GlorifiedPaperShuffler

So in two weeks, I'll be closing on a new house. All the paperwork's been signed, and I'm looking forward to becoming a homeowner after years of renting.

I had it all planned out. Gonna run CAT-6A Ethernet indoors and outdoors. Full suite of Ubiquiti products, from UniFi Dream Machine Pro, UniFi APs, UniFi POE switches, UniFi Protect cameras, etc. etc.

Then a couple days back, Ubiquiti comes out and announces EOL on some products, leaving a bunch of very angry users and vendors.

That kinda shook my confidence in Ubiquiti, and in my planned setup. Perhaps it isn't such a bright idea to go all-in on one single manufacturer?

Worse, further research into the Dream Machine Pro revealed a litany of network breaking bugs (one user's Dream Machine Pro apparently likes to occasionally disable all its ports).

I don't run a business, so I don't need 100% uptime. This network is for my own home use. But I don't want to deal with problems that I can avoid.

Basically, I need help planning a new network and CCTV suite. I was pointed at Ubiquiti's products via LTT's videos, so I'm not familiar with other manufacturers.

What I need from my network:

1. A WiFi "mesh". I don't want a true mesh network, where some WiFi bandwidth is used by APs to as a backhaul. I just want full coverage all over my house, from the basement, to the bedroom, to my backyard, all running off the Ethernet infrastructure I'll be laying down, with enough throughput to stream 4K video from my Unraid NAS, and move huge files between devices.
2. Intrusion detection and prevention - A firewall. I currently have a pfsense SG-3100 router, and it's "alright". It's just way too complicated to do anything. I remember spending a few hours just trying to get Destiny 2 to run properly. Optional but nice - a pretty dashboard to show if the Russians are trying to get into my network or something.
3. DPI, or at least, the ability to gather statistics on what devices on my network are doing.
4. Some way to isolate IoT devices from the general network, like a VLAN. I'll be running a HomeKit suite of devices, so I'd like these IoT devices to be able to communicate with some hubs (Apple TV, Pod, iPad), but nothing else unless I periodically allow it for updates.

What I need from my CCTV (estimated 5-6 cameras):

1. PoE powered cameras, to minimize the amount of wiring I'll need to add. I don't want completely wireless cameras either.
2. 4K resolution for some cameras, full HD for others. If the cameras catch anything, I'd like to be able to identify the perps. Blurry video is not acceptable.
3. Some intelligence built into the system, where it only records if movement is detected in specified areas of the camera's view.
4. Good IR range for nightvision.
5. Local NVR recording only. I'd prefer not to have my system upload anything to anywhere else besides my home NVR.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Welp, I learned a few new things about building computers today.

1) Don't be a hero. There's a reason why nobody has tried to build a computer, and manage cables like automotive harnesses. This experiment was an abject failure, and it created so much more bulk and frustration that made it almost impossible to manage cables properly. It's why real harnesses are built with individual wires cut-to-length. I had to replace all the power cables I screwed up trying to make harnesses (removed the shrink wrap), and had to clean up, so here's a before and after:

2) Hard line bending is hard. Linus and JayzTwoCents make it look too easy. It took me the better part of 6 hours today to make 3 lines (plus lots of scrap lines).

Here's my first bend ever:

I feel like it's not going to be water tight, but we'll see. And here's how far I've made it so far:

Nothing in this PC lines up "properly" for some reason, so there's lots of gentle 45 degree bends to get the lines into the fittings.

Wish me luck.

I have a Cooler Master Cosmos C700M, that I intend to paint with automotive tri-coat spray paint.

My intended result is for the surface to end up like a car's surface.

Do I first have to sand down the brushed aluminum surfaces till they're flat? How can I achieve best results?

11 hours ago, Unforgiving said:

Make sure to get a closed deck processor 

 

(lol Subaru joke) 

Too bad they don't make em anymore.

Oh well, at least with a processor you can just delid and fill the insides with liquid metal.

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

Nice! Are you going to use a clear coolant or a Pastel coolant? Imo pastel looks much better, but I've heard of people having issues. Are you going to paint the fans, or use RGB fans?

Probably clear, because I'd rather not risk problems.

Fans will be RGB, but I have not decided which fan yet. There are a few fans that carry a linear RGB design, instead of circles. I'm still researching if demanding a linear RGB design will mean compromising performance. On the other hand, circles don't really fit all that well in the design I have in mind.

