Anyone else a computer person here?

[JesseS]

I am more into VR, HTC Vive ver2 full tracking kit, running on a custom CUK gaming computer. A bit dated now but has no issue playing the latest VR games like Myst or COC's and Half-Life. 10'X10' gaming area so lots of room to move, Beat Saber keeps me moving and working up a sweat, beats the hell out of running.

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[9zero1790]

i remember doom and doom 2 etc. it was fun back in the day. BFG 9000 baby! i played hexen or heretic or something like that for a short time. it was basically doom with different setting.

 

[Dereku]

i remember doom and doom 2 etc. it was fun back in the day. BFG 9000 baby! i played hexen or heretic or something like that for a short time. it was basically doom with different setting.

I remember that one too. It was doom, hexen, and quake. All the pixilated violence you could ask for.

 

[ControlNode]

Peel the peels.

 

[Fordup]

My first computer that I recently sold was a Comodore 64 with all the peripherals they made. I had a 300 baud modem and back then everything was text bulletin boards plus gms. first parts inventory system was fun to hack into. My next computer was a $4k Gateway and DOS. That sure was frustrating every time a drive or card had to be added. The old ATI and Soundblaster drivers could drive you crazy and updated came on floppy discs.

Now to today. I needed a new shop computer to control my lasers, 3d printers, cnc router cad/cam, and light video work/ screen grab video. Not processor intensive like games and as low cost as possible. I found a Beelink mini pc on a Amazon lightening sale for under $300 and it arrived 2 days ago. a Ryzen 5 5600h chip, 500g ss drive, and 16g of memory plus win11 pro. Added another 1 tb ss drive and can not believe how it performs and just about zero noise. I have been afraid to switch to win 11 up to this point and now I can say I like the interface better then win 10. Seems just like cell phones you no longer need a big bulk, noisy box for a computer and am sold on these small boxes for my needs from now on.

 

[JesseS]

Peel the peels.

HAHA, I never worried about that and the bonus is I never have to clean the glass ?

 

[ControlNode]

HAHA, I never worried about that and the bonus is I never have to clean the glass ?

But you then have to clean the hazy peel that never looks as clean as the glass, not to mention the peel overhang around the edges, that just collect and hold onto more dust.

 

[ControlNode]

My first computer that I recently sold was a Comodore 64 with all the peripherals they made. I had a 300 baud modem and back then everything was text bulletin boards plus gms. first parts inventory system was fun to hack into. My next computer was a $4k Gateway and DOS. That sure was frustrating every time a drive or card had to be added. The old ATI and Soundblaster drivers could drive you crazy and updated came on floppy discs.

Now to today. I needed a new shop computer to control my lasers, 3d printers, cnc router cad/cam, and light video work/ screen grab video. Not processor intensive like games and as low cost as possible. I found a Beelink mini pc on a Amazon lightening sale for under $300 and it arrived 2 days ago. a Ryzen 5 5600h chip, 500g ss drive, and 16g of memory plus win11 pro. Added another 1 tb ss drive and can not believe how it performs and just about zero noise. I have been afraid to switch to win 11 up to this point and now I can say I like the interface better then win 10. Seems just like cell phones you no longer need a big bulk, noisy box for a computer and am sold on these small boxes for my needs from now on.

I love the idea of the mini PC. Yet, 2 of my last 4 builds where in huge Thermal Take Level 10 & 20 GT cases. The other two were more mid tower standard sized Corsairs 4000D and iCue 220T.

But I'm just bought an HP rack mount server (dual Xeon X5650 CPUs and 8x 15k RPM 146GB HDDs). I while back I virtualized my wife's computer and have it running in the old AMD system housed in the Level 10 GT case, I plan to move that to the server. I've also been known to run game servers on used laptops with broken displays since the internal batteries are cheaper than a good UPS. Those laptops will be going away too, the server has good power levels and can host several VMs in it with easy.

 

[Fordup]

I love the idea of the mini PC. Yet, 2 of my last 4 builds where in huge Thermal Take Level 10 & 20 GT cases. The other two were more mid tower standard sized Corsairs 4000D and iCue 220T.

But I'm just bought an HP rack mount server (dual Xeon X5650 CPUs and 8x 15k RPM 146GB HDDs). I while back I virtualized my wife's computer and have it running in the old AMD system housed in the Level 10 GT case, I plan to move that to the server. I've also been known to run game servers on used laptops with broken displays since the internal batteries are cheaper than a good UPS. Those laptops will be going away too, the server has good power levels and can host several VMs in it with easy.

