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Qubee posted:See, the scrooge in me puckers up at this comment and then I think about just getting a 7900 XTX as it will be more than good enough, and then if 5000 series cards are the second coming of Christ, I could jump ship without feeling like I'm shackled. I also do not respect nvidia as a company any more and hate giving them my money and would rather give it to AMD. Honestly you kinda lose me here because I couldn't care less which huge corporation gets my money so I guess if you have strong *ethics* feelings about these companies then do whatever makes you happy. I would absolutely not go for AMD but I haven't paid attention to them in a long time. There's always going to be a new card coming out. I have a 3090 and a year or two later the 4090 came out, it's somewhat unavoidable.
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Sep 23, 2023 20:18
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Qubee posted:See, the scrooge in me puckers up at this comment and then I think about just getting a 7900 XTX as it will be more than good enough, and then if 5000 series cards are the second coming of Christ, I could jump ship without feeling like I'm shackled. I also do not respect nvidia as a company any more and hate giving them my money and would rather give it to AMD. If the AMD card will do what you want it to, then go that route I guess. The 4090 outperforms it, but if that doesn’t represent a meaningful difference to you, then save some bucks. Really both are good for 4K, but as we’ve come to expect the GeForce does better with ray tracing. Again, if that isn’t that important now, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
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Sep 23, 2023 20:42
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Qubee posted:See, the scrooge in me puckers up at this comment and then I think about just getting a 7900 XTX as it will be more than good enough, and then if 5000 series cards are the second coming of Christ, I could jump ship without feeling like I'm shackled. I also do not respect nvidia as a company any more and hate giving them my money and would rather give it to AMD. you could get a used 3080Ti/3090/3090Ti and hit ~90% of the performance for 40-50% of the price and then do the same thing with a 5090 in three years
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Sep 23, 2023 20:58
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I just picked up my 4090 last weekend, so I would say it is fine, buy one if you can afford it. I replaced a 3080 Ti I had bought less than a year ago. Worrying about "well it is going to be replaced in X time" is pointless, it will probably be two years before you can realistically buy whatever will replace it at MSRP anyway because of retail availability hell. Speaking of, I really should sell off my 1080 and 3080 Ti, the problem is both of them have full cover water blocks installed that require custom loop coolers to use (as does my new 4090 now). I still have the stock/OEM heatsinks, but I really don't want to disassemble the water blocks and find replacement pads/paste for the original heatsinks and it doesn't make much sense to sell the water blocks separately.
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Sep 23, 2023 21:14
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I replaced the power supply in my gaming/music computer and now it's proper hosed. The CPU doesn't recognize (little red CPU mobo light stays on, reboots a few seconds after power on). Motherboard has an 8+4 cpu power supply, apparently I just had the 4pin plugged in for the past 4 years and that was fine. I now have the 8 pin plugged in. I've also tried plugging in the 4pin only again, of course. Also tried both 8 + 4 pin. No difference. Also reset bios/replaced bios battery. Multimetered the CPU power connector and it looks good, solid 12v on all of the pairs. I reseated the CPU, which looks fine. Is there anything else I can do besides buy another cpu or cpu AND mobo? Mao Zedong Thot fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Sep 25, 2023 |
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Sep 25, 2023 21:12
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Possibly a dumb question since you already got a multimeter reading but it came up a while back - are you using the cables from the new psu or re-using the old ones? There isn’t any standard so the pin-outs vary between manufacturers and generations.
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Sep 25, 2023 22:07
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Fruits of the sea posted:Possibly a dumb question since you already got a multimeter reading but it came up a while back - are you using the cables from the new psu or re-using the old ones? All the cables are from the new psu. Fair question though!
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Sep 25, 2023 22:09
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Another basic troubleshooting step that wasn't mentioned: have you tried re-seating the RAM?
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Sep 26, 2023 00:19
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Mao Zedong Thot posted:I replaced the power supply in my gaming/music computer and now it's proper hosed. The CPU doesn't recognize (little red CPU mobo light stays on, reboots a few seconds after power on). Are both the motherboard and PSU off-the-shelf and not something proprietary like Dell or whatever?
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Sep 26, 2023 03:04
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Are both the motherboard and PSU off-the-shelf and not something proprietary like Dell or whatever? yeah it's a gigabyte mobo, thermaltake PSU. I did reseat the ram, no change. thinking it's time for a new mobo and CPU. edit: both because who knows which one it is, and replacing a 4 year old CPU is the same price as getting a newer different CPU and motherboard.
