Computers?

[efaardvark]

Doing a bit of parts shopping for a new PC.  I'm going for a completely new build and given where prices are likely to go in the near future I'm more concerned with longevity and reliability than things like price.  Unfortunately I'm still working on my first $million so I'm not able to say price is not a factor at all - I wish! - but I'm selecting items for the short list by looking at other attributes first, and only then considering price.  This will be a higher-end, future-proof (as much as possible) system that I hope will last many, many years with few upgrades.

For example, I'm looking at the SeaSonic Prime series for the system's PSU.  I've got a SeaSonic in my current system that's followed me through 3 builds with absolutely no issues.  Being that old it's not modular but it's totally silent and has been stable as a rock, power-wise, even in my old overclocked FX build that had 5 fans to dissipate the heat.  The Prime series PSUs have FDB fans, are fully modular, quiet, and warranted for 12 years, which is reassuring considering that I'll be using it to power a system that might wind up having a few parts that are a bit on the expensive side.  Looks like a new 750W, Prime-series PSU will cost around $130-150, speaking of expense.    It's only money though, right? 

 

[efaardvark]

8000MT/s memory can be had these days for something approaching a reasonable price / performance standpoint.  (at newegg for example)  Latency is CL40 so there's still room for improvement but $210 for 48G (2x24) isn't bad for PC5 64000 memory.  That's "only" about $4.50 per GB.

Gonna go check out some of the forums & see what kind of luck people are having when actually trying to run at that speed.  And what kind of mobo they're putting it in.  If it needs a $500 mobo to run reliably at that speed then it kind of negates the price deal. 

[Clayton]

I for one welcome our robot overlords. I trust them way more than the people currently in charge. 

 

Daniel Barton (Dr. Who villain) Thank you. Today, I'm here to say thank you to those of you all round the world who've made our achievements possible. To everyone who, over the years, has given us everything. We gave you pieces of plastic and circuitry and games, and you handed us - me, my company - total access to your lives. What you buy, where you go, who you text, what you text. Every thought and photo and post. Every credit card number, every birthday, every memorable place and all your mothers' maiden names. So thank you for carrying our cameras in your pockets, and putting our microphones in your bedrooms. For signing up your kids, handing them our devices. We told you, of course your lives are private, of course your data's safe. And you believed us. You kept clicking Agree. And now, we can do anything.

---_Dr. Who Spyfall (part 2) 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2025 by Clayton

[efaardvark]

With That Particular Shopping Day coming up I thought I'd take a few minutes to update my AM5 build list.  I decided this would be a good opportunity to see how X's Grok performs as well.  I'd already done the hard work - well except the part about funding the build - so I knew most of the answers.  I just wanted to see if Grok could actually be helpful for something like this.  I think the answer is "yes".. though with reservations.  As usual with AI you don't really know what's going on in there.  Is it really considering all the options?  Did it not present any information that I might have found relevant or useful?  It seemed to be in a hurry to take me shopping too.  Could that be a 4th directive creeping in?

Anyway, it gave me a link to the Q&A session so you can check it out yourself, if you've a mind to....

https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtNA_24c912e8-5d78-4cae-8b56-96534a9a9e9b

It's a nice build too, though quite expensive compared to what I've done in the past.   Like double what I've ever spent on any of my builds to date.  For reasons, including inflation.  But... gak!  This is basically why I haven't upgraded my system in about 6 years.  Always hoping the price will come down.  (Spoiler.. it doesn't.) 

If anyone does check it out please let me know what you think.  I've also updated the page I've been maintaining for the build over on pcpartpicker if you don't care about the AI stuff.

[efaardvark]

OMG.. DDR5 memory is so freeking expensive!

[efaardvark]

Pulled the trigger on building a new system.  Got the motherboard and RAM today.  The case I got yesterday.  PSU also arrived yesterday.  Still shopping for the rest.

