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Assembly Surprises
Jan. 29th, 2022 11:39 pmI put the new computer together over the last few days, but because I misread something in the description, I needed to swap one of the M2 drives for one with a heatsink, as the computer only comes with one included heatsink for those drives. Naturally, that drive didn't arrive until just before I headed out to pick up Chinese takeout for dinner, but it popped in easily.
I had figured that I'd do the configuration borrowing the monitor and such from the computer in the dining room, but it has neither a Display Port nor a HDMI in (it's a rather elderly monitor), so I ended up hauling it to the basement and swapping cables around in a temporary sort of way to use one of the studio monitors along with a scavenged keyboard and mouse. Happily, the system booted up from the Windows 10 USB install set that I'd made this morning.
Unhappily, I had forgotten the Windows 10 OS disk upstairs. I went up, got it, and discovered that the disk packet had already been opened and that the product key had been removed. There was just enough time to drive back to Micro Center where I had bought this on the preceding weekend in preparation for this build and they were good enough to exchange it for a complete copy. I also picked up a PS/2 keyboard/mouse splitter, since there appears to be a combo port on my new motherboard. Back home and back to the basement, where I finally managed to type in the correct key and get the system authorized.
It took a bit longer to get the drivers to install from the CD that came with the motherboard; longer yet to finally figure out how to get the two M2 drives configured as a mirrored RAID. But that was eventually done. And I tried using the splitter cable and discovered that only one side was going to work at a time, so I abandoned that plan.
In any case, the new machine is zippy fast and is getting a great many things installed on it. A great many *more* things will need to be installed tomorrow, and then I have given up and picked up a new USB keyboard (the mouse is USB, but the keyboard is not) and two USB extension cables (because clearly two new cables were not enough for this project). Those can get wired in on Monday when they arrive.
And *some* time tomorrow, I will find out if the Thunderbolt ports work...
I had figured that I'd do the configuration borrowing the monitor and such from the computer in the dining room, but it has neither a Display Port nor a HDMI in (it's a rather elderly monitor), so I ended up hauling it to the basement and swapping cables around in a temporary sort of way to use one of the studio monitors along with a scavenged keyboard and mouse. Happily, the system booted up from the Windows 10 USB install set that I'd made this morning.
Unhappily, I had forgotten the Windows 10 OS disk upstairs. I went up, got it, and discovered that the disk packet had already been opened and that the product key had been removed. There was just enough time to drive back to Micro Center where I had bought this on the preceding weekend in preparation for this build and they were good enough to exchange it for a complete copy. I also picked up a PS/2 keyboard/mouse splitter, since there appears to be a combo port on my new motherboard. Back home and back to the basement, where I finally managed to type in the correct key and get the system authorized.
It took a bit longer to get the drivers to install from the CD that came with the motherboard; longer yet to finally figure out how to get the two M2 drives configured as a mirrored RAID. But that was eventually done. And I tried using the splitter cable and discovered that only one side was going to work at a time, so I abandoned that plan.
In any case, the new machine is zippy fast and is getting a great many things installed on it. A great many *more* things will need to be installed tomorrow, and then I have given up and picked up a new USB keyboard (the mouse is USB, but the keyboard is not) and two USB extension cables (because clearly two new cables were not enough for this project). Those can get wired in on Monday when they arrive.
And *some* time tomorrow, I will find out if the Thunderbolt ports work...