Shawn’s Adventures with the Shuttle K45
Oct 30, 2008 Computers and Internet
Recently my mother began doing some work from home and she and my father were running into constant gripe sessions about using the computer. So, after a little soul (and walltet) searching, I decided that the best course of action was to pass down the Slimline PC I had been using as a server to her and replace (and upgrade) the server. The slimline was at the end of its upgrade cycle and had topped out at a Socket 478 3.4 GHz P4. It was cute and small and more than enough for the web surfing and writing my other would be doing.
So the question became… what to replace my trusty little WinXP server with and, considering we really don’t have much money left after catzilla the diabetic ate all our money, how do I do it cheaply?
Off to Newegg I went. I was looking for something with the following attributes:
- Small Footprint, the smaller the better
- Socket 775 Motherboard inside or available for the case.
- SATA
- On board Video and LAN
- Pair of dual channel DDR2 RAM slots.
- Pair of Internal 3.5” bays
- On Board IDE so I could use my old CD Rom Drive to get my OS on there
- Looks decent… yeah, I’m not looking at it, but when I am I want it to be presentable.
A little digging and a little research I came up with the Shuttle K45. It was decently reviewed… cheap ($99) and definitely fit everything I wanted. It was not the newest option available, but it was perfect for what I needed. Of course, Newegg shipped it super-fast, along with the RAM (2GB GEIL Black Dragon 667) and processor (Pentium E2180). I already had a pair of older 130GB hard drives I was using, an old DVD-ROM to load the thing and all the extra stuff I’d need, so I was ready to roll.
Or so I thought. The very first problem I ran into was one I’d read about and was prepared for should it arise: power. The Shuttle K45 has a dinky little 100W Power supply. I could attach either my DVD or my primary hard drive… but not both. So I found a little gem of a 200W Flex ATX power supply at PowerOn and had it sent on it’s way. I began the load using a 450W power supply I had laying around and just routed the cables into the case for the time being. A ghetto solution, but it worked. I had everything loaded up in a short couple hours and began the process of transferring the backup of my server (on my gaming PC) back to it’s new home. I started the copy and went to bed.
When I woke up for work the next morning, I ran into the second problem. Everything had transferred fine
and the system was humming along… it was also hot as hell. The hard drives were running hot, the one mounted on top warmer than the bottom by 5 degrees C. Both of them were well over the temps I like and were cresting 60 Degrees C under load. Motherboard temps were also reading warm and the CPU was hotter than I like as well.
I knew having the newer power supply in the case would give me an exhaust fan, which the case did not come with, but the system was just plain hot, and most of the blame came from those old hard drives. They worked absolutely fine, but they were just not made for tight spaces like this. So back to Newegg I went (you can almost hear the bat man scene change music)! I did a little digging around and picked up two new additions, a WD Caviar 7200, which had gotten good reviews and is often used inside DVRs, and a 92mm exhaust fan to fit the grate at the back. I rigged a 80mm fan for the time being and kept a close eye on the server until the new goodies arrived.
The new toys came in; quickly as usual for Newegg, and the reinstall went even more smoothly. The new PSU was mounted, as was the new exhaust fan and Hard drive. Internal temps dropped, under load, by about 20 degrees C through the entire case. The thing is quiet, has more space than I had before and is now the computer I’d wanted form the start. The load was smooth and the thing is a really fast little web surfer. I’ve noticed a decided snappiness to the access of files from the old server and aside from the internal lights it’s hard to tell if the thing is on.
So, what the cost of our little adventure in upgrading and downsizing? Really not much… less than I paid for the old server when I built it a few years ago.
- Shuttle K45 - $99
- 2GB GEIL Black Dragon - $70
- E2180 - $69
- Power Supply $49
- Hard Drive $57
- Fan $8
Total: $352 and imminently cooler and better than any of the cheapo eMachine type PCs (I’m glaring at you, Dell) you could pick up. I’ve even got upgrade points, as both the processor and the RAM are not the best the little motherboard can handle. Heck, the thing even has a PCI slot. I don’t know what I’ll use the little bastard for since everything I needed was on board, but I’ve got it.
