Owen Smith
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
I don't play video on PCs, no requirement. I use it for email, web browsing, digital photo management, and a bit of word processing. A decent 10 to 15 year old PC is fine for that.
Windows 11 is out today. Is there any reason for QQers to upgrade from Windows 10?
- Thread starter esimms86
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Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:
Yeah, it really is the modern games with ray tracing etc that require the horsepower to run them at 1440P and above with good frame rates. I'll be 70 is a few months but I still love my games.
If you want to do digital photo management with modern tools that machine still won't be thrilled.
I play occasional games and sometimes like to do video stuff like upscaling with archival finds. I also do fairly heavy duty productivity work involving large databases and the like. My main PC (Ryzen 5900X, Radeon 6700XT, 32 GB of RAM) is overkill for most of what I do, but not all of it. My office machine is a Core i5-2400 (2nd gen core PC from 2011) and it can struggle with large documents, let alone audio/video work.
For fun I checked benchmarks and my home PC is literally ten times more powerful than my office machine (Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.10GHz vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software). I can browse QQ fine on my office machine but wouldn't want it to be my only PC.
This is certainly true. My old HP has gotten a SSD and memory upgrade over the years. It can handle any web browsing, E-mail, and all standard doc and pic duties. It has the honer of running "Multi-Instrument" which I use in testing audio equipment, so this machine is not going to pasture anytime soon.
Now sometimes being a conspiracy theorist I would not be surprised that Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Amazon, Ebay and others won't come out with a announcement in the not to distant future that as date "X" computers without 11 or above will no longer work with their respective software.
Farfetched, I know.
SACD_ripper
Senior Member
No problem, just wipe Windows and install Linux and you'll be right back in business.
Oops, no Linux version of Multi-Instrument?
I am envious, I wish I was geek enough to be able to use Linux. I remember back in the day the computer nerds at the company I worked for talked about "Red Hat". Is this Linux?
I don't know if Multi-Instrument has Linux.
SACD_ripper
Senior Member
It is, but Red Hat is a commercial enterprise level OS, not intended for home/consumer use.
For resurrecting an aging Windows PC, most people would use one of the Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu, or Mint.
They are very easy to install and get up/running, however specific software such as the one you mentioned sometimes is only available for Windows.
Thats actually a big fail by the developer, it's no longer a Windows-only world and never will be ever again. It would behoove any developer to port their software for macOS, and Linux, to maintain maximum acceptance and usage by consumers.
PCLinuxOS is another good one. It's been my main OS here for over 15 years. I do dual boot Windoz for a couple exclusive apps but can do 99% of my computing needs on Linux.
That's the biggest problem I've had with my 2 12-14 yo computers here. They stall, choke and stumble with 4k video no matter the OS or player. I'm going to have to build one with more horsepower here very soon. I don't really care about 4k itself, but lately they've been only packaging Atmos sound on the 4k discs and leaving std blu-rays with only Dolby Digital. This really pisses me off, I used to rent a lot of blu-ray from Redbox and rip to my drive but now I have to get the 4k version for Atmos.
SACD_ripper
Senior Member
With the various desktop environments now available for Linux distros that are meant to emulate the look/feel of Windows or macOS, this is no longer a tall task, or one that requires any super techno proficiency or geekiness.
Yes there is always a learning curve or settling in period with any new system, but the days of Linux use being akin to learning a difficult foreign language are long gone, and that's one reason why it is being ever more widely adopted by consumers.
Yep, if your a Windoz guy I'm sure you could sit down in front of my keyboard and use it with no issue. Only time you'd run into trouble is if you wanted to change something in the configuration, the tools are just in a different place. Here's my desktop.
The only reason I finally bought W*nd*ws 10 is because TurboTax told me to go to hell when I was still on 7.
I upgraded my HTPC from the Athlon 3000G to the Ryzen 5600G, with prices on that processor finally reasonable. The Athlon was stressed to its limits playing 4k HDR content, the Ryzen handles it without a problem. I was curious about 11 and the HTPC frankly would be the easiest to wipe and reinstall 10 on if I hated it, so I installed it following the upgrade. It's fine. Pretty much 10 with a coat of paint. It's more organized around the app store, but not in a way that's inconvenient. And if they give us an Apple Music app that can do Atmos I can sell my Apple TV.
Playing 5.1 96khz FLAC from foobar via WASAPI I encountered no problems, worked just as well as Windows 10.
Playing 5.1 96khz FLAC from foobar via WASAPI I encountered no problems, worked just as well as Windows 10.
What lever of cpu power do you believe is needed to handle the latest 4k HDR video? I need to build a new box and I'm just starting to do the homework on it.
