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I believe people still value 500GB or 1TB storage in a laptop instead of 32GB or 256GB.

You can get a 256 GB for just $116 these days. It is approaching quite rapidly and for a higher end laptop there is no reason to go mechanical unless the OEM wants to make them start slow so they can sell you a new one in 2 years

And Mushkin has a 1TB SSD for $230 at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Not $200, but getting really close to being under 300.

But what you really need is a UPS, It not only prevents surges, it cleans up the voltage outputting a near perfect sine wave.

As mentioned an Isolation Transformer would also do the trick, but again weight constraints prevent their use.

While I wouldn't put much faith in those surge arrestors, trusting a circuit breaker over one. APC has one on Newegg.com (quick search) http://www.newegg.com/Product/... - for cheap but 120 volts.

As one reviewer to the above product put it " So-called surge protectors, IMO, fit into one of the most ethereal realms in I.T. Go ahead and Google, "Do I need a surge protector," and you'll get answers from both sides of the fence--in pages upon pages of search results. That's because the answer is subjective."

It was better before they started letting people post classified ads as products for sell.

If it shows up in the list of results I expect to be able to buy it on Newegg not click through to Bullshitbrandxcompany to complete my purchase there.

This! I've shopped NewEgg for over a decade (bought this for $90 in 2002, heh), but killing the usefulness of ShopRunner and then letting some really, really crappy sellers sell through their site has turned me off. I still look when I shop, but as often as not, I buy at Amazon. If NewEgg would allow me to have an account-level setting that made me never see the other sellers, I'd be a lot more loyal (the ShopRunner ship sailed, c'est la vie).

Something like this Lenovo IdeaPad Y700: AMD A10-8700P, 15.6" (1920x1080), 8 GB RAM + 4 GB Radeon R9 M380
seemed pretty decent to me, especially when your budget is less than $1500 and preferably $1000.

Tragically, in the category you linked:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

...is to get a commercial display. No smart IOT OS crap to get bloated, infected or ignored when the next 4k model comes out. Hook whatever inputs you want to it and have your intelligence there.

Since I like Neweggs stance on patents, here is a non affiliate link to some examples: http://www.newegg.com/Commerci...

Interesting - so how do you switch inputs? I take it this requires a receiver or some other HDMI/etc input switcher with remote? They do cost a lot more - you can get an LED 4k 40" screen for like $300.

Since I like Neweggs stance on patents, here is a non affiliate link to some examples: http://www.newegg.com/Commerci...

Are your monitors 4K? Do they do 120Hz or 144Hz? Do they support G-Sync or FreeSync? These are all reasons why he could have spent what he spent and more than you. And no it has absolutely nothing to do with a fruit or a niche industry thing.

This is an amazing monitor for instance for video gaming. 144Hz IPS is not a cheap thing anywhere plus the G-Sync module from nVidia.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Interesting that you chose the cheapest HDD you could, but a pretty expensive SSD.

SSDs are at about $240/TB. That's still pretty expensive, but it's still only 7.3x more than HDDs atm.

More so, your "20x or more 10 years ago" is technically correct, thanks to the "or more". In reality though, a decade ago 512*MB* of flash storage (not even a true SSD) cost $40, aka $80,000 per TB. So the gap has come down from 2400 times more expensive per GB to 7 times more expensive per GB in a decade.

In fact, just one year ago, a 128GB SSD cost you $140 - aka $1,120 per TB, or 33 times more expensive.

Based on the rate of decline in the gap, it's not hard to see why people are saying SSDs are going to get into the price range of HDDs pretty soon. Based on the current progression in the cost of SSDs it'll be about 1.5 to 2 years.

I am in the process of moving my fiancee's dvd/bluray collection to my server and putting her physical copies in storage. Using Handbrake, switching from x264 to x265 saves me at lease 10 % on dvd sources and closer to 30+% on the bluray sources.

And in dollars? You can get an 8TB drive perfect for the task for $260, it's only the random write speeds that are slow. A remux (best quality you can get) is ususally around 25 GB / BluRay or 320 on a drive... less than $1 each. Seems like a fairly cheap investment compared to buying all the discs...

