AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Asus A7v266-E Motherboard

ATI RADEON 8500LE 64mb video card
768MB Crucial PC2100 DDR RAM (1x 256 1x 512)
SoundBlaster Live! value sound card
Adaptec AHA-19160 SCSI Controller
2x Quantum Atlas 10000RPM 18GB Ultra-160 SCSI hard drives
Quantum Atlas 10k II Ultra-160 SCSI Hard Drive
56x IDE CD-ROM
Artec WRA-WA48 CD-RW
1.44" Floppy drive
MIDIman/M-Audio Delta-44 PCI Analog Recording Interface
Custom Pine Full Tower Case
Zalman Copper Cooler HSF
Enermax 365w PSU
HP SureStore 12/24GB SCSI Tape Backup

December 12 , 2003 - I replaced the 60gb IDE Drive with a 10,000 rpm Quantum Atlas 10k II Ultra-160 SCSI drive to boost performance. The drive is a bit noisier, but the seek times and I/O on the thing more than make up for it.

I think the 60gb IDE drive will go into Locust, replacing the 15gb drive, which will go into a test box running FreeBSD. Details to follow (someday).

September 18, 2003 - I've been running out of room on Earthquake, so I decided to plop in a 60gb ATA hard drive to act as storage. The SCSI drives will now be for production stuff, and the ATA drive will hold my games, MP3s and video clips.

Here's some details of how it went:

	Here's what the case guts looked like before the project.
	A close up of the two U-160 10k rpm SCSI drives nestled up next to the exhaust fan.
	The drive bracket removed.
	The drive bracket with the extenders. These were wood joist straps purchased at Home Depot and cut to size.
	The three drives mounted in the bracket. Getting to be quite a tall stack...
	The three drives nestled in the case and cabled up.
	Earthquake now. Not much difference, but 58gb (formatted) more storage space. Bring on the pr0n!

 June 1, 2003 - I recently picked up a new A7v266-E motherboard and an Athlon XP 2000+ processor for very cheap off of ebay, so I decided to throw that processor/mobo combo into the old Locust and upgrade Earthquake slightly from an XP 1600+ to an XP 2000+

Here's the new processor specs:

March 23, 2003 - I purchased an ATI RADEON 8500LE card for less than $75 and put it in over the weekend. It felt weird not going to the NVIDIA support site for the latest video card drivers. But this card is quite a tasty treat for sure, boosting the frame rate of Quake ]I[ from around 70 FPS to over 140 FPS without any overclocking.

Bring on the gaming!

February 7, 2003 - I finally got around to building a wood case for Earthquake. Details of the project can be found here. I also added another stick of 512MB PC2400 RAM. Just for kicks and so I can add a few more tracks on my Cakewalk recording software.

I ended up ditching the DigiDoc 5 and the PCMods baybus since the case would end up being really, really tall and awkward looking. These two devices will probably end up in Headcrash when it gets modded and rebuilt again.

I also junked the Flowmaster Max watercooling kit after it popped a leak and dripped on a sick of RAM. I swapped it for a Zalman Copper Cooler and found that it runs at about the same temperatures as the watercooling solution and just as quiet. It basically replaced the vibration of the pump motor with a whirrring of a 92mm fan. I love this HSF!

I guess I just was never really satisfied by the results of the watercooling solution, although it was fun to put together. I do plan on watercooling my next rig, but, now that I know what I'm doing, I'll buy better components, like a better copper block and a pump with a better flow rate. I'd definitely build a reservoir into the loop to take water expansion into account. I didn't do that before, so when the water expanded as it warmed up it leaked out through my fill pipe.

Earthquake's Old Case:

This is a little blurb about Earthquake's previous case mods. I've since given it a total makeover. Details about this case and the water cooling project it contains can be found here.

Intake hole in bezel with wire mesh and trim to allow increased airflow into case.

2x 80mm fans up top to suck hot air out of case past the SCSI drives up there and to provide ventilation for the upper case.

Dremel cut in front of case for radiator/120mm fan combo.

1 - 80mm fan in front bezel above the radiator/fan shroud/fan.

PCMods low-off-high four-switch baybus with pots set for 9v-off-12v to control fan speeds.

Dremel cuts: some notches into the runners along the top and bottom of the case's side panels. This way I won't have to slide the panels all the way back to take them off. I also cut notches into the top piece so I don't have to remove it before removing the sides.