TIA, Sal
Most mainstream CPUs should be fine for 4k HDR. My box as upgraded is a Ryzen 5600G with 16GB of RAM, although I don't think I'd have any problem with half that. If you have no plans to game the 5600G is a great choice and is selling for $130 right now, down from twice that last year. Motherboard is a B450 chipset ITX board. I'm using the CPU's integrated graphics and a cheaper m.2 SSD drive.
I splurged on a low-profile Noctua CPU cooler but the cooler the CPU comes with is perfectly adequate. However, with the Noctua the system is essentially silent. I also got a Corsair SF450 power supply, which is plenty of power for this system (indeed, a bit overkill). But with this low power draw the power supply's fan doesn't need to kick in and the result is that it's silent - the only fan noise is the extremely quiet CPU cooler.
With the tiny ITX motherboard and small form factor power supply I was able to fit the whole thing into a Silverstone Milo 5 HTPC case. It looks like - and is the size of - another AV component. I control it with a $20 Logitech K400 wireless keyboard with integrated trackpad.
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Thanks for that.
I am looking to build a silent or near silent box and I'll be reusing my CoolerMaster full tower so I'll have room for my 10TB of SSD's.
Also a full size MB to accommodate a large, maybe fanless cpu cooler.
Just starting to work out the details and get some parts in.
Most likely won't get it all together till after the new year.
First I have to decide on that MB.
So, I at first was looking at going fanless for my HTPC. The gist is that to go truly fanless/passive is a massive pain in the neck and even will result in a system which frequently thermal throttles and runs hot. A tower cooler like the be quiet! Pure Rock 2 will be essentially silent, cost much less, run better, and generally be less of a hassle. You'll probably want to have a 140mm exhaust fan for your case too, which once again you should be able to get essentially silent. Without that the big case will heat up.Thanks for that.
I am looking to build a silent or near silent box and I'll be reusing my CoolerMaster full tower so I'll have room for my 10TB of SSD's.
Also a full size MB to accommodate a large, maybe fanless cpu cooler.
Just starting to work out the details and get some parts in.
Most likely won't get it all together till after the new year.
First I have to decide on that MB.
Of course, there's a push/pull dynamic with what CPU you choose and how you cool it. I have a Ryzen 5900X in my main PC, which is cooled with a 280mm AIO liquid cooler. But that's completely overkill/pointless for a HTPC. Your first question should be which CPU you want - I've tended to go with AMD lately because they use power more effectively. However, Intel has made some good ones recently too. For a non-gaming PC I'd definitely stick to a 65W chip instead of a higher power one. For motherboard I feel like it's usually just getting whatever is on sale and has the selection of ports you like - although if you're using the board's onboard analog audio output you might look for better capacitors and such.
Both Intel and AMD released new chip lines this year, and both of them seem to run hotter in pursuit of being the fastest, which is contrary to what you want for a HTPC, so previous gen might be a better call?
Thanks for your help and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated!
I've been out of the building game since 2008 when I built my current box which recently died from a lightning strike. Getting by right now with a old loaned box.
I don't game at all and my PC, besides being used for surfing and such is just mainly a audio/video server via HDMI to my HiFi.
I always looked to previous gen both for the $ savings and long term feedback on reliability and such.
To Be Continued.
Sal
well, I can tell you every time I reboot my Windows 11 PC I lose my Foobar2000 database.
The other two I have setup, audiobooks and multichannel, remain intact. The only one that breaks is the stereo.
I am a little tired of a multi-day rescan of 100k+ files every time I boot.
I see I am a few revs back on foobar2k so will update and see if that helps.
The other two I have setup, audiobooks and multichannel, remain intact. The only one that breaks is the stereo.
I am a little tired of a multi-day rescan of 100k+ files every time I boot.
I see I am a few revs back on foobar2k so will update and see if that helps.
I just found out a new thing, as I struggle through Windows 11 changes. I must admit things are going well but man, you really have to dig an scratch if your well, someone like me.
DVD Audio Extractor
New 11, my DVDAE Lic would not recognize, OK, what the heck, $38.00 I'll just buy again, won't work. Why?
Support ticket says -Does the machine ID match with what shows on the register window, which pops up when you start DVDAE and click Register Now?
How do I know that kind of stuff, it shows a number, isn't that the right one, geez! Well maybe I will score lucky when I get home?
DVD Audio Extractor
New 11, my DVDAE Lic would not recognize, OK, what the heck, $38.00 I'll just buy again, won't work. Why?
Support ticket says -Does the machine ID match with what shows on the register window, which pops up when you start DVDAE and click Register Now?
How do I know that kind of stuff, it shows a number, isn't that the right one, geez! Well maybe I will score lucky when I get home?
Markie, do you have two copies installed? If so the program might see a registry entry and get confused. Sorry, this stuff is aggravating.
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