The PC thread

[cramx3]

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.

[ReaperKK]

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.

[BlobVanDam]

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.

[ReaperKK]

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.

[Prog Snob]

Almost forgot to thank you, guys. It worked. 

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.

[BlobVanDam]

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.

[ReaperKK]

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.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

The best thing i've seen in a while:

Indian Microsoft Scammer Tries to Scam Ex Microsoft Employee

#BURN

[Adami]

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

[cramx3]

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.

[Adami]

Anyone else? I'd appreciate it.

[faizoff]

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?

[faizoff]

Also the new NVidia Titan X was announced today to be released in 2 weeks. $1200 card!

[cramx3]

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.

[ReaperKK]

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 $$$.

[jasc15]

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 using this list to figure out what updates I need.  When attempting to install these, i get the following message:

.

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"

[jasc15]

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.

[cramx3]

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.

[MetalJunkie]

The best thing i've seen in a while:

Indian Microsoft Scammer Tries to Scam Ex Microsoft Employee

#BURN

Long video, but worth the watch. I like this guy's personality, and he handled the whole thing expertly.

[Cyclopssss]

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? 

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

[Prog Snob]

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.

[ReaperKK]

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 using this list to figure out what updates I need.  When attempting to install these, i get the following message:

.

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.

[cramx3]

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? 

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.

[ReaperKK]

I'm getting my 1TB SSD in the mail today, that's what I'm going to install windows 10 on

[cramx3]

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    My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay    but if I were to steal one, it would land in my PC.

[BlobVanDam]

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    My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay    but if I were to steal one, it would land in my PC.

Jebus, how much is that monster worth?

[cramx3]

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    My boss has already warned me about the cards showing up on ebay    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/

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.

[BlobVanDam]

I thought maybe they'd be a lot cheaper there, but apparently not. 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.

[cramx3]

I thought maybe they'd be a lot cheaper there, but apparently not. 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.

[BlobVanDam]

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.

[Cyclopssss]

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? 

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.... )

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.

[Lucien]

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.

[cramx3]

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.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

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.

[BlobVanDam]

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.