Building a New Computer: Hardware Assembly

By mid-2016 I wanted to retire Juno, my computer from early 2010. It had received an upgrade in the form of a larger SSD, but all the photos were still on a hard drive, and the 4 GB of memory wasn't sufficient when I was doing heavy photo editing, leading to interminable delays and annoying clicks as programs were swapped on and off the hard drive. A memory upgrade wouldn't have been economical; the six-year-old DDR2 technology was pricey when it could be found. Plus, Juno used a blow-down CPU cooler that blocked access to the memory sticks unless I removed the computer's guts from the case and removed the CPU cooler from the motherboard, a real pain. Not a quick swap. It was time for a new computer.

This post covers assembling the hardware for the new machine; later posts will cover software installation and performance tuning.

Here is a photo of the parts, acquired by mid-December 2016.

The case is a Jonsbo V2, also known as a Coolcube Mini, now discontinued. I'd been keeping my eye on one for a while at QuietPC in the United Kingdom, and snatched one in mid-summer just after the Brexit vote, when the value of the pound fell. It's a very small case; to go smaller I'd have to use a book-sized case that either had no fan or a skinny blow-down cooler.

Here's a lineup with a CD in its case, the Jonsbo V2, and the Lian Li PC-Q03, which, while still small, is larger in each dimension than the Jonsbo.

The other components were purchased as sales came up in late November and early December, which kept the total cost to ~$1,000. (The parts were purchased at either at NewEgg, which doesn't charge sales tax for Ohio, or at Amazon, when the sale price was right.)

• ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac motherboard. Had to have a mini-ITX motherboard to fit this case.
• Intel i5-6600K processor.  I wanted to tinker with overclocking and undervolting.
• Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler. Had to have something short enough to fit this case.
• Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB SSD. Plenty of room for me.
• 32 GB RAM (2x16), DDR4-2400, by GSkill. I thought it might be overkill to have 32GB, but it wasn't.
• PicoPSU 160-XT power supply with 150 watt AC/DC brick.

In this photo, the CPU has been inserted, the red RAM sticks have been inserted, and two golden-colored bars for the CPU cooler assembly are on either side of the CPU. The red heatsinks on the RAM sticks are a bit much, but some folks like computer bling. They were on sale.

A reinforcing backplate is on the underside of the motherboard, connected to the bars on the top side.

For the first time I tried a technique called tinting. I spread a small amount of thermal paste across the mating surface of the CPU cooler, then wiped it off, leaving some "preliminary" thermal paste in any grooves.

I applied two thin lines of thermal paste on the CPU shield in an orientation recommended for the four-core Intel CPUs. But I can't find the link that suggested it. The "best method" of applying thermal paste is a subject of interminable online discussion.

In this photo all parts have been installed/connected, but sit outside the case. This way if the first power-on reveals a problem everything is easily accessible. I didn't install the WiFi/Bluetooth card, because this desktop machine will be hardwired. This saves a few watts of electricity, and room inside the case.

The first power-on went OK, so then I installed the motherboard in the case. Inside my skinny case this demanded some fussing and tilting.

The thick round black cables are part of the case, connecting the USB and audio ports on the side of the case to the motherboard. I have no idea why the manufacturer used such long cables in such a small case, unless the stiffness of the cables required some length to create flexibility. It turned out that to connect the SSD to a SATA port on the motherboard the best (least twisty) option was a left-handed right-angle cable, which I ordered and installed after this test.

It took some experimentation, but I finally arrived at a decent cable routing. Note the flat red cable connecting the SSD; that's the left-handed right-angle one.

Unfortunately this case had the wrong size hole drilled for the PicoPSU connector. It was a bit too small, so I could have drilled it out, but I was too lazy to remove everything from the case to allow drilling, so that connection (the black and while cable combination) just hangs out the back through the large hole that a traditional SFX PSU would have filled.

Those red heatsinks on the memory sticks had a curved profile that created a "hump" in the middle, reaching as high as the CPU fan. To avoid any vibration issues I shaved off a tiny bit of the fan frame.

