All about my workstation(s)
I spend a lot of time on my computer(s), so why not talk about it on
this little page. Each computer has a picture of its case. Nothing
really special; I don't have time to get into case modding.
I've revamped this page, all the use of strikethrough and such was getting silly. You can find the last edition of the page before revamping here.
This page is massively out of date. The info is now here
Nala is my latest machine and absolutely blows all the others away. It
is an Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 Apple Macbook Pro 2.0GHz Core Duo.
Nala is named after Nala the lioness from The
Lion King. Here are the specifications:
PowerPC G4 processor running at 867MHz Intel Core Duo CPU running at 2.0GHz512MB 2048MB of SDRAM40GB 100GB hard drive- Built in
CD-R/DVD-ROM Apple superdrive
802.11b 802.11g "Airport" Wi-Fi wireless networking- 15" TFT display,
1280x864 1440x900
- Runs MacOS X (It's a UNIX system! I know
this!)
- Weighs only around five pounds.
This machine consistently pegs the fps meter in Quake 3 Arena at over
100 god knows what and is one of the slickest laptops I've ever used, period. }:) Performance-wise it is vastly eclipsed by vastly trumps the new hushpad.
hushpad - No image yet
Then there's hushpad. Hushpad is my Linux box. That's all it ever
runs; Linux. It stores vast amounts
of data and serves as a local fileserver and general workstation.
Hushpad was named after two things, really. A cat (did you guess?) in Tad Williams' book
_Tailchaser's Song_, and a friend I had on FurryMUCK, who vanished in 2001 and I haven't seen since.
When hushpad first came to be in 1996, it was named Milva, which was
the online name of my significant other at the time. When that fell to
pieces, though, I couldn't bear to have a machine named after her
anymore, I renamed it. (Besides, I liked the book!)
Hushpad suffered a CPU failure in May 2003. The CPU and board were
replaced with the ones from Duchess, a former machine of mine. The result was a memory upgrade
(to 512MB) but the CPU speed stayed the same.
Whoo, upgraded in 6/2004!
So here's them stats!
- Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz processor with hyper-threading
- 2048 megs of ECC DDR-SDRAM
- Hard disks:
- 80GB Fujitsu IDE HDD
- 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax IDE HDD
- 160GB external Acom disk
- 160GB external Acom disk (for backup purposes)
- Toshiba DVD-ROM Drive which can read DVD-RAM too
- SB Live! sound card using digital out to Denon receiver
- Samsung 213t 21" 1600x1200 TFT display
- Nvidia GeForce FX 5250 (sucks ass, but hey..)
- 100Mbit PCI Ethernet card
- IEEE 1394 "FireWire" controller, used to drive misc external disks
- Runs Fedora Core 2 all the time
sarabi
Sarabi is a useful little box; it serves as the MX for zorin.org, primary web for zorin.org, and other miscellaneous duties. It's an older box, which used to be hushpad, but is plenty fast for the job!
"Sarabi" is the name of Simba's mother in _The Lion King_. It was also the name of my first ever linux box (see below), so I'm glad to resurrect the name!
Sarabi was recently upgraded.
Intel Pentium III 600MHz CPU AMD Sempron 2800+
- 512MB SDRAM Memory
- Dual
13GB 80GB IDE disks in a RAID1 (mirrored) configuration
- 100Mbps ethernet card
Deceased Hardware
We remember people when they die, right? Why not remember deceased
hardware? Here is a list of hardware I have that currently have a place
in hardware heaven, and have served me well:
- Western Digital 31200 1.2GB hard drive
- 16MB 72 pin Logic Parity SIMM
- Digital 1GB SCSI Hard Disk
- Samsung 8X IDE CD-ROM drive
- i80486DX/33 processor chip (I murdered it. I confess. Just to see
how cool the die looks.)
- An AT powersupply. It sucked anyway; power connectors were cheap
and shorted.
- An i430VX motherboard. I don't think it ever worked in my
posession; it smells like a cat did its business on it. I should
probably throw it out.
