Want new drives, get rid of old; display/cable/device issues; need backup, maybe get 27" 4K monitor, etc, but .. have a posting dilemma...

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Hi ... As the topic hints, there's several things I'm wanting to ask about, but, I have a dilemma.

 

How would I fit all the relevant details into a post, without it getting too long (and people calling it a wall of text), and where would be an appropriate subforum (if not "general") to post a single multi-subject post?

 

I'm quite wary of splitting them into multiple topics, because ... well, I was banned from a forum some time ago (game spy / planet fortress / planet half-life or whatever), because I made too many posts with too little content in each one - they basically said I spammed their forums.

 

I'd like to think I learned my lesson with that experience (make fewer, but longer posts in online forums - carries over to twitch/youtube chat too, I often hit the character limit but at least I'm not spamming tons of messages), but when I've tried to post topics with details here I get people complaining about my walls of text.  Also I try to use "proper" sentence structure, spelling, etc. when possible, like I learned in school (started in 1986, teacher was my mom), meaning I try to write out proper sentences instead of twitter-condensed shorthand.  (My paragraphs can be fairly long too, cause of influence from works that have already had their copyrights expired for, in many cases, centuries.)

 

 

 

I saved a copy of a draft of my longer post on Google Drive (cause you all can't read other people's topics in Test Posts unless you're mods/admins; link should have commenting permission enabled).  Even in that longer draft, I feel I'm leaving a lot of relevant details out (and there's some things that are currently in progress that need to finish before I could finalize that post anyway).

 

 

In a nutshell though...

 

I'm needing to get rid of about 20 or 30 or so older / dead hard drives and SSDs.  I could donate or sell some of the working ones (after DBANning them - hey how long does it take to DBAN an SMR HDD - could it just be done "in bulk" without worrying about rewriting the smaller track data or however they normally work?), and make crafts of some that I don't pass on to someone else.

 

I'd like to get some new HDDs & SSDs to replace some older ones, and do a little reshuffling:

• two 12TB or 14TB 3.5" HDDs from different brands (NAS / enterprise, 7200rpm, not SMR),
• three or four 500GB or 1TB (maybe a 2TB) 2.5" SATA SSDs (TLC, DRAM, good endurance, consistent performance on extended writes, etc)
• a 2TB (or maybe 1TB) NVMe SSD (TLC, DRAM, excellent IOPS, sustained performance, endurance, etc).

I need to get a backup regimen going.  Have been thinking of building a NAS, but it would ONLY be for backups, no plex/media/transcoding duties at all.  Budget <$200-300 for everything except the drives, must support >8-10+ drives, STRONGLY prefer the cold-storage backup media be much cheaper per TB than 3.5" SMR HDDs.  Cloud backup not an option due to not having unlimited gigabit internet, and having like a couple dozen TB or more to back up.

 

I've been working on decluttering data, but it's pretty complicated.  Would help if I had a duplicate file finder that works well with folders, different media formats, etc.  I've used combinations of WinMerge, File explorer search, rebooting between Linux/Windows, etc, but would like to find a better way, using primarily open-source software, *NOT* proprietary (except, well, I *AM* running Windows 10).

 

While going through things, am having issues with being denied access to some files on the HDDs, even though they're not encrypted and I'm logged in as admin on Windows, or am sudo on Linux.  (Some of them are OS files.)

It doesn't help that I've neglected this for a long time - dumping files from SD cards from cameras who knows where without giving them any "friendly" names, and being a general digital pack rat - found some files created by family members dating to 1989!

 

 

I'm having some trouble with various combinations of displays, sources, cables, etc, and I don't know how to test exactly what's broken when I don't have extra spare duplicate parts.  (They are various HDMI / DisplayPort cables of different connector types, a camera, cam link 4K, laptop, a monitor, a desktop motherboard with iGPU, a dedicated GPU, etc, but I don't have extra motherboards, monitors, cameras, etc. to test with to see if that functionality of one of those is on the fritz.  They do work for other purposes though - camera works fine on its own, the monitor works with HDMI but has issues with displayport off the PC, etc.

