Lens Game Strong - Full Frame Edition

Of course, with a full frame camera comes full frame lenses... I chose the above three based on my usage on my A6500.

Sony SEL28F20

One of my favorite lenses on the A6500 was the SEL20F28 - The 20mm pancake. Although this isn't a pancake lense by any means, it's the smallest and lightest of the 3 full frame lenses I've chosen, and with crop factor closely matches the pancake with a 1 stop faster advantage. I loved the pancake for it's minuscule size and it's perfect seat between 24mm and 35mm. The 28mm seems to fill those shoes great, while offering even better low light performance. Initial tests seem promising, but time will tell.

Sony SEL55F18Z

The spiritual replacement to my Sigma 30mm. This lens manufactured in partnership with Zeiss is one of the best options for the Sony family, and isn't too much longer than my 45mm equivalent Sigma. Despite being 10mm longer than my previously most used lens, I've instantly gravitated to this as my default choice. It focuses fast and accurately, and in combination with the A7iii, it's perfectly balanced. I've been very impressed with both the sharpness it's produced and the auto focus performance, and will no doubt continue to enjoy this lens.

Sony SEL85F18

The portrait option. This was my first full frame lens and I owned it before moving to the A7iii. I was very impressed with it on the A6500 (the 127.5mm equivalent gave it a bit more reach) even though it was a bit limiting. I shot soccer with it on the A6500 which went great, offering fantastic auto-focus performance and killer sharpness. Not exactly it's intended use, but it did a killer job over 1100 frames on a single battery. Don't be fooled by the lack of G or G Master designation - This thing is a heavyweight and easily throws punches with the best of the Sony 85s for a bargain price. 

The future likely holds G Master lenses (24-70GM and 70-200GM I'm looking at you!), but as of right now I'm pretty happy with my prime lineup. The 28 should make for a great landscape and street lens (I was shooting most of my landscapes on my pancake anyway), the 55 will make for a killer daily shooter, and the 85 should blow away any portrait needs for the time being. 

My next travel destination is likely Iceland, which will probably necessitate lens rentals. I'm thinking of packing the 16-35 G Master along with my current kit, and my friend I'll be travelling with will be packing some full frame goodies as well. I'm fairly confident between us we'll be packing enough gear to cover everything!

More to come!

A7iii

A7iii. 1/160, F16, 100ISO

And my second camera purchase of 2018 is an A7iii... I won't go into a lot of detail, but this bad boy was spotted open box at Best Buy with about 3000 clicks on it at a pretty steep discount. Considering these things are looking like a scarce commodity, I took the opportunity to snatch it up. Above was taken with my A6500 with the SEL50F18 (Oh yeah that was the first camera purchase of 2018... We sure do move along at quite the clip) and an off camera speedlight equipped with Rogue Photographic Design large Flashbender soft box kit.

I'm currently up in the air as to if I want to sell off the A6500 or keep it as a backup body. I've put over 6k shots on it in 4 months or so, and I've been really happy with how it performs compared to my A6000. Features like IBIS, faster/more extensive auto-focus features, larger buffer, improved metering modes, silent shutter, and a slightly improved sensor really helped me out, and in a sense it's like a mini A7iii. I would definitely miss it's size if anything. I'll be selling my APS-C glass for sure, but might hang onto the A6500 a bit longer.

I'm still in the early days of the A7iii, but expect at least some basic insight into the camera in the near future. I'm pretty happy with it so far!

Sony Wireless RAW Transfer

Yes! It actually works! Sort of. This was done on a OnePlus 3T with Android 8.0, PlayMemories version 6.2.2, and an A6500.

• Ensure your Smart Remote Control app is up to date on the CAMERA. You need to use this instead of the default "send to smartphone" functionality within the camera/PlayMemories app.

• Start Smart Remote Control (Application tab, Application List, Smart Remote Control) and connect to the camera using NFC or PlayMemories. You should be presented with the remote control view.

• Tap the menu option, then tap "See In-Camera Images".

• Tap the menu in the top right corner, and tap "Copy Img Quality". Here you can select JPEG Priority, RAW Priority, or JPEG & RAW Priority. Select RAW priority and tap Close.

• Copy your images. Look at that, you have RAW transfer via wireless.

This definitely opens up a bit more usability even if it takes a bit longer to move files. I find the RAW files have a lot more latitude for editing and I tend to be able to coax a bit more out of tricky exposures with a RAW file, even on mobile.

A note, I believe this is only available on Sony cameras that have the PlayMemories app functionality. I tested this with a friend's A7Riii and was unable to view the camera images with the smart remote app.

Peak Design: Fueling The Addiction

I've got a heck of a case of GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome! Peak Design fuels my needs. I've owned a few of their straps (The leash and the cuff) for a few months now, and can openly say I'm very happy with the anchor link system and the overall fit and finish of the straps themselves. They ooze quality. When I first saw the Everyday Backpack, I knew I'd have one at some point, and well, here we are!

I grabbed the 20L charcoal colored variant, which fits my straps pretty well with the red stitching and black Hypalon accents. It's considerably smaller than my 5.11 Tactical Rush 12 (24L) at 12L, but it has a number of advantages over it. First, it's shell is pretty much weatherproof. I can't tell you the number of times I've been stuck out with the Rush 12 in rain, only to have it get damp inside. I've never lost anything to water, but having some of your backpack goods get damp after a walk to work isn't super fun. The Everyday Backpack on the other hand has stood up to snowstorm walks without breaking a sweat! It's also structured well! The inside has a few modular folding panels that Peak Design called Flex-Fold - These provide some extra structure to the bag, and extra organization for carrying cameras, lenses, external hard drives, shoes, lunch, or whatever else you want to use the bag for.

These Flex-Fold dividers allow for another great feature the Everyday Backpack has over the Rush 12 - Side access. With the Rush 12, everything was basically dumped into the bag, and it would have to be fully unzipped to take stuff out of the bottom, the Everyday Backpack can be unzipped on either side to quickly access things. To assist with that, the straps also have a quick release, allowing you to easily swing the bag around in front of you, open it up, and grab what you desire on the go.

Now, the 12 liter storage capacity isn't a lot, but it's very flexible and expandable up to 20 liters if necessary. The one handed mag latch to open the top facilitates that. I've taken the bag configured for 2 shoots so far, and it held everything I needed plus more. Heck, if I needed more I could just strap it to the outside with the hidden outer straps.

The one spot I found it lacking though was organization. Now, the side flaps do have a fair number of pockets which are very stretchy and high quality, however I think the Rush 12 has a much more organized admin pouch on the front. The Everyday Backpack makes up for this with a couple hidden areas and a tablet section in the laptop sleeve, but I've made up for the rest by getting one of the charcoal field pouches for extra organization. I can just throw it in the main compartment which I don't use for a huge amount anyway.

Overall, it feels good, looks good, holds well, and catches eyes. This is a fantastic everyday bag and has performed well beyond my expectations. I wouldn't use it as a main bag for a 2 week trip abroad like with the Rush 12, but it would make a fantastic day/tech bag, and is perfectly capable for overnight trips.

