/ Register

The Ultimate Gamester ! PC Spec ~ $6,000 - $7,000 USD

Discussion in 'Off-Topic' started by Viperstrike, May 16, 2011.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Page 4 of 5
  1. Jul 11, 2011 #61
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Counter offer received on the original 32RU unit, down to 900 delivered.
    I love it when suppliers compete for a sale :)
     
  2. Jul 11, 2011 #62
    Neuromancer

    Neuromancer Brainstormers Official Brain Glue

    Beware of the dreaded Asus support/download service
     
  3. Jul 11, 2011 #63
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Yes that is something to consider, however to date no problems thus far with Asus *knock on wood*
     
  4. Jul 11, 2011 #64
    aridash

    aridash large throbbing member

    i didnt see about all the other peripherals, i can certainly appreciate the space saving and tidiness of using a cabinet. i was going to mention you might find a half height one cheaper, but it seems you need the full height.

    you have 350 games? :what: 350 notable games even exist on steam :D
     
  5. Jul 11, 2011 #65
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    I got the 32RU today for 900 delivered, it is a better quality unit and slighly cheaper.

    No, I have about 100, my brother has many, but many of them are the same since you have to buy for each user.
    He is into the mega packs where you get 20 games in 1 bundle. Not really something I am into :)

    Entropia and the occassional game like Dragon Age, Witcher, Two Worlds etc are more my thing.
     
  6. Jul 12, 2011 #66
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Its beautiful and OMG its huge, yet very easy on the eyes.
    I just received a 27" Asus LED monitor.

    P_500.jpg
     
  7. Jul 13, 2011 #67
    Tanacious Darkshine D.

    Tanacious Darkshine D.

    I must of missed the part about the storage server. Yes the Eco drives are crapola. I always tell people that try to get cheap with me they can get a recycled HDD hehe, but it has only a 6 month warranty on it from us. I don't know of anyone that has had any luck with the "green" drives.

    I always go with black, I like heavy ball bearings, sturdy moving parts, and especially a 5 year warranty. If I have to shell out another 20 for that piece of mind that it won't break on me as soon as I stick it in a machine, so be it.

    @aridash --- IT porn... I love it. ya there is.

    I would hope that you check out the intrest for small business web dev services in your area first. I would ensure you have at least enough that are ready with checkbooks in hand to sign you the check to warrant your trunk line, or you may end up having it for only a handful of businesses.

    Scope is important too. (sorry for the marketing lecture, but it's free advice from someone in the profession.) Small businesses always have a very limited potential when you sign them. They are small, rarely will take an upgrade package if not absolutely needed, and your type of service will be the first they look to cut if things go bad for the business financially because most a good portion of SB owners still see web services as a fringe perk, not a life line to the digital world.

    Going the other way: Although you may be able to service their needs for the right now, what happens if that client goes into a major growth period and jumps classifications to a mid? Can you offer them the service and the dedication as well as the tech to keep them using you? Will they outgrow you, and look for a bigger service provider?

    My recomendation is that you prepare yourself for the reality that you will have to set yourself up to change out for a large client overnight. Literally. Otherwise with staying with the scope of small businesses for your target, you are in a manner, limiting your growth potential to theirs. Your goal should be reaching your next expansion mark. The only way you are going to do that quickly is with either a legion of small businesses, which can be difficult to manage on your own, or going after 3 or 4 "big fish". These may be some MB's that are booming, and have been for a while. They may not know how to take their business from mid to any higher, because they may not be familiar with all the tech aspects of it. Talk about a financial as well as reputation opportunity!

    My overall point is this... ignore the price tag of the tech you are looking at for a moment, and look at the median use you will need for your web development service. If it fits that, you are good, if it isn't quite enough, get a little more, if it is too much... well this is what I tell people about the too much scenario:

    If you have it, and never use it, which in all likelyhood is as improbable as an asteroid striking my house, it is still a far cry better than NOT having it, and the day comes where you realize that you NEED it.

    Otherwise, your revised specs look quite healthy both economically and sound as builds that will give you performance. Maybe not extreme performance, but it is kind of silly in a financial respect to spend 1.5-2K more unless there are multiple uses besides gaming for it. But I am right there with you, if money grew on trees, I would have 10 of the extreme machines running nothing but games!!

    On a final note, you may also want to look into the possibility of offering managed web services rather than just "somewhere to put yer assorted shight" STPYAS for short, services. Dunno if that is your intent or not, but figured I would throw it out there. The managed services can be a double edged sword though, because often SB owners will come up with new challenges for you on a daily basis. I remember when I was a web development director, it was... well... interesting to say the least.

