Mark77

And a dual CPU configuration can be very sensitive to any asymmetry in the configurations. Do you have 24gb associated per CPU? Read the manuals carefully.

Are you sure its all licensed up properly? There are versions of Windows 2012 server that are OS-limited to 32gb of RAM. If this was a MSDN copy, it might not be licensed for 'production' use, but still report being a 'standard' edition. Personally I'd boot it up on a Linux boot stick and use "free" or "top" to tell me what it actually has, if the bootup messages don't say for sure. Thinking this is a licensing issue, or maybe even a HAL issue. From Google, RAM limits for the various 2012 Server licenses: Physical Memory Limits: Windows Server 2012 Version Limit on X64 Windows Server 2012 Datacenter 4 TB Windows Server 2012 Standard 4 TB Windows Server 2012 Essentials 64 GB Windows Server 2012 Foundation 32 GB

Every time I've tried to use multiple screens that were so mismatched in resolution, it was a giant PITA. Mostly because it messes up your hand-eye coordination moving from one screen to another. Can I suggest that you just buy yourself a second 1080p screen?

Best way to learn Linux, bar none, is to dispense with the GUI's and learn to do everything command-line. Get yourself a Raspberry Pi, or a shell account, and go at it. Its inevitable that if you don't understand the underlying system, you'll hit some sort of issue that really is trivial to resolve, but you won't be able to because you're used to doing point and click stuff.

Yeah basically you'd have to decide whether you want to stick with a big air cooler and run it fanless. Or go with a pre-packaged water cooling setup which could probably be run fanless, but would almost certainly need a pump running. The Intel stock cooler really isn't that good though, lol. But the price probably was right. Agree with the other posters. Machines similar to yours hardware config wise are routinely sold by plenty of "local computer shops" with basically a single case fan, the PSU, and video card/Intel CPU fans. All those extra fans is probably way overboard. Unless you're an extreme overclocker, you simply don't need to keep your components that cool.

What HSF you using right now? What sort of temperatures are you experiencing? If you already have a beefy cooler, there's a decent chance that you can just unplug the fans and not even need them if the CPU temperature doesn't rise that much. 7 120mm fans seems like overkill. Try removing a few of them and see what impact that has on your system.

Are you planning on cladding the entire interior of this 'case' with a fire retardant material or sheet metal? Building a PC case out of wood is an incredibly bad idea. Go talk to the Chem Eng computing centre guys at UBC (not too far away from LMG studios!) to learn why. Or better yet, just watch this YouTube video they made of some caps disintegrating in a rather firey fashion, and imagine something like that going off in the middle of your case:

Those are very good numbers and are well within the specs of that drive. Nothing to worry about, and nothing meaningfully faster on the market today. The others are right about the outer tracks delivering higher sequential I/O than the inner tracks. Hard drives usually write from outer to inner, ie: track 0 has the greatest circumference. Partitioning increases the probability of fragmentation, so if its speed you're after, you might want to consider not partitioning. Although quite frankly, SSDs are so compelling these days that I can't fathom why anyone wouldn't boot from one of them if they're at all worried about performance.

Generally when people distribute software for Linux, they distribute source code. The source code typically will include a Makefile, and some directions on how to install it. Usually the archive in question is a 'tarball', which is a bunch of files combined into a single file using "tar", and a compressor such as gzip, or b2zip. Hence, the extension, "program.tar.gz" or "program.tar.bz2". The previous poster mentioned two particular distributions, and their package managers which can use pre-compiled binaries distributed in certain formats. Those distributions (and ones emulating them) can use formats like that, but they are not generalized to all Linux distributions. Additionally, one would need to be sure that the file they're downloading is compatible with the particular libraries, platform (ie: x86, x64, ARM, etc.). Whenever in doubt, pick up the source.

Are 980 boards still in production?

NVMe is basically just like IDE, in that, they shoved all the controller stuff on the HDD, and just directly wired it to the expansion bus interface on the PC. Since the infrastructure for PCI-E is well known, and switch fabric chips are available from the likes of PLX, it makes perfect sense to phase out SATA. Considering that basically everyone has PCI-E these days, its pretty much a no-brainer. For those without the M.2 slots, you can spend $10 and get a Chinese-built PCB adapter. And there are 1 PCI-E to 4 M.2 adapters with PLX chip available for not much money.

Well the Q6600 supports 64-bit, virtualization, and all of that, so you certainly could build it up as a sort of 'proof of concept'. And if your needs evolve such that you need something more powerful, then upgrade accordingly. You won't even have to re-install the OS -- just literally swap out the hardware. If you have the house apart, zoneminder and a few security cameras would be very helpful. I'm personally not really sure what the 'use case' is for 10gig-E in "the home". Keep in mind that over the next few years, there's going to be lots of new equipment able to run 2.5gig-E or 5gig-E over cat 5/6 cable.

