Topic: Additional Drives

[av_phile1]

Funny you guys should be talking about this. My PC's power supply gave up the other day. It was a 300-watter. Changed it to a 450-watt one for 995 at PC Express. My drive bays are full, and so are my USB drives.

Heat of summer + three-year-old PC + too many power-hungry devices = I needed a new power supply

av_phile, maybe preventive maintenance wouldn't hurt?

P995 seems very reasonable.  Is this the HEC brand mentioned above?
   
Talk about preventive maintenace, about the only PM I do is wiping off dirt on top of the CPU box and the display screen.     Good you mentioned.  Ofcourse there's also software maintenance I do like disk defrag and cleaning out temp files.   Do you have any PM tips for the home PC user? Both software and hardware?  Thanks.

[rascal101]

Funny you guys should be talking about this. My PC's power supply gave up the other day. It was a 300-watter. Changed it to a 450-watt one for 995 at PC Express. My drive bays are full, and so are my USB drives.

Heat of summer + three-year-old PC + too many power-hungry devices = I needed a new power supply

av_phile, maybe preventive maintenance wouldn't hurt?

For power supplies I always make sure to buy the branded ones. Even second hand ones are ok. No generic ones for me.

Regarding drives, I'm stuck with hd less than 10GB. I have old SCSI drives which are 5GB and 10GB. My IDE drive is 10GB. Funny, I never thought of upgrading them. That's what Windows does to you.

For cooling, I have placed heatsink to the CPU and additional 2 fans for the system casing - one blowing to the outside and one blowing to the inside. The SCSI drives generate a lot of heat. For added security I placed custom heatsinks to my graphics card also.

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

speaking of PSU's, i used to use the "generic" 400w p4 dynamo power supply (i think that's the 995pesos one from PC express) ... had it for about 5-6 months then the weirdest things happened... it would suddenly close. as if someone pulled the plug.

at first i wasn't sure what was the problem... but i had narrowed it down to either the MOBO or the PSU. i don't run a "fully-loaded" system... athlon64 2800+, 2 optical drives, 1 HDD, 1 floppy and 3 120mm (1-in, 2-out) fans. i do, however leave the PC running for long periods of time.

with that in mind i decided to get a new PSU, i got a TASK 450w dual fan PSU and so far so good. i also installed an additional fan for intake and switched to rounded cables for better airflow ... now, i can leave my PC on for 24 hours and still retain a sub 40degree machine. i'm a happy camper now. 

my advice... ditch the generic PSU and get a branded one... they may be pricey but definitely worth the price. 

p.s. i also installed "filters" on each of the CPU fans to keep at least some of the dirt out. my HDD also has "cooler fans" to keep it from overheating. 

[slowhand]

Uh-oh, if only I had known this first. The PS unit I got is the Dynamo. Hmmph. Now that you mention it, one of the symptoms of my failing PSU was that the PC would restart by itself. I though it was a software glitch.

Am not a PC geek, so I can't claim to be good at PM too. BTW the tech guy also said I would be lucky to get another year (meaning a fourth year) out of my motherboard and hard disk. I'm sure we get more life than that, but that's a conservative view from a PM standpoint.

Which means...instead of upgrading your current PC you may want to budget a completely new one.

[shotgun]

If you keep your PC on 24/7 such as myself, make sure that you've got:

1. A good AVR (Audiophiles have better ones )
2. A branded PSU: Task, Silverstone, Hec, Enermaz, Etc. (http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/)
3. Optimum cooling (http://www.svc.com/guides.html)
4. Regular Cleaning

Taking these steps would extend the lives of your HDD, Motherboard, etc.

[av_phile1]

Which means...instead of upgrading your current PC you may want to budget a completely new one.

That's also an option.  But just curious, the new PCs today still sport Pentium4 though with higher speeds and new architectures.  I wonder what the next generation CPUs will be by next year. 

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

Uh-oh, if only I had known this first. The PS unit I got is the Dynamo. Hmmph. Now that you mention it, one of the symptoms of my failing PSU was that the PC would restart by itself. I though it was a software glitch.