    Man this thread is interesting... ty for starting it and keeping us apprised.
     
  8. Jul 13, 2011 #68
    Etopia

    Etopia

    Memory: 2 x 12Gb (24Gb) Dominator® GT Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMT12GX3M3A2000C9)

    Dont you need 3 of them so they can operate in tripple chanel ?
     
  9. Jul 13, 2011 #69
    khaos

    khaos DnB'addict

    I believe he has two sets of triple channel RAM, thus 6 stick of RAM ;)
     
  10. Jul 13, 2011 #70
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Hi Etopia,

    On the new socket-2011 motherboards, each channel is a dedicated 1 piece channel.
    They will initially be released with 4 channels (4 x 64-bit slots) rather than dual or tripple channels.

    Asus commonly releases a higher spec board as do a few other manufacturers which will have 8 seperate channels.
    This will allow you to use each channel seperately to put ram in since they are dedicated single channels only.

    So I will spec up the new system with 4 x 4Gb modules to give 16Gb
    And have a spare 4 slot open for later if I wish to spec up to 32Gb

    That is how it was explained at the last computer show anyway.
    I guess we will have to wait and see what happens when they are released.
     
  11. Jul 13, 2011 #71
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Hi Darkshine,

    At first this will be more of a hobby than a business, so the expendure is not so much a hassle as it will be something I enjoy doing and have the time free to do and manage.

    My target audience will be small businesses offering basic websites with ecommerce functionality if needed.

    I have been looking into Enkompass from CPanel (Windows version) as a web hosting control system -

    http://www.cpanel.net/products/

    Although, even though you miss out on a few of the features, Parrallels offer a more flexible starter package which only costs $ 70/month, includes Plesk panel, sitebuilder and billing addon -

    http://www.parallels.com/au/store/plesk/win/

    Another to consider is HSphere, which I will look more into later.

    The Plesk product line would be more the way I would likely jump being a leased line of products which are easier for taxation purposes to account for as running costs.

    Both these products will integrate well with Windows Server 2008 with IIS.

    I am more of a windows person than a linux person, which has its draw backs, however ease of use is important.
    Noted there are more security aspects which need to be maintained with Windows products.

    However, this will not be started until I have the NBN installed -
    www.nbn.gov.au

    As far as the storage solution goes, I am going to opt with going for RAID 6, dual parity, 5 drives, giving 9TB out of 15TB, 6TB will be used for the dual parity, meaning I can lose upto 2 drives while still operating. (Although I would replace the first dead drive before a second dies *knock on wood*)

    This way I will get the full life out of each drive, replacing them only at their time of death.

    800px-RAID_6_svg.png

    RAID 6 with five disks (disk 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) and each group of blocks (orange, yellow, green, and blue) have two distributed parity blocks that are distributed across the five disks. (FYI for those that were unsure)

    Cheers,
    Viper
     
  12. Jul 14, 2011 #72
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    One thing I have been asked about though don't know too much about is crypto support for financial information.
    I have a business interested in hosting a website for their customers wanting to log in and look up financials.

    All that comes to mind is being able to ensure them that I can encrypt their domain storage, but it won't stop hackers from entering the system per se if an attempt is made and they are good at what they do.

    I have said that I can place their data into an encrypted volume using TrueCrypt or DriveCrypt AES-256 bit encryption. It will ensure that if I am broken into and somehow they manage to steal the drives, they are protected that way.

    http://www.truecrypt.org/ & http://www.securstar.com/home.php

    As far as website crypto engines go, this is an area is somewhat unknown to me.

    I guess I will have to do more research on certificate style technologies ?

    If anyone knows, help of a good place to start would be nice :)

    At the moment I am looking into SSL with Verisign.

    http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/how-ssl-security-works/
     
  13. Jul 14, 2011 #73
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Alternate RAID controller found for RAID-6 implementation
    This may be the better way to go than the highpoint controller since it is more widely used and supported.

    Intel RS2BL080 RAID Controller
    - 8xSAS/SATA (via 2-Port Mini-SAS Internal SFF-8087)
    - 256MB Cache
    - Low Profile - PCI-Ex8
    - Cables Included

    Tech Spec - http://www.techbuy.com.au/images/addit/13/File13198119772.pdf

    TB - http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/131981/...RIAL_ATTACHED_SCSI_(SAS)_C/Intel/RS2BL080.asp

    It is around the same price, dropped from $ 800ish recently to $ 615.
    It has true native support for 6Gb SAS-II drives and is PCI-E 2.0 spec.
    Cables included, whereas the cables are not with the highpoint model.

