Unoptimal: The Tech Blog

I have been meaning to replace the default artwork that comes with the Razer Panthera Evo arcade stick. I spent a lot of time researching multiple sources to learn how and I have consolidated everything I learned into a single article below. 1. Download the photoshop template for your arcade stick from Focus Attack https://support.focusattack.com/hc/en-us/articles/207447753-Control-Panel-Templates 2. Open the template .psd in Photoshop. 3. The first thing you will see is the Instruction layer. If you want to use Focus Arcade's custom printing service read more about it here:  https://support.focusattack.com/hc/en-us/sections/201695273-Artwork-Printing In this HOWTO we will be using a local print shop so we can ignore the instructions. Delete the Instructions layer doing the following:     a) Click on the "INSTRUCTIONS" layer.     b) Click on the Lock icon above the layer which will remove the lock.     c) Now that the layer is unlocked, right click "IN...

I wanted to see if my Synology DS411 NAS could automatically shutdown if it detected it was using UPS power. Here were the steps I took to make it work. 1. Check if my CyberPower CP1350AVRLC is on Synology's compatibility list on their website: https://www.synology.com/en-global/compatibility 2. Launch Synology Assistant. Click Control Panel > Hardware & Power > UPS. As seen in the screenshot below, under Device Information it shows "No UPS is connected". 3. Next thing to do is connect a USB cable. 4. Go back to Synology Assistant. Click Control Panel > Hardware & Power > UPS and now there should be a Device Information button. Click on it and it should show the details of the UPS device. 5. Now check the "Enable UPS support" check box. Personally I set it to enter Safe Mode after 3 minutes. More information about Safe Mode can be found on Synology's website . Safe Mode When the Synology NAS enters Safe Mode, it stops all services and unm...

I recently installed a Philips Hue indoor motion sensor, lights and dimmer switch in my bathroom to solve a couple of problems. When guests come over to use my washroom the light switch is on the opposite side of the wall which can be difficult to find in the dark. It also doesn't help that the switch is in an unusual position. Note: this article assumes the reader is already somewhat familiar with the Hue lighting system. One option is to replace an existing switch with a motion sensing switch like this Lutron Maestro (as seen in the image below). One advantage of the Lutron Maestro and similar switch replacement over the Hue motion sensor is it doesn't not require batteries. One disadvantage compared to the Hue is it cannot be placed anywhere. The Hue also has the advantage of being programmable as described further below. After I installed the Hue lights and motion sensor, now when someone walks into my bathroom the light automatically turns on.  After no motion is detected ...

UserBenchmark is free tool for PC benchmarking. One of the best feature is it will compare the results of your CPU/GPU/SSD/RAM with other PC owners with the same hardware. You can the compare your PC components with others and is a way to identify poor performing components. I recently ran it and found out one of my SSD drives was "performing way below expectations" compared to others with the same drive. My drive was in the 15th percentile which is terrible. I then began to try to determine the issue. I checked if it was overheating, if "Encable write caching on the device" is enabled, if the drive was full which could all impact performance but none of those were the case. Then I remember an issue I had when I first build my system and it was that the M.2_2 bandwidth was set to 2X by default and changing it to 4X resulted in faster performance. I googled the issue and found this reddit which describes the problem. https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/a6t6af...

I like to watch sports or tv shows on my second monitor while I play video games on my main gaming monitor.  I was wondering would I get better performance in my video games if I used a second GPU on my second monitor which in theory would off load my main GPU (1080TI) and potentially improve gaming performance.  So I did some benchmarking to determine the answer. I did some performance measurements with my second monitor connected to my CPU's integrated Intel 630 graphics and with a second GTX 970 card installed. Then I streamed soccer and played Jumanji 2 in 4K on my second monitor while running benchmarks in Watch Dogs Legion, Forza Horizon 4 and Assassin's Creed Vahalla. Below are the results: CPU: Intel i7-8700K @ 5GHz GPUs: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, Intel 630 Ram: 32 GB DDR4 @3200Hz, CAS 17 Gaming Monitor:  1440p Native Resolution @ 165Hz  Second Monitor:  1440p Native Resolution @ 60Hz  These results were not what I was...