Mike Zornek

New Gaming PC

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:22:54 -0500

In the closing days of summer this past year, I started to get an itch about building a new gaming PC. In this post, I’ll share what I built and some notes on its assembly.

Assembled computer powered off.

Assembled computer powered on.

Inspiration

I had been playing a few games on my Mac laptop over the summer, including Civilization VI and Stardew Valley. Civilization VII was formally announced in June, triggering an interest in a new gaming PC. While I could technically play Civ7 on a Mac, it would likely play much better on a proper gaming PC.

It had been 8 years or so since I last built a gaming PC (a top-end of its time 1080 Nvidia-based tower). The main games I played on it back then were MMOs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. I also enjoyed many hours of City Skylines and Portal 2.

In recent years, I shelved the gaming PC and have, instead, enjoyed my game time via other outlets, such as my PlayStation and Switch. The idea of a new gaming PC for Civ7 and a space to tinker with those MMOs again was intriguing.

Components

PC Parts list.

Various PC parts laid out for assembly.

For this build, I wanted to lean more toward a visual presentation. My last build was very economical, a traditional black tower with no real frills. It would be fun to give this some personality. It’s a white build with some limited RGB lighting that would lean towards a purple hue.

I chose the Lian Li O11 DYNAMIC EVO RGB case. I have seen this tower a few times on various YouTube videos. I really enjoyed the spacious interior, the glass sides, and the sleek lines. As I started working with this case, I was impressed with the build quality and layout. I love having the motherboard on one half with a hidden chamber for all the various wires and fan controllers.

I chose the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor for CPU, my first AMD processor ever.

For graphics, I debating a lot of options. Ultimately, I chose a more expensive choice than I originally planned, picking the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. I picked this for the extra video RAM (16 GB), which I hope will help in the future. We will see how well games like Civ7 (and a possible Red Dead 2 with mods) actually utilize all this horsepower. For now, it sits there, almost bored with my current gaming choices and their simple needs.

For the monitor, I went with the Asus ROG Swift OLED, a 31.5-inch screen running at 240 Hz. This thing is gorgeous. Since getting an OLED TV in 2020 and my iPad Pro earlier this year, I have found it hard to consider other display options. I love the rich colors and the deep blacks. I like the glossy finish too; it makes colors pop.

I went with various Lian Li RGB options for cooling fans, including three of the LCD-display variety. I currently use the temperature and load metrics, but I might use some GIF memes in the future. Getting the right mix of white color, reverse airflow, and sizes was actually harder than I expected. I compromised on sizes (I wanted 140mm but had to get 120mm) and normal direction (mounting in reverse to get the airflow I needed).

The final meaningly decision was CPU cooling. I went with an air-cooled solution, a Thermalright Peerless Assassin. Water-cooled all-in-ones are popular and can squeeze out extra performance, but I dislike the complexity and the motor noise moving the fluid around. I prefer the simplicity of airflow, and considering the space my case provides, I expect it to be more than enough for my needs.

Assembly

It has been a bit since I last built my last gaming PC, so I took my time and watched a lot of YouTube videos to help me get comfortable with an approach and answer some questions.

I have big hands, so work like socketing the CPU and applying thermal paste can be daunting, but I took my time, and it worked out.

Handling the graphic card is similarly stressful since it is so large and expensive. You need to put pressure on it to get it into the PCI slot, BUT NOT TOO MUCH PRESSURE! (Aside: I broke a small tab of my old 1080 graphics card before, and happily, it did not cause an issue – but the memory and worry persist.)

The other stressful thing about the graphic card is the power. I’ve seen Steve’s coverage of these 12VHPWR plugs, and this design is an absolute shit show. Again, I approached this carefully, ensuring everything was secure and not overly stressed in the cord bend (another advantage of having such a large case interior).

When I first attempted to power-on the computer, I did not get it to POST.

POST, short for power-on self-test, is a series of tests and procedures your PC runs through before loading the operating system.

I saw red lights on my motherboard and was very nervous. I assembled everything inside the tower, so disassembling and debugging what was causing the computer to not POST was very intimidating. Luckily, I worked on simpler debug steps first, which meant reseating the RAM. This required removing one of the CPU fans, but it was a low-impact first thing to try – and lucky for me, that resolved the issue. The RAM seems fine, I just needed to reseat it. (FWIW, I did give the PC plenty of time to configure the memory on those first attempts. I am aware that as you change the memory layout the motherboard needs to cycle/relearn the memory speeds.)

If I were doing this again, I might suggest buying a test bench setup or otherwise doing a sanity POST verification of the components before putting them in a case.

After I got the computer to POST, one issue I did run into was fans. I misunderstood the wide range of fan models Lian Li was selling and ended up buying a mix of fans and controllers that were not fully compatible. I made a midday MicroCenter run to buy compatible alternatives and had to reinstall them a few times to get it all worked out. Ultimately, I had to install two separate fan controllers (one for the LCD fans and another for the simple RGB fans).

The full desk shot.

Windows

Not having a readily available Windows computer around, I followed some instructions to download the Windows 11 installer and make a bootable USB drive from my Mac. This worked fine for me, though sadly, I did not get a working network driver for the motherboard’s wifi chip from Windows, so I had to download some manual drivers onto a separate USB drive to get that working. Once I was on the wifi, I could get all the other drivers directly from this machine, as well as the many OS-level updates.

I had a Windows 10 license from my old gaming PC, which worked fine for registering this copy of Windows 11.

Windows 11 is frustratingly pushy about trying to get you to create your local account via an online Microsoft account. I used a few suggestions to avoid this, but it seems like an ongoing nag I get from time to time.

One of the biggest problems I ran into was the EFI boot partition. So, EFI is what Windows uses as its boot loader, and when you install Windows, it tries to be helpful. It self-discovers all the hard drives in your computer and will attempt to set up what is needed. What I observed is that when I did my clean install of Windows, it saw a working EFI partition on the USB installer and would not set one up on my main SSD. Thus, my system would boot on a power cycle if I had the USB installer plugged in but would not if removed.

I did 4 or 5 clean installs of Windows, trying to nudge it in the right direction. I tried to pull out the USB drive at a specific point during the installation, but it never worked as I wanted. I ended up following some instructions to manually create an EFI partition on my SSD and finally got everything to boot on a clean power up with no USB drive plugged in.

Tools

During this assembly, I loved using my iFixit tools. Having all the various screw types and extenders really came in handy. I’ve used this set for two notable projects now (this and my Framework laptop) and continue to appriciate how well they work.

It’s easy to overlook, but make sure you have many USB drives if you do a build like this. I did not and had to do a data dance when creating USB drives to flash the motherboard with the latest BIOS and other things. Keep that Windows 11 bootable USB drive around for future issues.

Final Thoughts

I’m really pleased with my build. I had to make a few visual compromises with the fans, but overall this turned out just as I had hoped.

So far, my main games have been Civ 6, Stardew Valley (trying to finish perfection on my latest farm), and World of Warcraft (rolled a new gnome mage on the new Classic servers).

As 2025 approaches, I’m looking forward to Civ 7 and a playthrough of Red Dead 2 with some mods to shake up the gameplay. There is a rumor that MLB: The Show might get a PC release this year, and if so, I might play it here.

Download MP4.

If you have a game suggestion or any follow-up questions, reach out.

Framework Laptop First Thoughts

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 13:00:00 -0400

A few days ago I took delivery of a Framework laptop, a new product that prioritized repairability in support of the Right to Repair movement. I’m enjoying it a lot and wanted to share some early observations.

My notes below will be limited to hardware-related observations. As part of this laptop experiment, I’m also running an Ubuntu install and that has its own set of challenges from a long time MacOS user. Perhaps in the future I’ll share more about that.

DIY Edition

While you can purchase a prebuilt version with Windows installed, I elected to buy the DIY edition. This version comes with a selection of customized components like SSD, RAM and network card in the box but it is your job to install them. With DIY you also do not have to pay for a Windows license, which is great for me since I want to use Linux.

Installation of the components was fairly easy (even for someone with limited hardware experience) and Framework has a wonderful setup guide with lots of pictures if you need any help. The most notable issue for me was the wifi card. I had never had to install one before and the antenna wires can be a little delicate, particularly if you have larger hands like myself. While the laptop does come with a the one screwdriver size you need, I got some help via tweezers and a flat edge tool from a iFixit toolkit I already owned when it came to the wifi card installation.

There are a ton of little design choices that make this laptop feel special.

Not only do you get a screwdriver in the one size you’ll need (many other laptops require an armada of different screwdrivers to work on), it is even magnetized to hold the internal screws just a little better while working.
The screws on the base of the laptop are captive, meaning they won’t fall out and get lost when loosened.
If you were to loose an internal screw, there are extra screws inside the case.
The base and screen frame are held in with magnets, not glue, allowing for easy opening and alignment.
Instead of picking a fixed collection of ports, the Framework laptop has a simple expansion system which allows you to customize ports based on your needs. I am currently using a mix of USB-C, USB-A and HDMI components but they also have SD cards, extra storage and other options.
The machine comes with a 1080p camera and a pair of microphones connected to physical privacy switches that disconnect them when unwanted.
There is a fingerprint sensor built into the power button. This is the one hardware feature that does not work out of the box for the current Ubuntu release but there are known instructions shared by the supportive Linux users within the Framework community forum on how to get it to work. I plan to do this soon.
The screen resolution is 2256x1504, a taller 3:2 ratio than most other laptops, giving you a little extra workspace and enough pixels to run your OS in a high DPI mode for crisp text.

The overall build quality feels great. I saw Dave2D complain about some flex in the monitor but I’m not seeing an issue in my build. Keyboard feel and travel are nice although I still struggle with location of some keys due to historic time spent on my Mac.

Observed Issues

I prefer a larger laptop, like my 16-inch MacBook Pro. I like the larger screen and overall larger body on my lap, as I work sitting on a recliner. This laptop is 13.5 inches but feels a little small for my personal preference. I look forward to future Framework options that might be larger with dedicated graphics cards.

The trackpad is mechanical and not haptic which by itself is not an issue for me but still unfortunate. More importantly I have struggled with my out of the box Ubuntu trackpad experience.

First I was dealing with a frustration that a right-side tap was signaling right clicks, but this was solved with some quick tweak software. Ongoing is an issue with two finger scrolling speed being way too fast. I think this is a Gnome issue, and am hopeful a custom preference can be found to slow things down. I hear some people on a future version of Ubuntu are not having this problem so we’ll see. Finally there is my thumb placement at the bottom of the trackpad which can interrupts pointer movement with my index finger. These are technically software issues so I don’t want to ding Framework too much but want to share my notes as transparent as I can.

Alongside my MacBook Pro, I use an external display that supplies both power and the display connection over a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. Early attempts to replicate this using Framework have failed and I’m forced to use a second cable for power and the Thunderbolt cable for the display. I’ve been told there are some other improvements coming to the firmware for this, so maybe this will be resolved in time.

The speakers are good, though not as good as my MacBook Pro speakers. They are located under the front side edges which sadly makes the audio a little muffled against my legs when working with the computer on my lap while sitting on my recliner.

At 55Wh the battery capacity feels a little on the low side, but considering my typically use will not come into that play often.

Ideas

The expansion slots are a very unique aspect of the Framework laptop and sparks imagination for future possibilities. One possible idea, though size might be an issue, would be to package a little cellular connection module, allowing internet connectivity on the road.

I’d also love to see the DIY option get rid of the Windows logo for the SUPER key and instead use the Framework logo, but acknowledge for this first hardware version that is a nitpick ask.

And once again, for my personal preference, a larger 15 or 16-inch version with a dedicated graphics card would be awesome.

Conclusion

Buying a first edition laptop from a new company is no doubt a risky move. I bought a Framework laptop because their company values have alignment with Right to Repair which I am also very supportive of. Additional, the laptop comes at a time when I am actively trying to diversify my experiences outside of MacOS and it serves that purpose very well.

It has only been a week, but so far I am very positive about my Framework laptop purchase.

Airpods Pro Repair: How hard is it to ship an empty box?

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:02:23 -0400

The Apple AirPods Pro earbuds I ordered in February are broken. The left pod has this really bad vibration that just never seems to never go away. It’s particularly noticeable during my walks. I had some connection issues before and re-pairing the device with the phone fixed it back then, but this new problem will not go away.

All I wanted to do was ask Apple to mail me a shipping box so I could drop them in, and have them fixed or replaced. What followed was an hour long customer support session that continues to erode my enjoyment of Apple products.

According to my support rep Apple requires a hold on the credit card to do the repair via shipping. The exact process is not 100% clear to me. It sounds like:

Apple puts on a hold on my credit card for $90.
Apple mails me a box (or provides a shipping label printout).
I mail the broken AirPod (left ear only).
Apple notices FedEx accepted my shipment and ships me a replacement left ear. (Mixed information.)
- Who knows what size ear plug they mail back?
Apple receives my shipment, inspects the hardware and releases the hold.

Frankly I find the process ridiculous. I don’t trust Apple or any shipping company enough to say that this will goes smoothly, and if does fail I don’t know who I would yell at or how to get my additional $90.

How can mailing a empty box be so hard? Why can’t they just wait until they get my broken unit to send back a replacement?

While the in-person Apple Store is an option, I’m very hesitant to drive and hour to and then an hour back to do this in person during COVID. Just does not seem worth the health risk for me or my family.

If anyone sees this and wants to add some sanity to the process, the case ID is: 101205809925.

PS: Other “fun” observations from the chat log below:

The “find serial” article is exclusively for iOS 14 (and I am still on iOS 13) so it was not very helpful.
Love that auto posting reminder that I have not typed for 30 seconds.
This session took more than an hour.

A Month with the 2019 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 20:00:00 -0400

Previously on, The Great Monitor Search Continues. After identifying a need to get a new external display for my MacBook Pro, I first paused to see what WWDC might bring. After Apple released a monitor that I could not afford I instead went with the LG 49-inch UltraWide monitor which, while productive and cool in many ways, did not jive with Mac OS X day-to-day. It was returned. Now having my second choice monitor, the 2019 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display, how is it going?

Jumping from a 49-inch ultra wide to a 23.7-inch monitor at first felt like many steps backwards. Once again I’m forced to perch my MacBook Pro on a stand to be my secondary monitor. While there are many new advances and benefits of the 23.7-inch monitor, it’s hard to ignore that it doesn’t fill the void the previous 2011 27-inch iMac (ran in display mode only) was filling even before I tested out the ultra wide.

That aside, so far the monitor is working out well.

