I am a long time FSF member, and while I’m not QUITE as fanatical about it as RMS, I do try to be pretty firm about only using Free / Open Source software if at all possible… I’d define myself as about 85% of the way up the “Freedom Ladder”
FreeCAD runs natively on GNU/Linux, and you have a full unlimited license… (GPLv3+ mostly) There are other FLOSS CAD applications that will run on GNU/Linux but FreeCAD is the only one I’ve found that can also generate the toolpaths and G-Code to actually make your parts on a subtractive CNC mill or lathe.
F360 runs on other peoples hardware, and the ‘free’ license is majorly restricted - no tool changes, so you have to treat each op as a separate job… No G-0 moves, everything is G-1, and they can change the rules (and have several times) any time they want - and you can only look at your work in F360 because of the proprietary file format.
I’ve never done anything with OnShape, but again it’s a thing that runs on other peoples hardware (there is NO CLOUD! just other people’s computers) under a license that can be changed out from under you…
ART
I’ve been working on PC’s since the ORIGINAL 640K RAM (More than Bill thought you’d ever need) IBM PC and a bit of other hardware before that… So I’m very familiar with the older ISA hardware, but haven’t spent as much time with the newer stuff. I built both of the desktops I’m running now…
The machine I most want to upgrade has an Intel DX79SR mobo that per Intel doesn’t have any upgrade options that would be worth it… I’ve been running it with an SSD and a using bunch of assorted scrounced spinners for backing up. ALL of them were showing “EOL” or “Pre-Fail” in the SMART Drive checks, so I tried upgrading to a couple of new 8TB spinners (I’m amazed at how cheap new drives are…) Even though I hadn’t touched the boot drives, I started having boot issues after I started shuffling the other drives around… I still can’t get it to come up in UEFI mode, and have to use the boot menu to get it to come up in Legacy BIOS mode, but at least it’s sort of usable now…
All the connections are good, and the drives show up in the BIOS. I haven’t checked the PSU as such, but it’s a high end “PC Power & Cooling” unit so I doubt it would be a problem…
I think mostly what I’m needing to figure out is what the “bleeding edge” hardware is that will be hitting the discount shelf because it can’t ‘officially’ be downgraded to W11…
ART
The power supply can look like it is working whereas in fact it is faulty. I have seen that before. They don’t last forever, and they may meet with stability issues even when not failing completely.
It does not mean it is the case for your computer, but you still might want to check. Also were the boot issues already happening before you added new storage devices? I stumbled upon this PSU calculator once, found it handy : https://pc-builds.com/power-supply-calculator
According to this documentation related to your brand/model motherboard : https://data2.manualslib.com/pdf2/48/4733/473251-intel/boxdx79sr.pdf?d3dee6fb890ba39d0522b77c863ae1c0
Pages 16 and 17, this motherboard takes 3rd generation Intel processors. I was curious about the Xeon processors, and looked at this particular one : https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon%20E5-2680.html
it offers CPU cores 8 - The number of threads 16
Here is the full list of possible CPU’s : https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel/DX79SR.html
and as for the RAM, with 4 slots in it, if the doc is right, you can install up to 64GB RAM, specifically:
• 1.35 V DDR3 SDRAM DIMMs (JEDEC Specification)
• Four independent memory channels with interleaved mode support
• Unbuffered, single-sided or double-sided DIMMs with the following restriction:
Double-sided DIMMs with x16 organization are not supported.
The possible PCI Express x16 Graphics presented in page 16 of your motherboard’s doc seem to me pretty high end too, (provided they can be found), for a motherboard of that age. (Intel is what, 12th, 13th generation now?)
When I read what you say:
that per Intel doesn’t have any upgrade options that would be worth it…
I wonder why? Ok, you can’t run Windows 11 on it, so maybe wherever your read that was referring to the Windows world?
The machine has 8 RAM slots, not 4… When I got the machine off the Artisans Asylum “cruft shelves” it had 16GB of RAM (4x4GB sticks). I added 4 more 8GB sticks to give me 48GB, which was the best upgrade option w/o throwing out the existing RAM…
The I-7-3930K @ 3.2Ghz already in the machine gives me 6 cores / 12 threads, and was a “High End” CPU in it’s day, so according to the stuff I’ve read, the benefit of going to a Xeon would be minimal, and not worth the cost… The graphics card is an old (2009) Nvidia G92 / GeForce 8800 GT, but it works well enough, I’ve never felt I had video issues with it.
