PC Tech Thread

Thanks for your help with this dude.

Not a problem, happy to help :)

Anyone got a LaCie d2 they want rid of looking for upwards of 4gb. Will be my nas back up.

Let me know

On the subject of the NUC it's worth bearing in mind that the GPU in the NUC 8 has got more poke than the one in the NUC 10. (Ignoring the silly ones with the light-up skull on the case).

I prob won't even have a monitor hooked up to mine half the time - just networked up.

Now I gotta figure out to sort my network out, both in terms of making everything connectable and also physical location. I can run cables under the floor easily enough where I need to.

Router
Switch
gaming PC
Nuc (plex, security cam client) + external hdd (file storage)
Smart TV
Mesh (for phones/sonos/laptops/thermostat etc )

Mostly concerned about making sure I can access my NUC/external storage from any laptop or pc on the network so downloading (torrents for example) is seamless and streaming is likewise.

Once my kids are a bit older I plan on having a kids only plex section full of kids content that they can stream from the TV or their own devices so the seamless part is pretty key.

picked up an old Synology DS211J 2-Bay NAS so that means i have the processing power of the NUC and the DSM software at my disposal. Should make the whole thing a bit easier.

With those two together... you are totally set.

Plex on the NUC, and the Synology doing the NAS and storage role... should be easy from here.

Contacting customer services last night seems to have sped things along but I get the impression it’s all a bit chaotic there.

So who knew usb 3.0 controllers had a stupidly low limit on total resources.

Setting up a streaming/recording setup at the moment to pass the lockdown time by talking to myself in high-def and after spending a small fortune on kit, setting it all up just how I want, testing each item in isolation, buying endless cables and adapters to wire it all together and tidying said cabling I finally turn it all on at once to configure and none of it works properly or in some cases at all because i've apparently exceeded the usb resources on my machine.

seems my usb audio interface (goxlr mini) which I specifically bought as it creates multiple assignable soundcards in the OS so i can use it to control all kinds of levels uses a metric fuckton of usb IN/OUTS through its single cable. then throw in a webcam with in built mic and a video capture dongle with sound capture, a stream control keyed interface which a ton of oled key displays and an external HDD and to put it blunt I'm fucked. Even without all the things plugged in I was getting weird shit like my webcam would only do 720p and wouldn't focus itself giving the best beer goggles approximation i've seen in a long time.

Because the MBP only has two usb 3.0 ports and they share a controller, my setup of one port for the hdmi capture dongle and a powered usb 3.0 port for the rest has no way of splitting the load up to make it work and more usb hubs wont fix the bottleneck. A new machine is also not on the cards for a long while yet.

So my only solution (other than to set fire to all the kit and myself) seems to be a TB3 hub (CalDigit TS3plus) which will add two more controllers for usb 3.0 items so i can funnel the data for some of the devices through there instead. Only issue is any thunderbolt device is £££ (£200 in this case) and my MBP is TB2 so apple has me on the hook for £80 worth of adaptor and cable as well. ffs.

add on to the fact I already had to buy a fethead for my xlr mic which the internet definitely told me would have enough gain through my audio interface without one and I had to bootcamp my MBP to win10 just to get some of the software to work because mac support was shite. this has been a bit of a headache of a project.

Welcome to my world... except I did it with Windows and a desktop PC.

Fetheads raise a "this signal is so low you have nothing that can pick it up" into a "this signal can now be picked up"... but actually your audio interface still needs to add gain, and I additionally use Reaper as a DAW to receive the signal from the audio interface and clean it and add even more gain.

Wait... you have turned on the phantom power on the goxlr right?

https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_helicon_go_xlr_mini.htm Phantom power to +24v

That is what powers the fethead to be an amplifier for the mix. But yeah... I see it's a software switch in the goxlr.

I'd gone for this... more basic, but also everything is just within the audio interface https://www.thomann.de/gb/ssl_2.htm?ref=search_rslt_ssl%202_481700_0_0 as in, the 48v phantom power is a button and no app is needed.

Mine's also been an epic project... but I switched to Windows for my desktop as Linux failed with the Elgato Camlink very early in this experiment.

I since discovered that everything wants Windows. The entire streaming, Twitch, and audio and video production worlds must be Windows. Even things like the audio interface wanted Windows (though also claimed Mac support).

My project was smooth running as soon as I embraced Windows. FML.

yeah the goxlr mini turns on phantom power in the app if i have to set it as a condenser mic instead of dynamic.

and the pre-amp will pick it up but i have to have the gain up near full to get the proper level I want and it just gets too noisy which means gating which then cuts out because i don't have enough wiggle room in the gain. hopefully a smidge more clean gain from the fethead sorts it.

the xlr mini appealed as it has the faders so I can change levels without looking at my pc. coupled with the stream deck and some canny macro keys I'm hoping I wont have to touch my keyboard while recording.

I'm actually not hating win10 pro either. feels very much like old style regular windows (xp style) than the 7/8 abominations. there's definitely some bootcamp related quirks lurking around than I am desperately hoping wont fuck this whole thing up.

At the very least I think my hardware setup is solid enough it will last a long time, so replacing the mbp with a dedicated streaming machine if warranted further down the line would be very easy to do.

I'm definitely going to be streaming to myself 99.9% of the time though but if it keeps me occupied I dont really mind.

I can heartily recommend Reaper.

Reaper took my audio, which also was high gain and noisy, and with a few plugins obliterated the noise, made my voice sound cleaner, rounder, fuller, and does automatic volume adjustments so I never care about anything.

Feedback from others is that I now sound clear, clean, loud (in terms of relative volume at their end), full, "like a professional voice over or radio DJ".

But it took running the audio through Reaper to achieve that.

yeah a DAW was next up on my list (another thing where running on mac before was a major stumbling block).

Hi all,
I aim to buy a renewed gaming PC from Computerspecialistuk with the following stuff on it:
6gb Nvidia GTX 1660
16gb ram
intel core i7 2nd gen
240GB SSD
Windows 10
ethernet, HDMI and VGA connection
price is about 520 pounds.

Any suggestion if I am doing right?
Or any alternative (perhaps similar or better) with up to 600 quid budget?
I am not fussy about top end PC...but just a something better than my gaming laptop which started to do crap.

Thanks all

Doesn't seem great to me.
2nd gen i7 is nearly 10 years old. Will be similarly old RAM and likely a refurb SSD.

My go to answer recently has been Dell Outlet.

Slightly slim pickings there at the moment (though they refresh stock a few times daily) but this has a 9th gen i5 (40% faster than the 2nd gen i7-2600) and a 1660Ti (20% quicker than the 1660).

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdWfOGX4Nh4VY1%2bEHU42xYuESKI1dW8vCOiyVTKY2%2fx4dgSJ9RDYP%2fEPWiZgwoU%2bJDyme9d5RI9hiH5Gmh2Tou9v1%2f9d3U2l7Ujp4fr9B8w9Jym8XNOYqsI8BHWaZTNfV8qQimuQAM%2f%2feufwIxdeEGlAXM0UhcaFckkKXU2oIHYMmpvIHhdk13n%2ffkJj3ZituejossytMILS7yAD6npHPvHHNKPQA372F4iZxmrhXu9J%2f

£670 after the 12% discount they're offering but I think it's a much better choice than getting a 10yr old refurb.

I'd suggest watching the site for what 'Scratch and Dent' stuff they have as they have the better discounts.
I've bought laptops and desktops from there and the scratches tend to be a 5mm scuff on the underside where it's not even visible.

Thanks duncs.
Appreciate your PoV and I follow your suggestion as well any other that pass from here :)

I would also suggest something a lot more recent.

It doesn't have to be really powerful, but the more modern the CPU and graphics card the more capable for the same power as something a while ago.

Besides... a basic desktop will typically outperform most laptops because laptops will throttle components when they get hot and there's no great thermal solution for laptops.

A quick look on Overclockers UK for things up to £650 for the desktop itself (assumes you have a monitor, keyboard and mouse)... https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-systems/gaming-pc?ckMin=44999&ckMax=65000&ckTab=0&sSort=2

But weirdly, you can get better deals from non-obvious places... ao.com even :D
https://ao.com/l/desktops-gaming_tower/1-166/250-253/?sort=aol_saleincvat

Delivery from tomorrow https://ao.com/product/3xs102171-3xs-desktop-black-72282-253.aspx it's brand new... not stunningly good, but it would outperform your laptop.

If you can stretch and want a lot of bang for buck (in CPU and GPU) then at £750 this is pretty solid https://ao.com/product/9s6b92811070-msi-desktop-black-70314-253.aspx and would offer a cheaper upgrade path in the future if that's your thing (MSI make components, so this is filled with their bits and by their nature are commodity things that can be changed around).

overwhelmed by the level of skill here :)
thanks buddies

Btw... that Dell Outlet one above... that's an exceptionally good deal that @duncs found.

If you're confused by options... go for that one.

that is gone but I'll keep an eye on both your suggestions.
thanks

For a very rough idea of how things would compare look at userbenchmark.com

So for the CPU the refurb comes with, a i7-2600
vs the Dell, i5-9400
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-2600-vs-Intel-Core-i5-9400/620vsm735306

And for the graphics cards, the 1660 vs 1660 Ti
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1660-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1660-Ti/4038vs4037

you can't imagine I have done this before :)

Overclockers UK

*pukes on cock*

I have a gaming PC i'm looking to sell.

Spec:

EVGA X99 Micro version 2 Mobo
Intel Core i7 6800K
Corsair H80i V2 liquid cooler
8GB MSI GTX1080 GAMING X
4GB DDR4 2666 VengLPX
250GB Samsung 2.5 750 EVO SSD
500GB Samsung 750 EVO SSD

Any ideas what sort of ££ it's worth?

Here are some suitably shit pictures from when it was built.

4 Attachments

On the basis that it was a mid-high end PC 5 years back
And 1080 is a little quicker than a 1660Ti, and a 6800K is a little slower than a i5-9400 for most things.

Memory is a little low...

I'd try and sell it to @Albb as it's very roughly in line performance and spec wise of a low-mid end gaming PC now, which is what he's after a few messages up