For a lot of people, this is a terrible time as future jobs are severally affected, some businesses may also end their venture for good. For some other group of people, this may be a good time to upgrade themselves or relax their damaged and fatigued mind from work. We compiled a list of some activities that you might want to pick up, by the end of the circuit breaker, you might emerge as a better and more readied person to face the future.

1. Upgrading Yourself Through Online Courses

If you are one of the few people who complained that you don’t have the time to upgrade yourself because you are too busy, this period is the best time for you to start doing so. There are several online courses that you can attend, making yourself more competitive in the future. In NTUC learning club, there are several courses that anyone can participate to upgrade yourself. There are virtual live lessons categorized into “Adaptive”, “Technical” and “Technology” skill courses. You can even visit the Udemy portal to enroll even more courses, so many courses that you might even be learning something totally different from what you are working as a professional. You can even use your “SkillsFuture” credit to pay for some of the courses. If you want to have a little adventure, you might also be able to learn lessons from YouTuber on several career-related skills. Make full use of the time, you might even find a new field for you to shine in.

Online courses from NTUC Learning hub:

• https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/
• https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/udemy/2.

2. Catching Up The Time with Your Family

If there is anything that any elderly people told me about their regrets, “I hoped to have spent more time with my family” always comes out of their mouths. In a fast-paced society like Singapore, many parents do not have the luxury to spend time with their children, children do not have time to spend time with their aging parents if they are still staying with them. This is a time for many people that have been busy with their work to spend quality time with their family, do not leave any regret when this is all over.

3. Relax Your Mind with The Latest TV Shows and Movies on Your Streaming Platform

With the emergence of streaming platforms such as Netflix and HOOQ, there are a lot of movies and TV shows for people to dive into. However, because of the immense workload that we have on our shoulders, most of us are unable to spend more time to watch all the latest TV shows and movies. Since most of us are working from home, we can almost straight away dive onto our couch and start to watch the latest K-dramas and movies. I have been spending my time watching documentaries and movies on my streaming platform, and it is something I have been missing for a long time.

4. Work Out to Strengthen Your Body

As many doctors and healthcare experts already stated that a strong immunity is not only crucial in the fight against the COVID-19 virus, but it is crucial in our everyday activity against any form of illness as exercise helps to strengthen the immune system. Like all the suggestions above, most of us cannot use the “not enough time” excuse to not exercise during this period. Of course, we must adhere to social distancing during our workout. Do not exercise outdoor with anyone right now, even with your family members in the same household. You may also consider exercising in the comfort of your own home, your family can even join you during the home workout sessions, keeping everyone healthy.

5.Explore the Virtual World of Video Games

Video games exist for a long time and it has evolved into a mainstream entertainment giant in modern time. There are online video games that you can play with your friends across the globe, fighting enemies in a dungeon or just simply amaze at the world that only exist in a server. There are games that offer adventures to touches your heart, giving your mundane life a bit of excitement. There are also games that you can play on your phone that offers you to think critically to solve puzzles. Personally, I have been diving into “Final Fantasy VII Remake” and enjoying how the slums and towns in the game feel so lively. There is also a rise in the gamers’ average age group, older people are getting into video games to enjoy something that many other entertainments cannot offer. Let yourself go and indulge yourself in a game.

We Should Not Take Things for Granted

We are somewhat considered lucky if we are working from home during this circuit breaker period. We are working in a safe environment, at our own pace, or at least as much as we can control, without worrying that we may put any of our loved ones in danger. Essential workers do not have that luxury, especially for people working at the healthcare front lines, facing an unknown and highly contagious virus. Every single one of them worries if they might get infected and infect their families unknowingly while putting food on the table. Let us work hard to get through this pandemic and let us help our family and friends in the essential services by staying at home.

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The Game Changer Arrives

Puns aside, “Final Fantasy VII” (FFVII) was indeed a game-changer in many fields and they continue to make influences to many people around the world. In the early 1990s, video game consoles venture into the fifth generations and the world will see the emergence of 3D graphic gaming as the mainstream for the very first time. One of the newcomers in the industry is Sony’s PlayStation, rocking some of the most advance spec in the machine and third-party developer-friendly approach, PlayStation slowly became one of the most important gaming consoles of the fifth generation. Obviously, Squaresoft, now known as Square Enix, decided to bring their flagship series to PlayStation, the latest entry of the series, “FFVII”.

Series creator and producer, Sakaguchi Hironobu, suffered from the loss of his mother, created the overall theme of FFVII. FFVII story revolves around several themes, from what I can determine, there are two themes. There are as follows:

• Sense of lost and getting stronger by embracing and overcome that lost
• Parenthood by blood or by relationship

The characters and I dare say ALL the major characters went through a certain level of pain after losing something or someone important to them. The interesting thing about these characters is that all of them grow to be a better person, those who did not overcome their loss were corrupted by their grief and become monsters. Not only that, but FFVII also focuses a lot on parenthood. It tackles the notion of “what does it take to be a parent, blood or relationship?” and it was very prominent to any player playing the game. One example and I would not give spoilers to the story, in the game, there is one character who adopted a friend’s young daughter despite having no children himself. He became a very caring father throughout the story and his motivation to do what he does is his daughter. In contrast to this specific character, the main villain went absolutely on the opposite side after learning the truth about his birth, which in the end lead him to do many horrific deeds.

