The "Quick Questions That Don't Deserve A Thread"...Thread. v5

[cpt.armadillo]

Can someone please give a recommendation for a small 2.5 inch SSD or HDD for use in a laptop that has SATAII that is under 30 USD including shipping and not on ebay? I'll be swapping the drive with the one in the laptop already and installing Debian and doing general computer stuff and some light audio and video work off of external drives. Thank you!

[Triot]

[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47566554]Can someone please give a recommendation for a small 2.5 inch SSD or HDD for use in a laptop that has SATAII that is under 30 USD including shipping and not on ebay? I'll be swapping the drive with the one in the laptop already and installing Debian and doing some light audio and video work off of external drives. Thank you![/QUOTE]

You wont get any SSD with suitable storage and quality for $30. How much storage would you need? Ideally, if you can stretch your budget a bit, you can get a 2.5" 320GB WD Blue for $38 off from Amazon. The cheapest you can get is 120GB for $27.

[cpt.armadillo]

[QUOTE=Triot;47566698]You wont get any SSD with suitable storage and quality for $30. How much storage would you need? Ideally, if you can stretch your budget a bit, you can get a 2.5" 320GB WD Blue for $38 off from Amazon. The cheapest you can get is 120GB for $27.[/QUOTE]

Not very much space at all, I was looking into stuff on Newegg and found reconditioned 160 gig HDDs for ~$24 and also at the SSDs - those aren't going to be any good at all?

[lordcrypto]

[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47566831]Not very much space at all, I was looking into stuff on Newegg and found reconditioned 160 gig HDDs for ~$24 and also at the SSDs - those aren't going to be any good at all?[/QUOTE]

putting data on a $30 ssd is like walking in traffic

it is highly inadvised

[Triot]

[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47566831]Not very much space at all, I was looking into stuff on Newegg and found reconditioned 160 gig HDDs for ~$24 and also at the SSDs - those aren't going to be any good at all?[/QUOTE]

You should avoid buying second hand drives. For SSDs I would strongly advise to pay extra for the sake of quality as well as performance. The cheapest SSD on the market I can recommend is the 120GB Samsung 850 EVO for $69 from Amazon.

[cpt.armadillo]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;47566855]SSDs are amazing for what they are.
Fast and yes quite costly when it comes to storage space.

128GB is mostly fine for most people unless you want to store GTA5 on there then you're gonna need a 240/256GB[/QUOTE]

I know the glorious benefits of going solid state, but I don't know if the drives at this price point are reliable and fast enough to justify the cost for less space. However, I won't need very much storage at all, as most of my work will be done on external and cloud storage. This is basically what my options for solid state are at this price point...
[URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100008120 600038519 600038510"]the egg[/URL]

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_keywords_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A1292110011%2Cn%3A1292116011%2Ck%3A2.5+inch+SSD%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A6158693011%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A4929543011&sort=price-asc-rank&keywords=2.5+inch+SSD&ie=UTF8&qid=1429586506&rnid=4929540011"]big ugly amazon link[/URL]

[B]Edit:
[/B]And that is why I am asking about this. So hold off until I can snag an 850 Evo or MX100 if I'm going SSD?

[Levelog]

[QUOTE=LordCrypto;47566873]putting data on a $30 ssd is like walking in traffic

it is highly inadvised[/QUOTE]

There are people I'd advise to walk in traffic.

[Triot]

[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47566886]I know the glorious benefits of going solid state, but I don't know if the drives at this price point are reliable and fast enough to justify the cost for less space. However, I won't need very much storage at all, as most of my work will be done on external and cloud storage. This is basically what my options for solid state are at this price point...
[URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100008120%20600038519%20600038510"]the egg[/URL]

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_keywords_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A1292110011%2Cn%3A1292116011%2Ck%3A2.5+inch+SSD%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A6158693011%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A4929543011&sort=price-asc-rank&keywords=2.5+inch+SSD&ie=UTF8&qid=1429586506&rnid=4929540011"]big ugly amazon link[/URL][/QUOTE]

Poor quality SSDs can have actually have failure rate of over 10%.
Good quality SSD drives on the other hand have a ridiculously low failure rate. Samsung and Intel SSDs for instance have a yearly failure rate of less than 0.5% making them extremely reliable.

Also, since you mentioned you will be using this in a laptop, it'll be better than a mechanical hard drive since there is much less of a risk damaging it during transport.

