What's your latest tech purchase?

[GreiverBlade]

I guess you've never been on a 14h flight then if you really think that...
I have a pair, of now old, Sony WH-1000XM2 and I can't tell you how much more comfortable my long haul flights are.

Interesting in-ears though, hopefully more companies follow suite with the balanced armatures.

on a flight : flight mode thus i get wired ... but all my headset/buds have a good isolation seal (joking joking ... i know you have to put in flight mode and then you can activate WiFi and BT once the plane took off with some flight company )

on the longest flight i went on i would have to charge these only 2 times (it has a kind of quick charge : 10 min in the box = 2hrs playtime) 15hrs my buds at the time had 12hrs total playtime 4hrs buds plus 3 more charge in the case ... but they had a good seal and i even used them as earplug for the 3hrs left
actually i had a 24hrs flight twice ... DC-10 on the go and 747 on the way back but that was 9yrs before the first consumer BT product and quite before the Bose Quietcomfort 15 and the Onkyo W800BT (first ANC headphone and first TWS earbuds consumer/commercial products in 2009 respectively 2015 )

interesting enough : "In 1986, Bose and Sennheiser both presented active noise-cancelling headsets for aircraft pilots, with the Sennheiser design appearing in a Funkschau paper and the Bose design appearing in an ASME paper. A prototype Bose product was used to prevent hearing loss in pilots during the first non-stop around-the-world flight in the Rutan Voyager. The company (Bose) was the first to release active noise cancelling headphones as a consumer product." i was 5 at the time hehe

nah i reckon ANC is a nice thing to have, although i do not need it (hence the [joke] and yes it was a joke not my real thought on the subject ) but i would prefer Ambient passthru instead.

sooo i tested them for a day and a half and they sound bloody awesome, i use the custom EQ based on my hearing test ... i am amazed how Anker and their sub Brand Soundcore managed to get that good since the Zolo Liberty and Liberty+ (the buds a a bit bulky and stick out quit a lot, which is another cons some reviewer mentioned, but for me it's not a cons at all )

this mouse looks like a gear lever, hope it is comfortable though...

yeah ... it does feel like a gear shift ... but yep quite comfortable, the hand position (handshake) is quite more natural

 

[Ruru]

Well, not a purchase but a freebie (the laptop on my specs, just grabbed one SSD from my main PC)

Spoiler

 

[Splinterdog]

Well, not a purchase but a freebie (the laptop on my specs, just grabbed one SSD from my main PC)

Spoiler

I remember replacing the spinner in my Lenovo for an SSD and boy, what a difference! And upping the RAM to 8GB.

 

[Ruru]

I remember replacing the spinner in my Lenovo for an SSD and boy, what a difference! And upping the RAM to 8GB.

I got this without a HDD and this had a broken screen, I got also a second one which didn't power up so I took the screen panel from it. Also, as a discarded business laptop, this had the supervisor password in BIOS which I managed to get rid of. Even though this SSD (Gigabyte 240GB) is DRAM-less, this is still pretty fast in general usage.

Having 1080p resolution is also great, my previous laptops have been some old slow POS with 1366x768 or similar 720p-ish.

 

[sepheronx]

Don't want to brag but....

View attachment 158019
View attachment 158020

Brings back fond memories. Lucky man, if my sister didn't take my NES, I too would still have it.

Nice find!

 

[Decryptor009]

Sadly, saying goodbye to Radeon for now, bad problems made me shift to Nvidia, i would have gotten a 2070S but i wanted a better screen too.

Got the quantum dot VA 144hz Samsung screen

For anyone interested, pretty detailed video on the screen i bought.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I guess you've never been on a 14h flight then if you really think that...
I have a pair, of now old, Sony WH-1000XM2 and I can't tell you how much more comfortable my long haul flights are.

I have that same pair. Funny how they are considered "old" now even though they came out like 3 years ago. Mine still work great. I dont think the new models sound any better. The newer ones just have more bells and whistles so they can sell them.

 

[Decryptor009]

I have that same pair. Funny how they are considered "old" now even though they came out like 3 years ago. Mine still work great. I dont think the new models sound any better. The newer ones just have more bells and whistles so they can sell them.

Prices vary very wildly on those headphones.

 

[Kanan]

I have that same pair. Funny how they are considered "old" now even though they came out like 3 years ago.

3 years is nothing when it comes to headphones. There are designs, that are 30 years old and with minimal changes still used today - you can consider them old, but they're still great.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I have that same pair. Funny how they are considered "old" now even though they came out like 3 years ago. Mine still work great. I dont think the new models sound any better. The newer ones just have more bells and whistles so they can sell them.

The new ones are apparently lighter and have a better fit. The XM4's don't look like they're bringing much to the table, but I guess we'll see soon enough.

 

[Splinterdog]

I guess you've never been on a 14h flight then if you really think that...
I have a pair, of now old, Sony WH-1000XM2 and I can't tell you how much more comfortable my long haul flights are.

Interesting in-ears though, hopefully more companies follow suite with the balanced armatures.

