Posted by Tracker on July 9, 2011 – 6:03 AM
Ok so you want a mac… [if not then don't even read the rest of this post] but you don’t have the extra funds laying around to buy a brand new shiny mac. Sure you can go get a used one but where is the fun in that?
Well I have the link you need…. LifeHacker posted a great informative post on how to build and configure a hackintosh from start to finish for under $600.00
Now the only trick for me is finding my hidden stash of money in the back yard…. where did I put that shovel…
-Tracker
Posted by Tracker on December 14, 2010 – 5:46 AM
Well I had my eeepc 701 for a long time [well for a laptop anyway] and I figured it was time to upgrade… and upgrade I did. I got the Asus EEEPC T91 Tablet PC. Have had it for about a month and am prepared to explain the pros and cons of this little convertible pc
First off the specs
- Intel Atom Z520(1.33GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, FSB 533MHz)
- 1 GB DDR2 SODIMM memory
- 8.9″ WSVGA (1024×600) Resistive Touch Panel, w/ LED-backlit
- Integrated Graphics Controller; Shared w/ system memory
- 16 GB SSD + 16 GB SD Card Bundle
Ok so its not a super computer but it is decent!
PROS!!!
- Full Touch Screen
- Screen rotates for reading
- Small size
- Great battery life
- DUAL SD Card Slots
CONS…
- Small keyboard
- Asus bloatware
- Not linux friendly
- Fingerprint magnate
Ok so let me explain the pros and cons… the T91 is a 8.9 inch tablet that can be used as either a netbook or a tablet.
Its small size and great battery life make it a perfect companion on long flights or car trips. The touch screen comes in handy for drawing or just playing games. Its also nice for reading e-books.
It comes paired with a 16gb SD card and 2 SD Card slots [1 free after the 16gb] Providing you with the ability of a maximum 80GB of storage space! [16gb ssd and 2x 32gb sd cards]
However it has a glossy black case that is a big fingerprint collector. I myself liked the matte black on the old eeepc but you cant win them all. The small keys take a little getting use to if you have been using a full size laptop but if you have been using a netbook you should be fine. It is also not very linux friendly due to the graphics chip but I prefer windows on a day to day basis so thats not a huge fault for me. The only major complaint I have is all the Asus Bloatware that comes bundled with it. While it is nice if you like yahoo widgets and such I just dont like it. However it is easily disabled and removed in about 30 seconds. It also ships with windows xp home. Why they did not include xp tablet I don’t know but I plan to upgrade this one anyway.
All in all this is a great little tablet for the money and hopefully I will get years of use out of it as I have my other Asus products
-Tracker
P.S. Sorry for the lack of updates life has taken its turns but hopefully the road is a bit straighter ahead and I will have a bit more time to do more on here!
Posted by Tracker on September 13, 2010 – 7:54 PM
Ok so about a month ago my hard drive began to fail. It was not completely gone but it wouldn’t boot either. So that is what my next series of posts is going to be about.
The series is going to be as follows.
1. What Causes Hard Drive Failure
2. How to prevent data loss
3. What to do when your disk fails
4. The conclusion.
So lets get started…
WHAT CAUSES A HARD DRIVE TO FAIL
Just like a car your hard drive will eventually fail. Moving parts break down over time. The time it takes for it to fail is different for every drive. I have a drive in my computer right now that has been working for over 5 years while the old drive I just pulled out lasted just over a year.
The internals of a drive are very sensitive the drive heads [what reads the data] float a micron above the platters [the disks that hold the data] and when a drive is put through a lot of vibration the heads can become offset causing a hard drive to fail.
Heat is also a problem that can cause a hard drive’s life span to be shortened. It is important to make sure your computer is in a cool room and there is enough air flow inside the case of your computer.
Static is a major computer killer. This one mostly only applies to people working on computers. It is extremely important to make sure you don’t transfer static to your hard drive. When ever installing components into a computer make sure to wear a static wrist band. If you don’t have one make sure to touch the side of your computer.
Power Surges are also a point of failure. To help prevent this make sure that your computer is ALWAYS connected to a name brand surge protector. [not the cheap ones you can get at the dollar store]. Most surge protectors come with some sort of insurance. For example if my computer failed while plugged into its surge protector and its because of a power surge I have upto $100,000.00 of coverage on it.
In my case my drive had a head / platter issue. When it would try and read I could hear a clicking sound from the heads trying to read.
In part 2 I am going to talk about how to prevent data loss mostly by way of proper backups and disk clones.
-Tracker
Welcome one and all to my mad brain, I am 38 and have been modding since I first realized they didn’t make Stretch Armstrong just right when I was 5. I am looking forward to sharing some of my mods with you and have already begun my first mod for your perusal.
I am currently working on a desk mod, and hoping to have a companion water cooling mod to come soon afterwards if it is feesable (and less than my yearly salary to complete) I have children who will help me with some of these mods, so the little people you will see are not a product of your imagination nor the effect of a drunken night of photoshopping midgets into random posts.
I hope you enjoy and as a teaser this is a photo of my test bed for my desk project.
A willing sacrificial object for my Dremel.
