UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Lee's Ubuntu-powered BAMF

[Lee_Stricklin]

Had some seriously bad luck with a surge protector (Belkin Construction-Grade) and my last PC blew up so I'm building a new one (mostly) from the ground up. This is going to be a far-cry from my last setup that still had AGP, DDR1, and a 478 socket.


850 WATT Power Supply- $50-Received

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AK850&cat=PWR


Frickin Mean-ass Video Card- $185-Ordered
1 GB RAM, 256 bit, and EXTREMELY fast

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814187056


4 GB (2 2GB sticks) RAM at 1066MHz- $70-Received

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231184


BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX Motherboard- $110-Received

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813138130


AMD Phenom II 3 GHz Quad Core 6MB Cache- $275

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103471


Full Tower Case- $60-Received

http://www.outletpc.com/c0717.html


GPU/CPU/Case Cooling
----------------------------------
Heatsink $14-Ordered

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR- ... _5_rlrsrs1

Aluminum Fans $10 X 4-Received

http://www.xoxide.com/12alcasfan.html

Thermal Grease $6-Received

http://www.crazypc.com/products/50212.html

VGA Heatsink- Free with my video card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835191014


Parts I already have
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DVD Burner (I have 2 of them)- $25

http://www.directron.com/dh20a4h06.html


Hard Drive- $65

http://www.memoryc.com/storage/internal ... 10ide.html


Ubuntu Dome Case Stickers- $3

http://shop.canonical.com/product_info. ... cts_id=125


Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit- FREE

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

[Silica Gel: Do Not Eat]

Not sure on the power supply.
I wouldn't buy a cheap no name brand PS.

[Lee_Stricklin]

Not sure on the power supply.
I wouldn't buy a cheap no name brand PS.

It seems pretty solid, sleeved cables are pretty nice, and it has all the connectors I would need for SLI and Crossfire (though it's not certified for either) as well as all the connectors I would need for a newer board like the one I have. I've never heard of A-Power though I think I'll try it out in another older system I have lying around before I try booting up my system with it. Out of the box though it seems solid, has the power ratings I need (amps, watts, etc.), and all the connectors.

[Ed]

850 WATT Power Supply- $50-Received

Bad idea. There is absolutely no way you need that much power for this system. Buy a decent 400-500W power supply instead.

Full Tower Case- $60-Received

An Antec or a Silverstone would be better. As you're having a small number of drives, use a smaller case. Otherwise you're just wasting airflow and won't get good cooling.

Heatsink $14-Ordered

It may be big but it's not clever. It's not particularly good either. Get a Xigmatek instead.

Aluminum Fans $10 X 4-Received

These fans aren't great. Get some Noctua's, Scythe's or Yate Loon's.

Could you perhaps instead actually list the components as some of these links break for users outside of the US? I'm hoping the graphics card cooler you're discussing is an Accelero S1.

[Lee_Stricklin]

850 WATT Power Supply- $50-Received

Bad idea. There is absolutely no way you need that much power for this system. Buy a decent 400-500W power supply instead.

Full Tower Case- $60-Received

An Antec or a Silverstone would be better. As you're having a small number of drives, use a smaller case. Otherwise you're just wasting airflow and won't get good cooling.

Heatsink $14-Ordered

It may be big but it's not clever. It's not particularly good either. Get a Xigmatek instead.

Aluminum Fans $10 X 4-Received

These fans aren't great. Get some Noctua's, Scythe's or Yate Loon's.

Could you perhaps instead actually list the components as some of these links break for users outside of the US? I'm hoping the graphics card cooler you're discussing is an Accelero S1.

Damn you seem to know your stuff. The VGA cooler I ordered is a Sparkle Calibre which has two fans, four heat pipes, and is made of straight copper. I thought the case was huge when I first got it, but now that I've seen the video card and not to mention the heatsink (holyshit!) I'm gonna need the space. I think you may be right about the power supply (though my VGA requires at minimum a 450 watt), the thing outputs more watts than I need and if I were to do a SLI I would still be stuck swapping it out for one that outputs more amps (I guess that's what I get for buying budget). As for the fans: they should get the job done, they have decent motors and because they're aluminum they can almost double as a heatsink. As for the heat sink: my dumbass didn't realize exactly how HUGE this was going to be until I took a look at two 120mm fans side by side. The worst case scenario would be me cutting part of my side panel and replacing the section with mesh. Thanks for your input.


