State of the Collection

[raymac46]

Some folks collect stamps. In my dotage I collect computer systems. Here's the state of the collection today from newest to oldest:

1. Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook (2022)
   • Hardware: Tiger Lake i3, 8GB RAM
   • O/S: ChromeOS
   • Used for: Web surfing, Google Docs, and by the grandkids.
2. Dell XPS Desktop (2021)
   • Hardware: Rocket Lake i7, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX2060
   • O/S: Windows 11
   • Used for: General use, Train Sims, Games - daily driver.
3. ASUS Vivobook Laptop (2020)
   • Hardware: Ryzen 5 3500U, 8 GB RAM
   • O/S: Windows 11
   • Used for: Surfing the Web from the kitchen table. Grandkids use it for browser games occasionally.
4. HP Pavilion Laptop (2015)
   • Hardware: Broadwell i5, 8 GB RAM
   • O/S: Linux Mint Xfce
   • Used for: Workbench in basement Web surfing.
5. Lenovo Flex 2 -15D Laptop (2014)
   • Hardware: AMD Beema A8-6410 quad core, 8 GB RAM
   • O/S: EndeavourOS Xfce
   • Used for: Testing, odd jobs.
6. Custom Built Desktop - Cooler Master Mid Tower Case (2013)
   • Hardware: AMD Trinity A8-5600K, 16 GB RAM, AMD R7 360 GPU
   • O/S: Linux Mint Cinnamon
   • Used for: General use, Grandkids games, Daily Linux driver.
7. Thinkpad T430 Laptop (2012)
   • Hardware: Ivy Bridge i5, 12 GB RAM
   • O/S : Debian Trixie with Custom GNOME Desktop Environment
   • Used for: Debian Testing, Travel.
8. Toshiba NB305 Netbook (2010)
   • Hardware: Intel Atom, 2 GB RAM
   • O/S: Arch Linux LXQt
   • Used for: Curiosity, proof of concept, nostalgia.
9. Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop (2007)
   • Hardware: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM
   • O/S: Spiral Linux LXQt
   • Used for: Music player for workroom.

Machines from 4 on have had some degree of upgrade, mostly RAM and SSDs. They are junkers though - unable to run Windows anymore so I've installed various flavors of Linux. Good thing I have lots of space and an understanding spouse.

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by raymac46

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Heh! Reminds me of the pile of towers and lappies I used to have around here. Nowadays, it's just this ol' beast and my dead shop system out in the workshop (bad PSU). I'm freer and less burdened without all that carp lying around.

[raymac46]

A number of these machines were given to me, and without my intervention would have ended up in recycling. Having them around gives me a chance to test out a distro without having to use a virtual machine. I hear you though. If someone came by and needed a machine and didn't mind using Linux, I'd donate one or two of them. A couple are so old I couldn't do that though. Ten year window usually applies.

[wa4chq]

Impressive collection there, Raymac.  Here I use a Dell Optiplex 3510 that my brother gave me...came from the office where he works.  I also have a Lenovo Thinkpad E420 and then I have 5 Raspberry Pi's running Piaware, PiHole, MagicMirror, a music server and a print server.  I could probably combine a few of the Pi's but I'm not....  Everything here runs Linux

[raymac46]

My most impressive success story is with the Lenovo Flex2-15D. It ran Windows 8.1 originally and has an Atheros 956x wifi card. The Windows drivers for this card never worked well and I was plagued by dropped signals and disconnections for years. After I converted to Linux, it's worked perfectly.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

13 hours ago, raymac46 said:

A number of these machines were given to me...

 

Yes, indeed. This is also how I "collected" all the hardware I had at one time. For a long while there, I was repairing them, installing GNU/Linux on them, and giving them to perspective converts. Sadly, many just refused a free system just because it did NOT have their wonderful and favorite OS (Windows) on it. That's too bad. Their loss. My GNU/Linux converts are still, to this day, LOVING their Linux! It also makes me the "Maytag Repairmen" of Family/Friends IT. It's a lonely job these days.

 

[raymac46]

One of my most interesting donors is my neighbor just up the street.

