So, how does the licensing work? My understanding is that you get 10 slots for all eternity, and each unique client permanently uses a slot. If I take a WinXP machine and upgrade it in place to Vista, will I have just permanently burned a slot? How about if I take a given set of hardware and do a clean reinstall of Windows, have I permanently burned a slot?
While the physicists are still playing around with this, the engineers have been commercially using these phenomena in their fluidized beds for years. In the field of metallurgy (specifically, heat treating), fluidized beds have been used in place of molten salt baths.
You know, mechanical knobs which have a default position which you can feel, a detent. (What I am describing is not a switch, but a variable resistor or capacitor). The most common place we will have seen these today is in a L-R fader or a F-B fader in a car stereo. Analog equalizers also frequently have a detent.
Adjustable pushbutton radio tuners are another example.
These are two contenders for non-digital forerunners of "defaults".
What I'd like to see is a rotary optomechanical knob with software-controllable detents. Preferably also with a springloaded push switch, a springloaded pull switch, and a joystick mode.
For all that digital makes possible, the mechanical interface to so many of our digital devices is simply horrible.
First, AT power supplies are switchers, so they are reasonably efficient.
Second, the AT power supply is going to work out to be sized appropriately for a case full of drives, so it will be operating in its sweet spot efficiency-wise.
So third, I am not sure what basis there would be to assume that standard enclosures are going to be any more energy efficient. A case full of drives is going to consume significant wattage regardless, and an AT power supply is a reasonably efficient way to provide that wattage.
Looks to me like there are two convenient, relatively affordable options. First, if you have access to old hardware, you can rebuild a spare computer into a cheap backup server with a suitable number of disks (linux, samba, software RAID or JBOD if you like living dangerously). Keep in mind, it takes a looong time to move 5 Tb of data over the network.
The second option is directly-connected individual drives, either permanently mounted in external cases (recommend eSATA) or just bare drives which you can dock one at a time using something like the Vantec Nexstar SATA Toaster Dock (NST-D100SU).
There are advantages & disadvantages to both methods. Both are cheaper per Gb than any other reasonable solution (tape, optical, etc).
Depending on how much and how frequently your data changes, using a hybrid system with a full backup set to HDD and incrementals to DVD-ROM may also be practical.
If you want to make it really neat, cable-management-wise, get some of those SATA-to-eSATA brackets to go between the drives and outside of the AT case.
Old AT (pre-ATX) case
on
Best eSATA JBOD?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The old AT cases had a power supply with a mechanical power switch, rather than a soft-switch like ATX power supplies. Old AT cases and power supplies should be just about free, just strip out the old motherboard and you have a decent, inexpensive solution. Like someone else said, just get long SATA cables, and run them directly to the drives. You can bundle them together with zip ties periodically down the length, or use wire loom if you want something a bit neater. You may need molex-to-SATA power adapters, but those are very cheap and reliable. If you pick the right case, it will have plenty of drive bays and cooling capacity.
Or, you can use one of those 4_3.5"_drives-in-3_5.25"_bays solutions if you need even more space and cooling capacity beyond what is already in your case. Even a small mid-tower case should support at least 6 drives using one of these.
Pick up a spare AT power supply while you are at it, and you will have a very reliable, well-cooled, very cheap solution.
It has seemed to me for some time that there would be a market for somebody to manufacture a little VRM module that plugged into the ATX motherboard connector, and had two screw terminal inputs to hook up, say unregulated +12/24/48V as from say solar panels or batteries. A more deluxe model could also have auxiliary outputs for CDROM/HDD/FDD/VIDPWR connectors.
Whatever you decide to put up there, you need probably need somewhere to host it. For low-bandwidth sites where your cost is the most important consideration, I have found nothing better than http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ for the purpose. It really is nearly free.
There was a time in the vicinity of 1993 where AOL was perhaps the best way to get nationwide dialup Internet access, when Compuserve and Prodigy were still walled-off enclaves. AOL has always had that side also, but in the early 1990s, they were also a decently-reliable decent-speed nationwide dialup ISP. Run the AOL client, connect in, minimize it, and run your favorite Internet app. Oh, and they also had usenet newsgroups at that time.
So, let's work through this, in a common-sense way...
It's called fair use. It's called copyright law. It's called a limited monopoly granted by the state for a purpose. Very different from property rights, which are pretty plainly inherent. Creative works are simply not the same, under law, as land or cattle or something else physical.
It's not property, intellectual or otherwise. It's not theft, stealing, or material. That is all the language of property, which creative content is not. To use this language confuses the issue unnecessarily. It's (potentially) copyright infringement. Except it isn't.
Just because creative content is worth money does not mean that the copyright holder is entitled to control everything related to that content. For example, once a physical copy is made under copyright law, the copy is property, and treated with the respect that property has under law. Now, that physical copy also encapsulates the creative content, which remains protected by copyright law. But, so long as new copies are not made, the new owner ought to be able to do pretty much anything they want to with their copy. Lend it out, give it away, sell it.
Is a computer link physical property? I think not. But even if it were, is a very brief summary of content (even a physical summary like the old index cards in a library) not an essentially fair use? Even a for-profit summary like, for example, a catalog which lists products, part numbers, and descriptions? Would that not clearly, in principle, be fair use?
