Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 11

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Comments

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834

    Looking forward to hearing what your render speeds are after this

  • That's a lot of research!  I'm saving it, lol.

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,142

    I am looking at getting an 8th i5 6 core desktop 1st half of next year but by then the the available CPUs for my budget may improve. I've wanted a desktop for two year now and I can't see the deferral of the upgrade from a 7 year old laptop to a modern desktop has hurt me any as the desktop have really started massively improving in core count and speed in the past year or so.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,809

    Those are nice specs laugh

  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214

    @Novica wow that's alot of research!  Thanks so much for posting the results of your efforts. When I built my computer about the same time you got your alienware, I purchased all my parts from newegg and their service was awesome. Everything shipped really quickly, I wasn't even ready for it when it showed up and when I had some concerns about the motherboard the customer service was so helpful I was amazed. I would definitely recommend them, I am sure you won't be disappointed. Congrats on the new laptop! Can't wait to hear how speedy it is!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Thanks all :)  I am just happy to get the research done- that "paralysis by analysis" feeling- overwhelmed when I first looked at all the "compare" columns. Thinking, "Gawd, why bother???? I don't have a clue about 99.9% of this."  All I knew was the 1080 card and a feeling that i7 wasn't the latest core. That was it. (Bad, I know.) 

    @kharma   I remember well the deliberation and precision that you put your rig together, and being in total awe that you are so tech saavy! One reason I went with NewEgg was forum members' experiences. I did look at Amazon but there wasn't a good way to compare, and also no easy way to upgrade right there on the page. (Not all sellers on NewEgg have that either.)

    I am just totally ticked about the Alienware51 bombing out- I put it to sleep, came back an hour later, and had a black screen about something exceeding parameters and could be a harddrive problem. It suggested the various F's (F1, F5, etc) but it was frozen solid. I am SO GLAD my studio, renders, work are all on the WD Easystore external harddrive. Anyone who operates soley on their harddrive is asking for trouble! My products are on a separate WD Passport and I am getting ready to back that up on the Easystore. I will get the Alienware fixed, but OMG that sucker is HUGE- 60 pounds IIRC so hubby has to take it in. (It's also bulky.) 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    I put the link to the computer research on the first page under references. (Computer Research.)  BTW, you folks who know what you're doing with computers, feel free to speak up. This was just how I made my decision and I just did the best I could, using articles, blogs, and forums. TomsHardware has great forums btw and anandtech.com has very easy to understand articles.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    Before you take the main machine in for checking Google the reason for it not working, just type in what it says on screen and search the error code. It might be something simple that you can do yourself without paying money to get fixed. I do it whenever I get a fault and it usually throws up a few workarounds or easy repairs.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    If you want to help with the abandoned animals in Hurricane Florence,  Franks Nation is there now. CNN verified and recommended the group. :)  His dog died while helping with rescues in Katy Texas during Harvey. :(  and this is in honor of him. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018
    Fishtales said:

    Before you take the main machine in for checking Google the reason for it not working, just type in what it says on screen and search the error code. It might be something simple that you can do yourself without paying money to get fixed. I do it whenever I get a fault and it usually throws up a few workarounds or easy repairs.

    :) We already did that- well hubby did. NewEgg assisting. First, we're trying to duplicate the harddrive. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018

    Oooh, I found my exact computer (specs and all) on youtube!   I think I will call and see what the 4k HD upgrade would be. (Edit- nope, doesn't come with G sync which removes stutter/lag. Still learning things!)    And this one that mentions other computers as options. It discusses the heat so I am going to get that thermal upgrade, hope I can do it in time . 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018

    Well lesson learned- just because a website states M-F business hours, if you want an upgrade on a weekend, DO IT. They may be working on the computer!  SO impressed with HIDevolution, after seeing those videos I emailed support and said I wanted to buy the $95 Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut which really seems necessary with the heat. They responded in 12 minutes, sent a payment link, presto, all taken care of! Which makes me think they do work on Saturdays but not officially. So glad I did not wait. And they only charged 60.00! (And so honest, they didn't have to do that, I said $95 in my email!)

    Post edited by Novica on
  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Novica said:

    Well lesson learned- just because a website states M-F business hours, if you want an upgrade on a weekend, DO IT. They may be working on the computer!  SO impressed with HIDevolution, after seeing those videos I emailed support and said I wanted to buy the $95 Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut which really seems necessary with the heat. They responded in 12 minutes, sent a payment link, presto, all taken care of! Which makes me think they do work on Saturdays but not officially. So glad I did not wait. And they only charged 60.00! (And so honest, they didn't have to do that, I said $95 in my email!)

