Oh this looks very useful for organizing datasheets and dev references, will definitely give this a shot. Thanks and nice work!

New thinkpads are trash unfortunately. Lenovo really cheaped out on their build quality. I’ve had to fix multiple lenovo laptops and one of their all-in-ones and the corners they cut made the repairs either impossible or extremely difficult.

One new ideapad had to go back to them twice with motherboard issues.

Replacing the keyboard is impossible, you need to replace the whole front panel of the case becuase the keyboard is plastic rivited in place.

The all-in-one started as a simple ram and storage upgrade, but in order to do that the whole back panel needs to come off. Its snapped on but the LCD panel itself doesn’t have any subframe around it, so when opening the back panel theres a very high chance of you cracking the display.

New thinkpads are trash unfortunately. Lenovo really cheaped out on their build quality. I’ve had to fix multiple lenovo laptops and one of their all-in-ones and the corners they cut made the repairs either impossible or extremely difficult.

One new ideapad had to go back to them twice with motherboard issues.

Replacing the keyboard is impossible, you need to replace the whole front panel of the case becuase the keyboard is plastic rivited in place.

The all-in-one started as a simple ram and storage upgrade, but in order to do that the whole back panel needs to come off. Its snapped on but the LCD panel itself doesn’t have any subframe around it, so when opening the back panel theres a very high chance of you cracking the display.

https://www.squid-cache.org/ Should work too I think

As others have said, nvidia will work but you’re better off with amd for the GPU. CPU brand doesn’t really matter.

If you’re duel booting, I definitely recommend two separate drives, one for each OS. Use the bios boot selector to boot between the two. It makes things much much easier if they’re not sharing a drive

But we know based on OPs usage requirements, he’s not one of those people doing everything in the browser.

Updates are important regardless of fomo. They’re not only for adding new features, they’re for fixing bugs and improving stability and these changes rarely get backported unless their critical.

The core Debian might be stable, but, for example, plasma 6.3 is much more stable than 5.27

Debian is stable and will work, but there are other options that are basically as stable and have much newer packages - improving desktop stability and user experience

Debian 12.9 was released a few months ago based on kernel 6.1 LTS, the latest kernel is 6.13, with 6.12 being the new LTS.

Debian packages are updated for bug fixes and security updates, but they generally don’t update to new versions.

If you’re running KDE Debian, your version is plasma 5.27, meanwhile 6.3 was just released.

There are a massive amount of quality of life improvements that debain 12 stable will never get. Sure you can backport some, but then it’s not really debain stable is it?

Meanwhile there are plenty of other distros that are almost just as stable, but have newer versions of everything. Not to mention the stability improvements of the newer software (one example is plasma 6.3 is a massive improvement over 5.27)

Like I said, I love Debian, but if you’re doing daily driving of the computer, I think there are better alternatives

I had to have my scanner scan to a windows VM that saves it to a network drive for paperless to injest. Its not my favorite solution but at least I don’t have to manually move the files around

Have you looked at tumbleweed? Its a rolling release so its always up to date but opensuse’s testing is fantastic. It’s very stable and on the off chance there’s a regression that impacts usability, it has built in version snapshots. It takes literally 45 seconds to roll back to a previous working version.

I keep seeing people recommending Debian. Its a great OS, especially for server stuff (which I use in multiple VMs in my home lab), but I wouldn’t recommend it on a computer you’re actively using. They take so long to update packages you’re always multiple versions behind. This really makes it difficult to get bug fixes and patches for software that you’re using on a daily basis. The hardware support is never as good as other options.

Photons don’t have mass, but they do have momentum.

Yup that’s exactly correct. I will say one of the benefits of the AC finity is the alarm. If the temp gets too high it beeps to let you know

https://acinfinity.com/closet-room-fan-systems/

They have a lot of products, including other fans and thermostats. I’ve had their media cabinet fans running 24/7 for 4-5 years now with no problems. Highly recommend it.

Otherwise you could use something like this and a standard 12v power adapter https://www.tindie.com/products/mmm999/dc-12v-four-wire-thermostat-pwm-pc-cpu-fan/

When my pixel 5a decided to stop using the screen, I was able to do a full phone backup using the OTG to plug in a keyboard. Ridiculous but was a fun troubleshooting moment

You’ve gotten a lot of good answers, so I’m going to do some out of the box thinking - maybe it will spark a few ideas.

Goal:

• self hosted server on boat

Issues:

• size
• power
• corrosion

So if I were going to do this myself, I’d start with a pelican or other similar watertight container. We don’t want the equipment getting wet, and we don’t want it exposed to the salty air.

I’d probably pick a usff computer, like a dell 9020 or maybe a framework motherboard. To get the storage, I’d get one of these to add multiple sata ports to the computer. Then its a matter of getting a bunch of ssds and powering them. I think the 12v goal is going to be too restrictive, most laptops need 19v to charge, so I’d just bite the bullet and get an inverter. If you’re really tight on power you could go with a pi, but the framework motherboard/usff both use mobile processors, and shouldn’t draw too much while idle.

Any wires that pass though to the case should be made through waterproof bulkheads.

Personally I’d nix the HDMI out requirement. One more port to keep track of and it complicates the self hosting. If you want it for media streaming to a TV then I’d recommend a roku and just run a jellyfin server on the computer. If you want it for server debugging I wouldn’t bother running it out of the case.

The last thing I’d do is figure out cooling. For this I’d probably create some sort of closed loop heat exchanger from the case to either the outside air or the lake/ocean itself. This could be as simple as a pump running water through two radiators, one in the case and the other outside or just dumped overboard. If you know your power usage ahead of time you might be able to get away with a peltier element, dumping the heat outside the case.

I’d probably put this all on its own power system, get a solar panel, battery, inverter, etc. It could even get topped off by the boat’s system if it needs extra juice.

Also whatever you do, I’d figure out a way to ensure you’re giving your system a clean and steady 12v.

“The cause is a new SATA specification which includes the ability to disable power to the hard disk. When you look at the SATA power connection on the back of your hard drive, there are 15 pins that make contact with your power supply. It’s the third pin that delivers a 3.3V signal that disables the drive. What we need to do is prevent that third pin from making contact with the power cable.”

Some hotswap harddrive bays use this feature, definitely more common in enterprise scenarios or in USB HDD enclosures.

I’ve always liked the ultrastar line. Used to be made by HGST and then WD bought them. I’m using specifically the HC530 14tb. The line has a long history of being very reliable enterprise drives.

I’ve bought mine from both goharddrive and serverpartsdeals. Both are reliable resellers of used storage. They’ll warranty the drives for 2 or 5 years depending on which you to with. Prices are ~$130-$150.

Be aware you might need to do the electrical tape over some of the power pins hacks depending on your setup.

Ps. One of the listings for the HC530 on goharddrive or serverpartdeals is incorrectly labels as HC520. Just pay close attention.

As far as raid goes, Raid 10 is currently very popular for its speed and drive failure tolerance. Remember, raid is not a replacement for the 3-2-1 backup rule. Raid has some fault tolerances for bad hard drives, but doesn’t protect against a failed raid card, fire, flood, robber, acts of god, etc.

You can also look into zfs and truenas if you feel inclined. Be aware that if you go with this setup, ecc ram is basically a requirement

There’s also a setting for minimum spacing between parts. The default is overly cautious iirc, I’d suggest lowering it and trying again, though I don’t expect it to change much

Oh it hurts real bad

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