DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 25, 2014, 06:03:14 PM

Title: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 25, 2014, 06:03:14 PM
So I thought a thread that we could talk about hardware products, software, games, CGI, CAD or anything surrounding the PC would be fun. You can use the thread for either questions, troubleshooting, discussions, tips, news or whatever. I myself wouldn't call myself an expert in anyway but I know there's alot of knowledgeable members on the forum.



My first introduction to a PC was in the early 90s when my parents bought a Compaq PC (if I remember correctly). I do know that it contained the almighty gaming beast of a microprocessor Intel 80486 more common as the 486. I think it had a clock speed around 40-50mhz or something like that and ran win 3.1.
On that I played Wolfenstein 3D, MS Flight Simulator, MS Golf, Wing Commander and many more. Good times!
After that I abandoned the PC as a gaming platform by watching a buddy playing Tomb Raider on his brand new PS1. I was completely blown away by the suspense and them graphics. What was more awesome was that I realized it was much easier wishing for a PS1 for christmas than a PC which proved to be true. So I got sucked in the console swamp and stayed there for the next 10+ years.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I bought and buildt my first PC aimed for gaming. An i7-980 with a clock speed of 3.2Ghz which was a bit more speedy than the trusty 486. I'm not sure how of or if you can measure that. Would be cool if you could though.
It has since been quite heavily upgraded. I now run an i7-4770k with a GTX 780 as my trusty GPU. That damn thing cost me a kidney and a left nut even though I got it a good price but i'm more than happy with it. It's a beast or rather it was a beast a year ago when I bought it, everyone knows a CPU or GPU is "dated" as soon as it hits the market.


Some cool recent news:

Nvidias new 900 series GPUs was unvield a couple of days ago (https://nvidia-unveils-its-all-new-geforce-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-graphics-processors.html)

A $1000 CPU anyone? Then the new Haswell-E 8-core CPU might be something for you! (https://wccftech.com)


Please feel free to discuss anything! :)






Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 30, 2014, 07:05:17 PM
So it's windows 10 now not 9 for some reason and it comes with the OG start menu and you can even paste from the command prompt!! Ahh yea! I even heard win 8 users will be handed free updates....yea let's see about that!  :yeahright

Quote
With Windows 8 and now Windows 8.1, Microsoft tried – not entirely successfully – to make tablets part of a continuum that goes from number-crunching workstations and high-end gaming rigs through all-in-one touchscreen media systems and thin-and light notebooks down to slender touch tablets.

The general consensus is that it still has a long way to go to produce a unified OS. Recently, Microsoft publicly made the first steps to doing just that, with Windows 10. Skipping the Windows 9 name entirely, the Redmond, Wash. firm aims to step into the next generation of computing with the right foot forward.


https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/29/6868005/join-us-september-30th-for-microsofts-windows-9-event/in/5910988
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on September 30, 2014, 07:16:31 PM
I'm pretty sure Windows 8 went all the way to Windows 10 because it had a lot of XP.

:icy:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: JayOctavarium on September 30, 2014, 08:33:42 PM
I'm pretty sure Windows 8 went all the way to Windows 10 because it had a lot of XP.

:icy:

Oh geeze...





That was funny.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Tick on October 02, 2014, 11:10:51 AM
I'm sorry, I thought this was the Politically correct thread. I have nothing to say about computers. Bye now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on October 20, 2014, 12:05:01 PM
Kind of a stupid question, but I don't know much about computer architecture. Is there such thing as an LGA 1156 to 1150 adapter for a processor? Is that even possible? My bottleneck is my processor, but it looks like I'm going to need a new motherboard, CPU, and possibly RAM. I'd like to avoid it if I could, but I'm thinking I can't.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 20, 2014, 12:11:21 PM
Kind of a stupid question, but I don't know much about computer architecture. Is there such thing as an LGA 1156 to 1150 adapter for a processor? Is that even possible? My bottleneck is my processor, but it looks like I'm going to need a new motherboard, CPU, and possibly RAM. I'd like to avoid it if I could, but I'm thinking I can't.

No, new motherboard is needed. And unless you already have a SSD or a Pentium processor, your hard drive is likely your bottleneck.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on October 20, 2014, 12:17:21 PM
Kind of a stupid question, but I don't know much about computer architecture. Is there such thing as an LGA 1156 to 1150 adapter for a processor? Is that even possible? My bottleneck is my processor, but it looks like I'm going to need a new motherboard, CPU, and possibly RAM. I'd like to avoid it if I could, but I'm thinking I can't.

No, new motherboard is needed. And unless you already have a SSD or a Pentium processor, your hard drive is likely your bottleneck.
I'm a gamer, but my PC was built in 2009. I have an i5-750. I played WoW with crossfired 4850s and my fps was triple what I'm getting with a 3GB 7950, which is the only upgrade I've purchased.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 20, 2014, 01:06:37 PM
An I5 is not your bottleneck. Add to that, if you were getting 3x and it dropped to 1x after changing only your VGA, why would you think it was your CPU that's the problem? And honestly, that GPU shouldn't be a problem, either. I'd take the new card out and see if your FPS goes back up. If so, take it back and consider yourself $300 richer.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 20, 2014, 01:36:34 PM
Agreed and take that money and put it towards an SSD. Those things are magic.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on October 20, 2014, 03:00:05 PM
I had read that older CPUs can cause newer GPUs to bottleneck. My main issues seem to be where there are effects in games that rely more on the CPU, as I understand it. Most games I have run fine, and run better since I got the card (a while back), but WoW has taken a massive performance hit, and the only piece of hardware I have that isn't up to date per their "recommended hardware" list is the CPU. They recommend the i5-2400, while mine is the 750.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 20, 2014, 03:30:43 PM
Looks like you jumped onboard with the core CPUs early on. That thing's pretty old. Still, I don't see how it'd be bottlenecking WOW. I don't play the thing, but my understanding is if it bogs down when 40 guys are on screen then it's your CPU. If it happens with certain effects it's your GPU. 'Bout all I know. Still, why not slap one of the older cards back in and see what happens?

And I just say that they've changed sockets on the Core CPU's at least 6 times. FFS, Intel! That is seriously uncool. I've built 3 computers for work in the last few months and I'm using AMD because they're still building stuff for AM2 and AM3. Changing architecture just to make people buy everything new instead of upgrading individual components really hacks me off.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 20, 2014, 06:17:02 PM
Yea Intel is insane with that, but then again they have a better overall product.  For a PC game though it is possibly for the CPU to be the bottleneck, and maybe I misunderstood thinking it was the bottleneck in general performance.  But then again, you say its only WoW so it could have something to do with how that game is coded.  I still stand by my general idea, SSD is the best thing you can do to increase overall performance.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 20, 2014, 07:15:56 PM
Yea Intel is insane with that, but then again they have a better overall product.  For a PC game though it is possibly for the CPU to be the bottleneck, and maybe I misunderstood thinking it was the bottleneck in general performance.  But then again, you say its only WoW so it could have something to do with how that game is coded.  I still stand by my general idea, SSD is the best thing you can do to increase overall performance.
A CPU can absolutely be the bottleneck in a game. I just don't figure it's the case here. Seems to me that the most recent expansion pack (which hasn't even been released yet) requires a Conroe or better, and his CPU outclasses that easily. It's possible he's having a driver issue. Unfortunately, monkeying with ATI drivers is about the most damn-fool thing I can imagine that doesn't involve sodomy and feral animals.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 20, 2014, 08:40:47 PM
And unless you already have a SSD or a Pentium processor, your hard drive is likely your bottleneck.
I still stand by my general idea, SSD is the best thing you can do to increase overall performance.

I just wanted to chime in and say that this is incorrect. An SSD will improve load times, significantly if it's a good one, but gaming performance is purely down to the processing power of the CPU/GPU, amount of memory, memory bandwidth, and such. The hard drive is not part of this equation because data isn't streaming in large quantities from the drive while the game is playing (because it loads virtually everything that is needed in batches on your loading screens), so little that won't even saturate a mechanical hard drive's bandwidth capabilites let alone that of an SSD.

SSDs are great for reducing load times, but a mechanical drive will never be the bottleneck in a gaming rig. If someone wants better gaming performance from their rig the hard drive is the wrong thing to be looking to upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 21, 2014, 06:36:54 AM
And unless you already have a SSD or a Pentium processor, your hard drive is likely your bottleneck.
I still stand by my general idea, SSD is the best thing you can do to increase overall performance.

I just wanted to chime in and say that this is incorrect. An SSD will improve load times, significantly if it's a good one, but gaming performance is purely down to the processing power of the CPU/GPU, amount of memory, memory bandwidth, and such. The hard drive is not part of this equation because data isn't streaming in large quantities from the drive while the game is playing (because it loads virtually everything that is needed in batches on your loading screens), so little that won't even saturate a mechanical hard drive's bandwidth capabilites let alone that of an SSD.

SSDs are great for reducing load times, but a mechanical drive will never be the bottleneck in a gaming rig. If someone wants better gaming performance from their rig the hard drive is the wrong thing to be looking to upgrade.

Yes, but my quotes are about general performance not specifically gaming performance which I have stated all along that I was referring to.  I agree with what you say though with regards to gaming performance. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 22, 2014, 06:07:19 AM
Does any company make a PC equivalent of the Mac Mini that supports HDMI output? It doesn't need to be super powerful.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 22, 2014, 07:07:53 AM
Does any company make a PC equivalent of the Mac Mini that supports HDMI output? It doesn't need to be super powerful.
Intel has a line of small computers like that called NUC (https://www.intel.com.au/content/www/au/en/nuc/overview.html). Gigabyte has basically the same thing with their BRIX (https://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/list.aspx?s=47&ck=104) products. There's probably more but those are the only I remember off the top of my head. Some of them might use mini-HDMI instead of full-sized but all you need is an adapter to use a full-sized HDMI cable with it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on January 21, 2015, 10:36:35 AM
Interesting insight into DIRAC Complexity System at the University of Leicester:

Supercomputer and the Milky Way (https://youtu.be/5KEhhW8TOGk)
Building a Supercomputer and Astrophysics (https://youtu.be/5KEhhW8TOGk)
Supercomputer Infrastructure (https://youtu.be/hPqvWkNvMzM)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on January 22, 2015, 04:35:46 AM
Quote from: Microsoft
We will be making available a FREE UPGRADE to Win 10 to all devices running Win 8.1. And to all devices running Windows Phone 8.1. And for a year, a FREE UPGRADE from Windows 7.
(https://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-dance009.gif)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 22, 2015, 04:57:33 AM
Quote from: Microsoft
We will be making available a FREE UPGRADE to Win 10 to all devices running Win 8.1. And to all devices running Windows Phone 8.1. And for a year, a FREE UPGRADE from Windows 7.
(https://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-dance009.gif)

Thats nice of them, I'd upgrade my laptop from windows 8 to 10, but I'll hold off awhile on upgrading my PC from 7 to 10. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on January 22, 2015, 05:56:34 AM
Yea the full release won't be until the end of 2015 anyway but it's a good way of testing the OS before you buy it because I assume you have to buy the OS after 1 year? Or is it completly free, there has to be a catch, right?

Nevermind:

Quote
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no additional charge..
https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/
 :biggrin:

Win 10 is the only OS that will support DirectX12 so they sure now how to lure in the gamers.

Btw apparently they held their promise:

So it's windows 10 now not 9 for some reason and it comes with the OG start menu and you can even paste from the command prompt!! Ahh yea! I even heard win 8 users will be handed free updates....yea let's see about that!  :yeahright

Quote
With Windows 8 and now Windows 8.1, Microsoft tried – not entirely successfully – to make tablets part of a continuum that goes from number-crunching workstations and high-end gaming rigs through all-in-one touchscreen media systems and thin-and light notebooks down to slender touch tablets.

The general consensus is that it still has a long way to go to produce a unified OS. Recently, Microsoft publicly made the first steps to doing just that, with Windows 10. Skipping the Windows 9 name entirely, the Redmond, Wash. firm aims to step into the next generation of computing with the right foot forward.


https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/29/6868005/join-us-september-30th-for-microsofts-windows-9-event/in/5910988
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 22, 2015, 06:19:04 AM
Thats a good thing that they are going to the direction of Apple OSs, free OS upgrades on the same device.  While I understand the Windows OS upgrades have normally been pretty big overhauls compared to Apples, but it would be nice for Microsoft to have a standard type of OS (Windows 7) and then keep upgrading it and making it better without complete overhauls. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on January 22, 2015, 06:24:17 AM
I'd upgrade away from Windows 8.1 in an instant, because Windows 8 is such a huge step in the wrong direction. But if they're still calling programs "apps", maybe I'll have to think it over.

Good luck getting me to switch from Windows 7 though. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers at this point.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on January 22, 2015, 06:25:59 AM
Good luck getting me to switch from Windows 7 though. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers at this point.
I'm pretty happy with my Windows 7 also.  Partition the HDD and run 7 and 10 simultaneously?  I mean, free. (unless it immediately negates your Win 7 license)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on January 22, 2015, 06:29:28 AM
Good luck getting me to switch from Windows 7 though. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers at this point.
I'm pretty happy with my Windows 7 also.  Partition the HDD and run 7 and 10 simultaneously?  I mean, free. (unless it immediately negates your Win 7 license)

No idea how it would work, but I'm not into dual booting, at least on my main PC. Not worth the trouble of messing about. I'll probably upgrade my laptop which is running 8.1, and get used to it, then just upgrade outright next time I wipe the PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: kirksnosehair on January 23, 2015, 07:38:58 AM
Dual booting using the same physical hard drive is a pain in the ass and not the ideal way to do it if you really must dual boot for some reason.


Consider using the VMWare Player to run your second OS on the same computer - AND AT THE SAME TIME - no need to shut down and reboot into a second OS, just press "play" on the VMWare player and you'll be good to go.  I run Windows XP Pro, Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro all on the same desktop PC all simultaneously.


By the way, the VMWare player is free for non-commercial use.  :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on January 23, 2015, 07:55:25 AM
I run Windows XP Pro, Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro all on the same desktop PC all simultaneously.

Ever try using the Win XP virtual machine inside Win 7 Pro?  I set Win 7 Pro up and installed a very expensive program (thousands of dollars) that was made before Win 7 Pro, so if I try to install it on Win 7 Pro, the install program doesn't recognize the OS and refuses to install.  Windows isn't stopping it.  The $$$$$$ install program is stopping it.

So I did the Win XP virtual machine inside Win 7 Pro.  It installed, but it refuses to recognize the USB dongle and I don't think it found the network.  It also ignored the scanner and printer.  Basically, it seems like a useless environment.

I haven't tried installing Win XP by itself on a separate HDD, but I heard the new motherboards don't play well with it so it went into the To Do List (# 2983)

It has been a few years since I had a true dual OS setup.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: kirksnosehair on January 23, 2015, 08:04:59 AM
Microsoft's XP Mode on Windows 7 leaves a lot to be desired.  USB support is a joke.  I'm telling you, man, download the VMWare player and use that to run your XP virtual machine.



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: adace on January 23, 2015, 02:53:26 PM
Microsoft's XP Mode on Windows 7 leaves a lot to be desired.  USB support is a joke.  I'm telling you, man, download the VMWare player and use that to run your XP virtual machine.




Thanks for the advice. Definitely gonna do this so I can switch back to Windows 7 in case Windows 10 sucks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on January 23, 2015, 08:38:02 PM
Keep in mind that with virtual machines you're sharing resources between the host and the VM. So when you're setting up the VM, don't give it the same amount of RAM that you're host PC (you're real PC) has.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 24, 2015, 02:51:23 PM
Just installed the Windows 10 Tech preview, I think I preferred the previous version of the start menu. They've arranged the 'apps' on the start menu in the style of windows phone.

I put everything on VMs these days, they've come a very long way and I rarely ever have any issue. Then again I have a pretty kick ass computer to begin with.

Going to poke around this tech preview some more.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: adace on January 27, 2015, 05:08:46 AM
Using Windows 10 right now and it's pretty cool. I really like the changes to the UI, especially the Music App which is a great alternative to Itunes. Haven't noticed any problems/performance issues so far.

Btw, does anyone know when they'll come out with the Xbox to PC streaming feature?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on January 27, 2015, 06:15:11 AM
The target is Holidays 2015.

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/03/20/directx-12.aspx

Go to the FAQ
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 01, 2015, 02:46:07 AM
https://www.slashgear.com/google-earth-pro-drops-399-subscription-now-available-for-free-31366926/

I don't know if the pro is that more useful than the regular version but anyway it's kind of cool. I like using GE from time to time, it's always fun searching for far out places and islands. You also get a sense of scoop for distance and how huge some areas and countries are.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 22, 2015, 03:35:40 PM
I have a feel this might be a noob fail of epic proportion but anyway I have an interesting problem. I don't know for how long but some time ago I noticed I had a "clone" of one of my HDDs. The reason I say "clone" is because it's not a backup of my HDD, only the seize numbers are the same, like this:

(https://i58.tinypic.com/9vicd1.jpg)

Sorry it's in Swedish but as you can see it's the two HDDs that's called My Book on E: and P: which shares the exact same numbers. The E: drive is my normal HDD and the P: drive is the new/clone one which dosen't contain anything other than gamefiles for a game of ruffly 30MBs???, that's everything that's on the P: drive (no hidden files either) but still it shows that 701 GB is used??

When I go into the diskmanager the P: drive isn't visible:

(https://i61.tinypic.com/20jssr6.jpg)

I have no idea why I have an extra disk signed to P:, when it physically dosen't exist. Maybe I did some tweak by accident without noticing. Did I mess up the disk partitioning somehow, I can't remember when I last changed my partitions.

I should say though that my PC runs like normal, nothing has changed or anything like that. Any suggestions would be most welcome!


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 22, 2015, 05:58:05 PM
Did you run a disk cleaner to wipe unused space on the cloned drive such as deleted files, but the OS still thinks those disk sectors are used?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on February 22, 2015, 10:50:00 PM
My normal troubleshooting sequence would be:

Since it is an external drive,
- Unplug the drive and see what happens with the assigned drive letters
- Perhaps re-establishing a connection (re-plugging it in) will fix it

If not,
- Plug into a different computer.  Does the same thing happen?

I've had situations where the external drive wants to take a drive letter that is used by a network drive letter, so it just remains hidden.  Then you have to go into disk management and assign it a letter (I tend to use X Y or Z for external drives).  But I can't recall ever seeing a drive show up on two letters representing the same drive and partition.  But I'm sure it has happened to someone else.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on February 22, 2015, 10:51:07 PM
Is this helpful (https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/138323-Drive-has-2-drive-letters-for-the-same-partition)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 22, 2015, 11:58:10 PM
Thx I will try your tips as soons as I come back from work.

Just to clarify one thing: I do not have an external disk signed on the letter P:, it physically dosen't exist. It's purely an icon, shortcut or something that for some reason shares the same seize as my disk on E:

I think you knew what I meant, I just wanted to clarify that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 23, 2015, 01:26:46 AM
Did you run a disk cleaner to wipe unused space on the cloned drive such as deleted files, but the OS still thinks those disk sectors are used?
No i've never used a disk cleaner, atleast not on my external E: disk.

My normal troubleshooting sequence would be:

Since it is an external drive,
- Unplug the drive and see what happens with the assigned drive letters
- Perhaps re-establishing a connection (re-plugging it in) will fix it

If not,
- Plug into a different computer.  Does the same thing happen?

I've had situations where the external drive wants to take a drive letter that is used by a network drive letter, so it just remains hidden.  Then you have to go into disk management and assign it a letter (I tend to use X Y or Z for external drives).  But I can't recall ever seeing a drive show up on two letters representing the same drive and partition.  But I'm sure it has happened to someone else.
I've done the highlighted parts with no luck. For a sec I thought the P: disk was gone but it of course appeared a couple of secs later. I don't have a second PC, have to wait to test that.

Is this helpful (https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/138323-Drive-has-2-drive-letters-for-the-same-partition)
Hmm so I changed the letter on my (E:) to (B:) according to "chowur" and the disk works as usual but the interesting thing is that the P: disk have changed to this:

(https://i58.tinypic.com/4seihx.jpg)

From My Book (P:) to Local disk (P:), have no idea what that means?

The following message appears when I click on (P:):

(https://i58.tinypic.com/24xjc47.jpg)

Translation:
P:\ is not available. If the path is on this computer, make sure the device or harddrive is connected or the disk is in the reader and try again. If the  path is in the network, make sure that you are connected to the network or internet and try again. If the path still dosen't exist it may have been redirected or been removed.

So it seems the (P:) was some kind of shortcut to (E:) even though it didn't contain any of the content from the E: HDD because now it can't find the path when I changed the letter. Any ideas?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on February 23, 2015, 05:12:06 AM
Because it is a storage device that might have very important data for you, I'm a bit hesitant with advice since I haven't run into this personally.  So I'm just giving you some of the things I would try with my HDD.  But then I'm risking only my own data.

I'd wait for advice with those that are pros in the computer field, as opposed to a hobbyist like myself.

But some other things I'd be thinking about
Highly unlikely, but did you assign a network drive that pointed to your external E drive?
What if you assign your B drive (formerly E drive) the letter of P:?

I wouldn't try those until some others have a chance to offer more qualified advice though.  And if you have a chance to backup this data elsewhere as you mess around with it, that would probably be a good idea.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on February 23, 2015, 05:25:35 AM
Facing my own problem this weekend.  My DSL internet has been very spotty.  Like I said, I'm just a hobbyist, so I have some knowledge, but probably have gaping holes in fundamentals elsewhere.

It started getting spotty Friday night, was horrible Saturday, and a bit better on Sunday.  It seems ok right now.

Some of the things I've done:
Usually just doing the following helps when my DSL modem seems less than full power:
- Turn modem off
- Check phone line, power line and ethernet cable connections
- Turn modem on
- go into the command line (Win7 Pro)
- ipconfig /release
- ipconfig /renew
BTW - it is a dynamic IP address, not static
Doing that every now and then seems to keep it running on all cylinders most of the time

This time it reconnected to the Net, but severely slow and what seemed like latency or DNS problems

It is the Universal Plug N Play modem (aren't they all these days?), so setting it up from scratch can usually be done via auto settings.  But I went into the modem direct interface (which is still very fast, so that would seem to suggest the hardware is ok).  It has some diagnostic tests, which all come in pass.  It gives the DNS (primary and secondary) IP addresses, so I put those in manually and it seemed to help, but still not full speed.  And every time I think it is running better, it then goes back to crappy.

Now I'm thinking the problem is actually at the ISP and not locally, but they will never admit that of course.  The modem is almost 10 years old, so there is a chance it is just starting to fail.

Anybody have any suggestions for:
- other diagnostics/troubleshooting steps you take with your own DSL modem
- what you look for if you were to just go buy a replacement DSL modem (I'd do this right now, but I hate assuming the problem is the hardware without knowing for sure)

Thanks
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 23, 2015, 05:32:04 AM
Oh man this is getting funny! So I was just starting to read your reply and agree that I shoudln't do anything hasty before talking with an expert. While thinking about what to do I checked back to see if P: was available to rename and how about that....

(https://i62.tinypic.com/29lix5w.jpg)

It's gone!  :o Weird as hell, I actually run a virus check on it before just to be sure. I just felt something fishy about it but yea, apparently it's gone.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on February 25, 2015, 01:38:15 PM
Facing my own problem this weekend.  My DSL internet has been very spotty.  <snip>
Update:  it was the DSL modem itself going bad.  I was able to recycle it and get more miles out of it, but it just kept breaking itself down faster and faster.

I know everybody hates AT&T, but their tech came out and ran tests I couldn't, replaced the DSL modem (free of charge), did some more line testing and it is running even better than before (so far).  The guy was so good and friendly that I called in to AT&T just to let them know they have a great tech.

But if anybody wants to share internet configuration/troubleshooting tips (ping, flushdns, load balancing, etc) especially for business server/network setups, please do.  I can always learn more since I (and I'm sure others) am not an IT tech by trade, but just as a hobby for my personal and small business use.  (Or share website links for self-training on IT situations that you think was helpful and well programmed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 02, 2015, 06:36:10 PM
The computer mouse (has this been discussed elsewhere yet?).  What pointing device are you using and why?

I've been trying to replace my beloved Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 (think I bought it around 2003) for years.
I like the contours, scroll wheel and two side buttons.  But most importantly, it glides like a dream.

Recent fail replacements:
Logitech M510:  features are good but it is absolutely the worst gliding mouse ever.  My hand actually cramps out using it.  The mouse feet get gummed up fast (on a very clean real wood desk).  It feels horrible right after a cleaning and a half hour later, it is unusable without a thorough mouse feet cleaning.  So much so that the cheap feet eventually came off.

Microsoft Touch Mouse:  glides better than Logitech (by far), but not as good as the 12+year old mouse (sad).  For the first time in 15 years, I'm using a mouse pad again just so it can glide smoother.  But the accuracy seems worse than the old Explorer.  And the one piece two button thing drives me crazy.  I have to concentrate on a right click.  And sometimes the touch scroll works, sometimes it doesn't.  This one I just bought this weekend, and it is probably going back.

Please share if you have found a more recent mouse with the following features (in order of importance):
1. Smooth glide on just about every surface.  My old mouse almost follows my hand instead of my hand pushing it.
2. Two separate right/left click (the new one piece thing seems problematic)
3. Scroll wheel.  Seems common now, but this is more about it being very responsive
4. Two programmable buttons (usually on the side).  The <back> function saves SO MUCH TIME.
5. Larger size (but light in weight):  The explorer mouse is big, but it fits like a glove.  Hate the mobile sized mouse.
6. Wireless.  It just seems easier.  Especially during the weekly desk cleaning.

Any help would be appreciated.  It is harder to test drive a mouse in a brick/mortar store these days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 03, 2015, 05:44:47 AM
Im not mouse expert or have experienced enough mice to be able to form a true opinion, but this is the mouse I use (I game on my PC)

Razer Deathadder

https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-deathadder-chroma (https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-deathadder-chroma)

I feel like it fits all your criteria except it is not wireless (I would not go wireless for gaming)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 03, 2015, 05:58:52 AM
I've never wanted wireless, or side buttons, and I hate using a mouse on anything but the classic cloth mouse pad, so I have no suggestions.

I've been using the Microsoft optical scroll mouse forever. When I first got it, optical mice were a new thing and it was a high end mouse, whereas now it's just their cheapest mouse. When it comes to mice, all I care about is how comfortable it is with how long I use the computer for, and I like the small comfortable shape of it that I can just grab in my hand. I wear them out quickly, but they're cheap enough that I don't care.
I've only deviated once, by trying out the Microsoft Comfort mouse. I used it for half an hour before giving it away. It was big and bulky and made my hand/wrist hurt after a few minutes, and the scroll wheel design was retarded and was unusable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 03, 2015, 06:06:09 AM
I've never wanted wireless, or side buttons, and I hate using a mouse on anything but the classic cloth mouse pad, so I have no suggestions.

To each his own in terms of comfort and whatnot, but how could you not love those two side buttons?  They are so clutch, I don't think I could ever go back to using a mouse without those buttons just for ease of web browsing alone, let alone programmable for gaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 03, 2015, 06:15:10 AM
I've never wanted wireless, or side buttons, and I hate using a mouse on anything but the classic cloth mouse pad, so I have no suggestions.

To each his own in terms of comfort and whatnot, but how could you not love those two side buttons?  They are so clutch, I don't think I could ever go back to using a mouse without those buttons just for ease of web browsing alone, let alone programmable for gaming.

I don't do any gaming at all (and if I do, it's a gamepad on an emulator, no PC games), so that's not a factor to me. Plus I'm a master of shortcut keys (plus the browser having key combos to handle all of the useful stuff), so it's of no loss to me personally. As you said, each to his own. I don't consider myself a typical or representative user.

I've also found side buttons get in the way of holding the mouse where I want my fingers to rest. My hands/wrists are really sensitive to that kind of stuff, like RSI or something, so I stick to what's most comfortable for me for long term use.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on March 03, 2015, 06:19:46 AM
I don't bother with side buttons either. They are never in good positions for me with the way I hold the mouse, and like Blob I prefer keyboard shortcuts anyway.

As for gaming, I don't play FPS games much if at all and I don't play online anymore anyway, so I get by with 1000 CPI. I do like the look of the Orochi but I don't want to pay $75 just for a higher CPI which I don't need 99% of the time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 03, 2015, 07:07:42 AM
Im not mouse expert or have experienced enough mice to be able to form a true opinion, but this is the mouse I use (I game on my PC)

Razer Deathadder

https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-deathadder-chroma (https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-deathadder-chroma)

I feel like it fits all your criteria except it is not wireless (I would not go wireless for gaming)
:tup I also use the Deathadder. Works great for everything of course it's a primarily a gaming mouse. Looks cool too!

The scroll wheel have been started to slack lately so I will in the near future buy a new mouse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 03, 2015, 04:45:08 PM
Thanks for the Razer Deathadder suggestion.  I've been thinking about going gamer mouse, but there are probably just as many gimmick ones as legitimate ones.  And reading NewEgg reviews (or any reviews) usually has widely varying opinions.  So real use reviews from you guys is extremely appreciated.

I've kind of been considering going back to the corded mouse (sheesh - its the 90s) just because I struck out so badly with the wireless.  I was expecting to be blown away considering my fave mouse is over 10 years old.

I'm not much of a gamer, but I deal with CAD programs so accuracy can be very important.  But mainly, the pointing device should feel like something you don't even think about operating.  You just think it and muscle memory does all the work.  With these new mice, I actually have to think "ok, lift your left finger up so the right finger click will happen the first time.  Oops, your grip is too low, choke up on the mouse a bit and try again ... there it is ... oh wait, now it is renaming the file instead of getting the context menu."  You can only deal with working like that for so long before you go bonkers.

Besides trying out your friend's mouse (which is usually the $2 sale piece of crap), how do you try out a mouse these days?  I hate buying something, returning it, buying a new one, returning it ... until you find the right one or are banned from the store.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 03, 2015, 07:39:24 PM
Maybe go into a smaller computer store and see if they have mice you can test?  I really don't know.  I think taking in the reviews and what you are looking for together and find the best products and then I guess use the test and return method.  Im not terribly picky so my deathadder I love but maybe there is a better product, I wouldn't know cause I havent tested others. Ive had my mouse for 4 years now and I still love it.  Thats all I can really say.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 07, 2015, 10:53:21 AM
So i'm trying to render a movie in Pinnacle Studio 17. The movie is 3,5gb and roughly 13mins long. I want highy quality  because it's game footage and to not lose quality i'm rendering in 1920x1080, 60fps and H264 format. I use something called Transport Stream (MTS), it seems to be the only format rendering in 60fps. I'm a noob when it comes to stuff like this so excuse my ignorance.

The main reason I ask is because it has freezed two times when trying to export to the specific format. I have closed as many programs as I can but it still happens. I'm at my third time now, so far it's good tough.

I would say I have a good cpu (i7 4770k) but apparently I max it out 100% and even more as i've noticed when running Task Manager, is that really normal or is something wrong? Should I be concerned?

Edit: Nevermind, it worked the third time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on March 22, 2015, 01:25:53 AM
Went to the store tonight to get the following:

Micro-fiber cloths
Q-tips
Compressed air
91% rubbing alcohol

Going into the city tomorrow to buy thermal paste.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on March 22, 2015, 01:44:51 AM
This is pretty damn cool!

https://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on March 22, 2015, 01:08:45 PM
(https://puu.sh/gLaQX/ae226b61c9.jpg)

(https://puu.sh/gLaV5/581b68ae47.jpg)

(https://puu.sh/gLaYH/676bd0c25b.jpg)

(https://puu.sh/gLb2b/495aebf053.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on March 22, 2015, 01:11:46 PM
Slight improvement.   ;)

Seriously though, nice job.  I haven't had a tower in so long that I forgot what it's like when  you go so long without cleaning the inside.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on March 22, 2015, 01:42:27 PM
My SWTOR fps went from 15-20 to a steady 60.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 22, 2015, 04:16:18 PM
I'm afraid to look at how dusty my tower is right now, I might clean it out one of these weekends. On another note, I had no idea there were solar powered keyboards available when researching on getting a new keyboard. Curiosity got the better out of me and I bought used on ebay, waiting for it to arrive next week.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 23, 2015, 04:05:05 AM
When I buildt my latest pc I made sure to install a good airflow with fans, probably the best investment in the long term for my pc. It helps alot in keeping dust away. My previous build had one poor fan in a case with lots of holes, not the best combination.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 23, 2015, 11:26:21 AM
I have to do that every so often cause my PC gets filled with not only dust, but cat hair so the fans get dirty quickly.  Luckily for me, I have all the stuff (alcohol wipes and thermal paste) at work so I just take them home and do some cleaning every once and awhile.

I've tried to make better airflow for the inside, but I have so many damn power and SATA cables mixed in there (7 hard drives, GTX770, PCI RAID card, PCI audio/video input card) that there is only so much I can do to make it better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 23, 2015, 02:06:32 PM
I have to do that every so often cause my PC gets filled with not only dust, but cat hair so the fans get dirty quickly.

I was going to talk about the pesky cat.  They are drawn to my computer.  Turn my back and they are scratching their back with the computer.  They know they aren't supposed to do it because when I make eye contact with them, they have that "oh crap!! Caught!"  look in their eye as they scatter.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 23, 2015, 02:09:26 PM
I have to do that every so often cause my PC gets filled with not only dust, but cat hair so the fans get dirty quickly.

I was going to talk about the pesky cat.  They are drawn to my computer.  Turn my back and they are scratching their back with the computer.  They know they aren't supposed to do it because when I make eye contact with them, they have that "oh crap!! Caught!"  look in their eye as they scatter.

Put a bed of aluminium foil around the base of your tower. Dead serious.

(https://i.imgur.com/UQszEhK.gif)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 23, 2015, 04:08:02 PM
 :rollin I tried that with my old cats and it didnt work, but I get the idea behind it.  My old cats just would find a way to jump onto the counter without it making a sound or able to push it off before jumping on it.  And thats why I loved them.  My one cat now though seems like he wouldnt be that smart but I havent tried that yet.  He only has one spot he consistently goes to taht is bad, the tv stand while I watch hockey.  He needs to smack the puck.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on March 26, 2015, 05:15:23 PM
Is there some software similar to windows media center where i can access netflix, hulu, HBO Go, etc?  I've been using an old laptop connected to my TV, but the lack of a so-called 10 foot interface is a bit annoying.

I know there is software such as XBMC, but that seems like it used for local media, not streaming from web channels.  I would like something where I can add various streaming channels.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 26, 2015, 05:32:39 PM
Chrome with a tab open for each website? Thats what I do if I hook my laptop up to the TV, but I know thats not what you are looking for.  I've never looked for a dedicated application for this.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 26, 2015, 11:25:21 PM
Don't PM the XBMC question, because I'd like to see the answers as well.  I'm constantly trying to talk my household into getting rid of Dish Network.  They throw money at me when I even look at an HDTV/media server solution.  And Dish has Netflix.  I had Hulu Plus set up for my PS3, Samsungs, etc.  Nobody ever used it and that includes me.  I think I watched Community and that was it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on March 26, 2015, 11:52:30 PM
old quote incoming

Win 10 is the only OS that will support DirectX12 so they sure now how to lure in the gamers.

Except for the fact that Valve's Vulkan API (basically a huge overhaul of OpenGL) is so much better than DX12 it will most likely keep DX12 from getting adopted widely
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Scrub206 on March 26, 2015, 11:53:48 PM
*Late to the mouse conversation :( but here:

After both of my RAT 7's dying on me, I purchased the Corsair Vengeance M95 mouse and it's freakin beautiful. Wood recommend/10. I am a palm grip and I have medium sized hands i would say and it fits comfortably in there. All buttons are easily reachable. The mouse also has some weight to it which I love. I can't use a cheap weightless plastic ass mouse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 27, 2015, 01:22:37 AM
old quote incoming

Win 10 is the only OS that will support DirectX12 so they sure now how to lure in the gamers.

Except for the fact that Valve's Vulkan API (basically a huge overhaul of OpenGL) is so much better than DX12 it will most likely keep DX12 from getting adopted widely
Vulcan hadn't been announced when I made that quote besides DX12 have not been properly used in games yet, it will take devs time to fully utilize the API in their games so I don't think we should rule out DX12 just yet. The Mantle API that caused so much hype, were is that now?
As far as I know Valve dosen't own Vulcan or have developed the API, however they will use it in SteamOS. I atleast am not fully convinced yet to let SteamOS be my primary OS but we'll see.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 27, 2015, 02:05:20 PM
Anybody use VLC 64bit (windows) instead of the main page 32bit version?  My VLC is acting strange, a new update is ready and I'm thinking of using trying the 64bit version (which I just found out they had).  Just wondering if anybody tried it and ran back to the 32bit version before I turn a fix into just a bigger problem.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on March 27, 2015, 02:23:40 PM
Looking into this more, XBMC means X-Box Media Center and is now apparently Kodi.  I installed it on my laptop and was able to find a Pandora add-on and a netflix add-on is apparently one of those community-ware projects that requires a bit of tinkering to make work properly.  There don't seem to be add-ons for HBO Go or spotify, which round out the list of services I currently use.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 27, 2015, 07:34:21 PM
Anybody use VLC 64bit (windows) instead of the main page 32bit version?  My VLC is acting strange, a new update is ready and I'm thinking of using trying the 64bit version (which I just found out they had).  Just wondering if anybody tried it and ran back to the 32bit version before I turn a fix into just a bigger problem.

I stopped upgrading VLC player since they started using a different audio codec or something for version 2.1 onwards I think. I haven't used the current x64 bit version but back when I last tried, it worked fine but was just an executable placed in its own folder.

I'm on version 2.08 and for me that's the best sound for anything played using a surround mix esp for music surround.

And my solar powered logitech K750 arrived and it is bitching. super thin and it's like typing on a laptop. Was debating on getting a mechanical keyboard but wasn't ready to spend $100 or more just yet. For $20 it's a steal.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on March 28, 2015, 10:54:30 AM
I'm on VLC 2.2 and I haven't encountered any of those problems, Calvin6s.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on March 28, 2015, 11:49:28 AM
old quote incoming

Win 10 is the only OS that will support DirectX12 so they sure now how to lure in the gamers.

Except for the fact that Valve's Vulkan API (basically a huge overhaul of OpenGL) is so much better than DX12 it will most likely keep DX12 from getting adopted widely
Vulkan hadn't been announced when I made that quote besides DX12 have not been properly used in games yet, it will take devs time to fully utilize the API in their games so I don't think we should rule out DX12 just yet. The Mantle API that caused so much hype, where is that now?
As far as I know Valve dosen't own Vulkan or have developed the API, however they will use it in SteamOS. I at least am not fully convinced yet to let SteamOS be my primary OS but we'll see. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkan_%28API%29)

Do you know how many people worked on Vulkan (https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/apis/2015-vk-image-5.png)? Every game/game creator company in that image will most likely implement Vulkan the instant the API is made available to the public. It may not be implemented into some games that are very close to completion (Blizzard's Overwatch, for instance), but it's going to be widely used very quickly.

The biggest reason I think it will be implemented much faster than DX12, however, is because any computer running OpenGL 4.1 or higher (circa 2009 excluding intel graphics cards of that era) can use Vulkan, and computers that old WILL be able to run engines like Source 2 (albeit very slowly).

It's also cross-platform. It won't just be on SteamOS, it will be on EVERYTHING.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 28, 2015, 04:46:00 PM
old quote incoming

Win 10 is the only OS that will support DirectX12 so they sure now how to lure in the gamers.

Except for the fact that Valve's Vulkan API (basically a huge overhaul of OpenGL) is so much better than DX12 it will most likely keep DX12 from getting adopted widely
Vulkan hadn't been announced when I made that quote besides DX12 have not been properly used in games yet, it will take devs time to fully utilize the API in their games so I don't think we should rule out DX12 just yet. The Mantle API that caused so much hype, where is that now?
As far as I know Valve dosen't own Vulkan or have developed the API, however they will use it in SteamOS. I at least am not fully convinced yet to let SteamOS be my primary OS but we'll see. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkan_%28API%29)

Do you know how many people worked on Vulkan (https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/apis/2015-vk-image-5.png)? Every game/game creator company in that image will most likely implement Vulkan the instant the API is made available to the public. It may not be implemented into some games that are very close to completion (Blizzard's Overwatch, for instance), but it's going to be widely used very quickly.

The biggest reason I think it will be implemented much faster than DX12, however, is because any computer running OpenGL 4.1 or higher (circa 2009 excluding intel graphics cards of that era) can use Vulkan, and computers that old WILL be able to run engines like Source 2 (albeit very slowly).

It's also cross-platform. It won't just be on SteamOS, it will be on EVERYTHING.
I'm not sure why that question has anything to do with what I said? I didn't say anything negative about Vulcan, why would I, a good all around API will benefit everyone. Now I may not share the same level of enthusiasm because the Mantel API promised so much when announced and that basically disappeared so i'm a bit hesistance to crowning a API king when non of the APIs have been properly tested yet. Hopefully it's as good as you say, the future will tell.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on April 15, 2015, 10:00:34 AM
DCS World + Joystick + TrackIR= Awesome!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on April 15, 2015, 10:50:21 AM
I have two questions for you PC gurus.

Question 1  At work, I have two PCs, both running Windows 7, both configured (as far as I know) pretty much the same, but there are a few things that they do differently, and I can't figure out why or what settings to change or whatever.

On one PC, if I double-click on a Word document (from Windows Explorer), Word will open and the file I double-clicked on will be loaded up, and basically I'm ready to start reading/editing the file.  This is preferred, and what I would expect.  On my other PC, if I double-click on a Word document, Word starts up, but immediately minimizes itself to the task bar, then sits down there flashing.  When I click on it (on the task bar), it opens up, with the document loaded, ready to start reading/editing.  Why does it go through this useless thing where it opens, minimizes itself, then "notifies" me that it's ready?  How do I make it just open Word and place it on top?

Question 2  I'm a keyboard-shortcuts guy, not a mouse guy, especially when it comes to menu options.  In Windows XP, if you clicked on a menu (File, Edit, etc.) most of the choices would have one letter underlined.  If you typed this letter, it would be the same as if you used the mouse to select it.  In fact, the menus themselves were accessible via Alt-<some key> combos.  Alt-F is always the File menu, so Alt-F-U (love that one) always takes you to File/Page Setup.  Oftentimes, there's even a Ctrl-<some key> combo, for even faster service.  So much faster than grabbing the mouse and dealing with the menu, when a couple of keystrokes would do the same thing, especially since my hands are already on the keyboard.

But in Windows 7, all the underlines are gone!  They're what told me which keyboard shortcuts to use.  Is there an option to make them appear?

(https://i.imgur.com/Ivc0RjB.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/sWjpoVO.jpg)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 :yarr
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 15, 2015, 11:00:53 AM
Not sure about the first question but for the 2nd question, it's not a windows 7 thing. I see those highlighted letters in all of my programs that I use in windows 7. Not sure what the issue is where you're seeing it. Is it confined to any particular program? or anything with a file menu in 7?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Fiery Winds on April 15, 2015, 11:03:10 AM
Not sure about Q1, but I can help with Q2:


1 - From the Windows Start menu, type "Ease of Access Center" and select it.
2 - Near the bottom, select "Make the keyboard easier to use"
3 - Check the box that says "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys"
4 - Click OK
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 15, 2015, 11:05:30 AM
Not sure about Q1, but I can help with Q2:


1 - From the Windows Start menu, type "Ease of Access Center" and select it.
2 - Near the bottom, select "Make the keyboard easier to use"
3 - Check the box that says "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys"
4 - Click OK

Odd as on my PC that box is unchecked yet all my shortcuts are underlined.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on April 15, 2015, 11:32:53 AM
Not sure about Q1, but I can help with Q2:


1 - From the Windows Start menu, type "Ease of Access Center" and select it.
2 - Near the bottom, select "Make the keyboard easier to use"
3 - Check the box that says "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys"
4 - Click OK

Awesome!  Thank you.  I just went through the entire "Ease of Access Center" to make sure I had all the good ones checked.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on April 15, 2015, 02:42:07 PM
My thoughts on the minimized Word thing are:

Either
1.  Click Start button, type word, right click on the Microsoft Word shortcut to get the properties.  Check the Run option to see if it says Normal Window, Maximized or Minimized.
2.  Your graphics card has an option to create personalized setting for how the program will open, such as: Left Monitor, Right Monitor, minimized, etc.  One of my older Nvidia cards had that option.
3.  Your keyboard has its own customized program that causes this.

Also, do you know for sure if it is minimizing or maybe just opening up "behind" other windows.  I had this problem with my Logitech keyboard program.  I'd hit the calculator button, and it would open up behind the windows.  And that defeated the idea of having a calculator one button away for quick and easy calculations.  If I recall, it was conflicting with another input device program that wasn't Logitech.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on April 15, 2015, 03:36:54 PM
Hmmm... those are all good suggestions.  #2 and #3 seem unlikely, as I use the same keyboard/mouse/monitor and just switch PCs via an IOGear box.  #1 sounds potentially more promising, although I know I would never change the default settings, and in fact, if I do change them, it's to always run in a Maximized window.  Some people like having a zillion windows open and overlapping; I figure I'm only actively working on one thing at a time, so wherever my focus is, that windows is up front and maximized.  Anything else is behind it.

Thanks, though, I will check the settings.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on April 15, 2015, 03:47:18 PM
Sometimes settings just get changed.  Hacking, viruses or more likely, a stupid accident.

I've had instances every now and then where I'm about to click on a button, the system has the slightest hiccup (usually a HDD spin up delay), and the hiccup is over from the time you move your mouse to click on that button, but right as you are clicking, another "yes/no" type window pops up and gets the click first.  It all happened so fast, you aren't even sure what you clicked.

It doesn't happen often, but all it takes is once for something like that.

As far as the underline in the "right-click" or context menu, I have a similar but different problem and the web hasn't presented the right answer.

I installed Adobe Acrobat (not the reader) for PDF work.  I've had it in the past, so I know something is wrong. From windows explorer, you can select multiple files to "combine into one PDF" from the context menu, or "convert to PDF", but both of those are greyed out (invisible) on the context menu.  They are there.  And I can blindly click them and hope something else isn't in the invisible context menu line, but it would be nice if they were in black text so I could read them.  Google isn't helping at this point.  I'm probably just typing the wrong combination of search terms.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 11, 2015, 01:56:23 AM
You can often imagine how certain things are complicated but sometimes it's a much more complicated process than you could ever imagine, like how CPUs are made. Fascinating stuff!

How a CPU is made (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm67wbB5GmI)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on May 12, 2015, 05:59:08 PM
I have windows 8.1, and after booting it automatically logs in to the previous user's account.  Apparently it is not easy to make it show a user list at startup.  This registry key,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch

can be switched from 0 to 1, but it resets to 0 after ever reboot.  Whats the point?

Anyone else change this setting?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on June 29, 2015, 03:43:05 AM
I have windows 8.1, and after booting it automatically logs in to the previous user's account.  Apparently it is not easy to make it show a user list at startup.  This registry key,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch

can be switched from 0 to 1, but it resets to 0 after ever reboot.  Whats the point?

Anyone else change this setting?
Speaking of, I recently for the past couple of weeks had a problem with memory leak and the solution was changing a registry key.

Here's a ruff explination on my problem:

All of a sudden my PC would run slow and when looking at my Task Manager this was showing:

(https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t35.0-12/11293295_504296153054460_1256009303_o.jpg?oh=b9be5b3b6e3b54f76f5569ee05249fe5&oe=5593AA04)
(https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t35.0-12/11293574_504296553054420_498156872_o.jpg?oh=434c78b84dea6afa9d314c2a79061818&oe=55928700)

I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was causing the memory leak because as you can see nothing heavy was running or rather the task manager didn't list anything. To speed things up I ended reinstalling my OS which solved it, I thought. Yesterday the memory leak happened again. I did though find a thread mentioning a program called Rammap which I installed. I then finally saw what was eating my memory, it was something called "Non-Paged Pool". I googled that and after some searching I found out that my Killer Network Driver combined with Win 8.1 was causing the leak and I also found my solution.

https://bluebluewave.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/memory-leak-in-windows-8-1-with-killer-e2200-and-windows-network-data-usage-monitoring/

Quote
The actual cause of the memory leak seems to be the Windows Network Data Usage Monitoring Driver service which in combination with a Killer network driver starts to fill up the Non-Paged Pool memory.

Solution:
So the solution was to change the registry key value of the "Start" entry to 4 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Ndu\. What that did was to disable the Windows Network Data Usage Monitor from starting...... I mean ohh of course!!  :lol

I would have never in a million years figured that problem out by myself.

Edit: I just found out that this specific problem was fixed with the latest networkdriver update. It's not exactly the first thing you think about, that you networkdriver might be what's causing a memory leak.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 02, 2015, 10:52:55 PM
Anyone use win 10 insider preview yet?

I've been using the preview versions since windows 7 and every release has been better than the previous one. I’ve run them all on a VM and they've been running great 90% of the time. Windows 10 is definitely the version that should’ve been released instead of win 8.
The new Edge browser is excellent and I’m glad it’s built from scratch, once 3rd party extensions are enabled I’m ditching chrome.
I’m very happy with the preview version and I think I’ll go ahead and replace my main desktop win 7 with win 10 seeing as it’s a free upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 03, 2015, 04:51:47 AM
Every other windows... The pattern continues I guess. I haven't tried and don't feel any need to rush to upgrade from 7 on my PC, but I'll upgrade my laptop since that has 8 on it when 10 gets released.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on July 03, 2015, 04:54:11 AM
Every other windows... The pattern continues I guess. I haven't tried and don't feel any need to rush to upgrade from 7 on my PC, but I'll upgrade my laptop since that has 8 on it when 10 gets released.

Probably likewise. I have no need to upgrade from 7 on my PC at the moment, but my new laptop is using Windows 8.1 and I figure Windows 10 wouldn't be any worse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Postwhore on July 03, 2015, 06:00:51 AM
10 is a free upload but i wonder if it's as good as Windows 7.  That's a very good running system.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 03, 2015, 10:50:11 AM
10 so far is just as good as 7. I know people like to always say the alternate versions are always the best, but there was nothing technically wrong with 8. The first edition of win 98, ME and vista all had actual issues causing the blue screen of death and various incompatibilities, 8's issue was the metro interface which could be disabled if you wanted. There were no widespread tech issues. Anyways past that 10 is a solid upgrade I think and I see several things I'm already very used to. There are still some elements of the design I'm not too crazy about, the color scheme seems a bit drab but other than some visual cues, functionally it appears great.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: JayOctavarium on July 03, 2015, 01:39:25 PM
8's issues were more people not accepting it than actually software issues.



To be honest... I love the metro system. I boot straight to the desktop, but I do like the convenience of smacking the Windows Key and switching over to Metro for certain things.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on July 03, 2015, 10:14:17 PM
I love the convenience of being forced over to an entirely different and unrelated UI system to perform basic tasks because someone at Microsoft forgot that Windows is for computers.
I completely blanked that other screen so it's nothing but black now. If I need to open a program, I just do it from the desktop or through Explorer. Such awful design for an OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 04, 2015, 02:32:57 AM
Yea I boot straight to desktop, haven't touched the metro at all, probably never will.

Had an annoying conflict with Skype though, everytime someone called it forced me over to metro. So I installed the desktop version but of course then both desktop and metro called at the same time so I had to remove the metro version. Small problem but a bit annoying never the less.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on July 04, 2015, 02:40:52 AM
I made sure to install the desktop version of Skype when I got my laptop for that reason, and I removed every metro app it would let me.
If it weren't for that whole aspect of the OS, I'd otherwise have no major issues with 8 compared to 7. I like the extra features of the file copying box (although I've frequently noticed a bug with it hanging at 100% when it has in fact copied the file entirely), and the inbuilt ability to mount disc images saves me some trouble. I think there were also some little features in the file explorer that were neat too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on July 04, 2015, 06:28:11 AM
Install Classic Shell, configure, done
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 04, 2015, 12:17:25 PM
Yea I'm not saying the metro UI for a desktop is ideal by any means, most of it is a piss poor attempt to integrate mobile platform with the PC as one universal environment that doesn't always translate. Everything else apart from the modern UI is what I'm referring to that exists without any technical glitches.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on July 05, 2015, 10:11:52 PM
Hopefully I'm not repeating myself here, but wondering what people are using for server (or server-like) solutions.

Do you use Windows Server, Windows SBS (or whatever it is called now), Windows Home Server or another OS Server?

Or do you just use something like a NAS or simple file server?

What features do you use?  File share/stream.  Email.  Internal website.  Printer sharing.  Remote access to (files, email, etc).  Other (really interested in the other, because other than Microsoft Exchange, seems like going NAS would be easier at this point)

Do you use it for a home office or just file sharing/streaming?

Part of the reason I ask is because I set up Windows SBS2003 in 2006.  It has been doing just fine for my business needs, but it is old and compromised.  I just moved and finally have access to real broadband and running the net through the SBS2003 server slows it down.  Actually, something must be compromised because it is lagging badly.  Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to really learn all the ins and outs of what a server can really do (the less used features) and troubleshooting something feels like I am wasting time servicing the server instead of the server ... serving.

But I'm not looking for troubleshooting help or recommendations personally, but just want to see what other people have set up for themselves (or their business).  Sounds like a few users work in the IT field, so that obviously would be interesting to see what they set up for their personal needs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 06, 2015, 06:04:06 AM
I dont use a server, but I set up my PC for file sharing within my home network for the purpose of being able to stream media from my PC to either of my two smart TVs or my smart blu ray player in my bedroom.  That's just using what is built into Windows and no other software.  I have 2x 2TB hard drives stocked with personal videos and movies/tv shows that I like to view in other spots besides my desk, but I have no need to use this outside of my house.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 06, 2015, 01:18:53 PM
I haven't set up a server for small office use like Email but have setup FreeNAS for home as a file share and media box and it's fairly easy and I'm assuming secure as well. My desktop I use as a Plex server with some 14 TB of stuff on there, all media related.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: JayOctavarium on July 07, 2015, 01:06:27 AM
I forgot Plex.

I know nothing about setting up servers, but I do use Plex for media streaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on July 07, 2015, 01:07:12 AM
So I guess I'm going to start saving for a new mobo/CPU so I can play Fallout 4 on high settings.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on July 07, 2015, 05:20:35 AM
I haven't set up a server for small office use like Email but have setup FreeNAS for home as a file share and media box and it's fairly easy and I'm assuming secure as well. My desktop I use as a Plex server with some 14 TB of stuff on there, all media related.

I've been thinking about scaling back (from full blown server to NAS).  Does it lock files from writes when another user has the file open (mostly for documents)?

Concerning NAS, I haven't decided if I want to go FreeNAS or a self-contained NAS hardware solution.  I did see FreeNAS has apps, which sounds interesting.  Feel like I could get away with a relatively inexpensive computer build for FreeNAS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 08, 2015, 10:07:52 AM

I've been thinking about scaling back (from full blown server to NAS).  Does it lock files from writes when another user has the file open (mostly for documents)?

Not sure as I was the only one who would tinker with documents and that was usually very rarely. Everyone else in the house used it for media playback.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 29, 2015, 06:06:58 AM
Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet? I'm going to leave my main desktop PC on win 7 for now. But I have an Unbranded Tablet (https://www.amazon.com/UnBranded-10-1-Windows-Tablet-Computer/dp/B00RHJ26QS) running 8.1 that I bought for $50 which I'll upgrade to 10 later in the weekend. The insider builds have been excellent so I'm not expecting any issues.
Also have another 2 laptops with 7 that I might try 10 on.

Bloomberg has a nice little video (https://bloom.bg/1JQToHV) on the history of windows.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 29, 2015, 06:09:27 AM
I may have to pull out my laptop and give this a try, haven't even powered my Windows 8 laptop in a few months and really nothing to lose if it sucks (which I don't even think will be the case), but I am in no rush to update my PC.  I also need to learn about how the xbox1 streaming works since I have one of those.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 29, 2015, 06:11:28 AM
I just seconds ago used the little logo on my desktop. I'm not sure i'm gonna install it any time soon but atleast I got a version for free which is nice.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: kaos2900 on July 29, 2015, 06:40:39 AM
I'll probably install it tomorrow. I'll be to busy rocking out the BTBAM show tonight.  :D
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on July 29, 2015, 10:44:16 AM
Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet?
I've actually reached the point where I'm beginning to consider upgrading from XP to 7. Maybe within the next year.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on July 29, 2015, 09:33:55 PM
Anyone take the plunge to windows 10 yet?
I've actually reached the point where I'm beginning to consider upgrading from XP to 7. Maybe within the next year.  :lol

7 is great once you get used to the minor differences (and I don't know how you could even get by with only XP in 2015), but like every new version of Windows, it does take more work to unbastardize it, like disabling the ugly Aero interface, background defrag, some of the services etc.

I'd consider upgrading to Windows 10 on my Win 8 laptop, although I worry my laptop would mess it up somehow.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 30, 2015, 06:18:43 AM
I upgraded last night on my tablet and messed with a little this morning and have to say the transition to upgrade as opposed to a clean install seemed flawless. I mean all my settings and data were just like before but with a new OS, pretty impressive if you ask me. I remember when I first did an upgrade from Win 98 SE to Win XP the upgrade process took several hours and in the end wasn't worth it as almost every single application wouldn't work without any errors. Those days truly seem to be in the past.

All my devices were recognized right off the bat and working just fine. Now for the important part and load steam on it and play some Age of Empires II.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 05, 2015, 01:39:11 PM
I tried updating to Windows 10 last night, but when I woke up this morning the computer was off, and when I booted up it was "reverting to previous version of Windows".  There may have been a power failure last night, so that could be why.  I tried again a few hours ago, and it was stuck at 25% for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for work.  Hopefully it will have completed when I get home later.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Scorpion on August 05, 2015, 01:42:35 PM
It probably will. It stuck at 83% for me for ages but when I came back to it a couple of hours later, it was done.

I have to say, I like Windows 10 so far. I wouldn't have taken the plunge quite as early if I had Windows 7, but I got Windows 8 with my laptop when I bought it and it is a huge piece of shit, so I figured that it couldn't be worse. And aside from VLC and foobar needing a reinstall and my wallpaper disappearing, the update has been super smooth and it's already better than Windows 8. I like the look, and it runs a lot smoother.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 05, 2015, 01:43:13 PM
I pulled out my laptop over the weekend for the first time in awhile.  Had to do lots of updates before I finally got the icon for the Windows 10 upgrade.  I plan on going through with it at some point when I have free time to play around and then I may sell my laptop if I don't see any use for it.  Its a great device, just that I have a macbook pro and ipad that work gave me and I have my custom PC so my awesome Sony ultrabook/tablet as cool as it is, just sits there collecting dust.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 05, 2015, 02:10:35 PM
Like I mentioned before the upgrade process was very smooth. I don't think I was expecting that. Apart from the bluetooth drivers that aren't a 100% I've noticed hardly any issues. 8 ran fantastic on my unbranded tablet and 10 is even better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on August 09, 2015, 12:32:39 PM
I had some issues with audio drivers, but it was a fairly easy fix.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 10, 2015, 07:13:11 AM
So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on August 10, 2015, 07:17:12 AM
With Windows 10, I worry about what I worry about with every new OS.  Hardware (driver) and software compatibility.  And if you have music related hardware, it seems to hit harder than printers, scanners and other more universally popular hardware.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 10, 2015, 09:41:15 AM
So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.

My brother had to do the same thing, apparently there was some remnants of linux on his storage hard drives (not the OS drives) and he could not install windows 10, until he did the same thing.  Both of those drives were wiped before hand too so I found it very odd.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 10, 2015, 09:58:01 AM
The drive I had to disconnect was a SATA DVD drive.  Go figure.  I had my storage HDD disconnected before I began to avoid any possibility of losing data.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 10, 2015, 08:59:06 PM
Ever since I had 8.1, I would randomly hear the USB disconnect tone here and there.  Then, suddenly my mouse and keyboard would stop working simultaneously.  I'm not sure if the USB disconnect tone is related, since it doesn't happen immediately prior to mouse/keyboard failure.  It is continuing with the Windows 10 upgrade.  I've played with the USB settings in the BIOS, but that has no effect.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 10, 2015, 09:04:59 PM
Ever since I had 8.1, I would randomly hear the USB disconnect tone here and there.  Then, suddenly my mouse and keyboard would stop working simultaneously.  I'm not sure if the USB disconnect tone is related, since it doesn't happen immediately prior to mouse/keyboard failure.  It is continuing with the Windows 10 upgrade.  I've played with the USB settings in the BIOS, but that has no effect.

Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on August 11, 2015, 03:10:11 AM
Well, my pc runs windows 8 and I've tried 4 times to install Windows 10 and it just stalls. Tried disconnecting my external harddrive, didn't do it. No desire to go hunting through my entire pc for a fix. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 11, 2015, 05:28:05 AM
I actually had the same problem, but I did some research and found that it was a manufacturer defect with my motherboard that causes the USB to go on and off on one of the controllers.  I found a way to disable it so it wouldn't bother me anymore and effectively does not cause any issues.  I started looking at my mobo because like you, I had installed different operating systems, used differerent hard drives and USB devices for years and always had that issue.  HOWEVER, on my latest build on that PC, that issue had not come up at all and it is really surprising. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ariich on August 11, 2015, 06:21:13 AM
I've heard a lot of positivity about upgrading from 8.1 to 10, which seems to go smoothly and seeing as most people hate 8 is seen as a big improvement.

But has anyone else tried upgrading from 7 to 10? I tried it at the weekend, and it was an unmitigated disaster. Almost nothing worked. The taskbar didn't work, the Start would never open, and even right-clicking almost never worked. And the task manager kept crashing. Every fix I found online either didn't work or, usually, I couldn't even attempt because the other things I needed to use wouldn't work.

Anyway I gave up after a few hours of trying and decided to rollback to 7. Even that was an arse because the online instructions on how to do it required you to open the Settings app, which surprise surprise I couldn't open. :lol In the end I found some online article that gave an alternative that you can use from the login screen, which worked.

So yeah, my own personal experience is that Windows 10 after upgrading from 7 is a total pile of wank.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 11, 2015, 06:37:31 AM
Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?
Not sure.  I don't know if that is something different from what I did already.  Where might I access power options?  Thats not in the Control Panel, is it?

I actually had the same problem, but I did some research and found that it was a manufacturer defect with my motherboard that causes the USB to go on and off on one of the controllers.
I hope its not a mobo issue (or at least not a hardware issue).  I have an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4. (https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77pro4)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 11, 2015, 06:44:20 AM
Hm, is it something to do with the USB settings in the power options?
Not sure.  I don't know if that is something different from what I did already.  Where might I access power options?  Thats not in the Control Panel, is it?


Yeah, it's in Control Panel. Click Change Plan Settings, and then change the advanced power settings, and then there's a USB setting in there.
You may have already looked, and it may not help with your problem, but that was just my first thought.

And I believe we have the same motherboard. :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 11, 2015, 07:04:35 AM
Thats not the same mobo as me, so you may be clear of at least my issue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 11, 2015, 03:27:36 PM
I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade. Been using 10 on my tablet and loving it so far.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ariich on August 11, 2015, 03:31:06 PM
I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade.
I'm interested in this but don't really know what it involves. Is it literally a start-from-scratch thing where you then need to install all your software and reimport all your backed up files? Or is it simply a clean install of the OS while files and programs stay as they are?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on August 11, 2015, 03:39:56 PM
I'll just stick to 8.1 thank you
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 11, 2015, 05:27:37 PM
I haven't tried upgrading from 7 to 10. But if there are issues, I'll do a clean install of 10 after the first upgrade.
I'm interested in this but don't really know what it involves. Is it literally a start-from-scratch thing where you then need to install all your software and reimport all your backed up files? Or is it simply a clean install of the OS while files and programs stay as they are?

It's a clean install. LIke wipe your drive and put a fresh new copy of windows and then load the drivers windows itself doesnt find. And the remaining software yourself.You'll have to make backups of course. With the free upgrade from previous version of windows to 10 a clean install on first try without an upgrade wont work. But this step involves more work and is generally a lot better for the OS. I'm going to do this on a new 480 GB SSD I just ordered.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 12, 2015, 05:50:20 AM
I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 06:45:34 AM
I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.
That's pretty much why I haven't upgraded my main desktop. It's been running without a reformat since 2012 and I've made so many setting changes, installed tons of programs and tweaks that would take me quite a while to do if I did a clean install on it. Which is why I'm trying the upgrade on a new SSD and will see if it requires major attention. Have to make sure all devices/drivers work and make sure my steam games work lol.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 12, 2015, 06:49:42 AM
I will likely go that route too, but I just am too lazy to redo my computer when it's been running so smoothly since my last build of it.  Kind of the dont fix what's not broken mentality, but I know I will want to upgrade at some point.
That's pretty much why I haven't upgraded my main desktop. It's been running without a reformat since 2012 and I've made so many setting changes, installed tons of programs and tweaks that would take me quite a while to do if I did a clean install on it.

Ditto, even down to the year I installed it. Still running flawlessly, and I have so many bits of vital hardware and software that I need to ensure work correctly, so I'd rather leave it until this version of Windows has sorted out any little teething problems.
Next time I have to reinstall, I'll definitely give it a go.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ariich on August 12, 2015, 06:53:23 AM
I'm trying to remember when I bought my current PC, but yeah probably 2012 sounds about right, and no full reboots since then. Similarly, I have loads of settings and software that I definitely can't be bothered to sort out all over again from scratch unless it's absolutely necessary (e.g. buying a new computer).

And yeah, still running mostly well, just a bit slow to load up and shut down, which is one of the main reasons I was tempted by Windows 10 but clearly that was a failure.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 07:06:27 AM
I'm trying to remember when I bought my current PC, but yeah probably 2012 sounds about right, and no full reboots since then. Similarly, I have loads of settings and software that I definitely can't be bothered to sort out all over again from scratch unless it's absolutely necessary (e.g. buying a new computer).

And yeah, still running mostly well, just a bit slow to load up and shut down, which is one of the main reasons I was tempted by Windows 10 but clearly that was a failure.
Do you have your current OS installed on an SSD or the regular mechanical HDD?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ariich on August 12, 2015, 08:56:46 AM
Er, just the HDD I believe.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 09:23:11 AM
Well goes without saying the biggest and most impacting upgrade you'll ever see is with an SSD. I recently put an SSD on my father inlaws old Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz Dell desktop and even with the 2 GB of RAM, the win 7 installation took 15 mins total and his boot up time is like 30 secs.
I think you should be able to clone your HDD and port it over to an SSD using several of the free migration tools available. I think the trial version of Acronis will work too. Definitely worth a shot.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 12, 2015, 09:28:48 AM
SSD for the OS is definitely the way to go  :tup

I have 2x 400GB Intel SSDs in a RAID0 for my OS and applications.  Then a third 400GB SSD for video games.  And then a bunch of 2TB HDDs for media storage.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ariich on August 12, 2015, 09:37:26 AM
Interesting, just read a couple of articles about SSDs, seems that having the OS on one can be good. Any kind of sensible capacity is insanely expensive though!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 10:00:59 AM
My current setup is the OS and some main programs reside on a 128 GB Crucial SSD which at the time I bought for $185  :o and to be fair was a deal at the time. The rest of the media is spread across 14 TB in various HDDs.  ;D Boot times and loading times are fantastic and I'm incredibly spoiled by this speed. Makes it hard to work on anything else.

A 256 GB SSD of the top brand (Crucial or Samsung) can be had for around $80 or less when they come on sales. Well worth the investment.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 12, 2015, 12:06:50 PM
Yea, the prices have come waaayyyy down, very affordable now for a decent sized SSD
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on August 12, 2015, 06:12:24 PM
I'm planning to (finally) build my own PC in December, and although I already have a ton of storage, and don't need to buy any, I plan on getting a 128 gig SSD just for my OS and most used programs/games.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 07:29:57 PM
Even though 128 gb sounds like it's enough they start to fill up fast and in no time you'll be clearing out space frequently.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on August 12, 2015, 08:42:27 PM
Even though 128 gb sounds like it's enough they start to fill up fast and in no time you'll be clearing out space frequently.

I have 8TBs of storage. Space is not an issue. Like I said, it's only for critical stuff.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 12, 2015, 09:23:54 PM
I was referring to the 128 GB for the OS, you'll find that you'll start placing more and more programs on the SSD as they load super fast. I know for me I place VMs on the SSD and several video editing programs and I have all scratch disks pointing to the SSD. Just giving some insight on my experience as I too thought the same that 128 GB should be only for the critical and most important stuff.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on August 12, 2015, 09:25:05 PM
If you're going to be playing games, something bigger than 120GB would not go to waste, infact I'd recommend it. I've got a 120GB SSD and while I haven't had any space issues so far in the last 3 years that I've had it, games have gotten a lot bigger recently. A couple of things I've been thinking of buying are in the 60GB+ range, and I can't find enough things to delete from my SSD to make space for them - keeping only things that I must have, I can only manage to get 56GB of free space. I generally like to have 2 games on at a time aswell, so it's even more disappointing for me. If I don't buy a new SSD before I buy one of those games, I'm going to have to install them on the conventional HDD, and I'm not looking forward to doing that. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on August 12, 2015, 10:34:45 PM
I'll keep all that in mind, and see what prices are like in a few months once I'm pulling the trigger on these things.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 12, 2015, 11:16:58 PM
I also have an 128gb ssd for my OS, I partitioned mine so that 60gb is reserved for the OS and the rest for critical stuff other than that I reserve it only for my OS. I have a 250gb ssd for heavy programs like video editing and games. Then I have a 1TB HHD for storage.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on August 12, 2015, 11:20:38 PM
The price difference between 128 and 256gb SSD is not all that much these days.  I'd go 256.  I have a 128 and it filled up fast enough that I had to take some time to rearrange things.

Data is on the mega terabyte conventional HDDs
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 12, 2015, 11:31:50 PM
A question: If I run heavy programs and games from the OS drive wouldn't that slow things down no matter the disk seize instead of always having the OS run on a dedicated drive?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 13, 2015, 12:15:16 AM
A question: If I run heavy programs and games from the OS drive wouldn't that slow things down no matter the disk seize instead of always having the OS run on a dedicated drive?

I don't think it will make much of a difference in practice on an SSD. And if I had an SSD, I'd want all of the programs on it too, because a slow SSD would still easily beat a fast mechanical drive.

A 128gb SSD would be way too small as an OS drive for me, and I have zero games. I have my current partition at 200gb and that's struggling, and that's just Windows 7 and the basic programs I need. It would be fine if it was just the OS, but with programs and/or games, I'd go at least 256gb.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 13, 2015, 05:36:59 AM
The problem is the OS grows over time with updates.  I had 2x 60GB SSDs in RAID0 so a virtual 120GB SSD drive for my OS and I didn't install any games besides Battlefield (since that took so long to load on a mechanical drive) and no other apps, I was at capacity on the drive in a few years from the OS growing (well BF did too). 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 13, 2015, 12:19:12 PM
A question: If I run heavy programs and games from the OS drive wouldn't that slow things down no matter the disk seize instead of always having the OS run on a dedicated drive?

I don't think it will make much of a difference in practice on an SSD. And if I had an SSD, I'd want all of the programs on it too, because a slow SSD would still easily beat a fast mechanical drive.
Yea probably dosen't do any big changes but i've have to say it's very handy when you wanna reinstall your OS because I never have to reinstall anything given all my programs and games are on seperate disks. Also steam is very handy when it comes to reinstalling important files that may be located on your main drive, you basically just start the game and it instantly recognize any missing files.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on August 13, 2015, 12:24:53 PM
Yea probably dosen't do any big changes but i've have to say it's very handy when you wanna reinstall your OS because I never have to reinstall anything given all my programs and games are on seperate disks.

You don't have problems with possible missing registry changes the game install made that won't be there when the OS drive is wiped?

What you are talking about is the main reason I got a 2nd HDD in the first place, but for data.  Documents, spreadsheets, pictures, movies, audio and whatever else windows program allows me to point to the data drive.  There is still a short list I have for things I need to save off the OS drive before I wipe (most obvious being the desktop).

I've had to reinstall much less since Win7.  In fact, I haven't had to yet.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 13, 2015, 12:28:39 PM
Even if my programs were on a separate drive, I'd still have to reinstall them all if I reinstalled Windows because of copy protection and registry keys. Not sure how modern games react to that kind of thing, but the games I play are ok because they all predate any real copy protection, or are emulated.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 13, 2015, 12:39:38 PM
Yea probably dosen't do any big changes but i've have to say it's very handy when you wanna reinstall your OS because I never have to reinstall anything given all my programs and games are on seperate disks.

You don't have problems with possible missing registry changes the game install made that won't be there when the OS drive is wiped?

What you are talking about is the main reason I got a 2nd HDD in the first place, but for data.  Documents, spreadsheets, pictures, movies, audio and whatever else windows program allows me to point to the data drive.  There is still a short list I have for things I need to save off the OS drive before I wipe (most obvious being the desktop).

I've had to reinstall much less since Win7.  In fact, I haven't had to yet.
Not that i've noticed. Steam seems to fix things like that, the last time I reinstalled my OS the only thing I had to do was fix all the necessary drivers and then boot up steam. It repair itself when you boot up and so does the games. Surprisingly easy. As long as you don't have steam on your OS drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 13, 2015, 12:49:12 PM
I put one of these in my latest build (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148949). The best of both worlds and pretty reasonably priced. I have the OS (Win 7) and all the programs loaded on it. All the user files and data is kept on a separate HDD.

I can highly recommend it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 13, 2015, 01:34:45 PM
Nice SSD!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on August 14, 2015, 01:10:46 AM
While we are talking SSDs and Win7 8 and 10 ... There is one thing that bothers me about my current setup.

Every now and then, I will go into Windows Explorer (or file open from a program) and I will get a "program not responding" that seems to correspond to a HDD grab (usually going from directory to directory).  It is more of a relatively short pause that always gets back on track, but it is definitely annoying.

I've taken off all the power saving settings for the HDDs via Control Panel, but it still does it every so often.  It isn't that it is a massive delay, just that with the computer specs (SSD and last gen intel), it doesn't seem like it should be a problem.

I've tried to look for a solution in Event Viewer, but either it isn't there or I'm just not looking in the right spot.

I could see it being a problem of background disk defrag, although that is disabled for the SSD so that shouldn't be the problem.

Anybody else go through this?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 14, 2015, 05:30:38 AM
I know my computer does that with my data hard drive after a period of not using the data and then say playing a video, theres a slight pause as you wait for the disk to spin up.  But sounds like you are not experiencing that with the SSD.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 14, 2015, 05:42:46 AM
I remember having this kind of issue with my very first SSD a Crucial C300 64 GB and I remember I had to install the drivers suggested by the Intel Driver Utility and that took care of the issue. Not sure if yours is any way related. I think the native drivers that windows loaded had some issue with it so had to use the one made by Micron.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on August 14, 2015, 01:02:41 PM
I'd have to make some more controlled observations (although it doesn't happen when you want it to as per Murphy's Law), but it obviously happens with my data drives (not SSD).  I can't be sure that my SSD is a culprit.  I could say it is a culprit because when I load Microsoft Excel (for instance) it sometimes has a short "not responding" on initial load.  But that could be the "recents" link to the data drive.

I will try the intel driver utility (I think it used compromised java though) again.  I know I used it before.  My goto for drivers has been SlimDrivers, but the problem was around pre-SlimDrivers usage.

Anybody have a link to troubleshooting "program not responding" tutorials.  I have used Event Viewer with success in the past for other problems (mainly XP era), but I haven't even been able to find the event entry itself.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 15, 2015, 01:42:22 PM
Of course one could just save up to this behemoth:

https://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2015/08/14/samsungs-record-breaking-hard-drive-fits-16-terabytes-into-a-2-5-inch-ssd/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 16, 2015, 11:56:38 AM
Yesterday I got my Crucial M500 480 GB SSD. It was a re-certified unit that I got for $120. I already had Win 7 installed on another 128 GB Crucial M4 SSD so just disconnected that drive and installed a Win 8 Pro installation I bought at the time of release for like $40. The process of installing win 8 with 170 updates to win 8.1 with another 35 updates to finally win 10 took a few hours I'd say about 3 which considering is really really fast considering the amount of data downloaded (probably in the 10s of GBs) and had to redownload win 10 as the first installation was corrupt. I have to say it's been quite a smooth transition which I was sorta expecting but didn't think it would be this flawless, as least so far.

I haven't had to install a single driver. I don't know if that's due to my signing into my windows account and having them synced all three times and it somehow saving all my device drivers etc.. regardless I'm pleasantly surprised that on the first clean install of win 8 I had all drivers loaded by default and I checked everything was working. This includes my wireless solar powered Logitech keyboard K750, my bluetooth earphones, all USB 3.0 controllers (non-native for Sandy Bridge CPUs), etc.. Only hitch was that AMD catalyst center wasn't installed on 8 and for one of my monitors that was connected via HDMI I couldn't adjust the overscan ratio. But 8.1 loaded it and that was solved. Another minor bump in the road was that I couldn't first do a clean install of win 8 on this new drive. I mean I could but it wouldn't activate online saying that my version of windows would only support an upgrade and not a clean install. Well a simple registry tweak took care of that and I was on my way.

It's a strange feeling using win 10 on my desktop as my main OS where I'm settling in all software and power options, assigning default directories for music, movies, setting up Plex for all devices. Loading up additional server hosting software. Played Crysis on steam on ultra settings and that worked great. I've had win 7 on it since the time of purchase and although have tried several OSes on this machine, they were all on VMs to tinker with and none of them were my main setup. So it's a weird feeling having a new OS on the main desktop.

I haven't encountered too many bugs with win 10 yet but it's still too early. I thought I'd hate sitting through the whole process of trying to re-configure my main desktop but I was wrong, I'm loving it so far.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 18, 2015, 05:58:48 AM
There was another sale on re-certified Crucial SSDs, I grabbed another 480 GB ($100) and a 960 GB($180) one. Not sure what I'm going to do with so many SSDs haha. Probably load one on my wife's laptop and give one to my brother.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: reneranucci on August 18, 2015, 06:03:34 PM
Hello everyone! I'm planning to replace my laptop computer and at the same time develop more computer skills, trying some things I haven't done before.

I'm debating between two ASUS models, very similar in specifications (i7 processor, 8 GB RAM, same video processor, etc.). The first I looked at (which is, overall, a nicer laptop and includes an optical drive which I still find valuable) has a 1 TB HDD 5400 rpm. I tried to upgrade it to a 7200 rpm but that would also force me to buy it from a seller that has has it a higher price. Overall it would be around $1,050. This is the safe, comfortable option.

The second one comes with a 256 SSD plus internal expansion space for a 7mm HDD. If I buy this one, I would also buy a 1 TB internal HDD and install it myself, plus an external CD/DVD drive. This is the "high risk, maybe high reward" option:
- Overall cost would be around $930, actually freeing some cash to get the MS Office license.
- I will have a SSD, which is becoming the standard, so I can feel good about myself having cutting edge technology. Besides, my work laptop has a SSD and I can tell the difference in speed/reliability is vast.
- It will force me to open the laptop to install the internal HDD (yes, voiding the guarantee in the process), learn to manage 2 hard drives efficiently, create partitions, etc. Everything comes down to me being able to install the HDD easily following youtube videos. Do you think this is too risky?

I want the computer for the usual office stuff, installing and learning Ubuntu, and processing some heavy files for data analytics. I'm not a gamer at all but I have a Steam account and some games that would be nice to play (and that I don't play because my laptop overheats/freezes). Any input would be greatly appreciated  :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 18, 2015, 09:15:54 PM
I think you've more or less answered your question in your post. You say you want to learn more computer skills, the 2nd option presents that opportunity to you. I don't think it's risky at all though if you're doing it for the first time when opening the laptop case it will feel a little intimidating as everything is usually very tightly secured and usually snaps in place. One site I highly recommend is ifixit.com if you want to disassemble things. Hopefully they'll have the laptop you're interested in and the guides help. Creating and managing multiple partitions is no big deal these days where the majority of maintenance can be done with the native windows disk management tool.

Out of curiosity which is the Asus laptop that you're interested in for your second option? You know where my vote is if you've been reading my posts regarding SSDs. I can't recommended them enough. In fact during this weekend I'm going to replace my wife's laptop 5400 rpm hard drive with a new SSD I've bought.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 18, 2015, 09:25:08 PM
On another note I can't believe I waited so long (think 3 1/2 years) to update my motherboard bios for the desktop. Now that I did the boot up time is cut short ridiculously. I mean before it would POST for like a min or so and then windows would boot in 30 secs after that. Now POST happens like in 10 secs and Win 10 boots up in another 15-20 secs. Even my over clocked CPU runs a bit more smoothly without kicking in the fan right away.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 18, 2015, 10:13:02 PM
Although I already have some computer skills, I recently had to replace a laptop HDD for the first time, and it was much less painful than I expected. I say go for it. It's not a difficult process, either on the hardware side or the software side. Just make sure the new drive will fit in the laptop in regards to thickness, and it's a straightforward process.
Software side, creating a partition (or a few) is quick and easy even using the standard Windows tools.

Plus you get the benefits of both SSD and HDD, speed and storage.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: reneranucci on August 19, 2015, 07:56:40 AM
Thank you everybody for the answers! @faizoff, this is the model I'm looking at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YR6BMS2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YR6BMS2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

I think I'm going this way. Another thing I learned is that I can clone my current hard drive into the new HD instead of manually transferring all my files and documents, having to re-install programs, etc., so this is another skill I will develop. Just one question, if I clone my HD into the internal 1TB I will add, it will clone Windows 7 into it. The pre-installed SSD already comes with Windows 8.1. How can I manage to clone my current drive without the OS? I looked online and really didn't find a tutorial for this.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 19, 2015, 08:00:17 AM
If you don't need the OS, then wouldn't you just do a plain copy of your folders across the drives? In my experience the only real need for cloning a drive is for the OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: reneranucci on August 19, 2015, 08:10:57 AM
If you don't need the OS, then wouldn't you just do a plain copy of your folders across the drives? In my experience the only real need for cloning a drive is for the OS.
Ok, I don't really have any experience so I think what you're saying makes sense. I have some software I didn't want to reinstall and I have MS Office in my HD but I've lost the install DVDs and the key, so I wanted to migrate that to my new HD to save some money.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 19, 2015, 08:16:49 AM
If you don't need the OS, then wouldn't you just do a plain copy of your folders across the drives? In my experience the only real need for cloning a drive is for the OS.
Ok, I don't really have any experience so I think what you're saying makes sense. I have some software I didn't want to reinstall and I have MS Office in my HD but I've lost the install DVDs and the key, so I wanted to migrate that to my new HD to save some money.

Unless you're copying it along with the entire OS you installed it for, I doubt the software would work, or at the very least would require re-activation with your key. Some free programs may work, but those would be easy enough to reinstall anyhow.
I would suggest Open Office as a great free alternative to MS Office. I used to have Office, but also no longer had the installation discs, so switched over.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 19, 2015, 10:24:19 AM
That's a great looking laptop @reneranucci! The specs on paper look great and it should run really well.


First, if you're cloning the HD (that has win 7 and programs, etc..) from your current laptop and want that clone to be on your new laptop it's going to be very tricky to get it working and I'm not sure you can do it without issues. Reason being the hardware on the new laptop is going to be different from your current laptop and will need different drivers and have to be reconfigured.

This is a pain to do and I think I tried it several years ago and in the win 98-XP days and of course didn't work and I spend hours and hours with no real success.

I might be wrong in how HD cloning is done these days as I haven't tried it in recent years but a clean install of the OS or just using what's already there is always going to be better.

Second, if it's only Office you're trying to install, you can use a free program called Belarc and extract the Office key from your current installation. Then download the same trial version of Office from MS or wherever they're hosted to the new laptop and use the key. That works and I've done this with several of my installed programs that needs keys and don't have the installation disks.

If there are other programs that need to be installed then you'll have to find the installation files from somewhere and just use the keys extracted.

Also are you sure you can install a separate 1 TB HD on that laptop? I may have missed it but it doesn't look you can install a second disk on it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 19, 2015, 10:30:20 AM
I just read some comments on that laptop that there have been users who added a second hard drive and that there's an expansion bay. Thats cool then.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 19, 2015, 10:43:54 AM
I used Acronis Migration Software (https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/migration-software/) some years ago with great success.

What I did was use the program to migrate the contents of my old HD to the new HD. Once I booted into the operating system, Windows Update took care of the hardware differences and drivers after a few reboots. Then I upgraded the operating system with the install disc that came with the new computer. All of my programs ran fine without having to be reactivated.

That being said, I did all this in Windows XP to Windows Vista. Your mileage may vary but it may be worth looking into.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: reneranucci on August 19, 2015, 01:03:45 PM
I just read some comments on that laptop that there have been users who added a second hard drive and that there's an expansion bay. Thats cool then.
Yes, I'm kinda relying on the review from a guy named ESVK who was cool enough to take pictures of the open laptop and explain how he installed the internal hard drive.

Thank you for your excellent reply, BTW. I'll definitely follow your advice regarding the MS Office key. I'm not really looking to clone my HD specifically, but I'm just trying to find a way to migrate all my documents, music, and videos to the new laptop. This would be my n00b way to do it:
- Connect my 500 GB external HD to my old laptop's USB port
- Copy/paste my documents from my hard drive to the external device
- Copy/paste my documents from my external device to the new laptop

Based on my experience, this can take the whole day because the speed of the external Hard Drive interface with the USB port is very slow. There's always a risk that the copy/paste process will freeze and I'll have to start over. I'm sure there has to be more efficient way to migrate my files. Based on some videos I've watched, my plan is to:

- Open my old laptop and extract the Hard Drive
- Connect the old Hard Drive to my new laptop's USB 3.0 port using converter cables like these ones: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQJME7Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQJME7Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE)
- Use some software to migrate the files from old Hard Drive to new Hard Drive

Does this make any sense? My thesis is that the Old HD -> USB -> New HD interface will be faster than the Old HD ->USB ->external HD->USB-> New HD interface. Is this true? Is there a more efficient way to complete this simple, but time-consuming task?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2015, 01:29:25 PM
I personally think you are asking for trouble moving a hard drive with installed applications to a new OS with regards to those applications working. Obviously people in this thread say they have done so with success, but my opinion is to not do that.  Go for the clean install on the new OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: reneranucci on August 19, 2015, 02:02:55 PM
I personally think you are asking for trouble moving a hard drive with installed applications to a new OS with regards to those applications working. Obviously people in this thread say they have done so with success, but my opinion is to not do that.  Go for the clean install on the new OS.
Agreed, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm just trying to find an efficient way to migrate my documents (not the OS or installed programs)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 19, 2015, 02:14:43 PM
I think your approach will work. Even if you won't get full USB 3.0 speeds with that cable you posted, it will still be much faster than if you were to do it first way you mentioned. 500 GB seems like chump change to me lol. I have drives that total 14 TB on my desktop and a few times I had to move some things over or make backups and it was in around 300 GB or so and I don't remember it taking too much time. But then again it was between sata 3 interfaces.

But yeah I would do it the same way you listed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 19, 2015, 02:36:43 PM
Yeah, in spite of my previous post. I don't think I'd do it again.

Your current approach is sound, me thinks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 20, 2015, 06:17:57 AM
On another note, I figured out yesterday why I was getting so many random lockups after a BIOS update. It was due to disabling APM on my Seagate HDD through Hard Disk Sentinel. At first I thought it might've been the SSD I just got. Or something in win 10 as that just had an update. Or enabling VT-x in the BIOS. But nope turned out that uninstalling Hard Disk Sentinel was the answer.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 31, 2015, 02:14:45 PM
Anyone know how fast an HDD read/write head moves?  I thought it was constantly sweeping back and forth across the full width of the platter, but apparently that's not true; the head can stay in place over one track.  However, I'd like to figure out how fast it might move and how far, since I am trying to calculate the g-force acting on the head.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on September 03, 2015, 08:19:49 AM
Further back in this thread I posted about a problem i was having with my USB mouse and keyboard failing simultaneously.  I have unplugged just the mouse and the problem has not reappeared.  Looks like I just need a new mouse then.

Reading about "quality" mice, all discussions seem to be about gaming mice with adjustable sensitivity, etc, which I have no use for.  Any recommendations for a good quality mouse that won't fail in a year or 2 (my current one is 13 years old)?

Edit: Also, no wireless mice.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 03, 2015, 08:22:23 AM
Further back in this thread I posted about a problem i was having with my USB mouse and keyboard failing simultaneously.  I have unplugged just the mouse and the problem has not reappeared.  Looks like I just need a new mouse then.

Reading about "quality" mice, all discussions seem to be about gaming mice with adjustable sensitivity, etc, which I have no use for.  Any recommendations for a good quality mouse that won't fail in a year or 2 (my current one is 13 years old)?

Cant say I've ever experienced mouse software issues, usually just wear and tear that physically makes the mouse bad.  My only recommendation would be on gaming mice since I don't know much about the differences in standard USB mice.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Genowyn on September 04, 2015, 06:24:03 PM
Hope someone can help me out with this issue:

I'm running Windows 7 and have two harddrives in my computer. The OS is installed on an SSD, all of my files and programs are installed on the second harddrive.

I recently replaced the SSD with a newer one with more space, and reinstalled the OS on there. The problem is since then Windows doesn't think I'm the administrator of the second harddrive. So, it prevents me from saving files there, prevents me from letting a program like WinRAR create a new folder there, etc. It's mostly an annoyance, just means I have to do things on the SSD and then copy them to the harddrive (which it lets me do for some reason).

Also only certain programs seem to have this problem? uTorrent seems to be able to save to the D drive just fine, but Chrome and WinRAR complain about it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on September 04, 2015, 09:52:13 PM
If you check the root folder properties, you should be able to change the owner of them in permissions or something. I had something similar when I first upgraded to Windows 7.
Like this?
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/take-ownership-windows-8
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Genowyn on September 04, 2015, 11:54:16 PM
Alright so, now it seems like this problem is actually only occurring in my Music folder? I made myself the owner, but now trying to set the permissions, when I try to set myself full control, it goes through each and every folder saying I don't have permission. I sincerely hope I won't have to manually set myself as owner of each of the subfolders because there are hundreds D:


Aaaaand even setting myself as the owner of the individual folders, it gives me access is denied when I try to give myself full control permissions.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 05, 2015, 01:13:38 AM
Yea I recognise that problem. I had to manually change the ownership on every file and folder but like you, it only effected certain folders and files so luckily for me it wasn't that many but it's damn annoying.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: splent on September 10, 2015, 05:22:09 PM
OK so my computer doesn't have bluetooth hardware on it (it's about 2 1/2 years old, I thought bluetooth was standard at that point but obviously not; my mother-in-law bought it on QVC). I recently upgraded to Windows 10 (no i'm not switching back to windows 8, i HATED windows 8 and this is seemingly running better than 8 did). Anyways, I purchased a bluetooth speaker ($5 at Five Below; yes it's cheap but it gets the job done) to play music in the classroom from my computer so I don't have to worry about hooking up a speaker (hence my discovery that my computer didn't have bluetooth hardware).

If i purchase a bluetooth usb thing, will my speaker work? I really don't want to spend a lot of money if I don't have to, because I don't have a lot to begin with.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 11, 2015, 08:32:27 AM
That's right, if you get a bluetooth dongle/adapter for your computer and plug it in, it should allow you to pair the speakers. It's quite painless in win 10.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on September 11, 2015, 09:05:38 AM
I'm moving to a new apartment, and the computer will be approximately 50 feet from the cable line, so I need to add wireless capability to my desktop. (not interested in running ethernet or coaxial through the whole apartment.)

Looking at the following wireless adapters, ranging in price from $12 to $94, what the hell is really the difference?

(https://hackerwarehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/tplink-tl-wn722n.454A5022a-1024.jpg) (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045)

(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41isU4pbSBL.jpg) (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HF8K0O6/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FMXBMED9YPV0&coliid=I2N64F3Z9SCPU8)

(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jQspPMRSL.jpg) (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F42V83C/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p147_d0_i4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=0N3NT24Y74KPDB9KXJJJ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on September 11, 2015, 09:20:02 AM
More expensive ones will probably be more powerful (longer range, better through walls n stuff), and have faster wireless speeds. 50ft is probably about the limit of what I've managed for a wireless device on my network, but that was a smartphone, not a PC, so I'm not sure if that will be an issue.

