Stijn!!

[flipper35]

I think I got a nice watch.

Glen, it depends on what he does on the computer. If he plays stuff like CS:GO on triple screens a good video card and RAM will boost performance a lot more than a SSD. If he plays something like MS-FS with tons of data loading constantly a SSD helps considerably.

[GH85Carrera]

He just has one monitor. He plays games, and mostly the battle games. It was bought as a game machine. It has 16 gig of ram, and some NVIDIA gaming card. He said anytime he played the games it was choking at 100% disk access all the time. Just swapping to the Segate drive I had in my closet seems to have made it faster.

[GH85Carrera]

Since I was in no hurry whatsoever for the SSD to arrive it showed up in the mailbox today. I ordered it yesterday afternoon, and check the mailbox about 12:30 and there it was. So it is cloning now. Then I have to figure out how to get his old drive in place and hooked up. In place is easy, but the connections to the motherboard seem to be pretty well hidden.

[flipper35]

Some motherboards are a PITA to get connected to. Some are worse because the SATA connector is under the graphics card so anytime you put a full length card in it hits the connector cable.

[GH85Carrera]

It is evident, they tried hard to make the computer as small as possible, yet have a full size video card in it. What a pain in the butt to work on. To get to the cable connections obviously open the one side, then undo 3 screws that hold a mount for the DVD burner, unsnap the clip, unsnap all the clamps to rotate the front of the computer partway off, then slide the DVD out, and unhook one cable to the front panel, and then remove the entire front. It is a real challenge to get it all back together.

To get the new drive mounted involved one of my old adapter plates for 3.5 inch drives into the 5.25 inch plate. I honelstly needed to go to the garage and use the miter-chop saw, drill press and rivet gun. There is no place to screw it on, so rivet it on was the only option. Then mount the new SSD, and then the old spinning drive, and the cables are just jammed up together, so it is is all finger tip fiddling to get them hooked up.

Now he has a SSD boot drive, and the old drive is a backup and scratch drive.

I would guess few others with that gaming box have a SSD installed as the boot drive. It is much faster.

Instead of the conventional slid in drive bays, it has two vertical spots to mount drives. If using just standard hard drives no problem, except finding the connections. The small drives adapter plates I have all mount on the sides, but this case has no provision for side mounting. The rivets will work fine.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. I hate computers when it comes to upgrades or fixing.

[GH85Carrera]

My system is an enormous tower. I still have room for more drives if I wanted to add them in. I have the two M.2 - 4 TB drives mounted right to the motherboard, and they would require removing the cards to gain access to the motherboard covers to R&R them, but I have no plans to do so. Of course the 5 spinning drives that are the 15TB RAID-5, the DVD & Blueray drive, the one bay that has the multi card reader and 4 USB 3 ports and the USB3.1 port. The two full size, double width video cards and 6 fans. It is all very modular and easy to access.

I really need to pull it out of where it sits, and go to the garage and blow the dust out. It has two knobs that allow me to crank up the two biggest fans to hurricane mode. The unit is the opposite of a laptop. It is HEAVY as heck. 24 inches tall, 22 inches deep and 9 inches wide.

I have room for one more full size video card. The only upgrade that would make sense is a faster CPU but it just does not yet make sense to do that.

In truth, I kinda liked fighting with his computer. I did not have to buy any parts except a new SSD that he will pay me for. To have to use a chop saw, drill press and rivets on a computer upgrade is a first. It looks professional, and I put my initials and a date under the new SSD, so I basically signed my name to my work. No one will ever see it most likely.

[flipper35]

I don't know why the trend for gaming cases is small now. All our daily computers cases, except for the boy, are the same Antec in piano black and have great access on the inside. The boy has the sound activated LED fans on a Corsair case that was given to him. My wife's has a SSD boot since hers isn't on all that much and she likes that it is booted, ready to go in 13 seconds. The kids and mine get used enough we just let them go to power save mode and they don't get turned off often so we never bothered to upgrade them to a SSD boot drive. The load times for their games is pretty short so no real advantage yet for the price of a 3TB SSD games drive.

