Technomancer__

Project ThinkPI

Ohai
You might be wondering, what the heck is this title ?
is it a ThinkPad ? Did he mean ThinkStation ? What's with the Pi ? Can I have some ?
NO.. you can't.

This is a little project of mine, where I will take this old 2007 T61 Thinkpad, gut it, hack the heck out of the frame, and shove a Raspberry Pi 3b+ in it !
you may wonder. Is this possible ? will it fit in ? what about the display ? the keyboard ? how does that all work ?
Well, this is where this goes from a simple computer, to a true project laptop.

Why I want this : 
I've been doing some fun stuff with an SDR, or a Software Defined Radio. witch lets you do tons of stuff with radio frequencies (receiver only for my unit) I can listen to ATC, the ISS (given I have a proper antenna) and the real purpose of this : Weather satellites !

So then, I wanted a Pi to run this at first, small, compact, powerfull. but then I realised, I need a monitor, keyboard, storage... 
Yeah, I could have took my existing laptop.. but I already had a PI I bought a PI ! 
And it woudn't be as cool without one. 
Tons of people have done "Pi laptops", but they are mostly either 3d printed, thick and flimsy, or they're platic kits that are super tiny, and quite frankly unusable.

Project Milestones :  
Gut it Gather components  Get the monitor working with the Pi (potential deal breaker) || Works as of Jan 14th 2019 Get the keyboard working with the Pi (Has been done before, though most of the projects I've seen are abandoned, even the most recent ones. Power [EDIT : 26th of Feb 2019 : Thanks to @CUDAcores89, I now have the knowledge to build my own pack reusing the batteries I had. I should start work on this in a few weeks when parts arrive.] Fit it all in

  Components : 
Raspberry Pi 3b+ Nooelec NESDR SMART Software Defined Radio Thinkpad T61 Corsair Force LS 114gb Sata2 SSD Some SATA-To-USB adapter HDMI+DVI+VGA LCD led Controller Inverter Lvds Board Kit for LP154W02(B1)(K6) (Controller for the monitor) Some thinkpad kbd to usb controller (soon) Some power solution (soon) Potentially some replacement for the fingerprint scanner & the trackpad (those tiny keyboard w/ trackpad gutted maybe ?)

Link to the updates :
Update 1, The monitor.
Update 2, Fitting the display controller.
Update 3, Finishing the fit of the display controller and first POST in the case !
Update 4, Display controller extension, closing it down for the first time !
 
I will keep this post updated as I go along. I will post an update post for anyone who wants notifications on this.
Here's a few pictures of the early stuff : 
 
Dissasembly : 
From this, I have kept the external body, the frame, the keyboard, the monitor and the speakers.
 
The early fitting of the components : 
In here, there's the SDR (witch fits perfectly through the 3.5mm jack ! made to be !) the Pi and (although hidden) the SSD.
I also had to cut the frame a bit to fit some stuff. The pi is slightly too tall, but the buldge is not toooo bad. 

That's it for now  

Owell, Hacknet, Dying Light and Orwell Season 2 are heavily discounted on GOG in the UK.
 
Orwell is 60% OFF.
 
Hacknet the base game is 70% OFF.
 
Hacknet and the labyrinths expansion combined are 59% OFF.
 
Hacknet, the labyrinths expansion, and all original soundtrack is 67% OFF.
 
Dying Light: The Following Enhanced Edition is 67% OFF.
 
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength (Season 2) is 25% OFF.
 
I have confirmed these are genuine deals as several of these are wayy more expensive on Steam.

nope, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is

I literally clapped and cheered when I heard him talk about this as I have one of the Asus monitors listed.  My wife thought I was crazy

Other than the hideous Cherry ML switches, this keyboard would be absolutely perfect for Tarans macro obsession.

we need Colton in there... because he got fired (pun intended)

wendell is a true genius. 

Wendell over at Level1Techs has been slaving away for the past couple of months trying to determine why the new 32 cores threadripper CPUs actually perform worse than the older 16 core versions in certain workloads. Well it appears he and Ian Cutress have found the culprit. Many blamed the gimped amount of memory channels starving the 4 physical dies but testing with the EPYC counterpart, which has 2 channel access to each dye, shows no performance difference. Here is a video of him explaining how they found it and a theoretical fix for windows in the mean time. Linux on the other hand has no issue and is over 100% faster.
 
