Beiträge von Eryan

    Hello all. How to connect the power supply?I want to put another motherboard, but leave the power supply.Is it possible to?

    It might be possible, given that you find a mini-ITX mobo that can be powered with a 4 pin connector (in order to keep the PSU). However, there are some issues to overcome:


    - You'll have to do some heavy modding to the case. You'll have to cut the back to make place for the backplate/connectors of your new mobo and somehow screw the it to the case, since the screw positions probably won't match. Also, you'll have to find a place to put the HDDs.
    - Assuming that you do find a mobo, you will be kind of limited because of the PSU (the one in the FX160 can't deliver a lot of juice).
    - If you succeed with the 2 previous points, then you will need a really low profile cooler, ideally passive.
    - If you want to use the Power and HDD lights, you'll have to mod that also (all of them are integrated into a small PCB in the front of the FX160.


    If you manage to find a mini-ITX mobo with integrated CPU, passive cooler and 4 pin power connector you might be able to do it. I considered the idea some time ago, but quite honestly, I doubt that it is worth the hassle.

    Hacking the BIOS is rather easy. I just needed to get some stuff before I could proceed. I got a 4315 and also an Intel 6200 which works without modifying anything.

    Let me get that straight. Did you successfully tested an Intel 6200 without modifying the BIOS? Or you did modify it to remove the white list? I am asking because I am planning to re-purpose the FX 160 as a secondary back up machine for my main server. I would love to connect it to my network with gigabit, but that is not possible. Therefore, I need a fast Wifi card to do the job and an Intel 6200 or a 6205 could work quite well.

    @Huberer pretty much explained pretty good. As server, no graphic card is needed. You even can set the RAM used for the integrated graphics to a minimum (32 MB I think). In my case i just boosted the RAM to 4 gigs, an SSD as system drive and that was it.
    I no longer use the 960 as my main server. The power consumption was way too high, so I am in the process of repurposing it. IMMO, using it as a media player is kind of an overkill. You could perhaps go cheaper with a Raspi or a Fire TV if your goal is a media player.


    Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

    Been there, done (almost) that.... Dell computers tend to have those "features". Now that I think about it, I experienced something similar with my Optiplex 960. I never really understood the idea behind disabling sata ports.


    In any case, good to know that you managed to fix it!


    Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

    Hi!


    I would first check the cables of the HDD caddy. I always found them very flimsy. If the HDD is spinning up, I would try with a different Sata Cable because the one that comes with the caddy is really short and prone to break. Second option, check that the HDD is in fact receiving power.


    Awesome to know that the CrystalHD card works, because the Integrated graphics sucks! That would make this PC an amazing HTPC.


    Sent from my LG-H955 using Tapatalk

    The 7260AC card can only be used after I finish my BIOS hacking. Since today, I'm already running revision C13 (c for custom)

    Since you have the ability to modify the BIOS, a crazy (but perhaps useful) idea came to mi mind. Most of us do not necessarily need a wireless card in the server since it is usually connected to the network thru gigabit Lan. Therefore, I thought that it would be nice to use the mini PCIe port to install a Sata controller card, or something that allows the computer gain access to more drives. Power is not an issue, since there are plenty of USB ports to get a 5 V line for the drives (2.5'' only). Say, something like this.


    Modifying the case to make room for one or 2 drives more won't be a titanic task. As I said before, BIOS modding is way out of my realm, but perhaps someone with the knowledge (like you) could achieve it. That would be an amazing upgrade for this little PC.

    If you are planning to use 4 HDD you can already discard the BananaPi and the thin client. Both of them have very low consumption, but lack the capabilities to drive more than 2 HDDs.


    The Proliant N54L is a tempting solution. However, I am not sure if you can get one for under 200€ (at least not here in Germany, the cost around 300€). But perhaps you get lucky and manage to catch one.


    I beg to differ that a Desktop has a high power consumption. It would be good to define what is "high" for you. It is possible to get a good quality, good looking used Dell desktop with good specs (something like this) for 200€ or less. Yes, as a Desktop system it might have a higher consumption (lets say 250 - 300 kWh a year, which roughly translates to 70€/year). However, it is possible to cut those running costs to half by sending the server to sleep when you don't need it (unless you need a 24/7 server). But my opinion might be biased, I am keen to re-purpose old/used hardware.


    Finally, if the used desktop option is not that appealing, with 200€ you can for sure build a low power pc which suits your needs. You can get a mobo+CPU combo for under 80€ (something like an Asrock QC5000-ITX for 65€ if you fancy AMD; or a Asrock Q1900-ITX for 73€ if you fancy Intel). Those are really low TDP CPUs (<15 W), and both of them have x4 Sata ports. With the rest of the money, you can easily get the extra stuff (ram, PSU and case mainly). This would be the most cost efficient solution, and by far the one with the lowest power consumption to fit your needs. Bare in mind, however, that those CPUs are no beasts: for basic home server stuff they are optimal, but as soon as you start tinkering with virtualization or audio/video transcoding for Plex you might encounter some issues.


