My quest to DIY a gaming console

[Jackalope]

I remember many years ago that one of my coworkers claimed that on the 80486-66 CPUs we were using, external cache SDRAM was a scam because his benchmark didn't show any difference. The whole benchmark ran fully on die so of course its not going to.

[Jackalope]

This thread has veered. Someone should rename it. But to what?

I ended up building a proxmox server out of leftover parts and a shiny 3u rack case and PSU. Boots off a small M.2 PCIE NVRAM and mounts iSCSI shares off my Ship of Theseus NAS, via 10Gbit direct connect. Performance on 1Gbit ethernet is adequate but 10Gbit is relatively cheap. Good bang:buck ratio.

I want to run a local AI stack to play with for...reasons, so I'm on the hunt for a suitable GPU. That project will have to wait.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I read posts like this and feel so far out of it.  My gaming, and knowledge of hard and software required, consists of Solitaire online.    hangs head in shame

I feel your pain. These posts might as well be in Sanskrit for all the good I get out of them. I have serious smart people envy.

Boru

[Angrboda]

Devastating 'Dirty Frag' exploit leaks out, gives immediate root access on most Linux machines since 2017, no patches available, no warning given — Copy Fail-like vulnerability had its embargo broken

Mercifully, though, the machine gods made the mitigation easy and unlikely to affect the functioning of the vast majority of servers. One needs only to disable the esp4, esp6, and rxrpc modules. These are all related in various degrees to IPSec networking and unlikely to be used unless the machine in question is an IPSec client or server.

[Jackalope]

I read posts like this and feel so far out of it.  My gaming, and knowledge of hard and software required, consists of Solitaire online.    hangs head in shame

I feel your pain. These posts might as well be in Sanskrit for all the good I get out of them. I have serious smart people envy.

Boru

What I know about metallurgy and luthiery (or most other specialized work) wouldn't fill a thimble. I think you might be confusing smart for experience.

[Jackalope]

Devastating 'Dirty Frag' exploit leaks out, gives immediate root access on most Linux machines since 2017, no patches available, no warning given — Copy Fail-like vulnerability had its embargo broken

Mercifully, though, the machine gods made the mitigation easy and unlikely to affect the functioning of the vast majority of servers. One needs only to disable the esp4, esp6, and rxrpc modules. These are all related in various degrees to IPSec networking and unlikely to be used unless the machine in question is an IPSec client or server.

The irony. You're only vulnerable if you use services intended for security.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I feel your pain. These posts might as well be in Sanskrit for all the good I get out of them. I have serious smart people envy.

Boru

What I know about metallurgy and luthiery (or most other specialized work) wouldn't fill a thimble.  I think you might be confusing smart for experience.

Fair point. All God’s chillun got a niche.

Boru

[Angrboda]

I hate computer journalists. Most of them spend their time cranking out articles with bold headlines and nothingburger contents. It's just a scam. Today there is an article in PC World authored by their "dealpost team." The headline says you can get nine months of Game Pass Ultimate for $75. When you read the article, it's only $75 for a three-month code, but you can stack three of them at that price. The problem is that $75 for three months is more than the current price of Game Pass Ultimate. Some money is definitely changing hands there.

[Angrboda]

I'm still working on perfecting my CPU installation technique. I think I've got it right now. Meanwhile, I had a motherboard with a bent pin as a result of what I thought was a workable technique, which wasn't, so I bought a USB microscope. If nothing else, I could get a better idea of the damage and use it to double-check pins that look like they might be bent in the future. As long as the motherboard was toast anyway, I went ahead and tried to repair the damage. My tools could use some improvement, but I settled on a sewing needle strapped to a stick pen. Using that I was able to restore two bent pins. The motherboard passes POST now. It remains to be seen whether it is truly fully functional or not. Even if it isn't, I'm still proud of what I accomplished.

[Angrboda]

It looks like the repair was only a partial success. The damaged pins were related to USB and the A memory channel. One of the A slots is working, but the other isn't. It's probably not worth trying to sell in its current condition, so I'll just sell the extra CPU and be done with it. Micro Center has a good bundle with 32 GB 6000/MTs memory, a full-featured B650E motherboard, and a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, all for $600. If there aren't any more major setbacks, I think I'll build on that. Oh, and I ordered an A750 GPU. I might return it given that I won't really need it now that I'm buying this bundle, but I may keep it as a backup. My old testing GPU, a Radeon HD 7770 appears dead. Not sure what happened to it. It's been sitting in a box for many years.