VOGONS


First post, by cyclone3d

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So I randomly found a 1 Beyond Mobile 990 system on eBay and it is on it's way.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20061023105546mp_ … ?search=mobiles
https://web.archive.org/web/20061023111320/ht … =press_releases

Depending on when this unit was made, it could have up to 3.6Ghz dual Xeon CPUs... I think socket 604???
Has 5x removable 3.5" SCSI drive bays and multiple video cards.

Original price range looks to be between $9,000 and $12,000 USD.

What would you do with a system like this? Keep it stock, or build a silly contemporary luggable?

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Reply 1 of 26, by retardware

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They mention explicitly Avid capability, so I guess it was made with TV crews in mind.
But with only 2GB max RAM. Not suitable for serious work nowadays.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-11-02, 17:55:

... or build a silly contemporary luggable?

I have been thinking about this for a while, because I soon will spend a considerable amount of time in the warm tropics.

Laptops are no real option. No multiple drives for ZFS mirroring. Kid sized screen and keyboard, only suitable for emergency usage. And too expensive when considering these aspects.
If "rugged systems" like the Beyond Mobile weren't even much more expensive than laptops, I probably would use a more modern one.

So I am thinking about packing a small, comparatively lightweight workstation into one ABS suitcase that meets the intercontinental flight travel size limits (L+W+D<=158cm) and 24" LCD together with Model M and mouse into another.
Like which I have seen with low-budget independent TV teams, common workstation equipment fixed in their buses, instead of expensive "professional" rugged/racked systems.

Reply 2 of 26, by cyclone3d

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The different pages have conflicting info. The list below says up to 12GB RAM.

The BIOS shows the one I bought currently has 4GB RAM.

For all I know, since it has an ATX style motherboard, somebody may have already upgraded it.

The 3 video cards sound like it isn't quite stock but who knows. I'll open it up once it arrives.

I plan to do a video about this thing.

  • Configuration Options Include:

    Full Avid Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Video
    Up to Dual Xeon 3.6 GHz Processors
    Up to 12 GB RAM 800 MHz FSB
    4MB Flash ROM BIOS
    Upgradeable to more than a Terabyte Disk
    17” High Resolution LCD monitor
    Dual Monitor Graphics Card, Touch Pad Mouse
    CD/DVD±R/RW Combo drive
    Full Sized Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
    1 Serial Port, Parallel Port, Floppy
    2 USB 2.0 Ports
    1 RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
    1 RJ-11 Modem
    3 IEEE 1394 Fire Wire (6 pin)
    WiFi 802-11b/g, Bluetooth

Seller pics:

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Reply 3 of 26, by cyclone3d

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As for laptops, a lot of the newer workstation type laptops can accommodate 3-4 m.2 SSDs and sometimes a 2.5" spinner or SSD as well.

The one I currently have is a Precision 7720 and the video card that is in it, the Quadro P4000, is in between a GTX 1060 and 1660. Can take even faster video cards but not at the prices I am willing to pay.
It can take either 3 or 4 M.2 drives though I currently only have a single drive in it.

I have it mostly just for my mobile coding setup currently though I have gamed on it a bit in the past. The dock has 3x 24" monitors hooked up as well for plenty of screen space though I wouldn't mind having more.

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Reply 4 of 26, by cyclone3d

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This monster arrived today. Somebody has definitely been inside of it before. The CPUs were most likely swapped out and 2.8Ghz CPUs put in. Reason I think this is because 1 Beyond lists the default CPUs as 3.06Ghz.

It also has had the video card swapped out for a Geforce FX 5200. I guess this could have been stock, but it would have had to have been special order.

The other "3" video outputs are actually all one card. I'll post pics of that later as well. It doesn't have any model or brand on it other than the SDRAM stick which has a Compaq sticker on it. Super weird.

In any case, the motherboard is a SuperMicro x5DA8, a larger motherboard than I was expecting to be in there. This motherboard can take Socket 604 533fsb CPUs, which means it maxes out at 3.2Ghz and the maximum RAM is 12GB if all 6 slots are filled with 2GB sticks.

It uses DDR1-266 (PC2100). It currently has 4x 1GB Registered ECC sticks.

Current drive setup is 3x super loud IBM 37GB SCSI drives. They are so loud that the build in speakers can hardly be heard even when turned all the way up.

It boots to Windows XP and has the original software for the TV station it was used for. I'll post pics and other stuff when I get a chance. Looks like it was mostly used for news around 2004-2006.
There is also a Norton Ghost backup of the OS and software from what it looks like so I will be saving that.

The keyboard uses Alps black switches. Most seem to work great, but a few are not as quick to rebound as the others.

