Lil's PC build

[Ianab]

Totally off topic, but I rebuild old PCs as a hobby. Lil has mixed feeling on this, as the room usually looks like a bomb hit a computer factory....  But she also knows that if her own PC fails, she will have it repaired / replaced in the hour.   :D

Anyway some bits arrived from China this week for the next build.



 

Inside the boxes? A "new" system board, 32 gb of Server Ram, a 12 core Xeon CPU, and nice little CPU cooler with 6 heat pipes and a LED fan.



 

The system boards are interesting, I think they reuse the old controller chips from server boards and mount them on a more standard desktop board, with modern add-on components like USB3, Gb Ehternet and NVME disk slots.

So the old CPU and ECC server RAM is basically now E-Waste, but it's still a serious amount of computer power if you can use it. The E5 2670 V3 CPU came out in 2014, and cost $1600 US at the time, so it was a serious sort of chip, that will hold it's own with modern consumer chips. 



 

Problem is that it wont fit in the desk PC Lil is now using, as a tower cooler and dedicated graphics card wont fit. I'll do a mini tower case for now, and might rebuild the tray under the desk to take some larger parts...

[Ianab]

Got it running.  8)



 

The old Xeon chip scores about the same as a new 12th Gen i7 on Cinebench (3d raytracing test). So considering it's only 10% the price (cpu / system board / ram combo). it's a good deal. Still got some wiring to tidy up and hook up the last case fan, but it's promising to be a good machine.

[Jeff]

If you get really busy on it will it help heat the house?  ;)

[Ianab]

If you get really busy on it will it help heat the house?  ;)

Chip has a TDP of 120W, and Sysinfo said it was using 112 with all 24 threads maxed out. About the same as a new i7 chip.  But yes it needs the tower cooler. The LED fans make it "cooler" too.  :D

The chips (and RAM) are cheap because they don't work in regular desktop boards, and this model Xeon is clocked slower, so less popular with the gaming crowd. Total overkill for Lil's desktop use, but it's so cheap, why not.  :D

[sharp edge]

 I
Do you live here on earth?

SE

[sharp edge]

I
Have you (alway) live on earth?

SE

[Ianab]

I
Have you (alway) live on earth?

SE

Yes, but I've been working with PCs since PCs were a thing. Well Commodore Pet days at least  ;) Early 80s. Some may consider that a different Planet  :D

A machine like this was science fiction back then, now it's a "budget build"  :D

My first "PC" had about 3,000 bytes (characters) of memory, maybe 2 pages of typed text. You had to fit your whole program into that space. Games tended to be pretty simple. This current build has ~32,000,000,000 bytes, which is only a slight overkill for a current machine.

Assembling a modern PC isn't actually rocket science. You have to work out what components will work together as there are different CPU sockets / expansion slots and power connectors. But with "Standard" parts like these, you can mix and match pretty well. Brand Name PCs can get messy with some proprietary and non-standard parts, but if you stick with the "standard" parts, they basically bolt together. If you buy an "ATX" style case / system board and power supply, they should all fit together just fine. (in theory)_

[21incher]

Boy your heatsinks are twice the size of my new pcs  ;D. I recently  bought  a couple of the little Beelink boxes to replace the failing laptops. Ryzen 7 7735HS, 32gb ddr5, 1tb ssd, Radeon graphics with 3x 4k outputs,  and windows 11 pro for a little  over $400 each. Not power houses like yours but mount on the back of my 4k monitor at 1/2 the cost of a laptop with a big screen.  I love these little  boxes and run my cad, 3d printer  slicer, and lasers without delays or problems. I had boxes of old hardware I spent a fortune on when I used to try and keep up with technology that all have gone to recycling and now like little  things that are energy star.


 

 

 

 

[Ianab]

Ryzen 7 7735HS, 32gb ddr5, 1tb ssd, Radeon graphics with 3x 4k outputs,  and windows 11 pro for a little  over $400 each. Not power houses like yours

Actually, probably fairly comparable to my budget build, in terms of compute power.     ;)        

I do like those small form factor machines though. Basically just the components of a good laptop condensed down to a small box, add your monitor / keyboard and mouse and good to go. Want a better monitor or keyboard, just plug them in. 

