#hardware setup

[art-of-mathematics]

I made a lego case for my Raspberry Pi4 with fan hat and 3.5" LCD touchscreen module (that is attached with a flatwire to the Raspi-fan hat combination).

- - -- --- -----

Yesterday's version of the Raspi case without the screen part:

(the top lid can be opened)

[thisischeri]

ig: cheri.png

[spark-hearts2]

Okay so let’s say you have a basement just full of different computers. Absolute hodgepodge. Ranging in make and model from a 2005 dell laptop with a landline phone plug to a 2025 apple with exactly one usbc, to an IBM.

And you want to use this absolute clusterfuck to, I don’t know, store/run a sentient AI! How do you link this mess together (and plug it into a power source) in a way that WONT explode? Be as outlandish and technical as possible.

Oh.

Oh you want to take Caine home with you, don't you! You want to make the shittiest most fucked up home made server setup by fucking daisy chaining PCs together until you have enough processing power to do something. You want to try running Caine in your basement, absolutely no care for the power draw that this man demands.

Holy shit, what have you done? really long post under cut.

Slight disclaimer: I never actually work with this kind of computing, so none of this should be taken as actual, usable advice. That being said, I will cite sources as I go along for easy further research.

First of all, the idea of just stacking computers together HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE!!! This is known as a computer cluster! Sometimes, this is referred to as a supercomputer. (technically the term supercomputer is outdated but I won't go into that)

Did you know that the US government got the idea to wire 1,760 PS3s together in order to make a supercomputer? It was called the Condor Cluster! (tragically it kinda sucked but watch the video for that story)

Now, making an at home computer cluster is pretty rare as it's not like computing power scaled by adding another computer. It takes time for the machines to communicate in between each other, so trying to run something like a videogame on multiple PCs doesn't work. But, lets say that we have a massive amount of data that was collected from some research study that needs to be processed. A cluster can divide that computing among the multiple PCs for comparatively faster computing times. And yes! People have been using this to run/train their own AI so hypothetically Caine can run on a setup like this.

Lets talk about the external hardware needed first. There are basically only two things that we need to worry about. Power (like ya pointed out) and Communication.

Power supply is actually easier than you think! Most PCs have an internal power supply, so all you would need to do is stick the plug into the wall! Or, that is if we weren't stacking an unknowable amount of computers together. I have a friend that had the great idea to try and run a whole ass server rack in the dormitory at my college and yeah, he popped a fuse so now everyone in that section of the building doesn't have power. But that's a good thing, if you try to plug in too many computers on the same circuit, nothing should light on fire because the fuse breaks the circuit (yay for safety!). But how did my friend manage without his server running in his closet? Turns out there was a plug underneath his bed that was on it's own circuit with a higher limit (I'm not going to explain how that works, this is long enough already).

So! To do this at home, start by plugging everything into an extension cord, plug that into a wall outlet and see if the lights go out. I'm serious, blowing a fuse won't break anything. If the fuse doesn't break, yay it works! Move onto next step. If not, then take every other device off that circuit. Try again. If it still doesn't work, then it's time to get weird.

Some houses do have higher duty plugs (again, not going to explain how your house electricity works here) so you could try that next. But remember that each computer has their own plug, so why try to fit everything into one outlet? Wire this bad boy across multiple circuits to distribute the load! This can be a bit of a pain though, as typically the outlets for the each circuits aren't close to each other. An electrician can come in and break up which outlet goes to which fuse, or just get some long extension cords. Now, this next option I'm only saying this as you said wild and outlandish, and that's WIRING DIRECTLY INTO THE POWER GRID. If you do that, the computers can now draw enough power to light themselves on fire, but it is no longer possible to pop a fuse because the fuse is gone. (Please do not do this in real life, this can kill you in many horrible ways)

Communication (as in between the PCs) is where things start getting complex. As in, all of those nasty pictures of wires pouring out of server racks are usually communication cables. The essential piece of hardware that all of these computers are wired into is the switch box. It is the device that handles communication between the individual computers. Software decided which computer in the cluster gets what task. This is known as the Dynamic Resource Manager, sometimes called the scheduler (may run on one of the devises in the cluster but can have it's own dedicated machine). Once the software has scheduled the task, the switch box handles the actual act of getting the data to each machine. That's why speed and capacity are so important with switch boxes, they are the bottleneck for a system like this.

Uhh, connecting this all IBM server rack? That's not needed in this theoretical setup. Choose one computer to act as the 'head node' to act as the user access point and you're set. (sorry I'm not exactly sure what you mean by connect everything to an IBM)

To picture what all of this put together would look like, here’s a great if distressingly shaky video of an actual computer cluster! Power cables aren't shown but they are there.

But what about cable management? Well, things shouldn't get too bad given that fixing disordered cables can be as easy as scheduling the maintenance and ordering some cables. Some servers can't go down, so bad management piles up until either it has to go down or another server is brought in to take the load until the original server can be fixed. Ideally, the separate computers should be wired together, labeled, then neatly run into a switch box.

Now, depending on the level of knowledge, the next question would be "what about the firewall". A firewall is not necessary in a setup like this. If no connections are being made out of network, if the machine is even connected to a network, then there is no reason to monitor or block who is connecting to the machine.

That's all of the info about hardware around the computers, let's talk about the computers themselves!

I'm assuming that these things are a little fucked. First things first would be testing all machines to make sure that they still function! General housekeeping like blasting all of the dust off the motherboard and cleaning out those ports. Also, putting new thermal paste on the CPU. Refresh your thermal paste people.

The hardware of the PCs themselves can and maybe should get upgraded. Most PCs (more PCs than you think) have the ability to be upgraded! I'm talking extra slots for RAM and an extra SADA cable for memory. Also, some PCs still have a DVD slot. You can just take that out and put a hard drive in there! Now upgrades aren't essential but extra memory is always recommended. Redundancy is your friend.

Once the hardware is set, factory reset the computer and... Ok, now I'm at the part where my inexperience really shows. Computer clusters are almost always done with the exact same make and model of computer because essentially, this is taking several computers and treating them as one. When mixing hardware, things can get fucked. There is a version of linux specifically for mixing hardware or operating systems, OSCAR, so it is possible. Would it be a massive headache to do in real life and would it behave in unpredictable ways? Without a doubt. But, it could work, so I will leave it at that. (but maybe ditch the Mac, apple doesn't like to play nice with anything)

Extra things to consider. Noise level, cooling, and humidity! Each of these machines have fans! If it's in a basement, then it's probably going to be humid. Server rooms are climate controlled for a reason. It would be a good idea to stick an AC unit and a dehumidifier in there to maintain that sweat spot in temperature.

All links in one spot:

What's a cluster?

Wiki computer cluster

The PS3 was a ridiculous machine

I built an AI supercomputer with 5 Mac Studios

The worst patch rack I've ever worked on.

Building the Ultimate OpenSees Rig: HPC Cluster SUPERCOMPUTER Using Gaming Workstations!

What is a firewall?

Your old PC is Your New Server

Open Source Cluster Application Resources (OSCAR)

Buying a SERVER - 3 things to know

A Computer Cluster Made With BROKEN PCs

@fratboycipher feel free to add too this or correct me in any way

[melowco]

the fact that a shitty picture of an equally shitty computer setup elicited a unanimous response of: "are you telling me that this 'ethoslab' person isn't just a collective fever dream?" is just so INSANE to me

it feels like some weird confirmation that this etho guy is somewhat real as supposed to a universally loved disembodied canadian voice that wormed its way to the collective subconscious of minecraft fans everywhere.

its so insane. i want more. but also put it back. never do this again

[givemethesleep]

Anatomy of my BG3 setup

- My shitty little laptop I bought for school. It's barely scraped up enough points to be classified as a potato. The game runs, but at like maybe 2 frames a minute. I also usually play plugged into the charger because running the game DEVOURS THE BATTERY.

- A hard drive I found in my late grandfathers stuff. The only way I could download the game. The drive I got for my birthday was Super Dodgy and so it took an entire week around the clock to download the game. A week non-stop.

- A fun glowing gaming mouse given to me by a friend. Kmart FTW

- sketchbook, to draw in as one line of dialogue takes 15 minutes to play through.

I have made it off the nautiloid in a record 34 hours of """active play""". The day I get a pc it's over for me. I'm microdosing on this game. I have So Many Headcanons for my Tav it's not funny. Please send help my brain is rotting

[yoiku]

I am becoming hopeful about the pc now. I spent the day with my stream on and used as many other appliances in the apartment at the same time, set my fridge and portable ac unit on max blast for a good while since those are the likely the biggest power whores in here, and had no random boots occur. obs borked once but the stream was on for about 16hrs total. I will give it a week until I report back to the store of the results, but so far it's promising!!

[blackmoreops]

How to Install Unraid NAS: Complete Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners (2025)

If you’re looking to set up a powerful, flexible network-attached storage (NAS) system for your home media server or small business, Unraid is a brilliant choice. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the entire process to install Unraid NAS from start to finish, with all the tips and tricks for a successful setup in 2025. Unraid has become one of the most popular NAS operating systems…

[imaginealpha]

Tech product guides trying to troubleshoot your issues: lol have you tried turning it off and turning it on again 🧐 I'm not going to read any of the things you said you did, if it doesn't work then get fucked. Go to settings and click this option that you said isn't even there anymore

Reddit: here's some actual helpful suggestions on where to find settings that can fix your problem. We're more reliable than google search. Except for when we just tell you to buy new hardware instead of trying to fix your problem

Some obscure tech blog article from 7 years ago: i *google ad* gotchu *google ad* *google ad* *troubleshooter you never knew existed* *google ad* *solution to your problem*

[corvid-jay]

why's it so hard to set up a custom minecraft server...

[squircatlies]

putting my gender identity together like a gamer building a custom pc

[gaykarstaagforever]

There IS a small, dedicated audiophile community on Tumblr.

They just don't reblog any of my posts because

1) I keep making fun of them, and

2) they like pictures of naked 70s women in giant headphones, and I don't post those, because A LOT OF THOSE WOMEN ARE LIKE 17, YOU CREEPS!

...also,

3) I call them creeps

I guess audio isn't the only thing they are -philes of...

[thisischeri]

instagram: cheri.png

[starstruckpurpledragon]

Decided that since my old laptop is generally fine and not blue-screening when not in danger of being moved about (but, ya know, if it's jostled slightly wrong from my dog kicking it in her sleep, it crashes), I'm gonna use it to create an at home data backup system, aka a DIY cloud.

Currently looking at various freeware options and Syncthing looks super easy to set up and use. And it's open source, which is always a plus in my books.

It's got syncing between computers. It has the option for versioning (different types to choose from) so if a file gets deleted there is a copy to restore from. And you can choose which folders are synced between which computers.

And because it's an at home thing, I can add space to it over time for backing up my audiobooks that I striped the DRM off of so I can play them on plex, all my music, dvd backups that I also play on plex, etcetera. Seems like a good idea anyway and my adhd brain is always looking for new fun projects to play with.

But also, should be super easy to replace the laptop running the syncthing backup without losing data should my laptop decide crashing when it's just sitting in one place every day is cool too.

My other computer project I'm gonna work on is creating a pi-hole firewall because I've never been totally pleased with the firewall box I've got set up already. It's run fine for years but it's getting old and I dunno how much longer it'll be supported, while pi-hole seems more customizable/to my tastes. So it's getting to be a good time to update that setup anyway. Also I've just... always wanted an excuse to play with a raspberry pi and this seems like a good one.

[nashvillehotchicken]

"windows 11 upgrade ready!" "your computer is eligible for windows 11!" "download windows 11 now!"

[erb23]

I miss laptop batteries being easily removable.