[editline]21/04/2015[/editline]

[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47566886][B]Edit:
[/B]And that is why I am asking about this. So hold off until I can snag an 850 Evo or MX100 if I'm going SSD?[/QUOTE]

The 120GB Samsung 850 EVO and 128GB Crucial MX100 so far are the exact same price. Between these two there is no reason to not go with a Samsung.

[Levelog]

Except for potential slowdown issues with the 850. Doesn't seem like it shares the issue that the 840 still struggles with, but we're really still too early into it's lifespan to know for sure.

[343N]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;47562748]Trafficking issue. Nothing you can do except whine the fuck out of Dodo. It's not on your end, it's their end and where the data traffic is going.[/QUOTE]

Mega/Mediafire working fine now, so the trafficking thing is mostly gone, but my torrents are still bein weird. Torrents going like, 5kb/s with plenty of seeders (but like a 1:3 seed/leech ratio). Earlier today it was doing absolutely fine (with same amount of seeders/leechers) but I checked 20 mins later and it was awful and looks like it has been since. Reckon it'd be trafficking aswell or just the torrent itself being a butthole

[343N]

on my samsung galaxy s3 (running stock rom, android 4.3), on the stock messaging app i can see when people send me emojis (they show up as colourless emoji's) but i can't find any way to use them myself. anyone?

[ardosos]

[QUOTE=Ardosos;47566124]Alright, got a bit of an odd one here.

Windows 8 machine, out of nowhere, today explorer.exe started taking 30%-40% of the cpu while idle. In addition, any time I try to actually do anything (click on an icon on the desktop, right click on the task bar, etc) the whole thing gets greyed out like when a program is not responding.

The funny thing is, if I am quick enough to open task manager when I boot up the computer, I can end explorer.exe, and then start a new task and do whatever. Everything else works fine, I can use the computer normally so long as I don't start explorer.exe. I can browse the contents of folders, if I open the location using the "new task" thingy in task manager.

So far I've tried deleting the contents of C:\Windows\Temp, clearing out the registry values for the task bar that they say to clear [url=http://winaero.com/blog/fix-notification-area-system-tray-icons-are-messed-up-in-windows-8/]here[/url]. I've confirmed that there are no corrupt icons on the desktop. I've rebuilt the search index. I've made sure the drives weren't fragmented.

Interestingly, not all of the usual icons show up in the system tray. This machine came with a bunch of bloatware preinstalled that usually creates a bunch of icons on the system tray that I never bothered to pay attention to before, but now it just shows the network indicator, the battery indicator, and the volume adjustment thing. As a test I tried opening steam in task manager and the icon for that appeared fine. What could be causing this?

You guys got any ideas? This is really annoying to work with.

[editline]20th April 2015[/editline]

Also I just noticed that the audio doesn't seem to be working, at all.

[editline]20th April 2015[/editline]

Nevermind on the audio, just had to enable it in the control panel.[/QUOTE]

Aha, I solved it! I have my computer set up to automatically change desktop backgrounds every four hours. For whatever reason, it couldn't do that. When it was scheduled to change the background, it caused explorer.exe to seize up and eventually crash. Fixed this by manually forcing it to change desktop background and restarting explorer a few times.

Who would have thought, eh? Of all the things to go wrong, it was the desktop background.
Running a virus scan just in case but that seems to have solved the problem.

[343N]

[QUOTE=343N;47567380]Mega/Mediafire working fine now, so the trafficking thing is mostly gone, but my torrents are still bein weird. Torrents going like, 5kb/s with plenty of seeders (but like a 1:3 seed/leech ratio). Earlier today it was doing absolutely fine (with same amount of seeders/leechers) but I checked 20 mins later and it was awful and looks like it has been since. Reckon it'd be trafficking aswell or just the torrent itself being a butthole[/QUOTE]

mega and google drive are going slow again, for fucks sake

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

and it's back but torrents are still shit
man it's not reliable

[343N]

and they're shit again. dodo's customer service ain't nowhere near pleasant either. currently on hold waiting for tech support, sigh

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

15$ credit and going down, im probably going to run out before they can call me back oh my god

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

$12

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

10.5$ and this music is actually fucking godawful.

