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PCs for dummies


Strangelove
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I guess this place is a good place to ask. I just found out that my university has a surplus auction site and they have a bunch of old Dells for $5-10. They are tested to be in working condition so there is that part. Chances are it will not have an OS so I could just try out Linux... my main purpose for one of these computer would be running the Minecraft server. I'm just not sure how well these guys will run one. At best, I would think they will run about the same as my current setup. Any ideas?

 

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/calpoly,ca/auction/view?auc=742194

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Wow for $10 those are much better specs than I was expecting :P

 

Not absolutely fantastic specs, but pretty good rigs to stick Linux on n mess about with as media streamer n what not. Unsure on how well they'd do Minecraft mind, like as a server, or if it'd work with Linux. I assume so, it's only Java.

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That one you linked would run a Minecraft server, I'd say. If memory was tight (I don't know what a large server would be like), you'd probably be able to come across some new ram fairly cheap. And you can always squeeze more juice out of the system by turning off non-critical processes and services if it's going to be a dedicated server.

 

If you're installing windows and want to turn off all but the most essential, check out these guides:http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/

Edited by MasterDex
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You should be fine for RAM, unless you plan on having a lot of players. IIRC a Minecraft server requires ~75MB of RAM per active player, so even if you limit the server to 1GB of your 2GB that's still ~13 players simultaneously. Plus RAM is cheap and you could always upgrade if need be.

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So yeah... I might be doing it. I have a feeling the server I setup and let my brother look after might get swarmed by his peeps. Hell, just now I looked and found TEN more people on the player list. That is no place for us. My brother can have that server setup. He just have to be careful on now frying it and have malicious people get into our network too hard.

 

It should be possible to have two of these towers work together, right? If it can I might as well try. At worst right now, it'll be a $25 investment if I get two.

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edit again: though if any of you know why it may have shown up as "no OS found" when I tried to boot it, that would be awesome...

 

I don't know how Chromium handles disk formatting, but this is a general rule of thumb for USB sticks that is often skipped in tutorials. I'm going to assume you're using Windows 7, but most OSes have a way of getting the same results.

  • Open a command shell. (run "cmd")
  • From there, run "diskpart"
  • At the "DISKPART>" prompt, type "list disk"
  • You should be able to tell your flashdrive by size. So where "N" is the right number, type "select disk N". It'll tell you it's selected.
  • Now "list partition" - there is probably only one. Just to be safe, look at the size. It should certainly be on the flashdrive if you selected the right disk. I'm going to assume your OS is on partition 1 for this...
  • "select partition 1"
  • "active"
  • Now type "exit" - you're done!

It is fine to do this with regular-use flashdrives as well - it doesn't really matter if the active partition only has videos and music on it or anything - it'll just fail to boot if you have your PC set to boot flashdrives and reboot with it inserted.

Edited by fuchikoma
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I've got a HDMI supported Monitor/Graphics Card, however when i try to connect the two all that happens is i lose everything on the display baring the desktop wallpaper. No Explorer, no applications, not even a curser. I'm totally lost..

 

Any help?

 

I've got the display working, but now i have no sound.

 

We're good. I've got it working. Feel free to delete this post.

Edited by danielpholt
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  • 1 month later...

I've been watching streams and shows more on my TV while I browse the internet since cable sucks so I've been wondering if a soundcard can allow me to split the audio between my TV and my PC speakers?

It would be great if I can do so without a sound card or whatever but I am having no dice finding a way. It should be possible somehow right? Any of you folks have any experience?

 

How it is configured so far is PC-TV is HDMI via the video card and PC-Speakers is via audio jack.

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I use a Berhinger UFO-202 - it's kind of an odd choice; it's made for ripping records, so it has a phono mode and a grounding screw. But it's cheap, and acts as a simple low-noise USB in/out sound device. It outputs to the headphone jack at the same time as the RCA output, and gives you an RCA line in jack to boot.

 

It's possible you'll find something cheaper with similar abilities without the record stuff, but... it is pretty cheap. The only problem with my config is that I pass my game consoles through it, and if it's not powered by the PC, the sound quality suffers a fair bit. So I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't work too well when it's off.

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Or I guess you could get a stereo audio jack splitter, and a headphone-to-RCA cable if you just straight up want the signal to hit the speakers and the TV at the same time without any volume tweaks.

 

Sadly... I don't know a software means of doing this though - you choose one output source, per program at best, but not multicasting to multiple devices.

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Well, so far with me playing around with it, I got foobar2000 to output to just my speakers while all my other stuff go through my TV. The settings was within foobar. So its a small victory. If I can get this to work with different browser windows or entirely different browser (So say I got a stream going but I want to check out a Youtube video. So stream audio go out my TV but the Youtube video's audio goes out my speakers.), then I think I can win the war. Total victory if I can get this to work somehow with a game. So yeah, like you said fuchikoma, per program.

 

Somehow I feel like this is going to get messy to config if it is even totally possible.

---

Playing around with it with Minecraft and a stream/Youtube. As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be any way to tell where each audio to go to. They just go to to the default.

Edited by MaliciousH
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have two hotmail accounts and I want to read them both at the same time but when I try to add an email account it tells me I'm trying to add another outlook account and that I should link them. I've done this, but all that does is let me switch between the two not show both lots of mail in one inbox but it won't let me add the account, only link it. Anyone know how I can get them both to show at the same time, please?

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So this is a thing that has been bothering me for a while, but why is it Mac vs. PC? Isnt the Mac also a "personal computer"?

That's like saying Sony Trinitron Vs. TV. It's the same shit.

 

Or does the Mac do something to not be a personal computer? The difference as far as I know is the OS(and overall sleek sexy style of Apple products).

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@TFG: Use a client. I use Live Essentials Mail, and it works great with Hotmail/Live accounts (not the new outlook accounts though, and there's no info on their site for the manual entry details).

 

@SL: Cos Apple couldn't come out and say "I'm a Mac and I'm a Windows" because even their lawyers aren't that good. But yes they're both PCs. Pretty much the exact same hardware for a good 6 years or so too. (Used to be PowerPC, like what's under the hood of modern consoles, now on Intel X86 chips). Hence the rise of the "Hacintosh".

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thanks for the suggestions, I've been checking a bit more and for some bizarre reason MS only allow you to add non-hotmail accounts in the way I want, so I'm stuck with the linked option as I don't want to forward or use a client and adding them in to my google email was just a complete mess too.

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I'm much too lazy to try anything too interesting. I guess it just kind of rankles that MS have made this arbitrary decision not to allow it when it is perfectly possible. I'm sure I'll forget about it soon enough though.

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