General Computer Chat

[Archer]

What are your holiday tech buying plans?

I personally really want a tablet. I am going to see if I can get a killer deal on black Friday. I'm not sure what to get my dad for Christmas. In comparison I bought his gift last year in October (a bluray player with networking). I don't even know where to start this year.

I'm pretty much set in terms of tech for the next few months. I should probably get 2 TB SATA HDD for my desktop, as I'm running out of storage space, although I could probably clean up a lot of the rubbish that's taking that up, as I hate the sound of mechanical drives with just one. I also should be buying a an External HDD before I go back to Uni, so I can start get Time Machine up and running on my laptop before I start doing work on it again.

 

[double trouble!]

I don't think I'll be getting anything.

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

changing my previous statement because i can :3

After cataloguing nearly all my technical stuff I've decided I'm going to buy a new portable hard drive, preferably one that won't break after a few months x3
Anybody know any good brands or tricks when buying one?

 

[quilzel]

changing my previous statement because i can :3

After cataloguing nearly all my technical stuff I've decided I'm going to buy a new portable hard drive, preferably one that won't break after a few months x3
Anybody know any good brands or tricks when buying one?

I have a WD MyPassport 500GB (USB3.0) that I bought last spring. Its been a very good little device. Its just a hair larger than a laptop drive, and about 1.5 times the thickness.

https://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=440

 

[Archer]

changing my previous statement because i can :3

After cataloguing nearly all my technical stuff I've decided I'm going to buy a new portable hard drive, preferably one that won't break after a few months x3
Anybody know any good brands or tricks when buying one?

I'd recommend Samsung in first place. Hitachi drives are pretty good quality, but they're ugly. Seagate's are usually the most aesthetically pleasing - decent quality.

I have a WD MyPassport 500GB (USB3.0) that I bought last spring. Its been a very good little device. Its just a hair larger than a laptop drive, and about 1.5 times the thickness.

https://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=440

Be VERY careful not to damage the plug on the passports. The drive's PCB is actually part of the enclosure, so if the plug or enclosure breaks, you can't pull the drive out like you can with most external drives. The USB3 plugs are going to be a little sturdier, purely because of the size, but the micro-USB (as opposed to the normal mini-USB that most drives use) ports they used broke far too often.

As with any external HDD, when you're not using it, pull the plug out of the drive to avoid it getting damaged rattling around in a bag, etc.

I'm glad you're happy with it, but I can't recommend the Passport range at all. The 'Elements' aren't too bad, but in my personal experience the WD Blue 2.5" drives (which they tend to use in some of the Elements) have a very high fail-rate.

I'm thinking of just setting up a NAS with a 3TB RAID0 array to have everyone's computers backing up to over the network.

 

[double trouble!]

I have a WD Elements 1.5 TB drive. I've had it for a few months now, still working well.

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

As important as aesthetics usually are to me this time I just want to get one that lasts me more than six months xD
Maybe I might see what Samsung portable drives are like. Anyone have any comments on them?

 

[Archer]

As important as aesthetics usually are to me this time I just want to get one that lasts me more than six months xD
Maybe I might see what Samsung portable drives are like. Anyone have any comments on them?

Up to 750GB is great. The 1TBs don't seem to like old systems, as they draw more current thanks to the extra platter, but as long it's relatively recent (<6 years), you'll be sweet. So I'd strongly recommend them. I'm talking about the 2.5" drives, though. I'm not sure why anyone would bother with 3.5" drives, as they're not worth the hassle. Extra bulk: check. Need for external power: check. Louder: check. Less hardy: check. :cer_laugh:

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

I don't think I'll chance the 1TB hard drive then, I don't have a clue how old the computers at my college are xD
Defiantly steering clear of 3.5", an external hard drive would server me no use as if I needed to ferry say a lot of photographs from my home PC to college that wouldn't fit on my USB stick we don't have access to the main's in my college and the ones that you can see are being used for computers.

 

[Carter]

can programming be discussed here? there is no discussions concerning any so i'm guessing none are interested in the topic.

 

[Alternative]

I've never been here before. :/

So here's the thing, I'm not exactly the computer savvy type when it comes to hardware. I've got a laptop computer which I got around August this year, and it's starting to reach the stage of overheating when it comes to using programs like Photoshop, or even trying to watch a youtube video. The fan inside the laptop is also incredibly noisy, and I would like to try and counter these problems somehow.

Is there anything I could do about this?

 

[quilzel]

I've never been here before. :/

So here's the thing, I'm not exactly the computer savvy type when it comes to hardware. I've got a laptop computer which I got around August this year, and it's starting to reach the stage of overheating when it comes to using programs like Photoshop, or even trying to watch a youtube video. The fan inside the laptop is also incredibly noisy, and I would like to try and counter these problems somehow.

Is there anything I could do about this?

