Monthly Archives: January 2012
#60 The Home Tech Podcast: Monitor Troubles, Video Cards, HP XW8600 Workstation, Cheap Memory
This week Jim, Christian and Gary Johnson bring you the latest installment of the Home Tech Podcast
WE HAD SOME SOUND ISSUES at minute 45 and 55. Sorry for the bad quality.
Christian talks a bit about his site http://bios-mods.com. There might someday be a special guest appearance on the show from the bios mods guys! Watch for it.
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Jim complains about his monitors. Later in the evening, Jim got it fixed. He is also now using a Dell Dimension 5150 as the PC that runs his camera and Yeti Blue Mic for the podcast. It’s a power hog but the best he has for now.
Gary talked about his New Server – A dual quad core XEON 16GB ECC buffered ram 2 X 250GB Hard drives.
Some deals on Video cards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600083901%20600083830&IsNodeId=1&name=Radeon%20HD%206850&Order=PRICE
#12 Rich’s Random Podcast Generator: Roku 2 XS, WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, Apple TV 2, Mushkin Enchanced Chronos
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This week the guys help Jim buy his first SSD. They talk in depth about the characteristics and inner workings of SSDs while trying to help Jim get the best bang for the buck. Though it’s an excellent choice, you might be surprised to see what Jim finally settles on.
The guys also discuss media streaming devices in the sub-$100 range. Over the last month, Rich had been testing the Roku 2 XS, WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, and Apple TV 2. The following is by no means an in depth review, but rather an evaluation of points relevant to what Rich wants specifically in a media streaming device. That said, the devices are listed in order of worst to first.
ROKU 2 XS
Mushkin Callisto 120GB SSD Install and Performance Specs
So last weekend I put and Mushkin Enhanced Chronos (MKNSSDCR120GB) 120GB SSD ($150) in my personal PC here at home and saw some amazing results. I posted about it here. Later that weekend, I was talking to the Worship Guy at our church and he had seen the post as ask if I thought an SSD drive could speed up the PC the church uses for video production. It is a Dell XPS 630i with (Core 2 Duo Quad Core, E8200, 2.66, 6MB Wolfdale, 65W) but came into our hands with a 500GB OS spinning drive and just 3GB of RAM. Of course my answer was YES and how fast can we get one in! He smiled.
Later the next day a Mushkin Callisto 120GB SATA II 2.5” drive was ordered from Newegg.com and shipped with 8GB of new RAM ($100). Since the PC does a lot of video rendering, more RAM is always better.
The upgrade was smooth and easy. Added the RAM (G.Skill DDR2-800 4x4GB) first and turned the PC back on to make sure it was working correctly. Checked the Windows Experience Index (Control Panel\System and Security\System) and noticed that the Memory number had changed from a 5.9 to a 7.1. A good sign that all was working well.
#59 The Home Tech Podcast: SSD Upgrades, Google Hangouts vs Skype, Yahoo! and the Internet Blackout of 2012
This week Jim and Andrew bring you the latest installment of the Home Tech Podcast.
Jim talks about this recent upgrade to a 120GB Mushkin SSD drive in his primary PC, and the performance increases he has seen as a result of the upgrade, as well as how he moved non-critical services from the SSD to a traditional rotating drive. Check out Jim’s post on the experience, and the benchmark comparison between the old rotating drive and the new SSD. The guys talk about SSD’s in general, and the performance benefits of the upgrade, as well as a similar upgrade he is performing this weekend on an older machine that is used at the family church for their media production.
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#58 The Home Tech Podcast: CES 2012, Exercise Technology, Lightroom 4 Beta, Internet Addiction Disorder and the End of the Digital SLR
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With everyone back on decent Internet connections, Jim, Andrew and Christian are joined this week by Mike Howard from jpeg2RAW.
After some updates from the guys, Dave McCabe, from the Home Server Show, joins the guys live from CES, and gives an update on the ioSafe demonstration, and the week at CES in general.
Jim tells us about how he and Dave have produced a lot of videos from CES to put onto the Home Server Show, using Google Plus Hangouts and LiveStream. The guys talk about their observations of CES 2012, and what they expect from CES in 2013.
