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1526

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 05:12 PM »

^^That sounds like a reasonable assessment to me.  I've now searched for several hours for cases, I haven't seen anything better than Lian Li, so I think I have to go with that.  It shouldn't be nearly as loud as those racks.  From what I've seen online with the 140/120 fans (although I didn't see any with more than 10 drives) it should be fairly quiet with the bedroom door closed.

Now I have to piece the other parts together.  I'm still thinking a windows server OS, and running virtual machines on it for different things: freenas, owncloud.
I also plan on the three things below for drive pooling:
SnapRAID - Filesystem agnostic parity based data redundancy, (Linux/Windows).
Elucidate - A GUI for SnapRAID (Windows).
Liquesce - Drive pooling for Windows

So I'm getting close...one problem right now is nobody in the US seems to be selling the Lian Li pc-d8000.

1527

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 04:48 PM »

After a quick review of all the enclosures I could find, unless I fabricate my own, the Lian Li is the best one.  Why?  It's the most spacious of them all for 20 drives.  The other ones resort to 5.25 drive bays that cram 3-5 drives together really closely, which I'm guessing is bad for heat.  I feel I'll be able to get more effective air flow with the Lian Li.  Plus it has a lot of spaces for big fans.

I also liked Caselabs, but their innards would cramp the drives together more.  The enthusiasts seem to like it better, though.  But most of them were doing a couple of hard drives and big water cooling systems, which is different than mine.

I also checked out separate towers for the motherboard and hard drives, but there are none that can go more than 10 drives (without resorting to the drive bays cramming).  So i think I'm stuck with the Lian Li pc-d8000.

1528

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 04:33 PM »

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) while your amount of harddrives are going to require *some* cooling, even if you end up with very silent cooling the vibration from the harddrives are going to make a fair amount of noise. You'll want the case to be massive, not the flimsy few-millimetres-thick that even high-quality cases usually are made of.
2) even if you put in power supplies that are ridiculously over-specced (which you shouldn't), be sure to set the harddrives to "staggered spinup^w" (or Powered-Up-In-Standby) individually before you attempt turning on the system that's been finally assembled with 20 disks.

-f0dder (October 03, 2012, 04:11 PM)

Are you saying the Lian Li case is not thick enough?  What are my alternatives?

1529

General Software Discussion / Re: ringtones: a history?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 04:31 PM »

I can see something like this in a distant future:
If someone wants software, that person pays for it.  But once it's out there, it's out there.  It's free for everyone else.  Not fair you say?  Well, I sort of disagree. 

-superboyac (October 02, 2012, 09:57 PM)

No, that is fair, too fair to be true, which makes your idea tally with communism.

-tslim (October 03, 2012, 04:17 PM)

Hmm...I can see why you say that.  But that's not what I was going for.  It would be more helpful instead of throwing out intimidating labels, if you just explained it a little more.

1530

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 03:30 PM »

I like the CaseLabs products as well.

It doesn't seem like these cases are very loud.  I saw a few videos with enthusiasts using water cooling, and the cases weren't that loud at all.  But none of them are using a lot of hard drives, most of them have just a couple.  I think they like the big case for the space to put the water cooling system, but I'm not sure.  Why buy such a huge case if you're not going to stuff it with drives?

1531

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2012, 02:58 PM »

I like Lian Li's stuff, very nice.  So check this out, this is called PC-D8000 and it holds up to 20 hard drive, yes!  And it looks like it shouldn't be as loud as the normal rack stuff with the 120/140mm fans.


Looks like this will be my case then.

1532

General Software Discussion / ringtones: a history?