Now, the only thing to catch more eyes and raise more questions than the bag itself would be the Capture Clip v3, oddly enough. This little quick release plate secures easily to a backpack strap and holds my camera very steady. It's made sure it's very easily accessible when needed, and doesn't jostle around a lot when moving. I'm still up in the air on this vs a strap, but I can see this being a lot more useful when travelling/hiking. Another fun note on the plate that secures to the bottom of your camera is fully compatible with Arca Swiss style tripod heads. I have a Zomei Q666, and it fits on the head without issue.

The Best Android Tablet I've Ever Used?

The iPad Mini 4. This is my 2018 tablet purchase. And so far, it's the best Android tablet I've ever used.

The Shield is long in the tooth. Although beefy, it suffers what most other Nvidia chipset based tablets do - It's slowed down a LOT. It's too bad too, because otherwise it was almost a perfect Android tablet! 1920x1200 screen, plenty of horsepower for any apps, stylus support, and front facing speakers! Multitasking started suffering though. As did battery life. It shouldn't take 30 seconds to wake the tablet up. Or open an app. Just occasionally though! Just enough to be annoying. And 4 hours of screen on time? Yeah, not overly impressive. Plus the idle battery drain. I love the Android platform, but I think it's really suited for phones more so than tablets.

Of course, I did my due diligence looking into available devices. I wanted something fairly quick, running mostly stock, good screen, small and light form factor, good battery life. It's gonna be used a lot for Lightroom, browsing, reading, and media after all. It's primary purpose should be to get out of the way and let me do those things.

A couple of Android tablets piqued my interest, but ultimately had some issues. Samsung's Tab S3 was plagued with Touchwiz and threatened with lack of updates. The Asus Zenpad S3 ran a Mediatek chipset and was skinned pretty heavily. The Huawei mediapad M3 looked almost perfect, but ultimately lacked some key connectivity features, and once again with the skins. Bah, the last GOOD Android tablet was the Nexus 7 2013.

My final decision was to try out an iPad. The Mini 4 128GB came in at under 500 dollars, features an 8" 2048x1536 laminated display, a good feel in hand, and a very good battery life. Heck, the thing doesn't really drain when not in use, what else could you ask for? Most importantly, it fully supports all of my Google apps. For all intents and purposes, this is an Android tablet to me.

A couple of issues I have with it, and they're only small, and not really the iPad's fault. One - Some apps don't have tablet versions released as of yet, and likely never will. Namely, Instagram. Not a huge deal, but more of an annoyance. It's either use it through the browser, or used a scaled phone version of the app which looks awful. Android handles app scaling a lot better. And two - Lastpass autofill isn't good to go for all apps like it is for Android. I understand app developers need to build autofill in, but it's still annoying that it's not built into the platform.

A small nagging feeling behind me says that software updates might not be so long lived for the product as well. Considering it's initial release in 2015, iOS11 might be the last thing I see for updates on this. Regardless, I'm not tied into Apple's platform, so if I see a good Android tablet released in the next year or two, I may move back over. As for right now, the iPad does everything it needs to do right - It gets out of the way and lets me consume media.

Best. Thrift. Ever.

What a thrift! Nikon FE with a 50mm F1.8 in absolutely gorgeous condition! I've been wanting to rock some film for a while, but I've never had the chance to pick up an affordably priced SLR. Film has picked up a lot again in the past few years, so previously the Pentax K1000s, Canon AE-1s, and Nikon F3s sitting at 20-40 dollars are now well into the 100 plus range. When a co-worker said they noticed a "Nikon FE something or other that reminds me of the 80s" at the thrift shop, I had to make my way down. Low and behold, 20 dollars later, and I'm now the happy owner of a Nikon FE! It also came with the leather 2 part case and a Black's strap, but I'll probably just drop some Peak Design anchors on it.

The only issue with the thing was a stuck film advance lever, but 3 screws removed the bottom panel and a bit of fiddling left me with a fully functional camera. Even the batteries were still good! I've got 4 rolls of Tri-X 400 in the mail, and I can't wait to get out with this thing.

Lens Game Strong! - Part 2

And we're back with round two of my preferred lenses! These two are a bit longer, so without further ado...

Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN

This is hands down my favorite lens to shoot on. I'd say about 80% of my shooting is done with this bad boy strapped to my camera, and I don't know if I could be happier. The Sigma is fast, sharp, well built, and at an equivalent full frame focal length of 45mm, is pretty darn close to the nifty fifty, just a bit wider. It's fast aperture, good auto focus performance, and roughly human eye depth of field make it an excellent jack of all trades. I chose this over the SEL35F18 that it's so commonly compared to for it's slightly faster aperture and better sharpness. OSS isn't a huge issue for me as I don't shoot video, and the slightly wider angle makes it more versatile in my eyes. Only thing you need to watch on it is some severe chromatic aberrations when wide open.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 DC DN, F/1.4, 1/60, 2000ISO

Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN, f/1.4, 1/200, 100ISO - TT685S off camera, gelled orange

Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN, f/1.4, 1/1000, 100ISO

Sigma 30mm F1/4 DC DN, f/8, 1/500, 100ISO

Sony SEL50F18

This is my newest lens, as I was missing a medium/short telephoto other than the slow-ish kit lenses which I generally don't use. The 50mm focal length is equal to approximately 75mm on APS-C, so it makes it pretty ideally suited to portraiture - Faces don't have any sort of bubble distortion to them. I take a lot of shots on my Sigma, but I'm slowly transitioning to this for use with people. I can't really say much more than it's pretty darn fast, optically very good in the distortion department, and focuses very quickly. The ability to crank the aperture all the way to f/1.8 really adds a lot of depth, and gives a pretty attractive bokeh to the background.

SEL50F18, f/1.8, 1/80, 3200ISO

SEL50F18, f/2.8, 1/125, 100ISO - TT685 w/ Rogue Flashbender Large softbox in front, TT685 w/ Follies Pink gel behind

SEL50F18, f/4, 1/80, 1000ISO

There you have it. The lenses I currently own, use, and cherish. I plan on probably adding one or two more lenses, maybe something a bit longer like the SEL85F18, and likely the new Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN. Rumor has it we might be seeing a 16-55 F2.8 for APS-C sensors, which would likely be an instant buy due to it's versatility. 

For the time being I'm still stuck on APS-C, but I don't think it's limiting me creatively. If anything, I may end up upgrading to the A6500 if Sony doesn't announce anything newer at CES this year. The larger buffer, better auto focus, IBIS, more buttons, spot metering on focus point, highlight metering, and better EVF are really pulling me that way! 

Lens Game Strong!

I'm on APS-C for a bit. At least until next year. So I may as well have some fun glass to shoot on for the time being. I've taken quite the liking to prime lenses, which tend to offer faster apertures and higher visual quality at the expense of versatility. So, here's two of my favorites with a few sample images from each. Expect another post on my other two primes soon!

