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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...

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?

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...

(I bolded the important stuff if you want to skim.) Hey guys, I'm currently running a 3x750 + 1x320 storage server with room for only minimal cooling. Now that summer months are here, hard drive temperatures are creeping into the mid-60s. Yikes! For the time being, I've been shutting down the...

I just bought an FX5200 which Newegg advertised as having HDTV TV-Out capability. So I picked up a DVI->component cable, and hooked it up to my television, only to find that the picture is pretty messed up. The colors are completely wrong and the picture quality is all wrong. The best way I can...

Okay so I was stupid... I had flashed to HyperWRT Thibor and it worked fine, so I wanted to try out DD-WRT. I tried to flash, but it told me the upgrade failed and took me back to Thibor's CP-- figured I'd flash the NVRAM and try again, but as soon as I clicked "Flash NVRAM," the power light on...

How many hard drives can you fit in a GX150 tower form factor? From what I can see, there are two internal 3.5" bays, and two external 3.5" bays, one of which is used by the floppy. Can anyone confirm/deny? Thanks.

Hey guys, can someone look over a product for me and answer a quick question? http://www.chyangfun.com/pt_box_d.asp?MID=5&SID=RAID&PNo=CFI-B4044U It lists two operational modes: JBOD (standard) and Span (combined). Now in my limited understanding of RAID, I thought JBOD was spanning. So can...

Hey guys, I'm going to digitize some old VHS movies by hooking my VCR up to my TV Tuner Card inputs. What program would you recommend for capturing (and perhaps encoding as avi?) the video?

Hey guys, I'm looking into buying one of the XPS notebooks, but don't know what kind of deals Dell typically offers on this machine. What kind of discounts or coupons does Dell typically offer on the XPS laptops? What should I watch and wait for?

Hey guys, I'm planning on getting a storage enclosure and sticking a few hard drives in there. I'm most interested in this guy: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=133000 So at this point, I'm looking for a way to attach it to my LAN without dedicating a whole...

Anyone can run down to staples these days and pick up two 500GB drives, and have themselves a TB for small investment and next to no work. Times have changed, and those who are serious about mass storage systems have more space than ever. The new barrier separating the men from the boys is 2TB...

Hey guys-- I've been having a problem with my wireless network connection and thought maybe someone here could help. Here's the deal: I have a Netgear wireless G router sitting downstairs in my house. There are three things wired to this router: the cable modem, one computer, and a second...

Hey guys, So I just started using Thunderbird, and it seems <i>extremely</i> tempermental. Mainly, the new mail notifier is either wrong, or it has trouble delivering new messages to my inbox. It will pop up to tell me that a certain account has a new message or two, but when I go to check...

I've been having severe issues with computer crashes lately. When a crash is severe enough that I get a minidump file out of it, it blames my ATI video driver for the crash. Makes sense, since crashes seem to happen most often when I'm trying to play games. I tried reformatting, but I still get...

Hey guys. I have a problem I figured I'd put to people who know Windows XP quite a bit better than myself. Basically, I have a storage server that, of course, stores files. Many new files are added on a daily basis, and existing files are accessed frequently over a LAN on a daily basis. Now...

Hey guys, I've got a pretty satisfactory home theater PC setup going where the PC stores a lot of media files. I'm just running plain old Windows XP. It's easy to locate desired media by category or alphabetically through Windows Explorer, but I'm interested in letting people locate media on...

I'm having a bit of trouble with my PCI controller card. It's a SATA/IDE combo, with one IDE port (supporting two drives) and two SATA ports. Now, the card plays nice with the drive controller on the motherboard for IDE drives, but not for SATA. Basically, my predicament is this. The one...

Which would you choose? Enermax Whisper II EG465P-VE FMA 460W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103464 FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN 450W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954 I've posted earlier about building a large disk array...

Consider moving an established RAID array comprised of SATA drives from a machine without a backplane to a machine that does utilize a SATA backplane. Assuming you'd power down as normal and just make sure to keep which drives to to which ports, are there going to be any problems? Or would this...

I brought up this problem in another of my threads, but since it's a totally different issue than the title of the old thread implies, I'll see if I can get any more advice here. I have a small, patchwork file server that was out of space and had all mainboard channels in use. So I decided to...

Going to be putting something like this together in the coming months. Thought I'd see if you guys had any input before I start making purchases: Case: Chenbro SR-107 w/ 2 SATA Hot-Swap Drive Cages http://www.chenbro.com.tw/product/product_preview.php?pid=102 Cost: ~$320 Power Supply...

How big of a no-no is it to use Western Digital's RE Caviar drives in a non-RAID setting? I know the TLER feature of these drives make them "unsuitable for desktop use," but how much wiggle room is there on that? I ask because I have a file server that I'm planning to convert over to RAID 5...

I know I'm not supposed to ask other people to do my shopping for me, but I've exhausted all my knowledge in places to look-- do any of you know where I can find the Chenbro SR10768 for purchase? The manufacturer's link is here: http://www.chenbro.com.tw/product/product_preview.php?pid=102...

I have a short question: What does it mean when you can't "extend your desktop" onto your secondary display? When every time you check that box, hitting "Apply" unchecks it again? Here's the long story behind it, in case you need more information: I've got a computer hooked up to my...

Can anyone tell me if Windows XP Media Center Edition and/or Windows XP 64bit Edition require the installation of SATA drivers prior to installing on SATA disks? Obviously Windows XP Home/Pro requires it, but I was wondering if any of the more recent versions of the OS had SATA support "built in".

I've been contemplating my options regarding a file server that I was planning to build. Ultimately, I decided that since my number of disks is fairly low (four or five in total once complete), and since I'm growing my storage capacity as need dictates, that the benefits of a RAID array...

Topic pretty much says it all. I'm looking at the following board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813138264 I have four PATA drives, and one SATA drive. Will I be able to hook 'em all up and run them at the same time without problem or hassle?

Going off another post I made that brought about more questions than answers for me personally... Why would anyone want to use RAID 5, except in cases of more than, say, six disks? Seems to me that for anything less, it would just be (1) additional hassle, (2) introducing another point of...

I'm in the market for a server case and figure if I want some expert opinions on cases, this is the place to be. My requirements are pretty simple: one, I'm going to need a lot of internal 3.5" drive bays. I'm thinking at least five. More is always good, but not so much so that the case is...

I currently have two 320GB WD3200JB UltraATA100 drives, and am using them to store large quantities of media. As my media continues to expand, I had originally planned just add additional 320GB drives to the system as need dictated. Recently, however, this plan is making me a bit nervous. If...

How big should movie files be for good viewing on an HTPC? I have a gigantic DVD collection that I'm about to start ripping/encoding for easy access on my media computer, but I'm wondering what size I should encode them at. Should I go with the classic 700MB per movie, or with the 1.4GB that...

Recently purchased a hard drive enclosure off NewEgg and put a hard drive in it that had a good amount of media files on it. It worked fine at first, but I left it hooked up to my laptop while the laptop was under battery power-- I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect it had something to do...

I'm faced with the following decision for buying a UPS: A 650VA UPS by "Up-Max" for $36.99 shipped. A 575VA UPS by "PowerCom" for $39.99 shipped. A 425VA UPS by "CyberPower" for $40.94 shipped. Anyone have any experience with these manufacturers? Any recommendations? Thanks.