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Aaron_T

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  1. Informative
    Aaron_T got a reaction from DJRWolf in Looking for a 4TB M.2 SSD--How is the Acer Predator GM7000?   
    I have a 4tb GM7000, and anecdotally the performance is great, no loading time issues or any reason to think the drive it bottlenecking anything.

    One consideration though it that the drive is very thick as far as M.2 drives go. If you have a ITX motherboard where the drives are stacked, or a laptop with tight space tolerances like a Razer, you may not be able to get the GM7000 physically installed. in which case you'd need a single sided 4tb SSD like the Lexar NM790, or a 2tb single sided drive like a 980 or 990 pro.
  2. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from voyager_ in Seeking Advice for Setting Up an Efficient Home Server in an Apartment   
    In my opinion, running too many essential services on a single device always leads to issues, be it performance or just having a single point of failure.

    For your 6 specific use cases, I'd break them up across a few small devices, something like this:

    #1,3 and maybe 5: https://a.co/d/fBn6Y4f

    #2, 6 also maybe 5: https://a.co/d/bpB4wHg

    #4: https://a.co/d/2SRldUo or the UM790 you listed

    PROS to this scenario:
    -Top link gives you dedicated hardware to run a better router like pfSense or OpnSense which gives you lots of network tools for free.
    -Multiple devices gives you redundancy and more room to grow (IE #6)
    -You'll learn a lot more using dedicated devices instead of trying to make it all fit into a windows box
    -NAS vs DAS is better IMO because you don't have to worry about the machine your DAS is attached to messing up your raid. (gives more freedom to experiment) 

    CONS:
    -Going to cost more
    -Likely to take a little more space


    EDIT: small note about the UM780 vs the UM790. The UM780 give you an Oculink port, which is awesome for external GPU enclosure that support it, the UM790 does not have this. And they both have the built in Radeon 780M iGPU
  3. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to jaslion in Beelink Mini PC's keep erasing SSD...   
    Sounds like they are doing a secure erase of the drive for some reason.
     
    I'd return these asap.
  4. Like
    Aaron_T got a reaction from 64dtz in First PC Upgrade Since 2017   
    I stand corrected. Makes things even cheaper.
  5. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to seanondemand in Recommendations for office chairs   
    For your budget, an Aeron classic or a Mirra might be doable. Worth mentioning too, I know the Aeron comes in A/B/C sizes, B for normal sized people, A small and C large. Often As and Cs can be found more easily/cheaply, but if you don't fit that size you can't really get around it.
  6. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from seanondemand in Recommendations for office chairs   
    Used Herman Miller chairs are a pretty good value, and their chairs are top notch.

    Example:
    https://nationalofficeinteriors.com/office-furniture/chairs/direct-ship-chairs/herman-miller-discount-shipping-mirra/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5rGuBhCnARIsAN11vgS3q_k9-XapE_px1LkBcYpCOnRTtwfrA3NnrVfmGToPoLtmHT9MZoUaAudSEALw_wcB
  7. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Zando_ in Any recommendations for comfortable gaming chairs suitable for individuals over 300 lbs?   
    It's unfortunately a fair amount higher than your budget, but my Secret Labs Titan Evo XL has held up quite well for me. Had it for about 2-3 years. I'm 285lbs, 6'5". Not sure about QC on their latest chairs though. My daughter recently bought one and she loves it, but she's light, so not a good test.

    For known high quality, you could always go for a used Herman Miller. Their chairs are rated between 300 and 350lbs capacity. EX: https://nationalofficeinteriors.com/office-furniture/chairs/direct-ship-chairs/herman-miller-discount-shipping-mirra/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5rGuBhCnARIsAN11vgS3q_k9-XapE_px1LkBcYpCOnRTtwfrA3NnrVfmGToPoLtmHT9MZoUaAudSEALw_wcB
  8. Informative
    Aaron_T got a reaction from 64dtz in First PC Upgrade Since 2017   
    Looking at the asus website, it doesn't look like your MB will support 5000 series CPUs. So might want to grab a kit like this:

     
    PCPartPicker Part List
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor  (£268.99 @ Amazon UK) 
    Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS WIFI II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£115.98 @ Novatech) 
    Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  (£278.99 @ Amazon UK) 
    Total: £663.96
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-14 19:09 GMT+0000

    All your other parts look fine to go with the above core upgrade. And if you are only targeting 1080p, I'm not sure it makes sense to spend more on a beefier GPU.
  9. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from BiotechBen in Recommendations for Home Server Build   
    VM = Virtual Machine

    It sounds like all you plan to do with this is store a little data. If you have more specific uses you'd like the server to be functional for, then please do share.

