(Part 2) Top products from r/hardware

Agree. It depends on what you want to know, and how much you're willing to commit to learning. It's a big world. Code is a nice book if you want a very very simple explanation of the basics of bits and bytes and logic gates. It might be a good place to start, though it's intended for a non-technical audience and you may find it a little TOO simple. A proper digital systems book will go in to much more detail about digital logic (AND gates, flip-flops etc.). You might be surprised just how easy to learn the fundamentals are. I learned from Tocci which I found to be excellent, but that was a long time ago and I'm sure there's many other good ones around.

That's pretty low level digit circuits though. If you are really serious about learning computer architecture, I'd highly recommend Patterson and Hennssey . It covers the guts of how processors execute instructions, pipelining, caches, virtual memory and more.

If you're more interested in specific, modern technologies... then obviously Wikipedia, or good tech review sites. Especially reviews that focus on major new architectures. I remember reading lots of good in depth stuff about Intel's Nehalem architecture back when it was new, or nvidia's Fermi. There's a wealth of information out there about CUDA and GPU computing which may give you a sense of how GPUs are so different to CPUs. Also when I first started learning many years ago, I loved my copy of Upgrading and Repairing PCs , great for a less technical, more hobbyist perspective.

Lastly, ask questions! For example, you ask about DDR vs GDDR. Deep inside the memory chips themselves, actually not a great deal of difference. But the interface between the memory and the processor are quite different, they're designed for very different purposes. I'm simplifying here but CPUs have relatively low levels of parallism, they tend to operate on small units of memory (say a single value) at a time, they have quite unpredictable access patterns so low latency is essential, and the cores often work tightly together so coherency has to be maintained. With GPUs, they have a very predictable access pattern, so you can load much larger chunks at a time, latency is less important since you can easily keep your processors busy while memory is streamed in, and the GPUs many many tiny processors for the most part all work on separate words of memory, so coherence usually does not need to be maintained and they have much less need for caches.

The "L" (Level) naming for caches is quite simple. Memory that is closer to the core is faster to access. Generally each core has it's own L1 and L2, with L2 being slightly slower but there's more of it, and all cores share an L3, slower still but way more of it. Memory on the cpu is made out of transistors and is super fast but also takes up alot of space. Look how big the L3 is (here)[http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested] and that's just 20MB. external ram is obviously much slower, but it is made out of capacitors and has much higher densities.

I hadn't realized you had larger than average hands like me in the PM you sent me. With that being the case, the Logitech G9X is a gaming mouse that I highly recommend. It's great for your hand size, it's really comfortable, and it's high quality, and best of all, under your budget. It doesn't hurt that the Logitech G9X is Tom's Hardware's highest rated and most recommended mouse of 2013.

Don't take my word as law though, get multiple opinions.

EDIT: As red_wizard said, those are also great mice. Generally speaking, you can't go wrong with a Logitech. The only complaint I've ever read about the G500 is that some people said it is too long, which obviously is irrelevant to your hand size.

EDIT 2: Upon a little searching, the Logitech G700 is also a really great mouse, and looks extremely comfortable, since it is the same size and shape of my mouse.

As someone else mentioned, the Hennessy and Patterson Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, and the Patterson and Hennessy Computer Organization and Design are the de facto standards (I used both in my Comp. Eng. undergrad) and are really fantastic books (the latter being more "software" oriented so to speak).

They are not EE textbooks (as far as I know) but they are text books nonetheless. A great book I found that is slightly dated but gives a simplified review of many processors is Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture which is less technical but I enjoyed it very much all the same. It is NOT a textbook, and I highly, highly recommend it.

Hope that helps!

So: you need some headphones:

Sony MDR-XB700:
Decent phones, popular because they've got good bass punch, but they're unbalanced towards that range. Should be fine for gaming, but they wouldn't be my first suggestion. Suggested because those big over sized muffs are pretty comfy.

Sony MDR-SA1000: Hot damn I remember these. Great phones, comfy for long wear, easy to hear through, but easy to drown out the world by pumping up the volume a little bit. Fairly balance range response, decent sound stage, good pricing.