When I played the game way back in 1998, I was too young to understand the deeper meaning of the game, I only understand the cool looking characters and blood pumping battle in the game. Only when I was a little older, I start to understand the story and were blown away by its story. The way that Sakaguchi created the story based on his real-life experiences, splitting his experience on several characters in the game, shows the craftmanship in his storytelling.

Being the first game in the series to adapt the 3D graphic, the developers faced many technical issues as there are not enough references in the industry for what they are about to create. When players around the world finally got their hands on the game, we were blown away by the graphic. It was a game in the 90s, it cannot be compared with the modern video games, but the technical achievement they made is mind-boggling. Developers cleverly used pre-rendered backgrounds to save space, at the same time allow developers to place camera and lighting at specific places to create a cinematic experience not seen in games before. FFVII is also one of the first few games to utilize CGI in gaming, creating exciting cinematic sequences for the world to awe at, the summoning sequence is one good example of those graphics in-game.

Music was phenomenal as well, veteran music composer Uematsu Nobuo, created the music tracks for the game. Out of all the tracks, fans would not deny that “One-Winged Angel” is the most recognizable music piece of the game, if not of the entire series.

A large number of quests to do in-game was also unheard of during the fifth generations, collectibles in-game that assist the player to be more efficient in battle allow the player to seek out every single item to beat the almost undefeatable optional bosses. It is very easy to invest more than 50 hours into the game before all stones are turned.

Impact It Had on Me

As mentioned above, I was too young to understand the game and its story when I played it. When I got older, the story hit me like a brick fired from a canon. It is the first time I ever felt the importance of a person’s past and experience to his or her growth, and I witness many people in real life with several issues, growing up to be a good or bad person depends on how they eventually accept their past. It gave me a different perspective on looking at life, looking at my own past experiences and how they shaped me into who I am right now, enduring and overcome your past will make you stronger.

As soon as I enter my adulthood, I still occasionally go back to visit the world of FFVII to experience the magic again. Right now, working in the creative industry, it impacted me on how I create my work. FFVII is one of the few entertainments that combines narrative, deeper meaning, music, and interaction in a cohesive manner, creating a good glass of wine that everyone loves. I remember how the music always made sure that players feel the emotion when they reached a certain point of the game, especially that one scene. The way that the music made me feel all kinds of emotions. Ask any fans, they can identify which scene it was.

FFVII is one of my main influences when I write any story and put it to film, I always consider music as one of the key components to tell a story, I make sure that my film contains a certain level of deep meaning to my characters’ backstory. Other than my creative project, FFVII also taught me an important life lesson. It taught me to understand a person’s past, sometimes people became who they are right now because they cannot overcome their history and friends like us is essential to help them to be a better person.

Reliving the Legend

In June 2015, I was sitting in front of my computer, looking at the so-called “Final Fantasy VII Remake” teaser. I could not believe my eyes, as time and time again, Square Enix had denied any possibility of an FFVII Remake since they release a technical demo of PlayStation 3, rendering the opening of FFVII. Approximately two minutes later, I roared in extreme excitement along with all the fans around the world, that a remake of FFVII is in the works. It was once deemed impossible and every fan gave up any hope as the year passed by. In order to ride on the hype train, Watanabe Coffee customized their shop into a pop-up Final Fantasy VII Remake themed café. Patrons can order a set meal and receive two random coaster and a dining mat, if you ordered any individual items, you may also receive a random coaster. The café is filled with standees of key artwork, posters, and even the Kai Art action figure. If you are a huge fan of FFVII, this place is a must to fill up your hype for the remake.

Right now, on the 10th of April 2020, after a month of delay from its original release date in March, fans and other players can finally get their hands on the remake. Please be minded, although, through multiple interviews and press conferences, Square Enix has mentioned that this remake is just the first part of the whole project, which will cover to the point when the characters escaped Midgar.

At the time of writing this article, everyone in Singapore should be under the Circuit Breaker period, which means everyone must stay at home to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the best time for anyone to relive this legend from 23 years ago, in modern gaming technology and modern graphics. For all the fans, let your inner child that has been sleeping for more than two decades awake once again, for the reunion.

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According to boxofficemojo.com, over the past 10 years, Singapore contributed almost 100 million dollars per year to the global box office. However, there is a trend that you can observe from the information above, all the number one movie released was all big-budget blockbuster. Very few releases are local movies, and these local films have no choice but to go against some of the biggest movies of the year.

According to Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the top-grossing movie in 2019 was “Avengers: Endgame”, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, it earned a total of 18.27 million SGD by the end of its run. In comparison, the highest-grossing Singapore film in 2019 is “Killer not stupid”, directed by Jack Neo, but it only earned only 767554 SGD. Despite being the highest-grossing Singapore movie and released during the Chinese New Year period, “Killer not stupid” pales when compared to other foreign movie releases. In 2019, even the lowest box office earning in the top 10 list from IMDA is “Disney’s The Lion King” also earned five million SGD by the end of its run. Although using box office earnings to judge a movie’s quality is wholly not serving justice, but it also shows how many people paid money to watch the movie.

What exactly happened?

According to the data from IMDA, we can see that in the last three years, 2017 to 2019, most of the high grossing Singapore movies are all Chinese New Year movie. Chinese New Year (CNY) is a very interesting time period for movie releases and is mostly strictly for portraying the holiday mood, there is very little difference between all the CNY movie releases. From the story to the overall theme and even genre, CNY movies contain very little risks and require very little effort to write. As long filmmakers remain on track, making a family-friendly CNY movie, audiences are willing to spend money during this period to catch a movie, thus the very reason why the highest-grossing Singapore movies are mostly CNY movies. However, this is also precisely the problem for local movies. Outside of CNY movies, local filmmakers struggle to produce movies that captivate attention from local audiences.

Creating a genre film is also a huge problem for many Singapore filmmakers, as there is a lot of skepticism over locally produced genre films from the audiences. There is three most common genre in local movies, they are “comedy”, “horror” and “drama”. According to IMDA 2019 film stat, out of the six theatrical releases, two were comedy genre, two were horror, one was drama and the other was a crime thriller. Although there are some non-theatrical, the genre explored still did not go beyond the three genres mentioned.

Lastly, although this is more of a comment from a professional filmmakers’ standpoint, filmmakers tend to have trouble funding their movies from investors. From a business standpoint, local movies have very little probability to earn enough money to make a profit, thus investors either invest a small amount of money or avoid funding movies totally. This also means that the resources for local filmmakers are limited, they are making movies with both hands tied behind their backs. Despite that there are some movies made with extremely low budgets, such as “The Blaire Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”, but those are some of the extreme cases, it cannot be applied to every filmmaker’s project.

What Do the Audiences Think?

I have conducted a survey to seek moviegoers’ opinion on local movies, although the numbers were small, the results are interesting. All audiences across all ages watch movies regularly, most people between the age of 25 to 35 years old, many of them are Singaporeans and Permanent Residents. When asked about the names of Singapore directors that they can be named, no surprise, most of them mentioned Jack Neo, Eric Khoo and Royston Tan, but they can’t name many other local movies.

I asked a follow-up question: “Why do you not watch local movies”, this is where the answers get very interesting. The answers were all varied, but they can be simplified into several reasons.

• “Not enough marketing is done to create attention to the release of the films”
• “Not enough exhibition or screening of the local movie”
• “Filmmakers did not explore more than just stereotypes and prejudices”
• “Movies are too identical to one another”
• “Local movies did not explore any other genres than horror, drama, and comedy”
• “Production value and storytelling pales when compared to foreign movies”

Although the audiences rated Singapore movies average around 4.8/10, many of them are still looking forward to local movies if there are more diverse local movies being made, especially if the movies can explore more genres and move away from stereotypes.

We Are Getting Better Bit by Bit

Over the last five years, Singapore local movies are getting more recognition and awards, more new blood is being added into the industry to bring new life. In 2017, director Kirsten Tan was nominated and won several international film festival’s awards all over the globe with her film, “Pop Eye”. Director Yeo Siew Hua also won several international film festival’s awards, including Golden Horse Film Festival and Locarno International Film Festival, which are some of the most prestigious awards any filmmaker can hope to receive.

Singapore filmmakers are also starting to experiment with other genres to increase the entertainment value of their movies. Director Jacen Tan shook the ground with his work, “Zombiepura” in 2018. Prior to “Zombiepura”, there is no attempt to blockbuster movies in the last five years. There are also more future projects that Singapore filmmakers are experimenting to create a more compelling and captivating movie for audiences. A monster movie, “Circle Line” directed by J.D Chua, is working on its post-production, Singapore first monster movie. Fans of a local comic book “Celestial Zone” can also look forward to the movie adaptation of the comic book, as announced by Wee Tian Beng, the creator himself. According to the Facebook post from TCZ Studio, the shoot will commence in 2020, fans can expect more news to surface soon.

Singapore movie does have a lot of trouble and filmmakers must do a lot of proving that local movies can be as good as any blockbuster foreign movie. It is true it is extremely difficult for the local movies to be as spectacular as the latest blockbuster, but the future seems to be brighter than usual. We are most certainly hoping to see local Singapore movies to shine brighter with more local directors testing new grounds.

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The rise of dengue fever

Before the outbreak of coronavirus reports of the number of dengue is rising steadily.

According to the website, the case of the new dengue strain peaked at 404 cases during mid-January and it is still increasing without any sign stoping.

According to the graph provided by NEA we can see that the number of dengue infections per week ranges between 303 and 404.

