GeekNights Monday - Motherboards

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, back from PAX and getting rolling again, we lethargically talk about motherboards, which are far less interesting than they used to be (at least, if you're building a PC). In the news, the tech sector is still pretty sexist, Bitcoin block chains can be subjected to interesting analysis, and Photoshop is now only $10/month.

• Thomas the Tank Engine Crash Compilation
• Why you can't use phones on planes

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Omnutia

With mATX boards, the cheaper one sometimes have 2 ram slots instead of 4. 8GB is plenty, but it'd be nice to have the option to expand later.

Never heard of the CPU/motherboard cracking.

Apreche

With mATX boards, the cheaper one sometimes have 2 ram slots instead of 4. 8GB is plenty, but it'd be nice to have the option to expand later.

Never heard of the CPU/motherboard cracking.

Some people push too hard when they install the heat sink on the CPU. Usually this also happens if they don't mount the motherboard to the case with enough screws in all the right places. The motherboard flexes and cracks, usually internally, from the pressure.

Matt

When I was a freshman in high school, I did my first build (I'd assisted my dad before, but never gone hands-on by myself). I wound up making the complete opposite mistake: I didn't push hard enough. The stock heat sink was very hard to get on (I've never had a problem with this since then), so once I got the latch over the prong, I was relieved and thought I was done. However, the prong didn't actually go through the hole in the latch. It was just slightly misaligned, and being held on by tension. I don't know why, but I powered the machine up while still on its side and tilted it up later. When I did this, BOOM, the heatsink sprung off and the chip was done before I could react.

Rym

Man. I remember the days when a heatsink failure meant INSTANT death for the CPU.

Don't miss those days.

Apreche

I remember watching videos that showed a computer playing Quake 3. They had an Intel and an AMD that were both new at the time. They took the heat sink off the Intel and Quake went down to 0fps, but the computer did not crash. They put the heat sink back on and the fps went back up to full. With the AMD they took the heat sink off and the magic smoke came out.

I would love to see someone do this with modern CPUs.

Matt

Yeah my experience was with an AMD. Was one of the first Athlon models if I remember correctly.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

Yeah, I'm thanking god for the fact that my motherboard was smart enough to notice something was wrong with my heatsink (i.e. it had fallen off) when I shipped it last month.

Anthony Heman

I find my main features are automated fan controls and good bios options. I've ended up buying Asus lately.

sK0pe

Yeah I go for Asus most of the time and as a secondary Gigabyte.

I buy full ATX board because I run 2 graphics cards and I like using a sound card.
Asus is good with problems on their premium boards as they are tested before shipping.

I still overclock but only use air now, still most of my builds last 5 years and the main component I need to change is a graphics card or hard drive.

I agree with Rym that the case becomes quite important.
I personally like the slightly wider cases but ones that don't need to be incredibly tall.
My current is a Silverstone Fortress 2, makes a really neat interior once you've finished cabling.

Churba

I know I'm a little late on this - but that guy in the video? Yeah, he's just a dickhead. Not even in a funny or useful way.

Yeah, you have to turn your shit off, you want to know why? Because the law says so, and it's the flight attendant's job to make sure you're following that. You know what arguing with a flight attendant is doing? Just harassing someone making (in the US, at least) precisely fuck-all, because you don't like what you're being told to do for whatever reason. They can't let you off, because that's grounds to lose your job and cop an FAA fine. It's not smart, it's not funny, it's not clever, it's just being an asshole to someone who didn't actually do anything to deserve it, and certainly didn't do anything to you worth being an asshole about.

I mean, the law sucks, it's dumb, and should be changed, but harassing flight attendants isn't going to do a damned thing about that, you're just harassing someone to make yourself feel superior.