The chip here was released in 2014, with a suggested price of over  US$1500, but can still benchmark with a new i5 on multi-threaded apps.  The CPU alone now costs US$ 10-15 used on Ali-Express, because it won't work in regular desktop boards. But they will also sell you a "new" X99 desktop board, and some e-waste Server RAM for another ~$100. 

A cheap "Snowman" tower cooler works as it should, and the case and power supply were bought locally. Not into buying cheap PSUs, and cases cost too much to ship, so local prices are comparable. 

It ended up running Linux as Win10 support runs out next year, while the machine will be able to run Linux for years more. 

Probably the most expensive individual part was the new Keyboard.   Proper clicking keys, AND more importantly, rainbow LED back lighting under the keys. 

One thing I've noticed over the years. How good the PC is usually isn't the issue (unless it's a total Potato). It's the Screen, keyboard, mouse and speakers that the user notices first.

But now Lil has a gruntier machine than mine. Ali Express can fix that for a few hundred, with an X99 board, 2 x 14 core Xeons, and 64 gb of RAM. That's just getting silly for what I actually need, so I wont order it.. this week.  ;)

[JD Guy]

Ryzen 7 7735HS, 32gb ddr5, 1tb ssd, Radeon graphics with 3x 4k outputs,  and windows 11 pro for a little  over $400 each. Not power houses like yours

Actually, probably fairly comparable to my budget build, in terms of compute power.    ;)       

I do like those small form factor machines though. Basically just the components of a good laptop condensed down to a small box, add your monitor / keyboard and mouse and good to go. Want a better monitor or keyboard, just plug them in.

The chip here was released in 2014, with a suggested price of over  US$1500, but can still benchmark with a new i5 on multi-threaded apps.  The CPU alone now costs US$ 10-15 used on Ali-Express, because it won't work in regular desktop boards. But they will also sell you a "new" X99 desktop board, and some e-waste Server RAM for another ~$100.

A cheap "Snowman" tower cooler works as it should, and the case and power supply were bought locally. Not into buying cheap PSUs, and cases cost too much to ship, so local prices are comparable.

It ended up running Linux as Win10 support runs out next year, while the machine will be able to run Linux for years more.

Probably the most expensive individual part was the new Keyboard.  Proper clicking keys, AND more importantly, rainbow LED back lighting under the keys.

One thing I've noticed over the years. How good the PC is usually isn't the issue (unless it's a total Potato). It's the Screen, keyboard, mouse and speakers that the user notices first.

But now Lil has a gruntier machine than mine. Ali Express can fix that for a few hundred, with an X99 board, 2 x 14 core Xeons, and 64 gb of RAM. That's just getting silly for what I actually need, so I wont order it.. this week.  ;)

I was lost at the Bakery  :coolsmiley:

[rusticretreater]

I have been building PCs for years too.  Tailed off a bit as everyone uses a laptop these days.  As they make all the connectors and sockets different for each purpose, you can't really put it together wrong.  The CPU cooling has really come along.

One of the things I did was buy some IBM servers coming off lease from a big tech center that were being dumped on ebay.  Amazing buys at $100-200 each. The dual core cpu's weren't super powerful but when put on an optimized server board with blazing bus speed, raided disk packs, dual network connections and a ton of USB ports, its a *DanG good computer.  Windows has a multi-core setting and works fine on these machines.  Linux loves them too.

[Ianab]

Not as serious as Jeff's headaches over the forum upgrade. But turns out one of Lil's "Mission Critical" applications is "Roblox". It's game mostly for kids, but she plays it with the girls, so it's a must have.  They don't have a Linux version. 

BUT, we can make it work... 

Install "Wine", which is a Windows Emulator for Linux.
Install "Vinegar", which is a launcher for the Windows version of Roblox. using Wine
That then downloads the actual Roblox program. 
BUT, the sign in process doesn't work, because it calls a web page that's not compatible with the "Gecko" web browser that's installed in Wine. So when you try and sign in you get a blank box... 

