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Mark Larson posted:Huawei Matebook X Pro If you feel like giving the Chinese government all your emails and personal information sure link: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/chinas-hauwei-top-us-intelligence-chiefs-caution-americans-away.html Headline says phones but it applies to all the company's products The Iron Rose fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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Jul 2, 2018 18:30
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Cat Army 
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The Iron Rose posted:If you feel like giving the Chinese government all your emails and personal information sure You can always wipe the drive and do a fresh Windows install if you are paranoid. It’s not like they can snoop you from the hardware level
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Jul 2, 2018 18:40
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Filthy Monkey posted:Looks like my xps15 with 4k screen has shipped and should get here Tuesday. That means I will have it about ten days sooner than the original dell estimate, which is good. I am excited. I plan to do a little bit of profiling and temperature testing, then do a repaste, add thermal pads, and retest the temps. I hope that happens for me, too! I just ordered on Friday and I'd rather not wait as long as their estimate. This seems like a pretty fantastic little laptop.
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Jul 2, 2018 18:53
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The Iron Rose posted:If you feel like giving the Chinese government all your emails and personal information sure I hate to open this can of worms but I'd take this a lot more seriously if the intelligence community would say something more specific than "we're worried about this" There's no actual evidence of any of these phones or computers containing backdoors or malware. I get that the government should be worried about the potential for foreign governments to gain market share with phones they might be able to control, but that's a theoretical fear right now at best and does not mean that Chinese devices are inherently less secure. If they were really concerned they would have given Lenovo a lot more than a slap on the wrist when they were actually caught with their hands in the cookie jar, but I suspect it's a very different thing to ask public agencies to avoid buying ZTE smartphones rather than tell government employees we have to burn all their Thinkpads.
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Jul 2, 2018 19:05
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Animal posted:You can always wipe the drive and do a fresh Windows install if you are paranoid. It’s not like they can snoop you from the hardware level Hardware level snooping is pretty much the entire reason firmware rootkits exist. Not saying that Huwei is actively doing it, but they absolutely could, if they felt so inclined. And China has been feeling pretty inclined about a lot of things these days.
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Jul 2, 2018 19:19
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Animal posted:You can always wipe the drive and do a fresh Windows install if you are paranoid. It’s not like they can snoop you from the hardware level mystes fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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Jul 2, 2018 20:56
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DrDork posted:Hardware level snooping is pretty much the entire reason firmware rootkits exist. Not saying that Huwei is actively doing it, but they absolutely could, if they felt so inclined. And China has been feeling pretty inclined about a lot of things these days. Snooping might be easily achieved in a highly modified Android build, but if they are pulling that off on Windows 10 and Intel chips then hats off to them they deserve my PornHub browsing history and 5 years of tax documents
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Jul 2, 2018 21:22
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Bob Morales posted:I bought one of these: You know, this would have made a lot more sense than buying all new cables.... (aside from the DP one)
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Jul 3, 2018 08:42
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Hunt11 posted:$1500 XPS 15 with the 1050 ti or last year's with the regular 1050 for less
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Jul 3, 2018 09:18
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Animal posted:You can always wipe the drive and do a fresh Windows install if you are paranoid. It’s not like they can snoop you from the hardware level This is definitely a thing, Lenovo even offers it as a commercial product to their enterprise customers. Windows monitoring service that the firmware reinstalls after every boot. Since at least the T400 era which is like, 2008 or so. Probably closer to 2000. I would imagine state level agencies have their own slightly less conspicuous methods than something that shows up as a normal Windows service visible to regular users. Snowden was right, only way to avoid monitoring is never connect your new out of the box laptop to the internet. Good luck with that. The regular wipe will get rid of the worst of what comes on the laptop, at least.
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Jul 3, 2018 09:25
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I thought the US government didn't want American mobile carriers to install Huawei 4G/5G equipment because they couldn't install their own backdoors on them like with Cisco equipment, you can still buy Huawei/Honor phones in the US even if only unsubsidized 
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Jul 3, 2018 10:33
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Atomizer posted:You know, this would have made a lot more sense than buying all new cables.... (aside from the DP one) I have a USB 3.0 hub I connect using the first one  And like I said I can use the Lightning one to fast charge using my mbp charger
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Jul 3, 2018 11:52
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As long as we're talking about dongles and adapters, this adapter from Aliexpress works pretty well to connect USB-A stuff in a pinch and it's cheap enough that you can order 5 and have them around.  The USB-A plug doesn't go all the way in, maybe that's so that the adapter is as small as possible. I bought it to use with my phone since it doesn't have an SD card slot. Works fine with a couple of USB flash drives I've tried. Haven't tried a USB mouse or keyboard yet. 