Am not a PC geek, so I can't claim to be good at PM too. BTW the tech guy also said I would be lucky to get another year (meaning a fourth year) out of my motherboard and hard disk. I'm sure we get more life than that, but that's a conservative view from a PM standpoint.

Which means...instead of upgrading your current PC you may want to budget a completely new one.

don't believe that... i think he was talking from a "software" and "parts availability" standpoint. i had a k6-2 350 machine running a lean installation of windows for more than 7 years before i decided to upgrade. i ahve to admith tho that i had upgraded mobo, memory and drives over the years i had it ... but it still reliably runs. in fact, all it needs now is hard drive and it would still run. 

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

That's also an option.  But just curious, the new PCs today still sport Pentium4 though with higher speeds and new architectures.  I wonder what the next generation CPUs will be by next year. 

personally... i think the speeds have reached a plateau... the emphasis now is increasing the number of cores to improve performance. (hence, the new dual-core systems).

i'm actually more curious how support for the 64-bit platform will be in the future. 

[rascal101]

I believe that increasing the number of CPUs is the trend. I believe its called parallel processing.

64bit is slowly being supported by Micro$oft. Linux supported this since day 1 ~ 1994 or 1995.

About SCSI hard disk drives does anyone know if there are already 100GB disks for PCs?

[BongerDude]

Thanks, BongerDude.  I've been advised the same thing.  I don't exactly recall the power specs, but I think my PC has just your vanilla PC power supply with 300watts or even 250watts.  Right now, I have all the IDE slots used and a USB port that also powers a cheap Flatbed scanner.  So far, I've had no problems with the power supply.  Would you know what symptoms to expect with power supplies that can't keep up?? 

I was advised to get a more powerful one should I get a SATA drive in addition to my 4 IDE drives.  The 450watts power supply I inquired cost around 1.5T.  Is this good enough?  A 200GB SATA drive plus power supply would have cost me more than using an external drive with its own power supply, so I opted with the latter.  I had the old 80GB drive replaced with a 200GB IDE drive and used an external housing with its own power for the old drive.  It was actually a gamble and was pleasantly surprised an external HDD isn't as slow as some said.

But I guess, sooner or later, I would need to replace the power supply if I stick with this PC for much longer.  I mean, I know I can have as many external USB drives as I want, but they won't look neat stacked up outside the CPU box.  And the risk of one falling and getting damaged goes up.  Also, if I want another PCI card, say a video capture card, I definitely would need a more powerful power supply.

I think you're right, my PC can probably see another 3 years down the road with just a power supply upgrade.  Until the new HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs get PC-readers/writers and format decoder on PCI cards as well.   

Sir try to avoid generic ones.  Yang 1500 wala ka pong peace of mind dyan.  You might end up buying another PSU in the next 6 months.  Based on experience HEC talaga.  Sinasabi sa mga magazines ok daw ang Enermax pero hindi po. Medyo mahal nga lang ang HEC pero long term use na yun. As far as I can remember 4300 bili ko sa HEC POWEROP 475w.  Pero aesthetically malaki difference nya sa ibang generic, dual fan sya and braided yung cables... bukod pa sa performance na reliable.  Yung isang HEC psu ko 4 PCs na pinagdaanan pero buhay pa rin. I strongly recommend HEC po.

[BongerDude]

I should take note of the brands you mentioned. A 475-watt HEC for power supply and Gigabyte 3D rocket cooler.  I am no geek on these things.

The casing I have is just your generic server-type one.   I've seen some fancy looking and relatively larger server-type casing with plastic see-through sides and additional cooling fans costing upwards of 5T.  I really didn't consider this as an important aspect for a PC. Only now.  So if I have to upgrade by next year, maybe a change of casing with higher power and better cooling will do.  Thanks.

Sir 475w or higher po.  The higher the better. 

About the casing, there are several brands na ok pang multimedia pc.  I prefer simple but elegant looking cases, not the ones na parang pang Gaming.  Lian-Li and Silverstone po mga brands.   I suggest po you get a casing na walang side window para di nakaka distract while watching.  Kaya ko sinabing aluminum yung case kasi mas mabilis madissipate yung heat pag aluminum. Price range nya siguro nasa 5-10k pero maganda sya aesthetically at solid ang build.

Sa CPU heatsink/fan, try to avoid Thermaltake.  Maingay sya sobra.

Basic airflow po ng case 2 fans sa  baba paloob, preferably tinatamaan yung hard drives, then 1 fan palabas sa taas sa likod. 1 fan lang kasi yung power supply may fan na palabas eh. That way maganda ang circulation ng air at hindi magiinit masyado yung pc. 

[shotgun]

One quick check of a PSU's worth is try to carry it. If it's real heavy, there's a good chance it can take the heat. I've used 400W HEC and Task PSUs without any problems.

I would suggest checking how much wattage you need (check my earlier post). Most PCs don't need more than 350W. Servers and gaming rigs might need 400W and up. I don't think there's use in providing more money to Meralco if you don't need more juice

For a case, Lian-Li have simple cases that don't attract attention which sell as low as 3.8K.

For cooling, the larger the fan the better (more airflow with less noice).

If you're buidling an HTPC, try to run the PC with only 1 Fan and 1 PSU fan (it can be done!) to minimize noise.

[BongerDude]

If you keep your PC on 24/7 such as myself, make sure that you've got:

1. A good AVR (Audiophiles have better ones )
2. A branded PSU: Task, Silverstone, Hec, Enermaz, Etc. (http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/)
3. Optimum cooling (http://www.svc.com/guides.html)
4. Regular Cleaning

Taking these steps would extend the lives of your HDD, Motherboard, etc.

I agree po. Just remember:

Dust Kills - try to use a blower to clean the insides of your pc. Much better kung may compressor kayo kasi wala akong alam na nagbebenta ng canned compressed air dito sa pinas. NEVER USE A BRUSH because...
Static Electricity Kills! - learned this first hand. 4 na capture cards na bumigay dahil sa kabobohan ko dati.  Kung bubutingtingin nyo loob ng pc nyo make sure to ground yourself by touching the metal case of your powersupply na nakasaksak before touching anything. After you ground yourself, make sure to unplug the power cord from the outlet or avr. Maski naka off na ang AVR may kuryente pa rin po yun.  I smoked a motherboard dahil sa pagkakamali ko dati. Wag kayo gagaya saken!
Heat Kills - Usually ang suspect not enough cooling fans, or enough nga cooling fans pero puro dust naman. Again, try to use compressed air.

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

it's also interesting to note that most "branded" power supplies also come with an "extended warranty"... the task unit i bought has a 2-year warranty. 

just one look and you can already see where all that extra money you're paying for is going:

HEC 480w UB PSU :


TASK dual fan (which is what i got):


ENERMAX:

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

I agree po. Just remember:

Dust Kills - try to use a blower to clean the insides of your pc. Much better kung may compressor kayo kasi wala akong alam na nagbebenta ng canned compressed air dito sa pinas. NEVER USE A BRUSH because...
Static Electricity Kills! - learned this first hand. 4 na capture cards na bumigay dahil sa kabobohan ko dati.  Kung bubutingtingin nyo loob ng pc nyo make sure to ground yourself by touching the metal case of your powersupply na nakasaksak before touching anything. After you ground yourself, make sure to unplug the power cord from the outlet or avr. Maski naka off na ang AVR may kuryente pa rin po yun.  I smoked a motherboard dahil sa pagkakamali ko dati. Wag kayo gagaya saken!
Heat Kills - Usually ang suspect not enough cooling fans, or enough nga cooling fans pero puro dust naman. Again, try to use compressed air.

i agree with the "dust problem"... it's more true here because of our tropical climate...  that's why i opted to put dust filters on each of the CPU fans i installed... 

the "grounding step" is an SOP and should NEVER be neglected when touching ANYTHING inside your PC.