With all the craziness out there I decided it was time.  Crucial (micron) just recently announced they are leaving the consumer memory market for greener pastures.  Guess the money's greener making datacenter memory.  GPU and memory prices are already way up and with the tariff madness making a mess of business plans and logistics I didn’t want to get in a situation where parts were too expensive, or even unavailable.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited December 8, 2025 by efaardvark

[Animedragon]

9 hours ago, efaardvark said:

Pulled the trigger on building a new system.  Got the motherboard and RAM today.  The case I got yesterday.  PSU also arrived yesterday.  Still shopping for the rest.

With all the craziness out there I decided it was time.  Crucial (micron) just recently announced they are leaving the consumer memory market for greener pastures.  Guess the money's greener making datacenter memory.  GPU and memory prices are already way up and with the tariff madness making a mess of business plans and logistics I didn’t want to get in a situation where parts were too expensive, or even unavailable.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Hey, hey, new computer building time  that's always good fun. I hope it all goes well for you.

Last time I did that I was sent a dead board and had to send it back .  Sad to hear that Crucial are leaving the consumer memory market.

[efaardvark]

4 hours ago, Animedragon said:

Hey, hey, new computer building time  that's always good fun. I hope it all goes well for you.

Last time I did that I was sent a dead board and had to send it back .  Sad to hear that Crucial are leaving the consumer memory market.

All part of the “fun” of byo.  

I’m probably going to change my OS too.  Still Linux but I gotta get away from Canonical.  I had Manjaro on my last system.  I also had SuSE on my LAN’s gateway.  First choice this time will probably be another Arch distro.  Maybe Manjaro again, but CachyOS seems to be getting a lot of hits on distrowatch and it’s based on Arch as well.  I might give that a try first.  Haven’t made a final decision on the distro yet.

re Crucial, yes.  That just leaves Hynix and Samsung.  Hope that doesn’t mean supply problems going forward.  DDR5 memory prices were already way up.  When I checked a few months ago, 64GB (2x32G) were $240ish.  That’s already expensive enough but when I looked recently that same memory had more than doubled in price to over $600!  To cut costs I’ve already scaled my build back to 32G.  

Crucial’s exit could mean higher flash memory costs as well.  That would hit SSDs, including nvme M.2.  So far I’m not seeing that but I don’t want to take chances.  I’m getting a nice one now while I have the opportunity.

[efaardvark]

Got a couple more parts in.  This time the CPU and the SSD.  I still need a cooler and a GPU before I can start making the soup.  Got my eye on a cooler but I may wait until the after-Xmas sales to get the GPU.

Edited December 14, 2025 by efaardvark

[efaardvark]

The DDR5 memory that I bought only 3 weeks ago now costs twice as much as it did then.  This is nuts!

[Animedragon]

6 hours ago, efaardvark said:

The DDR5 memory that I bought only 3 weeks ago now costs twice as much as it did then.  This is nuts!

That really is nuts.  It's a good job you bought it when you did.

[efaardvark]

8 hours ago, Animedragon said:

That really is nuts.  It's a good job you bought it when you did.

Yeah.. though I was thinking about getting more.  Emphasis on the "was".

I did order a GPU.  I was going to wait until the new year and maybe catch a price drop from an after-sale.  After seeing this I decided not to risk it.  This batch of GPUs is expensive, but the price includes GDDR prices from back at the time of manufacture.  The next batch will likely have a much higher price due to having to bake in the input costs of these ridiculously high current prices.  I don't know when the current inventory of GPUs will run out but I decided it is better to be safe than sorry.

Unless the AI bubble pops and floods the market with silicon that would otherwise have gone into datacenters.  If that happens then we might finally see some reasonable retail prices for both GPUs and RAM.

[Clayton]

Am  I the only one who talks to Google AI and Rufus?

[efaardvark]

Decided to go with cachy first.

4 hours ago, Clayton said:

Am  I the only one who talks to Google AI and Rufus?

Rufus and I don't get along.  Amazon's search has always been horrible.  If I'm inputting a particular model or SKU then don't waste my time showing me other crap that I wasn't searching for, or bury it on the 3rd page after all the sponsored links.  Rufus was just more of the same.  If I asked about a particular feature of an item Rufus would say something like, "I don't see that in the item description".  I can read the description myself faster than I can get the answers from Rufus.  Rufus is like some pushy salesman that doesn't even know much about the merch he's pushing.

