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The "New Toys" Thread

Man, I hate rocket powered mice as well.
 
eizbaer said:
I'll call this a new toy because I got to play with it a little...

My wife's christmas present is going to be, very unromantically, a new work PC for her, now that she has her own office again. Since she likes things to be small and inconspicuous, I went with an Asrock X300 barebones mini thing - and took the chance to upgrade my own PC from the AMD 4650 that her PC will inherit to a 5800X3D. In this little case there is now: AMD 4650 APU, 2x8GB DDR4-3200, 1 TB Mushkin Tempest SSD (maybe good, maybe not.... will see) cooled by an alpfenföhn silvretta (because I'm a cheapskate and don't want to spend noctua money). There's room for two SATA drives as well, if there's any need for more storage down the line. I decided to skip adding a Wifi Module (although only 20€ or so), because there's an ethernet connection 1m from the future location. I'm actually surprised by how fiddly the cooler install ended up being, but all in all, it went very well.
View attachment 3567881
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I may have ordered another one of these with a 5600G and 16GB of RAM to put in the paincave in the basement :|
 
I have a proper rocket or few that would be fun to do that to an uncooperative device or few. It's just not as therapeutic using the hammer anymore! 🔨
 
eizbaer said:
I may have ordered another one of these with a 5600G and 16GB of RAM to put in the paincave in the basement :|
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well crap... I did not realize the bloody thing was actually too small for the AMD boxed cooler. the cooler is about 5mm too tall to fit. OH WELL!
 
eizbaer said:
well crap... I did not realize the bloody thing was actually too small for the AMD boxed cooler. the cooler is about 5mm too tall to fit. OH WELL!
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Nothing an angle grinder can't..."fix"(?)!
 
I was thinking about mentioning how some people polish their CPU lids and coolers, in order to achieve more efficient cooling, but 5mm is a lot.
 
NecroJoe said:
Nothing an angle grinder can't..."fix"(?)!
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actually... that would work. I could just lob the top 5mm off, because that seems to be purely the "duct" of the fan - the actual fan rotor starts a good 5mm below that:
1671523721100.png

it would be very messy, though. so i bit the bullet, spent the additional 20€ on an alternative low profile cooler that should also be much more capable than this (this is pure aluminium, after all - no copper core, no heatpipes, no nothing).
Tram said:
I was thinking about mentioning how some people polish their CPU lids and coolers, in order to achieve more efficient cooling, but 5mm is a lot.
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haha, yeah getting 5mm off that way would be going a little too far :p
 
Well, it's not my toy, but I built my parents a new PC. While some parts were not exactly what I wanted, because what I wanted was not in stock (more precisely, the PSU and the case), it's still blazing fast and runs like an absolute dream for basic tasks. I'll try to put it through its paces today, but I don't think it'll even break a sweat with what I had in store for it (capturing Hi8 video via OBS). The specs are as following:
  • AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
  • Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200, 2x8GB
  • Asus TUF Gaming B550-M Plus
  • 500GB Samsung 980
  • Fortron Hydro K PRO 750W (80+ Bronze)
  • Bit Force SHADE AW-1
The whole thing did end up costing just shy of €550, which is some €20 over the budget, but I think it was worth getting a Samsung SSD instead of a Kingston one, if for no other reason, then for the piece of mind you get from extra 2 years of warranty. Also, the case. It's so bad, I don't recommend it to anyone. It surely looks nice, but that's where the nice things I can say about it stop. It's just cheaply built, and the provided manual is completely useless. Also, I didn't want a plexiglass side panel (which might actually be useful, as I can see the diagnostic LEDs on the mobo now), I wanted a place for an optical drive (parents still semi-rely on them, so an external one will have to be sourced sooner or later, although I won't deny airflow benefits of having no ODD), and it came with only one (rear) fan preinstalled (I think it wouldn't hurt to get at least two fans for the front part of the case, and one for the top, although I know nothing about airflow).

