Posts by Paul Cox52

Hey moderators—honestly, I don't think merging this thread is the best move. There's just way too much specialization happening here for anyone to actually find what they're looking for in one giant, lumped-together topic.

Wait, are we talking about speakers here? Because if so, you’re preaching to the choir!
I’m not really looking for that high-end audiophile experience most people chase—honestly, I don't care about fancy gold-plated cables or whatever. I just want to actually hear what's coming out of my laptop without getting a massive headache from constant background noise. Every cheap pair I've ever plugged in seems to have this annoying static hiss or hum, and it drives me absolutely nuts. Also, space is kind of tight at my desk, so I’d love something compact that won't turn my setup into a bird's nest of tangled wires.
It shouldn't be a huge deal, though. For what I need, I don't think I'll have to drop a small fortune or anything.
I did a little digging online:
https://www.amazon.com/speaker-sets/example1
and maybe
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Wireless-Speaker/example2
Does anyone have a better recommendation than these?

Thanks!
Any idea where I can pick one up?

Look, I’m not looking to go on a shopping spree every three days, nor am I trying to buy some high-maintenance gadget that ends up giving me more headaches than actual utility.
I just need a budget-friendly printer for light use during the school year and maybe a bit here and there at home. I’ve already got a solid setup at the office, so this is really just a backup for those random moments when I actually need to print something.
A while back, I picked up a basic printer for roughly $50. Once the toner ran out or the thing started jamming up, I pretty much tossed the whole mess in the trash. That’s basically what I’m looking for this time around—something simple.
Any suggestions?

I’m on the hunt for a budget-friendly printer that can actually handle some heavy lifting—basically something I can put through the wringer without breaking the bank. Color isn't really my thing right now, so black and white is totally fine by me. Honestly, if I can snag one with a scanner included for just a few extra bucks, even better.
The cheapest options I've come across lately are the IBM System/370 or maybe a DEC PDP-11, but those are color models, which kind of defeats my purpose here.
Does anyone have a better recommendation or something else I should be looking at?

Thanks.
Yeah, over at Best Buy they had this drive listed as an external one—and honestly, the price was such a steal that I didn't even bother looking any further to double-check the specs.😁

I'm looking to pick up an external drive just for some basic stuff around the house—maybe somewhere in the 1 to 2 TB range.
I’m definitely no tech wizard here, so please jump in and set me straight if I've got any of this wrong:
- For what I'm planning to do, a 3.5" desktop drive should be perfectly fine, right?
- If I grab one with USB 3.0, it'll still work on my old motherboard (which only has USB 2.0), yeah?
- And even if I'm stuck with the older USB port, having a faster drive will still give me a bit of a speed boost during actual use.
I stumbled upon this one: http://www.diskont24.com/product.php?productid=107369 and the price seems pretty decent. Is it actually worth grabbing?

Casey Long2 said:I gotta be honest, I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at here.
If your rig has SATA ports, you can just grab an eSATA bracket to hook up drives externally. But if there aren't any SATA ports at all—like on those really old motherboards—then an eSATA bracket won't do you any good since it’s just a connector, not a controller. To actually get SATA working on a machine that doesn't have it, you'd need something like this.

But hey, you hit the nail on the head. My actual question was whether there's a way to speed up the data transfer itself—meaning, looking at the controller side of things, not just the physical plug. It wouldn't break the bank, but I figured it might not even work, and honestly, who knows how much of a speed boost you'd actually see?
Anyway, it all seemed like too much of a headache, so I just went ahead and picked up a Seagate One Touch.

Hmm, looks like I'm shouting into the void here—nobody's replied yet. Honestly, I'm starting to think it’s not because everyone's clueless, but maybe I just phrased the question like an idiot.
So, here's the deal: can a coaxial cable - eSATA bracket ($10) and
$10 a coaxial cable - eSATA ($13) actually speed up data transfers on computers that don't have a native SATA port?
My gut feeling says no, but let's be real—my technical knowledge is pretty thin on this stuff, which is why I'm asking.
If the answer is actually yes, would we see a noticeable boost in real-world speeds, or is it just one of those things that looks good on a spec sheet?

darkowl72 said:you can grab basically any drive... just make sure the enclosure actually has an e-SATA port, otherwise you’re just wasting your time... if you're sticking with USB, honestly, the WD solutions are way more reliable...

and if your PC doesn't have e-SATA, you can bridge that gap using this and that...

Am I reading this right? If I'm bouncing an external drive between different setups—including some older rigs—and I don't want to spend my entire afternoon waiting for files to crawl over—these cables will give me faster transfer speeds?
Is the speed boost actually noticeable?
Also, any recommendations for a 500GB drive paired with a decent enclosure for this kind of setup?
The other option people around here seem to swear by is the WD ELEMENTS SE PORTABLE 500GB.
Would switching to SATA cables really make a massive difference?