November 19, 2010

Computer reorganization in progress

This is become slightly more massive and time-consuming than I expected, but I'm close to finishing overhauling my computers. My Computers page has not been updated yet, but here's a quick summary, starting with the old stuff:
  • Amba: gone (we recycled some old hardware at work, so I took in my old stuff to go with it)
  • Parvati: gone
  • old Pentium II motherboards, processors, etc.: gone
  • all my old floppy discs: gone (trashed after archiving a few useful files) -- btw, the Abandonia site is awesome, and saved me from having to image a bunch of old floppies (which were typically corrupt on disc 3 of the set anyway)
  • four 9800GX2 cards: boxed and ready for eBay
  • Shakti: still hanging around, along with a box of old SCSI equipment and cables, so I'll go through it when I have time
  • Durga: phased out and stripped -- still need to decide what to do with the mobo/CPU/RAM and old video card
  • Aparna: no change yet, but it should be replaced with Kali in the next week or so -- I have plans for all the hardware
Newer hardware:
  • Kali: getting the case exactly like I want it has taken a long time, but the only thing remaining now is the arrival of some extra-long thumbscrews and getting everything installed -- got the mobo tray in the case last night -- OC tweaking is also almost done
  • Gauri: the big recent project -- the boot drive on Durga was giving me issues again so I went ahead and installed WHS on Gauri, copied all the data over to three 1.5TB drives, configured all the backups, set up the remaining software I had on Durga, and hooked up the external 8-drive cage -- I've moved the 5-drive bay, which just barely fits, and I'm waiting on an 8-port SATA card to arrive next week to hook up the rest of the internal drives -- the other change will be to replace the GTX 295 and 1250W PSU (overkill) with the vid card and PSU from Aparna
  • Bhavani: I haven't been happy with the overclocking of the 980X in this system, so I swapped the mobo with an ASUS Rampage III GENE -- the install was pretty smooth, but I still need to OC and then upgrade Vista to Win7
  • Chandi: this now has the DFI mATX mobo from Bhavani to replace the DFI that died, the PSU from Durga, the stock Intel 980X heatsink, and my parents' old Gigabyte video card which needs to be tested for RAM problems, plus a new Sony DVD drive -- everything's working but I still need to overclock -- this machine will probably inherit the vid card and PSU from Gauri, and be used as a test bed for some other equipment -- I may reinstall WHS Vail
  • Girija: not mentioned on the Computers page, but I reused this name for my second SR-2 system -- yes I bought another one, and ironically finished it before the first one -- its web page will be coming soon
Bhairavi, Lalitha, Shyama, and Uma have not been changed recently, other than to point them at the new WHS. I still need to update the Media Center shares on Lalitha. I also have one more machine that's going to be sold as soon as I verify everything's working. Right now it has BSOD issues that I'm pretty sure are due to the motherboard, so it will get Aparna's mobo (and probably DVD drive too).

Whew, that's a lot of stuff. The other news is that I'm finally phasing out my 19" CRT and replacing it with a Dell U3011 30" LCD. I don't know what I'll do with all the screen real-estate, or extra space on my desk. It went on sale at the right time, because I'm going to have to reorganize my desk to replace Aparna with Kali anyway.