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Just did a quick google search: https://www.startech.com/ca/Ne...

Apparently 1000BaseT on Coax is still a thing.

A few seconds with Google and I found this USB 3.0 to Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter NIC

-- Pete.

Anonymous delivers. Please have exact change.

Idiot. Grandparent's got an ultrabook. Ultrabooks haven't parallel ports and often enough don't have ExpressCard slots either. USB->parallel converters are uniformly shit, and aside from Thunderbolt in the high-end models, Ultrabooks only have USB and video-out ports.

If grandparent had a different sort of laptop that had an ExpressCard slot, he could find a better-quality adapter such as this one: http://www.startech.com/Cards-... and then he could keep his old tank of a printer with nary a complaint.

but he doesn't, so he's going to be overall better-served to upgrade printers. Fuck off yourself, twat.

It's been done. Here's one. There are few others out there too.

Connected 4 to 16 USB Keyboards (optionally mice as well) and connect same amount of monitors to a few video cards like: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/ or http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firemv-2d/ati-firepro-2450-mv/Pages/ati-firepro-2450-mv.aspx or USB to Video.... http://ca.startech.com/AV/USB-Video-Adapters/USB-DVI-External-Multi-Monitor-Video-Adapter~USB2DVIE2 There is software out here to create virtual machines for each monitor and to connect a set of Keyboard/mouse to each monitor. With Windows 98, you can connect up to 9 displays. With Windows NT, you can connect up to 20 displays to one system With Windows 2000, XP, you can connect up to 10 displays to one system. With Window Vista - you can connect minimum of 10 displays to one system. - possibly up to 16 With Windows 7 & 8, you can connect up to 16 displays to one system -possibly more

Meanwhile, to anyone who whishes to enjoy their tablet with an USB port, may I suggest the recent additions to the overall tabletspace, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10" and 7" (both very nice)

So you flame Apple for having a proprietary connector, and then turn around and suggest Samsung tablets which have...wait for this... Samsung proprietary connectors that look just like Apple's (but is electrically incompatible)? Oh, the irony.

Yeah, I know, the Galaxy Tab specs say it acts as a USB host. In reality, you need a proprietary connector-to-USB dongle to connect USB devices to a Galaxy Tab. So much for specifications. Incidentally, you can buy a similar dongle for an iPad as well.

You can even get add-on cages for you existing case...

I was going to suggest the same kinda thing. Easier than sliding them in and out of the main case and futzing with power and SATA cables. In fact, the ones you suggested are the very cases I use in my 2U rack servers that I build. I like 'em for what I use them for, but I'm going to make a different recommendation for the OP. The problem is that that rack requires that the drives be in special sleds/trays. If the OP is going to be swapping drives, that means swapping sleds.

The new love of my SATA rack world are these StarTech trayless babies. The doors open with a little pull-latch... like most car-doors, and there's no tray. Just slide the drive in and close the door.

They already exist (albeit in USB 3.0 form).

A friend of mine bought one that has Ethernet, Audio (analog + digitial), Video and a USB hub, and IIRC a serial port. (his is USB 2, but the second monitor is really not that laggy)

Looks kinda like that one

http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/USB-Docks/Universal-Laptop-USB-Docking-Station-with-VGA-Audio-Ethernet~USBVGADOCK

How many high-end boards have you looked at? I can't find a single one that *DOESN'T* have a 9-pin connector on the board (usually labelled COM). Just attach one of these

Also, get a load of this: Floppy port on a current-gen gaming board! What'll they think of next?

At my parents, I'm running a D510MO with three 2TB disks and it has a mini-PCI express slot in which I dumped Startech.com 2 Port Mini PCI Express Internal SATA II Controller Card. Alas, it turned out that one of the ports is then blocked by a USB header, but it gave me the (desired) third SATA port. It's not noiseless due to the powesupply and the disks, but it doesn't need to be as it's in the basement.

For my own usage, I use a Soekris net5501-70 with a 1TB 2.5" SATA disk. You can only put in one disk as far as I know, so it doesn't fit your requirements. It does make a fine fileserver and it's virtually silent. A fileserver doesn't actually need much oopha. I do a nightly backup to USB. It's not RAID as with my parents, but I feel secure enough in case of disaster.

