In a prior article, I was playing around with OS X installs on regular PC hardware. I’ve kept a couple of the installations going for the time being, and have been using one of them to recode some videos that we have in DivX and XviD format into H.264 for the Apple TV I recently bought.
Recoding is a time consuming process, and with this particular system, using 2-pass encoding resulted in around an hour per 1-hour episode that’s been recoded. Looking for a way to speed up the system a bit (the E2140 is known to be a pretty decent overclocker), I looked to the BIOS. Read more…
I bought the 20″ SyncMaster 206BW to replace an old weak 17″ CRT that was showing signs of age. I also wanted something that would show a little more screen real-estate.
Monitors are one of the few things where I’m very hesitant to buy online. Picture quality can vary drastically between monitors, and in no way is one $250 model guaranteed to be anything close to another. Preference comes into play a lot here too. Something as simple as glossy vs matte can make a world of difference. I head into the nearest Future Shop, and spent a pretty long time looking at their displays.
There were 2 major things I was looking for: Read more…
Setting up an HTPC to run Media Center, I was looking to get an optical output so that I could hook it up directly to our receiver. Current sound cards with an optical out unfortunately run around $100 at the low end. I had a couple motherboards that actually have optical outputs, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get the one in the NF7-S to work in Vista, and while the Gigabyte 7VAXP-A’s worked with drivers from Realtek’s site, that motherboard didn’t like the mobile Athlon XP-M very much (it would only work if i set the onboard switches to a 100Mhz FSB which didn’t tickle me in a pleasant way). The 7VAXP-A wasn’t totally useless though… it provided me with one of those little cables that plugs into the motherboard and provides an output via a rear slot.
Problem of course was that the little accessory had 3 pins and plugged into the motherboard. The Audigy 2 I had kicking around (and wanted to use) had a digital out, but it was unfortunately a 3.5mm jack. I needed the TOSLINK style. It did have an SPDIF_IO section on the card, but it had a whopping 8 pins to contend with, as opposed to the 3 pins I had to work with. Pin-wise they didn’t look at all plug and play, but fortunately there’s a way to make it work. Read more…
A couple years ago, I bought a Logitech wireless desktop that included a keyboard as well as the MX700 mouse. It had the advantage of being cordless, used 2 AA rechargable batteries in the mouse (for which it included a charger), and used 2 regular AA batteries in the keyboard which usually lasted around 6 months. I put a lot of wear on it. Within about a year, I’d worn off the mouse feet. Eventually the silver paint over the mouse buttons wore off, leaving white plastic beneath. However, over the past few months, it started showing signs that it was at the end of it’s life. The keys on the keyboard would act as though they were stuck, or wouldn’t work at all. Sometimes the mouse buttons wouldn’t work at all, and sometimes one mouse press would actually act as 2. Click-dragging often wouldn’t work well, as it would “release” while I was dragging for no apparant reason.
As you can guess, I started looking for a new keyboard and mouse. Since the old wireless was a pretty heavy “brick” (those batteries add a lot of weight), and because batteries themselves can be annoying (especially when they die at inopportune times), I decided to go with something wired. For the keyboard, I just settled for an el-cheapo $20 USB keyboard. For the mouse, I decided to go with the Logitech G5.
The Logitech G5 Mouse
The mouse itself was $60 CDN (regular price was $85). Read more…
I wanted the following in a printer:
- Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X support
- Print-to-CD ability
- Low cost ink cartridge replacements
- Low printer cost (less than $100)
That was really about it. Read more…
I needed to connect 3 printers to a computer that was about 20-25 feet away (depending on which printer you looked at). Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough USB extension cables, and since the maximum cable length is around 5 meters (or about 16.4 feet) anyway, I decided to look for a cheap powered USB hub.
I headed to a Computer Boulevarde store and picked up an i-rocks IR-4300 for about $20 CDN. In the don’t-slice-your-hand-while-cutting-it-open package was Read more…
Very recently (due mainly due to finding out that Epson and HP printers are the most well supported within the Linux community), I decided it was time to spring for another printer. Unfortunately, things have changed since I last looked. Printer manufacturers really don’t like the prospect of people filling their own cartridges, and are making things even more difficult than before. For example, there used to be a way to reset the ink warning on most HP cartridges with a couple pieces of tape. That’s now gone, so if you refill those cartridges, you have to live with the warning. Even Canon has started “chipping” their cartridges. Read more…
I’ll admit it. For the most part, I’m a Logitech fan. I’ve got a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo, a Logitech 5.1 sound system, and for the most part, I look to Logitech when it comes to buying a new peripheral. The reason is simple: Logitech products are usually pretty decent – not necessarily the best, but quality is always up to par, and the price is often very reasonable.
So on to the review… Read more…
The Gigabyte GA-8I915ME-GL motherboard is a pretty basic Micro-ATX motherboard based on the Intel 915GL chipset. I won’t list all of the specifications here as they can also be found on Gigabyte’s website. In addition, there are no benchmarks in with the review. All that this review contains is information on the motherboard & included software, as well as my experiences installing it. Read more…
Today I purchased a used Nits Technology M15AAA 15″ LCD Monitor. It’s ivory (white), with 2 built in speakers, and a total of 5 buttons on the front. Rather than pain you by trying to describe the other physical details, here are a couple pictures of it from the front:
Clicking on either of the thumbnails will bring up a full sized picture. Yes it’s the same monitor, The first shot is with the monitor turned off, and no flash. The second shot is with the monitor on, and the flash on. Read more…
