Off-Topic Thread

Monotype · 11-09-2013 6:30am

What about some of the Sandy Bridge ~13'' laptops? I saw a few for cheap a while ago. I'll take a look later.
Or you could check to see if you can get Surface RT through your college for cheap... downside is that it doesn't support most applications (i.e., exes) because of the different architecture.

Lu Tze · 11-09-2013 7:54am

ED E wrote: »

Need to pick up a netbook. Laptop is f'cked and I need something for college. Ultrabook would rock, but no way do I have the cash so its down to something for €300-400.

Are there any decent netbooks left? Market seems to have been decimated by tablet mania.

This looks alright, though slightly over budget

http://www.amazon.co.uk/S200E-11-6-inch-Touchscreen-VivoBook-500GB/dp/B00B4AAS7K/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1378882335&sr=1-7&keywords=Asus

Danger781 · 11-09-2013 8:19am

Get a Chromebook

rd1izb7lvpuksx · 11-09-2013 8:31am

ED E wrote: »

Need to pick up a netbook. Laptop is f'cked and I need something for college. Ultrabook would rock, but no way do I have the cash so its down to something for €300-400.

Are there any decent netbooks left? Market seems to have been decimated by tablet mania.

A few weeks ago, my work machine crapped out on me, and I needed a new laptop immediately, I found this in Argos for €350. It's fine for the usual office/media/internet stuff, but you won't be playing many games.

Monotype · 11-09-2013 5:37pm

Sandy bridge i3 15'' laptop for less than €400 delivered:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Asus__X501A-XX279H_Core_i3-2330M_Windows_8_Home_Premium_15.6__4_GB_RAM__32_X501A-XX279H/version.asp

marko93 · 11-09-2013 5:58pm

Ordering a MSI HD 7950 tonight GTX 760, wooooo

Serephucus · 11-09-2013 6:41pm

Linus has got a giveaway going for 8x4TB WD Reds. Go look:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/52951-wd-red-4tb-giveaway/

raymix · 11-09-2013 8:54pm

I'm a little lost, can someone suggest reputable LED light manufacturers for PC case? Need white for myself and orange for a buddy.
Found NZXT and bitfenix ones so far, maybe someone can throw in 2 cents on this, thanks.

Solitaire · 11-09-2013 9:41pm

Serephucus wrote: »

Linus has got a giveaway going for 8x4TB WD Reds. Go look:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/52951-wd-red-4tb-giveaway/

You like freebies don't you? I was tempted to give you a completely free Warning to go with that free bonus entry you got for the competition by linking it here...

Sarz91 · 11-09-2013 10:20pm

Dunno if anyone else has seen this but it looks like a good idea. Phone Bloks

Baked.noodle · 11-09-2013 10:24pm

Sarz91 wrote: »

Dunno if anyone else has seen this but it looks like a good idea. Phone Bloks

Makes sense from a consumer perspective, but big manufactures want customers to buy the latest thing. There isn't enough profit in replaceable components, and manufactures will not let people use any old brand, but insist on their particular set-up/ standards.

Sarz91 · 11-09-2013 10:27pm

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Makes sense from a consumer perspective, but big manufactures want customers to buy the latest thing. There isn't enough profit in replaceable components.

Not saying it'll work. Not even saying it could work. As an Engineer, this looks like an absolute nightmare. This seems to be a textbook example of why Engineers and Marketers seem to dislike one another.

I just thought I'd pass it along as it looked interesting, if not impossible.

raymix · 11-09-2013 11:17pm

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Makes sense from a consumer perspective, but big manufactures want customers to buy the latest thing. There isn't enough profit in replaceable components, and manufactures will not let people use any old brand, but insist on their particular set-up/ standards.

Why not? PC parts works just fine. I can imagine the hype when enthusiasts would get their hands on one of those.. all the custom designs, ideas, overclocks, pushing hardware to its limits and asking for more.

My galaxy died once, it was the power supply part of the chip, could fix it myself if I knew where to get a part at a time, thankfully I still had a warranty. But what if my phone dies tomorrow? It would be awesome to grab a replacement part at a closest tesco store if this thing actually works out, because replacing any part would be as simple as replacing a battery.

Headshot · 11-09-2013 11:36pm

Anybody have a corsair 900D?

NTMK · 12-09-2013 11:39am

raymix wrote: »

Why not? PC parts works just fine. I can imagine the hype when enthusiasts would get their hands on one of those.. all the custom designs, ideas, overclocks, pushing hardware to its limits and asking for more.