AKG K 701: I shit you not, these headphones have caused my girlfriend to have an orgasm. Quite possibly the finest piece of audio gear I've laid ears on, but there's a catch. You can't get orgasm-inducing sound out of them without an amp, they're just too power hungry. Though, an amp would help any of these phones. I would consult this review for a decent explanation of the amp situation.

For Microphones, I've had two of these: good audio quality, and while not good enough for audio sampling, they are great for voice comms. Personally I think that desk mics work better, since most players seem to have a hard time keeping their heatset mics from rubbing all over their faces.

Edit: Link's 'n shit.

I am currently using my T10s and I really like them, especially for the price. For gaming and general music listening they are great. They are compact but can throw out some great sound. If you want to just read reviews then newegg and amazon have a lot of them. At your price range (which was similar to mine) those are some of the best for 2.0 and what Nyclatus posted would be among the best for 2.1

If you want the best quality, headphones and a standalone microphone/clip-on microphone is the best way to go. Personally, I think it's worth it, but if you want to stay in the $50 range, the PC151s get recommended a lot, available at amazon for a pretty good price. If you are willing to increase your price range, I can recommend some slightly more appealing options.

I have a pair of JVC HA-RX900s that I adore. I got these recently (with a cheap Logitech mic) and rarely use my 2.1 system anymore. The bass is great, but not overpowering and they have a very crisp mid/high. I'm not an audiophile per say, but I love listening to jazz and play a lot of video games. From Battlefield 3 to Starcraft 2, these cans are seriously phenomenal. They have a lot of padding and are very comfortable for long gaming sessions (I've had them on for upwards of 3 hours before).

I got them for around $75, they are on Amazon for about $68 right now. Hope this mini review helps!

I use the Logitech G9. Link to G9X. Adjustable weight, multiple grips, on the fly-dpi, frictionless wire and a toggle between clicky scrollwheel and frictionless wheel. Tilting (sideways) wheel. Two thumb buttons. You can use the provided software to set up profiles for various programs and dpi etc, but you don't need to and I don't personally have it installed.

Honestly, Logitech just make ergonomic mice at a decent price and apparently have excellent customer support, I've never had a problem with this mouse and I've been gaming with it for years.

As a little extra, I don't believe this is the mouse you are looking for, but perhaps others would be interested. I'm thinking about getting one eventually but my current G9 seems to be undying. A fully (insanely!) customizable mouse at the hardware level, I don't own one (yet) so I can't say much, but it seems interesting!

I could recommend a 7.1 card, and if you must have a 7.1 sourround headset, this is a fairly swell soundcard it: Asus Xonar DS

Having done as you ask, let me ask something. Do you really need a gimmicky 7.1 Headset? Because that's what it is: a gimmick. The individual drivers in the headset will not only be smaller (and thus lose any quality in bass, and be incredibly tinny in higher trebles), but the incredibly limited space for driver placement (opposed to how with a home theater, you have the entire room to place the speakers for surround) in the headphones, meaning that you'll find it incredibly difficult to actually discern the direction of a given sound in the 3d environment of a game, making the feature ever so slightly pointless.

Infact, in my experience (I've owned both a Turtlebeach 5.1 headset, and a 7.1 Razer Megalodon), even software virtualization techniques (for example, Dolby's Pro Logic software) beat a given 7.1 equipped headset in ability to make clear the direction of a given sound.

As many no doubt will recommend you do in this thread, I must recommend you pick up a quality set of headphones, and this is a good place to start looking for one. Along with that, I'd recommend you get a quality DAC (Digital-to-Analog converter, they function kind of like soundcard, but offer alot of benefits over a sound card, at the price of being outside the computer) such as this.

Of course, it's all subjective, and there's no way for me to convince you of the lovemaking-sounds a high quality set of headphones (with a DAC) can provide, without your experiencing it yourself. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck to you.

Hey there, sorry for the slow response. The good thing is that you can likely pick up any dual antenna router without worrying about range.

That said, I would recommend looking at the DIR-655 from D-Link. I feel bad about it because it's been out for years, but at the same time that means the hardware and firmware are mature. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Extreme-N-Gigabit-Wireless/dp/B000LIFB7S/

The DIR-655 should be good for up to about 2000 to 2500 square feet, which in your case means that you'll have a strong signal throughout the apartment.

The only thing the DIR-655 doesn't have is dual band- meaning it can't transmit on 5Ghz wireless N. Dual band is nice because it's a "wifi only" signal, but not everything supports it yet. Looking forward, if you do a lot of media streaming and want to do that streaming wirelessly, you may want to look at the DIR-825, found here: http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-825-Extreme-N-Dual-Band-Gigabit/dp/B001F7HLRC/

The only drawback is that the 825 is a dual antenna model, which will put its signal at about 1500-2000 square feet.

I disagree with the other solution. I recommend a WD passport or something similar. You should only pay ~$70 for 1TB. I got one and love it - it's even USB 3 and about as fast as an internal HDD (I think like 5400RPM or something, but it's still very fast)

Well worth the money, and it's very small and light, making it better than a 3.5" with an enclosure IMO.

Edit: Link http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006Y5UV4A?pc_redir=1395426220&robot_redir=1

Not sure if this is American amazon or not...on vacation right now

Consider something like this: http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Extreme-Gigabit-Wireless/dp/B000LIFB7S

It still has the router/wireless functionality, but you can swap the included antennas (probably only a 2dBi gain) and replace them with 5's or even 9's if you're feeling frisky. Putting a parabolic dish on the back of your existing access point turns it into a directional antenna, with the beam width based on the parabola of the dish you're using. Not to mention that you need to tune the focal length of the dish-to-antenna (how far away you should place the radio from the dish), it's going to be more hassle than it's worth. If you really wanted a directional signal, you can always buy a directional antenna for the D-Link (or whatever), and you would know exactly how many degrees the beam is and where you need to place the antennas. No sense reinventing the wheel.

If you had a little cash to spend, you might consider something like this: http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-MCAB1001-Coax-Ethernet-Adapter-Black/dp/B001N85NMI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320344857&sr=8-3

I've got these running in my house and they are AWESOME. I was able to move all the network infrastructure (cable modem, firewall, access point) to an upstairs room while providing a hard network line to my PC in the downstairs living room with no speed issues at all. And since I'm not burying my antenna someplace where I can't see it, wireless signal has improved.

I own the JVC RX 700 headphones and have been really enjoying them. They have been a big hit with the audiophiles at Head-fi for a few years. I game with them all the time, but wouldn't blame you if you buy a headset w/ mic. Also at $30 it doesn't hurt the wallet like like steam just did mine. :)

I'm also a claw-gripper, I own a R.A.T. 7 and find that to be a very nice mouse. You can adjust its shape and weight a lot so you can make it fit to your hand better.

However, it is a bit expensive. If you don't want to spend that much I'd suggest going for the Logitech G9X, its similar to the R.A.T 7 in size/shape and it can also be customized to your needs. My friend has one so I can attest to its quality and I have used it.

If that is still out of your budget I'd suggest the CM Storm Spawn. It is a very affordable claw-grip mouse, but it is just as high in quality as mice twice its price. It doesn't have any customization options but it is built with optimizations for natural claw-grippers.

TL;DR: R.A.T. 7 = ~$90, Logitech G9X = ~$60, CM Storm Spawn = ~$35 Buy whichever is within your budget.

I noticed it uses a usb volume control. Maybe one of your usb ports has a poor voltage regulator and is emitting interference through the power bus? It's worth checking by plugging into other sources.Anyway that sound card was on razer's recommended list but I've never heard that headset myself so I can't comment on weather it would benefit from that sound card. If that's too expensive I'd go for this. I've had good experience with Asus sound cards and I tend to stay far away from creative due to my experience with them.

WD has two flavors of external drive, their "Desktop" series which is large drives that weight over 1kg and their "portable" variety which is laptop drives in cases which are a few hundred grams.

The Elements series is their basebones "drive-encased-in-plastic" model, it has very little else, no software preloaded on it.

The Passport series is slightly more fleshed out, it has backup software built in and security features to protect it from theft or something like that.

Oddly, I'm seeing the passport series of the portable drives selling for less on amazon than the elements are, I'd recommend one of the mypassport series

The Coolermaster Notepal U3 is a good alternative as well. Try posting to /r/suggestalaptop if you want some more opinions.

