What's your latest tech purchase?

[P4-630]

What soundcard is that besides the obvious ASUS silkscreen on the PCB.

Looks like it's a Asus Xonar AE 7.1

ASUS Xonar AE Soundkarte, 7.1 Channel Surround, PCI-E x1

Soundkarte (PCIe) von ASUS mit 7.1-Sound-Ausgabe, austauschbaren Op-Amps, hochwertigen DACs von ESS & Cirrus Logic, Kopfhörer-Verstärker

www.caseking.de

 

[GreiverBlade]

weird day ...

i received a mail confirming an order at one of my favorite retailer stating that i would receive my order next tuesday ...

with that thingy in the order list ...


the weird part is: i ordered nothing recently ...

since the mail show the post tracking and the package to be "on the way" i will do a thorough research thru my mails and checking if i did order that ... but as far as i know ... my bank account is still the same as last time i checked ...

if it's not an error, i guess i will have to go sub on that thread : https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/virtual-reality-club.197834/page-19#post-4087388

 

[BiggieShady]

... but as far as i know ... my bank account is still the same as last time i checked ...

That's how credit cards work it bites you a month later ... or in installments

 

[GreiverBlade]

That's how credit cards work it bites you a month later ... or in installments

my credit card is a direct debit Mastercard (aka: if i do not put any money on it nothing can be bought with )

 

[newtekie1]

My new pfSense router. I needed it to handle the new 1Gbps internet connection.

Intel Celeron G4900
8GB DDR4-2400
AsRock H370M-ITX
2x128GB Flash Drives Mirrored
MITXPC MX500-USB3 Case

 

[racer243l]

Totally forgot to post my Prime Day goodies here.
All part for an upcoming build

 

[Wavetrex]

Here's a more unusual purchase...

(size comparison to a regular home and small office switch)

 

[kapone32]

Wow CAD pricing sure does suck.

I haven't noticed a difference from my 960 Evo in my main system they seem to perform around the same. Although my 3x 860 evo also perform similarly for gaming.

You better believe it. The current best value in Canada in terms of tech is a 1920X on Amazon for $386.99. You have to love modern computing there are so many flavors forr every component and in terms of storage 2.5 SSDs in RAID 0 is RAID 0 is no joke. I have a 4TB Micron 1100 RAID 0 array and that is actually faster than all of my NVME drives in terms of gaming and writing downloads. The thing with NVME is when you do your first data transfer and you see the 1.5 to 2 GB/s transfer for even 10 seconds you will be hooked. Especially if you remember 4MB hards drives and floppy disks being being bigger than internal storage.

Totally forgot to post my Prime Day goodies here.
All part for an upcoming build
View attachment 127867
View attachment 127868
View attachment 127869

That build is going to be beautiful and mesmerizing be careful lol.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Here's a more unusual purchase...

View attachment 127872
(size comparison to a regular home and small office switch)

View attachment 127873
View attachment 127874

I guess those USB dongles for you hooked, huh?

 

[Wavetrex]

I guess those USB dongles for you hooked, huh?

Yes.

2x https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2467/usb_3.1_gen1_type_a_to_rj45_2.5gbps/ ( 36 € each )
1x https://www.trendnet.com/products/product-detail?prod=230_TEG-30102WS (Not that I got the switch at a massive discount, way, way lower than list price, just 117 € )

In the mean time I found out that another 2.5gbps product exists on the EU market for about a month:

Delock Products 89531 Delock PCI Express x1 Card 1 x RJ45 2.5 Gigabit LAN RTL8125

www.delock.com

This should be ~ 40 € ... first PCI-e 1x card (that I know of) that is faster than gigabit !
(Until now, there were only PCI-e 4x cards, like ASUS XG-C100C, which is faster (does 10gbps), but also three times more expensive and requires new cables to actually reach 10gbps.
... oh, and a more expensive switch that does 10g... and usually only on 2 ports.

But it's good, I have more than 2 computers, so by the end of this year my entire house network will be @ 2.5gbps

 

[biffzinker]

2x https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2467/usb_3.1_gen1_type_a_to_rj45_2.5gbps/ ( 36 € )

You managed to find a dirt cheap 2.5 Gigabit switch after all?

Here is a new networking product that might have everyone's interest

Club 3D has introduced its 2.5 GbE dongles featuring a USB Type-A or a USB Type-C interface. The adapters are designed to add 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet to PCs without internal GbE controllers. For laptops, this is becoming increasingly more widespread. Club 3D’s CAC-1420 (USB Type-A to 2.5 GbE)...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Wavetrex]

You managed to find a dirt cheap 2.5 Gigabit switch after all?

