78: The One With the Racing Stripes

00:00SPEAKER- Brad? - Yes?

00:01SPEAKER- How many podcasts do you subscribe to?

00:05SPEAKER- I mean, you really want to talk about my podcast habits?

00:08SPEAKER- Like I'm just curious, like what is a,

00:11SPEAKERlike I subscribe to a bunch of podcasts,

00:12SPEAKERbut I listen to like four pretty religiously

00:15SPEAKERand then there's a bunch more that I like dip into

00:17SPEAKERwhen it's interesting.

00:18SPEAKER- I am probably being needlessly pedantic here,

00:20SPEAKERbut the answer is zero because I don't actually subscribe.

00:23SPEAKERI just manually go and download episodes

00:25SPEAKERI want to listen to.

00:27SPEAKER- Really? - Yeah.

00:29SPEAKERI mean, my podcast behavior is completely different

00:32SPEAKERnow that I don't commute anymore.

00:33SPEAKER- Well, okay, okay, okay.

00:34SPEAKERBut like, let's do a thought.

00:37SPEAKERImagine a world where you're having a normal commute,

00:39SPEAKERyou're going downtown every day, you're on the bus,

00:42SPEAKERyou have some time to burn.

00:43SPEAKERDo you subscribe then?

00:45SPEAKER- So occasionally, still this kind of catch as catch can

00:48SPEAKERfor the most part.

00:49SPEAKERYou're asking the wrong person about,

00:50SPEAKERfor this thought experiment, I'm sorry.

00:52SPEAKER- Wow, okay, okay, so let's do a different,

00:54SPEAKERpretend you're a normal podcast consumer

00:57SPEAKERand you hear a show that you like and you're like,

00:58SPEAKER"Oh, this tech pod by this Brad and Will guy."

01:00SPEAKERI would like to, I'd like to have this on my phone

01:03SPEAKERwhenever I want to listen to it.

01:04SPEAKERSo I'm going to mash that subscribe button.

01:06SPEAKER- I love this show so much, I cannot miss an episode.

01:08SPEAKER- Yeah, so at any point during mashing

01:10SPEAKERthat subscribe button, did it occur to you

01:13SPEAKERthat you might be paying money to the podcasters

01:17SPEAKERby subscribing?

01:18SPEAKERI air quoted that for audio listeners.

01:20SPEAKER- No, but I would point out that I am under the age of 60.

01:23SPEAKER- Okay, fair.

01:25SPEAKER- So no, that had not occurred to me.

01:28SPEAKER- Did you know that Apple is changing the subscribe button

01:32SPEAKERin the default Apple podcast app

01:34SPEAKERfrom subscribe to follow, I think?

01:37SPEAKER- Okay, I believe that's what I saw, yes.

01:39SPEAKER- Yeah, I realized I should have probably read more

01:42SPEAKERof the story, I just got that far in the story.

01:43SPEAKERI was like, "What the fuck?"

01:44SPEAKERAnd then I was like, "We have to talk about this."

01:46SPEAKER- What is the number?

01:47SPEAKERWhat is this, like 49%, wasn't it?

01:49SPEAKER- 47% of people.

01:51SPEAKER- Almost half the people who consume podcasts

01:53SPEAKERthink that they are paying when they click the subscribe.

01:56SPEAKER- Yeah.

01:57SPEAKER- That was eye opening.

01:58SPEAKER- If we got money on follow,

02:00SPEAKERon people who'd listen to the show, wow.

02:02SPEAKER- That's, you know.

02:05SPEAKER- Anyway.

02:07SPEAKER- Do you think it's gonna make any difference?

02:08SPEAKER- I just, I just, probably.

02:12SPEAKER- No?

02:12SPEAKER- I mean, I don't know.

02:16SPEAKERI'm so used to apps behaving,

02:18SPEAKERlike the nice thing about phones

02:20SPEAKERis it's really hard to accidentally buy something.

02:22SPEAKERIt's easy to buy something intentionally,

02:24SPEAKERbut like the phone makes you click the button

02:26SPEAKERor hit the home screen or whatever.

02:27SPEAKERAnd it's like, I don't,

02:31SPEAKERback in the old days on the PC,

02:33SPEAKERespecially when like Amazon payments and PayPal,

02:35SPEAKERone click and all that stuff started,

02:37SPEAKERthere was a little bit of concern

02:38SPEAKERthat you could accidentally buy stuff without knowing it.

02:41SPEAKER- How does it work with face ID?

02:42SPEAKERLike I've still got a touch ID phone.

02:45SPEAKERLike, is there an extra layer of confirmation

02:48SPEAKERbecause you just happen to be looking at the phone

02:50SPEAKERat the right angle that it reads your face

02:52SPEAKERand thinks that's confirmation you wanna buy something?

02:53SPEAKERLike, what do they do there?

02:54SPEAKER- So when you're doing,

02:56SPEAKERyou have to hit the power button twice.

02:58SPEAKERYou still have to hit a physical button.

03:00SPEAKERLike there's a physical press so they can't,

03:02SPEAKERso bad software can't spoof it.

03:03SPEAKER- It turns out physical buttons still have their place, huh?

03:06SPEAKER- Huh, Apple?

03:08SPEAKER- Look, we're one or maybe two generations away from Apple

03:11SPEAKERtaking, leaving only one physical button on the phone.

03:14SPEAKER- It's that, man.

03:15SPEAKERLike at some point it's just gonna be an invisible,

03:17SPEAKERlike capacitive spot, right?

03:19SPEAKER- Well, yeah, there's no reason.

03:20SPEAKER- It's gonna be the home spot.

03:21SPEAKER- Yeah, there's no reason you couldn't have,

03:23SPEAKERoh boy, home spot, that's a good name for a podcast.

03:26SPEAKERThere's no reason you couldn't have

03:28SPEAKERa capacitive volume slider,

03:30SPEAKERlike just slide your finger up

03:31SPEAKERor slide your finger down on the side of the phone

03:33SPEAKERto turn it up right now, except for it adds some cost.

03:35SPEAKER- I think, well, I don't know.

03:36SPEAKERNow that Johnny Iov is out of there,

03:37SPEAKERmaybe the relentless drive toward minimalism

03:39SPEAKERis going to like chill out a little bit.

03:41SPEAKERWhat do you think?

03:42SPEAKER- You think it's gonna look like that Google TV remote

03:44SPEAKERthat Sony made a few years ago?

03:46SPEAKER- I don't think they're gonna go that far

03:47SPEAKERin the other direction necessarily,

03:49SPEAKERbut like maybe thinner and more svelts

03:52SPEAKERand less complicated is not always the best design goal?

03:56SPEAKERYou tell me.

03:58SPEAKER- I like, you know what?

04:01SPEAKERFrom where I sit, this iPhone 12,

04:04SPEAKERpretty close to what I want in a phone.

04:05SPEAKER- Yeah, pretty close, except for there's that part

04:08SPEAKERwhere there's this little spot carved out of the screen,

04:11SPEAKERif they could just address that.

04:12SPEAKER- I don't know what you're talking,

04:13SPEAKERI mean, the thing that on either side of the time

04:15SPEAKERin the battery indicator,

04:16SPEAKERthe places that there'd just be dead space otherwise.

04:18SPEAKER- Yeah, where there's the part

04:19SPEAKERwhere the screen is not uniform.

04:21SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't mind that at all.

04:23SPEAKERThat feels more futurey to me.

04:24SPEAKERLike think about like Star Trek pads, right?

04:27SPEAKERThey're not square,

04:28SPEAKERthey're like weird rectangle shapes with curved edges

04:32SPEAKERand there's sometimes a hand grip in the middle of one.

04:34SPEAKERLike there's all sorts of cool stuff happening there.

04:36SPEAKER- Even before the notch,

04:38SPEAKERnow that we have rounded corners on screens as well,

04:40SPEAKERlike I always think about like,

04:41SPEAKERwhere do they decide where to cut through the pixels?

04:43SPEAKERBecause like with a perfectly rectangular phone,

04:45SPEAKERlike it's pretty obvious where the edges would be, right?

04:48SPEAKERBut like, are some pixels just sacrificing their lives

04:51SPEAKERso that you can have those rounded corners?

04:53SPEAKER- Look, there's always gonna be a dead pixel, Brad.

04:55SPEAKER- I guess so.

04:56SPEAKER- I mean, here's the thing, I can't even see the pixel.

05:01SPEAKERYou know what, there's still a little bit of a bezel

05:04SPEAKERit looks like around the screen,

05:06SPEAKERlike where the curves are,

05:08SPEAKER'cause I don't see any pixels screaming up there.

05:11SPEAKERLike there's no pixels that are like,

05:13SPEAKER"Oh my God, my children."

05:15SPEAKER- They're already dead, they gave their lives.

05:17SPEAKERSo you can have those classy rounded corners.

05:20SPEAKER- Oh, you got my dog.

05:22SPEAKER(upbeat music)

05:47SPEAKER(upbeat music)

05:51SPEAKER- Welcome to Brad and Will Made at Techbot, I'm Will.

05:55SPEAKER- I'm Brad, I don't know how my ranking muscle is doing

05:58SPEAKERsince last week, I think it may have atrophied a little bit.

06:01SPEAKER- I, look, I had immediate regrets.

06:05SPEAKER- Oh.

06:06SPEAKER- About leaving this at 15.

06:09SPEAKER- Really?

06:10SPEAKER- Yeah, I think that's a coward's move in retrospect.

06:13SPEAKER- Okay, all right, I like where this is going.

06:14SPEAKER- I think we chickened out,

06:15SPEAKERI think we should bring it down to one,

06:17SPEAKERjust one, no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, 10, 10.

06:20SPEAKERI'm not a madman.

06:21SPEAKER- Be here all night.

06:24SPEAKER- Yeah, what's the single most important technology,

06:27SPEAKERPC building improvement over the last 20, 25 years?

06:33SPEAKER- I mean, not to give away the game here,

06:36SPEAKERbut it's probably USB, right?

06:38SPEAKERAs much as I have.

06:39SPEAKER- I mean, look.

06:40SPEAKER- Endless problems with USB.

06:42SPEAKER- It's not a perfect technology by any means.

06:47SPEAKER- Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

06:49SPEAKER- Yes, yes, hard before the horse here.

06:52SPEAKER- Let's run down the list just for the people

06:55SPEAKERwho may download their podcasts manually

06:57SPEAKERand not know what the current episode is.

07:00SPEAKER- Before we get into that,

07:03SPEAKERam I to understand that you don't have to opt

07:05SPEAKERinto tracking changes in Google Docs?

07:08SPEAKER- No, it just happens.

07:10SPEAKER- That's an opt-out feature?

07:11SPEAKER- That is an opt-out,

07:12SPEAKERI don't even know if you can turn it off.

07:13SPEAKERThe whole point of this

07:14SPEAKERis that like all of your shit is always there.

07:16SPEAKER- I don't know how I feel about that.

07:18SPEAKERI assumed that was something you had to enable.

07:20SPEAKER- Look, the secret is if you make a new copy,

07:23SPEAKERduplicate the document.

07:24SPEAKERIf you don't want people to see your changes

07:26SPEAKERwhen you send them a Google Doc,

07:28SPEAKERyou make a new copy and upload it as a doc file.

07:32SPEAKER- Fair, that's, yeah.

07:34SPEAKERASCII text, plain old, what do you call it, UTF-8?

07:39SPEAKERIt still has its place.

07:40SPEAKER- Is it UTF-8?

07:41SPEAKERI guess that is, that's the Unicode thing, right?

07:43SPEAKER- Yes, I think that's right.

07:45SPEAKERYou know what, actually though, now that I'm clicking

07:47SPEAKERthrough these previous versions of this list,

07:49SPEAKERlet's say if you were to start with a long list of things

07:52SPEAKERand try to winnow that down

07:53SPEAKERto a much shorter list of things.

07:55SPEAKERThis little history feature here is a pretty handy way

07:59SPEAKERto see where you have been and where you might be going.

08:03SPEAKER- Well, do you think this would have changed the outcome

08:04SPEAKERof any other rankings you've done in the past?

08:07SPEAKERLike if you had this technology at your hands?

08:08SPEAKER- Maybe, maybe.

08:09SPEAKERLooks like I could tell you that cheap overnight shipping

08:11SPEAKERwas at one point number 13 on this list.

08:14SPEAKER- But it was still unordered.

08:15SPEAKERIt's still, this is an unordered list at this point.

08:17SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right, you're right.

08:18SPEAKERYes, well, mostly.

08:20SPEAKER- I still like think cheap overnight shipping

08:21SPEAKERis pretty important, but I don't think it's better

08:23SPEAKERthan say a headlamp.

08:25SPEAKER- Yeah, sure.

08:26SPEAKERI also, I do think that's a little outside the scope

08:29SPEAKERof what we're doing here.

08:31SPEAKERNo, no, no, the shipping.

08:32SPEAKER- Oh, what about track changes?

08:33SPEAKERHow do you feel like that fits on this list?

08:36SPEAKER- Better off without it.

08:38SPEAKERI think, I don't know,

08:39SPEAKERI think external logistical factors maybe.

08:42SPEAKER- Okay, okay.

08:43SPEAKERThings that you can't at least put your hands on

08:45SPEAKERand manipulate yourself.

08:46SPEAKERI feel like you don't really.

08:48SPEAKER- Look, the argument for cheap overnight shipping

08:50SPEAKERis that it gives you just a little bit more comfort

08:53SPEAKERand it's a feeling of safety that if you mess something up,

08:57SPEAKERyou're one FedEx truck away from repair the next day.

09:01SPEAKERThat's for unfucking your mistake.

09:02SPEAKER- That's fair, that's fair.

09:04SPEAKERBut if I've learned anything in my years of list making,

09:09SPEAKERyou gotta draw the line somewhere.

09:10SPEAKER- I mean, that's the unfortunate reality of a list.

09:13SPEAKER- That's right.

09:14SPEAKER- I mean, there are infinite lists.

09:16SPEAKER- I was gonna say, if we were prepared to engage

09:18SPEAKERwith an infinite list,

09:19SPEAKERthen we might be able to make that happen.

09:21SPEAKER- We could make a list of lists.

09:23SPEAKERI mean, now actually we're on the track for that.

09:25SPEAKERNow we have two lists right now that we've done.

09:27SPEAKER- We gotta be careful.

09:29SPEAKERLook, I don't think that's the first time

09:30SPEAKERthat list of lists has come up on this podcast.

09:32SPEAKERAnd in fact, list of list of lists.

09:34SPEAKER- List of lists of lists is way better than list of lists.

09:37SPEAKERBut list of list of lists of lists is the best list of all.

09:40SPEAKER- Oh boy, that's okay.

09:41SPEAKERThe more recursion--

09:42SPEAKER- Can we rank list of lists next week?

09:43SPEAKER- Oh my God, we can't do this.

09:45SPEAKER(laughing)

09:48SPEAKER- Okay, so the story so far.

09:50SPEAKER- Oh God, I started to get into something.

09:52SPEAKERI was reading about the GNU herd this week.

09:56SPEAKER- I'm sorry, what?

09:57SPEAKER- As one does.

09:58SPEAKER- You mean the new herd?

09:59SPEAKER- The, I thought people--

10:00SPEAKER- The ga is silent.

10:02SPEAKER- Are you sure about that?

10:03SPEAKER- Nope, not at all.

10:04SPEAKER- I'm pretty sure, I was under the impression

10:06SPEAKERmost people pronounce the G.

10:08SPEAKERAnyway, whatever, I shouldn't,

10:09SPEAKERI don't even want to get into it.

10:10SPEAKERHerd, H-U-R-D is a nested mutually recursive acronym.

10:16SPEAKER- Okay.

10:17SPEAKER- It recurses forever.

10:20SPEAKERBecause one acronym contains the other.

10:24SPEAKERI really shouldn't.

10:25SPEAKER- What is the acronym for herd?

10:28SPEAKER- Let me see.

10:30SPEAKEREach, okay, so it's spelled H-U-R-D.

10:33SPEAKERI can't believe I'm even reading this.

10:34SPEAKERHerd stands for herd, H-I-R-D of Unix replacing demons.

10:41SPEAKERAnd then H-I-R-D stands for herd, H-U-R-D

10:44SPEAKERof interfaces representing depth.

10:47SPEAKER- I hate this a lot.

10:48SPEAKER- Yes, I know, like I said,

10:49SPEAKERI should not have brought it up.

10:51SPEAKERThere's probably a reason they never finished it.

10:53SPEAKER- I'm gonna play how to pronounce G-N-U right now.

10:58SPEAKER- Okay.

10:59SPEAKERWait, can I also play?

11:03SPEAKER- It just says new on howtopronounce.com/new, G-N-U.

11:07SPEAKERBut when you go to the gnu.org, the new foundation,

11:13SPEAKERthe free software foundation, it says do a hard G,

11:17SPEAKERbut with the letter N instead of R.

11:20SPEAKERLike pronounce it like grew,

11:21SPEAKERbut with the letter N instead of R.

11:23SPEAKER- It is pronounced as one syllable with a hard G, yes.

11:26SPEAKER- So I'm gonna say, if we're gonna follow this rule

11:29SPEAKERfor the G-N-U project,

11:33SPEAKERthen that means we have to follow the,

11:35SPEAKERif we're honoring creator's intent versus using the word

11:38SPEAKERthat already exists in the English language,

11:40SPEAKERwhich means a type of like hooved, cloven hooved deer,

11:43SPEAKERI believe is a G-N-U.

11:45SPEAKER- I believe that's right.

11:46SPEAKER- Then that means we're gonna have to follow

11:48SPEAKERthe author's intent for the GIF,

11:52SPEAKERthe graphics interchange format.

11:54SPEAKER- Oh yeah, the graphics with a hard G.

11:55SPEAKERI mean, it makes perfect sense.

12:00SPEAKERGo on.

12:01SPEAKER- Yeah, but he pronounced it Jif is the problem.

12:02SPEAKER- Are you sure?

12:03SPEAKER- 100%. - Is that actually true?

12:04SPEAKERIs that really true?

12:05SPEAKER- Yes, New York Times tracked the creator

12:06SPEAKERof the GIF down a few years ago.

12:07SPEAKER- Look, sometimes creations grow beyond their creators, okay?

12:12SPEAKER- Look, no, no, I'm just saying the style for the podcast

12:15SPEAKERhas to be consistent.

12:16SPEAKEREither we honor our authorial intent,

12:18SPEAKERin this case, Richard Stallman of the New Foundation.

12:21SPEAKER- A little extra low then.

12:23SPEAKER- Yeah, okay, so then it's new, move on.

12:26SPEAKER- Okay, so it's GIF then?

12:28SPEAKER- I mean, that's fine.

12:29SPEAKERI'll take the L on that to get the W on the other one.

12:33SPEAKER- Have I ever made my pitch about GIF?

12:37SPEAKER- Probably, no.

12:39SPEAKER- Dude, what about poor, lowly, humble J-I-F?

12:43SPEAKER'Cause that's also a file format.

12:45SPEAKER- The peanut butter?

12:46SPEAKER- What about dot J-I-F?

12:47SPEAKERWhat is the--

12:48SPEAKER- What the hell is that?

12:49SPEAKER- I have no idea, but it exists.

12:51SPEAKERWhat the hell is a dot Jif gonna do

12:54SPEAKERif everybody pronounces dot GIF like dot Jif?

12:56SPEAKER- If nobody uses it, does it matter?

12:58SPEAKERYou never know.

13:00SPEAKER- No, no.

13:00SPEAKER- You never know, hang on, dot Jif.

13:02SPEAKERYou're right, that just does take me straight

13:05SPEAKERto the peanut butter.

13:08SPEAKERWhat is a dot J-I-F file and how do I open it?

13:13SPEAKERJPEG interchange format image, apparently.

13:17SPEAKER- That's not a real thing.

13:18SPEAKER- Apparently?

13:20SPEAKER- Not a real thing.

13:21SPEAKER- That's what this says, I don't know.

13:23SPEAKERAnyway, we should rank, we should probably rank.

13:26SPEAKER- Okay, what's our list so far?

13:28SPEAKER- Oh boy, okay.

13:29SPEAKER- The category, once again, if you're keeping track at home

13:31SPEAKERand 20 minutes into the show, you don't remember already,

13:34SPEAKERis improvements to PC building technology

13:39SPEAKERsince we started building PCs in the '90s.

13:41SPEAKER- Yes, developments in the building and operation

13:44SPEAKERof computers that have made our lives much easier.

13:46SPEAKER- Just the building, not the operation, actually.

13:49SPEAKER- Well, by operation, I mean setting up a BIOS.

13:51SPEAKERAfter you put everything together

13:53SPEAKERand press the power button,

13:54SPEAKERthere's still work to do

13:54SPEAKERbefore you can actually use the computer.

13:56SPEAKER- Okay, okay, you know what I mean.

13:58SPEAKER- But Windows Update's not on here.

14:00SPEAKEROh no, actually it is, it's still on here.

14:02SPEAKER- Yes, or if you wanna look at it another way,

14:04SPEAKERthings that allow us to cut our hands less.

14:08SPEAKER- Fewer bloody fingers while building a new computer

14:10SPEAKERis always welcomed by me.

14:12SPEAKER- Yeah, for sure.

14:12SPEAKER- I've cut myself a lot.

14:14SPEAKER- Yes, I've been there.

14:15SPEAKERAll right, top to bottom, modular power supplies.

14:19SPEAKER- These are in no particular order.

14:21SPEAKER- Yes, build friendly cases, USB, quiet operation.

14:27SPEAKERWe've got to rephrase this, everything but the computer.

14:31SPEAKERThat sounds like nothing.

14:33SPEAKER- That's the one that's like the fact that you have a phone

14:35SPEAKERthat you can use to look up shit if your computer's broken

14:37SPEAKERwhile you're trying to build a new computer.

14:39SPEAKER- Yes, I am probably gonna argue strongly

14:42SPEAKERthat that doesn't belong on here for formal reasons.

14:47SPEAKERWe'll get there, okay.

14:48SPEAKERBeing able to plug your PC into your TV, I believe that.

14:51SPEAKERI'm just gonna type HDMI in parentheses here

14:56SPEAKER'cause that's really what that is.

14:57SPEAKERSATA, so this isn't all just acronyms.

15:01SPEAKERI'm gonna expand that out to serial ATA, remember that?

15:05SPEAKERPCI Express, the modern BIOS.

15:08SPEAKER- The central connect interface express edition.

15:11SPEAKER- Yes, that's the one.

15:13SPEAKERThe modern BIOS or a basic input output system.

15:17SPEAKER- Also kind of that's UEFI also.

15:19SPEAKER- Yeah, it's really UEFI.

15:21SPEAKER- Yeah.

15:23SPEAKER- You know, that is the BIOS

15:25SPEAKERas it has evolved support for more input devices

15:28SPEAKERand networking and backing up firmware and all that stuff.

15:32SPEAKERBootable USB OS installers, trouble shooting features

15:36SPEAKERthat are placed directly on the motherboard.

15:39SPEAKER- Like little screens with error codes,

15:41SPEAKERlights that tell you whether your RAM's good,

15:42SPEAKERstuff like that.

15:43SPEAKER- Diagnostic lights and how about a power switch

15:46SPEAKERright there on the motherboard

15:47SPEAKERso you don't have to like set it up right next to the case

15:50SPEAKERand run the lead?

15:50SPEAKERWell, actually you could just bridge it with a screwdriver.

15:52SPEAKER- I just use a screwdriver.

15:54SPEAKER- It took me way too long to do that.

15:56SPEAKERIt's not that I didn't know about it.

15:57SPEAKERIt was just that like, I didn't want to risk anything.

15:59SPEAKER- There's no downside.

16:00SPEAKER- Yeah.

16:01SPEAKER- There's nothing around there that you can fuck up usually.

16:02SPEAKER- The last time I needed to boot a bare motherboard,

16:04SPEAKERI just tried, I was like, you know what?

16:06SPEAKERFuck this, I'm just gonna try it.

16:07SPEAKERAnd I tried it and I was like, yeah,

16:08SPEAKERwhy didn't I do that for the last 20 years?

16:10SPEAKER- In the maximum PC lab,

16:12SPEAKERGordon used to sometimes lick his fingernail

16:14SPEAKERand then hit it with that.

16:16SPEAKER- There's a certain panache to that.

16:18SPEAKER- Yeah, it was cool, but also gross, so yeah.

16:21SPEAKER- Yes, that is, I would not want to touch that.

16:26SPEAKERWe'll see troubleshooting features on motherboard.

16:30SPEAKEREasy driver installation and updates.

16:33SPEAKERSome of these sound like they overlap.

16:35SPEAKERWe'll have to revisit some of this.

16:37SPEAKERNot having to activate windows to install it.

16:41SPEAKERConsolidation of external cards.

16:43SPEAKERI guess we should say external hardware onto the motherboard

16:46SPEAKERsuch as ethernet, ethernet, wifi, sound and graphics.

16:50SPEAKER- Realistically, you can build a computer

16:51SPEAKERthat has nothing plugged into any of the slots

16:54SPEAKERand it's fine.

16:54SPEAKER- Yeah, yeah, it just goes.

16:57SPEAKER- Shocking.

16:57SPEAKER- Yes, and headlamps.

16:59SPEAKER- Best thing on the list.

17:00SPEAKER- You know, I should buy a headlamp.

17:01SPEAKERI don't know that it belongs on this list.

17:03SPEAKER- It's 'cause you don't own a headlamp.

17:06SPEAKER- That's entirely possible.

17:07SPEAKER- I was disappointed that the headlamp stands

17:09SPEAKERweren't out in the Discord

17:11SPEAKERafter this list came out last week.

17:13SPEAKER- Yeah, I didn't see that much actually.

17:15SPEAKER- It was shocking.

17:17SPEAKERGet these people some headlamps.

17:18SPEAKER- I would say, I mean, I'm trying to think.

17:21SPEAKERI'm thinking over since last week

17:23SPEAKERwhat has inspired the most discussion.

17:25SPEAKERI think it's gotta be video stuff.

17:26SPEAKERI think it's gotta be video standards, video cables.

17:29SPEAKER- Yeah, people hate DisplayPort and love DVI.

17:34SPEAKER- Yes, they hate HDMI as well.

17:36SPEAKER- But also some people hated DVI

17:37SPEAKERbecause of the shittiness of the mechanical connector.

17:40SPEAKER- Yes, that did come up, but.

17:42SPEAKER- Like it is really the worst connector I think ever.

17:45SPEAKERLike if I was rating based on just usability,

17:47SPEAKERit is maybe the worst of all time.

17:49SPEAKERI've killed so many DisplayPort cables.

17:51SPEAKER- Damn.

17:53SPEAKERYeah, I can see it.

17:54SPEAKERBut I mean, what I really got from that discussion

17:56SPEAKERwas that people want a dumb video signal.

18:00SPEAKER- I mean, we all want that.

18:02SPEAKER- They don't want a smart video signal.

18:04SPEAKERThey don't want a thing that has to handshake,

18:07SPEAKERthat sends all kinds of like codes that you don't want

18:10SPEAKERthat causes undesirable behavior.

18:12SPEAKERIt's bad.

18:13SPEAKER- Do you leave the monitors in your speaker,

18:15SPEAKERthe speakers in your monitors on?

18:18SPEAKER- Yes.

18:19SPEAKER- I usually turn them off almost immediately.

18:21SPEAKER- The monitors maybe it's questionable.

18:22SPEAKERI mean, speakers, I should, I really should.

18:25SPEAKERI've actually wondered about this for a long time

18:27SPEAKERand I'm embarrassed having to ask it

18:28SPEAKER'cause I feel like I should know it.

18:30SPEAKERBut how much electricity if any are speakers using

18:33SPEAKERif there's no sound coming out?

18:34SPEAKER- None.

18:35SPEAKER- That's what I thought, okay.

18:36SPEAKER- Well, there's a DAC in there.

18:38SPEAKERThere's a DAC that's connecting.

18:39SPEAKERSo maybe a little tiny bit, but not much.

18:41SPEAKER- Well, I mean, I guess let me walk that back

18:43SPEAKERto like traditional stereo speakers

18:44SPEAKERthat just plug into an amp.

