JeffJ

Thanks for your reply! So as I will be running it 24/7, it sounds like I really should consider ECC? I've looked a bit more into unraid as an option, and although they seem to say the same thing about ECC, it looks like the hardware requirements aren't nearly as high, so I'd be able to build a much cheaper NAS if I go with unraid instead of FreeNAS. Would this be correct? And if so, what are the pros/cons with each system? Again, media streaming is my primary intention. I'd also like to be able to purchase more WD Reds down the line and easily add to the existing setup.

I'm putting together my first custom NAS. I'm intending to run FreeNAS on it from a flash drive, and its primary purpose will be video and music streaming in 1080p over WiFi - I also plan to stream from WAN when I'm outside the country. Now I don't really have any experience with building a NAS (but I don't have any interest in a premade one) so I tried to go by the recommended minimum specs stated on the FreeNAS website. I have made 2 different builds so far, one using ECC memory and the other using non-ECC memory. Basically I have 2 questions. Question 1 Are either of these 2 builds too little or too much for my purposes? Is there something I can do better or cheaper? I don't want to overkill for my intentions, but I also don't want to underbuild. Build 1 (Non-ECC): https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Thaudal/saved/kCzKZL Build 2 (ECC): https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Thaudal/saved/XW48K8 Question 2 I'm leaning towards build 1 myself, because it's cheaper, the CPU is better, and it's more aesthetic to me (blue RAM for the blue light in the case) However, the only reason why I built the second one is because I read about some horror stories using non-ECC memory on a ZFS based OS. How crucial is it? Is it worth paying $100+ more for an uglier build and slower CPU that is in turn ECC? And will the CPU in the ECC build still be sufficient? I'd love any feedback and advice on my builds, as this is completely new to me. EDIT Doing some more digging, I have a third question; Would something like unraid be a better alternative? Looking around, I see lots of people saying that ZFS is the way to go, but I can't really find any distinct reason why. Does it have any significant advantage over other file systems that I should know of? As far as I can tell, using urnaid won't require me to use ECC memory in the same way FreeNAS, Nas4Free or similar would, and it's also more scalable and easier to add a single drive more later on if I want. If the $60 license isn't a problem for me, is there any reason why I shouldn't use unraid over FreenAS?

I'm having a very weird issue; out of no where, my computer is suddenly having major issues playing a 1080p x265 HEVC movie in VLC. It worked fine a couple of days ago, but now, all of a sudden, playing the exact same file(s) in VLC will make the video lag and stutter like crazy, and it's filled with artefacts. The audio is fine. The weird thing is, if I play it in Windows Media Player, it runs almost perfectly (HBO logo in the beginning of the video lags a little, but that's about it). But, once again, just a few days ago, it was perfect in VLC. I haven't installed anything new since then. Things I have tried: 1: Running scans with Windows Defender (came up clean) 2: Running a few swipes on the disks and the registry with CCleaner 3: Enabling/disabling hardware encoding in VLC (doesn't seem to make the slightest difference either way) 4: Monitored my performance closely - as of this writing it's sitting at 3-6% CPU usage and 9% memory usage. Disks are all operating normally. 5: Disabling all but the most necessary startup tasks so no weird things are booting up with Windows 6: Playing the file(s) from a different disk just to rule out if the disk was too slow or something like that 7: Uninstalling and reinstalling VLC (I am running version 2.2.4) 8: Updating nVidia graphics cards drivers (currently on version 368.39) All other files are playing just fine, it's just these highly CPU intense HEVC files, so I can't help but wonder if somehow my CPU is being crippled somewhere, but I just can't put my finger on it. Playing things like GTA V on maximum settings with lots of explosions etc. runs just fine, and like I said, playing the same things in Windows Media Player is almost flawless, so this is a really weird issue. I'm not 100% sure if the rest of my computing operations (browsing, gaming etc.) seems to be a little slower too or if I'm just imagining things now. Although, not sure if related, but I do seem to have gotten some screen tearing when scrolling in Chrome too, right around the same time. Things do seem a little bit slower all around, so once again, I can't help but suspect some type of really weird malware/virus. And before you ask, I know it seems obvious to say "why don't you just watch it in Windows Media Player then", but this is clearly a problem that needs to be fixed since it worked just fine a couple of days ago (also, the non-external subtitles won't work in WMP) This is my setup: ASUS Z170 Deluxe Intel i7-6700K 4.0 Ghz Skylake 64GB DDR4 RAM 2 x GeForce 980Ti (ASUS Strix OC edition) 2 x Samsung 850 SSD 2 x WD Black HDD SeaSonic 1200W 80+ Platinum OS: Windows 10 64 bit

I'm really looking for a software based solution here, preferably one that would let me alternate between this and a normal "extend all displays" type of setup fairly quickly and easily without having to mess around with any cables at all. Sure! Hope my beautiful illustration makes more sense!

Where would I see this option? Because currently I can either extend or duplicate (the latter of which will duplicate primary display's content to all other 3 displays instead of letting me pick a specific one) To all: Sorry for my bad explaining, I shall try and make it more clear. You know how in Windows, using more than one display, you can "extend" (making the other displays act as displays of their own) or you can "duplicate", which will basically mirror all content of your primary display to the other displays, right? Well, I have four displays, and I want to have two of those "extended" (as in, just acting as displays of their own) and the other two being mirrors of each other (as in, the content of the primary display should only ever be mirrored/duplicated to one specific display out of all the displays, rather than duplicating the primary displays content to all the remaining three displays) Makes sense?

