[X] My Assistant

>Keeping OEM bundled software within 50 feet of your drive
>Not using 7-zip
The whole point of bundleware is to give you a trial/demo so you're more likely to buy the licensed version.

Nah Deamon Tools did have a paid license (though some optional components can be bought separately, but that's a classic DLC system (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ).

Are thermal pads viable alternative to thermal paste for CPUs?

(IMG:[66.media.tumblr.com] https://66.media.tumblr.com/222c4c0eeb5beeea7877a30cb4d8e6a7/f0787e887ed79432-06/s640x960/9504a6b13833dab931ff01a8a41bf6822b70f58e.jpg)

Are thermal pads viable alternative to thermal paste for CPUs?

Cost-wise, it is not efficient. For a thermal product seller, selling to you a one-time use product is good because then you'll have to buy another thermal product if you have a 2nd PC. But if you have a tube of thermal paste, you can do quite a few heat sinks with that one tube. The small dot of thermal compound you apply to the top of the metal CPU lid covering the space where the CPU chip die sits is all that's needed. The main heat transfer seems to come from the edges of the CPU's metal top that are contacting the substrate on which the die is mounted. That part usually has almost no thermal paste residue whenever I removed a CPU cooler which suggests that the thermal compound was mostly pushing down the cover over the cavity where the CPU die is located. Sure, it does help improve the imperfections at the outer edges of the metal top where most of the thermal transfer occurs. But a thermal pad is going to get in the way as it doesn't flow as easily as a liquid so more of it will remain trapped in the center.

I think you'd do better with a traditional thermal paste compound.
[www.tomshardware.com] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/therma...eader,3600.html

Comparison of thermal compounds:
[www.tomshardware.com] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/therma...hmark,3616.html

Instead of buying thermal transfer pads, save your money against the day when chip substrates are modified to have micro-cooling channels. Then you'll be using specialty liquids to cool the chip substrate next to the die memory and to the micro-coolant channels in-between each pair of CPU cores. Until those expensive cooling paradigm shift days come, I suggest you not overspend on thermal pads and stick to proven thermal paste compounds.
[spectrum.ieee.org] https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardwar...-computer-chips

Pads are fine, 85% as good.

It's great to have a machine that can handle big files transfers.
Downloading a 80 GB file, and the system is still fast, responsive, and show no sign of crashing or being bothered in any way (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Are thermal pads viable alternative to thermal paste for CPUs?

How depends. What are your core temps usually like?
Even after removing and reseating the fan on my 3350p multiple times it's rare for my cores to hit 50°C. Critical is at 105°, and they get throttled at 85°C. I could probably use one of those pads without a problem.

If you're running something ridiculous you might want the thermal compound, but for most cases it'll be alright.

Why don't wall chargers--or the charge indicators on devices--indicate when the charge is over 90% or so?
You could save so much power by unplugging early, before it hits 100%.

I've always had good luck with just plain white silicone thermal grease instead of fancy cpu compounds.

How depends.

In your MacGuyvering experiences with parts, you've probably come across a very few situations where pads would be more useful than thermal paste compound, but that would be very few. The most far-fetched situation where a thermal pad is far superior is when one surface is very irregular and needs the flexible pad to flow into those large gaps such as if you tried to mate your heat sink to the surface of a meat tenderizer. If you don't have one in your kitchen, you've possibly seen them at the retail stores' kitchen tools section. It looks like a mallet but the surface of the mallet is full of pyramid bumps. You heat your meat to tenderize it before cooking.

With that kind of irregular surface, a thermal pad would work far better than thermal compound which would flow out of all the valleys when it got hot. Realistically, none of us have such types of irregular heat sink surfaces. It's not like the metal top of your CPU was scored roughly by 60 grit sandpaper, so Arctic thermal compound would work.

Why don't wall chargers--or the charge indicators on devices--indicate when the charge is over 90% or so?
You could save so much power by unplugging early, before it hits 100%.

Several reasons why it isn't done this way. Those are in addition to the Catch-22.

Firstly, to do as you requested, you the person have to be there to observe the charge is over 90%. Almost everyone prefers the huge convenience of walking away and forgetting about it. So the market is going to be a niche-market. Is that market big enough? Sure, if the idea of power savings is ALL that affected sales. But your product would need a display device to alert you to come over and unplug it or a switch you can toggle that allowed it to automatically stop as soon as 90% charge was detected.

Now, Li-ION batteries aren't like your NiMH (or NiCd) individual cells. A battery is not an individual cell. The smart packs typically have circuitry to monitor and charge the cells properly. As the cells get full, the amount of charge tapers off and the circuitry cuts off the charging so that the individual cells do not overcharge and lose lifespan. Trashy packs allow a bit of overcharge and that results in shorter lifespan as well as the chance of fires. But note that the circuitry is either in the pack or the phone itself and NOT the little plugin-power device you plugged into the wall-socket for AC power. To have the battery pack charging circuitry in the plug-in device is not practical if charging is to be optimized for the varying packs.

