whole room re-build-log (room, desk, wiring, rig, AND server) UPDATE: bonus gaming pizza build

[manikyath]

so.. this has been a long time in the making, mostly out of necessity.

things that will be re-built and/or build-logged:

- my main rig will be rebuilt (mostly to clean it out)

- my server will be replaced (because it's falling apart)

- my ENTIRE setup will be redone, mostly because things are horrible at the moment.

- my desk needs some modifications, i'll be putting that in my dad's hands (pray for my desk's life.. )

- my walls and ceiling will be painted (and that hole from my old phone's maiden flight will be patched)

- my floor will get a few new layers of varnish, because i'm sitting on bare wood now

- potentially a new bed, that hasnt been decided yet

 

i plan to do this over the course of 3 weeks, which brings us to the planning and structure of this build log: (note, this piece is being written in "week zero"

- week 0: planning, setting up the thread, "before" pictures and emptying out the room.

- week 1: walls, ceiling, and in between my main rig will be getting unbuilt and rebuilt.

- week 2: the floor, at least one coat per day, i'd prefer not to see bare wood again for a while

- week 3: reassembling the desk, building my server, and doing cabling.

- ineviteble week 4: things that arrived late, things that didnt get done, and things i want to change in hindsight.

(if the mods are fine with it, i'll have the "weeks" in seperate posts, so it's a bit easier in the editor as stuff grows. if you're part of the moderation/admin team and disagree with this practisce, let me know.)

 

i'll be doing images with puush, if people have issues loading the imagery, i'll switch over to google drive which is kinda messy, but at least works

 

brings us to the start of things:

WEEK 0:

the before pictures, i'm gonna try to spoiler most pictures.

slight warning ahead of this one: i more or less purposely didnt clean up for two weeks to show how my room looks when i'm not keeping it tidy for the sake of looks

Spoiler

because someone asked, a "cleaned up" picture

you'll note this picture has a carpet in it, that's already gone

Spoiler

 

next up will be emptying out and finding place to put things, tomorrow (sunday week 0) i'll be moving out the desk and other movable furniture, and on monday (week 1) painting will start

 

i went to choose paint, while reading the color names all i could think was "quite black, really blue, very siler" , i went for a color similar to my desk, maybe with one wall in a different color, not sure on that one yet.

 

sunday week 0:

i've started emptying out the "work corner" of my desk, more pictures will be added once i make trough the cabling

first picture also shows my "winecrate" radio, which will probably see quite some use during painting, and will probably get a bit of paint as well, it's gotten a bit worn over the years

Spoiler

end  of week 0:

it's all (mostly) empty

Spoiler

 

[manikyath]

Week 1, Day 1:

only fillering crack today, not multiple cracks, one giant crack all over the walls:

Spoiler

(made them a bit smaller, since i dont think anyone's here to look at cracks all day )

Week 1, Day 2:

walls painted in a very different color, the curtains are gone because appareantly the guiderails were never screwed into the wall properly, and ALL the tabs on my curtains broke in removing them

Spoiler

Week 1 Day 3:

having cancelled the painting works because -i'm never gonna outsource buying paint to my mom agaon -...

i'm now way ahead of schedule, and the floor is mostly sanded down, i'm probably gonna give it a second pass later today to cover spots i may have missed.

Spoiler

Week 1 day 4&5:

because i've been feeling a bit sick and i'm way ahead of schedule anyways, i decided to take a break from the big works from now, but as a filler i built a gaming pizza:

Spoiler

starting with a taco shell:

some tomatoe and cheese, the thinner the better:

anyone who dislikes pepperoni on a pizza buys the wrong kind of pepperoni:

some spices, and in the oven:

pwn noobs for 10 minutes, and BOOM headshot, food is ready just in time for your death counter:

Week 1, Day 6 (edit: and 7):

my dad was gonna show me how to varnish a floor, and because he's blind, deaf, and insensitive he did the entire floor in one go

also, according to my (former) coworker the following picture is fake, because my phone still sucks at taking pictures i've edited it to be closer to reality.