Of course, if your intention is to run RAID0, you can disregard anything I said, but then my 1 disk option isn't all that much dangerous.

For the record, there are Atom motherboards that come with > 2 SATA ports. Thing is, I originally didn't plan to use more than two. I changed my mind, hence the PCIe card. In hindsight, I should have gone with a more expensive board (Intel Atom boards are dirt-cheap) that natively had more SATA ports.

This is exactly what I was going to recommend.

A lot of people assume that if one is going to store data on a hard drive then that drive must be powered up all the time. All reliability figures are based upon the assumption that the drives will be powered up and in use for most of a working day. However, if you only power up a drive when you need to store or retrieve data - data that is written only for archival purposes - then the drive could last a life-time.

In my system I use an external, dual-drive, eSATA connected, setup. (I like this one.) I only turn on the drive when I need to transfer files to it. When I don't need a drive in the dock, I put it in an anti-static bag with a desiccant packet (just as they came from the manufacturer), squeeze the whole thing into a slightly modified old VHS case (I cut out the things that go into the reel holes in the tape), and put it on the shelf - labeled, of course.

I prefer the dual dock so I can simply do a full-drive copy to make backups of my archive disks. At full eSATA speeds it doesn't take nearly as long or take up nearly as much real-world space as tape, and it is less expensive as well.

Costs more, but here's an example eSATA/USB2 enclosure with a little 40mm fan, also trayless easy-remove design for quick swapping of drives:

http://www.startech.com/product/SAT3510BU2E-35in-eSATA-USB-Black-SATA-External-Hard-Drive-Enclosure

I've deployed a few of these, they work fairly well. At this point I'm curious when routers will start having USB 3.0 ports on them...

I use one of these: 4x 2.5 sata.
With 500 gig Scorpio blue drives hitting $55 it's actually price competitive with high quality DVD media, and certainly is space competitive.
(when figuring out price competitive I accounted for the fact that nearly 700 meg of a dvd is often wasted in file backups).

I wrote a perl script that computes and saves to the host and drive a hash table of all files on the archive so I can check for bit-rot.
-nB

I wasn't too happy that Intel axed the parallel port, but I could get cards/USB adapters for that. Now they axe PCI?

One example of a new model with a parallel port. If you want an upcoming 6-series just use a PCIe card.

Personally if I needed a lot of license dongles on a server and wanted to keep them secure and protected what I'd do is try to mount a USB hub inside the case somewhere (maybe cable tie it to something like http://www.startech.com/item/SATA35252X-35-Bay-to-Dual-25-SATA-HDD-Adapter.aspx and mount it in a drive bay). Then just make an adaptor cable to go from the USB hub to one of the motherboards USB headers.

Anyone who is truly concerned with security knows that you take your drive with you and/or lock it up at night. Thankfully SSDs are lightweight and easy to stick in a pocket. I'm amazed at how many businesses don't have any physical protection plan in place, because that's how most data ends up getting into the wrong hands.

http://www.startech.com/item/SAT2510U2REM-InfoSafe-35-Bay-Removable-25-SATA-Drive-Enclosure.aspx
Under $40 for this model.

somehow I think the OP is looking for a solution that's considerably cheaper than $500.

KVM over IP might be what you're looking for.

  KVM over IP Network Card

I've never done business with this company. I just googled and took the first link.

KVM over IP might be what you're looking for.

KVM over IP Network Card

I've never done business with this company. I just googled and took the first link.

Another alternative is this interesting box: http://www.startech.com/item/PEX2PCIE4L-PCI-Express-to-2-PCI-Full-Length-2-PCIe-Single-lane-Expansion-Box.aspx

I haven't used it, but I came across it while looking for a way to relocate my Delta 1010 PCI card away from one of my PCIe 16x slots. Also available is a PCIe to external 4xPCI slots, which is great for legacy stuff (or interesting wifi configurations?).

You should check out this midi cable...