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Jul 3, 2018 12:40
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I've managed to accumulate quite a few of the Apple USB-C to USB-A adapters. Oddly enough I have ran into a couple flash drives that just won't work with a 2016 MBP
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Jul 3, 2018 13:17
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Bob Morales posted:I have a USB 3.0 hub I connect using the first one  Bob Morales posted:And like I said I can use the Lightning one to fast charge using my mbp charger I was going to say something about that cable being pretty meta, having a different reversible connector on each end. I wonder what it's going to take for Apple to drop Lightning and just go with USB-C. Mark Larson posted:As long as we're talking about dongles and adapters, this adapter from Aliexpress works pretty well to connect USB-A stuff in a pinch and it's cheap enough that you can order 5 and have them around. Uh, if the A plug doesn't insert all the way I'd be quite concerned about the extra USB 3 connectors not engaging!
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Jul 3, 2018 19:04
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Atomizer posted:I was going to say something about that cable being pretty meta, having a different reversible connector on each end. I wonder what it's going to take for Apple to drop Lightning and just go with USB-C. wasnt i just reading that theyre considering doing exactly that
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Jul 3, 2018 19:14
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Arstechnica has a Thunderbolt/USB-C dock article up right now https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/07/guidemaster-how-to-navigate-the-tricky-world-of-thunderbolt-3-and-usb-c-docks/
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Jul 3, 2018 19:15
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Bob Morales posted:Arstechnica has a Thunderbolt/USB-C dock article up right now Yeah and it's hot garbage, does not include any of the major vendors like Lenovo, Dell thunderbolt docks that cost less
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Jul 3, 2018 19:58
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What's the thread's current 1000 dollar or so Mom laptop so she can do office work at home. (1000 dollars CAD so like 650-700 US I suppose) Mom currently uses a 9 year old mac desktop and I need to start giving her options because it's painful watching her do anything on it. She uses windows at work and is basically capable of using either of those operating systems. Recommending another mac just seems pointlessly expensive compared to windows. I'm pretty sure she doesn't need an SSD or anything, but I've convinced her to start using external hard drives so having a small SSD to boot the OS on isn't a problem long term. Previous laptop was a Toshiba satellite that didn't have the firmware to update to Windows 10, however Mom didn't opt out and it's basically bricked without buying/finding a copy of Windows 7 to install onto it.
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Jul 3, 2018 22:20
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Toalpaz posted:What's the thread's current 1000 dollar or so Mom laptop so she can do office work at home. (1000 dollars CAD so like 650-700 US I suppose) if you can get this in canada https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-...0_&dpSrc=detail + SSD and some more ram. under budget and will slay anything you want it to
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Jul 3, 2018 22:48
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So I’ve had this new razer blade for a week now and it’s kinda funny how even the most premium built windows laptop with a chassis made completely out of metal still feels like cheap trash in the hand compared to a MacBook Pro. How have they managed to pull that off? It’s the same material.  It’s good. Probably going to repaste and modify the fan curve because I can hear it even when in idle and the cpu/gpu are in the low 40s. That is if I don’t return it because retina displays have utterly spoiled me and 1080p is just not sharp enough for me anymore. It has a 144hz display and everybody is super hype about it but sharpness > slightly smoother imo.
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Jul 3, 2018 22:54
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My 9570 xps15 with 4k display arrived today. It took about two weeks from the day of the order to arrival. First impressions are excellent. The display is really, really good looking. I checked for stuck pixels, and couldn't find any. There is a tiny amount of backlight bleed along the bottom edge when at maximum brightness, but it is nowhere near the point where I would want to exchange it. If the brightness is turned down a notch or two you can't even see it on a perfectly black screen. If anything, bleed is probably better than average. The keyboard feels better than the xps15 keyboard from two years ago that I had tried. The keys have a little bit more resistance to them, which is pleasant. I uninstalled all of the McAfee crap as the first task, and used ninite to load some essentials. I did a windows update, updated the graphics drivers, and tested out stellaris to good results (at 1080p). I'll probably end up doing a repaste/repad/wifi replacement this weekend, but I want to test it out a bit before I immediately crack it open. From the look of it, I think it will make an excellent general purpose laptop. I wanted something that could feel equally competent at work and doing some light gaming at home in bed or on the couch. I think it will fit the bill. I am sure my opinions will get more nuanced as the shine wears off, but for right now I can't help but to feel pleased.
