interesting case

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The xClio 1000:

All the fans change from red to green to blue and mix em up. Massive case, only £180...

the last post

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Is an entry to a competition run by Thecus :) Post their press release on your blog, and 5 lucky people win one. Cheap advertising to Thecus, potentially free loot for 5 lucky people. =P

Thecus® Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device

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Thecus® Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device
"The tiny RAID-enabled portable network storage device with big ideas"



Thecus N0204 NAS03/30/2009 – Big things are happening in the world of NAS devices. Today, Thecus® is proud to introduce the N0204 miniNAS device – the world’s smallest fully-featured NAS device.

Measuring a tiny 132 x 88 x 63 mm exterior, one could easily mistake the N0204 as a regular external hard drive. But look closer and you will see a very capable two-bay NAS device that fits right in the palm of your hand. The N0204 houses two 2.5” SATA hard disks, providing up to 1TB of storage. You can manage this storage with your choice of RAID 0, 1, and JBOD, making the N0204 the most robust pocketable storage device in existence. And because its drive bays are hot-swappable and feature auto-rebuild, you can change a hard disk without powering down the unit. The N0204 even comes with Thecus®’ Nsync for remote replication as well as the Thecus® Backup Utility for total data security. With huge storage, RAID functionality, and advanced data safeguards packed into a tiny device, the N0204 miniNAS is in a class all its own.

Tiny but mighty, the N0204 comes with many of the features and functionality possessed by its much larger cousins. For starters, the N0204 can function as a complete media hub with its built-in iTunes server, photo web server, and media server. With the built-in media server, you can enjoy your videos, pictures, and music with the N0204 by using any DLNA compliant media players. Plug in a USB web cam, and the N0204 turns into the world’s tiniest home surveillance server, allowing you to preview, capture and schedule image snapshots up to 640 x 480. Add to that support for both Windows and MAC OS operating systems and a whole new user friendly Windows Utility to easily set up and link the N0204 with your PC, and you’ve got some serious storage that you can whip out of your pocket and plug into virtually any network.

The N0204 miniNAS is a marvel of engineering. With advanced energy-saving capabilities, the N0204 only uses between 25~30% of the power compared to traditional two-bay NAS devices. You can even schedule power on/off for better power management. The N0204 also features whisper-quiet cooling, which means low temperatures and even lower noise during daily operation. A convenient USB 2.0 port in the front and the one-touch copy allow you to copy the contents of a USB storage device to the N0204 with a single button press. You can also copy data from the N0204 to any USB disk for data exchange. The N0204 supports USB printers, external hard disks, USB web cam, and even works with USB WLAN adaptors, allowing you to give this tiny NAS device wireless capability.

A complete NAS device in a form factor smaller than a paperback book, the N0204 miniNAS proves that great things do indeed come in tiny packages.

"When we tell people what the N0204 miniNAS can do, the most common reaction is disbelief followed by awe,” notes Thecus General Manager Florence Shih. "We've essentially created a fully-functional NAS device in a package that you can take anywhere. With the N0204, you can enjoy the power and convenience of NAS storage anywhere life takes you."

For more information on the N0204, check out:
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=12&pid=137&set_language=english

day out at SCAN with BenchTec UK

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On Saturday, BenchTec UK, Hexus and SCAN teamed up in the SCAN shop in Bolton to do a day of overclocking. I traveled 4 hours each way - it was fantastic. Free stuff and getting info on OCing was great.

Also, I should not be allowed the camera. I always get goofy grins on camera:









Though it was a thoroughly good day. A shame that the room was too warm to get some awesome results, but everyone there had fun :)



Link to the other photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=255461&id=758195262

I have some videos too I'll put up soon :)

annoyed

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For some reason, I can't stop looking at potential upgrade paths, or hardware to benchmark.

I've 3 processors I've identified as easy benchmarking points. However two are £60, one is £160. One I could use to replace my 5050e, however I'd need to sell my 5050e then to recoup some money.

The CM Storm Scout case is now only £90, but still not officially released yet.

I'm holding off on the CoolIt ALC until I get an i7.

An i7 starting cost is 220+175+45+75+30 = £545 for all the important components.

I can't upgrade my HAL mobo to a Foxconn BlackOps, which costs £155, because I'd have to buy some Dual kit DDR3 RAM, another £80. Don't know what I'd do with the MSI mobo or DDR2-1066 RAM.

I could upgrade the mobo in Dutchie to a K9A2 for £110 which would give me quad PCI-e slots for crunching, and a 4850 is only £90 delivered now. However the BOINC work situation at MilkyWay is still flaky. I could sell or keep the ALiveXFire-eSata2 though.

24" monitor is around £200, with 20,000:1 contrast ratio and HDMI connectivity.

A 1.5TB HDD now is only £100. However the 64GB Samsung SSD is £150.

I'm thinking of giving myself a budget of £200-£250 for the rest of the quarter.

What would you get?

slight problem

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After benching yesterday and looking again at it today, it seems my power supply situation is a bit wank.

I have 3 power supplies being used atm:

550W: 1 6-pin, 4 molex
700W: 0 6-pin, 4 molex on one rail, 4 SATA on another rail
800W: 2 6-pin, 2 8-pin, lots of molex and SATA

The plan was:

HAL: 800W w/GTX280
Dutchie: 700W w/2x4850
HK: 550W w/4670 and HDDs

But during benching, because the 700W hasn't got many connectors and the 4850s require a 6-pin each, running them both off one 22A rail was a bit futile.

As a such I'm going to have to have this set up:

HAL: 550W (should be OK with the 280)
Dutchie: 800W (due to the connectors and rails)
HK: 700W (enough molex/SATA to keep it happy)

Annoying thing is that I had HAL and HK all done up nice cable wise. Now I have to take them apart :( Might leave it til the weekend - I'm annoyingly tired right now.

switcheroo

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Spent a good 6/7 hours last night rearranging my PCs for the arrival/building of Dutchie - just general maintenance, cable tidying and seeing if I can get any more performance out of HAL.

So now HK is in the ThermalTake Armour, with 6 HDDs and a HD4670, and plugged into the 32 inch TV via HDMI. This was the plan for HK, so all I ever need to upgrade on that side would be replacing the HDDs with larger ones as and when the need arises.

HAL on the bench with powerful fans beside it didn't want to overclock any more. I did however manage to get the RAM timings down from 5-5-6-18 to 5-4-4-6... which seems a little wierd. The mobo wont let me reduce the first timing from 5 to 4, oddly enough. I also used this 'out of case' time to try and bench the 2x4850 in Crossfire setup, but for some reason it wouldn't see the CF setup. Boo.

I also had issues with the GTX280 in it - the MSI Platinum PowerUp motherboard had a big plastic housing just behind the first PCI-E slot, which was blocking the GFX card from going in completely. I took a pair of pliers to it and trimmed it down 4-5mm or so, giving enough room to put it in properly.

So now HAL is in HKs old case, a Verre V770 (this isn't mine, just generic picture):


I'm really wanting this Core i7 stuff, so I've offered HAL up for sale to a few people who I know need new PCs.

welcome to borandi's pc exploits

Let's face it. PhD student, almost zero money, likes fiddling with computers and spending the stipend on hardware. So here's an almost blow by blow of what I'm looking at and doing.