18:46SPEAKERLike those are used, those are doing nothing, right?

18:47SPEAKER- Well, the amp is jarring current.

18:49SPEAKERProbably they'll turn on the light

18:50SPEAKERand all the electronic stuff.

18:52SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, I've got a little subwoofer

18:54SPEAKERon these PC speakers, I guess that those use some current.

18:56SPEAKER- Yeah, that uses a little bit.

18:58SPEAKERYou should put those in the power strip

18:59SPEAKERthat you turn off at the end of the night.

19:00SPEAKER- Probably turn those off more often.

19:02SPEAKERAnd yeah, I mean, you know, the monitors,

19:04SPEAKERI actually looked it up.

19:04SPEAKERI think these use like a watt and a half in sleep

19:06SPEAKERor in kind of suspend.

19:08SPEAKER- That's kind of a lot for a monitor actually.

19:10SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right.

19:11SPEAKERI mean, it's about a Raspberry Pi.

19:12SPEAKER- Yeah.

19:14SPEAKER- I should start turning my monitors off at night.

19:16SPEAKERI didn't realize they use that much.

19:17SPEAKERThat's a lot.

19:18SPEAKER- I probably should too.

19:20SPEAKER- I might go back to the power strip

19:22SPEAKERand put everything on one power strip

19:23SPEAKERso I can just hit them at the end.

19:25SPEAKER'Cause I turn off my computers at night

19:26SPEAKERjust not to waste a lot of electricity

19:27SPEAKERand having everything shut off, maybe be good.

19:30SPEAKERI don't know.

19:31SPEAKER- What about the NAS?

19:32SPEAKERThat stays on 24/7.

19:33SPEAKER- NAS stays on 24/7.

19:34SPEAKERThe NAS, this is like, yeah, that's the big power expense.

19:38SPEAKERI should put a panel up on the roof just for the NAS.

19:44SPEAKER- I really need to resist the urge

19:45SPEAKERto go back into previous versions and see what we've cut.

19:49SPEAKER'Cause I feel like maybe a third of the ones

19:50SPEAKERI just read need to go.

19:52SPEAKEROf course, if we cut a third, we have our 10, right?

19:56SPEAKER- Yeah.

19:56SPEAKER- So maybe not, but anyway, maybe, okay.

19:59SPEAKERI'll dig back into the previous stuff if necessary, but.

20:02SPEAKER- Yeah, you have it there, you have the power.

20:05SPEAKERLook, I'm looking at this list.

20:09SPEAKERI don't see anything super obvious to cut.

20:14SPEAKER- Bootable USB, I mean, we could do it.

20:16SPEAKERWe could pull a few, maybe we pick one or two

20:18SPEAKERthat are must haves.

20:20SPEAKER- Yeah, you know what I would say is like some of these,

20:22SPEAKERI feel like there's a little too much overlap.

20:25SPEAKER- Okay, that's a good place to start.

20:26SPEAKER- Like for instance, I think like a bootable OS installer

20:31SPEAKERon a USB stick is pretty close to easy driver installation

20:35SPEAKERand updates in that they both pertain

20:36SPEAKERto installing your operating system.

20:39SPEAKER- So like combine that into one category

20:41SPEAKERthat's like installing the OS is easy.

20:44SPEAKER- Eh, yeah.

20:44SPEAKER- Avoiding OS install pitfalls.

20:47SPEAKER- That feels cowardly though.

20:49SPEAKER- Look, we're cutting five more things.

20:50SPEAKERWhat more do people want?

20:53SPEAKER- Also, I just, I think I made this case last week.

20:55SPEAKERI feel very strongly that the modern, like the ability

20:58SPEAKERto just make a bootable OS installer

21:00SPEAKERon a USB stick is enormous, like.

21:03SPEAKER- That's true.

21:04SPEAKER- We've talked about it before.

21:05SPEAKERLike remember having to keep up with your DOS disks,

21:07SPEAKERyour stack of floppy disks to put DOS 622 back on.

21:10SPEAKER- Yeah, like I literally had a special place

21:12SPEAKERunder my keyboard for my Windows 95 disk

21:15SPEAKER'cause I had to install Windows 95 so often.

21:17SPEAKER- Right, and if you lost that thing,

21:18SPEAKERwhat were you gonna do?

21:18SPEAKER- Host, I was completely hosed.

21:20SPEAKER- You couldn't even burn CDs.

21:22SPEAKERLike you had to go out and buy another copy.

21:23SPEAKER- Well, I could burn CDs, but like you couldn't download.

21:26SPEAKERYou had to download a sketchy pirate version.

21:28SPEAKER- Right, or find somebody you knew

21:30SPEAKERthat had a copy or something.

21:31SPEAKERNot having to keep up with an OS installer anymore

21:34SPEAKERis so huge to me.

21:35SPEAKER- But also at the same time,

21:37SPEAKERlike I haven't reinstalled Windows in probably four years.

21:40SPEAKER- Wow, that's a hell of a run.

21:43SPEAKER- It doesn't, there's no downside anymore.

21:46SPEAKER- It does not cruft up like it used to.

21:48SPEAKER- Yeah, they finally fixed that.

21:49SPEAKER- Occasionally it'll still go a little sideways

21:51SPEAKERin a way that only a reinstall can fix.

21:53SPEAKER- I mean, that's true.

21:55SPEAKEROkay, I feel like that's definitely important.

21:59SPEAKERI feel like that's definitely on the final list.

22:01SPEAKERLike the whole, 'cause like when I was at Maximum PC,

22:06SPEAKERthe biggest question, the most common question we got

22:09SPEAKERwas always, "Hey, I built this new computer,

22:12SPEAKER"I installed Windows and now it crashes all the time."

22:14SPEAKERAnd when you emailed them and were like,

22:15SPEAKER"Hey, maybe install the chipset drivers,"

22:18SPEAKERthat almost always fixed the problem.

22:21SPEAKERLike it was either that or their room was too hot.

22:23SPEAKERLike the other one we got a lot was like,

22:25SPEAKERwe'd get letters around end of summer when it was August

22:28SPEAKERand people's like computer rooms and rec rooms and stuff

22:31SPEAKERwould start getting warm

22:32SPEAKERand their computers would start crashing

22:33SPEAKER'cause it was 85 in there instead of 75.

22:35SPEAKERAnd that was-- - That was enough to do it?

22:37SPEAKER- Sometimes, it was a different time back then too.

22:40SPEAKERThe hardware failed less gracefully then.

22:43SPEAKER- Sure, and cooling was not as good.

22:45SPEAKER- Cooling, definitely not as good.

22:48SPEAKERSo yeah, let's say, let's combine,

22:52SPEAKERlet's like first boot maybe is easier, I don't know.

23:02SPEAKERI mean, honestly we combine not having to activate Windows

23:05SPEAKERinto like install is easy as well.

23:10SPEAKER- Yeah.

23:12SPEAKER- I guess it's three fifths of the way there.

23:15SPEAKERThree fifths of the way there.

23:16SPEAKER- Bootable USB installers, easy driver updates

23:19SPEAKERand installation and not having to activate Windows

23:21SPEAKERto install it are all basically kind of the same thing.

23:24SPEAKER- I'm gonna suggest that we roll headlamps into that too

23:27SPEAKERbecause it makes it easier to find the pins

23:30SPEAKERto do the BIOS reset and stuff.

23:32SPEAKER- We really are only gonna have one item left

23:34SPEAKERat the end of this thing.

23:36SPEAKER- Maybe the coward's way out is the right choice here

23:38SPEAKERand just reduce this to, I don't know, ease of OS install.

23:43SPEAKER- Look, if I'm choosing, this is a fallacious choice

23:47SPEAKERbut if I was choosing between bootable OS installers

23:52SPEAKERand easy driver installation slash updates,

23:55SPEAKERhaving had to use the F6 driver a lot over the years,

23:59SPEAKERI'd probably pick the easy driver installation updates

24:02SPEAKERover the bootable USB installer.

24:05SPEAKER- My problem with those is that they're always enough

24:07SPEAKERto get you up and running,

24:08SPEAKERbut they're never the ones that I actually want.

24:11SPEAKERLike I don't ever want the default Microsoft drivers.

24:14SPEAKERLike I'm always still gonna go hunt down

24:15SPEAKERthe manufacturer's ones

24:16SPEAKERbecause those are probably better or newer or both.

24:19SPEAKER- The Microsoft ones are usually better tested.

24:22SPEAKER- Maybe, maybe I'm thinking about the graphics card

24:25SPEAKERa little too much.

24:26SPEAKERLike you're always, you're gonna get a nice fallback

24:28SPEAKERactual driver for your video card

24:30SPEAKERand not just the generic VGA driver these days,

24:32SPEAKERbut that's never the one you want to settle on.

24:34SPEAKERThat's just enough to get you onto a nice high-res desktop.

24:36SPEAKER- So for me, the easy driver installation updates

24:40SPEAKERand built into Windows Update, which just to be clear,

24:42SPEAKERit's been around since like Windows XP,

24:44SPEAKERit's old at this point,

24:47SPEAKERis about the drivers that people don't think to do.

24:50SPEAKERSo for example, everybody gets a,

24:53SPEAKERyou spend $600 in a video card,

24:55SPEAKERyou probably know you have to install

24:56SPEAKERthe video card drivers, right?

24:58SPEAKERBut most people don't know about things

25:00SPEAKERlike chipset drivers and Bluetooth stack

25:02SPEAKERand all the weird shit that's built into your motherboard

25:05SPEAKERthat you don't think to update.

25:07SPEAKERAnd that will get you to a place that will work

25:09SPEAKERand be good versus being janky and unreliable.

25:13SPEAKERIt's less of an issue now

25:14SPEAKER'cause the chipsets don't change

25:15SPEAKERas much as they used to either.

25:16SPEAKERSo maybe the answer is,

25:19SPEAKERmaybe it is bootable USB installers.

25:21SPEAKER- Yeah.

25:23SPEAKER- Sorry drivers.

25:24SPEAKER- When I bought that USB to serial cable last year,

25:27SPEAKERwas there a driver built into Windows for it?

25:28SPEAKERNo.

25:31SPEAKER- Did you download it or did you have to get,

25:32SPEAKERdo you have to install it from a website someplace?

25:34SPEAKER- I had to go download a .inf file, remember those?

25:37SPEAKER- Oh yeah.

25:38SPEAKER- I had to do that for my foot pedals.

25:40SPEAKER- Huh, interesting.

25:43SPEAKER- I'm gonna put these down at the bottom of the list,

25:45SPEAKERthe ones that we're cutting just in case.

25:46SPEAKER- I'm gonna put a space.

25:48SPEAKER- Okay, that's fair.

25:50SPEAKERI think Quiet Components maybe doesn't live on this list.

25:52SPEAKER- Really?

25:53SPEAKER- Yeah, 'cause like that's the thing

25:55SPEAKERthat's nice after the computer's built,

25:57SPEAKERbut it's not really good while you're building the computer.

25:59SPEAKER- You're right.

26:00SPEAKER- It's often worse while you're building

26:01SPEAKERthe computer actually.

26:04SPEAKER- You think?

26:05SPEAKER- I think we put this on the list

26:06SPEAKERbefore we really fully understood exactly

26:08SPEAKERwhat we were doing here, I'm not gonna lie.

26:10SPEAKER- I mean, that's kind of the nature of every ranked list.

26:12SPEAKER- I mean, that's true.

26:14SPEAKEROne moment you're talking about how awesome Skyrim is

26:17SPEAKERand the next moment Saints Row the Third

26:18SPEAKERis the game of the year.

26:19SPEAKERWho knew how that happened?

26:20SPEAKER- Oh, it doesn't, it didn't in fact, I don't know.

26:25SPEAKER- I don't know what you're talking about.

26:29SPEAKERMan, I do love quiet fans though, holy shit.

26:31SPEAKER- I mean, they're really good.

26:32SPEAKER- Oh man, I love how quiet computers are.

26:35SPEAKER- But you know what's quiet when the power's not turned on

26:37SPEAKERwhile you're building a computer?

26:39SPEAKERAny fan.

26:40SPEAKER- Yeah, it's true.

26:41SPEAKER- Even the Vortex.

26:43SPEAKER- Yeah, that's true.

26:44SPEAKER- I used to have a fan that could move

26:46SPEAKER120 cubic feet of air per minute or something insane.

26:49SPEAKERIt was like three fans, three normal fan thicknesses.

26:52SPEAKER- That's--

26:53SPEAKER- And it had really, really sharp blades.

26:55SPEAKER- That sounds terrifying.

26:56SPEAKER- And it looked like, I feel like if I had put it on a tube,

26:59SPEAKERI could have balanced a ping pong ball

27:01SPEAKERon top of that airflow pretty easily.

27:03SPEAKER- That's amazing.

27:03SPEAKER- Yeah.

27:05SPEAKER- You know, I guess better quieter cooling kind of tracks

27:08SPEAKERwith everything else about computers

27:09SPEAKERand that all of it has gotten better.

27:10SPEAKERLike that's just kind of like, you know,

27:12SPEAKERthere's more design attention,

27:14SPEAKERthere's more quality assurance, there's more all that stuff.

27:16SPEAKERYou know, it's not, it's not the,

27:19SPEAKERwhat's the, what is the term for the type of metal

27:20SPEAKERthat used to build the internal,

27:22SPEAKERthe interior of the cases out of, stamped?

27:24SPEAKER- Oh, stamped aluminum, die-cut aluminum.

27:26SPEAKER- Right, like, you know, people are using,

27:28SPEAKERpeople are paying more attention to the, right,

27:30SPEAKERto the, you know, they're using friendlier materials

27:32SPEAKERand like everything about the luxury aspect of PCs

27:35SPEAKERhas got better, so.

27:36SPEAKER- Cable channels, all that stuff

27:38SPEAKERthat's built in automatically.

27:39SPEAKER- In that sense, you know, I mean,

27:44SPEAKERthis is really, this is getting more and more cowardly

27:46SPEAKERthe longer we do it, but I feel like we could kind of

27:49SPEAKERmassage the name of build friendly cases

27:51SPEAKERto include things like better fans.

27:52SPEAKER- I strongly disagree with that.