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Jul 3, 2018 23:03
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Toalpaz posted:What's the thread's current 1000 dollar or so Mom laptop so she can do office work at home. (1000 dollars CAD so like 650-700 US I suppose) My mom uses a 13” Dell Inspiron 2-in-1. Was budget-friendly with a Core i3, 8 GB RAM, SSD, 1080p touch screen. It won’t win awards for build quality, but it’s quite serviceable and she doesn’t need to put all her trust in “the cloud”.
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Jul 3, 2018 23:07
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Filthy Monkey posted:My 9570 xps15 with 4k display arrived today. It took about two weeks from the day of the order to arrival. First impressions are excellent. The display is really, really good looking. I checked for stuck pixels, and couldn't find any. There is a tiny amount of backlight bleed along the bottom edge when at maximum brightness, but it is nowhere near the point where I would want to exchange it. If the brightness is turned down a notch or two you can't even see it on a perfectly black screen. If anything, bleed is probably better than average. Man, I'm glad you're having a good time because mine has been stressful. I was getting chassis-fan interference, so I had to open it up within an hour of having it. One of the tabs that's supposed to hold the fan housing in place was completely bent out of shape, so that was yesterday. Today when I got into the office, all the USB ports on the Dell TB16 dock I had wouldn't work, but the display output would. Spent nearly my whole day troubleshooting and reinstalling Windows along with driver updates. I finally got it to work, but had some screen flickering. I set a restore point after reinstalling, so I hope everything is good. Typing is great, screen is awesome, but that really pulled off all the joy of having something shiny and new.
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Jul 3, 2018 23:32
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drat, that is unfortunate to hear. I probably would have straight up exchanged it after the very first fan problem you had.
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Jul 3, 2018 23:45
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If the dock keeps being uncooperative after the holiday, I'm exchanging both. It's just a huge pain in the rear end. It was 50/50 most of the afternoon if it would crash on boot. Sad thing is, I need it to get work done and my loaner is gone. I think I'll still get cross shipping, but it doesn't help being kinda sour. It was an enormous pain even to buy the thing. Maybe I will end up with that ThinkPad P1 in the end
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Jul 3, 2018 23:54
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Toalpaz posted:I'm pretty sure she doesn't need an SSD or anything,
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Jul 3, 2018 23:58
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If you buy your mom a laptop without an SSD in 2018, you are a bad child but she has no one to blame but herself for raising you poorly.
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Jul 4, 2018 00:08
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Ocrassus posted:it’s kinda funny how even the most premium built windows laptop with a chassis made completely out of metal still feels like cheap trash in the hand compared to a MacBook Pro.
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Jul 4, 2018 00:14
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I have a Razer Blade 15, a 2016 Macbook Pro 13”, a 2013 Macbook Pro 15”, and a Surface Book 2 15”. All sitting here next to me. The Razer Blade build quality is almost as good as the 2013 rMBP, they are certainly in the same ballpark. And if the keyboard doesn’t fall apart then it’s better built than the 2016 MBP, by default. Impressive for a tacky gaming peripherals maker competing against the biggest tech company in the world. The Surface Book 2 is IMO the best feeling laptop of the bunch with the most gorgeous screen. 3:2 aspect ratio will either make it or break it for you as a choice, I suggest you try one out. It’s no slouch for gaming, I get a near 10,000 Firestrike score. 3:2 can be annoying on some games but it’s awesome for productivity. The Razer Blade 15 is my favorite of all simply because of the 144hz screen and the specs. Let me put it in perspective: this laptop is faster than a high end desktop gaming rig from three years ago (I get higher framrates than with my old i7 and Geforce 980). And I personally cannot go back to 60hz, although I do acknowledge that 1080P is not good enough for visual content creation. Anyways I have too many laptops and will put the Surface Book 2 512GB for sale. If anyone is interested PM me.
