There were a lot of changes to the proposed hardware after the fact that caused the price to change. These were all due to the 1U case that we got. Once the case was in, it turned out that the case only supported a slimline (laptop style) cdrom, not a regular size one. Also, the heatsink/fan for the proposed 1.2ghz cpu was too tall, so we had to use a smaller fan/heatsink which also meant changing to a slower processor. The 256mb DRAM that was donated was too tall, so I had to trade it in for two 128mb simms that fit. Then the supplier ran out of the motherboard that I was quoted, so we had to use a different one there. Loosely translated, 1U cases are a royal pain (I also had to take a dremel tool to the eject button on the floppy drive that someone donated to get it to stick through the hole on the front of the case). In any event, here is a complete accounting of who donated what, and what the exact costs were. Donations (Hardware): Pat 1.44mb floppy drive James Rice 256mb DRAM Jay West 4gb IDE hard drive Jay West 20gb IDE hard drive Note - Chad Fernandez was kind enough to donate a 32X cdrom, however, I had to return it because of the 1U case issue above Donations (Cash): Stan Sieler $25.00 Paul Williams $30.00 (-1.47 paypal fee) Bill Richman $50.00 David Mcguire $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee) Nick Oliviero $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee) Jon Engdahl $10.00 (-0.59 paypal fee) Peter Turnbull $10.00 (-0.69 paypal fee) Henk Gooijen $8.40 (-0.63 paypal fee) Rich Beaudry $50.00 (-1.75 paypal fee) Totals gross donations $203.40 less paypal fees (-$6.31) = net donations of $197.09 cash Hardware costs: 1U rackmount case w/slide rails $172.00 Mitsumi 24x slimline CDROM $50.00 Asus TUSI-M motherboard $66.00 (2) 128mb PC133 DIMM $72.00 Intel P3/667 cpu $110.00 Tradein for one 256mb DIMM $-72.00 Total hardware cost $398.00 less donations above (-$197.09) = balance covered by Jay West $200.91cash First, I want to GREATLY thank all those who donated hardware and cash. As you can see, every little bit truely helped. I am at a loss to explain why paypal charged different fees for some of the $10.00 donations. I do know that the first few donations came in when my paypal account was a regular account, and part way through receiving donations I upgraded it to a "premier" account (at no cost). I did this so people could donate via credit card as opposed to bank draws; perhaps that explains the differing amounts due to some difference in account type charges. If anyone wishes, I would be happy to provide scanned copies of my paypal account history and the invoice from my vendor to substantiate the above numbers. I took some nice pictures of the fully assembled system, they are still in my digital camera awaiting download. I need to go down to the datacenter and take some pictures of the unit with it installed in a rack. Once I get those too, I will post all the pictures on the web for those curious. System specifics: Asus motherboard, 256mb ram, 4gb ide drive for the FreeBSD v4.5 release operating system, 20gb drive for archives and webspace, 10/100 ethernet and video built into the motherboard, Pentium III cpu @ 667mhz, 1.44mb floppy & 24x cdrom. Packages installed - analog/reportmagic webstatistics reporting, apache 2.0 webserver, bison1.3 parser generator, cygnus gnats 3.113 bug reporting system (with wwwgnats for web based bug submission), mailman 2.0.10 mailing list server, and python 2.2 language. There's also a bunch of dependency packages (gd, gettext, jpeg, a bunch of p5 stuff, etc.). I'm quite impressed with the case - it has a huge fan that isn't a muffin style, it's more like a heater blower (enclosed turbo housing) and it really pushes some serious airflow. The drive bays are easy snap out the front (but not hot swappable). The top of the case slides off by just pressing two buttons on top, no screws. Other than the installation clearance problems, the case is a dream to work on. And yes, the front panel has "cool factor" (read: blinkenlights). Environment: The system sits inside one of the racks in our datacenter. The datacenter building sits on two separate city power grids, so we're covered if one grid goes down. The building is fed by five diesel generators providing 7.5 megawatts (typically enough fuel for 3 days of continuous power) and there is an external hookup to bring another generator in on a tractor trailer flatbed if need be. Our room has it's own 30 minute online UPS, mainly to carry through the 2 minute specification for the time it takes the outside generators to come up to speed with clean power. All of our gear (including the classiccmp server) is powered via APC masterswitch's, so we can power on and off any device via any webbrowser biometric access controls, remote video survellience, etc. The classiccmp server ethernet port runs 100mb ethernet to our managed switch, and from there hits the outside world via a Cisco 7206VXR router. Our bandwidth provider is in the next room to us, so that connection is a direct gigabit cable. In addition, all the major backbone providers are in the same building, so in the event of a serious connectivity issue, we can immediately run a cable to anyone we choose (sprint, MCI, ATT, XO, Quest, SWB, etc.). Needless to say, the classiccmp server is in a great environment and well connected. And again I'll reiterate for those new to the list - I would be happy to host any classic computer related website, ftp site, mailinglist, etc. at no charge. My sincere thanks again to those who donated!!!! Regards, Jay West _______________________________________________ cctech mailing list cctech(a)classiccmp.org http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech