Tech General Chat

[Midnight Vibes]

Nexus 5x is really tempting me now. I went to Carphone to have a quick go at it and it feels fantastic and is buttery smooth. Very f*cking smooth. I'm waiting for a while until it drops down in price eventually and until my S3 is unbearable to use which it isn't so far. However, what's the battery like? Aren't the nexus phones notorious for sh*t battery life? And I heard something about USB Type C which only allows you to use one cable to charge the phone.

 

I don't own the 5X, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I often hear and see screenshots of 3-5 hours of screen on time over a day or two from the 5X, which is about average for any flagship. It was the old 4 and 5 that were notorious for awful battery life IIRC. However, yes, USB Type C is the only type you can plug into the device.

[Ryan]

Anyone else gone platterless recently?

I run my OS and all applications off my 256GB 950 Pro and all my games off my 500GB 850 Evo. That left me with a 1TB HDD which I used as my media drive. I seriously considered picking up a 1TB 850 Evo to replace the 1TB HDD, but just couldn't justify the cost of spending $500 for a SSD that would only be used to store music and movies, so I ended up just getting a WD 2TB for $75 instead.

[sivispacem]

That's not dissimilar to what I'm doing. 256GB SM951, 120GB SSD drive for digital media type stuff (PhotoShop, LightZone, Blender), 500GB 850 Pro for everything else. To be honest I've never used more than 500GB of my HDDs so I'll probably cope fine with just a 500GB SSD, might not even run the 120GB anymore if it means I can take the bottom cages completely out of my system.

 

My (almost brand new) Hitachi is definitely the cause of the vibration, so I'll probably RMA that too.

 

Crap picture if anyone's interested:

[Ryan]

The yellow and black is definitely an interesting color scheme. Doesn't look too bad aside from that giant MSI logo on the front. How come you have no rear exhaust fan, or are you working on that one still?

[sivispacem]

Yeah, initially I liked the MSI sticker but it's actually gone now. Far bigger ballache to get off than it was on.

 

I've got an AF120 to go at the back but I haven't got round to painting the fan ring yet so it's not in there.

 

Also need to figure out whether there's any way to dye or paint the Noctua fan rubber vibration damper mounts as the brown spoils things a bit.

 

Temps are good, better than the old board, and I've been able to dial the voltage back a little to 1.124v, keeping it at 4.2. After 1 hour RealBench package temperature is 56°C and no individual core has reported above that. Going to finish sorting the last bits and see how far I can go below 1.2v

 

-E

 

Just discovered Noctua do coloured rubber mounts, so bought some in yellow.

[Sombra]

Colour scheme looks good as do those fans

 

As for the Hitatchi drive, could just be a bad mount? There's been times I've screwed drives in too far and it's sounded horrible. Could try one of those vibration reduction kits? Although that being said one of my old IDE drives I pulled data from the other day sounded like a f*cking dentist drill when it was running.

[Andreaz1]

I went through a few minutes of googling and looking on their website to find those rubber mounts before I read the part of your post where you said you already did so yourself. I also thought it'd be much easier to buy some new than to paint the old ones.

[sivispacem]

Colour scheme looks good as do those fans

 

As for the Hitatchi drive, could just be a bad mount? There's been times I've screwed drives in too far and it's sounded horrible. Could try one of those vibration reduction kits? Although that being said one of my old IDE drives I pulled data from the other day sounded like a f*cking dentist drill when it was running.

It could be well be mounting related, I'll have to have a fiddle with it, but to be honest I wanted an excuse to junk it an run all-SSDs anyway.

[Sombra]

All SSD's would be nice plus with them only being 2.5 you can usually fit them in the space behind the motherboard tray and also rip out the 5.25 drive bays along with the 3.5 bays.

 

That just reminded me I still need to get a 2.5>3.5 adapter.

[Ai®a©ob®a]

Anybody download the new Nividia Driver just released?

 

Any issues?

[gajrajgchouhan]

Anybody download the new Nividia Driver just released?

 

Any issues?

No issues here. with GT 730.

[Sombra]

Note: please don't post any troubleshooting questions or requests in this topic. Either post a new topic or use the pinned Random Questions topic for smaller issues

 

I'm pretty sure I made a thread like this before but it's been lost in the shuffle. I was hoping this could possibly get pinned because I'm sure tons of us would like to post small things that don't warrant a topic so it goes un-posted.

 

I for one, need to just complain for a minute.