BTW, does anyone know where you can buy "cheap" compressed air in a can? ... ang mahal and ang bilis maubos nung "elektra"... 

[BongerDude]

One quick check of a PSU's worth is try to carry it. If it's real heavy, there's a good chance it can take the heat. I've used 400W HEC and Task PSUs without any problems.

I would suggest checking how much wattage you need (check my earlier post). Most PCs don't need more than 350W. Servers and gaming rigs might need 400W and up. I don't think there's use in providing more money to Meralco if you don't need more juice

For a case, Lian-Li have simple cases that don't attract attention which sell as low as 3.8K.

For cooling, the larger the fan the better (more airflow with less noice).

If you're buidling an HTPC, try to run the PC with only 1 Fan and 1 PSU fan (it can be done!) to minimize noise.

Sir, correct me if i'm wrong po.  As far as i know, sa mga PSU ng pc, let's say 1000 watts ang power supply, hindi naman sya nagcoconsume ng 1000 watts all the time.  Magcoconsume lang sya ng ganun pag sobrang dami mong components and peripherals sa pc at running sya at full load, meaning gumagana lahat like video editing while encoding an AVI to m2v.  I'm saying po na 475 or higher kasi sa case po ni av_phile, marami syang drives and he's also planning to add an additional pci card in the near future.  Mas maganda na kasi yung may headroom imbes na saktuhan lang yung capacity.

Dun po sa HTPC na 1 fan 1 psu fan, pwede po sya talaga i agree.  Pero dapat 1 hard drive, 1 optical drive lang ang nakaload para hindi msyado maginit.  Tapos magandang case nya yung Shuttle.

[BongerDude]

I believe that increasing the number of CPUs is the trend. I believe its called parallel processing.

64bit is slowly being supported by Micro$oft. Linux supported this since day 1 ~ 1994 or 1995.

About SCSI hard disk drives does anyone know if there are already 100GB disks for PCs?

Bro, i suggest ditch mo na SCSI. Chong ang mahal ng mga drives nyan.  Kung meron mang 100gb SCSI HDD na available, mamumulubi ka lang.  SATA drives now can reach 10000rpm na.  ALthough iba talaga ang bilis at quality ng SCSI, lugi eh hehehe.  i own a cheetah before pero dahil sa mahal, IDE at SATA na lang ako. 

[BongerDude]

i agree with the "dust problem"... it's more true here because of our tropical climate...  that's why i opted to put dust filters on each of the CPU fans i installed... 

the "grounding step" is an SOP and should NEVER be neglected when touching ANYTHING inside your PC.

BTW, does anyone know where you can buy "cheap" compressed air in a can? ... ang mahal and ang bilis maubos nung "elektra"... 

Bro san nakakabili at how much yung canned compressed air?

[rascal101]

Bro, i suggest ditch mo na SCSI. Chong ang mahal ng mga drives nyan.  Kung meron mang 100gb SCSI HDD na available, mamumulubi ka lang.  SATA drives now can reach 10000rpm na.  ALthough iba talaga ang bilis at quality ng SCSI, lugi eh hehehe.  i own a cheetah before pero dahil sa mahal, IDE at SATA na lang ako. 

Masama kasi experience ko sa IDE. Hindi tumatagal kaya nag SCSI ako. Nga lang mahal. Mabibilis ngayon mga IDE pero mabilis sa simula lang. Kapag sustained pumapaltos. Kaya ganito config ko OS - SCSI, data (important) - SCSI, data (not so important) - IDE

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

Bro san nakakabili at how much yung canned compressed air?

500pesos yung "big can" (pero maliit lang siya) ng elektra cleaner sa may SM Hardware... i think meron din sa ACE. medyo tyempuhan lang dahil maraming bumibili. it is not "dry" but the fluid it has dries very quickly and leaves no residue. 

