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Gaaark (41)
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Linux user. Tries to keep feeding the brain with stuff. Husband and father of a young lady and a younger son who has autism/is autistic... that nut didn't fall far from this nut-tree, I'll tell ya: he gets it honestly. Now if only he'd sleep..............
I believe that God gave us the science, curiousity and intelligence to one day conclusively prove that God does not exist.
Just ponied up for a new desktop, DIY.
Gonna see if my son wants to watch and help build it (gotta watch that static, though). Last time i switched parts into a new case, he watched me for a straight hour (he was very small at that time).
Wasn't exactly what i was wanting, but there was a sudden $60-70 drop in price (through pcpartpicker.com) and i pounced.
It's been a LONG time since i bought brand new and DIY and my knowledge of hardware has diminished, so i purchased what i THOUGHT was a good buy for the money i had, but who knows...
Here's what i bought, with my mind going towards increasing the memory this Christmas, possibly.
***Edited to add prices, all in CAD***
AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor $209.99 CAD
Asus TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $139.19
2 x G.Skill Aegis 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL15 Memory $31.99 each stick
Seagate ST500LM021 500 GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $30.99
ADATA SU635 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $42.99
Deepcool MATREXX 55 MESH ATX Mid Tower Case $69.98
Thermaltake Smart 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply $54.99
Going to probably put Manjaro on it as the main OS, and then distro-hop like a fiend, looking at all teh non-systemd's and i hope to (again) explore LFS for the rush.
Might even try Slackware again!
******************************************************************************************
Benchmarked on Garuda linux Cinnamon
******Using sysbench*****
--CPU TEST
Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from current time
Prime numbers limit: 10000
Initializing worker threads...
Threads started!
CPU speed:
events per second: 1922.81
General statistics:
total time: 10.0004s
total number of events: 19233
Latency (ms):
min: 0.50
avg: 0.52
max: 0.72
95th percentile: 0.53
sum: 9946.56
Threads fairness:
events (avg/stddev): 19233.0000/0.00
execution time (avg/stddev): 9.9466/0.00
****************************************************************************
--MEMORY TEST
Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from current time
Running memory speed test with the following options:
block size: 1KiB
total size: 102400MiB
operation: write
scope: global
Initializing worker threads...
Threads started!
Total operations: 2414611 (241408.75 per second)
2358.02 MiB transferred (235.75 MiB/sec)
General statistics:
total time: 10.0001s
total number of events: 2414611
Latency (ms):
min: 0.00
avg: 0.00
max: 0.27
95th percentile: 0.00
sum: 3398.81
Threads fairness:
events (avg/stddev): 2414611.0000/0.00
execution time (avg/stddev): 3.3988/0.00
********************************************************************************
--FILE I/O
Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from current time
Extra file open flags: (none)
128 files, 16MiB each
2GiB total file size
Block size 16KiB
Periodic FSYNC enabled, calling fsync() each 100 requests.
Calling fsync() at the end of test, Enabled.
Using synchronous I/O mode
Doing sequential write (creation) test
Initializing worker threads...
Threads started!
File operations:
reads/s: 0.00
writes/s: 13746.41
fsyncs/s: 17596.10
Throughput:
read, MiB/s: 0.00
written, MiB/s: 214.79
General statistics:
total time: 10.0009s
total number of events: 313379
Latency (ms):
min: 0.00
avg: 0.03
max: 23.63
95th percentile: 0.01
sum: 8894.69
Threads fairness:
events (avg/stddev): 313379.0000/0.00
execution time (avg/stddev): 8.8947/0.00
************************************************************************************
Results of Passmark benchmark: looks bad (not many stars..)? And there's something about a graph, but none are there. I guess the stars are how i compare to other tests?
https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V10/display.php?id=502239247835
**********************************************************************************************
I've gone, so far, with Garuda linux because it has some 'neat-o' things going on which I'm trying:
---zram swap in memory for fast swap
---btrfs file system with snapper taking snapshots: do something wrong, use install disk to just revert system to older snapshot (which excites me the most, cos i always screw something up with all the 'goofing with the system' i do, lol)
--linux-zen kernel
-----https://garudalinux.org/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @03:09PM (3 children)
b r u h
how much?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 30 2022, @03:34PM (2 children)
I edited to add prices, all in Canadian Dollars
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @04:49PM (1 child)
I got a 5700G for 270 USD, on B450. They are closer to 230 USD now, maybe less soon.
