[mobike008]

Any pointers on deals/sale for any Dell Laptop model with following specs?

i5 Processor
1 TB HDD
8 GB Ram
Optical Drive

All other regular stuff.

Above specs is retailing at 48K best price.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Great set of photos, very cool. Do you intend to run it "open" without a casing? Is that ok -- what about lizards, insects, inadvertent water spillage, etc.

i'll be closing it down, putting everything into my Antec 900. however, before putting stuff in, it's best to test all components outside as it helps one avoid rework.

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Ironhawk, I have an unrelated question. Having assembled a modest PC recently, I am on the lookout for an ultra-cheap graphics card for some occasional gaming of pre-2010 era games. On Flipkart and ebay I see models called 'Radeon 5450' and 'NVidia210' priced at Rs 1700-2000 but my budget is exhausted. I was therefore planning to buy a second hand card by looking up OLX.

These two models are available on OLX for Rs 700-900 (usually 1-2 years used). Today I got a notification for a NVidia GT 520 card with 2GB RAM for Rs 800. Are these prices ok? Unfortunately Kolkata has a very shallow market for second hand graphics card compared to Bangalore. Is there anything to be wary of?

i'm not pretty familiar with the current NVIDIA cards as i switched over to ATi Radeon after my twin GT 7300 and have never looked back. the Radeon R9 270x 2GB that i got now replaces the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, using which i used to play Battlefield 4 in medium settings (yep, the game is graphics intensive). i could also play Crysis 1 and 2 using the same card.

one thing to note when getting them low priced graphics cards is that if it states GDDR3 and above 1GB ram, ignore it - anything more than 1GB on a card with GDDR3 is a waste of money. these cards are not fast anough to utilize the extra mermory. GDDR5 on the other hand is architecturally much more advanced and twice as fast and can address higher memory configuration like 2, 4, 6GB etc.

edit: in the Radeon xxxx series, xx50 are mainstream cards whereas xx70 and xx90 are the higher end of the spectrum. for example, 4850 vs 4870 or 4890.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

Alrighty, the rest of the stuff arrived by last Saturday:
]

To be continued.

Where's the cabinet broad sword? BTW I see so many fans, but is the CPU cooler remains stock?

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Where's the cabinet broad sword? BTW I see so many fans, but is the CPU cooler remains stock?

What do you mean where's the cabinet? I gave it to you, remember? For now it's gonna be the stock cooler, until I decide to overclock. The temperatures seem to hold, so no problems there.

Continuing with the build.

Since I was using my existing cabinet, I had to remove the old motherboard and all components not part of the cabinet. Vacuum and wipe clean the cabinet and the work begins.

First up the PSU, followed by the motherboard.


Attach them SATA cables before you put the graphics card in else it becomes difficult to reach in later.


Blah blah blah, put everything together.
















Tested and signed off!




Oh lucky me, my Battlefield 4 t-shirt arrived just in time


Now if you'll excuse me, I've got dog tags to collect *green grinning fella*

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by IronH4WK

What do you mean where's the cabinet? I gave it to you, remember? For now it's gonna be the stock cooler, until I decide to overclock. The temperatures seem to hold, so no problems there.
*

What is the normal temperatures reached by the cpu when its under considerable load? As I mentioned before, the AMD FX6300 I had would breach the 60 deg C barrier and the CPU fan would be howling at that point even after ensuring that there is good airflow inside the cabinet. Then I finally opened up the cabinet side panel which brought down temperatures. Of course mine wasn't a high performance cabinet though. That's why I was looking at a better cabinet that would provide a lower ambient temperature.

[IronH4WK]

Originally Posted by audioholic

What is the normal temperatures reached by the cpu when its under considerable load? As I mentioned before, the AMD FX6300 I had would breach the 60 deg C barrier and the CPU fan would be howling at that point even after ensuring that there is good airflow inside the cabinet. Then I finally opened up the cabinet side panel which brought down temperatures. Of course mine wasn't a high performance cabinet though. That's why I was looking at a better cabinet that would provide a lower ambient temperature.

the TX1050B is a good cabinet, but not intended for gaming; it's basically a file server cabinet. however, as i showed you, it has multiple points where you can fix 80mm fans, two of which i had already fixed.

the cabinet that i'm using is the Antec 900; it has the following:
1 x 200mm exhaust (top)
1 x 120mm exhaust (rear)
3 x 120mm intake (2 front and 1 side)

this coupled with the triple 80mm on the graphics card and the 120mm on the processor help keep the temperature down.

at idle, the temperature was around 45degC for the processor and 28degC (see picture in the above post). after 2-3 hours of Battlefield 4, the temperatures were 48degC and 37degC respectively with the cabinet completely closed; not bad.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Great set of photos, very cool. Do you intend to run it "open" without a casing? Is that ok -- what about lizards, insects, inadvertent water spillage, etc.

Ironhawk, I have an unrelated question. Having assembled a modest PC recently, I am on the lookout for an ultra-cheap graphics card for some occasional gaming of pre-2010 era games. On Flipkart and ebay I see models called 'Radeon 5450' and 'NVidia210' priced at Rs 1700-2000 but my budget is exhausted. I was therefore planning to buy a second hand card by looking up OLX.

These two models are available on OLX for Rs 700-900 (usually 1-2 years used). Today I got a notification for a NVidia GT 520 card with 2GB RAM for Rs 800. Are these prices ok? Unfortunately Kolkata has a very shallow market for second hand graphics card compared to Bangalore. Is there anything to be wary of?

On my desktop I have both AMD Radeon 5450 and 6800. The 6800 is a faster card while 5450 a slower card, but does most of the non-3d games well enough. Both cards support at least 2 HD monitors, so if you have a VGA port on the MB, you can use 3 monitors. I have 3 and can add a couple more



I had problems with NVidia, so I would advise you to avoid it.

[Kumar R]

Originally Posted by Aroy

On my desktop I have both AMD Radeon 5450 and 6800. The 6800 is a faster card while 5450 a slower card, but does most of the non-3d games well enough. Both cards support at least 2 HD monitors, so if you have a VGA port on the MB, you can use 3 monitors. I have 3 and can add a couple more
Attachment 1299571


I had problems with NVidia, so I would advise you to avoid it.

Thanks; I did have an Nvidia card in my earlier PC and come to think of it , that card gave me some slight trouble - it would overheat quickly and the connector was susceptible to becoming loose. For now I have no intention of using more than a single monitor.

I remember in 1999 a friend loaned me a Creative Voodoo 2 graphics card which made my junk of a Pentium PC (in those days Pentium II/III were ruling the roost) run all games till 2005.

Anyway I put up an online ad for a used card and am now being bombarded with telephone calls from folks who are trying to sell me 2-4 year old cards at new prices. Serves me right, I suppose, for not getting a new phone number for such things.

[mobike008]

Just ordered this from Snapdeal

By far the best deal that I could see on the internet for the following specs

Dell Inspiron i5 3542

5. http://www.snapdeal.com/product/dell...-i5/1722212006

• 4th Gen i5 Processor
• 8GB Ram
• 1 TB HDD
• Optical Drive
• Win 8.1
• 2 GB Dedicated Graphics Card
• Dell Warranty (including onsite)

After discounts price paid is : INR 43, 481

Is this is a decent deal?

[harry10]

The battery of my Dell Studio 14 is not charging more than 48%. Does that means it's gone for a toss?

If that's the case which reliable online site can I buy a new battery from?

Edit- @Mobike- if I remember Dell isn't providing warranty for Online purchases. Do check that aspect.

[chunkynerd]

Originally Posted by glenmz

Has anyone used intel NUC?
I am looking for a machine primarily for browsing and downloading. And connect to VPN at times for work. Not much of a gamer.

Zotac Zbox series is a good bet. You can choose from a lot of different configurations. Gigabyte also has its Brix series of offerings in this segment, but I haven't used any yet. Can vouch for the Zotac ones though. Reliable, out of the way and ideal for your use case.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Thanks; I did have an Nvidia card in my earlier PC and come to think of it , that card gave me some slight trouble - it would overheat quickly and the connector was susceptible to becoming loose. For now I have no intention of using more than a single monitor.

I remember in 1999 a friend loaned me a Creative Voodoo 2 graphics card which made my junk of a Pentium PC (in those days Pentium II/III were ruling the roost) run all games till 2005.

Anyway I put up an online ad for a used card and am now being bombarded with telephone calls from folks who are trying to sell me 2-4 year old cards at new prices. Serves me right, I suppose, for not getting a new phone number for such things.

Do you still have the Voodoo 2 in working condition by any chance? I have a box which I use for retro (read dos and super early windows) games which would love to have the card.

[IronH4WK]

found this on Facebook, anybody interested?

[raghu.t.k]

Originally Posted by harry10

The battery of my Dell Studio 14 is not charging more than 48%. Does that means it's gone for a toss?

If that's the case which reliable online site can I buy a new battery from?
....

It looks like. You could check the status on the reverse where they have a set of led that light up based on the condition when the adjacent button is pressed or you could also check the state in the Battery icon on the systray. Also if the dell hardware scan is done, it does report it on that as well.

You could check with Dell or Dell exclusive shops if the battery can be supplied, and if they are not helpful, you could try Flipkart or deltapage. I have bought power adapter from Flipkart and more recently power adapter and battery for my studio 1558 from deltapage (it helped that they are based in chennai, but procured it online, and delivered by courier).

[Kumar R]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Do you still have the Voodoo 2 in working condition by any chance? I have a box which I use for retro (read dos and super early windows) games which would love to have the card.

Sorry reignofchaos, I no longer have the card else I would surely have given it to you. My parents had bought a new PC sometime in the start of 2005, I was busy working in Bombay and they donated the old CPU (with the Voodoo) to an old age home (literally) whose volunteers had come to our house asking for contributions. I was pretty upset about it but I've made my peace.