The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

Here's the plan. Instead of using the standard Gateway factory restore (which has bloatware), I just fetched Win10 drivers from the Gateway support site, and will install a fresh copy of Windows 10. I'm using the Media Creation Tool to download the current ISO image and avoid the long Windows Update process. All my documents have been backed up, and I am ready to finish rebuilding Audrey.

[cpd2009]

Audrey has been revived, but with a few drawbacks.

There is a front panel connector near the PCIe x16 slot, preventing installation of the GeForce 750Ti. The fan hits the connector plug, preventing full connection. I suspect this plug might be for the front panel audio jacks, which if unplugged, then the 750Ti would fit. However, the PSU isn't the perfect fit for Audrey's case either. As a result, I found the original 350W PSU and currently using the built in Radeon 8500 graphics.

Peformance is much, much better in regards to general use. Browsing is very responsive and I can actually multitask. The RAM upgrade is still needed, but I have a feeling I may be able to order it from Crucial within the next week.

I still have to test Magix Movie Edit Pro, but that will be tomorrow. It's getting late here.

[cpd2009]

Final results of the Audrey rebuild. Better, but not great.

Better in terms of day to day tasks. Web browsing and general use are more responsive than the old E7400 PC. In terms of multimedia and games... about the same or worse, depending on the program. Magix performs about the same as Patsy. Importing files for YTP takes a long time, and I could never get hardware accelerated encoding working properly. Gaming graphics with Pinball Arcade are worse because of an issue with the 750Ti. The Graphics Card isn't failing, but it can't be installed in the motherboard due to odd placement of a front panel connector plug. The fan of my particular GeForce 750Ti is rather large, and it's outer shell hits that plug preventing full contact with the PCIe slot. Thus, I'm stuck with the A6-5200 built in GPU, which isn't that great if you want to run Pinball Arcade at full resolution.

In regards to these issues, the desire to make use of the spare parts I got, and after talking with Blake about it, I have made my final decision. I will pursue building my own PC out of the parts listed below...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://pcpartpicker.com/list/2CN7rH">http://pcpartpicker.com/list/2CN7rH</a><!-- m -->

It took a few hours, but this is the most cost effective for me. I can acquire the parts whenever I can afford them, eventually having a ready to build PC that costs less than buying a prebuilt unit. I have a purchased Win10 key available due to the Gateway PC being eligible for digital entitlement, so no worries about acquiring another license key. I also already have a good PSU and the 750Ti GPU. As for the case, I will do a bit more exploring as I would like a case that has a bit more color to it, perhaps something in blue or cyan. Nothing too gaudy or flashy.

The name of the final PC? Don't know. I'm tempted to resurrect the Lilly name since she was originally going to be a custom built PC before I chickened out due to a bad experience in college computer class. (namely, instructor decided to use a third party CPU cooler instead of the stock fan, which was a nightmare to install along with not having pre-applied thermal paste) Other names I have in mind are Frisky (my avatar pic), Anna (rabbit character from the Little Polar Bear), or Kissyfur. I will have plenty of time to decide.

First thing I will acquire is the ATX case. I begin my search tonight.

[huckleberrypie]

Hope that config I suggested goes well for your needs mate.

[cpd2009]

Okay... first part ordered for my build... the Rosewill FBM-01 tower case. I looked at other options, and they either had poor reviews or they looked way too flashy. The Rosewill was on sale for a great price as well.

All parts will be ordered from NewEgg. I have had good experiences with them in the past, and that is where I ordered my GeForce 750Ti card from.

[huckleberrypie]

Okay... first part ordered for my build... the Rosewill FBM-01 tower case. I looked at other options, and they either had poor reviews or they looked way too flashy. The Rosewill was on sale for a great price as well.

All parts will be ordered from NewEgg. I have had good experiences with them in the past, and that is where I ordered my GeForce 750Ti card from.

Looking forward to your new rig mate, good luck!

[cpd2009]

Another Halloween has come and gone. Now, it's the march towards Christmas... eh, Thanksgiving.

I'm a Christmas guy, but Thanksgiving is still fun with the parades and the interesting Animal Crossing celebrations.

Sometimes, I get a bit anxious to build my new PC since I have to take my time to acquire the needed parts. But, I must stay firm and move forward with the build. I'm also considering ordering these books at the site below that I recently started to adore thanks to the wonderful artwork.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rwalley.com/_center__b__font_color__green__pearl_and_wagner_books___font___b__116465.htm">http://www.rwalley.com/_center__b__font ... 116465.htm</a><!-- m -->

Safe to say, the name of the PC is one of the two characters. Which one? It may be an easy guess to some, but I will leave that untold until the system is actually built.

[cpd2009]

It's been a long time since I last posted, thus, I post yet again today. A lot of things to talk about in detail.

Thanksgiving came and went, and this year, we mostly sat out Black Friday. Only thing that interested me was a $15 smart watch from Dollar General, which I bought on Thanksgiving. For the price, it's rather good. It's not any Apple Watch, but it handles basic push notifications fine as well as having basic fitness tools like a pedometer, sleep monitor, stop watch, etc. It also has alarms, calculator, and other typical watch functions. The main issue was the required app, "Fundo Companion". You use your phone to scan a built in QR code and takes you to a Google Play page for the app. It's purpose is to act as a fitness monitor while also pushing notifications to your smart watch. I found that after installing Fundo, Oscar's battery was draining quicker than usual, and determined it was Fundo. It was constantly sending and receiving data even when the app was closed. I installed a packet sniffer and found out it's trying to contact a Baidu server that happens to be down. I have no idea what this data is, but since it's endlessly trying to send 20kb of data, it's using Oscar's battery up as well as potentially eating all of my mobile data limit!

Not wanting to write off the smart watch, I searched the Play store and found a "BTNotification" app that is from the same developers. It's merely a simple Bluetooth push app without the fitness functions or the suspicious network activity. After successfully resetting the connection with the watch, it found the BTNotification app and it now syncs once again.

Strangely enough, the Menards Black Friday smart watch from "Jamsonic" looks exactly like the Dollar General one, even recommending "BTNotification" in it's online user manual.


As far as the PC build is coming, the final part was ordered this past week. The Intel i3-6100 is on it's way, and tracking currently puts it in the Twin Cities. It should arrive Monday. I also got a free Intel T-Shirt along with the CPU, but there was no option to choose a size. :/ Until then, I have started backing up all my data in preparation, and I am going to install Kubuntu Linux on Audrey. I have been trying for years to switch to Linux, and I want to see if it's any better than when I last tried it. Someone got Pinball Arcade running on Linux through WINE, and there are also tools like PlayOnLinux that also sound useful. KDEnlive seems to have improved as well.

If Linux turns out to fit my needs, I may switch to that. Otherwise, it's Windows 10 Home.

[huckleberrypie]

Yeah, that's the problem with certain apps bundled with white-box devices lately. Stallman's ideology may seem black and white, but I can see why he and FSF prefer open-source over anything else as they can easily audit what the software does compared to their closed counterparts.

And yeah, just saw the i3 you ordered on your timeline. I'm sure your new rig's going to be golden.

As for switching to Linux, I don't mind doing so myself, but since so many of my tools are Windows-only, and may not run correctly on Wine, I am basically stuck on Microsoft, and even more so with my folks especially my brother who is easily intimidated with something other than Windows.

[cpd2009]

Well, I have gone and done it. My new Intel i3-6100 rig is complete and was easy to build. I will post a separate thread with full details and benchmarks very soon.