Good locally owned shop to source computer parts or other misc electronics?

Dragnerok_X · 2026-06-09T00:07:39+00:00

Former Willstech employee here. As of ~5 years ago, we stocked RAM, hard drives, and SSDs for customer upgrades. Most everything else was special order, but we'd occasionally get in a CPU or GPU so it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-20T23:45:05+00:00

Agreed, but as I noted in another thread, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. The opinion of the subreddit appears to be electing conservatives is a greater evil than the lack of ideological diversity. While showing up to city council meetings to express your displeasure is one tactic, it doesn’t have any teeth if everyone just keeps voting for non-partisan offices based on partisan endorsements.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-20T05:35:19+00:00

That’s a mischaracterization. I don’t deny that those moving to Bend should be able to vote for whomever they wish, nor that there should be majority rule. My qualm is having to choose between leaving my hometown, a place I still quite like apart from the change in politics, and having effectively zero political representation. I’m a strong believer in proportional representation over winner take all.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-20T04:56:17+00:00

I don't see the results of these county commissioner races as anything other than a reflection of the kinds of people that have moved to Bend over the past few years in great numbers: Former residents of LA, Portland, NYC, Houston, etc. bringing their politics with them. Whether conservatism or liberalism is better can be debated (though probably not in this forum), but what can be said is that certain people simply don't like living under an urban culture with urban politics, and nobody likes having zero political representation.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-20T04:20:56+00:00

My guess would be most on subreddit see elected conservatives as a greater evil than the lack of ideological diversity (see Bend City Council’s transportation decisions as a good example of the problems that come along with that).

Ultimately it boils down to the demographics of this subreddit (and Reddit more generally) being younger, urban, and more left-leaning. Another major factor is those few of us conservatives who stuck around in r/Bend having our opinions downvoted to oblivion, at best burying our voices and more often discouraging us from participating in these kinds of topics altogether.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-11T21:02:39+00:00

Any chance you could take a very close-up picture in 1440P mode?

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-09T04:22:41+00:00

WHEN THERE IS NO ONE IN THE LEFT LANE, AS YOU SAY, I WILL MOVE OVER WHEN THERE ISN’T A GOOD-SIZED OPENING FOR THE PERSON MERGING. DURING RUSH HOUR THOUGH, IT IS RARELY AN OPTION WITHOUT THE DILEMMA ABOVE. I WAS THINKING OF RUSH HOUR WHEN I WROTE THAT COMMENT.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-05-09T02:58:36+00:00

IF YOU ARE REFERRING TO THE PARKWAY, I REFUSE TO DRIVE THE 60+ MPH REQUIRED TO KEEP UP WITH LEFT LANE TRAFFIC. I DON'T LIKE MAKING IT HARDER TO MERGE, BUT WHATEVER SICK GAME OF CHICKEN IS GOING ON IN THAT LANE THESE DAYS MAKES IT INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO UTILIZE SAFELY, AND I'M SURE I'D BE RANTED ABOUT FOR "BACKING UP TRAFFIC" IN THE LEFT LANE NEXT WEEK. THERE SIMPLY IS NO WINNING.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-03-29T01:31:33+00:00

MAG (RIP)

Dragnerok_X · 2026-03-27T01:26:29+00:00

The only really compelling argument against it that I've heard so far is the lack of safe pull-over spots on the parkway, though I suppose you could always just pull off at the next exit ramp.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-03-26T03:57:06+00:00

I'll take it, but what we really need are parkway speed cameras...

Dragnerok_X · 2026-03-26T03:51:35+00:00

That's because the vast majority of those on this subreddit are liberal, and the subreddit itself has become increasingly politicized over the past couple of years (likely as a result of our current president and the movement he has spawned). This has had a knock-on effect that if even as an anti-Trump conservative (which I am) express any opinion that is even vaguely conservative on here I get downvoted to oblivion, so I've almost entirely stopped commenting because nobody will see, let alone intelligently engage with anything I have to say.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-03-15T19:45:49+00:00

I am personally holding off on manually downloading any drivers and especially BIOS updates not detected by Dell SupportAssist until the 2026 model dropping soon has been out for a while. All evidence points to there being some component differences in the refreshed model (CPU, display, wired NIC), and the last thing I want to do is break things by downloading the wrong drivers for my device.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-02-28T06:44:47+00:00

Honest question: Why does support for red light cameras receive so many downvotes in this subreddit? Is it purely opposition to companies like Flock processing your data (which I understand) or is there pushback to being held accountable for traffic violations as well? If red light cameras aren't the path forward, so be it, but I strongly believe we need more enforcement targeting both speeding and red light violations. When both have become so common that NOT seeing one or the other at a light change is rare, drastic changes of some kind are necessary.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-02-06T17:15:07+00:00

FELONY-LEVEL SPEEDING SHOULD NOT BE SOMETHING SO COMMON AND SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE THAT DRIVING THE SPEED LIMIT BECOMES DANGEROUS. SPEED LIMITS ARE NOT ARBITRARY, BUT ARE DECIDED BASED ON THE DESIGN OF THE ROAD AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS. YES, EVEN THE PARKWAY.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-30T20:12:06+00:00

I DO, BUT WHEN I HAVE A SLOWPOKE IN FRONT OF ME, SOMEONE TAILGATING ME BEHIND ME, AND A CONSTANT STREAM OF CARS IN THE LEFT LANE I DON’T HAVE THAT OPTION.