27:53SPEAKERI think that's, I think build friendly cases

27:55SPEAKERis a specific concept that was well thought out.

27:59SPEAKER- You're right, you're right.

28:01SPEAKER- And look, if this was things that I like better

28:02SPEAKERabout PCs now, I would absolutely do quiet components.

28:07SPEAKER- Yes, for sure.

28:08SPEAKER- Quiet components have been a quality of life improvement

28:10SPEAKERon personal computing over the last 20 years.

28:12SPEAKER- For sure, absolutely.

28:14SPEAKER- But during the build process, eh.

28:16SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right.

28:18SPEAKER- Having to figure out which way is up on the pump,

28:20SPEAKERon the pump apparatus for your all-in-one water cooler,

28:23SPEAKERit's just a hassle, I don't need that.

28:25SPEAKERIt's not making the build easier.

28:27SPEAKER- That's why I think I've decided

28:28SPEAKERI will never deal with water cooling.

28:30SPEAKER- Well, the all-in-ones are super easy.

28:32SPEAKER- I know.

28:33SPEAKER- My, honestly, my next move is to do

28:35SPEAKERa full water cooling loop with the GPU and everything,

28:38SPEAKERI think.

28:38SPEAKER- Oh, see, now you're just adding complexity.

28:40SPEAKER- But I want it to be quiet, Brad.

28:42SPEAKER- Well, good air cooling is also quiet.

28:44SPEAKERYou know what's easier than an all-in-one?

28:46SPEAKER- Yeah.

28:47SPEAKER- A fan, a fan.

28:49SPEAKER- Look, you want to know the secret dream?

28:53SPEAKER- The secret dream is to put a radiator,

28:56SPEAKERto have two loops, right?

28:57SPEAKEROne that goes to a radiator like normal,

28:59SPEAKERand then a second one that goes to a radiator

29:02SPEAKERwith some submersible fans or maybe just pumps

29:05SPEAKERthat blow air over a series of cooling fins

29:08SPEAKERthat I can put in a five gallon drywall mud bucket

29:10SPEAKERfull of water next to the computer

29:12SPEAKERand have that water serve as a heat sink

29:14SPEAKERso that when it gets boiling,

29:17SPEAKERI just flip the cutoffs on the water cooling loop,

29:20SPEAKERgo dump the water down the tub,

29:22SPEAKERfill it up with a fresh thing of cold water,

29:23SPEAKERand I'm back in business.

29:25SPEAKER- Just really trying to reduce complexity here.

29:27SPEAKER- Look, I've been playing a lot of eco,

29:29SPEAKERso I'm really tuned in on the environment

29:30SPEAKERand what's good and bad for us.

29:32SPEAKERSo yeah, I'm just trying to reduce waste heat, Brad.

29:35SPEAKER- You know, I respect it.

29:37SPEAKER- Yeah.

29:38SPEAKER- All right, I deleted the quiet, whatever.

29:43SPEAKER- Should we talk about the elephant?

29:46SPEAKER- What's the elephant?

29:47SPEAKER- Everything but the computer.

29:48SPEAKER- Oh, yeah, let's rename that.

29:52SPEAKER- How about ready access to reference materials?

29:59SPEAKER- What about we all have two computers?

30:04SPEAKER- Okay, I like that.

30:05SPEAKERHow about having more than one computer?

30:07SPEAKER- Yeah.

30:08SPEAKER- Where definition of computer

30:09SPEAKERis anything that connects to the internet.

30:11SPEAKER- Anything that computes, yeah.

30:13SPEAKER- Anything that can get you the motherboard manual

30:16SPEAKERfor the motherboard, you can't get the boot, right?

30:18SPEAKER- Yeah, look, your fucking microwave oven

30:20SPEAKERprobably has more computing power than your computer did

30:22SPEAKERin 1995 at this point.

30:24SPEAKER- Yeah, I mean, like, you know,

30:26SPEAKERyou've seen the semiconductor shortage

30:28SPEAKERis mothballing car factories.

30:32SPEAKER- Yeah.

30:33SPEAKER- Like they can't make the cars

30:34SPEAKER'cause they can't get the chips

30:34SPEAKERthat they need to finish the cars.

30:36SPEAKER- We should go back to '50s style cars

30:38SPEAKERwith carburetors and all mechanical stuff, anyway.

30:44SPEAKER- Yeah, okay, that sounds better to me,

30:45SPEAKERhaving more than one computer

30:48SPEAKERso that the only computer that you would have

30:50SPEAKERto look up solutions is the one that is in pieces

30:52SPEAKERin front of you, that's no longer a reality.

30:54SPEAKER- Yes, so you don't have to disassemble the computer

30:57SPEAKERyou just built, put the hard drive back in the old computer

31:00SPEAKERand look stuff up on the internet,

31:01SPEAKERwhich is absolutely a thing I did multiple times.

31:04SPEAKER- Yeah, totally.

31:05SPEAKERAnd you know, like there's a lot of stuff

31:06SPEAKERthat goes into that, you know,

31:07SPEAKERlike wifi is a big part of that now, right?

31:08SPEAKERBecause now you can just whip out a laptop or a phone,

31:12SPEAKERlike in the past, like, you know, think about that,

31:15SPEAKERlike your connectivity to the internet

31:16SPEAKERwas limited by how many network ports

31:18SPEAKERyou had to plug into.

31:19SPEAKER- Oh yeah, I used to have, I used to have,

31:22SPEAKERwhat I have, I used to use a Windows 2000 machine

31:25SPEAKERas the router using internet connection sharing.

31:28SPEAKER- Right, right.

31:29SPEAKER- That was a bad idea, just for the record, terrible.

31:33SPEAKERCan we talk about PCI express?

31:35SPEAKER- Sure.

31:36SPEAKER- I don't know if it hangs here.

31:38SPEAKER- Wow, like it at all in the top 10?

31:40SPEAKER- I don't think it's in the top 10.

31:41SPEAKER- I guess I could see it, I could see it.

31:43SPEAKER- It's just another slot, it's nice.

31:45SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right.

31:46SPEAKER- It's nice that it's fast,

31:48SPEAKERit's nice you can get external variants,

31:49SPEAKERit's nice you can pipe it over USB or Thunderbolt,

31:51SPEAKERthose are all good things.

31:52SPEAKER- I'm trying to, I'm trying to look up

31:53SPEAKERwhen PCI express debuted because I have to assume

31:57SPEAKERthat it is by far the longest lived slot at this point,

32:00SPEAKERright, it's been around for like, oh my God,

32:04SPEAKER2003 was when the first version of PCI express came out.

32:08SPEAKERThat's pretty impressive considering like,

32:11SPEAKERfirst of all, did you pronounce it ISA?

32:14SPEAKER- ISA, that's how we always, we didn't,

32:17SPEAKERISA was done by the time I started at Maximum PC,

32:19SPEAKERso I don't know how they pronounced it.

32:21SPEAKER- Okay.

32:21SPEAKER- It was all PCI and AGP for the most part at that point.

32:24SPEAKER- Right, 'cause it was like it was--

32:25SPEAKER- Or AGP came out while I was there.

32:27SPEAKER- It was ISA and then Visa local bus and then AGP

32:29SPEAKERand then PCI and then PCI express,

32:31SPEAKERall in the space of like 10 years.

32:33SPEAKER- VL bus is what we called Visa local.

32:35SPEAKER- Interesting.

32:36SPEAKER- Yeah.

32:38SPEAKER- And then PCI express happened

32:39SPEAKERand it's just been that since then,

32:41SPEAKERalthough it's been versions of that,

32:42SPEAKERso it's not like there aren't still changes in standard

32:45SPEAKERthat you have to kind of keep up with.

32:46SPEAKER- Well, but the physical connector is essentially the same.

32:49SPEAKERIt's not like they've added more connectors or anything.

32:51SPEAKER- Backwards forwards compatibility is certainly nice.

32:55SPEAKERI did mention, go ahead.

32:56SPEAKER- Oh, I was gonna say the thing that they did

32:58SPEAKERthat was smart was they just were like,

32:59SPEAKER"Hey, we're gonna move the north bridge on this chip set,"

33:02SPEAKERwhich was like where all the kind of connection

33:06SPEAKERbetween memory and CPU and graphics card

33:08SPEAKERand all that stuff lived into the CPU.

33:11SPEAKERAnd then we're gonna give you this slot

33:13SPEAKERthat gives you direct access to that bus.

33:16SPEAKERAnd that was really smart.

33:17SPEAKERThe big problem with the PCIe now is that

33:20SPEAKERwith the addition of all the stuff that connects to it

33:22SPEAKERwith like M2 slots and NVMe drives and all that stuff,

33:26SPEAKERand increasing demand for more slots,

33:29SPEAKERit's kind of challenging setting that stuff up again.

33:32SPEAKERLike it's made something that was easy and made it hard.

33:35SPEAKER- That's what I was starting to hint at last week

33:38SPEAKERthat we didn't fully get into was yeah,

33:39SPEAKERlike having to know how many lanes are attached to each slot

33:41SPEAKERand which slots cancel each other out.

33:43SPEAKERAnd like the M.2 socket is the one

33:46SPEAKERI think that really pushes this over

33:47SPEAKERinto like problematic territory.

33:49SPEAKERBecause again, like who,

33:52SPEAKERunless you're really into this stuff,

33:53SPEAKERwho knows that sticking an NVMe drive into that socket

33:55SPEAKERis gonna disable one of the slots

33:57SPEAKERfor expansion cards that you have.

33:59SPEAKERLike you kind of, unless you know that,

34:01SPEAKERyou sort of have to go digging into the motherboard manual

34:03SPEAKERto even like figure that out, right?

34:05SPEAKER- Well, and it's led to an increase

34:07SPEAKERin back of the box bullshit from the motherboard

34:09SPEAKERmanufacturers where like, look,

34:10SPEAKERyou have five PCI express slots and five M.2 slots.

34:14SPEAKERBut what they don't say is this,

34:16SPEAKERwhen you plug into those M.2 slots,

34:17SPEAKERyou decrease the number of PCI express slots

34:19SPEAKERyou have by one each time.

34:21SPEAKER- A lot of those are mutually exclusive.

34:22SPEAKERAnd like, you know, I'm sure it's a hard problem to solve.

34:24SPEAKERLike you can only have so many traces in your motherboard

34:27SPEAKERand stuff like that.

34:28SPEAKERLike they have to kind of use that same bus,

34:30SPEAKERbut like it is still confusing for the end user.

34:33SPEAKER- Well, that's not about traces in the motherboard.

34:35SPEAKERIt's about, this is one of the reasons

34:37SPEAKERthat like the more expensive Intel CPUs

34:39SPEAKERare sometimes worth it.

34:40SPEAKERThis is one of the advantages AMD has.

34:41SPEAKER- Right, it's more of a controller thing, right?

34:44SPEAKER- It's built into the CPU.

34:45SPEAKER- Right, like the routing to the CPU

34:47SPEAKERis the limiting factor, right?

34:49SPEAKER- No, no, no, the CPU is the limiting factor.

34:51SPEAKERSo like a higher end CPU will have 24 lanes available

34:54SPEAKERor 48 lanes available.

34:55SPEAKERAnd the i3 version of that same chipset

34:58SPEAKERwill have like 16 lanes available or something ridiculous.

35:01SPEAKER- Okay, yes, yes, yes.

35:04SPEAKER- This is the side effect of moving the Northbridge

35:06SPEAKERinto the CPU essentially, right?

35:08SPEAKER- Yes, now I remember like the little bit of reading

35:10SPEAKERI've done about stuff like Threadripper

35:11SPEAKERis that you get an absolutely absurd number

35:13SPEAKERof PCI-E lanes along with that.

35:16SPEAKER- Yeah, and that, like I didn't have problems with that

35:19SPEAKERuntil fairly recently, but when I had like a PCI Express SSD,

35:22SPEAKERone of the early pre-M2 slot ones,

35:26SPEAKERand then also an M2 slot SSD and also a video card

35:30SPEAKERthat would eat 16 lanes and also a capture card

35:33SPEAKERthat eats a lane and also a Vive wireless thing

35:36SPEAKERthat eats a lane, I was like running into situations

35:40SPEAKERwhere I had slots that didn't work.

35:41SPEAKERAnd that's an edge case, but also it's stupid

35:45SPEAKERthat we don't have enough PCI Express slots,

35:48SPEAKERlanes on the CPUs for five motherboard slots

35:51SPEAKERand a M2 or two.

35:54SPEAKER- Do you think there's any physical

35:55SPEAKERor technological limitation at work there?

35:57SPEAKEROr is that just like Intel deciding

36:00SPEAKERthis is how many this one's gonna have

36:01SPEAKERbecause we need to drive people

36:03SPEAKERto buy the next most expensive model?

36:05SPEAKER- It's entirely possible that it decreases the yield

36:08SPEAKERto have more lanes, and that's why they differentiate

36:11SPEAKERwith it, but it's also equally possible

36:13SPEAKERthat it's a marketing choice.

36:14SPEAKER- Okay.

36:15SPEAKER- I mean, and realistically, most people,

36:18SPEAKERespecially if you're not putting a video card

36:19SPEAKERthat's gonna eat 16 lanes in, won't have this problem.

36:23SPEAKER- Dude, it is crazy how fast I went from years and years

36:27SPEAKERof having nothing but a graphics card in my computer

36:29SPEAKERas far as expansion cards go to the second

36:31SPEAKERthis work from home thing kicked in,

36:33SPEAKERI instantly don't have enough PCIe slots.

36:36SPEAKERIt's like, I've got the graphics card,

36:38SPEAKERnow I put a USB expansion card in,

36:41SPEAKERnow I've got a capture card in there.

36:43SPEAKER- Why'd you do a USB expansion instead of just a hub outside?

36:48SPEAKER- I don't know, it felt like it.

36:49SPEAKER- Okay.

36:50SPEAKER- I have a hub, but honestly, it was enough devices,

36:55SPEAKERit was seeing enough devices saying like,

36:56SPEAKER"Hey, this should get a dedicated USB port."

36:58SPEAKER- Got it.

36:59SPEAKER- I just wanted to err on the side of caution

37:00SPEAKERof having enough ports connected directly to the bus.

