Hardware

HP decides to keep its PC business

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , ,

HP came to its senses this week and decided that ex-CEO Leo Apotheker’s decision to pull out of the PC market he didn’t understand was a bad decision. They’re staying in.

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The mainstream places a bet on SSDs

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , ,

I just saw that LSI Corporation bought Sandforce, maker of high-performance SSD controllers, earlier this week for $400 million.

LSI makes a lot of things. I’ve owned a couple of SCSI controllers over the years with their chips on them. I’ve administered servers with their RAID controllers in them. They also make system-on-a-chip solutions.

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The $199 tablet market gets more crowded

Dave Farquhar Hardware , ,

Want a $199 tablet? Want something more open than a Kindle Fire? Want it a couple of weeks sooner? Don’t mind a slower CPU to have device portability on your books and more open access to the operating system?

Kobo is betting with its Kobo Vox tablet that the answer to at least one of those questions, for some people, is yes.

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Quieting a system with more modernized case fans

Dave Farquhar Hardware

Needing a secondary case fan for my current PC build, I picked up an Antec Tri-Cool Double Ball Bearing fan, the 92 mm size. Even on its highest speed, I found it to be quieter than the fans in the PCs on my desk at work. On its lowest setting, you pretty much can’t hear it at all. At its full retail price of $25, I wouldn’t bother with it, but when it’s on sale for less than $10, that’s not bad.

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Installing internal media readers in old Compaqs

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

I had a Compaq Presario S5140WM case that I wanted to reuse for a new system build. There’s nothing really wrong with the case, but in the 8 years since the S5140WM was a mainstream PC, we’ve started putting things like card readers and audio jacks on the front of the PC. This machine only had USB in front.

Rather than replace the case, I installed an internal card reader that includes audio jacks, an eSATA port, a Firewire port, and three more USB ports, bringing it right up to 2011 standards. It fit in a 5.25″ bay, which is fine. The system has two bays, and it’s unlikely I’ll ever want to put another 5.25″ device in the second one.

But installation wasn’t as straightforward as it could be. Wouldn’t you know it?
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Kindle Fire in perspective

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , ,

Amazon’s Kindle Fire sold 95,000 units in its first day of pre-orders, which pales next to the Ipad’s 300,000 on its first day. But the Kindle Fire looks to be a slower burn. It’s sold 250,000 units now. By comparison, the Ipad sold 1 million units in its first month, which the Kindle Fire hasn’t matched yet, but it’s only been five days. Some people are reporting it’s on pace to sell 2.5 million units in its first month. Realistically, I think the number should be lower–more on that in a second. But I think the naysayers should learn really fast that this war isn’t over.
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Will running Prime95 void my warranty?

Dave Farquhar Hardware

Here’s a good question: Will running Prime95 void my warranty? I have the answer to that. I run Prime 95 on every new computer I get, so that probably tips you off.

The short answer is no, and, in fact, I ran it about 30 hours straight on my newest computer. I started it on Friday before I left for work. I let it run until I got home from running errands on Saturday. All told, it probably ran 30 hours. If a computer is going to fail, I want it to fail before I’m depending on it for something.

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Amazon’s new Kindles look like rising stars

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , ,

I’m a couple of days late and for that I apologize (I’ve been on the road), but this week Amazon released its anticipated Kindle tablet and snuck out a couple of new e-readers.

The tablet–7 inches, a faster-than-rumored 1 GHz dual-core CPU, priced at $199, and dubbed the Kindle Fire–seems to be an immediate hit, with 95,000 pre-orders in its first day. Amazon is selling each tablet at about a $10 loss, which it should easily make up by selling digital content.

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Bargain SSD? Maybe more like hard bargain SSD

Dave Farquhar Hardware , ,

Dealnews had a shocking deal today: An OCZ Vertex Plus 60 GB drive for $45. That’s an after-rebate price, but even writing off the $10 rebate, at $55 the drive is still priced historically low.

I didn’t buy one. And I didn’t buy three. Here’s why.
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15 years ago, at the home of the blue shirts

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , ,

Consumerist had some fun today at the expense of a Best Buy ad from September 15, 1996.

Here’s the kind of price deflation we’ve seen in 15 years.
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