 

I'm thinking about getting a 4K 27" IPS monitor, probably around $350-500 or so, maybe.  (Was going to hold off until 32" pro-grade monitors that had been $1200+ 2 years ago were down to $300, but if some of my issues are caused by my current monitor..... also speaking of the display/camera issues, I really don't want to buy another camera yet.  I just got some of those things recently, like in 1H-2015.)

 

 

I'm wanting to get this done as soon as possible, as I want to start streaming piano music on Twitch soon, and I want to get stuff decluttered, cleaned out, working, etc. first.

 

 

There's more, once I can find a way to remember it.  (I really need to declutter my brain, lol.

[AbydosOne]

10 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

without it getting too long (and people calling it a wall of text)

Well, that's what you ended up with... 

 

So what's the question(s)? All I see are statements of intent.

[SpookyCitrus]

Technically you only have two questions in the entire post. You're original "How do I put everything into one post without it being a wall of text?" stuff and asking about dbanning multiple hard drives at once. The rest is all statements and what you plan to do, instead of having a long explanation for each with what you are intending to do, just ask the question. You're best bet is to put each question in it's appropriate subforum separately as most of the people with  the knowledge or skills to help with a specific task or thing you need help with will most likely be watching and waiting in the subforum that best suits that topic, not in general discussion. You've been on this forum since 2015 and have over 1000 posts, you should know it usually isn't a problem for someone to come in here and post multiple questions as long as they are in their respective subforums. If you were to say, post this topic multiple times in the general discussion then you would probably have a spam issue. Or post the exact same thing in all the subforums it fits, you'd have a problem. But posting individual questions that are different in their correct subforums shouldn't be a problem at all.

[Jtalk4456]

54 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

1. How would I fit all the relevant details into a post?

2. I made too many posts with too little content in each one - they basically said I spammed their forums.

3. I get people complaining about my walls of text.

4. Also I try to use "proper" sentence structure, spelling, etc. when possible, like I learned in school (started in 1986, teacher was my mom), meaning I try to write out proper sentences instead of twitter-condensed shorthand.  (My paragraphs can be fairly long too, cause of influence from works that have already had their copyrights expired for, in many cases, centuries.)

5. I'm needing to get rid of about 20 or 30 or so older / dead hard drives and SSDs.  I could donate or sell some of the working ones and make crafts of some that I don't pass on to someone else.

6. How long does it take to DBAN an SMR HDD - could it just be done "in bulk" without worrying about rewriting the smaller track data or however they normally work?

7. I'd like to get some new HDDs & SSDs to replace some older ones, and do a little reshuffling:

• two 12TB or 14TB 3.5" HDDs from different brands (NAS / enterprise, 7200rpm, not SMR),
• three or four 500GB or 1TB (maybe a 2TB) 2.5" SATA SSDs (TLC, DRAM, good endurance, consistent performance on extended writes, etc)
• a 2TB (or maybe 1TB) NVMe SSD (TLC, DRAM, excellent IOPS, sustained performance, endurance, etc).

8. I need to get a backup regimen going.  Have been thinking of building a NAS, but it would ONLY be for backups, no plex/media/transcoding duties at all. Budget <$200-300 for everything except the drives, must support >8-10+ drives, STRONGLY prefer the cold-storage backup media be much cheaper per TB than 3.5" SMR HDDs.

9. Cloud backup not an option due to not having unlimited gigabit internet, and having like a couple dozen TB or more to back up.

10. I've been working on decluttering data, but it's pretty complicated.  Would help if I had a duplicate file finder that works well with folders, different media formats, etc.  I've used combinations of WinMerge, File explorer search, rebooting between Linux/Windows, etc, but would like to find a better way, using primarily open-source software.

11. While going through things, am having issues with being denied access to some files on the HDDs, even though they're not encrypted and I'm logged in as admin on Windows, or am sudo on Linux.  (Some of them are OS files.)

