ApplePieOfDestiny wrote:
Bamba wrote:
Saturnalian wrote:
I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits.
That's the only thing that matters; glad you're happy with it!
And if you fit a decent door to it, you've got a spacious heated panic room.
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| PC gaming hardware thread. https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5402 |
Page 52 of 119 |
| Author: | Satsuma [ Fri Mar 28, 2014 21:04 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Yeah, I think I mixed up mm and inches. It's ok though as it slots neatly between the wall and the TV stand. It's virtually the same size as the stand so it's innocuous enough. I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits. |
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| Author: | ApplePieOfDestiny [ Fri Mar 28, 2014 22:52 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
British Nervoso wrote: That's fucking ridiculous. I thought you wanted something small to go under the telly? It does go under the telly, and also supports a mezzanine floor. |
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| Author: | Hearthly [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:26 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
The thing with PCs is that it's generally easy to find a 'place' for them that's mostly out of the way and not too intrusive on the aesthetics of a room, especially with a wireless keyboard + mouse and wireless 360 pad. As long as you stick to sensible sized midi-towers that is, some cases are ridiculously large. With modern PC components running cooler and quieter than they have for ages, the need for loads of noisy fans and big cases with prodigious airflow has largely evaporated. |
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| Author: | myp [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:36 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Saturnalian wrote: Yeah, I think I mixed up mm and inches. It's ok though as it slots neatly between the wall and the TV stand. It's virtually the same size as the stand so it's innocuous enough. I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits. I think you mixed up mm and furlongs. |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 12:55 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Saturnalian wrote: I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits. That's the only thing that matters; glad you're happy with it! |
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| Author: | ApplePieOfDestiny [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 14:38 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Bamba wrote: Saturnalian wrote: I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits. That's the only thing that matters; glad you're happy with it! And if you fit a decent door to it, you've got a spacious heated panic room. |
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| Author: | myp [ Sat Mar 29, 2014 14:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
ApplePieOfDestiny wrote: Bamba wrote: Saturnalian wrote: I fackin love it though. TV PC is the tits. That's the only thing that matters; glad you're happy with it! And if you fit a decent door to it, you've got a spacious heated panic room.
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| Author: | Doctor Glyndwr [ Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:31 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
AtrocityExhibition wrote: The thing with PCs is that it's generally easy to find a 'place' for them that's mostly out of the way and not too intrusive on the aesthetics of a room, especially with a wireless keyboard + mouse and wireless 360 pad. And, in a pinch, a really bloody long HDMI cable. I bought an extra-slim 15 m one so I could put the PC clear the other side of the room from the TV. Worked a treat.
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| Author: | TheVision [ Sun Mar 30, 2014 23:30 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I've almost got around to installing my new SSD but I'm planning on using my current drive as an extra. This picture is inside my PC... Do you reckon my current drive will work as a secondary drive if it's plugged into one of these free slots? The different colours are confusing me. |
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| Author: | Satsuma [ Sun Mar 30, 2014 23:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I'm so turned on by this now. Clean those transistors, dirty boy. |
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| Author: | lasermink [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 9:31 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
You really need your motherboard user's guide to know for sure what this means, but here is what i imagine, based on a link like this: Probably the two blue ports are port 0 and 1 and need to be used in particular way for RAID setups. In all other cases, the ports are probably interchangeable, except for how the computer chooses which drive to try to boot from first. I would put my boot drive in port 0 (whichever that is). EDIT: Changed link to a better one |
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| Author: | lasermink [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 9:33 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Another possibility is that there are two controllers, and for using the blue connectors you might need special drivers. Really, this is guesswork without a user's guide. |
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| Author: | DavPaz [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:02 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Possibly the blue ones are faster/slower than the others. |
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| Author: | Trooper [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:06 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
The blue ones are for your porn disk. |
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| Author: | Sir Taxalot [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:36 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
