Category: Fun Stuff
March 26th, 2008
55W PC power supply powering the dual-core computer
Most computer builders in the world think I’m nuts for endorsing the use of 330 watt power supplies for a high-end performance computer. Conventional “wisdom” says that anything under 500 watts is inadequate for an enthusiast PC. “My power supply is bigger than your power supply” seems to be a typical mindset for many people but I’ve always had just the opposite desire to say that “my supply is smaller than yours and it works great”. So when I started building mainstream dual-core computers with 220 watt 80 Plus power supplies, people were shocked that I would even consider such a small power supply. But since I was able to build a 50W peak power dual-core computer, why not use an even smaller power supply in the sub-100 watt range?
Pictured above is the open frame fanless AC input open frame 55 watt FSP055-50LM power supply from Sparkle Power Inc with an MSRP of $39. Typically when power supplies are this small, people often use DC input power supplies with an external AC brick. Not so with this model as it’s an all in one with the standard AC power connector you get on a normal ATX PC power supply. It’s so small that it doesn’t even bother with a fan or metal casing; you have to a system-level fan yourself and provide the bracing and shielding in your computer chassis. The really nice thing about this solution is that the entire power supply including the AC conversion part is not much bigger than a DC power supply but you don’t need an external brick.
Using this 55W power supply, I took a dual-core Intel E2140 along with the bundled ECS945-GM motherboard I bought for $90 and built a computer with it using default clock speed and voltages. Unfortunately since it was missing a 4-pin power connector for the motherboard, I had to hot-wire a 4-pin CPU power connector from an older power supply to this unit to make it work. That means 2 12-volt yellow cables and 2 black ground cables had to be soldered in to place and taped up. Since these cables are safe for 10 amps each which translates to 120 watts per cable, I’m not even close to overloading the cables.
Once the computer came up, the power consumption at the plug peak out at 70W which means the output power is around 52W at 75% efficiency which is 3W under the peak output of the power supply. That is cutting it a bit close but it shows the extreme worst-case of what this PSU can handle.
In reality, the 55W PSU isn’t practical for a mainstream dual-core computer although it would be more than powerful enough for an Intel D201GLY with Celeron 115, D201GLY2 motherboard with Celeron 120, or the Via low-power ITX platforms. The upcoming Intel Centrino Atom platform with the Atom-Diamondville CPU peaks at around 4W TDP so they’re even easier to power.
The bottom line is that this is a nice little power supply for small embedded solutions but you’ll want to stick with the bigger 80 Plus closed-frame models like the Sparkle SPI220LE 220W or the SPI270LE 270W if you’re building a mainstream PC. Note that the SPI models are 1U power supplies so you’ll either need a very custom case or one that uses 1.75″ thin power supplies.
March 20th, 2008
HDMI survival guide for home theater
There’s a lot of money to be made in the HDMI cabling and switch aftermarket and unfortunately that means a lot of consumers are getting tricked in to paying outrageous prices. I’ve spent quite a bit of time helping my friends set up their home theaters recently and I thought I’d share that knowledge with my readers. If you’re tired of paying high hundreds of dollars for HDMI switches and HDMI cables, read on.
What is HDMI?
HDMI is a high speed digital interface for the transmission of high quality digital audio and digital video. So if you plug your DVD player, your PlayStation 3, your satellite or cable TV box, or even your computer up to a modern HDTV with a single HDMI cable, then the sound and picture will all work. The HDMI plug only has a single small connector so it’s nice and simple. Before HDMI, you had to hook up three separate connectors for just the video and two additional RCA plugs for stereo sound. Instead of the two RCA plugs, you could also use an S/PDIF optical cable for the sound but it still adds a lot of cable complexity and clutter compared to a single HDMI cable.
Why are there different HDMI types?
There are 4 basic versions of HDMI. You have 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 and you can get a quick summary of the capability of each version here. The easy answer is the higher the number, the better. If you’re shopping now, try to stick with the HDMI 1.3 devices if you can.
Do I need monster HDMI cables?
No, HDMI monster cables are simply a monster rip-off. If a cable is HDMI certified, it will by definition offer you a perfect digital signal. Despite the fact that the electrical signals traversing an HDMI cable degrade as a cable gets longer, it will still offer perfect digital transmission so long as the signal loss or distortion is within a certain tolerance. Analog cables might benefit from extra thickness and insulation because there’s not much you can do to fix analog signal loss or distortion other than to amplify and maybe filter the signal a little to mitigate the bad side effects. But when it comes to digital technology, the signal is either all there or it isn’t. There is zero measurable difference in the digital signal quality between the $6 HDMI cable and the $60 monster HDMI cable.
Where do I buy cheap HDMI cables?
There are lots of online vendors that can be found via a quick Google search of “HDMI 1.3 cable”. These cables suppliers have always been reliable in my experience and they’re many times cheaper than the local retailer. Here’s a few examples I compiled.
- 3 foot HDMI 1.3a cable $5
- 15 foot HDMI 1.3a CL2 rated cable $24
- 25 foot HDMI 1.3a CL2 rated cable $42
- 30 foot HDMI 1.3a cable $64 (bought for friend’s project)
- 60 meter (197 feet) HDMI 1.3a CAT5e extender kit $199
<Next page - Can I split or switch multiple input/output HDMI sources?>
March 11th, 2008
Building the 200 inch 1080p HDTV
Yesterday I helped my friend build his 200 inch 1080p HDTV for his entertainment room and it was a beast of a task. But when it was all said and done, I think he was quite happy. Pictured above and below is me standing in front of the display. [See gallery for larger images.]
In the photo above, you can see how I’m dwarfed by the characters on the screen by the life-like images from the movie “300″ (HD DVD format).
Using the $2700 street price Panasonic PT-AE2000U 1920×1080 projector, we worked hard to mount it on to the ceiling. Pictured above is the projector with the mount installed on the bottom. [Update 3/14/2008 - Note that the special paint used for the reflective wall and the undercoating used cost around 300 Euros. I would imagine that the prices in the US are a little cheaper though. I should also point out that the universal projector mount costs around $150.]
Pictured above is our handy work in mounting the thing. It wasn’t easy but we got it done. Drilling through that solid concrete material destroyed 2 drill bits and it wasn’t easy until we got higher quality drill bits and a powerful drill.
This is the front of the projector hanging upside down from the ceiling. You can use software control to flip the image upside down so it’s right side up.
