Tech Thread - PCs - Networking - Etc

[Aaron Coomer (3.504)]

outside of gaming, is there a need for that much for a home PC?

[ohioyj]

outside of gaming, is there a need for that much for a home PC?

Define "need". Long time ago when I bought the new carb for the the super moto, the wife noticed this sticker on it:



She says "you didn't really need that did you?"...

I mean I could do my gaming, editing, encoding, programming, etc on something more "normal". However, where is the fun in that.

[Aaron Coomer (3.504)]

I've only ever seen computers modified for gaming purpose, i wasn't sure if folks were doing it for other reasons (like video editing or CAD).

[ohioyj]

I've only ever seen computers modified for gaming purpose, i wasn't sure if folks were doing it for other reasons (like video editing or CAD).

I still do fair bit of video / audio editing, but just hobby stuff. I pretty much modify everything though.

Back when I used traditional routers, I noticed FasterLongerDeeperHarder downs during extended downloads. I solved this by always adding extra heatsinks, and at least one fan to my cable modems, and routers. Since most of these are powered by 12 volts, you can power the fans by the device themselves (few examples):

[ohioyj]

Well my firewall "upgrade" has had a couple cores that run really hot for no apparent reason. This got me to looking into it.

ASRock made really nice heatsinks inside, and put grilles on the sides of the device, but I didn't notice at first they go nowhere:



So time to tear it apart and fix it:



Add some speed holes:



You can barely tell I did anything at all:



I'll put it back together tomorrow with some good thermal compound. Hopefully we're in much better shape now.

[ohioyj]

Been busy with tech projects lately. Maybe because it's Winter. My son and I have almost identical keyboards (I have a Q6 he has a Q6 Max), however his feels much better than mine. So it was time to upgrade / customize mine some.



Everything apart, and new stabilizers going in.



During reassembly I put the foam tape on the brass plate in the same places as the OEM plate. However I found a few places the place rattle against the keyboard case. I ended up using silicone it in those spots. Stopped the noise.





This is an old picture, but this is what it looks like all back together:

[ohioyj]

My Firewall cooling project got a little out of hand. Everyone cools their NUC with a Noctua cooler right?



It took a little while to get this back together, but it's finally back together, and running again:



So I couldn't use the low profile fan, as most NUCs use 5V fans. So I'm using a 120mm 5V PWM fan from Noctua (they don't make a low profile version unfortunately). This means the fan does stick out a little past the heatsink, but it's not bad.



This was not fun to put together. So I did make sure my fan adapter is run outside. Just in case the fan ever fails and needs replaced.



Probably not to many have had these Asrock boxes apart, but if anyone has, they'd notice the hole I cut would have also removed the wifi antennas. New wifi antennas were installed. Not that I use them in OPNsense, but I figured just in case I ever need this box for anything else, they might be nice to have.

It being taller did mean I had to reconfigure my rack, and move things around. I'll have to make some new network cables to neaten things up here in a bit. However for the moment, everything is back up and running again.

[Aaron Coomer (3.504)]

this is so far above and beyond my understanding of things.

[ohioyj]

One more tech project before spring. Finally got everything on the network rack upgraded to 10G. Couldn't find a firewall / server that was a clear cut winner for the project so I built one. It's a little overkill just to run OPNsense but... :

- Intel 265K
- Asus B860-I Gaming Wifi (Only Mini-ITX I found with Intel LAN)
- 32 GB DDR5 6000
- 1 TB MP600
- SF850 PSU
- Intel X550-T2

I still ended up roughly the same price as a MS-01, but for a much more powerful machine. Though, admittedly, not as small. However it still fits on my rack fine. The network card has two 80mm intake fans pointed at, so it should have plenty of cooling.



Found out my ONT actually is 10G capable. So perhaps faster speeds than 2G is on my fiber providers radar? Either way I also noticed I no longer have any issues with my upload speeds. Not that they were necessarily FasterLongerDeeperHarder before, but it wouldn't keep the full speed, for extended uploads before. Never dug too deeply into that one though, as I don't do a ton of uploading.

[StrippleT]

Nice rack! I like the fiber connection between your switches. One might say overkill, but if its worth doing its worth overdoing right? I'd say your ISP is completely capable of providing the 10g symmetrical uplink and downlink. They just restrict it depending on your account type and plan you pay for. Business accounts typically would receive a much higher upload and much more bandwidth and priority on the ISP's network. Its a get what you pay for kind of deal in my experience.