The ALL-AMAZON BASICS Gaming Battlestation!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
3,519 words · ~17 min read
0:00
So here's your problem.
0:01
On the one hand, you're a gamer
0:04
and you've got your gaming rig
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and your gaming monitor
0:07
and you've got some important gaming to do.
0:10
And on the other hand,
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you're a total basic and you own that.
0:14
So today is the basic gaming setup
0:17
where we will be creating the best gaming desk-
0:21
Stop it.
0:22
Those are in order.
0:22
We can- Those are in order.
0:24
With only products from Amazon Basics.
0:29
Origin PC.
0:30
Origin PC builds custom desktops and laptops
0:33
with free 24-7 lifetime tech support
0:35
and they use high-end brand name components
0:37
like Samsung's 970 EVO Pro M.2 SSD.
0:40
Visit Origin PC at the link below for a special offer.
0:52
Okay, well, you don't have anything to put that on.
0:54
Yeah, I know.
0:55
I'm just, I'm completing as much of the setup
0:56
as I can right now.
0:57
There.
0:58
Why not utilize the Amazon Basics monitor stand?
1:02
Oh, okay.
1:02
So basically, if your monitor doesn't come
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with a height adjustable,
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stand or like, I mean, it doesn't have pivot.
1:12
Does it have?
1:12
No, it doesn't do that either.
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So basically it's just height adjust.
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I think it tilts.
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In a nutshell.
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That's swivel.
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It has pivot.
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It has pivot.
1:19
Oh, well, I don't know.
1:20
It's hard.
1:21
Baby hands can't.
1:22
It's advertised as only supporting 24-inch monitors,
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but I've read you can put a 27-inch on there,
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but your mileage may vary in terms of the pivot.
1:32
You might not be able to get into portrait mode.
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But who has a 24?
1:35
Have we investigated whether
1:38
it is actually cost-effective to buy a cheapo monitor
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and then put a Basics stand on it?
1:46
I see, this is the thing.
1:47
I'm not sure how many people actually need this.
1:49
On the one hand, it seems super obscure,
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but on the other hand,
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Amazon is making this product.
1:54
So it must be in demand.
1:55
Isn't the whole thing with Amazon Basics
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that they do the most in-demand stuff?
1:58
Okay.
1:59
He did it.
2:00
Oh, it's not like,
2:01
I wouldn't describe this thing as amazing.
2:05
Like, how do you hear that sound?
2:07
Well, it's a little too heavy.
2:08
Oh, God.
2:10
You hold the base.
2:10
Well, you're gonna have to tilt it for sure.
2:13
Okay, I'll hold the base.
2:14
The base is not very heavy.
2:16
Wait a second.
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I think we're gonna make it.
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Boom!
2:19
Not bad.
2:21
I wonder if people are trying to rotate it like this
2:24
and they're not realizing
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that on even a lot of factory stands,
2:28
you have to tilt in order to rotate.
2:30
And I'll give you an Amazon Basics display board cable.
2:33
How much is one of these gonna cost me?
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Six bucks.
2:36
Depends on the length, though.
2:37
That's a six-footer.
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That's not bad.
2:39
It's only outfitted for DisplayPort 1.2, though,
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so even though that has the same bandwidth as 1.4,
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there are some features.
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I mean, the thing with that, though,
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is that there's no actual pin difference,
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so it's just a matter of, like,
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what they're comfortable rating it at.
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It's quite possible it would work just fine for DP 1.4.
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It just might not.
2:59
Wow, we bought a PC power cord.
3:02
I hope it didn't cost much.
3:03
We literally have a gigantic Rubbermaid bin of these.
3:07
Yeah, but do they have
3:08
the Amazon Basics?
3:10
Does that actually say Amazon Basics on it?
3:11
No, I think it's a pretty generic-ass power cord.
3:15
Well, it was $7.
3:18
A lot of people were giving it one star
3:20
because they said that these holes were too small.
3:22
What?
3:23
I think they're trying to just plug normal stuff into it.
3:27
Aw.
3:29
So for those of you out there
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who are even more basic than me,
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that's how it is intended to be used,
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and it works just fine.
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Nice snug fit.
3:37
It's perfectly adequate.
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Basic, but adequate.
3:41
The other end is gonna go into,
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oh, I, yeah, yeah, I get, okay, just.
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Three outlet surge protector wall tap with two USB ports.
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So you plug that bad boy into your wall outlet
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and you get a quick charging,
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a regular charging, and three outlets.
4:01
Now, to be clear, I'm not recommending plugging a wall tap
4:04
into a PowerSquid, but we're not really drawing a line.