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Sep 26, 2023 04:04
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Mao Zedong Thot posted:yeah it's a gigabyte mobo, thermaltake PSU. I did reseat the ram, no change. thinking it's time for a new mobo and CPU. If you're to that point you might as well reset the cmos jumper on the motherboard for good luck. Or whatever the equivalent is these days. Check the manufacturer's instructions.
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Sep 26, 2023 11:34
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My father in law wants a new computer and my wife wants to buy one for him. She plans on spending $1000 CAD, however this computer will mainly be used for clicking on pop ups and accumulating malware, so I feel that something in the lower price range would be more suitable. Is there a good prebuilt computer for ~$500 CAD?
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Sep 30, 2023 13:49
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Professor Shark posted:My father in law wants a new computer and my wife wants to buy one for him. She plans on spending $1000 CAD, however this computer will mainly be used for clicking on pop ups and accumulating malware, so I feel that something in the lower price range would be more suitable. Is there a good prebuilt computer for ~$500 CAD? Apple Silicon Mac Mini otherwise why not just buy him a used office machine for ~$200
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Sep 30, 2023 14:17
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Yeah, a used office PC is the best value. That said, if your in-laws aren't technically minded, I'd recommend getting a pre-built from a PC store local to them. That way they can take it in to the shop if the PC starts to buckle under all the malware or whatevs. Bonus is that you don't have to deal with providing tech support or processing a manufacturer warranty. Just post the store and the thread can help choose. 500 or so is definitely doable. Or get a mac as mentioned, because that also solves the tech support issue 
Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 15:03
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Time Machine on MacOS makes keeping a backup of the machine dead easy for non-computer people. That way you always have a mirror image of the machine ready to go if he manages to do something to it and you need to do a fresh install.
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Sep 30, 2023 15:19
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Professor Shark posted:My father in law wants a new computer and my wife wants to buy one for him. She plans on spending $1000 CAD, however this computer will mainly be used for clicking on pop ups and accumulating malware, so I feel that something in the lower price range would be more suitable. Is there a good prebuilt computer for ~$500 CAD? Similar to this: https://www.amazon.ca/500G-TRIGKEY-S3-Computer-Graphics/dp/B09T33K67R?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1 If you want something with more oompf, there are now some really nice Ryzen powered units as well. I bought a N95 Trigkey on a whim and it's been fantastic for what it is. If it wasn't for gaming, it would do 99% of my daily routine which consists of browsing, shitposting and maybe the odd circa 2000 gaming. It's now my HT/streaming PC after retiring my old 4th gen i3 with GTX760 . There are many manufacturers of these minis but it seems to generally come down to I/O port choices. The trigkey above is a little anemic with just standard USB but I've seen them with full USB-C including video out so you can power/video with 1 cable if you have the right monitor. Windows installs are generally clean with little to no bloatware (other than standard MS crap) from what I understand. Just an idea.
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Sep 30, 2023 15:19
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slidebite posted:Assuming Windows and no gaming or anything like that? Sounds like a perfect candidate for one of N100 powered mini-PCs with a secured up browser and ublock. For that money/CPU you could get an Optiplex with an i5 or i7 that would run circles around it
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Sep 30, 2023 15:22
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Well, yeah, but the OP doesn't sound like they're concerned about performance. For browsing, whatever, it's perfectly fine for everything. And they're brand new, tiny, generally no bloat, W11 without hacks, hardly any power, prime returnable if it blows/breaks. And in  where he seems to be, depending on his spec, possibly have more RAM and a larger SSD/M.2 than a retired fleet office machine.Besides, the N100 is certainly not awful. It's probably somewhere around 6-7 gen i5 performance. It's pretty much perfect for a scenario like they're asking for a dad/grandpa computer. I'd personally go for one over a used/refurb but to each their own. But yes, a refurb is certainly an option although tbh my super quick amazon search actually shows the mini options cheaper than the refurbs most of the time with Prime. If he wants to go $500+ he could get something Ryzen powered w/32GB which would curb stomp many desktops and capable of some semi reasonable gaming.
