KneeDeep

If you wish, you can clone the contents of the HDD to the NVMe SSD, though I think installing Windows 10 afresh to the new drive will be best.

The old HDD can stay within and be used as secondary storage. So a very fast drive for everyday use with the HDD used to store your larger files; movies, back-ups etc. A 256 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB HDD configuration. 

For even faster performance, you also can swap the 1 TB HDD for a 2.5" SATA SSD. So both drives will be solid state. Faster and more robust. You can move the laptop around whilst in use, without worrying about jogging or damaging the drive, as you would with an HDD.

You'll be very happy with the performance once the new NVMe drive is fitted. 

The only reason that I mention cloning, is that it is something a tech can do for you. So you don't have to stress yourself out having to learn nor do anything. 

The only issue with that, is if you have any malware running that is also contributing to your slowdown, it will simply be cloned over to the new drive. 

In short, the OS isn't a piece of ****, it's your hard drive. They should not be fitted to modern laptops. but people are still buying laptops because they see large capacity storage numbers like 1 TB. Here, size doesn't matter. It's speed that counts. Ditch the HDD or use it as secondary storage exclusively.

You can go through the Settings to disable some of the annoying aspects of Windows 10. One of the benefits of installing the OS yourself is that you can choose decline these options during the install.

The animations are possibly banner Ads from webpages and nothing to do with the OS.

They use up your resources and annoy you in the bargain. Use a Browser that automagically cleans up those webpages for you.

Duplicate

These are typical results for an HDD and SATA SSD respectively;

You have the opportunity to install the much faster PCIe NVMe SSD, as shown in the post above this one.

Install the operating system to that.

2 hours ago, brokenbone said:

no ssd

I don't know where you are located, but you need an M.2 SSD

An official ACER service centre should fit it for you at a cost of around 428 baht inclusive of VAT.

At least that is what they charge when I went to their Chonburi location.

You can read more here; https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/537125/install-m2-ssd-on-aspire-5-a515-51g

Almost 20x the speed of your current hard drive.

https://www.invadeit.co.th/product/solid-state-drives-ssd/adata/256gb-xpg-sx8200-pro-pcie-gen3x4-m-2-2280-ssd-asx8200pnp-256gt-c-p041443/ should do the trick.

18 hours ago, wayned said:

I followed the Ryzen build guide and came up with this, a little cheaper:

 

1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)* is included on this Motherboard. So you can choose either Motherboard.

JJ must have missed it. 

But it makes sense to go for the Pro version.

USB 3.1 Gen 1 is just the old USB 3.0 specification. Gen 2 is double the speed.

JIB prices seem a bit high. InvadeIT has the Pro4 Motherboard for 2450 baht

https://www.invadeit.co.th/product/motherboards/asrock/b450m-pro4-p039292/

48 minutes ago, Small Joke said:

Yes, I can see it now. 

Ethiopians getting rounded up in Sukhumvit just like the Nigerian dealers, not to mention the famous and nonchalant disdain Thais have for dark skin.

I'm sure they'll have a holiday to remember!

 

I was sitting in Took Lae Dee diner Soi 5 a while ago, two leery looking yoofs came in, ordered expensive dishes like bbq goong (supposedly haram?) ate it like pigs, then walked out -them no pay!

 

Quality tourists all the way!

Great story about the two youths. I mean, westerners never behave badly. 

Why are you so concerned about what is haram(I had to look it up)? Are you a Muslim?

Why are you so concerned about the quality of their holiday?

Do you think they were concerned about whether you left your country to consort with little brown women on the cheap....or not?

Brochure here; https://www.boi.go.th/upload/BOI-brochure 2018-smart visa-EN-20180125_97687_87299.pdf

SMART “S” might suit some. Though probably not many. ????

10 minutes ago, nkg said:

 

Liberals?

?

What is liberals?

Do you think that you are somehow harder than me because you think you have more extreme views?

I am writing about the sleazy hypocrites who fail to see that their ghettos are equally as unedifying as the ghettos that they describe as unsavoury. 

What has that to do with being liberal? That I am not on one's side or the other?

