Advanced Networking Windows Wisdom Problem Pins
Networking Perfection
I’ve never written in before, but the July issue’s “Set Up the Perfect Network,” by Nick Peers, made me scratch my head and think, “Is this really Maximum?”
Don’t get me wrong— he did a great job. His information is correct for small home networks, if you happen to have just a cable modem for your WAN, a wired desktop, a network attached printer, a laptop, and not much else on your network. If that’s the case, one of the good quality Port Address Translation (PAT) type devices mentioned in the article is a great choice.
Unfortunately, something like that would never cut it in my home network and many others I have come across as we move further into a more connected household (connected refrigerator, stove, and so on).
Please see the photo of the small rack/case that houses the equipment (above- right). Side note: Notice the Apple II theme. I happen to collect Apple II machines, so we wanted to give the network cabinet a theme for fun. It’s painted Platinum like the later Apple IIe Platinum Computers, and the patch cables, along with the Keystones, are done in the Apple Color Pattern. It even has an authentic color Apple window decal.
It would be great to do a follow- up article, as I am sure I’m not the only reader for whom four LAN ports are not going to handle their home network. I chose Ubiquiti for my equipment, but Netgear and Linksys/ Cisco both make some great and affordable SOHO/nonenterprise level gear that is well suited for a medium to large home install.
– Copper
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: You’re right, the original article was indeed just to show what you can do with a smaller network, with the idea that you can expand on it for larger networks. It’s amazing how many devices we have connected these days, especially when it comes to tablets, phones, and everything else that we routinely connect up wirelessly. A more advanced feature is already lined up.
Pro Thinking
I will keep this real simple: Why would you NOT use Windows 10 Pro in an $18,000- plus 2017 Dream Machine that is supposed to really push the limits of all you can do? I use Win 10 Pro on my $ 3,000- plus dream machine.
– Jay Martinson
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: We may exhibit a hang-thecost attitude when it comes to hardware, but we’re still driven by performance, and that extends to the OS. The truth is, there’s nothing in the Pro version of Windows 10 that brings a performance boost to our Dream Machine. Sure, you may want things such as BitLocker, Domain Network support, Remote Desktop, Hyper-V, and so on, but none of these will make a difference to the underlying speed. The only feature of any interest is the amount of RAM supported: Windows Home supports up to 128GB, while Windows 10 Pro can take you to 2TB. Not an issue for this year’s machine, but it may be in the future.
Custom Loader
I’ve been trying to install the Grub Customizer as described on page 53 of the June 2017 issue. I’ve entered all the steps, but when I do the last step— sudo apt-get install grub-customizer —I get an error: “This PPA does not support xenial.”
What do I need to do? I’m running Mint 18.2 Cinnamon edition.
– Kerry Gifford
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: You’ll quickly find yourself disappearing down the rabbit hole trying to track down why this is happening, but it generally comes down to the fact that the Grub Customizer isn’t in the default repositories. The app is maintained by Daniel Richter, and the commands in the feature show you how to add the repository so that you can install it.
It looks like something’s going awry at the install stage though—Xenial is the codename for Ubuntu 16.04, which forms the basis of your Mint 18.2 install. You usually see a “This PPA does not support xenial” error when the application is out of date, but Grub Customizer has been updated recently, so we suggest retrying (we don’t have a problem with the app here— we’ve just double- checked). You may also get this message if it’s already installed— so that’s worth checking as well. The only other thing we can think of is that you’re skipping the
apt-get update after adding the repository, which will cause it to fail, so make sure you do so. Failing that, you can achieve pretty much everything you can do with Grub Customizer manually, although as this affects how your machine boots, you need to get a really good grasp of how it works first.
Incompatible Pins
Based on the article by Alan Dexter in the August 2017 issue of MaximumPC, I have a question: Where exactly is one supposed to connect the case fan of the Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ITX on the Asus ROG Strix B250I gaming motherboard? I can only see two places from the motherboard manual to connect fans, and both have four pins. The female connector for the fan has three openings. Am I missing something? This is my first attempt at a build, and I am hung up here.
–Don Thomas
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: You’re not missing anything, just a slight oversight on our part. The four pins on the motherboard support PWM fans, while the three- pin versions are DC. You can slide that three- pin female connector on top of the four- pin male header (and connect a four- pin fan to a three- pin connector as well). We do it so often, we didn’t even think to comment on it. It’ll only fit one way round, so don’t worry about getting it wrong.
Smaller is Better
The “Mini- ITX vs. ATX” article in the Sep 2017 issue doesn’t say anything that most wouldn’t already know. It doesn’t go into how cool Mini-ITX motherboards are. When the third- gen Core i5 came out, I built my first Mini-ITX system—a gaming rig that I could take to LAN parties. I used a BitFenix Prodigy case. The case has room for the Asus R9- 390 video card. The motherboard I wanted to try was the Asus Z170I Pro Gaming. I found out I could put a Core i7-7700k in my system with a BIOS update. I also added a Corsair H100i. I set the video card to run my three 24- inch Asus monitors, so I could play CS:GO over three screens. The mobo had EZ overclocking options, so I got the CPU up to about 5GHz. I have one SSD for Windows, and one 4TB for games and storage. The Mini- ITX board can have up to 32GB of RAM, which I put in. For music, I have a USB DAC/amp and a high- end USB mic. I agree at the end of the article that Mini-ITX motherboards work as hard as ATX boards. For the size of what I built, it does so much, and is easy to take to LAN parties. Everyone should take a look at Mini- ITX.
– Chris Yusko
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: Part of the point of the article was to highlight the fact that smaller form factors won’t hold you back. While you may have fallen in love with the convenience and versatility of these tiny machines, there are plenty of readers who are unaware of their charms. Maybe your letter will convince a few over to your way of thinking.
Processor Elimination
Just getting around to the Ryzen 5 1500X CPU review in your July issue. It looks solid, but is the R5 line more about price at four- core processing? AMD’s eightcore line was already priced competitively, so I was curious about the move to four- core— it does box Intel into “innovate or keep pushing cores.” I’m weighing my options, and Intel’s Kaby Lake is out as I don't like the name (sad but true, and a few other choice reasons). Skylake-X is impressive, but too expensive. R7 1800X has my eye at the moment, just waiting for the last roll- outs this fall. I think you've answered this before— maybe I just need to hear the answer again. With a $ 500 CPU budget, should I buy now, or wait for the year- end review?
–Ryan Anthony
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN DEXTER RESPONDS: The Ryzen CPU lineup is complete (though we expect to see APUs before the year’s out), and we’ve given our opinion on pretty much every chip: They’re all good, but there are some standout offerings. The Ryzen 7 1800X has the raw power, while the Ryzen 7 1700 can hit the same performance at a cheaper price point (but you need to overclock it to get the most from it). The Ryzen 5 1600X is the best overall value proposition, if you don’t need all eight cores, while Threadripper demolishes the high end. We are about to get a new generation of Intel chips, which could mix things up, though I doubt we’ll see any significant price drops, so we recommend pulling the trigger on the Ryzen 7 1800X, and enjoying your new build.