The computer and electronics super geek thread

[JB0]

14 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I have a Boox e-reader, the Leaf 2 (I hear it's been replaced by the Page now, though).

Yeah, Onyx updates models as regularly as you breathe.

 

I have a Boox Nova.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Yeah, Onyx updates models as regularly as you breathe.

Which would be cool... if they put in a better display, faster CPU, or moved on from Android 11. AFAIK the only difference between the Leaf 2 and the Page is 1GB of RAM.

[JB0]

5 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Which would be cool... if they put in a better display, faster CPU, or moved on from Android 11. AFAIK the only difference between the Leaf 2 and the Page is 1GB of RAM.

Yeah, I probably shoulda put update in quotes. They make very minor changes and call it a new model. I'l call it like the model year on cars, but they go faster than that(sometimes much faster).

 

The older Android version is because Google stopped supporting eInk displays some time back, so the manufacturers have to do some significant coding to get new versions of Android working. It results in Android-based readers being what the smartphone market would call hopelessly obsolete. 

[Sanity is Optional]

7 hours ago, JB0 said:

The older Android version is because Google stopped supporting eInk displays some time back, so the manufacturers have to do some significant coding to get new versions of Android working. It results in Android-based readers being what the smartphone market would call hopelessly obsolete. 

Ouch, that's unfortunate.

[mikeszekely]

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

The older Android version is because Google stopped supporting eInk displays some time back, so the manufacturers have to do some significant coding to get new versions of Android working. It results in Android-based readers being what the smartphone market would call hopelessly obsolete.

That's... really not ideal.  Google stops supporting older versions of Android.  Like, I think you have to have at least Android 5.0 to even run GApps (including the Play Store and Google Play Books), and Android 11 is the oldest version that Google still supports with security updates.  Basically all e-ink Android readers and tablets are on the edge of obsolescence.

[JB0]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

That's... really not ideal.  Google stops supporting older versions of Android.  Like, I think you have to have at least Android 5.0 to even run GApps (including the Play Store and Google Play Books), and Android 11 is the oldest version that Google still supports with security updates.  Basically all e-ink Android readers and tablets are on the edge of obsolescence.

Ayup. It sucks.

I'm not too bothered by it, since I don't use much from Google's store on mine, but it is a definite issue.

 

I assume Onyx is working on a newer version, but who knows if older devices will see it or if they use it to push a hardware refresh.

[mikeszekely]

So... a few years back I bought an LG monitor.  Thought I might do more creative-type stuff, so I bought a 27UK850... 27", 4K IPS LCD, nice metal frame, great color accuracy, only 60hz refresh rate.  And... yeah, I don't really do anything more creative than write Transfomer reviews here.  I browse the web some, but I've got laptops for that, too.  Mostly I use my desktop for gaming, and I've come to realize a few things:

-60hz is fine... but faster would be better.  I should have got a display with a higher refresh rate.
-Well, assuming I can go faster.  Turns out driving a hair over eight and a quarter million pixels is hard, even for an RTX 4070.  I'd have been better off with a 1440p.
-While 27" does seem to be the ideal vertical height for a display you're sitting around two and a half to three feet from, it leaves plenty of space in your peripheral vision that isn't monitor, and ultrawides are becoming more popular for that reason.
-I think IPS is ideal for doing work-stuff on a PC, but how awesome would games like Cyberpunk and Ghost of Tsushima look in OLED?

Long story short, I'm 99% sure I want to replace my monitor with an ultrawide OLED.  The question though, and what I'd like you guys' input on, is whether I should go 12:9 or 32:9?  I'm specifically looking at Samsung's Odyssey OLED G8 and Odyssey OLED G9.  Both display have an 1800R curve.  I measured, I should have just enough room for the G9.

I feel like the the 32:9 display on the G9 will better fill my field of view, and therefore make for more immersive gaming, and on the occasions when I am using my computer for other stuff I like that a 49" 32:9 display is basically the same as a pair of 27: 16:9 screens.  The G8 is cheaper, and 21:9 seems more widely supported in games than 32:9 right now, though.  But a 34" 21:9 display doesn't feel like as big of an upgrade/change.

