And what did we buy today?

I built the big ugly single box things back in the 8088 and 80286 days. They looked more like a TRS80 model two than an Osborne though. I tried my best to make it look like a Tektronix 4051, but flat CRT's were not available to experimenters in the early 80's. I did a few of Compaq clones too, both the CRT and LCD flavors. I paid the part of my college tuition that Motorola didn't cover by building and selling PC clones. My slogan....Get your mem-ry for nothing and your chips for free.

This one will look more like a regular laptop with a thicker than usual bottom half to accommodate off the shelf motherboards and a bunch of LiFePO4 cells. I don't want smoking lithium in a wooden box!

I now have the 4K display running with a modern motherboard and a core i7-7700T chip. This combo IS rated for 4K at 30Hz and it plays 4K video real nice. Now it's time to figure out how to stuff everything I need into the smallest possible box.
 
That way you will have 4K @ 60Hz.

I don't play games, so 60Hz is not needed. A GTX 1050 Ti, even if I could fit it in the box, would blow the power budget big time. All of my current PCs do not have any video card at all except the one I use for watching 4K video. It has a budget ($89) video card that will do 4K / 60.

I purposely selected a Core i7-7700T chip for it's low power (25 watts max) even though it cost some performance. I also tested all the RAM sticks that I have and chose the parts with the lowest power consumption while running Prime 95 at full throttle.

There has been speculation that the "T" versions, and the "K" versions are actually speed gradeouts of the same silicon. The "T" chips have the clock multiplier locked to a lower speed than the regular (no suffix) parts. Intel claims other power reduction methods are also used. The plain versions have the multiplier locked at the rated clock speed, while the "K" versions are unlocked to allow any clock speed in an "overclockers" motherboard. This allows warp speed with the possible risk of the dilithium crystals melting!

Would a "K" version running underclocked at the same speed as the "T" part consume less power than the "T" part? If so, I could crank up the speed and power if the computer was plugged in to a wall outlet. I wasn't going to buy two chips if that didn't pan out, so I got the "T" part. Speed testing has shown that the "T" part is sufficient for my needs.
 
Are you sure you don't need 60Hz?......but in the old CRT days my eyes would get much more strained watching refresh rates less than 60.

I am typing this on a budget 43 inch 4K TV set ($229). It is running at 4K / 29 Hz on a PC that has no video card. The PC also drives a 27 inch computer monitor at 1080 / 60 Hz. Both are always active. I have the icons and secondary stuff on the small screen and the active work on the big one. It just works out better for my aging eyeballs. I have been using it that way for a year and a half. No flicker at all. All morning I have been working on a PCB layout. Board on the big screen, schematic on the small one.

I had to run my CRT monitors at 60Hz as well. Most CRT monitors were interlaced scan. Half the lines were scanned, then the other half. That makes the apparent refresh rate half the scan rate. Most movies that are shot on film use 24 frames / sec. We don't see the flicker at the movie theater.

New movies that are shot on video equipment or built in a CGI lab do use a higher frame rate, and many movie theaters use a digital projection system. Some even use twin projectors to raise the resolution. If you look carefully you can sometimes see a vertical seam in the center if the projectors are not set up right.

The built in video in the newer Intel chips simply drop entire frames if the whole path (video chip / HDMI path / monitor or TV) can't keep up with the intended frame rate. There is no obvious degradation on static images, and very little on video with limited motion. Where it is really obvious is when a large scene is panned or zoomed. In this situation the entire image is changed with each new frame. That is the only reason for the video card in the other PC.

but it sure wasn't 90 bucks - more like $200.

It was a closeout Gigabyte card with an ATI chip from Newegg. An equivalent Nvidia card was quite a bit more. I'm not spending $200 on a video card to feed a $250 TV set. If I do get into video editing, even at 1080 I will have to upgrade the video card, but I don't have time for that yet. Rendering or scaling video needs processing power in the PC and the video card.
 

PRR

Member
Joined 2003
Paid Member
....CRT monitors at 60Hz ... film use 24 frames / sec. We don't see the flicker at the movie theater....

