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adacomputer [2009/10/20 22:37] ladyada |
adacomputer [2016/01/28 18:05] (current) |
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- **Must have hardware/motherboard parallel port (printer port).** Parallel ports are the pinkie toe of electronics hacking. Youd think they'd be gone by now but nooo, they're still there, hanging around and often necessary for using older software/hardware/schems. I use them a lot for talking to laser and label printers, CPLD/FPGA programmers, bitbanging all sorts of stuff, programming chips via PonyProg, etc.. USB-parallel converters aren't good enough due to the slowness from the USB layer. Hardware parallel ports are just damn handy! | - **Must have hardware/motherboard parallel port (printer port).** Parallel ports are the pinkie toe of electronics hacking. Youd think they'd be gone by now but nooo, they're still there, hanging around and often necessary for using older software/hardware/schems. I use them a lot for talking to laser and label printers, CPLD/FPGA programmers, bitbanging all sorts of stuff, programming chips via PonyProg, etc.. USB-parallel converters aren't good enough due to the slowness from the USB layer. Hardware parallel ports are just damn handy! | ||
- **Must have hardware/motherboard serial port** (COM/Modem port). Two if you can. These are more common than parallel ports. You can use USB-serial ports for most things but sometimes you need the hardware speed of an onboard serial port especially if you're doing some funky bitbanging. | - **Must have hardware/motherboard serial port** (COM/Modem port). Two if you can. These are more common than parallel ports. You can use USB-serial ports for most things but sometimes you need the hardware speed of an onboard serial port especially if you're doing some funky bitbanging. | ||
- | - **Should be small**, we dont got a lot of room here at adafruit. | + | - **Should be small and quiet**, we dont got a lot of room here at adafruit. And nothing is worse than fan noise. |
- **Doesnt need hardcore video** Not a lot of game playing around here, mostly working! | - **Doesnt need hardcore video** Not a lot of game playing around here, mostly working! | ||
- **Processor type** Can be Intel or AMD. Both are fine by us. Lately we've liked AMD a lot. | - **Processor type** Can be Intel or AMD. Both are fine by us. Lately we've liked AMD a lot. | ||
- **Lots of USB ports.** Both on the outside and on the motherboard. Especially for the shipping computer theres just tons of stuff that needs to plug in - programmers, barcode scanners, scales, backup usb keys, Arduinos. You can also use hubs. | - **Lots of USB ports.** Both on the outside and on the motherboard. Especially for the shipping computer theres just tons of stuff that needs to plug in - programmers, barcode scanners, scales, backup usb keys, Arduinos. You can also use hubs. | ||
- | - **Whole machine for <$500 ** Not including monitor, key/mouse, etc. We wanted it lean and clean. | + | - **Whole machine for $500 ** Not including monitor, key/mouse, etc. We wanted it lean and clean. |
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+ | Of course you should recycle what you can. In this case we had already recycled all our hard drives, CD rom drives, etc into other machines! | ||
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+ | If you have some other suggestions, feel free to edit the wiki page. Thanks! | ||
====== What we got ====== | ====== What we got ====== | ||
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{{:stuff.jpg|}} | {{:stuff.jpg|}} | ||
- | ===== Case ===== | + | ===== Case $200 ===== |
We like small desktop computers so we went with the Shuttle brand for a machine. We tend to build up machines ourselves since its often cheaper and better to do it this way. | We like small desktop computers so we went with the Shuttle brand for a machine. We tend to build up machines ourselves since its often cheaper and better to do it this way. | ||
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{{:shuttlefront.gif|}} {{:shuttleback.gif|}} | {{:shuttlefront.gif|}} {{:shuttleback.gif|}} | ||
- | ===== Processor ===== | + | ===== Processor $40-$150 ===== |
- | For the processor we actually went with two options. One was the "AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 4MB L3 Cache Socket AM3" ($150, this was for my personal workstation) and the other was the "AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 45W" ($40, for the shipping/programming workstation). The shuttle cant power more than 95W so dont try to overdo it or you will get heat problems! | + | For the processor we actually went with two options. One was the 'AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 4MB L3 Cache Socket AM3' ($150, this was for my personal workstation) and the other was the 'AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 45W' ($40, for the shipping/programming workstation). The shuttle cant power more than 95W so dont try to overdo it or you will get heat problems! |