[TangledThorns]

It does sound like a huge upgrade, probably need more graphics power to get the most out of it too. Having a higher refresh rate in nice. I'm running an older ACER Predator 16:9 1080p 240Hz monitor and still looks good though it'd be nice to have HDR though.

Edited June 10 by TangledThorns

[azrael]

10 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

...Long story short, I'm 99% sure I want to replace my monitor with an ultrawide OLED.  The question though, and what I'd like you guys' input on, is whether I should go 12:9 or 32:9?  I'm specifically looking at Samsung's Odyssey OLED G8 and Odyssey OLED G9. ...

Why are they using Mini-ports? 🤨 Screens with that much real estate and they're using Mini-ports? 🤨 

Pushing THAT many pixels with a 4070... I'd say go with the G8. But the G9 will likely be a more substantial upgrade.

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, azrael said:

Why are they using Mini-ports? 🤨 Screens with that much real estate and they're using Mini-ports? 🤨 

Pushing THAT many pixels with a 4070... I'd say go with the G8. But the G9 will likely be a more substantial upgrade.

Ugh, I didn't notice the ports on the G8. That might be the deciding factor right there; the G9 at least has a regular HDMI and Display Port.

If I did my math right (not guaranteed), 32:9 @ 1440p is nearly a million pixels less than I'm currently driving on a 16:9 4k screen, so I'm not super worried about that. Right now I'm playing Ghost of Tsushima, and with DLSS and frame gen I'm still getting 100-ish fps on 4k High.

Edited June 10 by mikeszekely

[mikeszekely]

I went with the G9 OLED (yes, my desk is a mess).

In the store, they had it displayed right next to an LG Ultra Gear OLED that was 21:9.  I admit that, in the store, I was kind of into the extra height.  But I had to remind myself that the monitor I had was already the same height, and that height was pretty ideal at my actual desk at the actual distance I sit from it.  Samsung's QD-OLED panels are supposed to be better than LG's, too, and I still liked the idea of running one monitor that was basically the same as two 16:9 27"-ers.

Got it setup, and was kind of freaking out because the display was glitching.  I notice that it was only glitching when it was displaying my PC, though; the menus and junk were all fine.  I replaced the nice braided Display Port cable I'd been using with the one that came with the G9, and the glitching stopped.  So far, I've noticed that even at max brightness it's not as bright as the IPS display I was using, but that's expected with OLED, and it's a fair trade off for the better contrast and deeper blacks.  Going in I was a little worried about text fringing; Windows does or didn't support ClearType, but it looks totally fine to me.  I can see why, even with the extra space, this monitor is a tad too big for productivity.  I have to turn my head to focus on the edges.  But I think filling my periphery will make for much more immersive gaming.

[azrael]

41 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

  I have to turn my head to focus on the edges.  But I think filling my periphery will make for much more immersive gaming.

Or you can sit farther back.

46 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I replaced the nice braided Display Port cable I'd been using with the one that came with the G9, and the glitching stopped. 

Unfortunately, not all cables are created equal. There was a recent video on Hardware Unboxed/Monitors Unboxed about DP cables. I'm going to wager that the cable you were using is not equal to the cable that came in the G9's box despite being "compatible". I recall I had a similar issue way way back.

[mikeszekely]

21 minutes ago, azrael said:

Unfortunately, not all cables are created equal. There was a recent video on Hardware Unboxed/Monitors Unboxed about DP cables. I'm going to wager that the cable you were using is not equal to the cable that came in the G9's box despite being "compatible". I recall I had a similar issue way way back.

That's what I figured.  Not the end of the world, especially since they included a cable in the box (not always a given these days).

22 minutes ago, azrael said:

Or you can sit farther back.

Nah.  If I wanted to do that, I'd have definitely gone with a taller 21:9 display.  The idea was maximum immersion in gaming. (and for simple web browsing I can just size a centered Chrome window to approximate my old 27" display anyway).  I switched from left-aligned to centered icons on the taskbar.  If I wanted to get serious work done, I can always use a different computer (I set my old monitor up as a display for my M1 Macbook).  Also, if I wanted to get serious work done, I'd probably have attempted to so by now.

[TangledThorns]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

 

In the store, they had it displayed right next to an LG Ultra Gear OLED that was 21:9.  I admit that, in the store, I was kind of into the extra height.  But I had to remind myself that the monitor I had was already the same height, and that height was pretty ideal at my actual desk at the actual distance I sit from it.  Samsung's QD-OLED panels are supposed to be better than LG's, too, and I still liked the idea of running one monitor that was basically the same as two 16:9 27"-ers.

 

Smart buying it at a store. When I bought my monitor it had several dead pixels so I was able to exchange at the store that I locally bought it from. Though the store was 45 minutes from my house it was a lot easier to deal with than shipping it back to a retailer.

Edited June 11 by TangledThorns

[JB0]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

(yes, my desk is a mess).

That's fine. Personally, I don't trust anyone whose desk is too clean.

I'm also ashamed of all the random clutter on my desk, so... hypocrisy on my part. I set things down for a minute in a convenient empty space, and suddenly they have a forever home.

[pengbuzz]

16 hours ago, azrael said:

Or you can sit farther back.

Unfortunately, not all cables are created equal. There was a recent video on Hardware Unboxed/Monitors Unboxed about DP cables. I'm going to wager that the cable you were using is not equal to the cable that came in the G9's box despite being "compatible". I recall I had a similar issue way way back.

Right; I ran into that recently with some HDMI cables I bought and had to return them. I later found my monitor could support DisplayPort and my PC had a DP port as well, so I went with that instead (bought a better cable this time around instead of bargain basement). Made a considerable difference, and with my monitor having built-in speakers, the DP cable allowed me to drop the aux cable for the speakers.

 

2 minutes ago, JB0 said:

That's fine. Personally, I don't trust anyone whose desk is too clean.

I'm also ashamed of all the random clutter on my desk, so... hypocrisy on my part. I set things down for a minute in a convenient empty space, and suddenly they have a forever home.

Oh, I can relate:

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

That's fine. Personally, I don't trust anyone whose desk is too clean.

I'm also ashamed of all the random clutter on my desk, so... hypocrisy on my part. I set things down for a minute in a convenient empty space, and suddenly they have a forever home.

Mind you, that was after I removed a whole box of stuff to make room for the new monitor. Mostly Transformers.... I had all for Studio Series Dinobots on there, just waiting for Swoop, among others I'd been fiddling with.

[azrael]

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

That's fine. Personally, I don't trust anyone whose desk is too clean.

I'm also ashamed of all the random clutter on my desk, so... hypocrisy on my part. I set things down for a minute in a convenient empty space, and suddenly they have a forever home.

I keep a clean desk. i just move all the clutter to the shelves and drawers surrounding my desk. Yeah...don't open that drawer....

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, azrael said:

I keep a clean desk. i just move all the clutter to the shelves and drawers surrounding my desk. Yeah...don't open that drawer....

That'd work... If my desk wasn't actually an IKEA table without any drawers.

[kajnrig]

I figured some of the older heads here would like to be aware of this. Anandtech closing down: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21542/end-of-the-road-an-anandtech-farewell

[jenius]

End of an era!

[TangledThorns]

Anandtech was a easy site for PC tech reviews so it will be missed. Thankfully there are others out there that can take its place.

On a side note my 7 year old ACER Predator XB252Q monitor died while I was on vacation last week and replaced it with ASUS TUF VG259QM. Both are 24in size at 1080p with a 40hz higher refresh to 280hz and IPS for the Asus from 240hz and TN panel with the ACER so it was a slight upgrade. I didn't want to go higher res as my current rig can't support it at an acceptable FPS.

I liked the ASUS TUF VG259QM so much that I bought a second one as my children's monitor for their shared gaming laptop as playing on a laptop screen is bad for their eyes.

It did have me looking at 4K OLED gaming monitors, I see they've come along a good with the cool features. So I'll get a 4K monitor when I buy a new PC with a nVidia Geforce 50XX GPU and will hand down my ASUS TUF VG259QM to my daughter when we buy her own gaming laptop as birthday gift all this time next year.

