[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I rebuilt and installed Grub from the new system --- with the same wrong results. At least, I think I did. It was 4am! (Why does techie stuff grab one when it is already past bedtime? !) I'll check today.

Bad news: I'll never know what happened.

Good news: no, it's fine.

Thanks all for following and helping.

[cartrail]

I want to replace the Intex 450 W SMPS of my PC as the power socket of the SMPS is damaged. I have found Ant Esports VSL450L 450W SMPS at Rs. 1831 and Zebronics 450W SMPS at Rs. 791 on Amazon.

Do recommend a good SMPS with 3 SATA pins as I am going to install a SATA SSD after installing SMPS. Also, where should I buy the SMPS from? Online or Offline in Navi Mumbai?

[Thad E Ginathom]

I have successfully upgraded my Linux mint installation from 19 to 21. I now have, and can boot from 19, 20 and 21. 20 is an intermediary stage and I will delete. I always keep my previous version available.

I installed Virtualbox and created a Windows 11 virtual machine. (It's been some years, and probably several versions, but I still dislike Windows as much as ever)

I downloaded trial versions of a couple, so far, of the non-adobe photo processing softwares.

This setup is ok for taking a look around the software, but could not be used for real editing, as Virtualbox really downgrades the display. A friend suggests that I try qemu: he says it is superior to VB. I will.

If I decide to actually run a windows installation, I'll try to do it so that I have a Windows-only disc (m 500gb SSD can be made available. The idea would be that I would have to enable secure-boot and boot that disk from the bios when required. The rest of my system would remain pure and happily Linux!

Linux will see that disk, of course, and I can use an SSD "drive" partition as a temporary workspace.

[deathwalkr]

So something weird happened today morning. Booted up my desktop and Philips Hue Sync app said there's an update available. Clicked to update, kaspersky gave a red alert saying a trojan was found in the update file!

UDS: Trojan.Win32.Agent.xbccrx

False alarm?

Aborted the update, quarantined the file and did a full scan of the pc.

[CzechItaliaMoto]

Originally Posted by cartrail

I want to replace the Intex 450 W SMPS of my PC as the power socket of the SMPS is damaged. I have found Ant Esports VSL450L 450W SMPS at Rs. 1831 and Zebronics 450W SMPS at Rs. 791 on Amazon.

Do recommend a good SMPS with 3 SATA pins as I am going to install a SATA SSD after installing SMPS.

Instead of going for the Ant Esports PSU, I would suggest going for Antec ATOM V450. I have personally been using Atom B650 for the past two years in my PC, no issues so far.

I would not recommend entry level PSUs which go for less than 1.5k. They have no safety ratings at all.

The PSU that I have recommended comes with 3 SATA pins.

[NaXal]

I guess I am the only one in the market to find stuff without RGB or transparency.

RGB / Tempered Glass wired looking cabinets are cheaper than non RGB & solid metal simple cabinets. Quality & actual size / expansion of cabinets have reduced so much compared to a decade ago.

A Large ATX cabinet without any RGB or transparency is costlier than the Board/Processor/RAM/NVME going into it. Truely unbelievable :(

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by NaXal

I guess I am the only one in the market to find stuff without RGB or transparency.

Add me to the list. I have never had an RGB case. Mesh panels with magnetic dust filters are the ones for me.

I am also somebody who keeps the motherboard in horizontal position, because it is easier to change components like a test bed, and also helps prevent GPU sag naturally,

The Cooler Master HAF XB EVO is one of the best cases I could purchase. Another in my collection is the Asus AP201 (Micro ATX). It is fully meshed without the glass nonsense. It looks like a high end sound system when I keep it horizontally beside the TV. It replaced Thermaltake Core v21, which though had transparent panel on one side, is still a very easy case to work with.

[Thad E Ginathom]

My stock AMD cooler has silly lights. There was some other stuff too, most of which I could turn off, but some light remains. Unlike previous stock cpu fans/coolers I've had, it is also pretty silent, so I never bothered to swap it out for the Noctua cooler I do have, including the bracket, supplied free by Noctua for the new cpu/board.

Audiophiles are all too ready to talk about the electrical noise inside a PC. Then one finds that they have these nonsense decorations.

My antec cabinet is basic, steel, heavy (a bit too heavy) with no glass and no added pretties. It's over ten years old. It's had several PSUs and is a couple of years into its second MB/CPU configuration. So long as motherboards come in the same configurations, it will last a lifetime.

if I wanted a PC as part of a hifi setup, then I think that the appropriate cases, with fanless cooling, etc, are lovely.

[deathwalkr]

I can get the anti-RGB thing, but what's bad about the transparency? I love seeing all the components inside my PC

I do have RGB lights, but always set on Red to go with the room's theme. Philips Hue light strips add on it.

