The "New Toys" Thread

I want to go to Hamburg for that miniature wonderland place.

Me too, could be the sort of thing to do the days before or after Ringmeet. Next year, obviously. :p
 
For a while now I have been the go-to guy among my friends whenever we are listening to music, because they generally like my playlists etc. While it is nice that my friends like my taste in music (or that I have odd friends or whatever), my phone's battery life tends to take a blow from this. I also find it to be a nuisance to have my phone hooked up to a speaker via bluetooth, or even physically hooked up to a stereo, every time I'm with my friends and we are having music on in the background, and someone calls me or sends me messages via the plethora of messaging apps that I have to use these days. The fact that my phone is locked down with biometrics also complicates matters when someone wants to add something to the playlist or play queue.

The solution to this was to buy and iPod. So yes, I bought my first iPod in 2020, roughly 15 years after everyone else bought theirs, and ten-to-five years after everyone else I know threw them away.

Since I need to be able to use Spotify, I had to go for the latest generation (7th, introduced last year) iPod Touch, which is the only one they still sell. I got one with 256 GB, as one of the Apple retailers here sold them at a $50 discount, and that meant that I could fit all the music I have on it (both local copies via iTunes/Apple Music, and downloaded content from Spotify), with plenty of space to spare. The A10 Fusion chip in it means it will stay supported with iOS updates for some more years.

Holding it in my hand it is amazing how this makes my iPhone 7 look and feel gigantic. I can't help thinking how cool it would be if Apple managed to make an iPhone that small again.
 
Amusingly, I've also been looking at a dedicated MP3 player recently. I was looking more at the Sony ones, though, but same deal. In photos, my brain pictures them larger than they really are in hand.
 
My dad still uses his 128MB Creative MuVo, I've been trying to convince him to use his phone instead as it only holds one album at decent quality. :p
 
An OWC drive enclosure

...and a Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB of 3200MHz memory, a Sapphire 5600XT, a seasonic PSU, a 500gig SSD, and various other bits and bobs.


My dad still uses his 128MB Creative MuVo, I've been trying to convince him to use his phone instead as it only holds one album at decent quality. :p

Does he think it is an excellent rectangle?
 
So ended up going to Micro Center yesterday and left with a 3600XT, Asus Tuf X570 Plus, 32 gig DDR4 3600 and a 1 TB Inland Premium M.2, reused my 1080 SC2, corsair H750i power supply and put everything in the Lian Li Lancool II case.

Getting an OS in the computer was a bit of a PITA, my plan was to install win 7 and upgrade to windows 10 because that loop hole is still open. Well that didn't happen, even though the board has USB 2.0 headers and a PS2 port I couldn't get a mouse or keyboard to work at the win 7 install screen. <_<

Thankfully this morning one of the guys who works for me gave me a win 10 home license from his MDSN account which solved all of my problems. :D

Going from a case that is 10 years old to one that has cable management was interesting as well, cable management is nice but requires you to put some though into the design.

An interesting observation straight out of the box it was OC'd to 4.5 GHz due to the performance boost override that explained the 150-160° F idle temps, shut that off and did a mild OC of 4 GHz now it idles around 115°.

Running Assetto Corsa Competizione at 1440p the temps were ~145° compared to my old 2500k OC'd to 4.3 GHz cooled by the H80i v1 it would run at ~125° at 1080p.

Forza 7 set to epic was running around 140° so a 15-20° increase going from a 4 core 4 thread chip to a six core 12 thread on air is a bit of a surprise.

All in all not a bad upgrade.

Any tips for this chip? This is my first AMD build in 13 years. What cooler is everyone running I am leaning towards the Noctua NH-U12A

The lone sata cable is for my dvd drive, i guess the younger crowd doesn't need an optical drive in a case anymore.

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Once upon a time, there was a tax return. ?

I was just going to get the air pump, because I tend to never be arsed to check my tires and maybe that will change now. I was pawing the chainsaw when the salesman started talking about knocking €100 off the €399 it lists for on their own site, so it was a done deal.

Pros: I can store it in my flat without the smell of fuel (and the fire hazard) and it’s obviously quiet and there’s no cord ripping and swearing.

Cons: i need to remember to take the battery out when there are kids around. For a tool this dangerous it’s way too easy to “start”.

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More crap for my keychain. :D

This thing puts out 150 lumens (!) and charges off of microusb. Oh, and it was €11,50. It's a nice upgrade from the iphone flashlight.

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Nice.
I like those tiny flashlights, but I need one that is rechargeable. My maglite eats AAA batteries like it's popcorn.
 
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Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Mop Pro. Now the Chinese will know a somewhat inaccurate layout of my apartment... oh no, whatever shall I do.

Got it as a replacement for my old Medion randomwalking vacuum, which is now serving my brother in his student apartment. This one is much smarter - it maps the place with a Lidar and actually navigates around instead of randomly bumping off walls and furniture. Does a fairly decent job of it too, from the initial test run I've done... it's also quieter than the old one, and can mop floors as well, haven't tried that yet. For 250€, not a bad deal imho.
 
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Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Mop Pro. Now the Chinese will know a somewhat inaccurate layout of my apartment... oh no, whatever shall I do.

Got it as a replacement for my old Medion randomwalking vacuum, which is now serving my brother in his student apartment. This one is much smarter - it maps the place with a Lidar and actually navigates around instead of randomly bumping off walls and furniture. Does a fairly decent job of it too, from the initial test run I've done... it's also quieter than the old one, and can mop floors as well, haven't tried that yet. For 250€, not a bad deal imho.

hahaha, when does the robot lawn mower come? :D
 
Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Mop Pro. Now the Chinese will know a somewhat inaccurate layout of my apartment... oh no, whatever shall I do.

Nothing until they break in and rearrange furniture just because :p .

Though it may be too late by then.
 
I'm sad enough to watch a channel called Vacuum Wars, those things are getting pretty smart and that's a good price for one with Lidar.
 
I'm sad enough to watch a channel called Vacuum Wars, those things are getting pretty smart and that's a good price for one with Lidar.

Is this a continuation of Robot Wars? I wonder if we can connect VR headsets to robot vacuums so we can vacuum virtually.
 
Is this a continuation of Robot Wars? I wonder if we can connect VR headsets to robot vacuums so we can vacuum virtually.

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I think the similar name is how I found the channel. I would totally put a VR headset on to drive the vacuum around and tease the cat, or drive the robot lawn mower to the neighbours' house and destroy their flowers. :LOL:
 
Does it say Roborock anywhere on it?

Just asking because Xiaomi used to rebadge Roborocks and sell as a part of their own smart home ecosystem but I thought they stopped doing that now. I have one of those, a Xiaomi Roborock II S5 I'm very happy with. Great navigation and great cleaning result. Having an app for it made all the difference, because I can start it remotely. My old Roomba needed to be started when I left for work in the morning and obviously that never happened.
 
I wish mine had more downloadable voices to choose from. Drunken Irish, John Cleese, American Deep South or something along those lines.

BTW, I tried downloading the Roborock app the other day but my S5 II wasn’t supported. Shame. I was curious if it’s any better than/different from the Xiaomi app.
 
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