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Sep 30, 2023 15:36
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Professor Shark posted:My father in law wants a new computer and my wife wants to buy one for him. She plans on spending $1000 CAD, however this computer will mainly be used for clicking on pop ups and accumulating malware, so I feel that something in the lower price range would be more suitable. Is there a good prebuilt computer for ~$500 CAD? Are you in the Vancouver area? I'm sure one of the local goons has something sitting around.
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Sep 30, 2023 16:01
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Ok Comboomer posted:For that money/CPU you could get an Optiplex with an i5 or i7 that would run circles around it Possibly but that relies on finding one and making sure it works correctly vs clicking buy on Amazon having it the next day. The mini PCs are the way to go for most people in this situation who just want a plug and play thing and aren’t trying to hunt down a used pc.
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Sep 30, 2023 16:24
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MarcusSA posted:Possibly but that relies on finding one and making sure it works correctly vs clicking buy on Amazon having it the next day. Nah, it’s clicking buy on eBay and having it next day/week just find a reseller with a good rating and a lot of sales (ie the first couple of results) and don’t think about it, modern machines with zero moving parts aside from the fan(s) are basically bulletproof. And you’re getting something from a name brand with a support network and broad familiarity in North America instead of a no-name Chinese brand that nobody’s ever heard of with a SEO nonsense name. trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 16:47
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I'm visiting the States for 2 weeks. I took a 16 hour flight to get here. I got mind-numbingly bored of watching movies so I decided to purchase a laptop whilst here. I went with the Lenovo LOQ for $680. But I realised, this is an awful lot of money to spend on a laptop that I will only use for the two weeks I'm here, plus the 16 hour flight home, plus whatever future travel I do (which in all fairness, isn't a common occurrence). I've got a beastly gaming setup at home so the laptop I end up settling on will become a glorified paperweight for most of the time. So my plan right now is to use this in the meantime and then return it before the 15 day period is up. I came here to ask for advice on an affordable laptop that is just good enough to run games the likes of: - Factorio - Kingdoms and Castles - Spiritfarer - Techtonica - Captains of Industry - Dwarf Fortress - Timberborn There's a common theme amongst these games, being that they aren't very demanding. I was eyeballing a few of the $300-450 options for laptops but then was concerned they would be far too weak. Could someone kindly link me to a cheap but usable laptop that can run the above games? Either from Best Buy or Micro Center.
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Sep 30, 2023 21:09
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Qubee posted:I'm visiting the States for 2 weeks. I took a 16 hour flight to get here. I got mind-numbingly bored of watching movies so I decided to purchase a laptop whilst here. I went with the Lenovo LOQ for $680. But I realised, this is an awful lot of money to spend on a laptop that I will only use for the two weeks I'm here, plus the 16 hour flight home, plus whatever future travel I do (which in all fairness, isn't a common occurrence). I've got a beastly gaming setup at home so the laptop I end up settling on will become a glorified paperweight for most of the time. lol
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Sep 30, 2023 21:15
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realtalk: get a Steam Deck or a Switch or an iPad don’t return it afterward, get a device you’ll actually use long-term when you go back home “borrowing” a product because you’re traveling for two weeks but want to play nerd games strikes me as kinda scummy, and buying a $700 laptop when there’s a million devices that do portable gaming/light computing better and don’t overlap with your sick-rear end rig seems silly, but that’s just my take. You could get an iPad Air or Pro with a keyboard case and be very happy with it also: like aren’t you traveling? didn’t you spend a bunch of money and time flying here? why do you wanna play dwarf fortress and factorio so bad? trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 21:17
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Ok Comboomer posted:realtalk: get a Steam Deck or a Switch or an iPad Not really understanding the aggression in your post. Pick a lane and commit, instead of your weird "I'm pretending to help but only to skirt the possibility of a probation". If people respond with the general consensus that this laptop is good enough for what I want and there are no cheaper alternatives, I won't be returning it. But even if I did decide on returning it, who cares? Since when did we start caring about big business, it's not like I'm hurting a mom and pop store. The Best Buy employee is the one who suggested the return thing, otherwise the thought wouldn't have crossed my mind. Some lucky person would also get an open box discount. I saw some laptops going for just under $400 and if they're good enough to play what I want, I'd rather just get that and save the difference. I don't want a Steam Deck or Switch or an iPad. I want a laptop. I'm going over your post to answer your comments but you're being a dick about it so I'm gonna stop effort posting. I'm not here on vacation, I'm here for a business conference, I didn't pay anything. gently caress me if I want to play games in the evenings, right? What a stupid nerd. Let's also totally gloss over the 16 hour return flight.
