1982-1983: First computer purchased
IBM XT: $2100
IBM DOS 2.15
IBM 8 bit 4.77 Mhz CPU
256 kiloytes of RAM
Two 5.25" full height floppy drives
Monochrome graphics adapter and monitor
Epson Daisy Wheel Printer
1984: First Hard Drive
Seagate 8 bit MFM ST01 controller
Seagate ST4096 MFM 80 Megabyte Hard Drive
I used Spinrite to set the error tables. This hard drive was before IDE drives were invented and sold. The largest partition in DOS was 32 Megabytes when I first installed the drive. I had three partitions on it
1986: First SCSI drive was a Seagate 85MB SCSI-I with a Buslogic controller
2008: Current SAS RAID configuration
LSI Logic 8708EM2 PCIe 8x SAS RAID controller
128 MB battery cache
Two Seagate 15K.7 Cheetah RAID 1 hard drives
Two Seagate 10K.6 Cheetah RAID 1 hard drives
1.097 Gigabytes per second cached reads
850 megabytes per second cached writes
STILL IN USE TODAY!
My first internet Service Provider was Netcom. I was mckennma@ix.netcom.com in the 1980s. I had a 300 bits per second modem. I have probably built 300+ gaming rigs and servers in 30+ years. I do watch SCI-FI. I left WOW! for DirecTV because WOW! cut BBC America and Dr. Who. A show I have watched since the 1970s.
We switched to Americast around 1991 for our first cable internet connection and cable TV.
Motherboards / CPU used
IBM XT w/4.77 MHz CPU
Clone AT w/12 MHz CPU
Tyan Tomcat IIID with dual Intel 133 MHz CPUs
Tyan Tomcat IVD with dual Intel 266 MHz CPUs
Tyan Thunder K8W with dual Amd 180-240 Opterons
Tyan Thunder K8WE with dual Amd 240-280 Opterons
Supermicro X7DWA-N with dual Intel E5430 Xeons
Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 with single Intel i7 2600K
Operating Systems Used
IBM DOS 2.15
Microsoft DOS 3.1 to 6.22
SUSE Linux
Redhat Fedora Core 7 Linux
Ubuntu 12.04 to 16.04 Linux
IBM OS/2 and OS/2 Warp
Microsoft Windows 3.1 to 7 64-bit Ultimate
Why am I still on Windows 7 Ultimate?
Having SAS RAID makes it hard to upgrade to newer OS. LSI Logic released Windwos 8.1 drivers in January 2015. When I compare Windows 7 x64 to Windows 8 and 10, I wondered why Microsoft's management team designed 8 and 10. Bloated with security that gets in the way of applications and hardware. I write code and it is a pain to run it on 8 or 10. Windows 7 is considered very solid and great for users.
The next logical step was design 128 bit and 256 bit on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2016 with new hardware that could be the next huge leap in technology
Install Hyper-V on each workstation and sandbox a 256 bit, 128 bit, 64 bit and 32 bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2016 on every machine. We could then run every piece of software from 16 bit on up. Just think of Big Data on 256 bit? SQL Server 2016 256 Bit? Exchange Server 2016 256 Bit. CAD and gaming at video adapter speeds? What would a Xbox 360 256 bit look like on your 4K monitor?
Which Proc do I prefer AMD or Intel?
I have used IBM, Intel and AMD workstation and server grade processors on my builds. I have used both ATI and Nvidia graphics adapters on my builds. I don't favor any one company anymore for CPUs and graphics adapters.
Current CPU: Intel i7 2600K
Current Graphics Adapter: ATI 6970
Why am I called SCSIraidGURU
I was gaming with Team ATI many years ago. One of our team members ATI Guy worked for ATI. He was a lead engineer. He gave me the AKA "SCSIraidURU", when he saw a picture of my rig with 18 SCSI drives in two chassis. I would also spend much of my time helping members build better rigs for gaming.
All three monster rigs
The white 5 bay chassis held 18 hard drives across two chassis.
My favorite power supply brand was PC Power and Cooling
I have recommended customed wired PC Power and Cooling power supplies for years. The ones I buy are single rail and high end. My current 1kv-SR 1000W single rail was $600. It cost me $60 for the custom wiring on it. My 1000W power supply can drive my ATI 6970 graphics adapter, Intel i7, and all the SAS drives I can fill the chassis with. It is 80A @ 12V and 83% efficient. They make a 1200W that does 100A @ 12V.
