Upgrading Dell T-3500

Existing System Config

System: Dell Precision WorkStation T3500  (all builds)

Motherboard: Dell 09KPNV

Memory: 5.6 GB free of 12 GB (6x2GB) @ 1.3 GHz DIMM DDR3-1333 (PC3-10600)

Display: 1920 x 1080 - 32 Bit colors, 1680 x 1050 - 32 Bit colors,

OS: Windows 10

BIOS Date: 20130528

CPU: Intel Xeon W3550 (QC, 8 threads @3.06 GHz)

Disk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB

VGA: Dual NVidia Quadro NVS 420

Upgradeables

Here is the list parts upgrades.

• For GTX 1070 6-pin to 8-pin PCI Express Power Converter Cable for Video Card 

1. Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition, 08G-P4-5173-KR
2. Video Card NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce GTX 970 

• For GTX 970 6 pin PCIe to dual 6+2 pin PCIe splitter Cable for Video Card

1.  Video Card GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050Ti OC Low Profile 4GB, GBTGV-N105TOC-4GL
2. Hynix HMT125U6DFR8C-H9 Memory  DDR3 1333MHz  ( 2GB 2Rx8 DDR3 PC3-10600U )
3. Kingston KP223C-ELD  Memory DDR3 1333MHz ( 2GB 2Rx8 DDR3 PC3-10600U )
4. Samsung 256GB 850 Pro Solid State Drive
5. Dell 0R494D R494D Caddy Tray 2.5" - 3.5"
6. Seagate 2TB 2.5" Laptop Internal Hard Drive

Power Supply

• EVGA - BR Series 700W ATX12V /EPS12V 80 Plus Power
• EVGA 700BR 100-BR-0700-K1 fits and works fine

CPU:

• Xeon QC X5667 3.06Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 95W Processor | 3.46Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBVA)
• Xeon QC W5580 3.20Ghz 8MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.46Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBF2)
• Xeon QC W5590 3.33Ghz 8MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.6Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBGE)
• Xeon 6C X5670 2.93GHz 12MB 6.4 GT/s LGA1366 Six Core CPU Processor (SLBV7)
• Xeon QC X5677 3.46Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.73Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBV9)
• Xeon QC X5687 3.6Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.86Ghz Max Turbo Frequency  (SLBVY)
• Xeon 6C X5680 3.33Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.60Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBV5)
• Xeon 6C W3690 3.46Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.73Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBW2) 
• Xeon 6C X5690 3.46Ghz 12MB 6.40GTs 130W Processor | 3.73Ghz Max Turbo Frequency (SLBVX) 

RAM:

DO NOT mix E or U modules (E modules tend to run faster). 

T3500 doesn't support registered modules (R modules!), and there is 6 Slots on the motherboard.

Max speed: 1333 MHz (PC10600)

Memory PN’s:

• Hynix HMT125U6DFR8C-H9 Memory  DDR3 1333MHz  ( 2GB 2Rx8 DDR3 PC3-10600U )
• Kingston KP223C-ELD  Memory DDR3 1333MHz ( 2GB 2Rx8 DDR3 PC3-10600U )
• 2GB PC10600U 2Rx8 Non-ECC Unregistered (P223C)
• 2GB PC10600E 1Rx8 ECC Unregistered (DM0KY)
• 2GB PC12800E 1Rx8 ECC Unregisterd (YY90K)
• 4GB PC10600U 2Rx8 Non-ECC Unregistered (P328H)
• 4GB PC10600E 2Rx8 ECC Unregistered (T192H)
• 4GB PC12800E 2Rx8 PC3L ECC Unregistered (6DWFJ)
• 8GB PC12800E 2RX8 PC3 ECC Unregistered (MT18JSF1G72AZ-1G6E1ZF) <--- 
• 8GB PC12800E 2Rx2 PC3L ECC Unregistered (HMT41GU7AFR8A-PB)

Recommended Memory configurations:

• 6 x 2GB PC10600E or 12800E Modules (12GB)
• 3 x 4GB PC10600E or 12800E Modules (12GB)
• 4 x 4GB PC10600E or 12800E Modules (16GB)
• 6 x 4GB PC10600E or 12800E Modules (24GB)

• 12 GB = 6*2GB SIM DDR3 PC10600 <==== original configuration
• 24 GB = 3*8GB SIMM DDR3 modules
• 32 GB = 4*8GB SIMM DDR3 modules
• 40 GB = 5*8GB SIMM DDR3 modules
• 48 GB = 6 * 8GB SIMM DDR3 modules (Max size!)

GPU

With the standard included Power-supply:

• NVIDIA GTX1050 TI 4GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA GTX1660 Ti 6GB Graphics Card

With Upgraded 700W EVG 700B Power Supply:

• EVGA NVIDIA GTX1070 8GB SC Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA GTX1070TI 8GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA GTX1080 SC 8GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA GTX1080 TI 11GB SC2 ICX Technology Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA RTX 2060 6GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super 8GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA RTX 2070 8GB Graphics Card
• EVGA NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super Graphics Card

SSD

The motherboard doesn't support NVME protocol, so we cannot boot O/S from it that requires UEFI, which you're not going to find on any eight year old PC system. But NVME SSD can be used to store data after booting (e.g, just to store video game data).

NVME.2 SSD Adapter *Required to Install NVME.2*

Recommended NVME.2 SSDs:

• Samsung 960 EVO Series – 500GB NVMe – M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E500BW)
• Samsung 960 EVO Series – 1TB PCIe NVMe – M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E1T0BW)
• SAMSUNG (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB - M.2 (w/ M key)
• SAMSUNG (MZ-V8V1T0B/AM) 980 SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology

Misc:

- Heatsink compound Arctic Silver

M.2 is a form factor:

• 2240 (40 mm height)
• 2260 (60 mm height)
• 2280 (80 mm height)

NVME SSD vs SATA SSD:

SATA III Hard Drive SATA III SSD         NVMe SSD

• ~100 MB/s Read 530 MB/s Read 3,500 MB/s Read
• ~100 MB/s Write 500 MB/s Write 3,000 MB/s Write

Make Citrix work in Linux

1. exportICAROOT=/opt/Citrix/ICAClient
2. Copy files in/usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* to $ICAROOT/keystore/cacerts

3. Rehash the certificate by the following command: $ICAROOT/util/ctx_rehash

4. Reopen Citrix Receiver. 

Logitech Speakerphone with Linux Mint

 My Logitech USB Speakarphone has stopped working since I did something wrong (which I don't remember).  Various troubleshooting and zillions of searches on the Internet did not fix the issue, until today.

The issue was the device did not make any sound at all.  Checking via ALSA and Kernel log said everything was fine as shown below:

$  lsusb

...

Bus 002 Device 011: ID 046d:0a06 Logitech, Inc. 

Bus 002 Device 009: ID 046d:c51c Logitech, Inc. 

...

$ inxi -A

Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 

           Device-2: ViXS Systems XCode 2100 Series driver: N/A 

           Device-3: AMD Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series] driver: snd_hda_intel 

           Device-4: Logitech type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio 

           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-135-generic 

$ dmesg | ack -i Logitech

[    4.347659] usb 2-7.3.1: Manufacturer: Logitech

[    4.351947] input: Logitech VoIP USB Dual RF Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-7/2-7.3/2-7.3.1/2-7.3.1:1.0/0003:046D:C51C.0002/input/input5

[    4.408172] hid-generic 0003:046D:C51C.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Logitech VoIP USB Dual RF Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-7.3.1/input0

[    4.412142] input: Logitech VoIP USB Dual RF Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-7/2-7.3/2-7.3.1/2-7.3.1:1.1/0003:046D:C51C.0003/input/input6

[    4.472241] hid-generic 0003:046D:C51C.0003: input,hiddev1,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech VoIP USB Dual RF Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-7.3.1/input1

[    4.744033] usb 2-7.3.2: Product: Logitech EasyCall Speakerphone

[    4.744035] usb 2-7.3.2: Manufacturer: Logitech

[    4.936663] usb 2-7.7.2: Manufacturer: Logitech

[    4.944780] input: Logitech USB Laser Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-7/2-7.7/2-7.7.2/2-7.7.2:1.0/0003:046D:C069.0006/input/input9

[    4.944928] hid-generic 0003:046D:C069.0006: input,hidraw5: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Laser Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-7.7.2/input0

$ aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]

  Subdevices: 8/8

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1

  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2

  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3

  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4

  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5

  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6

  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7

...