- A Mitsumi 1.44MB floppy drive. Mitsumi sucks.
- Intel Pentium III 600MHz processor (from hushpad)
Computer System History
This is a history of all my systems, with a brief comment.
- 1983 - Apple II+ acquired. 48K RAM, 1MHz 6502. Total disk storage 140K per 5.25" floppy disk. First computer.
- 1990 - II+ motherboard fails. IIe acquired for $50 at yard sale as interim replacement machine. Interim extends three years. Ugh.
- 1993 - 486SX25 / 4MB RAM / 170MB HDD / 2400bps modem acquired. (first PC)
- 1994 - Above 486 receives various upgrades. Is eventually named SARABI when Internet access is first achieved in late 1994 and a hostname is required.
- 1995 - SARABI gets Linux installed for the first time. It is a 486DX2/66 w/ 12MB of RAM and a 730MB HDD at this point. Kernel 1.2.13 baybee!
- 1996 - MILVA comes along: 386DX/33, 5MB RAM, 20MB MFM hard drive, CGA monitor. First dedicated Linux box. Ran Linux-On-A-Floppy very slowly.
- 1996 - Later: SARABI upgraded to Pentium 133 / 32MB RAM / 1.6GB. Old SARABI becomes new MILVA and obtains 260MB HDD. At this point it's a 486DX2/66 w' 24MB RAM, still with CGA monitor.
- 1997 - 17" AcerView 76ie monitor acquired to upgrade SARABI's display; 14" monitor goes down the chain to replace the CGA monitor on MILVA.
- 1998 - MILVA upgraded to Am5x86/133, gets bigger disk. MILVA later renamed HUSHPAD.
- 1999 - BigAss(TM) case acquired, along with a ton of SCSI disks for HUSHPAD. This was my "SCSI KICKS ASS!!" phase. Six disks in a full tower case are NOISY. I'm glad I got over this.
- 1999 - Apple IIgs acquired. Transferred all important old Apple II floppies to disk images for eternal preservation.
- 2000 - SARABI completely replaced with DUCHESS, Pentium III 600MHz w/ 128MB RAM running Windows 2000. HUSHPAD inherits SARABI's motherboard and thus becomes Pentium 166 (overclocked) with 96MB of RAM.
- 2001 - HUSHPAD upgraded to Pentium II 233MHz w/ 128MB RAM. BigAss(TM) case retired. DUCHESS stagnates.
- 2002 - HUSHPAD CPU upgraded to Pentium III 600MHz. DUCHESS continues to stagnate.
- 2002 - Cat hair becomes a new contaminant to clean out of computers, due to the arrival of Lynxie the Highly Furred GreyTabby.
- 2002 - First flat panel, a ViewSonic VX900, is acquired. 1280x1024, 19", lousy refresh time (even for back then)
- 2003 - NALA (Powerbook G4) acquired. HUSHPAD's CPU fails. DUCHESS mobo+chip used to resurrect HUSHPAD. DUCHESS retired.
- 2004 - HUSHPAD motherboard fails. Good friend Rieshal loans a Pentium III 600 chip that fits in HUSHPAD's
old motherboard.
- 2004 - HUSHPAD upgraded to P4-3.0GHz/512MB/160GB. Old HUSHPAD becomes SARABI (fileserver off-site).
- 2006 - NALA upgraded to Macbook Pro. Old NALA sold for peanuts since it had been dropped. SARABI upgraded to Sempron 2800+. Old SARABI collecting dust at the moment.
- 2006 - MEERCLAR (Mac Pro 2.66GHz / 2GB / 250GB) acquired. Replaces HUSHPAD as primary desktop system; HUSHPAD becomes server.
Difference between slowest and fastest system: (Apple II versus Macbook Pro) CPU estimated 20,000X, memory 32,000X, storage 714,285X
Archive of hardware photos
Well, when you're done drooling over my computer system (yeah, right.),
you can return to my home page.