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ChicagoDave

I would absolutely recommend against a 128gb ssd if your budget can afford a larger one. Not only will you be playing "space Tetris" trying to fit things on it (after the OS and a fwe programs), but 128gb models are the slowest of any current SSD line. Personally I'd skip the 1tb drive and...

ChicagoDave

Fairly certain the main reason phone manufacturers are sealing phone batteries is to increase water resistance. Planned obsolescence is just a nice side benefit. Also agree with ludi....the vast majority of consumers don't give a crap about replaceable batteries. I care (and care about SD storage ev...

ChicagoDave

I've had the Moto G4 Play for about a year now, love it and would highly recommend it. It has a removable battery and SD card (micro I think?). I go to BestBuy and get the Verizon prepaid ones - they're usually like $50. I do the month to month Verizon plan for $50/mo with 3gb of data. If you want a...

ChicagoDave

Yeah, I built one last year and I've been put off by the input lag. I tried RetroPie and Lakka (which is basically RetroArch-as-a-shell) and neither one of them gave me that instantaneous feeling, even when plugged into my PC monitor. I've been meaning to do some testing on this, but keep procrasti...

ChicagoDave

This is most certainly overkill for you (as it is for me), but for an additional data point, I've had the TP-Link Archer AC3200 for at least a year now. It's have four hardwired connections (HTPC, Stereo Receiver, fileserver #1 and work laptop) and wireless connections to fileserver #2, personal and...

ChicagoDave

I was on a retro gaming kick a few months ago. Since I lost my consoles long long ago, I've been using emulators for years. For PS2 I use pcsx2, for Sega I use Kega Fusion. Think I was using RetroArch for NES but didn't spend too much time on that. The game that got me hooked (again, 20 years later)...

ChicagoDave

My most recent drives purchased were two 8tb WD Red drives. From a SSD to the Red I get about 160mb-180mb/sec depending on file size. They're quiet, fast and cheap. I'd highly recommend them. Before that were 2x 4tb HGST about two years ago, I'd recommend them but only because I like to have at leas...

ChicagoDave

Exactly what Flying Fox said. The only two companies making tablets/phones you can count on for upgrades are Google and Nvidia. And the Nvidia was released in 2014 so its....a bit old. Unfortunately to date NV has not appeared interested in making a replacement tablet; their main focus with that chi...

ChicagoDave

...I have 8 15" subwoofers setup in an infinite baffle arrangement to cover it, but they're not the most musically capable lot.... It'll faithfully reproduce 5 Hz tones at pretty decent SPL. I intended it only to provide "impact" as my mains have 12" ported drivers already. :P U...

ChicagoDave

Just picked up Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. My first book of his, assuming I like it there's quite a few more I'll have to check out, in particular Doors of Perception.

ChicagoDave

Are there specific Android only apps/games you are using it for? Otherwise if you're looking at $500+ laptops, you may want to check out a Surface Pro 3/4 or Acer Switch Alpha. Some good tablets to be had and they'll definitely receive security updates

ChicagoDave

I'm a big fan of Fractal Design cases and they have a bunch of ITX, mATX and larger cases. Some ITX ones: http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-202 http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-304-black http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases...

ChicagoDave

My company uses NitroPDF and I use the free version at home. It's lightweight, fast and very intuitive. Very good for extracting and combining sheets.

https://www.gonitro.com/

ChicagoDave

I'd personally go for a larger main SSD - at least 512gb. I'd also get a second SSD but probably better off buying and installing that yourself than buying from the builder. You can get 500gb Samsung 960 EVO drive for around $225...well worth the investment.

ChicagoDave

What exactly do you use your computer for that makes you think you need an i7-7740X ? That's a very expensive processor that requires a very expensive motherboard. Unless you do really heavy duty computing (CAD/CAM, video rendering, running multiple VM's) I highly doubt you need an "X" ser...

ChicagoDave

Yep I use foobar for converting FLAC to mp3 or WAV.

It's fully multi-threaded and takes less than 10 seconds on either of my two main rigs to convert a cd length album to V0 or WAV.

ChicagoDave

Any suggestions for balancing the volumes? My 1980's era Proton D540 amp does not have separate volume controls for the A/B speakers. What if you listened to the music through a wall from another room? Basically you want to raise the "floor" of the sound needed to match. If you're right i...

