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Music collection is about 1 TB. Pictures are maybe 150 GB Home videos are about 150 GB. Assorted other files are 100 GB. I suspect this is pretty typical for a family PC. Not sure how much we use at work, and I'm not responsible for it anyway, but I know we had 12 TB of storage delivered the...

Hmmmm.... About me: 14.5 years of education post-high school, another 3-4 to go, and until then, I'm earning about what I could make at McDonalds per hour. And I like academic medicine, so I don't ever expect to be able to buy computers with abandon. Regardless, I am blessed. About my wife...

Hey Guys, My wife finally started to complain about the speed of her 3.5 year old computer, a Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz with 2 GB of RAM. She is generally very patient with her computer, and most of what she does is web-based and Photoshop. I grimmace when I type this, but her method of...

Will the 1 TB platters go into 7k3000's?

I'd add PBS Frontline to that list. Amazing in quality and price if you ask me. But I'm sort of into that type of thing.

Oops, forgot backup #9 - I have a 500 GB drive that I put most of my backup stuff on and put in my parent's house.

I'm currently using Windows (7) built in backup tool to do nightly backups and a system image to an internal 3.5" drive (backup #1). I also have SyncToy set up to sync my stuff to an external drive (backup #2), and selected folders to my HTPC (upstairs, backup #3) and my wife's PC (across the...

I've been playing around with CrashPlan now for about 2 weeks. If you're thinking of changing your backup strategy, I really suggest you try the application and the 1 month trial of the cloud backup. So far I really like it. The client continuously runs, and on my computer requires about 140...

Is Sandforce used much in the business market? I get the sense that the controllers are all very consumer-oriented, or perhaps that's just a function of questionable reliability.

Microcenter has the 5k3000 (5400 RPM) 3 TB drives for $125 + tax still. Seems like the only way to get storage at <$50/TB.

I was very close to buying a 2 TB 7k3000 for $99 from Newegg yesterday but I too was hoping to see 4 TB drives soon (if at least to push the price down on 3 TB drives). I should have just done it.

Ah, yes, Rainmeter. Annoying to set up, I can't figure out how to load multiple Google calendars, but it only uses 19 MB of RAM. Not bad.

Bingo! Gorillapod. Thanks! Yeah, I'm wondering if it's time for a second lens. Her current lens is from the kit - EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (whatever that means).

Sol - thanks for the considered thoughts, given the limited information I've provided. Indeed, I'm wondering if she'd notice the advantages of a newer camera. She mostly does framed shots (lots of people posing) and some "action" shots (PJ-style). She's recently been looking into bracketing...

Hey guys, A while ago I was using Google Desktop and their gadget platform, and found a few things slightly helpful (calendar, weather) and some things interesting (CPU meter, network monitor). I have a second monitor, and it was nice to put these things someplace out of the way yet easy to see...

The XT is the 350D.

Quick question: any reason an intermediate-level photographer would prefer a newer Canon Digital Rebel over a Rebel XT? My wife has nicely progressed from her point-and-shoot days and is still using her old Digital Rebel XT, and Christmas is coming. The extra megapixels would only rarely be...

One of the exhaust fans is a 140 mm fan in the back of the case that exhausts and sits just a few cm from the HSF and it's two fans. The other two exhaust fans, 200 mm fans, are on the top of the case.

I typically run my 2600K at 103x43 at 1.30V (per the Asus utility), in a CoolerMaster HAF-X with 2 large intake fans and 3 large exhaust fans, and a Hyper212 with two 120 mm fans (one push, one pull). It is typically around 33C during normal use, and goes up to about 64C after a "standard" run...

Barely faster than the Phenom II X6 1100T. Where have I seen this pattern before - oh, yeah, the P4-Netbust introduction. And we know how that went.

not sure if I believe that Intel will ship their retail Sandy Bridge -E's with a liquid cooler: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/coolers/display/20111009230134_Intel_Confirms_Plan_to_Bundle_LGA2011_Chips_with_Own_Brand_Liquid_Coolers.html

Could get more memory for just a little more money. Do you need USB3 and SATA 6 Gbps? If not, could a cheaper H67 or H61 board suffice? (see this mini-ITX version, for example -...

for complicated reasons, no, the desk is the best option. The downside is that I hear the fan much easier, though.

