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I have no idea how long it is since I last built an AMD PC from parts, but it must be around ten years.

This evening I collected the final couple of parcels from the delivery office and at 9pm I sat down and started on it. We're now at 11.30pm and it's finished, installed, fully updated and ready to configure. I'm quite pleased with it except it has no fan splitter yet so the case fan is running flat out at the moment which chills my knees.

The reason I bought an AMD processor despite it being 11% slower than a flat-out Intel i7 6700 is that the CPU, 32GB of Viper DDR4 and the ASUS motherboard cost the same as the Intel CPU would have on its own, which left budget for upgrading to a 1920x1200 pivot-to-vertical Dell monitor instead of a £100 jobbie. And adding a 240GB SSD to go with the 5TB hard drive. The case is quite pretty too, and there's a 750W matching Corsair PSU for powering a GPU later. It's not for me, this desktop, it's for my youngest.

In the morning I'll get the sound connected and add the bit that lets the display screen rotate.

Eh? You did what? In English please......

Check the forum area - Home - Forum - Science & Technology - Computers & Internet

This is tech territory, it doesn't simplify without losing coherence.

What I'm really doing is telling my brother how the build went so he can join in.

Did I mention it has 8 cores?

Oh! Excuse me......exits stage right....sorry

spot;1503337 wrote: Check the forum area - Home - Forum - Science & Technology - Computers & Internet

This is tech territory, it doesn't simplify without losing coherence.

What I'm really doing is telling my brother how the build went so he can join in.

Did I mention it has 8 cores?


I'm still running the one you built ten years ago - mind you, it's been rebuilt twice since then with new motherboards etc.

I'm still waiting for my store bought HP to die before I build mine, it's at least 10 years old now. I've been planning the build for over a year.

Bryn Mawr;1503351 wrote: I'm still running the one you built ten years ago - mind you, it's been rebuilt twice since then with new motherboards etc.


Same as Trigger's broom ?

And the genuine original axe at the Tower of London.

I got the sound going. There's a twisty volume control on the sound bar which was delivered in the clicked-off position.

Bruv;1503360 wrote: Same as Trigger's broom ?


Anne Boleyn's axe but the same principle :-

http://monologues.co.uk/Beefeater2.htm

‘Ere’s the axe – that’s the genuine axe, Sir,

That’s given Royal necks some ‘ard whacks.

Tho’ it’s ‘ad a new ‘andle and perhaps a new head

But it’s a real old original axe.

I always thought it was meant to be Washington's original axe that he used to chop down the Cherry Tree with.

Found while looking for a front panel add-on from the Far East:the fan controller also can hand set up the computer's alarming temperature range

Been there, seen that happen.

That 3 year old desktop is still behaving impeccably, though the boy switched his operating system a while ago to simplify a few things.

I just surprised myself. I have a long train trip tomorrow and I'm not going to carry my 15" ten year old laptop, it weighs too much. I walked over to Curry's and paid £150 for a brand new 11" 1150g laptop with an N4000 processor, 4GB DDR4-2133 memory, 64GB eMMC storage, 1366x768 resolution, a Lenovo IdeaPad S130-11IGM. I'm not sure my eyes would cope with FHD on an 11" screen, though I'd insist if it were 14"+.

It comes supplied with Windows 10 S. I powered it on using Fn-F2 to BIOS, turned all options like UEFI to legacy, changed the default boot order to USB HDD then internal storage and installed Linux Mint 19.2. I hope Microsoft are having to pay Lenovo to put their trap of an operating system on the machine, it's a dreadfully crippled OS which can't install programs and the system overhead wrecks the hardware's potential performance. For those who might not see it, there's a pinhole cold reboot button by the micro-SD card slot.

I knew getting WiFi up was a manual effort so I started with an Edimax Nano Wireless Adaptor USB, usually in a Raspberry Pi and problem-free. Once I'd updated, brought in the patch from https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce for the onboard WiFi, ran the DKMS script and rebooted, the laptop was ready. It has space inside for a 2TB M.2 SSD, or I could add a 512GB Micro SD card in the side, but I don't need to for the moment.

As far as I can tell, looking at the 118-page maintenance manual, there's no internal fan. There's certainly no noise, the screen is bright enough, the sound is 1W abysmal but I use headphones, the touchpad works but I always plug in a full-size USB mouse anyway. As far as I can feel there's no heat in the case anywhere and the power draw from the mains, with the screen on full brightness, has been a steady 18W.

Every keyboard needs time for my fingers to get acquainted, the power button is where I press for delete so that's something to adjust. The home.pg.end keys are Fn overlays on the arrow keys which is not my preference. Other than that, all my files transferred on a USB stick, the storage is all encrypted, nothing I've run feels slow.

I made Curry's plug it in and power it up to check it worked before I took it from the shop, which gave me an excuse to leave all the cardboard and polystyrene with them. I can't remember when I last had a new laptop but it may have been in the 1980s. Laptops used to cost more than desktops but that's definitely reversed now.

And I'm now on the train and it works quite well. There's no Kensington lock slot which I admit I didn't check before buying. Very odd. Maybe there's no internal frame to keep it this light.

We are held at Camborne by the train stopped at Redruth for a replacement driver following a near-miss of a trespasser at the local crossing. Dolcoath.

That was an hour and 7 minutes to Truro. The train is now packed with 90 minutes worth of backed-up cancelled travellers.

The warranty on this machine is interesting. I'm covered for 420 days hardware.

For £110 Lenovo will extend that with an impressive offer. I can have an additional 3 years beyond January 2021, with next-day on-site hardware repair or immediate product replacement with new, and they include accidental damage in that.

I'm not even tempted, but it's a good deal.

Parts & Labor Advanced Phone Support with Dedicated Lenovo Experts Fastest - Repairs done at your location, Next Business Day Comprehensive Hardware & Software Support Getting Started & "How To" Assistance Comprehensive Yearly Health Check

Additional protection covering common accidents outside of the system warranty such as damage from accidental drops, spills, electrical surges. Repairs completed in depot or onsite, depending on the issue.

All systems repaired with genuine Lenovo parts by certified technicians.

If the unit cannot be repaired, we’ll replace it once.

I've just left Taunton on the stopping train, being 45 minutes late. If I manage a 3 minute switch at Temple Meads I'll be in Bath before 10, otherwise not. At least I have Ãœber on my phone once I get that far.

I've arrived in time for a coffee and sleep at least - being a Sunday I could have been stranded in Taunton instead.

An afterthought. I plugged my two-ounce IcyBox IB-189U3 pocket archiver into one of the three USB3 ports and averaged 170MB/s for the 20GB of data I was setting up. I checked the speed both incoming and outgoing. Since both the laptop and the streamer are AES encrypted I was quite impressed.