In 2019, Singapore experienced the third-highest number of deaths from dengue infection: 20.

And the number of cases this year exceeds last year’s over the same period. Way more than COVID-19.

DenV-3 is a new strain of the dengue virus.

To make the situation worse this new strain of dengue DenV-3 was not detected in the past 3 decades as most of the cases in Singapore were DenV-1 and DenV-2.

With Singapore’s population was not exposed to the new strain of DenV-3 it could mean most of us Singaporean does not have immunity towards it therefore the transmission rate will be higher.

The situation does not end here. NEA further provide new observation where among all the infected patient there is a higher proportion of DenV-3 (47%) as compared to DenV-2 (39%)

At the time of writing, there are 114 active dengue clusters with the largest at:

• Begonia Drive (166 cases)
• Gangsa Road (96 cases)
• Jalan Kembangan (85 cases)
• Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 (67 cases)
• Jurong West St 91 (57 cases)

You can read the entire list here.

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No Successor

For many decades, we have enjoyed local food at our fingertips. Sometimes, we may also enjoy it with our parents and our children, spanning across generations. Not only that, there are many hawker stalls that are more than 50 years old. However, many parents taught their children, and still do, to be highly educated in order to have higher-paying jobs with very little physical work required. This resulted in many children having the wrong impression that hawker is not a worthy career to even consider.

As of right now, many hawker owners are getting older, some of them are in their 80s, yet they are still operating today. Many of them are not retiring due to some very simple reasons, some of them reflected me that either they do not want to end their business and spend the rest of the day doing nothing or they are hoping their customers can get to enjoy good food as long as they can.

It does shine a very sad light upon the future of our hawker culture, as many famous hawkers ended when their culinary skills and recipe did not get passed down to the next generation.

Increased difficulty in operating a hawker.

In contrast to many people’s prejudice, operating a hawker stall is not as simple as it seems. A hawker owner will have to adhere to many examinations and criteria before they can start their business, they have to attend hygiene course as a requirement from NEA, ensuring all operators are able to produce food in a hygiene manner. Not only that, each stall will be graded based on the standard of hygiene, if it is too low, the owner may not be able to continue to operate their stall. Although it is extremely important to the operator and hawker patrons, it does prove to be an obstacle for any potential hacker to start a new business.

All of us enjoy having our favorite meals in a hawker center, or a name is commonly known by older generations, “Kopitiam”. Roughly translated into “Coffee shop”, they exist throughout history and lasted to this day. Now, these coffee shops are facing the biggest obstacles of all, rental. As Singapore constantly developing its own infrastructure, the rental of each stall is also getting higher. If the location is good enough, the rental will reach a ridiculous price. Many operators wanted to maintain a low-priced hawker food, but the high rental fee proves to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, resulting in many operators to fold up their business for good. Rubbing salt in the wound, many large corporations also required the owners of the stall to pay 10% to 20% of their weekly avenue on top of the rental, this is not helping to preserve and prosper the hawker culture.

Change in eating habit

People’s eating habit changes every now and then, but they are mostly following a trend. A few decades ago, people looked at the taste and price of their food, which is the attraction of hawker food. In the last decade, people are looking for healthier food, low carbohydrate, salt, sugar or even trans-fat free food are the key components. Hawker food of the old cannot provide or very little healthy choice for patrons. Thus so, many patrons decided to avoid hawker food to pursue a healthier lifestyle.

Hawker food also faces the challenge from celebrities’ restaurants and cafés, eating places such as these offer food and creative dishes patrons won’t be able to find in hawker food. As such, many younger foodies will favor such restaurants and cafes. Some of these places even offer food at a lower price too, thus more attractive to younger foodies.

It is not all dark and moody

There are certainly a lot of factors that cause many hawker owners to end their business, some even put potential hackers at bay from starting their journey in culinary. However, there is still hope for our hawker culture.

There are some younger hawkers either started their business in the culinary world or taking over their parents’ legacy and continue on to bring good food to their faithful customers. We have mentioned quite a few times of the Delicious Boneless Chicken Rice, located in Katong Shopping center. As the first-generation owner was approaching their silver years, the future of their stall seems bleak. Until 2018, their son, Soki Goh decided to start learning their culinary skills and operations, so the first-gen owner can retire while the stall continues to the next generation.

Another stall that also successfully passed down to the next generation is “Teck Huat Coffee Roti”. The first-generation owner, Tony Soh, has passed the baton to his son, Alvin Soh, to run the multiple stalls around Singapore and seemingly operated with much higher efficiency.

Singapore government also implemented several policies to further assist hawkers to operate and keeping prices low. In 2018, Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Dr. Amy Khor, mention focussing on improving the Social-Conscious Enterprise Hawker Centre (SEHC) model that was already implemented into the seven new hawker center back in 2018. The SEHC is programmed to give support to stall owners to manage costs better, allowing better oversight for a regulator like the National Environment Agency (NEA) to take care of hawkers. Singapore even nominated hawker culture for 2019 UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, in the hope to preserve the hawker culture in Singapore for future generations.