In 2016 he got sick of his 2010 Toshiba Netbook, bought a new HP i5 system and gave  me the old one. I put in a cheap SSD and installed Arch Linux. It's still running pretty well.

This year he bought a new Windows 11 machine and gave me the 2016 Broadwell i5. Again I put in a cheap SSD, installed Linux Mint and I bet the resulting laptop runs just as well as his new one.

[securitybreach]

Nice RayMac!  I always update my profile spec's list when I get new hardware.

[securitybreach]

It helps me keep track of changes

[Hedon James]

My newest machine, now that I (seem to) have all the bugs worked out:

 

Enterprise grade Lenovo ThinkCentre m715q Tiny

• Hardware:  AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2400GE w/ Radeon Vega Graphics; 16GB RAM; 256GB NVME; 6 USB 3.0 ports; 3 DP++ ports
• O/S:  Debian 12 Bookworm custom remix
• Used for:  Everyday production desktop in commercial real estate appraisal business
• Notes:  In attempts to "future proof" myself, I've tried to make my desktop setup as modular as possible:
  • These Enterprise-grade Lenovo ThinkCentres are plentiful, inexpensive, and easily upgraded.  Just remove ONE screw, slide the case from chassis, and RAM and NVME drive are right there....maybe the easiest access I've EVER had.
  • My OS is on the internal NVME.  I've moved my DataDrive and BackupDrive to external Sabrent Dock Station with "clone" capability.  If NVME fails, I've got my LiveMedia to restore.  If DataDrive or BackupDrive fails, I'm about a 6-8 hour "sync" from being back in business.  If I have warning that the HDD is failing, I can clone before it actually happens!
  • I've got my flash drives (temporary and/or portable data) and select peripherals on a Sabrent 10-port powered USB hub
  • In addition to wireless keyboard/mouse (paired to single dongle), I've also got built-in Bluetooth, and can connect to keyboard/mouse if needed.  Another backup solution!
  • Using OverGrive to sync some shared music files with music-making friends (another backup system!)

All in all, setup was a real PITA, but hopefully a good time investment in disaster recovery.  I'm really happy with Debian 12 and the versions of software in the Bookworm repos.  I don't wanna jinx it, because I've only been using it for a week....but really stable and really "smooth".  Increased confidence that I have the right long-term OS for me!

 

The machine that the above Lenovo is replacing:

 

Custom-built from parts, in a Silverstone "crate" case:

• Hardware:  Intel Core i7-4770 with Xeon Graphics, on Asus motherboard; 16GB RAM; 256GB SSD; 2TB WD HDD (DataDrive); 4TB WD HDD (BackupDrive); ??? USB ports; HDMI & DVI graphics ports; built-in optical CDRW; built-in card reader
• O/S:  Debian 10 Buster custom remix
• Notes:  came with a 256GB SSD with OEM Win7, which I pulled and stored for future reference.  I'll probably pull the OS SSD and the Data/BAK HDDs, and reinstall the pulled OEM Win7 SSD
  • While this machine is still quite capable, and actually pretty powerful, it's about 10 years old now.  Replacement parts aren't always easy to find (haven't needed to, knock on wood), but I was able to acquire the above Lenovo for slightly more $$$ than most of the parts that are usually replaced.  So even though there's nothing wrong with this machine, it just seems like the "forward thinking" smart thing to do.  FWIW...

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Hedon James

[securitybreach]

Nice

[raymac46]

So what's gonna happen with the Skylake i7 tiny system?

[Hedon James]

5 minutes ago, raymac46 said:

So what's gonna happen with the Skylake i7 tiny system?

Backup system.  Either for me, or wife.  I set her up with a Lenovo ThinkCentre m910q Tiny and she LOVES it!  Compared to her old 2-core AIO system, the ThinkCentre is VERY responsive.  I was pretty pleased with it too.  So much so, that I decided to get one for myself also.  This is all HER fault...she started it!  LOL!

 

But I'll be repurposing my old "crate" desktop, with a Core i7 processor.  It's a beast, but not very modular.  I probably spent $1,000 on parts to build it, but it's old enough that I'm "exposed" for replacement parts.  When I can buy a whole other computer for about $200, it makes very little sense to buy spare parts to repair the crate system.  I'll probably gift it to one of my music buddies so he has a powerful enough system to work a DAW with.  His laptop is taxed with his software.  My system will be better for him, if he's interested.