(the blueness is not my horrible editing work, that's the phone camera's doing )

he did another coat in the evening, which i let dry overnight.

on sunday (w1d7) i did a third coat in the morning, and a fourth in the afternoon, i've concluded that this seems to be plenty, since the fourth coat didnt even seem to have changed anything. final picture of the floor added, i am now a full week ahead  (which means lots of time for cabling )

 

should add that the color on the pictures is horrible because my phone camera REALLY dislikes my floor

Spoiler

 

[manikyath]

Week 2 Day 1:

i've moved my bed and desk back in the room today, along with a basic setup to work from while spending an entire week on wiring to get back on schedule

spoilered images with commentary in between: (for post length and aussie internet sake, spoilers: near death experiences)

 

Spoiler

i started with cleaning out my clouset, but i forgot how wobbly the big clouset is when there's no computers serving as counterweight in the bottom, hence i put my heaviest rig in there, it has wheels on it, it has those for a reason.

then i continued with putting a panel back on the other clouset i took off for painting, i should probably note that this is not the propper way to operate a drill, but its the only way i could reach:

then it was down to scrubbing old mactac off the underside of my desk, which required an applicable lubricant for my human self to keep operating:

in the process of moving stuff, i took one of the few (and probably the last before replacement) pictures of "stacy-603", the home server that is to be replaced

also encountered this one, probably a project for a future date, because i should really finish it one day:

then the fun bit, probably the favourite part of my desk: aligning the panels

(in case you wonder, it happens "percussive" AKA you screw them together softly and whack until its aligned.

in nice timing, my dad arrived home with the drill for the required new holes... which... was about as dull as a spoon...

in case you're not familiar with woodworking, you can tell your drill is dull (or you're putting way too much pressure on the drill) if smoke is coming out the hole, and it looks like thiis when you're done:

then came the biggest mess, the cabling, this is about half of it:

and if you want cringe, this thing is probably gonna be used still:  (yes, it's warped, yes it's crumbling, yes it's held together by tape)

initiating a basic setup, and on the tenth day, there was light (on the switch)

i also decided to make things a bit more "fun" by putting back my chinese LED strip:  (RGB)

the PiModore is currently in service of providing entertainment to the TV:

as you can see things are still a mess, i'm probably gonna clean up a bit so tomorrow the big cabling joy can start. (as well as fixing a USB hub that failed in week 0...)

week 2, technically day 2, i put up the rgb lights in a more sensible location, also providing some light to the server "nook"

Spoiler

for scale, that's a 60x60cm rubber mat (roughly 2x2ft for those that count in freedom units).

Week 2 Day 2:

plastic tubs are your friend

the "shillf" is stocked with all of my favourite brands

and offcourse.. dragons needed glue.. i'm amazed only one broke at only one place

Spoiler

Week 2 Day 5:

i went shopping, and as usual, lootpic is required:

Spoiler

they only had one monitor in stock, the other one will come in next week, aside from that, everything is here

- one of the new displays

- two brand new fans for stacy

- cpu cooler for stacy

- the new hard drives

- some random cables

- the cheapest crappiest raid card i could find

- a 480GB SSD

- 32GB dedotated wam

- mounting plates to replace the tape holding in my storage drives

- new power supply for stacy.

 

stacy rebuild:

Spoiler

i started out with putting the hard drives in their trays, sorting out cables, and deciding where things need to go, and then i discovered this... oddity which will probably be an amazing call with the retailer tomorrow

having decided one of my hard drives will then be attached with just 3 of 4 screws (still better than just tape, right?)

it was time for the 24 pin ATX adapter... for those that dont know, my server is an acer aspire TC-603 (hence the name sTaCy-603) including OEM piece of trash mobo with a 12 pin header instead of the normal 20 or 24 pin...

 

now.. i got myself a 24 to 20pin adapter, mostly for the 24pin side of it, actually originally intending to solder straight to my mobo

which.. kinda lucky, the 20pin plug's left "half" fit into the 12pin socket, so after figuring out which wires went were, this is what happened:

(dont worry your butts, it's sitting on a sheet of cardboard) as you can see the plug sticks out to one side, but with some wiring magic it's now running off of the seasonic prime to the right, and not the FSP toaster in the back.

 

closeup of the wiring magic, warning, cringe:

also gives a little peek at the 32GB ram that's now in stacy

 

then down to wiring it up... i knew it was gonna be tight, but i didnt prepare for this level of tightness... stacy is one tight little box (ladies )

or an extreme closeup after the sata cable was put in:

al in all, stacy looks a lot cleaner now, and i'm up to 3TB storage space  (also, room for a scratch disk as well )

for those who dislike RGB.. i am sorry.

i decided to "pretty" up the adapter a bit, so it didnt stick out of the connector anymore:

whisper rebuild:

Spoiler

in disassembly, i discovered this protective sticker, it's like they're procreating in there, every time i open it i find another one

here's a look at the paperclip fan splitter method:

piece of advice in terms of fan filters: keep it yucky, dust sticks to dust.