I don't see why that machine couldn't saturate Gig-E or even double Gig-E with the Q6600, DDR2, etc. My old T7500 laptop, with a much weaker CPU, could. So in that respect, it should be just as good for a NAS as a much newer machine. You could throw some TV tuners into it, and run mythtv on it for your own PVR if you still watch broadcast TV. pfsense, tons and tons of horsepower for that. Zoneminder for security? The Q6600 is still an incredibly powerful machine. The problem with machines of that era isn't so much the CPU, but is the economics of the amount of RAM they can hold.

An even better idea would be to basically co-locate these data centers with shopping malls and/or other large buildings that have a heating load. Unfortunately the industry is still stuck on the paradigm of free-standing data centers, instead of integrating the data center with complimentary uses.

I find that iSCSI does a great job of saturating Gig-E.

OS's and swap files should always be on SSDs. Not sure why this exaggerated idea that SSDs wear out, or break down originated. Maybe a bad string of OCZ SSDz? Oh man, in some ways that company brought SSDs to the masses with how cheap their offerings were. On the other hand, OCZ's SSDs became so notorious for problems that IT managers, seeing this, shunned SSDs in business applications far longer than they really needed to.

Can I suggest another option? A decent full-sized gaming PC for "home" (or 'dorm') use, and a business laptop such as a Dell Latitude E7470 (you can find decent configs in the ~$900 range at Dell Outlet with coupons, with the 1080p screen) to take to school. Trying to fuse together two fundamentally opposed missions, ie: gaming, and your schoolwork, into a single machine, usually is a recipe for mediocrity for both. And besides, with how reliant we are on computers these days, if one of your machines gets damaged or starts crashing/drivers get borked/whatever, at least you'll have a backup machine to get you by. Keep your 'school' machine purely for schoolwork. Don't install games, spyware, or other stuff on it. And your full-sized gaming machine for gaming. BTW, I ran VMs on my old AthlonXP 2500+. Practically anything you can buy, even the crappiest machine at Best Buy for $250 can run VMs.

He's going with an i7-6700k. Why wouldn't he go with a Z170? Besides, looks like he bought the stuff already. Personally I'd swap the Seagate for a HGST drive. Can't help you with the cooler issue. But otherwise, looks great.

As the others indicated, I wouldn't do that 'configuration' unless you have a nice source of second hand parts. RAID-5/6 is really over-rated unless you're running on very good equipment with a UPS. I'd just get yourself a pair of, say, 3Tb HGST drives (HGST > *) and run them in RAID-1. "Low power" CPU's don't save anything with the Sandy/Ivy/Haswell platforms. It just means their peak TDP is derated. So you're buying a deliberately crippled part which you'll never be able to ramp up if the time comes. They're really designed to be put into, for instance, iMacs or laptops, for which there is a legitimate reason to use a de-rated chip for thermal considerations. A server with standard PC hardware shouldn't have that problem. If you're buying brand new, I personally recommend you go the Supermicro route, with a Xeon and ECC RAM. The incremental cost of doing so is minimal, and you typically will get IPMI capability which is nice for a server so you can stuff it in a closet and remotely manage it with an out-of-band interface. In reality, the amount of CPU you need is very little for the application. You could get on perfectly well with a $20 Celeron G1610 and 4gb of RAM.

It should install just like any other 2.5" device. Are you unclear on the process of disassembling your laptop to do the installation? Compatibility won't be an issue.

The only meaningful upgrade for a 3770k is most likely going to a LGA2011 platform. What are you doing with your computer and why do you feel the need for an upgrade? If you're gaming, perhaps a new GPU would be the answer. The 3770k is still very up to date.

Yeah I'd be surprised if those people were that deep pocketed. And besides, a scientist probably isn't going to be using their computer outdoors that much anyways. Those CPU's are mostly for embedded applications, ie: a drone that flies at 35,000 feet or something and is exposed to -70degC air.

Per the Tomshardware review and power tests: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-10,4616-9.html I can say unequivocally, "yes", a 500W PSU is more than adequate.

Probably the same CPU, but the only people who need 'arctic condition' CPU's are usually deep-pocketed. Aerospace, military, or oil and gas equipment. So they get stuck with the costs of qualifying the CPU's down to those levels. The Liquid nitrogen crowd seems to be able to run their Intel CPU's at crazy low temperatures. Condensation is the problem, and they basically have to shut down their systems completely and let them thaw and be dewatered before using them again after an overclocking session.

Surprised Dell is pushing the XPS laptops for 'developer' use. I think most developers would be happier with the Latitudes (particularly the E7470, E5570, etc.) that support the easy attachment of dual external screens through the docking station and the longer on-site warranty provided primarily by US-based tech support (instead of offshore!), Not to mention a real Ethernet port because not having one in a professional laptop is just trouble waiting to happen at some point.