The "I just bought..." thread.

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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,444
136
The knife farthest on the right, it's a Munetoshi Nashiji 240mm" Gyuto handmade Japanese knife. The maker is not known for his supreme fit and finish, but rather just really good blade, steel and sharpness quality - though the fit and finish is nice on this one.

I sold a 240mm Glestein that I had on eBay, which held it's value well over the years, threw in a little extra dough, and got a better knife made with a harder steel that holds its edge longer, better for my needs. Will probably sell the 210mm Gyuto to the left of that as well as it's redundant. The Nakiri is also a great knife, 3rd knife from the left.

PXL_20210126_222831178.jpg
 
Mar 15, 2003
12,669
103
106
If you're not already familiar with it, as long as it's not an ARM Mac, you can install Windows on it using Boot Camp. So you can have Win10 as an OS on Apple hardware. Blasphemy, sure, but nice to use lol.

I was really into OSX for a long time, especially during the Hackintosh heyday, but Apple focused so much on iOS that they forgot the video editor groupies. Now I'm all-in on Premier & Davinci (which you can get on Mac), but it was so cheap to build a 64GB RAM Frankenrig with Win10 (compared to a real Mac) that I've been on the Windows side of the fence forever now. Windows 10 has evolved to be a pretty decent OS, tbh. I still prefer Windows 7 64b SP1, but Win10 64b 20H2 is pretty solid! Ever figure out the Wi-fi post-update?

Thank you for the post, I followed your wisdom on the Hackintosh thread years ago! I had bootcamp then virtuabox I think, then I realized I was only using windows for piracy hahahaha. I stream and pay for everything these days, couldn't get plex @ 4k on even badass wifi (nest 3 pack). I'm a really platform agnostic guy and honestly chrome books are so close to what I need, if only android apps didn't suck so much on them (the screenwriting software I use is fairy common, the android version the worst).

wifi issue - it was a $135 refurb hp desk pro, I spent 20 minutes unplugging, uninstalling drivers, rolling back and then threw in the towel when I realized there was no manufacture name or model number on the actual wifi adapter, so it would be an annoying wild goose chase of fcc ids and all to salvage a $135 refurb. I wasn't even going to buy a new $20 wifi adapter because I have that Mac mini that's aging that I could give the kids (and I didn't realize how useless a desktop would be for distance learning, they use their iPads for everything). honestly there aren't even any killer apps on windows for kids these days, on the Mac they have Apple Arcade and garage band and a few other things to tinker with

I'm kinda over windows. I loved my last prosumer laptop, a Thinkpad X I think? Was great until it wasn't, slowing down to a crawl over the years even though the specs were pretty potent. That's my biggest beef with windows, how quickly things seem to degrade and still having to track down that wayward app that's slowing everything down. with the m1 I can't wait to edit 4k video smoothly and 8k being a possibility on a $650 desktop's pretty surreal (I'll wait until the refurbs hit $500ish once the m1 iMacs come out, I'm in no rush). For my current needs it kinda absurd how well my 2012 I think Mac mini is holding up, it does just great for 1080p and I haven't upgraded my gear to 4k yet
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,392
5,257
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Thank you for the post, I followed your wisdom on the Hackintosh thread years ago! I had bootcamp then virtuabox I think, then I realized I was only using windows for piracy hahahaha. I stream and pay for everything these days, couldn't get plex @ 4k on even badass wifi (nest 3 pack). I'm a really platform agnostic guy and honestly chrome books are so close to what I need, if only android apps didn't suck so much on them (the screenwriting software I use is fairy common, the android version the worst).

wifi issue - it was a $135 refurb hp desk pro, I spent 20 minutes unplugging, uninstalling drivers, rolling back and then threw in the towel when I realized there was no manufacture name or model number on the actual wifi adapter, so it would be an annoying wild goose chase of fcc ids and all to salvage a $135 refurb. I wasn't even going to buy a new $20 wifi adapter because I have that Mac mini that's aging that I could give the kids (and I didn't realize how useless a desktop would be for distance learning, they use their iPads for everything). honestly there aren't even any killer apps on windows for kids these days, on the Mac they have Apple Arcade and garage band and a few other things to tinker with