« Last post by superboyac on October 02, 2012, 09:57 PM »

Do people still buy ringtones?

i was just thinking about how maybe the history of ringtones may be an indicator of how software/os may go in the future.  I'm assuming people don't buy them anymore, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

At one point, ringtones were a very big booming industry.  Then phones got more sophisticated operating systems, and people eventually are now able to put whatever sound they wish on their phone, for free and very easily.  And it was a relatively short industry cycle, so that's why i thought of it.  Maybe all software and OSs will go that way, it just will be a longer cycle.  I still find it mentally difficult to equate software and OS's with physical things you pay for or services people provide.  I'm not saying software shouldn't be compensated, i'm just saying there's something different there.  Just fundamentally speaking, there's something weird about paying for something that can be duplicated exactly without anything decreasing somewhere else.  That's different from a physical product or a service, which is a one time thing.

I can see something like this in a distant future:
If someone wants software, that person pays for it.  But once it's out there, it's out there.  It's free for everyone else.  Not fair you say?  Well, I sort of disagree.  It would be nice to have a system in place where someone who can afford it pays for it, but then it's released into the wild (unless it's classified or something).  So let's say I'm a millionaire...someone working ons ome project who doesn't have much money just has to convince me to pay for it.  It's no big deal for me, so I say fine.  now everyone has it.  It makes good economic sense, it's practical, and avoids the complications with copyright and stuff we are currently experiencing.  Being able to copy something exactly is a totally different game than anything in past times (I think).

1533

Living Room / Re: Judge Lifts Ban on US Sales of Samsung Tablet...funny

« Last post by superboyac on October 02, 2012, 01:23 PM »

aaagh
* tom runs off to mark thread ignore

-tomos (October 02, 2012, 01:19 PM)

Renegade--> <--superboyac

1534

Living Room / Re: Judge Lifts Ban on US Sales of Samsung Tablet...funny

« Last post by superboyac on October 02, 2012, 01:12 PM »

Just so long as ye dont bob your heads up & down like those bleeding replicating dogs.
I'll be getting seasick soon, am already in fact :p

-tomos (October 02, 2012, 12:58 PM)

Here's another Bob for you...

1535

Living Room / Re: Judge Lifts Ban on US Sales of Samsung Tablet...funny

« Last post by superboyac on October 02, 2012, 12:42 PM »

Renegade, how did you get superboyac's login?

-mwb1100 (October 02, 2012, 12:10 PM)

-40hz (October 02, 2012, 12:24 PM)

perhaps we're the same person.  oh, check the ip address you say??  VPS baby.  maybe I have a us ip persona, and a canadian one.  looking for a Burmese one...

1536

Living Room / Judge Lifts Ban on US Sales of Samsung Tablet...funny

« Last post by superboyac on October 02, 2012, 10:30 AM »

http://online.wsj.co...031370435159116.html

I found this too funny...
So the Korean-American judge, Lucy Koh lifts the ban preventing Samsung, a Korean company, sales in the US.

I know this is not new, but I just realized that.  Questions:
Korean-American judge...coincidence?
What if she was pro-Apple?  I know if I were a judge in an Armenian vs. US company thing, and ruled against Armenia...I assure you I wouldn't hear the end of it.

and finally...
What if the Koh family sent their people over to the US years ago, pushed their offspring to become successful judges...then secretly coordinated with their family in Korea in cahoots with Samsung all in an attempt to slowly begin their destruction of Apple.  Well done!

1537

Living Room / Re: I want a Sony Xperia SX, but I think it's stupid to buy one.

« Last post by superboyac on October 01, 2012, 09:29 AM »

http://www.engadget....t-4g-lte-james-bond/

ARRRGH!! 
They just keep getting bigger!!  Now SOny releases a 4.6" flagship model for ATT??  Can I please have one, just one amongst all the big phones, just a single little android phone?

1538

General Software Discussion / Re: Nuance PDF Reader - Acresso-FLEXnet agent is Annoyware/Adware WARNING.

« Last post by superboyac on September 30, 2012, 11:37 PM »

whoa...I wasn't even aware of Bluebeam Vu!  Thanks.  I'll have to check it out.  Bluebeam has always made nice products in my opinion.