 

[raymac46]

These SFF computers are quite lovely and if my 10 year old Linux desktop croaks, I'll definitely get one. As for my other desktop I need a relarively powerful graphics card like an RTX 2060 to play my train sims, so a tiny machine won't be any good.

[Hedon James]

13 hours ago, raymac46 said:

These SFF computers are quite lovely and if my 10 year old Linux desktop croaks, I'll definitely get one. As for my other desktop I need a relarively powerful graphics card like an RTX 2060 to play my train sims, so a tiny machine won't be any good.

Yeah, and it BLOWS MY MIND that these Lenovos can be purchased for so little money?!  My wife's Core i7 came with a 1GB NVME and 32GB RAM, with Win10 (she needs Windows to interface with her work software); and I think hers was around $225 refurbed on Amazon.  I'm a little jealous of that 32GB RAM, and looked into upgrading mine from 16GB to 32GB with a stick of DDR5 (that's what's in it already), and I can do that for around $20, depending on vendor.    I've never had 32GB RAM, because 16GB has always been fine for me, but you never know how future "software creep" might chip that away.  But for that price, I should probably just DO IT and brag about it.  3 short years ago, at the height of covid19, you couldn't get CPUs, GPUs, or RAM; and what you could find was at a "gouge" price.  I should take my own advice of "it is better to have and not need; than to need and not have."  My "backup" Core i7 has a 512GB NVME and 16GB RAM and Win10 (which I promptly pulled the Authorization Keys from and printed out for future reference) before I blew it away and installed Debian 12 in its place.  I paid $175 for that Amazon refurb.

 

For that price, why buy replacement parts for an aged-out machine, when you can buy an entire new(ish) machine with upgraded specs?!  And these Lenovos are quite popular as Enterprise machines in corporate America, so they're typically replaced every 3-5 years when the lease is up.  So those refurbs are going to be in re-supply for a long time.  I'm in a "sweet spot" with these machines, IMO!

[raymac46]

And most of the time, once you get Linux on one of those refurbed machines you are good until the hardware dies. I have an Ivy Bridge Thinkpad 430  that runs as good as new 11 years after it was made.

[Hedon James]

16 hours ago, raymac46 said:

And most of the time, once you get Linux on one of those refurbed machines you are good until the hardware dies. I have an Ivy Bridge Thinkpad 430  that runs as good as new 11 years after it was made.

I'm amazed at the refurb prices, and the "upgrade" prices for those ThinkCenter Tiny computers.  A 16GB DDR5 RAM chip for around $20?!  NVME upgrades, ranging from 256GB to 2GB....I forget the prices, but were dirt cheap...astoundingly cheap.  I can only guess that, because those ThinkCenter Tiny machines were marketed as Enterprise-grade to MANY corporations for deployments, Lenovo sold a LOT of them.  And corps typically dispose/acquire new tech in 3-5 year cycles....about the length of the lease period.  But because there are so many Tiny computers in circulation, I'll bet component manufacturers made a LOT of RAM and NVMEs to accommodate the upgrade/parts market.  Supply and demand....and oversupply creates lower prices.  I don't know, but that's my theory.

 

Even though I don't NEED anything, I'm tempted to buy a spare RAM or 2, and maybe a spare NVME....both could be had for less than $60, if I remember correctly.    OTOH, gotta factor in the refurb....if either the MOBO or the CPU/GPU dies, that machine is no longer salvageable (economically); it's cheaper to just buy a new machine.  But there's LOTS of 'em available, so that shouldn't be an issue either.  $60 seems like a cheap insurance policy, as long as these Tiny computers are so easily (and inexpensively) available.  JMO...

[raymac46]

I'm not an economist but I would think the market for these refurbed desktops would be smaller than for (say) a refurbed enterprise laptop. The tiny desktops would be only of interest to businessmen like yourself, or to someone who does not want to play sophisticated games. Hence lower prices. Memory for these are in the form of SODIMMS I think. I don't know if the supply of those is greater than for normal DIMMs.

I do agree that upgrading to the max would be a great idea if the price is right.

