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psipsyThe new living room computer is mostly complete. The processor requirements are relatively low for its intended purpose, so a past-generation CPU with a lower frequency and moderate core-count will be plenty. What matters more here is a motherboard with features such as wifi, extra memory slots, expansion slots, ports for additional M.2 drives, and so on. Doesn't need much horsepower, just the bells and whistles. What did I get from ebay? A new-old stock CPU and a refurbished motherboard. Which saved me $60 over getting something new. Which for the builds I do isn't really much in the grand scheme of things.
The motherboard certainly looked used. Some of the header pins were bent (I pushed them back) and one of the plastic pegs for holding a heatsink into place was broken (yay for having a stash of small screws and nuts). The board itself had a slight bend in the middle (I've seen that before). The important thing was the CPU pins were undamaged, all 1200 of them. Normal people would have sent it back and demanded a refund but I went ahead with the build, figuring at worst, I'd get a light & smoke show when applying power. That didn't happen; instead the motherboard flashed an alert that the CPU was changed. As expected. I guess I shouldn't complain too much; the board was high-end when it was initially released and I got it for over half off the original MSRP.
With any computer build, the devil is in the details. Cables that can't be routed properly because they're too stiff, too thick, too short, or too long. Accessories that won't fit because they're a wee bit too large or their mounting points are slightly off. Vital components getting in each other's way. Connectors that zig when I need them to zag. Bits and pieces that go missing. Repairing damaged threads in holes for screws. And so on. No matter how much time is spent in researching compatibility or going with higher quality parts, the nuisance obstacles are where the challenges and frustrations are and what takes the most time. This one is no different.
Stuff like memory, power supply, m.2 hard drive, I decided to go with new. Other parts I either already had or they could wait for later. Computer case? This is what the HTPC case is for. Video card? The 1060 is more than enough. DVD/BD drive? Of course I have a spare. Large capacity platter drive? I think I have a spare 4TB or 6TB that will do for now. Operating system? This is a good opportunity to take a poke at Linux.
I want to like Linux. Really, I do. I like the idea of a free OS that doesn't have bloatware or spy on its users or try to spray ads all over. There's always a catch, the old "you get what you pay for". Previous encounters left a sour taste, as I could not get them to work with wifi adapters. That seems to have been remedied this time. Either that or they have better support for PCIe-based adapters than USB.
There's always something getting in the way of Linux really taking off. Sure, Linux can do all the basic and useful things. Web browsing, email, playing video and music, text documents, torrents, spreadsheets, image manipulation, and so on. I'm going to say it's games this time, despite the Steam library being available on Linux. The thing is, the really interesting and fun stuff has been the domain of Windows. I learned this first-hand all the way back in the 90s and early 00s when Apple was left out in the cold with gaming, while my Windows-using friends were enjoying Touhou, visual novels, eroge, dating sims, works by Key, TYPE-MOON, yadayadayada. It wouldn't be until 2005 when I finally had a Windows-based PC, and almost 2008 when I had something that could keep up with the Cool Kids.
For Linux, there's Wine, which allows Windows programs to run in Linux. In theory. One of the programs I test that with is 3D Custom Girl, software that was released in 2008 and ran smooth as butter on Windows XP and later with the right hardware. So I put both Wubuntu and Mint on, because I can.
Wubuntu: This intentionally looks a lot like Windows 11, and the parts of Wine that aren't already on are easy to get and install. 3DCG will install, although the lack of Japanese language support puts a bit of sand in the gears. But after installation, the program itself won't launch.
Mint: Mint has its own minty style. Again, I get Wine going, I install 3DCG, and it won't launch. Spits the same error at me and quits. I'll expore Mint some more.
Something I noticed about both Wubuntu and Mint was that I didn't have to get into Terminal to get basic functions to work. I'm sure that will change before long.
Someday Linux will be able to run an old program designed for customized animu waifus. Today is not that day. You know what? I'm not mad. This thing just needs to handle harvesting and playing anime. If I need it to be more Windowsy later on, it'll take W11 just fine. I already have a bunch of computers running Windows and they're more than enough to handle 3DCG. The new flagship with the i7 and 4060Ti video card can run things like Honey Select and HoneyCome, which are also for customized animu waifus but have much higher hardware requirements.
