The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

He mentioned NiMH AA bats as well. I have multiple, so my mouse is never down Plus my Wii remote uses them. Spend money to save money

I have a canon that uses a custom battery. It was given to me. Once it's dead, I have no way to charge it. Not sure If I'll sell it, or get the recharger. It is outdated tech...

 

Yeah our very old kodak 2Mp still camera was never quite the same after using energizer lithium batteries, it used to crash from time to time, which it never did before using them.
My experience of cameras that use AAs is that they are perpetually flat and always need replacing. I recognise the problem with bespoke batteries, but the battery life you get out of them is vastly better. IMO the tradeoff is worth it.

 

Perhaps better built cameras can handle the power? Fuji may not be canon, but it is a recognized name It almost sounds like it's on crack when the lithiums are in it. The lens sounds turbo charged LOL! I've loaded them more than 3 times. And it can take hundreds of shots. Though the flash will obviously cut that life

 

The Netgear modem/routers are very good so far. The wireless is strong at 30+ feet, and a wall between. Netflix streams without trouble, and the video quality is much better than one would think on a 50" plasma. Easy to setup, other than the security passphrase. I hope they give me years of reliable service. But I paid under $40USD each, so I really can't complain

 

Sam,

The 2700 mAh NiMH batteries I use, can hold an 80% charge for a year and a half. I've never taken the camera out and found the batteries flat yet. My mouse uses a single AA battery, and these last about 4-6 months vs about a month for Alkaline batteries.

Russ

 

Here you go! Get them while they are hot. OCZ Agility3 120GB Sata III SSD. $89.99 after $10 MIR. OCZ Agility3 240GB Sata III. $174.99

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=557372&sku=O261-8201

Best Regards,
Russ

 

So Windows 8 RTM is out and apparently it's just awesome if you disable the Metro UI through a hack. Heard enough good about it where I think it's worth looking into. Will be trying it shortly. Have heard good things about lower resource usage, higher performance, faster boots, more streamlined coding etc.

Supposedly at it's core Windows 8 is more like Windows 7 v2.0

 

With no real sign of major growth in per-disk sizes for hard disks, I'm looking at my options for expanding my file server.
Been eyeing up some rackmount cases (even though I don't own a rack, they're the most efficient for highest number of drives per case), but there isn't really any viable option that isn't extremely expensive versus the current interim plan, to split up the server into two separate units using regular ATX cases.

Anybody got any thoughts to offer on this?

 

Get the highest capacity ATX cases you can and put low-powered, quiet internals in them. Then simply use them as file boxes period.

I may be waiting a while for Windows 8 I guess. Apparently the Metro UI is currently forced on with no way of disabling it right now. Microsoft's imminent failed product and 3rd party hackers will probably have this sorted quickly.

MS needs to release Metro and Win 8 Desktop as two separate OSes I think.

 

One of the ideas I had was to get a Lian-Li PC-P50 and stick three IB-545 units in them so I'd have 15 drives sitting in the 5.25" bays. However, the total cost of that comes to about £400, which is fast becoming real rackmount territory!

 

I just store my full hard drives in those anti static cases. They're pretty cheap @ meritline most the time. If you don't mind waiting 2 weeks for them. I'll probably be locating another Sata dock in the near future. One that supports 3Tb+

 

Still contemplating the use of those for the backup disks, but this of course is for live storage.

 

In my case, I don't require any more than 3Tb of live storage. I imagine that will change with time. Any more than 3, would just be a convenience factor

 

I don't have anything for disabling Metro just yet, but I can tell you several ways to get a start menu back if that's good enough. I know a few methods that still work in the RTM. I simply don't use Metro because I have a start menu, the task bar, and the desktop to launch applications from. I see little reason to use Metro since MS didn't optimize it for the PC well and it really isn't necessary to use Windows 8. I can also tell how to get the quick launch back too.

 

Sure. I'll have a full guide on how to get a start menu up either overnight or tomorrow morning. I'll update the thread with other such tricks as I come across them.

 

@sam

If you see your need for storage expanding further in the future I'd just bite the bullet and get a rackmount since you will eventually use it. It's expensive but buying a case, drive bay converters, etc., is practically money down the drain if you exceed the capacity of the case.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517004

That case with ten of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993031

could hold nineteen 3.5" drives for $235 not including shipping/tax and including them for my area as well as the case's MIR, it would still be under $275. Maybe there are similar options without exorbitant prices if you know where to look. Would something like this work for you if it was available, or am I mistaking your goal?

 

Metro UI is essentially useless for desktop users. It's cluttered, doesn't multitask well, and severely hampers productivity. I have tried Metro in older revisions and it was VERY frustrating to use. It reminds me heavily of iOS ie it's probably AWESOME for tablets and other portables.

My issue is that Metro can't be disabled completely. I'd love to be able to use it in a pure desktop mode with no Metro elements at all but that wasn't even possible with the earlier revisions. You could only "hide" it. If I'm not using it, it seems like a waste of resources and processing power. With Metro entirely gone it could be a wonderfully lightweight and snappy OS. It already is, so the potential is there. I've heard that it does basically everything better from boot times to program starts to gaming. I tried it on a friend's PC and the only game he showed me was BF3 on a single 6970 and he claims it gave a pretty decent boost.

I'm not a technological luddite or anything like others have called me. Metro UI simply sucks for desktops.

Also all this Windows Live integration and cloud storage BS is incredibly insecure and I do NOT like the idea of tying my OS to an online account. I have worked very hard to avoid this as much as possible and Windows 8 basically forces it for some features. I'd have to try it more myself but I do not like the sound of it. Cloud anything is pretty stupid in the world of untrustworthy companies.

If we could simply get a reworked and optimized version of Windows 7 I would be a happy camper. Otherwise there is no compelling reason for me to upgrade. In the scope of things Windows 7 is still pretty new and supports basically everything. I feel it's going to become the new Windows XP if MS doesn't take the hint and un-f*** Win 8.

Would rather go back to Vista than use Windows 8's Metro UI. Granted Vista has been upgraded vastly and is basically a slightly less lightweight version of Windows 7 now.