Computing

[Cheerful Charlie]

It's a possibility. I've been browsing some r/homelab over at reddit and daydreaming about hypervisors...

Also, ZFS recommends 1GB RAM per TB of disk space, so it's better to have it than not. They also recommend you keep your pools below 80% of capacity. I'm well over both on my old machine, so I went a little overboard in speccing out the upgrade. I'm going to start with 2 x RaidZ2 6x6TB, and with 36 drive bays the overkill on the RAM was worth it if only for futureproofing the overkill on pool size. The ebay prices on used servers are pretty fantastic though, it wasn't nearly as expensive as it might seem.



Of course, I don't technically "need" any of this. We are in the hobby forum after all. It just lets me play around writing scripts, setting up systems, and getting the networking to $!@#$#@ work properly. I enjoy fiddling with the settings and getting things running smoothly.



Even the cost savings aren't that great any more. There are a ton of pre-built systems that are priced really well. Unless you want a weird form factor (my sister and I built a fanless mini-ITX computer for her over the summer - think a full power desktop crammed into a 190x190x60mm case) or want a high end gaming system, you'll only save a bit by building it yourself.



Dual monitors are a great upgrade.

I guess I should re-phrase in that everything I'm interested in doing with my computer(s) can be handled with relatively benign specs, so it's hard to justify an outlandish system. The PC we bought a few months back was actually a machine to allow my fiancée to better help with our wedding (before that she was on a dated laptop). Even so it's a great computer and more than capable of handling everything I do.

The last thing I've been thinking about you had mentioned to me in another thread, actually. Some sort of computer system that I can hook into my TV to beef up the 'smart' capabilities. To date I've been streaming the odd thing through an Android Box, but I think I could get much better results with something a little more robust.

edit: although now that I think of it, my PC is within reach of my Samsung TV so I could probably just string a HDMI cable between the two when needed

A lot of people seem to be using cheap Raspberry Pis and similar SoC systems running Linux/Kodi as a streaming media center. All you need then is a nice wi-fi remote.

 

[rousseau]

It's a possibility. I've been browsing some r/homelab over at reddit and daydreaming about hypervisors...

Also, ZFS recommends 1GB RAM per TB of disk space, so it's better to have it than not. They also recommend you keep your pools below 80% of capacity. I'm well over both on my old machine, so I went a little overboard in speccing out the upgrade. I'm going to start with 2 x RaidZ2 6x6TB, and with 36 drive bays the overkill on the RAM was worth it if only for futureproofing the overkill on pool size. The ebay prices on used servers are pretty fantastic though, it wasn't nearly as expensive as it might seem.



Of course, I don't technically "need" any of this. We are in the hobby forum after all. It just lets me play around writing scripts, setting up systems, and getting the networking to $!@#$#@ work properly. I enjoy fiddling with the settings and getting things running smoothly.



Even the cost savings aren't that great any more. There are a ton of pre-built systems that are priced really well. Unless you want a weird form factor (my sister and I built a fanless mini-ITX computer for her over the summer - think a full power desktop crammed into a 190x190x60mm case) or want a high end gaming system, you'll only save a bit by building it yourself.



Dual monitors are a great upgrade.

I guess I should re-phrase in that everything I'm interested in doing with my computer(s) can be handled with relatively benign specs, so it's hard to justify an outlandish system. The PC we bought a few months back was actually a machine to allow my fiancée to better help with our wedding (before that she was on a dated laptop). Even so it's a great computer and more than capable of handling everything I do.

The last thing I've been thinking about you had mentioned to me in another thread, actually. Some sort of computer system that I can hook into my TV to beef up the 'smart' capabilities. To date I've been streaming the odd thing through an Android Box, but I think I could get much better results with something a little more robust.

edit: although now that I think of it, my PC is within reach of my Samsung TV so I could probably just string a HDMI cable between the two when needed

A lot of people seem to be using cheap Raspberry Pis and similar SoC systems running Linux/Kodi as a streaming media center. All you need then is a nice wi-fi remote.

That sounds reasonable.

My real problem is that my problem is an edge case. Luckily the NHL and MLB actually allow me to directly pay for and watch their content, so for 98% of the year I just watch hockey or baseball.

I could get this figured out but by the time I want to watch some soccer, football, or tennis I haven't gotten around to it yet and usually just end up watching on my laptop or desktop.

Ah, first world problems.

 

[beero1000]

Been troubleshooting. The joys of buying used computing equipment.

Once I started stressing it, it freaked out. First it started throwing MCA memory errors and then the mirrored boot USBs detached and the whole thing crashed.

