The "New Toys" Thread

Oh well, I got myself a new MX Master 3S to replace my old and aging MX Master (1) - which I'll move to the office then, because I can't actually stand working with a tiny MX anywhere all day long anymore. mhm yes. the silent buttons and scrollwheel still feel fairly weird to me. also the thumb buttons feel weird because they're placed ever so slightly differently.

... i should add, what got the stone rolling: weird "lags" from the old logitech unifying cordless crap. i do hope the new bolt stuff is better.
 
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Finally gave in and bought some (hopefully) decent tools to no longer have to manually turn so many screws and bolts. One impact (the kinda best budget option that can st least undo lug nuts, DTW285) in a box with 2 5Ah batteries and charger, and a 90° ratcheting wrench (DWR180) extra, which unfortunately only comes in 3/8th but I'll for now use a 1/2 adapter, or if need be, get a 3/8th bit selection.

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Finally gave in and bought some (hopefully) decent tools to no longer have to manually turn so many screws and bolts. One impact (the kinda best budget option that can st least undo lug nuts, DTW285) in a box with 2 5Ah batteries and charger, and a 90° ratcheting wrench (DWR180) extra, which unfortunately only comes in 3/8th but I'll for now use a 1/2 adapter, or if need be, get a 3/8th bit selection.

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I would say that is a very nett decision. :)
 
(DWR180) extra, which unfortunately only comes in 3/8th but I'll for now use a 1/2 adapter, or if need be, get a 3/8th bit selection.
Did it just come with a 3/8" square drive? I have the DWR180 too and it came with 3/8" and 1/4" drive adapters. I've been looking for external drive sockets that I can use with it (it'll do 13mm hex raw), so far the only close ones I've found are the Gedore 1/2" external drive and I'm too much of a chicken to just get one and try it.
 
Did it just come with a 3/8" square drive? I have the DWR180 too and it came with 3/8" and 1/4" drive adapters. I've been looking for external drive sockets that I can use with it (it'll do 13mm hex raw), so far the only close ones I've found are the Gedore 1/2" external drive and I'm too much of a chicken to just get one and try it.
Yes it came with 3/8 and 1/4, and I bought an additional 3/8th to 1/2 adapter to use my 1/2 sockets. Although I just remembered that I got an old 1/4 set with a shitty/near broken small ratchet, might just use that maybe.
 
The Parts Fairy decided to stop by my office this week:
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AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
MSI B650 Tomahawk WIFI
ASUS ROG Strix RX6750XT
XPG Lancer RGB 2x32GB DDR5 5600
WD SN770 2TB
Corsair RM750
Deepcool LT520
Fractal Meshify 2

Some process pics:
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End result:
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Great looking build. The outer case of the ROG 6750 XT appears to be identical to that on my ROG RTX 3080, the part with the RGB LEDs at least.
 
Got a little frustrated with having hardly any wifi in my garage (or even mobile reception) or on the first floor since we switched to a another provider with another router, so I bought a mesh router kit to hopefully fix that problem. Ordered the X20 and received the X50 :unsure:. Sent them an e-mail about the mistake in case I should ever need the warranty. Because of the rather small difference in price and my honesty (and probably because returning it etc in the end would cost them more than the price difference) they offered me to keep this kit.

When we redid all the electrical in our house I installed UTP cables and wall outlets in pretty much every room in the house except for the garage, 'cause why would I want a network port there? Luckily there's a crawlspace under the house so it shouldn't be that hard to run a cable. I'll probably go ahead and run a second (longer) cable while I'm down there just in case the router in the room behind the garage doesn't cover enough of the garden and I need to add an outdoor unit to suit my wife's wishes.
 
Got a little frustrated with having hardly any wifi in my garage (or even mobile reception) or on the first floor since we switched to a another provider with another router, so I bought a mesh router kit to hopefully fix that problem. Ordered the X20 and received the X50 :unsure:. Sent them an e-mail about the mistake in case I should ever need the warranty. Because of the rather small difference in price and my honesty (and probably because returning it etc in the end would cost them more than the price difference) they offered me to keep this kit.

When we redid all the electrical in our house I installed UTP cables and wall outlets in pretty much every room in the house except for the garage, 'cause why would I want a network port there? Luckily there's a crawlspace under the house so it shouldn't be that hard to run a cable. I'll probably go ahead and run a second (longer) cable while I'm down there just in case the router in the room behind the garage doesn't cover enough of the garden and I need to add an outdoor unit to suit my wife's wishes.
We went from an expensive single router, to a lower-mid-tier (from what I understand) mesh system (TP Link Deco), and it's been so so much more reliable. We're not stressing any bandwidth limits with our usage, so it's been really great for us. Our lot is long and skinny, 25' x 100'. We have full-strength signal all the way from our driveway, to the back of our back yard, and yet the network disappears as an available network on my phone when I'm not even to the far side of my neighbor's lot. I like that we're not "broadcasting" out network to 40 neighbors.
 
Just ordered 32GB (two 16GB sticks, CL40) of GDDR5-4800 SODIMM for our laptop. $79.09 including shipping. Not bad, not bad...

It's these, in case anyone's curious. Make sure to use the promo code "10CRUCIAL" for 10% off.