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

finally i'm through to them. hope and pray they talk some sense this time instead of 'lets come over if ur so confident its not on ur end' and be charged because it wasn't outside the premises, and if it's traffic issues, it could fix while he/she here then be shit later

[QQnMarine]

I need help if this power supply will work with the pc I am building, and is it okay if I use these ram sticks?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($115.99 @ SuperBiiz)
[B]Memory: Team Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 ($74.99 @ Newegg)[/B]
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card ($329.99 @ Amazon)
[B]Power Supply: ElephantMax 80+ Gold 750W[/B]

[343N]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;47568189]Start raising an issue.[/QUOTE]

i lodged a fault. they said they'll check on their end and if its not on their end they'll want to call someone here
but i know its not on my fuckin end and i highly doubt its on mega/mediafires end or w/e. like, please correct me if i'm wrong but if it was on my end why would speedtest.net/ozspeedtest.com be totally ok but mediafire/mega/p2p be shite? i might record this even

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

and i don't want to have them come and it 'be fixed' only for it to go slow when they're not here and be charged for an incorrect callout fee when it was just coincidence, you know.

[uber.]

[QUOTE=QQnMarine;47568422]I need help if this power supply will work with the pc I am building, and is it okay if I use these ram sticks?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($115.99 @ SuperBiiz)
[B]Memory: Team Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 ($74.99 @ Newegg)[/B]
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card ($329.99 @ Amazon)
[B]Power Supply: ElephantMax 80+ Gold 750W[/B][/QUOTE]
That seems to be a no-name PSU. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, since you're getting quality parts for your PC I don't see a reason why you shouldn't invest into a decent 500W PSU as well. 750W is overpowered unless you're going for SLI in which case you still should get another PSU.

Can't really say too much about the RAM. Never heard of that brand. I'd personally rather spend a bit more and go for G.Skill or Corsair.

[QQnMarine]

[QUOTE=uber.;47568456]That seems to be a no-name PSU. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, since you're getting quality parts for your PC I don't see a reason why you shouldn't invest into a decent 500W PSU as well. 750W is overpowered unless you're going for SLI in which case you still should get another PSU.

Can't really say too much about the RAM. Never heard of that brand. I'd personally rather spend a bit more and go for G.Skill or Corsair.[/QUOTE]

Japanese brand for the PSU (pretty popular here), team xtreme is good

I was recommended a 620W by Corsair

[343N]

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;47568460]if it was something on your end then how are you even posting

if youtube is operating normally and speedtest is showing max line speed and P2P shit and stuff from mediafire and mega is slow as fuck then its on their end[/QUOTE]

like they're working but just going 10-300kb/s and usually if they start at 300kb/s they drop slowly down to ~100, like i said. idk tech support is a bitch

[uber.]

[QUOTE=QQnMarine;47568466]Japanese brand for the PSU (pretty popular here), team xtreme is good[/QUOTE]
Alright then, according to a japanese shop the PSU delivers 52 amps on the 12V rail. That's more then enough for a GTX 970. You're good to go.

[Triot]

[QUOTE=QQnMarine;47568422]I need help if this power supply will work with the pc I am building, and is it okay if I use these ram sticks?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($115.99 @ SuperBiiz)
[B]Memory: Team Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 ($74.99 @ Newegg)[/B]
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card ($329.99 @ Amazon)
[B]Power Supply: ElephantMax 80+ Gold 750W[/B][/QUOTE]

Don't spend too much on RAM. Ideally just get the cheapest compatible set that doesn't have tall heatspreaders, runs at 1.5v or under, and operates at 1600MHz. If there is higher frequency RAM that costs just a little bit extra then you should definitely get it if your motherboard can support its speed. An example would be this:
[b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/avexir-memory-avd3u21331104g2cir]Avexir Core Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory[/url] ($55.99 @ Newegg)
It costs only $3 extra from the cheapest available compatible set that operates at 1600MHz.

That 750W unit is more than you would even need. If you haven't purchased it yet then this unit would instead be ideal for your system:
[b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550gts3x]XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply[/url] ($56.08 @ Newegg)
It's a bit more than you would need but it's the cheapest unit that is of very high quality that's 80+ Gold Certified.

[QQnMarine]

[QUOTE=Triot;47568503]Don't spend too much on RAM. Ideally just get the cheapest compatible set that doesn't have tall heatspreaders, runs at 1.5v or under, and operates at 1600MHz. If there is higher frequency RAM that costs just a little bit extra then you should definitely get it if your motherboard can support its speed. An example would be this:
[b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/avexir-memory-avd3u21331104g2cir]Avexir Core Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory[/url] ($55.99 @ Newegg)
It costs only $3 extra from the cheapest available compatible set that operates at 1600MHz.

