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Erkki

Damn it, but computers have become really complicated

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tnx for the advice, going to keep a eye out in the black friday sales for any deep discounts

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Does anybody have experience with non-root third party tethering apps?  My Internet went out a few hours ago, and being a holiday weekend I don't know if it will get fixed before Monday or not.  But tethering is locked on my phone and I've never messed around with the unofficial options.

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This is maybe a really dumb question, but where is the New York Times app? I got a digital subscription for my birthday that included a phone subscription, but I can't find the actual NYTimes app on the app store. There's an NYTimes Breaking News app (which I can't even download because I have an iPhone 4) but I just want to read the newspaper on my phone. Do I have to do that in browser? I was under the impression there's an actual straight-ahead NYTimes app, but I can't find it anywhere.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I guess upon looking further into it the Breaking News app is the NYTimes app. And I can't use it. Awesome.

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If you ever accidentally delete all the photos off your Android phone, rest assured that the Gallery app keeps a cache of low-res versions (supposedly for thumbnail-building) that is not deleted under any circumstances. It's trivial to load up the cache file in JPEGsnoop and extract all of them. And when I say "all of them," I mean all of them. If you've never cleared the cache for your Gallery app, literally every photo that you've ever taken with your phone is easily accessible. It's nice, because the CopperVision rebate app deleted all my pictures on Wednesday, but it's also scary, because of this fuckin' surveillance state in which we live.

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Gormongous, I was looking for something with exactly that capability the minute you were writing up your recommendation.

Next up: turn off Swipe To Instadelete in the Gallery app...

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I want to build a PC.

My wish list contains

- GeForce 950 2GB

- Intel I3-4160 Dual-Core or Intel I5-4460 Quad-Core

- 2x 4GB RAM

- 500W Power Supply

- Win 7 64Bit

As I’ve been out of the loop for quite some time, so questions arose.

- Do the components fit together, power-wise?

- Is the power supply strong enough? I probably won’t put in much more, a small SSD and a larger normal one, occasionally it’d need watts for an external drive.

- Do I have to buy the more expansive Intel? Is it worth the 50-70 bucks more?

- Anything tricky I need to watch out for?

I’d really appreciate some input from you people.

Thanks!

I'm gonna be That Guy™ and suggest you get the 4690K. You can easily overlock that chip to 4.4GHz and have it last you 5-6 years. The 4460 looks like a nice proc, but I'm going to guess you won't get the lifespan out of it that you will the 4690K.

 

But if you're firm on prices, I'm going to say yes, the 4460 is absolutely worth the extra money.

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I am not expecting next year with any great anticipation because of the news that Microsoft will start to force Windows 10 upgrade installation on people. I do not want to be bothered by all members of my family that something weird is happening with their computers and why does this and this look strange now compared to before. I already now have to do way too much maintenance on their Windows 7 laptops because they are all dummies.

 

Also because all the background data gathering in Windows 10 creeps me out. They even have brought it to Windows 7 etc, but thankfully those updates could be uninstalled. I am so damn happy that I fould GWX Stopper one day when searching how to remove the Windows 10 upgrade icon from the taskbar etc.

 

All this data gathering and NSA and shit that has happened in the past few years has made me and all my friends move from using Hangouts to use Signal, which is said to be the most secure messaging program in existance at the moment. They just started their desktop beta program so now I can use it like I used to use Hangouts, both on PC and on my phone. No tablet support at least yet though...

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I just kind of assume everyone has my shit but it doesn't matter because I'm nobody.

 

So I've been researching the process of custom-sleeving my own PSU cables, and it's kind of insane the amount of work which is required. We're talking double-crimped wires here, folks.

 

But look how beautiful this is:

 

Orange-Cable-Set.jpg

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What.

 

I'm going to buy a computer. I want it to last -- I have a feeling I won't be able to buy a new one without serious compromises in years and years. So I'm looking at the GTX 960, but I can't tell which processor goes well with it. Is the 6600K overkill? It is for my budget. Or is a cheaper processor with an even more expensive GPU the better choice? I think I'll get liquid cooling for the processor just for the hell of it. I also want a 256gb or so SSD but I can't tell which ones are good value. If I get the Skylake processor and Z170 mobo to go with it, I could get an M.2 SSD, but I don't know if that actually makes any kind of difference. The old 120gb SSD my current system runs on already feels ridiculously fast.

