JADS
30-06-2001, 15:37
Well you have to start somewhere and possibly the best place to start is the Cyrus HARK stand as this will be a good place to store all components, and hide the wires in the stand. Adaptable, think I will need 6 shelves.
Right now the stand is there, need something to put on it. So how about 4 CoolerMaster ATC-400 rackmount chassis? Good cooling, plenty of space, aluminium and really rather damn cool. The need for 4 will become apparent.
Lets start with the first component, the motherboard. I'm going for the Tyan Thunder K7, first multi processor AMD motherboard and with some features this system really is going to need, such as 64Bit PCI slots. Should fit fine in the CoolerMaster ATC-400!
Now processors, going for dual AMD 1.2GHz AthlonMP processors. Validated to work in dual configuration and currently the fastest dual x86 setup out there, killing Intel solutions. Should give some killer Quake 3 scores and with the possibility of cheap MP coming soon games should start being written to take advantage of SMP.
1.2GHz is nice, but a bit slow, so taking another ATC-400 it is time to put in some real cooling. Place two Kryotech cooling systems inside the ATC-400 to cool both processors to -40oC and take them to 1.8GHz. That should help the fps no end!
Anyway back to the first ATC-400 we now need some memory, so how about 1GB (4 x 256MB) of Mushkin 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM ECC Registered? Plenty there for memory hungry games! System starting to take shape nicely!
What next? How about a nice GeForce 3 graphics card? The Hercules 3D PROPHET III looks fantastic and goes like anything, so this seems a pretty sensible choice. Blue goes well with silver and black!
Now need a place to store the games. Hard drives, fast hard drives. Going to take up the two remaining ATC-400 chassis for this. Using BiTMicro E-Disk FC235 49152MB HDDs, 1.5" high, so will fit nicely into a 5.25" drive bay. 8 of them in each Chassis, in two RAID 0 arrays. Most likely to generate quite a bit of heat, so put each one in a GlobalWin FBH20 King Kong Cooler (so need 16 of those coolers). So now have two 393216MB well cooled arrays for a total of 786432MB (786GB) of super fast storage.
This will need to be controlled by something, so how about the DPT Millennium Fibre Channel? With the expansion module to add another Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and the cache expanded to the maximum of 256MB this should be a pretty mean controller!
While we are on the subject of drives, in the first ATC-400 (CPU + Motherboard) it would be a good idea to chuck in some optical storage. :) So lets say the Mirai Technologies CRD-BP5-M 24x10x40 CD-RW (SCSI) for some CD writing action, Pioneer's 16x DVD-105 Black (EIDE) for watching those DVDs, Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-RW (SCSI) for creating those DVDs (and CDs) and finally the Panasonic LF-D201U DVD-RAM (SCSI) for a bit of DVD compatibility. The dual channel on board SCSI controller and ATA 100 controller should take care of those! Now for a floppy drive, the Teac 3.5" Black Floppy Disk Drive should do fine, but just to be on the safe side add a Iomega Zip 250MB ATAPI Internal drive.
What else is needed in such a bad ass game system? Ahh yes a gigabit network NIC and a switch to match, :D Going for the D-Link DGS-3208F 8-Port 1000BaseSX Switch and the D-Link DGE-500SX PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC to connect it to, should make for some fun LAN gaming when friends come round!!!
Sound, now there is an intesting area. Lets start with the Hercules Game Theatre XP, solid, well rated sound card and the breakout box will look nice with the rest of the system. Have to add another shelf though. The sound generated will have to be sent somewhere, so I suggest feeding it into the Meridian 568 Surround Decoder. Top quality audio for games, DVDs and music! Finally need some speakers and I think I have found the precise ones I am looking for in the ATC Concept 7 5.1 Speaker System (around £40,000), some reviews claim it to be the best speaker system in the world. If that doesn't raise interest, then maybe sustained 118dB from the sub and 112dB from the speakers might!
Ok quite a lot is sorted, but there is nothing in the cases to power all this, so as each ATC-400 can take two PSUs. 7 Enermax EG651P-VE 550 Watt PSUs will do the trick. The eighth PSU has to be compatible with the AthlonMP platform and as there are only two currently available I will choose the NMB SD025A460WSW 460 Watt PSU. This gives a staggering 4310 watts of sustained power from all 8 PSUs!
