New Machine
I'm in the market for a new machine. I've decided to relegate my current
Dell SCSI-based workstation to network attached storage. The noise of the
SCSI drives has really gotten to me, since I always leave my PC on and I
live where I work. I'm going to use a wireless NIC, and store the computer
downstairs at my neighbor's place, because she's got the space (I don't),
and she would then be able to share my connection to AT&T Broadband (it's
~$10/mo to add her on, IIRC), she's looking forward to the arrangement.
The computer I want is optimized for running VMWare, which means SMP. I
want to go with AMD, because I've heard really good things about the Athlon
MP. But it also has to be silent, and those requirements are in direct
opposition to one another. I went to my local clone box builder shop to ask
if it could be done, and the look they gave me made me turn tail and exit
the store, tail squarely between the legs.
But it can be done - someone on Yahoo's quiet PC forum has done it, and
written up something about how to cool the two chips in very little space.
As someone who makes his living with his hardware, I never thought I'd be
interested in assembling my own. But in a strange sort of way I'm proud
that my requirements are as arcane as they are, and I'm looking forward to
the geekiness of working on something I assembled. I'm sure not looking
forward to debugging something I've assembled, but fingers are squarely
crossed.
10:19:07 PM 
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