HerrKaLeu

unless you do some hand-fisted half-insertion and the ram falls out later or similar it won't just fail. but if everything is inserted properly, and tight, and it runs, it is fine. The key to long live is to have a good airflow and fan selection for good cooling of ALL components. and selection of quality components, like PSU, type of capacitors used etc. Selection of good cooling and components is the main reason DIY systems will last longer on average.

No case fan is fine for a while. Especially for that low-powered CPU. Many Dell/HP et al PCs have so little openings, they basically work the same way even if they have a case fan. The only concern really are the capacitors etc. since they age faster when warm. but if we talk about weeks, this won't matter. Adding too many fans is a waste, IMHO. If you use many, run them on low speed to limit noise. Make sure the flow scheme between intake and exhaust fans makes sense and air doesn't short-circuit out before it goes over warm components. Not sure what you fans and case are. But 2 intake fans in front should be more than enough if there is enough open area.

None of that actually guarantees cash (like in US-dollars) in the customer's hands. Option 7.b. just says that is an option Best-Buy has if they chose so. Not that the customer can insist on cash. They only will hand out cash if nothing else is possible at all. They will offer some or all of the other options first. They will do what is the easiest and cheapest to Best-buy. If you think those insurances are great.... nothing wrong with your opinion. Go and buy them. But if you try to sell them here to people, make sure you get commission.

Do you have a source that this is how they handle warranty? If so, one could buy the device, and for $400 return it after 4 years and make up some BS reason and get the original purchase price back. So basically pay $400 for 4 years of use. Almost all warranties in all industries work one of these ways. I've experienced all of them: - They repair your device. For electronics that may be unlikely, but feasible to replace the PSU or whatever is broken - They give you a new device of same type. If the same type is not existent anymore, They may give you a current model that may even have some better features. For example if your now 4 year old HD 43" TV broke, you get a new 4K 43" TV. - They give you a refurbished device (a return, or one they repaired under warranty) - Depending on industry, manufacturers hold a few % of the devices back for warranty. But they do that only for a limited time. - They may give you a voucher for one of their products. that isn't the worst option. Your old DVD-player may be broken, but now in 2021 you may rather put that money into a TV from the same manufacturer or store. That way they fulfill their promise to make you whole. Only if all of the above are not possible would they give you cash. But it is 99.999999% unlikely they just give you cash right away. If you claim they give you cash, please cite the bestbuy warranty condition that clearly states that. Also state who decides if an issue is a warranty claim, or will be blamed on "unintended use" or some other BS. Yes, in some cases a warranty may lose the store money. But overall, they make a lot of profit. Otherwise they wouldn't go out of their way to sell you that. Same way the car dealer makes so much effort to sell you added paint protection.

So 20%. If we assume a similar device will cost $1K in 4 years (probably much less), insurance cost 40% of the maximum you ever get out of it. Plus time value of money since you pay upfront. At that rate you really hope it will fail. And then you hope they don't have some loopholes, or you still have the receipt and remember it. I bet they made more profit on that warranty than they made on the device itself.

How much was the TV or monitor? If it was $1000, I'm sure a similar model will cost $400 in 4 years (or much better models will be available). So even if you get to claim the warranty, in year 4 you only get a $400 TV. So they got a free loan from you. And you say their warranty covers this. Do you know for a fact they don't weasel out of that due to some technicality? That is the real value of a warranty - how they actually handle that. All those insurances are designed to make money for the seller. Many people lose their receipt, don't remember they have a warranty, sell the device, or the warranty has lots of loopholes. And I wouldn't buy a technology with known problems and then get a warranty. I rather get a good technology and just the standard manufacturer warranty. I've had TVs, monitors for decades and still have to see one that fails. With ever increasing screensizes and resolution, I actually want them to fail after 10 years to buy a new one - but they don't. If I include extended family, there never was a failed TV or monitor. But lots of TVs and monitors that now are too small and will just be given away since they are obsolete despite still working like on day 1. in fact, these days we are replacing a 43" HD TV with a 65" 4K TV and I see no market to make it worth selling and if we are lucky someone we know will take it for free and pick it up so we don't have to deal with disposal. The thing still is fine, just too small and too low resolution to use as monitor. At work we still have 15" LCD screens around that maybe are 10+ years old. they are on all day - still look OK (or as good as a monitor looked like back then. I suspect not as fresh colors, but that wouldn't be a warranty case. Monitors just don't fail. An no normal person goes out of their way to hide the taskbar to save the monitor. Monitors are here to serve us and make our life better - not the other way around

You quoted my comment from a discussion about trucks in GERMANY.