On top of the projector (or below in this case) are two optical lens shift dials that allow you to optically shift left/right 40% and up/down 100% without any keystoning effects or resorting to ugly digital keystone adjustments.
Here’s the back of the unit with just the power cord and HDMI 1.3 cable plugged in. We purchased a good 30 foot long HDMI 1.3 cable off a Google search for $50 and it works quite wonderfully. Remember, digital is digital is digital so long as it works. Too many people spend $150 on even shorter cables and it’s a big scam.
March 7th, 2008
Asus' 8.9" Eee draws crowds at CeBIT
Here in CeBIT 2008, crowds descended on Hannover Germany to see the latest technologies. Germany is certainly a lovely country but there’s nothing lovable about the 5.60 Euro per gallon gas prices.
CeBIT is certainly one of the more unique conventions I’ve been to since everything is spread out over a square kilometer and it’s like going to 10 mini conventions. While you get some outdoor air between the halls, don’t expect any fresh air with all the smokers there. The temperature delta certainly makes proper attire a challenge because it’s too warm inside and freezing outside.
Asus had a massive presence in building 26 which is one of the more popular spots at CeBIT and they managed to draw crowds wanting to get a closer look at the new and improved 8.9″ Asus Eee PC. The new 8.9″ Asus Eee comes with more SSD flash storage, a bigger LCD screen with 1024×600 resolution, a better quality webcam. The same Pentium M 900 MHz CPU is the same as the original Eee. [See gallery for a close-up view.]
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The Windows XP model comes with 8 GBs of SSD flash memory when the Linux model comes with 12 GB of SSD flash memory. So far we only know that the price will be 399 Euros (which typically means it will be fewer in dollars for the US market), but we don’t know if there will be a price difference between the Linux and Windows XP model. It is possible that the price of the flash memory offsets the licensing costs of Windows XP.While holding the lightweight Eee with one hand, I tested the quality of the Mic and the Webcam and confirmed that the quality if fairly good. The Webcam is definitely much better quality than the old Eee. The Eee also comes with a wired 10/100 Ethernet port as well as 802.11g. The one down side to the Eee is that it doesn’t have a DVI output and instead has a DB-15 VGA port.
Here’s a comparison of the older 7″ Asus Eee versus the 8.9″ Eee. As you can see, the screen is much bigger and the color and contrast appears to be much better. The speakers had to be moved to the bottom of the laptop because the bigger screen pushed them off the lid. You can also see that the track pad is also larger.
I wouldn’t doubt if people buy the 12 GB Linux version and use NLite to install a trimmed down version of XP though having Linux on this device is extremely useful if you’re going to use it as a security auditing tool. The 8 GBs of SSD is more than enough to hold the OS and key applications and a $60 16 GB SDHC card is more than sufficient to hold plenty of movies and data. With the larger screen and nicer webcam and adequate microphone, it becomes a great Skype video conferencing solution. The bottom line is that the Asus Eee is very pleasing in the hands and it runs Windows XP very quickly if you keep bloatware/crapware off of it.
February 11th, 2008
Are AVCHD camcorders the next HD lie?
When I wrote “Don’t believe the low bit-rate ‘HD’ lie” with a comparison, I had no idea that these compromises in quality would apply to the latest consumer HD camcorder format called AVCHD as well. When I first read about the AVCHD format with its use of MPEG4-AVC (H.264) video compression at a maximum of 24 mbps versus HDV which uses the older MPEG-2 format at 25 mbps, I was very excited about the new format. My enthusiasm dampened when I read the fine print that actual AVCHD implementation only uses 13 to 17 mbps MPEG4-AVC for compatibility with cheaper storage devices and it completely sunk when I read this excellent in-depth review from camcorderinfo.com. Take a look at the screenshots below and it pains me to see how much detail is lost in the newer HD format.
| Comparison of HDV versus AVCHD Image credit: camcorderinfo.com. Lossless 1:1 crop. |
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| Canon HG10 Bitrate: 13 to 15 Mbps MPEG4-AVC aka H.264 AVCHD camcorder format 1920×1080 60i |
Canon HV20 Bitrate: 24 Mbps MPEG-2 aka H.262 HDV camcorder format 1440×1080 60i (anamorphic) |
The reason this comparison is so significant is that that both cameras have the same 2,960,000 pixel 1/2.7 inch CMOS sensor. The only difference is the video compression, the bitrate, and the storage medium. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says that MPEG4-AVC H.264 video compression can use 25% to 50% less bitrate to achieve the same quality level as MPEG-2 compression. I’ve always suspected those numbers were inflated as an excuse to get people to believe that low-bitrate HD is the same as high-bitrate HD if better codecs where used, but even I didn’t think it was this bad.
It’s gotten so bad that I’ve seen whitepapers from vendors that try to push the idea that 4 to 6 mbps using MPEG4-AVC H.264 is equivalent to 18 mbps broadcast MPEG-2 HD video. The problem is that these loose definitions of “equivalent” only compares perceived level of artifacts and not the loss of detail. Now I’m perfectly willing to acknowledge that the above comparison may be partially attributed to a poor implementation of H.264 video compression, but the bitrate has to be a huge deciding factor. The article from camcorderinfo.com also seems to suggest that they haven’t found a single AVCHD camcorder that doesn’t have low detail.
AVCHD is the second consumer HD camcorder format designed for DVD, Hard Drive, or SDHC flash memory recording designed as an alternative to the older HDV format which usually records to miniDV tape. Because DVDs and flash drives are often capacity and write-throughput constrained, AVCHD camcorder makers have typically stuck with 13 to 15 mbps bitrates. While Class 4 SDHC flash cards have write throughput of 32 mbps, cheaper Class 2 SDHC flash cards have a write throughput of 16 mbps and the camcorder makers don’t want to exclude Class 2 SDHC flash cards. Longer recording times on 8 or 16 GB flash cards obviously played in to the decision process.
It would seem logical that camcorder companies like should offer a max quality mode but perhaps they’re gambling on the fact that most consumers will never know the difference. This is really a shame since AVCHD random access storage is a much friendlier consumer format with drag-n-drop simplicity when transferring videos to the PC. You simply put the SDHC in to your card reader on your computer or you hook up a USB 2.0 cable to the camcorder and you merely drag the files to your computer between 30 to 200 mbps.