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

thats a chart of a bunch of 360mm radiators, (albeit at 750rpm, which is silent, there are more graphs here: https://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/radiator-round-2015/5/)

Thats why I reccommend hardwarelabs radiators, becuase they perform very well for their cheap price (60$ for a thin 360mm radiator, and 100$ for a 60mm thick one)

I saw their website, and it's mighty tempting. The cheap price helps too, because I intend to paint the radiator's side panels (leaving the fins black). It'll be nice if they're cheap to replace if I screw it up.

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

I wish I had more money for a build like this xD, perhaps one day I'll save up and convince myself and my wallet.

I know the feeling man. To get the money to do this and other things, I gave up a year of my life for my employer, and worked in our HQ in Japan for that time.

8 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

Nice! will it be hardline? Also for radiators I'd reccommend Hardwarelabs GTS and GTX radiators as those are the OEM of what Corsair produces and they perform a bit better as Corsair uses the OEM versions which are slightly thinner for better compatability (

398mm x 133mm x 29.6mm (L x W x H) on GTS vs corsair slim 396mm x 120mm x 30mm), the extra 13mm of thickness reduces resistance and gives better temps. Same with the thicker rads)

Absolutely it'll be hardline! I'm currently thinking of a way to evoke the Boxer Engine with my hardline routing. See where it'll take me.

I'm kinda torn between just running blue coolant, or if I should try to color match the Cherry Blossom Pink/Red by mixing coolants. Not sure if the latter will result in problems.

I'm currently partial towards EK rads really, though I'm perusing Alphacool's range as well. I'll check out Hardwarelabs. No harm in doing so.

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I really hope you find a way to incorporate some of the gold in there as well. Their gold wheels really do define what a proper STI should be.

I forgot to mention...the hardline loop fittings will be gold!

In my other build log, I called my wife's build "The Guinea Pig". A guinea pig for what you might ask?

Well, here is a build I call "Technica", named after Subaru Technica International (STI), the motorsports and high performance division of Subaru (the car manufacturer, not the telescope).

The parts list isn't finalized yet, since I estimate it'll take me months just to do the mods I have planned for the case.

But think Ryzen 9, 2080 Ti, all watercooled, RGBed to the max, plus a good helping of automotive grade paint.

This is my dream build. It's been about 6 months in conceptualization.

For the longest time, I referred to it in my budget/parts sheet as "Magnum Opus", because I think this will be the last major build I do from scratch.

Everything after will just be updates to the internals here and there.

The build's theme is Subaru, but specifically, the design will try to evoke themes found in the following Subarus:

So lots of WR Blue (I'm partial towards WR Blue Pearl), a touch of Cherry Blossom Red/Pink (undecided if I should harken back to the original pink or the newer pinkish red), and just a touch of High Viz Yellow.

I'm starting this thread today, because today is the day the case for this build arrived:

Yes, I am a nutjob who just paid for a C700M. My fingers are tightly crossed that this case will be the last case I buy.

Beyond this, I hope everything will just be a matter of upgrading internals.

If you are thinking of buying a Cosmos C700M, know that it is a MASSIVE case. My wife's Crystal 570X looks like a toy next to it.

Yes, this also does mean that I got parts for a 2nd build before finishing the 1st.

I'm hoping to take advantage of what remaining warm weather we have outside for painting.

Additionally, I can do more detailed planning with the case in-hand, so I can see what I can take apart for painting, and how I can best apply the color theme discussed above.

Will update when I make more progress.

Today I did more test fitting.

Honestly, I should've done this at the start. With the Cablemod vertical GPU bracket, it pushes out the GPU some towards the front.

Then couple that with my overambitious choice of an XR7 radiator. Corsair should've just called this radiator the Thiccboi. There's basically no room left to mount the reservoir:

I don't know if it's "alright". There's basically 1-2mm clearance from the radiator, which means there's next to no room at all when it comes time to install the hard line water loop. I'm slightly concerned about noise when the pump operates, since it is touching the PSU shroud.

What would your advice be?

On 9/4/2019 at 12:58 PM, Mr. Smiley said:

Cables look nice, and being able to form them would help with cable management a ton. Is there anyway that you could sleeve them after they are formed though so that they look cleaner? The electrical tape looks somewhat janky IMO

I don't see why you couldn't sleeve them after.

But with a harness style construction, multiple branches come together into a single bundle if they go the same way. So it might make it difficult to sleeve.

I only had a few hours today to make some progress with this build.

Initially I had wanted to plan the routing for all the wires in this computer, but it became too much to keep track of. So I decided to say, "fuck it", and just make up the routing as we went along.

