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Ben Myers wrote:

Yes, those are unusual figures.

Liteon has been a long time manufacturer of lots of different parts and attachments, serving as an OEM supplier to name brands for many years.  I have to guess that Liteon manufactures its own SSDs, putting together flash chip and controllers made by another manufacturer, but I am unsure.  For people who rip computers apart regularly, Liteon is a familiar brand, but hardly one known at retail.  I have encountered a few Liteon SSDs.

Ditto SK Hynix.  Not a household name, and a long-time OEM supplier to name brands, although they have recently packaged retail SSDs.

I have seen about the same numbers of DIMM memory sticks from Hynix and Samsung.

LiteOn makes a number of OEM SSDs. They’re not going to be sold to consumers, but like SK Hynix and Kioxia, Dell has used them for some laptop models; I’m sure a few other OEMs do as well.

The SK Hynix retail SSDs, the P31 Gold (PCIe 3 NVMe) and P41 Platinum (PCIe 4 NVMe) are rated as two of the better drives on the market. I chose a P41 Platinum 2TB as an upgrade for my new ThinkPad P1 Gen 5, which can support PCIe 4.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

Newegg turns up mouth-watering prices for SSDs with many interesting brand names, some of them familiar from their forays into other technology: Acer, Blixem, Fanxiang, Fledging, FYUU, GIGABYTE, Inland, KingSpec, Kingston, Leven, ORICO, PNY, Sabrent, Silicon Power, TEAMGROUP, Timetec, and on and on. Who are these companies? What kind of flash chips and controller chips do they use? I am not about to bet my reputation on a cheaper SSD with an obscure brand name.

Kingston – a memory manufacturer for decades. While I probably wouldn’t buy them for top-tier performance, their customer support (should it be needed) is excellent.

Silicon Power – I’m going to strike through what I said here; I found I may not be correct regarding their relationship with Silicon Motion (though they have used their controllers). They make some decent stuff.

Gigabyte – Would I use them? Probably not for an SSD, but one of the “big three” of motherboard manufacturers (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte). And I’m picky; me not using them doesn’t mean bad.

Sabrent is probably not my first-choice vendor personally, but is also well-known in the enthusiast world for some of the faster SSDs.

None of these four are obscure, especially Kingston, but the others are industry brands.  The remainder are indeed lower-tier items I probably wouldn’t use, just as I myself won’t use QLC SSDs; if they’re cutting prices on the flash memory (QLC is lower endurance), where else are they cutting?

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

3 users thanked author for this post.

SupremeLaW, Microfix, Cybertooth

I upgraded (after backing up) my work workstation to 22H2 Enterprise as I’m usually the guinea pig for a lot of partners and internally as well. No major issues at this point.

While there’s nothing huge on the surface, this is the most interesting change to me so far. Note, it requires Intel Tiger Lake or later (11th or 12th gen-CPU) from Intel, or Zen3 and later architecture from AMD. If you have the hardware, I’d consider upgrading for this reason alone. It’s actually the reason I’m considering going to 11 on my after-hours ThinkPad P1 Gen5 which is Alder Lake (12th-gen) running 10 Pro, possibly with a Start Menu replacement to get 10’s functionality back.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-22h2-adds-kernel-exploit-protection-to-security-baseline/

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

I had this happen the other week, but fortunately, one process preempted the other and saved me.

I nearly always try to separate a BIOS update from the rest of my software updates, but somehow this ended up in the same queue. I couldn’t agree with you more -backups, restore points, etc. are a good thing.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

What’s annoying to me is that these events are showing up in DCDIAG reports on Windows domain controllers, making it appear like there’s a real problem going on, when really it’s just part of the new hardening process.

Our remote management/monitoring software routinely runs these, and any fails result in a system monitoring ticket. And while DCDIAG errors aren’t an issue a majority of the time, that remaining small percent is the “You really should look at this, there’s a problem” kind of thing.

It really makes me wish Microsoft would streamline both DCDIAG, and  perhaps some of its event logs so I stop playing the “When is a critical error not a critical error?” game.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

I remember the first Quantum Technologies flash drives, in the latter 90s. A mere mortal couldn’t afford them, but they held 1.5GB of flash memory, and were 5.25″ form factor (I can’t remember if that was half or full-height, and I can’t recall the interface, though my guess would be SCSI for maximum bandwidth). I haven’t been able to find information or pictures on them in recent years (Maxtor acquired Quantum, then some time later, Seagate acquired Maxtor), so I doubt many sold.

