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CurrentBuild Computer

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Sense PC

SilverStone FARA 311 black case with mesh
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SilverStone FARA 313 Black case with mesh
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Sense mini PC

SilverStone SG12 case
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Sense mini PC 2

ASUS NUC 14 Pro Kit
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Sense mini PC 3

MSi Cubi N ADL
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Dream PC

SilverStone FARA 514X
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Dream BIG PC

Fractal Design Meshify 2 RBG Black Tempered Glass Light Tint
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Speed WS

SilverStone FARA 514X
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Speed WS 2

Fractal Design Meshify 2 RBG Black Tempered Glass Light Tint
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Speed AI

Fractal Design Meshify 2 RBG Black Tempered Glass Light Tint
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How to choose a solid state drive and hard drive for a PC

The Internet is your main hard drive

We like to think of the Internet as our main storage device. The days of buying a ton of software and installing everything on our PC's hard drive are over. Almost everything one does today is a click away on the Internet without having to install anything. Also, with the advent of cloud computing this trend looks to continue. Our local storage needs on our PC should therefore be going down.

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Audio, video and picture files are large

hard drive

On the other hand digital audio, video and pictures are large files and now mainstream. We might want to build our own multimedia library. So getting a large drive isn't a bad idea. However, given our introduction and the fact that unused hard drive capacity does nothing for our computer's performance, money can be saved by buying the right size storage capacity. This saving can be spent on other PC parts including a solid state drive (SSD) that does increase our computer's performance.

Size of the solid state drive and hard drive

The prices of solid state drives have been coming down and now it's time an SSD should be your first storage device. An SSD is so much faster than a hard drive you will notice a significant difference in boot times and responsiveness of your PC. The size of SSD we recommend currently is 250 GB due to the cost, otherwise we would recommend a larger size. If you need more storage add a 1 TB (1000 GB) hard drive in addition to the SSD. When you have both a SSD and a hard drive the operating system should reside on the SSD so you get the benefit of a fast boot up time, while your data storage needs are met by the larger hard drive. One can always add more SSDs or hard drives later, if ever needed.

Quality and speed of the SSD and hard drive

Quality of the storage device is clearly important, use a manufacturer with a reputation for quality. The jump up in speed from a hard drive to an SSD is more significant than the speed differences within SSDs.

M.2 form factor SSDs

Instead of a 2.5 inch form factor or size SSD, consider an M.2 form factor SSD if your motherboard has an M.2 slot. These M.2 SSDs can run, again depending on the motherboard, at PCI Express x4 speeds under the new NVMe protocol instead of the AHCI protocol which will be an incredible speed increase for your PC. These PCI Express NVMe SSDs are more expensive than AHCI SSDs so that extra cost will have to be considered as well.

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Linux interest and tech freedom articles!

Microsoft Windows Deadline—10 Days To Update Or Stop Using Your PC. Forbes, October 20, 2024.

Linux Scores A Surprising Gaming Victory Against Windows 11. Forbes, August 21, 2024.
Even in some games now, an area which has been typically locked into Windows. Kamil

Differences Between AI Servers and AI Workstations, NVIDIA Developer Technical Blog. From the article "The majority of AI workstations used for machine learning, deep learning, and AI development are Linux-based. The same is true for AI servers".

Microsoft’s AI chatbot will ‘recall’ everything you do on its new PCs. The Guardian, Associated Press, May 20, 2024.

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for allegedly ditching non-profit mission. A lawsuit claims that OpenAI has become a 'closed-source de facto subsidiary' of Microsoft. Engadget, Mar 1, 2024.

Google settles $5 billion privacy lawsuit over tracking people using ‘incognito mode’, The Associated Press, December 29, 2023

Epic Games wins antitrust lawsuit against Google over barriers to its Android app store, The Associated Press, December 11, 2023

Exclusive: Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK cloud market, Reuters, November 30, 2023

Antitrust: Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by Microsoft regarding Teams, European Commission, July 27, 2023

Read the letter: Twitter accuses Microsoft of using its data in unauthorized ways - CNBC, May 18, 2023

Exclusive: Google says Microsoft cloud practices are anti-competitive - Reuters, March 31, 2023

Microsoft's implementation of Bing Chat AI on Windows 11 is complete trash - Windows Central, Mar. 1, 2023

I wanted to try the new Bing with ChatGPT. Then, Microsoft went all Microsoft - ZDNET, Feb. 12, 2023

Microsoft to cut thousands of jobs across divisions - reports - Reuters, January 17, 2023

Elon Musk says he'd consider 'alternative phone' if Twitter is booted from Apple and Google app stores - Fox Business, November 25, 2022
CurrentBuild Computer and other Linux PC manufacturers have already done that with computers, provided an alternative to Windows and Apple computers. Kamil

Microsoft lays off hundreds of employees - Engadget, October 18, 2022

Microsoft: 'Software is ultimately the biggest deflationary force' for businesses - Yahoo Finance, October 17, 2022:
Open source free software like Linux yes is deflationary, others not really. Kamil

Microsoft’s greed is killing Windows 11 for me - TechRadar, April 21st, 2022:

March 21st, 2022: Windows 11 will add a watermark if you use unsupported hardware - Engadget

Dec 2, 2021: Microsoft’s new Windows prompts try to stop people downloading Chrome - The Verge

Oct 8, 2021: Amazon Delivery Partners Rage Against the Machines: ‘We Were Treated Like Robots’ - Yahoo Finance

Sep 10, 2021: Epic v. Apple ruling: Judge finds Apple's App Store restrictions violate antitrust law - Yahoo Finance

Aug 28, 2021: Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Google Chrome - Forbes

FTC says Facebook has been a monopoly ‘since at least 2011’ in amended antitrust complaint - The Verge

Windows 11 Is Making It Absurdly Difficult to Change Browsers - GIZMODO

What the Linux Mint developers have pulled off is nothing short of astounding - TechRepublic

Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’ - Bloomberg News

PC users are furious about the new Windows 11 design - Creative Bloq

Epic v. Apple fight: Billions at stake as judge determines fate of App Store - Yahoo!

Google reportedly made it difficult for smartphone users to find privacy settings - The Verge

I looked at all the ways Microsoft Teams tracks users and my head is spinning - ZDNet

Microsoft just force restarted my Windows PC again to install more unwanted apps - The Verge

Disastrous Windows 10 update is reportedly breaking some PCs - TechRadar

With Edge, Microsoft’s forced Windows updates just sank to a new low - The Verge

A million students and counting have learned Linux - ZDNet

Linux Mint 20: Still the best Linux desktop despite one quirk - ZDNet

What Operating System Is the Best Choice for Software Engineers? - Interesting Engineering
From the article "GNU/Linux is, hands down, the most highly acclaimed operating system for software engineering."

Microsoft: we were wrong about open source - The Verge


How to choose PC parts

CPU Video card Memory
Motherboard SSD/HDD DVD CD
Power supply Case OS
Speakers Monitor Linux

How to assemble a PC

PC assembly guide
PC assembly project
High Performance Everyday PC build
Premium Everyday PC build
Premium Everyday Mini PC build
Gaming PC build
Extreme Gaming PC build
Workstation Computer build
Save with Linux on a PC
How to choose PC parts
Dual boot Linux and Windows
Upgrade to SSD project
Transfer data from old PC to new PC

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