    The reason it's important to understand your use case is because the OS, and hardware for a "server" can vary a great deal depending on what you want to use the machine for.

    If you just want a NAS, there are a lot of good COTS(Commercial Off The SHelf) solutions, like Qnap and Synology.

    If you want run VMs you need more powerful hardware, if you want a media server then some device with transcoding hardware might be nice, if you want to install a k8s cluster and push docker containers to it instead of full fat VMs then you may want some other variation of hardware and OS. Also what you're using the containers for can make a big difference.

    Just some examples to illustrate why it's so important to understand the use case. And "I just want something to learn on" is a valid use case that would be a more general hardware config. But thinking through what your needs are, and being as specific as possible will help those here give you the best advice.
  10. Like
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Spicybaja in Little brothers build   
    I'd probably shoot for something like this:

     
    PCPartPicker Part List
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.68 @ Amazon) 
    Motherboard: MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
    Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($40.99 @ Amazon) 
    Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Best Buy) 
    Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($289.39 @ Newegg) 
    Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.98 @ Newegg) 
    Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
    Total: $798.01
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-09 19:33 EST-0500

    Still have the 5800X3D to upgrade to for more performance in the future. And plenty of GPU power for 1080p and 1440p high refresh in esports games.
    Unfortunately at the lower price point both AM4 and Intel 12th/13th/14th gen are EOL, so you have to buy AM5 for future products at this point in time, but that puts the price point higher. AM4 still has a lot of life and performance to give though, and this should be more than capable for the games your brother plays, with room to grow.
  11. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Psittac in Very Basic Audio Mixer Suggestions   
    can you link some examples?  I've wanted something similar in the past and gave up
  12. Like
    Aaron_T reacted to Omon_Ra in Very Basic Audio Mixer Suggestions   
    This is kind of tricky... Most mixers are more for XLR/1/4" connections, and because of that, they're big-ish and you'd need a bag full of adapters. There's two ways of going about this, one will require a slightly larger USB mixer (dongle for your MacBook), the other, a tangle of cables and adapters if you'd prefer to keep it all analog and use AUX/3.5mm connections. I'm assuming you do not want the PC audio to go to the MacBook either. What is your budget as well?
     
    I've only used these ART products in passing, but they seem to be decent. Take a look at this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/USBMIX4--art-usbmix4-mixer-with-usb
     
    Headset would go to the headset section obviously.. You'll need one of these if you have a TRRS plug on your headset, usually headsets come with them. CH1 level will control your mic level.
     

     
    There's some parts of this that I'm not exactly sure how this mixer functions, like the 'loopback,' and what exactly the 'computer level' controls (is it the audio coming back to the mixer from USB, or the AUX/MP3 input?). Also not sure where/if there is volume control for the AUX/MP3 IN input either. You might need an 1/8" to 1/4" adapter depending how the AUX/MP3 input works if you'd like volume control on the mixer for that. But you should be able to send the audio from the MacBook back to the mixer over USB, and that will be treated as an input (no extra cable/adapter). Bonus is this thing is USB powered, so that's pretty cool. You'd need to be able to control the PC volume with one of the level knobs if you want to keep Spotify from going to the MacBook.
     
    But honestly if it were me, I'd just listen to Spotify on the MacBook, avoid the mixer and second PC, and just mute/pause whatever it is I'm listening to when I'm in meetings..
     
     
     
     
  13. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to whispous in Partitioning question.   
    Merging is always somewhat unintuitive to those who don't have experience. In short, no, you will not be able to merge partitions. Practically speaking.
     
    Test your new installation. If it works, wipe EVERYTHING and begin again on a BLANK drive - not trying to nudge partitions all over the place. Get it right from the start.
     