The thought was really exciting at the time. Of course, today, SSDs are orders of magnitude larger, faster, and cheaper.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

SupremeLaW

OscarCP wrote:

LoneWolf wrote: “However, Intel’s latest 12th-generation processors bring a significant architectural change to their previous processes, and greatly raise their ability to compete where several previous generations could not. They’ve also finally achieved the die-shrinks they need.”

Interesting. Maybe LW would be kind enough to explain what are those significant architectural changes brought in with the 12-generation Intel processors? Thanks.

I should explain – I don’t mean that Intel has abandoned x86-64.  However, Alder Lake has made significant changes from previous generation processors, and with those changes, significant performance increases beyond what they were previously capable of.

A better explanation could be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htCvo9XJZDc

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/alder_lake

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17376/intel-launches-alder-lake-hx-series-processors-for-highend-laptops

This doesn’t mean I’m putting down AMD’s or Apple’s CPUs. It just means that I see Intel (after a significant several-year stumble) appearing to get off its knees. To me, the real question will be what we see from Apple when they release M2, and AMD when they release their next generation of the Zen architecture.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

Alex5723 wrote:

Will Intel be a dominant chip company going forward?
No, it won’t.
Intel is losing to TSMC and Samsung building 3nm ARM chips (mobile, data centers…)
Microsoft is building its own ARM chips in collaboration with Qualcomm.

Again, not that simple.

Has Intel been losing? Yes.  AMD’s Epyc has made great strides in the datacenter, especially in cloud-hosted environments. While not making the same increases in the consumer market, they have achieved far more market penetration in laptops (including business models like ThinkPads) and desktops than they have in years, and they’re making some great stuff. As you mention, Apple has also gone M1 and there’s more options than just x86-64.

However, Intel’s latest 12th-generation processors bring a significant architectural change to their previous processes, and greatly raise their ability to compete where several previous generations could not. They’ve also finally achieved the die-shrinks they need.

Further, in areas where SoC isn’t the only game, Intel’s chipset, wireless, and Ethernet controllers (among others) lead the industry in stability. Stability is a huge portion of the game, and so they still have a large chunk of the business market.

I love competition. It keeps everyone from stagnating, something Intel did a lot of during the Core 2 Duo era when AMD wasn’t as competitive. However, Intel came back from the failure that was the Pentium 4 to get to the Core 2 Duo era and beyond, so I would say counting them out is premature.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

I’m using Windows 11 Enterprise, for the reason that my new Dell Precision workstation came with it installed. Since I manage our patches and automation, both for ourselves and our partners, this is a good time to have another system to test some of that out with. I backed up my previous setup and figured I could give it a go, removing it if it got in my way or was too buggy.

Honestly, it’s mostly like Windows 10, if Microsoft took a look at the MacOS dock and decided the taskbar and start menu should “be a little more like that”. The system is stable. My only two gripes are moving some right-click file/folder actions to graphics instead of words (can’t always tell by the graphic what those are), and that it took some work and a cobbled driver to get my Broadcom USB bluetooth adapter working.

The OS is evolutionary, but not revolutionary. If you have a good Windows 10 system, no reason to upgrade. If you have a Windows 10 Home system, you might not want to (unless you upgrade to Pro to stop being forced into the Microsoft account box). If your new system comes with Windows 11 and its at least Pro, I probably wouldn’t downgrade; I’ve had no show-stopper issues in the ten days I’ve used it.

Specs for the curious:

Core i7-11700

48GB RAM

2x 256GB NVMe SSD, 1x 512GB NVME SSD

nVidia Quadro T600 4GB driving 4 24″ 1080p displays

USB dongles for bluetooth (audio) and a Logitech MX Master 2s mouse

And if it’s noteworthy to anyone doing testing work VMWare Workstation runs on it just fine too, I’m using several different VMs.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

Microfix wrote:

Re-introduction of a dedicated QA department may have benefitted more for all, for a fraction of that cost.

While entirely true for end-users and admins, Microsoft knows they’ve already got our money, even with their lousy QA.  To that end, they’re investing in new things they think people will still buy even when they’ve slashed their  QA departments, thereby increasing their own profit margin.

