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Introduction
This article/review actually was inspired by a blog-post entitled "Build a quad-core, 8-gig server for $900". The author showed that with a little mail-ordering and some elbow-grease you could build a very nice machine for a far lower price than the major retailers (Dell, Gateway, Apple) offered.
Also, a new version of Civil 3D (a super-extended and expensive version of AutoCAD) was on the horizon, and I decided that CivilGrrl Engineering's four year-old Dell machine, while still quite capable, would benefit greatly from a replacement. When your software costs $9,000, the ability to double its speed for a grand is worth the price, even if that speed doubling entails replacing the host machine.
Also fortuitous, a PR-guy wanted me to review the TEMPEST computer case, and you just can't ignore triple-kismet like that. So this article is going to be a travelogue of a quad-core 8-gig machine build, coupled with photos and my impressions of the TEMPEST case.
One thing this article will not be will be a parts and price-list like the $900-machine blog article was. While I did use a lot of his recommendations, some of them I did not. Also it wouldn't be fair to say "I built a quad-core machine for $700" neglecting to mention that the case was a review unit. Also computer components are constantly going on sale, and it wouldn't be much sense for me to recommend a particular CPU if a similar one suddenly became available for half the price.
For late-breaking price information, I recommend Slickdeals.net, which is a blog-style deals site with handpicked daily deals, often on computer components. Also fatwallet.com, which is a forum-style site full of people fighting to find the best deals on everything. Fatwallet.com also has a system that will split any vendor commission fees with you if you register and click through their site. So, for example, if you buy something on Newegg via your fatwallet account, you will get 1% back via paypal. It is a nice system that has saved me a few bucks now and then.
Three warnings
Difficulty: While building your own computer isn't all that difficult, there are some spots where it is a bit complicated, and putting together two dozen parts without instructions is a mite daunting. If you have never done this before, I would recommend you team up with someone who has. Computers have gotten easier to build than the ones I put together back in college in the 80's (nothing like repeatedly re-seating 32 memory chips until you find the dead one), but they're still far from foolproof.
Warranty: Rather than have one nice shiny warranty for the whole machine and a single tech-support line to call if your machine goes belly-up, your homebrew machine is going to be a collection of individual warranties, and the quality of your machine will basically be that of its worst component (i.e. its weakest link). Furthermore, some fiddly components like motherboards and CPU's are liable to garner you the hairy eyeball from the returns-desk person, as they are going to assume that the dead CPU is your fault rather than Intel's.
Points of Failure: Your computer will consist of twenty different parts, and they all have to work together nicely the first time. If you switch on your computer and nothing happens, it could mean a failure in one of a half-dozen places. And if you don't have a ready supply of replacement parts to swap out, you will be in a world of trouble. You might want to budget in the possibility of having to take your newly-assembled computer in to the local computer repair shop so they can figure out which of your new components has gone bad.
A word about Vista
Vista is a big mass of confusion regarding versions. There's Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Server 2008 (not an according-to-Hoyle Vista, but close enough). And none of those names are very descriptive. And Windows in the past has been throttled as to how many CPU's it will support. Do you need to get the most deluxe version of Vista if you're going multi processor?
Thankfully the answer is "probably not". Microsoft decided to differentiate its CPU licensing by socket and not by core. And while there are limits, the limits are pretty far out there and are, in most cases, outside the range of this article.
Vista edition (all 64-bit) | Max number of sockets | Max cores per socket | Max memory |
Home Basic | 1 | 8 | 8 gb |
Home Premium | 1 | 8 | 16 gb |
Business | 2 | 8 | 128 gb |
Ultimate | 2 | 8 | 128 gb |
Server 2008 Standard | >4 | 8 | 32 gb |
Server 2008 Enterprise | >4 | 8 | 2048 gb |
And this machine, despite having four CPU cores, only has one physical CPU chip. And that means that even the lowest-end versions of Vista have enough support for quad-core machines. In the case of this article, even the cheapest version of Vista will work, although you will probably want a higher version just to get the Aero stuff (not all of which is pointless eye-candy). After all, if you have four execution cores you most likely won't notice a little processing power being used to draw transparency effects.
32-bit Windows only supports 4 gig of memory. You can install more if you want, but Windows won't use it. If you're planning to use 8 gig of memory in Windows, install a 64-bit version.
A final note about 64-bit Vista (and 64-bit XP, although 64-bit XP seems to be going away). Microsoft apparently got testy about the large amount of unstable drivers sullying their reputation for stability, so they cleaned the slate and required that all device drivers on 64-bit Windows be certified, basically so Microsoft would know who to blame for unstable drivers. If you are going with 64-bit Windows, make sure your hardware-maker has 64-bit drivers available for it.