4:09
I have a power here, so it's fine.
4:11
That's one amp.
4:11
That's 2.4 amps.
4:13
The second thing to keep in mind
4:14
is that the top negative comment is entitled,
4:17
lit my house on fire.
4:21
There, safe.
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The Amazon Basics cable sleeve with zipper,
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20 inch black four pack.
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So this is actually kind of cool.
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Basically, you just put your wires in there
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and you zip it up.
4:34
Now that you got that set up,
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it's time for you to sit down in your $70 Amazon Basics chair.
4:40
They have a chair?
4:41
They have lots of different chairs.
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This one was just kind of cheap and easy.
4:45
Actually, it's not that bad.
4:46
I will say that the cushioning down here,
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this is a pretty hard, like a pretty firm cushion,
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which is actually a better thing than you might expect
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because if you have like a really plush cushion,
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what happens to it over time
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is it just becomes not really a cushion
5:04
and then you're just sitting on the piece
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of what is usually plywood on the bottom.
5:09
Amazon Basics.
5:10
Microfiber cloths for electronics.
5:12
How many things did you buy?
5:14
The next thing is pretty much the reason
5:16
we actually made this video is because they made this.
5:20
This is the Amazon Basics mechanical feel gaming keyboard.
5:25
Okay, so it's got five programmable macro keys.
5:29
This should be worth about 27.95.
5:36
It's 36.
5:38
Okay, well, at least it's not far off.
5:40
I'm not happy with that though.
5:41
If you remember,
5:42
it was a mechanical keyboard.
5:43
Yeah, no, I wouldn't buy this.
5:44
There was a bunch of actual mechanical keyboards.
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I mean, granted they used Chinese switches,
5:49
but still, and they were in the $40 range, $45.
5:51
Maybe they were trying to go for mechanical sound
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because you've got a couple keys
5:55
that sounds kind of like loud.
5:59
Loud.
6:00
I think what they should call this
6:01
is the loud membrane keyboard.
6:04
Have a $7 mouse.
6:05
Followed by the three button USB wired mouse.
6:09
Oh, you made poor Tyler inventory all this stuff?
6:13
Oh, a desk pad.
6:15
All right.
6:16
What do you think would be a good price for that?
6:20
I'd pay 14.99.
6:21
Well, you actually did pay 24.99.
6:24
So that's their anti-fraying strategy.
6:27
It seems to be to burn it.
6:28
And they end up with actually quite a noticeable,
6:32
see there's a shine to the edge and it's kind of sharp.
6:34
You know what?
6:35
I just wouldn't buy this actually.
6:36
I would just buy something better.
6:38
We have no internet.
6:39
Oh, that's too bad.
6:41
Maybe what you need is the RJ45.
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Cat5e Ethernet patch cable from Amazon Basics.
6:48
Thank you.
6:49
Or if you prefer the USB Wi-Fi adapter.
6:53
You know what?
6:53
I don't prefer the USB Wi-Fi adapter,
6:55
but I'll open it anyway just to humor you.
6:58
Adorable.
6:59
It's happy to see me.
7:00
See, this seems fine.
7:02
Are you sure?
7:03
Sheething's a little stiff actually.
7:04
This is not an amazing cable.
7:07
The jacket is prone to cracking and when it does crack,
7:10
it'll crack along the length of the cable.
7:12
On a cable this short,
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like 15 feet, it's less of an issue.
7:16
Where you really run into trouble
7:17
with these cheap outer jackets
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is when you have a longer cable
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and you go, even if you over under it,
7:23
when you wind it up for storage,
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you'll still run into a situation
7:27
where you try to kind of throw it down
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and it's just a kinky mess.
7:33
I probably wouldn't buy this either.
7:36
I've had my disputes with Monoprice over the years,
7:39
but credit where credit's due,
7:41
their cheap cables are less cheap.
7:44
How much battery do you have on your phone there?
7:46
63%.
7:46
Oh, you could probably use a little charge here.
7:48
Here, use an Amazon Basics USB-C to USB-C cable.
7:52
It's a little better than the network cable.
7:53
I wouldn't describe it as amazing though.
7:55
To their credit though,
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they're using the more expensive connector housings
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that don't have the split down the one side.
8:01
They cost a little more.
8:03
Okay, well, there was supposed to be a gaming headset,
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but I think it's a pretty new Amazon Basics product,
8:08
so it takes between one and three months to ship.
8:11
So even though we got it in October, it's not here,
8:14
until like mid-December.
8:15
So I did get you a little Bluetooth speaker.
8:19
A portable Bluetooth speaker.