Film shows you a WHOLE frame more than half the time.

CRT is a tiny dot, the screen is really mostly blank, the eye has to accumulate the image. Have to scan that dot more often than you pull-down the film.

LCD/LED today may be "static"? Write the picture and the dots stay lit the whole time? Then for some users frame-rate is only about getting a "snappy response" when you scroll your spreadsheet without paying a heap for fast interfaces. If a movie renders at a slower rate, that can work, and I know I have seen the "stutter" when framerate is a random non-integer to the display rate. Obviously if the centipede shooter has really fast action, a higher framerate may shave 10mS off your kill-speed.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2017
I actually have quite a bit of experience dealing with T series chips and I can tell you that if you are on a tight power budget that onboard video is the only way you will get it running from batteries. I've built my system the same way, I have a G4400T with a GTX 1050 (non-TI, was cheaper, $160 AUD) and from memory I think the entire system consumes about 40 watts with the graphics card plugged into the motherboard while under load and 26-30 watts at idle, jumping around every so often. This is with a lightened version of Windows 10 Pro that I've rolled myself which does make a small 5 watt difference.

As for the difference between K and T chips, the T chips also run at a lower voltage and some features turned off. All in the name of saving power. As far as I can see the only difference between the K and T is the lower clock speeds so your theory that the die's are the same is probably true.

It didn't used to be like that, T series chips used to have features turned off.

Anyway. If you want to break the 20 watt barrier the only way you can do it is by using the onboard intel gpu. I've managed to get my power consumption down to as low as 15 watts from the wall, with a Bronze PSU. I can do better with a Gold PSU.

I've built my system so that I can run it off an off-grid solar power system, including the 4K TV, but my power budget is somewhat higher than yours Tubelab and I am able to run the television (30-50 watts depending upon brightness) and my pc off of an inverter without any problems for at least 6 hours a day with sufficient sunlight.
 
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After the last two laptop computers I bought failed prematurely with neither big name manufacturer willing to actually support their product or honor their warantee, I have decided to build my own. As expected parts and mechanical assembly are the biggest issues.



I have been down this road before with varying degrees of success. The cases have all been modified briefcases, hard plastic waterproof transport cases meant for field equipment like guns and cameras, or DIY wood construction. Some of my "portable PC's" have deviated from the traditional laptop form factor with my last one being a simple wood box with speakers and a display on one side. The keyboard is a detached wireless Logitech.



This time I think I will go more towards a traditional laptop form factor but the actual shape and size isn't finalized. This will be a high performance unit with field audio recording, MIDI, and RF measurement capability.



One of the necessary implements of building a laptop is a display screen. My preference was for a 17 inch screen. While searching the usual outlets I found a 15.6 inch screen with 4K resolution direct order from China.


You’re building a laptop in a wooden box?! Man, I’d love to see a pic of that. Does it run on 300Bs?

But to build that beautiful monstrosity and run windows on it?!

Run an open source Linux based os... if you are hesitant because you tried Linux in 1995 and couldn’t get your dialup modem recognized, give it another chance. It’s come a very long way, even in the past few years. Ubuntu as well as Linux Mint (More windows-like interface) are both excellent options for first timers. Also when building yourself you can have the added foresight of choosing parts that are out of the box compatible without 3rd party drivers.

And it’s free! And it embodies the DIY ethos!

For a laptop my suggestion would be to get a Sager / Clevo 17” Shell then put your own parts in.

Wayyyy less hacking and fiddling to do than a diy laptop enclosure.

Have built several mobile-workstation-performance editing laptops in these in the past that have outlived all of their peers, including their desktop counterparts, by a solid margin. I love them.

You’ve probably never heard of the brand but there’s a huge cult following of folks that use and swear by these cases.

Built like tanks. Spend the $$ on something upgradable and hi quality and you can keep it for the long haul, rather than dump money into quick fixes.

If you want to minimize expense grab a shell or used populated model off eBay for a song and go to town. I noticed a P375SM on there on a quick peek that looks enticing.

