kilcmd

Summary
Today, NVIDIA announced that they will officially support the ability to have a Windows VM on a Linux host and passthrough a GPU to it. Although this was technically possible earlier, NVIDIA made it very difficult with Error 43 on their consumer hardware, requiring gamers to try preventing NVIDIA's drivers from knowing they were running inside a VM. With this change, running a Linux operating system as your daily driver and having a Windows VM for certain games is now easily possible.
 
However, NVIDIA can't do anything without a catch. Because this is not SR-IOV, you will need 2 GPUs: 1 for Linux, and 1 being passed through to Windows. Which, considering the GPU shortage, means this is a shallow victory.
 
Quotes
 
My thoughts
I'm happy, but at the same time, a bit miffed that this isn't SR-IOV with the ability to split a GPU into parts (like you can with CPU cores), so the requirement for 2 GPUs is quite unfortunate.
 
Sources:
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5173/~/geforce-gpu-passthrough-for-windows-virtual-machine-%28beta%29

The 3.5"/5.25" tray is only held on with four screws. Two from either side.
 

 
I was really worried that these were going to be rivets. Glad they weren't.
 
Got that out.
 

 
I went ahead and installed the 9 stand-offs I knew I was going to need. Both motherboards are standard ATX.
 

 
Now we can start measuring and prototyping.

Now when I decided to buy this chassis, I was taking a gamble. It had the general shape I was after and the insides appeared easily mod-able but I couldn't get any good information on how easily (or lack-thereof) the removal of the front fascia would be.
Is it held in with screws? (The best outcome, easy to deal with) Is it held in with rivets? (Annoying but I could drill these out) Is it part of the body itself and just folded up? (the worst possible outcome, don't have a dremel and the only angle grinder I have would make a royal mess out of it) However as it turns out:
 

 

 

 

 
It was only screws. Couldn't have come apart any easier. Lucky me. :3

As the years have progressed I've accumulated enough hardware to build a couple of complete towers. Right now I have the equipment to build two desktops using old parts (CPU/Motherboard/RAM/SSD/GPU/PSU/Etc) from PCs I had in the past.
 
The primary theme of the build(s) here as indicated by the title is repurposing my old desktops into BOINC rigs. In particular for the World Community Grid's OpenPandemics project to help fight COVID-19.
 
First and foremost an overview of the hardware I'll be working with:
 

 
Starting from left to right is one of two Rosewill RSV-R4100's:
 

 
The plan here is to make these rigs rack mountable. As more systems are added to the cluster in the future the ability to stack them in a rack will save on floor space and make for easier maintenance. The downside of this form factor for the application I have here is I could not, for the life of me, locate a short depth 4U enclosure with 3 front mount 120mm fans. I went as far as to explore Protocase as a possible solution (custom enclosure) which I knew would be expensive but when I saw their asking price for just one it was decided that I was going to have to DIY this.
 
I don't have access to a laser cutter, or the benders, or the drills needed to move sheet metal and have the outcome look good but what I do have is a 3D printer (Creality CR-10) and...
 

 
...filament is cheap . The plan is going to be 3D printing a fully custom front fascia. One that can accommodate up to a 360mm radiator.
 
In the middle is an old rig of mine from 2013:
 

 
The Intel Core i7 3930K
The ASUS Sabertooth X79
4x8GB G.Skill Sniper series RAM DDR3 1866MHz
 
The sketchy PSU, GPU (1/2 broken MSI Radeon HD 7770), SSD, Hyper 212 EVO w/ Noctuas, and the wooden board it's all screwed down to are not original equipment from my 2013 rig. These were mainly just to verify that all the core components still worked (and they do...mostly...)
 
Then on the right is my old rig from 2016:
 

 
The Intel Core i7 5960X
The MSI X99A-SLI PLUS
4x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 RAM DDR4 2400MHz
 
The surprisingly reliable for it's age PSU, SSD, Corsair H100i /w Noctuas, and testbench missing a leg are not original equipment from my 2016 rig. These were mainly just to verify that all the core components still worked (and they do).
 