Also just out of interest, when was the last time you cleaned the fans on your laptop? Surely it wouldn't just overheat under normal loads (gaming)? Are you by any chance blocking the fan inlet?

I have these in my backpack for when I'm on the go Shure e2c's

http://www.amazon.com/Shure-E2c-Sound-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B0000CE1UO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310616555&sr=8-1

and these when I at home akg k-240's

http://www.amazon.com/AKG-Acoustics-K-240-Studio-Headphones/dp/B0001ARCFA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1310616614&sr=1-1

they are both great, the akg's are open air so you dont get noise cancellation but for listening to music they are a joy along with gaming too. The shure ones are like wearing ear plugs with sound drivers built in. They can really transport you as you can't hear anything besides the music in its full range.

Low level stuff is pretty academic. You need textbooks just to get started.

These were my college textbooks (I have earlier editions):

Computer Architecture: A Quantative Approach

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface

The material is pretty dry but if you can slog through it you will gain good insight into how and why chips and systems are designed the way they are.

Below this level is logic gate design where if you don't have a background in semiconductor physics you'd never get through it.

Having used both, I would have to say avoid Grado SR 60i for games. It is just too harsh. That being said I absolutely love the way they sound.

For the AKGs I would suggest the full sized model:

AKG K240
Cheaper and better (subjectively).

Both work fine without an Amplifier; however, the Grados benefit from an amp than the AKGs.

Something like this?

Bluetooth seems to be more common though. I'm guessing there wasn't a huge need for it, since by the time you could fit all the necessary hardware into a package that small (wireless usb dongles for early laptops required the laptop to do the software part), you could just include wireless capability with everything that may need it (any laptop or even smaller like a Chromecast for example).

I think the list of stuff it can do is just marketing, I can't see why it would work with some USB devices and not others.

I would assume it's really all down to the drivers that convert the network data into USB inputs for the OS, I would expect the designer to design it dumb so that what ever the USB device sent to the sharing station got sent over the network with no interpretation what so ever so that the maximum possible number of devices could be supported.

http://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Wireless-Sharing-Station-GUWIP204/product-reviews/B0058DN1Q4

Reviews here suggest that it does work with mice and keyboards but some issues with uncommon hardware like an Oscilloscope, seems like it might be dodgy drivers that need to be able to see the device before they allow you to install them.

Your use case seems pretty niche then. I'd consider myself a power user, and i've barely used 1TB of storage on my system. A 500GB SSD, and something like [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Blue-1TB-Laptop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00DCM91WQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465612298&sr=1-1&keywords=7mm+hdd) would be enough for most people, and [this would be good enough for most of the rest] (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Seagate-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000LM003/dp/B00I8O6OQ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465612418&sr=1-1&keywords=9mm&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_three_browse-bin%3A4990425011%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A8067152011)

Obviously 5400rpm will be balls for people who work with media, but for purely consumption, it should be fine.

cooler master U series is pretty good:
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-NotePal-Notebook-R9-NBC-8PCK-G/dp/B003ZMF27G/ref=pd_cp_e_0

EDIT: forgot to mention, you can move the fans on this one. So any hot areas can be covered.

This is the best notebook cooler you'll ever find. It's made of solid aluminum, has three movable fans, and also tilts you laptop to the proper angle for typing.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-NotePal-Notebook-R9-NBC-8PCK-G/dp/B003ZMF27G/

i used this book for my first comparch course, written by the guys who pioneered RISC and MIPS

goes over just about everything for the basics of how computer processors work, you can find a pdf online pretty easily

I do computer repair and we use this thing at work to test PSUs.

Your best bet really is just to test it with a power supply you know works though.

Here you go. Works like a charm and will eliminate any noise from interference in the case.


Behringer UCA202

JVC HA-RX700

Not sure if you needed a headset (with an attached mic), but these seem to be a good option without a mic.

My personal recommendation. I've had these for probably 4-5 years now and the microphone finally went out last year after I rolled over the cord a few thousand times. They're sturdy and extremely comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. Also, my ears/head don't really sweat while I'm wearing these.

> Textbooks aren't much of a thing because so much information is available online and technology changes so fast.

That's

• really
  
• not
  
• true
  
  and I'm not just pointing out that those books exist. They're really good resources!

