Posts

Is “Fanboyism” Actually A GOOD Thing For The PC Industry?! Many people in technology rightly point to really toxic comments and behaviors from a small majority of fans – whether that’s “AMD Fanboys” or Intel/NVIDIA fans. Clearly toxic behaviour is always wrong, but can generally “fanboyism” actually be a force for good in some cases? That’s the question that I discuss in today’s video. I have been reflecting on the post-Bulldozer launch of 2011 (the disappointing AMD CPU launch) and how it felt like Intel just pumped out marginally improved CPUs each year because of the lack of competition....

Fix Windows 11’s ANNOYING Right Click Menu (How To Always Show 7Zip Without “Show More Options”) When I set-up a new PC, I always used to install Notepad++ and 7Zip. Unfortunately when I moved to Windows 11two years ago, both of these programs were hidden away. Right clicking files would just present me with a bunch of useless options. Thankfully there are six good ways to ‘fix’ the Windows 11 context menu (right click menu) behaviour....

Mercusys MS108GP PoE Switch Review (Is This Mercusys Switch Reliable… And Safe?!) I recently installed a range of PoE CCTV cameras across my property, which are streaming 3K and 4K video data to my Synology NAS 24/7. As a result, I needed a safe and reliable Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch that would powermy CCTV camerasAND ALSO reliably handle the large amount of 24/7 camera footage. Unfortunately the ‘big name’ brands like TP-Link and Netgear were fairly expensive, so I ended up taking my previous advice (that the make of network switch doesn’t matter) and buying the Mercusys MS108GP PoE network switch....

You DON’T Need 64 Gigs of RAM (How To Choose RAM In 2024 & Beyond) I’m a big fan of browsing tech forums and sub-Reddits. But sometimes the discussions are a bit… over the top. Someone will ask for help with a new build, and a bunch of comments say that they’ll need 32GB or even 64GB of RAM. Is this really the case? Well thankfully not. MOST of the time, you can get by just fine with less RAM – even 16GB of RAM can often still work fine in 2024 and beyond....

Got A Spare $23k? This BIZON ZX5500 PC Even Supports 4K Minesweeper! A recent Reddit postshowed a PC for sale for… wait for it… $22,500! Can any PC really be worth this much? Well as it turns out, this isn’t an over-the-top gaming PC. This is a BIZON ZX5500 AI and deep learning workstation and it comes with a 32 core Threadripper Pro CPU, 512GB of RAM and 192GB of VRAM due to its four (yes, 4!...

“4k” Image Quality Is A Con – Why 4k Varies So Much (Sony A6600 vs Samsung S20 vs Annke PoE Cam) It always bugs me when companies tout their new smart phones, using marketing phrases like “ultra sharp 4K recording quality”. In reality “4k” image quality can vary a LOT. To demonstrate this, I compared footage taken from my Sony A6600 DSLR camera, my Samsung S20 smartphone and an Annke PoE CCTV camera....

Why M.2 Drives Are ‘Single’ or ‘Double’ Sided (& Why It Matters) There’s always a new type of storage on the horizon. One of the most recent changes has been the addition of double-sided M.2 SSDs. These drives have been raising questions about features and compatibility that we’re going to take a closer look at. M.2 drives can be single-sided or double-sided based on how many chips they have. Double-sided drives have chips on both sides while single-sided drives only use one side for chip placement....