Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Octopus has more birds: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765929

Have decided to buy a desktop PC. Keyboard just gave out on my T470 already ffs. Fortunately still under warranty so that's going back. Have rammed a USB keyboard in it for now and will order a desktop for later.

Ryzen it is... and custom build. Good job I just got paid up for some work 

[beanflying]

Octopus has more birds: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765929

Have decided to buy a desktop PC. Keyboard just gave out on my T470 already ffs. Fortunately still under warranty so that's going back. Have rammed a USB keyboard in it for now and will order a desktop for later.

Ryzen it is... and custom build. Good job I just got paid up for some work 

You want to buy a lightly used RX580 Mister  Depending on how much poke you want there is some very good deals going on the last gen 2600 and 2600X if you need to shave a $

[Mr. Scram]

The average buyer gets sold on them as being cool and you can print all these things and with limited skiils on CAD and technical deserts minor fail and the dust starts. Some never leave the box when they get home either brought on a whim from X and ogh gee that looks complicated.

Broke one of the soft hammerheads I made from PETG  maybe a year ago smacking a steel plate back into shape, flicked on the printer and heated it up in an hour and 5 I had a new one- hammer heads are unobtanium I machined the handle when I was 13 or 14 at school.

Made a set of power supply mounts for a commercial job as well today - yep I could have made them from stock with a saw and files but looks would have been worse and more time dedicated to do it instead of letting the printer run while I got on with other stuff. In this case I could have also fired up the laser and made a stacked mount with glue but the printer is IMO a better result.

Each to there own but the more use it gets the faster the drawings get done and the more often they work easier and first time (when you remember the handle  )

You're right about complete novices who might not even take it out of the box. I was mostly talking about people who are a bit more versed. Once the novelty wears off it becomes just another tool in the box and while it's a very flexible tool it's also not great at most things. Jack of all trades but master of none comes to mind. Though I guess it also depends on how well equipped your workshop is. If you have many other ways of solving a problem those ways may very well be better but if you have a limited set of tools it's a solution to many problems. For quick intermediate tests, prototyping or when optimizing performance isn't terribly important it can be an excellent device.

[bd139]

Octopus has more birds: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765929

Have decided to buy a desktop PC. Keyboard just gave out on my T470 already ffs. Fortunately still under warranty so that's going back. Have rammed a USB keyboard in it for now and will order a desktop for later.

Ryzen it is... and custom build. Good job I just got paid up for some work 

You want to buy a lightly used RX580 Mister  Depending on how much poke you want there is some very good deals going on the last gen 2600 and 2600X if you need to shave a $

Looking at Ryzen 5 2600X actually.  . 6 cores and 19Mb of cache glory.

I haven't actually built a PC from scratch since 2005 believe it or not.

[beanflying]

Octopus has more birds: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765929

Have decided to buy a desktop PC. Keyboard just gave out on my T470 already ffs. Fortunately still under warranty so that's going back. Have rammed a USB keyboard in it for now and will order a desktop for later.

Ryzen it is... and custom build. Good job I just got paid up for some work 

You want to buy a lightly used RX580 Mister  Depending on how much poke you want there is some very good deals going on the last gen 2600 and 2600X if you need to shave a $

Looking at Ryzen 5 2600X actually.  . 6 cores and 19Mb of cache glory.

I haven't actually built a PC from scratch since 2005 believe it or not.

That was me too until a few months ago but more like early 2000's even.

The 580 strapped to even the 2400G I also have kicked the but of Fusion 360 BTW and even without the 580 handled it fine. If you can trawl past some of the rubbish there is my $1k thread in general computing you might get an idea or two from. Also no need to move from the 450 MB or gains to be had in speed even with higher end CPU's just watch the BIOS if you go for the current gen.

[bd139]

2600G might be a good cost compromise. Not sure I need much horsepower in that space, just better than intel graphics. 4 cores is fine too.

[beanflying]

If you do go the 2600G make sure the MB will do BIOS flashback or whoever you buy it will flash it for you to handle the current gen. There is a few 450 MB's starting to get around that handle them as stock but most don't. If you can find a cheap seconhand 'reasonable' GPU and don't need a small form factor the 2600 is still a better option by far for poke.

Must really get the case done for my 2400G build the little Atom in the bedroom really needs to go elsewhere.

[BravoV]

Hmm.. what a coincidence, Radeon RX 580 4GB just arrived & unboxed, as locally here this particular model is becoming dirt cheap, caused by weakening crypto market and crashed hard, leaving the distributor with piles of difficult to sell stock compared to 8GB version. 

[xrunner]

Another NanoVNA case for a ham friend in town who I convinced had to have a NanoVNA to be one of the cool kids - two-tone orange/white. 

Then when he gets it he's coming over so I can teach him how to interpret the Smith Chart. 

[xrunner]

But 2nd, and this is the "show stopper" for me. What the heck would I use it for?  I'm not typically fabricating stuff so

For little parts like the one shown below. Or internal brackets for broken parts inside. Some, like the one shown, are already designed for you.

(We'll sell him on one sooner or later    )




https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:39909

[bd139]

quick sanity check. Any complaints?

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X cpu
Asrock B450M pro 4 board
Crucial 2x8Gb DDR2400 Ballistix LT memory
512Gb Samsung 970 pro nVME SSD
Radeon RX 550 graphics card
Cooler master Silenco S400 case
Be quiet pure power 11 600W
iiyama GE2288HS monitor

(monitor size is limited by available desk/bench space otherwise I'd hit a 24")

This is in the living room so I'm going for mid-range quietness over screaming FPS rig.

