What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

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neema_t
I've got an 8700k and a GTX 1080 (Zotac Amp! Extreme) on a 650W PSU and it works perfectly fine, you'll be ok.
Click to expand...

I ended up spending $4.88 more for a 750w psu.
So now I am really covered.

So I got a
GTX 1050 Ti
Fx-8320
750w PSU
Wraith Cooler

all coming.
Plus a 20 inch IPS screen. (Can't go bigger because of room)

Edit:
Wraith Cooler shipped.
Rest of the stuff hasn't. :banghead:

Edit 2:
Does it matter if the PSU is G2 or GQ or anything? As I got a GQ (Even cheaper)
Also is it best to put your own TIM on than the one that comes with the heatsink?

Edit 3:
Prices are all over the place.
GTX 1050 Ti (169.99$ off amazon (Currently locked to Prime members right now but I manage to get in before the lock))
FX-8320 (93.89$ off amazon (However price did drop to 86.61 and will get credited 7.20 something after it ships))
750w GQ PSU (69.99$ + 3.50$ cupon off on amazon)
Wraith Cooler (29.99$ off amazon)
20 IPS screen VGA/HDMI (89.99$ off amazon)

So overall not as bad as I thought it would be. I think I will have 28$ extra overall.
 
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Stripped down my PC with just a SSD and a HDD and some cables left.

Installed new Z390 motherboard and a i9-9900k CPU. Clean installed windows 10 and set everything back up. Downloaded the needed drivers for programs and such. And about 75% done downloading all my games again.

All in all a very good day! :D
 
Tomorrow I will be getting my FX-8320 and GTX 1050 Ti

Already got my PSU inside.

My lovely new monitor I got was DOA. (Getting a replacement sent to me also will be here tomorrow)
So the lovely joys of CPU upgrades and heatsink.

Just a quick question.
Best way to remove the heatsink from the CPU without ruining everything?
I would say a twist motion after it's been running awhile?
Thoughts?
 
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spend last two days setting up new backup laptop and all related network stuff, but it is practically done and I'm pleased with the performance of these new low-end processors with GPU acceleration, Youtube 4k/60fps no problem even though PassMark score is lower than 5 year old desktop i3.

4ksmall.jpg
 
neema_t
Don't remove the heatsink while it's still hot, obviously!
Click to expand...

While yes that is the obvious thing.
But after it cooled down enough (Like 2 mins?)
Then it should be okay?

Edit:
I have did my new CPU,
Wasn't any issue removing the heatsink (Since I had it on most of the day until it was delivered)
However my new heat sink is a bit bigger than expected.
Close to one of the Ram slots, (However I don't think I would end up getting all 4 used up so one open is okay?)
GPU is in however haven't tested it out yet well, that's after all the fancy updates and testing I can do before that happens.
PSU was done easily and now I got a semi-modular one and don't need like half of the cables so that's a plus.

Tomorrow will be updated internet lines and a blazing 40 mbps speed. (Or so I think)
 
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Used my recursive drawing algorithm to draw a tree based on the Fibonacci sequence. Just 19 lines of code to describe how the tree is growing, branching and aging :cool:.

fibonacci tree.png fibonacci code.png

'f', 'g' and 'i' means "draw forwards".
'+' means "turn left" and '-' means "turn right"
'[' means "save location and rotation"
']' means "load location and rotation"

A randomness factor is being used to provide small variations to the rotations and lengths.

'x', 'd' and 'e' are parts of the construction framework, they're not used when drawing. 'x' means "insert branching here on the next iteration". 'd' and 'e' are premature stages of growth, leading to the mature stage of 'f' (which in turn leads to the aged stage of 'g' and a new premature 'd' stage).

Edit: With n=12 the script generates the following structure, which was used to draw the tree in the picture:

gggge-gggge[-gggf-gggf[-gggd-gggd[-gge-gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggge[-ggf-ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gggd[-gge-gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggggd[-ggge-ggge[-ggf-ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gggd[-gge-gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gggf[-gggd-gggd[-gge-gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggge[-ggf-ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gggd[-gge-gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggf[-ggd-ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gge[-gf-gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+ggd[-ge-ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]]+gf[-gd-gd[-i]+f[x]]+ge[-f-f[x]]+gd[-i]+f[x]

Edit 2: Refined the script, made it neater and more explicit (easier to read and understand). All conversions are now stored in a dictionary.

