What's your latest tech purchase?

[nomdeplume]

Congrats @de.das.dude

Spend time getting your position right and just riding. Not money on parts except a good quality saddle or tires if it is bringing you a lot of fun.

Also cut the plastic baggies off (!) and get used to adjusting those low end derailleurs often. Half the fun of a cheap bike is getting it to work.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Discovered I have way too many Ethernet ports to cover in the new place, so ordered this.
I really loathe Amazon though, as they increased the price when I ordered it by something like $8 and dropped it back down again by the same amount today...

 

[Veseleil]

Discovered I have way too many Ethernet ports to cover in the new place, so ordered this.
I really loathe Amazon though, as they increased the price when I ordered it by something like $8 and dropped it back down again by the same amount today...
View attachment 335715

Not a fan of Amazon neither, but when it's your only international option, it's better than having no option at all.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not a fan of Amazon neither, but when it's your only international option, it's better than having no option at all.

Well, there are plenty of options here, but some of them are kind of dodgy...
The more well known places are usually a lot more expensive than Amazon.

 

[Fokker]

For road use I moved the tires to slicks.

View attachment 335707

I run similar when using my bike on paths/well defined trails instead of looser terrain.

 

[wNotyarD]

Discovered I have way too many Ethernet ports to cover in the new place, so ordered this.
I really loathe Amazon though, as they increased the price when I ordered it by something like $8 and dropped it back down again by the same amount today...
View attachment 335715

Doesn't your credit card have price protection to get you covered?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Doesn't your credit card have price protection to get you covered?

Credit card?

 

[wNotyarD]

Credit card?

I assumed you used one to buy through Amazon. Depending on the tier (e.g. MC Gold), the issuer may give you price protection as an option.
If not, my mistake.

 

[GreiverBlade]

turned out better than expected ... received the stickers from Redbubble
tho, some fuuuuu did happen ... ordering a second G.Skill Aegis kit exact same part number buuuuuut, getting BSOD when i select XMP 3000mhz but fine at 2133mhz ...
investigation : what the actuall heck? one kit SK Hynix chips the other Samsung chips well, it works fine at 2133mhz and Starfield ran like a charm @1620p high settings FSR2 quality (did not monitor the FPS but it was smooth enough) so, if he play @1080p high no FSR2 or 1440p high settings + FSR2 quality, it should be more than fine

addition as mentioned, the Adata Legends are in no HDD anymore, 960 in the Gen4 slot and the 850 in the Gen3 slot, looking good, even with the windows on
only 2 120mm fans in the case, but the temps are fine during load i could put 2 fan top in exhaust? maybe?


front: the 120mm rad and fan are in the top part PSU: well it's a good Chunks of power at 850w (carefully removed the sticker and kept it aside, just in case) and acrylic side panel

Spoiler: that one is mine tho, no no, not NSFW... just, not lore friendly

yep, that's a Sarah Morgan ... i guess i can put her next to "Agressive Nirnroot Noise" on my rig sidepanel

 

[dgianstefani]

Professionally optical drives are not dead at all. That's a dream. There are branches that rely on DVD/BluRay and will do it also in the next years. Every branch that needs to store data by law will use'em for years.

BTW: A couple of weeks afo i bought SSD Watercooling-Blocks from Alphacool. They are cheapest China-Crap.Wasted money. The cooling plate is held by 4 screws. those should be flat mounted. But they aren't. They are at least 0,7mm higher that the surrounding cooling plate. If one want's to close the gap by a themal pad he will have to apply at least 1,5mm high ones. At the original board cooler there are 1mm high ones applied. So the Waterblock by Alphacool transports less heat than the original Asus ProArt cooler.

For RAM waterblocks use EK or Bitspower.

Bartxstore.com is also good.

Wonder if it's even enough of a latency improve to feel relative to NVME side by side in a identical system with OS GUI responsiveness or not dragging and dropping file windows and starting programs from a fresh boot. You probably can't really even tell, but maybe it reduces latency just enough to ever so slightly tell at the same time. It's difficult to say. Curious how it behaves both for OS or as just assigning it as a system page file rather than NVME in relative terms. A lot of NVME's these days do better on sequential performance, but aren't as good at I/O latency than Optane.

