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

How is Razer's build quality? I know they're overpriced and usually mocked here but I'm looking for a left-handed mouse and there's almost zero variety.

[QUOTE=omegasupreme1;46977060]How is Razer's build quality? I know they're overpriced and usually mocked here but I'm looking for a left-handed mouse and there's almost zero variety.[/QUOTE] I've got a friend who uses a CoolerMaster Storm Recon and she really likes it. It's an ambidextrous mouse so it should fit the bill.

[QUOTE=omegasupreme1;46977060]How is Razer's build quality? I know they're overpriced and usually mocked here but I'm looking for a left-handed mouse and there's almost zero variety.[/QUOTE] My old deathadder felt cheap and the scroll wheel started acting up after a year. My Blackwidow died after a year and a half to the point where Windows wouldn't even play the "Hardware Connected" sound when I plugged it in. Razer wanted me (In Ontario) to ship it to their return place in California at my own expense, which ended up costing me about $30 in shipping. Now I hear they're doing some cloud driver bullshit for some of their stuff. No thanks. I was probably unlucky, but Logitech has been a lot better with support. When my refurbished MX518 had scroll wheel problems (Am I too hard on scroll wheels? Maybe), they just asked for the serial number and they shipped me a replacement G500. If you can avoid it, just don't get a "Gaming" mouse. As long as it's comfortable and has adjustable sensitivity, you should be fine. Just enjoy playing the game, a mouse with more LEDs and a Doritos sponsorship isn't going to make you drastically better.

Yeah my Deathadder's scroll wheel is fucked now too, clicking it in doesn't work most of the time. Anyway, was wondering and cooling. I'm going to get a Cooler Master 212 Evo for my CPU, as it's pretty hot, and was just wondering, is that all I really need? The case is one of those Fractal Design r40's I think, so it has like 2 built in fans. If I just get the CPU fan will it be okay or should I get some new fans too?

[QUOTE=Over-Run;46979223]Yeah my Deathadder's scroll wheel is fucked now too, clicking it in doesn't work most of the time. Anyway, was wondering and cooling. I'm going to get a Cooler Master 212 Evo for my CPU, as it's pretty hot, and was just wondering, is that all I really need? The case is one of those Fractal Design r40's I think, so it has like 2 built in fans. If I just get the CPU fan will it be okay or should I get some new fans too?[/QUOTE] Your case fans are there to assist the airflow going through your case, and while that does create some difference in temperature (the front fans should be intaking cool air and the back fans should be exhausting hot air), the deciding factor here is going to be your CPU cooler. The Hyper 212 EVO will certainly make a difference and should be your top priority. If your CPU is still getting abnormally hot when idle after you install the new heatsink, it might be a problem with the voltage depending on whether or not you've overclocked it.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46977089]razer is awful[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/b0f82718eafae2068a23371d6bdcb094.png[/IMG] shit

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46979782]YOU FOOL[/QUOTE] To be honest, I don't mind them, I've got one of their headsets also, and it's the pair that has lasted me the longest so. I do have some reason to buy them.

How are Dell and Acer with laptops? I may have to buy a new one for school and I need one with at least an i5 and 8GB of RAM. I don't want any problems with it and I also want to be able to play CS:GO with 60fps. I had these two in mind: - Dell Inspiron 15 5547 (i5 4210U & R7 M265 for €600,-) - Acer Aspire E5-572G-57AA (i5 4210U & GT840M for €650,-)

[QUOTE=Zombiespeed;46979819]How are Dell and Acer with laptops? I may have to buy a new one for school and I need one with at least an i5 and 8GB of RAM. I don't want any problems with it and I also want to be able to play CS:GO with 60fps. I had these two in mind: - Dell Inspiron 15 5547 (i5 4210U & R7 M265 for €600,-) - Acer Aspire E5-572G-57AA (i5 4210U & GT840M for €650,-)[/QUOTE] I'd pick the Acer laptop purely because of its Nvidia GPU. AMD's laptop chips get insanely hot under load and typically idle at non-ideal temperatures. Trust me, I know from first-hand experience.

[QUOTE=Lordgeorge16;46979872]I'd pick the Acer laptop purely because of its Nvidia GPU. AMD's laptop chips get insanely hot under load and typically idle at non-ideal temperatures. Trust me, I know from first-hand experience.[/QUOTE] I currently have a Toshiba laptop (has been returned back and forth from the Toshiba service center and the store because of a hardware problem they don't seem to identify) that has an R7 M260. It does the job and it gets warm, but it doesn't feel any hotter than the Nvidia GPU's some of my classmates have. Had no problems on idle either since it is turned off automatically, unless you specify an application to use it instead of the Intel GPU. I'm fine with the AMD GPU if I can pay less, I just want to know which laptop of the two is the most reliable. edit: read a long review of the Dell and it appears that the GPU in that thing is throttled down and it isn't quite the perfect laptop I thought it was after all. How is the GT820M, especially with Counter Strike: GO?

