What's your latest tech purchase?

[Ruru]

What's funny is that the 12100f might be the bottom of the barrel, but it's still a 4c8t CPU that will game very well at 1080p.

It's fine, even though I like AMD more, I have to say that Intel has beefed up their budget CPU selection. Now they just need to make Celerons 2c/4t and Pentiums 4c/4t, having a dual-thread processor in 2022 is just fking ridiculous.

 

[GreiverBlade]

I just checked 299chf = 309 EUR, in my country the the cheapest Poco F3 5G costs 345 EUR or 334chf.
I know Switzerland isn't cheap though.

when i bought it the € was ~ 1:1 normal price Poco F3 5G (128/6 like mine) was 499chf i got a bargain with the 299chf hehe
(although most concurrent with similar specs/perf are more 899chf+ ... )

 

[SpittinFax]

It's taken a few weeks (mainly due to waiting on parts) but my first 8-bit build is finally up and running. First try, might I add. Last thing I was waiting on was EEPROM so I could get it programmed.

The total cost of parts has come to around AU$200. That's a lot for a 4MHz machine but the real value of building a very basic computer from scratch is that you learn a lot about how they work. It's easy to think you know everything about computers BEFORE starting on a project like this.

 

[igralec84]

Well nicely spent 630€, will be fun sending the 43" back and paying return shipping.

 

[Chomiq]

View attachment 258524

Well nicely spent 630€, will be fun sending the 43" back and paying return shipping.

Ooof, feelsbadman.

 

[tussinman]

What's funny is that the 12100f might be the bottom of the barrel, but it's still a 4c8t CPU that will game very well at 1080p.

12100F for $108 (current price) is by far the biggest bang for you buck i've ever seen in a CPU in the last 10 years. Gaming wise it's on par with a 10600k and only like 4-6% slower than the 5600 depending on resolution.

That's crazy for a CPU that's barely over $100 with cooler. Even more crazy since it's not like it's going to be platform locked either (there will be tons of new and used 12th and 13th gen CPUs that you upgrade too later down the road)

It's fine, even though I like AMD more, I have to say that Intel has beefed up their budget CPU selection. Now they just need to make Celerons 2c/4t and Pentiums 4c/4t, having a dual-thread processor in 2022 is just fking ridiculous.

Yeah Intel has had a really good 2-3 year stretch of sub $150 and sub $200 CPUs. CPUs like the 10100, 10400, 11400, 12400, 12100 have been huge sellers. They basically had a monopoly on that whole market for a while (AMD went almost 18 months without selling a sub $300 CPU)

 

[Hyderz]

Logitech g305 wireless, cheap and cheerful gaming mouse solid and very good specs too

 

[Veseleil]

Logitech g305 wireless, cheap and cheerful gaming mouse solid and very good specs too

Old but gold. Enjoying the white one for a few years.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

One bnib Crucial CT2000P2SSD8, 2000GB capacity on the box; single sided with 4 Flash chips plus the controller {QLC tech in this one most likely from what I've read on them internets).

It's about time to do a clean OS install after moving the boot drive from one platform to another and back again(x370-b550-x370-b550-x370), though before proceeding I needed some available space to dump the content of my Corsair 480GB MP510(~400GB used) , plus the content from a smaller NVME drive I got here, that as well I've swapped it to and from one platform to another (b550-z170-b550).
Paid £119.99, in other words ~£66.3 per usable TB or ~15.526 6.44 pence per usable GB.

It will end up in my Z170 rig along with the MP510, because I cant use NVME drives past 104.9 MHz bclk in current rig.

At first powerup it had 0 reads and 0 writes before running the CrystalDiskMark bench.
le:math

 

[agent_x007]

Will post again when it's up and running

Side note, here's Gigabyte B660 DS3H DDR4 that I got :

^As mentioned, it's from 20% "open boxed" discount (with full 2Y warranty though).
Overall it looks OK, and has better VRM than B660M DDR4 model (with more full sized PCIe ports, on top of that and USB 3.2 header).
Not sure why no one bothered so far, to do a full line-up test of standard ATX sized boards for B660 ?

Regardless, here's how it looks when put together :

^Yes, those are two Enermax 120mm UCTB PWM fans (1200RPM) mounted on side that blow outside air on top of Intel cooler and on GPU

^XMP profile tweaked to 16.16.16.32, tRFC at 380, and tFAW at 20. vDIMM = 1.35V.
Both DIMMs are B-Die (-BCPB) on A2 PCB and both have temp sensors [which are different].
XMP profiles are identical for two sticks.

CPU is undervolted (offset from default -0.1V, on Vcore) and has limited max. turbo for single and dual thread to 4.1GHz.