Hey guys, I'm running 4 different displays (using two 980Ti), and what I would like to do is to clone the content of my primary display to one other of the 4 displays - leaving the remaining two displays "extended" and able to display their own content. How would I go about doing this?

About a month ago I made a new build from scratch and I am using the NZXT Phantom 820 case. It's been awesome so far, but today I noticed that the big sidefan is running very, very slow, no matter what I try to do. All the other fans (top, rear and front) are running exactly as they should - which means that they respect the +/- buttons on the case or the fanspeed settings in Ai Suite. I know that the sidefan also did this last I checked - the first couple of weeks after building this rig I monitored everything about it very closely. But now, all of a sudden, no matter what I do, it just won't seem to speed up. Any ideas?

My man! Holy sh.. do I feel studid now. I swear I clicked "check for updates" earlier and nothing happened. And just like magic, my problem is solved. Thank you!

Not sure weather to put this in here or in displays, so hope this is fine. I have 2 x 980Ti's in SLI and I have 3 Dell U2414H hooked up to the upper card (2 of them in minidisplayport, the third in hdmi). This all works great in regular Windows 10 everyday stuff. However, if I try to set this up for surround in the nVidia control panel, whenever I go into the surround settings I am greeted with this very descriptive and generic "display connection error" no matter what I do. I have tried all kinds of things suggested when Googling this; various combinations of dp, hdmi and dvi, using only the upper card, using only the lower card, using both cards, disabling SLI altogether, even flipping the SLI bridge as one guy said that worked for him - all to the same result. (the image shows I have a couple more displays connected but please disregard that as I have tried numerous times with just the 3 I need so that is not the issue) I am running the latest nVidia driver as of this writing (353.62) on Windows 10 Pro 64bit. My full specs, in case that is relevant: ASUS Z170 Deluxe Intel i7 4.0 Ghz Skylake 64GB DDR4 RAM 2 x GeForce 980Ti (ASUS Strix OC edition) 2 x Samsung 850 SSD 2 x WD Black HDD SeaSonic 1200W 80+ Platinum And like I said I am trying to set this up on 3 x Dell U2414H displays (right now I am using 2 x minidisplay ports and 1 hdmi).

I just found that and I was just about to post about it in here! Thing is, I can't seem to find out if it's even been released yet. Amazon doesn't seem to have it.

Wow... Holy shit. I just tried to lessen my criteria quite a bit, to 2 things: 1: Must have G-sync 2: Must have at least 3840x2160 According to pcpartspicker, there exist a whopping number of two monitors in the world that lives up to these two simple criteria. Can this really be??? (BTW, both of those are from Acer, and not surprisingly, a lot of user reviews are telling about typical bad Acer experiences like you would expect from all other Acer products - my history already told me to stay away from anything that Acer made, and the reviews I saw only confirmed that)

So far my Google-fu hasn't been strong enough to find the monitor I want. Does it exist? And if not, can you help me find one that is as close to all of my wishes as possible? Price isn't too important, but preferably under the $1400 mark, although I'm open to be flexible for the right monitor. So my wishes are: 30-32" 4096x2160 (or at the very least 3840x2160) Prefer IPS with 4-8ms response time (but am open to a very good TN panel as well) G-sync Vesa mountable (100x100) Weighs absolutely no more than around 20 lbs without stand HUGE BONUS (though not hard requirement) if it's curved Hope to find this or something as close as possible. PLEASE NOTE: I am not open to swap G-Sync with Freesync.

No one?

In case anyone in here also happens to know about good desk monitor mount arms, I'd love it if you could look at this topic: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/493813-help-me-find-a-similar-arm-mount/ As it's quite a unique setup and has some rather specific needs.

First let me explain the setup I'm going for, as this is a bit important: I'm going for a 4-screen setup, in which I have 3 Dell UltraSharp U2414H on each their own desk mounted arms, and then a fourth screen which is a big 32" monitor that has its own desk mounted arm off to the side. This is important because the 3 Dells will be setup as my primary surround setup, and the big monitor will primarily be off to the left, raised above the outer most left monitor. When I want to use the big monitor I can pivot off the 2 outer most left Dells more to the left, and then drag the big monitor to the right and lower it down in front of me. This is a very flexible setup that allows me to do everything, but it also requires that the arm that carries the big monitor is very flexible and can go a lot to left, right, up and down. So with this in mind, this is the big monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824014431&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID= And this is the arm that the big monitor would be on: https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Ergotron-LX-Desk-Mount-LCD-Arm-Display-Mounting-Kit-for-up-to-32in-screens/1974421.aspx?_ref=ca-wtb&_refv=1cbe2fe5-3649-4970-989c-8dd51da4ad42 However, the monitor (which is nearly perfect for all my criteria) is 28.60 pounds, but the arm above (which is also just about perfect in its articulation features) only carries up to 25 pounds. Even then, it says that for monitors above 20 pounds I may lose quite a significant amount of height articulation. So, with this setup in mind that needs a lot of flexibility, where can I find an arm like the Ergotron LX that gives me at least the same amount of flexibility in all directions but can carry at least 28 pounds? To those curious, the 3 Dells will be on these arms: http://shop.ergotechgroup.com/320-single-2-link-arm/ http://shop.ergotechgroup.com/320-dual-monitor-arm/