Lurker > PraetorXyn

Rob_the_Ninja posted...

Isn't it due to AI companies hoarding them?

They arent hoarding anything, theyre booking capacity at Hynix and Samsung for RAM that isnt made yet, which means less RAM is being made for everyone else.

St0rmFury posted...

Isn't 16gb more than enough for most users?

Not on Windows. I wouldnt even do 32 in 2025.

Lonestar2000 posted...

Yeah, I maxed out the RAM on my computers last year because I knew this was going to happen.

I put 96 GB single rank in my new build in June, but mainly because I was tired of browser tabs crashing with 32 GB and 4 sticks looks better than two.

Its because all the allocation is going to ECC system RAM and VRAM for AI racks, so theres just much less of it to go around for everything else.

37

Eventually. Still havent even gotten to 3. Adulting sucks.

Cheater87 posted...

No, I'm listening to it again, on book 3.

It pisses me off that we cant get the Stephen Fry narration here legitimately.

No. When I read the first 4K I was grounded and that was all I was allowed to do. I loved them.

Moreover, reading HP is why I started reading HP fan fiction around 2017-2018, and I like a lot of that more than the actual books.

Soundtrack is great. Ive not played it because most of the things I hear about it dont appeal to me.

For example, I like to grind and in CC you cant. In fact, it sounds like the way they set the game up made every non-boss fight completely pointless.

I always hate 3-character parties, but why the fuck would you have a Suikoden-sized cast with a 3 character party? It also sounds like they did a piss poor job compared to Suikoden character wise.

The story is reputedly crap (many people are even saying so in this thread).

Just seems like Im better off listening to the soundtrack.

pegusus123456 posted...

Yeah, I think the equivalent to a "jump scare" is the Wham Line trope.

And it's funny to see someone already mention a Stephen King book because the one that immediately sprung to mind is in Pet Sematary.

This is the first time the book ever tells you Gage is going to die and it's in a very loving, father-son scene where Louis is teaching Gage how to fly a kite, going into detail about the wonder on Gage's face and the sheer loving joy each of them have.

I am a massive King fan but its kind of baffling that he does this all the time. Hell just throw something like Ut would be the last time X at the end of something for no reason at all.

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

That mobo supposedly does which is why I do have it. I've been getting mixed signals on ECC everywhere, everything ranging from a waste of money to you might as well be juggling chainsaws if you don't. I'll probably end up getting it, just with less overall capacity to start. From what I'm reading 32GB for a machine that is 95% going to be used for just Plex is plenty.

The HDD's are tricky. I've heard the enterprise drives are incredibly loud, and I'm in a studio, so noise is a concern for me.

for OS I'm looking at HexOS. I don't mind learning TrueNAS but I like the idea of easing into it that Hex could provide by handling most of it.

It depends on what youre doing. You can run Plex and a couple dozen other services on 4 GB RAM. But ZFS (and thus TrueNAS or HexOS) really likes RAM for caching and performance. The more the better for a ZFS storage server, as ZFS will gobble up all the RAM you let it, basically. ECC will always be better than not for a file server if you care about your data, but ZFS can recover from bitflips by itself supposedly. To me, the extra cost for ECC over non-ECC is negligible in the total cost of a server build, so I would always go that route.

IMO HexOS is not ready for prime time, and no where near worth its cost. Id go with TrueNAS and just learn it, youll be much better off. At the moment, as far as Im aware, HexOs has no local management, so if your internet is down, youd have to manage it through the TrueNAS interface anyway.

You also want to consider out-of-band management. If something goes catastrophically wrong, you really dont want to have to unplug the server, tote it over to a desk, plug it up to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, to try and troubleshoot. Proper server motherboards will have IPMI for this purpose, but these days there are a number of devices you can use for IP KVM. I use a JetKVM for this with my Proxmox server. This lets me put the JetKVMs Ip address into my browser, and I get host display from the Proxmox box, so I could troubleshoot and control it from my desktop across my network. A must have IMO.

I will level with you about noise, as I hate noise too. When I bought my Synology NAS, I went with 12 TB WD Red (non Pro) drives as theyre 5400 RPM and thus quieter. The first couple of weeks I had it, it drove me fucking bonkers anyway, because when you first get it, the drives are going to be spinning as it runs S.M.A.R.T. tests and builds your storage pool(s) etc. It is probably going to annoy you whatever drives you get.

