Why So Sad Hybird? (Part 2 of 2)

Last time I had discussed flash drives and hybrid drives with flash memory and how they could really improve response time for our bots because flash drives would be much faster than platter-driven drives.  I had also mentioned that such drives have really not taken the market by storm.  This was not because of cost nor performance but of an underlying flaw: Flash memory has a life cycle of 10,000 writes.

What does that mean?  You can only write to a flash memory stick about 10,000 times before it simply will not write anymore.  Now, 10,000 writes is absolutely fine for that USB drive in your pocket attached to your keychain.  But for desktop computers, this is simply not enough. While servers would love the performance boost of using Flash memory, they are also not durable enough for such wear.

Then I came across this little article…
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/memory/flash-memory-survives-100-million-cycles

So some researchers found a way to get around that nasty 10,000 write limit.  If this indeed is true, and there is no real reason why this is not true, then it should not be too long before flash drives in more reasonable capacities are created and at a price point which is attractive for the performance boost.  I suspect that these new drives could hit the market within a year or so.

For us bot owners, what does this mean?  If you are running a part-time bot or bots on older hardware, this will not mean much of anything beyond some advertising you will see when you shop online, watch television or visit your local bog box store.  But for those who run bot chains, or aspiring bot chain owners, having a dedicated machine makes sense.  When the time comes to contemplate purchasing new hardware, take a look at these new rugged SSD drives and see if the increased cost and increased cost is worth the financial risk and performance gain.

Why So Sad Hybrid? (Part 1 of 2)

There is a Chinese proverb; a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  There is a similar saying when it comes to the speed of computers; its speed is determined by its slowest component.  In the past, the bottleneck would be the CPU itself.  It has also been the bus or pathway between various components.  Today, the slowest component is the hard drive. 

While other components are chugging along at the speed of light, hard drives have to wait while a spinning platter reaches its proper placement so a magnetic thingamajig can read some random 1’s and 0’s and attempt to make sense of it.  Various strategies have been developed in an attempt to solve this problem.  One attempt is to use multiple hard drives and combine them into one monster hard drive which while it increases the storage capacity linearly, the read and seek times increase geometrically.  But this RAID solution is fairly expensive and not really applicable in small servers, desktops or personal machines.  It’s just not cost-effective.

So you can imagine the cries of joy when flash memory was developed.  Not quite ROM (Read-Only Memory) and not quite RAM, but a memory which would hold its state like ROM but can be written to and hold its state, like RAM, and can hold its state without the need for constant electricity.  It is best known as USB drives, thumb drives or flash drives.  By whatever name it is known, this type of memory is found in all of these portable drives, and has allowed for the explosion of growth in the tablet market.

The next logical place for this memory is to try and make an entire hard drive based on this flash memory.  The technology is fairly simple.  RAM disks were popular in the early days on the personal computer and one could really detect the performance increase.  While no one really expected to replicate the performance increase, people did expect to see a performance increase when this type of flash technology was made into a stand-alone hard drive or even its cousin, the hybrid drive, a drive with an SSD partition as well as a traditional platter for additional storage.

Billions of dollars have been spent in infrastructure to build the drives that experts said there would be a demand for.  Yet SSD drives and hybrid drives have not really taken off.  It is not the cost of these drives, although that is a small factor.  It is not the performance as every independent test shows that these drives perform as advertised.   Why haven’t flash memory drives taken off and more importantly, how does this affect us bot owners?  I’ll discuss that next time.

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Virtual Machines) Part 9

Virtual Machines:

Last week we talked about some basic things to keep in mind when setting up your bot server and installing its operating system. This time I'll talk about setting up your virtual machines.

I assume you've already installed your host operating system on your computer.
First I would recommend you to get the very basics ready, like installing your web browser of choice and making sure you have internet connection and maybe installing an anti-virus software before we start.

Installing your virtual machine(s): 

It's time to install and set up your virtual machine(s), for this I would recommend using VMware Player which is free to use or VMware Workstation. You'll have to purchase a license to use this one though and I think it's pretty unnecessary for what we're going to do.

