PC Master Race

I have a budget of around $750 and I expect to be able to code in it. I honestly have not much idea what the ideal requirement of a laptop for a college student should be, which is why I am asking here to get an estimate of the specs I should be considering while choosing one. I would advice against naming any specific laptop as I have no guarantee of its availability in my region.

Edit: Seeing some of the comments, I have decided to add some context and additional constraints:

• Fit for Computer Science: I wish for the laptop to handle all the tasks expected from the course with reasonable efficiency first and foremost. Gaming support (at least Minecraft) may be desirable but completely optional.
• Windows only: I am completely inexperienced with Linux and college life, and I want to prioritize my studies over setting up and learning a completely new OS until I am sure I can find enough time to consider switching, so for the time being I am going with Windows. Moreover, the cheapest models among the Macbooks available here cost way above my budget and aren't feasible either.
• Newly purchasable models only: My college is offering a grant for newly bought laptops and it is in my best interest to avail the offer to get the most capable model possible, so I will not be purchasing any used laptop.
• Price matching allotted budget: For the same reason above, I will not be deviating from my budget by more than $100 from either side.

I understand that these constraints narrow down my options by a large margin. If no one can offer something that fulfills the above criteria, that's OK. I will ask someone else or simply buy one by my own intuition. I will only request you to comment if you actually have a suggestion that respects the above constraints and not just to complain about them.

I'm thinking about buying a new GPU. I'm looking at the 7700 xt as it's about £355 and I want Linux support and I like newer features. Before I pull the trigger can anyone tell me why I'm making a huge mistake?

Considering buying the Dell Alienware AW2725DF Monitor, but am a little unsure how well it perform on a Linux(Bazzite) system. Are there any issues with this at all these days?

I recently booted the game up and forgot about the problem. Here's the thing. The game was able to do so on my old 2TB super cheap NVME drive. But I upgraded to a WD Black 4TB drive and that when the problems started.

I'm sure a major portion of the problem is I have a Intel Arc A770 card. runs the game smoothly at 60fps locked on extreme settings (as long as ray tracing it turned completely off.) But Intels monitor combining software is HORRIBLE!

I have tried the hack of using SRWE to get around it, but even doing that the screen still defaults to 1920X1080.

was just wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for getting my triple monitor setup working again?

Microsoft asks many Game Pass subscribers to pay more for less

"Launch day access to first-party titles now restricted to $19.99/month 'Ultimate' tier."

Just got a high refresh rate monitor (PG248QP) and it makes a high pitched noise when I set it to 500hz. Anyone else have this problem with this or other high refresh rate monitors?

Just like in the title my PC has an issue when it won't turn on. Power button does nothing, fans do not spin, PC is completely dead. First time it happened was when I put it to sleep, sometimes it wouldn't wake up so I just avoided putting it to sleep as a temporary solution that become quite permanent... Simple power off worked well enough but recently it won't start even when I turn it off. If that happens I need to flip the power button on the PSU for a 30 or so seconds then it turn it back on and I can start PC no problems.

From what I read on the Internet people suggest faulty PSU. Is there a way to confirm that? I don't want to buy a new PSU if the old one is still good. It has little over 5 years so it's not exactly new but certainly not too old.

I also had one crash that looked like PSU fault since PC just shut down suddenly but I blamed it on some power drop in the grid at the time.

Dell XPS 15 9530, Windows 11 Pro 10.0.22631, x64, 13th Intel Core i9... I could go on. Hopefully that's enough info.

This is a sub for asking tech questions right? Apologize if not.

Just thought Nerd Fonts should get some more love & attention

Nerd Fonts patches developer targeted fonts with a high number of glyphs (icons). Specifically to add a high number of extra glyphs from popular ‘iconic fonts’ such as Font Awesome, Devicons, Octicons, and others.

So a very long time ago now, I upgraded from my ancient AMD FX 6100 to a Ryzen 5 1600, and now I am on my 3rd CPU with an Intel i3 12100f.

Why did I go with an i3 and not the i5? Simple, I was on a budget and I couldn't justify spending more than $250 CAD for this upgrade. I could've squeezed in the 12400 if it was in stock, but it wasn't.

Why didn't I just get a new AMD CPU and slot it in? Well I tried, but my Gigabyte motherboard (even with updates) refused to play nice with the 5500 I tried to upgrade too. If I was keeping with AMD I'd need to buy a new Motherboard and if I was buying a new Motherboard for this I might as well get the best bang for my Buck.

So what did I get.

Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-P since it had the IO I wanted (2x M.2 slots and a USB C Port on the back)

CPU: Intel i3 12100f

And the results are... honestly surprising. Despite loosing 2 core and 4 threads, I gained in performance everywhere, or I was GPU limited with my 3050. 2 minutes off of my 10 minute handbrake render, 50fps extra in Doom 2016, and a doubling in Geekbench single core performance which I need thanks to my work in FreeCAD. FreeCAD is still slow, but the models I am loading are demanding.

Overall I am happy with my upgrade, and the best part is, since I am buying my Motherboards at the end of a socket generation rather than the beginning, it means when I want to upgrade in a few years, it should work with intel 13th and 14th gen CPU's.

