Tech help requested

[jimmyyy]

As my kids get older they seem to be spending more and more time on my PC.  Most of the time they are playing roblox, or Fortnite.  Son is 11, daughter is 7.  My question is I am thinking its time for them to have a PC to share.  Can anyone give me some information on what type of PC i should buy for them.  I guess I could build it, i built mine.  Here is what I have below.  I don't know if they need all this or not.  A friend spec'd this machine out for me and we built it here at the house with parts from online shops.  Built it 3 years ago.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated. 

 

I5 6550

8 GB RAM

750 TI Graphics

SSD and 2 mech drives

 

[Crossy]

What I would do is build MYSELF a new machine (best spec. in budget) and then donate the existing unit to the kids after a full clean up and probably removing excess drives.

 

[jimmyyy]

budget is around 30,000 Baht.  I can remove the one drive i store my stuff on and put it in the new machine.  Crossy what would you suggest for 30K Bahtski.  I might be able to push it to 35K, but that would be max.

[mikebike]

I’d start with something like this...

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/cpu-amd-ryzen-7-2700x-processor-8c16t-37ghz-am4-i122593731-s127975420.html?spm=a2o4m.pdp.recommendation_2.3.3dc637dfUxP9KJ&mp=1&clickTrackInfo=2c2ac032-bc82-4dcf-97da-92bc64f601e2__122593731__3926__cate__124582__0.535703__0.535703__0.0__0.535703__0.0069099995__0.735703__2__1__PDPV2V__244__null__22__0__&scm=1007.16389.126158.0

[KneeDeep]

Have a look here for suggestions; https://pcpartpicker.com

[cheeryble]

_{Like Crossy said}

[killerbeez]

For 30K you can build an awesome machine that will last for ages.

 

Let me know if you want me to price one out for you.

[kekalot]

I support the build yourself a new one and give that one to them initiative.

[jimmyyy]

I think that is the route i am going to go with.  I get new they get a system that works well for there use.  Off to part picker to see what i can come up with for 900 bucks. 

[tutsiwarrior]

the kids in my house (boy 10, girl 7) use cheap (<thb4000) telephones/tablets for their purposes and are happy with the arrangement, no need to share, etc...may not be suitable for big games requiring a more elaborate spec...

 

 

 

[wgdanson]

8 hours ago, jimmyyy said:

budget is around 30,000 Baht.  I can remove the one drive i store my stuff on and put it in the new machine.  Crossy what would you suggest for 30K Bahtski.  I might be able to push it to 35K, but that would be max.

Why do you store your One Drive data locally. You can have it all up there and simply download what you want, when you want to wherever you want. OK, you may have to pay for extra storage, but it's not expensive.

[killerbeez]

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

You can have it all up there...

I don't trust 'cloud storage'. Best to have everything at your fingertips... and storage is so cheap, why not?

[wgdanson]

19 minutes ago, killerbeez said:

I don't trust 'cloud storage'. Best to have everything at your fingertips... and storage is so cheap, why not?

Belt & aces, do both. And a back-up too.

Especially for all those 20 year old photos you never look at, all the millions of songs you will not listen to, and the movies you can torrent anytime.    LOL

[VBF]

7 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Belt & aces, do both. And a back-up too.

Especially for all those 20 year old photos you never look at, all the millions of songs you will not listen to, and the movies you can torrent anytime.    LOL

You can laugh mate...but that's what i do - and have 4 copies of my music collection! ????

It's OK....OCD isn't catching! ????

[killerbeez]

11 hours ago, VBF said:

You can laugh mate...but that's what i do - and have 4 copies of my music collection!

Same here. I just sent an 8TB drive to the UK for my brother to look after!

My collection took a long time to build and it's worth protecting.

[VBF]

1 minute ago, killerbeez said:

Same here. I just sent an 8TB drive to the UK for my brother to look after!

My collection took a long time to build and it's worth protecting.

Same here - some of it I've had for 40 years and no longer have the original vinyl - there are even some 78s that I've remastered ????

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, killerbeez said:

Same here. I just sent an 8TB drive to the UK for my brother to look after!

My collection took a long time to build and it's worth protecting.

And how often do you listen to most of that 8 TB? 

Why did you not put it all up in the cloud, and your brother download it onto, if necessary, a disc drive?

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, VBF said:

Same here - some of it I've had for 40 years and no longer have the original vinyl - there are even some 78s that I've remastered ????

Only 40 years. Surely the stuff 're-mastered' or even 're-mixed' by experts and then downloaded as flac files must be better than your attempts at remastering, or digitising your old 78s.

And of course, if you are over a certain age, your hi frequency hearing deteriorates drastically, anything over about 12kHz is probably inaudible to a 60 year old.

[VBF]

47 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Only 40 years. Surely the stuff 're-mastered' or even 're-mixed' by experts and then downloaded as flac files must be better than your attempts at remastering, or digitising your old 78s.

The 40 years is the time I've had the material - not necessarily its age!

Some of it dates from the 1920s so is nearly 100 years old!

 

As for my "attempts" at remastering - despite me being a "hobby" sound archivist the old friend who taught me to remaster is actually one of UK's top professional remastering engineers and he appreciates my output as being rather good - might sound conceited but he does 

The remastering is where the skill lies - were I to do a 60s LP in good condition, I'd look at spending a weekend at least - older, less well-kept material takes proportionally longer. Some of the 78s were first recorded to tape for me because i didn't have a suitable record deck on which to play them. I then processed and digitised the tapes.

