All Blogs Great and Small. That Paul Guy Edition.

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New uses for older processors

How did we get here?

To say this started with a failure is a bit of an understatement. It actually goes back much further.

A couple of years ago, I made the choice to have a back up storage server. There are two routes for this.

One, buy a new Network Attached Storage device at retail. These are specialized and easy to set up, but the cost can be prohibitive. The software is sometime proprietary, so it’s a bit like adopting an ecosystem. They are reliable, and of course usually brand new, so that is a huge plus.

Two, build your own NAS. There are literally thousands of PCs not suitable for a certain large company’s operating system that lived worthy lives as someone’s home PC or Office unit. There are even more components with no driver support. Used parts and open source software can give many of these a new life. Used parts, though cheap, fail more than new ones. So beware.

How to Choose

How tech savvy are you? Do you like to tinker? What is the budget like?

All of these are relevant questions when it comes time to decide, but if you decided as a casual user that you need it, you probably aren’t too afraid of choice number two. It was the choice I made and it served me well, until lately. Twice.

The process was easy enough. I have been building PCs for a while and this was just a PC with a different Operating System and more storage. Instead of streaming, gaming and making videos, I was storing data and for a while running other apps like Home Assistant. I then started splitting those duties up into more power efficient, smaller PCs, but kept the big one for data. Until it failed.

No errors, no warning, no indication of any kind that it failed, it just did, and then refused to post. I spent the better part of a day swapping into a different set up that thankfully I had already been testing and I was back in business. That is until I messed with it.

Bad Luck, or Bad Choices

It may have been a bit of both. My buddy Gus has a new project he is working on and needs a place to store back ups, and of course bulk data. It was an easy choice for me to build him something using, you guessed it, some of the parts I had just put together for my replacement server.

His server works great. My rebuild didn’t. Things like my security and Home Assistant were fine, I had already migrated them, but my NAS wasn’t “NAS-ing” anymore.

In steps the Ryzen3 3100, that I hadn’t even written about in here yet. (Some of the reasons for that can be found here.) I had most of the platform already built, and I already had the storage in the case, I just needed a transplant.

TrueNas doesn’t care what kind of hardware I’m using. I discovered recently that TrueNas is hardware agnostic and easily swaps between set ups. The last change went from later XEON to fourth gen intel. You can find that YT video here. This change was from intel to AMD. If I wasn’t a believer then, I am now.

What’s Next?

Um, actually, it’s probably going to be newer equipment. I’m not buying a new NAS, no, I meant newer parts for my custom effort. It’s proven itself twice and been reliable even when the hardware wasn’t. The learning curve for the software is small and I don’t have to worry about where my files are being stored. They’re on my equipment.

Is that the correct answer then? Nope, but it’s correct for me. In a way this is just one man’s experience, but I encourage anyone out there to try something that might make you uncomfortable. Yes, this is PC stuff, but it can apply to anything. Try learning a new language, to read music, anything. Life is a wonderful chance for us to live. Live it.

As a note, I am also putting my effort where my writing is. In the next few weeks a new site will be live, and I’m helping my buddy Gus with his stuff. There is a lot going on, I hope you’ll join me for at least part of it.

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And now it’s time for something completely new.

New? or new to you?

I love tech and PCs. I’ve always enjoyed building my own computers and tinkering with things and creating. I still do, but there are two issues. First, hardware is getting outrageous. Storage and memory are ridiculous and there’s no end in sight. Second, not everyone loves the stuff I do.

If I wanted to appeal to a wider audience or even just have my friends enjoy seeing what I create, things needed to change. I needed more things that appealed to people that don’t have to do with the boxes taking up shelf space in my office. Those boxes are important, but so are other things.

Don’t get me wrong, I will still make content on those boxes and many more, but there will be more. Life is not defined by a YouTube algorithm. It may small steps at first, but that’s how we all learn to walk. Blogs like this are the first step, but the second is more of a leap.

Off a cliff?

In a manner of speaking, yes. I bought a new domain.

Take a second to look at the search bar. That first part thatpaulguy.tech is the domain, and it brings you to this website in all it’s glory. It’s very functional. It tells you who I am and a bit of what to expect when you are here. But to introduce something like this blog may be confusing. That part needed to change.

Buying a new domain is a simple process, and in theory, I could just move this site over there and hope for the best. To me that feels a bit lazy, and it doesn’t really fix what is broken. You don’t take the old air freshener out of your old car when you trade it in for a new one. Just because it’s already there, doesn’t mean I need to bring it to the new place.

But what about this site?

There will be some things that make the transition, and for a while at least, I will keep both sites. I have until the end of next summer to renew this domain, so we will see what fits, but that means the new site will be a different set up with different content. It may be a challenge keeping up, but there are more things coming up that would fit that page better than this one.

There is a lot of work in this site, but it’s not always consistent and I often struggle finding what fits. The new site won’t have that restriction, and although I will make mistakes, I look forward to it. As I’ve stated before, I’m not afraid to learn something.

