[X] My Assistant

Upon further reflection, I bet a lot of my loading time when decoding images (for an image viewer) is actually not the decoding stage but rather just from fetching the files off HDD's.

How I feel about impulsive upgraders on here (and brand loyalists)
(IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/UJtMOZF.jpg)

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 8 2020, 21:46

Another post since no one else is.

Finally got around to making hibernation work on my thinkpad x201 tablet/laptop. Turns out I forgot to actually tell my system that it should use my swap partition (d'oh). I didn't notice it for over three years because I apparently never have used my full 8GB RAM and I must have just glossed over the '0 swap total' column/row whenever I ran 'free'.

I wonder if that's why it didn't work on my powerbook, too. Probably. I'm pretty stupid sometimes.

Also, got a Microsoft Trackball Optical mouse for $1 at a garage sale in decent condition. Probably could use new bearings, but those can be found pretty easily and it's a lot better than $30-40 for a used one on ebay. It doesn't stick too hard as long as I'm gentle on the ball, so I might just make do until I do my next big online order binge. I'm quite liking it so far, despite the bearings being a little iffy. Despite its age, it still feels sensitive enough for my 1280x800 laptop at least with the default settings in evdev/X11.

Now I just need to find an IBM Scrollpoint and I'll be out of old pointer-moving devices that I really want but don't have.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 10 2020, 00:03

Working from home

Working from home

Is that a tech chat thought?

Anyway, I'm doing my usual thing where I start obsessing over pointer acceleration settings of my input devices whenever I get a new one now (on account of the trackball).

I think I've got some nice settings now.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 11 2020, 00:26

Working from home means tech is tax deductible.

Working from home means tech is tax deductible.

I am paying income tax starting next month.

Removed the bearings in my trackball, rotated them so the non-flattened portions were facing out, and popped them back in. Had to use a dab of glue to hold one of them, the others just snapped in fine. The ball now rolls so much better.

--

I just realized I can probably use my desktop or my powerbook to emulate a hard disk over firewire/IEEE 1394 (both of them have firewire ports - the desktop's courtesy of my sound card) and use that to boot PS2 games over the system's "i-link" port using a variant of Open PS2 Loader. I might not need to buy a network adapter at all, or worry about PATA drive interfaces for it. And it'd be faster than loading over Samba/SMB anyway.
All I will need that I don't have (assuming I am correct, and that the Open PS2 Loader implementation is good/robust) is a 6-pin to 4-pin cable. And if the desktop's FW controller doesn't support doing that (I don't know much about them, since I rarely ever used FW devices back in the day), I'm pretty sure I can at least convince the Powerbook to cooperate (since apparently those old laptops made a feature out of being able to mount their drives on other machines over firewire, similarly to how earlier ones could be SCSI daisychained).

I think my old Dell Latitude D630's have IEEE 1394 controllers, too, actually, so I have quite a few options. If I used those laptops I'd just need a 4-pin to 4-pin cable, I believe.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 12 2020, 12:22

”Military-grade” capacitors and chokes. Right... 6-year warranty is a bit of step up but still it's TUF.

[www.asus.com] Asus' TUF-branded PSU

”Military-grade” capacitors and chokes. Right... 6-year warranty is a bit of step up but still it's TUF.

[www.asus.com] Asus' TUF-branded PSU

"mil" spec chokes? lol.

And as for caps, you'd get a bigger boost out of it if they are all tantalums. I doubt they make the larger caps in tantalum though for several reasons both practical and safety-related.

My advice is to buy something that works and do proper maintenance. Dust it out, occasionally make sure the fans are still spinning, maybe open it up and see if there are swollen capacitors.

Mil-spec is of no consequence for most parts, except that they cost more and can sometimes withstand worse environmental conditions. You aren't leaving your computer on a blacktop to cook are you?

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 13 2020, 06:27

Is it rated for a higher operating temp?

Most of the PSUs I buy have a 10+ year warranty often.

Just go with seasonic or corsair.

Is it rated for a higher operating temp?

Most of the PSUs I buy have a 10+ year warranty often.

Just go with seasonic or corsair.

I ran a dell OEM 300W PSU for 12 years. Still have it, but it's not on active duty anymore. I opened it up once during that time, in year 10, just to inspect it; all was well (or so it seemed at least, and it continued to work).

But if you want peace of mind, that might be a better idea.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 13 2020, 06:42

Doesn't surprise me if Asus won't made those PSU's available for independent reviews. What if the so-called "military grade" capacitors turn out to be generic caps from CapXon or some other Chinese manufacturers. TUF is after all a second-rate brand after ROG.

