Re: seeking hardware advice

Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> writes:
> The easy one: SSDs.  I want to prioritize "reliable" over "big" or
> "fast".  What brands (/models) currently have a good reputation?

Samsung.  Not going to give you a model name as it depends on the format
(2.5" SATA, M.2 SATA, M.2 NVMe).  But you probably won't regret buying
Kingston or WD instead if the price is more to your liking.  Note that
if you go for M.2 and want more than one SSD, most motherboards only
come with one screw and one heatsink even if they have multiple M.2
slots.  The last time I encountered this issue, I was able to get a
second heatsink and screw for free by contacting customer service (and
then I got a third because they processed my ticket twice by mistake).
Otherwise, you can buy an SSD with a heatsink pre-installed, and beg or
buy a spare screw from your local computer repair shop.

> The hard one: non-fan CPU cooling methods.  I know zero about
> this - is there a primer somewhere I have failed to find?

You can't really do without a fan, the question is how big it is (for
the same flow rate, a large slow fan is quieter than a small fast one,
and two slow fans are quieter than one fast one) and how you get the
heat from the CPU to the fan (solid metal, heat pipe, or circulating
liquid).  Provided your case has radiator mounting holes and vents, a
240 mm AIO system (circulating liquid cooling with a 240 mm radiator
equipped with dual 120 mm fans) should fit most cases, is easy to
install, and requires no maintenance.  If your budget doesn't stretch
that far, get the largest dual-fan on-die heatsink you can afford (they
start at $25) and make sure you install it in the right direction (the
air should flow from the front of the case to the back).  As a last
resort, the stock cooler that comes with the CPU (if you bought a retail
SKU) will do a decent job, but it may struggle under sustained high load
and will be significantly louder than a third-party cooling solution.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des@FreeBSD.org