What is this 'hardware'? POSTING RULES!!!

[Larson]

Welcome to the XKCD hardware forum!
As an important subsection of general nerdery (and maybe to take a load off of The Help Desk?), the hardware forum is a place for praise/distress/questions/exhibitions concerning the physical side of computing. From all of the computer oriented people already at XKCD, hopefully this will make a good outlet for technical knowledge.


The Magic Smoke?
The magic smoke comes from a running joke concerning the destruction of electronic equipment. Magic smoke is built into every chip and component when it's at the factory. If the smoke ever escapes from your computer or device, then it's damned near impossible to get back in.


What goes here?
-Reviews

Mostly current hardware, but the classic reviews are always a good addition.

-Troubleshooting

Is your computer acting up?

-Computer Recommendations

Whether you need a laptop for school or you're building/buying a system for the first time.

-General Hardware Threads

Computers, parts, or manufacturers, stuff, etc.

-Projects

Personal projects, school projects, modifications, hands on stuff.

-General Hardware Related Questions-

Overclocking, Hardware Help, Etc.

-Anything Else that Seems to Fit

If it sounds right then post away.

What doesn't go here?
-Anything that seems to fit better in The Help Desk

This can be a bit of a tough call sometimes, but more on as it pans out. Any hardware related difficulties are welcome here.

-Anything not hardware related

Self explanatory for the most part.

General Posting Rules:

• Debates are very welcome, but KEEP IT CIVIL. Try to see things from other people's points of view.
• Fanboyism is not welcome. It's one thing to love a brand or product above all else; and another to be blind, deaf, and dumb about it.
• When posting pictures, please be reasonable with their size. 800x600 is a good middle ground, unless the picture warrants a greater size. You can spoiler tag giant pictures if you have to.
• Keep the trolling to a minimum. Voicing your opinions is fine, but keep it respectful.
• There are no stupid questions, only ones that Google can answer faster than we can.
• I'm not a grammar nit-picker, but forming coherent sentences is the best choice for all of us.
• Don't post links to or discuss pirated software/content. This includes operating systems, applications, games, music, movies, and anything else that's copyrighted or isn't free.
• Don't harass other users. You didn't come out of your mother knowing all there is to know about computers. You had to learn what you know, and so does everyone else.

More to come as we figure things out. I'm an easy going person, so as long as you're not a jerk everything will be cool. If I'm wrong about some tech/hardware advice, please call me out on it. I'm not the type of person to get offended if I'm wrong or made a mistake. This forum is as much about hardware advice as it is about learning.

[Axman]

I don't mind, rather, I like helping people make their hardware decisions when buying parts or building machines. But I hate, hate, hate seeing a massive list of links that are absolutely nondescript. I'm not suggesting a rule, just that it would be a great courtesy to me and everyone else who knows hardware by name and not url to see people compose their lists with actual product monikers.

So, what I'm getting at, is if you want me to help you with parts selection, I gotta see the names.

[mosc]

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post but I'd like to lobby for some general content parameters when it comes to threads discussing parts recommendations. A lot of this forum consists of threads like "What do you think of ___?" or "What ___ should I buy?". They lead to opinion heavy posts and can be very contradictory by nature.

I think we should strive to make all replies to these types of posts a comparison. If you don't like X because of whatever reason, you should also discuss why you didn't have that issue with Y. If you love your idrug, posting "I love my idrug. Buy one!" is not helpful. What OTHER products have you tried? What makes the idrug different?

It's not easily enforceable but I think some posts are more clear examples than others. People spamming threads with "X sucks" or "Y is awesome" are not helpful to anyone. A basic recommendation is a comparison between something you're recommending and something you're not recommending. I think the biggest problem is with complaints. Electronic products have expected failure rates and are inherently fragile devices. Even the best software has it's share of bugs and complexities. Some products are certainly worse than others but purchasing decisions cost companies money and internet forums stick around longer than their posters.

I think we should really try to separate recommendations from personal anecdotes. If one of our members has such limited experience that their post consists of only a reference to one product and their own anecdotal evidence about it, they should refrain from posting it.

[EvanED]

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post but I'd like to lobby for some general content parameters when it comes to threads discussing parts recommendations. A lot of this forum consists of threads like "What do you think of ___?" or "What ___ should I buy?". They lead to opinion heavy posts and can be very contradictory by nature.

I think we should strive to make all replies to these types of posts a comparison. If you don't like X because of whatever reason, you should also discuss why you didn't have that issue with Y. If you love your idrug, posting "I love my idrug. Buy one!" is not helpful. What OTHER products have you tried? What makes the idrug different?

It's not easily enforceable but I think some posts are more clear examples than others. People spamming threads with "X sucks" or "Y is awesome" are not helpful to anyone. A basic recommendation is a comparison between something you're recommending and something you're not recommending. I think the biggest problem is with complaints. Electronic products have expected failure rates and are inherently fragile devices. Even the best software has it's share of bugs and complexities. Some products are certainly worse than others but purchasing decisions cost companies money and internet forums stick around longer than their posters.

I think we should really try to separate recommendations from personal anecdotes. If one of our members has such limited experience that their post consists of only a reference to one product and their own anecdotal evidence about it, they should refrain from posting it.

Agree mostly, though I'm not sure the need is all that much. (I may be a recent offender with a comment about the WD Green drive... I got lazy 'cause that discussion has happened a couple times before, not that that's a good excuse.)

Disagree on the last bit though. We're smart enough to know that if someone says "my drive died" that's an anecdote and should be treated as such. If "you shouldn't give anecdotes" were a global rule there'd be nothing making up reviews on sites and such, because each person's experience is individual to them. We're not quite the same here since you'd be much less likely to get a good cross section of users, but they're still far from worthless.