Your 160 USD CPU choice isn't the best, but I don't know Canada pricing. DDR4-2400 looks slow too. Other than that it's fine.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 30 2022, @05:47PM
Choices made were all about the money. When i saw the price drop, i almost choked and couldn't hit "BUY" fast enough.
My original choices were unaffordable with taxes and shipping, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday August 30 2022, @04:56PM (10 children)
I see you went with a processor that provides on-die video processing ("Radeon™ Vega Graphics"). Tired of waiting for a good price on a discrete graphics card?
Please post benchmarks once it's up and running, I'd love to see how far integrated graphics have gotten lately.
PS - this is in no way a criticism, my last build I did the same thing, but it was a good while ago (5+ years). The motherboard is starting to go bad, but I think the processor is still going strong :P It's still running ubuntu LTS, and the kids get their Minecraft & internet video fixes on it just fine, so they're happy with it.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 30 2022, @05:24PM (7 children)
I don't need ultra-fast: I'm old and like older games (probably my most intensive games are Kerbal and Planetary Annihilation), so i only need 'pretty good'.
I'll be able to add more ram (up to 128GB) and put on a 'real' graphics card later if needed.
Still waiting for pieces to arrive, so will be a while putting it together.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by drussell on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:11PM
The Vega 8 graphics in the 3200G are actually pretty decent, even for basic gaming.
For anyone not hardcore gaming, they're bound to be much more than you will ever need. I'm sure you'll be fine there and, of course, you can always pop in a discrete GPU sometime later if you ever need to.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:15PM (5 children)
You won't be needing 128GB of RAM for gaming for the lifetime of that PC.
128GB of RAM is necessary in very niche circumstances, certainly not even consumer grade VR or other similar situations. Only thing I can think of is perhaps some sort of video/photo editing monster.
16GB of RAM is plenty. 2400mhz vs 3600mhz RAM likely won't see any major performance differences, either. Especially, if you're sticking with older games, etc. Even, if you're losing 10% performance, it's possible it's worth the cost savings. Especially, since you're the one who knows what you want to use it for.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday August 31 2022, @10:09PM (4 children)
I've never had a machine this 'advanced' before:
Will it be able to run a plex server AND do all my games? I'm hoping so, but that was why i was thinking about another 16 Gigs of ram.
Going to be fun being able to actually 'compute' instead of just wishing i could, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:31PM (1 child)
16GB of RAM is probably enough to do both at the same time. Just check your RAM usage once you've got things going. Then, upgrade, if you are running up against a limit. A Web Browser alone can be a memory hog, especially, if you are prone to just keep tabs going forever. I believe I went with 32GB of RAM for both of my last installs. I'm not looking to upgrade the RAM in either of them. I'm able to play a game like Space Engineers and let kiddo run rampant in VR at the same time. That's as big of a work load as I expect to need from my machine. That works with even on the GTX 1650 I have now. Which is close in performance to the RX 480 I did the same thing with. The GTX 1650 has 4GB of RAM while the RX 480 has 8GB of RAM. I was going to be using the GTX 1650 as a stop gap for an upgrade. Yep, anytime now, anytime . . . Just need the $$$ and for prices to drop and/or stay at reasonable prices. As I was not going to buy at exorbitant prices. Still, at this point, I don't have much incentive to upgrade my GPU. Certainly, not for exorbitant prices anyway.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday February 22, @05:25PM
I just kill my web browser that takes too much RAM because of open tabs. When I restart it, the open tabs are back. It remembers what they were but doesn't start them, so they use very little memory until I select them to look.
