HardwareNew PC-me-do

  

Press Ctrl+Enter to quickly submit your post
Quick Reply  
 
 
  
 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   18 Jan 2020 23:39 
 To:  william (WILLIAMA)      21 of 89 
42538.21 In reply to 42538.20 
This'll be the 3rd refurb hp SFF we've bought for MrsD. in the past ~15-years. Usually better value than a home build for sub-gaming stuff, considering the OS is 'free'.
“A drunk puppet declares she's a virgin, and teens learn a sex-ed lesson”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CyrixDes (CYRIXDES_)   21 Jan 2020 08:23 
 To:  william (WILLIAMA)      22 of 89 
42538.22 In reply to 42538.12 
'budget copy'? u na fneek ect 

APPROVED: 21 Jan 2020 09:21 by WINGNUTKJ
+1/1
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  milko   21 Jan 2020 11:00 
 To:  CyrixDes (CYRIXDES_)      23 of 89 
42538.23 In reply to 42538.22 
lol, I do enjoy a gag that takes that much effort to get in.
milko
+1/1
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CyrixDes (CYRIXDES_)   21 Jan 2020 11:03 
 To:  milko      24 of 89 
42538.24 In reply to 42538.23 
I wonder whatever happened to WeeDave. 

APPROVED: 21 Jan 2020 12:54 by MILKO
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  william (WILLIAMA)   21 Jan 2020 11:34 
 To:  milko      25 of 89 
42538.25 In reply to 42538.23 
Trouble is, it's so old (as am I ) that I can't remember what it means anymore.
never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ)    21 Jan 2020 14:41 
 To:  william (WILLIAMA)      26 of 89 
42538.26 In reply to 42538.16 
quote: william (WILLIAMA)
One thing that did interest me. I saw that Chris built his PC on a full ATX board. Did you have any thoughts about this? Having just built a full-fat Windows PC on a tiny mini-stx board and leaving aside all the obvious jokes about size mattering, are you going for anything in particular?

I was thinking Micro-ATX, possibly even re-using my existing case (although I'm likely to get a new one, although I'll be aiming for no sodding LEDs and side-windows if I can possibly avoid them.

Presumably with a mini-stx board, the size of the graphics card is a consideration?

Trying to think about what else I'll need - Keyboard, mouse, SATA DVD drive, storage HDD and monitors are all being kept from the existing system. Might try to move my Windows key across to the new system, although I can't remember what level of legit it is (it's quite legit, but might be OEM).

I've got a wi-fi card which plugs into a PCI Express slot on my motherboard, which I presume will still work, and an ageing Lexicon Lambda Studio USB Audio Interface I used for recording with, which I fully expect to mess about with for a few minutes trying to sort out ASIO issues and a high-pitched whine which won't go away, before punting it in favour of something more contemporary.

Things currently semi-permanently connected to my pc: Printer, keyboard, mouse, audio interface, external drive, joystick, SD card reader. I'll want USB ports. Lots of USB ports.

Kenny
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  william (WILLIAMA)   21 Jan 2020 15:13 
 To:  Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ)       27 of 89 
42538.27 In reply to 42538.26 
I was only curious because if I was building a PC now I'd probably aim to make it smaller than my current one. The case I have is an elderly Antec case but it dates back to when IDE cables were the norm so it has loads of space, but poor cable-management opportunities. I think the big empty panel areas make it noisy as well. The ultra cheap case I rebuilt my backup PC into is much smaller but all the cables can be threaded out of the way. 

And no, the miniature boards (stx and itx) are limited with either no graphics card provision or one PCI-e slot right on the edge. My stx board has no PCI-e slots apart from M.2 for an SSD and a wifi card.

I'm sure micro-ATX will be your best bet.
never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   21 Jan 2020 15:30 
 To:  william (WILLIAMA)      28 of 89 
42538.28 In reply to 42538.27 
I hate how discreet GPUs take up two pci slots.
“A drunk puppet declares she's a virgin, and teens learn a sex-ed lesson”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Matt   21 Jan 2020 17:31 
 To:  Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ)       29 of 89 
42538.29 In reply to 42538.26 
I don't think you'll be fitting a DVD drive in a Mini-STX case (at least not in any I've seen). If you really need the DVD drive, you'll probably need to put it in a separate case/caddy and connect it via eSATA or something.

doohicky
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Dave!!   21 Jan 2020 20:46 
 To:  Chris (CHRISSS)      30 of 89 
42538.30 In reply to 42538.18 
Yeah, that's mainly why I went down the watercooling route in the end. The bit that clips onto the CPU for mine is quite small, then the radiator bolts to the roof of the case and vents directly outside. Of course, less use in a small case, but then I have to admit that mine is a normal ATX case (got 5 hard drives - so needed the space anyway!)
---

 
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Manthorp   22 Jan 2020 08:26 
 To:  Matt      31 of 89 
42538.31 In reply to 42538.29 
There are plenty of handsome and efficient external DVD drives (sometimes with DVD players built in) about. Once you've got one, you'll never need to weigh up whether you need an internal one again.

