Random Question Thread: Tech

[TacoTaru]

Is there a way to visualize what your HDD is being spent on? My free space quickly has been eaten up by Steam, but I'm not entirely sure what the rest is being taken up by. I essentially have nothing more than what I did on my old computer which had only 30gb of free space and yet I'm taking up almost 150gb now with I'm not sure what.

[Caiyuo]

Is there a way to visualize what your HDD is being spent on? My free space quickly has been eaten up by Steam, but I'm not entirely sure what the rest is being taken up by. I essentially have nothing more than what I did on my old computer which had only 30gb of free space and yet I'm taking up almost 150gb now with I'm not sure what.

you'll love this: http://windirstat.info/

if the colored visualization blocks are more detailed than you're looking for, the upper pane also lists all the folders in order of size they contain, and also highlight those folders in the visualizations too.

[TacoTaru]

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, the end result is what I didn't want to know and that my Windows and co is taking up about a third of my drive. That being said, my D: drive has 136GB free space. Is there anyway to access this drive to maybe put all of my steam shit on that instead? I'm not really sure what the drive is for, but 136GB would at least buy me some time until I can get an external

[Caiyuo]

well, I don't know the technical details of what it'd entail but I think you could reinstall steam and therefore the games to that secondary hard drive, but it might not be worth it if it means having to re-download everything again instead of just being able to move it. Unless the only thing you can think to move is steam stuff it might be better to look at specifically what non-steam stuff is taking up so much space and moving that instead. I've had to do that before with things like music and media/video collections before and that's usually just a case of telling your media player where to find your stuff again.

[Kerberoz]

Hard drives are cheap.

[TacoTaru]

Yeah, I'm going to get a 1TB external, but until I start my full time hours, I'm currently broke. Any good places to look for cheap computer parts other than Newegg? That's where I was going to get my external, but if there's any place better/cheaper I'm all ears. Also, any brands I should avoid when shopping around for one?

[Kerberoz]

Check http://slickdeals.net/ occasionally, they tend to have lots of HDD sales listed. WD are good, but avoid the Green line unless you're only going to use it for storage. Seagate had a certain model line around a year ago that were mostly defective, but afaik it was a one-time incident. Just read reviews; most perform pretty much equally. Amazon is often cheaper than Newegg, but they use UPS, which I don't really trust with anything breakable (or anything living but that's a different forum). There's also the option to just buy an external enclosure and a normal internal drive.

[Isiolia]

well, I don't know the technical details of what it'd entail but I think you could reinstall steam and therefore the games to that secondary hard drive, but it might not be worth it if it means having to re-download everything again instead of just being able to move it.

It involves putting your steamapps folder and Steam.exe in your desired home for Steam and running Steam.exe from there. It has to reverify packages, but not redownload them. As per this.

That said, USB is a comparably slow interface, so it'd be preferable to move music/video/etc to a USB drive over applications, if that's an option.

[Me2217]

Anyone have any suggestions for a keyboard/mouse set for ~£100? Looking to spend more on the keyboard than the mouse, but I'm not a good judge in what kind of thing is good and whats not, so any help is appreciated.

[Mellema]

Anyone have any suggestions for a keyboard/mouse set for ~£100? Looking to spend more on the keyboard than the mouse, but I'm not a good judge in what kind of thing is good and whats not, so any help is appreciated.

Are you looking for a gaming set up or just something comfortable for working?

Here's a thread on mouse advice, one on keyboards, and this thread is more about gaming mice.

[Me2217]

Are you looking for a gaming set up or just something comfortable for working?

Here's a thread on mouse advice, one on keyboards, and this thread is more about gaming mice.

It'll be a Gaming mouse/keyboard, i'll check the threads though, thanks~.

[Purrrfect]

It involves putting your steamapps folder and Steam.exe in your desired home for Steam and running Steam.exe from there. It has to reverify packages, but not redownload them. As per this.

That said, USB is a comparably slow interface, so it'd be preferable to move music/video/etc to a USB drive over applications, if that's an option.

Woo, thanks for that little gem.^

[Kipling]

My current OS is a torrented version of Windows 7 Ultimate. If I were to attempt to save money while building my PC, could I use a torrented version on my new build? When I did it for this PC, I just formatted the .iso on my 8gb usb stick and it was easy. Just wondering if I'd run into any problems doing it on a brand new system. Could I do this for a new system, or would I need to burn the disc image onto a DVD? I looked into doing the discounted Windows 7 for students, and while I am eligible my research says it won't really work as it is an upgrade only.

[Kerberoz]

I'm assuming you used some shady "custom" pirated version, or you wouldn't be asking.

go read
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...s-7-Repository

and pirate it correctly.

[Kipling]

That's what I used?

[Kipling]

So I assume It's just fine if I burn it then? Just wanted to make sure, and this is the random question thread (Unless I misunderstand the rules of the thread.)

[Overburn]

I recently set up my new computer and used that guide. Just burned it to a DVD from my laptop, installed it and used the loader. It's hardly noticeable of any extra load time and it is marked as genuine when I checked.

I'm not really sure if that answers your question (seems like you know the answer, unless I'm missreading it), but hope it did.

[Kipling]

I recently set up my new computer and used that guide. Just burned it to a DVD from my laptop, installed it and used the loader. It's hardly noticeable of any extra load time and it is marked as genuine when I checked.

I'm not really sure if that answers your question (seems like you know the answer, unless I'm missreading it), but hope it did.

Yep, sure does. I just didn't to roll the dice without affirmation.

[Jaybar]

Reposting from the laptop thread since the question I would like answered is more relevant here (see: bolded) -

Hey guys, I'm researching laptops that will run Autodesk programs (as well as gaming, but primarily Autodesk programs such as Revit, 3dsMax, Maya, etc).

From what I've found, Autodesk recommends workstations (in my case, a mobile workstation due to school requirement of a laptop). Obviously workstation gpus are very pricey (Quadro, FireGL) and I was only able to find a few from Dell and Lenovo which are way out of my price range. I'm trying to stay under $2000.

So I thought I'd try to see how a gaming consumer card would work. I've been eyeing the ASUS G73-XT1 for some time, which runs a GeForce GTX 460M. I was wondering what your opinions are on running a consumer gpu for Autodesk programs. Does anyone have any experience with it? I haven't seen much floating around since it's a relatively new series, and Autodesk is a generation behind on "certifying" gaming cards.

Would a 512mb workstation card outperform a 1.5gb gaming card when it comes to 3D programs such as Maya or Revit?

[SephYuyX]

Firstly, when you say workstation, most people will automatically assume youre talking about junky PCs data entry people use.

Secondly, if youre looking to buy a Dell (fuck Lenovo, seriously, I hate IBM PC/laptops with a passion, theyre such a mess) and wanting to spend any more than $800, look else where. Around the the $1k area you can get a much better PC by building. Dell is kick ass if youre looking to buy a decent $3~600 PC for daily use, but not so much at higher prices.

Thirdly, It just depends on what the cards are. Can a 512 beat a 1.5? Sure, depending on which cards they are.

Fourthly, If youre planning around the $2k mark.. you can build one hell of a top of the line PC with that. Dual GPU, SSDs, etc. $2k is over kill.