Overall, I'm kinda jealous it goes to my parents, lol. But it did teach me a thing or two about building a PC, so once the time comes to build something for myself, I'll have some know-how.
 
Blind_Io said:
Let me know how you like it. I'm tempted to get one, but I think I want a dummy-proof one that helps with settings.
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Sorry, took me until this weekend to find time to run it. Only did a super-small bracket project and no real testing but it seems to run nicely. Arc is smooth and stable and the wire feeds nicely.

Y3lVRfZ.jpg


I've never done MIG before, but for using the settings from the included cheat sheet and no tweaks that seems decent enough.
 
leviathan said:
As mentioned in the Random Thoughs - Tech thread, I've recently been on a look out for a new wireless mechanical keyboard and a fitting mouse. A few days after that post, my search has failed to produce anything better than the initially envisioned Logitech G613 / G603 combo, so without further ado, I went and bought the things.

View attachment 3560635

As was the intent, the wireless setup has helped clean up the desk considerably. Have been using the combo for about half a day now, first impressions are decent enough.

The keyboard:
- It's heeeeavy. Not a bad thing for desktop keyboard, no way it moves around without me wanting it to. Not recommended for couch "lap keyboard" usage though.
- Palm rest is non-removable. Not an issue for me, but some people dislike them a lot. Also adds to the "not for use on couch" factor.
- Switches are good. More comparable in feel to Cherry MX Browns that I used to have a while back than to the Blues of the Das Keyboard, but still decently tactile and not overly loud.
- The G-Keys are there. I don't really have a use for them, and annoyingly, it seems a couple years of a keyboard without them have cost a toll - I've hit them a couple times instead of Ctrl or Shift when moving hands to the keyboard initially :) Should go away though, since I used G keyboards in the past with no such issues.

The mouse:
- It's a yet another iteration on the MX510/MX518 basic design, in wireless. Works well enough. No fancy stuff like adjustable weights I had in the G500/G500s, but it feels about right with the two AA batteries that it takes. Thumb buttons for "forward-back" are nice, and less likely to be pressed accidentally than on my old G500s.

All in all, for 145€, I'm happy so far. Will see if the near future shows any points to not like.
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Just shy of two years after this purchase, still within the warranty window, I'm unhappy to report that not one but _both_ items of the combination have suffered issues and had to be returned.

The keyboard started developing a double trigger on switches. First on the "E" key a long while back, then on some other commonly used ones as well, more and more over time. Contacted Logitech, fought my way through the chatbot (hate those things) and then through a dialog with an actual human, got told to speak to the seller (Amazon) for a replacement. Did so, and after a much quicker conversation got a replacement keyboard and a shipping label to return the broken one. New one has been in operation for about 3 months now, no issues so far... but I fully expect it to die the same way in a year and a half or so.

The mouse has held up a couple months longer, but also had to go recently after the scroll wheel started scrolling in the wrong direction randomly. This time I went straight to Amazon, and instead of a replacement mouse asked for partial refund. Actually got a return shipping label and a full refund.

The reason I didn't want another G603 was, I wasn't particularly happy with it. It was... okay I guess? But nothing special. And the plasticky scroll wheel without side scrolling and with fixed notched scrolling, lacking a way to "flick" it long distance, was lacking. There is a button where I would expect the wheel mode switch to be, but it switches DPI settings - something I only ever did by accident and then spent a little while clicking through the modes to find the "normal" one again.

So instead I actually went to a MediaMarkt and perused the shelves with mice on display, where one can actually test them in hand. I had a hunch what the result would be, and after testing everything they had, it turned out to be correct:


IMG_2584.jpeg

It's a Logitech MX Master 3S, and seems to be the correct choice for me at the moment, since I barely ever game and mostly spend my time at the PC working or doing other productivity-related stuff.

