Scott will say 5k retina, but unless you've got a graphics card that won't sound like a Supra turbo trying to run it, I'd dodge it. Go with the 2 24"s.
If you need an emergency monitor right now, I would actually get the bargain TN junk that these other forumites love so much. Why? Because then you can save your money and get. 5K IPS display in a year or two.
I'm on my back up TN panel at the moment. The black is awful and I'm so use to having 4 windows open on my screen it's pretty weird for me, maybe it's because I bough at cheap Samung TN.
I will be upgrading my graphics cards to top of the line setup in a few months December / January. (I am jealous that the US is currently the only country where you can buy the nVidia 980 at RRP while it is being sold at $100 - 500 more expensive everywhere else and still sold out).
If Windows 10 looks like it has good scaling I'll get the 5k monitor otherwise I'll get a multi-monitor setup.
A serious boo-yah: I got two free SSDs. My wife's company ordered too many, and some low level employee fucked up and never returned the extras, at which point, months later, they just said fuck it, whoever wants these is welcome to have them.
So she came home with two Sandisk Extreme ii 240GB SATA III drives. I've actually never had an SSD before, as the last PC I built was my HTPC in 2009 and that was a sub-$1000 build. It still works great but I'm planning on building a new one next year and slapping Windows 10 on it.
So two questions:
1) Without an immediate use for these, should I just eBay them and buy something fresh in 9 or 10 months? I get the sense that nothing earth shattering is going to come along, but prices may drop/capacities increase. These are near top-of-the-line as of now, so I don't foresee myself jumping through the hoops of selling/re-buying.
2) What is the ideal use of two 240GB SSDs? My general impression is that one will host all of my game installs and any media I plan on streaming. The other will host the OS, and at a whopping 240GB, I'd partition a chunk of that off and use it as scratch space. Should I be considering some sort of RAID 0 striping setup? I can't see that being worth it, as the performance should already be crazy-go-nuts across SATA III for what I need, and some other bottleneck would just fuck it all up anyway.
I have two SSDs. On one of them I have the OS install as well as my most frequently used apps. The other one I use as the scratch/swap space for video editing. If you aren't video editing or anything, just put your OS and most used apps on one and put games on the other one.
1. dedicated to OS and general apps 2. games and media working space (e.g., video files for Premiere) 3. secondary video working space (for VERY large projects where io is a blocking factor)
SPDs: 1. giant-ass slow motherfucker for everything else
Question to people who follow this tech more closely than I do. What's the cheapest 5GHz wireless access point I can buy? I don't need routing functions on my network, but if a wifi router is cheaper I'll get that instead.
I don't need future proof, I'm not willing to pay for more that 25Mbit internet so 5GHz 802.11n is fine. My problem is the 2.4GHz spectrum is saturated where I live.
It's very important and you want the highest fucking contrast ratio you can get. Think of it this way: you know how hard it is to make out shapes in a dark room when you've just come out of a very well lit one? That's a low contrast ratio. After your eyes have fully adjusted and you can see pretty well? That's a high contrast ratio.
What's your monitor's contrast ratio, Victor? Would you say it's the best, or can you do better?
Well, my main monitor is shit, and the backlight is half dead so everything is way darker than it ought to be, but I keep it because I NEED two monitors and it's big. My video preview monitor is an ASUS VE208T. I got it at the goodwill across the street for $25 because my original secondary monitor developed a fault. It has a contrast ratio of 769:1 and Reviewed.com says it's one of the best monitors they've tested.
I'd like a new mid tower PC case but all of the ones I can find have stupid lights or glass side panels. Any suggestions?
I'm not a fan of Antec unless you're just making a mum and dad PC. Most of the cases with glass sides will have a solid variant as well.
I like Silverstone cases for things that will last forever and you are unlikely to be moving around. The fortress series is great for air cooling, you won't even need to put a fan on your CPU heatsink because of the huge ass fans at the bottom. Corsair does well too.
I've long wanted a Lian-Li, cuz I like that minimalist aluminum vibe... but I have an Antec and it's pretty cool for being a 'mom n dad' box.
I can't think of any parents that would want a legit full-size ATX machine though, nor one that wasn't "A good deal at Best Buy, and it's HP too, and HP is a pretty good brand."
That all being said, I'm working on liquid cooling my CNC Router (of all things) and the videos I've been watching, looking for cool ways to bling it out, makes me really want to build a totally custom PC chassis with liquid-cooling concerns and baller lighting built into the architecture of the unit in a cool way. So bling-factor isn't lost on me. I just also like simple square black boxes when designed well over cheap 'xtreme-o-2000 vents and grilles and alien dragon-dildo extreme-sauce' cases that define the 'gamer' case most of the time.. The Antecs tend to pull the cool elements together with clean lines that aren't Apple-tier but at least respectable.
I've long wanted a Lian-Li, cuz I like that minimalist aluminum vibe... but I have an Antec and it's pretty cool for being a 'mom n dad' box.
I just meant that's what I make for my Mum and Dad. I think I used one of the NSK line for the last PC I built them.
I prefer the simple boxes too but prefer high air flow, low noise, with no lights as I sometimes leave the machine running on tasks overnight and my main machine is in my bedroom.
Lian Li makes some pretty cool cases too but I've never owned one.
Yeah, my current Antec is decent for noise (It's quieter than the network switch in the office, and definitely quieter than the 3D printer) but I'm not OC'ing it or anything crazy either so noise shouldn't be extreme for any pc. That said it was marketed as being quiet and insulated, and does have plastic padding on the sidewalls and other surfaces to dampen sound. The only light on the thing is from the CPU radiator fan, but is only visible if I look down through the open top fans. I love it because it's enough light to know the machine is on, without projecting it anywhere outside the box.