Posted by Tracker on July 10, 2009 – 10:26 PM
When I built my computer I failed to put good thermal compound on the processor. On top of that I did it wrong and as a result for the past couple weeks while my house has been a bit hotter than normal my computer was shutting off due to overheating. I was hitting 119C. Well I am going to explain right now the best way to put thermal compound on a processor [or atleast the method that worked for me this time]
Things you will need
- 99% Isopropyl Alcohol [I used 91% but 99% is recommended]
- Cotton Swabs
- Lint free cloth
- Tube of Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Ceramique [What I used]
- Time
Now the first 3 things you don’t HAVE to use if its a brand new processor but might as well do it right anyway.
The steps..
- Clean the processor / heatsink by dipping the cotton swab in the Isopropyl
- Seat the processor in the motherboard
- Put a VERY SMALL amount [about 3/4 the size of a BB or 2 grains of rice] in the center of the processor
- DO NOT SPREAD IT AROUND
- Attach the heatsink to the motherboard
- Turn the computer on and monitor the temps very closely for the first few hours.
- Turn the pc off every evening to allow the compound to cool off and then heat up once it is turned back on [break in period] for about a week.
Thats it should be good to go.
Following those directions I got my processor to go from 119C to 50C [lower when the house is cooler]
-Tracker
Posted by Tracker on July 4, 2009 – 12:04 AM
Filed under apple, Pc Mods
The above is the most badass unibody Mac Book Pro I have ever seen!
It is the stealth customized by colorware and it is one of 10 that are out there.
For specs you are looking at
- 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2x4GB)
- 15-inch Matte Widescreen Display
- 256GB solid-state drive
- SuperDrive 8x
- Backlit Keyboard
The price however is the real killer. It goes for $5999.99 before shipping :S
I still want one!
[Source: Colorware]
-Tracker
Posted by Tracker on June 12, 2009 – 1:17 AM
Ok so here is the deal. A while back I bought those servers if you recall and now I am going to use one of them! For a few months now I have had this old p4 computer sitting next to my desk running a home webserver along with my pbx phone system for my work line. Well it idles most of the time and really is not that powerful and just uses up power and space and does not get much use. So I am going to start testing a couple different virtualization applications and see what one is the best solution for what I am going to be doing. The ones I intend to test as of right now are XenServer and vmware ESXi.
The Hardware!
Dual Processor AMD Athlon 2GHz
3gb ram
2x80GB Drives
1x250GB Drive
2u Rackmount form factor
The Plan
Run my home webserver phone pbx and a few other applications within multiple operating systems within the single server. This will allow me to run both windows and linux along side each other while still having decent performance for what ever applications I may need to run.
Long story short look for my upcoming venture into the virtual server world as I try and get this server to function on a task that it was not intended to perform
-Tracker
Posted by Tracker on June 1, 2009 – 12:00 AM
Filed under Pc Mods
Tagged as case mod, desk, mod
This is what happens when you forget to buy a case for that new pc…you put it inside a desk 
This desk is a computer with very nice specs actually. Kind of interesting but I myself prefer a regular case.
Specs you say?
How does this sound…
- 4 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM
- GeForce GTX 280 graphics card
- 2x 300GB 10,000RPM VelociRaport HardDrives
- Antex Kilowatt power supply
- 3.0GHz Intel Core2Quad Processor
Ok so maybe its not the best specs out there but it is most certainly the fastest computer desk around
[Source: Gizmodo]
-Tracker
I love building computers. Not only do I love building them, but also taking them apart. Tracker and I [Dark] have striped an entire computer down to nothing in just 1 minute flat. Thats no joke either. When building a new Desktop there are many things to consider. These are just some of the ones on my top priority list.
1. OS
An OS is a very funny thing. If your like me you want a Hack-n-tosh. At the same time you want to run Windows 7 and a Linux distro. OSX is very picky I hear about running on special hardware, atleast if you want it to run well, so maybe you really want to get an Intel processor with an ASUS motherboard because I hear they work best. Now for Windows 7 your also going to need a decent card, not to mention OSX. Linux is happy on almost any system so really if you wanted to you’d be fine getting lower specs.
2. Uses
Different uses of a computer are also important to me. Can I make this computer a Home server? Or will it only be able to surf the web? Will it be an HD movie machine or a gaming PC perhaps? I love all of thee above so my new machine is going to have to be powerful in many areas. But if maybe I wanted to make a simple computer for lets say, Boxee? Then I would be able to not spend so much money.
3. Lifespan
Lifespan is important because even if your computer is outdated before its even shipped (and it is) it still should last you a good 3 to 4 years, hopefully more, but that is very unlikely in these times where everything it obsolete the moment its created.
4. Hardware release dates
If you buy something the day it comes out its extremely expensive, but if you wait to long then its outdated and worthless. So your pretty much playing russian roulette and hoping you don’t shoot yourself later on down the road.
-Dark
. Bet you’re wondering what in the world this little thing is…well for those of you that LOVE your controllers that are add-ons for your electronic gadgets like HDTVs, Xbox 360, ps3, Wii, or just a gaming PC, you may already know (or own one); this is a awesome, relatively cheap wireless keyboard/mouse combo to further enhance your PC enjoyment.
This remote comes equipped with a lithium-ion battery that has a standby time of 500-700 hours! It charges quicker and works longer. If you want to run it dead, it will more likely than not last you about a month before needing a charge. Also for those of you that either love teasing animals, or actually are looking to purchase a cool business one, this remote has a laser point on it!