I just have a cheapo USB dongle for my PC that cost me $20 (no antenna, just a small thing) and it works fine. It's only over a distance of about 5m/15ft though, through some wooden walls/floor. I have had some problems sustaining streaming video off of it to other devices, but otherwise it's adequate.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on September 11, 2015, 10:22:46 AM
It doesnt make sense to me that different receiving antennas could be more powerful than others.  The quality of the signal is dependent on the transmitter, isn't it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on September 11, 2015, 10:25:08 AM
The quality would be dependent on both ends, both having a strong signal transmitted, and receiving it clearly with minimal interference/noise. And internet is two way communication, so it's not just a receiver.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on September 11, 2015, 10:28:21 AM
And internet is two way communication, so it's not just a receiver.
Right, of course. :justjen
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on September 11, 2015, 04:19:25 PM
Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but here it goes. I'm interested in playing music from my computer through my stereo head (with no streaming capabilities) if there is a cost effective way to stream at a decent quality. I honestly know very little about BT other than it's basic functions. I know they make BT receivers I can plug into the unit, but is the quality of those devices solid? Any other ways to do it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on September 11, 2015, 05:15:45 PM
Usually for little adapter projects I go here
https://www.monoprice.com/

They probably have something that will get the job done at a good price and the quality is better than the price would suggest.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 12, 2015, 07:32:08 AM
Splent and Nick, I'm not 100% sure this is what you are looking for, but this is a blue tooth receiver I recently purchased:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VV1DGX0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VV1DGX0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00)

It's cheap and it now allows my car to stream audio through bluetooth from my phone to my car stereo, replacing the AUX cable.  Easy to set up and streams the music fine with solid quality.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on September 23, 2015, 12:30:33 AM
Well after an ultimate attempt to install Windows 10 on my home pc, it  now is well and truly fucked. Didn't reboot, wouldn't system reset to an earlier point. so I said fuck it, I'll just install windows 8 all over again. Workerd for about five minutes, was even able to check my mail and then it just didn't reboot anymore. Thank you Microsoft thank you fuckin very much#!  >:( :censored :censored
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2015, 09:06:45 AM
I wonder if you have a hardware issue then.  Seems odd that you can't get either OS to work, but Im not sure how to help without more info.

I installed windows 10 onto my laptop, it was super easy and fast.  Then I sold my laptop.  So my PC is still on 7, but I thought 10 was pretty cool so maybe one weekend when I have no plans and am bored I will upgrade my PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on September 23, 2015, 10:20:52 AM
I really don't get the hype about windows 10, I've removed all traces of that dumb OS's offers from my laptop
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2015, 11:25:45 AM
I really don't get the hype about windows 10, I've removed all traces of that dumb OS's offers from my laptop

Have you tried it?  And are you comparing to windows 7?  I think it's easier to call windows 10 dumb compared to 7, but 10 compared to 8 could then be genius with that thought process.  I really didnt mess around with it after upgrading my laptop, but it felt like a much better OS than 8 (which I really didnt enjoy).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on September 23, 2015, 12:41:29 PM
I really don't get the hype about windows 10, I've removed all traces of that dumb OS's offers from my laptop

Have you tried it?  And are you comparing to windows 7?  I think it's easier to call windows 10 dumb compared to 7, but 10 compared to 8 could then be genius with that thought process.  I really didnt mess around with it after upgrading my laptop, but it felt like a much better OS than 8 (which I really didnt enjoy).

https://lifehacker.com/what-windows-10s-privacy-nightmare-settings-actually-1722267229 for starters
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2015, 12:50:14 PM
I really don't get the hype about windows 10, I've removed all traces of that dumb OS's offers from my laptop

Have you tried it?  And are you comparing to windows 7?  I think it's easier to call windows 10 dumb compared to 7, but 10 compared to 8 could then be genius with that thought process.  I really didnt mess around with it after upgrading my laptop, but it felt like a much better OS than 8 (which I really didnt enjoy).

https://lifehacker.com/what-windows-10s-privacy-nightmare-settings-actually-1722267229 for starters
Quote
So is Windows 10 the worst privacy killer in human history? Probably not, but there are some issues here—primarily:

Microsoft’s language on one or two settings is very vague, which means it’s hard to tell when it is and isn’t collecting data related to some settings. The “Getting to Know You” setting is particularly vague and problematic.
All of the settings are opt-out instead of opt-in, and there are very many of them. Most casual users will never even look at these settings.
However, at least Microsoft provides these toggles, which is at least a step in the right direction.

You also didnt answer if you have used Windows 10.  While there are tons of privacy issues, not a single one of those is concerning to make windows 10 "dumb".  You have the option to turn all of them off.  I think the only thing I do not like from what I have read is the forced updates.  I won't argue with your view if that is it, but I was thinking you might have had better reasons for having that view.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on September 23, 2015, 01:04:17 PM
I don't like companies profiting off information. You can encrypt your harddrive using Bitlocker, but Microsoft backs up the encryption key with them making the encryption worthless. Stuff like that. There are surely other things that you can't turn off. The fact that all these settings are default, and that you have to go out of your way to turn each of them off is concerning and annoying. And no, I haven't touched the OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2015, 01:27:24 PM
Sadly I don't think we can hide from this anymore unless we just stop using modern technology.  Even that article mentioned all these settings are practically defaults on any droid or Iphone.  Not to mention websites tracking you as well.

Some of those settings for collecting data end end up going to advertisers to therefore give you a better ad (targeted at your interests).  I work for an ad technology company so I can talk about this all day and how it is actually beneficial while being totally creepy on the surface. 

I was generally curious though about something actually wrong with the OS (like Cylcopss saying he can't get it to run).  Ive hardly used it but I liked what I saw and most of what I read had been very positive. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on September 24, 2015, 01:24:38 AM
I wonder if you have a hardware issue then.  Seems odd that you can't get either OS to work, but Im not sure how to help without more info.

I installed windows 10 onto my laptop, it was super easy and fast.  Then I sold my laptop.  So my PC is still on 7, but I thought 10 was pretty cool so maybe one weekend when I have no plans and am bored I will upgrade my PC.

Thanks. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, that it's a hardware problem. I'm affraid I have an 'Alienware' Dell pc, (or piece of shit) and up until now it has performed pretty good. The last time I tried it I was able to revert to the an earlier reset point, or factory settings,  but somehow not this time. I can only boot from the dvd drive. 
The pc boots from the dvd drive with my windows 8.1 disc in it and I can install Windows 8.1 and then having to  go through the whole rigamarole of setting up a new acount, start up internet connection and having the start up menu, but the screen is totally screwed up. It has the basic Windows 8 screen with all the squares, but I can't open programmes from the backup 'Alienware'  screen. I am able to go on the internet, but I can't open different tab pages. Plus my dvd drive acts erratic when I try to remove the install disc and install a different programme or game.
The when I try to boot up again, I only get a basic colour screen and then nothing. I have to repeat the whole process of installing from the dvd drive again.

Really hope this gives a little more info.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 25, 2015, 04:50:06 PM
Do you have any other hard drives to use?  Maybe try installing on a different hard drive if so although Im not sure the extra info you provided is really pointing in that direction other than the fact you said you can only boot from the DVD drive.  You mention you have a Dell PC.  Alienware is better, but its still a Dell product I guess and I hate Dell hardware with a passion considering I fix Dell servers for a living essentially.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on September 25, 2015, 08:03:35 PM
A computer you build yourself with decent parts will always be better than a rip-off alienware

alienware are like the computer version of dr. dre's beats
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 06, 2015, 09:47:28 AM
Microsoft has announced some amazing products today, Surface Pro 4, Lumia 950 & 950 XL and the new Surface Book. Frankly the phones are what impressed me the most, being able to use it a regular PC when connected to a dock is most impressive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on October 08, 2015, 12:53:16 AM
I'm sorry, should have updated earlier! After a week of total freak out, I managed to find the solution on the net.
Turned out to be so simple, it's frigging laughable!

Turned out, all I had to do was push the Windows button + P three times, then down arrow + ENTER.

That was it. Really. Booted up fine after that, changed my graphic chipset from AMD to the NVidea and eh presto.

Deleted all my files and music files though, and no 'Windows Old' folder to be found.

Thanks for the help!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on October 08, 2015, 07:27:53 AM
Turned out, all I had to do was push the Windows button + P three times, then down arrow + ENTER.

Okay, I'm missing something.  Since that's not exactly a key combination that anyone would do randomly, what did it do?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 08, 2015, 07:30:17 AM
Judging by when I pressed Win+P, it looks like it changes the monitor output settings, intended for use with multiple displays.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on October 08, 2015, 09:31:31 AM
it does. It seems the install switched the monitor output around or something. That´s the entire problem....
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on October 09, 2015, 11:46:51 AM
Microsoft has announced some amazing products today, Surface Pro 4, Lumia 950 & 950 XL and the new Surface Book. Frankly the phones are what impressed me the most, being able to use it a regular PC when connected to a dock is most impressive.

I'm at a decision point in the next few months. As an Android fan I really wanted to try out one of the Nexus phones, but each of the new models have little things I don't like about them. These phones look quite nice, but are Windows phones. Might just stick with my S5, we shall see.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 13, 2015, 12:01:11 PM
Bought a 5TB hard drive that was on sale.  My 2TB drive was full since now with phones recording amazing HD video and HQ pictures, my hard drive has filled up quickly. 

I had the weirdest issue.  It's an internal drive, but I popped it into my external mount to play with it first.  Disk manager shows it had two partitions, a 2TB and 2.5TB.  The 2.5TB was unformatable though.  I messed around formatting and reformating the 2TB partition and tried many ways to wipe the drive using diskpartition, could only get the 2TB partition to work and be allocated.  I thought maybe it had to do with my USB 3.0 external mount.

Took apart my computer and started using different motherboard SATA ports (this is what I intended to do anyway for permanent usage).  The EXACT same thing happened using different SATA ports (my motherboard has two different SATA controllers) the disk would now only show one partition and it was 561GB.  So weird.  Also my RAID controller detected it as a 4.5TB drive too.  I thought it could be a motherboard BIOS or maybe Windows issue. 

Couldn't find anything on the web besides one guy who had the same problem, but he upgraded his SATA controller firmware to fix it (mine was up to date, checked it immediately).  So I pull it out of the PC and normalize my PC.  Then I pop it back into my external drive... now it shows 4.5TB of unallocated space on a single partition.  Format it, stick it back into the PC, and now it's all good.  Currently copying data over.  No idea why this all happened or how it got fixed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 13, 2015, 09:41:29 PM
I just quickly Googled 2TB SATA limit, and it looks like it's something to do with how the old master boot record works, giving it a limit of allocating around 2TB, hence the fact the additional 2.5TB was unusable.
Glad you figured it out. I have a couple of 2TB drives (internal and external), but I don't have any beyond that yet. I was thinking of getting one soon, so hopefully I don't have any issues.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 14, 2015, 06:33:58 AM
Yea I thought it could be something like that, I know older systems had a 2tb limit, but I never actually changed anything to get it to work which I don't understand. Just moved it around between different ports and eventually it worked.  ???
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 14, 2015, 06:37:45 AM
That is weird. Maybe it's due to the driver difference between the SATA controllers or USB that allowed it to correctly detect and format it so you could use it properly? Computers can be funny sometimes.

I remember way back when I got my first SATA drive, and it was SATA2, while my computer was only SATA1, and my computer couldn't even detect the drive. Turns out it required a change of jumper settings to manually set it to SATA1 speed. Good times.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 14, 2015, 06:39:57 AM
That is weird. Maybe it's due to the driver difference between the SATA controllers or USB that allowed it to correctly detect and format it so you could use it properly? Computers can be funny sometimes.

Maybe. I agree I work on computer hardware and sometimes shit just works but Id love to know why. Your guess seems like a good one.  I bet it failed lol it transfered 1.25th before I went to bed and left another overnight 1tb to transfer as I fell asleep.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 24, 2015, 12:44:16 AM
My PC died suddenly yesterday and I couldn't boot it up again. Absolutely nothing happend when I pushed the button. I tried to clean everything from dust, disconnected the PSU and let it rest still nothing. I researched a bit and come to the conclusion that the PSU was most likely broken. I bought a new one and installed it but still nothing although this time my CPU fan moved a bit so there's power atleast but it still wouldn't boot. I'm now afraid my motherboard or cpu has died.

Any ideas?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 24, 2015, 12:48:28 AM
PSU would have been my conclusion too (as it has been the source of countless similar computer deaths for me).
I'd double check all of the connections to make sure it's not just a loose power cable or something. Assuming you've already tried that, I'd probably think motherboard. If it was CPU, I believe it would power on with the fans and lights, but simply do nothing.

You could try unplugging the drives and graphics card, maybe even RAM, and seeing if it reacts differently, gives you any beeps, but it doesn't sound like that kind of situation from my experience.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grizz on October 24, 2015, 01:45:26 AM
Gotta love Intel Management Engine and Windows 10, working together to keep my monitor from awakening!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 24, 2015, 01:56:12 AM
PSU would have been my conclusion too (as it has been the source of countless similar computer deaths for me).
I'd double check all of the connections to make sure it's not just a loose power cable or something. Assuming you've already tried that, I'd probably think motherboard. If it was CPU, I believe it would power on with the fans and lights, but simply do nothing.

You could try unplugging the drives and graphics card, maybe even RAM, and seeing if it reacts differently, gives you any beeps, but it doesn't sound like that kind of situation from my experience.
So i'm both happy and annoyed because it turns out it wasn't my PC it was the power extention cord that I hook every power cable to that has broken. The on/off light was flickering and when I turned it on it made a noise. So I plugged the PC directly into the wall jacket and my pc booted up as normal.
Stupid me for not thinking outside the box yesterday, was so focused on what was wrong with the pc. I even bought a new psu!  :facepalm:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 24, 2015, 02:22:15 AM
Shame you didn't figure that out before buying the PSU, but at least you got it sorted.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 24, 2015, 03:32:47 AM
Was a bit quick again because everything did boot up as normal except I didn't have my gpu connected, as soon as I plugged that in I couldn't start the system again, the cpu fan moved a bit then nothing. Seems like my gpu is overloading my psu or something.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 24, 2015, 04:20:06 AM
Tried booting up with my old gtx 460 and it worked which sadly confirms it's my gtx 780 that's causing this. Tried again with my current card and it didn't boot infact I couldn't boot without waiting a few minutes. It seems like my gpu is pulling to much power and overloads the system. As I said everything works great with my old gpu or without a gpu but as soon as I plug in my current gpu I can't boot up. Has to be my current gpu causing this right?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Tiko on October 24, 2015, 02:28:40 PM
Tried booting up with my old gtx 460 and it worked which sadly confirms it's my gtx 780 that's causing this. Tried again with my current card and it didn't boot infact I couldn't boot without waiting a few minutes. It seems like my gpu is pulling to much power and overloads the system. As I said everything works great with my old gpu or without a gpu but as soon as I plug in my current gpu I can't boot up. Has to be my current gpu causing this right?

How many watts does your PSU have?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on October 24, 2015, 02:35:37 PM
^That.

Maybe your PSU doesn't have enough wattage to power the new card.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 24, 2015, 06:38:22 PM
Tried booting up with my old gtx 460 and it worked which sadly confirms it's my gtx 780 that's causing this. Tried again with my current card and it didn't boot infact I couldn't boot without waiting a few minutes. It seems like my gpu is pulling to much power and overloads the system. As I said everything works great with my old gpu or without a gpu but as soon as I plug in my current gpu I can't boot up. Has to be my current gpu causing this right?

How many watts does your PSU have?
I have a XFX 1050W PSU but it's cool I figured that it had to be the GPU because everything worked without it plugged in. I bought a new GPU that I found for a reasonable price and now my PC boot as normal.

^That.

Maybe your PSU doesn't have enough wattage to power the new card.
I've had the "new" card with my 1050W PSU for more than two years and i've used it pretty heavily so i'm not that surprised even though it's annoying. Even though it's a bit expensive I rather switch for a new GPU than a new motherboard given you most likely also need to buy a new CPU to match the socket atleast on new MoBos given my CPU is over two years old and it's also a bit of a hazzle to install.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 27, 2015, 11:24:02 AM
I'm definitely buying one of these to keep permanently docked to my big screen.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/infocus-kangaroo-launched-as-worlds-smallest-portable-windows-10-pc-757595

$99
(https://cdn.ndtv.com/tech/images/gadgets/kangaroo_pc_official.jpg)

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on October 27, 2015, 11:44:21 AM
So basically, you hook it up to a monitor/TV via HDMI, and a keyboard+mouse via USB, and you're ready to go?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 27, 2015, 11:51:46 AM
So basically, you hook it up to a monitor/TV via HDMI, and a keyboard+mouse via USB, and you're ready to go?

Yep.

I'll get one of these to replace my laptop which I currently have to constantly connect and disconnect from the TV. I have one of these already and basically have a PC with a 55" screen that I operate from my couch.

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/aplus/detail-page/B005DKZTMG_K400_FOB_US_lg.jpg)

I don't don't need anything powerful as I still have my laptop. This will mainly be for torrents and going to websites like like AMC, FX, or Discovery to watch their online episodes that aren't available through third parties such as Hulu.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 27, 2015, 12:06:39 PM
Do those tests to run Full HD files mean a bare OS or with Anti-Virus running?  Something to consider if you plan to use it for torrents.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 27, 2015, 12:09:20 PM
Tests?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 27, 2015, 12:26:23 PM
The article claims the PC can handle HD files, but don't expect it to run anything more (mainly games).  That suggests a serious limitation that means if the *test* to run the HD file was done without real time AV, then it might not do it with.

And if you are doing torrents, that adds a whole new dimension.  I suggest repurposing an old PC that just downloads those files and checks them for viruses.  It is also good for testing out new software because nothing is worse than trying a new program, not liking it, uninstalling it x1000 and eventually you have to reformat-reinstall so it feels like a new PC again.  And if that software comes from torrents, even worse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 27, 2015, 12:29:47 PM
Ahhh. I get what you're saying. That's where I thought you were going with it. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 28, 2015, 09:17:11 AM
Tried booting up with my old gtx 460 and it worked which sadly confirms it's my gtx 780 that's causing this. Tried again with my current card and it didn't boot infact I couldn't boot without waiting a few minutes. It seems like my gpu is pulling to much power and overloads the system. As I said everything works great with my old gpu or without a gpu but as soon as I plug in my current gpu I can't boot up. Has to be my current gpu causing this right?

Nice, almost the same GPU upgrade path.  I had a gtx460 then went gtx 770 and was just telling my bro I will need to upgrade to gtx 1080 next when its out lol

That is weird. Maybe it's due to the driver difference between the SATA controllers or USB that allowed it to correctly detect and format it so you could use it properly? Computers can be funny sometimes.

Maybe. I agree I work on computer hardware and sometimes shit just works but Id love to know why. Your guess seems like a good one.  I bet it failed lol it transfered 1.25th before I went to bed and left another overnight 1tb to transfer as I fell asleep.

And I never updated with regards to my 5TB hard drive situation, but the drive did in fact completely fail after transfering data for over 24 hours lol Best Buy accepted the return so while I wish I had my time back, Im glad I at least got my money back.  Decided to hold off maybe until christmas for a new hard drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 09:21:49 AM
Damn, I'd expect a drive to hold up fine from that under normal conditions. I've never done 24 hours of solid drive access, but long term I do hammer my drives. What brand was the drive?
Glad you managed to get a refund without any hassle.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 28, 2015, 09:25:30 AM
Damn, I'd expect a drive to hold up fine from that under normal conditions. I've never done 24 hours of solid drive access, but long term I do hammer my drives. What brand was the drive?
Glad you managed to get a refund without any hassle.

I honestly think this drive was bad from the beginning, based on the struggles I had getting it to "work" but then the writing process just put the nail in the coffin.  It was a Toshiba drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 09:28:38 AM
Damn, I'd expect a drive to hold up fine from that under normal conditions. I've never done 24 hours of solid drive access, but long term I do hammer my drives. What brand was the drive?
Glad you managed to get a refund without any hassle.

I honestly think this drive was bad from the beginning, based on the struggles I had getting it to "work" but then the writing process just put the nail in the coffin.  It was a Toshiba drive.

I'd agree it was probably a dud drive to begin with. If a drive has been damaged through shipping and handling, it will likely die pretty quickly like that, usually within a couple of weeks. Sustained writing shouldn't kill a drive like that unless it was overheated or something. I don't have any experience with Toshiba drives, mostly just WD and Seagate.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 28, 2015, 10:01:20 AM
Damn, I'd expect a drive to hold up fine from that under normal conditions. I've never done 24 hours of solid drive access, but long term I do hammer my drives. What brand was the drive?
Glad you managed to get a refund without any hassle.

I honestly think this drive was bad from the beginning, based on the struggles I had getting it to "work" but then the writing process just put the nail in the coffin.  It was a Toshiba drive.

I'd agree it was probably a dud drive to begin with. If a drive has been damaged through shipping and handling, it will likely die pretty quickly like that, usually within a couple of weeks. Sustained writing shouldn't kill a drive like that unless it was overheated or something. I don't have any experience with Toshiba drives, mostly just WD and Seagate.

I personally like my WD drives, have 4x 2TB of them and even though they arent rated for RAID as they are slow energy saver drives, I used them for that and they work great.  I think I will stick with WD next time.

Apparently what I read was the Toshiba drive I bought was really a Hitachi drive, which I would have thought to be solid, but what i wonder is the price tag on that drive was soooo good (like cheaper than 4TB and some 3TB drives) that it makes me wonder if the manufacturer knows these drives aren't very stable.  Oh well, I didn't like toshiba products in the past and this does not help me like them more for the future.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 06:57:21 PM
Toshiba is crap (not just in HDD), so is Seagate.  WD is ok and Hitachi is the shit.  I think Hitachi split or changed their process a year or so ago though.

What about the fact that the HDD was 5tb?  The largest drives are usually the most unstable while the manufacturers are still pushing the storage limits.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 08:07:40 PM
Tiger Direct has a Full Tower Gaming case for $24.99
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2851012&sku=U12-42152

It is the Ultra M925.  I already have one and love it, so thought I'd share the good deal.  It is via Rebate, but they honor their rebates (the way I got it the first time).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 09:08:10 PM
Toshiba is crap (not just in HDD), so is Seagate.  WD is ok and Hitachi is the shit.  I think Hitachi split or changed their process a year or so ago though.

What about the fact that the HDD was 5tb?  The largest drives are usually the most unstable while the manufacturers are still pushing the storage limits.

I've been very cautious of anything 3Tb> for that reason (I have a couple of 2Tb drives, but nothing over that yet). I think they're hitting the reasonable limit now until SSDs overtake them in capacity and price. Of course everyone should keep a full backup of their data just to be safe, because all drives will eventually fail. I've been holding off storing more on my computer until I have the space to also back it up.
I'm a WD man myself. I've had a ton of them and they've always been reliable. I've only had two die on me after being thrashed for several years, and one showed signs a month before it began to actually fail, and the other one still continued to work well enough for my to recover everything. I had one Seagate, and it was from the era when they were especially garbage. The thing barely survived a year of light use before packing it in and screwing me over.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 09:33:45 PM
I used to go to a very good website that did extensive testing on HDDs, especially the reliability by brand.  It has been awhile since I went there, so I can't recall the site name.

I've only ever had a problem with one HDD.  It was a portable WD.  It rarely moved though, so don't let the portable part throw you.  I believe the File Allocation Table (or whatever the NTFS equivalent is called), because I was able to recover almost every file.  A few lost their filename, but that was easy to fix (mainly because it was only a few.  If they were all that way, I would have had a heart attack).

Oh wait.  I did have an internal HDD fail.  I think it was a Seagate and it wasn't even that old.  Had quite a few of my ripped CDs on it.

Backup is difficult once you pass a certain storage limit.  You have to decide what you can't live without if it were to go poof.  Mostly *document* files (databases, spreadsheets, actual doc programs, business logos in photoshop format, etc).

I've been looking at creating a large file server.  Large as in many bays and ports with some type of RAID format.  This is good for HDD failure, but not for virus outbreak.  But to be honest, I've never had a virus outbreak.  Any viruses always seem to be ID'd and handled before they can corrupt the other files.  And if your OS gets corrupted, it is annoying but easier to fix than Data/Document corruption.  Most of the time, Malwarebytes handles the tough stuff, which again is very rare. 

Mainly because I will not use torrent applications.  You have to ask yourself, how much does this program cost?  $50?  $300?  $1000?  My data is worth more than that.  Now the $6000 programs that want to charge you another $1000 every year to keep running.  Sometimes I feel like looking for that torrent.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 09:45:30 PM
Backup is difficult once you pass a certain storage limit.  You have to decide what you can't live without if it were to go poof.  Mostly *document* files (databases, spreadsheets, actual doc programs, business logos in photoshop format, etc).

That's why I try to limit my data to what I can backup, but as you said, all of the personal files get priority over the replaceable stuff such as music, TV shows, movies (*cough* prons *cough*) etc, which incidentally are also the larger files. I did a cleanup a little while ago deleting movies I don't really watch, which gave back a lot of space.
Unfortunately, my personal files also take up a crapload of space. My Documents folder takes up 72gb, and my 3D work takes up 492gb. That's the bitch about working with graphics and video. That stuff is all irreplaceable and necessary to keep too, because it's all reusable assets.

Since I started keeping an external backup, I've had I think 3 internal drives die, so it's saved my ass a few times.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on October 28, 2015, 10:41:32 PM
-snip-
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 10:41:53 PM
Since I started keeping an external backup, I've had I think 3 internal drives die, so it's saved my ass a few times.

I think your external backup is crashing your internal drives to justify their cost.   :yarr

BTW, I'm in new PC mode, so it is time to start boning up on all the facts again.  Thankfully, I don't have to be a video/graphics person unless I want to be (I did create my own company logo and a few other company things, but ...)  And more thankfully, I'm not a really big gamer, so there's some savings right there.

But it still has to be somewhat powerful for the CAD and CAD-type stuff (thankfully, it isn't rocket design CAD work).

The biggest thing I'm probably looking forward to is the larger SSD for much lower cost.  120gb is plenty for your OS and apps ... well, it used to be.  Now, I have to watch the capacity like a hawk.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 10:49:16 PM
-snip-
Thanks.  I will check that out.  Been using *u*torrent for so long. 

Mostly to substitute what I did 10 years ago.  Go to Barnes and Noble brick and mortar so I can open the books and see if they actually have what I'm looking for.  Just being able to "flip" through a book before purchase can add confidence in the purchase 1000 fold.  (Almost all non-fiction books, which also means I rarely read them from front to back).  And yes, ebook browsing is quite overkill for torrents.  Click magnet, downloaded before the mouse button returns to rest position.   :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 10:57:59 PM
Since I started keeping an external backup, I've had I think 3 internal drives die, so it's saved my ass a few times.

I think your external backup is crashing your internal drives to justify their cost.   :yarr


:lol You might be onto something there. :justjen

I have a 200gb partition for my OS and programs, and that's only just scraping by for me. That's 20gb for Windows 7, 60gb for all of my programs, and 100gb for the rest somewhere. That is with full CS3/CS6 and my 3D programs, which take up a lot. I assume that CAD program is a few GB's. Those big programs add up quickly if you've got a few to install.

I usually go for a high end CPU and a buttload of RAM as a starting point. I'm not a gamer either, so any dedicated graphics card does the job fine for most work including CAD. It's when you're dealing with games or anything that requires shaders that it matters more. I'm starting to notice it now that I'm working on making games and doing more realtime graphics.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on October 28, 2015, 11:29:07 PM
I have a 200gb partition for my OS and programs, and that's only just scraping by for me. That's 20gb for Windows 7, 60gb for all of my programs, and 100gb for the rest somewhere.
Just ran windirstat.
Windows folder is 31.4gb
User folder is 19.8gb (Outlook doesn't help there)
Programs are only 13.7gb and 4.3gb (64 v. 32 bit folders)
Not sure why $Windows.~BT has 5.7gb because I did a fresh Win 7 Pro install.  I never do the *upgrade* path.  XP VM?
And lots of other stuff with less storage per folder location, but adds up.

I used to have quite a few more programs, but the Win7 eating up my 120gb faster than expected had me start to get a bit more conservative with the programs.

Totally agree with the CPU/RAM thing.  The book I read years ago was talking about comparing RAM access to HDD access as like light speed v. walking.  The more you can keep in RAM, the better.  Seems obvious, but sometimes it has to be put in terms like that to really hit home.

I have 16gb right now.  Not sure going to 32gb is necessary (I'm not a multimedia stud like yourself)

Quote
That is with full CS3/CS6 and my 3D programs, which take up a lot.
That's something I wish I spent more time at in my youth (when time was more plentiful).  But then again, I seem to have more of a talent for audio oriented art than video/graphic oriented art.  I took a few art and drafting classes (do they even have those using actual paper any longer?), so I'm not awful.  But on a professional level, calling my dabblings hack would not be an insult to me.  I used to have CS2, but I went Acrobat and GIMP when I had to re-prioritize.  When you are young, you look at things as "I know nothing about that, but I'm gonna challenge myself and learn it."  Once your reach middle age, you look at things like "I might be able to do that, but I have to be more selective with my time now."   What is old old age gonna be like?  "I could do that, if I don't die first.  Wait.  What was I thinking about doing?  4 pm?  It's dinner time!!!  Buffet, here I come."

Quote
I assume that CAD program is a few GB's. Those big programs add up quickly if you've got a few to install.
It is.  Looking forward to putting it back on the SSD (or OS/App drive as I call it).

Quote
I'm starting to notice it now that I'm working on making games and doing more realtime graphics.
My mind is blown when I think about what type of programming must go into today's top games.  Not like the old days of Zork where a couple If/Then and variable storage lines will do it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on October 28, 2015, 11:50:10 PM
Totally agree with the CPU/RAM thing.  The book I read years ago was talking about comparing RAM access to HDD access as like light speed v. walking.  The more you can keep in RAM, the better.  Seems obvious, but sometimes it has to be put in terms like that to really hit home.

I have 16gb right now.  Not sure going to 32gb is necessary (I'm not a multimedia stud like yourself)

You can never have too much RAM! I have 16gb myself at the moment. Most of the time that's more than enough, it's only when I'm doing heavy video work in After Effects with a few other programs open that my computer slows to a crawl. You really notice it once it starts hammering the swap file. If I wasn't so poor and cheap, I'd stick the extra 16gb in there and max it out, because RAM is cheap.

That's something I wish I spent more time at in my youth (when time was more plentiful).  But then again, I seem to have more of a talent for audio oriented art than video/graphic oriented art.  I took a few art and drafting classes (do they even have those using actual paper any longer?), so I'm not awful.  But on a professional level, calling my dabblings hack would not be an insult to me.  I used to have CS2, but I went Acrobat and GIMP when I had to re-prioritize.  When you are young, you look at things as "I know nothing about that, but I'm gonna challenge myself and learn it."  Once your reach middle age, you look at things like "I might be able to do that, but I have to be more selective with my time now."   What is old old age gonna be like?  "I could do that, if I don't die first.  Wait.  What was I thinking about doing?  4 pm?  It's dinner time!!!  Buffet, here I come."

:lol
I dabble on the music side (and those VSTi's take up a lot of space too, 32gb just for Colossus). I wish I had more time to mess around with that, but I spend all of my time on the graphics side. When I'm old, I'll just prioritize not drooling and shitting myself. I think I have a few years left before that stage (at least I hope).

My mind is blown when I think about what type of programming must go into today's top games.  Not like the old days of Zork where a couple If/Then and variable storage lines will do it.

Modern games aren't necessarily harder to code than some of the old games, but they require a lot more work these days, so more manpower and time is required (and debugging must be a nightmare).
There's a lot more off the shelf stuff to use now though, like game engines, physics, shaders, resource sites, plugins etc, and modern programming languages are pretty high level, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel most of the time. Back in the old days up to the first generation of 3D consoles, there was a lot more low level programming required, interfacing with the hardware directly using machine code, having to manually deal with memory addresses, VRAM, screen refreshing etc. Not fun.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 29, 2015, 07:42:45 AM
Toshiba is crap (not just in HDD), so is Seagate.  WD is ok and Hitachi is the shit.  I think Hitachi split or changed their process a year or so ago though.

What about the fact that the HDD was 5tb?  The largest drives are usually the most unstable while the manufacturers are still pushing the storage limits.

6TB drives are already out, but I hear you.  I was very skeptical when I purchased but reviews were overall good and price was great so I gave it a try.  Oh well.

I've been looking at creating a large file server.  Large as in many bays and ports with some type of RAID format.  This is good for HDD failure, but not for virus outbreak.  But to be honest, I've never had a virus outbreak.  Any viruses always seem to be ID'd and handled before they can corrupt the other files.  And if your OS gets corrupted, it is annoying but easier to fix than Data/Document corruption.  Most of the time, Malwarebytes handles the tough stuff, which again is very rare. 

I really really would like to have a NAS box with 4 hard drive bays, pop in my 4x 2TB drives and there is my data in RAID so I have a back up and access to it from anywhere.  However, these boxes are a bit expensive.  I've been begging my box to let me keep a decommissioned server from work, but so far he has not allowed me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on November 25, 2015, 08:54:00 PM
On my last 2 computers I've used 2 drives; one is a system drive with the operating system and all other software installed (currently an SSD) and a working or storage drive for all files.  Does anyone else use this setup?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on November 25, 2015, 09:03:53 PM
On my last 2 computers I've used 2 drives; one is a system drive with the operating system and all other software installed (currently an SSD) and a working or storage drive for all files.  Does anyone else use this setup?

Yup, my SSD is my system drive, and then I have 6? other drives for storage.



I mentioned awhile back I'm using Christmas to get parts and build my own computer. Today I ordered the video card, which was the last thing I needed to get myself. The month long wait is officially on. If finances were better, I might also get a new monitor, but as is I've had to also order two VGA>HDMI adapters so I can plug my two old monitors into the new system. Might use my next birthday to try and swing something better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on November 25, 2015, 09:13:57 PM
On my last 2 computers I've used 2 drives; one is a system drive with the operating system and all other software installed (currently an SSD) and a working or storage drive for all files.  Does anyone else use this setup?

I think that's a very common setup now for most people SSDs. I don't have an SSD, but I have a 1Tb main drive partitioned into 200Gb for Windows + software, then the rest for my personal files, then an additional 2Tb drive for music/TV/movies/games etc. I've always had multiple physical drives. It makes it easier for upgrading and maintenance.

I'm looking to get another external soon for backup since I'm out of space on my current one, and I don't like having files that aren't backed up.

I mentioned awhile back I'm using Christmas to get parts and build my own computer. Today I ordered the video card, which was the last thing I needed to get myself. The month long wait is officially on. If finances were better, I might also get a new monitor, but as is I've had to also order two VGA>HDMI adapters so I can plug my two old monitors into the new system. Might use my next birthday to try and swing something better.

I'll be getting a new monitor myself once the site I'm ordering from gets it back in stock (supposedly mid-December). I've wanted it for ages, but haven't had the funds until now. I'll probably need a new graphics card too, as my current one doesn't have enough shader cores for the game programming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on November 25, 2015, 09:59:59 PM
Oh, and this is likely the first new game I'll test the computer with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPf8UIU_YBI

The potential of this game cannot be overstated. A fantastic game base and engine, but with amazing graphics and freshness brought in by not being historically based? It could be so glorious.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 26, 2015, 08:09:32 AM
I have 2x 400GB SSDs in a RAID0 for my OS and video games, then I have two extra 2TB drives for storage and also another 400GB SSD that I use for games as well.  I have a lot of hard drives, but I am able to get some of these from work.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on November 27, 2015, 04:30:03 AM
So I registered for a free copy of win 10 before launch and has since got a reminder on my desktop to install my copy, I have ignored it because I at the moment don't wanna install a new OS, I wanna do it later. These messages have been more and more annoying because it pop up everyday and today I got a big window asking me to install win 10, the options were: "Install or remind me later". I pressed "remind me later" and what do you know it started to download the installation files for win 10.

Feels like Microsoft are pushing win 10 down my throat, don't like that feeling.  :-\
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on November 27, 2015, 05:05:30 AM
You have to be careful with Windows Update, too. I went to do some the other day and when I took a look in the Optional pane, Windows 10 was pre-ticked. :mehlin
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on November 27, 2015, 05:09:37 AM
So I registered for a free copy of win 10 before launch and has since got a reminder on my desktop to install my copy, I have ignored it because I at the moment don't wanna install a new OS, I wanna do it later. These messages have been more and more annoying because it pop up everyday and to day I got a big window asking me to install win 10, the options were: "Install or remind me later". I pressed "remind me later" and what do you know it started to download the installation files for win 10.

Feels like Microsoft are pushing win 10 down my throat, don't like that feeling.  :-\

https://superuser.com/questions/948857/how-to-disable-windows-10-update-permanently?lq=1
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on November 27, 2015, 05:26:46 AM
So I registered for a free copy of win 10 before launch and has since got a reminder on my desktop to install my copy, I have ignored it because I at the moment don't wanna install a new OS, I wanna do it later. These messages have been more and more annoying because it pop up everyday and to day I got a big window asking me to install win 10, the options were: "Install or remind me later". I pressed "remind me later" and what do you know it started to download the installation files for win 10.

Feels like Microsoft are pushing win 10 down my throat, don't like that feeling.  :-\

https://superuser.com/questions/948857/how-to-disable-windows-10-update-permanently?lq=1
:tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 27, 2015, 07:01:57 AM
So I registered for a free copy of win 10 before launch and has since got a reminder on my desktop to install my copy, I have ignored it because I at the moment don't wanna install a new OS, I wanna do it later. These messages have been more and more annoying because it pop up everyday and to day I got a big window asking me to install win 10, the options were: "Install or remind me later". I pressed "remind me later" and what do you know it started to download the installation files for win 10.

Feels like Microsoft are pushing win 10 down my throat, don't like that feeling.  :-\

https://superuser.com/questions/948857/how-to-disable-windows-10-update-permanently?lq=1
:tup

Thanks, I actually just had the same problem... I was like "later means later assholes!"  There was then some sort of bug as I pushed abunch of optional updates yet it was saying Windows 10 was being installed, although it was not.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 27, 2015, 12:48:13 PM
I've had win 10 since it came out and it's been 95% smooth. I always am amazed though at how fast bugs got fixed, the other day I kept getting BSODs whenever I played a particular Bluray disc and I said just forget it and did something else a few days later I tried again and no issues.  And as far as storage goes I have 2 SSDs on my computer 1 480 gb as my main boot drive with all programs, another for VMs or anything else that needs a playground for faster access. And then followed by 4 drives that total 14 TB in storage  ;D

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on December 10, 2015, 01:41:51 AM
Quote
Google Says its Quantum Computer Works, Is 100 Million Times Faster Than Traditional PC

Google claims that a controversial computer it purchased in 2013 is capable of using quantum physics to solve math much faster than regular computers. They note that the type of math it solves is crucial to the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google (as well as several governments) have been trying to develop quantum computers which use quantum mechanics to handle data. It is believed that quantum computers can make AI computers much more powerful. NASA has high hopes for the technology, as well. “It is a truly disruptive technology that could change how we do everything,” said Deepak Biswas, director of exploration technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
https://futurism.com/links/19279/

Interesting, I tried to follow the video but got lost at qubits.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: adace on December 10, 2015, 01:50:44 AM
Quote
Google Says its Quantum Computer Works, Is 100 Million Times Faster Than Traditional PC

Google claims that a controversial computer it purchased in 2013 is capable of using quantum physics to solve math much faster than regular computers. They note that the type of math it solves is crucial to the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google (as well as several governments) have been trying to develop quantum computers which use quantum mechanics to handle data. It is believed that quantum computers can make AI computers much more powerful. NASA has high hopes for the technology, as well. “It is a truly disruptive technology that could change how we do everything,” said Deepak Biswas, director of exploration technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
https://futurism.com/links/19279/

Interesting, I tried to follow the video but got lost at qubits.
Don't know much about quantum computers myself but it sounds like a really cool idea. However, even if does works as Google claims it'll probably be a long time before they can compare to regular PCs in terms of size and price.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 20, 2015, 11:01:38 PM
First post with new PC!

Will post more about this tomorrow, but for now, two pressing issues.

1. I have 2 monitors now. Is there a program I can use to make the cursor stick a bit at the edge of the monitors? I find myself overshooting the scroll bar a good bit.

2. It doesn't look like there will be a fix, but I LOVE my Dell Dock, and now it stopped working as I'm not on a Dell machine. :(
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 20, 2015, 11:05:29 PM
A dock for a PC? It's not just a matter of installing a driver? Don't know.

No idea on the dual monitor thing. I just got a new monitor for my PC, no room for another monitor on my desk though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 20, 2015, 11:30:58 PM
A dock for a PC? It's not just a matter of installing a driver? Don't know.

It's not a driver thing, it's part of the program that checks to see if you're on Dell hardware, and if you're not, instead of starting it just comes up with a message saying that Dell Deck can only be run on Dell computers.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 20, 2015, 11:39:14 PM
Damn.
I can't find much info on it, just people offering alternate software, which may or may not include what you want.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 05:38:34 AM
A dock for a PC? It's not just a matter of installing a driver? Don't know.

It's not a driver thing, it's part of the program that checks to see if you're on Dell hardware, and if you're not, instead of starting it just comes up with a message saying that Dell Deck can only be run on Dell computers.

There was something called ObjectDock that used to work with non-Dell laptops, so maybe see if that works.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 05:46:16 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 05:47:42 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.

I feel the same way about Dell, but as far as building a PC, which I have done many times, I have always wanted to build one with a water cooling system.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 05:49:43 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.

I feel the same way about Dell, but as far as building a PC, which I have done many times, I have always wanted to build one with a water cooling system.

Yea that would be really cool and help with some of the PC noise, but is a bit more complicated and I don't personally push my PC to perform in a way that requires such cooling.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 05:52:49 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.

I feel the same way about Dell, but as far as building a PC, which I have done many times, I have always wanted to build one with a water cooling system.

Yea that would be really cool and help with some of the PC noise, but is a bit more complicated and I don't personally push my PC to perform in a way that requires such cooling.

Neither do I, but it's something I'm curious about. I might do it one day and set it up as a Fedora server.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 06:01:12 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.

I feel the same way about Dell, but as far as building a PC, which I have done many times, I have always wanted to build one with a water cooling system.

Yea that would be really cool and help with some of the PC noise, but is a bit more complicated and I don't personally push my PC to perform in a way that requires such cooling.

Neither do I, but it's something I'm curious about. I might do it one day and set it up as a Fedora server.

For what use?

Speaking of servers, I brought home a shitty decommissioned server from work and my brother who is also an IT guy, installed Ubuntu and we upgraded the hard drive on it.  He's got his website hosted on the server now and we also got plex running on it.  Just transfered something like 400GB of videos onto it over the weekend and have been playing around with streaming it to different devices.  Pretty cool that we got our own media server up and running.  I'd love to get something cool going with it, but have little practical use other than having all my media available to stream or download as needed.  My parents were really nagging me for something for them to get me for christmas so I asked for a 5TB hard drive, going to give that a try again with a different brand.  If it's good I will use it on the server and then buy another for my PC and sell off the 4x 2TB drives I have of which I mostly don't use anymore.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 06:16:17 AM
As someone who works with dell products professionally, Dell sucks.  Just had to throw that out there, anyway.  That's awesome you got the new build up and running.  If money were unlimited, I would build a new PC because I find it fun, but totally unnecessary for me, although my friend and I talked about the idea of building him a PC which got me really excited.

I use a two monitor set up, but have never even thought of looking for a program that does what you are asking so I am not so sure about that.

I feel the same way about Dell, but as far as building a PC, which I have done many times, I have always wanted to build one with a water cooling system.

Yea that would be really cool and help with some of the PC noise, but is a bit more complicated and I don't personally push my PC to perform in a way that requires such cooling.

Neither do I, but it's something I'm curious about. I might do it one day and set it up as a Fedora server.

For what use?

Speaking of servers, I brought home a shitty decommissioned server from work and my brother who is also an IT guy, installed Ubuntu and we upgraded the hard drive on it.  He's got his website hosted on the server now and we also got plex running on it.  Just transfered something like 400GB of videos onto it over the weekend and have been playing around with streaming it to different devices.  Pretty cool that we got our own media server up and running.  I'd love to get something cool going with it, but have little practical use other than having all my media available to stream or download as needed.  My parents were really nagging me for something for them to get me for christmas so I asked for a 5TB hard drive, going to give that a try again with a different brand.  If it's good I will use it on the server and then buy another for my PC and sell off the 4x 2TB drives I have of which I mostly don't use anymore.

Besides studying for my CCIE, I'm also teaching myself C++, gray hat, and eventually going for a Red Hat certification so I want to learn how to use the server. I'm sure I could just set up some virtual machines and do it that way, but it gives me something to do.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 06:41:14 AM
CCIE is tough, good luck with that, but makes you valuable.

I personally like having the hardware as well over using a VM.  I really should learn a lot of the stuff you are learning, minus C++ I learned that in college, but don't use it professionally.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 12:23:24 PM
CCIE is tough, good luck with that, but makes you valuable.

I personally like having the hardware as well over using a VM.  I really should learn a lot of the stuff you are learning, minus C++ I learned that in college, but don't use it professionally.

Do you have a CCIE? I use GNS3 for my Cisco studying, except for the switches since they're impossible to emulate perfectly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 12:38:53 PM
I do not, my company hates Cisco with a passion.  We use mostly Arista and Juniper, but Arista is practically the same NOS as Cisco (they were like a spinoff company) so if you know Cisco you know Arista.  Im not on the network engineering team, but I know enough to do the basics as my team has the low level network responsibilities, we own the switches connecting directly to the servers.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 21, 2015, 12:47:17 PM
Damn.
I can't find much info on it, just people offering alternate software, which may or may not include what you want.

A dock for a PC? It's not just a matter of installing a driver? Don't know.

It's not a driver thing, it's part of the program that checks to see if you're on Dell hardware, and if you're not, instead of starting it just comes up with a message saying that Dell Deck can only be run on Dell computers.

There was something called ObjectDock that used to work with non-Dell laptops, so maybe see if that works.

First off, I've never dealt with Dell laptops, but I had a Dell desktop that served me well for 8 years, and then another that just got retired after a decade. Dell has always done well by me.

As for the Dock, yes, there is ObjectDock, and other options. The problem with ObjectDock is that it doesn't seem to be working well with Windows 10 right now, and after 30 days I have to pay $30. When I first installed Windows 10, I had tried other docking programs (rocket dock and 1 other), and didn't like any of them. I'd happily pay $10 to just keep Dell Dock running on my non-Dell machine.

Then comes my other major issue, which is when I installed windows 10, I first took screen shots of lots of stuff, including what I had where in the dock. I basically use the dock for launching everything, by putting mainly folders up top and stocking them with pretty much every program I use. It's a crucial part of how I function on my PC. I can go weeks without touching the start menu. So with the screen shots, when I installed Windows 10, it was quick work to organize things how I had them before.

Well, now the dock just won't start, so I gotta redo everything from scratch if I go with a new dock, as I don't think I have those screen shots anymore. Bah.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 12:51:23 PM
I do not, my company hates Cisco with a passion.  We use mostly Arista and Juniper, but Arista is practically the same NOS as Cisco (they were like a spinoff company) so if you know Cisco you know Arista.  Im not on the network engineering team, but I know enough to do the basics as my team has the low level network responsibilities, we own the switches connecting directly to the servers.

Juniper are getting bigger lately. I am familiar with Arista but never used any of their products. My company uses all sorts of different companies. We have some old Bay Networks routers on some of the sites which aren't even made anymore since Nortel bought them out. Avaya is another company we use which is also extremely similar to Cisco. The commands are almost identical. I was told by one of the big bosses that we're changing everything to Cisco routers/switches soon. It's going to be a huge undertaking. When I told him I'm Cisco certified his smile was akin to that of the grinch when his heart grew.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 01:06:45 PM
I really like Juniper, their way of making configuration changes makes a lot more sense to me and the fact that none of your changes take affect until you say is really awesome.  However, Juniper is getting expensive and we've slowly been phasing them out for cheaper and better performing Arista switches.

Replacing all your network sounds like a nightmare, but we only have 3 year leases for our equipment so we are always upgrading (just not all at once and these upgrades are a total PITA).  We need to as an ISP to keep up with the demands so its a necessary evil.  That's great you are certified though, should work out well for you then.  My boss is constantly telling me to get certified, but then dumps enough work to keep me busy for a year so I just haven't had time, or at least when I do have time it's used to rest from the endless work at this job.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 01:12:38 PM
I really like Juniper, their way of making configuration changes makes a lot more sense to me and the fact that none of your changes take affect until you say is really awesome.  However, Juniper is getting expensive and we've slowly been phasing them out for cheaper and better performing Arista switches.

Replacing all your network sounds like a nightmare, but we only have 3 year leases for our equipment so we are always upgrading (just not all at once and these upgrades are a total PITA).  We need to as an ISP to keep up with the demands so its a necessary evil.  That's great you are certified though, should work out well for you then.  My boss is constantly telling me to get certified, but then dumps enough work to keep me busy for a year so I just haven't had time, or at least when I do have time it's used to rest from the endless work at this job.

I'm not sure how long the contract is for the Cisco equipment, now that you mention it. I know we had these old IBM CSU/DSUs that we just changed out at over 500 sites for GDC CSU/DSUs. The contract with IBM was something like ten years, or maybe even longer. A three year lease is really short. That seems like you spend more time upgrading and familiarizing yourself with the new equipment than actually being able to monitor it, no? Which company do you work for if you don't mind me asking?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 01:20:49 PM
Appnexus, online advertising technology, we need the top of the line products to compete with facebook and google and serve advertisements as quickly as possible.  All of the new equipment runs on the same software so it's not learning a whole lot of new things, just maybe adjusting a bit to different layouts and the quirkiness of the equipment.

A lot of our vendors actually send us test equipment for prototype products.  There are some really smart people in this company who then beat the shit out of it and we send it back telling them whats wrong with it.  We've just done it with a brand new Arista product and also a Juniper product.  It's kind of funny, the engineers here try so hard to break our vendors equipment for them, we get good deals for doing this as well.  Like beta testers in a way.  We've got some crazy Dell servers as well that you can't buy.  Really cool technology to play with, although most of the "playing" is not in my realm.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 01:26:48 PM
Appnexus, online advertising technology, we need the top of the line products to compete with facebook and google and serve advertisements as quickly as possible.  All of the new equipment runs on the same software so it's not learning a whole lot of new things, just maybe adjusting a bit to different layouts and the quirkiness of the equipment.

That's not so bad then.

A lot of our vendors actually send us test equipment for prototype products.  There are some really smart people in this company who then beat the shit out of it and we send it back telling them whats wrong with it.  We've just done it with a brand new Arista product and also a Juniper product.  It's kind of funny, the engineers here try so hard to break our vendors equipment for them, we get good deals for doing this as well.  Like beta testers in a way.  We've got some crazy Dell servers as well that you can't buy.  Really cool technology to play with, although most of the "playing" is not in my realm.

They're basically penetration testers, code exploiters, that sort of thing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 21, 2015, 03:45:41 PM
Okay guys, let me know if this doesn't work, but I made it a public album: https://www.facebook.com/Rush3737/media_set?set=a.10153448716044833.1073741850.694889832&type=3
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 21, 2015, 04:07:43 PM
Showing up fine for me. :tup What are the final specs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 04:09:54 PM
Okay guys, let me know if this doesn't work, but I made it a public album: https://www.facebook.com/Rush3737/media_set?set=a.10153448716044833.1073741850.694889832&type=3

Very cool,worked for me.  Love ASUS products so  :tup on the mobo.  Also love modular PSUs, makes for a cleaner build.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 21, 2015, 04:29:20 PM
Showing up fine for me. :tup What are the final specs?

This is only the parts I bought for this project: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/KLgk23

The truly old carryovers are ancient monitors, keyboard, mouse, and all my HDDs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 21, 2015, 04:34:05 PM
Showing up fine for me. :tup What are the final specs?

This is only the parts I bought for this project: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/KLgk23

The truly old carryovers are ancient monitors, keyboard, mouse, and all my HDDs.

Yep, I know the PC upgrade routine! I still have the same keyboard I've had since I first got my PC in 2000 (and it was old then), and I was using the same monitor for over a decade until about a week ago. Often if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Did you only get one stick of RAM? Isn't it better to get 2 sticks so you can run dual channel or whatever?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 04:42:07 PM
Showing up fine for me. :tup What are the final specs?

This is only the parts I bought for this project: https://pcpartpicker.com/p/KLgk23

The truly old carryovers are ancient monitors, keyboard, mouse, and all my HDDs.

Yep, I know the PC upgrade routine! I still have the same keyboard I've had since I first got my PC in 2000 (and it was old then), and I was using the same monitor for over a decade until about a week ago. Often if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Did you only get one stick of RAM? Isn't it better to get 2 sticks so you can run dual channel or whatever?

I think that depends on the application used.  In reality, it normally is faster to have two DIMMs, but the performance gain is not large.  One 8GB DIMM should be fine for the most part and probably performs well.  Getting another is a nice upgrade path when you get a few extra bucks to spend.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on December 21, 2015, 04:48:06 PM
Yeah, I've never had a high performance machine, so there might be a few bad practices here. But, I do expect this machine to last a decade, and I'm sure that jump from 8GB to 16GB one day might be a big part of that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2015, 04:53:10 PM
It all depends on what you do.  A single 8GB DIMM is going to perform well enough for most of the population. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 21, 2015, 05:01:27 PM
Fair enough. I've always defaulted to an even number of sticks, so I didn't know how much difference it makes in practice. And it's got quality RAM anyway (identical to what I have, but I have 2).

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 21, 2015, 05:30:28 PM
Okay guys, let me know if this doesn't work, but I made it a public album: https://www.facebook.com/Rush3737/media_set?set=a.10153448716044833.1073741850.694889832&type=3

Very cool,worked for me.  Love ASUS products so  :tup on the mobo.  Also love modular PSUs, makes for a cleaner build.

I'm a big fan of ASUS also. There was one time that I used a Gigabyte motherboard. No complaints with them either.

It all depends on what you do.  A single 8GB DIMM is going to perform well enough for most of the population. 

Pretty much.  One stick of RAM is fine, unless you're running something with intense graphics. In that case you might see a slight difference. So for Blob, it's definitely beneficial to have the RAM in pairs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: AcidLameLTE on December 22, 2015, 10:12:42 AM
One stick of RAM? Heresy!

32GB minimum or don't bother :P
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 22, 2015, 11:20:42 AM
Whoa, Just got an 8TB hard drive at work.  Didn't even know these existed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 22, 2015, 11:48:13 AM
One stick of RAM? Heresy!

32GB minimum or don't bother :P


I get what you mean. You'll never see me using just one. My OCD won't allow it. But technically, it's not necessary.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: AcidLameLTE on December 22, 2015, 12:04:40 PM
I was, of course, just joking. I only have 32GB in my box because my girlfriend uses it for her 3D work.

Definitely not necessary for most people.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on December 22, 2015, 12:09:06 PM
I was, of course, just joking. I only have 32GB in my box because my girlfriend uses it for her 3D work.

Definitely not necessary for most people.

I assumed you were being facetious regarding the 32 gigs. However, I do always put two sticks in. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on December 22, 2015, 07:13:42 PM
Whoa, Just got an 8TB hard drive at work.  Didn't even know these existed.

Neither did I. Last I bothered to check I think they were around 5TB. I'm wary of the larger size mechanical drives, because I think they're starting to hit a tradeoff of size vs reliability. I'm getting a 3TB for Christmas as a new external backup.

I was, of course, just joking. I only have 32GB in my box because my girlfriend uses it for her 3D work.

Definitely not necessary for most people.

I have 16Gb which is perfectly fine for my 3D work (although you can always use more), but I really feel the crunch when I'm doing video editing in After Effects, and I usually only work at 720p. I should probably upgrade to 32Gb since I still have 2 free slots and RAM isn't expensive, but I'm lazy and cheap.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: AcidLameLTE on December 23, 2015, 04:24:56 AM
I would definitely say it was worth it. One of her bigger projects was mega struggling when we had 22GB in it (6GB originally and then bought a further 16GB). It actually ended up being faster uploading it to an online render farm then was it was to render it on my old PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 23, 2015, 05:33:40 AM
I kind of messed up my build accidentally. My original build was 2x 4GB DIMMs.  8GB was plenty for video gaming and some super low quality video editing (the DTF SS video is about the quality of editing I do for youtube videos).  I left the two open DIMM slots for a future upgrade path.  Well I was online shopping one day and saw a great deal on two more DIMMs, the same model as what I had.  Figured what the hell, I didn't really need it but why not.  Got the DIMMs and realized it was a pair of 2GB  :facepalm:  Checked my order and confirmed that I made the mistake, it was too good to be true that price.  So I popped them in anyway and it works, but I don't think that's a good practice using different sized DIMMs.  I have 12GB, I never bothered to pull them out or anything since it worked fine and I didn't even need it anyway.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 04, 2016, 08:08:51 AM
Yesterday one of my WD green  5TB hard drive failed with the click of death sound. Didn't lose anything critical, I use that drive for photo storage which I backup to two different locations, but hadn't done so in a few months. But since all the photos are still in the direct source (phones, DSLR) restoring that is not a big deal. The other use for that drive is to store all my ripped shows and movies from my bluray collection and that is going to be such a pain to redo. I had probably close to 4 TB of just HD media from my shows and movies that I ripped over the past several months. I can redo them all but good god it's going to take months. 

I'm trying to figure out a bunch of solutions that will suit my needs. First thought was to just replace the failed drive with another maybe lesser capacity 4 TB drive. Other ideas is to build a NAS with a RAID setup and keep an option to add storage as need goes up over time. I'm still debating. Would love to hear suggestions and what backup mechanisms people have in place.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on January 04, 2016, 08:18:13 AM
I have an external drive I back up to every week (in theory) using my backup software, which is a mirror of everything important on my internal drives, so it doesn't contain anything that isn't on my PC too. If I lose the external drive, I don't lose anything. I don't store my shows/movies at HD though, so that stuff takes up 1TB in total. I've never been into RAID.

I just got a 3TB drive for Christmas as my new external (as my old 2TB one wasn't enough to back up everything on my PC, but I'll still use it as a second back up of my important stuff minus the movies/tv shows). But when I finally went to use it yesterday, I realized that my external enclosure apparently doesn't support drives over 2TB, so it doesn't register the full capacity. I'll have to buy a new enclosure for that one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 04, 2016, 08:38:05 AM
I got a 5TB drive for christmas and I took home a decommissioned shitty ASUS server a couple months back.  My brother rebuilt the server with linux and set up his website to run on it, we then added the 5TB drive to it and made it network accessible.  Now I've been spending the past weekend slowly transferring all my media onto it and then use Plex for media streaming.  Already tested it and it works very well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 04, 2016, 09:00:14 AM
I should add that my total drive storage excluding two SSDs (Main 480GB, 2nd 256GB) was 13 TB before the 5 TB failed. I'm thinking of  re-configuring my data storage in a few way mainly because I do so many things on my desktop.

1, Store, organize and edit family photos and videos.
2, Store and play Movie and TV shows bluray rips for local and Plex playback.
3, Play the occasional game (need to backup STEAM and ORIGIN games)
4, Setup and play around with VMs (Usually do it on the 2nd SSD)

I'm thinking of using local storage and NAS for 1, NAS only for 2&3. I've had the idea to build a NAS using a Rasberry Pi, and might go that route.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 04, 2016, 09:29:23 AM
Why do you need to back up games?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on January 04, 2016, 09:44:23 AM
Holy cow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI

Didn't even know there were mobos with 7 PCI slots or even ram sticks with 32gb each....
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 04, 2016, 09:51:06 AM
Why do you need to back up games?

I typically install games on the SSD but they quickly take up space as some of the newer games take like 30 GB for a single installation. So I tend to backup ones that I don't play and just reinstall it which takes a few minutes as opposed to downloading the entire game again which could take hours.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 04, 2016, 09:54:28 AM
Holy cow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI

Didn't even know there were mobos with 7 PCI slots or even ram sticks with 32gb each....

Looks more like a server mobo.  Definitely seen those at work, but never like that in a home PC build.

Why do you need to back up games?

I typically install games on the SSD but they quickly take up space as some of the newer games take like 30 GB for a single installation. So I tend to backup ones that I don't play and just reinstall it which takes a few minutes as opposed to downloading the entire game again which could take hours.

Makes sense if you got the space to back up games (like you seem to have).  I do the same, put the games I play on my SSD and rotate on/off but do the full install each time. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 04, 2016, 10:15:45 AM
Just ordered a pair of 3TB WB red drives for total of $175. I think I'll avoid larger drives for now and may just set this up with a rasberry pi.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on January 04, 2016, 10:18:38 AM
Just ordered a pair of 3TB WB red drives for total of $175. I think I'll avoid larger drives for now and may just set this up with a rasberry pi.

Same drive I just got, except it cost me $155 for one of them here. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 17, 2016, 07:53:55 PM
This is pretty much the build I'm settling in for my NAS as of now. I'll be putting in FreeNAS on it maybe on a small usb drive. These prices are reflective of what I paid though, I paid a lot lot lesser and i think it's closer to $450 for those parts listed as I'm reusing the 8GB of RAM. No need of a monitor, keyboard, mouse, optical drive. I'll be remoting into to to administer after installation. Parts should arrive during the next week and I should hopefully build it all by next weekend. Can't wait to build my first NAS!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 17, 2016, 10:26:10 PM
Ah crap forgot to include the pcpartpicker link
https://pcpartpicker.com/p/GWgm6h
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on January 17, 2016, 10:40:00 PM
Nice. So what's the RAID config going to be?
I've never used the WD blues. I'm currently using reds as my backups, which are basically the blues but actually designed for NAS setups and with a longer warranty. All of my internal drives are still the blacks, which are faster, but pretty noisy and run hotter as a result.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on January 18, 2016, 01:01:29 AM
Holy cow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI

Didn't even know there were mobos with 7 PCI slots or even ram sticks with 32gb each....

That is so fucking sexy, and I'm not even a gamer.   :o

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 18, 2016, 05:49:30 AM
It's going to be a Raid 5. I'm also in two minds whether to put freeNAS or Windows server as the OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 18, 2016, 07:43:55 AM
It's going to be a Raid 5. I'm also in two minds whether to put freeNAS or Windows server as the OS.

So you are mixing the blue and red drives in your RAID then.  I'd bet that is not recommended, but will work.  Is there a reason you are doing it this way?

We just decommissioned about 8 Dell R710 servers at work and we own them and want to dispose so I have been given permission to take one.  They were from a company we bought out, a couple had WD Green 2TB drives (drives I use on my home PC).  I'm debating about taking the server or not because it's a bit larger than I would like, but it does have 6 hard drive slots and using those green 2TB drives mixed with the 4 I have at home, could make for a sick NAS box.  Just not sure I want to be paying for the power of this beast.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 18, 2016, 07:53:11 AM
Yea I know it's not recommended to mix different types of drives but I don't know when a sale will show up for the Reds again. My biggest mistake was not buying 4 outright the first time. At that time I wasn't sure I wanted to do a Raid 5. But right now without any discount the reds go for $110 each, I got mine for much lesser than that (~$85). So while it's not ideal to mix and match I am keeping them the same capacity and I believe they're the same spindle speed as well just different firmwares.
I think it should be ok as long as they're the same capacities. Fingers crossed. Ideally I would like to put windows server on it but then that's another cost I don't want to have to make.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 18, 2016, 08:12:29 AM
Yea I know it's not recommended to mix different types of drives but I don't know when a sale will show up for the Reds again. My biggest mistake was not buying 4 outright the first time. At that time I wasn't sure I wanted to do a Raid 5. But right now without any discount the reds go for $110 each, I got mine for much lesser than that (~$85). So while it's not ideal to mix and match I am keeping them the same capacity and I believe they're the same spindle speed as well just different firmwares.
I think it should be ok as long as they're the same capacities. Fingers crossed. Ideally I would like to put windows server on it but then that's another cost I don't want to have to make.

Cool, money is a good enough reason, just was wondering if there was something I didn't know about the way you were setting it up.  Good luck, that sounds fun to do the build. I'll be waiting for an update on how it has worked out and when I can drop some porn onto your NAS  :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 18, 2016, 09:05:21 AM
 Sure thing :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 18, 2016, 08:53:53 PM
And FYI I used this blog as a guide for a NAS build, it's very thorough and gives great detail on build choices and best approaches for a DIY NAS.
https://blog.brianmoses.net/2015/05/diy-nas-econonas-2015.html
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 31, 2016, 04:24:06 PM
So after setting up my NAS in a raid 5, I've been going back and forth on what operating system to use. I installed the Tech preview 4 of server 2016 and it's pretty good and is making me consider sticking with a windows server edition. I did try FreeNAS and while it's good, I think I'm in need of something that allows me to do more. But before I decide to settle on a operating system for this new machine, I need to resolve a smaller problem setting up the network.

In my house the internet cable and main modem/router are in a room quite a distance away and there isn't anyway I can install a ethernet cables from that router to my lan ports on both computers. So I bought a cheap Dlink router to setup a lan only network between my NAS and main desktop which will reside in the same room. So my main desktop currently connects to the internet via a usb wifi adapter and will continue to get the internet through that, while I have an ethernet cable connected from the destkop to the NAS via the DLink router.

Simple as the setup sounds I'm unable to make the internet work on my desktop via the wifi AND have the lan port enabled to the other router. I'm not sure what is going on that is preventing my wifi adapter from connecting to the main house wifi while being hooked to a LAN with another router.  The wifi network shows that it's connected yet only disabling the lan chipset will make the internet connect.

I made a diagram of my network setup if it helps to understand my setup.

If anyone has a solution to this issue I'd appreciate it.
(https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/faizoff/Home%20Network.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on January 31, 2016, 04:35:07 PM
Well it seems like you want your desktop connected to two different networks. One is your local LAN between the desktop itself and the NAS. The second network is the WiFi network, giving you access to the Internet. The problem is you can't do that with a desktop computer unless you have the proper hardware installed. You are attempting to connect to two different networks, so that means your desktop computer needs to have two separate IP addresses to do that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 31, 2016, 06:48:36 PM
What hardware needs to be installed then?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on January 31, 2016, 07:04:00 PM
I'm assuming you're using Windows. If you go into the folder with the network connections, have you tried configuring an IP address for both the WiFi network and Ethernet network? They should each be on a different network. For example.

Your local LAN with the NAS
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router/Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Desktop: 192.168.0.2
NAS: 192.168.0.3

Your Internet connected network
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router/Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Desktop (via wifi): 192.168.1.2

Your desktop will have an IP address in each network, via two different interfaces.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 31, 2016, 07:25:12 PM
I just tried this but still have the same issue. I manually entered the network configuration for the wifi network and let the ip be automatically chosen for the lan. It showed I was on different networks and addresses yet same issue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on January 31, 2016, 07:27:55 PM
What are the current IP addresses for both interfaces? Do you know how to run the ipconfig/all command from the Windows command line?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 31, 2016, 07:35:27 PM
Nevermind, I'm an idiot. I made a typo when entering the addresses manually. It's looks to be working. Thanks! And now for whatever reason the windows server 2016 OS on the NAS wont turn on network sharing in the network settings. I can see and access the shared driver from my deskop on the NAS but not the other way round.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on January 31, 2016, 07:42:16 PM
Unfortunately I'm not well versed in Windows Server.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 03, 2016, 11:27:31 AM
I managed to setup server 2012 to allow bidirectional sharing and mapping of drives, unfortunately the cheap router I picked had 10/100 Mbps LAN ports and not gigabit ones. I'm returning it for another one that has gigabit ports. Hopefully once that comes I'll be done with my setup.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 12, 2016, 03:38:12 PM
I have since I signed up for Win 10 got a request from Microsoft to install the new OS pretty much every time I boot up my PC, that in itself is annoying but today they went even further. My PC rebooted today without ANY warning and started to force install Win 10. Here's the update history and on the top it says "Uppgraderar till Windows 10 Home" which translates to "Updates to Windows 10 Home" and also "Misslyckades" which means "Failed" because I turned my PC off as soon as it tried to install it. I then booted up to the desktop. Seriously, I feel that's pretty weird for them to just force you to use Win 10. Sure I signed up but still am I not allowed to choose when to install it???

(https://s17.postimg.org/947n3xf9r/FAN.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/57ub7xua3/full/)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 12, 2016, 03:52:36 PM
That hasn't happened to me yet, but there is a "Get Windows 10" icon in my system tray.  Your post had me change the status to "only show notifications" just to make it harder to accidentally upgrade to Win10.

I'd probably enjoy Win10, but nothing is worse than realizing one of your expensive programs no longer works correctly under a new OS version.  This all boils down to "if it ain't broke".
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Dimitrius on March 12, 2016, 04:18:54 PM
I would just to get away from Windows 8. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 12, 2016, 09:16:44 PM
I have automatic updates disabled, so no notifications on my Windows 8 laptop. As much as I'd like to get away from 8, I don't want to deal with the hassle. They really should have taken that "if it ain't broke" approach when making Windows 8. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 12, 2016, 09:51:26 PM
I have automatic updates disabled
Me too.  Nothing is better than getting notifications that you have automatic updates disabled.   :police:

What is bad is helping others and trying to explain how this is a good option, but it means you should pay attention to high priority updates and how to research the kb# for an understanding of what is happening.

I know plenty of tech illiterate people that I laugh at the commercial with the grandparents handing over their tech goodies to their visiting grandkids saying "hey so glad to see you.  None of this works."

But now we are getting into the "things that piss me off thread.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on March 12, 2016, 10:36:44 PM
I have since I signed up for Win 10 got a request from Microsoft to install the new OS pretty much every time I boot up my PC, that in itself is annoying but today they went even further. My PC rebooted today without ANY warning and started to force install Win 10. Here's the update history and on the top it says "Uppgraderar till Windows 10 Home" which translates to "Updates to Windows 10 Home" and also "Misslyckades" which means "Failed" because I turned my PC off as soon as it tried to install it. I then booted up to the desktop. Seriously, I feel that's pretty weird for them to just force you to use Win 10. Sure I signed up but still am I not allowed to choose when to install it???

(https://s17.postimg.org/947n3xf9r/FAN.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/57ub7xua3/full/)

Didn't I post a link a couple of months ago that permanently disabled those notifications? And I know it works because I've done it on a number of computers.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 13, 2016, 04:59:13 AM
I have since I signed up for Win 10 got a request from Microsoft to install the new OS pretty much every time I boot up my PC, that in itself is annoying but today they went even further. My PC rebooted today without ANY warning and started to force install Win 10. Here's the update history and on the top it says "Uppgraderar till Windows 10 Home" which translates to "Updates to Windows 10 Home" and also "Misslyckades" which means "Failed" because I turned my PC off as soon as it tried to install it. I then booted up to the desktop. Seriously, I feel that's pretty weird for them to just force you to use Win 10. Sure I signed up but still am I not allowed to choose when to install it???

(https://s17.postimg.org/947n3xf9r/FAN.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/57ub7xua3/full/)

Didn't I post a link a couple of months ago that permanently disabled those notifications? And I know it works because I've done it on a number of computers.
Yea that may be true. Anyway I just turned off automatic updates in this case, one would think that would not include force installation of a new OS though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 13, 2016, 05:49:28 PM
I keep telling myself to take the time now to upgrade because it seems to work and it's been out awhile now so that's why I haven't disabled the notifications.... but I keep chugging along on 7. 

My best friend just told me he wants to throw down the money for me to build him a dual monitor computer for 800-1k  :metal :metal project accepted
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 13, 2016, 06:19:43 PM
My best friend just told me he wants to throw down the money for me to build him a dual monitor computer for 800-1k  :metal :metal project accepted

I stopped doing that except for business related computers.  Instead, I usually take 30 minutes to 60 minutes to show them how to research and complete the build on their own.  It will be more rewarding in the end.  Not just the "I did it", but being able to troubleshoot on their own because they built it themselves.  If they hit a roadblock, they can ask for help.  But they have to at least made the effort to troubleshoot first.

Not even computer related:  Listened to somebody complain about something house related for almost a year now.  I finally got so tired of hearing it that I:
1- took a pic of the product make and model
2- googled the manual
3- CTRL F'd the specific problem of the pdf file
4- took the steps
5- told them it was fixed.

And I get the "well, you are so good at that."  Reading a manual?  That's not a skill.  It's just a minimal effort.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 13, 2016, 09:24:31 PM
Some people just don't seem to have the mind for problem solving. I'm the de facto computer tech of the house, and often I'm fixing problems I haven't encountered before. If you're stuck, the majority of the time you can get the answer pretty quickly by just Googling it. It's not rocket science!

And so far I have a very high success rate of fixing problems with Android tablets by just turning it off and on again. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 14, 2016, 03:43:19 AM
My method for solving PC related problems have since as long as I remember been trial and error or Google which usually transcends into other areas. I hate reading manuals!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 14, 2016, 05:38:39 AM
My best friend just told me he wants to throw down the money for me to build him a dual monitor computer for 800-1k  :metal :metal project accepted

I stopped doing that except for business related computers.  Instead, I usually take 30 minutes to 60 minutes to show them how to research and complete the build on their own.  It will be more rewarding in the end.  Not just the "I did it", but being able to troubleshoot on their own because they built it themselves.  If they hit a roadblock, they can ask for help.  But they have to at least made the effort to troubleshoot first.

Not even computer related:  Listened to somebody complain about something house related for almost a year now.  I finally got so tired of hearing it that I:
1- took a pic of the product make and model
2- googled the manual
3- CTRL F'd the specific problem of the pdf file
4- took the steps
5- told them it was fixed.

And I get the "well, you are so good at that."  Reading a manual?  That's not a skill.  It's just a minimal effort.

It's not like he won't get a lesson on the whats and hows, but he isn't a computer guy, a historic apple user, this is a huge step for him.  If you think I'm going to spin it to make him do most of the work with my guidance than this isn't going to work.  I have my own motivations too which is to get another PC gamer to play with.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 25, 2016, 11:47:38 AM
Guys, I`m totally lost, perhaps one of you can help me out.

Me and my brother wanted to upgrade my brother`s PC (only the graphic card & the HDD are the same as before), so we bought the hardware and reinstalled Windows 7 64-bit.

Current rig:
Mainboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4
Processor: Intel i5-6600K
RAM: GSkill Trident Z 8 GB (2x4 GB)
Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce GT 720

I actually forgot the HDD and the Power Supply Unit, but I also think that these will not be needed anyways. Now we have two major issues:

1. Sometimes a bluescreen stating "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT" appears and, whilst I know it has something to do with the RAM, it definitely isn`t damaged since it`s brand-new and thus I have no idea whatsoever causes the crash.
2. Installing the Nvidia driver for the graphic card will cause dwm.exe to crash and thus almost any game is unplayable (will not even launch or result in random bluescreen). Uninstalling the driver fixes dwm.exe, but doesn`t fix the games (they just won`t launch). Using the onboard Intel HD graphics by installing that driver works though, but some games (e.g. Fallout 4) have serious compability issues with Intel HD.

Any hint in the right direction would be highly appreciated, if additional information is needed regarding the PC just ask me, I`ll provide you with needed info.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 25, 2016, 11:57:10 AM
I may be wrong, but I thought if you change your system (specifically motherboard and/or CPU) it invalidates your Windows license as those keys are meant for one system, but I had never tested that before.  You may need to purchase another license and could be the reason you are getting BSOD.

Also, wouldn't rule out bad memory even if it is new.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 25, 2016, 12:11:31 PM
I may be wrong, but I thought if you change your system (specifically motherboard and/or CPU) it invalidates your Windows license as those keys are meant for one system, but I had never tested that before.  You may need to purchase another license and could be the reason you are getting BSOD.

Also, wouldn't rule out bad memory even if it is new.

I don`t think it`s the license, since we already reinstalled Windows 7 using the same licence on his PC before and so it would have been invalid long before.

Bad memory on the other hand would suck, but the BSOD only occurs kind of randomly (perhaps within an hour after launching, but I don`t know if that is of any relevance). The only chance I`d have there would be to actually use the warranty and get new ones, isn`t it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 25, 2016, 12:25:16 PM
I may be wrong, but I thought if you change your system (specifically motherboard and/or CPU) it invalidates your Windows license as those keys are meant for one system, but I had never tested that before.  You may need to purchase another license and could be the reason you are getting BSOD.

Also, wouldn't rule out bad memory even if it is new.

I don`t think it`s the license, since we already reinstalled Windows 7 using the same licence on his PC before and so it would have been invalid long before.

Bad memory on the other hand would suck, but the BSOD only occurs kind of randomly (perhaps within an hour after launching, but I don`t know if that is of any relevance). The only chance I`d have there would be to actually use the warranty and get new ones, isn`t it?

That could be relevant as you are possibly not using all of the memory at first but over time as you use the computer the RAM get's used and it hits the bad DIMM.  It's possible.  If it's new I'd imagine you can return it from where you purchased from.  I've had bad PC parts before and was able to return them such as my hard drive I bought from Best Buy this past fall that never worked out of the box.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 25, 2016, 01:10:07 PM
I built a computer in 2007 that was 100% new but had RAM problems, despite the RAM being brand new.  So you can't eliminate the RAM as the culprit simply because it is new.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 25, 2016, 09:07:42 PM
I've had new RAM bad before. It's not uncommon, although it's more likely with the generic brands that don't have as good quality control. I can't remember the name of the program, but there used to be a DOS program that would do a thorough RAM test to diagnose and rule out such problems.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 26, 2016, 04:58:43 AM
Alright, thanks for your help, I will check the RAM in the next days and probably return it in case it`s really not working out.

Any ideas regarding the Nvidia driver problem? It`s odd, because my problem seems to be quite specific (if it was the driver in general perhaps millions would freak out), but I have no clue whatsoever what causes this problem.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on March 26, 2016, 08:01:10 AM
I've had new RAM bad before. It's not uncommon, although it's more likely with the generic brands that don't have as good quality control. I can't remember the name of the program, but there used to be a DOS program that would do a thorough RAM test to diagnose and rule out such problems.

MemTest86

I've used it successfully many times.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 26, 2016, 08:27:25 AM
Didn't Nvidia release a bad driver recently that caused alot of problems?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 26, 2016, 09:15:35 AM
Didn't Nvidia release a bad driver recently that caused alot of problems?

Really? I`ve checked the internet a lot recently because of that error and I didn`t notice anything uncommon, I`ll check this again though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 26, 2016, 09:32:45 AM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 26, 2016, 09:53:11 AM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/

Just checked and my Nvidia GeForce Experience is saying to upgrade to that new driver  :lol no thanks now that I know this.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 26, 2016, 10:25:15 AM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/

OK, so I`ll try installing an older driver and watch how it will work out. Any idea which version is safe to install?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 26, 2016, 01:40:37 PM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/
OK, so I`ll try installing an older driver and watch how it will work out. Any idea which version is safe to install?
I have 362.00 and it seems to be working for me atleast.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on March 26, 2016, 04:41:30 PM
As a larger aside (and it could be buried in this thread already), besides "Google", what are some of *your* goto PC troubleshooting websites?

There are some that look like they require membership (or $$$).  I think experts-exchange.com is one of those.  Never tried using them because you can usually do it for free, but has anybody used them and found it not about just getting a solution, but getting a *good* solution *fast*?  You can't always assume $$$ = better.

The number one answer to *every* troubleshooting search always seems to be something like: Safe Mode boot, virus check, defrag, driver check.  While good advice, most have probably already done that or are looking for more detail.

This is a take on that type of troubleshooting basic checklist, but with more steps and detail (but still maintaining general outline format)
The Basic Guide to Troubleshooting Common Windows PC Problems (https://lifehacker.com/5628396/the-basic-guide-to-troubleshooting-common-windows-pc-problems)

Anybody use driver update software beyond Windows and Manufacturer website?  I've tinkered with SlimDrivers, but more as a starting point as opposed to just clicking on the results.  Sometimes it feels like the recommendations are questionable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wizard of Thought on March 29, 2016, 06:29:10 AM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/
OK, so I`ll try installing an older driver and watch how it will work out. Any idea which version is safe to install?
I have 362.00 and it seems to be working for me atleast.

Ok, so I actually installed this driver and it worked completely fine, no crashes or whatever. I`m actually surprised that only the broken driver crashed the PC so often. Thanks for the hint on installing an older driver.  :D
Memory errors are still occuring though, but we`ll be resending it today, so in 3-4 days we`ll see if it works out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 29, 2016, 09:53:21 AM
Quote
Nvidia has released a new driver for its line of GeForce PC graphics cards. Update 364.51 was intended to remedy issues caused by its predecessor, but instead reports indicate these issues have persisted and, in some cases, worsened.

Users on Nvidia's Geforce forums have complained the latest update is causing drops in framerate, inconsistencies with refresh rates, freezing, and failure to start games, among other issues. Similar problems have been reported by users on the Nvidia sub-Reddit.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidias-new-driver-causing-more-problems/1100-6435657/
OK, so I`ll try installing an older driver and watch how it will work out. Any idea which version is safe to install?
I have 362.00 and it seems to be working for me atleast.

Ok, so I actually installed this driver and it worked completely fine, no crashes or whatever. I`m actually surprised that only the broken driver crashed the PC so often. Thanks for the hint on installing an older driver.  :D
Memory errors are still occuring though, but we`ll be resending it today, so in 3-4 days we`ll see if it works out.
Oh that's cool, no problem.   :)

I used to just install the latest Nvidia driver without thinking much but after hearing from friends and reading on internet how new drivers can cause issues I usually check before I install.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 29, 2016, 09:54:29 AM
Funny because my brother bought a new GTX 970 and installed it yesterday with the newest drivers and so far he has no issues.  I was going to warn him as he was doing the install, but figured, let him do it.... for science.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on April 04, 2016, 06:06:28 AM
So I bought this microsoft Xbox 360 wireless controller to play on my alienware pc that runs windows 8.1 and I can´t get the damn thing to work. The receiver is working, the controller itself seems to be working, the software is installed and it does jack shit. Tried updating the drivers, but it still doesn´t work. Could it be this is for 32 bit system and I have a 64 bit? Some help would be appreciated.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on April 04, 2016, 06:20:24 AM
I doubt it. . . . My brother uses his 360 controller on his 64 bit windows 10 system. Is the bluetooth dongle recognized in your windows device manager?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on April 04, 2016, 06:27:53 AM
Do you have another computer to do a quick test with the controller?

Other than the infamous "do you have it plugged in and turned on" troubleshooting step, eliminating the problem system itself is always a good step.

And not to make light, but I literally fixed somebody's wireless keyboard as they tried for a couple of days telling me the detailed explanation of "it doesn't work" to every question I asked.  When I got there in person, I looked all over the keyboard, found a switch with orange showing, so flipped the switch and now a green sticker was showing.  Hit the windows key, start menu came up.  Said "you turned it off.  I turned it back on."

Next, do you have an Xbox360 in the same room?  I have some headphones that connect great to my smartphone.  They also connect great to my satellite DVR.  But when I'm in the room with my satellite DVR, the fastest way to switch over to my smartphone is to turn the satellite DVR bluetooth off.  Maybe your PC and Xbox360 are fighting each other for the controller?

Oh, also, is there a 4 digit code (or similar) you need to put in for the bluetooth ID?  I think the most common code is 0000.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 04, 2016, 07:22:12 AM
Make sure the controller is synced to the receiver.  If you have never used them together (which seems to be the case) you need to sync them.  There is a little black button on the top of the controller and should also be a button on the receiver, click them both so they both pair.

Also just to confirm the controller is good, use a USB cable and connect to the PC.  Should work that way.  Eliminate the potential of a bad controller.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on April 04, 2016, 09:53:53 AM
Wow the receiver showed a green light so I never doubted that that wasn´t the problem. I knew ther were buttons on the receiver and the controller, just never thought of pressing them at the same time.  :facepalm: Seems to be connected fine now.

Thanks!  :hefdaddy
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 04, 2016, 10:39:39 AM
Sweet!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 12, 2016, 06:49:16 AM
So at work Dell sent us two servers with the wrong CPUs installed (typical Dell).  In fact they were better CPUs than what we ordered, but because we want the same specs in all servers in the cluster we complained to Dell and they sent us the correct CPUs and told us to keep the original ones.  Well no other server uses those CPUs so I asked the boss if I can keep them which he agreed that if no one wants them by the end of 2015 then they are yours... well I had forgot about them and then remembered over the weekend when I stumbled upon them and now I just sold them for 1k  :rollin I'm so happy right now.  Nice little bonus thanks to Dell messing up!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on April 12, 2016, 10:11:24 AM
Nice!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 22, 2016, 07:36:04 AM
So my friend who asked me to build him a PC a couple weeks ago reached out to me and was wondering the status lol I was like uhhhh I actually haven't started so he said his laptop is just about dead so needs a PC soon.  A budget of around 1k, he wants a small PC form factor, nothing over the top, gaming wasn't necessary, but would be nice (and of course I made this possible) and he needed everything from keyboard and mouse, monitor (he wanted dual 20 inchers and I was like, uh lets just get you a really nice 27" since you dont even have a desk yet  :lol)

So here is the build on amazon:

Quote
Rosewill Dual Fans MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case FBM-01
$23.26
You save:
$26.73 (53%)

Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 with Keyboard and Mouse
$27.95
You save:
$2.04 (7%)

ViewSonic VA2746M-LED 27-Inch LED-Lit LCD Monitor, Full HD 1080p, DVI/VGA, Speakers, VESA
$189.99
You save:
$142.01 (43%)

Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM | PC Disc
$80.00
You save:
$29.99 (27%)

EVGA 500 W1 80+, 500W Continuous Power, 3 Year Warranty Power Supply 100-W1-0500-KR
$39.15
You save:
$0.84 (2%)

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 04G-P4-1962-KR 4GB SC GAMING, 6.8 Inch
$189.99
You save:
$30.00 (14%)

Samsung Electronics 24x SATA Half Height DVD-Writer Internal Optical Drive SH-224FB/BSBE
$17.48
You save:
$41.60 (70%)

Crucial 8GB Single DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) CL15 DR x8 Unbuffered DIMM 288-Pin Desktop Memory CT8G4DFD8213
$29.99
You save:
$30.00 (50%)

ASUS H110M-A LGA 1151 Intel H110 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro-ATX DDR4 Motherboard
$67.16

Intel Boxed Core I5-6500 FC-LGA14C 3.20 Ghz 6 M Processor Cache 4 LGA 1151 BX80662I56500
$203.99
You save:
$137.27 (40%)

Subtotal (10 items): $868.96
Total savings: $440.48

What is not listed here is that I will give him:

Intel 100GB SSD I have from work for the OS
2TB WD Cavier Green I also have from work for his Data
An old wireless USB network adapter I have (I think it was a NetGear, but not a big deal could have bought a new one for 15 but why not)

Any thoughts or opinions?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Calvin6s on April 22, 2016, 05:51:52 PM
Needs more RAM
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 22, 2016, 05:53:48 PM
Needs more RAM

8GB is not enough for a basic user?  I don't think he needs anymore, but he has room to upgrade since it's one DIMM and there is another slot on the mobo.  Also has 4GB of ram on that graphics card so that helps with gaming (if he actually uses it to game, or graphic intensive programs).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on April 22, 2016, 07:36:36 PM
More than 8GB isn't really necessary unless he intends to do something that requires a lot of memory, such as video or audio work. 8GB is enough even for gaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on April 22, 2016, 11:47:46 PM
8Gb is enough for the average person. At that price I'd probably spring for the extra anyway, but it doesn't need it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 26, 2016, 09:12:30 AM
8GB is always plenty for casual usage like mentioned, even for gaming. I recently acquired some cheap RAM to up my PC to 32 GB of total RAM. ;D  I mostly got it because I have several VM's  that I  test out plus do some video editing which I've seen take up the entire amount of RAM.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 04, 2016, 07:25:48 PM
Interesting video demonstrating the (ILOVEYOU) (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU) worm in action that spread across the internet 12 years ago:

https://youtu.be/ZqkFfF5kAvw
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 10:45:28 AM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 09, 2016, 11:48:38 AM
Interesting video demonstrating the (ILOVEYOU) (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU) worm in action that spread across the internet 12 years ago:

https://youtu.be/ZqkFfF5kAvw


 I had watched part of this video earlier and went on a nostalgia trip and installed win 98 SE on a VM at home. It's really something to see how far we've come along since those 98 days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on May 09, 2016, 12:30:24 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 01:28:22 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.

My brother has a couple raspberry pis.  He used to host his website off one of them and the other he set up as a home security camera for awhile that could be accessible off his website.  They are cool and super cheap.  He has one set up as a SNES emulator now since we removed the camera and now his website runs off my server.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on May 09, 2016, 01:33:03 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.

My brother has a couple raspberry pis.  He used to host his website off one of them and the other he set up as a home security camera for awhile that could be accessible off his website.  They are cool and super cheap.  He has one set up as a SNES emulator now since we removed the camera and now his website runs off my server.

Wow, that's a great idea with the emulator. I was thinking of putting together a supercomputer.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 01:38:18 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.

My brother has a couple raspberry pis.  He used to host his website off one of them and the other he set up as a home security camera for awhile that could be accessible off his website.  They are cool and super cheap.  He has one set up as a SNES emulator now since we removed the camera and now his website runs off my server.

Wow, that's a great idea with the emulator. I was thinking of putting together a supercomputer.

Supercomputer with raspberry pi? Please explain since they don't have much power.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on May 09, 2016, 01:42:16 PM
Something like this. I read about it a couple of years ago.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 01:52:59 PM
Something like this. I read about it a couple of years ago.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/

That's pretty cool
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on May 09, 2016, 01:54:17 PM
It'll take me a while to get the parts for it. I'm in no rush since preparing for the CCIE exam is my top priority.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 01:58:14 PM
It'll take me a while to get the parts for it. I'm in no rush since preparing for the CCIE exam is my top priority.

Nice, and yea getting yourself into a systems project would be a good way to distract from a networking exam.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 09, 2016, 02:50:12 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.

Already priced out my new pc using the 1080, can't wait.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2016, 03:11:44 PM
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/ (https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/06/nvidias-new-gtx-1080-gpu-is-even-faster-than-the-titan-x/)


I WANT

That looks realllly sweet.

I'm looking to put something together for fun that's different. I might do a Raspberry Pi build.

Already priced out my new pc using the 1080, can't wait.

It's a bit expensive at 600, but I think I will jump the gun and buy it sooner than later.  I had been saving my credit card points for this but just redeemed some of them (had over $600 worth before and now a little lass than $400) so I will likely empty out my points and pay the difference.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 09, 2016, 09:31:24 PM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 10, 2016, 06:00:00 AM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Way more fun than 9TB of porn IMO
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on May 10, 2016, 06:25:15 AM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Way more fun than 9TB of porn IMO

Then you're definitely watching the wrong porn. :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on May 10, 2016, 06:49:00 AM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Way more fun than 9TB of porn IMO

Then you're definitely watching the wrong porn. :biggrin:

I was watching something the other night and came across a black metal band whose videos include porn scenes. Not random porn clips, but scenes actually shot for the video.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 10, 2016, 07:34:42 AM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Way more fun than 9TB of porn IMO

Then you're definitely watching the wrong porn. :biggrin:

Well I know all about the porn you watch blob  :omg: :omg:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on May 10, 2016, 08:31:18 AM
I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Way more fun than 9TB of porn IMO

Then you're definitely watching the wrong porn. :biggrin:

Well I know all about the porn you watch blob  :omg: :omg:

And I only have 250GB! If I had 9TB of that, you'd never see another post from me again.

(https://cdn.meme.am/images/9773531.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 10, 2016, 08:35:07 AM
 :lol

That was exactly my point with 9TB
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 10, 2016, 09:23:15 AM
Of course, when you build your own 9TB NAS it's only for porn. ;D
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 10, 2016, 10:20:26 AM
Joking aside, I didn't mean to sound like I was against choosing to spend the budget of a home made NAS on a single video card. Was just expressing my thoughts on it. I'm sure it's totally worth it for those inclined on building a mean machine with that much GPU power and for those that can fully utilize it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 10, 2016, 10:44:13 AM
Joking aside, I didn't mean to sound like I was against choosing to spend the budget of a home made NAS on a single video card. Was just expressing my thoughts on it. I'm sure it's totally worth it for those inclined on building a mean machine with that much GPU power and for those that can fully utilize it.

No doubt it's a high price, but like you said, if it's worth it to someone then that's all that matters. 

9TB NAS means little to me when I have 5TB drive in my server, 2x 2TB drives in my PC, and then 3x 2TB drives sitting in storage.  Whereas my PC is using a GTX 770 and the performance boost to a 1080 will be large and will last for years.  Also, I would sell my GTX 770 so there is some money back to go towards the 1080 (anyone want to buy one?  :biggrin:).  I'm still going to wait and not get it on release, but i do want it this year.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 17, 2016, 02:58:38 PM
Seems like the new GTX 1080 is a proper beast. Even better than two 980s in SLI in some games which of course could also be the lack of proper SLI support from the games though so it's hard to say. If you have the money and want the best card as of right now, 1080 is the way to go. Then again, waiting for the NON-reference GPUs is propably the even better option.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 17, 2016, 03:09:19 PM
Seems like the new GTX 1080 is a proper beast. Even better than two 980s in SLI in some games which of course could also be the lack of proper SLI support from the games though so it's hard to say. If you have the money and want the best card as of right now, 1080 is the way to go. Then again, waiting for the NON-reference GPUs is propably the even better option.

