Questions about PCs/parts - Consulting

[QwarkDreams]

Nice mouse!
Personally I didn't have a Logitech mouse in years. My MX510 and MX518 worked for years (MX510 had a clicking problem) but I got tired of the slick surface and form factor.

I'm not worried about the airflow in my case. I have 6 fans in total: 2 stock LED Corsair 120mm intake fans, 1 stock Corsair exhaust fan, 2 Corsair AF140 exhaust fans on top and 1 Corsair SP120 intake fan on the bottom (but I need a dust filter before I connect this one to the PSU).
Did the Intel Burn Test today, peak was at 72?C for only a few seconds and after that the CPU cooled down to 30-32?C again in about 20-30sec.
Seems to me like the stock Intel cooler isn't cut out for such load intensive tasks like BluRay ripping.
Maybe (if I have some money to spare) I'll get the Hyper Evo 212 in a few weeks but dust filter, keyboard, mouse and mousepad have a higher priority at the moment :-D
Damn, that's gonna be expensive -_-

 

[Keith Wallace]

Any idea of what you'll get for a keyboard? I need one myself, but I'm putting it off as much as possible. I'll probably get it in June or something, after my birthday. I'm looking at another Sidewinder X4, as my first got a bit of abuse and broke after a year-plus of ownership.

 

[QwarkDreams]

Most likely a mechanical one. Need to try out the switches first but from what I've read and the videos I've watched the MX Brown switches look like they will fit my likings.
I have a very very expensive taste and the keyboard I have in mind is the Corsair Vengeance K70 (about 130€/180$). Not only because of the metal chassis but the flatness too (not the keys, the chassis itself -> pic for better understanding).
I ruled out the K95 since it is only available with MX Red switches and I don't need the addictional macro buttons.
The K65 is a tenkeyless and the K60 doesn't seem to be back-lit (plus, both don't have a wrist rest).

I'd like to get another Sidewinder X6 orX4 but they aren't available anymore here :-/

 

[Keith Wallace]

I'm not crazy about mechanical keyboards. They're usually really big/tall, and I prefer something I can use comfortably on my lap at times. My dad got the G510+ or whatever from Logitech, not sure if he likes or dislikes it.

 

[QwarkDreams]

I don't like the ones from Logitech at all. I have a G11 in the living room and I hate to type on it.

Maybe I'll think the same about mechanical keyboards as you do after I tried one out in a store, who knows^^

 

[gedzum]

Most likely a mechanical one. Need to try out the switches first but from what I've read and the videos I've watched the MX Brown switches look like they will fit my likings.
I have a very very expensive taste and the keyboard I have in mind is the Corsair Vengeance K70 (about 130€/180$). Not only because of the metal chassis but the flatness too (not the keys, the chassis itself -> pic for better understanding).
I ruled out the K95 since it is only available with MX Red switches and I don't need the addictional macro buttons.
The K65 is a tenkeyless and the K60 doesn't seem to be back-lit (plus, both don't have a wrist rest).

I'd like to get another Sidewinder X6 orX4 but they aren't available anymore here :-/

I have the gun metal/brown switches K70 and I love it. Typing and gaming on it is brilliant. If you're considering it, I'd recommend it

 

[QwarkDreams]

How scratch-resistant is the surface of the alu-chassis? I don't want to get a black one and then have silver scratches all over it.

The K70 is actually my first choice right now but as I wrote, I first have to test the MX Cherry switches at a store (130? is quite a bit too much to just buy it online without trying them out first).
The EpicGear Dezimator looks good too but unfortunately it isn't completely backlit and costs even more.
A Corsair Vengeance with MX Cherry RGB would be very nice too but the price seems unreasonable (Kailh switches are said to be cheaper and offer 16Mio colors too).

Of course I will need some time to adjust to the mechanical keyboard (if I get one) since I've been using membrane keyboards for years now. Same with new mice.

Not sure if I get one next month or later (depending on what bugs me more - mouse+mousepad combo or the urge to get a new keybaord^^).

 

[gedzum]

Yeah that's fair enough. I don't think there were many stores nearby that stocked it so just bought it online. For me, the thing I found I needed to adjust to most, was the key sizes were slightly smaller than my previous keyboard. I found myself making a few typing errors. I got used to it eventually though. I also saw some comments and reviews saying that some backlights are prone to dying and the RGB version addresses this issue. Haven't come across it personally, but I don't use the backlight all that often.

 

[QwarkDreams]

Backlight is essential to me (especially at night when I don't have the bright neon tubes on). The letters on my Sidewinder X6 are readable without backlight but on the Logitech G11 you really have to look for them.
It's not about the keyboard itself I want to check but the switches.