Now the plan originally included buying new PSU's. A pair of Corsair RM650x's. Unfortunately with the current COVID-19 situation PSU prices have gone up exponentially to the point where I'm not willing to pay almost double what a RM650x should be worth so I'm making do with the PSUs I have on hand. An old sketchy Rosewill RD400-2SB and my old reliable Kingwin Lazer seres LZ-1000 Watt.
 
This build log that I expect to take quite some time to complete is going to include cleaning off the layers of dust on the old hardware here, Prototyping/designing then printing the front cover of the server, rebuilding the computers into the rack mountable chassis, and possibly getting into some of the software setup.
 
This is going to be fun.  More details to come tomorrow.

ya here's a build that took it to the top!
 

Hey there guys,
 
After fantasizing about it for a decade I've finally decided to build my first gaming rig!
Previously I had always bought mid-range gaming laptops for the mobility but it was honestly always disappointing.
With this build I finally don't have to worry about whether or not I can play something but rather if it'll run on high or ultra :)!
 
I went for a minimal look, I don't like RGB too much but I might add some LED strips later on to maybe add some subtle color.
 
What I would like some tips and hints on;
- Cable management, are there ways to better hide, for example, the power chord going into the GPU?
- Possible bottlenecks given the specs
- Upgradability given the specs
- Maybe some suggestions on putting in some LED strips, placement, brand/type etc.
- Any other tips and hints are ofcourse very much welcome and appreciated!
 
Specifications
- Case: NZXT H510 Black
- Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
- GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super OC 3X 8G
- Memory: Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2x16GB 3200mhz
- Storage: Crucial P1 1TB M.2 SSD
- CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
- Power supply: Corsair TX-M Series TX750M V2
- Case fans: 3x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM and 1x Stock NZXT 120mm
 
I'm very happy with the cooling right now, even though the noctuas look pretty bad... It is running quiet and chilly which was more important for me.
 

 

Build a little Media/Gaming Itx, I use it for RTS in bed and Netfix.
It's a cute Perfect mini pc and has good Temps.
28~65c
Noise Level 18 dB, You can't almost hear it!





 
"Update:


 
Added Extra, Noctua NF-A4x10 Fan
 
Sorry Yaboistar
have no dremel here ^^
"
 
CPU:
First (A6-9500 APU) Upgraded to (AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 2200GE with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics 3.2GHz)
Got the 2200GE for around 45 usd on ebay.
Listed: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard:
ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX (Love this MB, Price 87USD)
CPU Cooler:
Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM (Good cooler, And only option for this build.)
Ram:
Crucial Ballistix 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 (Cheap and decent Ram, Almost to big in size.
So used: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 gives better space.)
SSD:
Western Digital Blue 500 GB (Got it cheap for 37 USD)
Added SSD: PNY CS900 2,5, Teardown, cut to fit and rotated. [Edit]
Case:
RGeek Aluminum Mini ITX Computer Case + 2x USB 3.0 + 200W Power Supply
(Amazing tiny Case, I love it.)
Power Supply:
200W PSU (It came with the case)
Case Fan:
Noctua NF-A4x10 4.83 CFM 40 mm
(SOOOO.. CUTE!)
Price: 424USD
(PCPartPicker is overpriced)
 
 
Links More on PCPartpicker:
PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor $89.99 @ Amazon CPU Cooler Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler $39.90 @ Amazon Motherboard ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard $337.81 @ Amazon Memory Crucial Ballistix 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 CL16 Memory $34.99 @ Amazon Storage Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $64.98 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-A4x10 4.83 CFM 40 mm Fan $13.95 @ Amazon Custom RGeek Aluminum Mini ITX Computer Case + 2x USB 3.0 + 200W Power Supply $112.00 Custom 200W PSU (In the Case)     Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts     Total $693.62   Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-01 10:48 EDT-0400  

So partly for fun, aswell as a coronavirus project and who has a VCR under their TV nowadays but still a WIP.
 