ChicagoDave

It's interesting when you think about it...AMD released their HEDT processors and cut-down ones first. Ryzen chips right now have lots of cores (all basically 2x4 core modules with some cut off), lots of cache, and no iGPU. Just a big chunk of silicon that is all CPU and no GPU. Later this year we'l...

ChicagoDave

If it's one thing Ryzen has brought is a fire under Intel's arse. For so long Intel seems to have been focused on improving their IGP on each generation with little/no improvement to core function (which is fine for laptops/mobile, but stagnant for desktop use). I think Ryzen is an outdated design ...

ChicagoDave

By offline games does that mean no Steam? I ask because games like Civ 5 and Civ 6 can be played single player but require Steam. I'm playing Skyrim and really enjoying that, even though its a few years old. You can play games purchased with Steam in offline mode. As long as you have the game downl...

ChicagoDave

His Dad spends hours in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom...you guys are crazy recommending an i3 (or core-M!) given that info. You left out the other part, though: He isn't creating any weird photo manipulations, mind you, just minor touch-ups and level balancing the tons of photos he likes to take. Y...

ChicagoDave

Obviously totally subjective, but for me it's Civilization IV. I can always pick up where I left off or just start a new game and my W10 tablet can run it for at least 4 hours in offline mode with brightness turned down (as usual). I'll play that when I'm traveling (plane, hotel) and can't count on ...

ChicagoDave

His Dad spends hours in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom...you guys are crazy recommending an i3 (or core-M!) given that info. Sure we surfing and email can get by with an M or dual core i3, but if you're spending hours touching up photos you're going to want at least 4 real cores. ve gone ahead and pu...

ChicagoDave

What's the advantage of the X370 if you don't plan on multiple video cards? Other than the PCIe lanes I'm wondering what the draw is... At least for me, the extra PCIe lanes is exactly why I would go with an X370 over the B series. Extra lanes = extra NVME drives down the line. I'm already at the p...

ChicagoDave

A few people have mentioned it already, but for laptops you should absolutely use a SSD due to the lack of moving parts. If you drop or knock a HDD and the head comes into contact with the platter, say goodbye to your data. A SSD can be tossed around with no issues (just like your phone). The speed ...

ChicagoDave

Yeah definitely don't need to spend $300 on RAM unless you have a very specific use case. I just built a Kaby Lake system with 16gb of 3200 mhz DDR4 that set me back a whole $120 (16-18-18 timing) and that was with zero waiting for a deal..just grabbed whatever was on sale that day. For the CPU I'm ...

ChicagoDave

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I will have to give this a try soon.

ChicagoDave

Just a heads up, the chair I use is on sale this month at Costco. Nice mesh bottom and back, I've been using mine for 3-4 years now and it's basically in the same condition as it was new. If you're a member it's at least worth checking out, they should have one assembled since it's on sale. https://...

ChicagoDave

Wow, I have to say, I am incredibly impressed with Synchronicity. It works extremely well and yet it's simple. I only need to do 3 separate backups. One for each partition (each going to a folder on the backup drive's single partition). D (games) and e (data) are complete backups with no exclusions...

ChicagoDave

I have those fancy $1000 Herman Miller Aeron chairs at work, and I realized what makes them special is the mesh fabric on the back and bottom. With a solid material like leather, the stuffing behind it eventually wears down. With a quality mesh chair your only wear comes from the material stretching...

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Re: games on hard drive or state drive?

Re: Smartphones with removeable battery?

Re: Smartphones with removeable battery?

Re: Retro console gaming

Re: Help Picking New Router

Re: Retro console gaming

Re: New drive suggestions?

Re: Tablet recommendation

Re: Playing with a 41 year old subwoofer

Re: What are you READING right now?

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Re: Itx cases

Re: Good PDF Splitter/Combiner Software??

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Re: .flac to .mp3 conversion?

Re: Anyone repair anything today?

Re: Coffee Lake 6 core, this August with z370 chipsets?

Re: Coffee Lake 6 core, this August with z370 chipsets?

Re: What are the best offline games?

Re: Core i3 or Core i5 for family?

Re: What are the best offline games?

Re: Core i3 or Core i5 for family?

Re: Bye, Bloomfield: First Big PC Overhaul

Re: SSD reliability

Re: Ryzen 5 - Your Choice?

Re: Suggestions for finally doing backups the right way?

Re: Need a new office chair.

Re: Suggestions for finally doing backups the right way?

Re: Need a new office chair.