Subj : Re: USB port issue -follo To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Fri May 29 2020 22:13:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > Hi Ky! HI! > > KM> both. Clocking RAM where it belongs made WAY more difference, so > > KM> guess which I did. > > Ummm....! Set the RAM correctly! > KM> You win a banana! > Sometimes it pays to monkey around!! Too much monkey business here > KM> I believe I have now done so. Will come from rez at doomgold dot > KM> com. (Stable address since I own the domain.) And how did you > KM> know tomorrow is my birthday? :D (Well, today by when you read > KM> this!) > > Yeah, and you're still a year younger than I am! So um, yeah, the RAM I should have more respect! > will be your birthday present! Just a little late because of, um... > ah... you didn't tell me what you wanted until the last minute!! I didn't know I was getting older til the last minute > Did receive the e-mail and your address; will probably send out Thursday > when I go grocery shopping. Will let you know for certain. Soon enough! I'll put off eating the birthday cake too. Actually I won't have a choice, cuz I didn't make one. :D > > Yuuhhhhhp: I've been semi-sorta on the lookout for a good Intel-based > > motherboard and CPU based on all this; what you just said pretty much > KM> So what exactly are you looking for? > That's part of the problem: I don't know! And I sort of combine 'CPU' > with "Motherboard" as know they have to be compatible though can be Yeah, with the million options it's nice to know up front they work together. > bought separately. Fast -- I do not like waiting for the CPU to scratch > it's head. This system boots via a SSD and the data is on a HDD. That's how I decided to do things too -- boot and programs on the SSD, data on spinning rust. And decided to add the cheapest NVMe (on a PCIe adapter card, cuz no support on the motherboard) I could lay hands on for email and swapfile and VM images, because those are the really big files that I'm tired of waiting for. > Current CPU is a (AMD) FX-8320 -- eight cores, I think 3.2 GHz though > couldn't find the speed quickly. Not sure if I really need 8 cores. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8320+Eight-Core&id=1782 Faster than a quad-core, but only a bit over half as fast as a low-end i7. So... for faster, but not too pricey, you probably want something in a late-generation i7. Something like: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-9700K+%40+3.60GHz&id=3335 For comparison, my "new" (less than 12 years old or so) CPUs with benchmarks, both Passmark (from their site) and CPU-Z (actual tests): http://twilightasylum.com/pc/cpus3.htm My i7 CPUs are only 3rd and 4th generation, so a bit 'slow' compared to current, but they are 5-6 years old, too... old enough that all but Silver's are corporate discards. Silver's "new" CPU+board came from eBay for $200, and only that much because in its day it was a fairly high-end motherboard, and this model is still in some demand due to also supporting Xeon CPUs and server RAM. Fireball's CPU was about $20, and if I'd had to buy the mainboard they're about $75. You can pick up a complete Thinkstation S30 (what it would be if it weren't a frankenputer) for around $200. Main reason I have Silver and Fireball rather than just using the Dells is that said Dells (3 alike) are the small cases, with zero room for a 2nd HD, so while they're fine for secondary, not so good for everyday. All about the same speed, tho. > USB 3; not sure if need 3.1 but expansion slots are good. "Plenty" of > USB 2 and USB 3 ports (front panel too!, or at least the option -- have > an expansion panel card). It's nice to have a few onboard but external hubs kinda negate the need for dozens stuck to the board. > Gigabit LAN. Even my 10 year old boards have this! but a couple of the onboard NICs have died, and been replaced by a $10 gigabit card. > Video -- separate card is fine though if a decent onboard one; HDMI over > DVI because of the monitor (can use an adapter). Audio I'm connecting > to the audio out as goes into the amp and bookshelf speakers. Could use > an extractor. Whether you get onboard video depends on the chipset and CPU (frex, the one in Silver does not support onboard). Everything except maybe some server boards have onboard audio now. I use whatever cheap random video card has both DVI and VGA, and is fanless, cuz I got tired of those dinky little fans whining and dying. Onboard video is usually good enough now that if it's present, I don't bother with anything else. (Except for the older Dell quadcore ... for some stupid reason only allows 8mb RAM for onboard video, which is no longer enough.) > Also probably/eventually a second monitor so if integrated video that > little detail. I keep meaning to do this, and never have. *sigh* > I like free expansion