Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Current model Intel Core M's run about 80% of the performance of an i5-5200U, FWIW...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9117/analyzing-intel-core-m-performance
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Intel CPU nomenclature is kind of god-awful. Modern Atoms aren't necessarily terrible and Atom cores are being stuck in things that are branded Xeon.
It's definitely a slug by desktop standards, but that it's not like anyone should be trying to do desktop computing on something in the form factor that those ultra-low voltage devices have. If your goal is to get something you can comfortably hold in one hand that can run big-boy OSes for basic computing needs, they're just fine.
It's definitely a slug by desktop standards, but that it's not like anyone should be trying to do desktop computing on something in the form factor that those ultra-low voltage devices have. If your goal is to get something you can comfortably hold in one hand that can run big-boy OSes for basic computing needs, they're just fine.
ddrueding
Fixture
Not sure which one you are talking about, but apparently the newer Atom CPUs actually aren't that slow. If I were looking at a convertible tablet/laptop thing, I'd be considering the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Review here:
[video]https://youtu.be/alpaxt7gGZU[/video]
Edit: Sorry, didn't see the posts on this page when I wrote my reply...
[video]https://youtu.be/alpaxt7gGZU[/video]
Edit: Sorry, didn't see the posts on this page when I wrote my reply...
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The just plain not-Pro Surface 3 is perfectly respectable all on its own. I haven't really done anything with my Surface Pro where I've really thought "Hey, I sure am glad this thing has an i5" but I've done lots of things where I've thought "I sure am glad this thing runs real Windows software locally and has USB and a card reader!" And that's pretty much the story of convertible PCs.
The new Surfaces have 12" screens rather than 10", but the 10" screens have much more sensitive touchscreens, so oddly enough there are applications where the older, smaller screens are preferable.
The new Surfaces have 12" screens rather than 10", but the 10" screens have much more sensitive touchscreens, so oddly enough there are applications where the older, smaller screens are preferable.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Happy Freedommas everybody!
I'm mostly celebrating by having bronchitis, but tonight I'm gonna Ron Swanson myself a $92-at-retail 29 oz. Porterhouse and some green beans with every kind of pork I could find thrown in for flavoring because Freedom.
I'm mostly celebrating by having bronchitis, but tonight I'm gonna Ron Swanson myself a $92-at-retail 29 oz. Porterhouse and some green beans with every kind of pork I could find thrown in for flavoring because Freedom.
ddrueding
Fixture
The 4th of July tends to fall on the 4th of July. Some companies observed it on Friday this year, but not mine. If it falls on a weekend already, what do you need a day off work for?
I just assumed anyone on salary would get Friday off, with exceptions for essential services and the retail sector.
I already drove 400 miles and worked over 40 hours by Thursday. I want my holidays off!
Our company follows the Feds on most holidays, but the total averages nine per year.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
Happy Independence Day
ddrueding
Fixture
I just assumed anyone on salary would get Friday off, with exceptions for essential services and the retail sector.
I already drove 400 miles and worked over 40 hours by Thursday. I want my holidays off!
Our company follows the Feds on most holidays, but the total averages nine per year.
I'm at work right now (July 4th, 11:45AM).
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I worked into the wee small hours last night and did maintenance call earlier today. Holidays are good for that kind of thing.
ddrueding
Fixture
At the gas station this morning chatting with the guy next to me who was letting his kid drive his Drophead Coupe for the first time. Kid came out of the convenience store munching a bag of Cheetos. Dad had to excuse himself and have some words.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Look, if a half million dollar car does not have EZ Clean upholstery, somebody didn't spring for the full option package.
ddrueding
Fixture
IIRC, it has something like 12 cows worth of leather in there. And I didn't check, but only a fool wouldn't option in the teak yacht flooring.
ddrueding
Fixture
Congrats Joe!
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks, guys! I know 3K posts pales next to some of the others here but it says a lot for this place that I've stuck around long enough to get there at my less than proficient posting rate. If I continue at my present posting rate I'll finally get to 10K around maybe 2047 or thereabouts. And by then Merc and Dave and Lunar may well have exceeded 50K, perhaps even 100K.
And by then Merc and Dave and Lunar may well have exceeded 50K, perhaps even 100K.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Well done Joe! Great contributions to the forum, even if they don't have the same frequency as Merc, Dave or Lunar.
Bartender
Storage is cool
Go Joe! Drinks on the house. I think I'll have some coffee.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Joe, congratulations on reaching 3K...
