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Has anybody created a dedicated Windows-based gaming console/machine? I'm aware of SteamOS which runs Linux (Debian) but it's limited in the number of games you can play so I'd like to focus on Windows (10). Does anybody have any tips for doing this? It looks like Windows 10 Enterprise has...

I'm selling excellent condition EdgeSwitch 48-port and 24-port POE switches and an EdgeRouter Pro. They have been used in a home environment (no smoking, no pets) in a server rack and have been working flawlessly. Instead of having two switches, I've upgraded to a single 48-port POE switch so...

I'm currently using an Intel 6700K with an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming. It supports ASUS Fan Xpert3 which is OK but it doesn't support fan hysterisis or delayed fan spin-up/spin-down. The other Z170 motherboards support it but not this one. I know I can install ASUS AI Suite but I'd rather not...

I'm looking to upgrade my OS drive SSD from 120 GB to around 250 GB and I noticed that my motherboard supports M.2 cards. (The motherboard is an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming) Is there a benefit to going with an M.2 drive versus SATA? Any recommendations for a 250 GB SSD drive? (only for OS; I have...

I've purchased an Acer X34 (ultrawide 21:9 monitor) and I absolutely love it except for the problems. (monitor keeps showing connected/disconnected even with different cables, large green line on the right hand of the screen but only sometimes, scanlines on the left of screen, etc) Anyways...

I have an Nvidia GTX 980 that I use 100% for video output. However, I might want to use Intel QuickSync in the future, so is it worth enabling the iGPU? Does it have any performance difference if I leave it enabled but don't connect any monitors to it? What is the recommended approach when...

My home server rack has a built-in 220v power strip and most of the devices are running off of that. The main server also runs on 220v and has a 1000w PSU plus about 20 HDDs. I'm not sure on the power draw but it's probably significant. The other important hardware in my rack is my router...

I've been using ESXi for a long time but I'm looking to switch to ProxMox and use Linux Containers (LXC) for most of my applications. In my current system, I have a "Download VM" which runs Debian 8 and nzbget, sonarr, couchpotato, etc. I also have another VM running my media servers such as...

Can anybody recommend a 24+ port switch? I've been using a Dell PowerConnect 2824 and I think it's finally given up. It's going to be used in my home network, but I want something managed that can be rackmounted. I've never needed power over ethernet, but it seems that could be interesting...

Are there any 24" IPS (or similar) monitors that support greater than 60 Hz refresh? My ideal monitor is 24" IPS, 120 Hz, G-Sync, and perhaps 4K but I know that's not going to happen for a very, very, long time :)

Are there any 24" screens with IPS and support a refresh rate of 100 Hz or higher? Right now I have the ASUS VG248QE with G-Sync but I don't really see the big benefit of G-Sync and the TN panel has been really bothering me. I do have a GTX 980 and since the monitor is "only" 1080p, I often...

I've just installed Active Directory on my Windows 2012 R2 server and my Windows 8/10 machines connect perfectly, but Linux and OSX can't seem to connect. The AD server's computer name is "DC01" and I used the following commands to install AD: Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services...

I've been waiting for the EVGA GTX 980 SC (overclocked edition) to be in-stock but I saw a Gigabyte G1 Gaming Edition available so I purchased it instead. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm having a little buyers remorse because I've never purchased a Gigabyte card before. EVGA seems to have...

I'm selling my NVidia (EVGA) GTX 690 video card. It was purchased directly from EVGA and I am the original owner. We have never smoked in my house or had any pets. The card is around one year old and was never overclocked. I'm asking $550 shipped. I'm not sure what were the included...

I'm looking to virtualize my HTPC because my ESXi host has plenty of extra CPU and RAM and it also supports Intel Vt-d (PCIe passthrough), but my motherboard (Supermicro X9SCM-F) only has PCIe x8 physical-size slots. Are there any PCIe video cards that are x8 physical size? (I'd prefer...

What's the best Windows alternative to the 13.3" MacBook Air? I can run Windows using Bootcamp, but the trackpad drivers aren't that great and I've been told if I'm going to primarily use Windows then to get an ultrabook instead. I plan to use the laptop 75% on the couch with the...

Can anybody recommend a monitor based on the follow requirements: 24", IPS (or similar) 16:9 ratio Built-in speakers (or speakerbar), getting audio from HDMI cable Headphone ports USB ports Cheap as possible (quality isn't super important as long as it's IPS or similar) This is going...

I've had every iPad model and currently have the iPad Air but I've always been a PC guy and find myself limited on the iPad when I want to edit some photographs or play some indie PC games, etc. So... I'm thinking about selling my iPad Air and getting a Macbook. I already have a large gaming...

I'm moving some of my PC hardware to second box so I need to upgrade/replace my current box... I'm almost positive I'm buying an i7-4770K CPU, so what is a good motherboard? I tend to replace hardware every year or two so I don't need something to last too many years but of course I want...

I have a Supermicro X9SCM-F motherboard and I'd like to upgrade the BIOS because I'm having trouble installing Windows 8.1 (and apparently I'm on a very old BIOS). However, I can't seem to boot to DOS using USB sticks because the BIOS is only UEFI and I can't find a UEFI DOS boot image...

