RickR Posted August 15 Report Share Posted August 15 On 8/7/2024 at 1:30 PM, RickR said: Nothing terribly exciting, but I got the really nice mini-pc and mounted it to the wall in my garage. It takes up a lot less space than the old desktop I had underneath the workbench. It has an Intel 8-series i5 (6 cores), 16 GB, and room enough for an M.2 drive and a physical hard drive to send backups to. An update - I liked the mini-pc so much I got another. So the garage will now sport an AMD Ryzen 5 (6 core/12 thread) system and the core-i5 will go to my wife. Her current desktop is nice, but it won't run Windows 11 without hacks. I figure since she pays bills and does banking, it makes sense to have Win 11 there with all the latest security patches. Super simple to swap that other PC in the garage with my homemade wall bracket. DegasElite and Smell Dawg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted August 27 Report Share Posted August 27 Got these today... sramirez2008, RickR, DegasElite and 1 other 4 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted August 28 Report Share Posted August 28 Got these today... DegasElite, RickR and Smell Dawg 3 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted September 2 Report Share Posted September 2 (edited) Another silly one from me. I've purchased three of these external USB DVD drives. Since I've converted all desktops in the house to these mini PC's, I needed some way to watch movies or load data from DVD. It also seems that none of my laptops have a DVD drive either! Anyway, these things work fine and it's kind of nice to just put them away when not in use. They are cheap and easy to find used. Interestingly, they are actually bigger than the PC itself! Edited September 2 by RickR DegasElite, sramirez2008 and MaximumRD 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sramirez2008 Posted September 2 Report Share Posted September 2 15 minutes ago, RickR said: Another silly one from me. I've purchased three of these external USB DVD drives. Since I've converted all desktops in the house to these mini PC's, I needed some way to watch movies or load data from DVD. It also seems that none of my laptops have a DVD drive either! Anyway, these things work fine and it's kind of nice to just put them away when not in use. They are cheap and easy to find used. Interestingly, they are actually bigger than the PC itself! Hmm. I could a couple of these myself. Your right, current crop of laptops seemed to have abandoned DVD drives. I apologize if I missed it, but can you provide a link to these? -Thanks. DegasElite 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted September 2 Report Share Posted September 2 5 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said: Hmm. I could a couple of these myself. Your right, current crop of laptops seemed to have abandoned DVD drives. I apologize if I missed it, but can you provide a link to these? -Thanks. I got mine from a local source. But they are plentiful on ebay. Expect to pay between $10-$20 each, shipped. Or look at your local thrift shops. sramirez2008 and DegasElite 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted September 8 Report Share Posted September 8 Got this yesterday. Amazon had it on sale for $4! RickR, DegasElite and sramirez2008 3 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted September 8 Report Share Posted September 8 Great deal. I've read that one and enjoyed it very much. DegasElite 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted September 8 Report Share Posted September 8 2 hours ago, RickR said: Great deal. I've read that one and enjoyed it very much. Cool! Hard not to get given the deal Amazon was offering! RickR and DegasElite 2 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted Wednesday at 11:27 PM Report Share Posted Wednesday at 11:27 PM (edited) An 11" MacBook Air. I got it for free...missing the proprietary SSD drive. I ordered a used SSD from ebay for $15, did the Internet Recovery, and the machine works great. It is OLD...from 2014. The OS is version 11 (Big Sur). Still works fine for browsing and stuff like that. Edited Saturday at 01:42 AM by RickR TrekMD, DegasElite and MaximumRD 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted Saturday at 10:06 AM Report Share Posted Saturday at 10:06 AM On 9/11/2024 at 7:27 PM, RickR said: An 11" MacBook Air. I got it for free...missing the proprietary SSD drive. I ordered a used SSD from ebay for $15, did the Internet Recovery, and the machine works great. It is OLD...from 2014. The OS is version 11 (Big Sur). Still works fine for browsing and stuff like that. That’s really incredible, Rick! Do you have recommendations as to where I can find such awesome deals on Macs like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted Saturday at 02:27 PM Report Share Posted Saturday at 02:27 PM (edited) 4 hours ago, Justin said: That’s really incredible, Rick! Do you have recommendations as to where I can find such awesome deals on Macs like that? Absolutely! But your mileage may vary... In my case, it means being involved with the local retro community. Go to the meetups and listen, learn, and share your knowledge. Make friends and be a connector. Give more than you take. Recently, I found myself with a PowerMac 5100 that needed some work. So I got in touch with local experts and asked a bunch of questions and tried to learn as much as I could. Once I realized how much those guys love these old machines, I decided just to give it away to one of them. I was honest about it. I didn't know the old macs that well, and frankly, I had trouble lifting it in/out of my car because of the super heavy CRT. Anyway, once people get to know you, opportunities arise. A "too heavy" bit of honesty results in someone offering a tiny old laptop with no SSD and a ton of stickers on it. So that is my advice. Get to know people. Be involved and nice. Let your friends know you collect old stuff. Sure enough, things come up. But the biggest thing is to always be willing to give more than you get. Your knowledge, old parts, whatever people need. Always try to make it a win-win for everyone involved. Another example...I have a neighbor who knows modern computers about as well as I do, and we've found a connection because we both are willing to clean up and assemble computers and give them away to others in the community. I might need a keyboard to make a full setup, and maybe he needs a monitor. And so there we go. We swap parts, or set up an assembly line. I didn't mean to write a novel, but there you go. I will say that none of this is easy for me. I'm naturally shy. But it is totally worth the effort. Most people are cool and nice and it's a lot of fun to see the enthusiasm for old stuff. Edited Saturday at 02:28 PM by RickR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted 21 hours ago Report Share Posted 21 hours ago These arrived yesterday... The Pixel Watch 3, 45 mm face. To trade my Watch 2. 3D printed Atari pumpkin for fall/Halloween decor... MaximumRD, sramirez2008 and RickR 3 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sramirez2008 Posted 17 hours ago Report Share Posted 17 hours ago 3 hours ago, TrekMD said: These arrived yesterday... The Pixel Watch 3, 45 mm face. To trade my Watch 2. 3D printed Atari pumpkin for fall/Halloween decor... These are cool. I received a notice from Etsy about the pumpkin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted 15 hours ago Report Share Posted 15 hours ago The pumpkin looks really good. For some reason, the colors are washed out on the picture. I tried various ways of taking the picture but it always came out the same. The orange is very bright, as it should be. RickR and sramirez2008 2 Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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