My galaxy died once, it was the power supply part of the chip, could fix it myself if I knew where to get a part at a time, thankfully I still had a warranty. But what if my phone dies tomorrow? It would be awesome to grab a replacement part at a closest tesco store if this thing actually works out, because replacing any part would be as simple as replacing a battery.

there is no pc manufacturer (except apple) that sell their PC's as closed enviroments. The PC market needs more specialised companies to get the performance it does (Nvidia dont do desktop CPU's (yet) AMD only did CPUs until ATI was bought out, Intel dont do dedicated graphics) where Samsung develop and build most of their parts for their phones in house

Samsung/HTC/Apple all want you to buy their phones on a yearly/bi-yearly basis and when these phones are costing ~€500 to buy when the production cost is 20% its far more profitable to sell a complete unit than individual parts

replacable parts are also a engineering nightmare on electronics. Intel are now attempting to move away from PGA to soldered CPUs because PGA has a ton of reliability issues.

replacable parts will also make the phone thicker and weigh more because the chips will need a way of being conected to the PCB

Gumbi · 12-09-2013 11:41am

I got the feeling of "idealistic to the point of never gonna happen" watching that video :P

NTMK · 12-09-2013 7:12pm

The New 700D case got revealed

Specs
Dimensions: 235 x 560 x 546 mm (WxHxD)
Materials: Aluminum (front panel), Steel
Weight: 9.7 Kg
Color: Black
Supported Motherboards: mATX, ATX, EATX, XL-ATX
Cooling:
2x 140 / 120 mm (front, 2x AF140L preinstalled)
1x 140 / 120 mm (rear, 1x AF140L preinstalled)
2x 140 / 3x 120 mm (top, optional)
2x 120 mm (bottom, optional)
Bays:
3x 5.25 bays (external, tool-free)
6x 3.5 / 2.5 bays (tool-free, 3x Hot swap)
4 x 2.5 bays (tool-free)
PSU: 1x Standard ATX (optional)
Expansion slots: 9

Lu Tze · 12-09-2013 7:33pm

Anybody else buying a console to play GTA5? I wasnt going to bother, wait until the pc release i reckoned, but then thinking of spending the christmas week at home with nothing to do... and i aint lugging home a pc and monitor! I've been scouring adverts for a cheap xbox or something, looking at one tonight, just need to see that it's reading disks, not obviously over heating and isnt banned from live!

Anything else to look out for?

NTMK · 12-09-2013 7:38pm

Lu Tze wrote: »

Anybody else buying a console to play GTA5? I wasnt going to bother, wait until the pc release i reckoned, but then thinking of spending the christmas week at home with nothing to do... and i aint lugging home a pc and monitor! I've been scouring adverts for a cheap xbox or something, looking at one tonight, just need to see that it's reading disks, not obviously over heating and isnt banned from live!

Anything else to look out for?

Try getting a slim a lot less likely to RROD (technically they cant as they dont have the lights:p) and check the controllers shoulder buttons as they always are a point of failure

tbh i cant be arsed getting an old console with the new ones so close and ill wait for GTA PC

Lu Tze · 12-09-2013 7:44pm

NTMK wrote: »

Try getting a slim a lot less likely to RROD (technically they cant as they dont have the lights:p) and check the controllers shoulder buttons as they always are a point of failure

tbh i cant be arsed getting an old console with the new ones so close and ill wait for GTA PC

Cheers, its an older style im looking at as its cheaper, and will try and off load again after christmas!

Monotype · 12-09-2013 7:49pm

It looks impressive, but they must have cut some serious corners to base that onto the old hardware. I think it would be well worth it to wait for the PC version. However, this is coming from someone is unlikely to buy it anyway. Go buy those humble bundles instead and you'll find something to keep yourself occupied.

Solitaire · 12-09-2013 7:52pm

The Jasper-based ones (IIRC the last revision of the "fat" 360) released a few years back are pretty cheap AFAIK but also have reliability and power consumption closer to the Slims due to a much more modern die process (the old ones were something like 90 or 130nm and ate power for lunch). So they hardly ever RROD, especially for melting-related illnesses :P

One thing you absolutely need is a decent HDD though. The optical drives (on the Fats at least) are unbelievably horrendous. Forget vacuum cleaners, they sound like freaking industrial drill rigs! :eek: The only realistic way to play ANY 360 game is to immediately install it to HDD the second you buy it

Lu Tze · 12-09-2013 9:23pm

Solitaire wrote: »

The Jasper-based ones (IIRC the last revision of the "fat" 360) released a few years back are pretty cheap AFAIK but also have reliability and power consumption closer to the Slims due to a much more modern die process (the old ones were something like 90 or 130nm and ate power for lunch). So they hardly ever RROD, especially for melting-related illnesses :P

One thing you absolutely need is a decent HDD though. The optical drives (on the Fats at least) are unbelievably horrendous. Forget vacuum cleaners, they sound like freaking industrial drill rigs! :eek: The only realistic way to play ANY 360 game is to immediately install it to HDD the second you buy it

Cheers, it was a falcon based one, still bought it though it does sound like i have a henry the hoover going in the corner. I dont suppose they use normal pc fans?