ports, mainly for the option when upgrading -- so > if a PCIe16 is used for the video card a 'spare' PCIe16 is a plus. Yeah, even if they don't all support 16x, it's nice to have the extra slots, as you can use 'em for an m.2 adapter card, an SAS adapter card, or various other add-ons. Also, having only one is usually a sign of corner cutting. Better boards usually have three, tho only two may be 16x. Also nice to still have that PCI slot for older stuff. > So anything in the $79.99 and under bin?! You can pick up a Dell Optiplex 9xxx for little or nothing, as a complete system. Perfectly good if you only need one HD (or two 2.5" with an adapter). I have three cuz my sister's office threw 'em out. Probably the single most common corporate system ... and discard. One of 'em runs Win7, another PCLinuxOS, the third has variously been a Hackintosh (everything worked out of the box, except for network, and I didn't even bother installing drivers) and a couple variants of Win10 and Server2008. Oh, did I mention how Win10 got on my permanent bad list? was using a portable install for benchmarking (see above) and after I went back to the regular OS, discovered that Win10 had NUKED the partition table on the USB-connected HD. Win10 will never, ever again be allowed to touch a production machine. (Fortunately all the data was backed up, or rather had been randomly copied to other locations already because that HD is older than dirt, but it's still annoying.) > Unfortunately appears I learned the hard way too. AMD isn't bad, just > isn't quite fitting with my needs/usage. Well, let's just say with AMD you get what you pay for. > KM> Well, they DO support cheaper type RAM, but you can't use it with > KM> anything else! > > Maybe there's a reason for that?! Support for single-sided RAM. Dunno why, other than possibly still using some very old code, and more likely because single-sided can do better on raw benchmarks. However word around is that even AMDs get better realworld performance with double-sided RAM. > KM> lose anything? I've been dragging around the same Utilities > KM> directory for a dozen systems now; there are probably still DOS > KM> utils from the 1980s in there... > > The "loose something" is the vague concept of differences between the > AMD version and the Intel version. Of course the to me slightly sloppy > and confusing use of "amd64" and "i386" terms: really is 64 bit and 32 > bit respectively, but a newbie would probably think "AMD" and "Intel". Oh. No, it's not AMD vs Intel, nor 32bit vs 64bit CPU. However, as to whether it'll run those utils... it's not the CPU, it's the OS. 64bit OS generally will not run 16bit, but will run 32bit. This is why I have WinXP in a VM on the Win7-64 box (and the PCLOS box) -- so I can run a couple of irreplaceable 16bit DOS apps. And I don't know what idiot decided they should be called "AMD64" and "x86". Someone who liked confusing newbs, I guess! > > indicate the port is connected: the USB 2 scanner is blue, the USB 3 > > external HDD is blue, the dead metal thumbdrive I'm using as a ground > KM> WTF?? > > Can you say 'idiot lights'? I thought you could! I did not know that idiots blinked. > > mentioned about a concern of moving the pipes holding the cooling liquid > > too much and cracking, thus leaking. (Was he talking about the same Uh?? water-cooled system? cuz ordinary "heat pipes" contain powdered metal (as I understand it). > Yes, I sort of miss the Super XT just because it so upgraded. The > original Laser (brand of computer) motherboard could do a lot more than > the original CPU, hard drive, etc. allowed. Yeah, I'm sorry I gave away my own Super XT -- had every upgrade you can think of except for an IDE HD, and that coulda been done (somewhere I have an 8bit IDE card, and an IDE HD that needs Very Old to work). It even had VGA! > The system I'm on now is an Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard with an AMD That's basically the older cousin of Silver's "new" board: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P9X79_LE/ > FX-8320 cpu running at -- umm - fast. 3.1 or 3.2 GHz comes to mind but Passmark says 3.5GHz with 4.0GHz turbo. > not sure off-hand. 32 GB of RAM but never seen it get above 8 -- sort > of thinking in a new system I probably would go with the option of 32 > again but just install 16 - so maybe take half out of this one for it to > use and the new system would have the other half. Yeah, depends what you're doing. The nice thing about lots of RAM is being able to give a VM enough for good performance, without choking the host OS to death. > The SSD is I think 120 GB. The original plan was to split the card in > Hard drive is 3 TB -- waaaay too much but better than running out! At I won't run out for a while, since the Giant Server came with eight 3TB SAS drives. Fireball supports SAS onboard, and I