[Hedon James]

23 hours ago, raymac46 said:

I'm not an economist but I would think the market for these refurbed desktops would be smaller than for (say) a refurbed enterprise laptop. The tiny desktops would be only of interest to businessmen like yourself, or to someone who does not want to play sophisticated games. Hence lower prices. Memory for these are in the form of SODIMMS I think. I don't know if the supply of those is greater than for normal DIMMs.

I do agree that upgrading to the max would be a great idea if the price is right.

You might be onto something there, with the perceived demand.  Seems the world has gone mobile...traditional desktops seem to be dying the slowest possible death I've ever seen.  Oh well....works out great for me, for a change!

 

The RAM sticks are indeed tiny...looked like laptop sticks.  And the NVMEs are small too; even smaller than regular RAM sticks.  I had never seen a NVME stick before, so I don't know if that's typical, or a "tiny" size.  But I'm quite pleased with their prices.  I've never seen RAM so cheap....less than $30 for 16GB....WOW?!  And all the NVME sticks I saw were around $40-$100, depending on capacity.  PLUS, there's an internal slot/caddy for an SSD.  One could REALLY beef up these little machines for very little investment.  I'm actually pretty impressed.  And I'm starting to really like having it vesa-mounted on the back of my monitor.  Quite convenient when troubleshooting, or manually powering on/off; beats the heck out of fumbling around in the dark underneath my desk!  LOL!

[securitybreach]

Nvme drives are just a little longer than a stick of ram. See below (I've been using them for years now in desktops and laptops)

 

[crp]

I still have a grey box hanging around. Might be from the 1990's but I think it is from about 2005.

 

[abarbarian]

20 hours ago, Hedon James said:

And all the NVME sticks I saw were around $40-$100, depending on capacity.

 

This one is £40 cheaper than the 256 GB one  I bought almost ten years ago.  

 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/samsungs-980-pro-2tb-pcie-40-ssd-has-dropped-to-103-at-amazon-us

[raymac46]

You can also get a 2230 M.2 drive.

https://www.amazon.ca/Hynix-256GB-Internal-Solid-Factor/dp/B09NF2FJ62

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I have a "Little Gray Box" on my electric water heater.

 

 

I love it. It turns the water heater on once a day between 7PM and 9PM. That's it. I always have hot water and it saves me oodles of $$$ on my electric bill.

 

 

[wa4chq]

20 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

I have a "Little Gray Box" on my electric water heater.

 

 

I love it. It turns the water heater on once a day between 7PM and 9PM. That's it. I always have hot water and it saves me oodles of $$$ on my electric bill.

 

 

Sounds like the ticket!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

2 hours ago, wa4chq said:

Sounds like the ticket!

 

Yeah, most folks would be amazed if they knew how much juice that water heater sucks in a 24 hour period. I picked that little time up in a junk pile at my uncle's house about 25 years ago. He said someone had given it to him but told him that they thought it was broken. And actually, it was broken. The timer clock was bad. No problem. I went over to one of my favorite shopping spots (Grainger) and bought the little clock for eight dollars and change. I brought it home and installed it in the Li'l Gray Box and then bench tested it. Worked fine... I installed in on my water heater and it's been doing its thing ever since.

 

A new Little Gray Box is going for about $60 these days. Back when I got this one from uncle, they were about $35. Prices NEVER go down, do they?

 

___

 

Oh, my... went a little off-topic here. I hope the Mods don't ban me or anything.

[wa4chq]

11 minutes ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

 

Yeah, most folks would be amazed if they knew how much juice that water heater sucks in a 24 hour period. I picked that little time up in a junk pile at my uncle's house about 25 years ago. He said someone had given it to him but told him that they thought it was broken. And actually, it was broken. The timer clock was bad. No problem. I went over to one of my favorite shopping spots (Grainger) and bought the little clock for eight dollars and change. I brought it home and installed it in the Li'l Gray Box and then bench tested it. Worked fine... I installed in on my water heater and it's been doing its thing ever since.

 

A new Little Gray Box is going for about $60 these days. Back when I got this one from uncle, they were about $35. Prices NEVER go down, do they?