I did have to completely disassemble the unit to get it to power on. Found a loose screw inside that was most likely stuck under the motherboard and shorting something out. The screw was probably loose in there before and moved around in shipping because the seller showed pics of it in the BIOS.

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Reply 5 of 26, by cyclone3d

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The second "video card" is actually a "Video Toaster" card. Has a sound card built in as well.

This computer reminds me how much I hate the sound of HDDs and high pitches fans.

I don't think there is a reason for me to keep the stock motherboard in there unless I really want a mediocre XP machine, even if I do upgrade it to the 3.2Ghz CPUs. The SCSI drives definitely have to go though. I'll reduce the weight of the whole unit by at least 30% by taking out those blasted loud SCSI drives and 5 port bay and replace them with an SSD.

The stock screen's max resolution is 1024x768 and it is a fairly slow screen as well. I wonder if I can find a decent 17" screen to replace it with.

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Reply 6 of 26, by Warlord

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I can't think of a reason to own one, other than becasue I don't have one. I'd probably gut and mod if it was mine.

The 5 bay hot swap could probably be modded to sas or sata, and I would fill it with newer tech drives. The thing to me looks to me like it would be a good candidate for some kind of video capture machine. Or a mobile file server. Id make it strong enough to rip blu ray disks pretty fast, might be useful to have a mobile system that could do such a thing. Id probably use it for somthing like that. Thats likely not far from what its original purpose was.

1 problem with it ofcourse is cooling. I don't see any fans on it that would be good enough for today. Id probably have to wip out a Hole Saw and make some 120mm fan intake and out take for it. Either that or convert that hot swap drive bay to a fan and use a drive bay fan plate adapter there and mount SSDs inside with some velcro or somthing. that would be less distructive.

At anyrate it looks etreemly tight to build in, so Id probably not use top of the line CPU and use somthing that can be cooled with a smaller heatsink. Maybe use Micro ATX instead of Full size so I have more room for cable and mods.

Reply 7 of 26, by cyclone3d

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The only real things that make it kinda cramped are:
1.The PSU being over top the CPUs
2. The SCSI drive bays.
3. The PSU having very stiff main cables and it not being modular.

The unit would have 5x 5.25" bays if the SCSI bays were not there. Plenty of space to add a 120mm intake fan.
The fans right now are:
1. PSU
2. small exhaust under the drive bays
3. 5.25" drive bay exhaust
4. Expansion slot exhaust.

It almost looks like the CPU coolers may have originally had a shroud in order to exhaust the heat from the CPU coolers outside the case.

Whoever swapped out the CPUs most likely didn't put it back in. On top of that, instead of cleaning the old thermal compound off the CPUs and coolers, they just added a bunch of AS5 in there. It was a mess. On top of that, both CPUs still had gray hard gunk stuck to them under the AS5. The CPU cooler in the unit originally used white... so it hhas a combination of 3 different types of thermal compound.

The Video Toaster software will not run without the Video Toaster card installed. Whatever I put in here, I'll most likely leave that card in there. A quick look and the software looks pretty cool. Retro video editing here I come.

Now for a few pics:

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Reply 8 of 26, by Warlord

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Id definatly change the hotswap bay to a 120MM fan using somthing like this. not my listing https://www.ebay.fr/itm/283670647910 And I would probably ditch the board inside and go with somthing else. Then I would get rid of 5.25 drivebay fan or whatever that is under the CD drive and mount a couple SSDs in there and put a blank cover over it... Id get rid of that little 40mm fan then becasue its not doing crap at that point and tape over that intake on the inside.

Last edited by Warlord on 2021-11-06, 19:37. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 9 of 26, by cyclone3d

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That fan adapter look neat. I 'm going to see if I can find a decent priced 3-bay 3.5 / 2.5 adapter with 120mm fan and filter. Lian-Li made these and I have a couple but they are being used in other systems. I have seen some other branded ones but haven't looked in a while.

Then use a shorter optical drive as well which will also free up some space.

I think I am going to stick an x79 based board with either a 4930k or Xeon 1680 v2. Both of which I already have. Not sure if I have an x79 board with a PCI slot though.

That will allow me to make a pretty sweet XP machine as well as keep the Video Toaster card and software. May also use it as my video capture computer as that would solve another problem which is that I won't need a massively expensive motherboard and CPU to have enough PCIe lanes to accommodate everything I want to have in my main system.

I just need to get a good low-profile LGA-2011 CPU cooler.

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Reply 11 of 26, by cyclone3d

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I don't really want a hot swap bay. They add too much to the length. With a 120mm fan it would not even fit with a short video card.

