Any PC Gamers Around?

[x808drifter]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Are you running Windows 11?

Condensed task bar is a Windows 10 option (it may have been called small icons). It is basically half the height of the full one. For example, the right side only shows the date, not the time with the date underneath it. If you do the hack for W11, the time gets cut off at the top and the date at the bottom.

I thought my sis was running 11.
Infact she is not and had some program modifying her taskbar.

I will continue to say every other version of windows is inferior.

XP-7-10

[bcj]

My machines are too feeble for 11, so there's that.
A bit of a relief in fact.
Next one will be back to Linux for sure.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by bcj

My machines are too feeble for 11, so there's that.
A bit of a relief in fact.
Next one will be back to Linux for sure.

I just rebuilt an old Dell Dimension 9200 (Dual Core Duo, circa 2006) with Windows 10 and it runs like a champ for my purpose (MAME emulator I'm going to hook up in the arcade cabinet). Ultimately I'll want to replace it as the transition between the selection screen and the game running is a bit slow for my taste but every game I've tried runs fine.

I couldn't build it with WIndows 11 though because of the security requirements for W11 so it's next destination may be as a SAN.

I did a lot of UNIX stuff back in the day (mainly email servers, and some script servers) but have never gotten into Linux very deeply. Not out of any intent, just haven't had the need.

[soundman98]

windows 7 was peak windows. 10 and beyond is just getting bloated. i'd still be on 7 if there were updates, but can't even update to service pack 2 anymore from my install disc...

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I just rebuilt an old Dell Dimension 9200 (Dual Core Duo, circa 2006) with Windows 10 and it runs like a champ for my purpose (MAME emulator I'm going to hook up in the arcade cabinet). Ultimately I'll want to replace it as the transition between the selection screen and the game running is a bit slow for my taste but every game I've tried runs fine.

I couldn't build it with WIndows 11 though because of the security requirements for W11 so it's next destination may be as a SAN.

I did a lot of UNIX stuff back in the day (mainly email servers, and some script servers) but have never gotten into Linux very deeply. Not out of any intent, just haven't had the need.

i've never cared for linux simply because every operation borders on the edge of being coding intensive. i don't even care to update my pihole, and that's as simple as typing pihole -up... but the fact that i have to type it instead of just click a fancy button to do it...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by soundman98

windows 7 was peak windows. 10 and beyond is just getting bloated. i'd still be on 7 if there were updates, but can't even update to service pack 2 anymore from my install disc...

Yea, I agree. Too bad Windows 7 wasn't the "last version of Windows", you know, like Windows 10 is...was...said it would be...we were just joking...

[bcj]

*nix was my preferred platform for work. The filesystem and device interfaces just make sense to me.
We had Apollos, Sun, AIX and various off brands that don't exist anymore.
PDP was a dedicated digitizer, but we only used it for acquisition. Used the unix boxes for manipulation.
Then we had to shove various files and DBs into and out of IBM 370s. Those were, uh, well ...

The great advantage is the mnemonic tool commands and not having to waste memory on whizzy graphic displays that only make things dumber.
If you don't have to hunt and peck, some actual work can be performed in short order.

Started mid 80s but only got a home linux system in 95 with Redhat.
I've got a Redhat sticker in my 86. No, not a meshback.
Only using W10 now because it came with the laptop and Ubuntu was still a bit unsure with UEFI at the time.
Thought I'd see what the peons were coping with for a while. Looks like time's up.

Ever goin' to give it up ...

[Yoshoobaroo]

I’m piecing together some parts to get my old PC running as a home server. I have a B450 mobo laying around so I’m looking for a 2200G or 3200G processor, maybe an athlon 220G. Basically anything AM4 that’s on the low end of the power scale.

Plan is for it to have it run as a Plex server, NAS to back up the other PCs to, and a Pi-hole. I’m thinking of going with Ubuntu and use my MacBook to remote into it since it’ll just be plugged into power and Ethernet.

Anything obvious I’m missing? Any additional capabilities I can add to a home server? Any tips for keeping power consumption down? Going with an APU keeps me from wasting power on a GPU, and it leaves more room in the case to add 3.5” HDDs for storage/backup space.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by bcj

The great advantage is the mnemonic tool commands and not having to waste memory on whizzy graphic displays that only make things dumber.
If you don't have to hunt and peck, some actual work can be performed in short order....

I still drop down to the command prompt in Windows on a regular basis, have it pinned to my taskbar. As you say no better way to get things done fast.

....and it makes me look like a TV hacker to the young bucks that have no idea how to use the commands.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

Anything obvious I’m missing? Any additional capabilities I can add to a home server? Any tips for keeping power consumption down? Going with an APU keeps me from wasting power on a GPU, and it leaves more room in the case to add 3.5” HDDs for storage/backup space.

Biggest thing I was going to suggest, it sounds like you are already doing, scale down the video card.

Does the MB support at least mirroring natively or are you doing it through software for the NAS functions?

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

I’m piecing together some parts to get my old PC running as a home server. I have a B450 mobo laying around so I’m looking for a 2200G or 3200G processor, maybe an athlon 220G. Basically anything AM4 that’s on the low end of the power scale.

Plan is for it to have it run as a Plex server, NAS to back up the other PCs to, and a Pi-hole. I’m thinking of going with Ubuntu and use my MacBook to remote into it since it’ll just be plugged into power and Ethernet.