Intended to be a media pc for my tv, maybe a bit of (living room) gaming and a lan party machine (easy to move).
 
Basis is an old Dell inspiron (MATX) that was lying around as didnt worry about destroying it with an old Samsung SSD that was lying around and bought a Be Quiet TFX Power 2 psu so 300watt 80plus bronze with an old Corsair Ram cooler I had lying around, am intending to get a M ITX second hand pc aswell as a low profile GFX card so can improve cooling as its noisy.
 
Currently running Linux as the gfx card is one of those weird 5gb gtx 1060's that a friend got from cheap chinese retailer so resolution wasnt working correctly in windows, but it does work, but either my bluetooth dongle isnt right or I'm doing something wrong but havent gotten xbox 360 controller to work so controlling using a Rii wireless mini keyboard.
 
Future mods are sort out the hole for the rear IO shield aswell as mount front IO in the front slot, mount the reset button and installation of a smaller MITX board should allow 80-90mm fans to replace the ram cooler and hopefully a better (less low profile) cpu cooler.
 
 

an update on the software side of things:
- an attempt to configure retroarch has resulted in a spontanious uninstallation, i'm now looking elsewhere for emulation.
- civ v's horrible new launcher appareantly broke steam big picture compatibility, and as a result gets really weird with a steam controller...
- steam overlay softlocks steam controller in anno 1404
- watching twitch livestreams works flawlessly
- windows defender is still an arse, when you least expect it, and need the lost performance the most.

Finally...
 
The yellow one is different to the other one.

 
I built this one in 2017. It was based on an i7 6700 and RX 480 8GB GPU
 

 
This one was built last year using the Ryzen R5 2600X and a Vega 56 Nano GPU. This build wouldn't have been possible without the Bykski GPU waterblock. It is a very low volume part and back then I just couldn't find another brand producing a Vega Nano water block. Sooo.. ?

5 O-rings ?
 

 
Probably the most crucial part for my water cooling loop ?

SUPER DOPE!

Finally I managed to take good photos of the finished build. Enjoy.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

black 3.0 ?
 
Managed to paint the whole thing without turning it off.
Next step is to change the cpu and do finally some plumbing.

 
 
 
Some efficiency in aerodynamics and stuff

I didn't get any great pics, but computer has been setup and my bro is a happy camper.

Sooooo, after a incredibly stupid amount of testing by myself, bribing a two man horde of drunk IT-friends
and months of dispair incl. questioning my sanity it turned out to be a classic RTFM moment.
 
 
yep
 

 
 
 
 
 
Aaaaaanyway, PC runs as should, it is hanging on my wall and I finally installed and played Witcher III, game of the year 2017.
(The game most appropriate for this build, which you realise when you scroll aaaaaaaall the way up and read the time stamp of the first entry of this topic)
 
 
But does it keep its cool?
The main question of this build though was always; will the cooling fins deliver enough cooling capacity to a system on fire?
Gondor called for help, so I lit the combined beacon of Furmark and CPU Burner to see what happens.
 

 
I ran both tests at the same time to simulate a heavy load which would never occure in a real world application.
The GPU stayed surprisingly cool while the CPU was much hotter, but concerning the load not too much either.
I wonder if anyone has an idea as to why the GPU is so much cooler.
The temps rise faster at the beginning and as the pump starts to work more the curve flattens.
It ramped up to 4700 RPM at the end. Unfortunately I did not record the RPM at each data point.
 
