General Computer Thread

[rivkah]

Well they are not concerned too much about speed but do want ports for external storage and also a decent sized internal storage . I have a few models in mind I even offered to give my 2 year old Acer to her it's got two internal drives so tons of storage and 3 usb 3 ports, 2 on the left, 1 on the right HDMI and ethernet

I gave my Acer away, highly recommend that option - not just to help someone out, but getting away from Acer and going to a different brand!

Sometimes a used computer is just what a person needs for a bit. My mum learned how much she'd love a laptop from the first machine I passed to her, and the sister who recently asked for laptop buying advice had received a different machine from me at the start of the pandemic (the Acer, I think). Each time, the ability to use without having to purchase gave the person time to determine what they liked in a machine of their own.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I gave my Acer away, highly recommend that option - not just to help someone out, but getting away from Acer and going to a different brand!

Sometimes a used computer is just what a person needs for a bit. My mum learned how much she'd love a laptop from the first machine I passed to her, and the sister who recently asked for laptop buying advice had received a different machine from me at the start of the pandemic (the Acer, I think). Each time, the ability to use without having to purchase gave the person time to determine what they liked in a machine of their own.

I think that's what I am going to do the Acer has two 1tb drives inside and 32gig ram so I mean it's more than enough for general use if you are not gaming.

 

[Santaman]

Have been given a few discarded office machines, various HP machines, one was dinged up pretty bad but I was able to use some parts for a less dinged up machine of the same type so i have a working i7 3770 machine with 16GB RAM which is pretty nice, it's a HP Elite 7300/7500 machine, the dinged up one was also a Elite 7300/7500 but it was an i5 machine, I of course saved the mainboard PSU and so on.
Ar first the i7 didn't want to boot up at all, couldn't get into the BIOS either seemed to be a bit of a dud but then I discovered that there was still a drive inside, an old SSD and that was the culprit, it was deader than dead and it screwed up the poor old machine, it could detect something but not what it was so it went into a little meltdown.
Removed the SSD and after that it was pretty happy, gave it a good clean and a HDD that I had lying around, might go for a Linux Distro or maybe even Windows 8.1 since the machine has a BIOS code for that one, no need to reg etc..

Another machine I got is a scrathed up HP Pro 3500, I have a much nicer almost undamaged one so I'll use this one for spare parts as well, these are also i5 Ivy Bridge, think it was a 3740 so quad core, pretty nice though.

last but not least two Pavilion 500 machines, both i7 4790 Haswell so quad core with HT, they both are identical and have a graphics card, a itty bitty Geforce GT 530 OEM which is okay at projecting an image on screen, could maybe run a few old games but it's rather slow.. I'll keep one, the other one I'll donate to a friend, they both need a cleanup and then they'll be good to go when I find some storage for them that is, only one machine had a drive inside which was that dead SSD..
I like messing with old stuff.

*edit*
Pavilions are weird, well these older ones, their UEFI BIOS is a bit basic so it won't boot from USB stick (non UEFI) when compatibility mode is off and the system drive (SATA SSD) won't boot when it's on.. took me a while to figure that out, so compatibility mode on, install Linux Mint 22.0, reboot, go to BIOS turn off compatibility mode and the machine boots from the SSD, bit of a hassle but it works pretty well.

 

[Spider]

So after way to much thinking about it this is my new PC build. I had Microcenter build it for me. Just got it today and I'm still fiddling around with fucking Windows 11. The only two offensive pieces of software I had to uninstall from Microcenter's build was Norton and something called MSI Control Center. After that, it was nothing but Windows stuff so I'm starting with a nice clean build.

Core i7 Raptor Lake 3.4 GHz twenty core LGA 1700
Z790 MAG Tomahawk LGA 1700 ATX motherboard
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 TI Super Windforce 16GB

I got a 2TB 990 PRO Samsung NVMe for my C drive and the same thing for a 4TB D drive. No spinning drives or water cooling on my new PC. I went ahead and got 64GB memory instead of 32. I don't think I need 64GB of memory for what I do, but it wasn't that expensive to just go ahead and get 64.

I get a new PC about every five or so years. This time I have to go to windows 11 and I don't particularly care for it. I had my windows 10 PC looking exactly like windows 7, just the way I like it. LOL

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

MSI control center isn't that bad is it?

I used an older version of it on a previous build and it never really got in the way. Having said that I did remove it eventually but it never gave me grief

 

[Spider]

I distrust a lot of those 3rd party PC tuning stuff. Any application that wants to fiddle with my fans I just don't like. Some of them may actually do some good, but it's like getting a water cooled PC, nope, ain't gonna happen. LOL

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I distrust a lot of those 3rd party PC tuning stuff. Any application that wants to fiddle with my fans I just don't like. Some of them may actually do some good, but it's like getting a water cooled PC, nope, ain't gonna happen. LOL

I have never ever done water cooling, never overclocked and do not feel I need to

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

MSI control center isn't that bad is it?

