Tech help general

[Syobon]

I think you can still get very basic Nokias or whatever for very cheap. I'm still using one. Those things are still fairly indestructible.

[Chloemew]

Update on the server thing: I've spoken to two admins and neither of them are really sure what's causing the problem or how to fix it. Contacting the server owner would be pretty difficult and it's unlikely he'd have time to look into the issue, so it looks like the only way I'm going to be able to get back on the server is to change my IP. Which is easier said than done, since my stepmum's with Virgin Media and apparently it's not a simple task to do with them. Apparently IPs with VM can stay the same for months or even years, despite supposedly being dynamic. Whelp.

[shazza]

k so

i am in possession of a 1980s era (i think its 1981,) turntable. it works great, no issues, except that it hates my sound system. it has the L/R audio jacks on it (red and white,) and while i can hear the music, it is very, very quiet. i have a huge fucking onkyo soundsystem and i have to turn it up to at LEAST 85 to hear it at a 'background music' level. if i wanted to jam, there's no way i could get it loud enough. any other input (ps3/ps2/wii/etc) is painfully loud around 30.

any idea why it does this and how i could go about fixing it? the only records i can actually hear worth a daisies are my brand new hotline miami ones (meaning 70 is comfortable listening range and 90 would be party range,) but i don't remember having issues listening to the old records before on my dad's sound system at his house (not sure what it is but it's pretty old - mid 90s i think,) so i'm kinda thinking that's not the cause?

[Syobon]

I'm not very knowledgeable in this topic but it sounds to me like you need an audio amplifier. The signal from your turntable is likely not strong enough to drive your soundsystem, thus you need a separate device to amplify the signal.

[YCobb]

Correct, turntables (generally) put out a very quiet signal so they need additional amplification.

How many ports are there on your sound system? I've had this issue before, but in reverse - I plugged my computer into the dedicated phonograph socket and it very nearly blew my speakers. Until I realized what the problem was, I had to keep my computer at 2% volume to compensate. Different ports on sound systems play at different levels - a phonograph input is designed to take in much, much weaker signals than a VCR or CD port is. Look at your sound system for something labeled "phono" or perhaps "record." If you can't find one, then Syobon's right - you'll need a separate amplifier to bring your turntable up to 'line level,' the standard volume for most devices.

I'm sure there are a few online for very cheap, but you might need to spend a bit more for one that won't hurt the audio quality.

[shazza]

i have lots of ports on the back - so many ports. the sound system has 8 categories (game, blu ray, dvr, cable/sat, aux, am, fm, and tv) and each of those have their own set of HDMI, component, and avi ports and i think one or two coax that are by themselves. tl;dr: no phono port. being as it's only like two years old i would have been really surprised to find one.

i'll take a look at amplifiers later today. i never knew they played softer than other inputs, any knowledge as to why? did stereos take weaker signal back in ye olde days or something?

oh also, when i have the turntable plugged in it makes a very soft heartbeat kind of sound even when at rest. it's not super annoying but strikes me as strange. i figured it was just old wires. but if its gonna explode or something pls tell me - the turntable was pretty special to my dad so i'd rather it not catch fire or something lol

[YCobb]

I think the volume differences are because everything is supposed to be a bit more self-sufficient these days. Turntables have always needed amplifiers to work, whereas any modern piece of equipment is intended to be able to drive speakers on its own. This makes it kinda redundant to have amplifiers in modern sound systems, since your CD players and Blue Ray drives and whatnot are already loud enough to work on their own.
In fact, most turntables don't use power at all except to turn the disc. The signal they put out is all generated by the needle's movement, so it's really quiet. It's a bit like if you were to plug headphones straight into an electric guitar, since that signal is just made by a wire vibrating over a magnet.

I don't know about the weird heartbeat you're getting, though. Is it coming out the turntable's wire through the sound system, or is the machine itself making the noise? It could just be the thrum of an old power converter, but I don't know if that would indicate a problem or not.

[YCobb]

I'm planning to upgrade my computer at the end of the summer (it's in a different state until then) and I'm looking for advice on GPUs.

My current processor is an i5 4570, which I don't plan to replace just yet. I dont plan to run anything at 4k. 144hz interests me but I'd rather go whole-hog on the graphics card than cut into my budget for a compatible monitor, though my budget is flexible enough that I'm likely to get both, I guess.

