Questions tagged [hardware-rec]
Hardware recommendation posts should discuss how to make hardware decisions for oneself. Direct shopping recommendations are off-topic and will be closed, so be very careful posting hardware recommendations. For specific hardware shopping recommendations, please post in the Hardware Recommendations StackExchange.
312
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Can Intel Optane memory compensate for less RAM?
I currently have a laptop that is about two years old, and has 8 GB of RAM. I use my laptop for internet browsing, productivity applications, and programming, including data science within Spyder or ...
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5
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What do I need to consider when buying hardware to meet my needs?
I'm looking to build a new computer from the ground up. I'm not sure what to look out for and need guidance and help on how to pick the hardware needed to construct my new rig.
How do I know what to ...
40
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4
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When to stop using a hard drive? What rules/software apply?
When having a old hard disk - when should you stop using it ?
I recently got a new 1 TB hard disk, and am left with 3 old hard drives (320 GB, 250GB, 160 GB).
I am now wondering which of them to ...
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2
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Computer and Internet use on a boat?
Let's assume that I seriously would like to be able to use my computer as easily and as carefreely while on a boat as I do while at home. In short, if I were on a boat for extended periods, such as ...
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6
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Recommended gigabit 802.11n routers that work with DD-WRT [closed]
I've read this question, and checked out the supported devices list, but am looking specifically for a gigabit 802.11n router that is easy to find and fully supported by DD-WRT.
It seems like some of ...
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21
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8
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What hardware combination should I consider for a 20TB file server? [closed]
I want to build a file server for my home media. The server will only be used to serve files to my Media PC. Essentially all it needs to do is be able to expose around 20TB of shared folders.
I don't ...
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What is this type of SSD called?
I have a very old laptop that was state of the art when originally released, back when SSDs were starting to enter the consumer market. When I bought mine, it was advertised as a 500 GB SSD Ultrabook, ...
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13
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Do "Natural" keyboards make it harder to use standard keyboards?
I am considering purchasing this style keyboard with the split keys.
I found it a bit awkward to use at first but I'm sure I will get used to it. That's the problem.
If you use this style keyboard ...
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12
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7
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Maximum number of monitors Win 7 Supports?
I want to set up a system with (9) monitors arranged in a 3x3 grid.
Is this configuration possible with Windows 7? Does it max out at a set number of monitors?
Any suggestions about known working ...
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12
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RAM, Processor, L2Cache, Etc. - What gives you the most "Bang for your buck"?
I am not a hardware person when it comes to computers so when I buy a new one I just pick the one with the biggest numbers, but I know I am most likely wasting money.
If you're going to purchase a ...
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11
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6
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Home media storage solution
I record lots of personal HD film footage and am looking for a cheap way to store all of this. I take ~120 GB of footage each month, so something expandable would be nice... something that might be ...
- 7,306
10
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3
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Buying a laptop, specs are confusing me
So, the FSB and cache specs are what confuse me.
Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4300 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
as opposed to paying $200 more for:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB/...
- 289
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5
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Why does a Xeon processor cost much more than a similar Core i7 part?
I want to know why the price of a Xeon CPU and a similar Core i7 CPU is so different. The CPU clock is more or less the same. I want to know this because I want to have an understanding of what kind ...
- 424
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2
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What are PCI and PCI Express slots used for?
I'm comparing different Micro-ATX motherboards for a home server build and I was wondering what I would use PCI and PCI Express slots for?
Are these used for hard-drives, GPUs, RAID controllers, RAM ...
- 253
8
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8
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Making an old computer quieter
I have an old Athlon XP computer that I've been using as a Smoothie Router for about 3 years now, after my first Smoothie router (a Pentium 2 266Mhz) died. One of the most aggravating things about ...
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What limits my laptop on upgrading RAM at 8GB?
I have a Toshiba Portege M780-S7240. It's an i7, 64-bit and currently has 4GB RAM. I'd like to upgrade to 16GB. (If it matters, I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu.)
I checked with a RAM vendor who said it ...
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How can I take a single hotel Wifi connection and share it out amongst devices via Wifi?