12. I'm having some trouble with various combinations of displays, sources, cables, etc, and I don't know how to test exactly what's broken when I don't have extra spare duplicate parts.  (They are various HDMI / DisplayPort cables of different connector types, a camera, cam link 4K, laptop, a monitor, a desktop motherboard with iGPU, a dedicated GPU, etc, but I don't have extra motherboards, monitors, cameras, etc. to test with to see if that functionality of one of those is on the fritz.  They do work for other purposes though - camera works fine on its own, the monitor works with HDMI but has issues with displayport off the PC, etc.

13. I'm thinking about getting a 4K 27" IPS monitor, probably around $350-500 or so, maybe.

1. Look at what I did to the quote above for reference. Having said that, you don't need to put everything into one post.

2. Not gonna happen here. We've got different subforums to use for things like this. If you want to tie it all together or have stuff that spans mulitple topics, what I do is post on one, then grab the link for that post and put it in the other post or visa versa. Basically link it all together so if the other post has relevant information, anyone reading can choose to reference that other post.

3. Because you add too much fluff and unnecessary info. You need to learn to be concise. Only put in what is needed for the question. I don't need to know why your childhood trauma led you to buy a bad computer, I only need to know you have a bad computer and what you need to fix with it. Just example, but you get the point.

4. THIS is the unnecessary info I'm talking about, doesn't help me fix your PC problems at all.

5. This is the problem statement, this should have been the first thing you wrote, that or a spec list of what you've got as an overview. To answer this problem, if you need to donate to someone i'll take em and test everything and use what I can't and let my kids play with the shiny discs for the rest XD HMU if you want me to take it off your hands

6. Not a clue, someone else needs to answer this.

7. I haven't done any streaming or music creation so I may not understand the needs here, but it seems you want a giant complicated storage setup, and unfortunately you want it on a pretty small budget. This is where I'll defer to those with more experience with servers and stuff like this. @TopHatProductions115 @Den-Fi. There's probably a lot more, but i'm sleepy today and not remembering everyone who would be good for answering this.

8. As for your budget, I assume you're referring to the cost of the setup minus the drives. At 300, you'll not find that many bays on a nas, so I'm assuming you're wanting to use an old computer as the home server?

9. Do you mean your internet is slow or it has data limits?

10. As for between windows and linux, I have no clue using duplicate finders between OS'es, but if you're putting all files on a server, then that shouldn't be a problem as you would run the file finders on the server. I know and use CCleaner for a duplicate file finder, but (in the free version, at least) it doesn't let you search by file type. Outside of CCleaner I've also used Duplicate Finder. It's in techspot's list of duplicate file finders to use. You can go through the list and see if any have specific features you need.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1648-delete-duplicate-files/

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/504-duplicate-finder.html

11. Some Windows files are protected. If you're just trying to delete everything, get the user data backed up, then just wipe the drive of all the other stuff. Not trained on Linus

12. Unfortunately it's hard to really test equipment without a known good config to try. If you have a multimeter, there's some testing you can do with that, though I've not done anything like that before. Some cords are cheap enough, you might want to start getting some new ones and see if that helps.

13. Outside my expertise, sorry

[Dravinian]

2 hours ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

Hi ... As the topic hints, there's several things I'm wanting to ask about, but, I have a dilemma.

Bullet points are your friend, love them, cherish them, use them.

[TopHatProductions115]

This sounds like a multi-role, high-speed, high-capacity NAS project. Am I oversimplifying things?

[PianoPlayer88Key]

So what does constitute a wall of text? 

Spoiler

For me, just because I have to scroll on my phone to see it all doesn't make it a wall of text, not even if I have to set my browser on my desktop (1920x1080 screen resolution) at 50% zoom and it still doesn't fit.

Now, if I had a system like Linus's 16K gaming (where he used a grid of 4x4 4K screens, but I used 8K, and I had text filling all that?  Okay, maybe that could be a wall of text.... but wait... an actual "wall" is pretty big -- you guys/gals/whoever seen those pictures of like a hundred or so displays making up a wall?  Text all across that?  Okay THAT'S a wall of text.

 

@SpookyCitrus, @Jtalk4456, @Dravinian -- Thanks for the feedback.

