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geeky

A post only a mother could love.

May 27, 2015 by Lloyd 8 Comments

Speaking of mothers, it was my mom’s birthday yesterday.  It was also my dad’s birthday three days before that, but he doesn’t believe in the internet, and doesn’t want Al Gore to know when his birthday is, so we won’t mention that.

Lauren said that I had to write a post, but what she doesn’t know is that I already wrote one. One that is guaranteed to put you all asleep. I hope you enjoy your naps; there is a summary at the end.


We are replacing 30 computers in our PC lab at school. The current machines were built by students six years ago (to save money and also as a learning experience) and I thought we would do the same thing this time for the same reasons.

Here are my goals for these machines:

  1. They should be relatively future proof. That is to say, they will probably be in service for 5-6 years and so I have to build them a little faster than they really need to be for today’s use. They will be used for Microsoft Office, some Adobe Creative Suite, and for a little programming. No CAD classes.
  2. There should be a little “nice” factor when students see/use them. I am not above having students think, “Oh, they updated this lab, what we do here must be a little important to them.”
  3. They should be fairly easy to maintain. I’m looking for quality parts that seem to last (at least in my price range). I need a case that spastic 7th grade boys won’t idly break pieces from. I will have to remove the hard drives occasionally to reimage them, and would like that to be fairly painless.

I have about $350.00 to spend per machine. I would be happy to spend less than that, because that money would be used for other technology projects at school, and I could probably come up with a little more money if that would make the machines significantly better. I’ll be purchasing these in the United States.

One of my concerns is finding good prices for parts. I really can’t do rebates (MIR prices), because I don’t have 30 people to purchase these. I could have 6 people, so limit 5 offers are okay. Maybe someone knows more than I do about getting bulk discounts.

Here are the parts I’m considering and why:

CPU:
It didn’t look like AMD had anything better than Intel in my price range, so I didn’t really look at AMD processors closely. I don’t have anything against AMD (current machines have Athlon X2 4850e), so feel free to point me toward a comparable AMD processor. I do not see us doing any overclocking.

  • $58 Intel Pentium G3250 (I am strongly leaning this way)
  • $110 Intel i3-4150

GPU
Onboard graphics only. I can’t see any reason to put a graphics card in these machines.

  • $0.00

RAM:
It seems to me that 8GB is better than 4GB if I’m aiming 5 year out, but memory is easy to add, so I’m not above starting with 4GB and adding another 4GB in a few years if that seems reasonable. My preference is to use Crucial. I have had memory from them go bad over the years, but they have always been very good about replacing it.

  • $27 4GBx1
  • $52 8GBx1

Storage
I would really like to just put a smaller SSD in these. My current school disk images are about 64GB, so I’m looking at a 120GB SSD. These drives are not used for storing student data. I don’t know much about SSD reliability, so could use any help picking a good brand/model.

  • $56 120GB SSD Silicon Power S60[1]
  • $80 120GB SSD Intel 530 Series SSDSC2BW120A4K5[2]

Motherboard
I’m leaning strongly toward a mini-itx motherboard, because I’m leaning strongly toward some mini-itx cases. I would not be opposed to another size motherboard, but you’d have to sell me on another case as well. I really don’t know what to do here. I usually buy an open box mother board for my own computers, but that won’t work with 30 of them. reliability is probably my highest priority here. Other than that, I really don’t know where to spend my money. There was some talk of wanting the computers to be wireless, but that’s not necessarily a requirement. I’m going to just throw out the ones I’m currently looking at:

  • $68 ASRock H81M-ITX/WIFI [3]
  • $88 ASRock H97M-ITX/ac[4]

Case
I’m a little up in the air here. I could save some money by buying a case with a built-in PSU or with an external PSU. I’m tempted to do that, but my impression is that those PSUs are never very good. Here are the options I’m looking at with built-in/external PSUs:

  • $65 Antec ISK 110 VESA[5] 90Watt (maybe RF interference)
  • $65 IN WIN BQ656T.AD120TBL[6] 120Watt
  • $50 In Win BP655 [7] 200Watt

I actually like the cases below a lot more, but pairing them with a decent power supply raises the price. Notice that they don’t have any external drive bays. Apart from liking the looks, I think they will continue to look good longer in a lab setting.

  • $40 DIYPC HTPC-Cube-BK[8]
  • $55 LIAN LI PC-Q01B[9] This is the one I’d like to get.

PSU
The cheapest, reliable power supply. I think I would like an 80+bronze PSU, but I could certainly be convinced that that’s not a good place to spend money. I think my absolute max load would be 138Watts. I would be very interested in knowing the difference between the various Seasonic PSUs listed below. I couldn’t find that information.