As some may recall, the past few months I've been having PC problems where my computer just shuts down when pushed moderately hard. Well I think I found the cause... my thermal sensor was turned off in the BIOS for my CPU. I enabled it... all programs are showing readings of 80-85*C!!! I hear that's the HIGHEST my CPU temp should go... and it's sticking around that with moderate usage, about 80-83*C during idle. So I'm assuming my HSF isn't doing the job nearly as good as it should be... so I'm hoping to buy a new HSF ASAP!

 

Also, I found this at Tomshardware.com yesterday. Apparently an Intel i9 6-core CPU was just sold on eBay recently for $1,200. You heard me, SIX core CPU, and it's running at 2.4Ghz. Must be awesome with programs and games that can run them all. And $1,200 is a steal don't new i7's go for near that, if not more?

Source

 

Can't wait until I can even get a quad core, let alone a 6 core!

 

 

 

oh how times have changed

[Kampret]

So I've found an old family PC with specs:

 

AMD Athlon XP 2000+

1GB DDR-333

PCChips (yes, that ECS subsidiary) M863G (SiS (yes, SiS) 741GX)

2x 40 GB Maxtor (yes, Maxtor) spinners.

 

I've flashed the BIOS so that it supports widescreen, too bad capped at 1280x720. I've been thinking of getting a cheap AGP card, what should I buy?

[Red Hat]

So I've found an old family PC with specs:

 

AMD Athlon XP 2000+

1GB DDR-333

PCChips (yes, that ECS subsidiary) M863G (SiS (yes, SiS) 741GX)

2x 40 GB Maxtor (yes, Maxtor) spinners.

 

I've flashed the BIOS so that it supports widescreen, too bad capped at 1280x720. I've been thinking of getting a cheap AGP card, what should I buy?

What are you gonna do with it? Install Linux?

[Craigsters]

I just got my PC back from the repair shop,My PC Windows got stuck on the bios screen and the PC repair guy said my Windows was corrupted and at first he thought my fast drive died, but it was just a loose wire and my drives survived, it cost me around $40 CAD for the System Diagnostic to determine what was wrong with my PC! I also bought a new keyboard which was another $10 CAD bringing the amount to $57 CAD with the repairs, and the repair guy only took the Windows disc and taped it on the outside of my tower so as not to lose it for the re-installation of Windows!..

 

keyboard is a iCan WK-618 Wired Multimedia Keyboard

 

I paid a neighbor $50 CAD to drive me to the PC repair shop it was a long ways away in the suburbs and would of cost $80 CAD or more by taxi each way

 

 

My PC busted on the 20th of February and I got it back this afternoon

Edited March 2, 2016 by Craigsters

[Red Hat]

I just got my PC back from the repair shop.

 

You could have just googled that on another PC.

I got my first 'own' PC in 2008, never have I had the need to go to a repair shop to fix it. Tomshardware and YouTube were there to help.

[Andreaz1]

You could have just googled that on another PC.

I got my first 'own' PC in 2008, never have I had the need to go to a repair shop to fix it. Tomshardware and YouTube were there to help.

You can Google anything, that doesn't mean you will find the correct answer to your problem or that you are comfortable with fixing it yourself.

[SilverRST]

Yes, I googled when I found out the case fans of my Fractal R4 weren't working.

Linus Tech Tips was the best search result and it was the cable at the front panel. The cable was plugged and all I had to do

was plug it back and the case fans are working again. Awesome I can hold my money in my pockets

[Flachbau]

I mainly taught myself on a lot of subjects, but thankfully I have a couple of friends that have also assisted me in the past. I've come a long way when it comes to PC knowledge, but I still have a long way to go. Once you understand more, you'll be able to explore more and maybe change a few things up by yourself.

[SilverRST]

Yeah, I had been searching a lot of info and no one can help me when I have PC problems.

I had to fix every single trouble myself. However, once you are searching for fixes, you'll gain more info than you thought in the first place

or you find some other usefull informations or you find other interesting hardware and such.

And you'll also find nice tech sites like LTT, TechReport and many more sites.

 

Man, I was such an dumb kid back in the days of the 2006. I had a Sony laptop with Intel GMA and some games requires nVidia GPU.

As dumb as I was, I downloaded an nVidia driver and tried to install it to make the Intel GMA into an nVidia GPU LOL!

Or back earlier in 2003, I was afraid of viruses and installed Norton Security. And the worst thing: that laptop never had any internet connection...

