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New PC Build


Samuraitech

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Posted

 

Concerned about internet security.  Tried to sign up with Nord VPN.  Apparently a browser pirate snatched my code as I tried to set up the account.  Nord VPN stated "It is your responsibility to secure your device."  I purchased this thru Amazon. Trying to get a refund but I suspect  I will end up paying for 2 One year subscriptions.  Any pointers on internet security?  

 

 

Posted

I'd buy Nord from Nord's website, not Amazon. Sucks that that happened, maybe even try doing it through TorBrowser next time.

Edit: If your payment options aren't accepted on Nord's website I recommend buying a pre-charged temp credit card from a local dollar store or something, that worked for me.

Posted

Wanted to but don't have a credit card except for debit.  Leery to use that.  Amazon has a store card.  I must have someone watching what i do.  Not sure what to do about that. Virus scan clean.  Malware bytes clean.  I guess I have some learning to do.

Posted

The subject "New PC Build" is because I have been wanting to build a new PC for quite a few years but the money seems to always be needed elsewhere.  I was mad enough to go to Best Buy tomorrow and purchase an ASUS ROG Crosshair Vii Hero  and an AMD Processor (Ryzen7 2700x) and WIN10.  I really wanted to wait until I had money for the case, power supply, etc., but now am paranoid about being on the internet.  By the way I hate Win10 but what choice is there?  I have about a 5 year old I7 with 32 GB memory, a Gigabyte Sniper MB, NVidia 1070 Graphic Card, ITB Samsung SSD, and Win7 64Bit.  Only mention in case it is pertinent to internet security.

Posted

With that PC you don't have to buy anything for a few years, so relax and save the cash. I'm on an AMD 8-core with 8gb RAM and Nvidia 1060 graphics, and can run all games just fine. I'm also still running on Windows 8 and I don't have any problems with it, so your only option would be to downgrade, but from what I heard Windows 10 is supposed to be better? Okay it has directX12, but that's about it I think.

 

Personally I don't think it's worth buying the latest stuff when they keep developing new processors and cards all the time. It's a race you can't win, but when you decide to buy something always go here first to make sure you're getting value for your money.

 

Regarding the VPN, make sure you cancel the account you bought on amazon to terminate that douchebag. Maybe use a different VPN just to be safe, but the chance that someone will monitor or target your connection is very small, unless you're a known bigshot or buy a lot from places like amazon. It's all about where you go on the internet. I'd say just using windows defender and a firewall is enough if you're careful about where you go and only download from trusted sites. The rest is a lot of hassle for very little gain. They might even be scamming you with that VPN. Software companies saw the chance to make some easy cash from the sheep. Will you take the bait? I wouldn't mind having one but not gonna fork out 200€ a year to hide my IP, when no one appears to be looking for it.

Posted

Everything everyone said is so cool and true (except the pirate part, sorry about that).

I either don't know someone is watching me or feel it's way more local than the internet proper ("wan")

 

So, I turn my wifi down way-low, or don't use it at all.

I run "windows defender" when I'm bored, nervous, during long commercials.

If I'm handling mondo-huge amounts of cash, I'll drape a blanket over the monitor. (I'm kidding about the mondo-huge)

Security-monitors exist but the ones out there are so expensive not even my bank has the latest ones, my former medical-insurance company has them.

Maybe if prices have dropped, they'd be very cool to buy.

"windows 10" is overrated. I know, I run it.

Windows 8 is fine+dandy.

What else...I don't know, I really love my M.2 but, was this purchase really necessary?

SATA SSD's are flying out the door.

if your chipset is pcie-3, I'm told PCI-4 is coming, but who cares.

If your M.2-Wifi can be upgraded, it's easier than you'd prolly imagine.

I upgraded my decent 3168 for a much better 9260, but I don't know what your mobo has.

Talk to people who've recently upgraded, they prolly have a free abandoned case (and power supply?) lying around.

I'll delete this soon, I just like talking about AMD hardware sometimes.

 

Posted
12 hours ago, Samuraitech said:

Wanted to but don't have a credit card except for debit.

That's why I recommended buying a pre-charged temp card from a local store, so you're only exposing the amount of money you need to without any account info. You can fill it up enough to cover Nord's three year plan and in three years either refill it or buy another card. I don't like ever ordering from sites that require my credit card info, and Nord understandably stopped supporting Paypal this year so that filter is out.