37:03SPEAKER- Look, if you don't spend that capex, it'll go away too.

37:05SPEAKER- Well, it was $25, like it's got seven ports on it.

37:09SPEAKERIt was a $25 card, it has seven ports,

37:11SPEAKERUSB, decent USB cards are nothing these days.

37:14SPEAKER- So much money.

37:14SPEAKER- But I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think what I saw.

37:19SPEAKERI wanna say like maybe the Stream Deck

37:21SPEAKERsays it needs its own port.

37:25SPEAKER- Stream Deck needs its own port for power, not because of--

37:27SPEAKER- Maybe that's what it is, I'm trying to think.

37:30SPEAKERLike I was having interference issues with my USB mic.

37:34SPEAKER- Plugging a USB mic directly in the motherboard seems wise.

37:37SPEAKER- So anyway, yeah, and this card I got

37:40SPEAKERplugs into the power supply,

37:41SPEAKERso it's able to pump the full juice to each port.

37:44SPEAKERAnyway, I'm digressing here, but like,

37:47SPEAKERthen I started looking at 10 gigabit network cards.

37:49SPEAKERIt's like suddenly this like middle of the road motherboard

37:51SPEAKERI have doesn't have enough slots

37:52SPEAKERfor all the stuff I wanna put in it.

37:55SPEAKER- This is why you need to get the Pro Ultra Gamer Edition.

37:59SPEAKER- I guess I'm getting the racing stripes one next time.

38:01SPEAKER- Yeah, get some lights, get some ground effects.

38:04SPEAKER- Yeah, so I see you have already deleted PCI express

38:08SPEAKERfrom this list, I think I'm fine with that.

38:10SPEAKERYou're right, it is just the next slot.

38:13SPEAKER- Look, it's nice to not have three different kinds of slots

38:15SPEAKERon a motherboard, but also we're fine.

38:18SPEAKER- Again though, like you run into, you know,

38:20SPEAKERone X, four X, eight X, it's like,

38:22SPEAKERoh, I thought that capture card I bought was a one X.

38:24SPEAKERNo, it's actually a four X,

38:25SPEAKERlike maybe I don't have a slot available for that anymore.

38:27SPEAKERYou know what I mean?

38:28SPEAKERTalking about the physical width of the connector.

38:31SPEAKER- Well, so the nice thing is you can plug a one X

38:33SPEAKERinto like a 16 X, one X card into a 16 X slot.

38:36SPEAKERYou just can't go the other way.

38:37SPEAKER- You can't go the other way, that's the case.

38:41SPEAKER- So we're down to 12 items left.

38:44SPEAKER- Okay, should we start marking ones

38:49SPEAKERthat we think cannot go?

38:51SPEAKER- Yeah, I feel like modular PC user, PSUs are on that list.

38:54SPEAKER- Yes, I feel like the modular power supply has to stay.

38:57SPEAKER- Build friendly cases are on that list.

38:58SPEAKER- Yes, for sure.

39:02SPEAKERProbably USB.

39:04SPEAKER- I don't know about that one yet.

39:05SPEAKERLet's talk about that.

39:06SPEAKER- All right, okay, I thought you were--

39:07SPEAKER- I think being able to plug your PC into your TV

39:09SPEAKERis probably on that list.

39:10SPEAKER- Yeah, that's a pretty big deal.

39:12SPEAKER- Although that might be more for troubleshooting

39:14SPEAKERthan for like building--

39:15SPEAKER- That's kind of the name of the game here, right?

39:16SPEAKERLike it's when things go wrong,

39:18SPEAKERwhat makes it easier to solve the problem?

39:20SPEAKER- I mean, we could bundle having more than one computer

39:24SPEAKERand being able to plug your PC into your TV

39:26SPEAKERinto troubleshooting got easy.

39:32SPEAKERWell, we can circle back.

39:34SPEAKER- Yeah.

39:35SPEAKER- serial ATA, I think that's a stone cold lock.

39:37SPEAKERI mean, those fat ribbon cables were awful.

39:40SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right, you're right.

39:41SPEAKERI think I would feel more strongly about it

39:43SPEAKERif I hadn't gone to rounded IDE cables

39:46SPEAKERfor the last like two, three years.

39:47SPEAKERI just, I decided to throw caution to the wind

39:50SPEAKERand say, ask for it, just cut them up

39:51SPEAKERand stick them in that tube, I don't care.

39:53SPEAKER- But think of like, think of how spectacularly stupid

39:56SPEAKERtaking a parallel ribbon connector

39:59SPEAKERthat is a two and a half inch wide physical connector.

40:03SPEAKERAnd like the solution to this problem isn't,

40:06SPEAKERoh, let's make a cable standard that is sane,

40:09SPEAKERwhich is what they ended up doing,

40:10SPEAKERbut is let's just make the ribbon round

40:13SPEAKERso that it has like these big weird lumpy bits

40:16SPEAKERin the middle of the three port cable.

40:19SPEAKERLike--

40:20SPEAKER- Well, those were the same cables, right?

40:20SPEAKERLike they were just--

40:22SPEAKER- I mean, eventually they just made them with no,

40:24SPEAKERit's not like the ribbon, like the rounded cables,

40:27SPEAKERyeah, started out with some maniac with an X-Acto knife

40:29SPEAKERand a really good vision cutting between all of those wires.

40:32SPEAKER- Well, it's the same pin out is what I mean.

40:34SPEAKERLike it's the same cable standard.

40:36SPEAKERIt was just, they were, yes, they were.

40:37SPEAKERI want to say, I looked it up at one point

40:39SPEAKERand it's like, I could be wrong about this.

40:41SPEAKERLike what is that?

40:42SPEAKER40 IDE, 40 pins?

40:44SPEAKER- 40 or 48 or something like that, yeah.

40:46SPEAKER- 40 something.

40:47SPEAKERAnyway, I want to say it was like data ground,

40:49SPEAKERdata ground, something like it was like an alternating.

40:52SPEAKERThere was a lot of like signal interference

40:54SPEAKERkind of arrangement in that cable design

40:56SPEAKERthat you were basically nullifying

40:58SPEAKERwhen you made them rounded.

40:59SPEAKERLike when you just bundled,

41:00SPEAKERwhen you bundled all those wires together,

41:02SPEAKERyou were sort of like defeating the purpose of that design.

41:04SPEAKER- No difference in performance.

41:05SPEAKER- I'd never, at least two, three years of using rounded IDE.

41:08SPEAKERI never had any noticeable data corruption.

41:11SPEAKER- So here's, my question is I don't understand

41:15SPEAKERwhy anybody didn't make a cable that was a ribbon

41:19SPEAKERbetween the two short ends.

41:21SPEAKERYou're like, 'cause like, if you think about it,

41:23SPEAKERthe way you put hard drives, old hard drives in a case,

41:25SPEAKERthey all have the port facing the same direction.

41:29SPEAKERThey're in line with each other

41:30SPEAKER'cause their position on the drive is part of the spec.

41:32SPEAKERSo you can just go straight up the side.

41:34SPEAKERThe ribbon cable is not a downside there.

41:36SPEAKERIt's the ribbon cable is only a problem

41:38SPEAKERfrom the middle PC on the chain back to the motherboard.

41:43SPEAKER- Sure.

41:44SPEAKER- And honestly, when I look at what like Voodoo was the one,

41:47SPEAKERthey hired famously, they hired an origami expert

41:51SPEAKERto help them figure out cable layout using ribbon cables.

41:55SPEAKER- Oh my gosh.

41:56SPEAKER- And it was amazing.

41:57SPEAKERIt was gorgeous.

41:58SPEAKERLike the cables were perfectly folded over

41:59SPEAKERat a 90, at a 45 degree angle.

42:01SPEAKERAnd like, it was lovely.

42:03SPEAKER- That's absurd.

42:04SPEAKERI am googling origami IDE cable now.

42:08SPEAKERThere are absolutely pictures out there.

42:12SPEAKER- They told us about that during an interview

42:14SPEAKERwith one of their makers, one of their PC builders

42:17SPEAKERonce, and we immediately like, I was like,

42:20SPEAKERI want to talk to the origami guy.

42:22SPEAKER'Cause like this is art in PC building.

42:27SPEAKER- You know, when you put it that way,

42:29SPEAKERI think serial ATA is a pretty strong contender.

42:32SPEAKER- I mean, but at the same time serial ATA

42:35SPEAKERstill kind of stiff and hard to route.

42:37SPEAKERThey're just smaller.

42:38SPEAKERSo we get them out of the way.

42:39SPEAKER- They're not great.

42:40SPEAKER- That connector is garbage.

42:42SPEAKER- Yeah, it's also not great.

42:44SPEAKERThe number of ones that I have.

42:45SPEAKER- So do you have more of the ones with

42:47SPEAKERor without the metal latch?

42:48SPEAKER- Almost all ship with the metal latch now.

42:50SPEAKER- Really?

42:51SPEAKERI've got several.

42:53SPEAKERGo ahead.

42:53SPEAKER- It may be based on the motherboard

42:55SPEAKER'cause Asus always shipped the ones with the metal latch.

42:57SPEAKERAnd I was in Asus, I bought Asus boards for a long time.

42:59SPEAKER- Maybe they're just drives shipping

43:01SPEAKERwithout the locking mechanism now,

43:02SPEAKERbut I've got some with the metal latch

43:03SPEAKERthat don't actually latch.

43:04SPEAKERLike they just pull right off.

43:06SPEAKERAnd I don't know if that's like, yeah.

43:08SPEAKERAnyway, I mean, we mentioned this last week,

43:10SPEAKERbut you're also getting rid of the four-pin Molex

43:13SPEAKERwith SATA and I feel like that pushes it

43:16SPEAKERinto pretty firm territory here.

43:19SPEAKER- I mean, the thing is though, that connector,

43:21SPEAKERlike if we want to talk about it,

43:23SPEAKERthey replaced a rock solid,

43:24SPEAKERreally hard to mess up connector with one that,

43:27SPEAKERhave you ever broken a SATA connector off?

43:29SPEAKER- Once.

43:31SPEAKER- Yeah, how'd that feel?

43:32SPEAKER- Like a year ago and it felt horrible

43:34SPEAKER'cause I was like, I've been doing this

43:35SPEAKERfor most of my natural life.

43:37SPEAKERWhat the fuck?

43:38SPEAKERGranted, this was like a $25 SSD.

43:40SPEAKERLike it was a very cheap.

43:42SPEAKER- Did it deserve to die, Brad?

43:46SPEAKER- No, I had never used it.

43:47SPEAKER- Yeah.

43:48SPEAKER- It was brand new.

43:49SPEAKERLike I just, I stuck that thing on there

43:50SPEAKERand it felt like it just melted off.

43:51SPEAKER- Did you send it back and were like,

43:53SPEAKERhey, I think the SATA connector's broken on this one.

43:54SPEAKERYou should send me a note.

43:56SPEAKER- Rather not say.

43:57SPEAKER- Okay.

44:01SPEAKERI think SATA, yeah, I don't know.

44:03SPEAKERI think SATA's maybe in the maybe list for me.

44:05SPEAKERIt's pretty good, but it's not great.

44:07SPEAKER- I think it's compared to the alternative,

44:11SPEAKERwhat it was replacing.

44:15SPEAKER- I think modern BIOS stays.

44:17SPEAKERLike backup firmware alone is worth pushing that in.

44:20SPEAKER- Yeah, I've never needed that.

44:22SPEAKERI've never really had a--

44:24SPEAKER- I've used it a couple of times.

44:26SPEAKER- Really?

44:26SPEAKER- Yeah.

44:27SPEAKER- To be clear, we're not talking about

44:28SPEAKERlast known good configuration, right?

44:30SPEAKERWe're talking about like literal last good flash, right?

44:34SPEAKER- Two separate ROMs on the board

44:36SPEAKERand if one fails, it boots over to the other one.

44:38SPEAKERYes, that's what we're talking about.

44:40SPEAKERYou've got a fallback option if your flash goes bad.

44:44SPEAKER- Or if you do a BIOS update

44:49SPEAKERand the power goes out midway through

44:50SPEAKERsomething beyond your,

44:52SPEAKERyour kid comes in and hits the power button, whatever.

44:54SPEAKER- That can happen.

44:57SPEAKER- Yeah, I think that's a yes.

44:59SPEAKERI think that one's a probably a pretty,

45:01SPEAKERI'm not gonna lock it, but that's a strong yes for me.

45:04SPEAKER- You really seem diverse

45:05SPEAKERto the network download firmware update.

45:08SPEAKER- That's insane.

45:09SPEAKER- I mean, of course,

45:10SPEAKERpulled it right from the manufacturer.

45:12SPEAKERHow is that?

45:14SPEAKER- It's just an extra point of failure in a system

45:16SPEAKERwhere you don't need to add extra points of failure.

45:18SPEAKERAnd also-

45:18SPEAKER- It's gonna do like a CRC check or something

45:20SPEAKERonce it gets the file down

45:21SPEAKERbefore it actually flashes, right?

45:22SPEAKERSurely.

45:23SPEAKER- Look, yes, I'm sure they do.

45:25SPEAKERDo you need to add that risk to your life?

45:27SPEAKERProbably not.

45:28SPEAKER- Probably not.

45:28SPEAKERLike I said, I didn't actually use it.

45:31SPEAKER- Of course, I do have to say in confession mode,

45:34SPEAKERI spend an unfortunate amount of time

45:37SPEAKERwith every motherboard I get that supports it,

45:39SPEAKERfiguring out how to replace the manufacturer logo

45:42SPEAKERwith like my own stupid picture

45:44SPEAKERon the BIOS boot up screen.

45:44SPEAKER- Wait, you still do that?

45:46SPEAKERIs that still possible?

45:48SPEAKERIs that still possible?

45:48SPEAKERAre you just exiting something?

45:50SPEAKER- No, well, I mean, you can do it that way

45:52SPEAKERif you're really fucking crazy.

45:53SPEAKERBut since they're signed,

45:54SPEAKERI don't think you can do that anymore.

45:55SPEAKERThe one, the way, if you have an AMI BIOS,

46:00SPEAKERthen there's a utility you can download from their site

46:02SPEAKERor some other board manufacturers provide it.

46:04SPEAKERLike the Gigabyte provides it in a bad GUI.