Sony SEL20F28

I was very much on the fence about this lens for the few months after buying it, but after visiting Japan, it proved it was absolutely worth it's weight in gold. This is quite possibly the best day to day lens for me. It has an equivalent focal length of about 30mm on the APS-C sensors I shoot on, and a maximum aperture of f/2.8. It's also a pancake lens, which coupled with A5xxx/A6xxx series cameras, makes them practically pocket-able, and very non-threatening compared to a full blown DSLR. I shot 90% of my Japan trip with this lens on my A6000, and it's my go-to to throw on my A5100 for walking around. It's wide but not too wide, pretty sharp when stopped down a bit, and auto-focuses pretty quickly. It's an absolutely perfect lens for capturing street and daily life kind of shots. My only wish is that they made it at least a stop faster! This lens would be an absolute must buy at f/2. 

SEL20F28, f/8, 1/320, 100ISO

SEL20F28, f/2.8, 1/60, 200ISO

SEL20F28, f/8, 1/60, 1250ISO

Samyang 12mm F2

I feel like this is a Sony APS-C must have lens for anyone. This is THE king of budget wide angle. It's well built, very fast at f/2, and optically very clean. Did I mention it's a manual lens? Don't let that scare you, with focus peaking and manual focus assist, it's super easy to hit focus on Sony cameras. Funny with this one, you can actually set focus to infinity (or close to it, the actual infinity marker on the focus ring is off by a hair, so verify!), stop down to f/5.6-f/8, and everything beyond a few feet will be in focus. This makes landscapes, long exposures, and astrophotography very easy. Although this is my least used prime, it's probably the one I value having the most.

Samyang 12mm f2, f/8, 5.0 sec, 100ISO

Samyang 12mm f2, f/8, 3.2 sec, 100ISO

Samyang 12mm f2, f/8, 1/100, 100ISO

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan

I've been using strictly Photoshop CS3 for a very long while, and while functional, I really wanted to start shooting RAW on my A6000. I quickly discovered that I needed a solution that would work with Sony's RAW files (Fun fact: CS3 does not support them.) and also a solution that would let me quickly categorize, cull, and adjust photos. I've used Lightroom before, but mostly just played with it. When I saw that I could get the latest Lightroom and Photoshop for 10 dollars a month (USD), I decided to jump on it and give it a try. I have to say I'm really happy I did! Although I was initially after the new version of Photoshop, Lightroom has really impressed me and has become very essential to my workflow. I can shoot a lot, import to my file server, cull what I don't like, and quickly edit and compare. Anything heavier that needs to be done can be brought into Photoshop (IE: Exposure blending, blemish removal, etc). All the basics like color correction, exposure/sharpness/noise reduction/lens correction/cropping can all be completed in Lightroom, while saving your original image.

I have a lot of learning to do still, but I pick up new things every time I use the software. My only real complaint is that both pieces of software are pretty big resource hogs. I understand working with RAW files is a bit memory intensive, but CS3 was never this heavy, even with large projects. I never thought I'd need more than 16GB of RAM in my desktop at this point in time, but Creative Cloud is proving me wrong. I look forward to seeing how my notebook handles it, considering it's a lightweight compared to my desktop.

I still have some exploring to do - Lightroom Mobile is seemingly powerful, the 20GB of online backup feels like it could disappear quickly with RAW files, and I'm not sure on Behance yet, but even with just Photoshop and Lightroom, I'm happy with the money spent.

Creative Cloud Photography Plan

I'm Weak

I mulled over this decision for a few weeks now, and I have to say the choice has been incredibly satisfying. Topping it off with some additional lenses (Sony SEL55210 and Sony SEL20F28 on the cheap) has set me up pretty well for upping my photography game over the next little while. I've got a lot of playing to do with the A6000, but overall initial impressions are very good. I'll have a more detailed review once I get some more shooting time under my belt, but for the time being there's some samples from the past few days below.

New Glass

Finally got tired of the kit lens, and after looking into things enough, came across the perfect daily lens for me! Narrowed it down to Sony's SEL35F18, but further research landed me on this Sigma 30mm F1.4 prime. I love shooting at the 30mm focal length (45mm equivalent on APS-C sensors), so something that let in even more light was a no brainer, especially at the same price. This is the first glass I've purchased for my camera since getting it many years ago, and I have to say the Sigma build quality is fantastic. I still have a lot of shooting to do on it, and a soon to be body upgrade to possibly an A6000, but initial impressions are great. Below are shots taken around 11PM on a fairly dark night, all handheld:

Performance is fantastic wide open - I was shooting between 200 and 1200 ISO, with a shutter between 1/60 and 1/250 and receiving the results above. The brick with the plaques is not at all well lit - There are a few lamps surrounding it, but the f/1.4 aperture makes it easy to pull every bit of available light in. I can't wait to get out for some low light and astrophotography. My one real complaint is my lack of EVF on my current NEX-F3, and the auto-focus is abysmal in low light, but this is a problem that can be solved by upgrading to a A6000, eventually. I should have the opportunity to test an A5100 in a little while (Similar auto-focus/speed to the A6000), so we'll see if the auto-focus impresses enough.

For some daylight shooting, I visited an air show in Debert NS today, and was pretty pleased with the shots below. After that I did a quick walk to the grocery store in town and snapped some shots around town:

Most shots taken at F/2.8 to F/5.6. The lens handled it like a boss. Again, only real downfall is my body which would have really benefited from the EVF with the bright sunlight. Auto-focus struggled a bit in the bright light with the lens wide open, but no issues stopping it down to f/2.8.

Overall happy with the purchase so far. The lens is really versatile for a prime, and is perfect for street/portrait photos that I love to do. Can't wait to throw it on a nicer body.

FreeNAS Corral - Short Lived

I'll just start out with this link...

So, Corral was pretty garbage from a back end/development standpoint, and they decided to axe it. If you're interested in the whole story, I'd take a read through the thread, but TL;DR - They're rolling all the features of Corral into 9.10 with a newer UI.

What does that mean for my install though? Well, Corral isn't production anymore, and honestly, it's shaken any kind of faith I've had in FreeNAS. I'm adopting Proxmox VE as my all in one solution. I know I ragged on it in the previous post, but I decided to roll a VM install to test it out, and after killing and reinstalling it a few times, I found it seemed really stable. The documentation or existing all in ones was few and far between, but I'm pretty comfortable with Debian, and I'm up for a much more pleasing challenge after BSD. So this afternoon, I nuked my FreeNAS install, and installed Proxmox VE.

Here's the fun part about Proxmox. There was no struggle. The install was seamless. The import of my ZFS pool was literally a single command, and everything just worked. Creating shares was an Ubuntu container and a mount point away. It actually took me less than an hour to configure the sharing I wanted, and get a headless Deluge instance running. Fine tuning took a bit longer, but was considerably less painful than FreeNAS. Virtual machines JUST WORK. There's no messing around with config files and setting GRUB boot points. There's no GUI errors regarding "This virtual machine doesn't exist" that disappear after logging out and logging back in. Setting save when you save them, instead of having to do it multiple times over. It's going to be a while to get it all to the point I want it to be at, and to be fully confident in managing it, but it's definitely a treat so far.

