Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[lamaros]

What are you trying to compress to what?

Fraps avi into anything that is small enough to actually handle/upload to youtube/dropbox.

[Chimpy]

If you need to edit it as well, I have had pretty decent luck with windows live
Movie maker. It will allow you to mess with resolution/etc on save.

[Salamok]

What are you trying to compress to what?

Fraps avi into anything that is small enough to actually handle/upload to youtube/dropbox.

Once you verify your account properly youtube will let you upload some pretty insane sized videos. 

The documentation is horrid but if you are capable of programming simple scripts ffmpeg is the best.  For example if the movies you are converting are always of a certain file type/size/aspect ratio and you always want to convert that to a specific output, you just dork around with ffmpeg until you have the right command to do that.  Then you include that in a script that just watches a certain directory and any time you place a file in that "input" directory it will convert it.

[Trippy]

What are you trying to compress to what?

Fraps avi into anything that is small enough to actually handle/upload to youtube/dropbox.

Fraps can be a bit tricky when it comes to free tools as Fraps uses a custom DirectShow codec and a lot of the free open source tools don't use DirectShow since it's Windows-specific and a lot of the tools come from the Linux world. That all being said libavcodec, which a lot of open source tools use (including ffmpeg that Salamok mentioned above) for their codecs (bypassing DirectShow on Windows), does support Fraps. My recommendation is to try Handbrake, which also uses libavcodec.

[lamaros]

Many thanks to you all for the recommendations.

[Hawkbit]

Any recommendations on a low-priced TV or monitor for my broken PS3?  The BR drive went on my third gen, so I bought a new 5th gen for the living room.  However, that leaves the near-fully functional PS3 that can play any PSN games and Netflix.  So we're thinking of throwing a small TV/monitor at it for a spare room. 

Only needs are that it's cheap, +20" and has HDMI.  Much apprecaited!

[Sky]

How cheap is cheap?

[Hawkbit]

$200 max, preferably more in the $100 range.  I don't know, I was really thinking just a small monitor to throw in my kid's room so she can watch Netflix and a few downloadable games from PSN.  It really doesn't have to be awesome, she's 7 years old.  But I may end up cannibalizing my PC on my next build, and I'd use it for a PC for her. 

Newegg had this unit, which was overbudget, but doable.  I was hoping for something more in the $100 range. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049

[Salamok]

23" Dell for $135 on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-ST2321L-23-Inch-Screen-Monitor/dp/B007Y0EQE0/

[Hawkbit]

Thanks!  That's right up my alley.

[Venkman]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parents are wondering about netbooks for my aunt, but I saw Trippy's post from last month about netbooks. Aunt needs email and a fully functioning web experience for a variety of things that take tablets out of the equation.

Any recommendations on ultrabooks in the $500 range? And do any include dedicated 3G/4G/LTE connections or are those modems still separate?

[Sheepherder]

Doctor Trippy, can I get a consult. (or anyone who keeps up to date on these things, really)  I can't find much if anything on the intarwebs about this particular model.

[Miasma]

Doctor Trippy, can I get a consult.  I can't find much if anything on the intarwebs about this particular model.

When buying from ncix I usually just look up the same item on newegg because it will have more ratings and reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151107&Tpk=M12II%20750

[Sheepherder]

Not to be a dick when you obviously intend to help, but this is a pretty good example of why I generally look for expert opinions.

"Lots of cables, this is great."
"Too many cables."
"The cables are long enough to route behind the mobo."
"The cables are too short to route behind the mobo."
"Stealthy like ninja!"
"...dressed in half plate."
"Reliable."
"DOA."
"It raped my sister."
"That's not what she told her friends."

EDIT: I checked HardOCP and HardwareSecrets for both the M12II 750 and S12II 750, as well as doing the standard Google search.  There are reviews of lower wattage versions, but I'm pretty sure it's not safe to extrapolate like that when there are obvious physical differences.  An attempt to find rebrands of the same model hasn't turned up much yet.

[Sheepherder]

By the way: yes, I know black friday starts tomorrow.  I'm still tempted.

