The "New Toys" Thread

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A brand new Dell XPS 15 with FullHD screen.
 
For once I have some new toys too! Got my last paycheck from my summer job and finally pampered myself a bit:
WD 2TB Green & Asus HD 6870 DirectCU

full
 
Not as hightech as the items posted above, but hey.

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VAIO Z

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/ah/ahpadt/2011/08/14/sony_vaio-z-2011.jpg

+

Case

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/ah/ahpadt/2011/08/14/vaiocase1.jpg



Still waiting for the laptop to arrive in the mail...
 
I bought a new Samsung LCD TV (NO LED U!) which I apparently shouldnt have. The thing strips all my discrete channels away and only outputs 2 channel stereo over HDMI. That's practically a dealbreaker, thinking about returning it. Regardless, it's safe to say I'll not buy another Samsung TV ever. My old LG is perfectly happy with HDMI passthrough, the Sony I considered (but didnt choose because it was "old" (yes I'm stupid) passes through audio happily. Have I done something wrong? No. I asked Samsung, and they said "it's not a fault, it's by design". It's even mentioned in the users manual. How many read the user manual before purchasing?

Samsung - Conciously Making Shit Worse?

Or Samsung - Digitally Ours. It also YELLED AT ME for unplugging it's network cable. Jesus christ TV, know your place.
 
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The piece of shit Samsung (LE40D585) have now been replaced with a Sony Bravia (KDL40EX503) and despite actually being a model launched over a year ago and thus a bit less expensive than the 2011 POS Samsung the Bravia is superior in every way. Like a normal TV, it has HDMI audio passthrough, but I am especially impressed by the black level and the natural colours, I haven't even had to tinker with the image yet, all the settings seem pretty well thought out straight out of the box. And it's 100hz which makes it smoooooooth. Money back and a better TV, good deal.

The remote is also much better, and a bit quirky in that is has a secondary power button on the rear and no battery compartment hatch. You slide the whole remote, revealing the compartment.
 
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:thumbsup: Technology doesn't advance so quickly that last year's model is outdated, some decent savings can be had that way.
 
:thumbsup: Technology doesn't advance so quickly that last year's model is outdated, some decent savings can be had that way.

This is massively true. Those early adopters pay through the nose for the latest and bestest thing, while I just wait for the price to reduce to half, still get an awesome product (if not cutting edge) for basically 2/3 or even half price, if I can just bother to wait a year....

My current TV has lasted 7 years, and is showing no signs of wear & tear yet (sadly, because that means I can't convince the wife we need a new one).
Are 'new' TVs still built for high usage? It's on pretty much all day everyday, as we sort of use it as a background noise like a radio, and my kids like their cartoons in the morning. We don't watch it all day, but it is on most of the time. It gets like 6 hrs "rest" a day when we're asleep...

I shudder to think how many days/weeks/years it's been on since we had it, if you add it all up...
 
This is massively true. Those early adopters pay through the nose for the latest and bestest thing, while I just wait for the price to reduce to half, still get an awesome product (if not cutting edge) for basically 2/3 or even half price, if I can just bother to wait a year....

My current TV has lasted 7 years, and is showing no signs of wear & tear yet (sadly, because that means I can't convince the wife we need a new one).
Are 'new' TVs still built for high usage? It's on pretty much all day everyday, as we sort of use it as a background noise like a radio, and my kids like their cartoons in the morning. We don't watch it all day, but it is on most of the time. It gets like 6 hrs "rest" a day when we're asleep...

I shudder to think how many days/weeks/years it's been on since we had it, if you add it all up...
When it comes to TVs its great that they are pushing so much for new models, because lets face it even from like 3 years ago there is no tangible improvement in the actual picture quality :)
 
Finally placed an order for a Lenovo X220. Getting a 2.5ghz i5 with IPS screen, 8gb ram, 320gb hdd + 80gb mSATA SSD. Serious upgrade from an EeePC 901 ;)
Have to get it from Germany, once again, to save a massive amount of money, so it might take some time for it to arrive...

Oh nice, congrats man.

I really like mine so far. It takes a bit of time if you aren't used to how Thinkpads are setup keyboard wise, but other than that it's great. The IPS screen is really nice. The panels they are using seem to have many fewer faults than the last set apparently did. (There will be a bit of ghosting if you leave the screen on the same image for more than 10-15 minutes, but it goes away pretty quickly.)

Also nice Vaio Z ahpadt. That was the one I wanted to get when I bought my SR, but it was just a bit out of my price range when it came out so I didn't. My SR turned out fine, and I'm sure your Z will be a nice laptop. :mrgreen: They generally have beautiful screens. (100% color saturation?)
 
Thanks, mooglebunny. I have a little concern about the fan noise and throttling, lots of talk about it on various forums. But will see...
 
Thanks, mooglebunny. I have a little concern about the fan noise and throttling, lots of talk about it on various forums. But will see...
I've heard that the i5 2.5 Ghz and below processors don't throttle, but there are a couple of fixes (registry, I heard there is a bios update, but don't quote me on that one) that supposedly can stop it. Another solution is to buy the 90W adapter (which I might do personally).

Also, this thing is sooooooooo quiet to me. Even with my ear pressed to the fans you can barely hear them if you are doing basic tasks (word processing, browsing, etc). Yes it does ramp up just a bit for Youtube videos and flash videos of any kind (what doesn't?), but it's still amazingly quiet. My SR when new was louder at idle than this is and a lot of people thought that they were pretty quiet (with a few exceptions) at the time.
 
If its anything like the x201, you'll have a nasty shock one day when putting your hand over the exhaust.

The x220? Nope, it runs pretty cool despite the size so far. Even when running Youtube, such as I am doing now, it's still pretty cool. I've left it on my bed before for a couple of minutes to test how hot it would get and it barely heats compared to sitting on a normal surface. Now, a nasty shock sounds more like my SR because there were three distinct spots that were well over 110F under normal usage: underside chassis in the GPU fan/area, wireless switch on the front, and the left palmrest. They designed the heat sinks there, but it would get moderately uncomfortable at times. I did play minecraft which did get a bit warmer than playing a Youtube video, but it wasn't scalding my legs hot after 10 minutes unlike the SR.

Lenovo placed the prominent side exhausts on two sides, part of the backside, and on the left side. I think this helps with the heat distribution for sure.
 
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