Posts by wiredotter14

If you're looking for those newer models, your only shot is grabbing refurbished units from shops like Micro Center, Eurotoner, or similar outfits. Honestly? It’s not a bad move. You're getting a legitimate used laptop—could have been a floor model sitting out for months—but at least it comes with a year's warranty.

Just one thing: if portability is actually your priority, stop obsessing over the screen size and look at the actual physical dimensions. A lot of 13" laptops are barely half a centimeter wider than old 12" models just because of the thick bezels.

Timothy Kim60 said:Word is prices are going up. It all comes down to China—if they stop production or shipping, costs skyrocket. Local retailers and importers here don't have much of a stockpile left.

China is slowly ramping factories back up. Honestly, I think things won't be as bad as everyone's expecting.

Kevin Newman6 said:Everyone’s placing bulk orders through some warehouse in the Netherlands because there’s some loophole—not sure what it is—that lets them dodge customs. They get a 25% net discount that you pay upfront, then you just claim it back at the end of the year during tax season. If you buy locally, you have to deal with the IRS right away, but buying from overseas avoids it. We've got great laws, I guess, but whatever. By my math, it's actually cheaper $267 even if they give him that 25% discount. Even if I order here and deal with all the customs, the IRS, and all that nonsense, it still works out to be $133 less

1) So you think the gross price is slashed by 20% or something?

2) When you buy stuff locally through a business, you pay the sales tax immediately, then you write it off on next month's filing.

3) Either way, sounds like too much of a headache for $133. Now, ordering a few thousand bucks worth would be interesting.

4) Your alternative is either buying domestically and writing off the tax immediately, or ordering via one of those European Amazons that ships to an American company with an EU tax ID at the net price. Then you just handle the tax deduction like any other local purchase. Honestly, I doubt there's much difference between the net price on Amazon.com versus the US price plus shipping and all the extra hassle.

BTW, how does that stuff even get from the Netherlands to you? Free shipping?

If you're ordering through Amazon.com, you're either paying 25% IRS on the delivery via the Amazon program or handling the import yourself through your business. I have no clue what kind of warehouse in the Netherlands you're talking about. Either way, you really ought to be comparing that cost against the net price here in the States if you're buying it under a corporate account.

Kevin Newman6 said:My math says otherwise. Basically, the same components cost nearly twice as much here. Everything I buy, I run through a buddy's company—tax-free, just shipping included. Over here, shipping is baked right into the price.

So you're telling me you'll order from Amazon using some US company, handle the import, and just dodge the sales tax?

We can't see your cart. Did you account for sales tax?

You living in the States? What’s the individual cost looking like?

Are you kidding me? I can't even tell if these fans are intake or exhaust right now.

If we're talking dust control, intake with a filter is the way to go.
But for heat dissipation? Exhaust might be better.

AMD is dropping a more powerful card soon, but I don't think anything else in that tier is coming out anytime soon.

Are you talking about AMD drivers in general or just for this specific card?
They definitely had issues with the 5700 series, but I think things are mostly sorted now. Plus, half the time people just don't know how to perform a proper clean driver install.

If I were you, I'd just grab a card now before the whole supply chain mess from the pandemic hits again.
That power supply should be fine; it pulls a bit more than an RX 580.

BTW, heard this one is pretty solid too.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/graphics-card-example

Alexander Moore67 said:Picked up an x5650 Xeon and swapped out my i7 920. Not only is it a 6/12 CPU, but the 32nm architecture means temperatures are way lower. Cost me $10.50. Highly recommend this upgrade.

Yeah, I know it'd be a great upgrade, but realistically, once I start working in a year or two, I'll just overhaul the whole platform. For now, it gets the job done. I used to play Rising Storm 2 (Unreal Engine 3) and Fortnite. The CPU handles both fine, though I think my bottleneck is either single-core performance or the RX 580 at 1440p.

Mostly playing Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition now. It runs even with my mining rig running in the background 😁

fadedorca66 said:Actually, it's the exact opposite. You should be looking at the benchmarks because they exist specifically to prove your overclock is actually stable. If it passes this way, you might start a game, get right in the middle of a boss fight, and then—boom—BSOD and game over. 😬

In theory, sure, if you want a 100% rock-solid OC. But realistically? It doesn't matter that much.
I spent years running what was technically an unstable OC on my i7 920 because my cooler back then couldn't keep things steady under Prime95 for long. Still, it never crashed on me during gaming (temps stayed around 70ish C in games, but went >90C under stress). Now that I have the Noctua NH-D14, I can push it with whatever I want, though I don't notice any difference in daily use—it just runs cooler.

