Category: hardware

How To Test Solid State Drive Health with GNOME Disks | Linux.com

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are slowly becoming the norm, with good reason. They are faster, and the latest iterations are more reliable than traditional drives. With no moving parts to wear out, these drives can (effectively) enjoy a longer life than standard platter-based drives.

Even though these drives are not prone to mechanical failure, you will still want to keep tabs on their health. After all, your data depends on the storing drives being sound and running properly. Many SSDs you purchase are shipped with software that can be used to monitor said health. However, most of that software is, as you might expect, Windows-only. Does that mean Linux users must remain in the dark as to their drive health? No. Thanks to a very handy tool called GNOME Disks, you can get a quick glimpse of your drive health and run standard tests on the drive.

Source: How To Test Solid State Drive Health with GNOME Disks | Linux.com

Pine 64 is Raspberry Pi 3 that does 4K, but you’ll have to wait to get one | TechRadar

Forget fruit, wood is where it’s at when it comes to miniature computing – or at least that’s what the makers of the Pine 64 would have us believe, a rivalling board that undercuts the Raspberry Pi 3.

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As far as connectivity goes, you get two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, and HDMI – this little board is capable of piping out 4K video. There’s also a 3.5mm stereo output mini-jack and a microSD slot into the bargain.

Source: Pine 64 is Raspberry Pi 3 that does 4K, but you’ll have to wait to get one | TechRadar

EDIT: Apparently not all comments on the Pine 64 are positive – see this Reddit post for some perceived negatives.

Odroid C2 Bests Raspberry Pi 3 in Several Ways | Hackaday

It’s been a big week in the world of inexpensive single board computers, and everyone’s talking about the new Raspberry Pi 3. It blows away the competition they say, nobody can touch it for the price.

Almost nobody, that is.

With a lot less fanfare on these shores, another cheap and speedy 64-bit quad-core ARM-based SBC slips onto the market this week, Hardkernel’s Odroid C2. And looking at the specification it seems as though the Pi 3 may be given a run for its money.

Source: Odroid C2 Bests Raspberry Pi 3 in Several Ways | Hackaday

Check Hardware Information On Linux via Command Line

There are many commands available to check hardware information of your Linux system. Some commands report only specific hardware components like CPU or memory while the rest cover multiple hardware units.

This tutorial takes a quick look at some of the most commonly used commands to check information and configuration details about various hardware devices.

Source: Check Hardware Information On Linux via Command Line (Make Tech Easier)

King of Tweaks: Fix Acer Nettoop PC

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Several years ago I bought two Acer AspireRevo nettop PC, AR1600 and AR3610, because they are convenient and cheap, ideal for HTPC (NVIDIA ION graphics) and server (small and quiet). The AR1600 started to crash during or after boot about a year ago, later the AR3610 followed exactly the same behavior.

Source: King of Tweaks: Fix Acer Nettoop PC (King of Tweaks)

Link: Lm-sensors: Monitoring CPU And System Hardware Temperature

It is very important to keep an eye on your system temperature. Because overheating may cause unexpected hardware failures. This brief tutorial describes how to monitor your CPU and other system hardware temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages using a command line utility called lm-sensors.

Full article here:
Lm-sensors: Monitoring CPU And System Hardware Temperature (Unixmen)

Link: Linux Basics: How To Find Maximum Supported RAM By Your System

Mostly, you will find maximum supported RAM by your system from the BIOS, Product catalog, or manuals. Here is the simple, yet useful trick, to find out maximum supported RAM using Dmidecode without opening the system chassis or referring the BIOS, product catalogs.

Full article here:
Linux Basics: How To Find Maximum Supported RAM By Your System (Unixmen)