What's your latest tech purchase?

[lexluthermiester]

It begins,.... *sigh* just wish it was mine

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That 3080 is a heck of a card. The 4090 is not worth the price demanded..

 

[AusWolf]

I get the vibes that you don't want to really buy all this stuff, but there's some itch to do so anyway.

I think that your frequent hardware switching is taking a toll on you.

The thing is, I love toying around new hardware. It's only that the last generation or two of everything has got too expensive for a random guy like me to just toy around. A few years ago, I could buy all sorts of stuff that I could sell later if I wanted something else. I have to be more thoughtful with my purchases these days.

It's as if your hobby is tuning and modifying cars, but for some reason, every single car has turned into a Ferrari all of a sudden.

 

[The red spirit]

The thing is, I love toying around new hardware.

And so I did, until my room became overloaded with various hardware and I eventually realized that it's unhealthy and frankly a bit stupid. I still haven't downsized, but I don't buy stuff anymore. But I wasn't into new hardware, mostly a bit aged hardware.

It's only that the last generation or two of everything has got too expensive for a random guy like me to just toy around. A few years ago, I could buy all sorts of stuff that I could sell later if I wanted something else. I have to be more thoughtful with my purchases these days.

I wouldn't say that it's just two last gens. 2018 mining boom was really shitty. And nV was getting liberal with pricing as AMD just failed to offer competitive higher tier products and AMDs mid range hasn't been that great. Also right now actually low end hardware doesn't exist. Athlons are gone, there's no GT xx10 tier cards, there's no R5 230s or shite like that. Only Celerons exist, but they are quite fast for dual cores and have iGPU fast enough for quite a bit of older games. Not a long ago, we had GT 710s, R5 230s, Athlon 200GEs, some random AMD A series crapola, you know a proper stuff that that just couldn't play games that well (excluding that Athlon) of same year. When playing at 640x480 was the best they could do at unstable sort of 30 fps or so. Right now even OEM only Ryzen 5300GE is beastly compared to them and can run CB2077 admitedly not well, but it also runs any other AAA games somewhat okay too. Lowest end new card is GTX 1630, which got a lot of flak, but for all intents and purposes, it was faster than GT 1030 and GT 1030 gained some reputation for being surprisingly okay for gaming. Sure HW got more expensive, but manufacturers also culled a lot of low end product and introduced higher end tiers than ever before. Remember, RTX 3080 was a flagship, meanwhile RTX 3090 was BFGPU. I would call i9 being the same, as well as Ryzen 9. And well if you fancy testing hardware, used market still exists with interesting deals or actually unusual hardware.

It's as if your hobby is tuning and modifying cars, but for some reason, every single car has turned into a Ferrari all of a sudden.

And they sure did, now "enthusiast" cars are frankly kind of shit, because they forgot fun factor and became too perfect. Now even a fucking Tesla is "fast" (as long as you don't use steering wheel), but is it fun? For some it is, but it's obvious that for so lauded "enthusiast" car, it's really, boring, unexciting, very civil and just kinda dead.
Regarding computer HW, I think that culture of modding, pushing it way beyond OEM spec and etc peaked in 2000-2009. We used to flash GPUs to higher tier card's vBIOSes to unlock pipelines, we did volt mods, I mean actual physical voltmods, people got very creative with various cooling solutions and we discovered LN2. We also had actual aftermarket for HW. Like actual graphics card coolers were for sale and multiple models too. People also modified motherboards, both hardware and software. People unlocked CPU cores, clocked things to the moon, did tape mods and other crazy shit with CPUs and yes CPU markers sharted out millions of nearly same CPUs, different a bit in clock speeds, caches, cores and etc. Case mods, cooling mods were very crazy back then and that was when we had 200mm fans, not this rather phallic 120mm or 140mm stuff. Not only that, but we still had more HW makers. VIA was still in CPU/iGPU business, XGI made Volaris, S3 was still alive with Deltachromes, Matrox was still kicking, 3DLabs was still duking out against Quadros and FireGLs. Everything weird that could happen, happened. Obviously many of those projects eventually croaked, because good ideas aren't enough, they have to sell too, but for enthusiasts, that was the golden age. Also PC market was maturing really fast, but you had tons of variety, but also not with beta tier stability. Unfortunately that insane HW party ended and stings became boring, plain, expensive, but better. We don't like it, even if it is actually for the better. But it seems inevitable in many hobbies, that eventually party ends and things calm down, perhaps with some hangover too.

