Laysan

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Laysan is my current desktop computer.

This is by far the fastest (and quietest) computer I have ever used or owned.

I had intended to build a server, then it got turned into my desktop instead. The server ended up being built later. See server

Hardware

Motherboard: ASUS P8B-M LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Server Motherboard

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230

RAM: 8GB x 2 Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G

Drives:

  • /dev/sda Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
  • /dev/sdb Data storage on a 2 TB WDC Caviar Black (SATA 2) WD2001FASS-0 SerialNo=WD-WMAY00310595

Before 2014-Apr-26:

  • /dev/sda Data storage on a 2 TB WDC Caviar Black (SATA 2) WD2001FASS-0 SerialNo=WD-WMAY00310595
  • /dev/sdb Operating system and home directory on an OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA III] MLC (SSD) SerialNo=OCZ-670MWZY36F81947M

DVD burner: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222BB

Video: PNY VCQ2000D-PB Quadro 2000D 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 Workstation Video Card I wanted a workstation video card, as I want to do some OpenGL programming, and I work with ArcGIS software. This is the only component in this build that I would change; I would get a high end gaming board instead of a low end workstation board.

Monitor: Acer 23" and Acer 17".

Keyboard: IBM PS/2 Model M SpaceSaver (built in 1987) and Apple Bluetooth Keyboard

Audio: This motherboard has no integrated audio so I use a NuForce UDAC 2 and a pair of Acoustic Research powered speakers.

Other: bT878 video capture card, an Osprey 210, that so far I have never used!

Case: Fractal Design Define Mini Black Micro ATX Silent PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 support and 2 x 120mm Fractal Design Silent Fans

Power supply: SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Software

Operating system

2015-Mar-14 Upgraded from Ubuntu 13.04 to Xubuntu 14.10, then added Cinnamon

2014-Apr-26 Installed Windows 8.1 on Samsung drive. Hmmm, if I run Linux I can use a linux fs on the Black drive but if I boot into Windows, I can't. I could add another hard drive but I packed them already for our big move.

2013-Sep-10 Installed Ubuntu Raring 13.04 MY OH MY UNITY IS STILL AWFUL

up to Sept 9, it was Linux Mint 15, an excellent choice

Operating system is split between a 256GB SSD and a 2TB HD. I had a RAID 0 setup with 2 SSD's but the (considerable) speed bump was not worth the pain to configure and maintain it.

On RAM fs are /tmp, /var/tmp, /var/run, /var/lock

Since the system has 16GB of RAM I am not worried about swap space. I put it in a swapfile on the 1TB drive. 

echo vm.swappiness = 0 > /etc/sysctl.d/swappiness.conf

# Make a 4 GB swapfile
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/swapfile1 bs=1024 count=4096k
sudo mkswap /var/swapfile1
sudo chmod 0600 /var/swapfile1

cat /etc/fstab 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
# 
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=b7dd27fe-b81f-42f7-9047-9c12c3225db7 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=995d224f-c168-4b2f-824d-0992c39d9789 /boot           ext4    defaults        0       2
# /home was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=a45024f6-04ae-4e20-985a-3a4ec03dcfdd /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# /var was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=afdab032-6ff9-4f6f-8cc4-ab94caf85efa /var            ext4    defaults        0       2
# 
# swap on HD in file instead of partition
/var/swapfile1 none swap sw 0 0
#
# Move things to RAM DISK for speed
tmpfs /tmp     tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0 
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

Drivers

NVidia driver: This time around I successfully installed the driver directly from the Ubuntu Software Center. Much easier than downloading it from NVidia and installing manually.

Packages

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get remove empathy abiword
apt-get install build-essential qgit subversion \
 emacs virtualbox nvidia-current \
 qgis gpsbabel-gui \
 synaptic nautilus-dropbox \
 pidgin python-xmpp \
 gimp inkscape libreoffice \
 openscad

Did not find these in 14.10 

 google-talkplugin google-chrome-stable \

Still don't like Unity - so currently I install Xubuntu and then put Cinnamon on top! 

add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly
apt-get install cinnamon

I had to adjust the theme settings to get it to look right, and I had to type in the command cinnamon-settings to get at the control panel for Cinnamon. I added a theme by unzipping it in ~/.themes. I am using Elune. I selected the Humanity (Ubuntu) icons.

Extras

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