PC Building Guide and Discussion #14

[Osprey]

Do you guys have any thoughts on good video/photo editing software based on cost and performance? Thanks.

I haven't used them, but Lightworks and DaVinci Resolve both come in free, non-pro versions and have advanced features. I'm not sure about Lightworks, but I've read that DaVinci Resolve has good GPU acceleration, so it probably has good performance. There's also OpenShot, which is open source, and is available on Linux and Mac, as well as Windows. I suggest trying those and seeing if they suit you before trying trials of non-free options.

As for photo editing, I don't know. I would just google something like "top free photo editing apps" and, again, try the top ones recommended to see if they suit you.

 

[guinness]

For photo editing, are we talking RAW management, or Photopshop like (good for editing of a single file, but not as great for managing an image catalog)?

Although TBH, you may want both, if using a camera. I've used Lightroom, Darktable, Rawtherapee, DxO OpticsPro, and Capture One Pro for RAW workflows, and Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Affinity Photo for editing.

For RAW editing, I'm used to the UI of Lightroom, but hate annual subscriptions, so I have Capture One now, but neither are free, but Darktable and Rawtherapee are. IIRC, I got DxO OpticsPro 11 free as well, but I can't remember if that was part of a promotion.

Rawtherapee supports LUT, which is neat, if trying to emulate film emulsions or a general look.

Unfortunately, unless your RAW format is DNG, it's a pain dealing with different RAW formats, as every company has their own format, hence why I had to give up LR for Capture One. Adobe does have a RAW converter, but it adds another step to the import process.

For single photo editing/manipulation, I really like Affinity Photo, it's not quite Photoshop, but the support has been fantastic, and I've had several years of updates for $40. The last major revision was a major upgrade in terms of speed gains. It can edit RAW photos, but it's one at a time, but you can do layers, masking, panoramic stitching, "HDR", etc.

 

[Soedy]

Was able to get a 3070 Founders Edition for 550€ earlier today. Considering I can still sell my 2060 Super for 500€ (paid 350€ 2 years ago) I am pretty happy.

 

[Osprey]

Was able to get a 3070 Founders Edition for 550€ earlier today. Considering I can still sell my 2060 Super for 500€ (paid 350€ 2 years ago) I am pretty happy.

Congrats. I know the feeling. In November, I lucked into a 3070 FE for $500 and then turned around and sold my RX 570 for half that. I still can't believe that I got such a big upgrade for only $250, especially in these times.

 

[Soedy]

Congrats. I know the feeling. In November, I lucked into a 3070 FE for $500 and then turned around and sold my RX 570 for half that. I still can't believe that I got such a big upgrade for only $250, especially in these times.

Yep. I wouldn't "need" the upgrade per se but for nearly the same price - i'll do it.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Seriously good for you to be able to basically spend almost nothing for an upgrade. It always feels better to hold onto the previous card just in case, but this is hard to say no to.

 

[Osprey]

Seriously good for you to be able to basically spend almost nothing for an upgrade. It always feels better to hold onto the previous card just in case, but this is hard to say no to.

Yeah, I've always resisted selling my old video cards--this is, I think, the first time that I've sold one--but it's hard to say no when it's worth so much. I even sold my even older card, my R9 270x, for $75 at the same time. These are strange times, indeed, when an 8-year-old GPU is still worth anything. I suspect that miners bought it and my RX 570, though, because I still haven't received feedback for either sale (I figure that a gamer would be either happy or upset and let me know), which is fine by me because it makes me feel less guilty that I ripped off a gamer.

Anyways, for the first time since probably my very first PC, I don't have a capable backup video card, but I'm not too worried. I'm not going to overclock my 3070 FE (considering that it has no headroom for it) and I can always install my ancient 9600 GT for non-gaming purposes or use my laptop while waiting for an RMA. I'm looking forward to my next CPU having integrated graphics, though, so that keeping a backup card will be even less necessary.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I always resell my parts. I like offsetting costs because I'm cheap

 

[Osprey]

I always resell my parts. I like offsetting costs because I'm cheap

I'm so cheap that I usually don't upgrade parts until they're so old and outdated that they aren't worth enough to make selling them worthwhile. At that point, they have more value to me as spare parts.

