What we do

This week I thought I would shift gears after taking a few weeks off and explain exactly who Team Revolution Technology is and what we do as I have never really addressed this. That is a multifaceted statement though. We generally provide managed IT support for small businesses and emergent and non-emergent remote on-call and onsite support for general consumers and small/medium sized businesses. This is what keeps us a float, but we have other ventures that are what we really enjoy.

One of our favorite services that we provide is giving general computer education classes to seniors, recreation centers and churches for a reduced cost, this allows us to give back to the communities that gave so much to us. We also offer a paid version of this class, which is more hands on and follows the A+ Certification specifications and are hardware general and operating system general. We can specialize and customize a training package specific to your goals and needs too.

Most of our products revolve around a custom build of some sort. Our two biggest ones though are our Media Server builds and our Gaming builds. The Media Server is designed to hold you movies, TV shows and music as well as dozens of different media streaming services, like Hulu, Netflix and most of your favorite cable channels at no additional cost. The Gaming builds are powerhouse desktops that can and will do anything, from playing PC games with the display settings at the maximum or even running graphic rendering software like Photoshop, Lightroom and AutoCAD 3D, without having to worry about the resolution.

The Media Server builds are built in a few specifications, but the actual hardware is only limited by your imagination. We build two types when it comes to this build, a small form factor that can be mounted on or behind you TV or hidden behind your monitor and a more traditional desktop form factor. We can also provide this service as a upgrade for laptops to keep your Media Server portable.

Our Gaming builds brings the best parts that money can buy or one of our budget conscious builds that gives you great performance but don't break your wallet. These can be multiple monitor dispersed screens or single massive extremely high resolution displays. We can even use 3D and/or HD projectors that will make your display cover entire walls!!

We also, for our specialty market, can create MAC-compliant (Hackintosh) PCs or even Linux (any distribution) clients.

These are only a few of the services that we offer, you'll have to check on our website and social media sites for more info, deals and specials in the coming days and weeks. 

For more info on Team Revolution Technology, please visit is at the following social media sites:

FaceBook: Team Revolution Tech
Twitter: @TeamRevTech
Google+: Team Revolution Technology
Web (Coming Soon): http://teamrevolutiontechnology.com/

The Kindle Firestorm

Amazon drop a few separate bombs on us yesterday. The lineup that was announced is truly star studded and is available for every price point and need: The Kindle Fire HD in two sizes, the Kindle Fire HD 4G and the Kindle Paperwhite eBook reader.

The Kindle Fire HD comes in 2 sizes, 7" and 8.9" and are both WiFi only with two storage sizes each (16GB and 32GB). The Kindle Fire HD 4G is the same size as the 8.9" and the only real difference is that it has a higher storage ceiling (32GB and 64GB) and 4G LTE plan with it. This plan by the way is 250 MB of LTE greatness per month, all for the low price of $50 a year! That's completely unheard of! The price points are right where they should be ($200/$300/$500 for the smaller storage ceiling respectively). On paper, at least in my opinion, it blows away its closes competition, the Nexus 7, away. But that is misleading, it’s still running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This is by far not a bad thing, but ICS still has some of the biggest Android gripes relatively intact, like processor count buildup and segmented slowdown. No word on if there will be a update for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the future. But needless to say I am very excited for the Kindle Fire as it will foster competition in the market which will in turn force manufacturers to make better products. This ultimately helps to solidify the rumors that Microsoft will release the Surface at the lower price point of $200-$300 and maybe the yet-to-be announced iPad Mini close to that as well even though that's unlikely. Unfortunately there is "The" Kindle dilemma, its ad supported. This is, for some strange reason, only occurring in the US. This is probably how the keep the price point so low, but this has to be annoying.

Now some of you might be more interested in a eBook Reader instead of a tablet. For you people out there we have the Kindle Paperwhite. They move the PPI up from 169 to 212 and it is immediately noticeable compared to a regular Kindle. It also has a front lit capacitive touch screen, which offers greater control than the infrared screens of old. It comes in 2 flavors as well, with a wireless and a 3G version and minimal prices ($119 and $179 respectively). They are ad supported at that level but they do offer slightly pricier versions that eliminate the ads. I am not an eReader kind of guy, but I can understand the allure of having one and this might just change my mind. Now I just have to get a review model :).

For more info on Team Revolution Technology, please visit is at the following social media sites:

FaceBook: Team Revolution Tech
Twitter: @TeamRevTech
Google+: Team Revolution Technology
Web (Coming Soon): http://teamrevolutiontechnology.com/

Update 2 The Dilemma

*Update 2*

I am looking for another tablet to replace my Arnova 10 G2 and am undecided as to where my allegiance lies. I would like a Nexus 7, my wife has one and I have used it a lot since then and I love it but I think that I want something a little larger. Then there is the just announced Kindle Fire HD 7” and 8.9”. The 8.9” screen on the Fire HD is really appealing but after using Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, moving back to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich might NOT be happening. It just fixes all my Android frustrations. Then there is the supposed (praying) iPad Mini that’s going to be announced on September 12^th. I wanted an iPad forever, but let’s be honest, it’s a little expensive. I entertained the idea to get a Generation 2 iPad, but I want something a little newer. So I am reaching out to the community and my readers. Which should I get and why? Whichever I decide to get (save the 2^nd Gen iPad) I am going to do a review for it and post my findings. Leave comments on what you think. 