    RS2BL080_lg.jpg
     
  14. Jul 14, 2011 #74
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Delays on my order of casing till the end of the month have been a pain, so naturally I cancelled those quoted above. I switched to a new case supplier and ordered Norcotek rackmount cases which have a better internal layout.

    http://www.norcotek.com/RPC-450.php

    • 4U rackmount design,meets EIARS-310C standard.
    • 3 x 5.25" drive bays, 10 x 3.5 " drive bays
    • Easy drive mounting with 24 screwless rails
    • Support EEB (12"x13"), CEB(12"x10.5"), ATX (12"x9.6"), Micro ATX (9.6" x 9.6") motherboard
    • Screwless top cover
    • 2 x 120mm ball bearing front fans, 2 x 80mm optional rear fans for better ventilation
    • Lockable front panel door
    • Front accessible USB port
    • Easy-accessed front changeable air filter
    • Smooth border prevent lacerating your skin
    
    rpc450_6.jpg rpc-450.jpg

    All case fans are being replaced with Antec Tri-Cool 3 speed fans.
    2 x 120mm front & 2 x 80mm rear.
     
  15. Jul 14, 2011 #75
    John BD

    John BD Subwoofers rock.

    i would personaly buy second fastest becouse fastest is a realy waste of cash when u got seconds after 1 month anyway.
    depo the rest in the game and support us all lol
     
  16. Jul 14, 2011 #76
    aridash

    aridash large throbbing member

    you should probably know that encrypting data is slow, and i believe having encryption on one vloume of you array will slow all the others. ie, if you encrypt, keep it to a seperate array if you are interested in performance.

    also, RAID 6... no one uses it. well, not outside enterprise solutions like Netapp. its too hungry over RAID 5 and drives just aren't that unreliable. a more practical approach to mitigate the change of two drive failures would be to keep a spare drive on site to replace immediatly. (some NAS devices like HP MSA have this built in with a hot spare in the array ready, not sure you can buy a controller to support this.)

    if you are that concerned about data retention, you really should be diverting funds to a backup solution anyway. i wonder if commercial clients would care or feel confident about RAID 6 over RAID 5, rather than RAID 5 + backup. people understand backups. after all, what happens to RAID 6 if 3 drives fail...:what::cry:

    also, in a domestic envirnoment, you're probably more likly to have a read/write failure due to power supply issues... there is a UPS feeding all this right? and the server has redundant PSUs right? ;) i could go on, have 10 years admin and datacenter experience. remember Murphy's law: if it can go wrong it will. accept this and plan how to handle the event rather than try to cover every contingency
     
  17. Jul 14, 2011 #77
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Your right aridash,

    I will give this more thought. Having a closer look at RIAD 6, it doubles the processing requirements of the raid controller to recalculate the parity twice that of a RAID-5 implementation.

    The goal will be to have this disk array as redundant as possible, but not to the point where it degrades performance too much. The encryption if hardware will limit the IO of the array to 300 Mbytes per second if I use the DE model of that Intel raid controller.

    If I use software encryption, it will also be 500+Mbytes/sec processed in memory using Truecrypt AES-256, but it will chew cpu cycles. Maybe keeping two volumes seperated may be the way to go in mirrored format. 3TB that is, 3TB that isn't encrypted.

    I may also look at two servers down the track if necessary, one role assigned to fileserving & encrypting and the other assigned to IIS7.x functions, web, dns, mail, panel control etc. However I can for the time being keep it to one server until the service grows from hobby into small business.

    It is true I have to look at the possibility of break and enter protection, theft of equipment, even though it will be in a secured cabinet. However, I do intend to make a tape backup monthly of server data that I will keep in a safe place.

    I may have to decrease the size of the drives used also as expense of all this seems to be growing.

    As far as the UPS goes, yes, I have a APC 2200VA 1980W on order atm which has been delayed to the end of the month. I am also looking at an alternative EATON 3000VA 2700W which is 800 dollars cheaper @ ~ $ 1100.00

    http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/120572/UPS_RACKMOUNT/EATON/PW5130i3000-XL2UAU.asp
     
  18. Jul 14, 2011 #78
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

  19. Jul 14, 2011 #79
    Viperstrike

    Viperstrike

    Hey John,

    I already have a EU budget which I deposit regularly into EU :)
    Fun game, still working my way up from noober status though :D
     
  20. Jul 14, 2011 #80
    Pirx Danford

    Pirx Danford

    Hey, if you are looking at speed maybe give RAID 10 some consideration.
    And RAID6 only makes sense if you actually expect two hard drives to fail, but then I would still just use a RAID5 with a spare disk included and set up in the array.
     
Page 4 of 5
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...