Why You NEED to DUST OUT Your PC

Published: August 16, 2023 YouTube Videos
Why You NEED to DUST OUT Your PC

I warned a friend that he needed to dust out the PC that I helped him build in 2020. If he doesn’t dust out his PC, the dust bunnies will torch a component that he can’t afford to replace. He ignored my advice for three years, as dusting out his PC would be a major chore.

The PC started having random crashes a few months ago. Since he was a member of the Windows 11 developer program, it was easy to blame Windows for the crashes.

As the random crashes became more frequent, the error messages pointed towards memory. I ran Memtest on the PC and found a ton of memory errors.

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My FreeNAS/TrueNAS File Server History #SHORTS

Published: July 17, 2023 YouTube Shorts
My FreeNAS/TrueNAS File Server History #SHORTS

Here’s a brief overview of my FreeNAS/TrueNAS file server.

In 2015, I built a new file server for FreeNAS. Six 1TB Western Digital Red NAS hard drives divided into three mirrored virtual devices (or vdevs). Storage pool was 3TB.

In 2017, I bought a used 3Gbps SAS controller card. In 2020, I replaced all the case fans and added two 2TB Western Digital Red Plus NAS hard drives. Expanded the storage pool from 3TB to 5TB.

In March 2022, I switched from FreeNAS on mirrored 16GB USB drives to TrueNAS on mirrored 120GB SSDs.

In May 2022, after replacing a 1TB hard drive with a 2TB hard drive, I had to replace the failed 120GB SSD.

This year I bought a 6Gbps SAS controller card.

Upgrading SAS Controller Card in TrueNAS File Server

Published: July 15, 2023 YouTube Videos
Upgrading SAS Controller Card in TrueNAS File Server

Every year I clean up my TrueNAS file server and figure out what I need to replace or upgrade. This year I wanted to replace a 1TB hard drive with a 2TB hard drive and expand my storage from 5TB to 6TB. I wasn’t able to find 2TB hard drives on sale at a price I wanted to pay for.

And the dust bunnies put up a fierce fight.

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Opal C1 Webcam As Apple Webcam Replacement #SHORTS

Published: July 5, 2023 YouTube Shorts
Opal C1 Webcam As Apple Webcam Replacement #SHORTS

The Opal C1 webcam is being marketed as a replacement for the built-in Apple webcams, which were limited to 720p for a great many years. The newer MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac have a 1080p webcam. But the overall visual quality has always been meh.

Apple has to cut corners somewhere to keep their products thinner year after year.

The 4K visual quality of the Opal C1 rivals that of a DSLR camera. Jon Prosser, host of Front Page Tech, replaced his Sony DSLR camera with the Opal C1 for his Genius Bar Podcast. No one noticed the difference between the two.

NOTE: Check out the longer version of this blog post.

Should You STILL BUY The Opal C1 Webcam?

Published: June 30, 2023 YouTube Videos
Should You STILL BUY The Opal C1 Webcam?

While watching a recent episode of Front Page Tech, I paid attention to the two-minute sponsorship spot. The Opal C1 webcam for the Apple Macintosh is now available for order. If that webcam looked familiar, Casey Neistat gushed about its DSLR video quality on Twitter in January 2022.

A year-and-a-half later, should you still buy the Opal C1 webcam?

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6 Steps From FreeNAS (USB) to TrueNAS CORE (SSD)

Published: April 17, 2022 YouTube Videos

Last week I talked about adding the Plugadget 2.5″ mounting bracket PC cards to my file server. I’ll be switching from FreeNAS on mirrored USB flash drives to TrueNAS CORE on mirrored SSDs in six steps. Since my motherboard has a legacy BIOS, step number four took a lot longer than it should have.

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Adding A HDD/SSD 2.5″ Mounting Bracket for PC Slot

Published: April 10, 2022 YouTube Videos

I did a video about a $3 US mystery PC expansion card called the Athena Power 2.5″ backplane two years ago. A 2.5″ drive in a removable carrier that was accessible through the back of the expansion slot. Newegg still has that card in stock but no longer discounted and cost $30 US for that and a floppy-to-SATA cable. I needed a cheaper alternative and found a $7 US PC expansion card that can mount a 2.5″ drive.

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Does Your PC Monitor Need An LED Light Bar?

Published: March 22, 2022 YouTube Videos

Does your PC monitor need an LED light bar? This accessory sits on top of your monitor to cast light on to the keyboard and the mouse. An area of your desktop that is lit indirectly by nearby lights.

The generic light bars are between $20 US and $40 US, has three color temperature settings, and plugs into a USB port. If you want recognizable brand name or features like a curved light bar, you can spend up to $150 US.

I’m going to review the Gomyhom monitor light bar and how I set up the light bars for two different monitors.

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Testing Rosewill PB240 AIO on Athlon 3000G AM4 Processor

Published: February 27, 2022 YouTube Videos

Some viewers got upset that I couldn’t test the Rosewill PB240 AIO liquid cooler on the AMD Athlon 25W AM1 processor. Rosewill claimed AM1 socket compatibility on the box. That wasn’t true. Without a compatible mounting bracket, I couldn’t mount the cold plate on the AM1 socket.

Since I don’t have long hair like Steve at Gamers Nexus, I can’t get the Newegg-owned company to admit their mistake. If I can’t test the AM1 processor with the AIO, I’m testing the AMD Athlon 3000G 35W AM4 processor.

Does your AMD Athlon AM4 processor need an AIO?

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