PC Tech Thread

Hah. Just checking you knew and yes looking again at the prices that makes sense.

I'm in the market for a 1TB NVME SSD sooner rather than later and unless the price of the 970 Evo drops I'll probably make the same call. The MX500 line do have a good rep.

Edit: Some of the Amazon review re: heat and reliability sound a bit iffy though
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-MX500-CT1000MX500SSD4-2280SS-Internal/dp/B0784SY515/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Crucial+MX500+1TB+3D+NAND&qid=1573508597&sr=8-3

Yeah, my machine gets the ££££££££ thrown at it for speed, not hers :)

There's a newer, faster version too, Evo Pro or something, but it's another £30 on top of the Samsung so depends how much speed you're looking for. I don't think the weekly Ocado shop requires it. ;)

Why do cheap laptops now come with a shite amount of storage? Big HDDs used to be cheap enough, now they seem to come with ~64GB of eMMC instead.

Trying to get something for my dad, who's shockingly tech illiterate. He's looking at a ~£550 touchscreen folding whizzbox and it's such a waste of money.

Because 550 is mid range so they'll scrimp at the cheap end and you'll get a 64gb emmc.

Easier to get a refurb mid range than a new cheapy

Easier yes if I take the responsibility. Is 4GB enough RAM now? My laptop struggles with 8 but I'm shocking at managing my tabs on famously efficient firefox

Is 4GB enough RAM now?

Probably. Depends on use tho.

Seems low for a new laptop.

Personally I'd just let him buy what he wants and stay out of it.

Personally I'd just let him buy what he wants and stay out of it.

Wise. Let's see how much money he decides to waste.

Microsoft have a discounted sale on, with a 10% student discount it's mighty tempting to pick up a Surface Book 2...

You can get something very decent for £550. I recommended this on another thread
25gGB SSD, 8GB of RAM, 8th generation I5 (faster than an I7 from a generation earlier), HD screen

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdfPVr%2fBMMC3rhUr6l0wkldUSsQRCCGsfuCb4F9SW2bMz6x8T8tmTqdcVEb0DjDFoA%2fnw%2fzswH0IOjZUBBoeFJC7fda4NNtZOJFJ%2b6QygdKzq49aGRcOEgrlNJytZsInMfVlQr6x%2bkGWyhymf%2b%2fLMh2wgaHcgbXTjSU0Hy74Gyn8FC%2bIWoUsGZizSekZkVlPCN0ipINs0fjDWEw1cVew6SHEBamhU4rCxjsqCfvwWW2HJ9k63GjMbcZA%3d&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Just chiming in (belatedly) as someone with a 4+ year old XPS. Honestly think it's an amazing machine and they've apparently only improved since.

Also no idea if it's still a thing but at the time it came with premium care which was pretty useful for replacing a broken screen

Is 4GB enough RAM now?

No, it is not.

Y so many laptops with only 4 then?

He ignored my advice anyway. Will wait another couple weeks and he'll ask again. shrugs

Because RAM is pricey and if you're building to a price point it's something you can skimp on

Thanks, good to know. My surface is holding up OK, so going to stick with that. It should see me though this current project so I'm hesitant to spend more. And the next project I'll have to go it to an office to use specific software.

I've got an annoying issue that I'm struggling to fix as I'm away from home.

My home network has a couple of servers, one running windows (file storage), one ubuntu (plex).

My plex server isn't seeing any of the files on the windows server and when I access my home network via VPN I can't log onto the windows machine via RDP (it doesn't find it).

However, the machine is still up and running as when I log into the ubuntu PC I can ping the windows server and it works.

Is there any way of forcing a reboot on a windows machine remotely? I can access the network and other machines but not the windows one. Cheers

Few ways, depending on which services are still running on it
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/remote-shutdown-restart-windows-10/

Cheers. I'll try that but unfortunately it looks like most of the stuff needs to be done in advance. I'm using windows server so I suspect that will be pretty locked down.

switching on an old pc thats been dormant for 1.5 years

it's a forum recommended zoostorm 2tb memory and i5 quad core processor, 3ghz speed

had the power supply unit replaced and switching it on for the first time

it has windows 8 and it's stumbling around trying to do things but very slowly and not succeding, how can i jazz it up, free software, windows 10 or whatever the latest is, whats my best course of actions to get it up and running again,

tried windows updates but it's struggling, trying a troubleshoot but it's struggling

i can access the c drive fine all files still present and correct
is there a way to check that the processors are all fine and dandy after being lugged around london the last few days

certificates for websites issues on and old windows explorer

i guess a reboot might be good but don't want to lose stuff thats on the c drives photos and music etc

@dicki

Assuming you've not already got an SSD in it (presume not since you said it had a 2TB disk)

Buy a 500GB or 1TB SSD and install Windows 10 fresh to that.
Something like
https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/ct500mx500ssd1
or
https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/CT1000MX500SSD1

The machine will be significantly quicker with the SSD. And it'll leave all your existing files untouched.

Then you can move what you need over at your leisure or just use the old disk as storage.

Alternative is various troubleshooting and/or reinstalling/upgrading Windows and being careful not to mess with existing files. It's entirely doable but I'd suggest taking the opportunity to upgrade to SSD and skip the ballache that is troubleshooting a slow PC.

thanks for that i'll take a look
does it plug in via usb or into the mother boards ?
will my old zoostorm take the ssd ?

Via the motherboard. Old machine would definitely be fine taking it.

Might even be able to get a slightly newer type of SSD, ‘m2’, but would need to know exactly what motherboard you have to recommend that.

Yes almost certainly as it will use the same sata interface as your existing drive.