Several things actually. First thing first. When you flip over your laptop, looking in the grill gard of fan, can you see the fan blades? Is the grill gaurd open enough to get something small in there like a toothpick?

Go to a store and buy a can of compressed air, it is generally not a good idea to use an air compressor for this task. If the grill guard is big enough to stuff a toothpick or straightened paper clip in there do so. This will keep the fan from spinning while you are blowing the lint and dust out with the compressed air. While it is not 100% required that you block the fan from spinning, it is advised. As blowing the fan out with the compressed air can damage the fan by causing it to spin too fast. (have had this happen, though not on a laptop) When the blade is secured (or not) simply blow dust out of the heatsink using the can of air.

There are other ways but require you to be a little more savvy. If blowing out the air does not result in the computer keeping cool then there maybe a defect in the system (not enough thermal paste, bad heatsink design etc.) I would recommend contacting the manufacture and asking what would be the next step. While the laptop is under warranty that is the best place to get things done as it should be done for free by the manufacture.

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

can programming be discussed here? there is no discussions concerning any so i'm guessing none are interested in the topic.

Erm... you haven't looked very hard have you?
People have broken out into programming in this thread and there's even an IRC channel for it :S

I've never been here before. :/

So here's the thing, I'm not exactly the computer savvy type when it comes to hardware. I've got a laptop computer which I got around August this year, and it's starting to reach the stage of overheating when it comes to using programs like Photoshop, or even trying to watch a youtube video. The fan inside the laptop is also incredibly noisy, and I would like to try and counter these problems somehow.

Is there anything I could do about this?

Like quizel said it could be something caught in the fan causing the noise and overheating but it may be a fault in that model, try looking it up to see if it's a known problem. If it is and you don't want to get your money back you could always invest in a cooling pad for it :3

 

[blue]

I have a HP laptop that ALWAYS shuts down to prevent overheating but I remember reading somewhere that HP's always have fan/overheating problems so it's a pain.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Hey C&T, it's been a while. How's your tech stuff going?

I recently got a 560 Ti for Battlefield 3. I'm not regretting the purchase at all.

 

[Meganium]

I have a HP laptop that ALWAYS shuts down to prevent overheating but I remember reading somewhere that HP's always have fan/overheating problems so it's a pain.

Not just that. Some HP laptops have crappy graphics chips (*cough* Nvidia *cough*) that burn out due to overheating. Had that happen to my HP laptop just recently. D:

 

[double trouble!]

Hey C&T, it's been a while. How's your tech stuff going?

I recently got a 560 Ti for Battlefield 3. I'm not regretting the purchase at all.

I have a 560 Ti too!
I got it in September to finish my build, and everything's still working fine.
I was afraid my hard drive would die or something like that... Most comments and ratings on hard drives are bad.

 

[Blaze the Cat]

Hey there.
I want to make walkthroughs but I have no idea where I can get anything to film from my DS. I have no idea how to work it either.
I was also wondering if I order DVDs/NDS games from amazon.com, will it work on my DVD player/NDS? I live in Europe and most likely have PAL versions.

 

[linkinpark187]

I have a 560 Ti too!
I got it in September to finish my build, and everything's still working fine.
I was afraid my hard drive would die or something like that... Most comments and ratings on hard drives are bad.

I also have a 506Ti. lol I've had it since this spring (love tax returns), and love it. Come this spring, I want to get a second to run in SLI. Also going to possibly get a SSD, but definitely going up to 16GB of RAM. I have 8GB currently, but with the price of memory being as insane as it is, it's well worth it.

 

[Archer]

Hey there.
I want to make walkthroughs but I have no idea where I can get anything to film from my DS. I have no idea how to work it either.
I was also wondering if I order DVDs/NDS games from amazon.com, will it work on my DVD player/NDS? I live in Europe and most likely have PAL versions.

In terms of filming the DS, it's going to be difficult. You're going to need to find a way to mount the camera above the DS (a tripod that you can tilt over is the best option and you will also need to work out how to fix the DS in position.

In terms of ordering games from overseas, the NDS games are region-free, so they will work on any DS. 3DS games, on the other hand, are region-locked, so they won't.

DVDs are usually region-locked. You'll need to find out the region code for you country and stick to ordering DVDs from within the same region code. Some DVD players are region-unaware, so they might work, but computers aren't (without special software) and you'd need to make sure first.

I also have a 560Ti. lol I've had it since this spring (love tax returns), and love it. Come this spring, I want to get a second to run in SLI. Also going to possibly get a SSD, but definitely going up to 16GB of RAM. I have 8GB currently, but with the price of memory being as insane as it is, it's well worth it.

A SSD is the single biggest upgrade you can give a system. Go for at least 100-120GB. It's expensive, but you'll struggle to notice the difference between 8GB and 16GB memory, whereas the SSD will be a whole new experience.