Thread for Linus Tech Tips Video Suggestions

[Spotty]

13 minutes ago, Saltyy said:

Was watching some YouTube, and came across this video: -
and a  brilliant Idea came to mind to prevent condensation when using the aircon to Cool a CPU.

Merged with the video suggestions thread.

[Saltyy]

19 minutes ago, Saltyy said:

HI All @LinusTech 

Was watching some YouTube, and came across this video: -
and a  brilliant Idea came to mind to prevent condensation when using the aircon to Cool a CPU.

Would LTT be interested in trying this out, and running the tubes through sealed holes into a Vacuum Chamber to where the  ,cooler is  mounted to the motherboard inside?
thus the coolant will flow through the copper tubes, to reach the motherboard inside , and back out to the external air conditioner, while not needing to insulate the motherboard, due to the "dry air" in the vacuum chamber?
Thus successfully mitigating condensation on the components inside the Vacuum chamber, and can cool away without a worry?

 

Thanks @Spotty for moving my suggestion to the correct thread, couldn't find this one lol

[rikkyl]

HI all, specially the LTT Labs team,

 

I have a suggestion to have a rundown of the best docking stations available for purchase, around 150£/$/Euro.

 

I'm currently struggling to find a suitable docking station with 100W support, DP 1.4, Ethernet etc. Would be handy to see what the Labs team would be able to find and test.

 

I think this would be an excellent video as well, as many may be struggling with this.

[ColtonMorrisOK]

Please do a video on aftermarket rear seat entertainment systems!

there seems to be some cool tech, but also a lot of crappy systems that use bad marketing techniques.

you could even make your own with some of the portable monitor tech, or just using some of the smaller standalone monitors, add in a raspberry pi or something else and create a small horde of media for traveling

[HTBean]

The Apple Newton video reminded me that you should see if you can find a Vadem Clio that's still operational: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadem_Clio 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadem_Clio#/media/File:Vadem-montage.png

 

I'm old enough to remember the Newton and the development of the range of PDA variants in the 90's. The Clio was developed in the late 90's, and was ahead of its time in terms of its form factor, but probably hamstrung by the OS (Windows CE) and the limited power of the hardware at the time. It had a touchscreen with stylus, handwriting recognition (if I recall correctly - it had "ink" at least), a small keyboard, and a range of basic Windows CE applications (e.g. a limited version of Word). But the most interesting was the "convertible" form factor - it could work in a "tablet mode", or a "laptop mode" or a "presentation/tent mode". They all worked fairly well and the screen position was highly adjustable. I don't think I saw that same form factor in laptops for at least 15 years after, 

 

I don't think the Clio did very well in the market - I bought a used one while in undergrad around 2000 or so for taking notes and it was already sketchy in terms of support. However, it was a robust unit that was surprisingly durable and lasted for quite a while for me. Sadly, I got rid of mine some years ago - if I still had it, I'd volunteer it for a video.

[Daniel-H212]

Maybe this is more of a labs topic, but I would love to see this in a video: has LTT considered testing for uninterruptible power supplies? Been looking to buy one to hook up to my NAS, and I find that I pretty much have to just trust the manufacturer's statements of their specifications. Would labs be able to get the equipment to test, for example, if these "true sine wave" UPS units really output a proper sine wave? Or say, that their runtime advertisements are correct?

 

There's also non-testing related information that could be useful to consumers as well, such as how to set up a home server to automatically shut down when the UPS detects a power outage longer than a few minutes. I'm sure APC or CyberPower would be willing to sponsor a video like that.

[CentreMetre]

Ive been looking into privacy positive/open source smart/fitness watches. I found one called bangle.js, the first one is discontinued but they have made a second one. Id love if there was a video on this or maybe a video looking at this vs other FOSS or even non-FOSS smart watches, and maybe talk about the privacy about it aswell.

[BeefSupreme]

On 9/4/2023 at 5:35 AM, rikkyl said:

HI all, specially the LTT Labs team,

 

I have a suggestion to have a rundown of the best docking stations available for purchase, around 150£/$/Euro.

 

I'm currently struggling to find a suitable docking station with 100W support, DP 1.4, Ethernet etc. Would be handy to see what the Labs team would be able to find and test.

 

I think this would be an excellent video as well, as many may be struggling with this.

This would be a great video idea! Docking stations are a nightmare and most people don't have the time or money to buy and test a ton of different ones to know which work better than others.

[HPV]

Hi LTT! 
 

Please make a video roasting Microsoft Sculpt Keaboard. It is permanently paired with a bulky USB stick, almost on purpose it feels. I broke mine and with no Bluetooth I have to buy a new. #Righttorepair!  
 

