What's your latest tech purchase?

[Space Lynx]

Thanks & thanks for the tip will check it out

I'm definitely going to get a new display sooner than later, been looking at 4K / 144Hz.
The HP Omen 27qs 240 Hz / 2K panel also caught my eye if nothing fits the bill with Plan A.

Waiting to see how the Omen 27k does with reviews when it comes out soon.
I think it's the same Innolux panel Gigabyte, Sammy and ASUS use based on specs, but HP seems to be doing a better job with balancing build quality, QA, and calibration at this price point.

HP does do a good job with their gaming 1440p monitors. I personally would rather have 27" 1440p high refresh, it really is the sweet spot of enjoyment imo.

I love my NZXT Canvas 27" 1440p 165hz. I got it for $125 on a lightning sale from NZXT official website, $20 for the stand.

reddit is blacked out right now, otherwise I'd link the sale thread on it from last year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/y2bvfc

I think you can see it here if you have a reddit account, but I don't so I can't verify this is it

was the best deal I have ever made. its legit impressive considering the price I paid. I confirmed with NZXT customer service it is a flicker free monitor as well. which is good news for my poor old eyes.

 

[Deleted member 229121]

Damn that is cheap/solid, I'd bite at that price just to get VRR back quickly lol.
Can't see the old sale either, no acct.

 

[Space Lynx]

Damn that is cheap/solid, I'd bite at that price just to get VRR back quickly lol.
Can't see the old sale either, no acct.

honestly one of the best 1440p IPS monitors I have ever experienced. i got super lucky. if i were buying today though? i'd prob get a 240hz like you are doing. 4k is too hard to power if you like to play your games at high refresh, even for a 7900 xt imo. unless you only want to play slightly older titles

 

[nomdeplume]

Im in it for the sport. Not for the eating. The waterways around here are also pretty polluted.

Ah, London proper is likely not a wise place to digest the local wildlife.

Unfortunately ive not been able to have any big rides on the wheels due to it being horrendously sunny and hot during the day but I am enjoying them very much when I take them out for a short but brisk ride at dusk as the sun is starting to go down. They accelerate slightly slower from a stop compared to my previous wheels but once I'm up to cruising speed or completely going flat out, I'm just flying along. Just off the bat i've gained another 4.8km/h in cruising speed. I might be able to take it out for a long spin this coming Sunday as weather conditions are good with a lot of cloud cover. The place I go has a lot of long straights and small inclines with not as much traffic as the main road so i'll really be able to go full throttle.

I could be a lot faster but lighter innertubes cost a fair amount of money and Im waiting for pay day so I can order some TPU ones off aliexpress.

Great, hope you have a fun time if you get out there on a low traffic day. Believe it or not hot and humid is actually faster than moderate and dry. Not much fun though which I also rate very highly.

At one point I was privy to near daily updates on new submissions to the state funded pothole lottery entry scheme. Whereby you send a picture and detailed message of your local ditch in hopes they actually fix it.

 

[freeagent]

Well..

I have one more NVMe kicking around.. and one more spare slot..

Hoping I can use it!

 

[Deleted member 229121]

honestly one of the best 1440p IPS monitors I have ever experienced. i got super lucky. if i were buying today though? i'd prob get a 240hz like you are doing. 4k is too hard to power if you like to play your games at high refresh, even for a 7900 xt imo. unless you only want to play slightly older titles

I'd be ok with something 144-165hz as a stop gap if the price is right and it's actually decent.

That 27qs is really tempting though, esp with a lot of 4K/144 panels being a bit meh so far.
Sony's M9 panel actually looks worth the price, but the design ooph, all PS5 themed.

I've also been on 1440p for about 6 years, hard to fight the itch lol.

 

[dgianstefani]

I'd be ok with something 144-165hz as a stop gap if the price is right and it's actually decent.

That 27qs is really tempting though, esp with a lot of 4K/144 panels being a bit meh so far.
Sony's M9 panel actually looks worth the price, but the design ooph, all PS5 themed.

