Computer Specs and Builds

[GameCobra]

Hey, Beagle ~ if you ever run into any trouble with your HP Notebook, let me know. They have a lot of great ways to recovery it when things go bad and I work with HP software support =)

I'm pretty decent at Hardware, so i'll give some input - The card should work fine. The processor's ram is usually moot these days so I wouldn't worry about it, it's mostly in the videocard and if it can handle the games. Since the videocard can go beyond 2 gigs, most of the games you play will likely be able to work just fine on normal settings. Most of those games you listed can run fine as long as your card can hit over 2 gigs of memory on the card, so you shouldn't run into any issues with it. Looking up the HP website, I noticed most of our laptops are indeed around that area as well, so I think it's a great choice for those games =)

[Beagle]

Thanks GameCobra! I love HP because the site is so easy to navigate and and customization is a breeze. I also feel like you get the most bang for your buck, without spending $1000+ on a fancy name-brand like Alienware. Dell is the same way, but I've found that I can't do as much or run as smoothly with a Dell as I can with an HP. I own an HP Pavilion dv6 laptop right now, and the only thing that is wrong with it is that it contains an integrated graphics card and it's just getting a little, tiny bit sluggish with its age. The new laptop I'll be getting has a slightly bigger hard drive, a little bit more RAM, a better display, and a dedicated graphics card, so I'm excited for that! Oh and a backlit keyboard! Perfect for someone who will living in a dorm next month.

[Azsassin]

HP 650

Windows 8
5 GB RAM
Core i3
New Dual Layer Burner
And some other things

[zero]

cpu i7 930 2,8ghz
mobo asus p6x58d premium
ram 6gb ddr3
gfx hd5970 2gb
case cm haf932
ssd x25-m g2 80gb
psu enermax 720w
monitor dell ultrasharp 2209wa
os w7 ultimate x64
that would be that

[Arbitrary]

One potato battery and GLaDOS personality unit. It can function on as little as 1.1 volts.

[Foxstar]

My Dell is pretty sluggy after being left sitting over night, but powering it on and off seems to take care of the lag. Wondering if I need to do a system wipe and reinstall.

[Dissension]

How old is your PC?

[JeffCvt]

Does anyone here think they could help me out a little?

My laptop has recently been using the fan a bit more than normal. It's not overheating, it can keep up just fine right now, but it's still unusual. Also, whenever it's not plugged in, the battery life estimate is getting a little weird. It'll swing between two totally different estimates. One that seems normal and one that cuts about 50% off of the normal life. For example, at 50% battery left, I usually have about an hour of life in the battery. It may sometimes say that, and it may say 40 minutes despite the fact that is isn't being used at that rate.

[GameCobra]

I had that happen to my fan before too. Strangely enough, it may not be overheating, but I found out one time that lots of heat can do this to any computer, probably because it's trying to force the heat coming out more than usual and the fan is just showing signs it's struggling to push the heat out by cranking the fan to full throttle.

About the second question: It may depend on what you are doing on the computer at the time the battery is at %50, but the battery is likely either:

A) Having trouble figuring out what the computer is doing when it's showing the timer. Games, movies, music, anything like that sucks the battery out faster than normal and it's probably trying to adjust.
B) The battery getting old.
C) The settings on the computer. Power options might be set to power saving mode, and certain activities on a notebook might be forcing the computer to go to full power mode at times.

[Arbitrary]

A "weird" battery life estimate usually means there is a problem with the batteries in-built sensor that determines charge level. A problem could be with the battery cells as well because of age or other issues. This sort of thing happens when there is a discrepancy between what the computer knows and what it thinks it should be.

As for heating issues, the thermal pads may be dried due to age/heat and as a result may not conduct heat as effectively as they used to. Dusty heat sinks also contribute to the problem so give it a good cleaning with a can of air.

If you need to know absolutely everything about what your computer is doing, download HWINFO which can tell you anything ranging from temperatures and fan speeds to core clocks. It is a bit verbose but navigable.

