THE COMPUTER THREAD

[Tony]

Got my shipment today! It's at the Apartment complex office, and I gotsta go get it and put it all together some time this weekend. Can't wait to get up and running! Pics to come.

Cool!  Looking forward to seeing the pics.

I finally figured out the differences between the P180 and P182. What do you think of the cable routing on the P180? It seems to be the only major difference between the two boxes. They're actually pretty nice cases.

[Tony]

It shows up and makes the little string-sound and then says "USB Device not recognized."

I thought it might be a jumper issue; I had it without the jumper at first, but I'll try it in the "master" position now.

Any luck?

Well, I finally got it to work by finding a computer at the school here and adding it as a second drive, then plugging in my working external HD and getting the files off it.  I don't know why it won't read as-is; perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. So sad.

How odd! The older PATA drive can be pretty finicky things, though. Makes me wonder if either your new external box is bad, or if the PC's USB ports need a different BIOS config parameter.

Either way it's great you got the data. Watching a hard drive go down with data you're attached to kindof gives you a sinking feeling.

[Bob]

This BARELY counts as a "computer thread" comment.

Now that I have moved all my files (e.g. movies, mps3, pictures, backed up files, etc.) to my extrnal hard drive, I thought about backing up the external hard drive to an online storage/retrieval site.   I read really good reviews for HP's Upline service, was about to start my 30 day free trial, when I read that they are going to discontinue that service at the end of the month and gave everyone 30 days to retrieve their data.

That is what scares me about websites for offline storage..... what if they discontinue that service?    Seems to me that would be a CHEAP service to run, but what do I know.

So, instead I picked up a 1tb external hard drive that I plan on hooked up to my laptop via USB (my other one is on the firewire) and just periodically copy the files from one external to the other for backup.   I will keep the 1TB drive in the safe so it is away from the other one in case of fire or power surge or something like that.

Is that how you all back up your data?

[RVR II]

For my business files, I use a simple CD-R disc..

Otherwise, their backed up on internal hard drives on several computers..
External I've dropped, had drinks spilled 'near' them, people finding it and messing with it..

I just keep Multiple copies on different computers, but that's just me

[Tony]

This BARELY counts as a "computer thread" comment.

Now that I have moved all my files (e.g. movies, mps3, pictures, backed up files, etc.) to my extrnal hard drive, I thought about backing up the external hard drive to an online storage/retrieval site.   I read really good reviews for HP's Upline service, was about to start my 30 day free trial, when I read that they are going to discontinue that service at the end of the month and gave everyone 30 days to retrieve their data.

That is what scares me about websites for offline storage..... what if they discontinue that service?    Seems to me that would be a CHEAP service to run, but what do I know.

So, instead I picked up a 1tb external hard drive that I plan on hooked up to my laptop via USB (my other one is on the firewire) and just periodically copy the files from one external to the other for backup.   I will keep the 1TB drive in the safe so it is away from the other one in case of fire or power surge or something like that.

Is that how you all back up your data?

Backup, what's that? Seriously, I just KNOW I'll lose a drive unexpectedly some day. I currently have one 640Gig backup for critical data, and I'll receive a 1T drive today that I'll also use for extra backup.

Two years ago the board on one of my 160gig drives - full of high-res photos (I'm an amateur photographer) - literally burned up. I got lucky and found an identical drive on-line and swapped boards successfully and got the data. Then shortly after, I had another 160Gig drive disc fail slowly, and I swapped more parts to make two out of three 160Gig drives good.

I was lucky. But I've done lots of tech support and seen many people lose their entire laptop drives and not one of them backed up a drive before-hand. It's such a sinking feeling to lose such critical data...

[kodiakthejuggler]

Got my shipment today! It's at the Apartment complex office, and I gotsta go get it and put it all together some time this weekend. Can't wait to get up and running! Pics to come.

Cool!  Looking forward to seeing the pics.

I finally figured out the differences between the P180 and P182. What do you think of the cable routing on the P180? It seems to be the only major difference between the two boxes. They're actually pretty nice cases.