With HDV, you have to deal with the hassles of something like Windows Vista Movie Maker which forces you to rewind the tape to the beginning and stream the video over in real-time at a fixed 30 mbps. Buying an alternative video editing package will at least let you pick and choose what you want to record, but it doesn’t solve the speed problem. The other problem with miniDV is that it’s very hard to preview what you’ve shot since you have to rewind the tape. Sometimes if you don’t put the tape in the right position, you can accidentally wipe valuable footage. It’s really a shame that AVCHD camcorder makers have botched the implementation because the format has real potential in the consumer market.
Note: JVC seems to at least be avoiding the low-bitrate pitfall with their hard drive based models like the GZ-HD7 which offers a high-bitrate MPEG-2 format. This is essentially an HDV format for hard drive instead of a miniDV tape and the 60 GB hard drive provides approximately 4 hours of recording versus one hour on miniDV tapes. This seems to be a good compromise since you get high-bitrate HDV format with the benefit of random access storage and fast drag-n-drop video transfers. Camcorderinfo.com reviewed the GZ-HD7 here with quality lower than the best HDV camcorders but better quality than AVCHD camcorders. While the recording format was better, the low light performance wasn’t great.
One saving grace that’s less applicable to the consumer space is the HDMI output on newer AVCHD camcorders. For small independent filmmakers, they can hook up a computer with a $250 HDMI capture card with very fast RAID storage capable of 1.5 to 3 gigabits per second and capture raw uncompressed HD video. In this application, the recording format in the camera is irrelevant since the PC records the video uncompressed. But when you’re shooting at this level of quality, you’re probably going to use a much more expensive camcorder than a cheap $1000 consumer variety. The kind of HD video quality you get these days with relatively cheap equipment is unparalleled in the history of the video industry. High quality video equipment is no longer cost prohibitive to independent filmmakers and the only thing that limits quality is imagination and talent.
January 28th, 2008
Steve Ballmer then and now?
That was then …
This is now? Ok, maybe it was 6 years ago?
Alright, I’ll try to stop laughing now while I finish this post. I saw the first video a few months ago and the second video I got from Fake Steve Ballmer. I think the first video was true and it was obviously from the late 80s. The second video could be a gag Microsoft posted for laughs or someone did a really good edit job. I don’t know who the man pushing him out of the way is. I don’t know who the CEO talking about fewer helpdesk calls is but he sure sounded like Mike Cox (our favorite talkback CIO).
January 25th, 2008
Turning any monitor in to a 3D VR display
After seeing the above video sent to me by Justin James, I only have one thing to say: Give Jonny his PhD! Johnny Lee is a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University who took a standard Nintendo Wii remote and turned a monitor in to something special. You can check out the video above and actually find a sample program here on his website. You can find Wii Remotes for $40 at places like Amazon.com and you may also need a Bluetooth USB dongle for $10.
This is one of those things that you just have to see to believe, it is that amazing. Forget those silly looking 3D glasses that mimic stereoscopic vision, this is way better and I want it on all my computers yesterday!
One thing that I’d like to see is a webcam version of this and I’m going to send a note to Mr. Lee. My Logitech webcam already has software in it that can track bare eyeballs so it removes the need for funky eye glasses with infrared emitters and you can just sit in front of any monitor with a webcam and use it as a 3D portal. I just salivate at the mere thought of playing any 3D game in front of this thing but I’d love to be able to do it without wearing anything on my face.
If you check out some of Mr. Lee’s other projects, he has some pretty cool stuff in there like turning any display in to a multi-touch display. The man is now my new hero and he is a stud amongst geeks.
January 22nd, 2008
The polycarbonate all-in-one 22" LCD PC
The last time I built a wooden all-in-one 19″ LCD PC, my family wanted it in the kitchen and my mother wanted it in hers. To keep everyone happy, I built my mother another one (pictured above and below) out of 3/16th inch jet-black polycarbonate which makes the chassis look like the material from a grand piano. The result was something that was so glossy that I can probably shave in it, but I’m almost afraid to touch it and get finger prints all over it. Needless to say, she is very pleased with her new space saving computer. [See photo gallery.]
Cutting this material was fairly simple with wood-cutting and drilling tools. Just be careful to slow down on the table saw so you don’t chip the polycarbonate. I had initially avoided putting in vent holes in the back but the CPU fan and the PSU fan dynamically ramped up in RPM because of the increasing temperature and caused some noise. Once the 4 holes were put in the back, the CPU fan stayed at lower RPM and remained fairly silent even if I stress loaded the CPUs.
This time I mounted the on/off switch up top along with two USB ports which makes it easy to access and comes in handy for the webcam. I just wished I had a webcam that did away with the cable and just had a down-facing USB port so I can just plug it in right on top of the case. The other USB port is convenient for plugging other devices such as USB memory sticks or other devices I want sitting on top of the chassis.
As usual with these slim custom chassis, I used a slim 1.75″ 1U Sparkle SPI220LE 80 Plus 220 watt power supply. The idle power consumption on this computer is 43 watts and 63 watt under peak CPU loads generated by WPrime. The motherboard is an ECS 945GCT-M which came bundled with an Intel Celeron 430 CPU (Conroe-L 1.8 GHz single-core) I got at Fry’s for $70. I put in an Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 dual-core 1.6 instead and kept the lower-profile CPU fan which came with the Celeron 430. That lower profile fan came in real handy since it fit inside my 3″ thick chassis which is even less space inside because of the thickness of the walls. This chassis has plenty of room for additional devices such as a slim optical slot-loaded drive.
January 11th, 2008
Lesson from CES: Wait a few months for new gadgets
Updated 12:10PM - If you’re in the market for new gadgets, wait a few months for the new gear shown this year at CES. You’ll see items like the pocket sized Panasonic 3CCD 1080p (24p) camera at this end of this quarter as will many other items. The last thing you want to do is buy something only to see something better for the same price a month later.
Another product that really caught my eyes were the small OLED displays on devices like the $350 Samsung NV24HD digital photo camera that also doubles as a 720p digital H.264 video camera. While I didn’t get to examine the photos from the device, I saw the 2.5″ AMOLED and it shined like a jewel with the vivid contrast ratios and wide color gamut. I can’t wait to try one of these things out in photo and video mode. Update: Janice Chen notes that Kodak has a similar model that also shoots 720p for $250. It lacks the AMOLED display but it has a 3.0″ touch screen. The price makes it sound like a great choice if you can do without the more vivid preview display.