Secondly, your smart charger device, which is what you need to decide when 90% has been reached, is going to be wildly inaccurate because unlike a static battery cell or pack that sits by itself being charged, a smartphone is constantly turning on and off as it runs programs without your permission. It phones home it's location and even downloads software updates and runs them without you knowing. All this uses power and can throw off the smart charger's logic in determining when your battery pack is charged or not. Your smart charger is generic, and will not communicate with the smart phone.

Thirdly, your desire has already been addressed because all the smart phones show percentage of charge on their display. If you're there in person, look at your phone. When it says 90% charged, unplug the device to avoid the parasitic waste of AC power.

Catch-22 is the fourth reason to not unplug the phone from power. I'd rather the phone run off the wall outlet power than wearing out its battery. I leave the phone plugged in. Otherwise, the only way to really implement your idea of saving power is to unplug your phone and the charger when the phone display says 90% AND then remove the battery from the phone. Ugh. I think that will wear out the connectors and plastic retaining clips pretty fast so no thanks.

How depends. What are your core temps usually like?
Even after removing and reseating the fan on my 3350p multiple times it's rare for my cores to hit 50°C. Critical is at 105°, and they get throttled at 85°C. I could probably use one of those pads without a problem.

If you're running something ridiculous you might want the thermal compound, but for most cases it'll be alright.

I haven't tested my CPU on load yet. I haven't had time nor mood to play games at the moment (due to my job). I'm also still trying to finalize the settings for a highly efficient 1080p quality video compression. Making matters worse, the software encoder is quite buggy, being unable to retain settings the next application start. Sometimes some settings could change on its own as I change other settings. Weird.

Anyhow, at idle I saw temperatures usually hover around at 33C, but can go up to 38C and between 42C-55C for a few seconds before dropping. The fluctuations probably is normal, due to the OS' numerous background processes. However I did make the mistake of reseating my CPU cooler (with thermal paste already applied) after I couldn't get both screws into the mounting bars at the same time. Only a few weeks later I realize my mistake after I watched some Youtube video where the people in it discourage people from picking the CPU cooler up and setting it down again because it can create air bubbles in the thermal compound.

After I start gaming again or encoding videos, whichever comes first, I'll have to monitor the load temperature to be certain. Wish I could just use thermal pads had it been a 100% good alternative to thermal paste. Still I'm gonna buy thermal paste cleaning kit anyway, because by end of next year I'll be moving to a new place 800km away from my hometown and Noctua recommends that the heatsink be removed first before transporting due to its weight (>700g). That's a lot heavier compared to Cooler Master Hyper 412 Slim's heatsink even though the latter's size is considerably bulkier.

[spectrum.ieee.org] https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardwar...-computer-chips

It's an interesting read.

This post has been edited by Super-hujan86: Oct 30 2019, 03:42

I've always had good luck with just plain white silicone thermal grease instead of fancy cpu compounds.

I've done that, but it really does get everywhere.

I was thinking, why bother getting an alternative file explorer, when they're all bloated and filled with useless crap that go beyond making them just being a pain to get used with?
Just now, got an element of answer: Microsoft Idiots™ still have not disconnected the file explorer from the explorer.exe process, thus causing major disturbances if the former crash, crashing the latter, and possibly requiring a restart to be sure no unexpected bug arise following that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (like where in hell is my taskbar icon, and over stuff)

Several reasons why it isn't done this way. Those are in addition to the Catch-22.

Firstly, to do as you requested, you the person have to be there to observe the charge is over 90%. Almost everyone prefers the huge convenience of walking away and forgetting about it. So the market is going to be a niche-market. Is that market big enough? Sure, if the idea of power savings is ALL that affected sales. But your product would need a display device to alert you to come over and unplug it or a switch you can toggle that allowed it to automatically stop as soon as 90% charge was detected.

Now, Li-ION batteries aren't like your NiMH (or NiCd) individual cells. A battery is not an individual cell. The smart packs typically have circuitry to monitor and charge the cells properly. As the cells get full, the amount of charge tapers off and the circuitry cuts off the charging so that the individual cells do not overcharge and lose lifespan. Trashy packs allow a bit of overcharge and that results in shorter lifespan as well as the chance of fires. But note that the circuitry is either in the pack or the phone itself and NOT the little plugin-power device you plugged into the wall-socket for AC power. To have the battery pack charging circuitry in the plug-in device is not practical if charging is to be optimized for the varying packs.

