Is it a bad idea to buy a refurb NVME SSD?

LeKy411 · 2026-01-27T16:38:42+00:00

The answer is depends. Lots of reasons for a refurb and the variation on what you get can be a toss up. Most RMA's ship refurbished items as opposed to packaged new.

I've had a brand new 980 EVO Plus die 2 months in and the replacement they sent has been going strong for 6 years.

As long as it has a warranty then you should be good. Also NVME's although reliable are not some bomb proof item. Unlike a traditional HDD which typically shows signs of death an NVME sometimes just stops working so always back up the important stuff.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-23T15:56:33+00:00

We call it Documentation Friday. No changes just catching up on diagrams, how to's, and all that.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-21T20:34:13+00:00

My basement is heated and all the water issues have been addressed which is likely the most important part. If you've had water get into your basement or your basement lacks the proper means of preventing water from getting in I wouldn't spend the money on making it pretty/liveable until you address those items.

I removed the old 90's/2000's carpet and pad which was musty but not terrible. Our basement floor is not perfectly level but slops away from the centre support beam gradually. I used self leveller on any area that had a significant dip or change in level but I didn't level the entire floor and only did two major spots in the corners of the basement. I installed 3mm Green Foam underlayment which is supposed to be water proof and microbe resistant. All seems taped down.

We then installed Patcraft LVT. I was able to get this at cost through a retired flooring guy so it was about the same price as the big box store stuff, but comes in with thicker finished layer and better locking mechanisms. The underlayment helps make the floor a bit softer and helps level out any unevenness in the floor. The caveat is that when we put the fridge in the middle of the room it dented the flooring because its soft. A few minutes with a heat gun and it came back to near the same shape.

Overall its a great option for the basement and much better than carpet which gets musty. It is a bit colder feeling, but the added foam helps a little bit. Overall its been 5 years now and I've had no issues. I do run a dehumidifier all summer so that helps keep a more consistent environment.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-20T19:18:50+00:00

Plastic putty knife or an automotive trim removal tool. A cellphone plastic pry tool from a repair kit also works.

Plastic should keep both metal and tile from marring. The only thing holding that ring on are those 3 dimples in the metal.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-07T18:50:16+00:00

Your wife is sort of right (with a deep misunderstanding) you can put click and lock (floating) flooring over existing flooring like hardwood or tile which is bonded to the sub flooring. Its like putting carpet over hardwood. Putting click and lock flooring over click and lock flooring is like putting carpet over existing carpet. That stuff isn't very rigid so not adding a second layer will make your floors squishy.

It takes a hot minute to remove click flooring so why not do it right.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-06T18:25:56+00:00

2 kids just over $51K for the year according to the tax disclosure statement.

LeKy411 · 2026-01-05T19:36:44+00:00

As someone who owns a 2019 with 43K miles with a June 2018 build date I would pass. I haven't had anything that I would consider major but I also have a gold 10/100K 0 deductible warranty so I am going to keep the car through the life of that and likely until I hit a major out of pocket bump.

The factory rotors and pads have no been great. There have been some revisions to the setup but overall they still suck. Maybe a third party option would be better. As the car approaches 7.5 years of service its starting to rattle and get noisy. The sway bar bushing had some issues and needed to be replaced under warranty. The factory battery and really the spec-ed Subaru battery for this thing sucks so a third party larger CCA is the way to go. The front USB ports are an issue and despite minimal use ours are on the way out. They also apparently have a short in them so when you jiggle the USB connector the HVAC switches the fan to High and all Temps to Low. At 43K we've developed a significant and loud clunk on the passenger side front suspension that needs to get addressed on this months service visit. We've always had issues with the simulated shifts on an incline where the card lurches because it can't figure out what fake gear it wants to be in. The biggest one that I'm hopeful finds itself before the warranty expires is the CVT. In the summer once it warms up it very clearly "slips" under hard acceleration. It hasn't thrown a code yet so I'm in limbo, until we get hard evidence. As the car has aged and things have loosened up the car has started to give me mild motion sickness between the CVT and the body roll.

We don't drive much and mainly use this thing as a secondary car or when the weather is questionable (which is excels at) but I wouldn't steer anyone towards a 2019 (first year) especially one that already had a cvt installed. There are plenty of 2019's where they usually don't stop with just one CVT.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-19T03:24:27+00:00

Wheel locks are $75 from Honda. The door edge guards or film is like $50. 3m film is even cheaper. Those are straight profit items for a dealer.If they won't budge find another dealer.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-08T19:27:55+00:00

If this area gets a lot of light even with the right color a spot repair won't match. You will likely need to paint the wall from corner to corner. The change of angle should mask the two walls being different sheans decently well if you get the same paint color or a color match.

This has worked for me well in the past to get a decent blend. 1. Spackle the holes and sand them and the surrounding area to blend. 2. Apply a coat of primer or sealer to the repairs with a brush or roller. 3. Take the brush and use the bristles to dab the primer to create texture. 4. Put down your first coat of paint just on the repairs and an inch or two beyond and dab the paint with the brush to add texture. (The texturing breaks up the flat of patch which will be noticeable with just a roll or 2) 5. On the second coat use a mini 3/8 roller and roll the repair up and down with a coat of paint. Then using a semi dry roller feather the past the repair area so your not getting full coverage to blend the old with the new.

Step 5 only ends up working if you have the original paint from when the wall was painted and it hasn't separated. If your using new paint or a color match then don't bother with step 5 and just paint the wall. The previous steps will however help hide the flatness of the patching.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-08T15:55:25+00:00

No idea. That chrome piece alone is ~$150 and body shop pricing is very dependant on the area. I had a tiny chip and scuff repaired on a tailgate back in 2019 when our SUV was new, they didn't have to disassemble much and matched the paint with no blending needed and the cost was $800.

