E.Beadle

Just FYI, Secure Boot and Linux play pretty well these days, thanks to shim.
 
Even if you need custom kernel mods like nvidia, signing them is pretty trivial, and soon to be automated.

Thanks for the guide guys, downloading it now 👍
I'm inheriting an old Haswell laptop next week, so I'm planning on installing on that
 
EDIT: The ISO download and build took 15m 31s.
 

Sadly you most likely will not be able to fully recover the data since some of those sectors on the disk have been overwritten with new bits, therefore those old bits (data) are gone. The only things you can recover are the empty sectors, this is something I have not done before so I'll leave it at that.

FIRST OF ALL: Seems like I was unclear about my budget (yes, I did not mention that); I cannot go much higher than 2500 EUR (I still don't have any Windows included in that price). With that said....
 
"32 gigs of ram instead, switch to an x-99 chipset."
Can't afford 32 gigs atm. Will opt for upgrade later on. X99 is also out of the question in terms of budgets. X99 board here start at twice the starting price of the z170-board. Not to mention the ca 100 - 200 EUR increase in price of LGA2011-v3 CPUs (at least over here).
 
"Go for a silent build with a case that that offers dampening."
The Nano S is equipped with sound dampening materials all around. Sure there are even better cases for sound dampening, but for the price this is the best compromise, I believe, between price, form-factor, cooling and noise. Or did you mean that the Lian-Li-cases would be more silent? But what case(s) would you suggest other than the Lian-Li-cases (cause I still don't know why you recommend them, please enlighten me)?
 
"Make sure your cpu cooler has fans that run at dba you enjoy.  Replace them with thr noctua or corsair sp quiets."
If the included fans become an issue, I certainly will swap them out. I have, however, read that both the Gigabyte cheapo fan and the NZXT-fans are very quiet. Cause getting 3 additional Noctuas will bump the price up even more by about 60 EUROs. But again: If the issue arises, I will change them.
 
"For a smaller er form factor look up lian-li pc 06 and pc-07 series.  (Trade off for form and silence). "
Why? Are they cooler and more silent? I'm asking, cause I've never even heard about this brand.
 
"Swap out the gpu for a quadro if you're going to do 3d applications.  It will handle the renders much faster. "
No! This is a misconception that people have. If I want a quadro that performs at the same level in gaming as a 980Ti, and a bit better during 3D-rendering, I need a quadro that costs more than a Titan X. A quadro at the same price range as a 980Ti will be worse in every aspect - even at rendering. And considering my budget and the fact that I mainly do gaming the 980 Ti is better.
 
"Why the greens over the blacks?"
I guess you are talking about AMD when mentioning "blacks"? There are only 1 liquid-cooled GPU on team RED, and the Fury X is in all terms (performance, efficiency, temps) worse than the 980 Ti (except price. Team RED is cheaper). The other thing is: I don't want an additional fan in the system like the other cards from e.g. EVGA and  Zotac, have. The Waterforce cools both the GPU and the VRAM with one massive heatsink - which I like!
 
 
 
What I really consider doing though is to wait for Pascal and Polaris to hit the market and see what they have to offer.

a 380 is too little

In any case, the display is going to more important than the hardware for photography work.

Its called google calendar, google contacts, and google mail.

Failing that you can do it with a simple batch script, I've used something similar for another situation before. It could take a while though.

Helpful, thanks for your time, giving me those advices.

Don't get an MSI card, it's a bad idea
 
and I would recommend a GTX 970 anyways

It's the outgoing port to connect the monitor's USB hub to your computer.  The four Type-A ports on the side are your downstream ports.

If you're a photographer get an external storage solution instead. There's absolutely no reason for them to all be in your PC. Stuff them in a NAS and hide that away somewhere.

you'll need a PCIe adapter with more SATA ports

My answer is YES. Do cell phone reviews. I love your audio reviews. 

Cell phones are used as audio / communication devices. and Linus will already have a foot in this when it comes to understanding what goes into a build of a cell phone.  Pllus they can share with the community other things that we may like for our cell phones. 

Smartphones are nothing but a hand held computer. just the same as a tablet. its a traveling smaller rendition of a laptop. which is a portable version for a dekstop. 

All of the above are tech related. it is called Linus Tech Tips for a reason.

