When someone in IT once asked how much memory I though I would need in a new Windows 10 PC, I said “I always need double”.

I started a new job last week and got a nice Dell Precision laptop, with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor and 32GB of RAM. The processor weirdly has 22 cores. This is made up of 6 performance cores (with 12 threads via hyper-threading), 8 efficiency cores and 2 low power efficiency cores.

Ever since the Raspberry Pi was released in 2012, I’ve been fascinated with single board computers. As I have dived deeper into the Linux rabbit hole and the open source support for Raspberry Pi’s has grown they have transformed from interesting learning tools to highly functional every day devices.

Lets take a look at what my collection is currently being used for.

My WordPress site broke in a way that seemed impossible to recover from. My server updated to PHP 8.0 which caused problems retrieving site info from the SQL database. Updraft (a backup plugin) couldn’t even run to restore the site. Doing a full backup on a new install caused the same issues, and I couldn’t find a way to roll back to PHP 7.4.

Back in May 2012, a younger and more naive Mike left the world of console gaming for the glorious lands of the PC Master Race. Excited by the pace of advancement, as soon as my new PC was finished I was already planning the next iteration.

2016 was due to bring Intel’s 10nm Skymont CPU’s, and by then I’d have left university and be able to afford a shiny new PC that would leave my old one in its dust. Then…

Nothing…