Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Druzil]

So I'm going to use the Win 10 upgrade to replace an old HD and finally move to an SSD+HDD setup.   Any tips for putting Windows on an SSD?  Should I partition the SSD or just leave it as one drive (240gb).  Should I attempt to move my user/documents folder or temp folder off the SSD or is that just a losing battle?  Basically this is only a gaming computer so I want some space on the SSD for games that need it and the rest of my library I can move off to the bigger drive.

Also I'm a bit late to the Terraria question but you should be able to start and stop it gracefully with a simple service wrapper.   You could try just a generic 3rd party one or just write a simple one in .Net and just send the save/exit command through standard input.

[Chimpy]

The only stuff you should probably worry about tossing off to a spinning drive are things like music and videos which are sequentially read and the software reading them has significant enough buffering that you won't notice any change in performance. Those things also take up the most space.

Regular documents are, for the vast majority of people, going to take up less than 1GB of your hard drive space anyway.

I would just use a single partition, personally. (Windows setup's default partition map with the system reserved and recovery partitions is fine).

I have a 256GB SSD that I have had for years and even with all of the cruft (and all of my audio files because I was too lazy to move them) and iPhone backups made by iTunes I still have 60+ GB free.

[MahrinSkel]

There's no need to partition the SSD (more than Windows does by default, anyway), and unless you're working with large video files there's not much point in moving your temp files off of it, either, they just won't be big enough to matter.  I actually like using the SSD even when I am working with video just because it's so damned *fast*, but none of my video projects are particularly large.

With a 240GB SSD, I almost never need to worry about having enough space, every few months I might go through and delete a few games I haven't been playing. I keep the bulk data (especially movies/TV) on the HDD, when it isn't on the NAS.

--Dave

[Chimpy]

Windows 10 also will be more space efficient than Windows 7 simply due to the update cleanup/compression of the WinSxS folder that happens automatically. No need to run the disk cleanup wizard every few months to delete years worth of superseded updates.

[Ironwood]

What's the software of choice for recording these days ?  Say I wanted to record a hex game or two that I was playing ?

Why, yes, Free WOULD be nice...

[apocrypha]

After trying a few things I found XSplit to be the one I liked the best.

[Trippy]

What's the software of choice for recording these days ?  Say I wanted to record a hex game or two that I was playing ?

Why, yes, Free WOULD be nice...

If you have an NVIDIA card use their built in recording software.

[Ironwood]

I do not.  It is an AMD of Evil.   

[Trippy]

You could try AMD's Gaming Evolved client then (was Raptr):

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/raptr

[Yegolev]

So I'm going to use the Win 10 upgrade to replace an old HD and finally move to an SSD+HDD setup.   Any tips for putting Windows on an SSD?  Should I partition the SSD or just leave it as one drive (240gb).  Should I attempt to move my user/documents folder or temp folder off the SSD or is that just a losing battle?  Basically this is only a gaming computer so I want some space on the SSD for games that need it and the rest of my library I can move off to the bigger drive.

Also I'm a bit late to the Terraria question but you should be able to start and stop it gracefully with a simple service wrapper.   You could try just a generic 3rd party one or just write a simple one in .Net and just send the save/exit command through standard input.

I'll put "write something in .NET" down as a distant option.

I currently have 5 storage devices in my computer, plus a bluray writer.  2 of these are SSDs.  Obviously I would recommend just tacking on a new storage unit when needed.  I also don't like bothering with partitioning on Windows.  I'm not running a database or anything that might suddenly jam up my storage, but even so I keep things separated by physical devices.

I moved my OS from a 60GB SSD (too small) to a 250GB one using Todo Backup.

[Viin]

I have to replace my work laptop which is a bulky POS (aka cheap) Dell (with max res of 1600 x 900 on a 17" laptop!!), so I did some research and decided to get one of these:
ASUS ZenBook UX305

I'm a bit skeptical about using a laptop with a mobile chip in it (Intel Core-M) but almost 10 hours of battery life would be awesome.

If anyone cares, I'll report back after using it for a month or so.

[Chimpy]

I have a zen book for work and it does get ridiculous battery life and is nice and light but we stopped using them because the workstation admin is a lazy moron and did not do a good job of testing and was having people end up not being able to connect to wireless consistently and getting blue screens when bit locker was turned on.

I am sure if the guy had a clue he would have been able to get the proper drivers packaged but he doesn't so now we give out Lenovo X1 carbons (which are nicer machines, granted).

The low power chips are just fine for performance, I was able to play games just as well on it as I do on my old home desktop when I was in Vegas for a conference last year.

[ezrast]

I just picked up a UX303LA, also for work. I only unboxed it this morning but it seems solid. For some reason I thought it would have a matte screen, though. It disappointingly does not.

[Chimpy]

I just picked up a UX303LA, also for work. I only unboxed it this morning but it seems solid. For some reason I thought it would have a matte screen, though. It disappointingly does not.

I don't think anyone sells an ultrabook with a matte screen.

[Viin]

The UX305 is matte. So is the Dell XPS 13 (2015 edition, without the Ultra HD screen).

[apocrypha]

What's the software of choice for recording these days ?  Say I wanted to record a hex game or two that I was playing ?

Why, yes, Free WOULD be nice...

If you have an NVIDIA card use their built in recording software.

Revisiting this discussion. I forgot when I recommended XSplit that I'd purchased a license for it back when I was making Elite:Tedious videos. That license has now expired and it's pretty much useless without one. The Nvidia Shadowplay is no use for me because it doesn't do OpenGL, and I'm recording Minecraft.