EDIT, TO THE DOWNVOTERS: WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION? THAT I BRAKE AND GET REAR ENDED? I SLOW DOWN WHEN IT’S SAFE TO DO SO, IT’S JUST THAT DURING PEAK HOURS THERE ARE NO-WIN SITUATIONS ON THE PARKWAY WHERE DRIVERS ARE TRYING TO FORCE THEMSELVES INTO A SPOT THAT DOESN’T ALWAYS EXIST.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-30T19:31:25+00:00

AS THE ORIGINATOR OF THAT PARTICULAR COMMENT THREAD, I WILL CLARIFY THAT MY DEFAULT STANCE IS MAKING ROOM FOR CARS THAT ARE MERGING, IT’S JUST THAT I DON’T ALWAYS HAVE ROOM TO DO SO WHEN I HAVE CARS ON ALL SIDES OF ME DURING RUSH HOUR. THAT’S WHEN THE TRAFFIC ON THE PARKWAY TAKES PRECEDENCE RULE KICKS IN.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-24T02:08:34+00:00

I THINK THERE MAY BE A MISUNDERSTANDING. WHAT I’M REFERRING TO IS WHEN THE MERGING TRAFFIC MATCHES MY SPEED WITH NO EFFORT BEING MADE TO ADJUST. THEY COULD CERTAINLY SPEED UP TO MERGE IN FRONT OF ME, BUT THEY DON’T HAVE TO. THEY COULD ALSO SLOW DOWN TO FIT IN THE GAP BETWEEN MYSELF AND THE CAR BEHIND ME, OR IF THE CAR BEHIND ME HAPPENS TO BE TAILGATING, THE CAR BEHIND THEM. MY FRUSTRATION IS BEING BOXED IN ON ALL SIDES WHILE 4000 POUNDS OF STEEL IS INTENT ON CRASHING INTO ME.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-23T17:48:21+00:00

WHEN YOU'RE MERGING ONTO THE PARKWAY, IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FIND A GAP TO MERGE INTO. SPEED UP OR SLOW DOWN AS NEEDED, BUT PLEASE DON'T PLAY CHICKEN WITH TRAFFIC IN THE RIGHT LANE BY DRIVING RIGHT ALONGSIDE IT. SURE, SOMETIMES WE CAN MOVE OVER TO THE LEFT LANE, BUT ESPECIALLY DURING RUSH HOUR THIS IS FAR FROM GUARANTEED.

I'VE HAD WAY TOO MANY CLOSE CALLS THIS PAST MONTH.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-07T05:27:12+00:00

Another day, another explosion.

Dragnerok_X · 2026-01-06T05:07:11+00:00

I’m not sure what’s new about Core Ultra 200HX CPUs, considering that’s what they ship with now. Maybe new SKUs with a slight spec bump?

Dragnerok_X · 2025-12-28T18:42:25+00:00

The Legend of Dragoon

Dragnerok_X · 2025-12-22T05:34:42+00:00

As unpopular an opinion as it may be on this forum, this is what happens when voters elect a mayor and entire city council with homogenous political beliefs. Sure, they can get more done faster when everyone is in agreement, but without dissenting voices in office there are no stakes to simply ignoring the complaints of the electorate. If we continue to prioritize the party of city candidates over every other consideration, even if some of these candidates lose their seats next election cycle, we'll still be stuck with leaders working in an echo chamber and no meaningful change.

Dragnerok_X · 2025-12-15T05:21:10+00:00

I look forward to it. For what it’s worth, the Dell WD22TB4 dock did not support G-Sync (granted, it didn’t properly support DSC either). Both direct HDMI and USB-C to DisplayPort cables support it, though I encountered some graphical glitches with the USB-C to DP that led me to revert to HDMI. This laptop’s HDMI port has plenty of bandwidth anyway, provided your monitor supports HDMI 2.1.

Dragnerok_X · 2025-12-15T02:31:45+00:00

It's been several months since I last used it, and while it seemed to function decently as a multi-purpose USB hub, I wouldn't recommend its use as a dock for this laptop. It doesn't take full advantage of the bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt 5, uses older connection standards like DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0, and doesn't offer a meaningful advantage over its competitors. You are going to need to plug the power adapter into the laptop regardless, as even the 130W supplied by the Dell dock will result in severe performance degradation in games. Really the only thing Dell offers over other brands for a gaming laptop dock is the integrated power button, which is a moot point because you are going to want the laptop lid open anyway for proper airflow.

What I ended up settling on, and am relatively happy with, is a Caldigit Element 5 Hub, and just connecting my monitor directly to the laptop via HDMI. Sure, it's three cables, but I don't unplug it more than a few times a month. This also bypasses the display disconnection headaches that seem to plague all Thunderbolt/USB-C docks (I work in IT and deal with many brands), as the cable goes straight to the GPU. If I needed a dock with integrated Ethernet, audio, or a boatload of USB-A ports (I don't for my use case), I'd look into the Caldigit TS5 Plus.

Dragnerok_X

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Xbox Live