Random Tech Questions you want answered.

merphle wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Also if they have Amazon prime they already get unlimited full quality photos backup (including raw files if they care about that)

+1 for Amazon Photos. I set my mom up with automated backups for her phone photos & offline digital camera photos (she just has to import them into a specific folder, and it automatically backs them up). As an added bonus, she gets email reminders ("this day in history of your photos...") so she can reminisce, and can then use the Amazon tools to create a short animated video of the photos (slideshow, with music) to share. She loves sharing photos of her grandkids like this. :)

I have Prime and I could add them as users in my Family Vault so they can share my unlimited storage. The main concern I have with Prime Photos is how to get your photos back off of it if you want to also back them up on a hard drive or you want to stop paying for Prime and get all your stuff off first. Reading through their FAQ it seems you have to select photos in the app/webpage one at a time and then download. There isn't an option to download an entire album or all your photos at once. I'm going to try installing the desktop app and see if that just syncs all the photos to a local drive for easy backup. Anyone have experience with the desktop app and tried this?

PaladinTom wrote:

Once you get them sorted, I would sign them up for Google Photos. You get free "unlimited" photo uploads. I install it for all of my family.

That one has been recommended to me a few times but always with the caveat "but they drop the quality on uploads". I should take a closer look.

pandasuit wrote:
merphle wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Also if they have Amazon prime they already get unlimited full quality photos backup (including raw files if they care about that)

+1 for Amazon Photos. I set my mom up with automated backups for her phone photos & offline digital camera photos (she just has to import them into a specific folder, and it automatically backs them up). As an added bonus, she gets email reminders ("this day in history of your photos...") so she can reminisce, and can then use the Amazon tools to create a short animated video of the photos (slideshow, with music) to share. She loves sharing photos of her grandkids like this. :)

I have Prime and I could add them as users in my Family Vault so they can share my unlimited storage. The main concern I have with Prime Photos is how to get your photos back off of it if you want to also back them up on a hard drive or you want to stop paying for Prime and get all your stuff off first. Reading through their FAQ it seems you have to select photos in the app/webpage one at a time and then download. There isn't an option to download an entire album or all your photos at once. I'm going to try installing the desktop app and see if that just syncs all the photos to a local drive for easy backup. Anyone have experience with the desktop app and tried this?

I have my mom using the iPhone app as well as the Windows app. This way she can sync everything from her phone to the Amazon cloud, and everything that she imports from a camera SD card (to a specific directory) also to the Amazon cloud. Everything she uploads from either place is synced back down to her laptop in the Amazon Photos directory - and is visible on her iPhone, iPad, etc.

Panda you can also go to https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive and access the photos that way. They'll be in your "Pictures" folder, and you can just click the entire folder to download them all at once.

edit: scratch that--you can download up to 5gb of photos at a time from that site, which isn't very useful. Per Merphle's not, using the Amazon Photos or Drive app lets you access them all much more easily.

merphle wrote:
pandasuit wrote:
merphle wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Also if they have Amazon prime they already get unlimited full quality photos backup (including raw files if they care about that)

+1 for Amazon Photos. I set my mom up with automated backups for her phone photos & offline digital camera photos (she just has to import them into a specific folder, and it automatically backs them up). As an added bonus, she gets email reminders ("this day in history of your photos...") so she can reminisce, and can then use the Amazon tools to create a short animated video of the photos (slideshow, with music) to share. She loves sharing photos of her grandkids like this. :)

I have Prime and I could add them as users in my Family Vault so they can share my unlimited storage. The main concern I have with Prime Photos is how to get your photos back off of it if you want to also back them up on a hard drive or you want to stop paying for Prime and get all your stuff off first. Reading through their FAQ it seems you have to select photos in the app/webpage one at a time and then download. There isn't an option to download an entire album or all your photos at once. I'm going to try installing the desktop app and see if that just syncs all the photos to a local drive for easy backup. Anyone have experience with the desktop app and tried this?

I have my mom using the iPhone app as well as the Windows app. This way she can sync everything from her phone to the Amazon cloud, and everything that she imports from a camera SD card (to a specific directory) also to the Amazon cloud. Everything she uploads from either place is synced back down to her laptop in the Amazon Photos directory - and is visible on her iPhone, iPad, etc.

That is awesome thanks! I'll definitely give this a try.

So our neighbours asked me for advice on a gaming rig. First on a desktop rig, which I got covered, but now they'll be getting a PS5 and a gaming laptop. This because it's for their son. He's on the spectrum and is in a boarding school since September. After some adjustment he's doing great there (to immense relief of his parents), but they would like to get him a budget gaming laptop to zone out a bit when he needs it. The only requirement? It needs to play Fortnite.

I would be aiming at a gaming laptop with full HD resolution, a 512GB SSD, at least 8 but preferably 16GB RAM, and a decent enough CPU. But my question is: What videocard should I be aiming for? The minimum should be 60fps on medium in Fortnite in Full HD.

I wasn't given an exact budget, but it's probably going to be around 700/800EUR.

edit: nevermind! I'm going to sell my gaming laptop for a soft price, it's good enough for my neighbor's Fortnite needs and than his parents won't have to stress as much about potential damage during travel

Morning all... PC new build question incoming. Well, mostly new build, I'm keeping my 1070 GTX to keep costs down but everything else is new.