I'm really opinionated about PC stuff from a history of hunting deals and building them, please excuse me for that. Buying a pre-built PC from Best Buy is a huge and awful dump of money. It's healthy to be paranoid about your personal info online, but online is still where everything good is in regards to purchases, unless you're a super social street dealer or something. I'd say use NordVPN, use different good passwords everywhere, (get a password manager or just save them all in a notebook) and use up-to-date software. I don't like what Microsoft does as of Windows 8 and up, but I can't anymore recommend 7 or earlier to anyone who doesn't know how to protect themselves. If you'd like to be safe in a desktop environment you can take your time learning while knowing it's on your side then you could use an operating system like Linux Mint, but it'll be much trickier getting new PC games to work.

If you want help choosing parts to order for a new PC build, that's always fun to figure out.

Posted
56 minutes ago, Voldearag said:

That's why I recommended buying a pre-charged temp card from a local store, so you're only exposing the amount of money you need to without any account info. You can fill it up enough to cover Nord's three year plan and in three years either refill it or buy another card. I don't like ever ordering from sites that require my credit card info, and Nord understandably stopped supporting Paypal this year so that filter is out.

I'm really opinionated about PC stuff from a history of hunting deals and building them, please excuse me for that. Buying a pre-built PC from Best Buy is a huge and awful dump of money. It's healthy to be paranoid about your personal info online, but online is still where everything good is in regards to purchases, unless you're a super social street dealer or something. I'd say use NordVPN, use different good passwords everywhere, (get a password manager or just save them all in a notebook) and use up-to-date software. I don't like what Microsoft does as of Windows 8 and up, but I can't anymore recommend 7 or earlier to anyone who doesn't know how to protect themselves. If you'd like to be safe in a desktop environment you can take your time learning while knowing it's on your side then you could use an operating system like Linux Mint, but it'll be much trickier getting new PC games to work.

If you want help choosing parts to order for a new PC build, that's always fun to figure out.

VPNs are great to keep your online presence as secure as reasonably possible. Main stream VPNs are preferred. Keep in mind that anyone service can be monitored depending on your government laws and such so keep that in mind if you plan on doing things that could get you in trouble in your home country. that being said, however, many citizens of China use it to get past the  "Great Firewall of China"... ;) So it is pretty useful. Some VPNs even allow you to use gift cards from various companies to pay for it. I can confirm that Nord VPN is a good company.. I paid for their service testing it for myself. and later cancelled my subscription. No problems.. simple submission and the money was returned as fast as humanly possible (used my personal Credit card for that as well) Another excellent VPN in my opinion.. (tested it as well) is ExpressVPN.

NordVPN was audited by a firm in regards to its logs..
Express VPN had one of their servers taken buy  a government and nothing was found.. confirmed that logs weren't used. (also upgraded their security descriptions recently) and heavily used by Chinese for their VPN services.. which are used for . .. what I believe are .. illegal contact with outside sources which have been blocked by the Chinese Government. Being caught is a serious issue as I understand.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NordVPN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressVPN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall

https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/2180960/chinese-vpn-user-fined-accessing-overseas-websites-part-beijings-ongoing

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2109618/man-jailed-selling-vpns-evade-chinas-great-firewall

https://thebestvpn.com/are-vpns-legal-banned-countries/

Pre-Built computers are nice entry into gaming or computer use. Turn Key options for those that don't want to/know how to build a computer and operate it. Warranties and even support contracts can be obtained (usually to varying degrees of value) for those individuals. That being said.. if you want to be a serious "geek and/ or nerd" with computers, you need to start doing some, and eventually all of your computer support and upgrades/new builds.  The benefit is you eventually will be able to handle most if not all your issues, get premium hardware which fits your exact needs and quality requirements. (select specific graphics card for the various reviews , hardware specific features and such out of similar ones... pre-built just states the model type... I.E. GTX 1080 usually) There are exceptions to the rule with premium pre-built computers from Origin and other such computers.. however, $$$$ quite a bit more for same hardware you can get on your own but they do this for a living and have tested most configurations quite extensively and understand the various bits and pieces of the hardware they offer quite well and have an excellent relationship with vendors for any defective or problem hardware that does come up.

 

Password ... Use Key pass or some paid version that has been verified as solid using open source codes and encryption etc. There are many video guides on it. I use something similar and have a strong password.. one that is difficult to type but only have to do so once. An added benefit is there is no key strokes (except to open the Keypass program So someone can't really use a keylogger to gain info on your sites .. they have to do a lot more work and actually get the program (which you can have on a thumb drive or some other source where it is difficult to get.

