Help! I have custom PC fever.

[__]

Linus says…

No appreciable performance difference. Pull is easier to clean.

is it weird to have like $200 in cooling apparatuses for a $100 CPU?

Well, you’ve already bought it, right? ; )

[nixnerd]

No appreciable performance difference. Pull is easier to clean.

Huh… that’s funny because in this video, Linus says “push/pull is king.”

[nixnerd]

Well, you’ve already bought it, right? ; )

Yes… yes I have. Well, except for a few. But, this will give me options not only now but in the future. Hell, if nothing else, I’ll have backups in case one dies.

[nixnerd]

Huh… that’s funny because in this video, Linus says “push/pull is king.”

To be fair to Linus, the video I linked is newer… maybe he found a better way of testing? (Doubt it) And, he is testing SPECIFICALLY the Corsair H75 with Corsair fans and to be even more specific, he says SP in push and AF in pull is king. So… there you have it.

[__]

Huh… that’s funny because in this video, Linus says “push/pull is king.”

hehe… whatever.

[nixnerd]

Mobo, SSD and graphics card arrived.

[__]

oooohh… purdy

I may get to build a system here, sooner than I thought. Not for me, though, and not a box. A client wants an ARM-based router/file server/tablet-screen-sharing-LAN-type-thing for his shop.

I’ll share if anything comes of it. In the meantime, looking forward to seeing your build. About ready to start? waiting for anything else?

[nixnerd]

A client wants an ARM-based router/file server/tablet-screen-sharing-LAN-type-thing for his shop.

Ha ha ha ha! That’s awesome. That will be super fun. I still need to work on my BBB… just haven’t had time.

About ready to start? waiting for anything else?

Waiting on a CPU cooler and fans at the moment. All corsair and blue to match the mobo. Then I just need a power supply and two RAM sticks. That’s it.

[valimai]

Joe, you’re about to finish your new pc. I wish I could also build my own pc too. So, how much it all cost?

[nixnerd]

So, how much it all cost?

Uhhh, my entire system will be about $1,200. But, that includes dual 23″ monitors with really nice edge to edge glass, a pretty decent CPU, cooling, the whole get-up.

Really, that’s not too bad. That’s what I spend on my Sony Vaio laptop 3 years ago. A Macbook Pro will run you like $300 more than that… which is unreal.

Now, to be fair, I’d have to spend more if I was going to use it as a high-end gaming rig. But this baby is just for coding and some graphics work. That’s it. Therefore, I don’t need a $300-$500 graphics card or an Intel i7. That stuff ALONE would cost more than my entire setup.

Also, I’ve been getting free shipping on everything. So, that helps.

I say… DO IT!

[nixnerd]

Part of this PC build is the software. While I’ve already got my OS and basic setup decided on, I’m curious from the Linux users: Have you used btrfs? What should I know going into it?

[__]

I’ve never used it. I’m quite happy with ext4.

I might give it a try sometime, but probably only to “mess around.” For example, Arch says:

• everywhere I read labels btrfs “experimental” and “unstable.” Doesn’t turn me off, but I’m not going to jump up and put it on my desktop.
• no native support for encryption.
• no native support for swap.
• consequently, no support for hibernate.

[nixnerd]

Oh goodness. I knew it wasn’t “production ready,” but damn. No swap? That’s insanity. However… I don’t think I’m going to put a swap partition on my SSD… too many rewrites. I don’t even think I’ll need a swap with 8GB of RAM. Though… you probably have a swap partition and more RAM than that.

Disk encryption? I never use it.

I mean… I wouldn’t use it without a backup. But then again… I don’t run ext4 without a backup.

I like the idea of snapshots, duplicate deletion (this is HUGE for an SSD), mirroring, compression, etc.

I might just have to run LVM and RAID 1.

For what it’s worth, people on the Arch subreddit love it. But… people on the Arch sub love a lot of things that I’m not ready to adopt.

[nixnerd]

I think I might have to make the HHKB part of the build:

http://grumpylemming.com/blog/2012/12/24/hacking-a-happy-hacking-keyboard/

There’s a mod out there to use a microcontroller like the Arduino for mouse-like movement with the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2.

[__]

you probably have a swap partition and more RAM than that.

Believe it or not, I only want more RAM. My laptop has 6GB. My desktop is a core2 duo (remember? told you it was a decade old!) and can’t even make use of more than 2GB. I do have sizable swap partitions on both. Thing I couldn’t manage, though, is not being able to hibernate.

Disk encryption? I never use it.

I dunno; might not be a problem at all. It’s just something I would worry about until I looked into it.

I might just have to run LVM and RAID 1.

Doesn’t it kinda defeat the purpose, having both copies on the same physical drive?

There’s a mod out there to use a microcontroller like the Arduino for mouse-like movement with the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2.

I have to admit that the HHKP is looking nicer and nicer each time you shove it in my face, but even if I do get one, I’m keeping my mouse. : )

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