Here is a new networking product that might have everyone's interest

Club 3D has introduced its 2.5 GbE dongles featuring a USB Type-A or a USB Type-C interface. The adapters are designed to add 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet to PCs without internal GbE controllers. For laptops, this is becoming increasingly more widespread. Club 3D’s CAC-1420 (USB Type-A to 2.5 GbE)...

www.techpowerup.com

Look at the price curve for 3 Months

TRENDnet TEG Desktop 2.5G Smart Switch, 8x RJ-45, 2x SFP+ (TEG-30102WS) | Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

✔ Preisvergleich für TRENDnet TEG Desktop 2.5G Smart Switch, 8x RJ-45, 2x SFP+ (TEG-30102WS) ✔ Produktinfo ⇒ Funktion: Switch • Typ: Standalone, Rackmount (via Montagewinkel) • Netzwerkanschlüsse: 8x RJ-45, 2x SFP+… ✔ Switches ✔ Testberichte ✔ Günstig kaufen

geizhals.eu

That was Amazon, for some weird reason dropping the price continuously for one month:

There were two units purchased that day. One by me, and one by the guy who told me about it ... and poof price jumped back to the normal usual 430.

So unfortunately, a "cheap" 2.5g switch still doesn't exist. This was a very rare opportunity which I managed to catch.
But maybe with the RTL8125 chip now on sale... somebody will build a consumer-level one, small, no SFP, cheap...

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yes.

2x https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2467/usb_3.1_gen1_type_a_to_rj45_2.5gbps/ ( 36 € each )
1x https://www.trendnet.com/products/product-detail?prod=230_TEG-30102WS (Not that I got the switch at a massive discount, way, way lower than list price, just 117 € )

In the mean time I found out that another 2.5gbps product exists on the EU market for about a month:

Delock Products 89531 Delock PCI Express x1 Card 1 x RJ45 2.5 Gigabit LAN RTL8125

www.delock.com

This should be ~ 40 € ... first PCI-e 1x card (that I know of) that is faster than gigabit !
(Until now, there were only PCI-e 4x cards, like ASUS XG-C100C, which is faster (does 10gbps), but also three times more expensive and requires new cables to actually reach 10gbps.
... oh, and a more expensive switch that does 10g... and usually only on 2 ports.

But it's good, I have more than 2 computers, so by the end of this year my entire house network will be @ 2.5gbps

At €117, that switch is more than worth the price. The list price is way too high for what it is, even though it's a managed switch.
The two SFP+ ports might be nice to have for a future upgrade as well.

The Ethernet chip is more or less the same, as both options should be Realtek based, as so far, they're the only ones with a 2.5Gbps chip in the market. Killer has one on the way, not out yet afaik, which is supposed to be made by Intel, which means Intel will have an option soon as well.

Aquantia makes 5Gbps cards with PCIe 3.0 x1 interface, but they're a little bit more price than €40. Oddly enough, not available in Europe by the looks of it.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

www.aquantia.com

Someone on TPU got them at the same Black Friday deal I got my 10Gbps cards during. They were dirt cheap at the time. I paid less than $70 a card for my 10Gbps cards.

I also picked up a Netgear GS110EMX for a good discount by ordering it from Amazon UK and not having to pay VAT. Unfortunately they've closed that loophole since then. Not as cheap as what you got yours for though.

 

[racer243l]

That build is going to be beautiful and mesmerizing be careful lol.

Not only that but also my first time building something smaller then ATX

 

[khemist]

 

[GreiverBlade]

ok so ... i received my "non purchase" turn out it was a giveaway i entered at some time it don't freaking remember from Aldi (which have Medion as main electronic, Tablet/computers/multimedia, brand and Erazer is the "gaming" division of Medion.)
since there is no "the show off your tech relatted non-purchase thread" .... i continue here

second time i win something expensive (first time was a Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 )

not bad not bad, exactly the same as the Lenovo Explorer MR HMD (logical ... ) comfortable enough and 90Hz 1440x1440 per eye is quite good (once corrected the interpupillary distance)


unfortunately i lack a bluetooth dongle (error corrected tomorrow morning ) which disabled testing it in Steam but i could try the MR hub and some fun with my XBone controller

 

[TheLostSwede]

ok so ... i received my "non purchase" turn out it was a giveaway i entered at some time it don't freaking remember from Aldi (which have Medion as main electronic, Tablet/computers/multimedia, brand and Erazer is the "gaming" division of Medion.)
since there is no "the show off your tech relatted non-purchase thread" .... i continue here

second time i win something expensive (first time was a Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 )

not bad not bad, exactly the same as the Lenovo MR HMD (logical ... ) comfortable enough and 90Hz 1440x1440 per eye is quite good (once corrected the interpupillary distance)
View attachment 127986View attachment 127987View attachment 127988View attachment 127989

unfortunately i lack a bluetooth dongle (error corrected tomorrow morning ) which disabled testing it in Steam but i could try the MR hub and some fun with my XBone controller
View attachment 127990View attachment 127991View attachment 127992

I work with the plastics injection company that makes the plastic for the controllers...
Nice thing to win.