- | ===== RAM ===== | + | ===== RAM $40/2GB ===== |
RAM is RAM in our opinion, you need 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400. Since windows XP 32 cant recognize more than 4 G I just got 4G for the personal workstation and 2G for the shipping/programming workstation. | RAM is RAM in our opinion, you need 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400. Since windows XP 32 cant recognize more than 4 G I just got 4G for the personal workstation and 2G for the shipping/programming workstation. | ||
- | ===== CD/DVD ===== | + | ===== CD/DVD $30 ===== |
I rarely burn discs, so I just got a DVD-ROM for installing software. eh. | I rarely burn discs, so I just got a DVD-ROM for installing software. eh. | ||
- | ===== Hard drive ===== | + | ===== Hard drive $50 ===== |
You can go with SATA or IDE. Since everything else here is IDE, we went with 160GB IDE drives. | You can go with SATA or IDE. Since everything else here is IDE, we went with 160GB IDE drives. | ||
- | ===== Video card ===== | + | ===== Video card $0 ===== |
None! The onboard video was perfect. Theres a video slot but we actually used that for the serial port bracket | None! The onboard video was perfect. Theres a video slot but we actually used that for the serial port bracket | ||
- | ===== Networking ===== | + | ===== Networking $20 ===== |
- | Theres a single PCI card slot, which we used for a WiFi card on the personal workstation. The business machine ended up connected to the ethernet drop so that was fine. | + | Theres a single PCI card slot, which we used for a Wi-Fi card on the personal workstation. The business machine ended up connected to the ethernet drop so that was fine. |
- | ===== Parallel port ===== | + | ===== Parallel port $10 ===== |
The computer has parallel on board, and theres a punchout on the case, but you'll need a [[http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-123/241_read-1655/|PC8]] parallel port adapter cable which has a 2mm header (NOT 0.1" IDC!) | The computer has parallel on board, and theres a punchout on the case, but you'll need a [[http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-123/241_read-1655/|PC8]] parallel port adapter cable which has a 2mm header (NOT 0.1" IDC!) | ||
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{{:parallel.jpg|}} | {{:parallel.jpg|}} | ||
- | ===== Serial port(s) ===== | + | ===== Serial port(s) $10 each ===== |
The computer has 2 serial ports on board (COM1 and COM2). Unfortunately theres no punchout so you'll want a bracket. They're called "Serial Port Brackets" and come with a 10-pin IDC cable | The computer has 2 serial ports on board (COM1 and COM2). Unfortunately theres no punchout so you'll want a bracket. They're called "Serial Port Brackets" and come with a 10-pin IDC cable | ||
{{:09480a.jpg|}} | {{:09480a.jpg|}} | ||
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+ | Unfortunately, ours were miswired, and had 'alternating' pins soldered instead of 'incrementing' - you can fix this pretty quickly with some soldering. | ||
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+ | {{:mboardcom.jpg|}} | ||
If you're feeling adventurous, you can actually get two of these and a Keystone 9200-15 (double DB-9 bracket) and double up for both COM ports! | If you're feeling adventurous, you can actually get two of these and a Keystone 9200-15 (double DB-9 bracket) and double up for both COM ports! | ||
{{:serial2.jpg|}} | {{:serial2.jpg|}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Total! ===== | ||
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+ | Personal machine: $200 + $150 + $80 + $30 + $50 + $20 + $10 + $20 = $560 - Nicer processor & 4 G RAM & wifi | ||
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+ | Business machine: $200 + $40 + $40 + $30 + $50 + $10 + $20 = $390 - Cheap processor & 2 G RAM & no wifi | ||
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+ | Which means that we met the budget of $500 (averaged together) | ||
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+ | I rounded up because I didnt include shipping. The keyboards and monitors were recycled. | ||
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+ | We've been happy with this set up, hopefully it will be useful for someone :) | ||
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