52 minutes ago, overherebc said:

I think the last time somone like you was reported to be on the planet it was also reported three wise men came from the east. Don't remember anything about them having cookies as gifts.

I think quite a few posters know your trolling by the way. ????

No....I am posting on topic. Concerning the attitudes some lowly beings have towards their fellow man. In this case, the North Africans and Middle Eastern visitors, having convinced themselves they are somehow superior.

Whereas you are posting about cookies and hookers. But you are only amusing yourself. We have a name for people who get off by amusing themselves.

2 minutes ago, Leaver said:

If that's the case, make a rule, and enforce it, nation wide.

 

For example:  a foreigner is allowed 3 x 30 stamps in a calendar year.  Or, a 2 tourist visas in a calendar year.  Or 1 tourist visa and and 2 x 30 day stamps.  That's it.  Put it in writing.  Release it to the mediai.  Set a start date.  Inform EVERY boarder office.  

 

At least then, people can plan when, and for how long they can stay here, and when they can return.

 

At the moment, it's a very unstable system, open to interpretation by individuals, with so much uncertainty. 

 

 

Think about how that does make sense at all. Not everyone is starting from zero visas or stamps.

Then what about the person who goes home between the visa exemptions and the ones who just pop over to neighbouring countries. 

Thank goodness they have discretion. They have the discretion to allow someone with 4 x visa exemptions if they think it is appropriate.

What if the particular problem is concentrated in certain areas? 

Note that there seemed to be many more refusals from people who are coming in from neighbouring countries, but don't actually live in those neighbouring countries. Don Mueang deserves a special mention here. As most are not flying in from their home countries to that airport.

I understand your frustrations, but people are always going to try to take advantage.

3 hours ago, seminomadic said:

No need to apologize for breaking it to him when you're wrong yourself. Westerners DID give Thailand int'l renown as the place for a man to find a certain fulfillment half a century ago. You're right in saying that sex workers have been in Thailand for 100's of years, but that's as a domestic industry, same as it is in Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, et al. Par for the course. There wasn't a sharp increase in red light districts catering to foreigners here in Thailand until Songkram Vietnam. That fact propelled Thailand into getting its reputation as adult Disney World.

I'm sorry but you appear yet another with delusions of grandeur. 

As if somehow you think bringing prostitution to the fore is something admirable. That makes you lowlife in most people's eyes.

Most people are of the opinion that inadequate men go there to look for small framed girls. 

But none of my visits to SE Asia had any connection with red light districts. That sordid perspective belongs to those who travel to Thailand just for those reasons.

When I was growing up, I remember that people were looking to the Philippines to find a partner.  My friend's dad did so and by all accounts she was a good partner. Worked in the U.K as a nurse. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Thailand. It had a bad reputation from the very beginning.

You could literally see the scorn on people's faces if you mentioned Thailand.

It was the backpackers that changed all of that. Bringing to the fore islands such as Samui, Pha Nghan, Tao, Phi Phi, Koh Chang etc

Taking back their stories and changing the perception that it was all sleaze and drugs being planted on innocents.

That is what made Thailand popular, not the disgusting sex tourists.

18 minutes ago, JAG said:

Golly, so many chips, you must have magnificent broad shoulders!

Chips? I don't eat chips. They might make you into a fat barsteward, slim.

But since you were probably referring to the phrase "Chip on your shoulder"....that is exactly to what I have been referring;

Quote

It can mean a person thinking too much of oneself (often without the credentials) or feeling entitled.

That sounds exactly those who feel that they are responsible for all of the fun in Thailand and that they are inherently better than the Chinese, Russians, Arabs, Africans.......

When we all really know their time is over. Just old has-beens, bitterly unable to accept the truth.

I don't have those illusions. 

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

If they are worse off than you why don't you hand out cookies? Oh sorry I forgot you just hand out money to hookers.

So you're a well off backpacker who travels around the world feeling sorry for people who are 'worse off than you,' your words. 

Do you help out other backpackers who are worse off than you?

Cookies seem to be on your mind. I associate that term with children. Perhaps there is something you are not telling.