46:09SPEAKERBut like, they don't tell you what resolution

46:12SPEAKERyou should make the image and what file format.

46:13SPEAKERSo it has to be a BMP, a BIMP.

46:16SPEAKER- Huh.

46:17SPEAKER- That's like, that you, let me think.

46:20SPEAKERYou make it, you set it up so that it skews.

46:23SPEAKERSo it stretches horizontally from like 640 by 480

46:27SPEAKERto 800 by 600 or something like that.

46:28SPEAKERAnd then it just works.

46:29SPEAKER- What?

46:30SPEAKER- It's tricky.

46:31SPEAKERIt took a lot of trial and error,

46:32SPEAKERwhich involved a lot of BIOS flashing

46:35SPEAKERafter doing questionable things to the BIOS.

46:37SPEAKER'Cause you have to embed the picture in the BIOS.

46:38SPEAKER- I have got to know what picture you're putting in there.

46:41SPEAKER- It's my, it's the foo icon from Steam.

46:48SPEAKER- Okay, okay.

46:49SPEAKER- That's a little rounded edges.

46:50SPEAKERThat's a picture of my head on a starburst.

46:53SPEAKER- I was really hoping it was gonna be some like late nineties

46:55SPEAKERlike Homer Simpson clip art or something.

46:57SPEAKER- Anime.

46:58SPEAKERIt's an animated GIF of Homer melting through the fence.

47:03SPEAKER- You know what I miss?

47:05SPEAKERThis is, excuse me.

47:06SPEAKERThis is going to be the most old man shit,

47:09SPEAKERperhaps ever on this podcast.

47:11SPEAKER- I miss the full themes.

47:12SPEAKER- No, I miss the full post.

47:14SPEAKERI miss the full, like full black screen

47:17SPEAKERwith full of white text of like, you know,

47:20SPEAKERwatching the memory count up as it tests it

47:22SPEAKERand getting the processor frequency readouts

47:26SPEAKERand like all the drives that are connected,

47:27SPEAKERlike the whole thing.

47:29SPEAKER- You can get that?

47:30SPEAKER- Uh, my PC, my gaming PC does not have that

47:34SPEAKERas far as I can tell.

47:35SPEAKER- Oh, it does.

47:36SPEAKER- I've looked and looked and looked.

47:37SPEAKERI really, I've tried every option.

47:39SPEAKERI assume that's a UEFI thing because I,

47:41SPEAKERisn't one of the big advantages of UEFI

47:43SPEAKERis that it doesn't have to like test and activate

47:46SPEAKERevery single thing in the system right at boot.

47:48SPEAKER- Yeah, quick boot is on by default,

47:50SPEAKERbut like my gigabyte board, you can turn quick boot off.

47:52SPEAKERThat might be an overclocking motherboard thing

47:53SPEAKERwhen I think about it.

47:54SPEAKER- Yeah, I've, I've disabled.

47:55SPEAKERI've, I've done every option you could,

47:57SPEAKERyou could tweak to, to try to bring that back

48:00SPEAKERand I don't have it.

48:01SPEAKERYeah, I don't know.

48:02SPEAKER- Weird.

48:03SPEAKER- That's, that is just, that is computers to me.

48:05SPEAKERThat is building computers and to not have that

48:07SPEAKERjust feels like something is missing.

48:13SPEAKERWe should, I think we should get rid of troubleshooting

48:15SPEAKERfeatures directly on the motherboard.

48:16SPEAKERCause like I said,

48:17SPEAKERa lot of motherboards don't have that anymore.

48:20SPEAKERAnd you mentioned that thing about some of them

48:22SPEAKERputting it on the back panel where you hit it accidentally.

48:25SPEAKERI think that's.

48:25SPEAKER- That is a minus, but like having the number of times

48:28SPEAKERthat code being on the screen that tells you exactly

48:31SPEAKERwhat failed during the boot up process has been really,

48:35SPEAKERreally invaluable.

48:36SPEAKERCause it gives you something like you search for the

48:38SPEAKERmotherboard model, the name,

48:39SPEAKERand then the BIOS version and that code.

48:41SPEAKERAnd it takes you exactly to a forum post that tells you how

48:43SPEAKERto fix your problem.

48:44SPEAKERBut that's probably more of a later on in the PC's life

48:47SPEAKERthan maybe a boot up, initial boot up thing.

48:49SPEAKER- Probably, I mean, it could be useful at the build time.

48:52SPEAKERAgain, though, I would, I would just say that sounds amazing.

48:55SPEAKERAnd I wish I had that.

48:56SPEAKER- When I was at Maximum PC one afternoon,

48:58SPEAKERwe soldered a bunch of little momentary switches

49:02SPEAKERthat we may have harvested out of old cases

49:04SPEAKERonto pin headers.

49:07SPEAKERAnd then we just dropped those over.

49:08SPEAKERSo we didn't need the power button.

49:09SPEAKERThis is before they had power buttons on the motherboard.

49:12SPEAKERAnd one day, I think it was somebody from AMD or ATI,

49:15SPEAKERmaybe at the time was in was like, Hey, what is that?

49:18SPEAKERAnd we were like, Oh, it's a power, it's a power button.

49:19SPEAKERWe just, you know, when you're working on a computer,

49:21SPEAKERon a bench, you just do this.

49:22SPEAKERYou don't have to do the screwdriver

49:23SPEAKERor the fingernail lick thing.

49:26SPEAKERBut yeah, I don't know.

49:29SPEAKERI'm okay cutting that.

49:30SPEAKERWe can cut that.

49:31SPEAKERThat's fine.

49:32SPEAKER- Again, I feel like that should be on everything.

49:34SPEAKER- There's other better stuff on this list.

49:35SPEAKER- That should not be a luxury high-end model feature.

49:37SPEAKERThat should be on everything.

49:39SPEAKER- Well, I mean, you know, those little screens,

49:42SPEAKERthe eight panel display adds a 10th of a cent

49:46SPEAKERto each computer, each motherboard they make.

49:48SPEAKERSo it's outside the realm of possibility.

49:51SPEAKER- Somebody has got to pay for that.

49:52SPEAKER- Yeah, we got to cut one more thing, Brad.

49:55SPEAKER- Yeah.

49:57SPEAKER- Why did you put the cursor on the headlamps

49:59SPEAKERwhen I said that, Brad?

50:00SPEAKER- I'm just idly moving the cursor up and down.

50:04SPEAKERStill don't feel like headlamps

50:05SPEAKERjust is in the scope of this thing, but.

50:08SPEAKER- Well, you have some sort of magical light

50:10SPEAKERon a boom arm that you can place

50:11SPEAKERwherever you need to get in there

50:12SPEAKERso you can see exactly.

50:13SPEAKER- Oh, nice frag.

50:14SPEAKERYou know, because I still don't have a headlamp,

50:16SPEAKERI will, anything from dragging a lamp across the room

50:19SPEAKERto waiting until that nice, perfect time of afternoon

50:22SPEAKERwhen the sun is coming right through the windows.

50:27SPEAKERBut.

50:28SPEAKER- Oh, I'm gonna, let's see.

50:31SPEAKERI'm looking at this list to see

50:32SPEAKERif there's anything else I would cut before headlamps.

50:35SPEAKERNot having to activate windows to install it is pretty good.

50:38SPEAKER- Yeah.

50:39SPEAKER- That was a pretty limited time problem though,

50:41SPEAKERI feel like.

50:42SPEAKER- Yeah.

50:43SPEAKERThat was also, that just feels like kind of a, I don't know.

50:45SPEAKERIt's kind of a minor change, right?

50:47SPEAKERIn the grand scheme of things.

50:48SPEAKER- You say that, but when you're waiting on hold

50:50SPEAKERfor 30 minutes at two o'clock in the morning

50:52SPEAKERto talk to the guy who'd give you the 30 digit magic code

50:55SPEAKERthat makes your computer work.

50:56SPEAKER- I'm still not clear why I never had to do that.

50:58SPEAKER- Probably you never had OSR2

51:00SPEAKER'cause you bought the retail windows.

51:01SPEAKER- I definitely did not.

51:02SPEAKERI definitely had like day one copies of windows back then.

51:06SPEAKER- Yeah, I think windows 98 did it automatically.

51:08SPEAKER- Okay.

51:09SPEAKER- It would dial up and everything, but I'm not sure.

51:12SPEAKERYou get dialed an 800 number.

51:16SPEAKER- And once we got into the era of the product key

51:19SPEAKERbeing tied to your hardware, it's never,

51:20SPEAKERI've never hit that point where it was like,

51:22SPEAKERwell, your computer's changed so much,

51:23SPEAKERthis is no longer valid.

51:25SPEAKER- That's only been since like windows eight, I think,

51:27SPEAKERor maybe Vista.

51:28SPEAKER- That's always been Siemens for me.

51:29SPEAKER- Or windows seven probably.

51:30SPEAKER- As well, so.

51:31SPEAKER- I always forget about windows seven.

51:33SPEAKER- Didn't some podcast name windows seven

51:36SPEAKERthe best windows ever?

51:37SPEAKER- It's a really good windows.

51:38SPEAKERI'm just saying it's like, you remember the bad one

51:41SPEAKERand then you remember the next bad one,

51:42SPEAKERbut you don't remember the good one

51:43SPEAKERthat was between those two.

51:44SPEAKER- That's right, that's how it always works.

51:48SPEAKERThings that just quietly do their jobs without complaint,

51:50SPEAKERjust get overlooked.

51:53SPEAKER- What about consolidation of external cards

51:55SPEAKERonto the motherboard?

51:56SPEAKER- I think that's huge.

51:56SPEAKERI think that's like, you know,

51:59SPEAKERthat dovetails with like number of slots in your system

52:01SPEAKERand stuff like that, but like,

52:03SPEAKERthink about how much time and effort you put

52:05SPEAKERinto your sound card back in the day.

52:08SPEAKER- Yeah.

52:08SPEAKER- Think about having to buy a network card.

52:13SPEAKER- Yeah, that three comm card I bought was really expensive.

52:15SPEAKER- Think about what a pain in the ass it would be

52:17SPEAKERif you had to deal with like a separate,

52:19SPEAKERa discrete network card and sound card

52:21SPEAKERevery time you built a computer.

52:24SPEAKER- I'd probably just move them from the old PC

52:26SPEAKERto the new one all the time.

52:28SPEAKER- Yeah, but like, you still have to manually

52:30SPEAKERput those cards in, that's still clutter in your case.

52:33SPEAKERThat's what I mean, is like it's saving you hassle

52:36SPEAKERon configuration, it's saving space in the case

52:39SPEAKERand like making it look tidier.

52:41SPEAKERIt's just a huge convenience thing.

52:43SPEAKERIt's a huge convenience thing to just have all that hardware

52:46SPEAKERand have it just work and not take up space.

52:50SPEAKERAnd again, remember we are now extending this to GPU

52:52SPEAKERand the CPU, meaning that you don't even have to have

52:54SPEAKERa graphics card to get video out of a motherboard.

52:58SPEAKERThat's insane.

53:00SPEAKER- Okay, so let me--

53:01SPEAKER- This has to be on, this has to be in the top 10.

53:03SPEAKER- Okay, okay.

53:04SPEAKER- Let me make a suggestion here.

53:07SPEAKERWhat about bootable, we have two things with USB in them.

53:11SPEAKERWe have USB and then we have a subset of USB,

53:15SPEAKERbootable USB OS installers.

53:17SPEAKER- Those aren't the same thing because USB

53:18SPEAKERis just a general interface.

53:20SPEAKERI mean, we could take USB out of there and just say,

53:24SPEAKER'cause you know, there are network installers,

53:25SPEAKERthere are burnable CD and DVD installers,

53:28SPEAKERlike the bigger points.

53:29SPEAKERUSB is just the thing most people use, right?

53:31SPEAKERBut like--

53:33SPEAKER- We always had bootable OS installers.

53:35SPEAKERI had to boot off of a floppy disk to install Windows 95.

53:37SPEAKER- I mean, think about it.

53:40SPEAKER- How else could I, how about instead of install,

53:44SPEAKERhow about like bootable OS images?

53:48SPEAKERI mean, but--

53:49SPEAKER- What do I do with an OS image?

53:50SPEAKERThat's just like, I got this image file.

53:52SPEAKERHow do I, I just, I wrote the file name

53:55SPEAKERon the outside of my computer and then hit the reset button

53:57SPEAKERand it didn't boot up?

53:58SPEAKER- Look, it's not like, it's not disqualifying

54:00SPEAKERjust because the word USB appears in the name.

54:02SPEAKER- No, no, no, I agreed.

54:04SPEAKER- Again, though, like just not having to keep track

54:06SPEAKERof your OS media.

54:08SPEAKER- How much, how many disks do you have laying around there,

54:11SPEAKERman?

54:11SPEAKERI mean, I do see that big shelf in the back.

54:13SPEAKER- Like you said, though, it's just like having to,

54:14SPEAKERhaving to make sure you don't lose that thing.

54:17SPEAKERLike you were up shit creek if you realized

54:18SPEAKERthat you lost your Windows 95 disk

54:21SPEAKERand you had a major problem.

54:22SPEAKER- Okay, okay, I'm willing to sacrifice modular PSUs,

54:24SPEAKERI think, at this point.

54:25SPEAKER- Oh, hey, man, what?

54:26SPEAKER- What?

54:27SPEAKER- What is not getting, what are you trying to protect here?

54:30SPEAKER- Nothing, I'm not trying to protect anything.

54:32SPEAKERThere's no protection happening here.

54:34SPEAKERWe gotta get one more cut in and we gotta start ordering.

54:36SPEAKER- I think we should ditch not having to activate Windows.

54:40SPEAKER- Oh, really?

54:41SPEAKER- Yeah.

54:42SPEAKER- I thought you were gonna go after headlamps.

54:44SPEAKER- I mean, again, I don't, I just,

54:45SPEAKERheadlamps are not PC hardware.

54:46SPEAKERThey're not like, they're a great convenience item,

54:49SPEAKERbut they have nothing to do with the actual computer.

54:51SPEAKER- Okay, before you build your next computer,

54:53SPEAKERyou have to get a headlamp.

