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Other Sr Vr.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Vault-Tec, 3 Jan 2022.

  1. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Bonus :D

    About two months ago I switched mum's broadband. Talktalk ramped the price up and didn't offer her a deal to stay. So screw em.

    Switched her to Plusnet. Thought we were going to get a £50 mastercard pre paid thing, turned out to be £100 :D

    [​IMG]

    Ordered two sets of those. 3200 this time, so I will either try running them all at 3200 or 3000 on the white set.
     
  2. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    OK so I got home yesterday and had a thousand things to do. Smashed those out, so I started plugging things in. Already pasted the CPU. Turned out EK throw in some Kryonaut with their 1700 kit. I didn't need it, as I hadn't mounted that yet.

    [​IMG]

    I would say cable management is going to be erm, complex.

    More good news. The SATA back planes arrived at mum's today. No duty ! So that's four days air from China and no duties. Stoked !

    Have had to order a 5m VGA cable. I have no way of outputting video ATM. That's maybe a good thing, as I have so much to do.
     
  3. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I think this shadow needs some explaining...
     
  4. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    LOL yeah I thought about that one myself :D

    It's the phone case's leather strap with the magnet in. It's quite well worn now, so it's a bit floppy lmao :D

    Just like its owner.
     
  5. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Long story short. The RAID card is not working. I am sure it does work, as it shows as a RAID card in Windows before attempting to install a driver (note, not functional just RAID card). As soon as you run the driver it hangs, and kills Windows. Stone dead. This means I spent about 10 hours yesterday "having an attempt" and then killing Windows again and having to reinstall before next attempt. From what I can tell it would work on Intel, but AMD? yeah. Not a good idea.

    I can't even get the SAS card I was going to send out to Pete to work either. So IDK if the guy really sent me his pile of crap (IE broken crap lmao, they're not just lawn mower engines.....) or whether this stuff is simply so old that Broadcom and etc don't give AF.

    As such I spent hours researching, then got two of 'ye olde faithful Dell Perc 200. These are 6gb, flash into IT mode and work with everything, including all of the NAS software and ZFS.
     
  6. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    OK. Been quietly plugging away when I feel like it. Got to a point where there really isn't anything else I can do.

    After doing a lot of research it seems that the cloud software needs Linux. Either through Linux or a VM, no matter what. It does not function under Windows on its own.

    I would have gone down the Linux rabbit hole (and will) but sadly it seems the 7300 GT is dead. What I mean is it works in Windows with no driver loaded, but if you go into Linux it installs a driver (which Windows doesn't have) and is garbled really badly. Due to this I can not work on it. Mostly because I am using a 7" screen. Maybe if I had it plugged into a better monitor or my TV I could get around that, but I really don't see the point in struggling for the sake of it.

    As such I decided to focus my energy on other things. Like sorting out the PSU. I don't need many SATA connectors (maybe four?) but as of right now they were on Molex to SATA runs. Which are a real pain to plug in, and mean you need two lots of cable to do one task. Also, I decided to basically not use any extensions as they are not needed and the case doesn't have a hidey hole for left over wire.

    Thankfully this PSU came with a set of connectors and a whole buttload of pins. You could basically get your own wire and remake every thing it uses. As such I removed the Molex ends from the SATA cables, and changed those to PSU connectors. I also found a Molex run (I didn't have any and was using red ones I made) which had a floppy connector on the end. I removed that and added a 5th Molex, which should be enough to power everything (the back planes use molex, so that's three). Any way, like I said I also decided to ditch the silver and red cables. So yesterday I got to that.

    [​IMG]

    When I was done I was left with this.

    [​IMG]

    Which is much, much better. The only other black braided cable other than the two SATA runs is the 4 pin (board needs 8+4) which I also had to make because the PSU only comes with 8 pin connectors and they don't split.

    Am currently working to obtain a new fan for the PSU. It's cheap, flimsy and noisy and has developed a rattle. Am trying to get a Noctua, but it has to be a 3 pin so I have had to bid on a couple. If that falls through I will go with something else.
     
  7. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Right, decided to go a different route on the fan regardless of whether I win the Noctua.

    [​IMG]

    One main reason, getting it to work. The fan in the PSU has a non fan connector on. 3 wire, RPM, power and ground. It's also pretty short, meaning I would need to cut up the fan cable on the Noctua or whatever else and solder on the connector. With this? it has a connector about 40mm out of the fan. Meaning all I need to do is solder the wire from the Enermax fan to a fan extension. Meaning less soldering, and a much tidier solution without wrecking the fan itself.

    I've also ordered an alu mesh filter/frame.

