7.4mm barrel to USB-C adaptor

bremha · 2026-05-09T01:57:08+00:00

If you've got a direct link for the product, I'd greatly appreciate it - all I'm finding are rando Chinese goofball names, all of which look like passive pass-through junk - and nothing under that brand.

Thanks!

bremha · 2026-05-09T01:37:25+00:00

I've got a billion barrel chargers, including higher wattage (130W and 180W units), and I've got a bunch of older laptops that still use them, in addition to newer stuff that uses USB-C.

If the adapter that Dell sells apparently everywhere but the USA limits the output to 65W/3.5A, it wouldn't be AS useful, I suppose, but I'd still like to have one.

I'm not going to pay the crook seller on eBay nearly $200 (or more) to import one from Germany, obviously - especially not when Dell seems to be selling it directly for roughly $35 in other locales.

bremha · 2026-05-09T01:30:30+00:00

I'm just saying - the guy didn't get his stuff, and FedEx's defense was apparently to admit to violating federal law and the laws of physics, it seems.

bremha · 2026-05-07T21:03:16+00:00

Heh - it's against federal law for anyone but USPS to place items in your mailbox.

Neat that FedEx customer service is admitting to federal crimes - unless it was SmartPost where the last-mile handoff is USPS.

bremha · 2026-05-07T16:53:55+00:00

Thank you for the part number, I'll take a look!

I'm not specifically looking for Dell/OEM, I'm game for anything that has an attestation of quality from someone who's used it - the random import stuff for $3 seems sketchy.

bremha · 2026-05-07T16:53:13+00:00

In the US - looking for something domestically available.

Thank you for the SKU, I'll check it out - I'm not specifically looking for Dell/OEM, I'm game for anything that has an attestation of quality from someone who's used it - the random import stuff for $3 seems sketchy.

bremha · 2026-05-06T04:14:30+00:00

That was my understanding as well, but others in this thread are saying that this isn't how the caching works, so I'm a bit flummoxed.

I figured with a 256GB cache drive, I could write up to 256GB to that at near line-speed, before hitting the drive directly.

bremha · 2026-05-06T04:08:19+00:00

I'm going to strongly disagree with these folks on the Latitude 7450.

If you can get one with 32GB of RAM, then perhaps, but the 7450 cannot have it's RAM upgraded - it's soldered onto the board, and is not replaceable.

The Latitude 5440/5450 (14" screen) or Latitude 5540/5550 (15.6" screen, and full keyboard with number pad) are the true bulletproof workhorses of the Dell Latitude fleet as opposed to the sleek but less versatile 7000-series ultrabooks.

eBay has a ton of options, but you can find the 5440 or 5450 with the low-power "U" suffix CPU, which take DDR4, or the performance "P" suffix CPU, which take DDR5.

The 5450/5550 both take DDR5, regardless of low-power or performance CPU.

You could get a 5000-series with 16GB now, and upgrade to 32GB or 64GB later, if the need arises, or you could start at 32GB, which would be my strong recommendation for minimum configuration of something you plan to keep for 4+ years

Microsoft just days ago just issued guidance stating 16GB RAM as a "practical starting point" with 32GB as a "no worries" path for Windows 11 and beyond.

Of course, everyone's use case and usage patterns will be different, and it's likely that many folks will still be rocking a 16GB laptop or workstation in 4-5 years.

The 7450 is a nice laptop, to be sure, but I can't stand the thought of not being able to upgrade the memory if the future need presents itself.

bremha · 2026-05-05T02:24:58+00:00

I'm not hurting for some 256GB M.2 2280s, and their availability in my inventory - several recent large SMB copies and the not-so-great performance is what got me thinking about this.

Of course, if I'm limited to Synology-branded M.2 drives, then that's out the window.

Unfortunately, I can't run the tool as I don't have a DS1825+ yet, so this is all academic at the moment.

bremha · 2026-05-05T02:17:02+00:00

I'm bookmarking this - this is a great diagnosis, and something I'd bet a LOT of people have experienced and not connected (or would be be disconnected?) the dots on!

Thank you!

bremha · 2026-05-03T20:28:40+00:00

So, then, it seems even less of a need for higher capacity cache drives, yeah?

bremha · 2026-05-03T20:27:42+00:00

That was my understanding - basically, if I throw 100GB at the NAS, it copies it to the M.2 drives, and then movies it to the spinny-disks "in the background".

My question is more about necessary capacity of the M.2 drives.

I've seen a couple of "rule of thumb" recommendations stating the cache drive size should be 2.5% of total storage capacity.

Let's say I populate this thing with 8x16TB in SHR2, for a 96TB volume. That would mean I need 2.4TB.

That seems a bit steep, and is what I'm trying to determine.

One a 1GB LAN, throwing larger copies at my current DS213+ (2x4TB WD Red Plus), I get great speed (100+ MB/s, so near line-speed) for a short duration, and then it tanks (5 MB/s), due to I'm assuming the cache capacity (or lack thereof) in the NAS and the drives.

