To be fair, that might just be due to disk caching. Modern OSes sure do like to cache their disk reads.
--Patrick
Tech minor victory thread
- Thread starter DarkAudit
- Start date
--Patrick
As much as I love the Vive, I honestly would recommend anyone looking to get into it to wait for second gen anyway.
GasBandit
Staff member
Phone rings:
Me: "Yah."
Salesweasel: "Is marketron down?"
Me: (checks) "Nope."
Salesweasel: "Then why can't I get in to it?"
Me: (without thinking) "User error."
Salesweasel: "... oh. You're right, I just saw what I was doing wrong. It's working now."
And that was my natural 20 roll for the day.
Me: "Yah."
Salesweasel: "Is marketron down?"
Me: (checks) "Nope."
Salesweasel: "Then why can't I get in to it?"
Me: (without thinking) "User error."
Salesweasel: "... oh. You're right, I just saw what I was doing wrong. It's working now."
And that was my natural 20 roll for the day.
GasBandit
Staff member
Oh, it wasn't a bluff, it was a failed diplomacy check covered by a critical charisma check
I had to go to European websites to get the repair manual for my sewing machine. :/ So yeah.
I wish I'd found out about university surplus stores long before the last week ever of our business, but I found a stack of Optiplex 790s for $50 each. Way better than the Vista-era Lenovo Core 2s the front desk is using now. Something to keep in mind in case a miraculous comeback happens.
Had 2 old iPads, one a wifi only, the other on AT&T. Deleted the AT&T one from that account (and switched to a cheaper plan), got the okay from mom to ditch them (we'd tried to see if she could use them when the PCs were no longer an option. Didn't really work out.) Sold them for $80 via the eco ATM. Got a 1TB HDD and a displayport to HDMI adapter.
So now this $50 Optiplex is hooked up to the 43" TV and the SA-600 receiver and the great big Technics speakers in the living room. The Windows 10 creators update is installing on it now. Next step will be a new low profile video card and a bigger power supply..
So now this $50 Optiplex is hooked up to the 43" TV and the SA-600 receiver and the great big Technics speakers in the living room. The Windows 10 creators update is installing on it now. Next step will be a new low profile video card and a bigger power supply..
Not really. There's only two slots available, and the 710 or 730 would leave room for a wifi card in case I struggle getting the ethernet working during the hackintosh project.
I was installing Win 10 so I could update the BIOS and have at least something running. The video card and PSU have to wait for payday
I woke up this morning all ready to order the video card and power supply for the Optiplex 790. Until I started reading reviews on the power supply. How it wouldn't fit the case, and how the fan had only one speed, full blast and LOUD.
So another check of the Pitt surplus store showed some other candidates that were more compatible out of the box. I found an Optiplex 7010 with an i7-3770 CPU and intel HD 4000 graphics. It came with a Radeon card that had a broken fan, but no matter. The HD 4000 is supported natively in Sierra.
I stopped to pick up a 2TB HDD at Best Buy on the way home, and set to work. Or not. Short version, the PSU in the 7010 was dead. Fortunately, the PSU in the 790 is identical. A quick swap, and I was back in business. Updated the BIOS and prepared my install stick per Tonymacx86. Time to hackintosh!
Install was a breeze. Nothing hung up to interrupt the process. The system boots from the HDD just fine. The only glitch was the sound. The ALC269 codec is a bear to get configured for novices. So much of the jargon on the mackintosh sites was way over my head. I found a video tutorial that got me familiar with kexts, but still no sound. Finally I got pointed to the VoodooHDA package that fixed the sound. I have a full working Hackintosh. I haven't tried out iMessage yet. That's the next big trick to get working.
When I think about it, even though my i5-2500K is overclocked to 4.6Ghz, I think this system with the i7 is the better box. Sandy bridge vs Ivy bridge and all that.
So I'm posting this from a native mackintosh. No more VMware box.
So another check of the Pitt surplus store showed some other candidates that were more compatible out of the box. I found an Optiplex 7010 with an i7-3770 CPU and intel HD 4000 graphics. It came with a Radeon card that had a broken fan, but no matter. The HD 4000 is supported natively in Sierra.
I stopped to pick up a 2TB HDD at Best Buy on the way home, and set to work. Or not. Short version, the PSU in the 7010 was dead. Fortunately, the PSU in the 790 is identical. A quick swap, and I was back in business. Updated the BIOS and prepared my install stick per Tonymacx86. Time to hackintosh!
Install was a breeze. Nothing hung up to interrupt the process. The system boots from the HDD just fine. The only glitch was the sound. The ALC269 codec is a bear to get configured for novices. So much of the jargon on the mackintosh sites was way over my head. I found a video tutorial that got me familiar with kexts, but still no sound. Finally I got pointed to the VoodooHDA package that fixed the sound. I have a full working Hackintosh. I haven't tried out iMessage yet. That's the next big trick to get working.
When I think about it, even though my i5-2500K is overclocked to 4.6Ghz, I think this system with the i7 is the better box. Sandy bridge vs Ivy bridge and all that.
So I'm posting this from a native mackintosh. No more VMware box.
Did a complete wipe and reinstall of my main desktop PC. Resets and Fresh Starts hadn't worked, so I just wiped the sucker completely and started anew. I think moving the entire user profile off of the C: drive had a bit to do with my issues. This time I'm leaving the profile on the C: and pointing all the visible data to the HDD on D:. As long as AppData doesn't eat too much space on the 120GB SSD, I should be good. Already seen a noticeable speed increase. Boot is much faster than before.