I've been using this Western Digital for a couple of months now and it's been great so far. Super fast, very small, quiet. If I had any complaint it would be that the cable it came with was fairly short, maybe a foot and a half long. Since you're using it on a laptop though that probably won't be an issue.

Maybe something like this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RL84OY/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&keywords=usb%20desk%20mic&qid=1344618485&sr=8-24
I have a Blue Mics Snowball, myself. But they cost a bit more.

This book I highly recommend, its currently on the 19th edition with the 20th releasing shortly. It covers the details of every single piece of pc hardware in depth.

Its probably using MRSP of notebook HDDs and MRSP of SSDs. And the cheapest 2.5" HDD I see is 4.7c/gb. So only a x4-x5 price gap for the notebook market.
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00I8O6OQ4/?tag=pcpapi-20

If you are only interested in a smaller amount of storage (500GB-1TB), its closer to x3-x5 the cost for SSD over a similar-sized HDD.

at that price range you would get more bang for your buck getting an actual studio quality headset and a clip on mic, like the JVC HARX900 with a zalman mic. I personally use the HA-RX700, which is almost half the price.

"gaming" headsets are a marketing gimmick.

If you do pc repair often one of these http://www.amazon.com/A2358-Dr-Power-Supply-Tester/dp/B000P0L45K/ can be very useful. Dunno if it's worth $15 for just one problem though.

Maybe you shocked or damaged the portion of the motherboard that controls the onboard audio. You could try using an add-in sound card instead. They are really cheap. I got this one: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Xonar-Channels-Interface-Sound/dp/B002VAD716. Works well. Sounds awesome.

As just about everyone has said, Mike Myer's book works quite well. I just went for my certification within the past couple months, after putting it off for years (got my previous job before I got the cert, so there wasn't incentive to actually test). My wife is now going through the book to learn more about how things work, and the biggest thing keeping her going is the style of writing for the book - it's not nearly as monotonous as you would expect from a tech writing.

http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

This is the one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/APC-BE550G-Back-UPS-Outlet-550VA/dp/B0019804U8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372620408&sr=8-2&keywords=backup+battery

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momentus-SpinPoint-ST2000LM003-Notebook/dp/B00I8O6OQ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1414998559&sr=1-1&keywords=Samsung+Seagate+Momentus+SpinPoint+ST2000LM003+2TB+2.5%22+SATA+Notebook+Hard+Drive+9.5MM

Upgrading and Repairing PCs (20th Edition) by Scott M. Mueller

Here you go. It uses a USB port so you can still use your stereo system.

I learned mostly from:

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Fifth-Quantitative-Approach/dp/012383872X

But this has alot of information in it, and was the book for the prerequisite of the class I took that Used the above book:


http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-Design-Fourth-Architecture/dp/0123744938

I used a version of Mike Myer's CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide about 12 years ago to past my A+. The test has changed a lot in the last decade. Get this book a try.
http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Certification-Seventh-220-701-220-702/dp/0071701338/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Do your speakers not have their own phone/mic jacks? I use these quite modest ones and they have ports on the side.

Well in the case of a Keyboard it will need power so unless this wireless adapter has a battery it will not work. I'll give it some google fu but I do not think what you want exists.

This might not be exactly what you want but it should give you something to think about:

https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Wireless-Sharing-Station-GUWIP204/dp/B0058DN1Q4

I am wearing some JVC headphones right now. I think they are comfy, even for a long period of time, and my wife and kids are always complaining that I can't hear them, even when the sound is not cranked up. They are not too expensive either.

What sort of horror stories have you heard? The batteries are designed to be user replaceable and (though I've never done this one) are typically very easy. Also, if you think that one is going (it will actually tell you when the battery has failed a self test on its built in web-page) you could swap the entire APC unit out with the one from your router. Even with a bad battery it should be able to keep your router up for longer than your desktop connected to an APC with a good battery.

Also no need for a surge protector. You can hook one to it, or hook it into one, and it won't hurt it though. Just take care not to draw more than the device can handle.

And it may be a little overkill to have one of these just for a fios box and one just for a router. You'll get many many times the run time on those two as your will your TV or especially your tower. Something like this would still keep those two boxes up far longer than your PC and cost a fraction.