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When the Computer Club met this week, we had a little deviation. So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about it. This week, at our regular meeting time, during which we've been planning a Mini-ITX gaming build, most of the students were tied up with other activities. However, the one student who did show up is currently, my most advanced having built his own machine among other experiences. Therefore, what he wanted to learn about was the "next stage".... dabbling in servers to work with Plex, transcoding, etc. Conveniently, I have such a beast just sitting around in our computer room, a cast-off from a commercial client; a Dell PowerEdge SC440.
Granted, it's really not much of a server. Machines such as these occupied the low-end of the market back in 2006, which is why it was surplus and had been sitting in a corner of our workroom for the last year and a half! However, it turned out to be perfect for a 16 year-old looking for something to learn on. What is it? Well.... it's from the Core/Core 2 Duo generation built around an LGA-775 and Intel's 3000 chipset. That give's it the ability to run relatively modern operating systems, yet is old enough to have a wealth of cheap hardware available.
If you'll look at the SC440 motherboard, what do we see? For one, it's a full-on server board.... but cut down on features to some degree. No SCSI or SAS controller. One CPU socket. But critically, it does have the ability to take Xeon processors, and ECC RAM. There are also 3 PCIe (x8, x4, x1) and 2 32-bit PCI expansion slots. This gives the machine great latitude to accessing a WIDE variety of cards to do just about anything the owner might want for cheap. It's main weakness?
If you look closely at this image, you'll see that there are just 2 dedicated bays for 3.5" hard disk drives. However, there are 2, 5.25" optical drive bays which can be made use of, plus a 3.5" "floppy" bay, which could be used as well. Although, there are only 4 SATA headers on the MB, it seems unlikely that someone would need more with this box!
I must say though, that for a baby sys-admin looking to learn; I couldn't think of a more ideal machine. Although, it's hard to tell from pictures, this thing is solid steel! He's not going to break it! It can take serious hardware. Software for the most part is free, ranging from the ubiquitous Ubuntu, to FreeNAS to more obscure distros. Upgrade parts are cheap! And best of all..... it's free!
A few months ago during my HTPC Build Logs, I talked about "cutting the cable". Well; I did it! Actually, what I did was; do away with cable TV, which was in excess of $70, upgraded our internet to "unlimited" Data at 1Gb down and 50Mb up speed. It's roughly $30 per month. I'd have to say pretty good, now that they've actually blocked all the channels from the feed after a month.
We either use Kodi, or go directly to the network and watch our shows from through the browser. My daughter who's the main TV watcher likes to "binge-watch" FoodTV shows anyway, so Kodi is a great answer for that. She can watch several shows one after another. And since we have an HTPC hooked up to every TV, she can do that while her brother monopolizes the gameroom TV for gameplay. How has those machines worked?
I'd have to say that the "Den" system running out of the tiny Silverstone PT13 has been an absolute stunner! As you can see, from the illustration, it's amazingly small, but the main thing has been it's performance. So far, it has clearly outperformed the Viking build in our bedroom which is based on an ASRock board running an AMD A6-3600. That part isn't terribly surprising since it's a Gigabyte B75 Haswell generation board, but it's only running a Pentium 2030T low voltage processor using the onboard graphics! All three of the HTPCs run 8Gb of RAM, SSDs for the OS and Windows 7. The main system which has an AMD A8-7600 does pretty well but that should be no surprise. However, that little Intel system is essentially a "business class" chipset with a ultra-low-voltage CPU designed for USFF cases. Right now, it's the "mighty mite" of our fleet!
So; let's talk motherboards. This topic gets complex really quickly so, stay with me here.
To simplify things, I'm going to talk mostly in generalities and at least for this series, I'm only going to discuss Intel. Please understand that I'm not doing this because I'm an Intel "fanboy", or have it out for AMD, it's just that in the current state of the industry, if you can pay the difference, you'll go Intel virtually every time. They are just that far ahead.
And when you talk, Intel, all discussions begin with the chipset. There are actually 2 dynamics when you get into it though; the generation (as in Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Sky Lake etc.), and the actual chipset that's soldered on the motherboard. In the Intel world, there are performance chipsets, and for consumer boards, these range from the "performance/enthusiast" versions such as "Z" or "X". To further simplify our discussion, we'll eliminate the Ultra-performance "X" chips that are for workstations and people with too much money, to the much more commonly used "Z" lettered chips. Regardless of which manufacturer you go with (ASUS, Gigabyte, ASROCK, MSI.....), somewhere in it's name, will be a letter such as "Z", or "H". "Z" boards generally are "unlocked" meaning that if you put in the right hardware (e.g. CPU, RAM, etc.) the BIOS is set up so that you can manipulate the individual settings quite a bit.... bump the BUS speed, increase voltage, CPU clock-multiplier..... that list goes on almost endlessly. However, there's a catch! If you want to do those sorts of things, you have to buy hardware that's created for that! The CPU will have to be a "K" spec version or your choices will be limited, buy "performance" RAM with a greater range of acceptable voltages and BUS speeds. ....AND any combination there-of. It's hours of fun but often frustration as well!