Comparison between 7551 and 2990WX in Windows and Linux

 
As you can see there is a big issue in windows

 
Here are links to the sources
https://level1techs.com/article/unlocking-2990wx-less-numa-aware-apps
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=2990wx-linux-windows&num=1
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13446/the-quiz-on-cpu-0-playing-scheduler-wars-with-amds-threadripper-2990wx
 
I would be interested to hear from @King Poet and others on the forum who have the 2990WX and see what kind of performance differences they see when they run the CorePrio fix.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($164.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Inland - Professional 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($20.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS Black Core Edition Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($57.66 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ B&H) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($98.89 @ OutletPC) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC51 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($28.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: AOC - G2590FX 24.5" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  ($199.99 @ Walmart) 
Keyboard: Gigabyte - FORCE K83 Wired Standard Keyboard  ($39.40 @ Newegg) 
Mouse: Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse  ($28.31 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1186.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-05 05:33 EST-0500
 
 
Did some adjustments. Also gave you the option of buying a key legit though you can save 50$ on buying a grey key.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($164.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Gigabyte - UD PRO 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS Black Core Edition Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($57.66 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ B&H) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC51 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($28.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case Fan: be quiet! - SilentWings 3 PWM 50.5 CFM 120mm Fan  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: AOC - G2590FX 24.5" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  ($199.99 @ Walmart) 
Keyboard: Gigabyte - FORCE K83 Wired Standard Keyboard  ($39.40 @ Newegg) 
Mouse: Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse  ($28.31 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1119.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-05 05:35 EST-0500
 
This is better and you still have room to buy a grey key

You did well for a newcomer, but for a similar price for much more firepower and better keyboard (though didnt pay too much attention in matching colours)
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant Type Item Price CPU AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $164.99 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI - B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX AM4 Motherboard $139.99 @ B&H Memory G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $102.99 @ Newegg Storage Crucial - MX500 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $134.89 @ OutletPC Video Card Gigabyte - Radeon RX 570 4 GB AORUS 4G Video Card $139.99 @ Newegg Case Cougar - MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case $49.98 @ SuperBiiz Power Supply Cooler Master - MasterWatt 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $48.55 @ Amazon Optical Drive Asus - DRW-24D3ST DVD/CD Writer $21.89 @ OutletPC Operating System Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit $98.89 @ OutletPC Case Fan ARCTIC - Arctic F12 74 CFM 120mm Fan $6.99 @ SuperBiiz Case Fan ARCTIC - Arctic F12 74 CFM 120mm Fan $6.99 @ SuperBiiz Case Fan ARCTIC - Arctic F12 74 CFM 120mm Fan $6.99 @ SuperBiiz Case Fan ARCTIC - Arctic F12 74 CFM 120mm Fan $6.99 @ SuperBiiz Monitor AOC - G2590FX 24.5" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor $199.99 @ Walmart Keyboard Gigabyte - FORCE K83 Wired Standard Keyboard $39.40 @ Newegg Mouse Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse $28.31 @ Amazon   Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts     Total (before mail-in rebates) $1257.82   Mail-in rebates -$60.00   Total $1197.82   Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-05 05:23 EST-0500   A board with WiFi built in, similar sum of price but less things hanging in the PCIe slot area.
 
Ditched audio card, modern boards come with decent audio already. You need much more expensive audio equipment (including the sound card) to make a difference.
 
High frequency memory helps Ryzen with its performance
 
1050ti are overpriced. RX 570 performs like a 1060 3gb but cost less than a 1050ti, so no reason to go green team on the lower end of the market.
 
Changed the case for something cheaper, yet similarly performing.
 
Changed PSU, 850w is just too overkill even for a $2000 system, let alone a $1200 one. Besides, PSU itself is a consumable like engine oil, overkill now and save money in the future doesnt work. Also the ATX standard could be ditched in the future and you will need to buy a new PSU if the standard moves on, so a super long lifespan PSU doesnt make much sense for a home user.
 
Changed fans, filling in all the fan mounts are better than just having half the fan mounts filled, even if the fans are slightly inferior. It's more than enough to keep the 2600 and RX 570 cool already.
 
Changed the monitor. the GN246HL isnt a bad monitor, but to get past 60Hz 1080p on that you have to use DVI, a port that's slowly phased out on new graphics cards (Neither Nvidia's 20 series nor AMD's 14nm Vega have one natively. That's why I replaced it with its successor which uses DisplayPort to get the high refresh rate at 1080p.
 
Changed the keyboard from a membrane switch one to a Cherry Red mechanical switch one. This one is pretty plain (no backlight, no hotkeys), but that also means less things that can break.
 
After all that, add in a 1TB SSD to fill in the budget. You don't even need another drive unless you start tapping into multiple AAA games in the future.

hmmm...
 
 

Saw this on Facebook. Is that Linus? ??

Ryzen is supreme in value. Also, new Ryzen will drop soon, and prices with it. Chances are it'll hold its own against Intel.

This question hurts my brain.

Go apply at Walmart; I think their minimum wage is $11 an hour. With no real responsibilities and no expenses at that age you'll be able to get a really killer PC pretty quickly.