Many hotels these days still have pretty dreadful Wifi. Often the worst offender is the "you still only have one Wifi device, right?" assumption; you get a username/password combo, and using it on ...
- 2,194
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Good Digital Pen that Integrates with Microsoft OneNote
Does anyone know of a good digital pen product (like the Logitech IO2) that:
Can cleanly integrate with Microsoft OneNote
Works with regular paper (not expensive DPS paper)
Works with Windows 7 - ...
- 359
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7
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Htpc aka "Media Center": cheap and *silent*?
It may be me, or the place I live (Italy), but it seems pretty hard to get a build or a prebuilt nettop or a laptop that fits the need.
I need something
silent
able to playback all h.264 fullhd ...
- 71
7
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1
answer
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Number of sectors per track in hard drive?
Is the number of sectors fixed for each track in a hard drive? I am wondering about this because most hard drive specifications give an accurate value for sectors/track rate. I am confused because I ...
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5
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Why aren’t there any USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet adapters out there?
I’m looking for an adapter that will let me use a USB 3.0 port as a Gigabit Ethernet port. This is proving surprisingly hard to find! Is there some reason why this product is either unavailable or ...
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1
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Any major performance difference between 1066MHz and 1150MHz RAM?
I'm currently thinking of upgrading my current gaming machine from it's original 2GB configuration. It's currently using a pair of Kingston HyperX PC2-9200 DDR2 1150MHz RAM (KHX9200D2K2/2G - kit of 2 ...
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2
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How can a hard drive be "optimized for surveillance storage"?
Some internal hard drives are advertised as "optimized for surveillance storage" (and similarly, "optimized for gaming").
What makes these types of drives special or different from "standard" hard ...
- 4,077
6
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3
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447
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What kind of chip to use for underwater robotics? [closed]
I have no experience with embedded systems hardware and am looking to build a micro-budget underwater robot for exploring the bottom of a lake on the family homestead. I don't have much money to spend ...
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5
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IDE/PATA high-speed hard drive dock
I frequently need to access bare drives for backups and need a quick, high-speed way to deal with them.
There are a multitude of SATA hard drive docks (for example), but I have a lot of IDE/PATA (...
6
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3
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How can I limit the volume of audio on Windows by decibel level?
I enjoy listening to music at high volumes, but I'm concerned about possible long-term hearing loss. Articles covering this question suggest limiting audio volume to under 85 decibels.
Is there:
A ...
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1
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Power Supply Units - Is The Watt the whole story? [closed]
I wanted to buy a new PSU I narrowed it down to 2 options :
1)Theres a PSU by Antec that costs 655 (NIS) which provides 900W. Now, Antec is a very well-known company and they make awesome products. ...
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Laptop screen resolution advice - how dense is too dense? [closed]
I'm currently in the process of deciding what kind of laptop I want to buy.
I pretty much have it narrowed down to particular model that has a 15.6" screen.
I have a little bit of a dilemma with ...
- 1,320
5
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8
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943
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Non-portable MP3 player (hw)
I would like to get a cheap device that could be plugged into wall electricity socket and play MP3s from a flash card or internal flash memory or hard drive. It does not need have speakers, I would ...
- 315
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7
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Are there solutions for watching television on a computer?
I'd like to be able to watch TV in a window while working on other projects... Is the current state of tuner hardware to the point where this would be possible? What are the most popular cards out ...
- 1,427
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4
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Best Floppy Drive for reading old floppies
I have a stack of about 30 floppy disks (3.5" type) that have some old childhood memories on them. However, I'm putting them into my random "cheapo" USB floppy drive and every single one is coming ...
- 583
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ReadyBoost in Windows 7
I've bought an SD card today for my phot frame, but when I inserted it into my notebook I saw I could use it for ReadyBoost.
Some background
I'm a .net developer, using VMs and developing web ...
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1
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What is push-pull cooling?
I was reading review site that said the best option to setup a liquid cooling system (Corsair h100) would be to use a push-pull configuration.
What does this mean?
My guess was
air pulled from ...
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1
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When buying a new PC, should I stick to known brands or configure myself? [closed]
Six years ago configuring a PC was so simple. Nowadays everything has become very hard – and for most users, it's too hard to understand the technical terms. At the moment I am trying to configure a ...