However, if you are more this....
than this; Intel has chipsets for you as well. While gamers, or hardware geeks like me, are likely to "play" with their machines, seeing just what it'll do, most people do run-of-the-mill things on their machines. For them, there's are the "H" (probably for home), and "B" (probably for business) chipsets. The board on which these chipsets live are generally quite a bit less expensive than the "Z" versions. They are loaded with less features and there are a LOT less in the way of configurability as well. In today's world, virtually all of these different chipset versions are available in all of the major form-factors.
Therefore, the buying decision can be broken down into 2 questions to be answered. What do you want the machine to do? And how big (or small) do you want it to be?
Let's start with the "case study" that we started using in Part 1...that of a modern gaming machine that can be relatively portable so it can go off to college in a few years. So, that would typically imply a "Z" chipset such as this example from Gigabyte, the Z97N-Gaming. Even without the "gaming" part in the name and color, it's purpose is self-evident. The "Z97" means that it has a configurable chipset of the "9" (Broadwell) generation with has an onboard "N" type Wi-Fi card. Because it's 9 series, the CPU socket will be an LGA-1150. These specifications will dictate certain other buying decisions as well. It is also a Mini-ITX sized board, which will allow the buyer to install into very small cases which can sit on a desktop or tucked away. Why the "9" series, versus the "10" (Sky Lake) chipset? These are high school students in a middle-class suburb. For most games, the CPU is secondary to the performance of the graphics card. So, the $50 to $100 saved here can be applied to a better graphics card! So, if it was me, I'd probably go with the compromise as well. The price of these range down to $50 for "H" chipped boards up the around $200 for "Z" chipped versions.
Next time; CPUs and RAM.
No, I'm not planning another build. It's just that it's an often asked question during our "Computer Club" meetings with the students. Each new group goes through this, so I figured it's a good time to get it down somewhere instead of reinventing the wheel each time!
These are high school students, so 99% of the time, they want to build a gaming PC. So, the first and most important question is typically answered..... "what do you want to do with it". In todays suburbia, the vast majority of them already have a computer, although, it's almost always a laptop. AND.....it's typically some low end machine purchased from Wal-mart or Best Buy and plays games badly! Which is what leads them to join Computer Club to start with! It being 2016, they've all watch a bunch of videos on YouTube of guys building machines and are now well and truly confused, although they can say a few words in tech; like SSD, 4K, water-cooling and nVidia Titan.
Since we know that this will be a gaming build, then the actual graphics card will go last. Bear with me on this....
I usually start here. Let me explain my rationale:
- Most people know where this computer is going to live, both now and in the next few years.
- The location of the machine often dictates the physical size limitations (such as a dorm-room). They're not going to be in high school forever! Plus "computer club" type kids are typically college-bound.
- In today's world, you can build a decent gaming (or any) PC in any form-factor you want.
- If you're looking to buy a gaming laptop, you have too much money to be reading my blog!
- The price and performance of cases rarely if ever change, although the models often do, so if you see something you like, you might want to grab it now before they stop making it!
Increasingly, I find people looking to do something in the Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX size. Guys like me who want or need to install 3, 4, 5 or more drives, plus optical drives are dinosaurs! So, it becomes a matter of size and budget, balancing asthetics. I'm going to focus on Mini-ITX here since Micro-ATX is mostly just smaller ATX cases.
Some of you might remember my son's gaming machine build in an Azza case. I'll call this type the "console replacement". They are slender, about as tall as they are deep, and can be oriented in both vertical and horizontal direction for placement. They're typically a quadrant inside with sections for, PSU, motherboard, drives, and GPU. They range from the rather garish look of this Azza CSAZ-103 that my teenager son loves, to very subtle Silverstones and Fractals.
The other team is populated by the "box" style such as this Cooler Master Elite 110. They range from "bread-box" to "cube". These usually can house standard component (ATX PSU for instance), and typical have more drive placement options. The Fractal Node is well-know for it's ability to hold several drives and is a good candidate for a mini-server build.
While on that topic, there are a number of specialty cases designed specifically for "other" uses, such as this Silverstone DS380 for server and the above Corsair 380t which is obviously created for portability. Can you say "Lan Party"!?! So, figure out what you want, how you want it to look, and lets get started!
