Case Waxing
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We finally got a decent server a couple weeks ago: 4 CPUs, 5 disks, plenty of RAM. My client, however, was not so impressed with the technical specs but rather the case. He instructed me to leave the computer in my office instead of the server room so that he may admire its appearance. In fact, he was so smitten with the case that he produced from his office a can of Carnuba wax, which he then applied. He waxed our new computer!
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It is not bullshit. I stood there and watched him do it. When I asked him why he had a can of wax in his desk drawer, he replied, "I put it on metal things to keep them from rusting, like my mail box."
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@aevernon said:
He instructed me to leave the computer in my office instead of the server room
Servers create a hell of a noise. Can you actually work with a server in your office?
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Servers do not have pretty cases. They're ugly flat slabs of computing power that belong in a rack in an AC'd room with a door with a lock. They usually - in my experience - make a fuckload of noise when booting. Only the most insane would agree to keeping them in operation next to their desk.
So I'm guessing what you got is a normal big-cased desktop PC, reinstalled as a sever.
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This reminds me a little of an old server we support at a client's office. It's a metal slab placed on a shelf strategically positioned in the kitchen. And unless it's regularly cleaned it collects massive amounts of dust. A whle back one of the case fans died and we send a tech to check it out. He confirmed the problem and then visited the nearest pc shop to pick up a new fan. However they happened to have only a fan with leds for that size so now the server may be an dirty noisy metal slab, but it's a cool dirty noisy metal slab.
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@dhromed said:
Servers do not have pretty cases. They're ugly flat slabs of computing power that belong in a rack in an AC'd room
Funny you should mention that. Someone from the organisation I worked for in the mid-90s won an advanced-for-the-time box (a DEC Alpha box IIRC, though I may be wrong) that had been hand-painted by a moderately prominent (Australian) Aboriginal artist. Evidently the manufacturer's marketing and promotions people didn't know enough about their own company's product to know that a computer capable of handling hundreds of concurrent users might not just sit on some lucky random's desk.
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@dhromed said:
Servers do not have pretty cases. They're ugly flat slabs of computing power that belong in a rack in an AC'd room with a door with a lock.
Perhaps toy servers do not have pretty cases. Big servers come in cases that resemble those of gaming PCs (well...not quite that garish) on a somewhat larger scale.
IBM zSeries (mainframe)
IBM pSeries (big Unix-type box)
BlueGene (nice non-rectangular box)
@dhromed said:
Only the most insane would agree to keeping them in operation next to their desk.
I agree with that one.... They are quite noisy.
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@sibtrag said:
Perhaps toy servers do not have pretty cases. Big servers come in cases that resemble those of gaming PCs (well...not quite that garish) on a somewhat larger scale.
[images]
Well okay, but those are a somewhat different class of device.
That first one looks like it'll open with puffs of green steam, and Borg step out.
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@dhromed said:
That first one looks like it'll open with puffs of green steam, and Borg step out.
So you did see one!
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> So I'm guessing what you got is a normal big-cased desktop PC, reinstalled as a sever.
That's right. It is basically a gaming rig from Microcenter but we're running our database on it.
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@dhromed said:
Ever seen the ProLiant ones? They look basically like oversized PC's (which in my mind, they are if they're x86-based) except that the front panel opens up and gives direct access to the SCSI hot-swap disk array. Oh yeah, when you turn 'em on, it sounds like someone's revving up his car!Servers do not have pretty cases. They're ugly flat slabs of computing power that belong in a rack in an AC'd room with a door with a lock. They usually - in my experience - make a fuckload of noise when booting. Only the most insane would agree to keeping them in operation next to their desk.
So I'm guessing what you got is a normal big-cased desktop PC, reinstalled as a sever.
Oh, and by the way, my former boss at a State Government position used one of those as his desktop PC.
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@danixdefcon5 said:
Ever seen the ProLiant ones? They look basically like oversized PC's (which in my mind, they are if they're x86-based) except that the front panel opens up and gives direct access to the SCSI hot-swap disk array.
Well, if you're using a tower chassis instead of a rackmount, you aren't very serious anyway (the rackmounts definitely do not have a door).
Oh yeah, when you turn 'em on, it sounds like someone's revving up his car!
It sounds more like a vacuum cleaner to me.
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@operagost said:
@danixdefcon5 said:
Oh yeah, when you turn 'em on, it sounds like someone's revving up his car!
It sounds more like a vacuum cleaner to me.
Always remember the source. Danix is from Mexico, where 4 cylinders is 2 too many.
