[tech] Proposed new parts to replace Porcupine

[bob at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au]

Hi All,

The new parts have been bought and installed in porcupine. It wasn't noted 
in the minutes but committee went with the AMD Linux build. I ran out of 
time last night to reinstall the OS, and it won't boot off the old 
spinning hard drive because the filesystem is unhappy. I left the spinning 
disk sitting in it so that whoever sets up the new OS install can try and 
grab the host keys off it, but after that it can be removed and disposed 
of.

As I was cleaning the case, I noticed that the front case fan was seized 
and the rear case fan was non-existent, so I some replacements on order. 
Otherwise everything appears to be happy.

Andrew Adamson
bob at ucc.asn.au

|"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."                |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |

On Sat, 18 Aug 2018, bob at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au wrote:

> Hi Felix,
> 
> Thanks for putting this together. To start with, it's great that we can 
> re-use some of those parts. I do think the budget is pretty low for this 
> though - we've previously spent around $1100-1200 on a machine, and given 
> the current bank balances, I see no reason to skimp (even if we do end up 
> replacing maltair). With a more reasonable budget, we can sit a little bit 
> ahead of the curve with this machine, and it will hold up better over 5 
> years.
> 
> CPU first: The spec looked good, but the ebay item you linked has ended, 
> and I couldn't see another for under $500. A $365 alternative could be an 
> i5 which actually benchmarks slightly higher than the i7 anyway: 
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/629393/Intel-Core-i5-8600K-36GHz-Coffee-Lake-9MB-No-HSF-Retail-Box
> 
> Is there any reason you didn't look at AMD? From what I can tell, the 
> Ryzen 7 2700 is more powerful than either of the suggested intel chips, 
> isn't susceptible to spectre/meltdown, and is in the same ballpark price 
> ($379) 
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/631478/AMD-Ryzen-7-2700-32Ghz-20MB-AM4-Retail-Box---With-Wraith-Spire-LED-Cooler-
> 
> RAM: ram is ram. Get whatever suits the mobo, but get at least 16GB, so 
> $220
> 
> SSD: tricky to decide this without knowing what machine this hardware will 
> end up in. If linux, size is less of an issue, but it would be really nice 
> to get a blazing fast M.2 SSD. If windows, it needs to be at least 
> 1TB...and it would be really nice to get a blazing fast M.2 SSD, but that 
> puts us over the $500 mark for one that is faster than SATA3. My M.2 
> option is then $273 http://www.msy.com.au/waonline/m2-ssd/21322-samsung-970-evo-mz-v7e500bw-500gb-m2-ssd-solid-state-drive.html 
> and my windows/SATA option is $309 https://www.ple.com.au/Products/630704/Crucial-MX500-1TB-SATA-25-7mm-SSD
> 
> Mobo: I'm not sure what the issue with Realtek LAN is? I also went for 
> something with a USB-C port (even my work laptop has it these days), $145: 
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/632874/ASRock-B450M-Pro4-AM4-mATX-Desktop-Motherboard-
> ...or an intel mobo to suit the i5, $129 
> https://www.ple.com.au/Products/631567/Gigabyte-B360M-D3H-LGA1151-CL-mATX-Desktop-Motherboard
> 
> Totals, keeping in mind the AMD benchmarks higher:
> Linux AMD total: $1017
> Linux Intel total: $987
> Windows AMD total: $1053
> Windows Intel total: $1023
> 
> Andrew Adamson
> bob at ucc.asn.au
> 
> |"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."                |
> | ---Peter's Laws                                                        |
> 
> On Fri, 10 Aug 2018, Felix von Perger wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Dear tech and committee,
> > 
> > Here is a quick parts list which I propose to buy to replace Porcupine (or to replace Cobra/Catfish and swap some bits around to eventually end up with a suitable replacement). This is
> > a fairly high end system using the latest 8th gen Intel CPUs and a reasonable quality motherboard.
> > 
> >  *  Intel i7-8700T - $300 (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Intel-Core-i7-8700T-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4-00-GHz/223089946483)
> >  *  ASRock B360M LGA1151-CL mATX motherboard - $110 (https://www.ple.com.au/Products/631588/ASRock-B360M-HDV-LGA1151-CL-mATX-Desktop-Motherboard)
> >      +  Note: cheaper motherboards use Realtek LAN
> >  *  8GB DDR4-2666 RAM - $120 (https://www.ple.com.au/Products/632330/GeIL-8GB-Single-DDR4-Pristine-C19-2666MHz)
> >      +  if 8GB RAM is not enough, 16GB DDR4-2666 modules can be found for $220 (https://www.ple.com.au/Products/628441/GeIL-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-EVO-X-RGB-LED-C16-2400MHz) however this
> >         has the potential to go over-budget
> >  *  500GB SSD - $170 (https://www.ple.com.au/Products/630702/Crucial-MX500-500GB-SATA-25-7mm-SSD)
> >  *  Power supply - use existing
> >  *  Graphics card - use existing
> >  *  Case - use existing
> > 
> > Total cost for this build should be around $700, within the budget as proposed in the minutes here.
> > 
> > Please provide feedback on any cost-saving measures, missing components, if this is under or over specced etc.
> > 
> > - [FVP]
> > 
> > 
> > 
> _______________________________________________
> List Archives: http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/tech
> 
> Unsubscribe here: http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/mailman/options/tech/bob%40ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
>