Next post; it'll be motherboard time.
No! I don't mean this kind of dangerous, although when using power tools this is considered a given. Any number of people have cut, cut-off, broken, etc. important parts of their anatomy while using the tools in their "shop"..... and they don't even have to be "power" tools!
No, I mean this is a hobby that can quickly turn into the acquisition of tools.... LOTS of tools! While I love tools just about as much as the next guy, I'm more in it for what I can build and add to the lives of our little family. I don't want this to be the place where I go and hide-out and I've got so much invested that it's a financial burden on our budget. There are guys out there that have so much money tied up in their tools that they might as well just go out and buy everything instead of making it and be financially ahead of the game.
Although, I must say that I'm in somewhat less danger than some because we park at least one car in the garage AND have a ton of stuff belonging to my elementary teacher wife in there as well! So, my situation is more akin to the above where using tricks like folding benches are the order of the day. That in itself places a limit on what can be bought and stored in "my" shop.
Therefore, the end of the hobby that I'll be more involved in will be things like this; concepts in storing, getting the most out of my space. I can't tell you how many times that I've literally sat in the garage staring at the walls to imagine how the space is to be used! It's a little weird for my wife, when she comes looking and find me just sitting out there. I think, as much as anything else, my interest has become "space utilization".
All this germinated years ago when I lived in Lubbock and had a friend named Jeff. He was an engineer who loved to tinker. In his backyard, he built a shed that looked somewhat like the one depicted above. He equipped it with tools mostly picked up at garage sales and pawnshops for relatively little. Out of his little shop came many repairs and wide assortment of self-built items. I was hooked!
As many of you are aware, being a homeowner isn't simply living in, and enjoying the building. Unless you are well-heeled to the degree where you're just OK to pay someone to do everything, there are lots of little things to take care of, and lots to keep around. These can range from lawn-care equipment all the way to the tools necessary to do simple around the house repairs, much less the tools to actually build things.
Sure; a lot of it such as installing the new programmable thermostats only require a screw-driver and a smartphone, but other things are more complex. In the coming weeks, I'm hoping to discuss the variety of things that get worked on and built in our home which require the use of a workshop (however small) in some way shape or form. Stay tuned!
I imagine that when I say that I'm going to be talking some about my other hobby or woodworking, many people would think of something along these lines..... and maybe envision me trying to come up with something that looks like this.....
Well; lets start by saying that even if I had that amount of skill, that wouldn't be the direction of my work anyway. And if that starts you thinking New Yankee Workshop and Norm Abrams, again, let me redirect your thinking more towards...
Something along these lines! Of course, as always; I'm all about the hardware! Although, I must say, that I've been in the process of "setting up my workshop for some years now. Last year, our move made things a lot harder. We went from a 3 space garage to a 2 and maybe 1/4 space garage. Plus, my wife moving out of classroom teaching has created a situation where her stuff has taken over quite a bit more of the space in the now smaller garage! So how does this fit into the theme of this blog being tech oriented?
In case you haven't notice, the modern wood-working shop isn't what it used to be! Sure there are still folks out there who use the mallet, chisel and plane, but most use power tools for the vast majority of their work today. There's even guys who make their own 3D routing machines..... for all intents and purposes, a 3D printer that's been Jumbo-sized! I'm a little bit of a hybrid guy, who build stuff, fixes stuff, but mostly adapts pre-existing items into something useful for me and my family. I've done everything from refinishing a 1941 Magnavox Chairside radio and turning it into a cabinet for remotes, taking a credenza in bad condition turning into my computer work area and storage to building a cabinet for out A/V equipment (OK.... mostly assisting my friend Pat).
This Jack-of-all-trades concept and move to tighter quarters has necessitated me to rethink my tools and storage there-of. One of the things that's helped is to switch to a single manufacturer integrated line of tools. A year ago, I took my birthday money and scored big at a local pawn shop, finding a set of Porter-Cables 20v "Linked" cordless tools. This allowed me to have virtually every tool I need, but uses the same batteries and thus necessitating only a single charger. Later I added another couple of tools from this line and am now pretty close to having the set.
Yesterday, I was able to land a Porter-Cable plunge router AND the heavy-duty trimmer for a total of $54! This is way nicer than what I had and now, I'll be able to mount my old router to an extension on my table saw, thus giving me a router table without using up more space.
One of the things that draws me to this hobby is that there's strong tradition of building equipment that are needed and help enhance the use during shop time. Over the years, my wife has had me build a number of functional pieces of furniture for her classroom. I won't kid you and say that they were fine-furnishing, but I will definitely have fun building a shop from which those things can happen. So get ready for more wood-working posts to go with my traditional tech!
