Re: [gentoo-user] New box

[Dale]

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=13


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. 

Dale

:-)  :-)