Yea, I'm planning on waiting until an EVGA 1080 comes out.  I've used EVGA cards for all my builds and have never had issues so I stick with it (I don't think there was even a reason of choosing EVGA to start, but no reason to change allegiance).  Plus they overclock them for you which is nice.  I don't trust myself doing that with such an expensive part even though it's pretty simple when you use the EVGA tool.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grizz on May 17, 2016, 03:46:18 PM
(Me)
(https://i.imgur.com/xxp3Opz.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on May 31, 2016, 10:21:35 AM
Since I upgraded to Windows 10, my PC does not recognize some older USB devices (tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab3, smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S2, mp3 player: Sansa Clip Zip).
Any idea what to do (besides buying new models, of course  ;) )? 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on June 03, 2016, 03:49:01 PM
No idea, anyone?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 03, 2016, 03:53:51 PM
Not sure, I still have not upgraded, but my understanding overall was that windows 10 was actually very good with driver support, so I'm surprised that devices from Samsung would not work.  Have you tried to find drivers yourself for those devices?  Windows in general does not always find drivers automatically.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on June 03, 2016, 03:58:06 PM
How to find drivers without the devices being recognized by the computer?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 03, 2016, 05:00:51 PM
How to find drivers without the devices being recognized by the computer?

Google!  Usually if a device requires a driver then the manufacturer has them available on their website.  A google search for the driver can probably lead you to it, if it exists.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on June 03, 2016, 10:33:21 PM
How to find drivers without the devices being recognized by the computer?

Google!  Usually if a device requires a driver then the manufacturer has them available on their website.  A google search for the driver can probably lead you to it, if it exists.

That's pretty much the best way to do it. There are also stand alone programs that will analyze the devices on your machine and give you a report of which devices need driver updates. Go to majorgeeks.com.  Here's the link to their drivers section. There are numerous programs to use. 

https://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortname/drivers.html
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on June 13, 2016, 09:37:44 AM
Almost forgot to thank you, guys. It worked.  :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 13, 2016, 09:41:18 AM
Getting excited for my new build coming up this summer with the 1080!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 13, 2016, 09:43:24 AM
Getting excited for my new build coming up this summer with the 1080!

Man, I gotta get me a new graphics card, but I think I might need a bigger case to fit one of the high end monsters.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 13, 2016, 09:58:25 AM
Getting excited for my new build coming up this summer with the 1080!

I don't plan on doing a new build, but when I purchase my 1080 (I want it by the time BF1 comes out), I will do a new install with Windows 10 and completely take apart my PC and clean it.  Maybe even buy a new case since these fans are dying and having a cat, the case over 5 years is just getting nasty.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 13, 2016, 11:37:18 AM
I'm going to retire my case. I've been using the same case for a few years now (blob recommended it to me actually) and with my R9 290 I had to mod the case to fit the card. Not a chance that a 1080 will it this case.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 13, 2016, 11:41:50 AM
I'm going to retire my case. I've been using the same case for a few years now (blob recommended it to me actually) and with my R9 290 I had to mod the case to fit the card. Not a chance that a 1080 will it this case.

That's the same case I've got, isn't it? That would confirm that mine won't cut it when I upgrade. My current card is no small and neat. On the flipside, it can't run shit. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 13, 2016, 11:55:31 AM
yea I basically had to cut into one of the hard drive bays to make it work.

I'm going to retire it to make a server from it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on June 13, 2016, 12:16:55 PM
Almost forgot to thank you, guys. It worked.  :tup

I'm glad to hear it. Which program did you ultimately wind up using?

yea I basically had to cut into one of the hard drive bays to make it work.

I'm going to retire it to make a server from it.

That's a great idea. I thought about doing that with my old desktop. I would just have to upgrade what's inside since it's quite a few years old and it has Windows on it still.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 13, 2016, 12:23:24 PM
yea I basically had to cut into one of the hard drive bays to make it work.

I'm going to retire it to make a server from it.

Unfortunately I have too many hard drives in mine to spare any space there. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 13, 2016, 12:50:51 PM
I'm going to try and get the link to the case my brother got. It's not cheap but man is it well designed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 03, 2016, 01:03:37 PM
The best thing i've seen in a while:

Indian Microsoft Scammer Tries to Scam Ex Microsoft Employee (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMwFhGd8duo)

#BURN
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Adami on July 04, 2016, 01:05:04 PM
So, didn't get much of a response in the chat thread, so I'll try here. So.

I need a new mac pro for my studio. Mine is from 2008 and is getting pretty close to kicking the bucket. I found three on Ebay (since the new model is way too different to adapt to my current hardware, and I don't have 8 grand to spare). I don't know a ton about computer specs. But I need something good and fast. Graphics don't matter much, it's all about me running an audio studio (pro tools) so here are the three that I found. Can someone help me figure out which one is best?

1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Pro-3-46-Ghz-12-Core-16GB-1TB-ATI-Radeon-5770-1GB-2012-Model-5-1-MD771/361283965167?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3D849365d43e954ff29ff655acb080ddb8%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D16%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D251966148406

2. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Pro-Tower-5-1-Intel-Twelve-12-Core-3-46Ghz-Westmere-64GB-RAM-1TB-HD/282064807020?_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20131231084308%26meid%3D7293ad7c5bfa48238badd4ad97f36e25%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D22%26sd%3D361283965167

3. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Pro-3-46Ghz-12-Core-32GB-1TB-GT-120-OSX-10-11-MB535LL-A-CTO/361386274347?_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20131231084308%26meid%3D7293ad7c5bfa48238badd4ad97f36e25%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D22%26sd%3D361283965167

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 05, 2016, 09:40:56 AM
I don't know anything about pro tools.  But if you aren't doing anything visual and graffic intensive... why the need for dual CPU systems and video cards?

Sounds like you would just need a decent amount of RAM and hard drive space.  A solid CPU as well, but I'm not sure why you would need dual CPU systems, that's some pretty hardcore processing.

Like I said, I don't know pro tools to know how much that really needs, but I always just assumed you need the massive power for video editing, wasn't sure about audio editing.

Part of me says just go with the cheaper option of those three except thats a 2009 model, and yours is 2008.... so whats the point really?  Might as well get something newer.  So the middle option seems the best in that case, a bit newer.  All three have good specs so it seems the graphics card is one of the major differences between the three.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Adami on July 06, 2016, 09:46:36 AM
Anyone else? I'd appreciate it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 22, 2016, 08:27:03 AM
Pretty much what cramx3 said, though my personal opinion is that if a computer doesn't have an SSD, I wouldn't bother with it. It servers several purposes to have an SSD.  Apart from the obvious super fast booting and applications opening much faster, it wont' suffer from much slowdown the longer you use it. Typically one has a largist SSD (256GB or higher) and have larger mechanical drives for storage. I don't know what all combos Apple offers for the Mac Pro but like cram said if you're going for a model that's one year advanced, don't see what the point would be. Especially the years of 2008/2009. The difference between models of CPUs at the time aren't massive as when you compare CPUs that came after 2011.


Edit; just realized the posts were 2 weeks ago. Did you make any decisions?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 22, 2016, 08:34:11 AM
Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 22, 2016, 09:50:33 AM
Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!

yikes on that price tag.  Probably sick card but Im having trouble justifying the $700 tag for the 1080.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 22, 2016, 08:47:55 PM
Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!

yikes on that price tag.  Probably sick card but Im having trouble justifying the $700 tag for the 1080.

I cant justify the 1080, but not the Titan, that is just too much $$$.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on July 23, 2016, 09:58:02 AM
I've been having problems with updating windows 10.  I initially upgraded to 10 from 8.1 some time last year, but have been unable to install updates since.  My current build number is 10240, and the most up to date build is 10586, with yet another coming out in a week or so.  I've tried downloading and installing from the .iso file, but I always get stuck at the same point as I do when simply using the windows update method (26% total progress with 88% status in whatever sub-process is happening). 

I've also tried installing the individual updates manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog (https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Thanks.aspx?id=140) using this list (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history) to figure out what updates I need.  When attempting to install these, i get the following message:

(https://support.microsoft.com/Library/Images/3059760.jpg).

I've also disconnected my second hard drive, unplugged my second monitor and unplugged any other non-essential devices.  I'm not getting anywhere.

And another thing.  When I check for updates in the windows update settings, it says "Your device is up to date"
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on July 24, 2016, 04:44:27 PM
Err... Same shit this time.  Totally forgot about this..
So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 24, 2016, 04:56:03 PM
Weird.

It seems Windows 10 free upgrade is only available for five more days.  I think I'm going to upgrade this week to take advantage of the freeness.  I was going to wait until I got the 1080 and just rebuild the entire PC, but I guess I should just do the upgrade and then rebuild the PC at a later date.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MetalJunkie on July 26, 2016, 01:03:47 AM
The best thing i've seen in a while:

Indian Microsoft Scammer Tries to Scam Ex Microsoft Employee (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMwFhGd8duo)

#BURN
Long video, but worth the watch. I like this guy's personality, and he handled the whole thing expertly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on August 24, 2016, 02:29:20 AM
I'm having severe problems with my keyboard at the moment. When booting up, the light on the keyboard comes on for a short while then blinks out. When the inlogscreen on my pc comes up however, it doesn't work and I can't log in. This happened briefly at the start of the week, but after a few boot ups it worked fine again. Now for two days already, nothing.

Now this all started when my wireless game controller wouldn't work, no matter what I tried.

I know it's probably a driver issue, but without acces to the pc, I can't fix it. Any suggestions?  :huh:

I'll try to get a usb/ps 2 plug to try and get acces that way, but other then that? 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on August 24, 2016, 03:24:49 AM
Some OSes come with clickable keyboard software. If you can get that going to find the drivers you should be set. If you have another keyboard, try that to make sure it's not the port. Keyboards and mice are cheap enough that you can keep a spare on hand for instances like this. You can get the two in a set ridiculously cheap. Even if you usually use more expensive keyboards, they serve a purpose just for testing when needs be. Anyways, I'm rambling. Try what I said and see what happens.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 24, 2016, 07:49:31 AM
Weird.

It seems Windows 10 free upgrade is only available for five more days.  I think I'm going to upgrade this week to take advantage of the freeness.  I was going to wait until I got the 1080 and just rebuild the entire PC, but I guess I should just do the upgrade and then rebuild the PC at a later date.

I'm going to do the exact same thing, I already have windows 10 on my laptop.

I've been having problems with updating windows 10.  I initially upgraded to 10 from 8.1 some time last year, but have been unable to install updates since.  My current build number is 10240, and the most up to date build is 10586, with yet another coming out in a week or so.  I've tried downloading and installing from the .iso file, but I always get stuck at the same point as I do when simply using the windows update method (26% total progress with 88% status in whatever sub-process is happening). 

I've also tried installing the individual updates manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog (https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Thanks.aspx?id=140) using this list (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history) to figure out what updates I need.  When attempting to install these, i get the following message:

(https://support.microsoft.com/Library/Images/3059760.jpg).

I've also disconnected my second hard drive, unplugged my second monitor and unplugged any other non-essential devices.  I'm not getting anywhere.

And another thing.  When I check for updates in the windows update settings, it says "Your device is up to date"


Very weird. I've heard of some issues happening when you update from windows 8 to 10 and a lot of people have recommended to do clean installs instead of updating.

If this problem started when you upgraded and hasn't worked since I would say do a reinstall/reformat.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 24, 2016, 07:57:26 AM
My windows 10 upgrade was smooth a few weeks ago, waited till the last second to get that free upgrade.  Other than a couple drivers I needed to reinstall, everything was great and has been great.

I'm having severe problems with my keyboard at the moment. When booting up, the light on the keyboard comes on for a short while then blinks out. When the inlogscreen on my pc comes up however, it doesn't work and I can't log in. This happened briefly at the start of the week, but after a few boot ups it worked fine again. Now for two days already, nothing.

Now this all started when my wireless game controller wouldn't work, no matter what I tried.

I know it's probably a driver issue, but without acces to the pc, I can't fix it. Any suggestions?  :huh:

I'll try to get a usb/ps 2 plug to try and get acces that way, but other then that? 

I would suggest booting into BIOS and seeing the keyboard works there.  If the keyboard doesn't work in BIOS you may have a busted keyboard and it may not be a driver issue then.  If it works in BIOS and not on the OS then it is likely a driver problem.  And using a USB/PS2 keyboard is also a good test and are super cheap to buy or just like borrow one from someone or from work.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 24, 2016, 08:04:47 AM
I'm getting my 1TB SSD in the mail today, that's what I'm going to install windows 10 on
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 24, 2016, 08:17:55 AM
I'm getting my 1TB SSD in the mail today, that's what I'm going to install windows 10 on

Nice! Speaking of SSDs, we got these pretty fancy and expensive PCI SSD cards for testing at work.... a 6.4TB SSD on a PCI card  :biggrin:  My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay  :lol  but if I were to steal one, it would land in my PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 24, 2016, 08:20:27 AM
I'm getting my 1TB SSD in the mail today, that's what I'm going to install windows 10 on

Nice! Speaking of SSDs, we got these pretty fancy and expensive PCI SSD cards for testing at work.... a 6.4TB SSD on a PCI card  :biggrin:  My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay  :lol  but if I were to steal one, it would land in my PC.

Jebus, how much is that monster worth?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 24, 2016, 08:24:55 AM
I'm getting my 1TB SSD in the mail today, that's what I'm going to install windows 10 on

Nice! Speaking of SSDs, we got these pretty fancy and expensive PCI SSD cards for testing at work.... a 6.4TB SSD on a PCI card  :biggrin:  My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay  :lol  but if I were to steal one, it would land in my PC.

Jebus, how much is that monster worth?

I actually do not know on this specific model, https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/anton-shilov/samsung-unveils-ssds-with-up-to-6-4tb-capacity-up-to-5-5gbs-bandwidth/ (https://www.kitguru.net/components/memory/anton-shilov/samsung-unveils-ssds-with-up-to-6-4tb-capacity-up-to-5-5gbs-bandwidth/)

It's a loaner from Dell for us to test.  We currently have been testing I think 5 or 6 different models of these types of cards.  The same Samsung card at 3.2TB which we purchased were around $5k so the 6.4TB one obviously costs a bit more than that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 24, 2016, 08:27:48 AM
I thought maybe they'd be a lot cheaper there, but apparently not. :lol I think I'll stick to old school hard drives for mass storage for the moment, but I can't wait until the price drops on those big SSDs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 24, 2016, 09:11:08 AM
I thought maybe they'd be a lot cheaper there, but apparently not. :lol I think I'll stick to old school hard drives for mass storage for the moment, but I can't wait until the price drops on those big SSDs.

That's not meant for home use, but for servers so that's not really something comparable to what you'd put in your PC.  SSDs aren't that expensive anymore.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 24, 2016, 09:31:22 AM
They're still relatively very expensive for any usable size (that doesn't also require a mechanical drive for all of your actual storage). At current prices it's only practical to use one for OS + basic software and that's it. But the prices are forever dropping.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on August 25, 2016, 01:05:18 AM
My windows 10 upgrade was smooth a few weeks ago, waited till the last second to get that free upgrade.  Other than a couple drivers I needed to reinstall, everything was great and has been great.

I'm having severe problems with my keyboard at the moment. When booting up, the light on the keyboard comes on for a short while then blinks out. When the inlogscreen on my pc comes up however, it doesn't work and I can't log in. This happened briefly at the start of the week, but after a few boot ups it worked fine again. Now for two days already, nothing.

Now this all started when my wireless game controller wouldn't work, no matter what I tried.

I know it's probably a driver issue, but without acces to the pc, I can't fix it. Any suggestions?  :huh:

I'll try to get a usb/ps 2 plug to try and get acces that way, but other then that? 

I would suggest booting into BIOS and seeing the keyboard works there.  If the keyboard doesn't work in BIOS you may have a busted keyboard and it may not be a driver issue then.  If it works in BIOS and not on the OS then it is likely a driver problem.  And using a USB/PS2 keyboard is also a good test and are super cheap to buy or just like borrow one from someone or from work.

Thanks. I bought a new (cheap) keyboard and a usb/ps 2 plug (only to find out my pc hasn't got  a ps 2 connector.... :facepalm:)

Somehow it booted up in BIOS and I was able to do a system repair, but I think that might not even have been necessary as the keyboard (old and new) were already working, but now it runs fine again. Anyway, thanks for all the good advice! I can always count on you guys.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Lucien on August 26, 2016, 12:02:30 AM
Someday I'll get my extremely tech-savvy friend to help me pick out parts for a desktop I'll build (laptops are garbage), then he'll teach me how to get Linux (Gentoo most likely sense that's what he swears by) to work properly.

Was very glad I figured out how to completely cockblock Microsoft from sticking their Windows 10 dick into my laptop's figurative asshole.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 26, 2016, 07:17:14 AM
To each their own, but so far Windows 10 has been pretty much great for me.  Or at least as good as Windows 7.  I personally see no reason to run linux on a home PC unless it's because you want to learn linux for a certain reason.  But as I said, to each their own.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 27, 2016, 04:11:56 AM
Yea haven't had any trouble myself switching over. No driver issues or compatible problems of some sort. Works like every windows for better or worse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on August 27, 2016, 04:15:52 AM
I think the main problem is just Microsoft's forced penetration to get you to switch. I haven't heard any big complaints post-upgrade, just the usual minor driver issues.

I'm still rockin' Windows 7, which I'll run into the ground first. I usually don't switch until the new versions of my software demand it. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on August 27, 2016, 05:07:04 AM
I think the main problem is just Microsoft's forced penetration to get you to switch. I haven't heard any big complaints post-upgrade, just the usual minor driver issues.

I'm still rockin' Windows 7, which I'll run into the ground first. I usually don't switch until the new versions of my software demand it. :lol

I hear that. I ran Windows XP until it was a complete necessity to upgrade, tried Windows 7 for a bit, but now I bounce between different Linux distros. I still have a handful of different OSes running as VMs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 28, 2016, 09:28:05 AM
I think the main problem is just Microsoft's forced penetration to get you to switch. I haven't heard any big complaints post-upgrade, just the usual minor driver issues.

I'm still rockin' Windows 7, which I'll run into the ground first. I usually don't switch until the new versions of my software demand it. :lol

I didn't really like how Microsoft was handling this as well either, but after holding out for the longest amount of time for the free upgrade, I finally caved.  This also gave them time to fix OS bugs after release, but from most accounts it worked well for everyone which is actually pretty amazing for Microsoft.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 29, 2016, 12:10:04 PM
As much as a homer I am for Windows OS, the way MS handled their push for a free upgrade was downright piss poor and extremely shitty. I don't think I would've put up with that shit if I hadn't already upgraded.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on August 30, 2016, 04:10:40 AM
Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 30, 2016, 06:40:51 AM
Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.

Both keyboards?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on August 30, 2016, 06:42:49 AM
Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.

What kind of message do you get? Do you get any beep codes?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cyclopssss on August 30, 2016, 07:18:53 AM
No codes. When I start the pc the light on the keyboard blinks on for a while, during which I dont' get any startup screen, just black. after a while the light on the keyboards goes out, and the log-in screen comes on. I' ll try to unplug everything and try to boot up again and hope it'll boot in Bios or something.

I'm writing this from work, btw.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on September 29, 2016, 06:10:22 AM
Err... it happened again.  I knew a few months ago I figured it out somehow, but I totally forgot.  Good thing this thread is still around.
Err... Same shit this time.  Totally forgot about this..
So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 15, 2016, 08:26:58 AM
So I got my GTX 1080 and new case for my PC yesterday and spent the evening moving out of my old case and into the new one with the new graphics card.  I got it operational last night but with poor cable management on the inside since I was getting tired and making mistakes that I didn't want to take the time to properly fix.  I called out of work today to continue work on it and fixed all my issues from last night.  I've got some good pictures and whatnot and when I am done I plan on releasing a youtube video on what I did (if it came out alright).  Either way, I'll share some pics when I get a chance, but I played Battlefield 1 on ultra and it was sooooo much better than my GTX 770 could do.  It was a real significant improvement on the graphics. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 15, 2016, 09:43:20 AM
Awesome, can't wait to see pictures of the new build and congrats! I had a morning scare today when I booted up my desktop and got a dreaded error that no disk found, my BIOS wouldn't detect any of my hard drives! And I have a total of six (2 are SSDs!) I think my SATA ports are dying. I managed to boot up with just the OS Drive on by testing out each port, I have an 8 SATA port mobo. I managed to put all drives back but I believe 2 are faulty, any drive connected to it doesn't get detected. What a pain it was to reboot and test each port out but at least my drives are safe. Not counting the OS drive that would've meant 12 TB of data lost!!!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on November 15, 2016, 12:35:10 PM
Share those photos, dammit!   :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 16, 2016, 05:34:09 PM
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15129009_10112131877392344_3453274408271260492_o.jpg)
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15110861_10112131877402324_8849201911434990648_o.jpg)
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15128906_10112131877821484_581400674619133177_o.jpg)
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15025422_10112131877706714_424349011282917285_o.jpg)


Check out my video on the installation
https://youtu.be/MLk5bKvmhY8 (https://youtu.be/MLk5bKvmhY8)

Noticed a HUGE difference in Battlefield 1 with smoothness and a ridiculous amount of more detail when running it in ulta  :metal :metal
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Prog Snob on November 16, 2016, 08:27:20 PM
I'm facetiously angry that you didn't invite me over to help put that together. I would have came all over it a few times anyway. Good call on your part.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 08:17:47 AM
I'm facetiously angry that you didn't invite me over to help put that together. I would have came all over it a few times anyway. Good call on your part.

And yes, that is more than enough reason to know it was a good call.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 17, 2016, 08:55:28 AM
I need to get a better GPU.  I don't really play PC games all that much, but I did just get a 55" 4K TV and made it my monitor.  Didn't think I'd ever do that, but then somebody in a review talked about being able to have 4+ windows open equivalent to 4 27" monitors.  And then when you want to watch some video on break, you push your office chair back a bit and enjoy.

Currently, it is running fine, but now with Black Friday coming up, the idea of actually playing some PC games on this thing is starting to sound tempting.  I doubt I will go GTX1080 however.  I just can't bring myself to spend that type of money for an area in the PC market that still drops in price so quickly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 09:23:25 AM
Want a GTX 770?  I'm considering selling mine.  The problem for you though, is that to truly utilize a 4k monitor you'll need a good GPU.  Better than my old 770.  Maybe something in the 900 series is good for you, but I'm not sure.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 17, 2016, 10:05:50 AM
I'm looking at the Radeon RX470 or RX480 or something like the GTX1060.  Basically around the $180 to $240 mark.  I chose that because I have $200 in gift cards so WTF.  The big limiting factor is I'd like to have a few HDMi outputs instead of the almost all DisplayPort options simply because that allows me to keep my other monitors without adapters.

I'm really out of it when it comes to what makes a good GPU these days.  From what I've heard, 4k gaming with any significant settings is actually pretty demanding even for your GTX1080.  I honestly don't even know much about the GTX770.  It would be nice if big model number equals more powah!!!

Which reminds me.  I have to break out a tape measure and check the clearance in my case.  I have a full tower, but like yours, it means it has drive bays from top to bottom.  I'm not sure what dimensions are given in GPU specs.  From the edge of the display connectors to the end? I've heard some of these cards require the drive bays to come out.

I haven't played serious PC games in, well, since the Xbox360 came out.  So the GPU options are pretty overwhelming to me right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 10:10:25 AM
If you have a full sized tower, then I'd imagine you have the room for a large GPU.

I don't know enough about the Radeon brand to offer any tips.  I'm kind of an nvidia (intel) guy.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 17, 2016, 10:14:54 AM
I've heard points for AMD and Intel on the GPU front.  My CPU is Intel and quite frankly, after starting with a Cyrix and then moving to AMD and now Intel on the CPU front, I definitely love my Intel CPU.  I'd also always wondered if matching CPU to GPU, while not necessary, has some benefits.  I've been very lucky with my current build that everything played well together.  So that is another reason I worry about screwing up the GPU choice.

What is it about Intel/Nvidia that has you going that route.  I think I read that Nvidia's are more energy efficient than AMD's.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 10:58:03 AM
For me, it was initially based on reviews when I built my first PC years ago.  The intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs were more highly rated so I went that route.  The AMD was a better price for specs, but were just not as well reviewed by the tech community.  Not shooting down AMD, I believe the same reviews alls aid AMD processors were very good, just not as good.  Then overtime through upgrades I just kept with Intel because I never had issues and had positive experiences. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 17, 2016, 11:06:53 AM
What places online do you frequent for some GPU reviews and recommendations?  I've always had good luck with Maximum PC (now PC Gamer).  I've stumbled across others but haven't formed a lasting opinion on them:

GPU Boss (I like the layout and A/B'ing, but the comments seem to suggest they are biased)

Videocardbenchmark.net also seems like a good place to get bearings on where the current hierarchy stands.

I've known about PCpartpicker for years now.  Supposedly it is more about getting parts that work together.

What do you use?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 11:13:16 AM
I used to be a subscriber to Maximum PC and used their reviews to build what is my current PC (the mobo/cpu is about 6 years old now).  But I hardly follow anything specific anymore for comparisons and just stick with what I like/know.  For example, the gtx 1080 I read a few reviews (which were all extremely positive) but not from a specific source and I didn't do a comparison, I had my mind set actually before they even released the GPU that I would get the next model for my upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 17, 2016, 03:31:47 PM
I have an old AMD Radeon 6870 XFX GPU. It's not bad now, I can play most of the PC games on ultra resolution. When I bought it at the time in 2011 it was in the top 3 cards AMD had to offer, I will at some point have to go for a better card if I'm to switch over to 4K monitors. I don't have a preference for one over the other and might just do nVidia next go. I bought the AMD card purely for price, it came with 3 games that I sold off and had a deep discount so I think I ended up spending just around $100 for it.

@cramx3, that setup looks sweet! Much better cable management than mine. I was initially very hesitant to get a full ATX case as it's much bigger than I imagined it to be. Your layout looks exactly like mine internally as well. Have fun gaming!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 17, 2016, 04:55:50 PM
I have an old AMD Radeon 6870 XFX GPU. It's not bad now, I can play most of the PC games on ultra resolution. When I bought it at the time in 2011 it was in the top 3 cards AMD had to offer, I will at some point have to go for a better card if I'm to switch over to 4K monitors. I don't have a preference for one over the other and might just do nVidia next go. I bought the AMD card purely for price, it came with 3 games that I sold off and had a deep discount so I think I ended up spending just around $100 for it.

@cramx3, that setup looks sweet! Much better cable management than mine. I was initially very hesitant to get a full ATX case as it's much bigger than I imagined it to be. Your layout looks exactly like mine internally as well. Have fun gaming!

Yea the new case was great for cable management, something that my old case (as you can see) was not as good with.  I'm really satisfied with my rig atm.  Not just from performance but visually as well.  The EVGA GTX 1080 I got has LEDs that you can customize so everything is all flashly looking as well.  I can't wait to get laid due to this.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 26, 2016, 08:27:10 PM
Sale time.  Ended up buying the RX480.  I know it isn't as good as the Titan or GTX1080, but that's ok.  Maybe I will buy more games when Steam sales roll around now.

I've only played strategy games on my computer like Civ5 for the most part these past few years, so now I have to figure out what type of game controllers to consider.

Now I don't need an Xbox One or PS4.

I had some gift cards, Black Friday sales, needed to take advantage of this 4k monitor so I figured WTF.

TBH, I was looking to upgrade my Quickbooks software, but that really isn't coming off as a Black Friday deal.  It was the more prudent choice, so I guess this forced me to spend money on the fun side of my computer for once.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 07:27:05 AM
I think my brother saw my new case and GPU and decided he was going to do upgrades.  I don't know the models off my head, but he dropped like 2k on computer parts.  His initial 800 build of new motherboard/CPU/RAM/NVMe SSD but then he spent a ton on a 32 inch 4k monitor.  He hasn't done the new build yet, but the monitor is beautiful and making me drool a bit.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 28, 2016, 08:25:03 AM
Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....  :o  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2)

 maybe one day hopefully.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on November 28, 2016, 08:26:12 AM
Goddamn that is a big monitor. I'm still happy with 23" monitor :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on November 28, 2016, 08:33:34 AM
My 24" monitor is as big as I'd want for normal sitting distance. I'd only want bigger if you're gaming or viewing things from more like couch distance with other people.
Plus my current graphics card can't even game at 1920x1200 let alone 4K. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 08:48:16 AM
Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....  :o  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2)

 maybe one day hopefully.

yea I dont know, I think that's too big.

For my brother's 32 inch.  Im very borderline on "is it too big?".  It seems that way because his desk is small, but I think a 32 inch would be the max I can do for a monitor, but my desk is big enough for me to place it further back.  I was thinking dual 28 inch might be the sweet spot, but the reality is if I keep dual, then only one monitor is 4k and the other is probably one of my current monitors.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 28, 2016, 09:12:56 AM
With the 43" monitors it will definitely require a change in how close you sit, I measured it out and I'd be fine with the width but the height would be a pain. I currently have two 28" monitors and they are great. They span about 50" wide so I could instead do two of these 34" curved monitors. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260239 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260239)


They would span a combined width of 65" which is kinda crazy but I think I could do it. The height of the monitors would be the same so it should be ok.  ;D 

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 11:16:13 AM
Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....  :o  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2)

 maybe one day hopefully.

I'm going to go against the "too big" grain.  And it is very simple and demonstrated in the very pic of that monitor. It put four windows open on one monitor.  Not four compromised windows, but four windows that are the equivalent to a full window on a single monitor each.  But no bezel interruptions.  And if I want one "virtual" monitor bigger than the other three, no problem.   Movie/TV/Game time - one big screen.  Actually, I play Civ on 2/3 of the screen and have the other 1/6 and 1/6 with something like a browser, email or other open on the side now.  And you don't have four power plugs and four DP/HDMI plugs coming out the back. 

I went big and I don't know what I'm going to do with my previous 3 monitor setup.  I feel like you right now.  If I want a 2nd monitor now (or go to a 4+4 virtual monitor), I'd probably get a second large 4k monitor of the same size.  This feels like when I first went multi-monitor.  Every time I went back to a small monitor computer, it felt so limiting.

Another thing I did was make the Windows 10 start pin menu like a big iphone tablet screen.  Any time I push the start menu button, my entire screen has every single program or link in an organized icon view.  Kind of like a desktop filled with shortcuts, but I can bring it up and down (and out of the way) with the push of a single button.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 11:31:57 AM
One thing to consider with 4k is your default text size will be 1/4th the size (or 1/2 the height) as your 1080p monitor settings.  Yes, you can change the default text size, but sometimes that doesn't play nice with other programs.  For example, drop down menus might stay the same width, but the increasing of the text size will mean less characters fitting in the same pixel width.

Although, your second monitor choice is more like a 1440p extended width monitor as opposed to a 4k 2160p monitor.  So 1080 to 1440 is not as big of a jump.  I'd keep the ratios the same no matter which route you take so the pixels per distance align with what you have now.  This would mean it is like literally just adding extra pixels to the side and top of your monitor for more viewing but essentially the same resolution to your eye.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 28, 2016, 03:33:13 PM
Yeah I would like to actually see in person a 4K resolution for that size a monitor. The DPI scaling will definitely be wonky throughout if coding is not done to accommodate scale. And I didn't realize the 32" screens were 1440p.
Anyways I'm probably not going to get a new set of monitors for a few years now but thought I'd take a look and see what all models were out there.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 03:37:06 PM
Yea I haven't looked into it much myself to know enough about the details of 4k monitors since I haven't considered buying one yet.  Now that my brother bought his, and I can see with my own eyes how nice it looks, I will probably start looking into it for next year, but I'm not even sure I know what a good size is yet.  That 32 inch is still debateable for me.  Sure it means more space on screen and I can eliminate a second physical monitor, but I kind of like having the second physical one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 03:50:46 PM
TBH, the number one reason I did it is for desktop work (just having a larger desktop without a bunch of monitors on the physical desk)

The 4k gaming will be interesting, but that was more of a bonus to me.  As far as video, the choices are pretty limited.  There is upscaling, but that's not the same as a pure 4K source.

When I first set up the monitor, I didn't have any 4K material, so I just went to YouTube and watched some 4k 2160p streams.  It is pretty amazing to watch.

You also have to make sure your video cable can handle the resolution and Hz rate.  Obviously, that applies to the GPU card as well, but I think there have been some people that haven't realized they need the newer version HDMI/DP cables and don't get the full effect.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 03:54:57 PM
Yea, I was reading about 4k TVs today and what I found interesting was that the upscaling can actually make the quality worse.  You need HDR10 in the 4k TV to properly upscale (which is not in any of those cheap 4k TVs).   There's a lot of thought that goes into the purchase that I never thought about.  Also things liek g-sync support (for Nvidia GPUs) can make a difference for a 4k monitor. 

My problem, is I am going to be looking at that sick monitor my brother bought every day and think "man does my set up suck" sort of like how I think he looked at my GPU and new case and thought the same thing  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 04:42:45 PM
You must become one person so you can enjoy the great monitor with the great GPU.

This is kind of why I take the middle of the road approach.  I have a pretty decent 4k monitor with an incoming pretty decent GPU.  Stopped going for "the best" in my 20s.  Audio / Video / Computers (the stereotypical man cave stuff) just changes too rapidly.


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 05:00:45 PM
You must become one person so you can enjoy the great monitor with the great GPU.

This is kind of why I take the middle of the road approach.  I have a pretty decent 4k monitor with an incoming pretty decent GPU.  Stopped going for "the best" in my 20s.  Audio / Video / Computers (the stereotypical man cave stuff) just changes too rapidly.

Oh I didn't mean it as I am only getting the best (this is the first time having a top of the line GPU) but only meant it in making the best purchase.  My plan was to buy a new monitor next year anyway to pair with the GPU.  Dropping so much at once was more than I wanted to do so an increase in performance followed by an increase in pixels was my plan and I am still sticking with it, but just brought up a new light on 4k gaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 05:38:23 PM
You don't even want to know what I have for graphics until my new GPU arrives (and it still is no GTX1080).

Are you a big gamer or are you kind of getting back into it (hence the GTX1080 splurge)?  I haven't played a serious action graphics game on my PC in years.  What are you (and that means anybody) doing for controllers?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 05:42:26 PM
Im a PC gamer.  I upgraded from a GTX 770.

For controlller I just use an xbox1 controller, but I only use it for certain games.  Otherwise I use my Razr Black Widow Chroma keyboard and Black Widow Death Addr mouse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 05:53:44 PM
What are the main features you look for in a gaming keyboard?  The gaming mouse is somewhat obvious (precision).  What is the one or two features of your gaming keyboard that you think would drive you crazy if you lost those?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 28, 2016, 06:01:03 PM
What are the main features you look for in a gaming keyboard?  The gaming mouse is somewhat obvious (precision).  What is the one or two features of your gaming keyboard that you think would drive you crazy if you lost those?

Mechanical keyboard is the big one.  Feels so much better and has better response time.  My keyboard is customizable too.  I have 5 extra buttons to customize as I want or write a script for.  For example, one key types out my email address.  But I can customize all my keys if I wanted.  I'm not a huge customizer in that regards so some games make better use like MMO games, but I don't play those but I do play FPS games where response time is more important so thats why I went mechanical.  I also like the LED backlights on the keys, also customizable, but that's just for looks (which I really do like, but was hardly a reason to buy the keyboard, just added bonus really).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on November 28, 2016, 06:40:06 PM
Although the lighted keys wouldn't be make or break, it might be cool for turning off the room lights but still being able to see the keys you don't push as often.

Now I'm remembering why I took a break from PC gaming.  The costs can add up quickly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on December 15, 2016, 06:20:40 PM
Someone gave me a video card recently, and my motherboard doesn't recognize it.  When i first installed it and booted, the BIOS utility came up showing the new hardware.  It also showed up in the device manager under display adapters.  I then downloaded and installed the driver, and through device manager, clicked "Update Driver Software" just to be sure.  The computer froze, and since then I have not been able to install it.  The motherboard is an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 (https://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/z77%20extreme4/) and the video card is a Powercolor HD7750.  Also, I tried it in another PCI slot with no luck.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Jester on December 15, 2016, 07:05:02 PM
I'd hardly consider myself an expert, but do you have onboard graphics that need to be disabled in the BIOS first?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on December 16, 2016, 05:02:24 AM
No expert at all but sometime old drivers can cause issues, so make sure you delete those before you install new drivers, atleast that's what i've heard you should do when you manually install new drivers.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: IDontNotDoThings on January 31, 2017, 11:46:01 PM
I just realised that you can double-click the top-left-hand corner of a window & that closes the window. How did I never notice this before?  :facepalm:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on February 11, 2017, 08:42:29 AM
I had a scare last night.  I store all my files in a second internal HDD, with an SSD for boot and software install only.  I tried to open a folder in my storage HDD, and it froze.  The computer then wouldn't reboot, nor would it boot after a hard shut down.  It would only boot with the HDD disconnected.  I tried booting a few more times with it connected with no luck.  Finally I booted with the HDD powered, but without the SATA plug in.  I then connected the SATA "hot", refreshed the device manager, and all the files were visible.  I immediately backed up to another external HDD (I do this periodically, but it had been a few months) and today finally started an online cloud backup service.

I've been putting this off for a long time, and last night was enough to make me pull the trigger.  I went with CrashPlan after a bit of reading, and started an estimated 5 days for the initial backup.  I've been hesitant because I didn't like the idea of ALL my sensitive information in the cloud, but the risk of losing it all was especially real after last night's scare.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Zydar on March 22, 2017, 02:18:50 AM
I've had problems with my PC at home for quite a while now. Sometimes when I start it up it sends no video signal to my monitor. So I had to turn it off, wait a while, and then boot it up again - repeat the process until it works. Last night it just wouldn't get the monitor to work at all, so I decided to troubleshoot it (plus googling about it). I tried another graphics card (my old one), but it didn't help. I took out the RAM modules and placed them back in. No dice. Then I removed the soundcard - that seemed to do the trick. Works fine now. So I ordered a new soundcard right away, a Creative Soundblaster Z this time. I'll be using the onboard soundcard until the new one arrives.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 22, 2017, 05:14:32 AM
Interesting that it was the sound card.

Also it's been forever since I've used something other than onboard sound.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on March 22, 2017, 05:28:57 AM
Onboard sound has been plenty sufficient for the majority of people for a long time. Unless you do audio work or need a high end setup, there's not much need for a dedicated sound card these days. I've never had a sound card cause issues like that, so that's strange.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on March 22, 2017, 07:03:42 AM
I used to be a big proponent of sound boards, but the last two computers I've had I don't even use on-board sound. My sound system and headphones are both USB and they are completely trouble free.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 22, 2017, 08:49:10 AM
Yea, built in sound on mobos has gone a long way.   Mine can support 7 channels for example.  The quality can always be better, but for someone like myself who's ears are not the best, it's not worth the cost for small boosts of sound quality that I may not be able to appreciate. 

Speaking of PC sound, I do need some new gaming headphones soon.  My logitech G930s are falling apart.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on March 22, 2017, 08:58:38 AM
I've had my G930's for four or five years and they are still pristine. My 21 year old son has gone through 3 sets in the same time and in every case it was the micro USB connection that failed. I finally figured out that he was primarily using them while plugged in (rather than wireless) and he'd forget, stand up, and yank the plug out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 22, 2017, 09:06:25 AM
This is my second pair of them, the first my x broke by throwing them against the wall  :lol but she at least bought me these because she knew she was a dick.  Anyway, my mic had broken off so it's held together by tape.  It works, but looks and feels terrible now.  Plus the ear cups have mostly faded.  The guts still work well, but I am starting to have connections issues that drop the wireless for a second every like hour or so of use which gets annoying.  It appears logitech has some newer headphones that I may buy at some point.  However, upgrading my mobo/cpu is higher on my list for PC upgrades.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 12, 2017, 06:23:02 PM
Anyone update their PC to Windows 10 Creators Update? I updated mine yesterday. They have a ton of features  (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/04/11/whats-new-in-the-windows-10-creators-update/)added, too many to list. I tried 3D Paint and it's really fun. Win 10 always has some issue with my wifi adapter so I had to assign a static IP address and also decided to try out using google's DNS servers. So far it's been pretty good. Don't have the constant drop and connect issue like I had before.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 22, 2017, 07:27:24 AM
My PC is fried.

Well not really.  So yesterday was a very frustrating day for me and my PC.  I noticed that my sound in my headphones somehow got lower.  Like at max settings for one game I play a lot, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, just got very low audio.  And I know Logitech has protections so you can't raise the volume to ear damaging levels, but I did some research and found that you can install an older driver that would probably allow you to game at higher levels.  I wanted to test this.  I uninstalled my sound driver and that's where my hell began.  Whole computer crashed and my OS became unstable.  I could not repair it, I could not load a restore point, and I could not reinstall windows 10 even (wtf?) .  Safe mode would boot, but would give me an audio error (and not work, but in safe mode it at least didn't crash the PC) and installing the driver through safe mode would fail. 

I decided if I need to completely wipe my OS drive and restart that I would just do a new build.  I literally told myself this week I wanted to start researching for the new build since it had been on my mind for awhile.  Well, now I have my reason to do it.  I had all day yesterday so figured let's go get some parts and do a new build.  There's a micro center in NJ that my brother used for building his PC.  So the two of us went there (about a 45 minute drive one way) and I got myself some cool goodies:

Intel Core I7-7700k
Asus Z250-AR Motherboard
Crucial 16GB DD4 RAM
Samsung 250GB NVMe SSD
New blu-ray drive (my old one broke many years ago, but figured let me finally replace it)

So I get home and put it all together.... and nothing.  Won't POST.  Tried reseating the DIMMs, moving them to different slots, using only one.... double checking all my power connections, making sure I got the connectors correct for the case buttons... my brother helped me... we could not figure it out.  One thing I noticed, my motherboard was already opened and it was actually the second one the guy at the store gave me because the first box he grabbed was deformed.  I am thinking my motherboard is bad.

I was very frustrated, I ended up popping in my old mobo back in and rebuilt windows 7 onto my wiped SSD.  That worked but now it turns out my 5TB hard drive is giving me errors and looks like some of the data may have become corrupt (this was never an OS drive, just my storage drive which sucks because if this is crapping out I may have lost pictures from this year).  Anyway, looks like my PC problems will remain for the week.  Since I got a somewhat stable build atm, I think I won't get around to trying to fix things until the weekend besides doing some data back up tonight in case that 5TB drive fails.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 22, 2017, 08:03:21 AM
That sucks to hear and it does seem like a motherboard issue. I was wondering if you were having issues because we're steam friends and I saw you kept logging into battlegrounds.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: PowerSlave on May 22, 2017, 08:05:20 AM
Anyone update their PC to Windows 10 Creators Update? I updated mine yesterday. They have a ton of features  (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/04/11/whats-new-in-the-windows-10-creators-update/)added, too many to list. I tried 3D Paint and it's really fun. Win 10 always has some issue with my wifi adapter so I had to assign a static IP address and also decided to try out using google's DNS servers. So far it's been pretty good. Don't have the constant drop and connect issue like I had before.

I've been experiencing some odd behaviour from my pc since that update. My wifi signal instantly took a shit after the update. And I've had to reinstall my game controller a few times. I have a steelseries stratus xl controller and it uses bluetooth. The controller is already a bit frustrating because they have intermittent issues with the L2/R2 triggers, and since the update it will occasionally not connect to my pc at all unless I (at the minimum) remove it from the discoverable list and then sync them up again. I'm not sure if I've done something silly on my end, but nothing comes to mind.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 22, 2017, 08:10:25 AM
That sucks to hear and it does seem like a motherboard issue. I was wondering if you were having issues because we're steam friends and I saw you kept logging into battlegrounds.

Yea, once I finally got things to run, I ended up having to test things and mess with my settings to get them to what I use which meant starting and restarting the game to test.

Funny enough, on my new/old build the volume is back to what it should be and the game runs much better.   :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 25, 2017, 02:18:07 PM
Anyone update their PC to Windows 10 Creators Update? I updated mine yesterday. They have a ton of features  (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/04/11/whats-new-in-the-windows-10-creators-update/)added, too many to list. I tried 3D Paint and it's really fun. Win 10 always has some issue with my wifi adapter so I had to assign a static IP address and also decided to try out using google's DNS servers. So far it's been pretty good. Don't have the constant drop and connect issue like I had before.

I've been experiencing some odd behaviour from my pc since that update. My wifi signal instantly took a shit after the update. And I've had to reinstall my game controller a few times. I have a steelseries stratus xl controller and it uses bluetooth. The controller is already a bit frustrating because they have intermittent issues with the L2/R2 triggers, and since the update it will occasionally not connect to my pc at all unless I (at the minimum) remove it from the discoverable list and then sync them up again. I'm not sure if I've done something silly on my end, but nothing comes to mind.

From what I read the update does a clean slate of the driver installation and this was my problem too with the wifi adapter. However I think it's a combination of things that were an issue. I plugged that wifi adapter into another computer using windows server 2016 and had zero issues with it. I think the problem was stemming from the fact that I assigned static ip address on my regular desktop that had win 10 pro. Ever since I removed the static addresses and just used the option to automatically assign I've had zero issues either with my wifi or LAN connectivity between two computers. Only slight deviation was that I have to now use hostname to connect to another computer rather than an ip address since pinging the computer's ip address doesn't work.

But I'll worry about that later, for now everything works great.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 25, 2017, 02:21:24 PM
@cramx I've had a 5TB drive fail as well, I read something about the packing density of the hard drive plates make the 3 or 4 GB the best option and less likely to fail. I think the 4GB are the sweet spots for now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 25, 2017, 02:32:57 PM
@cramx I've had a 5TB drive fail as well, I read something about the packing density of the hard drive plates make the 3 or 4 GB the best option and less likely to fail. I think the 4GB are the sweet spots for now.

Thanks for the advice because I may be buying a new drive, was thinking of getting a couple drive to RAID after this failure.  I used to have that set up on 2TB drives but I outgrew that and hence my single 5TB drive.  I *should* still have my data from the 2TB set up, but I may have given those hard drives away (I had about 5 of these drives total and used some to build a PC for my friend). 

Has anyone ever tried a data recovery company for a failed hard drive?  A quick google search came up with some results but wondering if anyone has any experience (seems like they are likely able to do it).  If I don't have my info on one of my 2TB drives, I will be considering this option because I would be really bummed if I lost all my data, otherwise I would have just lost data from the last 6 months which sucks, but I can live with it.

Looking to return my DOA motherboard tomorrow and spend the evening doing a rebuild and hopefully have a nice new PC and no more headaches.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 25, 2017, 03:16:36 PM
I haven't used one myself but from what I've been told by people who've used it is that it's, to be expected, expensive.

I have a RAID setup as well on my other computer where I used 4 x 3GB drives in a RAID 5 setup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 25, 2017, 03:37:19 PM
Nice and yea, the starting price wasnt cheap for the one site I checked out.  Hence why I'm OK losing my last 6 months of data for that price, but if I lost all of it, those memories are kind of hard to find a $ value on so it may be worth it. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2017, 07:47:29 AM
So last weekend I finally got myself set up again, but there was definitely some headaches.

First, my second motherboard I got was also bad.  Well I'm pretty sure of it too.  I tested it out with my brother's components and we got it down to the only thing consistent with both failures was the motherboard.  It was the same model from the same store.  I kind of felt defeated after spending so much time with this.  I had rebuilt the OS on my old motherboard/CPU and got that stable, was upset I lost my 5TB hard drive and data.  I just told myself, fuck it, I'll upgrade at a later date because I'm extremely frustrated and I just want to get on with my life and not spend hours troubleshooting the $500 of garbage I was buying.  So the one thing I wanted to keep was my new heatsink and decided to put it on my old motherboard since I had heating issues with that CPU, apparently my old heatsink fan was not performing well.  Well after doing this, my CPU completely failed.  I think my old heatsink was just right for keeping it working and removing it exposed something. I don't know, I know there was like no thermal paste on it when I took off the heatsink and what was left was a white coat of goo along the edges which I think was actually doing just enough to keep it from failing.  I don't know, just a guess.  But I could not get that CPU to power on again.  It would heat up insanely hot the moment I put power to it.  I was defeated again.

I went back to the store to return everything.  I don't think all was bad, just the motherboard, but I wanted none of it.  I then purchased a completely different product.  The last gen cpu, Core I7-6700k, a previous gen motherboard (but a much better one) Asus Maximus Hero 8, and then some ram (EVGA was the ones on sale, 16GB at I forget the speed, but overclocked speed) and a Samsung M.2 250GB SSD.

This worked.  Well mostly.  But the motherboard worked.  I am back in business.  I do have one issue, Windows is unable to detect my M.2 SSD.  So I wasn't able to install Windows 7 on it.  I looked into it briefly and some say Windows 7 has issues with them.  I need to look further into it, because I want to be able to use it, but I might have to upgrade to Windows 10.  Either way, I am back to gaming and should be making videos soon again.  Also, I brought back to life my old 2TB hard drive which has all my backed up info from 2016 and before, so at this point I've only lost my data from this year.  That sucks, but not as bad as losing it all.  I am going to be looking into getting 2x 3TB and creating a raid1 array for my data on that.  Put this 2TB back into storage, and maybe find another hard drive for my "active data" I guess you can call it (aka video files for editting).  My raid0 array of 2x 400GB SSDs isn't big enough for my games plus my active data and I'd rather not have that data run on my slow storage drives.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Skeever on June 01, 2017, 09:43:53 AM
Is this a decent deal?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-gray/5606400.p?skuId=5606400&extStoreId=&ref=212&loc=1&ksid=52d06b0c-4c9f-445e-aa31-b99d08237852&ksprof_id=8&ksaffcode=pg200288&ksdevice=c&lsft=ref:212,loc:2

Been wanting to jump on a laptop for some light MS Office / programming / design / maybe some very light gaming.

This is also enticing due to the fact that it's lighter and seems to have slightly better specs, but I've always had issues with Lenovo, whereas Dells have always last years for me: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-yoga-720-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-256gb-solid-state-drive-platinum-silver/5722715.p?skuId=5722715
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2017, 10:48:01 AM
Can't vouch for it being a good deal or not since I don't know laptop prices these days, but it looks like solid specs (both).  One thing I noticed is the Lenovo says "PCIe SSD" and the Dell only says "SSD".  There's a difference in that the PCIe SSD is faster. 

Personally, I hate dell.  I replace Dell server hardware all day and their support sucks.  Granted, thats not consumer based products, but I would never recommend Dell to anyone, that's just me.  If you had good experiences, don't let my opinion stop you from continuing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on June 14, 2017, 08:58:08 AM
HELP!

Old PC finally died.  2007 WinXP 32-bit system.  Pretty good for its time, but that time has gone.  That's okay, we have a backup drive thing that runs every week, and does a full system backup every month.

New PC is Windows 10 64-bit.  Way cool.  I hook up the backup thing to it, and it restores a "bunch" of files, then freezes when it goes to grab the next batch.  Never moves.  Some Google searching reveals that this is a known issue with no known solution.  The software on the backup drive thing self-installs on the new PC, should be automatic and painless, but it won't run right on a 64-bit system.  SOL, buddy.  Toshiba Convo, if it matters.

So I get one of those external docks that you plug into a USB port and can mount up to two hard drives.  I pull the drives out of the old PC and stick them in.  Fire up the docking station, the system is supposed to recognize it and install everything automatically.  Should be painless, but it won't run under Windows 10.  Go to the manufacturers website, no Win10 driver.  Some Google searching reveals that this is a known issue with no known solution.  Thermaltake BlacX Duet, if it matters.

Fuck my life.  All my mp3s, pictures, documents, and of course pron, sitting there on drives and backed up externally, and I can't get to any of it.


Suggestions?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 14, 2017, 09:08:38 AM
I'd either get an external enclosure that supports Windows 10, or if you have another machine the dock works on, copy the files over the network. That is a shit slow solution though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 14, 2017, 09:45:08 AM
HELP!

Old PC finally died.  2007 WinXP 32-bit system.  Pretty good for its time, but that time has gone.  That's okay, we have a backup drive thing that runs every week, and does a full system backup every month.

New PC is Windows 10 64-bit.  Way cool.  I hook up the backup thing to it, and it restores a "bunch" of files, then freezes when it goes to grab the next batch.  Never moves.  Some Google searching reveals that this is a known issue with no known solution.  The software on the backup drive thing self-installs on the new PC, should be automatic and painless, but it won't run right on a 64-bit system.  SOL, buddy.  Toshiba Convo, if it matters.

So I get one of those external docks that you plug into a USB port and can mount up to two hard drives.  I pull the drives out of the old PC and stick them in.  Fire up the docking station, the system is supposed to recognize it and install everything automatically.  Should be painless, but it won't run under Windows 10.  Go to the manufacturers website, no Win10 driver.  Some Google searching reveals that this is a known issue with no known solution.  Thermaltake BlacX Duet, if it matters.

Fuck my life.  All my mp3s, pictures, documents, and of course pron, sitting there on drives and backed up externally, and I can't get to any of it.


Suggestions?

When you plug in the backup drive to the dock, does the drive show up on 'This PC' on your new machine? can't you just manually copy the files for now rather than use a program to do it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 14, 2017, 11:13:44 AM
I got paid this week, so I'm finally going to upgrade my graphics card to a 1060, and also grab some new case fans because I'm concerned about cooling. I'm currently down to one front fan and one rear fan, because the cheap-ass fans I usually buy only last a year or two before they start rattling and I unplug them.
So I'm going to load up every available slot on my case, and have 4 x 120mm fans and the 140mm fan for the top. I've never used the case side fan spot before, but I hope having an extra fan blowing in there right over the GPU might help. I've read some different opinions about whether to use a side fan and what direction they should face, but I'll probably do some testing on it.
And then I just hope my PSU can handle the new card, because I'm not too keen to spend another couple of hundred on top of the $400 for the card. It *should* be fine. I think.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on June 14, 2017, 11:18:05 AM

When you plug in the backup drive to the dock, does the drive show up on 'This PC' on your new machine? can't you just manually copy the files for now rather than use a program to do it?

The backup drive is an external standalone device.  Hard drive and software in one.  The idea is that you hook it up and forget about it, and it will run its backups dutifully on schedule.  Then if/when you need to restore everything to a new machine (or the old one), you just hook it up, the software loads, and off you go.  Everything works fine, except that the software on the device won't run in a 64-bit environment.

The docking station is for mounting the physical drives, removed from the old PC.  It too has issues because apparently there's no Win10 driver, and Win10 doesn't even recognize it.

I'd either get an external enclosure that supports Windows 10, or if you have another machine the dock works on, copy the files over the network. That is a shit slow solution though.

I can get another enclosure, but this was the one and only one at the Best Buy I went to, it was USB 3.0, so I figured it had to be fairly recent and thus supported until Win10.  Stupid of me to assume, I know, but since it was the only one, I just went with it.  I'll be returning it soon.


In the meantime, a friend has suggested something that I didn't even think of because I was too busy panicking when the less-invasive procedures failed.  I can just take the drives from the old machine and stick them into the empty bays in the new machine.  I wasn't sure if that would work because the new OS is 64-bit and the old drives are formatted 32-bit, but he says that that shouldn't matter.  Also, I didn't want to open up a brand-new machine and perform surgery on it if it wasn't going to work anyway, but he says it should.  So that's probably my next step.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 14, 2017, 11:26:37 AM
In the meantime, a friend has suggested something that I didn't even think of because I was too busy panicking when the less-invasive procedures failed.  I can just take the drives from the old machine and stick them into the empty bays in the new machine.  I wasn't sure if that would work because the new OS is 64-bit and the old drives are formatted 32-bit, but he says that that shouldn't matter.  Also, I didn't want to open up a brand-new machine and perform surgery on it if it wasn't going to work anyway, but he says it should.  So that's probably my next step.

32bit vs 64bit OS doesn't make a difference for the way your data is stored, only for the compatibility of the OS and programs. You'd have no problem copying across your data that way, because the underlying file system is compatible.
I always just grab a generic enclosure and HDD separately, because I don't like automatic backup solutions for this reason.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 14, 2017, 12:29:32 PM
What Blob said.

The 32 vs 64 bit version doesn't come into play as Windows 10 will recognize the old drive in whatever format the drive is in. If you're comfortable with it I'd do the same as your friend suggested, just plug the old drive in the new machine.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 14, 2017, 09:36:35 PM
I got paid this week, so I'm finally going to upgrade my graphics card to a 1060, and also grab some new case fans because I'm concerned about cooling. I'm currently down to one front fan and one rear fan, because the cheap-ass fans I usually buy only last a year or two before they start rattling and I unplug them.
So I'm going to load up every available slot on my case, and have 4 x 120mm fans and the 140mm fan for the top. I've never used the case side fan spot before, but I hope having an extra fan blowing in there right over the GPU might help. I've read some different opinions about whether to use a side fan and what direction they should face, but I'll probably do some testing on it.
And then I just hope my PSU can handle the new card, because I'm not too keen to spend another couple of hundred on top of the $400 for the card. It *should* be fine. I think.

What GPU are you upgrading from? I have an AMD Radeon HD 6870 that is still more than adequate some 6 years since bought it. Will only become a problem once I finally want to upgrade to 4k.

I'll have to take a look at my fan setup, the case came with six fans already installed and running. I've never noticed if it makes a difference or not as most of the time I really don't do anything intense. I will also need to clean out all the dust that's been accumulating all these years inside.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 14, 2017, 10:52:22 PM
I got paid this week, so I'm finally going to upgrade my graphics card to a 1060, and also grab some new case fans because I'm concerned about cooling. I'm currently down to one front fan and one rear fan, because the cheap-ass fans I usually buy only last a year or two before they start rattling and I unplug them.
So I'm going to load up every available slot on my case, and have 4 x 120mm fans and the 140mm fan for the top. I've never used the case side fan spot before, but I hope having an extra fan blowing in there right over the GPU might help. I've read some different opinions about whether to use a side fan and what direction they should face, but I'll probably do some testing on it.
And then I just hope my PSU can handle the new card, because I'm not too keen to spend another couple of hundred on top of the $400 for the card. It *should* be fine. I think.

What GPU are you upgrading from? I have an AMD Radeon HD 6870 that is still more than adequate some 6 years since bought it. Will only become a problem once I finally want to upgrade to 4k.

My current card is a Quadro 600. I intentionally chose it to avoid a gamer card, so it wasn't even great performance when I got it 5 years ago.
Here's a comparison between my current card, and the 1060. It's literally 20x better. :lol

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-600-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/m8084vs3639
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 22, 2017, 05:27:50 AM
My GTX 1060 arrived today, so I spent the day installing the new card, the new fans, and also giving my computer a good dusting, because it was getting ridiculous after 5 years or so of not giving a crap. :lol

I haven't actually tested out anything 3D yet, but it appears it's all working. I also tweaked the fan curve a bit so it spins up faster when the temp gets higher. Also, 4 case fans are a little noisy, and I haven't even installed the 5th yet. I'm not sure whether it's one in particular being noisy, or the cumulative effect.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: TioJorge on June 22, 2017, 09:26:39 PM
It's always so nice to have a clean PC with a boost in power.

I'm meticulous about mine...After a few days of not dusting I begin to get really crack-head-ish about it. *Twitch twitch* gottadustthatshit *twitch twitch*
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 22, 2017, 10:18:17 PM
So how do you guys clean inside the PC, do you use a compressed air cleaner? One of these weekends I'll get on it, I've been meaning to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU as well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 23, 2017, 01:28:06 AM
So how do you guys clean inside the PC, do you use a compressed air cleaner? One of these weekends I'll get on it, I've been meaning to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU as well.

I wish I had some compressed air, although I have no idea if it's good/bad to use that inside a computer. I just have a paintbrush I use to get it all out (apparently synthetic bristles are bad because static or something, so it has to be real). Took me hours to clean it all out, and today my back is killing me from hunching over the computer case all day.

The new graphics card is working out great. I don't have any really intensive games on my PC, since it all had to run on my old card, so I just tried out Rocket League on max settings, and it didn't drop below 60fps (I have V-sync on, so I have no idea how much faster it would manage), and it didn't even break a sweat. The GPU got up to 45C max.
And by lucky coincidence, I got my new card the day the Steam summer sale starts, so that seems like a good opportunity to see what this thing can do.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 23, 2017, 05:13:01 AM
I have an air compressor in my garage so I just take my PC out there. I usually do it once a year, maybe less.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on June 23, 2017, 05:26:55 AM
I know this is going to sound like my typical bullshit, but I swear it's 100% true. I carry the box outside, take the covers off and clean the dust out of my computers with a leaf blower. It takes 45 seconds. It's fantastic.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 23, 2017, 06:37:42 AM
I saw a youtube video of a guy doing the same thing, the leaf blower cleared all the dust in a matter of seconds. I would do the same except I don't have a leaf blower.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: TioJorge on June 23, 2017, 07:03:54 AM
That legitimately gives me a smidgen of anxiety.  :lol To each their own though!

Compressed air is totally safe, Blobby. At least the kind that I've been using, the classic "Dust Off Electronics Duster". Been around forever.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 23, 2017, 07:05:41 AM
That legitimately gives me a smidgen of anxiety.  :lol To each their own though!

Compressed air is totally safe, Blobby. At least the kind that I've been using, the classic "Dust Off Electronics Duster". Been around forever.


Oh good, because I planned to huff it when I was done with cleaning the PC.


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on June 23, 2017, 07:08:39 AM
That legitimately gives me a smidgen of anxiety.  :lol To each their own though!

Compressed air is totally safe, Blobby. At least the kind that I've been using, the classic "Dust Off Electronics Duster". Been around forever.

As long as you don't put the nozzle too close it's completely safe, TJ. Totally dry air, inexpensive, and guaranteed to get all your fans really clean!  :biggrin: I've been using this technique for decades and have never had a problem.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 23, 2017, 07:13:59 AM
Yeah, I wouldn't let garden equipment anywhere near my sensitive electronics, but that's just me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 23, 2017, 07:20:59 AM
This is the video I watched with the leaf blower
https://youtu.be/F2C_MhGJQGk?t=1m39s

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on June 23, 2017, 07:25:13 AM
I just use the can duster made for cleaning electronics, it does the job good enough.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 23, 2017, 07:36:17 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/aen4aHL.gif)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on June 23, 2017, 07:54:16 AM
Holy shit!  If you're literally seeing clouds of dust pouring out of your PC like that, you don't clean it often enough.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 23, 2017, 07:59:27 AM
 :lol

I have a cat so cat hair can be an issue, I use compressed air.  I don't clean the inside of my case very often. I do need to scrub the hair off the front of the fan intake though like every other week.  That I can just peel off with my fingers though.

The new graphics card is working out great. I don't have any really intensive games on my PC, since it all had to run on my old card, so I just tried out Rocket League on max settings, and it didn't drop below 60fps (I have V-sync on, so I have no idea how much faster it would manage), and it didn't even break a sweat. The GPU got up to 45C max.
And by lucky coincidence, I got my new card the day the Steam summer sale starts, so that seems like a good opportunity to see what this thing can do.

I'm sure you could hit 100fps in rocket league
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: BlobVanDam on June 23, 2017, 08:04:58 AM
The new graphics card is working out great. I don't have any really intensive games on my PC, since it all had to run on my old card, so I just tried out Rocket League on max settings, and it didn't drop below 60fps (I have V-sync on, so I have no idea how much faster it would manage), and it didn't even break a sweat. The GPU got up to 45C max.
And by lucky coincidence, I got my new card the day the Steam summer sale starts, so that seems like a good opportunity to see what this thing can do.

I'm sure you could hit 100fps in rocket league

Probably. As I said, it wasn't even trying with that game, but it's the best I had on hand. I'm not much of a gamer, so I doubt I'll be pushing it too hard with what I play.
I'm kinda itching to get the Vive now though, although it's $1400 in this country, and I don't know if I want to spend that much right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 23, 2017, 09:13:13 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/aen4aHL.gif)

Watching that is oddly satisfying
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 23, 2017, 09:17:50 AM
I keep that gif saved for when someone asks me (usually jokingly) to get the dust off a server.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: PowerSlave on June 24, 2017, 07:41:17 PM
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/23/windows_10_leak?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 25, 2017, 07:20:16 AM
Wow that is a big ass leak.

I wasn't aware of the Windows 2000 leak either.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 26, 2017, 04:51:44 AM
It's not a leak of the source code like The Register claims from what I read. This is the statement from Betaarchive, the site which held the data presumed to be source code.
Quote
The Register article [/size]https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/2 ... s_10_leak/ (https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/23/windows_10_leak/)[/color][/size] has got BetaArchive a fair amount of attention this evening. They claim, and I quote “32TB of Windows 10 internal builds, core source code leak online”.[/size]First of all let us clear up a few facts. The “Shared Source Kit” folder did exist on the FTP until this article came to light. We have removed it from our FTP and listings pending further review just in case we missed something in our initial release. We currently have no plans to restore it until a full review of its contents is carried out and it is deemed acceptable under our rules.The folder itself was 1.2GB in size, contained 12 releases each being 100MB. This is far from the claimed “32TB” as stated in The Register’s article, and cannot possibly cover “core source code” as it would be simply too small, not to mention it is against our rules to store such data.At this time all we can deduct is that The Register refers to the large Windows 10 release we had on March 24th which included a lot of Windows releases provided to us, sourced from various forum members, Windows Insider members, and Microsoft Connect members. All of these we deemed safe for release to BetaArchive as they are all beta releases and defunct builds superseded by newer ones, and they were covered under our rules.If any of this should change we will remove these builds from the FTP and we will happily comply with any instructions to do so by Microsoft.With regards to the BBC article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40366823 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40366823) about two Britons that have been arrested following an alleged Microsoft hack, we don’t believe there is any connection with this alleged “Windows 10 core source code leak”.Update 09:58 GMT 24/06/2017A spokesperson for Microsoft contacted The Register and said: "Our review confirms that these files are actually a portion of the source code from the Shared Source Initiative and is used by OEMs and partners."

And a comment from the mod on reddit
Quote

Hi, everyone. I'm Ranma_chan, and I'm a moderator on BetaArchive.com-- We're trying to clear up some facts being mistaken and falsehoods being spread, and so I'd like to clarify that the leak was not 32TB in size, but was instead a 1.2GB archive of driver source files from Windows 10 that were accessible to OEMs and developers.

Please read this statement from our administrator, and not listen to the sensationalist rhetoric forwarded by the mainstream media.
https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37283 (https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37283)


We at BetaArchive strive to limit ourselves to the pursuit of preservation of hard to access oddware-- that is, software which is old, forgotten and obsolete (to paraphrase Lazy Game Reviews here); and we take every effort we can to sanitize any releases before release. There was no security threat from this release.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 07, 2017, 07:17:19 PM
I know there are probably not a lot of edm fans here but I did find deadmau5 house tour pretty amazing.

https://youtu.be/dBiqFNNfudA

The lighting rig is pretty impressive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: PowerSlave on July 29, 2017, 01:03:12 AM
I have a technical question about partitions and running two different operating systems. Please forgive my ignorance, but this is something that I've never done before...

I have a newer desktop that I bought in the spring. It came pre-loaded with windows 10, but I'd like to make a partition and install windows 7 on the new section. From what I've read it looks like making a partition windows 10 is really easy, so I'm not really worried about that part. And I do have a fresh copy of 7. However, I was reading an article that was saying that I would need an external optical drive to install windows7 on the partition. I was wondering if there was any way that I could simply use the drive that I already have installed in my tower? I'd rather not have the added expense of purchasing an additional drive that I would only be using once.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 29, 2017, 07:02:17 AM
I've haven't done a duel boot with Windows 10 but you shouldn't need an optical drive to install Win 7. Make a win7 thumbdrive and install win 7 on the partition. You may have to edit the bootcfg file so you get prompted on boot which OS you want to boot into.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 24, 2018, 08:50:29 AM
Just bought a new monitor for my PC, my old one still works but since I have a GPU with a DisplayPort and my old monitor only uses DVI port I thought I might aswell take advantage of it. So I bought a 24" 144Hz G-sync monitor and it's pretty much an entire new gaming experience, everything feels so smooth even though I haven't changed any hardware.

Since I had my old monitor left I decided to run Dual monitors also which worked great and I must say it's alot more convenient than I thought.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 24, 2018, 08:55:10 AM
Nice! Yea dual monitors is the way to go if you can.  I've been thinking of stealing my work monitor that I don't use, a really nice Dell 28 inch 2k monitor.  Beats my Acer 24 inch 1080p.  My second monitor is a samsung 22in 1080p I stole from my old job  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 24, 2018, 09:26:39 AM
Nice when you can "borrow" stuff from work.  :lol

I was actually thinking of a 27" but from what I gathered it's native resolution is 2560x1440 so anything under might look streched or downscaled. Those monitors I looked at was also a bit too pricey for me so I thought a more pimped out 24" 1080p monitor was the best of both worlds.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: TioJorge on February 24, 2018, 10:17:28 AM
Dual monitors are the sweet spot for me. I tried a triple set up for about a month before I realized that unless you're coding, doing a shitload of multitasking at all times (content creation while watching streams, or streaming, coding, etc.) it's just not going to be utilized. I also tried the single ultrawide monitor for...about two weeks. It was awesome for gaming, but not nearly awesome enough to take away the real estate you get from an entire other screen. It's a lot more annoying to constantly resize windows and such to make it "like you have two monitors" instead of just dragging and dropping when you actually do.

I just now moved into 1440p at 144hz and it's incredible. But my secondary monitor is still 1080 at 144hz and it's not too much of a difference for gaming. Basically anything at 144hz if you can keep up with the speed with your components is just the friggin' best.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 20, 2018, 01:28:58 PM
So Nvidia finally annouced their new consumer GPUs, RTX 2070, 2080 and 2080 Ti. They seem to be really hyping up these cards as a big step forward especially with real-time ray tracing, can't wait for the benchmarks to pop up. The price though!  :eek

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/20-series/?nvid=nv-int-gcxxpn-56591
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2018, 03:29:39 PM
Definitely seems like a nice upgrade, but with a 1080, I dont plam on biting for another cycle or two.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 20, 2018, 07:52:00 PM
The prices on those are crazy though I think very much inline with expectations. I'm very curious if they are truly above and beyond anything we've seen. I'm still on very old tech as I barely game, still on a 2011 AMD Radeon 6780. This thing still serves me quite well. The only time I'm upgrading is when I get a whole new PC with a set of 4k monitors. Though I don't see that happening for at least another 5 years. Crazy to think I built this rig in 2011 and shows no signs of slowing down.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 20, 2018, 08:18:42 PM
I know I shouldn't but I really want that 2080ti, think of the FPS I'll get on RollerCoaster Tycoon :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 20, 2018, 11:25:24 PM
I'm thinking about selling my PC. It's a few years old but isn't used much, I'm just not sure if I should part it out or try to sell it as one unit. Shipping would be a hell of a lot because it's a huge and heavy case, too. I plan on building another in the future but for now I feel like I should part with it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 21, 2018, 01:56:10 AM
I'm thinking about selling my PC. It's a few years old but isn't used much, I'm just not sure if I should part it out or try to sell it as one unit. Shipping would be a hell of a lot because it's a huge and heavy case, too. I plan on building another in the future but for now I feel like I should part with it.

If you still like the case, sell the parts and hold the case for your next build.  If its a used custom PC, I'm not sure what value youd really get, my gut says the parts would be easier to sell than the whole.  Maybe I am wrong though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on August 21, 2018, 05:51:18 AM
Anyone use Firefox Portable (or any other portable app) on a USB drive?  I use it for a while but then it became way too slow to be useful.  I realize its a lot of data transfer to and from the flash drive, but if that is the case, how are portable apps supposed to be useful?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 21, 2018, 07:02:02 AM
I'm thinking about selling my PC. It's a few years old but isn't used much, I'm just not sure if I should part it out or try to sell it as one unit. Shipping would be a hell of a lot because it's a huge and heavy case, too. I plan on building another in the future but for now I feel like I should part with it.

If you still like the case, sell the parts and hold the case for your next build.  If its a used custom PC, I'm not sure what value youd really get, my gut says the parts would be easier to sell than the whole.  Maybe I am wrong though.

I had a guy offer me 500 for it which I think is fair given it's a few years old but the case brand new costs almost 600  :lol The guts would definitely be easier to part with... I almost sold it to the guy but backed out because that same day Monster Hunter World's release date was announced but it looks like I won't have time for it anyway (and now I've lost all contact with him, sadly).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grappler on August 21, 2018, 08:29:32 AM
Has anyone ever reverted their PC from Windows 10 back to Windows 7? 

Mine went through the forced Windows 10 upgrade a few years ago and over the last six months to a year, I have one windows update that refuses to complete and gets stuck at 81%.  I have to hard reboot the computer and it goes back to the prior version of 10 - the windows FAQ says that it is due to an old wireless/Wi-Fi card.  I have problems with the wireless card's drivers as well, so the PC constantly loses internet connection - I suspect this is because it can't complete the upgrade.

A computer repair shop recommended and offered to revert back to Windows 7 for $150, including the backing up of all of my files.  I can do that manually via an external hard drive.  The update settings have a selection to go back to the prior version of Windows and I'm very tempted to give it a try.  They said that Windows 10 is just too buggy and causes nothing but problems, which I'd agree with.

Before I get involved in this, I just thought I'd ask and see if anyone has done this, and if it caused any difficulties or problems. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 21, 2018, 08:39:28 AM
I've never done a roll back like that.  I did revert for a bit to Windows 7 when I rebuilt my PC last year, but I must say, I like 10 a lot more.  I don't really have issues with it (I didn't with 7 either) so I eventually upgraded my newer PC to Windows 10 like 6 months ago and haven't looked back.  (I actually needed Windows 10 to play a game, so it finally forced my hand even though I did want to upgrade, I had just been lazy)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 21, 2018, 01:33:44 PM
The Win 7 vs 10 thing is pretty polarizing. In the end they both have their pros and cons. I have a friend that swears by 7, yet it gave me nothing but fits anytime I tried to install it. Win 10 pretty much installs and configures itself. I've now set up a win 7 part in my box at home and I'm using them both, so I'm better able to compare them. I will say that it's nice to use 7 and feel like you still own the fucking machine. Win 10 is a never-ending series of nag screens, forced updates, and outright denials. When a computer I built years ago tells me I don't have permission to access a god damned file it really fills me with rage. Win 7 has some interface things that really bug me, and I still haven't been able to get explorer to work consistently across various folders. Otherwise it seems alright to use.

As for graphics, that realtime ray tracing really does look spectacular. I suspect it'll be far easier for developers to work with, as well. That might be the first advancement in graphics that is really noticeable to me. Most of the time it's just more dots coming faster (like that Battlefield demo). The ray tracing actually made it look good. However, I have no need of it. I tend to stay 3-5 years behind graphics.

A couple of months ago my r9 270 crapped out. I shopped around and got a great deal on a 290x, which is still a beast of a card for most purposes. For the last 21 years I've been married to ATI(AMD). Mostly because I use two cards to run 3 monitors, and every time I upgrade cards I shift the replaced one down to secondary. For the last 21 years I've been cursing ATI for their shitty drivers. All the way back to my first All-In-Wonder they've been fucking nightmares. Trying to get two cards from the same family to play nice together really shouldn't be a problem. At this point it's pretty much impossible with ATI. A week after installing that 290x an failing to get it all to work as it should I finally decided to rid myself of ATI forever. Went out and bought a 1060, slapped it in, and haven't thought about it since. It's fucking glorious. It even runs 3 monitors without any problems. It's like coming out of a freaking cave and seeing the rest of the world. Fuck ATI.



edit: Oh, and that was going to be my advice to Grappler. Install Win7 on a separate partition and migrate over at your leisure. Windows actually works pretty well in dual-boots. If you want to keep all of your same program installs and everything you're probably SOL.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 21, 2018, 01:44:06 PM
A couple of months ago my r9 270 crapped out. I shopped around and got a great deal on a 290x, which is still a beast of a card for most purposes. For the last 21 years I've been married to ATI(AMD). Mostly because I use two cards to run 3 monitors, and every time I upgrade cards I shift the replaced one down to secondary. For the last 21 years I've been cursing ATI for their shitty drivers. All the way back to my first All-In-Wonder they've been fucking nightmares. Trying to get two cards from the same family to play nice together really shouldn't be a problem. At this point it's pretty much impossible with ATI. A week after installing that 290x an failing to get it all to work as it should I finally decided to rid myself of ATI forever. Went out and bought a 1060, slapped it in, and haven't thought about it since. It's fucking glorious. It even runs 3 monitors without any problems. It's like coming out of a freaking cave and seeing the rest of the world. Fuck ATI.

Ya, I had an ATI card in the late 90's at it drove me bananas. I think it was around 2000 that I said fuck it and bought my first nVidia. It was so great that I bought about 40 shares of it's initial public offering. It split pretty soon after that and a couple of years later I sold it. God, I wish I had those shares back now!  :lol

Anyway, I've stuck with their cards ever since. I love how quite and cool the latest generation runs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 21, 2018, 01:47:26 PM
I was reading the part about EB using two cards to run three monitors and thinking to myself "damn, I could have done that with one nvidia card from my last build"  Glad to see you guys came over to the nvidia side, they are clearly winning this battle right now. 

I'd say the ray tracing stuff looks really cool, but it's too new of a technology to buy into the first round of it at this price point.  (besides, I mentioned I own a 1080, no need to upgrade anyway)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 21, 2018, 01:58:19 PM
Ray Tracing new? You must be talking about something I'm not aware of... we used to ray trace 3d models with 386's. Of course, it wasn't in real time. I remember rendering 480 pictures that took over night to compute.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on August 21, 2018, 02:07:06 PM
Ray Tracing new? You must be talking about something I'm not aware of... we used to ray trace 3d models with 386's. Of course, it wasn't in real time. I remember rendering 480 pictures that took over night to compute.
I'm not qualified to talk about this kind of tech but from what I gather and as you say, it's all about Real-time Ray Tracing like using it in a multiplayer setting and also how powerful they say it is.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on August 21, 2018, 02:11:27 PM
I did a little searching, and it does appear that the promise of ray tracing in real time is coming very soon with Nvidia 2080 RTX and engine developers like Unreal. It's crazy to think that I'll see this technology in my life time. 20 years ago, I never thought I would.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 21, 2018, 02:20:32 PM
I did a little searching, and it does appear that the promise of ray tracing in real time is coming very soon with Nvidia 2080 RTX and engine developers like Unreal. It's crazy to think that I'll see this technology in my life time. 20 years ago, I never thought I would.
This is one of the demos from Nvidia's website. It definitely looks like a gamechanger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yn09UHWYFY&feature=youtu.be
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Indiscipline on August 21, 2018, 02:52:49 PM
I did a little searching, and it does appear that the promise of ray tracing in real time is coming very soon with Nvidia 2080 RTX and engine developers like Unreal. It's crazy to think that I'll see this technology in my life time. 20 years ago, I never thought I would.
This is one of the demos from Nvidia's website. It definitely looks like a gamechanger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yn09UHWYFY&feature=youtu.be

Damn. I need Skyrim "filmed" that way and then I can retire and die in peace.

Seriously - and slightly off-topic - I remember my teen self playing Zack McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders and thinking it the most immersive virtual experience ever. Have I (we) really lived through the greatest and fastest technological leap in human history?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Anguyen92 on April 11, 2019, 09:40:17 AM
Hey guys, bumping this thread, because I have a bit of an issue.  So Windows decides to do an update on my computer a few days ago (running Windows 10 here) and since then, I have been having issues where my cursor is not interacting with anything.  Then it looks like my desktop is non-responsive to anything I attempted to do.  When I attempted to restart, the login time is way longer than expected.  Plus, I think this update had affected my internet connection as I needed to unplug and replug my cable to get things going again.  I managed to get a systems restore to before this update and it looks fine, but I'm concern that Windows want to push for this upgrade and try to install it and then the headaches happen again (and it already did that once).  Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions I can do?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grappler on April 11, 2019, 09:45:53 AM
Hey guys, bumping this thread, because I have a bit of an issue.  So Windows decides to do an update on my computer (running Windows 10 here) and since then, I have been having issues where my cursor is not interacting with anything.  Then it looks like my desktop is non-responsive to anything I attempted to do.  When I attempted to restart, the login time is way longer than expected.  Plus, I think this update had affected my internet connection as I needed to unplug and replug my cable to get things going again.  I managed to get a systems restore to before this update and it looks fine, but I'm concern that Windows want to push for this upgrade and try to install it and then the headaches happen again (and it already that once).  Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions I can do?

I had a Windows 7 computer (purchased in 2010) that forced the Windows 10 upgrade.  After the initial upgrade, my wi-fi started working intermittently, constantly dropping the signal.  A google search shows that Windows 10 requires a current/newer wireless card, and it appears to be a common problem among computers that were forced to upgrade.

I'm to the point where I'm just going to have someone put a new wireless card into my computer.  It works fine for what I need, and I'm not going to buy a whole new computer.  I just need to be able to keep a constant connection.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on April 11, 2019, 09:49:02 AM
Hey guys, bumping this thread, because I have a bit of an issue.  So Windows decides to do an update on my computer (running Windows 10 here) and since then, I have been having issues where my cursor is not interacting with anything.  Then it looks like my desktop is non-responsive to anything I attempted to do.  When I attempted to restart, the login time is way longer than expected.  Plus, I think this update had affected my internet connection as I needed to unplug and replug my cable to get things going again.  I managed to get a systems restore to before this update and it looks fine, but I'm concern that Windows want to push for this upgrade and try to install it and then the headaches happen again (and it already that once).  Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions I can do?

I had a Windows 7 computer (purchased in 2010) that forced the Windows 10 upgrade.  After the initial upgrade, my wi-fi started working intermittently, constantly dropping the signal.  A google search shows that Windows 10 requires a current/newer wireless card, and it appears to be a common problem among computers that were forced to upgrade.

I'm to the point where I'm just going to have someone put a new wireless card into my computer.  It works fine for what I need, and I'm not going to buy a whole new computer.  I just need to be able to keep a constant connection.

Maybe give one of these a try first?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LFC7VDC/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07LFC7VDC&pd_rd_w=YQAmN&pf_rd_p=80559f3c-f83b-49c1-8a72-40f936e9df7a&pd_rd_wg=ZQkV7&pf_rd_r=K31CDMRH3J9YJNW86N6H&pd_rd_r=2fa2d113-5c71-11e9-b4f1-c96257ec4ded&smid=A3KHUM65I50XQR

If it works, it'd save you a bunch of money
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grappler on April 11, 2019, 10:03:42 AM
Wow - that's fantastic.  I had no idea those existed.  I'm going to look into those and may give it a try first!

Thanks!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Anguyen92 on April 11, 2019, 10:30:35 AM
Ok, I think I might have find the source of my problems.  For some reason, when installing this recent update back on Tuesday, the issues I'm having seems to only affect computers, that is using Windows, that has the Avast Anti-virus program which I think I have installed but cannot confirm for the time being since I am at work.  So for now, I will have to do a systems restore to before the update was installed and prevent Windows from doing any updates until this issue has been resolved.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 11, 2019, 10:42:04 AM
Hey guys, bumping this thread, because I have a bit of an issue.  So Windows decides to do an update on my computer (running Windows 10 here) and since then, I have been having issues where my cursor is not interacting with anything.  Then it looks like my desktop is non-responsive to anything I attempted to do.  When I attempted to restart, the login time is way longer than expected.  Plus, I think this update had affected my internet connection as I needed to unplug and replug my cable to get things going again.  I managed to get a systems restore to before this update and it looks fine, but I'm concern that Windows want to push for this upgrade and try to install it and then the headaches happen again (and it already that once).  Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions I can do?

I had a Windows 7 computer (purchased in 2010) that forced the Windows 10 upgrade.  After the initial upgrade, my wi-fi started working intermittently, constantly dropping the signal.  A google search shows that Windows 10 requires a current/newer wireless card, and it appears to be a common problem among computers that were forced to upgrade.

I'm to the point where I'm just going to have someone put a new wireless card into my computer.  It works fine for what I need, and I'm not going to buy a whole new computer.  I just need to be able to keep a constant connection.

Maybe give one of these a try first?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LFC7VDC/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07LFC7VDC&pd_rd_w=YQAmN&pf_rd_p=80559f3c-f83b-49c1-8a72-40f936e9df7a&pd_rd_wg=ZQkV7&pf_rd_r=K31CDMRH3J9YJNW86N6H&pd_rd_r=2fa2d113-5c71-11e9-b4f1-c96257ec4ded&smid=A3KHUM65I50XQR

If it works, it'd save you a bunch of money
I use an even cheaper one out in the shop to stream YT and it works like a champ.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 11, 2019, 10:50:38 AM
My process for setting up a new computer (or reinstalling windows):

Install OS.
Let it update itself and all of the drivers.
Disable windows update and all driver auto-updates.
Only install updates manually and only when it becomes necessary for specific circumstances.
Wait six months.
Curse all the gods I can think of when some update managed to happen despite my intention and bricks my computer.

And sadly they're making it harder and harder to prevent updates. We're to the point of registry hacks and lots of scavenging different processes and scheduled events. Not to mention installed software. Firefox has buried "disable autoupdate" in the registry, and their updates are a god damned disaster. For something that's supposed to be "for the people" they're pretty rigid about what your browser must look like.

And for the morbidly curious, look into the windows 10 task scheduler some time. There are a hundred things it does on a regular basis, and to disable them selectively would take hours.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on April 11, 2019, 10:55:14 AM
I used to be against updates. Then when I built my last rig with Win 10 I just went through and let every update happen. I haven't had a single problem. All my other problems usually came down to me not installing updates for years on end. I dunno... my PC life is much easier ever since I just kept regularly updating my rig. But I only use it to game or put on music anyway, it's kind of sacred in that regard, so I probably miss all the goings-on with the negative effects...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 11, 2019, 11:27:49 AM
Yea, I kind of stopped caring about updates in general.  Just let them go, I haven't had much troubles at all with Windows 10.  I used to be picky but it's a lot of effort and since I don't experience enough issues to justify the effort, I just let it fly now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 11, 2019, 01:09:45 PM
MS isn't doesn't have a great track record with their updates. Anytime I have to troubleshoot some peculiarity it seems the number one answer that Google turns up is "uninstall update KV37782546 and it should resolve your issue." I know the first final straw for me was when I woke up on a lazy Saturday morning looking to drink coffee and play Skryim only to find that my GPU drivers had been nuked. ATI drivers. Two packages for three monitors. Aside from wrecking my Saturday morning it took months to get everything configured the way I wanted it again. There have been subsequent final straws.

Honestly, brickings are pretty uncommon. The problem for me is that my computer is a cornerstone, and I want it to always work and look the way I want it to which requires a tremendous amount of tweaking and configuring. Even a trivial "upgrade" from MS's point of view might undo a lot of stuff I did earlier, and there's a good chance I don't even remember how to get it back.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Anguyen92 on April 11, 2019, 08:40:56 PM
Ok, an update. I couldn't get the system restore going for some reason, but the good news is that I was able to uninstall that update and disable windows update, and I think it's running smoothly so I'm good for now until I get a better grasp of what I need to do in the long run.  Thanks for the perspectives, guys.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Herrick on April 14, 2019, 08:51:28 PM
Anyone have any audio/video sync issues on Windows 10? I've been having this problem for months whether it's a DVD, a video on my hard drive, a video game, or a online video. I even installed Ubuntu to see if there would be a difference but nope. This makes me think it's not worth trying to reinstall Windows 10.

I've done a bunch of searches online and nothing has helped me out so far. Some people have even reinstalled Windows but the problem is still there. I've messed around with trying to update audio drivers but no luck. I bought a USB sound card and the audio was still out of sync. Updated BIOS & video card...no luck!

I use VLC media player and I can mess around with audio on that which helps alleviate the problem some what but it's never quite right...and that doesn't help out with online stuff or games  :censored
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 14, 2019, 10:29:46 PM
If it does it in Ubuntu it's not a Windows problem. If it does it in games, Youtube, and VLC it's not a software problem. If it does it with a USB audio device then it's not a hardware problem. That leaves speakers and VGA. If you're just using typical desktop speakers then that's out. Perhaps check into the graphics and see if that's what's actually out of sync instead of the audio.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Herrick on April 14, 2019, 11:20:01 PM
If it does it in Ubuntu it's not a Windows problem. If it does it in games, Youtube, and VLC it's not a software problem. If it does it with a USB audio device then it's not a hardware problem. That leaves speakers and VGA. If you're just using typical desktop speakers then that's out. Perhaps check into the graphics and see if that's what's actually out of sync instead of the audio.

How do I do that?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 15, 2019, 08:09:24 AM
If it does it in Ubuntu it's not a Windows problem. If it does it in games, Youtube, and VLC it's not a software problem. If it does it with a USB audio device then it's not a hardware problem. That leaves speakers and VGA. If you're just using typical desktop speakers then that's out. Perhaps check into the graphics and see if that's what's actually out of sync instead of the audio.

How do I do that?
Damned if I know. I'd probably start with the graphics card manufacturer and see if other users have reported such a thing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grizz on April 16, 2019, 12:41:26 AM
Put me in with the anti-W10 crowd. I use it begrudgingly because my laptop can't really run 7 well; a lot of drivers are missing and/or wrong.

Windows 8 and 10 always made me feel like I was using a half-completed Mac-wannabe on top of a Windows XP/7 core. It just never really felt cohesive. That's probably because it's still unfinished with a bunch of legacy crap (control panel, various UI elements/modes, compatibility tweaks) floating around. I've seen obscure and bizarre performance issues on countless systems, though they were definitely more prevalent pre-1709. The two most obnoxious ones were random and persistent high disk usage, and various issues with changing power state (usually, it won't wake up, or won't get the graphics card going during waking). I've seen this on contemporary machines that shipped with W10 as well as upgrades. Then there were things like user profiles fucking themselves randomly, programs disappearing, and all sorts of shit like that which basically couldn't be fixed without at least a "Reset." I can't tell you how often those resets failed for some reason anyway. Anyway, that basically sums up my nine months at Geek Squad. (Actually, I could spend hours complaining about incompetent management, assholes in their twenties picking on the 19-year-old, and so much else...) Then there's all the bonafide bloat, the attempts at strongarming users into Microsoft's ecosystem (say what you want about the Apple ecosystem; it's fleshed out to some degree), the spyware, and countless niggles that power users will encounter daily. Oh, and the ongoing experiment to add *nix-like permissions to Windows and NTFS has mostly created extremely obscure bugs.

Anyway, I have an ASUS ROG laptop from 2016, upgraded with a 256GB SSD hooked up to a USB Hub with two WD Bookshelf drives full of garbage, and placed on a small Ikea bookshelf full of LPs. Next to it, on my desk, a 24" ASUS monitor that I bought from some poor guy down on his luck on Craigslist (I feel really bad about that actually), a HyperX Cherry MX Blue keyboard (vendor coupon), an Insigna Microphone (store-brand accessory/cost-based employee discount), and a SteelSeries Rival 110 Mouse (accessory/cost-based employee discount) on an Insignia mousepad. As my second monitor, I have... a hand-me-down 2009 iMac. I use Synergy to remotely control its keyboard and mouse, and it's almost as seamless as a plain old extended desktop. It works well enough for playing video on its nice screen and has decent enough speakers, and it can be useful for some obscure Mac-centric tasks I might run into.

I'm pretty content with this setup right now. I need to run a proper hardline to my room, and also move the router (again... long story). For right now, I generally use a hacked WRT54G as a wireless receiver for the computers. Yes, I'm serious. The NICs really don't like the amount of attenuation in my room.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on April 16, 2019, 08:56:51 AM
Put me in with the anti-W10 crowd. I use it begrudgingly because my laptop can't really run 7 well; a lot of drivers are missing and/or wrong.

Windows 8 and 10 always made me feel like I was using a half-completed Mac-wannabe on top of a Windows XP/7 core. It just never really felt cohesive. That's probably because it's still unfinished with a bunch of legacy crap (control panel, various UI elements/modes, compatibility tweaks) floating around. I've seen obscure and bizarre performance issues on countless systems, though they were definitely more prevalent pre-1709. The two most obnoxious ones were random and persistent high disk usage, and various issues with changing power state (usually, it won't wake up, or won't get the graphics card going during waking). I've seen this on contemporary machines that shipped with W10 as well as upgrades. Then there were things like user profiles fucking themselves randomly, programs disappearing, and all sorts of shit like that which basically couldn't be fixed without at least a "Reset." I can't tell you how often those resets failed for some reason anyway. Anyway, that basically sums up my nine months at Geek Squad. (Actually, I could spend hours complaining about incompetent management, assholes in their twenties picking on the 19-year-old, and so much else...) Then there's all the bonafide bloat, the attempts at strongarming users into Microsoft's ecosystem (say what you want about the Apple ecosystem; it's fleshed out to some degree), the spyware, and countless niggles that power users will encounter daily. Oh, and the ongoing experiment to add *nix-like permissions to Windows and NTFS has mostly created extremely obscure bugs.

