• ESXi

    From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Accession on Saturday, November 08, 2025 10:06:43
    Re: ESXi
    By: Accession to niter3 on Sat Nov 08 2025 07:29 am

    Hah! That's awesome! I've built my gaming machines myself (I've only had to do 2 in the past 15 years, lol), and passed down my previous build to my son (which is still plenty to play any newer game), only having to upgrade the GPU and replace one fan in his over the years. So I'll knock on wood too, that my stuff keeps holding up strong. :)

    Yeah, I'm in a similar situation. My current desktop PC is one I built in 2019 (though I've upgraded a few things since then), and before that, I was using a PC I built in 2011.

    In the mid-late 90s until the mid-2000s or so, I remember building a new PC every few years or so. But lately, it feels like there haven't been as much improvement in speed & things to make me want/need to build a new PC that often.

    Nightfox
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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Accession on Sunday, November 09, 2025 07:06:48
    Hah! That's awesome! I've built my gaming machines myself (I've only had to do 2 in the past 15 years, lol), and passed down my previous build to my son (which is still plenty to play any newer game), only having to upgrade the GPU and replace one fan in his over the years. So I'll knock on wood too, that my stuff keeps holding up strong. :)

    That's cool, we are finding the old server with the GPU is not holding up like it used to. Seems the processor is just pegged almost 98% when he's playing Fortnite... He has to turn settings off or down just for the processor to keep up. He's definitely not getting what the GPU can deliver.

    This would be maybe the only reason I upgrade my server now to pass this down to him. Then again, he's been saving up for a new mother board, ram, and a processor. Everything else has been brought up to speed. New case, PSU....

    But he's only 13, so it's not like he's making a pay cheque. He also likes having money set aside and doesn't want to blow it all on this.

    So we'll see....

    As of late, I picked up a GMKTec K8 Plus that I'm using as my main computer outside my work laptop. It allows for gaming, the little bit that I do.

    On that note, I have way to many gaming systems. PS5, PS4, Xbox, Arcade, and now this mini pc. And I barely game. :D

    Maybe I should sell?

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  • From Accession@21:1/200 to niter3 on Sunday, November 09, 2025 06:36:48
    Hey niter3!

    On Sun, 09 Nov 2025 07:06:48 -0500, you wrote:

    That's cool, we are finding the old server with the GPU is not holding
    up like it used to. Seems the processor is just pegged almost 98% when
    he's playing Fortnite... He has to turn settings off or down just for
    the processor to keep up. He's definitely not getting what the GPU can deliver.

    You mention 'server' here. Are you using an old server (with server hardware) to play games? I'm not sure the low ghz and multi cores are built to do that kind of thing..

    This would be maybe the only reason I upgrade my server now to pass this down to him. Then again, he's been saving up for a new mother board,
    ram, and a processor. Everything else has been brought up to speed. New case, PSU....

    BTW, I looked a little deeper into those mini PCs you were talking about. It's crazy how they can cram that much stuff into like a 6" x 6" x 3" box. They also boast great cooling, which I find quite hard to do with what they're working with. Up to 3 or 4 displays even.. Crazy!

    But he's only 13, so it's not like he's making a pay cheque. He also
    likes having money set aside and doesn't want to blow it all on this.

    Christmas is coming, Dad. :)

    As of late, I picked up a GMKTec K8 Plus that I'm using as my main
    computer outside my work laptop. It allows for gaming, the little bit
    that I do.

    This is almost exactly what I was looking at above. The space saving and initial specs are pretty awesome! Currently, though.. I'm not sure I could use it as a server as it seems like you would be wasting the thing just for the cores and ram, but the price is definitely on point when these things are new vs some used refurbished/renewed server hardware. Damn man, now you have me looking into this more. :)

    The K12 is probably the cheapest out of the GMKTec family ($550), but seems to have the best expansion (up to 24tb ssd and 128gb ram). Oddly enough, this price point is better than finding old server hardware with enough ram/hdd space. Now I have to start looking into this more.

    LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID (and I'll probably thank you for it later). :D

    On that note, I have way to many gaming systems. PS5, PS4, Xbox, Arcade,
    and now this mini pc. And I barely game. :D

    Maybe I should sell?