<edit> And I suspect one will last until DVDs are are definitively redundant.
"We all have flaws, and mine is being wicked."
James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks 1951
 
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  graphitone   22 Jan 2020 09:28 
 To:  Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ)       32 of 89 
42538.32 In reply to 42538.26 
You'll no doubt be able to get wifi built into the mobo to get around using any extra cards or requiring further slots.


images?q=tbn:8nj2HfmLhyV7yM:b
Drawings n' that

PIBEES
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   22 Jan 2020 10:23 
 To:  graphitone      33 of 89 
42538.33 In reply to 42538.32 
Unless your eyesight is excellent, and your hands tiny, nimble and strong, you will profoundly curse trying to fit a tiny case.
“A drunk puppet declares she's a virgin, and teens learn a sex-ed lesson”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ)    22 Jan 2020 11:09 
 To:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)      34 of 89 
42538.34 In reply to 42538.33 
Yeah, I'm thinking ATX/Micro-ATX rather than anything smaller.
Kenny
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   24 Jan 2020 20:15 
 To:  william (WILLIAMA)      35 of 89 
42538.35 In reply to 42538.20 
Hmph. The i5-4570 has a higher "cpu mark" rating than the Athlon X4 950 I got two years ago. Also it currently retails for ~Can.$270 (compared to the ~Can.$100 I paid for the Athlon), so the pc is deffo some kind of bargain (we took delivery of it a couple of days ago, so I'll be setting it up this weekend).
“Frozen iguanas forecast to shower south Florida”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   28 Jan 2020 15:03 
 To:  ALL 36 of 89 
42538.36 
According to system info, the i5-4570 in MrsD.'s 'new' pc  has virtualization disabled (a feature she'll likely never need), which could explain the low price (pc originally ~US$800 new). However, the cpu is upgradeable, and there's an open pci-x16 slot for a discreet gpu (integrated Intel HD 4600 onboard), useful to know for future repurposing, though there are likely significant performance-limiting factors. She is quite taken with Windows 10; the latest iteration has the dreaded tiling replaced with a more familiar and user-friendly classic desktop.

Strangely, the dvd writer it came with is a slim/laptop design of appalling slow read speed (or maybe it didn't like a data disk I burned on my pc to xfer her documents).
“Finally, my home state is known for something besides racism and old people!”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  Matt   28 Jan 2020 17:26 
 To:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)      37 of 89 
42538.37 In reply to 42538.36 
Virtualization might just be disabled in the BIOS. But honestly you'll only need it if you plan to run virtual machines on it.

doohicky
+1/1
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   28 Jan 2020 17:30 
 To:  Matt      38 of 89 
42538.38 In reply to 42538.37 
I didn't think to check there. Yeah, it is unlikely to be needed unless/until it passes into my hands. I don't use it much anymore anyway, except for occasional testing.
“Finally, my home state is known for something besides racism and old people!”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  ANT_THOMAS   29 Jan 2020 00:37 
 To:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)      39 of 89 
42538.39 In reply to 42538.36 
You burned a DVD to transfer her documents? Really?
You picked that option over a network share or USB drive/stick?
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

 From:  CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)   29 Jan 2020 01:43 
 To:  ANT_THOMAS      40 of 89 
42538.40 In reply to 42538.39 
It made a 'hard copy' backup and I thought the file copy might be faster than over our 100 Mbs lan. The dvd read was so slow on the new pc I would up going over the lan. Got the backup though.
“Finally, my home state is known for something besides racism and old people!”
0/0
 Reply   Quote More 

Reply to All  
 

1–20  21–40  41–60  …  81–89

Rate my interest:

Adjust text size : Smaller 10 Larger

Beehive Forum 1.5.2 |  FAQ |  Docs |  Support |  Donate! ©2002 - 2024 Project Beehive Forum

Forum Stats