Anyway, I have an ASUS ROG laptop from 2016, upgraded with a 256GB SSD hooked up to a USB Hub with two WD Bookshelf drives full of garbage, and placed on a small Ikea bookshelf full of LPs. Next to it, on my desk, a 24" ASUS monitor that I bought from some poor guy down on his luck on Craigslist (I feel really bad about that actually), a HyperX Cherry MX Blue keyboard (vendor coupon), an Insigna Microphone (store-brand accessory/cost-based employee discount), and a SteelSeries Rival 110 Mouse (accessory/cost-based employee discount) on an Insignia mousepad. As my second monitor, I have... a hand-me-down 2009 iMac. I use Synergy to remotely control its keyboard and mouse, and it's almost as seamless as a plain old extended desktop. It works well enough for playing video on its nice screen and has decent enough speakers, and it can be useful for some obscure Mac-centric tasks I might run into.

I'm pretty content with this setup right now. I need to run a proper hardline to my room, and also move the router (again... long story). For right now, I generally use a hacked WRT54G as a wireless receiver for the computers. Yes, I'm serious. The NICs really don't like the amount of attenuation in my room.
I've read some interesting stories about Geek Squad.  :lol

Win10 is a mixed bag. I found it a lot more stable and generally more friendly than Win7. It's also a little quicker in my experience (though that's partly due to my Win7 install being 32bit). My issue with Win10 isn't functionality or stability, but MS's belief that we're all a bunch of bleedin idiots. I built that computer from the ground up. It's mine. I don't need Microsoft's permission to delete a damn file. It seems I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for tweaks to allow me to change things MS deemed too important to. Being told I need administrator permission just to run a damn game makes my blood boil. Being told I can't access a folder even more-so.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 27, 2019, 11:45:50 PM
Seems like Intel might finally be getting some serious competition by AMD.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-third-gen-ryzen-7nm-launch-intel-cpu,39449.html
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 28, 2019, 04:52:30 AM
Just saw that yesterday and now I'm torn. I was literally going to order a new mobo + cpu combo this week but now I"m going to wait to see some benchmarks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: TioJorge on May 29, 2019, 11:30:01 PM
Definitely wait if you haven't pulled the trigger yet. Best news I've heard in a long while, especially with Intel throwing any concept of innovation out the window and basically outright saying "We're not ready for 10, let alone sub 10 nanometer; here's some of our other shit while you wait to pay high end dollars for sub par products!"

I wasn't as blown away by the start of Ryzen as a lot of others despite simply just loving ANY kind of competition Intel has. So right now is an amazing time because Ryzen turned out to actually be viable and NOW it's starting to become what the original hype intended. It seems. Always wait for benchmarks, but definitely wait no matter what because if this is as advertised, then we're in for a real CPU world turnaround. For real this time, as Intel has (apparently) another year of work ahead of them. So within that year and if Ryzen 3000-series is what they say...they'll be curb stomping Intel by the end of the year.

I know I'll be upgrading my Ryzen build. I'm still using the 77000k OC'd as of now but I'm looking forward to working on the Ryzen system. It's still sitting pretty with the lil 'ol Ryzen 5 1600 for that system.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 30, 2019, 05:28:32 AM
Hopefully this will kick Intel in the ass and push them. It's good for us consumers when there's competition.

For the first time ever I might get an AMD product, always had Intel and Nvidia but we'll see. I first wanna see some true benchmarks before I buy anything.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 16, 2020, 08:30:26 AM
Bumping this thread because it's been a while.

My PC, that I assembled 9 years ago to the day, exploded followed by a burning smell when I turned it on. I'm going to guess it's the PSU since I took it all apart and the smell from the PSU had the burned odor, couldn't see anything else visibly burned. Going to clean the whole case and all components before replacing and testing since it's a big dust warehouse at the moment.

To add to it, my NAS backup which is on RAID 5 shows up in a 'degraded' status. One of the 3 TB WD Red failed and will need to be replace, odd the Red failed and not the Blue drives I had in my array.

I've never done a HD replacement for a RAID before, fingers crossed it's a simple HD swap and the controller will auto rebuild after that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on January 16, 2020, 09:01:37 AM
9 years ago? Man, I think you should scrap the whole thing and build a new one.  You'll get more power, better energy efficiency and it'll be quieter too if you pick the right components.  My build has Be Quiet! brand case and fans and I can hardly tell it's even on.

And if budget is an issue for you you could easily buy last gen AMD stuff and it won't cost you much plus your rig will be miles better than what it currently probably is.

And Crucial makes really great and really affordable SSD's  including MVMe's.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 16, 2020, 09:04:13 AM
A RAID 5 HDD swap should be that simple, just swap with a same drive and it should rebuild.  If anything, I'd imagine the NAS box has some software to force it if it doesn't, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't automatic.

And yea.. 9 year old rig, that sounds like scrap to me at this point.  But if you aren't gaming and on a budget, I guess you could just swap the PSU.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 16, 2020, 09:24:54 AM
My 9 year old rig runs quite amazing really, it boots up in like 20 secs and not a hint of slowdown anywhere, I don't game that much so dont have any of the newer games. I occasionally play Rise of Nations or any of the half-life games or AoE. The rig has enough juice for it. Heck I can play all 3 Crysis games at a very high detail level.

I do some mild video editing, Blu-ray ripping and host a few VMs for exploring, and have some IDEs. It really shows no slowdowns on anything I throw at it. The only reason I would upgrade is for 4k at every level. Sure the energy efficiency will be even better on newer models. I don't have a burning need to upgrade at this point. I might hoard components if there are great deals for an upgrade but I'm going to keep using this as my daily driver until something major breaks down. I'm still not sure what the issue is but strongly feel it was the PSU.

My 9yr old rig

i5 2500k OC'd 4.2 Ghz.
32 GB DDR3 RAM
Radeon HD 6780 1 GB (LOL this is old)
512 GB Crucial SSD (Main drive)
14 TB HDD
2 x 28" monitors 1920x1080
Creative Soundblaster Z

The NAS server is just over 3 years old at this point and I'm a little unhappy a Red drive went down but that's how things go so c'est la vie. I dont think I have had any data loss on it, but since I keep like a million backups I should be ok.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 16, 2020, 09:27:33 AM
Yea, if you aren't into modern gaming then that's probably fine. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on January 16, 2020, 09:46:41 AM
Yeah, I believe Faizoff and I had this discussion in some other thread, but I've got a very similar setup. The venerable i5-2500k turned out to be one of the all-time great overachievers. It really only became outdated about 2 years ago, and a ton of us are still using them. A 33% overclock is pretty much effortless, and requires only air cooling and no voltage increase. I think mine is OC'd to 4.3 or 4.4. You can get them up to 5.0, but that does require considerable effort. I built mine Thanksgiving of 2011 and the only thing I've done is replaced the cooler with a much more robust one. I've upgraded graphics cards 3 times in that span. In his situation I'd do just the same and simply replace the PSU. I really can't think of any real benefit to upgrading.

And I'm not surprised that the red drive failed before the blue. Blues run slower and cooler and are made for general use, rather than performance. That's all I've used for quite some time now. Since my boot and game drives are SSDs I don't need the added performance.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 16, 2020, 10:04:42 AM
I remember that we have almost the same setup. It is true how resilient the i5-2500k has been. Overclocking to 4.5 GHz on air cooling is a cinch on this bad boy. I was debating on getting a new video card just for 4k when I saw so many deals for an AMD 580 but then that would imply I get new 4k monitors to take full use of it and then it would just cascade into getting a new CPU/RAM/Mobo... which is why I wanted to hold out.

Interesting note on the Reds, I've always assumed they were the most resilient of the line and most popular. I am replacing it with a Blue so there's that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 16, 2020, 10:08:41 AM
My brother had the i5-2500k and I had the i7-2600k, those lines of processors were fantastic.  But for me to game todays games while recording it with a green screen effect, I need more juice.  I'm already thinking 2020 might be the last year of my current build.  I'm going to eventually want to get into the 4k game.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on January 16, 2020, 11:27:35 AM
I remember that we have almost the same setup. It is true how resilient the i5-2500k has been. Overclocking to 4.5 GHz on air cooling is a cinch on this bad boy. I was debating on getting a new video card just for 4k when I saw so many deals for an AMD 580 but then that would imply I get new 4k monitors to take full use of it and then it would just cascade into getting a new CPU/RAM/Mobo... which is why I wanted to hold out.

Interesting note on the Reds, I've always assumed they were the most resilient of the line and most popular. I am replacing it with a Blue so there's that.
Looks like I was only half right. Blue is the slower, mainstay drive. It's black that's the performance drive. Reds are optimized for NAS, which is probably why you bought it, and can either be 7200 or 5400 rpm. I don't know if there's any factual basis in it or not, but I've just assumed the slower drives will run cooler, longer, and the performance doesn't really matter if they're just storing music and video.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 17, 2020, 08:11:08 AM
Replaced the Red drive and rebuild it. I should have figured there was something up with the drive since it was making a noticable spinning noise. It wasn't the typical click of a hard disk dying.

The new Blue drive is super quiet like the rest of them. I'm guessing that Red drive was somewhat faulty from the beginning since it was always making a noise during read write operations.

That was an easy fix with no loss of data thankfully.

Also got a new Corsair 650W RM series PSU and sure enough every thing worked for the main rig after the replacement.

The amount of dust inside the chassis was incredible. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I never cleaned inside over the course of 9 years.


Have to do cable management correct this time round. Way to messy before.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 17, 2020, 08:41:11 AM
This actually reminds me, I have a spare 4TB hard drive sitting on my desk, I should back up my current 4TB drive for safety onto it.  It's been awhile since I backed up my shit and I'm probably around 3TB full now from all the concert videos last year. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on January 17, 2020, 11:11:28 AM
I have an old backup HDD that fell off a shelf and broke a few years ago.  The problem was that I had just transferred all my family photos and videos onto it so I could replace the HDD in my pc at the time.  And I hadn't yet completed the task.  The disk itself is in good shape but the reader mechanism is completely shot.

At the time I couldn't afford to have a company retrieve the data for me.  I think they wanted like $700 or so.  So I just held onto it.

I think it's about time I got that taken care of.  I wanted to figure out how to do it myself but I don't think I have the right tools/environment for that kind of task.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on January 17, 2020, 11:18:22 AM
I have an old backup HDD that fell off a shelf and broke a few years ago.  The problem was that I had just transferred all my family photos and videos onto it so I could replace the HDD in my pc at the time.  And I hadn't yet completed the task.  The disk itself is in good shape but the reader mechanism is completely shot.

At the time I couldn't afford to have a company retrieve the data for me.  I think they wanted like $700 or so.  So I just held onto it.

I think it's about time I got that taken care of.  I wanted to figure out how to do it myself but I don't think I have the right tools/environment for that kind of task.
You don't. Since you only need to read from it for an hour or so a clean room probably isn't all that important. Repairing the scan mechanism isn't going to happen. You might be able to buy an identical drive and just swap the platters out, but in all likelihood you'd destroy them both trying to get the various oddball sized screws out. I've dissected plenty of HDDs, but I never had to worry about reassembling them. The good news is that you won't damage the platters if you try. If you give it a shot and it doesn't work out you could probably still send the carcass off to a recovery specialist.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Herrick on January 17, 2020, 01:11:44 PM
9 years ago? Man, I think you should scrap the whole thing and build a new one.  You'll get more power, better energy efficiency and it'll be quieter too if you pick the right components.  My build has Be Quiet! brand case and fans and I can hardly tell it's even on.

And if budget is an issue for you you could easily buy last gen AMD stuff and it won't cost you much plus your rig will be miles better than what it currently probably is.

And Crucial makes really great and really affordable SSD's  including MVMe's.

I put together a new build last week and it's very weird how quiet my fans are. I never used the auto-fan features in my other builds but I'm using it now. It's almost too quiet but my case doesn't seem to be putting out excessive heat. The CPU cooler is stock. I'll see what happens in the summer when my room becomes an oven.

I don't know if I should even bother using Prime95. I don't plan on overclocking any time soon if ever.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 17, 2020, 08:24:24 PM
I have an old backup HDD that fell off a shelf and broke a few years ago.  The problem was that I had just transferred all my family photos and videos onto it so I could replace the HDD in my pc at the time.  And I hadn't yet completed the task.  The disk itself is in good shape but the reader mechanism is completely shot.

At the time I couldn't afford to have a company retrieve the data for me.  I think they wanted like $700 or so.  So I just held onto it.

I think it's about time I got that taken care of.  I wanted to figure out how to do it myself but I don't think I have the right tools/environment for that kind of task.

That is always tough and I've been through it at least twice and it is very demoralizing personally. It's the reason I make crazy amount of backups for personal photos and videos across several devices. It appears overkill but I've already been saved a few times  because of this practice.

Still in the process of finishing up bringing my rig online and came across a weird RAM problem. I have 2 A slots and 2 B slots for a total of 4 each. My B slots dont work at all. I painstakingly checked each of my four RAM sticks on each slot and rebooted every time. All RAM sticks work on the A slots, they do nothing on the B slots. My hands are so sore from the constant pull and push lol.

It's so bizarre, and haven't come across this before. I don't know if the power supply going kaput had anything to do with it. My mobo manual says technically it can only support a max of 4GB per slot but I have a set of 4 x 8 GB RAM sticks that I've been using for years with no issue. Now I'm downgraded to 16 GB total RAM and 16 GB RAM of DDR3 to figure out what to do with.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 04, 2020, 09:34:01 PM
My battle station is evolving  :hat

(https://i.imgur.com/gtk9b9K.jpg)

I did this primarily because I'm trying to learn CAD at home and using Youtube as my main source for lessons. I can have the instructor up top (22") and have the entirety of the lower screen (32") for the modeling software. It's going to take a minute to get used to. I prefer a SBS setup, but the cat's house gets the spot to the left.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on March 06, 2020, 10:31:01 PM
My battle station is evolving  :hat

(https://i.imgur.com/gtk9b9K.jpg)

I did this primarily because I'm trying to learn CAD at home and using Youtube as my main source for lessons. I can have the instructor up top (22") and have the entirety of the lower screen (32") for the modeling software. It's going to take a minute to get used to. I prefer a SBS setup, but the cat's house gets the spot to the left.
(whistles) Very very nice Chino!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 07, 2020, 01:48:19 AM
Nice setup Chino! Getting a second monitor was a lifechanger for me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 07, 2020, 07:01:54 AM
Very nice Chino. I'm going to start hunting for a second panel myself. I have a TV I use as a second monitor but it looks like shit.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 08, 2020, 03:43:13 PM
Thanks fellas. My sister came over last night and said I should have flipped the mount so I could have hidden the upright/stand in the corner of the room. I kind of like it exposed and visible where it is. It gives the space kind of a rugged look or something. You actually can't see the upright at all when sitting down. The perspective in the photo above is kind of weird.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on March 08, 2020, 08:15:00 PM
Thanks fellas. My sister came over last night and said I should have flipped the mount so I could have hidden the upright/stand in the corner of the room. I kind of like it exposed and visible where it is. It gives the space kind of a rugged look or something. You actually can't see the upright at all when sitting down. The perspective in the photo above is kind of weird.

I really like the way you have it now.  It looks supremely awesome.

I have my pc connected to the living room TV, and I just set my mouse on my couch arm and my keyboard on my lap.  It's not ideal, but because of space in my home, it's the best I can do right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Zydar on March 09, 2020, 02:17:20 AM
I ordered myself a new monitor this weekend since my current one is getting a bit old. A Samsung C27R500F, this will be my first curved monitor.

(https://media.stockinthechannel.com/pic/hG4xMEpirkKOkvTIm0R08A.c-r.jpg)


It will arrive in a few days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on March 09, 2020, 05:06:00 AM
Ultrawide, Zydar?

I've had an LG curved 3440 x 1440 monitor for a few years and have loved it. Enjoy.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Zydar on March 09, 2020, 05:41:50 AM
No, I have limited space at my desk so unfortunately no ultrawide this time  :-\  Just a 27" screen, my current one is 22".
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 09, 2020, 08:34:00 AM
A new monitor should definitely be my next investment for my PC, but I've been so comfortable with my set up that I've gotten a bit lazy... however my NVMe 128G is getting full and that may be a more immediate upgrade due to necessity soon. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on March 10, 2020, 12:02:55 AM
Ultrawide, Zydar?

I've had an LG curved 3440 x 1440 monitor for a few years and have loved it. Enjoy.
Seriously, after I got my ultrawide I can't go back to a regular 16:9 screen.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 10, 2020, 05:48:52 AM
Nice Zydar, I'm shopping for a new monitor myself. Going to bite the bullet and go curved ultrawide I think.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on March 10, 2020, 05:49:21 AM
Ultrawide, Zydar?

I've had an LG curved 3440 x 1440 monitor for a few years and have loved it. Enjoy.
Seriously, after I got my ultrawide I can't go back to a regular 16:9 screen.

Right? I used to have two side by side. I'll never be able to do that again.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 10, 2020, 08:29:32 AM
Ultrawide, Zydar?

I've had an LG curved 3440 x 1440 monitor for a few years and have loved it. Enjoy.
Seriously, after I got my ultrawide I can't go back to a regular 16:9 screen.

Right? I used to have two side by side. I'll never be able to do that again.
At home I keep a 27" front and center, and an older 19" 4:3 to the right. They're the same height, and a lot of what I watch is still in the old TV format. I hate watching 4:3 shows on widescreen more than I hate letterboxed 16:9. That'll likely be changing soon, though. The old 4:3s are dirt cheap, but they'll be extinct fairly soon. Also, I'm not sure my mount can handle two 27" monitors. Unlike Chino's it's strictly side-by-side, and they're pretty wide. Moreover, that'll be the end to having one of them centered.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on March 22, 2020, 01:34:07 AM
Prices of components going up was to be expected given the current circumstances of the world, but I've been noticing things increasing by not insignificant amounts already (at least here in Australia). I had a wishlist on a popular online retailer over here and it's gone up by $300 in just a week without me adding to it or changing anything in it. I'd been thinking of building a new gaming PC before the Coronavirus but now I'm considering whether to wait until after it all blows over and things start returning to normal (years) or spending more than I wanted to rushing and buying stuff now. I can't even find everything I want in stock either, and the prices will likely increase more while I have to wait. :sad:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: jasc15 on March 22, 2020, 01:26:37 PM
I heard about this thing called pi hole (https://pi-hole.net/) which seemed simple to set up.  It redirects ads and trackers to an "empty" address on the raspberry pi.  I use several browser add-ons to accomplish this on my phone and PC, but this works for every device on my network, including 2 Rokus. Normally i spend hours reading about a thing before i actually spend money and try it out, but this was cheap enough; I spent something like $55 on a raspberry pi 4 and a few accessories.  Within about 2 hours I had it up and running without much drama.  It's the first time I've done anything with Linux and it was amazingly easy, though I couldn't explain what I really did.  The instructions on the pi hole site and a tutorial or two were enough.

Once I got that running, I thought I would see if I could make the pi a print server, too.  There is this thing called CUPS which was even easier to set up.  Now I can have the rarely used printer in my basement with the router, rather than upstairs on my small desk.

I'm now considering also setting it up for NAS, and maybe even a Plex server (though I hear it has some limitations in this capacity).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 22, 2020, 03:28:52 PM
My brother had a raspberry pi set up as a plex server for awhile when he lived with me.  Pretty cool all the things you can do with a raspberry pi.  He's currently working with his friend on setting on up to control a bucket to water plants as a project. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 06, 2020, 07:51:28 AM
Anyone have any experience with 6TB or 8TB drives? I had a 5TB one a while back and I recalled those having issues because of the platter number and size. I have a Seagate 4 TB drive which I think is beginning to fail. Getting errors when trying to copy to that drive but have no problems copying from it.

I've already backed things up from it, so good to go to replace it. Just wondering if a much larger capacity has at least the same reliability.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 06, 2020, 11:31:41 AM
I tried a 6TB Drive once and it failed immediately so I returned it and haven't tried anything beyond 4TB since.  At work we use 6TB and 8TB hard drives on our storage units that seem fine.  I think you might need software to use the larger sized drives on a window PC, but I forget.

I've been thinking lately that I want to build a new PC.  I'm getting a fat tax refund so I can use that money.  My current M.2 drive is full, my gaming SSD is full, and I feel like my 4TB drive is failing as it started getting loud (I have another one to replace it with).  So if I need to rebuild my OS and reset all my drive set ups, I might as well just upgrade to a new motherboard/CPU as well.  I've noticed when I play games, my CPU is running at 95-100% so I think my CPU is bottlenecking me as well.  I haven't looked yet on what's the latest and greatest per buck, but I'm open to switching to an AMD processor.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 06, 2020, 05:25:13 PM
I tried a 6TB Drive once and it failed immediately so I returned it and haven't tried anything beyond 4TB since.  At work we use 6TB and 8TB hard drives on our storage units that seem fine.  I think you might need software to use the larger sized drives on a window PC, but I forget.

I've been thinking lately that I want to build a new PC.  I'm getting a fat tax refund so I can use that money.  My current M.2 drive is full, my gaming SSD is full, and I feel like my 4TB drive is failing as it started getting loud (I have another one to replace it with).  So if I need to rebuild my OS and reset all my drive set ups, I might as well just upgrade to a new motherboard/CPU as well.  I've noticed when I play games, my CPU is running at 95-100% so I think my CPU is bottlenecking me as well.  I haven't looked yet on what's the latest and greatest per buck, but I'm open to switching to an AMD processor.
What's your budget going to be?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 06, 2020, 06:17:50 PM
Good question, I haven't actually started to think about components I want and my budget, but right now I have a lot of excess cash since I'm luckily still employed and not spending money on anything really right now plus a nice multi thousand dollar tax return.  My budget could be a few thousand dollars for this.  I definitely want something on the high end as well as the latest/greatest graphics card which I expect would be around 1k for just that.  For my video recording/editting needs on these newer very resource demanding games.  Only thing I don't need are any SSD/HDD as I already have those sitting here waiting to be used.  I do think I will want a new monitor as well, and those aren't cheap.  Don't need top of the line for that, but almost anything would be an upgrade over my current like 10 year old monitor.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 06, 2020, 08:01:20 PM
That's excited cram, I can't wait to see your specs. I remember building my pc last year and it was a lot of fun.

Funny enough I was an AMD fan boy since the K2 days and built my first intel rig just recently it's going to be hard to go back. I use my PC for gaming 90% of the time but with your video editing I think and AMD rig might be the best route.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 06, 2020, 08:13:47 PM
The new AMD rigs are killer and have an amazing value for price compared to the what Intel is currently offering. I did look into them last year trying to see if I really needed a new build. My 9 year old self assembled PC holds up quite well still.

I might jump with an 8TB drive as the replacement of my failing drive. Just because of the novelty of having a single 8 TB drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 06, 2020, 09:35:13 PM
Good question, I haven't actually started to think about components I want and my budget, but right now I have a lot of excess cash since I'm luckily still employed and not spending money on anything really right now plus a nice multi thousand dollar tax return.  My budget could be a few thousand dollars for this.  I definitely want something on the high end as well as the latest/greatest graphics card which I expect would be around 1k for just that.  For my video recording/editting needs on these newer very resource demanding games.  Only thing I don't need are any SSD/HDD as I already have those sitting here waiting to be used.  I do think I will want a new monitor as well, and those aren't cheap.  Don't need top of the line for that, but almost anything would be an upgrade over my current like 10 year old monitor.
This (https://pcpartpicker.com/user/puppies_on_acid/saved/Gb6NP6) is what I'm currently offering in the $3000 range for my customers. If you don't need the NVME drives, you can drop those and easily drop in a 2080ti and still be within the $3000 range.

I highly recommend that Motherboard and processor. It's what I'm currently running in my setup. If you want to do the 2080ti instead of the super I'd recommend this (https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Z7gzK8/msi-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-11gb-gaming-x-trio-video-card-rtx-2080-ti-gaming-x-trio)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 07, 2020, 08:01:38 AM
Good question, I haven't actually started to think about components I want and my budget, but right now I have a lot of excess cash since I'm luckily still employed and not spending money on anything really right now plus a nice multi thousand dollar tax return.  My budget could be a few thousand dollars for this.  I definitely want something on the high end as well as the latest/greatest graphics card which I expect would be around 1k for just that.  For my video recording/editting needs on these newer very resource demanding games.  Only thing I don't need are any SSD/HDD as I already have those sitting here waiting to be used.  I do think I will want a new monitor as well, and those aren't cheap.  Don't need top of the line for that, but almost anything would be an upgrade over my current like 10 year old monitor.
This (https://pcpartpicker.com/user/puppies_on_acid/saved/Gb6NP6) is what I'm currently offering in the $3000 range for my customers. If you don't need the NVME drives, you can drop those and easily drop in a 2080ti and still be within the $3000 range.

I highly recommend that Motherboard and processor. It's what I'm currently running in my setup. If you want to do the 2080ti instead of the super I'd recommend this (https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Z7gzK8/msi-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-11gb-gaming-x-trio-video-card-rtx-2080-ti-gaming-x-trio)

First link doesnt work, says the list is private.

I was discussing with my gaming friends last night, it seems this summer there will be the new line of graphics cards so I think I will wait on that, but might build the computer earlier and use my 1080 to start.  The problem is really my hard drives and that's pushing me to want to upgrade the motherboard/cpu sooner while I have to rebuild windows anyway.  The graphics card is an easy upgrade once everything else is in place. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 07, 2020, 08:24:50 AM
Good question, I haven't actually started to think about components I want and my budget, but right now I have a lot of excess cash since I'm luckily still employed and not spending money on anything really right now plus a nice multi thousand dollar tax return.  My budget could be a few thousand dollars for this.  I definitely want something on the high end as well as the latest/greatest graphics card which I expect would be around 1k for just that.  For my video recording/editting needs on these newer very resource demanding games.  Only thing I don't need are any SSD/HDD as I already have those sitting here waiting to be used.  I do think I will want a new monitor as well, and those aren't cheap.  Don't need top of the line for that, but almost anything would be an upgrade over my current like 10 year old monitor.
This (https://pcpartpicker.com/user/puppies_on_acid/saved/Gb6NP6) is what I'm currently offering in the $3000 range for my customers. If you don't need the NVME drives, you can drop those and easily drop in a 2080ti and still be within the $3000 range.

I highly recommend that Motherboard and processor. It's what I'm currently running in my setup. If you want to do the 2080ti instead of the super I'd recommend this (https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Z7gzK8/msi-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-11gb-gaming-x-trio-video-card-rtx-2080-ti-gaming-x-trio)

First link doesnt work, says the list is private.

Try this one https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yq7QYH

And yes there are new cards coming out, but it may not be until the fall. You could indeed keep using your 1080 until then and then upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 07, 2020, 08:35:09 AM
That link works.... yea the NVMe is overkill.  I have a new one already, just ~500G and that's more than enough for the OS only.  That motherboard has 3 m.2 slots which is overkill but not enough SATA ports for me.  I've currently running with 6 SATA drives, so I see the trade off but for my set up, I don't think that is worth the money to go all in on NVMe when I have so many good SATA SSDs that I get from work. 

The CPU and RAM look good.  I currently have 16G of RAM and I haven't seen my usage top out but it get's high (around 70%) so I'm thinking the upgrade to 32G is a good idea.

Also the liquid cooling... I was thinking that.  Those kits are so much simpler to set up and use these days that it might make sense to make that leap. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on May 07, 2020, 12:35:15 PM
I really like liquid cooling. My office that my pc is in does go up by 10 degrees when I start playing a game like it used to.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 07, 2020, 01:06:09 PM
I don't have heating issues in my PC, but it would be nice if it were a bit quieter and it does look cool.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on May 07, 2020, 03:09:42 PM
I don't have heating issues in my PC, but it would be nice if it were a bit quieter and it does look cool.
You'd probably dig the Re-Animator day-glo coolant flowing about. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 08, 2020, 12:49:05 PM
Puppies shared this motherboard with me

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/PRESTIGE-X570-CREATION (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/PRESTIGE-X570-CREATION)

REALLY digging it.  It's pretty expensive, but the NVMe features, 6 SATA ports, an insane amount of USB, and a cool look plus everything else really makes me drool a bit. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on May 08, 2020, 01:08:16 PM
Just thought I'd chime in on the subject of cooling.  Don't liquid cooling systems still have potential leak issues?  And don't they need to be drained and refilled every once in a while?

As you can tell, I've never used liquid cooling in any of the rigs I have built.  But if you're looking for quiet, I used BeQuiet! brand fans, cpu cooler and case last time around and I really don't hear mine at all.  I get really good temps (I should with 9 fans) and I don't hardly hear a thing even under heavy loads.  Plus, no maintenance except cleaning my filters on occassion.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on May 08, 2020, 01:10:53 PM
Nah, modern liquid cool systems are pretty bullet proof, easy to install, maintenance free, and super effective.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 08, 2020, 01:28:14 PM
Nah, modern liquid cool systems are pretty bullet proof, easy to install, maintenance free, and super effective.

Yea, I wouldn't bother with the old school style of liquid cooling and it's why I never cared for that back in the day, but these days it's a solid product that you just install and it works.  Pretty affordable too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 08, 2020, 01:34:50 PM
Just thought I'd chime in on the subject of cooling.  Don't liquid cooling systems still have potential leak issues?  And don't they need to be drained and refilled every once in a while?

As you can tell, I've never used liquid cooling in any of the rigs I have built.  But if you're looking for quiet, I used BeQuiet! brand fans, cpu cooler and case last time around and I really don't hear mine at all.  I get really good temps (I should with 9 fans) and I don't hardly hear a thing even under heavy loads.  Plus, no maintenance except cleaning my filters on occassion.
As Podaar and Cram alread said, liquid coolers are extremely bulletproof these days, as long as you buy from a reputable company. The current Liquid Cooler I'm using (Fractal Design Celsius S36) I've had for 3 years and it still works as well as it did the day I bought it. I'm actually about to move it to my wife's system since I'm upgrading her system and I have a new one coming for mine. I thought about doing a full custom loop water cooler, but since my system gets taken apart fairly frequently for testing and such, it would just be too much of a hassle.

As a side note, I love BeQuiet's products. I use their DarkRock Pro 4 for air cooling cpu's if I don't go with liquid cooling in my builds.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on May 08, 2020, 02:06:16 PM
Thanks guys, that's really good to know.  I might have to give it a try on a future build.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: JayOctavarium on May 08, 2020, 08:41:45 PM
Lol you guys and your bad ass computer building. :lol

Here I thought I was cool for buying a new "gaming" laptop and ordering more RAM for it.


Actually I am so stoked for this laptop. Acer Nitro 15. It's not much (i5, 128gb SSD, 1TB HDD, 8gb Ram soon to be 16 gb, 4GB GTX 1650), but it is the most powerful computer I've ever owned. My previous laptop was a shitty Toshiba with an i3 and... well that's it. The new one can actually run AAA games pretty smoothly.


@Marc do you ever stream?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 09, 2020, 11:22:06 AM
Nah, my computer can't stream, at least not with my green screen, I would need a stream PC.  I think with the new gen of CPUs, you don't really need a seperate stream PC.  Either way, I tried streaming before the green screen when my PC was capable of doing it and I'm just not a very good consistent entertainer
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 11, 2020, 06:54:39 PM
So I installed my 8 TB drive today making the total of my desktop space to 20 TB lol. With one of the 4 TB drives looking like it's failing, can't be too careful.

(https://i.imgur.com/GZwnEKH.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 13, 2020, 04:24:40 PM
 :metal to more storage

sooo I figured out my bottleneck for recording my gameplay.  This is actually very positive news for me.  I've been using performance monitor while gaming, and while gaming/recording to see what the issue might be.  My CPU was seemingly the bottleneck as it was around 90% capacity while gaming and then 99% while gaming and recording.  I forced chrome to close to get those percentages down a bit more and thought maybe that was it, too many applications open even though my RAM would stay around 70-80% regardless of recording.  I started looking at OBS, the recording software.  Turns out there's a newer encoder that uses your GPU, not CPU to encode video.  My GPU wouldn't top 20% usage through all my testing.  So this makes sense for me, put the load on the GPU not CPU.  Once i did this, and after much more testing...  I can now max out my Call of Duty graphics while recording without issue.  My CPU still gets worked at 90% but not topping out which is what I think caused my issues.  GPU doesn't get to 50% and RAM is the same around 75%. 

Having said all that, it doesn't solve my storage problems which was a main reason to want to build a new PC.  This gives me confidence my GTX 1080 can go a lot further than I imagined with it's power. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 14, 2020, 02:15:58 PM
Very cool that you figured it out. That 1080 is a beast of a card, if and when I get a new PC was thinking of a 1060ti card as I don't game very aggressively or even have any of the new games for that matter.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 19, 2020, 03:42:50 AM
Right now I have 4 SSDs, one 120 only for my OS and 2 250GB and one 500GB but it would be convenient to have one large SSD if the price wouldn't be so damn ugh!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on May 19, 2020, 08:31:45 AM
How much difference does a screen really make when looking at games? I bought this monitor when it was on sale at Costco for $129.99. It's been great, but I bought it when I just wanted to run my laptop into something and wasn't gaming or anything. Now I have a decent PC and play games a lot. I know nothing when it comes to specs on screens. How much room for improvement do I have if I were to want to upgrade?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-32-monitor-d3218hn/apd/210-anej/monitors-monitor-accessories#polaris-pd

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on May 19, 2020, 12:18:38 PM
How much difference does a screen really make when looking at games? I bought this monitor when it was on sale at Costco for $129.99. It's been great, but I bought it when I just wanted to run my laptop into something and wasn't gaming or anything. Now I have a decent PC and play games a lot. I know nothing when it comes to specs on screens. How much room for improvement do I have if I were to want to upgrade?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-32-monitor-d3218hn/apd/210-anej/monitors-monitor-accessories#polaris-pd
Can't say I know very much about screens but I bought a AOC 24" G2460PG 144Hz G-Sync two years ago and going from 60hz to 144 was a diffrence. I think going to a higher resolution will be a much bigger improvment but of course that also include more strain on your hardware when playing games. However I can't say i've noticed G-Sync that much but I guess if I would do a heavy comparison I might notice it more.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 20, 2020, 05:55:01 AM
I pulled the trigger this morning since I got my state tax return back (which just about pays for all this) and my federal return should come tomorrow (along with a typical pay day):

MSI Prestige X570 Creation Motherboard (AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2, AX Wi-Fi 6, 10G Super LAN, Extended-ATX)

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core, 24-thread unlocked desktop processor with Wraith Prism LED Cooler

32G of RAM - Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 Desktop memory Black

and another license for Windows 10.

I should get it all by May 30th so I think I will take the following Monday off from work to build it (work is practically begging people to burn PTO).  I'll pop it into my current case and re-do my hard drives with the new ones that are sitting on my desk and then take my old motherboard/cpu/storage and put it into my old case with my old GTX770 as my second PC that could eventually become a stream PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on May 20, 2020, 06:43:23 AM
Badass, Marc!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 20, 2020, 08:45:41 AM
I pulled the trigger this morning since I got my state tax return back (which just about pays for all this) and my federal return should come tomorrow (along with a typical pay day):

MSI Prestige X570 Creation Motherboard (AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2, AX Wi-Fi 6, 10G Super LAN, Extended-ATX)

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core, 24-thread unlocked desktop processor with Wraith Prism LED Cooler

32G of RAM - Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 Desktop memory Black

and another license for Windows 10.

I should get it all by May 30th so I think I will take the following Monday off from work to build it (work is practically begging people to burn PTO).  I'll pop it into my current case and re-do my hard drives with the new ones that are sitting on my desk and then take my old motherboard/cpu/storage and put it into my old case with my old GTX770 as my second PC that could eventually become a stream PC.
If it's not too late to change it, I would definitely up the ram speed to at least 3600mhz. The price difference it fairly minimal and ram speed helps immensely with Ryzen's Infinity Fabric. It is quite a noticeable difference.

Other than that, it looks fantastic. That motherboard is amazing. I built a workstation for a guy that does lots of audio work with that board, mostly because it has tons of usb ports, which he needed. But the feature set on it is amazing too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 20, 2020, 08:58:53 AM
It's an extra hundred bucks for a speed I likely wont even notice.  I don't feel it's worth it today, but being the motherboard supports the next gen, it leaves me room to upgrade.  That's already a huge boost over my current build in every area
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 20, 2020, 02:53:47 PM
It's an extra hundred bucks for a speed I likely wont even notice.  I don't feel it's worth it today, but being the motherboard supports the next gen, it leaves me room to upgrade.  That's already a huge boost over my current build in every area
Fair enough. From what you've told me about your current build, it's definitely going to be a massive upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 21, 2020, 09:55:03 AM

MSI Prestige X570 Creation Motherboard (AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2, AX Wi-Fi 6, 10G Super LAN, Extended-ATX)

Wow just looked up that motherboard and it sure is a mother. I thought my mobo was expensive when I spent close to $200 on it. That doesn't even compare. Though yours is probably what I'll be looking at down the line when I want to upgrade.
Epic Games had/has a freebie up for grabs for GTA V. I finally was able to get this bad boy after years of waiting to be on sale. Being a casual gamer I never spend more than $5 on a game. Can't believe this game is a 91 GB download and will barely run on 1080 with all settings turned off on my Radeon HD 6870.
The 6870 has treated me very well but it's showing is age as a 10 yr old card at this point. I'm probably going to look at some cards as a gateway to upgrade. I was thinking of the RX 580/590 or even the GTX 1060. I'm kinda weary about spending more than $200 on a GPU TBH.


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 21, 2020, 11:11:38 AM

MSI Prestige X570 Creation Motherboard (AMD AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, USB 3.2, AX Wi-Fi 6, 10G Super LAN, Extended-ATX)

Wow just looked up that motherboard and it sure is a mother. I thought my mobo was expensive when I spent close to $200 on it. That doesn't even compare.

Yea, thanks to Puppies for showing me that and I immediately fell in love, not with the price of course, but I've been sitting on cash that would have gone to concerts so might as well use it on something I can enjoy from home.   I mean, my PC is where I spent most of my awake time at home so I don't mind throwing money at it to be the best experience I can make it.  There's so many features on the mobo that make me drool.  I'm looking forward to building it and then seeing it come to life.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 21, 2020, 11:20:23 AM
Yeah I too spend a lot of time on my PC which is why the next upgrade will probably be closer to the top of the line for my use cases. Until that time, it's just more research.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 21, 2020, 11:45:37 AM
It helps that I work in IT and have access to some discarded equipment, specifically NVMe drives which that mobo can support a good amount of.  The negativie is that I swap motherboards with some regularity at work and doing it at home isn't nearly as easy.  Servers are designed to just have parts replaced but home PCs can be such a PITA especially to make all the internal cables look clean and hidden.  That's my least favorite part of the whole process.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: JayOctavarium on May 21, 2020, 10:42:53 PM
Cram that build list looks sweeeeeeet!

I have been spending a shit ton of time on r/pcmasterrace and other PC centric subreddits lately....

I have the bug to build a PC. But I don't have the funds (I could save for it), nor the space (tiny studio apartment... no room). I am slowly trying to warm my other half up to the idea of building something mid range to keep by the TV for streaming and some gaming, but seeing as we just bought new laptops, it's hard to justify.


Also... the fact that I have NEVER done anything more than add RAM to a laptop (which I just did), makes her skeptical.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on May 21, 2020, 11:41:27 PM
Cram that build list looks sweeeeeeet!

I have been spending a shit ton of time on r/pcmasterrace and other PC centric subreddits lately....

I have the bug to build a PC. But I don't have the funds (I could save for it), nor the space (tiny studio apartment... no room). I am slowly trying to warm my other half up to the idea of building something mid range to keep by the TV for streaming and some gaming, but seeing as we just bought new laptops, it's hard to justify.


Also... the fact that I have NEVER done anything more than add RAM to a laptop (which I just did), makes her skeptical.

It's not as hard as it looks.  And with all the video tutorials on YouTube nowadays, it's pretty easy to do.  Back when I started all the info I could find was in remote blog posts that might have a few fuzzy pics.  I was sweating bullets when I built my first one and thought it might blow up when I plugged it in.  Fortunately it worked just fine.  But yeah, save your money, it's worth it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 22, 2020, 08:57:10 AM
It's really not that difficult but what can be troublesome is if something isn't working and having to troubleshoot that.  Thats the type of stuff that makes you panic thinking you might have broken something expensive but then again, even if so, with todays return policies you can probably figure out an exchange.  I had to do this on my last build.  I think I had a bad motherboard and I couldnt figure out why it wouldn't work so eventually returned it.  But that was a huge headache and lead to a lot of frustration when troubleshooting.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 26, 2020, 04:24:51 PM
It all came much earlier than expected

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY-f1GCWsAMUwUe?format=jpg&name=large)

Going to be a fun weekend, I've got to start doing some data moves this week to consolidate drives
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 26, 2020, 05:09:56 PM
Definitely post some finished pics!  :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 28, 2020, 08:54:08 AM
That's awesome cram.

I've been looking at the threadripper as a potential candidate for my upgrade.
I was also thinking of getting the Radeon 580 as a stop gap measure for my current build. It will give me native 4k plus okay some of the more modern games without needing a full cpu mobo overhaul.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2020, 12:39:58 PM
Took the day off from work to do this and my first post on DTF with the new PC build:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZcnQPLXsAE2cYm?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)

also using a new monitor so quite the change  :metal All my new storage seems operational as well.  Now the long wait of downloading my games.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on June 01, 2020, 02:48:29 PM
Nice! :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 01, 2020, 03:30:36 PM
That is slick, Marc. Loving the inside of that tower. Those white sheets used as part of your lighting for videos or something?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2020, 06:18:54 PM
Yea, need lighting for the green screen effect and it looks stupid, but that's the only spot I can put the front ones unless I move my home office to the basement. 

Sooooo

I totally fried my new PC.  To be specific, I fried windows 10.  I don't really understand why this happened, everything seemed legit.  I set up all my apps and everything worked perfectly.  My motherboard comes with a CD for some software and drivers.  I installed a bunch of them, things I felt I might use.... including an audio driver.  I think this is the culprit.  After reboot (it installed almost all the drivers at once and did a reboot) the audio was really funky.  Specifically, it wouldn't play anything out of the speakers.  Only my headphones.  Second, windows didn't recognize any media files anymore.  MP3s/MP4/whatever, none of them would play.  I downloaded VLC and it worked there, but that didn't solve my speaker issue.  I uninstalled and reinstalled audio drivers, disabled that new one I installed.  I tried it all, nothing worked for getting audio out of the speakers.  Even tried the chassis speaker output and not the motherboard (granted, this was working earlier out of the motherboard port).  Anyway, I ran the windows troubleshoot which as it ran, it totally froze my PC.  Dead, nothing.  I rebooted it, it booted up but same issue PLUS it ruined my 3 hour into Call of Duty download.  I decided to re-install windows since that would be easier to just reset everything as I already need to redownload the biggest file I am most eagerly anticipating.... and now I'm down a whole different rabbit hole of not working, I can't get windows installed at all.  Found some good tips on reformating the drive and removing other drives.  I feel like every time I fix one issue, another pops up.  I'm so lost and confused and frustrated at this point.  I'm really not wanting to revert to my old motherboard just to hold me over as that's at least an hour of work just to do that, and at this point, I'm not even positive I could bring that back to life without a windows reinstall, which is exactly what I'm struggling wtih now.   >:( :censored >:(
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 01, 2020, 06:22:26 PM
Dude...  :( :( :( Hoping for a miracle, man.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2020, 06:32:01 PM
So weird, I jinxed myself too by telling everyone how surprised I was when EVERYTHING seemed to work perfectly on the first try.  Sadly enough, I fried a previous install of windows by messing with the audio drivers, clearly I didn't learn my lesson.  That time, it installed fine though which I expected here and to just lose 3 hours of program install/configuration time...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 01, 2020, 06:44:24 PM
Looks great, what kind of SSD do you have? Been reading up a lot on NVMe on PCIe 4.0 lately, the speeds are ridiculous though don't work much for gaming, more like video editing and such.
Didn't see you reply regarding the issues. That sucks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 01, 2020, 07:46:30 PM
Troubleshooting PCs can be a great learning experience or an absolute pain in the ass, I got my RX 580 card yesterday and after plugging everything in, video didn't work. No signal, nothing. After hours and hours of troubleshooting, searching the internet, I figured it was DOA and getting ready to return it and then a thought occurred to me to just clear the CMOS... and that worked! Don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2020, 08:16:07 PM
Funny how a friend mentioned that to me, and this new mobo has a button on the outside to just click and it does that.   However, I figured out the problem.  Since I accidently reformatted my windows 10 USB key, I had to make a new one.  It appeared to work but the install kept failing.  I tried something different, which was in the notes on the guide I was using.  Since I didn't have my old windows PC available I had to use my work macbook, but macs don't natively allow you to format a USB to boot windows.  Had to do some command line stuff, simple enough except it didnt work the first many times and it worked now because I changed the partitioning from GPT to MBR and the install kicked off.  I then added all my drives back in after it completed.  Now everything is working.  Audio works as expected too (initial issue).  I'm so happy to have this fixed, and yet so annoyed I lost literally 6 hours of my day troubleshooting this. 

Anyway, as to my storage set up (it's complex, and was not a reason for my issues)

1x 500G M.2 NVMe, this is my OS drive
2x 1.6TB PCIe NVMe, I don't seem to be able to RAID0 these, so I created a spanned volume so both of these look like one big drive to Widows.  This is where I will install all games and applications.  NOTHING, but the OS will get installed on the C (M.2) drive.
1x 3TB SATA, this is for my old historical data.  This is full and I will migrate this data too...
2x 4TB SATA, one is from my old PC and is about 2/3 full of video storage.  I added a second one, I will migrate the data off the 3TB onto this 4TB and remove the 3TB drive. 
2x 2TB SSD drives, one is from my old PC and is full storing all my video game footage and active video edits.  I added a second and will use this for extended active video storage

so that's 5/6 of my SATA ports on the mobo, the 6th goes to my blu-ray drive, and once I decom that 3TB drive, Ill use the open SATA port to connect my SATA connector on my chassis which allows me to pop an external bare hard drive right into it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 01, 2020, 10:25:07 PM
Looking good Cram! Glad you got your issues worked out too. If I had got home earlier from work I might have been able to help you out, but it seems everything is working fine now. Question, are you planning on swapping out the cpu cooler? The stock one looks nice and even performs decently well, but the 3900x can be a fairly warm running chip and too get the most out of the Precision Boost it's best to keep it as cool as possible. A 280mm liquid AIO would work best, or if you are adverse to using liquid cooling the BeQuiet! Darkrock Pro 4 is amazing too.


I really need to get some pictures of my rig up on here. I had an issue with one of the new sticks of ram I put in mine, so I'm just waiting for the replacement set with should be coming in on Thursday. I'm also going to be swapping out all the cables for some white sleeved cables. I'll take some pictures after that and post them.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 01, 2020, 11:30:08 PM
Liquid cooling will come with time, this build is using the stock CPU fan which is really nice.  I essentially took my state tax return and used it on the CPU/MOBO/RAM and that was my budget, for now ($1200).  Figured the cool looking fan will work fine for now, as well as my GTX 1080 so it wasn't necessary to spend more right now.  The liquid cooling is probably next upgrade once I decom the 3TB drive, then I have GPU, CPU, and memory for paths to upgrade with this build.

Also, while I knew this motherboard was larger, I didn't realize how big it was until I popped it in and realized I needed to reroute all my internal cables to the outer slots for a cleaner look.  Came out pretty well, debating about also adding LED strips to my upgrade list because of the support this mobo has, plus I LOVE the look of it already and feel I can add onto it. 

and... the USB support is amazing on this. I used most of my motherboard USB ports, but because of all the extenders I still have all my case USB ports, including 3.0, that work.  I finally installed windows on one of my case USB 3.0 ports  :corn I have more open connectors on my motherboard for USB so I'm thinking of buying one of those SD card slots to put in the front of the case (to replace that unused DVD drive you see and isnt connected) as I use an SD card for my concert camera.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZe80QxXYAEobFq?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 02, 2020, 11:53:12 AM
Yay Marc! Happy to hear it's working again!!

My PC (gathering dust, holy shit  :lol) has an SD card slot on the top. It rules.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 02, 2020, 01:47:46 PM
 :lol one more SD slot than me

I finally kicked off some game installs and a data transfer before going to bed around 3am absolutely exhausted, but I'm so happy to report no issues today.  I removed my old 3TB drive as the data transfer completed and made some more adjustments on my settings... now I've got Call of Duty back running, but I'm trying to reconfigure all my settings with OBS to record properly.  Lots of testing going on today.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 03, 2020, 06:48:36 AM
I use this front panel card reader. It's a life saver. Makes USB and SLR transfers a breeze.

https://www.newegg.com/product/N82E16817182381?ignorebbr=1&m_ver=1
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 03, 2020, 07:09:03 AM
:lol one more SD slot than me

I finally kicked off some game installs and a data transfer before going to bed around 3am absolutely exhausted, but I'm so happy to report no issues today.  I removed my old 3TB drive as the data transfer completed and made some more adjustments on my settings... now I've got Call of Duty back running, but I'm trying to reconfigure all my settings with OBS to record properly.  Lots of testing going on today.

Awesome build Marc. I hope it stays problem free. I had a similar issue when I built my most recent PC. It would not boot into Windows, ended up having to reformat my OS SSD, it was strange because it wouldn't even post half the time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 07, 2020, 08:39:37 PM
Hey Marc, can you try this and report back? (https://youtu.be/LpeIFVyiPf0) Omg  :lol :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 08, 2020, 07:57:40 AM
if only RDR2 actually added content into the game to make me even want to load it again
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 08, 2020, 08:00:07 AM
if only RDR2 actually added content into the game to make me even want to load it again

That game has the most content of any game I've ever seen next to GTA 5 Online, WTF  :lol you must have burnt out badly
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 08, 2020, 08:21:09 AM
if only RDR2 actually added content into the game to make me even want to load it again

That game has the most content of any game I've ever seen next to GTA 5 Online, WTF  :lol you must have burnt out badly

Well the online mode hasn't gotten an update in a loooong time, while GTA5 continues to get regular content added.  Rockstar clearly gave up on the game, likely focusing on GTA 6 IMO.  There's plenty of content for sure, but the online mode ran out real quick.  They didn't even do another season of the outlaw pass which I thought was a given a month or so ago.  Well, I did reinstall it into the new PC (along with GTA 5 again) since I have all that space to install games now, but haven't actually fired it up, nor do I plan to until they potentially add more online content. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 08, 2020, 08:23:52 AM
That's sad that they apparently abandoned the online so fast. I hate how GTA Online has just monopolized their attention. Doesn't it have enough crap already...? I'm still salty GTA5 single player never got DLC after they said it would receive it, because they found out how much bank they could make with Online.

But hell, RDR2 single player, there are still 100 animals I haven't even SEEN yet.  :| So I'll be able to keep busy hahaha
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 08, 2020, 08:26:21 AM
That's sad that they apparently abandoned the online so fast. I hate how GTA Online has just monopolized their attention. Doesn't it have enough crap already...? I'm still salty GTA5 single player never got DLC after they said it would receive it, because they found out how much bank they could make with Online.

But hell, RDR2 single player, there are still 100 animals I haven't even SEEN yet.  :| So I'll be able to keep busy hahaha

I've never even completed RDR2 single player.  My game bugged out during a mission and I didn't want to do it all over again so I haven't gone back.  Also, I was at day like 130 of completed a daily challenge in the online mode before it also bugged out and for whatever reason didn't acknowledge my daily challenge done so it cut my streak.  That was actually what made me stop playing.  I have such a large amount of gold stock piled and nothing worthy to spend it on. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 08, 2020, 05:56:49 PM
Finally got my new RAM installed and took a couple of quick pics for y'all's perusing  :biggrin:
(https://i.imgur.com/PnI7llR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ujk3e4w.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on June 08, 2020, 05:58:53 PM
Good lord that is beautiful  :hefdaddy
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 08, 2020, 06:54:40 PM
Damn that looks amazing puppies.

What kind of Corsair cooling unit is that? Also those looks like Intel SSDs, how are they?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 08, 2020, 08:10:53 PM
Damn that looks amazing puppies.

What kind of Corsair cooling unit is that? Also those looks like Intel SSDs, how are they?
Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it. It is, after all, what I started my business doing, so it better look good  :lol Also it's not quite finished. I want to do some more custom fabrication on the case and perhaps a custom paint job inside and out. Haven't truly decided on a design yet. It's going to be a black and white theme though.

The Corsair is the iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT. It doesn't work quite as well as my old Fractal Design Celsius S36, but it didn't quite fit my overall Black/White/Ice theme, so I put it in my wifes computer.

Those Intel drives I bought in 2014 and I happened to catch them on sale. One is a 240GB and the other is a 480GB, but they are really fast even by today's standards for a SATA SSD (It butts right up to the SATA III bandwidth limit) and super durable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 08, 2020, 08:40:35 PM
Looks very nice  :yarr and you have a cool color design, no hard drives? just the two SSDs besides I guess two m.2?  also those 480G intels are solid since we use them at work
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 08, 2020, 08:46:46 PM
Quote
Those Intel drives I bought in 2014 and I happened to catch them on sale. One is a 240GB and the other is a 480GB, but they are really fast even by today's standards for a SATA SSD (It butts right up to the SATA III bandwidth limit) and super durable.
Ah ok, I for some reason thought they were the NVMe non SATA ones. I'm researching M.2 NVMe PCIe drives and the Western Digital Black SSDs NVMe drives have some amazing read/write speeds. The Intel Optane ones are highly rated too and thought those might be them.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 08, 2020, 09:11:44 PM
Looks very nice  :yarr and you have a cool color design, no hard drives? just the two SSDs besides I guess two m.2?  also those 480G intels are solid since we use them at work
Yeah I have a couple of M.2 drives as well. And another 2TB Samsung SSD mounted behind the motherboard tray.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on June 30, 2020, 01:28:21 AM
I love watching this guys videos, this was a good one: Spying on the Scammers [Part 1/4] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le71yVPh4uk)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 30, 2020, 07:05:34 PM
I love watching this guys videos, this was a good one: Spying on the Scammers [Part 1/4] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le71yVPh4uk)

Love Jim Browning, been watching his videos for a few years. That particular series of videos he did were amazing and the BBC made a documentary on these scammers that eventually led to some arrests for those scam artists. Though if you watch his other videos you can see how easy these setups are to restart and obfuscate their locations, Jim does some amazing work to infiltrate and try to save as many people as possible from their scams.

It's kinda amazing that these scammers make bank which is why they keep doing it, one of them he showed was making $3 million USD per month! that's USD!

Great videos.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on June 30, 2020, 07:26:12 PM
I love watching this guys videos, this was a good one: Spying on the Scammers [Part 1/4] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le71yVPh4uk)

Wow. That was awesome.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on July 03, 2020, 07:14:11 PM
Quote
Those Intel drives I bought in 2014 and I happened to catch them on sale. One is a 240GB and the other is a 480GB, but they are really fast even by today's standards for a SATA SSD (It butts right up to the SATA III bandwidth limit) and super durable.
Ah ok, I for some reason thought they were the NVMe non SATA ones. I'm researching M.2 NVMe PCIe drives and the Western Digital Black SSDs NVMe drives have some amazing read/write speeds. The Intel Optane ones are highly rated too and thought those might be them.

I don't know a lot about the optanes, but I believe they only show benefit when using them in conjunction with hdds.  Just so you don't waste your money :).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on July 07, 2020, 03:38:41 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 07, 2020, 06:57:27 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on July 07, 2020, 07:08:13 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on July 07, 2020, 07:13:11 PM
Have you tried both 2.4 and 5 bands?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 07, 2020, 07:19:22 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
How feasible would it be for you to retrofit a CAT6 cable as close as possible to the porch area that is giving you trouble? If it's possible I'd recommend getting an Access Point instead of the extenders (extenders almost never never work well, despite what they advertise) and hardwiring it into the router.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on July 07, 2020, 07:59:58 PM
Have you tried both 2.4 and 5 bands?

Yes
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on July 07, 2020, 08:12:32 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
How feasible would it be for you to retrofit a CAT6 cable as close as possible to the porch area that is giving you trouble? If it's possible I'd recommend getting an Access Point instead of the extenders (extenders almost never never work well, despite what they advertise) and hardwiring it into the router.

After researching this, I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to do this.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 07, 2020, 09:30:06 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?

I don't have that much experience with extenders, my house is around the same size and I used to have crappy reception in certain corners of the house. I then upgraded my router to a Netgear 6700 which is similar to yours AC1750 but has quite a consistent and strong range. I don't have any issues anywhere with my wifi.

What kind of walls do you have in your house, since you say it's an 80 year old home, mine are drywalls and the signals has no issues passing through. If yours are concrete I would imagine that would be one major reason.

I have no expertise in extending networks but I'd probably try what puppies suggests with an Access point rather than an extender.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on July 08, 2020, 06:05:15 AM
+1 with upgrading to a beast of a router rather than dealing with extenders. I was in the exact same position you are. I was having trouble getting Netflix in my gazebo.

Faizoff, is this the one you have? If so, I have the same one and got a much better signal both inside and outside my house. Basement is good to go as well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R2AZLD2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought the above over three years ago (for twice as much  :lol) and it's still working very well. I imagine the newer and more expensive models are even better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 08, 2020, 06:13:15 AM
Chino, that's the exact one I have. Been a year since I bought it and it's been running amazing so far.


Just looked at my order invoice from Amazon and I paid $81 for it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on July 08, 2020, 06:23:27 AM
I just checked my invoice as well. I didn't quite pay double. Turns out I paid only $134.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 12, 2020, 08:11:35 AM
What monitor are you guys running? I think I want to get a new monitor and rearrange my desk. I've been eyeing the samsung g7 but the thing has a pretty aggressive curve to it, I'm not sure if I'll like it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 12, 2020, 10:48:39 AM
That G7 monitor looks great, I myself currently use two 27" 1080p monitors, Asus and Planar. I'm planning out my upgrade for next year to 4k monitors and this time I want to move to 32" and also want to make sure it supports HDR for media playback. I'm not getting with gaming in mind so I'm still in the research phase.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 12, 2020, 11:07:44 AM
I have a 24 inch Acer 1080P monitor from like 10 years ago.  I have this new Dell 27 inch monitor that I was using to replace my Acer but it's not up to par for gaming even with a 2k resolution, the 60hz refresh rate doesn't work well for getting this high FPS so I use that new Dell monitor (it was from my office at work) is my second side monitor.    I definitely want to upgrade at some point, but I'm not sure I want to game at 4k so I don't think I want to dump insanes amount of money if the end result is that I'm going to want to game at 1080 anyway for the FPS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on July 12, 2020, 10:14:14 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
How feasible would it be for you to retrofit a CAT6 cable as close as possible to the porch area that is giving you trouble? If it's possible I'd recommend getting an Access Point instead of the extenders (extenders almost never never work well, despite what they advertise) and hardwiring it into the router.

After researching this, I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to do this.  :lol

Also, what kind of modem do you have?  If the modem is old, you may be running into a technology bottle neck (your modem could be a couple of generations old compared to the signal that is coming into your home from your service).  Getting a newer modem equipped with the latest tech may really help your signal and couple that with a new router with several antennas and it may fix your problem.

Also, it is always possible that someone has hacked into your signal and it running torrents on it all day long.  That would crap out your signal as well.  So try changing your password.  That might be the cheapest possible fix.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 12, 2020, 11:07:28 PM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
How feasible would it be for you to retrofit a CAT6 cable as close as possible to the porch area that is giving you trouble? If it's possible I'd recommend getting an Access Point instead of the extenders (extenders almost never never work well, despite what they advertise) and hardwiring it into the router.

After researching this, I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to do this.  :lol

Also, what kind of modem do you have?  If the modem is old, you may be running into a technology bottle neck (your modem could be a couple of generations old compared to the signal that is coming into your home from your service).  Getting a newer modem equipped with the latest tech may really help your signal and couple that with a new router with several antennas and it may fix your problem.

Also, it is always possible that someone has hacked into your signal and it running torrents on it all day long.  That would crap out your signal as well.  So try changing your password.  That might be the cheapest possible fix.
I doubt his modem is the issue, since he's getting 150mbps on most devices. And while it's technically possibly somebody is piggybacking onto his WiFi, I still don't think that's the issue. Changing the WiFi password couldn't hurt, though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on July 13, 2020, 08:35:39 AM
Guess this the best spot to put this, so....

I will preface this by saying I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Looking for help to increase WiFi signal around the house. We have about an 1800 square foot home and it’s about 80 years old. On most wireless devices we’re getting around 150 mbps, while on the hardwire it’s around 225 mbps. We recently added a small porch to the front of the house and when we check the speed it’s around 35 to 40. Bought an extender to try an help but when we switch to that the signal is almost nothing. So basically, inside the front door the signal is good, outside the front door the signal is bad. What’s more odd is that we get all the neighbors WiFi names on our devices while we’re outside so we know it should be possible to boost ours.

We love sitting on the porch when the weather is nice so it’d be good to get better WiFi. Any suggestions?
What kind of router and wifi extenders are you currently using?

Router is a TP Link AC1750, extender is a TP Link as well, not sure of the model, but I know it’s nothing fancy.
How feasible would it be for you to retrofit a CAT6 cable as close as possible to the porch area that is giving you trouble? If it's possible I'd recommend getting an Access Point instead of the extenders (extenders almost never never work well, despite what they advertise) and hardwiring it into the router.

After researching this, I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to do this.  :lol

Also, what kind of modem do you have?  If the modem is old, you may be running into a technology bottle neck (your modem could be a couple of generations old compared to the signal that is coming into your home from your service).  Getting a newer modem equipped with the latest tech may really help your signal and couple that with a new router with several antennas and it may fix your problem.

Also, it is always possible that someone has hacked into your signal and it running torrents on it all day long.  That would crap out your signal as well.  So try changing your password.  That might be the cheapest possible fix.

Modem was replaced when we got the new router.  Both are only six months old. Our porch is just in a bad spot for WiFi.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 13, 2020, 09:26:54 AM
I actually switched over from a TP link a few months ago because I was having dropout's upstairs. I upgraded to an Amplifi router with an upstairs access point, all in all it cost around $300 but it was really worth cost. I used UBNT devices when I ran a hotel years ago and their proprietary communications software (can't remember the name at the moment) between stations and AP's was stellar.

You can always try an amplifi router out and return it if it doesn't work.

One more thing that you can try is different antenna placement on your TP Link.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 13, 2020, 06:47:24 PM
I actually switched over from a TP link a few months ago because I was having dropout's upstairs. I upgraded to an Amplifi router with an upstairs access point, all in all it cost around $300 but it was really worth cost. I used UBNT devices when I ran a hotel years ago and their proprietary communications software (can't remember the name at the moment) between stations and AP's was stellar.

You can always try an amplifi router out and return it if it doesn't work.

One more thing that you can try is different antenna placement on your TP Link.
The Amplifi stuff from Ubiqiuti is indeed a great solution if hardwiring a regular access point is not possible.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 14, 2020, 06:12:52 AM
Once I got into ubiquti stuff years back it's always been my favorite hardware. Their commercial stuff is no nonsense and works beautifully. The amplifi stuff is just stellar.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 14, 2020, 01:31:31 PM
Once I got into ubiquti stuff years back it's always been my favorite hardware. Their commercial stuff is no nonsense and works beautifully. The amplifi stuff is just stellar.
For work I use their point to point antennas a lot. They just work so well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 16, 2020, 08:04:19 AM
I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on July 16, 2020, 08:46:04 AM
I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
You're finally moving on? I've been having an issue with my setup, and I knocked around the idea of rebuilding. I started looking at benchmarks a couple of days ago and the mid-range now is only marginally better than what I've got. The i5 and r5 chips seem to be about 30-40% faster than my 9 year old, overclocked i5, and I don't feel terribly inclined to start from scratch for that amount of benefit. I usually don't upgrade until I can double whatever performance I'm looking at. While I'm sure I could, I also consider paying a premium for the newest stuff super-wasteful. There might be a sweet spot where I can buy a early 2019 i7 for a reasonable price, but that's a harder thing to look into.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 16, 2020, 08:52:12 AM
I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
You're finally moving on? I've been having an issue with my setup, and I knocked around the idea of rebuilding. I started looking at benchmarks a couple of days ago and the mid-range now is only marginally better than what I've got. The i5 and r5 chips seem to be about 30-40% faster than my 9 year old, overclocked i5, and I don't feel terribly inclined to start from scratch for that amount of benefit. I usually don't upgrade until I can double whatever performance I'm looking at. While I'm sure I could, I also consider paying a premium for the newest stuff super-wasteful. There might be a sweet spot where I can buy a early 2019 i7 for a reasonable price, but that's a harder thing to look into.

Are you only looking at clock speed?  I'm very happy with my AMD chip in my new build, AMD has more cores per cost. Even at work where we are an intel based shop, we are starting to test AMD servers because the cost per core is cheaper. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 16, 2020, 09:06:28 AM
I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet (https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet)
You're finally moving on? I've been having an issue with my setup, and I knocked around the idea of rebuilding. I started looking at benchmarks a couple of days ago and the mid-range now is only marginally better than what I've got. The i5 and r5 chips seem to be about 30-40% faster than my 9 year old, overclocked i5, and I don't feel terribly inclined to start from scratch for that amount of benefit. I usually don't upgrade until I can double whatever performance I'm looking at. While I'm sure I could, I also consider paying a premium for the newest stuff super-wasteful. There might be a sweet spot where I can buy a early 2019 i7 for a reasonable price, but that's a harder thing to look into.

I'm not upgrading just yet on CPU+RAM+Mobo(+ SSD NVMe PCIe). Unless something completely fails I will probably only upgrade those parts next year. I'm gearing up to get a 4k setup mostly for media viewing and faster encoding. I don't game as much as I used to and I did get an RX 590 8 GB Radeon which is good enough for me for at least another few years.

I've been reading up on benchmarks and tech reviews of various CPUs and I think this time I'm going to spring for an R9 or i9 category. Several applications have taken use of the multi threaded cores that are now available. The Ryzen 9 3900X is at the top of my wish list and by the looks of the best bang for the buck and right now there's a great deal going on for it. But I'm still in research mode and don't need the parts just yet.

The reading is a fun way to catch up on new technologies and see what else I might be missing out on.  I haven't checked exactly how much of a performance gain I'd get across the same category upgrade, since I'm most likely going to get a much higher performance category I'm sure the difference will be highly noticeable. Especially for media encoding, I have a large collection of blurays and now 4k blurays which take a ton of time to encode on my current machine. That would be my biggest motivation to get the best performing machine at a somewhat decent price.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on July 16, 2020, 09:15:50 AM
I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
You're finally moving on? I've been having an issue with my setup, and I knocked around the idea of rebuilding. I started looking at benchmarks a couple of days ago and the mid-range now is only marginally better than what I've got. The i5 and r5 chips seem to be about 30-40% faster than my 9 year old, overclocked i5, and I don't feel terribly inclined to start from scratch for that amount of benefit. I usually don't upgrade until I can double whatever performance I'm looking at. While I'm sure I could, I also consider paying a premium for the newest stuff super-wasteful. There might be a sweet spot where I can buy a early 2019 i7 for a reasonable price, but that's a harder thing to look into.

Are you only looking at clock speed?  I'm very happy with my AMD chip in my new build, AMD has more cores per cost. Even at work where we are an intel based shop, we are starting to test AMD servers because the cost per core is cheaper.
Synthetic benchmarks. Though in some tests newer chips do significantly outperform. As a rule the more threads that can be utilized the greater the difference in performance. As for AMD vs Intel, what I've been using for the last 9 years was my first Intel build after years of AMD loyalty, and I can safely say I'm never going back. Not only has it been a monstrous overachiever, the driver support is just so much better. It's probably not fair, but my hatred of Radeon has really soured me on AMD across the board.



I've known that the actor Henry Cavill loves PC gaming, It looks like he posted his own PC build, a lot of parts are what I've been looking to upgrade to.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet (https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCs-N1Eh2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet)
You're finally moving on? I've been having an issue with my setup, and I knocked around the idea of rebuilding. I started looking at benchmarks a couple of days ago and the mid-range now is only marginally better than what I've got. The i5 and r5 chips seem to be about 30-40% faster than my 9 year old, overclocked i5, and I don't feel terribly inclined to start from scratch for that amount of benefit. I usually don't upgrade until I can double whatever performance I'm looking at. While I'm sure I could, I also consider paying a premium for the newest stuff super-wasteful. There might be a sweet spot where I can buy a early 2019 i7 for a reasonable price, but that's a harder thing to look into.

I'm not upgrading just yet on CPU+RAM+Mobo(+ SSD NVMe PCIe). Unless something completely fails I will probably only upgrade those parts next year. I'm gearing up to get a 4k setup mostly for media viewing and faster encoding. I don't game as much as I used to and I did get an RX 590 8 GB Radeon which is good enough for me for at least another few years.

I've been reading up on benchmarks and tech reviews of various CPUs and I think this time I'm going to spring for an R9 or i9 category. Several applications have taken use of the multi threaded cores that are now available. The Ryzen 9 3900X is at the top of my wish list and by the looks of the best bang for the buck and right now there's a great deal going on for it. But I'm still in research mode and don't need the parts just yet.

The reading is a fun way to catch up on new technologies and see what else I might be missing out on.  I haven't checked exactly how much of a performance gain I'd get across the same category upgrade, since I'm most likely going to get a much higher performance category I'm sure the difference will be highly noticeable. Especially for media encoding, I have a large collection of blurays and now 4k blurays which take a ton of time to encode on my current machine. That would be my biggest motivation to get the best performing machine at a somewhat decent price.

Alright. was just seeing if your 2500k was no longer working for you. For video encoding you'll no doubt see a big difference. Like I said, the more threads the greater the boost. Since I usually play older games, and don't mind letting something encode overnight, it's just not a big problem for me yet. I was just knocking around the idea of rebuilding rather than troubleshooting (and may still go that route).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 16, 2020, 09:25:59 AM
Alright. was just seeing if your 2500k was no longer working for you. For video encoding you'll no doubt see a big difference. Like I said, the more threads the greater the boost. Since I usually play older games, and don't mind letting something encode overnight, it's just not a big problem for me yet. I was just knocking around the idea of rebuilding rather than troubleshooting (and may still go that route).


What issues are you having? I too mostly play older games which ran mostly fine on the 6870 but I really wanted to play GTA V and it was a very crappy experience. Getting the new GPU sort of put me on the path to upgrade and scratched that upgrade itch so I can at least hold off on fully upgrading for now.


From what I've read the AMD driver support now is top notch for their newer lineups of GPUs and CPUs. I'd imagine you can't go wrong with either CPU nowadays unless the product is a complete failure ala the first AMD Bulldriver CPUs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 16, 2020, 09:34:03 AM
The Ryzen 9 3900X is at the top of my wish list and by the looks of the best bang for the buck

This is what I put in my new build and can attest to it being a beast of a CPU. 

As for AMD vs Intel, what I've been using for the last 9 years was my first Intel build after years of AMD loyalty, and I can safely say I'm never going back. Not only has it been a monstrous overachiever, the driver support is just so much better. It's probably not fair, but my hatred of Radeon has really soured me on AMD across the board. 

Well 9 years ago Intel was definitely a better product than AMD.  Seems the tide has changed in recent years though.  Many people, myself included, have moved from Intel to AMD.  I had never used AMD before and typically just would go with a top rated and reviewed CPU that met my requirements (I7 2600k -> I7 6500k -> Ryzen 9 3900x from my last three builds).  I don't think you should let your hatred of Radeon hold you back today, you can throw an Nvidia graphics card on an AMD CPU build. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on July 16, 2020, 09:47:28 AM
Alright. was just seeing if your 2500k was no longer working for you. For video encoding you'll no doubt see a big difference. Like I said, the more threads the greater the boost. Since I usually play older games, and don't mind letting something encode overnight, it's just not a big problem for me yet. I was just knocking around the idea of rebuilding rather than troubleshooting (and may still go that route).


What issues are you having? I too mostly play older games which ran mostly fine on the 6870 but I really wanted to play GTA V and it was a very crappy experience. Getting the new GPU sort of put me on the path to upgrade and scratched that upgrade itch so I can at least hold off on fully upgrading for now.
Just random pauses. One to five seconds. Probably a Windows issue, honestly, but if it were the time to upgrade that problem would be fixed in the process.

Quote
From what I've read the AMD driver support now is top notch for their newer lineups of GPUs and CPUs. I'd imagine you can't go wrong with either CPU nowadays unless the product is a complete failure ala the first AMD Bulldriver CPUs.
That may be true, but after decades of putting up withe their bullshit I'm done with them. This goes back to the AMD All-In-Wonder Pro. For a great deal of my computing life I've needed two graphics cards to accomplish what I want to accomplish and getting them to play nice was a nightmare. Hell, getting one of them to play nice was. Once I dropped in a 1060GTX and it did what it took two AMD cards to do right out of the box, that was it for AMD. Moreover, the two have a fundamentally different approach to how drivers should work. AMD wants a massive suite that does tons of stuff, and invariably it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for, assuming they even make it available to you. It seemed they wanted you to stay out of the actual settings for your own benefit. Nvidia seems to use a more minimalist and intuitive approach. Something as simple as changing the position of one of your monitors took digging around in Catalyst. It's right in front of you with the Nvidia control panel.


As for AMD vs Intel, what I've been using for the last 9 years was my first Intel build after years of AMD loyalty, and I can safely say I'm never going back. Not only has it been a monstrous overachiever, the driver support is just so much better. It's probably not fair, but my hatred of Radeon has really soured me on AMD across the board. 

Well 9 years ago Intel was definitely a better product than AMD.  Seems the tide has changed in recent years though.  Many people, myself included, have moved from Intel to AMD.  I had never used AMD before and typically just would go with a top rated and reviewed CPU that met my requirements (I7 2600k -> I7 6500k -> Ryzen 9 3900x from my last three builds).  I don't think you should let your hatred of Radeon hold you back today, you can throw an Nvidia graphics card on an AMD CPU build. 
Like Faizoff said, you can't really go wrong with either. AMD might actually have a slight (very slight) edge in performance. Intel is still comparable, and past experience has cause me to like them far, far more than AMD. And as I said, that's after years of being an AMD fanboy. If I cared about 128 FPS vs 124 FPS, perhaps I'd reconsider. That's just never been a thing for me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 16, 2020, 10:16:13 AM
I'm not trying to convert you, just offer another perspective as someone who just made the switch myself.  But yea, your requirements are different than mine and that will drive what you purchase.  I found the extra cores to be useful for my usage.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 16, 2020, 10:19:08 AM
AMD wants a massive suite that does tons of stuff, and invariably it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for, assuming they even make it available to you. It seemed they wanted you to stay out of the actual settings for your own benefit. Nvidia seems to use a more minimalist and intuitive approach. Something as simple as changing the position of one of your monitors took digging around in Catalyst. It's right in front of you with the Nvidia control panel.


Catalyst was a big pile of crap and I would always install the bare minimum it would allow. When windows 10 managed and installed all drivers by default I didn't even bother going to the AMD website anymore for driver updates. Their new Adrenaline software though is miles better and I was initially skeptical about it but I have to say it's actually pretty good.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 16, 2020, 11:18:49 AM
Alright. was just seeing if your 2500k was no longer working for you. For video encoding you'll no doubt see a big difference. Like I said, the more threads the greater the boost. Since I usually play older games, and don't mind letting something encode overnight, it's just not a big problem for me yet. I was just knocking around the idea of rebuilding rather than troubleshooting (and may still go that route).


What issues are you having? I too mostly play older games which ran mostly fine on the 6870 but I really wanted to play GTA V and it was a very crappy experience. Getting the new GPU sort of put me on the path to upgrade and scratched that upgrade itch so I can at least hold off on fully upgrading for now.
Just random pauses. One to five seconds. Probably a Windows issue, honestly, but if it were the time to upgrade that problem would be fixed in the process.

Quote
From what I've read the AMD driver support now is top notch for their newer lineups of GPUs and CPUs. I'd imagine you can't go wrong with either CPU nowadays unless the product is a complete failure ala the first AMD Bulldriver CPUs.
That may be true, but after decades of putting up withe their bullshit I'm done with them. This goes back to the AMD All-In-Wonder Pro. For a great deal of my computing life I've needed two graphics cards to accomplish what I want to accomplish and getting them to play nice was a nightmare. Hell, getting one of them to play nice was. Once I dropped in a 1060GTX and it did what it took two AMD cards to do right out of the box, that was it for AMD. Moreover, the two have a fundamentally different approach to how drivers should work. AMD wants a massive suite that does tons of stuff, and invariably it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for, assuming they even make it available to you. It seemed they wanted you to stay out of the actual settings for your own benefit. Nvidia seems to use a more minimalist and intuitive approach. Something as simple as changing the position of one of your monitors took digging around in Catalyst. It's right in front of you with the Nvidia control panel.


As for AMD vs Intel, what I've been using for the last 9 years was my first Intel build after years of AMD loyalty, and I can safely say I'm never going back. Not only has it been a monstrous overachiever, the driver support is just so much better. It's probably not fair, but my hatred of Radeon has really soured me on AMD across the board. 

Well 9 years ago Intel was definitely a better product than AMD.  Seems the tide has changed in recent years though.  Many people, myself included, have moved from Intel to AMD.  I had never used AMD before and typically just would go with a top rated and reviewed CPU that met my requirements (I7 2600k -> I7 6500k -> Ryzen 9 3900x from my last three builds).  I don't think you should let your hatred of Radeon hold you back today, you can throw an Nvidia graphics card on an AMD CPU build. 
Like Faizoff said, you can't really go wrong with either. AMD might actually have a slight (very slight) edge in performance. Intel is still comparable, and past experience has cause me to like them far, far more than AMD. And as I said, that's after years of being an AMD fanboy. If I cared about 128 FPS vs 124 FPS, perhaps I'd reconsider. That's just never been a thing for me.

Oh god the all-in-wonder :lol

I actually made the switch to intel for the first time ever in my life with my latest build and I couldn't be happier. I don't really need the extra cores and it is one hell of a rig.

AMD wants a massive suite that does tons of stuff, and invariably it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for, assuming they even make it available to you. It seemed they wanted you to stay out of the actual settings for your own benefit. Nvidia seems to use a more minimalist and intuitive approach. Something as simple as changing the position of one of your monitors took digging around in Catalyst. It's right in front of you with the Nvidia control panel.


Catalyst was a big pile of crap and I would always install the bare minimum it would allow.

Digging through catalyst menus was a nightmare when I had my amd card.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 16, 2020, 11:31:31 AM
Was there ever a time you could go wrong with Intel? I mean apart from jacked up pricing, I recall all their CPUs being reliable and performant according to specs. AMD seems to be the one that cycles through their CPUs in terms of performance and reliability. Though by far their Ryzen line has crushed it lately in several categories.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 16, 2020, 02:10:42 PM
I don't know, I think that during the days of the Duron processor they were offering some real performance. I'm sure that's under the tint of rose colored glasses as I was a AMD diehard back that.

Truthfully I think it's only recently that Ryzen is giving them some strong competition. The pricing is really hard to contend with which is one of the reasons I always built AMD/ATI rigs simply because they were cheaper to build. I've always experienced minor issues with my amd rigs usually along the lines of driver support or cooling.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Northern Lion on July 16, 2020, 02:15:55 PM
The last few times I've built a new computer I've said to myself "this time I'm going AMD", and I bail at the last minute and stick with Intel.  So next time I build a new rig I'm going AMD  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 17, 2020, 11:06:04 AM
Windows Task Manager Runs Doom (896 cores) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSoCmAoIMOU)

Okey that's a new way to play doom.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 17, 2020, 01:17:31 PM
I saw that a few days ago and it is wild. So crazy!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 24, 2020, 02:09:40 PM
I need a good name for the newest addition to the family...

(https://i.imgur.com/XtSXpP5.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 24, 2020, 02:11:19 PM
Niiiiiiiice!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 24, 2020, 02:27:44 PM
Dang.

What CPU cooler is that? Also specs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 24, 2020, 03:25:16 PM
Nice! I have the same cooler and I love it, mainly for how quiet my system is.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 24, 2020, 04:13:33 PM
nice!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: TioJorge on July 24, 2020, 10:50:05 PM
Looking good! Is that a Phanteks case? Or maybe InWin?

People are all of a sudden crapping on the GTX GPUs as if they're suddenly horrible but I'm still rocking my GTX 1080 and doing just fine. I probably won't upgrade till the RTX 3000 series. And by then we'll have put RayTracing to some actual good use!  :P
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on July 25, 2020, 02:24:55 AM
I'm still rocking my GTX 1080
:highfive:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on July 25, 2020, 05:01:43 AM
I'm an ancient fossil here with my GTX970
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 25, 2020, 05:37:39 AM
Not sure what the case is off the top of my head, I'm going to pick it up Monday. The cooler I believe is a Corsair 115i. 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, an Aorus extreme mobo, an i9 9900k CPU, a GTX 1080 Ti, and a 1 TB SSD.

Now I need to pick me up that gorgeous new music gear but I might enjoy a game or two on it in the meantime
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 25, 2020, 09:23:33 AM
I'm still rocking my GTX 1080
:highfive:

Same, card is a beast and not holding me back at all.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 25, 2020, 09:46:56 AM
I wish i got on the 1080 train when they first came out. Those cards are monsters especially for the value pre-bitcoin inflation.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 26, 2020, 08:28:55 PM
Not sure what the case is off the top of my head, I'm going to pick it up Monday. The cooler I believe is a Corsair 115i. 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, an Aorus extreme mobo, an i9 9900k CPU, a GTX 1080 Ti, and a 1 TB SSD.

Now I need to pick me up that gorgeous new music gear but I might enjoy a game or two on it in the meantime

Sweet! Killer setup. What SSD is it? M.2 NVMe or SATA?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 27, 2020, 05:24:54 AM
Speaking of SSD's I installed a 2tb m.2 nvme in my rig yesterday so I can get rid of some of my 10 year old hdd's Ive been hoarding. I love this thing, it's so goddamn fast.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 27, 2020, 09:18:55 AM
Yeah SSDs are the best component for reinvigorating an older PC. Even though theoretically NVMe SSDs allow for much faster throughput than SATA SSDs I'm finding very little difference in real life applications. Or at least nothing earth shattering when you compare the specs between the two.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 27, 2020, 09:22:44 AM
Not sure what the case is off the top of my head, I'm going to pick it up Monday. The cooler I believe is a Corsair 115i. 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, an Aorus extreme mobo, an i9 9900k CPU, a GTX 1080 Ti, and a 1 TB SSD.

Now I need to pick me up that gorgeous new music gear but I might enjoy a game or two on it in the meantime

Sweet! Killer setup. What SSD is it? M.2 NVMe or SATA?

M.2 NVMe. First time even seeing one of those in person, so it's pretty nifty imo. It just looks nice in the rig too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 27, 2020, 12:56:28 PM
Very close to ordering a 4K monitor for the new rig. Might as well, right? Put that GTX 1080Ti to work :) Also picked up a brand new lighted keyboard and mouse - normally I don't buy flashy peripherals but for this baby I think it's worth it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 27, 2020, 01:13:39 PM
I'd say get one that has freesync or gsync.  I think if anything, I want that for my next monitor. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 27, 2020, 02:40:05 PM
I'd say get one that has freesync or gsync.  I think if anything, I want that for my next monitor. 

Agreed.

For me personally I'd rather have a 1440p monitor running at 144hz with or without gsync/freesync than 4k at 60fps. Once I went to 144hz there is no going back IMO. Also Nvidia will now support some freesync monitors which are typically cheaper, something to keep in mind.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 27, 2020, 03:23:21 PM
Yeah, my bud just dropped off the PC and showed me some monitors. I ended up going with this one (https://www.amazon.com/LG-34GL750-B-inch-Ultragear-Compatible/dp/B0826Y3YL8/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=lg%2Bultrawide&qid=1595883607&sr=8-10&th=1)[. Apparently it was the last one in stock (34" style) because it's sold out now haha.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 27, 2020, 03:26:51 PM
Looks really solid.  I've heard from others that they really love the curved screen.  Let me know what you think.  My initial thoughts were that I wouldn't want it, but I've never tried and people I've talked to generally really like it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 27, 2020, 03:33:01 PM
Looks really solid.  I've heard from others that they really love the curved screen.  Let me know what you think.  My initial thoughts were that I wouldn't want it, but I've never tried and people I've talked to generally really like it.

Considering I'm upgrading from an old 4:3, square, basic ass monitor from like 2008, I just might piss myself.  :lol And it comes with a mounting arm which is a HUGE bonus. I'll definitely report my thoughts.

Okay I spent like $2900 today :eek but it was soooo worth it. Now to recuperate financially for a little bit before I go buying music equipment. I think I'll install some PC games from the last few years in the meantime and see how much I can crank up the settings...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on July 27, 2020, 04:26:22 PM
I'd imagine you play everything at max settings with that build.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 27, 2020, 04:27:49 PM
 :lol I might have to use this $50 gift card on a fairly new PC game, just to try it. Hey, maybe double dipping on RDR2 isn't a bad idea after all...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 27, 2020, 08:31:29 PM
Looks really solid.  I've heard from others that they really love the curved screen.  Let me know what you think.  My initial thoughts were that I wouldn't want it, but I've never tried and people I've talked to generally really like it.

Considering I'm upgrading from an old 4:3, square, basic ass monitor from like 2008, I just might piss myself.  :lol And it comes with a mounting arm which is a HUGE bonus. I'll definitely report my thoughts.

Okay I spent like $2900 today :eek but it was soooo worth it. Now to recuperate financially for a little bit before I go buying music equipment. I think I'll install some PC games from the last few years in the meantime and see how much I can crank up the settings...

Dang that monitor looks nice. I initially went from a 17" 4:3 screen 10 years back to a 23" monitor wide screen and that switch was a huge change. The move to a 2x 27" was even better. for me the next upgrade is a 4k 32" monitor ideally an IPS panel, don't care much for 144 Mhz.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on July 28, 2020, 07:30:59 AM
I'm moving my home office to the basement to have more room and not require AC in the summer. I'm going to build a mega desk and have an unusually large amount of Costco Cash coming my way at the end of the year (I've put a lot of contracting work on the Costco card for the points), and think I'm going to splurge on a nice monitor. I've been toying with the idea of a 34"+ ultra wide for a while now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on July 28, 2020, 07:37:33 AM
I'm looking at stuff to buy when the prices calm down again but have a much more modest budget. I'm currently looking at either the 23.5 or 27 inch of a particular AOC model at the moment trying to decide if the additional 3.5 inches is worth it. I'm leaning towards probably not but part of me wants to buy the bigger one anyway just because. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 28, 2020, 08:25:57 AM
I'm moving my home office to the basement to have more room and not require AC in the summer. I'm going to build a mega desk and have an unusually large amount of Costco Cash coming my way at the end of the year (I've put a lot of contracting work on the Costco card for the points), and think I'm going to splurge on a nice monitor. I've been toying with the idea of a 34"+ ultra wide for a while now.
After going with my 35" ultrawide I could never go back. It's great for all situations on a PC. Whether I'm gaming, or doing work, editing music files, programming, etc.....it's perfect!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 31, 2020, 07:19:34 AM
So the monitor arrived yesterday. Other than the new desk, my setup is complete.

(https://i.imgur.com/gu3CDK6.jpg)

Just having a little issue with sound. Now maybe I was a little tired last night but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get sound out of the speakers - until I plugged them into my monitor. Now I have to find an equalizer for Windows 10, because there is no option for one in any of the Win10 sound options. I downloaded a couple, but I could not get any of them to work for some reason. My monitors are very flat and unfortunately heavy on the mids and I don't want to use headphones all the time, so I really need an EQ, especially with all the kinds of music I want to play.

Other than that it runs at the speed of light, never seen a computer this fast in my life. Witcher 3 is kind of old at this point but still seeing it run at 1440p 60fps at maxed out settings with the ultrawide view had me in awe. Running around and catching some vistas was just ridiculous. Also there were literally no loading times wtf  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 31, 2020, 07:29:54 AM
That's an awesome setup :tup. Have you checked out some of the Witcher HD packs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ErHaO on July 31, 2020, 08:12:13 AM
So the monitor arrived yesterday. Other than the new desk, my setup is complete.

(https://i.imgur.com/gu3CDK6.jpg)

Just having a little issue with sound. Now maybe I was a little tired last night but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get sound out of the speakers - until I plugged them into my monitor. Now I have to find an equalizer for Windows 10, because there is no option for one in any of the Win10 sound options. I downloaded a couple, but I could not get any of them to work for some reason. My monitors are very flat and unfortunately heavy on the mids and I don't want to use headphones all the time, so I really need an EQ, especially with all the kinds of music I want to play.

Other than that it runs at the speed of light, never seen a computer this fast in my life. Witcher 3 is kind of old at this point but still seeing it run at 1440p 60fps at maxed out settings with the ultrawide view had me in awe. Running around and catching some vistas was just ridiculous. Also there were literally no loading times wtf  :lol

Awesome, ultra widescreen is amazing. And while the Witcher 3 has some aged elements, especially the animations, the game is full of beautiful vistas and unique locations. One of the best open worlds made in my opinion. Furthermore, the DLC Blood and Wine (a seperate campaign with it's own open world, though intented as a sequel) looks even better (technically), as they improved their engine there.

And though I can't really recommend the game itself (I love it, but it really is a hate or love it game), Death Stranding in widescreen looks to be something truly amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly4QoHj1T8Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly4QoHj1T8Q)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on July 31, 2020, 08:37:05 AM
So the monitor arrived yesterday. Other than the new desk, my setup is complete.

(https://i.imgur.com/gu3CDK6.jpg)

Just having a little issue with sound. Now maybe I was a little tired last night but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get sound out of the speakers - until I plugged them into my monitor. Now I have to find an equalizer for Windows 10, because there is no option for one in any of the Win10 sound options. I downloaded a couple, but I could not get any of them to work for some reason. My monitors are very flat and unfortunately heavy on the mids and I don't want to use headphones all the time, so I really need an EQ, especially with all the kinds of music I want to play.

Other than that it runs at the speed of light, never seen a computer this fast in my life. Witcher 3 is kind of old at this point but still seeing it run at 1440p 60fps at maxed out settings with the ultrawide view had me in awe. Running around and catching some vistas was just ridiculous. Also there were literally no loading times wtf  :lol
Regarding your sound issues, does it have a discrete soundcard (if so, what model) or are you using the motherboard's sound output (again, if so, what model). Also are the speakers you are using powered speakers or are they on an amp? If they are amplified, I would recommend getting an outboard EQ and running it before the amplifier.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on July 31, 2020, 08:54:14 AM
Walrus,

While your in a money spending mood, you should get this USB speaker system (https://www.amazon.com/Bose-Companion-multimedia-speaker-Graphite/dp/B000HZBR64). Your computer deserves it!

I have the first series of this model and I love it for both music and gaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 31, 2020, 09:15:15 AM
Thanks guys! I'm so happy with it. I'll make note of the speaker system, but I'm so tapped out for cash at the moment, I'm gonna eat ramen and hot dogs for the next month while I let my bank account heal a little  :lol I haven't checked out Witcher 3 HD packs but now I think I should. The speakers aren't amplified, they're powered, and it doesn't have a discrete soundcard, it's built into the motherboard.

This (https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Z390-AORUS-LGA1151-Motherboards/dp/B07KJ8LW4B) is the mobo. Now, I have the speakers plugged into the monitor, as it recognizes the monitor as its own sound device (it has its own volume control and headphone jack, where the speakers are plugged in). If I plug the speakers directly into the computer's IO panel, the only one it will recognize is when it's plugged into the line out port. It then shows 'speakers' in the sound menu, but I can't get any sound out of them. Drivers are all updated, but I'll double check when I'm home later. So basically the speakers work when plugged into the monitor but not directly out of the computer even when they're set as the default device.

Also, this computer has an optical audio port. The only other time I've used those is for my soundbar on my main TV. I'm not sure what the purpose of the optical connection is; does it offer better transfer of audio data or something?

Death Stranding is something I think about a lot, but I just can't stand Hideo Kojima games, I think I like them better if I just watch all the cutscenes as a very long movie, but I hate playing them. I would love for some giant Hollywood studio with a massive budget to work with him on an epic movie.

