any user group tech sites to replace Tom's Hardware

have login issues with that one and apparently it was acquired and I don't trust their objectivity.

This is for a wierd hardware issue: two Dell 4k monitors have died in last 4 months on me. Dell keeps warrantying them but each time make me go thru a whole bunch of troubleshooting steps. I'd assume it was a Dell mfg quality issue but it's always the monitor connected to the same 15 foot 4k rated Amazon Basics cable. Card port has probably changed, though video card has not.

Dell and Nvidia think it's just a coincidence.

Amazon now sells another brand cable which I use on my other shorter cabled monitors on same card: Cables Matter. Slightly more expensive.

Did Dell ever tell you the reason their new monitors kept on dying?

About 10 years back I lost 2 computers (MB Fried), one was under warranty and the local dealer's tech hooked up a gizmo into my electrical outlet for 24 hours and told me that my electrical system was under heavy voltage spikes because at the back of the building a fellow did welding jobs and that was sending voltage spikes. Since then I have been using a UPS to power all my desktop computers and servers.

A power conditioner in front of any high value electronic device is a *great* idea.

I also put a whole-house surge suppressor and a lightening arrestor on my main panel. Twice. The first ones helped avert a disaster when an oak tree 50’ from the house took a direct hit. Sounded as close to an incoming mortar round as I ever want to hear.

You’d be shocked at how ‘dirty’ residential electric service is. Especially during peak usage in densely populated areas.

Supervisor said he'd send a query to engineering dept to see if there's a known flaw. They usually send refurbed not new units. So could be that. What's odd about Amazon DataPort cables is that they practically fall out of the port if you touch them. All the other DP cables i've used are so difficult to remove because you have to get your fingers into tight space and squeeze hard to release. At least it feels like that on my not so good fingers.

My pcs and monitors usually go thru ups's but that one might not. Worth checking. But it went out in just the same circumstances as the prior one: updated the nvidia driver just before i noticed it was dead. Wasn't looking at it, so not positive.

These 4k monitors are easy on the eyeballs but some tax apps hate them. BNA Tax Planner, CFS Tax Tools, UTax Virtual Office all have issues with high resolution monitors where the font size is set above 100%. Mine are usually 150 to 175% or the text woud be uncomfortably small. BNA and Tax Tools the mouse can't select menue items work most of the time. Short cut keys work ok on BNA but not w Tax Tools.

Couple of years back I purchased an Apple cable from a website my son found because the price was right. It was NOT the OEM or any known brand. It worked fine for about 2 months and then started giving me problems, because the contact surface were worn off in such a short time. The lesson to learn is stick with good quality products that are reliable, pay the extra cost!

Hardware is a necessary evil.

As a PC user (currently) and (for a while) PC support professional beginning in mid-1980s, I can't recall ever having a hardware or cable problem that directly affected me, although I worked more than once on mission-critical systems where server hardware (fancy disk arrays, in particular) caused severe outages, and a lot of problems for the business involved.

The recent IRS outage on 4/17, from what little factual info I've read, was in fact also a hardware problem, which means all the headlines about ancient software being an issue were far off the mark.

Contact MCM Electronics , well they have merged all their sites into one. http://www.newark.com/ They are very reasonable in costs and their tech support is very helpful. I buy all of our cable needs through them.

I found a Cable Matters brand 15 foot 4k cable. Got my money back from Amazon and Dell warranteed the monitor again.

I'll note the MCM link, but I was more looking for a "power user" site similar to what Tom's used to be. Suppose now would have to find a gamer hardware user site.

(the Newark site looks very good for cables)