The "Quick Questions That Don't Deserve A Thread"...Thread. v5 - Hardware & Software

Is there any laptop I could get that's better than this for less than $1000? [quote]Processor: Intel Core i5-4500U (4th Generation) RAM: 4 GB HDD: 500 GB Screen: 15.6 Inch Graphics: 2 GB Nvidia-GT720M Others: 802.11b/g/n, Webcamera[/quote] Asus X550L Notebook PC, is the model.

[QUOTE=Nightscout;49199254]Hey y'all, I have a question. I just bought 2 Wired 360 Controllers for my PC and I want to get the most out of them. As many people know, not all games support rumble (i.e. Left 4 Dead 1 & 2). I want to find workaround. Is there any program that can read the input from the controllers and be set to make them vibrate manually every time I squeeze the trigger (or any defined button)? You know, kind of in the same wheelhouse as Joy2Key or Xpadder?[/QUOTE] I did some digging for you and came across this. Hope this helps. Maybe you can use Autohotkey to trigger vibration. [url]https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=7250[/url]

[QUOTE=NixNax123;49199406]Is there any laptop I could get that's better than this for less than $1000? Asus X550L Notebook PC, is the model.[/QUOTE] yes for sure. unless that's on a massive sale there are better options. that's pretty outdated hardware. you should be able to get 6*** series processor with a far newer gpu as well for under $1000. just go on newegg and sort under $1000, win10, and discrete graphics and you should have plenty of options

[QUOTE=Jaehead;49199449]yes for sure. unless that's on a massive sale there are better options. that's pretty outdated hardware. you should be able to get 6*** series processor with a far newer gpu as well for under $1000. just go on newegg and sort under $1000, win10, and discrete graphics and you should have plenty of options[/QUOTE] Alright, thanks very much! What do you guys think about this? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232753[/url] [quote]15.6-Inch FHD matte screen 1920 x 1080 NVIDIA GTX 950M, support Direct X 11 5th Gen Intel Core i5-5200U 128GB SSD + 1TB/ 8GB Memory[/quote] The problems I'm having with my current laptop is basically it's quite slow for common stuff I do, such as loading up Visual Studio / video games / the internet. Would this be fine for all that? [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] And I'm probably not going to buy it until I really have to, where it's actually getting in the way of stuff I need to do.

No point in looking now then. Might be several months until you need a new laptop, who knows what will change by then.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;49199434]I did some digging for you and came across this. Hope this helps. Maybe you can use Autohotkey to trigger vibration. [url]https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=7250[/url][/QUOTE] Dude that's awesome, thanks! [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] Unfortunately, I could not get this to work :L

[QUOTE=NixNax123;49199475]Alright, thanks very much! What do you guys think about this? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232753[/url] The problems I'm having with my current laptop is basically it's quite slow for common stuff I do, such as loading up Visual Studio / video games / the internet. Would this be fine for all that? [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] And I'm probably not going to buy it until I really have to, where it's actually getting in the way of stuff I need to do.[/QUOTE] Realtalk, your current laptop would be good enough for most of what you described, except games. The OEM HDD is probably pretty slow, so an SSD would improve speed massively and then upgrade the RAM to 8 GB. It would be massively cheaper, a little under $200 for a 500 GB SSD and 8 GB of DDR3L RAM. A little over if you went with 16 GB. You may want to wait if your GPU is priority though. I'm just giving you options.

So apparently my motherboard has a built in intel graphics thing. Also apparently it keeps defaulting to that and NOT my AMD card I have installed, how do I make it so my desktop STOPS USING the intel thing instead of my card? (I've tried disabling it in the device manager before but it keeps coming back for some reason)

What should I use to test my hard drives to make sure they are in good condition? One is several years old and used to be my main for the entire time and another is about 2 years old but I got kinda cheap from a discount store. [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=NikoChekhov;49200793]So apparently my motherboard has a built in intel graphics thing. Also apparently it keeps defaulting to that and NOT my AMD card I have installed, how do I make it so my desktop STOPS USING the intel thing instead of my card? (I've tried disabling it in the device manager before but it keeps coming back for some reason)[/QUOTE] You should be able to do it in the BIOS

[QUOTE=highvoltage;49200808]What should I use to test my hard drives to make sure they are in good condition? One is several years old and used to be my main for the entire time and another is about 2 years old but I got kinda cheap from a discount store. [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] You should be able to do it in the BIOS[/QUOTE] So I went completely stupid and just disabled it assuming it would automatically switch to the amd card. Now I have no display. Please help.

[QUOTE=NikoChekhov;49200825]So I went completely stupid and just disabled it assuming it would automatically switch to the amd card. Now I have no display. Please help.[/QUOTE] Reset the BIOS, there should be a button somewhere are simply remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes. Its strange that disabling it didn't work, what your motherboard?

[QUOTE=highvoltage;49200844]Reset the BIOS, there should be a button somewhere are simply remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes. Its strange that disabling it didn't work, what your motherboard?[/QUOTE] Well the 'stupid' part was me disabling it from the device manager again. It's a gigabyte motherboard, I'd have to search for it to remember which particular model [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] Upon double-checking, turns out I plugged my hdmi cord into the motherboard instead of the card [I]for some reason[/I]. Not entirely sure why I would do that, but I'm assuming that's why it was using the intel stuff.