Doesn't surprise me if Asus won't made those PSU's available for independent reviews. What if the so-called "military grade" capacitors turn out to be generic caps from CapXon or some other Chinese manufacturers. TUF is after all a second-rate brand after ROG.

You don't seem to realize this, but in the electronics industry basically everyone makes "military" specification parts, including the chinese. They're usually just variations on existing designs after all.

A common difference for integrated circuits, for instance, is MIL parts often using a ceramic package instead of plastic (ceramic can be hermetically sealed, and has better heat dissipation, for instance). But the actual chip die is the same.

Doesn't surprise me if Asus won't made those PSU's available for independent reviews. What if the so-called "military grade" capacitors turn out to be generic caps from CapXon or some other Chinese manufacturers.

Many years ago, the mainland Chinese had problems trying to compete with the Japanese long-life capacitors.

It's time to perform Costly Research™. So one chinese company contacted their secret employee at the Japanese company to get to work on the next set of company secrets - the long life capacitor's electrolyte formula. They already copied out everything else, but the formula was still secret. Finally, the chinese company got a copy of the Japanese company's secret formula and then proceeded to improve their copy of the Japanese capacitors. However, the formula they got was incomplete as one of the ingredients on the list was apparently a formula theft-prevention measure. That ingredient was actually used, so it wasn't false, but at that point, it was a combination of other secret ingredients as well.

So the Chinese made a lot of good-at-first but not-so-good-when-older capacitors with that stolen formula which swelled and caused defective products.

I have an old dell 305W atx supply (from a decommissioned optiplex tower) in need of a recap cause it had many bulgy caps- but still seems stable.
I stuck a strip of euro barrier block to the side, pruned down the wires, now it gets to be a bench PSU till it blows up. The exact model goes for cheaper on ebay than I can buy all the caps it 'needs'.
My PC got a 1200W silverstone platinum in it, quite happy with it after ripping out it's non-PWM fan and letting the motherboard deal with controlling a new PWM fan in it. Seasonic and/or Corsair have platinum models with built in provisions for fan control- but I couldn't source one of those.

Hmmm planning next build for next year.

ITX, probably M1 Ghost case, probably new graphics card.

Not sure on CPU, high end intel or high end AMD, intel has more fps with high end graphics cards but AMD run way cooler.

Wake up。
Open computer。
My post got No new Reflection。

Wake up。
Open computer。
My post got No new Reflection。

Your question is more about memory speed and latency as that is where some of the best tuning gains are at the moment.

Tighter timings make a big difference on AMD at the moment but also can boost up performance of mid range intel processors.

CL 15 4000mhz DDR4 seems to be the optimum for performance but appears to be hard to get a hold of. They might not even be producing it anymore.

One forum recommend buying faster ram and underclocking it to get tighter timings.

Hmmm planning next build for next year.

ITX, probably M1 Ghost case, probably new graphics card.

Not sure on CPU, high end intel or high end AMD, intel has more fps with high end graphics cards but AMD run way cooler.

This gen CPU or next gen CPU (e.g Zen 3)? Have you set your target on Nvidia's Ampere?

My PC got a 1200W silverstone platinum in it, quite happy with it after ripping out it's non-PWM fan and letting the motherboard deal with controlling a new PWM fan in it. Seasonic and/or Corsair have platinum models with built in provisions for fan control- but I couldn't source one of those.

Does replacing the fan void the manufacturer's warranty?

This post has been edited by loli-hujan86: Aug 14 2020, 06:42

This gen CPU or next gen CPU (e.g Zen 3)? Have you set your target on Nvidia's Ampere?
Does replacing the fan void the manufacturer's warranty?

If it was right now, I'd want a 3900xt or a 10900k, but the 10900k runs super hot for a small build.

I bought an expensive monitor that is g-sync which kind of locks me into Ampere, its going to depend on the price and availability though, I am not really in a rush.

Getting the low latency ram for AMD seems to be an issue, The best CL15 4000mhz ram appears to be gone.

Damn seems to be a huge premium and low supply of low latency kits.

The best I found was old stock Corsair Vengeance 3600mhz CL14 DDR4
G.skill trident Z neo kit with CL4 and better timings.

Can't find the 4000mhz CL15 kits in my country. Watching a review where they get it to CL13 3800mhz is pretty pointless if I can't buy the ram. Sadness.

Apparently because the price of DDR4 dropped, Samsung stop producing the ultra low latency chips.

Dang. The replacement kit from Gskill is 4400mhz CL 18.

RIP low latency ram.

edit: I found 1 kit of the 4000mhz CL15 and its for sale for $800 dollars.... wow.

This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Aug 14 2020, 08:02