Watson Server, Third of His Name

[seperis]

So after last month's less than stellar mental health and an incident, I decided I needed a project during Our Time of Covid.

There's a reason I have lots of hobbies, and it's not just because I have a short attention span and I love learning new things; I do not do well idle, specifically mentally idle. Cleaning all day every day would make me busy, but unless I was redesigning our storage or reorganizing the kitchen--aka things for which I made spreadsheets--as far as my brain would be concerned, I'd be doing nothing and so have plenty of time to worry, be anxious, overthink everything, consider my life and choices, and...every single person reading this with Depresion or anxiety just twitched, sorry. You know.

Reading, writing, maintenance on Watson and my Plex server, Pokemon Go and minor refactoring of my scripts were not cutting it, or a portion of April suggests; what is needed here is something new aka, a project.

So I checked my budget, recalculated everything, and decided to upgrade Watson Server.

Watson Server was born 10/7/2010 when I built my very first computer from components (as opposed to upgrading existing ones). Here I went into how I built it. About two years ago, Child was upgrading his computer to a gaming machine, so I took his old parts to build Watson Server (Second of That Name), but while it was a decent upgrade, it was still pretty slow. Moving the Plex server to the Pi a few months ago helped, but not much.

Enter Watson Mark III.



Components:
Build:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X
Mobo: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 S3200
Case: Thermaltake Level 20 VT
Bluray: ASUS USB 2.0 / USB 3.0 External 16X Blu-Ray
Video: Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 1GB
Power/Drives: already had
Total: $655.40


Can't lie, I built it around this case, which I fell in love with. Also? I can finally try out watercooling.

I think this will keep me busy for a bit.

Currently, however, w e

Comments

Nifty build.

[jesse_the_k]

Water cooling like there’s circulating water in the case? Does it connect to your house system?

Re: Nifty build.

[seperis]

No, it's discrete. Here's an example of a kit: https://www.newegg.com/raijintek-calore-liquid-cooling-system/p/2YM-0002-00025?cm_sp=SearchSuccess-_-INFOCARD-_-water+cooling-_-9SIA66Z9S92319-_-1&Description=water+cooling

Here are some images: https://www.google.com/search?q=water+cooled+computer&newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=ALeKk02hBNQudWblJZ6i8lrqCskeR5uHOQ:1589672711054&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTiYGqyLnpAhUC7awKHQldCGkQ_AUoAnoECGgQBA&biw=1920&bih=978

Tell me that would not be kickass. Child wants to do it first, so we're going to practice with his first, but mine is totally next. I am thinking all blue, though.

Re: Nifty build.

[jesse_the_k]

WOW! Are there bubbles you can watch while waiting for inspiration to strike?

Re: Nifty build.

[seperis]

...I'm now going to find a way to make that happen. Oh hell yes.

[krait]

That is a really cool case! I can see why it inspired you. :D

I'm thinking of having my brother build me a new computer in the case of my ancient college desktop - by now in computer time measurements it's somewhere between "vintage" and "ancient" - and I kinda love it. I doubt any of the components in it still work, since it's been over a decade since I plugged it in and turned it on, but that's no reason to throw a perfectly good CPU tower away...

And maybe he could somehow make the floppy disk drive work again, instead of discarding it, because I would be weirdly delighted to have a 'new' computer with a 3-inch floppy drive. :D

[seperis]

Oh, if he can make it work, that would be seriously cool. Send a pic if he does! ESPECIALLY WITH THE FLOPPY SO MUCH NOSTALGIA

[krait]

Haha, will do! I keep meaning to post a picture of my Fanfiction On Floppy Disk collection, anyway; I should do that, since I can't start on any larger projects right now. :D

If I dig out the CPU, I could post of a photo of that, too, for (as the Tumblr kids say) "the aesthetic." :D It ran Windows 98 when it was alive, I believe, and monitors were still cube-shaped when I bought it, though it lived long enough to have a couple of 'flat-screen' monitors later in its life.

[lurkmuch]

That is a kickass build, and I can't wait to see what watercooling looks like!

I'm with you on the hobbies, I had decided to move my Plex server from the "slapped together, external HD plugged into my usually docked Macbook, eh this is good enough while I see if I like this" onto a new Nvidia Shield, buy a fancier router and hardwire the computer and TV...at the end of February. Noodling around to get the Shield set up the way I liked it was definitely a sanity saver during the start of stay at home.

[seperis]

YOU HAVE THE SHIELD? I just ordered it, the pro model so I can move my Plex to it!!!!!! Now i know who to call for advice. How is it going?

[lurkmuch]

So far, so good! I have the Pro. (I don't game, so I bought the model with just a remote.) I thought long and hard about buying server parts and building one from scratch and it sounded like a ton of fun BUT I was working full time and ultimately decided that something more out of the box was a better fit. (Now I'm partially furloughed and have the time, so I may Plot Deviously for the days when my "It Is VERY Shiny" budget line is being funded again.)

