PC Hardware Talk Megathread

[combustiblefuel]

I think I have a moniter problem ... I got another one just to try out... a oled g9 ... I'm up to like 7 moniters in the last 6 months...

[White Out 403]

Ive had my vg27aq for a few years its one of the best purchases ive made. just love it.

[Calgary14]

My dell laptop (about 2 years old) won't turn on right now, it's plugged in and for whatever reason it just isn't turning on. Prior to this I had no issues. There is a ton of documents on there that I need today/tomorrow. What is the best course of action and does anyone know of a reputable company that can diagnose it?

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

My dell laptop (about 2 years old) won't turn on right now, it's plugged in and for whatever reason it just isn't turning on. Prior to this I had no issues. There is a ton of documents on there that I need today/tomorrow. What is the best course of action and does anyone know of a reputable company that can diagnose it?

For steps you can take on your own; I would first take off the bottom plate and disconnect the battery for a few minutes and reconnect to see if that would allow the laptop to turn on

If it's still not working, if you have another computer with a spare (probably) NVMe M.2 slot, you can move the storage drive over to copy the files you need.

[Calgary14]

Learnt my lesson today to have my files backed up. I was luckily able to get it back and running but I still don’t trust it now. What’s a quality laptop that can run basic finance software and Microsoft office? My current Dell has 12GB ram. I don’t need anything fancy at all in terms of video etc as it’s strictly for business. I’m not sure I want to buy another Dell and I’m looking for quality. Screen size does not matter as I have a docking station

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

My new pc has amd 5 3600. What is a not too high cost AMD for socket chip that would be a great long-term investment? I previously had the i7 6700 and loved the longevity I got from it

In a similar boat and these sales on the 5700/58003XD chips are constantly tempting me.

I have no major incentive to upgrade other than to keep up, freshen things up as a partial upgrade so I can keep my b450 stuff going for another 5 years. Probably is more worthwhile upgrading my RX580 but I'm only dabbling with OW2 and Football Manager these days.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Learnt my lesson today to have my files backed up. I was luckily able to get it back and running but I still don’t trust it now. What’s a quality laptop that can run basic finance software and Microsoft office? My current Dell has 12GB ram. I don’t need anything fancy at all in terms of video etc as it’s strictly for business. I’m not sure I want to buy another Dell and I’m looking for quality. Screen size does not matter as I have a docking station

I'll likely get yelled at, but the Macbook Air (M2 or M3) are wildly good/nice computers.

There's a premium on the Mac brand as always, but specifically with these M2/M3 processors - they're very good laptops.

[photon]

I find it really difficult to consider a laptop other than a Macbook of some kind.

[DownInFlames]

I love my MacBook but boy are they expensive. I think a mid-range HP laptop is good enough for basic use.

[photon]

I like some of Lenovo's stuff. Also like the Dell XPS stuff (but is also expensive).

My wife's ASUS has been going strong and Acer even has some decent stuff.

https://www.rtings.com/laptop/reviews/best/brands
https://www.rtings.com/laptop/reviews/best/windows

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by photon

I like some of Lenovo's stuff. Also like the Dell XPS stuff (but is also expensive).

My wife's ASUS has been going strong and Acer even has some decent stuff.

https://www.rtings.com/laptop/reviews/best/brands
https://www.rtings.com/laptop/reviews/best/windows

We had Dell XPS units at my last job and they were great, if I was buying something for myself that's what I'd probably go with

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by photon

I find it really difficult to consider a laptop other than a Macbook of some kind.

Uh... really?

Why?

I mean they're nice looking, good screen, good speakers, great keyboard... but the thermal design is absolute garbage to a point where the hardware specs are basically a lie because it wouldn't be stay cool enough to be able to actually use any of it.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Uh... really?

Why?

I mean they're nice looking, good screen, good speakers, great keyboard... but the thermal design is absolute garbage to a point where the hardware specs are basically a lie because it wouldn't be stay cool enough to be able to actually use any of it.

