Experiences with non-techies

[Boink]

The standard for America is something like 110-120V.

America is 110V @ 60Hz many other countries use 220V @ 50Hz

[Godlygamer23]

America is 110V @ 60Hz many other countries use 220V @ 50Hz

Some outlets use 115V.

[DigitalHermit]

The standard for America is something like 110-120V.

 

 

America is 110V @ 60Hz many other countries use 220V @ 50Hz

 

 

Some outlets use 115V.

We own appliances from different parts of the world (thanks to import surplus shops) and the patterns are as such:

120V 60Hz or 240V 60Hz

I've only seen the 120V 60Hz on stuff from the USA... the rest use 240V...

Our system runs 220V 60Hz and there are no problems with running 240V appliances without a step-up transformer...

My mother did break a VHS player (120V) when she plugged it in without a transformer...

[Boink]

Some outlets use 115V.

The standard is technically 110V but some older outlets supply 120V. Because of this, manufacturers design for 115V so their devices can work on both voltages.

America is confusing...

[Jambls]

You people were close. Officially it is 230V but some people say it is 240V

 

 
We own appliances from different parts of the world (thanks to import surplus shops) and the patterns are as such:

120V 60Hz or 240V 60Hz

I've only seen the 120V 60Hz on stuff from the USA... the rest use 240V...

Our system runs 220V 60Hz and there are no problems with running 240V appliances without a step-up transformer...

My mother did break a VHS player (120V) when she plugged it in without a transformer...

Here in Britain, our electricity is 50hz, but it is 60hz basicly everywhere else.

[soup]

5A for the UK (and other 240v areas)

 

P(ower)= IV so P(ower)=5 X 240 = 1200 Watts

Mmm a small room heater takes, say, 1000W that leaves only 200 W for your telly, computer rig, charger for phone/tablet/WHY .  5Amps each socket is believable but 5Amps in total ,nah!

[Godlygamer23]

The standard is technically 110V but some older outlets supply 120V. Because of this, manufacturers design for 115V so their devices can work on both voltages.

America is confusing...

That's why I gave the range above, so while the standard might be 110V, we use outlets that range from 110-120V in a standard household.

[soup]

 Officially it is 230V but some people say it is 240V

 

Close but no cigar, actual UK voltage is :-

230 volts +10% - 6% (ie. between 216.2 volts and 253 volts)

[flibberdipper]

The standard is technically 110V but some older outlets supply 120V. Because of this, manufacturers design for 115V so their devices can work on both voltages.

America is confusing...

Tell me about it. Not to mention that (technically speaking) we have less efficient power. I would love to switch over to 230v.

 

Pretty sure my PSUs would like it too because #efficiencybitches.

[Norseman4]

The standard for America is something like 110-120V.

http://www.powerstream.com/cv.htm

 

Line voltage in North America is spec.ed at 120V with variations around the country from 114 to 127.

 

The EU is standardized at 230V with a 16% variation (207 - 243)

 

Some countries are standardized on both voltage ranges, with different plugs for each.

[Guest]

P(ower)= IV so P(ower)=5 X 240 = 1200 Watts

Mmm a small room heater takes, say, 1000W that leaves only 200 W for your telly, computer rig, charger for phone/tablet/WHY .  5Amps each socket is believable but 5Amps in total ,nah!

I wasn't thinking about a heater, you would need more for that, but for a average person's laptop and couple of lights and maybe a TV you could probably even get away with less. It's just when you have a heater or high-end PC that the power usage goes up.

EDIT: changed T to TV.

[robert1339]

A classmate of mine asked me if he could play GTA 5 on his laptop. His laptop was a laptop not really for gaming but for office programs (4gb ram, built in Intel Graphics and such). 

Here was the conversation:

Me: Very unlikely as you don't have a dedicated graphics card and gta v is very demanding
Him: But I have 4 GB ram

Me: I know but it really doesn't matter here

Him: But my friend said he has 4gb ram and he could run it. My laptop is better than his since I can run minecraft at 60fps

Me: K. *walked away*

[8enjicraf2]

3 minutes, to, 

 

 

 

DELETE 1 DAMN FILE!

[Ruostunut kokis]

I use programmable auto mode mostly... my subjects are too lazy to wait for me to tune my camera settings...

and it also saves on film....

That understandable. At least you know what setting does what and how. (I'm an aperture priority scrub myself... )

 

Nothing wrong with using automatic mode, just the fact that unfortunately many people who buy good cameras with an option to use manual controls (for example DSLRs and MILCs) only use auto mode and don't bother to learn anything.

[German_John]

Explaining RAM to people is always fun.