A quick rundown on the setup - The Proxmox host has the ZFS pool mounted directly on it, much like FreeNAS would. Instead of installing Samba on Proxmox directly (This likely would have been fine), I've installed it in an Ubuntu 16.04 container, and bind mapped the media directory (The only thing that should be shared from it) directly to the container. From there, Samba is installed on the container, users are setup, and file and samba permissions changed. My headless Deluge instance is also running in a container, with the /Media/Downloads directory bind mapped, and user/group setup to match the authenticated users group on the Samba server. This way I can still openly manage files (delete, edit, etc) from my authenticated account, and guests can still read files. As a trial run I'm pretty happy, though I feel I may implement LDAP on all of my servers for easier permissions management of both files and shares.

This is just a short post to advise of my fun detour, but I intend to have more posts about the migration in the near future. In my opinion, for those looking for an easy to mange hypervisor/file server all in one solution akin to the ESXi/FreeNAS solutions you usually see, Proxmox is promising.

2017 Infrastructure Update - Networking and Servers

No real plans this year to switch out any desktop or notebook hardware, but my WNDR3700N is getting a bit old, and my servers really aren't being used to their fullest. We'll start with the server side of things, as that's probably the easiest to cover, and I'm still unsure if my choice was right. I can always change things in the future, but I've got what I've got now.

For a long while I've wanted to migrate to an all in one virtualization/storage solution for the reduced power consumption, footprint, and noise. I really want to retire the power hungry 95w i7 860 in my ESXi box for a solution that runs on my power sipping i3 2120T. This leaves out the idea of ESXi with FreeNAS as a guest, as the processor doesn't support VT-d. Proxmox VE was my next stop, as it supported the ZFS file system, but I primarily wanted a nice NAS GUI that also incorporated the virtualization management functionality, so that was a no go. Hyper-V has no ZFS support, so that's out the door. UnRAID has the features I want, but isn't ZFS and is also a paid service. Getting frustrated in my search, I finally came across FreeNAS 10. Although in it's infancy, it seemed really promising. Prior to 10, users were running services in BSD jails, but with the release of 10, FreeNAS adopted the BSD based virtualization tech bhyve, along with built in docker support (This is just a boot2docker vm that is manageable from the GUI). On top of that, it's primarily a NAS OS with a fantastic looking brand new GUI. Yes, it's a .0 release, and yes, there's little to no documentation, but I'm a nerd - jumping into this stuff feet first is what I'm all about. FreeNAS was my final choice of NAS OS.

With operating system picked out, it's onto the hardware. My file server is already running the optimal base (i3-2120T, SuperMicro X9SCL+-F, 4x3TB 7200RPM Toshiba drives, 40GB Intel SSD), but the 4GB of RAM wasn't going to cut it. If this was also going to be doing double duty of a host for virtual machines, it was getting a heat sink upgrade too. After a quick trip to the HCL and many internet searches, my wallet was considerably lighter and I had in my posession 32GB of 1600mhz Crucial ECC DDR3 UDIMMs and a trusty Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

While waiting on gear to arrive, I took the opportunity to flash the latest BIOS for proper RAM support, and ensure I had all the appropriate ISOs downloaded and on a flash drive. The day everything arrived I got to work, and let me tell you, frustration was abound. I was able to successfully install the new RAM and the heat sink, but when reconnecting the power supply, I got a flash of lights from everything on the board followed by nothing... Alright, I may have destroyed a power supply, not a big deal. Plugging in my spare and powering things on gives me 4 short beeps followed by a long beep - SuperMicro seems to indicate this means no RAM installed. At this point I think I've fried 300 dollars worth of RAM and a power supply, so inside I'm pretty dead inside. Last ditch attempt to resolve, I connect the original power supply, plug it in, and boot successfully. Turns out SuperMicro boards are just picky about everything.

Onto the FreeNAS install - I've discovered that although flash drives are recommended for the install, you'll be 100% happier installing to an SSD. Install initially went fine, then for some reason FreeNAS couldn't correctly import the shares from my ZFS volume. I was able to redo all the permissions, followed by a setup of SMB shares and appropriately mapped to my computer. Confirmed I could read files, great. Attempt to write files, kernel panic of the NAS. At this point, it's 1AM, and I really don't feel like figuring things out and fixing it, so I throw a 2TB drive into my desktop, and start copying over the important stuff. Once copied, I nuke the ZFS pool, recreate a new pool, setup new datasets and shares, and recopy the files. All in, this was done by 4AM and I'm definitely a bit more data-light now, but with a fully functional nightmare of a NAS.

Day 2, I decide to move the install from a flash drive over to the 40GB Intel SSD. Boot times on the flash drive were taking 15-20 minutes, which is abysmal. I pull the configuration backup, and get to work. Apparently, SuperMicro boards are also very picky about boot options. After reinstalling numerous times and playing around with boot settings in the BIOS, I was able to get things successfully booted (much faster, as well), from the SSD. I import my pool, and upload my configuration... Which fails. Not a big deal, that's fine, the shares are still there, I just need to reconfigure users, groups, and permissions, and re-enable all the services. This was finished in half an hour, partially thanks to the SSD, and partially thanks to the previous night's lessons. There were a few times when I had to chown a directory from ssh, but that's about the extent of the command line work I was doing.

Day 3, I get to work creating some virtual machines and playing with Docker. I have to say, Docker is an absolute pleasure to work with! The FreeNAS implementation is a virtual machine running boot2docker, along with a very nice interface for configuring boot options and paths to throw into the container. As long as you're running a container from the FreeNAS library, things "just work". Dockerfiles from other libraries require a bit more work to get running, as they're not tagged for the FreeNAS interface, but over time more and more things are getting converted to include the FreeNAS tags to make things just work. Currently I'm running Deluge and a Minecraft server in containers, and have also played around with PiHole, Unifi controller, and ddclient as well. The Minecraft server and ddclient took a bit of work to get things functional, but PiHole, the Unifi controller, and Deluge were very simple to create and configure. I will likely start looking into converting existing containers into FreeNAS tagged ones, but I just don't currently have the time.

Virtual machines are a bit of another story. Although the interface is nice, there's no documentation for creating virtual machines that aren't in the FreeNAS library, so after digging a lot, I was able to get things worked out mostly, and it's not so bad now. Initial issue was with disk creation - Everything pointed toward having to create ZVOLs to house your virtual machines, but after looking into other install files, I determined you could just specify a *.img file when creating the virtual disk, and it would store the disk on a .img file, which feels easier to manage. The other issue I ran into was bhyve's GRUB implementation. With Linux installs such as Debian and Ubuntu who use non-standard grub.cfg locations, you need to tell bhyve's GRUB to boot from that location specifically. For that, you need to create a grub.cfg file (via ssh) in /PathToVM/files/grub/, with the contents as (This is for Debian/Ubuntu, will differ for other OS, but you're pointing it at the grub.cfg location on the actual VM):

configfile (hd0,msdos1)/grub/grub.cfg

Followed by running the below command in the FreeNAS CLI:

vm %VMNAME set boot_directory=grub

I understand this is a .0 release, but still, I shouldn't HAVE to do this to get a virtual machine functional within an operating system that advertises virtualization as a feature. I hope they improve this in future releases, but as of right now I'm just glad I was able to figure things out.

