*** The Anti-Showoff Thread ***

babhishek said:
like this, tried to do something similar - even bought 2 hdmi to av adapters from flipkart for 150 bucks each ...
Click to expand...
Would only consider this a novelty (or a proof-of-concept) project and won't really recommend this for actual usage - definitely not with the analog A/V outs on these no-brand Android boxes.

** See update below ** The quality is so horrendous that my son started feeling nauseaic after watching a 20-minute YT video. Tried connecting the analog signal to my 32" Bravia and the quality was equally poor (sans the flickering). I'm unsure if part of the problem was the connections on the cable I put together or has to do with flickering on my CRT from years in storage. Have ordered a cable online, just to see if it improves the quality.

A better option might be to use a HDMI to analog conversion box to properly downscale the video resolution. These don't come cheap, though. With the A/V outputs, there's also the matter of PAL/NTSC/<whatever-else> compatibility to deal with - and don't think any of these Android boxes mention this in their specs or have options to change this.

All said, I may yet watch a film just to relive that "good old" CRT experience before I box it all up again.

Update: Finally received the new cable, and the quality has improved markedly. This is on my small 14" CRT. On a bigger/better CRT, you may get even better results, especially with careful adjustments to the screen settings on both the TV and the Android box.
 
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In my home, I keep my work laptop on top of my printer and at same place I have to keep 2 tabs (iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab A7) and sometimes phone too. This place is actually the location where I charge the tablets and phones as I have a 6 port USB Charger just below.

But keeping multiple devices one on top of other and accessing them when needed was cumbersome. I did explore those charging stations which usually cost upward of 3K and have USB Ports and such but I wasn't really feeling need to spend so much. Also since I already had the 6 port charger.

Instead I bought this dish drying rack and have kept the laptop and phone in it. It is pretty sturdy and even with laptop leaning on it, it isn't bending or anything. Link of the product on amazon is given below.

C77A4CF2-51F6-42E0-8494-F135AE120AB7.jpeg

Decorlay Plate Rack Organizer Kitchen Cabinet Dish Rack Organizer Plate and Pans Organizer Storage with 4 Shelves | Black https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08KTHN3WZ...abc_M807P6348SW4AXQ8AP65?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
 
Look what I brought back to life after 3 years -

PXL_20211020_190903937~2.jpg

PXL_20211020_190854982~2.jpg

PXL_20211020_190832786.jpg


It was suffering from bootloop for some time. Recently, I realized that bootloop can even occur due to stuck power button so pushed it in and it worked fine. Earlier, It was on LOS 14.1 which got removed by stock OS itself. I have no idea how!! Anyways stock OS was not exactly laggy but response time was slow.

Back panel and frame strip is in shoddy state. Battery backup is bad too. I'll try arranging them ig.

Flashed Lineage OS 17.1 -
PXL_20211020_204336983~2.jpg

PXL_20211020_203847497.jpg
PXL_20211020_203816542~2.jpg


Alongwith my Poco F1 (now on Pixel Experience Plus) -
PXL_20211020_205255216~2.jpg
 
So I've finally found this thread and I think I have something that qualifies, my (hackintosh) workstation build for 2019:

2019-1.jpg

Wait, so how is this anti-showoff? There's no processor! The seller on Flipkart, NK Computers from Lucknow, was dishonest. But it's okay, there's justice in the next life so my heart is at rest.

Budget was stretched really thin with multiple emi's so it took the better part of a year to financially recover from that and eventually the project was abandoned. All the parts in this photo have found new homes with members here on TE, with the exception that one of the GPU's ended up with a miner. One component ended up going to a reseller here who made a whopping 50% profit on Amazon. It's so impressive that I don't want to mention who it was or what component it was. Also, I could be completely wrong.

The most I was able to do with that hardware is check to see if the motherboard worked:

2019-2.jpg

It's a little bittersweet since I had built a custom makerbeam chassis for the workstation, here it is being modeled with my FM2 motherboard/processor:

2019-3.jpg

But hey, you can't lose what you never had, so here it is in the anti-show off thread.
 
rsaeon said:
So I've finally found this thread and I think I have something that qualifies, my (hackintosh) workstation build for 2019:

View attachment 120332

Wait, so how is this anti-showoff? There's no processor! The seller on Flipkart, NK Computers from Lucknow, was dishonest. But it's okay, there's justice in the next life so my heart is at rest.

Budget was stretched really thin with multiple emi's so it took the better part of a year to financially recover from that and eventually the project was abandoned. All the parts in this photo have found new homes with members here on TE, with the exception that one of the GPU's ended up with a miner. One component ended up going to a reseller here who made a whopping 50% profit on Amazon. It's so impressive that I don't want to mention who it was or what component it was. Also, I could be completely wrong.

The most I was able to do with that hardware is check to see if the motherboard worked:

View attachment 120333

It's a little bittersweet since I had built a custom makerbeam chassis for the workstation, here it is being modeled with my FM2 motherboard/processor:

View attachment 120334

But hey, you can't lose what you never had, so here it is in the anti-show off thread.
Click to expand...
Looks cool. I wish to explore more into building different type of systems like this too. Why is your phone connected to the motherboard in the 3rd picture. Would you mind explaining whate were yoh trying to achieve here with this build?
 
Wittycomment said:
Why is your phone connected to the motherboard in the 3rd picture.
Click to expand...

Partly a sanity check to see if the motherboard was working since I didn't have any processor to test it with (newer motherboards these days have fast charging enabled on USB ports), and partly because of a meme on r/pcmasterrace about using your computer to charge your phone.

Wittycomment said:
Would you mind explaining whate were yoh trying to achieve here with this build?
Click to expand...

Seven screen hackintosh workstation centered around a 43" display, flanked by two portrait 27" displays on either side, which are then capped off with dual stacked 22" monitors at each of the ends. That was the general idea anyway. I've since settled for triple identical 32" displays when I realized a single 43" canvas was going to end up being less productive than dual 32" since I'd require at least two full sized previews of whatever I'm working on.

The dual graphics cards were meant to drive those 7 displays. A 1.92TB Corsair MP510 was going to be main system drive, with a 3.84TB Seagate Nytro for Time Machine backups.

For whatever reason, my hackintosh endeavours lately haven't been working out, mostly due hardware disappearing or not showing up at all. Two other hackintosh projects didn't get anywhere in similar way, one last year and one back in 2015. My last working hackintosh was on Snow Leopard back in 2009 that I used until 2011 before getting a Macbook Pro. This is strange to me, since my first hackintosh was from way back in 2006 where I ended up hacking together broken drivers for converting tablet pc's into hackintoshes:

hackintosh-01.jpg hackintosh-02.jpg

A lot of my daily computing is heavily reliant on scripting and macros, so I find Mac OS to be more intuitive though I grew up with and recommend windows to just about everyone else.

For now, i've abandoned any dreams of hackintoshes, the M1 chips changes things so drastically that it's safe to say there's no looking back at x86.
 
rsaeon said:
So I've finally found this thread and I think I have something that qualifies, my (hackintosh) workstation build for 2019:

View attachment 120332

Wait, so how is this anti-showoff? There's no processor! The seller on Flipkart, NK Computers from Lucknow, was dishonest. But it's okay, there's justice in the next life so my heart is at rest.

Budget was stretched really thin with multiple emi's so it took the better part of a year to financially recover from that and eventually the project was abandoned. All the parts in this photo have found new homes with members here on TE, with the exception that one of the GPU's ended up with a miner. One component ended up going to a reseller here who made a whopping 50% profit on Amazon. It's so impressive that I don't want to mention who it was or what component it was. Also, I could be completely wrong.

The most I was able to do with that hardware is check to see if the motherboard worked:

View attachment 120333

It's a little bittersweet since I had built a custom makerbeam chassis for the workstation, here it is being modeled with my FM2 motherboard/processor:

View attachment 120334

But hey, you can't lose what you never had, so here it is in the anti-show off thread.
Click to expand...
Nice! If possible try to fit the PSU in the same enclosure. Well done. Where did you get the Fenvi wifi card from?
 
rsaeon said:
Partly a sanity check to see if the motherboard was working since I didn't have any processor to test it with (newer motherboards these days have fast charging enabled on USB ports), and partly because of a meme on r/pcmasterrace about using your computer to charge your phone.