Yeah, for that generation, Biostar was in the same league as ECS, i.e. garbage. But the real problem with most of the cheapo boards from that generation (and some of the name brands too, for that matter) was the power regulation capacitors. That is much less likely with the solid capacitors Biostar is using in the power section of the boards I referenced. Modern AMD CPUs and chipsets also consume less power, so the power section is less stressed anyway.
Trust me, I had the same feelings about Biostar. But this generation really seems to be different.
So, the problem for you comes down to space on the ATX I/O shield? Well, if that's your biggest gripe, yeah, sure, onboard video takes up a lot of backplate real estate. But it seems rather a silly complaint to me. I figure someone like you would already have a drive bay faceplate with all the desired connections. They are more convenient there than on the back of the computer anyway.
As far as "getting what you pay for", basically AMD has priced their chipsets to where the onboard video is essentially free at retail. So it doesn't really cost you extra. That's why there are so few non-integrated options out there. There is no economic reason to build them.
Old Biostar boards were junk. This generation looks much better engineered. But hey, if you don't like the Biostar 790xx, get whatever vendor you like in a 780xx. It still meets your originally-stated requirements.
And, as a matter of fact, yes, I have breadboarded machines from scratch. Mine weren't for a grade. You?
As to my support for AMD, it is a mix of reasons. Yes, some of it is supporting the underdog. But some of it is, as the underdog, AMD has to offer better value in order to compete against chipzilla. And with the Phenom II, they are moving up into the midrange desktop market again.
most modern OS'es make use of the GPU and its memory to draw Windows, and I don't want that to use my main memory
Actually, a good point. Which is specifically why I mentioned the optional sideport memory.
As far as onboard video "sucking for games", that's getting less and less true, particularly with AMD's 780/790 GX. It really is a contender for casual gamers. In any case, my favorite game uses DirectX 6, so its kindof moot to me.
OK, Mr. Anonymous Coward, I'll bite. All the boards (they're really the same board with minor differences) I mentioned are value boards, not enthusiast boards. So counting cables and mentioning heatpipes is kindof pointless. Biostar is a second-tier brand for sure, but these motherboards seem reasonably well-engineered and reliable.
My own intention is to run a linux server, so frankly I don't need much in the way of cute gamer features anyway. I just want support of Phenom II, good performance, support for lots of memory, and reliability.
As to why Phenom II, it looks like the best value proposition in a long while. As to why AMD, because I prefer the alternative choice, always have.
As to n00bishness, I don't think so. The first general-purpose computer I programmed ran at 1 Mhz. My first laptop ran at 0.6 Mhz. I've been at this racket a little while now.
These folkslook like they are about to start selling them. They have been saying they are due in stock today for a week now. I have no experience with them, so caveat emptor.
The guy from Newegg I asked last night couldn't tell me when they would have stock. But I do notice a distinctive downward trend in Phenom X4 9xxx processors here in the last couple of days. Might be a clue.
The underlying mathematics has been studied, but not for markets.
Actually, it has. Ralph Nelson Elliott discovered these fractal sawtooth sweep patterns in market behavior in the 1930's. Basically, Elliott waves and their patterns are a quantification of mass psychology. Current Elliott wave authors of note are Robert Prechter, Jr. and Glenn Neely. Worth investigation.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh good. I had pretty much ruled out WHS out of suspicion on this score. I am glad to know it was unfounded. Thanks for the information!
So, how does the licensing work? My understanding is that you get 10 slots for all eternity, and each unique client permanently uses a slot. If I take a WinXP machine and upgrade it in place to Vista, will I have just permanently burned a slot? How about if I take a given set of hardware and do a clean reinstall of Windows, have I permanently burned a slot?
sugardaddies.com
Don't ask me how I know. Suffice it to say I wasn't the one utilizing the service.
Which just goes to show that the TSA is doing its job and keeping us safe from the terr'rists.
While the physicists are still playing around with this, the engineers have been commercially using these phenomena in their fluidized beds for years. In the field of metallurgy (specifically, heat treating), fluidized beds have been used in place of molten salt baths.
You know, mechanical knobs which have a default position which you can feel, a detent. (What I am describing is not a switch, but a variable resistor or capacitor). The most common place we will have seen these today is in a L-R fader or a F-B fader in a car stereo. Analog equalizers also frequently have a detent.
Adjustable pushbutton radio tuners are another example.
These are two contenders for non-digital forerunners of "defaults".
What I'd like to see is a rotary optomechanical knob with software-controllable detents. Preferably also with a springloaded push switch, a springloaded pull switch, and a joystick mode.
For all that digital makes possible, the mechanical interface to so many of our digital devices is simply horrible.
First, AT power supplies are switchers, so they are reasonably efficient.
Second, the AT power supply is going to work out to be sized appropriately for a case full of drives, so it will be operating in its sweet spot efficiency-wise.
So third, I am not sure what basis there would be to assume that standard enclosures are going to be any more energy efficient. A case full of drives is going to consume significant wattage regardless, and an AT power supply is a reasonably efficient way to provide that wattage.
