byalexandr

So interestingly enough, I decided to just plug in a USB device and see what happens. Sure enough, the card was working, though not as expected. I used a USB viewer utility to see all of the computer's root hubs/controllers, and it is a Renesas controller. However, the card for some reason was giving me a lot of trouble with the webcams - for our podcast, we use 4 (previously 3 as that was the max that would work on the old laptop setup) C920 webcams. The whole reason for switching to a desktop dedicated for livestreaming was to have more USB controllers to provide ample bandwidth for all the cameras to work with OBS. However, putting two cameras, which is not even close to exceeding the bandwidth of a single USB 3.0 controller, on each controller in the PC would just not work for some reason. Sometimes one or two would work, sometimes the controller (both the expansion card and the chipset one on the motherboard) would produce an error that it couldn't get a device ID, sometimes none of the USB devices including the keyboard and mouse would even turn on after restarting. Just as a test and sort of a last ditch effort to get it working, I plugged everything (including all 4 cameras, audio interface, peripherals, etc.) into the USB ports on the motherboard, skipping the expansion card altogether, and it all works fine. What is interesting too is that in the USB viewer utility, everything is still on one root hub, but I get absolutely zero problems with bandwidth issues. So I am left completely clueless as to why 4 1080p webcams work on a single controller on this computer, but only 3 work on the laptop, and why 2 cameras on two controllers gives a ton of issues and works even less than before. Anyways, sort of a rant about USB I guess (maybe it was even something to do with OBS), but at least it's working and since I'm too lazy to take out the $15 expansion card to return it, will just use it as for the time being. I think my next 'upgrade' to our podcast studio will be some proper camcorders and an HDMI switcher, which is unfortunately a somewhat expensive exercise.

Hey all, I needed another USB controller for my podcasting setup, as more than three Logitech webcams exceeds the bandwidth available on the laptop we are currently using (with a single USB 3.0 controller). I put together an old desktop I had laying around for the sole use of streaming through OBS, and got a PCI-E expansion card that adds another USB controller to connect some of the webcams to. However, the card did not come with any driver disk, nor can I find anything online. This is the exact card I got: https://a.co/d/8NP2b5o Some of the reviews even mention they could not find drivers online, but I figure someone might be able to help me out on here. I also found the same card on Newegg (https://www.newegg.com/p/238-00DE-00266), which mentions I have to install the 'NEC USB3.0 driver' for it to work. Googling that and finding a driver on Dell's website, I installed it and restarted the computer but it still shows as no driver available for the following devices in device manager: The card had a label on the box to the website cablecc.com, which is a Chinese cable supplier. But I wasn't able to find the card on there nor any driver downloads (not that I would want to download drivers from a Chinese website anyways). Any ideas on getting this thing to work?

Just arrived - this mouse is awesome. Love the improvements over the G502 Hero. I may look into getting the Powerplay mouse pad to go with it eventually; one thing I wish this mouse had (I know it would compromise the wireless capabilities) is Bluetooth, so I can pair it with multiple devices. But switching the USB receiver is easy enough.

Actually, after using my G502 Hero a bit more I remember why I liked this mouse so much lol. I ordered a G502X Plus Lightspeed off of Amazon instead. Hopefully this one doesn't present any issues in the future like my poor MX Master. Wonder if I can send it to Logitech to get fixed or something..

I went to my local Best Buy to try some out and the Basilisk definitely seemed nice. Also the Corsair something or another but I didn't like the texture on it that I know would pick up a bunch of dirt and stuff over a short period. They were out of stock of most stuff though, guess since it's the holidays, so I might go to Micro Center tomorrow to pick one up.

Hey all, Making this post to see if there are some recommendations for wireless mice. I am looking for something that will last me a long time, and be used for both work and gaming (I work remotely on my XPS 15, and sometimes game after work on my ROG Z13). I absolutely love my MX Master 3S, especially that I can just switch between the two devices, but recently the left click has been having problems. Sometimes it won't register a click, sometimes it will think I stopped clicking when I am still holding the left mouse button. It was a little frustrating in FPS games because I wouldn't shoot the bad guy in time, or stop shooting just before they are unalived. It has gotten worse over the past week or so and even more frustrating when I can't do something as simple as drag and drop a file on my other computer. So for now I pulled out my old G502 Hero to use. But, I love the ergonomics so much on the MX Master, that I'm not really enjoying the G502 at the moment. Plus, the G502 is still wired. Any recommendations on a good quality mouse (doesn't necessarily have to be a gaming mouse) to replace my MX Master (with similar ergonomics)? Should I just buy another one and hope this one doesn't crap out on me? The main thing I'm not liking about my G502 anymore is it's a lot 'lower' than the MX Master. I guess I developed a sort of claw grip and the raised back of the MX Master was really nice and comfortable. The G502 doesn't have this, so my knuckles sit much lower and I rely on my palm a bit more which feels a bit weird. It doesn't necessarily have to be a gaming mouse, but I know usually they have better sensors and buttons, input latency, etc. I also do not like a light mouse - I have all of the weights installed in my G502 and the MX Master is about as light as I want to go. TIA

Awesome, thanks for the info. Pretty unfortunate that there isn't an XG Mobile docking station that doesn't have an eGPU. Not that the unwieldy connector would be very nice to use anyways, but something for just the purpose of being a dock and not to beef up the graphics performance sure would be nice.