    Advertising is expensive, with somewhat dubious results, but good/great word-of-mouth is priceless and usually costs very little. Sounds like HIDevolution is run by some really smart people. I'm happy you found them.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Can someone help with Makada question? I can't test it. 

  • Novica said:

    Can someone help with Makada question? I can't test it. 

    I don't have this character either.  Great job on the research.  I'm paying you to look up desktops when mine bites the dust lol.  I just got a laptop that I am very happy with about 9 months ago.  Unfortunately, the latest Beta changed something and I can't use Dforce with it.  I can still use it in The 4.10 version (the current one) but not the beta.  I will be curious to see how it does for you.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,983
    Novica said:

     

    Nice research - a lot of work, well done, and thank you.

    One thing  I might mention is on the subject of RAM (and posisble upgrades)..  Motherborads have a number of slots for RAM to be plugged in (usually a multiple of 2)..  What this means is that it is possible to get the installed, quoted, amount of RAM in different ways. Say you think about a computer whose motherboard has 4 slots and says it has 16GB of RAM.  That could be either 2x8GB or 4x4GB.  Guess which is easier and cheaper to upgrade?  If you do not know what the motherboard supports then I'd recommend a site such as mrmemory to check (I am biased as when I used the the service was very good) - you can specify a brand and modle of computer or look for a particulat model of motherboard.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Thanks @simonjm   I'll go back and edit the post and put a link to yours. :)

    Also FYI   In the future I will buy direct from the seller instead of Newegg. I could have gotten free merchandise such as a custom MCI backpack, headset, etc. They said I could cancel the order and go through them but I don't want to mess up the credit card billing. 

  • That's a super nice laptop. I'm jealous; it looks like it's way better than my CyberpowerPC  i7, 32gb, GTX1080ti desktop.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Thanks but yours sounds AMAZING!!!!    :)   I am actually emailing with their customer service right now about a few things, 1080ti being one of them. I think it will cost too much though. :)  And yep they are working on a Sunday too!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018

    Okay, the 1080 is as high as you can go in a laptop. There is a EVOC High Performance Systems P870TM1 17.3" Custom Built VR Ready Gaming Laptop w/ 1x or 2x GTX 1080 which means you can have TWO 1080's but I'm not switching because I like the combination of OTHER things I got.(chipset, etc)  I did tell them to do the upgrade to remove the windows bloat and give me the flashdrive (Windows 10 Pro on my system), to do the pixel check (no bad pixels on the monitor) and get the blacklight bleed reduction for the display. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Seeing as the catch up sale is almost over, I thought I would share Cristina by Marcius.  The tattoos are of course removable.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,983
    Novica said:

    Okay, the 1080 is as high as you can go in a laptop. There is a EVOC High Performance Systems P870TM1 17.3" Custom Built VR Ready Gaming Laptop w/ 1x or 2x GTX 1080 which means you can have TWO 1080's but I'm not switching because I like the combination of OTHER things I got.(chipset, etc)  I did tell them to do the upgrade to remove the windows bloat and give me the flashdrive (Windows 10 Pro on my system), to do the pixel check (no bad pixels on the monitor) and get the blacklight bleed reduction for the display. 

    From experience with a laptop with twin GTX960Ms in, I'd not recommend that for a laptop!  It'd be bettter to have a 'littler' gfx card to drive the monitor and thr 1080 to be used as a 'render engine' .  The main reason I say that is due to teh heat output; being in a laptop thw two cards are very close otone another and the heaty of one goes straight intot he other so unless you have the fans on both going at very high rates the temps of the cards run very high, with one being ((on average) about 10C higher then the other).  I forget who it was, but a loooooong while back (It may have been MEC4D) someone mentioned how their liquid-colled gfx cards woudl be at 35C or so runnign at full blast.  The cards in the laptop were higher tan that - at rest!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018

    That makes sense. One thing about the Titan I noticed in the videos, it has copper to help with the cooling, and the CPU and GPU are separated a lot to help with that.

    I have to laugh though- remember in school how you would study and cram for a test, then forget it immediately after you got done, due to sheer exhaustion and "glad that's over with!"  That's how I am doing at the moment with CPU and GPU  and everything laptops!