I swapped the 3G wireless and WiFi wireless cards in my Lenovo and saw no issues. They do lock down drivers for security, but I had no problem with loading up the new cards, once I properly loaded the manufacturer drivers. I was planning on going from my current E530 to a new Y70. Maybe it's different across their different lines, but the Thinkpad E530 had no issues with 3rd party wireless and RAM (I never swapped the battery. 3+ years, and still working well, and never found anyone who made a larger capacity batter, including Lenovo). http://www.newegg.com/Product/... 17.3" touchscreen and 960M, not many in that category, most gaming laptops don't do touch screen. But we got a tablet-like http://au.pcmag.com/acer-aspir... for cheap on sale and liked it, and having a touch screen, so wanted to go touch-only going forward. I can't find anything with a 17.3" or larger touchscreen and a 960m or better video card anywhere else, at any price, and the Lenovo Y70 is only about $1000 on sale.

What you want is a socket AM1, I use them for all kinds of jobs where you want low power but still need decent performance. you can get a Sempron quad for $33 that maxes out at 25w (and this really means max, according to kill-a-watt these things are sub 10w most of the time) and for that, the board, and a couple GB of RAM you can easily get it for less than $100.

Sure its not as cheap as the Pi but you can do a hell of a lot more with it, they even do 1080P over HDMI quite well for those that want a low power HTPC, hell you can even play games like Counter Strike Global Offensive if you want, so its got more than enough power to be a torrent box. I've sold quite a few to be office PCs,media tanks,you can make great backup/file servers out of 'em, just versatile as hell little chips.

As an IT professional this is why I always stress using Cisco equipment for home networking equipment. A good example is the Cisco RV325 router, or the Cisco RV180W for wireless that are both strong in design, and reasonably priced for home use.

But apparently you can't use punctuation in the router's password.

I bought this http://www.newegg.com/Product/... for $250 just last week. 1TB SSD.

Or a poor wear leveling algorithm, crappy controller chip...stuff like that.

Agreed fully on reliability of SSDs, I still have a fully functional 32GB Intel SSD with SLC chips that is still going after 6 years. I bought it for like $350, but yeah, it still runs and runs and runs. Unfortunately, it is so small, I just use it as a very large USB Flash drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

It is all about buying a brand you trust, or not trusting your important data to an SSD (use good backups...).

That is what Amazon Glacier is for.
https://aws.amazon.com/glacier...

On another note, is it really valid to compare a 3.5" drive to a 2.5" drive in price and talk about how expensive the smaller drive is? The comparison should be to a laptop drive, not a full sized spinning rust.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Compared to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Incidentally, I paid $250 for a 1TB SSD just last week, and now the cheapest 1TB is $322, and the one I bought isn't available anymore
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

That is what Amazon Glacier is for.
https://aws.amazon.com/glacier...

On another note, is it really valid to compare a 3.5" drive to a 2.5" drive in price and talk about how expensive the smaller drive is? The comparison should be to a laptop drive, not a full sized spinning rust.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Compared to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Incidentally, I paid $250 for a 1TB SSD just last week, and now the cheapest 1TB is $322, and the one I bought isn't available anymore
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

That is what Amazon Glacier is for.
https://aws.amazon.com/glacier...

On another note, is it really valid to compare a 3.5" drive to a 2.5" drive in price and talk about how expensive the smaller drive is? The comparison should be to a laptop drive, not a full sized spinning rust.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Compared to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Incidentally, I paid $250 for a 1TB SSD just last week, and now the cheapest 1TB is $322, and the one I bought isn't available anymore
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

That is what Amazon Glacier is for.
https://aws.amazon.com/glacier...

On another note, is it really valid to compare a 3.5" drive to a 2.5" drive in price and talk about how expensive the smaller drive is? The comparison should be to a laptop drive, not a full sized spinning rust.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Compared to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Incidentally, I paid $250 for a 1TB SSD just last week, and now the cheapest 1TB is $322, and the one I bought isn't available anymore
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

That is what Amazon Glacier is for.
https://aws.amazon.com/glacier...

On another note, is it really valid to compare a 3.5" drive to a 2.5" drive in price and talk about how expensive the smaller drive is? The comparison should be to a laptop drive, not a full sized spinning rust.