Seven screen hackintosh workstation centered around a 43" display, flanked by two portrait 27" displays on either side, which are then capped off with dual stacked 22" monitors at each of the ends. That was the general idea anyway. I've since settled for triple identical 32" displays when I realized a single 43" canvas was going to end up being less productive than dual 32" since I'd require at least two full sized previews of whatever I'm working on.

The dual graphics cards were meant to drive those 7 displays. A 1.92TB Corsair MP510 was going to be main system drive, with a 3.84TB Seagate Nytro for Time Machine backups.

For whatever reason, my hackintosh endeavours lately haven't been working out, mostly due hardware disappearing or not showing up at all. Two other hackintosh projects didn't get anywhere in similar way, one last year and one back in 2015. My last working hackintosh was on Snow Leopard back in 2009 that I used until 2011 before getting a Macbook Pro. This is strange to me, since my first hackintosh was from way back in 2006 where I ended up hacking together broken drivers for converting tablet pc's into hackintoshes:

View attachment 125048 View attachment 125049

A lot of my daily computing is heavily reliant on scripting and macros, so I find Mac OS to be more intuitive though I grew up with and recommend windows to just about everyone else.

For now, i've abandoned any dreams of hackintoshes, the M1 chips changes things so drastically that it's safe to say there's no looking back at x86.
Click to expand...
We need to get you a hardware shop just for all the great assembled pc goodness you will bring.
 
It was HDFC,
Rockfella said:
Nice! If possible try to fit the PSU in the same enclosure. Well done. Where did you get the Fenvi wifi card from?
Click to expand...

The lower compartment was intended for the power supply and 3x 200mm intake fans. The wifi card was purchased from Aliexpress before the ban.

sandeepsachin said:
@rsaeon curious to know what happened to that Flipkart fraud ultimately? Did you file a chargeback?
Click to expand...

It was through HDFC, it took many months of follow up emails since the story became so convoluted but eventually HDFC refunded the EMI's, but only after I completed all the EMI payments. They didn't refund any of the taxes or interest charged. So I had to pay the No Cost EMI discount difference out of pocket, as well as GST on each EMI and 'edu cess' on the entire transaction, oddly.

And they didn't even notify me. I just opened that month's credit card statement hoping that I had finally put this traumatic experience behind me and I saw that all of the EMI's were added in statement as credits.
 
rsaeon said:
It was HDFC,


The lower compartment was intended for the power supply and 3x 200mm intake fans. The wifi card was purchased from Aliexpress before the ban.



It was through HDFC, it took many months of follow up emails since the story became so convoluted but eventually HDFC refunded the EMI's, but only after I completed all the EMI payments. They didn't refund any of the taxes or interest charged. So I had to pay the No Cost EMI discount difference out of pocket, as well as GST on each EMI and 'edu cess' on the entire transaction, oddly.

And they didn't even notify me. I just opened that month's credit card statement hoping that I had finally put this traumatic experience behind me and I saw that all of the EMI's were added in statement as credits.
Click to expand...
file a complaint!
 
rsaeon said:
It was HDFC,


The lower compartment was intended for the power supply and 3x 200mm intake fans. The wifi card was purchased from Aliexpress before the ban.



It was through HDFC, it took many months of follow up emails since the story became so convoluted but eventually HDFC refunded the EMI's, but only after I completed all the EMI payments. They didn't refund any of the taxes or interest charged. So I had to pay the No Cost EMI discount difference out of pocket, as well as GST on each EMI and 'edu cess' on the entire transaction, oddly.

And they didn't even notify me. I just opened that month's credit card statement hoping that I had finally put this traumatic experience behind me and I saw that all of the EMI's were added in statement as credits.
Click to expand...
Those cards from Fenvi are great. I have one, purchased before the ban. Works great.
lockhrt999 said:
What are the odds! I have the same combination. Except my moto E is first generation. And ROM on poco is still stock.
Click to expand...
I actually bought new Nokia 5.4 a week ago. Don't want a fast phone for now.
 
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