1. ECC support -- If the memory of your QNAP gets corrupted, then your data is lost in transit. By buying ECC Memory, I virtually guarantee that this will not happen to me. (ECC RAM is very similar in concept to RAID6 or RAID5, except instead of for disks ECC RAM is for RAM). Because the entire computer I built is out of ECC RAM, I have one more layer of assurances that the data is safe.
   
   I have unconfirmed ECC Support. Error Correction does not work on this motherboard as I hoped.
   
   
2. ZFS Support -- ZFS is an enterprise filesystem designed to store data and store data well. Bitrot can destroy your data EVEN if you are running RAID drives. By using ZFS (which is constantly scrubbing, checksumming, and double-checking the data), my system is immune to bitrot. Your typical NAS is not.
   
   
3. The Motherboard immediately supports 6 hard drives. The QNAP only supports 2-drives. In the future, when I buy more drives, I can easily expand my computer. The QNAP is stuck with 2-bay at the maximum.
   
   
4. I'm comfortable with FreeBSD -- This is a soft advantage, but I work with Linux systems at work (and Windows at home and work). So I'm very comfortable with tools like RSync and the command line in general. In any case, I have a clear backup strategy for the NAS: insert an external hard drive (probably NTFS formatted) and then RSync the data to the hard drive, and then store the hard drive elsewhere.
   
   
5. ZFS Snapshots -- ZFS has a lot of advantages. Another major advantage that I plan to take advantage of is snapshots. The entire disk can be stored as a snapshot that only takes up space when files are modified. With ZFS Snapshots, I can rollback the filesystem very easily.
   
   
6. I have a full PC -- This box is a fully functioning PC. If I decided to splurge, I can buy a SAS Card and then start chunking out LTO6 tapes (Which are only $30 for 2.5TB of storage). Granted, a LTO6 Tape Drive is extremely expensive, but a "full PC" has almost no limit to the customization options available to me. A more realistic option is to just buy a cheap expansion card and support maybe... 4 more hard drives in my case for only a $40 upgrade.
   
   ----------
   
   So basically, my points come down to:
   
   
7. Reliability (ECC RAM)
   
8. Reliability (ZFS Protection vs Bitrot)
   
9. ZFS Snapshots and Cloning.
   
10. Expandability (6-SATA drives easy. More with a cheap expansion card)
    
11. Expandability
    
12. I personally have familiarity with *nix command line and can comfortably do advanced tasks on Nas4Free beyond what is even available on the WebGUI.
    
    Bitrot is a very simple problem to understand. What happens if instead of failing, a Hard Drive starts returning bad data to you? In traditional RAID, the hard drive has NOT crashed, so parity will not be checked. The file may be corrupted despite RAID protecting you. ZFS adds more checks to protect against this problem, while traditional RAID (which most NAS uses) do not.
    
    There are additional features that are interesting (Webserver support, Bittorrent support, DLNA server, Headless Virtualbox). But I don't plan to do anything complicated. So I'm mostly focused on reliability.
    
    Of course, NAS4Free supports the standard NAS features. You can easily add hard drives to zpools which can then be added to datastores. Volumes can be exported with iSCSI. Datastores can be exported using CIFS / Samba for Microsoft support, NFS for Linux Support, AFP support to support Mac OSX... or all three if you got a complicated setup. QNAP, Synology and all the commercial solutions will get you at least this much, which is hugely useful.

Alright, incoming rant.

Let's start off with the difference of 5.1 vs 7.1, shall we? The logitec set is only $10 more expensive and it's full 7.1 not just 5.1, surely it's got superior sound quality! Well, no. No it does not. Why? It's a pair of headphones, and this particular pair is powered by two drivers. Now this raises the question, what the hell is a driver?!? Put simply, a driver is the speaker cone, it makes the sound. Technically, it's a piece of <material> ringed with <metal> with a small disk in the middle, with a high powered magnet behind it, that's where the power consumption is from. The magnet receives anywhere from 44.1 thousand to 192 thousand on/off signals per second, depending on your sound card's settings and capabilities.

But back to that 5.1/7.1 thing. The logicec set decodes the audio in 7.1, which means if you play back something in 7.1 out of the computer, it will not be converted to your setup at that stage. The feature of 5.1 or 7.1 is strictly a *marketing gimmic. Any headphones made by almost any company other than sennheiser, audio technica, shure, head-direct, or <other makers of fine small driver gear> will be only meh sounding, and importantly, only powered by 2 drivers.

