That case is terrible! First of all, it has spots in the back for two small exhaust fans. Talk about noisy! Also, it doesn't even come with the fans, you have to buy them separately. Also, it has those stupid ventilation holes in the side panel. Those are completely unnecessary, and they just let lots of noise get out and dust get in. That's one thing I forgot to mention, dust. A good case will have positive pressure. That means the air pressure in the case is greater than the air pressure outside the case. More intake than exhaust. This will keep your case super dust-free. A quality dust filter over the intake fans is also very good. That case also comes with a shitty old useless Pentium 4 PSU. And the front panel connectors are on the right side. That pretty much forces you to keep the computer to your left. Also, read the Newegg reviews. Look at all the trouble people have working with the case. It will be a very unpleasant experience to build a PC in that box, even if you make it look nice.
That case is terrible! First of all, it has spots in the back for two small exhaust fans. Talk about noisy! Also, it doesn't even come with the fans, you have to buy them separately. Also, it has those stupid ventilation holes in the side panel. Those are completely unnecessary, and they just let lots of noise get out and dust get in. That's one thing I forgot to mention, dust. A good case will have positive pressure. That means the air pressure in the case is greater than the air pressure outside the case. More intake than exhaust. This will keep your case super dust-free. A quality dust filter over the intake fans is also very good. That case also comes with a shitty old useless Pentium 4 PSU. And the front panel connectors are on the right side. That pretty much forces you to keep the computer to your left. Also, read the Newegg reviews. Look at all the trouble people have working with the case. It will be a very unpleasant experience to build a PC in that box, even if you make it look nice.
Lol, all can be fixed with a Dremel and the fiberglass filling (except the holes in the back, you can always make them, but on bare metal, unless you have some basic metal working skills and tools, you are stuck with them). It really was just a hint for the DIY inside every geek out there, although it seems that it kinda lacks in this forum. The basic idea was to take a cheap-o case and modify it to your taste.
That looks absolutely perfect. I've been wanting a game-able desktop for a while. And for 700 bucks!? I'll probably get my parents to pay for half of it as my Xmas present.
What are people thoughts on MicroATX? They stand shorter than a monitor with stand and would probably work better for portability than those "gaming laptop" things.
What are people thoughts on MicroATX? They stand shorter than a monitor with stand and would probably work better for portability than those "gaming laptop" things.
You'd probably have some heat issues with those, as the video card and processor would be crammed tight together, also I don't know how much can you fit in one of those, I thought they were more for the "home media" or "browsing and work stuff" kind of PC
I had a friend with a beasty cube computer back in the day. You loose SLI (probably not such a bad thing) and some PCI slots but as long as airflow is good there shouldn't be that much increase in heat. When I get this new PC I'm going to mess around with oil cooling some old spares I've got lying around.
What are people thoughts on MicroATX? They stand shorter than a monitor with stand and would probably work better for portability than those "gaming laptop" things.
You pay more for less performance. Also, because of decreased size, you usually get fewer connectors. The biggest problem with MicroATX is that you have to get a MicroATX case. The smaller the case, the harder it is to put everything inside.
That being said, MicroATX is a great way to go for a home theater box. Get this case and this motherboard or this motherboard, and you'll be ready to roll. Notice the motherboards have a built-in 1080p HDMI port. That's hot.
My problem with standard ATX cases is the amount of space I end up wasting by only have having one DVD and HDD. I wanted to make something small and fast that didn't cost too much.
Why do I have to use a stupid firefox extension to take a screenshot? Talk about redundancy. Also, a screenshot is stupid because it doesn't have the much-needed links.
I've noticed on Newegg that a lot of motherboards are advertising all solid-capacitors. I just did some research on what exactly this means, and it's very interesting. Most capacitors use electrolytic fluid. Solid capacitors use an organic polymer instead. That is, the capacitors are all solid, and have no liquid inside. The result is that the capacitors last longer, won't explode, and can handle much higher temperatures without trouble. I've seen a lot of motherboards over the years with busted caps. My current motherboard is all solid, but that's not why I bought it. However, now that I have done the research, I'm glad I did. Whatever mobo you get, get all solid capacitors. It's not bullshit.
Also, I completely forgot, but remember people were talking about instant-on micro-OSes? I talked about it on the show way back, it's called Splashtop. it's a tiny Linuxy OS that they put in some flash on the motherboard. That way if you turn the PC on without an OS, you can still use a web browser, Skype, etc., and the computer will turn on instantly. Well, this was very quietly rolled out, and isn't marketed very heavily, but it's easy to get. ASUS calls it ExpressGate. You can get it on a lot of their newer motherboards like the P5Q-E. To find out if a motherboard has it, you have to go to the specs on newegg and scroll all the way down. Why do they not hype this feature up more?
I must have missed you talking about it on the show, but this Splashtop feature sounds great! If something is wrong with your computer and you need help online, now you don't have to find another computer to connect.
I must have missed you talking about it on the show, but this Splashtop feature sounds great! If something is wrong with your computer and you need help online, now you don't have to find another computer to connect.