A full charge/discharge cycle may fix the battery issue, but only if it is an issue with the battery chip and not the cells themcells.

[JeffCvt]

I don't think it has anything to do with having trouble running all of the programs that I do. It's never had this problem in the past.

It actually seems that the strange battery readings and the fan seem to be related. When the fan comes on, that's pretty much when the lower battery estimated life happens.

Dusty heat sinks also contribute to the problem so give it a good cleaning with a can of air.

Now excuse my lack of knowledge, but how would one go about doing this without breaking something? Do I have to take my laptop apart at all or should I just bring it somewhere? (Because I have no experience in anything like this)

[Arbitrary]

how would one go about doing this without breaking something?

Depending on which computer you have, heatsink cleaning can be accomplished without any sort of mucking about on the inside of the unit. Locate these areas on your computer



Then blast it with a can of air, you can find them at any sort of office supply store. They typically look like this



Do this outside because if they have never been cleaned out, the aggregate of all the dust from all of its hours of operation will come right out and get everywhere.

As for the correlation between the battery estimates and fan jumps, it could be anywhere from calculating what effect increased fan speed has on remaining capacity to the processor and/or graphics card up-stepping clock speeds for whatever reason, resulting in increased power consumption and temperatures.

On windows, you can right click on the little battery icon in your taskbar and click on "more power options" and select the "Power Saver" power profile whenever you are on batteries.

[JeffCvt]

Thank you Arbitrary and GameCobra, I appreciate you both taking the time to try and help.

I just tried cleaning the heatsink and for the past 20 minutes or so it's been running fine. It seems that was problem. (Here's hoping that was all.)


While I'm on here, would anyone mind explaining to me some computer terms and what they mean? I'm looking at buying a Chromebook myself and I don't know 99% of the information that they are giving me. Since I'm going to be spending my own money, I would like to know exactly what I am buying.

These are the specs on a random Chromebook I saw. Just tell me what's important to know. (I've bolded the things that I'm curious about. I'm pretty sure those are everything I need to know. Everything else I can figure out.)

Manufacturer: Samsung
Manufacturer Part Number: XE303C12-A01US
Manufacturer Website Address: http://www.samsungusa.com
Brand Name: Samsung
Product Line: Chromebook
Product Series: 3
Product Model: XE303C12
Product Name: Chromebook XE303C12 Notebook
Product Type: Notebook
Processor Manufacturer: Samsung
Processor Type: Exynos
Processor Model: 5
Processor Speed: 1.70 GHz
Processor Core: Dual-core (2 Core)
Cache: 1 MB
Standard Memory: 2 GB
Memory Technology: DDR3 SDRAM
Solid State Drive Capacity: 16 GB
Optical Drive Type: No
Screen Size: 11.6"
Display Screen Type: Active Matrix TFT Color LCD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Screen Mode: HD
Backlight Technology: LED
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Graphics Memory Accessibility: Shared
Wi-Fi: Yes
Wi-Fi Standard: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
Webcam: Yes
HDMI: Yes
Total Number of USB Ports: 2
Operating System: Chrome OS
Pointing Device Type: TouchPad
Number of Cells: 2-cell
Battery Chemistry: Lithium Polymer (Li-Polymer)
Maximum Battery Run Time: 6.30 Hour
Color: Silver
Height: 0.7"
Width: 11.4"
Depth: 8.1"
Weight (Approximate): 2.43 lb
Package Contents:
Chromebook XE303C12 Notebook
Lithium Polymer Battery
AC Adapter
Green Compliant: Yes
Green Compliance Certificate/Authority: RoHS
Country of Origin: China

[Arbitrary]

Alright. Before you dive into the cloud and the like, understand what you are buying. This is a Chromebook. It needs the internet for full function and cannot do a lot of the things a normal laptop can do. Unless you really do need a small cheap computer for watching youtube and doing cloud computing, get a normal laptop.

Now I will explain what I can about computers in general.