Panasonic isn’t about to cede the big screen plasma HDTV market to LCDs without a fight. Its new line of Viera Plasma displays feature true native contrast ratios of 30000:1. These new plasma displays cut power consumption by 30% while raising brightness by 30%. So instead of a 50″ plasma hogging 500 watts of power while displaying white, it now only hogs 350 watts of power in peak mode. These displays will be released around the end of this quarter.
LCDs on the other hand are catching up in the contrast ratio department but they have the advantage of better brightness and lower power consumption especially when dynamic contrast technology is included and in use. All the new large screen LCDs are coming out with 120 Hz capability and inter-frame interpolation.
January 8th, 2008
Panasonic's sub-$800 3CCD 1080p camcorder
Update 8:15AM - Note that 1080p is only in 24p mode.
Panasonic will release two new true (1920×1080) 1080p 24p 3CCD camcorders in March 2008 for a list price of $800 and $1100. That means both models will likely be under $1000 which illustrates how fast prices come down on new technology. Both models will have SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) flash memory slots but the larger model will also have a 60 GB hard drive built in. Both models shun the traditional IEEE 1394 Firewire port for standard USB 2.0 ports.
The smaller HDC-SD9 pictured below will be a flash only model allowing the use of SDHC flash cards of 4 to 32 GBs.
The slightly wider HDC-HS9 pictured below will house a 60 GB hard drive in addition to the SDHC slot.
Both models will continuously buffer 0.6 seconds of video as soon as the unit is powered on so that when you finally do shoot, your footage begins 0.6 seconds before you actually hit the record button.
Consumers may be confused by the lack of a Firewire port used by all digital video camcorders but this is actually a good thing. The older miniDV tape drive camcorders used a high speed 400 mbps firewire port but only allowed you to export movies at a snails pace of 28 mbps in real-time. These USB based units on the other hand essentially let you mount a drive as soon as you connect it to a PC and simply drag and drop the file over at up to 240 mbps sustained throughput if the camera and the storage device can keep up. Even if it doesn’t keep up, it will still be much faster than the old real-time method of copying tapes.
The random access nature of SDHC and Hard Drive storage also means you won’t need to worry about accidentally wiping out precious footage because you forgot to forward the tape to a point where you haven’t recorded yet. All these features and the price point of these new 1080p 3-chip camcorders are going to make 1080p video mainstream. If these two models live up to the specifications, it will be a compelling product. I’ll see if I can get a hands-on review.
January 3rd, 2008
Build a Mac Pro equivalent workstation for 1/3 the cost
Conventional wisdom tells us that a digital content creation and CAD professional had to fork out $6000 to $10,000 dollars for a high-end 8-core dual-processor workstation, but this is Real World IT where I say screw conventional wisdom. I’ve put on my mad scientist hat again and brewed something up for $2311 with equal or better performance than a $6803 Mac Pro (as configured in Apple screen cap to the left). Now granted you can’t run Mac OS X so that might be a show stopper for a Mac user, but there are plenty of Windows users who want something that will run just as fast. If that’s you, then keep reading!
The Mac Pro is essentially based on an Intel 5000 series dual-processor chipset. At present time, it still only comes with 65nm “Clovertown” processors maxing out at 3.0 GHz and not the recently launched 45nm “Harpertown” processors and newer motherboard that use the Intel 5100 series “San Clemente” chipset. As I showed in my quad-core CPU comparisons, the newer 45nm processors costing $300 can rival $1200 65nm processors. Furthermore, the 5100 series chipset supports cheaper and more energy efficient registered DDR2 memory instead of the power-hungry FBDIMMs (fully buffered DDR2 memory) used in the Intel 5000 series motherboards.
My home-brew 8-core solution costs about a third of the price with performance equal or better than the fastest Mac Pro you can buy on the market. But when it comes to SSE4 optimized video encoding which nearly every video encoding software package is going to support, you can expect a massive increase in performance over the 65nm “Clovertown” quad-core processors. Other improvements in my solution is a 5-drive hot-swap SATA back plane which allows you to easily swap out up to five hard drives. The video card I used is an NVIDIA Quadro NVS290 designed specifically for the workstation market and it is also used in Sun’s single processor workstation.
Apple on the other hand uses the out-dated ATI Radeon X1900 XT which is actually a desktop gaming graphics card and not a workstation card. Below is the exact configuration and pricing for this system. I also threw in a cordless Logitech EX110 keyboard and optical mouse. Since Apple includes free shipping, my quoted prices (as usual) includes the cost of shipping. I also rounded to the nearest dollar and I do not include the effect of rebates in the quoted prices though I mention one rebate in the part description. I got these prices by roaming the search engines to find reasonable prices mostly from places that I have personally shopped before.
Updated 5:45PM - All Windows drivers for the Intel 5100 series “San Clemente” chipset have now been confirmed and can be downloaded here so both systems are confirmed to operate any x86 or x64 version of Windows XP, 2003, Vista. I have also verified XP and Vista x86/x64 driver support for all the other components.
Note that the use of FBDIMMs on the 5400 series platform adds about 7 watts of power consumption per DIMM, but the 5400 series ”Seaburg” chipset has the added benefit of a 50% larger snoop filter and official DDR2-800 support so it’s a higher end chipset. While the 5400 series chipset supports up to 16 FBDIMMs, the 5400 motherboard listed below has 4 DIMM slots whereas the 5100 series motherboard listed below has 8 DIMM slots. You can get higher memory capacity 5400 series motherboards but they cost a little more so it a toss up which chipset you should use. You can get a Supermicro X7DWN+B for example which has dual gigabit LAN and 16 FBDIMM slots for an extra $150 over the price of the Tyan S5392ANR.