The Noctua U9S, 125mm tall, was plenty short enough for this case. There was about 22mm to spare, so a larger cooler and fan might have been possible. Checking the geometry of a substitute would be important to avoid interfering with the RAM sticks.

Here is the assembled computer tucked under my standing desktop.

One unfortunate characteristic of this motherboard is that it blinks the power light while the computer is asleep (suspended to RAM). It's not a lethargic, nap-like blink appropriate to being asleep, but a quick, urgent blink that feels like a warning flash. Now I keep a book up against it!

Next step, next post: installing the Linux (XUbuntu 16.10) distribution and copying my files over from the old machine.

Fairfield 13: Sprucing Things Up

In November 2016 I embarked on yet another two-week visit to Fairfield, Iowa, and the campus of Maharishi University of Management (MUM), where I participated in extended group meditation sessions. It was also a chance to catch up with several friends.

My usual place to rent a room wasn't available, so I did some online searching and found a great alternative. Here are two panoramas which together take in the whole room. Note the separate sink/toilet nook and shower; the shower is entered from the room itself. It works!

Lots of light.

If you need more space, the adjacent living room and kitchen can be rented at additional cost. I just needed a place with the basics. 

The view from that front bay window.

My traveling companions, Pork Chop and George, loved the scene.

Looking back from the street. It was a delightfully quiet place to stay.

For several days I saw this praying mantis hanging around the gate in the fence.

It was a mild November, and getting up early to head to the Men's Dome, the Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome, I admired many sunrises.

At first I thought I faced an indirect route to reach the Men's Dome, but my host let me know that there were communal paths through the intervening neighborhood. (This playback has been accelerated by 2.8 times.)



Seven months had flown by since my March visit, and a lot had been going on, the results easily spotted.

Just in front of the Argiro Student Union a miniature Vedic Observatory had been constructed. These come in all sizes, from tabletop to 1½ acres in Vedic City.

Here's a view of the center structure. The innermost ring denotes the visible planets, plus the rising and descending nodes of the moon. (The moon's orbit around the earth is somewhat tilted with regard to the earth's orbit around the sun -- otherwise there would be a total eclipse of the sun every month!)

The second ring lists the signs, such as Capricorn, etc., and the third demarcates the 27 or 28 nakshatras, or lunar mansions, one for each day in the lunar month. Lunar mansions appear in many systems of astrology, although I'd never heard of them until recently and they do not seem to be emphasized.

The campus road leading to Argiro from the north now has so much pedestrian traffic that it's been blocked off to vehicles.

Within walking distance of my room the expansion of North Campus Village continued. There's a waiting list for the townhomes being built here.

What about goings-on downtown? Well, the sushi joint Shokai now occupies the corner that had been Mohan's.

Mohan Delights was in the process of moving into a south-facing storefront on the square. They will have a west-facing entrance from the alley.

There's now a donut shop in the renovated but closed movie theater, where the lobby and concessions had been.

Repair and facelifting appeared to be the order of the day.

All around the square, and adjacent to it.

Back on campus, the bridge over nothing in particular, which had been in such bad shape that it was blocked off in my last visit, was undergoing renovation. I had to check it each day to see what the elves had done next.

New posts and railing, but no finials, and the little seats at either end have no top.

 Now we have a top to sit on.

 Finials going up.

These globes date from the original bridge.

It is good to be able to see the bridge at night.

The nearby bridge over Crow Creek has warning tape along the flanks of the entrance. Dead brush and trees are being removed, and until new plantings are made, yellow tape mitigates the risk of someone stumbling over the edge.

Saplings of several species had already been installed around the Women's (Bagambhrini) Golden Dome.

The stairway from the north parking area to Argiro was also bustling.

Storm water flowing down the steep hillside was undercutting the poured-concrete stairs. Plastic barrier sheets were put in place and well-anchored with stones.

The interior of the student union held some surprises and revelations. This is a view of the lobby.

This student-initiative poster in the lobby surprised me. Twenty years ago, even fifteen years ago, MUM administration was rather strait-laced, but now the University is moving into the same era as its students. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Some things, however, will never change. This is an example from the food services feedback board.

There was one more surprise.

I'll wrap up this report with some odds and ends.