The hotter the cooling fins get, the bigger the difference to ambient temperature (room at 21°C) and the
better the cooling efficiency.
Compared to an forced air cooled system, the mass of the cooling fins, pipes and about 3.5 liters of cooling liquid makes
a big difference. This is why I think the system needed a full 1.5h to reach thermal max. as there was a lot of
thermal mass to be "filled" first.
I guess you could just hook up a water loop to a 200L rainbarrel and run your PC savely for at least 10 hours.
Good idea for an episode of "bad cooling ideas", right @Linus?
 
At around 1h 30mins it seemed to me that the CPU's temperature had reached a plateau.
Within 20 minutes it only went up 1 °C.
I turned the burners off to see how the system would cool down. (graph past 90 minutes)
 
 
 
Thermal Imagery
The surface temperature was monitored with a FLIR camera module for a smartphone. It is the cheapest way
to get thermal imagery. Looking at the gray graph you see some irregularities, which I think are due to the
"cheap" module. A curve is noticable, but there are some peaks like around 45mins, which seem out of place.
 
 
To visualize I recorded the whole test in a thermal video timelapse. This shows the full 2 hours of the test.
 

20191010 Wall PC time lapse.MP4  
 
 
You notice that some of the elements stay cold.
This is because whereever there is an angle fitting, the brackets which transport the heat from the copper
pipes to the cooling fins couldn't be installed. If you count the big squares as one full cooling element then
there are a total of 19 elements. Of these, 4.5 are not used (marked blue), which is 23.7% of them. So there is almost
a quarter of the potential wasted. But at least it looks sexy
At the beginning I wanted to use solid copper blocks where the pipes would go into directly, eliminating the
need for angle fittings and providing a much more direct and efficient heat transfer. But as mentioned earlier, that
would have been 70kg more and something like 1000 bucks in copper alone.
I am glad the cooling capacity is enough nevertheless, but it made me think how I could have activated the
unused elements.
 

The diagram only shows the copper loop, not the flex tube loop to the pump in the back.
 
 
The pic below shows the two different mounting ways.

 
 
 
 
 
I will come back with photos of the finished product.
I'm still working out how to do the backlighting.
Does anyone know a good LED strip system which I
can hook up to the PC?
I need about 5m of strip though. So all these solutions
with 50cm long LED strips from PC tuners don't really
do it or are too expensive.

Insert locking
There’s light glooming at the horizon, dear friends of the computer crafts!
Both cooling rig and the hardware insert are finished. Now they need to marry.
 

The rig has been sitting on my CNC for ever, the CNC projects are piling up.
So a first test showed that the pump somehow doesn’t want to fit.
The opening in the glass had to be widened. With this thin mill it worked pretty well.
 

 
 
Once it fit, we attached two clear block which turn to hold the insert in place.
The aluminium plates are always in place and prevent the insert from falling out the other direction.
 

So to be able to work on it, we propped it up
Oh and yeah, tadaaa:


But will it blen.. I mean, boot?

So guys it seems I mixed up some photos and the resurrection post showed stuff way ahead. Just found some more pix on an old phone. So here are the prequel-posts to the resurrection.

After all, who wants a story told straight forward, right?
Cooling rig

I put the rig together before, but that was only a try to see whether it all fit. I did that, because after that, the parts had to go together with thermal transfer paste.
And one does not simply take that apart so easily, Boromir. Also I made costum spacers for the corner elements, because there I can’t use the styrofoam base.
Downside is, there is no cooling.

 
 
 
 
Then the parts had to be cleaned and marked.
I have access to an industrial cleaner solution.
Fingerprints speed up patina and look bad, that's why the gloves.
Towel on a string to clean inside. The pump wouldn’t like those burrs.
   
 
 
At the beginning I planned solid copper block for each cooling element. But as mentioned before, it’s too expensive and heavy. The downside of this
stock part from hydronic floor heating is that it doesn’t exactly fit standard copper pipes. So I made these copper parts that help bridge the gap, since
I though that filling it all with paste would not be good. May cause dripping. Eww.