High-end 8-core 2P Workstation (5400 series “Seaburg” version):
| Part | Price |
| Tyan TEMPEST I5400XL (S5392ANR) Intel 5400 series “Seaburg” | 408 |
| 8 GB fully buffered DDR2-667 ECC memory (2GB x 4) | 340 |
| Two Intel E5410 quad-core “Harpertown” 45nm 2.33 GHz CPUs | 616 |
| Seasonic 650W 88% efficiency “80 Plus” power supply | 160 |
| Cooler Master |
172 |
| NVIDIA Quadro NVS290 PCI-Express 256MB | 120 |
| Sound Blaster Audigy 7.1 | 36 |
| AMS 5-drive SATA hot-swap backplane (model DS-3151SSBK) | 102 |
| Two 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard drives | 200 |
| 18x DVD burner with SATA interface | 36 |
| Logitech EX110 wireless optical mouse and keyboard | 35 |
| Vista Business x64 edition OEM (dual-processor support) | 145 |
| Total (including shipping but not tax) | $2368 |
High-end 8-core 2P workstation (5100 series “San Clemente” version):
| Part | Price |
| 5100 series “San Clemente” dual-processor motherboard | 381 |
| 8 GB Registered DDR2-667 ECC memory (4 x 2GB) (4 slots open) | 310 |
| Two Intel E5410 quad-core “Harpertown” 45nm 2.33 GHz CPUs | 616 |
| Seasonic 650W 88% efficiency “80 Plus” power supply | 160 |
| Cooler Master Stacker ATX chassis (additional $60 rebate) | 170 |
| NVIDIA Quadro NVS290 PCI-Express 256MB | 120 |
| Sound Blaster Audigy 7.1 | 36 |
| AMS 5-drive SATA hot-swap backplane (model DS-3151SSBK) | 102 |
| Two 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard drives | 200 |
| 18x DVD burner with SATA interface | 36 |
| Logitech EX110 wireless optical mouse and keyboard | 35 |
| Vista Business x64 edition OEM (dual-processor support) ??? | 145 |
| Total (including shipping but not tax) | $2311 |
If you don’t know how to build a PC or you’re rusty, here’s a step-by-step guide. You can also have a local PC shop assemble the whole thing for around $100 or so and some will even install the OS for a little more money. Other shops may just sell you all the parts for a minimal markup with no charge on assembly if you take this parts list to them.
As for which LCD display to buy, make sure you buy something that isn’t a typical TN type panel with lousy viewing angles and lousy 18-bit color. Dell’s $700 24″ 2407WFP-HC is highly rated and it uses a high color PVA type panel with true wide viewing angles that don’t drastically drop in contrast ratio when viewed off center. The inexpensive $300 24″ Soyo (available at Office Max) is actually an MVA type panel with true 24-bit color and wide viewing angles. If you don’t need a super high color gamut, picking up two of the 24″ Soyos for dual-screens might be a great solution. For comparison purposes, the Apple iMac 20″ uses the lousy TN type display while the 24″ iMac uses the superior PVA, MVA, or IPS TFT technology.
Update 5:45AM - What about Dell workstations?
Larry Dignan asked me what about Dell solutions for the workstation market. That’s a great question and I just looked it up on Dell’s website. I configured a Dell Precision T7400 with identical CPU and GPU configuration but with the older Intel 5000 series chipset [Update 6:40AM - reader s_souche pointed out that the T7400 is actually based on the newer 5400 series "Seaburg" chipset which also uses FBDIMMs and has the highest memory capacity]. One problem was that it only allowed me to configure half the memory using 4 1GB FBDIMMs. This makes me wonder if there are only four DIMM slots in the entire system which would be rather unusual for a 5400 series motherboard.
It was also crazy that they charge an extra $350 to upgrade to a 500 GB SATA hard drive when those drives are barely worth $100 to begin with. The total price for the RAM deficient system was $3817. You will have to go out and buy your own 2GB FBDIMMs if you want to get up to 8GB RAM. That’s not as bad as the Mac Pro configuration above but it’s still far worse than my home brew.
December 19th, 2007
Hitting 50W peak on a dual-core desktop computer
The 50W no-compromise dual-core commodity desktop PC is now a reality!I have some great news for the green computing world. The 50W no-compromise dual-core commodity desktop PC is now a reality! It all started a few months back when I looked in to the possibility of building a main stream dual-core desktop computer that can drop under 50 watts idle but now I’ve answered that question beyond all expectations. Using a 220W Sparkle SPI220LE “80 Plus” efficient power supply, an Intel E2140 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU running at lower-than-spec 0.95 volts, and a Gigabyte G33M-DS2R motherboard, the system comes in just under 50 watts at *PEAK* CPU load generated by WPrime running 2 threads. If I could only find a smaller 100 watt 80 Plus power supply and hit the optimum 50% loading at peak power consumption, then it might be possible to get peak system loads down to around 45 watts.
At idle the system uses 41 watts which is actually one watt higher than my sub-$400 All-in-One LCD PC with an ECS 945GCT-M motherboard and an Intel E2180 2.0 GHz dual-core running at stock speeds and voltage. It turns out that this G33M-DS2R board with E2140 CPU running at stock speeds and voltage has an idle system power of 46 watts which is 6 watts higher than the ECS board with E2180. This was surprising to me since the new G33 chipset has a more energy efficient memory controller than the 945 chipset.
Possible explanations are the fact that the G33-based motherboard was running the memory at 400 MHz base clock (DDR2-800 memory) whereas the 945-based motherboard was running the memory at 200 MHz. One other factor is the fact that the Gigabyte G33M-DS2R Intel G33-based motherboard has a 6-port SATA ICH9R RAID controller along with a few more memory and PCI ports. This leads me to think that the combination 2x the memory clock and more components translates to an additional 6 watts of power consumption.
The following idle/peak power consumption charts are from data I collected.
* SPI SPI220LE 220W 80+ PSU
** No system fan which saves 1W power
Gigabyte with Intel CPU = G33M-DS2R motherboard
Gigabyte AMD CPU = MA69GM-S2H motherboard
MSI with AMD CPU = K9AGM2-FIH motherboard
December 11th, 2007
Updated Skype patches critical and brings high quality video
After the long and embarrassing Skype global outage in August, you would think Skype would want to avoid further PR disasters. But now we find out that Skype patches high-risk flaw but didn’t warn the public for a month. Skype is a killer-app that is here to stay in the home and even business world and it is still the best-of-breed VoIP and video conferencing applications on the planet, but the public wants full transparency on these incidents. Covering up these things just turn a minor disaster it to a big one and it’s going to hurt Skype in the long run.
On the bright side, I’ve updated my version of Skype to 3.6.0.216 and I was pleasantly surprised by improved video conferencing quality in the update. To get improved video quality, you must have a dual-core processor, minimum 384 kbps upstream/downstream Internet, and a premium Logitech camera like the QuickCam Pro 9000 (I am an impressed owner).
Update 12/13/2007 - Skype updated to version 3.6.0.244 yesterday. It’s getting hard to keep track of these updates one after another.