The only site I've found that doesn't work with this is Quora, which messes with the URL bar.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday September 07 2022, @09:01AM (1 child)
I haven't tried Plex, but I run Jellyfin. I find Jellyfin is light on resources unless you're actively watching something, so it's really unobtrusive. I imagine Plex is similar.
Your biggest limitation is probably going to be the "video card" part. Though I have been impressed with AMD's APU offerings in the past, some games really want a dedicated GPU. That said, I suggest putting your biggest, greediest, sloppiest game to the test right away. Find out if you really need something more before you get settled in.
Although I would make a few slight changes for a brand new build myself, I look at what you've picked and don't really see any serious shortcomings. Other people have pointed out various "faults" and I do agree with them, but they're not so large that I'd tell you to change course. I think you'll be fine with it as long as you're not expecting Ferrari performance at a Toyota price. It's not bottom of the barrel either, so I think you'll be satisfied.
My only real suggestion is: if you really want to build a video library to run Plex(or whatever), you should be putting in a 3+ TB drive.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 07 2022, @12:17PM
I will be plugging my external HD's into it and running them off there... that is, if my motherboard EVER ARRIVES!!! Grrrrr.......
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday September 15 2022, @05:31PM (1 child)
is there a benchmark/site you recommend?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday September 16 2022, @01:17PM
I'd go with either Passmark [passmark.com] or Cinebench. [maxon.net] Both have trial versions for Windows; passmark's Linux, OSX, and mobile versions are free (as in beer).
Passmark has a database you can browse with other systems' results, so you can see where you stand compared to other people out there, which is nice.
Fossbytes has a list of benchmark tools they recommend, [fossbytes.com] although I can't tell that any of them are free-as-in-Speech from the article's text.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 30 2022, @05:59PM (4 children)
Does anyone keep an always-on/mostly-on tiny Linux server at home, mostly to have a central place to Samba-exchange files in the house between miscellaneous PCs, and as a last-ditch ssh mechanism to offload personal notes and stuff someplace safe while you're maybe out of town? I'm worried (after losing a couple drives over the years) about having persistent loseable data strewn across multiple PCs in the house, cloud, or elsewhere.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by drussell on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:05PM
Linux? No.
FreeBSD, yes. Several.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:18PM
I have a plex server with attached HD's, so all files go through it to the external HD's (anything i want to keep 'FOREVER', anyways).
It allows me to watch my media, but also store files.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:26PM
In the event that you could get a RaspberryPi 4 at MSRP and not scalper prices. You could just use a RaspberryPi. Though, you could also use one of the various different RPi knockoffs. The nice thing about something like a RaspberryPi is that they draw very little power. Thus, the only real price concern is the cost of the system. Still, you might could repurpose a low power laptop of some sort too.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday September 02 2022, @09:47PM
I've been running one of these since mid 00's. I migrated from a Via embedded 32-bit processor to an AMD around 2016. First box was Ubuntu, second was FreeBSD then migrated to Devuan.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by drussell on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:04PM (4 children)
Why on earth would you use a SATA SSD? That thing tops out at like 500 MB/s transfer rates, an NVMe M.2 SSD on the PCIe bus is about 5 TIMES faster... That's just silly!
Also a little strange that you chose such slow RAM, I would definitely use 3200 MHz. AMD only specs the 3200G as officially supporting up to 2933 MHz, but they always work just fine at the slight overclock to 3200 MHz.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:39PM (1 child)
If my Grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon...or something.
I don't know hardware anymore: this is my first build in something like 20 years.
This is one reason i posted this: for advice.
Thanks for the input: i might do a return and buy otherwise!
Can you name a good SSD for about $30 CAD?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 30 2022, @07:39PM
Forgive the ugly Amazon URL, but this is what I'm driving - https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-MZ-V8V1T0B-AM-980-SSD/dp/B08V83JZH4/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3MP9XVNP1DO6Y&keywords=pcie+nvme+ssd&sprefix=pcie+nvme%2Caps%2C281&sr=8-4 [amazon.com]
Depending on your wants and needs, you can get smaller, or larger drives. 250 GB is ~$45 USD, 500 GB ~$60 USD. Other brands are priced somewhat differently, I chose Samsung because I think they are pretty reliable. Tiger Direct and others may have better pricing, of you might find a sale going on.