Looks in relatively good condition, two controllers, two games (red dead and gta4) for 70 spondulies, should be able to get most of that back when im done (assuming it survives the next 3 months or so!).

Nice that one of the games is one i wanted to play but not available on pc

marco_polo · 13-09-2013 12:18am

Lu Tze wrote: »

Cheers, it was a falcon based one, still bought it though it does sound like i have a henry the hoover going in the corner. I dont suppose they use normal pc fans?

Looks in relatively good condition, two controllers, two games (red dead and gta4) for 70 spondulies, should be able to get most of that back when im done (assuming it survives the next 3 months or so!).

Nice that one of the games is one i wanted to play but not available on pc

Not problem free but I believe the Falcon was still orders of magnitude better than the original, having got a CPU die shrink so hopefully will see you through GTA V anyway.

Sold my 360 a few months ago, thought I had no need for a 360 anymore, may have been premature

marko93 · 13-09-2013 2:41am

The purchase of the 760 can wait. Parents brought me home an i5 from Murica. Time to order me a Maximus Hero

Danger781 · 13-09-2013 8:42am

Why not buy a second hand PS3?

Seems less likely to die from the little research I've done, and easily replaceable HDD as well

Lu Tze · 13-09-2013 9:51am

Danger781 wrote: »

Why not buy a second hand PS3?

Seems less likely to die from the little research I've done, and easily replaceable HDD as well

I was looking at both, ps3s are generally selling for a bit more, accounting for it doubling as a blu ray player I suppose

marko93 · 13-09-2013 1:18pm

Phat PS3's can be fairly noisy! Just so ye know! I took mine apart and lord jesus did it collect some amount of dust.

Headshot · 13-09-2013 1:19pm

I bought an xbox just for gta

kills me that I had to thou

the_syco · 15-09-2013 2:55am

If nothing else, I'd say GTA5 will push up the price of 2nd hand 360's, as people buy them to play GTA5 cheaply. Bleh. I'll wait. Hope to upgrade the machine for it, when it comes out

=-=

Came across this; http://imgur.com/a/x75U2#0

It's a very nice idea, and imo nicely done.

Erper · 15-09-2013 11:50am

got 2600k and z68 pro mobo...
anyone know where could i find cheaper corsair or xfx psu 650w??

Serephucus · 15-09-2013 2:03pm

I can't imagine GTA 5 running nicely on a 360 or PS3... There's just too many corners they'd have to cut. I mean really, as is the console version is probably going to be cut down a little from the PC one, how will they manage getting it running on hardware that's, what? Seven years older? Not well.

NTMK · 15-09-2013 2:17pm

Serephucus wrote: »

I can't imagine GTA 5 running nicely on a 360 or PS3... There's just too many corners they'd have to cut. I mean really, as is the console version is probably going to be cut down a little from the PC one, how will they manage getting it running on hardware that's, what? Seven years older? Not well.

Its textures pop like crazy when youre in the air. and their has to be much deeper shortcuts they've taken to get it to run. most of the map being countryside is probably one

marko93 · 15-09-2013 2:28pm

Where would the best place to be for getting some Cat5 cable? Need about 35m or so! Ain't got a clue what's good/bad.. Any help, mucho appreciated!

kaimera · 15-09-2013 2:35pm

Waaah, I ****ing hate the fact that the x58/1366 only last 2 gens and is ****ing expensive to buy now.

Cheaper for me to buy a whole new socket setup than upgrade my 920 & x58 mobo.

Calibos · 15-09-2013 4:47pm

marko93 wrote: »

Where would the best place to be for getting some Cat5 cable? Need about 35m or so! Ain't got a clue what's good/bad.. Any help, mucho appreciated!

Just ordered 100m from TVtrades.ie for about €23 including shipping. TBH ordering any less is a false economy.

100m Cat5e Ethernet Network Cable Roll
Code: CAT5_100

Have you already got your cable crimper and RJ45 connectors and/or wallplates? Think they sell them too.

