HBA cards unlock cheap enterprise storage for your NAS, but the gotchas are real

Sooner or later, a NAS or home lab that’s pulling double duty hits the same wall: too much data, not enough space to store it. You go to add one more drive, reach for a SATA cable, but find that there’s not a single spot available, or you’ve had your attention caught by a used enterprise drive that has very compelling price-per-terabyte value. Either way, the solution is largely the same, and it’s in the form of a PCIe add-in card called a Host Bus Adapter, or HBA. HBA cards aren’t s**y, but they’re incredibly useful cards that add a ton of potential capacity to your home lab or NAS, and they’re worth exploring if you haven’t already. As with any used enterprise gear, though, they come with their own unique edges that need some ironing out.

Emily Brown
Houston

I streamed my Steam library to my handheld and stopped worrying about storage

PC gaming handhelds are fantastic devices. Thanks to them, PC games are more accessible and portable than ever, and thanks to the power of modern integrated graphics, they still play at decent quality on these low-power devices.

Walter Gardner
United States

The best upgrade for my movie nights wasn’t a new TV, soundbar, or streaming subscription

When setting up your living room for an immersive movie night, your first instinct might be to switch off all the lights to replicate that pristine movie theater experience.

Emelie Kirkerud
Norway

Amazon’s Echo Hub gets a customizable new look and Ring’s AI features

Amazon's rolling out a free software update for Echo Hub devices that gives the home screen a much-needed update to the interface it launched with in 2024. It had already added Alex Plus AI support, but the new interface has a cleaner, fully customizable layout that fits more smart home...

Paula Day
Australia

I ran a powerful local AI model on my laptop, and it didn’t feel like a compromise

Running large language models locally on consumer hardware has always meant accepting a strict set of trade-offs. The situation was clear: if you wanted frontier-level reasoning, you needed a cloud connection.

William Garcia
Boston

LXC updates in Proxmox aren’t hard — managing 20 of them at scale is another story

Proxmox is my favorite hypervisor platform, and it scratches my itch for testing multiple apps and distros at once. I've started using LXCs more lately to replace resource hungry VMs, and it's been going well. At least, until it came time to update them all.

Michael Johnson
Chicago

Logitech’s awesome MX Master 3S mouse drops to under $100

The platform-agnostic Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse is discounted to $89.99 at Amazon ($30 off), matching the best price we’ve seen so far this year. While it may look like a somewhat ordinary mouse, it has a unique second scroll wheel near the left thumb that’s surprisingly useful for...

Sophia Wilson
Atlanta

I used a LattePanda Sigma with 32GB of RAM as my ‘too much power’ home lab box, and immediately found work for it

The funny thing about home lab hardware is that “too much” usually has a very short shelf life. I set up a LattePanda Sigma with 32GB of RAM and a 500GB NVMe SSD, expecting it to be excessive for most of what I do. On paper, it looked like the...

Jane Smith
Los Angeles

Your SSD is dying faster than it should — here’s the one habit you need to stop

I know that SSD endurance ratings don't really matter for the average user. Even if you're gaming, browsing, and working every day for 10 years, you'll probably exhaust only a third of your SSD's TBW rating. The condition, though, is that you use your consumer SSD like an average consumer....

John Doe
New York

Blink’s six-piece outdoor camera kit is a great deal under $200

You can save on a big set of outdoor security cameras ahead of Prime Day. Amazon has a five-pack of Blink cameras with a video doorbell included that’s marked down to $166.99. The bundle includes a Blink Battery Doorbell 2K+, five Blink Outdoor 2K+ cameras, and a Blink Sync Module Core. The doorbell is typically $70, and each camera generally retails between $80 and $100, so you’re saving at least $200 by grabbing them all in the set.Blink Video Doorbell and Five Camera BundleWhere to Buy: $419.98 $166.99 at AmazonThe video doorbell captures video in 1920 x 1920 with a 140- degree field of view, and can last for months on three AA batteries. On the other hand, each outdoor camera shoots at 2560 x 1440 with a 135 degree field of view, and Blink claims that two AA batteries can power a camera for up to two years. Both the doorbell and outdoor cameras feature color night vision in low light and two-way audio.One important thing to note is that the Sync Module included with this bundle is the basic Core version. If you want to save video locally, you’ll need to upgrade to the $49.99 Sync Module 2. Alternatively, you could pay for a cloud storage plan that starts at $11.99 per month. It includes video storage for up to 60 days. The free plan only supports live viewing and motion notifications.Other deals to considerNormally $40 each, a two pack of 45W Anker Nano Chargers is currently $55.98 ($24 off) from Anker when you use coupon code WS24QCL740 at checkout. These compact chargers have foldable prongs that tuck away neatly for storage, and a handy display with a cute little animated face that shows charging status.The Marshall Emberton II Bluetooth speaker is discounted at Amazon to $92 ($28 off). The stylish speaker has a rugged IP67 rating, enough juice for up to 30 hours of playback on a single charge, and the company claims it provides 360-degree sound. You can pair multiple Emberton II speakers with each other, or other Marshall speakers, like the Middleton, for a stereo experience.If a dad in your life is always craving a good cup of coffee, AeroPress is offering 20 percent off select brewers and bundles for Father’s Day, including the standard Clear and Colors line and the Clear XL, when you use the code FATHER20 at checkout. You can also save $50 on a Barista Bundle that includes a manual grinder with titanium burrs.

Olivia Miller
Seattle

Microsoft’s behind-the-scenes Windows 11 speed boost is already rolling out

Microsoft's plan to fix Windows 11 has been in full swing for several weeks now. We've seen a notable reversal on AI Copilot integration, as well as confirmation that long-requested features like the ability to change the taskbar position, cleaner Windows Update rollouts, a less busy Start Menu, and a...

Jane Smith
Los Angeles

Google built the ultimate education tool with Gemini Omni, then forgot to tell us

If you think far back, you'll notice that for as long as technology has been applied to learning, the central challenge has remained the same, for at least the past few decades. Abstract concepts resist verbal explanation, and the tools available to "visualize" them have always demanded both a high...