I remember the time when LTT converted DC to AC and then back to DC and then to AC again.

I would definitely say Cisco certs hold a good bit of weight in the market still. Having certs from other vendors can help but obviously costs more time. A Cisco cert can definitely help you get past some of the red tape with getting an interview and whatnot. I would suggest going CCNA R&S first, at the least, to give you the core competency since it's the backbone for just about everything else and then go CCNA wireless and see if you still enjoy that route after completing the cert as a checkpoint to see if you are still on the path you enjoy most.

Me:
       

depending on your budget, you should look into the 2200g, 2400g, 1600/2600, 1700/2700
they perform much better in gaming, and are dirt cheap rn

why investing in a spaceheater when ryzen exists?

LTT Storage Rankings
Topic
Welcome to the LTT Storage Rankings! The purpose of this topic is to show off cool storage builds, to inspire with what you show and be inspired by what you see. And of course, also talk about those builds, ask their owners questions and all that good stuff. Criteria
System capacity of 10 TB or more 5 storage drives or more: We don't count OS drives, we also do not count cache drives, nor external USB drives. External SAS enclosures connected via SFF-8088 count, however. Drobos, Thunderbolt enclosures etc.: If they have a management interface which makes them somewhat autonomous, they count. It does not matter whether your storage drives is an SSD or an HDD, as long as it is used for storage. Don't forget to indicate vendor and drive size for all your drives for our statistics (see also below). For cases not covered here, we reserve the right to adjust the rules as needed to protect the spirit of the thread. It has to be a single system (everything running off of a single motherboard). Do not post your company server (except the ones from Linus Media Group ;)), this is for private systems. Pictures of the hardware required. That's the primary point of this thread, after all. Use looney's post as a template. Write a nice post about your system, give us some details on the nitty gritty inner workings of your beast. Make sure to give all the needed info for the statistics (Operating system, storage system, HDD vendors and sizes etc.) Ranking System
The rankings are based on ranking points, which are calculated as follows:
ranking_points = system_capacity ⨯ ln(system_drive_count) with ln(system_drive_count) being the natural logarithm of the number of drives in the system. Rationales
Minimum Requirements
Having both the 10 TB and the 5 drive minimum rules allows us to prevent being spammed by systems with a single or two huge HDDs (10 terabyte HDDs are a reality now, after all), while still allowing systems which were put together with smaller drives (or SSDs) to get into the list.
Ranking Points
Basically, this thread is about awesome storage systems, and we think that capacity isn't the only thing which determines how cool a storage machine is. Chances are that a system with a bit less capacity but quite a few more drives might be more interesting to look at. Therefore, the number of drives also counts.
However, we don't want somebody buying a ton of small cheap drives to outrank somebody who's bought a hugely expensive system with fewer big drives, which is why towards the upper end of the scale, the number of drives starts to no longer matter as much (see examples below).
Example for Large Systems
System 1: 100 TB capacity, 50 ⨯ 2 TB drives: 391.2 ranking points System 2: 150 TB capacity, 30 ⨯ 5 TB drives: 510.2 ranking points Amount of drives required for system 1 to surpass system 2, assuming capacities for both systems and drive count for system 2 stay the same: 165 drives, resulting in 510.6 ranking points. Capacity weighs much heavier than drive count as it grows, the influence of the number of drives on the ranking points falls prey to the law of diminishing returns. Example for Smaller Systems
System 3: 14 TB capacity, 7 ⨯ 2 TB drives: 27.2 ranking points System 4: 15 TB capacity, 5 ⨯ 3 TB drives: 24.1 ranking points Drive count has a higher weight for such systems, system 3 ranks ahead of system 4 despite having less total capacity. Identical Ranking Points
For systems with identical ranking points, post date is the ranking factor (more specifically: post number). Since no posts can have the same number, this is sufficient for unambiguous ranking.
Script
The rankings and plots are generated by a Python script, which can be found on alpenwasser's github here.
Capacity Calculation
We count raw storage as advertised on the drives. So, if you have 10 ⨯ 1 TB drives, that counts as 10 TB of storage.
Smaller Systems Not everybody needs a big server, and even smaller systems can be cool and interesting (or noteworthy, as we put it below). For such systems we have a secondary list, so feel free to post your machine even if it doesn't quite meet the ranking criteria outlined above. Please still use the template post for your system, and stick to the rest of the criteria as applicable to your machine.
External Sites This thread is inspired by the one on the [H]ard Forum, where you can find many huge systems as well. The Dutch thread on Gathering of Tweakers is also worth a look, although it is in Dutch, obviously. Serve the Home is also a great place for all things storage. Support/Bugs
At the moment, @alpenwasser is the primary maintainer of the script and stats, so contact him about that kind of thing.