As for purely readers, my favorite back when I went through them all, was also PDF-Xchange.  Fast and snappy, had tabs, wasn't lacking in any features or customizeable options.  It was so good, it was even worth the $30 or whatever for a viewer only.  I did not like most of the more popular ones like Foxit and similars.  Sumatra is also very good, but it's extremely lightweight.  It's good for reading, and that's about it.  There's also this issue of rendering times in these programs.  Some programs are laid out really nicely and have great features, but they have bad pdf rendering times, which sucks.  That's why for the viewer, I liked PDF-XChange the best.  For any kind of pdf work, I turn to Bluebeam.  And for that matter, the latest Acrobat Pro that I use at work is also pretty great for viewing.  I know it's not worth spending $500 for just a pdf viewer, but the latest X version is nice and fast and everything.  Just FYI, I know it's not practical.

And I'm with IanB on this sort of stuff.  I don't like these software programs that have all these services specifically for checking updates and ads and licensing.  I remember trying Nuance a couple of years ago: it had awesome ratings by just about everyone on the net, and I was looking for Bluebeam alternatives because I didn't want to pay for it at the time.  I tried it out and didn't understand at all what was so great about it.  It didn't do anything much at all better than Acrobat.  It didn't offer the clever and highly innovative features of Bluebeam, it was a huge install with all those services, it was a pain uninstalling it...just awful experience.  I eventually assumed they must have just marketed the product on the web really well.  I hope their flagship Dragon software doesn't have these issues, last time I tried that it was an amazing TTS software.

1539

General Software Discussion / Re: Nuance PDF Reader - Acresso-FLEXnet agent is Annoyware/Adware WARNING.

« Last post by superboyac on September 30, 2012, 03:26 AM »

I've settled on the following PDF reading solution after I got tired of Adobe Reader's increasing instability and getting caught out by some malware in a PDF that my "AV" software didn't catch:

  - STDU Reader (free for personal use) as a stand-alone, tabbed reader
  - Sumatra PDF for the browser plug-in

It seems neither of these bits of software engage in deceptive marketing practices, and neither of them support Javascript execution in the PDF (AFAIK), so I figure they should be pretty resistant to PDF-bourne malware.

I'm not sure if they're lacking in features that people might want, but they let me open and read PDF files, and that's pretty much all I need from a PDF reader.

-mwb1100 (September 29, 2012, 06:14 PM)

Well, yeah, they are lacking in a lot of features.  I'd say that someone trying to use a program like Nuance pdf reader is trying to do more than "view" pdf's, which is basically all that the free ones provide.  Unfortunately, it seems like most of the more powerful pdf suites consistently install a bunch of heavy duty anti-piracy measures.  Adobe is chock full of it with their acrobat, I sometimes thing 500MB of the 1GB installer is dedicated to anti piracy measures.  Same with Nuance.  Bluebeam also has a fairly sophisticated license checking mechanism, but the program's speed and responsiveness is very snappy (especially the 64 bit version, really good).  But back to the point, I wouldn't suggest that a lightweight free pdf reader like Sumatra is a replacement for Nuance or Acrobat Pro.  That's like saying Notepad is a replacement for microsoft word.  Or an ipad is a replacement for a Windows desktop.  Or a golf cart is a replacement for 18 wheeler. Or...

1540

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 29, 2012, 04:09 PM »

I do like the idea of going with towers.  I initially wanted to do it this way, but where I ran into issues was finding a tower box that could hold more than 8 drives.  So then the question is, if a tower is holding 10-15 drives, why would that be any less heat or noise than the aforementioned rack server?  Whatever, I trust you guys on that.

I was also glad to see the backblaze guys using some addonics products.  i could never tell if addonics made quality equipment or not, so that probably means they are good.  Also, Addonics makes configurations where you can put 15 drives in a single tower if you use their customized 5-drive banks.  I like that.  I'll work on a setup and post it here, see if it makes sense.

1541

General Software Discussion / Re: Nuance PDF Reader - Acresso-FLEXnet agent is Annoyware/Adware WARNING.