    [​IMG]

    Right now the PSU has a two piece assembly on it. A sort of normal 140mm silver grille and a surround piece.

    [​IMG]

    Which should replace both of those and offer filtration. Not that it needs much as the air it will be using is already filtered, but more to stop anything creeping through the PSU and ending up inside the PC. I will filter it at the back too, but any isolation "zones" will be better.
     
  8. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Right. Realised yesterday the cables on the PSU are mostly too long. Not the Molex and SATA etc, but mostly the heavy duty ones. So I spent the entire day shortening them.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Now they won't need to be stuffed in and coiled up. I left this morning, so it was like my birthday when I got here.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    So finally some fun time. Not cutting wires and crimping on pins.

    Mum was right, they are bloody heavy.

    [​IMG]

    They look amazing though. Very "nessy" which matches the decals I made.

    [​IMG]

    Trial fitted the thin fans.

    [​IMG]

    Which don't even reach where the board will be.

    [​IMG]

    Made sure the 80mm filter would fit.

    [​IMG]

    It will. Had a look over the 140mm Eloop.

    [​IMG]

    This is why I got this over a Noctua.

    [​IMG]

    All I need to do is cut the fan wire off the fan in there and wire it to a male connector, of which I have about 200. That's no joke either.

    All I need now is one of those cheesy 80's keyrings that says "My other PC has a 3090Ti in it"

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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  11. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    [​IMG]

    Right, that's that crappy part out of the way. It was just as I expected. Jigsaw jumping around like zebedee when I turned the corners and really made me not very calm.
     
  12. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Decided against using the Quadro FX4800. It's a bit of a power guzzler, and uses up two slots. Spent hours and hours doing research as I don't want it to run games, but wanted something that behaves itself.

    [​IMG]

    It's a Quadro K4000 3gb. In other words it's a GTX 660ish, clocked lower, with 3gb of VRAM. Meaning it will be cool, quiet and well behaved. Unlike the equivalent of a GTX 280.

    Was £50. I will probably save that in leccy in a couple of months the way things are going.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jan 2022
  13. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    OK, so the penultimate spend. £10.

    [​IMG]

    All this time I've been failing to remember that once it goes into its home I will have no rear access at all.
     
  14. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    GPU came. Didn't realise the whole cooler assembly was metal, it's quite heavy tbh.

    [​IMG]

    Got an idea for stabilising the plane. Will get onto that later.

    My buddy sent me three SSDs.

    [​IMG]

    So a huge shout out for that ! Then, after doing up a lot of screws.

    [​IMG]

    Should hold a copy of COD :D
     
  15. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    May as well have ordered a long weight from Amazon, because that's what I got lol.

    [​IMG]

    She's now ready to be packed back into the box for transport home.

    I threw in a cheeky offer on some Intel SSDs. Just 180gb, used. £14 each. Offer accepted, so I got 3. That should fill up the planes. Once it's all in and spanned I can then figure out what size backup drive I need.
     
  16. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    OK. Apologies for the radio silence, it's been a bit of a crap week.

    I got home and lugged everything I needed up the stairs. Sucked tbh. Started building it that night, and immediately noticed an issue. Whilst everything fits how I planned it to I did not realise the USB 3.0 header would be covered so tightly. I thought it was up the side of the board like 99% of the boards I have used in the past so didn't pay it much thought. That was a mistake. It doesn't fit no way no how. There may be a way around this, and I will try, but as of now no front USB.

    I also realised very quickly that I should not have stopped after shortening the 24 and 8 pin. Space is a premium in this old chassis, so that bit me.

    [​IMG]

    That was after an over two hour fight with the PSU. Let me cover that also. Firstly the mesh grille was rubbing the fan. So I had to use the old frame as a spacer. Not a deal breaker. However, I soon realised the connector in the PSU for the fan made no sense. I figured it out eventually, and got a lovely electric shock for the convenience ffs. I also found out that yes it's a 140mm fan but Enermax used 120 mount holes. Meaning I had to drill the fan and mess around with it for ages. UGH. Then I found out it's just a hair too thick so had to mod that too ffs. I got that done, and then the next day I shortened the PCIE power cable.

    [​IMG]

    It's not finished (needs final cable ties etc) but lesson learned from the past don't tie everything down until you are sure it all works.

    I already had Ubuntu installed but it was giving some AMD error at launch. I got around that by connecting it to the network and installing a couple of updates via terminal. The rest? has been slow going, but that is what you get when you are in an alien OS that you have never really dug deeply into before.

