<p>I’ve been using a 2009 cheesegrater Mac Pro for quite a while now. I bought it used quite a while ago - around 2013 if I remember correctly - and it’s been serving as my main photo/video/general programming workhorse, although the latter tasks have been taken over mostly by a Linux machine housed in the infamous <a href="/2021/09/21/wrapping-up-nzxt-h1-saga/">NZXT H1 case</a>. It’s been upgraded a lot during its life - now has the latest 6 core Xeon these machines support…
<p>As I mentioned in my <a href="/post/2021-05-16-nzxt-h1-saga-continued/">post from a few months ago</a>, I had received the temporary fix in the form of the nylon screws and nuts from NZXT. At that point in time, NZXT’s customer support was not able to tell me when to expect the “real” fix, namely the updated PCIe riser.</p>
<p>Not much to update since the <a href="https://www.lonecpluspluscoder.com/post/2021-05-01-nzxt-h1-recall-experience/">last post on this topic</a>, I’m still waiting for the updated PCIe riser. Although I do have to admit that based on the latest video from Gamers Nexus on this saga, I’m not holding my breath.</p>
<p>First, I’m very much a “very occasional” gamer so I’m usually not the target audience for most gaming related accessories and parts. I did however want to rebuild my rather large grey box Linux/Windows workstation into something more compact with a watercooler for the CPU. The <a href="https://www.nzxt.com/products/h1-matte-white">NZXT H1</a> seemed at that point to be a really good match for my requirements and had received good reviews. One was duly ordered, together…
<p>I don’t usually do Happy New Year posts, but given how “well” 2020 went I thought it was appropriate to start 2021 with a whimsy post. This post is probably going to date me since it’s been a few years - OK, decades - since these were current.</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I still have one of the “cheese grater” Mac Pros around. It’s a 2009 that I upgraded somewhat with SSD, 6 core Xeon and a few other small goodies. As I split my time between Linux, Windows and macOS, I like having it around but can’t really justify getting a newer machine.</p>
<p>I’ve been an unashamed fan of the old “cheese grater” Mac Pro due to its sturdiness and expandability. Yes, they’re not the most elegant bit of kit out there but they are well built. And most importantly for me, they are expandable by plugging things inside the case, not by creating a Gordian Knot of hubs, Thunderbolt cables, USB cables and stacks of external disks all evenly scattered around a trash can. Oh, and they’re designed to go <strong>under</strong> a…
<p>Putting the OpenSprinkler and Raspberry Pi together was easy, getting them to run showed my inexperience when it comes to playing with hardware. The overall install went pretty smoothly and the <a href="http://rayshobby.net/docs/ospi14_manual.pdf">documentation</a> is good and easy to follow so I’m not going to ramble on about it for very long, but just throw up some notes.</p>
<p>The Raspberry Pis have landed. Guess which box contains the sensitive electronics and is worth about twice as much as the other one:</p>
<p>I normally don’t play much with hardware, mainly because there isn’t/wasn’t much I want to do that tends to require hardware that’s not a regular PC or maybe a phone or tablet. This one is different, because no self-respecting geek would want the usual rotary control “programmable” timer to run their sprinkler system, would they?</p>
