Some things (and people) have had so much work done on them, so many parts replaced, that they become unrecognizable as their former selves. Frankenstein’s monster, reality show star Heidi Montag, comedian Joan Rivers, and my old Stratocaster come to mind…as do computers in the WitmerLab. The latest was a venerable old lab computer that went under the knife recently for not just a face lift, but a tummy tuck, lip job, nose job, chin implant, butt implant, all kinds of augmentation, and a vajazzling to make Jennifer Love Hewitt proud. We thought we’d offer you a front-row seat.
It ain't Hollywood, but WitmerLab computers routinely go under the knife to be given new life (like Frankenstein) or to be made more current, trendy, and hopefully more desirable (like Heidi...she hopes). Here's witmer10, very alive and smokin' hot after highly successful surgery.
To make a comeback, sometimes a legend needs a makeover
Examples of the 3D visualizations that were done on witmer10 by Ryan Ridgely before the computer started showing its age.
The patient, known as witmer10, was the main workhorse for our 3D visualization guru Ryan Ridgely from 2005 to 2009. Last year Ryan got witmer20, a dual-processor screamer, to allow for some more serious 3D viz work. (Note: our computer naming scheme started when the IT guy put our first machines on the network: witmer1, witmer2, etc.) When witmer10 started to act up recently, it was time to get witmer23 (an even better system) and consider putting witmer10 out to pasture. But witmer10 is kinduva legend in our lab. It’s been involved in some of our best work: Majungasaurus, tyrannosaurs, ankylosaurs, hadrosaurs, Nigersaurus, flamingoes, among many others. It’s been our network hub for file-sharing. Pulling the plug (literally) just didn’t seem right. It was born a Dell Precision 670 with a 64-bit 3.6 GHz Xeon processor, 4 GB of RAM, an nVidia Quadro FX4400 video card. The early 64-bit version of Windows XP was always a bit buggy, but it was a hot machine in 2005…and could be again. It had a good motherboard, chipset, and video card. It just needed a nip here, a tuck there, and augmentation in all the right places.
The components that will transform witmer10 from an old has-been to a star. The 2nd processor kit and power supply (not shown) are refurbs, but everything else is new.
We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
We ordered the parts we needed: a second processor (to make it dual-processor), two 2 GB memory modules (to bring it to 8 GB), a special memory fan (because when you’re this hot, you need a-coolin’), two brand new hard drives (a 160 GB boot drive and a 1 TB data drive; we trashed the two old drives), two refurbished power supplies (gotta have a spare with refurb parts), two sweet new 22-inch widescreen monitors, and a fresh install of Windows 7 x64. Just over $900 in parts (over a third of which was the high-quality monitors) takes an ugly duckling and transforms it into a swan…if it all works! We assembled our crack surgical team—William Porter, Jason Bourke, and Ashley Morhardt—and set about our task. Heidi Montag had ten procedures in a single day, and we would attempt a similar feat.
1. Memory. William Porter installs the new memory modules, filling all six slots. Two new 2 GB chips + the existing four 1 GB chips = a rockin' 8 GB!
- 2. Memory Fan. To have more than 4 GB of memory, the motherboard requires that there be a dedicated fan over the memory chips, complete with a cable that plugs into the mobo. William again does the honors, carefully fitting the Corsair Dominator into place.
3. Hard Drives. Jason Bourke removes the old hard drives, as well as their mounting brackets, after which Ashley Morhardt installs the new drives. We always put the operating system and programs on a smaller (in this case, 160 GB) boot drive and have a large (1 TB) drive just for data. That way, if the OS becomes corrupt or hit by a virus, the data are safe. It's saved us a few times!
4. Voltage Regulator. Adding the second processor kit involves multiple steps. Here Ashley installs the voltage regulator module (green arrow) as William and Jason kibitz.
5. 2nd Processor. Jason installs the 2nd CPU itself, a 3.6 GHz Intel Xeon with 2 MB cache. He then applies a liberal coating of thermal compound, a pasty substance that evens out the irregularities, and hence enhances thermal conductivity, between the processor and the heat sink...which comes next.
6. Heat Sink. Jason installs the remarkably tall heat sink, and William helps sort out how the clips attach.
7. CPU Fan. Each processor/heat-sink assembly gets its own fan. Ashley installs the second fan unit.
It all fits! Clean. Tidy. Precise.
8. Monitors, power supply, keyboard, mouse. Once these other components are installed comes the moment of truth. Will it start? Will it recognize both CPUs and all the memory? William dares to try.
Success! A nip/tuck work of art! Memory augmentation, disk augmentation, CPU and fan implants. A star is reborn, ready to again take center stage!
Well worth the effort!
Although the overhaul we gave witmer10 is among our most ambitious, we routinely take machines that have lived a good productive life (2-4 years), and replace key parts. We always replace hard drives because they’re cheap and prone to failure after a few years. A clean OS install on new drives means you basically have a minty fresh computer. It’s almost not fair to still call this machine witmer10 given all the work it’s had done on it. Maybe we’ll call it Heidi…maybe not.
–Larry Witmer
If I understand correctly, you put a second single core processor in? At this point, would it have been cheaper to have upgraded to a dual core processor?
It seems strange these days to talk about single core processors at all… it’d be great if there was a follow up blog post that talked more about the sundry computers inhabiting the Witmer lab.
Nick Gardner
Both CPUs are dual core, so the machine now has four cores. I should’ve mentioned that they were dual core, but, like you said, single core processors seem like the distant past. We definitely could post something about our current stable of machines, which includes a few dual quad-core computers with loads of memory. Sadly, we humans remain the rate limiting component…the faster computers just increase the disparity.
That my G3 Powerbook still sits on my desk next to my Unibody MacBook Pro causes me to like this post even more. I’m gonna run right out and get her a vajazzling kit.