The red ones go faster. |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:39 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
So if I plug a hard drive into an empty one, the only thing I can expect is for it to go slower? It's quite confusing isn't it? |
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| Author: | Mr Dave [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:48 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
What are the four things currently plugged in? |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:59 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
That's a good question. Hard drive, CD drive, USB/memory card reader thingy on the front of the PC and the fourth goes to a built in caddy on top with an external drive in it. I rarely use the CD drive so I could swap that I reckon? |
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| Author: | Mr Dave [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:10 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
You could certainly put the cd drive onto the potentially slower ports, if they're somehow an older standard. Main thing is that there's no dodgy raid going on for you to cock up. |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:16 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I'd know if I had a RAID setup wouldn't I? I'll try swapping the CD drive then and see what happens. If these ports are slower, does anyone know how much slower? Is it noticeable? |
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| Author: | Grim... [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:17 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: I'd know if I had a RAID setup wouldn't I? You'd need more than one hard drive to have RAID. |
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| Author: | Mr Dave [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:32 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: I'd know if I had a RAID setup wouldn't I? I'll try swapping the CD drive then and see what happens. If these ports are slower, does anyone know how much slower? Is it noticeable? They'll almost certainly go faster than your optical drive anyway, In my experience they don't mean anything anyway unless you're dicking around with raid. |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:34 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Cool. Thanks all for your help. I'll give it a go this week. |
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| Author: | DavPaz [ Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:52 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: Cool. Thanks all for your help. I'll give it a go this week. OP will deliver |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:05 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I've finally got around to installing my SSD this weekend and crikey... It's fast! I've just got a few more updates and programs to go but I'm very happy with it so far. It's replacing a 1TB drive so I'm going to have to watch what I install on the reduced space but I'm sure I'll get by. |
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| Author: | KovacsC [ Fri May 16, 2014 9:52 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
After a cheap graphics card. The onboard graphics has gone flaky. There seem to be a few at £25 at PC world. |
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| Author: | Hearthly [ Fri May 16, 2014 10:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
KovacsC wrote: After a cheap graphics card. The onboard graphics has gone flaky. There seem to be a few at £25 at PC world. Do you literally just need 'graphics' as in a graphics output, or more besides that? If it's just 'graphics' then any of the super-cheap half-height cards will do you. Under £20 and has HDMI/VGA/DVI-I outputs - http://www.ebuyer.com/280429-msi-g210-1 ... md1gd3h-lp So yeah anything similar from PC World would do you. |
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| Author: | KovacsC [ Fri May 16, 2014 10:34 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Hearthly wrote: KovacsC wrote: After a cheap graphics card. The onboard graphics has gone flaky. There seem to be a few at £25 at PC world. Do you literally just need 'graphics' as in a graphics output, or more besides that? If it's just 'graphics' then any of the super-cheap half-height cards will do you. Under £20 and has HDMI/VGA/DVI-I outputs - http://www.ebuyer.com/280429-msi-g210-1 ... md1gd3h-lp So yeah anything similar from PC World would do you. Yes, Ms Kovs PC the vga has started only working intermittently. SO want a basic PCI-E card, to see if that fixes it. Cheers, that one is in PC world for £25. |
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| Author: | Grim... [ Sat May 17, 2014 14:46 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: I've finally got around to installing my SSD this weekend and crikey... It's fast! I've just got a few more updates and programs to go but I'm very happy with it so far. It's replacing a 1TB drive so I'm going to have to watch what I install on the reduced space but I'm sure I'll get by. Can't you leave the 1TB drive in there? |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Sat May 17, 2014 16:27 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I can do I think, but the free sata ports were a different colour so I wasn't sure if there's be a difference. The 1TB drive is sitting on a shelf, waiting to go back in.... One day I'll get around to it. |
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| Author: | DavPaz [ Sat May 17, 2014 16:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Stick it in. Even if they're slower ports, they'll be fast enough for data storage |
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| Author: | TheCookie197 [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 18:24 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