Stereodude
Not really a
I was wondering who Joe was, and then it suddenly became clear.
Congrats!
Congrats!
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Congrats, Joe, thanks for making every post count and for the wonderful contribution you've made to this forum!
sedrosken
Florida Man
Congrats Joe! I know I have a long way to go before I get close to anyone else's post count.
Stereodude
Not really a
So a coworker asked me for help getting a few things working on her less than one month old Surface 3 (non Pro). The amount of near malware / spyware on it blew my mind. It had some sort of software that acted as a local proxy inserting ads into pages. Geniusbox 2.0
ddrueding
Fixture
Wow. You're thinking this was part of the stock install?
Stereodude
Not really a
I would hope not, but I don't really know.
I read that it is usually contracted with a bundled installation. Are users allowed to install anything they want nowadays? I'm used to working with companies that lock down the basic users permissions rather tightly.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks again everyone both for noticing I hit 3K, and joining me in the celebration. Now here's to 4K and beyond!
Not that I'm there yet, but I may have another milestone coming up in my life soon. The Airborne titanium bike I bought on eBay in late 2011 might be coming up on 10K miles this year. I put 8250 miles on it to date. If not this year then I should hit the magic 10K mark next year. Of course, no idea how many miles the original user put on it. BTW, total miles I've ridden since I started logging my rides in 1980 is 72,536. Hopefully I'll break 100K before I turn 60.
Not that I'm there yet, but I may have another milestone coming up in my life soon. The Airborne titanium bike I bought on eBay in late 2011 might be coming up on 10K miles this year. I put 8250 miles on it to date. If not this year then I should hit the magic 10K mark next year. Of course, no idea how many miles the original user put on it. BTW, total miles I've ridden since I started logging my rides in 1980 is 72,536. Hopefully I'll break 100K before I turn 60.
sedrosken
Florida Man
So, while cleaning an old layer of thermal paste from the top of a CPU to put another layer on, I accidentally bent a couple pins on it. I reminded myself to stay calm, and grabbed a pair of needle-nose pliers. I know, using a sledgehammer for cracking an egg, yada yada... anyway, I bent them back out, but as I went to place the CPU back in the socket, one of the pins broke off. Now I'm in full-blown panic mode. To replace the CPU is only like $50, as it's nothing more than an Athlon II x4, but that's $50 that I *really* didn't want to have to spend.
In what I thought was a futile effort, I placed it back in the socket and attached the heat-sink on the minuscule off-chance that it did work. I was completely gobsmacked as the computer proceeded to boot up as normal. My hypothesis is that I left just enough of the pin to make a contact with the appropriate point on the motherboard, and that I was exceptionally lucky. Perhaps I only broke an unassigned pin or ground pin? I've also heard that modern CPUs have lots of VCore pins and don't necessarily need them all, so it might have been one of those too.
By the way, this is now my rig. Athlon II x4, 8GB DDR3, same ol' GPU and drives. With this machine I now have a valid OEM license for Windows 7 Home Premium x64 again, so I'm getting that installed later today and then I'm getting the genuine Win10 update when it finally rolls out.
In what I thought was a futile effort, I placed it back in the socket and attached the heat-sink on the minuscule off-chance that it did work. I was completely gobsmacked as the computer proceeded to boot up as normal. My hypothesis is that I left just enough of the pin to make a contact with the appropriate point on the motherboard, and that I was exceptionally lucky. Perhaps I only broke an unassigned pin or ground pin? I've also heard that modern CPUs have lots of VCore pins and don't necessarily need them all, so it might have been one of those too.
By the way, this is now my rig. Athlon II x4, 8GB DDR3, same ol' GPU and drives. With this machine I now have a valid OEM license for Windows 7 Home Premium x64 again, so I'm getting that installed later today and then I'm getting the genuine Win10 update when it finally rolls out.
There are normally multiple power and ground pins on CPUs. Let's hope you broke one of the redundant pins.
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm with Lunar on this one, most likely a ground pin. Should be fine. Back in the day you'd just put a bit of paperclip in the socket and hope it conducts through, but I suspect tolerances are a bit higher now.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
I actually soldered the broken off pin back on the one or two times this happened to me. It worked fine afterwards.
sedrosken
Florida Man
I can't say I've really stress tested this yet, unless you can count leaving it on for hours at a time doing nothing (I unexpectedly had more than a few errands to run yesterday) as stress testing it. It still works fine, and right now I'm copying my personal files back to my freshly-NTFS formatted 1TB drive. After that finishes and I get rid of the empty ext4 partition and extend the NTFS partition to take up the space left by it I plan to let Memtest86+ run a few laps on it to make sure the RAM is good as I pulled it out of my spare parts bin, and leave folding running on it for a few hours to verify that the CPU doesn't croak under load.
