[AG-TECH] AGN Computer Specs

Don Morton morton at cs.umt.edu
Mon Jan 8 19:01:06 CST 2001


Folks, I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but I "think" I
see a few discrepancies in the computer specs provided by the
Futures Lab.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.  Please advise
me if I'm correct :)  The computers have all arrived, and I'm
looking under the hood, and I see problems.

- I'm looking at the AG Hardware Spec of 2 October 2000, mostly
  at the configurations of the SAG computers you mentioned.  My
  "naive" thought was that if these work for ANL, then they'll
  be fine for me.  I'm thinking now that I should have been a 
  little more inquiring.  I suspect other new folks might find
  themselves in the same boat.

- Display Computer - specs are for 2 64-bit PCI, 4 32-bit, and
  one ISA.  Given that a Matrox G400 Dual Head AGP adapter is
  mentioned previously, where is this supposed to go?  Am I missing
  something?  I'm told that I can get the G400 in PCI, so "maybe"
  I can do an exchange.  Or, I can run everything off of the
  G200 Quad Head - is this at all advisable? 

- Video Capture Computer - again, same specs - 2 64-bit, 4 32-bit, one
  ISA.  Given that one 32 bit slot is taken by the graphics card, and
  one by the NIC, that leaves me with two slots for four  Hauppauge
  video capture cards.  In reality, our room is small enough that
  I'm not sure I even want four cameras, but that's what we bought.
  I can pull the network card and use the onboard 10/100 port (which
  is mentioned in the SAG specs) to get one slot.  I could even find
  a 64-bit video card or ISA card to free up another.

That's it for now.  The point I'm trying to make is that if I'm correct,
the specs are conflicting and may lead others astray.  I'm sure most
people are smarter than I, but there are one or two out there that
aren't :)  I've taken the specs from Appendix A to be "Gospel" and
I fear that was a big mistake on my part.

It looks like I can "adjust" but, at the same time, this "adjustment"
means I've bought over $2k of equipment I don't need so far, and will
suffer some in terms of performance.  I'd sure appreciate any 
corrections/suggestions.

Thanks, 

Don
-- 
   Don Morton                     http://www.cs.umt.edu/u/morton/   
   Department of Computer Science       The University of Montana
   Missoula, MT 59812 | Voice (406) 243-4975 | Fax (406) 243-5139



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