Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech

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

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.

Upgrade Yoga 2 13 to SSD

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

5 monitor setup

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

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

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

Replace keyboard on ASUS Q200E/S200E/X202E

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

ASRock AM1H-ITX DC power and discrete video card?

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

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

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