Cinebench R15 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5063992_
Cinebench R20 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5063995_
Cinebench R23 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5064014_

GTX 1080 with undervolt, 1620MHz @ 0.775V (or 775mV) :






Crysis 2560 x 1600 [no AA], Very High (DX10 x64), Assault map : 60FPS minimum, ~100FPS avg. and 120FPS max.

This PC will be used with 1080p 60Hz IPS monitor. It's supposed to be rock stable, and tuned for multi hour games + internet browsing.
Probably will need RAM upgrade in not distant future (16GB is "OK", but my sister likes to multi tab on multiple browsers at the same time with game being minimalised on top of that).

 

[Valantar]

Well nicely spent 630€, will be fun sending the 43" back and paying return shipping.

You have to pay return shipping for what is very clearly a DOA product? Damn, that sucks. Paying for voluntary returns is one thing, but warranty/DOA returns should always be free.

 

[igralec84]

You have to pay return shipping for what is very clearly a DOA product? Damn, that sucks. Paying for voluntary returns is one thing, but warranty/DOA returns should always be free.

I've been offered to withdraw from the purchase, get a refund but cover the shipping myself or treat it like a malfunction return, where i get the shipping costs back and a replacement (if they have any in stock, else a refund). At first i opted for option 1 because this monitor doesn't have HDMI 2.1 so isn't really 144hz with the full colors on DP 1.4, but then most of the shipping companies said it's too big, UPS from them to me was 16 EUR, from me to them would be 250 EUR, DHL would be 520 EUR etc wtf lol. They will now arrange pickup so hopefully i get a replacement in a couple of weeks, then i'll see if i'll keep it or sell it.

I see it's currently discounted from 599€ to 549€, 10/12 still available, hope they sell them out before my RMA reaches them and there isn't any left for my replacement If i had seen they have the Aurous one i'd have bought that instead as 144hz PC and 120hz PS5 is what i'm after actually.

 

[Valantar]

I've been offered to withdraw from the purchase, get a refund but cover the shipping myself or treat it like a malfunction return, where i get the shipping costs back and a replacement (if they have any in stock, else a refund). At first i opted for option 1 because this monitor doesn't have HDMI 2.1 so isn't really 144hz with the full colors on DP 1.4, but then most of the shipping companies said it's too big, UPS from them to me was 16 EUR, from me to them would be 250 EUR, DHL would be 520 EUR etc wtf lol. They will now arrange pickup so hopefully i get a replacement in a couple of weeks, then i'll see if i'll keep it or sell it.

I see it's currently discounted from 599€ to 549€, 10/12 still available, hope they sell them out before my RMA reaches them and there isn't any left for my replacement If i had seen they have the Aurous one i'd have bought that instead as 144hz PC and 120hz PS5 is what i'm after actually.

Sounds like a decent solution. It's worth asking them if iiyama have a DOA policy though - from my days working retail, most OEMs have a DOA policy that's separate from their general warranty policy, typically granting a no-questions-asked refund, but requiring proof of fault within a short time (often a week) and a full return including all packaging and accessories. These policies differ a lot, but it's worth asking about, as not all retailers are aware of them.

 

[P4-630]

One bnib Crucial CT2000P2SSD8, 2000GB capacity on the box; single sided with 4 Flash chips plus the controller {QLC tech in this one most likely from what I've read on them internets).

It's about time to do a clean OS install after moving the boot drive from one platform to another and back again(x370-b550-x370-b550-x370), though before proceeding I needed some available space to dump the content of my Corsair 480GB MP510(~400GB used) , plus the content from a smaller NVME drive I got here, that as well I've swapped it to and from one platform to another (b550-z170-b550).
Paid £119.99, in other words ~£66.3 per usable TB or ~15.526 6.44 pence per usable GB.

It will end up in my Z170 rig along with the MP510, because I cant use NVME drives past 104.9 MHz bclk in current rig.

At first powerup it had 0 reads and 0 writes before running the CrystalDiskMark bench.
le:math

Did I see that right? During the benchmark it got upto 68 degrees C !?

View attachment 258765

View attachment 258762
^XMP + tRFC at 380 and tFAW at 20, vDIMM = 1.35V
CPU is undervolted (offset from default -0.1V, on Vcore) and has limited max. turbo for single and dual thread to 4.1GHz.

Cinebench R15 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5063992_
Cinebench R20 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5063995_
Cinebench R23 : https://hwbot.org/submission/5064014_

GTX 1080 with undervolt, 1620MHz @ 0.775V (or 775mV) :
View attachment 258763

View attachment 258764

Crysis 2560 x 1600 [no AA], Very High (DX10 x64), Assault map : 60FPS minimum, ~100FPS avg. and 120FPS max.
View attachment 258766

This PC will be used with 1080p 60Hz IPS monitor. It's supposed to be rock stable, and tuned for multi hour games + internet browsing.
Probably will need RAM upgrade in not distant future (16GB is "OK", but my sister likes to multi tab on multiple browsers at the same time with game being minimalised on top of that).