The color and resolution are amazing. With my bedroom lighting the glossy screen avoids the typical reflection issues and so I benefit with richer colors without too much of a compromise. The 500 nits of brightness are amazing and even puts my MacBook Pro display to shame. I like running the monitor at a true retina 2x 1080p of resolution for general tasks but have nudged the monitor to a scaled 1440 while doing some longer programming sessions. With the more detailed resolution and sharper text I’ve even been able to lower my coding font to grab up some extra space.

The real benefit of this monitor however comes from its nearly seamless integration with Mac OS X. All of the expected brightness and volume controls work from the keyboard. There is no power button on the display and once you connect the Thunderbolt cord to the MacBook Pro the monitor wakes up and also starts charging the laptop. Even wake from sleep is fairly reliable. (I think twice I had to do a unplug/replug for the monitor to be found but this could have also been from the fact that the cord needs to be firmly connected and the design of USB-C can leave connections to come out a little too easy sometimes.

For downsides I’ll mention the internal speakers. I like the fact they are included but the quality is pretty bad. I’m not an audiophile so it’s hard for me to describe but in my own day-to-day I’m using the MacBook Pro laptop speakers instead (for now) as I feel like they have more range. (Aside: The old iMac had good, usable speakers, I wish the LG had them.)

I think it’s a shame the monitor only has USB-C connections on the back. I would have appreciated a few USB-A type ports so I can plug my keyboard and mouse in directly without the need for yet another $39 adaptor. I also have a slight concern that this monitor won’t be usable by any of my current or future Windows computers since they prefer Display Port or even HDMI as a backup. I dunno. I have done no testing and in general am living with the fact that this is probably going to be an Apple-only monitor for me.

I would have also appreciated a basic camera for conference calls. I have an external USB camera I can setup (with ANOTHER adaptor) but not having a camera/microphone for this common need seems like an oversight for such a high end monitor.

My final complaint, and this isn’t for the monitor directly, is that using it makes my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) run hot. Check out this graph, the early days are when I was working from home with the monitor attached and then the later days are me on the road at a conference with no monitor. Connecting the monitor seems to double the temperature, just to push the pixels let alone when I’m really pushing the CPU with code compliers or video exports.

I worry about running a laptop with high thermals like this regularly day-to-day. What really stings is that under a better scenario I would be connected to a modern and affordable Mac Pro tower that would have more cooling capacity – but I digress.

In short, I’m generally pretty positive about the monitor. I think it does have a bit high of a price tag and notable compromises but the improved Mac OS X integration makes up for it for me. I wish we had more options on the market. I also wish Apple would just make a monitor for the rest of us.

PS: A few days ago LG refreshed the 5K version of this monitor sold through Apple Stores. The previous 5K was discontinued when I had to make my choice which is a shame since I think the 27-inch might have been a better match for my needs. I think I’ll sit on my hands for a while and watch for the new reviews. Perhaps in time I’ll sell my 23.7-inch 4K and upgrade or maybe I’ll just buy a second 23.7-inch 4K. That is one other benefit of the 2019 refresh is that the 23.7-inch has better support for monitor chaining. But then again, if I’m getting too much heat with one monitor I wonder how hard two would push my laptop.

The Great Monitor Search Continues (again)…

The Great Monitor Search Continues

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 19:30:40 -0400

TLDR: The LG 49 inch UltraWide monitor is pretty cool, but not very Mac compatible (specifics defects below). Next up for me is the Apple Store approved, 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display, which will trade screen real estate for retina, better color and native controls.

Backstory

I’ve been anxious to buy a new monitor for my MacBook Pro for a few months. I decided to hold off until Apple announced their Mac Pro + Display plans as I generally like all the conveniences that come from using an Apple monitor with Apple hardware and would love to buy one.

I still use a 27-inch Thunderbolt 1 Apple monitor at my work office – this new monitor would be for home use (for now).

So WWDC has come and gone and while amazing, that new Apple monitor is not for me. Instead I bought what I had been eyeing for a while, the LG 49WL95C-W 49 inch 32:9 UltraWide.

YouTube Reviews: Linus Tech Tips, The Tech Chap, MacRumors

Defects

I got to use the LG 49 inch UltraWide monitor for about two weeks and while I enjoyed the extreme screen real estate, I just ran into too many hardware issues and so it’s getting returned.

First, was random screen blackouts. I actually was prepared for this from reading reviews before purchase, but I also read that recent firmware updates fixed it. In my own experience I had some early blackouts on day one, used the (very non-Mac like) LG software to update the monitor firmware and didn’t see anymore … until today, where I had a few pop up while watching YouTube. (Maybe the monitor has figured out it’s getting returned and it is out to get me?).

The bigger issue however is screen resolution and refresh rate. If you wake up a connected MacBook Pro via a keyboard connected to the monitor you have about a 30% chance it will get the resolution right. When it goes wrong you’ll either end up with an extremely distorted view (as in the OS doesn’t know what monitor is connected and everything is stretched out) or you’ll get the native resolution but the refresh rate will only be 30 Hz. That refresh rate is really iffy too, sometime I see a pull down in System Preferences that lets me switch to 60 Hz, other times I get no pull down and my only recourse is to power down the monitor and attempt a reconnect or a system reboot. It’s pretty annoying and a deal breaker for such a high end piece of equipment.

