[GTALUG] Build critique request and the story behind it.

[Russell]

On November 22, 2017 10:47:27 AM EST, lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca wrote:
>On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 05:59:56AM -0500, Russell via talk wrote:
>> I chose it for the form. I have degeneration in the lower disks of my
>spine so lift and carry have become issues for me. This form factor is
>easy to lift and carry. Basically it's an 18 in cube. 
>> 
>> Stand with your arms extended downward, palms facing in and touching
>your legs. Raise your arms at the elbows and pick something up. If it
>is too narrow, this forces your elbows out and puts pressure on your
>spine; if it is too wide this also forces your elbows away from your
>body, also causing stress. This is why plastic milk crates are the size
>they are, to reduce the carry load put on the back of the person
>carrying them.
>> 
>> I don't know what you mean by hard disks being behind the MB but this
>unit has pretty standardized modular drive cradles. The unit can be
>opened on the top and sides allowing for ample illumination and access.
>> 
>> The planar mount tray is separate from the bottom of the case and
>about 1/4 the way up from the bottom. This creates a torsion box for
>added rigidity. You could pick it up by the top rails with the top and
>sides with the handles removed and not fear over torquing the pcb.
>> 
>> The p/s mount is at the bottom which lowers the centre of gravity,
>also good for moving the unit around. Plus extra filters for air
>cooling. If the p/s intake fan is on the top, you flip it over, fan
>down and there is a removable filter tray for dust on the bottom. If
>the fan is on the side by the plug end, there is an included bracket
>for extra fans. The whole thing is marketed as optimized for airflow.
>That alone wouldn't have done it, airflow is usually easily managed,
>just add more and bigger/better fans.
>> 
>> As a total package though, it fit my needs quite nicely. 
>
>Looks pretty nice actually.  Power supply on the bottom is becoming
>somewhat common, but the cube design is certainly not as common.  Don't
>have to lie it down to work on the motherboard or cards, which seems
>nice.

Fits on the upper shelf of the frankenbench with just enough room for the audio amp in the slot underneath. 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1045658-REG/osd_audio_amp120_2_channel_power_amplifier.html

Nice bridging mode with automatic source switching. When it senses a new signal it switches to that, makes it very versatile. It's kind of vintage so no optical input. 

I ordered an i7-8700 CPU. @ $487, so I'm $60 shy of my target of $1200 for the build, with no ram yet. The ram will put me 10% over estimate. Rather than monkey with the CPU down the road, I'll add in the water-cooling as well. I'll do this after I seat the parts and see what's what. So probably 15-17% over for the feature improvements and lesser physical storage on board, which is not a real issue at this time.

Looks good on paper to me. We'll see how the build goes. 

I was never able to work on a car without scraping my knuckles, system integration is kind of like that too. 

Thanks for the help.
>
>-- 
>Len Sorensen

-- 
Russell