So, what exactly does 5.1 vs 7.1 mean in this case? Well, it means jack shit. At the driver level, both of them convert to 2.0, meaning two channels, left and right. Typical 7.1 would be front center, front left, front right, rear right, rear left, right, left, bass (bass being the 0.1). 5.1 is the same without the dedicated left and right outputs. The problem here? I just told you these headphones only have two outputs, and will only ultimately read to left and right. Sure, logitec vied for the chip that costs an extra $2 so they can write 7.1, but that means nothing here.

Understand that the 7.1 vs 5.1 is meaningless now? Good.

-----

Thermaltake has stuck to the more technically relevant specs in their listing, terms like "diffuse-field equalized " and nominal ohms mean nothing to the end user, and again, with only two drivers will make no difference at the end of the day.

What you should take form this is that both sets have the same reproduction range (high to low / vice versa) and have the same impedance (sound dampening/time treating, nothing to be worried about, 32ohms is normal.) Your Ohm count only needs to be raised when doing mega-scale amplifying, because high frequency sound moves faster than low frequency sound and you might get audible "tearing" without adjusting it on the ultra-loud end. Again, nothing to worry about, this doesn't matter here.

----

So, blah blah blah rant rant rant, what do I recommend? Well, I recommend getting a good pair of headphones, and a cheap mic. This is the internet and your voice is being transmitted at anywhere from 16 to 84 kilobits per second (your music is probably being played at 128 or 320kbps), in short, studio mics won't have studio level performance for this.

So, recommendations.

Do you want in-ear headphones (some are called earbuds, what I will recommend here are IEMs, in-ear monitors [a monitor is an expensive driver/speaker cone])? Or do you want over-ear headphones? Over-ear phones typically have better quality, but can be uncomfortable. Likewise, in-ear phones will be more convenient, but probably sound a bit worse and have a bit less bang for your buck, while possibly being less comfortable.

IEMs:

1 - Absolute sonic clarity, across the board even and neutral reproduction: HeadDirect RE0's + Zalman mic - total: $95.09 - These babies sound much more like the dramatically more expensive IE8s than otehr ~$100 headphones, top notch recommendation. The average listener would probably miss bass, however.

2 High bass - Bose IE2 + Zalman mic - Total: $111.05 - This is your best bet if you want the best sounding headphones at face value, the drivers in these are pretty damn bass heavy and will sound amazing to the common man, an audiophile would want something with more neutrality and better across-the-board sound quality. Additionally, the stayhear tips are surprisingly effective, if you wanted to take them out with you. Jogging, riding a bus, in a car, they won't fall out.

-

Over-Ear's

1 -best quality Sennheiser HD555's + Zalman mic - Total: $116.07 - worth every penny.

I haven't read it, but it looks pretty good. I can personally vouch for this book however:

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C8KMCKES83EHGXS3VWSQ

It's truly amazing. I'm currently an EE PhD student but I had a pretty limited background in digital hardware and computer architecture, and I read most of this book just out of interest a little while ago and frankly learned quite a bit. It's written at a very readable level for anyone with almost no prior knowledge, yet gets technical when it needs to. It's very thorough, but approaches the topics at a wonderful and easy pace with very clear explanations. The author even says you can skip some of the more technical details if they're not of interest to you, and you'll still end up learning quite a lot. The book you posted looks pretty similar, so I'd say it's worth a shot.

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.

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.

I recommend the Logitech G400. It's like the G500, but with less bells and whistles, and a better sensor. If you must have programmable buttons, just go with the G500.

A good attempt at the 'best of both worlds' is the newer G400S, but I don't have any personal experience with it. As far as I know, it's just an improved version of the G400, with more features.

Buffalo G300NH Not bleeding edge but has good feature set, comes with dd-wrt pre-installed but also has an option for buffalo firmware, wifi is strong and has good range, the gigabit ethernet support is nice too.

I clean the interior of my PC about every 2 months with a DataVac. As some people already posted, this can be found here.

Now, for your photo. Yes, crevices of peripherals can get very nasty. I am actually surprised someone didn't post this yet, but Super Clean High Tech Cleaning Compound is the bees knees. I use this stuff all the time.

What it is, is a slime like pliable substance that sticks to small particles. You can roll it over keyboards, mouses, in crevices, over fan grills, etc., and it will pull all the gunk out. I have quite a few packs of these in my desk.

Happy cleaning.

Awesome. You made me remember how much I love my mouse pad.

