Bought myself a BP6....

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 8:59 am

I just bought myself my third BP6 and I will hopefully be getting it early next week. I have no idea what state it is in but the owner says it runs just fine.

I am definitely going to run one as a server and one as my second desktop. It is just a matter of finding the right setup for each.

Post by **Derek** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:44 pm

Great news! How much did you pay for it?

Billl · Post by **Billl** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:04 pm

Does this mean you wil be starting that Linux tutorial in the near future?

Billl

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:59 am

Derek wrote:Great news! How much did you pay for it?

40 Bucks.

Billl wrote:Does this mean you wil be starting that Linux tutorial in the near future?

My original thought was to start the tutorial once Debian released Sarge (Debian 3.1) but after trying out SimplyMepis Linux I thought that I might as well use that instead because it gives you a ready made Debian installation with a KDE setup in just a few minutes. Either way goes but Mepis is easier and takes less time to set up.

I will get around to it eventually. I am hoping for a long vacation soon so work won't get in my way as much! That will give me more time to play around with what I want to do, like a Linux tutorial. My only worry is that I want to have time to answer your questions that you will eventually have when you start running Linux. On the other hand, we do have other knowledgeable Linux people here like Hugoc and Phaedrus so it is not like I am on my own here

Billl · Post by **Billl** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:40 am

sorry double post

Billl · Post by **Billl** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:41 am

purrkur wrote:
Derek wrote:Great news! How much did you pay for it?
40 Bucks.

Billl wrote:Does this mean you wil be starting that Linux tutorial in the near future?
My original thought was to start the tutorial once Debian released Sarge (Debian 3.1) but after trying out SimplyMepis Linux I thought that I might as well use that instead because it gives you a ready made Debian installation with a KDE setup in just a few minutes. Either way goes but Mepis is easier and takes less time to set up.

I will get around to it eventually. I am hoping for a long vacation soon so work won't get in my way as much! That will give me more time to play around with what I want to do, like a Linux tutorial. My only worry is that I want to have time to answer your questions that you will eventually have when you start running Linux. On the other hand, we do have other knowledgeable Linux people here like Hugoc and Phaedrus so it is not like I am on my own here

Well I can't speak for anyone else here but I'm not exactly a newbe to OS's in general. So I doubt I'm going to need a ton of hand holding here. Actually it will just be nice to know that when I get stuck as I'm sure I will on some niggling little detail, I have someone to ask. It's just the little crap that ends up tripping you up. Like compiling the Kernal to use two processors. I plan to build up one of the BP6's I have for this install. So give me a little notice before you start please.

Billl

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:52 am

Billl wrote:I plan to build up one of the BP6's I have for this install. So give me a little notice before you start please.

Good idea. I will tell people in advance before I start posting anything. That way people can prepare and be ready before post a howto.

Cheers,

phaedrus · Post by **phaedrus** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 11:54 am

purrkur wrote:I will get around to it eventually. I am hoping for a long vacation soon so work won't get in my way as much! That will give me more time to play around with what I want to do, like a Linux tutorial. My only worry is that I want to have time to answer your questions that you will eventually have when you start running Linux. On the other hand, we do have other knowledgeable Linux people here like Hugoc and Phaedrus so it is not like I am on my own here

I'm often bumming around in these forums, and I am willing to help.

Purrkur, if you want help/commentary/editing with the tutorial, just drop me a line.

Jeff

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:02 pm

phaedrus wrote:I'm often bumming around in these forums, and I am willing to help.

Purrkur, if you want help/commentary/editing with the tutorial, just drop me a line.

Thanks Jeff.

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:00 pm

I just got my third BP6 delivered and I am very surprised. It looks like it is new.

There is no dust on it. I mean, you can clean an old board that has been in service for awhile but you can never really clean out the ISA sockets, RAM sockets and BX heatsink and so on so it becomes spotless. There is always some indicator of how much work the board has seen and in what type of environment. However, this BP6 is really clean! The only indicator that I can find of the board being used is that the ZIF sockets have some minor scratches around the pins that show that a heatsink has been mounted on it. All the caps look spotless as well. No bulging, no leaking.

I spoke to the guy I bought it from and he told me he exchanged it for something else from a friend. He has no idea about the history of the board but he said he wouldn't be surprised if the board had been lying on a shelf unused for some time.

The board is version 1.0 and the ZIF sockets use those metal arms that I hate so much (grrrr).

Now all I need is time to make something out of this (as usual).

harrijs · Post by **harrijs** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 2:17 pm

I finally have a BP6 running again. Right now I have Ubuntu Warty running on it, but I am going to upgrade to Hoary when I get home this evening. Currently all I am doing with it is crunching SETI WU's.

My question is this; what are you all using your machines for? I have a 2.4Ghz P4 that I use for my daily desktop running XP and I am in the process of building a new 3.2Ghz P4 since Abit so graciously sent me a new MB. At that point in time I think that the P4 will just be a DVD encoding machine (gotta love Netflix!). I still enjoy having a SMP system, I just need for it to have some purpose.

I was think about throwing a large (>200GB) HD in it and using it as a backup server for my other machines. Something else I had pondered was using it as a media server for my Xbox. What are you all doing with yours?

InactiveX · Post by **InactiveX** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:54 pm

harrijs wrote:I finally have a BP6 running again.

Very glad to hear it!

I was think about throwing a large (>200GB) HD in it and using it as a backup server for my other machines. Something else I had pondered was using it as a media server for my Xbox. What are you all doing with yours?

Have a peek at this thread.

Dave Rave · Post by **Dave Rave** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:28 am

if you use it for storage, you'll want a good 100 nic, not a 10base one.
and, 'of course', not on the HPT controller.