Even though the DDR3 RAM is of a lower speed than most would consider useful, it actually feels a bit snappier than the Core 2 Quad. Take that for what you will -- this is still a mini-iTX motherboard and case, so my expansion options from here are somewhat hampered. I can still get the GTX750Ti if I were so inclined, as it comes in a slimline model that still has 2GB GDDR5 VRAM, and it's the same price so I don't see why I wouldn't when I finally come into some money. I'd be on something like micro-ATX or even full-blown ATX but I had to go with what I could get for free, and honestly I'm shocked I got this much for free.
I'm supposed to be coming into some money on my birthday, which is a few days from now, so if I get enough I'm investing in the GTX750Ti and perhaps a Steam gift card to add to my account. Might pick up Civ 5 with it, heard that's a good game and I liked the first one.
I still need to pick up a SATA power splitter if I'm going to use my SSD, HDD and DVD drive in tandem. Slightly off-topic -- this is the first time I've had a DVD writer with Lightscribe, and from what I've found out about it, it sounds... pretty cool, actually.
I might be better served by picking up a beefier PSU than the splitter, but the wattage on this PSU is actually rather impressive at 350, so I'll pay a visit to the wattage calculator before making a decision.
Edit: the calculator says I need something at 262 watts, so I should be perfectly fine with what I have even after my planned upgrade.
Even though the DDR3 RAM is of a lower speed than most would consider useful, it actually feels a bit snappier than the Core 2 Quad. Take that for what you will -- this is still a mini-iTX motherboard and case, so my expansion options from here are somewhat hampered. I can still get the GTX750Ti if I were so inclined, as it comes in a slimline model that still has 2GB GDDR5 VRAM, and it's the same price so I don't see why I wouldn't when I finally come into some money. I'd be on something like micro-ATX or even full-blown ATX but I had to go with what I could get for free, and honestly I'm shocked I got this much for free.
I'm supposed to be coming into some money on my birthday, which is a few days from now, so if I get enough I'm investing in the GTX750Ti and perhaps a Steam gift card to add to my account. Might pick up Civ 5 with it, heard that's a good game and I liked the first one.
I still need to pick up a SATA power splitter if I'm going to use my SSD, HDD and DVD drive in tandem. Slightly off-topic -- this is the first time I've had a DVD writer with Lightscribe, and from what I've found out about it, it sounds... pretty cool, actually.
I might be better served by picking up a beefier PSU than the splitter, but the wattage on this PSU is actually rather impressive at 350, so I'll pay a visit to the wattage calculator before making a decision.
Edit: the calculator says I need something at 262 watts, so I should be perfectly fine with what I have even after my planned upgrade.
Sedrosken, I have a Civ 5 gift on steam that's yours if you want it. Just PM me your email address and I'll send it. I don't remember how I got it, but I've had it forever and everyone I know already has Civ 5. Well, everyone except you apparently.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
I like Civ 5 and it played well on my GTX 560ti at 1600 x 1200.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Thanks a bunch Striker! I really appreciate it.
The money came in earlier than I thought it would by far -- but it's 150 dollars spread across two cards. So getting a new graphics card really isn't in the question unless I want something on the lower end like a GT730. That's still a significant upgrade but it's not quite what I was hoping for.
Of course, if I DO decide to do that, I can easily buy the Moto G that I was wanting as well. Dad's going to be using my old Droid RAZR Maxx HD with a prepaid SIM kit, so why shouldn't I get to use a phone that doesn't stuggle to do the most basic things?
Thoughts?
The money came in earlier than I thought it would by far -- but it's 150 dollars spread across two cards. So getting a new graphics card really isn't in the question unless I want something on the lower end like a GT730. That's still a significant upgrade but it's not quite what I was hoping for.
Of course, if I DO decide to do that, I can easily buy the Moto G that I was wanting as well. Dad's going to be using my old Droid RAZR Maxx HD with a prepaid SIM kit, so why shouldn't I get to use a phone that doesn't stuggle to do the most basic things?
Thoughts?
sedrosken
Florida Man
I decided to go for it. And thus all of my funds but twenty dollars I have in cash were exhausted. Could have done a lot worse by my estimate.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Considering the number of actual, legal adults I know who can't manage to keep $20 to their name, you're doing fine, sed.