A word about Linux
License-mandated processor or memory-throttling is not an issue with Linux, but device drivers are. While it's a good conclusion that every piece of hardware you'll find has Windows drivers (although you should double-check if you're going 64-bit as mentioned above), it might not be the case for Linux. Before you buy hardware, check around and make sure that there are good Linux drivers available for it, not just something written in a basement and abandoned at beta stage in 2005.
Most of the big hardware manufacturers (Seagate, Intel, etc) work fine with Linux, but double-check if you're dealing with something from a smaller company.
The Tempest Case
First off, the Tempest case is big. I'm replacing a Dell Dimension 8400 with this unit. The Dell is no small machine but it's positively dwarfed by the Tempest. The Tempest is 23 inches deep at its deepest point and is 20 inches high.
Figure 1: Size comparison between the Tempest and my dusty old Dell
The Tempest case is also quite heavy and is very solidly constructed. Size and weight aren't usually much of an issue if you're building a standard office machine, but it can be a problem if you plan to keep this machine in cramped quarters or move the machine around much. This is not a portable case by any stretch. It's a case that wants to be set up and then left alone.
Here's a photo of the case with the side panel off. Note the fan cables hanging everywhere. That's because this case contains SIX fans. There is one in the back, two on the top, two in the front, and one in the transparent side panel. That plus a CPU fan and one in the power supply means that there'll be eight fans running when this thing powers up. Clearly this is a case that's designed to keep its contents cool, but it's not going to be the most power-friendly machine in the house.
Figure 2: The Tempest case with the side taken down, ready to install some hardware.
Also note that this case doesn't come with a power supply. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. Many cases nowadays come with power supplies already mounted. This is a convenience, but some of those built-in power supplies are a bit anemic. Power supplies aren't all that expensive nowadays, so I sprung for a CoolerMaster 550w power supply with another big fan. Power supplies sound daunting and look frightening with dozens of cables hanging off them, but they are easy to attach.
Mounting the DVD drive was pretty easy, although it took a bit of "unlearning" before I figured out the process with the Tempest. Since the case came with a pile of drive rails, I assumed I'd be bolting rails on the drive and sliding and snapping them into place, not unlike my venerable old Dell. Turns out that the rails are only needed if you plan to put more than three 5.25 drives in the case. The top three drives just slide in and snap with the little tool-free twist-n-lock gizmos pictured below.
If you look at this picture and the one above:
Figure 3: Tool-free drive mounts in the Tempest case. You just insert the plastic piece and twist the little S-shaped handle.
I'd seen screw-free mounts in the past and wasn't impressed by them, but these were pretty secure.
You'll see three spots on top for 5.25" drives (one now occupied with the DVD) and two vertical cages for 3.5" drives (four drives each). If you have an irrational number of 5.25" drives, you can snap those 3.5"cages out and use the extra rails to mount more big drives. Best I can tell, the Tempest case will work in the following configurations:
All nine drives are front-accessible, with 5.25" blanks all the way down the front of the case. Mind you, all but the top three blanks have fans behind them, so you will need to remove those fans if you have grand plans to build this case into something that needs that many drives, like a multi-DVD duplicating machine.
Actually I was rather impressed by the versatility of drive options in the Tempest case. If you wanted to build a giant DVD duplicator or super-redundant multi-terabyte file server, it would do the job pretty easily. There are enough drive rails to support all configurations, although there's no storage for the unused 5.25" rails in the case. I rather like that my Dell has a little bracket inside to hold unused rails so I don't have to worry about having to hunt them down if I ever need them later.
Tools You'll Need
In addition, these are handy to have nearby
The rest of the components
I bought a generic SATA DVD burner so I wouldn't have to futz with one extra IDE cable in the case. Not that room would be a problem in this case, but having only one kind of drive cable would simplify things a bit, and SATA DVD burners are relatively cheap nowadays.
For the hard drive, I got one of those new 300 gig Western Digital Velociraptor drives. I know I can nowadays get a terabyte for the same price, but I don't really need a terabyte for development. I currently have 300 gig of storage in the Dell and I'm only using half of it, so I figure the Velociraptor should do the job nicely. Also I was keen to see if its boasts of impressive speed were warranted.
I didn't get a floppy drive. It's the end of an era.
