RAVE RAVE, TECHNO TECHNO!

Wow. This post got *way* longer than I wanted it to - I'll try to keep up with posting about this project, instead of having to make one huuuge post. :)

Well, seeing as I haven't gotten any new bookings in a while, I've grown bored and I need to work on some kind of major project. I can't seem to leave well enough alone, so I've decided to replace my laptop with something a little more robust...

• much faster than the current laptop (a P3 1.1GHz ThinkPad with 768M RAM)

• very stable (no seriously, it *cannot* crash.)

• very portable, rackmountable in a "standard" rack case

• rugged as hell (ie "toss it down a flight of concrete stairs and it still runs just fine")

• 1/3rd the cost of an equivalent "hardened" laptop, like the Panasonic Toughbook

When I fleshed out the idea in my head a little more, it really started to make sense - a small, powerful, self-contained 4U case, ready for the challenging environment of a club, but flexible enough to be used for all kinds of things. Drawing from my current liverig rack (sort of visible here), only with the new PC in there as well, the 4U case will be:

• a Furman RackRider power conditioner (older model)

• a DBX 166XL compressor/limiter

• a MOTU 828mkII rackmount firewire soundcard

• a fast 1U PC, to be built.

Talking with Rich Hamakawa, another interesting thing came to light - if this computer is in a box with an eight-input, eight-output soundcard, that's a pretty interesting piece of equipment no matter what you're doing with sound. He pointed out, rightfully, that this little box would make for one hell of a crossover network... run the DJs into the limiter, then into the MOTU, and run Plogue Bidule on the PC... imagine the possibilities! Split the signal into a bunch of outputs, and apply VSTs to the signals... take one copy, chop off everything above 400hz, then compress it, then send that signal out to *just* the bassbins! Given that half the time we're playing on frankenstein soundsystems made from parts from three or more vendors, it'd be an awesome way to seriously tune a rig.

For that matter, with a USB2 portable hard drive and this box, it'd be trivial to get perfect recordings of shows, with or without a room-mic. The Listening Room is coming up, and since I'm not playing this year, this box could be used to record all the sets at extremely high quality.

With plans in mind, I went about researching. I did not find any pre-built options out there, so I'd have to build it myself. That's ok, I'm a geek. :)

After researching, I found very few options for computer cases. Most rackmount PCs are 22" to 28"(!) deep, meant to be racked in a standard four-post server rack. I have two SKB flightcases currently; an 8U and a 4U on loan from Rich. The 8U is approximately 19" deep, but the 4U, which is the rack of choice for this project, is only 15.5" deep.

So, after searching for long, I found this case:

(http://www.gtweb.net/j1132.html)

It's pretty great, though the fact that it uses a FlexATX form factor greatly restricts the choices of acceptable motherboards. The case is a mere 13.5" deep, however, which beats out the nearest competitors by a few inches!

I purchased this case, along with a power supply, extra blower, PCI riser card, and CPU fan, from the website linked above. My total, including shipping, was $335.43, though I opted for FedEx to avoid being UPS'd (NEVER EVER USE UPS!), which was an extra $30. When it arrived, Customs had decided to tack on an extra $40 for import taxes, which was expected. Total cost so far, approximately $360 USD.

The motherboard the General Technics guys (who made the PC case) recommend is the Tyan Tomcat i845GV. Tyan is a good name for motherboards, and the Tomcat is an Intel P4 board - normally I prefer AMD, but I don't see any AMD offerings in the FlexATX form-factor. I researched a bunch, but was only able to find the Tomcat and a bunch of VIA-based boards, along with less-than-positive reviews ("ok as an appliance, but don't try to make it your media computer"). If the case had been larger, I'd have gone with an ASUS board, as I've always had excellent experiences with ASUS.

I'm hoping that Windows XP will like my choices, 'cause basically I'm not sure what to do if not. :) The motherboard is currently on order at NCIX, and should arrive in a few days - from the specs, it seems like it should fit the bill, especially considering my current live-pa rig is a P3 1.1GHz laptop.. a 3GHz P4 and two gigs of RAM should pretty much cover whatever I want to throw at it. One odd thing about this board - it has *two* gigabit ethernet ports! If I ever get bored of this live-pa stuff, I can turn the racked PC into a firewall. :D The motherboard cost me $199 CAD, so I guess about $180 USD, bringing the grand total so far to approximately $540.

I think the two most challenging parts of this project will be cooling and storage - to meet with the "concrete steps" clause, I'd like to go with some kind of solid-state storage. Solid-state is a holy grail tho, and it's currently very expensive - this IDE flash module seems very interesting, though they want $200 for a one-gigabyte module, which is pretty steep. I'm betting the whole OS and a few choice applications could fit easily into a gig though - but then this was pointed out to me today by Malte:

(http://www.acscontrol.com/Pages/Products/CompactFlash/IDE_To_CF_Adapter.htm)

Now that is cool - currently NCIX has 4G CF cards on for about $200, so that's four times the storage, plus a lot easier to upgrade as the media gets cheaper. I ordered a pair of the adapters, with the damage coming to $47.90, bringing my grand total so far to approximately $590.

The nice thing about the motherboard is that it has four USB2 jacks at the back, and headers for two more for the front. This case does not currently have USB jacks on the front, but me and my dremel tool have some ideas about how this oversight can be rectified. As Rich pointed out, if the OS and applications are on the solid-state drive, you can walk up with your data on, say, a USB keychain or portable hard drive, plug it into the front of the box, and go... I don't want to have to mess around in the back of the rack case just to plug in a USB device.

For that matter, maybe a small LCD screen mounted on the front of the case, pushing some data about the temperature of the CPU and case, blower RPM, that sort of stuff... might be worth it, though I haven't researched those little screens in years.

For lugging out to shows, though, you don't really want to have to bring a keyboard, monitor and mouse along with you. Too much stuff, too easily broken, etc - but there's a VERY interesting option that really wasn't available before now. Apparently the Americans' loves of television and SUVs have merged, and a vehicle is no longer fully blinged without several 8" LCD panels... fortunately the Chinese are more than happy to pump out these things en masse, and now they've gotten ridiculously cheap! $180 USD (plus shipping from Hong Kong) gets you one of these:

link: search on eBay for "lcd vga touchscreen"

Longer term I'm thinking of replacing the little SKB case with a proper, custom-built flightcase, where the racks themselves are shockmounted... maybe go up to a 5U, and add a small locking drawer? Put the LCD touchscreen and a bunch of special-cut foam padding in the drawer, and the whole thing stays portable. Apparently the touchscreen itself just shows up as a USB mouse device!

So that's the story so far - sitting on my office floor is a rack case, fan, and riser card, with a motherboard on order and a pair of CF-to-IDE converters incoming. Left to purchase before I have a working prototype system:
2G of PC2700 RAM ($?)a yet-to-be-determined CPU (Pentium-D or Celeron, gotta research) ($200-ish?)
a Belkin PCI firewire card ($50)
I can't wait. I'll post more pictures and such as I go. :)

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