It's dead, Jim. Time for a new computer

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Okay, so my computer is -dead-. By dead, I mean 'The Power Supply, which I was already going to replace when I got the cash, finally gave up, and fried pretty much everything'. So yea, very dead. Motherboard has scorch marks. It is pining for the fjords. It has ceased to be. This is an ex-computer.

Sorry, I think we were moving into another skit there. Ahem... moving on.

Well, SINCE I'm going to have to buy pretty much a whole new computer anyways, I'm going to build myself a decent computer. One that can actually run everything I want.

Well, first off, I'm a big fan of Antec, so I am looking at this tower with this power supply. That should at least prevent the sorts of shenanigans my old power supply pulled. Yes, it's an 850. Yes, it's a little over-engineered, but really it isn't all that much moreso.

So, first I need to look at Motherboard and CPU/Processor. So, I am browsing motherboards, and find this ASUS board, because I'm a fan of AMD, and dual-processor boards are smexy. Plus, $124 is not a bad price for a board like this. For the CPU, since I've got a pair of slots, I might as well get a pair of these. Sure, it's only an AM3 not an AM3+ chip, but it's still a quad-core chip with a decent speed and cache. Besides, the board can handle up to the Phenom II's, so I can always upgrade this later if I need better processing. But this should more than handle minecraft + recording. This is why I pick up an 850 Power Supply. Dual processors are power hogs.

Then I need to check out the RAM. Well, I don't have a lot of cash, so I'm probably going to skimp and get something like a pair of these. Sure, it's only 8 GB, but that should be more than sufficient for me now, and I can upgrade to an amazing 32 GB when I want to.

I'll check to see if my poor GPU survived, and check my hard drive as well.

So, all together, I'm looking at around $530 for an 8-core around 3 GHz processor and 8 GB RAM. It's got tons of space for upgrades, and will last me a good long time. It far outstrips any 'prepackaged' computer in that price bracket, mostly because I'm a Penguin, so I don't need to spend an extra three hundred or so on the OS, then another couple hundred on the software packages like MS Office.

So, whaddya think? Should it at least permit me to record Minecraft without lagging the hell out of myself?

 

[Henry Link]

Looks good have you given much thought to the HDD yet? I've seen more than one system killed by a slow HDD. The rig I have uses a SSD for the OS and a VelociRaptor STAT3 drive for my data and programs.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Looks good have you given much thought to the HDD yet? I've seen more than one system killed by a slow HDD. The rig I have uses a SSD for the OS and a VelociRaptor STAT3 drive for my data and programs.

I don't have the cash for an SSD, otherwise I would. I've got a SAT3 1TB Seagate drive that should work.

Also, I've heard in some cases that the system itself is not optimized to run SSD and actually sees a reduction in performance. Besides, I'm on Linux, so I can always add in an SSD for the OS later. I think that, before I use an SSD for the OS, I'll upgrade the GPU. Currently I'm running an NVidia 9000 series. 512 MB, no HDMI port... yea, that's going to definitely be a priority before the SSD for the OS.

 

[Henry Link]

Didn't know about the linux. Linux doesn't torture the HDD like windows does. So yeah you should be good. The only reason I still use Windows is because of my Steam games. I would love to see an increase in games made for Linux. Out of curiosity which distro do you use? I usually use Ubuntu. My minecraft server runs on a headless Ubuntu server. I've tried crux/mineos and didn't care for it.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Didn't know about the linux. Linux doesn't torture the HDD like windows does. So yeah you should be good. The only reason I still use Windows is because of my Steam games. I would love to see an increase in games made for Linux. Out of curiosity which distro do you use? I usually use Ubuntu. My minecraft server runs on a headless Ubuntu server. I've tried crux/mineos and didn't care for it.

Mint 15 here, which is a near cousin of Ubuntu (still a Debian distro). Mint 15 plus Cinnamon pretty much is everything I'd ever want or need from an OS.

You'd be surprised how many Steam games that are windows-only can be run via WINE, PlayOnLinux, or Crossover. For example, I've got Terraria running on Mint 15 no problems. And, of course, more and more games are being made with OpenGL instead of .NET due to better performance, which means they are pretty much Linux compatible by default.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, I get everything together... no dice. It starts up. All the shiny LED's turn on. It won't recognize the monitor. I tried my old video card and my new one, still no dice. Motherboard has no on-board GPU either. Yes, I double-checked, the card is in the correct PCI-E6 slot.

Could this be a driver issue? I mean, it isn't even getting to BIOS, but some video cards really don't like being used in safe mode...

 

[Henry Link]

Every computer I've built always comes up to the BIOS screen even if it doesn't boot unless there is some type of hardware issue. So it isn't a drive issue. Are you getting any diagnostic beeps from the mainboard?

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Every computer I've built always comes up to the BIOS screen even if it doesn't boot unless there is some type of hardware issue. So it isn't a drive issue. Are you getting any diagnostic beeps from the mainboard?

It's probably either the video card itself or the PCIe slots. I've sent it to a friend who has the proper tools to diagnose properly.

 

[Beleriond01]

Schneekey: if this is your old motherboard it could either be that the MoBo is broken (or some part of it that is) or possibly an incompatible GPU-card. I highly doubt it's the latter so imho it would seem as if the MoBo is faulty...

On a non-related note...I might just get back to you via PM (if that's ok ofc) to pick your brain about MC + Linux. Been running a Debian server for as long as I can remember but not sure it'll be able to handle serving as a network gateway/server for my home-LAN and run MC (modded or not).

Cheers,
Bel*.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Schneekey: if this is your old motherboard it could either be that the MoBo is broken (or some part of it that is) or possibly an incompatible GPU-card. I highly doubt it's the latter so imho it would seem as if the MoBo is faulty...

This is a new board from Fry's, but apparently the PCIe slots are not POSTing properly, so it's the board itself. Fortunately, I'm within 7 days, and can return for my cash back. I've already ordered a new board from a vendor I trust. They also checked and the GPU works just fine. I'm just glad I didn't use the Thermal Paste for my initial testing, that would have been... impossible to return.

On a non-related note...I might just get back to you via PM (if that's ok ofc) to pick your brain about MC + Linux. Been running a Debian server for as long as I can remember but not sure it'll be able to handle serving as a network gateway/server for my home-LAN and run MC (modded or not).

Oh, absolutely. Running MC is fairly easy in Linux. You probably will want to download and install the actual Sun Java JDK rather than the version which ships with Debian distros, and there's a PPA you can use to keep it updated automatically. How well it will run will depend largely on system specs. Obviously, running heavily modded MC is going to require more specs than vanilla, but how much more depends on the mods you use.

However, using it to run a server for MC will require a LOT more RAM than simply being a Debian server, probably looking at a minimum of 4 GB if not more. It is constantly talking to all of your players, so the more RAM and Processing you have, the smoother the server will run.

Right now, I'm borrowing time on my roommate's computer, but go ahead and PM me and I'll help you with it.