RickR

My wife and I started watching last night, getting through 2 episodes. It's awesome so far.

I'm thinking about selling mine. But the shipping would be really high since the 5200 is so dang big. Is your old one gone for good? Because I also have an extra one that has a bad power switch. I can't quite figure out how that power switch worked, so if your old board is still there, maybe I could steal the power switch from it.

Same file. So either way is good.

I've downloaded it! Let me know how we can play together. One note to add to your instructions....the free version is listed as "TrackMania 1 Demo".

Ceds were the discs that had grooves, right? Like records, but for movies? Those would be cool to see! Post a picture when you have time please.

I did keep one file cabinet drawer full of vhs, and we do have 2 or 3 working vcrs. But this is probably 10% of what I had before.

One other bad aspect of VHS IMO is the tiny space on the box for artwork. Booklets are rarely included. DVDs are a little better in this regard. But Laserdisc blew them both away. Big beautiful covers that really let you SEE the great artwork for each movie. That's why I keep the 3 or so Laserdiscs I have...the great artwork for my favorite movies.

I think this is a case where new technology is a giant step forward. In my experience, I realized how much space VHS tapes take up after donating most of my collection to charity. They take up a lot of space and are really heavy cumulatively. DVD/Bluray are way better quality, lighter, smaller, and cheaper to boot. And players...you can buy a brand new DVD player for $20. True, it doesn't record. But good luck hooking up a VCR to anything but over-the-air to record anyways. My local library has a for sale section. VHS taps are 25 cents. DVD's are 50 cents. The VHS just sit there forever. I know folks still collect VHS, and I don't mean to disparage anyone. If it brings you joy, carry on. Laserdisc is another one I won't touch anymore. I have a few I keep. But they are so heavy and fragile....nope, nope, nope. I gave most of what I have away a long time ago. No regrets. I'm turning minimalist for some things in my old age

I haven't been to Goodwill since 2019! I found some pretty good junk today. The Enterprise-D toy is missing the nacelles, but I thought it was so cool, I went ahead and bought it anyway. Maybe I can find someone to 3d-print a set.

2'22"71

I remember one of the secrets of the old internet was a DVD player that could be hacked (via a secret menu) to remove the copy protection so you could do this very thing...record a DVD on a VCR for a near-perfect copy. Apex was the brand (a Chinese company), and I think the model was 2500a or something I had one. It didn't last long (cheap design that overheated). Those were the days.

I think you'd be pleased with this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-AMD-Radeon-R5-340-2GB-GDDR5-DisplayPort-DVI-PCIe-x-Video-Card-X0CVJ-Grade-A/274154687277?hash=item3fd4e48b2d:g:SU4AAOSwhQpdlP~u:sc:USPSFirstClass!97086!US!-1

I'd stay away. The 610 still won't use the latest drivers. It's about twice the speed of a 210, but I think you should aim higher.

MSI Afterburner is another overclock utility to try.

I don't know how comfortable you'd feel with overclocking that video card. Rivatuner could do it AND will show your framerates. It may give you a little more performance until you get your 750.

It's been unseasonably warm so far in Portland, OR USA. The coldest we've seen so far has been the high 30's (F). Mostly dry. It started raining this week, though. They are already talking about a drought this coming summer due to light snow pack in the Cascades.

Every time you say "210", I think of this beauty...the Datsun 210 Honey Bee: I haven't seen one of these in years. I would guess most of them were driven until the wheels fell off, never to be considered as "collector" cars. Yet, for me, I'd love to find one of these to restore. We had a good friend neighbor that bought one of these new in the 70's, so I have good memories. Maybe I'll look for one after the Subaru project is complete.

Check out this one. It's not NVidia...but performance is better than a 630 or 730: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-0Y7XRF-Y7XRF-AMD-Radeon-R5-340X-Video-Card-2GB-DDR5-TESTED/153752706901?hash=item23cc601f55:g:FBcAAOSwWZVd6vRZ

Thanks, @Justin! I want it to feel like the shelf at a department store in the 1980's. The boxes out on display bring me happiness. And there's room for a few more!

Go with a 730 over a 630. The performance is about the same, but the 730 supports the latest drivers and the 630 does not. Plus, no VGA out on that 630. Honestly, I think you'll be happy with anything that's faster than your 210. You do not need a monster or dual video cards to have some fun playing games. The most essential thing I think is really fast memory and a wide memory bus on the video card. Do not go near anything that has a 64 bit bus! 128 is the minimum. That 9600 GSO was a speedster back when I bought it new. It has a 192-bit bus, which was a rarity. Most 9600's had 128. And 1.5GB seemed huge at the time. It's always been kind of sad to me that old game consoles have value, but old PC hardware has none.

Just to alert everybody...today's free game at Epic is "The Talos Principle", which gets really good reviews and is normally priced at $40. It looks to be a first person puzzle game, similar to Portal. For me, that sounds awesome, and I'm going to give it a try.

The other really good programs I recommend are : CPU-Z and GPU-Z. They show a lot more detail on the CPU and memory, and the GPU. Here are three GPU-Z screenshots for my latest card, the 9600GSO, and a cheap Dell Radeon card (you can find these for $10). For you to compare to what you have now.

I don't know which program they use to show CPU and GPU usage during games, but I use a program called "Core Temp" to show CPU statistics on the desktop. It also shows good info about temperatures, the socket, physical cores vs. threads, etc. A very handy program to have. Here's what it shows for me:

There are two physical cores on all i3 processors. But with hyperthreading, they can handle 4 threads. Windows 10 considers those as normal cores. My CPU is a Core i7 with 4 physical cores, but Windows 10 shows 8 cores for the same reason. Also, when you get the CPUBOSS comparison, it will show you the type of socket they both use. If it's the same, you can use that other CPU in that board. And in most cases, going to a newer generation of CPU (starts with 4 vs. 3) is a good thing, even at lower clock speeds. Intel usually introduces efficiencies, smaller transistors (less heat), and larger cache. You probably wouldn't notice much when moving from a 3 to a 4....but moving from a 3 to a 7 would be very noticeable. I just looked, and these two CPU's use different sockets. So sadly, you can't use that 4330 on that motherboard. However, you can use any socket 1155 CPU on the board. So if you go to ebay (or ALIExpress) and occasionally search for "Intel 1155 CPU" and sort by price, you sometimes will find really nice CPU's for less than $10 shipped.