DIY | Pulling Treasure From PC Before Recycling

Hey, everyone!

This Acer all-in-one PC has been sitting in my garage for over half a year. It was originally owned by a family member who then gave it to my mom to upgrade her prior, older system. But then not too long after my dad bought her a more current refurbished computer. This Acer was no longer needed. Per being the tech guy in the family I was given this PC to then take for recycling. I know I had no need for it myself.

Before dropping it off for recycling I thought I would see if there's anything of value I could take out. The common three items I (and I bet many of you) take out of old systems are CPU's, hard drives, and memory (RAM).

Prior to opening up this system I did want to see if it would allow us to install Windows 10. When it was given to my mom it had Windows 7 and while at my parents' place we had trouble installing Windows 10 from a flash drive. It would cause an error on the first part of the install. Today, it did work on my end. Oh well, time to start pulling out those components!

Production Hardware:
Canon EOS 77D: http://amzn.to/2ykHmc7
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Wide Angle Lens: https://amzn.to/2FNIvzF
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Tech Tutorial | Fixing Bent Pins on a Motherboard | $25 Bargain

Hey, everyone!

Can dead and broken hardware be revived? Depends on the damage. I'm always searching the internet for bargain deals when it comes to used hardware. The other day I saw a post where someone was selling a dead ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 motherboard. The post said it was dead due to bent pins in the CPU socket. I asked the seller if any pins were missing. They replied none are missing, just bent. For $25 we got a great deal on a Z97 motherboard.

We received it and carefully fixed the bent pins. Tested the system and it seems to work! I was provided with a sense of pride and accomplishment!

Hardware:
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z97%20Killer/
Magnifier Glass Stand with Alligator Clips: https://amzn.to/2XxrY9n
Tool Box Liner: https://amzn.to/2T7nmYZ
Precision Screwdriver: https://amzn.to/2XtE830

For Testing:
Intel Core i3-4130 processor
4GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti
WD Scorpio Black 2.5" 250GB HDD (WD2500BEKT)

Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85 (for B-Roll): http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer  (for B-Roll)
7artisans 25mm F1.8 Manual Focus Prime Fixed Lens: https://amzn.to/2HcDelB
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
Tascam DR-22WL Portable Handheld Audio Recorder: https://amzn.to/2HbnjUF
Mini Travel Tabletop Camera Tripod: https://amzn.to/2XATZwy
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Athlon X4 760K in 2019 | Team Green (NVIDIA GPUs) | SOTTR

Hey, everyone!

Here is Round 2! Testing the AMD Athlon X4 760K for gaming in 2019. This processor is about six years old, it has four cores, and can be overclocked. The motherboard we're using is not anything fancy but does allow overclocking.

We have Team Green today (NVIDIA GPU's) to see how this CPU handles Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The settings are set to the Medium preset and we're running at a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

System Specs:
AMD Athlon X4 760K 4.5GHz OC  CPU
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 Motherboard
Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB)    DDR3 1600MHz RAM
Raijintek Aidos Black 92mm CPU Cooler
WD Blue 1TB (WD10EZEX) Hard Drive

GPU's:
EVGA GTX 1050 Ti
EVGA GTX 980 Ti
EVGA 780 Ti
GIGABYTE GTX 970
EVGA 750 Ti

Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85 (for B-Roll): http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer  (for B-Roll)
CAD Audio U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone https://amzn.to/2XldjOA
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Athlon X4 760K in 2019 | Team Red (AMD GPUs) | SOTTR

Hey, everyone!

Is the AMD Athlon X4 760K still relevant in 2019 when it comes to gaming? This processor is about six years old, it has four cores, and can be overclocked. The motherboard we're using is not anything fancy but does allow overclocking.

We're starting with Team Red today (AMD GPU's) to see how this CPU handles Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The settings are set to the Medium preset and we're running at a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

System Specs:
AMD Athlon X4 760K 4.5GHz OC  CPU
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 Motherboard
Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz RAM
Raijintek Aidos Black 92mm CPU Cooler
WD Blue 1TB (WD10EZEX) Hard Drive

GPU's:
ASRock Phantom Gaming D Radeon RX 570 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814930010
Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8G D5
Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X 4G D5
Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 3G D5
MSI RADEON R9 270 GAMING 2G

Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85 (for B-Roll): http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer  (for B-Roll)
CAD Audio U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone https://amzn.to/2XldjOA
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Gaming | Dell Latitude E6230 w/ Integrated Graphics | Round 1

Hey, everyone!

Today we're finding out if we can game on an older Dell Latitude E6230 laptop. This laptop wasn't really designed for gaming but rather for business use. There's no dedicated graphics card but rather an integrated GPU on the actual Intel processor. The iGPU can render 3D objects but it does have its limitations.

For Round 1 we are testing some older titles that were around from when this laptop was launched. Most of these games were available on consoles from back then like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Some of these games were better optimized for consoles as well so there may be performance issues on the PC port.

*Game Titles:*
Batman: Arkham Asylum (00:45)
COD: Modern Warfare 2 (03:46)
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (06:45)
Spec Ops: The Line (09:46)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (12:46)
BioShock Infinite (15:46)

*System Specs:*
*Dell Latitude E6230*
Intel Core i5-3340M
8GB (2x 4GB) RAM
Crucial M500 240GB SSD
12.5" Anti-Glare HD LED-Backlit (1366 x 768) Display

*Production Hardware:*
Panasonic Lumix G85 (for B-Roll): http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer  (for B-Roll)
CAD Audio U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone https://amzn.to/2XldjOA
Audacity (sound recording) https://www.audacityteam.org/
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Cooking with Yakov | My recipe of Estofado De Pollo

Hey, everyone!

Sorry for not posting as frequent and I'm working on doing better this year in 2019. It's been a while since I've cooked something instead of just preparing something. Here's my take on Estofado De Pollo which is a Peruvian dish.

Hope everyone is doing well!

This was also shot on a cell phone. There was no real preparation and it was last minute to make a video of this.

NOT a Tech Tutorial | Failed on Cloning a Dell Latitude E6230 Hard Drive

Hey, everyone!

On the last video I was able to demonstrate on how to use the Restore and Backup feature in Windows 10 to clone and image a drive from one hard drive to another.

Now that the small SSD is free from the system we're building I can now put it into this small laptop which I like to take with me when I go on trips. The laptop is very portable and doesn't weigh too much. Everything runs great on it except the speed of the current mechanical hard drive.

I tried to use the same method to clone the drive as I did in the prior video but it failed. Kept getting a couple of erros when trying to place the image of the disk onto the new hard drive. After a handful of attempts I decided to give up troubleshooting. It was getting real late and wanted to go to bed. A fresh install of Windows 10 was put in and went through the tredious process of installing the updates. At least it's running great and super fast (for the type of system it is)!

The following hardware was necessary for this task:
Crucial M500 240GB SSD (CT240M500SSD1)
WD Scorpio Black 2.5" 250GB HDD (WD2500BEKT)
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5-Inch SATA I/II/IIIHard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD) https://amzn.to/2CR51ED
Bootable USB Drive with Windows 10
Screwdriver

The Windows 10 ISO and ability to create a bootable USB drive with the Windows 10 installation can be downloaded from Microsoft's website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Quick Update / Edit:
During our attempt to migrate from the 240GB SSD to the new 500GB SSD on the new system build we've encountered an error when trying to restore the image onto the new drive. The error was: "Error details: A data disk is currently set as active in BIOS...". Tried formatting in Windows as a secondary drive (both quick format at regular format), tried swapping different SATA cables, checked BIOS settings. Nothing worked until running DiskPart and then "clean"-ing the disk drive. This worked and the image was successfully loaded onto the new 500GB SSD. Hope this helps some of you who may run into this issue.


Production Hardware:
Canon EOS 77D: http://amzn.to/2ykHmc7
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Wide Angle Lens: https://amzn.to/2FNIvzF
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
Panasonic Lumix G85 (for B-Roll): http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer  (for B-Roll)
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Tech Tutorial | Using Only Windows 10 to Migrate / Clone your Drive

Hey, everyone!

Let's migrate our operating system and all of the contents from our primary disk drive onto a different drive using nothing but what's available in Windows 10. This would also apply to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

The reason for us having to do this is due to working on a new project build where we purchased a new, larger hard drive but have already installed the OS and programs onto the smaller drive. It's a tedious job having to re-install Windows, go through the Windows Updates, and install any other programs we have had installed on the prior drive. Not to mention the settings we've set within our operating system.

The following hardware was necessary for this task:
Crucial M500 240GB SSD (CT240M500SSD1)
WD Scorpio Black 2.5" 250GB HDD (WD2500BEKT)
Hitachi 2.5" 500GB HDD(HTS547550A9E384)
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5-Inch SATA I/II/IIIHard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD) https://amzn.to/2CR51ED
Bootable USB Drive with Windows 10

The Windows 10 ISO and ability to create a bootable USB drive with the Windows 10 installation can be downloaded from Microsoft's website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Quick Update / Edit:
During our attempt to migrate from the 240GB SSD to the new 500GB SSD on the new system build we've encountered an error when trying to restore the image onto the new drive. The error was: "Error details: A data disk is currently set as active in BIOS...". Tried formatting in Windows as a secondary drive (both quick format at regular format), tried swapping different SATA cables, checked BIOS settings. Nothing worked until running DiskPart and then "clean"-ing the disk drive. This worked and the image was successfully loaded onto the new 500GB SSD. Hope this helps some of you who may run into this issue.


Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85: http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 Lens w/ third party focal reducer
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

DIY | Fixing the Hinge on Logitech G230 Headphones

Lets fix the plastic cover next to the hinge on a pair of Logitech G230 headphones. My dog's tail is quite powerful and it knocked it off the place where it was being held underneath my desk. Still love her and my fault for not securing it properly.

It was a fun project and it almost feels like new. It doesn't look new anymore but it still looks great in my opinion.