Can't seem to find and Lian Li adapters for cheap, but there are now 3x 5.25 bays with 120mm fan to 5x 3.5" drives.

I also found a single 5.25 to 3.5 / 2.5 bay adapter that can take either 6x 2.5 or 2x 3.5 and 1x 3.5.

Just ordered these so I have a few different options. Amazon ended up being cheaper than anywhere else... Woohoo for faster shipping and less cost.

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Reply 12 of 26, by Warlord

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There are a few differnt sellers on ebay of those 3x5.25 to 120MM Fan covers. Ive have a 2x5.25 bay to 80mm with dust filter for 2 hard drives. I know what you are saying about the lian li its probably 120MM with dust cover for 3 internal hard drives. I have never seen one.

Reply 13 of 26, by cyclone3d

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Just verified I have an x79 motherboard with a PCI slot... actually has 2 but if I put in two video cards, one of them will be covered up. It is an ASRock x79 Xtreme 6. Still in use in a system but I have been meaning to swap it out with a better board which is the one I used to have in my main system.

Still trying to figure out which low profile cooler I want.

Also thinking about how I want the PSU set up... I can either leave it how it is and the PSU exhaust fan will be right above the CPU cooler... which may not be a bad thing overall but the PSU will end up running hotter though the case temp would most likely end up being cooler. I would also have to get a cooler where I can either mount a fan underneath to push the air up or have one that can have one underneath as a pusher and one on the top as a puller.

If I did this I could also raise the PSU up away from the motherboard by about 6mm or so.

The other option is to:
1. Mount the PSU the other way so the fan is on the side of the cover and leave it in the same place so there would be enough room for it to be able to pull air through it.
2. Same thing but move it up the 6mm or so but then I would have to modify the system cover so it could pull cool air from outside. This would result in a cooler PSU temp but most likely raise the case temps and it would also not look stock from the outside.

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Reply 14 of 26, by cyclone3d

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After spending way too much time looking at different low profile CPU cooler and reviews for those coolers I finally figured out which one I am going to use... and even found a used one for less than half the current going price of a new one. It even looks to have the correct mounting hardware which means it was used on a 2011 system before.
https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pi … rea=en#fgo-down

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(Pic from Silverstone web page)

It is the Silverstone NT06-PRO. The fan will be installed on the bottom, pushing the air up towards the PSU exhaust fan. It states it can take a 25mm thick fan, but I am going to see if I can cram a 38mm thick fan in there.
The cooler is 82mm tall which is just about perfect. I will probably only have a couple mm between it and the PSU so the PSU exhaust fan should definitely help the cooling of the CPU.

This cooler also has the most surface area for fins of any of the coolers I have found. Most of the other ones have much smaller fins which limits their ability to cool. It is also only one of a few coolers that can mount a 120mm fan on the bottom. Most of them only allow a fan on the top which is a bummer.

Fun thing about the motherboard I am using is that even a 120mm cooler with super low clearance will not interfere with any of the RAM slots I am using. I am not 100% sure if I could use all 8 RAM slots or not but it doesn't really matter in this case.

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Reply 15 of 26, by Warlord

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mm ya i figured the psu would pull hot air in from the cpu. maybe you could mount the PSU in the drive bay area, then mount a intake fan where the psu was. You could get one of those internal power cables like they use in servers when they mount the psu in the front. Then you would have direct outside air blowing on the CPU/vrm/ram.

Reply 17 of 26, by cyclone3d

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I don't think I am going to have issues with the air temp inside the case.

So far it will have:
120mm intake.. or maybe exhaust - drive bays via the 3x 5.25 to 5x 3.5" drive bay adapter.
60mm ? exhaust.. or maybe I'll change it to intake already built into the computer. There is space to add another.. maybe even slight larger ones.
120 or 140mm exhaust - PSU
CPU - exhaust directly to PSU fan intake.
Video card.. either 1 or 2 blower style HD7970. These used to be my main cards back in the day. They exhaust all heat outside the case.

I can always add another 1 or 2 120mm or 140mm intake fans on the cover. That would give everything tons of fresh air.

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Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 19 of 26, by cyclone3d

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Hah... maybe not super practical but it will actually fill a wanted build plus I will have it still be able to be used for it's original purpose.

The only real iffy thing is that the Video Toaster card is a weird sandwich type of setup for the 3rd display hookup so not sure if it will interfere with a video card that is in the first PCIe slot.

Going to have to figure out the PSU situation... may end up using my ancient BFG 1200w PSU since it is the only modular PSU I have that is not currently in use.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
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Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK