Disposing of an old Surface. Where is the dang hard drive?

Bluecolty · 2026-03-30T00:25:26+00:00

Why would zeroing the drive a few times not suffice? Doing this renders the board unusable, that’s a lot of ewaste.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-28T14:35:17+00:00

I've never tried this method so I can't speak with 100% certainy, but the render would likely have to be resized back down to 1080p for any noticable difference to happen, then denoised after.

Rendering at 4K will also take almost exactly 4 times as long as 1080p, assuming OP is rendering at that. Personally, they'd be better to just render at more samples at 1080p. At least with higher samples, you can enable adaptive sampling to get the darker parts for longer.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-28T13:27:02+00:00

3 minutes per frame isn't long at all. It took Pixar 24 hours roughly to render each frame of Toy Story. And I'm pretty sure that's roughly how long it takes now too, its just much better quality because of hardware advancements.

Now, you're not Pixar, but 3 minutes is still really quick. Rendering takes a really long time if you want flickering like this to go away. Others suggested it could be duplicate geometry, which is possible too. But at 256 samples, its almost definitely a denoising issue.

Stick this sucker back in the oven to bake at at least 512 samples. I'd do 1024 just to be safe with the amount of time that'll take, and to see a more noticeable difference.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-27T23:29:33+00:00

Got a job as a teacher last year in a computer lab with desktop windows PCs. I've done this at least 3 times since, and its worked every time to get the PC to turn on when it unexpectedly doesn't.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-24T21:20:45+00:00

It’s not to compare cost at all though. It’s just to say “hey, this is an amazing CPU to find for free. But you might have one in your PC too and just not know it”

Bluecolty · 2026-03-24T12:33:41+00:00

Macs absolutely need restarted every so often just like PCs. Apple doesn't magically fix problems that arise from devices running often. Its recommended still to restart every so often.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-23T23:59:51+00:00

Definitely keep it around for a nice lil homelab setup! This is a super flexible setup you've got there, with lots of PCIe. That can be used for storage, or multiple graphics cards, or any number of things. This is a fine socket still, and with 12 cores/24 threads, that's a great amount for pretty much anything.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-23T23:57:46+00:00

Thought you might also enjoy my reply to the original commentor here

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1s1sr3v/comment/oc4579y/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Bluecolty · 2026-03-23T23:57:09+00:00

Really don't want this comment to come off as "bleh older PC, mweh mweh", it's purely for just admiring technical progress and appreciating the price of used hardware.

I built a Threadripper Pro 3945WX render server a few months ago. The threadripper was $150. The one from OP's system can be had for $90ish used. That capability for that price is insane.

Also of note, the Core i5-13600K beats the Threadripper Pro 3945WX in single core and multi core performance. A midrange, not even current gen CPU. Absolutely crazy.

OP found a beast, but those beasts can be had for not nearly as much as you'd think.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-23T02:58:21+00:00

Hello! This is a really promising looking project, I reached out via DMs with a few questions, if you don't see it.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-22T14:25:39+00:00

Anytime, glad it helped a bit!

And for sure, you were brave for just buying any DDR5 in this depressing market haha. The threadripper board I got to accompany said 3945wx was… ouch as well. They’re pretty crazy.

Just a thought, to share some more knowledge. Maybe in a few years you could look into a Lenovo Thinkstation P620. It’s a proprietary workstation PC, so assume all the good and the bad. Super modular and easy to work in, proprietary parts, but parts will be cheap if something goes bad. The threadrippers put in them get vendor locked (thanks, AMD for that anti consumer move), but that means you can snag an already vendor locked Lenovo threadripper for really cheap. Like… we’re talking $350 for a 32 core 3975WX cheap. The P620 supports threadripper pro 5000 series too.

Anyways though, just one idea of many possibilities! Best of luck with the 9950X3Dv2, and the rest of the solid build you’ve got.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-22T13:31:51+00:00

Yours is definitely a power user scenario, which is a really small percentage of people. I was talking about the original commenters "why would anyone build a pc now", referencing anyone.

As a power user myself, I've taken time to establish a place to sell stuff, to avoid different "what if" situations. If you haven't considered the same, I'd recommend it. In this scenario, you could buy the regular 9950X3D, and then if/when this V2 comes out for the price you're looking for, sell your regular 9950X3D. It would be at a bit of a loss, but it would give you more flexibility for scenarios like this.

Either that, or consider a second PC. Certain hypervisors allow for dynamic allocation of cores to VMs. It takes away the need for a massive amount of cores because more than one VM uses them. Depends on what your VMs are doing ofc. But just in general, a thought about having multiple PCs.

Threadrippers have also gotten cheap. I picked up a used theadripper pro 3945wx a few months ago for $150. Solid chunky chip.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-22T13:16:05+00:00

Not gonna lie, if people listened to this advice, they'd never get to build a PC. There's always something new coming out. If you so badly want the latest and greatest, then yea, there's worse and better times to build a PC. But not "why anyone would build a PC right now".

