APOPHIS
Sandy Bridge class, 2012
Current Status of Unit: Decomissioned / Dismantled
Apophis [the Greek name of the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos] was designed in-house by VerTecX21 and commissioned on 10th Feb 2012 to replace Maxximus as Primary System. It took advantage of the next level of technology after that which was used to build Maxximus.
Apophis went through a lengthy design process and was constructed around the 32nm Intel Sandy Bridge 2nd Generation Core i7 processor on an Intel Z68 platform with 16GB of DDR3 RAM and a GeForce N560GTX-Ti
Apophis was the first VerTecX21 unit to be constructed with a Solid State Drive and the first to be upgraded with an AIO watercooling unit.
On 25th Sep 2015 Apophis was replaced as the Primary System by Sicarius and became the Secondary System a position where it served crucially for 6.5 years running more than a dozen virtual machines and a number of programming language SDKs.
On Mar 4th 2022, in it's 10th year of service, upon the commissioning of Tritonis, Sicarius became Secondary System and so Apophis was redesignated as Tertiary System. It was temporarily deactivated at this time due to a VerTecX21 location overhaul and reactivated in September 2022.
On Jan 31st 2025, just days before its 13th anniversary, Apophis was permanently decommissioned and dismantled. Some components were donated to refit Sicarius in its new role as Tertiary System.
Specification for Apophis, finalised: January 31st 2012
CPU: Intel "Sandy Bridge" Core i7 2600K 3.4GHz 8MB S1155 Quad core
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX
PSU: Corsair HX 750W modular PSU
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B) 16GB (4x4GB)
GPU: MSI GeForce N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr2 - 1GB - PCI-E DVI/HDMI
SSD: Corsair Force 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-600
CPU COOLING: BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler
CASING: Antec P280 Black Aluminum / Steel Super Mid Tower Computer Case
Components from Maxximus
DISPLAY: Dell UltraSharp U2412M 61cm (24'') monitor VGA,DVI-DP (1920x1200) Black
HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB buffer, 7200RPM spindle, (1TB Total Storage Capacity)
OPTICAL DRIVE: Liteon IHES208-31 SATA Lightscribe Blu-ray reader combo DVD writer
Significant changes to original specification:
25/03/15 - Installed Crucial MX100 SATA 512GB [SSD upgrade]
25/03/15 - Installed NZXT Kraken X31 AIO Water Cooling Unit [CPU cooler upgrade]
20/06/15 - Uninstalled 1x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB, SATA 3Gb/s [HDD failure]
04/07/15 - Installed Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5", SATA III, 7200rpm, 64MB cache [HDD replacement]
20/09/15 - Uninstalled Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5", SATA III, 7200rpm, 64MB cache [Required HDD for Sicarius]
20/09/15 - Added Philips 19" LCD 190S5FS, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 12ms + Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO03, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 8ms [for 3 Displays]
20/09/15 - Installed Display-Link USB 2.0 to DVI/VGA/HDMI Graphics Adapter Converter [to power 3rd Display]
01/04/18 - Replaced Philips 19" LCD 190S5FS, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 12ms + Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO03, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 8ms with 2x DELL 19" 1907FP 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz [Replacing old displays]
01/06/21 - Removed Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B) 8GB (2x4GB) [RAM faults]
31/01/22 Uninstalled Display-Link USB 2.0 to DVI/VGA/HDMI Graphics Adapter Converter [3rd display to be fed from onboard HDMI graphics port]
31/01/22 Replaced 1xDELL 19" 1907FP 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz with 1xDELL P2419H 1920 x 1080 [External Organisation share, Display upgrade]
25/03/22 - Detached 1xDELL 19" 1907FP 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 1x DELL P2419H 1920 x 1080 and 1x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 61cm (24'') monitor VGA,DVI-DP (1920x1200) Black [Required for Sicarius]
10/09/22 - Replaced 1x DELL P2419H 1920 x 1080 with Lenovo 19,5-inch T2054PC 1440 x 900 LED Monitor [Display Change]
Status of parts:
Corsair Force 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-600: Installed in Maxximus 11/07/15
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB, SATA 3Gb/s: Destroyed after malfunction 20/06/15
Philips 19" LCD 190S5FS, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 12ms: In storage 01/04/18
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 913N TCO03, 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz, 8ms: In storage 01/04/18
Display-Link USB 2.0 to DVI/VGA/HDMI Graphics Adapter Converter. In storage 31/01/22
DELL 19" 1907FP 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz In storage 31/01/22
DELL P2419H 1920 x 1080 [Returned to External Organisation 10/09/22]
BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
Crucial MX100 SATA 512GB: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB buffer, 7200RPM spindle: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
Liteon IHES208-31 SATA Lightscribe Blu-ray reader combo DVD writer: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
Dell UltraSharp U2412M 61cm (24'') monitor VGA,DVI-DP (1920x1200) Black: Installed on Sicarius 31/01/2025
DELL 19" 1907FP 1280 x 1024 / 75 Hz: Installed on Sicarius 31/01/2025
Lenovo 19,5-inch T2054PC 1440 x 900 LED Monitor: Installed on Sicarius 31/01/2025
Antec P280 Black Aluminum / Steel Super Mid Tower Computer Case: Housing Sicarius 31/01/2025
MSI GeForce N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr2 - 1GB - PCI-E DVI/HDMI: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
Corsair HX 750W modular PSU: Installed in Sicarius 31/01/2025
ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX: In Storage 31/01/2025
Intel "Sandy Bridge" Core i7 2600K 3.4GHz 8MB S1155 Quad core: In Storage 31/01/2025
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B) 16GB (4x4GB): Disposed 31/01/2025
NZXT Kraken X31 AIO Water Cooling Unit: Disposed 31/01/2025
Costing:
The total cost of all new components for the Apophis system was €1280.72 (UK£1069.53) (US$1687.48) [Jan 31st 2012 exchange rate]
