Database Users

Dualcore processor processing

Hi,
I was wondering if the 2 CPU's are working simultaneously together? or I'st just 1?., I'm using FLEXREAPER X10 ICS 4.0.3 . Sometimes I get screen glitches .... when My tab is trying to sleep and I touched the screen. Also...when I try the benchmark it only say's the CPU1 processing speed... & etc. Also when I'm browsing in the Playstore the screen animation is a bit lag... Can some1 enlighten me...or is there an app for this? than can force 2 cpu to work all the time together.?

Yes, both cores are enabled at all times. But no, you cannot make an application use both cores unless the application was designed to do so.

FLEXREAPER X10 ICS 4.0.3 base a leak rom ICS, not a stable rom, so it has some problems.

Your benchmark is correct.
There are NOT 2 CPU's. There is only one CPU, with 2 cores. It doesn't process two applications at once, it CAN process two threads of the same application at the same time. Think of it as this: two CPUs would be two people writing on different pieces of paper.A single CPU with two cores would be one person writing with both hands at the same time. He can only write on the same piece of paper, but it's faster then it would be if he was writing with only one hand.
Note: this is not related to multi-task. Multi-tasking works based on processing a little bit of each app at a time, so altough it may seen that both are running at the same time, it is not.
Most apps are not designed to work with threads though, so there's your (actually, our) problem. But this is not an A500 problem, it applies to any multi-core processor based devices ou there (including desktops).

danc135 said:
There are NOT 2 CPU's. There is only one CPU, with 2 cores
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Essentially true, but...
It doesn't process two applications at once
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False. Two cores is just two CPUs on the same die.

Thanks for the response guys... I'm getting bit confused with this "multi-core processor".... I was expecting that it is fast to no lag, during browsing apps in my lib,switching application, even browsing in The PlAYSTORE". So It's correct to say that multi-core processor is a bit of a waste if an app can't use it's full/all cores potential? Also if the UI of an OS can't use all cores at the same time?

Dual Core, Dual CPU....
Not entirely, because if the kernel is capable of multi-threading, then it can use one core to run services while another is running the main application. The UI is only another application running on top of the kernel...
The only difference between a dual core Intel cpu and a dual core tegra 2 is the instruction set and basic capabilities, otherwise they can be thought of as essentially the same animal. The kernel, which is the core of the OS, handles the multi-tasking, but android has limited multi-tasking capabilities for Applications. Even so, services that run in the background are less of a hindrance on a dual core cpu than a single core one, and more and more applications are being written to take advantage of multiple cores.
Just have a bunch of widgets running on your UI, and you are looking at multi-tasking and multi-threading. Which are both better on multi-core processors.

A multiple core cpu are not more then one processor stacked on one die. They thread and load balance thru software.Applications MUST BE AWARE Of multi core cpus to take advantage of the dual cores.
A multiple Processor computer has a 3rd processor chip on the main board. this chip balances the load on hardware. this does not add over head on the processors. as on a Dual multi CORE CHIP. has a much higher load overhead.
SO Many people confuse the two. This is due to how the companies market the muticore cpu devices .
So a application that can not thread itself on a multi core chip will run in one of the cpu cores. a threaded app can well guess?
a dual Processor computer can run non multi thread aware app or program on two cores..
Its quite simply complicated..

You can throw all the hardware you want at a system. In the end, if the software sucks (not multi-threaded, poorly optimized, bad at resource management, etc...), it's still going to perform bad.
Dual core doesn't mean it can run one applicaton at twice speed, it means that it can run two applications at full speed, given that they're not threaded. Android's largely meant to run one application foregrounded, and since they can't magically make every application multi-threaded, you won't be seeing the benefits of multiple cores as much as you will on a more traditional platform.
Also, a dual-core tegra 2 is good, but only in comparison to other ARM processors (and even then, it's starting to show its age.) It's going to perform poorly compared to a full x86 computer, even one that's older.

netham45 said:
You can throw all the hardware you want at a system. In the end, if the software sucks (not multi-threaded, poorly optimized, bad at resource management, etc...), it's still going to perform bad.
Dual core doesn't mean it can run one applicaton at twice speed, it means that it can run two applications at full speed, given that they're not threaded. Android's largely meant to run one application foregrounded, and since they can't magically make every application multi-threaded, you won't be seeing the benefits of multiple cores as much as you will on a more traditional platform.
Also, a dual-core tegra 2 is good, but only in comparison to other ARM processors (and even then, it's starting to show its age.) It's going to perform poorly compared to a full x86 computer, even one that's older.
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This is so true . With the exception of a TRUE Server dual OR Quad processor computer.. There is a special on board chip that will thread application calls to balance the load for non threaded programs and games..My first dual processor computer was a amd MP3000 back when dual cpu computers started to be within user price ranges. Most applications/programs did not multi thread .
And yes as far as computer speed and performance you will not gain any from this. but only will feel less lag when running several programs at once.a 2.8 ghz dual processor computer still runs at 2.8 not double that.

erica_renee said:
With the exception of a TRUE Server dual OR Quad processor computer.. There is a special on board chip that will thread application calls to balance the load for non threaded programs and games..
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Actually this is incorrect. All such decisions are left to the OS's own scheduler, for multiple reasons: the CPU cannot know what kind of tasks it is to run, what should be given priority under which conditions and so on, like e.g. on a desktop PC interactive, user-oriented and in-focus applications and tasks are usually given more priority than background-tasks, whereas on a server one either gives all tasks similar priority or handles tasks priorities based on task-grouping. Not to mention realtime operating system which have entirely different requirements altogether.
If it was left to the CPU the performance gains would be terribly limited and could not be adjusted for different kinds of tasks and even operating systems.
(Not that anyone cares, I just thought to pop in and rant a little...)