Makes for a wonderous experience watching Pink Floyd concerts

As for audio whine from components, I guess I am not audiophile enough to pick those up. My hi res rips are played from the PC through a topping dac, a loki equalizer and edifier speakers. I honestly can't complain.

My case is Antec's NX800 case. Love those massive 200mm fans up front spinning like a turbine!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

I can get the anti-RGB thing, but what's bad about the transparency? I love seeing all the components inside my PC

So do I, on day one. After that, the PC is under a desk, stuff either side, transparency would be irrelevant. It's a big case. Perhaps it's more relevant to smaller cases that people have in more visible locations.

One good thing, I guess, is that it is harder for the PC to become a dust box, because it isn't hidden.

Anyway... Personal taste rules. I'm not trying to tell other they are wrong. Even if I think that stuff is silly, no doubt others might think that stuff I do is. Oh... if I had one of those fan-less PCs with a huge copper-basket heatsink... that, to me, might be a visual treat I'd like to show off.

Each to their own taste/opinion

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Oh... if I had one of those fan-less PCs with a huge copper-basket heatsink... that, to me, might be a visual treat I'd like to show off.

Each to their own taste/opinion

Oh yes, count me on in wanting to have a massive copper heat sink for my PC Something about it just...

And I am lucky to have a little man cave in my house where my desk fits my pc, monitor and printer and still have space on both ends to place my wood stands for the speakers.

[cartrail]

I wanted some inputs on storage for my PC and backup.
Currently all my data and Windows OS is on a 1 TB WD Green SATA HDD which I think can fail anytime as it has bad sectors. I am going to install a 250 GB or 500 GB SATA SSD for OS.

1. What should I purchase for Backup of important files like PDF,Images,Videos?
External HDD, External SSD or SATA SSD in a enclosure (I am not sure whether SSD will be reliable in long term or not). It will be used once or twice a month for backup.

2. I have shortlisted below options:
Seagate One Touch External HDD 1 TB Rs. 5600
WD My Passport Portable 1TB Rs. 5600
I am skeptical about ordering HDD on Amazon due to chances of damaged HDD so will prefer offline.

3. I also thought of using the old 1 TB WD Green SATA HDD in a enclosure and using it for backup. And buying a new WD Blue 1 or 2 TB SATA HDD for PC. So I can store backup on both drives. Do give your opinion on this.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by cartrail

I wanted some inputs on storage for my PC and backup.

Get a SSD for windows, use a new 1+ TB HDD for your data. Assuming photos and music and the likes.

Get an external HDD drive for backup and remember to backup periodically.

Since your old HDD has bad sectors i would not recommend using it.

[NaXal]

Hello,

Originally Posted by mayukh42

Add me to the list. I have never had an RGB case. Mesh panels with magnetic dust filters are the ones for me.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

My antec cabinet is basic, steel, heavy (a bit too heavy) with no glass and no added pretties.

I only saw 2 options as per my requirement in Micro ATX segment

DEEPCOOL MATREXX 30 SI (2.6k) / Ant Esports SI24 (1.7k) , Ant eSports is almost Rs. 1000/- cheaper but unfortunately their website doesn't mention anything about number of storage slots supported.

So ended up with Deepcool. Really cramped and challenging to build with full system utilization like mine with 3 x 3.5inch / 1 x 2.5inch / 2 slot GPU / 1 x USB 3 PCIe extension card.



GPU Clearance is really worrisome. Not the best purchase decision of mine for sure but unfortunately nothing else available with no RGB / Transparency requirement

Thanks.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by cartrail

I wanted some inputs on storage for my PC and backup.
Currently all my data and Windows OS is on a 1 TB WD Green SATA HDD which I think can fail anytime as it has bad sectors. I am going to install a 250 GB or 500 GB SATA SSD for OS.

1. What should I purchase for Backup of important files like PDF,Images,Videos?
External HDD, External SSD or SATA SSD in a enclosure (I am not sure whether SSD will be reliable in long term or not). It will be used once or twice a month for backup.

2. I have shortlisted below options:
Seagate One Touch External HDD 1 TB Rs. 5600
WD My Passport Portable 1TB Rs. 5600
I am skeptical about ordering HDD on Amazon due to chances of damaged HDD so will prefer offline.

3. I also thought of using the old 1 TB WD Green SATA HDD in a enclosure and using it for backup. And buying a new WD Blue 1 or 2 TB SATA HDD for PC. So I can store backup on both drives. Do give your opinion on this.

You should definitely archive data off line. I use multiple external USB disks for storage of data. The scheme is as follows

1. 1st level 2TB WD USB disk. I copy critical data here every couple of days. If data is large (images of functions) then immidietly after processing it.

2. 2nd Level. 2 x 5TB WD USB disks. Backup data every month on both the disks for redundancy

As I have huge data archived (more than 10TB), it is not feasible to keep it in the laptop's storage. So I am mostly dependent on the 1st and 2nd level storage for older data.