commit a25444038e15c934a8399ae1e3a585b27a938a11
parent 624f50a83ca2d91ea82270b4992f5bcf84b8df55
Author: Sebastiano Tronto <sebastiano@tronto.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2023 09:47:40 +0200
new blog post
Diffstat:
4 files changed, 238 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/bios.jpg b/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/bios.jpg
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diff --git a/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/build-time.md b/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/build-time.md
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+# Build time!
+
+After thinking about it for quite some time, my girlfriend and I finally
+got a nice desktop PC. This is our first build, and the first time I
+open up a desktop PC in 10 years or so!
+
+
+
+## Specs
+
+* CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.8GHz base / 5.3GHz Boost)
+* GPU: Asus AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8GB dedicated memory)
+* RAM: 2x32GB
+* SSD: 2TB NVMe
+
+We (especially my girlfriend) play some games, but not the newest AAA
+titles, and we are definitely willing to sacrifice some graphics quality.
+So we went for some "best bang for the buck" CPU and GPU, paying attention
+to the power usage, too.
+
+I also write code for fun, and for one of my hobby projects I would like
+to experiment with different sizes of RAM, so I wanted at least 32GB. We
+ended up getting 64 because we had some money left in our budget and we
+did not need (or want) a better (and more power-hungry) CPU or GPU.
+
+With the case and all the peripherals, including a pretty good 27"
+screen, we got it for less than 1400€, which I think is a good price.
+
+## Building it up
+
+We were a bit scared of putting all the pieces together. My girlfriend
+has never done it, and the last time I assembled a
+PC it was back in the days of spinning hard drives with
+[IDE connectors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA)
+and motherboard
+[beep codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test#Progress_and_error_reporting).
+You know, when the PC kindly told you in pseudo-Morse code exactly what
+was wrong. Those were the days!
+
+Nostalgia aside, the build process went pretty smoothly - except for
+a small cut on my middle finger. Here are some of the things I found
+interesting:
+
+### Black is the new green
+
+I remember mother boards and graphics card used to be all green, now not
+anymore! At least in our case, they are all black. Cool, I guess.
+
+### Tiny NVMe drive
+
+Modern NVMe drives are really small! I remember old hard disks being
+literal bricks - you would not want to drop one of those, lest it breaks
+your toes or damages the floor. Now you would not want to drop one for
+fear of loosing it under the sofa.
+
+### Fans everywhere
+
+The case has a fan, the CPU has a fan, the GPU has two. I don't remember
+there were this many fans in ~2009, but if it keeps my chips cool,
+I'll take it!
+
+### Damned RGB
+
+We (especially me) do not like at all the modern "gamer aesthetics" that
+demand RGB lights everywhere. So we carefully chose components that had
+the no LEDs, or as little as possible. Unfortunately, the stock CPU fan
+has more lights than a Christmas tree. Our solid black case saves us here.
+
+### Ugly BIOS
+
+I mean, WTF is this screen?
+
+
+
+It's like a B-tier early 2000s video game. I think the classic 80s
+style, curses-like graphics looked much better. But on the other hand,
+who cares.
+
+## Operating system
+
+We agreed on using Linux, because we are both Linux users, because all
+the games we would like to play work either natively or via proton,
+and because fuck you Microsoft and your crappy spyware.
+
+I use [Void](https://voidlinux.org/), but for a shared PC I would like
+something that "just works" with minimal setup. My girlfriend uses
+[Mint](https://linuxmint.com/), but she wanted to try out something
+new. Debian seemed like a solid choice, and it is
+[very similar to Linux](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ocXFgowZA)
+(in case you can't click on the link or don't understand Italian, it's a joke).
+
+For the desktop environment we initially went for XFCE, but my
+girlfriend immediately disliked it because many administration tasks
+were counter-intuitive or just impossible (e.g. adding a new user). So
+we switched to KDE, and we are both reasonably satisfied with it. However,
+I am a bit disappointed to see that it is (still) a bit buggy - some of the
+first disappointments include: [Discover](https://apps.kde.org/discover/)
+failing to open, KDE "administrator" users not being able to use `sudo`,
+the [screen failing to turn off](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f37-kde-5-27-screen-doesnt-dim-nor-turn-off/73960)
+after the set timeout. At least it is not as buggy as the initial KDE4
+release in 2008.
+
+## Build time?
+
+So, how long does it take to build Linux on my new Linux build?