 

I can spend maybe 1150€, but that's with Windows and in Finland, so stuff tends to be very expensive.

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What.

 

I'm going to buy a computer. I want it to last -- I have a feeling I won't be able to buy a new one without serious compromises in years and years. So I'm looking at the GTX 960, but I can't tell which processor goes well with it. Is the 6600K overkill? It is for my budget. Or is a cheaper processor with an even more expensive GPU the better choice? I think I'll get liquid cooling for the processor just for the hell of it. I also want a 256gb or so SSD but I can't tell which ones are good value. If I get the Skylake processor and Z170 mobo to go with it, I could get an M.2 SSD, but I don't know if that actually makes any kind of difference. The old 120gb SSD my current system runs on already feels ridiculously fast.

 

I can spend maybe 1150€, but that's with Windows and in Finland, so stuff tends to be very expensive.

 

I just bought a new PC that kind of fits your plan, but my experience does not go much beyond that.

- the SSDs from SanDisk seemed to be a bit cheaper while still being solid - so far I'm very pleased with mine (it takes far less than a minute from pushing the power button on my PC to standing in the bostonian wasteland - SSDs, in general, are the best)

- my GTX 960 with the older I5-4460 does everything in the highest settings so far (I only have a 1440x900 screen though and haven't tried MGS5 yet) - if finances would have allowed I would have definitely gone with a better processor - I was under the impression (informed by thumbs-people as well) that a nicer processor would have future proofed the machine far more than a better GPU

- as a side note, if you are aiming for a quiet machine with your water cooling, components that aim to be 'silent' might be sufficient, I tried it this route and it works wonderfully, the machine is inaudible most of the time - and it's probably cheaper and less of a hassle this way

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Cheers! Processor heatsinks tend to collect dust if you're a lazy sod like me. That's reason number one. Being able to push the processor a bit if I need to in the future is number two.

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If you are so interested in VR, the minimum specifications that Oculus published include a GTX970 or higher.

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I was comparing between SanDisk and Samsung SSDs myself. SanDisk SSDs have a 3 year warranty and Samsungs have a 5 year. Also, I've been able to find tons of positive feedback on the Samsungs, and not really all that much on the SanDisks. I decided to pay a little extra and get the Samsung myself.

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if finances would have allowed I would have definitely gone with a better processor - I was under the impression (informed by thumbs-people as well) that a nicer processor would have future proofed the machine far more than a better GPU

Yes, at least of this writing. Skylake is not worth the extra build costs surrounding it--brand new boards and DDR4 cost a lot. I would personally look at the 4690K and a good mid-range board and like a GTX 950. The GPU's the first thing you replace anyway (except RAM, I guess), so there's no reason to buy the best card on the market out the gate.

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This is what I ended up getting since I found package deal that seemed cheap and it comes with Just Cause 3.

  • Intel i5-6600K 3.5GHz
  • Z170 (USB3.0, SATA III)  -- so a cheap one I suppose since it doesn't have USB 3.1
  • GeForce GTX 960, 4GB GDDR5 -- don't know which exactly
  • 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 2133 MHz -- I'll be getting more at some point, I'm sure
  • 250GB SATA3 SSD -- don't know which, I'm hoping it's a Samsung

I didn't see any kind of savings from not going Skylake. 

 

I figured I'll give it two years or so and then I'll get a liquid cooler for it and overclock it.

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I feel like I've recently failed as a legit PC gamer because I just bought a gaming laptop. Well, more of a laptop I intend to use for business purposes but oh whoops it is quite capable of gaming. I'm tired of upgrading my PC. I'm kinda just tired of having this huge behemoth desktop tower that was a pain to lug around and setup when I was moving to my new house. I was not very excited about the prospect of buying a $200-300 processor so that I could capture video at a decent framerate and resolution.

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I've run with gaming laptops in the past.  I'm currently using a PC that I didn't build because I reached the point where I was tired of doing it myself.  I plan to upgrade it as time goes on but for the initial build I wanted it taken care of for me.  I really hate the notion that a gaming PC has to be DIY or you're not a "true" gamer.