 

I'm thinking, with all the tech stuff, questions, etc. going through my mind, it's probably better to split them into their separate subforums.  I put a couple screenshots in a spoiler of a few of my drafts in Test Posts.  

Spoiler

     

 

@Jtalk4456, in answer to a few of your numbered points/comments...

2. Okay, good to know.  Now how to figure out how to link them, would be nice if I knew what the URLs would be before I posted them.  That way I could put the list of relevant URLs at the top (probably) of each post (while the compose post tabs are still all open), THEN post them.

8.  Yeah, system without drives.  Modern rack server stuff is too expensive, so I was looking at used equipment (including possibly LGA1151 cause I have a spare i3-6100 CPU laying around.)  Also have thought of LGA771 or 1366 dual-socket hardware, but electricity here isn't cheap - worst case scenario would be 67¢/kWh a year or 2 ago, could be even more now.

9.  Both.  Isn't gigabit up/down, and has a terabyte/month cap.

11.  Yeah, basically trying to delete it and preserve user data.  Problem is, some user data got stored in program folders or other obscure locations, so I had to look through that.  (Also I was wanting to save a few documents from programs, as a reference for what programs I had installed way back when just in case I wanted to find modern versions that do many of the same things.)

12. Yeah  not having the $ or space for "redundancy" doesn't help either.  When I buy things, I prefer to make sure I buy something that's good quality so I only have to buy it once.  I don't like to buy shit then have to buy it twice or more.

 

@TopHatProductions115 -- More like a single-role, normal-speed, but high-capacity NAS, if you want to call it that, at least for that part of what I'm talking about.

Single-role:  would *ONLY* be for backing up, not a remote file access server, transcoding server, etc.

Normal-speed: would only need to match the throughput of my network or drives.

high-capacity: Basically room for lots of drives.
Not sure I should call it a "NAS" though.  Not sure I want to connect it via RJ45 / IP protocol (basically want to have it be kind-of like air-gapped from "outside"), but otoh I don't want to use USB either.  Some kind of PCI Express running outside the case to external drives but then I think that's pretty complicated.  Another option I've considered is just dumping data I have onto blank drives in my normal case, then taking those out and letting them sit on a shelf until I need to restore from backup or add another bunch of data to the backup.

 

 

Hey if I wanted to ask something fairly quick and simple in another subforum, is there a length of post that would be "too short"?  (I want to try to avoid posting a topic in a forum then having a moderator come along and say it's "status update" material.)

 

An example that I might put in the memory subforum (or storage, depending on where it should go might be:

Spoiler

System's memory workload is some fairly high number, like 128 GB or 160 GB.  (post screenshot with RAM just about maxed out, and committed more than double physical RAM.)

 

Which is better to have, A or B?

A - 1/4 the RAM you need, but it's fast (like 32GB DDR4-4000+), and pagefile on a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD

B - 1/2 the RAM you need, but it's slow (like 64GB DDR4-2133), and pagefile on a 5400rpm SMR HDD.  (That would be the max GB RAM the system supports in this example.)

(maybe also screenshots of the proposed RAM and SSD / HDD, with both options being similar in price)

But maybe that's too short to be its own topic? maybe it'd be considered "fluff" or "spam" or "status update"?  Yeah I could (and sometimes have) asked "quick / simple" things in the LTT discord, but it gets buried pretty quickly.  I find it easier to find my past posts (and replies to them) on the forum.  (For some reason I don't get notifications when someone replies to a topic I created if they don't quote or @ me... I thought if I posted a topic I would be automatically following it and get those notifications.  Maybe there's some other setting I need to tweak somewhere...

[Jtalk4456]

5 hours ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

So what does constitute a wall of text? 

  Reveal hidden contents

For me, just because I have to scroll on my phone to see it all doesn't make it a wall of text, not even if I have to set my browser on my desktop (1920x1080 screen resolution) at 50% zoom and it still doesn't fit.

