Nerding Out

markn · August 21, 2013, 08:24:54 PM

Some of you may remember our woes here with a power surge and a problematic Mac Mini that no-one could fix. Well I gave up on that because it kept freezing up and clearly was of no use to me as a file server or for running backups for this forum and other sites of ours.

Tonight I built us a teeny tiny little PC with a couple of gig of storage space. I'll install Linux on it and it'll (hopefully) do the job of the old Mac for about half the price. The computer is known as Einstein Junior (the unreliable and now retired mac was known as Einstein). The new Einstein is about as big as a large paperback and sitting on the desk right next to me I can't hear it at all. I am quite pleased!

robbiegal · August 21, 2013, 08:32:00 PM

there's an intel inside!!

Goldseeker · August 21, 2013, 08:44:43 PM

Your a genious markn.

Question please: Can you write computer programs?

robbiegal · August 21, 2013, 08:48:37 PM

ooops
is that a loose earth I can see there ?

ha ha

Fulvio · August 21, 2013, 10:03:04 PM

Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='25742' dateline='1377082920'there's an intel inside!!

There's an Intel inside just about everything nowadays.

Well, apart from phones, but they're trying there as well....

Quote from: 'Goldseeker' pid='25745' dateline='1377083683'Question please: Can you write computer programs?

Too general a question Goldy. Anybody can program... its more a question of languages and proficiency. I think I know what you have in mind though... for that you probably want Assembler or C+... am I right?

Fr45h3R · August 21, 2013, 10:25:11 PM

Geez that's tiny.
Does it fit a 3.5in hard disk, or only a smaller 2.5in one ?

ausjack · August 22, 2013, 04:29:38 AM

red or blue, red or blue..GEEBUS, just run PP it's gonna blow :laugh2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQlCv4K37c

purplepennyhunter · August 22, 2013, 07:11:19 AM

Quote from: 'Goldseeker' pid='25745' dateline='1377083683'Your a genious markn.

Question please: Can you write computer programs?

That's what he does to pay the bills.

markn · August 22, 2013, 07:46:00 AM

Quote from: 'Fr45h3R' pid='25759' dateline='1377089711'Geez that's tiny.
Does it fit a 3.5in hard disk, or only a smaller 2.5in one ?

It's got two 2.5" drives running in Raid1 which you can see below. They sit in a little cage under the motherboard. I chose 5400RPM drives because I didn't want them to be noisy and seeing as this is just serving files for our little office there was no reason to go for higher speed units.

The motherboard has USB3 support so I'll be plugging in some external HDD's for offsite backups. And possibly serving up movies to our TV :angel:

markn · August 22, 2013, 07:48:05 AM

Quote from: 'Goldseeker' pid='25745' dateline='1377083683'Your a genious markn.

Question please: Can you write computer programs?

I am not a genius. Yes, I can write computer programs. Anyone can if they take the time to learn.

Goldseeker · August 22, 2013, 07:13:41 PM

We just might have to get together as I have a program especially written for me but the gent that did it no longer available. If you are over in Melbourne some time Mark, please advise by PM and I shall try and get you a copy of the programme for you to experiment with.

Fr45h3R · August 22, 2013, 07:41:11 PM

Quote from: 'markn' pid='25780' dateline='1377123360'
Quote from: 'Fr45h3R' pid='25759' dateline='1377089711'Geez that's tiny.
Does it fit a 3.5in hard disk, or only a smaller 2.5in one ?

It's got two 2.5" drives running in Raid1 which you can see below. They sit in a little cage under the motherboard. I chose 5400RPM drives because I didn't want them to be noisy and seeing as this is just serving files for our little office there was no reason to go for higher speed units.

The motherboard has USB3 support so I'll be plugging in some external HDD's for offsite backups. And possibly serving up movies to our TV :angel:

What a great case. Raid 1 is always a good option.

Fulvio · August 22, 2013, 10:53:03 PM

Quote from: 'Goldseeker' pid='25909' dateline='1377164621'I have a program especially written for me

See? I was right!

If Mark's interested in this, I'm happy to help facilitate the process. And yes, a low-level language would be required since there's hardware involved.

markn · August 23, 2013, 07:28:16 AM

Quote from: 'Fulvio' pid='25934' dateline='1377177783'
Quote from: 'Goldseeker' pid='25909' dateline='1377164621'I have a program especially written for me

See? I was right!
If Mark's interested in this, I'm happy to help facilitate the process. And yes, a low-level language would be required since there's hardware involved.

PM me with details of what it is.

markn · August 23, 2013, 07:54:28 AM

Quote from: 'Fr45h3R' pid='25911' dateline='1377166271'What a great case. Raid 1 is always a good option.

It is pretty good. I especially like the HDD cage and the teeny tiny PSU (the whole thing runs off of an AD/DC external brick). I also loved the fact that the standard CPU cooler fits inside the case (I thought I'd need an expensive low profile cooler). The standard cooler is almost silent too.

It's not without it's issues though. The cables from the front panel should have terminated somewhere else because they interfere with putting the motherboard in. They also should have included two 90 degree SATA cables because it was a bugger routing the cable through a small gap without placing too much stress on the motherboard.