Finally been forced to upgrade my 2012 computer

[Coolcats]

Yes, it was the one that came with it. Quite the noisy little bugger it was.

The new one is still a bit loud at full tilt but nowhere near as annoying.

These are verging on the silent when you use the speed reducing kit.

Noctua NF-S12A PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin (120mm, Brown): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Buy

amzn.to

This is the fan I have in now to replace the hs/fan that came with it. I would only use this if you have a compact case though. If you have a decent size case go for the one with the biggest fan as the bigger the fan the quieter they are. I am forced into this one by the size of the case, which was dictated by the space available in my van.

https://amzn.to/3caC8CM

Once I get my new accommodation sorted out I will be going for a bigger case and upgrading the hs/fan to hopefully one with a 120mm fan on it. It makes such a big difference especially with the static pressure ones.

Nice Fan, looks like that will keep everything cool

There is a similar versions for the Pi...the ice tower, I nearly brought one but not sure my computations will make the Pi get that hot and I prefer the heatsink case with the mini fans to stop me accidentally touching the board

Who would have thought fans would get so techi

 

[Gromett]

Nice Fan, looks like that will keep everything cool

There is a similar versions for the Pi...the ice tower, I nearly brought one but not sure my computations will make the Pi get that hot and I prefer the heatsink case with the mini fans to stop me accidentally touching the board

Who would have thought fans would get so techi

You should look into the science behind the Noctua fans. For years they were the leader because they used science and wind tunnels and CFD to make the perfect fan balancing pressure, airflow and sound.
They even worked on their own bearings and system to make the gap between the tips of the blades and the cowl as small and as consistent as possible.

Others are starting to rise to the challenge but with only one exception no one is yet getting close to Noctua.

I hated the brown colour when I got my first one, but now see it as a badge of quality.


Check this out.

Noctua spent four and a half years designing its quietest, strongest fan yet

200 prototypes later, the mad airflow scientists at Noctua have made a new type of plastic for their best fan yet.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Minxy]

Windows 10 install is a frustrating experience. 4 reboots!!!! No info about what it was doing just a circle of dots going around. Finally it says it is done then it demands you give them a microsoft login. Skype, office etc. or create one. I just want to get into my computer. Luckily had a skype account, but it wanted my password. I use lastpass for this... Grrr. Remember my phone has lastpass installed so go into that and get password. Then it asks me loads of snoopy questions. Do you want me to track you, do you want adverts personalised? WTF!!! Adverts in an OS, are you kidding me? Loads of other stuff...

Great innit!

At least you've found the Classic shell, makes quite a difference to it as you've found.

 

[Wissel]

The fan noise from the AMD cooler was doing my head in. So today replaced it with a Noctua L9x65 cooler/fan.
Can't hear it now

However, I can now hear the case fan. So I will when I can be arsed pull one of the 120mm Noctua fans out of the server case and put them in the new one. At low revs these are practically silent.

I'm a big fan (lol) of that cooler - and other Noctua fans:

The above has changed slightly. I got fed up with unreliable 12v PSU's so fitted a SFX where the two small rear fans were (refitted the fans in the open side).

The PC is in a cupboard that has more Noctua fans keeping it cool (plus two more for the fridge airflow):

These are all controlled by an old temp sensor-ed fan controller above the PC.

The whole setup is almost silent and temps are great always. Not cheap Noctua - but worth the cost IMO

 

[Gromett]

I have been blown away by my new monitor.

I wasn't too impressed with it out of the box, it looked a bit washed out due to it having a new backlight and my old one having dimmed over time. It was bright but the colours weren't particularly impressive.

However, I noticed 2 days ago it had something called HDRi and was an HDR-400 monitor. I was told that this was a waste of time and to ignore it by a variety of reviewers who said unless you could afford an HDR-1000 monitor don't waste your money.

Anyway I turned HDRi mode on in world of warcraft and was blown away. Booting back to the desktop the colours just popped and no longer looked washed out. They also weren't over saturated to my eyes.

I wouldn't have posted this as the monitor is a little on the pricey side for my tastes. However, today I finally got round to raising up the PC shelf so I could fit the monitor on the VESA wall mount. What a palaver. To cut a long story short I ended up buying a shelf from the local DIY shop which unfortunately had mounting brackets that meant the computer speakers I had been using for the last 10 years wouldn't fit. Much messing around, custom aluminium brackets, custom joinery etc all failed. So I decided, oh well I will just have to live with the monitors built in speaker until the new accommodation is sorted out. I wasn't expecting much, tinny, rattly sound and no bass... But WOW, Just WOW. This monitor has speakers that are not just passable, but are actually pretty decent. It has an upfacing bass subwoofer and some pretty clear main stereo speaker. They are not going to blow your socks off with volume. But for watching films, playing games and viewing youtube they are more than adequate. Monitors are just not meant to sound this good.

