The SETIStar. It looks much better in real life because you can see the lights. I'm going to fix that wiring. (Isn't my room beautiful?)

The SetiStar

The computer runs! It runs! One would think it was now time for me to sit back and pat myself on the back. "Woot, Zak, woot and leet," I should say to myself "rejoice in your major modding skillage, for u have pwned." But no, I don't (usually) talk like that, and work on the computer is not finished. I can't run any games yet or connect to the internet, which is necessary for downloading SETI@Home. This is because my graphics card and LAN controller (what my computer uses to connect to our cable modem) do not have the proper drivers to operate with my motherboard. Normally I would download them from the internet, but that doesn't work, so I'll have to download the LAN driver from another computer, burn it onto a disk, and install it on my computer. Then I will be able to download the graphics driver from the internet.

The computer now has a name, the "SetiStar." I might change this in the future, but I like the way it sounds.

Where I Currently Stand

The computer should be up and running by Monday. When I finished assembling everything last week, I turned it on. Everyone was jumping up and down and screaming until I discovered that it would boot. The computer posted and let me play with the BIOS, but I got bored of raising and lowering fan speeds. I noticed that when I told it to go ahead and load windows, it told me that it didn't detect any IDE drives. IDE is an interface used for CD, DVD and hard drives. My strategy up to that point had been to use the main hard disk (20 gigabytes) from my old Dell, because it already had Windows and all my system files. This was necessary, as Windows can cost up to $300 retail. Most home builders start with a blank hard drive, then install the operating system and all their programs from scratch. Well, after consulting an expert at my motherboard's manufacturer, ASUS, I discovered that I would not be able to use my old disk. Something complicated about windows forbids it from transferring to a new computer even if it's on its original drive. This meant I needed a new operating system. I would NOT use Linux, and to my surprise, I found that Windows is available much less expensive than I had thought. I bought a copy of Windows XP Professional for $85 on eBay (I LOVE EBAY, I LOVE EBAY!). My plan now is to use the 200 gigabyte (for all of you who don't know, this is gargantuan) hard drive that I had been using as extra storage on my Dell. I'll copy all its files onto my father's external backup drive, then wipe the 200 gig clean. I'll put it in the new system and install windows from scratch, like most home builders. Then, once I have an operating system up, I will be able to copy settings and some files, including SETI@Home, from my old 20 gig main hard drive. Like I wrote above, most of this should be done by Monday.

The top half of my ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard. The gray thing towards the top is the processor in its socket. The black heatsink with the ASUS logo is cooling the Northbridge of my 925X Alderwood.

The Computer 2

Look down the page and you'll see my October plans for building the computer. Here I have the way it is actually turning out. Things have gone relatively according to plan.

Processor: LGA775 Pentium 4 550 3.4 gigahertz

Motherboard: ASUS P5AD2 Premium

System Memory (RAM): 1 gigabyte Kingston HyperX DDR2 4300 at 533 megahertz

Cooling: The CPU is cooled by an all copper Zalman s7000 flower heat sink with an adjustable fan in the middle. It looks refined AND cool. I used slightly too much Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound in between it and the CPU. The case has intake fans in the front over the hard drive bays and in the window over the CPU and an exhaust fan on the back. With the PSU's inner fan and the heatsink fan, this makes a total of five fans moving air around the case. wOOt!

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD2000 200 gigabyte, 7200 rpm. I will eventually be adding a 10,000 rpm (fast, fast fast) WD Raptor for the operating system and certain programs, like Unreal Tournament 2004. I'm up to suggestions as to whether I should RAID the two drives, and how. That last sentence is the first incidence I have seen of "RAID" becoming a verb.

Optical Drive: A cr**py CD R/W and DVD reader from Dell.

Floppy Drive: Who cares?

Case: Black Thermaltake Tsunami Dream with side window. I have waxed this case. Yes, automotive wax, like they put on Lincolns and Bentleys. I can see my reflection on the side.

Speakers: a 2.1 Tsunami system whose left speaker jack has recently stopped working. With 7.1 (seven surround sound satellite speakers and a sub-woofer) systems coming out, I think I could stand an upgrade.

Graphics Card: This is the one major component I am yet to buy. Right now I'm using an old PCI card (yes, and actual PCI graphics card) from my Dell just so I can see what's going on. I'm asking for a PCI-Express ATI Radeon x800 pro for my birthday on New Year's Eve. I don't want to pay the $450.

Power Supply: Thermaltake XP480 at 400 watts. This is decent and should run the x800. I got this PSU for only $20 with the case, so if I want a better one, I can resell it and actually MAKE money.

Monitor: 17 inch Gateway curved-screen CRT. I really don't know what I'm going to do about this.

I hooked up the case with UV black lights and blue UV reactive IDE and floppy cables and moles connectors to match the blue lights throughout the case. It looks beautiful, but I need to figure out how to turn off the blue visible light in the exhaust fan, because it is overbearing the black light and ruining the effect. Once the project is done, this machine will be great for gaming and some more distributed computing projects.

I went through Hell installing that blue thing. It's an adapter for my heatsink, which was built for a different kind of motherboard. The heatsink mounts in those two little screw holes.