 

Operating systems. .. Any currently supported Windows OS if kept up to date (security) is acceptable. usually the older OS has been more tested than newer but much of what is going on underneath the OS (main core exe) is pretty much the same anyway now so I don't think it is much of a concern anymore. Stay away from unsupported versions of anything from Microsoft. 

Operating Systems ... OPTIONS.. is to run a fully updated Linux system for your daily driver. Good passwords made for the OS and only use Windows for those games and such that require its use (can't be run in a VM.. means you heed a stronger computer (more ram, etc ) to run both but not much... Linux is quite effective (if not blown out with one of the Elephant Linuxes out there and even so.. still more responsive IMO than an un- optimized Windows fully loaded with various software) It requires a higher level of understanding if you want to duel boot.. however, If you have an older computer (say an old Win7 system) with some good ram and hardware but upgrading / building a new machine because you need some more power to run x,y,z in windows (games for example) you can always keep the older computer around and use Linux on it. Use it for your daily driver and save the new hardware for gaming etc. On the same desk you can use Synergy to run both (with 2 monitors) or a KVM (which cost a small amount) which will allow you to switch on the fly between two computers.. no need to reboot!  I currently have an old Laptop (quite old to be honest) under my monitor (on a shelf) and use my monitor to switch between inputs in less than three pushes of a button ;):D Any time I need one or the other computer. Once I get more comfortable on using Linux and such.. I will (want to at least) move more over to Linux and less on Windows Currently it is the Windows more and Linux less.  Currently using a more bloated Linux (Ubuntu) for my Linux as I learn.. it has almost everything I can want and lots of easy support options to search for. Less Command line needs as most of what it has is GUI (but I strongly recommend you getting use to command line.. once you decide to install some programs using that from a repository.. MIND BLOWN.. seriousness. )

 

@Voldearag gave many excellent suggestions.. I just wanted to expand on some of it and give my confirmation of the same ideas... :D

Posted
14 hours ago, Samuraitech said:

The subject "New PC Build" is because I have been wanting to build a new PC for quite a few years but the money seems to always be needed elsewhere.  I was mad enough to go to Best Buy tomorrow and purchase an ASUS ROG Crosshair Vii Hero  and an AMD Processor (Ryzen7 2700x) and WIN10.  I really wanted to wait until I had money for the case, power supply, etc., but now am paranoid about being on the internet.  By the way I hate Win10 but what choice is there?  I have about a 5 year old I7 with 32 GB memory, a Gigabyte Sniper MB, NVidia 1070 Graphic Card, ITB Samsung SSD, and Win7 64Bit.  Only mention in case it is pertinent to internet security.

Your first problem was AMD, and I was the biggest supporter of their stuff for a long time. I built a PC with one of their first 8-core 8350(? Long time ago) processor. Spent $1,500 building it myself and your five year old i7 with 32GB (DDR3 or 4) and 1070 with an SSD should blow everythin except my $700 i5/1050Ti/256 SDD out of the water for performance versus cost nowadays (I built it two weeks ago). Fix it and run it.

Posted

Thanks for all the ideas.  Maybe I will wait and get the parts for my new build in December.  Prices for electronics are cheaper around that time.  If I did it now, I could only afford the CPU, MB, Memory, WIN10 Pro plus the SSD.  I would need to reuse my old case and power supply.  It would be smarter until I can afford everything. 

 

I will probably hand this machine down to my son.  He can't play FO4 or Skyrim SE on the PC because he has a 32Bit OS.   I know WIN7 stops support after this year.  Our work computers are all WIN10 and I have found sites that show how to unclutter WIN10.  I have really liked WIN7 but WIN10 will be around for a while, might as well get used to it.   In the meantime, I am going to find information about cyber security for my own home.

Posted

I am torn between the AMD Ryzen7 and the Intel 9.  I have always been and NVidia and Intel person.  The AMD Ryzen7 is supposed to be good and is about $250 cheaper than an i9.  I remember when I built the PC my son has now, I went with an AMD card.  It was a good graphics card but I always felt left out when looking at NVidia.  Their stuff looks flashier and the drivers are easy to download.  AMD drivers were not so easy at the time.

Posted

(Warning, outdated dead opinions ahead!)

AMD cards were the much sexier option in our youths, always cheaper, not 'cuz they were worse but because they were skateboarder-cool and probably evaded fees and advertising bloat to give us the real picture. Yeah Nvidia's model was always a little faster but that's because they were the bad guys, and they couldn't tempt me like the fast food industry!

