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  #1  
Old 01-07-2019, 02:21 PM
Electronic M's Avatar
Electronic M Electronic M is online now
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building a PC is fun... until it isn't.

Where do I begin?...

I've always been a cheap bastard a when it comes to computers... The only one I got new was given to me by my almamater, and my others have been sub 20 buk garage sale scores...my laptop has been getting on in age, buttons failing usb ports dieing.... heck I had to replace the graphics card when it melted while running some video editing software that works that machine hard.... Since that machine has some valuable engineering simulation software licenses on it left over from college and is also still decent for net browsing I decided I need to offload the video editing to my desktop.

My desktop is a 2002 TOTL Dell desktop that I have been primarily using as a media player for saved and internet video. It's PCIe graphics card having both DVI and S-video allowing me to drive my Sony HD CRT set with HD video.AND best of all feed my 60 year old NTSC TVs in standard definition. But that Dell is dying of cap plague and if I push it too hard I know it will die again (I've already changed caps in it twice so next time it dies I'm not going to fix it).

I decided my best bet going forward is to.replace.the Dell desktop with a new desktop running the graphics card currently in the Dell... that means using Windows 7 on the new rig since Windows 7 is the newest OS with drivers for that graphics card.... Also I have a preactivated win 7 ultimate install disc.

So I build up a nearly 1.5k system by specing out parts on Newegg, and come up with a good combination of parts i7-9700K, Z390 Mobo, 32GB ram, enough SSDs for a RAID, and the case cooler and PS from Be Quiet (a media PC should not make noise), and grossly oversized the cooler and PS so it would not get hot even running demanding software on it, and have capacity for over clocking and any future add-ons.... The idea that it would both replace my old Dell media PC and be a all around solid main rig for the next roughly 10 years.

It was fun building it and I was really glad everything fit together, but when it came time to install the OS things got frustrating fast.... after most of a day messing with BIOS settings and trying different USB ports and failing to convince the OS installer to recognize a keyboard and mouse (needed to opperate the installer and OS) I started googling.and discovered that there is no windows 7 driver support for my new motherboard USB chipset....(to say I felt like visiting intel and Microsoft and slugging some engineers and bean counters is an understatement).

Now I'm left with a difficult decision: return the MoBo and get a Z370 that some have reported.sucessful driver hacks for, go to windows 10 get a HDMI to composite video adapter and and pray it works as well as the old graphics card S-video out does, try to find some Linux flavor with support for a new motherboard as well as an ancient video card and has good free video editing software, or just say screw it and return all the.parts.I spent a week specing out, and just run my old crap till it dies (which probably won't be long)....

What would.you do?
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Last edited by Electronic M; 01-07-2019 at 02:28 PM.
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  #2  
Old 01-07-2019, 04:33 PM
Jon A.'s Avatar
Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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I say cut your losses and return the parts, then hit Craigslist for any used parts needed for a decent system. I have an empty beige tower that I got for free and an old full-tower server that I got really cheap and haven't used anything from, I wouldn't want the stuff going to waste.

I got a "new" monitor a couple of months ago, a 20" LG that was made in 2007. My 19" 2006 LG had recently crapped out due to bad caps; I considered fixing it but the cost for really good new caps, shipping in would have been almost as much as this monitor. Besides, the other one was VGA-only and would give me an "out of range" error when connected to the server with an adapter. My computer is a HP from around 2006 that used to belong to a business. I have to restart it every now and then because the page file gets so big it makes the system unusable and my RAM is already maxed out.
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Old 01-07-2019, 06:19 PM
Electronic M's Avatar
Electronic M Electronic M is online now
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I'm sick of buying used shit...I rather a have 5 year old NOS motherboard than anything that has been used and or abused by John Q Public....That cap plague dell has long since soured me on that.