Ever since getting a new video card, certain images or programs appear slightly distorted as if they're not in the right resolution. Here's a screenshot of the game 'Space Station 13' [t]http://i.imgur.com/6aZLRfb.png[/t] Note how the lines of the tiles get thinner and thicker. Even though the text is the right resolution, the game itself isn't. Even image viewing applications are like this.

Thanks for the info on the CPU fan. What range of temperatures should I be getting with a CPU fan? Also, I want to replace my computer speakers with something good. Currently have a 7.1 Creative setup, but the speakers are pretty bad and make crackling sounds a lot, and most of the speakers aren't in use. I only use the front left, right and center along with the sub. So what is a good setup?

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46980102]I don't see this, so my advice is reset your monitor to factory default and re-adjust them.[/QUOTE] What do you mean 'you don't see this'? And I don't think it's a monitor problem; As I said, other things look fine on the monitor.

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;46980225]I'm blind my bad. That just looks like it's just that game. recently patched it? Changed any settings recently?[/QUOTE] As I said, I changed the video card. The resolution of the monitor is 1360 x 768, and I set my graphics card display and personal setting display to that same setting. And the game isn't the only thing that has the problem. When using something like Windows Photo Gallery on full screen it becomes distorted as well. You've seen the previous screenshot; Here's how it looks with Windows Photo Gallery: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ZAodTn4.png[/t] [editline]21st January 2015[/editline] Also I reset the setting on the monitor and holy fuck. I must have had it too red because now ith looks like everything has a tint of blue.

[QUOTE=Over-Run;46980096]Thanks for the info on the CPU fan. What range of temperatures should I be getting with a CPU fan?[/QUOTE] What Kiwi said, 65C-70C under load. Ideal idle temperatures would be anything between your current room temperature and 40C at the highest.

[IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/e11ea679a3892add49d909ff320a6346.png[/IMG] If I want to let a friend use my PC on a newly created non-admin account (just for him), how can I restrict his access to only that user account? I don't want him to be able to browse my other hard drives. Is this possible? I'd rather not password protect the hard drives, it'd be a pain in the ass for me every time I'd wanna access them. He's chilling round mine on Sunday and I figured I'd let him use my PC to play a game he's wanted to play. I guess it's a bit of a trust issue, since my Quantum Storage hard drive is full of personal things I'd rather he wasn't able to see (read: porn). [editline]21st January 2015[/editline] Also, due to a retarded OS install on my behalf, I've got two versions of Windows 7. The 221GB SSD is the OS install I use, but I also have an OS installed on Local Disk D. I'd prefer being able to restrict his account to [I]just[/I] the Local Disk C

Anyone have experience with VMware? How is the hardware acceleration for Microsoft XP in Workstation? Is it better than VirtualBox when it comes to Microsoft operating systems in that regard? I have a GTX 670 and i5 CPU, yet VirtualBox lags even with simple DirectX programs on XP, and XP Mode doesn't support hardware acceleration at all (let alone dedicated 3D compatibility), so I am looking for alternative options that don't involve dual-booting.

[QUOTE=loopoo;46981377][IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/e11ea679a3892add49d909ff320a6346.png[/IMG] If I want to let a friend use my PC on a newly created non-admin account (just for him), how can I restrict his access to only that user account? I don't want him to be able to browse my other hard drives. Is this possible? I'd rather not password protect the hard drives, it'd be a pain in the ass for me every time I'd wanna access them. He's chilling round mine on Sunday and I figured I'd let him use my PC to play a game he's wanted to play. I guess it's a bit of a trust issue, since my Quantum Storage hard drive is full of personal things I'd rather he wasn't able to see (read: porn). [editline]21st January 2015[/editline] Also, due to a retarded OS install on my behalf, I've got two versions of Windows 7. The 221GB SSD is the OS install I use, but I also have an OS installed on Local Disk D. I'd prefer being able to restrict his account to [I]just[/I] the Local Disk C[/QUOTE] Can't you just right click the drive and go to the Security tab to change permission settings? "List folder contents" is one of the options that you can deny among other things. I haven't tried it myself yet so I don't know for sure.

[QUOTE=waxrock;46982428]Can't you just right click the drive and go to the Security tab to change permission settings? "List folder contents" is one of the options that you can deny among other things. I haven't tried it myself yet so I don't know for sure.[/QUOTE] As long as they are formatted as NTFS (which they should be if they are internal), this won't be an issue. If they don't have permission, all they will see is that the drive exists. I don't think they can read the capacity as they don't have permission to see the contents of the drive.

