Computer advice thread ("What's the best way to do this?")

Technology
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Continuation of this thread from the old forum:

So, I bought five WD Blue 250GB SSD’s last night from Dell because they were $20 a pop. Since that got me thinking about how I store data, I decided to run HDD Tune on all my drives and get their average transfer speeds. Most of my drives have moved from system to system, but I got an SSD for my OS drive this year and recently replaced one drive with a 3TB HDD.

  • C: SSD - 455MBs
  • D: - 74MBs
  • E: - 194MBs
  • F: - 53MBs
  • G: - 49MBs
  • H: New HDD - 188MB

First off, I clearly need some new drives but, also, HDD Tune is saying all my drives are using SATAII, which can’t be right because I bought my motherboard last January.

Now, since I’ve got those new drives, an not nearly enough mounting space to put them in my tower, I thought I’d get one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Icy-Dock-Mobile-Drive-MB324SP-B/dp/B00V5JHOXQ

But I’ll also need more sata ports. Any recommendations on SATA Cards?

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[quote=“VictorFrost, post:1, topic:288”]
Now, since I’ve got those new drives, an not nearly enough mounting space to put them in my tower, I thought I’d get one of these:
[/quote]SSDs aren’t that hard to mount, since they have no moving parts, so no need to worry about vibration and the like. I have one literally just gaffed to the side of my unused 5 1/4 inch bays.

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I agree with @Churba , just make them fit.

That is one hell of a sale.

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Friend of mine also bought five - four for themselves, one for a friend.

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Victoria sending you one of hers? Also, SATA Cards?

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[quote=“VictorFrost, post:5, topic:288, full:true”]
Victoria sending you one of hers? Also, SATA Cards?
[/quote]Well, Fred and Victoria, but yes. And I’m fine for connectivity, I still have spare SATA slots and cables.

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Edit: Just got an email from Dell. Turns out it was a pricing error and they’re NOT going to be selling me a 250GB SSD for $20.

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So I’m having a computer-ish issue. So my computer seems to be far enough away from my desk that a lot of my USB cables are stretched or I’m having to put things near the end of my desk that I would rather have closer to me (ie webcam). I’m wondering if the best plan is to buy a couple USB extension cables or to buy a USB hub? The last time I used a USB hub for things, it was way back in college and the results were less than amazing. The inputs seemed to hang every so often, making typing annoying if not impossible. Now I got a really cheap hub, so maybe they’re just better now? Anyway, curious what people would recommend.

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Solution 1: Get monitors with USB hubs in them. Like oh, Dell Ultrasharps perhaps? Then you just run one long USB cable to your PC, and you are good to go.

Solution 2: Get high quality USB hubs that have their own POWER. This looks pretty good.

http://amzn.to/2jkkMMg

Solution 3: Move your computer closer to your desk.

Solution 4: Move your desk closer to your computer

Solution 5: Buy long USB cables.

1 Like
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Solution 2 for now, but probably Solution 1 in a little while. My monitors are getting quite old.

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The motherboard has arrived. Judging by the packaging, it appears that it really was refurbished and inspected by ASUS. Will try it tomorrow. Hoping for the best.

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You building a new computer too?

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No, I’m replacing my sort of broken motherboard that crashes all the time with a hopefully less crashy refurbished one. If that doesn’t work, I may HAVE to build a new computer.

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Refurbished motherboard worked on first boot, but had some USB troubles. It was REALLY weird. Only the USB 3.0 ports worked. I install a special ASUS USB driver, still only the 3.0 worked. I diabled Legacy USB support, still only the 3.0 worked. I installed the Intel Chipset driver, STILL only the 3.0 worked.

The thing is, the 2.0 worked in the BIOS, just not in Windows.

There were two Unknown Devices in device manager. They were the Intel USB controller. When I attempted to update driver for them it said that a necessary component of the driver was missing.

Eventually I found a Microsoft version of the driver instead of the Intel version, and that worked. Whew.

Everything is good to go now! It remains to be seen if this is actually more stable than the previous motherboard, but it hasn’t crashed yet. At least it works. It’s working right now. Also, it boots faster.

The only problem is that the refurbished board didn’t come with an I/O shield, so the back of my case has a big opening in it. That should be fine for a year.

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My case is open most of the time. :stuck_out_tongue:

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That’s not a good thing. Put a lid on it.

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You could 3D print one.

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So… is a monitor with G-Sync worth the extra cost?

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[quote=“DMLou, post:18, topic:288, full:true”]
So… is a monitor with G-Sync worth the extra cost?
[/quote]Ok, so I did some research on this, and I found out what G-Sync does.

Let’s say you have a monitor that runs at 60Hz.

If your computer renders less than 60fps, you might get tearing if frames are not swapped into the frame buffer in sync with the refresh of the monitor.If you render MORE than 60fps, not only are you going to get tearing, but you are spending cycles rendering frames that never appear on the screen.

If you enable vertical sync you will render exactly 60fps and they will be rendered to the screen at exactly the right time to display all of them.

However, if you are rendering less than 60fps enabling vertical sync can cause problems. Yes, you will avoid tearing because frames will be drawn when ready, but you will also get input lag because the frame will appear later than it should. This matters if you are playing a fast fps or fighting game. You know how the Smash Bros players always need to use a CRT because the LCD lag is a problem. That kind of lag.

What does G-Sync do? First of all, lots of G-Sync monitors seem to mostly have 144hz refresh rates. That’s crazy good if you can render that many frames. Just running at that speed even without gsync is like wow. That can definitely make a difference in real-time gaming. Pretty sure they make 144hz monitors without GSync, so that is an option if it’s cheaper.

What G-Sync does is take care of you if you are rendering less than the refresh rate of the monitor. It still eliminates tearing by rendering the frames to screen in sync with the monitor refresh. It also eliminates any input lag. You basically get the benefits of perfect vsync whether you are rendering max frames or not.

Also keep in mind, that’s what it does on paper. I have no idea how well it works in practice. You’ll have to judge for yourself. Also, you’ll have to judge the price for yourself.

Personally, if you can render enough frames for vsync, and you’re not playing a super serious fighting game or fps, I can’t imagine it being necessary.

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I have the ASUS PG279Q Swift
Primarily wanted it for the larger screen and higher resolution (2560 x 1440) and getting back to using an IPS monitor after my Dell Ultrasharp 30" died.

No tearing whatsoever and it’s very weird trying to play the same games at 60fps for a 5 or so minute adjustment period.

Overwatch on full ultra moves dynamically in frame rate between as low as 86 to 114 frames per second except at menus where it’s capped at 60 fps. On Doom (2016) was going between 100 - 144.

The cost is definitely a luxury. I would go for the 2nd newest model unless you want the most recent one which will be 4k, G-Sync and be above 60 fps (but you would probably need 3 titan x’s to max this out). In the above case even if the fps dipped below 60 the image would still be smooth without tearing.

If you have the money, don’t want to see tearing, then go ahead but I’d recommend getting an IPS or equivalent and don’t get any TN panel, the difference is insane and at times unusable when doing design work.