SuperSystem – by JohnE
Wow, I can’t believe it fired right up the first time and I started feeding it Disks and copying files over from the other system, installing and configuring and I’ve gotten quite a ways. The CPU meter barely moved, it was like .2% most of the time. The highest I ever saw it get
all night was 12% of CPU and around 16% of memory. SO even though I wasn’t doing much it sure seems like it is going to easily handle whatever I throw at it. As soon as I can get away from external (USB is nice, but relatively slow) drives and FLASH cards and get everything I need on internal (3Gb/second) drives, I will be out of the slower lanes for good!
I think as far as intense programs like graphics software, video editing, playback, system mainetenance and so on like even some heavy duty Games with Artificial Intelligence and Physics Engines I think it will run it all wicked fast! I even got a special router that prioritizes the gaming packets and so on. The Theatre Sound System sure looks great!
I got a nice picture of the box. I won’t be opening it till I get moved. Same with the Wheel and the Novint Robotic Arm Game controllers and the Wireless keyboard and mouse. I will get the final details when I’m all moved and running off of my power protection equip. It’s a fact of the game, that I spent more than most people spend on a computer just for the surge and power protection for this monster. It is nice though, it gives me pure clean sine wave power protection for up to 2400 watts (20amps) worth of equipment.
It has a USB cable that plugs into the computer so that they can talk to each other and the UPS can be completely setup and monitored from the computer. The UPS also monitors the computer and the power of course. I could run my whole room for a half an hour blackout! Anyways, here’s the final pics of the thing being put together, some detailed looks at the work I did and the features I built in and shows it running with some of the lights on and such. I also got most all of my software installed on it today. I got some major ones, I gotta do still but the bulk of them are installed and for the most part configured. It’s great having two monitors, the first upgrade many people should make it to a second monitor or more.
It can more than double your productivity to have more desktop space and seperate monitors! Other application would be having two monitors in different places that both show the same (clone) picture. Or you can merge them both side by side into one giant desktop!
Comments, critique, compliments, questions, inquiries and build proposals welcome!
I realize it is a bit of an overkill for now, but it should be ready for faster chips and so on. SEE BELOW FOR UPDATE FROM BUILDER
John E
Photos are from the builder.
UPDATE
I haven’t really gotten to the point of running benchmarks and trying it out on serious (AI, Physics Engine type) games, HDTV and whatnot is built in, but I am sure it will all be great. I’n not the type to bring the web into my TV so this was the only logical architecture to bring the TV into my WorkStation. So I got it overclocked to 4.2Ghz and it seems to be begging for more, it stays just over 80 F sometimes 90 degrees in the middle of a warm day. But the Aero Watch (front panel) adusts the 4 fan RPMs according to temps. There are more probes on the motherboard itself. I’ve only got one hooked to a fan but the probes alone will give me more temp readouts at critical points. Of course you can see that I found a third party NorthBridge Coolant Block to integrate not only CPU but the six TIMMs (DDR3 Memory is 1866Mhz overclocked to well over 2100Mhz btw) and the entire North South and other parts of the motherboard thru their integrated thermal heat pipes and copper base for the (Swiftech block). I had to get the upgraded LGA1366 Clips for the ThermalTake Armor+ Case/Motherboard/W1 Waterblock) directly from Thermaltake.
A few other modifications just seemed right like the Corsair Fan Placement and putting probes there and controlling the RPM according to temp.
So I ‘ve already got it running great at 4.2Ghz (CPU) and 2200Mhz (DDR3), of course the LGA1366 Socketed motherboards are 6.4Tbs BUSS. I’ve got the newest (brand new) Western Digital Velociraptor 300Gb, 10,000RPM (2.5″) drive as primary, nothing but installed O.S. and applications on it. I’ve then got four 1.5TB Seagate Baraccuda drives (32Mb Cache, 7200 Rpm, 3Gb/s) that I use for storage. For a total of 6.3Tbs of Storage!
For now I just use Drives 4 & 5 to backup Drives 2 & 3. The Backup Drives being unplugged when not in use. Drive 1 is backed up to a 1Tb external USB drive. Eventually, I will get 5Tb more external and have a total of 12Tbs of storage. 6 in use and 6 for backups.
The monitors seem absolutely vivid! And you may have noticed that I’ve got the Double Video (Diamond Radeon) card in PCI_x16_Slot3 leaving PCI_x16_Slot1 and Slot2 open! Imagine putting two more 4870 vid-cards in those!
I’ve also got the Yamaha 5.1 Theatre Sound System (Sound Blaster came with the Rampage II Extreme) Also not shown, the Logitech MOMO Racing Force Feedback Wheel and Pedal Set. Several Cams, Tritton 8 Speaker per ear GamePro HeadPhones, Logitech Cordless Wave Keyboard and Mouse, Novint Falcom 3d Game Controller (have you ever seen these they are radical, it’s a robot arm that moves in all directions possible!)
Of course I got a 2400 watt (industrial strength) Tripplite Uninteruptable Power Supply that can have more (modular) batteries added to it. The UPS hooks up to the computer via USB port and so they monitor each other and I can setup the UPS from the computer.
Comments:
March 16th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
very nice build. now when can i have it
March 18th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I’m curious. How much did this cost? I’d estimate at least $6500, but it could very well be as much as $9000.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:58 am
personally i’d go with a little less tangle with power cabling at the back, but i’m very picky at everything being neat little coils and straight lines all in order along the backside of the motherboard tray.
very nice system
Zanarchy- the system shouldnt be more than around 4grand based on whats in it. i7 920, ram and water cooling would only run to about $1000 maybe $1200 depending on how much the waterblocks were. then the raptor(could have gone SSD and saved some cash if you only have OS on it) and 5drives at 1.5TB are under $200 each now. so thats another $1500 max. the Radeon 4870 is only around $400 (could have gone with a pair of 1GB 9800 GT’s for the price of the 4870, would give you higher performance by 25-30% on dual monitors)
again very nice build, keep us updated on the OC rates and upgrades