Computers and women are the two things that I'll never think older is better in regard to.
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Old 01-07-2019, 06:50 PM
Jon A.'s Avatar
Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Whatever floats yer boat. Seems some brands of computers/motherboards eat caps, others don't. I'm not surprised about Dell PCs doing so. Apparently Macs do as well, my early model G3 and "mirrored drive door" G4 developed a myriad of problems over time.
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Old 01-08-2019, 02:46 PM
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compu_85 compu_85 is offline
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It's been so long since I've built my own PC. Lately I just used recycled ones from work.

-J
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  #6  
Old 01-08-2019, 02:58 PM
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maxhifi maxhifi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
What would.you do?
Get Windows 10 and learn to live with it, it was released almost four years ago already... eons in computer time. Win 7 is a legacy system, can't expect it to be supported forever. Sometimes no choice but to go with the flow. I've been on Win 10 for a year and a half already, and it's working just fine.

HDMI to composite adapters are cheap and easy to find on eBay, you can buy a few and decide which one you like best.

Another thing you could do is make like a tech and just change the caps in your dell. If there's anything any of us should be good at by now, it's changing caps

I'd probably do all of the above, to be honest. No reason the Dell couldn't live on as a dedicated media streamer while the new computer does the stuff you need a new computer to do.

Last edited by maxhifi; 01-08-2019 at 03:05 PM.
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  #7  
Old 01-08-2019, 03:39 PM
Electronic M's Avatar
Electronic M Electronic M is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maxhifi View Post
Get Windows 10 and learn to live with it, it was released almost four years ago already... eons in computer time. Win 7 is a legacy system, can't expect it to be supported forever. Sometimes no choice but to go with the flow. I've been on Win 10 for a year and a half already, and it's working just fine.

HDMI to composite adapters are cheap and easy to find on eBay, you can buy a few and decide which one you like best.

Another thing you could do is make like a tech and just change the caps in your dell. If there's anything any of us should be good at by now, it's changing caps

I'd probably do all of the above, to be honest. No reason the Dell couldn't live on as a dedicated media streamer while the new computer does the stuff you need a new computer to do.
You raise some good points. I plan to let the Dell live on as a basement media rig(it ain't good for much else)...till it dies. I've recapped the Dell twice and it's last power supply once (power supplies are more misery to recap than a new unit costs).... changing caps on that motherboard is sort of a last resort. Last time I destroyed a trace and lost back audio out....It is not fun or easy to work on compared to any other PCB I've soldered on.

I do use 10 on my laptop but there's no real features 10 has that 7 doesn't that come close to what a S-VIDEO port is worth to me.... Also 7 while not marketed still has a few years of support left it just don't make sense to me to stop making drivers for it till it is done or months from done.

I'm probably going to get a HDMI converter and install 10... that said 10 doesn't want to install, and keeps asking me for drivers (the bootable USB stick maker program did have a hiccup so I'm going to remake my Install media)..... In the course of combing the motherboard disk for win 10 drivers I found what claim's to be win 7 usb3.0 drivers so I might just try injecting them into the win 7 installer for chit's 'n' giggles before I install Windows 10.... I gotta rewrite the USB stick for 10 anyway so I may as well try 7 first.
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  #8  
Old 01-08-2019, 04:06 PM
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maxhifi maxhifi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
there's no real features 10 has that 7 doesn't that come close to what a S-VIDEO port is worth to me.... Also 7 while not marketed still has a few years of support left it just don't make sense to me to stop making drivers for it till it is done or months from done.
If you install 10 now, you get the most years of service from the new computer until 10 isn't supported anymore. If you go with 7, you're going with something which is already on its way out.. bad idea in my mind, maybe easier now but a potential future headache. And will be absolutely zero fun when some latest shiny engineering package you need for a last minute project can't be installed because it requires minimum OS 10. It's simply down to numbers - if the installed base of old OS is lower than a certain percent of total users, there's no profit in supporting said older users.