So, over the next few days, thatpaulguy.net will go live. It will still tell you who I am, but the dot net allows me to widen the idea pool and create something besides tech content. I will still keep this site and occasionally there will be stuff that is on both sites, but I no longer have to wonder if things fit. Hell, none of it fits, but now I’m free to figure that out.

If you are still looking for the tech blog, I have to update that as well, but you will find it here. And my buddy Gus has something started that should be fun. He has a teaser of what’s coming here.

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Failure is learning. Extraordinary results are not always guaranteed.

Where do I start?

In my quest to make a success out of all things ‘That Paul Guy’, I am learning a valuable lesson. Some times things work best in their simplest form. That’s not life changing news. It won’t solve all of the world’s problems, but in this case it’s very relevant.

You may have noticed this blog is not where my normal non tech blog would reside. For a couple of years I’ve kept two separate blog spaces. It was a way for me to keep all of my tech stuff in one space, and everything else in another. It worked out to be more like my tech in one place and everything else, every where else.

Confusion sets in

I have a blog on buymeacoffee, the tech blog, and a private journal for the personal ramblings. There are Two YouTube channels and a channel on Twitch. Each is probably a great idea, but it’s very far from what I started wanting to create. And even further from the repository for all of the code I personally developed.

The stray is fine. I work as a software engineer, and don’t want any part of that flowing over into content I create. But, that leaves me scattered, and not in a good way. Yes, there is a difference between diversified and scattered. Diversified implies there is some order or plan, I had none.

The way my mind works in a strange way, sometimes. If things are too overwhelming in more than one area, the entire assembly line shuts down. I then have to put things back together one or two at a time to get everything working. Sometimes parts get left out.

A solution?

That begins changing now. Actually, it began changing this past spring. There have been a lot of things going on in my life lately and most have been very positive. I haven’t had to shut the entire line down, but I did have to remove some of the things that started to get in the way of that positive momentum.

It caused some confusion, some hurt feelings and a lot of disconnection. I have a direction I want to go, and life is too short to put things off that are supposed to mean something. All of the scattered pieces and forks in the other fires had to be reigned in, and put in one fire.

This blog is one of the first attempts to bring all of that home. It will mean an enormous amount of work, especially if I choose to link things from both YouTube channels and highlights from streaming. It will mean a lot of work and I can’t put off doing a YouTube video because I have writers block, or I don’t have tech that is interesting that week. Likewise, not having personal insights to share doesn’t mean I can ignore the tech I’ve been testing, or that I can skip streaming that week.

So, I invite you to come with me on a bit of a new journey. It’s the first time in many years that I’ve done things for myself without being in survival mode, and it should be interesting. No, I will not be ignoring everyone else, nor will I shut everyone out, but at times it may seem that way.

Action.

Over the next few weeks to a month, more things will happen to this site. Pages will change, the structure and appearance will change and the domain may get an adjustment to fit the wider category. In addition, my buddy Gus has a project I will be helping with, so free time may be scarce. What won’t be scarce is purpose. I’m striving to redefine mine. I hope whomever is reading this has theirs or finds it.

Don’t ever give up living and learning and finding new things to explore. Life is too short to look back and say “I wish I would have done that”. The next several months promises to be interesting, I welcome it and look forward to it.

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Choosing the Best Budget Motherboard

How Did We Get Here?

The price and availability of new PC products often force us to seek budget options. This can turn out well if someone is parting with older hardware for a fair price, but it can lead to problems. The most obvious issue is matching a processor with a motherboard, or compatible memory. Intel processors don’t work in AMD sockets and vice versa. That is far from the worst problem, though and sometimes a socket that fits still won’t work.

Intel’s LGA 1151 socket spans four generations of chip architecture, but supporting infrastructure keeps ninth generation motherboards from running with a sixth generation CPU. They will physically fit into the socket, but will not function. The type of Double Density Rate memory also makes a difference. Sixth generation CPUs run on DDR3 and DDR4 in most cases, but seventh gen rarely works with DDR3.

AMD also has it’s quirks. Earlier AM4 motherboards lacked the ability to store configurations for all compatible chips forcing users to choose older Zen CPUs or more recent ones. This was corrected in newer hardware, but when AM4 was originally released, it wasn’t a thought.

So, what can we do?

Research. This doesn’t mean prompting your chat bot to see if hardware will coexist. This means actually finding examples, getting support information from company websites, or forums on the subject. There are many quirks when matching hardware other than a graphics cards limitations when running on a board with PCIe 3.0 as opposed to PCIe 4. And yes, that can be a real problem. I touch on it a bit in this video.

AMD and Intel both have full listings of chip set compatibility on their support pages. This, coupled with information from motherboard manufacturer’s support pages can help you find the right platform. It should also help you pick the right type of memory. Keep in mind, there are differences in DDR3 and DDR3L, and very big differences in ECC and standard. Servers often use Error Correcting Code ram to limit failures, while retail DDR is more tolerant. They are no more cross compatible than DDR3 is to 4 or even DDR5.

