Category Archives: review

Zotac ZBOXHD-ID11 First Impressions

Untitled Page I am sharing my experiences and first impressions of the Zotac ZBOXHD-ID11-U mini PC. In the coming days I will connect the device to my home theater, and review the behavior running Windows Media Center, XBMC, and Media-Portal. This is first post in a series of posts related to the Zotac ZBOX ZBOXHD-ID11.Continue reading “Zotac ZBOXHD-ID11 First Impressions”

Data Robotics DroboPro vs. QNAP TS-859 Pro

I previously wrote about my impressions of the DroboPro, and in case I was not clear, I was not impressed. I recently read the announcement of the new QNAP TS-859 Pro, and from the literature it seemed like a great device, high performance, feature rich, and power saving. The TS-859 Pro is now available, andContinue reading “Data Robotics DroboPro vs. QNAP TS-859 Pro”

NEC MultiSync LCD2490WUXi2 and LCD2690WUXi2

I recently replaced my DELL monitors with NEC monitors. The primary reason why I replaced DELL with NEC is color reproduction, I could never quite get the wide gamut DELL’s to look right. I chose the NEC MultiSync 90 series monitors because they have excellent color reproduction, and are reasonably affordable. The alternative would haveContinue reading “NEC MultiSync LCD2490WUXi2 and LCD2690WUXi2”

Intel DP45SG and Lian-Li PC-C33B HTPC

I recently built a new home theater PC using an Intel DP45SG motherboard and a Lian-Li PC-C33B case. I am replacing my existing HTPC that appears to be not quite compatible with Windows 7. The existing machine uses a Lian-Li PC-C31B case, Intel DG33TL motherboard, and ATI Sapphire HD 2600XT video card. I started documentingContinue reading “Intel DP45SG and Lian-Li PC-C33B HTPC”

Hitachi Ultrastar and Seagate Barracude LP 2TB drives

In my previous post I talked about Western Digital RE4-GP 2TB drive problems. In this post I present my test results for 2TB drives from Seagate and Hitachi. The test setup is the same as for the RE4-GP testing, except that I only tested 4 drives from each manufacturer. Unlike the enterprise class WD RE4-GPContinue reading “Hitachi Ultrastar and Seagate Barracude LP 2TB drives”

Power Saving RAID Controller (Continued)

This post continues from my last post on power saving RAID controllers. It turns out the Adaptec 5 series controller are not that workstation friendly. I was testing with Western Digital drives; 1TB Caviar Black WD1001FALS, 2TB Caviar Green WD20EADS, and 1TB RE3 WD1002FBYS. I also wanted to test with the new 2TB RE4-GP WD2002FYPSContinue reading “Power Saving RAID Controller (Continued)”

DELL 2408WFP and Spyder 3 Elite

I upgraded my vista Ultimate x64 workstation to a dual monitor setup using two 24″ DELL 2408WFP displays connected to an ATI HD4850 video card. I immediately noticed that the colors were unnaturally bright and over-saturated. I had a similar problem on another workstation with a 30″ DELL 3007WFP-HC display. My original 3007WFP was great,Continue reading “DELL 2408WFP and Spyder 3 Elite”

Power Saving SATA RAID Controller

I’ve been a longtime user of Adaptec SATA RAID cards (3805, 5805, 51245), but over the years I’ve become more energy saving conscious, and the Adaptec controllers did not support Windows power management. My workstations are normally running in the “Balanced” power mode so that they will go to sleep after an hour, but sometimesContinue reading “Power Saving SATA RAID Controller”