 

[GreiverBlade]

"issue" corrected :


the cheap brand Speedlink do mighty well ... (not the first piece i have from them, i have a Xeox gamepad and Airrow Flightstick, while the Xeox got replaced by a Xbox One Recon Tech gamepad the Airrow has, will have, no replacement before long )

I work with the plastics injection company that makes the plastic for the controllers...
Nice thing to win.

well i am surprised, the quality of the controller is quite good and also the inside out tracking is quite precise without needing a big open space to be used, pretty much ideal for me.

The fun point is i was checking price of the Pimax 2.5, 4, 5, 8K (well the 2.5 and 4K were correct but no controller tho ) and also of the Vive and Rift S (gosh no thanks 1400chf+ for the Vive Pro and 500ish chf for the Rift S, which funnily use inside out tracking now, is too much) recently, basically that surprise was quite welcome (Pimax 5 and 8k are decently priced given the higher resolution although controller is an issue with that brand)

as for other MR HMD there is some obviously better spec'ed headset, with integrated headphones, slightly better resolutions or OLEDs screens (like the Acer OJO 500 or the Samsung Odyssey+, although the later is overpriced even with the improvement over 1st gen MR HMD ) but they are 150-200chf more than the Erazer X1000MR and are nearing the Rift S pricing

 

[kapone32]

Ok Sorry I did not get to do the video as time became a factor. The Intel 660P drives are probably the cheapest NVME drives you can buy but are they worth the price of admission. I wanted to do a video but there were some challenges to that. I will list the pros and cons. We will do the bad before the good.

Cons

1. Once they were recognized in Windows it took 6.5 hours to format the RAID array.
2. Copying my Steam library from a 256GB NVME to this showed a high of 1.2 TB/s writes for about 10-15 seconds and the rest ran at or around 100 mb/s. I do believe even in RAID 0 the SLC cache is still only 25GB.
3. To get the best performance you have to install the firmware update and also Intel's RST software.
4. it is QLC NAND

Pros

1. The cost of these is exemplary, the 2TB is $269.99 CAD on Newegg. Amazon Prime Day deal in Canada, Sandisk 2TB Ultra SSD $279.99 as a reference point.
2. Games load just as fast as my Adata SX8200 non pro.
3. They actually run cool at around 33 C in idle.
4. 5 Year warranty is nothing to sneeze at.
5. The software is actually worth installing some companies have nothing.
You are getting way more than what you are paying for with this drive. I would say that if you have the ability I would pick one of these over an SSD of the same capacity everyday of the week. My next thing is to download a game from the Epic store and see how it performs against a TLC NVME drive in that regard. In all honesty though it is great for gaming using the Intel Rapid Storage program did see load times drop by about 10 to 15 seconds in TW3K. I am going to load TWWH2 onto the drive and see how turns go as that is 10 times the faction count vs 3K.

An update. I have gone to 4 of that (could be my card) 2 are about the sweet spot. I wish I was home and could post my results but I now see 4900MB/s read and 4900MB/s writes for sequential with these. I moved some games onto it yesterday and will see how they perform when I get home today.

 

[R00kie]

Got this last weekend

 

[GreiverBlade]

I moved some games onto it yesterday and will see how they perform when I get home today.

not much more different aside faster loading time and probably a slightly higher minimal fps ...

based on what i noticed running a game from 1. a 1tb 5600rpm SSHD 2. a 1tb 7200rpm HDD and 3. a 240gb SSD (in the end the SSD had only minor loadtime and min fps over the 7k2 and the 5k6 SSHD was not as slow as a 5k6 HDD ... obviously since SSHD )

 

[kapone32]

not much more different aside faster loading time and probably a slightly higher minimal fps ...

based on what i noticed running a game from 1. a 1tb 5600rpm SSHD 2. a 1tb 7200rpm HDD and 3. a 240gb SSD (in the end the SSD had only minor loadtime and min fps over the 7k2 and the 5k6 SSHD was not as slow as a 5k6 HDD ... obviously since SSHD )

Understood, Ihave some games on a NVME and it does feel snappier when doing anythin glike Gaming. I fond it does help to bring down load times for Strategy Games like Total War.

 

[white phantom]

Well decided to get a couple of bits for my new undecided and in time build (either a 9700k or 9900k and aorus board probably ) just collecting bit by bit as I go n deals arise

Yeah it was very cheap but I like it and 10 years of sun from a window hasn't played well with my phantoms white plastics

Also got a 360mm deepcool castle rgb AIO coming aswell to match it, couldn't resist being 100 quid it's not arrived yet

 

[P4-630]

 

[FinneousPJ]

I ordered a RPi 4 as they came back in stock. I already have 3 RPi 3s and a Zero W. Yeah, they're a lot of fun to tinker with.