My SkullCandy headphones have saved my sanity on numerous occasions on 13 hour flights, so I know exactly where you're coming from mate.
We have one coming up, hopefully, in September from Buenos Aires to Gatwick and playing Lara Croft Go with the headphones on takes me to another place.
Mind you, the Dreamliner is a pretty good piece of kit anyway.

 

[GreiverBlade]

The new ones are apparently lighter and have a better fit. The XM4's don't look like they're bringing much to the table, but I guess we'll see soon enough.

mhhh now that you mention it, i have a Fiio EH3 NC on wishlist, because i intend to gift my Pioneer SE-MS7BT-S to my father for his smart TV and iPad use (since i will gift the Sesh TWS earbuds to my mother )
mhhh i do like to have a over ear option in complement to my TWS buds ... and hilariously enough selling my FA1 plus RC-BT plus HB3 case would make me sad to have "only" a CL06 otg cable and a Q1 Mark II from them ... so buying a Pioneer SE-MS9BN-B is not an option and the Sony WH1000XM3 is a bit out of my budget

now the Sony WF1000XM3 were also on my wishlist but i didn't knew about the Anker one before my phone carrier offered them to me free ... and sony ANC'able one have 2 major turn down for me, 1 no aptX/aptX HD 2. they are dual correction, single driver but only dynamic (once you go BA you get addicted to it quite fast ... dog, i loved my FA1!)

My SkullCandy headphones have saved my sanity on numerous occasions on 13 hour flights, so I know exactly where you're coming from mate.
We have one coming up, hopefully, in September from Buenos Aires to Gatwick and playing Lara Croft Go with the headphones on takes me to another place.
Mind you, the Dreamliner is a pretty good piece of kit anyway.

Crusher?

3 years is nothing when it comes to headphones. There are designs, that are 30 years old and with minimal changes still used today - you can consider them old, but they're still great.

that's totally true, the Pioneer SE-MS7BT-S i have date from 2017 too and they are still bloody awesome.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

Well, not a purchase but a freebie (the laptop on my specs, just grabbed one SSD from my main PC)

Spoiler

That is free!? It is about the same spec as my brother's thinkpad T440p which I used for my main pc after I sold my PC. They are worth alot especially the 1080p screen! My screen still have the crappy 1366x766, I upgraded the ram to max 16GB ddr3 and bless it with a 1TB ssd which is quickly filled up with videos lol. The screen can be upgraded for mine but never got around exploring it. Pretty sure you can even upgrade the cpu in that also. I love how easy is it to fix thinkpad, 2 screws and we away.

 

[Ruru]

That is free!? It is about the same spec as my brother's thinkpad T440p which I used for my main pc after I sold my PC. They are worth alot especially the 1080p screen! My screen still have the crappy 1366x766, I upgraded the ram to max 16GB ddr3 and bless it with a 1TB ssd which is quickly filled up with videos lol. The screen can be upgraded for mine but never got around exploring it. Pretty sure you can even upgrade the cpu in that also. I love how easy is it to fix thinkpad, 2 screws and we away.

Yeah, got it for free My uncle works as an IT tech guy so he gave me some old ThinkPads as a birthday gift. I got two of these E540s, this one had a broken screen panel and I replaced it from the other one like I mentioned above. Also I got three T61s but he didn't have an AC adapter with those. I need to find one online.

 

[tabascosauz]

Yeah, got it for free My uncle works as an IT tech guy so he gave me some old ThinkPads as a birthday gift. I got two of these E540s, this one had a broken screen panel and I replaced it from the other one like I mentioned above. Also I got three T61s but he didn't have an AC adapter with those. I need to find one online.

Dang! That's a nice freebie. These dual-core full TDP Sandy/Ivy/Haswell i5s and i7s are still really nice for daily tasks when paired with a good SSD. My first laptop, an Asus with a i5-3210M is still alive and kicking with a MX100. By contrast, my second laptop with a 15W i7-4510U is already struggling.

To me they represent a special breed, too, as the last socketed mobile chips. Cooling and BIOS whitelist permitting, you might even fit a -MQ part in there. Intel only started killing off rPGA in Haswell with the BGA -HQ SKUs.

 

[btarunr]

Hi,
Yeah I was thinking what the heck happened
Web images and links to stuff were edited out of my posts and all this is going on over and over

Could of knocked me over with a feather when I saw the asus sealed box on the formula 545.us first time for everything I guess
M.2 slot only really disappointing thing about this board
No room for a real heatsink too narrow

3600c16 4x8gb kit had for a while good price on the egg 285.us so had to snatch it up \
10900x off micro center 529.99
View attachment 157531

I hate it when retailers put their ugly barcode stickers in places like that (on that 10900K box). Congrats!

 

[Ruru]

Dang! That's a nice freebie. These dual-core full TDP Sandy/Ivy/Haswell i5s and i7s are still really nice for daily tasks when paired with a good SSD. My first laptop, an Asus with a i5-3210M is still alive and kicking with a MX100. By contrast, my second laptop with a 15W i7-4510U is already struggling.