Self correction
I said a multi-core processor only runs threads from the same process. That is wrong (thanks to my Computer Architecture professor for misleading me). It can run multiple threads from different processes, which would constitute true parallel processing. It's just better to stick with same process threads because of shared memory within the processor. Every core has its own cache memory (level 1 caches), and shared, on-die level 2 caches.
It all depends on the OS scheduler, really.
With ICS (and future Android versions), I hope the scheduler will improve to get the best of multi-core.
In the end though, it won't matter if applications aren't multi-thread (much harder to code). What I mean is, performance will be better, but not as better as it could be if developers used a lot of multi-threading.
To answer hatyrei's question, yes, it is a waste, in the sense that it has too much untapped potential.

2012 Nexus 7 eMMC and DRAM Upgrade

Hi,
I'm a new member here and as you may be able to tell from the post's topic, I am contemplating an eMMC and DRAM chip swap on my 2012 Nexus 7 but before I start popping chips off from the motherboard, I would like to know if some developers here might know whether the existing (pre-)bootloader stages auto-detect DRAM row count to configure the Tegra3's memory controller. If not, I would need to find the source code for whichever stage handles the memory controller setup and find a way to update it, which brings my other question: is the source code for the MBR, uboot and fastboot stages available somewhere? Also, does a Nexus 7 hardware hacker here happen to know a convenient way to do a full raw eMMC dump, partition edit and re-image? At the moment, the only method I have found is to remove the eMMC chip and either wire it to an SD/MMC USB adapter or buy a $100-300 bed-of-nails eMMC programmer/tester. I obviously would much prefer an in-system method over having to pop the eMMC off each time I mess it up. Alternately, since SD and MMC controllers often support both standards, can the Tegra3 boot from SD connected in place of the eMMC?
I already own most necessary tools and supplies for doing BGA rework with a few more on their way. The biggest challenge there might be finding a suitable 32-64GiB eMMC chip to upgrade to since all the official distributors for major brands only sell in trays of 1000. For the DRAM, I plan to lift the chips from a $40 8GB DDR3L DIMM (16x 512Mx8 1600-11-11-11-23 chips) instead of buying individual ones at $8 each. Yes, I have a DRAM re-balling jig and related supplies.
Why bother with that extreme upgrade idea? Mainly because when I look at most tablets available today, I am severely disappointed to see there is still hardly anything significantly better than the 2012 N7 on the market under $250 CAN nearly four years later. If I could relatively easily bump it up to 2GiB RAM, that would make it a whole lot more usable and refreshing the eMMC with something that has a newer, faster controller will hopefully get rid of the high kernel CPU time spikes I see whenever mmcqd is active. With those two successful upgrades, I could imagine myself using my 2012 N7 for another 2-3 years.
I would have posted this in a more developer-oriented section but as a new member, that isn't an option.
Any thoughts, comments, questions or suggestions?
Thanks.

TeardownDan said:
Hi,
I'm a new member here and as you may be able to tell from the post's topic, I am contemplating an eMMC and DRAM chip swap on my 2012 Nexus 7 but before I start popping chips off from the motherboard, I would like to know if some developers here might know whether the existing (pre-)bootloader stages auto-detect DRAM row count to configure the Tegra3's memory controller. If not, I would need to find the source code for whichever stage handles the memory controller setup and find a way to update it, which brings my other question: is the source code for the MBR, uboot and fastboot stages available somewhere? Also, does a Nexus 7 hardware hacker here happen to know a convenient way to do a full raw eMMC dump, partition edit and re-image? At the moment, the only method I have found is to remove the eMMC chip and either wire it to an SD/MMC USB adapter or buy a $100-300 bed-of-nails eMMC programmer/tester. I obviously would much prefer an in-system method over having to pop the eMMC off each time I mess it up. Alternately, since SD and MMC controllers often support both standards, can the Tegra3 boot from SD connected in place of the eMMC?
I already own most necessary tools and supplies for doing BGA rework with a few more on their way. The biggest challenge there might be finding a suitable 32-64GiB eMMC chip to upgrade to since all the official distributors for major brands only sell in trays of 1000. For the DRAM, I plan to lift the chips from a $40 8GB DDR3L DIMM (16x 512Mx8 1600-11-11-11-23 chips) instead of buying individual ones at $8 each. Yes, I have a DRAM re-balling jig and related supplies.
Why bother with that extreme upgrade idea? Mainly because when I look at most tablets available today, I am severely disappointed to see there is still hardly anything significantly better than the 2012 N7 on the market under $250 CAN nearly four years later. If I could relatively easily bump it up to 2GiB RAM, that would make it a whole lot more usable and refreshing the eMMC with something that has a newer, faster controller will hopefully get rid of the high kernel CPU time spikes I see whenever mmcqd is active. With those two successful upgrades, I could imagine myself using my 2012 N7 for another 2-3 years.
I would have posted this in a more developer-oriented section but as a new member, that isn't an option.
Any thoughts, comments, questions or suggestions?
Thanks.
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I'm sory that I can't be much help but keep us updated with what you achieve! I don't know but fitting an N7 2013 logic board and hooking it up with the N7 2012 would be cheaper.

KawaiiAurora said:
I'm sory that I can't be much help but keep us updated with what you achieve! I don't know but fitting an N7 2013 logic board and hooking it up with the N7 2012 would be cheaper.
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The guts' layout is completely different with a different LCD and digitizer panel, so that would be impossible - or at least highly impractical. It would be much simpler to get and refurbish a 2013 N7.
I bought three 2013 Nexus 7 over the three months from launch and returned all three of them: the first one had chronic touch issues with a dozen crashes over the 10 days I owned it, the second one crashed a few times over the week I owned it, had backlight flicker and GPS didn't work (took minutes to lock) while the third one had chronic freeze/restart issues. Three bad devices out of three made me give up on owning the 2013 model. Back then, Google's Nexus forum was flooded with people having many of the same issues I had with some claiming they had to have their devices exchanged six or more times before getting one that seemed free of any obvious defects. And then you have the surge of premature eMMC failures that began in early 2015.
The 2013 was a great tablet when it worked correctly. Except my short-lived and highly unpleasant experiences with it completely ruined my confidence in the model, with more recent developments doing very little to improve it.

