The computer and electronics super geek thread

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

just take a look at the thread to get an idea for what you can really get for under 1500.

i don't think a gtx765m is worth 1300 imo, i think you can do better... though that deal i posted was last april, dell has deals like that all the time... unless you are absolutely in a hurry, i would wait for a deal on a gaming lappy...

you can do much better for 1500 than the g75 w/ the 765m

Yep, I'm seeing that now. Unfortunately, I can't take a risk by waiting for a killer deal like what you got, but with my budget, I'm liking my choices. A couple of colleagues have shared their horror stories with Dell so I'm kinda dubious about dealing with Dell. So far I've narrowed down some choices with MSI and Sager.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Yep, I'm seeing that now. Unfortunately, I can't take a risk by waiting for a killer deal like what you got, but with my budget, I'm liking my choices. A couple of colleagues have shared their horror stories with Dell so I'm kinda dubious about dealing with Dell. So far I've narrowed down some choices with MSI and Sager.

alienware (though owned by dell,) has a separate division of customer care/support. alienware support is unmatched by any company i know. year after year they offer the best support. msi and sager have some good stuff as well. Dell phone c.s. on the other hand... meh...

let us know what you end up buying.

Edited January 20, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[myk]

Yep, I'm seeing that now. Unfortunately, I can't take a risk by waiting for a killer deal like what you got, but with my budget, I'm liking my choices. A couple of colleagues have shared their horror stories with Dell so I'm kinda dubious about dealing with Dell. So far I've narrowed down some choices with MSI and Sager.

I like Dell machines once you've cleared all of the bloat-ware off of it...

[azrael]

I like Dell machines once you've cleared all of the bloat-ware off of it...

As someone who's worked with lots of Dells through the years, Dell makes perfectly usable machines. Then again, I usually lean toward the units in the Business/Work section and stay away from the regular consumer/Home machines.

[mikeszekely]

I'm not sure how Alienware PCs are, but Dell's recent trend has been to put cheap hard drives into laptops without panels to access said drives. So when (not if) the drive needs to be replaced, the entire computer has to be disassembled and the motherboard removed so that the drive can be disconnected from the bottom of the board.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

I noticed that with dells, trying to upgrade ram for my inspiron.

with alienware for the m18x it was built for upgradable parts. especially easy to swap out hdd drives and ram, it's still easy but it takes a bit to swap out the gpu cards (i already did this myself) and cpu.

just for fun, this is a teardown vid from Mr. Fox, one of alienware guru's on notebookreview.com very friendly guy, he's like EXO from MW.

i used this vid cause i ordered a triple pipe heat sink upgrade for my cpu and needed to swap it with the factory heat sink so i used this video as a guide. it came with thermal pads so i didn't even need to re-paste my cpu.

Edited January 21, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[myk]

Yikes; I spec'd out a new Toshiba Qosmio since I'm now their fanboi, more or less, and it came out to about $1700...

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

you can find some killer deals on the dell/alienware outlet site. The inventory is always turning over so sometimes is takes some luck and patience. Notebookreview.com has different forum sections for different brands and they have sales reps from alienware and other companies you can contact directly and work out some deals too.

Yep, I'm seeing that now. Unfortunately, I can't take a risk by waiting for a killer deal like what you got, but with my budget, I'm liking my choices. A couple of colleagues have shared their horror stories with Dell so I'm kinda dubious about dealing with Dell. So far I've narrowed down some choices with MSI and Sager.

valk hunter if you haven't brought a laptop already, dell outlet is have 25% off on m18x r2 and select alienware laptops. + you can get an additional 10% by signing up for their newsletter. (you must call in or chat for 10% off after signing up for the newsletter) that's 35% off. check their inventory with a page monitor app and you can score big.

if you do end up looking try to find a 680gtx sli or 7970 crossfire config. (they go extremely fast, within 10-20 seconds) you may be able to get a config that's nice for about 1500.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

valk hunter if you haven't brought a laptop already, dell outlet is have 25% off on m18x r2 and select alienware laptops. + you can get an additional 10% by signing up for their newsletter. (you must call in or chat for 10% off after signing up for the newsletter) that's 35% off. check their inventory with a page monitor app and you can score big.