Any other suggestions for recording software?

[Trippy]

Well if you are used to using streaming software to record you could try OBS since it's free. I'm still trying to find something I like besides just using FRAPS. I have Bandicam, Action!, DXtory and ShadowPlay as well and they all have issues.

[apocrypha]

I'll have a look at OBS, thanks for the suggestion.

I did get Shadowplay working by setting it to record the desktop then just switching Minecraft to fullscreen mode after starting the recording. Works pretty well and has much less of a FPS hit than FRAPS for me.

[Trippy]

Yes ShadowPlay's encoder is GPU-accelerated. However it's fundamentally flawed if you aren't using Windows 8+ since it'll split the recording into 3.8 GB chunks which is why I don't use it on my Windows 7 gaming PC.

[apocrypha]

As luck would have it I'm using Windows 10 so that shouldn't be an issue for me.

[ezrast]

Have you tried FFSplit? Like OBS, it's geared towards streaming but can record to disk as well. I rarely see it come up in these discussions so I'm not sure if there's something "wrong" with it, but it worked very well for me.

[apocrypha]

Added to the list, thanks ezrast. The Shadowplay recording looks really soft for some reason, like the contrast is low or something.

OK, tested a few things out including FFSplit and OBS. Shadowplay blows everything else away for me simply because of the GPU acceleration. I can record at 1080p 60fps with it while anything else struggles to maintain 20 fps. Old CPU, modern video card syndrome!

[Yegolev]

I'm trying to remember the discussion over password managers.  I'm faced with a decision over what to do about my passwords now that I'm using a Mac at work, yet W7 still dominates my home infrastructure.  KeePass is problematic.  I'd like to find something that will work equally well in both worlds... if it exists.

[Trippy]

If you are willing pay 1Password (+Dropbox) will do the job. I use it on Windows, OS X, iOS and Android.

[Yegolev]

Early votes are for 1Password, and it has a converter utility.  I've paid for stupidier things.

[apocrypha]

Been using LastPass for a couple of years now on Android, Win & *nix. Not got 1st hand experience on Macs but have friends who use it on them and swear by it.

[Chimpy]

I'm trying to remember the discussion over password managers.  I'm faced with a decision over what to do about my passwords now that I'm using a Mac at work, yet W7 still dominates my home infrastructure.  KeePass is problematic.  I'd like to find something that will work equally well in both worlds... if it exists.

I use a product called "Strip Password Manager" which has Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS client and syncs through dropbox, wifi, or google drive.

It cost me about 20 bucks up front but hasn't cost me anything since.

At the time I was looking for password managers for iOS, it was the only one that properly encrypted the database on the phone according to several reviews.

Works great.

https://www.zetetic.net/strip/

[Yegolev]

Data import looks like a minefield for STRIP, otherwise looks like a winner.  Need testing.

[Yegolev]

LassPass refuses to import properly, so that is out.

[apocrypha]

Ugh, poop. I have no experience of importing because when I switched to LastPass I basically generated new, enormous passwords for everything.

[Yegolev]

Right.  If I was just looking for something cross-platform, I'd be set.  Unfortunately I have years of passwords in a KeepAss DB.  I suppose I COULD manually...    Still looking at 1Password.

However I can't see the in-app purchase of 1Password (Android) to take me to the purchase screen, so I don't even know how much they want for it.

[apocrypha]

Well their store says $50 for a single license for Mac or Win, but they do seem to be going out of their way to hide the Android price for some reason.

[Trippy]

Right.  If I was just looking for something cross-platform, I'd be set.  Unfortunately I have years of passwords in a KeepAss DB.  I suppose I COULD manually...    Still looking at 1Password.

However I can't see the in-app purchase of 1Password (Android) to take me to the purchase screen, so I don't even know how much they want for it.

https://guides.agilebits.com/1password-android/4/en/topic/premium-features

[Yegolev]

Android Premium issue is unresolved but I decided that I don't really care since I already operate in RO mode on mobile anyway.  Bought the 1Password Mac+Win bundle and found a coupon, so it's working as I wanted for ~$33.

[Hoax]

This has me stumped.

New custom build. Put everything in, start it up. No display. Oh shit I forgot the CPU power connector. Plug that in. System posts to bios fine.

In Bios I was messing around with the case fan settings. Trying to find the speed settings that the owner would tolerate and because I was bored. Suddenly after saving new settings the system will not display after restart.

Wtf?

I ended up resetting the CMOS to get back to being able to boot into bios. Decided not to fuck with anything. Left it all at default. Proceed to installing windows...

Windows (7) looks to be installing fine. But on its first mandated restart of the process...  no display coming out of restart.

?

I could force a restart manually and then I could get display (along with "windows wasn't shut down" bs) but now I'm getting seriously concerned.

I finish the windows install. Get to desktop. Install some drivers in the hopes that things will smooth out. Restart the machine and no display signal.

I'm super confused about what this could be.

-Its not the monitor (works with another setup).
-Its not heat

-Can it be cpu / ram install/heatgrease/heatsink/seating/issues? I can boot in, post, see desktop, do things fine seemingly until I restart and then I'm fucked. That's not normally what I would expect.

-Can it be power? It doesn't act like any power issue I've seen and this is a rock solid way up for the job SeaSonic PSU.

-Is it mobo? If it is what the fuck is broken exactly? I'm using Z97-A/USB 3.1's AVI port with the cpu's Intel® HD Graphics 4600. This feels like where I am most likely to fuck up as almost every machine I've made or used ever uses a discrete card.

***

What should I test/try next?