PC Master Race

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A community for PC Master Race.

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  1. No bigotry: Including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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  5. Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘stupid’ questions. The world won’t be made better or worse by snarky comments schooling naive newcomers on Lemmy.

Notes:

founded 2 years ago
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Sorry to have to make a post about this but it’s one of those things you need to be familiar with and I’m not.

I’m looking to upgrade from a 2060 Super to a Radeon as I’m mostly using Linux now. I’m not too fussed about buying new and I’d like to keep the cost down but if I’m changing I’d like to by something noticeably better than what I have. Any idea what’s a good buy in the market right now? I don’t care about ray-tracing.

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Hi all. I know this isn't a support community, but Lemmy is only so big so I hope it's ok if I post about this here.

I have a a Dell Inspiron 7375 laptop. The processor is a Ryzen 7 2300U. It only has integrated graphics. It was purchased new in 2018. Right out of the gate brand spanking new, it would frequently BSOD at seemingly random times, even when the laptop was not under any noticeable stress...just browsing the web watching YouTube videos or even editing Google Docs.

Most of the BSODs would state "video TDR failure", but others happened as well (don't remember them all, sorry. Dell Support was never able to figure solve my problem...especially difficult to the intermittent nature

However, I found that I could help alleviate 90% of the issue by limiting the maximum processor state in control panel to 80%".

Fast forward to today and I upgraded my setup and no longer need this laptop. I installed Linux Mint on it and find that the system will randomly freeze up until I power cycle it just like when I first got it for Windows. Ubuntu yields the same issue. I have not tried many other distros.

Again, I found out that the problem was resolved by downloading a software tool to manually limit the clock speed of the processor. However, I do NOT like the idea of relying on a random third party software tool that may eventually break.

There is no way for me to underclock the CPU in the BIOS.

The internals are not dusty and have been cleaned with compressed air.

I would like to give my laptop away to a relative and would like to keep Linux Mint on it for them.

Is there a better solution to my issue without relying on software that may stop working in the future? What would be the cause of the laptop freezing unless the CPU is limited, even as a brand new system?

Thanks all.

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I needed a PSU that was efficient at 20W and so I consulted Wolfgang's PSU Low Idle Efficiency List, because it was one of the first results on YouTube. However, the first thing you may notice is that the reports it links to are no longer in the same place on Cybenetics' website. If you manually check the PSU model on their website, you actually get different numbers for 20W. After having this revelation, I scraped the entire website and found that Wolfgang's data is no longer current. I don't know why after a second evaluation Cybenetics had different results, but am inviting you to ask with me.

Here are the top 150:

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European here. I'm pretty content with my setup (Ryzen5 3600XT, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060... I play in 1080p) for the games I'm playing at the moment, and I don't plan on playing many AAAA games in the future. BUT. With the recent tariffs flying around, China denying rare earths, etc etc I fear we might see an increase in hardware prices like we had with covid, so I was thinking on upgrading at least CPU+VGA; more than FOMO let's say is Fear Of Being Overpriced. What do you think, should I upgrade now that things looks a little more relaxed? Will the whole mess involve only the USA or everyone cause globalization?

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Found in small ads. Dude has options.

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I haven't gotten the habit of doing it and it never got bad but I'm starting to notice some subtle spots in it if I shed light into the monitor. I remember a while ago (not on Lemmy) seeing people joking their monitor messed up after trying to clean it up and it just stayed black on some parts and some people were pointing out it's the way they probably cleaned their monitor so ever since this honestly put the fear in me of not worrying about cleaning it but now I guess I have to. What is the proper way to clean the monitor? Should I avoid what chemicals or chemicals altogether and only water and with/on what?

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34" UW with a portrait 27" on the left, PC on the right.

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gamers nexus just dropped a 3 hour video where they talk to various companies involved in the consumer PC space, some of whom really open up about their costs and economics and how operating in america just isnt feasible under the current tariffs

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So I've been planning this upgrade for a while but wanted to wait for the right price.