« Last post by superboyac on September 29, 2012, 01:57 PM »

Nuance pdf in the past has gotten rave reviews, so I've tried it several times.  I also have to agree with IanB, it always felt like one of those software that was getting its fingers all over your computer.  So after trying it a few times, I didn't like it.  It didn't do anything particularly special for me and it was a nuisance.

I still stand by Bluebeam as the best pdf toolbox out there, by a longshot too.

1542

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 28, 2012, 03:23 PM »

Thanks everyone, this discussion is massively helpful.  Keep going!

1543

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 04:32 PM »

Thanks 40, I was hoping to get your input.  I was so impressed by that backblaze project.  I'm really glad they've went out of their way to explain how they put everything together, I'll study it this weekend and try to mimic it on a smaller scale.

Until I move, I'm not sure what to do about the noise and heat.  I have a couple of spare rooms, but not the ability to cool them in a special way.  Would one Supermicro box really be all that loud and hot?  I have 6 drives connected to my desktop right now, and it's not that bad, and i don't think they get too hot.  I'd like to visit one in person to see really how bad it is.  I *may* be able to get away with a NY-style window mounted cooling unit in my complex, but I doubt it.

1544

General Software Discussion / Re: How to tell a Story: Live, Lite, Turbo

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 04:18 PM »

I'll have to try this out.  I've tried most story software, and the ones I eventually found myself using were treesheets for doing initial rough brainstorming.  and for laying stuff out however I want, guess....autocad.  I know that's weird and overkill, but it just feels so good.  You know why?  because it's just lines, shapes, and text in the end.  And my big beef with most story tools is the printing capabilities.  In autocad, I have super duper precise control on the printing.  So whatever I do, I can print out exactly the way I want without transferring content to other applications and all that headache.  I have this problem with all outliners, which is why I gave up using them for developing stories.

Just as a quick example, look at this page from a voltage drop explanation document I did in autocad, I love it:


That's me, after trying out MS Word, Indesign, Scribus, and maybe a few others, and saying "F it.  I'm doing this in autocad.  I know it, I can do just about anything I want, that's it, I'm done with the rest."  That's also me rebelling against the standard academic two-margin paper format, too.  I like comic books, I like how they present a story...so that's how I'm going to tell the story of voltage drop.

1545

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 01:20 PM »

Looks like another issue is whether these SAS expander cards can handle 3TB and 4TB drives, which I have several of.  There are contradictory comments on newegg:

Dropped this in a new unRAID box and it worked right off. 5 2TB drives and one 4TB drive showed up without any issue.
The card came with the new firmware (.21) and was perfectly fine with my 4TB drive, have it mounted and in the array right now.

Comments were somewhat deceptive. the SAS2 version (SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8) of this card can handle 3TB drives. That is not the card you are buying though. The drivers that are mentioned in the comments are for the SAS2 card, not this SAS1 card. If you intend to use 3TB drives look elsewhere.

1546

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 12:54 PM »

I have this in my notes:

I would just run two SASLP cards and be done with it.  Tried and true, and it will probably end up being cheaper than using an expander anyway.  No bottlenecks either.

So to use all the drives, would I need two of these cards.  That would give me what they call 8x2=16 additional SAS slots, which I think means 16 more drives can plug into them.  So that gives me 16+(8+2)=26 drives, which covers all the slots.  Right?

questions:
Do I need to be concerned about the card's 3.0Gbps speed vs a few of my Sata3 drives which are 6.0Gpbs?
I can plug a PCIe card that is x4 into a slot that is x8 or x16, right?

Yup, buy the server, add the cpu, mix with some ram, leave in the oven for 20 minutes, you're ready to go.

Though this server has 10 sata interfaces, you won't be able to cram in 20 sata drives.

-eleman (September 27, 2012, 12:35 PM)

yeah, I was confused by that also.  What would I need to do to be able to use all 24 drives (SATA)?

