+1 computer

       I’ll tell you about a computer that I made for work. I tried to assemble the optimal configuration, so perhaps my choice will be useful to someone else. And very soon - a review of the ion 1201N!

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    Caution traffic!

       There will be no revolutionary advice, discoveries or anything else in the post — anyone could write such a post. Just a story of one computer with pieces of review ...

    Go


       If a couple of years ago it was necessary to start assembling a computer (non-specialized) by writing out the main tasks that a PC should solve, now everything is much simpler - you can assemble a “workhorse” for reasonable money, and even the simplest configuration is enough to complete most everyday tasks functions.
       Until about 2008, I worked for ... oh my God ... P3-800MHz / GF2MX 64MB / 512MB / 30GB / 19 ''. To the last, he gritted his teeth, but the new computer was not going to do anything. In 2008, he assembled a media center, on which I worked until the last - everyone was good at pisyuk, but ... the lack of the ability to install an "adult" video card there killed a lot of my undertakings. No, the computer was enough to write reviews, more or less grunt over photos in Photoshop or even play something on the minimum requirements ... but all this pampering - I always wanted more. For example, 3D modeling and video editing have long attracted.

       In general, I thought and decided - since the computer brings some kind of profit, it would be necessary to invest in it. Putting back a couple of wrinkled dozens in my pocket, I began to act.

    Housing


       Usually, it all starts not with the case, but with the motherboard - it is under it that all the other components have to be adjusted. However, I didn’t even think about the motherboard at that time - the first thing I did was to get the previously won HIPER Anubis case from the cabinet . When I first opened (a long time ago) a box with a case, I immediately realized that my future computer will live in this particular case.

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       So, HIPER Anubis is a black aluminum case with a wall thickness of 3 mm. Somewhere I met information that all of it was painted with a special heat-dissipating paint, which is supposedly used by the military - a beautiful legend, but I advise you to read an interesting post from Donny on this subjectwithout hesitation in expressions, he put everything there on shelves. Whatever it was - for me this paint did not play any role, but the black matte case is definitely an ice.

       Reliable and durable design with a pair of unusual elements. For example, a metal “comb” along the entire upper part of the body - all this, as I understand it, is part of a large radiator, in which the body itself actually acts. There are also metal buttons (reset + power), two USB ports and 3 audio connectors. It looks stylish - everything is neat and countersunk. No burrs or sharp edges inside.

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       Front - a massive metal door, more precisely, a grid with a grid. It is easy to open, but there is no lock in it - this is a pity (because my child is very curious in this regard).

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    On the sides are easily removable doors, in one of which there is a mesh “window”. The power supply is supposed to be mounted at the top, it is possible to install a water cooling system. Weight is 10+ kilograms - all this is on 4 rubber legs that dampen part of the vibrations.

       This midi-tower case is designed for motherboards of the ATX and mATX form factor, has 6 slots for 5.25 '' devices. In the front part (bottom) he has a removable basket for 4 hard drives (3.5``) with the possibility of installing a cooler in front of them for additional cooling. Another cooler is already installed in the top cover - it is located under the protective grid among the metal fins.

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       A separate point I want to note is the package case - in addition to sets of screws for all occasions (which are laid out in signed bags), the box had a small case for every little thing, a souvenir metal keychain (in the form of an Anubis head) and a special cleaning brush for the embossed upper part of the case.

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       Unfortunately, HIPER as such _some_ does not exist anymore, although even when it existed, it was quite difficult to find this case. Now it is only on price.ru , but only a couple of stores. Excellent review from the center.

       As a power supply, I installed a modular HuntKey X7 at 800W. Why exactly him? A good acquaintance gave it to me corny and I decided to save. Everything about him is good - power with an “overgrowing” aim and the ability to disconnect all unnecessary pigtails to breathe more freely inside the case.

    CPU


    image    The case is printed out - in theory, it would be possible to choose a motherboard, although here I went a different way. I had absolutely no doubt that the new system unit will be built on the Intel platform, however, I could not decide on the socket for a long time - I chose between 1156 and 1366. Having decided for myself that I don’t want to be a hardcore gamer or overclocker , chose the LGA1156. I will have enough performance (against the background of those dinosaurs that I worked on all the previous time), but there will be good savings. The only thing I regret is that systems on the 1366th socket, as a rule, have much more room for upgrade - there will be two or three vidyuhi that will fit in completely, and you can stuff memory to the most indecent. On the other hand, I amused myself with the thought that SUCH resources I definitely do not need.

       A little later, I took the Intel Core i7 860 , which is the second most efficient of the “peels” for socket 1156. As a processor, I pay almost twice as much to get the i7 870 , which is the best, but it has a minimum of differences from the i7 860 ... I did not see the point. In general, a quad-core processor with a frequency of 2.8 GHz, 8 MB of cache, support for most modern technologies - perhaps such a pebble will satisfy my needs for at least a couple of years. It was a good opportunity and I took the boxed version. The regular cooler worked for only a couple of days - only so that I finally understood that it does not suit me. Yes, it is small and allows you to get to any component of the motherboard at any time, but the noise from it ... is clearly not the ultimate dream.

    A little later, I threw another half-gigahertz to the processor.

    Motherboard


       Finally got to the "Mom." Honestly, for me, such components are a very dense forest, so I turned to our overclockers for advice . I did not intend to particularly disperse the details and even more so indulge in liquid nitrogen, but hardly anyone else would tell me so honestly and with 100% knowledge of the matter. There was a minimum of requirements - LGA1156 and more USB ports on board. Well, in general, I just wanted a good / reliable motherboard, with convenient wiring, which in a couple of years would still allow me to upgrade, i.e. so that it was not the most bottleneck.

       From well-proven motherboards, for this socket, friends named several models, from the remembered ones - ASUS Maximus III Formula and Gigabyte P55-UD5. Seeing four familiar letters, I almost ceased to doubt (numerous positive reviews and reviews only confirmed my decision), although I also glanced at the ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i , which had just appeared. In fact, Formula and Sabertooth are two almost identical boards, the only difference is that the first one has already been tested and checked by time - I did not try my luck and took it.

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       The motherboard ASUS Maximus III Formula is built on the Intel P55 chipset and is made in the ATX form factor. It has 4 memory slots (up to 16GB), 3xPCI-E 16x + 2xPCI-E 1x + 2xPCI, 10 SATA-connectors (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10), 14 USB ports (9 built-in + 5 additional) and a huge the amount of all kinds of technologies that I may never use. Review.

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    The appearance of the board played a significant role - nevertheless, I sometimes go for similar things)

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       The formula comes with a discrete sound card (7.1) Creative SupremeFX X-Fi , which is better integrated, is another way to save money for the first time.

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       The board is expensive, yes, but really good - at least it will always be possible to ask the same overclockers a question; unlike the clouds of motherboards that are simply uninteresting to them. In principle, I have no regrets about the choice, although after a while I realized that I was in a hurry - I had to take something from USB 3.0 and SATA 3. Well, okay - there will probably be third-party controllers, and if they don’t, then it will always be updated can.
       All the components mentioned above are silent during their operation. However, as you know, you can not do without cooling. Water cooling has long attracted with its advantages, but I was not psychologically ready for it - the idea of ​​a possible flood in the building discouraged me in every way, and in general I did not want to bother with something new at that time.
       My hands didn’t seem to be crooked - I could probably have avoided the flood ... if it hadn’t been for the nimble son, who is very interested in all these computer stuff) I have repeatedly gone through succinct reset, power off and disconnects, so I didn’t want to take double risks.
       And children, as you know, are sleeping) Therefore, one of the key criteria at the subsequent stages of PC assembly was the noise level from its operation. Therefore, I approached the choice of other components more seriously, studying specs and reading reviews.

    Video card


       For any unconfirmed personal convictions, I did not want to contact ATI, so I looked only at nVidia. At that time, the most productive “stoves” were the 295GTX, which cost some kind of unrealistic money. At the same time, vidyuhi type 260 and 280 began to morally “become obsolete” against the background of new products and were well priced. In the end, I took the XFX 285GTX - on the basis of the "golden mean". The price is normal, according to tests, too, everything is more than worthy - its performance will also be enough for me (considering that until recently I worked on the helpless integrated video card of the media center).

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       The card is good for everyone, the only thing that didn’t suit me almost immediately was the standard cooling system. It is very effective, but when the load howled quite strongly - I could not allow this at night (when I mostly work). Therefore, almost immediately I began to look for an alternative cooling system. A replacement was found quickly, but her path was thorny - I wrote a separate post about this earlier . For the rest, everything conceived happened - I got a productive and quiet cooler (or rather, as many as three!) Of the Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME GTX Pro , which I barely got out (it was completely new and at that time was in single copies in Russia).

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       630 grams of weight. Three small (92mm) white coolers that are installed on top of one large radiator on 5 heat pipes are amazing, but all this really works very quietly and efficiently! Moreover, the fan speed can be controlled both automatically (from 1000 to 2000 revolutions per minute), and manually. Even at maximum speeds, the noise is much less than that of a standard turbine - and that's great. Here is a beautiful picture from the manufacturer’s website:

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       Here is a screenshot of the EVGA Precision program . As you can see, even at 40% of the cooler potential, the GPU temperature is 46 degrees - these are almost greenhouse conditions! And more than suitable for overclocking.

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       Almost immediately, the video card was overclocked - from 648/1476/1242 MHz to 720/1540/1350, which gave an increase of a couple of thousand 3D brands in the tests. The most vigorous FurMark test did not warm up the card (at 100% rpm) by more than 73 degrees. Here is a complete review .

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       According to the manufacturer, this cooling system is SLI-compatible, although I hardly imagine it. And the second video card is not in my plans yet.

    CPU cooler


       In pair a quiet video cooler it remains to choose no less quiet, but at the same time an effective helicopter for the processor, as Core i7 860 is not a joke. By the way, the regular processor cooling system (in the boxed version) did not suit me either - all with the same noise level.

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       Overclockers almost unanimously hinted that the Austrian Noctua NH-D14 is considered the most-cooler , which is very rare in our cold lands. He’s still not really on sale now, what can I say about December, when I started assembling the computer ... But, as they say, who has raised sails, a fair wind blows to him - I could get this monster. No, it's a real monster!

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       A huge number of aluminum ribs that are strung on 6 heat pipes leading to a massive copper base. The design is so huge that at first I was visited by thoughts about the possibility of organizing passive cooling, but smart people quickly dispelled my false guesses.

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    But to make the processor cooling system really quiet is easier than simple - because of the modular system, you can attach from one to three coolers (120 or even 140 mm in size) depending on your needs - they are firmly attached to the aluminum "skeleton" due to metal braces.

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       Despite the gigantic size and weight (although it is “only” 1240 grams), I was not afraid that the cooler would rip out the processor with “meat” - a special cross-shaped piece of iron, which was attached to the other side of the socket and provided the necessary rigidity, instilled confidence.

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    Compatibility with 775/1156/1366 / AM2 / AM2 + / AM3, from 900 to 1200 revolutions per minute, and with all this, record levels of noise level (13.2 - 19.6 dB) and temperature - we definitely buy it.

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    For comparison, almost all other cooling systems make a noise almost twice as loud, and often work out of tricks. Everything is fine here - the unit earned the highest marks in the teston FCenter (then this was the first review). What is nice - in the kit are two large (120 and 140 mm) coolers, a set of silicone (anti-vibration) nails, all kinds of screws and screwdrivers - full ammunition and ... 6 years warranty!

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       The device easily fit on the motherboard and in the case, while there was still room for comfortable access to the memory slats. Now both coolers are installed on the radiator, “blowing” it through - there is practically no noise (apparently, due to the fact that a large number of heat pipes carefully transfer heat to a radiator with a very large area, which can be effectively cooled even at low speeds, which almost no noise).

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       Quiet, productive, universal, pretty and without any highlighting there - just some kind of magic device :) If you can get it, don’t hesitate.

    Memory


       Here is how it was. Once I went to one of the events of UPGrade magazine on the humpback and met NeoForce there , the captain of the OC Club team mentioned above - they did some kind of nitrogen show there. We decided to walk around the pavilions, chat ... well, by chance, between conversations, I bought two memory sticks from Kingston - I asked him to choose it, and he took it and helped) DDR3, 1333 MHz, each 2 GB - the total amount (4 GB) is enough for me, although later I will buy another 2x2. Simply put - I didn’t bother with memory at all - I bought it and it works.

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       However, as I did not bother with the hard drive, although there is a slightly different story. I pulled out one terabyte disk from the media center, because there, he warmed himself up to almost 60 degrees, heating everything around (in exchange, I set 2.5 '' to 160GB, because I don’t need more). That was the Seagate ST31000528AS .

       Later I bought another terabyte drive - already WD Caviar Black , model WD1001FALS . Why two different? But the devil knows him. Compare) I inform you that both work fine, although the first has a temperature of 34 degrees, and the second has 41. There may be a difference in the sensor measurements (as many people probably know, some manufacturers like to artificially lower the temperature), although the storage conditions of both disks the same. What are the conditions? I'll tell you now.

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       When I went to solve problems with a video card cooler (I wrote about them in a post), I bought two passive 5.25 '' heatsinks for 3.5 ”disks - you won’t believe it, but at that time the disks were one of the noisiest devices in the system (especially when turned on) . The radiator model is Himuro HDD Cooler . Firstly, they inspired me confidence in the discussions at IXBT, secondly, they are relatively inexpensive, and thirdly, they fit perfectly into the design of my case. A little later, during installation, I noticed “fourthly” - rubber mounts are installed in the side parts that dampen spurious vibrations (that is, there was no need to additionally purchase special silicone screws, etc.) ... and the best part is they movable (they can be moved along along the ribs), which allowed them to be beautifully fixed in the case. Surprisingly, the drives have not been heard since then at all.

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       The drive for the drives took the easiest with BluRay read support. Now I don’t even remember the company)

    Monitor


       It became immediately clear that a new monitor was needed - firstly, it was necessary to leave some kind of screen at the media center (my wife is working behind it), and secondly, in one of the reviews everyone giggled so much at my 19-inch ski that I felt somehow even uncomfortable) And thirdly - I just wanted something new for the new computer, to walk like that for a walk.

       Working in the summer in one of the offices, I drew attention to the monitor of our designer - it was a 24-inch DELL 2408WFP. Amazing monitor - I was a bastard from colors, brightness and ... actually, from the sizes themselves. The wallpapers that bored me on such a screen looked new, all sites, editors, etc., were beautiful. To complete happiness, it had a couple of USB holes, as well as an SD reader, which I, except in the netbook, were nowhere to be found. In general, since then I began to think about such a Monica, and maybe even more.
       As time went on, I saved up butterflies, read, compared, chose ... and until the last I wanted to take the Dell mentioned above. But quite by chance I noticed a no less interesting model DELL U2410- almost everything is the same (24``, usb-sd-etc), but with the IPS matrix! Moreover, at the same price ... without hesitation, I ordered it in an online store with the best rating on Yandex.market (it also had the lowest price) - I called and said that I would be testing for a long time how they would bring it. They brought it on the same day, in the evening (when the courier, except for home, had nowhere to hurry) - 30 minutes was enough for me to thoroughly study and check everything. No shoals, broken pixels and uneven backlighting - what I dreamed about since the summer)

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       MATT screen, 1920x1200 @ 60Hz, wide viewing angles, excellent color reproduction, a huge number of all kinds of ports (besides the mentioned ones - DVI-D x2 (HDCP), HDMI, DisplayPort, D-Sub, composite, component) and, which is very important for me, compatibility with VESA mounts. A convenient menu (with support for the Russian language), touch buttons on the panel (highlighted if you put your finger on them),

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       A slight drawback is the power button in the lower right corner of the monitor, which I sometimes accidentally press) and the monitor shines even at minimum brightness at night the whole room (because of which I had to change the design themes in the file manager, photoshop, ICQ ... and now I have dark wallpapers almost all the time). The issue was decided by the blinds that separate the room and the balcony at night.

       Speaking of the VESA mount, I used the Ergotron LX Arm Wall , which easily withstands the weight of such a huge diagonal. I was convinced of the reliability of Ergotron products (which, in fact, runs the VESA standard) earlier, using the Ergotron NeoFlex table mount (my review) as an example, which I left to my wife)

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       Once again I was convinced of the power and convenience of these glands (namely glands, not plastics) - everything is so thought out that the soul straight rejoices. Well, it's beautiful. Despite the fact that initially the monitor had an excellent mount (I think, also from Ergotron), now there is much more freedom of movement - you can rotate the monitor in any plane (which no stand will give), and all the wires are removed in a special channel. The mount holds the monitor securely at any angle, despite the fact that the monitor weighs a little less than 10 kilograms (probably this is the weight with the stand; and yet). I will write about this device separately in the very near future.

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    Trivia


       As the speaker system put Microlab H-500 . From another room) For my room this is overkill, but there were no others and did not want to buy. Headphones (you won’t listen through speakers at night) - Razer Megalodon . I wrote about them , and since then I’ve been a bastard.

       He took the keyboard and mouse from the previous computer - these are diNovo Edge and MX Revolution . Rug - Razer Goliaphus Control Alpha ( overview ). My wife bought a simple keyboard from Logitech and gave the mouse to Razer Orochi ( review ).

       Tablet - the good old Wacom Intuos3 A5. I love him, although he is not the best couple yet.

    Hints


       Remember, at the very beginning I was talking about the drive cage in the Anubis case? Unfortunately, there was nothing to insert there)

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    Therefore, I installed a cooler working there by blowing, and in front of it was a homemade dust filter (a special fabric from which filters for vacuum cleaners are made; figs knows where it came from - I found it on the balcony). Accordingly, cold air inside went through the front door. Additionally, the upper cooler blew air - in front of it I also attached a piece of fabric. The result is an influx of cold air from two sides, which was blown out by two healthy helicopters in the processor Noctua NH-D14 . After a month of work, a minimum of dust appeared inside the case, but its amount was negligible - not compare with what was without filters.

       In the free 3.5 '' slot on the front of the chassis, Iinstalled a 2.5-inch hard drive reader, which I also talked about . I rarely insert disks into it, but a couple of times it already happened - much easier than climbing inside and connecting something there. Well, what, do not install the drive there.

       I tightened all the wires with reusable Velcro from ASUS - and that’s convenient.

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    Issue price


       It’s one thing to assemble a powerful computer "on a piece of paper", another thing is to buy it)

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    Perhaps an attentive reader noticed that I wrote in many places in the past tense - the fact is that I have been collecting this computer almost since November, so it’s tangible I didn’t feel a blow to my pocket. Moreover, some of the components were donated. However, if you buy everything at once, you get a fairly large figure ... although, working people can easily afford it.

    4000 - Hiper Anubis
    4000 case - Huntkey X7 800W
    10000 power supply unit - Intel Core i7-860 processor
    4000 - cooler for Noctua NH-D14
    8000 processor - ASUS Maximus III Formula
    12000 motherboard - video cardXFX GeForce GTX 285
    3000 - cooler for graphics cards Arctic Cooling Accelero XTREME GTX Pro
    7000 - hard drives, 2x1Tb
    3000 - two Kingston memory strip of 2GB
    1600 - Radiators for discs 2 pieces
    of 4000 - BluRay-Drive
    22000 - Monitor DELL U2410
    6000 - fixing for the Ergotron LX Arm Wall
    5000 monitor - APC uninterruptible

       Total - 93600rubles. Apart from all sorts of mice, headphones and other tablets. A lot, my first car cost half as much) I repeat - all this was collected very slowly, gradually - for almost six months. Yes, and you can easily meet the 50 thousand - if you take less Monique (or with a TN-matrix), hammer on the mount, alternative cooling systems, etc. But I also collected it for myself :)

    The performance index in Win7 is quite predictable:

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       The plans for the future are to remove the hard drives and insert them into the NAS, and instead put at least a small SSD-drive. Put two more memory bars. Well, absolutely in the distant future - put a second video card. Coolers in front and on top must either be painted or replaced with black and low-speed ones so that they are not a white spot on a black background.

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    The end


       What does all this give? For me, the potential of such a system is new opportunities and prospects. Now there are almost all the resources that previously were simply lacking: disks where you can store multi-megapixel RAWs without regret about free space (a lot of pictures of the child, and the same devices); a video card that can provide a comfortable level of working with the same photos - if before using one filter took up to a minute, now almost everything is done in real time. Games, video editing, 3D - easy. The monitor has also become a good help - you can do anything on it. The processor and memory - well, yes, and they are well done to the heap. The new computer is really enough for almost any task, I am very pleased with it.
       And the most important thing is to save time (since I sometimes hang all day at night at the screen). If earlier I edited pictures for one review almost all night, now this is done in an hour. Converting a gigabyte MTS video from the camera takes a couple of minutes, although earlier it took more than an hour or two. Now you can do more, read and study something, and just get enough sleep or walk with the child.
       For you, if my reviews are still not completely tired, then I will try to bring them to a new qualitative level - I have many thoughts and developments on this subject, so I hope that it will only get better.

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       The attempt to build a silent system was unsuccessful - the reason is 8 coolers who tirelessly work inside (1 in front, 1 on top, 1 in the power supply, 2 on the processor and 3 on the video card). Funny, but the noisiest is the one that is installed in the power supply. In general, the computer works very quietly. On the other hand ... even with him I no longer bother at night the sensitive dream of my wife and child - recently I “moved” to the balcony, and this is another story) The new configuration will last for 5 years for sure, although progress does not stand still - I think that from time to time you still have to update. Well, if my thoughts and choices help someone, although, in fact, I did not discover anything like this.

       If anyone has any questions about any of the devices mentioned, feel free to.

       “ So what? My computer is much cooler"- a good half of humanity will say) And I did not doubt at all. But this time I don’t feel like pissing off at all. But to chat about your - our pieces of iron - always well.

    Good luck!

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