If any of you guys are into airflow tweaking, swapping fans, adjusting fan speeds and controllers......this is the setup to have. There are an endless number of combinations and settings to try out. There are six different fan controllers for seven different fans. (sounds worse than it is, really)

Since there is enough space, I'm now trying out two 140mm fans for the primary intakes. One is the Zipang that came with the CPU.....works better as an intake than on the CPU heatsink. The other is a green Everflow I got from Felger Carbon.... don't have a clue where it came from. They both run <1000rpms max. At their idle speeds of about 5V, they run 300-400rpms. The FanAmp controller I'm using for them doesn't allow rpm monitoring. At CPU temperature of about 52C, they go to 12V. Too cold today for much temp testing......

Going good so far....

Having a dual setup like this thing, brings on a whole new bunch of problems that are not present with a normal computer. The Rocketfish has a fairly large reset button right under the main power switch. So I use this button to startup the second board.....easy.

Two normal power supplies would be difficult to handle.....a Pico handles the VIA board just fine.

I want to use a single monitor.....a monitor with a DVI and a VGA port is the answer for me, rather than a switch-box/cable setup. Right now if I start either MB, the monitor detects the correct signal without any input from me. Only if I run both boards at once do I need to touch the input button on the monitor.

Then there's the keyboard/mouse/external device problem. I want to use one keyboard, and one mouse, and share other external devices, whether or not either computer is running (these are USB 2.0 devices). Most solutions will only share devices at the slower USB speed. This 2.0 switch with a 2.0 Belkin desktop hub, did the trick. the hub is switched, along with anything attached to the hub. Like the monitor, whichever MB is started first, gets the use of all the external USB devices.....automatically. Only if you switch between boards that are both running, do I ever need to push the button on the USB switch. Working nice so far.

Now that that problem is solved......it's on to the "make the case look like a piece of furniture" thing.

"That case is so big you could probably fit two computers in it...."

Yep.... there are two computers running in there, probably the only setup like this I've ever seen. Actually the physical installation of the boards was relatively easy. Getting the right configuration for switching between the two has been difficult. I'm trying to avoid an external mess of wiring....so I've been trying several setups.

I'm trying a Toshiba Dynadock. It's working rather well. It's an external 6-port USB hub, which has a 10/100 LAN port, a serial port, a complete USB sound system, and a VGA port. I plugged a USB modem into the back of the dock also, plus an external USB DVDRW drive, and the wireless receiver for the keyboard/mouse. So by using the external USB switch, I have most everything I need wired to the Dynadock. I'm not using the VGA out. The computers each have one USB cable attached, plus the video cables. Makes for far fewer wires.

Hit one button on the switch, and everything shifts between the computers, and the monitor automatically selects the right input. Seems to be the easiest/simplest way to deal with this setup. So far anyway.....

And I'm done with the wood shell.....stained, and varnished. It's big and heavy now. I can't lift it anymore, but it rolls easily on the casters.





What's left......fan control. It runs too cool most of the time, and I'm unable to lower the idle fan speed of most of the fans in there, so there's more fan noise than necessary. At 100% CPU usage, the temps are just fine. So I'm considering a different fan control system.....maybe a T-Balancer.