Thanks for the tip. I did some quick number crunching, but even with the full 35% discount, a Sager or a MSI laptop still came out ahead in terms of price and in some cases, performance.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

the current configs on the site are definitely not worth it. (no one is going pick up a 660m for 1500...) Dell refreshes and puts out systems several times during the day and they put up some insane configs at the same prices or less as those bad configurations. i looked last night and they had a 680m sli set up for about (edite sorry was tired) 2000 prior to discount. 35% off makes it 1,300.00 before taxes. some 7970m, crossfires were going for about 2100 making it 1365 before taxes. (nothing can touch these cards unless you plan to spend 2-3k)

those cards alone are worth 900-1000 on ebay...

anyways, i don't work for alienware. lol so i'll stop here

tell you the truth a lot of people are poaching so it'll be hard to grab them when they show up and sager, msi definitely has good stuff without the stress.

Edited January 22, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Thanks for the links If I could find deals like you I'd have twice the amount of money in my bank accounts. I was figuring on spending about $400-500 so I was actually looking at this Pioneer:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/1155w-7-2-ch-network-ready-4k-ultra-hd-and-3d-pass-through-a-v-home-theater-receiver/7608043.p?id=1218854266269&skuId=7608043&st=pioneer%201155&cp=1&lp=1

or this Sony:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/1050w-7-2-ch-a-v-home-theater-receiver/8027044.p?id=1218863566900&skuId=8027044&st=sony%20dn840&cp=1&lp=1

Hey myk, there's a decent deal on a onkyo that you may want to at least browse over:

http://slickdeals.net/f/6647140-onkyo-tx-nr626-7-2-channel-network-audio-video-receiver-refurbished-300-free-shipping

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Thanks for the tip. I did some quick number crunching, but even with the full 35% discount, a Sager or a MSI laptop still came out ahead in terms of price and in some cases, performance.

eh, this'll prob not last but just in case you want to browse and still looking they have several confiqs out. a 7970m crossfire for 1959 with the 35% off you're looking at 1300 plus taxes free shipping.

and some 680 sli's (these are insane deals on the 680m's which can overclock real high) in the 2300 range making it about 1500 plus tax.

Edited January 24, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Many thanks for the heads up, dwc, but I ended up ordering a Sager NP8275 last night. I'm happy with the specs, and I'm pretty sure it'll handle anything I throw at it. Can't wait to mess with it!

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

awesome! show us some pictures when it arrives:) the 770m (780) is good.

Edited January 25, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[Knight26]

So my wireless router is getting ready to die, not bad for a ten year linksys, anyone have any suggestions for a good replacement, that can handle up to 10 devices online at once?

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

i haven't used it yet but this is the one that a lot of people seem to think is good. sometimes you can get it for 120..

http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC1750-Gigabit-Router/dp/B008ABOJKS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390772631&sr=8-2&keywords=asus+66u

[Ghost Train]

... the end of an era?

Sony's Bond Rating is now junk according to Moody's:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2014/01/27/sony-credit-cut-to-junk-status-as-smartphones-cannibalize-its-tv-and-pc-businesses/

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

My Sager arrived last night. Imagine my disappointment when I saw a blue screen of death greeting me as my brand new computer's first output message. Further horror ensued as it kept restarting itself with every attempt to at least make it to the desktop. Before calling the company and berating the first QA rep that I made contact with, and after an hour of deciding whether I should just toss the sucker off my balcony, I took it apart to see if anything was amiss. Lo and behold, a memory module has been dislodged during shipping. Once the module was properly seated, the laptop worked as it should and everything was right with the world. Now the wait begins for Titanfall...

[myk]

Phew! What a relief. Does this mean your warranty is now void?

