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Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:23 am
by woka
First post..

Just popped in to say g'day and to adsvise that I've just ordered my Nucore kit today from Pinball Life. Hopefully its in stock and will be on its way soon.

The first of no doubt many questions regarding install and setup.

I was wondering if a Core 2 Duo CPU is absolutely required, I'm not an AMD fan and will definately stick with an Intel based board and processor. The processor that I have put aside is a Dual Core Pentium D 3.4Ghz CPU. With recommended memory etc, would this do the job..?

Thanks in advance..!


W.

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:29 am
by Chuck
The Pentium D will probably work but it is on the lower side of the performance requirements.

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:36 pm
by woka
Excellent, just received the base package today.. Sooner than expected to be honest.

Now the fun begins, and I'll discard the above CPU and get a higher spec one.



:lol:

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:44 pm
by Pinball Wizard
Did your old computer die or are you just replacing it to get the extra bonuses of having a NuCore system?

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:20 am
by woka
I had issues with the Pin2k computer hanging (freezing)..

After many months of deliberation and a bit of back yard testing I determined that the mother board had failed.

Prism Card tested ok in another rig
Changed the CPU
Change the power supply
checked cooling issues etc

All resulted in the same issue - freeze up after 2, maybe 5, sometime 10+ minutes.

All got too hard and I figured Nucore would be the easy way. Anyway, got my kit, squeezed it into the Pin2k case (will post pics soon of my back yard job soon) but now I have ANOTHER issue..! No illumination on the playfield.

I've started another thread regarding this, so if anyone has input please check viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1083 this thread out...


Cheers..!

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit.. (pics added)

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:26 am
by woka
Ok, Got the upload pic issue sorted..

Got my kit yesterday.. :lol:
Banged together a basic 'bench pc' with bits lying around
(P4 D 3.4 / 1Gb Ram / 80Gb Sata Hdd / DVD Rom)
Went through the install, followed the instructions, very concise, good work however a couple of descrepencies from my load / experience.
Downloaded the ROM's.. Reboot, Bingo, it works - first time..!

Picked up my new hardware today
(Intel DG41CN mATx Mainboard / Intel C2D E75002.93Ghz CPU / 2Gb DDR2-800 Ram)
Connected it all up and it worked off yesterdays / different hardware image. Is this correct..? Will Ubuntu run like this..? I know that nowadays with Windows, newer Genuine Intel boards will detect and run older images from older Genuine Intel boards (from about i915 chipsets onwards)

Got out the trusty angle grinder and the cordless drill, hacked about for a hour or two and made the motherboard fit into the original Pin2K box. Not a beautiful job, but hey, after drilling out a few rivets to expand on the width of the box, a few cuts with the angle grinder so I could slot in the motherboard with the Hdd snugged in behind I got it in there..!

Pics tell a 1000 words, like I say, not beautiful, but certainly practicle..

Image

Image

Note the original Atari Cone button used as a Reset switch ;) and a PC power LED over to the right.

Image

Image[/img]


As above and as per my other post, I'm having a few issues with playfield power / illumination. Tomorrows another day, will deal with it then..

All in all, happy that the mainboard 'just' fitted in..! A good evenings work..l

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:38 am
by Pinball Wizard
Nice use of the atari cone button! Not the prettiest job but it sure works!

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:15 am
by woka
And with the USB Nucore dongle connected, a basic set of speakers, I'm playing..!

Just got to resolve the mirrored screen image and it'll be sweet.


;)

===========================


Edit, resolved. P36 of the instructions..

Good stuff..!

Re: Just ordered my Nucore kit..

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:13 am
by woka
Did the Audio MOD, works a treat powered from my Nucore PC power Supply... A little bit of a hum, easily drowned out by the great sound of RFM.

I saw an 'inline audio noise suppressor' mod somewhere on the forum, will investigate that and install.

Verdict; 10 out of 10


Next.. SWEP1.. ;)