Modern is so nice as it is so easy. Back in old days, I just did go to www page and click a link to download antivirus engine update and definition update, then installed them easily. Today, I spend 3 hours trying to find out how on earth to update only antivirus engine, without loading hundreds of useless bloat updates that mostly will just break everything, so far have not found any way to do that. No, Windows update is not an option. Update catalog is not giving out what I need. Even worse is MS web pages, they are trying to force you to weaken security, so that you need to enable JS and cookies or page will not show two lines of text that I want to read, certainly nothing that requires such security vulnerabilities. I so much wish things would be like 30 years ago, when common folks simply could not use computers much at all and when software required you to do things manually instead of this modern auto bloat everywhere. Internet, software etc. all has gone so much backwards, there are some rare exceptions of course, but overall any computer maintenance is now total hell where you fight against not working automated bloat with manual simple, efficient and working option being hidden or locked down. Automation never works, yet every software company attempts to fill their software with automation making needless bloat and things difficult for those who find manual way easier. Sure some automation is fine, but they always take it too far.
My latest acquisition, a Dell XPS 420. Specs: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @2.66 GHz ATi Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 2GB DDR2 Single Channel @800MHz Dual 232GB 5400RPM Hard Drives RAID 0 Windows Vista Business Service Pack 2 1280x1024 Resolution Dell Monitor Dell Keyboard/Mouse Nothing fancy by today's standards, but this PC was a beast when it launched. I don't think the graphics card is the OEM one that shipped with the system. I plan to upgrade the RAM later. Pretty impressed for what $60 will get you these days.
wow, it's even got a little screen on the case! Worth noting that it has a few similarities to the Dell Optiplex and Dimension line of the era.. albeit the slightly pointier case.. motherboards look shokingly similar.. despite ranging from Pentuim 4 to Core 2 Quads.. it really is insane the jump from P4 to Core 2 Quad all on the same socket..
I think that at summer when temps are 15C higher, there is no way I can use this machine that has 65C VRM shutoff temp. This is after 2 hours of idling: VRM actually has some airflow and heat does not get trapped to case as roof has 2x120mm fan openings, where I have 150mm fan keeping warm air exiting fast enough. At idle power consumption of CPU is even bit less than I7-6700 on Z170 board, which had VRM temps 28C or less at idle without airflow, so these Z370 boards just are useless junk, most of them, I did read that even ASUS ROG Hero z370 board gets vrm up to 80C with stock clocks.
I have no idea, that safety limit is default, AFAIK, buildzoid mentioned that these are complete crap or something like that. Motherboard comes even with VRM cooling fan bracket so they knew that their VRM will be bit on weak side. It does come issue when doing something like VRM benchmark even with such low ambient temp that I have, VRM temp is 38C straight after booting to windows, heats quite fast (unlike Z170 lot cheaper board that was only 22C after booting), with 15C or so higher ambient at summer, I doubt this will handle any gaming tasks and certainly not rendering, so something close to 300 euros for EK water cooling (one has CPU and VRM in same block) or swap another board once again I guess. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-rog-strix-z370-e-gaming-micro-atx-motherboard,5787-4.html I'm getting higher temps with stock clocks than them, but I have no space for fan over VRM heatsinks, there is some airflow, but not too much for certain. With better cooling it might work somewhat fine, but I remember reading that small airflow did not cut it, one had to put some serious airflow to it, naturally finding out too late all of such. Still if I see Vishay SiRA12 and SiRA14 datasheet, those appear to claim to be ok for much higher temps, but from some reason ASUS has chosen much lower safety limits, certainly they have their reasons, does power output of mosfets drop so much at higher temps or what could be reason for that? Also some people find Fujipoly thermal pads better than ASUS stock, but with this board stock is much better than Fujipoly, however that is always reliable sample size of 1.
LTT's latest video reminded me to run another DNS speed check since I haven't done one in a long while. I'm currently using Google's DNS service, looks like it might be worth a switch. I somewhat doubt there will be much of a speed difference, but getting my data further out of Googles hands would be a nice bonus. So the question is, faster cached loading times, or faster ".com" loading times... Cloudflare vs OpenDNS
What Microcenter do you go to? The one I work at undercuts Newegg and Amazon by a good 10-15% AND they price match, too. --- Post updated --- In other news, I bought 2 1TB drives today to replace almost decade old 500GB ones. I decided to run a test: Three 1TB drives in my system now: 1x Seagate FireCuda 1x WD Blue 1x Toshiba PC300 Let's see who dies first. the FireCuda has 2 years on the other two.
So, today I found out that scamadvisor can list all the websites hosted by an ip address. So I decided to look up what other websites are hosted on the same server as mine, its quite an interesting bunch really. There are some football clubs, surveying companies, and even an Italian restaurant. I would post a screenshot of the list of website url's here, but going off the url's, the majority of them are clearly quite nsfw xD Good to know my website is in good company I guess
Is it normal for a DVD Drive to make printer noises when you put a disc in? UPDATE: I resolved my issue.
Maybe? Some can be quite loud. So assuming it plays the disc correctly, its probably ok(?). If it does fail, you can always use a paper-clip (or anything pointy) to get the DVD back out.
Well today I was going to watch a movie, but all the drive did was make printer sounds, and the DVD icon never changed, as if the computer didn't notice. It can eject just fine.
The printer noise was likely the head seeking back and forward. If it couldn't play, it might be due to the disc being damaged or dirty, or the laser in the DVD drive could be dirty. You might want to try a DVD lens cleaning disc?