Satisfaction? We don’t need that. We only need purchases.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Steve, Microfix

I make a habit of scamming these people (at least the e-mail ones).  They want my number to text me; I provide a Google Voice number. I waste their time drawing things out, pretending to get gift cards, and just as I’m “scratching off the numbers”, I ask for a favor…

I send them a picture of someone’s posterior and ask them to put their cranium in it.

 

The most valuable commodity a scammer has is their time.  The more you waste, the less time they spend scamming someone else. The less time they spend, the less money they make, the less vulnerable people (seniors, et al) get taken, and the better off we all are. If you have the time, I highly recommend wasting theirs.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

wavy

I have an easy one that has irked me since Day one.

When setting default apps by file type…

Why do I have to scroll through the entire list of file extensions?

Why can’t I search for my extension with a search box? Why can’t I hit the P key to be taken to the P extensions so I can get to PDF more easily?  Did Microsoft just give up and say “Tough luck, sort through the thousand extensions on your own? It sure seems like it.

This seems like a ridiculously simple thing in the scheme of things to fix, and yet we’ve seen multiple Windows releases and nobody said “We should make this better”?

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

NaNoNyMouse

Norton 360 adding cryptomining seems like police departments adding money laundering to their official duties.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

wavy

It’s really about time someone provides Microsoft with competition in the OS department (no, nobody say Mac, because it’s great for individual use, but has real limitations in the enterprise).

The issue is that it’s not the OS that’s as profitable as the app ecosystem, and the combined stranglehold of Windows and Microsoft Office is hurting both consumers and businesses alike.  We’ve seen what happens to the PC market, when Intel doesn’t have competition from AMD or others; it’s called the Pentium 4. And stagnation of designs and pricing. The same is true of Windows/Office; as long as they’re the go-to app choices, Microsoft has no incentive to change development from a top-down management perspective (e.g., bringing the dedicated QA role back), because they’re the only game in town. A competitive office suite (especially spreadsheets) is needed in addition to the operating system to facilitate this change.

I don’t hate Microsoft. But I do hate that the Microsoft ecosystem has been broken since at least 2015, with no reason for them to change it, because there is no single cataclysmic event, no tipping point, that causes change within the company.  As an IT person, I have zero belief in the idea that Satya Nadella, or any of the Microsoft department heads or VPs even care, nor do they have to, as long as their applications even half work.

I imagine what it would be like if Dodge-Chrysler was the only car company in town.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, Cybertooth

[LoneWolf]

Microsoft will not rise to the challenge until they have a competitor that forces them to do so.

Windows 95/98 were not perfect. They had their flaws. But they were real advances in technology, as was Windows 2000.  This was back at a time when there was still a very real potential for other operating systems to rise (OS/2, BeOS, NeXT, MacOS, OS X, Sun SuperSPARCs were real, etc.).  Non-x86 hardware gave more options than just Apple. While fading, other Office suites existed: WordPerfect (later Corel PerfectOffice), Lotus SmartSuite, and others. And other technologies were evolving faster, forcing Microsoft to do more to adopt and incorporate them.

Slow stagnation of other technologies in the past ten years and lack of a competing x86 operating systems with solid business support for far more than that have allowed Microsoft to stagnate as well. The user doesn’t have to matter much any more; after all, “what choice do they have but to use our stuff, especially Outlook, Excel, and Windows?” I long for the days of exciting tech advancements where computer evolution exploded every twelve to sixteen months; this and competing products in every field drove innovation. (Note: I don’t consider OS X in 2021 as an innovation driver; it and Windows do all of the same things, a bit different, each side sometimes better or worse, but both reinventing the wheel without anything groundbreaking in some time).

As someone who is probably around fifteen years from retirement, I can say that while I’ve loved tech for much of my currently-26-year career, there’s a lot less to love now. It appears that innovation was unsustainable. Moore’s Law is over, a temporary concept. We still fail to take a “security-from-the-ground-up” approach at a point where it has rapidly become the most important thing we can do after basic productivity. And while I’ll still have tech when I retire from IT, it will be scaled back, deliberately; I will keep what I experience enjoyment from, and likely leave the rest behind in favor of an experience like Woody’s: savoring the beauty of this world, rather than its technological developments. Onward to baseball, and national parks, and open-road driving in Montana.

I wish him the absolute best, and hope he is living a wonderful life.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by LoneWolf.