Category Archives: Building

Mini-itx AM1 gaming system w/discrete video card and DC PSU!

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Mike sent me some info and photos of his awesome mini-itx system: I crammed the AM1H-ITX along with a 5350, a Kingston HyperX 4gb DDR3-1600 stick, Slimline DVD-Rom, Microcenter house brand120gb SSD, a couple 40mm fans, and an EVGA GTX 750 2GB (non-ti) into a Travla C158 case. I’m powering it with a DC power brick (part number 316688-001 or spare 317188-001) from either a beefy HP laptop or possibly a docking station. The specs are 18.5v, 6.5a, 120 watts.

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Replace keyboard on ASUS Q200E/S200E/X202E

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A nice reader recently asked for help on how to replace the keyboard on an ASUS X202E notebook. While I have some photos on the initial disassembly process, I did not have photos of the rest of the process. A significant amount of searching did not yield a complete guide to the process 🙁 However, I did find some good instructions for similar ASUS models so I am compiling that information here: Laptop replacement keyboard (without frame) for ASUS Q200

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ASRock AM1H-ITX DC power and discrete video card?

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The ASRock AM1H-ITX is a nice little motherboard with the bonus versatility of having a DC power jack for 19V external power supplies -or- the standard 24 pin ATX power connector. Having DC input (barrel connector) as a power option begs the question of just how much power input is supported (i.e. how many watts, or amps at 19V)? As an aside, a NUC power supply is compatible and we know they do not put out much power. Most small

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Does AMD’s AM1 platform support triple monitors natively? No.

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Kabini only supports two simultaneous displays If you plan on using AMD new’s AM1 platform with a Kabini Athlon or Sempron, be aware that triple display output is not supported. I tried it on my MSI AM1I motherboard just to make sure and sadly only two outputs were usable at a time 🙁 So even if your motherboard has DVI + HDMI + VGA, like mine does, you can only utilize TWO of those outputs at once. Not three. Kind of

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How to flash BIOS upgrade on MSI motherboard via USB

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If you are trying to update your BIOS on a MSI motherboard, like the new MSI AM1I, be aware that there are some requirements. Specifically, if you are using a USB thumbdrive to contain the BIOS update file, make sure you format it as FAT32 and not exfat or NTFS! You can download the latest version here: (dl link) Once you have a FAT32 formatted USB drive containing the BIOS update, you can boot into the BIOS /UEFI (press DEL

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AMD Kabini Athlon 5350 review and overclocking

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I finished my new AMD Kabini Athlon 5350 build yesterday. Here are the specs: AMD Kabini Athlon 5350 at 2.1GHz (overclocked from 2.05GHz) Stock cooler 4GB Kingston Blu DDR3 memory 64GB Lenovo SSD MSI AM1I mini-itx motherboard Mini-itx case Windows 7 So far I am impressed with the system. It boots in < 10 seconds and is very responsive. CPU OC screenshots: http://www.eteknix.com/amd-kabini-am1-athlon-5350-apu-fs1b-review-winning-sub-60/12/ http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1390-page5.html http://www.overclock.net/t/1480711/various-socket-am1-kabini-apus http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2377334 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7933/the-desktop-kabini-review-part-1-athlon-5350-am1 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am1-platform-review,3801-9.html

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Acer Aspire One AO756 memory upgrade and SSD swap

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The Acer Aspire One AO756 is a nice little laptop that is available for a quite reasonable price (usually around $270 USD). As an added perk, with a few easy upgrades it can be even better! The AO756 allows for easy access to the RAM (memory) and unlike many of its brethren, it actually has two memory slots allowing for up to 16GB of memory to be installed! The hard drive is also easily accessible in case you want to

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