Don’t let price for specification mislead you. Not all things are created equal. Just as an example, displays are rated for their quality. Apple, LG and Samsung take a lot of the high A rated display panels for their flagship stuff, once you get to bargain no name retailers the quality and reliability drops off fast.

Also, resolution is by far not the only quality factor.... resolution is kind of like the THD spec of monitors. Could be a thread (or forum) unto itself, so I’ll leave it at that.

Just my two cents.... I’m sure you have your own vision as well.

But, it was refreshing to be able to actually contribute to a topic here with any degree of comprehension for a change.
 
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I have always built my own desktop pc's from parts.
I usually buy a motherboard, CPU and RAM bundle.
I currently run a Skylake processor running at 4.7GHz.

Nott sure my woodworking skills are up to laptop !
I would have thought cooling wood be an issue with wood ?
I guess if it has a fan and is vented it should be fine.

I have had a couple of laptops and not had any problems, just speed after being used to a desktop. I just turn it on and go make a coffee while it boots up.
 
You’re building a laptop in a wooden box?! Man, I’d love to see a pic of that. Does it run on 300Bs?

I tend toward budget tubes.....maybe a hand full of TV sweep tubes from the $1 menu......no wait, wrong project.....That is a different wooden box....coming soon. It and the laptop will be posted here, on my web site, or both when it gets done. There are too many wood projects backing up now and the weather isn't up to dragging the table saw out on the driveway yet......more snow tonight.

But to build that beautiful monstrosity and run windows on it?!

Unfortunately Windows is a necessity just because some of my most often used software needs it. Dual boot with a modern Linux flavor is a possibility too because writing code for a Windows box is nearly impossible these days. It has been a few years since I spent a lot of time on a Linux box. It ran open Suse 11.something and W7, dual boot.

get a Sager / Clevo 17” Shell then put your own parts in.

From what I can see after some searching around they are limited to components (motherboard, etc...) that are designed for the laptop form factor. For budget reasons I'm using desktop / carputer parts. I will be repurposing the components I used to build the "box PC" that I built last year. It worked great, but was just too big with it's 20 inch screen and large speakers. Best sounding portable PC you ever heard, but nearly impossible to use in the passenger seat of a car.

I also envision some sort of plug in or other form of detachable interface module so that the laptop / portable PC could be used for several field / remote tasks of a widely varied nature. Say plug in a multi channel audio interface and do multi track audio recording in a church, then pop that out plug in a ham radio module and head to a mountain top to talk to the world.

I'm currently thinking about building the prototype in a briefcase that I got at a yard sale for $2 just to see how that form factor works out.

Nott sure my woodworking skills are up to laptop !

10 years of night time woodworking classes has raised my skill level from scrap pine boards and sheetrock screws to passable amp chassis and speaker cabinets. I'm still a long way from "furniture grade" and will never get there, but I can make something usable. If it works out good, it's going to get banged up anyway.
 
Well, my ebay battle over the satellite dish is hopefully winding down, I seem to have won, but this seller is so greasy I'm not celebrating yet. It's also been an interesting learning process for me.

The best tip I can give anybody who has to go through it is to remain patient and absolutely remember that the seller is not in control. Even after I won my 1st escalation to ebay customer service, he appeared to be intentionally bluffing that he was still in control, dictating terms, and able to close my return unilaterally.

As for those who say that this could have been avoided by looked at seller ratings, he was above 98%, had the big "top rated seller" ribbon and some other plateau ribbon as well.

As for my recent purchases, grabbed a twin LNB, RG coax stripper, and one of those atmega328 transistor testers on the aliexpress anniversary sale. Today is central vacuum shopping day for the new house.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2017
98% positive feedback is actually quite high and means that they are being a bad seller. I would avoid a 98% feedback seller like the plague unless I had no other choice and even then I just wouldn't, I would go out of my way and go on the web to buy an item if the only option was buying from a 98% feedback ebay seller. Just think, if 2% of your grocery shopping went missing every month wouldn't you get pissed off? That 2% is also against the entire history of the seller's feedback history, so he could have had 100% feedback for the last 3 years and then suddenly decided to rip 50% that he sells to off, but his feedback will still show 98% despite him ripping off 50% of his customers and not delivering.