But these days I don't have any strong opinions about either company, Nvidia always had better driver support, I forgot the whole open/non supported/non debacley difference between the Linux drivers those two were each offering, but none of that matters anymore. That 1080 such and such sounds like it's the most popular at the moment, but there'll probably be something better in a couple months.

Posted
1 hour ago, Voldearag said:

(Warning, outdated dead opinions ahead!)

AMD cards were the much sexier option in our youths, always cheaper, not 'cuz they were worse but because they were skateboarder-cool and probably evaded fees and advertising bloat to give us the real picture. Yeah Nvidia's model was always a little faster but that's because they were the bad guys, and they couldn't tempt me like the fast food industry!

But these days I don't have any strong opinions about either company, Nvidia always had better driver support, I forgot the whole open/non supported/non debacley difference between the Linux drivers those two were each offering, but none of that matters anymore. That 1080 such and such sounds like it's the most popular at the moment, but there'll probably be something better in a couple months.

Haha all jokes aside...

 

...Nvidia already released the only video card we'll need for the next five years. It's super expensive of course but you can get them around the old 1080 Ti price. For a full setup thooo you'll get near $2,500 buuut… yeah their best cards are here now.

Posted

I have been very happy with my NVidia GTX 1070.  I upgraded from an NVidia GTX 760 and I noticed a big difference.  I have purchased EVGA the last couple of times and have had no issues with them.  What holds me back now is my CPU.  I notice this the most when using SMP physics as that is more CPU intensive.  The motherboard and CPU selection is probably one of the most critical choices to make.  I don't like to remove a CPU once it is mated to the board.  My builds usually still perform well after about 5 years, which has already arrived for my current build.   I will purchase the unlimited windows this time instead of the OEM (System Builder's).  I may want to reformat the drive or replace it and don' want to run into issues with Microsoft.  It is about a $40 dollar difference in price.  One of the biggest bangs for the buck you can do is use an SSD instead of a regular hard drive.  I used to scoff as to why you would want to spend all that money on an SSD.  They were several hundred dollars more at the time.  Boy was I wrong.  The performance of my machine really increased after installing my first SSD.  No more stuttering screens in Skyrim.

Posted

I have been always happy with Intel processors... however, I have been tending toward the new AMD offerings.. they are cheaper, give more cores and power and have hired many of the Intel developers that helped make the Intel processors so good in the past. Intel is hiring AMD engineers. lol Scarry things is in the end we will likely end up with the same processor designs.. :(

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-intel-jim-keller-hire,36963.html

https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-hires-amds-raja-koduri-to-work-on-high-end-discrete-graphics/

 

I am more inclined to get the newer third gen AMDs due out shortly.  That or save some serious $$$ and get the last gen at  a nice discount.

 

I am also very happy with gaming and Nvidia graphics cards. they work quite well and are solid.. however, FUCK they are going up in price... This is coming from someone that bought a 1080ti at its regular price 2 years ago.. (not inflated bit coin pricing)  SHIT I can deal with some less power (decent power per dollars) than pay all the money (essentially the cost of a gaming machine.. just for the fucking card!) So might be tending towards AMD Also leaning toward Linux HARD... very HARD. and the AMD is generally what most are using on the web with GPU pass though and virtualization and such. Also from what I read does better in Linux.

 

Money being no option.. then the i9 and the 2080Ti or perhaps the newest Titan.. other than that.. can't see myself spending such a great premium for their products. Not when there isn't a corresponding increase in ability, power, performance etc. etc.

 

Also for the OP.. I have a 4790K and a 1080ti and 16 gigs of DDR3 with SSD drives for gaming and when I do game (which isn't much currently) I have no real issues and have a very good result. (oh I am playing them on a 2k monitor .. with GSYNC )  No reason to fight and waste money to upgrade unless you have something broke.. want to hand down the computer to your child or just want to have better results in your game. You have a pretty good setup as it is for most gaming purposes.

Posted
18 hours ago, Samuraitech said:

 

Concerned about internet security.  Tried to sign up with Nord VPN.  Apparently a browser pirate snatched my code as I tried to set up the account.  Nord VPN stated "It is your responsibility to secure your device."  I purchased this thru Amazon. Trying to get a refund but I suspect  I will end up paying for 2 One year subscriptions.  Any pointers on internet security?  