November 29th, 2007
Updated sub-$400 all-in-one dual-core LCD PC images
I’ve put the top and bottom lid on my new sub-$400 all-in-one dual-core LCD PC and mounted an 802.11 b/g USB adapter to it so I can use the computer anywhere in the house. To keep the chassis cool, I drilled 5 large holes on the top board. I am still waiting for my female USB socket connectors that hook up to the USB leads on the motherboard so I’ve temporarily used one the venting holes to mount the USB Wi-Fi adapter. I also need to paint the thing black to match the color of the LCD and sand some things down. [See gallery, A computer's place is in the kitchen, for larger photos.]
The AIO computer is sitting on the corner of my kitchen dining table and there are no bulky ATX towers sitting on the floor or table.
This particular power strip is a bit bulky so I’m looking forward to finding something thinner that I can bolt to the bottom of the PC chassis. Having the extra power sockets right there on the computer is really nice to have.
When the computer isn’t being used or if it’s being used as a movie playback device, I can tuck the mouse and keyboard away taking up less room than a laptop sitting on the table.
To put this in to proper perspective, here’s the entire kitchen table with the AIO computer sitting at the edge of the table. It hardly takes any room and the table is wide open for eating. I finally had the kids eating at the kitchen table for once since I had a movie playing. Once I get an HDTV ATSC USB tuner dongle, this will also act as an HDTV with PVR capability along with wireless connectivity to a DVD library.
This is what the back looks like. It will be a lot less noticeable once it’s sanded and painted all black.
If you want to see what the insides look like, see the original image gallery.
Update 11/30/2007 - I’ve bolted a slimmer power strip to the bottom of the wood box and it’s a lot cleaner since I no longer have a loose power strip to worry about. It gives me extra AC ports for things like speakers or anything else that needs power.
November 26th, 2007
The $363 19-inch dual-core all-in-one LCD PC
Update 11/29/2007 - See updated AIO computer images
This is the new all-in-one Intel dual-core 2.0 GHz E2180 19″ LCD PC computer I built for the family. The shocker is that I did it for less than $363 in parts (not including keyboard and mouse). The 19″ LCD (1440×900 resolution) was on sale for $140 and the dual-core Intel CPU/Motherboard/graphics was on sale at Fry’s for an eye-popping $88 and I just couldn’t resist the temptation to build a nice all-in-one for the kitchen/dining area. I got a 300 GB hard drive for $50 and 1 GB of RAM for $30 (with an additional $20 rebate) and I used a $50 energy efficient “80 plus” 220 watt 1U power supply. For the chassis I used some scrap wood I had left over and spent 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon building this computer. [See image gallery.]
I haven’t made the top lid or bottom lid for this computer yet but this picture shows the full thickness of the computer bolted on to the back of the 19″ LCD display. The entire computer excluding the 19″ display consumes 40 watts in idle and 65 watts peak (WPrime with 2 threads). The 19″ LCD consumes 22 watts when it’s operating at full resolution regardless of the image being displayed. If the system is overclocked to 2.66 GHz, then the peak wattage goes up to 100 watts which is still well within safety margins. Note that this particular motherboard that came free with the CPU isn’t a stable overclocker so I don’t recommend overclocking on this system with this motherboard. For testing purposes, I loaded Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit edition and it booted up in less than 35 seconds (10 seconds due to BIOS post).
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With the top and bottom are sealed off (with some holes for venting heat), I wanted to make sure the CPU fan had a fresh supply of cool air so I cut out a hole in the back. I didn’t have one of those circular cutters handy so I had to freehand the hole with a jigsaw so I still need to sand it in to something smoother. I also didn’t want to make the chassis an extra inch thicker to accommodate the retail box fan that came with the CPU. To minimize cable clutter, I used 1 foot long power cords plugged in to a power strip. That strip also comes in handy for plugging in lots of other things.
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Unlike the VESA stand PC I built a few months ago, this computer uses the monitor’s factory stand which allows me the full range in tilt motion. Here in the photo you see that it’s tilted all the way back and it’s in no danger or tipping over.
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For the photo gallery, I used the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop keyboard and mouse. Not shown is a tiny USB Bluetooth dongle in the back that connects the keyboard and mouse.
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This photo shows the inside of the system with the back, top, bottom covers off. The hard drive is bolted on to the side but I will need to put some rubber washers on to minimize hard drive noise. Wood has a nasty habit of amplifying sound which is great for musical instruments but not so good for computers so I’ll need to spray the inner walls with insulation foam to minimize noise. I’ll probably look in to plastic materials in the future.
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This is the back of the computer with the components exposed. As you can see, the box is not much bigger than the Micro ATX motherboard. The hard drive had to overlap the motherboard a little so that the entire box can be narrower than the 17″ wide 19″ diagonal LCD display. The LCD has a DVI input but the motherboard only had VGA out so a VGA cable was used. Wired Ethernet was used but I have enough room to plug in a PCI wireless LAN adapter using a 90 degrees PCI adapter. [Update 11:55PM - I'm probably going to go for a cheap 802.11g USB adapter since that saves me the trouble of using a PCI angle adapter. The fact that I can mount it on top means it will probably get better radio reception.]
This is the full profile view of my new all-in-one computer. Note that I made a mistake of not turning the bad side of the wood in so you can see some flaws in the wood. It’s not too late for me to unscrew it and turn it around though.
So the bottom line is that while it isn’t pretty from the side or the back, you won’t ever notice it from the front and it doesn’t take any more space than the LCD display would occupy by itself. The price tag is $1000 cheaper than commercial all-in-one computers from Apple, Gateway, and now Dell. Sure you can get a laptop but laptops don’t have 19″ displays and they can’t safely clock to 2.66 GHz like this one. Having a full size keyboard and a real mouse makes this computer as powerful as a desktop yet it’s portable.
[Update 11:59PM] - Instructions for making your own box
If you want to make your own box, you just need to cut 6 pieces of board. The dimensions for front and back plate are 17″ by 8.75″. Side plates are 8.75″ by 2.5″. Top and bottom are 17″ by 3″ (thickness of front and back added 0.5″). The top 2 VESA holes are 2.75″ from the top (not including thickness of top plate). The four VESA mounting holes are centered on the box and measure 100mm apart.
The box needs to be mounted to the LCD before the motherboard is installed. To figure out where to mount the motherboard, place the motherboard and power supply on the wood and mark where the mounting holes will be with a pencil.
