Computer General Discussion Thread

[Crysuko]

I do aspire to be a pentester one day, cybersecurity is a fascination of mine and the money's good as well

Okay, cool. I just ask because occasionally Linux noobs who just think it sounds cool want to use it.

Where can I find them so I can point and laugh.

[Immoren]

Apparently increasing resolution that goes from graphics card to your "TV-As-Second-Monitor" above what windows recommends can sent TV into such knot that I had to factory reset the TV. lol

[Cisairse]

Apparently increasing resolution that goes from graphics card to your "TV-As-Second-Monitor" above what windows recommends can sent TV into such knot that I had to factory reset the TV. lol

Must be a poorly made TV then.

[Crysuko]

Is PC world a good place for parts? Kinda apprehensive about ordering off the Internet. I've been burned before.

[Immoren]

Apparently increasing resolution that goes from graphics card to your "TV-As-Second-Monitor" above what windows recommends can sent TV into such knot that I had to factory reset the TV. lol

Must be a poorly made TV then.

Yeah. I tried to recreate thing that graphics processor gives option to feed that 8k, but either there was something I missed or it is due to other reasons, but it again went to state where I had to reset. lol

[Cisairse]

Is PC world a good place for parts? Kinda apprehensive about ordering off the Internet. I've been burned before.

Order off of Amazon and only buy stuff fulfilled by Amazon and you'll be fine.

[Minoa]

I do aspire to be a pentester one day, cybersecurity is a fascination of mine and the money's good as well

Okay, cool. I just ask because occasionally Linux noobs who just think it sounds cool want to use it.

It’s worse with some people who push Blender just because it’s free, without considering the extremely steep learning curve.

As for Windows 7, my best memory of the OS was getting it a day early due to the threat of a postal strike.

[Cekoviu]

Okay, cool. I just ask because occasionally Linux noobs who just think it sounds cool want to use it.

Where can I find them so I can point and laugh.

I don't have, like, a file with examples, but here's a fun one I just found.

[Crookfur]

Is PC world a good place for parts? Kinda apprehensive about ordering off the Internet. I've been burned before.

They can be if you search around for prices and find a good deal. Generally in store they tend to have a fairly limited range and can be expensive. No idea how good the staff are these days but I wouldn't be surprised if they are still pretty terrible.

If you are looking to try out peripherals the bigger stores tend to have a nice range of gaming stuff setup for you to try.

Sticking to known brands off amazon or one of the more reputable/big name sites (bt shop, overclockers etc) should avoid most of the issues.

Really you kind of have to have a rough idea of what you are looking for. If you are completely stuck I would suggest asking around locally for any local shops that have a good reputation.

[Cekoviu]

Is PC world a good place for parts? Kinda apprehensive about ordering off the Internet. I've been burned before.

They can be if you search around for prices and find a good deal. Generally in store they tend to have a fairly limited range and can be expensive. No idea how good the staff are these days but I wouldn't be surprised if they are still pretty terrible.

If you are looking to try out peripherals the bigger stores tend to have a nice range of gaming stuff setup for you to try.

Sticking to known brands off amazon or one of the more reputable/big name sites (bt shop, overclockers etc) should avoid most of the issues.

Really you kind of have to have a rough idea of what you are looking for. If you are completely stuck I would suggest asking around locally for any local shops that have a good reputation.

If you happen to live near a Micro Center, I recommend them as a first stop for parts. I got amazing customer service at the Denver branch when I had an issue with one of the motherboards, and they sometimes have the best price.

[Asle Leopolka]

Is PC world a good place for parts? Kinda apprehensive about ordering off the Internet. I've been burned before.

Those are still around?

Honestly I've had zero problems with Newegg. I've bought from local parts stores and had also been burned, but with Newegg their customer service is known to be stellar and the gold standard when it comes to dealing with issues.

[Minoa]

Examples of brands (not 100% complete) that I have used:

Cases: Corsair, Fractal Design
Disk Drives: HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital (a respectable brand does not override the importance of regular backups)
Graphics Cards: ASUS, Gigabyte, NVIDIA
Headphones: JVC, Panasonic, Sennheiser
Keyboards: Logitech (preferably wired)
Monitors: ASUS, LG, Samsung
Motherboards: ASUS, Gigabyte
Mouse: Logitech (preferably wired)
Optical drives: LG, Samsung
Power Supplies: Corsair
Processors: AMD, Intel
RAM: Crucial, Kingston
SATA cables: ASUS (I can easily shape them for internal cable management)
Solid State Drives: Kingston, Samsung

Amazon does have a lot of obscure brands from China.

[Crookfur]

They can be if you search around for prices and find a good deal. Generally in store they tend to have a fairly limited range and can be expensive. No idea how good the staff are these days but I wouldn't be surprised if they are still pretty terrible.

If you are looking to try out peripherals the bigger stores tend to have a nice range of gaming stuff setup for you to try.

Sticking to known brands off amazon or one of the more reputable/big name sites (bt shop, overclockers etc) should avoid most of the issues.

Really you kind of have to have a rough idea of what you are looking for. If you are completely stuck I would suggest asking around locally for any local shops that have a good reputation.

If you happen to live near a Micro Center, I recommend them as a first stop for parts. I got amazing customer service at the Denver branch when I had an issue with one of the motherboards, and they sometimes have the best price.

