Ask an IT Pro

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Hire a Syrian refugee to change it for you. Do your part. :slug:

Seriously though I save every cable I ever possess. There are boxes of cables in my garage. I never use them. I just add to them.

You sound like a Spiderman villain

[dodint]

I finally got tired of having so many cables in my computer room that I separated them into "PC" and "home theater" piles and moved them both to the garage. I still end up buying more stuff though, like that serial-to-usb adapter I'll have no use for ever again.

[BigMcK]

Now that this is a LGP Q&A thread, does that mean I can throw away the Tech Support number that Foamy the Squirrel and I seem to share?


And yes, I like the Ice Cream.

[Sarcastic]

Sooo........ 8 or 16GB of RAM??????

[dodint]

According to the other thread, 192.

[Sarcastic]

This is a good thread. It should be useful to many.

[tifosi77]

Gaming rig: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tifosi77/saved/9y7Zxr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

C'est si bon? Merde?

[dodint]

Google Earth Pro, formerly $399, is now free. It does lots of cool stuff, especially for the amateur real estate gurus out there as it has property boundary parcel lines built in.

Other stuff as noted on Slashdot:

Features include: Advanced measurements: Measure parking lots and land developments with polygon area measure, or determine affected radius with circle measure; High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4,800 x 3,200 pixel resolution; Exclusive pro data layers with Demographics and traffic count; Spreadsheet import: Ingest up to 2,500 addresses at a time, assigning place marks and style templates in bulk; and Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies, up to 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution.

[dodint]

Gaming rig: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tifosi77/saved/9y7Zxr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

C'est si bon? Merde?

Ein bisschen.

I'd question if the incremental cost between the i5 and the i7 is important. How long do you want this rig to play above the minimums?

I'm not a mobo expert. *shrug*

16GB is great, 192GB is optimal.

That SSD drive is turning me on.

That video card out-specs mine that I bought just last year and is $200 less. Jealous.

If iRacing is a consideration I'd venture to say that your rig is better spec'd than mine and I get the full experience, I even have the mirrors turned on without a drop in FPS even at the beginning of races. You could futureproof the thing with an i7 build but only if you plan to replace in in the next 3 years. Or just upgrade later.

All of this is opinion, it's your money, obviously.

[dodint]

I'm not a mobo expert. *shrug*

I was doing a little more internetting and the manufacturer says:

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
(The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

So that mobo is a pretty great match for that video card. From what I understand the ability for a motherboard to fully utilize a PCIEX16 video card is relatively new. Very excited for you.

[tifosi77]

I'd question if the incremental cost between the i5 and the i7 is important. How long do you want this rig to play above the minimums?

This is where system spec'ing becomes black art to me. I figure an i5 with a robust gfx card is a better option than a top end proc with a step down card, assuming the same budget. (Gaming is the primary focus of my pc) But I honestly don't know.

[dodint]

You're talking about two different things though. Best results now or longevity. The system you spec'd is great for right now. If money is important right now, get that system. If money is less important now and you want less hassle later go ahead and bump up to the i7. Consider the opportunity cost and go with what's important to you.

The practical answer is to get the system as you spec'd it, and then get a current or near future i7 when they're being replaced by NEXT GREAT THING.

To speak directly to your question I feel throwing the most money at the video card is the best option if you already have a well performing mid-range processor in your build.

Keep in mind that my philosophy is one of evolutionary improvement. I don't like to scrap a system and rebuild from the ground up. I'm just lazy like that, so planning for what I'll be upgrading years down the line is a normal part of my procurement activities.

[SoupOrSam]

The most important thing that still continues to bottleneck your system is the processor. The i7 is night and day when it comes to power vs the i5. If you want to add an extra two years to the performance of your machine the i7 is without a doubt worth the investment.

This is only valuable information if you are going to UTILIZE the processor in a gaming rig. Email, skype, surfing the net can be done on a POS Celeron....

CPU > GPU in gaming. Im not saying get an i7 with a $40 offbrand gpu, I'm just simply stating framerate exponentially increases with a stronger processor given a decent gpu in both cases. Been a hardcore gamer and an invite caliber player for almost two decades and have built a number of rigs. The processor will always bite you in the ass when it comes to the next new game.

[dodint]

As someone that only builds one computer to run two simulators, not actual games, I'll happily defer to that gentlemans assessment. From what I was reading the difference between the i5/i7 right now is almost negligible but I don't have practical experience to bounce it off of.

[eddysnake]

a little off topic, but I'm sure someone has an answer that will make sense for me...

I'm picking up a Samsung Note 4. I want to get a 64GB micro sd card, but am having a tough time finding the difference between the EVO and PRO. Obviously the write speeds are the big difference, but does that really matter for a phone? I plan on using this for pictures and movies quite a bit, but I'm not exactly sure if that means the PRO is the better deal because of write speeds or if the EVO will work just fine? Can anyone help me out?

EVO http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IVPU7AO/ref ... 4CUQ&psc=1

PRO http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IVPU88U/ref ... XW6F&psc=1

[dodint]

As someone that only builds one computer to run two simulators, not actual games, I'll happily defer to that gentlemans assessment.

