PC Tech Thread

That's a really good shout. I won't but it's the sort of thing she might.

I use Open Office.

I'm far from a power-user though.

Open Office is alright but also a bit shit.

Sort of my memory.

Fine on my old netbook but not what I'd choose for work work.

OK :(

Open Office is a ballache if you want proper Office integration, it's OK but not quite good enough all of the time. It's not quite consistent enough with formatting, pictures, etc (and macros are out). Also, if you're a reasonably proficient Excel user you'll find the Open Office version a bit shit in particular. The gap isn't as big with Word.

If you use cloud storage then Office 365 isn't too bad. I pay £50-£60 per year for multiple machines (cheaper on Amazon/Ebuyer, etc than MS website) and 1TB of cloud storage. That's pretty much the same as you'd just pay for the storage on Dropbox, iClud, etc

Google Docs if you just want functional or proper Office if you want proper Office :)

Virtual machines, what software is recommended for running these nowadays? I used to use VirtualBox, anything better to use now? Base OS is Windows, will mainly be running Linux and Windows.

Just for playing around on stuff so only looking at free versions, cheers.

That's not a bad idea. At the moment I segment my cloud storage.

@hippy yes that seems to be the case. Just trying to work out a cheap route to Office really.

£46 for a single user licence here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Office-Licence-Users-subscription/dp/B00A2ILUZO is not too bad if you have to use it. As I said, I feel a bit better about it having backed up about 600GB to the Onedrive cloud.

If you had signed up to Onedrive before then they're reducing the free size limits from 15GB to 5GB. But as part of that they're doing a year free to their 1TB offering with Office included.
You're only renting it, but you're renting for free for a year so it's decent enough to put the problem off. Already had Office but signed up for the free year and it was hassle free.

Doesn't look like absolutely everyone qualifies from the freebie, but worth checking
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/business-software/you-could-get-office-365-for-free-if-you-re-on-onedrive-1319244

Is there anything in particular to look at with motherboards? Would like as cheap as possible but will be on 24/7 (headless plex server) so reliability is also an issue.

Is for a fairly low powered build, i3, 4GB of RAM, 1 SSD, no graphics cards, etc so doesn't need to be super fast. mATX size.

Would something like this do the job? http://www.ebuyer.com/728679-asus-h81m-p-plus-socket-1150-vga-dvi-hdmi-8-channel-audio-matx-h81m-p-plus

Finally got round to sticking a watercooler on my RX480 , 25c temp idle not really tested it, will blast some overwatch tomorrow.

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I'd guess so... I'm using a very similar H82 gigabyte board. Cost 35 quid. Use it for all sorts and it runs like a charm.

Thinking of building a custom case... anyone have any experience with such things?

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I'm getting occasional flickering on my monitor. Any way of working out what may be the cause (monitor, video card, HDMI cable, software)?

Process of elimination.

If you have a 2nd laptop anywhere, hook it up... does it still happen? If yes... it's the cables or monitor, if no then it's laptop or software on it.

If cables or monitor, buy cheap cables and test again.

If laptop or software. Good luck.

Looking for some advice on possible foray into PC ownership as I need to use Autodesk 3D modelling and design software and it mostly seems to be aimed at/compatible with the PC market.

As someone who's been Apple-only for about 15 years and tried very unsuccessfully to run programs on Parallels I have about a gnat's fart worth of information about what spec I should be looking for and a decent price.

Anyone use similar and have any insight?

Thanks, you're right. Obvious and a "lot" of work (some work).

Annoying thing is the flickering is really inconsistent and unpredictable. A few times a day. So it makes it hard to test.

Are you blinking a lot?

Only inconsistently and unpredictably.

may be worth talking to @Rowhan he does all that 3D modelling voodoo on a PC, Andy! help the fella out!

U rang?

If you're doing rendering-heavy stuff with high-res texturing and or lighting effects, get the best cpu you can afford basically and build the rest of your pc around that. The processor will be doing <95% of the work.
What ever's left of your budget you probably want to split between graphics (mid-low modern gaming card is good enough) and min.8 rec.16 gb of ddr4 memory.

I can run realtime flythroughs of my old projects, silky smooth on an i5 4670k and a GTX970 graphics card, but you might want to get a much faster i7 6700k and skimp on the gpu with a GTX950. (Mine was built balanced with cad and games in mind)

Oh yeah - get a small solid state drive just for your visual software and project files. Cannot recommend enough. Saves me about 30mins-1hr a day in loading, autosaving, and general slowdown compared to a 7200rpm sata