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| Quandary: gotta have a PC at the workbench but what kind of setup is best? |
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| deadlylover:
--- Quote from: tautech on July 03, 2021, 05:03:42 am ---Except they lack enough USB ports. For anything serious you need at least dual monitor support and preferably 3 so you can display CAD schematics, PCB layout and datasheets all at the same time. --- End quote --- It depends on the model/options you pick (can be hit or miss on eBay because businesses often go for the bare minimum when buying in bulk), for example the HP 800 G2 I have includes 6x USB Type A and 1x USB Type C. It also has 2x DisplayPort outputs and a VGA one too, so I'm running 3x monitors on mine. The newer ones with Thunderbolt means you can slap a dock on there and have heaps of USB ports. They can also use the "full" 65W desktop parts as well so they're not dinky little 5W Atom CPU's from the netbook era or anything, maybe you are confusing them with the old "thin clients"? For a workbench PC (not the home office workstation) they are an excellent choice because they're so common to find on eBay used cheaply. Of course if you want to go all out and drop a grand for a brand new one with an 8 core Ryzen, by all means go for gold. |
| bd139:
USB hubs still exist if there aren’t enough holes. |
| David Hess:
--- Quote from: bd139 on July 02, 2021, 11:18:56 am ---I don’t think I’ve used any more than an i3’s worth of PCIe recently even on workstation builds. Only thing is in servers with lots of DAS enterprise SSDs which is a notable and large exception to what a workstation usually consists of as they usually cost house sized amounts of money. --- End quote --- It does not take much to exceed commonly available PCIe expansion. Most motherboards now will not support more than 2 big expansion cards and many are now down to only 1, which makes for a problem if you plan for a RAID HBA, fast networking, and the GPU. Back when I built my Phenom II system, even the lowest cost motherboards supported 3 big PCIe cards at a minimum. I thought I might get around it this time with one of the Pro series of Ryzen APUs so no GPU is required however they are only available through the Chinese grey market. What I ended up doing is finding one of the increasingly rare motherboards which support PCIe splitting. Had I not, then I would have had to move up to Threadripper at considerably higher cost. --- Quote ---If you need processing it’s waaaay cheaper to rent it from Amazon if you can as you’re paying by the minute. My main workstation is a 16gb laptop. Anything that doesn’t fit gets sent to Amazon. --- End quote --- Even if I trusted Amazon, my available internet bandwidth and transfer caps make a remote solution untenable. --- Quote from: deadlylover on July 03, 2021, 04:23:17 am ---A monitor arm is absolutely fantastic to help reclaim valuable bench space. I used to scoff at the idea of spending say $100 on an arm but it makes a huge difference being able to reposition the monitor if you're working on something huge. You can often find a VESA mount as well for the ultra small PC's. --- End quote --- I like putting my mediocre woodworking skills to use to make monitor shelves restoring the desk area they would otherwise take. --- Quote ---Great thing about those tiny PC's is the low idle power usage, usually in the 8-12W range, so you don't feel that guilty for leaving them on while collecting data or controlling instruments. I do have a load of Z820 workstations and the ~70W idle is just so wasteful. --- End quote --- There are a lot of things to recommend small form factor PCs. --- Quote from: bd139 on July 03, 2021, 06:35:57 am ---USB hubs still exist if there aren’t enough holes. --- End quote --- I would recommend using a USB hub whether needed or not. It might save the computer from an accident and it will certainly save the port on the computer from wear and tear. They can also be had supporting the higher power charging modes where computer ports do not. |
| NiHaoMike:
--- Quote from: David Hess on July 03, 2021, 03:42:29 pm ---They can also be had supporting the higher power charging modes where computer ports do not. --- End quote --- Most USB PD hubs I have seen only support PD on the port connecting to the PC, which is not very useful for a desktop. |
| SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: David Hess on July 03, 2021, 03:42:29 pm ---There are a lot of things to recommend small form factor PCs. --- End quote --- Yep. I also gave a few. I wanted to add that the reason they can be cheaper than full desktop computers or laptops was not one of them, for me, and the approach I personally suggested relied on Mini-ITX motherboards, which gives you options for building something pretty powerful already. And yes, passive cooling is pretty nice. But don't expect such a config to be cheap. --- Quote from: David Hess on July 03, 2021, 03:42:29 pm ---I would recommend using a USB hub whether needed or not. It might save the computer from an accident and it will certainly save the port on the computer from wear and tear. They can also be had supporting the higher power charging modes where computer ports do not. --- End quote --- Yes. You can of course plug "permanent" devices on USB ports directly on the computer, but for those ports to which you frequently connect and disconnect stuff on your bench, possibly including your own prototypes, a HUB is definitely a good idea. And, of course, it allows you to put the computer itself anywhere you like. |
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