Off Topic Thread V2.0

ED E

Headshot wrote: »

Pity its seagate

Meh, Backblazes tests werent done fairly and when you're working on that scale you dont really care about the odd failure. LMG can definitely afford replacement drives, and I'm sure they can get a fair few freebies.

marko93

Is there such thing as a no bshiiiit attached driver updater?

Hank Scorpio

Argh, screw UPS

The receiver is not listed in the building directory. We are attempting to update this information. / Delivery will be rescheduled.

Anyone run into that before? I rang them up and it`ll be Monday before I get my goodies now ( Hopefully )

Rebel Rebel

A question about on-board motherboard raid for ye who use it as I am a complete beginner at it.

I have an ASUS Maximus VII Ranger which claims to have Raid capabilities on up to 4 sata ports(of the 6 on board). And I currently have 4 ports free. Plotting on using using this to store my DVD's and try and set it up to stream to TV's around the house via Home Plugs. The PC is currently running Windows 7 with an i5 cpu.

Is it possible to throw 3 HDDs(say 3TB for 6TB) in Raid 5 now and then a 4th later to expand the capacity to 9TB or must I put all 4 in from the start?

If/When a drive fails and Can I replace the failed drive with a higher capacity one (say 5TB when price drops) and later when all 4 are at the higher capacity will I get the new Storage Limit (15TB) or the old Storage Limit (9TB) because tat is what I set it at when setting it up.

To help me Calculate what storage I need, what is the file size Approx of say a 2hr 1080 DVD file?

Which format(s) are generally the best to convert DVD's to?

And finally what programs should I be looking at to Convert the DVD's to say MP4?


Thanks and sorry about all the questions, I like to troubleshoot before I start something so I may have more questions after the answers.

Serephucus

As a general rule, unless you're using a software layer like FlexRAID (which you should for media and stuff like that; give it a Google) you're stuck with whatever you throw in at the start. I'm not as familiar with it as I used to be, as I haven't used hardware RAID in a few years, but last time I checked it was pretty strict.

As for movies... It depends. You can rip a movie to a 2GB file, but the quality won't be great. For a blu-ray, with 5.1 audio, I'd aim to for at least ~2GB/hour.

MKV is a really nice container. It lets you store as many steams as you want. So with most of my movies, I have:

1080p video stream
5.1 DTS audio stream, 2.0 AAC stream,
foreign subtitles (if any), English hard-of-hearing subtitles (just in case)

Handbrake is probably the handiest one. There's lot of documentation on how to use it best as well.

ED E

First off, RAID5 isnt a good option any more. Especially not with larger disks like you're thinking. Asking for pain. Mobo raid is pretty limited most of the time, and expanding arrays often isnt easy or even possible.

Software RAID has its limits too, ZFS etc are nice, but you can't do that under windows like Flexraid above, but its a really good option for a pure NAS build. Windows software RAID doesnt come well recommended at all. Assume theres no budged for a RAID card?


Encoding wise, H265 might be a thing soon enough, worth looking at. Compression is about 2x for the same quality as 264 (pretty amazing) but right now encoding is REALLY slow. Like really really slow. With optimization though...

Rebel Rebel

Thanks very much lads, looks like it is not plain sailing. I have not ruled anything out, I am trying to get a handle on what maybe needed for media storage and streaming on a W7 PC.

What would ye recommend?

Danger781

Hey guys,

Have had a problem with my PSU for a number of months now. There is an audible clicking noise that comes and goes.

Hope this link works:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8XCldMV-NUBeTlab1hDRHFScGs/view?usp=sharing

For about a year I had thought it was my graphics cards but now the noise is still happening after replacing them. Might happen for 15 minutes straight every few hours, or constantly on and off every 5 minutes.

game4it70

Sounds like the psu/case fan either catching off something or the bearing of it.

Danger781

game4it70 wrote: »

Sounds like the psu/case fan either catching off something or the bearing of it.

Nothing catching the fan since it is facing the floor.. must be the bearing

Either way on a positive note; Seasonic are fantastic to deal with so far. Sent them an email asking for suggestions and described what I was hearing. 3 minutes later I had a staff member email me asking me to fill out an RMA. I replied back asking if it would be possible to arrange for a replacement to be sent to me before I return mine, and again a few minutes later they responded.

game4it70

Its a pain having to rma it but sounds like their support is great to deal with.

wotzgoingon

Does anyone know when AMD to release their new graphics cards? As I'm in the market for a new graphics card and I might wait till they are released before I buy a card.

