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Pol
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 14 Dec 2022, 21:10

If you are looking for backupping up your OS/PC, drive or partition you can go either with a free tools or with paid ones.

As of free tools, there are two, complementary and these are RescueZilla, with GUI and CloneZilla with DOS/Linux like terminal interface. These are free and serves well, though for normal backing up they are a tad slower and cumbersome than paid solution. You can use USB or CD/DVD to boot them up and proceed with backup/restore of whole PC/drive or partition.

As of paid solutions, I currently (and not completely happilly) prefer to use AOMEI Backupper Pro, which is Chinese software with sensational price tailored policy. So, it's recommendable to seek for some discount code before diving in, like at https://deals.sharewareonsale.com. Which saved for me around 50% of this overpriced stuff. As they have lots of running deals but you can't access them from main page. They hid the biggest discounts.

If you accidentally deleted some file, image, from your drive - stop to using it (drive, as you risk this space being overwritten) and from another drive run "Undelete software", like Undelete360, which is slow but reliable in Free version and probably faster in Pro. Another alternative is PhotoRec


Note, as with most "Lifetime Licenses", from my life experience you are getting the tool for some time but not forever. You are at risk that product disappear or it will be discontinued, so it will die with new Windows version. Still it's often cheaper than annual subscription. If you are in need of that product/service for some years, it's usually a good offer.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 16 Jan 2023, 16:59

Is LibreOffice Calc freezing in your system? (Mostly Windows 11, some HW combinations)
  • If it is just Calc then you could try going to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > OpenCL and unticking Allow use of OpenCL and see if that solves the problem.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 04 Feb 2023, 15:08

As Microsoft is persistent with Win11 update, you need to be more careful. Currently the right option to refuse is on the bottom bar. As of buttons, both say "yes". :D

BTW if you would like to try squeezed Windows 11 on older system, you can. There exists TinyWin11 unofficial build.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 07 Mar 2023, 00:36

My D drive is no longer detected. Anyone know how to fix?

Image

EDIT: I initialized the disk. Is all my data from D drive gone or can it be recovered?

Image

EDIT: I think because I initialized the drive before recovering the files, it erased all the files. I'm dead.

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 07 Mar 2023, 07:28

According 'diskmgmt.msc' (from which you have the screenshot) you don't have any partitions here, is that right?

If it's not correct you may try some rescue utility to fix it up.

This may be of a help:


Note that if you would decide for "easier" way with AOMEI Parittion Assistant, it may not be available in free version. But you can try that to see first, it's likely that you will have like 30 days to try it for free. (In any case I don't recommend to buy it for a full price, there are discounts scattered around the web. Like here. Caution, it can't backup.)
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 07 Mar 2023, 17:52

Using AOMEI seems to have resolved the problem. I haven't opened any files yet to see if there is any corruption, but all the files are there. Bless you Pol. :gking2:

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 08 Mar 2023, 06:01

Glad to help ;)
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 10 Mar 2023, 17:08

My hard drive still keeps failing so I'm taking it as an opportunity to build a new PC. Any feedback about the components I'm thinking about?

Case

https://hyte.com/store/y60?v=113

CPU

https://www.microcenter.com/product/652 ... t-included

or

https://www.microcenter.com/product/652 ... t-included


GPU

https://www.microcenter.com/product/663 ... phics-card

or

https://www.microcenter.com/product/661 ... phics-card


Ram


https://www.microcenter.com/product/645 ... 0hc4-white


SSD

https://www.microcenter.com/product/642 ... ternal-ssd


Power Supply

I will transfer the power supply from my current PC to new one. I think the one I have is this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/642 ... wer-supply


What I need help with is selecting a motherboard and water cooling because I don't understand those things.

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 10 Mar 2023, 18:57

As of transferring PSU I would advise to first at least basically check its performance, there exists things like:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/508 ... ply-tester

Or you may ask the store to check it for you, if they are willing to do that. Doing some proper load and stress test would be also nice.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 10 Mar 2023, 19:15

It comes to me that performance of both CPUs in on par. So, I would naturally pick the cheaper ones - Intel.

You would like to have water cooling for both, CPU and GPU? (As just for one it doesn't give much sense)
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 10 Mar 2023, 19:21

Rest I will check tomorrow. As of this processor and board combo I think that you might go with DDR4 memory and it will be cheaper. But it does depend on motherboard. There are both.
(Example for DDR5 is "AsRock Z790 Taichi Carrara" or for DDR4 "Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite")


You might need stronger PSU in a fact. But that can be verified after all components will be in place.

Also advantage of AMD CPU is lower power consumption and better socket. In both cases you picked CPU with integrated GPU, that's desired?
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 10 Mar 2023, 22:54

Pol wrote: 10 Mar 2023, 19:21 Rest I will check tomorrow. As of this processor and board combo I think that you might go with DDR4 memory and it will be cheaper. But it does depend on motherboard. There are both.
(Example for DDR5 is "AsRock Z790 Taichi Carrara" or for DDR4 "Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite")
I see, so although AMD CPU is more expensive than Intel, cheapest Intel motherboard is more expensive cheapest AMD motherboard. $943 for AMD CPU & motherboard vs $990 for Intel CPU and motherboard.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/660 ... otherboard

https://www.microcenter.com/product/660 ... otherboard
Pol wrote: 10 Mar 2023, 19:21You might need stronger PSU in a fact. But that can be verified after all components will be in place.
In that case, I can get this: https://www.microcenter.com/product/621 ... wer-supply
Pol wrote: 10 Mar 2023, 19:21Also advantage of AMD CPU is lower power consumption and better socket. In both cases you picked CPU with integrated GPU, that's desired?
I just picked it because it is the latest generation. :embarrased:

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 11 Mar 2023, 14:20

There I have found two more CPU variants:
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Raphael AM5 4.2GHz 16-Core Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included
or
Intel Core i9-13900F (which is currently not listed in Microcenter)

Please remind me, you will be visiting store in person, yes?
As some of these are marked without possibility to be shipped.