8:21
Great.
8:22
Oh, that's not enough for your desktop setup?
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Micro B.
8:26
Did they not have like a soundbar or something?
8:32
It really does not sound very good.
8:37
Don't specify Chromecast Ultra, the 4K HDR model.
8:41
So this is interesting.
8:42
It seems like the way that the audio profile is tuned,
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even in its standard profile,
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it's really emphasizing vocals,
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and I can barely even hear
8:51
the background music of this video.
8:54
You notice that?
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Like it's just like a dialogue enhancer for your TV.
8:59
I mean, PC gaming is so complicated.
9:01
Why not just stick to console gaming?
9:03
Oh wow, they do an Xbox One clone controller?
9:06
Oh, that is a weird texture.
9:13
Oh yeah.
9:14
Can you not hear that?
9:16
It's got like a really kind of grippy,
9:18
kind of feel to the back here.
9:20
Those are loud.
9:24
Those are really loud.
9:25
You can wake the dead with those.
9:27
Is this RGB backlit?
9:29
Okay, so it has different modes.
9:31
It can go off.
9:32
Okay, there's a different color.
9:34
This is breathing, different colors.
9:36
Yeah, it's RGB.
9:37
Okay.
9:39
Is that it?
9:41
Well, I think if you want more functionality,
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you need to install the Amazon Basics keyboard software.
9:46
No, I'm good.
9:48
The keyboard is not good.
9:50
The soundbar is not good.
9:51
Unless I was just trying to hear, you know,
9:55
the Weather Channel better, you know?
9:59
The other thing with the soundbar
10:00
is that it's supposed to come with a remote,
10:01
but ours just didn't.
10:06
Oh, what the?
10:07
Oh wow, I just got killed by easy bots.
10:09
Anyway.
10:10
I can't stand to watch you struggle
10:11
with that three click basic mouse here.
10:14
They do make a gaming mouse.
10:16
I do prefer the mouse to the keyboard.
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So there's that.
10:20
We get presumably, ah, DPI adjustments.
10:23
We get a back and a forward button, which are,
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I would consider, I would consider, I would consider,
10:25
basic features in the year 2018.
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Not present on this one.
10:31
And we also get a braided cable,
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which I was recently made aware that not everyone prefers
10:36
because apparently they can get snagged on stuff.
10:38
From my experience,
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I don't really get my braided cables snagged on things.
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Also has onboard memory,
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so you can save your configs on the go.
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Cool.
10:47
And 3,200 DPI.
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Okay.
10:49
And $24.
10:51
Actually feels a little bit jittery
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at super high sensitivity.
10:54
It's definitely more comfortable than the other one.
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Quite heavy though.
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Like surprisingly heavy given how, well, basic it is.
11:02
This is too boring.
11:03
You should be yelling at your teammates with this.
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Professional USB condenser microphone.
11:08
All right.
11:09
More basics.
11:10
The most gratuitous packaging in the whole lot.
11:12
It's got one of those standard mounts
11:15
so that you can put it on an ARM
11:16
if you're into that sort of thing.
11:17
It actually has height adjust as well.
11:20
Oh, okay.
11:22
It's kind of rickety.
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Oh boy.
11:24
Ha! Tighten it up.
11:25
Give it a chance.
11:26
You know what?
11:27
It actually does straighten out a fair bit.
11:31
So this is what I would sound like
11:33
if I was yelling at my teammates
11:34
or actually talking more normally to my teammates.
11:36
You can see I peaked a little bit there.
11:38
So we're gonna go ahead and experience that.
11:42
There's no tactile feedback.
11:43
Oh, wow.
11:44
And that is, let's see.
11:46
That is quite a bit quieter now.
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And we are getting up into the yellow range less often.
11:52
So in my like broadcast.
11:55
Thank you for that.
11:56
All right.
11:56
So the next two things are kind of better
11:58
if you are trying to get a one cord solution for your laptop,
12:01
like you're docking your laptop
12:03
and making it into a desktop,
12:04
you might want one of these.
12:06
You know, this is a weird complaint,
12:09
but this cord is kind of long.
12:11
You wouldn't be saying that
12:12
if you were trying to plug that
12:13
into the back of your Corsair One right now.
12:16
That's true.
12:18
So what it should really be is detachable.
12:20
It should be a type C to type C,
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and then it should just come with a cable
12:22
and you should be able to swap it out.
12:24
That's, that would be better.
12:26
There, there's our basic placement for it.
12:29
So this is a USB 3 external hard drive enclosure.
12:36
You get to provide your own hard drive.