I've had a func surface mouse pad since I was 14... whoa, that was 8 years ago now... and I still use it every day, it works perfectly still.

I can't believe their store looks like it's closed. I think they didn't survive because their product was so good that nobody ever needed a second one. ( www.func.net )

Here's an amazon page for it:
http://www.amazon.com/INDUSTRIES-Mouse-Surface-Mousepad-Black/dp/B0006U572A

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

Vacuum cleaners are supposed to be pretty bad for some reasons, but my mom used one when I was a kid and we never had any problems on that front. These days though, I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500P-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001U899HQ

​

They are a little pricy, but they do a good job and you won't have to deal with replacing canned air.

​

I'd also recommend a small brush for getting the fans.

​

EDIT: https://www.amazon.com/Brushes-Portable-Cleaning-Keyboard-Interior/dp/B07CQH78NS

​

Something like the toothbrush looking one will do good for cleaning fans off. Alternatively you can just use a cheap toothbrush.

Well, with audio, quality of sound and product often go hand in hand. My point about the headphone/mic combo stands. The quality on headsets, from my experience, pail in comparison.

For your budget, /r/headphones recommends the [Panasonic RP-HTF600-S] (http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RPHTF600S-RP-HTF600-S-Stereo-Headphones/dp/B004MMEI8W) with the [Zalman clip-on mic.] (http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ)
You can see down in the review section that someone published a video using the mic, and it sounds pretty good.

At $80, I would still stick to the PC151. The next worthwhile upgrade (in my opinion atleast) is going to Sennheiser HD280s and this zalman clip-on. The 280 pros are extremely solid headphones that are pretty comfortable in the long run. I picked the zalman because the sound quality is pretty good as long as you make sure to set the volume right. I haven't compared it side-by-side to other microphones, but the sound quality is satisfactory for me. I had to turn my microphone volume up just a tad, but otherwise the zalman has worked well.

The Triple 5's have a very good Quality/Cost ratio. I have them myself, they are excellent.

If you want a mic, use a Zalman Clip-On, which fits perfectly on the headphone's audio cable. Again, quality is good for the price.

IMO, i don't like headphones that are branded as "Gaming" ones, i feel the standard models are better, well that's my experience.

you could get a Sennheiser 202 II that is superb for the price range

oh yeah, i forgot, someone already mentioned this mic, it will be perfect for what you need

EDIT:spelling

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?

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.

I have a Zalman clip on and it works great. Haven't actually listened to the quality but all my squadmates say I sound good. The only con with the thing is the clip, it pinches my headphone cord quite hard but that would be a case by case basis. For the money its a great investment.

If you're willing to spend $100+, the Sennheiser HD555 and a Zalman clip-on mic are a popular choice for gaming. The HD555 has a giant soundstage and excellent sound quality.


The ATH-AD700 is a good choice as well.

Unless you're trying to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of a fixed system (e.g. say you're reprogramming the firmware for Voyager I and II), writing software to only work for a specific piece of hardware is generally a bad idea. Yeah, it's nice and interesting to know how Sandy Bridge's branch prediction or reordering buffer works, but if your code is depending on that, then you're signing yourself up for software maintenance nightmare.

As for where to learn about CPUs, go with textbooks. Go with Hennessy & Patterson. That edition is from 2011. I graduated more than a decade ago and have the 2nd edition, which talks alot about MIPS architecture. I don't know if this latest edition has recent updates. However, as my professor like to say, most of the ideas of speeding up CPUs have been invented in the 60s. It's just that fabrication technology has improved enough in recent times that allow those ideas to actually be implementable. The more recent trends are all for low power savings, clock scaling, turning on and off parts of the processor when it is not in use, so a lot of micromanaging of all the different parts of the CPU.

Wikipedia has lots of details too, but you have to know the terms to search to find the articles. Here's a few terms off the top of my head that might help you get started: Branch Prediction, mis-prediction penalty, instruction bubbles, Cache, Memory Subsystem, TLB, Register Renaming, Reorder Buffer, ALUs, execution units. Vector processors vs. Scalar processors, Super-scalar processors. SIMD (single instruction multiple data), data hazards, instruction prefetching, simultaneous multithreading (SMT) aka hyperthreading, IO virtualization.

You mean like these?

I've had a surprising amount of success with heatsinks like those on a few overclocked Raspberry Pis.

I use the Logitech G400, which is apparently much more expensive now that the G400s came out.