I'm thinking a GTX 970 looks fine, but I have concerns about VRAM and future-proofing. At the moment, the impression I get is that >4GB VRAM is only necessary for 4k gaming, but that some games are approaching 4GB even just at 1080p. If I buy a 970 or even a 980, how long can I expect 4GB to be sufficient? Would it be worth it for me to spring for the 980ti?

I've looked around at benchmarks, but they don't seem to address this kind of future-proofing.

All input appreciated.

[The Nightman]

I would skip the 980 altogether. The 980 Ti performs a lot better and isn't too much higher in price, and the returns you get compared to the 970 aren't really worth the price difference to me. Along with that, the new AMD cards will be out soon, and the higher end models will likely outperform the 980 as well and cost about the same.

Future proofing really isn't that great of a term, because it's hard to tell how quickly technology will advance, so a good card could either last several years, or some new design could replace it within a year or two.

But, the 970 is a good card. 4 GB is plenty of VRAM, and if you get the 970, you should expect it to last quite a few years. You will have to tone down settings and whatnot eventually, but you'll still be able to play games at pretty decent settings for some time to come.One thing to be aware of though, is that the 970 actually only has 3.5 GB of VRAM. People were kinda mad about that for a while. It's still plenty though.

I personally like AMD better than Nvidia, and would recommend a 290x over a 970 (both perform similarly and cost about the same). The 290x does use up more power and run hotter though, so if that's something you'd like to avoid, then go with the 970.

[YCobb]

Yeah, the 980 was never really on the table except as another 4GB example. I did some poking around on benchmarks, and it looks like the games that exceed 4GB only do so when they can, and so won't really take any significant performance but if they're not given the chance.

I've mostly decided on the 970, but depending on what expenses pop up over the summer I'll reconsider the 980ti when the time comes.

I probably should give AMD a chance, but I've never been a fan of their products. Generally worse performance than Nvidia offers and I've heard of more driver issues on that side of the fence. It's mostly fanboyism - I feel the same way about Intel vs AMD, just because Intel does the better job of marketing themselves as the premium product.

[The Nightman]

Well, the 970 will do just fine. The only game that I've seen that's pushed 4 GB at 1080p was Shadow of Mordor, and that was with the ultra textures and completely maxed. You can always turn down the less important settings like shadow detail and anti aliasing. They're pretty demanding settings and it's hard to really notice a difference between their highs and lows.

As far as processors go, I'm an intel fanboy, but I like AMD's GPU products.

I'm actually going to be making my build in August. Can't wait.

[Syobon]

The problem with the 970 is that it has a problem with the last 0.5GB of VRAM. If it needs to access that performance grinds to a screeching halt. It's kind of worse than having 3.5GB of VRAM. That said you should still be fine for 1080p gaming. I'd recommend taking a look at the r9 290, I see them for cheaper than the gtx 970 (picked one up for 300 euro recently) and they should perform about the same with the 290 even winning out in some scenarios.


But yeah AMD is releasing their new cards and they're supposed to offer good price/performance, so keep an eye out for that.

[YCobb]

I believe Nvidia's drivers tell the 970 not to access that last half a gigabyte, so now it'll just run as a 3.5gb card? Since it seems most of the VRAM-hungry games will just comfortably fill whatever space you give them, I don't think it's an issue at all anymore. I was only referring to it as 4gb shorthand, but it's still way more memory than my 1gb 560ti.

I'll probably go with (980ti or (970 or comprable AMD R9)), depending on how much cash I have left over at the end of the summer. From what I'm seeing the Fury X is still a bit shy of the 980ti, so if I go to the higher end it'll be Nvidia for sure.

[[Citation Needed]]

Alright, so we (me + brother + mother) got an email from our internet provider that says we are at 80% of our data for the month. This never happened before. Handily, the provider's website gave us a graph of our usage.

On the 13th and 16th of this month, our usage spiked INCREDIBLY. Like, to 3-5x normal daily usage. My brother downloaded his copy of Elder Scrolls Online to his xbone on the 16th, which sort of explains that? I don't know how large the game is, but apparently there is a new fucking stupid thing Microsoft does where they make you buy the game physical then download it anyway? I don't know, it's just what my brother said.

Anyway, on the 13th my mother and brother were 2 hours away from home for medical appointments and I worked for half of the day. It should have been one of the less-used days on there. Does anyone have any idea what might be the cause? I'm going to change the password for the router, for starters.

[The Nightman]

Do you use any torrent applications, or have Steam? Anything with any sort of auto updater, seeder, etc?