The motherboard is an MSI P6N SLT Platinum. I used one of these for a previous project and found that it worked very nicely. It's easy to configure and comes with a ridiculous number of USB ports -- four on the motherboard, two more on an optional slot-blank that also contains self-test lights, and two more that can be connected to the front panel.
Figure 4: The MSI motherboard with CPU in-socket. The four holes around the socket are for mounting your CPU cooling solution.
The CPU is an Intel Q6600 quad-core, and it installs quite easily. Definitely much easier than those old 486 processors with a couple-hundred pins that had to be lined up and pressed down just so, lest you bend half of them and render your CPU useless. On the MSI at least, it's just a matter of lifting up the little lever, dropping the CPU into place, pushing the lever back down, and then figuring out how to snap in whatever byzantine CPU cooling solution you have. While I probably could have taken advantage of the eight fans already present in the unit and gone with some kind of big heat sink, I went with another fan for the CPU. It's a CoolerMaster, and it attached to both sides of the motherboard. And this was a good reason to read the instructions first. If I decided to mount the CPU after putting the motherboard into the case, I would've had to start over again.
I bought a $2 tube of silver goo to ensure good thermal conduct, but that turned out to be unnecessary as there was already a dot of goo pre-installed on the CPU cooler.
The memory is 8 gig (4x2gig) of G.Skill Taiwanese memory modules. I used it in the past, and it works well and isn't too expensive.
A Word about Video Cards
Consumer video cards are available in all kinds of price ranges, from under $50 to over $500. And the difference between the $50 cards and the $500 cards lies almost entirely in 3D performance and how many monitors the card will support. If you are doing high-end 3D modeling or CAD, then check your software's video card recommendations. In the case of AutoCAD, Autodesk has a list of "certified" video cards, almost all of which are not mass-market cards available in your corner store. We ended up getting an nVidia Quatro card for this machine. It doesn't have the "bang for the buck" that the gamer-oriented cards offer, but it was available locally and was a better value than the FireGL cards that Autodesk also recommends.
If you plan to play bleeding-edge games, then check out the expensive cards. If you plan to spend most of your time with 2D stuff (Office apps, development environments, web browsing), then save yourself some money and look at a cheap card.
Back to the build, nine screws later, the motherboard, CPU, and memory are mounted. Now to wire everything up.
Figure 5: The CPU fan is attached and the motherboard's mounted in the case.
Wiring it all up
Now that everything's mounted, the fun part is hooking it all up. And this means connecting up about 20 connectors from the case, power supply, and fans to various parts of the system. It's a grind and it's time-consuming, and the only advice I can give you is to keep your motherboard's manual on your lap at all times. Most of the big motherboard connectors are keyed and idiot-proof, so you can't do anything really horrendous. Just be prepared to pop your case open and switch things around for the items that are easily mis-plugged, like the LED connectors.
Wiring up your case has gotten easier in recent years than it was in the past. Hooking up the front-mounted dual-USB ports, for example, is now done with a single plug. Ditto for the front-panel audio connectors. Motherboard jumpers have gone the way of the dodo. Ditto for IRQ numbers and multi-IO cards.
Your wiring work doesn't need to be gorgeous. And it doesn't need to be lighted, although people seem to like that nowadays. One thing your work does need to do is be clear of all fans. You don't want any of your fiddly little wires working their way near a fan or you'll have a problem, so make sure that your case can handle a little jostling without connecters settling themselves into fans.
I was a bit worried at first about cable routing with the giant Tempest case, as the wires might end up reaching their length-limit and I wouldn't be able to route the cables as I wanted, but it didn't turn out to be a problem. Everything fit just fine. Here's a shot of my handiwork. It's not all that tidy but it should do the job.
Figure 6: The insides all wired up. All six fans have speed control plugs on them, but the motherboard only had spots to control two of the fans.
Important Tip
If your computer has a front-panel on-off switch, it will not work if your power-supply switch is off. If you plug your new computer in and press the front-panel power switch and nothing happens, make sure the power supply is switched on on the back. It's an easy thing to miss.
Powering It All Up
Now's the "bite your lip and hope" part of the exercise. Hook up a keyboard and a monitor, and power the thing up. If you're careful and a little lucky, your new computer will self-test, display some kind of garish BIOS splash-screen to your monitor (which can thankfully be turned off on my motherboard), and complain that it can't find the OS on your new hard drive. Success! Time to install your OS and finalize the process.
Figure 7: The Tempest powered up. You usually don't get a handle on your case's lighting effects until you power the thing up for the first time.
There are two blue-lighted fans in the front (behind the drive blanks) as well as two vertical blue "power on bars" running up the side of the case.