Plex by default does deep media analysis, where it will basically scan every media file you have to figure out when the intro ends (thats how the Skip Intro button works), when the credits start (thats when it pops up the Next Episode button), what the codec is, etc., etc. It depends on how much media you have, but this takes basically all day with my collection, while Emby and Jellyfin will scan everything in 15-20 minutes. The drives will annoy you while Plex is doing its scan.

To help with noise, I highly suggest getting 4 pads like these:
Diversitech MP4-E E.V.A. Anti-Vibration Pad, 4" x 4" x 7/8" Pack of 4 https://a.co/d/fM13e0P

Sit your NAS on top of those, balanced, and they will keep it from vibrating whatever you have it sitting on when the drives spin. This will help a lot.

The rest of it just comes with time. Over time, the drives will rarely spin, and when they do, it will bother you a lot less, you just kind of learn to tune out that frequency I suppose,

The reason you want to get Pro or Enterprise drives is because the warranty will be 5 years instead of 3. Thats worth a little extra noise given all Ive outlined above.

When the drives arent spinning, the system should be dead silent unless youve got it mining crypto or something.

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

Honestly, most expensive part of it is the storage. If you aren't compressing them, they take up a lot of of space because of how high the bit rate is. My rip for The Batman is something like 75GB. Season 1 of Arcane is 240GB (absolutely insane bitrate on that one in particular)

You just have to pay attention to deals. Especially this time of year. Here are some of my recent purchases

4K
Arcane Season 1: $23
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem: $15
Raiders of the Lost Ark: $15
Star TreK: First Contact: $15
DND: Honor Among Thieves: $15
Last Night in Soho: $10
Get Out: $10
Puss In Boots 2: $10
Jurassic World: $10
How to Train your Dragon 2: $10
How to Train your Dragon 3: $10
Space Balls: $17
Violent Night $12
Galaxy Quest: $13

Blu Ray
Oblivion $8
Farscape complete series with Peace Keeper wars: $120

Amazon usually has some good deals going

GRUV is a fantastic resource. Official joint venture storefront for physical media for WB and Universal and they run frequent deals such as the 3 for 30 that was the source of those $10 ones above. They have 20% off first purchase with as far as I know no limits. I used it to get Fringe Complete Series for $50.

Actually looking to set up a NAS over black Friday to get this separated from my PC
This is what I got so far
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BpgMzP

Price isn't super accurate since I'm sure there will be sales, and those drives aren't an exact match for the ones I'm looking at.

I would advise getting ECC memory and a motherboard that supports it if you can (that one may, but its motherboard dependent).

Id also advise Seagate Iron Wolf Pro or Exos drives over WD anything. The only drive failure Ive ever had was a WD Red 12 TB drive, that failed like a month after the warranty ran out.

Id go with TrueNAS for the OS. ZFS is indispensable for data integrity, so my next NAS will definitely be that. I prefer to keep services and storage separate, so I use Proxmox for that. If you wanted to do only one device, Id put Proxmox on it, connect the drives to a LSI HBA flashed for ZFS, and pass the HBA through to a TrueNAS VM.

MarshMellow posted...

The price creep is why I got rid of all streaming services except Prime, and I'd like to cut that too now that it has ads. Might as well get used to shit like Pluto and Tubi and not pay for anything but their ads as so long.

I did the same, but I keep Prime for the free fast shipping, I never had it for video in the first place. I can confirm that if you watch in a browser with uBlock Origin you wont see ads.

I did resubscriibe to Metflix a few months ago though for things that are only on there, and Im enjoying it for now. Happy Gilmore 2 was great relative to my expectations, Wednesday season 2 was OK, Dark is an absolute masterpiece, and Im loving Peaky Blinders so far.

CRON posted...

I always wanted to get into this but it seems so daunting and it's frustrating how expensive and difficult a lot of shows on Blu Ray are.

Setting up the media server itself is very trivial. I could share Docker Compose snippets with you if you want, if youve got something you can use as a server. I run my services in a Proxmox VM, and they access the media via NFS from the NAS.

The media ripping itself is also relatively painless. The problem is sorting out the rip.

