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

[Russell]

Top posting this as the hardware build is complete and functioning.

Case = CoolerMaster HAF XB EVO - easy to work in, on and around. Added a Masterliquid 240 water-cooling unit. The rad took up the case mounting holes at the front, so I jury rigged the case fans as pull units. It's called duct tape for a reason :-) I'll cobble up an offset adapter for the original case fans later.

Quiet, you bet. When I fired it up, I had to put my hand on the w/c pump to see if it was really on. 4 fans push/pull @ 850 rpm on the rad keep the temp around 30 c. although there's no real load as of yet. I can't even hear the fans if I listen for them. I have to speed them up manually in bios to hear what they sound like. 

CPU = i7-8700 - locked so no overclocking 

Asus Prime z370-A - You can get the board today at Canada Computers for $174.00 after 20$ mail in rebate.
I had no problem with the audio codec. It worked right off. Intel UHD graphics seems to have lost DRM support in Fedora 27. It was apparently ok in 25, so something should be available down the road. Had to beef up display graphics capabilities by adding i915.alpha_support=1 to boot. Have to figure out efi & grub2 to make it persistent.

RAM = 1 x 8 DDR4 2666

SSD = Intel 512 Gig - over-provisioned it shows up as 475 Gig. I left an additional 40 Gig undefined. Separate partitions for / (40Gig)& /boot/efi (40Gig) & /swap (16Gig) & /home 

I also had to pick up a 500w p/s. My 6+2 power dongle on the existing one showed up on the diagnostic LED's as a CPU fault. I even ordered an RMA label on the CPU before I figured it out. Jumped the gun because of fear of  Christmas congestion.

Thanks Lennart for the upgrade MB suggestion, I thought it was good value at retail. I bought another one on sale yesterday, when I went downtown and got the displayport cable and PSU.

Also thanks Hugh for the SSD wear balancing primer and other suggestions.

True to my word about skinned knuckles, I cut my thumb on the cheap aluminum case insert plate for the external IO.

Fedora boots in 10 sec and journalctl just shows the dbus PCI error which I assume is related to DRM graphics.

Other stuff. I couldn't install the CPU upside-down because the depression for the fan is too far back. Probably meant for a much larger supply. However, I just noticed thumbscrews in an odd location by the PSU and perhaps there is a built in offset for a smaller unit to be able to use the intake filter. Just have to reverse it up.

I haven't totalled receipts yet but I'm within 15% over of my original budget, without a HDD, but with extra features that made to all worthwhile for me.

Cheers
Russell

On November 22, 2017 11:54:03 AM EST, Russell <rreiter91 at gmail.com> wrote:
>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

-- 
Russell