If that doesn't happen, then you have some debugging to do. I can't get too deeply into this because the problem could be in about twenty places. Make sure your power connectors are all plugged into the motherboard (motherboard power is now connected in two places, as the CPU has its own power connector). Make sure that ridiculous little speaker-beeper-thing that you now get in place of the old 3-inch motherboard speaker is hooked up so you can listen for any warning beeps. If your motherboard comes with diagnostic lights, check them.
Start swapping parts out if you have them. If you have a bad memory module, you should be able to isolate it with a little trial-and-error.
Worst case, you might have to drag your new-not-quite-ready creation down to the local computer repair shop and have them find the problem. Yes it might cost you $75-$100 to have them find the problem, but at least you can be reasonably assured that the problem they find is the real thing.
Figure 8: Side view of the new computer.
Yes, the Tempest has a big clear window and a lighted fan so you can watch the goings-on inside. Honestly, I never much understood the mindset behind case-windows. Apart from spinning fans and blue lights, there's not much to see. Hard as you squint, you're never going to see this.
Although that would be cool.
Figure 9: The back of the computer. Note the two black rubber grommets above the power supply. These are pass-throughs for heatpipes for you cooling fanatics.
A Word about Overclocking
I'm mixed about overclocking. On the one hand, it's not recommended by your hardware manufacturer and can void your warranty and can shorten the life of your computer. On the other hand, everybody does it (boy, there's a recreational drug reference in there somewhere). My motherboard came with TWO different overclocking utilities (one from MSI that didn't work and one from nVidia that did) that will incrementally and automatically raise your bus, memory, CPU and video card speed to "just below crashing" speed for you.
So the choice is really yours. While you can see some real performance increase by raising your PC's performance to "about to melt through the crust of the Earth" levels, you'll almost certainly shorten the life of your components. The overclocking utility from nVidia was absurdly simple to use and gave me some modest performance improvements, so I went with it.
And while I'm talking about efficiency, there's one BIOS tweak I must mention, and that's the S3 sleep mode. This is an extra-low-power standby mode that your computer can enter provided that your hardware and OS both support it. Windows supports it, although it wasn't enabled in my motherboard by default. Once I enabled it in the BIOS setup, the computer was able to enter a very low-power "sleep mode" state after being left alone a while. Keyboard and mouse events wake it back up. Check your BIOS settings and enable it if it's available.
Closing the Case
If everything is working, it's time to close the case (literally and figuratively) and re-purpose your shiny new computer for some actual work. Before shutting the case, though, make sure that EVERYTHING is working. Plug devices into any external sockets. Make sure your power and reset buttons are working. Make sure the power and HD-activity LED's are working properly (because it's easy to plug those in backwards).
Figure 10: The front-panel (actually top-panel) controls on the Tempest case. From L-R, two USB plugs, headphone, microphone, external SATA plug, reset button, and power button.
Test these out before you close up.
If everything's working, then it's time to enjoy your new computer!
Figure 11: Ye olde Windows Task Manager showing CPU graphs of all four of my shiny new cores!
If you're interested, my Vista User Experience Index was 5.6, with a 5.9 for processor, 5.6 for memory, 5.9 for Aero (2D) graphics, 5.9 for gaming (3D) graphics, and 5.9 for hard disk speed. Given that 5.9 is currently the top end of the experience-scale, that's almost as good as it can get. Mind you, the experience index isn't really a benchmark per-se. It's intended to let application vendors easily tell you if your computer has enough horsepower to run their app effectively. Thus a maker of a 3D game can recommend that your computer have a gaming score of at least 4.2 to run their game well because that's easier than listing out 20 video cards that you should have. The 5+ scores across the board means that, according to Vista, this machine should be sufficient for any application I can throw at it.
This is the first time I've seen a 5.9 with disk-speed, so I guess the Velociraptor's speed boasts were warranted.
Conclusion
This is a dual-purpose article. It is mostly a review for the Tempest case, but it is also a minor tutorial on how to build your own monster desktop machine and save a few dollars over buying a pre-built machine. And it's something that's do-able, and it's do-able by amateurs. You just need to be able to spend the time with it and know the possible pitfalls in the process.
As for the Tempest case, I like it. It seems to be a good compromise between "gamer" cases that look kewl but are largely impractical and "practical" cases that are versatile but dull.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Figure 12: Thankfully, the POWER&AIR DUCK Screws are labeled for me.
[insert your own "duck screw" joke here]
Have fun with your new computer!