Processor type (name): This "Exynos" processor is a special kind of processor based on the ARM architecture. These are commonly found in phones and tablets because they are cheap and energy efficient. The processors you find in your laptop and nearly any other computer is based on an x86 (32bit) or 64bit architectures. Nearly any program written are designed to be executed (run) on x86 and 64bit processors. ARM architecture apps will not be compatible with x86 and 64bit and vice versa, at least not natively.

x86 and 64bit mean the processor handles information in certain ways. You may notice on software downloads, there is an option for "32bit and 64bit" versions of it. The difference people care about is the 64bit architecture's ability to "address" or make use of more memory (RAM) than 32bit or x86 processors (32bit and x86 are the same thing).

The name of the processor, regardless of what it is (Haswell, Phenom, Ivy Bridge, to name a few) provides information about what is in the thing and how it is made. Processors are made up of billions of tiny little electric switches called transistors. You calculator has a handful of them and can do basic math. Give a processor several billion transistors and it can do all sorts of things.

Something else you may notice is some number followed by "nm" like "22nm". This refers to exactly how tiny the individual transistor is. The smaller it is, the less power it takes to "flip" and do calculations. Usually the smaller the better, but it also means more expensive.

Clock speed: The base clock frequency (in this case 1.7ghz) means how many times these transistors gets "flipped" a second. In the olden days, they had clock speeds of only 60Mhz or so. Meaning all 3.1 million of the Pentium P5 processor flipped 6 million times a second. We are in 2013, and we can do much better.
A modern processor (Intel Core i5) with a clock speed of 3.2Ghz has 1.4billion transistors flipping 3.2 trillion times a second! Holy smokes.

Cores: Modern processors possess more than one execution core. All processors do things in a line. One after the other. The clock speed ensures it can just switch between doing things really quickly or finish the thing it is doing really quickly. Multiple cores means more multitasking, and it is difficult to find any processor that is any less than a dual core these days. There is also virtualization or "Hyperthreading" meaning the computer can treat one core as two, this provides benefits if there are lots of not very hard things to do. More cores is not always better, but it totally is.

Cache: A tiny bit of memory that holds onto bits of code while the processor works on it. It is incredibly fast, and larger caches mean less waiting in line for processes.

Memory (RAM): Random access memory is a bit like the cache, except it loads programs off of your hard drive and holds onto them until the processor is ready. It also takes what the processor puts out and stores it till it can go to the hard disk. "DDR3" refers to a memory technology. DDR3 is the standard for computer memory, The frequency is listed as a 4 digit number like "1333" or "1600" which translates to 1.333Ghz and 1.6Ghz respectively. There is also voltages but I won't go into that much detail.

There is local storage such as hard disks and more recently solid state drives to consider as well. If you need more information, bother me.

[JeffCvt]

First thing first:

Alright. Before you dive into the cloud and the like, understand what you are buying. This is a Chromebook. It needs the internet for full function and cannot do a lot of the things a normal laptop can do.

I understand this. I have my reasons for wanting a Chromebook, and I still plan on keeping my Dell to do things that the Chromebook can't. I've done my research.

As for everything else, thanks for explaining it. Now, some of this is still Greek to me, so I'm just going to ask a few more things if you don't mind answering them.

Processor type (name): This "Exynos" processor is a special kind of processor based on the ARM architecture. These are commonly found in phones and tablets because they are cheap and energy efficient. The processors you find in your laptop and nearly any other computer is based on an x86 (32bit) or 64bit architectures. Nearly any program written are designed to be executed (run) on x86 and 64bit processors. ARM architecture apps will not be compatible with x86 and 64bit and vice versa, at least not natively.

I get the gist of this I think, I won't be able to run most programs designed for computers. But how will this affect me? The only thing I really use on my laptop that I wouldn't be able to on the Chromebook is Microsoft Word. And I honestly like Google Docs better, so I won't be missing anything there. Plus I'm still keeping my Dell anyway, so I can still run anything that requires a regular computer.