[av_phile1]

Wow, so that's how expensive HEC power supply can be compared to a generic.  I'll take note of that.  Thanks BongerDude.

[BongerDude]

Masama kasi experience ko sa IDE. Hindi tumatagal kaya nag SCSI ako. Nga lang mahal. Mabibilis ngayon mga IDE pero mabilis sa simula lang. Kapag sustained pumapaltos. Kaya ganito config ko OS - SCSI, data (important) - SCSI, data (not so important) - IDE

Bro suggestion lang po, ang ilagay mo sa SCSI yung mga important files n lang tpos sa IDE yung OS kasi pag nasira o may nacorrupt na file sa OS, mahihirapan ka pa mag backup imbes na i format mo na direcho yung OS drive mo.  Reinstall lang naman katapat nun eh. Ang files mo ilagay mo na sa SCSI since matibay yun. suggestion lang po.

500pesos yung "big can" (pero maliit lang siya) ng elektra cleaner sa may SM Hardware... i think meron din sa ACE. medyo tyempuhan lang dahil maraming bumibili. it is not "dry" but the fluid it has dries very quickly and leaves no residue. 

ay bro, Contact Cleaner yata yung elektra na minimention mo.  Yung compressed air, air lang talaga yun. Yung Elektra pang clean ng contacts po yata yun

Wow, so that's how expensive HEC power supply can be compared to a generic.  I'll take note of that.  Thanks BongerDude.

Anytime sir. Pero try to ask the experts din. I'm just basing my posts sa experience ko and onting knowledge since i'm originally a computer geek before ako nahilig sa HT 

[av_phile1]

Anytime sir. Pero try to ask the experts din. I'm just basing my posts sa experience ko and onting knowledge since i'm originally a computer geek before ako nahilig sa HT 

Welll, thanks pa rin.  I'm no computer geek and I use the PC to serve my HT and audio hobby.  That's why I needed so much hard disk space.  I use the PC as my jukebox for storing WAV files of favourite tracks ripped from my CD collection so I can play only the CD tracks I like and create playlists from these tracks.  Lately, I also convert ripped VOB files from DVDs into MPEG4 video for my mobile toys.  And they require much bigger space per file.   So you can marry the two hobbies.   As they say, we are seeing the convergence of entertainment with the information age.  Or what they label infotainment.    I also do audio editing via Goldwave and Nero and some photo editing using Photoshop and they require huge memory page files.  If I go into video editing, I think that will totally render my PC obsolete.   

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

ay bro, Contact Cleaner yata yung elektra na minimention mo.  Yung compressed air, air lang talaga yun. Yung Elektra pang clean ng contacts po yata yun

exactly... i never said it was... that's why i was asking if anyone knew where to get inexpensive compressed air in a can. the only can i got was from a fax cleaning kit i used years ago... i have not found any in the market since.  elektra seemed the only alternative but it's too expensive for such a small amount. 

[SPaCeMaN SPiFF]

Welll, thanks pa rin.  I'm no computer geek and I use the PC to serve my HT and audio hobby.  That's why I needed so much hard disk space.  I use the PC as my jukebox for storing WAV files of favourite tracks ripped from my CD collection so I can play only the CD tracks I like and create playlists from these tracks.  Lately, I also convert ripped VOB files from DVDs into MPEG4 video for my mobile toys.  And they require much bigger space per file.   So you can marry the two hobbies.   As they say, we are seeing the convergence of entertainment with the information age.  Or what they label infotainment.    I also do audio editing via Goldwave and Nero and some photo editing using Photoshop and they require huge memory page files.  If I go into video editing, I think that will totally render my PC obsolete.   

i don't think so... you can probably do some basic editing on your system already. albeit the rendering time might be considerable if you use a lot of layers and effects. 

i doubt you'd need to edit "broadcast quality" videos right now... or do you? 

[av_phile1]

i don't think so... you can probably do some basic editing on your system already. albeit the rendering time might be considerable if you use a lot of layers and effects. 

i doubt you'd need to edit "broadcast quality" videos right now... or do you? 

