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monkeyswrench

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Ok, ended up finding something and tweaking it. It will be laughable to some of you, but hear it out.
Dell Optiplex 7440. It checked some boxes, like a 4k monitor, 3.2ghz 4 core processor thing, and doesn't take up much counter space. He currently uses a small desk off the living area, backed away from the dining room table.

It had 8gb of ram "stock", so went ahead and doubled that to 16gb. This particular one was already set up with a 500gb ssd. Depending on his needs, I can setup an external gpu, but we'll see how this goes. In a year or so, I know I'll have to buy a laptop for college duty that will need to do this and more. That being the case, a 275$ bridge seems to be a safer investment for now.

I told him it's no super computer...
He smiled and said, "Comparatively, yes, it is!".
He loaded up some designs he'd done on "Tinkercad", and was really happy with how fast it loaded and rendered the stuff. He then "tested" it by copying and multiplying images. He's pretty happy.

It's a start!
 

Willie B

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… In the four years that I spent working for Litton data systems… I should’ve paid more attention to the technical aspect of it… From 1965 to 1969… Was about as technical as it could get with what we were building for the Vietnam war effort… top secret shit…
… I probably should go back and put all the pieces of the puzzle together of everything that I was exposed to???…

… some of the units which were about the size of a 20 ft travel trailer…we called them huts… were designated AOC… Which the Internet just told me stands for Air Operations Command… I remember the main hut having three very large radar screens…There is a good possibility that these series of huts and there were four or five of them in the system… Could be what was telling the B-52 bombers where to strike in north Vietnam…The Ho Chi Min Trail etc…

… The system I remember the best was Macs 3…The Internet says that Macs 5 was used in a secret war in Laos Cambodia etc. Not sure if Macs one through three had anything to do with Macs five???…
 
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C-2

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Great job dad, nice rig at a good price.
 

Done-it-again

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I have a great guy who has built a couple of systems for me.
You just need to tell him what you are doing and he will sort it out.

Commerce Technologies, LLC
Pete Maddox
2837 Shadow Canyon Circle
Norco, CA 92860
951-407-1500
www.commercetech.net
I have these guys working at my office now updating some things..... Pete is a easy guy to like.
 
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JBZ

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I have these guys working at my office now updating some things..... Pete is a easy guy to like.
yes he is.
Has some great story's. and some sad ones.
I have known him for some years now.
 

monkeyswrench

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20220916_125044.jpg

Still enamored with it, so that's good. It's Friday, so no homework...so he's messing around, playing with shapes and stuff. He has made some different gear patterns, various diameter and tooth count. I guess you can save those as templates, so you can use them on different pages.
 

outboard_256

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View attachment 1155029
Still enamored with it, so that's good. It's Friday, so no homework...so he's messing around, playing with shapes and stuff. He has made some different gear patterns, various diameter and tooth count. I guess you can save those as templates, so you can use them on different pages.

Have him look up some beginner tutorials on youtube where they model something simple like a lego block or tea kettle. They will show him a lot of shortcuts that he will use often. Really helpful when I was first learning.
 

monkeyswrench

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Have him look up some beginner tutorials on youtube where they model something simple like a lego block or tea kettle. They will show him a lot of shortcuts that he will use often. Really helpful when I was first learning.
I think he had done that some time back, but was discouraged due to the lack of brains the previous computer had. He's been looking stuff up, and was just rendering a cartoonish robot hand a bit ago :oops:
 

outboard_256

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I think he had done that some time back, but was discouraged due to the lack of brains the previous computer had. He's been looking stuff up, and was just rendering a cartoonish robot hand a bit ago :oops:

Now you need to get him a 3d printer and his drawing's will come to life. I am about $500 all in on mine, start saving up.
 

Maw

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And once you have the 3-D printer you can assemble a 3 axis NC mill for around $200. It's a slippery slope once you start.
 

wzuber

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Good thread, great info...
Thx for posting.
Had to pull this back up for reference..
 

monkeyswrench

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He's been doing "coding" stuff...learning a bunch of stuff I don't really get. Yesterday he was relaxing, messing around rendering stuff...
20221211_203129.jpg

There's some artist that does steampunk WWI pics, so he was doing an articulated tank thing. Weird, can look at it from every angle, and change out sub-assemblies:oops:
 

rivermobster

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He's been doing "coding" stuff...learning a bunch of stuff I don't really get. Yesterday he was relaxing, messing around rendering stuff... View attachment 1179925
There's some artist that does steampunk WWI pics, so he was doing an articulated tank thing. Weird, can look at it from every angle, and change out sub-assemblies:oops:

I see a 3D printer in your future!

😁
 

rivermobster

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It'll be under the tree, I hear Santa is bringing one;)

You're getting some fun toys lately!

Invest in a GOOD UPS.

Not the kind that delivers your toys, the kind that protects them!


I think I have this one. It will keep all my computer shit (and a couple lights) powered up in the event of a black out. About 20 min maybe? Enough time to shut it all off safely and then just one light powered up for awhile.

Gotta protect your investments! 👍🏼
 

SBMech

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He's been doing "coding" stuff...learning a bunch of stuff I don't really get. Yesterday he was relaxing, messing around rendering stuff... View attachment 1179925
There's some artist that does steampunk WWI pics, so he was doing an articulated tank thing. Weird, can look at it from every angle, and change out sub-assemblies:oops:

Gundam Mobile Turret!

Bitchen! He's got some skills!
 

yuppie

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I just got done building two gaming PCs, both with AMD CPUs and Nvidia RTX GPUs.

Throw your budget up here and what you're looking to do with it and I can post a build sheet with all the components you'll need.

Piecing together a tower PC these days is really easy.

https://www.logicalincrements.com/ -- good starting point
https://pcpartpicker.com/ -- good for keeping track of your parts list
 

4Waters

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He's been doing "coding" stuff...learning a bunch of stuff I don't really get. Yesterday he was relaxing, messing around rendering stuff... View attachment 1179925
There's some artist that does steampunk WWI pics, so he was doing an articulated tank thing. Weird, can look at it from every angle, and change out sub-assemblies:oops:
Coding is cool stuff, my son is doing coding (6th grade elective) in school. About a month ago he went to a robot fighting competition (local between our 3 middle schools) where the robots are provided but the students have to code them first before battle and my son and his lab partner won 1st place. It's beyond me.
 
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