[tech] [committee] Purchase of 2 New Machines

[James Cox]

"One thing I wouild like to see UCC start doing is purchasing machines from
one supplier. Why? It builds a relationship with that supplier and will
help us to secure discounts, for both ourselves and our members.”

I think this is a noble idea in theory, but I do not see that there is any
value in it when the PC parts market is as notorious as it is.

A. Anyone with enough margin to give us and our members a discount would be
too expensive to be worth ordering from.

B. A relationship with a retailer is not particularly useful since most
(all) retailers shirk their warranty obligations.

C. Less importantly, a single supplier is likely not going to carry the
eclectic range of stuff we need anyway.


[RME]~Coxy

On 12 March 2016 at 13:29, Mitchell Pomery <mjpomery at ucc.asn.au> wrote:

> Hey,
>
> It's a personal preference to have DVD drives in machines, so much so that
> I would be willing to donate the $40 to make sure that they have them.
>
> Power supply: We can drop it down to a 500-600W one for sure. I'd like to
> keep it modular (or at least semi modular) just for ease of use and
> prettiness inside the case (cable management yo).
>
> I'd prefer to avoid SSD's as Operating system disks for the time being. On
> the windows machines the disk will be nowhere near large enough for
> profiles, and I would like both machines to be able to have the same
> specs. That said, assuming we can get one at around the $100 mark.
>
> >From my conversation with [BOB] last night, the reason for picking that
> specific graphics card was because it should have ball bearing fans, which
> should last much longer than the fans of graphics cards we have had die
> previously. I'll have a look at the different GTX 960's to find out which
> ones have ball bearing fans.
>
> One thing I wouild like to see UCC start doing is purchasing machines from
> one supplier. Why? It builds a relationship with that supplier and will
> help us to secure discounts, for both ourselves and our members. And as
> you've said, this is important as our income is about to take a hit.
>
> Anyway, I will be placing the order Monday afternoon.
>
> Thanks,
> Mitchell Pomery
>
> 2015 President
> University Computer Club
>
>
> On Tue, 8 Mar 2016, jordan meerwald wrote:
>
> > I agree with most of the points raised here. DVD drives in each machine
> are
> > unnecessary and the i5 750 in Pinball can last another year (I have the
> same
> > in my own PC) if theres a core 2 duo that could be replaced instead.
> >
> > The PLE centurion 6 has an included cheap 500W PSU, its closer to $100
> > without that
> > (
> http://www.vtechindustries.com.au/catalog/product/view/id/10420/s/cooler-ma
> > ster-centurion-6-black-case-rc-610-kkn1/ )
> > There are probably cheaper cases that are suitable but that looks quite
> > nice, and the power button being on the corner is convenient. If we're
> > buying from a single supplier the case will really depend on their stock.
> >
> > When I built Corydoras it was recommended to me that we should spend at
> > least $120 on a PSU, 750W seems high and paying extra for modular isn't
> > really necessary, semi-modular is probably worth it though.
> >
> > I didn't realise 240GB SSDs were down to around the $100 mark. I'm not
> > exactly sure how logins work, but would large /away directories cause
> issues
> > with how many times you can write to an SSD? Unless we need large
> amounts of
> > storage on the OS drive an SSD is probably worth it.
> >
> > Given we're expecting these machines to last till 2020 at least, and
> likely
> > a move to 1440p/1600p in that time, I think a little extra GPU power
> will be
> > worth it. Most of the Windows machines have 960s in them currently iirc.
> The
> > benchmarks I've looked at show a 20-30% performance difference.
> >
> > If you can find a Windows 7 Student license around they were about $80,
> but
> > apparently non-OEM copies of Windows 7 are getting quite hard to find. It
> > may even be worth buying a sub-$100 refurbished computer that has a
> windows
> > license installed just to transfer it.
> >
> > [JDN]
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: committee-bounces+kurama101=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
> > [mailto:committee-bounces+kurama101=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au]
> On
> > Behalf Of Andrew Adamson
> > Sent: Tuesday, 8 March 2016 8:33 PM
> > To: Mitchell Pomery <mjpomery at ucc.asn.au>
> > Cc: tech at ucc.asn.au; committee at ucc.asn.au
> > Subject: Re: [committee] [tech] Purchase of 2 New Machines
> >
> > Hi Mitch,
> >
> > That looks like a pretty solid build, but I think there's a couple of
> ways
> > we can trim it without compromising on computing power or reliability.
> > This is particularly relevant given that the clubs income is about to
> halve.
> >
> > For starters, I suggest we ditch the DVD drives; they barely get used on
> the
> > machines that do have them, and we bought an external DVD drive for this
> > exact reason (it lives in the tool cupboard). Time for that to pay for