Now, if I had a system like Linus's 16K gaming (where he used a grid of 4x4 4K screens, but I used 8K, and I had text filling all that?  Okay, maybe that could be a wall of text.... but wait... an actual "wall" is pretty big -- you guys/gals/whoever seen those pictures of like a hundred or so displays making up a wall?  Text all across that?  Okay THAT'S a wall of text.

 

@SpookyCitrus, @Jtalk4456, @Dravinian -- Thanks for the feedback.

 

I'm thinking, with all the tech stuff, questions, etc. going through my mind, it's probably better to split them into their separate subforums.  I put a couple screenshots in a spoiler of a few of my drafts in Test Posts.  

  Reveal hidden contents

     

 

@Jtalk4456, in answer to a few of your numbered points/comments...

2. Okay, good to know.  Now how to figure out how to link them, would be nice if I knew what the URLs would be before I posted them.  That way I could put the list of relevant URLs at the top (probably) of each post (while the compose post tabs are still all open), THEN post them.

8.  Yeah, system without drives.  Modern rack server stuff is too expensive, so I was looking at used equipment (including possibly LGA1151 cause I have a spare i3-6100 CPU laying around.)  Also have thought of LGA771 or 1366 dual-socket hardware, but electricity here isn't cheap - worst case scenario would be 67¢/kWh a year or 2 ago, could be even more now.

9.  Both.  Isn't gigabit up/down, and has a terabyte/month cap.

11.  Yeah, basically trying to delete it and preserve user data.  Problem is, some user data got stored in program folders or other obscure locations, so I had to look through that.  (Also I was wanting to save a few documents from programs, as a reference for what programs I had installed way back when just in case I wanted to find modern versions that do many of the same things.)

12. Yeah  not having the $ or space for "redundancy" doesn't help either.  When I buy things, I prefer to make sure I buy something that's good quality so I only have to buy it once.  I don't like to buy shit then have to buy it twice or more.

2. Unfortunately you post all, then grab the links and edit them one by one

9. So what are your speeds? Also having a cap sucks, sorry to hear that man. Having said that that's 1k gb/month. My load, that would be fine, but that depends on what you do

11. The sad answer to this is going program to program. Is there data from or for this program stored in the program files and do i need it if so? Will it even transfer if I move files around on to a new computer or while I do a system wipe/reformat?

 

[PianoPlayer88Key]

@Jtalk4456:

 

2. Ah, Also another ... It's quite a bit I'm needing to figure out or ask, so I may not make all posts at the same time, or maybe even the same week, depends on how long it takes or how much is involved to compose them.  So it might bea while before the links are gathered and edited into the posts.

 

9.  Desktop's off right now and networking's not working (gives me a 169.254... IP), but last I remember, speedtest was ~200-225 mbps down, ~7-10 mbps up.  Speedtest just now on Pixel 3a in physical contact with wifi router was 57.6 down, 10.7 up.

Would be nice if I could do full backups (like "dd if=//” - yes, back up EVERYTHING on the network, not just my PC) to something like Backblaze, as often as my lack-of-Google-fu was telling me about frequency of backups in some organizations... But backing up 90+ TB (plus the extra HDDs/SSDs I'm planning to buy soon, minus the old ones I get rid of) every 24 hours would be a challenge with my upload speed and data cap.

 

11. Yeah, figures. Reminds me that I want to, on my next install, segregate manually-saved user data (like file->save as), program settings, auto-saved program data (like browser history), the OS itself, and program binaries (I'm sure I forgot something) in separate partitions. Users and programs would be forbidden from writing in OS area, user forbidden from writing in program binary / data, etc.  Programs would have to be "portable".  Only time C:\WINDOWS or whatever it's called is written is during OS installs and updates. (If I could install to write-once media...)

I want to be able to do system wipe / format without losing settings, user data, programs, etc, and reinstall programs without losing their data.  Also once I get an install set up right, I want to be able to keep it for - not years, but decades. Of course I want security updates, but as for how things are done (press this key to do that, do this sequence to accomplish that goal, etc) I want that to be consistent.

 

 

So to ask about certain things, looks like I should post in certain forums.  Examples below (I was looking down the LTT category list), redirect me if I should ask somewhere else. (Also I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, and when I make the actual posts there would be a lot more detail.)