I like the design of those new Intel coolers, but do they have a copper core/base?
On the internet I also saw they have short and taller coolers.

 

[agent_x007]

@P4-630 Yes, it does. It's shorter one (came with pre-applied paste).
Also, finstack is only up to half height of the whole cooler.

^This isn't my photo, but it shows how copper plate looks like.
After undervolting by -0.1V, my CPU reached 66C on R23/R20 Cinebench (with 45W power draw on CPU... apparently) with it installed.

 

[P4-630]

@P4-630 Yes, it does. It's shorter one (came with pre-applied paste).
Also, finstack is only up to half height of the whole cooler.View attachment 258784
View attachment 258785
^This isn't my photo, but it shows how copper plate looks like.

At least a copper base then.
Oh didn't see that those larger fins are actually plastic!
As long as they can keep those non-K i3's and i5's cool without throttling should be ok then.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@P4-630 : Yes, it was hot to the finger touch ,so I gently placed on it a m.2 heatsink for ~320GB/ >153K files transfer that followed ,22 minutes.

 

[openbox1980]

I finally got me this beauty of a laptop. Got it used about 2months ago, it was the last tech purchase I made.
ROG Strix SCAR 15 (2022)
i9 12900h
15in 1440p 240hz screen
Nvidia 3080ti
16tb of SSD storage, x2 8tb m.2 SSD
32gb ddr5 4800mhz

 

[Valantar]

At least a copper base then.
Oh didn't see that those larger fins are actually plastic!
As long as they can keep those non-K i3's and i5's cool without throttling should be ok then.

They're essentially the same as the older coolers but with a decorative shroud, though at least even the small ones have that copper core/giant heatpipe/cylindrical vapor chamber now which is a serious improvement. IIRC one of the taller versions is actually quite good (for what it is, to be clear, not in comparison to third party coolers in general) as the shroud forms a proper airflow guide, forcing air through the fins. That's not the case for this one though.

 

[Mussels]

Another half related to this thread post, but as the people who buy new shit all the time i saw two things i want feedback on

I got paid in hardware to build a PC for friends.
They paid me with this:

So like... thread tax paid, i worked for it so i bought it, right?
(They had some similar ones come in the case itself, that ran 100% all the time that i'm guessing are between 800-1200RPM, and extremely quiet doing so - and they bought extras accidentally)


the questions that came up!

1. The Zen 3 temps

This build had a 5700x.
It ran at 22C idle and R23 load at 60C, with boost etc all enabled.

WTF? *none* of the Zen 3 CPU's i've used have ever reported temps that low. Is the 5700x using an improved heatspreader?
Was it the MSI board reporting lower temps or something?

2. 3070Ti
We ran a basic undervolt curve like on my 3090 and brothers/friends 3080s, 1.7GHz and 750mv
And it used 120W of power, 160W at peak.
TPU review says 300W.


Why did this build get magical components from fairy land with all the magical low heat components?
WHY AM I JEALOUS?

The basics were covered as I did the hardware and software install, 1440p 165hz with Vsync off, using R23 and heaven (DX11, no AA for max FPS and power draw testing for coil whine) - but this system just used f*ck all power and basically no heat output, and handles 1440p 165Hz incredibly well


Anyone who answers my sleep deprived questions may view these images as payment.
Owners hands included free of charge.

Spoiler

 

[A Computer Guy]

Anyone who answers my sleep deprived questions may view these images as payment.

RGB makes everything cooler and faster.

 

[Mussels]

RGB makes everything cooler and faster.

The owner was shocked by how it ran, coming from much older hardware

We basically locked the fans to 40% in the BIOS and left them there (pump at 100%) - she asked when would it get louder
"Never" wasn't the expected answer. This thing will aboslutely handle aussie summers.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Silicon lottery - and the fact that both Samsung 8N and TSMC N7 are very mature? Also, possibly the TIM/solder between die and IHS (or GPU vapor chamber) were applied particularly well.



And RGB. Moar is betterest.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Moto Edge+ 512GB ROM 8GB RAM 144hz of panel goodness mmmm .. should last me a few years. Oh also picked this up too....

 

[GamerGuy]

The stock ABS keycaps on my Keychron K2 were already beginning to shine, after just a few days of usage (especially the WASD keycaps), so I'd gone online and ordered a set of PBT Miami keycaps to replace the stock ones. At first, I'd thought I should have gone with just a single color, like red/black/grey/etc, but after installing the Miami set on the keyboard, it does look good to me.