Code: 
    plan = {'x':'-i]+f[x',
            'i':'f-f[x]',
            'd':'e',
            'e':'f',
            'f':'gd'}
    
    def iterate(oldstruct):
        newstruct = ''
        for block in oldstruct:
            if block in plan.keys():
                block = plan[block]
            newstruct += block
        return newstruct

    struct = 'i'
    for i in range(n):
        struct = iterate(struct)
 
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So I built three identical PCs today, used the same USB stick to install Windows and yet all three were different, and I don't understand. All connected to the same ethernet switch with the same BIOS firmware, two of the three thought it was 11pm while the third had the right time, then a different two took over an hour to download an update even after the first had finished. I installed the graphics card drivers in one and the card started working straight away, while in one of the other two the driver install failed because the system was installing its own driver (no idea why) and they installed successfully in the third one but the Nvidia control panel wasn't accessible via the right click menu... So I don't get that.
 
My old laptop is used mainly for browsing duty, little bit of typing, scanning and printing jobs, my nephew played with it and as usual, kids have lots of curiosity, he played around with SetFSB app. The BSOD appeared and the usual cycle of BSOD then auto restart upon every reboot. The os is old, WinXP, and I remembered the last time I applied thermal paste on the CPU was 7 years ago, 4 years after purchase, yeah it's ancient, from back 2007. So, I took the chance while fixing the BSOD, might as well apply new thermal paste as the CPU temp start to rise 5 degree celcius above average-peaking at 60-62 degrees on hot day.

I opened the already brittle plastic case carefully, cleaned up both sides of the rather large onboard speaker box ( the Altec Lansing speaker is top notch on this one - for a 15 inch laptop ), the mainboard, heatsink, and fan from dust. Removed the old thermal paste, which surprisingly not dried yet after 7 years of heavy use ( the laptop never turned off except for cleaning the fan exhaust port on the bottom of the case every 6 months or so ) Last time I checked the HDD power on time, over 65000 hours :eek: that's non stop running for over 7 years :bowdown: I applied the new thermal paste after making sure the surface on both the heatsink and the CPU are clean from dust and debris. During disassembly, I cleared the CMOS as well by removing the battery, the WinXP started smoothly again. Never play around with SetFSB if you don't know what you are doing and risk that comes with it :lol:

HDD.jpg


ThermalPasteApply.jpg



The Arctic Cooling MX4 really served well, highly recommend it, works nicely all these years on laptop that runs 24/7 and only turned off for a few minutes of cleaning. After reapplied the new paste, the CPU now average around 49-50 degrees on normal use and peaks at 53 degrees, which is quite good after 11 years of abuse.
 
1E45272F-A652-4241-A26F-208296D16FB6.jpeg
Another Fibonacci tree (n=10), this time the line thickness is proportional to the square root of the number of branches, which basically means that the sum of cross section areas across each level is the same, it only becomes distributed over more and more branches.
 
Went into BIOS and adjusted some settings, which will hopefully improve the gaming aspect even further.

Also figured out I need better RAM, and more of it too... :boggled:
 
I got myself a Roccat Sova MK, as my sofa gaming 'trial' has become permanent as it's actually not all that bad and saves a ton of space, not needing a separate monitor. I was missing non-pad based games, though, so I bought the only sensible solution, the less sensible option being Corsair's
Lapboard, as that's £250 (the Sova MK was £135). I've never had a mechanical keyboard before so the clackiness is pretty fun and it makes me want to type harder than usual (oh hello carpal tunnel syndrome!) because it's fun, but I'm not used to the layout, there are keys directly to the right of the enter key which I've never had before so I do keep hitting page up, down, home and end which I'm sure I'll grow out of. The keys are a bit closer together than I'm used to, but then I've been using this for less than two hours so far.

The LEDs can't be dimmed as much as I'd like but as a compromise I've set WASD and the F key row to the lowest setting so I can see what I'm pressing at a glance, I can touch type on all the rest so that's fine. The mousepad bit is hard plastic so it doesn't have much friction, I think I'd like a bit more resistance but if it bugs me too much I might just get a thin piece of neoprene and hot glue it on or something, or I could use the CNC router at work to cut a replacement panel out as it's held on with magnets.

