Custom PC – October 2019

Letters

Extra terrestrial
I’ve been a subscriber pretty well
from the start, and always enjoy the
regular PC build features. I wonder if
it would be possible to build a media
PC to replace my aging Panasonic
hard disk recorder. It has a DVD writer
in it, so that material can be archived
from hard disk to removable media.
It also has SCART/composite video
inputs, so that I can copy material
from my Sky hard disk recorder onto
the Panasonic.
New machines with these features
no longer seem to be available,
possibly due to digital rights issues,
and the prevalence of streaming
media. I have Amazon Prime video,
but nothing beats being able to have
the material to hand on DVD, in
my opinion.

I wonder about the feasibility

of building a media PC that could

accomplish the above, and what

hardware and software would be

required? I’d need a Freeview TV

card, DVD writer, a suitable hard disk

or large SSD etc, RGB video input

and so on. Possible build feature in

the magazine?

RICHARD PITMAN

Ben: Thanks for being a loyal

subscriber, Richard! I think an analogue

video capture machine is a little too

niche for a dedicated full build feature,

but it’s certainly something we could

look at as part of a general media PC

feature. I used to have a similar setup

to the one you describe, up until a

few years ago, using a TBS DVB-T

Freeview card, an SSD, a large hard

drive and a Startech analogue capture

cable – a USB dongle with a composite

input and left and right stereo inputs.

I used Windows 8 with Windows

Media Center at the time, but I’d

probably use Kodi today. I reckon you

could probably build a similar setup –

the parts are still available, and an AMD

APU would have enough processing

power. That said, after doggedly

avoiding it for years, I’ve pretty much

joined the streaming club now. While

you don’t get the satisfaction of

owning physical media, it’s massively

more convenient!

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to

[email protected]

FEEDBACK

SEPT

Issue 194^12

on sale on Thursday, 12 September

Twitter highlights

Follow us on Twitter at @CustomPCmag

@2dgamemania Some people say
2080 Ti, Titan or the latest card is
probably ‘too’ powerful. Whenever I hear
comments like this, I never understand it.
Imagineif youhaveanRTX-capablegame,
anda 2k144Hzmonitor.Wouldit runthe
gameat144fps?Unlikely.

@itsDenkimon No such thing as ‘too’
powerful. The 2080 Ti is today the best
card for high-end gaming such as you
described (without ray tracing enabled). I’ve
got a 1080 Ti and it’s not really good enough
for 1440p at 144fps.

Ben: Well, quite. People who say these GPUs
are ‘too powerful’ are likely not looking at use

scenarios outside of their own. They might be

overkill for playing games at 1080p, but I have

a 4K monitor and the RTX 2080 Ti is pretty

much the only card that will consistently give

me fast frame rates at that resolution (and

certainly not at 144fps!). Alas, I can’t afford

one. Maybe not too powerful, but arguably

too expensive.

Custom PC asks

Is ray tracing the wave of the future or a

lot of fuss about nothing?

@elanstreaming It’ll get there eventually,

but it’s not appealing right now.

@achunt The emperor’s new reason to

up-shift the price point of new video

cards. Sorry, but video card prices have gone

far beyond the hardware costs and now it’s

just gouging the consumer with a ‘how much

can we get away with?’ pricing policy. They

could halve the price and still profit.

@Indi3Gam3r Realistically, does

anyone really care about anything other

than @CyberpunkGame at this point?

What do you think of ray tracing and GPU prices?

Let us know at [email protected]

Is the GeForce

RTX 2080 Ti

too powerful?