Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech

HP 23xi review (long term review w/reliablity & warranty info)

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For the past two years we have been using a number of HP 23xi displays at home and the office. Overall these are some of my favorite monitors. Here are the pros: IPS Reasonable price (~$130 USD when on sale) Energy efficient External power supply (this is nice b/c if the power supply fails, you just replace it… not the entire monitor) Power supplies are readily available (I had two spare laptop/HTPC power supplies that worked fine) Nice looking and

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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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Upgrade Yoga 2 13 to SSD

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BestBuy sells a nice Yoga 2 13 laptop at a significant discount under the traditional Yoga 2 Pro 13 laptop. However, one of the sacrifices on the lowest end Yoga 2 is that it lacks a SSD. Instead it makes due only with a 500GB HDD 🙁 Thankfully, you CAN add a SSD to the Yoga 2 Pro AND keep the HDD installed as well! All you need for the upgrade is some patience and the correct SSD: M.2 2280

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5 monitor setup

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My good friend John Odom recently sent me a photo of his current office setup: John absolutely loves his three 23″ Apple Cinema Displays. I originally had one of them in college and then added another in law school. Eventually I traded them to him for some architectural work and he recently added a third to complete his setup. The two LCD TVs in the background are for viewing live reports and surveillance cameras. Overall he has a very nice

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Surface Pro 3 vs. iPad air (aspect ratio, screen size, PPI and more)

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Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 3 tablet today. Some of the biggest changes from the original surface tablets: new screen size and aspect ratio! The Surface Pro 3 gets a 3:2 aspect ratio which is quite similar to the iPad with its 4:3 ratio. See the table below from pixensity.com for more details: Manufacturer and model name Year introduced Screen size Screen area Resolution Ratio PPI  Microsoft Surface Pro 3 2014 12″ 66.46 square inches (10″x6.7″) 2160×1440 3:2 216.33 Apple

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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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