What do you do with your BP6?

[Tim_K]

Here's a topic that I hope a lot of people will post to.

Tell us what you actually USE your BP6 for, and give a list of your specs. And maybe a photo.

I use my BP6 for folding@home processing for Stanford University.

I have 2 533 Celerons overclocked to 600 Mhz (8 * 75 FSB) running at 100% load, each doing its own folding thread, monitored by Electron Microscope 3.1.1 . Operating system is Windows 2000 Pro, 22 processes running.

I also recently upgraded the RAM to 640 MB of PC133 (from 256 MB, BIG improvement) and added a small fan to the northbridge cooler. The processors have Pentium 3 aluminum heatsinks that I got at a computer show for $4 each with 70 mm Foxconn fans, and they run at 36-37 degrees under full load

And I leave the side cover off so I can just LOOK at it on my computer table whenever I want. Dual CPUs are cool!

PS - the fans were running when this photo was taken.

[BCN]

now it sit doing nothing as it still awaits for a recap

[InactiveX]

My BP6 is in bits at the moment, but I will rebuild it.

When I was using it I had BeOS installed on it for silky smooth multi-tasking. It was a general purpose internet and media PC.

[Atropos]

BeBox, too.

The BP6 system will replace my P3 800 system at home.
I'll move the P3 to my students' appartement. At first I wanted to
by a lnotebook to carry everywhere I go. No need for notebook
now - and the BP6 with all stuff for a complete box made about 70 Euro.
(Can't get a notebook for this. )

The BP6 system will be running BeOS (the Zeta version published by
yellowtab), Ubuntu Linux and maybe W2K.

That's it

Atropos

[purrkur]

My BP6 is my second desktop. I do a lot of software testing on it and I use it as a test box for my website. If I need to do changes to my site then I will do them first on my BP6 to see how it goes to avoid unnecessary downtime. I do throw a lot of crap at it but it is still chugging along with the same installation of Debian that I installed on it initially. The same kind of abuse would have killed a Windows box many times over.

I have another BP6 board that I might use to run my website if I can find a cure for the broken center pin on the ZIF socket. Then I'll probably run my 533's on it without overclocking.

Both boards have been going through extensive recapping so they have been down for some time. I got my 2x550 going though but it is still a bit unstable for some reason. I am trying to work that one out. I think my 366's are not really stable enough at 100MHz FSB so I think my next step is to try 95MHz just to see if it holds.

[Wolfram]

My BP6 is my main desktop. Use it for office work. I'm a freelancing radio journalist, I write short pieces of text and fax/mail them to the studio. I do audio editing usually on another machine, which I also use to produce ugly electronic noise that might turn into music some lucky day.

I use MS Office for work on the BP6, and, while I'm still tempted to switch to linux, that makes it rather difficult for me. I do all my billing and tax declaration stuff with it, I've been doing this for some years now and I'm simply used to it.

I also think about using newer hardware, but I'm afraid I couln't get a new office machine as quiet as this one. My office is in a comparatively quiet part of the city centre, and the BP6 PC is completely inaudible during the day. Nice. And I'm still convinced you don't really need Gigahertz machines for office work...

[Tim_K]

Thanks to a computer repair / parts deal, I was able to upgrade my BP6 again, this time to its full capacity of 768 MB of memory !

3 PC133 16 chip 256 MB sticks are in place and functioning!!!

I enabled large work units of folding@home, now that my BP6 has enough memory to support it.

Where can I go from here?

I think I'll find a BP6 that needs the capacitors replaced and attempt the dual P3 modifications on it. It'll be something to do.

[davd_bob]

I think I'll find a BP6 that needs the capacitors replaced and attempt the dual P3 modifications on it. It'll be something to do.

You will have to do an episode on Loudmouth Tim on that project.

[Tim_K]

Good idea, but it might be tough to explain to the audience in 3-5 minutes why I'd want to modify twin 1.1 P3's into a 6 year old dual CPU motherboard.

[Atropos]

@Wolfram:

How about a nice Linux running CrossoverOffice that will run
the windows apps?
I'm using Crossover 4.1 without problems. Running MS Office XP
and Internet Explorer for those sites that really need IE.

Have a look at www.codeweavers.com

Bye,

Atropos

[phaedrus]

When it was running, I used mine as my main workstation.

I run Slackware Linux, and dabble in numerical programming for my physics courses, LaTeX typesetting (for class, and in the past, for pay). I do some 3d visualization (no not quake, stuff for class, 3d lattices for solid state physics--it is so much easier to visualize these when you can whip around a 3d representation of it). Playing Quake and Q3A. Normal webbrowsing and email. I don't use any office suite--I hate them. As a class of software, they fail most of my usability tests.

Jeff