May have found one of my answers.
Just found this thread about nvflash and generating device-specific blobs to make devices "unbrickable":
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2455927
This appears to bypass the need for a bootloader but would the blobs remain valid even after an eMMC chip swap? Put another way: are the values used to generate the blobs related to anything on the eMMC, such as model, serial number, customer serial number, etc.?

I did some more preliminary reading and got the Tegra3 Reference Manual, read the memory controller section which said that A15 can be used as either an extra DRAM chip (rank) select or row address.
For my memory upgrade plan to work, I need A15 to be routed to the DRAM chips even if the original 2Gib chips do not use it. At first, I thought the DDR3 memory setup registers would guarantee that A15 would be there for configuration purpose but upon reading the spec for the original chip, it turned out that DDR3 only uses A0-14 for configuration purposes.
Does anybody happen to know if A15 is actually routed from the Tegra3 to DRAM chips on the motherboard? I'd like to avoid pulling a chip from the motherboard only to find out that it is either NC or GND.
Edit: Alternately, are there 32ki rows x 2kiB pages 4Gibits DRAMs out there? I checked a few manufacturers but all their 512Mi x 8 chips use 64ki rows x 1kiB pages DRAM bank structure.

Someone managed to upgrade his Nexus 5 from 16gb to 64gb — and not only that, upgraded the eMMC type from 4.5 to 5.0 so it writes and reads much faster.

Beginner's guide to building a PC: everything you know and don't already know!