Essentially the machine seems like it would have been pretty much ‘bleeding edge’ when it was built, and isn’t horrible today, but it doesn’t seem like there are many options for any significant upgrades given the existing motherboard… That it won’t run W11 is almost an ADVANTAGE as far as I’m concerned… I have ONE old laptop that runs a bootleg version of W10, which is all I need to run the only THREE programs I have that are only available on Windows, and that I haven’t figured out how to get running under WINE… (and that machine is NEVER allowed to connect to the Internet!)
Getting back to the power supply question, I’ve not had any problems when the system is running, or unexplained boot problems before this. What I’m not sure about is how best to check for stability problems. The load is actually LESS currently than it was as I had been running about 6 spinning drives, and replaced them with two (The tower case has room for about 20…)
ART
Indeed, it is a very good computer, any Linux distribution should work a treat on it, and I guess you are right about CPU and RAM resources, you probably have way enough, even if using some greedy applications (I guess way enough for FreeCAD, probably ok for Blender too if you decided to give it a try).
If you had not such a good CPU, a Xeon such as the E5-2680 could have been a good choice. I see some which does not cost too much at ebay or aliexpress.
To check a power supply, you can either do it with a multimeter, which you can check how on Youtube videos (keywords “testing a power supply with a multimeter”), or with a dedicated tool, such as this one : https://www.ebay.fr/itm/276811636747/ which is handy too. You can find a manual showing the desired values here: https://www.lindy.co.uk/downloads/43058v2.pdf and a picture with the useful info here: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81TySD9ClUL._SL1500_.jpg
The tester you point at looks reasonable (though most of my DVM’s go to much higher accuracy) but it looks like just a basic voltage checker, to see if the supply is making the right values at no-load status… What I’ve seen in PSU failures is harder to see as the supply looks fine at no-load, but breaks down under heavier loads, or when it gets hot.
The PC does have a screen in the BIOS that displays all the mobo voltages in case you want to try overclocking (I don’t) and those are all well within the right range (although sitting in the BIOS screens is pretty close to ‘no load’
I am simply not seeing ANY symptoms that make me suspect the PSU as a problem.
ART
I agree the small devices I pointed to are basic tools. Testing with a multimeter is better, and I heard of specific tools which can help by putting load on a power supply, which is even better, but apart from people dealing with electronics, and ones who are really into hardware who have them?
I am not an expert, but I am pretty sure the signs one can get on a PSU by looking at what happens in the same computer where the problem lies is not the right solution.
Testing components on a computer is about removing as many internal peripherals as possible, testing one by one, and testing a power supply is about removing it from the computer and testing it apart.
Here is a page which seems serious to me : https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/fi/products/test-and-measurement/essentials-test-equipment/dc-power-supplies/5-essential-tools-on-an-electronics-bench_256910.html
I found that video too : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqzelYnX35U
A very simple test could also be to get another power supply, new preferably, equal or higher in qualité and check if you find similar signs. A good PSU is about stability.
What else : have you tested the RAM modules? (They would have to be tested one by one, with a live CD coming with memtest, for instance).
I haven’t run Memtest86 on the machine lately, but I did a 24 hour run when I first got the machine, no problems… (BTW, no need to test modules separately UNLESS you have a failure and need to isolate which module is bad, however if a machine has a lot of time on it (as opposed to a DOA failure) it is likely that anything that caused one module to fail is going to damage others, so I’d class all as suspect.)
The articles - The test equipment article was reasonable though far higher end than is likely useful in a repair shop. I have fixed lots of different things over the years, and have found that nearly all were clearly good / bad issues that could be traced with a cheap meter… The kind of gear in that article is more what you’d need in a design / development lab where you were creating an item, or testing for things like regulatory compliance… On the repair bench I’m dealing with much more binary questions of good or bad…
The Load testing video is not ‘wrong’ and their process would work with a simple supply, but would NOT work on a computer PSU as there are a lot of other complexities involved in the PSU like the “power good” line that has to come on at the right time, and all the different voltages it puts out.
Replacing the supply with a ‘known good’ one is a test that is simple in theory, but a new supply in the same quality range as what I have is well over $100, and replacing it is a non-trivial task to get to all the connections… Given that a PSU is not going to be returnable, I am not really wanting to spend that sort of money just for a test…
ART
For any RAM test I’d always test them separately. What is the point of the test, if some error occur and you can’t tell which RAM has an issue?
You would have to start over and to test one by one anyway, wouldn’t you?
What about the.PSU connections, why are your’s complicated to unplug and plug back in?