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Sep 30, 2023 21:38
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Qubee posted:Not really understanding the aggression in your post. Pick a lane and commit, instead of your weird "I'm pretending to help but only to skirt the possibility of a probation". you said you planned to return it before the flight anyway, I wasn’t being aggressive I was being helpful. All of these devices that I suggested are better travel companions than a <$700 laptop that you only want for gaming any reason you can’t Steam Link from your work computer to your rig at home?
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Sep 30, 2023 21:51
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Qubee posted:Not really understanding the aggression in your post. Pick a lane and commit, instead of your weird "I'm pretending to help but only to skirt the possibility of a probation". You suck. You're the bad guy here. Also, enjoy your trip and don't play dumb nerd games.
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Sep 30, 2023 21:54
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Ok Comboomer posted:anyway, I wasn’t being aggressive I was being helpful. All of these devices that I suggested are better travel companions than a <$700 laptop Why are you suggesting 'travel companions', when the guy said he wanted a laptop? You can't play Factorio on an ipad. Your suggestions weren't helpful at all: all you did was bat aside his requirements and yell at him to get something he didn't ask for to begin with, on the vacation you incorrectly assumed he was taking.
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Oct 1, 2023 10:30
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so I could say that I finally figured out what this god damned cube is doing. Get well Lowtax.
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I bought a second cheaper laptop and tested it out, it was too weak. So I'm keeping the initial laptop I got as it can run all the games I wanted without issue and will hopefully make the 16 hour return flight pass by slightly quicker.
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Oct 1, 2023 12:21
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I mean, a steam deck seems ideal for exactly this use case. The Lenovo looks nice though. The things you should keep in mind are noise, battery life and size. If you find any of those are bugging you, then you should seriously reconsider getting a handheld device instead. I wouldn't suggest going cheaper. The three criteria I mentioned above, plus durability, are only going to get worse as you go down in price. The environmentalist in me encourages you to return or donate every single product you don't need.
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Oct 1, 2023 12:33
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Fruits of the sea posted:I mean, a steam deck seems ideal for exactly this use case. Presumably they want to play using a keyboard? IDK, maybe Factorio is one of those games where you want to use keyboard shortcuts? Dorf Fortress certainly is, IIRC.
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Oct 1, 2023 14:36
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spincube posted:Why are you suggesting 'travel companions', when the guy said he wanted a laptop? You can't play Factorio on an ipad. Your suggestions weren't helpful at all: all you did was bat aside his requirements and yell at him to get something he didn't ask for to begin with, on the vacation you incorrectly assumed he was taking. I didn’t yell at him, I gave him a hardware suggestion that I thought was better given the information that he initially provided. Or do you get mad at ppl in the Raspberry Pi thread when they inevitably go “actually you know what, have you considered a USFF office PC to ‘learn Linux programming on’ instead of a 4gb rPi”? Reread my posts. I didn’t even come down on him at all for anything, not for “renting” an item from a retailer or anything at all. All I said was “it’s not something that I condone personally and I think it’s a bit shady, but that’s just my opinion”. I didn’t make fun of him or call him a piece of poo poo or anything like that, unless you’re reading a tremendous amount into the phrase “lol”, which was followed up by way more effort than you’ve put into this discussion. He could’ve simply responded “no, I don’t want these alternative suggestions and I want one of these and here’s why….” He could’ve clarified that he was actually planning to use the device on his 16hr return flight and other such trips, instead of moving the goalposts from his initial comment wherein he explicitly and literally said that he was going to return the laptop before leaving the US and was not going to bring it on the flight back. With that initial nugget of information, I (wrongly) assumed that something like a Steam Deck or another dedicated portable device might better differentiate itself from his desktop PC and have more longevity in his life. Maybe he could use it on public transit/commutes at home. Maybe he could take it on the flight back and not have to return it to Best Buy, you know like he said before he started pretending that he never said that. Also, the Steam Deck is a literal x86 computer that can run desktop Linux and even Windows, and you can plug poo poo like a keyboard/display/TV into it fairly trivially. Apologies for suggesting Steam Link as well, I was only trying to save a man some money after he posted at length about how “$350-400 devices didn’t work” and he just had to double his fun and drop $700 on a temporary Factorio machine. And yes, that’s weird, and people have every right to extremely lightly razz him about it on SomethingAwful-dot-com, especially if they also make a good faith effort to engage with his request. He went from chill to DEFCON 1 meltdown in one post, like a goddamn child. He had a temper tantrum. It was unnecessary, and you’re the only one defending it. “SpinCube” sounds a lot like “Qubee”, are both accounts alts of the same guy or something? trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 16:32
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Ok Comboomer posted:Nah, it’s clicking buy on eBay and having it next day/week If you're concerned about a Chinese brand nobody has heard about, then, using your advice just buy one from a seller that has tons of sales and reviews OR buy one from a brand that has been around for some time. A Mini PC sounds pretty much perfect for this kind of user. If they really wanted to spend ~$500, they could get a great, brand new little PC with decent a (non-e waste) keyboard, mouse and monitor and still have some money left over.
