Ask L1Techs Anything!

Goalkeeper · February 17, 2019, 12:24am

Welcome to the forum!

SgtAwesomesauce · February 17, 2019, 2:23am

I think this is worth a whole community discussion. I’ve actually got a lot of thoughts on this and I’ve got both a mid-tower PC for gaming and an ultrabook with a eGPU, so I think I can provide a pretty good opinion of both. “extremes”.

freqlabs · February 17, 2019, 7:07am

How many questions do I get?

blackfire · February 17, 2019, 10:28am

That was it. Sorry

anotherriddle · February 17, 2019, 1:54pm

Ideally I’d like each of you to answer these separately :

What is your favourite pet project that you’d like to work on the most (if you had enough time and resources).
Which product you can think of (hardware, software, cookies, anything really,…) in your mind is the closest to being perfect.

Thanks for all the interesting content and your work! I really enjoy the niche hardware and Linux stuff the most and I’m happy like a child about any video in that area. … also Krista’s rare design related content!

wertigon · February 17, 2019, 4:18pm

Started a discussion on the Hardware -> Build your own PC forum, not sure if that is the best place to put it but…

The future of the PC Gaming form factor Build a PC

These last few days I’ve started thinking about the future of the form factor hardware. With the advent of new technology, the need for a classic 1990s full-tower PC for state-of-the-art gaming has all but disappeared. First the need for a 3.5" floppy went away. Then optical media disappeared. Then the 3.5" mechanical harddrive got replaced by 2.5" SSDs, and then even those got put into the m.2 form factor. The need for expansion cards for mice and joysticks disappeared with the advent of USB, and a dedicated sound card was no longer necessary once on-board motherboard sound circuits were good enough. With the advent of Ryzen 2400G, a discrete GPU seems to be next, as Ryzen 2400G today can rival many sub-$100 cards in performance, too - and the gap between embedded and discrete GPUs looks like it will close pretty soon. So with all this in mind, it sure looks like the only two parts necessary for a full blown gaming rig will be a motherboard and a PSU. Do you think this will transform the form factor of a standard desktop PC to something less bulky, and would that be something many gamers and PC enthusiasts will strive for? Is there merit in shrinking the size of your PC case, or would you prefer to have the full tower ATX form factor until they pry it from your cold, dead fingers? Will the next gen integrated GPU from AMD be strong enough to rival the $200 cards, and is this form factor available already today for serious gaming? Would love to hear your input on this!

Argone · February 17, 2019, 6:55pm

Not likely. Discrete will always be more powerful. Integrated has many issues. Heat dissipation is one, performance is another. APUs are only good for mobile space and lowend desktops. Cores are increasing, performance too. But with more cores means less space for powerful gpu integrations. 200 dollar card will still be more powerful than 100 dollar apu.

MazeFrame · February 17, 2019, 7:10pm

Has to be heat and memory access, allthough the second one can be reduced by placing HBM on the CPU interposer.

I would guess you meant that the other way round. Then you have to keep in mind the cost of GPU + CPU versus APU.

Argone · February 17, 2019, 7:21pm

His point was that a future apu is catching up to 200 dollar card performance. I am saying 2 years from now a apu may be as powerful in graphics terms as a 200 dollar card that is a few years old. So by then a 200 dollar card at the time will outperform a 100 - 150 dollar apu.

flazza · February 18, 2019, 12:53pm

What is the oldest piece of still functional hardware that you have?

Functional == still good enough to do everything its supposed to do

Enwyn · February 18, 2019, 3:23pm

Would @ryan recommend a keyboard for me? It needs to have RGB.

anotherriddle · February 18, 2019, 4:45pm

oh, I like that one!

flazza · February 18, 2019, 4:48pm

It could be anything really…

from a mistreated network switch that’s survived wars to a box you just had running in a corner somewhere doing ‘a thing’ that is so rock solid it has become known as ‘old faithful’.

Sometimes it’s hard decommissioning old tech as you know full well it had a lot more life left in it.

nx2l · February 18, 2019, 4:51pm

Are you (any of you) going to the LTT expo?

reavessm · February 18, 2019, 5:04pm

Have/Would any of you use Gentoo? Why or why not?

Argone · February 18, 2019, 5:41pm

OG Sega Genesis.

RevampedTech · February 18, 2019, 10:35pm

Wendell

Mazen1 · February 19, 2019, 6:03am

what is your thought in afterlife and life outside of the solar system?

what do you think about the AI do you have any fear?

describe these words with a short phrase:

Death, Racism, Art, Joy, pleasure, Anime, America, Apple, Religion.

Thank you

sycpuppy · February 19, 2019, 8:09am

Spork, Foon or Splayd?

Zibob · February 19, 2019, 10:35am

Pfft, the Mega Drive was better.

I am still amazed America, land of excess and all thing ridiculous got a console called genesis where everywhere else it was the Mega Drive. It sounds so american.