Another Nerd Thread

When I started building systems it would take me at least 8 hours to build & install the OS, office suite & other software.
The last windows 7 build I did took about two minus the updates. That's still
2 hours more than I want to spend on it now. I used to enjoy doing it but I have seemed to lose a little
patience these days.
 
HO. LEE. CRAP.

It's together. It's running. And it looks nice enough, I guess. Me and The Machine should probably spend some quality time apart from one another so I can be more objective about how Phase I of the ultimate home entertainment/gaming machine has turned out.

Lessons I've learned thus far:

1. Never buy a non-modular PSU unless you have a huge honkin' case, and a use for all 88 wires protruding out the supply unit.

2. Never ever believe that putting in a cpu cooler is as easy as the asshats on youtube make it look.

3.
a) Read the main board instructions BEFORE locking down the cpu and the video card.
b) You still have to plug in the cpu power supply if you want to boot up your system.
c) Installing the video card in the wrong slot is just like not having a video card at all.

4. Electrical tape should come in 2-inch widths.

5. A mid tower case is WAY too small to work in if you have arthritic sausage fingers.

6. I will never willingly purchase anything but an SSD from now on. Win 7 installed in less than an hour, and from cold start to windows desktop is less than 30 seconds.

But it looks kinda cool. No pink lights, but a couple of blue ones. This is my first computer to have 4 case fans. There was not room for 5. I wrapped all the cables in black electrical tape so that the case didn't look like Bill Gates puked up Joseph's colorful coat.

And it is nice to sit in my la-z-boy and run the computer from a 70" monitor. But even with that huge tv, I'm still squinting and having to use the larger fonts. I can't read a blasted thing with the settings on 1920x1080.

Anyhow - Skyrim is downloading as I type this, and in about 6 hours - if all goes right - I will be playing it.
 
smokeyjoe53":y0nf6682 said:
You might try shrink tubing instead of electrical tape..................
Click to expand...

My wife won't let me get near her blow dryer. Plus, I'm already paying for all the bragging I did about not really having a budget.

Did you know that companies can make blu-ray disc players until they turn purple, but they're not allowed to offer a brd player? I had no idea. And buying the software is not cheap.

"...As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly..."
 
Here's a nerd question;
the state prison system
and prolly it's contractors
rebuild computers and give them away to non-profits
like schools etc.
My wife is convinced that if we get some of these
they will somehow be used someday
when a convict gets out(?)
to steal our sensitive info
and fund a meth lab or something.
Is that really a possibility?????
 
Dogface":1r7y0x30 said:
Here's a nerd question;
the state prison system
and prolly it's contractors
rebuild computers and give them away to non-profits
like schools etc.
My wife is convinced that if we get some of these
they will somehow be used someday
when a convict gets out(?)
to steal our sensitive info
and fund a meth lab or something.
Is that really a possibility?????
Click to expand...
Absolutely. In fact if you read the fine print it actually says that...........
 
smokeyjoe53":3mzq49dr said:
Dogface":3mzq49dr said:
Here's a nerd question;
the state prison system
and prolly it's contractors
rebuild computers and give them away to non-profits
like schools etc.
My wife is convinced that if we get some of these
they will somehow be used someday
when a convict gets out(?)
to steal our sensitive info
and fund a meth lab or something.
Is that really a possibility?????
Click to expand...
Absolutely. In fact if you read the fine print it actually says that...........
Click to expand...
Hmmm,
how on earth would they do that?
And,
could they access our school network
to get student info?
 
smokeyjoe53":2ex2e46x said:
They put little cameras in the rehabbed puters and watch you........
Click to expand...
Hmmm...
I love you man..
but I really need to know.

The state of texas can't pay their teachers
can they really afford little cameras?
The place I called
gives away thousands of these things a year.
 