I could off course buy the Logitech ERGO K860, but I is too tall to have in my backpack. Also the Sculpt is a bit better for my hands. 
 

LTT - please make a video about this! They should add Bluetooth at a minimum. And it would also be nice to have backlit keys when paying this price. At least for the Caps lock button! 
 

Thank you! 

[StaSeb]

Hey LTT,

 

new account, just to drop my suggestion. But man, it is close to my heart so please hear me out. Yes?

Alright...

 

Silent PC Gaming - in the 2000s.

 

Man, what an era of PC hardware. PC parts were loud and we were used to it. PSUs with two whiny fans that ran 100% ot the time. Loudly wirring and cackling HDDs that vibrated our cases. Those tiny 40mm fans on our Motherboard-Chipsets that usually failed within two years just to grind away for the rest of its life. Noisy, primitive CPU coolers and GPU-coolers that are just not good. It says something that the today frowned upon blower style cooler was a welcome innovation back then.

Around the 2000s PCs were loud. But suddenly you could do something about that. Suddenly there were those 120mm-fans. And cases that supported them. And we learned: they transport more air with less noice. And those tower-coolers that are ubiquitous today just entered the market back then. You could upgrade your noisy little chipset-cooler with a passive model and there were lots of options to upgrade the cooler of your GPU. Even some crazy passive models that worked really well.

Off the shelf hardware was still not there. Today you can configure a nearly dead silent PC just from newegg and build it. Back then the community tinkered, tested and arrived to some really cool conclusions. I was a member of a silent hardware message board back then and slowly, project by project silenced my PC over some years. I got a new, fancy CPU cooler... the Aerocool GT-1000. An amazing thing. Back then with a bracket for the CPU since it was direct die contact and did I break a bit off my Athlon XP? Yes I did! Did It still mostly work? Yes, it did and I used it henceforth.  There were so many cool, innovative coolers back then. From the Zalman Flower- or Tube-coolers to the weirdly forward looking Thermaltake Sonic Tower. Remember those?

 

I got one of these puppys to put on my nforce 2 chipset. What an improvement!

I bought one of the first PSUs with a 120mm-fan off ebay. Unfortunatley it was an LC Power. It was hotly discussed in forums. Amazingly silent. Also prone to die. Of course mine died after about a year. And it made me a modder right then. Because I used the metal lid with the big fan and just put it on top of an Enermax-PSU that I removed the fans off. And it did fit! And I know now that I was in danger back then. Oh, well...

 

I got a new case. The legendary Chieftech Dragon. It could hold a 120mm-Exhaust-fan. An innovation back then. Still not the best airflow. But mine was a noise-treated model. Heavy like a tank. Satidfiyngly heavy. Impractically heavy. I loved it and it is still in use at a friends place. I used a dremel to put a hole in the bottom front of it. Airflow was bad back then and this kind of "speedhole" was common practise with some of the forum users back then.

 

For fans there was not really that much good stuff out there. Later on exciting new vendors from asia - shoutouts to Scythe and AeroCool - started offering good stuff. Arctic made a name for itself, especially when it came to GPU coolers. It was an exciting time to follow silent PC. I remember being part of a forum-wide order for some legendary fans. Orange Yate Loons 120. Sleeve bearing. Nothing special today. Back than the second coming of christ. Of course only with molex-connectors, but we had adapters for those (bad adapters from a tecnical point of view, but they worked!) to let them run at 7 or 5V. And that made them soooo good. Adjusting coolers was wild back then. I even had some little gadget - a PCB with fan headers, male and female, and a temp probe. Is was supposed to be mounted in the corner the the fan. On one of the screwholes, even had a 12V-start-kick and then regulated the fan speed based on air temps. How cool is that?! How obsolete too!

 

My GPU. A Geforce 6800LE had a noisy little fan. And damn, did I take care of it. With one of those new, wild passive-coolers for CPUs. Today those would not work anymore. That design is not enough to cool modern GPUs. But back then? You could buy several cool aftermarked-CPU-coolers, active and passive and they all were better. I loved the Aerocool VM-101 because of its clever design. It would loop the heat to cooling fans that sat on the back of your card. Such a clever design. Again, not feasable today anymore. But a joy to remember!

 

That brought me to my HDD. The last piece of the puzzle. I had a near silent PC, but if you did build one back then the biggest noise that remained was the HDD. Not only the access and seek clattering and clicking. Mostly its constant, high pitched spinning noise. There were some aftermarket HDD-Silencing cases. I still own one and can donate it to a video...