The digitising is actually easy - bung the processed Wave file into convertor software, have a coffee while it does its stuff.   It's a labour of love for me, being the Geek that I am.

 

Also it's worth mentioning that I started doing this long before the proliferation of music on the 'net - some of my early efforts have indeed been replaced by better downloads - I'm certainly not too proud to appreciate my shortcoming - I just want the "closest approach to the original sound"

(Guess where that phrase originated. ????)

 

So yes, some of the downloaded FLACs are better...however some of my remastering is better than what's on the web - maybe I was lucky enough to start with better source material. After all, sometimes it's amateurs like me who put the FLACs on the web in the first place - some are better than mine but some are not.

 

And, of course, there is still some material that isn't available on the web even now and for all i know might never be.

 

Time for some Jazz, I think ????????

 

UPDATE as we cross-posted - last time I checked, I was hearing 14.7Khz at better than -3dB. Sadly, when I was 17 years old it was nearer 18K - yes I know i'm lucky

[wgdanson]

6 hours ago, VBF said:

The 40 years is the time I've had the material - not necessarily its age!

Some of it dates from the 1920s so is nearly 100 years old!

 

As for my "attempts" at remastering - despite me being a "hobby" sound archivist the old friend who taught me to remaster is actually one of UK's top professional remastering engineers and he appreciates my output as being rather good - might sound conceited but he does 

The remastering is where the skill lies - were I to do a 60s LP in good condition, I'd look at spending a weekend at least - older, less well-kept material takes proportionally longer. Some of the 78s were first recorded to tape for me because i didn't have a suitable record deck on which to play them. I then processed and digitised the tapes.

The digitising is actually easy - bung the processed Wave file into convertor software, have a coffee while it does its stuff.   It's a labour of love for me, being the Geek that I am.

 

Also it's worth mentioning that I started doing this long before the proliferation of music on the 'net - some of my early efforts have indeed been replaced by better downloads - I'm certainly not too proud to appreciate my shortcoming - I just want the "closest approach to the original sound"

(Guess where that phrase originated. ????)

 

So yes, some of the downloaded FLACs are better...however some of my remastering is better than what's on the web - maybe I was lucky enough to start with better source material. After all, sometimes it's amateurs like me who put the FLACs on the web in the first place - some are better than mine but some are not.

 

And, of course, there is still some material that isn't available on the web even now and for all i know might never be.

 

Time for some Jazz, I think ????????

 

UPDATE as we cross-posted - last time I checked, I was hearing 14.7Khz at better than -3dB. Sadly, when I was 17 years old it was nearer 18K - yes I know i'm lucky

Great reply thanks. But of course, YOU are remastering 'mastered' tracks, you cannot 'un-master' them first.

What software do you use for your remastering please?

[VBF]

25 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Great reply thanks. But of course, YOU are remastering 'mastered' tracks, you cannot 'un-master' them first.

What software do you use for your remastering please?

True...but you work with what you've got available...but wait...THAT's why it's called REmastering isn't it? ????  

S/W...you're gonna love this......

 

A flat file program introduced in 2013 (the days of Windows 98!) called Wave Repair.  (link)

AFAIK it's no longer available - hasn't been supported since XP so to use it on Windows 10 requires a certain amount of "persuasion" ie you have to fiddle with INI files (remember them?) and run it as an Administrator - told you I was a Geek. 

 

To digitise I use Easy CD-DA Extractor from https://www.poikosoft.com/ Looking at that website, I don't think it's available now either!

They seem to have split the various functions out but for this one only needs the File Format Converter anyway.

 

Oh and I use a Creative Soundblaster card fed from a Quad 44 preamp and the cables are all well screened with a single earth point

 

So there you have it: vintage software, and hardware for vintage music operated by a geezer with vintage ears!      But it works!

[wgdanson]

4 hours ago, VBF said:

True...but you work with what you've got available...but wait...THAT's why it's called REmastering isn't it? ????  

S/W...you're gonna love this......

 

A flat file program introduced in 2013 (the days of Windows 98!) called Wave Repair.  (link)

AFAIK it's no longer available - hasn't been supported since XP so to use it on Windows 10 requires a certain amount of "persuasion" ie you have to fiddle with INI files (remember them?) and run it as an Administrator - told you I was a Geek. 

 

To digitise I use Easy CD-DA Extractor from https://www.poikosoft.com/ Looking at that website, I don't think it's available now either!

They seem to have split the various functions out but for this one only needs the File Format Converter anyway.

 

Oh and I use a Creative Soundblaster card fed from a Quad 44 preamp and the cables are all well screened with a single earth point

 

So there you have it: vintage software, and hardware for vintage music operated by a geezer with vintage ears!      But it works!

Great. I also use a Soundblaster ZXR soundcard, into a pair of M Audio BX 8s or some Paradigm 20s/Arcam Alpha 8R amp through a DXB compressor/EQ unit.

Audacity is OK, but I use Cakewalk Platinum with Wave's Abbey Road plug-in suite.

Extract audio from CDs and use VLC for any conversion.

Good to chat with you. Cheers.