 

[AusWolf]

And so I did, until my room became overloaded with various hardware and I eventually realized that it's unhealthy and frankly a bit stupid. I still haven't downsized, but I don't buy stuff anymore. But I wasn't into new hardware, mostly a bit aged hardware.

It's not just that my room is full (it is, but anyway)... I used to be able to sell stuff when I bought something new. Nowadays, second hand stores pay pathetic prices, ebay is full of arseholes who want everything for free, and you just generally can't sell anything anymore. It's like everybody is waiting for the holy grail 4090 or something.

I wouldn't say that it's just two last gens. 2018 mining boom was really shitty. And nV was getting liberal with pricing as AMD just failed to offer competitive higher tier products and AMDs mid range hasn't been that great. Also right now actually low end hardware doesn't exist. Athlons are gone, there's no GT xx10 tier cards, there's no R5 230s or shite like that. Only Celerons exist, but they are quite fast for dual cores and have iGPU fast enough for quite a bit of older games. Not a long ago, we had GT 710s, R5 230s, Athlon 200GEs, some random AMD A series crapola, you know a proper stuff that that just couldn't play games that well (excluding that Athlon) of same year. When playing at 640x480 was the best they could do at unstable sort of 30 fps or so. Right now even OEM only Ryzen 5300GE is beastly compared to them and can run CB2077 admitedly not well, but it also runs any other AAA games somewhat okay too. Lowest end new card is GTX 1630, which got a lot of flak, but for all intents and purposes, it was faster than GT 1030 and GT 1030 gained some reputation for being surprisingly okay for gaming. Sure HW got more expensive, but manufacturers also culled a lot of low end product and introduced higher end tiers than ever before. Remember, RTX 3080 was a flagship, meanwhile RTX 3090 was BFGPU. I would call i9 being the same, as well as Ryzen 9. And well if you fancy testing hardware, used market still exists with interesting deals or actually unusual hardware.

That's what I mean. We upped the performance, but we upped the price too. Even the lowest end (3050? Is it low end?) hardware plays 1080p at 60 FPS, but you have to have deep pockets whatever you buy.

And they sure did, now "enthusiast" cars are frankly kind of shit, because they forgot fun factor and became too perfect. Now even a fucking Tesla is "fast" (as long as you don't use steering wheel), but is it fun? For some it is, but it's obvious that for so lauded "enthusiast" car, it's really, boring, unexciting, very civil and just kinda dead.

I completely agree. Just don't be too loud about it, or you'll get lot of crap from other people, like I do.

 

[Ahhzz]

That 3080 is a heck of a card. The 4090 is not worth the price demanded..

That's what I'm hoping. Did some research, and the software being used is high res video processing and conversions. Got the 12Gb version, hoping it's solid enough!!

 

[lexluthermiester]

That's what I'm hoping. Did some research, and the software being used is high res video processing and conversions. Got the 12Gb version, hoping it's solid enough!!

Oh, you are going to be happy with the boost up from that 2070.

 

[W1zzard]

I know but I just didn't read @W1zzard complaining about it in the reviews.....

I've used the same adapter cable throughout all my reviews, and plugged each card several times, so my connector is at 30-50 cycles I'd say. Not seeing any sort of degradation, it's very convenient to use vs 37637846 cables

 

[The red spirit]

That's what I mean. We upped the performance, but we upped the price too. Even the lowest end (3050? Is it low end?) hardware plays 1080p at 60 FPS, but you have to have deep pockets whatever you buy.

I would consider RX 6400 and GTX 1630 to be bottom of the barrel cards. RTX 3050 just isn't there and in fact, I don't think that it should be seen as 1080p card either. It's a lot faster than my current RX 580 and I play at 1440p. RTX 3050 can easily run many games at 1080p ultra, but we all should know that ultra settings are kinda dumb, therefore high is better. And since it gets like 80 fps at ultra, I think it would run basically anything at 1440p high too. That 3050 is really fast and really not typical for xx50 tier card, but then again it sucks almost twice power than 1650 too. Here's how 3050 performs:

I don't see how it is 1080p card at all. Hell, it even manages to run some games at 1440p Ultra at 80+ fps. It's just a shame that RX 6600 is faster and cheaper than it, that just makes 3050 a no buy, but it's a good card. And thinking about it, it might be able to run games at 4k with DLSS.

