Random Hardware topics

[Zed Clampet]

Okay, I've done some research on this. Apparently, people list themselves as 3rd party sellers on Amazon, collect payments for months and then try to take off with the money. One potential way that you can tell if this happened to you is if you ever received a tracking number for the package. Not every scammer sends out tracking numbers, but some do to buy themselves more time. Apparently this is something commonly happening in Australia because Amazon, which is trying to combat it, is relatively new to Australia, so it's easier to fool customers there, and also because Australians expect long shipping times.

What seems to have happened is that Amazon figured out the seller was fake and closed it down before they got any money out of it.

 

[Colif]

Guess it was coming from Asus then, mark anyone who ordered on the day it appeared as a bot perhaps

The seller is pretty official

ASUS

ASUS is passionate about technology and driven by innovation. We dream, we dare and we strive to create an effortless and joyful digital life for everyone. We're always in search of incredible ideas and experiences, and we aspire to deliver the incredible in everything we do.

www.amazon.com.au

they didn't charge me anything at all. I was only to be charged once it was sent out.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Guess it was coming from Asus then, mark anyone who ordered on the day it appeared as a bot perhaps

The seller is pretty official

ASUS

ASUS is passionate about technology and driven by innovation. We dream, we dare and we strive to create an effortless and joyful digital life for everyone. We're always in search of incredible ideas and experiences, and we aspire to deliver the incredible in everything we do.

www.amazon.com.au

That's possible. Did you buy the main listing instead of a lower priced listing on the same page?

 

[Colif]

Did you buy the main listing instead of a lower priced listing on the same page?

I found the page for the monitor via google search, I didn't use Amazon to look for it. So no other listings showed anywhere for me to pick the wrong one.

I found the page I bought it from a few weeks before I ordered it. Its possible it was unlisted as I had been doing searches of google using "PG32UCDM3" to restrict all the searches for the previous models. I may have found it before I was meant to.

When Asus first put it on their site it was showing as open for pre order then but I waited a few days wanting to buy on the following Monday, but by then it had gone into its current unavailable status.
So I was checking it almost daily after that to see when it open up again.

At about 3am on the 23rd I noticed it had changed to open to order again, so I made 1st order which they cancelled that day... After I gave Amazon the right ID to open account on the next day, I noticed it was cancelled and ordered it again... and sat waiting for two months just to get a repeat.

I suspect Asus just did it to clear the orders.

Searching Amazon now shows no results for the monitor. Just the old ones.

 

[Colif]

I might as well buy that UPS while I wait.

CP1600EPFCLCD | CyberPower

CyberPower CP1600EPFCLCD with Pure Sine Wave output safeguards mid- to high-end computer systems, servers and networking hardware that use conventional and Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) power supplies. Designed with GreenPower UPS™ Technology to improve UPS operating efficiency and to...

www.cyberpower.com

ripped off, the US models have 12 outlets, mine only gets 6. Difference is I use 230v power, the US versions use 110. Also, all of my 6 are battery and surge protected, half of the US outlets are only battery protected.

6 is enough since I can plug my current power board into UPS, probably attach monitors and maybe speakers directly to the UPS. I can't plug UPS into one, but I can run one off the UPS.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I might as well buy that UPS while I wait.

CP1600EPFCLCD | CyberPower

CyberPower CP1600EPFCLCD with Pure Sine Wave output safeguards mid- to high-end computer systems, servers and networking hardware that use conventional and Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) power supplies. Designed with GreenPower UPS™ Technology to improve UPS operating efficiency and to...

www.cyberpower.com

ripped off, the US models have 12 outlets, mine only gets 6. Difference is I use 230v power, the US versions use 110. Also, all of my 6 are battery and surge protected, half of the US outlets are only battery protected.

6 is enough since I can plug my current power board into UPS, probably attach monitors and maybe speakers directly to the UPS. I can't plug UPS into one, but I can run one off the UPS.

I thought that was exactly what I have, but mine is cp1500. Maybe that's just the US version?

 

[Colif]

I thought that was exactly what I have, but mine is cp1500. Maybe that's just the US version?

that is my guess, top here is the CP1600, next one down is the CP1450, We don't have a 1500 but I saw it in all the review videos.

PFC Sinewave | CyberPower

The UPS adopts CyberPower's patented GreenPower UPS™ technology to enhance UPS operating efficiency, reduce heat generation, consume less power and save more energy costs than conventional UPS models.

www.cyberpower.com

6 outlets at 230va = 1380, whereas 12 outlets at 110va = 1320. So the output power is very close.
Perhaps they account for spikes or maybe our power standards differ in other ways besides the input shape

AS/NZS 3112 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Should get it tomorrow. I wasn't expecting it so soon. Probably leave it charging over night. I assume it has the sticker on top saying to charge before use.

The AMD CPU history video (they did an intel one last week)

 

[Colif]

looking into difference between your UPS and mine, seems mine is a newer model.
No idea why its not on sale in USA, its only the AU/UK models that are 1600 so far
There doesn't appear to be much of a difference internally. I haven't seen anyone take the 1600 apart though.