To me they represent a special breed, too, as the last socketed mobile chips. Cooling and BIOS whitelist permitting, you might even fit a -MQ part in there. Intel only started killing off rPGA in Haswell with the BGA -HQ SKUs.

Hm, didn't even thought about the whitelisting, sometimes this gives errors about unauthorized network card even though it's the original... taking the battery away and putting it back solves it.

I need to do some research, upgrading this with a 4c/8t CPU would be cool, though I have to remember that this is a 37W TDP one so I guess that the upgrade should be something similar. An i7-4702MQ is a 37W one..

e: Also I didn't even know that these are the last socketed ones

 

[tabascosauz]

Hm, didn't even thought about the whitelisting, sometimes this gives errors about unauthorized network card even though it's the original... taking the battery away and putting it back solves it.

I need to do some research, upgrading this with a 4c/8t CPU would be cool, though I have to remember that this is a 37W TDP one so I guess that the upgrade should be something similar. An i7-4702MQ is a 37W one..

e: Also I didn't even know that these are the last socketed ones

Yeah sadly last in a very long line of PGA mobile processors dating back so long I can't even keep track of them all. In my old CPU collection I have the C2D T7100 (PGA478) out of the first laptop I ever used. It still technically works and did a lot to introduce me to very playable performance in my first real computer games, but unfortunately back then the GMA iGPU was on the motherboard and it died after years of inadequate cooling.



I de-pinned all my old PGA CPUs for ease of handling (AMD pins are frickin sharp) but you can see from how it looks that those aren't pads.

In most people's minds Intel moved entirely to LGA with LGA775 but the mobile chips continued for a long time. Still waiting on something to die in the Ivy Bridge laptop so I can bring the 3210M into the collection. The lack of IHS but still having the labelling that would otherwise go on the IHS makes these guys real nice once they're cleaned up.

 

[heinztvoert]

This is the last piece of the puzzle for new build.

i7-2600k you have been a workhorse, time to retire.

 

[s3thra]

I decided to replace my old RX 580 with a new Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G.

Just unboxed:


And installed in my rig:


Just a little retail therapy.

For those interested, I had to replace the original F60 BIOS with the updated F61 BIOS listed on the Gigabyte website for this rev. 1.0 version of the card. The flash utility that you download from the Gigabyte site doesn't actually work though (it says something like "incompatibly BIOS"), so I had to flash it with AMDVbFlash instead. That worked a treat.

The reason I had to flash it straight away was (other than the infamous post-release memory speed enhancement) I had all sorts of crashing going on with Windows. Not playing games mind you, just using the desktop/web browsing etc. the system would just hard lock after a few minutes of usage.

I had read there were teething issues, so I was prepared to flash it. I guess the "Improve Stability" file description for the updated BIOS does really mean something because I haven't had any crashes since!

Anyway, this thing is pretty sweet to play Doom Eternal with!

 

[Ruru]

I decided to replace my old RX 580 with a new Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G.

Just unboxed:
View attachment 158829

And installed in my rig:
View attachment 158830

Just a little retail therapy.

For those interested, I had to replace the original F60 BIOS with the updated F61 BIOS listed on the Gigabyte website for this rev. 1.0 version of the card. The flash utility that you download from the Gigabyte site doesn't actually work though (it says something like "incompatibly BIOS"), so I had to flash it with AMDVbFlash instead. That worked a treat.

The reason I had to flash it straight away was (other than the infamous post-release memory speed enhancement) I had all sorts of crashing going on with Windows. Not playing games mind you, just using the desktop/web browsing etc. the system would just hard lock after a few minutes of usage.

I had read there were teething issues, so I was prepared to flash it. I guess the "Improve Stability" file description for the updated BIOS does really mean something because I haven't had any crashes since!

Anyway, this thing is pretty sweet to play Doom Eternal with!

Love your cable management! Is that thing under the card a support or something?

 

[s3thra]

Love your cable management! Is that thing under the card a support or something?

Thanks! And yes, it's just a support bracket I've had for a while to counteract GPU sag. Search for "upHere" on Amazon and you'll find it. It's a $10 part.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Just got my MSI X570 Tomahawk - paid £219 from AWD-IT. Really happy with it. It is a great board.

 

[sam_86314]

Somewhat tech-related birthday present that I split the cost of...

...a new desk chair.

It's a Tempur-Pedic TP6400, and it's replacing some generic faux-leather chair I got at a yard sale years ago for like $40USD. This one was $250 before tax.

My old chair was on its last legs. The cushion on the bottom had worn all the way down to the plywood backing, the threads on the armrest screws kept slipping out, and it had pretty bad ergonomics. I'm 6'3" and I need support for my head and neck. This new chair is much better in that regard.

Assembly took about 25 minutes. The lower cushion is dense memory foam and the backrest has a soft foam. It's very comfortable.

Hope it works better than my first attempt at getting a new chair, which was a $60 one from Costco that absolutely killed my back and wore out in a matter of days.

 

[Caring1]

Just got my MSI X570 Tomahawk - paid £219 from AWD-IT. Really happy with it. It is a great board.

You know those anti-static bags are only static free on the inside right?
You risk zapping your parts by placing them on the outside.