EDIT: I've named all my laptops and PCs after Lord of the Rings/Middle-Earth nomenclature. I've had Arkenstone, Burzum, Barad-dûr, and Elendilmir. I think I'll name this one Eru. :D
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on July 31, 2020, 07:57:15 PM
Also, this computer has an optical audio port. The only other time I've used those is for my soundbar on my main TV. I'm not sure what the purpose of the optical connection is; does it offer better transfer of audio data or something?
In a way. Using the audio jacks, you are relying on the audio components on the motherboard (the DAC) to convert the digital information into an analogue signal. There are two possible issues with this: Firstly, the quality of those components might not be great because excellent audio quality isn't usually a priority for motherboard manufacturers. Secondly, because it's all built into the motherboard, there will often be interference from other components in your PC creating noise in the signal. If you were to use the optical out, the signal to the speaker system is digital and not affected by either of those problems, the sound system's DAC would be handling the conversion will be of higher quality and separated from the computer and any sources of interference in it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on July 31, 2020, 08:05:51 PM
That's really cool. Thanks Bolsters! :hefdaddy

Also I figured out the audio issue by getting the EQ to work and just spent a couple hours fiddling with it getting it just right :hat
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 10, 2020, 07:06:41 AM
This is true every time I build a new pc

(https://i.redd.it/9p6z7pkll1g51.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 10, 2020, 07:14:54 AM
 :rollin
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: lonestar on August 10, 2020, 11:47:42 AM
Glorious
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on August 12, 2020, 11:54:30 AM
Any of you guys have experience with the Microsoft Surface? I'm looking to turn my basement into my hobby room, but I want to leave my primary PC upstairs. I'd like a computer down there as well, but don't want to spend and arm or a leg, nor do I need anything powerful. Microsoft's website has the Surface Go 2 for $400. I know gen one had its problems, but it seems like they garnered a good reputation after that. I'm debating grabbing one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 12, 2020, 12:19:38 PM
Any of you guys have experience with the Microsoft Surface? I'm looking to turn my basement into my hobby room, but I want to leave my primary PC upstairs. I'd like a computer down there as well, but don't want to spend and arm or a leg, nor do I need anything powerful. Microsoft's website has the Surface Go 2 for $400. I know gen one had its problems, but it seems like they garnered a good reputation after that. I'm debating grabbing one.
Does that include the keyboard? The stylus? Insofar as convertible tablets go, that was the leader of the pack when I was shopping a year ago. Having to spend even more money on components that should be included kind of pissed me off, though. Also, IIRC, it's got an oddball OS. It can be concerted to W10, but it takes some doing. I decided to just buy a used Thinkpad convertible off of CL, and it's served me remarkably well. I got one of these for one bill even. I use it almost entirely for traveling, and it's been perfect.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-36984SU-11-6-Inch-Convertible-Touchscreen/dp/B00BBLEYXQ
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on August 12, 2020, 12:28:27 PM
Just checked the website. That's without anything! Didn't catch that on my first look over. It wasn't evident until I actually went to configure one for check out. I'll pass. I'm not dropping $600 after taxes for something is a 10.5" screen.

Just checked Costco. Sucks that it looks like this one sold out while on sale. That's a good buy for $350. I really just need something that can access forums and youtube while on my work bench, and also run a 3d printer slicing software.

https://www.costco.com/samsung-12.2%22-touchscreen-2-in-1-chromebook---intel-celeron---1920-x-1200p---digital-pen-%2526-bonus-pouch.product.100502331.html



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 12, 2020, 01:35:06 PM
Just checked the website. That's without anything! Didn't catch that on my first look over. It wasn't evident until I actually went to configure one for check out. I'll pass. I'm not dropping $600 after taxes for something is a 10.5" screen.

Just checked Costco. Sucks that it looks like this one sold out while on sale. That's a good buy for $350. I really just need something that can access forums and youtube while on my work bench, and also run a 3d printer slicing software.

https://www.costco.com/samsung-12.2%22-touchscreen-2-in-1-chromebook---intel-celeron---1920-x-1200p---digital-pen-%2526-bonus-pouch.product.100502331.html
I wouldn't bet on running your 3d print software on the Chrome OS. Maybe it works, but I've never been willing to even consider using a Chrome as an OS. Hell, I won't even use the browser. For your purposes you shouldn't rule out buying used. Plenty of dipshits buy new stuff simply because it's new, thus selling their "old" stuff. Also, don't rule out other times when having a portable computer might come in handy. I've taken mine outside to talk to my car a few times. I certainly wouldn't travel without one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 12, 2020, 03:58:44 PM
We have a few surfaces at work that we've used and I really liked them but when I looked into them I found to be pretty expensive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on August 16, 2020, 08:44:31 PM
I need to make a slideshow, any recommendations on a product/platform? I want it to be cheap, since I imagine just using it for this one project.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 16, 2020, 09:14:04 PM
What kind of slideshow? for work? home video?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on August 16, 2020, 09:33:23 PM
Slideshow of our wedding, simple, just for my wife and family.

I have a .mov file of the one our photographer made, which is not playing properly. Alternatively if someone could fix whatever is wrong with that file, that will be an acceptable (and easier for me) solution  :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 17, 2020, 04:44:44 AM
When you say it's not playing properly, is it stuttering? Could be a few factors... a .mov file was probably encoded on a mac and if you are playing on a windows computer you might have to try a few players to view it correctly. If that is the case you could download itunes or quicktime to play it.

For slideshow creations, I found windows movie maker a relatively intuitive and easy slideshow creator with a decent amount of options. it handles quite a few formats and is a quick way to make something.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 17, 2020, 06:00:22 AM
Slideshow of our wedding, simple, just for my wife and family.

I have a .mov file of the one our photographer made, which is not playing properly. Alternatively if someone could fix whatever is wrong with that file, that will be an acceptable (and easier for me) solution  :)

If it's not playing try downloading VLC: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html it's free and one of the best desktop video players out there.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 17, 2020, 11:42:55 AM
I too use VLC though lately I've been using MPC with a codec pack https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm which offers a ton of configurable audio options. Plays any file I throw at it without any issue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on August 17, 2020, 08:43:07 PM
When you say it's not playing properly, is it stuttering? Could be a few factors... a .mov file was probably encoded on a mac and if you are playing on a windows computer you might have to try a few players to view it correctly. If that is the case you could download itunes or quicktime to play it.

It goes through each picture at breakneck speed and plays no music. We had no problems watching it before. It was just recently we wanted to show it to our kids when we encountered this problem. I have tried to convert the file from a .mov to something else via online tools, but always encounter an error message.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 17, 2020, 09:03:45 PM
One program I've used to convert files from one format to another is Format Factory with great success. I'd also try to play with a different player like VLC or MPC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 18, 2020, 02:54:04 PM
Do any of you guys use certain apps to monitor PC temps? I used one for my other rig years ago, but like I just said, that was years ago. I'm paranoid with new builds. I know gaming PCs generate plenty of heat. I still feel weird when I feel the hot air being shot out of the back of my machine, and I don't like gaming at super high settings for long because I don't know how long the heat is safe for my components. I know that's totally irrational, but that's just how I am naturally. Yet I have no problem gaming for hours on end on a console in a room where I would blow weed smoke all day. I should probably just stop caring, yeah? With all the shit in my tower I don't even know how hard I'd have to push a game for it to sweat, honestly.

EDIT: Stupid me, I just realized there's an app on the desktop that has temperature monitoring, right with the LED management  :facepalm:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 18, 2020, 02:58:29 PM
Most software provided by hardware manufacturers will give you readings but if you want something that is simple and that will give you a comprehensive view check out HW Monitor: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 18, 2020, 03:00:59 PM
Don't you also have a liquid cooling set up?  I really dont think there's anything you can do besides overclocking or leaving it outside in the heat that will overheat it and damage anything IMO.  I'd say you have nothing to worry about, but monitoring the temps is a fine practice if you are worried or just curious.  I used to be curious like that in my first build, but since I don't overclock, I'm not really worried.  I rarely even feel my PC spewing heat anyway, maybe because the rig has so many fans.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on August 18, 2020, 03:14:05 PM
Looks like the cpu is a liquid cooled in a closed loop system. I agree with cram, you got nothing to worry about if you're not over clocking and even if you started to over hear your mother board will shut down when it reaches critical temps.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 18, 2020, 05:58:19 PM
See, somehow I knew all that but I guess I needed to hear it from other people. Yeah, liquid cooled, closed loop. Cool. Just more evidence I've been paranoid about everything my whole life.  :lol :lol

Time for The Witcher  :corn
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on August 18, 2020, 07:23:45 PM
It's pretty hard to kill computer parts these days by overheating, since everything thermal throttles efficiently and then shuts itself off if it gets too high. The most likely thing that would kill them is a bad or cheap power supply. Never use crappy power supplies.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on August 19, 2020, 02:34:16 AM
It's pretty hard to kill computer parts these days by overheating, since everything thermal throttles efficiently and then shuts itself off if it gets too high.

This. It's almost impossible to "kill" a CPU just by overheating it nowadays. You'll just lose performance nowadays.

If you want to stress test your PC for a worst case scenario, you can run Prime95 for an hour or so. That will reveal any defficiencies in your cooling setup.

https://www.mersenne.org/download/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 19, 2020, 09:30:16 AM
It's pretty hard to kill computer parts these days by overheating, since everything thermal throttles efficiently and then shuts itself off if it gets too high.

This. It's almost impossible to "kill" a CPU just by overheating it nowadays. You'll just lose performance nowadays.

If you want to stress test your PC for a worst case scenario, you can run Prime95 for an hour or so. That will reveal any defficiencies in your cooling setup.

https://www.mersenne.org/download/

Awesome, thanks XJ!

When I was first getting into gaming PCs, death via overheating was a big fear of mine. In fact I think it actually killed one of my first PCs back in middle school. So it's nice to hear this isn't something to be concerned about these days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2020, 09:36:02 AM
Considering how hot my data center can be, computers these days are fairly resilient to heat.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 19, 2020, 09:38:41 AM
Considering how hot my data center can be, computers these days are fairly resilient to heat.

You guys must have some insane air conditioning going on. Would love to know what that electric bill looks like  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2020, 09:47:19 AM
Considering how hot my data center can be, computers these days are fairly resilient to heat.

You guys must have some insane air conditioning going on. Would love to know what that electric bill looks like  :lol

Cooling is a major concern and demand from any data center.  Each room will have multiple CRAC units (essentially a very big AC unit) that pushes cold air under the floor which rises from ventilated floor tiles in front of each server rack and then the servers all have fans to suck in the cold air from the front and blow out the hot air in the back which then rises and the CRAC units suck in the hot air from above and rinse and repeat.  This process costs a lot of money, but the electric bill is really hammered by all the devices running 24/7 and creating all that heat.  Our Amsterdam data center has cold containment so you enter essentially a room within the data center that is freezing but once you step outside that cold containment zone, it's like 100 degrees.  I absolutely hate working in that datacenter, but it's much more efficient for cooling.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 19, 2020, 09:54:08 AM
Considering how hot my data center can be, computers these days are fairly resilient to heat.

You guys must have some insane air conditioning going on. Would love to know what that electric bill looks like  :lol

Cooling is a major concern and demand from any data center.  Each room will have multiple CRAC units (essentially a very big AC unit) that pushes cold air under the floor which rises from ventilated floor tiles in front of each server rack and then the servers all have fans to suck in the cold air from the front and blow out the hot air in the back which then rises and the CRAC units suck in the hot air from above and rinse and repeat.  This process costs a lot of money, but the electric bill is really hammered by all the devices running 24/7 and creating all that heat.  Our Amsterdam data center has cold containment so you enter essentially a room within the data center that is freezing but once you step outside that cold containment zone, it's like 100 degrees.  I absolutely hate working in that datacenter, but it's much more efficient for cooling.

Damn! There's a building in town here that I visited a few years ago - I think it's owned by AT&T - and one of the guys took us inside into the data server storage room and it blew my mind. I think they might have had something similar to that kind of set-up going; it was filled with an insane amount of servers but it felt like an icebox in there but it was super warm outside. That would be really cool/stressful to manage all that and make sure everything stays cooled properly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2020, 10:07:04 AM
The building engineers handle all that.  We do pay for power though and it's why my team spends the most money of any other team in the company and it's not even close. 

I'll give tours to other teams who are interesting in checking out our data center, it's pretty cool to see everyone amazed by it all.  I certainly was, but I've been doing this a long time so I'm kind of dull to it all now.  However, it's always interesting to see other data centers and how they do things, but other than maybe facebook/google/amazon, I think our data centers are actually some of the most complex since we compete with those companies, just on a smaller scale. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 19, 2020, 10:10:26 AM
I would love to take a tour of Facebook/Google/Amazon's largest server rooms. That would be a trip.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2020, 10:14:25 AM
I would love to take a tour of Facebook/Google/Amazon's largest server rooms. That would be a trip.

it's on youtube

Here's Googlehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZmGGAbHqa0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZmGGAbHqa0)

What I find interesting is their servers are all open chassis.  Everything is so consistent and streamlined. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2020, 09:05:23 AM
Not sure if there's a better spot to post this question than here...

So for my job, and everyone mostly working from home, they have allowed us to be able to spend money to set up your home desk.  Essentially they allowed people to purchase certain things like monitors and keyboards and whatnot, but they also are giving a $200 credit towards a standing desk, won't let you expense or give credit to a normal sit down desk.  Does anyone have experience using a standing desk?  I'm considering it, for one because I can, but also because I sit so much when I WFH that I actually wouldn't mind standing more.  Typically they are going to be more than 200 so I don't want to get one if people's experiences with them are poor, but I don't know anyone who uses one personally.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on August 20, 2020, 09:10:34 AM
I have a variable height desk (sitting to standing) at work. It definitely helps with posture related pain.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2020, 09:29:01 AM
I have a variable height desk (sitting to standing) at work. It definitely helps with posture related pain.

I'd definitely get an adjustable one.  My posture is not very good so that's another benefit to using one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 20, 2020, 10:11:51 AM
I've always wanted an adjustable one. Don't know if I could stand having a fixed standing desk though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 20, 2020, 10:16:00 AM
Back in the office I used to have an adjustable desk like XDJs, it was a whole desk that could go up or down. I liked it a lot. I've worked with standing setups before and they are great. Just one thing to remember is that when standing it helps to have one foot rest on a step stool or something, it's greatly helps your back.

At home I have a sitting desk.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on August 20, 2020, 04:02:39 PM
Here's a question for folks more knowledgeable than I (which is probably anyone reading this thread):

My 18-year old wants a new computer for digital music production (rap and hip hop stuff).  He sent me a list of parts and is thinking of trying to build it himself.  He has no experience or particular learning in this area, but one or more of his friends has told him that it's not that difficult to do.  I googled "how hard is it to build a PC," and the first couple search results seemed to support that.  Nonetheless, my concern is that he/I will buy a bunch of expensive components and he'll mess something up or he'll do it right and it still won't work.

So...

Am I being overly concerned?  Is it really not that difficult?  Is it really possible just to buy a case, a mother board, a processor, etc. and put them together and get a computer that will kick ass?

What are the pitfalls?  Traps to avoid?

What is he likely to have overlooked with his list of parts (I copied his list below, and this is obviously just the PC and doesn't include any software or peripherals)?

Thanks!


His list:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max ATX AM4 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL 16 Memory

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive

MSI Radeon RX 580 8 GB Armor OC video card

Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX power supply

Windows 10 Pro

A monitor
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2020, 05:08:38 PM
So yes, it's pretty simple overall to just connect all the parts.  I would say the most difficult thing is hooking up the little connectors for your case to the motherboard (like the power button, LEDs, USB) only because you'll actually want to reference the motherboard manual to figure it all out.  It's not difficult, but that always seems to be the most "technical" part of the physical build from my experience.  However, the only time building a PC is actually difficult is when things don't work.  You can look back in this thread and see my issues with my last build earlier this summer which almost drove me insane trying to figure out.  I feel like I almost always run across some minor issue during a build that takes some time to troubleshoot and figure out.  That also includes returning parts before that arrived DOA. 

That build itself is pretty much standard so in theory, it should be fairly simple to do in a few hours.  Also, once done, you'll have some pride in your build so that's always a nice positive to the DIY mentality here.

One thing about the parts... no SSD?  You certainly don't need one, but it's really rare for a modern PC to not at least have a SSD or nowadays a m.2 NVMe.  And 1TB of HDD space, to me, seems like not much especially if you'll be recording and making music.  1TB fills up quickly especially without a SSD so the OS and all other applications will slowly eat up that HDD space.  Maybe your son doesn't need it and all is good, just saying that I personally would find the lack of an SSD the only thing that stands out from the parts list other than the keyboard and mouse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 20, 2020, 06:19:20 PM
One tip: remember to handle the CPU like it's a newborn child. It's easy to install but also easy to mess up because of all the pins. If you feel nervous dropping it in... good  :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2020, 06:33:47 PM
One tip: remember to handle the CPU like it's a newborn child. It's easy to install but also easy to mess up because of all the pins. If you feel nervous dropping it in... good  :biggrin:

Yup, and the CPU only goes in one way, match the arrow. Ive totallg destroyed motherboards at work before from being careless with the pins, they are very sensitive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 20, 2020, 06:52:17 PM
@pg1067

That build is a solid setup. One recommendation I would add is to get an SSD. It makes a world of a difference between a traditional internal HDD. There are a million choices these days and an M.2 NVMe drive like this one  (https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-blue-sn550-nvme-1tb/p/N82E16820250135?Item=N82E16820250135&cm_sp=homepage_dailydeals-_-p1_20-250-135-_-08202020&quicklink=true)would be much faster than the WD Blue 7200 rpm one.




Like everyone said building PCs are very straight forward these days, I would suggest your son do a bit of reading and watching youtube videos before putting them together. Also important to note is to not freak out when done building and it won't power on. Many times its something trivial and quite easy to fix. The only pitfall I would say if you have a defective part, it can become a bit tedious to troubleshoot what is wrong and the delay in finding out can be frustrating.


But yeah it's a fun process and a great learning experience.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on August 20, 2020, 07:00:09 PM
Here's a question for folks more knowledgeable than I (which is probably anyone reading this thread):

My 18-year old wants a new computer for digital music production (rap and hip hop stuff).  He sent me a list of parts and is thinking of trying to build it himself.  He has no experience or particular learning in this area, but one or more of his friends has told him that it's not that difficult to do.  I googled "how hard is it to build a PC," and the first couple search results seemed to support that.  Nonetheless, my concern is that he/I will buy a bunch of expensive components and he'll mess something up or he'll do it right and it still won't work.

So...

Am I being overly concerned?  Is it really not that difficult?  Is it really possible just to buy a case, a mother board, a processor, etc. and put them together and get a computer that will kick ass?

What are the pitfalls?  Traps to avoid?

What is he likely to have overlooked with his list of parts (I copied his list below, and this is obviously just the PC and doesn't include any software or peripherals)?

Thanks!


His list:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max ATX AM4 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL 16 Memory

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive

MSI Radeon RX 580 8 GB Armor OC video card

Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX power supply

Windows 10 Pro

A monitor
This looks like a decent parts list for doing music production type stuff. I do a lot of stuff like this on my rig too and I also run a business that builds completely custom workstation and gaming PCs, so I have few suggestions for the your build if you don't mind spending a little bit more for a much better experience.

First I would up the RAM to 32GB (2x16) - If you start getting into more complex song and depending on the software you end up using, having more RAM can be a life saver. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016ORTNI2?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

I'd also spend a little more for a CPU cooler. The Hyper 212 was a great cooler (10+ years ago), but CPU's and cooler have come a long way since then. It's just an old design and it's having a harder and harder time keeping up with today's CPUs. I'd recommend the beQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4, it will keep the CPU nice and cool no matter what you are doing - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BY6F8D9?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

I'd also suggest adding an NVME ssd as your boot (Windows Install) drive. It will make the computer feel 100x faster than with just a HDD. Something small to install the Windows OS is all you need, plus you can always expand later if needed, of course I would keep the 1TB HDD you have listed there for storage - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KGLN3HN?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Also You will have a much better build experience and better airflow/thermals with a slightly upgraded case. Fractal Design makes wonderful cases, so you are on the right track. I'd recommend their Meshify case - Meshify link (https://www.newegg.com/black-fractal-design-meshify-c-dark-tg-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811352072?Item=N82E16811352072&nm_mc=AFC-RAN-COM&cm_mmc=AFC-RAN-COM&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-PCPartPicker&AFFID=2558510&AFFNAME=PCPartPicker&ACRID=1&ASID=https%3a%2f%2fpcpartpicker.com%2fproduct%2fY6Crxr%2ffractal-design-meshify-c-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-ca-mesh-c-bko-tg&ranMID=44583&ranEAID=2558510&ranSiteID=8BacdVP0GFs-u7.mmdvBJ9Qw0vAdZyu6gg#)

If you end up gaming on it, the RX580 will do a decent job, but if you end up getting into more demanding modern games that would be another area to upgrade. Not necessary if you are only doing music production on it though.

If you have any other questions just let me know, I'd be more than happy to help.

Also if you want a good Youtube build guide check out Bitwit's youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhX0fOUYd8Q this video is a few years old now, but 99% of it still applies.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 20, 2020, 07:22:55 PM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler
I'd also spend a little more for a CPU cooler. The Hyper 212 was a great cooler (10+ years ago), but CPU's and cooler have come a long way since then. It's just an old design and it's having a harder and harder time keeping up with today's CPUs. I'd recommend the beQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4, it will keep the CPU nice and cool no matter what you are doing - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BY6F8D9?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Honestly, I believe the CPU comes with a standard fan, I'd use that over buying another one at all.  Save that money and put it towards a NVMe for your Windows drive IMO and that's a better use of your money.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 20, 2020, 07:25:21 PM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler
I'd also spend a little more for a CPU cooler. The Hyper 212 was a great cooler (10+ years ago), but CPU's and cooler have come a long way since then. It's just an old design and it's having a harder and harder time keeping up with today's CPUs. I'd recommend the beQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4, it will keep the CPU nice and cool no matter what you are doing - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BY6F8D9?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Honestly, I believe the CPU comes with a standard fan, I'd use that over buying another one at all.  Save that money and put it towards a NVMe for your Windows drive IMO and that's a better use of your money.

That's true, the 3700x comes with a wraith cooler and from what I read if you're not into overclocking it should be more than enough, no need to get another cooler.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on August 20, 2020, 07:27:26 PM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler
I'd also spend a little more for a CPU cooler. The Hyper 212 was a great cooler (10+ years ago), but CPU's and cooler have come a long way since then. It's just an old design and it's having a harder and harder time keeping up with today's CPUs. I'd recommend the beQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4, it will keep the CPU nice and cool no matter what you are doing - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BY6F8D9?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Honestly, I believe the CPU comes with a standard fan, I'd use that over buying another one at all.  Save that money and put it towards a NVMe for your Windows drive IMO and that's a better use of your money.

That's true, the 3700x comes with a wraith cooler and from what I read if you're not into overclocking it should be more than enough, no need to get another cooler.
This is true. The Wraith Cooler actually works just as well as those Hyper 212's and it comes with the CPU. I always forget they come with them... :P
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on August 21, 2020, 01:43:20 PM
Thanks for all the responses.  I appreciate and will try to digest them.  A couple questions, though:

Are you guys saying to have a solid-state drive (SSD - right?) in addition to or instead of the hard drive that was listed?

Also (and I guess this is related), what does "adding an NVME ssd as your boot (Windows Install) drive" mean?

As far as gaming and graphics, I made it clear to him that this is NOT an invitation to build a hot shot gaming computer.  He said that the graphics card he picked was pretty low end, and Puppies' comment seems to bear that out.

Also, are all the cables/wires/screws and what-not included with the various components?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 21, 2020, 03:45:43 PM
Thanks for all the responses.  I appreciate and will try to digest them.  A couple questions, though:

Are you guys saying to have a solid-state drive (SSD - right?) in addition to or instead of the hard drive that was listed?

Also (and I guess this is related), what does "adding an NVME ssd as your boot (Windows Install) drive" mean?

As far as gaming and graphics, I made it clear to him that this is NOT an invitation to build a hot shot gaming computer.  He said that the graphics card he picked was pretty low end, and Puppies' comment seems to bear that out.

Also, are all the cables/wires/screws and what-not included with the various components?


Yes, the SSD is in addition to the hard drive. Believe me it is completely worth it. You don't have to get the 1 TB on that I linked, you can get a smaller one but I would recommend around 500GB as they can fill up fast. Essentially you have two drives, the SSD is your C: drive that contains the operating system (Windows Install) and for anything data related like music, videos etc... you use the other HDD where speed isn't really needed and storage is the main idea.


I personally have 20 TB of HDD space (music/movies/photos/tons of backups..etc..) and a 500 GB SSD as the boot drive. Windows loads super fast, programs load super fast since they all should ideally reside on the C: drive.


I have the RX580 video card and granted I don't game a ton, it does plenty for casual gaming and then some more. It should be good.


Regarding cables, the motherboard sometimes comes with a few SATA cables for your hard drives. You'll have to check the documentation what they come with and if they are enough. The power supply will have all the cables for each component so those should be good. Typically all builds these days can be done without any screws. Should a component need any, it's usually provided.


Just also note if your son is connecting the PC to the internet through wifi, he'll need either a USB Wifi adaptor or a Wifi card. I usually go with the USB one, they are less hassle in my experience. Some motherboards come with a wifi card included, it might be worth checking those out.



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on August 21, 2020, 03:59:45 PM
I can vouch for wireless cards working well. At least, for me. Phones have terrible reception out in these buildings but my wifi antennas for my desktops have never had problems holding a stable connection.  Your mileage may vary of course, but that's my experience with em. Although installation is definitely much more of a hassle.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on August 21, 2020, 06:11:58 PM
Thanks for all the responses.  I appreciate and will try to digest them.  A couple questions, though:

Are you guys saying to have a solid-state drive (SSD - right?) in addition to or instead of the hard drive that was listed?

Also (and I guess this is related), what does "adding an NVME ssd as your boot (Windows Install) drive" mean?

As far as gaming and graphics, I made it clear to him that this is NOT an invitation to build a hot shot gaming computer.  He said that the graphics card he picked was pretty low end, and Puppies' comment seems to bear that out.

Also, are all the cables/wires/screws and what-not included with the various components?
NVME is just a type of SSD that slots right into the motherboard M.2 slot. That MSI Tomahawk motherboard has 2 M.2 slots I believe, so you would put your NVME m.2 drive into that slot. Be aware there is a tiny screw that will come with the motherboard that holds it in place. Don't lose this screw otherwise you won't be able to get the drive secured. And, yes, this would be in addition to the HDD you had listed earlier, as faizoff said.

The motherboard and/or case will come with all the screws and cables you will need for hooking up components, while the power supply will come with all the cables for power (typically all you will need is the 8 pin connector for the cpu (which slots into the motherboard near the CPU), the 24 pin connector for the motherboard, a vga power connector for the video card, and power for the HDD (the NVME SSD draws its power from the motherboard)).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 21, 2020, 07:55:38 PM
That's right, the case usually has all the screws and cables. The only part you'll need to screw in will be the mother board to the side of the case. Everything else pretty much should just snap into place.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on August 26, 2020, 03:34:54 PM
The problem with this thread title is that I've overlooked it for a few days because "PC" makes me think more of "politically correct" than "personal computer."   :lol


Anyway...thanks again for sharing your knowledge with me.  We're digesting everything, and I tend to mull things over a lot before making a significant purchase.  I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 01, 2020, 11:18:21 AM
I tend to mull things over a lot before making a significant purchase. 

For my next PC upgrade I think my strategy will be to just grab parts as they come to a price point I am ok with. That way I'm not splurging all at once and just pick the best sales for parts as they come. I'll leave the CPU and board for the end.

And speaking of parts, Nvidia announced their new GPU lineup with the 300 series and for some reason I might actually consider getting the new 3080 next year if prices remain somewhat sane.
Their reveal video is like a movie trailer complete with a dramatic soundtrack and reassembly of components... kinda cool actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAuszfdldEU

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 11:35:22 AM
Welp watching this nvidia release I want the 3090. Too bad my 2080 will be a bitch to sell
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 11:37:43 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/Bn3iwB8.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 11:38:51 AM
How the other cards stack up:

(https://i.imgur.com/Tr5O9gR.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 01, 2020, 12:02:41 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/Bn3iwB8.png)

Oof that price, I mean, it's a beast of a card but I don't think I could justify that cost.  Now the 3080 might be a VERY nice upgrade from my 1080...  I think I want to pay my car off first  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 01, 2020, 12:05:19 PM
Looks sexy but with that 1080ti I just bought, also a big pass. Even if I was jonesing for a new card though, that price...  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 01, 2020, 12:53:53 PM
Though I've never spent more than $150 for a video card, If I have my 4k setup done next year, I'm seriously looking to get add that 3080 to the rig, gaming 4k 60 fps should be a visual treat.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 01, 2020, 01:15:12 PM
24GB! Holy crap! I mean I think my system will bork if I install one of those beasts.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 01:36:24 PM
I think the 3080 is the sweet spot if you have the cash to burn. I'm going to wait for third party benchmarks and see what the third party cards have to offer before deciding.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 01, 2020, 01:41:59 PM
Is there any reason to think bitcoin miners are going to buy all these to drive the prices up higher?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 02:37:13 PM
I'm not sure. I could be wrong but I believe the architecture change in the 20xx series made the cards less desirable for mining than the 1080 which is why the 1080's have still held their value in the used market.

When the 20xx series came out I had zero issue buying a 2080 at retail price after the initial rush to buy the cards died down. I was never able to get a 1080 at a reasonable price after the mining started taking off.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 01, 2020, 03:00:49 PM
That was my thought too, hope that stays true for us gamers
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 01, 2020, 07:03:55 PM
Price on the 3090? Nope!

Also I would never buy a reference card, no matter what Nvidia claims about thermals (unless I was going to do open loop custom water cooling). 3rd party all the way.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on September 01, 2020, 08:09:53 PM
The 3070 is going to cost only a little more than the 2070, but be up to 60% faster. I was looking at the 2070 for my upcoming build so I might just grab the 3070 instead.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 01, 2020, 08:15:42 PM
Price on the 3090? Nope!

Also I would never buy a reference card, no matter what Nvidia claims about thermals (unless I was going to do open loop custom water cooling). 3rd party all the way.

I like my EVGA a lot despite it's recent thermal pad leakage issue. Looks like I threw a bunch of lube on my card
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 01, 2020, 08:25:46 PM
Price on the 3090? Nope!

Also I would never buy a reference card, no matter what Nvidia claims about thermals (unless I was going to do open loop custom water cooling). 3rd party all the way.

I like my EVGA a lot despite it's recent thermal pad leakage issue. Looks like I threw a bunch of lube on my card
I used to always buy EVGA's cards, up until the GTX 1070 and now RTX 2070, which are both Gigabyte.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 02, 2020, 01:10:47 AM
I mean honestly if those starting prices are correct then you will get a 3070 for half the price of a 2080ti today and according to Nvidia the 3070 outperforms a 2080ti!! That's pretty crazy and will probably piss of some 2080ti owners.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 02, 2020, 07:38:55 AM
Price on the 3090? Nope!

Also I would never buy a reference card, no matter what Nvidia claims about thermals (unless I was going to do open loop custom water cooling). 3rd party all the way.

I like my EVGA a lot despite it's recent thermal pad leakage issue. Looks like I threw a bunch of lube on my card
I used to always buy EVGA's cards, up until the GTX 1070 and now RTX 2070, which are both Gigabyte.

My video cards have so far always been EVGA and I've had no issues with them so I plan on sticking with them if I do get a 3080 at some point.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 02, 2020, 08:51:07 AM
DF got their hands on a 3080 to test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWD01yUQdVA&feature=emb_title
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 03, 2020, 10:15:01 AM
Another day another drive failed, Newegg had a deal on the 8TB Barracudas so thought why not? This is how my drives look like now





(https://imgur.com/ye7rrN3.jpg)


Though you can never be too careful with multiple backups.. I may have a problem..


 :loser:


(https://imgur.com/PaPqVrH.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 03, 2020, 10:17:06 AM
 :rollin damn dude, everything thinks I have an insane storage set up... but it doesn't come close to that amount of data.  I do have a significant amount of my data on SDD/NMVe though and only run two 4TB HDDs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 03, 2020, 10:23:29 AM
Only the C: is an SSD. Once I get my new build I'll switch to a few NVMe drives. SATA SSDs are also being ramped up in capacity with Seagate pushing out 4 TB ones and when they reach an affordable price I might snag a couple. ;D
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 03, 2020, 10:26:21 AM
Holy crap dude! That's insane! I have no need for that level of storage and yet I have storage envy.  :lol

Speaking of NVMe drives I am absolutely smitten with mine. Those things are so cool.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 03, 2020, 10:32:30 AM
 I was reading this guy's setup at home for a Plex server and he said he added 4 new 16 TB drives. I don't think I'm there... yet.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 03, 2020, 10:39:37 AM
Damn, at work, our largest we use are 10TB for our storage units.  But we also do have these crazy 6.4TB NVMe drives that are insane that we use for certain applications.  I often get some hand me downs from decommissioned or tested and not approved to use drives.  In fact, all but my m.2 (we don't use any of those types at work) drives are actually from work. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 03, 2020, 06:01:51 PM
I was reading this guy's setup at home for a Plex server and he said he added 4 new 16 TB drives. I don't think I'm there... yet.
I have NAS drive for my Plex server and it's all SSD storage, 12TB.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 04, 2020, 05:44:52 AM
I was reading this guy's setup at home for a Plex server and he said he added 4 new 16 TB drives. I don't think I'm there... yet.
I have NAS drive for my Plex server and it's all SSD storage, 12TB.

Just to clarify about that guy, he added 4 x 16 TB. So a whopping 64 TB!

Your SSD Plex server must be blazing fast! What set of SSDs do you have?

Also has anyone put their SSDs in RAID, either SATA or NVMe? does it help for performance?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 04, 2020, 07:05:42 AM
I was always curious about SSD's in RAID and performance, is it worth it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 04, 2020, 09:19:21 AM
I was always curious about SSD's in RAID and performance, is it worth it?

Definitely will get performance boost, but how much? I don't know, never ran tests but in my last build I had 3x 400G Intel SSDs in a raid0 which I used for my game storage since at raid0, if it fails it fails and I wouldn't lose data.  That was pretty quick, but I dont think it was as quick as a single NVMe as my games load super quick on my newest build (I'm almost always the first person to load in the COD lobby for example).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 04, 2020, 11:44:08 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKneUFwVkXI Hitler reacts to RTX 3000 series :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 10, 2020, 07:38:53 AM
Unboxing video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxJDdRgs7Lw&ab_channel=JayzTwoCents) for the 3080 Founder's Edition. Review and performance metrics out next week. I can't imagine how large the 3090 will be.


Also waiting next month for AMD's unveiling of both the Zen3 CPUs and RDNA2 GPUs.


I might actually go ahead and get my build done in November depending on availability and pricing of the Zen 3 CPUs.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 10, 2020, 08:41:44 PM
Hey guys, I'm looking for some laptop recommendations, in the range of 1,000$-1,500$.
I don't need it for gaming, heaviest processing I need it for is recording audio and occasionally editing video.
I haven't been in the market since 2010, when I bought my Toshiba laptop, which is now slowly dying.
I looked for more Toshiba's but found that Toshiba sold it's laptop division or something, they don't make laptops anymore.
I'm looking at the Dell XPS 13 and the LG gram.
Neither have a VGA port BTW! since when did they stop having VGA ports in laptops? I need that! HDMI just doesn't do it for me, they say it should be higher quality but it's definitely not, in my experience.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 10, 2020, 08:52:47 PM
What do you need the VGA port to connect to? HDMI to HDMI should be fine these days. Would a surface laptop work? They fall in your price range. They look good for video editing.


I don't know if you'll find a laptop in that range with a VGA port, there are barely any monitors or TVs that have VGA ports now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 10, 2020, 09:07:14 PM
Well color me surprised, I guess there are still a ton of VGA laptops (https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100006740%20600028179%20600028186%20600480030%204841)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on September 10, 2020, 09:12:32 PM
I can't think of a single thing VGA is better than HDMI for. Unless you simply just don't want to spend money on a new display, HDMI is better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 10, 2020, 09:37:12 PM
I can't think of a single thing VGA is better than HDMI for. Unless you simply just don't want to spend money on a new display, HDMI is better.
This, absolutely. VGA has been essentially dead for quite some time now. And for good reason.

To answer Progmetty's question. I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)

Yes, it can game a little bit, but the real crown jewel is the AMD Ryzen 4800 processor. It can chew through any video editing or audio recording you throw at it. And it's in the price range you are looking at. No, it doesn't have a VGA port, but see my comment above.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 10, 2020, 10:02:38 PM
What do you need the VGA port to connect to? HDMI to HDMI should be fine these days.

I can't think of a single thing VGA is better than HDMI for. Unless you simply just don't want to spend money on a new display, HDMI is better.

I need it for my external monitors, which does have HDMI ports that I don't use.
Theoretically, you guys are right. But I've tried this with several monitors, HDMI always looks dimmer and not as sharp as a VGA output.
Also, doesn't HDMI force the audio to come out of the monitor as well? I mean unless you plug in external speakers or headphones. I need the audio to only come out of the laptop's built-in speakers, that's just the right amount of sound containment I need for working at night with a bunch of people sleeping near by, while still needing to keep my ears free. So that's an issue, but definitely not a big one, the big one remains the display quality.
I'm discussing all this while I know you guys probably know better, for how long I've been out of the game.

Would a surface laptop work? They fall in your price range. They look good for video editing.

Around 20 years ago; a computer genius told me to never buy hardware from a company that mainly makes software. Sounded like good advice at the time, is it not the case anymore? I mean, it's the main reason I haven't considered these.
Currently looking at this (https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-17Z990-RAAS8U1-ultra-slim-laptop) one more closely, what do you think?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 10, 2020, 10:04:41 PM
To answer Progmetty's question. I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)

Yes, it can game a little bit, but the real crown jewel is the AMD Ryzen 4800 processor. It can chew through any video editing or audio recording you throw at it. And it's in the price range you are looking at. No, it doesn't have a VGA port, but see my comment above.

Yeah, I bring it up cause I'd like it very much to still be a viable option, but I've reconciled to the fact that if I need a good new laptop, it will come without it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 10, 2020, 10:09:50 PM
@Puppies_On_Acid that Asus is pretty sweet! I've never had a laptop that wasn't an Intel processor, so that AMD Ryzen is better than i7?

EDIT: It only has USB 3.1 ports, all my external drives use the standard type A cables, this means I need some kinda adapter.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 10, 2020, 11:12:44 PM
@Puppies_On_Acid that Asus is pretty sweet! I've never had a laptop that wasn't an Intel processor, so that AMD Ryzen is better than i7?

EDIT: It only has USB 3.1 ports, all my external drives use the standard type A cables, this means I need some kinda adapter.
Yeah, it's becoming increasingly harder to find nice modern laptops with USB type A ports, unfortunately.

As far as AMD Ryzen vs Intel I7? The AMD runs cooler, has more threads, has better performance (by far) for video editing type things, and draws less power. Therefor, much better battery life. At this point, unless you want bleeding edge gaming performance (and I mean like less than 5% better), there is absolutely no reason to buy an Intel processor these days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 10, 2020, 11:23:01 PM
I just looked at that LG laptop you linked. That is a terrible deal. Slow RAM, 2 generation old CPU, only 512gb SSD, no discrete video card, and it's more expensive than the Asus. Whereas the Asus has much faster RAM, a brand new CPU, 1tb NVME drive, and a discrete 1660ti video card, for less.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 10, 2020, 11:52:24 PM
Thanks dude! I almost went for it!
Quick question though, you say that it's got a slow RAM, but it's 16 gb just like the Asus one, what am I missing?
Side note: I can't imagine what 16gb of RAM would be like, my Toshiba laptop, which I've been more than happy with since 2010 and up to a few weeks ago, only has 4gb of RAM, I'm preparing to have my mind blown by this haha
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on September 11, 2020, 12:32:09 AM
HDMI always looks dimmer and not as sharp as a VGA output.
Make sure when it's connected that the laptop is outputting the native resolution of the display through HDMI. It could be as simple as the laptop defaulting to 1920x1080 when the display is something else, then the display scales it and it isn't as sharp. If it has its own brightness/contrast controls and such see if they're set to the same values on both VGA and HDMI.

Also, doesn't HDMI force the audio to come out of the monitor as well? I mean unless you plug in external speakers or headphones. I need the audio to only come out of the laptop's built-in speakers
Most laptops default to HDMI audio when one is plugged in but it can be changed. I'm still on Windows 7 (you might be too though?), you can right-click the speaker icon in the tray (while HDMI is up and running), select playback devices, and switch back to the speaker output. While in there, also make speaker output the default, so that it won't automatically switch to HDMI anymore.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 11, 2020, 12:57:54 AM
Thanks dude! I almost went for it!
Quick question though, you say that it's got a slow RAM, but it's 16 gb just like the Asus one, what am I missing?
Side note: I can't imagine what 16gb of RAM would be like, my Toshiba laptop, which I've been more than happy with since 2010 and up to a few weeks ago, only has 4gb of RAM, I'm preparing to have my mind blown by this haha
Oh, RAM operates at a specific frequency. The RAM in the LG laptop is 2400mhz. The RAM in the Asus is at 3200mhz, which is a decent uplift, especially for AMD cpu's, they thrive on faster RAM.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 11, 2020, 02:47:11 AM
I can't think of a single thing VGA is better than HDMI for. Unless you simply just don't want to spend money on a new display, HDMI is better.

Running CRT monitors is about the only thing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 11, 2020, 08:19:14 AM

Would a surface laptop work? They fall in your price range. They look good for video editing.

Around 20 years ago; a computer genius told me to never buy hardware from a company that mainly makes software. Sounded like good advice at the time, is it not the case anymore? I mean, it's the main reason I haven't considered these.



20 years is a lifetime in tech. Things change so much in just a year. I personally don't have any of the surface products but my father in law uses a surface 4 tablet and vouches for it. I've read good things about the surface line esp since they are in so many iterations now.


The Asus laptop that Puppies linked looks great and one I'd probably consider as well. The Ryzen line has basically turned AMD's fortune the last few years and they've championed highly efficient CPUs with fantastic performance and the new Ryzen 4000 series powered laptops I've read are fantastic.


Oddly I've only ever owned AMD laptops and my desktops have all been Intel. Just turned out that way.


With regards to VGA vs HDMI display being sharper, I'm surprised you've had better results with VGA. It could be several things like native resolution scaling from laptop to monitor which is why you may have found VGA to be easier on the eyes. And as prior mentioned, you can disable the HDMI audio from the volume control panel.



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 11, 2020, 08:41:25 AM
Personally, if you want a fantastic laptop for basic editing and not gaming.  I'd look at the low end Macbook Pros.  I've never been an apple fan, but I use a macbook pro for work and absolutely love it.  It's a total beast for pretty much everything (but gaming) and just works.

Having said that, I'm also a big fan of ASUS so I'll +1 on Puppies recommendation.  But I didn't see anyone mention the macbook route, but for basic laptop use, I think they are hard to beat other than in price but I believe the low end is in your range.  My one friend hounds me every 3 years on which laptop to get because he always buys low end ones that just start breaking down after a couple years.  For the last few rounds I was saying to him, spend a little more and stop having issues.  He finally this year got a macbook and has so far loved it. 

My work laptop has traveled over 100k miles with me, gets carried in a backpack every day, has been dropped off a ladder, you name it... and NO ISSUES.  OK, fine, when I dropped it off the latter the screen broke and I had to get a new screen (our internal help desk was able to do that for me), but the guts of the sucker were still fine and I'm dreading the day I have to return it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 11, 2020, 10:56:23 AM
I use a thinkpad, because I like a laptop that is sturdy enough to use as an improvised weapon.

On a related note, I think with the release of the 3xxx series, and Cyberpunk on the way, I will be building a new PC for the first time since 2010.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 11, 2020, 05:31:10 PM
Personally, if you want a fantastic laptop for basic editing and not gaming.  I'd look at the low end Macbook Pros.  I've never been an apple fan, but I use a macbook pro for work and absolutely love it.  It's a total beast for pretty much everything (but gaming) and just works.

Having said that, I'm also a big fan of ASUS so I'll +1 on Puppies recommendation.  But I didn't see anyone mention the macbook route, but for basic laptop use, I think they are hard to beat other than in price but I believe the low end is in your range.  My one friend hounds me every 3 years on which laptop to get because he always buys low end ones that just start breaking down after a couple years.  For the last few rounds I was saying to him, spend a little more and stop having issues.  He finally this year got a macbook and has so far loved it. 

My work laptop has traveled over 100k miles with me, gets carried in a backpack every day, has been dropped off a ladder, you name it... and NO ISSUES.  OK, fine, when I dropped it off the latter the screen broke and I had to get a new screen (our internal help desk was able to do that for me), but the guts of the sucker were still fine and I'm dreading the day I have to return it.
Unless you need the MacOS environment for something in particular, I couldn't in good conscience recommend an Apple laptop. It all boils down to, you will get worse specs for WAY more money. And if you aren't used to the MacOS environment, it's going to be a lesson in frustration. Add to that their extremely questionable cooling solutions and I just don't ever see them as a viable option. But that's just me. I use one for work because I have to for certain software. I also have an Asus laptop that I love.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 11, 2020, 05:51:20 PM
Personally, if you want a fantastic laptop for basic editing and not gaming.  I'd look at the low end Macbook Pros.  I've never been an apple fan, but I use a macbook pro for work and absolutely love it.  It's a total beast for pretty much everything (but gaming) and just works.

Having said that, I'm also a big fan of ASUS so I'll +1 on Puppies recommendation.  But I didn't see anyone mention the macbook route, but for basic laptop use, I think they are hard to beat other than in price but I believe the low end is in your range.  My one friend hounds me every 3 years on which laptop to get because he always buys low end ones that just start breaking down after a couple years.  For the last few rounds I was saying to him, spend a little more and stop having issues.  He finally this year got a macbook and has so far loved it. 

My work laptop has traveled over 100k miles with me, gets carried in a backpack every day, has been dropped off a ladder, you name it... and NO ISSUES.  OK, fine, when I dropped it off the latter the screen broke and I had to get a new screen (our internal help desk was able to do that for me), but the guts of the sucker were still fine and I'm dreading the day I have to return it.
Unless you need the MacOS environment for something in particular, I couldn't in good conscience recommend an Apple laptop. It all boils down to, you will get worse specs for WAY more money. And if you aren't used to the MacOS environment, it's going to be a lesson in frustration. Add to that their extremely questionable cooling solutions and I just don't ever see them as a viable option. But that's just me. I use one for work because I have to for certain software. I also have an Asus laptop that I love.

Sure you pay a lot more for "less" but the thing just works well.  No issues at all.  For basic laptop usage, it's hard not to recommend it.  The macos is different but its also very simple so once you get the flow, it's super easy.  I think it's great for people who need basic usage (or are big in media editing), have the money, and aren't technically savy to deal with issues that may arise from a Windows based laptop.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 11, 2020, 11:17:57 PM
With regards to VGA vs HDMI display being sharper, I'm surprised you've had better results with VGA. It could be several things like native resolution scaling from laptop to monitor which is why you may have found VGA to be easier on the eyes. And as prior mentioned, you can disable the HDMI audio from the volume control panel.

Make sure when it's connected that the laptop is outputting the native resolution of the display through HDMI. It could be as simple as the laptop defaulting to 1920x1080 when the display is something else, then the display scales it and it isn't as sharp. If it has its own brightness/contrast controls and such see if they're set to the same values on both VGA and HDMI.

Most laptops default to HDMI audio when one is plugged in but it can be changed. I'm still on Windows 7 (you might be too though?), you can right-click the speaker icon in the tray (while HDMI is up and running), select playback devices, and switch back to the speaker output. While in there, also make speaker output the default, so that it won't automatically switch to HDMI anymore.

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll try that out this weekend.

The Asus laptop that Puppies linked looks great and one I'd probably consider as well. The Ryzen line has basically turned AMD's fortune the last few years and they've championed highly efficient CPUs with fantastic performance and the new Ryzen 4000 series powered laptops I've read are fantastic.

Yeah they do look great! well they're pretty ugly looking but I mean the specs and reviews look great, from my research so far!
Which is kinda weird cause I've always thought that Asus to laptops is like Vizio to TV's, you get it when you're broke and you know it won't live long but it's better than nothing. But I guess things have changed.

Personally, if you want a fantastic laptop for basic editing and not gaming.  I'd look at the low end Macbook Pros.  I've never been an apple fan, but I use a macbook pro for work and absolutely love it.  It's a total beast for pretty much everything (but gaming) and just works.

I've considered that for a split second then I was hit by the horrors of having to deal with a new operating system, having lived under Bill Gates thumb for my entire adult life.

On a related note, I think with the release of the 3xxx series, and Cyberpunk on the way, I will be building a new PC for the first time since 2010.

Somebody told me to wait on buying a new computer specifically for that reason, new tech coming out soon and it should drive the current generation down in price, but he may have been talking about desktop computers.

I'm also seriously considering stretching my laptop's life to reach Cyber Monday, it could bring some out-of-reach options to my lap, like the Dell 15 or 13. But for now; that Asus takes the cake as my best option.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 11, 2020, 11:53:18 PM

The Asus laptop that Puppies linked looks great and one I'd probably consider as well. The Ryzen line has basically turned AMD's fortune the last few years and they've championed highly efficient CPUs with fantastic performance and the new Ryzen 4000 series powered laptops I've read are fantastic.

Yeah they do look great! well they're pretty ugly looking but I mean the specs and reviews look great, from my research so far!
Which is kinda weird cause I've always thought that Asus to laptops is like Vizio to TV's, you get it when you're broke and you know it won't live long but it's better than nothing. But I guess things have changed.
Asus has made some really quality stuff over the last 6-8 years.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 12, 2020, 05:21:57 AM
They are certainly excellent when it comes to base components. I think every motherboard I've bought since about 2004 was an Asus. The one laptop I used by them was also decent.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 16, 2020, 08:01:27 AM
Reviews for the 3080 FE are now rolling out. From my limited knowledge about gpus in general it seems that the 3080 FE is a really good card for the price if you compare to previous generations however it's not that consistently better than NVIDIA claims in every benchmark (surprise surprise) but that's also where things gets so damn complicated, atleast for me. The numbers usually don't tell the full story if you know what I mean. So many diffrent factors are in play like cpu bottleneck and so on, to much for me to process.  :lol

I'll add that in general Ray Tracing is the way to go for the proper next gen graphics and DLSS is amazing.

I'm looking forward to the 3090 reviews next week.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 16, 2020, 09:55:40 AM
Yeah I was just looking at some of the reviews, each reviewer has their own approach. I'm really liking how Gamers Nexus does it. They deep dive into so much stuff and where people get led down the wrong assumption path etc.. They just upgraded their bench and have some really cool stuff to measure thermals.

Their 3080 review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTeXh9x0sUc&t=266s&ab_channel=GamersNexus) to me is like the Anandtech version on video.


I might consider this card sometime next year after building my new PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 16, 2020, 10:50:23 AM
Yeah I was just looking at some of the reviews, each reviewer has their own approach. I'm really liking how Gamers Nexus does it. They deep dive into so much stuff and where people get led down the wrong assumption path etc.. They just upgraded their bench and have some really cool stuff to measure thermals.

Their 3080 review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTeXh9x0sUc&t=266s&ab_channel=GamersNexus) to me is like the Anandtech version on video.


I might consider this card sometime next year after building my new PC.
I like Gamer Nexus alot, he's very knowledgable and informative. I found this to be great too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbk7sC2vAkU&t=0s&ab_channel=Paul%27sHardware

The end of the year will be interesting for PC gamers. Looking forward too the third party versions, 3090, Ti versions? but also what AMD will bring to the table, exciting times ahead.  :tup
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 16, 2020, 08:07:19 PM
Yeah, I'm definitely getting the 3080 after all the rush has died down in a couple months.............unless AMD releases something amazing with RDNA2, which by early leaks and reports is not going to come close, so................
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 17, 2020, 08:22:05 AM
A few of my gamer friends were up early to refresh webpages to try and snag a 3080, it seems impossible  :lol  I'm in no rush myself so I can wait
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 17, 2020, 09:44:26 AM
Reddit is on a meltdown on how no one was able to snag one. I wanted to see myself during release and the stock at Best Buy went instantly from Coming Soon to Sold Out.

Nvidia didn't take any preorders, wonder if there isn't much stock availability to begin with. Or they grossly underestimated the demand.

Either way I'm in no rush as well so will just wait and see how things are next year.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 17, 2020, 09:49:15 AM
I'm not entirely sure of the strategy here either, unless it's just to create hype and demand which I guess may work?  My one friend really needs an upgrade so he's been trying really hard to get one including taking today off work  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Evermind on September 17, 2020, 10:06:23 AM
I'm not entirely sure of the strategy here either, unless it's just to create hype and demand which I guess may work?  My one friend really needs an upgrade so he's been trying really hard to get one including taking today off work  :lol

I suspect it's that. They'll claim it was sold out for its original price and the next wave will probably cost more.

Either that or somebody screwed up and the product wasn't ready I guess.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 17, 2020, 10:13:23 AM
Another theory I read is that Nvidia wanted to get ahead of the AMD/PS5/Xbox launch with some product availability. It more or less looks like a paper launch. Though there are several being listed on Ebay for twice the price.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 18, 2020, 06:56:38 AM
Yeah, I'm definitely getting the 3080 after all the rush has died down in a couple months.............unless AMD releases something amazing with RDNA2, which by early leaks and reports is not going to come close, so................

I wanted the 3090 myself but really I don't need it nor do I have the monitor utilize it. Plus for the price of a 3090 I can snag a 3080 and ps5.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 18, 2020, 11:41:26 AM
Steve from Gamers Nexus had a pretty good video on the reported availability of the 3080. Basically it boiled down to unprecedented demand this time round due to various factors as supply remained about the same as last 2080 launch.

It is quite extraordinary that within a 30 sec window pretty much all launch stock seemed to have been obliterated. More stock is to be expected soon.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 18, 2020, 12:16:16 PM
I'm not surprised that things sold out so quickly. Lots of people skipped the 20xx series of cards because it was debuting more of a feature set rather than raw power. This new 30xx is now immensely more powerful at a better price point than previous gen. Lots of people are going to make the jump from 10xx to 30xx.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 18, 2020, 03:27:08 PM
Not to mention, the majority of cards were picked up by bots/resellers/scalpers.  :censored
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on September 20, 2020, 04:27:03 PM
I was able to extend my 10-year old laptop's life a little bit, hoping it will get me to Cyber Monday.
I did install fresh Windows 7, first time since I got the laptop in 2010.
Re-installing all my software, I came across two interesting revelations:
1- True Crypt is gone! Their website says it's not safe anymore since they stopped working on it two years ago. I feel like they should have started a massive email campaign to let everybody know, I've been using it! Now there's something called Vera Crypt so I got that and it looks exactly like True Crypt, I don't get it.
2- Kaspersky has apparently become an enemy of the state. I knew it was Russian but I never thought much of it! Some of the discussions I've been reading as a result of that, people are saying well we don't need an antivirus anymore since Windows has an integrated one now.
I'd love to stop paying $230/year, but can I really trust Microsoft with quality anti-virus? I mean Kaseprsky has been such a peace of mind thus far.
Are you Windows 10 folks using the Windows antivirus or still on third-party software?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 20, 2020, 04:34:50 PM
I was able to extend my 10-year old laptop's life a little bit, hoping it will get me to Cyber Monday.
I did install fresh Windows 7, first time since I got the laptop in 2010.
Re-installing all my software, I came across two interesting revelations:
1- True Crypt is gone! Their website says it's not safe anymore since they stopped working on it two years ago. I feel like they should have started a massive email campaign to let everybody know, I've been using it! Now there's something called Vera Crypt so I got that and it looks exactly like True Crypt, I don't get it.
2- Kaspersky has apparently become an enemy of the state. I knew it was Russian but I never thought much of it! Some of the discussions I've been reading as a result of that, people are saying well we don't need an antivirus anymore since Windows has an integrated one now.
I'd love to stop paying $230/year, but can I really trust Microsoft with quality anti-virus? I mean Kaseprsky has been such a peace of mind thus far.
Are you Windows 10 folks using the Windows antivirus or still on third-party software?
I use the Windows anti-virus because it's lightweight and it works well. I also use the free version of Malwarebytes to catch the occasional thing that Microsoft misses, which is rare.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 20, 2020, 06:03:39 PM
I was able to extend my 10-year old laptop's life a little bit, hoping it will get me to Cyber Monday.
I did install fresh Windows 7, first time since I got the laptop in 2010.
Re-installing all my software, I came across two interesting revelations:
1- True Crypt is gone! Their website says it's not safe anymore since they stopped working on it two years ago. I feel like they should have started a massive email campaign to let everybody know, I've been using it! Now there's something called Vera Crypt so I got that and it looks exactly like True Crypt, I don't get it.
2- Kaspersky has apparently become an enemy of the state. I knew it was Russian but I never thought much of it! Some of the discussions I've been reading as a result of that, people are saying well we don't need an antivirus anymore since Windows has an integrated one now.
I'd love to stop paying $230/year, but can I really trust Microsoft with quality anti-virus? I mean Kaseprsky has been such a peace of mind thus far.
Are you Windows 10 folks using the Windows antivirus or still on third-party software?
I use the Windows anti-virus because it's lightweight and it works well. I also use the free version of Malwarebytes to catch the occasional thing that Microsoft misses, which is rare.

Yea, I never paid for a anti-virus because I used to always use the free Malwarebytes, but these days I just use the windows basic defender.  I can't recall the last time it's ever even caught a virus.  The best prevention from a virus is to just be smart about your own actions.  I would totally say not to put any money into anti-virus software unless you know someone who uses that laptop is going to click on anything they see.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 20, 2020, 06:07:55 PM
I was able to extend my 10-year old laptop's life a little bit, hoping it will get me to Cyber Monday.
I did install fresh Windows 7, first time since I got the laptop in 2010.
Re-installing all my software, I came across two interesting revelations:
1- True Crypt is gone! Their website says it's not safe anymore since they stopped working on it two years ago. I feel like they should have started a massive email campaign to let everybody know, I've been using it! Now there's something called Vera Crypt so I got that and it looks exactly like True Crypt, I don't get it.
2- Kaspersky has apparently become an enemy of the state. I knew it was Russian but I never thought much of it! Some of the discussions I've been reading as a result of that, people are saying well we don't need an antivirus anymore since Windows has an integrated one now.
I'd love to stop paying $230/year, but can I really trust Microsoft with quality anti-virus? I mean Kaseprsky has been such a peace of mind thus far.
Are you Windows 10 folks using the Windows antivirus or still on third-party software?

I extended the life of my wife's 11 year old laptop by putting an SSD and free upgrade to windows 10 from 7. Win 10 runs a lot lighter than win 7 and even boots up much faster. It's still got legs for a Toshiba Satellite 2009 laptop.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Grappler on September 20, 2020, 07:16:02 PM
I just replaced my 2015 Toshiba Satellite with an HP.  It's a work owned laptop and the thing is much, much better.  I have a subscription to Trend Micro anti-virus that my boss pays, and is required by my company if I'm going to be using the laptop for work purposes. 

I also just replaced my home desktop, which was a 2010 Dell.  I found a Lenovo tower on Best Buy's site, with a 1TB hard drive and 8 gigs of memory.  I was using Kaspersky, but just switched to Webroot and added it to the subscription that we have for my wife's laptop.  Why subscribe to two different ones, when we can get 3 devices on one subscription? 

I wouldn't trust going without a subscription anti virus.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on September 21, 2020, 01:29:26 PM
Here's a question for folks more knowledgeable than I (which is probably anyone reading this thread):

My 18-year old wants a new computer for digital music production (rap and hip hop stuff).  He sent me a list of parts and is thinking of trying to build it himself.  He has no experience or particular learning in this area, but one or more of his friends has told him that it's not that difficult to do.  I googled "how hard is it to build a PC," and the first couple search results seemed to support that.  Nonetheless, my concern is that he/I will buy a bunch of expensive components and he'll mess something up or he'll do it right and it still won't work.

So...

Am I being overly concerned?  Is it really not that difficult?  Is it really possible just to buy a case, a mother board, a processor, etc. and put them together and get a computer that will kick ass?

What are the pitfalls?  Traps to avoid?

What is he likely to have overlooked with his list of parts (I copied his list below, and this is obviously just the PC and doesn't include any software or peripherals)?

Thanks!


His list:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

MSI B450 Tomahawk Max ATX AM4 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL 16 Memory

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive

MSI Radeon RX 580 8 GB Armor OC video card

Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX power supply

Windows 10 Pro

A monitor

So...we started building this thing yesterday.  A completely different parts list (in part based on recommendations here (thanks again) and in part based on my son's own further research).

Everything went pretty smoothly, but we won't know if it actually works since the graphics card is still on order, so we didn't finish.  A couple things:

1.  We had a bunch of screws left over.  I assume that's normal.

2.  We were not entirely sure where to plug in some of the case controls.  Specifically, I wasn't entire sure where to plug in the power, reset and LCD +/- connectors.  Also, the case we got has a bunch of built in fans, and I we couldn't figure out where those go either.  I plugged in the power/reset/LCD connectors but am not completely confident about where they go.  The fan connectors we just left hanging for now.

We got this case -- https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-icue-220t-rgb-airflow-atx-mid-tower-smart-case-black/6370550.p?skuId=6370550 -- and this motherboard -- https://www.newegg.com/asus-prime-x570-p/p/N82E16813119199

Any help in trying to figure out the inputs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 21, 2020, 01:34:50 PM
You have the manual for the motherboard?  That should tell you where the plug ins on the motherboard are for the fans.  It's possible, you have more fans than interfaces on the motherboard though.  I know I do.  Plugging them into the motherboard will give you some control over them, but you can also just plug them into the power from the PSU if you have some of the connectors.  That will at least get them spinning.  Also you'll need to reference the manual for the case buttons.  They should pretty much all go into the one chunk of pins.  If you plug them in incorrectly, it just wont work but I dont think you risk breaking anything.  You can try flipping them (there's a +/- on some of them). 

Also, usually, the motherboard has some small labels so you can look closely on the board itself for guidance on where to connect things.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 21, 2020, 01:35:57 PM
Have you checked the motherboard manual? There should be a diagram in there re: connections.

EDIT: ninja'd by cram
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2020, 01:38:39 PM
Any help in trying to figure out the inputs?

I looked up the manual for your board here (https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/PRIME_X570-P/E15650_PRIME_X570-P_UM_WEB_V2.pdf)


On page 15 it shows a diagram of where all the connectors go.


(https://imgur.com/J9A1ALj.jpg)


The leftover screws are fine, they are usually extra in case you lose some. The fan connectors I will take a look at the case manual, they usually mention where they go.


Fan layout is the next page and shows this, you'll have to match the case fan plugs to the sockets listed below




(https://imgur.com/D7W2xpV.jpg)



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on September 21, 2020, 03:11:46 PM
You have the manual for the motherboard?

Have you checked the motherboard manual?

LOL.  Yeah...I'm not THAT dumb.

We got to this point right at the end of the time we wanted to spend on this, so we were both kind of burned and not in the mood to try and figure out the manual (much less the minuscule printing on the board itself).

Once again, you guys are awesome!  Much appreciated!!!  I'll throw up some pics at some point.  I have to admit it looks pretty cool.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 21, 2020, 03:56:22 PM
Connecting those really small connectors can be a PITA sometimes.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on September 23, 2020, 10:26:39 AM
HOLY SHIT, IT WORKED!!!!!!!

We were a bit confused with the fan connections mentioned in faizoff's post since the plugs from the fan are 3-pin, and the motherboard spots marked are 4-pin, but my son figured that out during the day yesterday.  He also did a bit of "cable management

Then the graphics "card" arrived yesterday -- a couple days ahead of schedule -- so we popped that in and hooked it up and then took it into my son's room for the moment of truth.

He plugged it in and then hit the power switch on the case...  and nothing happened, which we kind of both expected.  He then remembered that there's a power switch on the power supply (which I didn't know) and flicked that on.  Immediately, something on the motherboard lighted up, and then he hit the power switch on the case and the whole damn thing lighted up!  By the time I went to bed, he had Windows and Norton installed.  The ONLY negative was that he had a Funko Pop figure that he wanted to put in the case, but the head was too big.  Oh well.

The first picture below is obviously pre-graphics card, and the others are post-completion and post-startup.  THANKS AGAIN, YOU GUYS (and my son specifically said to let you know he also said thanks)!

(https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120108475_10219113755135329_3637893287689052688_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=FxKWIzYjK4EAX9xC2f5&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=aa76292f4cd0856d7db517555377b4e8&oe=5F91296A)

(https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120041370_10219113755775345_3658953332133080195_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=7sjeVeTn5xkAX-4q--v&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=d15f1d97dd41bca8882f862b4550f061&oe=5F92B00C)

(https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/119905436_10219113755215331_3103882430953959030_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=wY4XvDkmVQ4AX_XvJAE&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=a3a2d1a095878da91c8cad98d4232e40&oe=5F8FAD23)

(https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/119981011_10219113755895348_1907583652857948974_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=fU6oCJExZrYAX8Al9p1&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=8f1d94ec0145e4b482819cac27f5e7a3&oe=5F91DE3B)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 23, 2020, 10:33:57 AM
That is awesome, dude! Glad it all worked out. Hell yeah. Happy gaming!! :2metal:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on September 23, 2020, 10:39:17 AM
That is awesome, dude! Glad it all worked out. Hell yeah. Happy gaming!! :2metal:

Hopefully more music than gaming, but yeah.  In a million years, I never would have thought we could do this without any significant snags.

After our hand writing battle, I owe you and faizoff a beer or two.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Stadler on September 23, 2020, 10:46:08 AM
WOW, pretty cool!  That looks like it could launch missiles!   :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 23, 2020, 12:07:59 PM
@pg1067 That's awesome! Glad it powered up on first go, and yeah that power supply switch threw me off the first time as well. Congrats to you and your son. It must've been so much fun to build with him.

I guess some cases don't have a pin for grounding which must've been the difference between the 3-pin and the 4-pin. I haven't built a PC in many years so the RGB thing is kinda new to me and I really don't think I'll get used to it. Quick question as I'm curious, I noticed the video card covers the chipset fan when placed in the first slot, I wonder how the temperature on the board is with that chipset fan placement?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 12:12:08 PM
Very awesome!  Got that same AMD cooler, I think it looks so cool.  You can install the software that came with the motherboard to customize the lighting on it. 

Being that my motherboard, CPU fan, and DIMMs all have the rainbow look, I'm actually really wanting to get the EVGA graphic cards on the new line because they also have the rainbow colors.  Fruity sure, but I think it all looks cool when it's all pulsating together. 

Welcome to the world of building a PC. In time you'll be looking forward to doing it again.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 23, 2020, 12:14:42 PM
Ain't nothing fruity about colors. I waste a lot of time playing with mine - some of the effects are really cool, I should take a video tonight  :corn
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 23, 2020, 12:16:12 PM
I assume you guys keep your case on the desk to the right in view of all that crazy colors display. I keep mine on the floor to the left so no point in having those colors on.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 12:16:38 PM
Ain't nothing fruity about colors. I waste a lot of time playing with mine - some of the effects are really cool, I should take a video tonight  :corn

Yea, I like it, I'm just joking.  I can customize it to be more of a single color but that's boring.  it's definitely fun to play around with when you first set it up, but I've got all my colors locked in now including the keyboard, mouse, and headset. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 23, 2020, 12:36:23 PM
HOLY SHIT, IT WORKED!!!!!!!

We were a bit confused with the fan connections mentioned in faizoff's post since the plugs from the fan are 3-pin, and the motherboard spots marked are 4-pin, but my son figured that out during the day yesterday.  He also did a bit of "cable management

Then the graphics "card" arrived yesterday -- a couple days ahead of schedule -- so we popped that in and hooked it up and then took it into my son's room for the moment of truth.

He plugged it in and then hit the power switch on the case...  and nothing happened, which we kind of both expected.  He then remembered that there's a power switch on the power supply (which I didn't know) and flicked that on.  Immediately, something on the motherboard lighted up, and then he hit the power switch on the case and the whole damn thing lighted up!  By the time I went to bed, he had Windows and Norton installed.  The ONLY negative was that he had a Funko Pop figure that he wanted to put in the case, but the head was too big.  Oh well.

The first picture below is obviously pre-graphics card, and the others are post-completion and post-startup.  THANKS AGAIN, YOU GUYS (and my son specifically said to let you know he also said thanks)!

Awesome! Glad it worked without any issues! :metal The first PC build you do is always the most stressful, being worried about breaking an expensive part or not knowing what to do if it doesn't work correctly. I know that's how it was with my first build 20 years ago. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: pg1067 on September 23, 2020, 12:50:28 PM
I guess some cases don't have a pin for grounding which must've been the difference between the 3-pin and the 4-pin. I haven't built a PC in many years so the RGB thing is kinda new to me and I really don't think I'll get used to it. Quick question as I'm curious, I noticed the video card covers the chipset fan when placed in the first slot, I wonder how the temperature on the board is with that chipset fan placement?

One of the first screens was sort of a status monitoring screen, and the temperature was one of the things displayed.  It seemed ok (after 5-10 minutes or so), and everything felt reasonably cool to the touch (before we put the tempered glass panel on).  He is contemplating adding another case fan just in case.


You can install the software that came with the motherboard to customize the lighting on it.

Yeah...that was one of the first things he was fiddling with.  By the end of the night, I think he had everything fixed on green (go Celtics!).


I assume you guys keep your case on the desk to the right in view of all that crazy colors display. I keep mine on the floor to the left so no point in having those colors on.

At the moment, it's on his desk with the glass panel side in full view.  If it were me, I wouldn't give a rip about any of that, but I'm not an 18-year old anymore, so what do I know.


The first PC build you do is always the most stressful, being worried about breaking an expensive part or not knowing what to do if it doesn't work correctly. I know that's how it was with my first build 20 years ago. 

That was the thing.  We weren't so much worried about breaking something, but I had every expectation that something wouldn't work, and I'm not sure either of us had much of an idea what we'd do if that happened.  Frankly, I'm pretty sure that would have happened if not for faizoff's explanation of the wiring.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on September 23, 2020, 01:23:20 PM
The ONLY negative was that he had a Funko Pop figure that he wanted to put in the case, but the head was too big.  Oh well.

If you want, take some dimensions and give me an idea of that he's into. I'll 3D print something he can put in there as a decoration (no charge). I stuffed an Apollo astronaut and an Independence Day fighter (hard to see) in mine:
(https://i.redd.it/7iue35gr6yo51.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 23, 2020, 01:25:54 PM
I posted a picture of my setup before but honestly the video does it proper justice. I quite dig the cosmic aquarium vibe of my bedroom. I found this quick video on my phone, so this is literally what it's like laying in bed at night, every night. Weird? Maybe, but I love it  :biggrin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn7_hme1bEM
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 01:35:57 PM
I posted a picture of my setup before but honestly the video does it proper justice. I quite dig the cosmic aquarium vibe of my bedroom. I found this quick video on my phone, so this is literally what it's like laying in bed at night, every night. Weird? Maybe, but I love it  :biggrin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn7_hme1bEM

spacey... is that tied into your computer or just a separate light?

here's my current set up with my keyboard behind my keyboard  :biggrin:  I have so much fun banging the keys (since I have no idea how to actually play) after getting a kill in Call of Duty  :lol

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ein57tKX0AIep2Q?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 23, 2020, 01:37:10 PM
 :lol It's a separate light, a projector set on the floor. The only difference now is that my piano is set up in front of the computer desk. And I know it's full sized, but your keyboard looks so tiny when it's sitting in front of the other keyboard for some reason  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 02:02:26 PM
It is tiny and yet it's more than enough for the noob that I am  :lol  It's a basic Casio SA-76 I got for free due to a work screw up in the system that awarded me with a 5 year anniversary award when they merged systems.  I told them about it, they said it was cancelled but a month later a keyboard arrived at my house.  Mine now and boy do they have no idea the way I'm using it  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 23, 2020, 02:03:22 PM
No, I meant the computer keyboard, it looks strangely small even though I know how big it is. But that's awesome :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 02:05:43 PM
No, I meant the computer keyboard, it looks strangely small even though I know how big it is. But that's awesome :lol

Oh  :lol yea, the keyboard actually is a good size.  I love having the 5 extra keys too, Stadler was asking in the gaming thread about creating macros and that's a great usage for those extra keys.  I have one simple one that just types out my email address, since that may be the one thing I type the most.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 23, 2020, 02:22:02 PM
Are those pure gaming keyboards? are they mechanical? I've been thinking of getting a mechanical one but am unsure about how loud they can get.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 23, 2020, 03:05:12 PM
Are those pure gaming keyboards? are they mechanical? I've been thinking of getting a mechanical one but am unsure about how loud they can get.

Yes it's mechanical and while people who buy these typically game with them, it's definitely just an all around solid keyboard that can be used for anything.  You can program any key on it for whatever you want.  But at over $100 you might be able to get a solid mechanical keyboard for cheaper if you don't want the LEDs and extra keys and the fast response times.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 24, 2020, 03:18:20 AM
I'd do yourself a favour and also try out the switches if you go mechanical. Some people don't get on with particular switch types (MX reds, being linear, take a lot of getting used to if you are used to more "clicky" switches).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 24, 2020, 11:52:38 AM
So the 3090 seems to be a beast but not worth it unless you have a really really beefy rig. It also seems like a 3090 Ti is on the horizon.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 24, 2020, 12:13:54 PM
It's being touted as a 8k gaming card which really irked Steve from Gamers Nexus, his video goes into some benchmarks with true 8k settings and shows how abysmal the performance is on what it was being touted as.

Other than that aspect of the card, pretty much everyone says it's a beast of a card. Though when you game in 4k 60 fps the performance gain from the 3080 to 3090 is not worth the cost by the looks of it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on September 24, 2020, 12:20:16 PM
It's being touted as a 8k gaming card which really irked Steve from Gamers Nexus, his video goes into some benchmarks with true 8k settings and shows how abysmal the performance is on what it was being touted as.

Other than that aspect of the card, pretty much everyone says it's a beast of a card. Though when you game in 4k 60 fps the performance gain from the 3080 to 3090 is not worth the cost by the looks of it.
Yea I just saw his review, it's pretty brutal. The fact that they marketing the card as a 8K ready card when it's clearly not and also, who the hell owns a 8K TV?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 24, 2020, 02:21:24 PM
It's being touted as a 8k gaming card which really irked Steve from Gamers Nexus, his video goes into some benchmarks with true 8k settings and shows how abysmal the performance is on what it was being touted as.

Other than that aspect of the card, pretty much everyone says it's a beast of a card. Though when you game in 4k 60 fps the performance gain from the 3080 to 3090 is not worth the cost by the looks of it.
Yea I just saw his review, it's pretty brutal. The fact that they marketing the card as a 8K ready card when it's clearly not and also, who the hell owns a 8K TV?

Yea, 8k is just not a thing yet really.  I feel like 4k hasn't even been fully adopted yet (including myself, and even though I want a 3080 I dont think I'll upgrade my monitor until after).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 24, 2020, 08:15:56 PM
It's being touted as a 8k gaming card which really irked Steve from Gamers Nexus, his video goes into some benchmarks with true 8k settings and shows how abysmal the performance is on what it was being touted as.

Other than that aspect of the card, pretty much everyone says it's a beast of a card. Though when you game in 4k 60 fps the performance gain from the 3080 to 3090 is not worth the cost by the looks of it.
Yea I just saw his review, it's pretty brutal. The fact that they marketing the card as a 8K ready card when it's clearly not and also, who the hell owns a 8K TV?

Yea, 8k is just not a thing yet really.  I feel like 4k hasn't even been fully adopted yet (including myself, and even though I want a 3080 I dont think I'll upgrade my monitor until after).
I've installed exactly 2 8K TV's this year for clients. Both were in high end theaters and both cost $60,000 (just for the TV, the theaters in question were both over $250,000 in total). And no, they are not using them for PC gaming  :P They are also impractical for everything. Yes they will upscale non 8k content to 8k, but it's still not 8k....
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ErHaO on September 25, 2020, 07:41:44 AM
Downsampling from 4k to 1080p can be a big improvement over native 1080p for many games (depends on the image quality of a game). Maybe running at 8k and downsampling to 4k can have some benefits? Though personally the jump from 1080p to 4k is very nice but not the gamechanger 720p (or 900p) to 1080p was (and the jump before that, from SD to HD, was offcourse massive).

I imagine the benefit from 4k to 8k will be even less impressive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on September 25, 2020, 07:48:43 AM
I'm just glad we're at a point in gaming where almost all games look really good no matter what you're playing them on. The jump between graphics tiers doesn't seem nearly as extreme as it was 15-20 years ago which is a great thing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 26, 2020, 07:49:56 AM
I always find it funny going back and playing old games only to realize I remember them looking way better than they did. Like I'm applying some sort of graphics filter on my memories lol.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on September 26, 2020, 10:40:34 AM
:lol  Mentally upscaling them.  At the time, they were awesome, cutting edge, so that's how we remember them.  I do the same thing, with movies and TV shows, too.  "Hmm... I don't remember it looking this cheesy..."
Title: NEW PC!!!!
Post by: faizoff on October 05, 2020, 12:06:13 AM
The itch to upgrade my PC got to me sooner than I thought. ;D


With the looming announcement of Zen 3 this week, I thought I'd get ahead and buy an older CPU while reviews, availability and sales settle down for the new CPUs. I'm looking for the equivalent of the Ryzen 9 3900X which might be called the Ryzen 9 5900X from the looks of it.


With the Nvidia launch being problematic with stock availability I didn't want to experience that scenario and went ahead snagging deals as they came.


I got a used Ryzen 7 2700X for $120 to tide me over. I'll be getting the newer Ryzen 9 a few months down the line.


Got a new board, RAM and an NVMe SSD.


List is:
-Ryzen 7 2700X with Wraith Stealth cooler
-MSI Tomahawk X570 (This board is in so much demand, it's crazy I was able to get for the retail price, has high end components usually found on a $300-400 board)
-G.Skill 64 GB 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM (Overkill but had a great deal on it)
-Sabrent Rocket Q 2 TB NVMe Gen 3 PCIe SSD (speeds of 3200 MB/s (read) and 2900 MB/s (write))!


I've retained the rest (Video Card, Monitors, case, keyboard, etc..)






(https://imgur.com/8MyQpuK.jpg?1)


(https://imgur.com/LRdl6yD.jpg?1)
(https://imgur.com/61ihNOr.jpg?1)



Even though the CPU is from 2018, it's crazy fast! :omg:


(https://imgur.com/psFn3sX.png)

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on October 05, 2020, 06:35:12 AM
Kickass, dude  :hat
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 05, 2020, 11:54:58 AM
Definitely my man!

I used to be blown away with the old SSD SATA III speeds but the new one is something else. And it's already a generation behind! PCIe gen 4 SSDs are already out with twice the speed of my current one.


(https://imgur.com/vsTBGZp.jpg)


Windows installation took less than 5 mins total. The downloading of updates and selecting options took more time than actual installation. Will wait a few years before switching to a new gen 4 SSD as the main C drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 05, 2020, 11:56:16 AM
Very cool! Yea the jump to NVMe is a nice one
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 06, 2020, 11:04:52 AM
Looks like the demand for the 3080 and 3090 cards are at an insane level (https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-ceo-geforce-rtx-3080-and-3090-shortages-to-last-until-2021) which is why they're virtually always out of stock and shortages are expected well into next year. I wouldn't have thought an $800 and $1500 card to be that much in demand. I can only imagine how crazy it will be for the 3070 once that launches.

Quote
"The 3080 and 3090 have a demand issue, not a supply issue," said Huang. "The demand issue is that it is much much greater than we expected — and we expected really a lot."

"Retailers will tell you they haven't seen a phenomenon like this in over a decade of computing. It hearkens back to the old days of Windows 95 and Pentium when people were just out of their minds to buy this stuff. So this is a phenomenon like we've not seen in a long time, and we just weren't prepared for it."

"Even if we knew about all the demand, I don't think it's possible to have ramped that fast. We're ramping really, really hard. Yields are great, the product's shipping fantastically, it's just getting sold out instantly," said Huang. "I appreciate it very much, I just don't think there's a real problem to solve. It's a phenomenon to observe. It's just a phenomenon."
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 06, 2020, 11:32:41 AM
It makes sense though, there's a huge leap in power on these that makes even the owners of the last gen want them, and essentially anyone who can afford it wants it for those gains, including myself.  They made a product that is really strong at a price point, that while expensive, is actually really good value compared to previous gens. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 07, 2020, 07:41:03 AM
Cram you nailed it 100%. I'm going to pick one up when it eventually comes in stock but I don't see that happening any time soon.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 07, 2020, 07:52:31 AM
Cram you nailed it 100%. I'm going to pick one up when it eventually comes in stock but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Yea same.  I'm not going to refresh websites constantly, I don't need it that bad, but I do want to upgrade to one once they are readily available.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 08, 2020, 10:55:43 AM
New Ryzen Zen 3 chips announced today, available Nov 5th.

Ryzen 9 5950X   16c/32t   $799
Ryzen 9 5900X   12c/24t   $549
Ryzen 7 5800X   8c/16t   $449
Ryzen 5 5600X   6c/12t   $299

Going to see how reviews show their performance and how prices settle down in a few months, maybe mid next year. I'm leaning so much on the 5950X now. Was thinking of getting the 3950X.

Will have to see how board compatibility works.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 12, 2020, 02:22:00 AM
Trying to replace the SSD in my laptop but nothing is ever easy is it. ::)

Cloned the old SSD boot partition to the new SSD which was plugged in via a SATA USB adapter. All went well. Put the new drive in and it doesn't boot. BIOS doesn't even recognise it, it's as though it does not exist. Put the old one back in and it works, new drive still works on the USB adapter.

Both drives are SATA III so I don't believe a BIOS update is necessary. I can't figure out if there is a newer BIOS available anyway, everything online says the last version for this laptop was 1.02.17 but MSInfo32 says my BIOS is version 4.5.6.

No idea what to do.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 12, 2020, 05:10:26 AM
In my personal experience I've had very little success with cloning software, something always is an issue. I'm assuming it's windows 10 and you used Acronis?

The BIOS not recognizing the cloned drive could be a few things. If you check in Disk Management, do both old and new SSDs show the same partition segments? The boot drive typically shows 4 areas. System Reserved (Basic Data Partition), EFI System Partition, Boot Partition... something along those lines.


Your BIOS also might not show the drive itself and might have an option to just show Windows Boot Manager, if you plug in the cloned SSD do see at least that option?

FYI to get accurate BIOS version, I'd prefer to use a tool like CPU-Z to report the specific version. System info might just mention the generic version.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 12, 2020, 06:47:56 AM
I'm assuming it's windows 10 and you used Acronis?
Windows 7 and Macrium Reflect. :lol

I quickly figured out MSInfo was worthless, ended up just rebooting into the BIOS for the version. There is a newer one but when I tried to flash it I got an error about not having enough memory. So I gave up for the day. Had my dinner and played a game, I'll get back to it tomorrow.

If you check in Disk Management, do both old and new SSDs show the same partition segments? The boot drive typically shows 4 areas. System Reserved (Basic Data Partition), EFI System Partition, Boot Partition... something along those lines.
There's two partitions on the system drive, one of them being the System Reserved and then the main partition. I made sure it cloned both.

Your BIOS also might not show the drive itself and might have an option to just show Windows Boot Manager, if you plug in the cloned SSD do see at least that option?
I don't remember seeing anything specifically referencing Windows in the BIOS, there was just the generic boot order priority list. I also made a Macrium recovery USB before doing the swap and it did not appear in the list of devices when booting off of that either.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 12, 2020, 08:17:45 AM
Sometimes in the BIOS instead of showing the SSD drive name it will show Windows Boot Manager or Program.. but I think that is a windows 10 thing IIRC.

Not sure what to say other than I have had no success with cloning software doing a flawless transfer. If I'm placing a new drive, it's going to get a new full format and fresh windows install. Sorry that's not much help but that's what I've always done.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 14, 2020, 04:04:00 AM
I got around to it today. Remade the boot USB to use a different version of DOS, which allowed me to update the BIOS. Now the new cloned drive is in and working. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 14, 2020, 07:32:56 AM
Awesome, glad that updating the BIOS was all that was needed to make the cloned SSD work. What SSD did you switch to btw?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 14, 2020, 06:43:46 PM
Nothing special, just a WD Blue. I upgraded because the original SSD is a little over 8 years old and was getting close to the point of not being able to rewrite the flash memory.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 14, 2020, 06:48:28 PM
Nothing special, just a WD Blue. I upgraded because the original SSD is a little over 8 years old and was getting close to the point of not being able to rewrite the flash memory.

8 years is a long time, you got your moneys worth
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 15, 2020, 02:51:32 AM
Nothing special, just a WD Blue. I upgraded because the original SSD is a little over 8 years old and was getting close to the point of not being able to rewrite the flash memory.

8 years is indeed a very long time for an OS SSD, longest I've had mine is 6 years.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 16, 2020, 12:45:16 PM
So guess who officially transitioned to 4k land... this guy.

Got a  32" LG 4k monitor. This thing is sweet and everything looks small on my 27" monitor now.


(https://imgur.com/VITII43.jpg)

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 16, 2020, 04:58:10 PM
Oh thats really nice! What kind of panel is that?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 16, 2020, 05:12:33 PM
Very nice, I stopped by a friends new place this afternoon and saw his large curved monitor.  Looked really nice in person and makes me want one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on October 16, 2020, 05:26:04 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 16, 2020, 06:04:58 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
How much are you wanting to spend on it? And what types of games will be played on it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on October 16, 2020, 06:12:32 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
How much are you wanting to spend on it? And what types of games will be played on it?

Would like to keep it under $500. He’s big into roblox right now, doesn’t really play anything else. Nothing needed for hard core gaming.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 16, 2020, 06:42:27 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
How much are you wanting to spend on it? And what types of games will be played on it?

Would like to keep it under $500. He’s big into roblox right now, doesn’t really play anything else. Nothing needed for hard core gaming.
This laptop (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A515-44-R41B-Hexa-Core-Processor-Graphics/dp/B087N4ZRXV/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=acer+amd+laptop&qid=1602894876&sr=8-4) would be up to that task, and I've had good luck with Acer Aspire laptops in the past. Plus it has one of AMD's newest gen laptop CPU's in it, which are really nice. It also has a builtin webcam and backlit keyboard, which are both "nice-to-haves."

It is a little over $500, but once you drop below the 500 pricetag, you start to make too many sacrifices and compromises. Such as dropping to 4gb of ram, instead of 8gb. Or having a really low end CPU. Etc etc.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 16, 2020, 07:49:27 PM
Oh thats really nice! What kind of panel is that?

It's a VA panel. I didn't want to go all out on a curved IPS nano panel just yet. Those things look amazing. Was aiming for a decent price for a 32" 4k model.
Very nice, I stopped by a friends new place this afternoon and saw his large curved monitor.  Looked really nice in person and makes me want one.


I've seen and worked on a curved monitor and they are very nice. When I replace the old 27" model I'll probably spring for a curved high refresh one.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 16, 2020, 07:55:04 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
How much are you wanting to spend on it? And what types of games will be played on it?

Would like to keep it under $500. He’s big into roblox right now, doesn’t really play anything else. Nothing needed for hard core gaming.
This laptop (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A515-44-R41B-Hexa-Core-Processor-Graphics/dp/B087N4ZRXV/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=acer+amd+laptop&qid=1602894876&sr=8-4) would be up to that task, and I've had good luck with Acer Aspire laptops in the past. Plus it has one of AMD's newest gen laptop CPU's in it, which are really nice. It also has a builtin webcam and backlit keyboard, which are both "nice-to-haves."

It is a little over $500, but once you drop below the 500 pricetag, you start to make too many sacrifices and compromises. Such as dropping to 4gb of ram, instead of 8gb. Or having a really low end CPU. Etc etc.

Since you appear to be our resident laptop expert, a friend of mine from the UK was asking me recs for a laptop for the soul purpose of 4k video editing. His plan is to install DaVinci Resolve for the editing. His budget is around USD $1500-2000. Got any suggestions?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 16, 2020, 10:34:10 PM
Suggestions for a solid, budget friendly laptop? Looking to get one for our 13 year old. It will be used for schoolwork, minor gaming, chatting with friends, etc.

After a little research I’ve realized there are about 500 different options, so if you could help me whittle it down it’d be much appreciated.
How much are you wanting to spend on it? And what types of games will be played on it?

Would like to keep it under $500. He’s big into roblox right now, doesn’t really play anything else. Nothing needed for hard core gaming.
This laptop (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A515-44-R41B-Hexa-Core-Processor-Graphics/dp/B087N4ZRXV/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=acer+amd+laptop&qid=1602894876&sr=8-4) would be up to that task, and I've had good luck with Acer Aspire laptops in the past. Plus it has one of AMD's newest gen laptop CPU's in it, which are really nice. It also has a builtin webcam and backlit keyboard, which are both "nice-to-haves."

It is a little over $500, but once you drop below the 500 pricetag, you start to make too many sacrifices and compromises. Such as dropping to 4gb of ram, instead of 8gb. Or having a really low end CPU. Etc etc.

Since you appear to be our resident laptop expert, a friend of mine from the UK was asking me recs for a laptop for the soul purpose of 4k video editing. His plan is to install DaVinci Resolve for the editing. His budget is around USD $1500-2000. Got any suggestions?
Hehe, I wouldn't say I'm an expert on laptops, but I do know PC hardware and stay on top of all the latest stuff. My expertise really lies in custom desktop workstations and gaming pc's. That knowledge can translate to laptops for the most part though.

So DaVinci Resolve is a tough one for laptops, but with a $2000 budget it's actually fairly doable. Resolve highly leverages GPU memory, so for 4k video editing having a Quadro GPU that has at least 6GB of RAM is the most important thing. You could probably get away with 4GB, but editing 4k video could have you running into "out of video memory" errors. The next important thing is having at least 16GB of system RAM, and then lastly a decent 6-core or higher CPU.

Fortunately you can get all that just under $2000 https://www.newegg.com/star-grey-metal-asus-studiobook-w700g3t-xs77-creating-designing/p/N82E16834235501
You can also add/upgrade the RAM in this laptop up to 64GB if needed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 18, 2020, 09:28:49 AM
Thatnks for the input! I did recall that Resolve leans a lot more on GPU than CPU. I'll forward that option to him and see what he thinks. I think he's pretty much clueless on the hardware side of things which is why he asked me.

I've been keeping up with the hardware side of things only the past six months ever since I got the itch to upgrade my decade old PC. But laptops I have no clue in terms of reliability, support or overall performance.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: orcus116 on October 18, 2020, 05:27:33 PM
I'm likely going to be building a new PC in the near future and while I've been an Intel guy my whole life I'm hearing the AMD Ryzens are pretty good and potentially a cheaper option. Any thoughts on those vs the new Intel chips?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 18, 2020, 05:46:29 PM
I'm likely going to be building a new PC in the near future and while I've been an Intel guy my whole life I'm hearing the AMD Ryzens are pretty good and potentially a cheaper option. Any thoughts on those vs the new Intel chips?
I currently use AMD CPU's exclusively for gaming and workstation applications. Intel is so far behind on anything meaningful it's hard to recommend them for anything. The early reports on the AMD Zen 3 cpu's coming out soon have them surpassing Intel's fastest chips in single threaded operations and since they have been destroying Intel in multithreaded operations for almost 4 years now, there is no reason to even consider Intel right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: orcus116 on October 18, 2020, 08:18:14 PM
That's the general sense I'm getting since it's been years since I've even looked into a new computer. If I'm on a little bit of a budget what's the best bang for my buck with futureproofing in mind?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 18, 2020, 09:00:15 PM
I've been more or less in the same situation as you, I've been pretty much an Intel guy my entire life. I typically bought only laptops with AMD cpus as they served the best value. Now I don't like to be a one company vs the other company guy, I always get what serves the best value to me with whatever tech purchase I do.

The last time I upgraded was in 2011. Apart from the occasional SSD and HDD upgrade I never upgraded the other main components. This year I've done what's mostly a transition upgrade, get parts when you see deals on them. I fixed a price point for each component and bought one that fit the bill.

AMD has definitely turned the tide and have positioned themselves very well at the moment. Not that Intel are terribly lagging, people online will tell you that they are way behind. And on paper yes they definitely are. But in reality if you got an Intel CPU and it's comparable AMD CPU and you used them side by side you probably won't notice any difference.

