My buddy Josh and I have been wanting to do rack projects for a while and he recently bought a nice 21U cabinet and started his project. I started mine about mid month with a full 42U cabinet I got for about the best deal a person could get without it being free. I found a local guy who was given a Hubbell cabinet when he left a job. It appears nothing was never installed in the cabinet all of the original zip ties were still in tact and the door and side even had tape residue still on them, which I still need to get off. I cannot find the cabinet online, but Hubbell told me the retail is $2500, I will assume that is with the doors and sides as the cabinet without them was like $1800 and the sides and doors are about $800 more. This is a break down of what I got from him (Note: Prices are less than MSRP):

• Hubbell 42U Cabinet with F/B doors and sides ($2500)
• Hubbell 19″ Rack Mount Power Distribution Module - 0×10 ($89.97)
• Hubbell Stationary Shelves (2) ($119.97 ea.)
• Leviton 24 Port Patch Panel (Voice Grade) ($109.97)
• Hubbell Roof Mount Fans 400 CFM ($283.88)
• Hubbell Mobile Base ($511.01)

As you can see that is almost $4,000 in rack equipment and I bought it for $350. That’s right, three hundred and fifty dollars. There were a few scuffs on the side from it being transported originally, but I think I can manage to paint it with the $3500 I saved.

You can see the following in the album I put on Google Web Albums. Note: The 2nd 22″ Dell is only there until FedEx picks it up tommorrow.

Rack Project

In cabinet I have a 4 port KVM to manage the beige Dell 433, which is my dialup box, and my P4 1.4, which is a linux server. On the bottom right is my Intel 2.6HT and the machine in the 4U is my new 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo I built while doing this project. The KVM is hooked up to the 15″ monitor on the top shelf. Next to the KVM is my Linksys router and a keyboard and mouse in front of that. I found an inexpensive 1U keyboard tray that has a keyboard with a trackpad like a laptop so I will be getting that sometime. I will also be buying a 1 or 2 4U drawers to put in the cabinet; one for media and the other for cables and such. I will also be getting another shelf for a laser printer and at least 2 more 4U cases for the linux desktop and a dev server. So it is pretty much a one stop solution for everything I need. The only things I don’t want to put in there is my scanner and the things I need on my desk.

I feel sorta dumb for never thinking about it, but if I put my unattended install on a DVD it should install faster than a CD, even if it is a 1 cd install. The reason is 1x in CD terms is 150 KBps, while a DVD is 1,385 KBps. So if you have a 16x DVD you should be transferring at 22,160 KBps, while a 52x CD would max out at 7,800 KBps. I think I will test it out and see what the install times are like. Unless I am a real dummy about media the DVD should be faster.

I received my replacement monitor, and I am still not jumping for joy over it. I had to adjust the gamma on my video card to get it close and it still seems as if there is a color problem. It plays games and movies great and is wide, I am unsure though if I will keep it. I will NOT pay a restocking fee, it isn’t my fault the only monitor out of the 4 I have that can’t match color is the 22″. I am going to go look at someone a friend’s monitors to make sure that my monitors are actually displaying colors correctly or if the 22″ is correct.

It is really disappointing to me because I always liked Dell, I felt they offered their customers a little better quality for a good price than other companies. So far I have had an 1800FP die and it took almost 3 years to get replaced and I have had horrid troubles with their finance department over issue with my account (no not the ones that are my fault) and now with this monitor. I wish I had just bought the Samsung.

I have for the last day been researching Satellite internet a bit. Some of you know that in my current location I am still on dialup, please don’t ask how I keep my sanity, I can assure you it is on the brink of collapse. I deal because it is my only choice in my current location.

Back to the satellite companies, Hughes really sucks, they have a clause that says once you hit 425mb of transfer they can limit your connection. What good does that do? I probably transfer more than that just browsing the internet for 2 days. The other WildBlue or something has horrible service from what I read, which is disappointing because I am really having a hard time dealing with the internet right now.

I have access to a 10mbit line about 10 minutes away, but I hate having to drop by to use it, I feel like I’m intruding even though they said I could.

Update: The monitor has been setup for Advanced Replacement, so we’ll see if the next one is any good. The process went smoothly for once, didn’t take me hours as it usually does.

I must love torturing myself. I had one Dell monitor take a shit on me, then I keep having problems with support anytime I actually need to speak with someone. I have trouble with their financial department and now my new monitor sucks.