    Just my 2 grains!


    Happy shopping!

    Hi, and my apologies for the late reply. I've had little free time to check the forum.


    Although I am not using the FX160 as my main OMV server any longer, I am kind of curious about the changes that you are trying to do in this little machine:


    1. Installing a AC wireless card would be amazing, and it seems that you are on the right path to mod the bios (respect! I lack the knowledge to do that).


    2. The mSata you want to install could be handy. However, I already made the experience and found that it is possible to install 2 2.5'' drives inside that little case. That means, the extra adapters are not required.


    3. The one thing that puzzles me is the 8 GB ram you want to install. AFAIK, the Atom 330 is a 64-bit capable processor. However, I do not know if the 4 GB limitation is imposed thru the Bios (which means that it might be hackable) or if there is another hardware-related issue that makes it impossible. In any case, since the Atom 330 is far from being a high performance CPU and it lacks virtualization, it is not required to have huge amounts of ram for its use as home server. I used it long time with 2 GB and had no issues. My FX160 has been re-purposed as a Debian PC which I mainly use to program micro controllers. It is running with 4 GB of ram and, although it is not a speed demon, it gets the job done!


    If you mange to modify the Bios to accomplish the changes you are proposing, please share it with us. You'll make a lot of people happy!

    After increasing the system RAM to 4 GB and re-enabling the flash memory plugin, I stopped having random freezes. However, I am not using suspend any more, I am putting the system into hibernation since it saves some extra €€€ compared to suspension. It hast been almost one week without any issues. As @ryecoaaron mentioned, the 2 GB were not enough for the different things being loaded to the RAM.


    Thanks to all for the help!

    The problem with this is that if you fill tmpfs (usually defaults to half of system memory), it wants to write to swap.


    I have the Plex logs and some Samba configuration/logs mounted as tmpfs. Now that I recall, the problem started happening when I enabled these 2. Add to that the tmpfs for the flash memory plugin and the result might be a shortage of ram. Sound logic to me.

    The swap file is actually not a problem, but it seems that with only 2 GB of ram and no swap the system freezes from time to time after waking up from suspension. The problem does not happen if I re-enable the swap and send the server to hibernate instead. If increasing the ram solves the issue, then I would assume that 2 GB were not enough to suspend the system and in some cases that led to a system freeze. I really don't care if the swap is on or not, as you said, if there is enough ram the swap will basically sit there and should do no harm.

    The flashmemory plugin really protects you from the data logging that happens.


    This....


    That's what I was missing. In that case, I'll go forward with the ram upgrade. I am stuck with DDR2 (the system is old but fully functional), but managed to get a good deal for 4 GB. Once the sticks arrieve I'll roll back to the old configuration (with swap and flash memory plugin) and see what happens.

    If you use hibernation like me, you don't have to disable the flash memory plugin, just enabled the swap, and leave the other feature on.


    I thought that would be a solution, but that defeats the purpose of the flash memory plugin, isn't it?

    Just wanted to report back about my findings with my server. After changing the cronjobs to hibernate instead of suspend, disabling the flash memory plugin and re-enabling swap I stopped having the random freezes that I was getting. Seems to me then that the problem might be related to the lack of swap. I have some ram sticks laying around. I'll ramp up the server ram to 4 GB and return to the system to the old configuration (swap off, flash memory plugin and suspend) to see the problem comes back.


    On a side note, hibernating the server instead of suspending translates in a few bucks less in the electricity bill. I think I'll stick to hibernation instead of suspension.

    Who the hell throws away those kind of things? Dude, that thing in an overkill of a home server!!!! Don't you want to share the secret location of this "e-waste bin of happiness"? You, sir, have a lot of fun with the new toys. You just got an awesome set of parts.


    PS: Get rid of the USB install, you just got 2 Intel SSDs. Hell, you can put them in Raid 0 and install OMV there just for the sake of it!

    There you go! If you want to shut down, you have to use another command. Try enabling swap and running the cron job. Perhaps that solves your issue.


    Have you try the work around method yet?
    wiki.debian.org/Hibernation/Hibernate_Without_Swap_Partition


    Nope, didn't had the time yet. I want to see first if the problem I am having happens also with hibernation.

    From the rtcwake documentation: "(off is) Not officially supported by ACPI, but usually working". off is not a real ACPI power state, and it depends on which motherboard/bios you have. Some support it, some don't. My computer, for example, does not support it. Using rtcwake off in my systems prompts me to use shutdown instead, because off is not supported by my motherboard/bios:


    Code
    00 22 0 3 root .... rctwake -m disk - s 34000


    This does not shut down the system, it makes it hibernate. You can't hibernate without having a swap partition. If you enable swap and run the command again, chances are that the problem will be gone.


    If you want to shut down the computer using rtcwkake, you need to use:


    Code
    rtcwake -m off -s 34000