At one point, I had a backup system that consisted of an entire PC with two drives, just like my main setup, with virtually identical hardware. All the data (including special windows files like email / address folders, favorites, and any documents) were all in the D drive, which was basically cloned at least once a week from the D drive in the main system to the D drive in the backup. So if there was either data or hardware failure of any kind in the main, the backup was always there, complete with >99% identical data.
Either MikeC error or the satan of geeks struck 10 days ago. Somehow, the entire partition of my data drive got lost, and all the data was lost. The panic lasted a few days while I scrambled to check the drive for physical problems (none), then studied and used software to pull the lost data into a new drive, etc. Disaster was averted, but this experience made me go back to my more paranoid ways. I built another backup machine.
I started with parts around the lab that weren't seeing much use and probably weren't worth much to sell off:
- First prototype of P180 and various parts from development process. Yeah, almost an historical artifact. In really sad shape, scratched to h..., dusty, with both black and silver panels. Who cares? -- it'd do.
- Asus M2NVP-VN, microATX AM2 board based on nVidia 6150 chipset, a fine set of features. The integrated graphics (DVI) would do fine for me.
- AMD A64 x2 4600+, an early sample that would be plenty of power.
- Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 HSF -- incredibly simple to install, fan controlled by the motherboard via BIOS on "auto" quiet mode. Simple is good. Check our review, this is a good product and dirt cheap.
- Two 1gb sticks of DDR2 from Corsair... running at 800MHz. Bit of a luxury, but it was around and it works.
- Seagate ST340016A for the OS, it's an "ancient" 40GB Barracuda IV with parallel ATA, totally checked for disk problems, still about the quietest, lowest vibration 3.5" HDD around the lab. Doesn't even need suspension, the silicone grommets on the P180 cages will be enough.
- Maxtor Diamondmax 10/300gb for the data -- a pretty quiet drive with some vibration issues, to be solved by elastic suspension.
- LG DVD-RAM GSA-H22N -- they've been smooth and quiet, esp when kept under ridiculous speed (like 52x or whatever) using software such as Nero drive speed. I bought several a while ago when the Vancouver store Anitecwas having one of their blowouts for like $35 each.
- Seasonic Super Tornado 350, a misnamed PSU from the king of quiet PSUs, about as old as the Barracuda IV, recycled from another machine. No mods, swaps, plain stock. Still amazingly quiet.
- As for fans, aside from those in the PSU and on the CPU cooler, I planned on having just one. The Antec Tricool 120s are a dime a dozen around here, and poopoo'ed as they often are, when run slow enough, they are very quiet. I set the stock exhaust fan up for 7V operation, run the switch on low. The fan takes a few seconds but starts eventually. Will have to keep an eye on that, as wear on the fan bearing may make it not start at all on turn on.
It's the lower drive cage with 2 clothing elastic bands (prototypes for Antec's 2nd version of the suspension loops in their P150) secured with 4 plastic cable ties (zap straps). The locking head is larger than the holes I drilled.
The finished system. Cables are run mostly on the back side of the motherboard tray, a couple right under the motherboard. The middle metal fan holder in the bottom is removed -- just use a hammer and a chisel on the 4 rivet heads; takes seconds. The extra slack in the cables to the lower HDD is there to avoid mechanically "short-circuiting" the elastic suspension; you want to keep it free floating. The back fan is held with specialized rubber pins in 2 opposite corners and pieces of double side foma sticky tape on the other corners; I couldn't find any more pins.
This shows the CPU cooler, RAM, and a pieces of packing foam used to block off the top vent, which is not necessary for this system. The fom does not stop all airflow, though; you can feel some air stil being pulled through from the topside when the system is running. The AUX12V cable from the PSU is run on this side.
Another piece of packing foam to break up standing waves.
Black electrical tape used to block off additional vent holes around PSU so that its fan pulls from the front vent, thus ensuring airflow across the suspended HDD in the front of the lower chamber.
Here's the hidden cable mess on the far side. Main ATX cable was splayed before being duct taped to keep it flat so the side could be put back on, but the beatup side panel is warped and bows outwards in the middle, it really wasn't a problem.
As mentioned in my recent post, the easiest way to improve intake airflow is to remove the vent doors over the dust filters at the intakes in front. I did that, and in the top chamber intake vent, I removed the filter too. I replaced it with the wiremesh from the "spoiler" cover for the top panel fan. It's just sitting there held in by friction and gravity. The door is always closed anyway, so... (Note how scruffy the black plastic panels look. It's a different finish than the one used in the production black models.)
It's two tone -- sides are silver, front and top are black. Just used the best pieces I had. Looks good enough under the desk where it's hardly seen for the huge mess in the room anyway.
So how does this system work? Very cool, very quiet.
It measures around 22 dBA/1m, but being on carpet and under the desk, it's more or less inaudble under normal conditions. I did try a full CPUBurn test run on it for an hour (which is totally unrealistic given the machine's role as an email / web-surf / photo-edit / html production backup machine). But here are the results, in a 22C/18 dBA environment:
- idle: 60W AC, CPU cores at ~30C, no board temps over 38C, HDDs at 38 & 40C, SPL <22 dBA/1m
- after CPUBurn for 1 hr: 128W AC, CPU cores at 57~54C, no board temps over 41C, HDDs at 41 & 43C, SPL <25 dBA/1m
Is it fast? Very fast with everything, as fast as any other system I've used, including editing of 10 m.pixel photos in photoshop. Pretty good for a motley crew of parts in a near-abandoned prototype case and bits.