I thought I would test the video and audio out and found a 4K youtube video with some good audio and played it back at the native 1440p in HDRi. It looks fantastic and sounds pretty damn amazing considering it is built in speaker.

So this post is to recommend this monitor if it fits your budget and needs. Moving to a 1440p on the desktop for programming has improved things dramatically for me. For game play it is an improvement but the 144Hz refresh rate has made a bigger difference. The HDRi is superb if you are moving from a standard 1080p monitor even if it is IPS. I feel like I have been using handtools all my life and moved to using good quality power tools.

https://amzn.to/2Mfqo7v

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[Nirvanauk]

Have you seen the price of this........

 

[Gellyneck]

Surprised me, my windows 7 key activated windows 10 fine.

FYI, and apologies if you know all this already!
Just remembered this! There's been some advice on tinterweb that if you upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 it could change the "status" you have from "retail" (if you have a retail version of 7) to "oem". Didn't happen with about half a dozen machines we upgraded. Might not be a problem for you either but ..............
If you run slmgr.vbs -dli from a command prompt it should bring back the version (Pro \ Home), description (this is where it will show retail or oem), the last 5 characters of the product key and licence status.
When I ran it on our machines that had been upgraded they all came back with the same last five! Turns out Microsoft seem to have allocated a generic product key but when you power on and log-in it checks the components in the machine to validate authenticity. Nothing like making it confusing!
Could be fun and games if \ when you want to do a clean install at a later date after upgrading some of the components!

 

[Gromett]

Have you seen the price of this........

That is why I said...

I wouldn't have posted this as the monitor is a little on the pricey side for my tastes.

I usually spend around £100-£150 on a monitor but wanted to go to 1440p and 27" this time. The difference is incredible and if you work all day on a computer then it is a price worth paying in my view.

 

[Gromett]

FYI, and apologies if you know all this already!
Just remembered this! There's been some advice on tinterweb that if you upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 it could change the "status" you have from "retail" (if you have a retail version of 7) to "oem". Didn't happen with about half a dozen machines we upgraded. Might not be a problem for you either but ..............
If you run slmgr.vbs -dli from a command prompt it should bring back the version (Pro \ Home), description (this is where it will show retail or oem), the last 5 characters of the product key and licence status.
When I ran it on our machines that had been upgraded they all came back with the same last five! Turns out Microsoft seem to have allocated a generic product key but when you power on and log-in it checks the components in the machine to validate authenticity. Nothing like making it confusing!
Could be fun and games if \ when you want to do a clean install at a later date after upgrading some of the components!

My windows 7 licenses are OEM, I didn't upgrade as I couldn't log into windows 7 on my new computer due to USB 3 issues as above.

So I did a clean install of window 10. Then entered my windows 7 key. It works fine.

I have no need for any features at all of windows. All windows needs to be able to do it launch World of Warcraft and a web browser. I spend all my time in Linux except for my downtime when I play a little bit of WoW.

Thanks for the tips though. I have no idea what to make of it as I don't know what the difference is between the different versions of windows and to be fair don't really care

 

[Gellyneck]

My windows 7 licenses are OEM, I didn't upgrade as I couldn't log into windows 7 on my new computer due to USB 3 issues as above.

So I did a clean install of window 10. Then entered my windows 7 key. It works fine.

I have no need for any features at all of windows. All windows needs to be able to do it launch World of Warcraft and a web browser. I spend all my time in Linux except for my downtime when I play a little bit of WoW.

Thanks for the tips though. I have no idea what to make of it as I don't know what the difference is between the different versions of windows and to be fair don't really care

The main issue with retail vs OEM in Windows is that you cannot \ should not upgrade \ update the core hardware (eg mobo, cpu, etc) in a machine running an OEM copy of Windows as the licence doesn't permit it.

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[Gromett]

The main issue with retail vs OEM in Windows is that you cannot \ should not upgrade \ update the core hardware (eg mobo, cpu, etc) in a machine running an OEM copy of Windows as the licence doesn't permit it.

Never had an issue doing that.

In fact, just upgraded the hard drive from an SSD to an NVMe drive.

Seriously not a single component in the new computer out of the old one now.

 

[Linda and Steph]

I got this up and running at the weekend, just need to give it a good clean after sitting in the shed for 20 years.

 

[Gromett]

I got this up and running at the weekend, just need to give it a good clean after sitting in the shed for 20 years.View attachment 393689

Love the game, dislike the computer. I was a Pet/Vic20/C64/Amiga person

 

[Gellyneck]

Well after only 15 months of prevaricating finally order the bits!
Don't do any serious gaming so just looking for a reasonable spec for video \ audio and office work and have ended up with these bits winging their way to me.

• Gigabyte Aorus Pro AC mobo
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (3rd Gen) cpu (latest built in graphics model)
• Seasonic Core GM650 psu
• Kingston Fury Beast DDR4 2x16Gb ram
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus M2 card
• case, other drives, etc being recycled from other kit

Gives me something to do as the weather too bl**dy warm up here just now!