Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Trippy]

Furmark is the best I've used for maxing GPU temp(s) and checking GPU stability. The nice thing about Furmark is you can visually see when the GPU is having issues (the fur hairs will freak out in strange ways). CPU Burn-In is what I usually use for maxing out CPU temps.

[Jimbo]

Hey all, for anti-virus and anti-spyware do I need more? I buy ESET Nod32 and keep it upgraded all the time for my anti-virus program, then use Spybot S&D & SuperAntiSpyware for more protection (both are the free versions). So far that combo of those 3 have been very good for my Son's computer and mine. Is there anything else I should be looking at getting for protection? I used to get LifeLock for free with my oldest job, but haven't thought of getting it.

Oh still haven't erased my old laptop to donate to the Goodwill, I'm paranoid as I used it for school and my personal stuff, so it has passwords to everything still in it. I want to get rid of it, but the idea of someone getting my passwords and causing havoc would suck.

[Hawkbit]

Any wireless router recommendations? I have 50mbs service and consistently get 50mbps on anything wired. My existing router is a 5year old medialink and has been intermittently dropping connections on the wireless devices in house.

$100-$200 is ok. Thanks!

[Sky]

I've been happy with my TP-Link AC1900 Archer C9 paired with a TP-Link Archer AC1200 T4UH.

[Jimbo]

I've had mine since 2014, from ASUS ASUS RT-AC87U Dual-band 4x4 AC2400, there newer one is even faster, AC5300 and more expensive. Though I have the PC's and the PS4 on wired internet from it, then use the wireless when I was using my laptop or the kids laptops or cell phones/kindles, seems it would let us do a ton of stuff (that and we have the fastest cable internet I could get for homeowners in my area). I'll probably get this for my travel computer when I go travel nursing ASUS AC3100.

[MahrinSkel]

I've been happy with my TP-Link AC1900 Archer C9 paired with a TP-Link Archer AC1200 T4UH.

I've been happy with my Archer C7, but it is functioning strictly as an AP, if it were also acting as a router the fact it is single core might be an issue. The C9 is essentially the same, but with one more N band channel supported and a second core. It's a $50 upgrade between them ($85 vs $135), so if you (Hawkbit) don't think you'd be stressing it (not using the server functions, essentially) it might not be worth it.

If it were me doing it now, I would probably spring for it (it was close to a $100 gap when I was shopping).

--Dave

[Hawkbit]

I've been happy with my TP-Link AC1900 Archer C9 paired with a TP-Link Archer AC1200 T4UH.

I ended up doing the C9 - thanks to everyone that gave input.

So this thing is pretty badass. I have to fault them for making such a short power cord and for not making the unit mountable. But the quality is really good. The only problems I have (not TP-Link's fault) is the PS4 which doesn't have a 5Ghz capable adapter and I'm getting very unreliable connection tests through it.

What's amazing is that I'm paying for 50mbs service and I've only been able to ever pull 50mbs when wired, but I'm pulling 60mbs with this new router. Awesome!

[Sky]

The difference that router and adapter have made (along with a bonded cable modem I bought a couple years back) is ridiculous. I'm paying for a 10Mbps line but I'm getting 60Mbps  

I put the old lady's stuff on the 2.4 radio 

[MahrinSkel]

The difference that router and adapter have made (along with a bonded cable modem I bought a couple years back) is ridiculous. I'm paying for a 10Mbps line but I'm getting 60Mbps 

I put the old lady's stuff on the 2.4 radio 

Would you feel dumb if I told you that Amazon cut the price $50 right after you bought yours?

I have my C7 configured with the "guest" SSID for B/G devices only (mostly the tablets) and most of the PC's are on the other 2.4 network (my laptop is the only one using the AC 5ghz band). The only time it matters is when I am making big transfers between the laptop and the NAS, nothing else needs more than the N's 150mbps.

They're all named the same except for the network type (BG, N, AC) appended. The BG network is duplicated on the cable modem, to fill in a blind spot on one side of the house. Keeping the legacy devices on their own SSID keeps them from slowing down the PC's.

--Dave

[Hawkbit]

Would you feel dumb if I told you that Amazon cut the price $50 right after you bought yours?