You do know how a speed governor works? It limits the speed to 80 kmh in this case. So, yes, if the speed limit is below 80, you still can go 80 and technically speed. The speed governor isn't some smart device that limits to the speed limit, it limits to a specific speed. Maybe in the future they will be smarter and adjust to actual speed limit. They are technically not supposed to pass each other in such situations and often there are signs posted. It isn't the lack of a law, it is the lack of enforcement.

what do you define as truck? Not talking about pickup trucks. Real trucks. and what do you mean by speeding? Did you ever drive yourself there? I have many hours of annoying "Elefant races" of semi trucks. But never ever saw one significantly faster than 80 kmh. that governor really is enforced.

All large trucks have had speed governors for many years. Probably since the 1990s. Maximum speed is 80 km/h (around 50 mph). The overtaking you observe is based on the one governor being a bit off, or on a hill the one truck having more horsepower. So instead of going a steady 80kmh, it could be one truck goes up a hill with 79 km/h, while the other takes over with 81 km/h. Obviously this takes forever on a 2-lane per direction autobahn. I wouldn't call going 81 speeding when 80 is the limit. They really only can speed if there is a construction site with lower speed limit. So speeding itself is nearly impossible due to the speed governor. Outside the Autobahn, of course, they still can speed when the speed limit is below the governor setting. And there is a strict point system and little leniency. it is easy to lose the driver's license for a few months. So I doubt a professional driver that drives everyday speeds a lot above the threshold for getting points. Those Mercedes sprinters on the other hand... don't have governors and don't have the 80 km/h limit. So technically they also are not speeding.

+1 Except the GPU, the specs are lower than the old PCs I use just for Media PC to watch YT, Netflix on TV. If the GPU can do 4K, that is maybe what it could do. Someone who just browses and does some Word etc. could use it. Definitely not worth $250. And this is a PC for a noob. So any OS should be fully functional (activated). Someone smart enough to find a cheap key and activate, also is smart enough to see this system is not worth much. Hope you didn't pay actual $ for the hardware. Much is probably more a case for electronic recycling. If one part fails, you will have a hard time finding cheap repair parts for such old standard (DDR3 etc.) and a single part failure basically will mean they need to upgrade a lot. Of course, the target audience won't have that knowledge. And don't advertise hardware as "gaming" anything if it can't play anything remotely modern. That is mis-leading at best. If you find people needing replacement parts, you could part it out. but honestly, a small HDD, small SSD etc. are pretty much worthless and you have a hard time giving it away for free. No one wants to put valuable data on a used drive with unknown longevity. And outside someone just googling, they are too small.

I bet even under low load you want SOME airflow. It isn't only the chips with a heatsink and fan that need cooling, all capacitors, RAM etc. will need some cooling. Fans on low speed should be inaudible, if that is your concern. If they are not silent, there is a fan problem. Your PSU fan probably also always runs on a minimum speed. I don't know your board and software, but some don't allow zero flow for the reasons I stated. Fan motors also need a minimum voltage to start up or they could burn out if they draw some current, but don't move at all. So the designer might implemented a minimum voltage to make sure all fans start at minimum speed.

Most surplus auction places let you look at the merchandise in person or may be able to answer questions. The real question is, why do you want to bid on a CRT? Even if they still work, they basically are a liability for transport and disposal cost. In most cases they require 2 people to carry, a huge piece of furniture to put on and are tiny and have rotten picture quality. They also wear out, so the picture will look much worse than when it was new. And they are power suckers. You could buy any energy Star certified LED display and just from power savings you could pay for that.

You mean iOS also supports android apps and that is why it is a "must have" feature for W11? I can see how whattsapp could work better on a PC if you use it a lot. But AFAIK whattsapp is tied to a phone number. So that may or may not work. But this is a policy decision by FB, and they could enable browser operation of whattsapp. I read whattsapp is considering to allow use without phone. Home automation, you mean someone keeps the PC running 24/7 to run the HVAC system or surveillance cameras? But if it is a phone app, i assume it is severely limited due to the power requirements of the phone. A PC version could be much better due to the much larger power on a typical PC. and if you run your home HVAC or something else, I assume you want a dedicated machine anyway and that could have whatever OS the software needs. I see why users of this forum would see a good reason for Android support. But for the generic user (like me , it is a hard argument to make this is a killer feature. I for myself probably will use it if I build a new PC, but won't see a need to upgrade from W10 any time soon before W10 dies or MS forces an upgrade. Anyway, thanks for explaining.

I'm a noob... so this may be a stupid question. But why is android app support important to you guys? All the (useful to me) apps on my phone really only work with phone hardware or only make sense on a mobile device. My PC doesn't have (or need) GPS, accelerator sensors, etc. and that is what most apps use. The apps that don't require the phone hardware, or only make sense on a hand-held device, are easily available in a windows version (browser, mail etc.). I'm sure I'm totally missing something here.