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Compared to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Incidentally, I paid $250 for a 1TB SSD just last week, and now the cheapest 1TB is $322, and the one I bought isn't available anymore
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

$377, and that's from OWC, not exactly the cheapest outfit out there. The cheapest 1TB SSD currently runs for $323...

Is it this one ?

I've seen multiple deals in the last 4 weeks of 1TB (well, 960GB) SSD's ranging near the $200 US mark.

Wow that's amazing... Oh wait...

AMD socket AM1, end of story. We're talking a quad core with Radeon graphics for $50 and you can get AM1 boards for $30. Slap in a 4GB stick, the cheapest case with PSU you can find (because the chip maxes out at 25w so any PSU will do) and a cheap HDD and voila! You have a pretty powerful HTPC or office box for sub $150, sub $130 if you shopped around.

I would run a XEON X5690 (6 core 3.46ghz) with 24GB of RAM and an SSD. You can find entire machines with Quadro video, audio, and a shitload of other components for about $200.00

Where would you find all that for about $200? A XEON X5690 costs $647.95 on newegg.

There are some cheap mini-itx/CPU boards that should be considered. They have a nice form factor, and running Linux shouldn't be a problem (at least, I haven't had problems, ymmv).

Good list. I would also add 2 things you missed:

COOL: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
PASTE: Artic Silver 5

Good list. I would also add 2 things you missed:

COOL: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
PASTE: Artic Silver 5

There aren't any turn-key devices that run OpenWRT out of the box. There are some Buffalo devices that run DD-WRT, but that's not the same thing at all. DD-WRT's approach to security and updates is even worse than some router manufacturers.

Also, I did buy a Buffalo router with DD-WRT and Atheros chipset (so it would have open-source drivers), expressly so I could wipe DD-WRT and install OpenWRT. What I discovered is that customizing a router means lots of research, which you have to do again and again when it's time to install updates. This is because you can't really fit a proper system on only 32MB of flash, running on 128MB of RAM, so you have to reflash the whole thing every time. And this is actually a large amount of memory; my Netgear router with the same chipset has 8MB of flash and 64MB of RAM.

If you don't customize your router, then upgrading it is much easier, but then it still doesn't have automatic security updates and all the fun features.

The Turris router has 4GB of flash and 1GB of RAM. This is immense. You don't need to play tricks with minimal overlays on top of compressed ROM filesystems. You can install and maintain the router like a normal system.

> Not a chance in hell ANY PC gamer is getting 4K at 120HZ or higher framerates

Doing it _right_ now on my i7 4770K @ 4 GHz + GTX 980 Ti with Elite:Dangerous, Team Fortress 2, Path of Exile.

> you can't even BUY a display that can go higher than 60

Then why do I have **two** monitors that support 144 Hz ??

* ASUS VG248QE Black 24" Gaming Monitor, 144Hz
* ASUS VG278HE 27" Full HD 1920x1080 144Hz 2ms

> and most guys with $2000 in video cards are having trouble staying anywhere near 60hz at 4K.

My GTX 980 Ti was $669 + $58.20 tax = $727.20

It is called turning down the Video Options quality. Back in the Voodoo 1 days I would run glQuake at 512x384 to guarantee 60 Hz. These days that means turning off all the anti-aliasing and lowering the shader quality.

Basically, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009726

$229 is for the Chromebox only, from Google. You can actually get the same thing for $150 or so at Newegg, and elsewhere. The meetings package also includes speaker, microphone, camera and a remote control. I'm not sure why that stuff adds over $700 to the price. I expect you could buy the parts yourself and configure it for considerably less. I'd guess the package price is set based on comparing with competitive options, rather than on the cost of the components. Most companies wouldn't blink at $999 to equip a conference room.

Not when you can get something like the Kangaroo for $15 more:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Has an Intel cpu, 2gb memory, 32gb built in storage and comes with Windows 10 (home) but can run Linux also.

Um, I am not sure you understand the scale of this product. They are fitting 72 cores and 16GB or ram into approximately 2inch by half inch. Think this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Not the size of a blade. This is a tiny thing that could go in a laptop as a co processor for who knows what.