Spoiler

 

First off, wanting to see about finding work in IT, mostly interested in hardware, building / upgrading PCs, etc.  Have A+ pursuing Net+. Where to ask what to do about that?

 

 

Off Topic - would like to ask people's thoughts on why they feel the way they do on various hot-button issues like religion and politics, particularly those whose views differ from mine (basically I consider myself conservative Christian), maybe another non-LTT forum is a good place for that?

 

 LTX Expo - would love to attend a future event if it's within driving distance of where I live (currently San Diego county, CA).

  

Forum Bugs and Issues - On mobile, have issues with characters deleting or rearranging when hitting enter for new line if cursor not at end of line.

 

Graphics Cards - would consider new GPU when 4K 120+ Hz ultra AAA for $200-300, or then-new low-end APU or GT x10 is faster than my current card's generational flagship. (I have 1060 3GB.) Too soon to ask?
 

CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory - which is better for general usage: 25% of RAM you need that's fast (like DDR4-4000 with pagefile on Gen4 NVMe SSD, or 50% of what you need (max capacity your board supports, slow like DDR4-2133), pagefile on 5400rpm SMR HDD...

 

Cases and Power Supplies - interested in cases that support lots of HDDs relative to their footprint, and PSUs that can use their entire power for drives, plus a low-power APU.

Liquid and Exotic Cooling - 0dB silence - ask here? ...

Air Cooling - or here? (My Define R5 is thunderous!)
 

Peripherals - should mom (age 70s, grew up with typewriters) consider a mechanical keyboard for general typing, if so, how to determine what she likes if Fry's has almost nothing and Micro Center is almost a 2 hour drive away?

Audio - would like to find a decent wireless headset with accurate wide-frequency-response sound, good passive isolation, excellent for hot (>100-118°F/38-48±°C) environments.
 

Storage Devices - what 3 or 4 500GB-1TB 2.5" SATA SSDs, 2TB NVMe SSD, 2 12 or 14TB HDDs to get

Displays - considering 27" 4K monitor. Also some display device & cable combos I have not working properly if at all.

Networking - as mentioned before, desktop gets no connection, gets 169.254 IP. Same cable with laptop off same router, same issue.  WiFi fine.

Servers and NAS - build NAS for backup that's cheaper than a single hard drive, or backup medua much cheaper per GB than HDDs (can't spend $x,xxx on tape drives, etc)

 

New Builds and Planning - thinking of new build whenAM5/TR5/SP5/DDR5/PCIe5/USB4 out, want similar jump vs what I now have as often was seen in 1980s to early 2000s.  To soon to ask? (I'm concerned the jump I want won't exist yet, and I may have to wait for DDR6/7.  Want to keep motherboard a long time.

 

Troubleshooting - ask about the networking & display issues here? Or in their own forums?

Case Modding and Other Mods - modify case to fit lots of 3.5" HDDs. (Tiny-image examples:   or )

 Windows  - computer-not_very_literate friend wants to upgrade from Win7 to 10. Good fail-proof tutorial to recommend?  Also I want to back up my OS installs (entire partition contents) to a large HDD so I can have them in folders under a partition (instead of separate partitions), access files (like user data) with the file explorer, and if I need to boot it, copy it to a spare SSD and boot from the SSD.

Programs, Apps and Websites - brain drawing blank now, but thought there was something I wanted to ask...

 

Console Gaming - used to play (on piano) part of original Super Mario Bros theme during church song with similar chords.  But, status update?

Esports - challenge some elite gamers to have a tournament using only the bare minimum to run the game (even if less than "official" minimum specs), using only default loadouts / configs / binds.

 

Laptops and Pre-Built Systems - would like Zen2/3 powered 8+ core 16+ thread GPD Pocket small laptop hopefully by Q3 2021.

Phones and Tablets - parents want to replace Samsung Galaxy Core Prime phones that run Android 5.  Thinking of recommending Pixel 4a.  Also I keep dropping my 3a (super slippery, cracked screen by selfie cam).