I have actually started consolidating everything on a synology 4 bay nas. Small, simple, and fairly secure if you keep it updated. Really does a great job as a DLNA streaming server along with easy backups. Everything is raid for safety. Amazing what the small NAS units are capable of for under a grand. Glad I don't play games.

 

[JesseS]

But you then have to clean the hazy peel that never looks as clean as the glass, not to mention the peel overhang around the edges, that just collect and hold onto more dust.

Just not that important, have other things to keep me busy, besides not that annal.

 

[ControlNode]

I have actually started consolidating everything on a synology 4 bay nas. Small, simple, and fairly secure if you keep it updated. Really does a great job as a DLNA streaming server along with easy backups. Everything is raid for safety. Amazing what the small NAS units are capable of for under a grand. Glad I don't play games.

In that Level 10 GT case I've been running a Raid-5 setup for years, was running 5x 3TB 7,200 drives for a long time, but recently it was getting too hard to replace with the same drives, so I replaced the whole array with 3x 6TB 7,200 drives, so that did cut the power usage some there. The OS drive in that box is an 250GB SSD and I have a 1TB SSD for the VMs in it. The 12TB logical drive is used for backups and network shares. I wish I could find a cheap HP external 24 bay SFF rack with the iSCSI controllers to pair with that server, but those racks with no drives are going for over $2k for most of them. For comparison, I got the server for $250. I know the HP servers gets very picky about the drives you install, or I would just look into some other enterprise options at a better price/compacity.

 

[Zaph]

I found a Beelink mini pc on a Amazon lightening sale for under $300 and it arrived 2 days ago. a Ryzen 5 5600h chip, 500g ss drive, and 16g of memory plus win11 pro

That is super similar to the mini I posted yesterday. Mine is a Beelink GTR5. It's kind of their premium mini line because of the features, and I needed all of the 4K monitor hookups. Cast aluminum case. Super high quality. When you give up the gaming to consoles and let a proper gaming machine do it's job, the world of minipcs is beautiful.

They've got a GTR6 With a Ryzen 9 6900HX and it's very fast for something that fits in your hand but not as quiet as their other models. But it's an issue that's solved if you mount it behind a monitor where the fan noise is masked and not directly near you. Just screw that onto a monitor and you have a super fast integrated system.

 

[Fordup]

That is super similar to the mini I posted yesterday. Mine is a Beelink GTR5. It's kind of their premium mini line because of the features, and I needed all of the 4K monitor hookups. Cast aluminum case. Super high quality. When you give up the gaming to consoles and let a proper gaming machine do it's job, the world of minipcs is beautiful.

They've got a GTR6 With a Ryzen 9 6900HX and it's very fast for something that fits in your hand but not as quiet as their other models. But it's an issue that's solved if you mount it behind a monitor where the fan noise is masked and not directly near you. Just screw that onto a monitor and you have a super fast integrated system.

Mine is the SER5 pro and really does a nice job with 4k video. As shipped bios is limited to 35 watts. I understand it will allow you to pump it up to 45 watts at yourown risk. Really surprised it can handle (3) 4k monitors for this price. I couldn't buy the components and win 11 pro for what it cost. I have always been a fan of amd chips and for being a 3 year old chip it's amazingly powerful. Ran some video editing this morning on it and not one stumble processing 4k.

 

[ControlNode]

Mine is the SER5 pro and really does a nice job with 4k video. As shipped bios is limited to 35 watts. I understand it will allow you to pump it up to 45 watts at yourown risk. Really surprised it can handle (3) 4k monitors for this price. I couldn't buy the components and win 11 pro for what it cost. I have always been a fan of amd chips and for being a 3 year old chip it's amazingly powerful. Ran some video editing this morning on it and not one stumble processing 4k.

Yeah, for video editing I've been using the AMDs for years, FX-8350 in that Level 10 GT box, 3950X in the 4000D case and 5950X in the Level 20 GT case. I still like Intel in laptops though, Thunderbolt ports in AMD laptops are still not common enough. I did add the Asus Thunderbolt card to my son's computer, really want to trade my MSI B550 board for his Asus B550 board just for that one feature. After all of the horror stories online getting it working I was not sure it would work, but I had no problems at all getting it running.

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