When I saw the topic of a beginner's guide to building a PC, I jumped for it because I remember building my first PC. It actually wasn't nearly as long ago as you'd think. I also remember how clueless I was. Obviously, I know about everything that goes inside of a computer, but once I was faced with the task of putting all of that together, I was like a deer in headlights.
Prerequisites​Let's start off with a list of everything that you're going to need:
CPU
Thermal paste
Motherboard
CPU cooler
Case
Power supply
RAM
Storage
GPU (optional unless you have an Intel F-series processor)
An operating system
And then, of course, don't forget about the necessary peripherals:
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
Webcam
External peripherals are beyond the scope of this post, but take note of what you need, keeping in mind that the PC you're building doesn't have the built-in parts of an all-in-one PC, like a microphone, speakers, and a webcam.
How to get started or: Pick a CPU​First of all, and I cannot stress this enough, PCPartPicker is your friend. The site lets you plug in a list of parts that you're planning on using and it will tell you if there are any compatibility issues. It's super useful. In fact, even if you know that your parts should be good to go, run them through PCPartPicker anyway just to make sure.
The other key thing you need to do when getting started is to pick a CPU. This is an important first step because you're pretty much building out the PC around this choice. There aren't any motherboards that support both Intel and AMD CPUs.
Choosing between AMD and Intel (see, I didn't put the same company first twice in a row so you guys can't yell at me) is the first step. Once you do that, you can decide what kind of performance that you need. I wrote a guide to Intel CPUs and what the product names mean. With AMD, you have Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 9, and performance goes according to how high that number is. The same goes with Intel and the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9.
Intel has a bunch of different suffixes. If there isn't one, it's a standard 65W desktop processor, so something like a Core i5-11600 is pretty mainstream. Add a K and it's now a 125W processor that's unlocked for overclocking. And as mentioned above, an F means that it does not have integrated graphics, so you'll need a graphics card.
Pick a motherboard, or a case, or both​Next, you have to pick a motherboard and a case. I'm including both in this section because it's a matter of priorities. Do you want a case that fits your motherboard or a motherboard that fits your case? If you already know what case you want to use, start there and find motherboards that work. If not, start with a motherboard that has what you want.
First, let's cut your motherboard choices in half. If you're using AMD Ryzen, you need an AM4 socket. In you're using Intel 10th- or 11th-gen, you need an LGA 1200 socket. Note that with Intel, 12th-gen will use a new socket, so this is not upgradeable.
Next, you have to pick the size of your motherboard, and this is where compatibility with the case comes in. There's eATX, ATX, mATX, and mini-ITX, all in size order. This very much comes down to how big of a PC you want to build. Looking for something that's super-small and can hide behind your monitor? That's where mini-ITX comes in. Want something big and beefy that's going to have some serious power and thermals? Go for eATX.
When picking a case, it will tell you what size board it can fit. Obviously, the CPU, motherboard, and case choices go hand in hand.
Now that you've narrowed down your motherboard choices to the socket and the size, you're in good shape. It's time to start looking at ports, PCIe slots, and more. Make sure that you've got the ports to plug in what you need and the latest USB standard. Make sure you've got enough memory slots. A big one is the graphics card you want to use. Make sure there's room for it not only on the board, but in the case.
Pick a CPU cooler and thermal paste​Now, it's time to figure out how you're going to keep that CPU cool. Here's the bottom line. The more your CPU heats up, the worse the performance gets. The cooler you can keep it, the more it can sustain peak performance.
The first thing that you have to choose between is air cooling and liquid cooling, and there are pros and cons to each. Air coolers can be easier to install and more cost-effective, but if you want a good one, they take up a lot of space. Liquid cooling can be better if you plan on doing a lot of overclocking.
Personally, I'm a big fan of air coolers from Noctua. I use a Noctua NH-U12A, which is not only designed to be one of the best air coolers around, but it's quiet too.
So, after you decide if you want liquid or air cooling, you then have to looking at how cool it keeps the CPU and also how much noise it makes. That noise is important.
Then there's the thermal paste, which sits between the CPU and the CPU cooler. The more evenly it's applied, the better the cooling. Many CPU coolers, like the one I mentioned above from Noctua, come with thermal paste. You can always shop around though. A tube of thermal paste costs under $10, so using the best one there is should be an easy way to keep your CPU cool.
Pick a power supply and a GPU​As you can see, a lot of these parts go hand in hand. In fact, once you've put this all together, you'll find that they all go hand in hand. But we can't talk about the power supply without picking a GPU.
Picking a GPU is optional. Like I said, you might want a simple productivity machine with a Core i5 and integrated graphics. You also might want a gaming rig with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. And then there's everything in-between.
With that in mind, you need to pick a power supply. This is an area that you'd definitely be well-off to use PCPartPicker for. It will tell you the wattage of all of the parts you've picked so far, and then tell you if there are any compatibility issues with you pick a power supply. I'd suggest picking one with plenty of wattage to spare so you can upgrade down the line.
Another thing is that you should definitely get a modular PSU (power supply unit). That means that the power cables aren't attached to the PSU itself. You can add cables as you need to, and since you're a builder now, you're probably going to need to at some point.
The other thing that's important is efficiency. You'll see an 80 PLUS rating that can be Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Titanium. This is important, because it's based on how much power is lost due to heat.
RAM, storage, and OS​If you've made it this far, you're in good shape. This is the easy part.
With RAM, you want more, and you want faster. It's that simple. You can also look up how fast of memory your CPU supports and go for that. The same goes for storage. An M.2 SSD is the way to go if you can, but there are also SATA SSDs. You can get an HDD if you're on a really tight budget, but I don't recommend it.
As far as the OS goes, it's between Windows and Linux. Windows costs money; Linux doesn't. I'm not really here to tell you which one you should go for.
Putting it all together​Alright, you've got all of your parts and you're ready to build your dream PC! It's the second-most exciting feeling behind the first boot.
Most of this is going to be about plugging things in where they fit, but sadly, it's not that simple. You need to start working through the manuals that came with your motherboard and your case. Those are going to tell you exactly what to plug in where, and most of it is fairly straightforward. There are few things that will actually break if you do them wrong.
The one thing that will break if you do it wrong is installing the CPU in the motherboard. It's important not to apply any unnecessary pressure when doing this because you could bend the pins on the chip or the board (depending on who made the CPU). Damage one of those and you've got some very expensive paperweights very quickly. To be clear, there's nothing to be afraid of here and it's very easy to do. Practice some healthy caution and you'll be fine.
Installing the motherboard in the case is something you'll need to follow instructions to do, which is fine, as it's easy enough. Once it's screwed into place, there will be several cables in the case that have to plug into the board. These will be for fans built into the case, for additional USB ports, and so on.
The other thing you'll have to install in the case is the PSU. Read the instructions and make sure the fan in the PSU is facing the right way. This is not something that you want to do incorrectly. There are a few cables to plug into the case and the board. Once the GPU is installed, you'll have to plug that in too.
Next, you'll probably be installing the CPU cooler. Make sure to apply thermal paste before you do. A pea-sized dot right in the middle of the CPU will do it. Do your best to bring the cooler directly down on the CPU, rather than doing it from an angle. This will spread it evenly across the chip.
Obviously, the graphics card, the storage, and RAM can fit into their respective slot. Note that for most boards, if you have four RAM slots and you only have two RAM sticks, you're better off separating them by one slot for dual-channel memory.
Once that's all done, you should be ready to plug it in and boot it up. You might not want to close the case on first-run, so you can make sure all of the fans are spinning. You can plug your USB drive with the OS into a USB port and boot into it to install the operating system.
Something went wrong!​Well, you've made it this far and now something doesn't work. Isn't that always the way it goes?
The most common problem is probably that you pressed the power button and nothing happened. After all, if the thing that went wrong is that you broke something, you should just buy a new one.
If it's not booting, now it's time to start checking cables. Make sure that everything is plugged in securely, particularly the CPU cooler. Make sure that the PSU cables are plugged in at both ends. If there were any steps you weren't sure about, such as if you plugged something in in the right spot, revisit it.
If you just can't figure it out, come back here and ask for help.

Question @therichwoods --- I'm an extremely heavy user of Chrome. I'm talking dozens of tabs open at all times in multiple windows. I assume I'm going to want to maximize my RAM to take full advantage? Or is CPU/GPU also important in my case?

svetius said:
Question @therichwoods --- I'm an extremely heavy user of Chrome. I'm talking dozens of tabs open at all times in multiple windows. I assume I'm going to want to maximize my RAM to take full advantage? Or is CPU/GPU also important in my case?
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TBH CPU is always important. But RAM should definitely be a priority.

Hi
Just upgraded my complete system from an AMD FX8350 with 32gb Ram to a Ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb ram. Currently using my old HD7870 Graphics cards in Crossfire but as these are now nine years old am looking to upgrade to a more recent card(s) bearing in mind that I am a pensioner and it has taken me a year to gather new, system, what would you recommend in Graphics cards for this build.
Motherboard is an MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max, Ram is Corsair DDR4 2666 4x8Gb. TIA

Stransky said:
Hi
Just upgraded my complete system from an AMD FX8350 with 32gb Ram to a Ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb ram. Currently using my old HD7870 Graphics cards in Crossfire but as these are now nine years old am looking to upgrade to a more recent card(s) bearing in mind that I am a pensioner and it has taken me a year to gather new, system, what would you recommend in Graphics cards for this build.
Motherboard is an MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max, Ram is Corsair DDR4 2666 4x8Gb. TIA
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Click to collapse
That really depends what you want to do with your graphics card. Looking for a GTX1060/1660 might be a good idea, I had the latter one and you can play a lot of recent games in high settings with your ryzen.
Keep in mind buying a graphics card nowadays is REALLY expensive, even used ones, when you can get one. New ones are sold over the recommended manufacturer prices due to the mining scene and Corona!

Stransky said:
Hi
Just upgraded my complete system from an AMD FX8350 with 32gb Ram to a Ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb ram. Currently using my old HD7870 Graphics cards in Crossfire but as these are now nine years old am looking to upgrade to a more recent card(s) bearing in mind that I am a pensioner and it has taken me a year to gather new, system, what would you recommend in Graphics cards for this build.
Motherboard is an MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max, Ram is Corsair DDR4 2666 4x8Gb. TIA
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Click to collapse
You should've opted for ram with xmp since ryzen benefit the most from faster ram. I'm currently using aorus 3200mhz 2x8gb kit with xmp enabled and it's better compared to it's stock settings.

Insanenity said:
You should've opted for ram with xmp since ryzen benefit the most from faster ram. I'm currently using aorus 3200mhz 2x8gb kit with xmp enabled and it's better compared to it's stock settings.
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What's XMP?

svetius said:
What's XMP?
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XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) is a technology that allows you to change memory settings by selecting a different profile, which takes advantage of higher than standard memory speeds. Simply stated, XMP is the "easy button" of RAM overclocking, as manual RAM overclocking can be an unnecessary headache!

svetius said:
What's XMP?
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RAM over 2400Mhz is overclocked. X.M.P is just a system to overclock your ram. It's standard now. Personally I wouldn't bother with anything over 3600Mhz as it gets too pricey for the performance. Go no lower than 2666, try for 3200 (this tends to be the cheaper one anyways). I believe you will need to enable X.M.P in your uefi when you install it otherwise you'll just be running 2400. Like Insanenity said, it's just a 1 click setup so there's no fuss.
If you're not focused on gaming; while 16GB is fine, if you find a 32GB kit in your budget than definitely get it. Get a fair CPU with over 6 cores. (so ryzen).
LTT just did a video on something that might interest you.
This could be a good option for your productivity build as it's bang for buck. But if you have the budget for R7 5000's than just go for that.
Tldr: Chrome is a ram and cpu whore, use firefox...
I'm kidding, invest in CPU and RAM more than others if chrome is your concern.
p.s. Feel free to ask questions

strongst said:
That really depends what you want to do with your graphics card. Looking for a GTX1060/1660 might be a good idea, I had the latter one and you can play a lot of recent games in high settings with your ryzen.
Keep in mind buying a graphics card nowadays is REALLY expensive, even used ones, when you can get one. New ones are sold over the recommended manufacturer prices due to the mining scene and Corona!
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Thanks for the reply. Will just have to hang on to Current cards and hope prices drop in the near future on the GTX 1060/1660 cards. Too expensive for me ATM even second hand

Stransky said:
Thanks for the reply. Will just have to hang on to Current cards and hope prices drop in the near future on the GTX 1060/1660 cards. Too expensive for me ATM even second hand
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Yeah, unfortunately the prices are beyond the reality... If the bitcoin hype decreases, there might be a chance back to reality

strongst said:
Yeah, unfortunately the prices are beyond the reality... If the bitcoin hype decreases, there might be a chance back to reality
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I just caught a news story headline that 30-Series cards will be available in stores, soon at reasonable prices soon - as BTC drops below 30K this morning....

HipKat said:
I just caught a news story headline that 30-Series cards will be available in stores, soon at reasonable prices soon - as BTC drops below 30K this morning....
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Luckily I got my 3060TI in 2020 for a low price, now it costs 50-80% more

strongst said:
Luckily I got my 3060TI in 2020 for a low price, now it costs 50-80% more
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I looked and Best Buy has it for $399. Less than I paid for my 1080 2 years ago

HipKat said:
I looked and Best Buy has it for $399. Less than I paid for my 1080 2 years ago
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In stock for 399? Surely out of stock, otherwise it must be a mistake Sounds like the MSRP for the Founders Edition.

strongst said:
In stock for 399? Surely out of stock, otherwise it must be a mistake Sounds like the MSRP for the Founders Edition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll go look again when I get a break, but I'm pretty sure you're correct about it being the founders edition

My PC, any idea on what to update next ?

Hey, here are the specs of my current desktop. I bought it back in June 2018, and since only added more ram and an HDD, also most of my peripherals.
Specs :
CPU : Intel i5 8400
CPU cooler : Be quiet, I don't know what exactly
RAM : 16 GB Dual-Channel "DDR4 Ballistix" @ 1366MHz --> 2 at 2400MHz and 2 at 2666MHz each 4096 MB
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
GPU : 3071 MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (EVGA)
Storage : - 232 GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 250 GB (SATA (SSD))
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
Power supply : I don't know, but I remember it being good 500-650W, 80+Gold, I think.
I want it to be better, any ideas on what should I update first ?

Noe367 said:
Hey, here are the specs of my current desktop. I bought it back in June 2018, and since only added more ram and an HDD, also most of my peripherals.
Specs :
CPU : Intel i5 8400
CPU cooler : Be quiet, I don't know what exactly
RAM : 16 GB Dual-Channel "DDR4 Ballistix" @ 1366MHz --> 2 at 2400MHz and 2 at 2666MHz each 4096 MB
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
GPU : 3071 MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (EVGA)
Storage : - 232 GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 250 GB (SATA (SSD))
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
Power supply : I don't know, but I remember it being good 500-650W, 80+Gold, I think.
I want it to be better, any ideas on what should I update first ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a bad system in any way! The question is, in which application should your PC be better? A game? Video rendering?
And What is your resulution of your monitor(s) where your GTX1060 has to deal with?

strongst said:
That's not a bad system in any way! The question is, in which application should your PC be better? A game? Video rendering?
And What is your resulution of your monitor(s) where your GTX1060 has to deal with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mostly play game, but also use a lot of cpu in others programs, so the CPU is often at 100% because of the types of games and multitasking, the GPU is also often overused, but it can be changed by reducing in game graphics but a bit annoying. Also, I have two monitors, one 2560*1440 @ 144Hz and the other is 1920*1080 @ 75Hz. I know right now GPU are a bit expensive, but if I want to change CPU I will most probably have to change the motherboard too.

