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Author Topic: Dedicated AH system  (Read 630 times)

Offline Puck

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Dedicated AH system
« on: September 23, 2002, 04:45:11 PM »
Need some (quick) advice.  Building a new system for my cockpit, so it will be DEDICATED to AH.  Already have:

GeForce4 Ti 4600
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI
10k SCSI drives
either a Turtle Bay Santa Cruz or a SB Live sound card
Network
Blah blah

My current system is a Soyo K7V Dragon+, but I was wondering what everyone else though.

Thanks
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Offline Hap

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2002, 04:46:48 PM »
need some advice myself on that score.  not at all satisfied with the results i'm getting with my system (my dweebish flying aside).

what's the preferred set up?

Hap
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Offline Puck

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2002, 04:57:26 PM »
My current system is just ducky, but I'm building another single-use machine.  I'll be ordering the motherboard/CPU this evening.

Figured since I had the chance I'll see if I can improve on what I have.  At the moment I'm leaning toward the K7V Dragon Ultra with an XP2200+
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)+(___<<___<<___<<___)-___);__+=___)putchar((_[__
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Offline bloom25

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2002, 06:45:20 PM »
I haven't used Soyo boards before, but the reviews seem to be generally positive on that board.  I've learned from experience that Asus generally makes the best boards and supports them with the most stable bios releases.  A good board that I really like myself is the Asus A7N266-C.  (You don't need a soundcard, the integrated sound is excellent.)  This board uses the nVidia nForce chipset, rather than one from VIA.  

The Asus A7V333 is a good board as well, though not as easy to setup as the A7N266-C.  Like your Soyo board, it uses a VIA chipset (KT333 specifically).

You may want to try to find a KT400 (beginning to show up) or nForce 2 based board (not available yet) to guarantee compatibility with XP processors from 2700+ and up.  That would give you additional upgradability.  On the other hand, the current boards I mentioned above have proven stability records and will support up to the 2600+.  If AMD sticks to their roadmap, there will also be a 266 MHz FSB version of the 2800+.  Between the two, I prefer the A7N266-C.
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Offline eagl

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2002, 08:12:21 PM »
Put plenty of cooling on those hard drives...

VIA apparently announced that they're cancelling the KT400 chipsets, instead planning on remarking the KT400 as a KT333 and messing with the AGP8X support.

Dunno what will happen in reality as the two chipsets are not pin compatible so regardless of what they do the mobo manufacturers will have to scramble to keep up production.

http://www.hardocp.com had a little blurb on the change, don't remember where they linked it from though.
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Offline Puck

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2002, 08:28:36 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by eagl
Put plenty of cooling on those hard drives...


My existing system has two 18G 10k RPM and one 7200 RPM 36G drive (along with an 81G IDE).  The case has 20 fans in it[1]

Sounds not entirely unlike your ride[2] when I fire the thing up...  :D

[1] Three low velocity 80mm case fans, two hi-cap case fans, two power supply fans, nine HD fans, chipset fan, Vid card fan, memory cooler fan, CPU fan.  I ruined the socket when I fried my CPU putting the peltier on it, so I'm getting two Ultra Dragons and another XP2200+.

[2] Admittedly the only time I've heard your ride up close and personal was years ago at Luke.  You were still a KAYdet back then  :)
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Offline Hap

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re: Bloom 25's a7n266-c
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2002, 08:43:53 PM »
bloom, thanks for the advice.  what do you know about asus' a7n266-vm & a7v8x?

thanks, hap
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Offline Z6

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My System designed 4 AH!!!
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2002, 02:29:28 AM »
This works fine for me.  Designed specifically for AH.
 
WINXP Home SP1  
768 MEGS DDR RAM
Creative Soundblaster Audigy Gamer 24 Bit
AthlonXP 2000+ 1.66 GHZ
Verizon DSL W/Norton Firewall (Firewall off in game)
Xtasy Geforce4 4600Ti 128MEG W/latest nViDiA 40.41 Detonater Drivers
APC 500 Battery Backup
ENERMAX 465 WATT Dual Fan Power Supply
CH USB Flight Gear/Pro Pedals, Pro Throttle, & Fighter Stick
Seagate Barrucuda 40Gig Harddrive
AZZA MOBO KT266-42302e31 Phoenix-Award Bios
9 Total Fans  
DX 8.1b (4.08.01.0810)
Plantronics 90 Boom Mic & Headset
Sony 52X 7200RPM CDROM
Yamaha Lightspeed 3 24X10X40 Burner
Altec-Lansing 495 Surround USB Speakers
:D
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Offline AKDejaVu

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2002, 02:37:31 AM »
P4-2533s have dropped to $220.  Its still something to think about.