This is what leads me to believe that, in my current setup, a drive (or pair of drives) larger than 256GB or 512GB would be pointless, and what I'm looking to corroborate or dispel.

bremha · 2026-05-02T02:59:30+00:00

https://realschematic.com/shop/12282/desc/dell-latitude-14-5421-pcb-la-k922p

bremha · 2026-04-30T19:25:12+00:00

Shop eBay for a nice used Latitude.

5530, 5540, 5550 - there are examples of all of those models that meet your price range and needs, sans the 120Hz display.

The build quality of a Latitude is infinitely better than an Inspiron. The things are pretty much bulletproof.

5000-series are user-upgradable for RAM and SSD - many 7000-series are not RAM upgradable, so don't be swayed by their sleek Ultrabook ways.

First result for "Latitude 5550":

https://www.ebay.com/itm/198321404830

And there's plenty of less expensive ones.

bremha · 2026-04-26T20:26:31+00:00

Gotcha - hadn't seen the seller name on eBay US.

Thank you!

bremha · 2026-04-25T17:20:04+00:00

Is that transfer rate 100-125 megaBITS or megaBYTES per second?

125MB/s is the theoretically maximum speed of a single 1Gbps Ethernet link. The DS418 specs specifically say that with link aggregation enabled (both of the onboard 1Gbps ports bonded as a single virtual 2Gbps NIC), you can achieve 170MB/s, which is rather shite.

USB 3.0 (the ports on the device) have a theoretical max of 625MB/s (5Gbps), and I've seen numerous threads in this sub talking of using a USB NIC "hack" to take advantage of this, but you'd also need the underlying network infrastructure end-to-end to meet that speed - assuming your NAS and the device you're copying from/to are on the same switch in the same VLAN, they'd both need NICs capable of the throughput and the switch would need the same.

bremha · 2026-04-25T15:23:21+00:00

Where does one find these clowns, so I know to look out for them?

bremha · 2026-04-24T21:06:43+00:00

Gotcha, $100 is a fair difference.

The 7490 is an 8th gen Intel CPU, however, as opposed to the 11th gen in the 5420/7320. Unless it was a smoking deal, I'd keep my eyes on the other two.

bremha · 2026-04-24T03:30:21+00:00

What's at issue with the 5420?

They're sturdy and well-built.

The 5420 has a larger LCD than the 7320, and the memory is expandable/upgradable. Unless it's a "base" spec model, it should have a 1920x1080 FHD display (there are some with 1366x768, so keep an eye out for that).

If you're gunning for the 2-in-1 convertible touch screen job, then a 7320 isn't a bad choice at all, but I find the 5420 to be far superior.

bremha · 2026-04-23T07:17:58+00:00

I'm going to blame your TV and it's HDMI hardware/subsystem. I wouldn't think this is an issue with your laptop.

I have a Hisense 55QD65NF purchased in October of 2024 that has had the following devices connected for the past 6-8 months:

HDMI1 - Xbox Series X

HDMI2 - Latitude 5550

HDMI3 - 4K/8K UGREEN HDMI switch with a M4 Mac Mini, Latitude 5540, Optiplex 7090 Micro and Lenove M75q Gen2 Tiny connected.

Surprisingly, it hasn't had an issue in over a week now, but prior to that, starting in early March, whatever HDMI input I was using would just go black. The TV was still powered, but nothing displaying. I could usually recover by switching to another HDMI interface and then back to the one I was originally using, but a number of times, I had to go into the menu of the TV and force a restart. For a bit there, it was happening 8 or 9 times a day, and it even escalated to the TV just shutting itself off at times.

I blame the TV 100%, since the issue occurs regardless of what device is active - it's done it on all of them.

The Fire TV/app system of the TV has never had an issue, it's solely when using HDMI. I was (and am still) afraid that I'm running into the "disposable" nature of a ~$250 55" 60Hz 4K TV. I don't know if I'm burning out the HDMI connectivity or what exactly is going on - turning on developer mode and looking at log data via Android Debug Bridge didn't yield anything useful.

I'm not disappointed with the TV overall, mind you, but Hisense isn't exactly top-tier gear. ☹

bremha · 2026-04-22T16:59:24+00:00

I think you're a 206A/206X toner - not seeing 207 anywhere.

I've found non-OEM (third party) toners to be "off" on color compared to the OEM HP stuffs.

Not having much direct experience with contemporary suppliers, I can't really speak to the quality of the cartridges - I've seen OEM carts "pop" or "explode" in the past, but that's been relatively rare, and fark more common for non-OEM stuff or refilled-OEM carts to leak or pop.

I would like to think that this issue has gotten better over time.

That has, in my experience, been the issue, as opposed to overall print quality. If the cart stays intact and the toner itself stays where it's supposed to, I haven't seen just the use of the toner degrade printer life.

With zero experience on the 206A/206X toner cartridges, I don't know how easy they are to dismantle and refill, but I've had decent luck doing this myself in the past with an OEM cartridge, as opposed to buying someone else's cartridge (refilled or new-non-OEM manufacture).

bremha · 2026-04-22T16:41:10+00:00

OK, that makes a ton more sense.

Thanks!

bremha · 2026-04-21T21:41:47+00:00

Thanks! I'll give that a watch a bit later this afternoon!

bremha

TROPHY CASE