On the plus side, at least the graphs are cool.

I'll update more on FreeNAS as I spend more time with it, however for the time being, it's time to look at network infrastructure and the upgrade I'm going through with that. My WNDR3700N was aging. It's a solid gigabit router that supports DDWRT/Tomato, however it doesn't have the best range, or AC wireless support which practically everything in my apartment is capable of now. Being a bit of a networking and infrastructure nerd, I craved something a bit more. My first thought was PFSense box, but after reading into it further, for less money I could get everything I want and a more enterprise-eque experience out of an Ubiquiti setup. I decided to jump in full force on a full Unifi setup, and although I'm still waiting on my switch, I couldn't be happier so far.

The purchases for the networking replacement setup are ended up being:

• Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway
• Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Lite
• Ubiquiti Unifi Switch 8-150W
• TP Link TL-SG108 (Stand in)

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but why Unifi over the regular EdgeRouter and a Unifi AP, or any other AP for that matter? Well, it's ecosystem. These things perform great, but setup and management is a breeze. Unifi does site management via "cloud". Now this can be either a local machine (Cloud key appliance, virtual machine, or physical box), or a remotely hosted instance. Yeah, you can manage your network from a VPS. On top of that, you can mange multiple sites from the same VPS, so if you had multiple networks in multiple sites, they could all be managed by logging into a single web portal. My choice in VPS was an OVH SSD VPS instance at just around 5 dollars a month. A single vcore, 2GB of RAM, and 10GB of SSD based hard drive space is plenty for running a single site, and I can even throw other small services onto it as well. I'm so impressed with what you get for the money from OVH that I'm considering moving my web hosting from HostGator over to another VPS instance. But hey, this is more about the hardware, so let's look at the USG.

I'll apologize for the cables, as I'll be moving things to a more permanent home once the 8 port POE switch arrives, which should be soon. The USG is essentially an EdgeRouter Lite internally, however requires the cloud controller for persistent configuration. It supports a single WAN interface, a LAN interface, a VOIP interface (This can be changed to a second WAN port through the config for failover support), and a console port. Most would think it's odd to see a router with such a low number of ports, but unlike consumer devices, switching is delegated to a separate powerful device which scales based on enterprise requirements. What does the USG bring that a consumer router doesn't? Higher reliability, higher throughput, more features. VLAN support? Check. Deep packet inspection? Why the heck not. Locally authenticated VPN? Well, it's coming to GUI in the next release, but it's there. It's not a perfect product, but it's definitely getting closer and closer each controller release, and the ease of setup and management make up for that in spades.

The access point I chose was the AC AP Lite. I didn't need the 1750mbps offered by the AC AP Pro, as my network speeds generally top out at gigabit anyway, and the range is approximately the same between the two. It's 24v POE powered and comes with it's own POE injector, but once the Unifi 8 port switch is in it'll be moved straight to that. A separate AP provides a much more stable and reliable wireless connection, especially in a 16 unit apartment building with a fairly saturated 2.4ghz band. In conjunction with the Unifi controller, I can offer a guest WiFi portal, some pretty neat band steering (Basically "steering" devices onto the best possible band and channel), dynamic channel selection, band scanning to determine channel saturation, etc.

I'll be honest I'm just scratching the surface of what this stuff is capable of, and I have a lot of plans to document it over the coming weeks and months. For the time being, I'll enjoy my full WiFi coverage anywhere in my apartment, with all of my devices, and then some.

Goodnight, My Old Friend

Another year, another disappointing Google phone release. In 2015 the 5X and 6P came and went, and weren’t enough of an upgrade for me to consider a switch. The OnePlus Two and the Moto X Pure arrived, and I sighed. The OnePlus X was tempting, but not enough. My Nexus 5 was still plenty for what I needed. 2016 came and went, and we saw a departure of what Google used to stand for. The Nexus brand was retired in favor of the premium Pixel devices, and I was unenthusiastic about dropping $900+ on a phone, no matter how attractive the device. I knew, however, that it was getting to the point of taking the Nexus 5 out behind the barn.

A brief history first. The Nexus 5 was initially purchased by me about a year after release to replace my aging, but reliable Galaxy Nexus. I’ve been madly in love with the Nexus 5 since I’ve owned it. For all intents and purposes, it has been my perfect device, with a few reservations. Like any piece of hardware, it ages overtime. The screen size and resolution are practically perfect. The build and design, although not perfect, are practical and durable. The cameras are serviceable, and even the aging internals are still relatively quick.

Now, as you’ve probably determined from reading this blog, I tend to lean more toward being a geek - A power user and an enthusiast. Though the aging hardware is still relatively quick, I’ve been craving something that stands up to current day multitasking. I would be wrong to say the Nexus 5 can keep up with my day to day heavy demands. To top it off, the battery life has been suffering more and more. I don’t believe it’s a fault of the device or the aging battery by any means, but instead just what I use for applications. Sitting at 25% currently remaining at the end of a slow day, I’ve had just over an hour screen on time. I haven’t been on anything but WiFi, and most of that access has been various social media platforms, snapchat, web browsing, etc. On a work day, I’ve been needing to top up mid day, with less usage.

My frustration with the Nexus 5 lead me on a bit of a search. I really, really liked the Pixel devices, but the price tag left a sour taste in my mouth. For the past many years, Google has offered affordable and impressive hardware in the form of the Nexus lineup, but felt the need to shift into a new brand to better align themselves against the market. Don’t get me wrong, these units are premium, and have just about everything I want for features - Pure Android released really quick, super fast hardware, premium build quality, and even the perfect size with the regular Pixel. But the price tag just feels like too much after spending so little on such a nice device as the Nexus 5.

Other options explored included various other manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. Unfortunately, they all had some form of problem. No stock android, poor speed to update, middling build quality, poor battery, too large, too expensive, etc… After crossing everything off the list, I returned to my previous runner up when deciding on my Nexus 5 - The upstart OnePlus.

OnePlus formed in 2013 as a subsidiary of Oppo, a large Chinese based smartphone brand. OnePlus wanted to build devices that balanced a high quality, flagship level phone, with a low and affordable price. Their slogan? Never Settle. At the time of purchasing my Nexus 5, the OnePlus One was my runner up. My major concerns were screen size and availability - It was very hard to get a OnePlus off the invite system they had in place, which ultimately led me to buying the Nexus 5. OnePlus has however dismissed their invite system and made device availability much better. The November released OnePlus 3T ended up being the best phone for the price point as of the beginning of March which matched up well with my planned retirement of the Nexus 5.