 

This is a scythe model. I have a similar one, I think. And it lived - decoupled from my case via some L-brackets and rubber nuts courtesy of some local stores. And I screwed it on the bottom of my case, over that air-hole.  That was amazing. Even more amazing. Our forum members developed their own homebrew "HDD silence graves". How? Take an old CD drive, gut it. Fill it with bitumen mats (used in car doors for sound dampening. Cheap via the internet. Very messy. And heavy). Use your HDD as a guide on how to build the layers. Cover the bitumen with aluminium tape, create a good fitting lid. Get some short adapters for Power and Data and bury your HDD in your homemade grave. The Bitumen Box! And oh boy... was that silent or what? The effect was absolutley stunning and I was the owner of a neat totally silent PC way, waaaay before silent hardware got easy. And I loved it. Loudest noise? My CRT Monitor. God, that was fun.

 

Well and my video idea is pretty much that. To recreate that journey. To rediscover all those innovative products, to follow their legacy, to compare those to current solutions. To hear the diference. I am sure you can easily get hardware for a time-correct-build and do a before and after. And measure the heck out of it. Maybe this is a bit too niche, too complicated to procure and shoot. But damn... I would be so happy to have an LTT-video explore this specific slice of PC hardware enthuisasm that more or less got lost today.

My forum back then? silenthardware.de? Offline. dirkvader.de - an amazing review-site for our community? Offline. Teschke.de - a community of even more obsessed tinkerers that made heatlanes (heatpipes big, flat brother that history forgot) and huge passive heatsinks their goal for total silent computing? Also offline. Man.. this is something that has hapenned. Its over and it is not easy for me to just let it go. I would like to see my excitement back then flare up one more time and maybe inspire or amuse a  new generation of PC hardware enthusiasts. Fuck. I am old.

Thanks for coming to my show and tell. Love you, guys!

 

Edit.: The "pitch us videos"-video-idea is also just out there. Up for grabs. May I nominate myself too? I can do a shitty powerpoint on that if need be!

 

[KingCharlesVI]

Is it possible to rip the internals from a laptop and put them in a midtower case? How does it perform (if at all)? Are there differences in performance among popular laptops when you do this? And, importantly, is it a viable build strategy (if it works at all)?

 

But most important is... our sponsor

[Mark1234567890]

Hi everyone,

 

I wanted to throw out a video series idea for the LTT team and see if it has any interest. I loved Alex's fasted Xbox sleeper PC video and would love to see a whole series revolving around fitting a PC in other consoles. Newer NUC computers would offer more options for smaller consoles than mini ITX. 3D printing and thermal management would be really interesting to see what the team come up with in this context. 

[quanperfect]

USB security key (USB 2FA devices)
Pros and cons, current reality of using them

[ilike9burgers]

Collab with Studpack on their house build. Don't often get to see smart home application on homes that are currently in construction and Jordan from Studpack has a lot of ideas for lighting, speakers, smart home appliances, etc on the project that he hinted at in previous videos. Would love to see you work with them to explore the possibilities.

[Kindablue]

I just got my Hummer EV SUT first edition.  Would make a great car review video. Has a lot of tech to talk about. 0-60 in 3 seconds, crab walk, WTF mode, extraction mode. Rear wheel steering, super cruise (autopilot),  Bose sound, kicker tailgate speakers, and lots more.

[DustPotato]

So Linus was talking about the Framework team finding old Mainboards, and selling them cheaper than they were originally.  It got me thinking, I have an old PC Tower case and wanted a cheap way to have mass storage.  I was curious to know if using one of the mainboards in that case and attaching mass storage, if it was a viable option instead of shelling out to build an entire new PC for mass storage.  Just something to think about.

[doots3]

People in the below reddit thread are suggesting different types of hardware to see where Starfield's bottlenecks actually lie. I think this is right up LTT's alley as you guys have some of the hardware to actually push this such as faster EPYC cpus and enough RAM that you could actually throw the game on a RAM disk. When you guys use big hardware on stuff like this it's always a fun watch for me, and the fact that Starfield is still hot & topical could pull enough attention in itself. Seems like easy views if it can be done quickly enough.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/16e9rqc/in_starfield_you_can_actually_be_disk_io_bound_at/jzv7crq/

 

[QuantumDonuts]

Liquid Metal cooling loop

 

Just to make it clear, I’m not talking about replacing thermal paste with gallium.

 

But actually filling a water cooling loop with Liquid Metal.

 

I have no idea if this is actually possible, but it would be cool (pun intended) if it works.

