The Gadgetry Thread

[Dolfan in NYC]

It's a shame Succession is done, because I fully expect the Roy kids to fight over one of these for an entire episode, only to have Connor accidentally spill wine on it and break it. 

[odessasteps]

I was looking at a new gaming laptop and didn't buy w the memorial day sale. I look today and the dads and grads sale is $300 cheaper than yesterday.

[Death From Above]

It's hilarious we made fun of this fuckin' thing for like 15 years and then real VR headsets dropped and they all look like absolute shit by comparison.

[Shadow]

Can you tech savvy folks suggest a gaming computer for me? I haven’t had one in years and I’m itching to get back to pc. I am looking to go between 4-5k.

[odessasteps]

I finally a laptop that fits my weird specifications but it's Brand new and thus stupidly expensive (lenovo slim pro 9i). 

[assfax]

5 hours ago, Shadow said:

Can you tech savvy folks suggest a gaming computer for me? I haven’t had one in years and I’m itching to get back to pc. I am looking to go between 4-5k.

What's your setup going to be?  Actual sitting at a desk use?  Monitor or just a bigass TV?  Do you have games in mind you want to run in high resolution/framerate?  VR headset potential?  Are you going to assemble or buy premade?  Premade I have no advice.  Are you going complete from scratch i.e you need a display/keyboard/mouse/gamepad?  My keyboard suggestion is cheapo logitech (sub-20 bucks).  Gamepad I suggest 8bitdo SN30 pro+  That is a SNES style with PSX dualshock analog and wings with R2 Triggers.  I don't really like trigger shoulder buttons but you can't always avoid them.  My favorite controller is Wii U pro.  If you have to have 360 layout the 8bitdo Ultimate has extremely positive buzz.  I also use their NES Advantage looking arcade stick.  Be forewarned, if you plan to upgrade the stick the case has very shallow depth.   I had to remove both weights and skive out a bit of the bottom and it still doesn't quite shut all the way.  This was for a Seimitsu.  Might not be an issue anymore.  Mouse I have a logitech G600 and wish I had my old G5.  I HATE how many thumb buttons it has.  I have just used bigass TVs for my display and still see no reason to buy a monitor.  My TV is Samsung UN50J5000 50-Inch I bought refurbished back in 2016 for 398 bucks.  LOVE IT.  No smart TV bullshit at all.  Reciever is Denon AVR S740H.  I was at 7.1 but my two oldest speakers crapped out and now I just have 5.1.  Probably more than I need even 8+years later.  My PC is my hi-fi.

 

Plan your build around what you are actually going to play and your display's native resolution.  There aren't a ton of really bleeding edge new games and probably even fewer of those you'll actually put time in on.  Your rig can't always overcome a lazy port.  Have a plan.  At least 5 games you are really chomping at the bit to play.Some of those PS4 games were dogs and some had nice ports.  Horizon was suposedly a great port but I already beat it.  Days Gone is one of those sleeper games where people coming to it now are really enjoying it.  Didn't play it on PS4 or PC myself. 

 

My basic advice is PCpartpicker.com  Start with CPU and GPU and individual budget choices then build around what those need.   It should lead you to compatible parts. People also have their buildlists to peruse. My other suggestion is get a giant case.  Modular PSU and nothing but SSD hard drives 16gb minimum Ram. Have your smallest SSD as just your OS and farmer five programs.  Have room for expandability but know that you probably won't make any major revisions to your PC.  Do try to get all your parts at once.  If you slowly piece together components you'll end up letting the budget and scope creep.  Don't put much stock in rebates, they end up being a huge ballache.  Nowadays I would also use an Amazon locker if possible for the really high dollar parts.  If only to keep shit from getting rained on. On th' other hand don't totally dismiss ordering direct from manufacturers sites.  The only brands I can think of are Samsung for the SSDs and EVGA for the GPU.  I have no experience with AMD or Intel GPUs. I have no experience with NVMe. On my current build I'm using an all-in-one watercooler from Corsair.  My understanding is that regular ass Coolermaster 212 fans are more than fine today.  I bought a 1080ti back in 2017 and I really don't feel I need to upgrade even now.  I probably need to build a new PC within a year so I will end up doing that though.  I remember thinking I wanted to get a 2080 whenever Dying Light 2 was originally going to come out February '20 and all those RTX ray tracing cards were first coming out.  Didn't need to do that! Older doesn't necessarily mean cheaper and more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better.  There seems to be a sweet spot where really good stuff starts getting cheaper but then they get discontinued and prices blow up.  Not even in reaction to a great demand either.