 

[guinness]

The reviews of some of the 12th gen Intels look nice.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

GPU prices going down, thankfully.

 

[Osprey]

https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

You need an Nvidia RTX card (no AMD support) You need a ray tracing-supporting GPU from Nvidia or AMD and a DOOM wad. I used doom.wad from the original DOS DOOM. DOOM II's doom2.wad works, as well.

I was just going to briefly try it out a few hours ago and ended up playing through the entire first episode of DOOM, Knee-Deep in the Dead. I think that I'll play through the other episodes, too, for the hundredth time, and then maybe move onto DOOM II.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

If you like boomer shooters, I definitely recommend this one:

 

[Osprey]

If you like boomer shooters, I definitely recommend this one:

I got that the other day and played through the first few levels. The mission structure is a little weird, but the game seems promising.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

You need an Nvidia RTX card (no AMD support) and a DOOM wad. I grabbed doom.wad from the original DOS DOOM.

I was just going to briefly try it out a few hours ago and ended up playing through the entire first episode of DOOM, Knee-Deep in the Dead. I think that I'll play through the other episodes, too, for the hundredth time, and then maybe move onto DOOM II (just copy doom2.wad from that, instead).

holy hell inject this into my veins right now at work

@MetalheadPenguinsFan

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I got that the other day and played through the first few levels. The mission structure is a little weird, but the game seems promising.

I got through the first two episodes last year and it took me almost 20 hours. It's a LONG game.

 

[Osprey]

holy hell inject this into my veins right now at work

It's as awesome as it looks. The imps' fireballs look especially stunning as they light up the walls as they pass.

I got through the first two episodes last year and it took me almost 20 hours. It's a LONG game.

Good to know. I didn't pick it up until it left Early Access a week or so ago.

If you need a new old-school shooter to play, I really liked and can recommend Ion Fury. It plays a lot like Duke Nukem 3D, but with a female.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

MOAR OLD SCHOOL SHOOTER RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

It's as awesome as it looks. The imps' fireballs look especially stunning as they light up the walls as they pass.



Good to know. I didn't pick it up until it left Early Access a week or so ago.

If you need a new old-school shooter to play, I really liked and can recommend Ion Fury. It plays a lot like Duke Nukem 3D, but with a female.

I like that game a lot, but the devs are kind of bigoted pieces of shit. So while the game is great, it's hard to enjoy knowing the people who made it are complete shit stains.

MOAR OLD SCHOOL SHOOTER RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE

 

[SniperHF]

MOAR OLD SCHOOL SHOOTER RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE

Amid Evil.

 

[RandV]

I assume if I'm starting to get power failures to USB devices then my power supply is starting to sputter out right? First I had to unplug my printer, then swap out my large 'gaming' keyboard for a small compact one. I don't think a keyboard can 'blow up' in a way that it starts effecting your PSU?

 

[SniperHF]

I assume if I'm starting to get power failures to USB devices then my power supply is starting to sputter out right? First I had to unplug my printer, then swap out my large 'gaming' keyboard for a small compact one. I don't think a keyboard can 'blow up' in a way that it starts effecting your PSU?

So your PC will power a regular keyboard but not your gaming keyboard? Is it true for all ports or just some? have you tried the front ports if it's a desktop?

FWIW your printer should not really be drawing any or nothing more than trace amounts of power from your USB, since it has external power (I assume anyway it's a normal printer).

It could certainly be the power supply, but could also be your motherboard (failing voltage regulator somewhere, bad header).

I would also check and make sure any other USB devices you have connected don't have a short/bad cable or some such. Maybe unplug them all and try one at a time.

Some other less likely options: Unclean power, something shorting out your 5v rail somewhere (screw rattling around on pins under the mobo would be a good thing to make sure isn't happening)

 

[Osprey]

I assume if I'm starting to get power failures to USB devices then my power supply is starting to sputter out right? First I had to unplug my printer, then swap out my large 'gaming' keyboard for a small compact one. I don't think a keyboard can 'blow up' in a way that it starts effecting your PSU?