    I did look up something of interest based on a question someone asked me about i9's. As I mentioned, I didn't have a clue what to compare things to. So far as i9 core processors, that is definitely true. So I was curious and looked up what I think is the latest, and whoa, only $1800 (or more)  I edited and added it to my post, but here are a few fun things for you. There's also a link so you can see how your i5, i7's do during gameplay.  Here's what I added:

    Edit: I also looked up another i9 which has 32% better performance (cost $1,800 just for it!) The i9 7980XE is one to watch in the future when prices drop. Here are the benchmarks between  i9-8950HK (mine) and i9 7980XE   This has the best comparison/pros and cons.
     
    I also thought you may be interested in seeing how some of the i5, i7's do for gaming (bottom of page) and the best CPU's for gaming and an explanation of what they are.

    Edit: But cores (CPU) and clock speeds- confusing at best when trying to decide what to prioritize, or what they mean. This is a great article!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @icedragonart   That Christina looks a bit different than the promos (still in a good way.)  The chin and head shape made me think it was an Aiko character at first glance.

  • Novica said:

    @icedragonart   That Christina looks a bit different than the promos (still in a good way.)  The chin and head shape made me think it was an Aiko character at first glance.

    Yes, its crazy what a change in angle or lighting will do.  I also thought of Aiko when I was rendering her lol.  But I liked it anyway and its sometimes nice to see different possibilities with characters.

  • Just wanted to note, that Colorwerks Hair Shaders work on Morningstar Wings quite well.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited September 2018

    Have a question for any of you who record stuff on your laptops or pc's (like work flow, stuff for you tube etc.) not animations.  I need something that will record both what I am doing and my voice.  Preferably as easy as possible, and free lol.  Or at least inexpensive

    Edited to add, I've had some good feedback from a variety of sources but would still like a couple of suggestions if anyone has any.

    Post edited by IceDragonArt on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    Novica said:

    I went to a variety of sites and really loved newegg.com  because of the "compare" function and you can do up to five. Then what stood out was the seller HIDevolution had the option to choose the upgrades right there on the page. It did lock other things in, but it must be because of what is compatible. I called to ask several questions and they were SO nice (and this was after I had made the purchase)  I just got an email telling me they had pulled all the components and would work the rest of today and Monday- and try to ship it Monday! (they have 3 ratings which isn't many, but all are 5 eggs. (LOL) and sending it fast was a perfect score.)  It had said to allow 3-5 days after a day to process it.

     Here's what got my attention- all their upgrades are approved and warrantied :) and on the page is this:

    A product that passes through our hands has a much lower chance of DOA (defect on arrival). Your laptop has better reliability with thorough QC (quality control) checks.

    We perform a full quality check - ensure the latest stable BIOS firmware and drivers are installed, burn-in stress testing for temperature, benchmark testing to ensure it is functioning to standard, keyboard and touchpad test, check of ports for functionality, display check for abnormalities, and a physical inspection of the chassis.

    The HIDevolution Benefit

    We research and develop our laptops in-house and only offer upgrades that work to benefit performance and reliability. We provide unique upgrades and services such as high thermal conductivity TIM (thermal interface materials) upgrades, and cherry picking a display panel with minimal backlight bleed.

    1. Cooler system temperatures for the CPU (central processor) and GPU (graphics processor) through Gelid GC Extreme TIM (thermal interface materials) upgrades. Lower system temperatures, prevent throttling during CPU and GPU intensive tasks, minimize fan noise, and maximize reliability with upgraded thermal interface materials.

    The Alienware51 I'd have to pull out and see the exact model, I'll try to do that tomorrow :) There's an R model, etc and I'm not sure what I've got. The Titan is going be a beast compared to it, due to the i9, the chipset, etc. Not sure about the RAM. 

    I got my computer at New Egg during Black Friday deals. If you can hold out, it may be worth it!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2018

    Have a question for any of you who record stuff on your laptops or pc's (like work flow, stuff for you tube etc.) not animations.  I need something that will record both what I am doing and my voice.  Preferably as easy as possible, and free lol.  Or at least inexpensive

    Edited to add, I've had some good feedback from a variety of sources but would still like a couple of suggestions if anyone has any.

    CAMTASIA. Not free but worth every penny. Think of multiple tracks, and you decide what overlaps, transitions, text, etc. VERY EASY to use.  Easy to bring in music, and there's animated special effects. For tutorials, there's pointers, animated arrows, etc.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482

    Have a question for any of you who record stuff on your laptops or pc's (like work flow, stuff for you tube etc.) not animations.  I need something that will record both what I am doing and my voice.  Preferably as easy as possible, and free lol.  Or at least inexpensive

    Edited to add, I've had some good feedback from a variety of sources but would still like a couple of suggestions if anyone has any.

    Camtasia. Very powerful. Very easy to use.

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