AKDejaVu
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Offline boxboy28

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2002, 11:34:01 AM »
LOL Thanks for nothing EAGL my asus A7V8X with the VIA kt400 will be here wensday!  nice to no its already been cancelled!

box:rolleyes:
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Offline eagl

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2002, 10:18:20 PM »
Puck -

Since you're going all out with this system, "network" should probably have some thought given to it.  Consider buying a med-high end intel or 3com card at the very least.  Those cheapo realtek cards work just fine but they DO grab cpu cycles and don't have as consistent a throughput as a more expensive network card that has it's own controller, buffers, etc. on the card.

I read a NIC comparison but darned if I can remember where it was.  Try http://www.anandtech.com or http://www.tomshardware.com and look at their networking articles.  I think there's a site "networkreview" or something like that.  Google would also be a place to do a search for network card review or similiar search strings.  

If I was putting as much time/money as you are into that rig, there's no way in hell I'd throw in a $12 realtek based network card.

BTW, almost any NIC under $25 uses a realtek chip or a clone of the realtek chip.  They're decent cheapo cards, but you can find significantly better ones out there for under $90.
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Offline Puck

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #11 on: September 24, 2002, 11:26:15 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by eagl
Puck -

Since you're going all out with this system, "network" should probably have some thought given to it.


 


Thanks for the advice.

By the way, I do with network packets what you do with high performance aircraft  :)

I'm an electrical engineer that does networking for a living, but I seriously appreciate the thought and the effort you took to bring this up.

I generally use high-end 3Com on servers and game machines.  I have a Cisco DSL router backed up by an insanely fast Unix based firewall/router that knows enough to give AH the right of way.  The bad news is the upstream routers ignore TOS, but at least in my own little world AH has unquestioned priority.

One problem with the AH network model (well.  It's a brilliant idea that can cause problems) is AH uses a LOT of very small packets.  At least I don't have to worry about the frag flag  :)

The net result?  I probably have 0.1% better performance wall to screen.  BFHD, eh?  :D
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)+(___<<___<<___<<___)-___);__+=___)putchar((_[__
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Offline eagl

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2002, 06:49:31 PM »
*bows down to networking god*

:)

Small packets...  I recently ran a networking optimizer for my cable modem.  It more than doubled my average throughput by tweaking the settings, but did I hurt myself with regards to AH packet delays?  If so, what settings should I change to what?  It's called tcpoptimizer or something like that...
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Offline Puck

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2002, 07:07:50 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by eagl
*bows down to networking god*

:)

Small packets...  I recently ran a networking optimizer for my cable modem.  It more than doubled my average throughput by tweaking the settings, but did I hurt myself with regards to AH packet delays?  If so, what settings should I change to what?  It's called tcpoptimizer or something like that...


Arise, grasshopper.  :D

Well.  Does AH seem slower?  If not, then don't worry about it.  For stuff like games the Mk 1 Mod 0 eyeball is probably the best benchmark.

I've never actually used a cable modem; something about being on a party line doesn't appeal to my sense of paranoia.
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//c coad  c coad run  run coad run
main (){char _[]={"S~||(iuv{nkx%K9Y$hzhhd\x0c"},__
,___=1;for(__=___>>___;__<((___<<___<<___<<___<<___
)+(___<<___<<___<<___)-___);__+=___)putchar((_[__
])+(__/((___<<___)+___))-((___&

Offline AcId

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Dedicated AH system
« Reply #14 on: September 26, 2002, 10:04:18 AM »
I also have the Adaptec 2340, I'd go for 15k drives if you have the cash, probably not much of a benefit to AH but they are a big difference from the 10k drives.  I went from 10k 18Gb drives to 15k 36Gb drives, man what difference.
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