Actually, I have the Chromebook that I'm thinking of getting right here: http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/chro ... 01US-specs
It seems that most Chromebooks that I saw had a 1.1GHz processing speed, but this one has 1.7 (I think this is actually the one I posted those stats on. I'm not totally sure because I just clicked on something random so I could point out what I didn't know before actually trying to look for one). From what I researched myself, chromebooks don't usually have the stats to compare to a regular laptop, but then again I don't think they don't need anything more. Plus I was able to find this same model Chromebook for $212 new somewhere else. What kind of (New) laptop would you be able to get for $200?

I think this might be one of the better Chromebooks offered right now without going above $300. From what I've read about it, the only real complaints are not being able to handle some of the bigger games in the Chrome Store (I'm not a gamer, so this isn't a problem for me), and the screen not being a bright as other laptops. For a 6+ hour battery life, I'm not going to complain.

[Arbitrary]

You have the right idea. Most ARM processors are what they call "system on chip" meaning besides normal processing, there is a graphics module built in among other things.

At any rate, the processor in this particular Chromebook is officially called "ARM Cortex-A15" manufactured on a 32nm process.
This system on chip is a little dated. For instance, my phone has a processor that is similar to the one in this Chromebook and clocked at 1.5Ghz. However, since it is a Chromebook, this is plenty of processing power. Especially compared to alternatives in the same market, the Exynos is the best as you get.

If all you want is Google Docs and normal web browsing, then this Chromebook is plenty sufficient. You can probably do some 3D games as well, all 2d games for sure.

Note that internal storage is 16 gigabytes. To expand storage you can probably get creative and stick a 64gig SD card into the slot.

And yeah, you are right, the cheapest laptop I can find is 300 bucks.

[Dissension]

Note that internal storage is 16 gigabytes. To expand storage you can probably get creative and stick a 64gig SD card into the slot.

The model you've pointed out also has one each USB 3 and USB 2 port, so you could use USB thumb drives or external hard drives for increased storage. There are also external hard drives that connect wirelessly, but they're more expensive.

Granted, you may not be storing a lot of files! The "Chromebook" seems to be the modern iteration of a netbook. I considered getting a netbook when I was in college. You've done the research, Jeff. Tablets, netbooks, and the like are sufficient for most folks who won't be gaming or doing a lot of media editing.

[ReCreate]

I got one of these rack servers off ebay a long while ago. It was $130, plus $40 shipping from illinois to florida.

Here's a picture I took of it while I had one of my huge mining GPU's (Radeon 7870) connected to it. Just for fun.



I also took a photo of the motherboard if anyone is interested. http://i.imgur.com/z1r8V7k.jpg A ton of RAM sockets.

I had to use a second power supply for it. It would never fit in the case. It also got about 100 fps in minecraft. Far and fancy. Idk, but I was expecting more fps.

I'm not gonna bore everyone with a list of specs. But it has two quad-core intel xeons of the "core 2" architecture. It's about as fast as a sandy bridge core i5. It also came with 16GB of ram.

If anyone is wondering, it actually does not get loud when it's on. Not even when under load. Although, only if the environment is air-conditioned. If there is no A/C running then it gets loud.

Also, if anyone is wondering about this too. Yes it does run regular-old windows 7 64bit, without any need for special drivers. Or linux, too. Or mac os, too. It's just a regular PC in a thin box.

I love it, for that price though. Apparently, these are custom built and custom manufactured rack servers, made specifically for some company. I don't know which company. But once they are done with it, they sell them off very cheap. Finding them on eBay for a price like this won't be hard, if anyone's interested.

It's now been sent off to a datacenter, where it will reside for the rest of it's life, for my personal use.

Cheers. ^^

[Arbitrary]

That is some nice hardware, ReCreate!

That build reminded me of this 24 SSD storage server which, like the name implies, has 24 800GB SSDs for ludicrous speed.