 

Classifieds - if I sell old HDDs post here? Or donate or take apart & make crafts?

 

 

[Jtalk4456]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:01 PM, PianoPlayer88Key said:

1. First off, wanting to see about finding work in IT, mostly interested in hardware, building / upgrading PCs, etc.  Have A+ pursuing Net+. Where to ask what to do about that?

2. Off Topic - would like to ask people's thoughts on why they feel the way they do on various hot-button issues like religion and politics, particularly those whose views differ from mine (basically I consider myself conservative Christian), maybe another non-LTT forum is a good place for that?

3. LTX Expo - would love to attend a future event if it's within driving distance of where I live (currently San Diego county, CA).

4. Forum Bugs and Issues - On mobile, have issues with characters deleting or rearranging when hitting enter for new line if cursor not at end of line.

5. Graphics Cards - would consider new GPU when 4K 120+ Hz ultra AAA for $200-300, or then-new low-end APU or GT x10 is faster than my current card's generational flagship. (I have 1060 3GB.) Too soon to ask?
6. CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory - which is better for general usage: 25% of RAM you need that's fast (like DDR4-4000 with pagefile on Gen4 NVMe SSD, or 50% of what you need (max capacity your board supports, slow like DDR4-2133), pagefile on 5400rpm SMR HDD...

7. Cases and Power Supplies - interested in cases that support lots of HDDs relative to their footprint, and PSUs that can use their entire power for drives, plus a low-power APU.

8. Liquid and Exotic Cooling - 0dB silence - ask here? ...

Air Cooling - or here? (My Define R5 is thunderous!)
9. Peripherals - should mom (age 70s, grew up with typewriters) consider a mechanical keyboard for general typing, if so, how to determine what she likes if Fry's has almost nothing and Micro Center is almost a 2 hour drive away?

10. Audio - would like to find a decent wireless headset with accurate wide-frequency-response sound, good passive isolation, excellent for hot (>100-118°F/38-48±°C) environments.
11. Storage Devices - what 3 or 4 500GB-1TB 2.5" SATA SSDs, 2TB NVMe SSD, 2 12 or 14TB HDDs to get

12. Displays - considering 27" 4K monitor. Also some display device & cable combos I have not working properly if at all.

13. Networking - as mentioned before, desktop gets no connection, gets 169.254 IP. Same cable with laptop off same router, same issue.  WiFi fine.

14. Servers and NAS - build NAS for backup that's cheaper than a single hard drive, or backup medua much cheaper per GB than HDDs (can't spend $x,xxx on tape drives, etc)
15. New Builds and Planning - thinking of new build whenAM5/TR5/SP5/DDR5/PCIe5/USB4 out, want similar jump vs what I now have as often was seen in 1980s to early 2000s.  To soon to ask? (I'm concerned the jump I want won't exist yet, and I may have to wait for DDR6/7.  Want to keep motherboard a long time.

16. Troubleshooting - ask about the networking & display issues here? Or in their own forums?

17. Case Modding and Other Mods - modify case to fit lots of 3.5" HDDs. (Tiny-image examples:   or )

18.  Windows  - computer-not_very_literate friend wants to upgrade from Win7 to 10. Good fail-proof tutorial to recommend?  Also I want to back up my OS installs (entire partition contents) to a large HDD so I can have them in folders under a partition (instead of separate partitions), access files (like user data) with the file explorer, and if I need to boot it, copy it to a spare SSD and boot from the SSD.

19. Programs, Apps and Websites - brain drawing blank now, but thought there was something I wanted to ask...

20. Console Gaming - used to play (on piano) part of original Super Mario Bros theme during church song with similar chords.  But, status update?

21. Esports - challenge some elite gamers to have a tournament using only the bare minimum to run the game (even if less than "official" minimum specs), using only default loadouts / configs / binds.

22. Laptops and Pre-Built Systems - would like Zen2/3 powered 8+ core 16+ thread GPD Pocket small laptop hopefully by Q3 2021.