Gumbi

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Does anyone know when AMD to release their new graphics cards? As I'm in the market for a new graphics card and I might wait till they are released before I buy a card.

June 2015 for their higher end models... which usuaklly means the mid and lower range will be a bit later.

wotzgoingon

Gumbi wrote: »

June 2015 for their higher end models... which usuaklly means the mid and lower range will be a bit later.

Ok thanks. I would be as well to get one now so as I cannot wait that long.

frozenfrozen

is bit-rot something I should worry about or is that just for big mad data storage situations?

Wossack

prob unnecessary for most home use imo. MD5 checks and backups will cover anything super critical

ED E

https://instagram.com/p/11YNChybKM/

Holy mother of fu:pac:

ED E

frozenfrozen wrote: »

is bit-rot something I should worry about or is that just for big mad data storage situations?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISG_WphoAjo

If you're interested, Wendell knows his storage tech.

deejer

Same Same

Only way I can afford a GTX 780

glynf

^^ That looks legit..

tadcan

I bought a 8.1 standard n license off reddit because it was the cheapest. Should have looked for the iso first. Microsoft only offers an Enterprise evaluation version on their site. Does anyone know where I can get a legit iso to install. I also found updown8 which claims to change the version down to pro. So at the worst I could get a pro key and downgrade.

Digital Solitude

tadcan wrote: »

I bought a 8.1 standard n license off reddit because it was the cheapest. Should have looked for the iso first. Microsoft only offers an Enterprise evaluation version on their site. Does anyone know where I can get a legit iso to install. I also found updown8 which claims to change the version down to pro. So at the worst I could get a pro key and downgrade.

All the download links are on the right hand side of the subreddit iirc

tadcan

Digital Solitude wrote: »

All the download links are on the right hand side of the subreddit iirc

DOHHHHHH, Heres me using google and chasing my tail for a day. Thanks for the tip!

frozenfrozen

ED E wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISG_WphoAjo

If you're interested, Wendell knows his storage tech.

that's where I realised I couldn't just raid 5 and be done with it but now I think I'm set on going jbod with all the drives and just copying stuff over twice if it needs to be backed up

TerrorFirmer

deejer wrote: »

Same Same

Only way I can afford a GTX 780

The "GTX780". Tear through the latest games at an eye peeling 800x600 resolution, every option cranked down to the lowest imaginable, and running at a blistering 25fps framerate for the incredible, and non-recoverable, low amount of just 100 dollars.

Digital Solitude

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The "GTX780". Tear through the latest games at an eye peeling 800x600 resolution, every option cranked down to the lowest imaginable, and running at a blistering 25fps framerate for the incredible, and non-recoverable, low amount of just 100 dollars.

Experience with Chinese GPUs Terror?

TerrorFirmer

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Experience with Chinese GPUs Terror?

They're easy to spot - from a million miles away really - but I got stung recently enough when I bought a GTX650 from a seller on Adverts - not a new user either, so I just bought it through postage without even thinking about it. I knew the second I opened the box and saw it that it was fake.

Digital Solitude

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

They're easy to spot - from a million miles away really - but I got stung recently enough when I bought a GTX650 from a seller on Adverts - not a new user either, so I just bought it through postage without even thinking about it. I knew the second I opened the box and saw it that it was fake.

I was joking, but damn, that'd be a sickener

Monotype

Do they actually work? Like are they low end nVidia cards hacked around to look like something else or are they something built by themselves or just a chunk of metal and plastic?

TerrorFirmer

Monotype wrote: »

Do they actually work? Like are they low end nVidia cards hacked around to look like something else or are they something built by themselves or just a chunk of metal and plastic?

They do work. They're usually cards like GT240 or similar just with a fake bios to make them 'appear' to be whatever card they're flogging them as. They usually don't work with anything other than a custom driver provided with them either.

All in all, they're entirely useless as you'd get the card they're based on for 20 quid second hand - and even have better driver options.