All the spare computers are the old cases we had before the nice ones now and hand me down parts.

I don't mind working on or upgrading computers, but I don't like replacing a motherboard all that much.

[Porsche-poor]

The kids built their gamers from a pile of parts. Large cases with lots of air flow.

[flipper35]

And dust filters on the inlet that are easily removable so you can clean them. Some of our older computers don't have them so we have to pop the lid and clean them every so often. Fortunately we don't use them other than when we have a LAN party so it is not a common thing.

[GH85Carrera]

The kid was all excited to come down and pick up his computer. He hit the road but hit some rain and his windshield wipers are not great he said. He did just graduate from high school, and he is a long long way from an experienced driver. It is likely good he did turn around. It was dry down here, so it likely was an isolated shower.

He older brother somehow managed to go off the road and center punch a tree and total his pickup. He was basically unhurt, but totaling a car is never good. Something I have never done.

We are going up there on Sunday for something or the other so we can haul it to his great grandmother's house. He was supposed to bring her the money. I am sure she is always happy to see the kids.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Sounds like a smart kid, knows when to save it for another day.

[GH85Carrera]

I remember learning to drive and my dad did teach me, when it is raining to slow the heck down.

Later in like I learned the old square root of tire pressure time 10 is the speed you will hydroplane or aquaplane whatever term you want to use.

So 36 PSI square root is 6. Time 10 = 60 MPH. Not an absolute value, but dang close for most tires and conditions.

One a recent trip to Enid it was raining hard, and I slowed to 60 MPH even though the speed limit is 75. A Suburban came flying past at 75 or 80 and vanished into the mist. About 5 minutes later was came upon their crash. They hydroplaned right off the interstate and his the center catch fence, and rolled. Totaled car and likely injuries. There were a dozen cars there already so we did not stop. Just sad the were to ignorant to slow the hell down.

[Porsche-poor]

We have those kinds of idiot here to.

[flipper35]

Here too, but in snow. When I took my wife to the airport a while back we got passed by a lot of vehicles and some we passed as they sat in the ditch too buried in the snow to get back out. Of the couple dozen vehicles in the ditch, 99% were a CUV/SUV. Of course there were a dozen tractor/trailer rigs in the ditch as well.

Washed the van and did two coats of ceramic over the weekend. Yesterday and today it rained. Of course.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Typical Friday rush to get as much packed into a day without caring.

[flipper35]

Afternoon here already.

Have a wedding to attend tomorrow. It is my boss getting married and the reception is a half mile from the house. Could walk if it doesn't rain.

[GH85Carrera]

I used to live just under a mile from my office. Lots of people suggested I ride a bike. I did get a little scooter that I could drive on neighborhood streets all the way, and just cross one street that was a 40 MPH 4 lane road but it was not super busy. Virtually every-time I used the scooter, I ended up have to zip home, and get my car for a real errand. It was great to zip home and make lunch for cheap. Now I just walk to the kitchen and make a sandwich most days.

Since Richard went and died on me I don't get my usual one per week buddy lunch. It was perfect with Richard as he was close and we liked the same foods. Most of my friends either live on the other side of town, or still work for a living. I need to find another buddy that has a flexible lunch time and likes to eat out for lunch.

[flipper35]

My lunch time is flexible but I ain't driving that far!

My old, old job I had a 47 second commute from my apartment to my work since work was across the parking lot of the apartments.

[GH85Carrera]

At my job that was nearby, I once backed the 914 into the garage the night before. In the morning, I started the engine and the stop watch. I parked the 914 it the usual spot at the back of the lot, and I turned off the engine 55 seconds later at work. I will admit to slight speeding in the neighborhood, a bit more speeding down the 40 MPH road, and no traffic as it was early in the morning. To get to the back of the lot, I floored it in 1st, and hit redline, nailed the brakes hard, and turned 90 degrees into the spot.

Normal commute time was about 90 to 120 seconds. I was young and stupid and just had to beat one minute. I made that long one mile commute for 22 years.