  • $34 SeaSonic SSP-300SE[10]
  • $37 SeaSonic SS-300ES[11]
  • $38 SeaSonic SSP-300ST [12]
  • $38 SeaSonic SS-300ET[13]
  • $40 CORSAIR CX series CX430[14]

My current thoughts
Below are the choices that I would currently make from the above options. The prices shown here are a little low, because lots of these are special offers that I wouldn’t qualify for with 30 units.

PCPartPicker part list[15] / Price breakdown by merchant[16]

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Pentium G3250 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor[17] $55.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard[18] $87.98 @ Newegg
Memory Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory[19] $50.99 @ SuperBiiz
Storage Silicon Power S60 120GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive[20] $50.44 @ Amazon
Case Lian-Li PC-Q01B Mini ITX Tower Case[21] $54.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply[22] $39.98 @ Newegg
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $340.36
Generated by PCPartPicker[23] 2015-05-26 23:43 EDT-0400

Any thoughts you have about any of the choices would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR
Need to build 30 reliable school computers. Money is an object. Obviously looking for help in quality parts, but also in getting good prices when MIR and Open Box isn’t an option.

Filed Under: Cheap, Gadget, Lloyd, Prototype Tagged With: computers, diy, geeky

Google’s menu is adaptive

December 6, 2014 by Lloyd 2 Comments

Did you know that if you search for the word “puppies” on Google the second item on the menu is “Images”?* But if you search for “walmart” then the second item on the menu is “Maps”.  If you search for “pie crasts” the second item on the menu is “Shopping”.

There are at least five other things that could show up in the second position: Videos, News, Books, Flights and Apps; but I don’t know what to search for to get them to appear in the coveted second position.

*I am using Logical Punctuation. English teachers are invited to “bite me”.

Filed Under: Lloyd, Nerd Tagged With: geeky, google

More From Stat Boy

January 2, 2011 by Lloyd 24 Comments

I’ve done a few other posts on the number of comments that people have made, but it’s been over a year since the last one. Lets see where things stand now. This is not a complete total; just the posts since the last summation (which happened on July 5, 2009)…

Position (Change) Comments Name(s)
1 (+1) 769 Peggy
  2 as Peggy (who fears parentheses)
  1 as Cap’n Rose Cutthroat
  1 as Dinosaur
  1 as Eco-Girl in Training
2 (+1) 683 Brad
3 (-2) 611 Lauren
  2 as Lazy Lauren
1 as Mr. Bill
4 (+1) 525 Lloyd
5 (+6) 364 Kristi
6 (-2) 283 Beth
  2 as Tim
7 (same) 211 Karla
8 (+1) 172 Curt
9 (-3) 166 Deanne
  2 as Anonymous Complainer
10 (+9) 133 Rae
11 (-1) 113 Deborah
12 (+5) 111 Christina
13 (+31) 111 Keren Lowell
14 (-1) 93 Lauren’s dad
15 (+17) 88 Amy Peavy
16 (-2) 87 Mark
17 (+9) 86 Lauren’s mom
18 (-10) 79 Annette O.
19 (+4) 41 Gretchen
20 (+3) 36 Lloyd’s Mom
  4 as Jane Sommerer
  1 as Mom
21 (+36) 35 Rachel in Cali
  10 as Rachel
  9 as Rachel in L.A.
  1 as Sis in Law Rach
22 (-2) 34 Jill
23 (+22) 30 Charles
24 (-4) 27 Cousin Sam
25 (-10) 22 Kitt
26 (-10) 20 Michele
27 (new) 17 bekahcubed
29 (-7) 16 Brady G.
29 (new) 16 Quiana
30 (new) 15 Nigel
31 (+9) 14 Jessica
33 (-21) 12 Kiwe
33 (+11) 12 Marisa
34 (new) 10 Steve Lokie
36 (new) 8 Annette K.
36 (new) 8 Tamara
37 (new) 7 elizabeth
38 (same) 7 Ribs
39 (+6) 5 Julie Baker
46 (new) 4 Erika
46 (same) 4 Uyek
46 (new) 4 MJ
46 (new) 4 another sue
46 (-17) 4 ratty
46 (+4) 4 Rev. Todd Peperkorn
59 (new) 3 Blabby
59 (new) 3 Allison
  1 as Ms. F.
59 (new) 3 Ashli
59 (same) 3 beth (rachel’s wife)
59 (new) 3 Caroline
59 (new) 3 Elli
59 (new) 3 Hope
59 (new) 3 Jill Jurca
59 (new) 3 Cathy
59 (new) 3 teach
59 (new) 3 Rock Willis
59 (new) 3 sarah
60 (new) 2 Crislee
81 (new) 2 Ann
81 (new) 2 Robert Edwin Martin, PhD
81 (new) 2 WillWigmore
81 (new) 2 Jane
81 (new) 2 Jacob
81 (new) 2 Rhonda
81 (new) 2 Joanne
81 (new) 2 Kim
81 (new) 2 Terri
81 (new) 2 Maggie Mason
81 (new) 2 Aaron Club
81 (new) 2 Millie
81 (new) 2 Mary
81 (new) 2 Christopher
81 (new) 2 Phil Hofman
81 (new) 2 radasommer
81 (new) 2 Anne
81 (new) 2 Jeannette Buesing
81 (new) 2 Roberta
81 (new) 2 Swistle
214 (???) 1 133 people tied at 1 comment each