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First and foremost our guide consist of parts purchase directly from the USA and if you are concern about your warranty than this might not be the best way for you. Some brands have an international warranty and some does not so do take that in mind.

Sim Lim Vs Amazon

Sim Lim has always been the first that comes to our mind when comes to custom build PC but they are not always the cheapest when comes to computer component. We have noticed a significant discount over various parts which I will explain later on in the article.

Do note that if you purchase anything more than SGD $400 dollars from Amazon or Newegg you are subjected to 7% GST and our guide has taken that into consideration.

If you are looking to save a couple of hundreds and around 10 – 30% off your build do read on for the price comparison. Our price comparison will be taken from Sim Lim Square notable shops like Fuwell, Bizgram and Cybermind.

Buying the cheapest component online requires a lot of price comparison and we have done that you for so you will not have to do all the hardworking.

Amazon Prime members sometimes have unbelievable special discounts, free shipping and you can leverage on it. Click here or the banner to get the free 30 days Amazon Prime!

CPU and Motherboard

With AMD releasing their new 2nd Gen Ryzen CPU the 3000 series and with competitive price with the best bank for buck our recommended build will be based on the Ryzen architecture.

CPU has less discount when purchasing it on Amazon or Newegg. It depends on which CPU and Motherboard you decide to buy. Do note that purchasing over SGD$400/- in a single cart will result in paying Singapore GST of 7% so bear in mind to purchase the unit separately if it has a combined cost of more than SGD$400.

It is probably better to buy it in Singapore if the CPU and Motherboard you wanted cost more than SGD $400. Furthermore, you will be covered by a local warranty BUT if you are looking to purchase a Ryzen 3600 and a motherboard that cost less SGD $400 than you could have a significant saving.

We have listed down the comparison of 3 different CPU and the best-reviewed Motherboard for you below.

CPU – Ryzen 3600, 3700X and 3900X

The reason why we choose this 3 processor is that they are the best in term of price to performance ratio. The Ryzen 3600x and 3800x is respectively faster than Ryzen 3600 and 3700x but a margin of 3 – 7% but for an extra $80 – $100 dollars more which you can pump that money to another component like better GPU graphics card.

*Do note that purchases from Amazon you will need to factor in shipping cost and GST if the item is over SGD$400. They are subjected to 7% GST.

When comes to CPU we recommend to purchase it either in Sim Lim or Lazada/Shopee as the price difference is small. For people who really want to get the best deal, we recommend that you should wait for Lazada sales where they give out hefty vouchers that you can use. Lazada often gives out vouchers like $30 and $50 off your purchase.

Motherboard

Choosing a motherboard can be quite challenging for a custom builder who is new in it. There are so many choices out there and it can be overwhelming if you do not know what to look out for. Fear not as we got you covered. We have shortlisted the best motherboard for B450 and X570 chipset for your Ryzen build.

Why did we not choose any X470 motherboard? With the newly released X570 and a vast improvement on future proof support and they cost slightly above the cost of X470 motherboard we see no reason in investing in it unless they went on a cut on a crazy sale. The X570 motherboard gives you the new PCIe-4, huge improvement on their VRM design and some even support the new WIFI 6.

VRM is known as volt regulator modules. As their name stated they are used to control and send voltage to your CPU. To put it simply the better the VRM the better thermal you will get for your precious CPU. You do not want to fry to CPU, don’t you?

PCIe-4 support is for future-proofing. As of now, there are no graphic cards that needed it. Currently, the only benefit of PCIe-4 is the new PCIe-4 SSD that gives you the crazy speed of up to 15gb/s. Unless you are going for an overkill build we suggest you stick to B450 motherboard that we recommended.

When comes to motherboard we recommend to purchase it either in Sim Lim or Lazada as the price difference is small. For people who really want to get the best deal, we recommend that you should wait for Lazada sales where they give out hefty vouchers that you can use. Lazada often gives out vouchers like $30 and $50 off your purchase.

RAM DDR 4

How much GB of ram is enough? We always ask ourself that and to be honest if you are running 1-2 games simultaneously 16GB is good enough but if your build is meant for professional productivity like video editing or any professional workflow that often requires you to opening multiple application then we recommend you to go straight for 32GB.

When comes to choose ram we need to look at 3 factors, GB, Mhz and CL. What are those? The GB or gigabyte is the capacity of the ram can run. Mhz and CL (Cas Latency) works hand in hand to determine the speed of the ram. We recommend that you choose ram that is at least 3000mhz with a CL 15.

Purchasing ram on Amazon could save quite a buck for you as in Singapore the Ram are price way higher. Look at our chart below for comparison. We recommend that you purchase your ram on Amazon.

SSD – Solid State Drive

HDD vs SSD – We highly recommend you to go full SSD as the price has gone down significantly and it is now worth every penning you spend! The cost of 1tb HDD is around $70-80 but the price of 1tb SSD on Amazon cost you double the price at around $160 BUT at 20x the speed! So it is a no brainer to choose SSD over HDD.

