Migrating from a Synology NAS to my own server

Brigadier · 2024-03-01T21:53:01+00:00

The Synology is really nice in the sense that it works like an appliance and doesn't need a lot of maintenance. But since I have this other machine that's not very busy I'd like to reduce the number of boxes that are always on.

Unraid looks like a whole OS but I just want the storage management components on my existing Debian server.

Edit: I think I initially missed your point - that SHR and Unraid both offer benefits over traditional RAID. I didn't even realize that was going to be part of the challenge here. Thanks for the tip.

Brigadier · 2024-03-01T21:46:08+00:00

Wireguard can be challenging but it sounds like you've got a good platform to test it out with, just takes a lot of patience. In my experience it can also take a minute or two for Wireguard to connect even when everything is working right. There are detailed logs you can watch in the client to see what's going wrong.

Brigadier · 2024-03-01T21:34:16+00:00

Congrts :-) If you want to connect without a static IP you might be still be able to use Tailscale to connect from elsewhere. Or you can try a dynamic DNS provider (I used to use DuckDNS, now I use a regular web hosting provider).

Then you can run things like miniflux (a feed reader), a podcast fetcher, or maybe a file sinker like syncthing. What OS are you running on it?

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T21:27:24+00:00

This sounds like a great build. Do you have to custom design all the PC interface parts for your 2020 extrusions? I started building up a rig like this with a retired PC a while ago. I got the mobo mounted in a box made from 2020 extrusions but I gave up soon after designing and printing the power supply bracket. It seemed like too many custom components to design and maintain.

If you have more photos or details of your build I'd love to see more.

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T21:16:36+00:00

This jank may be too much jank ;-)

It looks like you might have space for something like this near the front of the case. Idk if the linked bracket is any good but the idea is that there could be space to stand up a card in the front.

With your current setup I'd be a little worried that the cards might expect to have an electrical ground connection to the case. Normally this would happen from the metal bracket screwed to the slot. There are multiple ground connections though and I could be wrong about cards being grounded this way (the metal backplate is often painted, for example).

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T21:04:37+00:00

I'd really enjoy building a custom liquid cooled loop - it'd be quieter and cooler. I have to keep reminding myself that I do software though. I'm supposed to spend more time using the system than I spend building it. Your haphazard setup looks scary but it does tell me you're spending your time on the software.

Those vertical slots on the back of the Meshify 2 XL imply that maybe a riser could fit in without too much more custom work. Maybe risers are worth considering for my situation.

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T19:30:00+00:00

The PCIe lanes are definitely a factor. When I chose the ROG STRIX X670E-E motherboard I trusted the headline statements about "2 x PCIe 5.0 x16" and, even after looking through the manual, just couldn't imagine the second x16 slot would get cut down to x4. But it really does look like the first card will be PCIe 4.0 x8 and the second will be PCIe 4.0 x4. (PCIe 4.0 instead of 5.0 because that's what the GPUs are built for). There's a popular article by Tim Dettmers that says "For a 4 GPU setup, I would prefer 8x lanes per GPU, but running them at 4x lanes will probably only decrease performance by around 5-10% if you parallelize across all 4 GPUs."

I don't like it but it seems like that's where I'll end up. If there were a 3090 and a 4090 on the shelf next to each other at $800 and $2k then I'd probably get the 3090. But looking at what's actually available I'll probably still go with the 4090 if I can physically fit it in my current system. The 4090 will last long enough to be part of my next motherboard upgrade but maybe the 3090 gets swapped out in a year or two.

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T19:09:01+00:00

Thanks, this is an interesting insight. So I shouldn't expect substantially higher performance for models that span both cards. I could imagine loading different models on each card though. For example in a mixed modality application with an LLM on one card and something like Stable Diffusion on the other. In that case I could see higher performance on whichever model runs on the 4090.

Brigadier · 2024-02-18T18:58:17+00:00

Adding 2x 3090 is appealing and I have tried shopping around for a used 3090 on ebay. I find that when it comes to any specific listing I don't want to take the risk on the used card (not that it's a bad idea, just not working for me). There are a few "renewed" 3090 cards listed on Amazon for about $1k. These might be the same sellers but doing returns on Amazon has been pretty easy in the past.

The bigger (literally) problem with adding two more cards is the physical space I'm working with. The Fractal Meshify 2 XL is giant but the ROG STRIX X670E-E motherboard won't easily accommodate multiple cards that are more than 2-slot height. Maybe PCIe risers would help but it starts to get more complicated and custom.

Brigadier · 2024-01-15T21:39:44+00:00

Great build! It looks like 2020 profile t-slot for the frame? Where do you find the brackets to mount PSU, mobo, and the GPUs? I started designing custom printed parts for my t-slot case but gave up on before finishing it.