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4
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Buying replacement Macbook Pro Battery - Genuine vs. eBay
I'm looking to replace my Macbook Pro's battery (15", last model before the Unibody). It's currently at 55% capacity (as reported in System Information and Battery Health Monitor). I've reset the ...
- 562
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3
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Are there any alternatives to the Apple Mighty Mouse that have the small trackball for scrolling?
Other than the Mighty Mouse itself, that is, as I don't like their tactile "feel". Preferably with:
USB interface
OSX/Windows support
3+ buttons
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2
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Can I install USB 3.0 USB bracket and header if my motherboard does not support USB 3.0?
I have Gigabyte GA-H61M-S motherboard and it does not support USB 3.0.
My computer case has USB and Audio module but, its not working anymore. So, I am thinking to replace it with a good quality ...
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5
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What PCI video card should I get for my third display? [closed]
I got a new display, but my PC vid card only has two heads. Looking for recommendation that satisfies this:
PCI (not express, my motherboard only has one express slot)
Fanless
Powerful enough to ...
user5395
4
votes
1
answer
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Laptop charge 126W for a 120W laptop [duplicate]
My laptop specs say :input 19V and 6.3A, That means (120W charger), I hve recently bought a charger because my old charger broke up. So this new charger provides 19.5V with 6.5A (126W) ; That are ...
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How does FaceBook build servers with 12+ hard drives
From The FB Blog:
... is deployed on top of commodity storage blades. The typical hardware configuration of a 2U storage blade is –
2 x quad-core CPUs
16GB – 32GB memory
hardware raid controller ...
4
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4
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Notebook CPU that supports 16GB of memory? [closed]
I am planning to buy a new notebook, and among the requirements I thought
that I want 8GB of memory now, and the possibility to upgrade to 16 later.
I have done some searching and I have learned that ...
- 3,118
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4
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Gaming: HDD vs Hybrid vs SSD
The question is:
Can I make an estimate with a game's system requirements to decide which type of disk is "better" for it?
Background:
I bought a SSD drive. I wanted speed, but, as usual there's ...
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1
answer
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Will you be able to change the SSD in the Google Chromebook Pixel?
The new Google Chromebook Pixel really looks interesting. However, it comes with a small SSD of 32 or 64GB. Even with cloud storage, that's small.
So will you be able to easily change the SSD?
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3
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Would more RAM or more CPU be better for a NAS (Network drive)?
When looking into buying a NAS (network drive), would it benefit from more RAM or more CPU power?
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1
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What motherboard can support dual RTX 4090 GPUs? [closed]
I am trying to build a deep learning PC using the following parts:
2x MSI Suprim X RTX 4090 graphic card
1x Intel core i9 14900K CPU
4x 48GB DDR5 RAM (most likely G.Skill or Corsair @ 5600MT~6000MT)
...
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Which kind of screw do I need for attaching graphics card connnectors to plates?
When swithing graphics cards' plates in order to transform them in high profile or low profile graphics cards, sometimes those screws are lost.
How can I get more of them? Which name or reference do ...
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1
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How can I determine which underlying chip a wireless adapter uses?
I'm having trouble with my wireless adapter, at the heart of which there's a Ralink RT2760 chip for which I keep getting hardware errors. Now, it could be that it's just my specific adapter, but I'd ...
- 9,751
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4
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Wet hard drive recovery - copper oxidation
I'm a stack overflow user and I hope it's ok to ask this question here. I have the age old problem of having spilled beer on my laptop. Luckily there's not much that isn't backed up and i'm on a live ...
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1
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Best home electric automation kit available right now? [closed]
Been looking to automate my home electricity usage. Would love to...
Walk into my house with my iPhone (+ Bluetooth))...
... and a server that controls lighting + air-conditioning + appliances (e.g ...
- 20.2k
4
votes
5
answers
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Recommend a wireless PCI card for Windows 7
I have a crummy RT2500-based 11g card which does work in Windows 7 with the Vista driver (3.2.0.0) but it dies about every two hours or so. Googling around has led me to conclude that Ralink drivers ...
Dan