(Yay! I have 16GB of RAM now!) Anyway, I'm going to be upgrading my computer soon (Well, okay, about 3 months. But still.) , and for my processor, I think I'm going to be getting an i5 or i7. Question: How do the number of cores you have impact on gaming? Could I just get a duel-core, or would I be better getting a Quad-core? My budget is probably going to be around £500-600. (I'm keeping my DVD-drive, HDD, SSD, RAM and PSU) Any suggestions for what kind of thing (make/model) I should be on the lookout for? What's the best compan(y)(ies) to go to for parts? I'm assuming things will probably have changed since my current PC was build 5 years ago. |
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| Author: | Hearthly [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 18:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Definitely go quad-core for the CPU, games have targeted 'many cores' CPUs for years now (thanks to the 360 and PS3), and with both XBoner/PS4 having octo-core x86 CPUs that situation will remain. (So don't skimp and go for a dual-core CPU.) For gaming at the moment there's no benefit on PC to using a more expensive i7 CPU (quad-core with hyperthreading) compared to a cheaper i5 (quad-core), so go for an i5. (It's feasible that games will target more cores as the current gen progresses, but even the i7 doesn't have 'proper' extra cores unless you get up to the mega-expensive ones.) If you grab an issue of Custom PC they have a recommended list that they constantly update, with recommendations for everything from budget components to hugely expensive. If you ask again at the time of purchasing I'll grab piccies of the lists and post them here for you. I like Ebuyer but Scan and Dabs are very reliable too. |
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| Author: | TheCookie197 [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 18:49 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Awesome, thank you. I'll keep an eye out for that. |
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| Author: | Trooper [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 18:56 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
You could do a lot worse that buying zeppo's PC which he has up for sale in the members forum 
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| Author: | TheCookie197 [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 19:04 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Trooper wrote: You could do a lot worse that buying zeppo's PC which he has up for sale in the members forum I considered that, but I'm not going to have the money for another 3 or so months (possibly even longer) so I doubt he'd want to wait that long :-P |
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| Author: | Hearthly [ Thu Jun 19, 2014 19:05 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Trooper wrote: You could do a lot worse that buying zeppo's PC which he has up for sale in the members forum I hadn't seen that TBH, for the money zeppo is asking it's a bit of a bargain, to the extent I'm now desperately trying to think of ways to justify buying it  Pop over and take a look Cookie, if you can buy now rather than in three months time, you won't do better than that. |
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| Author: | LaceSensor [ Mon Jun 30, 2014 17:39 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Just incase anyone is interested I bought Zeppos PC and now have my old one for grabs. I will likely end up breaking it up for parts on ebay, but figured why not post it here. The CPU was the dogs bollocks back in the day and still warrants around £100 based on ebay. Likewise the board was top drawer too. Alienware ALX (Black) - Intel Core2 Extreme X9650 Quad core 3gHz processor - 2 x 2GB Elpida DDR3 RAM (PC3-8500U) - Radeon HD3870X2 1GB DDR3 PCIe dual DVi graphics card - EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLi motherboard (http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/fil ... K-NF79.pdf) - 1000W Newton Power PSU - Creative 5.1 surround sound card - water cooling system - Alienware LED board to change case colours You'd need to add a hard drive and o/s Currently it has a 150Gb Raptor running Win7 Ultimate for demonstration purposes which Id be happy to throw in but be aware the O/S isnt "brand new" shall we say. Let me know if interested Offers around £200 to save breaking it for parts. |
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| Author: | KovacsC [ Mon Jun 30, 2014 22:24 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
LaceSensor wrote: Just incase anyone is interested I bought Zeppos PC and now have my old one for grabs. I will likely end up breaking it up for parts on ebay, but figured why not post it here. The CPU was the dogs bollocks back in the day and still warrants around £100 based on ebay. Likewise the board was top drawer too. Alienware ALX (Black) - Intel Core2 Extreme X9650 Quad core 3gHz processor - 2 x 2GB Elpida DDR3 RAM (PC3-8500U) - Radeon HD3870X2 1GB DDR3 PCIe dual DVi graphics card - EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLi motherboard (http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/fil ... K-NF79.pdf) - 1000W Newton Power PSU - Creative 5.1 surround sound card - water cooling system - Alienware LED board to change case colours You'd need to add a hard drive and o/s Currently it has a 150Gb Raptor running Win7 Ultimate for demonstration purposes which Id be happy to throw in but be aware the O/S isnt "brand new" shall we say. Let me know if interested Offers around £200 to save breaking it for parts. Does it have office? |
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| Author: | LaceSensor [ Tue Jul 01, 2014 16:03 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
KovacsC wrote: Does it have office? funny guy |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:01 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I was idly pondering the idea of a gfx card upgrade the other day but my machine in general is knocking on a bit so I'm wondering how far away I am from the point where some other component becomes the bottleneck and a gfx card upgrade isn't worthwhile. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200, the mobo is an MSI G31 M3-F LGA775 and it's only got 4GB of RAM. Obviously the RAM's on the low side but how capable is that CPU/mobo combination in today's money? The current gfx card is a Radeon HD7770 with 1GB of onboard RAM in case that matter. I'm not actually ready to do any upgrades right now or anything, I'm just curious. |
