Tech Corner

[mr.hackcrag]

I did not think that getting new CPU would mean almost having to buy all new stuff.

Here is what I have now:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4132 ... _processor
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4459 ... otherboard
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4114 ... video_card
http://www.microcenter.com/product/3821 ... ry_Modules
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4573 ... wer_supply

Just to confirm I need to upgrade everything except power supply? Or power supply too?

[Pol]

Powersupply is reusable

The rest you can sell off. That was a nice choice of GPU, pretty silent

Yes, this is what means "new platform"..

[mr.hackcrag]

The rest you can sell off. That was a nice choice of GPU, pretty silent [/i]

I often see three colored lights (red, green, or blue) near each other on a random spot on my monitor usually when running a game and I think its because something is wrong with the GPU. It could be something is wrong with monitor too. I'm not sure. I suppose I'll find out after I install new GPU.

You mean sell on e-bay? I have no idea how much my junk is worth.

[Pol]

True, that will sort out automatically.

E-bay, Amazon, any second-hand shop with IT. Or you may give it someone, or sold.. or jus put it in the trash. I guess that depends on your will and business spirit.

[Pol]

Be careful - seems that computer lacking this update are vulnerable to ransomware WannCry. That's according KasperskyLab analysis.

So far there is known about more than 45 000 attacks worldwide, including airports and hospitals.

Once you are infected you are going to pay to get back your data, the virus encrypt them. And there's no pay like "pay" - they accept only bitcoins and also threat you with time limit.

[Pol]

Ok, now we have WannCry 2.0. This was fast update from cyber villains.

The most affected country is Russia, so it's logical to assume that attack origins from somewhere else.

There is crypto preventer. Look at the bottom of the article.

Also big warning: DON'T PAY THEM!

Not only is bad to support hydra, but they also don't sey any key back, according this article.

[mr.hackcrag]

Considering the current prices for CPU, would Intel or AMD be better choice and which one specifically?

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/ ... ndles.aspx

http://www.microcenter.com/site/product ... ndles.aspx

[Pol]

There's no problem with CPU these times. However the GPU are used by "Monetary Miners", which makes theirs prices to touch the sky.

For mid segment and large part of high segment too, AMD provides a better value for the buck. What's your target level?
LVL 3-5-7?

CPU with or without integrated GPU?
How much memory, realistically 16GB or more?
How many drives?
Use SSD or m2
One GPU or more?

[mr.hackcrag]

I see. The cheapest RX580 is $280 and the cheapest GTX 1080 is $500. But is there any difference in performance by mixing Intel CPU with AMD GPU or is it better for both to be AMD?

[Pol]

You can mix them freely, there's no problem.

[mr.hackcrag]

How would you compare 8th gen Intel with Ryzen considering the prices are pretty similar now?

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/ ... ndles.aspx

http://www.microcenter.com/site/product ... ndles.aspx

[Pol]

In what price range?

[mr.hackcrag]

It seems like the $250 range is most bang for buck. There's over $100 jump from I5 to I7 or 1700x to 1800x.

[Pol]

Overall AMD is more balanced offer here, especially because of multitasking, AMD offer 8 cores vs 4 cores from Intel. It's newer so it may be even (a tiny) better in future, as they already patched Windows 10 Energy Consumption Balanced mode problem with lower frame rate, where it worked worse under Win10, and completely perfectly under Windows7. But these things are more from Microsoft side, than from CPU vendors.

In applications (and there's still a lot of them) going for 1 core highest performance, the winner is still Intel. As it does have more performance per one core.

Comparison:
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4 GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor for 240$
vs
Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake 4.2 GHz for 260$

Note, that this AMD CPU is not having integrated VGA, and Intel does. Both offers support discounts if bought like combo with motherboards.

So technologically as investment into the future AMD, otherwise to be decided by apps (games) and money for the combo(CPU+MB+MEM+COOLER?).

[mr.hackcrag]

What are your thoughts on curved monitors vs flat monitors? Do you notice any significant viewing differences?

[Pol]

Yet, haven't a chance for comparison.

Mine though is, good for gaming & video. And would never use for DTP or CAT or just reading e-books.

[mr.hackcrag]

Is it worth the $100 price difference?

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4860 ... _Processor

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4854 ... _Processor

Mine though is, good for gaming & video. And would never use for DTP or CAT or just reading e-books.

Why not good for non-gaming/video tasks?

[Pol]

1 - I would say that no, it's not worth it. The main difference is different chipset and socket. AM4 is way cheaper.

2 - DTP, CAT & "just reading" require not-curved monitor. So you see things exactly how they were meant and in the last case it's better for your eyes. I didn't mentioned video

[Pol]

Eagerly looking out for new phones with "Qualcomm Snapdragon 450".

This is new (last year announced) mid-ranged processor supporting several futures, as highest of mid-segment line, it can support many features of Snapdragon 625 from the line above (note that this is still not a top, that's 8xx line), see further:

• fast charging
• 60fps when recording fullHD
• video decoding in H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)
• it is 8 cores up to 1.8GHz
• single camera up to 21MP or dual up to 13MP
• real time bokeh effect (clean object of focues, blurred background)
• displays 2:1 (FHD+, WUXGA or just plain 1080p Full HD)
• Support for 4 satellite systems: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
• GPU Andreno 506
• 14nm = energy savy, 30% more to stay up
• Wi-Fi:11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) Up to 433 Mbps
• RAM: LPDDR3 933 MHz
• Cellular Modem: X9 LTE (Download: 300 Mbps, Upload: 150 Mbps)
• USB 3.0
• 64bits
• err, summary

= where it does excel in comparison with its predecessor Snapdragon 435 (Xiaomi Redmi 4X, 5A Note, Huawei Y7, ZTE Blade V8 Mini, LG Q6.. )

So far, there's Xiaomi 5, however not utilizing it completely and probably will be Moto G6 Plus and some variant of LG Q6. Also are announced Nokia 4 and Oppo A71. (And already exists Vivo V7)

It seems, that the resulting phone will be having 2:1 display ratio, when keeping the "same" size like 5.2" phones to fit in hand and having no edges. Face or Eye recognition is also supported.

[mr.hackcrag]

Stupid crypto-miners made GPU expensive. I regret not buying when it was hundreds of dollars cheaper.