But I damn very enjoyed those times.

[Craigsters]

 

I just got my PC back from the repair shop.

You could have just googled that on another PC.

I got my first 'own' PC in 2008, never have I had the need to go to a repair shop to fix it. Tomshardware and YouTube were there to help.

 

I tried for hours to troubleshoot the issue, my PC kept telling me to press keys Del+F2 and to go into a certain screen ,I tried safe mode too and inserted my Windows Disc and it wouldn't boot or run, and I have no cellphone and jack landline phone, no phone at all, I could of called my PC provider/ or those that RTO this PC to me and had them talk me through it over the phone,but I had no phone service, so I ended up taken my PC to the repair shop!..

 

I ordered home phone service with Rogers a few days ago and they are coming to hook up my phones today, so if something like this happens again I just call MDG tech and give my service tag number and have some PC Techy talk me through it the next time!..

 

When I was on that stupid bios screen it gave me no clues as to what to do, it just would display >rub and tell me to press the tab key. I'm no fragin masseuse, I didn't know what to do, plus the nearest place for a PC was the UPS/Brown store at $5 CAD for 30 minutes use of there PC!..

Edited March 3, 2016 by Craigsters

[DEALUX]

So how sh*t is the Windows Store? Are they really trying to create a console like experience with this service by limiting FPS and a bunch of other things? If so, I hope it turns out to be a flop (which is probably what it will be).

[Mince]

When I was on Windows 8, I never used the Windows store. I honestly can't think of a single use for any of its "apps". I suppose it's a bit better now that they can be run in windows, but still, a desktop program would be better for anything. I imagine it will be a flop eventually; you'll notice Microsoft has drastically rolled back their focus on touchscreens since Windows 8, that was a flop. Now I'm on Windows 7 and don't miss it at all.

 

Windows store applications, aside from being useless, aren't very customizable or compatible with anything. Most of the time, they only work on whatever OS was most recently released, I.E. the Windows 10 edition of Minecraft, even if you have a top of the line Windows 8.1 computer that would have no issues running it. Whereas the actual Minecraft was released years before Windows 10 and runs fine on any OS from the past decade. Same with any web browser or typical desktop program. I also remember immediately when Windows 8.1 came out, Facebook and some other apps were released on the store, all were incompatible with regular Windows 8. All part of Microsoft's attempts to force you to upgrade to their latest OS, I suppose. They also used to release new versions of Internet Explorer for older Windows iterations. Nope, not anymore, "Edge" only works on Windows 10.

[X S]

The Windows App Store isn't going anywhere. Windows 10 was distributed for free as a loss leader. This means Microsoft can focus on other alternatives for revenue, and the Windows Store is certainly one of those focal points.

 

And as for gaming, the Windows Store will play a huge part in the distribution of PC exclusives. Phil Spencer recently spoke out about it. Right now, it's pretty restrictive, but Microsoft has stated there will be a convergence between Xbox and PC gaming using "Universal Windows Platform" development. Phil Spencer is aware of the various limitations and is working to address them.

 

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/1/11121666/xbox-one-hardware-upgrades-phil-spencer-microsoft

 

I think what we really need to consider here is competition. Valve virtually has a monopoly on PC gaming, and if Microsoft can make a pretty sizable dent in that stronghold, it will be better for all PC gamers. Wanting to see if fail is counterproductive.

Edited March 4, 2016 by X S

[gizmo]

I don't like the Windows store as a sole source for software be it games or whatever else I'd like on my computer. It's a slippery slope if we start down that path..

[X S]

I don't like the Windows store as a sole source for software be it games or whatever else I'd like on my computer. It's a slippery slope if we start down that path..

 

Nobody ever said this was supposed to be the sole source of games and apps. UWP is open-source.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-exec-responds-to-pc-gaming-monopoly-concerns/1100-6435372/

[sivispacem]

UWP is absolutely not open source.

[X S]

UWP is absolutely not open source.

 

Open ecosystem*

[sivispacem]

Even that's pretty arguable. Microsoft advertise it as an open ecosystem but it's not exactly accommodating, which probably goes some way to explaining why almost nobody is remotely interested in adopting it.

[X S]

Maybe not at the moment, but Phil Spencer weighed in on the issue, and he's not exactly the type of person to voice puffery. It even drew some optimistic interest from Tim Sweeny, so I'm just puzzled when I hear people talking about it as if Valve and other software devs somehow have a gun to their head.