[Aarden]

Main WS.
Monitors: HP 2310ti + LG W1943SB.
CPU: 4.1-4.3GHz Intel Core i7 3770 (locked and 24/7 stable OC).
Memory: 8GB Kingston HyperX Predator DDR3, 2400MHz on 11-13-12-27-1T timings.
Motherboard: Asrock z77 Extreme6.
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 275, custom cooler and 800/1700/1320 clocks.
Power Supply: Corsair TX650 V2 650W.
Case: Corsair 600TM w/ structural mod for airflow.
SSD: Kingston HyperX 3K 90GB.
HDD: Seagate 1TB barracuda, 64MB cache.
Portable storage: Seagate 500GB Desktop USB drive, Kingston HyperX 64GB USB 3.0.
CPU cooling: Antec Kuhler H20 620 with a Gentle Typhoon 1850 on the end of a short funnel into the fins.
Modded cooling: Front panel modded for 240mm radiator or two 120mm fans from one 200mm slim fan.
Operating System: Windows 8 Pro.


Server.
CPU: 2 x L5410s (8 cores total)
Memory: 667MHz DDR2, 10GB, mix of Samsung and Micron
Motherboard: Supermicro X7DWT
Power Supply: OCZ 600W StealthXStream 2
GPU: Nvidia GTX 275, custom cooler and 800/1700/1320 clocks.
SSD: Kingston V300 60GB.
Case: 40mm Grenade Box, genuine US army import I modded specifically to fit the Supermicro X7DWT and everything it needs into a compact space.
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro.

Upgrading main graphics card after AMD/Nvidia release their next GPU series.

[JeffCvt]

Hey guys, I could use all of your help again.

As you know, not too long ago I bought a Chromebook. And I love it.

Right now it's wrapped up in a box to get sent off to have the speakers fixed (They made a barely noticeable hum at all times. Not a problem I would normally worry about getting fixed, but it's still under warranty and I don't have to pay a dime so why not?).

This lead to a problem. I now no longer have a Chromebook to browse the web on. I don't know why, but I like using my chromebook better than my Dell laptop to the point I want to buy another one.

But I don't just want to buy one, I want to... make it better if you will.

As of right now, I want to download a linux OS designed specifically for Chromebooks. Mostly to allow me to run actual programs that ChromeOS can't.

Problem though: Chromebooks aren't really designed to do this. At least, not to the degree I think I'd probably run it. Now I think that upgrading my current Chromebook model is not really an option. I don't think it was built to be messed with on the inside, and not knowing much myself about this stuff, I don't want to mess with it.

However, I have read that Acer model Chromebooks are much more... upgrade friendly.

From what I have read, RAM is probably the easiest upgrade as far as performance once booted up.

But I also want to know about solid state drives vs hard disk drives. I know SSDs are better as far as performance and durability and are quieter and use less power and ect ect, but a HDDs tend to have more memory. Whatever that means for computer performance, because I don't know.

It seems that if given the choice between the two, a SSD is probably the better choice 9/10 times. But Acer Chromebooks come with a HDD, and if I'm going to be upgrading the RAM and running what is basically a full OS on it, should I upgrade to a SSD (Or maybe just a better HDD)?


And last, I'm going to answer the question that I know all of you have. WHY GO THROUGH ALL OF THIS TROUBLE INSTEAD OF JUST BUYING A BETTER COMPUTER TO BEGIN WITH AND PUT LINUX ON THAT?

The answer: Because I'm not ruling that option out. The advantage to the Linux system I want is that I can switch between the Linux OS and Chrome OS at will (I love the Chrome OS when all I'm doing is browsing the internet for days at a time). I'd like to get a computer with Chrome OS to begin with because it's apparently pretty simple to add the Linux to it, and I'd still like the ability to switch between the two. I'm not sure how easy it would be to remove Windows from another computer and install Chrome OS on it, but I'm not going to rule it out if I find a decently priced laptop come this shopping season.

So, someone willing to help? (Another reason I'm doing this is to learn computers better. I don't need to become an expert, I just want to learn them a little better since that could be handy knowledge in the future.)

