ajaxburger

Is it me or did the budget go down after the first call? I thought it was $1400 US and then they seemed to be sticking to $1200 US in all following orders.

Not sure how interested the community is in this topic but I personally find demonstration of computing strength through brute force attempts super impressive. I stumbled across this video on YouTube talking about a .7z file that had been posted to the AWS bucket for Mojang back around the Minecraft 1.0 release. They talk about how no one had figured out the password and so on. Eventually, they posted a few more videos on this topic and after chatting with a Dev at Mojang (Dinnerbone), they were told that it only contained the Minecraft 1.0 release files that were meant to be used for demo at Minecon that year. A lot of people suspect that it contains minute differences from the release version that would be interesting to preserve. This in mind, Dinnerbone also gave permission to crack it if the community really wanted to review the files themselves and compare it to the release candidate for 1.0. Watching this video, I immediately thought about a program I had used to unlock an old file of mine that I had forgotten the password to (not sure if I'm allowed to name it but happy to share if that's okay, easy to find if you google for it). Anyway, I attempted to run that program on the tominecon.7z file (with my measly 4080) and after about 5 minutes of full power consumption, it had tried ~10 million passwords with a target completion of 2035 and it kept going up. Now, how is this relevant to LTT? Well, server manfacturers seem to love it when LTT shows off a nice drag race of their equipment and we know this is a 16 character numeric password. That's 1016 possible passwords and I think it would be insane to see how fast those systems can rip through more combinations.

Easiest thing you can try is using MSI Afterburner and setting a custom fan curve. The card mfg may also have their own software you can use. If you do this, keep an eye on temps when you change the curve. Obviously cooler is better but you can safely run up to about 70-80C.

I had this issue before and never really nailed down the cause. I went through about 3-4 PCIe network adapters and never fixed it. Ultimately went with ethernet because the adapters would keep burning out and doing exactly this. You can attempt all software fixes -- DDU and reinstall the drivers, reload windows, etc. Also use something like GlassWire to check that there's nothing sending random large requests on your system. I would also ensure that the antennae are well-seated on the adapter and even swap them to see if that's causing anything. If they're wired and physically moveable, see if you can place them somewhere else for better results. If all else fails, running the ethernet yourself will cost about as much as a new adapter and you can pick-up unfinished cat5/6 for cheap.

Currently run Cat6 to a gigabit-enabled router. Gigabyte/second from ISP. Plan to setup a NAS in the near future with the old system parts + some. I would imagine I would see negligible benefits but I'd enjoy tinkering to see if I can improve consistency of the network speed to this device. Is there some kind of networking setup that I can look up to look into this a little farther?

Hey all, recently picked up an ASUS ROG Strix X570E Gaming Wifi II (mouthful, jeez). The board has both a 2.5Gbps and standard gigabit networking. Is there an effective way to use both and boost performance? Might be a stupid question but this is the first time I've spent REAL money on a motherboard and figure I should try to squeeze each ounce of performance out of it.

When I was your age (not too long ago, a few years) I did a lot of IT for friends and family and put myself in a good position for it with my school. Additionally, I was looking for low-level IT-related jobs at the time as well -- nothing crazy in-depth, just repair jobs, things of that nature. A lot of it depends on where you want to go and how you want to get there. I had always planned on going to uni for computer science and I did for some time but between COVID and money issues I dropped out after my first year. From there I worked about a year and a half with a repair provider called uBreakiFix. This position gave me management experience on top of the certifications from Google, Samsung, Apple and WISE. If you find a company like UBIF, I'd recommend taking the chance. Professional, hands-on repair experience looks great on a resume and could help you figure out what you want to do as a career. Currently, I've moved to a remote help desk position that pays considerably more and it just took some time and finding the right opportunities. You can also take courses through Google for $40/month (with the first month free) that give you various IT certs. I'd also look into A++, Network+ certs, things like that to get your path planned out. Feel free to ask me any questions if you'd like. Good luck!

Not that I'm aware of. M.2 is standardized so you can pick up a third-party one and in theory it should work anyway. From using them, they're all pretty much the same; a block of copper or aluminum with a massive thermal pad on the bottom.

That's why I made note of sales. Their drives have gone on sale for huge discounts pretty recently and I've picked a few up on that condition. Generally, you're right they're way over market cost for similar tech. I see it as paying a little more for reliability and speed if you can find them at the right price. Obviously I'd recommend doing the research and waiting for some sales to get best bang-for-the-buck.

Gen 4 is huge, if your motherboard supports it. Additionally, heat sinks are cheap enough to buy aftermarket or the motherboards often come with them as part of the chipset cooler. Ultimately your choice but just something to keep in mind.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad drive and it's got a great price on-top of it all. I'm just trying to make the point that when it comes to solid-state I'd rather spend a little more money and get a Samsung option that generally tends to be at the head of the pack in terms of tech for the long-term, especially when it comes to M.2 because it's a pain to swap them and copy the data. I worked for an electronics repair franchise for some time and we always used WDBlue for customers but only on the condition of price. There were occasions where people asked for the fastest, most reliable drive they could get and our recommendations were always Samsung. Obviously it does come with a bit of a cost increase.

Yeah that's trouble. Hopefully you can make it to Linus' in-person event or get through the VAG program. Availability is going to be the only thing working against you here. The system configs suggested in this thread are great, only thing I might recommend is to not go with the WDBlue. Overall, WD has tended to be slower and less-reliable than their competitors. Samsung I can highly recommend and you can find theirs for great prices at times with waiting for sales on Amazon. Kingston and SanDisk are next in line in that department for me.

Yeah it looks like you've done well to match them. Is there a reason you'd upgrade then? A lower tRFC should get slightly higher speeds but sacrifice some stability. I'm honestly surprised the newer stick had issues, that's why I assume it's just a bad stick. Is the issue you have when you attempt to run both of them at the same time for a total of 16GB? That tRFC value could make a difference then causing the other stick to run at a slower speed and become more instable but generally that shouldn't be an issue. If they run fine individually, I suspect this is the issue or there's a bad slot on your motherboard.

Just want to put it out there that for your budget, you can pick up a prebuilt from Microcenter that uses proper name-brand components and has a 3070 with some left over for upgrading storage as you see fit. I was looking to get a 3000-series card but we all know how that normally goes. I went with the Powerspec G707 so I would check the stock at your local MC.. I don't know how common they are in Canda though. Check my signature for the system specs. You'll get whatever 3070 manufacturer they can find. Some of my friends got an EVGA card, I got an ASUS.

That's fair. I know the new iMac adapters include ethernet in the power brick for certain models. My perspective is Apple tries to create the least amount of clutter out of the box as possible. Ideally, they would sell dock systems for the MacBooks at a reasonable price that could handle all of this on the side but Apple has never been one to make all-in-one accessories like that Belkin likely offers something like it I just don't care enough to take a look. After having mine for some time, I've only actually had to pull out my dongle a handful of times honestly.