There are other problems too, like not being able to edit the speaker volume or brightness using the native Mac system controls but since I’ve started my monitor search months ago I sadly came to accept some tradeoffs. Frankly it’s really hard to find a good monitor to pair up a Mac with.

I’ve begun the refund process with Amazon and it seems like I should get a full refund since it’s under 30 days. We’ll see.

Round Two

For my second contender I’ve chosen the more Apple approved, 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display. While it does not have anywhere near the size or screen real estate of the previous 49-inch monitor it will be a retina display, that comes with better color and more integrated controls.

YouTube Reviews: MacRumors, 9to5Mac

My general thinking is that maybe in the long run I’ll get two of these (it has some nice thunderbolt chaining possibilities) to get back my extra room, but will test drive just one for now.

While I’m sure I will enjoy the Mac integration, there is part of me that also worries that this might not play nice with Windows should I ever need to use the monitor with that OS. Again, lots of compromises to be made when shopping for monitors right now so sadly I’ll deal.

MacPro Reactions

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 19:41:48 -0400

This year’s WWDC as expected is overflowing with things to talk about. For now, let’s scope this to just the MacPro (and its monitor).

From a purely technical perspective, there isn’t much missing. We got:

Expandable RAM (12 physical DIMM slots)
Expandable SSDs (2 slots; I hear the T2 encryption will work with this even if it’s non-Apple supplied.)
Expandable IO via 8 PCI express slot
A neat modular system that seemingly can also fall back to more generic cards.
The CPU even seems socket-able.

I’m not sure I love the aesthetics but I do enjoy how they use both sides of the motherboard and the whole shell slides up to reveal the internals.

I’m am a little concerned that there is no direct fan on the CPU or video card, though I am relieved that if they need to add fans in future revisions, at least there is plenty of room.

The pricing for the base SKU is $6000. Before WWDC I thought it would be $5000 so $6000 by itself isn’t crazy however it does start to sting when you realize the base model only comes with 256 GB SSD and a pretty old video card. That is plain cheap and greedy on Apple. The base CPU does have a rough street value of $1300 but I’m left wondering where the rest of this money is going? Apple’s margins I assume.

The monitor is technical perfection.

I’ve been shopping for a new monitor and Apple was right that there are about 8 modern features one looks for in a monitor and no one today checks off all boxes. Lots of monitors focus on price or gaming. Some offer retina but then shoddy Thunderbolt 3 support. This new Apple monitor looks amazing, but oh man that price.

$5000 for the monitor, or $6000 if you want the matte option – and then the stand, an extra $1000.

This is what broke me. This is the point in which I question why Apple is showing me this?

I truly believe they should have revealed this MacPro and monitor at a proper video / media conference. Revealing it in front of developers who can’t afford it nor whom the product is marketed at just feel very out of context. We were begging them to built us a tower and display, but they built them for someone else, and it’s kind of depressing.

What I wanted:

I wanted a $5000 tower where I could update the graphics cards a few years in. I don’t need 8 PCI slots, maybe 4 or 2 would work. I wanted to have easy access to RAM to add more in the future (I don’t need 12 slots I’m sure 4-6 would be fine). I want multiple SSD slots on the board (2 is fine). I want to be able to open it up and clean out the dust every few months (this is why an iMac will never work for me).

I wanted a $1000 self-contained version of the 5K iMac display. Maybe an ultrawide version? I like Apple monitors historically. They work great out of the box and have great color. Surely there is room in the market for a sub-$6000 Apple monitor for the “rest of us”?

What’s Next?

Well with this new knowledge I finally pulled the trigger on my new monitor. It’s not an Apple monitor. I’ll go more into that one next time.

As for the MacPro itself – time will tell. I for sure am not buying one day one. I want to see people review this. I want to see iFixIt rip it apart. We need time to see how this thing fairs in the real world. The recent laptops have turned me off to buying untested Mac hardware.

I will also continue to update and prune my dream hackintosh part list (which right now hovers around $2000) as I think that might be a more viable option.

Thoughts on Mac Pros at WWDC

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Tue, 07 May 2019 15:48:04 -0400

Today I reread the transcript of that closed door Mac roundtable event of 2017 where we were promised new Mac Pros.

As I read it one of the things that frustrated me most is how Apple acknowledged and was almost proud of how “pros” have moved on to the portable line and even the iMacs without once considering that this purchasing behavior might be influenced by their own neglect of the Mac Pro line.

Craig Federighi: That is a pretty incredible evolution that we’ve seen over the last decade. The original iMac, you never would’ve thought as remotely touching pro uses. And now you look at today’s 5k iMac, top configs, it’s incredibly powerful, and a huge fraction of what would’ve traditionally required the Mac Pros of old and are being well addressed by iMac.

Later…

Phil Schiller: As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.

That quote was in 2017 and oh how I remember us in the community jumping to conclusions that he must mean we’ll see new Mac Pros in 2018 – but alas they never materialized.