just blow the dust out every so often (this one doesnt embed for some reason, i'll figure it out...)

http://puu.sh/s0Ca4/6b614549a8.jpg

cable job at the back, yes it's a bit messy, but that's the fun of a closed case

cable job at the front:

yes, that's a HDD tray sticking out the optical bay, it's holding my WD black, encased in neopreen to keep it from sounding like a midget with a hammer

slightly closer shot of the actual functiony bits: (which also doesnt embed.. FFS...)

http://puu.sh/s0Cb2/c9a8604d35.jpg

 

 

[manikyath]

Week 3 Day 3:

having all the actual hardware i need, final cabling can begin, i already have a few teasers for those who want

Spoiler

one display for each eye, it's like VR right?

 

also, the monitors have built in speakers, but cannot *officially* daisychain to output the same audio, after a quick fiddle i can confirm, this trick still works:

Week 3 Day 5:

aside from horrible horrible tape that cant hold a sheet of paper for longer than 10 minutes, cable management is mostly done, i'll see what changes i'll make once my printer finally arrives

Spoiler

 

[manikyath]

Obviously not week 4 anymore:

so.. things have taken longer than expected, that much we can say

 

essentially, every day i'd sit down to see what little finishing bits need to be done, something would have broken.

quick list off the top of my head:

- two USB hubs have bitten the dust

- my LED strip is still terrible

- my floor is essentially down to bare wood again, hopefully either this weekend or next weekend i'll have something better than a dusty mat under my wheels.

- stacy's mobo had issues...

- NOX happened, and NOX had more issues than dollars spent... (i've finally narrowed it down, it had to do with the place i routed the sata cable... yeah... i cant explain either )

- pattex is the worst brand of adhesives i've ever used

- tesa is seemingly a "weeklong" solution (at least better than pattex falling down within 24 hours)

- my 3D printer head getting ruined in a very "chain of events" way

- my athlon 64 caught fire again

 

ANYWAYS.. aside from the floor protection under my desk, everything is essentially done, which means... PICTURES!

 

starting with NOX, which is a bit of an experiment turned out better than expected. i no longer trust my athlon 64, and looked into the cheapest alternative, not really minding actual performance, and my eye fell on the asrock Q1900m. total system cost having calculated in the parts i re-used: €200

 

in the row of pictures, you'll see south park stick of truth running, it's actually running perfectly fine at 1080p, using a mere 70% cpu .

 

i'm not gonna show off the guts, because it's terrible on one side, and empty on the other

Spoiler

and "nox the night effect":

forget backlit logos, i have glow in the dark logos:

and offcourse, nox needs a remote:

the bedside: (i'm still considering the idea of a curtain to seperate the room)

Spoiler

yes, my laptop is the night stand

dual-monitor TV setup, because single monitor is for console plebs

NOX is tucked away nicely behind the two displays, the candle is there to remind me it's bedtime, it's one of those chinese goodies, and it appareantly turns itself on at roughly the same time every day.

kind of a last minute thought, i printed a controller holder for my steam controller, it's in a hideous color for a simple reason: it's a color i wanted to test to see how hideous it actually is, and i printed it with the idea of seeing how bad it is, and custom-making one later on (this is a PS4 controller holder from myminifactory)

some remotes magnet-held against the display, because thats the superior way to store remotes. they essentially are both to control lighting

then the desk area:

Spoiler

dual 1440p montior setup, some accessories below them, and the unmissable RGB backlighting

towards the left i have a display hooked up to stacy, my 3D printer in the corner (that box actually makes it bearable to have nearby), and the unmissable audio stuff tucked in as well

the DIY corner has gotten significantly more tidy, since i decided i'd put the hideously ancient power strip underneath my desk, and the other one on top of the 3D printer.

my tape holders underneath the desk, needless to say, i need more , also have a little floor heater there to combat the winter cold.

on top of my printer i got this spare shelf from my clouset, which now holds my fillaments, and some other accessories, up and out the way. (yes, those boxes are there for show, it's not practical at all ), the tablet is my "CHiNaPad" which i'm probably gonna put on a stand as a calendar/alarm clock/ish thing. it's plugged iin for a reason, that reason is it doesnt make it trough the night on a full charge while idle.

behind the desk i also have my fancy speaker that's hooked up to the ancient aplifier, and acts as a shelf for my backpack and workhorse laptop. (also, that laptop bag is like 6-8 years old by now, i'm impressed how well it lasts.

the back doesnt look quite as "graceful" but at least it's somewhat acceptable when you see it in person. and yes, that's a floppy drive on the far left there.

