The computer and electronics super geek thread

[Shadow]

Starting my first PC build in years. Shopping around for a main storage drive and learning the hard way that finding a 500GB SSD under $100 is almost futile.

[barurutor]

You'll have to wait for Black Friday or similar deals for ~500GB at $100. Check /r/buildapcsales regularly, I suppose.

[TangledThorns]

2 hours ago, barurutor said:

You'll have to wait for Black Friday or similar deals for ~500GB at $100. Check /r/buildapcsales regularly, I suppose.

Agreed. Best time to build a PC is on Black Friday. You can probably save hundreds of dollars.

[Shadow]

15 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

Agreed. Best time to build a PC is on Black Friday. You can probably save hundreds of dollars.

Yeah, not waiting till then. I'm probably going to go with a smaller capacity 240 - 256GB SSD (for OS and favorite games) with a 1TB HDD for extra storage. If I can get a 1TB SSD around black friday later in the year, I will.

Other components I'm looking at:

Intel i5 6600K and also weighing the 7600K

MSI Z170A 3X Krait Gaming Mobo

16GB Ripjaws DDR4

XFX Radeon GTR RX 480

Corsair CX550M 550W PSU

Cryorig C7 Heatsink

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I don't mean to derail anyone here but I was wondering if anyone else has run into this issue:  I'm backing up precious 4K video and photos from my camcorder's SD card to M-Disc Blu Ray (50 GB per disc) on my laptop.  As I select files to be burned onto the disc, I get a message stating that I need a X amount of GB on the disc even though my laptop recognizes that there is way more free space than X left over on the disc.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[kajnrig]

What program are you using? How big are your file sizes?

@Shadow Today (Friday)'s Shell Shocker deal at Newegg includes a 480GB Toshiba SSD for $99.99. Link to the product page in case you're interested (Shell Shocker deal page hasn't updated to reflect product/price yet): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820228143

(I'll PM you too just in case you miss this thread.)

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

9 hours ago, kajnrig said:

What program are you using? How big are your file sizes?

I don't open any separate program.  A window appears when I insert a blank disc where there is an option to burn files.  I'm guessing that's part of Windows Explorer...?  I'm using Windows 7 btw.

My file sizes differ depending on the length of the video clip, from half a GB to 1.5 GB.

It's really weird. The total sum of the video files I select doesn't add up to 3/4 of the blank disc's capacity, yet I get a message stating I'm over the limit.

[azrael]

51 minutes ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

I don't open any separate program.  A window appears when I insert a blank disc where there is an option to burn files.  I'm guessing that's part of Windows Explorer...?  I'm using Windows 7 btw.

Screenshot of the active window? I'd recommend using a dedicated burning software instead of Windows Explorer to burn.

[azrael]

10 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Today (Friday)'s Shell Shocker deal at Newegg includes a 480GB Toshiba SSD for $99.99. Link to the product page in case you're interested (Shell Shocker deal page hasn't updated to reflect product/price yet): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820228143

And it's sold out.

[kajnrig]

1 hour ago, azrael said:

Screenshot of the active window? I'd recommend using a dedicated burning software instead of Windows Explorer to burn.

I second this. When I last burned DVDs, I used a program called ImgBurn. But the software options may have changed since then.

With ImgBurn, you could pick and choose files and sort them however you want before burning. It wouldn't randomly spit out disc size errors like that.

I've never used W7's built-in burning feature, but I sure do hope it's not burning a file the moment you click-drag it to the disc. Rendering 99% of your storage space unreadable would not be a fun time.

2 hours ago, azrael said:

And it's sold out.

Yikes. Hope he got to it in time.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

I found out what was happening.  The files were defaultly being burned as a disc image, like an ISO file. Somehow this was taking up more space than necessary-I'm still trying to figure out why.  But when the files are saved as just plain data files, which I'm perfectly fine with, it all adds up.  Regardless, many thanks azrael and kajnrig.

[Smiley424]

On 2/3/2017 at 1:23 AM, Shadow said:

Yeah, not waiting till then. I'm probably going to go with a smaller capacity 240 - 256GB SSD (for OS and favorite games) with a 1TB HDD for extra storage. If I can get a 1TB SSD around black friday later in the year, I will.

Other components I'm looking at:

Intel i5 6600K and also weighing the 7600K

MSI Z170A 3X Krait Gaming Mobo

16GB Ripjaws DDR4

XFX Radeon GTR RX 480

Corsair CX550M 550W PSU

Cryorig C7 Heatsink

Looks fine to me.  Without a budget and usage it is hard to critique your parts, but everything looks solid to me.  Have you tried putting up your build on pcpartpicker.com or the reddit buildapc thread?  Just more folks that can comment and critique over there.  Also, there is alot of buzz with the AMD Ryzen CPU and Vega GPUs scheduled to come out later this year.  If you don't need the PC son, I would wait and see what AMD brings to the table.