I have a similar story. I worked a year's worth of contract jobs at this company. When a permanent job finally opened up as a result of some one leaving for another company, they offered me the job. I took their written-on-paper offer back to my desk and thought it over. Then I went back to my manager-to-be and we both signed it.

Later that week, HR started writing me e-mails about when my benefits and retirement plan would kick in. Their start dates were later than the start dates in my offer letter. I wrote back with the dates on my offer letter. They replied in typical HR prose with their dates. I called the HR person on the phone and asked to meet with her. I went to her office. We talked. She explained her side. I explained mine. She said the company's benefit and retirement start date calculations were complicated. I said that a person shouldn't have to be a lawyer just to figure out a simple job offer letter.

That same afternoon, I did a 30 minute presentation to the entire company on the launch of a new product line.

At day's end I got a call from my new manager. She wanted to see me in her office. She said that the HR director said that the HR admin I had met with said that I was talking to a lawyer over this offer letter nonsense. (Remember my wise crack about "you shouldn't have to be a lawyer ...?")

I was fired. Total employment time: 1 week.

I've used off-brand computer parts/equipment where it makes sense to do so, and have never had a problem. My Actiontec wireless access point is four years old and has always worked great with all brands of wireless NICs. I've used Hawking switches and hubs. StarTech is great for network cards, add-on port cards.

What you have to watch out for is the online retailers. Pay attention to the customer ratings.

In a nutshell, in my experience it matters less what brand of equipment you buy, and more who you buy it from.

We're using Startech.com here.

http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?Pro ductID=SV1110IPEXT

Remote IP access is provided via VNC. The KVM has two Ethernet ports, runs Linux and I believe can act as a firewall as well.

# uname -a
Linux dor-startech-01 2.4.20-pre7 #137 Wed Sep 1 14:32:33 EDT 2004 ppc unknown

We're using it in conjunction with a Startech.com 16 port KVM.

DVD is fine for long-term archival, especially if you add parity data to the disc. (I usually add 5-10% recovery data to allow for discs getting scratched or otherwise damaged.) I find CD/DVD (and back when floppies were realistic) to be too much of a hassle, which means that backups don't always get done.

For day-to-day backups I use 250-300GB 5400rpm drives in removable caddies (StarTech.com's DRW115 series). Base unit is $60 or you can buy the components separately: extra bays are $20-$30, extra caddies are $50-60. By rotating 3 or 4 of those drives, I have the convenience of tape without the cost of tape.

Combine that with software like Second Copy 2000 (sits in the system tray, plays nicely with the system, does backups in the background, doesn't use a proprietary storage format) and you have something that simply works. No muss, no fuss, and no procrastination.

Well, if I'm understanding what you're trying to do, you've got both software and operating system options, as well as a whole bunch of hardware solutions.

Of course, you can also enable a screensaver password, and have the screensaver running all the time, configure the BIOS not to allow booting from the floppy drive, and use password access to the BIOS to disallow unauthorized changes to it.

It sounds like your easiest (read: less time to deal with and less worry of hacking headaches) solutions is just to toss the suckers into one of those cabinets listed above. Hell, you can build the cabinet yourself for under $100, if you're any good with power tools and have a spare afternoon.

Get yourself one of these. That should be long enough for most houses.

I think you're looking for the StarTech Screw Kit, available lots of places. Actually, Gateway has it for pretty cheap, oddly enough.

StarTech may have what you're looking for. DVI, USB, dual-display (analog), etc.

This has not been a paid advertisement for any company.

Check out Startech they have a nice wizard-like setup to help you pick out your rack. They make other cheap computer accessories too.

The KVM switch we use is hooked up to a companion product from the same company, which converts the video signal to a very decent VNC server. I can connect to this VNC server, and using keyboard shortcuts, see exactly what is on the screen for any of the servers in the farm. I can even reboot a server, and watch it go through POST, etc, even stop it and interact with the BIOS menu... all because of how VNC is setup.

Check out StarTech KVM products. I think you can use that VNC box with other companies' KVM's also...