There are so many types of SSD out there that run on a different connection like SATA3, PCI-e, M.2 and NVMe M.2. These are a different generation of SSD and how they have evolved. SATA 3 is considered ancient technology in SSD and we do not recommend you buying that. Furthermore, the price difference between these SSDs is small at around $10-30 difference and at major speed difference too. Right now NVMe M.2 is the way to go and it is plucked directly onto your motherboard with no need of cable management so why not?

NVMe M.2 SSD comes in the different interface too! So bear in mind to read the description when purchasing. The most important keyword to take note is “PCIe 3×4” when comes to choosing which SSD you want.

When come to price comparison Amazon completely blow their competition apart. Amazon price is found to be almost $80-100 dollars cheaper!

PSU – Power Supply Unit

The power supply (PSU) is typically one of those parts that are often overlooked when it should be considered one of the most important components of the build. Also, many people pick a power supply based only in the total amount of wattage, assuming that the higher the number is always better, which is not necessarily true.

if you don’t get a quality unit with the right wattage, you may not only end up wasting money and electricity, but you could also end up ruining your computer parts. 

PSU comes in different class categories and depending on the efficiency you choose it gives you different power saving.

• 80+ White is 80 percent power efficient.
• 80+ Bronze is 85 percent power efficient.
• 80+ Silver is 88 percent power efficient.
• 80+ Gold is 90 percent power efficient.
• 80+ Platinum is 92 percent power efficient.
• 80+ Titanium is 94 percent power efficient.

Usually, an 80+ White or Bronze power supply is what most people need. Of course, you can always go with more efficient power supply if a good deal is available.

The price of PSU between Amazon and Singapore retailer are of the same so we can just purchase the PSU within the Singapore retail platform. I have listed down some of the recommended PSU and price difference across Sim Lim and Shopee. To be honest just get the White, Bronze or Gold.

GPU – Graphics Card

Nvidia or AMD? Well, you have to decide which team are you on but since we are recommending AMD Ryzen we should also recommend the new RX 5700 and RX 5700xt by AMD.

Let’s compare the performance between AMD’s RX 5700 and Nvidia’s RTX 2060 as they are priced the same. According to GPU user benchmark, we listed the comparison below,

As you can see with the same price point the RX5700 outperform the RTX 2060 and that is why we highly recommend you to purchase the RX 5700.

For GPU we recommend you to purchase from Sim Lim Square itself as they are price the same as what Amazon is selling. I have listed the charge below for your comparison too.

*NOTE: Our comparison is of the same model but a different brand.

Chasis – Computer Case

With the computer case size, it is a no brainer to purchase it from Sim Lim or Lazada/Shopee as the shipping cost would cost you a bomb and there is not much of a price difference to purchase this item overseas.

If you are into a case that provides you with good airflow that is below $150 then we recommend the follow chasis for you.

CPU Cooler – Liquid cooler(AIO) or Airflow Cooler.

Choosing between liquid cooler or airflow cooler really depends on what you like. Airflow cooler performs just as well as a highly-priced liquid cooler (AIO). I personally do not use AIO as they might have leakage issue and that is a major factor why I hate AIO so much. So I will be a bit of bias here.

Airflow cooler is way cheaper and they perform competitively with AIO. I have listed down 3 of my favourite airflow cooler for your reference on the chart below.

• Cooler Master Hyper 212 – $35
• Deepcool GAMMAXX GTE RGB – $35
• Noctua NH D15 – $130 ( For Super Overclocker)

Recommended Gaming PC built for under SGD $1300

To archive this you need to sign up for free 30 days Amazon Prime CLICK HERE

A whopping difference of SGD $376 and we haven even add in the discount code that could be applied on Lazada and Shopee respectively which we are certain to bring the overall price to be under SGD $1300/-

If all this is a hassle to you than we recommend you to build your PC with Aftershock PC but be prepared to pay a premium for their services.

For the same spec but with better chasis and other small RGB items be prepared to pay SGD $1820/-. Let us know what you think.

The post The Ultimate Guide for the ​Cheapest way to build custom PC in Singapore (Sim Lim VS Amazon) [Ryzen Build] appeared first on unLABELED ft..

Let’s be honest the free SGD$170 doesn’t just fall from the sky and Coinbase definitely has to benefit from it and it does require some referral from your part to get the full amount of SGD $170/- BUT! if you are too lazy to do referral you can still be able to get SGD $84 dollars for free.

So what is Coinbase? Coinbase is the largest and the most popular platform to grab your first cryptocurrency with your credit/debit card. They are trustworthy and are regulated company and holds licenses in all districts in which it operates.

Now if you are new to Cryptocurrency please do follow our steps closely.

Step 1 – Register an account with Coinbase.

