What's your latest tech purchase?

[FreedomEclipse]

My son 7800XT died on a cross so I could upgrade my bike with a new groupset.

I mean the bike was due a full overhaul anyway after being on the road since 2016 and since Im putting money down. I might as well bring it into 2020 (R7000 was released in 2020. The bike is a 2016) Its cheaper than buying a pre-owned bike off ebay and I already have a good set of wheels to go on it that spent most of this year and a half doing nothing since I upgraded the wheels on my other bike.

So this is going to be reborn as a leaner sportiff machine.


(Also, despite this being my winter bike. Im not sure if work on it will be done before this winter. I bought the parts because its currently very cheap compared to what I was seeing 2-3 weeks ago which was closer to £500 without the wheelbag or bar tape)

The Amazon price:

Also - bottom bracket is absent as that got replaced a while ago and I honestly havent put enough miles on this bike for it to be a worry because I hate how it currently rides.

Brakes are also not included as they arent required. This bike needs some silly 57mm long drop brake calipers. The ones I have are already among the best I think. (Shimano R650's)


:EDIT:

Im still very annoyed about my 7800XT dying.

::EDIT II.II.IIII:

Also im a bit too past my prime to be considered a 'track weapon' - too old, too fat and too slow, (Although i'll cruise at 20-25mph for hours IF you give me enough road to get up to speed.) I just want some QoL bling and build this bike up to more of a good modern mid-range standard and do longer outings on it without hating life. I may put some carbon wheels on it at a later date? Maybe a nice set of 40s or 45s and run the alloys in winter and the carbons during the warmer months. Depends how the financials work out.

 

[micropage7]

Did you get a chance to test it? I've seen that brand in a few places and the reviews seem ok.

this one?

 

[lexluthermiester]

View attachment 366446
this one?

That's a good performance for a SATA SSD. Nice.

 

[de.das.dude]

That's a good performance for a SATA SSD. Nice.

a lot of these no-name brands recycle old SSDs... So the performance will be good but you may not get a lot of life out of them.

 

[Chomiq]

Just updated to Wooting Lekker gen 2 hall effect switches.

Very nice. With these ones they don't need lubing, so all I had to do was swap the spring on the spacebar since the Jellykey is a lot heavier.

Perks are much better tolerances so key wobble is almost completely gone.

Good opportunity to clean the caps and the keyboard too.

View attachment 366158

€50+ euro if I were to switch all keys on my Two HE. Not worth it imo.

 

[Ruru]

An used Kingston A400 240GB for 10EUR. Should be in good health, my friend used it only for few games.

 

[micropage7]

just bought basic office mouse, interesting for the same price, the internal is quite different

 

[Todestrieb]

Some leftover PTM7958 paste and 2 packs of GELID GP-ULTIMATE 1.5mm pads (well, and 1 pack of 1.0mm, just in case the conflicting info I’ve got is true) to deal with the thermal issues of my GPU after repair.

Wish me luck…..

 

[lexluthermiester]

a lot of these no-name brands recycle old SSDs... So the performance will be good but you may not get a lot of life out of them.

I never heard of this nor seen it. How would that work?

Wish me luck…..

Luck is not needed. Be careful and methodical. Take your time and all will be well.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

New old stock of discontinued lines, with a small firmware change to update the model number reporting, if that. And that is the legitimate ones.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

So... I did a hell of a lot of research and found out that my old BR650 brakes WERENT compatible with the new R7000 kit I was buying.

If I knew I'd have to replace the brake callipers then maybe I would have thought about the overhaul a little longer. Im already over £300+ deep into the re-build now so I cant turn back.

£80 for a set of damn brakes....Absolute yikes, BUT. They do come with two sets of really good brake pads (Kool Stop salmon or Dura pads) that are £8-13 a set. So there **IS** some bonus value there.

And these are the best brakes that available for a bike like mine because Shimano dont do 57mm longdrop brakes no more. They stopped around 2018. Tektro and Miche do some 57mm drop brakes but they arent great and even the best Tektros cost £54.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that my old BR650 set are ultegra level and thus still have value due to their discontinuation. So i'll be able to pawn them off for £30-40 for the set so its not too bad.

Brand new these TRPs are selling for £140 and there is no way in hell Im paying that.

I think I did the best I could out of a pretty expensive situation. I just hope they are in as good of a condition as they are shown in the pictures.

 

[nomdeplume]

I didn't catch your bike was actually made to incorporate fenders requiring longer drop brakes. Or else I wouldn't have suggested looking at Ultegra. Being well aware the compatibility issues on both fronts. 105 is actually very good and probably has less "great until it's not" issues.

Only further thought is inspect the brake contact surface minutely on your wheels for curvature/wear. Then again with that reference fresh in mind after a wet ride look at gunk collected around brakes and increased wear on wheels. Wheel makers often call out specific pads in their literature for very very good reasons. Kool Stop are generally considered less volatile in dry formulations. The wet can in some instances cause excessive wear in the space of a single wet gritty ride. Do with this what you will.

 

[Todestrieb]

Luck is not needed. Be careful and methodical. Take your time and all will be well.

