MR.awesome1

My personal opinion for any Mini Itx system is go with a blower style card (ie. reference design). There is a lot of heat being pushed around in such a small area that there really isn't any point to an open air cooler like the one in your picture.

It really depends on the field of IT you would like to get into, if you are solely looking at hardware and just that that sounds great! The reason they are probably saying this is because most of the stuff you learn in A+ can be learned by yourself and through experience. However it's never bad to have more tools in your tool box. Just taking A+ will not get you into IT however you need a broader knowledge of different OS's, networking and etc. I would suggest taking the test as you never know what an employer is looking for.

On 2/13/2017 at 3:21 PM, pali1H said:

So this is really strange. I accidentally touched the back of my PCB after gaming and it was WAY too hot to touch. I took my thermal gun out and found that it is getting up to 231F near the middle edge of the card where the power goes in. Right where the power goes in is 187F. The back of the GPU is at 114.5F. I've had an EK waterblock on it for about 6 months without any issues. The temps stay in a great range. My core temps never go above 33C while gaming and it is overclocked to 1500mhz on the core. I don't think a backplate would help as the temps around the PCB look great. It  is just near where the power delivery is.  I have 2 - 480 radiators in a Corsair 900D.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

This is a picture of my card without the heatsink. I see some caps there. I highlighted the area on the right side where that 225-231F readings are coming from.

 

Also, here is the waterblock I'm currently using. It isn't supposed to connect to that section of the video card as you can see there are cutouts to make room for the caps.

Hi, in response to your caps being cooled through your block I don't believe the water gets over there. Those are just cut outs so that the caps aren't squished once the cooler is on. Therefore the only parts of your card being cooled would be the main chip and the vrms, resulting in the caps having very little to no cooling placed upon them. You might want to either consider another fan or a different block.

1 minute ago, NexusHUB said:

I've got the graphics card, heatsink, hard drive, and SSD.

Personally I'd hold off for Ryzen, it's my assumption AMD will under cut Intel to stay competitive which in return will put their previous products even lower. Ryzen is expected in Q1 so not far off could be in the coming weeks!

1 minute ago, NexusHUB said:

I picked it up off Ebay.

What parts do you have already?

Depending on the GPU manufacturer the warranty maybe voided once the cooler is taken off. However as long as you're not stabbing the card when u take off the heatsink and put it back together properly the card will work 100%. There are screws on the PCB side of the card and once you remove all those the heatsink should come right off with ease (watch the fan wires though as they might be connected to the PCB itself.) For the paste you want to use I cannot say yes i've never heard of such a thing, but replacing the thermal paste on GPU die has shown some improvement in many tess no matter the GPU. Happy cooling!

Just now, Tb428 said:

when does that come out is there a date yet

AMD is expected to release their Zen architecture in early Q1 (early 2017, between Jan - March). Looking at rumors and rumored benchmarks we could be looking at Intel and AMD going head to head again, however these are rumors. Personally I am waiting for Zen to upgrade as I don't want to miss out or bit the bullet too early. 

22 minutes ago, Tb428 said:

I want to build a new computer on a budget but I am trying to decide between two different AMD CPU/Motherboard combo. one PC has a dedicated GPU while the other has an APU(will also eventually add a GPU). I might not have enough money to buy a GPU right away I might have to save some more to get one so I am deciding between: the faster CPU but require GPU, or the APU where I can get the GPU later.

 

Here are the part lists:

Dedicated GPU Build

APU Build

Personally I'd wait for AMD's new Zen architecture. Looks very promising and could under cut Intel's offerings price wise to be competitive. I'd suggest waiting until early 2017 and then building, that way you won't be regretting not getting into what AMD really has to offer and losing out on any performance losses. AMD'd current CPUs are very out of date and are not worth building especially if you are on a budget, as you would need to upgrade in the near future again.

Just as the title states, whats your guys opinions. What do you prefer more Android Wear or Pebble OS and why?

Just now, dexxterlab97 said:

Ebay is used, Pre order is new.

I agree however I'm more asking what everyone's opinion on the Pebble side Vs Android Wear and Weather the 7 Day battery life and the E-ink display can rack up against Sony's offerings.

Hi so I've found some lightly used SONY SmartWatch 3 SWR50 on ebay for about $100 to $150 CAD but I've also noticed Pebble is about to release there Pebble 2. So my question is should I buy the SONY SmartWatch 3 SWR50 or Pre-Order the Pebble 2.

Looks compatible to me, that is to say if you still have the mounting hardware for the Intel sockets. 

http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-liquid-cooler/seidon-240m/

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I shall touch on the other side of the question the topic is asking.

 

The downsides to a Mini-ITX system aside from less I/O if you're going for as compact as possible is basically you have to be mindful of the size of everything. For instance, you have to buy low profile CPU coolers if you don't want Intel's stock cooler, you may not be able to fit 5" wide cards, you'll have to get an SFX power supply and you may not even be able to comfortably have an SFX-L one. Another problem is cases that compact won't have case fans, so you may need to be more mindful of your temps, mostly in the CPU area.

 

Oh, and of course building and tinkering in a compact Mini-ITX case can be annoying. In my case (pun intended :D), I have to disassemble basically half the computer before I can get to the GPU.

I do agree with all that you have stated and I am ready to basically redo my whole system ... However the reason I am going with the A4 SFX is the ease of getting to your core components if necessary compared to other compact layouts. Thx for the response!

So I've fallen in love with the Dan Case A4 SFX since day one, but was scared to back as many probably are with such high failure rates of delivery on indie campaign . So I waiting for the full release. My question to guys would u wait until Zen and see what's up or down size now but keep my i5 4690k? (LGA 1150). 

*Note the Dan Case A4 SFX has not been released but I am assuming it will be in North America before Zen releases.

I'd go with MSI, the evga card has more of an industrial look (unless your looking for that). Both cards are great! If your willing to spend a little more go for the MSI card. Looking forward to seeing it!

new razor blade would be sweet!

If your Windows 8.1 key has already been used to activate Windows 10, it has probably been locked to your old motherboard already.

 

You will probably need to get a new license copy to activate on the new mobo.

 

Unless you want to call up MS support to appeal for your old license to be unlocked. You can tell them your old mobo died.

 

Either way you will want to fresh install Windows 10. You will be able to activate with an unused Windows 7/8.1 license key without going through the upgrade process.

 

You can get a Home/Pro license of earlier Windows version for $20/$25 respectively, from r/microsoftsoftwareswap

Yes the license he sells are legit.

I heard if you have a retail license (not an OEM) you can use it multiple times but each time it deactivates the privous computer. I was just making sure if this was true for the "free" upgrade to windows 10.

If you still have the key I think reusing the Win 8 key on the Win 10 activation will work.. (Assuming you are doing a fresh install)

So what your saying is that if I swap the boards and then fresh install it should work?

So I've been looking at taking my pc to a smaller level by buy a mini itx board. My question is I bought Windows 8.1 full retail licence a while back and did a free upgrade to windows 10. But will my new motherboard be okay? Will I have to buy a new licence or will I be able to use my windows 8 key to reactivate windows 10 when I swap out the boards. And if so how?

 

Hey there MR.awesome1

 

@Mug asked some pretty relevant questions. Knowing what you need the storage for would help us offer you some useful solutions. 

If you are looking for simple external storage I would check out WD My Passport Ultra and WD Elements Protable:

WD My Passport: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=YNsv9t

WD Elements: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=GuKqRU

 

Post back with some more details or if you have questions!

 

Captain_WD.

 

Yes I am looking for an External portable HDD so I can bring it with me I don't want a NAS or anything that large. (Pocket Friendly )

Hi, I am currently rocking a 2.5" HDD in a external drive cady, I was just wondering your guys opinions are on which HDD to go with as I am looking for more storage than 500gb

Data transfer rates will be helped but not by much. Same as OC your CPU doesn't do much ... just for showing off basically.

Because there game is poorly optimized

Ok well I think all go with Intel it seems "future proof" as much as I hate that term but it seems to be better

If your not heavy gaming, a i3 would be fine for light gaming and school work.