Amusingly the photo they use on their own website is for desktop memory, but all of the specs and listing title both match SODIMM, and the "available at select retailers" links all pull up SODIMM product pages. So...crossing my fingers, but feeling pretty confident.
 
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Impulse-buy of the day :D
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That could make Zwift a little more comfortable than juggling a regular BT keyboard and the companion app on the phone to do stuff... also waterproof, so less to worry about.
 
Are decent sunglasses a technology purchase?

After a couple decades of using cheap gas station-grade sunglasses, the lowest point being safety googles that happened to be made from tinted rather than clear plastic, I impulse bought a a decent pair. I ended up with Oakley Sylas with the blue mirror finish because it happened to be the only pair left i stock that were polarized. I wasn't about to leave the store with a pair of house brand glasses at a third the price. Non-polarized is not an option since these are used for boating as well.
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I guess mirror finish is in fashion right now. I would've preferred the red/orange version but this is what they had so it's what I got. I realized fairly quickly that this is the first pair of sunglasses I've ever had where I haven't felt the need to take them off whenever I'm doing anything with my hands. Buying quality stuff really makes all the difference. No news there.

And yes I'm aware that they're made by Luxottica which owns almost all the sunglass brands in the world, and large parts of the retail chain. They wanted to buy Oakley but Oakley declined, so they removed the brand from their retail chains. Oakley stock plummeted and Luxottica picked them up for scrap value a while later. Real nice guys, those.

Speaking of what's in fashion or not, some people seem to want to look like a 65" TV these days because stores are full of these ski goggle type things. I guess I'm old fashioned when I don't want to be out and about with those on my face.

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Are decent sunglasses a technology purchase?

After a couple decades of using cheap gas station-grade sunglasses, the lowest point being safety googles that happened to be made from tinted rather than clear plastic, I impulse bought a a decent pair. I ended up with Oakley Sylas with the blue mirror finish because it happened to be the only pair left i stock that were polarized. I wasn't about to leave the store with a pair of house brand glasses at a third the price. Non-polarized is not an option since these are used for boating as well.
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I guess mirror finish is in fashion right now. I would've preferred the red/orange version but this is what they had so it's what I got. I realized fairly quickly that this is the first pair of sunglasses I've ever had where I haven't felt the need to take them off whenever I'm doing anything with my hands. Buying quality stuff really makes all the difference. No news there.

And yes I'm aware that they're made by Luxottica which owns almost all the sunglass brands in the world, and large parts of the retail chain. They wanted to buy Oakley but Oakley declined, so they removed the brand from their retail chains. Oakley stock plummeted and Luxottica picked them up for scrap value a while later. Real nice guys, those.

Speaking of what's in fashion or not, some people seem to want to look like a 65" TV these days because stores are full of these ski goggle type things. I guess I'm old fashioned when I don't want to be out and about with those on my face.

View attachment 3569802

View: https://youtu.be/QePcj9BplMQ
 
Speaking of what's in fashion or not, some people seem to want to look like a 65" TV these days
Now I kinda feel bad for wanting a huge pair of sunglasses like half the tdf peloton 😐

🤣 but yeah… somehow I can’t get over the fact that’s most of those are crazy expensive for what they are. Also I actually don’t want to look like a tv set, so finding something that doesn’t actually look out of place on my face might be a struggle. Currently running a cheap pair of alpina wayfarer-replicas…

Edit: keeping with the cycling theme, new toy for me:
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Speaking of Wayfarers, Ray-Ban was gas station crap when Luxottica bought them, took them off the market for a year and then rebooted the brand. Now they're expensive again.
 
I've never spent more than $19.99 on a pair of sunglasses, but after I had my hands on a pair of counterfeit Oakleys, I know to test any cheap pairs for UV blocking. https://www.eyeweargenius.com/how-to/test-sunglasses-uv-protection/

Otherwise they could actually do harm to your eyes by being darker so that your pupils open wider, allowing more UV light in.
 
I'm lucky enough to need prescription sunglasses, so those are expensive. I like the idea of LCD lenses that can be darkened but modern spectacle frames don't lend themselves to being sunglasses and vice-versa.
 
I actually just spent 100 bucks on some aviator ripoffs from Zenni to see how they manage with my prescription and if I like the quality. the things would've been about 400 locally.

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Not that I will fully avoid Luxottica if they pass, my normal glasses will be polarized Transition lenses on their ripoff Wayfarer Classic frames.
 
The Prime sale strikes again! A couple of firsts - my first 4TB SSD and my first non-Samsung SSD. I have a lot of other Corsair hardware and it's good, hopefully this isn't crap. Samsung don't make a 4TB NVMe SSD or I would've bought that.

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It'll be replacing the 2TB SATA SSD that I currently use for recorded videos and video editing projects, which is almost full and no longer fast enough for lots of 4K clips. This is a Gen4 NVMe SSD but it'll have to settle with Gen3 on my motherboard, which should be fine. I had actually forgotten that this board has 4 M.2 slots until I checked.

Not sure what I will do with the 2TB 860 QVO that it replaces, it might become secondary photo storage as part of my quest to retire the 6TB mechanical disk I have in this machine.
 
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