Secondly, your smart charger device, which is what you need to decide when 90% has been reached, is going to be wildly inaccurate because unlike a static battery cell or pack that sits by itself being charged, a smartphone is constantly turning on and off as it runs programs without your permission. It phones home it's location and even downloads software updates and runs them without you knowing. All this uses power and can throw off the smart charger's logic in determining when your battery pack is charged or not. Your smart charger is generic, and will not communicate with the smart phone.

Thirdly, your desire has already been addressed because all the smart phones show percentage of charge on their display. If you're there in person, look at your phone. When it says 90% charged, unplug the device to avoid the parasitic waste of AC power.

Catch-22 is the fourth reason to not unplug the phone from power. I'd rather the phone run off the wall outlet power than wearing out its battery. I leave the phone plugged in. Otherwise, the only way to really implement your idea of saving power is to unplug your phone and the charger when the phone display says 90% AND then remove the battery from the phone. Ugh. I think that will wear out the connectors and plastic retaining clips pretty fast so no thanks.

I'm thinking more of laptop charging lights--wouldn't it be relatively easy to, say, have the light flash 1 second on, 1 off, upon reaching 90%, then continue until it deluminates at 100%? I see why the detector couldn't be in the charger, but most all devices have these orange charge indicators that communicate with the battery circuitry already.

Not sure if I understand your Catch-22. First, you're saying that the power draw goes to the AC outlet and bypasses the phone battery while it's charging or plugged in (I assume for other kinds of devices as well?); am I correct?
After that, if you don't want it on, then sure, have it off, but no more extra power will be consumed by it running than was used to charge it in the first place. I don't see what you're getting at with removing the battery.

A feature like this would be great to have on a PSP for instance, which has old battery packs I want to try to preserve. I've heard keeping the battery charge on Li-ions between around 20 and 80%, and at least not charging to 100%, extends their life. I almost never boot the PSP itself though, so when I charge I have to estimate when is enough or go all the way. I wonder if the blinking 90% charge indicator could be accomplished through a custom PSP firmware?

I was thinking, why bother getting an alternative file explorer, when they're all bloated and filled with useless crap that go beyond making them just being a pain to get used with?
Just now, got an element of answer: Microsoft Idiots™ still have not disconnected the file explorer from the explorer.exe process, thus causing major disturbances if the former crash, crashing the latter, and possibly requiring a restart to be sure no unexpected bug arise following that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (like where in hell is my taskbar icon, and over stuff)

I remember seeing an option in win7 to have individual threads for that.

I fought a long battle because Windows 10 search and Cortana were down somehow.
After lots of things, I eventually checked Windows Update (stuff could have been unlocked here due to previous actions), there were things here, and after installing and rebooting, things worked again.
Not really sure what was broken and how it got fixed in the end, but it could be worst: linux (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

Wait, someone actually wants their computer phoning home?

I fought a long battle because Windows 10 search and Cortana were down somehow.
After lots of things, I eventually checked Windows Update (stuff could have been unlocked here due to previous actions), there were things here, and after installing and rebooting, things worked again.
Not really sure what was broken and how it got fixed in the end, but it could be worst: linux (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

Those are the patch issues I've seen talked about [www.askwoody.com] here, you must be on 1903?

I need to get on 1903 as well I think, because 1803 is going unsupported in a week. I wish I could fix my broken Start menu before updating again though. It started 2 years ago when I redirected my system User folder to my D drive, away from my SSD C drive. Aside from the Start menu this also broke a few miscellaneous things like the 'Send to' right-click context menu (which now is missing some options and copies objects to desktop when I click that, instead of creating a shortcut); anyone have any idea about a fix for this?

Those are the patch issues I've seen talked about [www.askwoody.com] here, you must be on 1903?

I need to get on 1903 as well I think, because 1803 is going unsupported in a week. I wish I could fix my broken Start menu before updating again though. It started 2 years ago when I redirected my system User folder to my D drive, away from my SSD C drive. Aside from the Start menu this also broke a few miscellaneous things like the 'Send to' right-click context menu (which now is missing some options and copies objects to desktop when I click that, instead of creating a shortcut); anyone have any idea about a fix for this?

Years ago I'd have had a thorough answer for you. That was in XP.
Nowadays I have no idea, sorry. Hopped off that train a long time ago. But in XP there was a registry key for the location of the desktop and such; I'm guessing there's still something similar in 10?

Finally validated the Windows 10 license of my computer.Now I can setup my account image and...damn it I don't remember the more serious things that were locked behind the license wall before (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I did a thing to my Master System.
[i.imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/b4MV8kmg.jpg)
[i.imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/Ynxrdllg.jpg)
[i.imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/pQtfYFpg.jpg)

(RGB outputs without having to use a special cable, removed RF modulator and turned its RCA jack into a sync output that doesn't die under a load like the original output on the DIN connector would)