I've also been on 1440p for about 6 years, hard to fight the itch lol.

Most 4K panels have terrible input lag and pixel response times, even the "high refresh" ones. Unless it's OLED don't bother.

240 Hz 1440p is indeed the way.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Ah, London proper is likely not a wise place to digest the local wildlife.



Great, hope you have a fun time if you get out there on a low traffic day. Believe it or not hot and humid is actually faster than moderate and dry. Not much fun though which I also rate very highly.

At one point I was privy to near daily updates on new submissions to the state funded pothole lottery entry scheme. Whereby you send a picture and detailed message of your local ditch in hopes they actually fix it.

Don't mind it being hot. But when the sun is beating down on you with a sledgehammer it poses its own risks.

 

[dgianstefani]

Don't mind it being hot. But when the sun is beating down on you with a sledgehammer it poses its own risks.

British people complaining about 25 celcius weather will never not be funny.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

British people complaining about 25 celcius weather will never not be funny.

It was 33'c on the tarmac the other day when I risked it and went out

 

[nomdeplume]

It was 33'c on the tarmac the other day when I risked it and went out

With respect, I have a fair amount of practical and cautionary experience in these matters. The high quality balanced for weight and durability tubes any reputable shops sells are already performing at a level surpassing requirements, ie a refined solution. Worry about other things like apparitions of dashing form left in your wake propelling you through ever greater heights of enjoyment.

 

[Space Lynx]

I'd be ok with something 144-165hz as a stop gap if the price is right and it's actually decent.

That 27qs is really tempting though, esp with a lot of 4K/144 panels being a bit meh so far.
Sony's M9 panel actually looks worth the price, but the design ooph, all PS5 themed.

I've also been on 1440p for about 6 years, hard to fight the itch lol.

I understand, I am keeping my current two monitors for life, 23.8" and 27" 1080p/1440p respectively, both are 165hz, they are both IPS and I won the lottery panel on both. They are fantastic and have surprisingly good contrast for an IPS. My next stop is going to be 32" 4k OLED which doesn't exist yet. I wouldn't mind 42" OLED, but staring at that will be no different than staring at a 27" 1440p cause of the pixel density. So, I just feel like 32" is worth waiting for.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Most 4K panels have terrible input lag and pixel response times, even the "high refresh" ones. Unless it's OLED don't bother.

This is not true. There are plenty of 4k IPS panels that have excellent response times.

 

[dgianstefani]

This is not true. There are plenty of 4k IPS panels that have excellent response times.

Our Monitor Motion Tests: Response Time

The response time of a monitor is the amount of time it takes for pixels to switch from one color to another. It greatly impacts your experience using the monitor, especially if you're a gamer.

www.rtings.com

First 4K non OLED is 18th in the list from fastest to slowest (a £1000 monitor), next is 22nd.
First that isn't a 160 Hz monitor requiring loss of colour depth is way down the list, since most don't have a good enough Displayport/HDMI standard to have 4K and max refresh rate without reducing quality in some way.

Most results are in the lower half of the table, OLED stand out as do the overclocked monitors, it's about 50/50 good/mediocre response times when you take the OLED displays out of the picture.

There are some decent 4K IPS, but they're pretty expensive, and still don't come close to OLED or the higher refresh rate lower resolution models, and for £1000, just buy a 42" 4K OLED TV with 120 Hz and sit a little further back. HDR is a joke on non miniLED/OLED displays anyway and 120 Hz IPS is 2015 tech.

Mind you rtings seem to only test the more popular models by user request, so there may be lots of much worse/newer and better monitors that they haven't tested yet. They buy their hardware retail.