 

 

Don't purchase these items from Amazon.. Just don't purchase it from the company itself.  I have had experience testing some of their products and they had no problem refunding me my money... just because I didn't want to use their services at that time. They didn't argue and offered to assist with some issue (getting netflix to work properly) but was honest in saying that it could be blocked again (a process some companies try to do for those people that try to change their location which I wasn't.. I was using the fastest nearest location. Only wanted to use it for security purposes when I was away from home .. to use open wifi and such more safely if needed ) I also used the other service (which I actually liked more.. it connected faster and seemed to be more responsive for most times... but had more variations in speed over time than Nord did)

 

Keypass. (mentioned before)

VM (for various task so that you can make things seperate)

 

There is another OS that is a bit hard to setup but it is not secure but harder for someone to take over the entire system.. that is called Qubes... a bitch to run and requires a powerful computer (most of teh ENTIRE system is virtualized even the hardware and networks on separate vMs. )

Posted
14 hours ago, 2dk2c.2 said:

SATA SSD's are flying out the door.

 

So glad I read this post. Was so confident in my Samsung 860 EVO SATA that I completely overlooked the M.2 option and bought a new 860 EVO SATA only a few days ago. ?  But now I see that you can get a SSD that's twice as fast for the same price(It's a Kingston but anyway). Hopefully I can still return it. It pays to stay informed.

Posted
2 hours ago, saltshade said:

So glad I read this post. Was so confident in my Samsung 860 EVO SATA that I completely overlooked the M.2 option and bought a new 860 EVO SATA only a few days ago. ?  But now I see that you can get a SSD that's twice as fast for the same price(It's a Kingston but anyway). Hopefully I can still return it. It pays to stay informed.

It's nice to scrimp and save and blow everything on a part a person really loves:

(I hate how my typed words + typos take on a meaning of their own)

"Peel me some grapes, Bring me the head, Please me" parts like M.2's (in desktops), 4k monitors, VR-Ready video cards.

I brought along some cheesecake.

970.jpg.c3520c2bf5232b01c11272008c7f3dbd.jpg

 

Now, I'm not saying anyone anywhere *needs* one, like you don't need the heart of an athlete or a 3rd-eye-pineal gland (whatever that is)

but they're sure nice just knowing they're there.

Nobody needs 4k. Crispy Pixels are seductive in a 27" monitor (a stretched out one from Costco) but I can barely see anymore.

SMP wut?

But my 160mhz-wide-wifi is sexier now, my bluetooth is 5 (never use it but it should be trendy)

and my m.2 is sexy, if you strip it bare/run a benchmark.

Posted
4 hours ago, 2dk2c.2 said:

It's nice to scrimp and save and blow everything on a part a person really loves:

(I hate how my typed words + typos take on a meaning of their own)

"Peel me some grapes, Bring me the head, Please me" parts like M.2's (in desktops), 4k monitors, VR-Ready video cards.

I brought along some cheesecake.

970.jpg.c3520c2bf5232b01c11272008c7f3dbd.jpg

 

Now, I'm not saying anyone anywhere *needs* one, like you don't need the heart of an athlete or a 3rd-eye-pineal gland (whatever that is)

but they're sure nice just knowing they're there.

Nobody needs 4k. Crispy Pixels are seductive in a 27" monitor (a stretched out one from Costco) but I can barely see anymore.

SMP wut?

But my 160mhz-wide-wifi is sexier now, my bluetooth is 5 (never use it but it should be trendy)

and my m.2 is sexy, if you strip it bare/run a benchmark.

I like to scrimp and save then blow everything on a part.. however, ... FUCK they (*some companies) crazy in what they expect you to pay for a little bit better performance. When something a slight step down is adequate for all your needs. Where the fuck is all this money coming from  for people to pay 2000 dollars for a graphics card. I remember when they were optional and not even needed (part of the computer.. early days)

 

same with these flash memory options. .. at least they aren't going crazy. In fact they seem to have some sense to them. Perhaps there is more competition in that area. You can get a 2.5 slightly larger than a M.2 and it will be slightly slower.. but I challenge you to test and see if YOU can see the difference when you are doing things from day to day. I can't.... Also currently they are a bit smaller so I prefer the 2.5s over the M.2s. (oh, they also take some of the satas or PCI slots if you use them so there is that.... 2 satas for each M.2. might as well raid them yourself and have fast and large storage... for christ sakes.. lol)

 

For purchases someone pointed out a nice idea to consider. Take the cost from the items.. (storage ) and divide it by the size and get the cost per gig... Compare them. If you need super fast (for programs games) then it will be a bit more expensive but there is a "sweet spot". If you are storing shit... like a pack rat.. then get the cheapest version. cost per gig)

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