With the frustration of not being able to properly keep the Banana Pis updated (since there isn't really an easy way to update the kernel for ARM), I decided to find something to replace Banpi and CFS. While looking at NUCs, I found a barebones kit from ASRock that I eventually picked because it was the best option out of the bunch.
Besides having to be able to house two 2.5" drives (from Banpi and CFS), it also needed something else for me to boot off of, which was the M.2 NVMe slot. Unfortunately the smallest and cheapest NVMe SSD I could find was 128GB for 80 USD, and for a headless server, that's really overkill, but I didn't have any other choice besides taking up some space on the hard drives, which I didn't want to do.
It also comes with a 802.11ac and Bluetooth (4.x) M.2 card, which I didn't need for it, and I was going to upgrade Triela (until I got everything and realised that it was M.2 and not mini PCIe).
It also takes DDR4 SO-DIMM memory, which was somewhat unfortunate since it's somewhat pricey, and I opted for 8GB in dual-channel, as there wasn't any dual-channel kits smaller than 8GB (are tiny headless servers really that niche? XD).
With the cooler, I was thinking I was going to use stock, but then I found a benchmark of a stock cooler and the Noctua NH-L9i, which I saw that Noctua was better in most cases.
I went with the cheapest socket 1151 CPU (after sorting by price on PCPartPicker) which was the Celeron G3930 since I wasn't going to really need anything more for a headless personal server.
I was a bit worried with having to get a previous generation CPU to be able to update the BIOS so that I could use the G3930, but luckily, I didn't have to do that.
As far as the name, I was kinda thinking about it for a while (and kinda chatting with my friend about it), and I jokingly said "celery box", which eventually ended up sticking in my head when I was trying to talk about the system with her (she jokingly suggested "cele box" at some point, in a sort of weird pun to one of my other friends which goes by "Selly"). While it does kinda sound strange and somewhat out there, "celeron" and "celery" share the first five letters, and since I was installing openSUSE on it, it matches celery's (the actual vegetable) green colour in a way.
This build is a lot of firsts for me, it's my first LGA build (the Intel computer doesn't count since it wasn't for me), it's my first Noctua heatsink (since I'm usually with the people that aren't too fond of noctua's iconic colour scheme), and it's also my first build with an M.2 NVMe SSD.
When I got the parts, I was unfortunately met with a missing power supply, and upon contacting the retailer, I contacted the manufacturer as I figured I would have to do. I still ended up doing the initial build in hopes that I would quickly get the power supply and be on my way, but it wasn't all for naught.
Building the system was surprisingly quick, when I was done, it felt like I missed something for a few minutes even though I didn't, since I was used to building larger systems that requires more work.
While I was used to the socket 775 cover being under the CPU retention bracket, the 1151's cover being clipped in the retention bracket from the top didn't phase me much since I had watched a couple or so Linus Tech Tips videos that showed how to install a similar socket CPU.
Installing the heatsink was quite easy as well (although the bend from installing heatsinks on an Intel CPU mobo makes me uneasy), though it was somewhat unnerving while trying to keep the heatsink and mobo steady as I get the retention screws threaded through the mobo holes. I actually just used arctic cooling's MX-4 instead of noctua's supplied NT-H1, as I found that that Noctua strongly recommends reapplying the compound every three years, and I wasn't up for having the Celery Box being down for an hour or something just to reapply the stuff.
I made a mistake and installed the heatsink before the RAM, which gave me little space to put my fingers on the RAM stick closest to the heatsink, and while I was still able to do it, I decided it would be better the other way around if there was a next time.
The M.2 NVMe SSD was interesting to install, I had to keep the card straight and steady in the slot while I installed the retention screw. While I understand the design gives more board space, it made me miss mini PCI and mini PCIe which I felt were a bit easier to install.
While I was waiting on the power supply, I decided to give Triela's power adapter a try, since it should provide just enough power, but the plug didnt fit into the jack, so I let things be.
I decided to buy the barebones kit from a different retailer if it got too close to the end of the return window, which I ended up doing, and when I got the new kit, I used the power supply from it to check the function of the system before beginning to dissassemble the system and repackage it. (This is where I found out a BIOS update for the G3930 was unnecessary.)
After building the system again (with the new kit), I did a quick post before heading to sleep. After work the next day, I think I began installing openSUSE and I think finding that the UEFI version of MemTest86 wasn't in the repository?
Anyway, I got into MemTest86 and started it up before I went to sleep. when I returned to it the next morning, I found that it had finished 15 or so passes after 7 something hours and that it was relatively close to finishing the 16th, and once that was done, I stopped it to begin configuring openSUSE (unless I installed before I did). Since I could just disconnect the display cable or turn the monitor, I decided leaving it to run overnight was the best option seeing how long Shizuma took to run 4 passes, but I was proven wrong, though it's not a bad thing that MemTest86 ran more than I wanted it to.
I also tried to set up a VPN on it, but after a couple hours or so, I decided to just get the server up instead. with everything configured, I took down Banpi and CFS to retrieve the hard drives and removed Celery Box's motherboard to install the hard drive to the tray.
I spent another couple hours or so trying to figure out why I was having problems with the file server, since I was attempting to transfer stuff via FTP, but eventually I decided to just mount the drive with SSHFS instead... something like that anyway... I also had a bit of trouble with the bittorrent server as well, but I ended up figuring that out.
While it's a sort of shame I don't get to really see the actual speed of openSUSE booting, I at least know that the server's back up within a couple minutes (as in that I can mount the drive with SSHFS).
I've only updated packages once, and I've been meaning to regularly do it, but I've gotten so used to leaving Banpi and CFS as-is that I forget to update - I'll have to create a reminder to update weekly or something.
While using FreeFileSync, it seems like Celery Box is faster than CFS, since it only takes FreeFileSync about a 20 seconds to scan Melty and Celery Box while it took at least a couple minutes for Triela and CFS. Transfer speeds seem faster as well, but without proper testing, it's hard to say if it's the ethernet port speed (the Banana Pi supposedly was half of gigabit even though it was marketed as gigabit), the SATA speed (I don't recall seeing a speed for Banana Pi's SATA port), network placement, and/or some other system spec. (Fun fact: it takes about 30 seconds for FreeFileSync to scan Celery Box and i3rd.)
I ended up sticking Noctua's badge and openSUSE badge on the case, though unnecessary, but it was a good thing since it wouldn't be easy to tell it apart from the i3rd by looking if for some reason they were in the same place and neither had badges.
I think I ended up finding the repository for the VPN I use, so after adding the repository and installing the CLI app, I was able to have Celery Box on a VPN like I wanted.
I also ended up setting up a reminder to update Celery Box once a month because I continued to forget to update every so often.
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