The OnePlus 3T is above and beyond an upgrade from my 3 year old Nexus 5, and I can happily say I’m pleased with my purchase. Before getting into it’s improvements, a quick spec rundown.

• Snapdragon 821 CPU (2x2.35GHz, 2x1.6GHz) w/ Adreno 530 GPU
• 6GB RAM
• 64GB Storage
• 5.5” Optic AMOLED display (1920x1080)
• 16MP OIS f/2.0 rear camera, 16MP f/2.0 front camera
• 3400mAh battery
• 158g weight

The phone is currently running OxygenOS 4.1.0 at the time of writing (Android 7.1.1) and has so far met all of my wants and needs in a smartphone for 2017. Where the Nexus 5 was starting to struggle with maintaining a silky smooth 60 FPS in day to day operation, the 3T seems to always have more power to spare. The radios, much like with the transition from Galaxy Nexus to Nexus 5, are improved. The cameras are absolutely fantastic, even if they aren’t the absolute best on the market. Low light and selfie performance are in a completely different league than the Nexus 5. If anything though, the biggest improvement is the battery. I have yet to have to charge in the middle of a day, and even on the heaviest use days I’m still making it to the end with juice to spare. For comparison, a heavy use day on the Nexus 5 might have netted me 1.5 hours screen on time before crawling to a charger or my powerbank. The 3T can eek 4 hours or more on the same workload. With lighter tasks, I’m guessing it would be pretty capable of hitting 6 hours of screen time without breaking a sweat. Did I mention that a fingerprint reader is probably one of the biggest game changers too? More apps adopting it means less PINs or passwords on the phone. I’m in love.

If I was to give any negative marks to the 3T, it’d come in the form of screen size. This is more personal than anything, and the 5.5” screen size is now the most common on the market, however 5.5” is bordering on almost too large for my hands. I will in time get used to it, however it won’t ever really rest in my hands like the 5 did. On top of that, the alert slider is usable, but I would like a bit more customization in regards to what each position does, and the ability to completely adjust the rules for each position would be fantastic.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I’m going to miss the Nexus 5. It was the perfect, size, the perfect weight, and the perfect price at the time, and it continues to kick ass, even in 2016. For a regular user, it’s an absolutely killer phone. For power users who yearn for the return of the affordable, powerful, and minimalistic Nexus line, you can find a great home with OnePlus.

Spirit Review: Glenmorangie 10 - " The Original"

2016 didn't start great, but it sure ended awesome on a personal level. I ended up starting a new role at work, being one of 3 successful candidates out of numerous applicants. This has been my first major move in roles within the company since I started, and I'm really pleased that I could take the position and move away from a customer facing role and into internal support in a technology focused role! My team and my manager are fantastic, the job has been great so far, and I'm really hoping I can make an impact on what is a brand new role within the company.

To celebrate my new role, I decided to delve into the world of whisky. I've always been interested in the spirit, and considering my love for good coffee, tea, and food, it only comes naturally that I'd want to explore even MORE expensive hobbies. Whisky is all encompassing term for fermented grain alcohol aged in oak casks. Things can get very specific, and I'll likely discuss those as they come up, but I started with single malt Scotch whiskies, based on malted barley and distilled/aged at a single distillery in Scotland. There's Irish Whiskeys, American Whiskeys, and other worldly options, but those will come up in due time.

Being a beginner to to Scotch world, I looked long and hard into a first bottle. My research guided me to a highland malt, generally considered a gentle and inoffensive introduction to the Scotch world. Compared to the likes of most Islay whiskies, highlands generally aren't peated, and Glenmorangie is no exception. To note as well, it also tends to be one of the most accessible Scotch whiskies available, considering it's one of the most well known brands on the market. How about a dram?

Details:

Distillery: Glenmorangie
Age: 10 Years
Cask: First/second fill American white oak ex-bourbon
ABV: 40% (80 Proof)

Notes:

Nose: Banana, green apple, peaches, lemon zest. Almond, honey, light caramel. Floral notes, rose perhaps?

Palate: Medium body, peaches, grapes, apple. Heavy caramel - butterscotch. Simple. Some antiseptic notes.

Finish: Medium to long. Floral, very faint hints of anise, some soft vanilla. Alcohol burn sticks around. Bitterness the longer it sits, along with more peach.

With water: Caramel more prominent on the nose. Palate sees the younger fruit notes taking more of a back seat, and all the other notes mellowing out. Antiseptic fades. Finish still sees the alcohol burn and the eventual bitterness, but overall improves.

Overall: This was my first single malt, and still something I can happily revisit, even after moving onto other preferred malts. I would say this ranks above Glenlivet and Glenfiddich's entry level offerings, but there are likely better in the same price bracket in Canada. It's an easy drinking malt without a lot of complexity, and a good representation of highland distilleries at the entry level. Would likely try the wine cask finishes, and the older expression if I get the chance eventually.

Expect more Scotch reviews in the future, along with any other spirit that might catch my interest. There's a lot on the market, and I quite like the majority I've tried.

AKG K701s - Seven Months Later

Few weeks, seven months, what's the difference, really?

Lots of time to burn these in and get familiar with them, so let's start. These things are outright fantastic. Coming from my HD555s, these are more spacious, more neutral, and have a much wider range. Well produced tracks tend to be surgically picked apart, each instrument being easily identifiable. Poor tracks, on the other hand, are punished. Every single flaw in a poor rip, or a bad recording/master are noticeable. There's been some tracks I can't stand to listen to any longer because they're just poorly produced and full of flaws.

For those looking for a bass heavy headphone, these aren't it. Though I don't find them bass anemic - In fact I find them perfectly balanced - They're not what you'd get from a Sennheiser 5 series, but instead closer in clarity and sound signature to an Etymotic IEM. The big difference between these and the Etymtoics is the sound stage, along with the even more enhanced detail. Some will consider them sterile, but I would just say they're flat and analytical. If that's the sound signature you want, these are perfect.

Negative points? Well, the padding on the headphones isn't great. It's a bit on the hard side, even after seven months of use. It's fine, but you tend to notice it after an extended period of use. The cable is plenty long, but with the K701s, it's non-removable. So when it does get twisted, it's a bit more annoying to untangle. This could have been solved by grabbing the K702s, but the 701s were practically identical and cheaper. Otherwise, my only complaint would be that they ruin a lot of older tracks for me... Oh well, there's no time for bad tracks.

Coffee: The Next Chapter

Still a very hard coffee nerd, and after a few years of brewing with everything from a V60 to a siphon, it's time to try espresso. Due to my lack of counter space and limited budget for something I'm still entirely unsure on, I decided to grab a Breville Barista Express. Blah blah blah integrated grinder, Breville is the suck, etc. Yes, this isn't a pro level machine. Yes, this isn't a stepless ultra-accurate grinder. Yes, it's a single boiler. But guess what? It was less than 600 bucks, and it has a really small footprint, the integrated grinder means I don't have to dick with my current SmartGrinder when doing drip, and will wholly satisfy my needs to explore espresso and decide if I want to put more money into a prosumer machine and a separate grinder.