I'm kinda over windows. I loved my last prosumer laptop, a Thinkpad X I think? Was great until it wasn't, slowing down to a crawl over the years even though the specs were pretty potent. That's my biggest beef with windows, how quickly things seem to degrade and still having to track down that wayward app that's slowing everything down. with the m1 I can't wait to edit 4k video smoothly and 8k being a possibility on a $650 desktop's pretty surreal (I'll wait until the refurbs hit $500ish once the m1 iMacs come out, I'm in no rush). For my current needs it kinda absurd how well my 2012 I think Mac mini is holding up, it does just great for 1080p and I haven't upgraded my gear to 4k yet

Ah yeah back in the day haha! Good times lol. My wife's Hackintosh is the last man standing in our house, but we're probably going to get an M1 Air to replace it for portability reasons. I went through a hardware minimalist phase & now have a weird mix of stuff again. My main rig is a circa-2013 Win10 box with a 1080Ti that I use for VR. The board is so old I had to use a beta BIOS just to get the GPU running, but it's pretty solid nonetheless! I've been playing with OpenCore a bit, but the days of Hackintosh are numbered due to ARM, and even though they will probably eventually figure things out, I mean, Amazon is having a sale for $600 on an M1 Mac Mini & it's a pretty sweet setup, so unless you need some crazy high-powered rig that needs to run OSX, it's kind of gone from a fun cost-savings project to a really niche hobby these days. Granted that was like a decade+ ago (man time flies!).

I ended up picking up a 12.9" iPad Pro last year & aside from video projects & writing projects on my giant aging tower PC, it's pretty much my main device these days. The Pencil 2.0 is a really great piece of hardware & surprisingly I REALLY like working on a larger-sized tablet! I do basic CAD (Shapr3D) plus various graphics apps (Affinity suite etc.), which ties into my budding home Maker's Lab (CNC/laser/3D printing/vinyl-cutting/etc. machines that I've been building up over the years). It's pretty cool to be able to design stuff in 2D & 3D and then cut & engrave wood & acrylic, or 3D-print an idea, or slice it out with the Cricut in vinyl or some other material. The tools & capabilities & affordability these days is just phenomenal! I wish I had had access to this stuff when I was a kid!
 
Mar 15, 2003
12,669
103
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Ah yeah back in the day haha! Good times lol. My wife's Hackintosh is the last man standing in our house, but we're probably going to get an M1 Air to replace it for portability reasons. I went through a hardware minimalist phase & now have a weird mix of stuff again. My main rig is a circa-2013 Win10 box with a 1080Ti that I use for VR. The board is so old I had to use a beta BIOS just to get the GPU running, but it's pretty solid nonetheless! I've been playing with OpenCore a bit, but the days of Hackintosh are numbered due to ARM, and even though they will probably eventually figure things out, I mean, Amazon is having a sale for $600 on an M1 Mac Mini & it's a pretty sweet setup, so unless you need some crazy high-powered rig that needs to run OSX, it's kind of gone from a fun cost-savings project to a really niche hobby these days. Granted that was like a decade+ ago (man time flies!).

I ended up picking up a 12.9" iPad Pro last year & aside from video projects & writing projects on my giant aging tower PC, it's pretty much my main device these days. The Pencil 2.0 is a really great piece of hardware & surprisingly I REALLY like working on a larger-sized tablet! I do basic CAD (Shapr3D) plus various graphics apps (Affinity suite etc.), which ties into my budding home Maker's Lab (CNC/laser/3D printing/vinyl-cutting/etc. machines that I've been building up over the years). It's pretty cool to be able to design stuff in 2D & 3D and then cut & engrave wood & acrylic, or 3D-print an idea, or slice it out with the Cricut in vinyl or some other material. The tools & capabilities & affordability these days is just phenomenal! I wish I had had access to this stuff when I was a kid!

One thing that used to really impress me with PCs rigs was how old rigs could come to life with an SSD and ram upgrade, the refurb must have been 10 years old. But recently I don't find this to be true - with necessary antimalware/virus stuff shit slows to a crawl on most of our systems, especially when there's some wayward app eating up resources (chrome sessions often enough). Also, with AMD competing again the upgrade cycle seems to have picked up the pace again, a pace I can't keep up with these days.

Fun times though, a friend of my wife's kid is building a budget rig and I'm enjoying looking up motherboards, etc. again., as a hobby it's fun (though these days audio gear is more tangibly awesome to me, and weed.. hahaha). As a tool nothing has beat my Mac experience.

What actually sold me was iCloud. I started writing again and used to brainstorm in google docs and finalize in Office. When google started being stingy with how storage was counted and how unorganized everything felt, combined with really cruddy apps and having to "bring"everything over to office.. it was a weird workflow, and expensive paying for 2 providers. I tried sticking to Office 100% but word was cruddy for the way I took notes.

when my wife went all in on apple we started a family plan and, for once, everything feels seemless. Work on my laptop using pages, review on iPhone or iPad (still using an oldie, want the new mini whenever it comes out), and share/collaborate pretty easily too. It's not as flexible as office, but considering it's almost a value added bonus to photo /cloud storage, it's actually pretty slick. I almost got there with chrome books but everything still felt kinda DIY and rough around the edge. If the android apps felt like real apps then I would have been sold. I'm so beyond happy with this $550 refurb, which is close to the cost of a mid-tier Chromebook anyways. I'll stop ranting, I'm so friggin in love with this little guy. the MacBook Air 11 was SO close but needed like 20% more tying room, the MacBook 12 feels just right. I'd imagine an iPad Pro 12.9 + a magic keyboard would get me there too, whenever this bites the dust or I flip it. It's cheap but so slick and attractive that I baby it, something I didn't do with my cheapie chrome books. I'd be very pleased if I get $300 on Facebook marketplace towards an upgrade in a year. I sound like an ad.. hahah
 

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
17,914
838
126
I bought the base model they were selling last year during the Summer sale for $1000. I was intrigued by the potential longer battery life of the 1060 max Q and I've always wanted a Razer.

But it hasn't been great. The battery life is absolute crap: it won't even go an hour when gaming and even with normal use it's probably around 3 hours before the battery indicator comes on. I know you're not supposed to expect much in terms of battery life from gaming laptops but a little more than 45 minutes would be nice.

The touchpad on mine is a disaster. It's finicky as hell. I'm constantly clicking on stuff accidentally and fine cursor control is annoyingly difficult.

The touchpad on the MacBook is a revelation by comparison. One of the best I've ever used. Its huge and very responsive. It just feels good to use.

The MacBook is surely the smoothest computer I've ever used when it comes to everyday tasks. Everything is basically instantaneous. And I really like the ability to log into sites with my fingerprint.
Thanks for the review! I have a razer blade 15, and my only problem with it is the battery life. I thought I could live with it, but it's a real problem. I think I'm going to wait for Apple to release the M1x version of the Macbook pro, before I make a move though.
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,396
2,306
136
Visited the local thrift store nearby and found two Logitech K750 ($6.99 each) and a sealed WD 2.0TB SATA/32mb cache ($9.99).
I'll have to look for the spare ML2032 rechargeable batteries I kept since both are dead. White one had the battery holder opened with, black one looks untouched (no scratches).

20210219_135034.jpg
 
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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
Visited the local thrift store nearby and found two Logitech K750 ($6.99 each) and a sealed WD 2.0TB SATA/32mb cache ($9.99).
I'll have to look for the spare ML2032 rechargeable batteries I kept since both are dead. White one had the battery holder opened with, black one looks untouched (no scratches).

View attachment 39989
There was a used electronics store nearby me - they often had some good slightly used and occasionally new computer parts for super cheap prices. Sadly, they went out of business.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
Pink Beats Solo3 for the wife (lost her old pair :rolleyes:). Thank god I don't have to wear them:
solo3.jpg

At least they were on sale at BB.
 

Ackmed

Diamond Member
Oct 1, 2003
8,476
523
126
Very nice, but still...it's really hard for me to call this a Mustang.

I agree, Mach-E would have just been fine. I suppose they wanted the name to be recognized. The name is polarizing people. I've just been calling it a Mach-E, dropping Mustang all together. That being said, I think they have a hit on their hands. I really, really like this thing.

I have a "real" Mustang too, so still have my Mustang card. FB_IMG_1611427559662.jpg
FB_IMG_1611427575130.jpg
 
Mar 15, 2003
12,669
103
106
IMG_0077.jpeg
Guess I'm all in on apple these days. Gifted myself a cheapie refurb Apple Watch 3 (don't need the newest features, mostly need reminders and notifications) and love the little fella. I've had many sub- $200 fitness bands over the year and it's stupid how much better this watch has been. It's the little things - I noticed my heart rate's unusually high throughout the day and have gotten my resting rate down in days using the built in breathing exercises. I love the built in Apple TV remote. I do not like the idle alerts.. haha (don't judge the metrics, have no left the house all day)

3rd party accessories are awesome, got a nice looking strap for $15 and a screen protector that's slick and works. Quite enjoy my sub-$200 toy's look and polish, in comparison My xiaomi was $35 but looked like I got it in a gumball dispenser.
 
