As of today the new SSD for the bedroom PC (NUC) and the one for the “server” have arrived. The NUC has now got the SSD installed and Xubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) installed on it and the video clips now being downloaded over the wireless from the mediapc. The difference in sound level is quite notable as at night with the thing idling the HDD whine was very obvious, it also shows up that the NUC must have a very quiet cooling fan fitted.
The “server” project was mentioned previously. Since writing that, I have decided to rebuild it into a full size Inwin desktop tower using my stock of these ex HCS which I obtained as their older desktops were retired. The shelf it sits on under the desk therefore needs to be lowered to accommodate the additional height but the main advantage of this chassis is more HDD bays internally and better access to them should a disk need to be replaced. This chassis will have a 128 GB SSD installed as the new boot disk and I am still considering the addition of another 8 GB of RAM to make it more useful if I can afford the cost. The shelf instead of having three brackets bolting it onto the desk below, will have two much more substantial brackets bolted to the side of the desk above it.
The existing Inwin mini tower the “server” components are installed in will then become the chassis for the Windows PC which will be removed from the Antec ISK110 case. This will fit under the other side of the desk in the space where the printer currently sits, side on. A shelf is going to be put above the computer which will slide out on drawer rails and this will be for the scanner which will make it much easier to use because of the limited access under the desk with the keyboard tray for that computer above it. The shelf will be one of the 600×400 melamine shelves I currently have, which will have to have about 40 mm trimmed off one side.
The Antec ISK110 chassis could then be used with the other mini-ITX board I currently have as a small Linux server. I am currently looking at what sort of things I could use it for, possibly a small comms server for school productions is an option with the free edition of 3CX running on Debian. I would have to get hold of a few spare phones for this.
The printer is getting moved and it will sit on top of the office drawer unit which at the moment sits at the end of the desk. An extension top will be bolted onto the top of these drawers being another 600×400 melamine shelf using what are called “Tee Nuts” which is a nut that can be made captive by hammering it into the hole, whereby it has shoulders with pointed tips that penetrate the wood and lock it into place. A regular bolt is then bolted through from the other side. This is much more preferable than using regular screws. The shelf apart from the printer will also carry the fan or heater which sits on this side of the desk and drinking glasses.
The use of other storage in the living room is still being considered, in particular the pigeonholes in the big cupboard, having moved that from the left side to the right side of the desk. I need to figure out the best use of this space and whether to keep some of the computer related stuff out in the sleepout. I feel sure the space in this cabinet can be better utilised, at present I have yet to store everything in it but don’t want to pile stuff in and then discover it fills up too quickly.
The future of my collections of photos is one of the reasons for making the scanner more accessible. I am seriously looking at getting rid of the photos to the NZRLS archives and in order to make it easier for them I would be scanning them first, as they are currently underway with a project to scan their entire collection. This would let me keep a copy of the photos electronically for any future use I have for them, while freeing up the several boxes they currently sit in. Although the space of those boxes is not great, it does help to reduce the overall clutter in the house.
Another storage issue is having got rid of the filing cabinet, I still have files, so storing these will have to be solved in future. I have had a look at various plastic boxes that have rails fitted for files, as well as a smaller filing cabinet (than the one I got rid of). At the moment all the files are piled up out in the sleepout and finding an ideal way to store them is another goal for reducing clutter as I can’t see a better way of storing the contents.