Filed Under: Lloyd Tagged With: geeky, Meta, numbers, stats

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

October 28, 2009 by Lauren 13 Comments

The scene: Monday night. We are tired. Lloyd is working in front of his giant monitor.

Lloyd: “Come read my new rubric for web design class.” (That’s right, we use words like ‘rubric’ around here. We’re Smarty-Smartersons.)

Me: “Mm-hmmm. Yes… looks good….” (Counting in my head to seventy-five while staring at the screen and pretending to know what it means. What the heck is a rubric, anyway?)

Lloyd: “You’re not really reading, are you?”

Me: “Ummmmm…..”

Luckily, at this point his giant monitor starts to flicker in a mad, seizure-inducing way.

Lloyd gets very, very quiet.

I start laughing.

Lloyd glares.

I stop laughing.

I take pictures.

October 27 2009 RIP

Lloyd messes with the controls and continues to be very, very quiet.

I go to my trusty, non-broken computer, look up “Gateway monitor flicker” and find many, many angry people in the world who hate Gateway with a fiery passion because their monitors have also betrayed them.

Lloyd is also doing research, watching (through the flicker) a video of someone who is speaking in a calm, comforting voice – like a person highly trained in comforting the bereaved.

I get bored and start watching YouTube videos.

Lloyd quietly hisses, “Stop watching videos. You’re using all my bandwidths.”

I go to bed and leave him alone in his sorrow.

End scene

Please leave your condolences below.

Oh, and just so you know, though in this story I seem like a really awful, heartless person – I know what a rubric is.

Filed Under: Worst day ever Tagged With: computer, geeky

Oh the ironies

October 21, 2009 by Lloyd 19 Comments

This is the email that I sent out this morning before I drove off:

The NE Technology Coordinator’s Fall meeting (or as I like to call it,
“The day all the computers in Nebraska schools stop working.”) Is
happening in Grand Island today. If you need me, that’s where I’ll
be.
–Lloyd

About an hour later I received a flurry of text messages, phone calls and e-mails, including this one:

So – as long as it doesn’t end up being a super headache for you, I am amused that the server crashed the day you were at a tech conference. I think the server read your email.
–Jared

Well, it turned out to be a very good conference. Really, “conference” is probably too strong a word for it. It was a bunch of technology coordinators from across Nebraska getting together. Some were from schools smaller than Lincoln Lutheran and some were from districts with 48,000 students. Someone would complain about something and a dozen other people would commiserate that the same thing happened to them and then 3 or 4 people would offer some really good ways to deal with that problem. (lather, rinse, repeat)

It was free, and I even bummed a ride with a group of people coming from Omaha. But I’m not really looking forward to going back to school tomorrow. To keep my mind off of it, I bought this game:

It’s called World of Goo, and it’s a sort of puzzle/physics simulation type game. It’s the 1st anniversary of the game, and they are currently selling it for “Whatever you want to pay for it.” If you decide to buy it (and at that price, why wouldn’t you?) I would be interested in knowing what you paid for it. There are versions for Windows, Macs, Linux and Wii. The music is cool, and I played about 5 levels tonight before watching the movie Rounders.

Filed Under: Drawings, Lloyd, School, Worst day ever Tagged With: computer, game, geeky, server

What-a-ma-huh?

October 15, 2009 by Lloyd 7 Comments

Did anyone notice that for a few hours yesterday we relented in our usual time wasting activities and decided to try our hands at internet dating?

Both domain names had expired, and, after we woke up and noticed that the website was gone, it took a little while for all of the name servers to get the message. I wish that we would get an email notice ahead of time, but I haven’t been able to figure out the right combination of setting to get my domain name registrar to send me an email before the, “Surprise! Your website is gone!” email.

It's a much cleaner look than the current site.

Before I finally had the domain name renewed, I had twenty-seven “Offers of marriage.“

Filed Under: Lloyd Tagged With: geeky, Meta, website

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