You can, of course, use a smaller M.2 for your boot drive, and use a larger, but slower, drive for storage. It's all up to you, the drive I chose is a starting point, I hope.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 30 2022, @07:19PM (1 child)
At a guess, pricing? I have three PCIe drives in my possession. I love them, but I don't love the price tag attached to any of them. To be perfectly honest, SATA SSD have been quite good for a long, long time now, I didn't really need the PCIe. Only upgraded when I purchased my laptops, then stumbled across a sale for the one I've put into my desktop/server. At that point in time, I found that the drives are faster than my in-home network. (I expect that might change when fiber is installed, and I switch out modem and router.)
I have no response regarding memory. I always buy the fastest, and as much memory as I can possibly afford.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @07:53PM
I don't know about Canada but the gap between SATA and basic PCIe M.2 prices looks small. Although I do see SATA drives approaching $55 per terabyte which is a sight for sore eyes.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 30 2022, @08:56PM (1 child)
Linux aggressively caches disk accesses in RAM, so even with a rotational HDD, Linux can use most/all your RAM to defer disk I/O and make the system work faster. So if you can put out some watchlist-style notifications on eBay or the like and are willing to take a little risk, you might get some cheap RAM that will significantly improve your I/O performance.
I'm not positive, but it seems like your motherboard can accommodate up to 128GB (?), so if you find a good deal on what looks like reliable used RAM between now and Christmas, you might want to get it and try it out. You can always take it back out, put it in an anti-static bag, and wrap it up once you verify the RAM is good, then hand it to someone to put under the tree for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:35PM
16 GB is enough for him.
Interestingly enough, populating all 4 DIMMs might be a bad call. This will help me feel better about choosing Mini-ITX in the future.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17269/ddr5-demystified-feat-samsung-ddr5-4800-ranks-dpcs-do-manufacturers-matter/4 [anandtech.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:37PM (1 child)
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xnJP78 [pcpartpicker.com]
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor $138.13 (Supported by motherboard, listed on Motherboard Manufacturer's Site)
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II ATX AM4 Motherboard $104.99 (Decent brand and has instant BIOS flash button. Which supports flashing without a CPU installed. Helpful for compatibility with say a 5600g.)
Kingston ValueRAM 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL22 Memory $59.67 (Cheap RAM, listed as compatible on Motherboard Manufacturer's Site)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $36.99 (Extra Storage, if you don't trust SSDs)
Silicon Power A55 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $32.99 (Cheap and Good Enough)
DIYPC Vision II ATX Mid Tower Case $55.97 (Has dust filters on top and bottom.)
SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $159.00 (10 yr warranty, very good power supply)
Total: $587.74 USD
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:23PM
Decent price. Some notes:
1. 5700G is a nice buy, but if you are paying nearly $100 less for a 5600G, that might be the way to go.
2. RAM in single-channel can lead to significant performance losses, especially for an APU. Don't do it.
3. Just ditch the internal HDD and figure out your backup plan. If you don't have much personal video you won't have a problem.
4. That's an expensive power supply. Nice warranty but do you really need it? I went semi-modular and closer to $50.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02 2022, @02:15AM (1 child)
The best non-systemd distribution. Or distribution of any kind.
The gap between a SATA and NVMe SSD is much smaller than the gap between any SSD and any mechanical disk. But there's not much difference in price either. I have one of each, plus some mechanical disks for bulk storage.