Hit me with a cheap good mic from newegg. There's so many crappy brands to choose from I don't know which is least crappy :(

Anyway I can combine harddrives without formatting? Got an ssd for my os and stuff, along with like 3 other hard drives that are all separate. It makes hard to find things and the folder structure annoys me, but I really don't want to loose all my steak games

[QUOTE=Over-Run;46983664]Anyway I can combine harddrives without formatting? Got an ssd for my os and stuff, along with like 3 other hard drives that are all separate. It makes hard to find things and the folder structure annoys me, but I really don't want to loose all my [b]steak games[/b][/QUOTE] Sounds delicious. Anyway not really. You're essentially setting up a type of RAID system and setting up an entirely new filesystem. Unless you can move the data somewhere else temporarily its sort of a "tough tits" situation. You should probably just come up with a way to organize your files across drives. You wouldn't be able to combine it with your C: driver without reinstalling Windows anyway.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/olYCY6o.png[/img] How exactly do i make it not timeout each time? I'm not 100% what would even be blocking the packets. Been trying to figure out what's up with my internet, been getting >200+ ping a lot recently. Really annoying when trying to play games [IMG]http://www.pingtest.net/result/115367731.png[/IMG] finally got a traceroute from my router itself [img]http://i.imgur.com/H6FAB52.png[/img]

so i'm debating spending leftover bestbuy giftcards from christmas to dosh up my gifted computer a bit, thing's definitely showing its age. problem is, i don't think i'm able to upgrade it further than it comes out of the box, without going off and trying for a new version of pretty much every important part; essentially just getting/building a new PC. [url=http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02220650&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en]listed from the specifications[/url], power supply's only 250W, motherboard's ram capacity is 2x2GB, and [url=http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-PCI-Express-Graphics-VCGG2105XEB/dp/B002PY7H78]the videocard I threw in it after receiving it[/url] seems rather underperforming to today's standard. CPU might be too? think I should save the cards for later for a full build, or try something to settle for now? combined, the cards are $100

[QUOTE=lNloruzenchi;46984185]so i'm debating spending leftover bestbuy giftcards from christmas to dosh up my gifted computer a bit, thing's definitely showing its age. problem is, i don't think i'm able to upgrade it further than it comes out of the box, without going off and trying for a new version of pretty much every important part; essentially just getting/building a new PC. [url=http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02220650&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en]listed from the specifications[/url], power supply's only 250W, motherboard's ram capacity is 2x2GB, and [url=http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-PCI-Express-Graphics-VCGG2105XEB/dp/B002PY7H78]the videocard I threw in it after receiving it[/url] seems rather underperforming to today's standard. CPU might be too? think I should save the cards for later for a full build, or try something to settle for now? combined, the cards are $100[/QUOTE] Honestly, the GPU you put in probably isn't much better than the onboard graphics, which I'm guessing was an HD 4200. A 210 is more for adding additional ports for multiple monitors on the cheap. It is faster, but only by a little bit. You could probably buy a new card, but its questionable whether its worth it. Its approaching 5 years old, and the processor is certainly dated. $100 dollars isn't going to get you too far GPU wise, especially at Best Buy. I would recommend saving them for when you upgrade down the line. You could use the gift cards to buy a new HDD or something at Best Buy for the build.

Does anybody know of a program that can let me switch displays on the fly? I've got 2 displays I want to use (one is a TV), but I have my computer in SLI mode so I can only use one at a time. I want to be able to switch between the two effortlessly, instead of having to go into the control panel every time. Something like Win + P but will work when one display is always disabled.

I just bought a new motherboard, cpu and gpu. Should I remove the old drivers before or after installing the new parts?

[QUOTE=Smoot;46984556]Does anybody know of a program that can let me switch displays on the fly? I've got 2 displays I want to use (one is a TV), but I have my computer in SLI mode so I can only use one at a time. I want to be able to switch between the two effortlessly, instead of having to go into the control panel every time. Something like Win + P but will work when one display is always disabled.[/QUOTE] That's odd. I'm not aware of a monitor limitation in SLI mode. I don't think that is supposed to happen in the first place, considering you can use 3 monitors on a single card and part of the appeal of SLI is additional power for multiple monitors. [editline]21st January 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=highvoltage;46984562]I just bought a new motherboard, cpu and gpu. Should I remove the old drivers before or after installing the new parts?[/QUOTE] Probably before, but be aware you may need to reinstall Windows if a driver causes a conflict with the new motherboard, and you most likely need to reactivate Windows.

[QUOTE=Demache;46984748]Probably before, but be aware you may need to reinstall Windows if a driver causes a conflict with the new motherboard, and you most likely need to reactivate Windows.[/QUOTE] Would it be best to just reinstall? I've got a second 1TB harddrive I haven't used yet and my current one is just about full. It actually caused be to blue screen twice yesterday before I noticed how full it is.

[QUOTE=highvoltage;46984928]Would it be best to just reinstall? I've got a second 1TB harddrive I haven't used yet and my current one is just about full. It actually caused be to blue screen twice yesterday before I noticed how full it is.[/QUOTE] I would personally. I do everytime I make a significant hardware change, just to avoid problems later on. Plus its a good idea if your Windows install is getting a bit old anyway.