The P180 is nicely made, and I like the sound of it. It's fairly inert and the metal isn't thin and crappy like most cheap cases. The only part of the case that isn't up to snuff is the front door hinges, which can break quite easily. Also, the cabling can get a little cramped if you have a full ATX mobo and lots of stuff hooked up to it. The PSU is on the bottom of the case, and the divider is almost completely flush with the edge of the mobo, so it can get rather close if your PSU has lots of cables. A modular PSU would be a better choice for this reason. But I'm very happy with the case.

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

[RVR II]

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

If it's a Socket 775 like mine, can't you just rotate it so it's blowing vertical (up or down) to avoid the mobo part that's in the way?

That's what I did to mine if you look at the pics back on page.. 5 of this thread

[kodiakthejuggler]

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

If it's a Socket 775 like mine, can't you just rotate it so it's blowing vertical (up or down) to avoid the mobo part that's in the way?

That's what I did to mine if you look at the pics back on page.. 5 of this thread

Yeah, that's the other option, but unfortunately, I filed down the part of the bracket that was in the way, however, I didn't realize that it was an important part to the mounting bracket that actually holds the clip secure, so I'll have to order a replacement from Zalman before I can reuse it anyway. 

[RVR II]

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

If it's a Socket 775 like mine, can't you just rotate it so it's blowing vertical (up or down) to avoid the mobo part that's in the way?

That's what I did to mine if you look at the pics back on page.. 5 of this thread

Yeah, that's the other option, but unfortunately, I filed down the part of the bracket that was in the way, however, I didn't realize that it was an important part to the mounting bracket that actually holds the clip secure, so I'll have to order a replacement from Zalman before I can reuse it anyway. 

D'OH!

[kodiakthejuggler]

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

If it's a Socket 775 like mine, can't you just rotate it so it's blowing vertical (up or down) to avoid the mobo part that's in the way?

That's what I did to mine if you look at the pics back on page.. 5 of this thread

Yeah, that's the other option, but unfortunately, I filed down the part of the bracket that was in the way, however, I didn't realize that it was an important part to the mounting bracket that actually holds the clip secure, so I'll have to order a replacement from Zalman before I can reuse it anyway. 

D'OH!

Yup.

[Tony]

So I got my computer built last night, but a problem arose when I tried to hook up my Zalman CPU cooler. The mounting bracket won't fit because of the heatsink on the output side of the board is in the way. DAMN!! So, I gotta buy another cooler, because I just don't like the one that came with the CPU, though it will do in the interim. I'll be installing Windows and the myriad of updates tonight. Pix will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow!

If it's a Socket 775 like mine, can't you just rotate it so it's blowing vertical (up or down) to avoid the mobo part that's in the way?

That's what I did to mine if you look at the pics back on page.. 5 of this thread

Yeah, that's the other option, but unfortunately, I filed down the part of the bracket that was in the way, however, I didn't realize that it was an important part to the mounting bracket that actually holds the clip secure, so I'll have to order a replacement from Zalman before I can reuse it anyway. 

D'OH!

Yup.

I'm confused. It was the bracket that wouldn't fit, as opposed to the HSF? Odd. Anyway, that sucks! Sorry to hear. Gigabyte does seem to make their heatsinks a bit high - you'd think they would keep the big popular HSF's in mind when they design the boards.

[kodiakthejuggler]

SUCCESS!!
(I crossed myself several times for this one, and I'm not even Catholic!)

The build is done, for now, and Windows XP is partitioning the new drive (slooooooooooooooowly...)

I'll have some pictures up probably tomorrow, though I still need to upgrade the CPU cooler, as I just don't trust the stock one that came with it. Can't wait to load some games, watch some high definition video, and do some heavy photoshop work and see just how fast my new toy is!!

[Trumpysgirl]

I'm completely illiterate when it comes to building computers. I have a budget of $600 and a friend who builds computers for a living. How much should I pay him to build one for me?

[Tripe]

What can he build you for the full amount?

[Trumpysgirl]

What can he build you for the full amount?

My budget for the whole thing is $600, whatever I pay him has to come out of that.