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skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
21,959
4,683
146
I agree, Mach-E would have just been fine. I suppose they wanted the name to be recognized. The name is polarizing people. I've just been calling it a Mach-E, dropping Mustang all together. That being said, I think they have a hit on their hands. I really, really like this thing.

I have a "real" Mustang too, so still have my Mustang card. View attachment 40105
View attachment 40106
very nice! I had a 66 many years ago.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Blue AirPods Max with special engraving for my daughter. Now I can get back the Sony 1000XM4 from her.

airpods-max-select-skyblue-202011
 
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Mar 15, 2003
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Blue AirPods Max with special engraving for my daughter. Now I can get back the Sony 1000XM4 from her.

airpods-max-select-skyblue-202011
Review? I am floored with my Xm4 daily so I don't NEED an upgrade but... An upgrade to the xm4 or a sideways move as I suspect?
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Review? I am floored with my Xm4 daily so I don't NEED an upgrade but... An upgrade to the xm4 or a sideways move as I suspect?
I just ordered it. Blue color is 6-7 weeks backordered. So it will be mid to late April before I get it. But it's not for me and neither my daughter or I are audiophiles. It's more convenience thing for us. Apple products work better with other Apple products. She has iPhone, iPad Pro, and MacBook Pro so she should get good use out of it. She mentioned to me the Sony XM4 isn't that smart when it comes to switching from devices and sometimes interrupts and switches at wrong time. Hopefully the AirPods Max will be smarter about switching between devices.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
New car (to us). 2015 Honda CRV. Literally bought from a little old lady (my MIL). We got the family deal pricewise. 12K miles!
Stock photo since it's yucky out today. It's now my wife's car and I get her old Camry (boo hoo!).

HondaCRVjpg.jpg
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,686
14,935
126
snap off blades
25mm Tajima
9mm NT
18mm Olfa
 
Mar 15, 2003
12,669
103
106
New car (to us). 2015 Honda CRV. Literally bought from a little old lady (my MIL). We got the family deal pricewise. 12K miles!
Stock photo since it's yucky out today. It's now my wife's car and I get her old Camry (boo hoo!).

View attachment 40353
Honda does not get enough credit for their handsome lines. Congrats - that thing will run until flying cars are the sensible upgrade
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
Visited the local thrift store nearby and found two Logitech K750 ($6.99 each) and a sealed WD 2.0TB SATA/32mb cache ($9.99).
I'll have to look for the spare ML2032 rechargeable batteries I kept since both are dead. White one had the battery holder opened with, black one looks untouched (no scratches).

View attachment 39989


I don't buy used HD's but nice deal on the keyboards! :)


Honda does not get enough credit for their handsome lines. Congrats - that thing will run until flying cars are the sensible upgrade


Same thing happened to me years ago ... wife (now ex) swiped my shiny new Subaru Outback and stuck me with her Volvo 850 Turbo after she took it to work on a snowy day ONE TIME. (nearly the only time I got to use the scooby was for ski trips)
 
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SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,396
2,306
136
I don't buy used HD's but nice deal on the keyboards! :)
The 2TB WD20EADS (manufactured April 27 2010-Thailand) SATA HDD was sealed and looked unused. Had to format it NTFS.
Both K750 keyboard works after replacing old with new ML2032 rechargeables, now all I need are more Unifying receivers.
 
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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
Honda does not get enough credit for their handsome lines. Congrats - that thing will run until flying cars are the sensible upgrade
I had the Accord I just sold for 23 years! Mechanically, it's great - starting to get a bit of rust though and needs new paint. New owner didn't care.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
I had the Accord I just sold for 23 years! Mechanically, it's great - starting to get a bit of rust though and needs new paint. New owner didn't care.


As I've mentioned here before I have a bottom-of-the-line 2012 Honda Fit with a 5 speed manual and I love that little thing. It's actually VERY close to my favorite overall car I've owned despite being a cheepie. (including some fairly fast & expensive rides)

Frankly I can't see myself buying anything but a Honda/Acura next time around. They're close to as bullet-proof as Toyota but they have some degree of "personality" throughout the entire product line as opposed to plain vanilla and boring until the expensive stuff.

I'm very fond of Subaru as well but as good as they are I would only buy one again if I really needed AWD. (in Southern NE it's only "nice to have") Too many moving parts to deal with maintaining unless you live in real snow-country.
 
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