     
    And this won't improve performance.
  14. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Quincy_V2 in GPU recommendation   
    @Quincy_V2 RX 6700xt fits nicely into your budget with great price to performance ratio. Small bonus, you wouldn't have to worry about clearing out AMD drivers to swap to Nvidia.
  15. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Electronics Wizardy in What does gigabit mean?   
    Typically a switch can have every port moving data at the line speed, so with a 8 port switch all 8 ports can send and receive at 1gb/s at the same time.
  16. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Needfuldoer in What does gigabit mean?   
    "Giga" - prefix for billion
    "bit" - One eighth of a byte
     
    One billion bits per second. Giga-bit. Gigabit.
     
    Switching capacity is entirely determined by the compute power the switch has. Even the cheapest modern Gigabit switches should let all the ports talk to each other at line speed, though you probably won't find that spec listed for low end and no-name switches. Enterprise grade rackmount managed switches usually have tons of available switching capacity, and their spec sheets and sales literature are more than happy to tell you all about it.
  17. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Dutch_Master in Not sure what to upgrade, only that I need to upgrade   
    @leclod In theory, yes. But it requires a BIOS update that isn't there (AMD doesn't want 5000 series chips on A320 boards) and given the limited VRM cooling on the A320 boards, the 5700 (there's a decent GPU in the system, no need for a 5600G) cannot be used to its full potential. Hence the B550 recommendation.
     
    In light of what @PC HEROES suggested, there's another alternative from Erying, not a lot more expensive, but certainly more competitive with AMD's offerings:
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005279437023.html
    Intel i7 12650H based.
  18. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Chapunna in Having Problems With New Motherboard USB Ports   
    Download chipset drivers from motherboard site, try usb 2.0 ports,  also update bios if there is availabe update, if none of this helps then buy another brand's usb extender.
  19. Like
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Lola mina in Please help me build my first pc   
    I mostly agree with Why_Me, the only thing i'd change is to keep the iGpu in your CPU. I personally have had too many situations where an iGpu would have been great for debugging and I didn't have one, so I try to always have one now.

    As far as the K vs non-K I'd say unless you want to actively overclock your CPU then just get the non-K. The performance difference is small between the two unless your overclocking(or under volting for power savings.
  20. Agree
    Aaron_T reacted to Lola mina in Please help me build my first pc   
    Thank you so much for the helpful and detailed reply.
    Isn't that more logical to upgrade the motherboard instead?
  21. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Lola mina in Please help me build my first pc   
    @Lola mina Looks like a perfectly fine system for the most part. Two suggestions:

    1. Get at least a 2tb NVMe SSD for OS, games and tools. 1 Tb can fill up pretty fast with AAA games and professional tools and utilities.
    2. Get at least 32 GB of RAM, again for professional use you'll likely find yourself restricted with only 16GB.

    EDIT: Also depending on what you're doing with all that RAID 10 space, you may want even more than 32gb of RAM if you have to load a lot of working files off those HDDs.
  22. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from cleric_warlock in Want to know if puting my laptop with this stand on top of my case might be a bad idea   
    Watch your desktop temps under load to see if there is any significant difference, but doubt you'll see a big difference in thermals. IE I expect this is going to be just fine for you.
  23. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Fasauceome in Can I use a GTX 1660 super on an old intel manufactured motherboard DB85FL?   
    According to the intel spec there is a full x16 PCIe expansion slot on that motherboard, which would work with the GTX 1660 Super. The only consideration would be physical space for the card assuming you bought a pre-built with that motherboard that may not be a full size case.

    MB spec: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/72031/intel-desktop-board-db85fl/specifications.html
  24. Funny
    Aaron_T reacted to Middcore in is it fine to use 2 8gb ddr3 sticks at 1866 mhz and 2 4gb sticks at 1600mhz together?   
    The poster you are replying to has OC'ing RAM for no good reason as their whole gimmick, basically. 
  25. Agree
    Aaron_T got a reaction from Needfuldoer in is it fine to use 2 8gb ddr3 sticks at 1866 mhz and 2 4gb sticks at 1600mhz together?   
    The sticks will likely work together fine, however, all 4 sticks will run at the speed of the slowest kit, IE 1600mhz
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