I won't build a new PC as I don't have the time, space or patience like I've had before, lol.

 

 

 

[mikeszekely]

I was very briefly doing some creative type stuff and bought a 27" LG 4K IPS. And it was fine (I still have it connected to a second PC), but 4K is still tough, even with a moderately good GPU (currently running an RTX 4070).

I wound up treating myself to a Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED. It's a 32:9 ultrawide- basically like two 16:9 27" screens in one slightly curved display, but since it's 1440p my GPU is pushing around a million fewer pixels.

It was expensive, but I gotta say I'd never go back. On games that support it 32:9 is a lot more immersive, and despite but doing a ton of actual work I'm still finding the extra space extremely useful. But the real game-changer for me was OLED. I didn't think it's be a big a difference as it turned out to be. Both displays can do bright color just fine (and both support HDR), but the contrast is so much better. I had a screensaver running on both displays, and the difference in "black" was crazy. On the OLED it's really black, on the LG it was more like a bluish-gray.

As for Anandtech, that's one of those things where my initial reaction was, "what a bummer!" But I can't remember the actual last time I visited their site. I heard most of the staff is moving to Tom's Hardware, which seems like a good deal.

[JB0]

21 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I figured some of the older heads here would like to be aware of this. Anandtech closing down: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21542/end-of-the-road-an-anandtech-farewell

Yeah... it's sad, but in honesty, Anandtech's been dead for years. This is just the period at the end of the sentence. Their owners also own Tom's Hardware, and didn't see a point in paying to staff two tech news sites.

[azrael]

On 8/30/2024 at 6:42 PM, kajnrig said:

I figured some of the older heads here would like to be aware of this. Anandtech closing down: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21542/end-of-the-road-an-anandtech-farewell

All good things...

18 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

It did have me looking at 4K OLED gaming monitors, I see they've come along a good with the cool features. So I'll get a 4K monitor when I buy a new PC with a nVidia Geforce 50XX GPU and will hand down my ASUS TUF VG259QM to my daughter when we buy her own gaming laptop as birthday gift all this time next year.

I won't build a new PC as I don't have the time, space or patience like I've had before, lol.

RTX 5000-series may still have considerable sticker shock seeing as Nvidia is king and essentially controls that market segment, even next year. We're coming up on holiday sales-time and RTX 4000-series cards have been seen with more sales of late.

[pengbuzz]

On 9/1/2024 at 3:24 AM, azrael said:

All good things...

RTX 5000-series may still have considerable sticker shock seeing as Nvidia is king and essentially controls that market segment, even next year. We're coming up on holiday sales-time and RTX 4000-series cards have been seen with more sales of late.

I'm happy with my GeForce GT-1030.

*ducks*

[Knight26]

I am finally ready to pull the trigger on a new monitor setup and am debating betwee either and LG OLED 45" Curved, or 48" Flat.  I ruled out the 49" curved after doing a side by side with a 45" curved and I like the extra vertical real estate.  THoughts?

[Test_Pilot_2]

So I built an external GPU to work with my ROG Ally X and I think it came out pretty awesome....

Box moves between my office (3440x1440), home theater (1920x1080), and living room (4k). Performance has been stellar with the office sitting at 70-90 FPS ultra, home theater at 140+ FPS ultra, and living room between 30-60 FPS ultra. Temps are always great even at load. Drivers were a pain at first, but that was due to a bad PCIE extension cable and a PCIE cable to the GPU that wasn't fully seated. Had to tweak the case a hair, but the PCIE board sits nice and flat in the base of the enclosure.

For specific games:
Plague Tale Requiem: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 45-60 FPS.
Space Marines 2: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 35-45 FPS.
Dying Light Stay Human: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 35-60FPS.
Starfield: Running 4K Ultra in the busiest cities and getting 30-60FPS.

Going to the office and projector - runs even better... On the projector I can get stupid and turn on Raytracing and the FPS are still great.

