The Techno-Bleg Thread

[D.A. Ridgely]

Thanks to all for the input. Yeah, maybe $3k is more than I need to spend, but my experience has been that if you don't buy just short of bleeding edge technology its inevitably obsolescence is more rapid and frustrating. Also, okay, I'll rethink Windows 10, but I really don't like it on my laptop, probably because it just doesn't have the same look and feel as earlier iterations and as a result I don't use the laptop that much. The desktop is in pretty much constant use whenever I'm in my study.

[dead_elvis]

So I'm taking a stab at running a pi-hole, and during installation I got stuck when it asked me for my "upstream DNS". The router seems to take care of this dynamically behind the scenes in the setup (my cable provider provides no info), and knowing that DNS redirecting to the wrong page is a common hacking thing, can I trust what I find on the internet? Is this sort of page trustworthy? https://www.whatsmydns.net/dns/usa/cox.html

[Highway]

If you don't mind using google, they run DNS servers for public use: https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns

[Warren]

So I just upgraded my iMac to OS 11.0 Big Sur. Seems like it's a significant change that's dropping a lot of legacy compatibility.
For instance. A year ago the WiFi shit the bed and I bought an external USB WiFi which worked great. The internal WiFi would sometimes work for a spell and then crap out. Well now my external USB WiFi doesn't work. The internal is working for now, but I'm worried it's going to crap out again. My googling hasn't come up with any drivers (or even new external WiFi) compatible with Big Sur. Big Sur has been out for a month now so I'm surprised I can't find new drivers or products.

Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Hugh Akston]

Downgrade to Mojave

[Warren]

Downgrade to Mojave

Nah. My life moves in one direction; forward.

[lunchstealer]

Downgrade to Mojave

Nah. My life moves in one direction; forward.

Buy all new hardware.

[Warren]

Downgrade to Mojave

Nah. My life moves in one direction; forward.

Buy all new hardware.

Can't find any that works with the OS. So far it's still working fine and I feel a little better having found out I can "tether" my Mac to my phone. So if it shits the bed I won't have to string ethernet across the back door.

[dhex]

This last osx update seems to still be bed shitting so I have avoided upgrading the work machine.

I may rebuild my desktop pc for Xmas but dear lord having to relearn what's hot and what's not these days is draining. Plus the vid card market is stupid af.

[D.A. Ridgely]

I may rebuild my desktop pc for Xmas but dear lord having to relearn what's hot and what's not these days is draining. Plus the vid card market is stupid af.

This.

[Highway]

The quick rundown is:

Ryzen 5000 is the current hotness in CPUs. They're pretty much unobtanium. Also a lot of the current motherboards would need a BIOS update for them, which you need an old Ryzen processor for.

Both AMD (RX6800 and 6900) and Nvidia (RTX 3000 series) have released new GPUs that are considerably faster than their old ones, at relative price drops in each segment. They would be what you want to put in a new computer. These are also unobtanium.

The bottom line is that everyone is limited by 7nm fabrication on those parts, plus there are a ton of scalpers who are buying up all the limited stock. If you can wait a couple months, then it's a lot more likely that you'll be able to get newer stuff, especially the newer GPUs as they work through their stock limitations. And your computer will be a lot better and probably cheaper than one you put together now.

Apart from those things, computers are actually easier than ever. You pretty much select your brands that you are comfortable with and then go with your price point from their range. I was surprised how easy it was to figure out back in February. I had a harder time picking out the CPU cooler than any other part of the computer.

[dhex]

Cpu cooler is easy bc it's noctua all day eery day

But fuck mang I'm looking at my first time off in months and I can't even get a dang vid card for less than like 30% of the cost of my build

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($358.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS ELITE AC ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.54 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB DUAL EVO OC Video Card ($382.94 @ Office Depot)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.89 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($108.78 @ Other World Computing)
Total: $1483.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-08 20:49 EST-0500

I probably don't even need to bother with a tuff vid card as I have an old 980 I could use and this is an ableton machine primarily but I kinda wanted to play cyberpunk over my break... Just not 380 worth of want.

[Ellie]

But dhex, I hear the character builder for Cyberpunk has six different penis options!

[Highway]

Now's just the worst time to buy a video card. Old gen ones aren't going to go down in price, next gen ones aren't even available. I mean, I paid 319 for a RTX 2060 back in February and you're seeing 380 for leftover stock at Office Depot. But there's also the fact that GPUs are now just about the most powerful thing in the computer, which is why they're the most money.