> > itself: $40 saved across two machines.
> >
> > When you say "Pinball" I assume you mean "Porcupine" - after all,
> Porcupine
> > is a C2D while Pinball is an i5 with decent specs. Porcupine happens to
> have
> > a decent case and PSU already, as we were careful in the past to try and
> get
> > generic cases that would last across a couple of generations and were
> > compatible with our security requirements. If I recall correctly it's a
> > CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case (mk 1 or 2, not
> > sure) and there's nothing wrong with it. We have spare blanking plates
> and
> > internal parts for it in the machine room. Its power supply is also fine:
> > $120 saved on that combo. Cockgrunters case is not compatible with our
> > security as far as I know, and needs replacing. Might I suggest a
> > CoolerMaster Centurion?
> >
> > A 750W power supply is pretty overkill in this case. The PSU recommended
> on
> > the geforce.com website for an i7 3.2 GHz with a GTX 960 is 400W. Given
> that
> > the trend is towards cooler and lower-wattage electronics, I don't think
> > 750W is necessary even for future proofing. If you don't get a PSU with
> the
> > case, something like the $93 550W coolermaster GM RS550-AMAAB1 from msy
> > might be the go. NB: many of the clubroom machines have coolermaster
> silent
> > pro PSU's in them and they've stood the test of time.
> >
> > As someone who helps maintain the clubroom machines, I'm pretty keen on
> an
> > SSD for the system disk. If nothing else, it makes maintenance more
> bearable
> > when things install quickly. Can we swap one of the 2TB disks for a
> > 240GB/250GB ssd in each machine? I have had good results with Kingston
> > V300 at work, but I would understand if people want to go with Samsung
> > instead.
> >
> > The GTX960 is only 6% more powerful than the GTX950 based on a range of
> > benchmarks I looked at. It's around 30% more expensive, and I would
> > challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference, given the games we
> > usually run and the resolutions of our screens. Given the number of
> graphics
> > cards failures we have, I think the money would be better spent on a card
> > with more reliable fans and slightly less power. By more reliable fans I
> > mean ball bearing fans. "Maglev" and sleeve bearings are shit. Gigabyte
> GPU
> > fans are shit and we have proven they don't survive in UCC. EVGA seem to
> be
> > the only company doing ball bearing fans on the GTX 950.
> >
> > So based on your specs and the above suggestions, I took the liberty of
> > doing a more exact costing:
> >
> > 2 of
> >
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620472/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Skylake-27GHz-6MB-
> > Retail-Box
> > 2 of
> >
> http://www.msy.com.au/pc-components/16372-gigabyte-b150m-d3h-intel-b150-s115
> > 1-4xddr4-2xpciex16-hdmi-dvi-d-sub-usb30-microatx-mb.html
> > 4 of
> >
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620893/Kingston-8GB-Single-DDR4-Value-Series
> > -C15-2133MHz
> > 2 of
> >
> http://www.msy.com.au/pc-components/5282-kingston-kinsv300s37a-240g-240g-ssd
> > now-v300-sata3-25-ssd-hdd.html
> > 2 of
> >
> http://www.msy.com.au/waonline/pc-components/5103-seagate-35-barracuda-2tb-s
> > t2000dm001-sata3-7200rpm-64mb-cache-hard-disk.html
> > 2 of
> >
> https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33067/evga-geforce-gtx-950-superclocked-
> > acx-2-0-2gb
> > 1 of
> >
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/611809/Cooler-Master-Centurion-6-Black-Mid-T
> > ower-Case---500W-PSU
> >
> > Total cost without shipping: $2171
> >
> > Andrew Adamson
> > bob at ucc.asn.au
> >
> > |"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."
> |
> > | ---Peter's Laws
> |
> >
> > On Mon, 7 Mar 2016, Mitchell Pomery wrote:
> >
> >> Hey All,
> >>
> >> As per meeting minutes, we are looking at purchasing two new machines.
> >> Specs for both are as follows:
> >>
> >> Mid Sized ATX Case
> >> 750 Watt Modular Power Supply
> >> Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H Motherboard
> >> Intel Core i5 6400
> >> 16GB RAM (in 2x8GB Sticks)
> >> 2x 2TB Hard Drives (One for operating system, one for files/games) DVD
> >> Drive GeForce GTX 960 2GB
> >>
> >> Cost is just around $1100 per machine.
> >>
> >> One machine will also need a Windows license (Roughly $200), with the
> >> preference being to get a Windows 7 License if possible, otherwise
> >> going with a Windows 10 one.
> >>
> >> Total cost: Around $2500, depending on who we get it from.
> >>
> >> Aim is to build two machines that could operate as either Windows or
> >> Linux machines, with one of these taking the place of Cockgrunter, the
> >> other taking the place of Pinball. The parts salvaged from these two
> >> machines will be put into other machines where suitable, or be
> >> disposed of/put into the parts bin where not.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Mitchell Pomery
> >>
> >> 2015 President
> >> University Computer Club
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >> du.au
> >>
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