I don't agree with your statement at all. Sounds like someone has never used an M1, M2, or M3 Macbook which is basically the apex of mobile computing TDP at the moment in terms of thermals and performance and battery life. Even my first gen M1 Macbook just destroys the field for anybody who wants to use a laptop form factor. This coming from someone who has a Surface Pro as well as a RTX 3080 gaming laptop at home.

There's no competition outside of the M series for the ergonomics, functionality, ease of use, and sheer battery life. I'll go to work, running at maximum brightness and forget to plug in the laptop for 8+ hours without breaking a sweat. There is never a fan you hear spinning up. It runs ridiculously cool. It plays Baldur's Gate 3 M1 native at high framerate.

Going to back any other laptop, even a high end ASUS, Lenovo, or metal-bodied Surface device just feels hot and clunky in comparison. Even the keyboard shortcuts and trackpad functionality in Windows or even Linux seem awkward now. I still go back to my OLED ultrawide, keyboard mouse, and Windows gaming PC when I'm at home because you still need that for PC gaming...but I'd take the MacBook in a heartbeat for everything else. It's the best work device I've ever had and I can't see myself ever going back.

[keratosis]

https://www.techspot.com/news/102371...tion-keys.html

[White Out 403]

the 5700X3d has been a really, really great upgrade

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by photon

I find it really difficult to consider a laptop other than a Macbook of some kind.

Agree, and if I didnt need software that specifically requires windows I would 100% use a mac

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Agree, and if I didnt need software that specifically requires windows I would 100% use a mac

There's always Parallels or a cloud VM you can RDP to if that helps

[Meelapo]

I know the answer to this but want to vet it by some of the folks here....

• Last night I playing FF7 Remake
• Noticed a bunch of slowdowns and audio hiccups - just assumed it was the nature of the port and thought nothing of it
• During a cut scene my computer just shut off
• I thought it might be a power outage because of the wind but other devices were working fine
• Turned the computer back on and wait for the boot up
• Got into Windows and things were very choppy and slow to load
• PC shutdown again for no reason
• Turned it back on and loaded up HWMonitor and Task Manager
• Task Manager showed the CPU (5800X3D) was running at 1.0 - 1.2 GHz and HWMonitor said that the temperatures were hovering at 90 degrees and this was just idle
• Tried to load Steam and open a browser and temperatures stayed around 90 degrees but CPU speed dropped down to 0.86 GHz
• Ran the AIO Cooler (Arctic Freezer II 360) fan at 100% but it didn't drop the temperatures at all
• After about 10 minutes the CPU temperature jumped up to 3.2 GHz and the temperature (core) went to 100 degrees
• Opened the case and felt the AIO hoses and one was hot and the other was cold (which I assume is correct)

So based on that, I'm guessing the AIO pump or something related has failed? I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I should be at around 45-50 degrees at moderate load with an AIO and not at 90-100 degrees. Safe to say it's time to RMA or buy a new one?

[Galakanokis]

The new Qualcomm ARM chips are showing better benchmarking than Apple M3 Max. Qualcomm has done a nice job here and worked with software providers to fine their products. I nice touch compared to Apple. The boss' new M3 MBP is quite nice though but it was $10K. Nutty.

The knock on the Air is they lose a bunch of performance, 50% in some scenarios when running it closed. Keep that in mind. It is pretty much meant to be only a laptop and not closed/docked.

The M2 Mac Studio Ultra for $8K is blowing the pants off of my $35K 7.1 Mac Pro. Jesus what a terrible investment those Pros were. Waiting on the M3 Mac Studio Ultras to drop and will pick up some of those.

[Sluggo]

Originally Posted by Meelapo

So based on that, I'm guessing the AIO pump or something related has failed? I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I should be at around 45-50 degrees at moderate load with an AIO and not at 90-100 degrees. Safe to say it's time to RMA or buy a new one?

If your rad is top mounted, it is like you said the pump could be dead unless you are like my roommate and re-pasted his pump because temps were getting hot and neglected to see the caked on dust all over his rad -he is a engineer BTW-


If your rad is side mounted, make sure the hoses connect to the bottom otherwise there could be a air bubble blocking your pump. The bubble will get larger over time as some of the fluid will escape through evaporation and when the bubble reaches the pump you will get thermal throttling.