[Shadow]

7 hours ago, Smiley424 said:

Looks fine to me.  Without a budget and usage it is hard to critique your parts, but everything looks solid to me.  Have you tried putting up your build on pcpartpicker.com or the reddit buildapc thread?  Just more folks that can comment and critique over there.  Also, there is alot of buzz with the AMD Ryzen CPU and Vega GPUs scheduled to come out later this year.  If you don't need the PC son, I would wait and see what AMD brings to the table.

Thanks.

I'm definitely trying to keep it under $1000 and in the $900 area. Anything less without sacrificing performance would just be more icing. Time wise, I decided that it was time for a new build since it would function as a work/personal PC. My current laptop is 6 years old so endurance is becoming a concern with how much I'm using it.

Yeah, the SSDs on newegg as part of that deal were sold out. I nabbed a PNY 240GB solid state though for a good price.

[Smiley424]

18 hours ago, Shadow said:

Thanks.

I'm definitely trying to keep it under $1000 and in the $900 area. Anything less without sacrificing performance would just be more icing. Time wise, I decided that it was time for a new build since it would function as a work/personal PC. My current laptop is 6 years old so endurance is becoming a concern with how much I'm using it.

Yeah, the SSDs on newegg as part of that deal were sold out. I nabbed a PNY 240GB solid state though for a good price.

I just looked at your build more in depth and I think you should look at another CPU cooler.  I read up on the Cryorig C7 and it seems to be geared towards mini ITX builds, which are very small, compact PCs.  The motherboard you listed is an ATX board, this standard size, and I also see you listed K CPUs, which are overclockable, and the reviews on the Cryorig C7 that I skimmed say it is not recommended for overclocking your CPU.  Check the Cryorig H7, that appears to be the go to budget CPU cooler now.

Also, unless you do video editing and other CPU intensive tasks, the I5-6600K would be the better pick over the I7-6700K

[Shadow]

39 minutes ago, Smiley424 said:

I just looked at your build more in depth and I think you should look at another CPU cooler.  I read up on the Cryorig C7 and it seems to be geared towards mini ITX builds, which are very small, compact PCs.  The motherboard you listed is an ATX board, this standard size, and I also see you listed K CPUs, which are overclockable, and the reviews on the Cryorig C7 that I skimmed say it is not recommended for overclocking your CPU.  Check the Cryorig H7, that appears to be the go to budget CPU cooler now.

Also, unless you do video editing and other CPU intensive tasks, the I5-6600K would be the better pick over the I7-6700K

 

Thanks for the info. I check out the H7. I meant the i5 7600K Kaby Lake. The i7s are too out my budget and gross overkill for what I'm looking for.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Shadow

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Shadow said:

 The i7s are too out my budget and gross overkill for what I'm looking for.

Which still begs the question, what are you planning on doing with this rig? You mentioned it was your work/personal computer. Would that be gaming? Content creation (i.e. video creation & editing)? Graphics/CAD? Etc.....

[Shadow]

2 hours ago, azrael said:

Which still begs the question, what are you planning on doing with this rig? You mentioned it was your work/personal computer. Would that be gaming? Content creation (i.e. video creation & editing)? Graphics/CAD? Etc.....

Gaming? Yes but also running virtual environment tools such as VMWare for my security analysis work.

[Shadow]

Did some research on the new AMD chips coming next month and decided to hold off on the CPU and mobo till reviews come out and to see how Intel reacts at the very least with current pricing. Is DDR4 memory compatible with AMD motherboards?

Edited February 13, 2017 by Shadow

[technoblue]

I think everyone is holding their breath for AMD right now. I know I would love to see them competing again. 

As for DDR4, I think that Ryzen will be offering support for it but the AMD AM3+ processors that are available now support DDR3 only.

[Knight26]

Working on my models lately has shown me that while my laptop is fine for gaming it is now wholly inadequate for using Autocad.  My guess is Autodesk and Nvidea finally worked something out to make ACAD all but useless on commercial graphics cards.  So that means I need to build a dedicated AutoCAD/3D printing workstation.  Obviously looking at a Quadro video card (big money there).  Any recommendations?  Also looking at the refurbed HP work stations, anyone have any experience there and can tell me which old Quadro's to avoid?  Seeing a K4200 equipped workstation with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD for $1400 that entices me.

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Knight26 said:

Working on my models lately has shown me that while my laptop is fine for gaming it is now wholly inadequate for using Autocad.  My guess is Autodesk and Nvidea finally worked something out to make ACAD all but useless on commercial graphics cards.  So that means I need to build a dedicated AutoCAD/3D printing workstation.  Obviously looking at a Quadro video card (big money there).  Any recommendations?  Also looking at the refurbed HP work stations, anyone have any experience there and can tell me which old Quadro's to avoid?  Seeing a K4200 equipped workstation with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD for $1400 that entices me.

How much are you willing to spend (keeping in mind the graphics could be a sizeable chunk of that budget)?

I would probably throw in a Samsung 850 Pro (or some higher end SSD) in there for OS and applications. Definitely look at minimum 16GB RAM.

[Knight26]

Probably less than $2000, that is why I am looking at refurbed units.  Will also talk to my brother in law, see if he has any contacts to getting a decent used one cheap.

[kajnrig]

Anyone here use a trackball mouse? I've always found them really interesting, and this weekend my curiosity got the best of me; I bought a Logitech M570 on sale for $16 at Best Buy. It's been an interesting experience so far, and I got used to it way faster than I thought. I haven't tried it for any gaming, though; apparently I don't have any FPSes installed, so it's time to install me some L4D2 and test it out on there.

What's your experience been like?

[mikeszekely]

Smartphones have gotten sorta samey. Minimal bezels, glass bodies (slowly replacing aluminum ones), and Android skins are getting lighter.

With that in mind, I'm not sure what's more shocking: that Razer is making a phone, or that I actually kind of like it. The combination of specs, design, and price align with my tastes fairly well.

[azrael]

10 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

With that in mind, I'm not sure what's more shocking: that Razer is making a phone, or that I actually kind of like it. The combination of specs, design, and price align with my tastes fairly well.

Looks samey, minus a physical button.

[Knight26]

Looks like my computer won't take the Windows 10 upgrade.  Three tries and the same result each time.  I get to 30% install after reboot, then another reboot and a message that the system will revert to the last version of windows.  Any ideas?

[mikeszekely]

44 minutes ago, Knight26 said:

Looks like my computer won't take the Windows 10 upgrade.  Three tries and the same result each time.  I get to 30% install after reboot, then another reboot and a message that the system will revert to the last version of windows.  Any ideas?

Microsoft used to make a tool that'd scan you PC before you install the new OS to check for potential issues.  Guess they don't anymore?

Have you seen this?

How to troubleshoot common setup and stop errors

[kajnrig]

Reviving this thread just to say, once again,

FUUUUUUUUUUUCK APPLE PRODUCTS.

Even the simplest things like transferring media to a PC they turn into a two-hour headache. Every time I touch my mom's iPad I feel myself die a little inside.

[azrael]

That's Apple life. It's a one-street for transferring media with their phones and tablets.

My rant now...
In spec'ing out my upgrade I just have to ask: How do people live with only 4 or 5 USB ports on the back panel??? And jeez do I have to pay out of my ass just for a motherboard that has more ports. 

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, azrael said:

In spec'ing out my upgrade I just have to ask: How do people live with only 4 or 5 USB ports on the back panel???

Plug the mouse, keyboard, and one or two other devices that stay plugged in all the time into the back, then use the last port to connect a powered 7-port USB 3 hub in. I mean, that's what I do, anyway.

[kajnrig]

Hm... Let me see now... In the back I have 2x USB 2.0, 4x 3.0. Both USB 2.0s are used by keyboard/mouse, one USB 3.0 to external hard drive, another to a 4-port hub to augment the front set of 2x USB 3.0s, and the others... have been unused since I built this computer.

Maybe I should get a Bluetooth adapter and throw it in back there, I dunno...

[TangledThorns]

I have a neat headset stand that doubles as a USB hub that I found on Amazon. I plugged my USB headset and game controller into it.

[David Hingtgen]

Many monitors have a port or two---plug keyboard/mouse into it.  

[azrael]

I like a clean setup without too many wires going to parts unknown or things sticking out from the monitor hub or front panel which can get snagged, hence using the back panel USB for my fixed devices and stuff I want to hide (like a wireless headset receiver).
x1 keyboard (if I want to enable fancy stuff on my keyboard, then it's 2), x1 mouse, x1 monitor USB hub, x1 external HD, x1 phone sync cable

 

[kalvasflam]

Ok, I need to get some help here, I have an older PC (2012 Dell XPS tower) and it went through a Windows 10 update recently (unwanted), and now, my computer is stuck in the repair loop, and can never get clear.  I've scoured the web, and still can't find a solution, when I use a boot media, the stupid thing doesn't want let me repair the unit.  I think the only thing left to do is a full reinstall.   But the damn thing doesn't let me reinstall from the boot media, and I don't know how to do it from the hard drive since it just goes into this idiot repair loop.  

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

(full disclosure, I upgraded from win 7 to win 10, yes, I was a moron)  

Edited January 4, 2018 by kalvasflam