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The Hole I’m Writing This On
Amy and I both play World of Warcraft. As the game progressed, we had to use lower settings and had reduced frame rate as our systems aged. So, on Black Friday, we saw some Graphics cards on sale, so we bought a couple. I swapped Amy’s card out in 10 minutes. Old one out, new one in, no problem. For my computer, I had two problems — perhaps you can see one.
Old Case
If I removed the hard drive, then I might have gotten it to fit, but the power supply would not have been enough.
So I waited, and ordered a new case (that could fit a kitten, no picture) and power supply. I got all the parts last night, and was able to swap the motherboard.
At midnight, I decided that sleep would be a good thing. Coming back this morning, I got everything installed and “tidied” up.
The sharp-eyed among you might notice some unconnected cables. Well, the front panel I/O headers on the MoBo are under the Graphics Card, and there’s not clearance to plug them in. There are solutions, but I’ve spent more on this upgrade than I did on the original computer. To be fair, it was a return so it was a reduced price.
Some lessons: another computer is helpful to look up motherboard pinouts. Think about the form factor when buying hardware.
On another note, I might have to unplug the power LED indicator. I can see the light on the ceiling.
Anyone else have some holes that suck money?
Published in Humor
Chef,
Why didn’t you call me? I have a spare graphics card that would have dropped right into the space in your old case. My case is big enough to take yours and we could have both been happy. Well, you would have been happy until you stood your tower back upright and walked around the room a few times. You see instead of the two small fans mine has one big fan so it’s short enough to fit. Mine also has a single post to screw it in unlike yours that has a double post. This means that mine is taller with a larger fan that has more centrifugal torque and only one post to secure it. After a little while, it will work itself free from its slot at the darndest times. Isn’t that cute.
I finally just took the cute little thing out and I’m running with the onboard graphics which on a 7i are actually pretty good. I read the graphics card aftermarket come-ons but actually, I’m not doing any gaming so it doesn’t matter.
Regards,
Jim
Or WoW. I was a moderate gamer when WoW came out in 2001. I saw co-workers get addicted to the game, firing it up at lunch and staying hours after work to play it.
We did have LAN parties involving first person shooter games like Duke Nukem. I was late to the gaming party, and my first one was Doom.
Because of how I saw it affecting my co-workers — I overheard one actually lying to his wife over the phone on why he was staying late past work, because he did it a lot — I deliberately did not play the game.
Get a tablet. Amazon has some inexpensive ones in their Fire line. I go higher end, with Samsung, but Fire is pretty good for what you might use them for. I am drafting this post using a Samsung Tab S3 with a bluetooth keyboard.
I’ve built a few PC computers, and learned a lot as a result. But now I just buy off the shelf laptops. If I ever decide I want to game again, I’ll get a gamer laptop with graphics good enough to power 2 or 3 additional monitors. I do like big displays.
“Why couldn’t you have an affair like a normal man.” ~sob~
De rigueur.
OMG. Someone stole my idea. Note to self: Keep husband sufficiently amused that trips to the guest bedroom are not required. Also, can’t help noticing that’s a suspiciously large box underneath the small lamp. Wonder what’s inside it . . .
Reckon I owe you a backup plan then.
Machrone’s Law. Bill Machrone. I think it was $5K. Theyz were the doze.
You’re right. And thanks.
But why? There aren’t any worthwhile VR games. And considering the market share all the good developers will be coding for regular 2D. And without actually made for 3D games ports will just be nausea inducing gimmicks. This is like 3D movies. Remember those? That fad dies off quickly.
2019 will be a great year for buying computers. AMD is competitive with intel again – for the first time in years – not just on a discounted performance per dollar metric, but in real computing horsepower. I would hang on until after CES to see if anything catches your interest in the product announcements.
Also – you screen becoming unreadable. There is a ribbon cable running through one of the hinges between the body of your laptop and the screen. This cable wears out with the opening and closing of the laptop and could cause the intermittent symptoms that you’ve complained about. The cable is usually fairly straight forward to replace it just snaps into connectors on the laptop’s motherboard and to the back of the screen.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Replacing-a-Laptop-Screen-Cable/
There are certainly some worthwhile VR games, with more in the pipeline.
People are actually buying full VR rigs just to play Beat Saber, for example, not to mention things like Skyrim VR and Borderlands 2 VR. Yes, the last two are ports of existing games, but they’re still pretty damned neat.
Flight and driving simulators are starting to become very popular, too. A friend of mine just bought a Rift specifically to play flight simulator games.
Some of the neatest “games” in VR aren’t really games, either – Google Earth VR is really immersive, and there’s going to be a huge market for VR “experiences” that drop you into places you would normally never see.
My brother is running Fallout IV VR. It’s pretty great, even in comparison with the non-VR game.
Four million VR headsets have been sold (real VR, not “put your phone in a headset” VR), and Steam currently has 3800 VR titles. Over the last year, VR headset ownership has doubled.
I’ve got a bunch around here (along with a number of Raspberry Pis). Some are used for pretty mundane tasks – I built a vacuum pump controller (measures vacuum & cycles pump off & on to hold the level steady) for making lightweight fiberglass parts. Some are a bit more complex: when trying to figure out inlet & outlet ducting for optimal airflow through the radiators on my brother’s car I had 6 Bosch pressure sensors arrayed in the ductwork, 2 “windmills” to pick up airspeed, and a GPS module (to get Speed & Yaw information) all on a Mega.
I’ve been trying to find the time to complete another dozen embedded controller projects, but it’s been tough.
I feel a draft. Bats nearby!
Good old Hunt the Wumpus. Not as good as colossal cave, though, with those nasty little dwarves with the knives and the twisty little passages, all alike.
Want to play? Zork is also available.
Did you know that an 8-32 bolt will almost fit into a M4 nut?
Almost.
A couple of passes with a Dremel will take care of that problem.
Afterwards, neither will fit anything again
Sounds like ADVENT
I got as far as XYZZY before getting bored.
I spent hours on that. I especially liked the part where you had to entice a dragon down to an ice wall, where he saw his reflection, thought it was another dragon, and flamed and melted the ice.