Enclosure:
Mechanicmaster IF-11 (90 Bucks Open Box)

Dock/Board 1:
Aliexpress v1.6 UT3G @ $130

Dock/Board 2:
Dock for peripherals and power

GPU:
Reference AMD RX7900 XT (Got it for $569 refurbished)

PSU:
Corsair SF850L (Refurb for 90 bucks)

Air Cooling:
Silverstone Shark Force 160 Intake Attached Magnetically to the Case
2 x Arctice P12s Exhausting Out the Top

Fan Controller:
Fan Controller I Snagged for 10 Bucks

L-Shaped Thunderbolt 4 Cable:
TBolt 4 Cable Built Like a Tank

Odds and Ends:
3D Printed I/O Cover
Tiny, Adhesive Rare Earth Magnets for the Fan
Replacing all the PSU cables with sleeved ones soon... The ones that came with the PSU are, well, awful.
Some decals to pimp the exterior of the case.

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Knight26 said:

I am finally ready to pull the trigger on a new monitor setup and am debating betwee either and LG OLED 45" Curved, or 48" Flat.  I ruled out the 49" curved after doing a side by side with a 45" curved and I like the extra vertical real estate.  THoughts?

How close are you sitting to it? If it's the standard arm-length when sitting upright, I'd say curved. If you're farther back, you could probably do flat. Also, what's the curve rating on the curved model? (Or just post the model number)

[Knight26]

I'm thinking either this:

 

Or this:

 

I keep my monitor just beyond arm's reach.

[mikeszekely]

I sit about an arm's length from my own display, which was previously a 16:9 27" model.  I thought I might like the extra vertical real estate, but I don't think I could do maybe more than an inch or two extra vertically without having to physically move my eyes to see the top and bottom- basically, everything seems smaller than it actually is in the store.  I ultimately went with the 32:9, 49” curved (1000R) Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED when I realized that it's basically two 27” 16:9 displays.  Honestly the way it wraps into my peripheral vision is far more immersive than a little extra horizontal space would have been for gaming, and on a practical level I've got the benefit of a dual-monitor setup without actually having two monitors.

If you're really dead set on one of those two LGs, though, and you're sitting at that distance, probably the 45" curved.  It's 21:9, has a higher refresh rate, and at 1440p you're more likely to get those extra frames.

Edited November 6 by mikeszekely

[kajnrig]

1 hour ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

Drivers were a pain at first, but that was due to a bad PCIE extension cable and a PCIE cable to the GPU that wasn't fully seated. Had to tweak the case a hair, but the PCIE board sits nice and flat in the base of the enclosure.

Riser cable quality has been the bane of my existence. I tried my hand at a "sandwich-style" SFF build a few years ago for a friend, and the riser cable ended up being the cause of all manner of issues, from BSODs to WiFi outages. And that was a 3.0 riser, I can only imagine how much more finnicky they are now that the standard has jumped up two revisions and quadruple the bandwidth.

[Test_Pilot_2]

44 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Riser cable quality has been the bane of my existence. I tried my hand at a "sandwich-style" SFF build a few years ago for a friend, and the riser cable ended up being the cause of all manner of issues, from BSODs to WiFi outages. And that was a 3.0 riser, I can only imagine how much more finnicky they are now that the standard has jumped up two revisions and quadruple the bandwidth.

Yeah, the extension cable was complete trash. It was advertised and marked as being compatible, but GPU-Z exposed it for the trash it was.

[TangledThorns]

I'm thinking of buying a 4K monitor as well but I want to wait till the nVidia RTX50xx series cards are released and see how they do first. 4K monitor tech is moving fast too so hoping for exciting stuff in 2025!!

[Test_Pilot_2]

Just now, TangledThorns said:

I'm thinking of buying a 4K monitor as well but I want to wait till the nVidia RTX50xx series cards are released and see how they do first. 4K monitor tech is moving fast too so hoping for exciting stuff in 2025!!

They'll destroy 4k even with ray tracing, but be ready to drop $2000-$2500. Early reports suggesting 40% increase in performance from prior cycle.

AMD has already declared they're staying out of the high end this card cycle so no help there.