1. Start by installing whichever version you prefer.

2. Start VMware and press "Create a New Virtual Machine".

3. Choose either "Installer disc" if you have your OS on a DVD or "Installer disc image file (iso)" if you have a .iso file of your OS on your computer.

4. Type your Windows product key and your name and password (you need a password to be able to connect to your botting computer with Remote Desktop).

5. Choose a name of your virtual machine. I would recommend choosing the same name that you're going to use for your bot so you don't mix them up.

Also choose to install your virtual machine on your SSD if you purchased one and make a folder called something like Virtual Machines to keep things organized.

6. Choose how much disk size to allocate for your virtual machine. I would recommend something between 5 and 10 GB and choose "Store virtual disk as a single file", then click next and finish and the virtual machine will start up and start your Windows Installation.

You only need to do this once as I'll show you how to copy your virtual machine later to use for more bots. It's best to do it later when it's set up and ready so you don't have to install stuff like MTGO again.

7. After the installation is done power off your virtual machine just like you power off any Windows installation and then right click it in the list in VMware Player and click "Virtual Machine Settings".
First choose "Memory" and set it between 2-3 GB for Windows 7. This can easily be changed later so you can see what works best for you. This totally depends on how slim your Windows 7 installation is and what applications you choose to run.

8. Next select Processors and select one processor core.

9.(Optional) Then you can delete devices you know you won't use but this is not necessary. I for example disabled the CD/DVD reader as my server doesn't even have one.

Setting up your pagefiles:
 
This is instructions for those who have chosen to use more than one hard drive.

1. Start up your virtual machine.

2. Go into the Control Panel and click "System".

3. Click "Change Settings" to the right Click the "Advanced" tab and then "Settings..." under "Performance" and then the next "Advanced" tab and then "Change..."

4. Now select your C: drive (which should be your SSD if you have one) and then select "Custom Size" and  write 1024 in the initial and maximum size and click "Set". Then select your second hard drive and choose "System managed size" and click "Set".

This will give you two pagefiles, one for the OS (windows requires around 1gb) and then a larger one for the rest of your applications that lies on your second hard drive where it doesn't slow your computer down.


Final installs:

After this you should install service packs and drivers using the windows updater and then you just need to install .Net Framework 4.0 from Microsoft's site and DirectX9 (to be able to run MTGO) and of course install and update the MTGO client itself and the MTGO Library Bot.
After that you should install any other softwares you want to use, a backup software for example and then you're almost ready.

Multiple Virtual Machines:
If you're planning on running more bots you can now follow these short instructions:

1. Shut off your virtual machine and then shut off VMvare.

2. Locate your virtual machine on your C: drive and then just copy the folder and rename it to something fitting.


3. Start VMware again and choose "Open a virtual machine" and locate it on your hard drive. When you power it on click "I copied it" and that's it. Now you have an exact copy of your first virtual machine to use for your second bot, now you can do this for any number of bots you want to use.

This was all I had for today.

Next week I'll talk about setting up your bots and getting them ready for action.
As always I'll gladly answer any questions you might have in the comment section.
Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Setup 1) Part 8

Putting together the pieces:

This article will go through some things to keep in mind and some basic instructions on setting up your botting server. I can't go too in-depth as things like installation of hardware and operative system will vary a lot depending on what you have purchased.
I'll assume you've decided what hardware to buy and now it's time to set it all up and get it ready for botting. I will also write this focused on helping you install Windows 7 as this is the operative system I would recommend for someone with basic to no experience. You can find more information on available operative systems in my previous article.

Installing your hardware: 

First of all you obviously need to put your hardware together and get the computer running. You don't need any special tools other than a normal screwdriver.
Your hardware should come with instruction manuals that I would recommend you to read.
I would also recommend searching Google and Youtube for articles and videos on how to set up each part.
When it comes to building a computer, as long as you have purchased parts that are compatible with each other it's very straight forward and you can't really do it wrong as most(if not all) cables only fit in one slot, it's almost as easy as building a jig-saw puzzle. Just make sure to read the instruction manuals before you start building.

When building a computer a good idea is to wear an antistatic wrist strap that you attach to something grounded like a sink or a radiator.
This is a safety measure that prevents you from discharging static electricity built up in your body into sensitive computer parts, which could potentially break them.

