God Hates Computers
:: Friday, February 25th, 2005 @ 4:23:23 am
:: Tags: Computers
Our french horn player today had a sticker for the band, “God Hates Computers.” Aftering seeing it, I said (jokingly), “I want one of those stickers! I’d cross out ‘God’ (and the ’s’ in ‘Hates’) and write ‘I’ instead. ha ha ha.”
I was being facetious, but that was because I didn’t know that the remainder of my evening would be spent setting up my new server — all of which was going well until the Intel Express software CD installed something that corrupted the newly installed system. So, I’m starting again.
This is after literally weeks of waiting for Lian Li to get me a set of missing screws and accessories for the damned case; through circumstances too good to be true, the case goodies were delivered to my parents’ hotel while they were visiting Taiwan last week, and then to me some days later. My aunt, instrumental in the accessories acquisition, claims that Lian Li’s customer service in Taiwan is quite good. That’s great for Taiwan, but Lian Li sells a lot of product here in the States, too, and their USA customer service is non-existent. Good thing I have family in Taiwan; I was about to get creative.
Incidentally, Lian Li ships in one bag, a set of motherboard risers with a bunch of screws. In another bag are a bunch of smaller screws. Naturally, I used the screws bundled with the motherboard risers to attach the motherboard to the risers, since they had been packaged in the same bag. BAD IDEA.
(agonizing description of hours of hassle here) …
I could go on forever about all of this crap, but I’m sure you aren’t interested.
I’m going to be amazed if all of this works. These days I have no confidence in computing hardware, and I won’t be surprised if there is at least one defective part in the mix (there are 9 drives in the case — all Maxtor. I’m projecting doom and gloom!)
I have to find time in the next few days to:
1) finish the Wetpixel design and migration
2) prepare materials for my workshops two weekends from now
3) attend and/or play in 3 concerts
4) finalize travel plans for may/june of this year
5) get this bitch of a server working
6) post photos from the last couple of trips
7 - infinity) a crapload more
Craving bed,
Eric
Journal RSS 
I imagine that one little thing could go just enough wrong to cause headaches indefinitely in a system that complex. ;)
agreed. from a former computer-geek, i hate computers now too.
now why are you building your own server for? seriously, you have more important things to be doing than messing with computers. i think this is one of those situations where you would be better off buying a pre-built server of some kind. if cost is the issue, buy the basic server with OS preinstalled, then throw in your own drives and set them up for RAID and done.
Glad you got that bag of hardware. There’s no Lian-Li support in the US because they have no corporate presence here. Any Lian-Li rep here one would speak to would be a middleman importer.
I’ll be interested to hear from you how that chassis works out — whether or not the rubber gasketing and general design is worth the inflated cost of the chassis. It’s sharp-looking, for sure, and is hopefully functionally superior to match.
Finally: RAID based off of Maxtor drives? Dude, what are you thinking?
Thanks for the comments, guys. Chester — why didn’t you warn me about WD drives when I set up server #1? :) :)
I love the Lian Li silent pc chassis. It’s really quiet, well-designed, and it can keep 9 drives cool without sounding like a jet.
vinh - OS pre-installed? no thank you. I can definitely do it myself, and putting a system together is usually very easy. Cost and availability are both issues. First, it was (relatively) dirt cheap to assemble a system with 2.5TB of space. Second, I would have had to custom specify all of the parts in order to get a system that was both quiet and cool. After all that work, why buy pre-built?
As for the “throw in your own drives and set them up for RAID and done” comment, that is essentially what I had planned on doing.
What seems to be the problem now is the RAID. One of the drives goes “missing” after I build it. But I’m trying again, with some cables re-seated, and am using the long way to build it (10 hours). We’ll see what happens. :)
Hey Eric, heads up! Your workshop is not in two weekends from now, it’s one weekend from now. You better speed things up ;-)
Who likes the computer ? I need my Computer but I don’t like him :-)))
Hey! Lian-Li wrote back to me today — 1 month and 18 days later: “Will send you some screw soon.”
Better late than never, I guess? :)