The crashes ended up being due to Supermicro USB drivers not getting along with Cruzer USB drives. Replaced them with small SSDs and that stopped.

Trying to diagnose the RAM issue now. The error addresses were all over the place (but only on one CPU), so it isn't as simple as a single stick of bad RAM, but I'm hoping that it's just dusty DIMM slots. I took everything out and cleaned it, and we'll see if they recur. If that doesn't work, my next troubleshooting step is to swap the CPU positions to see if it's a bad socket or the CPU itself.

On the plus side, all the errors were corrected (yay ECC), and I got all of my data transferred over successfully.

 

[beero1000]

30 hours later and no errors yet. Another day or so and I will declare victory!

 

[J842P]

This is most impressive.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

30 hours later and no errors yet. Another day or so and I will declare victory!

What OS are you using? One way to trouble shoot such things is the use a good Linux bootable rescue CD. Usually these have memtest. Run that and it will stress test your memory and report any anomalies. Often it can tell you with DIMM is acting up. Is this used equipment you are testing overclocked by any chance?

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

 

[beero1000]

30 hours later and no errors yet. Another day or so and I will declare victory!

What OS are you using? One way to trouble shoot such things is the use a good Linux bootable rescue CD. Usually these have memtest. Run that and it will stress test your memory and report any anomalies. Often it can tell you with DIMM is acting up. Is this used equipment you are testing overclocked by any chance?

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

FreeNAS on the base system, and it is used hardware (but not overclocked). My RAM is ECC, so it catches the errors in hardware before it gets to the software stage. The basic memtest won't work and I haven't spent the ~$40 to buy the pro edition that can do memory error injection.

It has started throwing errors again though, so that might be on the docket soon.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

30 hours later and no errors yet. Another day or so and I will declare victory!

What OS are you using? One way to trouble shoot such things is the use a good Linux bootable rescue CD. Usually these have memtest. Run that and it will stress test your memory and report any anomalies. Often it can tell you with DIMM is acting up. Is this used equipment you are testing overclocked by any chance?

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

FreeNAS on the base system, and it is used hardware (but not overclocked). My RAM is ECC, so it catches the errors in hardware before it gets to the software stage. The basic memtest won't work and I haven't spent the ~$40 to buy the pro edition that can do memory error injection.

It has started throwing errors again though, so that might be on the docket soon.

Bummer! The only times I had memory problems was cured by repeatedly removing and reseating the memory modules assisted by the old trick of gently cleaning the DIMM fingers with a pencil eraser. Plus blowing out the sockets with compressed air.

Long ago I had a computer, a 486 that once a year started to have problems. I would vacuum out the power supply and after removing dust bunnies there, was good for another year.

 

[bilby]

FreeNAS on the base system, and it is used hardware (but not overclocked). My RAM is ECC, so it catches the errors in hardware before it gets to the software stage. The basic memtest won't work and I haven't spent the ~$40 to buy the pro edition that can do memory error injection.

It has started throwing errors again though, so that might be on the docket soon.

Bummer! The only times I had memory problems was cured by repeatedly removing and reseating the memory modules assisted by the old trick of gently cleaning the DIMM fingers with a pencil eraser. Plus blowing out the sockets with compressed air.

Long ago I had a computer, a 486 that once a year started to have problems. I would vacuum out the power supply and after removing dust bunnies there, was good for another year.

We have three dogs and two cats.

99% of hardware problems can be traced to hair where hair oughtn't to be. Heat sinks and fans particularly don't like it, but it gets everywhere. If you can't fix it by kicking it, then the vacuum cleaner is almost always effective.

 

[Malintent]

FreeNAS on the base system, and it is used hardware (but not overclocked). My RAM is ECC, so it catches the errors in hardware before it gets to the software stage. The basic memtest won't work and I haven't spent the ~$40 to buy the pro edition that can do memory error injection.

It has started throwing errors again though, so that might be on the docket soon.

Bummer! The only times I had memory problems was cured by repeatedly removing and reseating the memory modules assisted by the old trick of gently cleaning the DIMM fingers with a pencil eraser. Plus blowing out the sockets with compressed air.

Long ago I had a computer, a 486 that once a year started to have problems. I would vacuum out the power supply and after removing dust bunnies there, was good for another year.

We have three dogs and two cats.

99% of hardware problems can be traced to hair where hair oughtn't to be. Heat sinks and fans particularly don't like it, but it gets everywhere. If you can't fix it by kicking it, then the vacuum cleaner is almost always effective.

Three cats, no dogs here... any fan in any piece of equipment in my house eventually starts to make high pitched sounds like the bearings are wearing out. That is when I know to open up the device and pull the wads of cat hair out of the air intakes.