So, short version of the story: the Shuttle K45 is a great little case with one major flaw that a little extra cash can solve: inadequate power supply. It’s not a gaming rig, to be sure, and if you needed a CD/DVD it would have to be external, but for us it fit the bill perfectly. The heat problem I experienced were due to using older components not designed for tight spaces, though the inclusion of an exhaust fan is something I’d recommend. The manual, by the way, is useless and is pretty much a geek poster. Anyway, add in a wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a great little hide-away computer that also happens to be more than enough to surf the net and do things like write and work on.
Recent Idiocy
Oct 28, 2008 Humor
I recently passed a gigantic monster of an SUV (not just a tall car) covered with Liberal Anti-Oil stickers, including one that says “Let McCain Start Drilling in His 7 Backyards.” Liberal America: home to our intellectual elite, for sure.
On the other hand, I was recently told by a co-worker that we shouldn’t vote for Obama and that, and these are her words, “I’d vote for the devil before voting for Obama; he’s the anti-Christ!”
I’m pretty sure this is the argument used in the Star Trek episode where they confused Mudd’s robots and made them explode.
Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips: Part III
Oct 27, 2008 Computers and Internet, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Alrighty, kids, we’re about 80% into our better computing lifestyle and so far we’ve focused pretty much on the computer, now it’s time to grab the mirror and take a good hard look in it. All of what I previously posted is completely useless unless the talking monkey sitting at it (that would be you… ooop oooop) doesn’t know some basic rules when it comes to actually using the dang thing.. Viruses spread because people don’t take a few moments to check attachments before running them, people download dubious software from unheard of sites and then wonder why they have 5,000 pop-ups. Here are a few ways to help realize the risks out there and take a little extra time to keep your computer safe and functional.
Part III – The user
Tabula Rasa: A clean slate and why it may not be bad for your blog.
Oct 24, 2008 Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Your heart is pounding, you have visions of all the wonderful comments and fun conversations had within every post. You spend hours reading other blogs, visiting to see what they’re using and what’s ‘cutting edge.’ You download plug ins and add ons and extensions to help promote your web blog, give a little back to the commenter and just to have some neat touches to your site.
And then, it happens.
Your site is slower than that old lady in front of you at the coffee shop.
Or at least, it happened to us on 2phatgeeks. The plug ins and add ons we were using became too much and too many. While Shawn was away, the wife had played–with plug in after neat plug in, switched on and off until 2phatgeeks began to slow down significantly.
Oops. Did I do that?
In my enthusiasm and attempt to keep up with the Must Haves and You Needs and the Things To Look Out For, the speed and ease to which one could navigate through 2phatgeeks suffered. It’s hard work keeping up with everything, though, isn’t it? There are hundreds of pages of advice on what people will tell you one must have in order to have a successful web blog. A lot of it is good, excellent advice that would not harm you to follow–but the problem is, there is so much of it. How do you know which one to follow? This plug-in you just downloaded seems to have a newer, better version? This plug-in just downloaded actually needs four more to function correctly? This plug-in works best with another plug-in!
Stop. Breathe. Don’t let it get too confusing and don’t make the same mistake I did. In my beginner’s enthusiasm and hopefulness, I downloaded and installed too many. I didn’t stop to truly consider the difference between what I thought was neat, what I thought I needed, and what I thought was absolutely important to have.
So many plug ins slowed 2phatgeeks down and no doubt cost us readers.
Choose your plug ins wisely, grasshoppah.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t experiment and enjoy yourself by trying out what’s hip, happening and out there–what I am saying is that when it comes to the core plug ins to use with your weblog, make sure they are all the plug ins you absolutely cannot live without and make sure you aren’t compromising the speed, in addition to the performance of your site! Too many plug-ins and add ons can and will do that. Trust me when I say that I know, because we were experiencing it.
So what did we do?
Shawn and I sat down last night and played “Turn off and on.” It’s not as kinky as it sounds. We turned off every single plug in and one by one reactivated them to see which plug-ins slowed down or effected performance of 2phatgeeks the most and chucked ‘em. We then decided which plug-ins were essential to us. Obviously, we felt that several plug-ins aimed to commenter and commenting were absolute must, SEO plug-ins as well as one or two other plug ins to help with SEO. We kept the core group of plug-ins that seemed the most important to us as well as the main group of plug-ins almost everyone in the blogosphere appeared to recommend the most.
Everything else was deactivated and removed and then tidied up after.
- Take more time to consider what plug ins you really need as opposed to want.