 

[gedzum]

Anyone use a blu-ray drive on their PC? I'm thinking of picking one up to primariliy watch some movies. Just wondering if anyone has a recommendation. Willing to spend up to or around ?50. Internal or external drive is fine, however if it is external, then noise and (maybe) cable length will be factors. Thanks in advance

 

[QwarkDreams]

I have an external bluray writer with USB2.0 from Samsung (SE506BB), which will most likely not be in you budget of 50GBP (~80€ -> 57-65GBP on Amazon.co.uk). I can't really compare it to an internal one but it takes a few minutes to load movies/programs via USB (more than via SATA).
The cables are usually kinda short, about 59cm from the end of one USB connector to the other, which sounds much but it isn't (intended to use with a laptop where the drive stands right next to it). I just use the one that came with my PS3 for charging the controller ;-)

Keep in mind that not every freeware program will play blurays!!! Fortunately the Samsung SE506BB came with Cyberlink PowerDVD. As far as I tried I couldn't get VLC Player to play them. Other programs will cost about 30-40€ and even more. I couldn't find a free bluray player that was really satisfying. Also: Cyberlink PowerDVD offers a region code change 5times. After that it will be locked to that region code.

Regarding the noise level: on load it CAN be a bit noisy but this is mostly subjective. It comes with small rubberfeet attached, don't know if additional rubber underneath it will lower the noise level.

I haven't tried it yet but according to the box it should even work on TVs like a regular bluray player.

If you decide on an external drive you should go for USB3.0 since it can take a few seconds (max. 5sec) to "reload" the content after you paused the movie.

The ones I got recommended were LG and ASUS but both were out of my budget (100€+).

 

[gedzum]

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll check out that drive you mentioned, seems reasonable and good value. ?57 doesn't seem too bad, especially considering it comes with that software. Another thanks for mentioning VLC, since that is what I usually use.

The noise thing isn't too big a deal, just something for me to look out for since when I was looking around some poeple brought it up on some drives.

 

[QwarkDreams]

There are some rumors and guides how to make VLC Player recognizing bluray. I tried it but it didn't work, also it seems to be kind of a grey-area :-/

After a short search on the web it turns out there isn't any really good bluray player software. I use PowerDVD by Cyberlink. It works (I'm really glad it does) but it's far away from VLC.
Although if you don't mind having the movies on your HDD you could rip them with MakeMKV and convert them with Handbrake (fairly large files in .mkv format, L.A. Confidential was about 40GB before converting it and my i3-4130 CPU got kinda hot ~60?C but I was told this is normal and I don't need to worry). I wouldn't recommend doing this on a regular basis unless you have sufficient aftermarket cooling ;-)

But honestly I don't know what the law says about this procedure.

Edit: Just ripping another bluray, seems like the CPU doesn't always get that hot (at least not during ripping, maybe when converting it, need to check it out).

Edit2: Okay, the CPU gets hot while converting^^ And it's quite time-consuming.

 

[Keith Wallace]

I asked a few weeks back, and was told that there IS an extension for VLC to get Blu-Ray playback. As I don't have any Blu-Ray discs (or an optical drive), I have no interest in the application, nor do I have a way to test it.

 

[QwarkDreams]

I asked a few weeks back, and was told that there IS an extension for VLC to get Blu-Ray playback. As I don't have any Blu-Ray discs (or an optical drive), I have no interest in the application, nor do I have a way to test it.

An official extension?

 

[gedzum]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll look into this in more detail over summer holidays.

 

[Keith Wallace]

An official extension?

This is posted on the VideoLAN site, so I suppose it's at least semi-official:

VideoLAN - libbluray

They've got links to versions to handle Blu-Ray if it's protected by AACS or BD+, it says, so if the basic extension in there isn't good enough (they warn it isn't for many commercial discs), one of those should be a suitable alternative.

 

[QwarkDreams]

This is posted on the VideoLAN site, so I suppose it's at least semi-official:

VideoLAN - libbluray

They've got links to versions to handle Blu-Ray if it's protected by AACS or BD+, it says, so if the basic extension in there isn't good enough (they warn it isn't for many commercial discs), one of those should be a suitable alternative.

That's the thing I tried out and I didn't get it to work (both 32 and 64 bit version). I'll try it again when I come home from work today to check if I did something wrong.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Well, as I said, they've got special versions for the different locks on the discs, so maybe one of those versions was needed.

 

[QwarkDreams]

Well, as I said, they've got special versions for the different locks on the discs, so maybe one of those versions was needed.

Well, until there is less complicated (just tried it again, didn't get any Blurays to play) I'll just keep using PowerDVD.
It's a shame that it's more complicated to play a Bluray on PC than on a dedicated Bluray player with a TV -_-