Going back to the first ATC-400, there are 4 unused 5.25" drive bays. So amongst the vast quantities of optical storage (or simply beneath), lets fit a Digi-Doc 5 Thermal Control Unit, a NewQ platinum and two PCMods Rheobuses (for controlling Neons/Fans). So that is all the 5.25" drive bays used.
Ok well need to connect everything up now, so lets say a Black Rounded Floppy Cable , two Black Round UDMA100 Cables (connect zip drive to 1 and the DVD to the other), two Black 50pin Rounded SCSI Cables to connect up the SCSI drives and finally some Fibre Channel cables for the HDDs, :)
Now we need a monitor that is trully excellent for playing games on, needs to be very large I think. So how about a LG Electronics PD-60X1 60" Plasma? Should be very good for games and DVD. Not the highest resolution, but you will be sitting quite far back so you shouldn't notice and it does have a very high contrast ratio, 500:1. So we have the monitor!
Right well this casing still looks a bit drab, so how about putting in a PCMods Smoked Black Window Kit into the left and right side of the ATC-400 case? Mount it hoizontally so it fits. That means 8 windows are needed in total. Mind you it would be no good if the cases were not lit up from the inside. So say two PCMods 105 Blue Cold Cathodes mounted either side of the case, just above the window (or just below). Change all the non blue LEDs to Ultra Bright Blue LEDs and paint any drives that are beige to black, finally finish off the lighting by putting CoolCaseMods Blue Neon String round the base of each ATC-400 and each of the five fans to complete the lighting, :)
Talking of fans, remove the center blanking plate from the ATC-400 and replace the standard fan guard with the 80mm Aluminium Mesh Filter and the 80mm Biohazard Laser Cut Grill combination for all three fans at the front and the two at the back. That means 20 of each. Should look pretty mean though, :D!
What else? Ahh yes the Keyboard and Mouse, going for the Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse and the Logitech Cordless iTouch Keyboard... Cordless so you can wander around and they look damn nice to!
Finally to relax in for a good gaming session the HealthTec Deluxe Massage Lounger, the black arms should work well as a large mouse pad, the back massager will keep you relaxed during those tense matches and the inbuilt fridge into the arm will keep food and drink cool for breaks, :)
Howwwwwwzzzzzzzzzzatttt?
James
Right now the stand is there, need something to put on it. So how about 4 CoolerMaster ATC-400 rackmount chassis? Good cooling, plenty of space, aluminium and really rather damn cool. The need for 4 will become apparent.
Lets start with the first component, the motherboard. I'm going for the Tyan Thunder K7, first multi processor AMD motherboard and with some features this system really is going to need, such as 64Bit PCI slots. Should fit fine in the CoolerMaster ATC-400!
Now processors, going for dual AMD 1.2GHz AthlonMP processors. Validated to work in dual configuration and currently the fastest dual x86 setup out there, killing Intel solutions. Should give some killer Quake 3 scores and with the possibility of cheap MP coming soon games should start being written to take advantage of SMP.
1.2GHz is nice, but a bit slow, so taking another ATC-400 it is time to put in some real cooling. Place two Kryotech cooling systems inside the ATC-400 to cool both processors to -40oC and take them to 1.8GHz. That should help the fps no end!
Anyway back to the first ATC-400 we now need some memory, so how about 1GB (4 x 256MB) of Mushkin 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM ECC Registered? Plenty there for memory hungry games! System starting to take shape nicely!
What next? How about a nice GeForce 3 graphics card? The Hercules 3D PROPHET III looks fantastic and goes like anything, so this seems a pretty sensible choice. Blue goes well with silver and black!
Now need a place to store the games. Hard drives, fast hard drives. Going to take up the two remaining ATC-400 chassis for this. Using BiTMicro E-Disk FC235 49152MB HDDs, 1.5" high, so will fit nicely into a 5.25" drive bay. 8 of them in each Chassis, in two RAID 0 arrays. Most likely to generate quite a bit of heat, so put each one in a GlobalWin FBH20 King Kong Cooler (so need 16 of those coolers). So now have two 393216MB well cooled arrays for a total of 786432MB (786GB) of super fast storage.
This will need to be controlled by something, so how about the DPT Millennium Fibre Channel? With the expansion module to add another Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop and the cache expanded to the maximum of 256MB this should be a pretty mean controller!