I completely agree. Just don't be too loud about it, or you'll get lot of crap from other people, like I do.

And yet we all know that even if we got poo poo card like RX 6500 XT again, but this time it had volt mods, modifiable vBIOS, more power pins, aftermarket coolers and etc, we would be into it. Anyway, new 4090 can't even UV anymore, and running it outside of its spec is now hard. It doesn't clock well, can't UV, you basically only get a glorified TDP slider. I guess it is okay for some people, but I'm just thinking "where's the spice?". There really needs to be a variant of 4090, that would rather burst into flames , but overlocks well just for the lolz. Although real undervolting would be very nice too.

 

[Ahhzz]

Oh, you are going to be happy with the boost up from that 2070.

Oh, I wish This is for a client, not mine unfortunately. But putting a new one together and loading it up to see what it can do is half the fun well... part of it anyway heheh

 

[lexluthermiester]

I've used the same adapter cable throughout all my reviews, and plugged each card several times, so my connector is at 30-50 cycles I'd say.

I'm not buying that usage estimation(NVidia's, not yours). I have deliberately gone well and truly beyond that cycle limit(300+) and it works fine. I have closely inspected the connector and have found no degradation of the contacts, the plastics or the solder joints. I suspect it's an artificial number generated for some as of yet unknown reason. It's almost as if NVidia has taken leave of their senses and thrown common sense engineering out the window. Of course, AMD is no different with that stupidly crafted IHS for the Ryzen 7000 series.

Oh, I wish This is for a client, not mine unfortunately.

Oh go on, push yourself, get one. Just don't buy an FE..

 

[mplayerMuPDF]

Finally it has arrived. A little something to compensate for yesterday's frustation (yet again) with my main system...

It took a while due to the free shipping and since it had to be shipped halfway across a continent but finally my precious has arrived. It may not be the latest and greatest in wireless LAN technology but it is compatible with my beloved ProBook 645 G1 (half height Mini PCIe), it has excellent Linux compatibility (unlike the stock BCM(9)43228 it is replacing) with the famous ath9k driver and it does not require any (proprietary) firmware. It is the glorious Atheros AR9462 (dual band 2T2R, by the way ) but combined with a Bluetooth chip which makes it the "AR5B22" (notice the "B" for bluetooth)!

UPDATE with more photos:

Old WiFi radio component sticker that obviously will no longer be accurate pictured with the new AR5B22. "Luffy" (BCM943228 code name according to the 645 G1 service manual) has been replaced with "Miami".

Not really happy with the angle the rightmost antenna connector is sitting at but it's the best I could do... For some reason replacing components is just a bit more difficult with this ProBook 645 G1 (Richland) than it was with my "old" EliteBook 745 G2 (Kaveri).

Random shot of the guts of my ProBook 645 G1 just because Keen observers will notice the partially covered "Samsung" marking on the big sticker on the OEM RAM module.

I have done some speed tests (Xfinity, AT&T, Ookla and FAST.net) and am really satisfied with the performance: getting 80-120 Mbps (so 10-15 MB/s) on 5 GHz, which is the best performance I have ever seen with one of my computers. For reference, with the ALFA USB WiFi (Atheros AR9271 based, which is a 2.4 GHz only, 1T1R, 1st gen 11n chipset) adapter connected to my main system I get 3-5 MB/s. The AR9462 is performing considerably better than even the BCM4313 in my Llano ProBook, which not too long ago established the previous record (I believe it was 6-9 MB/s, still not bad for a chip from 2011).

 

[Athlonite]

@P4-630

Aren't you guys actually concerned about this:

This flaw alone makes anything RTX with that POS connector "won't touch it for free" stuff.