It's a flaming dumpster fire, uninstall it ASAP.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It's a flaming dumpster fire, uninstall it ASAP.

I never had issues with it when I used it, but I did remove it once I figured it really didn't do much that I couldn't do myself.

Same for things like armory crate now that thing is bloatware

 

[Jax]

I'm looking at this GPU deal that I came across today and was hoping for your opinions...

I currently have a 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 and I've had this trusty card since 2018. My rig is obviously showing it's age but buying a whole new rig is probably a year or two away because dam things are expensive. I was looking at just updating the GPU to give me more life and I came across this black friday season deal...

GeForce RTX 3060 12GB - £230

It seems like a solid jump from my current card and for that price very affordable (especially with 3 month PayPal payments).

I think I should be able to install this onto my rig with no conflict from my other hardware but just wanted to make sure.

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.9GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
ASUS® PRIME B350M-A (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) MOTHERBOARD
16gb DDR4 RAM
CORSAIR 550W PSU - is this enough ???

This is simply about giving my gaming more life on my current PC - New games are leaving my card well behind and with a RTX I would have access to DLSS.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm looking at this GPU deal that I came across today and was hoping for your opinions...

I currently have a 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 and I've had this trusty card since 2018. My rig is obviously showing it's age but buying a whole new rig is probably a year or two away because dam things are expensive. I was looking at just updating the GPU to give me more life and I came across this black friday season deal...

GeForce RTX 3060 12GB - £230

It seems like a solid jump from my current card and for that price very affordable (especially with 3 month PayPal payments).

I think I should be able to install this onto my rig with no conflict from my other hardware but just wanted to make sure.

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six Core CPU (3.4GHz-3.9GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
ASUS® PRIME B350M-A (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) MOTHERBOARD
16gb DDR4 RAM
CORSAIR 550W PSU - is this enough ???

That GPU itself requires around 170 watts so not sure about those other components and what they draw at maximum load

 

[Jax]

It states a 550W PSU is required on the rig. There's not a reliable method to monitor PSU usage is there? 3rd party apps etc.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It states a 550W PSU is required on the rig. There's not a reliable method to monitor PSU usage is there? 3rd party apps etc.

OK depending on what brand your PSU is there might be a website with a PSU calculator where you can put in all your components and calculate what you might need.

 

[Santaman]

550 watts is fine, GPU 170, CPU will max out at around 130 watts ( yeah yeah despite it only being a 95 watt part) add 50-60 watts for mainboard and SSD's etc and you'll end up at around 350-360 watts, if your PSU is a quality unit then it will be fine.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires, effective immediately — two co-CEOs step in

He's been "Ousted" by the Board of Directors, I think it's unfair considering that he was cleaning up "Bob Swan's" mess and still needs more time to right the ship.

But we'll see what happens from here on.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires, effective immediately — two co-CEOs step in

He's been "Ousted" by the Board of Directors, I think it's unfair considering that he was cleaning up "Bob Swan's" mess and still needs more time to right the ship.

But we'll see what happens from here on.

That's pretty extreme, retired or was he nudged out the door?

What's a good method of cleaning USB ports. I have two on the front of my less than a year old case and I think it might need a clean and same for male USB connectors on cables?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

That's pretty extreme, retired or was he nudged out the door?

He was Kicked Out of the door by the "Board of Directors" IMO.

Every Sign of what was going on last week that he was on-board to right the "Itanic 2: Electric Boogaloo".

But I guess they want a new Captain to sail the "Itanic 2: Electric Boogaloo".

What's a good method of cleaning USB ports. I have two on the front of my less than a year old case and I think it might need a clean and same for male USB connectors on cables?

"Canned Air", also a old tooth brush if stuff is stuck inside.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

He was Kicked Out of the door by the "Board of Directors" IMO.

Every Sign of what was going on last week that he was on-board to right the "Itanic 2: Electric Boogaloo".

But I guess they want a new Captain to sail the "Itanic 2: Electric Boogaloo".

OH yeah probably they made a few bad decisions lately .......

"Canned Air", also a old tooth brush if stuff is stuck inside.

Thanks I shall try that. I read online cotton swabs but if the toothbrush won't damage anything I might try that

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Thanks I shall try that. I read online cotton swabs but if the toothbrush won't damage anything I might try that

I'd be wary of any cotton getting ripped off and stuck inside, it might cause a short/fire.

That's why I said "Old ToothBrush", the nylon Bristles aren't likely to get caught / break off.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'd be wary of any cotton getting ripped off and stuck inside, it might cause a short/fire.

That's why I said "Old ToothBrush", the nylon Bristles aren't likely to get caught / break off.

No, no I'll try the old toothbrush method