My needs are pretty simple - I live alone, and mostly watch things on my TV and mostly don't need to transcode. Mine is hardwired to the internet (highly recommend!), plugged into my TV (it's so little!) and has a WD external 6TB plugged into it. (I have like, 4TB of media? Stop laughing. Like I said, simple needs.) I also had the hassle of having to reformat the media drive and thus shuffle all the files elsewhere first, before the Shield could read it but I'm pretty sure that I used an Apple specific drive format and thus this isn't relevant to you?

I purchased a 64 GB USB drive for system storage and I can't remember if it can take something larger but if it does, it's probably worth maxing out. (I don't remember why I didn't do that. I bought this in February, so several whole entire lifetimes ago?) I also don't have a good backup solution for that drive, so that's on my list of shit to figure out. (Building a server also involved maybe figuring out RAID? Overkill almost certainly, but nerd projects are fun!) All in all it was relatively easy to set up and configure, and that's coming from a Mac/iOS user who hasn't owned an Android device of any kind before.

On a somewhat related note, I'm in love with PlexAmp.

[seperis]

So far, so good! I have the Pro. (I don't game, so I bought the model with just a remote.) I thought long and hard about buying server parts and building one from scratch and it sounded like a ton of fun BUT I was working full time and ultimately decided that something more out of the box was a better fit. (Now I'm partially furloughed and have the time, so I may Plot Deviously for the days when my "It Is VERY Shiny" budget line is being funded again.)

I totally recommend building a home server! But to play Plex, Nvidia Shield or Shield Pro are the only ones that can play 4K reliably; pretty much the entirety of Plex forums agree on that and they agree on nothing else. I got the Pro since it was only $60 more and could also run the Plex server, not just play it. Now I can turn my pi into something else, like maybe a robot. I Really want to build a robot.

SO EXCITED IT IS HERE ON WEDNESDAY. *glee*

[olanthanide]

Ahahaha the I don't do well with mental idleness is about half of the reason why I put up with the BS in academia (most of the other half is this is the only job I've had so far where I won't keep getting into trouble for 1)questioning everything, 2)my "independent" I do what I want attitude (I am unfortunately one of the people who's instinctive reaction to people telling me what to do is "no")). Which means somehow(?) my brain thinks the current shenanigans in my life isn't enough to occupy it but it also doesn't have bandwidth for new stories(?) and now I've finished pass 1 of all my translation projects and have started eyeing video games (that I do not have time for) and have fallen down the Animal Crossing Pocket Camp hole (that I definitely do not have time for).

I can't even think "brain, why are you like this?" because I know the answer is, "because evolution; and our brain isn't really built to handle anything like our current life style and stress".

[seperis]

Which means somehow(?) my brain thinks the current shenanigans in my life isn't enough to occupy it but it also doesn't have bandwidth for new stories(?) and now I've finished pass 1 of all my translation projects and have started eyeing video games (that I do not have time for) and have fallen down the Animal Crossing Pocket Camp hole (that I definitely do not have time for).

Feel reassured; I just bought a Switch to play Animal Crossing. Arrives Tuesday. So many people seem to love it including ex-work-crush-maybe-current-work-crush-again an if nothing else, we can trade clay or something to build houses? I'm unclear but hopeful.

I also feel like I have Way Too Much To Do But Also Not Enough. Except working from home, my life isn't all that different and I didn't realize that walking to work every day was that big a deal until I don't leave the apartment at all (excpet once a month for my prescriptions). So I'm trying everything to engage my brain hoping something sticks, but seriously, it's a work in progress.

[olanthanide]

Do you sometimes feel like brain wrangling is a lot like toddler wrangling, but with an extremely cranky / temperamental toddler? It's all "do you want story time? No? How about a nap? No? Do you want a cookie? Do you want to MAKE a cookie? How about a game?" while most of us (or at least my friends and I) would much rather deal with the tamagotchi pet version of options -- i.e. food, water, poop. What's wrong with 3? It's a nice number.

Alas I am cheap and usually don't have much time for games so I don't have ANY gaming system besides my tablet. I just found out yesterday that the (free) pocket camp version doesn't allow me to play online with my friends (even though I went through extra effort so I can craft a chocolate cake and a tea set so I can host a nice tea party)...or interact with any real person besides leaving kudos and taking photos, really. I miss Glitch, where I can go on actual quests with people and visit each other's streets and leave random gifts (and spend an hour failing to get into hell). Eleven Giants got the public streets back up but I have no idea when anything else will happen....

[seperis]

Do you sometimes feel like brain wrangling is a lot like toddler wrangling, but with an extremely cranky / temperamental toddler? It's all "do you want story time? No? How about a nap? No? Do you want a cookie? Do you want to MAKE a cookie? How about a game?" while most of us (or at least my friends and I) would much rather deal with the tamagotchi pet version of options -- i.e. food, water, poop. What's wrong with 3? It's a nice number.

It's exactly like that. It doesn't know what it wants, but it's definitely not any of the near-infinite things I've been offering it. Gah.