My colleague Justin James suggested that I go to the auto supply store and buy some rubber underbody coating (spray or roll on) for spraying on the internal walls to dampen the noise. That should also pad the contact between the hard drive and the side wall so that the hard drive noise isn’t amplified by the wooden box.
[Update 11/27/2007] - A number of people in the talkback want to know about the RF interference characteristics and whether I will paint the box black or not. On the RF interference issue, all motherboards and electronic components are already FCC certified to be within limits of how much RF noise can be leaked and I haven’t had any RF interference issues running my over-the-air HDTV tuner in my home or radio close by to this computer. As for painting the box black, yes that is what I intend to do so that it will blend in with the LCD.
Update 11/29/2007 - See updated AIO computer images
November 23rd, 2007
Fry's Black Friday 2007 ad posted
For those of you who live near a Fry’s, they have posted their full Black Friday ad for 2007. I’m headed out there in about 30 minutes from now but here’s a sample of some of the things on sale. I’m not one of those people who camp out for a day and I like to show up 30 minutes before the store opens. I’m not going to score any cheap dual-core laptops for $400 but plenty of deals can be had. Some of these things just make nice stocking stuffers or gifts.
Sample from Fry’s Black Friday 2007
19″ and 22″ wide screen display - $130 (before $40 rebate) and $190 ($50 rebate)
November 21st, 2007
Best Black Friday 2007 blockbuster deals
Well it’s that time of year again to kick off the 2007 Christmas shopping season and it’s the best time to find the best bargains in shopping since retailers are desperately trying to get you in to the stores. Not everything will be available since some or many of these items sell out within the first few minutes to people who waited in line for as much as 20 hours overnight in front of the store. But many things are available if you show up an hour before the door opens (typically 5AM). You just need to be careful of your surroundings and avoid being trampled.
There are also plenty of online deals to be had where you can safely (and warmly) order from the comfort of your own home at 5AM in the morning. The down side is that you will have to pay for shipping and sometimes taxes too and if there is a problem with the product, you have to ship it back and wait for a repair unit.
Note: I will round to the nearest dollar and I will never quote rebate pricing. Pricing in (parenthesis) is the current price found on the website as of 11/20/2007.
Best HDTV deals
High Definition broadcasts with all local programming has been free for sometime and now is a pretty good time to be looking at a relatively inexpensive flat panel HDTV. Just 2 years ago these things cost as much as $10,000 but now they’re in the affordable $1000 range. With a $40 antenna on the roof you can get receive all the local channels and major networks for free in high definition or you can always pair it up with a computer, XBox360, Play Station 3, HD DVD, or Blu-ray player.I recommend 32″ to 46″ LCD HDTV models in the $400 to $1300 range with 1366×768 or 1920×1080 resolution. I’m not going to bother with Plasma displays since they’re power hogs that consume double the energy of LCD HDTVs and they’re not as bright and don’t look as good in a bright room. There is no way I can recommend a TV that hogs 500 watts of power. In the 32″ in to 46″ range, there isn’t even that much of a pricing advantage. Note that all models have HDMI input which can be used with the DVI output of a PC with a simple $10 cable.
32 & 37 inch 720P LCD HDTVs (1366×768) under $630
- Olevia 37″ 237T LCD HDTV - $549 at Target ($549)
- Dynex 37″ LCD HDTV - $630 at Best Buy
- Dynex 32″ LCD HDTV - $450 at Best Buy
- Olevia 32″ LCD HDTV - $420 at Kmart ($699)
- Element 32″ LCD HDTV - $400 at Circuit City ($550)
42 and 46 inch 1080P LCD HDTVs (1920×1080) under $1300
- Sharp 46″ LCD HDTV LC46D64U - $1300 at Circuit City ($2500)
- Sylvania 42″ LCD HDTV 42PC5D - $900 at Sears ($1200)
Best laptop deals
Laptops have gotten so cheap that it’s possible to get a great dual-core laptop with 15.4″ display for under $500 or even $300 if you’re willing to wait a long time in line. For those starving college students who have more time than money, it’s time to get out that sleeping bag and wait in front of the store for 20 hours so you can be one of the first 10 to 20 people in line.Dual-core processor laptops
- Sony VAIO VGN NR110 for $399 at Best Buy
(Intel Core Duo, 802.11b/g, 1GB RAM, 120 GB HDD, DVD/CD burner, Vista home premium) - Sony VAIO VGN NR123E/S for $499 at Best Buy
(Intel dual-core T2310, 802.11b/g, 1GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, DVD/CD burner, Vista home premium) - Compaq C717nr laptop for $449 (plus additional $150 rebate discount) at Circuit City
(Intel Core Duo T2310, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, Intel X3100 graphics, 802.11b/g, DVD/CD burner, Vista home premium)
Single-core processor laptops
- Acer AS3680 14.1″ Laptop - $300 at Micro Center
(Intel Celeron M, Wi-Fi, Vista Home Basic) - Toshiba Satellite A134-S7403 for $229 at Best Buy
(Intel Celeron M, 512 MB RAM, Canon AIO printer)
You can check out a full list of deals here.
Best computer LCD display deals
Computer LCD displays have gotten so cheap in the last 3 years that they have completely displaced the CRT monitor. This year they’ve gotten bigger and cheaper than CRTs have ever been and 24″ LCD displays have gotten affordable for the first time in history. 22″ displays are selling as low as $150 and 24″ displays are selling as low as $250. Note that 22″ displays have 1680×1050 resolution and 24″ displays have 1920×1200 and both of these are 16 by 10 aspect ratio.
- Samsung 245BW 24″ LCD display - $330 at Circuit City
- Samsung 22″ Widescreen LCD - $200 at Best Buy
- Envision G22LWk 22″ LCD display - $150 at CompUSA
- Acer AL2416WBsd 24″ LCD - $250 at CompUSA ($440)
For a full list of all kinds of Black Friday deals, you can check out this site which has a comprehensive list of all the stores and sales going on this Friday.
November 10th, 2007
$60 Via motherboard and C7-D 1.5 GHz CPU bundles OS and Google apps
DailyTech is reporting that Via is selling the PC2500E development motherboard and Via C7 CPU bundled with “gOS” for $60.