Just as s glimpse into where I'm coming from, *have been upgraded since I bought it in 2012:

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600 processor(8MB Cache, 3.4GHz)
RAM: 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHZ, 2x4GB/2x2GB
*Monitors: 27" LG LED Monitor x3 (from single 24" Dell)
*Video Card: EVGA GTX770 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 (from AMD Radeon HD 6770)
*Hard Drive: 128GB Kingston SSD (from 500GB HDD)
*OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit Clean Install (from Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit)
Optical Drive: Blu-ray 8X BD-R, DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
*Power Supply: Corsair TX650 650-Watt (from stock)
Aux Storage: 3TB Western Digitial NAS drive.

iRacing specific add-ons:

G27 Racing Wheel
Fanatec CSR Elite Pedals w/Inversion Kit
DSD custom Button Box
DashMeterPro digital dash via Android
Sennheiser USB headset

Spoiler:

[SoupOrSam]

The i5 is still a very very very good processor. If you're building a gaming rig that you don't plan on replacing in 3 years and still really want to be moderately decent with the newest flavor of the month game, that extra cache on the i7 is where it's at and what you're paying for imo. I think squeaking out another year and sometimes even two at moderate framerates is better for the extra 100-300 price increase. It's all a matter of preference and finances of course. If you can afford to build newer for cheaper more often VS more expensive less often the i5 wouldn't be a bad choice. I just know when benchmarks come out in a year or two you'll always look back and say "i wish i spent the extra 200 to achieve the same fps as today's mid-level.... then i wouldn't be thinking about building again"

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

anyone have any suggestiosn for cheap and effective wireless mouse and keyboard?

I also need a monitor

cheap is the keyword because to me a $50 product is the same as a $200 one. I'm the kind of guy that's content with $20 headphones.

[mac5155]

I have an old iPod dock with a 30 pin connector. I no longer have an iPod. Is there a cable I can use that will convert the 30 pin iPod connector to either a 3.5 mm headphone jack, or allow me to plug in my android device via micro USB?

[dodint]

anyone have any suggestiosn for cheap and effective wireless mouse and keyboard?
I also need a monitor

I have one of these for my iRacing cockpit-to-be but it probably isn't what you had in mind. Though Logitech makes some sub-$25 traditional wireless keyboard and mouse combos that are probably good enough. As inexpensive as Logitech can be their stuff is surprisingly good quality. I actually use an old RadioShack Gigabit wireless keybaord/mouse combo that is probably over 5 years old.

Monitor? For what? This refurbished HP isn't bad. If you just want the low down dirty cheapest you can get, just go to a Goodwill and grab whatever is there. I bet they have LCDs by now.

I have an old iPod dock with a 30 pin connector. I no longer have an iPod. Is there a cable I can use that will convert the 30 pin iPod connector to either a 3.5 mm headphone jack, or allow me to plug in my android device via micro USB?

Yes, surprisingly.

[tifosi77]

The i5 is still a very very very good processor. If you're building a gaming rig that you don't plan on replacing in 3 years and still really want to be moderately decent with the newest flavor of the month game, that extra cache on the i7 is where it's at and what you're paying for imo. I think squeaking out another year and sometimes even two at moderate framerates is better for the extra 100-300 price increase. It's all a matter of preference and finances of course. If you can afford to build newer for cheaper more often VS more expensive less often the i5 wouldn't be a bad choice. I just know when benchmarks come out in a year or two you'll always look back and say "i wish i spent the extra 200 to achieve the same fps as today's mid-level.... then i wouldn't be thinking about building again"

I've built two rigs, basically from scratch, since 2009. They were designed strictly as second tier systems all around. But this rig has a bit of evolution built into it. That card is going to the dog's bollocks for at least two years (even if they come out with 'better' cards, most games aren't going to be anywhere close to exploiting that power), so I can still get an uptick in performance by upgrading to an i7 in a year or so.

But having read your posts on the matter, I'm thinking of maybe downsizing the SSD a bit and putting that money towards an i7.

[dodint]

Calling back to your earlier question in the other thread, a 128GB SSD with a slave traditional HDD will suit you well. That's a good place to find the money since I assume you have a spare HDD laying around.

Unless you want all 40 of those games installed at once. Then, no.

[shmenguin]

I've never upgraded just a CPU, but I'm not sure it's as simple as just swapping out RAM. You might need to do a full windows re-install at that point to get everything in order.

[tifosi77]

Calling back to your earlier question in the other thread, a 128GB SSD with a slave traditional HDD will suit you well. That's a good place to find the money since I assume you have a spare HDD laying around.

Unless you want all 40 of those games installed at once. Then, no.

That's the real bugbear, trying to figure out how to manage all those stupid games. HDD storage won't be an issue; between HDDs in my case and the NAS I currently have 6 tb of storage, and am adding an additional 4 tb to the rig when I build it out. It's not so much that I need it, just a reflection that hard drives are cheap now.

[dodint]

What's with the 40 games anyway? I have iRacing and XPlane and can't find time for those.