This part is also very subjective, as it depends on what you want to keep:

• Main feature (this is a given, but sometimes there will be both a Theatrical and Directors Cut or Unrated version on the same disc, and you have to decide if you want to keep both or which one. If you keep both, the media server will let you select which format to watch. You need to name the movie or TV episodes appropriately and put them in the right folders. Filebot is a big help for this with TV shows.).
• Special features (This is the most tedious, as you basically have to play the disc and note down what all the special features are, then figure out which file is which and name them accordingly, put them in the right subfolders like behind the scenes, featurettes, extras, etc. Also, Emby and Jellyfin support seasonal features but Plex doesnt, so if you have extras for Season 3 of a show from the season 3 Blu-Rays, Plex probably wont see them unless you just put them under the main show folder itself).
• Trailers (Kind of the same deal as the special features, but they all go in the trailers subfolder).

So it kind of depends on you. If you only care about the main movie or show, its pretty easy to identify and rename things appropriately, then throw away everything else. If you want to keep all the special features etc. for a full replica of whats on the discs, its a tedious process, but once youve done it for a while it doesnt take TOO long.

chris1001_the_sequel posted...

Max keeps increasing the price while decreasing value by removing content.

Streaming has become everything that cable was that was supposed to make streaming better.

I've been moving back to physical, and ripping everything I buy and putting it on Plex. It's so awesome. I've bought more movies and shows over the past year than the previous 5 years combined. It's mine, I own it, can watch it at my leisure, and the quality is much better than streaming.

This. I do the same, but I run Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin all three, pointed at the same media library so I can compare.

I dont pay for it, but I was expecting the increase to be $5.

i completely agree, because 1 didnt make everything glacially slow and tedious in the name of realism.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Honestly considering the drama, I was expecting worse

I don't even think you can get the unpatched version anymore unless you hunt down a phyiscal CD.

The GOG and Steam versions are patched by default.

I know this for a fact because there are lot of awesome mods throughout the years but a lot of them don't work on the various patched verisons of the game. Which super duper sucks.

I dont think that was the case back then at least. Maybe they had a version of the unofficial patch, but not the latest one. It was updated this month, so I dont see why theyd do that if you couldnt use it.
https://www.moddb.com/mods/vtmb-unofficial-patch

creativerealms posted...

Wasn't the original not very good and just became a cult classic over time?

Not at all. The launch state was supposedly bugged, but theres an unofficial fan patch to fix bugs and restore cut content.

I played it for the first time ever in 2016 with the unofficial patch, and its one of the best RPGs Ive ever played.

Tactics, 6, and 9.

K181 posted...

My hot take is that VI and IX are the only great games in the series.

Thats not much of a hot take. They are certainly the best ones.

apolloooo posted...

67 is beyond my expectations lol, i'd expect something below 50.

This. Its a shame considering how good the first gameplay footage was before Paradox got involved.

What burns my ass about it is that my friend pre ordered me a GOG copy for my birthday at that time and now I doubt he can get his money back and I cant transfer it to Steam.

Not the same song, but Jennifer Haben.
https://youtu.be/9FBZ33J0GWk?si=uTJpMCFHrt_MMgGn

I dont remember when it was, but when I got a new laptop. Before that, it was because I had to print a 30 page form, scan it, and send it back, and thanks just way easier at the office.

DragulaRULEZ posted...

How do people buy Anime and not go broke? It's like $60-$70 for one normal season with a maximum of four commentaries (usually nothing). All other forms of series have gotten their DVDs/Blurays down a lot from like 2010. It went from around $50-$60 to $15-$20. Anime hasn't budged.

Being selective mostly. Ive been buying all the stuff I had collected and still had, which isnt a huge list.

But I mostly stick to buying short series, with a couple 70-ish episode series. Id never buy a long running shnen.

I think anime prices are what they are for historical reasons though. Anime home releases basically became a collectors item from the outset, and theyve kept prices high to not piss off those original collectors who bought in back in the day.

Pikachuchupika posted...

Death from dysentery of course

You bastard, you beat me to it.

Tyranthraxus posted...

4 years is "glacial" to you?

It is, but thats light speed for politics. Ive been waiting for universal healthcare for decades.

havean776 posted...

And it was all Biden huh? Wow the guy who aparently wasn't even lucid was also the head of a global conspiracy while also running the country. Man had time management skills!

kirbymuncher posted...