The cost for the VIA PC2500E mainboard and the CPU is $59.99. That isn’t really a full fledged computer since you will need to add a hard drive, case, PSU and RAM, which will add more expense. The mainboard has VIA 10/100 Base-T Ethernet, onboard Realtek ALC655 6-channel audio, two PATA connectors, two SATA connectors, a VGA connection and four USB ports. The board also features a parallel port and a serial port. The board dimensions are 190mm x 228mm.
While “gOS” is not officially affiliated with Google, it’s advertised as an “alternative OS with Google apps and other Web 2.0 apps for the masses”. But whether you intend to use gOS or not, the hardware just seems too good to pass up if you’re building a small appliance. The PC2500E seems to be Via’s answer to Intel’s low-cost $70 D201GLY and D201GLY2 motherboard and CPU. Just add memory, hard drive, power supply, and a chassis and you have yourself a cheap x86 appliance for running a storage box or server. I’m definitely looking forward to reviewing this product.
November 9th, 2007
24" LCD 1920x1200 displays now mainstream at below $300
I can still remember 1991 when I bought my first computer display for my first computer. It was $315 for a 14″ CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) non-Interlaced monitor that had an actual viewing size of around 13″ and the display was about as flat as a beach ball. Back in those days a 17″ CRT display cost nearly $1,000 or more and they were as deep as they were wide. It’s been about 3 years since LCD (Liquid Cristal Display) began taking over the computer industry and they’ve been dropping in price every year as they became more mainstream.
Now for the first time I’m seeing 24″ LCD displays like the Soyo 24″ LCD below the $300 mark and even below $250 on Black Friday. While this is a lesser known brand, it does signal the wide-spread production of 24″ LCD panels so they can be produced and sold at these prices. This will eventually lead to more companies hitting the $300 price point. This means we can build some fairly cheap computers with massive 24″ high-resolution displays and I’ll probably make it a project to build a 24″ all-in-one media center PC if I can get one of these Black Friday deals.
October 22nd, 2007
Build the $340 NAS for half the price but double the speed
The thing that has always bothered me with the NAS (Network Attached Storage) market for consumers is that it’s very high margin yet the products deliver very poorly on performance. While that might be great for the product manufacturers bottom line, it isn’t so great when you’re the consumer. Typical NAS devices that allow you to insert 4 to 6 drives cost anywhere between $500 to $1000 yet they only deliver between 15 to 30 megabyte/sec of performance when they imply gigabit (125 megabyte/sec) performance to the consumer in their advertising.
While I think most consumers don’t mind paying a small premium for something that is pre-assembled and easy to use out of the box, I don’t think they’re happy about paying a 100% premium while getting less than half the performance. I’ve come up with an alternative solution for half the price and more than double the network performance and you can have this solution so long as you’re willing to do a little PC building and you follow my parts list. If you’re not sure how to build a PC but you’re willing to learn, you can follow this step-by-step picture guide.
For $340 you will be able to build a NAS server running a free Linux server operating system from any of the major distributions like Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat, etc.
| Part | Price |
| G33 motherboard with ICH9R RAID controller | 141 |
| Intel 2140 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo | 75 |
| 1 GB DDR2-667 RAM | 30 |
| 300W 80% efficiency silent PSU | 43 |
| Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX ($45 pickup at Fry’s minus $20 rebate) | 51 |
| Total (shipping included but not taxes) | 340 |
With a slight upgrade to $442 you can get it with a 5-drive hot-swap SATA backplane cage which I reviewed here. Note that the SATA hot-swap cage requires some small modifications to the chassis since there is a small metal lip between each 5.25″ drive module.
| AMS 5-drive SATA hot-swap backplane (model DS-3151SSBK) | 102 |
| Total w/hot-swap cage (w/shipping) | 442 |
I do like the feature set and relative ease of use of Windows Home Server (for people not familiar with Linux), but I have been disappointed with the steep system builder price of $185 when the hardware is barely double the cost of the software. I’m sure the OEMs like HP are getting a much better price for Windows Home Server but that doesn’t really help the home system builders who buy one at a time.
| Windows Home Server | 185 |
| Total w/WHS and hot-swap cage (w/shipping) | 660 |
You could run Vista Premium which is around $110 OEM price and that will give you basic network file hosting capability along with the media center capability so this is a great option for people who want Windows. Linux plus MythTV will also let you do the network file sharing and TV recordings and that’s free if you can deal with Linux.
| Windows Vista Premium | 117 |
| Total w/Vista Premium and hot-swap cage (w/shipping) | 559 |
Double duty as a Media Center PC
Note that you’ll need to borrow a CD or DVD ROM drive to install the OS or you can just throw in a cheap DVD burner for $30. Having the optical drive might be useful since you can also stick in a TV tuner card and have this system perform double-duty as a NAS and Media Center PC which doubles your utility without spending a lot more money or using a lot more power. It makes little sense to buy a totally different system for the Media Center PC and waste the extra 60 watts of power to run a separate box. The nice thing about this arrangement is that you already have all the storage at your disposal for your video recordings and there isn’t a better place to put all your videos. The other great thing about having a system like this is that you can host additional virtual servers using free hypervisor software from Microsoft and VMware.
System power and performance specifications
This system without the hard drives will consume roughly 42 watts during idle and each hard drive you add will add roughly 9 watts to the idle power consumption. Peak power consumption in the system will be around 75 watts without the hard drives and each hard drive peaks at around 13 watts during busy read/write cycles. The peak power consumption fully loaded with 6 typical 7200 RPM hard drives is 153 watts during peak CPU and storage operation. During system power-up, each drive consumes up to 30 watts so it’s possible to see 200 watts of power consumption for a few seconds when the hard drives go from 0 to 7200 RPM so the 300 watt power supply (smallest ATX model you can buy) is overkill.
Note that Western Digital now sells hard drives with half the idle/peak power consumption and the 750 and 1000 GB drives are between $220 and $300. Compared to 500 GB drives you can buy for $110, the larger capacities are a bit expensive per GB.
Performance-wise you can expect to see about 70 megabytes/sec over a gigabit LAN which is twice as fast as the $1000 commercial NAS devices you can buy over the shelf. With the new ICH9R RAID controller you can actually expect to see close to 300 megabytes/sec of disk sub-system performance but you’ll be limited by the speed of the gigabit network when you factor in overhead to around 70 MB/sec. If you don’t have a gigabit switch, they’re as cheap as $36 with jumbo frame capability. For more on how to effectively configure and use all this capacity, you can read Best storage strategies for the multimedia PC.
George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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