4 ms·

I remember being transfixed by Aussie50's clever hack of wiring his 12V CPU AUX power connector to an old school mechanical ammeter. Probably not a great idea t

I remember being transfixed by Aussie50's clever hack of wiring his 12V CPU AUX power connector to an old school mechanical ammeter. Probably not a great idea today due to the intense power transients modern machines draw, but the idea of physical instrumentation on machines has always seemed like a good idea to me, if space is available. I like my gpu's coil whine, I can hear if it's running a misconfigured job. Human brains are amazing multi modal pattern matchers, it's good to let them do so.

titaniumtown 3y ago
The only noise my desktop makes nowadays is the coil whine. I find it more annoying than the clicks of a hard drive though due to its frequency.
- progman32 3y ago
  Fair. It's a bit of a screech for sure. If it weren't so useful for my specific usage patterns, I'd probably try to quiet it.
liminalsunset 3y ago
On some MacBook models (Intel), there was a sensor for this that you could access with the iStat menus app (among other ones) that did the same thing - it measured the power/current at "CPU Computing Highside", or in other words before the main ~12V bus that powered the CPU. Was interesting to compare the CPU package power and this figure to see the "efficiency loss" in the VRMs. Tangentially relevant but since you mention Aussie50... brings back the memories. At the end of primary school, I used to watch Aussie50 on YouTube a lot, and discovered a number of excellent engineering channels they were associated with. He was very good at explaining how various machinery worked, and YouTube videos like these played quite a role in getting me interested in tech. Sadly there won't be any new videos anymore, but hopefully the channel stays up/someone has a backup of it.
- progman32 3y ago
  I credit him with giving me the push to just be what I am, that it's ok to have a garage full of strange machines just to enjoy and learn. That was huge for my young self, who hadn't seen anyone else in tech in their life. And don't worry, I've got Aussie50's entire channel backed up, myself. I'll post it if it ever goes down.

titaniumtown 3y ago

The only noise my desktop makes nowadays is the coil whine. I find it more annoying than the clicks of a hard drive though due to its frequency.

progman32 3y ago
Fair. It's a bit of a screech for sure. If it weren't so useful for my specific usage patterns, I'd probably try to quiet it.

liminalsunset 3y ago

On some MacBook models (Intel), there was a sensor for this that you could access with the iStat menus app (among other ones) that did the same thing - it measured the power/current at "CPU Computing Highside", or in other words before the main ~12V bus that powered the CPU. Was interesting to compare the CPU package power and this figure to see the "efficiency loss" in the VRMs. Tangentially relevant but since you mention Aussie50... brings back the memories. At the end of primary school, I used to watch Aussie50 on YouTube a lot, and discovered a number of excellent engineering channels they were associated with. He was very good at explaining how various machinery worked, and YouTube videos like these played quite a role in getting me interested in tech. Sadly there won't be any new videos anymore, but hopefully the channel stays up/someone has a backup of it.

progman32 3y ago
I credit him with giving me the push to just be what I am, that it's ok to have a garage full of strange machines just to enjoy and learn. That was huge for my young self, who hadn't seen anyone else in tech in their life. And don't worry, I've got Aussie50's entire channel backed up, myself. I'll post it if it ever goes down.