Same thing happens with every OS update.. some people held onto XP until its last dying breath - I say when you update hardware, should make software up to date too. Computers are a world where obsolescence is guaranteed, and if you plan to use the computer to make money, it's in your interest to stay ahead of the curve.
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Old 01-09-2019, 12:18 AM
Titan1a Titan1a is offline
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I use Linux. No more M$ beta testing!
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  #10  
Old 01-09-2019, 04:14 AM
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dr.ido dr.ido is offline
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I tried Windows 10 for a while - I went back to Win 7 after it used up all my data credit (not everyone has unlimited data) downloading crap that I didn't want or need. Some of this can be dealt with using 3rd party utilities or by using the LTSB version - until the next mandatory "feature update" changes you settings back without your permission. I'd rather cling to Win7 than keep trying to fight a product that comes with adware and spyware preinstalled.

I ran Win98 on my main desktop and laptop until 2005 when I upgraded to Win2000. I'm sure I can get at least a couple more years out of Win7.
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  #11  
Old 01-09-2019, 10:53 AM
Electronic M's Avatar
Electronic M Electronic M is online now
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Well I got 10 on it... weirdly enough it installed with my ancient graphics card and will actually run the S-VIDEO correctly albeit with very annoying underscan (if it turns it off during full screen video playback I won't mind) and for some reason it won't recognize different ports on the graphics card as multiple monitors like it should... That would be fine if I could make the on board motherboard graphics work alongside my old graphics card.... I guess 10 hasn't found the new driver for the CPU on board graphics yet... I ended up doing the install with the old card both to see if it would work and because when I tried and failed to install 10 with the on board graphics HDMI connected to my Sony HD CRT set the video looked trippy and was poorly syncing... Windows 10 did a better job driving an 17 year old graphics card than the on board graphics of a brand new motherboard.

Tonight I gotta try the DVI output of the graphics card...if it recognizes that as a second monitor along side the lumped together VGA/S-VIDEO I'll be about where I need to be to be happy.

Maxhifi I get your point and typically agree with you on that point in most cases... This machine is going to be strictly hobby and entertainment for now, but may take a more central role in a year or two. I grossly over speced the main hardware components for my current needs so that it should be awesome to good for anything I could possibly throw at it for at least the next 5 years.... The way I see it with how many times I had to reinstall the os on my previous media rigs due to failing hardware causing hard drive corruption, if I installed 7 and had to 3 years later add a 10 dual boot or nix 7 for 10 it would be a rather trivial afternoon of annoyance.

dr.ido stated probably my biggest gripe with windows 10... not so much the data (my connection has no limit but speed) but the windows spyware adware and all the annoying prompts to make it do stuff automatically... I don't want that stuff and opted out of every bit of that that the install gave me option to. Also if you ever consume any lewd material those features make you feel like you are watching porno with a pet parrot in the room... sure it don't matter much now but is it going to say something bad/embarassing in front of a guest in a week?...

From trials I've given Linux on other machines I like it better than windows, but the difficulty of making some windows software run on Linux and removal of some features from Linux versions of software kind of tips the scale back to Windows.

I can't wait to see how much this blows my laptop out of the water on routine tasks.... I have a good feeling based on Malwarebytes taking a mere 9sec to complete a scan (granted relative hard drive contents don't make that a fair comparison) and raw spec differences in hardware.
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Zenith: The quality stays in EVEN after the name falls off!
What I want. --> http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...62&postcount=4
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  #12  
Old 01-09-2019, 01:37 PM
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mr_rye89 mr_rye89 is offline
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I've had okay luck using Kdenlive for some light video editing in Ubuntu Linux, there's not really any video editing suite that Im proficient in.

Have you considered a Raspberry Pi3 with Kodi for streaming videos to old TVs? that's how I do it. Ive got one raspberry pi running Kodi/TVheadend with a hard drive attached as a DVR/high def media front end, and another raspi with Kodi fed int my BT modulator. They are both networked to eachother and a Silicondust ATSC tuner, so I can watch live TV and DVR recordings on any TV in the house, using my phone as the remote.
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