Steel_Wind

I have 2x8GB of Trident Z memory DDR4-3200C16D-16GTZ, i5-6600 CPU, Mobo and related gear from a machine I just upgraded. I want to use them on a home server under Win 10 Pro. My concern is memory. With only 16GB, I would prefer to have 32GB for VM use. The timings on the modules I have are CL16-16-16-36 @ 1.35 v These modules from GSkill are no longer produced, The closest thing from Trident under the same part number is 16-16-16-38 @1.35v. It looks the same, has the same part number, but isn't quite the same. It's also quite expensive to buy. If I have to get a module that isn't exactly the same, I'd prefer to spend less, frankly. And spending half that amount seems like a better plan. I want to expand the memory on this Mobo to 32GB. I would like to add Corsair Vengeance 2 x 8GB DDR4 3200 with timings of 16-18-18-36 @ 1.35v as they are currently cheap and on sale. I don't care what speed this runs at. I'll clock it all to the lower timings or whatever I need to do to get it to work. This is for a home server application under Windows 10 Pro, non-critical task. Is this a realistic expectation? Can I get these 4 DIMMS to play nicely with one another? Mobo which will be used is an Asus Z170 Pro Gaming. Both memory modules are on the QLV list for this mobo.

Yes, it's worse. Elon screwed us all by investing so large in Bitcoin 2 weeks ago. While that wasn't an investment in Etherium, it impacted the market's perception and the price went up even higher. We were previously at a point last Fall where supply was constrained both by yields and Covid issues, and demand was driven by gamers and miners and overall increased home computing use. Now, the mining demand is through the roof at every stage. Add to it so called "arbitrage" effects where people are scalping; that is, buying and flipping cards for 2x-3x value? YIKES. And we are now at a Zen point of being Perfectly Screwed. I don't think this will get better until Q1 of 2022. That's right, I expect we will have a year of this to look forward to. And even when it starts to get better, it will only be the start -- not the endpoint of improvement and normalization. Worse, I have doubts that all computer retailers will survive the shortage. When miners buy graphics cards by the pallet load from distributors and manufacturers, the retailers never see a cent of that business. Worse still, the gear those cards go in are server/rack based affairs which tends not to be inventory they ever carry. Manufacturers and (some) distributors still make money - the end-user retailer does not. For the end-user focused retailer though, they depend on sales of cases, monitors, mice, speakers, mobos, AIO coolers, CPUs and memory -- often at razor thin margins of 7-10% on most of those components. They survive on volume and some larger markups on some of their most attractive components to achieve overall profitability on their leased space and staff. Sustained shortages of key components like a GPU stop purchase of VAST amounts of all hardware and can cause the business to fail. Those retailers who are particularly retail end-user focused are vulnerable. Linus' first employer NCIX was hit VERY hard by the last shortage and went under, in part, because of it. Yes, we may see this happen again. This hurts us all. If we lose Canada Computers in Eastern Canada at this point? Gamers in half the country will be screwed. We'll be left with a shrinking handful of Mom and Pop stores, Best Buy (which doesn't really count, imo, except as a dealer of monitors, printers and laptops) and then Newegg and Amazon. That's a bad bad thing.

Part of the problem with the AIO is not simply whether it will fit, but where it will be placed in the case in relation to the CPU. The tank of the radiator should be amounted above the pump, except, there is no way to do that in this PC case. That's sub-optimal and will put strain on the pump, increasing noise and leading to a shorter lifespan for the AIO cooler. Basically, there is air in every AIO cooler. For practical manufacturing reasons and shipping concerns, it really isn't possible to eliminate air within the AIO. Air will redistribute in the cooler when it is installed. You want that air to redistribute into the radiator tank - NOT within the tubes throughout the radiator fins or within the hoses - and most definitely not within the CPU pump. tl;dr: that's presents a real problem when using an AIO in this case.

Yes, it's WAY overkill. More to the point - a graphics card like that is also for all practical purposes unavailable, no matter what you might notionally prefer or think. If all your Dad is going to do with this PC is browse the web, use general office apps and something like Sketchup, (without trying to render anything) an integrated GPU on the board is a much cheaper approach. Plus, it has the additional benefit of being something you can actually buy that isn't overpriced. Really, the non-availability of any GPU for now and into the foreseeable future from now through to the last quarter of 2021 and even into 2022 can't be stressed enough. We are in an unprecedented period of critical shortages here. (It is, in fact, so bad that semiconductor supply shortages are now affecting the auto and aerospace industries; the US government is now investigating and there will probably be hell to pay before this is over.) Your Dad sounds like an unsophisticated everyday common user. Which makes him like just about everybody else - except that most of those "everybody else" people aren't here on the LTT forums. Please appreciate that we have a deeply distorted view of what most people actually need when it comes to a computer. If your Dad's eyes aren't what they used to be (mine aren't either) then look at getting an Intel NUC and mount it on the back of a 27" to 32" 1080p monitor - or have it sit just under it. The advent of fast small m.2 SSDs will let you put a decent little box on the back of a good sized monitor that is easy on the eyes & doesn't take up much space at all. You can even have the keyboard and mouse be simple Logitech transmitter style wireless input devices and the box itself on Wifi. One power cable to the monitor and a smaller one to the NUC from the power brick on the floor. That's it. Clean, elegant, simple. It's not the kind of computer a gamer would want, but your Dad doesn't need something like that. He'll appreciate the simple space saving design. And a NUC is quiet as hell ,too. One thing is nice: there isn't a shortage in the monitor market. Indeed, as the market is moving fast to 4k, there has never been a better time to buy 1080p monitors. There are some very good ones available for cheap. And they work well. I'd go that route instead (unless you are trying to build a PC out of scavenged/used parts on hand, that is)