As I have posted before: desk analogy.

cache (don't do this, it confuses people) is the one item you have in your hand, or however much you can hold in them

RAM is what's lying around on your desk and you can just move your arms and grab. Bigger desk, put more stuff on it

HDD is a filing cabinet ten feet from your desk - get up, walk over, open, take what you need...

Getting an SSD is basically adding a drawer to your desk where you put stuff from the cabinet in and get to it much faster. 

[German_John]

Still a better value than a mac.

This confuses me so much. Most of the parts seem to actually be put together sensibly, nothing seems to be a huge bottleneck (after having looked at three systems, granted). Couples an i5 with a 970, a 5930k with a Titan X and an i3 with a 750. And even SSDs everywhere. And even good PSUs. It's just like he's just decided to charge twice what he should on most stuff... it's a ripoff, yes, but the systems themselves seem to be sensible, which is not always the case with these things.

[Speedbird]

As I have posted before: desk analogy.

cache (don't do this, it confuses people) is the one item you have in your hand, or however much you can hold in them

RAM is what's lying around on your desk and you can just move your arms and grab. Bigger desk, put more stuff on it

HDD is a filing cabinet ten feet from your desk - get up, walk over, open, take what you need...

Getting an SSD is basically adding a drawer to your desk where you put stuff from the cabinet in and get to it much faster. 

Why are you answering a question that is 3 weeks old and has been answered before several times?

[soup]

3 minutes to

 

DELETE 1 DAMN FILE!

 

Is that bad ?  Depends on the size of that one file surely.

A single word document  ~ worry.

A five hour video ~ no problem

[Speedbird]

Is that bad ?  Depends on the size of that one file surely.

A single word document  ~ worry.

A five hour video ~ no problem

It does not. Windows does not delete the file itself, it deletes entries in the flle system. There is one for each file, and it is always the same size.

[soup]

It does not. Windows does not delete the file itself, it deletes entries in the flle system. There is one for each file, and it is always the same size.

  

Fair one.  I took delete to mean actually delete it not just remove the entry in the file table so it would appear deleted.

[German_John]

Why are you answering a question that is 3 weeks old and has been answered before several times?

Why are people asking question that have been asked and answered months and months ago in the first place?

[NerdNinja]

My mother did break a VHS player (120V) when she plugged it in without a transformer...

 

I had a very long argument with my friend from Poland about this

 

This was about when I learned that other parts of the world used more than 110V, the way she described it was that you could use the same appliance, for example a coffee brewer from America that runs on 110V in Poland but on 220V. That's the way she explained it and I kept saying the coffee brewer would fry!

 

It was quite the back and forth battle until it got sorted out. She explained it wrong but then again english was not her first language.

[MDPS]

He might be confused between ddr3/4 and gddr3/5

Even GDDR doesn't matter too much. You could have a super old / terrible by today's standards card with 8GB of GDDR5 and it'd still be bad.

[Fgtfv567]

A classmate of mine asked me if he could play GTA 5 on his laptop. His laptop was a laptop not really for gaming but for office programs (4gb ram, built in Intel Graphics and such).

Here was the conversation:

Me: Very unlikely as you don't have a dedicated graphics card and gta v is very demanding

Him: But I have 4 GB ram

Me: I know but it really doesn't matter here

Him: But my friend said he has 4gb ram and he could run it. My laptop is better than his since I can run minecraft at 60fps

Me: K. *walked away*

You know how most prebuilt manufacturers keep touting their high end CPUs? He's the type of person they're appealing to

[VinsinityKT]

I sat next to this kid in my MATLAB class and we had to buy windows laptop to ensure everything worked well for our convenience. He said that apple were much better at gaming than pc. Now to get his specs straight he had the 2.5k Macbook pro with R9 M370X and a quad core i7 against the hp envy 2 in 1 with a 930m I believe and a dual core i7 with a mechanical hard drive. He just pulls out both his laptops and showed how slow windows was compared to his mac even though he had an ssd in the macbook so that's not even fair. I tried to explain to him that the GPUs, CPU and Storage was not comparable and it favored the mac and he responded with and that why apple is better at making laptops. And also he usually uses the windows laptop to torrent stuff and doesn't have anti virus software. It was funny when we were doing a test of some sort where the instructor would be watching you and giving me instructions on what to code. Some popup saying some severe system warning and repair now for 100 dollars and he kinda panic and had to retake it later for full credit because he couldn't get rid of it. A week later, he told me he got some guy to reinstall windows for him for like 20 dollars and got mcafee install and asked what anti virus I used and I told him I did not use any because I don't torrent shit and he told me i was stupid and my computer would die on me one day.