For playing on AMD, variant with X3D is better. Having more memory, yield more performance per core, than having more cores.
And for Intel Intel Core i9-13900F it's the similar case, additionally you won't pay for iGPU, as there's none. I guess that it will be listed here too, once. Like in two weeks or so.

As of PSU, most likely minimum would be 850W, so the one which you linked is possible.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 11 Mar 2023, 14:27

AMD Setup:
(Not everything is checked now, mostly physical parameters are not. Neither water cooling.)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
https://www.microcenter.com/product/663 ... t-included
$699 (-$20 with eligible compatible board)

MB: ASUS B650M-A Prime II-CSM AMD AM5
https://www.microcenter.com/product/662 ... otherboard
$179.99 (-$20 with eligible compatible CPU)

RAM: T-Force Delta RGB 64GB
https://www.microcenter.com/product/662 ... 0hc3-black
$299.99

GPU: PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Triple Fan 20GB GDDR6
https://www.microcenter.com/product/661 ... phics-card
$799.99

M.2 SSD: Seagate Game Drive 2TB 3D TLC NAND PCIe Gen 4 x4
https://www.microcenter.com/product/660 ... ternal-ssd
$269.99

PSU: PowerSpec 1050 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX Fully Modular
https://www.microcenter.com/product/621 ... wer-supply
$169.99

CASE: HYTE Y60
https://www.microcenter.com/product/660 ... g-case-red
$199.99

Changes:
+ Upg CPU do X3D variant (More L3 cache, less CPU)
+ Doubled RAM, changed color
+ Picked considerably faster SSD, note that you will still need a classic HDD, as safer backup storage
+ AMD CPU + AMD GPU is probably for the best, used variant with more memory
+ Case - changed color to red, as Micro Center don't offer white

Note:
* You most likely could save around $100 if you could change store and get different M.2 SSD, see my previous link.

What about Windows?
Fortunately, while the socket has changed, existing AM4 coolers will work just fine with AM5. The placement of the holes is the same as on AM4, and so any AM4-compatible brackets will work on an AM5 motherboard
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 13 Mar 2023, 19:18

Wow, thank you Pol, that was amazing. :)

I agree with all your changes, but want to say that I am not limited to shopping at Microcenter. I plan to pay Microcenter to build the PC, but not all parts have to be bought there. For example, I bought the white case online for $20 less than Microcenter. I will check if the parts you listed are cheaper somewhere else. You think I should buy a different M.2 SSD or same M.2 SSD from different store because it is out of stock at Microcenter?

As for Windows, I still have my original OEM Windows 8 from which I upgraded to Windows 10 or 11 for free. Can that still be used or will I have to buy another?

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 14 Mar 2023, 15:24

I've bought every part you listed with the exception of the CPU and Motherboard because the CPU is out of stock at every store and most online stores as well. I guess I have to wait.

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 14 Mar 2023, 16:41

Damn, I hope they will re-stock them.

We still need to settle down the question of water cooling. In this situation are you aware, that even water cooling is using ventilators, so it's still doing some noise? (can vary 18-22dB usually)

With using some sandwich cooler, you can probably come out about the same noise. Otherwise you need to water cool both, CPU and GPU. Just one lacks sense :D
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 14 Mar 2023, 17:29

For Microcenter to build water cooled PC is really high cost unfortunately. Would you recommend the Soft Tube ($400) or Hard Tube ($800) build?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/398 ... e---tier-4

https://www.microcenter.com/product/607 ... e---tier-5

Will it still need air cooling with water cooling or only one?

If the CPU says "heatsink not included" does that mean I need to buy one?

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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 14 Mar 2023, 17:55

Probably not necessary, take a look at water cooling kits:
https://www.microcenter.com/search/sear ... Store=true

In past, there were kits which cooled both, CPU and GPU.

Water cooling work that way, that you getting passive cooler on CPU, GPU, pipes and these are leading to ventilators to cool down the liquid in the pipes. So, you still have the ventilators, albeit they may still be running slowly.

Yes, with these CPU you are supposed to get either normal cooler or water cooler. As there's not one included.

Note, that these water cooling kits are probably close to useless for AMD5 as they can be almost as much noisy as normal air cooling :wall:

If you check, what's written on them, this goes to 33.5dB. Way too much.
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Re: Tech Corner

Unread postby Pol » 14 Mar 2023, 18:05

As of M.2 SSD I meant this:
https://www.newegg.com/nextorage-2tb-ne ... 0106-00003

(From Best Deals thread)

Alternative for silent CPU cooler:
https://www.newegg.com/noctua-nh-d15/p/ ... klink=true
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The Archives | Collection of H3&WoG files | Older albeit still useful | CH Downloads
PC Specs: A10-7850K, FM2A88X+K, 16GB-1600, SSD-MLC-G3, 1TB-HDD-G3, MAYA44, SP10 500W Be Quiet


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