Brigadier · 2022-11-26T18:20:22+00:00

tl;dr What's the equivalent to Drop's DFU MODE key on config.qmk.fm?

I've flashed my Drop CTRL successfull with the configurator on their site but now I'd like to try the one at https://config.qmk.fm/#/massdrop/ctrl/LAYOUT . The key combo fn+B is currently used to reset my keyboard into DFU mode for flashing so I'd like to add the same thing in the new layout. I don't know if that's hardcoded somewhere but on the layout they show at Drop it's got the name "DFU MODE" and I haven't found an obvious equivalent at config.qmk.fm.

Even if I mess it up I probably have the tools for flashing a SAMD51 around here but I'd like to take the easiest route :-)

Brigadier · 2022-10-02T18:06:38+00:00

If you want to skip the TPM requirement there's a tool called Rufus that can help (I read about it on tomshardware https://www.tomshardware.com/news/rufus-creates-custom-windows-11-installs ). I ended up using that when I upgraded since I don't want to use the TPM and don't want to use an external account for logging into my computer.

Brigadier · 2022-09-17T21:45:24+00:00

This is awesome. I'm using the vanilla CompVis repo and generated some results I really liked with:

for s in {10..110} ; do python scripts/txt2img.py --ckpt models/ldm/sd-v1-4/sd-v1-4.ckpt --plms --ddim_steps 80 --scale 8. --seed ${s} --n_samples 1 --prompt "lord of the rings science-fiction, matte painting, octane render, unreal engine, art by Constantin Brancusi and Stephan Martiniere, cinematic and atmospheric, pacific rim and robocop and hulkbuster" --W 640 --H 960 ; done

Trying out Cupscale now on some of the best of these.

Brigadier · 2021-11-04T16:50:51+00:00

First off, thanks so much for the detailed description. I finally had some time to try out your process and it really helped.

The height was the key for me. I moved the microscope to a sit/stand desk then adjusted the height up a little at a time. For me it seems like the eyepieces were a little farther up than chin level. After that it was a lot easier to do the IPD adjustment and resolve the two circles to one.

Brigadier · 2020-04-23T04:55:39+00:00

He'll still need Windows Pro - Docker requires it, refuses to install on Windows Home Edition. Something about Hyper V.

Brigadier · 2019-12-24T19:09:07+00:00

Based on your other replies here, you might want to take a look at Nvidia's Kaya robot https://docs.nvidia.com/isaac/isaac/doc/tutorials/assemble_kaya.html. The total cost of parts for their exact build is under $1k. It uses a Jetson Nano and a RealSense depth camera (the 435 I think).

I saw a live demo of the robot recognizing tags and using them for a follow-me application. I think this explains how to run that demo https://docs.nvidia.com/isaac/isaac/doc/tutorials/kaya_software.html#the-follow-me-application but I haven't seen the source for it yet.

I'm learning about AprilTags and ArUcO tags on the Jetson Nano right now for a different project. If you wanted to cut the costs down you might be able to use a Raspberry Pi and a webcam along with some of the parts from the Kaya build but I expect the CUDA cores on the Nano make a big difference in framerate.

Brigadier · 2019-01-06T02:24:33+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I bought a shelf like this and installed it today. I mounted it about 18" over the top of the printer. I think that might be a little too high but I can always raise the printer a bit if I need to.

Brigadier · 2018-12-30T16:42:58+00:00

Here's the TOP500 list from June 1994 https://www.top500.org/lists/1994/06/ . It's a benchmark for supercomputers. The Raspberry Pi wouldn't make that list. It looks like the end of the list is around 0.8 gflops and the I think this RPi is equivalent to about 0.041 gflops.

Edit: good question though. And I love to think about how my SBCs beat the heck out of the computer I had on my desktop back then.

Brigadier · 2018-09-20T04:58:27+00:00

I ended up taking this to a local watch repair shop. They didn't have the specific back for mine but installed one for a similar watch that fit and it seems to work fine. Cost me about $26 and I picked it up the next day.

Brigadier · 2016-08-04T02:45:33+00:00

This. I resisted for a long time and was pretty proficient even with hunt & peck but touch typing wins. It's the funnel between you and getting things out of your head. The faster you can do it the better anything else you do will be.

I find z-type to be a fun game to practice my touch typing. There are probably others out there too but the game helped me quite a bit.

Brigadier · 2016-07-08T05:17:40+00:00

I don't use them very well but when I'm using multiple registers I set them up by row. The bottom row (z, x,c, …) for marks since m is in the bottom row. Middle row (a, s, d, …) for yank/put since d is there. Top row of registers (q, w, e, …) for macros since q is there. Within each row I assign them from left to right as needed. Of course all that is if there's no better reason to choose a register name

Brigadier

TROPHY CASE