Before my upgrade I had a i3 12100F and a RTX 3050 8GB. It was a decent rig, and good enough all but the latest games at 1080p. However I do video editing and wanted to get more RAM on my GPU and more core would help with some games and workloads.

So I waited for the right parts at the right price. My first good luck came in the form of a $170 discount on a i7 12700KF. I paid $270.08 CAD with tax and shipping. For single threaded workload (read FreeCAD) it didn't do much but for games it was a smoother experience and so far nothing has ever maxed out the CPU outside of Shader Caching.

But the upgrade I was keeping an eye out for was the GPU. 8GB of VRAM is just enough for what am doing. However I really wanted 16GB. I was aiming for the RX7600 XT, however $450-$500CAD for it was too much for me to stomach. With no real used options I tried looking for a RTX 3060 12GB. For the same price and no performance difference it's not a good choice new... but used it's frequently $350CAD. However I got it in my head I wanted it for $300CAD. I kept seeing it creep down to $330-$320CAD, and was tempted. But I held since it wasn't an urgent upgrade. Then I found it, a Zotac 3060 12GB for $288.27CAD with tax and shipping. Scooped it up immediately and it finally arrived today.

My upgrade total was $558.35, and the result was actually pretty nice. From a quick comparison from running some games and video renders before and after the upgrade. For games I saw +20FPS improvements in modern games and for games getting 200FPS I saw my GPU utilization drop from 100% to 70%.

For video editing it's very interesting. My render times dropped by 20-30 seconds depending on the video and number of effects. However after reviewing my hardware utilization, it seems like the software may be bottle necking me more than the GPU. Or maybe it's a RAM issue.

Regardless I am very please with this upgrade, epically the price for this upgrade. Outside of more RAM, I don't think I'll be doing anything else with it for a long while now.

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by UnH1ng3d@lemmy.world to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
 
 

I just saw this and felt I should share it. I'm sure most people here wouldn't fall for it but it can't hurt to make sure 👍

Edit: I just wanted to add, I have no idea what this tried to copy. I'm using Firefox on Linux which is perhaps why it didn't make it to my clipboard 🤷

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up to 80€ for Digital Games up to 90€ for Physical Games Meanwhile Nintendo is richer than ever...

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TL;DR - reflashing the BIOS saved my old Desktop

This is a short tale from a corrupted BIOS in a MSI Tomahawk B350 Motherboard from 2017

On March 24th I used the computer to play some games and browse the internet as usual then gracefully shut it down. On the next day I tried to turn it on again, but the computer did not make it to POST verifications. No chance to get in the BIOS, no beeps or display at all. Nothing. The components were energized, all lit up on their leds, but nothing else.

Checked the MB debugging leds and I saw that they got stuck on “VGA” and did not get any further progress. So I tried to switch my current VGA with an old VGA card that I have. Same behaviour in the MB leds. Since I didn’t know if the old VGA was ok, I gave the MB diagnosis a credit.

As it is an 8 year old Desktop, maybe removing all attached cards/memory and cleaning up everything could help. Reattaching everything together can solve some problems, sometimes. However, I got the same MB leds behaviour.

Even trying to boot the PC up without any attached cards (only memory) lit only the same VGA led on the MB. Sigh… the MB debug led is wrong…

After a brief internet search I found similar problems with the same MB in the MSI forum where the problem was a corrupted BIOS chip. The problem in the forum was solved by reflashing the BIOS.

It all looks easy, however my MB does not have the external button to flash the BIOS (btw I discovered this was a thing looking for my problem in the forums).

So I had two ideas: Buy a new MB that supported my 8 year old setup OR try to reflash the BIOS with basic components for 1/6 of the new MB price.

After watching several bad and precarious videos in youtube about corrupted BIOS recovery (most of them in PT-BR my primary language (hue)) I bought a CH341a usb stick with an 1.8V adapter.

They come with a “double clip” that eliminates the need of removing the chip from the MB to read/write. And since I don’t have a hot air station to unsolder the chip, using the clip looked like a good plan.

The plan was to mount every component and, using the double clip, read from the chip, save it locally as some sort of backup (even though it was corrupted) and then write the most recent BIOS update of my MB to the chip. The most recent BIOS could be downloaded from the Support section of my MB page in MSI website.