I did the whole "move the user dirs off of C" on Win 8 or 8.1. No end of headaches. They really don't want you to do that, despite the whole "small SSD programs, big HDD media" idea. But it falls apart if everything starts dumping EVERYTHING onto C:
Next machine I build I think I'm just going to go spinning rust plus Optane for simplification purposes. Unless 1TB SSDs come down to more reasonable prices anytime soon, that'll probably be what happens.
I've had zero issues with it, probably because I haven't let any program know that I did it. Just a handful of symlinks at the base subdirectories. Everyone thinks everything is in C:.
I am kinda backwards. I have a bigger C: HDD and a small SSD that I just install games on. I don't have time to read the game pointers on Skyrim SE loading screens.
Did you just move the pointers to stuff like the Downloads and Documents folders to the other drive (which appears to be the suggested method, IIRC. Just change it in the Location tab under the folder Properties), or did you move the entire user profile? That's the method I used the first time, and is the one that causes everyone issues further down the road.
I did a guide on changing an install.ini file (or something) so that user directories (like C:\Users didn't exist) ACTUALLY went to the other drive, not leaving a pointer behind. That caused no ends of problems, and I do not do that anymore. I've looked at (but never done) the "hack" where you actually change the NTFS references so that C:\Users (and C:\ProgramData, which is where a lot of Apps install to) point to another physical drive/directory.
Guys, guys...that's what RST's Smart Response is supposed to be used for.
(Or Fusion Drive if you're on a Mac)
But yeah, manually managing SSD/HDD is the "poor-man's" method of doing the same thing.
--Patrick
(Or Fusion Drive if you're on a Mac)
But yeah, manually managing SSD/HDD is the "poor-man's" method of doing the same thing.
--Patrick
SSHDs didn't exist yet when I built this PC.
When Cranky built his new computer, I convinced him to splurge on getting a 400GB Intel 750. That thing is fast, and I don't mean 500MB/s fast like most SATA SSDs, I mean 2.1GB/s fast. Using it is AMAZINGLY fast...but it's only 400GB. So we recently also installed 2x750GB 2.5in WD Red in an internal 3.5in RAID 1 enclosure so he can offload as much stuff as he wants from the 400GB "Fast" area into the 750GB "Safe" area without having to mess with the shared external 2TB RAID 1 USB box I have for all our important stuff.SSHDs didn't exist yet when I built this PC.
I've considered trying to wire things up so they're more transparent, but really it's less of a headache to manually just do things like OS/Apps on SSD, pics/docs on HDD, etc.
--Patrick
Hit up the CPU cooler with canned air until no more dust came out the back. Left the side door off and reran Prime95 at the 4.8GHz overclock. This time the peak temp on the problem test only topped out at 91C. Before it redlined at 100C. I let it go for around 20 minutes, and after not seeing it go any higher than 91C, I called it good enough.
I doubt I'm going to try for 5GHz again, though.
(ETA: sealed the case back up to let the side fan do it's thing. Temps still acceptable.)
I doubt I'm going to try for 5GHz again, though.
(ETA: sealed the case back up to let the side fan do it's thing. Temps still acceptable.)
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I never installed the cooler that came with the i5-2500K, and the original build plan called for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. I bought that and abandoned it within a week in favor of the Corsair H50 which I've used ever since.
Which brings us to today. While going through the closet where I put all the boxes from my build, I found both coolers and the 6850 video cards from the original build. All I need now for another decent build is a case and PSU. I have a spare i3 from an unused Optiplex, not to mention the i7 in this Hackintosh and an i5 in a Gentoo box that isn't doing anything but update itself.
Which brings us to today. While going through the closet where I put all the boxes from my build, I found both coolers and the 6850 video cards from the original build. All I need now for another decent build is a case and PSU. I have a spare i3 from an unused Optiplex, not to mention the i7 in this Hackintosh and an i5 in a Gentoo box that isn't doing anything but update itself.
Once you account for the difference in clock speed, the single-thread (i.e., gaming) performance delta between the 2010 i5-2500k Sandy Bridge and the current 2017 Kaby Lake i5-7600k is merely +9.94%.I wanted to buy a new case and rebuild the 2500k box. PCMR says no, spend the money on a 1050ti instead.
Prices are about the same as the Mastercase Pro 5 I was looking at.
--Patrick
Supporting my comparison above, and also going into much more detail here:
Upgraders guide: Ryzen 3 vs. Core i5-2500K vs. FX-8370
--Patrick
By now many of you have probably heard about the CCleaner hack.
Since I installed CCleaner recently during the window that might've been while the hacked version was being distributed when setting up my kid's "brand new" computer (an Inspiron 3650 i3-6100 which we just added a GTX750ti to, btw), I was worried that I'd inadvertently infected my kid's machine with some of the shadiest malware since Superfish.
The infected version is v5.33
I checked yesterday, and the version I installed ... was v5.32.
Also FYI the GTX 750Ti is THE best card you can get if a) you have a computer that doesn't have supplementary 6- or 8-pin connectors (it only draws 60W) AND b) you require native VGA output (he's still using an older monitor). And you can get one for $100-150.
--Patrick
Since I installed CCleaner recently during the window that might've been while the hacked version was being distributed when setting up my kid's "brand new" computer (an Inspiron 3650 i3-6100 which we just added a GTX750ti to, btw), I was worried that I'd inadvertently infected my kid's machine with some of the shadiest malware since Superfish.
The infected version is v5.33
I checked yesterday, and the version I installed ... was v5.32.
Also FYI the GTX 750Ti is THE best card you can get if a) you have a computer that doesn't have supplementary 6- or 8-pin connectors (it only draws 60W) AND b) you require native VGA output (he's still using an older monitor). And you can get one for $100-150.
--Patrick
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