Category: Computer

The MacBook Pro 13-inch 2018 Review

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There are two posts preceding this one which are New Laptop: Windows, macOS or Linuxwhere I try to explain why I’d like to buy a laptop and what options I see for myself and Why a MacBook in Favor of Windows or Linux Laptopsthat explains why I bought the MacBook Pro that I’m reviewing here or, to turn it around, why I didn’t go with a non-Apple mobile computer running whatever operating system.

This won’t just be another review of the kind you can find on other tech or Apple focused sites. I’ll not be showing any performance benchmarks or review every aspect of the device to check off items on a check list. That horse has been beaten to death already by many, manyother sitesafter the MacBook Pro had launched in 2018. Of course, I’ll be touching on a few controversial topics like the keyboard and the Touch Bar, despite which I still decided to buy it. For the past few months I’ve been using the computer regularly and I think I got enough experience with it to be able to tell whether I like something in the long run or not. It’s not just a first-look-kind-of-hands-on. It’ll be a combination of hardware, because that’s the physical good you’re buying, software and on being an Apple user (again).

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Why a MacBook in Favor of Windows or Linux Laptops

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As discussed in a recent blog post, I was in the market for a laptop. Several days after I had written about that topic and spent countless hours researching pros and cons, I had made the decision and went out to buy one. As the title suggests, it resulted in the most expensive product of the three options I was looking at and I’m here to write about it. This, however, is not the review as it would clearly blow up this piece. I’ll leave that for another day (I have written >1000 words already *tease*). In this blog post I’ll be explaining myself. Why I went with the MacBook Pro over the much more affordable and better equipped non-Mac laptops.

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New Laptop: Windows, macOS or Linux?

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I am pondering the idea of buying a laptop and I’m having troubledeciding on the platform. Ultimately, sometime in the future, I’dlike to get rid of my stationary PC and replace it with

  1. a laptop as the center of my data and (hobby) work and
  2. a console for gaming.

The latter is a long term plan because I wouldalso need a better television. Right now, all my gaming is Windowsbased and therefore I’m still somewhat bound to that OS. But that’sa different topic.

I do not explicitly need a mobile computer.There’s nothing technically wrong with my PC. In fact, moving to alaptop would mean to sacrifice a lot of performance. But I really donot like to place myself in front of the desk to get something done.I don’t even play games as much any more. And that’s solelybecause it feels too much like work-work. Apart from it being apretty sleek looking PC tower instead of a notebook hooked up to twomonitors as is the case at work, the act of sitting in a chair infront of a big desk feels too much like being at work. Don’tget me wrong, I like my profession and I even like going to theoffice (again; after switching jobs). I’d even like to tinker athome some more. But, as I was saying, I don’t want it to feel likework. Sitting at the desk is also very constraining. I have to be inthis one particular spot to do some computing. In that regard I’meven more flexible at work because I could just pop out the computerfrom its docking station and go somewhere else. Why can’t I freelychoose where I want to sit with my computer when I’m at home? I amactively procrastinating as a result. I do have ideas for projects tocode and to write and it makes me sad that I do not want to pursuethem.

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Windows Fluent Design – Rendering Bugs?

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As an avid listener of Windows Weekly I often hear discussions between Paul Thurrott, Mary Joe Foley and Leo Laporte about Microsoft’s Fluent Design. Microsoft continues to evolve the visual language of Windows and thus it’s a regular topic on one of my favorite podcasts. I’ve been noticing it here and there myself, mainly in system dialogs, but I’ve never really paid any attention because none of the applications I use on a regular basis make use of it – and currently I’m rather happy about that fact. Just recently though, I was struck by one effect in particular and that was the spark that got this blog post going. To be honest, in most cases where I notice these Fluent Design elements I think of them as rendering bugs. Like sometimes in games, when the graphics driver is not yet optimized, or a badly programmed game engine draws odd pictures sometimes, flaws in an otherwise normal picture. I have a few examples to show to you.

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I could really bite myself in the butt right now

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Somehow, I managed to lose the Intel mounting bracket and standoffs for my Corsair H100i v2 liquid cooler. To be honest, I’m pretty sure I sold them together with the Intel motherboard when I switched to AMD Ryzen. Yes, you read that correctly.

Sold. With. Motherboard.

I can’t find that stuff anywhere in all the packaging that I always keep around until I throw away or sell the hardware. So that’s the only logical conclusion says Mr. Spock.Read More »

NVIDIA GTX 970 vs GTX 1080

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As mentioned in the Overclocking the Core i5 post a while back, my graphics card was limiting higher performance outputs, especially since it had to render games in 2560×1440. I hinted at an additional post dedicated to overclocking the GPU and this is it in some ways. I did overclock the GPU, but shortly after I also replaced it with a Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080. Nevertheless, for comparison, I will include the overclocked results based on the custom graphics settings from the last post and also compare it to the 1080 using default game presets. This way you can easily compare with your own rig. I had hoped I could also include Ryzen tests, but unfortunately Corsair’s AM4 mounting kit for the watercooler is still travelling around the world. So, there’ll be another performance related article (hopefully) soon. That one will compare the overclocked i5 with the GTX 1080 to a Ryzen 1700X with the 1080. Not only in games, but also in encoding.Read More »

Overclocking Intel Core i5 6600K to 4.2 GHz

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The Skylake i5 is the 6th generation Core micro-architecture that has a lot of gaming power by default, especially the K series of CPUs. But, with only 4 cores and no hyper-threading, they are just not the right fit for some scenarios, especially video encoding. So, other than buying a new CPU (and board and maybe even RAM – as intriguing as it sounds), what can you do to get more performance? Overclock it! That’s what the K stands for, right? OverKlocK.Read More »