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GeekNights Monday - Buying a new PC in 2015

Rym is considering buying a new PC to replace his i7-920 from 2009. Despite even a ridiculous spec being pretty reasonable, it's worth it to hold out until fall for skylake. Thunderbolt 3.0 will use USB-C connectors, bringing a grand cable unification. So get used to this guy. Scott brings us a review of the Livewedge video streaming device.

Don't forget to come to ConnectiCon if you live anywhere on the Northeast Coast: it's an amazing con, and there isn't much else like it.

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  • Just so you guys know, there is a Di'Bellas in Newington about 20 minutes away from the convention center/Hartford area.
    Expect some cheese sandwiches.
  • Pro audio is embracing Thunderbolt, Universal Audio, AVID(Pro Tools) has them, Apogee, Zoom, Focusrite, all make interfaces that use Thunderbolt. And if you're not using thunderbolt, then you're likely going to be using something like a Pro Tools HDX system that has an external interface that connects to the computer through a PCIe card. Below that many mixers are still using Firewire, and many are also using USB(which can handle multitrack audio recording).
  • I think I'm on the same upgrade cycle as Rym, except I upgraded my video card last year to a 900 series card. I too am waiting for Skylake possibly Skylake-E, motherboard and some DDR4.
    It's weird my CPU is definitely the choke point now, my SSDs run slower on Windows 7 than my HTPC, parent's computer and laptop due to the difference in cycles even though the SSD is faster than all of them.

    USB C port for Thunderbolt will be great, Thunderbolt 3 is looking great.
  • I have never eaten one of these fabled Di'Bellas subs, but I did just have a party catered by the Wegmans sandwich department, which I'm told is like a 90% DiBella. That shit was good.
  • Wegman's sandwiches are pretty great. My last experience with DiBella's last week in Cleveland makes me think that Wegman's might now be 110% DiBella
  • I wouldn't trust a Dibella's in Cleveland.
  • DiBella's menu doesn't have cubano sandwich listed. That's a strike against them.
  • DiBella's menu doesn't have cubano sandwich listed. That's a strike against them.

    Fuck hot sandwiches.

    Dibella's power was in its simple, small menu of quality deli meat sandwiches. The hot ones came so much later: we were already graduated from RIT.
  • That's not completely true they have had Meatball sandwiches there from the college days at least.
  • Cremlian said:

    That's not completely true they have had Meatball sandwiches there from the college days at least.

    I should be more clear. Grill sandwiches.

    There was never a grill at any Dibellas until way later. When they added that, they tripled the number of sub options. I consider the newer options, using that grill, to be inferior.

  • I think it was this episode where you talked about Elite: Dangerous. That was my one splurge pickup when I built my new PC in February. I wanted to get a brand new game to test it out. I put about 10 hours into that game and all I did was learn how to really fly, and do some solo supply runs. Every aspect of this game requires skill, from the most mundane of flight procedures.

    Scott and I had a conversation about this during dinner at PAX East. If you choose to play as a smuggler, you'll need a great deal of skill to get black market goods into the most secure of space stations (where the demand is highest). You need to have yourself lined up *perfectly* at around 75% of the max range for requesting docking over your comms (pretty far out). Then: jam it to full thrust, match your rotation to that of the space station, and completely power down your craft. The contraband scanners detect ships via heat signature, so you need your engines to cool just in time before you hit the scanning array. Then, the moment you enter the threshold of the station, you need to power up very quickly and slam reverse thrust, or you will obliterate yourself against the rear interior of the space station. I imagine this is a fucking thrill to pull off. Just doing a regular flawless docking is exhilarating the first few times, with no contraband onboard.
  • Actually the part I was most disappointed was the roll, it was vastly inferior to what I remembered.
  • Cremlian said:

    Actually the part I was most disappointed was the roll, it was vastly inferior to what I remembered.

    Hmmm....

    We ate at the one in Milford more recently, and it was the same roll.

    They did stupidly add additional roll types. These are inferior.
  • Dibs is very particular about where they'll open a new location.

    http://www.dibellas.com/real_estate.asp
  • edited July 2015
    Could be that it uses inferior midwest water :-p

    But of course I do live in the land of the Sub/Hoagie sooooo.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • Dammit now you got me thinking of meatball subs.
  • Speaking of live streaming, has anyone messed around with Shadowplay? I was tinkering around with it yesterday and couldn't get it to work, but I spent very little time exploring it. I might look into it some more this weekend.
  • MATATAT said:

    Speaking of live streaming, has anyone messed around with Shadowplay? I was tinkering around with it yesterday and couldn't get it to work, but I spent very little time exploring it. I might look into it some more this weekend.

    It s one of those things that doesn't always work, but when it does it works amazingly. Super high quality streaming and great performance since the video card does all the heavy lifting.
  • Man, this makes me really wish I could buy/build a new pc. I got this one right around the time The Orange Box came out, and it wasn't exactly super powerful then.
  • Man, this makes me really wish I could buy/build a new pc. I got this one right around the time The Orange Box came out, and it wasn't exactly super powerful then.

    Thanks for making me feel old.

    Yes, you need a new PC.
  • I had to get a new machine now. September wasn't an option. I was going to have a machine to continue to be able to do graphic design for my game side project, my video editing work for a friend, and a few other tasks, I *had* to have a working machine and the spinny disk with the OS on it was dying and would BSOD about 19 of every 20 boots.

    Shits awesome. M.2 is great but still very much in its infancy. In about 5 years when it's more mature, I think the "slim tower" opined about will be much more feasible. This new machine also heralded my first use of SSDs. From spinnys all the way around to M.2 OS drive and 2 SSDs for applications (still have a huge spinny but only for mass storage)? Jibbers, it's paradise.
  • Dromaro said:

    Shits awesome. M.2 is great but still very much in its infancy. In about 5 years when it's more mature, I think the "slim tower" opined about will be much more feasible. This new machine also heralded my first use of SSDs. From spinnys all the way around to M.2 OS drive and 2 SSDs for applications (still have a huge spinny but only for mass storage)? Jibbers, it's paradise.

    By 5 years we could quite easily be into another technology or a more advanced version of storage.
    The slim tower is already here, every case maker has a slim design case which can house PSU, massive video card and a motherboard with nothing else. Many of the new cases are aiming at volumes of 2 - 5 litres.
  • I built a PC about a month ago because I never had a tower before then, just a thinkpad. As much as waiting might have helped buying then was worth it.
  • It gets really hard from time to time to keep myself from going out and buying a new computer, just because.
    I'm considering getting a new case, since my current case is old and doesn't have good airflow, but it's such a pain to pull everything out of the old case in order to put it in a new one.
  • Well I bought a Mac Mini just so I could mess around with making stuff on OSX but I rarely use it otherwise. It's super easy to tote over to someones house to play some Jackbox though.

    I also have an Alienware X51 (small form factor PC) that I bought as a HTPC but I don't really need it as much, still nice to keep under the TV and play games on my bigger screen TV every now and again. Also nice to bring into my office for some coop gaming when people come over.
  • It gets really hard from time to time to keep myself from going out and buying a new computer, just because.
    I'm considering getting a new case, since my current case is old and doesn't have good airflow, but it's such a pain to pull everything out of the old case in order to put it in a new one.

    #Lazy
    If you get a modern case with good cable routing it should take 30 minutes, 35 minutes if you have custom air cooling and considerably longer if you have a custom water cooling loop.
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