Another computer project is to figure out what to do with some of the extra computers, some of which are genuinely bad. There's one that's very much good, and it's just about ready to go to its new home.
The motherboard certainly looked used. Some of the header pins were bent (I pushed them back) and one of the plastic pegs for holding a heatsink into place was broken (yay for having a stash of small screws and nuts). The board itself had a slight bend in the middle (I've seen that before). The important thing was the CPU pins were undamaged, all 1200 of them. Normal people would have sent it back and demanded a refund but I went ahead with the build, figuring at worst, I'd get a light & smoke show when applying power. That didn't happen; instead the motherboard flashed an alert that the CPU was changed. As expected. I guess I shouldn't complain too much; the board was high-end when it was initially released and I got it for over half off the original MSRP.
With any computer build, the devil is in the details. Cables that can't be routed properly because they're too stiff, too thick, too short, or too long. Accessories that won't fit because they're a wee bit too large or their mounting points are slightly off. Vital components getting in each other's way. Connectors that zig when I need them to zag. Bits and pieces that go missing. Repairing damaged threads in holes for screws. And so on. No matter how much time is spent in researching compatibility or going with higher quality parts, the nuisance obstacles are where the challenges and frustrations are and what takes the most time. This one is no different.
Stuff like memory, power supply, m.2 hard drive, I decided to go with new. Other parts I either already had or they could wait for later. Computer case? This is what the HTPC case is for. Video card? The 1060 is more than enough. DVD/BD drive? Of course I have a spare. Large capacity platter drive? I think I have a spare 4TB or 6TB that will do for now. Operating system? This is a good opportunity to take a poke at Linux.
I want to like Linux. Really, I do. I like the idea of a free OS that doesn't have bloatware or spy on its users or try to spray ads all over. There's always a catch, the old "you get what you pay for". Previous encounters left a sour taste, as I could not get them to work with wifi adapters. That seems to have been remedied this time. Either that or they have better support for PCIe-based adapters than USB.
There's always something getting in the way of Linux really taking off. Sure, Linux can do all the basic and useful things. Web browsing, email, playing video and music, text documents, torrents, spreadsheets, image manipulation, and so on. I'm going to say it's games this time, despite the Steam library being available on Linux. The thing is, the really interesting and fun stuff has been the domain of Windows. I learned this first-hand all the way back in the 90s and early 00s when Apple was left out in the cold with gaming, while my Windows-using friends were enjoying Touhou, visual novels, eroge, dating sims, works by Key, TYPE-MOON, yadayadayada. It wouldn't be until 2005 when I finally had a Windows-based PC, and almost 2008 when I had something that could keep up with the Cool Kids.
For Linux, there's Wine, which allows Windows programs to run in Linux. In theory. One of the programs I test that with is 3D Custom Girl, software that was released in 2008 and ran smooth as butter on Windows XP and later with the right hardware. So I put both Wubuntu and Mint on, because I can.
Wubuntu: This intentionally looks a lot like Windows 11, and the parts of Wine that aren't already on are easy to get and install. 3DCG will install, although the lack of Japanese language support puts a bit of sand in the gears. But after installation, the program itself won't launch.
Mint: Mint has its own minty style. Again, I get Wine going, I install 3DCG, and it won't launch. Spits the same error at me and quits. I'll expore Mint some more.
Something I noticed about both Wubuntu and Mint was that I didn't have to get into Terminal to get basic functions to work. I'm sure that will change before long.
Someday Linux will be able to run an old program designed for customized animu waifus. Today is not that day. You know what? I'm not mad. This thing just needs to handle harvesting and playing anime. If I need it to be more Windowsy later on, it'll take W11 just fine. I already have a bunch of computers running Windows and they're more than enough to handle 3DCG. The new flagship with the i7 and 4060Ti video card can run things like Honey Select and HoneyCome, which are also for customized animu waifus but have much higher hardware requirements.
Another computer project is to figure out what to do with some of the extra computers, some of which are genuinely bad. There's one that's very much good, and it's just about ready to go to its new home.