have an SAS card so won't even need to cannibalize the server for its card to use 'em. And of course junk fills the space allotted. > this point still a little uncomfortable with the solid state drives, > though not enough to not use as a boot device ==> if fails can boot from > a DVD or thumbdrive. OTOH is the data drive fails one is an outta-luck- > duck and has the fun of recovering from condensed-format files from the > backup NAS in the basement. Ugh! > OK, so that's that system. There's the MythTV backend system, the > various systems downstairs...... I understand this problem. If linux would be more graceful about networking, instead of only letting me read/write apparently at random... I'd probably put it on Fireball. As it is... I finally gave up, and when PCLOS needs something off the network, I fire up the WinXP VM, which has no problem whatever with reading and writing to any other system. > Part of the need for the thumbdrive recovery utilties was I had purchased > several 'blue' 16 GB thumbdrives from an on-line company with which I've > had good experiencs, name-brand thumbdrives. Bought the blue version > because liked the colour. Some time later similar offer, decide to go > with the gold version -- no reason other than quick distinguishing: I > have on the blue one and on the yellow. The yellow ones > though spec'd the same as the original blue ones are junk -- most failed > quickly. I would have returned/RMA'd except would have cost what I paid > for to ship back -- how come they can ship to me in an envelope packet > and I have to use a box? So that brand has been blackballed by me. Let me guess, those AData drives for which I found all the bad reviews. > KM> Was astonished to see XP64 immediately phone home and download > KM> 1.5GB worth of updates!! > > Uh, yeah! Especially as 'no longer supported'! That's what I thought!! Server OS, sort of, tho... > I've got a motherboard or two with similar indications. To me fine as > helpful. The first motherboard I had with the "hey! I may not be on but > the power cord is stil plugged in" LED I thought was a good idea. Yeah, the RAM-is-HOT LED is a very good idea. > > As for the LEDs on the RAM, not sure what they would indicate other than > > "bein' purdy". I'm running 6.1 GB usage right now -- and that usage line > > is usually White Sands Proving Grounds flat -- boooooorrrrrinnnnng! > KM> Purdy apparently is it. How the heck are you using 6.1GB RAM?? > > "Easily" as now at 6.8. > LibreOffice 355 MB (6 or 7 open documents) I am supposed to be fixing the document LibreOffice munged... turns out when it manages to run CPU up to 100%, it also garbages up the document ON DISK EVEN IF YOU DON'T SAVE. > I don't mind spending money when necessary, but usually the brand-new > stuff is "overpriced" and the price comes down shortly. Also the new > technology is unproven, so has several links to work out. Also Yeah, let someone else shed the blood! > generally noot too much works with the new technology -- as the tagline > says, "Who did the owner of the first modem talk to?". LOL! > > > You've seen the picture on the Internet of someone using a box fan to > > cool their computer! (Open case.) > KM> No, but that's how I repaired a friend's Mac... only needed a new > KM> PSU fan... PSU was *riveted* inside the case. Let's just let it > KM> hang open instead... > > Well the good news is it probably won't loosen during shipping!! Haha, or any other time... minor problem? Buy whole new monkey! > Many-many-MANY moons ago the store had a vendor for the iMacs -- the > ones that came in bright colours (blue, orange, lime green) and were > all-in-one: CRT + motherboard + power supply + whatever else in the > somewhat egg-shaped case. Vendor ran his own shop and also repaired the I have personally seen one of those catch fire (well, start putting out copious smoke, tho it was unplugged before flames erupted) just from overheating as it admired its navel. > IBM compatibles -- we discussed as I was interested in learning more so > I could sell them better, plus maybe getting one. Decent units, just > not a good fit for me as I liked to be able to go inside to upgrade and > do my own repairs -- IIRC the PSU was encased in epoxy, no way to > upgrade except through the USB ports, etc. Apple makes walled-garden stuff, that's the whole idea. > > > > Why it's so dark out?! > > > KM> The light all prismed away! > > > I'll have to reflect on that! > > KM> I don't see anything. Is it dark? > > Do you have your eyelids open? Ah! your hands are in front of your eyes! > KM> How can I tell? It's dark! > Ah! I forgot you're not where one is surrounded by the glow of the city > lights! Here it's like living with a giant night light! Heh.. I'm just across the river from the refinery. I have full-time big glowies! þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .