How to find a cheap graphics card to hold you over until you can get that high end GPU.

Picture by Ödeldödel

Graphics cards are expensive

Well with everything going on from bitcoin miners trying to make money and buying all the GPU’s lately, you’re probably like the rest of us and can’t find that really high end graphics card to play games with.   You could also just be wanting a better graphics for your graphical editing or even for programs like autocad that can be used for business.   Either way, you’re still waiting for the Low Hash Rates to come out or start being sold but until then you are probably like everyone else trying to get the cheapest graphics card you can for the price and buying those can seem very hard to get even if you do try to do the Newegg Shuffle.  Even then there is not much you can do for that system that needs that graphics card to run the programs or even just because the CPU doesn’t support any Graphical hardware on the motherboard.  What’s a person to do?

Buy a used low end GPU

The first way you can do this is to go searching for low end used graphics card.  I am going to talk about where you should look to buy that low end card and what you should look for when you finally find that card that will keep you going until the prices drop to where you can afford to buy the card.   This isn’t going to be a big list but it will be a list that I’ve used in the past and seems to work really well.

  • Buy it off of Facebook – Although you can find some really good cards that seem like they are good.  You still have to do your research and make sure the buyer has either some good ratings or maybe even has some good used GPU.
  • Mercari –  Is another site I like to watch and have notifications for products that either go on sale or even products that reduces their prices.   They have a great way to watch products that will allow you to watch for that GPU that might work for you.
  • Google Shop – You can look for that cheap GPU or find a really good used GPU that you can use until the price of the High end GPUs start to come down.   Either way you can get notified when there are new products that are for sale and or get notified when there is products in your area that is for sale.
  • Ebay – Although this is one that I don’t support anymore because of how much people have increased the price on GPU and made it extremely hard to buy good GPU’s.   I am just throwing this out for those who might want to check it out.  You might be able to find a low end GPU that will work for you until you can afford to get a good GPU.

Buy a High end GPU

So you’ve decided to buy a higher end GPU and you don’t want to pay the ridiculous prices that you are seeing from Amazon, or even other sites like that.   You want to get it for as cheap as possible but you don’t know how or where to look.  I’ve going to give you a few options that I know of but that will likely only be good for a small chance of getting a high end graphics card for cheaper than most.

  • NewEgg Shuffle – This is one those that I might get you a decent chance of getting a GPU that is closer to the MSRP or even at MSRP rates.   I just don’t like it when they bundle GPU’s with something that won’t work or you don’t need.   It sometimes does have the GPU’s that are sold by themselves and thus can be good sometimes.
  • Google Shop — Another good one because you can get notified when you find a cheap High end GPU that might work for your needs.  It however isn’t always accurate and thus you will need to keep that in mind when it comes to finding that high end GPU.
  • Shop Local Computer Repair Shops –  If you’re local shop has a website that will notify you when they have GPUs this would be a good time to keep watch on when they have a GPU.  You might even be able to find it closer to the MSRP.

Well these are just a few recommendations on how to either find a cheap Graphics card or if you are looking to try to find a high end gaming card for as cheaply as you can.  If you are really going to try to find a cheap Gaming Graphics card, this would be the ways I would do it.   Either way, you will most likely just always be looking until you find one that will work for you.

What’s some ways you have found a GPU that can work for your needs?  Why not leave a comment and tell people how you did it yourself.   I know these aren’t the only way to buy cards that are closer to the MSRP.  Like what you read, why not subscribe and find out more stuff that might help you with your computer parts.

Being more Honest with my Affiliate Links!

Google Affiliate Network Summit 035 Google Affiliate Network Summit 035 (Photo credit: Affiliate

Testing the Waters!

A friend told me, a couple days ago that I should be telling my readers when I have affiliate links.  He said I would would get even more sales if I were to be a little more honest with which ones are actually the ones that I make money off of!   It would better help those decide if your going to be a a good blog or not.   I really didn’t have much to say on the matter because I didn’t know what to say. I am sure there will always be those who will not tell you.   I thought it was quite obvious when I didn’t tell you but then I forgot I was hiding my affiliate links, not to be dishonest but to prevent programs and virus from taking away from all the work I have done.   I know there will always be people who will got the site directly and not give the site the credit.  I understand that, and somewhat expect that.

Honesty is the best Policy!

That being said, if you ever come to one of my posts and you see the (Affiliate links) or (Affiliate link) then it will be linked to this post.   So you can read about my honesty and understand that I am working really hard at changing.   Here is how this will work:

  • Reviews — I promise to my readers that I believe in the review of the product and that it is a recommendation from me.
  • Reimbursement — Hosting isn’t cheap now a days, that is I put up my Affiliate links and also to try supplement my working income.
  • If Gifted to me — I will clearly state that in my post and my review will no be swayed by the free gift of the item.  If it sucks, you will know about it and if it is something useful then you will also know about it.  I may however have affiliate links for the item.
  • Nicer URLS — even though I have hidden the urls and you have to click the URL to go the affiliate site in question, it is because the URL aren’t really neat and tidy.   If you feel offended because you can’t see URL then please feel free not to click those links.  (I wouldn’t want to see http://www.amazon.com/blah/blah/blah/blah/etc, anyways and I bet you don’t either)
  • Gift Cards — If you are wanting me to review a certain item and it is on Amazon or some other place then I will gladly accept a gift card through email(First name @ this domain).  However if it is something else please don’t hesitate to email me.
  • Review UNITS — Same as Gifted cards, if your wanting me to review an item but don’t know where to send it.   Please email me and I’ll discuss with you where to send it.  (First Name @ this domain)  Please bear in mind that I may not give a nice review, so I make no PROMISES and there are no expectations.

Prove to me!

I’ve done the unthinkable and stopped hiding all my links on this site.   So if you want me to continue to do it this way,  I will need to see a positive out come.   I was making money hiding sites links and not telling people about them being affiliate links.   Now I don’t want to see a drop in sales and money by being honest.   Help support my love to blog and being able to read about the stuff that matters to you.   Just like Glasses USA (Affiliate link) matters to me because I have to wear glasses everyday and I can’t afford to go buy some really expensive pairs of glasses.   They have been the one source for me, when I need to buy new glasses.  If you find a post that you really think is good, then don’t be afraid to share it on Facebook or Twitter.   Those are one ways to show your support of my blog.

Nothing shows support like sharing a post!

Paul Sylvester

Using Roboforms On Screen Keyboard

I’ve had someone ask about the On Screen Keyboard, and I thought I would show you how to use it:
roboformkeyboard

As you can see with Roboform, you have a option to use for on screen keyboard.  Just clicking the button on the right will do this:

roboformkeyboard1As you can see you can use the On screen keyboard to put in your master password, this is great for those who have the portable Roboform and use on several different systems.  Although the on screen keyboard is available on all versions of Roboform.  I’ve got the Pro version of Roboform but have the unregistered version of the Portable app and can only have 10 passwords a time, it at least lets me use on the road.

Roboform now has an option to back up your passwords on there website.  It is however requires you to have a Pro account this helps let you have your passwords on the road.   If you want to learn more about the specials that Roboform has just go check it out yourself.  If you would like to see other screenshots by all means see if it is right for you.

See my [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]review of Roboform[/intlink] to read it or download it directly.

Viacom might be going to HULU

According to some of the news post people are worried about Viacom leaving Time Warner. Now Here’s where Viacom might be going digital. What do I mean Digital, I am talking about going to HULU. If Viacom doesn’t sign a deal with Time Warner, that would leave a space ope for someone else like Hulu.

So Viacom isn’t happy with Time Warner, or They want to go IPTV. Some of the Headlines I’m seeing are:

These are just a few that I am seeing pop up around the internet.  So what does that mean to the internet user?  Well On one of there show’s like Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon will begin to stream some of the shows previews on Dec 29, 2009 for it’s next show.  When you go to Nickelodeon Site you get this:

nickplea

[ad#ad2-right]Although this just means they want as much money as possible this does give Hulu the chance to start streaming this type of content easier and probably be able to sign a contract with them without much of a fuss. After all Viacom wants to make money some how. So what can you do to get them to go to Hulu. Email Hulu and tell them and tell them you want Viacom to come to Hulu. If this happens so many things will happen with regards to online media.

Disaster preparation 101 — Data backup

In this one I will talk about Disaster, it happens to all of us from time to time. A fire, a earthquake, a stolen laptop or any number of ways. So what happens to your data, is it stored on the laptop? Is it important very sensitive data? Could you get fired if you lost that data?

[ad#ad2-right]These are all questions you must ask yourself when you have laptop. How do you backup your data or even do you have a backup? Having seen this with my own clients, I must wonder if there are people out there who just don’t care. I had a client the other day who gotten a virus and this was a really mean virus. Deleted some very important files when you tried to clean the virus out. She called me in a panic because she couldn’t load up windows? I asked if she had any backups, she said “what’s a backup” . So I sat there discussing this with the client for over 20 minutes. Finally she started to understand, she said she had the OEM Backup DVD but nothing else. She also said she needed help with getting data off the computer. I told her that I would be able to come the next day and I was lucky the virus didn’t do anything else to her data. We were able to retrieve the data from her system. That is where I start my rant , Why would anyone not have backup of there most important data?

So How do you backup your data? This is controversial and somewhat depends on how much people want to spend to keep there data safe and not loose pictures or music. There are several ways to do it, each way has it’s pitfalls or short comings and requires a little more effort:

Kinds of Backup

Hard Medium – DVD, CD, External Hard drive

Although,  The hard medium is usually used that doesn’t mean you can have a backup other than hard.   Here are some ways to back up on the internet.

Internet Medium:

  • Jungle Disk — Provides online storage through the Amazon s3 service.   Only pay for what you use.   It works well with most Operating system.  I’ve used it on Vista so it is really nice.
  • Carbonite Online backup –Another good Online storage.
  • Some Other Online backup — Here a list from Amazon to better help you find the type of software that you might need.

These are just a few options, if you want to look for other you can.  The important thing to do is BACKUP because if you need some data that gets wiped or destroyed.  You will be kicking yourself for not backing up.