[JeanjacquesRousseau]

Strongly suggest testing out Huawei Mate 60/60 pro. This phone has already set off the Chinese social media because its SoC, Kirin 9000s, is China's first 7nm SoC, believed to be manufactured by SMIC's N+2 DUV technology. This is something very crucial to both the Sino-US tech war and China's tech industry. This is the first time Huawei manufactures its own 5G, high performance SoC under US sanction. 

According to Geekerwan, the SoC is also the first mobile arm-based CPU to have SMT (three of its mid-cores). The small cores resemble ARM-510, which is weird, while the other cores are based on Huawei's own Kunpeng arm-64 architecture for server CPUs. The GPU is also based on a new architecture, and the driver is incomplete, resulting in rendering errors in Genshin impact.

The CPU performance remain controversial, as the driver is still updating and some say Huawei is yet to release the support for some new Instruction sets (new architecture). Test from Geekerwan shows that the SoC is somewhere around Snapdragon 888. The CPU performs well at low frequency, getting even around the power efficiency of 8 gen2, while the CPU bottlenecks at higher frequency. The GPU is not supported by driver to complete a benchmark yet, but driver support is expected to be fixed quite soon. Several games have just supported the new GPU. 

The SoC also has 5G support. Very interestingly, Huawei does not say it's a 5G phone, and the 5G logo is hidden when 5G is connected. However, 4G icon would pop up when 5G is disabled, and internet speed tests have shown that it could easily reach a download speed of 1300-1500Mbps. 
To put it simply, the SoC is VERY VERY INTERESTING. Techinsights has been the first agency outside of China to test it, and I hope LTT to be the second to get one, and the first to release a fully detailed review of this chip.
The phone is currently available in mainland China. It's your time to get a Mate 60, @Andy!

Bloomberg: 

;

 

Some new reports: https://www.gizchina.com/2023/09/09/kirin-9000s-cpu-gpu-performance-breakdown-what-you-need-to-know/

https://www.techinsights.com/blog/techinsights-finds-smic-7nm-n2-huawei-mate-60-pro

 

Review from Geekerwan (English subtitle):

 

[ferzkopp]

How about some retro cold war era IT adventures: Obtain a used Robotron A 1715 computer from East Germany (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB_Robotron, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_1715) - luckily there is a complete unit available from a German eBay seller (https://www.ebay.de/itm/126063231542?hash=item1d59f44236:g:xO4AAOSwtgtk5eU4) - then try to get it to work, get SCP1700 running and maybe even play some games like "Ladder" or "Chess" (https://www.robotrontechnik.de/index.htm?/html/software/scp.htm). I wonder if the Russian gaming mouse could be made to work with it...

[RTXPAUDRA]

We all know that linus install a bunch of devices in his home, how about when all of the devices are installed, you guys make a video of how to do a home network security.

Like how to build and improve security for Home Network.

 

• Scenario 1 : This scenario illustrates what if someone has managed to infiltrate your home network from external network, what can they do if they are already inside the home network?
• Scenario 2 : This scenario illustrates how to build a secure home network with existing equipment such as existing software and firewalls and how to improve it.
• Scenario 3 : This scenario illustrates how to build a secure home network with additional equipment such as using more expensive security software.
• Scenario 4 : This scenario illustrates what if you already have the best network security system but hackers you don't know are in your house and already using your internal network (Wi-Fi/LAN).

 

[Vasboch]

Highly recommend revisiting eGPU's as thunderbolt is still being held back by PCI-e speeds and the display return channel quite a few people may be using. Recently learned that Apex Legends is one of many games to outright have problems when running on an eGPU without an external display out.  Frametimes above 300 ms when moving- in a movement shooter. Beyond that, applying the video to budget lan setups allow for people to stop thinking that you need a high powered tiny desktop for LAN parties. Think steam deck vs. older office laptop with thunderbolt & dock & gpu, vs budget gaming laptop.

[Soid]

Review/Evaluate those personal data deletion request services that seem to be all over youtube, such as DeleteMe (LTT Sponsor) 

[JediDwag]

Here are some interesting snake oil products if you're looking for more tech scams products to investigate.

https://esaverwatt.com/product-stopwatt.html

They have "energy savers" and a "fuel saver" that you plug into your wall or OBD port on your car to save up to 30% on your electricity bill.

The website is pretty polished and seems specifically designed to cater to old people, and the domain is registered through a proxy company, so they know they're being scumbags.

 

My first thought was the devices could potentially some sort of malicious listening device or something but that's probably not the case. But you don't know till you open one up and take a look. What would you do if you could trick people into plugging something into a power source in their house / car?

[SorryBella]

5 hours ago, JediDwag said:

But you don't know till you open one up and take a look

Most of the time its just a piece of LED. Not worthwhile for a video.