That 750W unit is more than you would even need. If you haven't purchased it yet then this unit would instead be ideal for your system:
[b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550gts3x]XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply[/url] ($56.08 @ Newegg)
It's a bit more than you would need but it's the cheapest unit that is of very high quality that's 80+ Gold Certified.[/QUOTE]

Already purchased the PSU, but I will get cheaper memory if the freq is too high, my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 so I am unsure if it'll work. Thanks

[Kannata]

The stupidest shit just started happening today.
Every game I play uses 1% cpu and 99% gpu making everything lag extremely hard. I've been playing Skyrim a lot and so I tried restarting my [URL="http://i.imgur.com/tzvwvN4.png"][B]super awesome pc[/B][/URL] and on the first boot of the game it worked and the cpu/gpu were doing great. Then I turned the game off, and when I turned it on again it was back to normal.
Shit's great.

e: god damn i just realized my gpu is always over 70C. the fuck

[lavacano]

[QUOTE=343N;47567491]on my samsung galaxy s3 (running stock rom, android 4.3), on the stock messaging app i can see when people send me emojis (they show up as colourless emoji's) but i can't find any way to use them myself. anyone?[/QUOTE]

usually its in the same spot as the enter key, and changes depending on the app
try holding down the enter key 😘

[Kannata]

alright apparently theres a bitcoin miner on my computer
mdm.exe

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

nice

[Uberpro]

Should I wait for the r9 3XX or buy this r9 290 now? I'm aching to play GTA V and my current rig is ancient.

[URL]http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/4096MB-PowerColor-Radeon-R9-290-PCS--Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retail-_950327.html[/URL]

[lordcrypto]

[QUOTE=343N;47568447]i lodged a fault. they said they'll check on their end and if its not on their end they'll want to call someone here
but i know its not on my fuckin end and i highly doubt its on mega/mediafires end or w/e. like, please correct me if i'm wrong [B]but if it was on my end why would speedtest.net/ozspeedtest.com be totally ok but mediafire/mega/p2p be shite? i might record this even[/B]

[editline]21st April 2015[/editline]

and i don't want to have them come and it 'be fixed' only for it to go slow when they're not here and be charged for an incorrect callout fee when it was just coincidence, you know.[/QUOTE]
imagine you're driving through the city, and you want to get from your house to the grocery store, well thankfully there's only one light between you and the grocery store and it's always green in the direction you're wanting to go

but if you want to go to a nice fine restaurant, there's a bunch more lights with a bunch more traffic buildup there

(why speedtest could be fine, while mediafire isn't)

[General Arnold]

So, I have an older rig that I'm restoring. (I bought it from my cousin for like 8 dollars) It runs pretty well. Had an Athlon in it, but I put my old Phenom 2 x4 965 in it. The only downside is that is runs an on-board graphics. I want to keep it as a computer that friends can use when they're over. I'm scouring eBay and craigslist for a mid-range 2012-2014 graphics card. I'm debating on either getting a GTX750ti, a GTX660Ti or an HD7850 or the R7/R9 equivalent. I want it to be able to at least run something like BF4 in 1080p at medium settings at 45-60 fps. Any of you guys have any recommendations? I'm not looking to spend more than $145. So if anyone has a good recommendation or would even be willing to sell me a card. Let me know.

[Levelog]

[QUOTE=General Arnold;47571906]So, I have an older rig that I'm restoring. (I bought it from my cousin for like 8 dollars) It runs pretty well. Had an Athlon in it, but I put my old Phenom 2 x4 965 in it. The only downside is that is runs an on-board graphics. I want to keep it as a computer that friends can use when they're over. I'm scouring eBay and craigslist for a mid-range 2012-2014 graphics card. I'm debating on either getting a GTX750ti, a GTX660Ti or an HD7850 or the R7/R9 equivalent. I want it to be able to at least run something like BF4 in 1080p at medium settings at 45-60 fps. Any of you guys have any recommendations? I'm not looking to spend more than $145. So if anyone has a good recommendation or would even be willing to sell me a card. Let me know.[/QUOTE]

Pick up a used 660. They can be found for around $100.

[343N]

[QUOTE=LordCrypto;47571783]imagine you're driving through the city, and you want to get from your house to the grocery store, well thankfully there's only one light between you and the grocery store and it's always green in the direction you're wanting to go

but if you want to go to a nice fine restaurant, there's a bunch more lights with a bunch more traffic buildup there

(why speedtest could be fine, while mediafire isn't)[/QUOTE]

That makes sense, but my main gripe is dodo telling me it's on my end and wanting a technician here and I don't want the traffic to be fine when he comes and get charged a large sum of money, only to have it go back to shit later