Sarz91 · 15-09-2013 9:22pm

See a lot of people contemplating purchasing a console for GTA. I know it might not be instantly as cheap as a second hand console but its a pretty decent price. I never got around to playing any of the ps3 exclusives so I'm picking one up. Thought I'd pass it on. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BF6D48I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

marko93 · 15-09-2013 9:48pm

Calibos wrote: »

Just ordered 100m from TVtrades.ie for about €23 including shipping. TBH ordering any less is a false economy.

100m Cat5e Ethernet Network Cable Roll
Code: CAT5_100

Have you already got your cable crimper and RJ45 connectors and/or wallplates? Think they sell them too.

The way I was going to set it up is

Modem > Cable > 5 switch in Office/Man Cave > PC/PS3

So I just presumed I need some generic cable!

Calibos · 16-09-2013 12:51am

marko93 wrote: »

The way I was going to set it up is

Modem > Cable > 5 switch in Office/Man Cave > PC/PS3

So I just presumed I need some generic cable!

Ah Right. You don't think you'll be doing any further network cabling then?

In that case then no need to acquire the tools or permenent wallplates etc.

Its a cat5e ethernet patch cable you want then.

Heres a 40m one on Amazon.co.uk for about €25 incl P&P

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethernet-Cable-Straight-Router-Enhanced/dp/B0017HNKRK

TvTrade.ie longest patch cable seems to be the 20m one:

20m Ethernet Cable (Cat5e)
CODE: CAT5_20M

So you'd need to order 2 of them (40m) and one of these RJ45 couplers:

RJ45 Coupler for CAT5 Cable
CODE: RJ45C

€13 and no more than €5 P&P

Genghiz Cohen · 16-09-2013 12:27pm

Turns out it's quicker for me to delete and re-download my Steam games than to move them between HDDs.

Thanks UPC

Gumbi · 16-09-2013 12:31pm

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Turns out it's quicker for me to delete and re-download my Steam games than to move them between HDDs.

Thanks UPC

Your download speed is faster than your HDD's write speed? Nice :P

TerrorFirmer · 16-09-2013 12:32pm

I'm so lazy that everytime I re-install - which is often, because I'm always changing my PC - I just opt to redownload them rather than transfer them as well.

Serephucus · 16-09-2013 2:29pm

I noticed that as well, and that was only on 50Mb. Whatever Steam does when it checks existing files is pretty slow.

UPC need to hurry up and finish the install in this estate. Was supposed to be done by now, but they're saying October.

Headshot · 16-09-2013 11:28pm

Any new cpu coming out before Christmas to make me think twice about buying now?

raymix · 17-09-2013 7:22am

Headshot wrote: »

Any new cpu coming out before Christmas to make me think twice about buying now?

AMD steamroller comes out before xmas, and I think Intel's having 14nm, too...

BloodBath · 17-09-2013 8:35am

Broadwell is supposed to use 30% less power than Haswell. Time for intel to make 3 core/6 thread i3's, 6 core i5's and 6 core/ 12 thread i7's I think. HT should be standard for all chips though.

Gone through several die shrinks now with lower power consumption and still no extra cores.

Approaching the limits of silicon now as well. Intels roadmap shows 5nm by 2021. Where are they going to go after that?

Genghiz Cohen · 17-09-2013 9:44am

4nm

Headshot · 17-09-2013 10:02am

raymix wrote: »

AMD steamroller comes out before xmas, and I think Intel's having 14nm, too...

Im reading 2014 for those cpu's

BloodBath · 17-09-2013 10:17am

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

4nm

5nm is supposed to be the limits of silicon and even that might have issues. We're already seeing higher and higher heat per die shrink despite the lower power consumption from the smaller die area. The heat cannot be dissipated effectively from such a small area.

NTMK · 17-09-2013 10:39am

BloodBath wrote: »

5nm is supposed to be the limits of silicon and even that might have issues. We're already seeing higher and higher heat per die shrink despite the lower power consumption from the smaller die area. The heat cannot be dissipated effectively from such a small area.

anything under 6nm is when **** gets weird regardless of whats been used. Silicon is at the end of its life and its replacement is looking likely to be graphene is still close to a long while out yet

Heat issues are being exagerated by the replacement of soldered die shields and the increase of performnce of the integrated graphics producing more heat. there is also the Tri gate tech that was introduced with ivy

There is also woeful inefficencies with the current PGA sockets and is one of the reasons intel will probably be moving to BGA when they hit Skylake 14nm and 10nm

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