Project Professional [Updated 8/13/2013]
Here goes nothing.
This will be my first major post on this site. I tend to lurk more than anything else. I'm about to start my first real project, which I've named: Project Professional.
I no longer am an avid gamer, at least not nearly as much as I was in my teens, thus I have no need for an over the top 32gb twin GTX Titan build. The build I've selected will accomplish all I need for moderate gaming and primarily my job. I work for a remote monitoring and management (RMM) company, which is a fancy way of saying I do outsourced IT work. It's not uncommon for me to have a client PC with two monitors, as well as Labtech, the server, and a tech article open at the same time. Most of my work is done at my office which runs a tri monitor setup, but occasionally I will get calls after hours (usually 2-3am) that require a full setup. Thus my build was started. Currently I'm running a 1100t with 16gb RAM and a 460/ATI 2400, which up till this point has worked pretty well. I've always stuck with AMD, but unfortunately after the problems with my 1100t + Windows 8 I've decided that its finally time to switch to the dark side. At first I was planning on just upgrading my CPU and motherboard as well as swapping to a more professional looking case (currently using a AZZA Solano 1000). I saw quite a few all stainless steel cases, but nothing that really stuck out.
Then it came to me. I was retiring an old Dell PowerEdge 1950 to our graveyard when I spotted her, the once powerfull beast was reduced to nothing more than a stepping stool. An old Dell PowerEdge 2900, with the front cover in perfect shape.
Yes that is a tape drive, and it does say Friday on it. I pulled her out and dusted her off. Puller her up to my desk, hooked a monitor/keyboard/mouse, and fired her up. One drive in the array was bad, so no boot. O well, I didn't care about her internals anyway, just the case. One short transaction later, she was mine for a cool $50.01 ( he was asking $50, I bid 49.99 he raised it to 50.01). Took her home and began stripping out the internals. I quickly learned this was no easy swap. Proprietary everywhere.... board, power supply, power button, fan connectors. EVERYTHING... Finally after stripping it down and started doing some testing I learned that I might be able to modify this to fit an ATX motherboard. In comes my problems.....
Here is the tear down. My second post contains the obstacles I need to overcome for this to work. I don't plan on purchasing anything ( already have motherboard and CPU) until I get these bugs worked out first. Once I can swap in a spare ATX and power it on, I'll start ordering like mad
****SEE POST #2 FOR OBSTACLES THAT I NEED HELP OVERCOMING***
Here it all is nicely packed in there
A standard ATX mobo is a good 1/3 the size of the original motherboard
930w each
This is a crazy Power supply redundancy board
This is the SATA board. Not the controller, it provides power connection and a connection to all 8 drives. This connects to the raid controller below.
There is a pretty good change a 360mm radiator will span across this bad boy
Last but not least, my hex monitor setup, all 22"
I still have a bunch of cable management to do with my monitors, but that will probably be redone after I get my tower build.
****Official Build Parts List!***
Intel i5-3570 - Purchased
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z - Purchased
MSI 460 HAWK -Purchased
MSI 460 Hawk - Purchased]
2x 460 waterblock - Purchased]
360mm Radiator - Purchased]
ATI Fire 2400 - Purchased - Turned out to be faulty
Perc 6/i - Purchased
Perc 6/i waterblock - Purchased]
NVidia Quadro NVS 440 - Purchased
Power Supply(s) - Purchased
My rig is already watercooled, I'll be using most of it on this build (pump, CPU, waterblock...)
Here goes nothing.
This will be my first major post on this site. I tend to lurk more than anything else. I'm about to start my first real project, which I've named: Project Professional.
I no longer am an avid gamer, at least not nearly as much as I was in my teens, thus I have no need for an over the top 32gb twin GTX Titan build. The build I've selected will accomplish all I need for moderate gaming and primarily my job. I work for a remote monitoring and management (RMM) company, which is a fancy way of saying I do outsourced IT work. It's not uncommon for me to have a client PC with two monitors, as well as Labtech, the server, and a tech article open at the same time. Most of my work is done at my office which runs a tri monitor setup, but occasionally I will get calls after hours (usually 2-3am) that require a full setup. Thus my build was started. Currently I'm running a 1100t with 16gb RAM and a 460/ATI 2400, which up till this point has worked pretty well. I've always stuck with AMD, but unfortunately after the problems with my 1100t + Windows 8 I've decided that its finally time to switch to the dark side. At first I was planning on just upgrading my CPU and motherboard as well as swapping to a more professional looking case (currently using a AZZA Solano 1000). I saw quite a few all stainless steel cases, but nothing that really stuck out.
Then it came to me. I was retiring an old Dell PowerEdge 1950 to our graveyard when I spotted her, the once powerfull beast was reduced to nothing more than a stepping stool. An old Dell PowerEdge 2900, with the front cover in perfect shape.
Yes that is a tape drive, and it does say Friday on it. I pulled her out and dusted her off. Puller her up to my desk, hooked a monitor/keyboard/mouse, and fired her up. One drive in the array was bad, so no boot. O well, I didn't care about her internals anyway, just the case. One short transaction later, she was mine for a cool $50.01 ( he was asking $50, I bid 49.99 he raised it to 50.01). Took her home and began stripping out the internals. I quickly learned this was no easy swap. Proprietary everywhere.... board, power supply, power button, fan connectors. EVERYTHING... Finally after stripping it down and started doing some testing I learned that I might be able to modify this to fit an ATX motherboard. In comes my problems.....
Here is the tear down. My second post contains the obstacles I need to overcome for this to work. I don't plan on purchasing anything ( already have motherboard and CPU) until I get these bugs worked out first. Once I can swap in a spare ATX and power it on, I'll start ordering like mad
****SEE POST #2 FOR OBSTACLES THAT I NEED HELP OVERCOMING***
Here it all is nicely packed in there
A standard ATX mobo is a good 1/3 the size of the original motherboard
930w each
This is a crazy Power supply redundancy board
This is the SATA board. Not the controller, it provides power connection and a connection to all 8 drives. This connects to the raid controller below.
There is a pretty good change a 360mm radiator will span across this bad boy
Last but not least, my hex monitor setup, all 22"
I still have a bunch of cable management to do with my monitors, but that will probably be redone after I get my tower build.
****Official Build Parts List!***
Intel i5-3570 - Purchased
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z - Purchased
MSI 460 HAWK -Purchased
MSI 460 Hawk - Purchased]
2x 460 waterblock - Purchased]
360mm Radiator - Purchased]
ATI Fire 2400 - Purchased - Turned out to be faulty
Perc 6/i - Purchased
Perc 6/i waterblock - Purchased]
NVidia Quadro NVS 440 - Purchased
Power Supply(s) - Purchased
My rig is already watercooled, I'll be using most of it on this build (pump, CPU, waterblock...)
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