16GB is probably enough. Since you aren't playing serious games with no GPU, it's basically down to your applications that you are running. With 32GB I can keep everything I need open, and with swap on an SSD basically never notice a slowdown. But it isn't unusual for me, even with 32GB of RAM, to have 5 or 6 GB in swap. That's with a browser and many tabs open, an IDE, a video or graphics editor, and a game all running. I don't like to close my stuff. With 16GB you will have to close some apps sometimes, unless all you do is a web browser and light gaming.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday September 02 2022, @10:26AM
Thanks!
and thanks to everyone!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2022, @12:54AM
Haven't built a computer in a couple of decades (been using laptops with external monitors as DTRs - Desktop Replacements), but I wanted something better - A LOT BETTER.
So, This is the Computer That Jack Built (over the last 6 months, paid for out of my income, no debt involved):
This is the vertical server tower Jack ordered for the new computer, - 12 drive capacity, 12 SATA 6 connectors, etc. Weighs over 20 pounds.
These are the 8 cooling fans Jack bought for the new tower - 140mm PWM, combined capacity can completely change the air in the bulky case every 10 seconds;.
This is the green 90%+ efficeint power supply Jack got to power the hardware in the new computer - 1000 WATT Corsair HX1000;
This is the Asus PRIME H670-PLUS D4 that Jack stuck into the tower to suck power out of the 1000 watt power supply in the server case in the system that Jack built;
This is the 128 gigs of Kingston Fury 3600 XMP ram that Jack stuck into the motherboard that sucks (not too much, actually) power from the 1000 watt power supply in the computer system that Jack built;
This is the core I5 12400 that Jack plugged into the motehrboard that ... well, you can guess the rest ...
These are the 8 x 4tb Western Digital Red NASware drives that Jack installed in the drive trays in the server case ...
These are the two Blu-Ray burners used to copy old movies, games, etc to the hard drives installed in the drive trays in the server case ...
These are the 2 gamer cards -rated for 7.5k video, but only running at a true 4k each, that Jack ... (surprise!!!) plugged into two 50" true 4k screens; the internal fans don't even turn on because normal desktop usage doesn't require it, as per the manufacturer's specs (don't remember the exact model offhand, just that they've got 4gb or DDR5 ram, and are rated to run without cooling if you're not gaming);
This is the 3rd 50" true 4k screen that Jack plugged into the CPU HDMI out, that is also doing just fine 4k video ... which surprised the shit out of Jack, but hey, taking the win!
These are the 3 FHD web bams plugged into ... you know the routine ...
These are the 3 4tb external hard drives that plug into a USB 3 multi-drive caddy that can do backups, and even clone drives without using a computer ...
This is the wireless gamer headset and these are the two wireless mouse/keyboard combos, including the best keyboard I've ever seen - a Logitech Comfortwave MK550, massive enough to beat someone to death with, with the best keyboard action I've ever experienced (gave the 3rd wireless keyboard/mouse combo to a friend who was stuck using a laptop keyboard);
This is the 24-port business class green switch that lets everything talk to each other without using a shitty ISP-supplied router;
There's more ... but you get the point. It's the dream machine for work from home, and now that I don't have to work for assholes any more, and will never work for anyone in IT evere again, just my own personal projects, same as I pick and choose what I do with the rest of my time, I might as well spoil myself a bit ... I've earned it, and fuck the incompetent psychopaths who "manage" IT projects.
Thinking of adding a true 4k webcam ... because ... why not? Friends say I should do some comedy podcasts ...
And probably treating myself to Microsoft Flight Simulator over the Christmas holidays now that it can handle 3 screens. See how it handles the load.
Interesting facts:
Because THIS is how we do it in CA-NA-DA! Winter's coming, when it becomes the land of ice and snow, where the cold winds blow, so going to be spending more time indoors anyway ... might as well enjoy it, right? And if I'm going to code for my own purposes, might as well have the dream environment.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday February 22, @05:32PM
The only program I've ever considered running that couldn't run on my 16GB computer was formal verification of a category theoretic theorem about term models being initial algebras.
It was reported to require at least 24GB.
Inability to run this wasn't something I cried over.
I think it was written in Agda. I suspect a different approach might have reduced the memory demands. I never looked into that or tried to.