     
 

 
 
The pipes were clean and I needed to find out if the circulation would not leak. So I set up the pump with the
HD-Plex PSU and the jumper to make it run. Had that running for a day, only one fitting was leaking.


 
With the blocks and the circulation in place, it was time to put them toghether, all the while be
careful not to deform the circulation too much. I did another leak test afterwards.

 

 
 

Hi Forum,
my 10 year old watercooled 2.8ghz quadcore leaked a year ago and there's something causing bluescreens from the hardware.. It's time to build something new.
I once was very good at this stuff, but 10 years of not paying much attention to hardware development.. you need a hell lot of time to get back into it.
All of linus' videos helped great there. Thanks Linus & team!
For my build I was inspired by wall pcs (google it, plenty there) and this guy who cooled his pc passively, build log here. Now I am ready for a build log:

Requirements I made up:
On the wall quiet no fans portable for lans (gaming get-togethers, like physically. Is that still a thing with young people?) I like hardware and specs, but in the end it has to look good. If a floppy looks good, I'll put that, so don't complain about hardware not being the best I could get.
First I made a render, so you can see where this is going. After that I will post progress on the production of all the parts. That will take some time. I hope to be done by the end of the year. Dimensions are about 160cm to 70cm.
 

I admit, I'm starting to feel the preasure. Just passed 40h straight and still so much work left to do. I'm starting to feel that scary feeling that there is a chance I'll not make it in time. More coffee, I'm GOING to make it...
 





RGB testing. I'm using the Alphacool Eismatrix together with the Cooler Master fan hub that came with the case. I tested that I can run the Case RGB from the Eismatrix and I can. Good. 
 


Printed a side and a roof for the backside pump cover. Needs sanding and putty.Probably in the other order...
 


Printed some angled glue brackets to keep it stronger. Found out that the Acrifix melt and bond the PLA as well. Nice stuff. 
 


Both front and back are not glues together. Need putty, sanding and a nice finish. 
 


That's the inside of the GPU bracket. Counter sunk holes to avoid the riser (prob a good thing).
 


Thats more like it. It's drilled and fitted. 
 




Designed and printed a GPU bracket to mount on the side. That way I don't have to connect it to the motherboard side. Like that solution. Just needs some sanding and it should be good to go. 
 


MB plate all naked and ready to get some exclusive vinyl - matt black. 
 


Not bad if I can say so myself. 
 



My snap in brackets are finally in place and the motherboard / wall is in place.
 



Added vinyl on the back pump cover / shroud as well. 
 


Cable combs and brackets mounted. 
 




Motherboard in place and with the sleeving done I can (need) start to push for finishline. 

Not exactly related to the build, but some more efforts I have put into etching:
 
 

A few weeks ago I’ve ordered an apple broadcom wifi card, which is natively supported by macOS. It has arrived yesterday (took 3 weeks to get to me from aliexpress and an adapter to plug it into m.2 A-E slot (apple uses its own standards, but chinese electronics wizards can make almost anything to work where it is not supposed to work. The problem was with the Big shuriken 3 and corsair vengeance rgb memory, because of the memory the cooler sits on the mobo so it almost cover all the I/o and there is not enough of hight clearance to install the “standard” apple wifi/bt module directly into m.2 slot. The only option was to get an adapter with a ribbon cable.

it has to be cut in half and connected with a 20cm ribbon cable.
the stock asus (intel) wifi card is removed

and replaced with adapter


and it was all installed back into place

so I booted macOS and both wifi and bluetooth were detected and without any kext’s it was working including airdrop. Now i have to set it up to wake my “mac-hack” with touchID on my iphone.
The only problem was to make it work in windows - download bootcamp drivers from apple, the zip file is around 500mb, unzip it and install 2 drivers, and that is it
 
 

Progress, it's pretty done.
 

Ended up doing it this way. Now user can have charger or what not and still move the screen to desired angle. Pretty clean IMO, what do you think??