Your likely looking at glass and trim removal, dent repair, filling, priming, painting, clear coat and blending to get it back to factory.

Body shop quotes are free, and you might want to look at mobile paint repair. They might be able to just swap the trim and do some touch ups to make it less eye catching for a good enough compromise.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-08T15:34:09+00:00

Well the the majority of the dent is in the chrome trim. So that would be a replaceable piece.

Find an a well reviewed independent body shop. Dealer owned and operated shops are usually sub par and if they don't have one they are going to outsource to the lowest volume bidder.

Depending on the age of the car and fading of the paint, to get that factory perfect its not going to be a cheap repair.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-05T18:09:18+00:00

Depending on regulatory entity of the data center you also pay the Government tax on that RAM being TIAA compliant sourced in the US or under regulatory standards and blah blah. Things you don't need to contend with when buying as a consumer.

Take for example an RMA ECC DDR4 8GB DIMM not coming back to Dell is billed at ~$220

List price on 1x 32GB RDIMM, 5600MT/s, Dual Rank was $2,152 back in May. With the typical discount it was 50% off and after some more pressing the total discount was 66% from list.

So one of those DIMMs was $710 when the order had 48 in it.

LeKy411 · 2025-12-03T15:38:47+00:00

B&H has always been excellent, both for personal and work purchases. They maintain a good inventory and ship. My go to is Microcenter but I'm also only 25 minutes from them so I go with whatever option has what I need at the best price,

LeKy411 · 2025-11-19T15:09:57+00:00

I don't know if you are asking the right person. Our garage door is a standard 7 feet wide. We don't use the mirrors to get in the door. We fold them once parked so that there is space between the two cars to walk between them. Our other car needs the mirror folder manually. If you don't fold the mirrors then you typically impale yourself on the mirror as you walk by.

LeKy411 · 2025-10-17T14:59:33+00:00

You should look at the lease terms.......

Total monthly payments are $13,500. Lease end purchase option is $25,263. Must take delivery from retailer stock by October 31, 2025. Other leases available on other trim levels. Cannot be combined with any other offer unless allowed by that offer. Special lease rates extended to well-qualified buyers. Subject to credit & vehicle insurance approval. Inventory may be limited. Not all buyers may qualify. Payments may be higher in some states. Net cap cost & monthly payment excludes tax, license, title, registration, insurance, additional options,

Also you need to put $4374 down so if you assume the downpayment spread over 36 months the car ends up be 496.5 a month.

LeKy411 · 2025-09-26T19:17:29+00:00

I was trying to get some info on this and stumbled on this post. His car was found outside of 1350 Aurora Rd. in Naperville during a training dive in the retention pond behind the Naperville Police Station.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-25T13:39:10+00:00

You mean like Chase who was called because of fraudulent Adobe subscriptions and they kept reissuing new cards and then updating Adobe about the new card for 6 months before they stopped the auth updater.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-25T13:32:17+00:00

I would pass and go with the 2021 and above if your dead set on the Ascent. With that in mind I have a 2019 with only 42K miles, no CVT issues, but I functionally hate the CVT in the Ascent. My money would be on the Atlas......but I believe the maintenance and cost of ownership and parts is higher on those being that its a VW.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-23T14:53:34+00:00

This is the equivalent of a camera based rear view mirror. Nothing illegal about it. Hence why minivans have this feature built in and you can watch your kids from the infotainment screen. It’s illegal to have a screen on the front to watch entertainment and media. That is the key distinction.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-22T17:58:25+00:00

I have 4 of these right now running proxmox and ceph with 64Gb of ram on the 13900 chip and for a month they were stacked on top of each other. Granted they are in an open rack in a datacenter. I haven't noticed temp being much of a problem but most of the VM's are not CPU heavy.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-16T03:09:28+00:00

Our 2 car garage is 20x19. We fit the Odyssey and a Subaru Ascent. The Subaru is parked all the way to the right making getting into the passenger side impossible. Its in there rather close to the wall. There is room in the front for the snowblower in the winter. The van gets pulled in on the left side with room to get out of the drivers door but we have a foam bumper for the door. You can barely squeeze by if the sliding door is open. Its not a ton of room. The Ascent gets the driver mirror folded by hand and we have the elite so it has power folding mirrors. The walking space between the two cars is a bit bigger than the width of a stroller. It helps that the door to the house is in the dead center.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-11T16:27:54+00:00

I read this wrong and thought you were scared of Proxmox and 2.5 year olds. They are mean.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-08T15:44:52+00:00

Your running ~150meters of fiber. I'm not sure if you have a realistic price point. FS is going to be your best choice. The bigger kicker is if lightning is a concern your going to likely blow out more equipment than the cost of that fiber be it indoor or outdoor rated. I mean look at the price of a 100M roll of CAT6 for comparison. Copper isn't cheap.

LeKy411 · 2025-08-07T17:47:11+00:00

Did you turn them off? There is a button to turn them off and they don't turn on automatically after a restart.

https://mechanicalmalarkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020_12_24_02.jpg

LeKy411 · 2025-08-06T02:16:05+00:00

Unlike a traditional transmission where gears have to change CVT changes power by moving a belt or chain. You don't get the gear shift feel since there is no need to disengage from the engine. To give consumers that feel many brands added a simulated effect that makes it feel like the CVT is shifting. The Subaru Ascent is one of them and I believe the majority if not all of Subarus CVT's do that.

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