I can at least get on board somewhat with a theory like... USA, UK, AU and maybe NZ + CA discussed plans for these sorts of proposals, how to enact them, etc etc in some sort of backroom talks. And then UK/AU went first because they are historically heaviest on the internet surveillance / internet policing of the 5 eyes countries.

I don't think this is what happened but it's at least believable and based in things that make logical sense. The part where it sort of goes off the rails is where both UK and AU are biden administration puppet states

I dont think Bidens admin started this, or is responsible for it. Theyve been trying to do this shit since SOPA at the latest. I just dont think Biden or the Democrats at large would have put up much opposition to it, nor will they now, as anything in the guise of protecting the children is basically a magical way to get bipartisan support for horrible legislation.

Mr_Rian posted...

That's just...random conspiracy stuff then without actual facts backing it up?

Its more just basic logic and reasoning. When all these countries start this push at basically the same time, it reeks of collusion. Moreover, even in the absence of collusion, planning any of these pieces of legislation would have had to start during Bidens term because thats how glacial bureaucracy on that scale is.

Even if it was blatant, theyre fucking Disney. You dont fuck with the Mouse in a courtroom.

Seems I missed it.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Her English voice sucks. The Japanese voices are much better all around.

Of course.

The story is better than any mainline FF.

Accolon posted...

I care more about a game running well than I do about cutting edge graphics.

This. A game running like shit feels choppy. Its awful. Looks are subjective, and I dont mind playing old stuff that looks like shit.

But most SNES games were 60 FPS.

I am torn on this.

On the one hand, the homogenization of the industry caused by Microsoft is the reason I can basically just play everything on PC now.

On the other hand, I think games were better and more fun when the industry was basically two different markets. You had the PC market where Id developed all its IPs, Epic Games developed Unreal Tournament, Warren Specter developed the original Deus Ex, Blizzard developed Diablo II and StarCraft, Bioware developed Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, etc., etc. Then you had the console market where the Japanese developers made all their classics too.

The market homogenized with the popularity of the 360 and Xbox LIVE. Epic abandoned Unreal Tournament to chase after the console money with Gears of War. Deus Ex: Invisinle War was noticeably dumbed down for the original Xbox with tiny environments, way more loading screens, universal ammo, etc., because it was developed for console rather than PC
like its predecessor. Game design started to center around the limitations of a controller and the limited resources of a console, and it showed.

So while I think were in a great spot now on some genres, I think the FPS genre was basically killed when Unreal Tournament was replaced with the IMO drastically inferior Halo and COD.

DrizztLink posted...

Yeah.

Like, CD Projekt Red rarely misses with add-on content in general, and their paid stuff is pretty much universally worth it.

Then you compare that to releases from companies like Capcom where they'll have one game, then the next six lines on the storefront are blatant cashgrabs.

Patriotwolf posted...

Most of the things you will bring up were probably on PC before Xbox was around little buddy. DLC was just called "Expansion Packs" instead.

Theres a big difference between DLC and Expansion Packs. Expansion Packs are basically 20-30 hours probably of more content for about $20-30 historically.

DLC is more like charging you $10 for horse armor or Chun-Li outfits.

The reason CDPR doesnt miss with DLC is because they dont do DLC, they do Expansions.

Pikachuchupika posted...

Scherazard's hornyposting is getting me all bothered >.> Even Aina is doing something for me

Its even better in Japanese as during her Ultimate she uses the sultry voice and calls herself Onee-sama before whipping the shit out of everything.

Scintillant posted...

I'm about to finish Chapter 1. I think adding maps to everything + quick travel were really really awesome changes for this remake

More than that, its the best fast travel system Ive seen, where you can fast travel to individual shops and so on.

https://youtu.be/IpcFgCCuBRc?si=FEjEaAWrmulEyL9z

name_unknown posted...

this why youtube created a membership service for creators to be directly paid by viewers?

Smarter creators diversify. Theyll sell merch, have Patreon donations (which is kinda the same thing but Patreon takes a cut instead of YouTube taking a cut, and there are less rules, like if you want to host copyrighted content that would be demonitized on YouTube on Patreon, you can), Kofi donations, sponsorships, and so on.

Relying on AdSense revenue has never been viable.

mehmeh1 posted...