Been a week so far with it, quite happy with the purchase. The shape is a bit different from the G603 / MX510/518-series that I was used to, but close enough and very comfortable. I like the addition of a thumb rest on the left. Main scroll wheel feels extremely high-quality and works perfectly.

Only annoyance is the Logitech software. It uses a different suite from the G603/G613 combo that I already had installed, called "Logitech Options+". Installed it briefly - it's not too bad actually, but: if your app has features that require OS-level permissions like "full keylogging access in all apps" and "full control of your machine" then you make those optional, and allow to still use the base functionality without them, instead of making them unskippable installation steps. There are some neat options like per-app remapping of all buttons and scrollwheels and stuff in there, but ultimately it's fluff, so after checking that everything's alright and the built-in battery came precharged to 50%, I uninstalled the stuff again. Mouse works perfectly fine without it all.
 
My son got me the MX Master 3 in 2021 as a birthday gift and I simply cannot use anything else. Every other mouse I ever tried felt too small and/or too plasticky. The 3S was not available at the time, but AFAIK it's not a huge upgrade.
I have no such annoyance with the software because Debian has no such thing but yeah, not a fair comparison. :geek:
I used to have random scrolls and tabs switching randomly, but a Chrome update seems to have fixed it.
 
leviathan said:
Only annoyance is the Logitech software. It uses a different suite from the G603/G613 combo that I already had installed, called "Logitech Options+". Installed it briefly - it's not too bad actually, but: if your app has features that require OS-level permissions like "full keylogging access in all apps" and "full control of your machine" then you make those optional, and allow to still use the base functionality without them, instead of making them unskippable installation steps. There are some neat options like per-app remapping of all buttons and scrollwheels and stuff in there, but ultimately it's fluff, so after checking that everything's alright and the built-in battery came precharged to 50%, I uninstalled the stuff again. Mouse works perfectly fine without it all.
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When buying an MX Master, I was told it works awesome with the bundled software. I heard opposite opinions too, and being a person who doesn't like installing software which isn't completely necessary to be installed, the decision wasn't hard at all. Besides, all buttons bar one are mapped the way I'd use them anyway, out of the box.
 
New keyboard time. I noticed the Glorious GMMK 2 96% a few weeks ago and was very interested in the layout. I also wanted to try Kailh Box switches because they are better for the SA keycaps I love.

I got the barebones 96% ISO and the Kailh Box white switches, it's very interesting so far. I swapped the keycaps over from my Cooler Master MK750 and fitted the alternatives that fitted the different spacing, I was surprised to find that my set had the correctly shaped keycaps for putting Page Down and End on the top row. With SA keycaps that top row is angled much more steeply. I quickly swapped Page Up and Page Down for Home and End, I use those much more regularly.

Before

Box o' switches

After
 
I’ve decided this is a toy, because it certainly feels like it, looking at how much fun it turned out to be!
Got my wife these for her Desk chair because she had the hard plastic murder-your-floor type wheels and these were cheap and well reviewed:
1C63A766-7CCB-416C-A163-53ED0FB8865B.jpeg


Put them on and instantly had to order a set for my chair as well. Holy hell they are good… :burnrubber:
 
eizbaer said:
I’ve decided this is a toy, because it certainly feels like it, looking at how much fun it turned out to be!
Got my wife these for her Desk chair because she had the hard plastic murder-your-floor type wheels and these were cheap and well reviewed:
View attachment 3568506

Put them on and instantly had to order a set for my chair as well. Holy hell they are good… :burnrubber:
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...unless your floor is at all uneven...then they tend to roll down hill veeeeery easily. 🤣
 
eizbaer said:
I’ve decided this is a toy, because it certainly feels like it, looking at how much fun it turned out to be!
Got my wife these for her Desk chair because she had the hard plastic murder-your-floor type wheels and these were cheap and well reviewed:
View attachment 3568506

Put them on and instantly had to order a set for my chair as well. Holy hell they are good… :burnrubber:
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link?
 
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