These straps can be purchased cheaply at shops that sell computer hardware.

If you're hesitant to build your computer yourself there are plenty of computer shops that offer to build it for you, but these often charge quite a lot. You could always ask a friend or acquaintance that have more experience to build it for you. I would however say that anyone that can read and follow simple instructions can build a PC.

Installing your operative system: 

Remember to install your OS on your SSD if you decided to purchase one for your bot.
There are two ways I would recommend when installing your OS.

First one is the most basic, simply install it using a DVD that will be included if you purchased a physical Windows License. If you purchased a digital version simply download the .iso file from your digital distributor and burn it onto a DVD.

If you do not have access to a DVD burner or don't have a DVD reader for your server you can use Win7 USB/DVD Download Tool and follow the simple instructions on the site to turn a USB drive into a bootable Windows installation. There are similar softwares available for other operative systems you might prefer but I won't name them all here.

To install simply insert your DVD into the DVD reader and follow the installation instructions on the screen.
When installing using an USB drive you might have to choose it as your bootable drive do this by going into the BIOS. You can see which button takes you there on the screen when starting your computer (this can vary depending on your motherboard) then choose USB as your bootable drive. You can easily find instructions for this if you search Google using the name of your motherboard and something along the lines of "change bootable drive".


This is as I said earlier, very basic. I would recommend slimming down your operative system before installation using RT Se7en Lite for Win 7 or nLite for Win XP. This could potentially save you tons of computer resources to dedicate for the bots instead of running unnecessary services and other stuff that comes with your OS that you don't need. This will however take some time and can be a bit tricky so I would recommend looking for guides online on how to do it. I will not go through how you should do it mainly because everyone use different components of their OS and also completely different operative systems so this is pretty much up to you how you want it. But there are great guides that will help you slim down your own custom Windows installation that suits your needs.

This was some very, very basic information about setting up your hardware and operative system.
If you have any questions I will gladly answer them in the comment section bellow.

Next time I'll go through setting up some softwares you need and getting your computer ready for botting.
Ta-ta!

-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware 3) Part 6

More on hardware 2/2:

Yesterday we started off this post with some basic things to keep in mind when buying hardware for your botting computer. The post got a bit long so here is the second part, continuing with some recommendations and a bit more in depth information on what hardware you might actually need to buy.

Individual Parts: 

When it comes to botting MTGO CPU and RAM is the most important parts so you'll want to focus your budget on these.

CPU (Processor): 

You'll need a CPU around these lines. (These are just quick estimates and not necessarily completely correct)

    •   1-5 bots - Intel i3 Quad Core / AMD 2 - 4 Core
    •   6-9 bots - Intel i5 Quad Core / AMD 6 Core
    •   10-14 bots - Intel i7 Quad Core / AMD 8 Core

I for one decided to buy an AMD CPU mainly because they're cheaper, my main computer runs an Intel i7 and I didn't feel like spending a lot on another one. The slight advantage an Intel CPU will bring is usually not worth the extra cash in my opinion. Just make sure to compare benchmarks you'll find online, don't listen blindly to what each brand tells you.

Ram (Memory):

Running Windows XP you'll need around 1.5 GB RAM down to 1.1 GB per bot if you have an extra HDD to put the pagefile on (I highly recommend this and will be talking more about this in future posts)  and 2 GB+ for Win 7.

The speed of the RAM Isn't really important, any 1333 MHz + will do just fine.

GPU (Graphics Card):

MTGO have a GPU system recommendation of 128 MB video RAM (not to be confused with normal RAM) and support for DirectX9, which is nothing.

The GPU must also support 1080x1024 resolution which also isn't much.

Most motherboards with integrated GPU will be powerful enough for MTGO so you might not need to buy a separate GPU at all.

PSU (Power Supply):

When it comes to PSU it only have to support wattage of as much(or more) as the rest of the parts consume.

You can easily calculate how high wattage you'll need using: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite
Just input your other computer parts and click calculate.