That brings me on to another thing, they sell this as being super customisable with 3D-printed parts, but the URL to their page about it 404s. I found a page on Shapeways that has a storefront for 3D-printed Sova accessories... A tablet holder, and a smartphone holder. I'm not really that surprised by that, since it's a niche product and what else could they even make (maybe a standard camera thread for attaching microphones?), but £25 for a smartphone holder that's really more like a trough that boasts the ability to use an elastic band to actually hold the phone in place? No thanks!

Anyway, the mousepad is the main reason I bought it and it works really well. much better than I was really expecting, so I can play first person shooters again!
 
For the past week or so.
I have been transfering files from a physical Windows 98 install to a Virtual computer install of Windows 98.
I just love how these early OSes did not use the registry that much.

The files are pretty much "Portable just drag from one system and drop into another and it just works fine.
None of this crap where files are also in appdata, or programdata.
If it doesn't work, just export the required regkeys
 
As you are reading this, I have been testing a new browser. This is my first reply on GTPlanet using Maxthon. I came across a browser not too long ago called Maxthon. Maxthon is supposedly a browser that is a "cloud browser." So it probably means I could view some of the same content seamlessly across any device. I have not totally settled in with it, but it seems pretty good so far. Perhaps it is like a good Google Chrome alternative. If I feel Maxthon works better than Chrome, then my browser "depth chart" rotation would be (in order): Vivaldi, Maxthon, Chrome, Waterfox, Edge.
 
Today using Maxthon, I kind of learned how to add Custom Searches to browsers. I tried out putting in my own Custom Searches so I could use them freely in online searches. There is a certain set of characters you have to put in to indicate the search text. My only test that I failed to make a decent search for is Instagram. Then again, Instagram on PC is pretty much crap unless you are using the Instagram Windows app or something.
 
I took my 1050ti out and gave it a good clean. :dopey:

I may be updating my system soon but I'm not so sure yet.
 
Went from 12GB to 16GB RAM in my main PC, and 4GB to 8GB in my media server.

I did a benchmark in Forza Horizon 4 before and after upgrading the RAM (just a single run, Ultra quality preset), and I was surprised at the impact that single vs dual channel memory actually had.

12GB RAM benchmark (screenshot software wasn't working, had to take a photo instead :grumpy:):
MVIMG_20190212_115200.jpg


16GB RAM benchmark:
MVIMG_20190212_125745.jpg
 
I decided to get one of the new wireless Xbox One controller adaptors as I heard they have much improved range, so now I can plug it in to my PC directly instead of through my USB server under the sofa. I haven't tried it from across the room but I've heard it works through (some) walls so it should be fine.

The main reason I did this was so I could connect the Sova to the server under the sofa (what a sentence!), so I can do away with the cable draped across the room, instead it just... well, goes under the sofa. Only problem is, without a license for the server you can only access one device at a time so I can't actually use the keyboard AND mouse right now.

I'm not sure if wireless mice also work at great distance (I'd need 5 metres I think) but I could do with one, really, so maybe I'll buy one of them instead of a license. It's been 9 years since I bought my Logitech G500 so I think I can justify buying a new one, but I'd want something with a rechargeable battery and they're all quite expensive.
 
Tweaked the DRAM timing on one of my PC ( the old one ), DDR3 PC10700, set at 1333/667 MHz, 1:5, the original default timing was 9:9:9:24 set by the BIOS ( it has Asrock H61 series mobo ). So I lowered/tighten the timing to 7-7-7-19 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 27-86-4-8-4-4-16 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP-FAW), then set the voltage to factory at 1.495V ( closest to 1.5V), the BIOS strangely set it at 1.575V as default. The timing should be stable going from my experience, will test it on Memtest86 for at least 24 hours.
 
