Brandon Whitehead's Tech Blog

Recap If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out part 1 of this story for more details:  https://tech.brandonwhitehead.com/2019/01/why-i-switched-to-using-2-desktop.html A quick summary of part 1 is that I switched to using 2 desktop computers because when I had everything on 1 computer I was without a usable computer for several weeks while troubleshooting. To prevent that from happening in the future I decided to pick up a secondary PC to use primarily for light duty tasks. Originally I picked up a Intel NUC8i5BEH with the hope that it would be the perfect fit for my needs. It was a good fit until I experienced several issues with using a USB device KVM/hardware switch which forced me to return the NUC. Part 2 Returning the NUC I ended up returning the NUC for a couple of reasons. Whatever USB controller they were using had a major compatibility issue with USB device switchers even when I purchased and tried utilizing a  native USB 2.0 accessor...

After recently downsizing back to Mini-ITX, I hit a snag when it came to my current CPU and its thermal performance. To cool my i7-7700K, I utilized the be quiet! Shadow Rock LP that I had purchased for my 2015 Mini-ITX build. In 2015 that build contained an i5-6600K and the Shadow Rock LP had no problem keeping that cool. Unfortunately, the i7-7700K is a notoriously hot running CPU and the Shadow Rock LP simply couldn't keep up. Especially with the limited airflow of the FTZ01. I was thermal throttling even at stock speeds. Putting the CPU under heavy AVX loads like HandBrake encoding made that very apparent. Not to mention the fan noise from the cooler running at 100% to keep things cool became rather annoying. Prior to downsizing to ITX I initially had the i7-7700K under a be quiet! Dark Rock TF cooler which performed well at keeping the i7-7700K under check. With the i7-7700K, the only way to truly wrangle in the temperatures (especially if overclocking and without modifi...

Introduction I never thought that I would want to have two Desktop PCs for myself. I had traditionally used one Desktop PC to "do it all". Afterall, that's one of the benefits of a PC to begin with. You can spec it for entertainment, work and other usages all within 1 device. Prior to acquiring 2 Desktop PCs, I had a Gaming PC, a personal laptop and a work laptop. I don't really count the personal laptop because it is about 8-9 years old (as of this article's publishing date) and not very usable anymore. For the work laptop, I try to strictly keep everything work related on that since the equipment is provided by my organization. I don't like to use it for personal things as much as I can. So realistically, I had one usable computer for home. My gaming/primary PC was used as my "swiss army knife" where it could game, host VMs and do more. As we all know though, a swiss army knife can only do so much without showcasing its shortcomings. That is unle...

Update: 9/9/2018 I added a few more listings below... feel free to check them out! Here we are back at it again! Check out the new listings I just put up if you're interested at all. One of these listings will be live for 30 and the other for 7 days unless someone scoops it up with the Buy It Now Price. Seagate 2000GB 2TB SATA III 6Gbps 5900RPM NAS Hard Disk Drive [HDD] ST2000VN000 Sold Seagate Ebay Listing Intel SSD 600p Series SSDPEKKW512G7X1 512 GB M.2 80mm PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Sold Intel SSD Listing NZXT Grid+ V2 USB 6 Channel Digital Fan Controller (Controlled with NZXT CAM) Sold Grid+ V2 Listing SilverStone SX500-LG SFX-L 500w 80Plus Gold Small Form Factor (SFF) Power Supply Sold SilverStone SX500-LG Drevo Calibur Wireless RGB Mechanical Keyboard Black w/ Black Switches & O-Rings Sold Drevo Calibur Black Switch Black

Hello everyone! Listed below will be a few Newegg reviews that I've recently submitted for some products I've been testing. I figured it would be easier to just include links to these vs double posting the information. Hope you find them useful! Toshiba X300 5TB Performance Desktop and Gaming Hard Drive 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive Retail Packaging HDWE150XZSTA Too noisy for me but performs wonderfully https://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?displaytype=share&reviewgroupid=6588885 Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80677I77700K Desktop Processor It's an i7, it's my first one and it works great  https://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?displaytype=share&reviewgroupid=525527 Dell Gaming S2417DG YNY1D 23.8-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor with G-SYNC A Cheap Yet Premium Gaming Monitor  https://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?displaytyp...