u/Mysterious-One1055

I have recently been looking at options for replacing the stock CPU fan/blower for my 3050 SFF. I found that it was just so damn loud when playing more modern games. I use the PC as a living room gaming machine and the fan/blower was just too distracting. I have young kids so can't crank the TV volume to compensate at night.

I came across this 3D printed adapter on eBay which promises to allow you to add any 120mm fan, which I wanted to try rather than force-fit an 80mm as I wanted to move as much air in the machine as I could.

Anyway, the adapter was fiddly to fit but I did get there. I needed to remove the optic drive and also the case close switch (and also tape it down to avoid any boot warning). I used the opportunity to repaste the CPU as well which turns out was badly needed, so I'm glad I did!

I also have a Noctua NF-A8 intake fan at the front and I've used the 4 pin splitter that it came with to power both - this worked perfectly.

When playing heavy games the fan at max speed is about half the volume of the stock fan which I'm very happy about. Most games I play don't need this (Doom 2016, Skyrim SE and similar) so the experience has improved significantly. However, when playing something like Resident Evil Requiem, the rtx3050 does seem to encounter thermal throttling at times (CPU sits fine at 80°c or so). Naturally the loud blower was good at removing hot air from the system, so there is probably more internal turbulence now. I'm not hugely bothered by this, but as a next step I'll probably fully remove the HDD and velcro my SSD somewhere, and I'm also looking at cutting the case + adding some mesh to allow hot air to escape better. I have undervolted the GPU which has also boosted performance. I'm very happy with how it runs games, keeping in mind the GPU is connected via the PCIe x4 slot (see Unigine benchmark pic).

Anyway, what started off as a fairly weak retro emulation machine has now transformed into a capable little living room gaming PC, and I couldn't be happier!

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I finally got all the bits together for my Optiplex 5070 SFF build, and I'm super happy with the result.

I put another post up recently about the deals I got for various bits, but in a nutshell:

- 5070 sff with i5 9500, 8gb ddr4 and a 240gb SSD: £68

- additional 8gb ram: £17

- MSI RTX3050 6gb LP: £127 (low profile bracket is in the post, hence why it's sitting funny in the pic)

- I have a 512Gb sata ssd on it's way: £42, I'll sell the 240gb.

I spent a lot of time scouring the used market for a single slot GPU because many YT vids and tbh a lot of Reddit posts I came across said it would generally need to be one, otherwise suffer noticeably poorer performance.

However, I did read a number of other posts/comments saying a dual slot card would work almost just as well in the PCIe X4 slot. When I managed to nab the rtx3050 for a good price I had to see for myself.

I loaded up Steam last night and was enjoying Red Dead Redemption 2 with default settings and perfectly smooth performance, along with Skyrim SE max'd out and looking great (both well optimised of course but still, great to see). I ran 3DMark Time spy and Speed way benchmarks and both were "Good" and essentially bang on average for the same hardware, maybe 1-3% lower than those with the same hardware spec (independent of PCIe slot used).

Anyway, my learn was not to keep chasing that rx6400 that's going for big money (one sold on eBay UK for £170 recently!). If you see a dual slot rtx3050 or GTX1650 going for a good price, grab it and enjoy!

I appreciate this isn't exactly luthier work but hopefully I'm in the right place for a little advice.

For each of my kids, we have built kit guitars and I've let them go wild with paints/handprints etc and then I just add a few layers of poly to seal them in.

This is my first guitar where I want to scrape the binding and I've clearly put way too many layers of paint on beforehand. It means there is a clear "step" between paint and binding, and it's also caused a feathered, rough line in places.

I've used the edge of a Stanley blade to smooth some bits out but it hasn't been amazing. I was considering light sanding next but I wanted to check with more experienced folk in case you had any "save" tips for me here?

It doesn't need to be perfect, I could just seal it now and call it a day, but I'd like to try something if possible 🙂

I got this on eBay UK for £21. Lightly used with minor wear on the left side of the bezel but otherwise like new.

I love this colour scheme. It gives me Sam Neill in Jurassic Park vibes - even though he wore field watches..

Happy to finally have a Royale and I'm super impressed with it so far. The little world map is fun and I'm going to set a few world times up for places my friends are living later today.

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Anyone else get that little positive kick knowing their tough solar is getting juiced up in the sun? 😄

(The significance may be location dependent - I'm in Ireland!)

I was buying some straps for my Casio Duro on AliExpress and gave into temptation for this unique piece.

Sanda 3192 - surprisingly comfortable and I'm finding I can't stop glancing at it.

I have a few Casio watches but have only just realised that I need a Royale in my life.

I never knew there was such a great community behind this particular model and after scanning over the different versions you can get, I think this one is best for me.

However, I'm not finding any "standard" shops selling it in the UK, it's mostly AliExpress or other grey market sellers. Are there fakes of this model out there?

Can any UK folk point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

I see lots of really nice straps that people are using, but one small detail that I know might bug me is that most don't extend in width to meet the lugs a bit more neatly.

Does anyone have some recommendations for straps that do?

(On a side note, in Ireland we refer to ears and lugs which always makes me kinda smile when we talk about them on watches 🙂 )

Does anyone else try to use their bezel as a timer where they can?

Any excuse to hear that satisfying click haha.

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I paid £52 for the Marlin Duro, shipped from America to the UK.

My algorithm kept getting hammered with Duro posts/reviews so I became an easy victim for it.

I have a 6.75" wrist and have to say that I'm pretty surprised and how comfortable it is. The stock strap is actually nicer feeling than my Gshock watches.

I had ordered the black/blue "batman" bezel but got sent this all black model in error, but I have to say I'm not really disappointed. The contrast of black on chrome really pops and I keep finding myself glancing at it.

It's the happiest a new watch purchase has made me in quite a while, despite being one of my cheapest.

If you haven't got a Duro yet, what are you waiting for!

I was never able to shake the desire to get a Duro, and for me it had to have the Marlin. Being in the UK, that can be difficult to come by, so I ordered from greatwatches.co.uk

Only after I ordered did I find out that they actually were shipped from America, and the Trustpilot reviews were pretty awful....

Several people on here had positive experiences so I just held my breath.

I was having a tough day at work today and when it arrived I was very excited! I recorded a video of me opening the package and sure enough it was an all black model rather than the Batman I ordered.

I already have a black bezel Invicta 1953 diver, so I was looking forward to something more different. However, it wears so well on my 6.75" wrist and is just a really nice watch so I'll likely keep and still really enjoy it.

I've emailed Greatwatches with pics attached - has anyone here ever had a positive result when something has went wrong with their order?