[dba-Tech] How to revive an XP POS PC

Tydda Jon - Lonza Slough jon.tydda at lonza.com
Tue Aug 26 02:35:51 CDT 2014


Scan delivers - I always use them myself. They're based in Bolton, Lancashire (which is about 200 miles from me, so I don't drive there either!). Very good prices, and their technical people know their stuff. I had a problem with the motherboard I bought in January - it just wouldn't fire up, so I sent it back, they reflashed the ROM, and sent it back, and it all worked fine the next time I tried it.


Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 11:51 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] How to revive an XP POS PC

The only comment I could make of that fine selection of hardware is to put in a good water cooling unit. They are not as complex as they use to be, in fact I was shown one where it just snaps in. Water cooling has a couple of advantages; one, you can over-clock the CPU, with no heating concerns and two, the water cooling unit is much quieter than multiple fans needed for a real beast with its high-end video card.

That seems like a great store for parts and pieces...hard to drive there though.

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Breen" <marklbreen at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 2:55:49 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] How to revive an XP POS PC

Hello All,
I have mentioned it on here before, but because I love it so much, please endure me commenting again ;)

A few years ago, I listened to a Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood podcast.
 They were discussing the ultimate developers machine.  After almost an hour of discussion, they finalised it by saying "Jedi warrriors build their own light sabres".

Well I am not quite a Jedi warrior but I decided to build a machine anyway.
 Had not built a PC in 20 years.  Until then, I had presumed that buying Dell was good enough.  I have since built about 20 - 50 machines for various friends, family and a very limited few customers.

*Speed*
The first thing that I did not know was that Intel sell their chips with a marked speed, eg i7 *3.5Ghz*.  All the PC manufacturers supply motherboards that accept that speed and do not allow you to modify it.  By purchasing an OEM motherboard, you can simply go into your bios and change the speed up to 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 and even 4.8GHz.  Each chip has its own limits.  These machines then become extremely fast.  Here are some examples of processor costs just approx to give you a sense of the scale

i3 €88
i5 €180
i7 €233

There are other overclocking tricks you can do to get even more, but I ignore them all.  My overclocking process lasts not more than 30 seconds.


*Quality*
There are cheap and nasty cases and powersupplies.  eg a case for €25 and a PSU for €15.  There are even case and PSU combined for €25.  However, there are cases for €50 - €60 and beautiful power supplies for €50.  These are a pleasure to work with, to assemble and to own.

*Silence*
The higher quality components are virtually silent.  That means, in a silent office, you cannot, or almost cannot hear the PSU fan moving.  To add to that, I then use only SSD disks.  My PC is then as noisy as my pencil.

*Time Required to build a machine*
Choosing components - Hours and Days
Unpacking cardboard - 20 - 30 mins
Building the machine 20 - 60 mins
Fiddling with the cables to make them .1 % tidier - hours if you wish Looking at it afterwards with the love a father had for his son - a lifetime


*Cooling*
There is a lot of talk about cooling.  I usually install a CPU cooler that costs approx €20.  My processor almost never rises above warm.  When I build silent machines, I disconnect the CPU fan and then monitor the temp.
 It usually rises a few degrees and then settles down and convection cooling works fine.  With no fan connected, my CPU still never rises above
50 degrees Celsius.  This is quite cool for a CPU.  The limit is 100 Degrees Celsius.



The formatting of the following text is horrible, but it is simple three tab separated columns.

Examples of Costs
*A budget machine*
Ecomony Case Antec VSK-3000E Micro-ATX Black Case No PSU €25.06 Corsair High Quality PSU Corsair Builder Series 80+ Bronze CMPSU-430CXV2UK 430W Power Supply (PSU) €38.22 AMD Six Core Procerror AMD FX 6300 Black Edition Six Core Processor Socket
AM3+ €80.04
Asus Motherboard Asus M5A97 R2.0 AMD 970 AM3+ Motherboard Socket AM3+
€68.79
8GB RAM 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V  €68.57
1 TB Seagate Traditional Disk 1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache 8ms NCQ OEM  €42.18 CPU Fan Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2 S775/115x/1366/AM3/AM2+/AM2/939 Up to 130 Watts  €19.09 Case Fan 120mm AKASA AK-191BL near Silent Imperial Blue value case fan
€5.17
Wired MS Wired Keyboard 200 for Business, USB Port, Black €7.61 Wired (option for Wireless) MS Basic Optical Mouse for Business Black 3 Button with Scroll Wheel PS2/USB PC/MAC  €8.30 DVD Read/Write Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x12 RAM Dual Layer SATA BLACK OEM  €14.29 Total €377.32


*A large machine*
High Quality Case Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Gaming Case Black No PSU
€63.21
Corsair High Quality PSU 750W Corsair Builder Series CX CP-9020015-UK Non-Modular, 80 PLUS Bronze, Single Rail, 1x120mm Fan, ATX v2.31 PSU
€71.47
Top of the range Intel Intel Core i7-4790K Socket 1150 'Devils Canyon'
(22nm) Quad Core Processor Retail with Heat Sink Fan €265.38 Asus Motherboard Asus Z87-K Intel Z87 Socket 1150 Motherboard €87.01
16 GB Ram Corsair Memory XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Dual Channel Desktop €133.54
4 TB x 2 4TB Seagate ST4000DM000 Desktop HDD.15, 3.5" HDD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, 5900rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms, NCQ, OEM  €114.62 CPU Fan Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, 4 Heat Pipes Direct Contact, with 120mm Quiet Fan LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1  €27.19 Case Fan 120mm AKASA AK-191BL near Silent Imperial Blue value case fan
€5.10
DVD Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x12 RAM Dual Layer SATA BLACK OEM  €14.10  Total €781.63

Source of components www.scan.co.uk

You can see how you can tweak the values to build the machine  you need.

I hope it is interesting to you.

Mark










On 21 August 2014 09:55, Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:

> Hi Arthur
>
> I don't, but I do buy non-expensive workstations with Xeon processors
> and
> 12+ GB ram. The trick is, that the built-in Intel P6000 graphic
> 12+ processor
> is fast enough for me (no gaming), thus I can save the cost of an
> optional graphics adapter and buy SSD drives. A marvelous combo - life
> it too short for slow machines.
> My home machine always runs the latest Windows preview (soon Windows
> 9) while my office machine runs the latest official Windows (currently 8.1).
>
> /gustav
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:
> dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 9:08 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] How to revive an XP POS PC
>
> Good advice in general, Jim. Just one question: who spends $2k on a PC
> these days? I bought a pretty serious laptop (Dell, with 8GB RAM and
> 1TB hard disk) for $750 and that was almost a year back, so the same
> machine should cost less now. I plugged in an old 22" monitor so it
> now has two screens when it's at home, which is almost always. When I
> go out, I take the Acer Iconia, which is also more than a year old but
> back when it was new it was slightly more than $200.
>
> Arthur
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> dba-Tech mailing list
> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>
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