And that doesn't take into account the number of buyers who have lapsed on the 60 day feedback limit, while waiting for their items to arrive, have been patient, and forgot about the 60 day window and are no longer able to leave feedback, that seller then doesn't get the black eye that he deserves. Because the buyer thinks that the guy is good, because he has at least 98% feedback, so he must be good the buyer thinks, its just lost in the mail, or its a slow mail day. So they continue to wait, and by then its too late.

eBay can be dicey sometimes if you don't have experience. If you wait too long for the parcel to arrive you no longer have the ability to leave negative feedback. Due to my location it can take as long as 2 months for an item from HK to arrive, I'm ok with doing this mainly because I'm used to it and as far as I'm concerned as long as it arrives I'm happy, the price is right. But sometimes it doesn't go as planned. Pretty rare though.

When I find a fast shipping seller I usually stick to them like glue and just plain remember their names in my head, that way when I search for an item storewide I don't have to check if they're in my favourites list. The favourite seller list is utterly useless.

For example when buying things during Nov-Dec it can take until January or even Feburary (or march) for items to arrive from HK, but by the time 60 days comes and goes I've lost the ability to leave negative feedback. But its 75/25 if the item arrives by that point.

solaluna88 seller has been notorious for escaping negative feedback by quoting extremely long shipping times and then never actually delivering the item at all. and therefore escaping the 60 day feedback time limit. Very infuriating and I'm refusing to buy from him anymore.

There is also the postal service who gets angry at HK junk clogging up their vans, I'm convinced that the posties just toss the HK crap into whatever van or post box they happen to come across. I'm convinced that at least 2 items that I've bought over the years has been due to this.

eBay for a very long time have sided with cheap HK sellers too in the fact that not only do their items show up first before locally sold ones do (even if you search for "Australia Only", HK sellers still say they're in Sydney, though if you click on the seller name it will show the seller is really from HK).

Best advice I can give is to buy locally as a priority over overseas sellers, thats what I do now, but if the price is too high I'll go overseas, and buy from ebay sellers who also have a brick and mortar store or a storefront in the same country as you do, until you really know your stuff on eBay. You can kinda sorta filter out HK sellers by setting a price range for items that you expect to pay for it if it were to come from Australia. For example I would expect to pay a minimum of $20 for a soldering iron but no more than $50. And all the HK sellers will fall into the <$20 category, and this method does work!

Like for example I would buy from a seller who has been on eBay for at least 5-10 years and who has an ABN and a legit properly registered store name. I would stick to those sellers for the time being until you begin to recognize the signs that a seller is a bad apple. Usually through trial an error. A good rule of thumb for HK sellers though is 100% positive feedback, stick to those sellers and you'll be right.

Its kinda difficult, and requires luck too, to get stuff from HK, but the ratio of bad sellers to good ones is very high, I very rarely never get an item. Maybe 98% of all products I've ever bought have arrived from both HK and Nationally. Which still beats the local prices of a 10x markup in the prices of items.

One item from HK would cost $1 whereas locally it could cost $10+$5 in postage. Or even worse, $10 from HK and $99 locally.

I've never really come across false advertising as you have though, not on ebay.com.au. And I've been on eBay for 15+ years. But I have seen that on the american ebay.com that the practice is abhorrently prolific to the point that I believe that american buyers are getting ripped to shreds.

The whole "too good to be true" prices of the first page or two of items when you search for something just means that you haven't refined your search terms properly, thats what I do. I add a "quality" or "heavy duty" or I search for an item that is "brand name" for example if I were to search for an inverter I will search for a "victron phoenix inverter" instead of "inverter" on ebay.

The good thing about eBay is that the prices are often way cheaper than retail in a brick store even for brand name stuff, here its most often more than 50% cheaper and that isn't even including the ebay savings vouchers that you get which will cut off another 5%-20% off the price, and brick stores here are disappearing like the plague, and even then you get crap quality in a brick store here. So I always buy brand name stuff that will last me for donkeys years.