For a meeting who’s goal was to clear things up, they sure did leave us speculating.

Anyways, that event was over two years ago now. It’s time for Apple to show its cards. I’m not saying we need an order form or even a ship date but come June 3rd at WWDC, we need to see what Apple’s plan is. Its time.

Oh, and if the rumors are true, and we end up with some 40-50% margin’d proprietary stack of Mac minis, consider my faith in the Mac Pro completely lost.

If WWDC comes and goes without any news, I’ll live with my assumptions and make my own hardware plans.

Oh and this is funny…

Phil Schiller: Obviously, as you know, we just did a very major update to the MacBook Pro line. That’s going very well. Customers absolutely love it, we’ve had a lot of customers buying them.

Oh, poor 2017 Phil – he doesn’t know yet. In time this line of products, specifically its keyboards will become known as the worst products in Apple history, by even its most devote fans.

Rethinking My Music Storage

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sat, 10 Dec 2016 02:58:07 +0000

I’m not a huge music collector, at least not compared to some other people I know. I do have about 150 GBs of music in my iTunes collection — lots of it being video game soundtracks I enjoy listening to while I program.

A few things I have not liked about my historic setup:

Because the collection was 150 GB I could not store it on my main computer’s SSD (which was 256 GB in size).
iTunes sucks. I don’t want to get into details here but as a music player and organization tool it’s awful.

Some goals for my new setup:

I want to get rid of iTunes.
I’d like to store my music on Dropbox, preferably in a way where I can control which Music (if any) gets synced to my other Dropbox setups.
I have recently become a Spotify member. It’s got a nice collection I feel I can lean on AND it has some tools the player UI to support local files as well as streaming songs which I think will be key.

With all that said, what I’m up to:

First thing, I made a new iTunes library on my desktop and have started re-downloading my old iTunes music purchases. I have lots of music that is still DRM wrapped and these new downloads do not have such DRM.

Next, I’m going to slowly start to put the music into Dropbox. I’ll have a root level Music folder but inside I’m going to split the collection into Rare and Common. Common being for songs that are streamable from Spotify and thus being a folder I can selectively NOT sync on my other computers. The Rare folder will have all of my video game soundtracks and other albums I find to be incomplete or missing on Spotify. As I said, I like how Spotify can bring in local music into playlists and even lets you control the source folders and I’m hopeful this will work nicely.

We’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks. I’d love to hear if anyone else has an exotic setup like this.

Also, next up for a rethink is photos. Again, I’m really not happy with the current Apple solution and am thinking of alternatives. Feedback welcome.

Should I Sell My Apple Watch?

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 21:55:30 +0000

I did not partake in the first release of Apple Watch. I was curious but not curious enough. I bought a Playstation 4 instead.

Last month Apple had its announcements. I wasn’t all that jazzed about the iPhone 7 (even though I am due to upgrade my iPhone 6) so I thought I’d try out the watch instead. I ordered an Apple Watch Series 2, 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Silver Milanese Loop. I also got a Cocoa Sport Band for a little variety.

It’s been about a month with the watch and I’m not sure I should keep it. Few notes:

I suspect a big benefit of the watch is quick glances at notifications — but for me, I’m actively trying to remove notifications from my life. I turn them off completely on the desktop and audit them on iOS significantly.
There is the health tracker / movement component, but for me it’s not a huge draw. I don’t do heavy workouts much. I do like to take the occasional podcast walk, but I feel like I get enough info from my phone’s step counter if I really cared.
I don’t like the pressure that I need to wear the watch all day to fill up my bars. I did not wear a watch before this and it still feels very alien. I like taking it off when I type on my laptop or after I wash my hands (it gets wet and doesn’t dry off right away).
I find myself constantly fiddling with the magnet strap. I like the band to be slightly tight and it feels like it get loose quickly if I move my arms a certain way (putting on my backpack, making my bed, etc.).
The sport band strap is too small for me (even with the larger of the two bands) — it technically fits but is too tight. One more hole would have helped.

Am I missing something? What do you love about your Apple Watch? Let me know. As of now, I’m looking for ways to sell it — I think the money for me would be better put towards a new Mac (should they ever be rev’d again).

My New PC Gaming Computer

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 22:53:29 +0000

Final Parts List: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/4Wjcf8

I’m a fairly serious/casual gamer (as in serious love of many games, casual in that I can only play so many hours a week because of other life responsibilities). I play a lot of 3DS (Pokemon, Zelda) and I also own a Wii U, a PS4 and lots of other older/retro consoles.

I’ve been considering a gaming PC for a while. My main drive has been to support a mix of playing World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. I’ve been playing both on my 2011-era iMac (Bootcamp-ing into Windows for FF14) but the graphics performance of the old machine was starting to become a real limiting factor. Additionally was the interest in playing some PC-only (or PC preferred) games, like Overwatch and Stardew Valley.

A few months ago I started assembling a parts list and talking to some other friends. Part of me just wanted to buy a pre-built system but for better or worse my geeky friends assured me the assembly wouldn’t be that bad and it would let me save some money or buy some better components.

My initial target was to spend about $1500 and go for a upper mid-tier machine. I wasn’t interested in VR right now and just wanted something to play games. After getting acquainted with the video cards and performance I choose the GTX 970. I had a full parts list waiting to go but I didn’t pull the trigger. This was around April and I was still traveling a bit. I was also working towards paying off my student loans and decided I’d do that first.

When I came back to my parts list at the end of May there was the announcement of the new GTX 1080 and 1070. These new cards were destroying the performance charts and I started to get a little greedy. I kept up with the release, and noticing the 1080 was selling out joined an alert website to let me know where and when it became available. I eventually grabbed a Founder’s Edition directly from Nvidia. I will concede the upcoming non-Founder’s Edition cards are probably better cooled and cheaper but I was anxious to play and didn’t want to wait until end of June / July to get my hands on this thing. I splurged.

I came back and cleaned up my final parts list. I ordered the rest of the machine from NewEgg with a few pieces from Amazon. (Even if a bit more I’d prefer to buy from NewEgg and Amazon who are very easy to work with regarding returns and such.)

One item I was not planning to buy but did, was a new monitor. I was really hoping to get dual use out of my Apple Thunderbolt monitor (which I use with my iMac to extend my display) but as I did research it would seem hooking that up to a display port was not going to work out. I ended up buying a Dell Gaming S2716DG 27-inch monitor to make it work, and it does. I just am not enjoying using it with my iMac as much as my other Apple monitor since the colors aren’t matching like they used to.

Assembly

After ordering the parts a week before, I sat at home Friday night and got started with the assembly. I took my time. I read the motherboard and other manuals as I slowly connected it all together.

Some things gave me trouble. It took a few attempts to get the motherboard mounted in the case. In general there was always a scary feeling of putting too much pressure on a part to get it to fit in. The case came with a ton of different screws and I had to take a lot of time to make sure I was using the right pair for the job.

Windows

I worked on Friday from 8pm till about midnight and then Saturday morning 9am until lunch to finish the assembly. Much longer than a seasoned PC gamer I’m sure — but keep in mind this was my first build since college and even then I had a lot of help from my roommate. Once assembled I was lucky in that it powered on into the BIOS right away.

Despite some known gaming headaches, I decided you use Windows 10. It installed fairly quickly. During initial setup I did opt-out of a lot of personalization features that do not interest me. My next challenge, getting the network card working.

My gaming PC is not near my cable modem so I need wireless connectivity and surprisingly this is not on the motherboard — I needed a seperate PCI card. The card I bought seemed to use PCI for the housing but also plugged into the USB on the motherboard. After spending some time downloading the latest drivers and playing the format game with some USB sticks I eventally installed the software but the card would not start up. It took some searching but I eventually found out I had to disable XHCI Handoff to enable the third USB connection on my motherboard which is what I was using to connect the wireless card. With all of that figured out, I had network access on my computer and began downloading some system updates and then some games.

The Games

I’m sure I’ll buy some more in time (and would greatly love your recommendations, email me) but for now the primary PC games for me are:

Final Fantasy 14
Overwatch
Civilization V
World of Warcraft (idle until Legion)
Stardew Valley (New, not played yet)
Rocket League (New, not played yet)
Undertale (New, not played yet)
Hearthstone (I play this on my iMac and iPad as well but there are some nice Windows-only analytics add ons I might try.)

Final Thoughts

I have mixed feeling about the time I spent doing the build. It does feel empowering to refresh my memory of how to do it all — but that said it’s not something I get a ton of enjoyment out of so let’s hope this box keeps ticking without too much maintenance in the years ahead. And while I do carry a little guilt about going for the super high end video card I also look forward to for the next few years being able to turn on ULTRA options without losing frames.

31 Days, 31 Products: Elgato Game Capture HD

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 02:36:44 +0000

Day 17: Elgato Game Capture HD

This post is part of a larger series where for 31 days I’m posting a story about a particular product or service I’ve come to enjoy.

Elgato Game Capture HD is actually a hardware/software combo. Its an external capture device that does HDMI passthrough, grabbing whatever video signal you are passing through (be it from a video game console or computer display). It will them compress the video as mp4 on the device and and delver the compressed video to a Mac via a USB cable connection (which is also used for power). On the Mac you’ll run some software that saves the capture to disk and also optionally helps you stream to Twitch.

I originally bought and used the Game Capture HD to help me record some Let’s Plays.

Let’s Plays are video series where an individual will play a game, capture it as well as their commentary while they play. Some personalities are very detailed in the mechanics and secrets of the game while others treat the videos very casually, almost as a diary of sorts, mixing in stories of the past as well as the present.

As for my own “Let’s Play career”, it was short lived. I had a bunch of fun doing a handful of series before quitting mid-way through Final Fantasy IV. I quit because I started to have other life goals and while fun, the amount work it took to produce the videos compared to their small impact — it didn’t feel worth it.

