Cocoa

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Specification

• Case: Compucase midi server case [link]
• Power supply: Zalmann 460W
• Processor: Core 2 duo e6600, 2.4GHz
• Memory: 4x 1Gt ddr2 800mhz (PQI)
• Motherboard: Asus p5w dh deluxe
• Graphic card: MSI Geforce 7600GS 256M (passive)
• Storage: Western Digital 320Gb (SATA); 2x160Gb & 200Gb Seagate (IDE)
• Processor cooling: Scythe ninja with 120m fan
• Case cooling: 2x120mm Nexus case fans
• Displays: 2x 20.1" LG Flatron (L2000C & L2000CN)
• DVD burner, wireless keyboard, wired mouse, lousy speakers
• Operating system: Linux (Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty, upgraded to 7.10 nowadays)

Installation / hardware

Whole case got damped with acoustipack, as I had one pack lying around. I'm not sure if this helps anything, but I could guess it slightly decreases sharp noises like hard drive seek & write sound.

Slight modification was done in order to get harddrive noise down. Originally case had two quick-removable drive bays (one for diskette & one hard drive, other -in picture- for 4 hard drives), with rubber grommets for reducing harddrive vibration. Diskette drive bay and quick-remove "system" for bays was taken off to get more space for hard drive bay.
My first plan was to hang hdd bay from above (5" bay), but as I had already installed harddrive to lowest slot of 5" bay, I didn't want to tear it off (it was quite hard to install there, more of that below). Also, freely moving, heavy obstacle inside my case wasnt so tempting idea.
After reading some SPCR articles, I found article where harddrive was placed on block of acoustic foam, and lifted bit up with L shaped metal feet to make air flow underneath the drive too (sorry, cant find that article). I'm not enthusiasted of metal works, so I decided to use original hdd bay instead of custom made feet. When filled with hard disks, bay is quite unbalanced, so additional rubber bands are needed to keep the bay from falling backwards. Two blocks of foam was needed to fully utilize 120mm Nexus fan. This installation has been quite a success. Though bay is not attached to anything, one still can move box quite freely without fear of bay breaking something inside.

One may notice that one of the harddrives is missing. One sata and two ide drives was installed to hdd bay. Third ide drive was not. Simple reason is that DVD burner needs to be installed to 5" slot, and ide cable has limited connector distance. So, it was decided to put third drive to 5" slot below the burner. Lots of rubber band was tweaked to slot in order to get harddrive in the air. I got no good picture of result, but goal was to create something like this. Standard way to silence your harddrive, managed to do it quite good.

Scythe's fan was decided to place vertically, blowing air towards case's exhaust fan, hoping that this way it would also cool ram sticks too and to support right-to-left airflow of the case. Scythe ninja is quite massive cooler, and I though also using it without fan. Haven't tried that, because scythe's fan is so silent (or at least not noisiest part of my cocoa).

Hottest part is 7600GS, reaching about 75C in load (glxgears & nexuiz), and 55-60C when doing normal desktop stuff. Mainboard is 40-50C, and CPU between 30C and 50C.

L2000C became my main display, as it has better panel (MVA). It was placed in front of user (me), and was connected to my laptop too (L2000C has DVI & VGA connectors). Other monitor is positioned right from main screen, leaving about 10cm gap between monitors. Both was rotated 90 degrees.

Installation / software

Basic OS installation

Changes with memory addition (2 to 4GB)

Update 04.02.2008: After upgrading to gutsy I couldn't get nvidia drivers to compile with server kernel, so I'm back into bit over 3GB of ram :|

Displays

Section "Screen"
    Option         "TwinView" "true"
    Option         "TwinViewOrientation" "Above"
    Option         "MetaModes" "1600x1200,1600x1200"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
    Option         "RandRRotation" "on"
    Option         "Rotate" "CCW"
EndSection

Update 11.10.2007: With following configuration main screen is horizontal (1600x1200) and additional screen vertical (roteted, in pivot, 1200x1600): xorg.conf-dual1.

Remote control

#SHOW VOLUME
begin
prog = irexec
button = 5
config = (amixer get Front |osd_cat -p middle -A center -s 1 -d 2)
end

# VOLUME UP
begin
prog = irexec
button = 7
repeat = 5
config = amixer -q set Front 2+ unmute
end

#VOLUME DOWN
begin
prog = irexec
button = b
repeat = 5
config = amixer -q set Front 2- unmute  
end

#NEXT
begin
prog = irexec
button = a
config = dcop amarok player next
end

#PREV
begin
prog = irexec
button = 8
config = dcop amarok player prev
end

#PLAY/PAUSE
begin
prog = irexec
button = 9
config = dcop amarok player playPause
end

lmsensors

After 1:31h uptime of misc surfing and one 20min game (quite typical use scenario), sensors gave me these stats:

Aux Fan:   691 RPM
fan4:      795 RPM
fan5:      680 RPM
Sys Temp:    +46C
CPU Temp:  +24.0C
Core0:       +31C
Core1:       +30C

Windows XP with VirtualBox (added 11.10.2007)

Not tested/working

Overclocking

CPU Temp:  +50.0C
Core0:       +62C
Core1:       +58C

Changes to this document