I personally would be AMD processors over Intel no matter what. I just don't trust AMD's graphics card vendors (Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX), but I like their motherboard vendors (like my MSI motherboard). But I dunno if there's some optimizations you need Intel for in what you're using.

[dhex]

Intel has a slight edge on amd for ableton as I use it and I've always built Intel for myself (amd for the wife).

But yeah I'll likely just use my old vid card for the time being.

[dhex]

But dhex, I hear the character builder for Cyberpunk has six different penis options!

That's all most of the reviews center on so far... But we'll see what day one brings for bug fixes

[dbcooper]

Cpu cooler is easy bc it's noctua all day eery day

But fuck mang I'm looking at my first time off in months and I can't even get a dang vid card for less than like 30% of the cost of my build

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($358.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS ELITE AC ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.54 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB DUAL EVO OC Video Card ($382.94 @ Office Depot)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.89 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($108.78 @ Other World Computing)
Total: $1483.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-08 20:49 EST-0500

I probably don't even need to bother with a tuff vid card as I have an old 980 I could use and this is an ableton machine primarily but I kinda wanted to play cyberpunk over my break... Just not 380 worth of want.

God damn those effing you prices.

[Warren]

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)

CPU Coolers are their own thing? huh. Wait 82.5 CFM??? You could vent a paint room with that.
*clicks link*
HOLY MF SHIT. You have THAT inside your PC? My zog, how much noise does that make?
So like I only have a Quad-Core i5 but there sure as hell isn't room for that Frankenstein beast in my iMac. I rarely even hear the fans run. If I do, it usually means I have to blow the dust out of the vent holes. Streaming 4k Video is the most heat I generate and there's no dissipation problem.

[dbcooper]

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)

CPU Coolers are their own thing? huh. Wait 82.5 CFM??? You could vent a paint room with that.
*clicks link*
HOLY MF SHIT. You have THAT inside your PC? My zog, how much noise does that make?
So like I only have a Quad-Core i5 but there sure as hell isn't room for that Frankenstein beast in my iMac. I rarely even hear the fans run. If I do, it usually means I have to blow the dust out of the vent holes. Streaming 4k Video is the most heat I generate and there's no dissipation problem.

I have an earlier version and it's near silent. Big fans at lower rpm have good acoustics.

[Warren]

I have an earlier version and it's near silent. Big fans at lower rpm have good acoustics.

Yeah but that brick is huge.

[Highway]

The point is that doesn't make any noise. I have used Scythe coolers in my last 2 PCs instead of Noctua, but the main point of big coolers is the same: have enough fin area that you don't need to ramp up the fan. And if you do have to ramp up the fan, have a big enough fan that it doesn't have to spin that fast to move the air. But honestly, for most people they're not going to do anything that taxes a modern CPU that much. And even if they did, the CPU will throttle down if it gets too hot, and you won't notice the difference. You have to run a modern CPU really really hard for something on the order of 15 minutes continuously to heat it up that much.

[dhex]

Yah my old build had two noctua fans in it and the loudest thing by a mile is the gpu. Without that powered up you get a pleasant whooshing sound of air exiting the case. Very efficient coolers though indeed huge as hell.

And yes to hell with these prices I'm thinking I'll try again in q2 21

[Kolohe]

Cpu cooler is easy bc it's noctua all day eery day

But fuck mang I'm looking at my first time off in months and I can't even get a dang vid card for less than like 30% of the cost of my build

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($358.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS ELITE AC ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($104.54 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB DUAL EVO OC Video Card ($382.94 @ Office Depot)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.89 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($108.78 @ Other World Computing)
Total: $1483.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-08 20:49 EST-0500

I probably don't even need to bother with a tuff vid card as I have an old 980 I could use and this is an ableton machine primarily but I kinda wanted to play cyberpunk over my break... Just not 380 worth of want.

God damn those effing you prices.

Is that good or bad? I honestly have no idea, my mental model for computer purchases is still stuck in the 1995-2005 timeframe (and evolution within that time)

[Kolohe]

E.g. wholesale price on 75 Megahertz clock speed chips, 500 bucks

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/03/busi ... chips.html

[dead_elvis]

my mental model for computer purchases is still stuck in the 1995-2005 timeframe (and evolution within that time)

Last I had paid attention CPU fabrication was in the 35-45nm range and people were questioning if it would be possible to get any smaller. Apple's new M1 is at 5nm! I feel like Rip Van Winkle.