More Microsoft love :P

[idle]

As some know about my laptop woes, and I was using my wifes MacBook in the interim until I got it all sorted. I downloaded a cool game from the Apple Store using my wifes Apple account (yes I paid her back) :P

Anyway the process was as easy as hitting BUY and using her account name and password. Game downloaded, installed and I was playing in less than 10 minutes. Was great whilst I didn't have a laptop to use.

Last night I found out (much to my joy, because I really like the game) you can also get the game from Microsoft too. So I hit a link on the games site which switches me to the microsoft app store page and there it is. There's a green BUY button and I hit it. This leads me to another page that says log in with my microsoft account email and password. I do this, next I get another page that wants the exact same thing again, only this time they are going to send me a code to my email that I have to use. Okay they send the code I put the code in, and THEN I'm told I have to switch my PC from a local account (which I was using) to my microsoft account (they also tell me everything will stay the same if I do so ...) AND I get hit with a pop up asking if I want to sync with the Microsoft cloud service! Never mind the fact I've already twice refused this servive when I set up windows and again when I got into Windows ...by this stage I'm done. I don't even want the bloody game anymore.

As I'm going through the process above with my wife sitting next to me watching, she jokes, next I'll need to provide microsoft with a thumb print, a retina scan, some DNA and a contract signed in my blood just to get a simple game lol

And they wonder why http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf :laughing:

[2635599]

just the contract in blood and your first born is all microsoft wants.

[idle]

On a totally different note my local PC store is having a Mega Sale starting tomorrow, and I'm going to pick up a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB for a flat $200 :-D

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My C: Drive just keeps getting smaller and smaller, and now with only 45GB left and a Mega Sale happening this weekend, I figured what the heck, jump on a bargain and upgrade.

I pretty much figure this laptop will be the Mickey Mouse with a nice new 850 Pro SSD, I've already upgraded the RAM to a whopping 32GB, well not really, it came with 16GB and I had 16GB laying around that I threw into it. Waste not want not ...
But after a SSD upgrade, there's nothing else to be done. Plenty of spcae for C: and nice and fast. Plus I been reading a bit about these 850 Pro's and they are suppose to be the dogs bullocks.

Its gonna be a good weekend :tu:

[idle]

I came, I saw, I got owned lol

Its been one of those days. No fancy pants SSD for me I'm afraid, a total balls up from the get go. Rocked up this morning at store opening just to be sure I got in first and got what I wanted. Buy the SSD and head on home. A few errands to take care of and by lunch time I was ready to install.
Open up the laptop and there staring me right in the face is a hardwired M.2 PCB with 2x 128GB drives. Why I ever thought that I was simply going to install a Samsung SSD is beyond me. I knew it had an M.2 PCB hardwired into the laptop to begin with ...

Back to the store, and instead of a refund I purchase a nice 256GB M.2 SSD to replace at least one of the 128GB SSD's. Get home, open up the laptop again, take out one of the SSD's and then reboot to see which one is the OS drive and which one is a storage drive. Upon reboot I get nothing. To save you a long boring read, I finally figure out these two drives are raided, so no matter which one I pull, she ain't gonna boot.

Easy solution, I'll pull both out, and then simply install the nice new 256GB drive, install saved OS image and set it up, then install one of the 128GB drives and format it ...

Pull both the drives, grab the new one and it doesn't fit. Slots in kind of, but its longer and there's a screw hole in the PCB with a chunk of metal there about 1mm high, so the new SSD won't sit flush.

Then it dawns on me ....

This new M.2 SSD is 80mm long (which is the standard that most PC shops supply) But ASUS like to be different, they like to use a 60mm SSD in their laptops, which I'm sure is just to annoy the crap out of anyone even attempting to upgrade. After much BS I find the official ASUS number and give them a call. To save you another long read, their "technical expert" doesn't have a clue, yet alone speak english.
So I'm told that's how it is, take it or leave it, but I always have the option of ditching the 1.5TB storage drive in the laptop and replacing it with an SSD ...???? Yeah I'll replace a perfectly working 1.5TB storage drive to pay an extra $800 for a 1TB SSD drive ...

Luckily I found the only place in my country that supplies 60mm M.2 SSD drives, which will have to come interstate, and more bad news, they only offer the drive in 512GB size which is an extra $160 more than I planned on spending. Thanks ASUS ...

So in the end I got nothing lol

[idle]

A new day, a new hooray! lol

Finally got the storage issues sorted with a beautiful 512GB drive.
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C: is now bigger, and I've got a decent F: for games. Took a bit of searching but I found a wonderful replacement for the 2x 128GB drives which is MUCH faster, and gives me the storage space I was after.

Happy days are here again :-D

[2635599]

very nice idle (http://virtualcustoms.net/member.php/243562-idle)

[idle]

Thanks mate!

Hey I don't care what they say about you, your alright in my books :cheeky:


Okay jokes aside, I'm a little iffy if I should merge the F: drive into the C: and have one massive drive, or keep a separate games drive? Been tossing and turning over it since yesterday. Oh and for anyone stuck with the M.2 form factor who is looking to upgrade, in either 40mm, 60mm or 80mm drives - the drive I'm using is the Transcend MTS600 512GB M.2 SATA 60mm SSD. Its faster, and I mean way faster that the two 2x 128GB drives in RAID0 configuration. No jokes.

Right now I have an empty M.2 slot on the PCB which I plan on using once I get the cash for another 512GB drive. Then I'll RAID them up and see how she goes then. On its own its easily twice the speed of my previous set up, so I can only imagine what two of these puppies could do. Maybe santa will bring me one come Christmas ...

[2635599]

idle (http://virtualcustoms.net/member.php/243562-idle) this is what i'd do. since you have better speed with just the one 512 i would not raid it with the second one you get. there is no need to put your program files on a separate drive even with gaming because of the size of that drive. i would use the second drive for files that you just have to always have with you. then i would have a backup of those files on your external with everything else you've saved. as for matching the new drive i don't think i would, you really don't need a secondary drive to be as fast as your c drive(save a few dollars if you can). my tower setup is a velociraptor 10,000 rpm drive and the rest are all 7,200 rpm. even on a core2duo e8400 i've got plenty of speed for everything i do.

[idle]

I've decided to leave it as is until I get another one. I'm not going to RAID them, more trouble than what its worth sometimes. Once I get the second drive, I'll re-do the whole thing with an image and have 512GB C: and a 512GB Games/Storage drive.

Also I found a beautiful Samsung 2TB drive (mechanical) that I'll eventually replace the mechanical storage drive that came with the laptop. Not that's its really needed, but to have 1TB SSD and 2TB storage would make this laptop 1337 :P

Once that's all done I will officially make this my LAN machine for my monthly meet, that way instead of dragging along my tower, I'll just pack up the laptop, headphones, keyboard+mouse and a 4TB external drive and leech all weekend long. Light, portable and not too shabby for gaming.