thefallinglink

Edited the post to add pictures and more specs. It's also an i5 not an i7, 2013 laptop so 3rd gen I think - shipped with Windows 8 so who wouldn't get rid of it lol. Not a super luxury laptop, but not so cheap it's unusable either. SN and everything else intact. Forgot to mention I checked those things. Thanks for the advice!

Title says it all. I was in a bit of a financial pinch in need of a laptop, thought I had a stroke of luck finding a decent laptop nearby in front of an apartment complex in a Stanford bag with the charger and a sticky note on it saying "Free, no hard drive". It's a pretty rich area (near Stanford), so most likely someone just got a newer laptop or desktop and didn't want to deal with e-waste fines, trying to sell it, or transferring data. I did the same thing myself when my mom got a new computer, just took the HDD out of her laptop and popped it in her new desktop for more storage, which left her with a working laptop with no drive. So I took it home, disinfected it, disassembled it, and verified the condition. Seemed either pretty unused or really well maintained, nothing clearly wrong, and indeed had no hard drive. Serial number and all other numbers still intact. Got an SSD, installed Linux Mint, powered it up and it's all working just fine! It even has a working touchscreen, optical drive, SD card reader, and an i5 processor. Full specs at https://laptoping.com/sony-vaio-sve14a35cxh.html My partner was not so happy. In fact, she is extremely upset with me and says it is a huge risk. She's excessively paranoid and thinks I'm excessively relaxed, and she's not a tech person so she doesn't understand my explanations. She wants me to get rid of it and doesn't even want to acknowledge I have it, but I really don't see why it's a problem. I don't see how it's a risk if there is no storage. It wasn't a bomb, it doesn't have illegal data or malicious software on it because there was no HDD/SSD, what's the issue? Is it possible for someone to bake malicious code into the motherboard or other hardware? Wouldn't that be pretty advanced? If it ever was used for anything illegal, the data would be on the drive and not the rest of the computer, and the owner would be pretty stupid to get rid of the remaining hardware like that, right? Any security experts out there with more information? I hate to resort to this but she thinks I'm off in my own world of no-worry, like I don't know what I'm talking about. What's the verdict - how much of a risk was it really? Should I get rid of it asap, tell her to chill, or are there any other protective measures I should take?

Thanks! I am aware of the split between GTX 1060 and the RX 480 or 580. The extra gig of VRAM might also be a factor, but I'm going to look into it more.

I appreciate the feedback but I am wondering why. You went with a cheaper motherboard to get an allegedly better graphics card and a better CPU, which makes sense. What I am wondering when I made my decision on the 3G or 6G card is the cost yes but whether or not any games will actually be using 6G of VRAM. Second, you went with the 1600 rather than 1600X: does extended frequency range (XFR) basically overclock for you, leaving little room for additional performance boost from a user overclock? I'm not experienced with overclocking but I am building a computer that is capable of it should/when I need more performance. From what I saw, the 1600 overclocked was doing about as well as the Ryzen 7 chip, which is incredible. The other question is what sort of games would really be taking advantage of the extra cores? Is it really that much better? Also, nice find on that power supply. Looks to be more what I was looking for, better quality and at a better discount. Thank you Sorry to drop all my questions on you, just want to know what you think. Thanks

This is my current build for my first computer build. It is based on a $650 USD budget and the AMD Ryzen architecture. This is a gaming PC. My main concern is whether or not the 1500X will be enough not to bottleneck the GTX 1060 or if I really should go with the 1600X. Another debate is between the 3G graphics card vs. the 6G. The price difference is about $50 for each. Let me know if you guys have any other advice! https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dN2gcc

I personally prefer Nintendo because their consoles offer an experience unique from PC gaming. For the most part, unless you have an emulator of some sort, the only way to play Nintendo games is with their console, which is a huge part of the fun anyways. If you already have a decent PC, an entirely new experience may be more exciting than another upgrade. Then again, everyone has their preferences.

SHORT VERSION: Can/why don't people have air flow in their computers from back to front rather than front to rear? Most air cooled computers that I know of use a front intake and a rear exhaust. I haven't built my own desktop before so perhaps there is something I am not aware of, but logically I can't make sense of this because most computers have their backs facing a wall. Why wouldn't you want the hot air coming from your computer to come out the front to blend more with the ambient temperature of the room? Otherwise the hot air goes straight at a wall, which can get very hot in close proximity to your computer. The opposite way, the direct vicinity of the computer remains cool. So, either there is something crucial about air needing to go from the front of your computer to the back that I am not aware of or nobody has considered switching the direction of air flow, because I haven't heard any other talk on this subject. The closest thing I've heard would be both front and rear intake with top or no exhaust. Any thoughts? Please explain if there's something I don't know, or if this would work fine but is less traditional. PS: An afterthought, may be nice if your hands are cold you could just stick them in front of your computer

Hello! This is my first attempt to build a gaming PC, and I would like to hear what more experienced builders have to say before I follow through with any of the purchases. I believe I can create an upgrade path to save on initial spending costs and gradually add things I want in the future. I will divide the list into sections such as: components I am fairly certain of, those I plan on upgrading with ease, and those I have not quite decided on yet. Current price is looking to be around $750-800 for what I believe to be a high performance gaming built that isn't too over the top or unaffordable. So without further ado, here is my current build: Primary Decided Components -- Motherboard -- MSI Gaming 970 Gaming AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 and SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130790 ~ $100 <VS> MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING M3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130874 ~ $150 -- GPU -- MSI GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready ATX Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127963 ~ $290 -- CPU -- AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286 ~ $110 <VS> Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117563&cm_re=Intel_Core_i5-6500_3.2GHz_Quad-Core_Processor-_-19-117-563-_-Product ~ $200 -- CPU Cooling System -- Engine 27 IU Low Profile Cooler http://coolchiptechnologies.com/ currently unreleased I suppose the CPU cooling requires some explanation. I do not plan to use a liquid cooling system, and when I was doing research on different fan systems I found this Kinetic Cooling Technology. It has a solid scientific background and should be dropping quite soon. (They posted on twitter beginning this month that "the wait is over") Linus did post a video over a year ago on this technology as it was being developed, and I think it is a terrific breakthrough in the way we approach cooling. It has no fan. Intended Upgrades -- Ram -- CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144 ~ $46 <VS> Ram in DDR4 I intend to eventually purchase more ram, but in my research I have found I may not need it immediately. UPGRADE: Additional RAM -- Memory -- SK hynix SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820329009&cm_re=SK_hynix_SL308_250GB_2.5"_Solid_State_Drive-_-20-329-009-_-Product ~ $65 I intend to keep my Operating System on the SSD. I have not included the OS in my build plan because I don't consider it a main questionable price point, but I plan to stay with Windows 7. UPGRADE: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ~ $50 OR WD Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch Desktop Hard Drive ~ $50 -- Optical Drive -- ASUS 24X DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 ~ $20 I intend to replace or add to this eventually with a Blu-Ray reader/burner because I like movies and music in a better quality. Undecided Components -- Case -- Currently, I am looking at the Cooler Master modular case because of its potential flexibility but it is a price point that I am not yet certain of. -- Power Supply Unit -- I am not entirely certain which PSU I need, however I don't think I will need 500 Watts and fully modular sounds best. Again, this is another flexible price point that I would appreciate some suggestions on. If there are any serious components I am missing, incompatibilities, suggestions/recommendations or feedback, etc. it would be much appreciated. Thanks!