Consider this post a miracle, because even I don't believe that I am writing an update this soon. Granted that some things that I had outlined and planned in my previous post, have not all been completed, but I think I have made fair progress and completed enough work to call it done.
I think it would be better to break this into 3 parts. The first part with a general overview of what all has been done. 2nd for the server and lighting centric and finally a review of the Ryzen system that I am running. Granted the 3000 series just launched so I am officially a year late to the review, but oh well.
Let's start with what all has been accomplished. And I choose my words carefully and this is an accomplishment for me personally. It's still not done to the level of detail that I would have wanted it to be done, but it is working and so far, everything is seemingly stable, so that's always a good sign.
Starting with the official "photo" of my room. That's a 43 inch 1080p IPS panel from LG that is networked via LAN as well as connected to the Ryzen PC over HDMI. The speakers you see are also connected to the TV itself over a simple RCA aux cable. Nothing too fancy, but it is a great movie watching experience. Especially the sound part. Notice the floating effect, since all the wires are passed inside the wall, there is no clutter at all. Neat, literally. P.S. - The single wire that you see is for the webcam mounted on top of the TV. Not permanent.
Next up the TV cabinet, just below the TV. This was made entirely new keeping in mind the dimensions of the room and the TV and other things in the room. There were some changes made in the design without my knowledge, but I think that it looks good anyway. The original design had a height difference of about 15 cm lower. That is why I was planning to keep the Ryzen PC flat and make it flush with the desk. Since the cabinet and the table are now flush, it's better to keep it in the standard orientation.
Those are 6-ohm speakers with a total output of 800W PMPO (as claimed). For me, personally, the sound quality is very good with a clear separation between instruments. combined that with proper stereo separation and the experience is more than decent.
In the sliders (not the snacks) you will see all the tools and bits and pieces I tend to use for my projects, arranged in a (mostly) sensible way. Much better than the way these things were handled before.
Moving on to the desk, Simple clean setup but I still have to figure out a proper way to keep the Harman/Kardon unit and not use the woofer as a monitor stand. I think it looks nice, plus the text is right side up. Huge mouse mat and a nice metallic robot ties up my table. Hopefully, it stays this clean in the long run as well. P.S. Drawer also rearranged for minimal yet functional balance.
Finally for this particular room, the roof. Since everything was in my control, out with the tube lights and the bulb holders and in with led concealed lights. 4 COB or Chip on Board lights ( 3 Watt each ) for the focussed effect with light arc design on the walls, and 4 diffused concealed lights ( 5 Watt each ). Warm white color since its better of the eyes and I think it goes better with the wooden floor as compared to "cool" colors of lighting.
But you know me and I know RGB, so I also have concealed RGB LED Strip, roughly 15m worth, on the perimeter of the roof, controlled by either the remote or by the Bluetooth RGB control setup I had made earlier. My modular approach paid off big time here and I saved a lot of time by just reusing the specific modules that I had mode before and adapted them here. And since we are now on the colorful topic of RGB, the speakers, and the TV cabinet, those have hidden RGB LEDs as well that react to the audio that is playing. Again saved a lot of time by reusing the MSGEQ7 module.
I think it would be better to break this into 3 parts. The first part with a general overview of what all has been done. 2nd for the server and lighting centric and finally a review of the Ryzen system that I am running. Granted the 3000 series just launched so I am officially a year late to the review, but oh well.
Let's start with what all has been accomplished. And I choose my words carefully and this is an accomplishment for me personally. It's still not done to the level of detail that I would have wanted it to be done, but it is working and so far, everything is seemingly stable, so that's always a good sign.
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| Official Ryzen Room |
Starting with the official "photo" of my room. That's a 43 inch 1080p IPS panel from LG that is networked via LAN as well as connected to the Ryzen PC over HDMI. The speakers you see are also connected to the TV itself over a simple RCA aux cable. Nothing too fancy, but it is a great movie watching experience. Especially the sound part. Notice the floating effect, since all the wires are passed inside the wall, there is no clutter at all. Neat, literally. P.S. - The single wire that you see is for the webcam mounted on top of the TV. Not permanent.
Next up the TV cabinet, just below the TV. This was made entirely new keeping in mind the dimensions of the room and the TV and other things in the room. There were some changes made in the design without my knowledge, but I think that it looks good anyway. The original design had a height difference of about 15 cm lower. That is why I was planning to keep the Ryzen PC flat and make it flush with the desk. Since the cabinet and the table are now flush, it's better to keep it in the standard orientation.
Those are 6-ohm speakers with a total output of 800W PMPO (as claimed). For me, personally, the sound quality is very good with a clear separation between instruments. combined that with proper stereo separation and the experience is more than decent.