1. Register your account with the link here to get SGD $14/-.
2. Link your credit/debit card
3. Purchase SGD $140/- worth of Ethereum to receive the free SGD $14/- from our link. (Skip this step if you do not intend to put in any money) *[Note you can always draw the money after you got the free money]

Step 2 – Go to “Coinbase Earn”

1. Head on to https://www.coinbase.com/earn

Coinbase earn is newly introduced by Coinbase with collaboration with other popular cryptocurrencies. They give you free crypto in exchange for you to learn and understand the benefit of blockchain technology.

We have tested it out and currently (26/08/2019) only DAI, EOS, Stellar Lumens and Basic Attention Token is giving out free crypto. Well, free crypto = free money anyway.

Simply just click into any crypto listed on the page and follow their steps to earn. Most of them just required you to watch a 2mins clip and answer their quiz. But for EOS and XLM it would require you to refer 4 more people to Coinbase to earn the referral money which amounts to SGD $80/-

If you do not want to go the extra mile you are still able to get around $50/- from doing all the quiz which only took you 30mins? Not bad isn’t it?

2) Step 3 – Convert all your earned Crypto to Ethereum (ETH)

1. Click on the Trade button on Coinbase
2. 
3. After this windows popup click on the Convert section.
4. Convert all your earned Crypto to Ethereum (ETH) The reason why we convert to ETH is due to its low transfer fee which we have to transfer it to another platform in order to withdraw it out to our bank account
5. 

After converting all the earned Crypto to ETH we then move on the next step.

Step 4 – Setting up Binance.sg and Xfers.com for withdrawal

Now, this is a litter complicated so do-follow through. Currently, we are unable to withdraw money out from Coinbase hence we need to use another popular platform call Binance.sg [not .com] and Xfers.com

1. Sign up for Binance.sg account using this link to get SGD $20/- (After topping up SGD $100) [You can always withdraw the money after you top it up. To top up money please follow the next step.]
2. Sign up for Xfers.com account.
   1. Link your bank with Xfers
   2. Follow their instruction carefully on how to transfer funds to Xfers
   3. Link your Xfers account with Binance.sg
3. Now you will see the amount you have on your Xfers being reflected on Binance.sg dashboard.
4. 
5. We recommend purchasing Ethereum as their transfer fees are lower than Bitcoin.
6. Purchase $100 worth of ETH and you will receive $20/- as bonus

Step 5 – Transfer all your ETH on your Coinbase to Binance.sg

1. On Binance.sg go to “Account section” and you will see Ethereum Recieve and Send.
2. 
3. Click on the “Recieve” Button to find out your “ETH Address”
4. 
5. Click on the copy address to copy the address.
6. Go to Coinbase and go to “Account” section.
7. 
8. Find ETH wallet and click on the send button
9. 
10. Paste the address that you copied from Binance.sg
11. Double-check the address again as it is not reversible and your money will be gone if the address is wrong.
12. Continue and send. It will take 1 – 10 minutes to show up in your Binance.sg account
13. Once the ETH show up in your Binance account goes to “buy/sell” section and click on ETH on the “I want to sell” and “Designation” to Xfers
14. 
15. Lastly goes to your Xfers account and withdraw it out to your linked bank account. Do note the minimum withdrawal is set at SGD $100/-
16. 

Now just wait for the funds to be transferred and you are $170 richer! We hope you like our content and do follow our Facebook page for more content like this.

The post Free SGD $170/- worth of Cryptocurrency offered by Coinbase – Here is how you can convert the free $$$ to your bank account. appeared first on unLABELED ft..

As we are looking for a new gimbal we source out the cheapest Moza Air 2 you can find currently in the market and it is even cheapest that what was sold on their official website at USD $549 which converted to around SGD $750.

Moza Air 2 has received many good reviews is currently one of the best budget gimbals out there comparing with their competitors like DJI and Zhi Yun. We list down the price for all 3 popular gimbal for your comparison.

1) Moza Air 2 – (Reccomended)

Specification

MOZA Air 2 is capable of handling most DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and pocket cinema cameras weighing up to 9 lbs(4.2kg), allowing you the freedom to choose from a wider range of camera and lens combinations and accessories. Four high-rate Li-ion 18650 replaceable batteries give the MOZA Air 2 a maximum runtime of 16 hours. You can easily bring extra batteries with you to last through a whole day of filming.

Check out the price here

2) Dji Ronin S Essential – SGD

Specification

DJI Ronin-S featuring: • Superior 3-Axis Stabilization • Max Operating Speed 75kph • Tested Payload Capacity 3.6kg • Max Battery Life 12hrs • Camera Control • Pro Accessory Compatibility • Fine Focus Control • Automated Smart Features • Angled Roll Motor

Click here for the price

3) Zhi Yun Crane 3 Lab

Specification

The Zhiyun-Tech CRANE 3 LAB takes gimbal design in a different direction with the addition of a handle on top. With an included mini tripod attached on the bottom and this fixed, ergonomic handle on top, the CRANE 3 LAB can be used two-handed for optimal stability. Moreover, the handle enables you to seamlessly switch to underslung mode, whether with one or two hands, and achieve creative shots such as 360° roll shots as you move closer toward a subject. In addition to this innovative design, the CRANE 3 LAB also packs other advanced features, such as wireless video transmission, and provides the ability to stabilize up to 10 lb (4.5kg) loads

Check out the price here

Featured photo credit from official Gudsen Moza website

The post Cheapest Moza Air 2 Gimbal @ SGD $598 appeared first on unLABELED ft..

