Flip Flopping between macOS and Windows

[jakey rolling]

I had a CoolerMaster from that era and the case looks similar with that little tray at the front of the top though there are vents on the top too. I don't think that it's quite as high. One of the things about older cases is the front ports. My current case is from 2020 but I do wish that it had USB-C ports on the front. USB 3.2 2x2 would be great or even better would be USB 4.0. I think that it's pretty unusual to fund USB 4.0 on front ports though. My workaround is to run a USB 3.2 extension cable from the back but it's still a hack. To upgrade, I'd need a new build which isn't happening with the price of parts today.

I hear you. I did at one point install a 3.5" USB 3.0 media bay into the machine which added the one USB 3.0 (USB-A) port and a bunch of different card readers. I use that one port occasionally for the odd USB thumb drive, but outside of that I don't have a lot of use for the front ports.

There is apparently a 20Gb/s USB header on the motherboard, so I had considered finding a new media bay to make that port available on the front, but haven't get gotten around to doing it.

I found someone selling an old build with a 932 case on Facebook marketplace, so am seeing if they'll sell just the case. If I'm able to nab it for a good price, I would be able to replace the front fan grille and then experiment with removing the top media bay entirely and finding a way to replace it with something more up to date (and without the blue LEDs - my only complaint with that case).

 

[pshufd]

I hear you. I did at one point install a 3.5" USB 3.0 media bay into the machine which added the one USB 3.0 (USB-A) port and a bunch of different card readers. I use that one port occasionally for the odd USB thumb drive, but outside of that I don't have a lot of use for the front ports.

There is apparently a 20Gb/s USB header on the motherboard, so I had considered finding a new media bay to make that port available on the front, but haven't get gotten around to doing it.

I found someone selling an old build with a 932 case on Facebook marketplace, so am seeing if they'll sell just the case. If I'm able to nab it for a good price, I would be able to replace the front fan grille and then experiment with removing the top media bay entirely and finding a way to replace it with something more up to date (and without the blue LEDs - my only complaint with that case).

I didn't think about putting in a media bay into one of the front bays. That might be an option to get more USB ports.

My motherboard has support for Thunderbolt 3 but I'd have to buy a card that uses the specialized port on the motherboard. I'd guess that front media bays probably don't support Thunderbolt 3 but USB would be good enough. Intel motherboards are funny in that they technically support Thunderbolt but it's a headache to actually get it to work.

 

[Steve Adams]

That's why I went with Noctura and over engineered the cooling, so that my desktop could near quiet. I also selected a CPU that had a lower TDP then others at the time.

While I'm not pushing the system, it still seems quite snappy, though I'm finding it more responsive under Linux then windows 11

I have my Dell XPS 8940 modified with all Noctua cooling as well. Got a 3d printed bracket for the front 120mm, used a modified mounting solution for the CPU cooler and installed a 92mm rear fan. The box is super quiet now with only the blower from the 2070 super making noise at full honk.

 

[Steve Adams]

I didn't think about putting in a media bay into one of the front bays. That might be an option to get more USB ports.

My motherboard has support for Thunderbolt 3 but I'd have to buy a card that uses the specialized port on the motherboard. I'd guess that front media bays probably don't support Thunderbolt 3 but USB would be good enough. Intel motherboards are funny in that they technically support Thunderbolt but it's a headache to actually get it to work.

Got a free PCI slot available? you can get TB 4 support that way I think.

 

[pshufd]

Got a free PCI slot available? you can get TB 4 support that way I think.

Yup. I've thought about it but the port would be out the back. I think that the card would be about $80 and it would be TB3, not TB4 as the motherboard only supports TB3.

A front media device would cost from $25 to $40 for what I looked at. My motherboard supports USB 3.2 Gen 2. If I wanted USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, I'd need to get a PCIe card with a connector to the front media device. 10 gbps would be fine though. I have 5 gbps through USB-A on the front but 10 would be a big improvement.