Why on earth do you think applying more paste and delidding is actually going to help you?

rustytrucker37 said:Hey everyone!

Is this rig actually worth it? $900.
P.S. I'm not selling, just looking at something some guy is putting up for sale.

Ryzen 3 - 4 cores - 4 threads
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB ASUS dual fan - White
8 GB DDR4 RAM - new
240 GB SSD - new
500 GB HDD
500 W Fortron Power Supply
Asrock A320M HDV r4.0 motherboard
+some case, looks professional
Comes with Windows 10 Pro

Let me know what you think, thanks!

Not really. Off the top of my head, you could build something better by mixing new parts with a used GPU.

Regarding the Windows 10 Pro—if you're buying this for a business, you need receipts for both the hardware and the OS, otherwise, it’s practically worthless.

amberskipper21 said:https://snlookup.com/acer-aspire-e5-...vex-023-p44687

Here are the specs.
My current stick is 4GB DDR3L.
So that's what I need to hunt for? DDR3L?

Sent from my iPhone 11 using Reddit

Yeah, something like this.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/ddr3-8gb-1x8-kingston...m_medium=click

Since it says 16GB max, you've got two slots. You could pull that 4GB one out and swap in 2x8 if you really wanted to.

Honestly though, just toss in another 4GB. 8GB total should be plenty for you.

https://www.newegg.com/memorija-kings...roizvod/192627

Is the RAM soldered on, or is there an actual slot?

Drop your laptop specs here.

Basically, you just grab any RAM with the same frequency and type (like DDR4 SODIMM 2133MHz) and you're good.

Works fine for me, though Imgur tends to glitch out sometimes whenever that i.imgur link pops up.

Adam Moore3 said:So IBM splits power supplies into standard and modular, then just stuffs the modular ones into the standard category. 🤦

Yeah, exactly. They’ve always been pioneers in designing completely nonsensical websites.

Adam Moore3 said:You mean Windows? IBM doesn't even carry the TX series in their lineup.

https://www.dell.com/product.asp?id=131.400.037

Anyway, if we're talking strictly about footprint, you could probably cram an Intel Core i7-8700 in there without a GPU. Not sure if that'd actually cut it for Adobe though.

https://www.newegg.com/product_i...l_1249334.html

Adam Moore3 said:It’s not about the wattage. It's about getting five years of reliability, Gold efficiency, and—most importantly—modularity, since we're dealing with a tiny case here. You can grab a $33 Fortron Hyper 85+ under 550W for less, but you're stuck with Bronze rating and thicker, non-modular cables. In a build this tight, that’s a dealbreaker.

Since the CPU is basically the only thing pulling any real power here, a Corsair TX550M would be totally fine.

Peter Green said:Regardless of who's branding them, both setups are overpriced. The real tragedy is they'd still be too expensive even if they cost $667 less. I have no clue where they get these prices for components that are three years old.

People don't realize how much the hardware and software markets rely on users who can't build their own rigs. They just buy whatever's sitting on the shelf at the local Best Buy or wherever they've shopped before. It's understandable. There’s no roadmap provided—no info on how to handle repairs, warranty claims, or customer support if things go south. With a Lennel computer, you know it works and you know you can actually get it serviced under warranty.
Basically, the market splits into two groups: people who wing it and live dangerously, and people who don't care because tech isn't their job.

Not to mention most people, even those with a passing interest in hardware, have zero clue what kind of support, warranty, or compatibility issues they'll face with a custom build.
Retailers get orders for "5 decent office PCs" or some specific niche request, and then they make a killing on absurdly bad configurations.

And don't even get me started on the margins they pull from selling McAfee licenses and stuff like that. 😁

That's why OEM computers exist. That's exactly why these OEM machines exist. 😁

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-idea...proizvod-3121/

Yeah, that's basically a first-gen GCN GPU in a machine from nearly $1667, something like an R7 250—bottom-tier junk from 2013.