I think Optane is probably more ideally suited for OS than page file itself and opposite with NVME. Snappier OS behavior is probably higher importance than snappier pseudo memory storage. I mean at least that to me seem the case based on memory behavior in general with how it behaves between prioritizing CAS vs frequency.

Optane has 3-5x faster 4K than NAND, and endurance that's two or more orders of magnitude better. Also completely consistent performance at all times whether empty or full.

E.g one test of one metric, Optane superior in other ways too, especially at queue depth 1.

P1600X is faster than 905p but slower than 5800X.

 

[Space Lynx]

Look tubed, so can take the tires I mentioned.

do you think filling bicycle tires with nitrogen would help the ride be even smoother/less resistant? or would it not matter? i know in cars nitrogren can make you gain like 1 or 2 mpg, i think i read that somewhere, but its been a long time. just wondering if its possible to maximize it further

 

[dgianstefani]

do you think filling bicycle tires with nitrogen would help the ride be even smoother/less resistant? or would it not matter? i know in cars nitrogren can make you gain like 1 or 2 mpg, i think i read that somewhere, but its been a long time. just wondering if its possible to maximize it further

If you want smoothness, speed and puncture resistance -

Panaracer kevlar tyre liner (stick between tube and tyre)
TPU inner tubes. I use pirelli smartube.
Continental GP5000 S TR tyres.
A good rim.

I highly doubt gas composition would matter with the small volume within a bicycle tyre.

 

[Shrek]

i know in cars nitrogren can make you gain like 1 or 2 mpg, i think i read that somewhere, but its been a long time.

How? got the link?

 

[Space Lynx]

How? got the link?

nope, I read it many years ago, it prob wasn't true lol

prob just someone scamming to get you to pay extra for nitrogren, I don't know

some quick research and it does look like nitrogen makes deflation of the tire slow down more than regular air. this is why Costco offers nitrogen tire fills over air, but yeah found nothing on mpg. so disregard that

 

[Shrek]

Yes, oxygen diffuses faster through the tire than nitrogen; which means that in time the tire will find itself with a nitrogen enriched mix.

 

[Fokker]

do you think filling bicycle tires with nitrogen would help the ride be even smoother/less resistant? or would it not matter? i know in cars nitrogren can make you gain like 1 or 2 mpg, i think i read that somewhere, but its been a long time. just wondering if its possible to maximize it further

Nitrogen fill in tires is to make them less prone to expansion under heat due to no water content. That may affect mpg to a degree, but it's normally done in motorsports to keep the tire pressure change more consistent with added heat.

 

[tabascosauz]

parts trickling in, did i hear someone say form over function? i hate cleaning up dribbled over paste from AMD cpus

 

[lexluthermiester]

did i hear someone say form over function?

Nope! "Function over fashion" is the phrase to live by... LOL!!

 

[de.das.dude]

Congrats @de.das.dude

Spend time getting your position right and just riding. Not money on parts except a good quality saddle or tires if it is bringing you a lot of fun.

Also cut the plastic baggies off (!) and get used to adjusting those low end derailleurs often. Half the fun of a cheap bike is getting it to work.

definitely is a lot of fun heheh.

and yes i think ill get rid of the plastic fenders soon. they had mounted the front fender wrong and i had to fix it. now ill think ill just get it off. it rattles way too much lol.

i have been tweaking the seat height quite a bit to get comfy. i am not super tall but around 5'10.5" or 180cms. the gel seat did help a lot in getting my boney ass less sore after riding.

 

[dgianstefani]

definitely is a lot of fun heheh.

and yes i think ill get rid of the plastic fenders soon. they had mounted the front fender wrong and i had to fix it. now ill think ill just get it off. it rattles way too much lol.

i have been tweaking the seat height quite a bit to get comfy. i am not super tall but around 5'10.5" or 180cms. the gel seat did help a lot in getting my boney ass less sore after riding.

Ideal height can be easily found using this technique - with your forefoot (shoed) on the pedal and your foot at a natural angle, locked in if you have clipless pedals, your leg should be at full extension while seated, then lower the saddle until you have a slight bend in the knee, couple degrees.