More pictures to come, but the above is my first attempt at a milk drink, and I was quite surprised at how well it turned out. I'm rolling with Smile Tiger natural process Ethiopian Kaffa, grind setting 8, 16 grams in, ~28 second extraction. Good crema, good flavor, but the milk could have gone a lot hotter. Was surprisingly pleased with the foam I was able to create on my first try! Will be looking forward to more tests over the coming days! Lots to learn!

Monitors!

Okay, the 144hz idea was good for a bit, then I played BF4 on a TN panel and wasn't overly happy. So, I ordered 2 Acer G257HUs! 2560x1440, 25" S-IPS LCDs with DVI, HDMI, and Displayport inputs. I really did not expect the resolution bump to be this awe inspiring, but wow, am I ever shocked. I'm very much wishing I did WQHD a long time ago, even if hardware wasn't quite up to snuff.

The ultrawide is now mounted to the right on a monitor arm, and wow does it ever look foolish in portrait! There's 0 contest, the Acers are the better screens too. I really feel I'll be eventually getting another one of these to replace the Ultrawide, but until then, it'll be nice for chats and reading long forum threads.

Other new things include a plethora of Aukey branded stuff from Amazon - A 5 port charger for the bedroom, a 3 port charger for the backpack, and half a dozen 4 foot USB cables which seem to be of very good quality. An Aukey mouse mat was also purchased, and man, it's huge! See the Amazon link here. I'm actually really pleased with the quality, it's very thick, it has a nice rubber non-slip bottom, and all the stitching is very well done. It also covers that nasty missing finish on my desk. You'll see some of it in the image above.

Other than that, all that was ordered was a 64GB Lexar P20 flash drive, which is surprisingly spry for a flash drive, and carries a limited lifetime warranty. It's very well built, and very recommended so far. Time will tell if it holds up! Hopefully I don't have to use that warranty.

Upgrade Plans: 2016 - Final Build Complete!

It's done! Well, at least as done as I want it right now, there's a few more tweaks that could be done, but in the end, this is pretty representative of the final configuration. Onto component choices! First up is the EVGA SuperNOVA 650W P2. It's platinum rated, fully modular, with a fanless eco mode. It's also based off the Superflower Leadex platform, which is known for it's rock solid stability and high performance. This model is great! In testing by reviewers, the fan wasn't even spinning up until it hits ~500w load, something I don't think this system could achieve currently. The 90% efficiency is great, and topping that off, with the current power consumption for Nvidia GPUs, should give me plenty of headroom for SLI if I feel it's necessary.

The video card I chose was of course the GTX 970 STRIX as outlined in the previous post. It matches the motherboard, and has some really impressive build quality and cooling capabilities. The huge heatpipe and low power consumption of Nvidia GPUs lets the thing run without fans until it hits about 67 degrees load, in which it starts ramping up.

It's not longer than the GTX 670, but it is wider to accommodate Asus' design changes with the heatsink and their custom power delivery system. Overall, in doing some playtesting on Battlefield 4, Planetside 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, I can say I'm very happy with the performance jump. 2560x1080 seems like it still might be a bit much for the card to drive at full ultra settings for some games, but I can assume that'll be solved with a bit of overclocking.

Of course, here's the Mushkin Reactor 1TB mounted to the rear of the motherboard tray, with the 850 Evo. It's taken the place of my games drive. I've decided I'll be doing VMs exclusively on the virtual server, and large format media/game recordings will go to the file server. Cloning my 640GB Western Digital Black was simple, as I still had a copy of Acronis True Image HD kicking around from Karyn's SSD upgrade. The whole process took a few reboots and about half an hour, from installing the new drive to removing the old one. I'm very pleased with the speed differences between old and new too! Games take 0 time to load now, especially long loading titles like Battlefield 4 and Planetside 2. To top it off, no more hard drive noise! I feel I could have done better with the cable management in the back, but there's still lots of room.

And the finished build shot. It's extremely clean with the hard drive cages removed, and only having 4 of the included cables plugged into the power supply makes cable management a breeze. I'm also very pleased with the even further improvement in acoustics. I actually have to have my ear on the case to hear anything at idle, and even then it's just a mild vibration. Under full gaming load (~1 hour or so of BF4) temperatures on the GPU hit a maximum of 67 degrees, which cased the video card fans to ramp up to 35% or so, and the CPU hit a maximum of 59 degrees on the package. (~59-61 on the cores). All the while the case and processor heatsink fans continued spinning at ~500RPM. Of course, the problem now is the loudest things in the room are my servers, but I'll be outlining plans on what I want to do with those in another post.

So, in the end, I've achieved my silent build. Ultimately this is hitting the performance targets I want currently while being practically inaudible. But, what's next for upgrades? Being a hardware enthusiast, there's always an upgrade path. My immediate thoughts go to moving from 16GB to 32GB of RAM, which can easily be done for under 200 dollars. Of course with offloading all of my virtualization and RAM heavy tasks to a virtual host, I don't think it's necessary. The other thoughts would be getting an NH-D15 with 2 NF-A15s to replace the NH-U12P. This I think would only be necessary if I'm going to be pushing the processor pretty hard in the future. I guess if I was to do anything right away, it'd be to install the Intel gigabit NIC I have sitting on my shelf for a direct link to the file server to allow for better latency when doing Shadowplay.

For now, my concentration is going to be on a new desk, and new monitors. I'm pretty much decided that 2560x1440 is a bit much for the GTX970, so I'll be sticking to 1920x1080 for the immediate future. I've also decided i want to see what all the hype about 144hz monitors is, so I think I'll be grabbing at least one LG 24GM77 to begin with, and possibly another to replace my 21.5. The unit seems to be the best of the bunch for accuracy when it comes to TN panels, and has the best motion blur reduction implementation. Top that off with an egronomic stand (Height adjustable, pivot, tilt, etc), a whole host of inputs, and even a USB3 hub. I'll likely only need one 144hz display, but if push comes to shove, I may end up with three. The option is there! I'll be outlining more in another post when I talk about desk ideas.

Upgrade Plans: 2016 - Initial Build Complete!

Everything was in on Wednesday! What really surprised me was how Canadapost managed to deliver my processor the day before the motherboard and SSD, even though it shipped a day later. Same shipping method, same place of departure. I don't get it. Oh well, waiting the motherboard and SSD was a good thing, as I the case and fans arrived at the same time. Build went very smoothly, I wish I did get more pictures, but the ones I did pick out were the best lit.