An electric car charging station next to the Sustainable Living Center.

A campus electrical map showing the two points to disconnect the Men's Dome solar panels from the grid.

A pig in the garden. Yay!

Moon and clouds, taken from the entrance to the Men's Dome.

There, I got through the entire post without talking about a particular election that occurred while I was in Fairfield. (I voted by absentee ballot.)

Three Metro 5-0 Hikes

In the last third of 2016 Joan and I participated in three Metro Five-O hikes, sponsored by the Columbus Metro Parks, all at Clear Creek Metro Park. These jaunts for those 50+ took us into areas that are part of the largest state nature preserve in Ohio and normally off-limits to visitors. Our guide for all three hikes was Marcey Shafer, the naturalist at Clear Creek.

I didn't take any notes, but I did get a few pix!

Big Oak
The first hike was to the "Big Oak." At the time of European settlement, the temperate forests of Ohio were so widespread that it was said "a squirrel can go from the Ohio River to Lake Erie without touching the ground." Then the trees were hacked down to feed an insatiable appetite for farmland, for housing, for firewood, and for charcoal to smelt iron. By 1860 southern Ohio had sixty-nine iron furnaces fueled by charcoal, and by the end of the 19th Century, practically all the original trees were gone.

However, a few survived, hidden in the ravines of the corrugated southeastern Ohio landscape, where they were on unfarmable land and too difficult to carry out. Today we would visit one, and lots of people showed up.

The first part of the hike was up an old access road, still used occasionally by a gas pipeline company. Along the way we spotted a couple of toads. Then Marcey took a right turn into the woods and downhill.

We all followed.

There were some tall, but young, trees, such as this beech.

It would have taken three or four of us to hold hands around the circumference of the Big Oak. 

It's difficult to take a photo all the way to its top! We hung around and admired it for a while; Marcey spoke about the history of the area.

Rather than returning the way we had come, Marcey took a route through one of the many rock formations at Clear Creek.

We did have one scramble up through the leaf litter.

On this as with many other Metro 5-O walks, as long as your balance was OK the hike wasn't strenuous. Occasionally a pole was helpful!

Buzzard's Roost
There must be a hundred rock formations in Ohio named Buzzard's Roost. On October 16th, 2016 Marcey led a Metro 5-O group to the one within Clear Creek Metro Park.

At first we were on official park trails. Shortly after leaving the trail system, Marcey found a ring-necked snake, a cute little critter with a pleasing necklace. It's nocturnal and spends the day hiding under leaf litter or other debris.

We lingered for a few minutes to admire it.

In this picture we've just reached the rock outcrop, Buzzard's Roost.

You wouldn't know there was a road down there.

Trees, trees, trees!

This daredevil is growing out over the edge. What happens when it gets bigger?

We tromped back the way we had come, ready to take in one more Metro 5-O outing before 2016 disappeared.

Neotoma Valley
On a chilly but sunny December 21st a Metro 5-O group gathered for another guided off-trial hike, into the Neotoma Valley.

In 1921 Edward Thomas, one of the first commissioners of the Metro Parks, purchased an 80-acre tract of cut-over timber (what wasn't?!) and named it Neotoma, after the Allegheny Wood Rat, Neotoma magister.
Ed converted a rustic frame shack into a cabin where he could offer hospitality to friends and scientists conducting studies in the valley.

Marcey, our naturalist, has the key.

The first room of the cabin is big (by comparison).

Another room held only a few of us at a time.

A message or correspondence board for members of the Wheaton Club, which began as an ornithological society in the 19th Century.

From the cabin our group continued up the valley past various rock formations of Blackhand sandstone.

Sandstone is easily eroded, and Blackhand sandstone can weather unevenly.

Eventually we descended to the valley floor and began our return. Rather than heading directly for the cars

we first took a short walk to the nearby Mathias cabin.

The grounds are open to the public but the cabin is locked. You can peer inside the ground-level windows if you like.

Adjacent to the cabin, and on the edge of the public-access zone, is a lofty rock formation known for the pool favored by salamanders at its base.

Plenty more Metro 5-O hikes will be scheduled for 2017, and you can bet that Joan and I will be on several of 'em.