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workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 25th, 2011, 9:07 pm
by Captain_Ahab
my venerable (old!) IBM workstation finally gave up the ghost.
I was planning to replace it anyways, but now I'll have to wait until I get back from Brisbane.

If money is good when I get back, I'm going to grab a used HP xw9400 off ebay.
hi-perf stuff from an old machine ( okay, not as hi-perf as a modern up-2-date machine, but more than I'll ever really need to do my playtime using bodhi linux unless I return to slack ) at a price I should be able to afford.
dual opterons again, but this time upgradeable to 6-core cpus ( 24xx series !!!! 12 core horsepower!!!), multiple pci-e x16 slots and supporting up to 64gig of ecc ddr2
dunno what nvidia card to shoot for, but anything is an upgrade from my clunky old agp x8 7600!

no blender for a bit :(
but at least I can do some gimp on my work laptop with a live install of linux.
and I can read and try to learn some new stuff

just as I'm getting back into things, too

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 25th, 2011, 9:24 pm
by arcones
Oh my, I feel for you. I'm still waiting on my 7 year old to kaput on me (my computer, I really don't have a 7 year old O_O ). But it's good for now and what I require it to do. By the way, do you have any tutorials that you've found helpful for Blender?

Also, I use GIMP myself, and that's how I created the Dark Tunnels loading background. Have any work you can share?

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 29th, 2011, 12:12 pm
by David
Arcones you have a child? :O ;D

That's what yuo get for having an old computer!! Yet again my vista is about to die, that's cause it's vista.. :P

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 29th, 2011, 2:18 pm
by Captain_Ahab
arcones: I'm afraid I've lost all my stuff ( I'm slowly rebuilding my pile of digital junk again ).
I suck at GIMP anyways...I usuallu just get my youngest daughter to do pictures, etc. for me. She's even better now that she was a couple of years ago when her work was the PAS splashscreen.

For blender tutes, I highly recommend blendercookie
http://cgcookie.com/blender/

hahaha...my system was hot stuff back in 2004...7 years ago!!
whatta coincidence.... 7 years

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 29th, 2011, 6:46 pm
by chocolatepie33
Captain_Ahab wrote:arcones: I'm afraid I've lost all my stuff ( I'm slowly rebuilding my pile of digital junk again ).
It's sad when that happens...
Captain_Ahab wrote:I suck at GIMP anyways...I usuallu just get my youngest daughter to do pictures, etc. for me. She's even better now that she was a couple of years ago when her work was the PAS splashscreen.
That was hers? WOW. You should have her make a new one for a new version.
Captain_Ahab wrote:hahaha...my system was hot stuff back in 2004...7 years ago!!
whatta coincidence.... 7 years
what's the coincidence there?

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: October 29th, 2011, 7:41 pm
by Captain_Ahab
chocolatepie33 wrote:
Captain_Ahab wrote:hahaha...my system was hot stuff back in 2004...7 years ago!!
whatta coincidence.... 7 years
what's the coincidence there?
same age as arcones's computer except that my broke first.

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: November 2nd, 2011, 9:54 am
by Mike
Hey Captain Ahab nice to hear from you :D That stinks about your PC but newegg has recently had some pretty awesome deals, 6 and 8 core PCs for like $500!! That wasn't including a monitor or graphics card but that's not bad at all!! Maybe you could even just replace the bad parts in your IBM. Feel free to drop in IRC sometime :D Take care and good luck with everything!
-mike

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: November 2nd, 2011, 6:13 pm
by Captain_Ahab
thanks for the tip, but I'm set on a workstation with its heavy duty power supply and expandability.
I got carried away and bid on one already... two dual-core opterons and 4gig ram for 170$ and I'm winning so far
I doubt I'll win, but there are others ranging in price from $200 to $2000 ( a $1500 has 2 6-core opterons , 16gig ddr2, 1.5Tb of drives and a mid-level quadro card...yowsa )

I probably won't be able to do anything until I get back from Australia

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: November 2nd, 2011, 8:48 pm
by chocolatepie33
that sounds interesting... and nice. are you in Australia on vacation, or for bidding?

Re: workstation broke ^#$%$#^%!!!!!

Posted: November 2nd, 2011, 9:24 pm
by Captain_Ahab
I'm leaving for Brisbane next Tuesday to get married; my fiance is a lovely blonde Aussie girl.
We decided to get married on 11-11-11.
I'll be back the following Wednesday, so I'll be in Australia, or on an airline, for a week. She'll follow a couple of days later and be with me here in NJ.
Then all the fine paperwork for the immigration service and state department. bleh.. I hate bureaucracy.
She's a gamer, too.

I won the computer, btw.
$162.50 for a dual, dual-core opteron workstation with 4 gig of ram, but only an 80 gig sata drive ( I don't need anything bigger anyways...I'll keep media files on a separate file server ).
I'll have to get a video card though...I'm thinking a gtx260 because they're inexpensive but still fast... of course, a used older quadro is still an option.
A heavy duty HP xw9400 graphics workstation...upgradeable so it'll last me a good while.
Just in time for the upcoming game contest.