Work around, use a "sign in via another device". That gives a code you can enter into another machine that's signed into your account, and allows the new machine to sign in. 

After all that, it's not even pushing the PC, and Lil is now doing the Obstacle Course game, with the Mech Led Gaming keyboard.
Click
Click Click
C C C click.  (Dang)
Start again. 

If you have lost the plot during the saga, then you see why I prefer saw milling to IT work. 

[21incher]

Wine turns to vinegar if you don't drink it fast enough  . 
I just cut down a tree and have zero frustration plus a happy wife also.

[SwampDonkey]

Been poking around since the PET here to. Never really built a machine other than adding accelerators, graphics cards, ROM upgrade chips, drives and such. Have run a couple emulators, one was actually on a PC board inside an A3000. The software based ones were too slow with one exception, Shapeshifter it ran MacOS on existing hardware of the machine. Accessing drives of the other machines was not a problem with software as long as the disk was comparable storage capacity, even read the PC CD'S.

[Jeff]

[Bert]

I had no idea what Roblox is until my 8 year old daughter started asking me for Robux (Ro-bucks?) which caught my attention. Seemed like it was supposed to come out of my bank account. The answer was no.

In any case, good luck! My dealings with the IT crew at work always give me anxiety. So much easier to pass a log through a saw. Or a saw through a log for those that prefer that sort of thing.

[Ianab]

So much easier to pass a log through a saw. Or a saw through a log for those that prefer that sort of thing.

See why I bought a sawmill. 

So Yesterday Taylor's PC started throwing a fit. It's another budget build, but it's blinged out with LEDs and pink case, with matching keyboard and mouse.  I have enough spare parts to fix / upgrade it, but right now it's stuck on a lights on, lights off loop. No work tomorrow, so I will investigate further. 

[gspren]

I don't know why I've followed this, the only thing I've understood was the difference between log through saw or saw through log  . I need a new laptop computer and hate to get started on that. I wonder what it would cost me to fly down to NZ for some help setting it up?

[SwampDonkey]

My laptop is 10 years old now. I don't need a new one. I'll be spending enough money this year on the shop. So hopefully get 2 more years before Windows 10 gets cancelled. 

[Ianab]

Used PCs are going to be super cheap when Win10 support ends as a lot of businesses will be upgrading older, but still capable machines. Linux is ideal for those machines, for most home users at least.

[SwampDonkey]

I never buy top end when I get laptops, that saves 2 or 3 grand. It also runs everything fine. I don't think I've paid more than $1200 brand new tax included. I've never had one fail. They just get over bloated with newer software or abandoned OS, since programming now is not about efficiency anymore. There are still guys on old 8-bit machines seeing how small a program they can write to do the same thing as multi lines of code, just for kicks. Sometimes it will be slower, until they dig deeper and find one little change that speeds it up. :D

Example here: And there is another a little less ram for $300 less.

https://www.staples.ca/products/3059076-en-dynabook-satellite-pro-c50-k-156-laptop-intel-core-i5-1235u-512-gb-ssd-8-gb-ddr4-win-11-home

[gspren]

My laptop is 10 years old now. I don't need a new one. I'll be spending enough money this year on the shop. So hopefully get 2 more years before Windows 10 gets cancelled. 

Mines at least 15 years old and still on Windows 7! I get an alert every time I power up that it's no longer supported and I also get told it needs the battery replaced, I just keep it plugged in. I suppose I should have upgraded a few years back but then again here I am typing away on it.

[Ianab]

Taylor's PC lives again. Turns out the system board had failed... After about 10 years.  I happened to have an identical spare sitting around, so no drama. Swapped everything around and it fired right up. 



Just need to slot the graphics card in (testing without it) and replace the side cover. Luckily with it being the same model board I didn't have to re-route cables etc, as I was quite pleased about how tidy I was able to get the inside of the case. Most of the cabling runs through the back of the case, out of sight.