2023 Reddit Refugee

On Decentralization:

“We no longer have choice. We no longer have voice. And what is left when you have no choice and no voice? Exit.” - Andreas Antonopoulos

  • 8 Posts
  • 123 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Happy cake day @ruud@lemmy.world ! Appreciate you hosting all us Reddit Refugees when the Reddit Third-Party API Exodus happened one year ago! And big shout out to you and the other volunteer mods and admins, across multiple instances, that put in their free time to stabilize Lemmy World during the massive uptick in user registration, handling the codebase, the upgrade challenges, the creepy CSAM bad actors last year, and saw us through all the intermittent downtimes we had periodically. Lemmy World has been super stable and reliable since then.

    Reminder to all reading this: if you can, chip in and help with server costs for this valuable service. Decentralization FTW





  • Microsoft has been radicalizing me more and more these days.

    I have an i7-12700k and an RTX 3080. I heard Nvidia is tricky because of drivers, but any issues with using intel CPUs with Linux?

    Where should I, a complete noob, begin? I’m intermediately technical, moderate/semi-intermediate with command line, etc. Is Mint the best way to go?

    I tried pop_OS! a few years ago but my computer couldn’t run it well for some reason - lots of lag despite having an i7 7700k at the time and installing it on a separate spare SSD. Reinstalled it twice but still had issues with noticeable lag in the OS. My specs were great, but that OS turned me off unless it has substantially improved since then.



  • Ugh - same here! I found this out maybe 6 months ago. Several years ago, I put together a moderate gaming PC to use on the family room TV. My spouse and I wanted to play Stray on release and figured this was the best way to go. The bluetooth was so spotty with our Xbox Series controller we had to sit really close to the TV and near the computer in order to play this game. It wasn’t the best experience playing since sometimes the controller would disconnect, but it was a great game nonetheless!

    What was interesting at the time was that my spouse had asked, isn’t there supposed to be an antenna for the wifi, maybe that’s why the bluetooth isn’t working well. And me being dumb and relying on old knowledge, told my spouse, “It’s just for the wifi, not bluetooth, so that won’t help us here.”

    Flash forward to 6 months ago, and I was reading the manual for the Gigabyte motherboard and discovered I need to plug that antenna in. I made sure to talk to my spouse and tell them they were right, so they certainly rubbed it in that they were correct (playfully of course)! :)

    Good reminder that it’s good to always read manuals because of things like this!


  • I bought one of these masks for the novelty, as well as the influence to buy it during the Great Lockdown when not much was known about Covid and we were wiping down our groceries. By the time the product launched, we already knew how Covid spread and had a vaccine. Despite the advertising saying that it has N95 filters, it was clear that this was not an N95 product. Razer generically stated that it is not a certified N95 mask, but the advertising and product pages were certainly misleading and the FTC’s fine is valid and justified to protect the health and safety of consumers. I would not have used the Zephyr in place of my actual certified N95 masks.

    The Zephyr was heavy, but overall quite comfortable, but I never took it outside and wore it for something like a grocery trip (since I knew it was not an N95 mask, and masks were very divisive where I live in a Red State. The last thing I wanted was to potentially be attacked by an anti-vax/mask Freedom Lover). It was heavy, and the fans were loud - very loud. What was disappointing was that the production version did not come with the two features I wanted that were initially advertised: the sanitising case, and the voice amplifier. Imagine how much more fines Razer would face if they advertised an included UV case that came with blue lights rather than UV lights!

    I didn’t end up keeping the Zephyr, although I wish I did just to keep a small, unique memory of an uncertain and dangerous time. I do wonder if they could have launched this product sooner and certified it as an N95 mask, if gaming culture could make wearing masks when you’re sick popular. Selfish people might put aside their “freedoms” if they could look cool with gamer RGB and get attention from others (the motivation for selfishness). Of course the Zephyr would need to go through several years of revisions until it became culture.



  • @Ansis@iusearchlinux.fyi - I’ll add my setup just as a reference point.

    • Case: Corsair 5000d
    • i7-12700k
    • RTX 3080
    • Noctua UH-14S CPU cooler with the two included Noctua fans
    • Front: Three intake fans
    • Rear: One exhaust fan
    • Top: One exhaust fan

    I have been very happy with the level of cooling and have set up the fans to achieve slight positive pressure. This case supports side fans, but I did not add any since they were unnecessary and would just introduce more noise with less benefit.

    Pardon the dust and bad lighting - it is overdue for a cleaning but I hurt my back a few months ago and I can’t lift my computer safely to bring it outside and blow my computer air duster through it. Plus the darkness helps hide the dust. 😉:



  • Try this setup:

    • Bottom - Two intake fans
    • Side - Two intake fans
    • Rear - One exhaust fan
    • Top - One exhaust fan

    Tl;dr:

    With this proposed setup, aim for slight positive pressure by setting your exhaust fans at a higher speed than the four intake fans (e.g., exhaust - 900 rpm, intake - 800 rpm). This may give you the best balance in noise, cooling, and airflow.

    Advantages of this new setup:

    • Reduces noise since you can set all fans to a comfortable speed
    • Optimises airflow to achieve either neutral pressure (ideal) or slightly higher positive pressure to reduce dust
    • Exhausts hot air at a rate that does not allow the air in the case to heat up

    Explanation for changing your setup to my proposal:

    Mount the top exhaust fan as far left as possible (over the top left corner of the motherboard). The ideal airflow pattern in any system, not just computers, is to get air in at the same rate as you get air out. The ideal is neutral airflow where there is no pressure buildup in a case - air leaves as quickly as it comes in. The next preferable pattern is positive pressure - simply because it helps to reduce dust - where a slightly higher volume of air is brought in than exhausted.

    With your current setup, you have too much positive pressure, which is very bad for cooling. You’re introducing an unnecessary volume of air that’s bouncing around in that case. While it sounds like shoving more air into the case would be great for cooling, the problem is that air isn’t leaving the case fast enough! So what happens? You’re shoving so much air into that case at such a fast rate, and it has nowhere to go! Sure you’ve got one exhaust fan that’s trying to pull some air out of the case, and I guess you have some breathing holes at the top, but there’s nothing up there to direct that air, so air will partially get pushed out of there slowly. Meanwhile, you’re still shoving so much air into the case. Air is also forcibly shoved everywhere in the computer, gets pushed in all the cracks and crevices in that case (e.g., between the glass and the case), and small amounts of air get squeezed out from those cracks. The air in the case is somewhat trapped and it actually gets hotter since it can’t exit quickly enough! Your CPU and GPU heat up the intake air, and this is why your temps are worse by adding those three intake fans. You need to get the hot air out at the same rate it is coming in, and exhaust fans will do that for you.

    Key: The air coming in should leave the case at the same rate. A compromise, where the only benefit is to help reduce dust, is to have the air leave the case at a slightly lower rate than it came in.

    You only need to adjust your setup so you have two exhaust fans: one rear and one top. You’ll see other builds with three fans mounted on the top for exhaust, but that is extremely wasteful and misguided. Those extra fans end up exhausting cool intake air before it even has a chance to flow over the motherboard and other hot components.

    Set your exhaust fans slightly higher than the speed of your four intake fans to help balance them out. It is two exhaust vs four intake, so you can try something like this: intakes at 800 rpm, exhaust at 900 rpm. Of course, set up appropriate fan curves when you’re introducing load to the CPU and GPU so they ramp up appropriately.

    As for optimization, your definition of noise may be different from others. Introduce sustained load to your PC, and then while you have that load, play around with your fan settings to figure out what you’re comfortable with and set the fan curves appropriately so that they gradually ramp and stay at consistent speeds.