EDIT

While I'm at it asking stupid questions: DDR3 for an i5 750.  If I stick a DDR3-1600 kit in the x10 multiplier of the processor will limit the frequency to 667/1333 at stock frequencies anyways, right?  Would there be any point to buying DDR3-1600 (i.e. is it better binned and therefore maybe I could squeeze tighter timings / better overclocks out of it)?

[Trippy]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parents are wondering about netbooks for my aunt, but I saw Trippy's post from last month about netbooks. Aunt needs email and a fully functioning web experience for a variety of things that take tablets out of the equation.

Any recommendations on ultrabooks in the $500 range? And do any include dedicated 3G/4G/LTE connections or are those modems still separate?

How good is your aunt's eyesight?

[Trippy]

Doctor Trippy, can I get a consult. (or anyone who keeps up to date on these things, really)  I can't find much if anything on the intarwebs about this particular model.

The Seasonic M12II is a solid choice. There are more efficient power supplies these days (Silver, Gold, Platinum) if you care about that sort of thing. Do you really need 750W? I.e. are you planning on multiple video cards? If you have a case with the power supply mount on the bottom and you like having a clean cabling look you will want to Google around and see if the motherboard power cables are long enough for your case/motherboard combination.

[Trippy]

While I'm at it asking stupid questions: DDR3 for an i5 750.  If I stick a DDR3-1600 kit in the x10 multiplier of the processor will limit the frequency to 667/1333 at stock frequencies anyways, right?  Would there be any point to buying DDR3-1600 (i.e. is it better binned and therefore maybe I could squeeze tighter timings / better overclocks out of it)?

Yes DDR3-1333 would be the memory speed at stock frequency. DDR3-1600 may be better if you plan on overclocking but you also need to look at the latency specs. Often the higher frequency memory will have longer latencies.

[Sheepherder]

So basically I'd need to find out what the spec is for a given module of DDR3-1600 is at 1333.  Which probably means tracking down what chips were used to assemble that module.

I'm looking at a PSU (and memory) because of some minor graphical glitching and artifacting that I couldn't pin down.  I may have figured it out in the process of sussing out memory purchasing stuff with the help of CPU-Z.  For some reason completely unbeknownst to me, my memory was set to 9-9-9-24-1T @ 1.5v when the XMP profile I had selected was 7-7-7-21-2T @ 1.35v.  It may have been a wonky BIOS flash (I did one recently).  It is a mystery.  Anyways, I'm impressed.

I'd be buying a big PSU for future-proofing more than anything rather than something I need in the now.  I'm not too concerned with efficiency ratings because the value of the 80+ rating system is dubious.  My current PSU probably has no real headroom once you factor aging caps, and since a difference of 250 watts is $20 depending on the day it seems like not a bad spot to overbuild within reason.

[Trippy]

So basically I'd need to find out what the spec is for a given module of DDR3-1600 is at 1333.  Which probably means tracking down what chips were used to assemble that module.

I'm looking at a PSU (and memory) because of some minor graphical glitching and artifacting that I couldn't pin down.  I may have figured it out in the process of sussing out memory purchasing stuff with the help of CPU-Z.  For some reason completely unbeknownst to me, my memory was set to 9-9-9-24-1T @ 1.5v when the XMP profile I had selected was 7-7-7-21-2T @ 1.35v.  It may have been a wonky BIOS flash (I did one recently).  It is a mystery.  Anyways, I'm impressed.

Download FurMark and see if that's glitching. Graphical glitching is often a defective card (I had a bad 560ti that I confirmed using FurMark).

[Sheepherder]

I downloaded it weeks ago, I may just not be torturing it long enough.  I've done that dance before.

[Trippy]

Then it's probably not the card so yeah you might want to burn a memtest86 disc and try that.

[ezrast]

Expecting to drop a reasonable amount of cash on hardware over the weekend. Are i5s still the way to go for gaming performance or are AMD's more recent offerings worth looking at?

