PC Tech Thread

Never liked homeplug, performance was no better than wifi. Certainly isn't same as wired

I used something like those until my internet connection was upgraded to 100Mb, when I found out they only managed 60.

I've wasted a hell of a lot of money on power line adapters, WiFi extenders, new WiFi routers and the like over the years. None have had great performance for 100 Mbps internet, never mind copying stuff to or from my server.

Drilling a hole in the wall and running a cable is something I should have done years ago

Dell XPS 15.

Fuck yeah.

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I used something like those until my internet connection was upgraded to 100Mb, when I found out they only managed 60.

Yep, the cheap ones will be like that, my current ones (TP-Link I think) get very close to their rated speed for transfers between desktop and server (in different rooms). One of the servers is an ESXi box so wireless networking is a pain in the arse as hardware support by VMWare is shite.

@duncs > Never liked homeplug, performance was no better than wifi. Certainly isn't same as wired

Which is why the ones I linked to are Gigabit, so even if they only get ~600Mbps that's plenty enough, and more than 802.11n (300Mbps) can do.

802.11ac will be nice but Gigabit homeplug will do in the mean time.

I've got another 6 months or so of waiting until I can get BT Infinity anyway.

If I ever get the flat rewired I'd be putting Cat 5/5e/6 in everywhere but that's a long way down the list of stuff that needs doing.

802.11ac hasn't served me any better than homeplug to be honest. Granted, the last time I used homeplug was the 500mpbs ones, and I have an old house so maybe some of the wiring is a bit shoddy, noisy - anyway, Win10 doesn't seem to play well yet with the particular wireless chipset (Netgear A6210) and homeplug was great until it wasn't. Suppose that's Windows' fault but pragmatism.

I wouldn't have put 6a down unless the floors were coming up anyway, but since they are then I did.

Anyway, I think we're agreeing. Cabling great if convenient, otherwise something else.

Blagged one from a pal. Thanks for all the offers. Much appreciated ladies and gentlemen.

My home plug wasn't the fastest, due to very old wiring I suspect. I'm the upstairs flat in a house but when I plugged my home plug in I could access the network of someone three houses down from me.

They hadn't passworded anything, I was quite tempted to start playing their sonos and randomly edit files on their network drive.

So my HP netbook died a few days ago. The fan works and the Caps Lock light comes on (sometimes constantly, sometimes flashing) but nothing on the screen. Does this sound like the motherboard has gone? Most of it is backed up but is there a way I can get into it to copy off a few files either via another PC or by a program on a USB stick?

UBCD?

Best bet, remove the hard drive and put in a suitable usb caddy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sata-Hard-Drive-Caddy-Enclosure/dp/B003MVVPZI

Thanks, I'll give those both a look.

Windows 8.1 (upgradable to 10) for £16 http://www.play-asia.com/microsoft-windows-81-pro-3264-bit-oem-key-dl/13/708oj7

I have used Play Asia in the past and they've been fine but I've no idea whether this is bona fide. Probably spare OEM keys I'd guess.

Not sure if this is the right thread. But i thought i'd explore this before i waste time crafting a lovely FS post.

But i have a beat of an editing rig. Built it under two years ago for something like £1400. I don't need it anymore as i am leaving the country and i need the money.

It's an X79 platform, tons of very fast ram. Lots of PCI-E Channels. 8 Cores CPU. A beast of a GPU. I used to it for editing HD video, photography and photoshop. Also gaming at stupidly cracked up settings.

Might sell it on the cheeeap. Is this something anyone, somewhere on here or off would be interested in buying? Cheers.

P.S. i hope this isn't against the rules. Just finding out whether a sale post is realistic.

I've a WD Elements external hard drive that is not powering up. Seems that something is shorting as have removed from USB housing and plugged in PC SATA and it prevents PC powering up. Anyone suggestions on fixing/recovering from such a drive?

Get another hdd and swap the board on it, usually held on with 3-4 tiny torx screws and some ribbon cables.

Anyone got a SoundBlaster Z working with Windows 10?

I think my PC froze last night due to overheating... hit 90 I think. Have bought a new more fancy after market cooler now. These bloody PC things....

Upgrading my NAS to 24TB this evening.

This whole process is scary. Essentially to expand a RAID6 capacity either requires replacing every drive (full rebuilds) and then expanding the capacity... or just backing everything up, swapping all drives, building a new RAID6 and copying the data back.

The second option is safer... except whilst doing it, the data will only exist in one place (well, the old drives in theory still have the data, but in practise who knows).

I've pretty much filled the 16TB I have. Think I'm going to opt for sticking a load of Blu-ray rips through Handbrake to get the size down to around 10GB rather than than 30GB per film.

https://x265.com

Interesting but after a quick read around it doesn't seem that clear cut. For high bitrate files it seems that the difference between them is a bit disputed. Plus there are some suggestions that Plex doesn't transcode the resulting files that nicely.

I need to do some experimenting at some point to decide settings whatever encoder I use so may see then.

I have a weird issue with a Hannspree HP227 monitor and Dell laptop.

Works fine on HDMI-DVI. On VGA-VGA there is a black bar an inch or so wide on the right hand side of the screen. As such the aspect ratio is slightly squashed and the displays "jitters" slightly.

It happens with multiple machines and multiple monitors. Even tried a different model of Dell laptop and still get the same issue. Any bright ideas?

don't use VGA ?

That would be the ideal situation but the plan is to use two monitors so need one for VGA and one for HDMI.