PC Tech Thread

Anyone upgraded a secondary monitor (19/20 inch or so) recently and want to pass the old one on at a good price?

Does anyone know of software that will crop a load of WAV files to 1 minute in batch, then encode them to mp3? Alternatively is it possible to batch trim and export the WAVs in audacity or something?

yup. Audacity file>export>multiple will let you split files by tracks. You could import them all as individual tracks to audacity, select all, crop to 1 minute then export them en masse, each track as a different file.

Cheers, I'll try that.

Looking for a new personal laptop.

Doesn't need to have amazing specs but a minimum is:-

• Absolutely must be able to output 4K@60Hz via USB-C (or, at a push, HDMI)
  
• 8GB RAM minimum (16GB ideally)
  
• 256GB SSD minimum (and it must be an SSD, no HDD)
  
• Able to run a 2-4GB Linux VM that has light usage, using something like Virtualbox
  
• 14" or 15" screen (don't want smaller or bigger)
  
• Windows 10
  
• £600 max
  
  

Acer Aspire 5 series is currently winning.

Is it possible to find RX 5600 or 5700s anywhere (or equivalent)? I was thinking about pulling the trigger on new mobo/cpu/ram/ssd, but there's no point if I can't get a decent gpu.

Just built a snazzy new computer so have a few (mostly quite outdated) parts for sale if anyone is interested: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/357990/

Willing to split the eggs?

Raid arrays. Talk to me.

I need to build a new plex server. Is there anyway to have a raid system that you can gradually add HDD's to without rebuilding the entire array every time?

I have a feeling the answer may be 'No'.

Why do you want raid?

Why raid when you can just store locally and sync an encrypted backup with the cloud?

Cheaper...more secure...more resilient...

One answer to this is Unraid. It is not RAID, but uses a dedicated parity drive. So you can start with e.g. a pair of 8 TB drives, one data and one parity, and then add more 8TB data drives to the array as you need them, without rebuilding the array (you need to take it offline briefly though). Main downside is slow writes, but you can put e.g. databases on an SSD instead (which could be a RAID0 pair).

Looking at building a new Plex server and would like not too have download 4TB of films when a hard drive fails again.

But... I wouldn't be able to afford to buy all of the planned 8 HDD's right away.

I agree but I'm at 6TB at the moment and looking to expand that considerably. It would get a bit expensive I would think.

Thanks. I'll have a look at that.

Slow writes I'm not too bothered about as it'll mainly reading media from the drives.

$27 per month on Amazon S3 Glacier for 6TB.

Would cost you about $75 to do a full restore.

My setup:

• Synology DS1817 NAS (8 bay)
  
• 8 x 4TB HDD (32TB of drives for 24TB usable)
  
• RAID 6
  
  

This is 32TB of disk with 24TB usable, and I've used 54% of the usable space... around 13TB.

I backup to a single external 12TB disk (which is now not enough, but I duplicate some of my files across SyncThing to other devices so I'm close to backup capacity but not yet at capacity).

Basically... I make my storage from lots of small, cheap drives with very high reliability according to the BackBlaze HDD survey ... this is their latest https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-hard-drive-stats-q3-2020/

I RAID for the purpose of not having to move and rebuild for the life of the disks I use... I've probably got couple of years in these ones.

I backup for the purpose of a fire or something dramatic taking out the house and disk storage... this is monthly as the data doesn't change at a really fast pace. I now store this off-site (at my partners place - upside they can use it to watch films directly from the HDD).

The most expensive components for me are always the NAS enclosure and the backup HDD (because a single large drive is always pricey and yet it makes performing the backup very easy).

I don't use Cloud backup for this stuff... the storage is cheap, but the network costs are not and the time to restore is painful (how fast is your internet connection?! add in how slow S3 Glacier is for read speed too!).

I don't over-invest in the RAID setup... it's not a miracle solution, if the RAID controller fails you've still lost everything. For me it's good enough to buy me time (a few weeks) from a single disk failure to have ensured the backup is up to date and to replace the bad drive. That's the only reason I have RAID6, so that I have time to be lazy after a first drive failure.

Now... for what you've described you can certainly purchase a 4-bay NAS and just do a RAID5 with 3 larger disks, add a 4th and expand the RAID later, and then also add in 1 single large disk for external backup.

But I guess the real question is: What's your budget?

I remember doing this calculation for my Plex server. On 200Mbps connection (20Mbps upload) it would take about 5 months at full speed to upload.

What's your budget?

Not enough for a Synology! I've got some PC bits and pieces around the house so will build one.

Might just convert the current server to Unraid from Windows Server as I'll still have room to fit a Parity drive and reuse the SSD for a cache.

You might be surprised how cheap used SOHO NAS equipment is. I picked up a Qnap TS-869 a few years back for £300.

Like @Velocio I back up to external drives (shucked western digital 14tb white drives, £190 each on Amazon). I store my backups in a fire safe with another copy offsite. No cloud backup for me, it’s not economical.

FWIW I have different raid arrays for different use cases. My best drives (WD reds) store important data in Raid 10, but these sleep when not in use. For pseudo-cache activities like seeding, I use second hand WD greens (or whatever i can get my hands on) for around £30 a pop, in Raid 1 arrays or JBOD. If one or all the drives fail I don’t really care.

Edit. There’s a lot more to maintaining a stable, efficient Raid array than just a simple data striping tool. For example the single biggest killer of drives is operating temperature, so you do need good cooling, intelligent S.M.A.R.T monitoring, regular scheduled maintenance, etc. You won’t necessarily get that with a PC and a bunch of disks. NAS manufacturers have figured a lot of the problems out for you so the investment might be worthwhile in order to avoid a bad experience. Also SSDs are a very expensive (and often unnecessary) way to cache, they will fail a lot faster and only across a fast, cabled network are you likely to see a major benefit before they do. I’d try to save them for DAS use so that they’re only on when in use. I just pulled out a pair of 1TB SSDs from my NAS whilst I was experimenting whether I’d see any benefit.

Looking for a new personal laptop.

Doesn't need to have amazing specs but a minimum is:-

Absolutely must be able to output 4K@60Hz via USB-C (or, at a push, HDMI)
8GB RAM minimum (16GB ideally)
256GB SSD minimum (and it must be an SSD, no HDD)
Able to run a 2-4GB Linux VM that has light usage, using something like Virtualbox
14" or 15" screen (don't want smaller or bigger)
Windows 10
£600 max

Acer Aspire 5 series is currently winning.

Can't find definitive proof that the Acer Aspire 5 can drive an external 4K monitor.

With that in mind I can see a refurbished Lenovo T470 with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 14" screen and Windows 10 that is just under £600: https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-lenovo-t470-core-i5-6300u-16gb-512gb-14-inch-windows-10-profess-t2-t470i516gb512gbw10p/version.asp

That will definitely 4K@60Hz via USB-C (my current work laptop is a T480 that I've got connected to the 4K monitor via USB-C), and the Lenovo's I've had over the years have been good.

No hurry to buy it yet, probably will pull the trigger by the end of Jan though, just in case I can get a slightly better model for the same, or less.

That’s a lot of money for an old laptop. A 6th gen i5 is a lot slower than current stuff.

And the lower end chip on the Aspire is capable of 4k

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/208658/intel-core-i5-1135g7-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-20-ghz.html

I wouldn't consider anything less than 8th gen processor. That Lenovo is a pretty slow laptop nowadays.

You're not really going to see anything good with 16GB of ram at that price, I'd just look for something that can be expanded.

Most modern stuff should do 4k@60Hz.

What about something from the Dell outlet? Not sure on models but you can get some decent discounts on there.

Stuff for sale!

Well, thing.

Aorus RX 5700 XT

Bought stuff I didn't need. Hence, current GPU bought 6 months ago (and with a 4 year warranty) is up for sale.

Gigabyte Aorus RX 5700 XT. Box stickers etc all included. Mint condition, passes as brand new.

£390 plus postage