the underside is rather bare, mostly because i got tired of my feet bumping into cables when finding my footrest

my main rig in its box were it belongs

the subwoofer slides out the way to unveil the server corner where stacy sits with two UPSes: one for stacy, and one for all the rest.

the air intake fan for the server corner, it's running at something like 3 volts and still moves enough air to keep it all at a nice temperature (those UPSes get toasty when you put a decent load on them )

i'm.. not very proud of how this turned out.. that orange power strip is the audio gear, and it's plugged into one of those "remote contrrol wall outlet" things, another one in use for the RGB lighting. in combination with the bunle of wires just kinda suspended overtop it doesnt look the greatest, but it's out of sight so eh

a bit of a closer look at stacy, who also has RGB lighting inside, because i had an extra strip from my monitors

there's also some acoustic foam in the back, not that it's really necessary seeing how quiet stacy is, but i had some spare so w/e

hopefully this weekend i'll have my floor covering, and after that i can finally put the "finished" stamp on this whole thng...

[Guest]

You could have least cleaned up your room before taking pics... Anyways, keep us updated!

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Dutch-stoner said:

You could have least cleaned up your room before taking pics... Anyways, keep us updated!

i purposely didnt, mostly to make the contrast between before and after bigger

 

i'll dig up a "clean" picture and add it to the pile

[Mr.Meerkat]

16 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i purposely didnt, mostly to make the contrast between before and after bigger

 

i'll dig up a "clean" picture and add it to the pile

I see, just trying to make it look like a bigger project eh? Well I'm not gonna complain so...meh?  

[manikyath]

24 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

I see, just trying to make it look like a bigger project eh? Well I'm not gonna complain so...meh?  

well, the idea is that redoing the wiring and some layout changes will make it easier to keep things tidy

 

before all is said and done there'll be some soldering, glueing and drilling. and ideally cleanup wont take longer than the work itself

 

EDIT: ps, yes, making the contrast bigger is defenately one of the reasons why

[manikyath]

(slightly later than planned) sunday lunchtime update:

 

the desk is emptied of all stuff and tech, next up is disassembly, and then the bed side of things. (pics added )

got you guys a few funny shots to enjoy as well:

Spoiler

never expected a computer case on wheels to be this useful:

and continue to be useful:

also got you guys a shot of my *terrible* DVI cable solution:

and not to forget: the reason i dislike antec:

that's not the front bezel that came off, that's *part* of the front bezel.

 

EDIT: forgot to add a picture of my temporary setup:

Spoiler

that "white sausage" in the feet area is my resistive coil to pull down net voltage, without it my monitor is very, very unhappy

[comicsansms]

7 minutes ago, manikyath said:

(slightly later than planned) sunday lunchtime update:

 

the desk is emptied of all stuff and tech, next up is disassembly, and then the bed side of things. (pics added )

got you guys a few funny shots to enjoy as well:

  Hide contents

never expected a computer case on wheels to be this useful:

and continue to be useful:

also got you guys a shot of my *terrible* DVI cable solution:

and not to forget: the reason i dislike antec:

that's not the front bezel that came off, that's *part* of the front bezel.

 

You have an Acer V3? I am curious, what is dying/dead on that particular laptop?

[manikyath]

5 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

You have an Acer V3? I am curious, what is dying/dead on that particular laptop?

you"re better off asking what is not bad about it

- the keyboard requires a hammer to operate

- the touchpad is iffy

- both hard drives are slowly dying

- the ethernet jack is iffy

- the bios has a password on it i cant get off with all the will in the world

EDIT: oh, and it's been locking up in games as well, although i'm not sure if that's a software or hardware issue. mostly because between the last two times i checked the hard drive reduced the amount of bad sectors (?)

[comicsansms]

14 minutes ago, manikyath said:

you"re better off asking what is not bad about it

- the keyboard requires a hammer to operate

- the touchpad is iffy

- both hard drives are slowly dying

- the ethernet jack is iffy

- the bios has a password on it i cant get off with all the will in the world

I have seen ones with stuffed screens, stuffed wifi cards, ones where the owner's BFF decided to engrave a dick into the palm rest and other garbage that I don't remember. I don't own one, but I know enough people who have owned them to know they are garbage.

 

Consumer laptop brands that I still recommend: Dell, Lenovo

Consumer laptop brands that I have owned and I know they are garbage: ASUS, ACER, HP 

Consumer laptop brands that I have seen my friends have problems with (garbage):Toshiba

Consumer laptop brands that I haven't touched but I wouldn't touch (garbage): Medion, Compaq, Emachines

 

Someone really needs to revamp the consumer grade laptop space.