    That's up to you. I gave up on consoles after I bought a brand new PS4 (at the time) with the whole VR setup. The kids used it for a few months and completely forgot about it. At least if my son forgot about his PC I could use it for something else. Never again will I go the console route.

    Regards,
    Nick

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  • From fusion@21:1/616 to Accession on Sunday, November 09, 2025 09:26:29
    On 09 Nov 2025, Accession said the following...

    BTW, I looked a little deeper into those mini PCs you were talking
    about. It's crazy how they can cram that much stuff into like a 6" x 6"
    x 3" box. They also boast great cooling, which I find quite hard to do with what they're working with. Up to 3 or 4 displays even.. Crazy!

    check out "Jeff Geerling" on youtube. he's been doing a lot of tiny pc stuff lately but also it might spark some more weird ideas..

    it's almost (if not already) to the point where some weird m.2 to 6 port sata thing frankensteined on top of a mini pc with a multi-hard-drive enclosure (that the mini pc also fits inside) could be totally reasonable. a whole collection of VMs and all. and probably using a 10th of the electricity..

    tbh except for mass storage (spinning disks) the "server rack" is going to be a desktop item pretty quick ;)

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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Accession on Sunday, November 09, 2025 21:13:18
    You mention 'server' here. Are you using an old server (with server hardware) to play games? I'm not sure the low ghz and multi cores are built to do that kind of thing..

    Yes, the server is 12 years old... I think it's also suffering from over heating issues because he complains it just turns off.

    He definitely has pushed the limits ont his one. We'll have to figure something out for him.

    BTW, I looked a little deeper into those mini PCs you were talking
    about. It's crazy how they can cram that much stuff into like a 6" x 6"
    x 3" box. They also boast great cooling, which I find quite hard to do with what they're working with. Up to 3 or 4 displays even.. Crazy!
    This is almost exactly what I was looking at above. The space saving and initial specs are pretty awesome! Currently, though.. I'm not sure I
    could use it as a server as it seems like you would be wasting the thing just for the cores and ram, but the price is definitely on point when these things are new vs some used refurbished/renewed server hardware. Damn man, now you have me looking into this more. :)

    The K12 is probably the cheapest out of the GMKTec family ($550), but seems to have the best expansion (up to 24tb ssd and 128gb ram). Oddly enough, this price point is better than finding old server hardware with enough ram/hdd space. Now I have to start looking into this more.

    LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID (and I'll probably thank you for it later). :D

    HA! :) Right... I'm using this mini pc for my daily driver and gaming on it... Running this under Ubuntu at the moment under XFCE. Nice and fast!

    Just dealing with your typical Anti Cheat messages and proton settings.

    That's up to you. I gave up on consoles after I bought a brand new PS4
    (at the time) with the whole VR setup. The kids used it for a few months and completely forgot about it. At least if my son forgot about his PC I could use it for something else. Never again will I go the console route.

    That seems how it goes. I had this vision my kids all playing on this arcade build, and everyone from parties using it. :) It's gaining dust.

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Monday, November 10, 2025 07:56:06
    Nightfox wrote to Accession <=-

    In the mid-late 90s until the mid-2000s or so, I remember building a
    new PC every few years or so. But lately, it feels like there haven't been as much improvement in speed & things to make me want/need to
    build a new PC that often.

    Yeah - I picked up an off-lease Dell workstation in 2012, had a core 2
    Duo CPU. When Core 2 Quads got cheap, bought one to add on. Bought a
    cheap USB 3 card for it - the only thing that compelled me to get rid of
    it was the RAID card in it that became increasingly harder to support
    under Windows 10. Finally replaced it in 2022 when I could find a 4c/8t
    i7 desktop for less than it would cost to upgrade the ECC memory in my workstation...

    While it sucked power, it kept up well for being a 13-year old computer!



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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to fusion on Monday, November 10, 2025 07:56:06
    fusion wrote to Accession <=-

    it's almost (if not already) to the point where some weird m.2 to 6
    port sata thing frankensteined on top of a mini pc with a
    multi-hard-drive enclosure (that the mini pc also fits inside) could be totally reasonable. a whole collection of VMs and all. and probably
    using a 10th of the electricity..