I put in the MB, top radiator, and a few fans:

But what I'd like to focus on in today's log is a little experiment for cable management (see the USB 3.0 cable sticking out near the bottom?). Originally I had wanted to buy some nice custom length cables from Cablemod, until I found out how goddamned expensive they were, and even after that, there was no guarantee that I could give them the precise measurements needed.

So after some thought, I realized that IRL I am an automotive engineer, with 50% of my work being automotive harnesses. Why not apply the same construction methods to PC cable management?

I experimented a little with the USB 3.0 cable, and I think the results look decent. Additionally, with automotive harness construction methods, you could get the cables to stay in certain shapes ("forming" or sometimes "dressing").

Also, there is a myriad of additional accessories you could buy online (if you know their part numbers) to enable even more ways to manage cables. You can even bundle multiple cables together that are going the same route, and you get a nice clean run of cables.

What do you guys think?

For months now, I have been planning to build two high end rigs for me and the wife.

The wife's system will be built first, because ladies first, and also because I've never done hard line water cooling before, so I need a guinea pig.

Her rig will be high end for sure, but it'll just be a generic high end rig. It'll serve as the test bed for many things, including hard line bending/cutting, water block installation, Corsair's iCue, HydroX parts, X570, Ryzen 3rd Gen, and RTX games.

We've got the furniture for a twin battlestation area last weekend. Today, the first set of tools arrived. I figured the Eiskoffer will give me the best chance of pulling this off well the first time around. Actual construction will begin this Labor Day weekend.

Total budget for her rig is $3800.

Parts list:

I'm opening this thread first and foremost to log the build process, so you can laugh at our mistakes, and maybe I can also learn something, but also because when I'm spending this kind of money, I'd like someone else to at least know about it. We're both sorta introverted people who don't often welcome guests in our home. So no one will probably ever see the rigs in-person.

2 hours ago, wasab said:

I just wrote the above python script that will work. 

 

create a file called file_walker

copy and paste the entire code above into it

in your terminal run: chmod +x file_walker

then run: ./file_walker <souce directory> <destination directory> <regular expression for matching>

 

e.g. if i want to move all the files that ends with .txt in my home downloads directory to a subdirectory name test on my fedora linux machine, i would run:  

./file_walker /home/xgao/Downloads /home/xgao/Downloads/test ^.*\.txt$

Maybe I'm a dummy, but I'm getting:

bash: ./file_walker: /bin/python3: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Am I doing something wrong here?

Never mind. I got the script to execute, but it isn't exactly what I'm trying to achieve...

It basically goes through the directory, and just dumps the files into a fixed directory.

I need it to recreate the folder structure on the other end.

There are 160+ folders in the gdrive, hence it'd be nice to not have to execute the script manually 160+ times.

I need to make a script that will recreate those 160+ folders. i.e., flatten the target folder's structure, but not completely, in another folder. End result is:

cleandrive:

-lvl1fld1

-lvl1fld2

-lvl1fld3

-lvl1fld4

So on and so forth until it reaches lvl1fld160

8 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

mv ./*/* .

 

Doesn't that just dump everything into cleandrive?

First, I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the Linux section, so mods, please move it as you deem appropriate.

I'm a total newbie to writing Linux scripts. But I have a mega server I just built, so I'm in the mood to play a little and learn something new along the way.

I want to write a script to clean up a particularly messy Google Drive directory that I have mounted in a Mint XFCE VM. It's the result of years of "I'll just put this here for now".

They're structured something like this:

gdrive:

-lvl1fld1

--lvl2fld1sfl1

--lvl2fld1sfl2

---lvl3fld1sfl2ssfl1

-lvl1fld2

-lvl1fld3

--lvl2fld3sfl1

-lvl1fld4

The folder structure can be many levels deep..., and there are literally 16000 files in there.

I don't want all 16000, just certain files (e.g., I have no need to keep random .txt files or thumb.db files since this is Linux).

So I want to write a script that will flatten the structure for me, while keeping only the relevant files. Thus, my current thinking is that the script needs to perform the following:

1. Recursively scan the folders to obtain a list of files that have the specified extensions (extension whitelist).
2. Move all files to another main folder, into the appropriate folders named according to the original lvl1 name.
3. Leave the rest behind in gdrive as garbage for me to manually confirm that they are no longer needed.

As a result, I should end up with 2 folders. One is the gdrive folder above with the garbage left behind, and another is a cleandrive folder with the following structure:

cleandrive:

-lvl1fld1

-lvl1fld2

-lvl1fld3

-lvl1fld4

Where should I start?