Thats one thing that i like about the Intel Pentium III and IV processors. If the CPU fan were to die on the PIII chip, the processor would simply halt all processing if the chip temp. got to high. In the Pentium IV processors, if the fan dies, the CPU will actually down clock itself until it reaches a safe temp. to keep running at. Although I dont know what you could do if the PS fan were to die; i wonder if you could rig something up similar to the fail safe in the P3 chip that would simply shut the power off if the temp. got to high. In any case, the one thing that i did that helps keep all those dust bunnies out of my case was to install washable filters on all the fan spots. That makes it a hell of a lot easier to clean, plus i dont need to clean out the inside of the case anywhere near as much anymore.

Can you hot-swap IDE? Without voiding your warranty?

Can you hot-swap IDE? Without voiding your warranty?

Web site leaves nothing to be desired, including visual searches for the thingamajig you have no idea what to type in a search field for.

Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.

To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background :
My PC has the following components :

• A OEM case
• A 235W OEM power supply
• ASUS P3B-F
• Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
• A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
• A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
• Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
• A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
• A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
• A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
• My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
• A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
• A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
• A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
• Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency

Soon to be :

• A Adaptec 2940UW
• A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games

It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out ...

I use my PC for :

• Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
• Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
• Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.

As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.

I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.

The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria :

• A silent as possible
• Accessible
• Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
• Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties ;-)

To attain those goals I have to :

• Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
• Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
• Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing

For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).

That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com

To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals :

• http://www.formfactors.org/ You should be able to find all the documents regarding the ATX form factor and thermal design guides. A must if you want to build a quiet PC.
• http://developer.intel.com/ Intel has contributed a great deal to the ATX definition ; here you will find many relevant documents including thermal design guides for all Intel processors.
• Etract from my favorite's :
  
  

  Hardware\cases PC CASE
  Fong Kai
  PowerOn
  Enlight Corporation
  dir.yahoo Enclosures Manufacturers
  procase
  YY Computer
  Psi
  IN WIN
  Amtrade
  American Suntek
  Addtronics
  A-Top Technology, Inc
  Nikao
  Palo Alto Products
  Antec
  Lian-Li
  amaquest
  Koolance
  Quietpc
  PC Power & Cooling
  
  
  

  Hardware\Heat Sinks ALPHA
  Cooler Master
  AVC
  ekl
  GlobalWIN
  globefan
  RDJD
  Foxconn
  Spring Spread
  Sanyo Denki
  TITAN
  TaiSol
  ChipCoolers
  Orb a
  ElanVital
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Form Factor Platform Development Support
  SSI
  WTX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Standards Fibre Channel Industry Association
  PCI SIG
  RAB
  serialata
  SPEC
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Storage RAID.edu
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Cours CS 252 - Graduate Computer Architecture
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info The PC Guide!
  Hardware Bible
  FullOn3D
  developer.intel.com
  HwB The Hardware Book
  United Overclockers
  Ars Technica
  Tech-Junkie
  HardwarePub
  Webopedia
  Illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware
  SysOpt
  2CPU
  Ace's Hardware
  Technical Support - RaidHelp v1.0 - Free RAID Technology Guide
  Computer Architecture
  OPENCORES.ORG
  TechFest
  MidWest Micro Support
  
  
  

  Hardware\Resalers GeekTek!
  Micro-Bytes
  ALCO
  ABC Micro
  2CoolTek
  Plycon Computers
  TCWO
  ABC Micro - Lprix
  Case Outlet
  The Chip Merchant, Inc
  Cimsys
  OrdiGros
  ALIENWARE
  SHENTECH
  FireStorm
  Hyper Microsystems
  TWEAKBOX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Reviews Tom's Hardware Guide
  Sharky Extreme
  StorageReview
  HardOCP
  AnandTech
  SystemLogic
  x-bit labs
  Active-Hardware
  FiringSquad
  SocketA
  Overclockers Australia
  HEXUS
  dansdata
  SysReview
  
  
  

  Hardware\Manufacturers AMD
  ASUS
  Belkin
  MassMultiples
  Promise
  StarTech
  VIA Technologies, Inc
  ABIT Computer Corp
  Comcase
  Micron Semiconductor
  ECS
  
  
  

  Hardware Freeboxen