The G400 and G400s use the same contoured shape for the mouse like MX518 (guess which mouse i used before?), which has been my main consideration when buying it.

This also has to do with how you hold the mouse, called your Mouse Grip. I've found the G400 body shape to be the most comfortable if you have a "Palm Grip" on your Mouse. Where as the shape of the Razer DeathAdder is more suited for the "Claw" and "Fingertip" Grips.

I should also mention that this styling is really only conducive to people who use their right hand to control their mouse as the shape is molded with the buttons on the left side of the mouse, assuming they will be hit with the thumb.

It sounds like your system is having some trouble in general, but I strongly suggest getting a Zalman NC-3000 notebook cooler.

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-NC3000U-NC-3000U-Notebook-Cooler/dp/B003OXC2ZQ/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834994226

I have used and still use this notebook cooler for gaming notebooks of up to 17" and it works great.

Well damn, wish I had realized that when I got these ones. I usually do a lot of research but when I got these I was "!!!" about having just had a motherboard cook.

Unfortunately I went through their Trade-UPS system and it's offering me $70 off on an SMT1000 Smart-UPS for one of my XS 1500s. Assuming they'll do the same for my other one, and maybe $30 for the secondary battery, I'm still looking at $290 for it and I'll have a much lower runtime.

On the other hand I'm seeing line conditioners between $3 and five brazilian dollars, which is apparently a lot. For example.

Problem with that one is one of the reviews saying it "clicks" on and I don't think that will be much better than the backups. If I could find one that smoothly fixes the power for $100 or so I could keep the current battery capacity and have the power regulated. Best of both worlds, if possible.

Audio Technica ATH-AD700

Zalman Microphone

Simply superb combination. Throw in a Xonar DG is you want a nice (and cheap) sound card to bring it all together.

This is a great start, as it explains and goes into great detail regarding cpu/gpu architectures: Computer Architecture, Fifth Edition: A Quantitative Approach

Another one that goes to low level is: Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

>"He starts with basic principles of language and logic and then demonstrates how they can be embodied by electrical circuits, and these principles give him an opening to describe in principle how computers work mechanically without requiring very much technical knowledge"

-wiki

This, definitely. I bought one last year and love it. Tons of customization options too, via stock built-in dd-wrt.

On Amazon UK same pad cost about $48, gotta love American prices (apart from healthcare, that is ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/ Not an air compressor, but a lot more portable for $49. I love it.

RTX 2080;
https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GeForce-Windforce-DisplayPort-GV-N2080WF3-8GC/dp/B07J5LCQNF/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=RTX+2080&qid=1550070196&s=gateway&sr=8-7


Which I see listed as; "

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G GDDR6 DisplayPort 1.4 HDMI 2.0B USB Type-C with Windforce Triple Fan Design RGB Fusion Graphic Cards- GV-N2080WF3-8GC

by Gigabyte 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 $699.99 Get it Fri, Feb 15 - Sat, Feb 16 FREE Shipping by Amazon Only 5 left in stock (more on the way). "


and the RTX 2080 Ti just disappeared some hours ago, sorry. But it was on Amazon.com for me apx. ~2-3 listings below the RTX 2080 @ $699.

I use this and can say It blows! (Pun intended)

It works so well that i have started to use it all over the place. I blew all the pine needles off my patio, blew all of the crumbs out of my toaster and oh yea i blew the dust out of my computer case. Comes with a nice assortment of attachments and extenders.

I recommend you sit your box outside and go to work.

Here is a working link to Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001J4ZOAW/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1348088421&sr=8-1

Most people love it. I might buy one soon as well.

Sennheiser HD 558's : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FEEY9A/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

+

Zalman Clip on mic : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029MTMQ/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

This combo has superior audio quality and mic quality while also allowing you to have independent headphones and mics that can combine.

This will be much better than almost any headset you can get, especially for $190.

> It's $120! Lol....not so budgety....

What? What crackhead is charging that much. According to ebay the MX518 is $39. It wasn't even that much new in 2006...I got mine on sale for $35, msrp $50.

I just noticed a cheap G400, the successor to the 518.

*edit: I just noticed there's a $25 MX518 on my ebay link, and a $29 free shipping 4th from the top.