Follow up question...

If I choose a CPU that is affected by the recent Zombieload, Meltdown, and Spectre vulnerabilities, how much of a damn should I give?

3 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

There is work arounds to sync Asus Aura with Corsair Icue. This is probably your best option with it. http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=180890

That link says that it doesn't support the new 20xx series GPUs, or X370 and B350 ASUS boards.

Doesn't say anything about Z390 or any AMD TR4 chipsets though...

I'd certainly like to figure everything out before pulling the trigger in June, since I will be spending $9000 on 2 PCs.

I googled around, and basically what I found was:

1. MSI Mystic Light causes untold amounts of frustration in users (oddly enough no one actually bothers to document what exactly happened).
2. ASUS AuraSync has zero support for peripherals besides some dubious ROG keyboards/mice.
3. Corsair iCue doesn't work with anything that isn't from Corsair (no go for me since I am doing a custom water loop).
4. Gigabyte/ASRock are barely contenders in the RGB scene.

I guess what I'm asking is, what's the "least worst" option here?

I'd like to minimize the amount of garbage on my PC and avoid manual syncing.

Let me know please.

42 minutes ago, fluxdeity said:

Have you had the Glaive? I wouldn't really recommend it. It feels weird regardless of the 3 grips included and is prone to double clicking on single click. RMA'd mine twice, so three mice and all started double clicking. Went with MM531 and happy with the feel. Time will tell on the clicker though. They're both Omron 20m switches.

Perhaps check out a different line from corsair or a different brand of mouse.

No, I've never had it. I've always been a Logitech guy.

But the Glaive was chosen specifically due to compatibility with MSI Mystic Light.

Logitech doesn't seem to give any choice besides Logitech Hub..., which is fucking terrible.

1 hour ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Use PCPartPicker! Makes compatibility, sorting, sharing, etc. so much easier

PCP doesn't support custom water loop parts ATM...

Nor does it support tools, etc.

So I can't check compatibility for those.

4 hours ago, BakaTechDude_01 said:

So uh, I’m kinda new to the whole PC thing and I’ve been learning all I can about PCs and gaming on them.

I want to do a smaller PC build cause I don’t have any space.

I have a few things I already know generally what I want for it like the graphics card, ram, processor, types of storage and how much, and the type of IO and OS I want. I’d say that I know exactly what I need but I don’t anymore since switching to a mini build.

But what I really don’t understand still are cases motherboards and power supply. I’m utterly stumped when it comes to these two things.

If anyone can shed some light on this for me I’d highly appreciate the help and advice.

 

By the way, hello other forum people.

Okay, first, you need to decide how small is small when you say "smaller PC".

Shoebox sized? Maybe slightly larger?

If you're going for something as small as possible, then you're in ITX territory. What kind of cases do you like? Google some ITX case pics, and post them here so we at least have a baseline to recommend from.

As for motherboards, ITX boards are aplenty, but are usually spendy for what you get.

Also, you said you have a general idea of what you want for graphics cards. What kind of card?

I'm going to build two new gaming PCs, one for myself, and another for my wife (along with another home server).

They'll be my first hard-line water cooling build. I need a sanity check, because I'm spending around $9000 on this.

1. Budget & Location: Budget is $9000-$10,000. Location is Midwestern US.

2. Aim: Ostensibly, they're both for gaming. But really they're both going to be "flex" builds. So I want high end components, RGB the shit out of everything, water cool most things, put everything in high-end cases, etc.

3. Monitors: Both systems will have one 21:9 ultrawide monitor each. Resolution wise isn't decided yet, but I don't foresee problems pushing pixels with what components I'm putting in.

4. Peripherals: Yes, I will be adding peripherals.

5. Why are you upgrading? To flex? No really, just to build them so I get to tinker with hard line loops and such.

My wife's will be built first, as a "prototype", so I don't have to screw around with the truly expensive shit. Parts list below, please take a look and let me know if I'm missing something, or if something just won't work together (space availability, case size, etc. The basic check was already done using PCPartPicker). Maybe I need some obscure tools? Radiator/water block materials will cause corrosion? Don't know. This is my first time doing a custom loop.

Maybe the components I selected aren't going to work too well together? Maybe you have some ideas on where I can further increase the amount of "flex" and "cool factor", since there's some budget leftover. Let me know.

Basically, I need a sanity check, and if you have ideas on what more I can do, let me know.

After building hers, I will be doing mine. Same deal.