I think the best way to get good deals all of the time is to stick to the brand name only rule and you'll be alright. Don't go crazy and buy stuff you've never heard of before unless you either really have to or the item usually doesn't have a brand name, like for example if you're only buying an ABS project box or some screwdrivers, then you're ok with going yoquai brand.
 
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
To give you an idea of just how effective the 60 day rule is for HK sellers to exploit I'll give you an example. solaluna88. 99.8% positive feedback.

50W Watt 12 Ohm Aluminum Shell Wirewound Resistor Green 608641667608 | eBay

50 watt resistor. 14 of them sold already. Seller has 327,000 feedback and a shooting star.

But look at the delivery estimation:
Delivery:
Estimated between Mon. 23 Apr. and Wed. 30 May.

30th of May is 2 months away! So the worst case is you won't get your item at all and the seller will walk away scott free with both your money and without a scar. And I guarantee you that if I bought any items from there I won't get them. Been done across two accounts over many years here or there, he used to deliver them but doesn't anymore.

Lets put this into different terms. lets say a car company sells 2697 cars in 1 month, which is the positive feedback of solaluna88 in 1 month. Now 10 of those cars are never delivered, 3 of them arrive damaged without any communication from the car company. Is that a good car company? hell no. There would be mass outrage.

Now lets say that this company requires all customers to sign an NDA before buying the car that if the car didn't arrive within 2 months you as a buyer are not allowed to slander them. AND on top of this that data isn't even shown in the sales or never arrived statistics. That is how messed up the negative feedback system on ebay is. Sellers can blindly steal money from you and you have no legal recourse at all, you can't even complain.

Just think about it, 10 negative feedback vs 2697 positive feedback is an extremely high ratio. Makes you wonder really if the seller is so good then why isn't his positive feedback 100%? It therefore must be so bad that the seller is actually exploiting the feedback system and hiding the negative feedback. You would think that a seller selling so many items (166,379 items for sale) would have more than 2697 feedback in 1 month too.

There is also the fact that the number of stars for fast postage doesn't correlate with the comments in the feedback of slow postage times.

This is why I stick only to 100% feedback sellers from now on.

The feedback system is really quite broken.
 
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
This is a good seller on ebay, just as an example again. eBay Feedback Profile for 94racing-ie

Notice the high amount of negative feedback, but most of it is from buyers who either don't know how to use the item or bought the wrong item. aka Whingers. Seeing whingers in the negative feedback column is actually a good sign!. It means that there are very few serious complaints.

And the positive feedback number is extremely high (9011 in 1 month), and the seller has only come onto the market recently, only joined in 2011, yet in that time he has moved tons of items. (278,000 feedback since 2011 is extremely high) That is the sign of a healthy seller.

I bought from this seller and I'm expecting to get the items. Despite the seller only having 99% positive feedback.

But yeah, you can't go wrong with a 100% positive feedback seller, But I wouldn't trust solaluna88, a seller who has been on eBay since 2005 and yet has shipped very little product during that time but has 99.8% positive feedback, that percentage figure is mostly bs. Dig deeper into the negative/positive feedback tables and actually read the comments and analyze them and see how much product they are moving. Then you will only truly know if a seller is legit.

Go for the sellers who ship tons of product, even if they've only been on ebay for a short time. and have a healthy "complaining" community in their negative feedback section, and very rarely "never arrived" feedback.

Chances are if they are shipping tons of product in a short period of time then they are keeping that money and making profit, not ripping people off. Its also a good sign that paypal isn't seizing control of their account and forcing them to stop trading because if they can't use their paypal account then they can't trade. a good indicator if they're crooked is if they ship very small amounts of product.
 
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I bought 10 B9A pcb valve sockets from Aliexpress.
After a couple of weeks I looked on their website to see how my order was processing.
It had disappeared from my list of orders.
A few weeks later the item arrived.
I couldn't physically get the valves in the sockets, the pins on the valves just bent over. I looked online to complain but there is no sign of the order to complain.