Parts List:
Spire Swordfin Server Case
G Skill dual channel 4 GB (2x 2GB sticks) 1066 MHz DDR2 kit
Cooler Master GeminII Heatsink
2x LiteOn DVD burners with (useless) Lightscribe SATA
320 GB, 16MB cache Seagate Barracuda IDE (pulled from another PC)
A Freakin' Floppy
Sparkle Nvidia Geforce 9800 1GB, 256 bit architecture
A-Power AK series 850 Watt PSU
Biostar TA790GX 128M
AMD Phenom II X4 3GHz
Sparkle Calibre copper VGA cooler
4X 120mm Evercool aluminum fans- 1 exhaust, 1 intake, 2 CPU heatsink

OS/Software:
Ubuntu 8.10 Linux 64 bit + 32 bit libraries
Fluendo Complete 32 bit
Tons of games (you read that right, this is a LINUX GAMING RIG!!!)
WINE
Play on Linux
Crossover games
Power DVD

Misc./Extra crap:
Arctic Silver Thermal Grease
Hex Mesh (for fan grills)
(Maybe) An official CGS X-Fi sound card
Ubuntu stickers

[Psychcf]

+1 for scythe fans, they're really quiet and work great

[Ed]

The VGA cooler I ordered is a Sparkle Calibre which has two fans, four heat pipes, and is made of straight copper.

I've had a look at I think it's a rebadged Arctic-Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo. Not a bad heatsink but also available aftermarket as is the Accelero S1 which you could then strap a pair of 120mm fans too.

I thought the case was huge when I first got it, but now that I've seen the video card and not to mention the heatsink (holyshit!) I'm gonna need the space.

You won't actually need the space for this size of heatsink. By adding the space you'll actually hit cooling performance by introducing a gap between the front intake fan and the graphics card. I use a bigger heatsink, the aforementioned Accelero S1 in a Silverstone SG03 which is a uATX case. About 30mm gap to the front fans:

though my VGA requires at minimum a 450 watt

Any PSU 'requirement' stated for a consumer graphics card should be ignored. The max TDP for a 9800GT is 105W, that's less than 9A on a 12V line. You would be able to run this proposed system on a 300W PSU, adding in some headroom might be worthwhile but only up to the ~500W mark. A Seasonic or one of it's rebadged siblings (Corsair) or an Enermax would be more reliable, cooler, more efficient and a whole load quieter. If you want SLI, you only need a spare 105W overhead but SLI is inherently inefficient both electrically and from a manufacturing aspect. You'd be better off replacing the card rather than buying another obsolete one to run as well.

As for the fans: they should get the job done, they have decent motors and because they're aluminum they can almost double as a heatsink.

I wouldn't say the motors on them are that great. They're basically a very cheap unit that's built out of aluminium for marketing rather than performance reasons. Aluminium is not a good material for fans making them loud. They also won't work as heatsinks, things don't work quite like that.

As for the heat sink: my dumbass didn't realize exactly how HUGE this was going to be until I took a look at two 120mm fans side by side. The worst case scenario would be me cutting part of my side panel and replacing the section with mesh. Thanks for your input.

The GeminII is a top down cooler which are generally considered inferior for CPU cooling compared to a tower cooler. Their only advantages are that they can fit in a lower profile area (my SG03 has one) and that fan airflow also cools components on the motherboard. The GeminII itself is a pretty average top down cooler despite being so big. The big Noctua top down cooler is probably the best out there but the price reflects it.

Sparkle Nvidia Geforce 9800 1GB

Not sure about this. The extra video RAM is unlikely to be a major help. Unless it's going for a similar price, steer clear. Even if it is a similar price, make sure it's using the same spec of RAM chips as the 512Mb. Frequently high-RAM models have lower spec RAM modules with worse timings. This may not affect clock frequency but may lead to lower performance and no overclocking potential. These cards also potentially use more power and may have unusual board layouts that prevent replacing of graphics card cooling with a simple off the shelf solution.

Be careful with 9800GT specs in general. If it's a 65nm card, leave it in 2007 where it belongs. These were just rebadged 8800GT's. More modern cards are 55nm.

[Lee_Stricklin]

The card I picked up is a 2008 model and wasn't much more than a 512 MB Geforce 9800. Also I got the cooler for free with the card. I guess bits and pieces of my system may be overkill while my cooling may need improvement. Thanks again for the pointers, this is only my second build.

[Lee_Stricklin]

(not that anybody cares lol) I had this thing completed for a while now and it owns. The only problems I had with it were getting the damn graphics drivers to work (Ubuntu supplied one is garbage) the usual problems associated with using free tools to run Windows and DoS applications and I would say it's a little loud since I didn't bother to enable that cool n quiet crap, but that's what I have sound for (which ALSA drivers do a damn good job of utilizing). I see everybody thinks I'm a n00b with computers lol.

[tZork]

Well, the "cool n quiet crap" will save your ears, your wallet, make your hardware live longer and is way better for the environment. so id recommend you turn that crap on