Gemini was also horrible.  It was one of the AI's that I tried when I was putting together the new computer system.  Even just asking about features and specs of various components seemed to be beyond it.  I'd been thinking about this build for several months and had already done most of the research so I already knew the correct answers.  Google got it wrong so many times.  I'd hate to have to trust it on matters where I didn't already know the answers. It couldn't even answer a question like "is X CPU compatible with Y motherboard?"  I had a list of parts and I went through the whole list.  When I got to the end and asked it to summarize and find prices for the items we'd "discussed", the list it presented even contained items that hadn't been mentioned!  Links were broken.  Prices were misquoted.  Links went to items other than what was shown in the list.  Again, more trouble than it was worth.

FWIW, the best AI in my test case was Grok.  It was certainly more "conversational" in that even when I wasn't extremely precise in my questions it seemed to understand the intent correctly and respond appropriately.  A couple times it suggested alternative parts that were cheaper or better than the items on my list, though in the end I only made one change from my predetermined parts list.  It also seemed as we went along to get better at understanding the intent of the build and respond appropriately with that in mind when it came to making suggestions.  It responded with sensible answers when I told it to give its reasoning behind its suggestion(s).  A couple times it even asked me questions about why I chose one part over another.  I'd like to believe that it incorporated my answers into its responses.  Gemini would say things like, "that's what the people on the reddit forums seem to think".  Great.  I'm going to trust Reddit to build a $2K system for me? 

 

Edited December 31, 2025 by efaardvark
typoos

[Clayton]

Maybe you just aren't stimulating them right

[zeriiiclaire]

This is my computer. Outdated including the operating system. 

[Animedragon]

55 minutes ago, zeriiiclaire said:

This is my computer. Outdated including the operating system. 

If your computer does what you want of it why worry about how old it is?

Windows 7 is a good OS, I only moved on to Windows 10 because my PC suffered a terminal hard drive failure. At present I have no intention of moving to Windows 11 any time soon.

[zeriiiclaire]

4 hours ago, Animedragon said:

If your computer does what you want of it why worry about how old it is?

Windows 7 is a good OS, I only moved on to Windows 10 because my PC suffered a terminal hard drive failure. At present I have no intention of moving to Windows 11 any time soon.

It's a laptop that keeps on flickering and needed to be plugged to external monitor. My brother said you only need windows 7, windows 10 or later isn't for the old hardware like your laptop. It surely occur slowness while in use! 

Try to change your hdd to ssd like my brother did to that laptop and switch back to windows 7. I think that will work to eliminate that failure! 

[Animedragon]

3 hours ago, zeriiiclaire said:

It's a laptop that keeps on flickering and needed to be plugged to external monitor. My brother said you only need windows 7, windows 10 or later isn't for the old hardware like your laptop. It surely occur slowness while in use! 

Try to change your hdd to ssd like my brother did to that laptop and switch back to windows 7. I think that will work to eliminate that failure! 

My laptop is still on Windows 7, my desktop is on Windows 10 22H2. The old HDD was totally unreadable so just replaced it, fortunately nearly all my data was on the other drives and safe.

[efaardvark]

17 hours ago, zeriiiclaire said:

This is my computer. Outdated including the operating system. 

 

I know of a few others who are holding on to their old Windows systems.  MSFT seems to be oblivious to the people who don't want to - or can't - upgrade every time MSFT needs an earnings boost.

I'm firmly in the "whatever works for you" camp but if you ever do decide to upgrade then you might give linux a chance.  Especially if MSFT decides to arbitrarily brick an older computer that is otherwise in working condition then wiping Windows and trying linux might save you the cost of buying new hardware.  Just something to keep in mind.

Cute wallpaper btw.  :)

Edited February 6 by efaardvark

[zeriiiclaire]

On 2/6/2026 at 9:28 AM, efaardvark said:

I know of a few others who are holding on to their old Windows systems.  MSFT seems to be oblivious to the people who don't want to - or can't - upgrade every time MSFT needs an earnings boost.