So I'm thinking of getting a TV for my room and would like to be able to hook my computer up to it. I'm going to just have it duplicate my main monitor but wanted to know if there is normally a big impact to a video card's performance. I was thinking that maybe I could pick up a cheap video card just for the second monitor and TV. However, I'm unsure if that setup would allow the TV to duplicate what is on the primary monitor. I'm also concerned that the second card would also have to render the scene so that a cheap card wouldn't work. To me, having a second card just for the second monitor and duplicating the primary's picture sounds ideal since it would let my main video card worry about just one monitor.

[QUOTE=NikoChekhov;49200855]Well the 'stupid' part was me disabling it from the device manager again. It's a gigabyte motherboard, I'd have to search for it to remember which particular model [editline]27th November 2015[/editline] Upon double-checking, turns out I plugged my hdmi cord into the motherboard instead of the card [I]for some reason[/I]. Not entirely sure why I would do that, but I'm assuming that's why it was using the intel stuff.[/QUOTE] Is it possible you were intoxicated at the time? Because that sounds like the kind of thing that would happen if you were stoned.

dudes who know more about servers than i do for home server, is it better/worth it to have server OS drive and filesystem drives completely separate or is it not that much of an overhead to have OS running off of the drives you're storing shit on

I mean I always have them separate but it's not for overhead reasons.

is it for "shit go kaboom" reasons?

Mic suggestion for under $50? [editline]28th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;49201348]yeaaaaah always keep files away from the os drive since drives are soooooooooo cheap [editline]28th November 2015[/editline] also what server os do you plan to run? cause you could pick up server 2012r2 eval for free and its a free os for a year just rearm it the day before it locks itself[/QUOTE] What a peasant server OS

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;49201348]yeaaaaah always keep files away from the os drive since drives are soooooooooo cheap [editline]28th November 2015[/editline] also what server os do you plan to run? cause you could pick up server 2012r2 eval for free and its a free os for a year just rearm it the day before it locks itself[/QUOTE] thinking amahi or something similar (plex media server, plus maybe some other stuff idk)

[QUOTE=Levelog;49201685]Mic suggestion for under $50? [/QUOTE] I've got a blue snowball and it is pretty good. the usb cable is removable though, and it likes to come out of the hole in the back of the mic, so you gotta strap that bitch in there somehow. And if you want to get good audio you gotta keep it right up in your face, so make sure you have room for it. Also may be good to invest in a pop screen because of that

[QUOTE=Skwee;49201862]I've got a blue snowball and it is pretty good. the usb cable is removable though, and it likes to come out of the hole in the back of the mic, so you gotta strap that bitch in there somehow. And if you want to get good audio you gotta keep it right up in your face, so make sure you have room for it. Also may be good to invest in a pop screen because of that[/QUOTE] Yeah my current frontrunner is a snowball with filter.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;49201348]yeaaaaah always keep files away from the os drive since drives are soooooooooo cheap [editline]28th November 2015[/editline] also what server os do you plan to run? cause you could pick up server 2012r2 eval for free and its a free os for a year just rearm it the day before it locks itself[/QUOTE] If you have a university email, you can sign up for MS Dreamspark for free and get a copy of 2012 R2 Standard. After all, you are using it for "research" purposes. :v:

[QUOTE=Levelog;49201685] What a peasant server OS[/QUOTE] Yeah the supreme choice is avaliable [img]http://a.pomf.cat/eafdhq.png[/img] :^)

Does anyone know if OCZ does make some decent SSD's? Right now there's a OCZ Trion 100, 240 GB SSD on sale for 65 bucks instead of 99, and recently I toyed with the idea of replacing my computer's SSD and placing it in my laptop which I'll be using for college work mostly.

Alright, so my MX 518 Logitech mouse is having this disconnect problem. It'll stop then start again in just under a second. It happens randomly, but more often when I play games. Ofcourse this makes playing fps games very frustrating. I've ran out of warranty, so I figured I'd just buy another one, but now it appears they don't sell them anymore. The only one I could find was on amazon, which was $219 so that's not happening. So what I'm asking is what you guys would recommend for a replacement? Or at the very least, does anyone have a link to another seller with reasonable prices for it. This is it btw. I'm sure many people have it. [t]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91YmmYMH40L._SL1500_.jpg[/t]

The G502 is pretty much the descendant of the MX518. The MX518 is a great mouse but it's a tad bit outdated now, I wouldn't buy one now. (Though I'm still using mine and intend on riding it into the ground.)

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;49204820]The G502 is pretty much the descendant of the MX518. The MX518 is a great mouse but it's a tad bit outdated now, I wouldn't buy one now. (Though I'm still using mine and intend on riding it into the ground.)[/QUOTE] How can mice become outdated? Is there some kind of technology I'm missing here? I still use an IBM mouse thats like 10 years old

It's not amazingly outdated, it's just that the newer mice these days are better enough that it's not worth hunting down an MX518. You're gonna get better for cheaper.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;49204820]The G502 is pretty much the descendant of the MX518. The MX518 is a great mouse but it's a tad bit outdated now, I wouldn't buy one now. (Though I'm still using mine and intend on riding it into the ground.)[/QUOTE] Alright, G502 it is. Thanks.

Has anyone here had a bad experience with the G502 mouse?