Geekbench before: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/6614622

Geekbench after: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/6616466

Let’s call it hybrid soldered memory

It's not the gotcha that they think it is. Increasing share of Linux, steam deck or not is progress. Any development or considerations made for the SteamDeck and its Arch based OS benefit the non SteamDeck Linux gaming scene too.

Mostly a stab at Reddit PCMR, Lemmy PCMR has a different vibe.

Hi y'all, i used to be so prolific at the whole pc building thing. but now i'm out of the game with age and not buying stuff in a while. so here's my question:

my PC is fine and i upgraded parts of it during the years. but it may be time for a new motherboard, since mine only supports 32gb of RAM which isnt enough anymore.

what do I need to do to replace my motherboard? I guess, i'd have to re-install everything, right? Isn't windows and all the software kinda bound to my motherboard?

since i'm fine with my 2060Super, i guess getting a new PC is not worth it, my case and hard drives are fine. i will need new RAM and SSDs. So what should I look for in a motherboard?

thanks for reading this ramble

I wrote here earlier about being unable to turn off my microphone. My headset had a removable mike. So in the end in order to fix it I just unplugged the mike.

I'm using an older pair of IEM's I have, and the problem resurfaced. I did all the steps turned off microphone in the settings, even went through device manager to turn it off. Was still getting sound.

What finally worked was going into speakers, and sliding the "Rear Pink In" slider all the way down. It's still not off, but at least i can't hear myself breath anymore.

would anyone know why this is happening?

The motherboard is a Gigabyte Z790 UD AC

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/6997831

cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/6997656

List of unofficial console PC Ports with Tutorial (Re-/Decompilations)

I have created a list of all the unofficial console PC ports (that are based on Recompilation or Decompilation) I know about, along with easy-to-install versions that have been marked with a star ⭐.

Additionally, I have included short installation tutorials on how to install them. My plan is to keep this list up to date and add new finished PC ports in the future.

I feel this happens to everyone. Buy a PC, be happy that it's better than what it replaces, then after a few years get annoyed that's slow.

This happened to me with my now 6/7 year old Ryzen 5 1600x. It was so much faster then my FX 6100, but my workload changed, and while multicore it's good, single core leaves much to be desired, especially since my CAD software of choice FreeCAD is very dependent on single core/thread performance.

So I've been keeping an eye on the markets, waiting for a deal to be had, and I found one, with the Ryzen 5 5500 going into my budget. So I bought it thinking that my old Gigabyte B350M Motherboard would support it. I mean Gigabyte says it's supported and they've never lied about anything before... let alone deny by rebate claim for my laptop.

So I installed the CPU, booted it up, and boot loop. So I took out a stick of ram and it posted, was planning on fixing that later. Configured my BIOS to my liking, saved and restarted into my OS. It booted, for 3 seconds, then promptly black screened and crashed. Not even the power and reset buttons worked, so I had to hard kill it.

OK Troubleshooting time. Check BIOS version. 52h, hummm looks good but there is a 53, lets install that. And a reboot after, no fix.

OK let ask Google, within the dozens of responses asking for BIOS version, there was reseating the RAM. That did nothing, and underclocking the CPU to 3000MHz. That shockingly worked, and I booted into my OS. Neat, I can troubleshoot that later.

Now let's install my other stick of RAM and lets get to fixing this sucker... and it's boot looping again. I've reset the CMOS, put both sticks of RAM into all slot configurations, and nothing.

So I re-installed my 1600x to sanity check myself, and it worked, with both RAM installed. So back to Canada Computers I went to get a refund. While I was tempted by the Intel CPU's on the way out, I got new thermal paste and now I am writing this post on my PC with the 1600x.

Lessons I learned today.

1. If you are upgrading a 1000 series Ryzen stick with the 3000 series as 5000 compatibility is dodgy depending on the manufacturer.

2. The Manufacturers can and will lie about compatibility, and hardware upgradability is hit or miss depending on the Motherboard.

3. I'm not buying from Gigabyte ever again. Though I've heard Asus isn't much better.

Now PLEASE NOTE BEFORE COMMENTING. I do not have the 5500 and will not go back and get it again, so no troubleshooting, please. I just wanted to share my experience and kind of warn those who plan on doing the same.

I have a triple monitor setup right now, but am thinking of trying a single ultrawide monitor. What is your preference?

Any one use an AsRock N100M? Whats idle power consumption on it like?

I have the n100dc-itx, and its about 6-8w on my home server, but was thinking of changing it to an N100M, as the n100dc-itx might be needed elsewhere.

Anyone got one? Else should I spend much more on the Odroid H4 plus?

Keep noticing that when taking about Linux distro recommendations (on Reddit) users recommend Mint and Ubuntu for gaming.

Now don't get me wrong, they're great distros and with a bit of work are great for games, but I feel like theres better recommendations for new users looking into getting into gaming on linux.

I am happy I could still get it in red 😋

Original RAM was Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200), while my new sticks are TeamGroup T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL18.