I'm using ESXi 5.1 and for some reason the video encoding performance is much lower than my non-virtualized system (with almost identical hardware; the ESXi hardware is actually more powerful). What can I have configured wrong? The ESXi host has an Intel Xeon E3-1320 (4 cores with...

Right now I have an iPad but I'm thinking about buying a Macbook Air (or similar) so that I can sit on the couch and play some PC/OSX games while my wife watches TV, etc. I already have a nice dedicated gaming rig downstairs in my office, but I was just thinking about something smaller I can...

Right now I have an iPad and I absolutely love it but it isn't perfect for all tasks. Typically I use it for browsing the web while watching TV, etc. However, I want something with for the following: * Watching videos (podcasts, etc) * Playing light/old video games (on the couch) **...

I've purchased an HTC One 64 GB and used for a couple of days but I've decided to stay with my iPhone 5 and buy an iPad Mini instead. I can return the HTC One to the store (HTC online) but I've decided to see if anybody is interested first. I'm only going to offer this for a day and if...

My car stereo (Parrot SMART Asteroid) can read MP3s off a USB 2.0 drive or SDHC card. Which is faster? I believe that USB 2.0 maxes out at 30 MB/s and I think SDHC is around the same time, right? What about random access? (since they are both flash memory, which is the fastest [?], it...

Has anybody switched from an iPhone 5 to an Android phone? It seems like everytime this gets asked a flame war starts but I'd really like some honest opinions. Right now I have an iPhone 5 and here what I like about Android: 1) Swype keyboard 2) Google Navigation (offline cached maps...

I have the Logitech Z-5500 speakers (5.1) and I'm a bit confused on the correct speaker position for the surround/rear speakers. According to THX, in a desktop setup the surround/rear speakers should be placed BEHIND you but this seems to be the opposite of movie/theater 5.1 setups (where the...

I'm looking for a simple (and small) pair of powered 2.0 speakers with a headphone jack for around $100 - $150. Can anybody give me any suggestions? I don't have room for a subwoofer and I don't want a seperate amplifier box but I don't need the best speakers either...

I've used a Monoprice 24 AWG 15' cable with nVidia 3D Vision (1080p @ 120 Hz) and it worked great but I'm wondering about 35' or even 50'. Monoprice's description says they support 9.9 Gbps but then the specifications only say 7.4 Gbps which isn't enough bandwidth. Can anybody give me any...

I've purchased a used BayTech RPC4 unit (8-port power strip controllable using RS232). The front of the unit has an RJ45 port (EIA-232) and has a wiring diagram on how to wire it to a DB9 port so you can connect it to a PC. Here's the diagram: If I use standard TIA-568B wiring for the RJ45...

I have a Western Digital 400 GB (SATA) drive that is almost completely dead. When it's plugged in, it keeps spinning up, and then almost immediately spinning down, and then back up again. Sometimes, Windows will show me an unformatted drive (right before the drive disappears and...

Steam's Big Picture mode is fantastic and helps a lot when playing/choosing Steam games using my 360 controller. However, when I want to play PC games on my TV, I need first disable my PC monitors and enable my HDMI/TV connection, and then I need to change audio output. After that, I often...

I'm moving to a new house and I'd like to sell some of my unused hardware... Here's what I have: All prices include free shipping... (United States) Zotac GTX 480 AMP! Edition (overclocked) x2 for SLI ($165 per card or $310 for both) Core Clock: 756 MHz Memory Clock: 950 MHz AMD...

I'm not at home right now, but when testing my GTX 690 (with my i5-2500k @ 4.5 GHz CPU), it seems like certain games are only utilizing 50% GPU, or maybe 90% on GPU 1 and 30% on GPU 2, etc. (even though I'm only getting ~60 - ~80fps; I'm looking at you, Witcher 2, Crysis 2, etc.) If I'm not...

I'd like to compare my GTX 480 SLI and my GTX 690 video cards and I'd like to have frame-by-frame graphs like HardOCP does. I've used 3DMark 11 and Unigine Heaven benchmarks which give a nice min/max/average but that doesn't seem to show the true differences between the cards, etc. Would...

I've just installed my GTX 690 and it has two on-board GPUs. One GPU has 2x DVI and the other has the other DVI. I've used an HDMI-to-DVI adapter on one of the DVI ports. However, if I want full SLI acceleration, I can only use the monitors on one GPU at a time... So, is there a way to...

I'm getting my eVGA GTX 690 tomorrow and it looks like the card has 3x DVI and 1x DisplayPort. The box also seems to include a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, but will that include audio? ...or do I need a DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter to get audio over HDMI?

I have two Zotac GTX 480 Amp! Edition cards for sale. I'm upgrading to a GTX 690 and don't need these any more. * Cards were never overclocked * Original owner * Used in non-pet and non-smoking home * Adult owned * Original boxes * Not used very much These cards were used in a PC...

Which is the better reference card, or company: Gigabyte GTX 680 or Galaxy GTX 680 The Gigabyte one is $10.00 more but I've heard of them more than Galaxy. However, neither offer Advanced RMA or anything like that it seems...

Right now I have two drives in my system: Intel X25-M 80GB SSD (Operating System plus maybe one game) and WD Raptor-X 150GB (10k RPM) (Games) I have a bajillion games on Steam and a lot of them are fairly large so the 150 GB gets filled up quickly. What is my best option for something...