Entry level, about $12. I think I'll just go ahead and risk it.

Both of the quoted "reviews" are for products on order - neither reviewer has seen, much less opened, the box. OTOH, the Egghead listing explicitly states that the dock is included.

I see no indication the dock is not included in the $99 introductory offer, and the review I read on Venturebeat.com clearly indicates the dock is included...

You better read the Newegg.com reviews because you're totally and completely wrong. No dock included at $99. And the $39 dock is "out of stock". LOL http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Bo X.
10/26/2015 12:56:55 PM
Tech Level: Somewhat High
Ownership: less than 1 day
4 out of 5 eggsLooking forward to it
Pros: This is a smart phone size computer stick product. It has embodied battery that can support it for 4 hours. The best part is that you can use an iPad as its screen, think of using it on an iPad pro, the experience could be amazing. I have just ordered it, I will post more once I have it.

Cons: The machine itself does not provide any I/O ports, and what is really ridiculous is that the dock which provides I/O ports is out of stock. How am I supposed to use it without connecting to a display? Wirelessly? If they provide 4G Ram and 64Gb SSD, it will be fine if the price is higher. Obviously, they are not providing that option.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Valentin S.
10/26/2015 11:39:00 AM
Tech Level: High
Ownership: less than 1 day
5 out of 5 eggsIs dock included?
Pros: Looks like an awesome pocketable Windows 10 PC with the latest Atom CPU, and well-designed and well-built
Has a fingerprint reader. No more passwords! (Note: this is based on pictures only, I have just ordered the device).

Cons: No I/O ports without the dock.
The only storage option is 32GB eMMC, would be nice to have a 64GB version.
Seems like it has vents. The CPU is only 2W - there should be no vents and definitely no fan, especially with an aluminum case.

Other Thoughts: Ordered one. The lack of detailed information bothers me, especially the fact that Newegg sells the dock separately and it is already out of stock! How am I supposed to connect everything if the dock is not included?
Will update the review when I get the device.

I don't know.

My main desktop's video card is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

and it still runs anything I throw at it perfectly.

Video cards are so overpowered current games that I just don't see the point of upgrading, I've had that card for 3 years, and haven't even see it degrade in a game yet. My most recent game is The Witcher 3, so it isn't like I am playing outdated games, and yes, it can play Crysis 2. (I don't own Crysis 3)

Name some? I paid $300 for my Samsung 840 EVO SSD (500GB) back in Dec 2013. Almost 2 years ago the price was under $1/GB

You can now get the 850 model for $180.

Agreed with parent - my own 500GB Crucial BX100 cost me ~$215 on newegg back in March ($0.43/GB), and now retails on newegg for $180 ($0.36/GB)... a $35 drop in 7 months.

This leads to a question: Who the frig is stupid enough to still be paying $1/GB for SSD disk?

The summary says it's eMMC. MMC is basically SD cards. eMMC is embedded MMC - basically an SD card built-in.

Right now on Newegg you can get a pair of 128GB cards (256GB) for $69.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
So $280 per TB is current best pricing for MMC in Newegg.

Compare an actual SSD. Low-end best price at Newegg is $343 for a TB ($300 for 960GB), with better quality SSDs costing over $1,000.

Neither is TERRIBLY expensive for 8TB, if you really need 8TB of flash, but 8 1TB true SSDs would cost about the same as 8TB of MMC.

Let's face it, PCs are ugly as high-hell.

And the ones that don't look ugly are either shoddy quality, or sold at stupidly high prices, way more than the price it'd take to make it with said materials, simply because said companies know they don't really have any competition.

Computers haven't been ugly for a long time. Beige mini-towers with oddly-designed front panels were pretty ugly. Modern stuff is black and silver. If one is smart one buys a 17" wide desktop case so that it stacks in the AV cabinet along with the stereo and blu-ray player.

Mine is butt ugly. Lots of space for the NVIDIAs though.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...

Windows 10 is not free in any sense of the word.

Really? Which plant made this processor? Can you tell me? At best you can tell it's a 14nm process but you don't know which 14nm plant made it from the information provided. You have to look at the chip when you get it, but you've already bought it at that point.

