I'm Robert Marshall, director and senior consultant at SMSMarshall Ltd who's specialism is in the Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager product and all of its dependent products covering all aspects from Architecture, Implementation, Migration to Break-Fix.
I've been using computers for over 30 years, beginning as a programmer and now a senior consultant in an enterprise product. I only count my career as starting 17 years ago when I began my first serious role as a deployment engineer. I've seen 8 bit through to 64 bit, the rise and constant refinement of the GUI, the rise of the Internet from land-line based modem access to the powerful broadband connections we have today, mobile phones come into existence, and I've seen Microsoft evolve from a handful of employees to the company it is now while pretty much tinkering with every OS they have released; As well as seeing an industry that has evolved around those humble beginnings to become what we have today. You could call me an IT Dinosaur but I'm still as mentally able as I was back then, perhaps even more adept now since I've had broad exposure to so much and seen trends come and go. I'm a keen technical puzzle solver, which sets me apart as I love to solve gnarly problems around my area of specialism.
I like to share, i do so by blogging here, and helping out when I can as a moderator and answering questions when I have time on the TechNet Social forums for ConfigMgr 2012 and ConfigMgr 2007. I am a guest poster on TechNet UK Flash magazine and an MVP since 2009 (Most Valuable Professional) in the ECM (Enterprise Client Management) exclusively dedicated to ConfigMgr. the MVP status helps me to help others in more depth due to the closeness to the product group and access to other MVP's the program affords me.
The blogs pretty much about ConfigMgr, but on the odd occasion I also use it as a platform to express my random urges to post something I've stumbled across, be it technical or non-technical, and which I imagine would entertain you or what not as equally as it did me.
(2013)
Who said that PC’s are dead. I recently bought the parts to make a custom machine, and today I finally built it.
It’s destined to act as a Hyper-V 3.0 server, so that I can run a large bunch of Virtual Machines.
Here’s the spec’s:
And here’s what the Noctua NH-D14-2011 looks like:
It doesn’t come with the model obviously, but her and a review of the Noctua NH-D14-2011 can be found here
I had a real time putting this together, the Noctua NH-D14-2011 wouldn’t fit when the memory ports are fully loaded, part of the Noctua heatsink needed trimming for the right fit, here’s what I hacked off and the tool that helped me get there
Here’s some shots of the profile, showing how I butchered the radiator fins on the heat-sink before it’d sit above the ram
Honestly, don’t try this at home!
It’s currently running Windows Server 2012 RC, running the X.M.P profile which supports the speeds this RAM can run at (2400Mhz)
I used the on-board Intel Rapid Storage Technology Controller to form a RAID 10 using four of the 2TB disks.
Plenty of room for optimisation later on, external RAID controller for better disk performance, overclock that CPU (4Ghz+!) and maybe go for the Intel 6 core instead of the 4 core that’s in there, so there’s a little room for growth if I want to, but this thing is so bad ass I don’t think I’ll upgrade it for a long time!
So you've finally built a gaming pc !
Wise-guy! My gaming PC has a Radeon HD5900 ... I guess she's dated now, but I haven't got a game here that stresses the GPU to be honest (www.tomshardware.com/.../radeon-hd-5970,2474-4.html)
Now thats beast there! good job cutting the cooler :)
Thanks! It took ages I didn't want to be too brutal with the block!
I put the innards of my old case into one of the Fractal cases back in June. They're great. Did have to make a trip down to Maplins though because the ATX 8-pin power connector wouldn't stretch from the PSU to the mobo.
All setup good here for labs now, mini-infrastructure always-on, sweet!