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I do like the idea but the ProArt boards are so expensive. I did get inspired by this build though (link below). We'll see once it's time to buy the parts but I'm probably going with a bundle to save money and there will for sure not be a proart board in there lol. I do like the Asus Prime (white) board or Asus TUF, just off the top of my head.


Even though it doesn't seem complicated, that build has many mods. I can't see how the angled GPU mount is installed and how cables are going through the case, as it's too dark.
You can go with a black/white mix, but I guess you will decide when the new motherboards will be out. For AMD, it's ~3 weeks; for Intel ~7 weeks.
 
Got a little story here. I got on UAG's website on Monday during the Apple presentation to see if the new cases had been released yet. They did, so in prep for a phone upgrade I bought the below UAG Monarch Pro Kevlar for the iPhone 16 Pro. A few minutes later, I get an email refunding my order. I figure maybe I jumped the gun and the order page wasn't ready yet. A few minutes after that, the VP of E-commerce emails me and says I was the first person to order their new 16 case as well as a previous customer, so he was giving it to me for free plus a $200 store credit. That was an unexpected, pleasant surprise!
 

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What a buggy shi* show.

Eventually got it to work well enough to launch No Man's Sky...with about .01 FPS.
 

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Update: The WiFi antenna I bought do NOT fit. The connectors are too big as are the Antenna themselves. I didn't know that the connectors came in different sizes. So back to the search for this part. While I was in the laptop, I found more busted fasteners. I pulled them out, greased the threads and epoxied the nut back into the plastic. I have done this before on this laptop with great success.

Update 2: I recieved my replacement antenna and they fit very well. Not perfect, one is a little too short and the other is a little too long. I can work with both. I also got my new charge port and installed it. Still waiting on the new video cable which I should get on Monday. Also, fixing my clamshell didn't work out extra well. Previous repairs are still holding strong but I have two nuts for the hinge that I've not been able to repair thus far. I may leave it and keep a new machine in mind.

Final update: I did not install the video cable. I reused the old one. It's working well. The two captive nuts that I couldn't fix, I tossed. I greased the threads of thw two screws and filled the holes with epoxy. I put the screws in the epoxy and then assembled the entire laptop. In theory, The epoxy should cure around the threads. The grease prevents it from sticking to the screws. I've not tried it on screws this small before so I suspect that it was not perfect.

With wood screws that have stripped out, I've drilled the hole larger than the screw, filled the hole with epoxy and inserted a greased wood screw. Come back a day later and I can unscrew the screw then put the (whatever I'm working on) back together and it's secure. I expect the laptop version of this repair to be less secure.

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Nothing super fun. I have an old laptop that still meets my needs but.... It needs TLC.

Over the years I upgraded the RAM to the fastest and mostest. I installed an SSD. I've even upgraded the wireless card to Wi-Fi 7 with the newest BT. Unfortunately, my Wi-Fi antenna stopped working. All of the years opening and closing the lid seems to have caused them to break. I have a USB wifi adapter for now.

But today, I put in offers around purchased items on eBay. to get A new set of Wi-Fi antenna. Also, a new power jack as those do wear out. Finally, I put in an offer for purchased a new video cable. If the Wi-Fi cables wore out, the video cable is perhaps not far behind? Trying to find new parts has been difficult and the wifi antenna wires are just a craps shoot. I might get snake eyes.

PXL_20240912_233829831.jpg
I also took out the heat pipe and cleaned and re applied TIM.

Confimred purchase of the video cable.
Screenshot 2024-09-13 103329.png

Confirmed purchase of the WiFi antenna.
Screenshot 2024-09-13 103559.png
Confimred purchase of the power connector.
Screenshot 2024-09-13 103641.png
and maybe the USB module: (Not. Decieded against it.)
Screenshot 2024-09-13 103929.png
Undecided on this one. I don't use it much meaning it should still be good and I can only find used ones which may be worse.

These are the things I've gotten/getting for my machine. Making the old like new again.

Total cost to make the machine (hopefully) new again? $23.27 USD.

This is the laptop I purchased in 2017 making this machine about 7 years old. I could justify a new one and I can afford a new one but I just want to see if I can stretch its usable life span. Sometimes I do these projects and they fail. Other times... well... enough times for me to keep trying. Other times these work out and it becomes fun.
 
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Got a few more things to spruce up my "home away from home" - AKA desk at work. A magnetic RGB LED strip to mount under the overhead cabinet - just cause I'm getting annoyed sitting under cold white fluorescent lighting multiple hours a day, figured adding a dim yellow/orange glow would help.

Also some cable management gear and an Anker 615, figured I've got a small desk and trying to consolidate.
 
Screen Shot 2024-09-16 at 12.24.28 AM.png

I'm SO excited!! Only 30 bucks! No idea what I'm going to do with it yet... but so far I'm happy! :)

(For those who don't know: It's a supermarket scale with built-in thermal printer.)
 
Legal activities, I'm sure. ;)

No promises! :D

It's incredibly sensitive... as you would imagine... people buying rosemary and whatnot by the gram. The funny thing is I'd just been thinking about picking up a little scale (actually got a tiny one from the French equivalent of a dollar store) for the kitchen...

Well... WELL... Now I've got something much better!
 
No promises! :D

It's incredibly sensitive... as you would imagine... people buying rosemary and whatnot by the gram. The funny thing is I'd just been thinking about picking up a little scale (actually got a tiny one from the French equivalent of a dollar store) for the kitchen...

Well... WELL... Now I've got something much better!

Yes, yes I'm sure you'll be moving a lot of rosemary...

"Hey man, got any of that confectioners sugar? I just need a taste man!"
 
Based on a conversation with my son, I bought this for my ONN (Walmart branded chrome cast) and this.

The ONN is a nice little device that I only paid ~$20 for. It is WAY faster than the OS on my Visio TV. In fact, speed testing my Visio I get between 9-13 mbps where the ONN gets around 200 mbps. However, we've found that it does not like to stay connected to our WiFi even though the conditions couldn't be more perfect. My son mentioned that he helped a friend of his get an Ethernet dongle for their ONN. What I learned is that smart people looked at Android TV devices like the ONN and found that the basic Linux kernel has drivers for very old Ethernet chips. Fast Ethernet of 100 mbps to be exact. Yes. That's half the speed I'm getting at the moment but... hear me out. 4k streaming only needs 45-50 mbps. So I have double what I need.

This dongle also has 3 USB A (1.x maybe? Maybe 2.x) so I bought a small keyboard with touch pad to go with it. This way I can use a keyboard mouse setup with my ONN. Should make using TV Bro (Web browser for Android TV) easier to use. Right now I use TV Bro for my Plex server. I think that by using the app, it wants to send data out in order to bring data in when that data lives in my home. By using a web browser, I can connect directly to the IP of my server using the port # 32400. xxx.xxx.xxx:32400 No data needs to leave the home.

I'm ready to hook it up now but my wife is watching it while she gets better and I'd be a fool to interupt that.

Update: I installed the dongle and plugged in my wireless keyboard/mouse dongle into the dongle. (?) Yeah. Anyway, the ethernet dongle worked without issue. I turned off WiFi and things are as smooth and fast as before. No WiFi drops too which is the issue I resloved. The ethernet dongle has 3 x USB A ports. I used one for the wireless dongle for the keyboard. With the track pad, it's a perfect companion that I can choose to use or leave it alone. This was a great idea.
 
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