back online
2019-Sep-28, Saturday 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI gave up on FreeNAS temporarily because it seems to require an internet connection even to boot up the first time. The ethernet port on my motherboard just kept looping through up/down states persistently without advancing in the startup script. While it is supposed to be gigabit, it only works with my router at 100Mbps speeds, and it kept failing to auto-negotiate. I know how to set that manually in Linux Mint, so I've put my old hard drives back in, and I successfully booted back up with the whole system intact. It required a spate of system updates, since I moved the motherboard from Intel to AMD architecture, but everything works. I'm back online!
There was a bit of stupidity involved in my assembly process, unfortunately.
On the old motherboard, there were a few games that consistently locked up my computer at specific points. I never figured out what caused it, so I just avoided playing them. I tried one just now, and I played right through the previous mystery failure. I think this setup will work even better on gaming than before. Linux Mint had no issues at all using brand new motherboard/chipset fresh on the market. I'm back in business, as they say.
For posterity's sake, here is the hardware that I bought. I wanted the same kind of motherboard as my proposed new small-case machine, so accessories could be swapped from one to the other. I got only a Ryzen 5 (instead of 7) since this machine is intended mostly just for a file server someday, and maybe it won't need heavy processing power.
It cost a bit more than buying online at NewEgg, but I think it was worth it. Too many of the old tech supply stores are gone due to online competition. I want MicroCenter to stay, so I'm willing to pay a little extra to keep them in business. They do nice stuff, like not charge me any money when I brought my computer for assessment (see story above) since they didn't actually change anything on my system.
That's good customer service.
There was a bit of stupidity involved in my assembly process, unfortunately.
- A minor thing, but I spent too much time being confused by the M2 SSD drive with the bulky heatsink that simply would not physically "fit" with the heat dissipation scheme built onto this motherboard. There's a small fan on the motherboard itself that includes some screw-on plates that are meant to draw air over the two M2 slots on the motherboard. But those M2 drives must be very slim chips (with no bulky heatsinks like mine has). I finally gave up and admitted that it didn't matter. Obviously the M2 heat sink was fine, so I didn't need to add the motherboard fan case onto it. I still have that M2 drive on the motherboard, and it's still formatted for FreeNAS. But until I can get that port to auto-negotiate to gigabit speeds (or learn how to tell FreeNas to use only 100Mbps, which would be undesirable in a file server), then I'll just continue using this setup that I have now.
- The other minor thing involved me packing up the entire case and heading to MicroCenter for a tech there to work on it. I got everything assembled but it wouldn't even turn on. Nothing. No response. I think afterwards that it was me somehow flipping the master switch on the power supply and forgetting to turn it back on again. DOH! That's "Tech Support 101" stuff. "Is it powered on?" LOL
- So the MicroCenter tech immediately powered it on (magic!) but noted that this kind of motherboard required a video card because the video ports already on it were useless as primary displays. I had no idea such a thing existed. I disapprove. Strongly. They shouldn't be there if they can't be used immediately. Anyway, I was lucky that I still had my old video card at home, so I just plugged it in. And here I am now.
On the old motherboard, there were a few games that consistently locked up my computer at specific points. I never figured out what caused it, so I just avoided playing them. I tried one just now, and I played right through the previous mystery failure. I think this setup will work even better on gaming than before. Linux Mint had no issues at all using brand new motherboard/chipset fresh on the market. I'm back in business, as they say.
For posterity's sake, here is the hardware that I bought. I wanted the same kind of motherboard as my proposed new small-case machine, so accessories could be swapped from one to the other. I got only a Ryzen 5 (instead of 7) since this machine is intended mostly just for a file server someday, and maybe it won't need heavy processing power.
| Item | Cost | MicroCenter URL |
| ASUS X570 ROG Strix AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard | $299.99 | link |
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz 6 Core AM4 | $189.99 | link |
| Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB 2 x 16GB DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 memory | $149.99 | link |
| Inland Performance 1TB SSD 3D NAND M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 | $169.99 | link |
| iFixit Anti-Static Wrist Strap | $3.99 | link |
It cost a bit more than buying online at NewEgg, but I think it was worth it. Too many of the old tech supply stores are gone due to online competition. I want MicroCenter to stay, so I'm willing to pay a little extra to keep them in business. They do nice stuff, like not charge me any money when I brought my computer for assessment (see story above) since they didn't actually change anything on my system.
That's good customer service.