I recently bought their 22″ wide screen LCD and I thought it was awesome, but now not even close. I hate this thing with a passion. It bleeds light, you can’t get the colors right for anything; it almost makes me sick using it. I have the colors pretty close, but the blue isn’t displaying like it should and any adjustments to other colors

I am doing advanced replacement tomorrow and if it looks anything like this one it is going back and I am getting a Samsung and never dealing with Dell again. I am so fed up with their crap, horrible phone system with constant dropped calls and people who appear to speak and understand English but not enough to grasp what you are actually saying. The outcome of this will determine the outcome of everything in my house with a Dell logo. If I get a shit monitor, the 19″ gets sold, the laptop gets sold, the CRT gets sold and anything small with the Dell logo goes in the trash.

The last problem I had was with Financial, and the advocate group helped me get a phone appointment, but I am on the phone all day and I try calling about 6 times a day to get back in touch with that person and I have no luck so its a bunch of crap no matter what gets done. If the outcome of this monitor is crap and especially if I end up paying the shipping charges or a restocking fee on a piece of shit I will do everything in my power to spread the crap experience I have with Dell. I wonder how many people in the company actually use Dell products at home.

I am almost done with my new box, I am only waiting for a drive I had to RMA and my two other drives. Here is the list of components

• Hiper Type-R 580W Modular Power Supply
• Kill-A-Watt
• Dell E228WFP, 22″ Wide Flat Panel Monitor
• NORCO RPC-800 Black Steel 4U Rackmount Case
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB SATA II (2x)
• NORCO RL-20 20″ 3-sections Ball Bearing Rail kit
• GENERIC 6 ft. USB 2.0 Extension Cable (2x)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
• HIPER HFF-1B08N 80mm Blue LED Fan (2x)
• Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 B2L-00047 Black Keyboard/Mouse
• G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2, F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
• XFX PVT73GUGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3
• MSI P6N SLI Platinum
• Logitech 904353-0403 TrackBall
• SAMSUNG SH-S182D/BEBE 18X DVD Burner
• Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB
• Right angle SATA data cables (4x)
• Twin Connector right angle SATA power cables (2x)

Those are the parts I ordered. I will also have a 400gb SATA II from my current box and 2x 60mm fans. The 400gb will hold monthly full backups of about 50gb of data and twice a week incrementals, well maybe 3 times a week.

I have pictures and will be posting pictures when the drives come in.

They are monitors, nothing else.

Here is my new 22″ Dell widescreen next to my 19″ Dell. I just build the system the 22″ is on and until the remaining parts come in I am only testing my unattended installs on it to get it right before I migrate. It works out to 9.5 cm in actual viewable screen width over the 19″, which is 3.75″

I had some troubles with my last attempt at getting on the first page of google because I changed my www.digital39.com to just digital39.com. Hopefully this one will make it or boost the other one.

This is my post about B&B, a bed and breakfast to most that is located in Lexington Virginia and is host to relaxing accommodations. This Inn will provide you with comfortable sleeping arrangements in the beautiful area of Lexington VA, which is located in Rockbridge county. The Shenandoah valley is home to many bed and breakfasts, but none hold them self to the level of service the Lexington B&B Inn of Virginia provide. You can find more information on lexington B&B’s on my other page.

(This post is all bs to complete a challenge I was given, ignore all of it)

I am preparing for my rack project and going through all my computer stuff to see what to keep is part of it. I found this KVM I was keeping around for when I find a power cable for it and I pulled it out last night to find out the contact info for the company. It has a DC 9V plug in the back and I thought it needed it, well the company tells me it does not, so for all this time I have had an expensive ($273 retail) KVM sitting around that I could have been using. It does screw up the text on the monitor, like ClearType doesn’t get sent. So I will not be using it for my main systems, partially because they are DVI, but with the rack setup it will be perfect. I should be getting my parts in this week and my rack so when I get everything installed I will post pictures.

So I feel like a real idiot. Somehow I never heard of a RAM Disk in Windows. I know Linux live cds use that concept but never thought about it to know if Windows had it. I found a number of utilities that will make them, almost all pay for, but from what I am seeing it is worth $50. I installed one that you create the disks from within the control panel and with Sandra 2007 the SCSI U320 comes in at 115mb/sec, this thing comes in at 738mb/sec. I was reading an article where someone dedicated 3GB to a RAM disk for Photoshop and now it runs like nobody’s business. I wonder if you can put the page file within the disk, that would be sorta pointless but I have read some games require a page file, so it would save the disk space, get the performance, and give you the page file. I’m still blown away by the 738mb/sec.