54:54SPEAKER- Like, oh, absolutely.

54:55SPEAKERI fully agree with you.

54:57SPEAKER- Okay.

54:58SPEAKER- I guess-

54:59SPEAKER- Or, alternately, those things on late night TV,

55:02SPEAKERthe LED lights that clip onto the sides of your glasses,

55:05SPEAKERI would accept them as well.

55:07SPEAKER- Wait, better or worse?

55:09SPEAKER- Kind of equivalent.

55:10SPEAKERLike as long as the light's going more or less

55:11SPEAKERwhere you aim it, aim your head, that's what matters.

55:13SPEAKER- Maybe to state my point a different way here,

55:16SPEAKERthere are no other items on this list

55:18SPEAKERthat you could mine coal with.

55:22SPEAKERYou know what I mean?

55:23SPEAKER- I feel like that was a pretty pointed burn,

55:26SPEAKERbut I just spent a lot of time playing golf with Gary,

55:28SPEAKERso I may be a little more sensitive than normal.

55:30SPEAKER- I'm just saying headlamps have massive utility

55:34SPEAKERoutside of computers entirely.

55:35SPEAKEREverything else on this list is very much computer centric.

55:38SPEAKER- So you're saying headlamps are better

55:40SPEAKERthan everything else on this list,

55:41SPEAKERand they should be number one, agreed.

55:42SPEAKER- I think they should be the number zero.

55:46SPEAKERThey should be the err winner.

55:47SPEAKER- Wow.

55:48SPEAKER- In that they are way too useful

55:50SPEAKERand way too broad and generalized for this list.

55:53SPEAKER- Oh, that is some real pandering bullshit right there.

55:58SPEAKER- All that said, I need you to tell me

55:59SPEAKERwhat headlamp you have later.

56:01SPEAKER- Yeah.

56:02SPEAKER- 'Cause I really should get one of those.

56:03SPEAKER- I have one of the Black Diamond ones

56:04SPEAKERthat Wire kind of recommended.

56:06SPEAKERMy brother-in-law gave it to me

56:07SPEAKERfor Christmas a few years ago, and it was a wonderful gift.

56:09SPEAKER- It has not been two weeks since I was cursing

56:11SPEAKERat the PSU shroud in my case

56:13SPEAKERas I was trying to route some cables,

56:15SPEAKER'cause I couldn't see shit in there.

56:16SPEAKERSo I get it.

56:18SPEAKER- Yeah.

56:19SPEAKER- I just feel like it feels unfair to me.

56:22SPEAKERHeadlamps are too useful in too many other situations.

56:25SPEAKER- I mean, I'm just thinking about building PCs

56:28SPEAKERbeing in the side of a tower,

56:31SPEAKERand you can never see in those far corners

56:33SPEAKERwhere you need to plug in the headers and all of that stuff.

56:35SPEAKER- Oh, I get it, I get it.

56:36SPEAKER- One thing we didn't talk about is that little brick,

56:39SPEAKERthe little plastic brick that you plug the case headers in,

56:42SPEAKERlike the switches and the lights and stuff.

56:48SPEAKER- I don't have that.

56:50SPEAKER- Okay, dude, you gotta spend more than 50 bucks

56:52SPEAKERon a motherboard next time.

56:53SPEAKER- Wait, that's a case thing, right?

56:54SPEAKERNot a motherboard thing.

56:55SPEAKER- No, that's a motherboard thing.

56:57SPEAKERSo the motherboard comes with a little thing

56:58SPEAKERthat you plug in all the case wires into,

57:00SPEAKERand then that just slots down

57:02SPEAKERonto the little brick of front panel connectors.

57:05SPEAKER- I mean, I also, I'm still on a Z170 board.

57:07SPEAKERLike, I haven't bought a motherboard in five years,

57:08SPEAKER'cause I'm still on a--

57:09SPEAKER- Oh, you're on a 6700 board.

57:13SPEAKER- Same thing.

57:14SPEAKER- Generation.

57:15SPEAKER- I guess that goes into build, well, yeah, okay.

57:18SPEAKER- Yeah, I would think that would be

57:19SPEAKERon the leads from the case

57:21SPEAKERthat goes straight to the switches and the lights.

57:23SPEAKER- No, it's not a standard.

57:24SPEAKERThe places on the connector shift around,

57:26SPEAKERso you can't standardize that.

57:28SPEAKER- Yeah, my last motherboard was from 2015.

57:31SPEAKERIt was like a $150 motherboard.

57:32SPEAKER- We had that on 2015 motherboards.

57:33SPEAKERWe had that on tested PCs, we built it tested.

57:36SPEAKERLike Jeff's computer has that, I think.

57:37SPEAKER- Sorry, well, like again,

57:38SPEAKERI didn't buy the one with the racing stripes, so.

57:43SPEAKERYour dismissive attitude as the one with the racing stripes

57:45SPEAKERmaybe is your problem here, Brad.

57:47SPEAKER- Not all of us are haughty enough

57:48SPEAKERto live in the Republic of Gamers, okay?

57:52SPEAKER- I feel really, really attacked right now.

57:57SPEAKERThis is what happens when we try to rank things.

57:58SPEAKERThe whole thing falls apart.

58:00SPEAKER- Yeah, so it just turns into classist warfare.

58:03SPEAKERLook, some of us are just ultra durable, okay?

58:06SPEAKERSome of us are just getting the job done

58:09SPEAKERwithout a lot of complaints.

58:11SPEAKERDiamond stamped bullshit, and yeah, I think, okay,

58:16SPEAKERI can get behind maybe not having to activate Windows

58:19SPEAKERto install it, although, God, that was just a--

58:21SPEAKER- Wait, are you cutting that?

58:22SPEAKERYou're cutting that just to keep headlamps?

58:25SPEAKER- I think headlamps are better than that.

58:26SPEAKER- Just say it, just say it.

58:27SPEAKER- I think headlamps are more important

58:29SPEAKERand make PC building better.

58:30SPEAKER- Okay, well, I'm fine with the Windows activation going.

58:34SPEAKERI think headlamps stays at number 10,

58:36SPEAKERbecause again, it is not PC hardware or software.

58:39SPEAKER- Look, I think you're being hardwareist right now,

58:43SPEAKERbut I think 10 is a fine place for headlamps.

58:46SPEAKER- Okay, all right.

58:48SPEAKERFor this extremely important and relevant list,

58:51SPEAKERthe results of which are going to change the world,

58:53SPEAKERwe have to get this right.

58:55SPEAKER- Look, we have one chance at this.

58:56SPEAKERWe can't come back and do this again, or can we?

59:01SPEAKERLook, it depends on how angry people.

59:03SPEAKERYou know, can we digress for,

59:05SPEAKERI know we're running incredibly long

59:06SPEAKERand we're dangerously close

59:07SPEAKERto having to do a third episode of this,

59:09SPEAKERwhich we're not gonna do.

59:10SPEAKER- I think we can order this pretty fast.

59:12SPEAKER- Gina and I were talking last night about,

59:14SPEAKERI had to explain the Snyder cut to her.

59:17SPEAKER- Okay.

59:18SPEAKER- Which is my favorite stupid thing right now.

59:19SPEAKER- Wow, boy, okay.

59:20SPEAKER- And I explained to her why Tom and Jerry

59:23SPEAKERaccidentally being in the Snyder cut

59:24SPEAKERfor a handful of people for a few hours earlier this week

59:26SPEAKERwas hilarious.

59:28SPEAKERAnd then she was like, wait,

59:29SPEAKERso you're saying that people complained enough

59:31SPEAKERon the internet that somebody at HBO gave Zack Snyder

59:35SPEAKER30 or $40 million to reshoot this movie

59:38SPEAKERand make it four hours long?

59:39SPEAKERI was like, yeah, that's it so far.

59:40SPEAKERAnd she was like, and then when they released it early,

59:43SPEAKERthose same people were so paranoid that they thought

59:46SPEAKERthat this was the studio that gave him 30 or $40 million

59:49SPEAKERto reshoot the movie, sabotaging said release.

59:52SPEAKER- Wait, is that the narrative?

59:53SPEAKER- Oh yeah, dude, that's it.

59:54SPEAKER- Is that what they think?

59:55SPEAKER- That's what they think.

59:56SPEAKERIf you go read the comments on any story about that on,

59:59SPEAKERlike that's posted on Twitter,

1:00:00SPEAKERthe comments are fucking bonkers.

1:00:03SPEAKER- First of all, it definitely happened, right?

1:00:04SPEAKER- 100%. - Or we were positive

1:00:06SPEAKERit was not just a marketing stunt?

1:00:07SPEAKER- 100%.

1:00:07SPEAKER- Okay.

1:00:08SPEAKER- I mean, it could be a marketing stunt,

1:00:09SPEAKERbut it absolutely happened.

1:00:11SPEAKER- But people did watch it?

1:00:12SPEAKER- People watched it.

1:00:13SPEAKER- Well, so why are they so defensive?

1:00:14SPEAKERDid the people who got to watch it say it was bad?

1:00:16SPEAKER- Of course.

1:00:17SPEAKER- Okay. (laughs)

1:00:18SPEAKERThat's the missing piece of information here.

1:00:20SPEAKER- But the odds of somebody who's been released

1:00:22SPEAKERto Snyder Cutting for five years on Twitter,

1:00:24SPEAKERlike accidentally getting access to this early, really low.

1:00:28SPEAKER- Yeah, sure.

1:00:29SPEAKER- Anyway. - So it's bad.

1:00:31SPEAKER- Look, I'm not prepared to say whether it's good or bad.

1:00:35SPEAKERI'm just saying that the guy who posted the videos

1:00:37SPEAKERand clips from it and got DMCA'd immediately

1:00:40SPEAKERseemed to think it was funnier

1:00:43SPEAKERthan Tom and Jerry would have been.

1:00:44SPEAKER- Okay, all right.

1:00:46SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:00:47SPEAKER- I look forward to that day on the internet.

1:00:50SPEAKER- Okay.

1:00:52SPEAKEROkay.

1:00:53SPEAKER- I have a radical proposal.

1:00:56SPEAKER- Okay.

1:00:57SPEAKER- For the sake of expediency,

1:00:58SPEAKERwhy don't we just pick our number one right now?

1:01:01SPEAKER'Cause once we figure that out,

1:01:02SPEAKERI feel like the rest is open to interpretation.

1:01:06SPEAKER- And just to be clear, headlamps is off the table.

1:01:08SPEAKER- That's, I think it should.

1:01:10SPEAKERI think that was your consolation.

1:01:13SPEAKERActually though, now that I say that, I don't know.

1:01:19SPEAKER- I don't think there's an easy number one here.

1:01:21SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know what the number one actually is.

1:01:23SPEAKER- Like build friendly cases is real high on my list.

1:01:30SPEAKER- Modern BIOS is pretty high on my list.

1:01:32SPEAKER- Yeah, God yeah, the cases one is a pretty big deal.

1:01:37SPEAKERI really think getting all that hardware

1:01:39SPEAKERonto the motherboard is a gigantic deal.

1:01:41SPEAKERI feel like not just for our purposes,

1:01:43SPEAKERbut especially for people who are on a very tight budget,

1:01:45SPEAKERthe fact that you can,

1:01:47SPEAKERespecially if you're not trying to play a lot of games,

1:01:49SPEAKERthe fact that you can have an entire functional,

1:01:51SPEAKERfully featured computer with just a motherboard

1:01:54SPEAKERand a CPU and RAM at this point is insane.

1:01:56SPEAKER- Look in '93, '92 or '93 when I bought my Wang,

1:02:02SPEAKERsound was optional.

1:02:03SPEAKER- Right.

1:02:04SPEAKER- It did not come with the sound card.

1:02:05SPEAKER- Yes, that's kind of what I'm getting at.

1:02:07SPEAKERLike it's like, those are not like luxury features anymore,

1:02:11SPEAKERlike network and sound and even now graphics.

1:02:14SPEAKER- Yeah, I went out to an electronics boutique

1:02:16SPEAKERand spent $200 on a Sound Blaster SB 16 CD, I think.

1:02:24SPEAKER- When I, oh, I'm sorry.

1:02:26SPEAKEROh no, it had an IDE controller on the back

1:02:28SPEAKERof the sound card that you plugged the CD-ROM into.

1:02:30SPEAKERIt was a really stupid card.

1:02:33SPEAKER- When I dragged my previous motherboard out of the closet,

1:02:36SPEAKERbecause I needed something that I could plug my old PCI,

1:02:40SPEAKERnot PCI express SCSI controller into.

1:02:43SPEAKER- Wow.

1:02:44SPEAKER- I didn't have to like, you know,

1:02:46SPEAKERI just set it up on a cardboard box and ran with it

1:02:51SPEAKER'cause it's got all that stuff built in now.

1:02:53SPEAKER- Yep.

1:02:54SPEAKER- Like again, like I just look at a modern motherboard

1:02:57SPEAKERand think like it's, I think it's the graphics card

1:02:59SPEAKERis the one that really pushes it over for me.

1:03:02SPEAKERLike that always felt like the one thing,

1:03:03SPEAKERlike of course you have to plug a video card in.

1:03:05SPEAKERLike, of course you're always gonna need one of those.

1:03:07SPEAKERLike, yes, they put sound and USB and network

1:03:10SPEAKERand all the other stuff.

1:03:11SPEAKERIt is straight in the motherboard now,

1:03:12SPEAKERbut you're still gonna have to keep a video card around,

1:03:14SPEAKERbut not even that anymore.

1:03:15SPEAKER- I mean, the integrated graphics uniformly sucks though.

1:03:18SPEAKER- I'm not saying it's good.

1:03:19SPEAKERI'm saying that in a pinch when you need it,

1:03:22SPEAKERit really comes in handy.

1:03:22SPEAKERAnd again, if people like, like think about this

1:03:28SPEAKERwith the like insane, like completely bonkers shortage

1:03:31SPEAKERof GPUs that's going on right now.

1:03:33SPEAKERI mean, you know how bad that stuff is, right?

1:03:34SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:03:35SPEAKER- People are selling 1080s on eBay

1:03:37SPEAKERfor almost what you would pay for a 3080 at retail.

1:03:41SPEAKERLike it's wild.

