another obsession

[ctfjr]

Since the weather has been really stinko lately with rain I decided to go ahead with a project that I've been thinking about for a while.
I enjoy building PC's. My 1st was an Intel 8008 in 1976. The last couple of years I have been building higher end desktops mostly (2950X Threadrippers, 3850X's, etc).
Yesterday I started building a replacement for my personal desktop, a 2950X. I'm going with the new AMD 5950X, 4tb of super fast NVNe storage, a 12tb spinner and 64gb of ram. Since I refuse to be ripped of by scalpers taking advantage of the graphics cards shortage (2 to 3 times msrp), I am temporarily going to reuse a 2080 ti card.
Here are some early shots:

 

[85Hokie]

Super nice stuff - what is the clock speed these days?

 

[skeets]

Way above my pay grade! I bet it works nice

 

[ctfjr]

Super nice stuff - what is the clock speed these days?

out of the box it's 3400MHz. It can be overclocked to 4400MHz and some have been successfully overclocked to 4700MHz.
My 2950X Threadripper came at 3500MHZ default I was able to get it to 4050MHz and be stable. I run it now at 3750. It really heats up with higher clock speeds.

On the new build I'll watch the cpu temps to pick a clock speed.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Can it mine a bitcoin?

 

[dlsmith]

Nice build! They make some really nice cases nowadays, and most MBs, RAM, SSDs and spinning rust aren't priced too badly. Some of the CPUs are a little spendy though.
I just built a Ryzen 3600X machine a couple months ago, still getting it tuned in and configured the way I want it before I replace my main machine with it.
I remember the first HD I installed for a customer back in the early 80s, a full height 5.25" 5 MB Fujitsu. The drive and the controller for an XT ran $1250. They couldn't believe all the disk space!
How times have changed.

 

[Nicfin36]

Nice!

I have built every PC I have owned. I am not that much of an expert, but can figure it out. They are very much plug and play now...no need in have to jumper the boards.

My PC is many years old, running an ASUS K7S5A motherboard and AMD Phenom II 920 (2.81 GHz) quad core CPU. Maxed on RAM and upgraded to a Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti video card a while back. I don't game any more, so as long as it works, I am OK for now.

 

[cliffboyer]

I still have a Commodore Vic20 & 64!

 

[ctfjr]

Nice build! They make some really nice cases nowadays, and most MBs, RAM, SSDs and spinning rust aren't priced too badly. Some of the CPUs are a little spendy though.
I just built a Ryzen 3600X machine a couple months ago, still getting it tuned in and configured the way I want it before I replace my main machine with it.
I remember the first HD I installed for a customer back in the early 80s, a full height 5.25" 5 MB Fujitsu. The drive and the controller for an XT ran $1250. They couldn't believe all the disk space!
How times have changed.

lmao, I remember those days well! I became a NorthStar computer dealer, one of the first S100 bus computer manufacturers (mainly to buy equipment for my business). I discounted it and sold as much as I could to retain my dealership status.
When They came out with the Century Data Marksman hard drive I couldn't image ever needing more space than the 18Mb drive could hold:

We got a 25% discount so the drive cost me $3750! That 12tb spinner I'm putting in cost me about $200 (shucked from a WD bookshelf unit).

 

[TahoeDust]

Ah...another one of my money pit hobbies....lol.

I built this a couple years ago and have been fighting the urge to upgrade...

i9-9900k @ 5.1GHz - Dellided with liquid metal and copper IHS.
EVGA z390 Dark
EVGA 2080 ti FTW3 Hydro Copper
32gb TridentZ 4000cl17
970 Pro 1tb
860 Evo 2tb
BeQuiet Dark Base Pro 900
EVGA P2 1200w
Cooled by: Heatkiller, Hardware Labs, EKWB, Bitspower, Noctua

 

[ctfjr]

Very nice build!

The machine I'm replacing (Monster)

I got carried away with the rgb at first. Now it's toned down quite a bit
2950X, 64gb, Gigabyte 2080 ti, 2tb NVMe, 2X 6tb spinners

 

[RCW]

Wow….all the jargon is Greek to me, but it’s great that you guys can build these things !

In all sincerity, my hats off to you!

 

[cliffboyer]

lmao, I remember those days well! I became a NorthStar computer dealer, one of the first S100 bus computer manufacturers (mainly to buy equipment for my business). I discounted it and sold as much as I could to retain my dealership status.
When They came out with the Century Data Marksman hard drive I couldn't image ever needing more space than the 18Mb drive could hold:
View attachment 62570
We got a 25% discount so the drive cost me $3750! That 12tb spinner I'm putting in cost me about $200 (shucked from a WD bookshelf unit).