 

[pshufd]

I opened it up, removed the GTX 1660 Ti, and the 2 TB NVM2 Gen 3 SSD and put it in a tiny enclosure. I'm doing a 1.41 TB transfer and it's completely stable. I bought an old Orico cheap enclosure and it, of course, overheated all the time. The Gen 3 SSD, though, only uses 1-3 watts while my Evo 990 Plus uses 4-7 and I imagine my Pro 990 uses more. I'm getting 783 MBps write which I think is as good as it gets on USB 3.2 as Macs don't support USB 3.2 2X2. This would be the same speed on my Windows PC. I could also put this drive in a USB4 enclosure to get much higher speeds but the USB4 enclosure is huge and not really that portable. The size is for a heat sink and a fan.

I had a look at some of my old SATA 3 SSDs. I could put a 500+240+240 in the Windows PC just for more storage, mainly to use as virtual machine drives to play around with that other operating system that begins with an L. So this is all nice for now. I refuse to buy SSDs at these prices but it helps to have more storage than I need, even if I have to dig out old SSDs.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I opened it up, removed the GTX 1660 Ti, and the 2 TB NVM2 Gen 3 SSD and put it in a tiny enclosure. I'm doing a 1.41 TB transfer and it's completely stable. I bought an old Orico cheap enclosure and it, of course, overheated all the time. The Gen 3 SSD, though, only uses 1-3 watts while my Evo 990 Plus uses 4-7 and I imagine my Pro 990 uses more. I'm getting 783 MBps write which I think is as good as it gets on USB 3.2 as Macs don't support USB 3.2 2X2. This would be the same speed on my Windows PC. I could also put this drive in a USB4 enclosure to get much higher speeds but the USB4 enclosure is huge and not really that portable. The size is for a heat sink and a fan.

I had a look at some of my old SATA 3 SSDs. I could put a 500+240+240 in the Windows PC just for more storage, mainly to use as virtual machine drives to play around with that other operating system that begins with an L. So this is all nice for now. I refuse to buy SSDs at these prices but it helps to have more storage than I need, even if I have to dig out old SSDs.

These prices will drive a person to hoard LOL. I literally decided to upgrade my gaming laptop from a 4060. Was looking for something in the 5070Ti range, but instead got a 5090. Hopefully by the time I need a replacement laptop for a 5090, the bubble has already popped and prices have regained sanity.

 

[Steve Adams]

I am going to sell my current XPS 8940 for much more than I paid for it. I have 128gb of DDR4 in it so I could probably get 7-900 dollars cdn for that right now. ha ha. 2070 super is another grand. ha ah.

 

[maflynn]

I need a replacement laptop for a 5090, the bubble has already popped and prices have regained sanity.

Yeah, I'm just not going to upgrade//buy new. I may not have the most potent GPU in my PC, but it works well enough and I'm quite happy with my Studio

 

[LiE_]

Work approved 13” M5 MBA 24/512 in silver. That’s me fully back to Apple.

This does mean I can be confident both my machines running the Asus 5k 165hz monitor at high refresh rate.

 

[pshufd]

Work approved 13” M5 MBA 24/512 in silver. That’s me fully back to Apple.

This does mean I can be confident both my machines running the Asus 5k 165hz monitor at high refresh rate.

It can make you feel good about the place you work at.

 

[maflynn]

Work approved 13” M5 MBA 24/512 in silver. That’s me fully back to Apple.

This does mean I can be confident both my machines running the Asus 5k 165hz monitor at high refresh rate.

So are we talking 2, maybe 3 weeks before you build a new computer 😛

 

[eltoslightfoot]

So are we talking 2, maybe 3 weeks before you build a new computer 😛

That long??? 😉

 

[LeeW]

Work approved 13” M5 MBA 24/512 in silver. That’s me fully back to Apple.

This does mean I can be confident both my machines running the Asus 5k 165hz monitor at high refresh rate.

Good workplace, or patient at least. I would have fired you to be honest.

 

[LiE_]

Good workplace, or patient at least. I would have fired you to be honest.

