Category: Hardware

О “железе” и программах

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Hardware

Ryzen 5900X vs Ryzen 5700X3D and RTX 2070 Super vs RTX 4070 Ti Super

It is quite rare that I get to compare hardware. After all, usually I spend a lot of time investigating what platform to buy, but then once you buy everything, you kind of stuck with it for the next 2-4 years.

But because my CPU started to act wierdly and I managed to RMA it, I decided to buy a new CPU for the same socket instead of waiting a couple of weeks without PC at all.

This is quite amazing, really. A supposedly weaker CPU providing 10% performance right of the bat. the 3D is a gamechanger, literally.

Video card offers a much greater boost, of course. But despite 40% performance boost, I’m actually slightly disappointed, as this is 1440p resolution and not even maxed out settings we’re talking about.

Regarding RMA. I shipped the faulty CPU on the 9th, got approval on the 13th and received a new one back on 18th. So less than two weeks turnaround, which is nice.
As a bonus, because they don’t produce 5900X anymore, I got the slightly upgraded 5900XT 😄

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Hardware

HDD donor

I have a bunch of old HDDs from my previous PCs. One of them had a couple of pins broken, probably when I tried to put it into a badly designed cradle. So I came up with a DYI project. Bought another 80GB IBM HDD for 8GBP, and replanted the board, which is held by just 4 screws, to the new one. And it worked!
There was nothing valuable on it. I just like messing with hardware sometimes.

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Hardware

Bose QC Ultra

One of my constant disappointments with Bose is how their earpads live for about 1 year. I couldn’t believe it, I thought I had them for at least 2 years now for that to happen.
Luckily there are replacement pads that are sold for cheap. But it’s still annoying for a rather expensive headset.

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*.BAK Hardware

Please don’t turn off your PC

Today I received new motherboard. Spent 1.5 hours to installing it. And the symptoms are still there.
Also, this is a reminder why you should never buy Asus Prime boards, and only Asus ROG. The quality is atrocious, from the almost non existing heat sinks to the fact that you need to install back panel yourself.
If not motherboard, then what? I read some more. Seems some 5900X CPUs are faulty.
The problem? For RMA you need S/N, which is on the box, but I don’t keep boxes for CPUs, only for motherboard. So I had to remove cooler again to get S/N. And since I already started doing it, I replaced ROG motherboard back. Now it only took me 45 minutes. Improvement.
I disabled C-State. It helped, for now.

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Hardware

Please don’t turn off your PC

I feel like every time I turn off or restart my PC, I’m sorry I did that.
This time I put it to sleep, and discovered that it restarted to install some updates. Only it would hang while doing so, and would even hang when you try to open the recovery menu.
I went through the entire process: removing RAM, removing video card (onboard HDMI is useless now, BTW, as AMD doesn’t come with any video chip, it’s just for show).
Ended up removing all SSDs, and trying to boot from USB only. Updated BIOS. Nothing.
Then, after two days, it started working again.
Of course now I’m afraid to restart it.
In any case, I ordered a new motherboard. They don’t make X570 anymore, but B550 is essentially the same, and you can’t go above that, because above is AM5 chipset, and not AM4.

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Hardware

Asus GL752VW

I haven’t touched my Asus GL752VW laptop in 2 years, and when I did, I discovered it wouldn’t turn on anymore.
But what I appreciate is how servisable Asus had made their gaming laptops. The battery, RAM, and both SATA and M2 SSDs are just two screws away. And if you want to dive deeper and remove the battery, it’s still pretty straightforward, with removing a few more screws, pulling out DVD drive, and popping the keyboard. Sure, not as easy as the Asus laptop I had before, where the battery would just pop-out from the bottom, but still, pretty easy.
In any case, pulling out the BIOS battery, the laptop battery and changing the power adapter didn’t help. I sent it for repairs, and they told me that the north bridge got fried. What will bother me now is that when I was installing M2 SSD, I pinched one of the screws from north bridge to hold the SSD, so maybe it had worse cooling. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence.
In any case, replacing a motherboard on a laptop from 2016 probably isn’t worth it, so I just asked them to ship it back, and maybe I’ll be able to sell it for parts or something. It was still a fun project to tinker with, though.

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Hardware

Keychron K15 Max

After the disappointing Razer Deathstalker V2 Pro I went back to Keychron. I was eyeing Alice layout keyboard for a long time, and decided that now I should give it a chance. This time I went with brown switches as well, my Keychron K1 which I still adore is red switches.
I like K1 more for the dedicated lighting button. On K15 you need to remember the magic keys (Fn+Q) for it. I also miss the PrintScreen, although I guess this one could be replaced by the macros keys on the left.