23. Phones and Tablets - parents want to replace Samsung Galaxy Core Prime phones that run Android 5.  Thinking of recommending Pixel 4a.  Also I keep dropping my 3a (super slippery, cracked screen by selfie cam).

24. Classifieds - if I sell old HDDs post here? Or donate or take apart & make crafts?

1. I'd stick that in general

2. You can do that in off topic, just tread lightly, especially around politics. It can turn to a s***show real quick and get shut down. truthfully I'd do that somewhere else if i were you. The other option is find people who you can debate nicely with, and then make a status update discussion with them, or even just a message.

3. Far as I know, they plan to keep it in Canada near them. Official info is posted about that months before, but if you have a pressing q or comment drop it in the ltx expo subforum  https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/94-ltx-expo/

4. Yep, drop it in the bugs forum and it'll be answered pretty quick.

5. Sounds good and it's never too soon to ask, it just might be too early to get a good answer XD

6. Right where it should be, as for my answer: Within typical use cases, if you're taking the time to build, there's no reason to go less than 8 gb at 3000. If you've got a lot of gaming or other heavy programs, 16 gb 3200 is my baseline. Anything beyond that depends on the use case. look at recommended specs for programs, consider how many programs you might have open at the same time. If you're doing video editing, you might need more for making everything run smoother and not taking so long to scrub or things like that. as far as the speed, If you're in that high use case, I tend to think that more memory will make a better impact that faster memory, at least to a point. I think 3200 is fast enough for most uses and starts to hit diminishing returns past that, but i'm not an expert, so check to see if LTT has done a video on that, I'm sure they have.

7. Cases - @TVwazhere, PSU's - @LukeSavenije also the tier list 

8. The way I'd approach this is asking both. go to air cooling and say "Can anyone recommend me the quietest air cooler within this price range

then go to liquid cooling and say "I've got an air cooler and it's loud. It seems this (recommendation from above) is the best for silence in air cooling. Can anyone recommend me a comparative water cooler near the same budget and sell me on why it's going to be better than this air cooler."

9. My answer is always yes. Factually they are better for you and if the person has the budget to do so, I don't think theres a person alive who shouldn't have one. I use a hexgears impulse. LOVE IT. but different people have different preferences, so if you can, I'd order a set of test switches like this

 

Spoiler

https://www.amazon.com/Griarrac-Gateron-Mechanical-Keyboards-Testing/dp/B07PDCK34P/ref=asc_df_B07PDCK34P/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416694317409&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2237276583498111348&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1021064&hvtargid=pla-958280427967&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94693386435&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416694317409&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2237276583498111348&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1021064&hvtargid=pla-958280427967

also @sowon the queen of keyboards who still hasn't shown us a karaoke vid. Yeah sowon you thought I wouldn't remember, didn't you? 

10. Sounds good, pun intended, also @Den-Fi

11-14. Sounds good, again @TopHatProductions115 for the server q's

15. If the new build is the server we're talking about, stick that in servers, otherwise, it sounds like your main debate is features specific to the chipset that you'll find on the motherboard mostly, so I'd actually stick that in motherboards, but it would work in new build planning too.

16. If it has a forum, use it, if not, stick the problem here.

17. again tvwazhere is king of cases, talk to him, but yeah thats the right forum

18. asking people for a good tutorial... i'd say software since the tutorial is for software, but i don't think riots would break out if you put that in general

19. I don't think that forum can help with brain issues, sorry XD

20. Status Update or off topic, either.

21-23. Sounds good

24. Yep, sounds good. And again I put out my offer if you can't find buyers I'd take em off your hand and use any goods and craft any bads. I have 5 kids, so craft material is definitely a plus.

 

[TopHatProductions115]

Not to be rude, but please reorganise your project plan for better reading. Here is a recent example from something I've been working on:

• https://linustechtips.com/main/profile/511347-tophatproductions115/?status=241608&type=status

Comments and other forum features can be leveraged to prevent it from becoming wall of text. Try the following setup:

1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Roles and Services
4. Rationale(s) and Decisions
5. Footnotes
6. Comments and Project logging