1:03:42SPEAKERLike think about if somebody's GPU,

1:03:45SPEAKERif somebody's video card died in the next couple of weeks,

1:03:48SPEAKERlike they don't have to,

1:03:49SPEAKERtheir computer is not out of commission.

1:03:51SPEAKERThey could still get video out of their computer.

1:03:53SPEAKER- That's true.

1:03:54SPEAKER- Even without being able,

1:03:56SPEAKERlike they literally just changed the port

1:03:58SPEAKERthat the monitor's plugged into.

1:03:59SPEAKERLike that is huge to me.

1:04:01SPEAKER- Is this your case for number one?

1:04:03SPEAKER- Like it's up there.

1:04:04SPEAKERI don't know.

1:04:07SPEAKERSorry, go ahead.

1:04:10SPEAKER- I mean, think about like when you have a CPU cooler

1:04:15SPEAKERthat has a back plate that you have to unscrew

1:04:21SPEAKERand you have to pull the socket,

1:04:23SPEAKERthe CPU out of the socket to either reseat it

1:04:25SPEAKERbecause you had a BIOS flash go bad or something like that.

1:04:28SPEAKERLike think about doing that in one of today's

1:04:31SPEAKERmodern build friendly cases with a hole in the back

1:04:34SPEAKERfor the CPU cooler mount versus say not having one of those

1:04:39SPEAKERwhere you had to disassemble the entire computer,

1:04:41SPEAKERtake the motherboard out,

1:04:43SPEAKERthen take the cooler off the motherboard, then put it all,

1:04:45SPEAKERlike I think the build friendly cases may be,

1:04:49SPEAKERit's either that or USB for my number one probably.

1:04:52SPEAKER- The reduction in number of times

1:04:53SPEAKERI've had to take a motherboard out of a case

1:04:55SPEAKERis pretty profound in the last few years.

1:04:56SPEAKER- Yeah, and then also think about how nice it is

1:04:59SPEAKERto have like hard drive trays and like cable channels

1:05:02SPEAKERand holes for the cables to run through

1:05:04SPEAKERso you can run around the back of the motherboard.

1:05:06SPEAKER- Yeah, you're right. - Thumb screws.

1:05:08SPEAKERThink about how good thumb screws are, Brad.

1:05:09SPEAKER- Yeah, I know, we talked them too.

1:05:10SPEAKERThey got the episode named after them last week.

1:05:13SPEAKER- Yeah, thumb screws are pretty good.

1:05:17SPEAKER- Yeah, you're not wrong.

1:05:19SPEAKERI think I am soured by the fact

1:05:21SPEAKERthat the last three times I had to get in there,

1:05:23SPEAKERit was to deal with power supply shit

1:05:24SPEAKERand that shroud really sucks.

1:05:26SPEAKERIs there a good power supply shroud?

1:05:28SPEAKER- No, they all are, like,

1:05:31SPEAKERthe problem with the power supply shroud

1:05:32SPEAKERis that they're there to look nice.

1:05:34SPEAKER- That's what I was gonna say,

1:05:35SPEAKERlike there is no utility there, right?

1:05:36SPEAKERLike making it harder to get to your power supply connections

1:05:38SPEAKERI just, I don't see the, other than the appearance stuff.

1:05:42SPEAKER- I mean, you could argue that it keeps

1:05:44SPEAKERthis gnarl of extra power cables

1:05:46SPEAKERout of the way of the rest of the PC

1:05:47SPEAKERand maybe improves airflow.

1:05:49SPEAKER- I guess.

1:05:50SPEAKER- Since they almost all,

1:05:52SPEAKERI mean, the downside of power supply shrouds

1:05:53SPEAKERis if you don't install your power supply right,

1:05:55SPEAKERyou can really mess your stuff up

1:05:57SPEAKERbecause like, if the fan intake on the power supply

1:06:01SPEAKERis on the shroud side,

1:06:03SPEAKERinstead of facing the bottom of the case,

1:06:05SPEAKERyou can do real, I mean, I don't know this for a fact,

1:06:09SPEAKERbut I would assume you can do real damage.

1:06:10SPEAKER- Yeah, I just, I wish the shroud in my case was removable.

1:06:13SPEAKERI wish, if they were all removable,

1:06:15SPEAKERI'd be totally fine with it.

1:06:16SPEAKER- Well, everything's removable if you have the right tools.

1:06:18SPEAKER- This one's, hmm, I think this one's a little,

1:06:20SPEAKERno, no, it's like literally part of the frame.

1:06:23SPEAKER- Oh.

1:06:24SPEAKER- If I'm not mistaken, I did not see any separation

1:06:26SPEAKERbetween the shroud and the rest of the frame.

1:06:27SPEAKERI could be wrong.

1:06:28SPEAKER- If it's just riveted,

1:06:29SPEAKERit's really easy to drill out the rivets.

1:06:31SPEAKER- Yeah, I don't know.

1:06:32SPEAKERAnyway, anyway, like other, that aside,

1:06:34SPEAKERlike you're right, most of the advancements in case design

1:06:39SPEAKERhave been pretty good.

1:06:40SPEAKER- Wait, do you have a case with a window?

1:06:42SPEAKER- No, hell no.

1:06:43SPEAKER- Why the fuck does it have a shroud then?

1:06:45SPEAKER- Well, it is a model that has a window option.

1:06:47SPEAKER- Oh.

1:06:48SPEAKER- It is a model that you can get with or without window.

1:06:53SPEAKER- Okay, so let's think about USB for a second here.

1:06:56SPEAKERThe USB benefit in terms of building

1:06:59SPEAKERin like initial operation of your computer

1:07:03SPEAKERis that it's just supported across the board on everything.

1:07:06SPEAKER- Right.

1:07:08SPEAKER- It's one connector and one cable, kind of.

1:07:11SPEAKERA small number of potential cables

1:07:14SPEAKERfor all of your external peripherals.

1:07:17SPEAKERThat's good.

1:07:19SPEAKERProvides power, which is nice,

1:07:22SPEAKEReven a lot of power in some cases.

1:07:26SPEAKERLike I was the big advocate at Maximum PC

1:07:28SPEAKERwhen did the best technologies of all time

1:07:30SPEAKERof making USB number one.

1:07:32SPEAKERI don't think it's number one here.

1:07:34SPEAKER- I agree.

1:07:34SPEAKERI could see it like maybe right where it is at number three.

1:07:40SPEAKER- With consolidation and build friendly cases above.

1:07:46SPEAKER- Yes.

1:07:47SPEAKER- I could hang with build friendly cases at one.

1:07:51SPEAKER- How's that?

1:07:52SPEAKERIs that where we're going?

1:07:53SPEAKER- Consolidation at two and USB at three.

1:07:55SPEAKER- Oh, you're probably right, I don't know.

1:07:58SPEAKER- I don't, look, I don't.

1:08:00SPEAKERSo here's my argument against consolidation.

1:08:06SPEAKERWhen I bought a laptop, this is a bad example

1:08:09SPEAKER'cause it's a laptop, but imagine it was a motherboard.

1:08:11SPEAKERActually, I bought a motherboard.

1:08:13SPEAKERI did buy a motherboard and I got it and it came,

1:08:16SPEAKERinstead of with a good Intel wifi chip set,

1:08:18SPEAKERit came with a really, really shitty Bigfoot wifi chip set.

1:08:23SPEAKERAnd like that, I mean, it ended up being an M2 card.

1:08:27SPEAKERSo I was able to take it out and replace it

1:08:29SPEAKERwith a $30 good wifi chip set.

1:08:31SPEAKERBut if that had been soldered on the board,

1:08:33SPEAKERI would have just had to turn it off

1:08:34SPEAKERand then burn a PCI slot on a better device.

1:08:39SPEAKER- You're not wrong.

1:08:40SPEAKERAnd you get into situations where like,

1:08:41SPEAKERoh, those USB ports on the back are the Intel controller

1:08:44SPEAKERthat's part of the chip set.

1:08:44SPEAKERAnd then those other ones are some via chip

1:08:46SPEAKERthat's not as good.

1:08:48SPEAKERLike don't use those for this

1:08:49SPEAKERbecause they're not compatible or yeah.

1:08:51SPEAKER- Yeah, the VR problem.

1:08:52SPEAKER- Yes.

1:08:53SPEAKER- And then also, like sound on the motherboard,

1:08:56SPEAKERkind of a disaster unless they do a good job.

1:08:57SPEAKERThis is another one of those places

1:08:58SPEAKERthat the expensive motherboards are often better

1:09:00SPEAKERis they'll put the sound stuff on a riser

1:09:02SPEAKERso it's out of the plane.

1:09:03SPEAKERIt doesn't get noise interference

1:09:04SPEAKERfrom all the other signals on the chip set.

1:09:07SPEAKER- I only use the onboard sound for my external speakers

1:09:09SPEAKERto listen to music on basically

1:09:11SPEAKERlike anything serious is the headphone amp.

1:09:15SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:09:17SPEAKER- So you're not wrong there.

1:09:19SPEAKER- Okay, I like build friendly cases.

1:09:21SPEAKERI mean, build friendly cases is a slam dunk, I think, right?

1:09:24SPEAKER- I'm fine with that, yes.

1:09:25SPEAKER- You sound sad, Brad.

1:09:26SPEAKER- No, no, no, no, I get it.

1:09:28SPEAKERI just, I don't know.

1:09:30SPEAKERI kind of, I get more excited about things

1:09:31SPEAKERthat are electronic in nature rather than mechanical,

1:09:33SPEAKERbut that's okay.

1:09:35SPEAKERBut think about how less bloody your fingers are now.

1:09:38SPEAKER- Yeah, okay.

1:09:39SPEAKER(laughing)

1:09:40SPEAKERCan you put it that way?

1:09:41SPEAKERYes, I'm fine with it.

1:09:45SPEAKERLet's see.

1:09:46SPEAKER- So now we have having more than one computer,

1:09:48SPEAKERbeing able to plug your PC into your TV,

1:09:50SPEAKERAKA HDMI, modular PSUs, serial ATA, SATA, modern BIOS,

1:09:58SPEAKERbootable OS images,

1:10:00SPEAKERand then the real number one in my heart, headlights.

1:10:03SPEAKER- That's right, but the functional number 10, headlamps.

1:10:06SPEAKER- I'm not convinced of that yet, but we'll get there.

1:10:11SPEAKER- All right.

1:10:11SPEAKER- Okay, modular PSUs I think maybe is higher.

1:10:15SPEAKER- Okay, it's at number six right now.

1:10:17SPEAKERI can see it.

1:10:18SPEAKER- It's another mechanical thing though.

1:10:19SPEAKER- I can see it well, but you know,

1:10:20SPEAKERanything that makes it easier to work in the case.

1:10:22SPEAKERNot having all those gangly, like those extra molexes

1:10:26SPEAKERjust hanging around in your case that you're not using

1:10:28SPEAKERis pretty great.

1:10:30SPEAKER- We had one of the best doctor letters we ever got

1:10:33SPEAKERat Maximum PC was somebody who had chopped off the,

1:10:36SPEAKERthey like had the extra cables

1:10:38SPEAKERand they just put a pair of wire snips

1:10:40SPEAKERand cut them off at the stumps.

1:10:42SPEAKER- Yikes.

1:10:43SPEAKER- Didn't end well.

1:10:44SPEAKER- That's, no.

1:10:45SPEAKER- That's a bad idea.

1:10:46SPEAKER- That sounds bad.

1:10:47SPEAKER- They're lucky they didn't burn their house down.

1:10:49SPEAKER- I could see that at like a number four or number five.

1:10:52SPEAKER- I think it's higher than six probably.

1:10:55SPEAKER- Yeah, how about a number four?

1:10:59SPEAKERLet's try that.

1:11:01SPEAKERI feel like being able to plug your PC and your TV

1:11:03SPEAKERvia HDMI is great, but it's so situational.

1:11:07SPEAKERLike, unless you're playing games on your TV,

1:11:10SPEAKERwhich I mean, granted that is another great use

1:11:11SPEAKERof that feature, but like, you know,

1:11:15SPEAKERyou're not gonna, for the most part,

1:11:17SPEAKERuse your TV as your everyday display for your PC.

1:11:19SPEAKERIt's more of a troubleshooting thing of just like,

1:11:21SPEAKERoh, I need a screen.

1:11:23SPEAKERIt's great that this computer will plug into both my TV

1:11:25SPEAKERand this monitor.

1:11:26SPEAKER- Where do you build your computers, Brad?

1:11:28SPEAKERDo you do it on the living room floor?

1:11:30SPEAKER- Gosh, it's been so long.

1:11:32SPEAKERI think I did the last one in the living room.

1:11:35SPEAKER- Oh no, you did the last one at work, didn't you?

1:11:37SPEAKER- No, I've never built a personal machine at work,

1:11:39SPEAKERjust a bunch of work machines.

1:11:41SPEAKER- Okay.

1:11:44SPEAKERI think, I mean, when I build a PC at home,

1:11:47SPEAKERI set up in the living room floor,

1:11:49SPEAKERwhich has a wool carpet, which isn't great,

1:11:50SPEAKERobviously it's fine though.

1:11:53SPEAKERAnd then when I'm ready to boot it up,

1:11:54SPEAKERI plug it into that front panel HDMI plug and let her rip.

1:11:58SPEAKER- On the TV?

1:11:59SPEAKER- On the TV.

1:12:00SPEAKER- What?

1:12:01SPEAKER- Well, 'cause if I have to take it all back apart again,

1:12:03SPEAKERI want to do it in the living room.

1:12:03SPEAKERI don't have to carry it in the office and plug it in,

1:12:05SPEAKERcrawl around under the desk.

1:12:06SPEAKER- Man, that's so unceremonious.

1:12:09SPEAKER- Well, I mean, what do you do, like make a fancy tea

1:12:12SPEAKERand have a little like no crust sandwich

1:12:14SPEAKERwith some cream cheese?

1:12:15SPEAKER- Lights up candles.

1:12:17SPEAKER- Yeah.

1:12:18SPEAKER- Burn some incense, no.

1:12:19SPEAKER- Okay.

1:12:23SPEAKER- It can stay at number six for now, I don't know.

1:12:28SPEAKER- I think modern BIOS needs to be higher.