[odessasteps]

I did get the Lenovo slim pro 9i 14 inch, since, through sales and employee discount, I got $400 off. 

[RIPPA]

There isn't really a good place for this so this seems as good as any

If you used Stitcher to listen to your podcasts - you will need to find a different way.

They announced on Twitter that the app and website will discontinue operations on August 29

https://twitter.com/Stitcher/status/1673730464681541632?s=20

[Craig H]

1 minute ago, RIPPA said:

There isn't really a good place for this so this seems as good as any

If you used Stitcher to listen to your podcasts - you will need to find a different way.

They announced on Twitter that the app and website will discontinue operations on August 29

https://twitter.com/Stitcher/status/1673730464681541632?s=20

It's all being absorbed into Sirius XM from the sounds of it. Stitcher was still signing podcast deals for a lot of money up until a few months ago. I'm guessing between now and 8/29 they just trying to get people to transition from the Stitcher app to the Sirius XM app. I also don't think any of the RSS feeds are changing so if you used anything else that's better than Stitcher, which is almost anything (except Apple's podcast app), then you should be fine.

[Tabe]

What is anybody using for cloud backups? I'm looking to backup my PC and external drives. Backblaze looks like a good choice but I can't tell if they support all of your external drives or just ones that are constantly connected. I've got half a dozen I rotate. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Does anyone use a DAP or mp3 player these days? I've been debating grabbing one since I have a bunch of CDs still. 

Edited November 17, 2024 by RazorbladeKiss87

[Tabe]

6 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Does anyone use a DAP or mp3 player these days? I've been debating grabbing one since I have a bunch of CDs still. 

I use an Ipod Classic constantly. 

[twiztor]

6 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Does anyone use a DAP or mp3 player these days? I've been debating grabbing one since I have a bunch of CDs still. 

i use a Sony Walkman mp3 player daily, and have for a couple of years. Plenty of storage, battery varies with playback options (volume/shuffle/etc) but easily lasts two workdays- three is pushing it but i'm not great at remembering to charge it so i deal with that more than i should.

I think this one is an updated model from what i have (mine doesn't have wifi/internet access and also doesn't support bluetooth). Kind of hate the headphone jack on the bottom, but it was the best option i could find at the time for a reasonably priced high capacity model:
https://electronics.sony.com/audio/walkman-digital-recorders/walkman-mp3-players/p/nwa306-b

[RazorbladeKiss87]

2 hours ago, Tabe said:

I use an Ipod Classic constantly. 

Do you have one of the refurbished ones? I've seen people adding larger harddrives and that is interesting to me. 

 

2 hours ago, twiztor said:

i use a Sony Walkman mp3 player daily, and have for a couple of years. Plenty of storage, battery varies with playback options (volume/shuffle/etc) but easily lasts two workdays- three is pushing it but i'm not great at remembering to charge it so i deal with that more than i should.

I think this one is an updated model from what i have (mine doesn't have wifi/internet access and also doesn't support bluetooth). Kind of hate the headphone jack on the bottom, but it was the best option i could find at the time for a reasonably priced high capacity model:
https://electronics.sony.com/audio/walkman-digital-recorders/walkman-mp3-players/p/nwa306-b

That looks pretty nifty honestly. The wifi and bluetooth compatibility are great because I can't do anything wired at work.  Do you use it for FLAC files? 

[twiztor]

4 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

That looks pretty nifty honestly. The wifi and bluetooth compatibility are great because I can't do anything wired at work.  Do you use it for FLAC files? 

most of my files are MP3 as i still have some older hardware that can't handle FLAC, but i do have some FLAC files and they play fine and sound great.

[Tabe]

9 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Do you have one of the refurbished ones? I've seen people adding larger harddrives and that is interesting to me. 

I do not.  My next one will be though.  I bought this one before I knew refurbished ones were a thing and I can't justify the price as long as my current one is still working.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

We're thinking of getting VR headsets for my two boys (ages 12 and 6) and don't really know where to start. Anyone here got any recommendations?