If you have invested in Bitcoin during Feb-March 2011 and have kept it since you would probably be SGD $16,999 richer by now for each Bitcoin you own since the price of Bitcoin was only $1 dollar back then. That is a whopping 16999% profit from every $1 dollar invested.

It is 2019 now and during this 10 years, we have seen Bitcoin hitting the highest price point at around SGD $26,000 on 17 Dec 2017 and a year later fell to a loss of 83% at SGD $4,400 on 17 Dec 2017.

Giant tech companies are getting involved in the blockchain technology and the perfect example is Libra, a cryptocurrency created by Facebook. Locally we also have Qoo10 that has Quube.

We are not here to give any financial or investment advise. This post serves only one purpose and it is to teach what is the best way to purchase cryptocurrency in Singapore without paying too many fees, how to trade your bitcoin with another cryptocurrency and how to withdraw out your investment to your Singapore bank. We have listed it down in 3 simple steps, buy, trade and withdraw.

Step 1: Buy

1) Coinbase

Coinbase is the most popular exchange for any beginner and also the easiest way to purchase your first cryptocurrency with your credit/debit card. There have a Buy / Sell fees of 1.49% and a credit/debit card fees of 3.99%. They even have an app for any Android or IOS devices. The platform is clean and easy to understand.

2) Binance.sg (Reccomeded)

Do not be complicated by Binance.com which we will talk about it later on the trade part. Binance.sg is a subsidary from Bianace.com which is the largest platform for trading cryptocurrency right now.

Singapore is lucky as Binance setup a Singapore counterpart for us Singaporean to purchase and withdraw money easily. To begin first we need to sign up for Xfers and Binance.sg

Click here to sign up for Xfers Click here to sign up for Binance.sg

Xfers is just like another PayPal which act as a payment platform but Xfers focus on Digital Currency (Cryptocurrency) hence once you sign up for Xfers you can link your bank directly and you can deposit and withdraw your money directly from your bank.

After which you can send your funds to Binance.sg and start purchasing your first Bitcoin. Do note that Binance.sg only offer 3 cryptocurrency right now which is Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin.

Step 2: Trade

This is for the more advance stage where you explore more opportunities with Alt coins. Alt coins are other cryptocurrencies that are not bitcoin. There are thousands of other coins out there for you to explore and when you see one that you are interested to invest in the high chance is that it most probably be available in exchanges.

Crpto exchange acts like stock exchange. We have listed 3 of the biggest crypto exchange for your references. Simply transfer your coins to these exchanges and you can start trading. Do note that you need to check if the cryptocurrency you are interested in is listed there simply by checking on Coinmarketcap.

Simply search for the coin you want and you can see on which exchange is the cryptocurrency listed.

1) Binance (Largest exchange)

2) Huobi (2nd Largest exchange)

3) Kucoin (3rd largest exchange)

Step 3: Withdraw

After gaining profits and now you decided to draw out the money to your bank account. In the past, we can easily withdraw money from Coinbase but as of today, we are unable to do so.

The next easier was is to just withdraw from your Binance.sg wallet and deposit it your Xfers. From there you should have already linked your bank and it can simply tranfer it directly to your linked bank account.

Click here to sign up on Binance.sg

The post How to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and cryptocurrency​ in Singapore? (Updated July 2019) appeared first on unLABELED ft..

We notice an estimated SGD$200 price cut to AMD Vega 64 third-party manufacturer, Gigabyte is selling the Vega 64 for only SGD$399 (from $600) and Vega 56 for SGD$329 (from $500). If you are looking for an upgrade for your graphics card this is an absolute chance now!

Vega 56 – SGD$328 (from SGD$500)

Specification

• 8GB 2048-bit High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2)
• 3584 of stream processor
• HDMI x3 / Display Port x3
• Clock boost from 1156mhz to 1471mhz
• Check here to purchase

Vega 64 – SGD$399 (From SGD$600)

Specification

• 8GB 2048-bit High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2)
• 4096 of Stream processor
• HDMI x3 / Display Port x3
• Clock Boost from 1247mhz to 1546mhz
• Check here to purchase

Vega 64 is known to be on par with Nvidia GTX 1080 which is now selling at whopping SGD$900 and Vega 56 performance is on par with GTX 1070 which is now selling at around SGD$450.

The Vega line is known to perform well on games and extremely well for professional work like video rendering, 3d modelling and AutoCAD.

If you always wanted a high-end graphics card this will be the best performance to price and while stock last!

Feature photos credits: PC Themes

The post Cheapest AMD high-end graphics ​card VEGA 64 is selling @ only SGD$399 (from SGD$600) – While stock last! appeared first on unLABELED ft..