Install was smooth, build was very reminiscent of socket 1156, which was to be expected. Lots of cleanup needed to be done. My NH-U12P needed the toothbrush treatment, and I burned through 2 cans of compressed air cleaning that, the video card, RAM, and hard drives. The power supply was actually fairly dust free, but it did have a mesh filter intake. I gotta say, I was super impressed with the build of the Asus board, but I did miss the lack of q connector for the front panel input. Lots of clearance around the socket for larger heatsinks too, which is great. IO is minimal (6 USB ports on the back panel total), but acceptable, as it's what I had on my P55 FTW. I do get 4 USB3 ports however, so it's definitely an improvement over old IO. The sound on board is top notch, everything isolated and the actual Realtek ALC1150 is EMI shielded. I don't really take notice of the lights on the board, but they're there. I guess it'd be nice if I had a case window. Slot selection is perfect, and definitely acceptable for what I need. I'm only using a single PCI-e x16 right now, but there's slot availability for additional graphics cards, and more importantly, additional IO like USB3.1, or network adapters. Fan header layout is good, with 2 CPU fan headers (CPU and CPU_OPT), along with 3 chassis fan headers spread along the bottom, left, and right of the board. All headers are 4 pin PWM compatible.



I gotta say, I loved Noctua fans from when I was buying NF-P12s on the regular, but man, they've really stepped up their game. The NF-F12s and NF-A14s are engineering marvels. I thought the P12s were well built, but these are a step above. I won't go over everything here, but you can see the features of the F12 here and the A14 here. The basics are that the F12 is designed to focus it's airflow directly behind the fan, instead of letting it spill out everywhere. These are great for radiator and heatsink use due to higher static pressure too. The A14 is kind of a jack of all trades - It has some pretty good throw, but it also performs good in radiator tasks where it needs to push or pull in confined areas. In this case, I used the F12s mounted push/pull on the NH-U12P, and the A14s took up the front intakes and rear exhaust of the Define R5.



Noctua included a pretty killer accessory pack too. You get a PWM splitter, a 4 pin extension cable, a 4 pin low noise adapter, and their standard mounting gear. All very well sleeved and worth the extra premium paid per fan. I've used a few of these accessories to have the fans share some PWM headers for easier fan control.



Final build in the R5 was very clean considering the parts I was working with. I opted to remove the 2x5.25" and 5x3.5" drive cages in favor of additional airflow. The NF-A14s in the front are sharing a PWM header, as are the NF-F12s mounted to the heatsink. I mounted the SSD to one of the the removable trays behind the motherboard to keep things a bit cleaner. The Define R5 was a top notch case, and from a builder's perspective, hit all of the major notes. If I had any real complaints, it'd be the front fan mounting was a bit difficult with the extended screws, but that may be in part due to the silicone vibration dampening on the Noctuas. If I was to list my favorite features, it'd be the center standoff for motherboard alignment, the fully removable drive bays, the latched side panel, and the easily removable dust filters.



Windows installed in about 10 minutes thanks to USB3 and the 850 EVO. I took the extra time after installing windows to format my old SSD (I created a VHD out of it late last week) and drive test a few other hard drives that are being sold. I also ended up setting up my fan control with Fan Xpert 3 from Asus. Though I'm not a huge fan of the interface, it worked well to identify the lowest RPMs the fans are capable of, along with letting me set up custom fan curves for each header. My current curves are set up to keep all the Noctuas at about 500RPM until the processor hits 50, then slowly ramp up to max speed at about 80. Fan Xpert can also control spin up and spin down times as well, making the sound curve a bit smoother. My GPU fan curve was set up once again with EVGA's Precision X, and is pretty much identical to what it was before. At idle and medium loads, the computer is spooky silent. I opened up Planetside 2, and played for about half an hour, and didn't hear any fans except the GPU. The processor hit a maximum of 60 degrees, and the GPU about 65. Borderlands The Pre-Sequel pushed things a bit further, and I ended up hearing the GPU spin up a lot more, but the rest of the case remained eerie. There will be more testing, but for right now I'm pretty satisfied.

Now that the initial build is complete, I can discuss my ideas for the rest of the upgrade path.

Asus GTX 970 Strix: The GTX670 is 2 generations removed at this point, and with plans for higher resolutions and newer games, a GTX 970 seems to hit the price to performance sweet spot for resolutions up to 2560x1440. The Asus Strix model works well in my build due to it's fanless operation under no/light load, it's quiet fans when under heavy load, and it's matching of my board (What can I say, color/brand coordinating parts is nice). Once Pascal (Nvidia's new architecture) releases, I'll be prepared to evaluate and upgrade again at that time if necessary. If I do deem an upgrade is needed, the 970 should retain a lot of it's value for resale.

Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 1TB SSD: I can hear the hard drives. Actually, they're probably the only things I can hear in the computer now, until the video card spins up. I run a really old 640GB Western Digital Black as my games/larger programs drive, and 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12s striped with Windows built in RAID features, which I generally use for scratch files, and recording game footage. Replacing all of those drives with another back mounted SSD should give me loads of room for games, lots of speed, and virtually no noise. I can also remove the drive cage too, which should improve airflow even further. If I want to record game footage, I figured Shadowplay has some fairly low write speeds, and could probably be handled to the file server over the network, but I'll need to test this. I'm choosing the Reactor because of it's price point mainly - 1TB of flash memory for under 300 dollars is almost unheard of in Canada. Topping off the great price, it couples that with MLC NAND (Generally more durable and better performing than newer standard TLC NAND) and a proven, problem free Silicon Motion controller. If I do choose to record any footage to the Reactor, it shouldn't be an issue. Doing the math, it's good for about 131GB of writes a day, for 3 years. I don't think I'd be worried about that kind of volume.

Modular/Semi Modular PSU: This one is a tough choice, but I'm pretty sure I have it narrowed down to a final few. The non modular TX650W I currently have is an absolute champ, and it's actually pretty darn quiet, but it's getting old, only bronze rated for efficency, and non-modular. There's an absolute mess of cables behind the motherboard tray, and I'd love to cut down on that a lot. I've narrowed my choices down to a 650w-750w model from the Corsair RMi or RMx series, or a 650w-750w model from the EVGA GQ or G2 series. All power supplies considered contain a semi-fanless mode at low/medium power consumption, and are 80Plus gold rated. The current leader of the race is the FSP built EVGA GQ series, considering it's a bit cheaper due to being semi-modular (Hard wired 24 pin ATX), but includes all ribbon style modular cables. The RMi/RMx/G2 series are all very nice as well, but only really have the advantage of being fully modular, with slightly better voltage regulation/ripple suppression. The RMi series also includes Corsair Link, which I don't think would be overly useful.

Matching QHD Monitors: This one is a pretty big maybe. The 970 seems to benchmark pretty well in QHD, so I was considering trying to find a good deal on a triplicate of QHD displays. The current front runner seems to be Acer 25" H257HUs, offering QHD IPS matte panels, DVI, HDMI, and Displayport inputs, and really slim bezels. Only real downside is they're pretty spartan - No VESA mounting and a pretty average stand. With 3 of those, I'd end up getting rid of my 19" and my 21.5", and I'd mount the ultrawide over the center monitor, likely with an arm. This setup will give me a lot more screen real estate, matching IPS LCDs, and the option to play in Nvidia surround if I wanted to.

Here's hoping for another update soon!