Well certainly not.  I just sometimes get the urge to edit a downloaded video by splitting or merging two videos or more.  Or putting titles into some videos.  Or overdub some videos with music.  Nothing fancy.  The only thing serious I ever got was attempting to compile some MTVs from various DVDs into a single DVD.   I had an authoring software called MAgix  but it took hours on end to compile into a VOB file so I just dropped the idea.  And the test samples I made had severe lip synch problems.  I just heard those video editing computers used by Pixar animation or Dreamworks are super computers  with massively parallel processors that have one CPU per screen pixel.     So maybe I needed a more powerful PC for video editing.  At least dual processing with really large memory, say 4 gb.

[RU9]

Welll, thanks pa rin.  I'm no computer geek and I use the PC to serve my HT and audio hobby.  That's why I needed so much hard disk space.  I use the PC as my jukebox for storing WAV files of favourite tracks ripped from my CD collection so I can play only the CD tracks I like and create playlists from these tracks.

Hi!

I am planning to go into computer as a source. May i know your gear? The trend is starting to gain a following. Squeezebox and USB DACs are getting popular. See:


http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59&page=2&order=desc

Just got a Chaintech AV-710 soundcard. This is capable of 2-channel Hirez output due to the Wolfson DAC. Planning to use Foobar with Kernel Streaming and the upsampling plug-in.


Louie

 

[av_phile1]

Hi!

I am planning to go into computer as a source. May i know your gear? The trend is starting to gain a following. Squeezebox and USB DACs are getting popular. See:


http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59&page=2&order=desc

Just got a Chaintech AV-710 soundcard. This is capable of 2-channel Hirez output due to the Wolfson DAC. Planning to use Foobar with Kernel Streaming and the upsampling plug-in.


Louie

Hi Louie.

Glad to hear someone's going into it.  But what you have is a lot more high-tech than what  I have which is just your ordinary Creative Audigy soundcard on a nearly 3-year old unbranded Pentium 4 2.4ghz with 1G memory.  I might plunge into something similar in the future as this was really initially an experiment of sorts that became permanent.  I was also looking for a soundcard that can decode high resolution DVD-A and SACD but so far none of the shops I visited had this.

I just browsed thru the site you referred to and it looks interesting.  Will find the time later to read thru. Thanks.   

[RU9]

Hi Louie.

Glad to hear someone's going into it.  But what you have is a lot more high-tech than what  I have which is just your ordinary Creative Audigy soundcard on a nearly 3-year old unbranded Pentium 4 2.4ghz with 1G memory. 

Avphile,

Actually, I will be using a my old unbranded Celeron 800mhz. Chaintech AV-710 is P1,400.00. Cheap by Hi-fi standard. Just need to get a monitor and upgrade to a bigger HD, if things will work out fine.

Just going slowly, I have this Primare D20 CD, will stick with it for a time.

Louie 

[av_phile1]

Avphile,

Actually, I will be using a my old unbranded Celeron 800mhz. Chaintech AV-710 is P1,400.00. Cheap by Hi-fi standard. Just need to get a monitor and upgrade to a bigger HD, if things will work out fine.

Just going slowly, I have this Primare D20 CD, will stick with it for a time.

Louie 

You will need to put in at least 512mb memory, especially if using windows XP which is a memory hungry OS that runs so many memory intensive processes in the background.   1 Gb is even better.  I found out that playing WAV files, or even MP3 files and video files are memory intensive.  They get loaded into memory when playing and can sound choppy if the memory is wanting. 

If you plan to use the PC exclusively as a jukebox wav player, and if your video card has s-video out, you can use a spare video input in your TV as monitor.

One other thing.  I wanted to get a remote control for a PC sound card so I can control the playback just like in any CD player.  I'm not sure if such contraptions exist.  Then I read about the Sony Ericsson cellphones that can do just that via the USB Human Interface Device function.  So now I can control the Windows Media player remotely from my cellphone.  Neat toy.