Anything obvious I’m missing? Any additional capabilities I can add to a home server? Any tips for keeping power consumption down? Going with an APU keeps me from wasting power on a GPU, and it leaves more room in the case to add 3.5” HDDs for storage/backup space.

Look into Unraid. LSI (Broadcom) card in IT mode for storage (extra care if you aren't using spinning disks on such a card) If you are transcoding, more video may be wanted... And I think Intel has the edge.
Note with APU it won't support ECC RAM. Your call on how much you care.

Also count your cpu lanes and choose cards wisely.
I have HomeAssistant in a VM, data logging (tracking electric costs live from the meter and ComEd api, and more), my Squeezebox server, a couple time machine shares, a VM for hosting rFactor2 events, and I'm barely scratching the surface. I ended up with an ASRock Rack board with IPMI so no video card at all, ECC memory, LSI card and Mellanox card (SFP+ via DAC to a 10g SFP+ switch on the internal network side). It supports binding VMs and Docker services to VLans. About 50W with the disks spun down. Mirrored SSD "cache" drive, VM and Docker off a pcie m2 drive. Music on its own SSD.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Biggest thing I was going to suggest, it sounds like you are already doing, scale down the video card.

Does the MB support at least mirroring natively or are you doing it through software for the NAS functions?

Yea the board supports it natively, I plan on running the NAS drives in RAID 1.

Originally Posted by cjd

Look into Unraid. LSI (Broadcom) card in IT mode for storage (extra care if you aren't using spinning disks on such a card) If you are transcoding, more video may be wanted... And I think Intel has the edge.
Note with APU it won't support ECC RAM. Your call on how much you care.

Also count your cpu lanes and choose cards wisely.
I have HomeAssistant in a VM, data logging (tracking electric costs live from the meter and ComEd api, and more), my Squeezebox server, a couple time machine shares, a VM for hosting rFactor2 events, and I'm barely scratching the surface. I ended up with an ASRock Rack board with IPMI so no video card at all, ECC memory, LSI card and Mellanox card (SFP+ via DAC to a 10g SFP+ switch on the internal network side). It supports binding VMs and Docker services to VLans. About 50W with the disks spun down. Mirrored SSD "cache" drive, VM and Docker off a pcie m2 drive. Music on its own SSD.

I'm definitely thinking of adding home assistant and maybe a home security server on it down the line, haven't found any great software options for Linux so far for that though, at least nothing like Blue Iris. I'm leaning towards wanting a GUI front end for that. If equivalent software doesn't exist for linux I'd prefer not to have to run a VM, then again maybe it can run through Wine or Proton. either way I need to do more research for those capabilities.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

Yea the board supports it natively, I plan on running the NAS drives in RAID 1.
I'm definitely thinking of adding home assistant and maybe a home security server on it down the line, haven't found any great software options for Linux so far for that though, at least nothing like Blue Iris. I'm leaning towards wanting a GUI front end for that. If equivalent software doesn't exist for linux I'd prefer not to have to run a VM, then again maybe it can run through Wine or Proton. either way I need to do more research for those capabilities.

RAID 1 how? software or hardware? How easy is it to recover/replicate if the OS has to be rebuilt, or hardware dies? This also limits scalability. (this is all stuff I learned when I wandered further down the path...)
I started out running a standard server install and manually maintaining docker images, VMs, etc. My two VMs were migrated over directly from that variant of the server, in fact. It was frustrating work to get in to manage the VMs, half the network config was stuff I bookmarked and upon review still took hours to remember what I did / where stuff was (google just returned instructions for older flavors, the new stuff doesn't work that way...).

By comparison, the Unraid UI is a blessing. Far too easy to set up and get going, though some quirks to learn. And unlike TrueNAS (the other option I was considering) very memory efficient. Also no scaling limits on storage since it's a different approach to handling drive failures - as long as the file-system is readable, you can always pull stuff off a single drive even w/o Unraid. VMs are super easy to run and maintain - mine are both VLAN bound and show up as independent machines on my network topology - so I'd not discount that as an option for your security stuff. I'm dabbling in Unifi/Ubiquiti on the camera front so for now not looking elsewhere... I did need something that was completely headless as it's tucked under my rack. If you want to be closer to the metal on managing your setup, by all means forge ahead! I can do it (and started out doing so), but don't enough where I remember the details so it's slow tedious work... I like the 'magic' in this case. I mostly know what it is doing so am probably configuring stuff properly and can dig in if needed, but don't really need to.
Whatever road you wander down, have fun.

[spcmafia]

Imagine scalping every single possible GPU away from people who wanted to upgrade their workstations/gaming pc, to build mining rigs, or to scam people for their money, just to watch your efforts crash hard as bitcoin falls below 30K. Add to that, those who hoarded GPUs now have to sit on their inventory and sell it at MSRP, or even below as prices continue to fall due to increased availability and new gen releasing soon.

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

Imagine scalping every single possible GPU away from people who wanted to upgrade their workstations/gaming pc, to build mining rigs, or to scam people for their money, just to watch your efforts crash hard as bitcoin falls below 30K. Add to that, those who hoarded GPUs now have to sit on their inventory and sell it at MSRP, or even below as prices continue to fall due to increased availability and new gen releasing soon.

While I do feel a sense of justice I doubt it will crash to the point it negates mining. I am bitter it took over 2 years before prices started getting close to MSRP. Which, honestly still is high in some regards depending on the card.