For more info on Team Revolution Technology, please visit is at the following social media sites:

FaceBook: Team Revolution Tech
Twitter: @TeamRevTech
Google+: Team Revolution Technology
Web (Coming Soon): http://teamrevolutiontechnology.com/

Prefabs vs. Customs

This is the burning question that resonates with a great many tech types and people looking to break into the computer culture. Prefabs are computers that you purchase that are ready to go, like your average Dell or HP, customs are somewhere in between. They can have parts from a multitude of different manufacturers from Seagate and Western Digital for hard drives, Corsair and Patriot for the memory, and Asus and Gigabyte for the motherboard. As confusing as this seems to be, creating custom builds or purchasing prefab computers are much like any real purchase or decision you have to weigh the pros and cons of it.

Prefab laptops and desktops are what you get when you go to CompUSA, MicroCenter, HP, Origin and Dell. These are PCs that come completely assembled with the operating system already installed (in most instances anyway). Depending on the place of purchase you might have the option to "customize" the hardware and add additional software but it’s wholly behind the scenes and you can start using it immediately. The most obvious pro to this is you have nothing to do other than use it and you're generally sure that everything works as advertised, but with this ease of access generally comes a larger price point. That desktop you just brought might have not been worth the sum of its parts. Most of the time if you purchased the parts separately it might be cheaper. This leads to the notion that what you're paying for is labor and the brand name as much, if not more, than the parts themselves. Now this is not a hard fast rule as this depends largely on the manufacturer. Acer parts, for instance, might be cheaper than Dell parts, but that doesn’t mean that Acer's parts are of a lesser quality, just cheaper to make. Another major pro is that you might get those upgrades that cost you less because the brand has an agreement with a particular parts manufacturer, for instance HP and Intel. HP creates the PCs and Intel supplies HP with a discount for buying its items, like the 3rd generation Core i5 and i7, in bulk, and then they pass the savings on to you when you "customize" their stock products.

Custom builds are where PCs shine. This is where you're only limited by your imagination when it comes to building your dream PC. You want a pearl white case with red, white and blue scrolling lights, done. You want 6 hard drives and 32 GB of ram, no sweat. This can also be THE MOST frustrating endeavor that you ever undertake. Besides the fact that simply mentioning DIY, sends chills up most peoples spines, things can go wrong easily and you could be out a LOT of money depending on the build. Needless to say this can be one of the most rewarding achievements for the non-IT guys and gals and geeks alike. The core of this process is learning what is compatible with what. You want to make sure that you pay attention to little things like how much power is drawn by all of the components, that your case is large enough to house said components, that your motherboard is compatible with you processor and that said motherboard has all of the inputs you need, etc., etc. There are a lot moving parts so be prepared for a project. Under most circumstances it’s generally cheaper to make a PC that is "comparable" in power with more inexpensive parts. Luckily most of the hard work has been done for you by the custom community. There a specification classifications, how to guides and compatibility list all over the internet, you can even make a MAC compliant (Hackintosh) PC if you know what parts to use and where to look for help. As a rule of thumb, I think everyone who is thinking about do a custom build should purchase a cheaper/older PC and (literally) rip it apart and put it back together a few times to get a feel for the general location of components and which connectors go to which device.

There is also a mid-way point in this process and a subculture that even I don't touch, Barebones kits and Custom Laptops.

Barebones kits come in 2 distinct but similar flavors, complete kits and non-complete kits. Complete kits are exactly what they sound like, they have all of the components to make the PC run, short of the operating system and you put them together. Non-complete kits are generally missing vital pieces like hard drives, ram or processors. You must purchase compatible parts to complete the build. Complete kits are easier to jump right into as all the parts are known to be compatible, but non-complete kits offer more flexibility with the trade-off of doing extra work to secure parts.

Now fanatics out there will swear by custom laptops. I have never even attempted to do one and probably won't anytime soon. Laptops by very nature are portable desktops crammed into a relatively very small space. There is generally lots of soldering and shattered dreams if something goes wrong. If you’re feeling brave and have the time/money to devote then give it a shot, you can find these guys and girls all over the internet showcasing their creations.

 For more info on Team Revolution Technology, please visit is at the following social media sites:

FaceBook: Team Revolution Tech
Twitter: @TeamRevTech
Google+: Team Revolution Technology
Web (Coming Soon): http://teamrevolutiontechnology.com/