Supplies needed:
Super Glue
Cutting Board or Craft Board
Paper Towels
Disposable Gloves
Screwdriver
Needle Nose Pliers

Production Equipment
Beginning shot with:
Shot with a Canon EOS 77D: http://amzn.to/2ykHmc7
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Wide Angle Lens: https://amzn.to/2FNIvzF

Audio recorded with:
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: http://amzn.to/2xzu6lQ

Edited with Vegas Pro Edit: http://amzn.to/2pET4h3
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Teaser Trailer | Q1 2019 PC Build | Coming Soon

Hey, everyone!

Please stay tuned for the Q1 2019 PC Build!

USB 3.0 Expansion PCI-E Card | Dell Optiplex 790

Hey, everyone!

Let's install a USB 3.0 PCI-E card into a computer which only has USB 2.0 ports. Not having USB 3.0 in a system may not be a big deal for a lot of people but some do prefer having the faster transfer speeds.

The system we're using is the Cobra Kai-5 budget gaming system:
https://youtu.be/Yx14jthxmoI

We purchased an inexpensive card from eBay (but other retailers do sell similar cards):
https://goo.gl/99bCme

The card cost $9.75 (at the time of this video) and I've purchased two since one was needed on my father's build. Overall it was easy to install and no driver installation was needed on Windows 10. The card does require external power and it's provided with a SATA power connector from the power supply. The increase in speed is certainly noticeable when testing the following hardware:

WD Scorpio Black 2.5" 250GB HDD (WD2500BEKT)
Hitachi 2.5" 500GB HDD(HTS547550A9E384)
PNY 128GB Turbo Flash Drive
SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive https://amzn.to/2CNBlIA

The hard drives were enclosed in:
ORICO USB3.0 to SATA III 2.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure for 7mm and 9.5mm 2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Tool Free [UASP Supported] Black(2189U3) https://amzn.to/2B6VYzb
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5-Inch SATA I/II/IIIHard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD) https://amzn.to/2CR51ED

We did test the following enclosure but the system had trouble recognizing it through the USB 3.0 ports only, though USB 2.0 worked:
ORICO SATA to USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5" HDD and SSD [UASP Supported]- Silver https://amzn.to/2SgQwnq


Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85: http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
Tascam DR-22WL Portable Handheld Recorder: https://amzn.to/2OJ0Q27
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

AMD FreeSync with NVIDIA GPU | HP Pavilion 32q

Hey, everyone.

NVIDIA announced their GPU's will be able to use AMD FreeSync on compatible displays. Today I am testing my HP Pavilion 32q display which does support AMD FreeSync and we'll see if it AMD FreeSync works with the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti.

There are some restrictions to where it only works with 10-series cards or newer and installing the latest NVIDIA GTX driver.

Download the latest GeForce driver:
https://www.geforce.com/drivers

HP Pavilion 32:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pavilion-32-32-inch-display-p-v1m69aa-aba--1
https://amzn.to/2Mkqie4


Music provided by Alex Talavera

Production Equipment
Beginning shot with:
Shot with a Canon EOS 77D: http://amzn.to/2ykHmc7
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Wide Angle Lens: https://amzn.to/2FNIvzF
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens: https://amzn.to/2Cxczwb

Audio recorded with:
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: http://amzn.to/2xzu6lQ

Edited with Vegas Pro Edit: http://amzn.to/2pET4h3
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

DIY | PC Case Feet (Pads)

Hey, everyone!

The Cobra Kai-5 budget build was pulled out of the closet for a couple of new projects. The issue with this computer case is that there are no feet at the bottom. This caused the case to scuff the surface of the desk. The marks are removable but it's annoying to have to clean them off each time.

Here's a quick solution to the problem. It consists of using a tool box drawer liner and some double sided tape. It works surprisingly well. Enjoy!

Supplies:
Tool Box Liner: https://amzn.to/2MkIWTd
Double Sided Tape: https://amzn.to/2DmZze0

Production Hardware:
Panasonic Lumix G85: http://amzn.to/2q1lIWK
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM
Tascam DR-22WL Portable Handheld Recorder: https://amzn.to/2OJ0Q27

Editing software:
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Background Music Provided by Alex Talavera

Be Careful with eBay Listings | CPU Cooler

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to 2019! Here's the first video of the year. There are a lot of good deals when browsing through eBay. But be careful and check the entire listing before making a purchase. In this video we see how the product images can be deceiving. This CPU cooler can only be mounted one way and we think the seller may not be aware of this.

Production Hardware:
Canon EOS 77D: https://amzn.to/2P8Bv2m
Canon EF‑S 24mm f/2.8 STM: https://amzn.to/2MM1lro
Comica CVM-V03 Lavalier Lapel Microphone: https://amzn.to/2MR25eM

Editing software:
VEGAS Pro 15 Edit: https://amzn.to/2nJyF7I
Affinity Photo (for thumbnail): https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Original Background Music Provided by Alex Talavera