 

[jallenlabs]

Apple MacBook Pro 14. Yeah, I know, but I need it for work (I do IT at a uni and have both pc/macs). The fit and finish is amazing. The best in the business. I have been forcibly using it all week and so far I am really impressed. It works with all my PC stuff, including my capture card and audio interface. Im in dongle hell however with three usbc to usb adapters to two usb hubs to get everything hooked up. Dock incoming. It aint pretty but it is fast and is able to do all my personal video/audio capture and Premiere Pro editing. I wont convert as I like to build and tweak my PCs and you just can't do that with Apple products, but for mobile use, this is as good as one is gonna get.

 

[Tropick]

Just picked up a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB + Ice tower cooler and an "overclocking" power supply (5.1V @ 3.5A 18AWG) now that prices are sane again.

Going to try and get me a functional, super light-duty linux desktop by loading the new 64-bit RPi OS with the Linux 6.1 kernel with improved ARM support and try and get the latest branch of the MESA Vulkan/OpenGL drivers working. I heard the 64-bit version of Chromium 113 has hardware acceleration finally fixed, going to try and optimize the distro for performance and push the board to it's limit and see if I can't get myself a nice little power efficient web cruiser when I just want to watch videos or listen to music and don't need to fire up the main rig.

I'm thinking that if I keep temps down I could probably squeeze 2.2GHz out of the CPU with a decent overvolt and probably 750-800MHz out of the GPU if I leave the ISP and HEVC clocks alone. Figured it'd be a fun little pet project to try and get a raspberry pi up to nearly-desktop performance. If it goes well I might post some results

 

[avidgamer121]

my brother bought a bluetooth set of speakers from his workplace for me, i will mainly use it for phone

btw, i am using gcam now on my phone so photos should look better (they do, significantly to me)

 

[bobbybluz]

Update on yesterday's Arctic LF II 360 purchase for $56: Some of the mounting hardware was missing (the seller sold it for his son) and when it couldn't be located the seller refunded my money and told me to keep the unit anyway. It's in like-new condition and I have everything I need in my spare Arctic parts collection.

 

[Space Lynx]

Update on yesterday's Arctic LF II 360 purchase for $56: Some of the mounting hardware was missing (the seller sold it for his son) and when it couldn't be located the seller refunded my money and told me to keep the unit anyway. It's in like-new condition and I have everything I need in my spare Arctic parts collection.

that's a solid deal wow

Just picked up a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB + Ice tower cooler and an "overclocking" power supply (5.1V @ 3.5A 18AWG) now that prices are sane again.

Going to try and get me a functional, super light-duty linux desktop by loading the new 64-bit RPi OS with the Linux 6.1 kernel with improved ARM support and try and get the latest branch of the MESA Vulkan/OpenGL drivers working. I heard the 64-bit version of Chromium 113 has hardware acceleration finally fixed, going to try and optimize the distro for performance and push the board to it's limit and see if I can't get myself a nice little power efficient web cruiser when I just want to watch videos or listen to music and don't need to fire up the main rig.

I'm thinking that if I keep temps down I could probably squeeze 2.2GHz out of the CPU with a decent overvolt and probably 750-800MHz out of the GPU if I leave the ISP and HEVC clocks alone. Figured it'd be a fun little pet project to try and get a raspberry pi up to nearly-desktop performance. If it goes well I might post some results

I really want to do a PiHole for my entire network, are you in USA? are they finally in stock again?

 

[dgianstefani]

Found Conductonaut Extreme in stock finally, UK store, excited to be one of the first to try it out, apparently between 18-30% better than OG Conductonaut, which is already the best. I'll be sure to post before/after results with a stress test on the GPU, with some naked die shots too (marked NSFW of course). For now will just apply to the IHS of my CPU rather than both IHS and between die and IHS. OverclockersUK has it in stock, there was a listing on Amazon but I'm somewhat wary of third party sellers on that platform.

Ordered a Delid Die Mate 2, but couldn't find the AMD adapter in stock anywhere, so I cancelled that. Delidded 5800X3D will have to wait I suppose

View attachment 298796

So, everything finally arrived

Had fun when I got home from the gym tearing everything apart.

Got some sexy naked die shots for you lads (and ladies?), always a fan of nudes.

Naked 3080 Ti FE, after applying the conformal coating from der8auer. I cleaned it again with some alcohol wipes, and the memory before final application, this was just the photo I took while the TG Shield was drying. I did the CPU in the meantime.

New pads, haven't taken off the top layer of protective film yet, as wasn't ready to install and didn't want dust etc contaminants. The waterblock is also coated with LM and cleaned, but I forgot to take a photo.

Can rate these guys.

As promised - before and after stress test of CPU+GPU. The AIDA test doesn't seem to power virus the GPU, unlike OCCT, AIDA drew ~270 W while OCCT draws around 350 W. But it's still 350 W combined going into the loop. Ran both before/after tests for 10 minutes before taking final temperature readings as they stopped changing.

Before (Conductonaut OG on CPU, TG Kryonaut Extreme on GPU with 15 W/mK pads) 79°C Tdie CPU 59°C GPU:

Water temp was a little warmer for the second run, but not a big deal. After (Conductonaut Extreme on CPU+GPU, 20 W/mK pads) 77°C TDie CPU 47°C GPU:

Bear in mind this is in summer weather so ambient air temp is 25 °C, and the cooling system for both CPU and GPU is one 240mm copper radiator with fans set to quiet.

I'm fairly happy with results.

PC sitting at desktop with normal background apps and browser open and these are temps lol 1 °C delta between coolant and GPU die. Within three seconds of finishing the stress test, temps dropped to these.

It's fun to see how far I can take a custom CPU/GPU loop with a single 240mm radiator .

Gaming temps capped to 236 FPS (War Thunder in this case).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Our Monitor Motion Tests: Response Time

The response time of a monitor is the amount of time it takes for pixels to switch from one color to another. It greatly impacts your experience using the monitor, especially if you're a gamer.

www.rtings.com

First 4K non OLED is 18th in the list from fastest to slowest (a £1000 monitor), next is 22nd.
First that isn't a 160 Hz monitor requiring loss of colour depth is way down the list, since most don't have a good enough Displayport/HDMI standard to have 4K and max refresh rate without reducing quality in some way.

Most results are in the lower half of the table, OLED stand out as do the overclocked monitors, it's about 50/50 good/mediocre response times when you take the OLED displays out of the picture.

There are some decent 4K IPS, but they're pretty expensive, and still don't come close to OLED or the higher refresh rate lower resolution models, and for £1000, just buy a 42" 4K OLED TV with 120 Hz and sit a little further back. HDR is a joke on non miniLED/OLED displays anyway and 120 Hz IPS is 2015 tech.

Mind you rtings seem to only test the more popular models by user request, so there may be lots of much worse/newer and better monitors that they haven't tested yet. They buy their hardware retail.

While that is a very interesting article, you failed to prove your point. Most of the displays in that list are NOT 4k panels. Additionally, you failed prove your original statement as that list CLEARLY shows that non-OLED panels provide good performance.

And once again we're straying off topic...

 

[Veseleil]

And once again we're straying off topic...

Way off topic. We really need that staff ignore option XenForo, come on...

 

[erocker]

Topping E70 DAC. Been listening to various FLAC recordings the past 5 hours... IT'S BEAUTIFUL MAN!!

 

[mechtech]

Couldn’t resist even though probably never make full use of it.

 

[Tropick]

that's a solid deal wow



I really want to do a PiHole for my entire network, are you in USA? are they finally in stock again?

Yup, Ohio. And I think so but they just started to come back in stock again and supply might still be a little sketchy.

To be completely honest I've actually had the pi for a while now but just never unboxed it. It's an early model that I bought but didn't have a specific purpose for it in mind at the time, I just thought having an 8GB SBC would be cool. Now that my main rig is finished I've been looking for other interesting projects to begin and I remembered that I had this little board.

Just tonight I finished up delidding the CPU and got my Noctua fan in. Everything's slowly coming together, I'll post a thread with results when I get it up and running.