Basically, I need a sanity check, and if you have ideas on what more I can do, let me know.

Bumpity bump for a slightly dumb question.

I'm slightly revising my purchasing strategy (pulling the trigger in June). I'd like to take a look at used or refurbished components like CPUs and such.

I heard about Natex.us, but they appear defunct based on everything just being out of stock, and their Reddit account's last post was almost a year ago.

What are the current major stores similar to Natex.us? I mainly want to purchase a board+CPU combo, preferably of the Xeon E5 SR0K variety.

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

What exactly does an automotive development engineer do? Sounds intriguing.

So I work for one of the mainstream Japanese automakers.

Basically, the Japanese name for my field is 設計, or "designer". But "designer" in English doesn't have the same meaning. People generally think fancy sketches of crazy cars when you say "designer".

So I'd probably call it "design engineer". Basically, we take what the product planning guys say they want in next-gen ABC vehicle, and do our best to turn it into reality. We'll study the technical requirements, define specifications, determine where to place it in the vehicle, min/max parameters (weight, fuel economy, etc.), issue drawings for manufacturing, do revisions to improve things, file patents, etc.

We're what happens between marketing's imaginations and mass production.

Specifically, I am in Electronic Platform Design. So that means enabling all the various parts of the car to talk to each other (CAN/LIN communications from physical layer onwards between each part's CAN/LIN interface), enabling the car to talk to other things (think Onstar and internet services, and the associated cybersecurity aspects too), and enabling ancillary stuff like key fobs talking to the car, etc.

19 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Good call to not virtualize it. However, I'd still recommend against doing a full blown pfSense build - as others have pointed out, grabbing a hardware pfSense router is a better idea. You save a lot on the hardware cost, and you can still tinker in full at the software level.

I know the heading said a 2U box for pfsense, but I forgot to remove that. The one Netgate Appliance specified in there is the SG-3100, one step above the basic box someone else had recommended. I saw that it had two M.2 slots for easy upgrading later, if for whatever reason I need to have 64GB of storage on a router. Decided eh, I could upgrade it later, or if I'm doing something that really justifies the extra horsepower, I can always just deal with pfsense virtualization at that point.

23 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

With that in mind, whether you buy an HBA or a RAID Card depends on how you want to organize your storage. If you opt for FreeNAS (either bare hardware install, or virtualized), HBA is the way to go. Same with ProxMox, since it supports ZFS.

 

If you go for ESXi, you can either use an HBA if you plan on virtualizing FreeNAS (I took this route, it works great). Or you can buy a true RAID Card instead, and just serve out chunks of the RAID array to ESXi to portion out as virtual hard drives. There are pros and cons to both.

 

I like the control and flexibility of ESXi + Virtual FreeNAS + HBA (using PCIe Passthrough to give the entire HBA to the FreeNAS VM). The primary benefit of a hardware RAID card would be simplicity. You create your RAID array in the BIOS (you can install software to manage the RAID card too from the desktop), and that's pretty much that.

I think I might stick to ESXi + Virtual FreeNAS with HBA at this moment. There seems to be a lot more documentation about passing an HBA over to FreeNAS in ESXi, instead of portioning out a RAID array to FreeNAS. It'll make setup easier, so I can actually tinker with the fun stuff, instead of struggling just to get storage up and running at all.

P.S. >> Thank you very much for all this free advice you're just giving out like candy. Pretty sure I'd have to pay for a training course or something without you and the LTT community. I'm an automotive development engineer IRL, so feel free to ask me for advice in that realm whenever you need it.

17 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I'd skip the Silver Edition entirely, and just go with a bog-standard (as the brits would say) Xeon.

Do you want one socket (One CPU) or 2? If one, just grab an E3 Xeon, with however many cores you can (or want) to afford. If you need dual socket (two CPU's), grab an E5 Xeon and a motherboard to match.

Hrm, I was thinking of going 1 CPU for now, with a dual socket motherboard. Just leave one socket unpopulated, room for upgrades later.

Does that work? Again, never played with dual socket stuff before, just like I've never played in the Xeon range.

I changed the specs around, to use Xeon E5s instead of Silver Scalable. E5 was chosen because..., that seems to be what everybody on YouTube is using.

Also decided that maybe it's worth it to keep the pfsense box separate, because I swear my wife and daughter are going to murder me if they can't access the Internet for hours at a time whenever I wanna tinker.

Primary source of confusion now is if the HBA Card is the "correct" card for this. It's been wildly confusing, with some talking about RAID, and others saying you need to flash it, etc. etc.