About 20 yrs ago I traded a complete non-working Horizon S-100 w/ a Hazeltine 1410 terminal for 3 Kaypro portables (2 working, 1 inop). Traded those for a complete working IBM AT, which I still have.

Wish I still had that Horizon!

 

[ctfjr]

About 20 yrs ago I traded a complete non-working Horizon S-100 w/ a Hazeltine 1410 terminal for 3 Kaypro portables (2 working, 1 inop). Traded those for a complete working IBM AT, which I still have.

Wish I still had that Horizon!

lol, all the things we should have bought or kept Not only did I have a couple of Horizons we also have a couple of their Advantages . . .
That 18mb drive we ended up taking to the Trenton Computer Festival many years ago. We ended up leaving it on the ground - no one wanted it for free.
The best part of the Festival? 8" floppy disks! I had bid on and won some racking shelving for my business and I had to take what was on them when We came to pick them up. Turned out to be hundreds and hundreds of cases of floppy disks. We took 200 cases of them to Trenton. Sold them for $6 to $8 per box (10 floppies) depending on qty bought. Sold every single one. My cost (if you take what I paid for the shelving and said that was our cost) was about $.03 per box. Sold the rest on the Computer Shopper.

Here is my progress today on the new machine:

I'm kind of stuck here, missing of all things, thermal paste. Amazon will deliver tomorrow. I know I have an unopened tube, somewhere.

 

[Mr. K]

Nice build. very clean and really like the white theme. I'm still team blue at the moment. Next next build think I'll go red. AMD has really made a come back in recent years. I'm also waiting to get a new GPU and agree with you - not going to encourage scalpers by paying inflated prices. Would rather wait it out.

 

[ccoon520]

lol, all the things we should have bought or kept Not only did I have a couple of Horizons we also have a couple of their Advantages . . .
That 18mb drive we ended up taking to the Trenton Computer Festival many years ago. We ended up leaving it on the ground - no one wanted it for free.
The best part of the Festival? 8" floppy disks! I had bid on and won some racking shelving for my business and I had to take what was on them when We came to pick them up. Turned out to be hundreds and hundreds of cases of floppy disks. We took 200 cases of them to Trenton. Sold them for $6 to $8 per box (10 floppies) depending on qty bought. Sold every single one. My cost (if you take what I paid for the shelving and said that was our cost) was about $.03 per box. Sold the rest on the Computer Shopper.

Here is my progress today on the new machine:
View attachment 62648

I'm kind of stuck here, missing of all things, thermal paste. Amazon will deliver tomorrow. I know I have an unopened tube, somewhere.

From your first set of pictures it appears there is already thermal paste on the CPU cooler. From my experience preapplied stuff is pretty good as long as you aren't looking to push the clock to the limit of the chip.

 

[ctfjr]

From your first set of pictures it appears there is already thermal paste on the CPU cooler. From my experience preapplied stuff is pretty good as long as you aren't looking to push the clock to the limit of the chip.

good eyes
Yes there is some that came on the cooler. A small amount got smudged in handling but I do plan on overclocking it so wanted a good quality thermal paste on there anyway. You can see the imprint on the cpu when I test fit it. I have some Grizzly Kryonaut on order. It came out highly rated on a paste comparison.
I am not planning on pushing the cpu to the ragged edge but would like the temps as low as practical.

 

[ccoon520]

good eyes

First time hearing that since I got glasses years ago. Usually its the other way around lol.

Also good plan I have heard good things about Thermal Grizzly. Make sure that you clean everything off with isopropyl alcohol and a cloth that will not leave scraps behind. If you are willing to put in the work you can lap the CPU and cooler so they have as flat of surface as possible. Conduction loves surface area. Although it might void your warranties depending on how much is needed done to make the faces flat.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Well if you want a real 'PC' , I've got a couple 8008 CPUs in the basement, should have the 4004s 'somewhere'......

 

[ctfjr]

Well if you want a real 'PC' , I've got a couple 8008 CPUs in the basement, should have the 4004s 'somewhere'......

Sounds great! I'll see if I can find an AR33 Teletype (with paper punch). That was my 1st 'real' IO device and storage unit In the building I owned Western Union was a tenant and had a repair station there for Teletypes. When the guys there heard I was putzing around with a computer of sorts they put the AR33 together & gave it to me.
Prior to that it was 'machine' language with switches and lights. When I interfaced an S100 4KB memory board to my breadboarded 8008 concoction I thought I had a supercomputer.