I have two of my win2k machines now running Knoppix (debian) linux as the install is easy and fairly painless.

as I've had to get them to work using the kdm desktop and boinc and Lisa and Samba, I can contribute a bit now towards helping with a linux help thingy.
mainly, if I understand it, a newby will

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:01 am

Dave Rave wrote:mainly, if I understand it, a newby will

you sell yourself short

harrijs · Post by **harrijs** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:56 am

Putting a 100 nic in this machine will not help really unless the other machines are using 100mbits also. If I don't understand this, someone please correct me. I am reading that thread now, and thinking of some good projects. Thanks guys.

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:13 pm

harrijs wrote:Putting a 100 nic in this machine will not help really unless the other machines are using 100mbits also. If I don't understand this, someone please correct me. I am reading that thread now, and thinking of some good projects. Thanks guys.

Hmm. That isn't true. If you got one machine, lets say acting as a busy file server with a 100Mbit/s NIC and you got 10 other machines on the same network all using 10Mbit/s NIC's then the file server will be helped by having higher bandwidth when serving the rest. So if client 1 is copying a large file from the server, utilizing it's 10Mbit/s connection and client 2 wants to access files as well then client 1 won't be hogging all the bandwidth.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:05 pm

purrkur wrote:
harrijs wrote:Putting a 100 nic in this machine will not help really unless the other machines are using 100mbits also. If I don't understand this, someone please correct me. I am reading that thread now, and thinking of some good projects. Thanks guys.
Hmm. That isn't true. If you got one machine, lets say acting as a busy file server with a 100Mbit/s NIC and you got 10 other machines on the same network all using 10Mbit/s NIC's then the file server will be helped by having higher bandwidth when serving the rest. So if client 1 is copying a large file from the server, utilizing it's 10Mbit/s connection and client 2 wants to access files as well then client 1 won't be hogging all the bandwidth.

Also (someone correct me if Im wrong) use a switch instead of a hub to connect the equipment. A 10/100 switch will allow each port to handle up to 100Mbit/s at the same time whereas a hub will force them to share the bandwidth. Through a switch a 100 server can feed several clients with 10Mbit nics at the same time. At least I think thats how it goes.
I wish I was as smart as I think I am.

Billl · Post by **Billl** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:01 am

I'm not sure I buy the whole bandwidth sharing thing. I could possibly buy it with a switch but not with a hub. Since the connection rate usually boils down to the lowest common denominator. That of course being your 10mb nic.

Billl

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 1:11 am

Billl wrote:I'm not sure I buy the whole bandwidth sharing thing. I could possibly buy it with a switch but not with a hub. Since the connection rate usually boils down to the lowest common denominator. That of course being your 10mb nic.

Yes, quite true for a hub. Does anybody use these anymore?? I haven't seen one for years. I just assumed that the discussion centered around switches.

jaybird · Post by **jaybird** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:13 pm

If I can be of any help, please let me know:

Ver. 1 board
basic cap mod
basic regulator mod
basic NEO370's mod(tracer cut only)
dual PIII 1100E's @ 110 mhz, stable 3+ years
GlobalWIN FEP 32's
50 to 80 watt Peltiers (air cooled)
"Mini-Peltier" on BX chipset
768 meg PC133 ram
modified RU BIOS
HIGHPOINT controller (yes, it can be made to work!)
2 hdd's, 1 ata66 WD 18 gig 7200 rpm, 1 ata 100 60 gig maxtor
G400 MAX vid card
SCSI card, X6EL scanner
Creative SBLive Platinum 5.1 card
WinTV GO! card
generic 10/100 NIC
4 (count 'em, optical drives) Pioneer 104S DVD drive, Sony DVD/RAM 'burner, 52X ZEN "true X" reader, Lite-On 52X-24X-52X
WIN98SE/WIN2000 Pro OS'S
350 watt generic PS
SUPERMICRO 750 case
"lots" of fans (sounds like 747 taking off, but it has become music to my ears) , don't ask wife though!

, thank god it's in a spare bedroom!

Whew! I think thats it!

Regards,

jaybird

Dave Rave · Post by **Dave Rave** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:12 am

I've never heard of the hub bandwidth thing.
I have heard that a switch learns which IP address is where, and sends the traffic accordingly.
so you machine won't get bogged down processing through net traffic not addressed to it, and having to ignore it.

if you look at network monitor programs, if your computer is on a hub you can montior all traffic and see what is going where.
if you are on a switch the program won't work as it can't see all the traffic. unless you set the nic to promiscuous mode.
(also, pretty sure, but correct if wrong)
(is bcmiiw a known mnemonic lik AFAIK or BTW or LOL ? )

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:28 am

Dave Rave wrote:I've never heard of the hub bandwidth thing.
I have heard that a switch learns which IP address is where, and sends the traffic accordingly.
so you machine won't get bogged down processing through net traffic not addressed to it, and having to ignore it.

Yep, that is how I see it as well. However, a hub (or at least the one I worked with a long time ago) reduced the traffic speed down to the lowest common denominator. A switch can run different speeds on different connections, so if your switch can accept, lets say 100Mbit/s full duplex and 10Mbit/s full duplex then you can run both speeds without problems.

Dave Rave wrote:if you look at network monitor programs, if your computer is on a hub you can montior all traffic and see what is going where.
if you are on a switch the program won't work as it can't see all the traffic. unless you set the nic to promiscuous mode.
(also, pretty sure, but correct if wrong)

No, I think you are right here. I am no network technician but it is pretty hard to sniff traffic on a switch.

Dave Rave wrote:(is bcmiiw a known mnemonic lik AFAIK or BTW or LOL ? )

Hehehe! What does that mean? I checked out acronymfinder.com and got the following response: "Sorry, bcmiiw was not found in the database"

Dave Rave · Post by **Dave Rave** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 6:16 am

but correct me if i'm wrong