You are very purposefully ignoring what I wrote to rage against something I did not. Intel processors made on different processes have a different part number the customer can see when ordering. Heck, they even have different part numbers for the same processor on the same process that have been binned differently. But if you want to keep talking about a the same processor made on the same process from the same company, go ahead an knock yourself out. It has nothing to do with anything I wrote.

I would guarantee you that every smartphone model including the iPhone has parts from multiple sources. For example the exact same model might have RAM from Samsung in one phone and RAM from Hynix in another. They shouldn't be different in terms of performance or function but if they are, the manufacturer has to trace down why. The point I'm trying to make is that there shouldn't be a difference in performance.

I agree there should not be a difference in performance, but there is. Whether that performance difference is a problem or not should be left to the customer.

Intel labels parts made on different processes with different part numbers. That allows you to choose which processor you want.

Really? Which plant made this processor? Can you tell me? At best you can tell it's a 14nm process but you don't know which 14nm plant made it from the information provided. You have to look at the chip when you get it, but you've already bought it at that point.

It's clear from my post I'm talking about the phone part number that the customer uses to order, not the internal Apple part number for the two different processors made on two different processes from two different companies with different performance.

I would guarantee you that every smartphone model including the iPhone has parts from multiple sources. For example the exact same model might have RAM from Samsung in one phone and RAM from Hynix in another. They shouldn't be different in terms of performance or function but if they are, the manufacturer has to trace down why. The point I'm trying to make is that there shouldn't be a difference in performance.

I've had plain-old-non-matrix KVM's that could do most of what he wants.

Years ago, I got an Iogear 4-port DVI/USB KVMPA that could independently switch the various inputs and outputs from a key command. You had to hit Scroll Lock twice to get its attention, then issue the commands you wanted. The "commit" was always a number, 1-4 for the port you were switching to. Prior to that number, you could press K, V, M, P, or A in any combination to tell it which things you wanted switched over. Pressing just a number meant "all". (The "P" was for peripherals, which were plugged into a separate set of USB ports from the keyboard and mouse. The "A" was for audio.)

It was single-monitor, but there are dual-monitor versions of that same switch. It's still available. I think it cost about $200. No idea if the dual-monitor versions support splitting the monitor routes, though. That's really the only thing he asked for that I don't know can be done with that switch.

Might wanna try this one: linky

No, it's not cost prohibitive to go with 5 year old tech that costs more a brand new modest PC. It's just a better value for a developer just starting out to go with Android over any other platform. The barrier to entry for developing on Android is considerably cheaper than trying to build for WinPhone or iOS. Hell, if I was strapped for cash but really wanted to develop a mobile app (basic logic and sanity questions notwithstanding) I could easily go down to Goodwill and pick up a Tower ($35), Keyboard ($3-4), Mouse ($2) and Monitor ($15-30) for less than $75 all together.

I personally don't have anything against using a Mac. There are times that I work with the Mac at work, enjoy the way it does certain things and get to thinking about buying one for home. Then I see the price they cost for the specs they offer and it always makes me sick to my stomach. The few kludges that I have to work around in a CentOS 6.7 Linux desktop to do my Open Source/Android dev-work is well worth the extra money I would have had to spend to get the "just works" system with not quite near the system specs I have (most certainly won't have a built in CUDA).

"Your cost analysis isn't a useful one..."

What is important is not what we think. What is important is what arrives in the minds of the average person, or even 5% of the average. Here is 32GB of storage, twice as much, for $14 delivered. That's retail, not the wholesale price Apple would pay, and includes shipping.

"Only by people who wouldn't buy one anyway. The 16GB model is probably not intended for you. It is intended for people like my Dad..."

That is not the point. People "like your Dad" wouldn't know if the 16GB model is correct for them. Some would buy a 16GB iPhone and discover later it isn't adequate. That would be a VERY painful discovery. People who have painful experiences with Apple products will be intense at selling the negatives and become a POWERFUL negative advertising force.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is not competent to represent Apple. That's my opinion. Yes, I think I could do better.

As I said, it amazes me how many people who read Slashdot justify abuse and general bad management.