Reason I went with AMD was I will not upgrade for another 10 years or whatever, so right now they have the better features in an overall package, more cores on the CPUs, PCIe 4.0 support for GPUs and NVMe SSDs. Even though currently you won't see any benefit of those technologies, they are actively being developed to push them further and further where I truly feel you'll see a difference in another 2-3 years.

That said, the new Ryzen 5000 series are to be released next month but they are being marked up price wise and stock of them during launch day/week/month is most likely going to be scarce.

I think for a good budget build for gaming and productivity a Ryzen 5 3600 paired with a B550 board will give you the best bang for the buck. They are quite good for future proofing for at least 5-6 years at the very least in my opinion. With that you're freed to spend more on other components that you may value like GPU or monitor etc..

I think Intel will catch up and come back in a bigger way as they have all the capitol in the world to make it happen. It just might take them another 3-4 years at the least. So for now AMD offer the better overall option.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 09:32:58 AM
I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)

Hello folks, typing to you from the above mentioned Asus for the first time  ;D
Thanks again for all the recommendations and discussion!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 09:51:05 AM
I extended the life of my wife's 11 year old laptop by putting an SSD and free upgrade to windows 10 from 7. Win 10 runs a lot lighter than win 7 and even boots up much faster. It's still got legs for a Toshiba Satellite 2009 laptop.

Dude I've been meaning to ask you about that! Now that I got this Asus I'm trying to get the old 2010 Toshiba Satellite to just barely function so the kids can do school stuff on it. After all these month of struggling with it; I still haven't been able to pinpoint the exact problem, I've done a fresh Windows 7 installation and the problem went away for a week or so then returned in full force, which prompted me to give up and finally get the Asus.
The problem is that the computer slows down, not your usual too-many-apps-on kinda slow down that old computers struggle to handle, but a slow down that goes to a halt, not a total freeze, you can still see and move the mouse cursor, just nothing responds and you hear an odd clicking noise from a piece of hardware inside, to me it sounds like something that's trying to spin but is unable to, but then again I have zero diagnostic experience when it comes to hardware.
Here's where I'm going with this though; how did you diagnose that the problem was the hard drive? You were obviously confident of your diagnosis enough to buy a new drive, I'm interested in venturing with the purchase and the attempt to replace it myself using youtube tutorials but I'm trying to be sure of what the problem is.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 19, 2020, 10:04:29 AM
By your description it sounds like the mechanical hard drive inside the Toshiba is dying. In my case I just went ahead and replaced the existing mechanical drive since the SSD will always be faster. It's fairly easy to replace a HDD in the Toshiba, I can help if you decide to replace it, plus there are a ton of youtube videos on it.

Another possibility could be the CPU is overheating as I've had that happen too. I once had to dismantle everything and clean the dust out from inside the chassis. I only did it that one time and it was good from then on.

In your case I would most likely think it's the first scenario where the mechanical HDD is dying. Probably cheaper and easier to get a small 256 GB SSD and replace it and reinstall windows.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 19, 2020, 10:05:44 AM
I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)



Hello folks, typing to you from the above mentioned Asus for the first time  ;D
Thanks again for all the recommendations and discussion!


Dang that is a beast of a laptop.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 01:51:58 PM
By your description it sounds like the mechanical hard drive inside the Toshiba is dying. In my case I just went ahead and replaced the existing mechanical drive since the SSD will always be faster. It's fairly easy to replace a HDD in the Toshiba, I can help if you decide to replace it, plus there are a ton of youtube videos on it.

Thanks! I may just take you up on that, or at least double check things from the tutorials with you.

In your case I would most likely think it's the first scenario where the mechanical HDD is dying. Probably cheaper and easier to get a small 256 GB SSD and replace it and reinstall windows.

I see. So any 256gb SSD or there some hardware compatibility elements I need to be aware of?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 19, 2020, 02:44:09 PM
I see. So any 256gb SSD or there some hardware compatibility elements I need to be aware of?

I should think so. If your Toshiba laptop is like the one I have, it should accommodate this drive (https://www.newegg.com/crucial-mx500-250gb/p/N82E16820156172?Item=N82E16820156172) (just using as an example) It's pretty much the standard. Anything that is 2.5" and marked as SATA should be compatible. You can double check when you remove your current HDD and see if it has the same ports as the one I linked.


The one I plugged in my laptop is this drive. (https://www.newegg.com/crucial-m500-480gb/p/N82E16820148695)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 03:07:28 PM
This guy (https://youtu.be/-3JwKxJjALc) has my exact same laptop and the disassembly looks like a genuine nightmare!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 19, 2020, 03:14:37 PM
This guy (https://youtu.be/-3JwKxJjALc) has my exact same laptop and the disassembly looks like a genuine nightmare!
I might have missed a post somewhere, but are you sure it's not just a Windows problem? Seems to me that if you're willing to replace the HDD in the thing, then you're willing to start from scratch with a fresh install of windows. I'd probably do that first and see if that doesn't resolve things.

Also, when helping a coworker with his laptop that was running stupidly slow, the first thing I did was run chkdsk on it. Took 24 fucking hours, but found and marked plenty of bad sectors and the thing ran great afterward. Just a thought.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 19, 2020, 03:19:01 PM
This guy (https://youtu.be/-3JwKxJjALc) has my exact same laptop and the disassembly looks like a genuine nightmare!

Holy shit that is a pain. Mine was much simpler, remove two screws on the back and take out the panel, remove another 2 screws that held the drive with a frame. Unplug drive and replace. put screws back. That one looks more elaborate.

It might be worth also doing a chkdsk like Barto suggested, even though you did a fresh install, it's probably good to get it done and check just in case windows can fix the sector errors itself.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 03:21:13 PM
This guy (https://youtu.be/-3JwKxJjALc) has my exact same laptop and the disassembly looks like a genuine nightmare!
I might have missed a post somewhere, but are you sure it's not just a Windows problem? Seems to me that if you're willing to replace the HDD in the thing, then you're willing to start from scratch with a fresh install of windows. I'd probably do that first and see if that doesn't resolve things.

Also, when helping a coworker with his laptop that was running stupidly slow, the first thing I did was run chkdsk on it. Took 24 fucking hours, but found and marked plenty of bad sectors and the thing ran great afterward. Just a thought.

I've done both those things, I ran the chkdsk, found a few errors and fixed it, then installed fresh Windows 7. Problem went away for a week or so then came back full on, that's another part of why I can't really pinpoint the problem, but what faizoff said about the hard drive wearing out makes sense.
At this point I've got nothing to lose with the Toshiba except the $50 I'll spend on the SSD that may not solve the problem, but I'm almost certain I'd rage quit that disassembly/assembly a bunch of times heh
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 19, 2020, 03:41:46 PM
This guy (https://youtu.be/-3JwKxJjALc) has my exact same laptop and the disassembly looks like a genuine nightmare!
I might have missed a post somewhere, but are you sure it's not just a Windows problem? Seems to me that if you're willing to replace the HDD in the thing, then you're willing to start from scratch with a fresh install of windows. I'd probably do that first and see if that doesn't resolve things.

Also, when helping a coworker with his laptop that was running stupidly slow, the first thing I did was run chkdsk on it. Took 24 fucking hours, but found and marked plenty of bad sectors and the thing ran great afterward. Just a thought.

I've done both those things, I ran the chkdsk, found a few errors and fixed it, then installed fresh Windows 7. Problem went away for a week or so then came back full on, that's another part of why I can't really pinpoint the problem, but what faizoff said about the hard drive wearing out makes sense.
At this point I've got nothing to lose with the Toshiba except the $50 I'll spend on the SSD that may not solve the problem, but I'm almost certain I'd rage quit that disassembly/assembly a bunch of times heh
Did chkdsk do the full surface scan, or just check for soft errors? One takes ~10 and the other a couple of hours under the best of circumstances.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 19, 2020, 03:44:24 PM
Not sure about that one, I'll run it again just in case. Everything runs normal in Safe Mode and that's where I ran the chkdsk from.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 19, 2020, 05:55:32 PM
Not sure about that one, I'll run it again just in case. Everything runs normal in Safe Mode and that's where I ran the chkdsk from.
Whoa, if everything runs normal in safe mode you got yourself a Windows problem. In any case, I believe that the /r switch forces the surface scan.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 19, 2020, 06:49:14 PM
I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)

Hello folks, typing to you from the above mentioned Asus for the first time  ;D
Thanks again for all the recommendations and discussion!
:2metal:


Glad you are enjoying it! Those Asus Zephyrus laptops are truly great!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 21, 2020, 04:47:22 PM
Not sure about that one, I'll run it again just in case. Everything runs normal in Safe Mode and that's where I ran the chkdsk from.
Whoa, if everything runs normal in safe mode you got yourself a Windows problem. In any case, I believe that the /r switch forces the surface scan.

100% logical, but I've installed Windows 7 from a different source DVD the second time and the same problem persists, it's baffling. 
I've re-ran the chkdsk and it last 3 hours, found some bad sectors and fixed them, again. Now it runs a little longer before coming to a halt.

Dumb question: Are bad sectors infectious? It's a 100% hardware issue right? Like it shouldn't possibly pull off an agent Smith and somehow channel through the data I'm moving from my old laptop to me new one.

I would look at the Asus Zephyrus (https://store.asus.com/us/item/202003AM250000001/zephyrus-ROG-Zephyrus-G15-%282020%29-Ultra-Slim-Gaming-Laptop%2C-15.6%E2%80%9D-144Hz-FHD%2C-GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti%2C-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800HS%2C-16GB-DDR4%2C-1TB-PCIe-NVMe-SSD%2C-Gig%2B-Wi-Fi-6%2C-Windows-10%2C-GA502IU-ES76)

Hello folks, typing to you from the above mentioned Asus for the first time  ;D
Thanks again for all the recommendations and discussion!
:2metal:


Glad you are enjoying it! Those Asus Zephyrus laptops are truly great!

Thank you sir! I've got only one minor issue with it so far and that's pretty good.
Windows 10 is not as bad as people are making it sound but it's too early to tell anyway. I was honestly pleasantly surprised to find that new Mail app they include, it's basically free Outlook Express! No more logging in and out 3 times to check on my different email addresses heh

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 21, 2020, 04:55:55 PM
Who makes Windows 10 sound bad?  :lol I mean, Windows has always had issues, but version 10 seems just in line with all the every other versions of Windows mantra.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 21, 2020, 05:00:08 PM
Back when Windows 10 first started, the worst thing they did was that they would force mandatory updates and reboot without a flinch and that would upset people more than anything lol. Oh look you're in the middle of a gaming session? well too bad sucka! update and boom reboot.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 21, 2020, 05:00:49 PM
Not sure about that one, I'll run it again just in case. Everything runs normal in Safe Mode and that's where I ran the chkdsk from.
Whoa, if everything runs normal in safe mode you got yourself a Windows problem. In any case, I believe that the /r switch forces the surface scan.

100% logical, but I've installed Windows 7 from a different source DVD the second time and the same problem persists, it's baffling. 
I've re-ran the chkdsk and it last 3 hours, found some bad sectors and fixed them, again. Now it runs a little longer before coming to a halt.

Dumb question: Are bad sectors infectious? It's a 100% hardware issue right? Like it shouldn't possibly pull off an agent Smith and somehow channel through the data I'm moving from my old laptop to me new one.

Bad sectors are just bad spots on the disk platters. When you copy the drive it's just not going to be able to access whatever's on whose spots (though CHKDSK has already flagged them as bad, so it shouldn't even try).

I wouldn't suspect it's the version of Windows you installed, but rather something that installed along with it. Like a driver, perhaps. If the thing runs normally in safe mode, and doesn't in normal mode, then it has to be something that's loading in normal windows. How sure are you that it runs fine in safe mode? I know that I never spend any longer in SM than necessary. You let it run for any length of time to see if the problem ever pops up?

There are some other diagnostic steps I could recommend, but it sounds like you're resigned to installing a new HDD. Lemme know if you're still in troubleshooting mode.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 21, 2020, 05:05:59 PM
Back when Windows 10 first started, the worst thing they did was that they would force mandatory updates and reboot without a flinch and that would upset people more than anything lol. Oh look you're in the middle of a gaming session? well too bad sucka! update and boom reboot.

Well, that's why I hardly ever upgrade any software immediately (unless it fixes a known issue I have).  Things like that are stupid, but get fixed eventually. Windows 10 has been really solid for me personally.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 21, 2020, 05:25:55 PM
I've certainly got my own issues with 10, but it's not terrible. It's certainly more stable than XP, which is where I upgraded from. One of the important things, as was mentioned, was disabling automatic updates. I slept in on a cold Saturday morning a couple of years ago, looking forward to a cup of coffee, a muffin, and some gaming, and found that Windows had updated overnight and completely nuked my VGA drivers. That one's a bitch to straighten out, I'm here to tell you. That was it for Windows update.

Disabling Windows update is a fine example of why I hate Windows 10. Microsoft won't let you do it because you're not smart enough. It won't let you do anything that MS thinks isn't in your best interest, and it's infuriating. I had to install a specific registry hack just to be able to delete files that MS claimed ownership of. I built this computer and I installed the OS. If I want to delete the entire fucking registry that's between me and my gods. It isn't any of Microsoft's business. It's really become quite HAL-like. Any time I install W10 I always spend a couple of week cursing the various things it won't allow me to do to customize it to my liking, and hunting down the various tweeks and hacks that I last used years ago.

And there are a few things that have either gone away or been "improved" that bug me. The W10 volume mixer is terrible. Same with the clock and calendar. Every time I turn my TV on or off it scrambles all three of my displays because it's no longer possible to disable autodetect, and Windows' multiple monitor support is weak. Windows calls this a "feature."  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on October 21, 2020, 05:28:51 PM
I wouldn't suspect it's the version of Windows you installed, but rather something that installed along with it. Like a driver, perhaps. If the thing runs normally in safe mode, and doesn't in normal mode, then it has to be something that's loading in normal windows.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, I may actually have been in denial about it throughout the whole ordeal. The thing is though, I haven't installed any new hardware since a usb hub in April and the problems started up 3 or 4 month after that. It could still be an update that one of my drivers have been issued that suddenly caused all this. But now that I won't be using that laptop myself; I may just uninstall most of that stuff and see.

How sure are you that it runs fine in safe mode? I know that I never spend any longer in SM than necessary. You let it run for any length of time to see if the problem ever pops up?

Maybe a couple of hours a couple of times, I used it to transfer my data out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 21, 2020, 05:54:13 PM
I wouldn't suspect it's the version of Windows you installed, but rather something that installed along with it. Like a driver, perhaps. If the thing runs normally in safe mode, and doesn't in normal mode, then it has to be something that's loading in normal windows.

I think you hit the nail on the head there, I may actually have been in denial about it throughout the whole ordeal. The thing is though, I haven't installed any new hardware since a usb hub in April and the problems started up 3 or 4 month after that. It could still be an update that one of my drivers have been issued that suddenly caused all this. But now that I won't be using that laptop myself; I may just uninstall most of that stuff and see.

How sure are you that it runs fine in safe mode? I know that I never spend any longer in SM than necessary. You let it run for any length of time to see if the problem ever pops up?

Maybe a couple of hours a couple of times, I used it to transfer my data out.
If you read from the HDD for a couple of hours with no problems in safe mode, it's probably not your HDD. The two things I'd do are 1) install a monitoring program and see if it's running hot. I'm partial to Afterburner, myself. Safe mode might not run the utility that enables the CPU to step down when it gets hot. 2) when it starts running really slow open up the task monitor-resource monitor and see if any process is really hammering it. High CPU usage or high read/write to the drive are what I'd be looking for. On my work PC "system and compressed memory" will occasionally go slap nuts and slow everything down to the point that I have to hit the reset button.

Just some thoughts.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 22, 2020, 07:16:57 AM
I've certainly got my own issues with 10, but it's not terrible. It's certainly more stable than XP, which is where I upgraded from. One of the important things, as was mentioned, was disabling automatic updates. I slept in on a cold Saturday morning a couple of years ago, looking forward to a cup of coffee, a muffin, and some gaming, and found that Windows had updated overnight and completely nuked my VGA drivers. That one's a bitch to straighten out, I'm here to tell you. That was it for Windows update.

Disabling Windows update is a fine example of why I hate Windows 10. Microsoft won't let you do it because you're not smart enough. It won't let you do anything that MS thinks isn't in your best interest, and it's infuriating. I had to install a specific registry hack just to be able to delete files that MS claimed ownership of. I built this computer and I installed the OS. If I want to delete the entire fucking registry that's between me and my gods. It isn't any of Microsoft's business. It's really become quite HAL-like. Any time I install W10 I always spend a couple of week cursing the various things it won't allow me to do to customize it to my liking, and hunting down the various tweeks and hacks that I last used years ago.

And there are a few things that have either gone away or been "improved" that bug me. The W10 volume mixer is terrible. Same with the clock and calendar. Every time I turn my TV on or off it scrambles all three of my displays because it's no longer possible to disable autodetect, and Windows' multiple monitor support is weak. Windows calls this a "feature."  :lol

I always had the Pro version of windows 10 so the option to delay auto update was there from the start plus, you could always pick and choose what other products to get auto updates from. I used to run into issues with one of my wifi adapter driver being auto updated and I had to uninstall and install it as a generic driver to stop from being autoupdated.

There definitely were teething issues in the beginning. For sure it has gotten a lot better. I think I still prefer it to windows 7 and XP. Those were great for the time, 8 was the visual misfire, under the hood it was great.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 22, 2020, 10:03:20 AM
I've certainly got my own issues with 10, but it's not terrible. It's certainly more stable than XP, which is where I upgraded from. One of the important things, as was mentioned, was disabling automatic updates. I slept in on a cold Saturday morning a couple of years ago, looking forward to a cup of coffee, a muffin, and some gaming, and found that Windows had updated overnight and completely nuked my VGA drivers. That one's a bitch to straighten out, I'm here to tell you. That was it for Windows update.

Disabling Windows update is a fine example of why I hate Windows 10. Microsoft won't let you do it because you're not smart enough. It won't let you do anything that MS thinks isn't in your best interest, and it's infuriating. I had to install a specific registry hack just to be able to delete files that MS claimed ownership of. I built this computer and I installed the OS. If I want to delete the entire fucking registry that's between me and my gods. It isn't any of Microsoft's business. It's really become quite HAL-like. Any time I install W10 I always spend a couple of week cursing the various things it won't allow me to do to customize it to my liking, and hunting down the various tweeks and hacks that I last used years ago.

And there are a few things that have either gone away or been "improved" that bug me. The W10 volume mixer is terrible. Same with the clock and calendar. Every time I turn my TV on or off it scrambles all three of my displays because it's no longer possible to disable autodetect, and Windows' multiple monitor support is weak. Windows calls this a "feature."  :lol

I always had the Pro version of windows 10 so the option to delay auto update was there from the start plus, you could always pick and choose what other products to get auto updates from. I used to run into issues with one of my wifi adapter driver being auto updated and I had to uninstall and install it as a generic driver to stop from being autoupdated.

There definitely were teething issues in the beginning. For sure it has gotten a lot better. I think I still prefer it to windows 7 and XP. Those were great for the time, 8 was the visual misfire, under the hood it was great.
Delay is not disable. Just like I don't want to have to beg permission to delete a file, I don't want to be constantly nagged about how much danger I'm in by not updating Windows every other day. Moreover, despite all of the computers up here being set to delay updates, they still manage to sneak through from time to time, generally at the most inopportune moments. That's why I have to hunt down registry hacks to prevent them.

But again, it's the general attitude Windows presents that really gets me. My OS shouldn't own me. I should own it. It treating me like a child is simply infuriating.

BTW, I've made this exact same argument in the browser thread, as Firefox has become the same overbearing pain in the ass. Chase won't let me log on to their site without updating Firefox. I'm actually considering just closing out that credit card rather than updating, which is always a pain in the ass. Mozilla insists on changing the look and layout of the Firefox with every third update, and ever single update removes one of the ways you can get around that. If I'm not mistaken I'm sitting on this version because it was the last version that permitted the use of style sheets to allow you to customize the appearance. You get used to the way your web browser looks and works, and you shouldn't have to adjust to a new on every time some egghead decides he knows better than you.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 22, 2020, 10:30:25 AM
Well good luck with that, windows has more and more creeped into what other tech giants have been doing from the start in owning your data, habits, everything... The only way I see to maintain the "I am not the product" attitude is to not use Windows. There are alternatives and time to time I will indulge them but I'm too far invested into the ecosystem of some that it would be a pain to move away.


I think updating does have its pros and cons and being able to decide ourselves should IMO have always been an option for the end user. But as standards change and protocols get updated, sometimes it's a pain for developers to maintain old legacy vulnerabilities.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 22, 2020, 10:35:24 AM
With security vulnerabilities these days, the constant updates are kind of necessary.  Now, I agree, as a user of your own device, you should have 100% control of that, but I think a vast majority of people wouldn't do the most critical and necessary updates for their own safety/privacy that leads to Windows being forceful here.  I honestly, don't recall any issues personally other than an update taking a long time and making me impatient.  At the end of the day, my Windows 10 experience has been really smooth and the best Windows to date.  Not perfect, but it's drawbacks definitely aren't bad enough to make me want to use another operating system.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 22, 2020, 10:41:24 AM
Well good luck with that, windows has more and more creeped into what other tech giants have been doing from the start in owning your data, habits, everything... The only way I see to maintain the "I am not the product" attitude is to not use Windows. There are alternatives and time to time I will indulge them but I'm too far invested into the ecosystem of some that it would be a pain to move away.


I think updating does have its pros and cons and being able to decide ourselves should IMO have always been an option for the end user. But as standards change and protocols get updated, sometimes it's a pain for developers to maintain old legacy vulnerabilities.
Well, I'm pretty mindful of what intel companies get from me, and thankfully MS gets essentially zero. Honestly, I think Windows deserves $130 for providing a good OS, but I'll steal it every damn time specifically to shut out their access to me as a product. I install hacked versions with the phone home aspect removed, and I firewall anything I don't specifically approve. They've really created a situation where not paying them is the only way to keep them off your back.

But, when I used "own" I meant "be the master of." My OS shouldn't treat me like it's doing me a favor by protecting my from myself.

And yeah, I've considered adopting Linux, but everything I've heard is that it's a constant hassle. Unlike Windows, which is only a occasional hassle.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: The Walrus on October 22, 2020, 10:51:13 AM
Win10 has its problems but I don't mind it these days. Still like 7 more. Anything is better than 8. My laptop is still on 7 after reverting back from 8 many years ago. my two cents
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: hunnus2000 on October 22, 2020, 11:16:16 AM
So can somebody tell me who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to minimize the scroll bar when browsing or other applications?  >:(
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 22, 2020, 11:43:46 AM
So can somebody tell me who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to minimize the scroll bar when browsing or other applications?  >:(

Yeah I don't like that at all, but as a saving grace in windows 10 you can use the middle button scroll without actually having to click on another page/folder. Just hover over another area and scroll up and down without losing focus of the page you're previously on.. I absolutely LOVE that feature and takes away the annoyance of minimizing the scroll bar wherever it is implemented.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 22, 2020, 11:46:21 AM
So can somebody tell me who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to minimize the scroll bar when browsing or other applications?  >:(
What does this? Don't think I've ever seen a scroll bar minimize.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Evermind on October 22, 2020, 11:48:56 AM
Loved 7, still use it on my PC. My PC at work is updated to 10, it's okay but I still prefer 7.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 22, 2020, 01:06:33 PM
So can somebody tell me who in the fuck thought it was a good idea to minimize the scroll bar when browsing or other applications?  >:(
What does this? Don't think I've ever seen a scroll bar minimize.

It's in certain UWP apps like Movies, you can see it when you resize the settings app. Actually you can disable it I just found. If you go to settings->Ease of Access->Display "Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows"


(https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/tutorials/174086d1516834247-turn-off-automatically-hide-scroll-bars-windows-10-uwp-apps-automatically_hide_scroll_bars_settings-1.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: hunnus2000 on October 22, 2020, 01:18:46 PM
Thanks Faizoff!  :tup

I figured it was a setting but I was too lazy to look for it and it gave me something else to bitch about during the covids.  :hat
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 23, 2020, 12:33:25 PM
How Many Potatoes Does It Take To Run DOOM? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDlVgBMomQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0TcD2onMaXoc4nJL2psRTpP93xnm-z3PM3yqC81Yzj6YOyBb3789GVeLQ&ab_channel=Equalo)

I think this guy deserve the Nobel price or something equal.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: v_clortho on October 23, 2020, 12:39:33 PM
Should've done Portal
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wolfking on October 23, 2020, 04:48:50 PM
I need to buy va new PC.  Mines completely shit itself and is like 20 years old.  Anyone use one of those all in one desktops?  I don't do games or anything, just music, internet browsing and YouTube.  They are cheap and seem handy.  Any good?

Also, anyone know if you can plug external stereo speakers into them?

Edit: forget that.  I just got a cheap ass $650 desktop tower to replace my 20 year old Windows XP computer.

Next thing, security.  Is this Windows Defender good enough or to I need more?  The guy in the store tried to sell me Norton for $128!!  Wasn't having a bar of that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 23, 2020, 07:12:17 PM
I need to buy va new PC.  Mines completely shit itself and is like 20 years old.  Anyone use one of those all in one desktops?  I don't do games or anything, just music, internet browsing and YouTube.  They are cheap and seem handy.  Any good?

Also, anyone know if you can plug external stereo speakers into them?

Edit: forget that.  I just got a cheap ass $650 desktop tower to replace my 20 year old Windows XP computer.

Next thing, security.  Is this Windows Defender good enough or to I need more?  The guy in the store tried to sell me Norton for $128!!  Wasn't having a bar of that.
Norton is trash. Windows Defender is good enough, unless you like visiting sketchy websites and like to click on all the popup links  :biggrin:

I would recommend also running the free version of Malwarebytes. I seems to catch the crap that Defender occasionally misses.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wolfking on October 23, 2020, 07:43:40 PM
I need to buy va new PC.  Mines completely shit itself and is like 20 years old.  Anyone use one of those all in one desktops?  I don't do games or anything, just music, internet browsing and YouTube.  They are cheap and seem handy.  Any good?

Also, anyone know if you can plug external stereo speakers into them?

Edit: forget that.  I just got a cheap ass $650 desktop tower to replace my 20 year old Windows XP computer.

Next thing, security.  Is this Windows Defender good enough or to I need more?  The guy in the store tried to sell me Norton for $128!!  Wasn't having a bar of that.
Norton is trash. Windows Defender is good enough, unless you like visiting sketchy websites and like to click on all the popup links  :biggrin:

I would recommend also running the free version of Malwarebytes. I seems to catch the crap that Defender occasionally misses.

Thanks mate.  Quick bit of reading I've done seems to backup what you are saying.  I'll source a free version.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 23, 2020, 07:51:12 PM
I haven't installed a virus scanner since the mid 2000s. Whatever comes with Windows has been more than enough for the past few decades. I used to pore over the firewall settings daily and monitor it like hawk but even that I don't bother anymore.

I haven't had any experience with AIO computers. Some of them look great but I have no clue on their longevity and which brand is dependable. Cheap ass towers is the way to go for basic computer functionality.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wolfking on October 23, 2020, 08:05:53 PM
I haven't installed a virus scanner since the mid 2000s. Whatever comes with Windows has been more than enough for the past few decades. I used to pore over the firewall settings daily and monitor it like hawk but even that I don't bother anymore.

I haven't had any experience with AIO computers. Some of them look great but I have no clue on their longevity and which brand is dependable. Cheap ass towers is the way to go for basic computer functionality.

I have had Norton in the past but never had any real reason for needing it for years though truthfully.

Setup of the PC was pretty easy.  Dunno what the he'll Microsoft Edge is though.  Better than Chrome or Firefox?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 23, 2020, 08:18:46 PM
The new MS Edge is made up of most of the same code as Chrome. I find it very good. I actually really liked the old Edge which MS built from scratch. That's why it looks and behaves very similar to chrome. I haven't even installed chrome on my new setup. Curious what the specs on your tower are.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 23, 2020, 08:22:29 PM
Depends on who you ask, I don't see too much difference between the big browsers and it comes down preference sometimes.  I heard good things about the new Edge, but I have little interest to try it being tied into Chrome because I'm so comfortable with it.  However, for work, I toggle between chrome/safari/firefox because work apps seem to behave better in some browsers over others.  :huh: (being that I work in tech, I think it's ridiculous)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wolfking on October 23, 2020, 08:23:53 PM
Thanks lads.  Will see how this Edge goes.  Seems fine for me.  This is what I got;

https://support.hp.com/th-en/document/c06639644

HP Slim Desktop - S01-aF0104a
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 23, 2020, 08:27:45 PM
Thanks lads.  Will see how this Edge goes.  Seems fine for me.  This is what I got;

https://support.hp.com/th-en/document/c06639644

HP Slim Desktop - S01-aF0104a


Very cool, it's got an NVMe SSD that alone will make your new PC fly. Specs look good, it should serve you well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: wolfking on October 23, 2020, 08:30:21 PM
Thanks lads.  Will see how this Edge goes.  Seems fine for me.  This is what I got;

https://support.hp.com/th-en/document/c06639644

HP Slim Desktop - S01-aF0104a


Very cool, it's got an NVMe SSD that alone will make your new PC fly. Specs look good, it should serve you well.

Thanks man, good to hear.  I'm a bit out of touch with all the new specs and hardware, I just legit know that the basic stuff I do the cheapest would be most serviceable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 25, 2020, 10:18:50 AM
came across a weird RAM problem. I have 2 A slots and 2 B slots for a total of 4 each. My B slots dont work at all. I painstakingly checked each of my four RAM sticks on each slot and rebooted every time. All RAM sticks work on the A slots, they do nothing on the B slots. My hands are so sore from the constant pull and push lol.

It's so bizarre, and haven't come across this before. I don't know if the power supply going kaput had anything to do with it. My mobo manual says technically it can only support a max of 4GB per slot but I have a set of 4 x 8 GB RAM sticks that I've been using for years with no issue. Now I'm downgraded to 16 GB total RAM and 16 GB RAM of DDR3 to figure out what to do with.



I officially retired my old i5-2500k and handed it to my daughter for her online classes since the raspberry pi wasn't powerful enough to handle videos and other simple tasks we take for granted on a PC.


Coming back to this RAM problem, I searched across the internet for a possible solution and one or two comments recommended that I reseat the CPU to test, since it's always such a pain to remove the entire setup esp when you have a giant Hyper 212 Plus cooler sitting on top of the CPU, I just skipped that route of troubleshooting.


Now while putting the components in a new case, I paid attention to reseating the CPU (not that I recall doing it any differently), I was able to get all 4 slots of RAM working again!


So my 6 year old daughter has a desktop with a 27" monitor, an OC'ed 4.5 Ghz i5-2500k CPu, 32 GB of RAM, 256 GB SATA III SSD and Radeon HD 6870 for school work.  ;D






So my turn to ask about hard drive issues, I need to just read the contents of one of the Seagate Barracuda drives I replaced. I don't care to recover any data from it, but I just wanted to get a clearer idea of what all there was on the drive. Anytime I plug it in using a USB enclosure it doesn't recognize the drive, when I connect it on a SATA port same thing. Should I just chkdsk it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 28, 2020, 10:32:10 AM
AMD revealed their new GPU lineup today and if benchmarks appear correct, it looks like it is going head to head with the 3000 series from Nvidia priced competitively.

6900XT  $1000    12/8
6800XT   $650     11/18
6800       $580     11/18

Wonder how their supply will be compared to Nvidia's. Those appear very competitive for 4k gaming and if they are reliable and benchmarks appear true will probably give Nvidia a run for the money even if they just have stock AMD will win regardless of performance.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 28, 2020, 10:53:12 AM
AMD revealed their new GPU lineup today and if benchmarks appear correct, it looks like it is going head to head with the 3000 series from Nvidia priced competitively.

6900XT  $1000    12/8
6800XT   $650     11/18
6800       $580     11/18

Wonder how their supply will be compared to Nvidia's. Those appear very competitive for 4k gaming and if they are reliable and benchmarks appear true will probably give Nvidia a run for the money even if they just have stock AMD will win regardless of performance.

Interesting, if the benchmarks compare well to nvidia and they actually have stock, it will be a huge win for AMD.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 05, 2020, 08:02:28 AM
AMD Zen 3 CPUs released today and the reviewers are pretty much proclaiming RIP Intel. The new Zen 3 CPUs are beating Intel on most gaming benchmarks and for productivity. Now good luck finding stock.


One thing to note from a reviewer who said that he was able to test 4 different CPU generations (Zen, Zen+, Zen 2 & Zen 3) on a single AMD AM4 slot motherboard which is pretty remarkable seeing as you'd need at least 3 boards and system setups for corresponding Intel CPUs.



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 24, 2020, 03:42:32 PM
So I've been toying with the idea of building a separate PC for streaming.  I've had all my old PC parts laying around to build a solid second PC, would just need a capture card... so today I built the 2nd PC.  I ordered an elgato capture card, but it won't be here for a few days I think (should have been here already, but it seems delayed). 

Anyway, I also got my new standing desk I built yesterday so here's the new/old PC (still under construction, but it's fully built now)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnnxBGjXUAETg4Y?format=jpg&name=large)

Intel Core I7 6700k
16G ram
EVGA GTX 770
4x 400G SSD in RAID0 for applications
2x 2TB HDD for storage (still toying wtih this, I have a bunch of old drives but I think one of 3 2TB drives is fried, and another one I think I want to keep as cold storage.  I have two more 1TB drives just sitting around, so I'm testing what works and what doesn't.)
250G NVMe M.2 for Windows 10

turns out my old mouse is fairly busted, works but the left click is very flaky so I just ordered a cheap mouse and a cheap 5 port network switch to use for the two PC set up.  Also got myself a new fancy mouse pad with lights and all. 

Soon I'll be moving furnature around to get my office set up in the basement and return my "3rd bedroom" into a standard living space (aka no lights and curtains, plus a couch and normal desk)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on November 24, 2020, 05:18:03 PM
4 drives in Raid 0 seems like its asking for trouble. Do you really see a performance benefit?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 24, 2020, 05:27:54 PM
4 drives in Raid 0 seems like its asking for trouble. Do you really see a performance benefit?

It's just for applications so if it fails, it fails.  The reality is, I just have 4 of these 400G SSDs that are kind of useless on their own since they aren't very large (I have three spares as well).  I had 3 of them in RAID0 on my old build which had 0 issues, so adding one more into the array seems like a decent gamble.  This PC's storage is WAY OP because I am not planning on really doing much with it besides hosting a potential live stream.  Anything I find worthy of storing, will go onto the HDDs.  Which I just settled with... 1x 2TB and 1x 1TB.  Confirmed one of my 2TB is bad and the other 2TB is full with all my back up files so I am just keeping that plus another full 3TB drive as "cold storage" as I just physically labelled them. In the process I found about 300G of data I'd like to actually have on my main PC so I'm currently doing a mass file transfer but otherwise, the new build seems good and once I get my capture card and new mouse, I can actually start trying to test it out in action. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 24, 2020, 07:28:14 PM
I've always been curious about capture cards, the Elgato ones seem high end. I see many streamers show the BIOS captures, always wondered how they do that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 24, 2020, 07:31:39 PM
I've always been curious about capture cards, the Elgato ones seem high end. I see many streamers show the BIOS captures, always wondered how they do that.

Yea, I read the elgato is the best of the best for this, I'm wondering how it'll work.  Of course I wonder if it's even worth it to do a 2 PC set up, but since the 2nd PC is all re-used parts, the elgato (and mouse) are the only new parts.  I have even more parts laying around for another couple builds, but no more graphics cards.  Actually hoping in 2021 I get a RTX 3080 and migrate my GTX 1080 FTW to this 2nd PC and retire that GTX 770.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on November 25, 2020, 08:37:21 AM
I'm wanting to build a new PC for cyberpunk, but goddamn are the 3000 series GPUs and 5000 series Ryzens ever elusive. Can't find em anywhere.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 25, 2020, 10:19:59 AM
I'm wanting to build a new PC for cyberpunk, but goddamn are the 3000 series GPUs and 5000 series Ryzens ever elusive. Can't find em anywhere.

Yea, its crazy how scarce they are.  I don't expect to get it until 2021.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 25, 2020, 10:25:16 AM
I too am looking to upgrade and get those same components though am not in a rush.  Stock evaporates instantly the moment it comes on, I've managed to see the add to cart button once. Looks like the wait continues.


I listened to a few tech youtubers and they spoke with manufacturers that mentioned the demand is through the roof this time round about 10x more than previous launches. It will take a while for it to normalize.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on November 25, 2020, 05:32:34 PM
I'm wanting to build a new PC for cyberpunk, but goddamn are the 3000 series GPUs and 5000 series Ryzens ever elusive. Can't find em anywhere.

Yea, its crazy how scarce they are.  I don't expect to get it until 2021.

This. I'm guessing March for some decent stock of new gpus.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 29, 2020, 11:03:12 AM
I've got a lot of work to clean the cabling up (I need to order some cable sleeves, take some velcro from work, order a couple USB extension cables) but last night I moved my main PC to my new standing desk and also moved all the lighting/screen screen.  It seems legit, I'm back in business with gaming while standing now.  Really liked it while gaming last night.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/En8t0cuW8AU1lnm?format=jpg&name=large)

This week, I will start moving around the furniture to move my side desk into the basement and that's where I'll set up my second new/old PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 29, 2020, 09:01:16 PM
Desk looks great! what monitor stand is that? I've been thinking of getting one to hold my 32" on the left and 28" on the right.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 29, 2020, 09:20:40 PM
Desk looks great! what monitor stand is that? I've been thinking of getting one to hold my 32" on the left and 28" on the right.

My friend recommended this but I don't think it will work for your bigger monitors as it's rated at 27" for both https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HNV3V7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HNV3V7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MirrorMask on November 30, 2020, 01:17:37 AM
Is this also the thread for Apple? because I just got an iMac!!!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 30, 2020, 04:59:38 AM
Is this also the thread for Apple? because I just got an iMac!!!

Cool which one?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MirrorMask on November 30, 2020, 05:27:43 AM
I wanted to enter the iMac world, but the prices are steep, so I made a compromise; a new one relatively cheaper and Full HD had a 256 GB HD, another new one, always Full HD, had 1 TB but it costed more, so I took a calculated risk: I went for a refurbished one, from 2019, directly from Apple's site. And this one is 4K Retina. And it costed 100 euros less than a new one but Full HD and with a small HD (and 300 euros less than the 1 TB version). I guess I made a deal, uh? (Size is 21,5")

The product is fine and ahestetically perfect. Not a single scratch and it works just fine. It's my first experience ever with the Apple world. I mean, it's my field, I studied informatic stuff at school so it's the least of my problems to figure out how stuff works (or how to search for informations), the biggest problem will be findiing apps equivalent to the ones I was using since forever on my old Windows PC!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 30, 2020, 05:50:38 AM
Apple's refurbs are usually just fine from what I heard. While they are amazing products, I really like having control over the components I can put together which is why I will probably never own a Mac. Occasionally I'll put the OS on a VM and dabble with it to see what they offer but I don't know if I'd switch to one full time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on November 30, 2020, 12:20:02 PM
Still in the process of finding a laptop for my teenager, came across this deal from Office Max but can’t find any reviews of this model online.

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/7022664/Lenovo-IdeaPad-3-Laptop-156-Touch/

Would like to think this deal is too good to pass, thoughts?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 30, 2020, 04:27:17 PM
After a few nights of gaming sessions using the new standing desk, I can say my feet and legs are getting tired, but I think this is good.  I feel this is great for my posture and my overall health.  I think I stood for 5 hours straight last night, much needed for someone who was spending so much time sitting.  Also, I think I'm getting better at gaming because I feel like I'm more into it and fluid when I stand. 

Current set up with both PCs and desk moved downstairs today:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoGUzNLW4AAoQFO?format=jpg&name=large)

Still need to do a mass cable clean up, but some of that won't happen until next week and I need to order some USB extension cables.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on December 08, 2020, 09:18:48 AM
So, I have an old 32bit Lenovo laptop, still running on Windows 7.
Does anybody know a way to upgrade this to 64bit Windows 10?

I did some research, but either I'm too old/stupid - or is this simply impossible?
Any ideas are welcome - but bare in mind that it needs to be for Dummies.  ;) I'll try to provide you with additional infos you might need.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 08, 2020, 09:23:54 AM
So, I have an old 32bit Lenovo laptop, still running on Windows 7.
Does anybody know a way to upgrade this to 64bit Windows 10?

I did some research, but either I'm too old/stupid - or is this simply impossible?
Any ideas are welcome - but bare in mind that it needs to be for Dummies.  ;) I'll try to provide you with additional infos you might need.
I may be missing something here, but why can't you just download any of the dozen or so different versions of W10 and doubleclick the setup icon?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: kirksnosehair on December 08, 2020, 01:48:46 PM
A laptop still running Windows 7 is likely close to or perhaps even more than 10 years old.   


Jurgen - here is an article (English, sorry!) that explains how to check to see if your system is Windows 10 compatible.   


https://www.zdnet.com/article/will-your-pc-run-windows-10-use-this-well-hidden-compatibility-checker-to-find-out/



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ich bin besser on December 09, 2020, 08:14:22 AM
It is from 2009, indeed.
Thanks, Barry - I'll check that out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 09, 2020, 09:26:15 AM
Chances are the CPU in the laptop will support 64 bit edition of windows 10.

My wife has a Toshiba laptop from 2009, and I replaced the HDD with an SSD and gave it a 2nd life with windows 10 Home edition. I transferred the windows 7 license that was on there to the new Windows 10 installation.

Installing Windows 10 should be a breeze even on the existing drive of the laptop like Barto said, just get a copy of win 10 and double click the setup. If you need help installing I can provide more detailed instructions.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on December 09, 2020, 09:27:12 AM
So, I have an old 32bit Lenovo laptop, still running on Windows 7.
Does anybody know a way to upgrade this to 64bit Windows 10?

I did some research, but either I'm too old/stupid - or is this simply impossible?
Any ideas are welcome - but bare in mind that it needs to be for Dummies.  ;) I'll try to provide you with additional infos you might need.

If the laptop (the CPU, to be specific) is 32-bit, you won't be able to run 64-bit Windows on it, no.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 09, 2020, 12:17:04 PM
64 bit CPUs became the norm in the early 2000s. Since a 64 bit CPU can also perform 32 bit functions, 32 bit exclusive CPUs went the way of the dinosaur. It's software that took a while to catch up. The only problem I can see running into is a lack of driver support. Windows has excellent legacy driver support, but some device manufactures (fucking logitech!) didn't bother creating 64 bit drivers for their legacy components. Really, though, the onboard VGA and NIC are probably the only two potential stumbling blocks, and they'll probably be fine. Unlike fucking logitech, VGA manufacturers offer very good legacy support.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on December 21, 2020, 02:11:49 PM
https://www.gigabyte.com/se/Graphics-Card/GV-N3090IXEB-24GD#kf

Water-cooled external RTX 3090 GPU, didn't know this was a thing. Interesting but it just sounds so expensive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 21, 2020, 09:12:13 PM
https://www.gigabyte.com/se/Graphics-Card/GV-N3090IXEB-24GD#kf

Water-cooled external RTX 3090 GPU, didn't know this was a thing. Interesting but it just sounds so expensive.
It's also a massive waste of money. And funnily enough, it's bottlenecked by the Thunderbolt connection.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 21, 2020, 09:54:47 PM
Yea, that's why storage uses PCIe now. Direct to CPU, no other bottleneck
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 21, 2020, 10:00:44 PM
I reckon it's strictly for people who want to game on their laptop, where you can't have a state of the art GPU. Even with the bottleneck, wouldn't it still outperform most onboard GPUs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 21, 2020, 10:40:48 PM
I reckon it's strictly for people who want to game on their laptop, where you can't have a state of the art GPU. Even with the bottleneck, wouldn't it still outperform most onboard GPUs?
Probably only until laptops start coming with RTX 3000 series gpus. Which will be soon, by all accounts.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on December 22, 2020, 03:23:31 AM
Saw a video with Wendel and he questioned the whole thing and found the water cooling solution to be a waste and a gimmick. He thought maybe some people on laptops might find it usable.
If they instead made it maybe fan aircooled the price might have been more reasonable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 30, 2020, 10:07:09 PM
Spent my afternoon remounting my PC monitors and then cleaned up the cabling

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eqgn_LmXYAElqZ3?format=jpg&name=large)

This is in the sitting position, I can adjust by raising the desk for standing which I really enjoy for Warzone
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 31, 2020, 06:03:40 AM
That looks great! I will have to hunt down a good solid monitor stand one day.

Also hoping stock situation improves soon. I would rather get the 5900x purchase out of the way now but still can't seem to snag one without paying the scalpers.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on December 31, 2020, 07:02:26 AM
:tup awesome set up!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 31, 2020, 07:59:09 AM
I finally got my tax return so I definitely want the GPU stock to be available so I can upgrade.  Pop a 3080 into the main rig then swap the 1080 from the main rig with the 770 in the stream PC. I'd have so much power.

Also forgot to mention that last pic includes my new c922 webcam, meant for streaming. I definitely notice a quality improvement with that. I was toying with a two cam set up, one facing down on the keyboards. Actually works but may just be a bit too much
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 31, 2020, 08:31:02 AM
I finally got my tax return so I definitely want the GPU stock to be available so I can upgrade.  Pop a 3080 into the main rig then swap the 1080 from the main rig with the 770 in the stream PC. I'd have so much power.

Also forgot to mention that last pic includes my new c922 webcam, meant for streaming. I definitely notice a quality improvement with that. I was toying with a two cam set up, one facing down on the keyboards. Actually works but may just be a bit too much
Everybody knows a good streamer has at least 4 cameras! One for your face, one for your hands, one for you cat, and one for looking at some random part of the room..... :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 31, 2020, 09:39:31 AM
 :lol

I did set up a cat bed near my desk, Buddy has slowly been taking to it so a cat cam could work if he starts laying in it consistently...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on January 21, 2021, 04:29:11 PM
What’s the best virus protection I could put on my kids new laptop?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 22, 2021, 06:45:38 AM
Good question, I personally haven't used anything other than the default Windows security suite that is bundled with the OS. The last time I installed antivirus was probably 15 years ago. I've been content with whatever default option is there.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on January 22, 2021, 08:21:42 AM
Kid downloaded something now there is malware all over the thing. I think I got it all but not sure.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on January 22, 2021, 08:27:23 AM
In my experience no virus protection is perfect, but they're all pretty good. Including Windows Defender. When various groups test them all they usually find some will stop one thing and ignore another, and a different antivirus will do the exact opposite. Since you only get one year out of an antivirus before it nags you to death, I've pretty much just stuck with Windows. I'm usually more concerned about a good firewall program with access control.

If you've already got something on there that you need to get rid of, my success rate is something New York Jets like. Sometimes I beat it, but just as often I skip to a reinstall.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 22, 2021, 08:35:34 AM
Kid downloaded something now there is malware all over the thing. I think I got it all but not sure.

In that scenario, I've used MalwareBytes to scan and delete whatever it finds. I've done it a couple of times when family members click a dubious email attachment. and 9/10 it has avoided a reinstall. But like Barto said YMMV.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on January 23, 2021, 09:04:02 PM
Hey, so these guys just launched a new product? Do you think they have a future? Does it look like a company worth investing in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkuJXGldrM
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 26, 2021, 04:59:39 AM
Hey, so these guys just launched a new product? Do you think they have a future? Does it look like a company worth investing in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkuJXGldrM
I think they're onto something.


This is still my favorite crazy moment of Balmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhh_GeBPOhs&ab_channel=MrWueb007
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on January 26, 2021, 06:20:51 PM
Hey, so these guys just launched a new product? Do you think they have a future? Does it look like a company worth investing in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkuJXGldrM
I think they're onto something.


This is still my favorite crazy moment of Balmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhh_GeBPOhs&ab_channel=MrWueb007
I thought for sure that video was going to be this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtuDS0ntaJY  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 26, 2021, 07:36:25 PM
Wow I have no words, never saw that before. Coked out Balmer is the best..
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 02, 2021, 02:22:22 PM
So I had a $40 off of $250 online order from costco coupon that was set to expire at the end of January.  I figured let me take a look if there's anything worth buying and welll, they had this monitor for sale for $40 off already so I added another 40 off and got it:

https://www.costco.com/.product.1372218.html?emid=transactional_ordershipped_product (https://www.costco.com/.product.1372218.html?emid=transactional_ordershipped_product)

Quote
Acer 27" Class Curved WQHD FreeSync Gaming Monitor

Features:
2560 x 1440 Resolution
144 Hz Refresh Rate
4ms Response Time
AMD FreeSync
Display Port Cable Included

It just arrived earlier and I finally got it set up.  This isn't exactly a monitor to brag about, but it's a big upgrade from my 8 year old Acer monitor and got it at a great price.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtQEiIfXAAM_sxV?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 02, 2021, 04:15:01 PM
WTH happened to your keyboard?  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 02, 2021, 04:23:01 PM
WTH happened to your keyboard?  :lol

 :lol one of the keys broke when I moved the desk to my basement, and since then I've just started hitting the keys hard and it's now becoming a thing I do on twitch.  I'm slowly going to break the whole thing during my live streams.  Whatever, it was free and it's been fun while it lasted but I will be happy to get the desk space back.

https://www.twitch.tv/cramx3/clip/TriumphantGracefulLobsterAMPTropPunch (https://www.twitch.tv/cramx3/clip/TriumphantGracefulLobsterAMPTropPunch) <- stream clip from Sunday where I broke it further while watching my Galneryus youtube video
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 02, 2021, 04:31:40 PM
WTH happened to your keyboard?  :lol

 :lol one of the keys broke when I moved the desk to my basement, and since then I've just started hitting the keys hard and it's now becoming a thing I do on twitch.  I'm slowly going to break the whole thing during my live streams.  Whatever, it was free and it's been fun while it lasted but I will be happy to get the desk space back.

https://www.twitch.tv/cramx3/clip/TriumphantGracefulLobsterAMPTropPunch (https://www.twitch.tv/cramx3/clip/TriumphantGracefulLobsterAMPTropPunch) <- stream clip from Sunday where I broke it further while watching my Galneryus youtube video
That's funny.  :lol

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 02, 2021, 09:15:09 PM
Damn nice monitor setup! shame about the keyboard.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 03, 2021, 10:54:03 AM
Damn nice monitor setup! shame about the keyboard.

I dont care about the keyboard, it's been fun, but I'm no musician.  I've got some ideas though...

So really weird issue I had with the new monitor, I think it's partly due to the complexity of my dual PC set up, but also just how sometimes troubleshooting IT problems comes down to something so basic.

My GTX1080 graphics card, I have it set to output my new monitor via display port, my second monitor via mini display port, and then to the elgato capture card on my second PC via HDMI.  I then set the HDMI to mirror the display port output.  When doing this, it was capping me at 60FPS.  I felt it had to do with the elgato because that's limited to capturing at 60FPS.  Using COD as my example, the settings all said it was at 144Hz and unlimited FPS... I messed with the settings for like an hour in the nvidia control panel and googled this and couldn't find out the fix.  Turned out I just needed to unplug and reconnect the HDMI to my graphics card.   :huh: I wish I tried that first especially since I had a feeling it had to do with mirroring to the elgato.   :facepalm:

Anyway, now on max settings of COD, I'm getting like 80-100FPS at 2k resolution with freesync on and it looks and feels AMAZING. So much clearer at 2k and so much smoother with freesync and 144hz.  It's a nice upgrade for me. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 03, 2021, 11:42:08 AM
I really want to see in person how a high refresh rate monitor looks and feels like. Not so much for games but everything else in general. I'm loving my 32" 4K monitor as the primary display currently and was debating on either high refresh rate or high pixel count. Pixel count won in the end and I don't regret it but still have that itch to see how a 144Hz screen feels like.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: kirksnosehair on February 03, 2021, 12:30:32 PM
The higher refresh rate will result in less eye fatigue over time.  That's the biggest difference.  At least to me. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 03, 2021, 12:33:43 PM
The higher refresh rate will result in less eye fatigue over time.  That's the biggest difference.  At least to me.

It's smoother too, should be better for FPS online gaming which is what I enjoy.  That's why I chose high refresh over pixels for my gaming preference. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on February 03, 2021, 01:47:43 PM
The higher refresh rate will result in less eye fatigue over time.  That's the biggest difference.  At least to me.

It's smoother too, should be better for FPS online gaming which is what I enjoy.  That's why I chose high refresh over pixels for my gaming preference. 

It's fantastic, when I first got a 144hz monitor the change was more drastic than going from 1080p to 4k IMO. Everything seemed so much more smooth.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 24, 2021, 07:43:14 AM
I may have gone a bit overboard with Razer products lately.  I upgraded my mouse last week.  Went with a Razer Basilisk Ultimate which is wireless but is advertised be super quick so there isn't a latency issue with wireless.  It also has an extra bumper button, a thumb rest, and a very nice weight and feel to it plus a physical adjustment knob to the scroll wheel. I've noticed an immediate impact on my COD gameplay with it as well.  So I'm super happy about the product.  The thumb rest is really nice too, I didn't realize how much I could use that especially because my palms get sweaty and that sweat would leak onto the mouse pad, but the thumb rest helps with that. 

Also, the Razer chroma features for setting up all the LEDs on their devices is really cool.  It made me want to spend the extra for a headset and mouse dock because they also have configurable LEDs but also the mouse dock is pretty clutch as the USB cable is a PITA to have to connect/reconnect so much.... here's a short video of my lighting now https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610 (https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on March 24, 2021, 08:50:24 AM
I’m pretty sure our home pc is dying and since the wife is now working from home it needs to be replaced. Found this on Amazon renewed for under $350, but I need to connect two monitors. Am I missing something or does this only have one monitor input?

(https://i.imgur.com/LcfYDyN.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 24, 2021, 08:52:48 AM
I guess it's showing 1 VGA port and 1 HDMI port. So technically two monitor connections. Depends on the type of monitor connections you have right now on your monitors and what they support.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 24, 2021, 08:55:10 AM
I may have gone a bit overboard with Razer products lately.  I upgraded my mouse last week.  Went with a Razer Basilisk Ultimate which is wireless but is advertised be super quick so there isn't a latency issue with wireless.  It also has an extra bumper button, a thumb rest, and a very nice weight and feel to it plus a physical adjustment knob to the scroll wheel. I've noticed an immediate impact on my COD gameplay with it as well.  So I'm super happy about the product.  The thumb rest is really nice too, I didn't realize how much I could use that especially because my palms get sweaty and that sweat would leak onto the mouse pad, but the thumb rest helps with that. 

Also, the Razer chroma features for setting up all the LEDs on their devices is really cool.  It made me want to spend the extra for a headset and mouse dock because they also have configurable LEDs but also the mouse dock is pretty clutch as the USB cable is a PITA to have to connect/reconnect so much.... here's a short video of my lighting now https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610 (https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610)

Very cool. I'm not a fan of all that lighting personally. I am looking to switch my wireless keyboard (Logitech K750) to a mechanical keyboard. Not for gaming but for work, hopefully with a quiet set of keys.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on March 24, 2021, 09:07:09 AM
I guess it's showing 1 VGA port and 1 HDMI port. So technically two monitor connections. Depends on the type of monitor connections you have right now on your monitors and what they support.

So I just need a vga to hdmi adapter if all we have is two vga monitors, correct.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 24, 2021, 09:44:25 AM
I may have gone a bit overboard with Razer products lately.  I upgraded my mouse last week.  Went with a Razer Basilisk Ultimate which is wireless but is advertised be super quick so there isn't a latency issue with wireless.  It also has an extra bumper button, a thumb rest, and a very nice weight and feel to it plus a physical adjustment knob to the scroll wheel. I've noticed an immediate impact on my COD gameplay with it as well.  So I'm super happy about the product.  The thumb rest is really nice too, I didn't realize how much I could use that especially because my palms get sweaty and that sweat would leak onto the mouse pad, but the thumb rest helps with that. 

Also, the Razer chroma features for setting up all the LEDs on their devices is really cool.  It made me want to spend the extra for a headset and mouse dock because they also have configurable LEDs but also the mouse dock is pretty clutch as the USB cable is a PITA to have to connect/reconnect so much.... here's a short video of my lighting now https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610 (https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1374489747549081610)

Very cool. I'm not a fan of all that lighting personally. I am looking to switch my wireless keyboard (Logitech K750) to a mechanical keyboard. Not for gaming but for work, hopefully with a quiet set of keys.

I never cared for the lighting, but I kind of got caught up in it because of how nice and easy it is to use the Razer Chroma studio.  It's certainly not necessary. 

I guess it's showing 1 VGA port and 1 HDMI port. So technically two monitor connections. Depends on the type of monitor connections you have right now on your monitors and what they support.

So I just need a vga to hdmi adapter if all we have is two vga monitors, correct.

Just because it has both outputs doesn't necessarily mean you can use both.  You might need to look at the details to confirm the graphics card / motherboard capabilities.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on March 24, 2021, 10:47:55 AM
I guess my best option is to go with a vga splitter then.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 24, 2021, 01:42:21 PM
Yeah the video outputs esp with VGA are tricky with so many combinations now available, you don't know what is supported right out the box unless you know specific details on the type of board, graphics card and monitor and sometimes even the cable itself.

In theory if both your monitors have VGA ports, that desktop should be able to connect using the one VGA port and the other HDMI port with a HDMI-to-VGA converter and then to your VGA port on the monitor. But as it is with these things, you never know 100% until you plug it in.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 24, 2021, 01:49:22 PM
My good friend recently got a new computer.  The computer I built for him a long time ago with my spare parts finally died (he's super strict with covid so wouldn't let me come over and try and fix so I don't really know what broke there) but he bought a new PC and then realized the new PC didn't have VGA.  So he ended up having to also get new monitors because at the end of the day VGA is really old technology.  The guy at the store told him he could sell converter cables but it's really just a cost not worth spending and you aren't maximizing the current tech of HD video.

I know it comes at a cost, but maybe using one ultra wide monitor on HDMI is better than two smaller monitors on VGA. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on March 24, 2021, 01:57:25 PM
Wife had a break in her day so checked the two monitors and one has an hdmi connection, so it looks like I just need to get an hdmi cable and we should be good.

Thanks for the help guys.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 24, 2021, 07:04:58 PM
Well I started the PC talk today, I guess I'll end it.  Got home from work, turned on my PC and a legit flame came out of my GTX 1080 graphics card.  No idea how that happened.  Luckily, so far it seems it was only the graphics card that fried. I popped in my old 770 that I use in my stream PC into my main PC and things seem to work.  However, buying a new graphics card these days is basically impossible.

I purchased an over priced RX 6800 to replace it.  It was the only card I could find that would ship by next week, was an upgrade, and was only $1k overpriced.   :censored >:( :censored >:(  Literally the worst time for my graphics card to fry.  I will see if EVGA can RMA it, but it might be out of warranty by now. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 24, 2021, 07:16:01 PM
That sucks! Indeed it indeed is the worst time to be buying a high-end or even mid-budget card. Prices are inflated like anything and stock is virtually zero. Scalpers somehow seem to be snagging whatever inventory is there maybe through bots?

I don't know if I'll ever find a 3080 FE anytime soon or a Ryzen 9 5900x, those two are the components I want to get and am willing to wait until stock becomes better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 25, 2021, 10:31:14 AM
And confirmed with EVGA that my 1080 is out of warranty and there's nothing they can do  :facepalm: ugh, actually needed to find my purchase receipt, didn't realize I've had this card for 4.5 years now.  For some reason I was thinking 3 years max.  Damn its been awhile and I definitely needed an upgrade, I just didn't want to have to do it during a time when GPUs are so scarce.  Even mid level ones are insane.  At least the RX 6800 is going to be a nice upgrade even though I significantly over paid and wasn't the 3080 I really wanted.  Oh well.  Such is life.  I guess I should just be happy my motherboard wasn't also fried.  Looking forward to receiving the new card on tuesday and seeing the performance boost. 

But what also sucks is that I was going to stick the 1080 into my stream PC, I guess the stream PC will have to settle for the 770 which honestly seems to work well, but not sure how much longer that will last as that's really really old and has taken a beating over it's life time, but has yet to catch fire so there's that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ErHaO on March 26, 2021, 06:44:04 AM
Buying a pc now is insane. Even old ass graphics card go for a significant mark up here. A colleague of mine just sold an old Nvidia card for almost double the price he got it for (second hand) a year ago (he was very lucky to get a preordered 3080 months late). A friend of mine bought a pc he was planning to buy late last year, only now for 600-700 euros more.

And this will not change anytime soon. It is not just cryptocurrencies and people at home wanting entertainment, there is a shortage of components at manufacturing level, something not easily solved it seems. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point) (example article, there are many similar reports).


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 26, 2021, 06:58:35 AM
Buying a pc now is insane. Even old ass graphics card go for a significant mark up here. A colleague of mine just sold an old Nvidia card for almost double the price he got it for (second hand) a year ago (he was very lucky to get a preordered 3080 months late). A friend of mine bought a pc he was planning to buy late last year, only now for 600-700 euros more.

And this will not change anytime soon. It is not just cryptocurrencies and people at home wanting entertainment, there is a shortage of components at manufacturing level, something not easily solved it seems. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/21/global-shortage-in-computer-chips-reaches-crisis-point) (example article, there are many similar reports).

Yup.  Sadly that's why I just splurged because I don't want to wait until who knows when to get a graphics card.  I feel like these prices aren't going anywhere.  I was really hoping to be able to RMA my 1080 just so I could resell it and get back the overcharge I paid.  Oh well.  At work (I work with IT hardware) we just got a notice that SSDs are going to be hard to get too.  Long lead times, which has been the since the pandemic started but it's actually getting worse now due to the shortage.  Crazy.  I'm going to see if I can get the extended warranty on my new card once it arrives.   My friend paid $60 for a 10 year warranty on his 3080 and while I used to think stuff like that wasn't worth it, with today's market, it just might be. 

What is actually amazing is my GTX 770 can actually play COD.  I have to set it to 720p and lowest graphic settings, but I was able to record this clip too https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1375238799089885188 (https://twitter.com/Cramx3/status/1375238799089885188)  :lol I guess having a good CPU probably helps that old card out a bit. 

Anyway, I kind of rushed to get a new card, the RX 6700, and honestly after further review, it seems like I made a decent choice all things considered.  It's slightly better than a RTX 3070 but not as good as a 3080, and the scalper cost wasn't nearly as high as a 3070.  I'm worried about the AMD drivers, but if that's not an issue, I'd imagine pairing that with my AMD 3900X will actually give me significant gains over my 1080.  I'm actually pretty excited to try this out.  Should arrive Tuesday.  :coolio
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 29, 2021, 08:25:28 AM
So I got the RX 6800 (not 6700 like I mentioned) over the weekend.... and I can't install the drivers.  Crashes my PC every time.  Now my understanding is the nvidia drivers are likely the culprit.  Even though I uninstalled them, it seems they can have some deep roots into windows.  I used DDU application and it still crashed my PC as well.  The only other troubleshooting tip I can do is a hard wipe of the OS drive and reinstall windows.  I'd rather not do that.  I happened to find a RTX 3070 on sale (5 left) that wasn't available last week when I looked so that is now on the way here.  I processed a return for the RX3800.  I was warned about the AMD drivers and I didn't think it would be a problem with today's latest hardware, and yet, here I am  :facepalm: Honestly, I'd rather the nvidia card so this may have been for the best. Assuming the new card works, if not, I guess I'll have to do the full reinstall to test.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 29, 2021, 08:33:43 AM
I had the same problem when I went nvidia to AMD years ago, wasn't aware it was still an issue. I ended up just doing a reformat.

I really like the new AMD stuff but my driver experience with AMD was so bad that I truly don't want to ever go back to AMD unless they come in with absolute stellar performance or price. Not to mention DLSS is some crazy wizardry.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 29, 2021, 09:25:16 AM
The clean OS is probably the best option, it's always a crapshoot when unplugging a GPU and replacing it with another mfg GPU. When I switched out my old Radeon HD 6870 for a RX 580, I just selected the clean install and have had no major issues. Switching from nVidia to AMD and vice versa is always a mixed bag I've read. AMD are still lagging on their driver support and from what I've read that's the next area they're trying to catch up on.

When and if I get a 3080 no doubt I'll be wiping the OS and reinstalling though honestly I'd prefer not to do that.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 29, 2021, 09:42:45 AM
My pc set up is quite complicated so avoiding a full reinstall will save me a significant amount of time. Honestly would rather the rtx over rx card, if I didnt see that option pop up to snag a card, I probably would have just bit the bullet. Although I feel there's a slight chance there's something else wrong (I mean there was an actual flame inside my PC, or the new card itself is a dud) and if I did a reinstall and it still didn't work, I'd probably kill someone.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ErHaO on March 30, 2021, 01:32:02 PM
My pc set up is quite complicated so avoiding a full reinstall will save me a significant amount of time. Honestly would rather the rtx over rx card, if I didnt see that option pop up to snag a card, I probably would have just bit the bullet. Although I feel there's a slight chance there's something else wrong (I mean there was an actual flame inside my PC, or the new card itself is a dud) and if I did a reinstall and it still didn't work, I'd probably kill someone.

Was it by any chance this 1080 btw? https://www.pcmag.com/news/evga-patches-graphics-cards-to-stop-them-catching-fire#:~:text=EVGA's%20GeForce%20GTX%201080%2C%201070,components%20installed%20on%20the%20cards. (https://www.pcmag.com/news/evga-patches-graphics-cards-to-stop-them-catching-fire#:~:text=EVGA's%20GeForce%20GTX%201080%2C%201070,components%20installed%20on%20the%20cards.)In that case, the cause could be explained. I was wondering so googled card catching fire, as that does not sound good.

Also, the 3070 is a beast as well. And especially if you don't mind dropping below 4k and/or use DLSS (long term), that thing should be able to power the good stuff for years to come.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 30, 2021, 01:40:16 PM
My pc set up is quite complicated so avoiding a full reinstall will save me a significant amount of time. Honestly would rather the rtx over rx card, if I didnt see that option pop up to snag a card, I probably would have just bit the bullet. Although I feel there's a slight chance there's something else wrong (I mean there was an actual flame inside my PC, or the new card itself is a dud) and if I did a reinstall and it still didn't work, I'd probably kill someone.
Why not just slap another HDD in there, or create a new partition somewhere, and install Windows on that?  Then you'd be able to diagnose your problem while still keeping your existing install.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 30, 2021, 01:48:39 PM
My pc set up is quite complicated so avoiding a full reinstall will save me a significant amount of time. Honestly would rather the rtx over rx card, if I didnt see that option pop up to snag a card, I probably would have just bit the bullet. Although I feel there's a slight chance there's something else wrong (I mean there was an actual flame inside my PC, or the new card itself is a dud) and if I did a reinstall and it still didn't work, I'd probably kill someone.
Why not just slap another HDD in there, or create a new partition somewhere, and install Windows on that?  Then you'd be able to diagnose your problem while still keeping your existing install.

Thats an idea (that I didn't consider), but I use all my SATA interfaces, it would also be a PITA to take things apart (although not as bad as wiping my current M.2), but its possible.  What would be easier is if I had a spare M.2 drive to test with, but I don't.  I'm OK with my current plan on not messing with the OS unless I need to, which I should find out tonight as the 3070 is set to deliver this afternoon because in the end, I'd rather the RTX3070 over the RT3800 anyway. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 30, 2021, 02:25:30 PM
I'm that way too mostly, I don't think I've reinstalled any OS unless I absolutely have had to. In the past 10 or so years I think on my main desktop I've only reinstalled when I got a new SSD which was about 3 times.

On other new CPU release news, Intel came out with their 11th gen iCore series and it's so strange to watch them now. I was one who plunged in blind on the 2nd generation iCore series 10 years back and stuck with it for ages.AMD at the time made the misstep with their bulldozer architecture and FX series CPU.

It looks like the places have switched now from what I read by most tech reviewers. Several seem to find the 11th gen CPUs actually slower than the 10th gen counterpart. Never would I have thought I would read Intel doing that, plus many have actually said Intel appear to be the budget option these days with the i5 series. Truly a wild ride these past few years have been for them.
In fairness, they do look like they're on the path to right that ship and become super competitive again in the next 2-3 years. I just never thought I'd see that day where AMD outperforms Intel on several levels.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 30, 2021, 02:29:09 PM
Our Dell reps just did a presentation at work on their roadway for the next year, the intel / amd CPUs are really going to make us think about converting from intel to amd.  Also looks like hot swap M.2 drives will be a thing soon on servers. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 31, 2021, 03:36:59 PM
Popped in the 3070 and everything works.  RTX on is a noticeable difference, my shadow kind of freaked me out in COD in my first game almost made me fire  :lol   1440p, 144hz, RTX on, over 100fps freesync  :metal Now getting it to work with my El Gato capture card in my stream PC is another issue... it seems Windows is a little confused where to duplicate and output the audio.  Video capture works fine, but sending the audio through that HDMI output on the 3070 seems broken right now, I am 99.9% sure its the application/settings not the card, so overall I am a happy camper now and will play with the settings more later. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 31, 2021, 10:01:50 PM
Nice! was it the FE 3070?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 01, 2021, 07:55:45 AM
Nice! was it the FE 3070?

No, but not far off.  It's an MSI Ventus 2x which is has a slight overclock. But it's very similar to the FE. Really just had to get what I could given the situation.  My friend got the EVGA 3080 FTW yesterday which is really what I wanted.  He did the trade in upgrade through EVGA to get that after 4 months of waiting.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ProfessorPeart on April 01, 2021, 08:17:37 AM
This video card shortage is maddening. I built my new rig last summer and was able to get the card I wanted with no issue and for a decent price. That same card is now going for more than 2x what I paid for it on the reseller market. My problem then was a MB shortage. I had to be quick on the draw to grab the one I wanted when it came in stock.

I built my son a new PC a few weeks back but I had to compromise with the video card. He has a worse one than mine, but nothing out there is even close to a decent price. The plan is to upgrade as soon as something better comes along, but that seems grim right now.

I know I could buy a PC from a company with a nice card, but I can't bring myself to buy a prebuilt machine. I love having total control over the build and the ease of repair if something ever goes wrong.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 01, 2021, 08:22:54 AM
If that flame in my PC damaged my motherboard, I would have just bought a prebuilt to get the right graphics card and been so upset that I wouldn't be able to build it myself.  It really sucks that we are in such a shortage, and it sucks even more that I don't know when the shortage will even end.  I paid well over 2x MSRP for my card, I'm mad at having to do that which in return supports the bots and resellers, but I just couldn't go for weeks on end without being able to game during this pandemic where I'm home most of the time and bored. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 01, 2021, 08:34:16 AM
I've read there's also a chip shortage so some RAM and SSD prices are going up too. I looked up the RAM kit I bought in Sept for 64 GB 3200Mhz, I paid $185. That same exact kit now sells for $330 on Newegg where I bought mine.

The RX 580 I bought last May is now never in stock, and when it does show up it's easily 50-70% more what I paid and it's a 3 year old card!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 01, 2021, 08:37:45 AM
I've read there's also a chip shortage so some RAM and SSD prices are going up too. I looked up the RAM kit I bought in Sept for 64 GB 3200Mhz, I paid $185. That same exact kit now sells for $330 on Newegg where I bought mine.

The RX 580 I bought last May is now never in stock, and when it does show up it's easily 50-70% more what I paid and it's a 3 year old card!

It's insane, the prices I was seeing for cards older and worse than my old 1080 was stunning.  I'm thinking I might put my broken 1080 up on ebay and see how much someone will pay for the broken card.  Maybe someone who knows what they're doing can break it down and make use of it or part of it given how scarce these are.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on April 01, 2021, 08:56:50 AM
Can someone ELI5 why card prices are what they are right now?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 01, 2021, 09:50:53 AM
Can someone ELI5 why card prices are what they are right now?

A few reasons.  Similar to PS5, the initial launch of the new cards were very limited.  Then there is also a silicon wafer shortage so making them has been slow.  Add in the popularity of cryptos and mining (also NFTs) these things are getting eaten up by anyone who can find one.  The silicon shortage is starting to affect other things too, motherboards/CPUs/memory/SSDs are all becoming a lot harder/expensive to get these days.  I'm sure there's more to it, but essentially supply isn't anywhere close to meeting demand right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 01, 2021, 10:04:49 AM
Yeah what cram said, to add to that I believe nVidia used Samsung's new fab process for some of their new 3000 series and the yields on certain wafers were not optimal. That along with everything else going on and TSMC being overbooked, there's just way too much demand for what the supply is right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 01, 2021, 10:37:42 AM
Also from our Dell presentation at work the other day, we don't buy these so their presentation was quick to not waste our time, but they are making these servers that can support 4x nvidia 3000 series GPUs.  I definitely wanted to learn more about those out of curiosity.  I'm guessing Dell has a some crypto miner customers they are catering to.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 01, 2021, 10:48:30 AM
With more and more companies now accepting crypto currencies and block chain I wouldn't be surprised if the demand shot up for enterprise mining setups. I'm curious about those too now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 07, 2021, 07:56:13 AM
So now with this 3070 being so powerful, I've officially decommissioned my stream PC.  The 3070 (plus my 3900X cpu) can play at 2k 144hz ~90fps, record the gameplay at 1080p 60fps, and stream at 720p 30fps without any issues.  My 1080 was only able to do 2 of the 3 before performance would take a huge hit.  This actually frees up one of my webcams too, maybe I can set up a "cat cam" for the stream if I get a USB extension cable.

Having said that, I now have this second PC that is actually pretty powerful.  I guess it's good to have the spare in case something else catches fire  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on April 08, 2021, 05:47:33 AM
What are the specs for your 2nd PC? I hope that by the time I'm able to pick a new card, a 3080 or probably 3080ti when it comes, 4K 120hz monitors become more mainstream.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on April 08, 2021, 09:29:15 AM
What are the specs for your 2nd PC? I hope that by the time I'm able to pick a new card, a 3080 or probably 3080ti when it comes, 4K 120hz monitors become more mainstream.

Intel Core I7 6700k
16G ram
EVGA GTX 770
4x 400G SSD in RAID0
5TB SATA HDD
250G NVMe M.2 for Windows 10
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: eric42434224 on May 05, 2021, 02:53:13 PM
Hello DTF.
I have noticed that sometimes I will be typing, and I look up, and it is all a bunch of random letters and spaces...sometimes with some numbers, symbols, and punctuation.  It really perplexed me, but I would just delete it, and retype.
Yesterday I got frustrated when it happened again, and I suddenly noticed that it was exactly everything I typed....BUT BACKWARDS!!!!
WTF kind of sorcery is this, and if anyone can tell me the simple, obvious, and stupid mistake I am making, I would appreciate it :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on May 05, 2021, 02:55:43 PM
You have your keyboard plugged in backwards.  Take it out, turn it around, and plug it back in the right way.

If you're using a wireless keyboard, reverse the polarity in your house.  That should work.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 05, 2021, 02:56:37 PM
Hello DTF.
I have noticed that sometimes I will be typing, and I look up, and it is all a bunch of random letters and spaces...sometimes with some numbers, symbols, and punctuation.  It really perplexed me, but I would just delete it, and retype.
Yesterday I got frustrated when it happened again, and I suddenly noticed that it was exactly everything I typed....BUT BACKWARDS!!!!
WTF kind of sorcery is this, and if anyone can tell me the simple, obvious, and stupid mistake I am making, I would appreciate it :)

I've never heard of such a thing, have you tried a different keyboard?

You have your keyboard plugged in backwards.  Take it out, turn it around, and plug it back in the right way.

If you're using a wireless keyboard, reverse the polarity in your house.  That should work.

 :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 05, 2021, 03:01:49 PM
Speaking of keyboards I ordered my very first mechanical Keyboard last night

The iKBC CD108 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0875TLV55/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)


(https://c1.neweggimages.com/ProductImage/23-962-029-S08.jpg)






Don't remember how I wound up deciding on this but I had probably read it on several keyboard subforums how this is a good no-frills beginner's Mechanical Keyboard. Should be getting it this week. Can't wait!


Hello DTF.
I have noticed that sometimes I will be typing, and I look up, and it is all a bunch of random letters and spaces...sometimes with some numbers, symbols, and punctuation.  It really perplexed me, but I would just delete it, and retype.
Yesterday I got frustrated when it happened again, and I suddenly noticed that it was exactly everything I typed....BUT BACKWARDS!!!!
WTF kind of sorcery is this, and if anyone can tell me the simple, obvious, and stupid mistake I am making, I would appreciate it :)


That is really bizarre either you have some malware installed on your computer or someone is messing with you.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 05, 2021, 03:04:38 PM
I love my mechanical keyboard, I'm sure you will too Faizoff assuming you don't mind the clickity click noises.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on May 05, 2021, 03:21:57 PM
The keyboard is mechanical as opposed to...?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 05, 2021, 03:24:48 PM
The keyboard is mechanical as opposed to...?

Membrane
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on May 05, 2021, 03:37:06 PM
Kinky!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 05, 2021, 04:03:40 PM
Clinky!

Definitely!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 05, 2021, 07:22:59 PM
I also finally managed to track down a Ryzen 9 5950x without paying scalper prices. I should be getting that on Friday along with the new keyboard. Going to be a busy fun weekend.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 05, 2021, 07:24:12 PM
Kinky!
(https://i.imgur.com/cIgYNju.gif)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 12, 2021, 09:52:12 PM
Going to finally replace my interim Ryzen 7 2700x that I've had since Sept with the Ryzen 9 5950x. Managed to get the retail price on it. Got an AIO water cooler for the first time, don't like flashy RGB stuff so this is the best solution according to Gamers Nexus and many others who have tested it extensively. Should be putting this up this weekend.


Still searching for that elusive retail-priced RTX 3080, might be sometime before I snag one.

Right now this would put my specs at https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gpJkt8 (https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gpJkt8)
(https://imgur.com/BddHRi5.jpg?)


(https://imgur.com/iqsto28.jpg?1)


(https://imgur.com/hstjQKA.jpg?1)




Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 13, 2021, 12:28:28 AM
Yeah the Arctic Liquid Freezer II's are awesome, although I would have gone with the 280mm version. Better cooling and quieter. Unless, of course, your case can't fit a 280mm.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 13, 2021, 04:16:50 AM
That's right it wouldn't have fit. The case is my oldest part from 2011 and still going strong.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 13, 2021, 07:37:45 AM
Going to finally replace my interim Ryzen 7 2700x that I've had since Sept with the Ryzen 9 5950x. Managed to get the retail price on it.

Nice, enjoy the processing powa
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 18, 2021, 02:25:29 PM
Going to finally replace my interim Ryzen 7 2700x that I've had since Sept with the Ryzen 9 5950x. Managed to get the retail price on it.

Nice, enjoy the processing powa

Yes finally had the time to do it last night and this thing does not disappoint.
I turned PBO off and get some really good numbers.
Able to hit single core 5 GHz with no OC or PBO being turned on. Tis a beast. And some great temps as well with the Arctic Liquid Freezer
(https://i.imgur.com/HJj99te.png)


Yeah the Arctic Liquid Freezer II's are awesome, although I would have gone with the 280mm version. Better cooling and quieter. Unless, of course, your case can't fit a 280mm.


This turned out to be a bigger pain to fit in than I thought.


I removed the 200mm fan from the top of my Cooler Master Sniper case
(https://i.imgur.com/uc1BTWB.jpg?1)


to put in the 240mm.


(https://i.imgur.com/8Z5Giqp.jpg?1)


 I had measured it out and thought the 240 would fit like as shown in green here below but the VRMs of the board wouldn't allow it and had to strip the top panel out and put the fans on top.




(https://i.imgur.com/DUIwXcu.jpg?1)



(https://i.imgur.com/H2ooYMs.jpg)


And that caused this problem where the 1st fan would jut out and wouldn't allow the panel to be closed
(https://i.imgur.com/fGO8RbS.jpg?1)
The red is the fan's extent and the green line is where I need to cut out the plastic to make it fit and be able to close the panel.
(https://i.imgur.com/Tq4Jo6t.jpg?1)




I did think of doing this and put both fans on either side of the radiator, that would make the panel close and I'd be able to use both fans but decided against it as the radiator would only be half used.
(https://i.imgur.com/zDly6EA.jpg?1)


I'm debating on returning this and just getting the 120mm edition or just suck it up and cut out the plastic on the top panel to accommodate the fan.


I came across a post on the internet where someone had the exact same idea  (https://www.overclockers.com/cm-sniper-revisited-with-watercooling/)back in 2009.


For now I'm going to enjoy my new super powerful CPU and worry about the panel later.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 18, 2021, 02:36:30 PM
One benchmark that I've been tracking from my old system to the new is encoding a 6 1/2 min 4k movie chapter using the exact same settings in each system with handbrake, the progress is astounding.


i5 2500k (4C/4T) - 2 hrs 15 mins
Ryzen 7 2700x (8C/16T) - 45 mins
Ryzen 9 5950x (16C/32T) - 15 mins  :omg:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on May 18, 2021, 02:58:30 PM
That's awesome! (minus the case issue)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 18, 2021, 07:18:16 PM
Might be time for a new case. :dunno:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on May 19, 2021, 11:16:04 AM
One benchmark that I've been tracking from my old system to the new is encoding a 6 1/2 min 4k movie chapter using the exact same settings in each system with handbrake, the progress is astounding.


i5 2500k (4C/4T) - 2 hrs 15 mins
Ryzen 7 2700x (8C/16T) - 45 mins
Ryzen 9 5950x (16C/32T) - 15 mins  :omg:
Wouldn't that be more a function of GPU performance? If I could see that sort of boost upscaling video I'd be all over it, but that's very definitely a GPU issue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 19, 2021, 11:41:17 AM
One benchmark that I've been tracking from my old system to the new is encoding a 6 1/2 min 4k movie chapter using the exact same settings in each system with handbrake, the progress is astounding.


i5 2500k (4C/4T) - 2 hrs 15 mins
Ryzen 7 2700x (8C/16T) - 45 mins
Ryzen 9 5950x (16C/32T) - 15 mins  :omg:
Wouldn't that be more a function of GPU performance? If I could see that sort of boost upscaling video I'd be all over it, but that's very definitely a GPU issue.
I ran handbrake on all 3 CPU configurations with the same GPU - AMD RX 580 8 GB.
 
This is the video encoder (which is the CPU) I chose along with the preset. It was the same for all.


(https://i.imgur.com/pN3h6Z5.png)


Handbrake does offer the GPU encoder too but the AMD one produces terrible results. I've read the nVidia one (NVENC) is a lot better.


(https://i.imgur.com/9Bhv0rd.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on May 19, 2021, 05:20:24 PM
One benchmark that I've been tracking from my old system to the new is encoding a 6 1/2 min 4k movie chapter using the exact same settings in each system with handbrake, the progress is astounding.


i5 2500k (4C/4T) - 2 hrs 15 mins
Ryzen 7 2700x (8C/16T) - 45 mins
Ryzen 9 5950x (16C/32T) - 15 mins  :omg:
Wouldn't that be more a function of GPU performance? If I could see that sort of boost upscaling video I'd be all over it, but that's very definitely a GPU issue.
Absolutely not. That is very much CPU dependent. You can do GPU encoded, but with the new Ryzen processors you will always get much better results from the CPU.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on May 19, 2021, 06:43:58 PM
One benchmark that I've been tracking from my old system to the new is encoding a 6 1/2 min 4k movie chapter using the exact same settings in each system with handbrake, the progress is astounding.


i5 2500k (4C/4T) - 2 hrs 15 mins
Ryzen 7 2700x (8C/16T) - 45 mins
Ryzen 9 5950x (16C/32T) - 15 mins  :omg:
Wouldn't that be more a function of GPU performance? If I could see that sort of boost upscaling video I'd be all over it, but that's very definitely a GPU issue.
Absolutely not. That is very much CPU dependent. You can do GPU encoded, but with the new Ryzen processors you will always get much better results from the CPU.
I was just assuming the processing would be similar to image processing, which is all upscaling is, where GPUs are far better suited to the task.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 19, 2021, 07:11:57 PM
The technical documentation (https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/1.3.0/technical/performance.html) on Handbrake goes over in great detail how the program uses resources.

In short a fast CPU and memory is the optimal performing experience with the most balanced output in terms of file size and video quality. The whole page is a great read if you want to get into the gory details of differences between various settings and hardware used to encode.


Quote
The newer computer with a faster CPU and memory performs better. While the x264 codec doesn’t scale linearly with such high thread counts, it’s still much faster here. Quality is the same compared to the slower computer, only the results are achieved more quickly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on May 19, 2021, 08:46:23 PM
The technical documentation (https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/1.3.0/technical/performance.html) on Handbrake goes over in great detail how the program uses resources.

In short a fast CPU and memory is the optimal performing experience with the most balanced output in terms of file size and video quality. The whole page is a great read if you want to get into the gory details of differences between various settings and hardware used to encode.


Quote
The newer computer with a faster CPU and memory performs better. While the x264 codec doesn’t scale linearly with such high thread counts, it’s still much faster here. Quality is the same compared to the slower computer, only the results are achieved more quickly.
That link actually does show a ~4x speed increase when utilizing the GPU in x265. However, if the quality isn't up to par then that doesn't matter. And at the rate you're chugging along at, there's no reason to sacrifice.

What I'm doing is quite different. You're compressing files. I'm expanding them. I'm looking to make old 480/720p TV shows look decent on a big screen. Doubling the size, denoising, and sharpening takes you from FPS to SPF. And in that realm, GPU processing seems to be the only way to go. By most accounts GPUs perform the task ~20x.

By way of comparison, my GTX1060 is generally turning a frame every .4 seconds. When I switch over to CPU, the same 2500k we've discussed before, it's about 10-12 seconds per frame.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 19, 2021, 09:14:00 PM
Ah I see that makes sense, I've never tried upscaling video from lower resolutions to higher ones. I would imagine that's a lot more work getting it right compared to compressing videos.

You're right about speed for x265 when it comes to GPU. the speed is great but the quality isn't comparable to CPU encoding.  I think that's mentioned somewhere in the link too. That said I should try with my current GPU and see where it figures with those same presets in terms of speed of encoding. Of course I know the quality will be shit.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on May 20, 2021, 04:02:16 AM
The complete lack of any graphics card in Sweden is making planning a build a bit difficult. I remember I was planning a build around Ryzen 2000 series at some point...now we are up to 5000 series.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on May 20, 2021, 04:36:00 AM
I don't know how it is in Sweden, but here in the US I've seen some folks buy those prebuilt units that come with graphics cards and then sell the rest of the components once they get it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 03, 2021, 02:28:30 PM
nVidia released the 3080ti today. Priced at a whopping $1200 which doesn't matter as you can't buy it anywhere in any case. Supposed to limit Ethereum mining though not sure how much of a deterrent that really is. Already seeing it on eBay for 3k.

Performance is supposed to much closer to the 3090 with half the RAM (who needs 24 GB RAM on their GPUs?). I have no clue when or if I'll ever be able to grab a 3080 in the near future. As I've begun playing games more regularly, I might as well just clear the backlog of old games before jumping on the more demanding games at 4k resolution.


On a side note, anyone try delidding their CPUs? I went on a rabbit hole of videos watching people delid their CPUs to get that extra few degrees in cooling while using their balls of steel to shave off the lid glue of their expensive CPUs.

This German guy de8auer  (https://www.youtube.com/c/der8auer/search?query=delidding)in particular has adamantium sized balls of steel to delid the threadripper CPUs which cost several thousand on their own. In one of his videos he drops the heavy CPU on the motherboard socket damaging the pins rendering the board useless.

He's got some other super interesting content otherwise too where he shows how the 7nm transistors looks under the electron microscope. very interesting stuff.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 03, 2021, 02:33:13 PM
On a side note, anyone try delidding their CPUs? I went on a rabbit hole of videos watching people delid their CPUs to get that extra few degrees in cooling while using their balls of steel to shave off the lid glue of their expensive CPUs.

Nope nope nope.  I am not doing anything like that to my CPU.  This stuff is just too expensive to mess around with like that, especially these days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 03, 2021, 02:45:33 PM
On a side note, anyone try delidding their CPUs? I went on a rabbit hole of videos watching people delid their CPUs to get that extra few degrees in cooling while using their balls of steel to shave off the lid glue of their expensive CPUs.

Nope nope nope.  I am not doing anything like that to my CPU.  This stuff is just too expensive to mess around with like that, especially these days.

My brother has done it and after seeing a video of him doing it, no fucking thanks.

I thought about the 3080ti review but I watched the gamersnexus review and it's basically 10% performance increase for a 71% price increase, not worth it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 11, 2021, 11:57:31 AM
Already priced out my new pc using the 1080, can't wait.

It's a bit expensive at 600, but I think I will jump the gun and buy it sooner than later.  I had been saving my credit card points for this but just redeemed some of them (had over $600 worth before and now a little lass than $400) so I will likely empty out my points and pay the difference.

I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!



Going through this thread is like a time capsule and my own thoughts and ideas at the time were so... primitive. How times change. Up until last year, I would never have dreamt of spending anything close to those amounts listed for just a single component. Yet here I am with an $800 CPU (5950x), that's just the CPU!

Not sure what brought about this change other than the face I've been using my last PC for about 10 years, one finally wants to venture into something new and well more expensive lol
I'm most likely not upgrading for another 10 years by the looks of it and after getting this card I think I'll be fine for a while.  :hat  4k gaming on Ultra settings here I come.


(https://i.imgur.com/TNRpZhA.jpg?1)


(https://i.imgur.com/fUhaHdP.jpg?1)




Going to sell off my old GPU RX 580 8GB to recoup some costs. :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 11, 2021, 03:04:45 PM
Awesome!  :metal
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 11, 2021, 03:29:57 PM
Already priced out my new pc using the 1080, can't wait.

It's a bit expensive at 600, but I think I will jump the gun and buy it sooner than later.  I had been saving my credit card points for this but just redeemed some of them (had over $600 worth before and now a little lass than $400) so I will likely empty out my points and pay the difference.

I don't know if I'll ever buy a video card that costs that much. I was already feeling kinda guilty buying a Radeon HD 6870 five years ago for $140. Which I think was a great deal at the time as it was the 3rd fastest card then. But $600 man that's how much 9 TB NAS cost.

Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!



Going through this thread is like a time capsule and my own thoughts and ideas at the time were so... primitive. How times change. Up until last year, I would never have dreamt of spending anything close to those amounts listed for just a single component. Yet here I am with an $800 CPU (5950x), that's just the CPU!

Not sure what brought about this change other than the face I've been using my last PC for about 10 years, one finally wants to venture into something new and well more expensive lol
I'm most likely not upgrading for another 10 years by the looks of it and after getting this card I think I'll be fine for a while.  :hat  4k gaming on Ultra settings here I come.


(https://i.imgur.com/TNRpZhA.jpg?1)


(https://i.imgur.com/fUhaHdP.jpg?1)




Going to sell off my old GPU RX 580 8GB to recoup some costs. :biggrin:
Damn, nice! How'd you end up snagging one of those? Best Buy drop?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 11, 2021, 03:44:26 PM
Yup Best Buy. But the 3080 Ti FE was in store only.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on June 11, 2021, 04:35:29 PM
3070 Ti seems to have buggered off from Sweden already.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on June 11, 2021, 04:40:29 PM
Yup Best Buy. But the 3080 Ti FE was in store only.
I'm still trying to get a regular 3080. I managed to snag a 3060 for a buddy of mine in yesterdays Best Buy drop. Doesn't arrive til the 16th though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 11, 2021, 04:56:46 PM
3070 Ti seems to have buggered off from Sweden already.


The FE Edition had a similar debut here in the US at best buy.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 17, 2021, 05:06:56 AM
Windows 11 leak looks very intriguing. I installed it on a VM and on it the performance is very sluggish, which is understandable as the leak is rumored to be an early build.

Start menu is put in the middle and it has a very MacOS feel to it. It needs your account sign in to view a lot of the customizations, I don't know if I want to sign in just yet.


(https://i.imgur.com/oXZ4IXe.png?1)

Linus did a video on it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odZSCdNTFPw&ab_channel=LinusTechTipsLinusTechTipsVerified (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odZSCdNTFPw&ab_channel=LinusTechTipsLinusTechTipsVerified)

Verge has some more screenshots

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535123/microsoft-windows-11-leak-screenshots-start-menu (https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535123/microsoft-windows-11-leak-screenshots-start-menu)



Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on June 17, 2021, 06:12:34 AM
That's really interesting, I wonder how much of it will shake out to the final version. I don't know why but looking at all this Win 11 stuff makes me want to build a retro Windows 98 machine.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on June 17, 2021, 08:27:48 AM
Pretty sure they want to make it more phone like. They tried with 8 and people hated it, but eventually they're going to unify the way all of our devices look.