Further to my last post (that I thought I wrote but didn't actually post because it's boring), I tried using my Steam Link to see if I could just pay the much smaller license fee of £11 to get three devices on there, which would cover the Sova and its two USB ports, but you have to actively be streaming for the USB server to wake up. I went for the next cheapest option - the £40 unlimited device license - instead of a mouse because I heard the Logitech G703 has a common phantom scrolling issue and the G903 is great, but is £110 which is too much for me right now. Well, that and I've been using VirtualHere for ages and feel it has definitely earned a purchase, it's absolutely indispensable in what I use it for.

So now I just have the two black power cables to hide and my living room setup will be complete (again), until my SO and I get the Ikea Fjallbo TV stand we've been talking about. Then I get to do it all again.

Also if anyone has one of the old style Xbox One wireless controller adaptors in their PC and is frustrated with the limited range, the new version hasn't skipped a beat for me yet at a range of about 5 metres. I just wish the controller had a battery level indicator on it like the DS4's.
 
I have two of the exact same old laptop. One with a semi-busted screen, the other with a broken CPU fan. Today I moved the good CPU fan to the computer with the good screen, to make one good laptop out of two bad ones. This required pulling the motherboards out of both laptops and accessing the CPU, using heatsink goup, the whole 9 yards.

Booted back up, first try! I've done a lot with computer hardware, built more computers than I can count, but I've never completely disassembled a laptop before, that was a trip.
 
I had something of an unusual build to do at work today, we needed a really basic PC to run some scripts to control remote devices and some other stuff to sit in a show control rack, but a sleek 1U unit with an i3, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD was going to cost at least £1,000 which is an insane price to pay when it's not necessary, especially when you're buying a box full of specialist hardware that none of our techs have seen before and none of our suppliers have in stock.

So, I went to Scan and specced up an equivalent PC, admittedly much bigger at 4U (but we have a 20U touring rack and only 12U of stuff to go in it including the 4U PC, so that's fine), but got it to come in under £550.

The thing is, as it only needed one PCIe card (a second NIC) I saved more money by going for a mATX motherboard - an Asus TUF H310M-Plus - so we have this enormous case with a tiny motherboard with its RAM, M.2 SSD, NIC and stock Intel cooler just sitting there, a semi-modular PSU with the essential cable plus one more for the case fans which use Molex 4-pin connectors so they're permanently on, the front panel USB and controls and... That's literally it. The case itself is terrible in terms of build quality, the motherboard sits about 2mm too low so the rear panel barely matches up and every single piece of the interior is screwed together and not welded. It's pretty comical, if you do this kind of thing for a living.

But, I saved "the taxpayer" (absolutely not how our funding works but NVM) at least £450 in delivering this new gallery so if you're reading this in pre-Brexit Britain, you're welcome. That's even before all the other "value engineering" (recycling) I've done so far - I think I've saved the museum about a month of my salary on this gallery.

Do I get a raise, though? Hah!
 
Sorted out some leftover parts that I am gonna sell. Mainly motherboard, CPU (i7-6700k) and 4 x DDR4 ram sticks, also gonna drop the closed waterloop cooler that currently sits on my CPU..


Made some purchases on a few different websites to get all the parts for a custom watercooled loop in my pc.

Can't wait to NOT hear the noise of the 3 fan cooler on my 1080. :dopey:
 
15529129481623951929419772766770.jpg


Someone wants an ultrawide display for a new gallery. This is that ultrawide display. I was hoping to hate it (because it's very expensive) but I really don't! It may "only" be 3840x1080 but the width and curvature is really nice.

Fortunately I don't even have a desk for the monitor I already own so I don't have to worry about making any ruinous purchase decisions, but it's not like I could afford this anyway.
 
TB
@neema_t - CHG90?
Click to expand...

CJ890, but for some reason googling that returns a 43" and 49" - this is the 49". To be specific it's an LC49J890DKUX/EN, but for some reason they don't call it that in public... Can't imagine why, it's like poetry.

Edit: left it playing some YouTube and I've just come back to find this top content:

15530127687863288355913588427701.jpg


Suddenly I'm remembering what it was like trying to play older games on multi-monitor setups. Yeesh.
 
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Toyed around with two recording programs some to see which one I preferred more and I think I have my mind made up now. 👍

I looked through an old folder I created for video game music back in like 2011 and I was originally going to reorganize it some since I hadn't done so in a very long time, but I decided to just delete it and start fresh instead. I did move some desirable stuff out of there though.
 

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