While we are on the subject of drives, in the first ATC-400 (CPU + Motherboard) it would be a good idea to chuck in some optical storage. :) So lets say the Mirai Technologies CRD-BP5-M 24x10x40 CD-RW (SCSI) for some CD writing action, Pioneer's 16x DVD-105 Black (EIDE) for watching those DVDs, Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-RW (SCSI) for creating those DVDs (and CDs) and finally the Panasonic LF-D201U DVD-RAM (SCSI) for a bit of DVD compatibility. The dual channel on board SCSI controller and ATA 100 controller should take care of those! Now for a floppy drive, the Teac 3.5" Black Floppy Disk Drive should do fine, but just to be on the safe side add a Iomega Zip 250MB ATAPI Internal drive.
What else is needed in such a bad ass game system? Ahh yes a gigabit network NIC and a switch to match, :D Going for the D-Link DGS-3208F 8-Port 1000BaseSX Switch and the D-Link DGE-500SX PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC to connect it to, should make for some fun LAN gaming when friends come round!!!
Sound, now there is an intesting area. Lets start with the Hercules Game Theatre XP, solid, well rated sound card and the breakout box will look nice with the rest of the system. Have to add another shelf though. The sound generated will have to be sent somewhere, so I suggest feeding it into the Meridian 568 Surround Decoder. Top quality audio for games, DVDs and music! Finally need some speakers and I think I have found the precise ones I am looking for in the ATC Concept 7 5.1 Speaker System (around £40,000), some reviews claim it to be the best speaker system in the world. If that doesn't raise interest, then maybe sustained 118dB from the sub and 112dB from the speakers might!
Ok quite a lot is sorted, but there is nothing in the cases to power all this, so as each ATC-400 can take two PSUs. 7 Enermax EG651P-VE 550 Watt PSUs will do the trick. The eighth PSU has to be compatible with the AthlonMP platform and as there are only two currently available I will choose the NMB SD025A460WSW 460 Watt PSU. This gives a staggering 4310 watts of sustained power from all 8 PSUs!
Going back to the first ATC-400, there are 4 unused 5.25" drive bays. So amongst the vast quantities of optical storage (or simply beneath), lets fit a Digi-Doc 5 Thermal Control Unit, a NewQ platinum and two PCMods Rheobuses (for controlling Neons/Fans). So that is all the 5.25" drive bays used.
Ok well need to connect everything up now, so lets say a Black Rounded Floppy Cable , two Black Round UDMA100 Cables (connect zip drive to 1 and the DVD to the other), two Black 50pin Rounded SCSI Cables to connect up the SCSI drives and finally some Fibre Channel cables for the HDDs, :)
Now we need a monitor that is trully excellent for playing games on, needs to be very large I think. So how about a LG Electronics PD-60X1 60" Plasma? Should be very good for games and DVD. Not the highest resolution, but you will be sitting quite far back so you shouldn't notice and it does have a very high contrast ratio, 500:1. So we have the monitor!
Right well this casing still looks a bit drab, so how about putting in a PCMods Smoked Black Window Kit into the left and right side of the ATC-400 case? Mount it hoizontally so it fits. That means 8 windows are needed in total. Mind you it would be no good if the cases were not lit up from the inside. So say two PCMods 105 Blue Cold Cathodes mounted either side of the case, just above the window (or just below). Change all the non blue LEDs to Ultra Bright Blue LEDs and paint any drives that are beige to black, finally finish off the lighting by putting CoolCaseMods Blue Neon String round the base of each ATC-400 and each of the five fans to complete the lighting, :)
Talking of fans, remove the center blanking plate from the ATC-400 and replace the standard fan guard with the 80mm Aluminium Mesh Filter and the 80mm Biohazard Laser Cut Grill combination for all three fans at the front and the two at the back. That means 20 of each. Should look pretty mean though, :D!
What else? Ahh yes the Keyboard and Mouse, going for the Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse and the Logitech Cordless iTouch Keyboard... Cordless so you can wander around and they look damn nice to!
Finally to relax in for a good gaming session the HealthTec Deluxe Massage Lounger, the black arms should work well as a large mouse pad, the back massager will keep you relaxed during those tense matches and the inbuilt fridge into the arm will keep food and drink cool for breaks, :)
Howwwwwwzzzzzzzzzzatttt?
James