Re: [gentoo-user] New box

[J. Roeleveld]

On Thursday, December 29, 2016 11:45:30 PM CET Dale wrote:
> thelma@×××××××××××.com wrote:
> > On 12/29/2016 08:06 PM, Dale wrote:
> >> thelma@×××××××××××.com wrote:
> >>> I'm putting a new system, it will be running mainly, VirtualBox,
> >>> Asterisk, Hylafax etc. (nothing graphic intensive).
> >>>
> >>> - IN WIN BL631 Low Profile Micro ATX Case w/ 300W Power Supply,
> >>> - AMD FX-8350 Processor 4.0GHz w/ 16MB Cache
> >>> - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 w/ DDR3, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan
> >>> - Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR3-1866MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit
> >>> - Samsung 850 EVO Series mSATA Solid State Drive, 1TB
> >>> - Asus GeForce GT 720 Silent CSM, 2GB, PCI-E w/ D-Sub VGA, DVI, HDMI
> >>>
> >>> Will I have any problems installing Gentoo on this configuration, eg.
> >>> with Video Card etc.?
> >>> Do I need more RAM?
> >>
> >> I built a rig a while back and have 16GBs of memory.  I also have
> >> portage's work directory on tmpfs.  There are times when I wish I had
> >> more memory.  I'm planning to upgrade to 24GBs and eventually, 32GBs.
> >> I'm not sure what your board can hold but may want to think about future
> >> upgrades.  I run KDE here, there are times where I use a lot of memory.
> >> I'm using ~8GBs as I type.
> >>
> >> I've been using a Gigabyte board for a long while.  I'm happy with it.
> >> I actually still have a 2nd board that I upgraded from.  It was a first
> >> step to upgrade memory and such.  I think I had to change the IOMMU
> >> setting in the BIOS.  I think that was the name of it.  It's something
> >> like that.  I think I had to add something to the kernel boot line too
> >> on that.  Let me know if you need it, I'll go dig.
> >>
> >> One other thing, I have a UPS that shows what amount of power my system
> >> is using.  It shows ~150 watts.  It will jump to ~190 when compiling
> >> heavily.  You may want to make sure that P/S is well made.  I've never
> >> used a P/S that came with a case.  Generally, they are cheaply made.
> >> May want to make sure of that before you use it.  Nothing worse than a
> >> crappy P/S.
> >>
> >> Dale
> >>
> >> :-)  :-)
> >
> > Thank you for the input Dale.
> > Yes, Power Supply is a good point.  I think I'll change the case and
> > select different PS.  Any hints as to which brand is good?
> >
> > I think they are all made in China :-/
> >
> > Thelma
>
> On the case, there are tons of brands that are good.  Mostly, just pick
> one that suites the purpose you need.  When I built mine, I wanted one
> that would keep everything nice and cool even when compiling LibreO and
> some others that compile a while.  I got the Cooler Master HAF-932.
> It's large tho.  Seriously, it's large.  It does have some really nice
> fans in it tho.  Even when compiling for long periods of time, my temps
> are no higher than 110F and that would be in the summer when it is a bit
> warm in this room.  In the winter, it can't even get to 95F or so.  My
> CPU has a good size cooler.  Can't recall the name but the stock one is
> in my storage building somewhere.  It's tiny.  The only downside, it
> needs blowing out pretty regular.  When the idle temps get up a bit, I
> drag out the air tank.  Oh, it sits right next to my bed, like 3 feet
> away. I've never heard it make a noise, no matter what it is compiling.
> The only noise is a slight vibration when the fans first turn on.  If
> you need a tiny case tho, they make those too.  Some small ones even
> have decent cooling.  Just have to dig around.
>
> On the power supply, I would look at some reviews.  I have a
> ThermalTake.  It was well rated at the time.   The link below tests
> power supplies pretty hard.  They tough on them but they are pretty fair
> on the scoring.  If they say it works well, it should work.  They put
> loads on them that a normal home user likely never would.  If it can't
> take the loads it claims, they don't have a problem letting the smoke
> out.  Linky:
>
> http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=1
> 3
>
>
> The way I do, I try to figure out what amount of power I predict the
> system will pull.  Then I double or roughly double it.  That way I get
> some wiggle room for errors or future upgrades plus that initial start
> up draw.  Figuring that accurately is somewhat hard to do tho.  When I
> built my current rig, I went way overboard.  I think my P/S is like 700
> watts or so.  As I said, it pulls under 200 watts and that is after
> adding some hard drives and more memory to it.  I suspect that 300 to
> 400 watts will do OK unless you plan to install some power hungry video
> card in there later.
>
>  I have a Gigabyte 970A-UD3P board.  I try to get as high a UD number as
> I can, if they still use those.  I have 4 dimms installed and a 4 core
> CPU running at ~3.2GHz.  I think most all the CPUs pull about the same,
> they claim to be 125 Watt or less.  So, 4 core or 8 core, shouldn't be
> much different, I'd guess.  I also have 4 hard drives.  Given that info,
> you should be able to see what wattage you need.  Oh, my video card was
> sent to me by a subscriber to this list.  He had one he wanted to get
> rid of and I posted that I hadn't picked out one yet, and didn't need
> bleeding edge or anything fancy.  It's a GeForce GT 220 which still
> serves me well.  I play solitaire and watch TV shows with it.
>
> That's quite a bit of info but I've built a few of these things from
> scratch.  No harm telling how I did it and where I made a boo boo.  Oh,
> my old rig, it was a single core CPU running at 2500MHz and it pulled
> about 400 watts.  I don't think that included the monitor which was a
> 19" CRT power hog.  New rig is a flat screen thingy that pulls pretty
> much nothing.  lol  Hopefully all this will either convince you that you
> are on the right track or help adjust your track if needed.  If things
> follow like the past, yours may even pull less than expected, which is
> why I think yours is on track power wise.
>
> Hope all that helps.  Maybe someone else will chime in with some more
> good info.

More info:

I wanted a quiet, but still cool, case as I really don't like to hear it.
I ended up with a "Corsair Carbide Quiet 600Q". It's not small, but with the 
standard fans, it's extremely quiet. Only indication it is on is the small 
power-led on the top and the light from the mouse.

Power supply: "be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 750W", again, really quiet and 
stable.

Memory: Kingston HyperX 32 GB DDR4-2133 Quad-kit

CPU-fan: Noctua NH-D15

I ended up with an Asus mainboard and Intel CPU.

--
Joost

PS. Picking parts for a new PC is always tricky. I am missing a budget-limit 
here. Mine probably was a bit higher then the OPs, but I tend to buy them to 
last 7 years minimum.