New Router
0As good as the old machine I got from TAFE, the router is in need of an upgrade.
Now normally I need no reason to do this, but for the sake of convincing myself my reasons are as follows:
1) The current computer isn’t optimised for power efficiency (newer motherboards are surely more efficient)
2) The power supply seems to be making funny noises (could just need a dusting but meh)
3) It currently doesn’t natively support 1Gbps LAN (needs PCI addon card)
and finally:
4) It doesn’t have SATA, requiring the use of another PCI card to include the media backup drive in my setup (which is currently only working in one direction).
So here’s what I have in mind:
CPU:
AMD | Intel |
Cheapest:Sempron 140 2.8GhzSingle Core 45w x64 | Cheapest:Celeron Socket 775 E3400 Dual-core 2.6Ghz 65w |
$31 | $47 |
Ideal:Athlon II X2 255 Dual-Core 3.10Ghz 65w | Ideal: Core 2 Duo E6600 3.06Ghz Dual-Core 65w |
$61 | $67 |
Motherboard:
AMD | Intel | AMD Old Motherboard |
ASUS M4A78LT-M-LE
Socket AM3+ Integrated GFX + DDR3 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN |
ASUS P5G41T-M-LX Socket 775+Integrated GFX + DDR3 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN | Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 Socket AM2 (supports AM3 @ 2000MT/s)+ DDR2 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN |
$55 | $59 | $0 |
Memory:
Kingston 2GB DDR3-1333
$17
Power Supply:
Vantec ION2 CAN-460C 460Watt
$45
Extra requirements:
Low power consumption
Integrated Graphics
Integrated Dual-Gigabit networking
Or a Free PCI port
Using Old motherboard:
Requirements:
- · CPU (Supports AM3 at lowered bus speeds)
- · RAM (DDR2 only)
- · Power Supply
- · Graphics card? (temporarily use 8800GTS I guess)
CPU:
Sempron 140 $31
RAM:
Kingston 2GB Value $29
Power Supply:
Vantec (As above) $45
TOTAL Cost:
AMD Budget | AMD Ideal | Intel Budget | Intel Ideal | Using Old Mobo |
$31 + $55 + $17 + $45 | $61 + $55 + $17 + $45 | $47+ $59 + $17 + $45 | $67 + $59 + $17 + $45 | $31 + $29 + $45 |
$148 | $178 | $164 | $184 | $105 |
All prices are taken from MSY and were all in stock at the time of writing.
I would personally like to make a new machine (less the case), my experience with ad-hoc new/old part swapping is not exactly stellar.
That said, I have just been reminded of another motherboard I have left over: the M2N-SLI Deluxe; But that might be overkill in retrospect… it was designed for high performance more than anything (though it would mean I only need a power supply and a CPU to get it going.
*sigh.*.. i’m gonna need to think about this..
Linux ‘screen’ command
0Just a quick note about an awesome tool I’ve discovered on my travels.
The ‘screen‘ command in a linux shell.
This neat little tool allows you to run a remote shell (via SSH in my case) and run a command so that it doesn’t die after you exit the SSH session.
Normally when you exit an SSH session while a command is being run you will kill any processes being run by that session. With screen, you basically tell it to leave that particular session in the background (running) and you can come back to it at any time and check on its progress.
I’ve found it particularly useful when I’m using Rsync to dump the files from one computer to another (as in my current predicament.
So basically your essential commands are:
localhost@user:$ screen
This makes a new screen so you are given a new shell in which to type any commands you need to run in the background.
localhost@user:$ screen -ls
This will give you a list of current screen sockets open. Note the socket number so you can get back to the screen you want.
localhost@user:$ screen -r [screen socket number]
This command will reattach/restore the screen you had running to the front so that you can check on it’s progress. If at this point you exit the shell the session will still remain and you can use the same command to restore it again.
Once you are finished, just type exit and it should kill the socket and drop back to the standard shell.
If for whatever reason it doesn’t drop the socket (check with screen -ls) you can either leave it (I doubt it would use much memory anyway) or use the command screen -wipe and that will destroy all sockets that have been made.
So that’s it. What a useful tool, and very easy to use.
As always with Linux, it has many more options than described here, so you can check the man pages on it (man screen) or just screen –help will give you most of what you’ll ever need.
Later.