What's your latest tech purchase?

[SpittinFax]

Picked up a couple of new parts for various reasons, the main attraction being a Gigabyte B550M DS3H motherboard to have on hand as a spare.

I've had great experiences with these cheap Gigabyte B550 boards, the quality is solid and you get a lot of features. I used to work with low-end motherboards in the Haswell and Skyake era and it's a real shock to the system to see such a kitted-out board for US$70. The side-by-side comparison with an older H110M-S2H (which I got for the same price when new) shows just how stripped down the old budget boards were.

 

[Keullo-e]

R9 290X Matrix Platinum

Made sure that it works, I'll clean it soon after I've cleaned this:

Asus GTX 660 3GB (GK104) which I got as a bundle, and as you can see, it's pretty damn dusty

 

[Mussels]

Picked up a couple of new parts for various reasons, the main attraction being a Gigabyte B550M DS3H motherboard to have on hand as a spare.

I've had great experiences with these cheap Gigabyte B550 boards, the quality is solid and you get a lot of features. I used to work with low-end motherboards in the Haswell and Skyake era and it's a real shock to the system to see such a kitted-out board for US$70. The side-by-side comparison with an older H110M-S2H (which I got for the same price when new) shows just how stripped down the old budget boards were.


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That usually comes down to the chipset - B550 is feature packed, so those features make it to the boards

 

[JC Denton]

Do you know what you ended up with, since they did that part swapping scandal? They started as 64 later TLC but ended up as 96 layer QLC

Looks like its 360TBW for the 1TB, but i cant find out if thats for the QLC or TLC version since crucial just say 'hours' of lifespan (without clarifying if those are hours at idle, read, write...)


I'd be pretty suspicious of a friend claiming that, far too easy to just keep it and rip you off without you knowing

The MX500 is still being recommended by Linus Tech Tips 4 years after its release and there's not enough proof I found online about the MX500 models utlising bait and switch modules.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Kindle 7TH gen BAse
vs Kindle 11th gen paperwite 32 G

 

[Veseleil]

I thought i won't need these ever again. Well, as my car has a nice compact disc based audio system, here we go. It will be used as an "external" CD burner, if You know what I mean. Edit: forgot to mention i got this drive for about 5EUR used (and the seller actually wanted to give it for free), since new external ones are around 25EUR.

 

[bobbybluz]

A new Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD-RW for $15 including shipping just arrived from Ebay. I was supposed to also get a new SK Hynix Platinum P41 1TB from Amazon as well. The package arrived and it's empty (still sealed light plastic mailing envelope). They're sending me a replacement I should have tomorrow.

​

 

[Rithsom]

View attachment 250516View attachment 250517
I thought i won't need these ever again. Well, as my car has a nice compact disc based audio system, here we go. It will be used as an "external" CD burner, if You know what I mean. Edit: forgot to mention i got this drive for about 5EUR used (and the seller actually wanted to give it for free), since new external ones are around 25EUR.

Excellent! Will you be using it in your car or with your PC? The reason I ask is because you said that you'll be using it as a CD burner. I've never heard of anyone burning CDs from in their car...

If you're going to be using it with your PC (externally, anyway), you're going to need a SATA to USB adapter. Something like this:

 

[Veseleil]

Excellent! Will you be using it in your car or with your PC? The reason I ask is because you said that you'll be using it as a CD burner. I've never heard of anyone burning CDs from in their car...

If you're going to be using it with your PC (externally, anyway), you're going to need a SATA to USB adapter. Something like this:

View attachment 250543

I just remove the side panel of my main PC, and connect the CD drive with spare SATA power and data cables. Remove it when done. Cheapest way to do it, and I've been doing it ever since my PC cases didn't had the 5,25" bay anyway. Needed to buy this one as i borrowed my old reliable LG drive to a friend who managed to lose it.

 

[JC Denton]

@Veseleilo
First car? If your ride has a working 12v socket, have you considered buying one of these Bluetooth FM Adapters?

I've just put one in my 1990 RX7.
It's a perfect buy for any Mid 2000s and older vehicles that don't come with factory bluetooth.
Just plug this into the 12v socket, pair your phone with bluetooth, find an FM frequency not in use, tune your cars radio and adapter to said frequency and happy days.

 

[oobymach]

Got this guy here and slapped in my extra 500gb 970 to use as a page drive. Click to enlarge.

 

[Veseleil]

@Veseleilo
First car? If your ride has a working 12v socket, have considered buying one of these bluetooth FM adapters?

I've just put one in my 1990 RX7.
It's a perfect buy for any Mid 2000s and older vehicles that don't come with factory bluetooth.
Just plug this into the 12v socket, pair your phone with bluetooth, find an FM frequency not in use, tune your cars radio and adapter to said frequency and happy days.