 

___

 

Oh, my... went a little off-topic here. I hope the Mods don't ban me or anything.

Yeah, that's a great way to do it.  When I was doing the plumbing here, I didn't want to have the conventional HW heater, so I installed one of those hot water on demand gizmos.  The price was the same.  The only time I use real amount of hot water is when I take a shower.  I do my laundry in cold water....  You ain't off topic.  All hot water heaters  have a tiny computer onboard running Tiny Core Linux.

[Hedon James]

22 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

 

Yeah, most folks would be amazed if they knew how much juice that water heater sucks in a 24 hour period. I picked that little time up in a junk pile at my uncle's house about 25 years ago. He said someone had given it to him but told him that they thought it was broken. And actually, it was broken. The timer clock was bad. No problem. I went over to one of my favorite shopping spots (Grainger) and bought the little clock for eight dollars and change. I brought it home and installed it in the Li'l Gray Box and then bench tested it. Worked fine... I installed in on my water heater and it's been doing its thing ever since.

 

A new Little Gray Box is going for about $60 these days. Back when I got this one from uncle, they were about $35. Prices NEVER go down, do they?

 

___

 

Oh, my... went a little off-topic here. I hope the Mods don't ban me or anything.

You are correct on that water heater electric use comment!

 

I recently installed solar panels on my house, and one of the discussions related to solar use involved ways to reduce our electric consumption, as well as replacing our electric "source".  We talked about "phantom power" draws, but the item that just jumped off the list was electric hot water heater usage!  It varies from household to household, but often represents 25%-40% of your total electric consumption?!  WOAH!!!  But when you think about it, your water heater is running 24/7/365 to heat water.  Even if you're NOT using hot water at the moment, it's still heating or maintaining heat of the water in storage in the tank.  So, allowing for hot showers and dishwashers, and hand washing several times per day, for approximately 23 hours per day, you are heating water that is NOT being used.  Very inefficient, and a HUGE waste of money....approximately 25%-40% of your total electric bill!!!

 

Of course, my solar rep suggested considering solar water heater (didn't push it, just discussed it), or at the very least, hot water on demand.  I'm not doing anything for the first 12 months, while I'm establishing what my new "baseline" of electric usage looks like with solar power.  But once I have that established, I'll be looking into on-demand systems and solar water heaters.  I'd like to investigate the solar water heater concept, but haven't been able to locate ANYONE in my area with solar water heaters (usually identifiable by a rooftop system configuration), and I'm not interested in being a test-case; so despite being curious to know more from someone who's actually done that, it doesn't look promising at this time.  OTOH, I know several folks with on-demand systems who are quite happy with them.  So I'll probably be doing the on-demand thing sometime in the next year, unless I locate someone with a solar water heater who can convince me that's a good move.

 

As usual on this forum....I've digressed.  Back to VTs comment....I was indeed amazed to learn how much electric a water heater consumes! 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup. Since it's just me here in this house and I don't use hot water to wash clothes, the tank is full of hot water most of the time. Even though I only allow the heater to heat the water for about 2 hours a day, I can still go take a shower just before that heater kicks on at 7PM and I'll have blazing hot water. That's easy to do in Florida where the temp in my back porch/laundry room is the same as the hot-as-Hell outside temps because I do not AC that room. Even without the heater running that water in the tank stays hot for the entire day. The only time I've ever had to manually click that timer on is on really cold winter days here, which isn't too often.

 

And I definitely noticed a drop on my electric bill monthly usages after I installed that timer years ago. Something else that helped, too, was replacing all the incandescent bulbs with "curly" fluorescent or LED bulbs. I also do NOT allow electricity vampires in my house... chargers, "always" on devices, etc. The power companies LOVE smart stuff in your home that is always sucking juice 24/7/365.

 

Between all these things I've done and the fact that my house is in shade most of the midday hours (when it's the hottest), my electric bill was $86/month for years. Recently, though, the power company has jacked it up to $117/month claiming an increase in their fuel costs. Companies do not absorb anything... they always pass it on to the customer. Still, my electric bill is substantially less that most of the neighbors and friends I know who have bills in the $300-$400 range because they have all kinds of **** running all the time in this giant homes they live in.