Well the machine I have which I find too noisy is going to a new team member who is due a refresh anyway, so 1 less machine to buy. The lower spec machine I'll be sending back to the pool which will again be reused. It's no bother to a large corporation like the one I work for, a MBA is a tiny cost. I'm senior in my role and work closely with those who source devices so it's not an issue. You don't fire the team lead over something so small when the value my team delivers is in the millions each year.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Well the machine I have which I find too noisy is going to a new team member who is due a refresh anyway, so 1 less machine to buy. The lower spec machine I'll be sending back to the pool which will again be reused. It's no bother to a large corporation like the one I work for, a MBA is a tiny cost. I'm senior in my role and work closely with those who source devices so it's not an issue. You don't fire the team lead over something so small when the value my team delivers is in the millions each year.

I'm just surprised that you have that much issue with noise on a work laptop. I also work for an extremely large organization, and when at the office I use the Dell laptop they gave me. It's only loud very infrequently, as I only use a laptop to log into other servers to do dev work anyway.

Out of the office, I just use my home PC and use the stupidly named "Windows" app to remote in. But again, zero fan noise from my Lenovo Legion 16" Pro 7 with Intel 275HX and RTX 5090. Now when I game it can get somewhat loud, but during normal usage, it's dead quiet. What are you doing on your local work machines?

 

[pshufd]

I'm just surprised that you have that much issue with noise on a work laptop. I also work for an extremely large organization, and when at the office I use the Dell laptop they gave me. It's only loud very infrequently, as I only use a laptop to log into other servers to do dev work anyway.

Out of the office, I just use my home PC and use the stupidly named "Windows" app to remote in. But again, zero fan noise from my Lenovo Legion 16" Pro 7 with Intel 275HX and RTX 5090. Now when I game it can get somewhat loud, but during normal usage, it's dead quiet. What are you doing on your local work machines?

I had an issue with noise too as did others. 13 inch MacBook Pro 2015. You could hear the fans on Zoom meetings.

I bought a refurb 2015 15 inch, put all of the company's security software on it and just used that instead of the 13. I got permission from legal to do so.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I had an issue with noise too as did others. 13 inch MacBook Pro 2015. You could hear the fans on Zoom meetings.

I bought a refurb 2015 15 inch, put all of the company's security software on it and just used that instead of the 13. I got permission from legal to do so.

13 inch Macbook Pro 2015? As in Intel? Interesting...yeah that thing was loud. As were windows laptops at the time. That was a decade ago.

 

[pshufd]

13 inch Macbook Pro 2015? As in Intel? Interesting...yeah that thing was loud. As were windows laptops at the time. That was a decade ago.

There was a huge difference between the 13 and the 15. The 15 was quad-core so the cores could run at lower frequencies and there was more room for improved airflow.

 

[LiE_]

I'm just surprised that you have that much issue with noise on a work laptop. I also work for an extremely large organization, and when at the office I use the Dell laptop they gave me. It's only loud very infrequently, as I only use a laptop to log into other servers to do dev work anyway.

Out of the office, I just use my home PC and use the stupidly named "Windows" app to remote in. But again, zero fan noise from my Lenovo Legion 16" Pro 7 with Intel 275HX and RTX 5090. Now when I game it can get somewhat loud, but during normal usage, it's dead quiet. What are you doing on your local work machines?

These Dell laptops run hot and connected to a 4k monitor the fans are always whirring away.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

These Dell laptops run hot and connected to a 4k monitor the fans are always whirring away.

Not mine, literally connected all day as a second monitor (4k) and no fans. But it is only a few years old?

 

[LiE_]

Not mine, literally connected all day as a second monitor (4k) and no fans. But it is only a few years old?

I think part of the problem is how many apps the standard build runs. It’s health insurance so we are heavily regulated so there are a ton of things running on the machine for security.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I think part of the problem is how many apps the standard build runs. It’s health insurance so we are heavily regulated so there are a ton of things running on the machine for security.

It really could be. I can't go into detail about my situation, but the crapload of background things running on mine is crazy LOL! At one point they had three antivirus programs and two conflicted with each other--thinking the other was a virus! That was not good for anyone. It's honestly why I prefer just remoting in with the Windows App. Then I get to use my laptop with the beastly specs and 16" screen. Ah well, "Return to Office" came for us all here in the states.