[Trippy]

AMD is still not worth looking at. i5 3570K is still the way to go.

[ezrast]

Thanks!

[Threash]

How can i tell if something is a monitor or videocard problem? the screen goes black for several seconds at a time and when it doesn't sometimes it is shaky.  I just plugged in this monitor to the computer, the last one completely gave out (i tried it on a diff computer and didn't work at all) but it has been sitting in a closet collecting dust for years.  Device manager doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong with the videocard but two monitors malfunctioning at the same time strikes me as a bit odd.

[Sheepherder]

What are you using as a cable?  My HDMI cable has a tendency to lose signal if I bump it too hard.  This is why DVI and VGA had those little screws, I imagine.
Do you ever get a "the driver stopped working and had to be restarted" notification?
Furmark.  Make it beg for mercy.

[Rasix]

How can i tell if something is a monitor or videocard problem? the screen goes black for several seconds at a time and when it doesn't sometimes it is shaky.  I just plugged in this monitor to the computer, the last one completely gave out (i tried it on a diff computer and didn't work at all) but it has been sitting in a closet collecting dust for years.  Device manager doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong with the videocard but two monitors malfunctioning at the same time strikes me as a bit odd.

Sounds like what was happening with my card.  Have you tried re-seating the card and making sure it's fastened securely.  My huge-ass 470 Twin Frozr was so heavy that it was wiggling itself out of the PCI-E slot and causing all sorts of weirdness.

And that was the second card.  First one I had to RMI.  One of the fans went bad and then the second started going bad as well.

[Draegan]

Looking at the Lenovo Yoga Ideapads, what would the performance difference be between the 4GB and the 8GB versions on this specific machine?  The 8GB is supposedly on a 4-8 week backorder and there seems to be some of the 4GB in stock at a local Best Buy.

Other than the extra $100 is it a bigger performance hit?  I have zero experience or knowledge about the operation of Windows 8.  I think the biggest use of this thing will be messing around with photoshop and maybe try to get an old MMO on it.

[Trippy]

For Photoshop you'll likely want 8 GB (or as much as it can hold). For MMOs 4 GB is fine as long as you shut down your other apps before playing (browsers are huge memory hogs). Download the user manual(s) for that model and see how hard it is to add memory to it yourself.

[Draegan]

Yeah I bought a 4gb version when I realized an 8gb stick is 30 bucks and ill I have to do is lift up the keyboard. Save myself 70 bucks.

Now I just have to find the best memory for the laptop since I've never bought laptop memory before.

[Chimpy]

Yeah I bought a 4gb version when I realized an 8gb stick is 30 bucks and ill I have to do is lift up the keyboard. Save myself 70 bucks.

Now I just have to find the best memory for the laptop since I've never bought laptop memory before.

Find the specs of the type of RAM you need, buy Crucial or Kingston and you should be good. (They both have very good quality control and a lifetime warranty/good support)

[K9]

So the builders did something that tripped the power for a split second and it seems to have toasted the HDD in my computer. The system hangs at the first loading screen (before windows) and then gives an error:

ACHI Port0 Device Error
Press F2 to Resume

F2 takes me into the BIOS menu and as far as I can tell the computer can't detect a HDD anymore.

I managed to boot to Ubuntu from a USB, and from there I can't see any filesystem, so I'm assuming whatever the builders did has killed my HD for good?

If anyone has any advice that would be great; I'm not much of a hardware guy so I don't even know how to find out what sort of HDD I might want to buy as a replacement (assuming I need one) let alone how I might go about recovering the data off my old HDD (if that's even possible).

Ugh, and then I just have to reinstall everything... joy.

[Chimpy]

Did you try moving the drive to a different SATA port on the motherboard? It could just be that the port got fried and not the drive itself.

[K9]

Thanks for the suggestion, I just tried that and now I get ACHI Port1 Device Error instead. If I look at what's connected to what in the BIOS Menu it lists a Hard Drive as connected to SATA1, but states its size as 0MB. So I'm guessing the port is fine, and it's the HDD that is toast?