Unless something is so broken that it won't even boot that far.
I must have missed you talking about it on the show, but this Splashtop feature sounds great! If something is wrong with your computer and you need help online, now you don't have to find another computer to connect.
Unless something is so broken that it won't even boot that far.
That was just one use among many I could think of.
I must have missed you talking about it on the show, but this Splashtop feature sounds great! If something is wrong with your computer and you need help online, now you don't have to find another computer to connect.
Unless something is so broken that it won't even boot that far.
That was just one use among many I could think of.
I don't see how it would be useful for troubleshooting. If anything other than your hard drives and/or dvd-drives are broken you won't be able to boot into that flash OS anyway. And at that point you don't really need any internet because you just put in a LiveCD, install it to your main partition and done.
It'd be great for my mother though. Every night she logs into Skype to talk with her boyfriend. That Splashtop would just cut out the whole procedure of starting up Windows and Skype and just log her into Skype. If it can interact with a USB key and run programs from that, one could put bashpodder on said key and drag in podcasts. It'd also be a great computer for a library or similar place with public computers. And if it allows for add-ons in the (Firefox) browser I'd even see me using it as 'main' OS.
If anything other than your hard drives and/or dvd-drives are broken you won't be able to boot into that flash OS anyway. And at that point you don't really need any internet because you just put in a LiveCD, install it to your main partition and done.
Right, so if something is wrong with the hard drives you just stick in the live cd. Which your mother just happens to have laying about. Right.
Right, so if something is wrong with the hard drives you just stick in the live cd. Which your mother just happens to have laying about. Right.
Nothing about moms in my post. =P But okay, yes, if you're fixing your mothers Windows computer it can be useful for troubleshooting. Then again, whenever something is fucked with a Windows installation just reinstalling the OS is the most painless option anyway.
Luke, what were some of the other uses you thought up though.
I've cleaned many computers from Malware, and sometimes they disable the access to safe mode, or limit its abilities. Could be useful if I had another OS for Internet access, or as an emergency backup for the client.
I've cleaned many computers from Malware, and sometimes they disable the access to safe mode, or limit its abilities. Could be useful if I had another OS for Internet access, or as an emergency backup for the client.
A LiveCD fixes that. However, it's becoming more and more reasonable these days to build a computer without an optical drive. In that case, the splashtop/expressgate would be very useful.
A LiveCD fixes that. However, it's becoming more and more reasonable these days to build a computer without an optical drive. In that case, the splashtop/expressgate would be very useful.
You could of course just put the live CD on a USB stick. Not only does that boot faster, but you can also add some important programs to the live 'CD'.
Sure, I was thinking for storage devices, but I guess your point stands.
EDIT: I just remembered leaving a drive plugged into my windows box and it freaking out about changing boot discs when I turned it on. I guess my experience with USB drives was influenced too much by first using them on an old windows 98 machine that had to have drivers for every different device. Now things just work smoothly I've not noticed how easily things "just work".
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When I get this new PC I'm going to mess around with oil cooling some old spares I've got lying around.
That being said, MicroATX is a great way to go for a home theater box. Get this case and this motherboard or this motherboard, and you'll be ready to roll. Notice the motherboards have a built-in 1080p HDMI port. That's hot.
I still find the prices here to be unfair though.
Edit: This is the ATX case I really like. Just load it up with big low speed fans.
The graphics card cost the equivalent of $199 here.. (Similar cards)
$200-$130 = $70
$130 / 100 = $1.3
$70 / $1.3 = 53
54% markup.. *my reaction*
Also, I completely forgot, but remember people were talking about instant-on micro-OSes? I talked about it on the show way back, it's called Splashtop. it's a tiny Linuxy OS that they put in some flash on the motherboard. That way if you turn the PC on without an OS, you can still use a web browser, Skype, etc., and the computer will turn on instantly. Well, this was very quietly rolled out, and isn't marketed very heavily, but it's easy to get. ASUS calls it ExpressGate. You can get it on a lot of their newer motherboards like the P5Q-E. To find out if a motherboard has it, you have to go to the specs on newegg and scroll all the way down. Why do they not hype this feature up more?
It'd be great for my mother though. Every night she logs into Skype to talk with her boyfriend. That Splashtop would just cut out the whole procedure of starting up Windows and Skype and just log her into Skype. If it can interact with a USB key and run programs from that, one could put bashpodder on said key and drag in podcasts. It'd also be a great computer for a library or similar place with public computers. And if it allows for add-ons in the (Firefox) browser I'd even see me using it as 'main' OS.
Luke, what were some of the other uses you thought up though.
Could be useful if I had another OS for Internet access, or as an emergency backup for the client.
EDIT: I just remembered leaving a drive plugged into my windows box and it freaking out about changing boot discs when I turned it on. I guess my experience with USB drives was influenced too much by first using them on an old windows 98 machine that had to have drivers for every different device. Now things just work smoothly I've not noticed how easily things "just work".