[mikeszekely]

My Sager arrived last night. Imagine my disappointment when I saw a blue screen of death greeting me as my brand new computer's first output message. Further horror ensued as it kept restarting itself with every attempt to at least make it to the desktop. Before calling the company and berating the first QA rep that I made contact with, and after an hour of deciding whether I should just toss the sucker off my balcony, I took it apart to see if anything was amiss. Lo and behold, a memory module has been dislodged during shipping. Once the module was properly seated, the laptop worked as it should and everything was right with the world. Now the wait begins for Titanfall...

Glad to hear it was an easy fix!

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Phew! What a relief. Does this mean your warranty is now void?

I reckon the warranty is still good, I haven't altered anything, I just opened up some covers and re-seated a memory module. I'll have to read the fine print to make sure.

[technoblue]

So my wireless router is getting ready to die, not bad for a ten year linksys, anyone have any suggestions for a good replacement, that can handle up to 10 devices online at once?

I have an older version of that Asus router dwc mentioned, the RT-N66U, and can confirm that it is rock solid. I use the custom asuswrt-merlin firmware which adds extra options over the stock firmware. I find it useful since I'm into tweaking things. The wired ports are gigabit ports. For wireless, coverage is excellent throughout my house. It is an older structure with plaster walls and lathe, which I thought would be problematic but it turned out to be a non issue in my situation. Wireless N performance is better than Wireless G performance, which is average. That may be something you want to plan around if you have a bunch of legacy wireless devices using the 2.4GHz band. I cannot speak to the wireless AC performance on the newer models, but I have read good things.

The GUI is user-friendly and quite visual. You can choose to drill down into the advanced features or not. Smallnetbuilder has a forum with a nice community in case you need any help.

As for what I run on the router, I have the following wired devices: one desktop, one htpc, one voip box, one cable modem, one whole-house gigabit network switch.My wireless devices include an eReader, an iPhone, my writing laptop, one wireless console, and room for guests to use the network when they visit. This means I can have well over 10 devices connected at any one time.

Edited February 3, 2014 by technoblue

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

awesome! show us some pictures when it arrives:) the 770m (780) is good.

Apparently, Sager is just a subsidiary company:

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

Apparently, Sager is just a subsidiary company:

you're going to bring about judgement day. if you know any Sarah O Conner's keep her away from your new lappy.

what card did you get? 770?

Edited February 6, 2014 by davidwhangchoi

[myk]

So 'Hunter quit teasing us man, what games are you running? How does it measure up?

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

you're going to bring about judgement day. if you know any Sarah O Conner's keep her away from your new lappy.

what card did you get? 770?

Yup, the 770.

So 'Hunter quit teasing us man, what games are you running? How does it measure up?

I haven't run any games on it yet, but I am setting my sights on Titanfall to be the first one. And it was reassuring to find out that demos for Titanfall were using the 770 card. I'm also waiting for GTA V (It'll happen!). For now I'm just getting all my emulators up and running from my old computer. How does it measure up? I really don't know, I mean I haven't really ran anything that can showcase its specs. Numbers-wise, it's got a i7-4800MQ @ 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, and the GTX 770M card. So yeah, I haven't really seen anything from this thing that blows me away, however, it is SOOO good to finally play Asura Blade in such a smooth and silky fashion on MAME.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

So my wireless router is getting ready to die, not bad for a ten year linksys, anyone have any suggestions for a good replacement, that can handle up to 10 devices online at once?

don't know if you found one, but the router i linked above refurb i going for 110. if you want to browse and check it out.

ASUS RT-AC66R Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router *Refurbished:* $110@Newegg

http://slickdeals.net/f/6711556-asus-rt-ac66r-dual-band-wireless-ac1750-gigabit-router-refurbished-110-newegg?src=pdw

[CrusherJ]

Hey guys, I plan on doing my first build in a few months and wanted to get your opinion on the components I've selected. I want to use the computer to play some games (like TitanFall) at 40-60 fps, watching 1080p to 4k (when it becomes widely available) content, and storing my blu-ray/DVD collection (400+ mainly DVD). Aside from that, will just use it for web browsing and office work. Don't plan to OC or do any kind of video or photo editing. Any input will be greatly appreciated! I have more than one option by some components cause I haven't narrowed down which one would be best yet, thanks again!