That is one of the options, yes. Thank you for pointing that out, I've almost forgot about those. The thing is, I've always found it kinda lacking when it comes to audio quality. I'm a driver for more than 2 decades, and I'm not sure if it's got any better than the earlier models (with USB A port). My car has double DIN audio socket (2007), and it came with an aftermarket LCD touchscreen dead unit. I bought the same one right away, unfortunately. The audio quality was awful. Luckily the previous owner saved original unit which I retrofitted after that one died. I was amazed with the sound, factory steering wheel controls, fully functional infotainment system, but apparently stuck with audio and MP3 CDs. Our radio stations are emitting garbage 99% of the time. Also I can't stand MP3 sound, so that's two options less. I'll just burn my FLAC collection to CDs (not all of it OFC, it would take hundreds of CDs), and I could use Spotify with one of those adapters for the rest. I must say i found Spotify's sound quality really lacking, even on the highest streaming setting. I'm a bit difficult when it comes to the sound, sorry for the wall of text. Cheers.

 

[JC Denton]

@Veseleilo Sounds like you're an audiophile! I can respect that. The bluetooth fm adaptor cost me only $20 from ebay. You'll find many of the same design under different names but they all work the same. There's not a lot of active radio stations in my area so there's plenty of available ones. I can drive in a 100 KM / 60 mile radius without once having to adjust my frequency.

As for audio quality, they've gotten a lot better over the years as less radio stations means less interference. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between CD quality and the FM transmitter. There are many FM transmitters, this is my 4th design and It's the only one I'm happy with. I cheaped out on the other styles and I got what I payed for

 

[bobbybluz]

This finally arrived from Amazon this morning. No empty package this time and the driver handed the package to me. After I told him about getting an empty shipping envelope yesterday he said that's been happening increasingly often lately. He blames it on Amazon's shipping department. He wouldn't elaborate on the issue being incompetence or employee theft.

 

[lexluthermiester]

He wouldn't elaborate on the issue being incompetence or employee theft.

Likely some of both.

 

[Mussels]

Likely some of both.

If they have forced quotas to meet (and shipping screwups fall on someone else) an empty package would help them stay employed

And sooner or later someone would find leftover products that need to be re-shipped, and sneak a few out

 

[micropage7]

got TP-LINK TL-WA901ND for $2

 

[lexluthermiester]

got TP-LINK TL-WA901ND for $2
View attachment 250711

Does it work?

 

[dorsetknob]

New to me and it was a Reasonable price £** Delivered
Going to put it under Water (Raystorm Block and 360 Rad)

 

[Deleted member 24505]

New to me and it was a Reasonable price £** Delivered
Going to put it under Water (Raystorm Block and 360 Rad)

I had a really nice 4790k setup with 16gb DDR3 and a nice MSI ITX board, even though it's getting on in years was still very good really.

 

[Mussels]

New to me and it was a Reasonable price £** Delivered
Going to put it under Water (Raystorm Block and 360 Rad)

one of the golden CPU's that aged so well

 

[Space Lynx]

not my latest tech purchase, but I helped a friend's gf recently purchase a new work laptop. her company gave her $750 max budget (that price had to include tax and shipping)

she got to pick the laptop, so I found her a intel 11th gen 6 core, 15.6" 120hz IPS 1080p, rtx 3050 gpu, 16gb ram, and 512gb ssd, Win 11, and came in $50 under budget.

pretty good deal really.

for myself, I recently got a used Sony PS5 3D Pulse Headset, because some games are literally designed with this 3D headset, it will be interesting comparing them with a nice high end headphone and the 3D pulse surround turned on vs the headphone the 3D pulse was designed on. most likely I will end up giving the 3D pulse headset to my nephew for his bday in a couple months if he wants it.

 

[P4-630]

not my latest tech purchase, but I helped a friend's gf recently purchase a new work laptop. her company gave her $750 max budget (that price had to include tax and shipping)

she got to pick the laptop, so I found her a intel 11th gen 6 core, 15.6" 120hz IPS 1080p, rtx 3050 gpu, 16gb ram, and 512gb ssd, Win 11, and came in $50 under budget.

pretty good deal really.

for myself, I recently got a used Sony PS5 3D Pulse Headset, because some games are literally designed with this 3D headset, it will be interesting comparing them with a nice high end headphone and the 3D pulse surround turned on vs the headphone the 3D pulse was designed on. most likely I will end up giving the 3D pulse headset to my nephew for his bday in a couple months if he wants it.

Pics... Or it didn't happen..

 

[Veseleil]

New to me and it was a Reasonable price £** Delivered
Going to put it under Water (Raystorm Block and 360 Rad)

Still I can't find it under 110eur used in my country. Been waiting for years for prices to drop, so I can retire my Xeon and unleash the full potential of my Red Rock system.

 

[freeagent]

I just bought this guy:

https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-REV-4-BLACK-Aluminium-Technology/dp/B09KZV9K2G/ref=mp_s_a_1_37?crid=157W9CUKVWTS&keywords=Thermalright&qid=1655076718&sprefix=thermalright+%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-37

It shares the same TDP rating as my FC140, but in a slimmer package. I need it slimmer so I can use my M.2 cooler, I need like 3mm to make it fit