Well you know how you said linus has nothing to add to the phone area because mkbhd covers it? Well I disagree.  Sure mkbhd is amazing and I watch his every vid but he was not able to convince me the htc one m8 was an amazing phone. I walked away from mkbhds video thinking "yeh it a minor upgrade from a htc one". Then I watched linuses vid and afterwards I was having second thought about if I should upgrade from my note 3. But yea its about his point of view on the topic/phone that makes me morw interested to watch his vids sinces 99% of linuses opinions are like/close to mine lol

The key words throughout all of their marketing so far has always been "Up to". They never claimed it was an absolute certainty that everyone can get such massive performance boosts, and they did always point out that the results would vary depending on the game, GPU and computer setup.
At the end of the day, performance improvements are always welcome to me. I also it's a good rule to not jump on a hypetrain when you don't know its destination.

that's the plan, i had a discussion here
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/133473-hardware-dual-boot/

http://www.stefandidak.com/office/


 

 
The Bloggers Personal FAQ
http://www.stefandidak.com/office/faq/
 
Aren’t two, maybe three, monitors enough for normal people?I have never been accused of being normal. But seriously, no. In my case I am more efficient when I have a lot of monitors to move information onto.
Isn’t it just excessive and useless to have that many screens? 
If using many screens simultaneously was excessive and useless daytraders wouldn’t have similar configurations and companies like 9X and Digital Tigers would be out of business fast.

How much did it cost you to build all that?I haven’t kept track and would have to ask my accountant for those details. It’s also very difficult to keep track of because every 2-3 years all hardware has eventually been replaced with updated hardware. On top of that the hardware value or cost is not all that relevant since the software and data is much more valuable!  Those who know their hardware will probably be able to guess but for those who don’t know, an indicator is that just a system like Argon will set you back approximately between $20.000 and $25.000.
 
What do you need, or use, all that stuff for?As a software developer and consultant I often work on very complex projects that require a lot of CPU power as well as storage. Not having to switch around stuff or reboot into other operating systems, not having to switch screens or use a KVM, not being forced to use just one or two systems at a time, really helps me be more efficient. And, of course, when other systems are under heavy load there’s plenty of CPU power on other systems to use for other things, including surfing the web.
 
How do you manage so many windows on that many monitors without going nuts?I’m using WiLMA, the Ignytion Window Layout Manager. And yes, I very often write tools to make my work easier. You can click the image below for more details on WiLMA and read a little more about it.  http://www.stefandidak.com/windows-layout-manager/
 
Why do you keep systems powered on all the time?Teamwork! Because some of the systems are servers that other people also use from remote locations, either through the development portal or via VPN. Powering down anything would mean a loss of connectivity and interruption of business.
 
Why on earth do you need so much storage and disk space?I use a lot of virtual machines that I absolutely rely on, several of the internal servers are completely virtualized even. These VM’s take up a lot of storage space, anywhere from 5GB up to more than 60GB per VM. Imagine having dozens of those and then also having a backup of all of them. That requires a lot of storage, a lot of fast storage, and a relatively high network speed. The VM’s are test targets, a compiler farm, several team development services, bug tracking, etc. and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Why so many monitor screens?I don’t like to move around windows when they overlap. I like to be able to have a lot of information present without having to dig through menus and windows, especially when debugging a piece of software and code that itself spawns many windows and information. I find it more efficient to move my eyes and head around than moving the mouse around to minimize and maximize and move windows.
 
Do all those screens run on a single computer?Not specifically but they can be made to operate all from any single computer on the network. I can control all systems via a single system’s keyboard and mouse and I can drag windows from any screen onto any other even while they are connected to physically different systems. I can also expand any single application onto four screens at once (which looks impressively cool when using Google Earth, let me tell you).
What kind of software do you use to drive all those screens, any special graphics cards? Why aren’t you using a KVM switch and have all those keyboards around?There are no special graphics cards involved, though all cards are dual-headed and support two-screens on a single system. I can set any system to use two screens by either using MaxiVista or switching the input controls on the five screens that support and are hooked up using dual-inputs. Other than that I use a software/network based keyboard and mouse switch that allows me to seamlessly control all systems on all screens from a single system, it’s called Synergy (and it’s open source).I’ve used KVM switches in the past but eventually none worked as efficient as the combination of Synergy and MaxiVista.
Since the arrival of Windows 7, however, I have moved away from Synergy in favor of Input Director. I now use both Synergy and Input Director between the Linux, Mac, and Windows systems. Works like a charm if you’re careful about the configuration and layout.
As for all the Dinovo’s and keyboards, that’s simple. I normally use just one unless the machine it’s on is rebooting or undergoing maintenance, then I just grab another. Otherwise in the meantime the keyboards are there to keep dust off the desks. It’s an easy process of throwing out the dusty keyboard and getting a replacement that’s fresh and new. (It amazes me how many dense people actually take it seriously when I joke about that) 