The book that fits here is Code, by Charles Petzold. Not a textbook, more a general CS divulgation book, but is gold. The author explains the very basics of how a computer works in a very gradual way. You end up thinking, as you said, is amazing what we have. Complex async graphical UIs, distributed systems, virtualization... I work on IT for more than 10 years and still can't believe we have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

Don't buy gaming headsets. You get a crappy pair of headphones with a barely audible mic glued to the frame. This is my gaming setup that also works well with movies and music. These headphones have a god like sound stage, and you won't regret them. The mic is good, but there are better available for more money and if you don't like it you can replace it, unlike the crappy mics on gaming headsets. Also if you think the headphones are loose you can put a rubber band between the inner head rests and they fit like a dream.

http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-AD700-Open-air-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B000CMS0XU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371750942&sr=8-1&keywords=ath+700

and

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=zg_bs_173454_10

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/

FWIW airflow actually isn't very important in real-world testing. LTT did an experiment and found that you need to basically fill the entire inside with blankets before there's a difference.

Also the issue with m.2 overheating can be 100% addressed by mounting some stick-on RAM heat sinks you can get for a few bucks on Amazon like these: https://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Copper-Cooling-Heatsinks-cooler/dp/B00637X42A

They're a good idea even if you have an open case and water cooling.

Couldn't you just get a nice pair of Sennheiser 558s and a Zalman mic? I'd recommend that over 'gaming' headsets any day of the week.

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

By 650+ do you mean the [GeForce GTX 650]
(http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-1024MB-Graphics-01G-P4-2650-KR/dp/B00966IU4M/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1380592302&sr=1-1&keywords=gtx+650)? This would get the job done nicely for my "normal" software development? And worst case I would use DVI,DVI,DP+adapter, right?

But If I want to rotate back to horizontal and have the stepson over and blow his mind with BF4, then I need something more like the GeForce GTX780?

Am I getting the general gist of what you're throwing out? (Thanks again, your help is steering me in the right direction and at the right research.)

edit - small question

I have a Func Industries Surface 1030 that I'm a fan of. It has two sides of varying slickness, a slip-proof base, a cord-holder, and it's quite thin. Definitely thinner than a cloth mousepad; probably 3-4 mm thick. You can find them online for between 15 and 25 dollars.

func surface 1030.

It was recommended by PCGamer around 2003-2004 (which is when I picked it up), since then I feel that no mousing surface has been superior. When I miss headshots, I'm now certain it's my fault rather than my mouse's.

It's actually the only object that has survived multiple computer (and monitor) upgrades.

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

As the title implies, it's not just about hardware, it goes into how software is written for hardware as well. But it's a really cool book, takes you from the very basics of circuitry (a battery, a light bulb, and wire) in the first chapter, and building only on things taught in the book gets you to a fully working computer.

Really sad to see them go. I've been a longtime user and fan of Zalman's Zm-Mic1 and cooling hardware. The mic is really good compared to how much it cost so it was always a mic I could recommend to gamers or people that just wanted to skype.

> 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!

What you want is a voltage regulator ($50) and a standard surge protector ($10) plugged into that. The voltage regulator protects your devices by conditioning the line against droop and spike. Voltage coming from your wall not otherwise conditioned will have fluctuations that can damage equipment. A UPS is pretty useless unless you absolutely need a few minutes of power during an outage to save a file or shutdown gracefully. The reality is auto-save makes this pretty obsolete and a hard shutoff of power is far less damaging than the ongoing fluctuations your voltage experiences every day.

Here's the one you want: http://www.amazon.com/APC-LE1200-Automatic-Voltage-Regulator/dp/B00009RA60

I've never found a "gaming headset" that had anywhere near good enough audio quality.

Why not just get yourself a cheap desktop mic. and a decent pair of audiophile headphones?

http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Technology-Nfiniti-Wireless-N-WZR-HP-G300NH/dp/B0028ACYEK/ref=sr_1_15?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1287815470&sr=1-15

Comes with DDwrt preloaded. supports tomato.. good specs.. been using it for sometime and no issues.

If you want textbooks, Hennessy and Patterson's Computer Architecure 5th ed. is the de facto standard taught at most universities. It's a pretty good book, and shouldn't bog you down too much with equations. It won't help you evaluate components, but you will learn a lot of the underlying principles that are used in modern processors.

You could upgrade to HD555 for about $30 more.

If you do some research, you'll actually see that you can mod these in your own home to be the HD595 exactly, meaning a $150 ($350 before discount) pair of headphones for $70.

I got lucky and found a used HD555 for 40 bucks, which was a steal!

I've heard good things about this mic: http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microphone-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

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.

Something like this?

