PC Tech Thread

Thanks @Sumo @Velocio! Both good shouts. Main issue seems to be finding webcams and mid-range headsets but those are nice, not urgent. Assume they've been bought up as people/businesses transition to WFH (i.e. partner's firm bought and delivered ~600 Chromebooks to staff on Friday!).

I'll hold off those for a few days and just sort the other 'essential' bits (another keyboard, HDMI>DVI cables, USB hubs, other misc bits).

Gaming headsets.

Though I found the Jabra 510 https://www.jabra.co.uk/business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-510 to be a much better purchase if you're in a room by yourself when you do meetings. The 410 is on Amazon Prime and in stock and will be sufficient https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jabra-Conference-Speakerphone-optimised-Microsoft/dp/B004ELA7TA/ref=sr_1_3

For webcams, I'm using a digital camera which I already own, I purchased an Elgato CamLink and a cheaper power (dummy battery) from Amazon.

Logitech appear to be sold out of almost everything, but have this in stock https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/c930e-webcam?crid=34

Good call on the Jabra, hadn't considered that but have had good experience using them in the past. Will investigate digital camera option too. Got a mini tripod kicking around somewhere.

Most Bluetooth headphones nowadays are decent as headsets with the built in mics

Re webcam, my boss has the logi c930 and I have just bought the logi c922, both are basically the same.

If you are in a room by yourself, the mic from either of these webcams are decent. I was in meeting at week nobody complained they couldn’t hear me clearly.

Good to know!

As far as I know, the c930e comes with a privacy cover and my c922 comes with a little tripod.

Also, I’d try Jigsaw 24 see if you can get hold of everything. Their website is shit but if you call them, they should be able to get hold of stock for you from manufacturers directly. They are very nice and helpful people. They have much larger range of stuff than what’s listed on their website.

I fucked up some purchase orders recently and I was shitting myself, they sorted it for me in 1 phone call. None of those big call centres BS. I like them a lot!

Mind you, I have only even deal with them as a business customer and their prices are always competitive, as a individual, you might just have to pay the RRP. They don’t don’t next day but orders usually arrive within 2 or 3 days, but this could also be down to us not sending the PO to them quick enough...

Get a list together and try them if you want 1 order.

1 Attachment

Jigsaw 24

https://www.jigsaw24.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmdzzBRC7ARIsANdqRRmtN6_yFHc-0D5imyLo2Xm5R10ohLn-bYPuRiANJPY-XtkYeBWCNToaAr1oEALw_wcB

I've found this to be a nightmare on win10, with a usb bluetooth dongle. Headphones and mini-speaker work fine streaming audio, but as soon as you change the profile to audio&mic, programs get confused, drivers crash, audio stops working and the audio quality is shocking.
https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/
Spent £13 since on a wired headset with audio and mic 3.5mm connections and am way happier.

Did you find a solution to this? I have a colleague with a very high resolution laptop and 1080p screen, he has a python script he uses to manage the scaling - I can dig it out if you like?

I've had no issues with a laptop with built in Bluetooth but I suspect it's just set up as a headset from the start so never have to switch profiles.

I haven't been able to get per-monitor scaling to work well in Linux.

Never got this working, so I actually buy lower-res laptops. This doesn't help you I know.

Alternative... just use the external screen.

I found that per-monitor scaling is just about passable if you use Wayland instead of X11, but then I get a bunch of different issues. For example I can't use the GTX 1050 and the clipboard doesn't work reliably with Snaps, etc.

Like @Velocio suggests, I just use the external screen.

I'd be interested to see your colleague's python script though.

Just thinking out aloud here. My machine contains:

• i5-6500 CPU
  
• GTX 1050 Ti
  
• 16GB RAM (all slots used)
  
  

What would be the cheapest way to boost graphics performance for this? Find a used but better graphics card on ebay?

What I've ordered: https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Produ­ct.aspx?id=8PM99EA&opt=ABU&sel=DTP&p=c-h­p-omen-obelisk

• Intel® Core™ i7-9700K (3.6 GHz base frequency, up to 4.9 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 12 MB cache, 8 cores)
  
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2080 Super™ (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
  
• 16 GB HyperX® memory; 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD + 2 TB HDD storage
  
• Liquid cooling solution; Glass side panel; RGB lighting; Tool-less access
  

This thing just arrived, it's not really that large at all, and whilst I knew it had liquid cooling I've never had one of those before and it looks really good not to have some huge heat sink.

Oh my word though, graphics cards are huge nowadays! This thing takes the entire space of the case, and I don't think this is needed for any other reason than to take the graphics card.

I'm at work now, so will turn it on later.

Use a GPU comparison site to work out what models will give you a significant improvement and then check new and second-hand prices. I suspect the only 2nd hand Nvidia candidates are the 1070 and 1080, plus Ti versions. I would make sure any replacement has increased VRAM.

Such as my Vega 56?

Yeah, was startled when I saw a 2080. It is just fucking massive.

I own two old laptops that I'd like to replace with one newer, much, much faster laptop. My big HP is having some graphics issues that I can't fix since a recent TR update and this subby that I'm on while working on my tan is so slow I could probably carrier pigeon the data around faster.

Of the laptops that have a proper keyboard (CTRL bottom left) are there any bargains out there? Anyone looking to shift something decent and used? I like HP laptops but I've not had to look for 14 years so who knows what's happening with tops of lap these days.

Halfway house 15" I guess, SSD and I don't think there's much else I actually require. My PC will do the grunty stuff.

HP's business laptops (what I have now) are £1600 which is steaming bollocks

Er, I remember now, I agreed to buy that, then didn't, and bought a 2060 Super instead. Sorry about that.

I would buy a warrantied corporate refurb HP/Dell/Lenovo with an i7 from Tier1online or similar.

Ha, no worries, already reported you (I'm kidding). 2060 S is a great shout, about twice what I'm after, but still, great cards.

They're legit then? I'll have a look at what they've got, cheers.