ANYWAYS… the Elgato Game Capture HD found its way to be useful for me once more this past year when we decided to start capturing CocoaHead talks. I now use the device to capture our HDMI output (before it’s redirected to the televisions) and I have to say the recorder software holds up well to us switching machines, resolutions and what not while recording. After the meeting, I take the videos from here and then match a separate audio capture we do through a lapel microphone to build our final video, (edited in ScreenFlow, and published on Vimeo).

If you are interested in video capture you can browse the Elgato Gaming site for a rundown of the current product lineup. The device I use is the base model and costs $150 retail but there are other options if you want higher frame rate capture (mine is 30 fps, they also have 60 fps available).

24 Hours with My iPad Pro

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:46:33 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of the iPad. I’ve owned an: iPad 1, iPad 2 (which I sold to upgrade to an iPad 3), an iPad mini (retina), and now an iPad Pro.

I’ve been pretty antsy for an iPad Pro since I saw the original announcement. I can’t say I have any unquie plans for it (outside reading Big Nerd Ranch book drafts in PDF format on a much bigger screen). Mostly I just want to experiment with the all the new features like the pencil and multitasking.

As of right now I have the iPad Pro itself (I went with the high end, 128 GB with cellular) and the keyboard cover. The pencil has been a little harder to come by so until then I’m making due with the 53 Pencil I bought a while ago but never really got into due to the smallness of the iPad mini. So far, it plus the larger screen is working out well. I look forward to comparing this to Apple’s version.

There are lots of great iPad Pro reviews out there so I won’t go into major detail. The things I’m liking a lot: the huge screen, the sound system and the battery life. The things that got me down a bit: the removal of the split keyboard (it’s hard to type holding the iPad Pro in portrait mode), lack of 3D Touch and the lack of the newer thumbprint scanner.

All that said, when it comes down to it, it’s about the software. I think I’ve spent $100 in new software playing around with things. If you know of some must have iPad software let me know cause I want to see how hard I can push this thing. Tomorrow should be a great test as I fly down to Atlanta to visit the home office of Big Nerd Ranch.

A Mac Pro Guy Getting By in an iMac World: Storage

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:39:47 +0000

Recently I decommissioned my much beloved Mac Pro which served as a lowly file server since I moved to my loaded 27-inch iMac last year. The iMac is working out great though I would have still preferred a new Mac Pro for it’s overall expandability, particular to this post — it’s extra hard drive bays.

On the iMac, I use the 256 GB SSD for my boot drive and have the second internal 2 TB (disk-based) drive partitioned into three other drives, one for a nightly SuperDuper! mirror of said SSD, another for a Time Machine backup and then the final one for 700 GB of misc storage. This “misc storage” used to be for my iTunes library and backups of large downloads like Xcode/Mac OS X installs, but that’s changed now as you’ll see below so I might roll this back into the Time Machine partition or rework it to have a Windows Bootcamp drive again (like I had on my Mac Pro).

All in all, the built-in storage I get with the iMac works fine for day-to-day work but I still needed something for my archives: my monthly backup of cloud/server assets, archives of my video/screencast work and my iTunes library (which has ballooned with WWDC videos and slides).

For a while I debated getting a Drobo, particularly one of the newer Thunderbolt versions. From the outside it looks like a great system but at $850 with no hard drives included I just couldn’t justify it. So what did I end up with?

I bought a pair of Western Digital, My Passport, 2TB Portable External Hard Drives ($139 on Amazon). My digital closet sizes up at around 800 GB right now so I expect these should meet my needs for a good while. I got two of them and use one as my main archive drive and then the other to backup the main. They use USB 3.0 for transfer and while the speed isn’t crazy awesome, it totally meets my needs. I love the small form factor and the fact they do not need an additional power supply. I often throw the backup one in my bag for IndyHall if I’d like to have my iTunes library with me (it’s way to big for my MacBook Air’s SSD). I also love that I’m not using some complex RAID format. I can plug these drives into any Mac and get access to my files.

Anyways, I’ve been using these drives for three months now and all is working well. If you are in the market for some extra external storage, I highly recommend. I’m actually considering buying a third to start a rotation of sorts at IndyHall. With that I believe I’d be safe losing all my home gear to a theft or fire and still have all my digital stuff safe.

Mike Zornek

New Gaming PC

Inspiration

Components

Assembly

Windows

Tools

Final Thoughts

Framework Laptop First Thoughts

Recommended Teardown Videos

DIY Edition

Observed Issues

Ideas

Conclusion

Airpods Pro Repair: How hard is it to ship an empty box?

A Month with the 2019 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display

The Great Monitor Search Continues

Backstory

Defects

Round Two

MacPro Reactions

Thoughts on Mac Pros at WWDC

Rethinking My Music Storage

Should I Sell My Apple Watch?

My New PC Gaming Computer

Assembly

Windows

The Games

Final Thoughts

31 Days, 31 Products: Elgato Game Capture HD

Day 17: Elgato Game Capture HD

24 Hours with My iPad Pro

A Mac Pro Guy Getting By in an iMac World: Storage