    Apparently, Lenovo Thinkpads support a protocol where you can run dual
    NVMe drives in a SATA adapter and geta couple of lanes of each. I'd
    love to mirror drives in a Thinkpad "server".

    I do like the looks of those 3.5" enclosures that hold 4 2.5" drives,
    accessible from the outside. Put those into a minitower with a
    horizontal drive bay and you've got a nice, compact system.




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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to niter3 on Monday, November 10, 2025 07:56:06
    niter3 wrote to Accession <=-

    Yes, the server is 12 years old... I think it's also suffering from
    over heating issues because he complains it just turns off.

    Replace the thermal paste and clean the fans if you're feeling handy. I
    saw a significant drop in temp with my old Core 2 quad when I did that.
    Cooler systems run quieter, don't throttle, and certainly don't shut
    down.


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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to poindexter FORTRAN on Monday, November 10, 2025 14:07:13
    Replace the thermal paste and clean the fans if you're feeling handy. I
    saw a significant drop in temp with my old Core 2 quad when I did that.
    Cooler systems run quieter, don't throttle, and certainly don't shut
    down.

    That's not a bad idea... I'll look around in my pile of parts and see if I have any paste..

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  • From Accession@21:1/700 to niter3 on Monday, November 10, 2025 17:38:36
    Hey Niter3!

    On Sun, Nov 09 2025 20:13:18 -0600, you wrote:

    Yes, the server is 12 years old... I think it's also suffering from
    over heating issues because he complains it just turns off.

    I think servers, in general, aren't really meant to play games, unless their specs are outrageous and you have some kind of RTX video card (or something similar from AMD) in it. It could just be that the games are overheating it, and if it's server hardware, those fans gotta be SCREAMING while he's playing. ;)

    HA! :) Right... I'm using this mini pc for my daily driver and
    gaming on it... Running this under Ubuntu at the moment under XFCE.
    Nice and fast!

    Welp, after looking into what it would take to get the storage and ram where I'd want it, we're probably talking almost 2 grand. The price of ram has skyrocketed, and the newer m.2 drives haven't come down in price yet, especially for bigger (4-8tb) ones.

    Just dealing with your typical Anti Cheat messages and proton
    settings.

    May I ask, what are you playing? And have you ran into any games that /don't/ work with Proton? I would love to ditch Windows completely, but I need all my games to work properly.

    That seems how it goes. I had this vision my kids all playing on
    this arcade build, and everyone from parties using it. :) It's
    gaining dust.

    Swiping tiktok videos and gaming on your phone is the new craze these days. Microtransactions and all! :/

    Regards,
    Nick

    ... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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  • From fusion@21:1/616 to Accession on Monday, November 10, 2025 23:58:25
    On 10 Nov 2025, Accession said the following...

    overheating it, and if it's server hardware, those fans gotta be
    SCREAMING while he's playing. ;)

    yeah.. the people who design servers don't think the same way as everyone else lol. if a user thinks the machine is too loud, they made a mistake buying it or something ;) a place i worked had a server rack filled with stuff, but when a big order came in the one main server would drown out absolutely everything in that area out, AND several large format printers and other things in the next room

    it was basically intended to render thousands of images as fast as possible like it was an emergency or something. i swear their design spec was probably "well, if you can't use the server because the mouse is jumpy while it's rendering, you probably shouldn't have installed other stuff on there"

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  • From Tiny@21:1/700 to Accession on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 05:33:56
    Hi Accession,
    In a message to Niter3 you wrote:

    May I ask, what are you playing? And have you ran into any games that /don't/ work with Proton? I would love to ditch Windows completely,
    but I need all my games to work properly.

    I've not found anything that doesn't run under proton/wine now. I've
    installed old games from my GOG library, newish ones like Cyberpunk,
    avatar etc.

    I do not play online games though, and I believe that is where the issue
    lies with anti cheat stuff.

    ... If you ain't makin' waves you ain't kickin' hard enough!