Yes. DOH!

Sadly, Amazon doesn't do price protection, so I'm either out the $35 difference or I'm playing the "order a new one, send that one back for a refund" game.

Thanks for letting me know.

[schild]

Would you feel dumb if I told you that Amazon cut the price $50 right after you bought yours?

Yes. DOH!

Sadly, Amazon doesn't do price protection, so I'm either out the $35 difference or I'm playing the "order a new one, send that one back for a refund" game.

Thanks for letting me know.

They kinda do. Get them on chat right now and explain that youd be happy to return a used item to buy a new one for less and you'll get your $50.

[Hawkbit]

Nope, they steadfastly refuse - five different people I've chatted or talked to.

It is so weird, they're going to pay for shipping it back on an open-box item, so they can pay to ship a new one out a lower price. I guess once you start up a rocketship company logistics become secondary. 

[grebo]

Question for you tech gurus.

Need to get 2 laptops for my 15yo daughters.  Main point of interest is probably gaming so I'd like something with decent GPU performance.  Budget is sub $400 each which puts me solidly in cheap territory.  Used to be that I'd have no problem sorting out the best bang for my buck, but now the range of available processors and GPU stuff is dizzying.  I have no clue and am having a lot of trouble getting a clue on what might be better than what, or if I should just not worry so much about the processor and get the best hdd/memory config I can.

Any help?  Thanks.

[Torinak]

Be careful what you define as "gaming". You can't get what most of us would call a "gaming" laptop in that price range, but if the focus is on older games and without maxxing out graphics settings, there may be options.

Here's an Acer laptop for $399.99 at NewEgg (NOT endorsing this model, just a reference point) that actually has an Nvidia 940MX, but that's anemic compared to anything you'd find on a desktop.

But for reference, the laptop I use regularly is a 4-yr-old Asus N53SV with an 540M (about 40% of the performance of the 940MX, according to userbenchmark.com). I've played Fallout 3 (with mods), Skyrim (with mods), GTA:SA, Guild Wars 2, and a lot of modded Minecraft on it without problems. Granted, all settings will be at medium, and framerates will be in the 20-40 range, but it's playable.

Processors haven't really improved in performance in 4+ years. It's all about the graphics. Without a discrete graphics card of some kind, gaming options will be limited, and there are very few low end laptops with discrete graphics.

EDIT: Some of the newer processors have vastly better integrated graphics, but as far as I can tell they're still all pretty sad compared to any discrete graphics. I'm skeptical of some of the benchmarks, though; the integrated graphics on my laptop (Intel HD 3000 in the I7-2670QM processor) supposedly benchmark at almost 50% of the discrete 540M, but none of the games I listed are remotely playable (<10 FPS) without using the discrete 540M.

[grebo]

Thanks for that, good stuff.

Actually that laptop does look pretty good, and built in graphics hardware all seem all but nonexistent at this price point (other than the stuff that comes built in to the processor) Plus the 8gb/1tb make it more attractive too...

Honestly they're not really in to whatever the newest fps is, they just play Minecraft/Trove/online stuff without too much graphics requirements.. my 4yo desktop with whatever was mid-range 4 years ago for a graphics card is more than sufficient for what they put on it.

[Trippy]

Look for laptops with the following Intel HD Graphics GPUs:

HD Graphics 5300/5500/5600 (Broadwell CPUs)
HD Graphics 515/520/530 (Skylake CPUs)

The Skylake integrated GPUs are better than the Broadwell ones despite their lower numbers. Basically you want Broadwell or Skylake GT2 tier GPU or better.

Here's the search on Newegg for just new items from Newegg (excludes refurb and 3rd party sellers).

This Acer model has the 520 for $320: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315670

If you prefer Dell this one has the 5500 for $399: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16834299304

Monoprice has an HP with the 5500 for $299: http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=18557

Edit: here are some benchmarks:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/three-generations-intel-hd-graphics-tested/

[grebo]

Thanks for all that!  Helps a lot to know what to look for.  I'll probably go with one of those mentioned, and will decide today.