No I don't give out cookies to anyone. But your behaviour suggest that you do. Perhaps you do need to be more carefully scrutinised.

Yes. I spend a fair bit of time helping others not fortunate enough to be in my position.  I wouldn't have even spoken to this girl, but her approach was so persistent and actually quite funny, that I just gave her the money for making me smile. Which in turn made her very happy. a happy ending.

I know you are just playing the fool and hoping that you will wind me up. But you are just revealing more about yourself and your behaviour.

I am no longer a backpacker. I started out as a backpacker and found many other fun things to do in Thailand than to hang around Lower Sukhumvit in the company of thieves and prostitutes. It was always a lowlife area, apart from perhaps Soi 1.

So when I read about sex tourists and other rejects complaining about Arabs and Africans around Soi 3, I can only surmise that those people imagine that they are somehow superior, when clearly, they are not.

Imagine that, a sex tourist exploiting the poor and desperate, throwing stones at Arabs and Africans. Pitiful.

Anyway, I have no wish to derail the thread from it's subject matter. Hopefully they can get their Tourist Visa from Vientiane and then plan their future from there on.

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes there is. See: http://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/en/news/announce/detail.php?ID=694

Another point is that the original official website is shown on this official page and the appointment one is not shown.

 http://www.thaiembassy.org/main/

Also note that embassy website is on the server as the the list of embassies is. And that the appointment site is a .com site.

Come on...stop now. ???? That wasn't the page to which you linked. The page you now show links people to the website I suggest anyway.

So are you suggesting that people trawl around the old web pages instead of just looking at the official new site?

Why is this continuing? 

You are confusing the Embassy proper and the Consular section. Aren't they in different buildings?

So the new website concerns just the Consular section.

39 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

 

How can a website -- any website -- be a reliable resource for info on visa requirements when actual practices, from Embassy to Embassy (and IO to IO within Thailand) frequently deviate?

 

The whole point of this visa forum is to provide up to date information on what Embassies/Consulates and IOs are actually doing in practice based on first hand reports.

??

What on earth?

Why is this being done to death??

Once again, it is just a simple premise of not directing people to this page; http://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/en/consular/visa.php as it was last updated in September 2015, but instead directing them to this one; https://thaivisavientiane.com

This is all I have been trying to explain for hours. 

That the official website, dated 2019, would be a more up to date source of information than one from 2015....which is predominantly in Thai script.

So instead of linking to the old and possibly outdated website, it would be better to link to the new.

It was assumed that it was just a website for appointments, which is clearly is not. It is the source of the latest information.

Just imagine he used the old website as a resource, without knowing there was a system of appointments. There is nothing about appointments on the 2015 website.

So once again, all I am stating is that it is better to direct to the new website than to the old.

I have not at any time suggested that we no longer need this forum now that we have the new website. 

I have just stated that one should point to the new website instead of the old.....or do you disagree and think that we should link to the old?

3 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Any beaver hunting allowed? During the rainy season gardening can be difficult.

People do what they do, for reasons known to themselves.

I only make the point that even though certain people who are doing things that can be and are looked down upon, they still think that somehow they should be considered superior to other tourists, nationalities, races.

So just like I don't let the sight of them bother me, neither do I pay attention to Africans and Arabs getting on with their lives.

If you want them to be scrutinised, don't be upset when someone else considers it is your time to be scrutinised.

What makes you any better?

Of course I am not referring to you personally. I am just making a very general point.

2 minutes ago, PhilippBKK said:

Libya and Niger show pretty high potential! TAT Roadshow coming soon....

 

Btw, the Pound is now at 39THB, so has the Exodus started? Can we get a report on homeless begging English expats in Pattaya, who are been giving handouts by North African tourists?!

I'm sure many are suffering. I wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone. Especially if they are old and unable to earn more.

Hopefully they will see a way through and continue to live productive lives. Maybe a bit of gardening, volunteering... whatever keeps one going.

1 minute ago, overherebc said:

Two cookies. Extra one to go with the 600 baht for the hooker.

Thanks, but no thanks. I rather give her the cash if she needs it that badly. No need to demean myself.