Surprisingly, soft/gel seats won't help with the root causes of discomfort, it's a temporary illusion. You need to find a seat that fits your rear end, that matches your physiology so your tail bones are well supported without pressure in the wrong places. Go to a bike store and try out several saddles. This is why endurance riders can be extremely comfortable on just a pure carbon seat with no padding, for instance. They have a saddle in the correct shape, at the correct height, and angle.

Having a cut out in the middle of the saddle can help with pressure as well, but you generally only find this on higher end saddles. Personally I use a Selle Italia SLR Boost superflow.

parts trickling in, did i hear someone say form over function? i hate cleaning up dribbled over paste from AMD cpus

View attachment 335784

Wait till you see the IHS replacement plate if you like form

German delidder tool and Japanese razor for removing solder residue. Replaced with conductonaut extreme.

Since these pix taken I added a second radiator to floor of case before the CPU block in the loop and put the fans on the outside, with taller 3D printed feet, first rad at top before the GPU.

With my current setup I idle in 30s and load in 40-60 °C range, with GPU in same loop around 50° C load. Coolant temp typically at 25°C. But it's probably more effort and cost than most will bother with.

 

[de.das.dude]

Ideal height can be easily found using this technique - with your forefoot (shoed) on the pedal and your foot at a natural angle, locked in if you have clipless pedals, your leg should be at full extension while seated, then lower the saddle until you have a slight bend in the knee, couple degrees.

Surprisingly, soft/gel seats won't help with the root causes of discomfort, it's a temporary illusion. You need to find a seat that fits your rear end, that matches your physiology so your tail bones are well supported without pressure in the wrong places. Go to a bike store and try out several saddles. This is why endurance riders can be extremely comfortable on just a pure carbon seat with no padding, for instance. They have a saddle in the correct shape, at the correct height, and angle.

Having a cut out in the middle of the saddle can help with pressure as well, but you generally only find this on higher end saddles. Personally I use a Selle Italia SLR Boost superflow.

I will have to do the seat height thing.

the gel seat does have a cutout! i think my tailbone is a bit longer than normal. helps quite a bit. and i dont plan on doing enduro rides i hardly ride 30min everyday. I just do 5km as fast as possible

i had a weird question, i find it easier to put down more power, as opposed to more cadence. is that normal?

 

[dgianstefani]

I will have to do the seat height thing.

the gel seat does have a cutout! i think my tailbone is a bit longer than normal. helps quite a bit. and i dont plan on doing enduro rides i hardly ride 30min everyday. I just do 5km as fast as possible

i had a weird question, i find it easier to put down more power, as opposed to more cadence. is that normal?

Power is easier, especially at shorter distances.

If you can, use a turbo trainer at the gym and look at your watt output over time (generally not very accurate machines, but better than nothing). Besides apps, bike parts, fancy clothes etc. The single most influential thing you can do to improve your training is use a power meter on your bike. I recommend the Favero Assioma pro mx.

Using a turbo trainer while wearing a heart rate strap or borrowing a bike equipped with a power meter and cadence sensor will allow you to monitor your metrics, and run a functional threshold power test, which will give you a fitness baseline you can then tailor your training around.

For cadence, there is an optimal average to aim for, but this depends on your physiology.

Strava will estimate your power, and you can link it to heart rate monitors and other sensors. A real power meter is still much better though.

 

[tabascosauz]

Wait till you see the IHS replacement plate if you like form

It does look nice. Maybe I'll save it for the last AM5 CPU. I don't see this one as being more than a stopgap. Then I'll go to town taking photos of it.

 

[nomdeplume]

definitely is a lot of fun heheh.

and yes i think ill get rid of the plastic fenders soon. they had mounted the front fender wrong and i had to fix it. now ill think ill just get it off. it rattles way too much lol.

i have been tweaking the seat height quite a bit to get comfy. i am not super tall but around 5'10.5" or 180cms. the gel seat did help a lot in getting my boney ass less sore after riding.

Keep riding and you'll figure it out. MTB on the road are always a compromise. So long as your hips are rotating smoothly there isn't much road bike nonsense to worry over.

 

[Veseleil]

think my tailbone is a bit longer than normal.

It's not about length, but width. Find a bike shop that has a tool for measuring those. If you use inappropriate saddle, you actually sit on the, well, the root of your weenie. Not nice even for a short period.