When CH341a usb thing was finally delivered to my address I gave it a shot.

I mounted the CH341a and the 1.8V adapter in the correct pin orientation (regards to the bad youtube videos) and using the Linux app IMSProg I was able to find my chip specs and see a green “Connected” in the status bar of the app!

From here it all went as planned - I was able to read the old BIOS binary and save it locally to a file. Using xxd to compare the headers of the new BIOS with the extracted one I saw that they were nearly identical. This gave me hope!

I had to rename the new BIOS to a .bin extension so that the IMSProg could find it and open the file. After opening the file in the app I hit the automatic options: erase, program and verify. The process took a while but was finalized with a successful message.

After putting all Desktop pieces together the boot sequence completed and I was able to see the Windows login screen again :’-). Unfortunately my grub had gone away, but this is a tiny detail.

I Hope this text gives you courage and ideas to solve these awful problems that appear out of nowhere.

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26820841

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Please feel free to lmk if this isn’t the right place to be asking.

I can’t seem to find any other laptops that use a similar rubberized coating to what the thinkpads have. Do any exist out there?

I think the thinkpads are great but I don’t care for the trackpoint.

Thanks!

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I'm concerned since my 2080ti is idling at 58c. I have that intake right next to an exhaust and I'm not sure.

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I'm looking at buying a used reference RX 6800.

I notice there are quite a few brands for the reference model (ASUS, MSI, Sapphire, etc) and wondered if any of them use better components for example. I would quite like lower odds of having coil whine if it's related.

Just to explain my choice of card:

  • Max 40mm thick
  • Supported by Ollama
  • No proprietary software when using linux
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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by randomname@sh.itjust.works to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
 
 

I've tested it in several games and had good results, especially in those that are CPU bound and vary in frame rate a lot. below are my qualitative results from different games. My monitor is 180hz 1440p, frame gen is on it's default settings, and when using fixed mode I cap my fps at 90.

Teardown: Keeps the game looking smooth even when doing higher amounts of destruction, looks better than a fixed multiplier because of the high variability of the game's performance depending on the situation.

Helldivers 2: Slightly worse artifacting, also slightly smoother when in extreme situations with lots of enemies on screen. I prefer a fixed multiplier because of the lower artifacting, but its honestly about the same.

GTA V Enhanced: For some reason adaptive frame gen gives me unplayable levels of input lag in GTA 5, and unstable frame rates, whereas a fixed multiplier works fine.

Noita: the exact same.

anyone else have thoughts on this update, or lsfg in general?

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And I mean a true beast that can do anything from gaming, video editing, rendering and so on

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Hey team,

Years ago, SO gifted me an Alienware Aurora R7.

It has an Intel I7-8700 and Nvidia GTX 1080 (8GB VRAM), 16 GB of DDR 4 RAM. (what else is relevant to this question?)

My question to you is basically this -

Given that I'm not gaming with it anymore, I want to use it for only two things -

  1. Plex Server
  2. Running random local LLM stuff like Kotaemon (https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon)

Let's say I have $1000 to throw at a GPU and I'd like to get 16 GB VRAM (or 24 if it's possible). I want to install it myself rather than take it into a shop.

What's a GPU I can buy that will fit,

  1. within my budget?
  2. within the chassis?
  3. with the CPU and motherboard without issues?
  4. with the needs I've detailed (namely Plex transcoding, and running ML models)?

I am an absolute noob when it comes to figuring out what hardware to buy (hey, we got us an Alienware sucker here).

So lemmings, help me out! I'd rather not ask ChatGPT.

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Hello pcmr!

I have found a "broken" 4080 second hand for 200 euros in my neighbourhood. After doing some searching, I think it was a misconfigured bios and and incompatability with corsair's software, based on the description. They mentioned games crashing, corsair aio rgb not working until iCue is opened, screen flickering and random repeated reboots. They said the issue persisted on their friends computer as well after trying. Is this worth the risk? Would love some advice!

Thanks in advance

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