PC Tech Thread

Probably not. I just stuck one in as they are cheap and were useful at one time...

Looking at their pre-configured machines, with a bit of tweaking:

Case CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 275Q QUIET CASE
Processor (CPU)Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-9400F (2.9GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® PRIME Z390-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive 512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W

Small thing that jumped out to me why 1x16Gb RAM stick and not 2x8GB so you can take advantage of dual channel? That mobo has 4 RAM slots so not hampering yourself in the future and you could add another matched 2x8GB of you ever needed to.

thanks - i'll change to 2x8.

Get whichever is cheapest, as dual channel speed increase is negligible

Hi all,

Computer noob here (sorry). I am considering buying a desktop PC and have a flexible budget upto maybe £500 for everything. I want something to do some writing on and to go online. Not a gamer, no huge downloads, so doesnt have to be flashy.

What are your thoughts on the lenovo compact desktops?

Ebay have a 20% off code just started today

EDIT: settled on a refurbed hp pavillion as the customer service from lenovo seems terrible

Where would I go if I wanted to sell a RAID system?

There are some on eBay but as a platform that doesn't seem appropriate somehow. Is there a go-to IT forum with a classifieds section? Anyone here in the market?

Got 1 x very well looked after 24TB G-tech Studio XL with ev module going spare. Think I paid £2.5k in 2017. Not sure what I'd want for it but we've upgraded and it'll just gather dust. Also got maybe 20 x 1TB ev modules for that plug and play with the array.

Does somewhere like overclockers have a selling forum?

Overclockers does but you need a certain number of posts before being able to access it.

Then I better get posting : )

Cheers both

The power button on my case seems to be knackered. It no longer springs back out which means it sometimes gets stuck and turns on then back off again.

I tried enabling Power on with keyboard in the BIOS but this didn't seem to do anything. I guess this may be because my keyboard is wireless. Is a wired keyboard likely to fix this? Does it need to be plugged into any specific USB port? Anything else I need to consider? Cheers

I configure the BIOS to power on the machine when power is applied. Then I turn it on at the plug. I have an extension lead on the desk for this purpose. Then I turn off completely once the machine is shutdown. That way it's not sitting on standby getting warm.

I did try that setting but it didn't seem to do anything when I unplugged and plugged back in again.

So far as I understood the Power on with keyboard isn't standby, the PC is as turned off as it would be when normally shut down.

So far as I understood the Power on with keyboard isn't standby, the PC is as turned off as it would be when normally shut down.

I'd guess it'd be similar to Wake on LAN. So it'll draw a tiny amount of power when shut down, but a watt or two at most. Similar to a TV needing to be awake enough to listen for you pressing the on button on the remote.
It wouldn't be on standby sitting there getting warm.

I stopped leaving PCs on standby when I felt the back of an ATX power supply and found it warm.

The setting you want mentions power fail. I’ve used it on many different PCs. You should be able to get it working. I can post a screenshot if you want.

Yes, I'd enabled it but it doesn't seem to work if you unplug the kettle lead end of the wire from the PSU and back in again which is how I tested it yesterday. Unplugged the mains plug end and back in again and that did the job, will have to work out the best way of doing it without crawling under the desk.

This is what 'hibernate' is for. If by 'standby' you mean 'sleep'.

Doesn't help that Windows for a few years had standby, hibernate and sleep options at the same time. All of them a bit shit and unreliable.

Still. You should be able to switch it off (not standby/sleep/whatever) and have it wake on LAN or keyboard assuming the right motherboard/BIOS

By standby I mean any power state where the power supply is partially on and providing standby power to the motherboard. Anything where there isn't a proper switch in the off state.

If you have any sort of soft power button then there has to be a source of power for it. So the power supply has a standby power circuit that is running all the time just for this purpose. It can also power the keyboard and the network card. As I said was surprised that my power supply got warm in this state. I'm sure that things are better now with energy regulations. Still, it's easy enough to have a power strip with a big red switch on the desk. It powers up my monitors, amplifier, powered USB hub, etc. as well.

This whole conversation reminds me of my dad who switches off all of his technology at the mains - TV, hi-fi, Chromecasts, everything - thereby making everything slightly joyless to use.

I'm all for power saving but tech manufacturers have been working on reducing power consumption on standby to almost nothing for years to comply with Energy Star and EU energy labelling standards so that you don't have to do this kind of shit!

I do that too. I have no problem with a server running 24 hours a day, but it is easy to switch things off, so I do.

Reminds me of my old gran.

She used to keep the TV remote on top of the TV so if she wanted to change the channel, shed get up, walk to the TV, change the channel with the remote and put it back in the Tv before sitting down again.

My Mum who is in her 70s does the turning everything off thing. Even turns off the isolators for the oven, and hob etc in the kitchen. The first thing she does when she gets up in the morning is sets all of the clocks on her kitchen appliances!

She even does it with lamps. I'll never stop being frustrated at trying to turn a lamp on but then having to operate two switches to do so!

My girlfriend used to turn everything off at the mains but then started living with me and realised that there was so much shit that was plugged in and had to remain on for everything to work that it was pointless.

The internet on my OH laptop keeps fucking up - for eg today attached.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. I only use it when I'm WFH so my attempt at solutions are always ad hoc and based on Google + the troubleshooter.

So first up I thought I'd try and at least identify the problem. Can anyone recommend some sort of safe tracking program that I can use to log the errors or identify what the problem is or at least when it fucks up?

Cheers.

• Old W10 PC with an SSD and RAM upgrade
  
• my use inc. a plug in BT mouse
  
• browser mainly Edge, but Firefox will also fuck up too
  
• internet via Virgin hub 3
  

1 Attachment

Anything in event log?