Abit BP6 / Dual Celeron Report

Reece Hart  2000/04/09 08:04 
1) Abit BP6, 2-500 Mhz Celerons, 384MB PC100 RAM, not overclocked (yet)
2) 2.2.14, up & smp, kernel NFS
3) SCSI: Adaptec 2940U (SEAGATE  ST118273N, ST15150W, ST34371N, DDS3 tape)
   IDE: 10Gb WD (yuck) drive (not ATA/66)
   Net: 2-3Com 3C905B 100bT network controllers
   serial: Best Power Supply ups, palm pilot cradle
4) RH 6.0, morphed into a mutt by various RPM updates, additions, etc.
5) development, scientific/numerical apps, mp3 ripping+encoding
6) Moderately good performance, although numerical apps compiled with g77
   were unimpressive (probably g77 more than celerons).  No other
   benchmarks run yet.  I was originally worried about SMP stability, but
   this setup shows no problems in that regard: uptimes of ~10 days
   (it's a new machine) under occasionally heavy loads.  More info at
   http://www.in-machina.com/~reece/bp6.html
7) apx: 140$US/BP6 + 2*100$/Celeron + 3*90$/128MB = $610!

• I bought stuff from Computer X-Press. I strongly recommend against using them: 1) was overcharged for several items; 2) I was told it would ship immediately, but didn't ship for 10 days, and then only after 6 phone calls; 3) my card, however, was charged immediately though several items weren't even in stock; 4) they are almost impossible to reach and my numerous voice and email messages have not been returned. I have had to resort to disputing the charges with my credit card company.
• Directron prices and responsiveness were outstanding. I'd go there. (I have no connection with them other than a three-time customer.)

• Enlight Mid-Tower ATX Computer Cases with 300W power supply & case fan
  7231 DTK OEM, VTI 7237 CS-Mid-En-A300 *Model Choice = VTI 7237(+5)
  second case fan (see Directron)
• Abit BP-6 (SMP 1.4 set in BIOS)
• 2x 500 Mhz Celerons (not overclocked)
• 384MB PC-100 RAM (3x 128MB modules)
• Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI controller, with:
  • Seagate ST118202LW 18Gb drive
  • Seagate ST118273N 18Gb drive
  • 2x Seagate ST34371N 4Gb drives
  • Seagate 12/24 Python DDS3 tape
• 10Gb Western Digital (yuck) IDE drive (not ATA/66)
  How'd I fit all these drives? The 10Gb drive is mounted on the side of the front fan/speaker shell.
• Matrox G400 dual head (1 in use)
• SoundBlaster Live!
• 2x 3Com 3C905B 100bT network controllers
• Best Power Supply UPS
• palm pilot cradle
• linux 2.2.16, roughly derived from RedHat 6.2