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Oct 1, 2023 16:36
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slidebite posted:As a long term consumer of refurb items, not even all that long ago I would have 100% been on board with your advice. But, I honestly have a hard time recommending a several generation used PC when something brand new on the current OS out of the box is available which fits the bill for similar $$ for someone with needs like this. given how susceptible they are to clicking on malware and shady links, at least according to the OP, I would be gunning hard for an M1/M2 Mac Mini if they don’t have a problem with the OS.
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Oct 1, 2023 16:38
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:Presumably they want to play using a keyboard? Yeah, I love my keyboard shortcuts as well - and I think the chosen laptop is a pretty good choice, too. The deck's form factor and capabilities are so well suited for travel that I would be remiss in not mentioning it though.
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Oct 1, 2023 16:58
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Ok Comboomer posted:He went from chill to DEFCON 1 meltdown in one post, like a goddamn child. He had a temper tantrum. It was unnecessary, and you’re the only one defending it. “SpinCube” sounds a lot like “Qubee”, are both accounts alts of the same guy or something? Settle down. Let’s keep this civil. (Since you seem to care about the popular vote, I also think your first post was somewhat unhelpful in terms of content, and bordering on unfriendly in tone.)
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Oct 1, 2023 17:09
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Drama in the hardware thread
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Oct 1, 2023 18:24
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Apologies if this is in the incorrect thread, but I could not find a more suitable one in SH/SC or IYG. I'll happily take the question to another thread if more appropriate. I am in the market for a standalone photo scanner to finally scan in the mountains of old photos I have in my basement. I was advocating to outsource this effort to a third party but my wife wants more control of the file organization and has a fear of the photos being destroyed before being digitized. Are there any good tried and true recommendations that strike a balance between cost, ease of use, efficiency, and quality? Something like the linked below would be more preferable as I think a flatbed would just be a straight PITA for a high volume of photos. Greatly appreciate any goon hive mind recommendations. Thank you! https://www.amazon.com/Plustek-Phot...32-63e904010ad0
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Oct 1, 2023 19:14
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TraderStav posted:Apologies if this is in the incorrect thread, but I could not find a more suitable one in SH/SC or IYG. I'll happily take the question to another thread if more appropriate. This question is much better suited for the Dork Room, but as far as I remember photo scanning tech has more or less plateaued over the past decade or so, so there’s a lot of options out there on the new and used market In general anything Epson/Canon/etc in the $500+ range is gonna be way higher quality and probably better to use over hundreds-to-thousands of photos than these inexpensive mass market scanner dealies. There are nice Epsons/etc with the form factor that you posted, but a flatbed will allow you to more easily scan photos of various sizes and with creases/bends/folded corners/etc, as well as various caddies for scanning negatives. Plus you can save a chunk of coin on a really high quality scanning device by picking up an aspiring/working photographer’s old flatbed. Ultimately it’s a question of your money and space budget, how many photos/negatives/etc you have to scan, and how important the quality of those final scans is to you.
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Oct 1, 2023 19:34
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For family photos, I’d venture a bet that the quality needs to be “sufficient” but scanning needs to be fast and easy. I’m not sure what the software support is like on the flatbed alternatives, but for sure automatic cropping and rotation would be a great plus if you have a mountain of paper photos. A flatbed will give technically better image files, but maybe this is the one instance where I would say try the 200$ option and see how far it takes you. The best scan is, after all, the scan you could be arsed to make.
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Oct 1, 2023 19:40
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