[odessasteps]

I traded in my iPad Mini 6 for a Galaxy Tab 9 that ended up, with sales and the trade in, about half off. 
 

that’s how much the new iPad mini annoyed me. I jumped ecosystems. 

[assfax]

2 hours ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

We're thinking of getting VR headsets for my two boys (ages 12 and 6) and don't really know where to start. Anyone here got any recommendations?

Quest is officially in Xmas 1988 NES territory.  There's plenty of cheap Quest 2s out there and Q3 has two tiers that are rock solid as a standalone wireless device.  I think the free Batman game only comes with Quest 3/S3.  It only runs on Q3.  Very good game.  I headbutted my own hands.  My only complaints are shitty onboard audio and you need to upgrade to a Kiwi comfort strap and face pad.  As a Oculus Rift CV1 and Reverb G2 owner my Q3 is the most friction free headset I've used.  You put it on and you're in.  No "okay why the fuck isn't this working I've changed nothing and it's not working what the fuck" moments.  G2 has massively superior a/v quality but everything else surrounding it is shitty, busted and expensive to replace.  With the massively overpriced link cable I have all my old oculus rift and steam vr games accessible.

 

My understanding is that the only big difference with Quest 3S is slightly less resolution.  Kids will not complain.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

On 12/2/2024 at 5:17 PM, assfax said:

Quest is officially in Xmas 1988 NES territory.  There's plenty of cheap Quest 2s out there and Q3 has two tiers that are rock solid as a standalone wireless device.  I think the free Batman game only comes with Quest 3/S3.  It only runs on Q3.  Very good game.  I headbutted my own hands.  My only complaints are shitty onboard audio and you need to upgrade to a Kiwi comfort strap and face pad.  As a Oculus Rift CV1 and Reverb G2 owner my Q3 is the most friction free headset I've used.  You put it on and you're in.  No "okay why the fuck isn't this working I've changed nothing and it's not working what the fuck" moments.  G2 has massively superior a/v quality but everything else surrounding it is shitty, busted and expensive to replace.  With the massively overpriced link cable I have all my old oculus rift and steam vr games accessible.

 

My understanding is that the only big difference with Quest 3S is slightly less resolution.  Kids will not complain.

Thanks for this. I'm not tech savvy at all, nor am I a gamer, so I'm grateful for the insight. Looks like the Quest 3 is the way to go.

[odessasteps]

I'm not in the market for a new PC but this seemed interesting when I saw it reviewed yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/live/PVVKhzS4jHA?si=7MkeasBlAm7U6AUv

[Brian Fowler]

Bought a new laptop last week. Got a $900 HP on sale for about $550. Supposed to have a fairly low-end AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor. Got it in and it had all the right specs except instead it has the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U. Still on the lower end of mid-tier, but a better processor than I paid for, so, hey, no complaints. 

Not exactly able to handle new topline games, but I've never been a PC gamer anyway. And I'm getting old, the 17" screen is so much easier on my terrible eyesight.

[Raziel]

11 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Bought a new laptop last week. Got a $900 HP on sale for about $550. Supposed to have a fairly low-end AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor. Got it in and it had all the right specs except instead it has the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U. Still on the lower end of mid-tier, but a better processor than I paid for, so, hey, no complaints. 

Not exactly able to handle new topline games, but I've never been a PC gamer anyway. And I'm getting old, the 17" screen is so much easier on my terrible eyesight.

AMD's are getting shaky, but if you're keeping it lower end you should be fine.  

[Brian Fowler]

2 hours ago, Raziel said:

AMD's are getting shaky, but if you're keeping it lower end you should be fine.  

Yeah, I'm basically just using it for web browsing, maybe Netflix and similar, and some real basic word processing and similar. I just need it to boot up reasonably quickly, and be able to switch between three or four apps/hold them in memory. Got probably more RAM than I need (64GB) and tons of storage (2 TB).

I have a handful of games in my Steam library that I've basically never played, and none of them are exactly current Triple A games, so in the unlikely event I do finally decide to play some of these games I've had for around a decade, I'm guessing it can handle them well enough, and, if not, oh well, no big deal.

[Raziel]

That's an obscene amount of RAM for something with that processor (basically, you'll never come close to using that much).  I got a pretty good Gaming laptop that runs AAA stuff pretty well and I'm only running 16GB.