Edit: also some compromises so I can get it from the same crap shifter (Aria.co.uk)

[Zucca]

Crucial 2x8Gb DDR2400 Ballistix LT memory

Please go with ECC RAM, I pay you the price difference.

[bd139]

Don't need it. Run memtest86 on it for 24 hours. Plus the CPU cache isn't ECC so what's the point? Only worth it if it's got a Xeon in it

[Mr. Scram]

quick sanity check. Any complaints?

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X cpu
Asrock B450M pro 4 board
Crucial 2x8Gb DDR2400 Ballistix LT memory
512Gb Samsung 970 pro nVME SSD
Radeon RX 550 graphics card
Cooler master Silenco S400 case
Be quiet pure power 11 600W
iiyama GE2288HS monitor

(monitor size is limited by available desk/bench space otherwise I'd hit a 24")

This is in the living room so I'm going for mid-range quietness over screaming FPS rig.

Edit: also some compromises so I can get it from the same crap shifter (Aria.co.uk)

Other than the capitalisation it all looks sane enough. You could expand the SSD with a slightly slower model as you wouldn't notice the speed difference but you'd lose the MLC NAND. It's up to you what you value more.

[bd139]

Capitalisation is the cut and paste showing through

I did think about cheaping it with a Samsung Evo. It'll do the job for a bit less wedge.

Have left 2 RAM slots free so I can up it to 32Gb later.

[Zucca]

I see, for me (24 hours memtest)=!(next five years) and if I see a blue screen I know it was not the ECC RAM (99% was something else, 1% Murphy got me again).
I think nobody really knows, but after 10 years in Germany I got used to plan for the unexpected all the time... 

[Brumby]

Here am I looking at a 3D printer - and now you are reminding me of the weak performance of my rig when running CAD.  I can see my tech budget getting bumped by several hundred in order for me to not get frustrated.

How can I thank you all .... ?

[beanflying]

There is a LOT to be gained by raising the Memory speed with the CPU. Stretch it to 3200. Other than that for non higher framerate gaming use will be solid for everything else. Then the rest of your gear will handle a 3700X CPU or 5700XT GPU if you want to upgrade later.

[Mr. Scram]

Capitalisation is the cut and paste showing through

I did think about cheaping it with a Samsung Evo. It'll do the job for a bit less wedge.

Have left 2 RAM slots free so I can up it to 32Gb later.

Apparently the Intel SSDs offer good bang for buck. Not the fastest drives out there but a lot cheaper for little practical difference. Do you see yourself rendering 3D graphics somewhere down the line? You may want to opt for more cores if you do.

[Mr. Scram]

Here am I looking at a 3D printer - and now you are reminding me of the weak performance of my rig when running CAD.  I can see my tech budget getting bumped by several hundred in order for me to not get frustrated.

How can I thank you all .... ?

Solidworks runs on anything with a remotely decent single thread speed. Is Fusion 360 that much worse?

[bd139]

There is a LOT to be gained by raising the Memory speed with the CPU. Stretch it to 3200. Other than that for non higher framerate gaming use will be solid for everything else. Then the rest of your gear will handle a 3700X CPU or 5700XT GPU if you want to upgrade later.

Plan. Thanks 

Apparently the Intel SSDs offer good bang for buck. Not the fastest drives out there but a lot cheaper for little practical difference. Do you see yourself rendering 3D graphics somewhere down the line? You may want to opt for more cores if you do.

We've had some major reliability issues with them so they're on the black list for me.

Here am I looking at a 3D printer - and now you are reminding me of the weak performance of my rig when running CAD.  I can see my tech budget getting bumped by several hundred in order for me to not get frustrated.

How can I thank you all .... ?

Sell us your gear 

Here am I looking at a 3D printer - and now you are reminding me of the weak performance of my rig when running CAD.  I can see my tech budget getting bumped by several hundred in order for me to not get frustrated.

How can I thank you all .... ?

Solidworks runs on anything with a remotely decent single thread speed. Is Fusion 360 that much worse?

I can say it's two orders of magnitude worse than FreeCAD. That's my only metric at the moment

[Zucca]

(Attachment Link)

Stupid question forgive me in advance, this blue light is just a blue LED not UV right?

[beanflying]

(Attachment Link)

Stupid question forgive me in advance, this blue light is just a blue LED not UV right?

Yep just ultra blue. They were supposed to be bright whites when I ordered them but evilbay issues  Four of these mounted two a side on a frame eBay auction: #383185625089 I really should get white ones and replace them but they still do the job.

[Mr. Scram]

Plan. Thanks 

We've had some major reliability issues with them so they're on the black list for me.

Sell us your gear 

I can say it's two orders of magnitude worse than FreeCAD. That's my only metric at the moment

Which Intel SSDs were those specifically?

[bd139]

Ok I swapped the 970 pro out for a 950 evo which is fine. RAM is swapped out for 2666 stuff not 3200 as the board only supports 2666 without OC and I'm not faffing with that. It's fine for my needs. There's 16Mb of CPU cache which is most important and 5x what this box has in it.

Ordered. Bang goes 750 smackers . I may rejig some test gear to offset this cash wise as it's a personal not business purchase.

Plan. Thanks 

We've had some major reliability issues with them so they're on the black list for me.

Sell us your gear 

I can say it's two orders of magnitude worse than FreeCAD. That's my only metric at the moment

Which Intel SSDs were those specifically?

Can't remember which units they were. ~1 year ago we had some fail 6 months into service. Once bitten twice shy.