5 actually, the first 2 being from the Dragon Slayer series and the 3 afterwards being the Gagharv trilogy. But yeah they're completely unrelated to trails

Learn something new every day

orcus_snake posted...

Is this the first entry? I never played the trails series.

Werent there some legend of heroes before then? IIRC I played one on PSP way back when.

Yes.

There were three earlier games that arent in any way related to the Kiseki / Trails series, is my understanding.

Will_VIIII posted...

A lot of what I played in my childhood and teen years had been rereleased on it. I used to sell my existing collection to be able afford the new console.

So that's a lot of rereleased psone RPGs that I can play on the go if I want.

I have them on Steam and a Steam Deck, though I dont tend to use it. If Im on the go, Id rather just carry my tablet and read a book or something.

Nintendos platform has the worst graphics, the worst performance, and more importantly is the most locked down and proprietary with the worst online infrastructure etc. I never used the Switch on the go both for the same reasons, but also because the battery life isnt great and I think its very uncomfortable as a controller because the JoyCons are garbage.

Will_VIIII posted...

I collect for the switch

So I gathered. Im just expressing genuine bafflement as to why >_>

Its your money obviously, so no offense intended. Im just genuinely puzzled when anyone buys literally any third party for that platform, and I dont think Ill ever understand why people do it.

Will_VIIII posted...

It's a series I like collecting a physical copy for. In most instances I end up playing it on steam. It's not unplayable but I am going to consider starting SC remake on Steam right away.

There are physical PS5 editions though. I dont even have a PS5, but still.

Steam version of the remake is rock solid. Im at max settings and havent seen a drop once in the 13 hours I put into the demo and maybe 2-3 hours Ive put in after that on the full game. The RuneScape Leagues Catalyst event has taken over my time so itll be a while before I get back to it.

I havent watched since 2012. Is there a female wrestler who uses Rimishis stink face as a finisher or something? Lmao.

Will_VIIII posted...

I opted for the NS2 version and I hope some of these frame dips get fixed in later patch.

See, this is one of the many reasons why I dont buy anything on Nintendo's platform that I can get literally anywhere else.

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

For people who are saying it messes with balance... isn't that the point? It allows people to balance the game for themselves?

Nine Sols uses the sliders and you can slide them anytime. If you wanna take 50% less damage for a boss encounter, it let's you do that! If you wanna TAKE 50% more damage against regular enemies, it let's you do that.

That's the whole point is that you can balance it yourself.

Yeah, and that causes a lot of problems that post 19 breaks down well.

Personally Im in the just fucking design something camp. I dont really care if a game is easy or hard, but if there are difficulty options, I have to play on the highest non-bullshit one (in this context, bullshit would be things like the Ultra Nightmare difficulty in Doom 2016 that make you have to start the whole game over if you die, or anything that is obviously meant for NG+), which usually just means things will be tedious but not difficult.

Tales of Arise is the perfect example for me. I played on Hard, but about halfway through the game the enemies started having absurd amounts of health to the point random trash mobs took 2 minutes or more and bosses took 10 or 15. It wasnt difficult for an instant outside of a couple of optional super-bosses, but it just felt tedious to play and felt like my characters were weak because they had to wail on things so long they may as well have been swinging toothpicks.

A counter example is Expedition 33. I played on Expert and resolved to never take damage due to the Parry system, so if I took damage I reloaded my save. I found this immensely satisfying challenge to overcome, and it didnt feel tedious at all.

Yet if there are difficulty options, I cant not pick Hard, and if there are sliders, I cant not do whatever the Hard preset is.

a-c-a-b posted...

I found that earlier today.

For anyone interested in trophies, it's a good opportunity to get the trophy for killing 8 enemies at once.

Also the 3.0 strategy rating and some others. Honestly beating the boss of the Prologue on Nightmare may require having all the Quartz you get from these achievement rewards.

This only matters at all when its not in a word or name. In my experience, the only time Ive had issues is when I have to sign in an app on a TV and have to manually type my auto-generated password in with a shitty remote.

Fortunately, a decent password manager should have an option to Avoid ambiguous characters these days. It was only a problem for me because I have old passwords that I havent changed since that became an option.

Serifs have never looked good on screens, basically, and should only ever be used for print.