When it comes to PSU you're better off buying a quality one with 80+ certificate than a budget one as it will consume much less power.
It'll also last you much longer, which is important for a machine that will be running 24/7.

Motherboard:

The motherboard only has to support the other parts and isn't going to cost you much.
Just make sure it's compatible with the rest and have enough slots for your RAM.

You might want to buy one with an integrated GPU so you don't have to buy one separately.

Hard Drive/SSD:

I would recommend running your bot and Operative System on an SSD.
It's not necessary but will greatly increase the speed of your bots if you're running multiple.

I would also recommend getting a regular HDD to backup your bots on and run the pagefiles on.
Each bot needs around 5-10 GB space.

Unless you're planning on overclocking you won't have to spend on extra, fancy cooling (unless you want your computer to be quiet) the case fans and stock cooling will likely be enough to begin with.

When it comes to brands I would recommend not to buy the cheapest, generic crap.
This computer will run 24/7 so you'll want to spend a little bit extra on getting parts from brands such as Corsair, Samsung, Kingston, ASUS and the like.

The dvd-writer, case and a backup HDD doesn't matter much though, any brand will most likely do.

My dedicated botting computer runs the following hardware: 

    •    16 GB (2x8) 1600 MHz Corsair RAM

    •   AMD FX-8320 8 core 3.5GHz CPU

    •   Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard

    •   Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze PSU

    •   Samsung 840-Series 120GB SSD

    •   500GB Samsung 7200rpm HDD

On this computer I run 5 bots with lots of room for expanding and upgrading to MTGO v4.

When picking your parts I would suggest using: PC Part Picker to make sure your parts are compatible with each other.

Just remember that these estimates are based on performance of MTGO v3 and Win XP, things will change a lot when v4 is released but we can't know for sure until it's time. I'll get back to this in a new article when v4 is released.

More next week and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware 2) Part 5

More on hardware 1/2:

Last week we talked some basic hardware for the new botter.
This week we'll go a little more in depth into choosing hardware, this is going to be an article mainly for the aspiring botter who doesn't have a suitable computer lying around to run his first bots on, but also the botter who's looking to upgrade from his old attic computer. I'm not going to tell you what to get, since that is totally dependent on your budget, plans and so on and so forth but I will give you some tips and stuff to keep in mind when buying hardware.

Tips and thoughts: 

Always when buying a new computer it's best to buy each individual part and build it yourself, or to have a friend build it rather than buying a complete package. These packages will almost always include stuff you don't need, and they will also charge a lot extra for setting it up for you.

When it comes to computer hardware it's the absolute latest parts and the oldest parts that are going to be the most expensive ones, so you're better off buying new but not the absolute latest parts to make sure you're not spending too much.

I would say the only reason to just buy a computer that only can run one or two bots would be if it only cost a few bucks second hand. If you're going to buy brand new you're better off at least leaving some room for expanding later on, or you'll end up wasting a lot of money.

What lies ahead: 

You also have to take into account that Wizards Of The Coast is going to release their new MTGO v4 client (which is now in Beta) soon, which will require more computer power and won't run on Win XP.

Windows 7 requires more resources than XP even slimmed down so a computer that at the moment runs 5 bots might only run 2 or 3 in a few months when v4 is released.
I'm all for future proofing and find it silly to spend significant amounts of money on something you'll have to upgrade in a few months, so I would recommend spending some extra on a computer with room for expanding and room for the v4 client.

Part 2 of  'More on Hardware' tomorrow and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

A comprehensive guide for the aspiring botter (Hardware) Part 4

Basic hardware:

Last week we talked about naming your bots, this week, as promised will be about basic hardware to start with for your first few bots.

MTGO Library Bot is not very resource demanding, you could actually run at least a bot or two on most computers.
I started running my first two bots without problems using only a really old Core 2 duo CPU and 1.1 GB ram each. These were parts I had lying in the attic and worked well as a first dedicated computer/server to run two bots.

Per bot you will need at least: 
       •  1.5 GB RAM (Memory) down to 1.1gb if you're ready to do some work and have an extra HDD                  (harddrive) lying around.

       •   5-10 GB HDD space.