Well, first timer and that… I did my research and hoped that nothing went wrong, but...anyway.

---

Update: the surgery is only half success. The thermal pads did its job and lowered VRAM temps to from near 110C to ~92C.
The GPU hotspot though… is a bit complicated. TLDR: slightly better, but not good enough.

Spoiler: the struggles

It looks slightly better (GPU temp still around 73C, highest hotspot 107C for now), but not good enough. I expected to at least stay away from 3 digits, hopefully GPU temp +20C.
(I should have added that I have no methods to reliably reach 110C before the surgery; TDUSC and FM8 can do both of that seemingly randomly; the best stress scene that I can easily reach is workshop -> use the device to work on player car in TDUSC, got both hotspot and VRAM to 107C in 5min.)

I expected the 7958 to behave like normal-ish thermal paste (and during all the struggles I have seen video to confirm it) but the paste I got from my brother is pretty dried out.

Before:


After:

(Don’t worry about the missing pads, they are on the cooler. Nothing wrong with the pads, other than some slightly unprofessionally done cuts.)

I have to use a hair dryer and some brute force everytime I want to squeeze a tiny drop of paste . And then hair dryer again + cardboard package of pads as a spreading tool.
I have enough of this and this is probably enough “paste”. Consider this ended up no worse than before surgery, I think this is near the best possible result I can do with that paste.

Now I have to think what to do next on that stupid GPU chip. Could have been a bad mounting bracket/screws/screw heads, could be some unlucky things like this.
Kyrosheet (conductive, so…not available in region), new real PTM7950 , or high performance paste, or if it doesn’t go over 110C, leave it as is. Choices…….

 

[lexluthermiester]

New old stock of discontinued lines, with a small firmware change to update the model number reporting, if that. And that is the legitimate ones.

Fair. I knew things like that were going on for new old stock situations but not used drives/NAND chips.

Well, first timer and that… I did my research and hoped that nothing went wrong, but...anyway.

---

Update: the surgery is only half success. The thermal pads did its job and lowered VRAM temps to from near 110C to ~92C.
The GPU hotspot though… is a bit complicated. TLDR: slightly better, but not good enough.

Spoiler: the struggles

It looks slightly better (GPU temp still around 73C, highest hotspot 107C for now), but not good enough. I expected to at least stay away from 3 digits, hopefully GPU temp +20C.
(I should have added that I have no methods to reliably reach 110C before the surgery; TDUSC and FM8 can do both of that seemingly randomly; the best stress scene that I can easily reach is workshop -> use the device to work on player car in TDUSC, got both hotspot and VRAM to 107C in 5min.)

I expected the 7958 to behave like normal-ish thermal paste (and during all the struggles I have seen video to confirm it) but the paste I got from my brother is pretty dried out.

Before:
View attachment 366549

After:
View attachment 366550
(Don’t worry about the missing pads, they are on the cooler. Nothing wrong with the pads, other than some slightly unprofessionally done cuts.)

I have to use a hair dryer and some brute force everytime I want to squeeze a tiny drop of paste . And then hair dryer again + cardboard package of pads as a spreading tool.
I have enough of this and this is probably enough “paste”. Consider this ended up no worse than before surgery, I think this is near the best possible result I can do with that paste.

Now I have to think what to do next on that stupid GPU chip. Could have been a bad mounting bracket/screws/screw heads, could be some unlucky things like this.
Kyrosheet (conductive, so…), new real PTM7950 , or high performance paste, or if it doesn’t go over 110C, leave it as is. Choices…….

Might not be ideal, but any improvement is a good thing. Maybe turn up the fan RPMs?

Good job BTW. Card disassembly is a daunting task for anyone, even us experienced geeks.

 

[de.das.dude]

Fair. I knew things like that were going on for new old stock situations but not used drives/NAND chips.


Might not be ideal, but any improvement is a good thing. Maybe turn up the fan RPMs?

Good job BTW. Card disassembly is a daunting task for anyone, even us experienced geeks.

that happens a lot here in India, with the local low level shops, started with micro SD cards and such. Some of them just put a silly paper sticker over the top lmao. I found one in my mom's phone. She had given it to fix something and they stole the 64gigSamsung EVO i had put and replaced it with a shit ass fake 16GB card.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I didn't catch your bike was actually made to incorporate fenders requiring longer drop brakes. Or else I wouldn't have suggested looking at Ultegra. Being well aware the compatibility issues on both fronts. 105 is actually very good and probably has less "great until it's not" issues.

Only further thought is inspect the brake contact surface minutely on your wheels for curvature/wear. Then again with that reference fresh in mind after a wet ride look at gunk collected around brakes and increased wear on wheels. Wheel makers often call out specific pads in their literature for very very good reasons. Kool Stop are generally considered less volatile in dry formulations. The wet can in some instances cause excessive wear in the space of a single wet gritty ride. Do with this what you will.

Ultegra what?? groupset? I dont have the budget for that and this bike isnt worth slapping ultegra on it and I already have an ultegra equipped bike albeit an old generation.

If I was dead set on ultegra, I would have just bought a second hand bike instead and used a small amount of money to get it serviced/fixed up. A lot of second hand bikes do require some fettling.

