Archive for category Hardware
My rig update, RAID0!
Posted by Rob Holmes in Hardware on May 23, 2009
For my birthday I got another 320Gb SATAII Seagate. Which means I now have 2 in RAID0 setup. This ment my WPI (Windows Performace Index) went from 5.7 to 5.9.
Here are some images of the PC with my new HDD cage and HDD’s in.
Sorry for the bad image, I seem to have lost my others. But you can kind of see it… just.
My new toy
Posted by Rob Holmes in Hardware, OS on May 22, 2009
For my birthday I wanted to get a netbook, so I could use it on site visit for repair computers and networks. It took a long time for me to decide on which I wanted and went over a lot of reviews. Then about 1 day before my birthday, I found this. My mind was made up, but it was to late for my birthday. So I ordered it later with the money I got given. So the other day, it turned up! I also ordered a bag and 2Gb of Curcial RAM. This was from the Curcail website and was VERY good, ordered on Sunday and came on Tuesday! I will use you again!
So here is a nice picture of it.
It comes with 1Gb, which I soon replaced with the 2Gb, this help a bit (Not a lot, but worth the £21). I also had a little play with XP, before uninstalling all the shit that samsung like to install (mcafee! OMG). I then decide (Well, i had before I got the netbook) that ubuntu was going on it in dual boot. So I could still use XP for repair work and alike, but ubuntu for general work. I got Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 (9.10 is currently borken, damn). This is very nice OS, love the interface with the launch panel filling the desktop. Really work on a netbook. Its pretty fast, thought does have problems with hibernation (It doesn’t work…).
The battery on the thing last nearly 7hours, with wifi off and brightness down a little it should reach 7.30. Its light, and keyboard isn’t to bad. The touch-pad is the only thing that lets it down, cos the keyboard is large. The mouse buttons are a little, well, cheap. They need to be stronger. But that is only a small thing and you get used to it.
I was thinking of putting windows 7 on, but holding off for now, as XP will help more in repair computers, as I don’t have a XP machine now, only Windows 7 and Vista. XP is to old, lol.
I have also upgrade my main rig for my birthday. It now has 2x WD 320Gb SATAII 16Mb in RAID0, which boosted my WPI to 5.9 (CPU 7.4 GPU 6.2). I will post on that this weekend hopefully, I am having a little room move around to make a bit more space.
A clean computer is a happy one
Posted by Rob Holmes in Hardware on May 5, 2009
On bank holiday Monday, with a nice day off college I had a little clean up around the place, windows and shit like that. I also decided to clean my computer, as it over a year old now and about time it got a clean. So I thought I would show you some pictures, before and after like!
This shows the GPU been cleaned, but I also got all the dust out of my radiator in the bottom of the case that cools the water cooling loop for the CPU. I cleaned all the case and window and now its dust clean, for 10 mins anyway! The GPU redced it idle temp from 67 to 60 and the CPU from 34 to 24 so not bad! (BTW that isn’t CPU cores, they are around 49/50 marks idle in windows)
So remember kids, a clean computer is a happy one! Now I am off to install Windows 7 7100 RC from my memory pen 
LAN Rack
Posted by Rob Holmes in Hardware on May 2, 2009
Ok, so I have been working a creating a LAN rack, so it keeps all my LAN stuff together and makes it easier to use and upgrade. It also saves a LOT of space. I currently have:
1 Linksys WRT54GL (DD-WRT)
1 Linksys WAG200G
1 TP-Link 8 port Gigibyte Switch
1 Level One 16port 10/100 switch (Not in use)
1 Netgear 24port 10/100 Switch with uplink (Not in use)
1 ATEN MasterView 8 port KVM OSD (With 5x3m cables)
The rack is made from 2 6U rails, it has 2 1/4 MDF ends. I also have a 1U cable spacer.
So here are some images. It is sat on a 3/4 MDF self I fitted in the corner of my office.
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