       •   1.5 GHz CPU (Processor), preferably better

       •   1280x1024+ Screen Resolution

Then of course you need a motherboard that can run all these components together, a PSU(power supply) with high enough wattage and a GPU(graphics card) with at least 128 MB video ram(memory) and support for DirectX 9.

These are highly dependent on what other parts you choose so I can't give you any definite answer exactly what you'll need without knowing your other parts.

Using something along the line of these minimum requirements will let you run a bot or two and is a good way of starting out in the beginning.
I would however not recommend you to buy hardware that is this shitty unless you can get them for a few bucks second hand.
If you do not have a computer around that meets these requirements I would recommend getting something a bit more powerful to make room for expanding later on.

My first botting computer ran the following hardware: 

       •   4gb DDR2 RAM                                      
       •   Intel Core 2 Duo CPU at 2.8 GHz
       •   128GB SSD
       •   512 GB HDD
       •   Nvidia GTX260 GPU
       •   GA-73PVM-S2H motherboard
       •   500W PSU
All these parts except the SSD were all crap I had lying around but enough to easily run my first two bots.

I would recommend starting with something similar.
The GPU is however unnecessarily powerful, MTG doesn't require a GPU nearly as strong as this one.
The SSD is also unnecessary and you're better off spending your money on other parts that will drastically increase your performance. And the PSU only needs to be as powerful as the other parts require.

Another thing to keep in mind is that old hardware doesn't necessarily mean that it's cheap.
You can probably find a computer similar to these requirements second hand for almost nothing.
But when you buy old parts in stores they are usually hugely overpriced, since they want you to buy a new computer package with all hardware and software they'll try to trick you to get instead of repairing your old one. They also know that most people who buys the old stuff don't have much choice since the newer parts won't fit their old computer and hope that you'll decide to get a new one instead.

For example a quick check shows that the cheapest 8gb (2x4gb) DDR2 memory cost $165, while the cheapest 8gb (2x4gb) DDR3 which is twice as fast cost $53. So you could get at least twice, maybe thrice as much memory that is also at least twice as fast for the same price if you buy new components and not the old inferior ones.
So make sure to check prices, you might be better off buying all new parts instead of replacing that one old part you need for your old setup to work.

More on hardware next time and as always I'll gladly answer any questions you might have in the comment section.

Cheers!
-Tom (Sitrec)
Archbot MTGO Store: ArchBot, ArchBot2, ArchBot3, ArchBot4 & ArchBot5

Hardware Failures

Hello, today I am going to speak about hardware failures due to what happened to me last night.

The computer where I run my bots is right next to my bed. Its a silent water cooled setup witch is quiet enough to sleep right next to it. Last night at about 3AM I woke up with a bang! Unsure what was all about, I noticed that the PC was off. I tried to power it on and nothing happened. Checked my power switches downstairs and the sockets switch was off, pulled it up into "ON" and jumped back to off and heard another bang coming from upstairs. It was obvious to me that the PSU was shorting.

Unplugged the PSU off the power, turned the sockets on, plugged the PSU again with a different power cord and nothing happened. I was 90%+ sure it was the power supply but I wanted to be sure before ordering anything or getting a replacement.

I do have a few spare parts, such as an old HDD, 2 sticks of 4GB ram (atm i use 8+4+8+4 GB), a "old" graphics card, etc. In between these parts i had a old 400W psu. It did not have the 8 pin EPS cable that i needed, or the 2 PCI-E (only 1), but i hooked it up to the board, push the power button and the PC turned on. I was now 100% sure it was the power supply.

Saturday morning, bots already offline for 6 hours, I cannot afford to have the PC off up to Tuesday or so without my bots running. After a pointless trip to PC World to find out they don't stock PC components in store (????), I've ended up having to go to town center and buy a "slightly" overpriced power supply.

I taken the opportunity of having my PC all apart to clear all the dust, service the water cooling and tidy up the cables around my desk. Its all running smooth now.


My questions to everyone are: 

Do you keep any spare parts for diagnosis/repair in case any of your components die?

Do you have a plan in case your Disk/CPU/PSU/RAM/Board dies on you? (backups, close-by shops, etc)