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Table of Contents
In summary:
- PCWorld’s The Full Nerd explores spring cleaning tech collections, revealing common PC enthusiast habits like hoarding hardware, collecting cases, and managing cable chaos.
- The discussion covers exciting gaming developments including eGPU enclosures, Valve’s new Steam Controller, and affordable Raspberry Pi projects for the season.
- Even tech experts struggle with deciding what hardware to keep, donate, or recycle from extensive collections of PCs and laptops.
I’m on vacation this week, so this set of thoughts will be brief. Especially since I won’t be idle–I’ll still be grappling with my annual spring cleaning… and several deep truths about myself I’m not ready to face on my own.
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For example:
- Single location for cables? Ffft. Far more fun to stash them in six (plus) different locations, unlabeled, so I have to peer at each end to see if it goes in the HDMI or DisplayPort pile.
- I subscribe to the philosophy of “one can never have too many case fans.”
- Owning five PCs isn’t sufficient. I must hoard parts to build yet five more.
- I have a sub-hobby of collecting and hanging onto PC cases.
- Hanging on to just one old laptop is insufficient to sleep at night. Let’s keep five. Plus another two at the back of the closet for good measure.
I am currently in deep negotiations about what to keep, what to donate, and what to recycle (RIP 2008-era iPod). I have no idea what will make the cut and what won’t. But I suspect at minimum, I will have to reduce my ancient laptop collection to at least five. Maybe even a harsh reduction to four.
(I suppose the sacrifice could be worth it, if I get to keep my “vintage” Lian Li cases for display.)
In this episode of The Full Nerd
In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, and Will Smith ponder if another eGPU revolution is upon us, as well as the new Steam Controller. I have thoughts about Valve’s latest take on a PC-gaming friendly gamepad, but I’m waiting to get my hands on one before shooting off my mouth.
My favorite part of this episode? Honestly, just seeing how happy Adam is, being surrounded by so many eGPU enclosures.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
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This week’s sampler of nerd news
Let’s call this a taster of what’s current—a few things to occupy the mind before heading outside to enjoy beautiful weather. (Or at least, more beautiful than it has been recently for me.) I’m excited as much for BBQs and real raspberries as I am for affordable Raspberry Pi projects.
Raspberry Pi
- Just a footnote: PC gamers hoping for more Nvidia GPU news got some… sort of.
- Nifty: You can make a DualSense controller adapter for $20 with a Raspberry Pi Pico. Heck yes.
- More is more: Or is it less? My colleague Mark tried a five-screen setup for his laptop. Turns out, physical real estate matters in a setup, too. (Alas.)
- That takes me back: I spent many an hour in MS-DOS (and WordPerfect 6.1, the platonic ideal of word processing software). I might go back and explore its earliest version, now that Microsoft just open-sourced it.
- Yikes? This Linux vulnerability affects servers, but it’s a reminder (to me, at least) that as adoption grows, so too will attacks.
Catch you all next week! Hopefully without too much separation anxiety weighing on me.
Alaina
This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.