My Science Fair Project-The Ultimate SETI@Home Computer

Since 1984, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute has been monitoring radio signals from space, hoping to find a message from intelligent aliens in our galaxy. Is this a wild goose chase? Possibly, but not necessarily. Mathematical formulae like Drake’s Equation, which calculate the possibility of alien life based on the abundance of resources, have demonstrated that extraterrestrials are likely to exist.
SETI is largely a volunteer organization, and it doesn’t have enough computing power in its labs to process the massive of amount of data it receives from the Arecibo radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, so it lets volunteers process the data on their home computers. In this effort, called SETI@Home, enthusiast’s desktops analyze as much signal information as possible while they aren’t in use, then send the data back to SETI via the internet, sorted into radio interference and possible extraterrestrial signals.
The goal of the science fair project will be to research SETI and build the perfect SETI@Home computer. The computer will be tested rigorously for speed and efficiency in processing SETI data and running other community-service programs. Other computers with different specifications, including Hal Rogoff’s dual processor workstation, will also run SETI@Home and have their results compared to the project computer. Adaptations to the computer will include cutting edge technology like a socket 775 motherboard, 3.4 Gigahertz processor and a Gigabyte internet card. Other components will be selected to optimize the machines SETI@Home speed. Results and observations from the experiment will be recorded on a weblog at
SETI@Home breaks information into work units to be sent to home computers and processed. The project machine is expected to process one unit approximately every three hours, putting it near the top SETI’s pack.

The case--back when it was empty and room wasn't strewn with computer parts.

The Computer

All of the computer’s components are yet to be bought, but the core features are be an ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard and an Intel Pentium 4 550 processor initially operating at 3.4 gigahertz. The P5AD2 Premium uses DDR2 system memory, so the computer will have one gigabyte of that memory, operating initially at 533 megahertz.
The motherboard was chosen for two reasons. Having just been released, it uses the new LGA775 processor socket, the device on the motherboard to which the processor attaches. LGA (lowered grid array) sockets have communication pins in the socket instead of on the processor, making the connection more delicate but simultaneously more conductive. This increases the speed of communication between the processor and motherboard, one of the most inhibiting factors in today’s computers. Also, it is said to be fit for overclocking (“power modding”), the finessed process by which a computer owner increases CPU and system memory voltage, boosting performance. The effects of overclocking will be tested on Seti@home, and it is expected to provide a serious advantage.
Overclocking will probably push the processor to at least four gigahertz in the time provided for the experiment, likely higher. The CPU was chosen as the most powerful Pentium 4 aside from the six gigahertz model, which was not chosen due to its price of approximately $500. Intel’s Pentium 4 line was selected over AMD’s Athlon processors for two reasons: Athlons sacrifice raw clock speed for clever data juggling techniques, which can be hard to manage. Also, the fastest Athlons (the Athlon 64 series) use 64-bit architecture, a technology that is wasted on 32-bit operating systems and applications.The machine will probably be assembled by December, and it is then expected to complete a Seti@home work unit every three to five hours, possibly faster with different settings enabled.

The machine is currently nickname "Project Epsilon" for no good reason. The Lambda was already taken. I will be playing HL2.

Testing

Once the project computer is assembled, various tests will be conducted to
monitor the effect of computer modifications on the speed of mailto:SETI@Home operation. Different settings and components will be tweaked and replaced, and the results will be used to create a list of optimal conditions for SETI@Home. This list will be posted at setisciencefair.blogspot.com so other SETI@Home users can emulate it with their PC for maximum signal analysis.
One of the most important and delicate tests will be that of overclocking the computer, discussed briefly in the “The Computer” section. Overclocking is easy to try, but hard to master, and its nuances are discussed in the “Overclocking” section.
The importance of RAM (Random Access Memory) will also be examined. It is know that SETI@Home can accomplish its task with as little as sixteen megabytes of RAM, but the program will be tested with one 512 megabyte DDR2 module, then with two of these modules running in tandem (for a total capacity of one gigabyte). This would seem an irrelevant test, since SETI@Home, as mentioned, will only implement sixteen of these 512 or 1,024 (one gigabyte) megabytes, but since DDR2 is specifically designed to run in pairs of modules, writing efficiency and speed increase with two modules.
To record information streaming from the CPU, the RAM must run at least close to its interlocutor’s speed. If the CPU runs at 4.01 gigahertz and the RAM only records at 433 megahertz, the RAM will not remain up-to-date, and the system will either crash, or the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), will lower the processor speed. Because of this, the RAM’s write speed will be overclocked simultaneously with the CPU. This, also, is discussed further in the “Overclocking” section. It is likely that many tweaks and changes will have little or no effect on mailto:SETI@Home running speed. This will not be a failure, but a crucial part of discovering which modifications are useful and which are not; extreme precision and useless data are facets of computing experiments; many of the performance differences that are detected will probably be small, and largely irrelevant to average SETI@Home volunteers. The publishing of these findings will be useful for extreme speed optimization and interesting from a conceptual perspective. Also, with more powerful computers in the years to come, certain small performance differences may become more evident or fall under greater scrutiny.

The Arecibo Radio Telescope

One must understand that, as home to Earth’s most sensitive radio telescope, the Arecibo National Observatory handles a broad range of tasks, SETI@Home a low priority. It only a small portion of each day scanning the sky for extraterrestrial signals, but this is plenty time to keep 52,411,88 home computers busy. Run by the National Atmosphere and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), its attention is focused mainly on Earth’s atmosphere, which it can view with extreme precision using radio waves. Being a radio telescope, Arecibo does not enhance visual pictures like a pair of binoculars or a magnifying glass. Instead, it measures radio waves coming from the atmosphere and above, which are bounced off its 1000 feet-in-diameter spherical dome up into a Gregorian dome, which houses diverse antenna arrays.

The front of the case. Like my room, it really needs a cleaning. There are two blue LEDs under the overlap that look awsome in real life. You can just see the glow...