For my part, I skipped right over 7 and 8 and went from XP straight to 10, specifically to give me the longest possible time before I have to change again. With any luck I'll keep right on with 10 until I'm forced to upgrade to 15 or so. And in all honestly, I'm already dreading it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 17, 2021, 08:35:30 AM
I really love Windows 10, if it aint broke dont fix it.  And well, the history of every other windows being good makes me think immediately that Windows 11 will be shit.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on June 17, 2021, 08:56:48 AM
I really love Windows 10, if it aint broke dont fix it.  And well, the history of every other windows being good makes me think immediately that Windows 11 will be shit.
I love 10's functionality, it's swift and stable, but man, it's just obnoxious as all getout. I really hate being treated like a child, and in particular by a computer that I built, that I own, and that I'm responsible for. Every single time UAC asks me if I really want to run a program that I just double-clicked on it makes me want to punch the damn screen. What I've found is that it's a constant journey of breaking it, like you'd break a horse. And like a horse, sometimes it'll revert back to its old ways. Despite having disable the updating service as soon as I installed the the thing a couple of months ago, it wouldn't boot on Tuesday because it somehow managed to update itself anyway with something it didn't agree with. And before that, I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out why a bittorrent client wouldn't install only to find out that MS considers bittorrent clients "undesirable" now, and therefore walls them off inside Defender. Like I said, I hate being treated like a child. If I want to delete the entire system32 folder, that's my business and MS should have any say-so in the matter. I can only imagine that 11 and what comes after is going to require a DNA sample just to log on.

One thing I can almost guarantee is that there will be functions that we're no longer allowed to access. Very soon we're going to get to the point where regedit and gpedit will require online credentialling that the end user won't be able to gain. Changes made at that level will require an agent in Bangladesh with the proper certification.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 17, 2021, 09:06:14 AM
Every single time UAC asks me if I really want to run a program that I just double-clicked on it makes me want to punch the damn screen.

You can lower the security level to never get these questions.  It's the first thing I do when I install the OS (well once I get the first notification).

I do agree generally with you though in that, it's my PC so don't prevent me from doing things I want to do with it.  If I wanted all the restrictions, I would just use the MAC OS.  The freedom is a big reason why Windows is so popular.  Having said that, I kind of agree that having some restrictions isn't the worst thing.  Too many people (including myself before) have tweeked things I probably shouldn't have and it resulted in a corrupt Windows that required a fresh re-install.  Now how many people are calling support because of such situations? 

It would be kind of cool if like they had a basic restricted version and another "pro" version where you can make all the changes you want.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 17, 2021, 09:23:32 AM
I too disable UAC after the first install and just forget it's still there. The rest of Barto's post is a trend I'm noticing too. I have the pro version of Win10 so I don't get as much hassle as the base version but that could soon change.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on June 17, 2021, 09:50:25 AM
Unless things have changed, the highest level of UAC you can use to disable the "are you sure" prompts is off, and turning it off actually is a real security risk. The UAC prompts are a legitimate security device, but they're massively overused and there's no means of whitelisting anything. They should be in place for installations, and things like regedit, but not every single program that resides in the program folders or writes to the user folders. And FFS, give us a means to whitelist frequently used programs. Just running Fallout shouldn't require administrator approval.

I too disable UAC after the first install and just forget it's still there. The rest of Barto's post is a trend I'm noticing too. I have the pro version of Win10 so I don't get as much hassle as the base version but that could soon change.
I have the highest level of Windows I could steal.  :lol  Specifically, it's a corporate edition which is designed to be as static as possible. Very little should ever change without my input, at least in theory if not in practice.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaPsTA on June 17, 2021, 11:34:11 AM
One thing I can almost guarantee is that there will be functions that we're no longer allowed to access. Very soon we're going to get to the point where regedit and gpedit will require online credentialling that the end user won't be able to gain. Changes made at that level will require an agent in Bangladesh with the proper certification.

Either that or you won't be able to get in without a pro version. A freedom upcharge if you will.

Maybe if Windows is made crappy enough a real competitor can emerge, or at least Microsoft will be forced to make it functional again.

Not getting 11. Looks like another Windows 8/Vista situation. Someone else already said it, but it looks like the 'every other version sucks' pattern is repeating.

Either they'll extend long term support for Windows 10 or 12 will be decent.

I don't understand their obsession with making Desktop OS's like phones. As far as I can tell no one actually wants this. People want their computer experiences to be smooth and consistent. Something as fundamental as changing the start menu goes against this.

You could say "but at the end of the day the normies won't know the difference." Would completely disagree. When I did tech support, one of the biggest calls I got was about the systems running slow, even if they actually weren't. Why should Microsoft expect anything different when they release poorly optimized code? And, when it comes to what OSs people buy, either they know about computers and stay away from the crap, or they aren't computer literate and they ask their friends/family who are computer literate. Finally, reading a couple articles, it doesn't look like it's substantially different beyond a few aesthetic changes. So even for the unsophisticated customers who just like shiny toys... what's in it for them?

Baffling product strategy.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 17, 2021, 11:43:40 AM
Maybe if Windows is made crappy enough a real competitor can emerge, or at least Microsoft will be forced to make it functional again.

They already have apple who is, at least from my experience, breaking into the business side.  At work everyone uses a macbook for example, no one uses Windows here.  But Windows generally has such a huge grasp on the corporate side.  I really just don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.  I mean Linux exists but isn't anywhere close to being adopted as a mass consumer used OS.  For better or worse, I don't see Windows going away even if another competitor emerges.

And I agree about the desktop/phone thing.  I don't want this either.  It failed once before, so why try again?  I mean, at least give it another 10 years  :lol The only reason I can think of this being useful is when PCs aren't used and our phones have completely replaced them which seems to slowly be happening, but really don't see this being a thing in the near future.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on June 17, 2021, 12:38:31 PM
When I did tech support. . .
You know, this really explains a lot.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 17, 2021, 01:08:39 PM
I did two tech support jobs back in the day. One for AOL which was nothing but hell. All it required was reading the script, deviate from the script and get office spaced.

The other job was for windows support for corporate clients and that job was a breeze. Easy competent users that could explain their issue and you could remote in and figure out what was going on.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 17, 2021, 02:04:11 PM
Can't embed gifs here but I made this one that highlights one of the new snap-in features. I really like this tiny add-in, makes things so much easier and gets four windows done in fewer clicks. You could do this currently in Windows 10 too by dragging each window to its corner but this looks easier. The animations are still a bit janky which they should be fixed by release time.


https://i.imgur.com/2Pz3986.gifv
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaPsTA on June 17, 2021, 02:38:39 PM
When I did tech support. . .
You know, this really explains a lot.  :lol
You develop a certain bitterness I suppose. At least I did internal support
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 20, 2021, 07:30:21 PM
Found this picture of one of my old PCs back when I lived in the UK. This picture screams 90s though it was early 2004 I believe. I think I remember the specs being a P III 1 Ghz with maybe 512 MB or  1 GB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive. Don't recall the board, I do recall having a Creative Sound card. That's also my very first cell phone which was some Samsung model and a Sony Discman that could play MP3s.


(https://i.imgur.com/toEl0Wx.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on August 26, 2021, 12:43:28 PM
Wondering if anyone can help me out.

My wife is working from home, using our personal pc. She logs in remotely and basically has her work pc set-up on our pc. Lately she isn’t getting any audio from webinars, videos, etc when she is logged in, but our pc’s speakers work just fine when she isn’t logged on.

I feel this should be an easy fix but I haven’t been able to figure it out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 26, 2021, 12:47:38 PM
Not sure I'll have any answers, but would need some more info.  What do you mean by logging in?  As in logging into a VPN? Or is she using remote desktop into her work PC?

Also, since you say "lately" I'm assuming this was working and now not, so something seems to have changed?  Do you know of any changes or updates that have occurred?

Likely not related but occasionally when Windows or my graphics card updates, it messes up my audio settings in windows and I need to reconfigure things to my liking.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on August 26, 2021, 12:56:13 PM
Not sure I'll have any answers, but would need some more info.  What do you mean by logging in?  As in logging into a VPN? Or is she using remote desktop into her work PC?

Also, since you say "lately" I'm assuming this was working and now not, so something seems to have changed?  Do you know of any changes or updates that have occurred?

Likely not related but occasionally when Windows or my graphics card updates, it messes up my audio settings in windows and I need to reconfigure things to my liking.

Wife says they are using Citrix, so that’s the best I can answer the first part. She claims she had audio within the last couple of weeks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 26, 2021, 01:05:11 PM
That's basically using remote desktop to a virtual instance of a PC.  It seems like the audio from that isn't routing properly to the speakers of the PC.  I don't use these systems to have any details on how to fix, but I'd imagine there's probably a setting in audio somewhere to change that.  It may be in the citrix client.  I'm really not sure.  Can she ask her company's help desk for support?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on August 26, 2021, 01:17:44 PM
Thanks for the info cram. I was hoping it would be a quick setting adjustment on our end, but she may just need to hit up her tech support (which she is still awaiting a response from for an issue from two days ago  ;D)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 26, 2021, 01:19:10 PM
Thanks for the info cram. I was hoping it would be a quick setting adjustment on our end, but she may just need to hit up her tech support (which she is still awaiting a response from for an issue from two days ago  ;D)

it may be a quick setting, I just dont have any experience to point you in a direction to find that setting.  Good luck.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 02, 2021, 05:27:29 AM
Wondering if anyone can help me out.

My wife is working from home, using our personal pc. She logs in remotely and basically has her work pc set-up on our pc. Lately she isn’t getting any audio from webinars, videos, etc when she is logged in, but our pc’s speakers work just fine when she isn’t logged on.

I feel this should be an easy fix but I haven’t been able to figure it out.

Curious what the fix for this was, my guess is that the default audio setting for the Citrix instance got changed somehow, like through an update.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on September 02, 2021, 05:37:36 AM
Wondering if anyone can help me out.

My wife is working from home, using our personal pc. She logs in remotely and basically has her work pc set-up on our pc. Lately she isn’t getting any audio from webinars, videos, etc when she is logged in, but our pc’s speakers work just fine when she isn’t logged on.

I feel this should be an easy fix but I haven’t been able to figure it out.


Curious what the fix for this was, my guess is that the default audio setting for the Citrix instance got changed somehow, like through an update.

As far as I know the wife hasn’t contacted help desk, so either A. she forgot or B. it’s not that big of deal for her.

Personally it would drive me crazy not having it fixed.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 02, 2021, 05:53:46 AM
I have a similar kind of work from home setup where I log in my PC but use VMWare VDI instead. I once had the issue of no sound coming from the VDI, but sounds from my PC was fine. Turns out I had my VDI on mute  :blush
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 16, 2021, 06:36:39 PM
Even though I had a blast enjoying my first Nvidia card and loved the aesthetics of the 3080 Ti FE, I always had my eye on the 3080 since it was first announced. Finally after almost one year after launch, I managed to score a new one a few weeks back. I got the EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra on Newegg before the latest price increase.

It's definitely a bit of a downgrade but honestly, at this point there are very few use cases that would highlight those deficiencies. I don't really play any of the latest and greatest games so my library is good enough for Ultra 4k gaming.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised the FTW3 card runs super quiet and much much cooler than the 3080 Ti. This card is massive compared to the FE and even though I'm sad to see it go, I did manage to sell it for a nice chunk of change.

It's unreal that the FTW3 is a 2.75 slot card




(https://i.imgur.com/OS0xZMf.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/IFuF2Wu.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/ciPf5o5.jpg)




(https://i.imgur.com/RaTzkRZ.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 17, 2021, 06:26:51 AM
Man that is a sweet card. I'm only 1 day away from the evga queue hitting my request so hopefully I'll have on in a month or so.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 17, 2021, 07:53:21 AM
How you check where you are in the queue? I had signed up ages ago but I couldn't find any place to check.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 17, 2021, 08:17:16 AM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NrR71ipaJktCzT1pWj9FWxNHGWAbcxMorvRvEPaPh48/edit

Just compare that list with your notifies date on the evga site.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on September 17, 2021, 08:29:58 AM
I almost bought an EVGA 3060 Ti the other day for a slightly less worse price than usual, but it was the two fan version and I would prefer three. Availability hasn't been that bad here lately (Australia) but the prices are starting to go up again.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 17, 2021, 09:43:09 AM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NrR71ipaJktCzT1pWj9FWxNHGWAbcxMorvRvEPaPh48/edit (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NrR71ipaJktCzT1pWj9FWxNHGWAbcxMorvRvEPaPh48/edit)

Just compare that list with your notifies date on the evga site.

Ah ok, thanks. I think I did come across it on reddit some time ago, but never checked it out. Quite impressive for a crowd sourced venture.


Just checked the status of the cards I put in the EVGA queue and they are all still in either Sept or Oct of 2020. I signed up much later in Jan so yeah I was never getting it from the queue. Looks like I sorta won the lottery with the Newegg Shuffle.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 17, 2021, 07:20:04 PM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NrR71ipaJktCzT1pWj9FWxNHGWAbcxMorvRvEPaPh48/edit

Just compare that list with your notifies date on the evga site.
Comparing to list, looks like I will get my 3080 in October of 2024....or never... Good job Nvidia.... :censored
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 17, 2021, 07:22:30 PM
I'm so jelly of the people who get the EVGA 3080 FTW
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on October 14, 2021, 05:31:42 AM
We’ve just switched internet providers from Spectrum to TDS and are having major issues with our WiFi. As soon as our son opens his laptop our signal drops to almost nothing. Even the Ethernet hardline (via our router) into our pc has no signal.

We are using a tp link router (model AC1750) and never had this issue with Spectrum.

Any ideas?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 14, 2021, 07:17:18 AM
Sounds like the signal coming to your home via your ISP might not be carrying enough power/strength? It may say it's online and connected but the quality of the signal might be poor. I'd call support for your ISP to troubleshoot if even the ethernet is showing no signal.

Does the modem that is directly connected to the main line have an ethernet connection you can test? That's a sure way of knowing if you're getting any output from the source. If you are getting internet through direct connection from the modem, the router might be the issue then. Even if it worked well with Spectrum before.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: T-ski on October 14, 2021, 06:18:58 PM
Sounds like the signal coming to your home via your ISP might not be carrying enough power/strength? It may say it's online and connected but the quality of the signal might be poor. I'd call support for your ISP to troubleshoot if even the ethernet is showing no signal.

Does the modem that is directly connected to the main line have an ethernet connection you can test? That's a sure way of knowing if you're getting any output from the source. If you are getting internet through direct connection from the modem, the router might be the issue then. Even if it worked well with Spectrum before.

I updated and reset our router and things seem better. My son is overjoyed at the fact I told him I wanted him gaming all evening to make sure things are operating correctly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on October 19, 2021, 07:51:22 AM
I've had my PC for about 2.5 years now, and I think I'd like to upgrade it if possible. Basically looking to improve graphics in game, not stream or anything like that. What should I do?

(https://i.redd.it/7imcw33bweu71.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 19, 2021, 07:54:31 AM
Well graphics cards are very hard to come by, people are scrambling just to get a GTX 1050 these days.  I'd say upgrade to a 3070 at least in theory but the reality may be you'll be paying an arm and leg for it.  Like, even for a smaller upgrade you'll be paying wayyy too much that it's not worth it unless you go right to the latest gen. 

I know this because I paid a significant amount over face value for my 3070 like 6 months ago and the market isn't any better today.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 19, 2021, 11:12:05 PM
I've had my PC for about 2.5 years now, and I think I'd like to upgrade it if possible. Basically looking to improve graphics in game, not stream or anything like that. What should I do?

Like cram said for game improvements you'll need to upgrade the video card and the market is overpriced in the 3rd party market and severely understocked at retail.
Basically people are just buying whatever they can get their hands on.

A viable option is to buy a prebuilt machine or if you have a microcenter near you they will help you build it plus they seem to have the best stock availability for graphic cards.

I'm going to assume you're currently playing at 1080 and want to push to 1440? with maybe a high refresh monitor? The 3070 or even 3060 Ti would be the sweet spot. Are you looking to upgrade your entire setup or just do it part by part?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 21, 2021, 04:18:01 PM
I'm getting really close to hitting my queue for a evga 3080 ftw3 so if I get one I'll be selling my evga 2080. Just depends on when I hit the queue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 21, 2021, 04:26:08 PM
I'm getting really close to hitting my queue for a evga 3080 ftw3 so if I get one I'll be selling my evga 2080. Just depends on when I hit the queue.

The card I really wish I could have
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 21, 2021, 07:37:52 PM
I'm getting really close to hitting my queue for a evga 3080 ftw3 so if I get one I'll be selling my evga 2080. Just depends on when I hit the queue.
That's really great! The card is really good and has run really quiet and not as hot as the 3080 Ti FE I previously had.

Didn't EVGA also do something odd/funny with their queue recently? I think they stopped accepting any new requests and then reversed it. Or something of that nature. I recall vaguely there being some outrage of the changes.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: lonestar on October 22, 2021, 11:38:52 AM
Just got the notification to upgrade to 11. I'm a computer novice, my system is just 1 month old (mid level Dell Inspiron), and has basically nothing on it so far. I also have been using, and use a chromebook for my home web browsing/video streaming etc, this is basically a work computer. Thoughts on upgrade?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 22, 2021, 11:43:19 AM
I wouldn't unless you really need to for some reason. 

Personally, I will avoid 11 as long as possible.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on October 22, 2021, 01:11:00 PM
I always wait as long as possible before upgrading the operating system.  Right now, you're the guinea pigs.  We know that MS doesn't do proper testing on Windows, and that's not entirely their fault; with virtually infinite variations on hardware and software configurations out there, they can't test every single possibility.  But you can at least wait until a few months after rollout, by which time there will be plenty of info on techie forums and social media about problems common were certain setups, and hopefully MS has patched a few things.  Being an early adopter for an operating system is just asking for trouble.  Why upgrade when it's basically a given that they haven't worked out most of the bugs?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 22, 2021, 01:15:58 PM
Just got the notification to upgrade to 11. I'm a computer novice, my system is just 1 month old (mid level Dell Inspiron), and has basically nothing on it so far. I also have been using, and use a chromebook for my home web browsing/video streaming etc, this is basically a work computer. Thoughts on upgrade?

I've been running windows 11 on a Virtual environment since it got release on the dev channel to see the visual aspects and check out other features. There are some nice aesthetics to it and under the hood changes. Most obvious change is the start menu is by default in the middle of the taskbar and can be moved to the original spot. If you're a power user I think most of the changes will annoy you. Like cram I will try and hold out a while. I've done the same for many previous versions, for 7, 8 and 10. Oddly enough Vista was the only OS I jumped on right away lol. I'm one of the very few who had zero issues with it.

That said if you've got nothing to lose and aren't attached to the way you like to do things on the desktop then by all means you should be ok. You're typically given a set number of days to return to the previous version should you not like the new OS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 22, 2021, 02:10:33 PM
I went from XP to 10, and I'll go from 10 to 14 if I can pull it off.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Herrick on October 22, 2021, 05:28:31 PM
Wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be the "last" Windows OS but they'd keep upgrading it?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 22, 2021, 05:43:29 PM
Wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be the "last" Windows OS but they'd keep upgrading it?

Now where's the money in that?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on October 22, 2021, 06:33:34 PM
I wouldn't unless you really need to for some reason. 

Personally, I will avoid 11 as long as possible.
100% this. I always tell my clients, unless you have a specific reason for needing to upgrade to 11 (and lets be honest here, there isn't really any good reason yet), don't upgrade.....at least not yet. Let the shitstorm surrounding a new OS settle for at least a year.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: lonestar on October 22, 2021, 08:11:10 PM
Cool guys, good info all around, thank you. I'll wait for the bugs to shit themselves out at least.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 23, 2021, 05:42:02 PM
I'm getting really close to hitting my queue for a evga 3080 ftw3 so if I get one I'll be selling my evga 2080. Just depends on when I hit the queue.
That's really great! The card is really good and has run really quiet and not as hot as the 3080 Ti FE I previously had.

Didn't EVGA also do something odd/funny with their queue recently? I think they stopped accepting any new requests and then reversed it. Or something of that nature. I recall vaguely there being some outrage of the changes.

They've changed a lot with their queue such as now new requests and now only sending two invites out (I know some people have hopped in the queue for ever 30xx card)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 29, 2021, 11:01:50 AM
Welp a year later and my queue for my evga 3080 ftw3 ultra just hit. Gonna order when I get home.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 29, 2021, 11:52:24 AM
Welp a year later and my queue for my evga 3080 ftw3 ultra just hit. Gonna order when I get home.

 :metal :metal :metal

How quick will you get it then?  Maybe just in time for Battlefield 2042
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 29, 2021, 01:35:33 PM
Just ordered it, it'll be here in 3-5 days. I'm so pumped. I'm going to pick up battlefield and test this thing out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 29, 2021, 01:41:31 PM
Congrats! I love my 3080 FTW3 Ultra, so quiet and cool the whole time I've used it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 01, 2021, 03:19:24 PM
It occurs to me that GPU prices are probably never going to normalize, which sucks. Seems like they may well just keep supply limited for the duration of a series lifespan and then start the same process for the next. They've already stopped making most RTX2000 series cards, save for the 2060, and those are selling for high markups as the budget option. All they have to do is make sure there still aren't enough 3000 series cards to go around when Lovelace launches and the process begins anew. People will clamor to get the last, now obsolete 3000 cards at insane markups. And while this would ideally create a thriving market in used cards, those prices are artificially high because the market supports it. Non working 2060s are selling for right at what they were when they were new, and used but working ones are about double the original price, as people try to recoup the markups on the newer cards. Yeah capitalism!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on November 01, 2021, 07:31:08 PM
It occurs to me that GPU prices are probably never going to normalize, which sucks. Seems like they may well just keep supply limited for the duration of a series lifespan and then start the same process for the next. They've already stopped making most RTX2000 series cards, save for the 2060, and those are selling for high markups as the budget option. All they have to do is make sure there still aren't enough 3000 series cards to go around when Lovelace launches and the process begins anew. People will clamor to get the last, now obsolete 3000 cards at insane markups. And while this would ideally create a thriving market in used cards, those prices are artificially high because the market supports it. Non working 2060s are selling for right at what they were when they were new, and used but working ones are about double the original price, as people try to recoup the markups on the newer cards. Yeah capitalism!
The biggest problem with this is it's starting to trickle over into a lot of other things. Pretty soon everything is going to be double the price because of artificial shortages. Again, YAY CAPITALISM!  :yeahright
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 01, 2021, 08:24:13 PM
Yeah the prices of GPU will likely not normalize for some time. If people are willing to pay the high price now, it doesn't matter what they price it at. The product could suck or not offer any value but if they work, people will buy. It's crazy to think the demand is still insanely high with us now well over a year into the lockdown.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 02, 2021, 07:59:53 AM
I very much worry about my GPU frying like my 1080 did last year. 

I'm almost wondering if it's worth it to get on a waiting list for one of the GPUs (like a 3080 FTW) as a "just in case" and even if I don't need it when it's my turn, maybe still worth buying and then I could sell my 3070?

But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if I signed up for a waiting list and by the time it was my turn, a new product was already released or soon to be released that I'd rather have. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 02, 2021, 08:14:25 AM
Does anybody have a signup queue other than EVGA (which currently does not)? I'm sure not seeing one, and the reality is that it's probably better to be fleeced now than fleeced later.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 02, 2021, 08:16:25 AM
Does anybody have a signup queue other than EVGA (which currently does not)? I'm sure not seeing one, and the reality is that it's probably better to be fleeced now than fleeced later.

Even though I wrote what I previously did, I have not done any actual research into getting onto a wait list.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 02, 2021, 08:54:22 AM
Does anybody have a signup queue other than EVGA (which currently does not)? I'm sure not seeing one, and the reality is that it's probably better to be fleeced now than fleeced later.

I don't know if anyone else has setup a queue system other than EVGA in the US. The prices are only trending upwards for the the board partners and that's why I decided to take the plunge as I'll be making use of it now rather than wait.  I was very lucky to snag one in the Newegg shuffle.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 02, 2021, 08:58:10 AM
Does anybody have a signup queue other than EVGA (which currently does not)? I'm sure not seeing one, and the reality is that it's probably better to be fleeced now than fleeced later.

I don't know if anyone else has setup a queue system other than EVGA in the US. The prices are only trending upwards for the the board partners and that's why I decided to take the plunge as I'll be making use of it now rather than wait.  I was very lucky to snag one in the Newegg shuffle.
EVGA has suspended theirs. Newegg actually has some cards in stock, but they're leading the pack insofar as scalping goes. They're selling 1660s for $500+, FFS.

edit:  (Plus $50-70 S/H)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 02, 2021, 09:17:58 AM
Time to time, EVGA has these flash sales of their B-stock cards and those go out super quick too. But I believe those are reasonably priced.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 04, 2021, 06:19:59 AM
Just ordered it, it'll be here in 3-5 days. I'm so pumped. I'm going to pick up battlefield and test this thing out.

Hopefully this theft  (https://forums.evga.com/Notice-of-Stolen-EVGA-GeForce-RTX-30Series-Graphics-Cards-m3490851.aspx)of EVGA cards doesn't affect your order.




Quote
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on October 29, 2021, a shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Cards was stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to our Southern California distribution center.
 
These graphics cards are in high demand and each has an estimated retail value starting at $329.99 up to $1959.99 MSRP.
 
 
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that under state and Federal law:
It is a criminal and civil offense to “buy or receive” property that has been stolen. Cal. Penal Code section 496(a).
It is also a criminal and civil offense to “conceal, sell, withhold, or aid in concealing selling or withholding” any such property.
 
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER notice that:
If you are able to successfully register your product and see it under My Products, then your product is NOT affected by this notice, you can also check the serial number at the EVGA Warranty Check page to see if it is affected.
EVGA will NOT REGISTER or HONOR ANY WARRANTY or UPGRADE claims on these products.
 
 If you have or receive any information relating to these products, please share that with us at stopRTX30theft@evga.com.
 
We appreciate your attention to this issue.


Thank you,
EVGA Management

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on November 04, 2021, 07:17:04 AM
My buddy just sent me this morning, funny enough my card shipped the same day. UPS says it's coming today so we'll see.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 04, 2021, 07:42:12 AM
Wow, what are the chances lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 04, 2021, 09:48:58 AM
The used graphics card market is rather interesting. I can't tell, but it almost seems like bots and sellers are bidding on their own stuff. It's probably also the case that people are flipping them, as prices have increased quite a bit over the last month.

What I can tell is that the market is flooded with used 3060s, selling for over twice what they cost new. At the same time, the bargains are on the higher end 2000 series cards. Those are selling for a little less than their new price. The TI cards are still out of reach, but with a little luck you can pick up a 2080, for < $750 or so. 2070 Supers are about $100 less. Since their really seems to be no way to buy new cards, save for the old Ticketmaster model of camping out and rushing the door, that's probably as good as it gets for a while.

Looks like the 12th gen Intel chips are going to change the landscape a bit. They compete very well, or beat the comparable Ryzen chips, but bring a whole lot of new MOBO tech with them. I'm honestly not sure what the point of PCIe 5 is since PCIe 4 is barely being utilized, but streamlining the chipsets with DDR5 will certainly matter. In the end, though, I'm thinking it's a good time for a budget build with 11th gen architecture. The Intel 11 series was so poorly received, really only for not being newer tech, that a high end CPU and Z590 MoBo should come in pretty damned cheap in the coming weeks.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 04, 2021, 10:58:01 AM
The used graphics card market is rather interesting. I can't tell, but it almost seems like bots and sellers are bidding on their own stuff. It's probably also the case that people are flipping them, as prices have increased quite a bit over the last month.

What I can tell is that the market is flooded with used 3060s, selling for over twice what they cost new. At the same time, the bargains are on the higher end 2000 series cards. Those are selling for a little less than their new price. The TI cards are still out of reach, but with a little luck you can pick up a 2080, for < $750 or so. 2070 Supers are about $100 less. Since their really seems to be no way to buy new cards, save for the old Ticketmaster model of camping out and rushing the door, that's probably as good as it gets for a while.

Looks like the 12th gen Intel chips are going to change the landscape a bit. They compete very well, or beat the comparable Ryzen chips, but bring a whole lot of new MOBO tech with them. I'm honestly not sure what the point of PCIe 5 is since PCIe 4 is barely being utilized, but streamlining the chipsets with DDR5 will certainly matter. In the end, though, I'm thinking it's a good time for a budget build with 11th gen architecture. The Intel 11 series was so poorly received, really only for not being newer tech, that a high end CPU and Z590 MoBo should come in pretty damned cheap in the coming weeks.


I too was reading the 12th gen Intel reviews and it does change things up and brings them back on the top of sorts. AMD is expected to release a turbo-charged version of their Ryzen 5000 series early next year which I believe will compete directly with the 12th gen Intel CPUs and maintain momentum. AMD's CPU share the past couple of years has really skyrocketed and I hope they continue to do so to keep this competition going.

Like you said the 12th gen comes with a bunch of new tech namely DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 but is going to have some growing pains. DDR5 is expensive and will take at least a year to offer its potential. I think the move to PCIe 5.0 is more to create extra available lanes rather than offer bandwidth. It's true PCIe 4.0 bandwidth barely got utilized as 3.0 was plenty and hardly saturated, but the extra lanes are what really help I suppose.

My friend a few months back upgraded to a 10th gen 10900k with a Z590 board from a Haswell i5 which I thought was a better move than going for the gen 11. If you're doing a mixed workload of multi-threaded applications plus some gaming the 10th gen i9 would undoubtedly be a better value when compared to the 11th gen. I think the main issue with the 11th gen is how power-hungry they are while delivering a minimal performance boost over the 10th gen while costing a lot more.

With regards to the used GPU market, I sold my RX 580 8GB card a few months ago for over 3 times the cost I bought it. Plus it was used for a year at that point so I don't see prices backing down. the budget GPU segment looks to be all but decimated for the time being. Even though I paid retail for my EVGA RTX 3080 it's a fortune I never thought I'd spend on. Prior to my upgrade, in the past 15 years I've bought a total of 3 GPUs and the most I'd spent was $150. All that is out the window. Times have changed for me.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 04, 2021, 12:34:14 PM
The used graphics card market is rather interesting. I can't tell, but it almost seems like bots and sellers are bidding on their own stuff. It's probably also the case that people are flipping them, as prices have increased quite a bit over the last month.

What I can tell is that the market is flooded with used 3060s, selling for over twice what they cost new. At the same time, the bargains are on the higher end 2000 series cards. Those are selling for a little less than their new price. The TI cards are still out of reach, but with a little luck you can pick up a 2080, for < $750 or so. 2070 Supers are about $100 less. Since their really seems to be no way to buy new cards, save for the old Ticketmaster model of camping out and rushing the door, that's probably as good as it gets for a while.

Looks like the 12th gen Intel chips are going to change the landscape a bit. They compete very well, or beat the comparable Ryzen chips, but bring a whole lot of new MOBO tech with them. I'm honestly not sure what the point of PCIe 5 is since PCIe 4 is barely being utilized, but streamlining the chipsets with DDR5 will certainly matter. In the end, though, I'm thinking it's a good time for a budget build with 11th gen architecture. The Intel 11 series was so poorly received, really only for not being newer tech, that a high end CPU and Z590 MoBo should come in pretty damned cheap in the coming weeks.


I too was reading the 12th gen Intel reviews and it does change things up and brings them back on the top of sorts. AMD is expected to release a turbo-charged version of their Ryzen 5000 series early next year which I believe will compete directly with the 12th gen Intel CPUs and maintain momentum. AMD's CPU share the past couple of years has really skyrocketed and I hope they continue to do so to keep this competition going.

Like you said the 12th gen comes with a bunch of new tech namely DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 but is going to have some growing pains. DDR5 is expensive and will take at least a year to offer its potential. I think the move to PCIe 5.0 is more to create extra available lanes rather than offer bandwidth. It's true PCIe 4.0 bandwidth barely got utilized as 3.0 was plenty and hardly saturated, but the extra lanes are what really help I suppose.

My friend a few months back upgraded to a 10th gen 10900k with a Z590 board from a Haswell i5 which I thought was a better move than going for the gen 11. If you're doing a mixed workload of multi-threaded applications plus some gaming the 10th gen i9 would undoubtedly be a better value when compared to the 11th gen. I think the main issue with the 11th gen is how power-hungry they are while delivering a minimal performance boost over the 10th gen while costing a lot more.

With regards to the used GPU market, I sold my RX 580 8GB card a few months ago for over 3 times the cost I bought it. Plus it was used for a year at that point so I don't see prices backing down. the budget GPU segment looks to be all but decimated for the time being. Even though I paid retail for my EVGA RTX 3080 it's a fortune I never thought I'd spend on. Prior to my upgrade, in the past 15 years I've bought a total of 3 GPUs and the most I'd spent was $150. All that is out the window. Times have changed for me.
Ironically, the reason I'm leaning towards gen 11 rather than gen 10 is that the former allows the Z590 chipset to utilize PCIe 4.0 and double the PCI lanes. The added lanes and 4.0 will only work with 11th gen processors. As you know, I got 10 years out of my current CPU/MOBO, and I'm shooting for something similar, so PCIe 4 will someday matter.

Also, presumably because the 11th gen got panned for not being much of an improvement, they're far more competitively priced now. 11700s are actually significantly cheaper than 10700s,  and the I9s are fairly close. Insofar as I can tell, the only difference between the I7 and I9 is two extra cores, and I'll sacrifice those to save a hundred bucks. Since I'm upgrading from 4+0, 8+8 should be a nice enough upgrade.  :lol

That said, you seem to have researched this stuff, so if there's a bug in my reasoning by all means point it out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 04, 2021, 12:44:12 PM
I have researched a ton lol! You've got it right with your path I hadn't checked the prices lately of the 11th gen and they are very competitive and might fall even more. The 11700k is a great buy, it's virtually the same as the 11900k in terms of core and thread count, only difference is some minor clock boost and I think some cache levels. Outside of a very few limited scenarios I honestly can't figure out the use of that i9 CPU.

 I did want to mention the PCIe 4.0 advantage for the 11th gen and it makes more sense when keeping it for the long term and that makes sense. I too got 10 years out of my old system and plan to use my current one for at least the same amount of time.

Upgrading after a decade and esp using an NVMe SSD is a worthy upgrade. The speed of program installs is something to behold.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 04, 2021, 01:18:00 PM
I have researched a ton lol! You've got it right with your path I hadn't checked the prices lately of the 11th gen and they are very competitive and might fall even more. The 11700k is a great buy, it's virtually the same as the 11900k in terms of core and thread count, only difference is some minor clock boost and I think some cache levels. Outside of a very few limited scenarios I honestly can't figure out the use of that i9 CPU.

I did want to mention the PCIe 4.0 advantage for the 11th gen and it makes more sense when keeping it for the long term and that makes sense. I too got 10 years out of my old system and plan to use my current one for at least the same amount of time.

Upgrading after a decade and esp using an NVMe SSD is a worthy upgrade. The speed of program installs is something to behold.
Right. You and I had/have the same i5-2500 wonderchip. Mine was a BF 2011 deal, and with the MOBO and RAM I was out about $260.  :lol

Honestly, the only reason I'm even upgrading the thing is because it'll no doubt bottleneck a modern graphics card, and that's where everything is happening nowadays.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 04, 2021, 02:08:00 PM
That is a great deal for that time. I bought the i5 2500k during release week in Jan 2011. It came bundled with a board and  I think it was $300 without the RAM. Looking back I think I built my entire system around $600 a decade ago, it was quite a desktop performance beast. Certainly not the topmost but very close to it. The combinations also were a lot simpler, now ... the combos are infinite and the sky is the limit. The workflows and target market have also gotten so varied that you're going to get vast segmentation.

With BF right around the corner, you're going to get a ton of great deals. I already see some excellent NVMe SSD sales. Those seem to be the only components that are dropping in price along with the CPUs. The other components prices (GPU apart) come and go.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 05, 2021, 10:54:39 AM
Doing a bit of research last night I figured out why people hate the 11th gen Intels. Without a monster cooler you're probably not going to get full potential out of those things, as temp will limit your turbo boost. And for the price of an adequate cooler you're better off going with water cooling. AIO water coolers are quite reasonable right now, so that's not a problem, but it is an added expenditure. I actually came pretty close to grabbing a factory water-cooled 2080 Super off of eBay, but then I'm presented with the problem of needing a case that'll accommodate two 240mm radiators. Shit just snowballs.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 05, 2021, 11:45:59 AM
For real things definitely snowball, it started with a GPU purchase with me as well last year. Had used the 6870 for eons and when that couldn't play GTA V with the most basic settings on 1080p I got the RX 580 and then the rest snowballed when a great deal for 64 GB RAM came along. I still haven't found such a deal yet. $185 for G.Skill 64 GB 3200 DDR4 RAM is still an elusive deal.

It is interesting how CPU performance boost is now tied to things like heat dissipation, lower voltage, creating more thermal headroom. The better the cooling the better the performance push. I mean it was always there, but the default stock behavior is now dictated by the cooling solution you have. Most CPUs don't even come with a fan nowadays. So getting a good AIO or aircooler is part of the build expense.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaPsTA on November 05, 2021, 11:29:29 PM
Serious question - Why would anyone buy an Intel at this point? AMD is cheaper and even for gaming they are competitive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 06, 2021, 07:04:11 AM
I think at this point it's a wash which CPU you get. There are"quirks" that people get familiar with. The cost really is comparable because it's not just the CPU you get, you have to get a compatible board and the costs pretty much line up similarly.

I think AMD have an edge on power efficiency these days but day to day workflows the performances should really not be noticable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 06, 2021, 07:37:59 AM
Serious question - Why would anyone buy an Intel at this point? AMD is cheaper and even for gaming they are competitive.
In the current market they're not really cheaper. With one exception I'm seeing better prices for Intel on comparable chips. And while AMD is actually slightly faster in gaming, Intel is slightly faster in applications. Aside from the power draw it's mostly a wash, at this point. Furthermore, while the Intel chips are surprisingly hard to cool, the same is true of the 5800x, which is the AMD chip I'd be looking at. You're spending a wad of cash on a cooler either way.

As for quirks, I really dislike AMD rather strongly, despite having been an early adopter back with the first Athlons. Years of suffering through their miserable driver support has left a bad taste in my mouth. And while that's specifically VGA related, it didn't really inspire me as to their customer support. Plus, a MoBo has a lot more drivers than a mere graphics card. Lastly, the Intel CPU I'm still using, as Faizoff can attest, has really impressed me. I've never had an AMD chip I can say that about. The only reason I'm even bothering to upgrade is because the architecture around it has left me behind.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on November 06, 2021, 01:12:53 PM
Now that I've gotten my 3080 I'm going to sell my older 2080 and put that money towards a VR headset. I'm really out of the loop as VR is concerned but do you guys have any thoughts or recommendations?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: v_clortho on November 06, 2021, 06:40:22 PM
As far as games go, Beat Saber is really fun.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 06, 2021, 08:16:35 PM

As for quirks, I really dislike AMD rather strongly, despite having been an early adopter back with the first Athlons. Years of suffering through their miserable driver support has left a bad taste in my mouth. And while that's specifically VGA related, it didn't really inspire me as to their customer support. Plus, a MoBo has a lot more drivers than a mere graphics card. Lastly, the Intel CPU I'm still using, as Faizoff can attest, has really impressed me. I've never had an AMD chip I can say that about. The only reason I'm even bothering to upgrade is because the architecture around it has left me behind.


I understand the distrust against AMD after your experience but after almost going bankrupt with the Bulldozer line of CPUs, they put Dr. Lisa Su in charge and  I think they've made a turnaround very few companies are able to. Their Ryzen lineup has truly risen from the dead and brought top-tier performance and reliability. The 3000 and 5000 series are probably the Sandy/Ivy Bridge of the current AMD CPU generation. Time will tell how long they last but so far it's quite impressive and this Ryzen architecture has further spun off to the workstation Threadripper series and EPYC servers. They've actually made a big dent in the server market, something that's always been Intel's stronghold and unheard of.


I really wouldn't worry too much about drivers so much especially for motherboards. With this turnaround, all board manufacturers have been paying a ton of attention and building trust with AMD by providing constant updates, improvements and multiple versions of motherboards and chipsets. Heck EVGA who have traditionally been only exclusive to Intel and Nvidia have now started making AMD boards and video cards. So yeah things are different now and I'm really glad this competition is fierce allowing for some fantastic line of CPUs and technology to advance by both brands.


The 5800x is kinda in a weird spot with its increased temperatures, somehow its silicon lottery luck seems to be limited. All other 5000 and 3000 series don't really have a problem with high temperatures even if it's within spec. I say this not really to try and change your mind but to give more perspective really. It's odd in a way a decade ago I was almost ready to pull the trigger on the Phenom series and was told to wait for the Sandy Bridge CPU which I did. This time round I was almost about to commit to the 10th gen Comet Lake CPUs and decided to wait for the Ryzen 5000 series which I did.




Either way with the technology and architecture out now, you can't go wrong with any of it really.


Now that I've gotten my 3080 I'm going to sell my older 2080 and put that money towards a VR headset. I'm really out of the loop as VR is concerned but do you guys have any thoughts or recommendations?


I briefly considered getting the Valve Index but it's a little too much to spend for what I don't think I'll be getting much use out of. There is also the Oculus but somehow their facebook integration is just not sitting right with me. If I can grab a cheap used VR kit I'd have to go for the Valve Index. I haven't tried any of these personally so really hard to give recommendations but that was my line of thinking when I last thought about it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 08, 2021, 07:32:50 AM
I decided to take the plunge to the Small Form Factor (SFF) world and got one of the more popular cases. It's called the 'Meshlicious' cause it's all Mesh and delicious I guess.

Made by an offshoot of Lian Li, called SSUPD - (Sunny Side UP Design) the names they come up lo. They make it up with the case though, it's really well made and the panels are full mesh and easy to take out. It's very well designed and quite popular in the SFFPC arena. I was going to choose between this and the Cooler Master NR200P, but I'd have to buy a new SFX PSU for that. With this case all I had to get was a new board and after much debating and research again I decided to get the MSI B550 ITX Gaming Edge Wifi Max. All other components are the same from my other ATX build.

Still doing some testing and adjustments, once I finalize the settings and configuration will zip tie these wires and close the case. So far I'm having a major problem ironically installing the Nvidia drivers. I get constant crashes after installing it. So right now am using the generic display drivers provided by Microsoft.

I believe it could be due to the PCIe 3.0 Riser cable that the case comes with. I will have to see if switching to a different cable resolves the crashes. Other than that I'm really liking the small footprint.


My decade-old case on the left compared to the Mesh on the right. It's even more impressive in person.


(https://i.imgur.com/2rHZ6RU.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/Efv23AR.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/3C7eiA2.jpg)




The case comes with a right-angled HDMI cable. I bought an additional right-angled Display port cable and was troubleshooting with different cables to figure out the issue. The white one here is the DP cable that came with the LG 4k monitor. Everything worked great when plugging the GPU directly which is why I've narrowed it down to the riser cable as being the issue. Will probably test more tonight or maybe in the weekend.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on November 08, 2021, 08:41:38 PM
Most of those cables that come with cases and other components (namely HDMI and Displayport) are absolute junk. Right-angle ones tend to be even worse.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 08, 2021, 08:47:18 PM
I took a chance and updated the Nvidia drivers through Windows Update, surprisingly that worked. This thing is finally stable and I'm cautiously observing. I'll put the angled cables back to see if there's any difference.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 22, 2021, 10:26:59 AM
I've compiled all of the parts (save for the graphics card) and I'll be building it all over the weekend. Black Friday turned out to be rather pointless. Better to just buy it all early and not fuck with it. Nothing's been opened, and save for the case it's all local, so it's possible that I go and beat down Microcenter or Best Buy down on Friday, but I'm not expecting any price changes to make that worth while.

Wound up going with the 11700k, as I really don't see it to be much different than the comparable AMD CPU, other than $50 cheaper. They're competitive in performance, and since I'd wind up water cooling the 5800x anyway, the power draw doesn't matter to me. Also went into it looking to over-engineer the thing. High quality MoBo and PSU, and greater than necessary cooling.

PICe 4 really does seem to be pointless. While the new NVME drives post blistering performance numbers, they mean absolutely dick in the real world. Going from SATA to M2 can cut a load time from 60 seconds to 15. Going from M2 3x4 to 4x4 cuts it down to 14. In theory GPU Directstorage will better implement that, but who really knows. All of the BF deals on SSDs were for the super fast WD Black an Samsung drives, which were still twice as much as a "slower" Intel drive (with shorter MTTFs).

Doesn't look like I'll be upgrading the GPU anytime soon. Prices continue to rise, though they might taper off a bit after TG. In the meantime, various online calculators suggest that by upgrading the platform around it, I could see upwards of 100% improvement on my current card. Still won't have RT or Tensor cores (the latter is what I'm actually interested in), but I should still see an improvement to make it all worth while.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 22, 2021, 10:34:06 AM
I wouldn't have stuck an NVMe PCI card into my PC if I didn't have some extras floating around work that no one needed.... I use it just for video game installs and if there's one thing I notice... my games all load faster than any of my friends  :lol not that it's terribly important as games usually wait until the entire party loads in to begin so I'm not exactly gaining anything here. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 22, 2021, 10:41:03 AM
I wouldn't have stuck an NVMe PCI card into my PC if I didn't have some extras floating around work that no one needed.... I use it just for video game installs and if there's one thing I notice... my games all load faster than any of my friends  :lol not that it's terribly important as games usually wait until the entire party loads in to begin so I'm not exactly gaining anything here.
I've had to upgrade a few computers around work to W10, and what I've noticed is since they all have old school HDDs, the Windows load time is insufferable. I keep thinking there's something wrong, but it's just that I'm used to a SSD at home. That said, I'm suing SATA SSD's at home, and moving to a PCIe SSD should actually make a significant difference. And, like I said, there's still GPU Directstorage on the horizon, and that may actually matter.

Another thing I did with this build was to make sure that I'm replacing everything across the board, so my old computer will remain largely intact (save for the graphics card). I'll initially set up the new build with the onboard graphics, so I'll have all the time in the world to work on this thing with zero down time. That'll be a pleasant change. From spending an entire Saturday with no computer, and then Sunday with a marginally functional computer while I install and set everything up.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 22, 2021, 11:19:13 AM
I've compiled all of the parts (save for the graphics card) and I'll be building it all over the weekend. Black Friday turned out to be rather pointless. Better to just buy it all early and not fuck with it. Nothing's been opened, and save for the case it's all local, so it's possible that I go and beat down Microcenter or Best Buy down on Friday, but I'm not expecting any price changes to make that worth while.

Wound up going with the 11700k, as I really don't see it to be much different than the comparable AMD CPU, other than $50 cheaper. They're competitive in performance, and since I'd wind up water cooling the 5800x anyway, the power draw doesn't matter to me. Also went into it looking to over-engineer the thing. High quality MoBo and PSU, and greater than necessary cooling.

PICe 4 really does seem to be pointless. While the new NVME drives post blistering performance numbers, they mean absolutely dick in the real world. Going from SATA to M2 can cut a load time from 60 seconds to 15. Going from M2 3x4 to 4x4 cuts it down to 14. In theory GPU Directstorage will better implement that, but who really knows. All of the BF deals on SSDs were for the super fast WD Black an Samsung drives, which were still twice as much as a "slower" Intel drive (with shorter MTTFs).

Doesn't look like I'll be upgrading the GPU anytime soon. Prices continue to rise, though they might taper off a bit after TG. In the meantime, various online calculators suggest that by upgrading the platform around it, I could see upwards of 100% improvement on my current card. Still won't have RT or Tensor cores (the latter is what I'm actually interested in), but I should still see an improvement to make it all worth while.

That's awesome! Agree with the gen3 to gen4 being pointless. I did exactly that and outside of a few scenarios that I specifically benchmarked and noted down, you don't notice much between them. The game loading was a tad faster I'll give it that but not by a huge margin. You definitely notice when going from SATA SSD to NVMe SSD. I'm hoping DirectStorage and Nvidia's RTX IO makes gen 4 worthwhile though I'm guessing we're still a few years from it hitting mainstream.

 What board did you go with btw? And what SSD?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 22, 2021, 11:58:34 AM
I've compiled all of the parts (save for the graphics card) and I'll be building it all over the weekend. Black Friday turned out to be rather pointless. Better to just buy it all early and not fuck with it. Nothing's been opened, and save for the case it's all local, so it's possible that I go and beat down Microcenter or Best Buy down on Friday, but I'm not expecting any price changes to make that worth while.

Wound up going with the 11700k, as I really don't see it to be much different than the comparable AMD CPU, other than $50 cheaper. They're competitive in performance, and since I'd wind up water cooling the 5800x anyway, the power draw doesn't matter to me. Also went into it looking to over-engineer the thing. High quality MoBo and PSU, and greater than necessary cooling.

PICe 4 really does seem to be pointless. While the new NVME drives post blistering performance numbers, they mean absolutely dick in the real world. Going from SATA to M2 can cut a load time from 60 seconds to 15. Going from M2 3x4 to 4x4 cuts it down to 14. In theory GPU Directstorage will better implement that, but who really knows. All of the BF deals on SSDs were for the super fast WD Black an Samsung drives, which were still twice as much as a "slower" Intel drive (with shorter MTTFs).

Doesn't look like I'll be upgrading the GPU anytime soon. Prices continue to rise, though they might taper off a bit after TG. In the meantime, various online calculators suggest that by upgrading the platform around it, I could see upwards of 100% improvement on my current card. Still won't have RT or Tensor cores (the latter is what I'm actually interested in), but I should still see an improvement to make it all worth while.

That's awesome! Agree with the gen3 to gen4 being pointless. I did exactly that and outside of a few scenarios that I specifically benchmarked and noted down, you don't notice much between them. The game loading was a tad faster I'll give it that but not by a huge margin. You definitely notice when going from SATA SSD to NVMe SSD. I'm hoping DirectStorage and Nvidia's RTX IO makes gen 4 worthwhile though I'm guessing we're still a few years from it hitting mainstream.

 What board did you go with btw? And what SSD?
MSI Z590-A Pro. It's no frills, in that it's lacking a bunch of onboard stuff that I don't need, but it's very well constructed insofar as the power supply side is concerned. Good caps, good VRMs, runs cool, and is designed to handle far greater voltage and temps than I'll ever throw at it. That's part of what I meant by over-engineering it. I also bought an AIO water cooler that actually has a fan on the water block that blows laterally across the VRMs, which is unusual (and surprisingly affordable, relative to the others). As for the SSD it's just an Intel 3x4. It cost half of what the vaunted SN850 is going for, and in a year, if it makes any difference, I can buy the SN850 for half what I spent on the Intel.

All told I'm out $817. That's from the ground up, leaving my current PC intact and running, and it should be quite robust and future proof. Like you, I was building with an eye towards getting a decade out of it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 22, 2021, 12:05:34 PM
Is your AIO the Arctic Liquid Freezer II? That's what it sounds like with the VRM fan, I have the 240 version of it.


Also wanted to mention that I'm jealous of anyone have a Microcenter close by. They have great sales all the time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 22, 2021, 12:22:50 PM
Is your AIO the Arctic Liquid Freezer II? That's what it sounds like with the VRM fan, I have the 240 version of it.


Also wanted to mention that I'm jealous of anyone have a Microcenter close by. They have great sales all the time.
Yep. Same one. The cooling is on par, or better than much more expensive ones, and the VRM fan seems to be unique. $90 for the non-LED version (my case has more than enough LEDs that I'll never turn on).

And since you own one I'll ask you: Does the MoBo control both the fan and the pump? That seems to be uncommon. Also seems like I'd want the pump running wide open all the time.

Microcenter is a blessing and a curse. They do often have the best prices, but despite being all of five minutes away, they're a nightmare to deal with. Especially once Frys started to implode. You invariably wait 10-15 minutes for an associate to get what you want, and then the same amount of time waiting in line to check out. And returns have to go through the same line. Hell, I had to park next door yesterday because their parking lot was full.  My strategy is to just go to Best Buy and haven them price match. So much more convenient.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 22, 2021, 12:34:47 PM
I believe the VRM fan/pump runs all the time when it's on. It's the radiator fans that can be controlled as it's just one connector to the board. Since you have MSI as do I, you should see an option in BIOS called Hardware Monitor or something similar that on the right side of the BIOS load menu. It has a ton of options to control fan curve, speed etc.. I left it at the default values as that worked the best I felt. I think it was called Smart PWM.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on November 22, 2021, 06:47:13 PM
Is your AIO the Arctic Liquid Freezer II? That's what it sounds like with the VRM fan, I have the 240 version of it.


Also wanted to mention that I'm jealous of anyone have a Microcenter close by. They have great sales all the time.
Yep. Same one. The cooling is on par, or better than much more expensive ones, and the VRM fan seems to be unique. $90 for the non-LED version (my case has more than enough LEDs that I'll never turn on).

And since you own one I'll ask you: Does the MoBo control both the fan and the pump? That seems to be uncommon. Also seems like I'd want the pump running wide open all the time.

Microcenter is a blessing and a curse. They do often have the best prices, but despite being all of five minutes away, they're a nightmare to deal with. Especially once Frys started to implode. You invariably wait 10-15 minutes for an associate to get what you want, and then the same amount of time waiting in line to check out. And returns have to go through the same line. Hell, I had to park next door yesterday because their parking lot was full.  My strategy is to just go to Best Buy and haven them price match. So much more convenient.
Yeah the Arctic Liquid Freezer II's are the absolute best bang for buck AIO's out there right now. I mean, there are better ones out there (sort of), but you will pay a lot more for them.

Having said all that, the best AIO I have is a Fractal Design Celsius S36 that I bought 4-ish years ago. No matter what CPU I've thrown at it I can't get the temps above about 55C no matter what I do and it will idle at close to ambient temperature. I have yet to find another that has performed as well (even another S36 that I purchased later).

I just purchased the new Fractal Design Lumen AIO to try out. We'll see how that performs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on November 23, 2021, 09:57:50 AM
Hadn't heard of those Fractal AIOs. I think the 360s tend to cool better than the 240s. From what I remember it's the amount of heat they can take away from the CPU that matters the most and larger radiators and their fans tend to do better.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on November 23, 2021, 08:30:13 PM
Hadn't heard of those Fractal AIOs. I think the 360s tend to cool better than the 240s. From what I remember it's the amount of heat they can take away from the CPU that matters the most and larger radiators and their fans tend to do better.
Actually in my experience, the 280's will cool slightly better than the 360s and quite a bit better than the 240s. Wish I could fit a 420 in my case, but I don't have room and I don't want a case that large.

At any rate, that one 360 AIO I have just seems to perform way better than anything else I've used prior or since.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 13, 2021, 10:19:50 AM
So I built my new PC over TG weekend, and got it setup and running the following weekend. Having my existing PC up and running made the whole thing far more leisurely. A few interesting things. For one, building it took quite a bit longer than I'd expected. Mostly due to learning curves along the way, and the occasional setback. Figuring out RGB headers, and mounting brackets for the AIO water cooler took a while. Moreover, it initially wouldn't boot due to a RAM error. After quite a bit of fiddling with it the suggestion that worked was to simply remove and re-seat the CPU. Problem solved, and no problems ever since.

The tales of 11th gen Intels running hot are not exaggerated. Doing actual work it runs in the low to mid 80s in my relatively cool condo. If I really cook the thing with Prime95 it'll hit 100 pretty fast with the AVX512 instruction set running. According to Intel that test represents an unrealistic 130% CPU load and shouldn't be considered. A more realistic P95 test hits the same low to mid 80s. In the Summer that's likely to hit closer to 90. At the same time, the comparable 5800x seems to run just as hot. It uses a bit less power, but it concentrates it more into a smaller location. Eventually I may replace the fans in the LFII just for my own peace of mind, but it's really not a problem.

Interestingly, I rarely notice where it seems to be a whole lot faster. I can unzip an 8gb file in about 8 seconds, which is pretty cool, but how often do you need to do that? Apps open faster, but that owes more to moving away from SATA. Data stored right in the PIC lane makes all the difference. Mostly it seems a testament to how good my old PC was. I still marvel at that thing. I also found that my old PC hadn't bottlenecked my graphics card much at all. GPU benchmarks stayed mostly the same. And insofar as the power intensive things I may regularly do, they're typically GPU based. Trying to upscale video at the CPU level takes days instead of hours, for example. One thing I didn't try is re-encoding video, my hunch is that'll be faster, but since that normally happens after the upscaling, it just hasn't come up.

This has been running with my existing GTX-1060. I just managed to buy a factory water-cooled 2080 Super for actually less than it retailed for, so that'll be happening this coming up weekend. I suspect that will make a pretty big difference. It was more than I wanted to spend, but in this market it's was a bargain. This card is generally good for 4k on ultra, if I ever decide to bother with that, and tensor cores plus hardware encoding should make short work of video editing. Over all I'm optimistic that this will still be well performing in 2031, which was my goal.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 13, 2021, 01:39:39 PM
Nice, and that 2080 will be a nice upgade over the 1060.  RTX on.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 13, 2021, 06:46:36 PM
So I built my new PC over TG weekend, and got it setup and running the following weekend. Having my existing PC up and running made the whole thing far more leisurely. A few interesting things. For one, building it took quite a bit longer than I'd expected. Mostly due to learning curves along the way, and the occasional setback. Figuring out RGB headers, and mounting brackets for the AIO water cooler took a while. Moreover, it initially wouldn't boot due to a RAM error. After quite a bit of fiddling with it the suggestion that worked was to simply remove and re-seat the CPU. Problem solved, and no problems ever since.

The tales of 11th gen Intels running hot are not exaggerated. Doing actual work it runs in the low to mid 80s in my relatively cool condo. If I really cook the thing with Prime95 it'll hit 100 pretty fast with the AVX512 instruction set running. According to Intel that test represents an unrealistic 130% CPU load and shouldn't be considered. A more realistic P95 test hits the same low to mid 80s. In the Summer that's likely to hit closer to 90. At the same time, the comparable 5800x seems to run just as hot. It uses a bit less power, but it concentrates it more into a smaller location. Eventually I may replace the fans in the LFII just for my own peace of mind, but it's really not a problem.

Interestingly, I rarely notice where it seems to be a whole lot faster. I can unzip an 8gb file in about 8 seconds, which is pretty cool, but how often do you need to do that? Apps open faster, but that owes more to moving away from SATA. Data stored right in the PIC lane makes all the difference. Mostly it seems a testament to how good my old PC was. I still marvel at that thing. I also found that my old PC hadn't bottlenecked my graphics card much at all. GPU benchmarks stayed mostly the same. And insofar as the power intensive things I may regularly do, they're typically GPU based. Trying to upscale video at the CPU level takes days instead of hours, for example. One thing I didn't try is re-encoding video, my hunch is that'll be faster, but since that normally happens after the upscaling, it just hasn't come up.

This has been running with my existing GTX-1060. I just managed to buy a factory water-cooled 2080 Super for actually less than it retailed for, so that'll be happening this coming up weekend. I suspect that will make a pretty big difference. It was more than I wanted to spend, but in this market it's was a bargain. This card is generally good for 4k on ultra, if I ever decide to bother with that, and tensor cores plus hardware encoding should make short work of video editing. Over all I'm optimistic that this will still be well performing in 2031, which was my goal.
Those temps sound like a thermal paste issue. Perhaps the thermal paste isn't making good contact all the way across the IHS. I run a 5900x with a 280mm AIO and in Prime95 I can't get it to go over 70c. Same with AIDA64 or any other stress test.

I'd also make sure the radiator fans are ramping correctly with CPU temps in the BIOS.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 13, 2021, 09:46:59 PM
So I built my new PC over TG weekend, and got it setup and running the following weekend. Having my existing PC up and running made the whole thing far more leisurely. A few interesting things. For one, building it took quite a bit longer than I'd expected. Mostly due to learning curves along the way, and the occasional setback. Figuring out RGB headers, and mounting brackets for the AIO water cooler took a while. Moreover, it initially wouldn't boot due to a RAM error. After quite a bit of fiddling with it the suggestion that worked was to simply remove and re-seat the CPU. Problem solved, and no problems ever since.

The tales of 11th gen Intels running hot are not exaggerated. Doing actual work it runs in the low to mid 80s in my relatively cool condo. If I really cook the thing with Prime95 it'll hit 100 pretty fast with the AVX512 instruction set running. According to Intel that test represents an unrealistic 130% CPU load and shouldn't be considered. A more realistic P95 test hits the same low to mid 80s. In the Summer that's likely to hit closer to 90. At the same time, the comparable 5800x seems to run just as hot. It uses a bit less power, but it concentrates it more into a smaller location. Eventually I may replace the fans in the LFII just for my own peace of mind, but it's really not a problem.

Interestingly, I rarely notice where it seems to be a whole lot faster. I can unzip an 8gb file in about 8 seconds, which is pretty cool, but how often do you need to do that? Apps open faster, but that owes more to moving away from SATA. Data stored right in the PIC lane makes all the difference. Mostly it seems a testament to how good my old PC was. I still marvel at that thing. I also found that my old PC hadn't bottlenecked my graphics card much at all. GPU benchmarks stayed mostly the same. And insofar as the power intensive things I may regularly do, they're typically GPU based. Trying to upscale video at the CPU level takes days instead of hours, for example. One thing I didn't try is re-encoding video, my hunch is that'll be faster, but since that normally happens after the upscaling, it just hasn't come up.

This has been running with my existing GTX-1060. I just managed to buy a factory water-cooled 2080 Super for actually less than it retailed for, so that'll be happening this coming up weekend. I suspect that will make a pretty big difference. It was more than I wanted to spend, but in this market it's was a bargain. This card is generally good for 4k on ultra, if I ever decide to bother with that, and tensor cores plus hardware encoding should make short work of video editing. Over all I'm optimistic that this will still be well performing in 2031, which was my goal.
Those temps sound like a thermal paste issue. Perhaps the thermal paste isn't making good contact all the way across the IHS. I run a 5900x with a 280mm AIO and in Prime95 I can't get it to go over 70c. Same with AIDA64 or any other stress test.

I'd also make sure the radiator fans are ramping correctly with CPU temps in the BIOS.
That actually sounds about right. Your 5900x runs cooler than the 5800x, much like the 11900k runs cooler than my 11700k. Also, AVX is an Intel thing. It performs some sort of mathematics much faster than anything else, but really cooks a processor. Like I said, Intel considers P95's application of AVX to be about ~130 of a normal max load. As I understand it AMD has no such thing, so the benchmarks probably won't be comparable. Also, The difference between a 280mm and a 240mm radiator is pretty significant.  That's quite a bit more surface area and will be reflected in the cooling. Everything about your setup is going to run cooler than mine, and it seems we're both running about where we should be.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 13, 2021, 10:48:36 PM
So I built my new PC over TG weekend, and got it setup and running the following weekend. Having my existing PC up and running made the whole thing far more leisurely. A few interesting things. For one, building it took quite a bit longer than I'd expected. Mostly due to learning curves along the way, and the occasional setback. Figuring out RGB headers, and mounting brackets for the AIO water cooler took a while. Moreover, it initially wouldn't boot due to a RAM error. After quite a bit of fiddling with it the suggestion that worked was to simply remove and re-seat the CPU. Problem solved, and no problems ever since.

The tales of 11th gen Intels running hot are not exaggerated. Doing actual work it runs in the low to mid 80s in my relatively cool condo. If I really cook the thing with Prime95 it'll hit 100 pretty fast with the AVX512 instruction set running. According to Intel that test represents an unrealistic 130% CPU load and shouldn't be considered. A more realistic P95 test hits the same low to mid 80s. In the Summer that's likely to hit closer to 90. At the same time, the comparable 5800x seems to run just as hot. It uses a bit less power, but it concentrates it more into a smaller location. Eventually I may replace the fans in the LFII just for my own peace of mind, but it's really not a problem.

Interestingly, I rarely notice where it seems to be a whole lot faster. I can unzip an 8gb file in about 8 seconds, which is pretty cool, but how often do you need to do that? Apps open faster, but that owes more to moving away from SATA. Data stored right in the PIC lane makes all the difference. Mostly it seems a testament to how good my old PC was. I still marvel at that thing. I also found that my old PC hadn't bottlenecked my graphics card much at all. GPU benchmarks stayed mostly the same. And insofar as the power intensive things I may regularly do, they're typically GPU based. Trying to upscale video at the CPU level takes days instead of hours, for example. One thing I didn't try is re-encoding video, my hunch is that'll be faster, but since that normally happens after the upscaling, it just hasn't come up.

This has been running with my existing GTX-1060. I just managed to buy a factory water-cooled 2080 Super for actually less than it retailed for, so that'll be happening this coming up weekend. I suspect that will make a pretty big difference. It was more than I wanted to spend, but in this market it's was a bargain. This card is generally good for 4k on ultra, if I ever decide to bother with that, and tensor cores plus hardware encoding should make short work of video editing. Over all I'm optimistic that this will still be well performing in 2031, which was my goal.
Those temps sound like a thermal paste issue. Perhaps the thermal paste isn't making good contact all the way across the IHS. I run a 5900x with a 280mm AIO and in Prime95 I can't get it to go over 70c. Same with AIDA64 or any other stress test.

I'd also make sure the radiator fans are ramping correctly with CPU temps in the BIOS.
That actually sounds about right. Your 5900x runs cooler than the 5800x, much like the 11900k runs cooler than my 11700k. Also, AVX is an Intel thing. It performs some sort of mathematics much faster than anything else, but really cooks a processor. Like I said, Intel considers P95's application of AVX to be about ~130 of a normal max load. As I understand it AMD has no such thing, so the benchmarks probably won't be comparable. Also, The difference between a 280mm and a 240mm radiator is pretty significant.  That's quite a bit more surface area and will be reflected in the cooling. Everything about your setup is going to run cooler than mine, and it seems we're both running about where we should be.
Oh, somehow I read earlier in the thread that you got a 360mm radiator  :lol Apparently my reading comprehension was terrible that day.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 14, 2021, 07:07:29 AM
So I built my new PC over TG weekend, and got it setup and running the following weekend. Having my existing PC up and running made the whole thing far more leisurely. A few interesting things. For one, building it took quite a bit longer than I'd expected. Mostly due to learning curves along the way, and the occasional setback. Figuring out RGB headers, and mounting brackets for the AIO water cooler took a while. Moreover, it initially wouldn't boot due to a RAM error. After quite a bit of fiddling with it the suggestion that worked was to simply remove and re-seat the CPU. Problem solved, and no problems ever since.

The tales of 11th gen Intels running hot are not exaggerated. Doing actual work it runs in the low to mid 80s in my relatively cool condo. If I really cook the thing with Prime95 it'll hit 100 pretty fast with the AVX512 instruction set running. According to Intel that test represents an unrealistic 130% CPU load and shouldn't be considered. A more realistic P95 test hits the same low to mid 80s. In the Summer that's likely to hit closer to 90. At the same time, the comparable 5800x seems to run just as hot. It uses a bit less power, but it concentrates it more into a smaller location. Eventually I may replace the fans in the LFII just for my own peace of mind, but it's really not a problem.

Interestingly, I rarely notice where it seems to be a whole lot faster. I can unzip an 8gb file in about 8 seconds, which is pretty cool, but how often do you need to do that? Apps open faster, but that owes more to moving away from SATA. Data stored right in the PIC lane makes all the difference. Mostly it seems a testament to how good my old PC was. I still marvel at that thing. I also found that my old PC hadn't bottlenecked my graphics card much at all. GPU benchmarks stayed mostly the same. And insofar as the power intensive things I may regularly do, they're typically GPU based. Trying to upscale video at the CPU level takes days instead of hours, for example. One thing I didn't try is re-encoding video, my hunch is that'll be faster, but since that normally happens after the upscaling, it just hasn't come up.

This has been running with my existing GTX-1060. I just managed to buy a factory water-cooled 2080 Super for actually less than it retailed for, so that'll be happening this coming up weekend. I suspect that will make a pretty big difference. It was more than I wanted to spend, but in this market it's was a bargain. This card is generally good for 4k on ultra, if I ever decide to bother with that, and tensor cores plus hardware encoding should make short work of video editing. Over all I'm optimistic that this will still be well performing in 2031, which was my goal.


I was wondering how your build went, good to know you got it up and running. I too had some learning curve regarding the AIO bracket assembly, took me a while to figure out that not all parts in that bag are needed. In the end it was a lot simpler than thought. The manual on Arctic's site is very helpful and I was made aware that for the Ryzen 5000 series there is an offset position for mounting. In my move to the SFF build I had the mount at the incorrect position and had to redo it.


Wrong offset position
(https://i.imgur.com/3wy5vPG.jpg)




Adjusted offset


(https://i.imgur.com/FDMgYio.jpg)
Amazing how big of a difference those few mm make, bringing down the temps by 10-15C and avgs to high 30s C on idle. I may actually redo the pasting again as the temps are still slightly higher (used to idle around low 30s C) than what I had before but still way better than the 5800x or 11700k. I don't know if there is a similar setup for Intel CPUs and its bracket.


The power usage and clock boost technology has changed so much, it's fun to dig into tweaking settings to maximize your CPU performance. It's a lot of tinkering that used to be reserved for the old school overclocking. Now you adjust power levels and various other power settings to give your CPU the thermal and power headroom to squeeze what you can out of it.


The 11th gen is kinda an engineering marvel of sorts by the Intel engineers as they had to backport the initial 10nm design and reconfigure it to the existing outdated 14nm design process. The fact that it could at least match 10th gen CPUs is a miracle. Reviewers mostly blasted the 11th gen release because at the time of release it was super expensive and barely offered any performance gain over the 10th gen and also used a ton more power. The only advantage it seemed to be offering was PCIe 4.0 support. But for those upgrading after a decade like yourself and waiting for the price to drop those things should be a wash.




With regards to performance the shift to NVMe does make a ton of difference, but the CPU still makes a big difference I thought. It isn't just the application load time, they work a lot faster due to the huge multithreaded gains. While the single core performance is there, you'll definitely notice it more when anything utilizes multiple cores, like compression and transcoding etc.. The 2nd gen Sandy Bridge CPUs are still a beast, I have my old 2500k still in use for misc little things and it still works great.


An interesting bit about AVX512 is that the new Zen 4 series will be supporting it while the latest 12th gen Intel CPUs are disabling it out of the box. Motherboard makers have been clever enough to dig through and enable it in BIOS to those who really need it but it's a curious move by Intel to publicly declare that Alder Lake will not be supporting AVX512. I think they want to segment it towards their Xeon line of server CPUs.


Even though I don't game much moving to 4k adds a lot of visual eye candy and IMO makes for a fun experience esp on a 32" 4k monitor.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 14, 2021, 08:47:09 AM
Amazing how big of a difference those few mm make, bringing down the temps by 10-15C and avgs to high 30s C on idle. I may actually redo the pasting again as the temps are still slightly higher (used to idle around low 30s C) than what I had before but still way better than the 5800x or 11700k. I don't know if there is a similar setup for Intel CPUs and its bracket.
Now you got me wanting to double check mine.  :lol  I'm working from memory here, but I don't think mine uses that top bracket with the offset. In fact, I can't even tell what it does. Spacers, maybe? Insofar as coolers go I tend to just think of them as binary. If they work they're making good contact. If they're not you don't even get past POST before it shuts down.

AVX has caught a lot of flack. MOBO manufactures had to include an offset to throttle it back because it's guaranteed to hit max T almost immediately. This kind of made the whole thing a wash. I'm not surprised that they're discontinuing it on consumer chips. AMD might be able to get away with it because they're already using less power to begin with. That said, properly coded applications use it sparingly enough that it shouldn't be a problem. P95 obviously ramps it up to 100, and by most accounts that's totally unrealistic.

Also, you mentioned AVX512. That's just one of three varieties of AVX, so I wonder if they've disabled the others. In my case the two lesser versions also caused it to run pretty damned hot, so 512 isn't the only culprit.

I experimented with a 4k monitor for a couple of weeks and decided it was far too much trouble. The issue is that I've got a dual monitor setup, plus my TV. Windows has never, ever been able to handle differing resolutions all that well, so anytime I launched a game or something in 4k it screwed my desktop all to hell. You'd think after all of these years they'd be able to sort that out, but in typical fashion, Windows blames graphics card manufacturers and graphics card manufacturers blame Windows. A lot of problems work that way. In the end I just bought identical monitors for the desktop and everything runs at the same HD resolution now. If I do ever go to 4k it'll only be when I can buy two new monitors and a new TV.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 14, 2021, 09:51:18 AM
Amazing how big of a difference those few mm make, bringing down the temps by 10-15C and avgs to high 30s C on idle. I may actually redo the pasting again as the temps are still slightly higher (used to idle around low 30s C) than what I had before but still way better than the 5800x or 11700k. I don't know if there is a similar setup for Intel CPUs and its bracket.

Now you got me wanting to double check mine.  :lol  I'm working from memory here, but I don't think mine uses that top bracket with the offset. In fact, I can't even tell what it does. Spacers, maybe? Insofar as coolers go I tend to just think of them as binary. If they work they're making good contact. If they're not you don't even get past POST before it shuts down.
Yeah just double-check the manual  (https://support.arctic.de/lf2-240)against the version of the cooler you have, each version looks to have some slight difference between the brackets and offsets that should make a difference in heat distribution. I've read stories about people forgetting to peel the plastic sticker off the pump and being able to use the computer albeit at very high CPU temps. So coolers have pretty high thresholds to operate, it doesn't appear that black and white.


Quote
Also, you mentioned AVX512. That's just one of three varieties of AVX, so I wonder if they've disabled the others. In my case the two lesser versions also caused it to run pretty damned hot, so 512 isn't the only culprit.

In this case it's just the AVX512 that's being disabled on Alder Lake, something to do with it not being optimized or compatible with the hybrid P and E core architecture. That hasn't stopped people from using it though.
Anandtech  (https://www.anandtech.com/show/16881/a-deep-dive-into-intels-alder-lake-microarchitectures/5)had a good write-up on it, though this was before the release
Quote

Intel’s journey with AVX-512 has been long and fragmented. Some workloads can be vectorised – multiple bits of consecutive data all require the same operation, so you can pack them into a single register and perform it all at once with a single instruction. Designed as its third generation of vector instructions (AVX is 128-bit, AVX2 is 256-bit, AVX512 is 512-bit), AVX-512 was initially found on server processors, then mobile, and we found it in the previous version of desktop processors. At the time, Intel stated that by enabling AVX-512 on its processor line from top to bottom, it would encourage greater adoption, and they were leaning hard into this missive.

But that all changes with Alder Lake. Both desktop processors and mobile processors will now have AVX-512 disabled in all scenarios. But the silicon will still be physically present in the core, only because Intel uses the same core in its next generation server processors called Sapphire Rapids. One could argue that if the AVX-512 unit was removed from the desktop cores that they would be a lot smaller, however Intel has disagreed on this point in previous launches. What it means is that for the consumer parts we have some extra dark silicon in the design, which ultimately might help thermals, or absorb defects.

But it does mean that AVX-512 is probably dead for consumers.

Intel isn’t even supporting AVX-512 with a dual-issue AVX2 mode over multiple operations - it simply won’t work on Alder Lake. If AMD’s Zen 4 processors plan to support some form of AVX-512 as has been theorized, even as dual-issue AVX2 operations, we might be in some dystopian processor environment where AMD is the only consumer processor on the market to support AVX-512.






Quote
I experimented with a 4k monitor for a couple of weeks and decided it was far too much trouble. The issue is that I've got a dual monitor setup, plus my TV. Windows has never, ever been able to handle differing resolutions all that well, so anytime I launched a game or something in 4k it screwed my desktop all to hell. You'd think after all of these years they'd be able to sort that out, but in typical fashion, Windows blames graphics card manufacturers and graphics card manufacturers blame Windows. A lot of problems work that way. In the end I just bought identical monitors for the desktop and everything runs at the same HD resolution now. If I do ever go to 4k it'll only be when I can buy two new monitors and a new TV.


In my experience, this has happened when the game insists on starting on 1080p on the main 4k monitor and then adjusts back to 4k and then proceeds to mess up the 2nd monitor setup. I have a 32" 4k along with a 28" 1080p and on games that don't do that switch, things remain just fine. But yeah it's super annoying when it happens.


Edit: I should add that apparently Windows 11 somewhat fixed this and remembers the position of the desktop on any change.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 14, 2021, 12:27:02 PM
Amazing how big of a difference those few mm make, bringing down the temps by 10-15C and avgs to high 30s C on idle. I may actually redo the pasting again as the temps are still slightly higher (used to idle around low 30s C) than what I had before but still way better than the 5800x or 11700k. I don't know if there is a similar setup for Intel CPUs and its bracket.

Now you got me wanting to double check mine.  :lol  I'm working from memory here, but I don't think mine uses that top bracket with the offset. In fact, I can't even tell what it does. Spacers, maybe? Insofar as coolers go I tend to just think of them as binary. If they work they're making good contact. If they're not you don't even get past POST before it shuts down.
Yeah just double-check the manual  (https://support.arctic.de/lf2-240)against the version of the cooler you have, each version looks to have some slight difference between the brackets and offsets that should make a difference in heat distribution. I've read stories about people forgetting to peel the plastic sticker off the pump and being able to use the computer albeit at very high CPU temps. So coolers have pretty high thresholds to operate, it doesn't appear that black and white.
Yeah, that looks about right. And since it was idling around 26 over the weekend, I suspect it's setup right. That said, I'm gonna have to dig into that thing pretty hard over the weekend to shoehorn a new 120mm radiator into my relatively small case, and I'll definitely take a look-see at the offset holes for the thumbscrews.

In truth, wrangling that new radiator in there is likely to be quite challenging. With the LFII in its stock position I couldn't fit a 120mm fan in the exhaust space, so a fan+radiator isn't likely to be any better. Seems kind of likely that I'll have to "adjust" the stock position of the 240mm rad. It'll be worth it, though. What I've kind of realized is that liquid cooled graphics cards are running cheaper right now because nobody uses them for mining, and not everybody trusts them. For somebody that just wants a graphics card for their own use right now they're kind of the way to go. And in my case it was really the only reason I bit.

Quote
In this case it's just the AVX512 that's being disabled on Alder Lake, something to do with it not being optimized or compatible with the hybrid P and E core architecture. That hasn't stopped people from using it though.
Interesting that they're not citing any issue with energy consumption and thermal properties. From what I've read that's really the reason why it's not yet practical. Under a very heavy AVX workload you essentially slow down half your processor so you can speed up the other half.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 14, 2021, 01:43:55 PM
What case do you have? I had to get a bit creative to shove the components (ATX PSU, 240mm radiator with the large ass pump, large ass 3080 FTW3 GPU and some long ass custom cables) in my small SSUPD case. I have some room to put a 90mm fan that I want to add as an intake.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 14, 2021, 02:18:46 PM
What case do you have? I had to get a bit creative to shove the components (ATX PSU, 240mm radiator with the large ass pump, large ass 3080 FTW3 GPU and some long ass custom cables) in my small SSUPD case. I have some room to put a 90mm fan that I want to add as an intake.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811353186

Overall I'm very happy with it. It was dirt cheap, easy to assemble, hides all the cables nicely, great airflow from the front, and the RGB controller is expandable. Most importantly, it had room for 3 3¼" drives (+2 2.5), which was a key criterion. The downside is that it's one inch too short. With a radiator mounted topside there's not quite enough clearance for the exhaust fan. It's not even a quarter inch short, but that still matters. Ideally I'll just move the 240 forward a bit. Don't know if there will be enough room though, and whether or not I'll have to drill new holes. The other alternative is move the 240 to the front, but I kind of hate that idea.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on December 15, 2021, 09:29:02 AM
Moving the rad to the front isn't so bad, that's how mine is now set up. Cases having space for numerous drives is getting less support nowadays. I sorta compromised when going to a small case by having everything set up externally.

I have to admit I do like the small footprint while enjoying access to all my 5 HDDs and a 4k Bluray drive plus external DAC, even with the extra units it takes up way less space than the chunky giant behemoth case I had before.


(https://i.imgur.com/qcrKF3m.jpg)

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Progmetty on January 01, 2022, 06:35:31 PM
Hey fellas! The misses birthday's coming up and I'm looking to get her a new laptop  ;D
I was looking at this one (https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VivoBook-Display-Transparent-S712UA-DS54/dp/B093RV3B2W/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8) and noticed it said "128GB PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB HDD" in the description, which I haven't seen before. Does that mean what it sounds like? There are two different type hard drives inside?
Also any feedback or recommendations are appreciated. All she does is type articles, papers and constantly leave 7,300 tabs browser tabs open. So light stuff.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on January 02, 2022, 07:04:00 AM
Yup you read that right. The OS will be installed on the SSD so navigating through Windows will be quick and then you have the HDD for additional storage. This is most likely due to the manufacturer trying to hit a certain price point with the laptop. 1TB NCMe SSD's can still be a bit pricy.

Honestly from the use case I would say that's fine. She'll probably have something like 90gb's left on that SSD which if you're not gaming or downloading a ton of media it'll be more than fine.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 05, 2022, 10:44:53 AM
I just realised that my i7 cpu that I bought in 2013 is almost 10 years old. Kinda proud that it's still running fairly smooth despite all the heavy games I run. I really don't want my PC to explode in this trying times though.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 07, 2022, 08:39:25 AM
I think around that year esp with the release of Sandy Bridge CPUs in 2011 is when they all became these tanks that you could abuse for years on end. Even though I upgraded my system after (ab)using it for a decade I handed my i5 2500k to my daughter and it runs perfectly fine.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 07, 2022, 08:47:44 AM
Yeah, my old I7 is in my spare PC of my old parts.  Still works well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 07, 2022, 12:15:00 PM
Interesting, yea I remember a time where I changed components fairly often. Basically the only thing I upgraded since 2013 is my GPU, display and added some SSDs.

Although I guess nowdays changing a gpu is about 60% of the cost of a new PC or something.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 07, 2022, 01:00:08 PM
Interesting, yea I remember a time where I changed components fairly often. Basically the only thing I upgraded since 2013 is my GPU, display and added some SSDs.

Although I guess nowdays changing a gpu is about 60% of the cost of a new PC or something.
You'd think that, but not really. I was kind of unprepared for just how many other things I'd need to replace when I did mine. While my GPU was the most expensive component by far, the cost of buying everything new again adds up quickly. Things like aftermarket coolers, which are necessary now. I went from (I think) DDR2 to DDR 4, and DDR5 is a thing now, so there's another $80. I had a very good quality PSU, but it damn sure wasn't made for modern CPU/GPU. In the end it was probably more like 40/60 the other way, and I spent big money on the GPU. 

And along that PSU line, mine is the computer that keeps on costing. My UPS has been squawking at me of late. Now I'm gonna have to drop another bill on that. it never ends.  :lol

Interestingly, I plugged it into my Kill-a-watt for curiosity's sake, and doing absolutely nothing but showing the desktop the thing idles at ~95w. I was kind of surprised by that. Looks like I'm going to have to embrace some kind of sleep mode going forward, which I've always resisted.  Just to experiment I ran Cinebench and Heaven alongside one another and cracked >600W almost immediately, causing the UPS to cut off instantly. That's not a realistic load, by any means, but it's certainly evidence of what it's capable of.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 07, 2022, 01:15:43 PM
And now for something completely different. Does anybody here use a HTPC? Or perhaps use a computer to stream music through a nice stereo? Part of me wants to repurpose my old computer, which is almost entirely intact, as an HTPC. At the same time I was never happy trying to get high quality audio out of it. Simply too many things wanting to get involved in the signal path. VLC or Winamp both process your audio file. Windows processes that, and then passes it off to the sound card (or in most cases now the video card's HDMI out) to move it along to the pre-amp. I'm curious what other people with an ear towards sound quality are doing to get good tunes out of their PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 07, 2022, 01:54:06 PM
And now for something completely different. Does anybody here use a HTPC? Or perhaps use a computer to stream music through a nice stereo? Part of me wants to repurpose my old computer, which is almost entirely intact, as an HTPC. At the same time I was never happy trying to get high quality audio out of it. Simply too many things wanting to get involved in the signal path. VLC or Winamp both process your audio file. Windows processes that, and then passes it off to the sound card (or in most cases now the video card's HDMI out) to move it along to the pre-amp. I'm curious what other people with an ear towards sound quality are doing to get good tunes out of their PC.

Even though I don't use it that often, I have setup Plex with some of my music on FLAC. It sounded pretty good to me. I didn't need to do anything to the files, just rip them from the CD, point Plex server that music exists here and then whatever device I use (phone, TV, Tablet, etc..) they all sounded pretty good. I think the Plex server audio setup is quite good, though I haven't messed with it in great detail.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on February 07, 2022, 03:29:44 PM
I just have all my music ripped to a 6T NAS on my home network. I've stored it at the resolution that sounds good to me (320 kbps at 16 bit), but I certainly could have ripped it all in FLAC if I wanted to. Then, whatever device (primarily the Denon in our HT, and the Yamaha whole home stereo) is attached to the network can access the NAS for music playback. It's worked out well and sounds great.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 07, 2022, 03:44:42 PM
I just have all my music ripped to a 6T NAS on my home network. I've stored it at the resolution that sounds good to me (320 kbps at 16 bit), but I certainly could have ripped it all in FLAC if I wanted to. Then, whatever device (primarily the Denon in our HT, and the Yamaha whole home stereo) is attached to the network can access the NAS for music playback. It's worked out well and sounds great.
That's actually how I'm considering doing it. My pre-amp is a little old, so it's kind of limited in that regard, though. No WiFi and limited OSD. But it has the main advantage of being as direct a line as I can get between the file and the speakers, with only the receiver's DAC monkeying with the 0s and 1s, which is really what I'm after.

I've been using an Android STB, and it actually works alright. It's just wonky trying to access TBs of media. It has the advantage of consolidating audio and video, though, which is something else I'd like--hence the HTPC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Stadler on February 07, 2022, 03:48:20 PM
I'm going to be doing something similar to Faizoff. I'm already up to "W" in my rip effort (next up, The Who!).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on February 07, 2022, 06:42:37 PM
And now for something completely different. Does anybody here use a HTPC? Or perhaps use a computer to stream music through a nice stereo? Part of me wants to repurpose my old computer, which is almost entirely intact, as an HTPC. At the same time I was never happy trying to get high quality audio out of it. Simply too many things wanting to get involved in the signal path. VLC or Winamp both process your audio file. Windows processes that, and then passes it off to the sound card (or in most cases now the video card's HDMI out) to move it along to the pre-amp. I'm curious what other people with an ear towards sound quality are doing to get good tunes out of their PC.

Even though I don't use it that often, I have setup Plex with some of my music on FLAC. It sounded pretty good to me. I didn't need to do anything to the files, just rip them from the CD, point Plex server that music exists here and then whatever device I use (phone, TV, Tablet, etc..) they all sounded pretty good. I think the Plex server audio setup is quite good, though I haven't messed with it in great detail.
This is the way to go. Plex is great for playing music, both locally and remotely. I built a server PC specifically for Plex with 8tb of storage space to host all my music. The majority of my music (from CDs) is in lossless 44/16-bit FLAC format. My vinyl that I ripped is in 192/24-bit FLAC. It all sounds great, whether through my Denon amp on my home system, or through my headphone amp and Denon headphones, or even streaming through my Android phone in my car. As long as you have the internet speed to remotely stream the FLAC files. Or you can always have your Plex server transcode it to something smaller for remote streaming, like OPUS 256k.

 If all you are doing is streaming music from it a CPU with at least 4 threads is all you need and at least 16 gigs of ram. If you want to stream movies and tv shows with Plex, I recommend throwing in a mid to lower end Nvidia GPU so it can take advantage of NVENC encoder.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 08, 2022, 07:21:14 AM

And along that PSU line, mine is the computer that keeps on costing. My UPS has been squawking at me of late. Now I'm gonna have to drop another bill on that. it never ends.  :lol

Interestingly, I plugged it into my Kill-a-watt for curiosity's sake, and doing absolutely nothing but showing the desktop the thing idles at ~95w. I was kind of surprised by that. Looks like I'm going to have to embrace some kind of sleep mode going forward, which I've always resisted.  Just to experiment I ran Cinebench and Heaven alongside one another and cracked >600W almost immediately, causing the UPS to cut off instantly. That's not a realistic load, by any means, but it's certainly evidence of what it's capable of.

That is similar to what happened with me, my UPS wasn't able to take the full load on my new system and I had to upgrade. If I remember, the old UPS had a total capacity of just 450W and I had plugged my monitors too. It could support the system on idle but when I played games or did anything CPU intensive the UPS would scream. I then bought a CyberPower 1500VA Sine Wave UPS  (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpower-1500va-sine-wave-battery-back-up-system-black/6408459.p?skuId=6408459)that supports up to 900W and now everything is just grand. I had bought mine for $150 and now it looks like even that they've hiked the price to oblivion.


This UPS has a display and you can check the wattage being drawn, I don't think I've ever seen it go over 550W with everything plugged in. I should run Cinebench and Heaven like you and see what the max draw is. Then again your CPU probably has a much higher draw and that by itself will skew the numbers higher.


Interesting, yea I remember a time where I changed components fairly often. Basically the only thing I upgraded since 2013 is my GPU, display and added some SSDs.


Same for me, SSDs and HDDs were the only things I was adding or replacing. Everything else that was purchased in 2011 (CPU, GPU, RAM, Mobo, etc..) remained the same
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 08, 2022, 08:23:26 AM

And along that PSU line, mine is the computer that keeps on costing. My UPS has been squawking at me of late. Now I'm gonna have to drop another bill on that. it never ends.  :lol

Interestingly, I plugged it into my Kill-a-watt for curiosity's sake, and doing absolutely nothing but showing the desktop the thing idles at ~95w. I was kind of surprised by that. Looks like I'm going to have to embrace some kind of sleep mode going forward, which I've always resisted.  Just to experiment I ran Cinebench and Heaven alongside one another and cracked >600W almost immediately, causing the UPS to cut off instantly. That's not a realistic load, by any means, but it's certainly evidence of what it's capable of.

That is similar to what happened with me, my UPS wasn't able to take the full load on my new system and I had to upgrade. If I remember, the old UPS had a total capacity of just 450W and I had plugged my monitors too. It could support the system on idle but when I played games or did anything CPU intensive the UPS would scream. I then bought a CyberPower 1500VA Sine Wave UPS  (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpower-1500va-sine-wave-battery-back-up-system-black/6408459.p?skuId=6408459)that supports up to 900W and now everything is just grand. I had bought mine for $150 and now it looks like even that they've hiked the price to oblivion.


This UPS has a display and you can check the wattage being drawn, I don't think I've ever seen it go over 550W with everything plugged in. I should run Cinebench and Heaven like you and see what the max draw is. Then again your CPU probably has a much higher draw and that by itself will skew the numbers higher.
As I recall you've got a pretty high end Ryzen. From what I gathered the actual power draw isn't terribly dissimilar. Intel's 11th gen was notorious for being an energy hog, but of course all things are relative.

I did a bit more testing last night, and what I found is that the CPU pulls about 220 and the GPU 250 under load, and there's another 80 in overhead idling (two water pumps, 5 fans, 5 drives, one monitor, system). Six hundred's what it can top out at, and that's under circumstances that should never really happen IRL. Games tend to rely heavily on one or the other, so while they'll both be active neither of them should be maxed out. And even then, maxed out in real life applications is very different than maxed out using synthetic benchmarks.  My numbers jibed with online PSU calculators that suggest 520 watts to be about right.

My old UPS is only 350, which was fine with that Sandy Lake.  :lol

The thing that's always pissed me off is that UPSs seem to be design limited. APC is particularly bad about designed failure. I'm not an engineer, but it sure seems that the total capacity of the battery shouldn't matter when it's getting line power. A beep to let me know that it can't support the system in its current state would be sufficient. Moreover, if a battery fails you should still be able to use them as surge protectors, and often times the whole unit will brick itself once the battery is toast. I've always found them to be exemplary of the shittier aspects of capitalism.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 08, 2022, 09:32:16 AM
I just checked and my old UPS was just 360 W so yeah it's going to fail miserably under high loads. I just ran a few quick tests on Cinebench R23 multi core and the CPU-Z bench stress test along with Heaven and it looks like the UPS shows a draw of ~625W.

Using HWiNFO64 my CPU max draw shows 128W while the GPU tops out at a crazy 370W, I'm assuming the rest of the several USB devices and dual monitors are pulling in the rest. Though idle load is mostly around ~200W.

You are right about the actual power draw being a wash really, at least for the system I configured. So my Ryzen 9 5950x plus RTX 3080 ends up pulling the same as yours with the i7 11700K and RTX 2080 super give or take with the rest.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 08, 2022, 09:46:30 AM
I just checked and my old UPS was just 360 W so yeah it's going to fail miserably under high loads. I just ran a few quick tests on Cinebench R23 multi core and the CPU-Z bench stress test along with Heaven and it looks like the UPS shows a draw of ~625W.