Noe367 said:
I mostly play game, but also use a lot of cpu in others programs, so the CPU is often at 100% because of the types of games and multitasking, the GPU is also often overused, but it can be changed by reducing in game graphics but a bit annoying. Also, I have two monitors, one 2560*1440 @ 144Hz and the other is 1920*1080 @ 75Hz. I know right now GPU are a bit expensive, but if I want to change CPU I will most probably have to change the motherboard too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the 1060 can't handle >1080p gaming at 144hz good, that's the main part you should update. You can check my Ryzen build here where I'm using similar resolutions for the monitors.
The 3060ti might be a good choice. I don't talk about the current prices at all, you know...
You can update to an i9-9900k which is ~30% faster than yours. But your processor isn't that bad, it might be more the lot of multiple tasks where you should think about more cores (10/16) in general

If you have more available bandwidth and ports consider adding more drives for the OS.
Depending on the Intel firmware there may be some interesting Raid options.
Explore your page file/drive options as well.
Just make sure to clone the OS drive for easy restore, clone before installing antivirus apps.
Keep the data off the OS drive, just apps.
Never clone data drives; copy only! Cloning media files can cause you to lose needed null marks.

strongst said:
Yeah, the 1060 can't handle >1080p gaming at 144hz good, that's the main part you should update. You can check my Ryzen build here where I'm using similar resolutions for the monitors.
The 3060ti might be a good choice. I don't talk about the current prices at all, you know...
You can update to an i9-9900k which is ~30% faster than yours. But your processor isn't that bad, it might be more the lot of multiple tasks where you should think about more cores (10/16) in general
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot ! Very useful

blackhawk said:
If you have more available bandwidth and ports consider adding more drives for the OS.
Depending on the Intel firmware there may be some interesting Raid options.
Explore your page file/drive options as well.
Just make sure to clone the OS drive for easy restore, clone before installing antivirus apps.
Keep the data off the OS drive, just apps.
Never clone data drives; copy only! Cloning media files can cause you to lose needed null marks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might buy a .m2 drive

Noe367 said:
I might buy a .m2 drive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I not up to date at all on the new mobos and drives... I run dinosaurs
ID your bottlenecks.
Research it thoroughly, even then it will be by trial and error.
Playing with the page file (maybe adding another fast dedicated drive) may yield good results with minimal expense/effort.

blackhawk said:
I not up to date at all on the new mobos and drives... I run dinosaurs
ID your bottlenecks.
Research it thoroughly, even then it will be by trial and error.
Playing with the page file (maybe adding another fast dedicated drive) may yield good results with minimal expense/effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, thanks !!

Noe367 said:
I mostly play game, but also use a lot of cpu in others programs, so the CPU is often at 100% because of the types of games and multitasking, the GPU is also often overused, but it can be changed by reducing in game graphics but a bit annoying. Also, I have two monitors, one 2560*1440 @ 144Hz and the other is 1920*1080 @ 75Hz. I know right now GPU are a bit expensive, but if I want to change CPU I will most probably have to change the motherboard too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go for a mobo with all solid state caps and preferably no electrolytics which invariably fail with age.
Gigabyte has been making all solid state mobos for over a dozen years.

blackhawk said:
Go for a mobo with all solid state caps and preferably no electrolytics which invariably fail with age.
Gigabyte has been making all solid state mobos for over a dozen years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, thank you, very helpful

Noe367 said:
Again, thank you
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Click to collapse
You're welcome.
Don't skip on the power supply*. Get the best you can find. A failed supply can be a real pain to troubleshoot.
Make sure it's minimum rated output supports your devices on that rail. Probably not an issue but be aware of it.
Most importantly make sure you have lots of head room on all the supply rails especially the lower voltage ones. Leave room for expansion.
Overrate by at least 20% of expected maximum surge demand for all rails.
Look closely at build quality. Does it look well built using epoxy PCBs and heavy wires?
A clean, neat layout?
Quality fans and excellent ventilation that conform to your case layout/venting needs?
Enough direct outputs to minimize preferably eliminate daisy chaining?
Long enough for the mobo and graphics card?
Note the exit point for cables, do they integrate well with your case design/layout?
Fun times
*a good case is a joy to work with and helps to protect your investment.

blackhawk said:
You're welcome.
Don't skip on the power supply*. Get the best you can find. A failed supply can be a real pain to troubleshoot.
Make sure it's minimum rated output supports your devices on that rail. Probably not an issue but be aware of it.
Most importantly make sure you have lots of head room on all the supply rails especially the lower voltage ones. Leave room for expansion.
Overrate by at least 20% of expected maximum surge demand for all rails.
Look closely at build quality. Does it look well built using epoxy PCBs and heavy wires?
A clean, neat layout?
Quality fans and excellent ventilation that conform to your case layout/venting needs?
Enough direct outputs to minimize preferably eliminate daisy chaining?
Long enough for the mobo and graphics card?
Note the exit point for cables, do they integrate well with your case design/layout?
Fun times
*a good case is a joy to work with and helps to protect your investment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome !

This beast or similar. The power supply goes on the bottom.
Amazon.com: Antec P101 Silent Performance Series Mid-Tower PC Computer Case with Sound Dampening Panels, 4 X 120/140mm Cooling Fans Pre-Installed : Everything Else
Buy Antec P101 Silent Performance Series Mid-Tower PC Computer Case with Sound Dampening Panels, 4 X 120/140mm Cooling Fans Pre-Installed: Everything Else - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com

First of all, I don't want to offend anybody that has commented their suggestions already, but in my opinion most of the replies are pretty lackluster to say the least.
Now, I saw you mentioned that you mostly play games on your PC. I'd say your CPU is still perfectly fine for most modem games, the GPU is another story though. While the standard 1060 is still a decent card, your version only has 3 GB of VRAM. This is becoming more and more of a problem in modern titles and you should consider upgrading, I'd say at least to a 6 GB 1060. Of course, the current market is awful and you shouldn't spend too much money on that old of a GPU, but if you can find one at a decent price, it might be worth a buy.
Other than that, your system is pretty well specced out in my opinion, you might want to sort out that RAM situation and get a matching kit of DDR4 at a decent clock speed, your description seems a bit all over the place in that regard. 16 GB of RAM is still perfectly fine, I wouldn't recommend a capacity upgrade, but matching sticks with matching speeds can do wonders.
Furthermore, I'd consider a bigger SSD, but your current storage configuration should provide enough space and as long as the OS is located on the SSD performance shouldn't be too bad either.
Finally, whatever you do, getting a 9900k, like somebody suggested, is a bad idea in my opinion. If you don't want to do any serious overclocking or have to do **very** CPU-intensive tasks, your 8400 should still hold up well. If you go for a 9900k you might as well build a new system because you're probably gonna need a new motherboard, CPU Cooler and definitely a GPU upgrade so the 9900k doesn't have to live in bottleneck hell. Incase you absolutely want to upgrade the CPU, I'd say go for an i7 of the 8th generation, as you'll be able to expect better performance than from your i5 thanks to multithreading while not having to upgrade any others parts mentioned above.
So, to conclude: You should upgrade your GPU. Go for something like the 6 GB 1060 or better. Search around on the internet for GPUs that work well with your processor. Maybe get some matching RAM. If you still have money to spend, a bigger SSD might make everything a bit snappier. I wouldn't consider upgrading the CPU.
And, a last final note: Make sure you don't exceed your PSU's wattage, definitely check before buying any upgrades.

littlegamer757 said:
First of all, I don't want to offend anybody that has commented their suggestions already, but in my opinion most of the replies are pretty lackluster to say the least.
Now, I saw you mentioned that you mostly play games on your PC. I'd say your CPU is still perfectly fine for most modem games, the GPU is another story though. While the standard 1060 is still a decent card, your version only has 3 GB of VRAM. This is becoming more and more of a problem in modern titles and you should consider upgrading, I'd say at least to a 6 GB 1060. Of course, the current market is awful and you shouldn't spend too much money on that old of a GPU, but if you can find one at a decent price, it might be worth a buy.
Other than that, your system is pretty well specced out in my opinion, you might want to sort out that RAM situation and get a matching kit of DDR4 at a decent clock speed, your description seems a bit all over the place in that regard. 16 GB of RAM is still perfectly fine, I wouldn't recommend a capacity upgrade, but matching sticks with matching speeds can do wonders.
Furthermore, I'd consider a bigger SSD, but your current storage configuration should provide enough space and as long as the OS is located on the SSD performance shouldn't be too bad either.
Finally, whatever you do, getting a 9900k, like somebody suggested, is a bad idea in my opinion. If you don't want to do any serious overclocking or have to do **very** CPU-intensive tasks, your 8400 should still hold up well. If you go for a 9900k you might as well build a new system because you're probably gonna need a new motherboard, CPU Cooler and definitely a GPU upgrade so the 9900k doesn't have to live in bottleneck hell. Incase you absolutely want to upgrade the CPU, I'd say go for an i7 of the 8th generation, as you'll be able to expect better performance than from your i5 thanks to multithreading while not having to upgrade any others parts mentioned above.
So, to conclude: You should upgrade your GPU. Go for something like the 6 GB 1060 or better. Search around on the internet for GPUs that work well with your processor. Maybe get some matching RAM. If you still have money to spend, a bigger SSD might make everything a bit snappier. I wouldn't consider upgrading the CPU.
And, a last final note: Make sure you don't exceed your PSU's wattage, definitely check before buying any upgrades.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, now I have the choice and many opinions to make my own choice

blackhawk said:
This beast or similar. The power supply goes on the bottom.
Amazon.com: Antec P101 Silent Performance Series Mid-Tower PC Computer Case with Sound Dampening Panels, 4 X 120/140mm Cooling Fans Pre-Installed : Everything Else
Buy Antec P101 Silent Performance Series Mid-Tower PC Computer Case with Sound Dampening Panels, 4 X 120/140mm Cooling Fans Pre-Installed: Everything Else - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an In Win, this is fine for me, for the moment. Will also see that !

Noe367 said:
I have an In Win, this is fine for me, for the moment. Will also see that !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a real clean layout. Power harnesses run behind a steel inner panel for better shielding, out of sight and out of the way.
Plenty of cooling with the ability to expand cooling if needed. It's solid and heavy.
Antec cases come with a parts manifest as well.

blackhawk said:
It's a real clean layout. Power harnesses run behind a steel inner panel for better shielding, out of sight and out of the way.
Plenty of cooling with the ability to expand cooling if needed. It's solid and heavy.
Antec cases come with a parts manifest as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh cool, will look into that when needed !