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| Author: | Trooper [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:50 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I think you are pretty much at the top end of CPU capability with the graphics card you currently have. Obviously a faster graphics card will be faster no matter what, but I expect you'll bottleneck any upgrade and won't get the full benefit of any upgrade. I was also looking at graphics card updates the other day, but it turns out my HD 6970 is still reasonable. I generally try to double the performance each time I upgrade, and to do that this time would cost me £300! I think i'll wait for now and see what the Oculus Rift actually needs. |
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| Author: | Hearthly [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:55 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Bamba wrote: I was idly pondering the idea of a gfx card upgrade the other day but my machine in general is knocking on a bit so I'm wondering how far away I am from the point where some other component becomes the bottleneck and a gfx card upgrade isn't worthwhile. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200, the mobo is an MSI G31 M3-F LGA775 and it's only got 4GB of RAM. Obviously the RAM's on the low side but how capable is that CPU/mobo combination in today's money? The current gfx card is a Radeon HD7770 with 1GB of onboard RAM in case that matter. I'm not actually ready to do any upgrades right now or anything, I'm just curious. The Core 2 Quad is from the last generation of Intel CPUs and it is starting to show its age now, although is still pretty capable. Beginning with the original Core i7 line-up (I've got one of the earliest i7-920s, dating back to November 2008!) they moved to a whole new architecture which even the very latest Devil's Canyon i7s are iterations of. (They were supposed to get a new architecture out this year but it wasn't ready so they've just put better heat-spreaders onto Haswell-E chips, clock-bumped them and called them Devil's Canyon.) In practical terms you will start to hit limitations with a Core 2 Quad once you beef up the rest of your PC around it, for example a mate of mine paired his Core 2 Quad with a powerful graphics card and found he was CPU bound in Battlefield BC2 (think it was BC2 at the time), once he went for a new mobo, CPU (fast i5) and RAM but with the same graphics card, the game ran a lot better. Certainly with that graphics card you won't have any problems, but given both your RAM and CPU situation, I'd be reluctant to chuck a meaty graphics card into the mix without a mobo/CPU/RAM replacement. As a point of reference Custom PC ran a 'build a HD gaming PC for £549' piece this month, whereby they did an entire build of a 1080p capable PC for £549, including an OS, a 256GB SSD and a 500GB hard drive. (8GB of system RAM.) |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:07 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Thanks guys, that confirms what I was concerned about. In the last few years I've mostly used my PC for indie gaming which the current setup is more than capable of but now that the PC's connected to the main TV I can be a bit more platform agnostic when looking at deals. Obviously though that would mean having a PC that's pretty capable if I'm looking for some kind of parity with the last and current gen consoles. I'll keep thinking about it but certainly it would appear that if I'm to do any upgrade then a full new system would be on the cards. Christ, between that and a PS4 this year, or early next year, I might well blow my traditional gaming spend right out of the water! |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:07 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
This reminds me.. I have a PC hardware question. I'm out of touch so bear with me. I have a drive bay on the front of my PC that has numerous card reader slots, a mic input, headphone socket, 2x USB ports and a couple of data ports (I think, I've never used them) The SD card slot has stopped working so I need to replace it. Where would be the best place to go and do you reckon it'll be hard to swap out? I haven't looked but I imagine there's a ton of cables. I'd have a look myself but a)I've only just thought of it and b)I'm not sure what the thing is called to look for it. |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:20 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
Surely all ports are 'data ports'? Anyway, is it worth the hassle of replacing it? Being a lazy sod by nature I'd be tempted just to buy a cheap USB card reader and use that whenever I was moving stuff on or off SD cards. |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:09 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I did that but the transfer speeds are annoyingly slow. I don't know why, but it takes forever to move anything. |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:18 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: I did that but the transfer speeds are annoyingly slow. I don't know why, but it takes forever to move anything. Are you plugging the card reader into USB 1 ports rather than USB 2 or something? |
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| Author: | TheVision [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:31 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
I did think that myself but I think it's the reader as other things work at a proper USB2 speed in the same port. Either way, it's annoying and I would like my SD card slot back. |
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| Author: | Bamba [ Thu Aug 21, 2014 13:32 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: PC gaming hardware thread. |
TheVision wrote: I did think that myself but I think it's the reader as other things work at a proper USB2 speed in the same port. Yeah, definitely sounds like the card reader that's at fault then. It could just be shite reader? They're cheap enough that taking a punt on a new one isn't much of a financial risk. |
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