Using HWiNFO64 my CPU max draw shows 128W while the GPU tops out at a crazy 370W, I'm assuming the rest of the several USB devices and dual monitors are pulling in the rest. Though idle load is mostly around ~200W.

You are right about the actual power draw being a wash really, at least for the system I configured. So my Ryzen 9 5950x plus RTX 3080 ends up pulling the same as yours with the i7 11700K and RTX 2080 super give or take with the rest.
That's quite interesting. The power draws are coming from different places, but even out. Your CPU is pulling 100w less (which surprises me, because the TDW is nearly the same), and your GPU pulls 100w more (which also surprises me). What I'd be curious to learn is what your real world consumption is. What gaming or application work hits it the hardest, and how hard is that? As we know, it's rare for something to really hammer both processors, and synthetic benchmarks are worst case scenarios. I was going to download MS-FS2020 last night, as that's a pretty balanced CPU/GPU load, from what I gather, but it won't run without being connected to Redmond, and I'm not interested enough to fork over $60.

Also, your 200w idle is insane. That leads me to believe that it's all from showing the desktop since it's about 100w different from mine. I hate sleep mode in almost all of its forms, but it sounds like shutting the monitors down might cut that idle consumption dramatically. I'll be checking into that this evening.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Phoenix87x on July 30, 2022, 05:27:00 AM
So I just got a new laptop and it had me thinking about how to cycle the battery in the most efficient way.

Anybody know how low the battery percent should be before recharging? I've been just waiting for it to say battery low, but I read stuff like this:

https://dillonstechguide.com/at-what-percentage-should-i-charge-my-macbook-pro-the-facts/

where they recommend to charge it at 25% and unplug it at 85%  :huh:

Anybody know what the deal is?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on July 30, 2022, 06:53:59 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think full power cycles are necessary with new batteries anymore. On my laptop I have a setting that will only allow the laptop to charge to 85% to conserve its life longer.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Phoenix87x on July 30, 2022, 06:05:56 PM
That's interesting. I'm gonna have to check that out.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on July 30, 2022, 06:53:58 PM
So I just got a new laptop and it had me thinking about how to cycle the battery in the most efficient way.

Anybody know how low the battery percent should be before recharging? I've been just waiting for it to say battery low, but I read stuff like this:

https://dillonstechguide.com/at-what-percentage-should-i-charge-my-macbook-pro-the-facts/ (https://dillonstechguide.com/at-what-percentage-should-i-charge-my-macbook-pro-the-facts/)

where they recommend to charge it at 25% and unplug it at 85%  :huh:

Anybody know what the deal is?


I think I had read this strategy around 2017-2018 and those batteries showed the best results with those guidelines. LIke Reaper said I don't know if it's true for new batteries anymore. I gave up doing that after not seeing any meaningful results. I don't think it hurts to try.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2022, 09:18:19 AM
Welp, my C drive is completely full somehow and totally making windows broken and there's apparently no files for me to delete?  I don't even install anything on my C drive.  Oh well.  Time for a complete windows re-install.  My audio got corrupted on Windows as well (this happened once before).  Going to be a long day of rebuilding the OS and re-installing/personalizing the computer all day.  I guess no better day than a day working from home to do it. I just get a bit on the edge of my seat doing this because I have so much data and I don't want to get myself locked out of gaming on a friday night.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 19, 2022, 09:44:43 AM
Welp, my C drive is completely full somehow and totally making windows broken and there's apparently no files for me to delete?  I don't even install anything on my C drive.  Oh well.  Time for a complete windows re-install.  My audio got corrupted on Windows as well (this happened once before).  Going to be a long day of rebuilding the OS and re-installing/personalizing the computer all day.  I guess no better day than a day working from home to do it. I just get a bit on the edge of my seat doing this because I have so much data and I don't want to get myself locked out of gaming on a friday night.
Why not just spend $50 on an external drive and move a bunch of stuff off of it? If nothing else that'll give you breathing room to install a second drive without having to reinstall Windows.

edit: Oh, and check to see if you don't have 800gb of game saves in your documents folder.   :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2022, 09:51:25 AM
Welp, my C drive is completely full somehow and totally making windows broken and there's apparently no files for me to delete?  I don't even install anything on my C drive.  Oh well.  Time for a complete windows re-install.  My audio got corrupted on Windows as well (this happened once before).  Going to be a long day of rebuilding the OS and re-installing/personalizing the computer all day.  I guess no better day than a day working from home to do it. I just get a bit on the edge of my seat doing this because I have so much data and I don't want to get myself locked out of gaming on a friday night.
Why not just spend $50 on an external drive and move a bunch of stuff off of it? If nothing else that'll give you breathing room to install a second drive without having to reinstall Windows.

edit: Oh, and check to see if you don't have 800gb of game saves in your documents folder.   :lol

Oh I have 2x 4TB drives almost completely full of data (not porn! but all my concert video files take up a lot of space) so the external drive is an expensive option.  I will eventually need a NAS set up for all this data, but that's not today's problem.  I just disconnected all the drives from my motherboard to avoid the installation somehow messing with them (it shouldn't, but a precaution).

As for the games, they were all installed on a seperate NVME drive so they weren't the cause.  I'm pretty sure it was Adobe Photoshop using my C drive as scrap space for projects and I was not sure how to find/delete those files. (I changed the scrap space folder to the NVMe after noticing this)  It wouldn't fix my audio issue though so it was a double problem for me. 

Windows is already re-installed now and the audio issue is now fixed it seems (I can use my headphones again AND switch to my speakers).  Somehow when I connected my new speakers to my PC, it corrupted my windows audio settings making my Razer headphones not work as well as playing MP3 files.  Yet youtube or gaming audio worked.  Whatever, stupid windows!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on August 19, 2022, 10:06:31 AM
I use a program called WizTree to see where all my big files are on the drive. It's how I saw that I have 500 GB of games installed that I  haven't played.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 19, 2022, 10:47:56 AM
For me it's never the games, but the saves (stored on the C drive). Depending on the game, saves can bloat up to decent sized files, and it's easy to rack up 500 of them for a game you stopped playing ages ago.

Oh I have 2x 4TB drives almost completely full of data (not porn! but all my concert video files take up a lot of space) so the external drive is an expensive option.  I will eventually need a NAS set up for all this data, but that's not today's problem.  I just disconnected all the drives from my motherboard to avoid the installation somehow messing with them (it shouldn't, but a precaution).
When you upgrade your storage be sure and look for CMR drives, rather than the ubiquitous SMRs. I don't care what WD says, SMR sucks ass. It's worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks to go old school. WD Red Pro is about the only way to go now, and I think I paid $120 for a 6TB drive last time around.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on August 19, 2022, 12:38:22 PM
Cool, I'll have to remember. I don't plan on going NAS anytime soon. I have let's say "options" from things that can go missing from work. But I have some 2TB SSDs I'm using now.

In any news. Windows has reinstalled and I added back all my drives without data loss or issues. And my audio issue is now fixed.

A much needed refresh but I get so anxious doing complete reinstalls. So weird though how my audio got screwed like that
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on August 20, 2022, 09:40:36 AM
For me it's never the games, but the saves (stored on the C drive). Depending on the game, saves can bloat up to decent sized files, and it's easy to rack up 500 of them for a game you stopped playing ages ago.

Oh I have 2x 4TB drives almost completely full of data (not porn! but all my concert video files take up a lot of space) so the external drive is an expensive option.  I will eventually need a NAS set up for all this data, but that's not today's problem.  I just disconnected all the drives from my motherboard to avoid the installation somehow messing with them (it shouldn't, but a precaution).
When you upgrade your storage be sure and look for CMR drives, rather than the ubiquitous SMRs. I don't care what WD says, SMR sucks ass. It's worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks to go old school. WD Red Pro is about the only way to go now, and I think I paid $120 for a 6TB drive last time around.

SMR is fine in some circumstances, so long as the system knows its an SMR drive. I've been using Seagate barracuda NAS drives in the small servers I admin for work and they have performed pretty admirally.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on August 20, 2022, 09:55:36 AM
For me it's never the games, but the saves (stored on the C drive). Depending on the game, saves can bloat up to decent sized files, and it's easy to rack up 500 of them for a game you stopped playing ages ago.

Oh I have 2x 4TB drives almost completely full of data (not porn! but all my concert video files take up a lot of space) so the external drive is an expensive option.  I will eventually need a NAS set up for all this data, but that's not today's problem.  I just disconnected all the drives from my motherboard to avoid the installation somehow messing with them (it shouldn't, but a precaution).
When you upgrade your storage be sure and look for CMR drives, rather than the ubiquitous SMRs. I don't care what WD says, SMR sucks ass. It's worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks to go old school. WD Red Pro is about the only way to go now, and I think I paid $120 for a 6TB drive last time around.

SMR is fine in some circumstances, so long as the system knows its an SMR drive. I've been using Seagate barracuda NAS drives in the small servers I admin for work and they have performed pretty admirally.
In some circumstances they'll work alright, but I still have issues with their longterm reliability. The problem is that since they're designed with capacity in mind you want to use them for archival purposes, and the long writes necessary for that are their Achilles heal. The first thing out of the box you immediately set out to copy 600gb to one and they choke something awful. It only gets worse from there. And at least in the case of WD portable passport drives, it seems like they stop caching after a year or two, and an SMR without the CMR cache is a paperweight. Oddly, it seems the people most pissed off about them are the people using NAS, and they should work fine for that. Lots of short writes across many different drives.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on August 20, 2022, 10:23:19 AM
The problem with using them with NAS was that some drives that used what's called Device Managed SMR, which meant that to the OS and Storage controllers it appeared as an CMR device and would accept standard write commands which the drive would then internally convert into an SMR compatible operation. And this ended up absolutely killing write performance when used alongside standard CMR NAS drives in RAID or ZFS configurations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aztTf2gI55k

Host managed SMR on the other hand is more predictable in its behaviour, and if you are only using a single drive or a couple in a RAID 1 they should be fine so long as you are happy sacrificing some performance for single drive capacity. When it comes to long term reliability I don't hold much stock in individual experience as it could quite easily just be you got a drive from a bad batch.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaPsTA on August 20, 2022, 10:30:31 AM
(https://cdn.frankerfacez.com/emoticon/218530/4)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 14, 2022, 04:08:06 PM
That's pretty cool
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 16, 2022, 07:22:45 PM
In a surprise move, EVGA today announced they will no longer be making any Nvidia GPUs, looks like they're pulling out from the GPU market completely. That's a real shame, their FTW3 lineup has been fantastic and the 3080 FTW3 card I bought has been great so far.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 16, 2022, 07:25:24 PM
I saw that this morning and I was shocked. I love my evga cards and it's a bummer they are pulling out of the gpu market.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 16, 2022, 07:55:49 PM
Well that's just great.....now what brand GPU am I supposed to buy? Gigabyte and MSI are trash GPUs, Asus is overpriced, Zotac is laughably bad and overpriced. Then there's Gainward, Galax, Colorful, PNY, etc etc, but most of those you can't even get in the United States, and some of the others are just cheaply built and overpriced... :tdwn
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on September 16, 2022, 08:15:24 PM
I bought my first EVGA recently (3070 XC3) and have been happy with it so far outside one very minor issue. In Australia they are pretty cheap despite being a good manufacturer because they don't really have much presence/awareness here.

This really sucks because as you say, the options are now a lot more limited. Asus/MSI can probably put their prices up even more now that EVGA is out of the picture, and I would never buy Gigabyte or any of the lesser brands' GPUs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 16, 2022, 08:55:17 PM
Asus appears to be the best next alternative from what I've seen even though they're overpriced. The top tier models of MSI are a good option too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 16, 2022, 09:48:00 PM
What else does EVGA actually do? They've been the gold standard for graphics cards for 15 years. I've owned plenty of them. Can't think of any other EVGA products I've owned.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 16, 2022, 10:02:28 PM
Motherboards and PSU which I believe is their biggest profit margin.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 16, 2022, 10:09:53 PM
Motherboards and PSU which I believe is their biggest profit margin.
PSUs. Forgot all about that, and I probably have bought a few of them. They've never even been on the radar insofar as MoBos are concerned. It's actually interesting if MoBos offer a better profit margin than graphics cards. In both cases the greatest expense is going to be licensing. You'd expect there to be more palms to grease assembling all the compnents for a MoBo than simply paying off NVIDIA for their GPUs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 17, 2022, 08:04:53 AM
They've been known for their high end boards for a while. They were exclusive to Intel for a while but now have Ryzen boards too.

I've read their accessories like keyboards and mice are really great.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 20, 2022, 10:47:24 AM
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/20/23362653/nvidia-rtx-4080-4090-price-release-date

Christ, those prices.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 20, 2022, 10:54:19 AM
Yeah insane prices for sure, surprised they are releasing the $1600 4090 first. I somehow doubt the demand is that high at those prices this time round.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 20, 2022, 11:31:10 AM
With Ethereum mining dead I can't see these selling to the average PC enthusiast at that price. Could buy 2 pcs for that price!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 20, 2022, 12:03:33 PM
While impressive I'm going to skip the 40 series I think. I only bought the 3080 because I was able to sell my 2080 for $120 less than what I paid for the 3080. I don't have a 4k monitor nor play any games that even push my 3080 as is.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 20, 2022, 12:05:11 PM
While impressive I'm going to skip the 40 series I think. I only bought the 3080 because I was able to sell my 2080 for $120 less than what I paid for the 3080. I don't have a 4k monitor nor play any games that even push my 3080 as is.

Same, I don't game in 4k and my 3070 is just fine.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 20, 2022, 12:27:23 PM
I have a decent 4k monitor and man the difference between 1080 and 4k gaming is legit.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 20, 2022, 05:50:56 PM
I have a decent 4k monitor and man the difference between 1080 and 4k gaming is legit.
Not exactly 4k, but I'm running dual 3440x1440 ultrawide monitors. Pushes my 3080 pretty good.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 15, 2022, 03:30:06 PM
Man the seizes of some of third party 4090s are just ridiculous. The performance boost compared to last gen seems to be amazing though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on October 16, 2022, 05:24:12 AM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on October 26, 2022, 07:05:34 AM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.

I hadn't heard anything. In what way did they handle it poorly.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 26, 2022, 08:09:56 AM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.

I hadn't heard anything. In what way did they handle it poorly.

My issue is I've historically liked EVGA graphics cards and EVGA dropped out of doing business with Nvidia and specifically blamed it on Nvidia's business practices.  I think there's more than just that though, but that stood out to me.

Luckily, with my 3070 I really have no need to upgrade to this series.  I'm more likely going to need to build a new PC in a couple years anyway to be able to support the future tech. Considering the space and power needed.  Also, my CPU will soon become the bottleneck (it may already technically be, but I'm not having performance issues for it to matter). 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on October 31, 2022, 10:54:56 AM
Yea I think I need to upgrade 90% of my PC to even run a 4090 let alone fit my case. My PC is starting to get a bit old and it's the longest time i've waited to upgrade for various reasons.
If my PC dies tomorrow i'm not sure I could afford a new one, not a decent gaming rig atleast.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on October 31, 2022, 01:24:57 PM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.

I hadn't heard anything. In what way did they handle it poorly.

You've seen the prices right?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on November 01, 2022, 07:01:56 AM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.

I hadn't heard anything. In what way did they handle it poorly.

You've seen the prices right?

Yes, and again I ask, in what way did they handle it poorly?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on November 04, 2022, 02:01:56 AM
AMD has caught my attention, we'll see what kind of performance you get later but the price is a bit more humane than Nvidia atleast.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on November 04, 2022, 03:40:23 AM
I'll be honest, nvidia has really soured me with how they have handled the 40 series and its launch, and I'm in no hurry to reward that kind of greedy behaviour.

I hadn't heard anything. In what way did they handle it poorly.

You've seen the prices right?

Yes, and again I ask, in what way did they handle it poorly?

The exorbitant price increases strike me as taking the piss.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on November 04, 2022, 08:28:54 AM
I said a year ago that the ridiculous prices we were seeing during the big shortage were here to stay, and it seems I was correct. Once the manufacturers saw what the market would support going back to pre-shortage prices wasn't likely. When people were lining up to pay $1200 for $800 cards they took notice. Seems to me that the problem is timing. They created a huge push for the 3000 series not too long ago as this massive improvement. A year later they're pushing cards that massively outperform them. If I paid $1400 for a 3090TI I'd be kind of bent out of shape about it.

Fuck yeah, capitalism!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on November 04, 2022, 08:31:24 AM
But with crypto mining coming to a slow down, I wonder if they miscalculated the demand ontop of what you stated about the 3000 series.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 28, 2023, 08:30:31 PM
Took the plunge into the high refresh arena with a Dell 34" 144Hz Ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor to pair with my LG 32" 4k monitor.

This thing is sweet.


(https://imgur.com/2bNeui9.jpg)




(https://imgur.com/hXo7nGN.jpg)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 01, 2023, 08:10:22 AM
Nice!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on March 01, 2023, 11:38:37 AM
Back in December I got into Unreal Engine development, so now I'm seriously considering an upgrade to a Ryzen 7950x (possibly the new x3d version), an RTX 4090, and 128gb of ram. Should "only" cost about $3200. :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on March 01, 2023, 02:05:11 PM
Took the plunge into the high refresh arena with a Dell 34" 144Hz Ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor to pair with my LG 32" 4k monitor.

This thing is sweet.


(https://imgur.com/2bNeui9.jpg)



(https://imgur.com/hXo7nGN.jpg)

 :tup

Oh I miss having a second monitor. Mine stopped working last year and I haven't had the time or money to fix a new one. My PC is also kinda old by today's standard so running anything over 1080 might be a death sentence for my GPU.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on March 01, 2023, 03:18:58 PM
Back in December I got into Unreal Engine development, so now I'm seriously considering an upgrade to a Ryzen 7950x (possibly the new x3d version), an RTX 4090, and 128gb of ram. Should "only" cost about $3200. :lol

I downloaded the engine with the Matrix sample, all in all I think it was something like 200 GB. I got bored of it pretty quick then again I had no clue what I was doing in setting the environment etc.. With those specs it should crush it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on June 16, 2023, 10:05:29 PM
After 15 years looks like Intel's dropping the 'i' naming convention. The new CPUs will now be known as Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7. The higher end ones will have Ultra to the name so it'll be Core 5 Ultra. Ultra series will be the only ones that have a Core 9 series. If I'm not mistaken the new generation of Intel CPUs (14th gen) are fabbed by TSMC and is again a new design. Interesting to see how they catch up with AMD in terms of efficiency and power draw. AMD's last 3-4 generations in the desktop market as well as the server market has been killing it with lower power draw and higher performance. They definitely made a dent in the server market that used to be Intel's bread and butter.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Anguyen92 on June 26, 2023, 02:43:32 PM
So I'm looking for a small mini-screen monitor (around 7"-10") to connect to my computer for watching either Twitch streams or hockey games on this monitor while doing full-screen gaming on my main monitor and I'm not sure where to start looking for something like this.  Would not want to splurge like crazy on something like this (under $75.00 including tax and shipping would be the ideal price for something like this).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on June 27, 2023, 10:00:17 AM
Any reason you want the monitor to be so small? Why not just get a cheap second hand monitor off ebay? There's plenty of ex office stock available for cheap.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on June 27, 2023, 10:09:40 AM
Yeah at that size you could just get an old ipad or something similar too and be mobile with it instead of a stand alone super small monitor.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on June 27, 2023, 10:23:19 AM
Yeah, I don't get the small monitor, either.

What I will suggest is making sure the native resolution of whatever the new monitor is matches the existing one. Having multiple resolutions can do strange stuff with Windows.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on September 20, 2023, 11:25:33 PM
I am working on convincing myself I need a new computer. I probably do not need one, but mine has been crashing periodically, and I just saw Steam will soon stop running on Win7, which is what I have. I bought this machine in... checking... 2009. Plus I haven't bought anything gadget-y for myself in ages. I have been doing some research and half the time I don't even know what I am reading. I end up having to look up terms I've never encountered before.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 21, 2023, 12:19:53 AM
I am working on convincing myself I need a new computer. I probably do not need one, but mine has been crashing periodically, and I just saw Steam will soon stop running on Win7, which is what I have. I bought this machine in... checking... 2009. Plus I haven't bought anything gadget-y for myself in ages. I have been doing some research and half the time I don't even know what I am reading. I end up having to look up terms I've never encountered before.
Budget? Software and games you will be running?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 21, 2023, 03:38:53 AM
And will you also need a screen/keyboard etc?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 04:14:48 AM
I am working on convincing myself I need a new computer. I probably do not need one, but mine has been crashing periodically, and I just saw Steam will soon stop running on Win7, which is what I have. I bought this machine in... checking... 2009. Plus I haven't bought anything gadget-y for myself in ages. I have been doing some research and half the time I don't even know what I am reading. I end up having to look up terms I've never encountered before.

The possibilities are endless!

but like mentioned, settle on a budget and go from there. These days the main components are very capable and performant. Are you building this yourself?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 08:05:58 AM
Aside from crashing all the time, and the Steam thing, does it do what you want it to do? Since you've got Steam you presumably play a couple of games. Does it run them adequately? As I understand it, W11 is right out without a new build, but simply updating to W10 will solve both of the problems you've mentioned, and will only set you back $100-150.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 21, 2023, 08:32:15 AM
Speaking of, are people here using Windows 11?  I haven't upgraded and don't really want to.  My one friend has nothing but issues since he upgraded with games crashing.  Could be another issue, who knows with this friend, but I haven't actually read or heard anything positive that I can recall from W11.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 08:40:26 AM
Speaking of, are people here using Windows 11?  I haven't upgraded and don't really want to.  My one friend has nothing but issues since he upgraded with games crashing.  Could be another issue, who knows with this friend, but I haven't actually read or heard anything positive that I can recall from W11.
It's unlikely I'll upgrade until it's to Win13 or 14, and only then after it's well established. I make it a point to be the last onboard with OS "upgrades," and I normally skip one or two of them. There's also the fact that, as I understand it, I'll need new hardware to move up, and that's hopefully another 8 years or so. Lastly, everything works right now. Everything looks the way I want it. Everything's laid out the way I want it. I've got Macrium backups saved off to a spare HDD. I don't want to spend two years trying to get a new OS where I want it.

Hell, the hardest part for me is keeping my W10 machines from upgrading themselves while I sleep. I'm scared that one of the machines at work will update itself and then propagate through the network to update everybody else, like Skynet.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 21, 2023, 08:42:42 AM
Yea, I've been using it on my main gaming rig since public launch. It's really Win 10.5. It fixes a ton of annoying things that I had to deal with window 10 such as audio switching. HDR support is way better and a lot of the QOL improvements are nice like tabbed file explorer.

I haven't experienced any crashing, slowdowns, or weirdness with Win 11 (current specs are i9-9900k + 3080). Did your buddy upgrade or do a full format to win 11?

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 21, 2023, 08:47:52 AM
I've been using it since launch, too. All fine here.

It's worth it just for the win+alt+b HDR shortcut for me. Or has that been added to Windows 10 now?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 21, 2023, 08:49:09 AM
I only discovered win+alt+b a few weeks ago :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 08:58:00 AM
Yea, I've been using it on my main gaming rig since public launch. It's really Win 10.5. It fixes a ton of annoying things that I had to deal with window 10 such as audio switching. HDR support is way better and a lot of the QOL improvements are nice like tabbed file explorer.

I haven't experienced any crashing, slowdowns, or weirdness with Win 11 (current specs are i9-9900k + 3080). Did your buddy upgrade or do a full format to win 11?
Audio switching in W10 does indeed suck (though still far better than XP). What did they fix?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 21, 2023, 09:05:00 AM
It'll stop automatically changing audio sources when it detects new ones (like doing a driver update will sometimes change you to your monitors HDMI audio output). Additionally when you disable an audio source it'll stay disabled until you re-enable it again.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 21, 2023, 09:08:32 AM
Audio switching is shit, agreed.  That's could be a good enough reason alone to upgrade  :lol but like El Barto, my interest isn't to screw up with my build.  I had to reinstall windows last year (I ran out of space on my C M.2 so upgraded to a new one) and now I'd rather not do that again for a bit.  I'll likely just wait until I upgrade my mobo/CPU again in a year or so and do the required rebuild. 

I haven't experienced any crashing, slowdowns, or weirdness with Win 11 (current specs are i9-9900k + 3080). Did your buddy upgrade or do a full format to win 11?

He's done a lot of clean installs, I'm starting to think it's something hardware related with him, but its just weird how he can't consistently play COD with me for example.  His game wouldn't even load for awhile until he did another reinstall, and then he's still got crashes.  I don't know, I just relate his issues to Windows 11 because he didn't have any of this until he upgraded.  But I also told him not to be the guinea pig.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 21, 2023, 01:15:37 PM
I've had zero OS-related issues since moving to Windows 11 about 8 months ago. No problems with games or any other software. Haven't crashed once. No blue screens.

I get waiting before moving to a new OS, hell I was on XP until the very last second when all support was pulled. However, I've been impressed with 11 so far. Unless you have hardware issues I see no reason not to upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 01:26:02 PM
That's a new one about audio switching issues in Win 10. I've been using it since its release and have never had any audio-switching issues. It's been very smooth for me even with the different sound cards I've used.

I've had Win 11 on a VM and have been casually using it. The only reason I haven't made the switch for my main PC is due to not being able to pin things on the start menu the way I want it to be arranged. They've made decent progress so far but some taskbar changes also prevent me from making the switches. It's nothing gregarious but small things that would annoy me no end as I've gotten used to doing them on a daily basis.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 01:27:50 PM
I've had zero OS-related issues since moving to Windows 11 about 8 months ago. No problems with games or any other software. Haven't crashed once. No blue screens.

I get waiting before moving to a new OS, hell I was on XP until the very last second when all support was pulled. However, I've been impressed with 11 so far. Unless you have hardware issues I see no reason not to upgrade.
That's kind of an odd stance. It seems to me that if you have no reason to upgrade, why would you? Hell, just finding new versions of all of the programs you have installed is enough of a PITA to make me skip it. Case in point, I've got two monitors and a 57" TV plugged in. I've got 3 profiles set up based on the direction and orientation of the monitors. I've got shortcuts setup to expedite that. I've got a program that resizes and snaps programs to specific sections of monitors. Just figuring out how to recreate that on a new OS would take hours. If I don't have any problems, why bother? Factor in settings within programs, like hotkeys for two different media players, and such. Reinstalling games and mod managers. It goes on and on. When it's something I need to do I'll suck it up and do it. It's not something I'll do for no particular reason.

Also, I've spent way, way too much time making sure that Windows can never update itself without me making it happen. I'm sure it's even harder now, if not outright impossible. That's enough of a reason for me to put it off.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 01:34:31 PM
That's a new one about audio switching issues in Win 10. I've been using it since its release and have never had any audio-switching issues. It's been very smooth for me even with the different sound cards I've used.
My issue is that I'll sometimes change the output of a media player or Firefox, and even though Win10 remembers the change, I'll have to re-do it to actually get sound. However, it's quite possible that's a problem with the programs rather than Windows. There's also an issue where it won't differentiate instances of the same program. I might want football output to the HDMI, while other instances of Firefox stay with the speakers so I can hear Youtube and whatnot. While Windows will show the different instances in that dialouge, and even let you set them separately, functionally they're all the same. (I've taken to using Edge for football now so-as to not change the Firefox settings.)

Windows has always sucked at handling separate audio sources. Each version makes it slightly better, but it's never right, and sometimes screws up something else along the way. This goes all the way back to my All In Wonder Pro days.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 21, 2023, 01:37:55 PM
It's also not a simple click to change audio outputs.  I had an app I downloaded that added this to the task bar and was so useful, but who ever made it never kept it up to date and it eventually stopped working.

I've had a few audio issues with windows 10 as well, specifically when doing audio driver updates. One time it corrupted my entire windows.  I have no idea how and I had to reinstall windows to fix it.  Also some windows updates would mess with my audio settings.  I dont know how or why.  It's just very frustrating as someone who often switches between headphones and speakers on my windows PC.  It should be a lot simpler.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 01:40:14 PM
I've been using it since launch, too. All fine here.

It's worth it just for the win+alt+b HDR shortcut for me. Or has that been added to Windows 10 now?
I only discovered win+alt+b a few weeks ago :lol


Oh wow I had no idea that existed and I'm a shortcuts junkie. Though honestly I had the Windows HDR implementation. I like the monitor hardware setting to turn on HDR a lot better. Plus I don't really have a true HDR monitor, it's those fake turn up the brightness really high HDRs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 21, 2023, 01:43:02 PM
The real OP of shortcuts is shift+win+S. Shoutout to win+. as well
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 01:47:37 PM
It's also not a simple click to change audio outputs.  I had an app I downloaded that added this to the task bar and was so useful, but who ever made it never kept it up to date and it eventually stopped working.
You have to research how to do it, it's not at all intuitive, but you can create a desktop shortcut to the application audio menu. I think it might be "advanced audio settings." I often have to go into the thing several times a day to change stuff, so it's a real help.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 21, 2023, 01:48:23 PM
I've had zero OS-related issues since moving to Windows 11 about 8 months ago. No problems with games or any other software. Haven't crashed once. No blue screens.

I get waiting before moving to a new OS, hell I was on XP until the very last second when all support was pulled. However, I've been impressed with 11 so far. Unless you have hardware issues I see no reason not to upgrade.
That's kind of an odd stance. It seems to me that if you have no reason to upgrade, why would you? Hell, just finding new versions of all of the programs you have installed is enough of a PITA to make me skip it. Case in point, I've got two monitors and a 57" TV plugged in. I've got 3 profiles set up based on the direction and orientation of the monitors. I've got shortcuts setup to expedite that. I've got a program that resizes and snaps programs to specific sections of monitors. Just figuring out how to recreate that on a new OS would take hours. If I don't have any problems, why bother? Factor in settings within programs, like hotkeys for two different media players, and such. Reinstalling games and mod managers. It goes on and on. When it's something I need to do I'll suck it up and do it. It's not something I'll do for no particular reason.

Also, I've spent way, way too much time making sure that Windows can never update itself without me making it happen. I'm sure it's even harder now, if not outright impossible. That's enough of a reason for me to put it off.
Ah, I misspoke. I didn't mean everyone should just upgrade to 11 regardless of what they have going on with their PCs. I just meant if you've been thinking of upgrading or want to upgrade, I personally have not seen any reason to wait at this point. I definitely understand the issues with certain programs and hardware being a pain to set up in new operating systems. Also getting a new OS setup the way you like is also time consuming. And like you said, if your PC and OS is doing everything you need it to, then there is no reason to upgrade.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 02:24:59 PM
That's a new one about audio switching issues in Win 10. I've been using it since its release and have never had any audio-switching issues. It's been very smooth for me even with the different sound cards I've used.
My issue is that I'll sometimes change the output of a media player or Firefox, and even though Win10 remembers the change, I'll have to re-do it to actually get sound. However, it's quite possible that's a problem with the programs rather than Windows. There's also an issue where it won't differentiate instances of the same program. I might want football output to the HDMI, while other instances of Firefox stay with the speakers so I can hear Youtube and whatnot. While Windows will show the different instances in that dialouge, and even let you set them separately, functionally they're all the same. (I've taken to using Edge for football now so-as to not change the Firefox settings.)

Windows has always sucked at handling separate audio sources. Each version makes it slightly better, but it's never right, and sometimes screws up something else along the way. This goes all the way back to my All In Wonder Pro days.

Interesting.. like I said I have a DAC right now that's connected through USB and I also have speakers connected directly via the audio panel to the board and anytime I switch between the two I have never had to do anything other than turn on and off and it auto switches. I don't use HDMI output for sound but I did test it and even then there was no issue.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 02:26:27 PM
The real OP of shortcuts is shift+win+S. Shoutout to win+. as well
I use those daily and in my line of work do it a 100 times a day. People are always amazed at how many shortcuts I use and not need the help of my mouse for so many things.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 03:00:50 PM
That's a new one about audio switching issues in Win 10. I've been using it since its release and have never had any audio-switching issues. It's been very smooth for me even with the different sound cards I've used.
My issue is that I'll sometimes change the output of a media player or Firefox, and even though Win10 remembers the change, I'll have to re-do it to actually get sound. However, it's quite possible that's a problem with the programs rather than Windows. There's also an issue where it won't differentiate instances of the same program. I might want football output to the HDMI, while other instances of Firefox stay with the speakers so I can hear Youtube and whatnot. While Windows will show the different instances in that dialouge, and even let you set them separately, functionally they're all the same. (I've taken to using Edge for football now so-as to not change the Firefox settings.)

Windows has always sucked at handling separate audio sources. Each version makes it slightly better, but it's never right, and sometimes screws up something else along the way. This goes all the way back to my All In Wonder Pro days.

Interesting.. like I said I have a DAC right now that's connected through USB and I also have speakers connected directly via the audio panel to the board and anytime I switch between the two I have never had to do anything other than turn on and off and it auto switches. I don't use HDMI output for sound but I did test it and even then there was no issue.
Now that is interesting. I've never seen Windows auto-switch jack shit.  I mean, certainly not when it would make sense to do so. :lol

That said, what you're describing does make since, though. When you power off the DAC it presumably disappears as a sound device, so it would necessarily move to a different one. My DAC (connected w/Toslink and external power), speakers, and my receiver are always "connected," whether they're powered on or not. That's by design. I use a power strip to completely power off my receiver,* but since the HDMI out is actually part of the graphics card it never actually goes away as a sound device.

BTW, don't know what you're using the DAC for, but USB power is supposed to be rather dirty for DACs. I doubt it's anything 99% would ever notice, but people who use DACs are probably looking for the best sounding audio possible. I know in headphone circles it's frowned upon.



*Turns out that at normal listening volume my receiver pulls about 120w. When it's powered off, what they call standby mode, it pulls 90w. That surprised the hell out of me. Unplugging it (by switching off the power strip) is saving me about $8/mo. The more you know. . .
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 21, 2023, 03:25:43 PM
I'm using a FiiO K5Pro, not a very flashy DAC/AMP combo but it drives my Sennheiser 6xx quite well plus I got it used so paid half of what it was new. It has its own power source, the USB is just the audio passthrough from the board to the DAC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 21, 2023, 07:40:06 PM
Reading up on Starfield is kind of pissing me off. I was unaware of the partnership with AMD. One of the nice things about playing games on a PC is that I don't have to worry about platform wars. Except, now I do, apparently. It seems that those of us with Nvidia GPUs (in other words, all of us) now get the short end of it as a consequence. It's not necessarily that Beth intentionally borked their RTX support, although that might well be the case, or that they wouldn't implement DLSS in favour of AMD's inferior FSR, but the optimization for AMD GPUs is massively better. We're talking about as much as 46% across otherwise comparable graphics cards. Same issues with Intel CPUs, where their HT support is bungled, while the AMD HT equivalent works well. For a lot of people this might be the difference between playing on medium instead of high, or high instead of ultra, because they chose an arguably better card than Beth's corporate partner.

In the past it always seemed like game developers were trying to perform well for all gamers. Now it would seem that, as is so often the case, taking care of your corporate partners is more profitable than taking care of your customers. Suffice it to say, I'm not at all excited about giving those people $75 for their game (and I was 24 hours ago).
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Cool Chris on September 21, 2023, 07:53:40 PM
Aside from crashing all the time, and the Steam thing, does it do what you want it to do? Since you've got Steam you presumably play a couple of games. Does it run them adequately? As I understand it, W11 is right out without a new build, but simply updating to W10 will solve both of the problems you've mentioned, and will only set you back $100-150.

Yes, it basically does. So I am just trying to justify buying something that I do not really need, just because I want one and haven't treated myself to anything in a long while.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 21, 2023, 11:29:10 PM
The real OP of shortcuts is shift+win+S. Shoutout to win+. as well

Yes! I had to try both of those to remember what they were. Which is funny because I use both of them virtually every day :biggrin: Just goes to show how important muscle memory is!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 21, 2023, 11:33:11 PM
Reading up on Starfield is kind of pissing me off. I was unaware of the partnership with AMD. One of the nice things about playing games on a PC is that I don't have to worry about platform wars. Except, now I do, apparently. It seems that those of us with Nvidia GPUs (in other words, all of us) now get the short end of it as a consequence. It's not necessarily that Beth intentionally borked their RTX support, although that might well be the case, or that they wouldn't implement DLSS in favour of AMD's inferior FSR, but the optimization for AMD GPUs is massively better. We're talking about as much as 46% across otherwise comparable graphics cards. Same issues with Intel CPUs, where their HT support is bungled, while the AMD HT equivalent works well. For a lot of people this might be the difference between playing on medium instead of high, or high instead of ultra, because they chose an arguably better card than Beth's corporate partner.

In the past it always seemed like game developers were trying to perform well for all gamers. Now it would seem that, as is so often the case, taking care of your corporate partners is more profitable than taking care of your customers. Suffice it to say, I'm not at all excited about giving those people $75 for their game (and I was 24 hours ago).

Yup.

Even my 4090 can't provide 60 FPS at 5120x1440. Digital Foundry did a piece on how hamstrung Nvidia cards are through Bethesda's relationship with AMD. Still, at least official DLSS support is on the way. It's not even doing anything particularly impressive graphically.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 22, 2023, 06:10:33 AM
Wow didn't realize it was that bad, I mean if a 4090 can't get 60 fps at 1440 then what chance does any other card have.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 22, 2023, 06:40:12 AM
Well, it's double the width of standard 1440, to be fair, but still lower than 4k in terms of total pixel count. It's ridiculous. And it's doing nowhere near as much graphically as Cyberpunk, for example. I'm getting about 90 FPS, admittedly with DLSS on quality, but it's doing a metric shit tonne of raytracing in that, too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 22, 2023, 08:26:34 AM
I wasn't aware of Bethesda's relationship to AMD.  That's lame.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 22, 2023, 08:30:09 AM
Yeah, that's a lot of what I'm seeing. Cyberpunk is doing a whole lot more, including lots of RT that Starfield doesn't use, and getting far better performance. It's not necessarily that Nvidia cards are sucking, but rather that AMD cards are punching way, way outside of their weight class. Clearly Beth just spent all of their efforts optimizing it for AMD with little or no emphasis on Nvidia.

For me it's just the principle of the thing. I don't mind Beth shipping buggy games. With the games they're producing they're not going to get them working right without millions of man hours played. I do think they're taking advantage of their customers, though. Frankly, AMD is worth more to them than the customers they lose because of this.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 22, 2023, 08:36:05 AM
IIRC wasn't AMD sponsoring part of the game development? It's probably why some of it was meant to work well with just the AMD components. I'm going to get gamepass for a month and install and see how it play on my UW with a 3440x1440 resolution.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 22, 2023, 08:37:26 AM
I dont think they are losing too many customers from this though.  It's already Bethesda's biggest game at launch with over 10 million players. It does just suck because, and I dont have a stat just a gut feeling, that AMD GPUs are much less than Nvidia.  So that would sound like they prioritized their corporate partner over their customers which sucks. 

I remember Cyberpunk being one of the first games to really use ray tracing.  The whole RTX on/off meme.  But I do ask, would you rather the game be in a very good playable shape but not the best graphically like Starfield or look great but have a lot of issues like Cyberpunk? 

Apparently Cyberpunk got a big free update that makes the game completely different and recommended people to play a new game of it to see all the differences.  I'm not interested because Im digging into Starfield, but damn, makes me wonder what Cyberpunk could have been if it was released in this state.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 22, 2023, 08:56:30 AM
Bethesda won't lose any customers at all because, bugs and all, people love their games. Their next game could be Elder Scrolls VI--Our Customers are Bleedin Idiots, and it'd still set records for units shipped. So, yeah, they prioritized their partnership with AMD because it was essentially free money. Makes ya feel good, don't it?

and I dont have a stat just a gut feeling, that AMD GPUs are much less than Nvidia.
Less what? They only make up 12% of the market share. There are several reasons for this, all based on the fact that Nvidia are just producing better cards right now. Unless you're playing Starfield.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 22, 2023, 08:58:45 AM
Much less in quantity used.  Your 12% market share is the number that confirms that  :lol

Funny enough, I almost used a AMD GPU but it gave me issues so went back to Nvidia
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 22, 2023, 09:07:27 AM
Reading about this new set of features introduced with DLSS 3.5 is interesting. Ray Reconstruction apparently uses only the AI pipeline thus giving the GPU more reign to generate FPS. Right now it's only on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty and the 40 series cards.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-dlss-35-ray-reconstruction/
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 22, 2023, 09:13:50 AM
Much less in quantity used.  Your 12% market share is the number that confirms that  :lol

Funny enough, I almost used a AMD GPU but it gave me issues so went back to Nvidia

My second ever gpu was a GeForce 3 TI-500. I then switched to ATI and used them until I went back to nvidia for the 20 series. Honestly having an Nvidia/Intel build is great cost aside. AMD/ATI rigs I had always had shitty/buggy drivers, and just never performed great. The hardware wasn't that good either. That Geforce 3 still works when I checked it a few years ago, none of my old ATI cards lasted for any considerable length of time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 22, 2023, 09:18:24 AM
Reading about this new set of features introduced with DLSS 3.5 is interesting. Ray Reconstruction apparently uses only the AI pipeline thus giving the GPU more reign to generate FPS. Right now it's only on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty and the 40 series cards.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-dlss-35-ray-reconstruction/
Something else that concerns me is the generational state of graphics cards. It used to be that newer cards were simply better. Now it's that newer cards contain entirely new feature sets that necessitate a new purchase. I bought a high end 2000 series card, and while it should continue to serve me well, it's simply no longer relevant, and this trend will continue. When the 5000 series hits all of those 3000 series cards will follow the same path, where the improvements will only be relevant for the 4s and 5s.

Have I said "Fuck Yeah, Capitalism!" in this thread yet?  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 22, 2023, 09:25:26 AM
Reading about this new set of features introduced with DLSS 3.5 is interesting. Ray Reconstruction apparently uses only the AI pipeline thus giving the GPU more reign to generate FPS. Right now it's only on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty and the 40 series cards.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-dlss-35-ray-reconstruction/
Something else that concerns me is the generational state of graphics cards. It used to be that newer cards were simply better. Now it's that newer cards contain entirely new feature sets that necessitate a new purchase. I bought a high end 2000 series card, and while it should continue to serve me well, it's simply no longer relevant, and this trend will continue. When the 5000 series hits all of those 3000 series cards will follow the same path, where the improvements will only be relevant for the 4s and 5s.

Have I said "Fuck Yeah, Capitalism!" in this thread yet?  :lol

The "simply better" gains are marginal.  But it's the new features that are "better" and make the upgrade, I think it's a fairly equal trade off.  I honestly don't see too much of a difference other than the cost of these cards just being outrageous.  I also feel like, Starfield for example, the new games aren't coming out wiht these new features.  At least not immediately.  So you really don't need the latest and greatest.  Your 2000 series card isn't performing worse enough to really need the upgrade on a lot of these games.

What bothers me more is that a lot of games are using the CPU more than the GPU.  Like COD is a CPU intensive game.  It's not utilizing the high end graphic cards the way they should be.  That all just adds in, to me, that upgrading GPUs is not the priority some make it out to be.

I relate a lot of this to phones where every year the new Iphone/Samsung was significantly better to make you want to upgrade but now, year over year, there's not much of an upgrade just some new features.  There's no need to get the latest and greatest phones for most people.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 22, 2023, 09:39:24 AM


Much less in quantity used.  Your 12% market share is the number that confirms that  :lol

Funny enough, I almost used a AMD GPU but it gave me issues so went back to Nvidia

My second ever gpu was a GeForce 3 TI-500. I then switched to ATI and used them until I went back to nvidia for the 20 series. Honestly having an Nvidia/Intel build is great cost aside. AMD/ATI rigs I had always had shitty/buggy drivers, and just never performed great. The hardware wasn't that good either. That Geforce 3 still works when I checked it a few years ago, none of my old ATI cards lasted for any considerable length of time.

My list of GPUs is a very short list

2005 - 2011
ATI RADEON 9600XT 128MB DDR AGP

2011
Sapphire Radeon HD4670 1GB DDR3 PCIe (temp card)

2011 - 2020
XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCIe

2020- 2021
Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon Pulse RX 580 8GB GDDR5

2021 - current
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 ULTRA  10GB GDDR6X



Briefly had the 3080Ti FE for a couple of months before settling on the 3080 FTW3
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 22, 2023, 09:48:17 AM
Ayyy we got the same 3080!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 22, 2023, 10:01:25 AM
GTX 460 -> GTX 770 -> GTX 1080 -> RTX 3070 (if memory is correct, kind of forget my first build)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 22, 2023, 10:05:49 AM
I don't remember them all, but I know I was an AMD guy for the longest time after starting with All In Wonders Pro and 9800. It was only when the driver support became so godawful that I jumped ship to Nvidia, and the idea of going back horrifies me. Part of the reason I can't remember the cards is because I always had two back in the AMD days. And moving to Nvidia consolidated all of my outputs.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 22, 2023, 10:43:20 AM
From what I remember:

9800 Pro
Whatever my laptop had
8080 GTS
GTX 260
Whatever my two work laptops had
RTX 3070 Ti
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 22, 2023, 10:52:13 AM
Here is what I remember:

Savage 3D (I think that's what it was called) powerhouse at 2mb of ram
VooDoo3 2000
GeForce3 TI-500
Radeon 9250
Radeon HD 6850
Radeon HD 7970
Radeon R9 290
EVGA 2080 FTW3
EVGA 3080 FTW3
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Nick on September 22, 2023, 12:08:15 PM
I tend to play more cutting edge stuff on console, I couldn't even tell you what card I have in my PC right now.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 22, 2023, 05:41:08 PM
My gaming computer days go all the way back to the early '90s, pre accelerated graphics days. I'm not sure if I can remember all the GPU's I've had over the years, but let's see...

3dfx Voodoo2
Riva TNT2
GeForce 2 (I don't remember which one though)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (this was the first PC I built from the ground up myself in the summer of '03)
GeForce 6800XT
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce GTX 285
EVGA GeForce GTX 670
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra
GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 22, 2023, 06:27:02 PM
How do you like the step up to the 4090? I've been itching to move up but it's definitely a want rather than need, I don't even have a 4k monitor.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 22, 2023, 08:34:40 PM
My gaming computer days go all the way back to the early '90s, pre accelerated graphics days. I'm not sure if I can remember all the GPU's I've had over the years, but let's see...

3dfx Voodoo2
Riva TNT2
GeForce 2 (I don't remember which one though)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (this was the first PC I built from the ground up myself in the summer of '03)
GeForce 6800XT
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce GTX 285
EVGA GeForce GTX 670
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra
GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090

Those are some upgrades!
I did my first solo build in 2000 with the Intel PIII 933 Mhz. I built mine with the 810e chipset which supported a faster FSB speed. If I'm correct the chipset on the board at the time was one of the first ones to support both onboard sound and graphics. And back then you could play quite a few games with the onboard chips.

Glad we don't have to set IRQs and use jumpers for Master/Slave drives anymore.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 22, 2023, 11:43:44 PM
My gaming computer days go all the way back to the early '90s, pre accelerated graphics days. I'm not sure if I can remember all the GPU's I've had over the years, but let's see...

3dfx Voodoo2
Riva TNT2
GeForce 2 (I don't remember which one though)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (this was the first PC I built from the ground up myself in the summer of '03)
GeForce 6800XT
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce GTX 285
EVGA GeForce GTX 670
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra
GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090

Those are some upgrades!
I did my first solo build in 2000 with the Intel PIII 933 Mhz. I built mine with the 810e chipset which supported a faster FSB speed. If I'm correct the chipset on the board at the time was one of the first ones to support both onboard sound and graphics. And back then you could play quite a few games with the onboard chips.

Glad we don't have to set IRQs and use jumpers for Master/Slave drives anymore.
I definitely don't miss those days, LoL. Not to mention IDE cables, serial and parallel ports, floppy discs (the actual 5 1/4 floppies and to a lesser extent the 3.5" floppies, the 8" floppy discs were well before my time...), Zip drives......oooh and the infamous Turbo button  :biggrin:
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 22, 2023, 11:56:01 PM
How do you like the step up to the 4090? I've been itching to move up but it's definitely a want rather than need, I don't even have a 4k monitor.
The main reason I got it was because I started working with Unreal Engine and I need the extra Vram. It doesn't hurt that it brute forces its way through every game I throw at it  :lol

I was actually happy with the 3080 up to that point though.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 23, 2023, 06:25:27 AM
My gaming computer days go all the way back to the early '90s, pre accelerated graphics days. I'm not sure if I can remember all the GPU's I've had over the years, but let's see...

3dfx Voodoo2
Riva TNT2
GeForce 2 (I don't remember which one though)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (this was the first PC I built from the ground up myself in the summer of '03)
GeForce 6800XT
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce GTX 285
EVGA GeForce GTX 670
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra
GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090

How on Earth can you remember all those?! Amazing! :omg:

I definitely had the Voodoo 2, the first before that. Had a Matrox Mystique, I think, before then? Anyway, I think our graphics card journey is very similar.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on September 23, 2023, 06:27:47 AM
I had a 3080 followed by a 3090, I think. And then the 4090. Frame regeneration in Flight Simulator made it instantly worth it for me. It was one of those, "my god, this is AMAZING!" moments for me. And they're few and far between now. Probably because I'm getting old.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on September 23, 2023, 08:16:04 AM
My gaming computer days go all the way back to the early '90s, pre accelerated graphics days. I'm not sure if I can remember all the GPU's I've had over the years, but let's see...

3dfx Voodoo2
Riva TNT2
GeForce 2 (I don't remember which one though)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (this was the first PC I built from the ground up myself in the summer of '03)
GeForce 6800XT
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce GTX 285
EVGA GeForce GTX 670
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra
GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090

Those are some upgrades!
I did my first solo build in 2000 with the Intel PIII 933 Mhz. I built mine with the 810e chipset which supported a faster FSB speed. If I'm correct the chipset on the board at the time was one of the first ones to support both onboard sound and graphics. And back then you could play quite a few games with the onboard chips.

Glad we don't have to set IRQs and use jumpers for Master/Slave drives anymore.
I definitely don't miss those days, LoL. Not to mention IDE cables, serial and parallel ports, floppy discs (the actual 5 1/4 floppies and to a lesser extent the 3.5" floppies, the 8" floppy discs were well before my time...), Zip drives......oooh and the infamous Turbo button  :biggrin:

Christ I'm getting Vietnam style flashbacks lol. I really want to build an era accurate PC, basically my dream PC when I was a kid. Something from the windows 98 days. I gotta start attending retro PC conventions.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 23, 2023, 01:23:26 PM
I loved that Turbo button! I've been using PCs since the x86 days (yes the first one). Had an x386 and my friend had the x486 and would always boast how his turbo made things go super fast, games ran a lot quicker on his machine.
I didn't do it at the time but my cousin used to build and sell PCs and I'd watch as he'd solder chips on the board, don't even recall what he used to solder. Such an ancient time.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on September 24, 2023, 10:39:31 AM
One thing I do lament is the lack of modern cases with good design AND a 5 1/2" bay, as the one person who still uses DVD drives.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on September 24, 2023, 01:41:17 PM
One thing I do lament is the lack of modern cases with good design AND a 5 1/2" bay, as the one person who still uses DVD drives.
Any time I need to use an optical drive I just use an external....which is almost never. I have no desire to install an optical drive in a PC case anymore.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on September 25, 2023, 08:57:49 AM
One thing I do lament is the lack of modern cases with good design AND a 5 1/2" bay, as the one person who still uses DVD drives.

I had held on to my ancient Cooler Master Sniper case for ages and when I upgraded 2 years ago I re-used the case as it held all my 5 HDDs plus 4k Blu-ray drive. I then moved to an ITX case, I shifted the HDDs to a DAS unit and put the blu-ray drive in an external case.


I think having the extra space made the move worth it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on September 25, 2023, 09:10:39 AM
One thing I do lament is the lack of modern cases with good design AND a 5 1/2" bay, as the one person who still uses DVD drives.

This has been me, I still occasionally rip CDs.  Granted, my next build will probably go down to just one bay.  Definitely don't need all the ones I have on my current case. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on September 25, 2023, 09:31:50 AM
I learned something new the other day. I had to add a HDD as I was running out of space on numerous partitions, and there's also the matter of Starfield's whopping big size. The object was to offload half of a 2TB drive and expand the other partitions to use that space. One of those partitions was my game install drive (D:). I'd noticed that my heavily modded SSE was taking every bit of of 2 minutes to launch. I figured this was just one of SE's unique qualities, and the number of mods I have. Three gig of Interesting NPCs is well known to slow down loading, among other things. Still, it was on a fast Samsung NVME drive, so I was a little confused. I ran into an issue resizing it because apparently you cannot expand EXFat partitions, which D was. DL software, convert it, resize it, and now it's formatted NTFS like the other partitions. Start time from MO2 is 20 seconds now. I was aware that ExFat wasn't as efficient for some applications. It's got times where it's better and times where it's worse. I really had no idea how much worse it could be, though. We're talking about every bit of six times faster just by changing the file system away from it. Who knew?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 03, 2023, 02:04:12 PM
Need some tech advice. I had to bring my laptop into a repair shop because I was having issues with the power cable charging the laptop. I assumed it was an issue with the cable or maybe the USB-C port it plugs into. The repair shop found that the cable and port are fine, power is making it to the motherboard but the motherboard is not distributing power correctly throughout the machine. A new motherboard + installation will run me about $500, or I can buy a new laptop and they'll do a data transfer for me. Thus laptop is a little bit less than three years old and was otherwise fine. I also spent a little more than strictly necessary (~1k) when I got it just to basically have what I thought would be my laptop for a long time. I'm leaning towards having them replace the motherboard because a new laptop with similar specs will be a bit more money than the repair cost. Thoughts?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 03, 2023, 02:15:11 PM
Need some tech advice. I had to bring my laptop into a repair shop because I was having issues with the power cable charging the laptop. I assumed it was an issue with the cable or maybe the USB-C port it plugs into. The repair shop found that the cable and port are fine, power is making it to the motherboard but the motherboard is not distributing power correctly throughout the machine. A new motherboard + installation will run me about $500, or I can buy a new laptop and they'll do a data transfer for me. Thus laptop is a little bit less than three years old and was otherwise fine. I also spent a little more than strictly necessary (~1k) when I got it just to basically have what I thought would be my laptop for a long time. I'm leaning towards having them replace the motherboard because a new laptop with similar specs will be a bit more money than the repair cost. Thoughts?
Is this your primary PC, or just the portable one?

How do you define "a bit more?"

Is it a Dell?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 03, 2023, 02:18:25 PM
Never replaced a laptop motherboard, nor paid for such a service to know, but $500 seems like a lot of money.  My gut says to get a new laptop.  Something about taking the entire thing apart and putting it back together, for a laptop, just seems like it's going to have more problems in the future. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 03, 2023, 02:23:47 PM
Need some tech advice. I had to bring my laptop into a repair shop because I was having issues with the power cable charging the laptop. I assumed it was an issue with the cable or maybe the USB-C port it plugs into. The repair shop found that the cable and port are fine, power is making it to the motherboard but the motherboard is not distributing power correctly throughout the machine. A new motherboard + installation will run me about $500, or I can buy a new laptop and they'll do a data transfer for me. Thus laptop is a little bit less than three years old and was otherwise fine. I also spent a little more than strictly necessary (~1k) when I got it just to basically have what I thought would be my laptop for a long time. I'm leaning towards having them replace the motherboard because a new laptop with similar specs will be a bit more money than the repair cost. Thoughts?
Is this your primary PC, or just the portable one?

How do you define "a bit more?"

Is it a Dell?

It's a Lenovo, and it's my only computer (no personal desktop). I spent about 1k on it, came with 32 gigs of RAM, a decent Intel CPU, and a 1TB SSD.  Would still be a out $1k for a similarly spec'd new machine from what a quick search turned up, plus I'd need to pay for a data transfer since I hadn't backed anything up in a while.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on October 04, 2023, 12:03:31 AM
So half the cost of the laptop to replace the mobo? $500 to replace a Lenovo motherboard is exorbitant. You could get a second opinion, of course. I'd go with a new laptop. And I wouldn't buy it from the repair shop. If the laptop is actually usable, you could do the file transfer yourself. We could help guide you through that if you're unsure how to do it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 04, 2023, 08:55:44 AM
So half the cost of the laptop to replace the mobo? $500 to replace a Lenovo motherboard is exorbitant. You could get a second opinion, of course. I'd go with a new laptop. And I wouldn't buy it from the repair shop. If the laptop is actually usable, you could do the file transfer yourself. We could help guide you through that if you're unsure how to do it.
Indeed, those MoBos seem to be fairly cheap to purchase, but I suspect swapping them out is a real PITA.

If I were going with a new laptop I'd have the repair shop give me the old one back still disassembled. A USB to SATA cable should run all of $10 and there's your data transfer. Downside on that approach is that the repair shop will then charge a diagnostic fee since they didn't do any work, so that'd be on top of the cost of the new lap top. Kind of a tough call all the way around.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 04, 2023, 09:06:23 AM
Interesting discussion, I've never replaced the board on a laptop before either. Only repair Ive done on a laptop is to clean the cpu fan which accumulated a ton of dust. Even that was a pain to disassemble and put back just due to the nature of how tightly things are packed.

Like others have said data transfer is a cinch these days. If you get a hold of your drive, whatever type it is, and get the correct cable, that's pretty much it. In windows you'd just plug that into another computer and copy paste.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 04, 2023, 09:08:57 AM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 04, 2023, 09:16:36 AM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 04, 2023, 09:19:18 AM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

Ah nice, thats good to know.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Stadler on October 04, 2023, 10:06:05 AM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

For some reason that made me laugh. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 04, 2023, 12:13:48 PM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

I've done this a number of times and I've never come across an issue slotting in an old bootable drive. As long as your bios settings direct which drive to boot from you should be good.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on October 04, 2023, 12:14:25 PM
Interesting discussion, I've never replaced the board on a laptop before either. Only repair Ive done on a laptop is to clean the cpu fan which accumulated a ton of dust. Even that was a pain to disassemble and put back just due to the nature of how tightly things are packed.

Like others have said data transfer is a cinch these days. If you get a hold of your drive, whatever type it is, and get the correct cable, that's pretty much it. In windows you'd just plug that into another computer and copy paste.

I've done it once before and it was a huge, huge pain in the ass. I'd never do it again.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on October 04, 2023, 12:38:13 PM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
You're correct in that it might give you some shit for trying, but so long as you prevent it from trying to boot to that drive it'll be fine. Windows will remind you that you're not the owner of the files, but helpfully ask if you want access anyway, and then set new ownership for all of them.

For some reason that made me laugh. 

As hilarious as that sounds, which it does to me as well, ElBarto is describing exactly how Windows handles it lol.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: nobloodyname on October 04, 2023, 02:01:00 PM
I laughed, too! It's the wonderful deployment of "helpfully".
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 04, 2023, 06:00:27 PM
Thanks for the input all. I picked up my laptop from the place today to take it elsewhere for a second opinion.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on October 04, 2023, 07:13:59 PM
If that's the only drive and a Windows boot partition, can you just plug it into another PC and grab the data? I know it's that simple for drives that aren't bootable, but can't recall doing that to a "C" drive since I never store my data on that drive.
Depends on whether encryption was turned on or not. If not, everything on it should be retrievable.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 06, 2023, 01:37:23 PM
Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 06, 2023, 01:39:22 PM
Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 06, 2023, 01:45:15 PM
Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 06, 2023, 01:56:22 PM
Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.

Interesting.  Seems expensive to me, but maybe that is legit the going rate for the work.

I say that as someone who literally just replaced a motherboard at work just now  :lol

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7xqndjXAAAz9it?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on October 06, 2023, 02:37:36 PM
Well, a second place came to the same conclusion, that I'd need to replace the motherboard of my laptop. New computer it is then I guess.

Same price of $500 though?

Yeah, $500 and probably a wait until November for the part to come in.

Interesting.  Seems expensive to me, but maybe that is legit the going rate for the work.

I say that as someone who literally just replaced a motherboard at work just now  :lol

**snip**
Yeah, I'm calling that apples and oranges. That's 4 MoBos in one, and you could still do it in a fraction of the time as doing one laptop board.  :lol
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 06, 2023, 02:39:54 PM
Oh for sure, a server mobo is built to be easy to replace.  I didn't mean to compare, just thought it was funny as I was actively doing something similar.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: axeman90210 on October 21, 2023, 05:33:07 AM
Well, about three weeks later and I finally have a new computer. After the second opinion on my laptop was the same I reached back out to the first place I had brought it to. They had offered that if I bought a laptop through them they'd include a free data transfer, the laptop options they had quoted me were a little bit overpriced but I figured that was compensated for by the free data transfer. They didn't reply to my message for days. Finally, I called them again on the 11th and they told me they'd have to give me a new list of options because their availability was always changing. OK, fine. I didn't hear anything for a few days, reached out for an update on the 14th and it was crickets in response. Finally called them again on the 18th, they apologized and said that their message to me must not have gone through, but they'd have a couple of up-to-date options over to me by EOD. Sure enough, they sent me a couple of laptop specs right as they closed, but couldn't even be bothered to include the CPU or the hard drive size. Despite all this, I was still going to go with them even if I wasn't getting the best deal because it just seemed easier to me. I guess I annoyed them by daring to ask for the CPU/HD information Thursday morning because they gave it and then when I followed up to confirm if they had these laptops in hand or if they'd have to order them, they told me that everything is by order and if I want something right away they recommend Best Buy. Message received, fuck you too :lol Ordered a new laptop later on Thursday that has better specs than the high-end machine this place quoted me at the same price as the low-end machine they offered me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on October 23, 2023, 09:01:09 AM
Data transfer should be easy, but damn, they clearly didn't give a fuck about making a sale.
Title: Help me! Help me!
Post by: Orbert on December 30, 2023, 10:44:56 PM
Here's a problem that's driving me crazy.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

My son gifted me a new PC build.  New tower, new guts.  He and his roommate have built a few of them now, so he felt pretty confident.  Graphics card is GEForce RTX 3070.  No monitor, so we went a got a new monitor that should have worked fine with it.  Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS27CG512ENXZA).  Hooked everything up, and the monitor cycles through its inputs (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, DisplayPort) twice, finds nothing, and turns off.

Hooked the monitor up to my wife's laptop upstairs, and it worked fine.  Interesting.  So we brought up the new PC, hooked everything up, and it worked fine!  The monitor recognized the PC, and the display looked nice.  So we took everything back downstairs (it will live in the basement, replacing my current PC).

Hooked everything up, and still no go.  We tried HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 inputs, with both outputs on the graphics card and also on the motherboard.  All connections were tight, all the usual things.  Every "help" site says the same thing first; check the connections, check the power, yes and yes.  We tried every possible combination twice.  In case it was the cable (even though it hooked up to the laptop fine) we went and bought a new HDMI cable.  Still nothing.

Just to make sure we weren't going crazy, we took everything back upstairs, hooked it up, and it worked!  Took everything back downstairs, and nothing.  Every combination of inputs to the monitor and outputs from the PC, twice.  Tried turning the HDMI cable around, which shouldn't have done anything, and it did exactly that: nothing.

We took the PC to Micro Center, who checked it out head to toe, and even did some "advanced" diagnostics, but everything was running perfectly as far as they can tell.  It was a new build, but we built it Christmas Day in the living room, so there was a chance that we'd messed something up.  An hour or more of diagnostics, and they couldn't find anything wrong.  Went home, tried everything again.  It works in the living room, but not in the basement.

Some of my son's friends suggested weird power issues.  The power strips in the basement are pretty old, so fine, I bought two brand-new power strips with surge protection.  Unplugged everything, plugged both brand new power strips directly into the wall, plugged in the new PC and monitor.  Nothing.  Monitor cycles through the inputs twice, then goes to sleep.

The house is 60+ years old, maybe the power in the living room is sufficient but the basement isn't quite good enough?  Side note: All previous PCs and monitors (there have been many over the 20+ years we've lived here) have worked fine.  In the basement.

One more bit of information: The monitor was "open box" at Abt.  It had been returned for reasons unknown, but had been thoroughly tested by them, and it does work fine with the laptop, and also with the new PC but only upstairs, not downstairs.

TLDR: New monitor and PC work together fine in the living room, but not in the basement.  Independently both work fine.

What in the hell?
Title: Re: Help me! Help me!
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on December 30, 2023, 11:02:32 PM
Here's a problem that's driving me crazy.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

My son gifted me a new PC build.  New tower, new guts.  He and his roommate have built a few of them now, so he felt pretty confident.  Graphics card is GEForce RTX 3070.  No monitor, so we went a got a new monitor that should have worked fine with it.  Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS27CG512ENXZA).  Hooked everything up, and the monitor cycles through its inputs (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, DisplayPort) twice, finds nothing, and turns off.

Hooked the monitor up to my wife's laptop upstairs, and it worked fine.  Interesting.  So we brought up the new PC, hooked everything up, and it worked fine!  The monitor recognized the PC, and the display looked nice.  So we took everything back downstairs (it will live in the basement, replacing my current PC).

Hooked everything up, and still no go.  We tried HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 inputs, with both outputs on the graphics card and also on the motherboard.  All connections were tight, all the usual things.  Every "help" site says the same thing first; check the connections, check the power, yes and yes.  We tried every possible combination twice.  In case it was the cable (even though it hooked up to the laptop fine) we went and bought a new HDMI cable.  Still nothing.

Just to make sure we weren't going crazy, we took everything back upstairs, hooked it up, and it worked!  Took everything back downstairs, and nothing.  Every combination of inputs to the monitor and outputs from the PC, twice.  Tried turning the HDMI cable around, which shouldn't have done anything, and it did exactly that: nothing.

We took the PC to Micro Center, who checked it out head to toe, and even did some "advanced" diagnostics, but everything was running perfectly as far as they can tell.  It was a new build, but we built it Christmas Day in the living room, so there was a chance that we'd messed something up.  An hour or more of diagnostics, and they couldn't find anything wrong.  Went home, tried everything again.  It works in the living room, but not in the basement.

Some of my son's friends suggested weird power issues.  The power strips in the basement are pretty old, so fine, I bought two brand-new power strips with surge protection.  Unplugged everything, plugged both brand new power strips directly into the wall, plugged in the new PC and monitor.  Nothing.  Monitor cycles through the inputs twice, then goes to sleep.

The house is 60+ years old, maybe the power in the living room is sufficient but the basement isn't quite good enough?  Side note: All previous PCs and monitors (there have been many over the 20+ years we've lived here) have worked fine.  In the basement.

One more bit of information: The monitor was "open box" at Abt.  It had been returned for reasons unknown, but had been thoroughly tested by them, and it does work fine with the laptop, and also with the new PC but only upstairs, not downstairs.

TLDR: New monitor and PC work together fine in the living room, but not in the basement.  Independently both work fine.

What in the hell?
Could be dirty power at the plug you are trying to use. Seems strange though. Another thing, you should be using the displayport input, it allows for higher bandwidth to the monitor. That monitor should have come with a displayport cable, but you said it was open box, so maybe not.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 30, 2023, 11:09:19 PM
Does the computer POST? Can you see the BIOS when you power on? You're focusing on the monitor, but if the monitor isn't showing you anything at all it could be that the PC isn't booting up downstairs. Again, that would suggest a power problem. If you have a UPS somewhere in the house that might help you resolve that. Just for confirmation purposes you could also run an extension cord from upstairs to down.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on December 30, 2023, 11:15:38 PM
I was thinking of going out and getting a DisplayPort cable.  But I was focused on the fact that everything works upstairs, just not downstairs.  It seems to me that the cable and the whole setup would either work or not.  But hell, I don't know.

Running an extension cord from upstairs to downstairs will be fun.  Trying that tomorrow.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Podaar on December 31, 2023, 06:06:56 AM
Do you have a voltage meter? Test the outlet for 115V, if it's within 5%, you should be fine as far as the outlet goes. If it's 108 or lower, I'd guess the PC isn't posting and therefore offering no signal. You could have an open ground as well, especially in an older home...of course, I don't know if new power supplies have safety features for checking source power.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on December 31, 2023, 07:32:24 AM
When we were working on it the other day, my son swore he heard the POST beep, but I wasn't sure.  I didn't hear anything, but I didn't know what to listen for either.  I'd forgotten about that.  I worked on it for hours yesterday, which including booting it many, many times, and I don't remember hearing a POST beep.  I'm guessing they're not as loud and obnoxious as in the old days, but I still don't remember hearing anything.

I don't have one, but I may get a voltage meter and check things out, just to know.  Doesn't actually solve the problem, but it would be good to know.  What's killing me is that if the issue is the AC power in the basement, then it was good enough for the three or four PCs we've had before, including the one I'm on now, but not clean enough for the new PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on December 31, 2023, 09:20:49 AM
Power requirements have massively increased over the last five years. That means a more robust PSU. It might be objecting to the juice you're giving it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on December 31, 2023, 09:49:03 AM
Yeah all things are pointing to power and if you are wondering, a 3070 GPU uses a shit ton of power.  Im assuming there is no spare monitor to check down stairs, but Id guess using the long power cable to see if the PC is even posting.  Might as well use that long testing power cable to power the PC as well if you get nothing out of the monitor still. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 07, 2024, 06:34:11 PM
Update:  Ordered a power tester/voltage meter.  Power in the basement is a steady 121 volts, same as upstairs.  Checked the outlets, and just for grins, checked the power coming out of the brand-new power strips, specifically the two outlets into which I'm plugging the PC and monitor.  121 volts.

So today I borrowed one of my son's monitors, with the DisplayPort cable still hanging off it since he basically unplugged it and lent it to me (he has two so he's just down his second display for now).  When I plugged it in via DisplayPort, it found the new PC right away.  So, I unplugged my son's monitor and plugged mine in using my son's DisplayPort cable, and it works.  Found it right away.

Holy fuck.  It's been the HDMI cable all along.  I read that DisplayPort is recommended (thank you King), but I didn't realize that that meant "It (HDMI) will intermittently work and not work, without any predictable pattern other than mostly not working."  And just to make things more interesting, it just happened to work upstairs a few times, and not at all downstairs, but that could just be the odds if it doesn't work most of the time anyway.

I've ordered a DisplayPort cable from Amazon, and it will arrive tomorrow.  If I hook it up and all is well, then this has been a long, frustrating, learning experience.  Always use DisplayPort!  If I hook it up and it doesn't work, I return the monitor because apparently it is just picky enough to only work sometimes via either HDMI or DP.  It was open box; there's a reason why someone returned the damned thing.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 07, 2024, 08:45:15 PM
So... next crisis.  The old PC came pre-loaded with Windows, etc.  The new one has nothing.  I can't find the original documentation or anything else with my product key.  Do I have to buy a new copy of Windows to load on the new PC?  During the setup, it asked me for my product key, which is when (after an hour or so of fruitless searching) I realized I don't have it.  I was just going to install Windows on the new PC using the same product key.  I didn't know if that would work or not, but I was going to try.

Right now, it's up and running, but Windows hasn't been "activated", so I can't personalize most settings and I'm assuming installing stuff like Office is going to be hamstrung.  And I'm further assuming that I'm going to need that product key to activate Windows.  Options?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 07, 2024, 09:07:19 PM
Interesting read regarding the HDMI cable fiasco. It's entirely reasonable for HDMI cable to be incompatible with the monitor, there are a few varieties of the cable too just because of how GPUs and monitors connect.

As for activation, you should be able to use the old product key for the new windows installation. In my previous PC I had made my account the digital key so to speak. so anytime I install a new windows I just sign in and it's activated. In your case if your old PC is still up and running, you can extract the key with a free program like magic jelly bean. I believe I used it once to do the exact same thing. If it doesn't activate right away they usually ask to call a number, it should be an automated process to activate the key. This was from a few years ago so I'm hoping the same thing applies in your case.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 07, 2024, 09:25:36 PM
Wow!

Magical Jelly Bean was super easy to download and run, and it solved the issue on the first try.  Windows on the new PC is activated.

Thanks, faizoff!

 :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 07, 2024, 10:06:13 PM
Glad that worked. Enjoy the new PC! Using a high refresh monitor is a game changing and everything else feels so slow in comparison.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 08, 2024, 07:13:14 AM
Thanks again.

I don't quite follow this part, though:

In my previous PC I had made my account the digital key so to speak. so anytime I install a new windows I just sign in and it's activated.

???
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 08, 2024, 07:25:09 AM
At some point in my past windows usage, I would never sign into an account and just use the local account. When I kept getting prompted to sign in I finally did and it asked me if I wanted to use that as my windows digital key in lieu of the actual product key. So I opted to do so and from then onwards, for any new installation, I just sign in and it gets activated and doesn't ask for a product key.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 08, 2024, 08:00:52 AM
Interesting.  A few PCs back, when Windows first started asking for usernames and passwords, I only ever set up Bob as the account, with no password.  I didn't know that there was an option to "just use the local account".  I figured there had to be at least one account, so I set it up as simply as possible.

But I still don't see how a brand new PC is going to know what your product key is if it was on the old PC.  At that point, there's nothing to connect them.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on January 08, 2024, 08:12:27 AM
Interesting read regarding the HDMI cable fiasco. It's entirely reasonable for HDMI cable to be incompatible with the monitor, there are a few varieties of the cable too just because of how GPUs and monitors connect.

Yeah, the HDMI thing seems odd to me, but glad you found a way to overcome that with the display port cable. Weird.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 26, 2024, 10:41:18 AM
I'm almost done setting up the new PC.  Windows is activated, and I can cannect to my work PC.  These were two of the main things that had to happen before it replaces the old PC as my primary workstation.

The last thing is getting Microsoft Office onto it.  I have two different boxes here, both say "Office Home & Student 2016", and on the front they both say "For 1 PC" which sounds a bit ominous.  The only difference as far as I can tell is that one is in an orange and white box, and the other is in a white and orange box.  I believe one of them was used to install Office onto my daughter's laptop.  One of them has the Microsoft account email and password filled in; the other is blank (I believe that one was my daughter's).

To the point:  Is there any way to use a "For 1 PC" version of Office on the new PC?  Because I have the boxes, each with the xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx product keys, I've tried them both, and for each I get a message to the effect that it looks like this product key has been used already on a different PC.  Which is true and not really unexpected.  When I try using the Microsoft account and password, I click a few things and eventually get to a page that no longer exists, also not really surprising.

If possible, I can "transfer" it from the old PC to the new one; I won't need it on both.  Or do I have to buy a new copy of Office?  That's not the end of the world, but if I can save a few bucks, I'm into it.

Help me, DTF.  You're my only hope!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on January 26, 2024, 11:40:37 AM
Have you tried any of these options listed here?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/activate-office-using-the-activation-wizard-1144e0de-e849-496e-8e33-ed6fb1b34202?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/activate-office-using-the-activation-wizard-1144e0de-e849-496e-8e33-ed6fb1b34202?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us)

I think I've done it once before but it was a while back, can't recall what I did to transfer from old to new.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on January 26, 2024, 12:41:40 PM
That's exactly the information I was trying to find.  "Activate after reinstalling or installing Office on a different device" looks promising.  Thanks!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on January 27, 2024, 09:30:47 AM
wrong thread...
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 03, 2024, 12:56:23 PM
This is frustrating.  They seem to be intentionally blurring the line between Office and Microsoft 365.  The first step in the process of downloading Office to the new PC is to log in to my Microsoft account and choose which Microsoft 365 subscription I want, either yearly or monthly.  There do not seem to be any other options on that page, and no way to just say "No thanks, I just want to install Office 2016".  I don't care about the online storage, automatic backup, or any of that other shit.  I just want the desktop software so I can work with my Word and Excel documents, and I want the option where I don't pay every year or every month.  Nowhere to be found.

What a fucking scam.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 03, 2024, 01:08:43 PM
Do any of these links work for you?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/useful-microsoft-download-links-for-office-direct/7bcaa971-9493-44b6-a1ba-0db4c6957c47 (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/useful-microsoft-download-links-for-office-direct/7bcaa971-9493-44b6-a1ba-0db4c6957c47)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: PMSummer on February 03, 2024, 01:11:03 PM
Oh man, I feel your pain. It really does seem like they're pushing everyone towards those subscriptions for Microsoft 365, making it super hard to just get the standalone Office suite. I remember the days when you could just buy your software once and be done with it.

Have you considered giving Google Docs and Sheets a try? I've switched over a while ago, they're a solid alternative and totally free. You can do pretty much everything you can do in Word and Excel, plus you get the added bonus of having everything saved online automatically. Plus, there's no yearly or monthly fee to worry about. It might be a bit of a shift at first, but it could be worth the hassle if you're tired of dealing with subscription models.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on February 03, 2024, 03:05:27 PM
Oh man, I feel your pain. It really does seem like they're pushing everyone towards those subscriptions for Microsoft 365, making it super hard to just get the standalone Office suite. I remember the days when you could just buy your software once and be done with it.

You still can with office: https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-office-pro-plus-2021-for-windows-lifetime-license?aid=a-ceempx7z&utm_source=zdnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=microsoft-office-professional-plus-2021-for-window_100823&utm_term=scsf-581299&utm_content=a0xRn0000001bwnIAA&scsonar=1
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 03, 2024, 05:49:21 PM
I guess I can try those links, so thanks to both of you.  But the goal here is to download and install Office 2016 which has already been installed on a different PC, using the product key and the Microsoft account it's tied to.  Presumably there's a way to do this without paying for Office again; they just have no incentive to make it easy for me.

If it turns out that there's literally no way to do this without paying for a monthly or annual prescription, then fuck that, I'll buy a new copy and pay $70 (once!)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: MrBoom_shack-a-lack on February 04, 2024, 12:30:27 AM
I feel your frustration. I only use word and excel at work. Private at home I have been using the freeware Apache Openoffice for years, it works great.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 04, 2024, 03:57:43 PM
Ah yes, there are free alternatives.  Thanks for reminding me.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on February 05, 2024, 05:54:56 AM
Open office is great right up until the point you need to open a document created in MS office.
This is frustrating.  They seem to be intentionally blurring the line between Office and Microsoft 365.  The first step in the process of downloading Office to the new PC is to log in to my Microsoft account and choose which Microsoft 365 subscription I want, either yearly or monthly.  There do not seem to be any other options on that page, and no way to just say "No thanks, I just want to install Office 2016".  I don't care about the online storage, automatic backup, or any of that other shit.  I just want the desktop software so I can work with my Word and Excel documents, and I want the option where I don't pay every year or every month.  Nowhere to be found.

What a fucking scam.

https://support.microsoft.com/sv-se/office/ladda-ned-och-installera-eller-ominstallera-office-2019-office-2016-eller-office-2013-7c695b06-6d1a-4917-809c-98ce43f86479#bkmk_signin

My understanding is if the product key of Office 2016 is linked to your 365 account you should be able to download standalone installers of office 2016 from the Microsoft dashboard. If not, then you may be stuck. But you can also find old school office 2016 ISOs in less legitimate places online and install from there.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 05, 2024, 09:59:08 AM
I stopped bothering with Microsoft Office for my home PC many many years ago.  I'm just not paying monthly subscriptions or even a base pay for an older version when google has it all for free.  It may also just be that I don't find myself using office products at home too much to warrant spending money.  Google docs just work and being integrated with my google account also means all my work is easy to access on any device.  Once again, it's free and painless.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on February 05, 2024, 11:32:20 AM
I stopped bothering with Microsoft Office for my home PC many many years ago.  I'm just not paying monthly subscriptions or even a base pay for an older version when google has it all for free.  It may also just be that I don't find myself using office products at home too much to warrant spending money.  Google docs just work and being integrated with my google account also means all my work is easy to access on any device.  Once again, it's free and painless.
100% this. If you already have a Gmail/Google account, this is a no brainer. If you don't have a Gmail account, it's still a no brainer.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 05, 2024, 12:53:51 PM
I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on February 05, 2024, 12:56:31 PM
I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.

I honestly don't know exactly how compatible they are, but they are VERY similar and since I was just using google docs, I know I can export/import word documents.  But without knowing more, I would imagine there are those obscure functions and whatnot that may be tricky to swap over.  I just don't know. 
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 05, 2024, 12:59:22 PM
Not sure if it's the same for 2016, but when I log in to my MS account online, under Services and Subscriptions I see this for me which is how I install on new devices when I do need to. I just hit install and it downloads a small .exe and installs the whole shebang.


(https://imgur.com/vqbgPOa.png)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 05, 2024, 01:37:48 PM
I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.
Open Office is probably the more comparable option. That's what I use. What you'll find with any other option is that there will always be some incompatibility, even if it's completely trivial. That's by design. It's a feature! Open Office will absolutely open word/excel docs, and I suspect that you can export your docs as .doc/xls. Even so, M$ will probably give you a trivial amount of grief about opening them up, which will most likely only go so far as to make you install a filter of some sort.

I'd be happy to send you a "word" doc and an "Excel" doc to see if they work for you, although you could just as easily DL it and see for yourself. Since it's open source it's completely free--they don't even want an email address from you.

All of that having been said, stick with M$. People who use programs professionally tend not to like change, and they'll find things that piss them off with any alternative. I'm saddled with Adobe at work, and it's all just fucking terrible. I bring it up because Adobe relies on that dislike of change to keep their customers. Illustrator and PS do weird things in peculiar ways, solely to make their competitors seem more annoying. Weird things that defy the standard conventions. I'm pretty sure M$ would incorporate similar "peculiarities" just to make Google and Open Office seem too foreign to their own addicted users. I know, my mom is one of those.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 06, 2024, 06:42:24 AM
Well, professionally I use actual Microsoft Office.  But at home, I use Word to create my chord/lyric charts, and the household budget has always been in Excel, with sheets for each bank account, credit card, etc.  Going on 30 years now, and I've got all the shortcuts figured out and have a few macros that I'd like to keep.  It's really more a matter of being picky, I suppose, but after all this time, it definitely would be a pain in the ass to have to work around those features that I actually use that the clone software doesn't support.  So I'd pay (once) to be able to continue doing things the way I've always done them.

Not sure if it's the same for 2016, but when I log in to my MS account online, under Services and Subscriptions I see this for me which is how I install on new devices when I do need to. I just hit install and it downloads a small .exe and installs the whole shebang.

(https://imgur.com/vqbgPOa.png)

This is exactly the type of thing I was expecting, but I didn't see anything like that.  I'm gonna try again when I feel like a little more Microsuffering.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Indiscipline on February 06, 2024, 06:45:29 AM
They knew what they were doing when they picked Start Me Up as anthem.

You make a grown man cry.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on February 10, 2024, 01:25:05 PM
Success!  Microsoft Office 2016 (yeah yeah, I know) is installed on the new PC, which is running Windows 10 because I still have never tried Windows 11 and haven't done any research yet.  I may get around to that later this year.  I'm not against upgrading, but I don't have to have the latest version of anything, either.  I need enough plusses for the new software to overcome the "if it ain't broke..." rule, otherwise I'll stick with what's familiar and what I know works.

The new PC is now another big step closer towards becoming my primary workstation.  Thanks, everyone!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on February 10, 2024, 06:25:12 PM
Win 10 is still good but I've moved all my pc's over to windows 11. There are some quality of life features I really like about win 11 (I think I read some of these updates were coming to win 10 so this might be old info):

- Tabbed file explorer is really nice
- HDR works a lot better in Win 11 (although not perfect)
- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on February 12, 2024, 09:14:50 AM
My main problem with Win 11 is that for every good idea there are two stupid ones, or issues caused by trying to keep 4 decade old features alive in a half arsed way.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on February 12, 2024, 05:55:23 PM
Don't worry XJ, win 12 is right around the corner!
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on February 13, 2024, 05:25:16 AM
If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on February 14, 2024, 01:14:52 PM
If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.
Did they do that with 11?

- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC
Ten allows you to select device for each app, but I've found it fairly wonky. What's up with this on 11?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: King Puppies and the Acid Guppies on February 14, 2024, 03:37:38 PM
If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.
Did they do that with 11?
They did, but there are some ways around it. At least there was a few months ago. I haven't tried the workaround recently.

- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC
Ten allows you to select device for each app, but I've found it fairly wonky. What's up with this on 11?
It's much smoother and less wonky on 11.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Bolsters on February 14, 2024, 08:10:36 PM
I don't remember signing up for a Microsoft account at all when I did this install, and I'm not logged into one according to account settings. I was under the impression it was entirely optional.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: faizoff on February 14, 2024, 08:33:08 PM
I have Win 11 on a virtual machine and use it on and off to try features. I do like the aesthetic and with now having an ultrawide monitor, the start menu in the middle is actually fine. I do however do not like how gimped it is compared to what's in Win 10. The ability to resize the icons and live tiles are super helpful. I will have to install it on a regular machine and use it as a daily driver for a month and see if I miss win 10.

As far as the account sign in goes, I've personally used an account since at least win 8. It makes activation and restoring settings and apps quite smooth.

Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on March 17, 2024, 07:43:43 AM
Next first-world problem: The Dell came with a little 2.1 audio setup involving two little satellites and a subwoofer.  It's not bad and has served pretty well, but either the left speaker is dying or there's a bad cord or something, because the volume in the left satellite is about 20% of the right.  There's no individual channel volume or balance control anywhere.  In the old days, the Control Panel on the PC had all kinds of stuff, I remember Balance in addition to Volume, and possibly Bass and Treble as well.  The only thing I can apparently control anymore is Master Volume and the Volume of each of the various sound sources.  I want to shove the Balance over to the left (which I can do in WinAmp but not Media Player) to compensate, but it's not in the Control Panel.

Surely someone makes some kind of utility to allow you to mess with Balance, or hopefully other stuff, in your Sound settings.  Can anyone recommend one?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 17, 2024, 07:55:45 AM
You can still mess with the balance in Windows 10/11 it's just a pain in the ass.

1. Go to Settings
2. Click System
3. Click Sound
4. Scroll down to "More Sound Settings"
5. Select your speakers in the dialog window and click properties
6. Click the levels tab
7. Click balance


Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 17, 2024, 11:54:15 AM
Make sure they're connected to the right jacks, and that they're configured correctly in the panel RKK pointed you to. It sounds to me like the L speaker might be getting the sub out. Or perhaps Windows is outputting 5.1 and it's getting a rear channel.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Orbert on March 17, 2024, 04:59:18 PM
Thanks, guys.  I thought I'd gone through all the possible options, but of course there's always "more" settings and "other" settings, and then when you select the particular device, there's configuration there as well.  I eventually found the Balance setting, not quite where you'd described since they're all different, but I found it.

There's no way to plug things into the wrong jacks; it's all through the green mini stereo out from the sound card, and the old PC was having the same issue.

Anyway, problem solved.  Thanks! :)
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ProfessorPeart on March 17, 2024, 10:12:08 PM
A Microsoft account is mandatory for the latest flavors of Win 11 to even install it. This is where Rufus comes in. I will be making my install media with that going forward.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 18, 2024, 08:16:05 AM
A Microsoft account is mandatory for the latest flavors of Win 11 to even install it. This is where Rufus comes in. I will be making my install media with that going forward.
It's neat when a company makes their product so annoying to own legally that it's far easier to just steal the thing. I'm not suggesting that you've stolen it, mind you. I legally own games that I only play pirated versions of for that reason.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ProfessorPeart on March 18, 2024, 01:34:53 PM
That's the beauty of Rufus. It technically has nothing to do with pirating, well, it probably does but that's not my point. I like having a local account on my machines. I like being able to make bootable install media where I can strip out that aspect of the install procedure. Just hardcode my local account into the process. Nice and simple.

And yeah, I do have Windows 11 installed on machines that 'don't meet spec'. Thing is, those are machines that got the automatic 10 license. I use Rufus to strip out the mandatory crap and guess what, the OS runs just fine on those machines. It's a handy tool.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 18, 2024, 01:53:41 PM
That's the beauty of Rufus. It technically has nothing to do with pirating, well, it probably does but that's not my point. I like having a local account on my machines. I like being able to make bootable install media where I can strip out that aspect of the install procedure. Just hardcode my local account into the process. Nice and simple.

And yeah, I do have Windows 11 installed on machines that 'don't meet spec'. Thing is, those are machines that got the automatic 10 license. I use Rufus to strip out the mandatory crap and guess what, the OS runs just fine on those machines. It's a handy tool.
Yeah, I've used Rufus before. Not in a while, but back in the XP days, when you'd have to reinstall on a fairly regular basis, it was nice to be able to use a stripped down version without the added bloat.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 22, 2024, 12:47:02 PM
Hey all. I'd like to pick your brains for a minute. Have any of you ever come across a remote laptop of sorts?

I've been going back and forth on whether I want to pick up a Playstation Portal. It's basically a Playstation controller with a screen in the middle. It's got no storage or horsepower of its own. The PS5 in the home does all the processing and it just dumps the image to the Portal over wifi.

(https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/812d9a2553f9196faa53bd00dec5c91d2a375c27/hub/2023/08/21/7f262050-17db-44c8-beda-c754eda266b4/p1015114.jpg?auto=webp&width=768)

This has made me realize that I'd love this feature in a laptop form factor. My office PC does everything I need it to except leave the office. I don't want to shell out a pretty penny on a standalone laptop, but I'd wouldn't mind spending a few hundred on what's basically just a laptop shell that's displaying whatever my home PC is doing.   

Do any companies make such a device?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: XJDenton on March 22, 2024, 02:25:02 PM
Why not just buy a tablet with a reasonable keyboard cover and install something like anydesk?
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 23, 2024, 08:24:36 AM
Why not just buy a tablet with a reasonable keyboard cover and install something like anydesk?

This. Or if you're going to just game on it I highly recommend the Steam Deck. I got one and it has the horsepower to play games fairly decently, or you can always stream from your PC to the Deck just like PS Portal. I have my deck hooked up to my living room tv and stream from my main PC, it works amazingly well.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 25, 2024, 09:02:32 AM
Why not just buy a tablet with a reasonable keyboard cover and install something like anydesk?

I didn't think of that option. I really like the form factor of a laptop and having it on your lap. Can you get that with any of the tablet setups out there?

This. Or if you're going to just game on it I highly recommend the Steam Deck. I got one and it has the horsepower to play games fairly decently, or you can always stream from your PC to the Deck just like PS Portal. I have my deck hooked up to my living room tv and stream from my main PC, it works amazingly well.

This has nothing to do with gaming. I'll do that at my desk. I want this so I can do spreadsheet and CAD stuff on the couch while the wife and I watch stuff.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 25, 2024, 09:16:31 AM
Sounds like you just want to use Windows Remote Desktop then?  It's free part of windows, you may have to install it.  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-allow-access (I can't seem to post a link? the forum seems funky today)

I know they make phone apps to do this as well, I used to use a remote desktop for my phone to my PC, but it's been many many years and I don't have that set up anymore, but it should be really simple.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 25, 2024, 09:26:28 AM
Sounds like you just want to use Windows Remote Desktop then?  It's free part of windows, you may have to install it.  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-allow-access (I can't seem to post a link? the forum seems funky today)

I know they make phone apps to do this as well, I used to use a remote desktop for my phone to my PC, but it's been many many years and I don't have that set up anymore, but it should be really simple.

Right. This is exactly what I want to do. I don't want to pay for, or need, a full functioning laptop, but I want that form factor. I was just wondering if anyone made what's basically a laptop shell (a screen and keyboard) that doesn't nothing but remote play my home PC. Pretty much the exact same concept as the Playstation Portal, but for a PC.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: cramx3 on March 25, 2024, 09:44:47 AM
Right. This is exactly what I want to do. I don't want to pay for, or need, a full functioning laptop, but I want that form factor. I was just wondering if anyone made what's basically a laptop shell (a screen and keyboard) that doesn't nothing but remote play my home PC. Pretty much the exact same concept as the Playstation Portal, but for a PC.

I'd imagine you could get a cheap tablet or like a chrome book to run remote desktop.  Since a phone can do it, got to think an android laptop could too.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: El Barto on March 25, 2024, 10:04:24 AM
And if you just don't want to spend money on more computer than you actually need, don't discount buying somebody's used laptop with 9 month old tech because they had to upgrade to 1 month old tech. A functional laptop is a great thing to have for any number of reasons. Power failure. Long flights. Car repair. Camping. I bought a 10 year old Thinkpad Helix for one bill because the form factor is great and it's fairly ruggedized. It won't game, but it'll do everything else I need.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: ReaperKK on March 25, 2024, 11:06:10 AM
I'd imagine you could get a cheap tablet or like a chrome book to run remote desktop.  Since a phone can do it, got to think an android laptop could too.

Chrome book would be my suggestion too. I use chrome remote desktop and it works brilliantly from my phone.
Title: Re: The PC thread
Post by: Chino on March 25, 2024, 01:50:02 PM
Cool cool cool. Thanks for the input, guys.