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Hardware

Samsung S24 Ultra

Last time, I was waiting to replace my Note 8 for too long. What people don’t get is that “no security updates” isn’t mitigated by “nobody will want to hack my phone”. No security updates means no certificates. No certificates means no HTTPS. No HTTPS – no Internet services. So this time, I decided to try an upgrade just after 2 years, in hopes that the market value of my S22 Ultra will be higher.
Tradein doesn’t seem to be a viable option. The official prices are so high that even with a tradein, you still don’t reach Amazon prices. So I just got it on Amazon.
Honestly, the transition between Android phones is quite magical now. You almost don’t feel it.
The problem is, the changes are miniscule. The battery is still 5000 mAh. The weight is the same (S24 is 5g heavier). The size is the same. One improvement, though, is that S24 went back to a completely flat screen, which means you can buy glass screen protectors again.
I always adores S22 Ultra for the unique camera, which I called spyglass for the incredible zoom. This one is slightly different. I’d say, less sharpness, better colours, though.
Still happy that I upgraded, but it’s certainly not a quantum leap as it was with Note 8 to S22 migration.

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Hardware

Razer Deathstalker Pro

I figured out that I like low profile keyboards by now, so I decided to give Deathstalker Pro a try.
The good: red switches are quiet, comparable to Keychron brown switches, maybe even quieter. It also has a 2.4 dongle built in, just like Deathadder V2 mouse.
But it wobbles. Like the rubber feet are misaligned slightly or something. An also the keys feel more “mushy” than on Keychron. Although this might have to do with red switches.
What’s more, it doesn’t play nice with Macs at all. Keychron has a Mac switch, and comes with Mac keycaps for Command/Option. I had to use Keychron caps on Deathstalker, and a custom script to properly map those keys. And Razer Synapse 3 is not supported anymore on OSX, and Synapse 2 doesn’t support any of the new hardware 🤷‍♂️

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Hardware

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro left me confused. It feels less for more. DeathAdder V2 supported both 2.4 and Bluetooth, a feature I liked to use, because it allowed me to switch between PC and laptop seamlessly. V3 supports only 2.4. V2 had a dongle storage. V3 doesn’t. V2 had RGB (which I didn’t use). V3 doesn’t. And now I’m expected to attach the grip tape myself? Why?
The only advantage is that V3 charges from USB-C, while V2 used micro USB.

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Hardware

Garmin Venu 3

I’ve been using Garmin Vivoactive 4 for quite some time. But a couple of months ago, I discovered that Vivoactive 5 was released, so I thought I’d give it a try. It turns out, though, that Vivoactive is now the budget solution that lacks some features like a step counter, and the Venu 3 is instead the upgrade path from Vivoactive 4 moving forward.
Externally, Venu 3 looks very similar to Vivoactive 4. You really need to squint to see the differences: three buttons instead of two, and the bezel is now ridged. The screen is different, though. The technology has moved forward at least there, and now it’s always-on AMOLED. Much brighter and nicer for sure. Sound is back as well.
Which is funny, I had a Casio 20 years ago that had an alarm, but then I moved to Pebble and Pebble Time, which were silent, and to Vivoactive 4, which was silent as well. So it’s the first time in 20 years I hear a watch beep on my hand.

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*.BAK Hardware

WorkSharp Benchtop Knife Sharpener

It all started with a Facebook ad.
I had a Vulkanus pullthrough sharpener for at least 5 years. But then I saw an ad for a strange rolling knife sharpener called Tumbler, or something like that.
After a short investigation, I discovered that it’s a cheap Chinese knockoff of HORL knife sharpener: https://www.horl.com/gb/en/
And unlike Tumbler, HORL is actually considered a good sharpener. Then I started digging deeper. And turns out there isn’t as much choice among knife sharpeners, as one would expect. There’s unimaginatively named Chef’s Choice electric knife sharpener line, and then there’s WorkSharp, that produces both manual and electric sharpeners.
A lot of sharpening enthusiasts were swearing by the WorkSharp Field Sharpener. But since I didn’t need something too compact, I decided to get the benchtop version.
After sharpening half of my knifes, I can confirm, that it’s good, very good. Not something for people in a hurry.

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Hardware

Eureka Mignon Libra coffee grinder

Some more impressions.
The indirect grind control is indeed very nice. With Compak, you had to hold it with both hands to rotate. Here, you can do it with two fingers.
It is extremely precise once dialed. All my shots come out at exactly 35s.
That is, until you change the beans. And to be fair, I changed the beans 3 times, and everything was fine. But the beans from Back to Black just stopped the grinder dead, I had to remove them completely and start again.

