[Shiunbird]

Hey everyone!

The Octane has arrived. Less than 24 hours from London here was very impressive. Kudos to DHL.
It was very well packed, ready to survive a nuclear war. The machine is in a beautiful condition.

I managed to resist the urge of connecting everything. Photos attached. Besides what's included, there are some extra hard drives. The original 9GB one and a double height barracuda, capacity unknown.

The tutorials are very helpful. Thanks for arranging them.

My questions are:

1. What's the best way to attach the front panel without causing damage?
2. What's the extra graphics card?

And before I try to boot it up:

1. I was thinking about net booting Linux and then dd -ing the original disk away to my NAS via NFS. Any tips?
I so much regret I donated my SCA to 68-pin adapter. I could use it to easily back it up using my C8000. =\

2. Is it ok to disconnect it from the power outlet when I'm not using it or better to keep it always powered up?
The reason why I ask is... I've heard that the clock batteries (is it the Dallas thing?) is not easy to maintain, so if it helps preserve it, I'd rather have it connected to the outlet all the time.

3. How's its performance when it comes to repeated cool-downs and heat ups?
If I'm going to use it 3x for one hour each timeduring a day, should I just keep it up and running or its fine to power cycle?
I wish to save power, but not at expense of the machine.

I look forward to start enjoying it and improve my cross-platform coding skills.
Thanks to all who have helped me so far.