I'm firmly in the "whatever works for you" camp but if you ever do decide to upgrade then you might give linux a chance.  Especially if MSFT decides to arbitrarily brick an older computer that is otherwise in working condition then wiping Windows and trying linux might save you the cost of buying new hardware.  Just something to keep in mind.

Cute wallpaper btw.  :)

Linux? Can I use windows apps on that os? I did a little re-search about the os and found out almost everything are free including games! Games like Indie style to specific not those aaa games! Some says you can use windows apps by the help of wine! What wine? Literal wine?

For the wallpaper xiexie^. ~

[efaardvark]

8 hours ago, zeriiiclaire said:

Linux? Can I use windows apps on that os? I did a little re-search about the os and found out almost everything are free including games! Games like Indie style to specific not those aaa games! Some says you can use windows apps by the help of wine! What wine? Literal wine?

 

Using Windows apps on linux is possible.  Not all, but many.  Especially if you are into Steam games then it is pretty seamless.  Steam itself runs on Linux, and works just like the Windows version.  The Steam Deck handheld actually runs a version of Linux under the hood.  The new Steam Machine coming out will as well.  Valve has done a lot of work to make as many Windows games as possible run those platforms, and Linux as a whole benefits from that.  Some game developers for whatever reason go to extreme lengths to make sure their games only run on Windows.  Those cause problems and there's not a lot that can be done to fix that besides convince those developers of the error of their ways.  Other than that however the games mostly just work.

Valve makes it all work on Steam by using something called "Proton".  Proton is Valve's game-optimized version of a sort of launcher called WINE that will run Windows apps.  "WINE" is a recursive acronym for "WINE Is Not an Emulator".  WINE can be used to make most other Windows apps think they are running on Windows.  Again, some developers of specific programs cause problems but in general it works pretty well.

There is also quite a lot of good software that runs natively on Linux of course.  Web browsers like Chrome or Firefox for instance.  There's an Office-like suite of software called LibreOffice to do spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, etc.  There's programs like Kdenlive for video editing.  There's GIMP for "photoshopping" and Blender for 3d modeling.  I play the Java version of Minecraft with my brother in Wisconsin most weekends, and we'll usually run a Discord voice chat while doing so.  Mods for Minecraft also work in Linux.  I use the Linux version of the Minecraft launcher called Prism to help me manage my Minecraft mods.  There's Linux versions of Teams, Slack, and Spotify.  Chances are very good that anything you run on Windows either has a version for Linux from the same developer(s) or you can find a different program on Linux to do the same thing.

A lot of software is "free" on Linux.  Not all of it.

There are 2 meanings to "free".  One meaning is "free of charge".  Yes, there is a lot of software that you don't have to pay for.  The Linux operating system itself is in this category.  If you go to a site like distrowatch you can find lots and lots of different versions of Linux to download and install on your computer.  The different versions are all using the same core Linux operating system but are organized around and optimized for different communities of users.  Some are for particular types of hardware such as laptops or routers.  Some are for different types of users, such as media producers, scientists, business users, or programmers, etc., etc.  The most popular ones like Mint or MX are aimed at the typical home PC user.  All these "distributions" (distros) are all free of charge to download, install, and use.  Many do charge for support however, especially those distros that are directed at business or professional users.

Some software available for Linux is not free of charge.  It is up to the developers of a particular bit of software as to whether and how much they charge.  (It is their software after all.)  Some software developers charge for their software just like most do on Windows.  Some request donations, either to themselves or to their favorite charities.  Some do not require payment at all.  Most are covered by some sort of license for use.  The GNU "copyleft" license is popular.  The BSD license is another one.  There are others.  You will have to check into and comply with whatever charges and licensing restrictions - if any - apply to whatever software you use on Linux, just like on Windows.