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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Accession on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 07:56:16


    I think servers, in general, aren't really meant to play games, unless their specs are outrageous and you have some kind of RTX video card (or something similar from AMD) in it. It could just be that the games are overheating it, and if it's server hardware, those fans gotta be
    SCREAMING while he's playing. ;)

    Fans are not loud, and yes I put in a RTX card.

    Welp, after looking into what it would take to get the storage and ram where I'd want it, we're probably talking almost 2 grand. The price of
    ram has skyrocketed, and the newer m.2 drives haven't come down in price yet, especially for bigger (4-8tb) ones.

    Everything is to damn expensive these days.

    May I ask, what are you playing? And have you ran into any games that /don't/ work with Proton? I would love to ditch Windows completely, but
    I need all my games to work properly.

    I'm still testing, but so far the only game giving me trouble and I still haven't gotten to work is RDR2.

    Otherwise, the following are working that I have tested. My steam library isn't that big. I've always been a console gamer.

    Halo Ininite
    Halo Master Cheif Collection
    Dead By Daylight
    COD: WWII
    Predator: Hunting Grounds
    Aliens: Fireteam Elite

    ... Read messages, not taglines

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  • From Accession@21:1/700 to Tiny on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 17:43:21
    Hey Tiny!

    On Tue, Nov 11 2025 05:33:56 -0600, you wrote:

    I've not found anything that doesn't run under proton/wine now.
    I've installed old games from my GOG library, newish ones like
    Cyberpunk, avatar etc.

    Well, that's getting to be better news, at least!

    I do not play online games though, and I believe that is where the
    issue lies with anti cheat stuff.

    I do, and am definitely interested in the state of things nowadays.

    I can't imagine the newer stuff like Battlefield 6 that required a change in BIOS to work at the moment, but older stuff like "Easy Anticheat" would be nice to have confirmation that it works before finding out for myself when it's too late. ;)

    Regards,
    Nick

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  • From Accession@21:1/700 to niter3 on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 17:59:08
    Hey Niter3!

    On Tue, Nov 11 2025 06:56:16 -0600, you wrote:

    I'm still testing, but so far the only game giving me trouble and I
    still haven't gotten to work is RDR2.

    Do any of those games use Easy anticheat?

    If you get a chance, and maybe even want to pick up what I would imagine is probably cheap by now, The Division 2. If you like looter/shooters, this is by far my current favorite.

    Regards,
    Nick

    ... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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  • From Tiny@21:1/700 to Accession on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 05:15:12
    Hi Accession,
    On <Wed, 11 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

    I do not play online games though, and I believe that is where the
    I do, and am definitely interested in the state of things nowadays.

    I hope someone with that kind of gaming experience will speak up.
    For the single player games I play, I have graphics cranked all the way
    up and everything runs smooth.


    ... Biology grows on you.


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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to niter3 on Tuesday, December 09, 2025 13:54:58
    Welp, after looking into what it would take to get the storage and ra where I'd want it, we're probably talking almost 2 grand. The price o ram has skyrocketed, and the newer m.2 drives haven't come down in pr yet, especially for bigger (4-8tb) ones.

    Everything is to damn expensive these days.

    Reading this a month later makes me sad that RAM prices _still_ seem to be skyrocketing:

    pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory

    I'm glad I decided to get a DDR5-6000 2x16GB kit on September 18th, rather than at any point later, as I get the feeling that I will not be purchasing anything voluntarily on that for a while.

    Admittedly, the difference between having 32GB and 64GB on this system is probably not _huge_, but it's allowed me to continue with a few bad habits with less impact from them.

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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Adept on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 08:34:09
    Everything is to damn expensive these days.

    Reading this a month later makes me sad that RAM prices _still_ seem to
    be skyrocketing:

    pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory

    Are tariffs to blame?

    It's not only new equipment, and of the retro equipment is priced so high it makes zero sense to purchase. Amiga speaking...

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to niter3 on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 14:22:14
    Are tariffs to blame?

    It's not only new equipment, and of the retro equipment is priced so
    high it makes zero sense to purchase. Amiga speaking...

    In this case, no.