- Compare what everyone is telling you what you need to have. Is there a plug in that shows up on nearly every list? Chances are, that’s a plug in you will need or should have.
- Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by it all. There’s plenty of time to build yourself a blog that is kick ass. Take your time and don’t rush yourself.
- Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow bloggers if you truly feel lost. You’d be surprised how awesome and willing to help some of them are.
After running down the list and cutting away what we don’t need, we have noticed a significant rise in kick-ass speed and performance, and that’s something of a relief for us. There’s nothing that irks me more than a site that takes forever to load or get somewhere, I can’t imagine what first time visitors were feeling when they came to our site!
For those of you who may have experienced this, or something like it, how did you decide which plug-ins were an absolute must and which ones weren’t? Are there any plug-ins you believe is an absolute-must-have for any blog owner?
Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips, Part II
Oct 22, 2008 Computers and Internet, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
In the last part of this guide, I spent some time laying the hardware foundations of your computer system. In this portion of the guide we’ll spend some time discussion tips tricks and tweaks for making your operating system to get the most out of your hardware. There are many good options for your OS, but since most of you are going to be using Windows XP or Vista, these tips will be targeted to those OSes.
Part II - Software
Most systems start with waaaay, waaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaay more extra crap, doo-dads, bells, whistles and useless nonsense on them than is really necessary. Start the system off properly by removing as much of this excess fat as you can, getting to the delicious meaty center that we all want and need. Remove programs you have no intention of using, don’t know how to use, or are out of date and you’ll have yourself one kick ass geek steak of a machine.
Updating - The OS and it’s drivers is the foundation upon which you’ll be running. When building a home, you don’t use rotten wood from the old barn to build it, so it makes sense that you don’t use shoddy out of date programs and drivers on your brand new hardware. As soon as Windows is installed (and you have an internet connection), run Windows Update until nothing else is left to install. When all of this is done (and it might take a while) then go to the appropriate websites and download new drivers for every piece of hardware in your system and install them one at a time, with a reboot in between each install.
Install your drivers in this order:
Chipset – These are basically the drivers for your motherboard. Making sure these are properly installed can have a massive effect on your computer’s performance. Most commonly they are Intel and VIA and more recently nVidia.- Video Card/GPU – these are usually self explanatory. Generally, every manufacturer has its own customized driver package, but you’ll usually find the newest drivers at either nVidia or ATI , since 90% of the video cards you’ll be buying will have chips made by those manufacturers. Keeping these up to date can not only improve speed, but can also improve stability and the performance of certain games can be significantly improved. Updating your monitor drivers at this time will often make things a bit clearer, too.
- Sound Card/Chipset – whether your Sound card is built into your motherboard or a secondary card like a Soundblaster X-Fi, making sure you have the latest and greatest is always a plus. While it’s not always a speed booster, it almost always increases stability.
- Everything else – Cameras, Scanners, Tablets, card readers, video and audio codecs. The only things you really don’t usually need to install are things like keyboard and mouse drivers. 99 times out of 100 these drivers are usually a waste of valuable RAM. And speaking of RAM…
I wanna know what love is. I want Clog to show me.
Oct 21, 2008 Humor
So there I was, being the atypical geek and running through the list of blogs I visit generally everyday when I hit upon Adam’s post over at Creadiv.com.
Adam, the two bit hussy that he is, is waving his goods all over the internet in some cheap bid to show the world his love for Clog, and hopefully winning Clog’s love (also known as a Flip.)
Pffft. I smell cheap hooker! Everyone knows that my love for Clog, fresh and new as the spring daisies (or a mid summer’s night) is far better than Adam’s. I can even prove it in a series of heart-wrenching haiku I just wro–spent several hours slaving over!
Oh clog, I love you
more than a fat kid loves cake
and video games
Oh clog, my clogiest
I long for your great posts
ancient blog secrets
This contest? Awesome
I love you long time clog-man
Adam stands no chance
You can plainly see that my dedication and devotion, on the purest level, is by far superior and not cheapened by falsities. (I know your not a REAL blond Adam!) So say NO to Adam’s trashy t-shirts and say YES To Mel’s Poetry Book of Kick Ass Haiku! (printing in the works.)
No, really, this is a post for Clog Money’s Win a Flip! If you feel like you could possibly ever come near to touching the awesomeness that this post is, and want to win one, why not visit: Win a Flip!! It’s clogpetition time! I want your love!