CPU

Intel Core i5 4670

Intel Core i7 4770

Motherboard

Gigabyte Z87x-UD5H

Asus Z87 Sabertooth

Ram

Corsair Vengeance 16gb

Storage

Samsung 840 evo 250gb (for OS, games, and other frequently accessed programs)

WD Black 4tb (for storing media)

GPU

Gigabyte GeForce 770

PSU

Corsair GS700

Case

Phanteks Enthoo Luxe (should be out by the time I plan to get everything)

NZXT Phantom 530

Monitor

Asus pb278q

Optical Drive

Pioneer Black BDR-2209 internal SATA Blu-Ray burner

Cooler

Corsair H100i (not sure if I'll need this since I don't plan to OC)

[azrael]

Hey guys, I plan on doing my first build in a few months and wanted to get your opinion on the components I've selected. I want to use the computer to play some games (like TitanFall) at 40-60 fps, watching 1080p to 4k (when it becomes widely available) content, and storing my blu-ray/DVD collection (400+ mainly DVD). Aside from that, will just use it for web browsing and office work. Don't plan to OC or do any kind of video or photo editing. Any input will be greatly appreciated! I have more than one option by some components cause I haven't narrowed down which one would be best yet, thanks again!

Do you have a budget?

CPU

Intel Core i5 4670

No OC? No video processing? No photo editing? Then the i5 will be more than enough.

Motherboard

Gigabyte Z87x-UD5H

Asus Z87 Sabertooth

I'd stay away from the Z87 chipset if you are not planning on OCing or getting a non-K CPU, if you can help it (which will probably be no since many manufacturers are pushing the Z87 chipset). The non-K CPUs have Intel Virtualization Tech for Directed I/O, vPro which the Z87 doesn't support. The K-versions strip out those features but allows you to OC. The non-K versions have all those features, but locks down the CPU so you can't OC (you can OC, but it's a real PITA). You'll pay a premium for the Z87 but end up not being able to take advantage of it. A Q87 or H87 motherboard would be a better choice. If you want a Z87, I'd get a cheaper one than those, like the ASUS Z87-A or GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H.

Cooler

Corsair H100i (not sure if I'll need this since I don't plan to OC)

Any after-market cooler will probably be better than the stock cooler.

[CrusherJ]

Do you have a budget?

No OC? No video processing? No photo editing? Then the i5 will be more than enough.

I'd stay away from the Z87 chipset if you are not planning on OCing or getting a non-K CPU, if you can help it (which will probably be no since many manufacturers are pushing the Z87 chipset). The non-K CPUs have Intel Virtualization Tech for Directed I/O, vPro which the Z87 doesn't support. The K-versions strip out those features but allows you to OC. The non-K versions have all those features, but locks down the CPU so you can't OC (you can OC, but it's a real PITA). You'll pay a premium for the Z87 but end up not being able to take advantage of it. A Q87 or H87 motherboard would be a better choice. If you want a Z87, I'd get a cheaper one than those, like the ASUS Z87-A or GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H.

Any after-market cooler will probably be better than the stock cooler.

Budget is $2300.

i5 it is then! I was thinking the i7 would be overkill for my needs, but wanted to be sure.

I'll look for a Q or H87 board. If I can't find one I'll go with one of the boards you suggested.

I'll stick with the Corsair cooler then. Thanks!

[mikeszekely]

Any after-market cooler will probably be better than the stock cooler.

If you're not planning on overclocking, the stock Intel coolers are perfectly adequate. After-market may be better, but for stock performance still an unecessary expense. I've never used anything but the stock coolers, and every PC I've built (most of them for gaming) is still around and kicking.

