New Hardware Installed, More Coming

The server just got a new old secondary video card (ATI Radeon 9250). It’s not great, but it has eliminated the artifacting I was seeing in the old ATI Radeon 7500. Maybe the old one crapped out because it lost its heatsink a few years ago; hard to say. Regardless, that’s why the server went down for half an hour.

There are more upgrades on the horizon. Currently my layout is one gaming/productivity system (Running Vista RTM) and one SQL/Web/File/Media server which doubles as a multimon productivity system. Today I ordered a
new CPU and mobo. Specs follow:
Asus M2V mobo (AMD AM2 socket; crappy VIA chipset) - 4x DDR2-4200; 2xPCI-X, 4x PCI 2.0; 4x SATA; onboard Gigabit; 8x USB2)
AMD Athalon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz; dual-core; 128KB x2 L1)

The new mobo/CPU will be replacing the existing server’s. It will be stripped of its video capabilities and shoved into a corner, forever to be forgotten except via mstsc (RDC connections).

The server will be moved into my existing Gaming Rig’s case, because it has 10 5¼” bays. That’ll go nicely with the nine hard drives currently on the server. I’ve already bought the first three drive bay coolers that’ll be used for those bays. Oh yeah, this bitch’ll run cool.

The productivity/multimon goodness of the server will be merged with the remaining parts of the gaming system into a new case we had lying around. I’ll be merging video cards and monitors over to the gaming system’s mobo/CPU. With one PCI-X card (Radeon X1650), one AGP 8X card (Radeon 9600 AIW), and one PCI 2.0 card (Radeon 9250), I’ll be able to use all six screens on one system. To some, that might seem like overkill. To me, it seems like the logical move. How many times have I connected with Synergy and wished I could drag windows between the systems? How often have I wished MaxiVista (which solves the previous issue) didn’t lag incredibly? An obvious and painless solution.

The server’s current case/mobo/CPU will become an extra system for my bedroom, for those days when I’m just too lazy to climb the stairs.

I expect the new hardware to arrive Thursday or Friday, so you’ll probably see a few hours of downtime on Friday night. I’ll probably use this as an excuse to go back to an all-XP SP2 lab because Windows Vista sucks (If I say that, imagine what the people who didn’t get a free copy are saying).