Save Money by upgrading from LCD to LED Monitors
Mar 30, 2012 by Paul White
If you read my previous blog post, you know that I was having a little trouble with my Samsung 2493HM Syncmaster LCD monitor. I actually have 2 of them on my work station. I finally gave up on trying to repair it after the repair failed twice. I have upgraded to Dell 24" LED monitors. LED monitors cost a bit more than their LCD counterparts, but the cost savings in energy are worth it. I break out the kill-a-watt meter and put my old monitors against my new ones.How to Fix a Samsung SyncMaster 2493HM LCD Monitor
Mar 9, 2012 by Paul White
As some of you know I have invested into some serious desktop real estate. I have 3 Samsung Syncmaster LCD Displays. One is a 30" and the other 2 are 24". Everything has been working great for years. Then one of my displays ( Samsung Syncmaster 2493HM ), starting to randomly go out. Then it would make some weird clicking sounds. After a while it would make a loud pop and come back on. Occasionally it would also flicker before going out. Over time it got worse. After some researching, I figured out the problem, and was able to repair it myself for about $20 in Parts. Super Talent Pico C USB Flash Drive Review and Benchmarks
Nov 18, 2011 by Paul White
I finally decided that my old USB flash drive was taking up a little too much bulk in my pocket. That and I was close to maxing out its 8GB capacity. So I upgraded to a Super Talent Pico C USB Flash Drive. This is by far the smallest USB drive available ( That I know of ). It also comes in Chrome, Silver, and 24K gold plated finishes. Bling and Nerd Credit come together. I know the question many are asking. Is it all show and no go? I put both my old drive and my new drive through some benchmarks for comparison. Unplugging from Cable and Phone but keeping internet
Sep 20, 2011 by Paul White
After getting our last bill from Comcast, I decided that I really don't need Cable or Phone. After all both my wife and I have cell phones with unlimited talk, and even though we do occasionally watch TV, the quality of entertainment in my opinion has gone to crap. I was able to shave $80 off my Comcast Bill, by keeping the internet only and buying my own DOCSIS 3.0 modem to avoid their $7 / month rental fee.SSD RAID 0 Benchmarks for Intel ICH10R ASUS P6T Deluxe
Nov 19, 2010 by Paul White
So I finally have made the move to SSD. Unlike many who went with a single SSD drive I went with an SSD raid 0 Array. Using 3 OCZ Vertex 2 60 GB SSD drives, I setup a RAID 0 array on my ASUS P6T Deluxe Motherboard's built in Intel ICH10R SATA controller. The benchmarks were outstanding. Maybe I could have gotten a little better performance from using a dedicated RAID card, but 700 MB/sec read and write is good enough for me.Windows 7 Backup and Restore Problems
Nov 17, 2010 by Paul WhiteDuring my quest to upgrade my computer from my 4 disk SAS raid array to a 3 disk SSD raid array, I had a few learning experiences with the windows 7 backup and restore system. Hopefully my tips will help others.
SSD vs Hard Drives on your Electric Bill
Apr 12, 2010 by Paul White
I guess SSD drives have finally caught the eye of the joe average consumers, because the other day a client of mine called asking if they should upgrade to an SSD drive. So I went about explaining to him the difference between traditional platter based storage hard drives and SSD ( Solid State Drives ). Then I got to think that my explanation might be better suited for a blog entry. So here it is.upgraded to SMART1500LCD Tripp lite from OMNI1000LCD
Mar 27, 2010 by Paul White
After making several upgrades to my workstation over the last 6 months, my old Tripp Lite OMNI1000LCD just wasn't cutting it anymore. So it was time to upgrade to a UPS that would be able to stay on for more than 5 seconds. I upgraded to the SMART1500LCD by Tripp lite. Its an older model, but it handles 1500 VA and 900 Watts peak. Of course whenever you buy a UPS off ebay especially a used one, you can expect a few surprises. Vantec Hot Swap Hard Drive Trays Review
Feb 5, 2010 by Paul White
Recently I decided to add some hot swap trays to my system. I searched for quite a while before I found trays that would maintain my personal sense of style ( Bling ), and have functionality as well. I went with the Vantec Trays that include a blue LCD display giving you temperature stats on the drives. Overall I am very happy with my decision, though Vantec could have done a slightly better job with these.Adaptec 4805 SAS RAID benchmark on Windows 7 review
Feb 5, 2010 by Paul White
I knew I was going to make the switch to Windows 7, but I wanted to make a few upgrades before I did this. These upgrades included hot swap trays for my SATA drives, and extending my SAS RAID array from 2 drives to 4 drives. However this forced me to get a Dedicated RAID controller, as the ASUS board only supports two SAS drives. On this blog I will focus on the SAS RAID upgrade using the Adaptec 4805SAS RAID card and 4 x 15K RPM Fujitsu SAS Hard Drives.