[anime52k8]

So I've got a computer problem and I have no idea how I'm going to fix it. The hard drive on my laptop just started to die a few days ago. I called customer service and they told me that my computer is out of warenty so I either have to pay them 200-something-rediculous dollars to extend my warranty 3 years and send them my dud hard drive so they can attempt to fix it, or I can do it myself. I decided that's bullshit and I wanted to upgrade my HD space anyways, so I picked up a new SSD and ordered system restore kit from HP.

Well, I tried running the system restore 3 times now and every time it's given me a "system restore failed" message because it couldn't copy over a certain file or something. I have no idea why this wouldn't work but it just wont. I was able to install windows from an install disc I had lying around but now there are no drivers on the laptop, including network drivers so I can't get online even through a hard line. I've honestly got no idea what I'm going to do with this stupid thing.

[anime52k8]

As a corollary to all that, can I get some recomendations on what to buy to replace the POS I've got right now? I think there's been some relevent discussion going on in this thread lately but I haven't been paying attention. I'm looking for 17 inch, best performance and lightest weight possible and a company that doesn't suck/make a crap product.

[Smiley424]

@ anime52k8, check out notebookreview.com for all things laptop. In the forum there is section where you can put your budget and what you want out of the laptop and members will link you suggested builds and such.

@ CrusherJ, Tomshardware.com forum has a similar section for desktop builds and lots of info/review on components, but everyone here has a lot of knowledge/information as well.

On to my question, can anyone suggest a good hard drive cloning software. I just picked up a 500gb ssd for my laptop.

[mikeszekely]

On to my question, can anyone suggest a good hard drive cloning software. I just picked up a 500gb ssd for my laptop.

Clonezilla. It's not the prettiest software, but it's free, and pretty simple to use. Download the software, burn it onto a CD, then set your computer to boot from the the CD with both hard drives connected. Then simply direct the software to clone the old drive onto the new one, and it'll do a bit-for-bit copy.

I'm looking for 17 inch, best performance and lightest weight possible and a company that doesn't suck/make a crap product.

Budget? Best performance for what? How light? I mean, gaming performance usually means sacrificing on weight, as many "lightweight" gaming laptops are heavier than some of the generic cheapies.

So I've got a computer problem and I have no idea how I'm going to fix it. The hard drive on my laptop just started to die a few days ago. I called customer service and they told me that my computer is out of warenty so I either have to pay them 200-something-rediculous dollars to extend my warranty 3 years and send them my dud hard drive so they can attempt to fix it, or I can do it myself. I decided that's bullshit and I wanted to upgrade my HD space anyways, so I picked up a new SSD and ordered system restore kit from HP.

Well, I tried running the system restore 3 times now and every time it's given me a "system restore failed" message because it couldn't copy over a certain file or something. I have no idea why this wouldn't work but it just wont. I was able to install windows from an install disc I had lying around but now there are no drivers on the laptop, including network drivers so I can't get online even through a hard line. I've honestly got no idea what I'm going to do with this stupid thing.

You have a couple of options, although they mostly require the use of temporary use of another computer.

OK, the obvious solution would be to use another computer to download the drivers. For all their faults, HP actually makes finding drivers pretty easy from their support site. Once you've got the drivers (or at least the network driver), you can copy it to a USB stick, then load it on the laptop.

Similarly, you didn't say how dead the laptop's old hard drive is. Can you still boot with it at all? A lot of the HPs I repaired with faulty hard drives would still boot, but they'd suffer from freezes, crashes, and bluescreens. If you're in that camp, it might be possible to run the old drive just long enough to get the drivers to install on the new drive.

Thirdly, you can boot the computer from a Linux CD. This might be an option if you don't have access to another computer, but have internet access through a smartphone or tablet, because some of the bigger Linux distros will mail you a disc. Alternatively, if you've got a Barnes & Noble in your area, you can look in the computer magazine section for a Linux magazine, since a lot of them (at least used to) come with a Linux distro on CD. Many Linux distros can be run directly from the CD, and most have working drivers cooked right in. It'd be enough to get you up and running on the internet so that you could download the missing Windows drivers.