Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Corsair Flash Voyager Slider X1 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Posted on February 7, 2018

With USB Flash Drives getting bigger and faster all the time, USB 3.0 flash drives in the 16GB-64GB range are quite common now, and inexpensive as well.

Although you can purchase flash drives that rival the storage space of a small hard drive these days, the sweet spot in price vs. capacity and performance seems to be with 128GB models.

I recently received a Corsair Flash Voyager Slider X1 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (#ad) for review, and as with most Corsair products I was quite impressed with it overall.
[Read more…]

Q&A: Will a Wireless AC USB adapter work with a USB 2.0 port?

Posted on February 6, 2018

edimax-wireless-ac1200-dual-band-usb-adapter — (#ad)

Question from Chris J.: The wireless adapter in my Dell laptop has stopped working and I’m planning to replace it with a USB wireless adapter.

I’d really like to upgrade to Wireless AC speed but my laptop has the older USB 2.0 ports instead of USB 3.0, and I’ve noticed that the AC class devices I’ve checked out all brag that they work with USB 3.0.

What I need to know is will a Wireless AC USB adapter work when plugged into a USB 2.0 port? If not, I’ll probably just save some money by choosing a Wireless N adapter.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it worth the expense to max out the RAM in my new PC?

Posted on February 5, 2018

Question from Chris: I recently bought an Acer Aspire TC-780-ACKI5 desktop computer (#ad) and I have a question about it.

This machine came with 12GB of RAM but my friend says I should max it out to 32GB so PhotoShop and Lightroom will run faster.

I checked around and I can get four 8GB memory sticks for less than $200, which is about what I can afford to spend.

Do you think the extra memory will speed up this computer enough to justify spending that amount of cash? My friend says it will, but I’d like your opinion on this before I order the RAM. Thanks.

Rick’s answer: That Acer is a great computer, Chris. I believe it will serve you well for running the programs you mentioned above. However, the answer to your question is no, for two reasons: [Read more…]