New Workstation Build For Winter

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Fred
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

Fred wrote:Thinking about monitors more after taking a look at some today and I'm wondering a few things:

6) And then there is also QHD monitors like the Dell U2717D at 2560x1440 in the high 20s inches, 27 or 28
7) Or I could just get 2 or 3 1080p/HD monitors side by side, like every office worker known to man these days
A guy in the office that I'm working with has a dual QHD setup, like I had at my last job, one in front, one to the side. I sat with him a few days ago and we worked through something together and I liked it. So:

Step 1) Figure out which single QHD monitor I want, and get one - that's a big step up immediately
Step 2) Figure out how to do dual head with intel graphics, eventually get another the same
Step 3) Figure out how to do triple head with intel graphics, eventually get a third the same

Like this:

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Fred
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

Code: Select all

fred@mako:~$ uptime
 17:40:51 up 93 days, 21:59,  5 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
I think that sums up perfectly how much use I've made of this machine. Partly because:

1) Busy
2) Not configured
3) Messy desk
4) Crappy screen
5) Don't love the room it's in

1, fair, 5, true, 3, solved, 4, pending, 2, not acceptable. This flies in the face of all things agile and is the devil within me that is the reason that FreeEMS is where it is today. Less of this.

So this weekend .ssh, .mozilla, and .purple dirs migrate, scripts get written, monitor cables moved, and old machine archived one last time.

Then new repos can be cloned, new sessions opened, and maybe some progress made on something or other.

I've been working toward this all week as I've had time. Getting there.

QHD ASAP.
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

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Trigger pulled on a 32" Samsung QHD VA based screen with a decent high stand. 747.50nzd inc GST and 766.19nzd with CC surcharge, on special and solid reviews left right and centre. All the IPS screen reviews are loaded with "light bleed" issues and the product pages on Amazon show warnings that it's normal. I liked the idea of the deep blacks of IPS but never really cared about the colour accuracy. VA does deep blacks, too. I suspect I'll be more than happy with this. Might nab another one later, maybe, or not. Pickup 10am tomorrow.

"This product currently has a Buy Limit of 1 Units Per Customer. To purchase more than this quantity you will need to contact us."

Obligatory internet photo:

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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

What motivated me to sort out the monitor situation: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0844967936

Image





Unboxing, the box was huge: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0480943104

Image





Breaking it in with some TGT: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5220103168

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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Nige »

Nice. This would be awesome for the wife, she needs an upgrade but doesn't like 1440p on a 27" (which is what I prefer) as things start to look too small for her.
IRC nick: ignitionigel or Nige
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

Since I posted I've spent some serious time on it and have learned to not hate the chunkiness of stuff. The thing is, I'm writing this post from my work laptop which is a 1080p 15.6" screen and where I spend most of my time these days. So I've gotten used to fine pitch dots and the monitor is still too close to me on the desk, need to move it back and away. I still think I'd prefer 28/27 with QHD though. 32 would be nice in 4k. Next time :-)

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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

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Have been using only this since I got the essentials migrated on the weekend. Haven't finished rearranging the desk or backing up the Mac, but that's okay.

One reason I was hesitant to start using this was a lack of tooling to force me to be tidy. So I've been working on that this week and last night I nailed the last tech challenge. Will finish up, tidy up, package and release tonight. Then install on this and go forward!
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

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Done! Released, installed on both machines, enabled on this new box. Not enabled on this old box due to 750+ items needing sorting. Will run again at 4am :-)
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

This machine met an untimely end today! :-(

Sequence of events:

1. Electrician came earlier in the week and replaced the switch board with a modern one - power was out most of the day
2. I ignored the desktop machine for a couple of days because busy with work - didn't think anything of it
3. Today I tried to power it on, fan spun, would not boot
4. Pulled it apart, pulled out one stick of ram, tried to power it up with one stick of ram and got a warning for less ram, no cmos battery etc
5. CMOS battery failure = bios settings lost = ram configuration required to make it boot lost = won't boot - machine was fine, but needed a battery and some config
6. Tried to pull it apart to get to the battery - screwed up trying to pull the fan wire off the mother board and pulled the connector off the PCB - likely repairable but not with my eyes/fingers in a short time frame. Damn it.
7. Machine was loud under load and could not smoothly play 150Mbps 4k video no matter what the playback settings (some settings got close, but still not right)
8. Ordered an 8 core i9 nuc extreme kit to replace it - should be able to use the same old DDR4-2400 RAM (machine takes up to 2666 for 32 and up to 2400 for 64 gig in future) and drop the old 950 pro 0.5TB root/boot drive SSD in and the newer 970 plus 1TB /data drive in and carry on as I was. New machine also has a third M2 slot for NVME sticks so I'll likely chuck a 2TB samsung stick in there in the short-medium term as the 1TB is quite full and I have a bunch of full SD cards to dump off.

Upsides:

Can play 4k 150Mbps
Can work hard quietly
2.5x faster and was already fast enough most of the time
upgrade to 64g ram possible if I feel the need (not so far!, 24 would be enough, 16 not enough, 32 ample/good, great choice)
pcie slots for nvidia/radeon graphics to satisfy video editing software are available, eg GTX 2070 w 8g ram
more IO eg 2 thunderbolt usbc holes on the back, 6 USB 3 holes
faster intel graphics (easy in linux, and old was never a limitation)
reuses old disks/ram for now

Down side:

2126nzd later inc tax, cc surcharge, shipping, ouch. But I don't have time/energy to build something similar and I don't want anything bigger and being a ready to go OEM product gives me confidence I just can't get from a home built machine. The old skull canyon served me well for 4.5 years and was set to serve me well for 4.5 more - but alas, the cmos battery and bad ram choice up front and carelessness on the day sealed the deal. RIP
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Re: New Workstation Build For Winter

Post by Fred »

Well, the 9th gen i9 octa core nuc ghost canyon arrived today! They spent a few hundred on the packaging, ha ha, oh well, gamer marketing machine. Popped the two SSDs from the 6th gen i7 quad core nuc in and the 2400 RAM from the old nuc, too, and booted right up into a skull and the decrypt volume screen. Sadly, no keyboard. Not sure if lack of driver in old kernel for modern USB chipset or some weird kernel params I needed for the old nuc. Keyboard works to enter bios and to use in the bios, as does wireless mouse. Might have a play with kernel params and see if I can do better. Assuming keyboard works with grub, that is.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
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FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
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