(you were typing while I was responding)

-superboyac (September 27, 2012, 12:39 PM)

There are pci-x expansion cards which provide additional sata ports. But I can't figure out how many pci-x1 slots this server has.

-eleman (September 27, 2012, 12:48 PM)

Looks like we're on the same page.  This server has:

4 (x16) PCI-E 3.0 slots
1 (x8) PCI-E 3.0 slot
1 (x4) PCI-E 3.0 (in x8) slot

1547

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 12:39 PM »

Yup, buy the server, add the cpu, mix with some ram, leave in the oven for 20 minutes, you're ready to go.

Though this server has 10 sata interfaces, you won't be able to cram in 20 sata drives.

-eleman (September 27, 2012, 12:35 PM)

yeah, I was confused by that also.  What would I need to do to be able to use all 24 drives (SATA)?

1548

Living Room / Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 12:31 PM »

I've been struggling with server lingo for several months now.  I've had many discussions with people and nobody seems to be able to clarify much for me.  Maybe I'm thickheaded.  Also, these discussions tend to turn into "Why the hell do you need something like this"...I'm just having a really hard time figuring out what I need.

So essentially, I want a server.  And I want to shove in 20 sata drives in there of varying sizes and makes.  I want to pool them in all sorts of flexible ways.  I don't want RAID because the drives are all different.  I have another thread about the drive pooling softwares I'm considering, specifically to address the hard drive issue.  I really like this Supermicro server:
http://www.provantag....htm?source=googleps

Now it says it's barebones.  What I really want to know is a list of additional parts I would need to plug this thing in and have it up and running.  So please help me with that.

It sounds to me like the hard drive slots are all there.  It also includes the xeon motherboard.  So is this what additional items I need to get?:
--RAM
--Xeon CPU

That's all I can see.  Sounds like everything else is already there like the network/ethernet switches and stuff.  And can I put any OS on there as I wish?

Currently, I have desktop computer connected to a standard wifi router and a modem.  All other laptops and tablets connect through the wifi router.  When I put the server in, I'd like the desktop directly connected to it through ethernet.  And everything else wifi.

So as it stands, this is what I need to purchase as separate items:
--supermicro super server
--xeon cpu
--some RAM

that's it?

1549

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: aShampoo Burning Studio 11

« Last post by superboyac on September 27, 2012, 11:07 AM »

And for dvd production, i use professional quality tools only because I am an obnoxiously picky person and like to complicate my life needlessly.

-superboyac (September 26, 2012, 05:13 PM)

And we like that about you. So what are you using for DVD burning/producing?

-Stoic Joker (September 27, 2012, 10:37 AM)

Well, last time I played around with it, DVDfab was the acclaimed recommendation, and I liked it also.  It's flexible and powerful, perhaps a little complicated, but it's a complicated thing to make dvd menus and stuff if you want to customize every little thing.
I found the most annoying part of the whole process converting the videos into the proper dvd format (video_ts, etc.).  It takes a long time, it's complicated, huge files, very annoying.  It is this precise reason why i don't really do this often...it takes too long.

In my opinion, dvd's and their format is old hat.  Time to move on.  I like mkv files because mkv has a lot of features.  It would be cool to be able to purchase an mkv file eventually.  So currently I'm more interested in mkv creation tools vs dvd creation tools.  I don't think you can have menus in mkv files, but you can have chapters within the files and multiple audio streams and subs.  So in one file, you can shove in a whole bunch of stuff.  If I were a producer, I'd look into suites that can output mkv files with lots of customizeable options.

For video editing, after trying a bunch of suites, i settled on sony vegas.  Haven't tried outputting to mkv yet.  This is off topic...

1550

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: aShampoo Burning Studio 11

« Last post by superboyac on September 26, 2012, 05:13 PM »

^^woo...but I don't think I have a good reason for buying.  cd bunre xp is pretty damn good.  And for dvd production, i use professional quality tools only because I am an obnoxiously picky person and like to complicate my life needlessly.