Noe367 said:
Hey, here are the specs of my current desktop. I bought it back in June 2018, and since only added more ram and an HDD, also most of my peripherals.
Specs :
CPU : Intel i5 8400
CPU cooler : Be quiet, I don't know what exactly
RAM : 16 GB Dual-Channel "DDR4 Ballistix" @ 1366MHz --> 2 at 2400MHz and 2 at 2666MHz each 4096 MB
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING
GPU : 3071 MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (EVGA)
Storage : - 232 GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 250 GB (SATA (SSD))
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
- 931 GB Seagate ST1000DM010-2EP102 (SATA)
Power supply : I don't know, but I remember it being good 500-650W, 80+Gold, I think.
I want it to be better, any ideas on what should I update first ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gaming wise, GPU should be a priority
multi-tasking wise, buy the newest intel gen 10 or 11 also you can opt for AMD
Core i5 11th gen is a wise option
ryzen 5 3600 still good too
you'll need cpu and motherboard too

Suggestions for upgrading laptop hardware to use from 3 to 5 years

Hi everyone,
Currently, I am using ASUS K53SD laptop for video editing and photoshop but now my computer is showing slowness, and now don't have enough money to buy a new computer so I hope you guys can give me some advice. some suggestions to upgrade the hardware are that the price is most reasonable.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i5 - 2450M
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1TB
VGA: Intel HD Graphic 3000 + Nvidia Geforce 610M
WLAN: Atheros AR5B195
Thank you!

I believe your first, best, and maybe only option is to replace the old HDD with a new SSD of similar capacity depending on your budget/needs. The speed increase of the SSD should be quite noticeable from the time it takes your computer to boot to the read/write times of your editing. I would start there.

elbonnor said:
I believe your first, best, and maybe only option is to replace the old HDD with a new SSD of similar capacity depending on your budget/needs. The speed increase of the SSD should be quite noticeable from the time it takes your computer to boot to the read/write times of your editing. I would start there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's a great idea. can you tell me if this machine can get 16GB Ram because I do video editing is quite heavy and can you recommend a wifi card that supports Bluetooth 4.0 because I will use it with AirPods and a wireless mouse?

An increase of RAM would have been my first or next suggestion but a quick Google search of your laptap told me the max RAM your laptop will accept is only 8GB ...As far as the wifi cards, I cannot say but I would suggest an external USB dongle for such things as Bluetooth and wifi in a laptop such as yours. If compatible.

trieuanh.07 said:
Hi everyone,
Currently, I am using ASUS K53SD laptop for video editing and photoshop but now my computer is showing slowness, and now don't have enough money to buy a new computer so I hope you guys can give me some advice. some suggestions to upgrade the hardware are that the price is most reasonable.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i5 - 2450M
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1TB
VGA: Intel HD Graphic 3000 + Nvidia Geforce 610M
WLAN: Atheros AR5B195
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because the specs state that the max RAM supported is 8GB doesn't mean it can't use more, especially if the CPU you have has microcoding to support more than the overall system specs stated by the manufacturer. I had a Dell inspiron N5110 laptop that I upgraded the CPU to a hyper threaded quad core and upgraded the RAM to 16GB of Gskill RAM even though the specs said it would only support 8GB, it used the full 16GB with no issue.
Upgrade your RAM to 16GB of RAM that is at least the next step in mhz and install a SSD, the larger it is, the faster it will be.
If your CPU is socketed and can be upgraded, upgrade the CPU as well, if your laptop has a CPU that is soldered to the board, you can't upgrade the CPU, most laptops have soldered CPU.
elbonnor said:
An increase of RAM would have been my first or next suggestion but a quick Google search of your laptap told me the max RAM your laptop will accept is only 8GB ...As far as the wifi cards, I cannot say but I would suggest an external USB dongle for such things as Bluetooth and wifi in a laptop such as yours. If compatible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That uses old i5 cpu ...it is a 47ish watt so got to stay in that realm. ASus should have a compatibility matrix for that series .. Every laptop manufacture used a similar build. Lenovo. Dell and others... I am working on 3 lenovo⁸ to replace broken screens. So I sourcing screens can get a HD from better model and I can even go to an 8th generation i7 6700mx from a i3.. replacing mem so I will have 16gb not 4gm...
Buy part laptops of ebay...40 to 100 buks...or I going to use the phones I have w broken screens into my new kali and steam game machines for niece an nephew..
I can tell say the older laptops like yours may be a socket....look up pics for your motherboard on asus ebay..hell thay may be even listed..Asus runs with Dell.. so look for Dell latitude similar model number..
Cool thing is the laptops were all modular.
ALPHA Netwoks makes both NVma and ePCi.wifi and BT cards.. I think yours is the ePcmcia card....that old credit card size things you could expand your laptop with perifials but it is on a card slot...
Good luck

Hi, friend. Usually with the change from mechanical hard disk to ssd a considerable increase in data access speed is achieved, replacing the ram memories with more current ones with greater speed and capacity we also manage to improve speed. Now, you work with video editing, it's hard for me to understand that you're still taking advantage of that veteran Asus, but I see that you're daring and that you're not going to give up easily and I like that hahaha. Personally I recommend you get an intel i7 2670QM and replace it, update all the firmware (possibly you will have already updated the bios, if you haven't already the time has come but there are more upgradable components, do it with everything you can). On the other hand, working mainly with video applications you should replace the graphics card, with that Nvidia Geforce 610M you can't do big things anymore. I can look for a list of compatible graphics if you're willing to update it, but probably by getting one of at least 2Gb, even if it's the same model, you'll already notice a big difference, especially since when it comes to processing the video you won't need to go as far. assiduously to ram memory.
Of course, let's start at the beginning:
Disassemble that notebook, disassemble fans, processors, chipset and everything you can disassemble to replace the thermal putty and thoroughly clean all the equipment because by forcing it a little more the temperature will also be higher.
If you want to go further, reply to the message, I'm already a computer dinosaur but I'm still as passionate as the first day and I wouldn't mind dedicating a few hours to help you.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, I'm currently using a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, so I'll give this laptop to my brother in the countryside. Anyway, thank you very much, everyone.

trieuanh.07 said:
Thanks for everyone's suggestions, I'm currently using a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, so I'll give this laptop to my brother in the countryside. Anyway, thank you very much, everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A good team that lenovo thinkpad.