+
+```
+$ sudo apt build-dep linux
+$ wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ tar -xvf linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ cd linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ make mrproper
+$ make defconfig
+$ time make -j16
+
+real 1m27.215
+user 17m57.806s
+sys 1m46.663s
+```
diff --git a/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/build-time.md.bak b/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/build-time.md.bak
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+# Build time!
+
+After thinking about it for quite some time, my girlfriend and I finally
+got a nice desktop PC. This is our first build, and the first time I
+open up a desktop PC in 10 years or so!
+
+
+
+## Specs
+
+* CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.8GHz base / 5.3GHz Boost)
+* GPU: Asus AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8GB dedicated memory)
+* RAM: 2x32GB
+* SSD: 2TB NVMe
+
+We (especially my girlfriend) play some games, but not the newest AAA
+titles, and we are definitely willing to sacrifice some graphics quality.
+So we went for some "best bang for the buck" CPU and GPU, paying attention
+to the power usage, too.
+
+I also write code for fun, and for one of my hobby projects I would like
+to experiment with different sizes of RAM, so I wanted at least 32GB. We
+ended up getting 64 because we had some money left in our budget and we
+did not need (or want) a better (and more power-hungry) CPU or GPU.
+
+With the case and all the peripherals, including a pretty good 27"
+screen, we got it for less than 1400€, which I think is a good price.
+
+## Building it up
+
+We were a bit scared of putting all the pieces together. My girlfriend
+has never done it, and the last time I assembled a
+PC it was back in the days of spinning hard drives with
+[IDE connectors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA)
+and motherboard
+[beep codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test#Progress_and_error_reporting).
+You know, when the PC kindly told you in pseudo-morse code exactly what
+was wrong. Those were the days!
+
+Nostalgia aside, the build process went pretty smoothly - except for
+a small cut on my middle finger. Here are some of the things I found
+interesting:
+
+### Black is the new green
+
+I remember mother boards and graphics card used to be all green, now not
+anymore! At least in our case, they are all black. Cool, I guess.
+
+### Tiny NVMe drive
+
+Modern NVMe drives are really small! I remember old hard disks being
+literal bricks - you would not want to drop one of those, lest it breaks
+your toes or damages the floor. Now you would not want to drop one for
+fear of loosing it under the sofa.
+
+### Fans everywhere
+
+The case has a fan, the CPU has a fan, the GPU has two. I don't remember
+there were this many fans in ~2009, but if it keeps my chips cool,
+I'll take it!
+
+### Damned RGB
+
+We (espcially me) do not like at all the modern "gamer aesthetics" that
+demand RGB lights everywhere. So we carefully chose components that had
+the no LEDs, or as little as possible. Unfortunately, the stock CPU fan
+has more lights than a Christmas tree. Our solid black case saves us here.
+
+### Ugly BIOS
+
+I mean, WTF is this screen?
+
+
+
+It's like a B-tier early 2000s video game. I think the classic 80s
+style, curses-like graphics looked much better. But on the other hand,
+who cares.
+
+## Operating system
+
+We agreed on using Linux, because we are both Linux users, because all
+the games we would like to play work either natively or via proton,
+and because fuck you Microsoft and your crappy spyware.
+
+I use [Void](https://voidlinux.org/), but for a shared PC I would like
+something that "just works" with minimal setup. My girlfriend uses
+[Mint](https://linuxmint.com/), but she wanted to try out something
+new. Debian seemed like a solid choice, and it is
+[very similar to Linux](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ocXFgowZA)
+(in case you can't click on the link or don't understand Italian, it's a joke).
+
+For the desktop environment we initially went for XFCE, but my
+girlfriend immediately disliked it because many administration tasks
+were counter-intuitive or just impossible (e.g. adding a new user). So
+we switched to KDE, and we are both reasonably satisfied with it. However,
+I am a bit disappointed to see that it is (still) a bit buggy - some of the
+first disappointments include: [Discover](https://apps.kde.org/discover/)
+failing to open, KDE "administrator" users not being able to use `sudo`,
+the [screen failing to turn off](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f37-kde-5-27-screen-doesnt-dim-nor-turn-off/73960)
+after the set timeout. At least it is not as buggy as the inital KDE4
+release in 2008.
+
+## Build time?
+
+So, how long does it take to build Linux on my new Linux build?
+
+```
+$ sudo apt build-dep linux
+$ wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ tar -xvf linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ cd linux-6.5.7.tar.xz
+$ make mrproper
+$ make defconfig
+$ time make -j16
+
+real 1m27.215
+user 17m57.806s
+sys 1m46.663s
+```
diff --git a/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/desk.jpg b/src/blog/2023-10-15-build-time/desk.jpg
Binary files differ.
