3 posts tagged “hardware”

Spent a few hours last night rigging the new test system together.
Here is my progress in the form of a step by step guide:

1. The Casing

First thing first, check out the casing and wiring. Familiarise yourself with the case construction. Have a suitable workspace available free from clutter. Do not use the floor, as carpet gives off a whack of ESD that will damage electrical components.

2. ESD Precautions

Here I have covered my small worktop with aluminium foil. Great to keep the static at bay. The rubber glove is for artificial insemination. Erm, ok, not really! Good for ESD prevention though!
Better to be safe than have a wonky computer.

3. Mobo

Put your casing somewhere save for the time being and carefully take out the motherboard from its protective wrapping. Place it on the work surface. Do the same with your processor, heatsink, memory and thermal compound.
Lift up the processor slot arm on the motherboard, align the processor and slot in. Push the arm back down. Apply some thermal compound to the top of the processor to keep it nice and cool. Clip the heaksink on top of the processor. Make sure it is on properly. Don't want it falling off now do we! Make sure the heatsink fan cable is connected to the motherboard
Insert your memory into the appropriate slots.

4. Attach Motherboard

5. Cables

6. BOOT!

7. CMOS

8. Done

Tomorrow, time to play with Knoppix!

I mentioned in an earlier post of my plans to experiment with GNU/Linux/Open Source. Well today I received the necessary hardware. Here is a picture and specs for the micro ATX open source test rig. A cheap system build for testing, learning and personal development.

Test Rig Hardware

X2 Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.50GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
KeySonic ACK-3700C Ultra Compact Keyboard- Notebook Layout - USB
X-Qpack II Micro ATX Gaming Case With 500W ATX2.0 PSU - (Black/Silver)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
256mb Radeon x850 PCI Express Graphics Card (Spare)

I plan to install the newest release of Ubuntu, version 8.04, codename Hardy Heron, released in 7 days.

Watch this space!

Yes, the reason is I have been occupied with revision the past two weeks. I had an exam, Server+ yesterday, and passed which is cool. I should now have a bit more time to be proactive and report on here!

What has been happening recently? Well, apart from studying I have been testing out new equipment (Logitech z-5500) that is sweet. THX certified sound with high definition movies...wow!

My next project is installing and testing some Linux distros onto a Micro ATX set up. Looking forward to playing with Ubuntu! I will post some pictures of my venture when I start the project.

Also going to start my studies into the telecommunications system, Cisco CVoice is the next learning curve!