Google AI's answer is incorrect if I look at the specs of each and compare. The run times off both appear to be about the same.

 

[Colif]

Today I learned that Belkin Surge Protecting power strips only have a 5 year warranty
Guess I better use the new one I bought a few weeks ago, as my current one is about 6 years old now. I had thought to buy one when I got new PC last year.

It appears the Asian version of the UPS has the 1600 now. Watched a video on it before, only 5 outlets on the back. I wish I got 12.

Desktop uses very little power at idle. About 50 minutes on battery at that voltage.

only have 4 things attached

• Power board with PC and Speakers plugged into it
• Monitor
• Electric blanket
• Network Switch

two spare outlets.

 

[Colif]

one thing I didn't know about before using it was the new UPS smell.
Spent a day trying to work out what the source was.

Wish I had known to leave it in a well ventilated room for 48 hours. Oh well, the smell will go away soon enough

This GPU is also a trap. As if you don't own the Motherboard it goes along with, you might be in for a surprise when you try to use it

Wish the Samsung Software was consistent
Temps on front page are in C

But if I click the widgets button

it changes and I can't see where to swap settings for the widgets. They should use same settings for both.

I don't understand why range of temps is different, 42c is 113f on one total and 121f on another?

 

[Colif]

Since the monitor I wanted is imaginary in Australia for a few more months, I accepted last years model for less than what I paid, and will get money back.

It seems in the last few weeks the value of my PC has become silly as even with the price change, the total in AUD is just silly now $10712

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Colif/saved/XNJpmG

My ram went up 200
my 4tb ssd (not nvme) is now $1800... I only paid 400 last year? I have two of them, shame I can't sell for that price.
4tb nvme is 1200

Funny that my GPU is the 4th most expensive part in PC.

Prices are nuts

 

[neogunhero]

https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-26-5-1

Another AMD driver, another disappointment.

Although I'm not experiencing any crashes or bugs in the games I play, I do wish AMD would really step up the time between drivers and the changes that come with them. It's been over a month and a half since the last driver released. This new one has like, two changes, then a much longer list of known issues. Part of me thinks AMD is just not detailing every single changes, but the other part says AMD is being idiotic and not devoting enough time and resources to the drivers.

MFG when?

 

[Colif]

Most years they release a new patch every month. Its not common for them to miss a month but the previous driver version updated FSR, they normally not so big

They normally only release a new driver to support the latest big game. and there were no games that needed added support released last month.

If the driver works, why update it? New one seems to back that up if its only got a few changes, Known errors take time to work out.

 

[Colif]

That was a weird driver update. Normally it turns screen off and on a few times, that time it turned monitor off but left it off... and all my usb stopped responding. Panic was starting when it turned it all back on again.

USB may have worked, its really hard to tell with my mouse when its lighting is off anyway. I didn't try kb.

 

[Zed Clampet]

So I decided to try CoPilot for shopping recommendations. I have a very bad habit of just buying everything on Amazon. CoPilot did a price check and sent me to Walmart where the Corsair 4TB SSD was $150 cheaper.

That said, it's been wrong about every other product I subsequently asked about. There for just a minute I thought I'd found cheap RAM.

 

[neogunhero]

https://videocardz.com/newz/exclusive-amd-preparing-radeon-rx-9050-desktop-graphics-card-with-8gb-vram

RTX 5050 8GB MSRP price was $249. If they can make this RX 9050 down to $199, I bet people will flock to pick one up. It would be the perfect card for all the Fortnite and Roblox kids, casual gamers and alike. Of course though, it's hard to find a 5050 below $300, so who knows what these 9050's will cost.

 

[Colif]

That was a weird driver update. Normally it turns screen off and on a few times, that time it turned monitor off but left it off... and all my usb stopped responding. Panic was starting when it turned it all back on again.

It didn't do that the second time I installed that driver on Sunday. Guess I was due for a proper clean/reinstall of the Adrenaline drivers. Wanted to remove the AMD AI chatbot anyway, I know its gone now as its showing on front page and i have to click to install it... not again.

 

[neogunhero]

It didn't do that the second time I installed that driver on Sunday. Guess I was due for a proper clean/reinstall of the Adrenaline drivers. Wanted to remove the AMD AI chatbot anyway, I know its gone now as its showing on front page and i have to click to install it... not again.

That chatbot is kind of baffling to me. Of all the places one could go to use a chatbot, opening Adrenaline to use one is the last place I'd think of. I wonder if it's maybe more attuned to your PC, giving you overclocking and hardware specific advice.

 

[Colif]

https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support-articles/faqs/DH3-045.html

it doesn't really do anything you can't find by looking... apart from
Image Generation (ex. Generate an image of a dog in a spaceship.)
as you won't find that in Adrenaline without installing the AI

I had a moment of weakness and installed it, and then regretted it as it used lots of ram, and required work to remove... need to use AMD Clean Up to remove it, DDU doesn't.

 

[Colif]

I found out on weekend my LG panel almost has 30k hours on it. I hadn't looked in its info panel before. Its only 5 1/2 years old. Wonder what Oled look like in that time. I have to wait...

 

[Colif]