Also, since I was thinking about it just now, I just looked at Lian-Li's website and they have some pretty slick looking cases including an aluminum computer desk case, and a few sort-of gamer wall mountable cases on their page that I don't remember seeing a year or so ago.
I like the idea of a computer case you can mount to the wall like a painting that shows off all the goodies.
I've long wanted a Lian-Li, cuz I like that minimalist aluminum vibe... but I have an Antec and it's pretty cool for being a 'mom n dad' box.
I just meant that's what I make for my Mum and Dad. I think I used one of the NSK line for the last PC I built them.
I prefer the simple boxes too but prefer high air flow, low noise, with no lights as I sometimes leave the machine running on tasks overnight and my main machine is in my bedroom.
Lian Li makes some pretty cool cases too but I've never owned one.
I still have my old Lian Li aluminum mid-tower. Good case. A touch noisy, but great for assisting with cooling. I would not, however, spend that much money on a case again.
On the topic of cases, anyone have experience working with aluminum modder's mesh? My minibox has overheating issues when the lid is kept on, so I'm thinking of cutting out most of the steel perforations and replacing it with more open aluminum.
Those Coolermasters look pretty good, if you're planning to put them on your desk. I put mine on the floor, so the Antec Three Hundred is still better since it has its front ports at the top of the case.
I'm going to have to start looking at HTPC-style cases soon. Need to measure the cabinet space under my TV before I start the hunt, but anyone have one they are in love with? My 5-year-old one is pretty crap, since it had to fit in a much smaller hole at the time and has an odd-sized power supply that I had to rip out and make external.
I'm going to have to start looking at HTPC-style cases soon. Need to measure the cabinet space under my TV before I start the hunt, but anyone have one they are in love with? My 5-year-old one is pretty crap, since it had to fit in a much smaller hole at the time and has an odd-sized power supply that I had to rip out and make external.
The one Rym and I have is pretty much perfect. Here it is.
Comments
The black is awful and I'm so use to having 4 windows open on my screen it's pretty weird for me, maybe it's because I bough at cheap Samung TN.
I will be upgrading my graphics cards to top of the line setup in a few months December / January. (I am jealous that the US is currently the only country where you can buy the nVidia 980 at RRP while it is being sold at $100 - 500 more expensive everywhere else and still sold out).
If Windows 10 looks like it has good scaling I'll get the 5k monitor otherwise I'll get a multi-monitor setup.
So she came home with two Sandisk Extreme ii 240GB SATA III drives. I've actually never had an SSD before, as the last PC I built was my HTPC in 2009 and that was a sub-$1000 build. It still works great but I'm planning on building a new one next year and slapping Windows 10 on it.
So two questions:
1) Without an immediate use for these, should I just eBay them and buy something fresh in 9 or 10 months? I get the sense that nothing earth shattering is going to come along, but prices may drop/capacities increase. These are near top-of-the-line as of now, so I don't foresee myself jumping through the hoops of selling/re-buying.
2) What is the ideal use of two 240GB SSDs? My general impression is that one will host all of my game installs and any media I plan on streaming. The other will host the OS, and at a whopping 240GB, I'd partition a chunk of that off and use it as scratch space. Should I be considering some sort of RAID 0 striping setup? I can't see that being worth it, as the performance should already be crazy-go-nuts across SATA III for what I need, and some other bottleneck would just fuck it all up anyway.
SSDs:
1. dedicated to OS and general apps
2. games and media working space (e.g., video files for Premiere)
3. secondary video working space (for VERY large projects where io is a blocking factor)
SPDs:
1. giant-ass slow motherfucker for everything else
That's definitely overkill.
EDIT: Anyone used TRENDnet before? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156465
Is contrast ratio all that important? Does it matter if it's higher or lower?
1,000 : 1 typical
2,000,000 : 1 dynamic
For TN:
A bit more variable, but the dynamic / smart should be way more than 2 million to 1 as TN panels don't do black very well. I'm not a fan of Antec unless you're just making a mum and dad PC.
Most of the cases with glass sides will have a solid variant as well.
I like Silverstone cases for things that will last forever and you are unlikely to be moving around. The fortress series is great for air cooling, you won't even need to put a fan on your CPU heatsink because of the huge ass fans at the bottom.
Corsair does well too.
I can't think of any parents that would want a legit full-size ATX machine though, nor one that wasn't "A good deal at Best Buy, and it's HP too, and HP is a pretty good brand."
That all being said, I'm working on liquid cooling my CNC Router (of all things) and the videos I've been watching, looking for cool ways to bling it out, makes me really want to build a totally custom PC chassis with liquid-cooling concerns and baller lighting built into the architecture of the unit in a cool way. So bling-factor isn't lost on me. I just also like simple square black boxes when designed well over cheap 'xtreme-o-2000 vents and grilles and alien dragon-dildo extreme-sauce' cases that define the 'gamer' case most of the time.. The Antecs tend to pull the cool elements together with clean lines that aren't Apple-tier but at least respectable.
I prefer the simple boxes too but prefer high air flow, low noise, with no lights as I sometimes leave the machine running on tasks overnight and my main machine is in my bedroom.
Lian Li makes some pretty cool cases too but I've never owned one.
Also, since I was thinking about it just now, I just looked at Lian-Li's website and they have some pretty slick looking cases including an aluminum computer desk case, and a few sort-of gamer wall mountable cases on their page that I don't remember seeing a year or so ago.
I like the idea of a computer case you can mount to the wall like a painting that shows off all the goodies.
On the topic of cases, anyone have experience working with aluminum modder's mesh? My minibox has overheating issues when the lid is kept on, so I'm thinking of cutting out most of the steel perforations and replacing it with more open aluminum.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6KX27K2888
But, you probably want this newer version that has USB 3 instead of Firewire in the front.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112403