 

[Snow4maen]

I'm currently on a basic but well built PC. NOT a gaming PC, as I have no dedicated graphics. It's doing me great service and by and large I am happy. I think it cost £600 built. For that I have a 1TB SSD, and 16gigs Ram. And I probably don't even use all that RAM. I AM using around 500gb on the SSD. All I use my computer for is basic computing like browsing, word processing, email. Listening to MP3's, and some basic photo editing, and it's fine for my level of music making. All my creative stuff. All is well for now.

However. I just checked on prices for a 'next' computer, what to get after this one. And of course a Mac is ALWAYS a consideration. If I look on my preferred vendors website, the 'pre built' systems that are seemingly a good price, all cheap out on the PSU and Cooling. I'm not comfortable with that.

If I spec to build even a basic PC, I'm looking at over £1k. If I then want to spec that machine so it can actually manage with some ease 4k video editing, the CPU, and GPU need to be much better and it's going to cost closer to 2k.

Budget is super important to me, I am on very little funds. I CAN save, but it will take some time.

Any M series chip will comfortably edit 4k, for much more advanced edits you may need more RAM, perhaps a Pro chip?

Even a MacBook Neo can edit basic 4k.

I never thought I would be in a situation where an Apple computer is the best budget computer on the market? Mac's were always premium, yes arguably better built certainly back in the day, but you had to PAY. Now, a Mac mini, or MacBook Neo can be had for what? £700? And look at what you can do with them.

I'm kinda pleasantly surprised to seem to be coming to the conclusion that my next computer, which needs to be a budget computer, will most likely be a Mac!

These days I am NOT a gamer, I just got kinda fed up with them. So I don't need a gaming PC, I just need a computer, and the most budget friendly one right now is a Mac.

I like using Windows. I like the install wizard that also doubles as an uninstaller so you can get rid of all the files. I have no issue with Windows Explorer. And I do LOVE the way Word works so nicely on a PC.

I'm always willing to change my mind, I am flexible. But if I want to do the tasks I want to do, a Mac is great value now.

 

[Steve Adams]

I'm currently on a basic but well built PC. NOT a gaming PC, as I have no dedicated graphics. It's doing me great service and by and large I am happy. I think it cost £600 built. For that I have a 1TB SSD, and 16gigs Ram. And I probably don't even use all that RAM. I AM using around 500gb on the SSD. All I use my computer for is basic computing like browsing, word processing, email. Listening to MP3's, and some basic photo editing, and it's fine for my level of music making. All my creative stuff. All is well for now.

However. I just checked on prices for a 'next' computer, what to get after this one. And of course a Mac is ALWAYS a consideration. If I look on my preferred vendors website, the 'pre built' systems that are seemingly a good price, all cheap out on the PSU and Cooling. I'm not comfortable with that.

If I spec to build even a basic PC, I'm looking at over £1k. If I then want to spec that machine so it can actually manage with some ease 4k video editing, the CPU, and GPU need to be much better and it's going to cost closer to 2k.

Budget is super important to me, I am on very little funds. I CAN save, but it will take some time.

Any M series chip will comfortably edit 4k, for much more advanced edits you may need more RAM, perhaps a Pro chip?

Even a MacBook Neo can edit basic 4k.

I never thought I would be in a situation where an Apple computer is the best budget computer on the market? Mac's were always premium, yes arguably better built certainly back in the day, but you had to PAY. Now, a Mac mini, or MacBook Neo can be had for what? £700? And look at what you can do with them.

I'm kinda pleasantly surprised to seem to be coming to the conclusion that my next computer, which needs to be a budget computer, will most likely be a Mac!

These days I am NOT a gamer, I just got kinda fed up with them. So I don't need a gaming PC, I just need a computer, and the most budget friendly one right now is a Mac.

I like using Windows. I like the install wizard that also doubles as an uninstaller so you can get rid of all the files. I have no issue with Windows Explorer. And I do LOVE the way Word works so nicely on a PC.

I'm always willing to change my mind, I am flexible. But if I want to do the tasks I want to do, a Mac is great value now.

I am in the same boat. I went and tried the new MacBook Pro at the store here since I was in the City. I love the feel etc of it. I am willing to drop some money on a refurb unit, but I am ever wondering if I will gel with MacOS or not. I love the performance and build quality though. It's one of those things where you don't know until it's too late or just right.