PC Tech Thread

I have a dell chromebook I'm looking to shift. Still runs fine but is surplus to requirements at the moment.

Still seems pretty decent spec too.

Ah interesting! May get back to you on that.

I'm going to get her to speak to IT at the school and see if they will let her have a unofficial chromebook set up, as don't want to buy one and then find it can't be used.

Ah trickle down brun economics the main stay of my GPU upgrades!

What brand is the 1080? Kinda tempted...

Gone already, sorry.

Damn that was quick, and the 1080ti?

What are the options for low power CPUs? Will be going in a file server on 24/7 so doesn't need much grunt but reliability, low power and low heat are important.

Need an RTX 30-something as a replacement before that's available. Might be tempted to keep it as a backup tho'. Obviously sod's law means I'll only need it if I sell it.

You probably need to decide what 'low power' means in W first, and determine your other constraints like socket, cores/threads/whether you are using ECC memory.

I had in my mind that there were quite a variety of options at 15-20W but when I looked I was only finding stuff at 55-65W. I'm not sure whether there is something different I need to be searching for.

That must be TDP/full load?

Google says modern CPUs should be less than 10W at idle. Presumably serving files must be much closer to that than the above.

Yes, that makes sense. I wonder whether that is consistent between different processors.

This looks good value but does mean I'm going to have to learn about AMD processors.

For Intel you should be looking for something with a T on the end of the model name. They are 35 W TDP. I have an i3-something-T in my home server.

The crossover none of us asked for

https://uk.pcmag.com/news-analysis/128515/amd-starts-selling-custom-bikes

Fucking hell, what an annoying few hours I've just spent. I saw that the RAM I bought when I built my PC a few months ago was now basically half the price that I paid for it, so I thought why not have 32GB?

I orderd it from a different supplied, but its exactly the same SKU - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB.

Try as I might i couldn't get it to boot properly and after much faff I evenutally got it up with no XMP profile loaded. I looked in CPU-Z and I see that my first pair of sticks are Samsung dies and my new pair as SK Hynix.

The shitty Hynix ones WILL NOT take the XMP profile at all, but the Samsung ones are totally fine with it.

Long story short, im returning them and i'll live with 16gb of fast RAM rather than 32GB of slow.

Thanks. Got a 2070 on the bay for a good price. Should arrive tomorrow. :)

The only things that I really use my main PC for are occasional games, spreadsheets and photo editing on Lightroom.

As such I'm wondering if I can stick it in a cupboard and do stuff remotely. Gaming is fine over steam link or Shield and Excel is fine on remote desktop. The question then is over Lightroom. Trying to work out if it uses the "server" videocard and whether there are issues with colour calibration. Googling seems to bring up a load of contrasting views so wondering whether anyone on here has tried the same.

Everything will be run over a wired network.

If you have a wired network you could potentially use an HDMI extender over CAT5
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/startech-hdmi-extender-over-cat5-cabling-over-30m-2-cat5-cables-required-black
or similar

I use these (well something very similar) all round my house, they work flawlessly. mine also do IR which is useful for any remotes.

Cheers but that requires a direct run and can't be shared with network traffic so wouldn't work with the cabling I have.

My main desktop here at home is a rather elderly Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71. My modern standards it's no doubt little more than a glorified abacus, but for my purposes (browsing, email, word-processing) it's fine now I've replaced the HD, and I really CBA to replace it given that it does the job.

However, I'm missing the triple monitor setup I have at work. Twin 24" monitors is OK, but I can't help but think that a nice curved 32" display in the middle would make life easier, especially on video conferencing where I also need to have multiple pdf files open at the same time.

This will of course need a graphics card as the integrated graphics can only handle two monitors. It's a very long time since I last bought a graphics card, so does anyone have any recommendations? It's only got a 180W power supply, so I imagine I'll need something pretty basic - not that I need anything more.

P.S. At the moment I'm thinking that a ASUS GT710-SL-2GD5 would probably do the job. Opinions welcome.

I've been using a Surface Pro (6 maybe?) from work for the last few months. I like it. I need to give it back and want to replace it with something similar - does anyone have advice on choosing between the Surface Book 3 and the Surface Pro 7 and the Surface Pro X? Or even something different that would do similar job.

I like being able to draw on the screen, it's mostly sketches / annotations but I'd like to explore more artistic stuff at some point.
Work is mostly powerpoint/excel/word and sketch but a little bit of photoshop and illustrator, with some potential for 2D/3D CAD but not often.
Plenty of web-browsing.

I don't really get what the main difference is between the X and the 7 - I assumed the X is newer and therefore better, but I can't really tell. I feel like not having an audio jack or USB-A would be irritating. The slim pen (X) doesn't look as nice as the regular pen (7). X does 4G connection, that's the main attraction, right? But most of the time wi-fi is fine.

And what's the benefit of the Surface Book 3? It seems to do similar things to the Surface Pro but better processing? It's twice as heavy but probably more durable? I carry laptops around a lot and favour durability and longevity.

I don't really get what the main difference is between the X and the 7

The 7 has an Intel chip, the X is ARM.

So the X will have better battery life but lacks support for certain programs.

Personally, I'd skip the X. Will be interesting to see how Apple make the switch, but I think Windows will need another year or three before it's viable.

As above, the X is the ARM version. I wouldn't try being that early adopter.

The Surface Book is more powerful, partly because it packs more stuff into the keyboard section (more battery and GPU I think) so when you're docked you're using the full power and as a tablet it's still lightweight(ish).

I have a Surface Go which is USB C only. It's occasionally a bit annoying but I have a C to A adapter for when I want to plug something unsupported in (normally just a memory stick), a USB C to HDMI cable and a mini hub that's about the size of a box of matches with USB A, USB C and HDMI which covers all the bases (the hub was the priciest but still under £20).