 
Doesn’t it get really hot in the summer with all the heat output from the systems?Yes. Cooling during hot summers is quite a challenge and while I’ve managed to balance it all, really hot days are laptop-days… which means, using a laptop in a cool environment instead of the home office. During cold days, however, the heat output is enough that no additional heating is required.
 
What happens in case of a power failure? Do you have a very powerful UPS for backing up the whole system or just parts of it?I have a few Smart-UPS SC1500i units for the most critical systems. These sustain the main servers and the modems and routers that are needed to keep things up and running for a while or provide the systems with a controlled shutdown. A bigger APC Smart-UPS 5000VA ensures power for Argon and it will start its shutdown when only 10 minutes remain (Argon needs more time to shut down because each VM needs to shut down or go into stasis).
 
Are you the same Stefan Didak from back in the 3D Studio days, did you work on that?Yes, that is me. I got involved with 3D Studio, at that time a product by Autodesk, back in the early days and when the capabilities were added to write custom IPAS routines (plugins) I did a lot of work in that area. During the development of 3ds max I wrote plugins and after the acquisition of Discreet by Autodesk I contracted for Discreet on the 3ds max SDK. I helped other developers launch their plugins, wrote and published tutorials, some which you may even still find online in various translations even though they are very outdated by now.
 
What type, model, brand are those benches/desks?The desks I use are from a company called Projecta. Though I have to say, these models I have date back to the late 80′s (I’ve had them that long and they’ve held out great!). The new models look a bit different but still come in the same sizes (and still just as heavy!). Hm… ok, seems they don’t do desks at all any longer these days
 
Why not get a good host and colo (colocate) all that stuff?Because these systems aren’t your average web servers, don’t run processes like your average web servers, and because the network as a whole generate a lot of network traffic (just the daily backups are in the order of 1.8 TB) so in order to have any kind of remotely useful network connection it would require the kind of gigabit connections that run, conservatively speaking, between US$ 120.000,00 and US$ 280.000,00 PER MONTH!

 

Rather than a heatsink. I'd buy a liquid cooler design and something snazzy about that... Something about being Lubed, wet and ready.. to be turned on... 

This is really exciting especially if they have a Trade Up Program. I just bought a 3GB 780ti about 2 weeks ago. (From EVGA luckily :lol:)

Wanna see the price first... hope it doesn't scale too bad.

Is it also a concern if they may make better longer lasting hardware? Its likely that a tech may be reduced to dealing with user created software problems, if they haven't already.

After working in a  computer retail store for 7 years, I think I can count the number of people who wanted to upgrade their existing pc on one hand, probably on none of my fingers. People just tend to keep it so and so long until its "slow" then buy a new one.
 
That said they are no less repairable than a desktop/laptop, they just happen to use different components. Just like its possible to repair iPhones etc, its just that you dont pop to your local PC store for the parts they are a little bit more bespoke
 
I actually like all in ones, especially things like the iMac design. We also had this awesome lenovo "table pc" that folded flat and came with bluetooth dice and little suction cup stick on joysticks for table top gaming, was like i7, 16gb of ram, 2tb of storage and a decent graphics card for like £1500

Probably not as most AIO's run laptop hardware and are designed to fit as much as they can is as small of a form factor. In fact they are very much like laptops. That dont open or a super thick tablet.

@LinusTech I can't find the one I had back in school, it was like this:
 
It had literally 12394124 pockets, and a zipper compartment just for a laptop, with tons of padding around the laptop.
It was extremely adjustable too.
 
"OGIO" is the brand