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Speed-Assembling Servers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the summon-precision-and-a-crown-and-coke dept.

Nieriko writes "The Planet is holding competitions to speed-assemble rack-mounted servers. It's like watching latter-day Marines field-strip and assemble their weapons. There is a video on YouTube about this incredible contest. Looks pretty challenging."

10 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Uh yeah... very speedy. by Xest · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "It's like watching latter-day Marines field-strip and assemble their weapons."

    Well no actually, it looked like any normal IT support guy putting a machine back together, except most people don't even fumble and drop the RAM.

    Really, that was fast? I'd be inclined to believe anyone here on Slashdot whose built a machine a few times could do it faster than that. It's not like they even had to build half the machine, the fiddliest components were already in place anyway.

    1. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by Aaron_Pike · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I do a very similar exercise with my shiny-new, mostly-freshman high-school class at the very basic introductory level of computer science. They'd be competitive with the dude in the video (sorry, dude in the video).

    2. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by composer777 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Agreed. That is not fast, at all. I think I've thrown together machines faster than that in the excitement of getting new hardware up and running. I think it would be more impressive if they were required to get them to boot, not to mention small details like hooking up the power and reset buttons, etc.

    3. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by BinaryBobbie · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It looked like a task I give to newbies on the first day they show up to work. And now they have a competition for that....I'm speechless.

      --
      It's because I'm new here isn't it?
    4. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by ircmaxell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously. Rack mounted server? That was just a regular computer case (Sure, it could be rack mounted, but that kind defeats the point of a rack)... Where's the thermal paste? Not to mention the IDE hard drives (I thought SCSI at first, but that doesn't look like a u320 68 pin (or 80 pin) SCSI, so I can only assume it's IDE...

      The better test would be to give all the parts set on the table along with all the screws. Then time from the first part picked up to the computer booting into a boot CD (to test that everything actually works). For bonus points, chose the parts from a bin (So they would have to select the proper CPU/Mobo combination, etc)...

      --
      If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
    5. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by billcopc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Looked more like an Asus, but yeah... real computers take way longer than that to assemble. This was more like a kindergarten Lego competition. The guy looked like he was one of those Geek Squad half-wits who'd never used a screwdriver his whole life. You want a real competition ? Give them a pile of boxed parts, a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Timer starts the moment they touch anything.

      As someone who used to run a store and has built tens of thousands of PCs, I had gotten to a point where my entry-level boxes took less than 5 minutes from sale to delivery. That included pulling parts from the shelves, assembling the damned thing, running a short diagnostic suite and putting the finished machine back into the padded box. Gaming rigs took around 20-30 minutes, mostly due to the fiddly drive cages and cable routing. Rack servers can take an hour or more, especially if you're mounting a dozen hard drives on hot-swap sleds and routing all those SAS cables around the absolutely un-ergonomic cases. Obviously there was more testing involved with bigger systems, but the nice thing about the el-cheapo kit was that I could pre-assemble a ton of them over the weekend. The guy in the video ? He'd have assembled me out of business... people aren't buying $3000 PCs anymore, they're buying $299 PCs where your margin is maybe $25, so the tech has to be extremely quick to be worth the money. It's not like you can realistically charge an $80 assembly fee on such a cheap machine.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    6. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by Hyppy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Funny thing, the comment on the Marines was Nieriko's, which I assume means that Nieriko is Cory Doctorow's alter ego. Original Boingboing story. Either way, my opinion of Cory just took a nosedive.

    7. Re:Uh yeah... very speedy. by Ephemeriis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The better test would be to give all the parts set on the table along with all the screws.

      In their original packaging.

      I swear... Some of this stuff, it takes longer to get it out of the plastic than it does to build the server.

      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
  2. Re:Was it just me? by tom17 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OK, I admit I had to go look at it again after seeing your comment - just so I could see what it *did* say.

    I read it as herpes, didn't get it, and moved on.

    it makes much more sense now :)

    Tom...

  3. Re:It isn't done right until you are bleeding by cyphercell · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Your boss is right. If you're really clumsy or doing a lot of work in the cases wear gloves.

    http://www.bestvalsup.com/G-Tek-MaxiFlex-Plus-Gloves-p/pip%2034-846.htm

    I know some folks that have to wear debris masks while dusting out PCs.

    --
    Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism