Quote:
Originally Posted by Plankton
No problem. Your monitors most likely have their own power supply, so no worries there.
Hope all goes smoothly!
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This is particularly for Plankton for his incredible help in realizing this project. Forgive the length of this response, but I’m quite excited!
UPDATE: After reaching out to the seller I received a prompt, courteous, and professional response in the affirmative for both my questions. They confirmed that the power supply would be more than sufficient, and added a note to the order pledging to include and connect the SATA data and power cables to the motherboard in advance of shipment.
I was astonished when the package arrived via FedEx the VERY NEXT DAY (Wednesday night), from Michigan! What made that so critically important was that I was beginning a vacation that very evening and would have Wednesday night through Sunday night to troubleshoot any issues with the system. This provided an enormous weight off my shoulders as working from home is critical for me.
The package arrived in an enormous box, sealed with SmartFilm around a blow-in foam housing which effectively protected the tower from the rain the evening of its delivery.
I drafted an exhaustive implementation guide in advance of its arrival to disassemble the old tower and to rebuild the new one.
Tragically, I’d read on several Ubuntu forums that it is NOT as simple as plugging your old SSD and HDD into a new MOBO. They explained that the kernel is configured for the original hardware and can wreak havoc on the new setup with compatibility issues often rendering the new system unbootable.
This would require my formatting my only surviving OS SSD and manually installing and configuring Ubuntu and all of my applications manually from scratch. Thankfully, I took the time to author just such a guide last June with every click-of-the-mouse documented.
And so came the moment of truth. I powered it on for the first time. It initially launched BIOS and I discovered that the keyboard USB had not been fully seated in the port. I rebooted once more and there was a splash screen notification about Ubuntu needing to be configured to boot, followed by a black screen and my holding my breath for 15 agonizing seconds.
And then… the glorious familiar purple Ubuntu login screen appeared, just like magic. I logged in and slowly and carefully began testing every single application and function of my old system. Everything appeared intact - all applications settings were preserved and the system flew through actions far faster than my old tower. And the dual displays each worked perfectly right out of the box without any configuration needed.
I ran into just two problems - first, my media server software which provides me access to hundreds of thousands of works from any web-enabled device was unreachable from my mobile devices. I was going to document the log files and submit a request to the official forum but I narrowed my eyes and dove into my router configuration advanced menus and deduced that port-forwarding had to be modified from the IP address of the former PC to that of the new PC. In about twenty minutes, I had my server singing again!
Video and audio tests were flawless. No more clipping or frame drop of any kind. I always use the opening selection from Underworld’s
Dubnobasswithmyheadman LP as my initial test track for new audio and computer equipment and it played back flawlessly with no ground hum or skipping.
The final test was my work-from-home VDI. Unfortunately, likely due to the VDI holding onto my prior hardware settings with the poorly-performing universal docking station, the VDI was rendered unusable. It may be a simple matter of completely uninstalling the software and reinstalling it so that it detects the video hardware changes of the new native dual display. I’ve sent an email to the networking team at my office and have set alarms to rise extra early (on my first day off of vacation), to tackle this straight away so that I have the peace of mind that it will work in time for my return to working from home next Monday. I’m confident we’ll get it worked out tomorrow.
Which brings me to the final but most important property of the behemoth of a tower - it is INCREDIBLY SILENT. Far more quiet than I’d expected such a massive tower to be! There is absolutely no interference with my listening room audio playback even at the most subtle volume levels.
So my anxieties of it failing to boot were vanquished, my fears of loud fans ruining the experience were dispelled, I didn’t have to reconfigure 99% of my software… it just WORKED with a few minor adjustments I was keen enough to work out. It’s far faster than my prior system and the displays are VASTLY improved over the former setup.
Thank you SO MUCH for your insight into this project. I can’t believe that, once the VDI issue is resolved, that this entire project will have been brought from inception to completion in just three calendar days and two hours of work on a Wednesday night to kick off my vacation.
I’m quite grateful!