RAM heatsinks? Just get, like some of these. Or anything that's copper or aluminum and roughly RAM-chip-sized, and thermal-tape it to the RAM.

A clip on mic would have been much easier. They're cheap too.

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.

You can purchase a microphone separately...I recommend a Zalmna ZM-1

I'unno if it's an air compressor, but I'm planning on getting one of these things when I get a chance.

Buffalo AirStation High Power N300 Gigabit Wireless Router & AP WZR-HP-G300NH $65 from Amazon

Powered by DD-WRT, leading open-source firmware equipped with robust and high-performance features for custom configuration.

I've found that I can't really hear much when I have my sound playing with my open-air ATH-AD700. Unfortunately they have the side affect of being mini speakers; so everyone else can hear you.

OP: Whatever is in your price range from here (closed is better for isolation) plus this

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.

They have an updated version called the G400s. Only difference I can see is 4000dpi (instead of 3600), and different cosmetics.

It's a few bucks cheaper on Amazon right now, compared to the G400.

in my opinion, cans of compressed air are a waste of money.

http://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW This can save you money long term.

You might want to consider investing in one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-Approach-Kaufmann/dp/012383872X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496689447&sr=8-1&keywords=Computer+architecture

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'm looking to buy this one if I can't find any decent websites

https://www.amazon.ca/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

I've owned a pair of Sennheiser HD555's for 4 years and counting. The only wear and tear so far has been fixed by a single strip of electrical tape.
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1321122676&sr=1-1

Depending on your intended use, I'd suggest the CAL!, Sony MDR-V6, or Audio Technica ATH AD700 with a Zalman clip-on mic.

With any of these headphones plus the mic, you will get much higher sound quality than any headset in the price range.

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

I've never had one of those, so I can't vouch for the quality of it, but it appears to be a decent mic.

I use this with my AudioTechnica AD700, works perfect...

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microphone-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

[These] (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10823&cs_id=1082302&p_id=8323&seq=1&format=2) and this.

Already exists:

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/

http://www.amazon.com/INDUSTRIES-Mouse-Surface-Mousepad-Black/dp/B0006U572A

$17 is expensive?

There's this: http://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1324273148&sr=1-1

Get a Datavac.

Datavac duster

https://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500P-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001U899HQ/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_229_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1KSKYNWVVDW9T5AF7GTE

Logitech G400s

There's also the G400s: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G400s-Optical-Gaming-910-003589/dp/B00BCEK2LA

I'd only recommend that if your sinks arrive with very soft thermal pad material, like that which you'll find on your main Gelid VRM sink, instead of actual thermal tape. I don't know what adhesive you have on hand but most thermal adhesive is permanent, so just be aware if you choose that route.

I ordered these sinks and this tape which is actually 3M 8815. After wasting about 30 minutes installing one sink with the 3M tape, I just went with the OEM applied stuff for the other fifteen. Several months and tons of heat later all 16 sinks are stuck so well they may as well be considered structural. Surface prep and application technique are where the battle is won or lost.

Most people recommend the Zalman Zm-Mic1 - a steal for $9.99.

Canned air is shit. Get something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/

I have one and it's a solid purchase.

FUNC surfaces. There is nothing better.

http://www.amazon.com/INDUSTRIES-Mouse-Surface-Mousepad-Black/dp/B0006U572A/

Zalman clip on mic gets great reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

I've used one for a long time and so have many others. This seems to be the 'go to' mic for people who want a proper set of cans + a mic instead of crappy can + mic combo 'gaming' heatsets people waste money on.

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach

This is THE classic textbook on CPU design. It was written by John Hennessy the creator of MIPS CPU who went to Stanford and David Patterson the creater of the SPARC CPU from Berkeley. I've probably talked to 50 engineers over the years and everyone used the same book. I interviewed new grads last year and they are still using the same book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Hennessy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Patterson_%28computer_scientist%29


This is the current 5th edition.

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

I used the 2nd edition back in 1997. You can get it for 1 penny used. Considering that 3 of the students I interviewed last year did the exact same 3 projects I did 18 years before I'm not sure that you need the new edition!

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-Approach-Second/dp/1558603298/


There are other books on analog circuits, logic design, layout etc. I linked to a very basic intro to layout book elsewhere in the thread.

The sophomore level intro to digital logic design class used this book. This explains AND / OR gates and flip flops which are the foundation of any CPU, GPU, ASIC.


http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Logic-Design-Randy-Katz/dp/0201308576/