Most printers don't get their power from USB, but from the outlet. If that includes your printer, then it suggests a connection problem, not a power problem. Also, keyboards don't draw much power, so it seems like it may be a connection problem there, too. Those devices are plugged directly into the computer, not into a hub, right? Have you tried different ports? Most motherboards have one USB controller for some ports and a different USB controller for the rest.

Have you updated your motherboard BIOS to the latest version? If it's an AMD Ryzen system, then you should definitely do that because there was a big problem with USB devices disconnecting last year that wasn't fixed until Summer (in AGESA 1.2.0.3 Patch C, I believe). Also, I would install the latest motherboard chipset drivers, obtainable either from the motherboard manufacturer's website or the AMD/Intel websites.

If your MB has the latest BIOS and drivers, then it could be going flaky. It could also be Windows. Before buying a new MB or PSU, I'd do a fresh install of Windows on another drive (or you could simply "reset" your existing one if you don't mind losing your current Windows setup) to see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, then it's probably your MB or PSU. I'd suspect MB, but I'd borrow a PSU or buy one and keep the receipt to rule that out first. Hopefully, it's the PSU and not the MB, since the latter is lot more trouble to replace.

Edit: While taking forever to compose my reply, SniperHF swooped in and beat me to some points. Figures.

 

[RandV]

So your PC will power a regular keyboard but not your gaming keyboard? Is it true for all ports or just some? have you tried the front ports if it's a desktop?

FWIW your printer should not really be drawing any or nothing more than trace amounts of power from your USB, since it has external power (I assume anyway it's a normal printer).

It could certainly be the power supply, but could also be your motherboard (failing voltage regulator somewhere, bad header).

I would also check and make sure any other USB devices you have connected don't have a short/bad cable or some such. Maybe unplug them all and try one at a time.

Some other less likely options: Unclean power, something shorting out your 5v rail somewhere (screw rattling around on pins under the mobo would be a good thing to make sure isn't happening)

Hmm, yeah could be motherboard too. Initially I had the printer plugged into USB and on (it usually isn't), and the windows error message wouldn't go away until I unplugged. Then the keyboard, which has backlighting and all that, once it started complaining about it then it wouldn't work in any USB port and I believe I tried it with everything disconnected. Things did shut down completely for a bit, but I pulled it out and did some dusting - there's an air vent with filter at the bottom of the power supply that was clogged with dust. This happened a year or two ago as well and things turned back on once I cleared it.

I built this computer just a little over 3 years ago, and it's a bit early but in my experience the PSU tends to go before the mobo, so that would suck if it's the latter. But there's been no other issues, and no problems if I fire up a game or something, with the most intensive since the problem began being a large game of Civ VI.

 

[Osprey]

I built this computer just a little over 3 years ago, and it's a bit early but in my experience the PSU tends to go before the mobo, so that would suck if it's the latter. But there's been no other issues, and no problems if I fire up a game or something, with the most intensive since the problem began being a large game of Civ VI.

FWIW, I had lots of USB issues with my last system, but I'm still using the same PSU from that system. It was definitely a flaky motherboard in my case. That and going through the Ryzen USB issue with my current system are largely why my first suspicion is the motherboard.

BTW, the PSU that I'm using is 10 years old. Someone else used it for 5 years before I bought it used and I've now used it in two systems, both with power hungry GPUs. Honestly, in nearly 30 years of building PCs, I think that I've had a power supply go bad just once or twice... and they didn't just slowly go bad like you suspect yours is; they just up and died. A lot more often than not, it's been the motherboards that developed issues. I've gone through way more motherboards than PSUs. Most were just upgrades, not because they went bad, but it speaks to the longevity that I've experienced with PSUs. In fact, it's probably the non-peripheral part that I replace least often. If yours was new 3 years ago, I'd be surprised if it's going bad, because that's relatively new to me.