As you may already know golden age of personal computing happened somewhere around 80s and 90s. Time when new computer model was released almost every week or so. No standardization at all, everybody were doing exactly what they wanted without any restrictions. GOLDEN AGE OF PERSONAL COMPUTING Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

During recent week i’ve received plenty questions regarding hardware and software i’m using in my retrograde activities. So, here is a list. The most important thing is a desktop workstation/server. ░ HARDWARE CPU: Intel [Xeon E5-2696v4] COOLER: [Noctua NH-D15 SE] MOBO: [Asrock X99 Extreme 4] RAM: 64GB DDR4 Samsung 2400Mhz ECC NVME: 1Tb Samsung 980 Pro SSD: 1Tb Samsung QVO sHHD: 2Tb Seagate Firecuda (8Gb SSD cache) VIDEO: [EVGA 3090 Ti 24Gb VRAM] AUDIO:[ESI Maya 44EX PCIE] PSU: [Seasonic GOLD 1300Watt] CASE: [Fractal Design Define S2 White] KEYS: [Keychron Q6] MOUSE: A4Tech [ <1$ ] MONITOR: [NEC PA301W 2560x1600] SPEAKERS: [Edifier R2800] Other hardware stuff to mention:

I’m quite satisfied with performance of my current workstation. [44-thread Broadwell] paired with 64Gb of RAM, fast NVME and [24Gb EVGA 3090Ti] shape solid desktop tool. However i’m planning distant upgrade to achieve maximum speed in Windows 7 environment. Just to mark checkbox that it is possible. In 2021 i already tried out modern platform based [around x570 in conjunction with Ryzen 5950X] . System worked without any problems, thanks to modern [CanonKong Windows 7 drivers] .

UPDATED ON: 2024-08-04 Finally Nokia PureView 808 set is complete. Red, black and white. Currently i’m not thinking about sale of this treasure chest. But if you are willing to offer good five-digit number amount i may reconsider my statement [or may not]. This will be quite hard decision to accept. Moreover, such bundle in almost like new condition [can’t be bought even on Ebay] . Anyways, it is surely nice to have set of unique camera-phones in excellent condition, especially if they are not surpassed in daylight resolution even in 2024.

UPDATED ON: 2023-12-17 CURRENTLY TEST IS NOT OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE VIEW! IMAGE WIDTH >1600px IS RECOMMENDED! ▒ DIRECT COMPARISON In the very beginning of the test I underline the fact that we are comparing only resolution and not the dynamic range. In this category older FSI sensor is an outsider, for sure. Today’s rival is [IPHUCK 15 PRO MAX] with almost the same sensor size as Nokia. As you may already know Nokia PureView 808 comes with 1/1.

As you may know [Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact] is my main web surfing phone on the go. I’m fully satisfied with it’s capabilities even in 2023. Except one little problem, related to GPS and speed of satellites detection. Issue showed up couple of months ago and it seems that i finally found an easy way to fix it. After some investigations i conclude that device has a hardware based problem, and to eliminate it completely you need to open phone casing and pull up antenna so it will have tighter surface touching with in-case metallic plate.

UPDATED ON: 2024-11-28 Fastest Windows 7 laptops are still on the edge. Dell & Lenovo have made some enhancements to address recent security vulnerabilities. [Dell Precision 7520] ► Firmware version 1.38 [November 2024] [direct link] [Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen5] ► Firmware version 1.63 [September 2024] [direct link] Nice to see that such older platforms are still maintained. Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

Information confirmed by [author] of [hacked modern USB3 AMD drivers] . Please, take a note, that: ASRock boards is not compatible at all, due to removed proper CSM module in latest BIOS revisions. Asus mobos are acceptable, but have some issues here and there. Gigabyte is just ok. So, consider MSI to get yourself out of unneeded troubles. Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

If you are a long term reader/visitor of my site you may already know that i am using following keyboards: Japanese [Topre Realforce RGB] [rubber-dome capacitive key switches] Chinese [Vortex Race III] [clicky blue Cherry-MX key switches] Chinese [Vortex Tab90M] [clicky blue Cherry-MX key switches] Thailand [IBM KB-8926] [quite good rubber-dome key switches] Note: board from 1996 in mind condition, using it on my job. And now i’ve decided to give a shot to top end keyboard of Keychron brand.

Say you need to run on a laptop battery vintage or simply non-demanding applications for an extremely long time. Here is a little breakdown of mandatory things to do: turn off in BIOS unneeded devices like camera, sd-card reader, fingerprint scanner, gsm-modem, wifi, bt or whatever you are not using turn on power saving features like various C-power states turn off hyper-threading and hi-core count [if you have such ability] lower screen brightness to acceptable level check my [quick] and [comprehensive] optimization FAQs get rid of [unneeded services and bloat applications] Also you can use core parking utility [Park Control] , but in this mini-guide i’ll show you how to set power related things up via internal Windows 7 tools.