Ok doggie serious answer to your question. Is it possible? Yes anything is possible. I don't feel the probability of this happening is very high. The most likely scenario of this happening would be the placing of a keystroke logger on the systems or other types of spyware being placed on the hdd or even in the BIOS. If you take into consideration the level of expertise of the people doing the refurbs, and the fact that the systems probably don't arrive with an OS or other software installed, I would doubt that this would happen.
Sorry for the flippant answers, I really thought this was not a serious question. I think this falls into the "Urban Myth" category.............
 
RJ the box looks nice. Clean interior. Is that a fan in the front of the case? Also did you have any problems with the power supply? I've had some issues with line length on bottom mounts. Did you have to do any modifications?
 
smokeyjoe53":2gdxoqh8 said:
RJ the box looks nice. Clean interior. Is that a fan in the front of the case? Also did you have any problems with the power supply? I've had some issues with line length on bottom mounts. Did you have to do any modifications?
Click to expand...

I did install a fan in the front of the case, but the blue light is what the factory put in the case to tell me when the box is on.

The blue light at the rear is mine. Holy crap they're loud. I should have plugged the fans into the 3-pin connectors on the m/b instead of the ginormous molex connectors.

The 8-pin 12V cpu power cable barely made it over the GPU and around the cpu cooler - especially after I taped it. And it came as two 4-pins, which is frustrating as you-know-what when you are almost blind, have vienna-sausages for fingers, and have to install it over and behind a giant block of aluminum fins.

I cut most of the molex connectors off, as the only thing in the box using them were the fans.

Next time, I'm shelling out the dough for a modular psu. Mine would have worked better with a mini-ATX board in stead of the full. And being that it is only 500W maybe they built it with a mini in mind. But that thing had way too many wires.

The only modifications were:
I snipped a few wires to reduce the clutter.
I wrapped as much of the exposed wires as I could with electrical tape, and
I used black gorilla tape to attache the ssd in one of the 3.5" bays.

I think the front panel ports have a short, or something. I had a couple of things plugged in up there, and the first time I touched the case I had flashbacks of peeing on hotwire. It was bad enough to restart the computer, LOL.
 
smokeyjoe53":35jx2lpb said:
Ok doggie serious answer to your question. Is it possible? Yes anything is possible. I don't feel the probability of this happening is very high. The most likely scenario of this happening would be the placing of a keystroke logger on the systems or other types of spyware being placed on the hdd or even in the BIOS. If you take into consideration the level of expertise of the people doing the refurbs, and the fact that the systems probably don't arrive with an OS or other software installed, I would doubt that this would happen.
Sorry for the flippant answers, I really thought this was not a serious question. I think this falls into the "Urban Myth" category.............
Click to expand...
They do arrive basically blank
and,
I thought it was a myth too.
But,
to appease the DSW
I had to ask.

Actually,
I usually love your flippantness.
jus sayin'.
 
Take a look at this water-cooled case:
directron_2248_514353221


Features:
Fully equipped with one 140mm and three 200mm fans for the high airflow and low noise
Integrated HUE lighting for illuminating the exterior/interior of your enclosure with option to turn on/off and allow you to customize the colors at your heart¡¯s content
High-end water cooling solutions up to three fans for a push-pull configuration: 90mm of internal top space with top 280/360mm and bottom 240/280mm radiator support for unmatched liquid cooling
State-of-the-art integrated 4 channel digital fan controller with 15 watts per channel and LED indicators that progressively gets brighter on high speeds and dimmer for low settings
Easily removable filters located in the top, front, side, and bottom to prevent dust from entering your rig and simple maintenance
Adjustable interior pivot 120/140mm fan slot for directional airflow
Removable HDD cage and large storage capacity for 6 hard drives
Dual USB 3.0, quad USB 2.0, microphone, and audio jack along with a SD media card reader for high-speed data transfer and quick access to multimedia
Stylish acrylic window with a view to show off the interior of your rig
Unrivalled Cooling Capacity to mount up to nine fans for a maximum airflow
Rear I/O white light for visibility in dark environments with a toggle switch
Extruded right side panel for an elegant look and achieves 36mm clearance for cable wire management
Equipped with a stylish pedestal that lifts your enclosure off the ground for increased airflow
 

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