Topic: Hardware – Ctrl blog

Why you need a HTPC

2021-11-22T13:35:00Z

I haven’t watched linear TV for years. I usually know what I want to watch and the times I want to watch it. In other words, I’m a cable-cutter or an on-demand streamer as I prefer to think of it.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Fit2 – a passive health and activity tracker

2021-11-06T15:56:00Z

The Samsung Galaxy Fit2 (not to be confused with the Gear Fit2) packs an impressive set of features like a sleep and heart rate monitor, in a small and budget-friendly package. However, it doesn’t help that it has a continuous activity, sleep, and heart rate/stress monitor when it doesn’t remind you to keep it charged.

Review of the MikroTik hEX (3rd rev.) as a home router

2021-08-10T13:28:00Z

The MikroTik hEX (RB750Gr3) (available on Amazon) is an inexpensive Gigabit router with advanced capabilities. I’ve used it as my home router for the last five years. It’s not a consumer-grade product, and it certainly isn’t your grandma’s router!

Nothing but bad experiences with Realtek Ethernet NICs

2021-07-11T01:09:00Z

I recently got a new Asus AMD B550-PLUS (available on Amazon) mainboard. It has a built-in Realtek PCIe 2,5-gigabit (RTL8125B) network interface controllers (NIC). As is often the case with Realtek NICs, it has been quite unreliable and is plagued with intermittent issues.

Review of Logitech K835 tenkeyless mechanical keyboard

2021-06-17T14:42:00Z

Logitech has set out to prove that mechanical keyboards aren’t just for gamers with too much disposable income and an unhealthy obsession for blinking lights! The Logitech K835 is a tenkeyless (TKL, meaning a regularly sized keyboard without the numpad) mechanical budget keyboard. It has an open-body design built on an aluminum plate on a plastic shell featuring either TTC tactile (“blue”) or TTC linear (“red”) key switches.