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Jul 4, 2018 00:23
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My thinkpad t450s (with touch if it matters) screen hinges are a bit loose. Not loose enough to cause any real problems but I can see it becoming an issue within 6 months or so. I recently took the back plate off to do a routine cleaning (I felt it was running hotter than it should) and took a gander and it seems like I could probably just replace the hinges pretty easily? Anybody with any experience have any input? If it's as simple as ordering a set of hinges and swapping them out I might do it now just to be done with it.
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Jul 4, 2018 00:57
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I've owned a refurb razer blade stealth thats probably 2 years old now and it's probably one of the best laptops I've owned. The build quality is about the same as Mac Imo, I've watched plenty of Macbooks loose their feet and die. The resistance on the lid flipping could be better, but the keys are fine. Those Inspirons with 500 ssd and 8 gigs of ram look about right! Thanks for the help. I'll shop around some more with that in mind.
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Jul 4, 2018 00:59
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Really my only complaint about Razer industrial design now that they fixed the bezels is that the logo looks like a bad lower back tattoo.
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Jul 4, 2018 01:18
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Hadlock posted:Yeah and it's hot garbage, does not include any of the major vendors like Lenovo, Dell thunderbolt docks that cost less I’ve tried the Lenovo and Dell docks at work and they don’t work perfectly either
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Jul 4, 2018 01:59
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Animal posted:I have a Razer Blade 15, a 2016 Macbook Pro 13”, a 2013 Macbook Pro 15”, and a Surface Book 2 15”. All sitting here next to me. Doesn’t the SB 2 have problems driving enough power to the gpu during heavy load? I have considered the device but that lack of thunderbolt really ticks me off since, coming from a pro Mac workflow I actually have a bunch of stuff to use with it. If it had just one tb3 port it would be the perfect machine for me (and maybe a 2tb ssd option but I guess I can external harddrive). Like I said, bigger resolution will trump refresh rate for me personally. I can tell it’s smoother, but I can also tell it’s fuzzier. The rb15 is one powerful motherfucker though.
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Jul 4, 2018 02:34
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Ocrassus posted:Doesn’t the SB 2 have problems driving enough power to the gpu during heavy load? I have considered the device but that lack of thunderbolt really ticks me off since, coming from a pro Mac workflow I actually have a bunch of stuff to use with it. If it had just one tb3 port it would be the perfect machine for me (and maybe a 2tb ssd option but I guess I can external harddrive). The power thing is overblown. Maybe you lose about 5% charge an hour under heavy gaming. So don’t start gaming with a drained battery? Yes, the lack of TB3 is its one real flaw. That and the fact that it’s sealed shut.
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Jul 4, 2018 03:22
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I wouldn't recommend the SB 2 at this point. It's a cool tech demo, but not especially practical for anyone on any kind of budget.
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Jul 4, 2018 04:34
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Yo, I got a GPD Win 2, what do you guys want to know about it? I just tried a little Rocket League, it seems to run well at moderate settings, especially since the display's resolution is only HD. Any other [controller-based] games you want me to try on it?
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Jul 4, 2018 08:44
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Atomizer posted:Yo, I got a GPD Win 2, what do you guys want to know about it? FWIW I have a heavily modded F:NV installation working fine at 6w tdp, so if you've been itching for a replay, it works real well. If you could test - as in, own the game, Divinity Original Sin 2 would be one I'd like to try on it. I'm not so worried about performance since it's turn based, but I wonder what that UI is like on a 6-inch screen. I'm going to be ordering some copper shims soon to do a heatsink mod, but I'm going to stick to thermal paste (kyronaut) instead of LM or graphite pads. So we'll see how that works out. What kind of temps are you getting at load @ stock TDP with undervolt? I'm getting about 62c and would like to take it down a bit with the mod if possible.
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Jul 4, 2018 09:20
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Hadlock posted:I wouldn't recommend the SB 2 at this point. It's a cool tech demo, but not especially practical for anyone on any kind of budget. Yeah it was trying to do a new take on the 2-1 concept but in reality you end up getting a tablet that has worse battery life/software/performance than something dedicated like a Ipad. The build quality is great, it's just the concept ended up making it a pretty expensive machine with some annoyances such as sky high pricing and also the gap due to the unique hinge design.
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