I'm in Canada and I do not expect to get vaccinated until September or the first half of October. Vaccine is more likely before GPU, but there is a realistic chance, however small, of snagging a card on a restock. There is no "notify me" option for a vaccine!

Next month? You are an optimist, aren't you? I expect the best that vast majority of us can hope for is 4th quarter of 2021 -- and more likely? A year from now.

Well, I read that sophistry. Now - please go jump out the ;effin window. P.S. People who are in it for their own personal financial gain without regard to the consequences to others are not members of a "community". They are selfish people interested only in themselves. "Members of the mining community". GTFO of here.

Okay well if you had a chance to get one by winning what amounted to an internet lottery today -- in a window of time that appears to have been open all of ~two minutes earlier? Then you did. So either you bought one -- and that's that. Or you didn't -- and the sad truth is? That's that, too. If you aren't paying a scalper's price? There are no 3060 cards to buy. That's the sad reality. Gamers have been thrown under the bus to Ethereum cryptominers by nVidia. And nVidia was quite content to throw computer retailers under the bus, too.

Well, the good news is? You HAVE a $1,000 GPU in your possession right now. Because that - or close to it - is what a 1080ti is selling for USED right now. As for getting a 3060 or 3070? LOL. See above. tl;dr: in about a year at this rate, you might be able to buy a card at a close to reasonable price. Before then? I doubt it.

$400 for a second hand 2060? Wow. Out of touch much? There are no second hand 2060 cards being sold for less than $800-$900. Most of them are priced at ~$1,000+ Yes. For a 2060, never mind a 3060. A frikkin 1650 is going for about 650-700 CDN on Kijiji right now. It's CRAZY. 580s are going for ~$300-350. More than what they were being sold for when they were NEW.

Let me me make it an easy choice for you: You should buy: nothing. That's because you can buy.... nothing. There's no product to buy better than the card you have dude. That is the VERY ugly reality right now, And with Etherium prices the way they are? If that changes before Xmas of 2021? I'll be very surprised. Unless you want to pay about $1,000 to $2,0000 more to a scalper above the actual retail cost of your card? You can't get one. That's not a maybe. They are just not available. You have to win a lottery for the privilege of buying one well above MSRP as it stands. There. Feel better? Quandary over.

Pretty much ditto to all of the above. the refreshes were hitting so hard on Newegg, Best Buy and Canada Computers -- it was basically a DOS attack. This is so disappointing. There's nothing we can do. And retailers? It's worse. Imagine being Canada Computers or Newegg? Those guys depend on system sales of new components. They got RAM, Mobos, drives and cases, But they can't sell any of their high end stuff. All of that depends on new systems and upgrades -- and that depends, in turn, on being abler to sell a graphics card. If the employees within these companies profiteering from this shortage were within reach of Canadian or American authorities? My guess is it would not go well for them. They'd be so lawyered up, they'd look like Neo with a 1,000 copies of Agent Smith surrounding them. It's vile. This is like waiting in line in the Soviet Union back-in-the-day, although admittedly - it's not for food. Otherwise, the same "First World" problem.

No, they don't. At the same time, there is no indication Newegg.ca ever had products for sale at any time. I was hitting refresh aggressively since 8:30 a,m (EST). At no time was there ever anything in stock. It was essentially DOS'd between 1159: to 12:10 on web and in the app. This is BEYOND frustrating.

eBay a new battery. Easy peasy.

The OnePlus 6, Silk White, 8GB/128GB phone is a premium flagship phone with a great camera, great looks and blazingly fast. O2 now carries them in the UK. They are not a cheap-ass phone. Their market niche is for Power Users at an affordable price. The OnePlus 6 rollout last week in the UK and worldwide is as mainstream as smartphones get. It's Gorilla Glass 5 front and back. If you are looking for any recent phone that isn't glass backed, you aren't going to find any premium phone without it as glass is required for wireless charging (the 6 doesn't have wireless charging, it uses proprietary Dash Charge, but all of its competitors do and glass is better for signal reception in any event). If that's unpalatable for her to hold, adding a nylon bumper to the back will deal with any perceived slippage issues. But gorilla glass backed is industry standard over the past 2 years. So, she'll have to square with that if she wants a mainstream premium phone.