PC Tech Thread

RDP over the internet/VPN/hamachi (the officially approved method) is shite: not enough bandwidth to deal reliably with a rapidly changing viewport in 3DSMax, or even video for that matter and constant disconnects.

Try Parsec: https://parsec.app/

It’s designed for graphical applications like gaming and content creation, is hardware accelerated and works really well with super low latency.

Yeah had someone else recommend me that, apparently moonlight/gamestream can work well too although that probably prioritizes refresh rate over everything.

I feel it's probably worth pursuing the LAN hookup as it's bound to work better than shitty VPN over 2 copper connections, had a convo today and the answer was wait until next week as we're moving to Office365 which for some reason requires resetting all the office computers. It's gonna be chaos!

We use Terradici PCoIP and it's pretty incredible with Maya.

Unfortunately my primary 3D software is Modo and it's fucking dreadful for that. No idea what causes such a massive discrepancy.

Kinda related: any recommendations for a cheap laptop to rdp into my workstation with? For dev and occasional gaming. Is a chromebook up to the task?

Google has cancelled development of new chromebooks, I wouldn't be surprised if chrome OS isn't far behind.

Google has increased that department, they'd made Chromebooks to kickstart the market... the market now has a lot of Chromebooks. So now they can double down on the OS.

The amount of abandonware Google churns out I don't have faith in them supporting anything beyond Android for any length of time

Does it have to be a laptop? You can use a shieldTV if you install a gamestream server on the host machine. That would be cheap, though not sure how you'd go about setting up a VPN on it if you need to.

Would be useful if I'd described the use-case wouldn't it? I just want to move around the house and have easy access to the goings on in my pc - spend time away from my desk where I work, and more time with my partner while she watches nonsense on telly. Being on my computer instead of my phone means less lfgss and instagram too

Soz yeah, would help if I read the post properly though.

I have a Behringer XM8500 and an Onyx Blackjack from when I was mucking around with some music stuff a few years ago. I might as well put them to use for work video calls as the volume knobs will be handy. But the volume is too low on the mic unless I have it right in front of my face and I don't really want to do that.

How do I get it to work? I'm guessing the answer is either swap the mic or get a pre-amp? I've already got it at +45db on the built in pre-amp on the Onyx. I don't want to fix it with software as I change operating system a fair bit and use different computers so I'd rather the level is set correctly in hardware.

(Pretty impressed that the Onyx just works on Linux without any drivers)

something like a cloudlifter or fethead seemed to be the answer when I was setting up my rode mic.

I went with the fethead which works well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DREAMKY-FetHead/dp/B06XDPTDN5/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3SBANAA2TDL8K&keywords=cloudlifter&qid=1664439868&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjI4IiwicXNhIjoiMS4zNSIsInFzcCI6IjEuMjAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=cloudlifter%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-9

That particular mic doesn't need phantom power (i.e. does not need a Fethead or Cloudlifter)... but... all mics need to be lifted from mic-level (low) to line-level (high). On non-dynamic mics that's done using a Fethead or equivalent with phantom power, but with dynamic mics typically you pre-amp.

I looked, and this Behringer audio interface https://www.behringer.com/series.html?category=R-BEHRINGER-UPHORIASERIES does include a pre-amp. So it seems that's what they expect you to be doing here.

What you have in the Onyx is also a pre-amp... so yup, that should be lifting it to line level. It may feel weird to be amplifying that much, but so long as your software thinks it is in normal range than you're good.

You may need to push gain to max, and the OS to max for it to be the right volume... but that is OK.

If that is still lacking then frankly you're going to have to re-assess this line:

the volume is too low on the mic unless I have it right in front of my face and I don't really want to do that

Because if you read the website for it https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0120 :

XM Series’ cardioid pickup pattern captures the source signal, such as a guitar amplifier or vocalist, while shunning off-axis sound

That mic is designed to only pic up things directly in front of it.

By which... barely inches from it at most.

If you ever see a vocalist... the mic is virtually touching their lips.

If you've seen drum kits mic'd up... the mic is barely above the skin of the drum, or is totally inside the kick drum.

Dynamic mics are brilliant... but they really do need proximity.

Thanks. With +45db gain and max volume in the OS I can barely hear anything in a recording. Annoyingly it sounds great if I pass it through to the headphones with the input monitor. I did a bit more reading last night and came to the same conclusion, that with that particular microphone I'd have to go for the streamer approach with the mic right in front of my face to hear anything

The Onyx has phantom power so I'm going to buy a really cheap condenser (another Behringer from CeX) and see if that works any better. For £20 I don't really mind experimenting a bit and selling off the stuff that doesn't work

Getting a 'AA' signal on my motherboard (B550D)

Suggests hardware failure.

i've basically unplugged it, moved it to another room, then plugged it back in. Same cables to my knowledge.

When it boots up the three front fans start spinning then the bottom one stops. The other two continue. It was a bit dusty so I gave it a slight clean externally but nothing wild.

Any thoughts? Strip it and rebuild?

I've got a laptop i can do admin on today which will help but really need this functional as soon as poss.

edit:
Bottom fan is back for what it's worth.

I've tried display port cable and hdmi - both say no signal. Graphics card?

fucks fucking sake. I was plugging the hdmi/display into the mobo slots, not the GPU slots.

LOL.

Was going to say a cable sounds like it is loose... but yeah, plugged into the wrong thing entirely is the same thing :D

My OH'S MS 365 has run out, and I now need office too.

We have a Google storage thing that we share with my folks, so the 6tb on the family 365 account doesn't really feel like it's worth it.

What's the concensus on buying those cheap windows copies online. Realistically we just need a fairly vanilla package, but I wouldn't mind publisher and a decent version of ppt.

I've heard these are good

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dusters-EG-1000-UK-Electric-Air-Duster/dp/B073F9NY1X/ref=sr_1_5

or just use a hoover, turns out its quite hard to kill PC parts with static

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXkgbmr3dRA

i've used the oem keys from play-asia with no problem the last few times I needed a license. I think they need to be used with a fresh install though.

Cheers.

Will probably be doing a fresh install on machine, but it's a bit of a pain on my OH's

Might be a stupid question, but does those versions of. Windows come with office?

No. You need office separately.

I've used the OEM Windows keys and they are fine.

Never used the office ones as I use the storage which makes it pretty cheap. I assume they'd be ok, main issue with them is probably Excel getting out of date but that would depend on your use.

I've wanted to consolidate my old work workstation and ancient home PC for ages... Finally got round to it the last couple days, two totally dismantled PCs spread around the spare room, only to find the OEM lenovo mobo won't fit in my lian li case. Looks like they've stuck to mATX standard apart from adding about 7mm to the top edge with some nice tall headers on to clash with my top case fan. So infuriating!
Options as far as I can see are:

1. Remove top case fan
   
2. Dremel into outer casing of top case fan to allow for the header
   
3. Bend pins of the fan header on the motherboard allowing the female fitment to point upwards
   
4. ??
   Any suggestions or advice?
   

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(please don't say put it all in the lenovo case! Mine is a nice lian li box and I reaaaally don't want a lenovo box under my desk)