I'm using two 120 mm Scythe fans on my Hyper 212. I tweaked the fan setting to run the second, noisy fan, at 50% at lower temps and to increase to 100% when temps get to 70C. This fan at 50% is hardly audible, but when run at 100% it's mildly annoying. It doesn't help that the case is sitting on...

thanks, dd

Thanks, Coug, that is what I was looking for.

When you're good, you're good.

Anybody familar with the liquid cooling kits currently available (like Corsair H series)? Are they easy to use and reliable enough for prime time use? Could it be left for a long weekend running, without fear of finding a wet, shorted out computer? I'm wondering if a switch from my Hyper 212...

OEM vs retail? Does one come with cables and/or software? Warranty difference?

One PC has a Radeon 3000 IGP (I think) and a decent internet connection, so I hope we'll be good to go on that one. Not sure about the other.

Can somebody help me understand the role of this chip. I have not one, but two relatives who purchased cheap computers (Compaq and HP I think) that use this chip. Is this not a huge step back from the Athlon II X2s of last year? Is this chip to the desktop what the Atom is to the netbook? Is the...

symform, RAID 96? Is this a joke?

Why would the HD need to act as a cache? I doubt anybody has an upload speed that get approaches that of USB 2.0 - unless of course, it's just a marketing gimmick. And I suppose that's precisely your point. But hey, I would prefer my family use a marketing gimmick, assuming it's not too...

Hey guys, I got a camcorder (Canon Vixia HFM300) that I'm pretty happy with (only complaint: low-light shooting drops the quality quickly), and am looking for some decent video editing software. I've been using Microsoft's Movie Maker Live, which is fine for simple stuff. But I'm looking for...

Toshiba has new drives, now with cloud storage: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/USB-3.0-cloud-storage-Canvio-BackupNow-EZ-Maciek-Brzeski,13517.html Oh oh. Check out the text from their webpage (http://us.toshiba.com/computers/storage/portable/canvio-3): Cloud Backup Capabilities1 Put your...

I used to use large cases for all my builds (an old full tower and an Antec P180, for example), thinking that they were cooler than smaller cases. I'm sure there's some truth to this. My wife's computer, in that old full tower (Supermicro? built like a tank), has an exhausting fan on the PS, a...

Or at least a large (80+ mm) case fan spinning slowly that blows a little air across a large HSF and also helps with case ventilation.

Wasn't really aware of BTX until now. Why'd it die?

I'm waiting for someone to build a case that includes some duct work to bring cool air in from the outside, duct it over the HSF, and then straight out the back of the case.

FYI, I'm happy with my 1 TB Toshiba Canvio 2.5" USB3 drive. I copy large backups to it (~600 GB), and get 100 MB/s at the beginning and 80 MB/s at the end. I went with USB3 because I wanted something that didn't require two plugs (data+power) to use.

I've been using Sennheiser 280 pros for ~7 years now and have been pretty happy, although I can hear my wife when she wants to get my attention.

I suppose the de-crappifier software should be mentioned for those unfortunate to be using a retail PC.

I always fix the bottom bar thingy in Windows 7 - unlock task bar, create a set of folders for quicklaunch items (browser, email client, VPN stuff, etc), set them to small icons, no text. I store all my personal stuff on a secondary HD separate from the OS, so setting folders to point to a...

I know it's cold when I drive into work and it takes my radio display a second to reflect station changes.

That's actually what my traditional alarm clock is, now 14 years old (!). Old enough that it doesn't handle daylight savings properly anymore now that they've changed the dates. It's an old Emerson; they still make versions, and I recently got my wife one. Mine has dual alarms. For important...

Because my rudimentary attempts at finding a replacement battery had failed, and I've been using my pager lately. I'd like to stop spending time with my pager.

hey, not a bad price! Let me doublecheck to make sure that my old phone works fine when plugged into the wall.

Features that I think are important for the cell/alarm clock: - able to sync the time off of cell towers (and gets reception where it will be) so you can be sure that it has the correct time - decent battery (so it will work even if you loose power to your home in the night) and has a wall...

Hey guys, For about 3 years I used an old cell Verizon phone (LG VX8000) as an alarm clock after I had otherwise decommissioned it (switched to AT&T). It would run for days on the battery, wouldn't die if I lost power, would sync the time from the cell towers, had a nice big front panel display...

I currently backup to an additional internal hard drive (Hitachi 7k2000, 2 TB, was debating RAID1, but decided against that) - this takes up a bit over 500 GB right now. Really important stuff (right now ~150 GB, I suspect this will double every year) also gets backed up to my HTPC upstairs and...