Make allowances for some parts still being in high demand and out of your target budget, when a similar item may do the job. Earlier fourth generation Xeon processors (LGA 1150) CPUs fit and worked in mainstream motherboards. In some cases, you may find an i5 that runs almost as well as it’s 7th gen cousin for half the price. Many earlier multi-threaded platforms didn’t take advantage of all of the cores available, and a faster clocked i5 may work better than a slower clocked i7 for your need.

Any Last Tips?

Be Patient. The perfect deal may not come until after you have something that may be ‘good enough’. If you find an upgrade for your use case, it’s okay to get faster memory later, or upgrade that 9500 to a 9700K when it fits your budget. Just remember, someone may want that 9500. With prices like they are, there is a thriving market for used hardware. It was one major software company that tried to tell us our hardware was no good, but there are other software options if you are a bit adventurous. But, that’s for another blog.

I touch on some of the struggles with software in this blog. I’ll post more as I explore Linux Distros.

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When a PC Hardware Repair Goes Better than Expected

How Did We Get Here

Lately, I find myself making attempts to find broken or untested hardware on the cheap. I don’t go randomly selecting things that have no hope for repair; I search listings looking for clues that may indicate what the issue is before I start looking at prices. When I find something I may be able fix, and the price is right, I’ll take the chance.

There have been a number of such purchases lately, with the most success coming from motherboards. There have also been a few misses, mainly with graphics cards. The latest video attempting to repair a motherboard is here, while the extra details here. It doesn’t always work, sometimes you get a bad CPU and it’s difficult to tell on which component to lay the blame

This particular case is a Z390 Phantom Gaming 6 from AsRock. It’s a quality board and the price was right. The seller did disclose not testing the board due to bent pins, and they could be seen in the pictures. I set my sights on a cheap processor to test with and all in with shipping I was in for about fifty bucks.

Testing

The pins were tedious, but repairable. After about two hours of meticulous work, it was ready to test. My new Celeron G4900 was actually a used CPU, but the whole set up worked. The two cores of the Celeron aren’t a great match for the motherboard, but it’s a good starting point. At the time of this writing, an upgrade has arrived.

I have a suite of games I normally test, and these worked with one exception. Borderlands Three stayed on the intro screen, the entire forty-five minutes I let it. I point that game out because Borderlands Four actually did work on the new set up and the results were predictable. Neither the processor nor the graphics card are suitable for playing this game but it turned in a respectable 20-24 frames per second on low with upscaling.

I was able to update the bios, and run other games including Call of Duty, that requires anti cheat. The results weren’t great, barely reaching 30FPS in most situations, but we are ready to move on to the next phase. That is where things took a turn.

Failure

Having tested the Celeron, I looked for a more powerful processor and arrived on an 8700K with six cores and twelve threads. Ideally, this would rival newer budget type setups and I looked forward to it. This, however, didn’t go as well. The 8700K doesn’t post, even with a new BIOS, clearing the CMOS, and trying different RAM placement. The motherboard has a debug indicator that stays on ’00’ with the fans running full speed.

I tried several things to troubleshoot and have to believe that the CPU itself is bad. This presents me with two options. I can buy another board to test, whether its just a board, or an old Optiplex, or I can get another CPU. I have plenty of ‘broken’ prebuilts, and found a ninth generation i5, that should be here this week.

If the issue turns out to be the 8700K I’ll have to file a claim, but the platform I purchased on has a great buyer protection program, so I should be safe. If the issue is the board, it complicates things just a bit, because I can’t completely rule out the processor. Getting a new board means all new tests and by the time I am able to verify the 8700K is the issue, it may be too late to file a claim.

So, What’s next?

That was actually dictated by more shopping for used parts. Ideally, a score would have been a cheap office prebuilt with an eighth or ninth gen processor. That allows me to check both parts in question. What I’ve found so far is an i5 9400F, which allows me to test the motherboard. If it arrives quickly enough, I can at least test the three sock theory.

Okay, for those unfamiliar, it’s a dark laundry room and you have two different color socks in the dryer. How do you pull a matching pair? You have to pull at least three to take into the light, two of the three will be the same color, possibly all three. Having three CPUs helps me reasonably assess if the problem is the processor, or the board.

This won’t be the last stop for the 8th or 9th gen set up. It’s not a current platform, but collecting at least one working platform over the past several generations helps me test a variety of conditions. It allows me to test a variety of games, Linux distros, applications and even hardware for compatibility. I will eventually get another motherboard, but for the time being, I’ll go with what I have.

I spent as much time troubleshooting the new CPU as I did fixing the board in the first place and there are better things to do with the set up, even if I can’t get my money back. I’m still happy with the board and the initial testing and when I get the i5 to test, there will be a video and of course, a blog.

Feel free to check out the other YouTube videos and Blogs.