I'm going for a Ryzen 3600x and B550 motherboard, and I'm pretty much decided on all the parts except for the case. I've bought an NZXT H510 after strong reviews, but am a little concerned about temps. The front panel is completely solid, no mesh, but there is a mesh strip to the side about an inch or two thick. There's rooms to insert fans (which don't come with the case), but I wonder if it's worth it - I don't see how they could suck in enough air. The case comes with a fan on the top of the case and one on the back, but not being an experienced builder I couldn't tell you if they are intake or exhaust fans.

Does anyone have experience of cases like these? I'm only planning on using the stock cooler that comes with the Ryzen 3600x, but I wonder if that means I might need to change my case plans.

Cheers.

I think the idea is to create positive pressure, but only slightly, in your case. This is done by having more intake fans, than exhaust. If you don't have enough intake fans, your exhaust fans will pull air from any crack or crevice in your case it can.

I usually pick cases that have one or two intake fans in the front, and one exhaust fan in the back.

You want intake to be from the front and/or the bottom of the case. You want exhaust to be in the back or the top.

Even if you don't have as many intake fans, those exhaust fans WILL pull a lot of air from the vents/mesh.

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/smart...'t%20have%20air%20filters.

https://www.howtogeek.com/303078/how...

The "help me build a PC" thread stickied at the top is probably the best place to get answers. I do agree you want at least one fan at the front of the PC, and the fan at the top is for exhaust, not intake.

At that price point, I'd go for something like the Phanteks P400a. Same number of fans but much better airflow. You might be after the aesthetic of the NZXT case though and I doubt it'll perform any different, though it may be a bit louder and may also limit your upgrade options in the future.

Thanks all. Can anyone recommend a good tool for monitoring CPU and GPU temps during gameplay?

I will be downloading a fairly large (60GB) game patch on Monday starting at noonish. How can I set up my PC or router so that bandwidth is left for the rest of the house?

What is the make/model number of your router?

-BEP

Netgear Nighthawk R7000

How are you downloading it? I think all the main game store apps (steam, epic, uplay..) have max bandwidth settings.

If it's via browser, Chrome has a throttle setting for web developers to simulate slow downloads, which I imagine would work. You set it by doing: Chrome > three-dots-button > More Tools > Developer Tools > three-dots-button > More Tools > Settings > Throttling.

I think this is what you want. I have the same router but never used the feature so I don't know how well it will work.

https://kb.netgear.com/24299/How-do-...

Or yeah, steam or whatever might also have a setting that you can turn on to restrict download bandwith.

That's right. I am updating Destiny 2 through Steam. Problem solved! Thanks!

strangederby wrote:

How do I get BB code from imgur? There used to be an option to copy a BB link but that seems to have gone.

Now when I try to paste an image on a forum it just does something like this...IMAGE(My little mushroom grove https://imgur.com/gallery/9oanLAS)

IMAGE(https://imgur.com/gallery/9oanLAS)

Since I didn't see anyone actually answer your question:
On a desktop browser, left click the three dots in the upper right of an uploaded image and then 'get share links' and the BB code option is the third option there.

kergguz wrote:

Thanks all. Can anyone recommend a good tool for monitoring CPU and GPU temps during gameplay?

MSI Afterburner. Does not require any MSI parts to work. It will want to install something extra with it, Riva Tuner or something like that.

Speccy?

Sorry. Me again. Anyone know how to make imgur posts public? My photos are automatically flagged as private when I upload them and when I try to make them public I get a failed to upload message.

strangederby wrote:

Sorry. Me again. Anyone know how to make imgur posts public? My photos are automatically flagged as private when I upload them and when I try to make them public I get a failed to upload message.

It is probably not you. imgur has been having issues the past few days. There is something going on it their community that might have resulted in DDoS attacks (I don't know that this is the case but it make sense).

strangederby wrote:

Sorry. Me again. Anyone know how to make imgur posts public? My photos are automatically flagged as private when I upload them and when I try to make them public I get a failed to upload message.

Hidden is the default, and doesn't require an account. Hidden images and albums can still be shared with the link, they just aren't posted to the imgur community at large. Public requires an account and a post title. I don't think there are any other requirements.

Hmm I'm using the app and it looks like I'm logged in.

Meh, nvm

Any recommendations for wifi repeaters?

I have made use of a TP-Link AC750 Wifi Range Extender for around three years now and I have never even had to power cycle it. I have used it mainly as a bridge device with a switch plugged into it so I can connect devices with no wifi built in to my network. There are AC1200 and AC1750 versions available if you need/want higher speeds as well as a Wifi 6 version.

Rykin wrote:

I have made use of a TP-Link AC750 Wifi Range Extender for around three years now and I have never even had to power cycle it. I have used it mainly as a bridge device with a switch plugged into it so I can connect devices with no wifi built in to my network. There are AC1200 and AC1750 versions available if you need/want higher speeds as well as a Wifi 6 version.

Same here. These work very well for areas that need a little extra help on your network. There's no need to manage it, as devices still use your network's existing router/DHCP/etc.

Thanks! I like being able to say "Mesh network" too.

No extender but I love my tp-link router. So those are probably good too

There are also programs that turn your computer into a repeater