Hey all, Long time no post but I recently got an ROG Z13 (I wasn't sure if this post should go in Laptops or Tablets, since it is a tablet, but anyway...). I really like the tablet and gaming is incredible on it, the RTX 3050 Ti is enough of a workhorse for me, especially with the tablet plugged in and in 'Turbo' mode. However, I also use Adobe Creative Cloud quite frequently, and I could very much use the extra real estate of another monitor. My work laptop, which is an XPS 15 with an 11th gen i7 and RTX 3050, has a WD19S docking station that not only charges the XPS but also connects my 1440p monitor, Ethernet, etc. I plugged it into my Z13 just to test, and though the monitor works no problem, I get a system notification saying the docking station does not provide full power and it wants me to connect the included 100W charger. This is kind of a bummer as the 3050 Ti will run a bit slower with the Dell docking station connected, even though it greatly simplifies everything into one cable. I know when I purchased the tablet that there is the XG Mobile dock available, but I'm wondering if there is just a normal (similar) docking station that I can purchase (that also isn't over $1000) that would allow me to charge at the full 100W and still provide some extra I/O for a monitor, wired network connection, etc. all in one USB-C cable. I browsed Asus' website but didn't really find anything that was even similar to the WD19S, and the XG Mobile is unfortunately just far too expensive due to a feature that I don't even really want or need (the RTX 3080 inside of it lol). It's quite interesting to me that even though my Dell docking station outputs 130W, the Z13 is still complaining that it isn't enough charging power. I assume it's something to do with software or incompatibilities between manufacturers but nonetheless disappointing. Does Asus offer something similar to the Dell WD19S that would be compatible with my ROG Z13?

Somewhat yeah actually, that one looks like it would work. I'd prefer one with a bare board and a female USB input so I can print a small case and use a generic cable, instead of the converter being part of the cable. But I think like you said the best route it to just solder a USB connection to the input side of a standard buck converter.

Like the title says, I am trying to find a buck converter that will take a 5V USB input (either Type C, Micro, Mini, whatever common cables I have laying around) with a stepped down (variable) output. Maybe it's my search terms, but all I'm finding are buck converters that take various voltages in and then regulate them to a 5V USB output interface, which is quite the opposite of what I need. For reference, I am 3D printing a mechanical clock, and though this clock normally uses a weighted pulley system to 'wind' the clock, I am replacing all of this with a servo motor that has the end stops and potentiometer, etc. removed, leaving only the motor and gears. I want to power the clock with a simple USB power input, and have a buck converter step down the voltage from 5V to the bare minimum required to keep the clock running. Does something like exist? Or would I need to solder my own USB connector on the input side of a standard buck converter? I'd prefer to have an all-in-one board that has the USB input on board, and a simple short lead to connect to the servo, that way I can print a tiny case that hides somewhere on the clock frame and keeps everything tidy.

After creating the pool with just one 6TB WD Red, I may not even expand the pool, at least for a while. I moved a lot of CRAW photos from my camera(s) and several games in my Steam library and still not even close to any real storage utilization lol. I also found out that I will need some specialty hardware from HP to install a second 3.5" drive (as my machine only came with a 2.5" SSD), even though there is another slot for a second 3.5". Overall pretty happy with the performance though, for just a single 5400rpm drive, I get around 100MB/s transfer speeds which is pretty close to saturating the gigabit connection. Don't think I will really play games off of it (probably move the games over to my SSD first) but convenient not to have to redownload stuff all the time.

Another question, how is editing a Premiere Pro project (typically 1080p footage) with the source media on the NAS? Taking into account a Gigabit wired connection and 5400rpm WD Red drives (simple ZFS pool, no parity or striping)? If I could work on video projects without even having the source media on my local machine, that would be fantastic, so long as the source and preview playback is smooth.

Last update: Got the second HP ProDesk machine and ended up using TrueNAS Core as the OS. Was able to get everything set up no problem and log into the web GUI: My final setup looks a little something like this: I did some more reading and found that MicroTik appliances come with an 802.1X forwarding package out of the box, and apparently it is really easy to bypass the Arris gateway with one of those. I may end up doing that in the future, but so far pfSense has been working excellently and I have had zero issues with dropped connections aside from one of the APs occasionally losing LAN connection (I think it is just a bad CAT5e cable, will do some testing to diagnose that further). Anyways, for now the file server only has the 128GB OS drive (Samsung SSD), but I did order one 6TB WD Red to start with. I'll add a second one later and if it's not able to saturate the gigabit connection without any RAID configuration I may run the two drives in RAID 0 for faster transfer speeds. Nothing on this file server will serve as a backup, it's mainly just to keep Steam games that are too large to fit on my laptop and some raw media that takes up a lot of space (also on my laptop). Will also use it just to transfer files quickly to other people in the house, so no need for a parity drive. Overall though pretty happy with FreeBSD and how everything is working. Definitely a nice solid home network now given the low budget solutions to everything. I may throw in some Noctua fans in both of the systems, as the fans are just a little bit noticeable being close to my workspace. Other than that though, they are great machines, well worth the $70 I paid for each of them.

I ended up installing TrueNAS Core, since I'm a little used to BSD at this point as pfSense is also BSD. Installed no problem, logged into the web GUI and was pleasantly surprised with how nice the UI is. I don't have any disks in the pool yet, just the OS installed on the 128GB SSD that the machine came with, but I did order a WD Red 6TB to start off. Will throw another one in there later for a 12TB NAS, which should be fine for the foreseeable future.

I'll take a look at those options. And as far as storage goes, I think around 10-20TB will suffice; I could RAID 1 two large capacity drives if I spend extra money and get two, say, 14TB HDDs. But it really is just to offload raw media and project files, not really for backup as I do keep final exports and such on the company's network and on my own cloud storage accounts (I'd also like to store a few Steam games on there so I don't have to redownload them all the time). Really just depends on how much I want to spend on the drives, two 14TB HDDs is already over $400, and if I can spend say around $200-300 even though I'd sacrifice any redundancy that would still be more reasonable to me. After all the machine itself was like $70 at the end of the day lol.