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Hardware

Avermedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus GC513

Because I suffer from tunnel vision while playing games and generally have a bad memory, I like to record my gameplay. On PC, it’s usually easy: just use GeForce Experience. PS4 can capture 15 minutes of gameplay. Nintendo Switch captures 30 seconds. But older consoles, such as PS2, can’t capture video at all, and I noticed that I stopped playing them for that reason alone.
Now I already have a basic capture card that works surprisingly well. However, it requires OBS. This means that I can either have my console close to the PC or have a laptop close to the TV, which is a nuisance, to be honest.
So, I decided to get a “PC-free Capture Card” instead. Those are quite rare. Elgato 4K60 S+ is one, but it’s not produced anymore. I tried to get it on eBay but lost my bid.
Therefore, I decided to give Avermedia a try. They actually have two models with SD cards: the Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus and the EZRecorder 330. The latter supports HDD drivers, which is nice, but doesn’t support OBS.
I feel now that I was lucky that I lost the bid, as LGP2 simply works. You put a microSD card in, connect ins and outs, press the big button, and it records stuff at 1080p and 60fps. Tested of Neo Geo + RetroTink 5X for now.


20 minutes of video results in a 3GB file.
Once you want to transfer the video, you can either eject the card, or alternatively, connect the entire device through USB and flip a switch to transfer mode.

Initially I didn’t want Avermedia because it looked very “gamery”, with all the red plastic. But seeing it in real-life, it’s actually okay.

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Hardware

HiFiMan Sundara

As I’ve proven many times, despite owning a bunch of high-end audio equipment, I don’t understand anything in music.
But there’s one test where open-backed headphones clearly superior to the closed ones:

Yes, it’s a crappy video. But when I watch it with Sundara on, I constantly turn my head over my shoulder to understand where the little girl came from. The presence they provide is sometimes scary.

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Hardware

HiFiMan Sundara

The irony of life. I wanted open-backed headphones for years now, since I tried Shure 1840 on. But I wasn’t buying them, because my PC was in the main room. But for the last 2 years, it’s in my bedroom. But I still didn’t buy them. Until now.
Basically everyone recommends Sundara. So I finally got them.
The pack is not just minimalistic, it’s dingy. Brown cardboard with some tape, just the headphones and cable inside.
Sennheiser is known to have proprietary double-side connections. HiFiMan just uses double 3.5mm jacks.
My Shure 1540 aren’t low-end by any means. But there’s just some benefits for open-backed headphones, I guess. Water in the background of “Bad Liar” is like someone actually left a tap in the kitchen open.

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Hardware

Samsung QN94A

Something I started noticing while playing Diablo 4 on my QN94A TV is that the colours are messed up when I enter a new location, but then they slowly fix themselves.
At first I thought it’s the dynamic contrast feature. But after some experimentation, it turned out to be the Local Dimming.
Luckily, the TV stores separate configurations for different inputs, so I just turned Local Dimming off for PS4.

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*.BAK Hardware

Headphone drivers economics

I didn’t expect it, but the dive into the economics behind picking the right headphone driver was fascinating.

The smaller companies don’t produce planar drivers because they’re hip. They produce them because those are cheaper to prototype, and cheaper to produce in small quantities.
The larger companies don’t produce dynamic drivers because History. They produce them because it’s cheaper at scale.

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Hardware

About Razer Kitsune

Razer Kitsune seems like a joke.

For years I was saying that it’s fine to play fightings on a keyboard. And now they started producing fighting keyboards 🤦‍♂️
Still, it’s an interesting one. Notice how “up” is under the thumb, as a spacebar would be on a keyboard, and “down” is for the middle finger. That’s so you could do QCB/QCF easier.

Would be nice to try it, but considering it’s 300$, and something like a Hori Mini costs 40$, I probably wouldn’t.

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Hardware

Hardware bug 🐞

Today I was suddenly bitten by a hardware bug, and decided to install two additional Noctua coolers I had stashed for a year or two on the sidepanel of my BeQuiet case

After all, it’s a full tower, should have plenty of space for that. Took me an hour, and ended in a failure.

First, I installed the coolers on the sidepanel where the motherboard is. But there’s clearly no space for them to fit. And when I tried to install them on the opposite side, first the cables to the motherboard make opening the case very precarious, and then I also discovered I have to move some of the HDD cages up to free that space, and maybe that will stretch the cables too much 🤦‍♂️

Also, since the panel is so heavy, it almost tore one of the fan power supplies out of the motherboard and bend it badly when the panel fell out.

So I ended up just opening the ventilation windows a bit, and returned everything else to where it was 🤷‍♂️