The other meaning of "free" in Linux is allowing the user to do what they want.  Again, the GNU license is often used to enforce free software rights.  Most Linux software is also "open source".  Because people are free to use the software as they wish, a small but significant number of users want to modify the software.  To enable this the source code to the programs is often made available.  This includes the Linux OS itself of course.  The source code for both the kernel and all the libraries and utilities included with most distros is available if you want to modify the OS for your own use.  If there's a feature that you want that isn't in the software then you can add it.  If there's a feature that you don't like then you can modify or remove it.  You do have to know how to program of course, but you are free to do what you want with the software.

[zeriiiclaire]

15 hours ago, efaardvark said:

 

Using Windows apps on linux is possible.  Not all, but many.  Especially if you are into Steam games then it is pretty seamless.  Steam itself runs on Linux, and works just like the Windows version.  The Steam Deck handheld actually runs a version of Linux under the hood.  The new Steam Machine coming out will as well.  Valve has done a lot of work to make as many Windows games as possible run those platforms, and Linux as a whole benefits from that.  Some game developers for whatever reason go to extreme lengths to make sure their games only run on Windows.  Those cause problems and there's not a lot that can be done to fix that besides convince those developers of the error of their ways.  Other than that however the games mostly just work.

Valve makes it all work on Steam by using something called "Proton".  Proton is Valve's game-optimized version of a sort of launcher called WINE that will run Windows apps.  "WINE" is a recursive acronym for "WINE Is Not an Emulator".  WINE can be used to make most other Windows apps think they are running on Windows.  Again, some developers of specific programs cause problems but in general it works pretty well.

There is also quite a lot of good software that runs natively on Linux of course.  Web browsers like Chrome or Firefox for instance.  There's an Office-like suite of software called LibreOffice to do spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, etc.  There's programs like Kdenlive for video editing.  There's GIMP for "photoshopping" and Blender for 3d modeling.  I play the Java version of Minecraft with my brother in Wisconsin most weekends, and we'll usually run a Discord voice chat while doing so.  Mods for Minecraft also work in Linux.  I use the Linux version of the Minecraft launcher called Prism to help me manage my Minecraft mods.  There's Linux versions of Teams, Slack, and Spotify.  Chances are very good that anything you run on Windows either has a version for Linux from the same developer(s) or you can find a different program on Linux to do the same thing.

A lot of software is "free" on Linux.  Not all of it.

There are 2 meanings to "free".  One meaning is "free of charge".  Yes, there is a lot of software that you don't have to pay for.  The Linux operating system itself is in this category.  If you go to a site like distrowatch you can find lots and lots of different versions of Linux to download and install on your computer.  The different versions are all using the same core Linux operating system but are organized around and optimized for different communities of users.  Some are for particular types of hardware such as laptops or routers.  Some are for different types of users, such as media producers, scientists, business users, or programmers, etc., etc.  The most popular ones like Mint or MX are aimed at the typical home PC user.  All these "distributions" (distros) are all free of charge to download, install, and use.  Many do charge for support however, especially those distros that are directed at business or professional users.

Some software available for Linux is not free of charge.  It is up to the developers of a particular bit of software as to whether and how much they charge.  (It is their software after all.)  Some software developers charge for their software just like most do on Windows.  Some request donations, either to themselves or to their favorite charities.  Some do not require payment at all.  Most are covered by some sort of license for use.  The GNU "copyleft" license is popular.  The BSD license is another one.  There are others.  You will have to check into and comply with whatever charges and licensing restrictions - if any - apply to whatever software you use on Linux, just like on Windows.

The other meaning of "free" in Linux is allowing the user to do what they want.  Again, the GNU license is often used to enforce free software rights.  Most Linux software is also "open source".  Because people are free to use the software as they wish, a small but significant number of users want to modify the software.  To enable this the source code to the programs is often made available.  This includes the Linux OS itself of course.  The source code for both the kernel and all the libraries and utilities included with most distros is available if you want to modify the OS for your own use.  If there's a feature that you want that isn't in the software then you can add it.  If there's a feature that you don't like then you can modify or remove it.  You do have to know how to program of course, but you are free to do what you want with the software.

Nice it sounds that linux world is more generous unlike windows! By the way, is/are there an app/s for linux to watch anime for free? About security, it is safe to use linux than windows? And are these threats work on linux like malware (ransomware, spyware, Trojans), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) attacks, and phishing? 