    It took me the best part of a day just to install the video driver. I downloaded them from Nvidia but they came packaged as a .run file. I then became blinkered by this, and it cost me a few hours. Firstly when I tried to launch it it was telling me I needed to be logged in as root. However, when I did that I could not see the DIR structure. I then found a way to make myself root, and launched it. Then it told me it was unhappy about something else. Many hours had passed now and I was peed off with it so I started having a look around Ubuntu and happened across the software update part that also has "other devices" listed. Sure enough, there it was.

    However, I then noticed another problem. See if you can spot it.

    [​IMG]

    I will come back to that shortly. The next step was figuring out how the heck you combine volumes in Ubuntu. Back to school I went. Found out that it was all done by terminal unless you used a GUI. Cool, so I set about finding one. I eventually found the respository for KDE partition manager. However, when I watched a guide on the internet it was making no sense and didn't even look like the one I was using. I then looked at the help guide, but again the GUI was completely different.

    It seems it has been updated (the GUI/app) but the documentation hasn't. Eventually after a few hours I figured it out. And created my spanned volumes.

    [​IMG]

    Which all worked beautifully. However, you will note something is missing. Look closer...

    [​IMG]

    Yup, no Revodrive X3. Now if you cast your mind back to the first picture of Ubuntu you can see it is there. However, it is there in four parts. That is how the drive works. Four 250gb Sandforce SATA SSDs all hiding behind a Marvell controller. Now when I first saw this I figured "Hmm, no RAID but I can span the volumes to make the drive back up into one piece". Only you can't. It only allows you access to the first 250gb. The rest? can not be partitioned or formatted in any shape or form. So basically? that will have to come out. There was a hacked together user driver created in 2011, but I can't find it.

    The good news is that you can see, we have the rest of the SSDs all picking up, detected and spanned into volumes.

    So basically the rig is now ready to be set up for Nextcloud. That is literally the final step, now that I have all of the hardware up and running how it should be.
     
  17. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    We are getting there, slowly.

    I have installed and enabled and tested LAMP (all of the comonents like Apache, PHP etc). They are all working. Then I realised I would need a way to point at the rig. Which then took me on a huge side quest involving my dynamic IP and etc. A real head F for someone who doesn't know his arse from his networking elbow.

    Thankfully my friend got me to the point where I needed to set up the router and etc. I figured before doing that I would put the rig back together and get it tidied and buttoned up.

    [​IMG]

    Booted it up and after about 10 minutes it shut down. Figured it was a loose pin on the PSU, as when I went to reboot it it immediately shut off. FFS, this rig doesn't want to be closed ! Took out the 24 pin cable and soldered any problematic pins. Started it back up started fine. 10 minutes later shut off again.

    It turns out that some complete and total idiot with no brains unplugged the AIO pump wire to tidy it and other wires, yet forgot to plug it back in lmao. *whistles*. So with that finally figured out after the hoses were red hot it is now back up and functional again.

    Last night I figured I would load up Transmission and see how it was for torrents. I mean, what is the point in grabbing movies and music from my PC then sending them to this right? may as well grab them directly on this. And that was when I realised that all of the volumes I had created are like this.

    [​IMG]

    That was why Transmission kept crashing, as I was trying to write to a volume it could not write to. So that's today's job and another side quest (they are all the same apart from the install drive ffs).
     
  18. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Upgrade time PT1.

    I ended up removing the TR as it was massive overkill. Annoyingly the TR board had its USB 3.0 connector at the bottom, meaning it was blocked by the AIO's rad. I ended up throwing in the Dell guts from my original NAS, and it has served me for 2.5 years in that config. Sadly it only had 8gb RAM, and when I tried to stream Avatar 2 in full 4k it kept stopping. Quick login to TrueNAS showed the RAM was being eaten alive. Didn't want to throw good money after bad, so when an 11400F came up as a spare with two 16gb RAM kits (one fitted one not yet) I decided to just grab a board for it.

    Stripped it out earlier and began the rebuild. Off away at the end of the week and this is at my mother's (which I need given it has no onboard)

    [​IMG]

    I shall be using a mining riser for that into one of the X1 slots, as the two SAS cards need x4 each. That was why I got a low profile card, as it will have room under it for a mining riser.

    [​IMG]

    This is what I got done. More cuts, more blood and so on.

    [​IMG]

    I also decided to change the PSU. It was an Enermax 1550w or something like that, and the cables are horribly stiff. I bought a Superflower 850 from a forum for £30 and put that in. Cables are all nice and floppy lol.

    When I return from holiday I will add the extra RAM, fit the RAM cooler in the background there and then add the 12 1tb SATA SSDs I am going to buy.
     

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