Just how many damn times are you going to plug/unplug that power connector once the cards in your system what once maybe twice and then it'll just sit there doing it's shiz
and Jayz2cents already put up a video showing a Corsair replacement cable the goes from 2x 8pin to 1x 12VH that was way better than the one that come with any RTX4000 series

 

[The red spirit]

Just how many damn times are you going to plug/unplug that power connector once the cards in your system what once maybe twice and then it'll just sit there doing it's shiz
and Jayz2cents already put up a video showing a Corsair replacement cable the goes from 2x 8pin to 1x 12VH that was way better than the one that come with any RTX4000 series

Well, I have no idea, but I can say taht I certainly did more than 20 times with GTX 650 Ti and RX 580.

 

[R-T-B]

That's not a problem, problem is that crappy connector on card, which was rated for only 20 times of connecting with many other bending limitations and general flimsiness.

You mean like every pcie connector ever?

Power (current) isn't the biggest issue as far as I know. The connector is rated for only a few dozen connects/disconnects, which may be a problem if you like tinkering with your PC.

So is the standard pcie connector. It's never been a problem until now. Wonder why?

 

[The red spirit]

You mean like every pcie connector ever?


So is the standard pcie connector. It's never been a problem until now. Wonder why?

I can tell you that I definitely plugged and unplugged PCIe connectors on my PSU way more than 20 times, closer to 50-60 times and it works. If that spec is to be taken literally, that is absurdly low number and severe design flaw. I mean the old ass wall power plug works for thousands of times without problems and handles a bit over 3k watts, meanwhile this lil shit handles only 20, can't even transmit that many watts and costs a lot more than wall power plug. Looks like complete rip off, if there isn't something more to that spec.

 

[R-T-B]

I can tell you that I definitely plugged and unplugged PCIe connectors on my PSU way more than 20 time

Yeah, and see above. It's almost like the rated specs are nearly irrelevant.

I've used the same adapter cable throughout all my reviews, and plugged each card several times, so my connector is at 30-50 cycles I'd say. Not seeing any sort of degradation, it's very convenient to use vs 37637846 cables

 

[P4-630]

You mean like every pcie connector ever?


So is the standard pcie connector. It's never been a problem until now. Wonder why?

People find always something to crap about expensive products.

I admit I do it too sometimes...

 

[The red spirit]

Yeah, and see above. It's almost like the rated specs are nearly irrelevant.

Aye, that's why 3090s burned cables.

 

[R-T-B]

Aye, that's why 3090s burned cables.

The wccftech article has been confirmed at this point to be a complete fabrication. Jonnyguru who is an industry expert on the same mailing list was quite vocal on that point.

As for my 3090ti, no burned cables here.

 

[The red spirit]

People find always something to crap about expensive products.

More often than not they have some weird failures that stem from their utter absurdity. You can see many high end cards eventually die after like 5-6 years for all that heat, meanwhile mid range cards just soldier on forever. And it's always those top tier cards that have some random, and frankly stupid failures for obsession of power, only for that power advantage to become irrelevant after one gen. And those cards aren't even high end or cutting edge to begin with. They are now basically reduced spec datacenter cards. Hell, even RTX 4090 doesn't have the latest and fastest arch, it's nV Hopper from H100 and that thing is seriously faster than RTX 4090, even in ray tracing. So that makes a lot of dumb shit on high end consumer cards seem even more incompetent, because "upcoming" products were already crunching data in datacenters for a year or two.

The wccftech article has been confirmed at this point to be a complete fabrication. Jonnyguru who is an industry expert on the same mailing list was quite vocal on that point.

As for my 3090ti, no burned cables here.

I remember it was due to daisychaining power cables to cards, obviously it will depend a lot on PSU itself.

 

[Atomic77]

Today for my birthday I was gifted a iPad 9th generation 64gb slate grey.

 

[AusWolf]

So is the standard pcie connector.

Oh, I didn't know that. I guess it's not an issue because it's only an official rating (that is, legal cover for companies in case someone sues).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Today for my birthday I was gifted a iPad 9th generation 64gb slate grey.

That's not bad. Someone loves you!

 

[Ruru]

Nothing special.

Why 80mm fans someone may ask, well, because of this:

Spoiler

 

[P4-630]

Nothing special.

Why 80mm fans someone may ask, well, because of this:

Spoiler

Extra GPU cooling?