[Obbl]

SSDs are probably the greatest things to come about in terms of boosting performance. Here's the thing: storage space increases according (more or less) to Moore's Law, so it's likely that SSDs will always be behind the hard disks. This should not deter you from getting solid state IF the capacity is enough for you.
Just for comparison, my dad took my mom's ~8 year old laptop with XP on it, and fitted it with an SSD because the thing was dog slow. It now boots faster than my brand new computer, and you can boot it and start up a web browser before the wireless device has had a chance to find our network.

I assume what you're looking for is a computer that can occasionally be a "real" computer and do computery things, and can also occasionally be all the cool things that come with being a Chromebook (which I don't know much about). It sounds like your plan is viable. Linux is a good OS and there are many lightweight distributions out there which would probably be suitable to your needs.

If your willing to put the money into it, I'd say go for it (and if you want the ridiculous speed increase of SSDs, go for that too).

[Macsen]

I barely use my computer anymore, except to get e-mail and play Stepmania. Almost all my casual computer use is on my iPad.

[Beagle]

Hey guys! I've had my new laptop for about four months now so I thought I'd give y'all an update and let you all know how it's working!

First, specs and a link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... =c03507208

• *Model: HP Envy DV6-7214nr
  *Windows 8 (I modded it to act like Windows 7 though. )
  *2.24GHz 3rd generation Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.40GHz.
  *15.6", 1920x1080 (60 Hz) screen resolution
  *8 GB of DDR3 RAM
  *750 GB HDD, 7200 RPM
  *Dual graphics card, 1) basic, integrated HP graphics card, and 2) NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M switchable graphics with 2048MB gDDR5 and up to 1696MB total graphics memory.

It runs Skyrim like a pro. I usually leave it on medium but I can take it to high or even pump it up to ultra if I want to sacrifice an ultra-smooth frame rate. I don't have a cooling pad or anything for it yet (college has kept me away from gaming this semester), but it can last on its own for a little over an hour's worth of gaming before it starts running really hot (and things start looking kinda choppy).

For some, this might be a problem. For me however, I easily get motion sick sitting so close to a fast-moving screen like that, so an hour's worth of gaming is my limit anyway. I'm looking to getting an extremely long VGA or HDMI cable so I can play games on my TV so I can have a more comfortable gaming experience. And a cooling pad. Definitely one of those.

[Macsen]

I have just bought my next computer. It is on order, though it was delayed about a week. It's currently scheduled to arrive next Thursday after a delay.

Specs:

[*]4th-gen Intel Core i7-4770 (Haswell-DT 22nm; 4 x 3.4-3.9GHz)
[*]16GB PC3-12800 SDRAM (4 x 4GB)
[*]1TB 7200RPM SATA 3.0 HDD
[*]16x DVD±RW recorder (saw no Blu-ray options)
[*]Geforce GTX 645 video, 1GB GDDR5 memory
[*]Built-in Wireless-N
[*]Windows 8.1

Compared to what I had last time:

[*]Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Kentsfield 65nm; 4 x 2.4GHz)
[*]3GB PC2-6400 SDRAM (2 x 1GB + 2 x 512MB; later upgraded to 6GB, 2 x 2GB + 2 x 1GB)
[*]2 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA 2.0 HDD
[*]16x DVD-ROM + 16x DVD±RW recorder
[*]Geforce 8600 GTS video, 256MB memory (later upgraded to Gefore 9600 GT, currently Geforce GTX 650)
[*]Built-in Wireless-G (later removed, replaced with USB 3.0 PCI Express riser)
[*]Vista 32-bit (changed to Vista 64-bit, later upgraded to Windows 7, currently dual-booting with Ubuntu 13.10)

Once I have my new computer in my hands and have everything upgraded, I plan to rebuild the old one into an entertainment machine for my room. It will dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

EDIT: They did ship it today. It should be here on Friday. However, due to ordering difficulties this past weekend, they are shipping me two computers. I'll have to return one of them. They did decide to give me $50 off the one I'm keeping though.