May 7, 2002 - I wanted to make sure to document what temp probe monitored what in Earthquake so here's a short list, mostly for my own use:

1. Water temp from radiator
2. Processor temp
3. Ambient room temp
4. Top HD (HD 0) temp
5. Bottom HD (HD 1) temp
6. Case Temp (measured in bottom half)

BayBus switches (from left to right)
1 Off
2. 2x80mm fans in upper rear
3 Bezel 80mm fan
4. Radiator 120mm fan

January 14, 2002 - Did some cooling tweaking and overclocking over the weekend and received the following results using 1.85 volts in the core:

These temperatures were taken while running at 100% load for 30 minutes. I didn't bother taking idle temps, but I'm interested to see how fast the cooling loop drops to a base temp when the processor is at idle.

Weird how CPUID measures the processor speed at 1596MHZ and Motherboard Monitor measures it at 1598. I'll go with the higher number, methinks.

My machine would post at 1606MHz and a few higher, but Win2k would either freeze or BSOD at the splash screen. I suspect that the AHA-19160 SCSI controller doesn't like running at a PCI bus speed of 38MHz.

November 28, 2001 - Found a review of an older version of the Flowmaster Max on VoidYourWarranty.com. Check it out here. The kit reviewed there doesn't have the fan shroud, nor does it have the bigger radiator, but it's nice to know that what I bought isn't complete crap.

November 13, 2001 - It's been a while since I updated this page, as I've been too busy playing with my new toy. I got the trim for the last (heh!) mod to this machine, some fan duct trim from CaseEtc. Tonight I'm going to cut a rectangle in the front bezel to give better airflow through the radiator and 80mm fan. I'll give it the trim and some wire screen. I'm thinking the improved airflow will cool the water and the case while making the front look boss.

Tomorrow I'll get the pics developed and start posting them.

Took lots of pictures over the weekend of my rig. I'll post them as soon as the roll is used up. I'm still working on tweaking everything to get it just so. It's like settling into a new apartment, it takes a while to get everything where you want it.

One bummer is that the HX08 is really, really full now that I have the Flowmaster Max installed with the fan shroud option. I have so much crap jammed in there that it makes working in it a bit rough. I didn't even have room for the planned radiator duct. Maybe next time I'll go for a full-on server cube or something.

October 22, 2001 - My BayBus arrived today. I decided to order a BayBus from PCmods instead of building my own. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that each DPDT switch cost 5 bucks and the BayBus cost 20 bucks with four switches. I save no money doing it myself and I get a much higher quality device by purchasing theirs.

I guess I'll be working on my fans today.

October 19, 2001 - I've been working on the case this week. Working with fresh cut metal minus gloves equals tiny little slashes all over my fingertips.

At any rate, I think I'm going to try a little experiment with my case. My current setup resembles this:

	There was space enough in the lower front of the case to secure an 80mm fan between the radiator and pump. This way there is fresh air being blown into the case and the intake isn't limited to merely the hot air being sucked through the radiator. Although I know that fans cool better when they blow on the object rather than suck away from the object, I'm going to see if this method will suffice for the cooling of the two 10k RPM SCSI hard drives up top in back.
	If I'm not happy, I'll just reverse the 80's from suck to blow and install a chimney fan. Maybe I'll do that anyway, just to see how effective both methods are. Depends on how motivated I am...

October 12, 2001 - So I've collected all my gear and it's sitting in a juicy collection of boxes in my laundry room, waiting to be assembled. In going through the layout and setup it looks like the 90 degree 4" elbow join that I was going to use for a duct is going to be too damn big. That radiator is a big mofo. The rad + fan combo pushed the duct into the PCI slot area on the motherboard tray. Not good considering I'll have something like 6 slots full of cards.

I did have some layout questions that I'm looking for answers on [H]ardOCP, Gideontech and The Tech Zone.

Basically, I'm looking for a quiet and well-cooled rig (aren't we all?) and would like to reduce the number of fans spinning, which is why I'm going for a watercooled solution. Well, that plus it's a rockin' idea.

I'm looking at two possible setups:

	Option one: I put one 120mm fan at the bottom with the radiator, sucking air in and 2x 80mm fans at the top pulling air out. This way there's only three fans spinning and I get airflow through the radiator and over the hot SCSI drives. Question: Will this be enough airflow to keep the drives cool as well as keeping the overall case temp near ambient?
OR
	Option Two: I add a 120mm Chimney fan up top to pull all the hot air in the case up and out and reverse the flow on the 2x80mm fans so they blow directly onto the SCSI drives. What'll be the temp difference in the case and of the drives?

I think this'll end up being a grand exercise in case design, eventually. I figure I'll set up the case in option one and take some measurements with the DigiDoc, and if the temps are too high, I'll commit to cutting the chimney fan and take more temp readings.

I'm looking for some feedback before doing this, though.