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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2385 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I was thinking of building a desktop, but I'm about to move into a small apartment with my girlfriend and I don't think we'll have the floor space to spare, so it'll have to be a laptop.

There's a third option: miniature desktops.

Interesting, are these any good for gaming?

I put together a mini-ITX based computer for my parents many years ago that was decent for its time, barely (IIRC it was mostly for MythTV but I had a few contemporary 3D games set up too) ... but I don't think I'd go with such a small form factor again, even for something sitting in a living room where aesthetics is a concern. Having a giant computer case in (realistically: next to) your entertainment center can hurt the ambiance, but at least a big case has room for lots of bigger slower quieter fans. With a small case you have to choose between CPU/GPU options with low cooling requirements (annoyingly underpowered) or small fans with high cooling capacity (annoyingly whiny sounding). That tiny computer eventually went to my daughter but soon got junked and replaced because trying to upgrade the GPU a little further led to overheating problems.

The 7735U's integrated GPU apparently is approximately equivalent to a 130-$ GTX 1630—extremely weak (between "entry—suitable for 900p gaming" and "modest—modern games at medium settings" on the Logical Increments scale), but not totally worthless. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads.

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