12:38
Comes with a couple little foam inserts,
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which are presumably to keep your hard drive safe.
12:42
If you have a thin hard drive, I don't know.
12:45
The top is metal, but the majority,
12:49
that part is pretty plastic.
12:51
This is it.
12:52
This is what holds your drive, I guess.
12:53
You just stick it to the top of the drive.
12:56
basic at 20 bucks is probably fine this is a very low quality USB cable that's
13:02
included like that is very thin for a USB 3 cable so the side with the
13:07
branding and not the like FCC sticker on it goes down if you don't want to put
13:13
like strain on the connector or have your drive supported by just this one
13:16
point here so I yeah I don't like this one very much and this oh the external
13:24
hard drive case yeah this is very mediocre for six bucks it's fine for any
13:29
more than that I probably I would probably opt for something else the
13:32
Amazon basics multi-tip stylus for touchscreen devices that's an
13:38
interesting idea so multi-tip stylus instead of just shipping it with
13:41
multiple tips they just used every possible end of a pen type device to put
13:49
a different tip so you got a big fat one you got a medium one and you got a
13:52
skinny one yeah which is that's seven
13:54
six and five millimeters respect okay so you could go fat skinny fat medium or
14:03
skinny medium like there's kind of a lot of mush to them I don't think any of
14:07
these are really fine or sharp enough to really write with you probably have more
14:11
success if you had a nice comfortable Amazon basics footrest actually that
14:17
feels not bad it's got grip unlike the IKEA ones that we use here at the office
14:22
it's not as high though I don't think I'll give it a shot also one thing I
14:26
already don't really like about it is that it's it swivels too easily a lot
14:32
better overall feel and this goodness on the floor than the IKEA one but it just
14:36
if you just kind of man I don't even know if you just took like some some
14:41
silicone crap and just kind of like gummed it up a little bit or something I
14:45
think you could I think you could you know for less than a dollar you could
14:49
DIY it better ow this is 5,000 sheets of Amazon basics paper
14:56
it's fine take your new Amazon basic stapler for a spin really is it like a
15:14
say it's a safety mechanism well that sucks because often like if you want to
15:20
if you want to staple something to the wall or whatever you open up the
15:23
stapler and you just oh that's a bummer yeah the shoulder ones are so loud yeah
15:29
like this is not this is not great I mean I still managed to score one goal
15:35
yeah go Linus but so how do you feel about your it $21 21 but you know what
15:40
for 21 bucks I'm pretty okay with it quite frankly so how do you feel overall
15:44
about your new basic battle station you know I like the DisplayPort cable one
15:48
advantage we didn't mention before is that it doesn't require the lock so it's
15:53
just a self locking one you don't have to deal with like pressing the thing in
15:56
order to unlatch it these cable management sleeves honestly if you're
16:02
trying to get something done quick they can improve the
16:05
look of behind your desk a fair bit come on I bet it yeah like that helps a lot
16:13
and they're neoprene I like the monitor stand believe it or not I think at 40
16:18
bucks I'd probably rather have one of the ones that just clip onto the desk
16:21
personally but if you don't want that if you just want to convert a vase amount
16:25
monitor to this or replace a broken stand honestly I'm okay with that one
16:30
the gaming mouse is alright actually it's it's I think it's too heavy to
16:34
really like game on it
16:36
like I would consider it more like just a mouse but it's fine the grip on the
16:40
side is makes it easy to lift off even though it is a little bit on the heavy
16:43
side and not not a big fan of the keyboard a big disappointment in the
16:46
keyboard at 20 bucks this is fine I actually stopped noticing that scuffing
16:51
on my ARM pretty quickly maybe I was just busy filming a video and wasn't
16:54
paying attention but it seems like less of a big deal now that I'm your mileage
16:59
may vary on that one your mileage may vary that's a good cable that's working this cable
17:05
seems fine
17:06
I don't know there isn't really any conclusion like none of it really like
17:10
blew me away but none of it was complete and utter garbage actually a couple of
17:17
them were pretty bad the Ethernet cable is bad I wouldn't use this hard drive
17:20
dock and I wouldn't buy this keyboard there are much better keyboard options
17:24
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So thanks for watching, guys.
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If you disliked this video, you can hit that button.
18:14
But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed,
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or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
18:17
we featured at the link in the video description.
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Also down there is our merch store,
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which has cool shirts like this one.
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Ah!
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And our community forum, which you should totally join.
18:32
I thought you were holding your ARM up
18:33
to throw something at me again.
18:34
He's just...
18:36
No, I'm just tired of this.
18:38
I grow weary of these videos.
18:40
What? This was fun.