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I ran a gaming laptop combined with a console for a long time. I would play all the hottest new releases on the console, but then all the older stuff I enjoyed (and play a lot more really) on the laptop. In the end, I overheated it and melted the video card to slag.

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I bought a pre-built machine as I was on a fairly limited budget and wanted something fairly low to middle end that could run the stuff I wanted to play. The only AAA titles I really play are the Blizzard free to plays & WoW, so I was mostly interested in getting something that could run current re-releases of old games. My existing laptop couldn't run Grim Fandango and I figured I needed something a little beefier. It's only ~6 months old now but runs MGSV competently and still has a deliciously short boot up time. I got the Lenovo Erazer X315 for the pretty deeply discounted price of $500.

 

 

  • AMD A8-7600 Processor (3.10GHz 4MB)
• Windows 8.1 64
• AMD R9 255 2GB
• 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz
• 1TB 7200 RPM
• DVD Recordable
• Lenovo AC Wireless
• Bluetooth Version 4.0
• One year
• USB Optical Gesture Mouse

 

Specs inside the spoiler tag. This was one of 2 models available and I went for the cheaper one without the 8gb SSD

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After watching and waiting for weeks, I finally caught a 20% off sale on the i7 4790k (shortly after finding a good motherboard that was 55% off (normally $200)). If anyone else is still looking to pull the trigger on a processor, Amazon still has it on sale for $299 (normally $379).

 

I have everything ordered now except the graphic card and got smoking deals on virtually everything. I've been checking the GTX 980 ti for over a month now and haven't seen anything better than 10% off so it looks like that will be the one component I may have to actually pay near full price for.

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I bought a pre-built machine as I was on a fairly limited budget and wanted something fairly low to middle end that could run the stuff I wanted to play. The only AAA titles I really play are the Blizzard free to plays & WoW, so I was mostly interested in getting something that could run current re-releases of old games. My existing laptop couldn't run Grim Fandango and I figured I needed something a little beefier. It's only ~6 months old now but runs MGSV competently and still has a deliciously short boot up time. I got the Lenovo Erazer X315 for the pretty deeply discounted price of $500.

 

 

  • AMD A8-7600 Processor (3.10GHz 4MB)

• Windows 8.1 64

• AMD R9 255 2GB

• 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz

• 1TB 7200 RPM

• DVD Recordable

• Lenovo AC Wireless

• Bluetooth Version 4.0

• One year

• USB Optical Gesture Mouse

 

Specs inside the spoiler tag. This was one of 2 models available and I went for the cheaper one without the 8gb SSD

 

Ooh, that's pretty nice indeed for that price. I feel like AMD has a pretty solid foothold on the low-budget gaming laptop space in my limited research. I bought a Dell that seems to be an unexpectedly great gaming PC wrapped up in the Inspiron middle-range line for $900, the Inspiron 7559 -

  • 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)]
  • Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
  • 8GB Single Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx1)
  • 1TB 5.4k Hybrid HDD + 8G Cache [1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive + 8GB Embedded Flash Cache]
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
  • 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display
  • 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0, Dual Band 2.4&5 GHz, 1x1

Seemed to me that any model of gaming laptop with the 960M was running for $1000-1200 and the base model of this one goes for $800 with the Core i5, I did the $100 step-up to the Core i7. Before I grabbed this one I was looking at some of the ultrabooks available, again my primary goal was getting a Windows laptop that I could do work on but this was effectively the same price as most decent ultrabooks for way more power and slightly less portability (4-5 hours of battery life instead of 7-8, a little heavier/bigger).

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I've run with gaming laptops in the past.  I'm currently using a PC that I didn't build because I reached the point where I was tired of doing it myself.  I plan to upgrade it as time goes on but for the initial build I wanted it taken care of for me.  I really hate the notion that a gaming PC has to be DIY or you're not a "true" gamer.

 

Yeah, I don't really like that line of thought either. For me part of the reason building a PC is such a part of PC gaming is that it's directly in the same wheelhouse that gaming itself is in. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to get the best value out of gaming (or pushing back against that notion), whether that's hours per dollar or other kinds of value, and building a PC yourself is about trying to squeeze the most value out of your dollar.

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