R8000 would have cost me £560 and thats not including the brake callipers. That sort of money to me isnt worth it on bike like this. Id be looking at a Trek Domane AL4 to replace it but thats almost £2000 and still doesnt come with 105.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Bought a roomier case, its an Aigo darkflash c285. My old case will be for retro PC I'm planning. Few reason I buy this; the new PSU I bought 8-pin EPS is too short for PSU at the bottom hence this horizontal case where PSU at behind the mobo. Also need some more space at the bottom for two 3.5in HDD. I'll put some pics in 'Your PC ATM' thread later, need to do some cable management first (I'm suck at it, nor have any patience )

 

[Shrek]

Ugh, those push pins make me cringe everytime. Hate em with a passion man.

Finally figured out that for installation one should turn them right and then push them in.

 

[Todestrieb]

Might not be ideal, but any improvement is a good thing. Maybe turn up the fan RPMs?

Good job BTW. Card disassembly is a daunting task for anyone, even us experienced geeks.

Well, it didn't go above ~94C before it was sent to repair with stock settings, so...... gotta redo the paste down the line to see if it can get better.
Thank you though!

 

[AusWolf]

Got a RAID 0/1 capable dual bay external HDD rack. Loving it so far.

 

[GreiverBlade]

well, that brand ... ND i'm starting to like it ...

upgrade cable, less than 8chf

very supple, good quality bead and plug, is that carbon i see? well, one more reason to like it ... perfect fit with the ND DD3 and also fit the Tangzu Wan'er
(sadly not the NiceHCK DB2 or Moondrop Chu 2 but i use them with the TRN BT20 Pro, so, no biggies.)

new carry case for convenience (a bit damaged during transport tho, two small creases on the exterior but nothing threatening.) fit everythings i need


let's protect the CP13, while inducing additional hassle ... now i start to regret that thing does not have auto-reverse but it look and sound so awesome that i can forgive that...



more supplies for soldering jobs, flat and cutting tips, desoldering wick and flux (the one originally bundled is pure rosin, that one well i was surprised to see the Japanese writing on the box (the one in the middle "no" in hiragana is the distinctive sign i seek when i see ideograms, iirc it's only in Japanese) ... i searched for ZJ-18, it seems it is one sold also locally ... for 3-5 time the price i paid ) and a desoldering pump (surprised by the quality of that one, feel solid in the hand and the machining is quite good) all in all, counting the kit i bought, the total price is 17chf ... and it work, the kit i would have bought locally from Whadda would have cost me 34chf (including only the soldering iron and the stand ) i do not feel a single bit guilty

 

[FoulOnWhite]

well, that brand ... ND i'm starting to like it ...

upgrade cable, less than 8chf
View attachment 366743View attachment 366744View attachment 366745View attachment 366762
very supple, good quality bead and plug, is that carbon i see? well, one more reason to like it ... perfect fit with the ND DD3 and also fit the Tangzu Wan'er
(sadly not the NiceHCK DB2 or Moondrop Chu 2 but i use them with the TRN BT20 Pro, so, no biggies.)

new carry case for convenience (a bit damaged during transport tho, two small creases on the exterior but nothing threatening.) fit everythings i need
View attachment 366757View attachment 366758

let's protect the CP13, while inducing additional hassle ... now i start to regret that thing does not have auto-reverse but it look and sound so awesome that i can forgive that...
View attachment 366759View attachment 366761


more supplies for soldering jobs, flat and cutting tips, desoldering wick and flux (the one originally bundled is pure rosin, that one well i was surprised to see the Japanese writing on the box (the one in the middle "no" in hiragana is the distinctive sign i seek when i see ideograms, iirc it's only in Japanese) ... i searched for ZJ-18, it seems it is one sold also locally ... for 3-5 time the price i paid ) and a desoldering pump (surprised by the quality of that one, feel solid in the hand and the machining is quite good) all in all, counting the kit i bought, the total price is 17chf ... and it work, the kit i would have bought locally from Whadda would have cost me 34chf (including only the soldering iron and the stand ) i do not feel a single bit guilty

View attachment 366748View attachment 366749View attachment 366750View attachment 366751
View attachment 366752View attachment 366753View attachment 366754

That desoldering pump looks like a copy of my japanese made Engineer SS02, if it's near the same quality, it will be pretty good.

 

[GreiverBlade]

That desoldering pump looks like a copy of my japanese made Engineer SS02, if it's near the same quality, it will be pretty good.View attachment 366768

yep, totally the same minus the branding

 

[FoulOnWhite]

yep, totally the same minus the branding

They are pretty good, i just put a bit of white gp grease inside the tube. Mine was cough £18 cough though.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/innovative-enveloping-silicone-nozzle-engineer/dp/B0B4H43SS9

 

[TheLostSwede]

Just got a set of Logitech Z5450 speakers with a nice head unit that has opti inputs too, better than the logitech Z560 i was using. I have connected my two KEF 2001.3 fronts though.
View attachment 366364View attachment 366365View attachment 366366

I never understood why they stopped making those.