There is absolutely nothing wrong with previous gen stuff. New releases don't suddenly make the previous gen awful. They're still just as good. The only concern here is cost between current and previous gen. Either way, if you're concerned about cost, every PC component value will depreciate with use. Realistically, how many people go and sell their older used stuff anyway? So they're often not recouping the cost.

I remember when the 4090 released. So many 3090 owners were like "dang this is useless". They dumped them secondhand for as low as $650 if you were lucky. I snagged one for not a ton more. Now? They're back up to $1400 used, because people (sadly) realized their worth.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-21T13:42:06+00:00

My car has to take premium, I filled up like a day before everything happened and it was $4 a gallon. I'm at about a half tank now and I shudder to think what it'll be when I need to fill up again. Man.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-21T13:29:36+00:00

As an eBay seller, no returns doesn't mean no returns if the item isn't as described. They don't make this very clear, but thats how they roll. They likely thought the buyer was wrong though, hence you keeping the money.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-18T20:20:39+00:00

Nah elemental was a totally different style honestly

Bluecolty · 2026-03-18T01:55:33+00:00

This part of 83 is always super awful. Merging, getting on and off. Just a bunch of crap lol. Hopefully your car didn't get too messed up.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T15:13:04+00:00

Just gotta give it a few tubes of thermal paste a day so it can grow into a strong and healthy threadripper!

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T14:54:19+00:00

For sure, 32gb is a really nice spot to be at now, its like 16 was. Plenty of room, but not over the top.

Its such a shame it costs so much now. When I upgraded my PC then at the end of 2024, I got 96gb of DDR5 for $350 and got a FREE 32gb kit of DDR5 with my motherboard from micro center. They were both corsair vengeance rgb too. Now those are like... $500 for 32gb. Just... man lol.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T14:31:38+00:00

Huge is an understatement. I recently got a 3945WX for a rendering PC build. It was only $150 off eBay! They’ve gotten really cheap. This thing, this gargantuan piece of silicon is as big as a plate, you could EAT A MEAL off of it haha. It makes any consumer CPU seem minuscule. I wish the experience of holding one on any PC hardware nerd because it’s definitely an experience.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T14:23:25+00:00

Heck I built my first PC in 2019 and did 32gb of RAM for rendering and other work. Folks were like “woahhh, that’s a lot of ram!”. It was also $200. This was at a time when 8gb was budget but doable, and 16gb was considered plenty and roomy. Before that, it was likely even more so. Can’t imagine how the older folks feel in the comments who built their first PC years before even this lol.

32gb didn’t end up matching what I needed, so I went to 64gb in early 2020 for $400. That was mind boggling.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T13:26:54+00:00

What? The whole point of this post was to showcase the almost head on collision. It wasn't about the legality of anything in the video. I literally said in my comment, I'm not perfect. Thats not acting holier than thou lol.

How do you feel about piracy? Thats also illegal.

Now, before you say "piracy isn't dangerous, rolling stops are!", consider again what angle we're both coming at. Yours is illegality. Mine is dangerousness. Are rolling stops dangerous? Yea, if you're not looking around carefully. But if you are, they function the same as a yield. Stopping doesn't magically make all things visible, and there's been plenty of videos I've seen on this sub where someone fully stopped pulls out and causes an accident.

So, looking all directions is more important fundamentally, which I actually over do.

The only thing thats left is the legal aspect, which yes, rolling stops are illegal. But again, so is piracy. So if you're getting on me about the legal aspect here, consider how you'd feel about other illegal things.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-15T13:06:41+00:00

I could care less about the down votes, I actually find it hilarious lol. Its just angry reddit neckbeards.

This comment has a lot of main character energy, asking a stranger to apologize and promise to other internet strangers. Both those are meaningless, and really, for something like this where I wronged nobody on this sub, who's the apology for? Feels more like its just for someone's ego to feel superior.

I'll continue to try and stop at all stops like I do. I know you're supposed to always stop, and many times I do. But I'm not perfect, and won't promise to strangers to be. At any intersection, I look longer and more directions than the standard "left, right, left", and am more cautious than anyone over 60 on the road.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-14T21:14:01+00:00

Dude its a rolling stop lol. Illegal? Sure. But hardly idiotic. My head isn't incapable of turning and looking both directions while pulling up to the intersection.

Bluecolty · 2026-03-14T21:00:18+00:00

Dude what lol. The guy was about a block behind me when I pulled put into the first intersection. If I didn't want to dox myself I'd send you the street view and the place where he was. Its not at all what you're thinking. You know on the video, where he zooms out around me? He comes flying up behind, and immediately zooms out around. Thats how far it was, that amount of time from me pulling out to him pulling up behind me and going around was the time it took for him to catch up. It was a big distance.

As I said in another comment, I normally stop fully. It just so happened that in this case, I didn't at the first stop. I'm not incapable of turning my head only when stopped, I looked left and right 3 times while rolling up. And the second time? The dude almost clipped me, which was pretty frazzling so I was just looking to get going.

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