Recent content by John G.

This sounds like my problem exactly. Have you found anyone documenting it elsewhere on the internet? Should I RMA the drive?

Hey guys, I recently installed a new drive into my storage server (one of WD's 1TB green drives) and transferring files to it sometimes results in a computer crash. There were no issues before this latest drive was installed. Crashes have as of yet only happen when this drive is being written...

Hey guys, I'm building an HTPC using the Mini-ITX form factor, so my requirements include a chipset with HD video decode support, digital video out, and digital audio out. I found the Jetway JNC62K on Newegg to satisfy the first two, with SPDIF through the orange 3.5mm jack advertised. What does...

Because of size concerns, I'm now looking at the Shuttle G5 3300 as a possible solution. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of choosing my own motherboard for this machine. The motherboard uses the Intel GMA3100 chipset-- I've heard that this does not have hardware support for h.264...

Can anyone second this? Just want to be sure...

I'm interested in building or buying an HTPC whose only function would be the playback of h.264-encoded 720p playback material. I am not concerned about noise/size/looks, only price. What would be the cheapest way to get a machine capable of high-def decoding?

Hey guys, I'm going to be getting the Harmony 550 remote to control my living room, including my HTPC, so I'm gonna need to get an IR reciever for that machine. Any suggestions on USB IR recievers?

Seems to me like your primary concerns with that case are size and power consumption. I don't think you'll have any problems finding a CPU that fits within your power envelope, and a low-watt CPU won't need much cooling anyway, so one of the lower-clocked Core 2 CPUs should suit your application...

Hey guys, I'm having a problem with Windows XP on my file-server. Every few days, it crashes in the middle of the night, between 1:30am and 3:00am. When I wake up in the morning, it is simply unresponsive (the only way it can be accessed however is over the network) and I have to do a hard...

Ah well... unless those cards come in low-profile AGP, it's all moot. And it doesn't look like I stand a chance of finding a half height AGP 2400. How about the other way around? What is the minimum CPU power required in order to get HD playback with integrated graphics? Can that be done?

Sorry to bring up an old thread-- just didn't feel my question warranted an entirely new one. Anyone have a feeling on what the absolutely minimum would be for high-definition video playback? Specifically, I'm running a PIII 1.0GHz in my media server and would like to play 720p content...

Okay cool I didn't know temp polling kept the drives from powering down (guess it is kind of a no-brainer though). Thanks for the help, I'll try that immediately. Yeah, I'm spinning the drives down to try to lower temperatures. Saving power and less noice might be side-benefits, but the main...

It's a Dell Optiplex GX150 tower case-- so not a lot of room on the inside for additional case fans. I'm using the four 3.5" internal bays for my four hard drives so they're all stacked one on top of the other. If anyone knows of any good fan options that mount directly onto that 3.5" drive...

Well I got home and enabled the power management settings for the hard drives-- but it didn't really lower temperatures. Should I have expected anything else?

Thanks so much! I'll try it out when I get home today, and hopefully will see lower temps as a result. Good luck with that AC man. :)