by setting this router behind the ActionTek, but thought I'd take this one step further: what about replacing the router entirely?

My FiOS install has a Ethernet connection between the termination point and my living room, so I thought the router replacement could be as simple as just replacing the router, so I tried it.  The router appeared to work OK, link lights were up, but it wasn't getting a valid DHCP lease from Verizon.  The fix was to simply use the router's built in MAC address cloning feature to clone the MAC address from the ActionTec - Voila! a working system without the buggy router! :)

If you were unfortunate enough to get a 'Coax' install, then you may need to keep the ActionTec up and running in bridging mode...

Posted by chad at 06:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)