    Yes, tariffs have increased costs, but this memory price thing is hitting worldwide, not just in the US.

    I heard something about the producers trying to do something to slightly increase prices, but I don't know enough to know if that's a conspiracy theory, or the industry back to its old price fixing tactics.

    But the demand from all the genAI buildout appears to be the actual cause for the increased prices, followed by companies buying up everything they can before the prices go up further, thus causing the prices to go up further.

    And the fact that one of the three companies making RAM decided to exit the consumer business to focus on genAI customers doesn't help, either.

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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Adept on Thursday, December 11, 2025 08:33:57
    In this case, no.

    Yes, tariffs have increased costs, but this memory price thing is hitting worldwide, not just in the US.

    I heard something about the producers trying to do something to slightly increase prices, but I don't know enough to know if that's a conspiracy theory, or the industry back to its old price fixing tactics.

    But the demand from all the genAI buildout appears to be the actual
    cause for the increased prices, followed by companies buying up
    everything they can before the prices go up further, thus causing the prices to go up further.

    Right.. Didn't even think about AI. All the companies are throwing a ton into this, so that makes sense.

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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to ADEPT on Thursday, December 11, 2025 10:10:55
    I heard something about the producers trying to do something to slightly increase prices, but I don't know enough to know if that's a conspiracy theory
    or the industry back to its old price fixing tactics.

    But the demand from all the genAI buildout appears to be the actual cause for the increased prices, followed by companies buying up everything they can before the prices go up further, thus causing the prices to go up further.

    And the fact that one of the three companies making RAM decided to exit the consumer business to focus on genAI customers doesn't help, either.

    I think you found the nailhead there. The demands of data centers, and the focus of the suppliers, is causing shortages (and higher prices) for the rest of us.

    As for the OP's mention of retro equipment, I would suspect that persons
    who are selling that have also noticed the high prices of new things and
    figure they can get more money for the retro stuff. If people are willing
    to pay it, I guess they are right. ;)


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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to Dumas Walker on Thursday, December 11, 2025 20:51:43
    Re: Re: ESXi
    By: Dumas Walker to ADEPT on Thu Dec 11 2025 10:10:55

    Hi, Dumas.

    And the fact that one of the three companies making RAM decided to exit the consumer business to focus on genAI customers doesn't help, either.

    I think you found the nailhead there. The demands of data centers, and the focus of the suppliers, is causing shortages (and higher prices) for the rest of us.

    I hope when the wheels fall off all this generative AI stuff that all the high performance RAM and GPUs flooding into the markey can be snapped up for a pittance by cancer research organisations or something actually useful.

    Or even just bought by the gamers who got costed out of the market...

    BobW
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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to BOB WORM on Friday, December 12, 2025 10:40:43
    And the fact that one of the three companies making RAM decided to exit the consumer business to focus on genAI customers doesn't help, either.

    I think you found the nailhead there. The demands of data centers, and the
    focus of the suppliers, is causing shortages (and higher prices) for the rest of us.

    I hope when the wheels fall off all this generative AI stuff that all the high
    performance RAM and GPUs flooding into the markey can be snapped up for a pittance by cancer research organisations or something actually useful.

    Or even just bought by the gamers who got costed out of the market...

    I hope it does, too, but more because I do not believe that the people in charge of the future of AI are trustworthy, smart, ethical, whatever enough to keep any potential harm in check.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Bob Worm on Saturday, December 13, 2025 07:50:01
    Bob Worm wrote to Dumas Walker <=-

    I hope when the wheels fall off all this generative AI stuff that all
    the high performance RAM and GPUs flooding into the markey can be
    snapped up for a pittance by cancer research organisations or something actually useful.

    Y Combinator had an article about a guy who bought an AI system from
    Nvidia used for $7500 - it had been poorly converted from water cooling
    to air cooling and ran on 48V; can't find the link now. It would have
    cost at least high 5 figures new.

    Unfortunately, I'm guessing that it'll be like the bitcoin GPU wars of
    the early 21st century, where the market price was driven up by miners,
    then they flooded the market with used, cooked GPUs for the same price
    or slightly less than they sold for new before the gold rush.



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