[Macsen]

And I am up. Probably gonna burn the midnight oil transferring stuff over.

[Aarden]

Upgraded my specs a little and should really organise my hard drives.

Main workstation
CPU: 4.1-4.3GHz Intel Core i7 3770 (non-K).
Memory: 8GB Kingston HyperX Predator DDR3, 2400MHz on 11-13-12-27-1T timings.
Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme6.
Graphics: Asus HD6870.
Power Supply: Corsair TX650 V2 650W.
Case: Corsair 600TM w/ structural mod for airflow.
Cooling: Silverstone air penetrators, Corsair A70 with a Gentle Typhoon 1850.
SSD: Kingston HyperX 3K 90GB.
HDD: Seagate 1TB barracuda, 64MB cache.
HDD2: Seagate 2TB Barracude, 64MB cache.
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro.

Server
CPU: 2 x L5410s (8 physical cores in total)
Memory: 667MHz DDR2, 10GB, mix of Samsung and Micron
Motherboard: Supermicro X7DWT
Power Supply: OCZ 600W StealthXStream 2
GPU: Gigabyte HD 6770.
SSD: Kingston V300 60GB.
HDD: Seagate 250GB.
Case: 40mm Grenade Box (modded to fit)
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro.




I have also discovered I can run my main desktop under a load or games with all but the GPU fan off and the CPU fan as low as I can put it. Can play everything 1080p on high no problem but I am still upgrading to Nvidia Maxwell after summer. Could also fit a 240mm watercooling radiator into the server which would make it ridiculously awesome.

[rollingWolf]

Im tempted in building a hackintosh with a "4k" monitor.

Monitor: Dell 28" P2815Q 3840x2160 UHD HDMI/DP/mDP
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5 TH ATX (or some mATX)
SSD: 2 x Samsung SSD Pro Basic 840-Series 256GB
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5 GHz (Haswell)
- - Cooling: Corsair Hydro H110
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB SC ACX
RAM: Havent decided on what to use yet but itll cost somewhere around $390 €280
PSU: Corsaid AX 760W 80+ Platinum
Case: Leaning towards Corsair Carbide Air 540 (if I go with a ATX that is).
Various fans

With shipping: $3953 €2868

[JeffCvt]

Gah, I hate computers sometimes.

The subscription for my Norton virus protection on my Dell laptop ran out. My Mom was the one who bought that when she got me that laptop, and I honestly don't use it enough anymore to justify buying a virus protection software when they have free ones that (to the best of my knowledge) do just as well when it comes to actual virus protection.

But for some reason I can't even open Norton now to uninstall it. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I tried installing AVG antivirus free without removing Norton. But that failed. (Before all of you computer geeks yell at me, I know you can't have two antivirus things at once. An antivirus is basically a virus itself, so two or more will mess with each other. I was hoping that I could install AVG and it would detect Norton and remove it thinking it was a virus since I couldn't even open it. But no such luck.)

So I restart my laptop and guess what!? System update! I'm still waiting for that to finish at the moment.


... You know, I don't actually hate computers. I just hate Windows. I haven't had a single problem with my Chromebooks that couldn't be solved by simply creating a recovery USB and recovering the OS. Takes about 15 minuets total. And actually, I've only ever had to do that twice. Once on my Samsung, which fixed the issue it was having right away and I haven't had any since.

The second being when I switched the SSD in my Acer to one that had 4 times the memory. Of course I would have to install the OS again after putting a new Hard Drive in.

Chrome OS is so cool that even after turning off all of the security features and messing around trying (And failing) to install Linux, Chrome OS is still unharmed itself and my Chromebook still works right despite my best efforts.

Try doing that on Windows.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Mac OS X
Version 10.9.4
Build 13E28
Serial Number C1MHD42DDV14
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Startup Disk Macintosh HD

I have no idea what most of that means.