[efaardvark]

7 hours ago, zeriiiclaire said:

Nice it sounds that linux world is more generous unlike windows! By the way, is/are there an app/s for linux to watch anime for free? About security, it is safe to use linux than windows? And are these threats work on linux like malware (ransomware, spyware, Trojans), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) attacks, and phishing? 

The sites that stream anime for free are generally illegal and therefore not discussed here on AF. 

There are free apps on linux that let you watch content from sites that require a subscription.  For example, I typically use the firefox web browser to stream from places like crunchyroll and netflix that I subscribe to.  Of course there are free apps on linux for playing video and audio files from your hard drive as well.

For things like DVDs I do it a little differently.  Not a linux/windows thing but because I have a NAS I typically take the video off the disc and put it into a file, then put the file into my Plex server on a NAS.  (A "NAS" is network attached storage.  Basically a hard drive attached to the LAN instead of to a particular computer.)  This lets me conveniently search the database containing the metadata for my entire DVD library online and queue up whatever I decide to watch from my web browser without ever touching a disc.  To pull the content from disc I typically use something like handbrake or a utility called ffmpeg if I'm transcoding.  Both have native Linux versions that are free.  My NAS is a Synology server, which lets me run the Plex server software on the NAS as well.  Plex has several different options, some of which require a subscription and / or registration.  For me I only use it for local (LAN) access and for that it is free of charge.  

I do believe that all unix-like operating systems such as Linux are inherently more secure than Windows.  Unix was created for multi-user systems in a highly networked environment.  There are a lot of layered mechanisms that were built-in from the beginning to restrict access and compartmentalize resources, hardening the system against remote attacks and mischief from other local users.  Unix has also been quite popular at the server level, so a lot of effort is spent by the black-hats to create malware to get access to things like database and web sites running on unix servers.  A lot of effort has been spent by the white-hats to counter those efforts, in the process making the system more secure, especially to remote attacks over the network.  

Linux being a unix-like OS it benefits from this heritage.  Linux itself is actually used on most of the world's servers, including AWS, Google Cloud, and all of the world's top 500 supercomputers.  It would not be the go-to OS for the world's servers if it was not secure.  I think that being open-source also helps make it more secure because it makes it easier for people to find and fix problems.  Worldwide there are far more people who have the skills and access to Linux source code to find problems and publish fixes than MSFT employees who can find, fix, and publish the fixes to problems with Windows.

Windows was originally designed for stand-alone PCs where anyone with access was assumed to own the system and thus allowed admin-level privileges.  Windows was forced to add mechanisms for restricting access when the Internet came along but historically such mechanisms have been implemented poorly and / or created performance issues and as a result been un- or underused.

That said, all computer systems have malware that targets them, including Linux.  Also, things like phishing attacks that target users' behavior don't really involve the OS.  Those are just as likely to affect Linux users as Windows users.  Application-level attacks such as trojans and a lot of spyware are also hard for the OS to deal with unless the admin of the system is capable of using the OS's protection features to good effect.  This is as true on Windows as it is on linux.  Or any other OS for that matter, though again unix's layered defense by default does not allow unrestricted access between different users or access by users to system-level processes so such attacks tend to be less effective on Linux.  The Linux kernel is pretty good at keeping the application/user layer from messing with system-level stuff, so in that sense Linux is probably a bit more secure.

The question of RDP attacks is kind of a "yes, but" thing.  On unix-like operating systems such as Linux the architecture is different in that the desktop is not part of the kernel.  RDP is a proprietary protocol built-in to Windows by MSFT specifically to allow remote access.  Because of this Linux doesn't have the same vulnerabilities to RDP attacks as Windows.  Obviously linux often does have a desktop environment (sometimes servers are run "headless" without one), but any vulnerabilities would be specific to the desktop software being run, not Linux itself.  As far as the linux OS is concerned this would be just another application- or user-level question.  To gain unwanted remote access to a Linux (unix) desktop would require the malware to use a different, more involved process with a greater likelihood of failure.

[Moxie]

Really interesting one.