Main highlights of [6th generation] over [previous one] : very good keyboard for ultra-compact class [same quality as in 5th gen]. By the way, 6th generation is a last one to support such luxury. Generations 7th and 8th come with [crippled apple-like keys] with reduced key travel. noticeable quality increase in terms of color gamut, even better than in 5th generation. sRGB gamut: 95% [Gen6] vs 85% [Gen 5]. multi-core performance [increased around 80%] over 5th gen.

[ThinkPadT43p] is the very last real laptop produced by IBM. [Models produced during IBM era] . KEY FEATURES: really high quality materials excellent keyboard top of the line LED indication on chassis interchangable cpu drains for liquid spills power cord connected from the back IBM THINKPAD T43P REVIEW ANOTHER VIDEO Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

UPDATED ON: 2023-04-20 Important update, substantial refactoring, many errors fixed ▒ PREFACE WORDS Following instruction is dedicated to flashing stock Android 8.0 firmware for Russian region, but almost all information can be applied to USA or any other region firmware. So, no restrictions here. Remember that all commands and programs should be executed with admin privileges and your account must have administrator rights! If something goes wrong for some reason be sure to check [TROUBLESHOOTING] section!

My claims to previously owned cables were excessive fragility and the fact that they are prone to physical damage too much. Although that i’m using my hardware with care, wire breakage happens quite often. So i decided to go a bit overkill in terms of elimination of this nasty problem. [Dunu Hulk Pro] is a confirmation of my words. It’s a top of the line copper-based wire of Dunu branding.

UPDATED ON: 2023-04-06 After a year of extensive testing i find out that [Shanling M6] has some flaws, which won’t fit my requirements. It is an excellent 2-way DAC DAP in terms of sound quality. All my claims have purely ergonomic nature: Dim display, big form factor [at least from my point of view], weak battery life. These factors forced me to look at [Ibasso DX240] player. Player has single-way desktop grade 32bit/768Khz/DSD512 enabled DAC [ES9038Pro] [pdf specs], very serious elements banding, nice bright Sharp screen and big battery.

As you may know X670 chipset is already supported by means of [CanonKong’s driver] . [Ryzen 7950X] is confirmed to work with Windows 7. Ryzen 8000 reported to use the same AM5 socket as Ryzen 7000. CanonKong [confirmed above mentioned statement] with his own commentary: I think I will maintain driver pack for modern amd chips until out of my ability. Ryzen 8000 still can work on Win7. So we can safely announce that Ryzen 8000-series will work without any problems.

Quick breakdown of personal techno gizmos. DEVICE MODEL Smartphone: [Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact] Cameraphone: [Nokia PureView 808] ] Laptop: [Dell Precision 7510/7520] Budget CPU: [Intel Xeon Broadwell] Modern CPU: [AMD Ryzen 7xxx/8xxx] / [Threadripper 5xxx] GPU: [Nvidia Geforce 3090Ti] Monitor: [30" NEC PA302W P-IPS] Pocket Camera: [Ricoh GRIII] Travel Camera: [Olympus Pen-F] Audio Player: [Shanling M7] Headphones: [FiiO FA9] Speakers: [Genelec 8040B] Subwoofer: [Genelec 7050C] Hope that this heap of links induce some emotional response in your brain.

Unexpectedly Dell released firmware updates for 8 and 5 year old laptops. What a neat occasion! At least some benefit from purchasing enterprise-grade products. Patches are fixing malicious exploits and tweak some stuff. ►[Precision 7510 v1.30.3] [Dec 2022] [direct link] ► CVE-2017-5715 / CVE-2022-34398 / CVE-2022-34463 / CVE-2022-40262 ►[Precision 7520 v1.29] [Jan 2023] [direct link] ► CVE-2022-33894 Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

UPDATED ON: 2024-12-09 Section is constantly updated! For vintage web surfers most important things are here: plain txt file [may be a bit out of date] Power of vintage 2009 operating system by microsoft can’t be underestimated. [Windows 7 x64] supports up to 256 threads and up to 192Gb of RAM. How cool is that, huh? 256 thread CPU appeared only a [short time ago] . ░ H#RDWARE TECHNOLOGIES HARDWARE MAX CPU SOCKETS 2 MAX CPU CORES 128 MAX CPU THREADS 256 MAX MOBO RAM 192Gb [or even bigger]1 MODERN CPUs Ryzen 7xxx/9xxx/10xxx Threadripper 5xxx/7xxx 2 MODERN GPUs Geforce 3090 Ti Radeon 6950XT 3 NVME SUPPORT YUP [+] 4 USB3 SUPPORT AHA [+] 5 ░ SOFTW@RE TECHNOLOGIES SOFTWARE SECURITY PATCHES October 8, 2024 [POS updates] / Jan 13, 2026 [2008R2 updates] 6 / 7 KERNEL EXTENSIONS VxKex / NT61 / Win 10/11 API libs 8 UEFI SUPPORT EXTERNAL [+] 9 DIRECT X 11.

Most of you already know how AMD substitute in terms of cores/threads count intel’s pathetic’n’degenerative CPU evolution into revolution. Drastic changes were brought by [Ryzen] CPUs in consumer market in late 2017. [Threadripper] and [Epyc] lines were introduced later on [for workstation and server market respectively]. ► [128 core / 256 thread Epyc Bergamo CPU] It would be nice to see 256 threads in Windows 7 task manager, but i don’t think that it is possible due to lack of drivers.

▒ BRIEF REASONS TO CONSIDER Very neat phone dialer & sms messenger [device supports 3.5G] High quality audio chip High quality stereo audio recording 3.5mm audio jack Detachable battery pack Solid construction Ergonomically cool due to 4" form factor and unusual shape with camera bump No data mining and user tracking due to obsolescence of Symbian ▒ BRIEF PHOTO ARGUMENTS Awesome resolution and detail Unparallel pixel-wise quality Real glass in lens elements is present [not just plastic sh#te like in modern “flagships” [xiaomi 12s ultra] No pubertal compute stuff Xenon flash Very well designed camera application Incredible JPG-engine, which easily competes with modern RAW in terms of provided detail Enthusiast mod, which increase resolution to real 41.

UPDATED ON: 2024-07-17 New firmware for my [favourite street camera] has finally landed. Latest update is [v1.91] . You can download it [here] [direct download]. Imagery by spacedrone808 @Adobe Imagery by spacedrone808 @Freepik

Updated on 2022.12.24! 100% crops of landscape image added. CURRENTLY TEST IS NOT OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE VIEW! IMAGE WIDTH >1600px IS RECOMMENDED! ▒ DIRECT COMPARISON In the very beginning of the test I underline the fact that we are comparing only resolution and not the dynamic range. In this category older FSI sensor is an outsider, for sure. Today’s rival is [Sharp Aquos R7] with 1" sensor. A tad larger than mighty [Nokia Pureview 808] , which comes with 1/1.

¶ PREFACE NOTE You obviously thinking something like: Man, this is universally stupid, because Xeon E5 platform is based around PCIe 3.0 [15.75Gb/s] and 3090Ti is PCIe 4.0 [31.5 Gb/s] card But i need to check this out no matter the cost. Why? Coz i’m a weirdo, remember? █ COMPUTER CONFIGURATIONS [1] ► Intel Xeon E5-2696v4 / Asrock X99 Extreme 4 / 64Gb DDR4 2400Mhz / Geforce 3090Ti 24Gb Stock [2] ► Ryzen 9 5950X PBO OC / Gigabyte Aorus Ultra X570 / 64Gb DDR4 3600@3800Mhz / Radeon 6900XT 16Gb OC

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-20 Quick note of imaginary small-sized phone for a computer geek. Chance of real life appearance is pretty close to zero, especially considering current drumb trends and marketers domination over common sense. PART HARDWARE CPU Octa-core 1nm or better RAM 8Gb RAM or better STORAGE 256Gb UFS 3.1 + SD card up to 2Tb DISPLAY 4.4" 1920x1200 OLED CAMERA 1" sensor 40Mp or better, no h/w denoiser/enhancer AUDIO 24bit/384kHz, 3.

Considering the fact that world is going completly mad the most important features for smartphone will be reability, long running time and neat network reception. In such scenario [Sonim XP8] is a perfect phone because it has interchangable battery, strong millitary protection and it is almost indestructible. Device is based around [Android 8.1] , so telemetry is minimal, but nerual networks is already there [in their rudimentary state]. So rooting phone and installing [neat ip-tables firewall] and [root-based hosts adblocker] will solve problem like there was no any.

It’s been a while since i’ve posted useless table comparisions. So here is one! Recently i bought second-hand Dell Precision 7520 in very good condition. Purchased it as an emergency backup for future use. Neat laptops will be hard to find in my country due to tech sanctions. 7510 model is based around Sky Lake architecture [E3-1545Mv5] . 7520 model is based around Kaby Lake architecture [E3-1535Mv6] . Differences between E3-1545Mv5 and E3-1535Mv6 are marginal, but they exist.

Well known Chinese driver modder [Canonkong] confirmed that [64-cores/128-threads Threadripper 3995WX] based upon sWRX8 chipset works flawlessly in Windows 7 environment. Considering the news it looks like that more recent [5995WX] will also work without any issues. So, we have plenty of headroom in terms of system performance. As for me, i have no need to switch to “recent operating systems” like Windows 10/11. Here is brief [confirmation] from the WinRaid forum: