PC Tech Thread

fucking network nonsense.

my computer wasn't connecting to the internet yesterday over ethernet - realised too late, after resetting router/switching to automatic IP assignment from manual that it was the power over ethernet thing which had come loose in a socket.

Trying to get it back to manual settings but can't for the life of me figure how I did it last time.

I'm sure it was along the lines of cmd prompt in admin > ipconfig /all

Then take info from the returned results and plug it into ipv4 settings under network>ethernet - so IP address, (192.168.x.x) subnet prefix length (any number between 1 and 32/128 for ipv6?), gateway (v. similar to IP, preferred DNS etc.

I've tried all of this but 'can't save IP settings, check one or more and try again'.

I can access the internet but it's currently giving me download speeds of 2mbps, rather than 250.

I have an option to use IPv6 but again, no luck.

What am I doing wrong?

I've done all this stuff:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
nbtstat -rr
netsh int ip reset all
netsh winsock reset

I've been to IP address in the browser to access the router (virgin hub 3) and it all tells me there it's fine. Virgin tells me their speeds are fine. WiFi isn't on at the same time, somehow confusing things. Have to upload some chonky files tonight and not getting anywhere fast.

Took every cable in the house out (truly - unplugged the toaster), waited 15 minutes, put them all back in.
Works.
Fucking stupid network nonsense.

Any good video players that aren't VLC?

Probably for the past year I've been having problems with it not playing MXFs - either direct from cameras or exports from NLEs. I've updated VLC and asked on their forums but their response is just 'update software'. I've tried forcing manual in/out codec preference. Same result every time - the software just flickers as though it is cycling load-in. I'm unable to close the program once it goes into flicker mode so I have to ctrl alt delete. Every single time. I just want to play a video.

Documents is a "known folder" has your company used group policy to mandate moving known folders to one drive? If not just go into settings and untick it from syncing.

Treesize is good if you like a UI. Cant remember if they still do a free version though

VLC is my player of choice. Mplayer and Kodi are the alternatives I use when that isn't working for some reason.

What are you using for netmask and gateway values? Why would a dhcp address give you slower speeds than static. Sorry your post isnt that clear. Are you trying to give your pc a static ip or reconfigure a repeater

has your company used group policy to mandate moving known folders to one drive?

Yes looks like it, but I'm not really sure anyone knows why!

My computer is feeling a bit sluggish lately. Might just need a good clean but is there anything I can do to check why performance might be suffering?

3950x / vision b550 d / vision 3090 / 64gb 3600 corsair vengeance rgb (2x32gb) /
wd black sn850 2tb / noctua nh d15s / 4 x nf s12a / corsair 4000d airflow

Boot times seem slower than when I first built it (about 2 years ago I think). Renders seem slower in Resolve but I can't objectively measure those.

I did a benchmark test when I first built it:

GPU temps 35 degrees idle and 55 degrees under load.
CPU temps idle 30 and load 65
cinebench single core 1317
cinebench multi core 24040

Current report:
GPU temps 40 degrees idle 60 degrees under load.
CPU temps idle 35 and load 75
cinebench single core 1202
cinebench multi core 23230

I'm doing a lot more editing this year than last year. Lots of multicam 4k+ timelines. Lots of nodes in Fusion. I don't like using proxy workflows where I can avoid it. But that's because I'm usually working on 30 second projects. However we've got a contract this year for lots of hourlies so proxies are a possibility.

What's my upgrade path? Threadripper Pro?

Is this worth 10 times the price of my current CPU?

https://www.cclonline.com/100-100000444wof-amd-ryzen-threadripper-pro-5995wx-2-7ghz-sixty-four-core-swrx8-cpu

and prob this mobo to match for the dual thunderbolt 4:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/WRX80%20Creator/index.us.asp

Vaguely tempted with a Mac Studio tbh but PUBG is critical to my day to day.

My computer is feeling a bit sluggish lately.

3950x / vision 3090

Tried a gaming benchmark to be sure?

Data loss prevention. To ensure company data is backed up. To ensure that your documents are easily available to you without your IT department's intervention when you move to a new computer. Lots of reasons.

Mac Studio all day. Hardware accelerated ProRes is a madness; pisses all over PC workstations 2/3 times the price.

The base-spec model is enough for 16x simultaneous 4K60 ProRes layers, and it’s only £1600+VAT.

No, management are constantly telling people documents shouldn't be saved on their C drives. I think you're overestimating the level of thought that has gone in to it.

Right. So by forcing your documents to redirect to OneDrive, they’re making saving stuff locally to your C drive more challenging… no? What am I missing here?

The fact that Autodesk and other software saves a lot of user data to documents by default, and changing it is a ballache and may not work very well, and that traffic is choking our shitty internet bandwidth.

Prores is not hardware accelerated on a PC in the same way then? Is there a better (near) lossless codec to use as a PC user?

No acceleration for ProRes on PC, and not much in the way of GPU acceleration for any other intra-frame codecs either.

There’s HAP and NotchLC, but they’re more targeted towards real-time playback media servers.

Can it run Crysis?

Can anyone think of why my old pc won't recognise an ssd?

I've tried multiple cable combinations, and more than one ssd. Pc boots to the windows installation USB but then can't find the ssd to install it to. Can't see it in bios either.

Am i missing something obvious?

Ah I think it's cause I had an nvme in there before which seems to have disabled the sata ports. Weird. How can I can fix that without windows access?

That sounds like a bios rather than os thing.

Check BIOS settings first, make sure the storage controller you’ve got the SSD plugged into is enabled. Most will let you see if the drive is properly detected as well.

Could also be that the Windows installer does not contain the correct AHCI drivers for your platform; which chipset/SoC are you using? If this is the case, you’ll need to load the correct drivers manually during installation.

it's a gigabyte b450m

I've tried to load the drivers onto a usb but the windows installer doesn't recognise them.

I wonder if flashing the bios is the way forward.

1600 seems a viable price to test out as a backup thing / to render other projects while I'm working on something else etc - but...

I almost never use prores.
I would want to play PUBG.
I'd want to upgrade the fuck out of it to see what it could really do - so it'd be nice to test before buying. But Spending 7k on it suddenly seems a lot less fun when it can't play PUBG.

What is your workload?

Workload? or flow?

Workload: panicked last minute, often all nighters as I wrestle with adhd, wfh with child, PUBG commitments.

Workflow: varies per project but a balance of footage from, variously, alexa mini/lf, raptors/gemini, pocket cine, ursas. Also some C70/300m2, some FX6/9. The Canon/Sony stuff is usually multicam events/corporates/training (so hour and hours of content - came back with 8TB from a shoot the other week). The rest is usually doccy style branded or straight commercial so more like 200GB-1TB

Back up in the field to a few destinations. Working drive comes back and is backed up to a RAID. It's typically worked on over thunderbolt or locally from the desktop depending on space. The RAID is TB2. The field drives are tb3 sandisk extreme pro 4TB. Local drive is WD Black SN850X 4TB. Almost all work is done end to end in Resolve/Fusion. Occasionally using the remote editor feature but mostly single person editing from start to finish in Resolve with local access to rushes. Some dabbling in AE or Prem/Media encoder.