(Mostly) Assembling The Retro Computer Workstation

I'm really not sure what all to say about this odd computer setup I've got going. It's super weird, inside and out, but it makes me very happy. It's running an industrial ARM based computer inside (Raspberry Pi 5), uses a Packard Bell case from the 1990s, and has a modern retro styled keyboard and modern displays. It runs very modern software and plays a decent collection of games that it was never designed to run. It's using a very old, but still quite powerful, graphics card that makes the system feel very fast and modern. 

This computer isn't built for fun and games. It's a development workstation for an industrial ARM based computer. I use it for testing and developing custom software and hardware for ARM based systems. For anyone not familiar, ARM is a processor architecture. There's AMD and Intel, who make X86 based processors, and ARM which is an entirely different architecture used mostly by smartphones, cars, and Apple computers. ARM processors can run X86 software with some emulation software layers, but it's inefficient and slow. The ARM processor I'm using in this machine is about as powerful as a decade old smart phone. Not great, but not useless either. The new Mac computers use custom ARM processors, which are incredibly powerful and efficient. They're a good example of what's possible outside of AMD and Intel.

I chose to work with ARM systems because they're cheap, efficient, and easy to develop hardware and software for, using systems like the Raspberry Pi. I'm also developing a custom industrial computer system on ARM, due to the availability of cheap, bulk systems that could sustain larger scale production down the road. I also chose ARM because I want to see it succeed. There are countless brilliant people quietly working on making ARM a mainstream success, but they often don't reach the general public. I spend a ton of time on places like hackaday.com, GitHub.com, and even jeffgeerling.com. Not exactly places your average computer user is going to hang out. I've also been using Linux exclusively since about 2018. I want to see both ARM and Linux thrive, as they can help us all escape the various monopolies and dualopolies of the big tech giants that make life worse for us all. The only way I've found to make a positive impact is to make ARM and Linux as easy to use and enjoy as possible. To give people reasons to switch. One of the things I'm working on is buying affordable hardware, testing it thoroughly, and documenting exactly what is required to make it work. I'm currently working on building a custom Linux operating system that would just work with most graphics cards and make it very easy to get stuff done or even play games. The end goal is to develop an entire home computer system, software to go with it, and offer the entire thing at a reasonable price. Eventually I'd like to release a proper industrial computer system to help support important work like scientific field research and off grid computing in places like boats and cabins in the woods. Places where a normal computer might not even survive.

My slightly crusty workstation computer is just a way to make a computer as comfortable and functional for me as possible. It's almost done and it feels like home already.

Right now, it's using a standard Raspberry Pi 5 with a cheap adapter board for the graphics card, all just kind of stuffed into the case. The plan is to develop a custom motherboard for the Raspberry Pi CM5 module that lets you install it on a standard computer case and use standards parts. I'm putting together the parts list for the next order to finish building this system. It still needs a graphics card support bracket, graphics card extension cable, floppy drive mounted USB and audio port panel, extra USB charging ports on the side, case fans, and a ton of cable ties to clean up the inside. It will eventually get a custom main board and industrial module, but I have to design those and have them manufactured first. 

Right now, it's a very capable, fun, and pleasant to use computer. I've been using it as my only computer for a few days now, despite having a $4,000 engineering laptop. I haven't run into too many things this computer can't do, but I have found a few big ones. Currently, it won't run the circuit board design software reliabily, and it doesn't have enough memory to do a bunch of stuff at once. I'm upgrading the memory, but it's still not enough. Sometimes you just need a big, powerful, normal processor. That's why I'm putting together a new server computer today. Just a standard computer, with standard Linux software, that will stay on at all times and run stuff in the background and provide backup services to the other computers I use. 

For anyone who's curious, here's what the new server will consist of:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900x 12 core processor
• Intel Arc B570 graphics processor
• 16GB of memory
• 1TB NVME boot drive
• 10TB data storage hard drive
• Basic professional grade motherboard
• Basic Seasonic 850 watt power supply
• All in one (AIO) water cooling system
• White case with wood grain on the front.

It's quite a powerful machine, and should do everything I need to do. I'll log into it over the network here to work on stuff that requires the extra power or an X86 processor, use it to play games on the living room TV, serve games over the network to other computers, process and edit YouTube videos, and serve up my media collection using Jellyfin Media Server software. I've used my laptop for all of this so far, but it's got an overheating problem and I don't want to have my nice laptop running at all times, then have to shut down all of the services it runs when I take it on the road. I also need another computer to use while I tear my laptop apart to repair the cooling system.

I've always had computers in my life, and this retro ARM workstation is shaping up to be my favorite so far. I'm hoping it will inspire some people to get into computers in more ways than just playing games with them. I'd love nothing more than to see more people getting into software and hardware development and start solving important problems in the world. Computers are incredibly powerful and life changing, but only if used properly. Hopefully my work will help out some good back into the world someday. Worst case scenario: I learn many useful skills, have some fun, and end up with some really unique and affordable computers to use. I'm ok with that.