I assume Tesla then owns chargepoint? Or is that some sort of promotional thing? Obviously someone has to pay for the infrastructure and the energy. Or is that part of the VW dieselgate settlement? I thought they were required to build a charger network...... The 0% and 100% is fuzzy since each car and battery manufacturer can set that to what they are comfortable with. They could only allow to charge up to 80% of what the battery physically can take, and tell you this is 100%. And they can let you discharge to 30% and call it 0%. IIRC some Teslas had the added range but the physically same battery like the standard range models. You can then buy an update to enable the remaining range without any actual physical change. During some hurricane in Florida Tesla also had enabled the added range to help people evacuate. I swear when our Bolts were new and were fully charged they showed a bit over 200 miles range left. and that was when I had my above range-anxiety story (that was way before COVID) and likely is overly optimistic. Now they show almost 270 miles range when fully charged. Maybe some update extended the battery range they use, or they want to fool people into thinking they have more range. We typically only drive ~50 miles a day, and that is a long day. So I will never find out the real range unless I have another rare long distance drive. But all the numbers they show don't seem realistic. I definitely would not feel comfortable going to the next charger 200 miles away if the Bolt tells me it has 270 miles left.

Free are only the Tesla chargers, no? And wasn't there some issue, that only the 1st owner gets the free charging? I thought they only did that some years back for the expensive Tesla, and not the newer cheaper ones (3 etc.). How much does it cost for a 3rd party charger that isn't subsidized by Tesla? Like $ per kWh? and can you just go to the charger with your credit card, or does it get paid through an app and you have to sign up? Honest question because I don't own an EV, and the actual cost of charging is a quiet topic. And I thought Tesla also has their own charging standard. Can you go to non-Tesla chargers? I forgot to mention about the Bolt: the distance estimates are OPTIMISTIC and don't seem to adapt to actual driving. i once drove an hour away and on the way back Google maps showed me miles left dropping slower than the Bolt showed me dropping range. I was abut 60 miles from home and the Bolt showed me 120 or so left. When i arrived, it was just at 20 miles left. So it used 100 miles for 60 miles. I already turned down the heat, and wondered if the battery has a secret reserve or what will happen when the Bolt shows me 0 miles left.... this definitely is a problem. if anything, the estimated miles left should be conservative and adjust to actual situation. I was driving with constant speed on the interstate, and there was enough time for the algorithm to correct. My gasoline car adjusts the mileage left based on driving style.

I didn't see the video.... just wanted to add that fast-charging is more a marketing thing to make you feel better abut long distance. Yes, you can fast charge at the nominal rate they tell you. But this heavily wears the batteries and should be avoided as much as possible. I don't remember the source, but I recall to have read Tesla et all actually reduce fast-charging speed after so many fast-charge cycles since they don't want the battery to degrade within the warranty period. Fast-charging is an option if you do it occasionally. But not frequently. Another gripe I have is the chargers don't seem to work like gas stations in that there is a sign (or google maps) that shows me what I pay for kWh. I assume a fast charger kWh will be more expensive than a slow charger kWh due to demand charges. but this isn't really advertised well. It also seems to me the chargers require some sort of app and/or membership. What I want is just a charger station that shows me "$ 0.3 / kWh" and I slide my credit card and get 20 kWh or so. An EV can make financial sense if I pay $0.15/kWh at home. But what does it cost at public chargers? BTW, we have about 20 Chevy Bolt at my work place. Terrific driving dynamic and I often accidentally squeal tires. I swear I never drive more than 1/4 throttle and think 200 hp is too much for such small FWD car. Low center-of-gravity and instant torque really makes this better to drive than my wife's BMW. Best part I think is not having shift points. But there is the thing with combusting batteries. They first reduced charging to 90% capacity, and now they have us park the cars outside. But at my workplace is only an underground garage with he chargers, so we got gasoline cars back till they resolve that. For my private car, I will wait to go EV till they get a bit cheaper, and more mature. For anyone wanting to know about EVs, and hybrids (and regular cars), I highly recommend WeberAuto YT channel Edit: from the above YT channel I take it the Bolt also has quite some maintenance. The 3 cooling loops have to be flushed every 5 years. Transaxle fluid also has to be changed. That is more than for my 8-year old gasoline Honda CRV and $-wise probably makes up for the oil changes. I don't know how that compares to Tesla et al. I also suspect the higher weight and torque will wear tires a bit more. On my gasoline car, tires are the most expensive maintenance item so far. So any added cost there will be felt. So it isn't the 0-maintennace people think. Have a look at the YT channel to see the details. EVs are surprisingly quite complex. And it looks like Tesla is at least 2-3 generations ahead and better of Chevy, which makes sense. Much better integration, cooling design etc.

Nothing smart about this. If you are handy, you could take a Bluetooth speaker and insert it in a fan. Besides the lack of a reason to do that, I see at least these problems: - if your BT speaker stops working (i.e. doesn't support future BT standards etc.) you need to replace the fan that would have lasted 30 years. - you need to somehow turn off the speaker or find a way to not connect to your phone when you use other BT devices or someone else uses the bathroom and doesn't want to listen to your music while you are next door. - instead of a good fan (silent etc.) and a good BT speaker (sound, good BT connection), you get a cheap fan and a cheap speaker. I use BT headphones all day long inc. the bathroom. Mainly because my family doesn't want to listen to my podcasts. If I want to listen to louder music while under the shower, I have a separate battery-BT speaker I can carry with me. That one I also can carry to my garage etc. I really don't see how that fan-speaker is better. Especially in a room I only spend 1% of my time.

You know, Walmart also sells regular brands in the store (and online). The Walmart-brands are just in addition. Like they have 5 brand-name cereals, and maybe 2 Walmart-brands. From a point who the seller (how to do returns etc.) is, it is all the same. So Walmart COULD sell a GPU as Walmart (in store, or online) without it being a special Walmart brand. Could be a regular Asus GPU etc. In the case the OP unearthed, they just chose not to and a 3rd party seller sells it. Walmart just takes a % or some other fee from the 3rd party and may, or may not, handle the shipping and creditcard processing for them. The 3rd party seller could a a one-man show, or a 20 person firm, or could be the manufacturer..... Amazon does the same, except they don't have the physical stores (yet). I wonder if some of the commenters ever went to Walmart. They are like Target or Costco or any of the other stores that sell a mixture of food and non-food everyday items. Branded, generic, and store-brands. And no one jumps out from behind the counter with a gun and forces yo to buy a specific product.

When you buy from Walmart online you can filter by vendor. I always only buy there when Walmart is the vendor since that means I can pick it up locally for free, or don't pay shipping. And I assume if I don't like the item, I can just return it locally no questions asked like any other item bought at Walmart. I never buy from 3rd party since those seemed to add shipping, and returns likely are iffy since Walmart likely won't process them. Understandably. Walmart just provides the marketplace for them. Like a shopping mall center that rents out the stores, but you deal only with the store and not the shopping mall owner. Prices are set by supply and demand. If the seller prices too high, no one will buy and they will lower the price till someone will. If someone buys the item at the listed price, the listed price was the market price since that is what someone was willing to pay. Robbery would not be a voluntary transaction. Selling at a high price woudl be a voluntary transaction since the buyer volunteers to buy the product. And we don't talk about a life-saving medication or other item where we could argue the buyer was forced to buy or die if they didn't buy.

I bet it is impossible (or at least impractical) to make an iGPU to be as powerful as a "real" GPU. There are thermal, electrical, space and RAM limits that all are resolved by using a separate graphics card. A CPU uses 100-200W, and then add the 200-300W for the GPU on the tiny die would require some really special cooling and power delivery. Even if they could make a CPU with a "good" iGPU, it would be hard to upgrade the GPU since that also requires CPU upgrade a the same time. And that CPU would then cost as much as a CPU and a dGPU combined and the user wouldn't have the economical choice to match a CPU to a GPU. And if you are a fanboy of intel or AMD, you would be forced to also pick their GPU. Once you get a decent CPU, you often can just upgrade the GPU when new games come out. If it is iGPU, you have to upgrade both (and possibly the board) The use for iGPU basically is regular PC work (office, browsing, Netflix) and older or non-graphics games. Someone who plays real graphics games, or does graphics productivity work, wouldn't be happy with the iGPU anyway.

When I compare prices, I never take a mail-in rebate into account. So if item A cost $100 and has a $10 mail in discount, I rather buy item B at $95. It is just a bonus to get the rebate at all to the already lowest price. IME, it takes them forever to honor the rebate, you have to mail it in and not forget. And the rebate may not be cash, but just some voucher. Or the company can just "lose" the rebate. Some of the rebates say it can take many months, and it often does. By that time I already forgot about it and may not even fight for it if they "forget" to send it. and it is a way for the manufacturer to get my address etc. I don't like discounts at all since they are scammy. Just reduce the price instead of inflating and then taking a % off. Discounts are just not an honest way to make inflated prices look lower.

I have to defend Newegg here. If they don't have the item in question, a refund really is the only thing they CAN do. Do you want to have them build a GPU out of clay? They are not a manufacturer, they are just a middle-person. And it seems they processed the RMA with no hassle. Only real complaint is that it seems to have been an open box or something. Be glad they didn't force you to buy their Gigabyte PSU along with your shuffle.

A high efficient PSU can be bad. But in general high-efficiency requires better components and produces less heat. So there is some correlation between efficiency and quality/longevity. Just not a causation. If the price difference between gold and platinum or titanium is worth it depends on how many hours you run it.