[manikyath]

Spoiler

in case someone wonders, thats in kilogram, that's upside down (dont ask... i flipped it upright before uploading...), and that's just one panel, of which 3 make the top of my desk.

[manikyath]

Spoiler

week one mistake one: i outsourced the painting supplies to my mom.

 

that tube of filler in the picture... is god awful, it's pretty much a tube silicone mixed with so many fibers you cant even "fill" anything with it, and it doesnt stick to anything.

 

so... local DIY shop to the rescue:

Spoiler

pictures will be added to post 1 once filling is done

[Matias_Chambers]

On 10/16/2016 at 3:02 PM, Comic_Sans_MS said:

I have seen ones with stuffed screens, stuffed wifi cards, ones where the owner's BFF decided to engrave a dick into the palm rest and other garbage that I don't remember. I don't own one, but I know enough people who have owned them to know they are garbage.

 

Consumer laptop brands that I still recommend: Dell, Lenovo

Consumer laptop brands that I have owned and I know they are garbage: ASUS, ACER, HP 

Consumer laptop brands that I have seen my friends have problems with (garbage):Toshiba

Consumer laptop brands that I haven't touched but I wouldn't touch (garbage): Medion, Compaq, Emachines

 

Someone really needs to revamp the consumer grade laptop space.

I actually really like Acer laptops. They have great battery life. I always have problems with Lenovo laptops. Both Lenovo laptops that I've had throttled the CPU down for no reason. No overheating. It wasn't power settings either. Maybe it's just because I never had a high end laptop.

[manikyath]

w1d1 update: most of the cracks are filled, i have a bit more to do, hoping to start painting tomorrow, gonna let stuff dry overnight.

 

also, quoting my status update:

Quote

i have a crack problem, there's crack all over my walls...

i dont wanna complain to my dad about the plastering job in my bedroom (mostly because it was either him or my grandpa who did it) but shit's horrible.... nothing's even near straight, all the seams are one giant crack, and there's smudges everywhere.

[manikyath]

w1d2 update: i'd show some pictures of the painting, but i have difficlty seeing the "radically different color" that "i was allowed to choose".

 

the only way i can see what was already painted is that it covers up my fillerwork...

[Guest]

Complain about there not being any difference, and pick your own radical fluorecent yellow/green/pink colours.

[manikyath]

1 hour ago, Dutch-stoner said:

Complain about there not being any difference, and pick your own radical fluorecent yellow/green/pink colours.

w1d2 afternoon update: layer 1 done, social experiment implemented.

 

i've purposely missed a few pieces, the biggest one in the following picture, if they dont notice i'm going with a theory i figured out while painting a wall that's been behind a clouset for years:

it's the same color paint as we had, my walls just yellow-ed.

Spoiler

the temptation to go pick up a warm orange is big

[Guest]

I can't see the painted/unpainted area... So go for Linus logo orange!

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

I can't see the painted/unpainted area... So go for Linus logo orange!

i was thinking really blue, with one wall quite black, and some very silver accents.

[Guest]

If it would have been my room, I think I would have made everything black, and put boards against the windows. I would place (coloured) lighting at specific places, maybe orange, maybe blue.

 

Why would I go for black, and boarded up windows? Less glare, while gaming, the only light coming from the screen.

[manikyath]

Just now, Dutch-stoner said:

If it would have been my room, I think I would have made everything black, and put boards against the windows. I would place (coloured) lighting at specific places, maybe orange, maybe blue.

 

Why would I go for black, and boarded up windows? Less glare, while gaming, the only light coming from the screen.

i may get a second LED strip to make the white paint any color i want it to be 

[manikyath]

w1d2 evening update:

just had an interesting conversation with my mom about the paint.

short summary:

- she didnt see the damnest difference between the old paint and the new.

- i tell her that i wanted a darker color

- she says that she'll go get a bucket of a darker color tomorrow then

- i say sure, but i dont want her trying to "overwrite" my opinions again

- she says that a darker color wouldnt work so i'll have to pick a lighter color

 

conlusion:

i told her i'm done painting, i dont care anymore, because it'll just end up being another bucket of white.

hopefully tomorrow they'll bring home the sanding machine they borrowed from work (after complaining that everyone borrows it from work)

 

w1d3 will probably be starting on the floor, if not i'll probably be doing the main rig and my laptop as a "filler", since the main rig *needs to happen anyways* and my laptop does NOT like fedora with gnome shell, i've been having bugs left and right like you wouldnt believe...