Saddly I suspect he's in the UK so no micro center goodness as an option. Saddly for high Street/retail Park components shopping pc world is about the only option in the UK.

[Crysuko]

Examples of brands (not 100% complete) that I have used:

Cases: Corsair, Fractal Design
Disk Drives: HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital (a respectable brand does not override the importance of regular backups)
Graphics Cards: ASUS, Gigabyte, NVIDIA
Headphones: JVC, Panasonic, Sennheiser
Keyboards: Logitech (preferably wired)
Monitors: ASUS, LG, Samsung
Motherboards: ASUS, Gigabyte
Mouse: Logitech (preferably wired)
Optical drives: LG, Samsung
Power Supplies: Corsair
Processors: AMD, Intel
RAM: Crucial, Kingston
SATA cables: ASUS (I can easily shape them for internal cable management)
Solid State Drives: Kingston, Samsung

Amazon does have a lot of obscure brands from China.

I got my case from cooler master, with monthly maintainence, it's served me well for 3 years now. Unrelated, but the 750 TI is still a good card.

[Saiwania]

Well, Windows 7 is not supported anymore- what do people plan to do?

Sometime early last year, I went to Windows 10 and the Windows 7 machine I do have; I'm going to play old games on until I'm done with it. I had my Windows 7 fully updated and configured for the last time before permanently disabling its network capabilities. It's going to be a local only machine until the day comes when I can take the hard drive out and throw the rest of it away. It served me for 8+ years.

[Cisairse]

Well, Windows 7 is not supported anymore- what do people plan to do?

Sometime early last year, I went to Windows 10 and the Windows 7 machine I do have; I'm going to play old games on until I'm done with it. I had my Windows 7 fully updated and configured for the last time before permanently disabling its network capabilities. It's going to be a local only machine until the day comes when I can take the hard drive out and throw the rest of it away. It served me for 8+ years.

I don't plan on replacing Windows 7 on the computer I use it on. I have had Windows Update disabled for some years anyway, so I won't even notice a change.

[Crysuko]

Replacing the PSU has been such a pain. The power cables run through their own channels, so I'm tempted to cut the knot. By this I mean simply take a knife to the original one and cut the wire bundle, and tuck it and the old plugs into the back plate, then install the new unit and do my own cable management. It'd be redneck as hell but a similar thing is done with a kidney transplant...

[Cekoviu]

Well, Windows 7 is not supported anymore- what do people plan to do?

Sometime early last year, I went to Windows 10 and the Windows 7 machine I do have; I'm going to play old games on until I'm done with it. I had my Windows 7 fully updated and configured for the last time before permanently disabling its network capabilities. It's going to be a local only machine until the day comes when I can take the hard drive out and throw the rest of it away. It served me for 8+ years.

Hoping people replace it with Linux Mint or something (any free Linux distro is fine tbh), but they're most likely going to keep using it as it goes down the path of XP and becomes increasingly insecure and unsupported.

[Minoa]

All the noise about the privacy and functionality issues of Windows 10 keeps getting in the way of my efforts to use NTlite (edit: and Winaero too) to remove unwanted components, along with configuring the firewall to block all outgoing connections by default. It is really demoralising and gets in the way of trying to find solutions to control Windows 10.

In fact, I sometimes feel that I should just stop using computers entirely and return to traditional arts, but giving up on computers would hinder opportunity in a connected society and exacerbate social isolation.

[Cekoviu]

All the noise about the privacy and functionality issues of Windows 10 keeps getting in the way of my efforts to use NTlite (edit: and Winaero too) to remove unwanted components, along with configuring the firewall to block all outgoing connections by default. It is really demoralising and gets in the way of trying to find solutions to control Windows 10.

In fact, I sometimes feel that I should just stop using computers entirely and return to traditional arts, but giving up on computers would hinder opportunity in a connected society and exacerbate social isolation.

Your problem is trying to find solutions for controlling something that is actively fighting against you being able to control it. Sisyphus's reasoning for doing that is that he's forced to; what's yours?

[Minoa]

Your problem is trying to find solutions for controlling something that is actively fighting against you being able to control it. Sisyphus's reasoning for doing that is that he's forced to; what's yours?

3d Studio Max. I do not want to use Blender because it is too difficult.

[Cekoviu]

Your problem is trying to find solutions for controlling something that is actively fighting against you being able to control it. Sisyphus's reasoning for doing that is that he's forced to; what's yours?

3d Studio Max. I do not want to use Blender because it is too difficult.

Ah. Maya supports Linux; isn't it similar to 3DS Max?

[Minoa]

3d Studio Max. I do not want to use Blender because it is too difficult.

Ah. Maya supports Linux; isn't it similar to 3DS Max?

Actually, when my mental health is really bad, thinking about the future of how I use computers is not really urgent. Air-gapping is probably an idea worth looking into as an interim measure.

[Valentine Z]

A few days back, for a personal project on NS' Got Issues?, I have transitioned from using Excel, to Python. The... the amount of freedom I got is staggering, and it's also blazing fast!

So err... what am I saying here? Excel is okay on its own, but for data analysis and deeper stuff... Coding your own stuff works much better while Excel struggles with 15,000+ of data points.

[Cekoviu]

A few days back, for a personal project on NS' Got Issues?, I have transitioned from using Excel, to Python. The... the amount of freedom I got is staggering, and it's also blazing fast!

What project would be doable in both Excel in Python that wouldn't be better served by R?