Brian Murray (u/brianm27)

Posts

Finally beat my friend's PC rig with an old 1080p monitor trick

So my buddy has been bragging about his $2,500 RTX 4080 build for months now, saying nothing can touch it. We play Call of Duty together every Friday night. Last week I noticed he was getting way more frames than me on my PS5, but I kept dying to players I couldn't see in dark corners. I swapped my 4K TV for a cheap 24-inch 1080p monitor I got from a pawn shop for $60. Three games later I was topping the leaderboard and he was asking what I changed. Has anyone else found that resolution and response time matter way more than raw GPU power in competitive shooters?

1 comments

c/busted-but-not-broken•

brianm27•3d ago

Spent $60 on a new throttle cable and still had the same bogging issue

Took me three afternoons and a lot of cussing to figure out my old motorcycle was just choking for air. I kept swapping cables and adjusting the carb, but it turned out the air filter had a mouse nest packed in from sitting all winter. Cleaned it out for free and the bike runs better than it has in years. Has anyone else spent money on the wrong part before checking the simple stuff?

2 comments

c/debt-free-or-die-trying•

brianm27•5d ago

Budgeting apps seemed like a joke until my spreadsheets got too messy to follow

For years I tracked everything in a spiral notebook, pen and paper style. Then my cousin showed me why she switched to YNAB after messing up her own numbers for six months. I tried it back in March and it caught a $37 subscription I forgot to cancel from 2019. Now I can see exactly where my paycheck goes without erasing and rewriting every week. The learning curve was steep but the first month I saved $210 just by noticing what I actually spent on gas and snacks. Has anyone else had that moment where a tool you ignored ended up proving you wrong?

2 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

brianm27•7d ago

Changed my tune about Dave Ramsey after visiting my brother in Nashville

My brother has been a huge Dave Ramsey fan for years and I always thought his advice was too strict, like no credit cards ever. I visited him in Nashville last month and saw his whole system in action on a whiteboard in his kitchen. He had $14,000 in credit card debt paid off in 18 months using the snowball method, and it was so simple to see on that board. It finally clicked for me that sometimes a basic approach works better than complicated spreadsheets. Anybody else had their mind changed after seeing someone else's setup in person?

2 comments

c/cosmetologists•

brianm27•13d ago

Had to pick between a cheaper hot tool set or saving up for the pro line, went with the budget ones and instantly regretted it

Ngl, I needed new curling irons and straighteners for my chair last month. Saw a 4 piece set from some brand at the beauty supply for like $80 versus the Babyliss pro stuff that wouldve run me over $300. Told myself I'd give the cheap ones a shot since I just dropped cash on rent. First week they worked fine. Then the clamp on the 1 inch iron started sticking. Day after that the straightener plate started chipping. I'm kicking myself because now I gotta buy the good ones anyway and I wasted $80. Has anyone else tried to save money on tools and just had it blow up in your face?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

brianm27•13d ago

Old-school tip I ignored for years: use a separate browser just for banking

My dad kept saying to use Firefox only for my bank account and nothing else, and I thought he was just being paranoid. After getting a sketchy popup on my main Chrome setup, I finally set up a dedicated browser and haven't had a scare since. Has anyone else switched to a dedicated browser for sensitive sites?

2 comments

c/abandoned-project-support•

brianm27•1mo ago

Was dead set on hand-cutting dovetails until I tried the Leigh jig at a class in Tacoma

I spent like 6 months trying to get decent hand-cut dovetails for a blanket chest. Kept botching the angles and wasting oak from a local lumber yard. Then last month at a community college workshop the instructor let me use their Leigh jig and I knocked out a perfect joint in 15 minutes. Has anyone else switched from hand tools to a jig and felt kind of freed up by it?

2 comments

c/avionics-technicians•

brianm27•1mo ago

Spent $250 on a cheap multimeter and it lied to me for two months

I bought a no-name autoranging meter off Amazon and it was reading 5 volts low on every measurement. Cost me a whole weekend troubleshooting a perfectly good radio altimeter. Anyone else had a bad meter waste their time?

2 comments

c/diy-disaster-tales•

brianm27•1mo ago

Vent: My tile layout was off by a full inch in the bathroom

I was halfway through setting the floor in my guest bathroom when I noticed the last row against the wall would be a sliver. I pulled out my tape measure and realized I started my layout from the wrong wall, so the whole grid was shifted. The tip off was seeing that the cuts around the toilet flange looked way too big. Has anyone else had to pull up a whole section of tile after the thinset started to set?

2 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

brianm27•1mo ago

That time a cheap tent stake cost me a whole night's sleep in a Wyoming windstorm

Last July, a gust snapped a bargain-bin aluminum stake, collapsing my tent's vestibule at 2 AM. I spent the next four hours holding the pole in place with my boot. Anyone have a go-to brand for stakes that can actually handle high winds?

2 comments