[Severian]

Back to routers for a moment, I discovered an impressive deal through Slickdeals for an ASUS TM-AC1900 ($129.95 at Amazon) which is rebranded and offered through the T-Mobile store for $109 -$10 -$40 = $59 w/ free overnight shipping. I just ordered one a few minutes ago.
Details: Slickdeals
T-Mobile Store: Router
The shipping costs disappear once you get to the final checkout, and that includes the overnight option, which I took. The router has T-Mobile firmware which you can flash to ASUS or to options like Merlin or Tomato (see the Slickdeals page and comments) but it works fine out the box and I don't plan to go to the trouble.

[Torinak]

Back to routers for a moment, I discovered an impressive deal through Slickdeals for an ASUS TM-AC1900 ($129.95 at Amazon) which is rebranded and offered through the T-Mobile store for $109 -$10 -$40 = $59 w/ free overnight shipping. I just ordered one a few minutes ago.
Details: Slickdeals
T-Mobile Store: Router
The shipping costs disappear once you get to the final checkout, and that includes the overnight option, which I took. The router has T-Mobile firmware which you can flash to ASUS or to options like Merlin or Tomato (see the Slickdeals page and comments) but it works fine out the box and I don't plan to go to the trouble.

If it didn't come with recently updated firmware, or you didn't flash it yourself, it's probably already compromised due to multiple vulnerabilities.

[Severian]

Thanks for that. After spending some time looking into it, even though the router will auto-update to the latest T-Mobile firmware, that's still over five months old and lagging behind. Looks like I'll be sweating over the tricky flash to one of the alternatives.

[Merusk]

Dropped my ipad on the way into the hotel today and shattered the screen. Of course. Anyone have experience replacing the screens and what the success rate is? The kit was only $20 so I'm not concerned about cost, just tips and anecodtes.

[Trippy]

Find the teardown for your model on iFixit and you'll understand what it'll take to take it apart.

[Yegolev]

Initial reading: "I dropped my load on the way into the hotel today..."

[Hawkbit]

How do I get started as a pseudo-noob on networking security? Not looking to change careers or anything from being a web dev, but looking to get back to basics on the hardware/networking security side of things. Any books or resources, keeping it on the newb-intermediate side, please?

[Sky]

Look into comptia prep books for Security+. It's an easy test and the books cover the basics of network security.

[vos]

https://www.cybrary.it/ is an excellent free resource to get you started

[Hawkbit]

Thanks, both - I should have remembered the Security+, and that second post link is amazingly helpful. Much appreciated.

[Yegolev]

Security+ involves a lot of WiFi and memorizing numbers.  Just saying.

[Sky]

Security+ involves a lot of WiFi and memorizing numbers.  Just saying.

I did the last version, it was probably a bit lighter on the wifi stuff.

Tons of memorization, though. I wrote out charts that I was reviewing in the parking lot before the test. Not that I needed it since I got something like an 850 and I don't work with 80% of what was on the test.

[schild]

Is the Apple TV a good streaming player? I actually need one more streaming device, and they're offering a Gen 4 free with 3 months paid up front on Directv Now ($105).

[Rasix]

Is the Apple TV a good streaming player? I actually need one more streaming device, and they're offering a Gen 4 free with 3 months paid up front on Directv Now ($105).

I like mine. It obviously doesn't do Prime video, but everything else it does is pretty good. Netflix interface is pretty decent, so is HBONow.

[schild]

Do you use it for Plex? Does anyone here use one for Plex?

[Ironwood]

Bought a rather nice GTX 1060 6Gb only to find that while it throws around games like a wrestler on crack, it also disables the RealTek onboard sound.

So everything looks great, but I can't hear it being great.

All the 'usual' fixes of updating drivers (card, sound and mobo) have come to naught.  Disabling the Graphic Audio doesn't do shit either.

I'm quite fucked off, just in case any Trippy has any bright ideas...

[Trippy]

Did you check your sound settings to see if it has switched to outputting to HDMI (i.e. out your video cable) instead of your motherboard audio output jacks?

[Ironwood]

I did indeed, but the usual options (speakers) are claiming that they are not plugged in.  Which is a common manifestation of this problem and also utter bollocks.