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| Sliding drawer holding the electronic stuff |
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| I like the boxes, and they help sort out computer specific wires all in one place, easily. |
In the sliders (not the snacks) you will see all the tools and bits and pieces I tend to use for my projects, arranged in a (mostly) sensible way. Much better than the way these things were handled before.
 |
| Dream Desk - Budget Edition |
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| As it turns out, it is quite heavy to balance this on one hand and take a photo with the other. But you get the Idea. |
Finally for this particular room, the roof. Since everything was in my control, out with the tube lights and the bulb holders and in with led concealed lights. 4 COB or Chip on Board lights ( 3 Watt each ) for the focussed effect with light arc design on the walls, and 4 diffused concealed lights ( 5 Watt each ). Warm white color since its better of the eyes and I think it goes better with the wooden floor as compared to "cool" colors of lighting.
But you know me and I know RGB, so I also have concealed RGB LED Strip, roughly 15m worth, on the perimeter of the roof, controlled by either the remote or by the Bluetooth RGB control setup I had made earlier. My modular approach paid off big time here and I saved a lot of time by just reusing the specific modules that I had mode before and adapted them here. And since we are now on the colorful topic of RGB, the speakers, and the TV cabinet, those have hidden RGB LEDs as well that react to the audio that is playing. Again saved a lot of time by reusing the MSGEQ7 module.
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| Underexposed to highlight the lighting. The RGB alone is sufficient for anything except reading. |
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| It is daytime, that's why the curtains are glowing. |
And now for the pièce de résistance, at least in my view. Drumroll, please...
High-level overview first. That is my so-called ServerBox. Everything is backed up by the APC 500VA UPS that gives me an estimated 45 minutes on battery in case of a power outage and even my home inverter dying. The UPS runs the server and the ATX power supply. I will have internet no matter what!
The server in question is the HP ProBook 4420s laptop that the repair guy had broken and was overheating. I have slammed a nice 65W TDP heat sink and the temps are now limited to 60C under prime95. i5- M450 with 4 GB of non-ECC memory and "Gigabit" Ethernet. More on "Gigabit" later. 4TB WD Blue HDD attached via SATA. Also running the HP LaserJet 1020 as a networked printer using CUPS. Everything is powered by something called OpenMediaVault.
The ATX supply gives the 12VDC necessary to run the Modem provided by my ISP, the Netgear Nighthawk as well as the ProSafe Switch. Every room has at least One 1GbE port with my room having 4.
My good friends have already started shouting things like no ECC? No RAID? Laptop Parts? OMV?
I hear you, and I know this is not a proper server. There has to be redundancy, ECC memory, probably something like FreeNAS or something from Synology, more than 10TB storage and I totally agree. But considering that I have spent money only on the HDD and my purpose is being fulfilled, for now, I think it is good enough. Since it is a single drive, I do have to keep backups.
Anyway, I think this is more than enough for the first part of the post. I'll be posting in more depth about the RyzenPC as well as the server box in the next posts. Maybe also something about the lights, if there is an interest.
Bonus! - Sound Reactive RGB Test
Thanks for your time, and feel free to suggest something that I can do better.
Next post would probably be everything about the ServerBox area. When? 💁💁
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| #Imawesome |
High-level overview first. That is my so-called ServerBox. Everything is backed up by the APC 500VA UPS that gives me an estimated 45 minutes on battery in case of a power outage and even my home inverter dying. The UPS runs the server and the ATX power supply. I will have internet no matter what!
The server in question is the HP ProBook 4420s laptop that the repair guy had broken and was overheating. I have slammed a nice 65W TDP heat sink and the temps are now limited to 60C under prime95. i5- M450 with 4 GB of non-ECC memory and "Gigabit" Ethernet. More on "Gigabit" later. 4TB WD Blue HDD attached via SATA. Also running the HP LaserJet 1020 as a networked printer using CUPS. Everything is powered by something called OpenMediaVault.
The ATX supply gives the 12VDC necessary to run the Modem provided by my ISP, the Netgear Nighthawk as well as the ProSafe Switch. Every room has at least One 1GbE port with my room having 4.
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| Up close and Personal |
I hear you, and I know this is not a proper server. There has to be redundancy, ECC memory, probably something like FreeNAS or something from Synology, more than 10TB storage and I totally agree. But considering that I have spent money only on the HDD and my purpose is being fulfilled, for now, I think it is good enough. Since it is a single drive, I do have to keep backups.
Anyway, I think this is more than enough for the first part of the post. I'll be posting in more depth about the RyzenPC as well as the server box in the next posts. Maybe also something about the lights, if there is an interest.
Bonus! - Sound Reactive RGB Test
Thanks for your time, and feel free to suggest something that I can do better.
Next post would probably be everything about the ServerBox area. When? 💁💁
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