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[TheBiggerFish]

Bandcamp was working earlier (Homestuck music best music).  I haven't checked in the last 5 minutes though.

[Sappho]

I tried it on three different browsers with all plugins disabled. All other sites were working fine for me. I have no idea what the problem is.

It seems to be working ok for the moment, as it did at this time of day yesterday. However, I have a similar problem with Facebook sometimes. Whole internet works fine, but Facebook is so laggy that the page basically won't load. Only happens at home and at certain times of day - when I'm at work or elsewhere, no problems. I have never been able to figure out what the deal is with that. But my internet connection is absolute balls, so I wouldn't be the least surprised if the ISP was somehow responsible, though I couldn't imagine how that would happen to such specific sites. Any ideas?

[TheBiggerFish]

They might be messing with it on the DNS level.

As in, checking the URL you're giving them and messing with the load times.

[wierd]

Could also be result of bad peering arrangement with the ISP-- aka, saturated link. (Would explain the time of day issue.)

Try accessing the pages through their IP addresses instead of their friendly name urls. See if that resolves the issue. If it does, then suspect DNS. Otherwise, try a traceroute to the hosts in question, and see where the timeout happens.

[IronTomato]

Okay, so I'm trying this again because I hate myself.

I seem to have a good graphics card picked out, but I'm still worried about my choice of CPU. I found a good looking motherboard which comes with an AMD FX-6300 for around $200 (I think? I can't remember). I'm trying to get something that I can use to play next-gen games on my 1600x900 monitor well, so would this be good? Should I get an FX-8350 instead? Should I just not get an AMD cpu and get something from Intel instead? Should I wait for a while to get one of the new CPUs that AMD is coming out with next year?

FX-6300 is "adequate" for now. I was making some recordings and uploaded them on youtube (using OBS and the AMD Gaming Evolved utility)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOFL1qh9URk
GPU recording (using an R9 380 and FX-6300)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWvcZOg9P0
OBS recording (software that adds load on the CPU)

Everything set to either high or ultra as well and as you can see the FPS is manageable but not amazing (slowdowns to 30 fps are ok in my book)

The problem with FX-6300 and boards that accept is is that they can't be really upgraded past FX-8350. Everything beyond that is stupidly expensive and power hungry without giving much extra power in return.

So are FX CPUs good? Yes they are adequate. Just don't expect smooth 60 FPS at all times. More like 45 average if you want high fidelity.
Oh and htey take more power and get hotter so you should get a good PSU. Especially if you are going to use a Radeon alongside them.

Also ignore the desynced sound. I was editing the videos in youtube and apparently the sound got screwed.

Ah, I see. Thank you very much.

[Sonlirain]

Ah, I see. Thank you very much.

Well it may interest you that i did my first foray into overclocking and increased the clock speed from 200 to 210 giving me 4-5 extra FPS in War thunder tank battle benchmarks (basically i went from 40 average fps to 45 in a relatively CPU intensive benchmark). and the temperatures seem to be a somewhat stable 50 degrees after an hour of hammering it with Prime95.
Didn't get any instability issues so far but i can keep you posted if you are interested.

[miauw62]

My laptop fan is making a lot of noise, but I don't know whats wrong with it. I tried opening the laptop and spinning it around a bit by hand but nothing seems to be wrong. A bit after I turn on the computer it starts making really loud and weird noises, though, which is disturbing. What do I do?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/clhuby0641nalgs/Spraak%20002.m4a?dl=0
In case you want to hear it.

[wierd]

The ball bearings in the fan have dust contamination. It sounds fine at low RPM, but when the fan ramps up to full speed, the contaminated bearings dont spin right, and cause acoustic resonation of the stator assembly, which makes the fan spin out of balance, and make all kinds of terrible noise.

Two solutions.

1) Order a replacement cooling fan from someplace like amazon, and install it. (Recommended. Seriously, they are NOT that expensive.)

2) Disconnect the fan, and carefully disassemble it. You will need a pair of hemostats and a dental pick. Usually, there are 2 to 3 clear/white plastic slip rings that hold the fan blade assembly on the stator shaft. Carefully remove these, then gently push on the shaft with the hemostats, until it pops loose. Be very careful not to lose any of the small pieces, or break any of the fan blades!! Once disassembled, you will find a very tiny (1/2cm, usually) ball bearing race assembly. Take this, and submerge it in something like WD40, and work it. Some brown gunk will come out. That's the dust contamination that is making it shriek. Once you have removed all the dirt this way, repeat the above, but use electrical contact cleaner to remove all the WD40. (Liquid oil encourages the contamination to return with vengeance. Remove it all with the contact cleaner bath.) Once the bearing race is all nice and clean, reassemble the fan, and replace the little plastic retainer rings very carefully with the hemostats. (Not recommended-- high risk of losing tiny parts-- only postpones the inevitable-- improper cleaning encourages more contamination. Contamination is a sign the seals have failed.)

[miauw62]

This is a laptop fan, are they as easily replaceable?
Also, will just ignoring the noise cause bad things to happen, or is it fine until I get a replacement?

[wierd]

The fans inside laptops are held in with 3 to 4 screws, and have a 2 wire DC lead.

You CAN order them on Amazon. (Just an example)

[Thief^]

This is a laptop fan, are they as easily replaceable?
Also, will just ignoring the noise cause bad things to happen, or is it fine until I get a replacement?

1. No. You might be lucky, but often just getting into a laptop is a chore, and the fan may well be moulded into the cooling assembly, meaning you need to replace the whole cooler with a laptop-specific part. That said, it is possible to do, and the parts are generally not too hard to get.

2. The worst thing that could happen is that the noise stops.

[wierd]

Getting inside the laptop is usually the hard part.  Depending on how it is designed, this may or may not be a painful experience. Without knowing the model in question, I cant say.

Once inside, the CPU and cooling system is usually comprised of a series of heat pipes leading to a heatsink radiator. The fan is typically of the design I linked to: A modified "Squirrel cage" type design. This pushes air over the heatsink.  You typically do NOT need to disturb the heatsink and heatpipe assembly-- Just remove the 3 to 4 screws holding the fan down, and gently unplug the connector wire. There might be some adhesive tape holding the fan cowl down. Gentle pressure with a plastic spatula (or a cut up credit card) is usually quite adequate.

Basically, once you have it open, getting to the fan is usually painless.  The typical SNAFU that happens is that the hinges of the laptop get all buggered because of terrible designs in most systems. I STRONGLY recommend finding a good disassembly guide if you insist on opening the laptop.

And as thief said, the WORST that will happen is that the noise will stop. (because the fan isn't blowing any more.)

[miauw62]

I did open the laptop to take a look at it. It's just a sliding panel fastened with three screws, gives access to what is probably the CPU, the fan and the RAM (plus a mostly bare section of mobo).
It doesn't look like getting the fan out would be that hard. Just have to make sure the replacement actually fits >.>
The laptop is a rebranded clevo, if that helps.

[wierd]

Model number information from the sticker on the bottom please.

[miauw62]

Model nr is W370SS