...

card 3: Speakerphone [Logitech EasyCall Speakerphone], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]

  Subdevices: 0/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ cat /proc/asound/modules 

 0 snd_aloop

 1 snd_hda_intel

 2 snd_hda_intel

 3 snd_usb_audio

$ cat /proc/asound/cards 

 0 [Loopback       ]: Loopback - Loopback

                      Loopback 1

 1 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel

                      HDA Intel at 0xfe7f4000 irq 32

 2 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI

                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfebfc000 irq 33

 3 [Speakerphone   ]: USB-Audio - Logitech EasyCall Speakerphone

                      Logitech Logitech EasyCall Speakerphone at usb-0000:00:1d.7-7.3.2, full speed

Tried to see from Pulse Audio control, it did not show the USB speakerphone device at all.

Turned out it was due to the presence of /etc/asound.conf.  After I renamed it to something else, my audio started to work!

Rename files with Regex rule

 In Linux, there is very powerful tool to rename files based on pattern we specify.  The pattern follows Perl-like regular expression.

For example, if I have files as follow:

01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3

05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3

"07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3"

09_-_who_wants_to_live_forever_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3

11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3

15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3

16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3

16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3

17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3

and I want to rename them by replacing the "_-_" part to be just "-".  The single command to do that is:

$ rename -n -v 's/_-_/-/g' *

rename(01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 01-bohemian_rhapsody-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)

rename(05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 05-bicycle_race-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)

rename(07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 07-it's_a_hard_life-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)

rename(09_-_who_wants_to_live_forever_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 09-who_wants_to_live_forever-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)

rename(11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 11-the_miracle-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)

rename(15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 15-friends_will_be_friends-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)

rename(16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3, 16-the_show_must_go_on-queen-greatest_hits_cd2.mp3)

rename(16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 16-we_will_rock_you-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)

rename(17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3, 17-we_are_the_champions-queen-greatest_hits_cd1.mp3)

(the argument "-n" above is to tell rename not to actually perform renaming, but just to display what it would do).  I use "/g" in the regular expression to tell it to rename all occurrences of "_-_" throughout the file name, not just for the first time it encounters it.

Linux script to display Some information of MP3 files

 The following bash script utilizes mediainfo command line to retrieve various metadata inside an MP3 (or any media file, in fact):

#!/bin/sh

i=0
for f in "$@"
do
    i=$((i+1))
    printf "%d," $i
    mediainfo --Inform="General;%CompleteName%,%Format%,%OverallBitRate_Mode%,%BitRate%,%FileSize/String4%" "${f}"
done

For example (I put the above into a script named 'bitrate.sh'):

$ bitrate.sh *.mp3
1,01_-_bohemian_rhapsody_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,10.94 MiB
2,05_-_bicycle_race_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,5.612 MiB
3,07_-_it's_a_hard_life_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,7.620 MiB
4,09_-_who_wants_to_live_forever_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,9.075 MiB
5,11_-_the_miracle_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,9.002 MiB
6,15_-_friends_will_be_friends_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,7.599 MiB
7,16_-_the_show_must_go_on_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd2.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,8.048 MiB
8,16_-_we_will_rock_you_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,3.741 MiB
9,17_-_we_are_the_champions_-_queen_-_greatest_hits_cd1.mp3,MPEG Audio,CBR,256000,5.542 MiB

The output is in CSV, suitable to be imported as a table in spreadsheet.

Plex Server inaccessible with LG TV nor Ipone

 I recently had access issue to my Plex server (running on Linux).  It was fine sometime ago, but lately everytime I tried to access it from my LG TV or my phone, they said the server was offline. I'd followed various instructions and troubleshooting I found on the Internet with no luck.  Here is the list of steps I did:

• Ensure no VPN running on all devices and server
• Select "Preferred" for secure connection
• Added my private subnet in the "List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth"
• Upgrade the Plex server to the latest
• Restart the server (e.g., "sudo service plexmediaserver restart")
• Verify I am able to access the server through its IP (e.g, http://192.168.1.103:32400)
• Enable DLNA server
• Revert the Plex on TV to last publicly available version
• Power down TV, wait 2 minutes and turn it back on

Turned out it was due to IPv6 connection was enabled on the Plex server! Once I disabled it, now I could watch my movies or stream my music to other devices.  My LG TV apparently did not support IPv6 yet.