Looks to me like there are two convenient, relatively affordable options. First, if you have access to old hardware, you can rebuild a spare computer into a cheap backup server with a suitable number of disks (linux, samba, software RAID or JBOD if you like living dangerously). Keep in mind, it takes a looong time to move 5 Tb of data over the network.
The second option is directly-connected individual drives, either permanently mounted in external cases (recommend eSATA) or just bare drives which you can dock one at a time using something like the Vantec Nexstar SATA Toaster Dock (NST-D100SU).
There are advantages & disadvantages to both methods. Both are cheaper per Gb than any other reasonable solution (tape, optical, etc).
Depending on how much and how frequently your data changes, using a hybrid system with a full backup set to HDD and incrementals to DVD-ROM may also be practical.
If you want to make it really neat, cable-management-wise, get some of those SATA-to-eSATA brackets to go between the drives and outside of the AT case.
The old AT cases had a power supply with a mechanical power switch, rather than a soft-switch like ATX power supplies. Old AT cases and power supplies should be just about free, just strip out the old motherboard and you have a decent, inexpensive solution. Like someone else said, just get long SATA cables, and run them directly to the drives. You can bundle them together with zip ties periodically down the length, or use wire loom if you want something a bit neater. You may need molex-to-SATA power adapters, but those are very cheap and reliable. If you pick the right case, it will have plenty of drive bays and cooling capacity.
Or, you can use one of those 4_3.5"_drives-in-3_5.25"_bays solutions if you need even more space and cooling capacity beyond what is already in your case. Even a small mid-tower case should support at least 6 drives using one of these.
Pick up a spare AT power supply while you are at it, and you will have a very reliable, well-cooled, very cheap solution.
It has seemed to me for some time that there would be a market for somebody to manufacture a little VRM module that plugged into the ATX motherboard connector, and had two screw terminal inputs to hook up, say unregulated +12/24/48V as from say solar panels or batteries. A more deluxe model could also have auxiliary outputs for CDROM/HDD/FDD/VIDPWR connectors.
Whatever you decide to put up there, you need probably need somewhere to host it. For low-bandwidth sites where your cost is the most important consideration, I have found nothing better than http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ for the purpose. It really is nearly free.
There was a time in the vicinity of 1993 where AOL was perhaps the best way to get nationwide dialup Internet access, when Compuserve and Prodigy were still walled-off enclaves. AOL has always had that side also, but in the early 1990s, they were also a decently-reliable decent-speed nationwide dialup ISP. Run the AOL client, connect in, minimize it, and run your favorite Internet app. Oh, and they also had usenet newsgroups at that time.
So, let's work through this, in a common-sense way...
It's called fair use. It's called copyright law. It's called a limited monopoly granted by the state for a purpose. Very different from property rights, which are pretty plainly inherent. Creative works are simply not the same, under law, as land or cattle or something else physical.
It's not property, intellectual or otherwise. It's not theft, stealing, or material. That is all the language of property, which creative content is not. To use this language confuses the issue unnecessarily. It's (potentially) copyright infringement. Except it isn't.
Just because creative content is worth money does not mean that the copyright holder is entitled to control everything related to that content. For example, once a physical copy is made under copyright law, the copy is property, and treated with the respect that property has under law. Now, that physical copy also encapsulates the creative content, which remains protected by copyright law. But, so long as new copies are not made, the new owner ought to be able to do pretty much anything they want to with their copy. Lend it out, give it away, sell it.
Is a computer link physical property? I think not. But even if it were, is a very brief summary of content (even a physical summary like the old index cards in a library) not an essentially fair use? Even a for-profit summary like, for example, a catalog which lists products, part numbers, and descriptions? Would that not clearly, in principle, be fair use?
I am not a lawyer.
Fair enough. ;-)
Yeah, for that generation, Biostar was in the same league as ECS, i.e. garbage. But the real problem with most of the cheapo boards from that generation (and some of the name brands too, for that matter) was the power regulation capacitors. That is much less likely with the solid capacitors Biostar is using in the power section of the boards I referenced. Modern AMD CPUs and chipsets also consume less power, so the power section is less stressed anyway. Trust me, I had the same feelings about Biostar. But this generation really seems to be different.
So, the problem for you comes down to space on the ATX I/O shield? Well, if that's your biggest gripe, yeah, sure, onboard video takes up a lot of backplate real estate. But it seems rather a silly complaint to me. I figure someone like you would already have a drive bay faceplate with all the desired connections. They are more convenient there than on the back of the computer anyway. As far as "getting what you pay for", basically AMD has priced their chipsets to where the onboard video is essentially free at retail. So it doesn't really cost you extra. That's why there are so few non-integrated options out there. There is no economic reason to build them.
Old Biostar boards were junk. This generation looks much better engineered. But hey, if you don't like the Biostar 790xx, get whatever vendor you like in a 780xx. It still meets your originally-stated requirements. And, as a matter of fact, yes, I have breadboarded machines from scratch. Mine weren't for a grade. You? As to my support for AMD, it is a mix of reasons. Yes, some of it is supporting the underdog. But some of it is, as the underdog, AMD has to offer better value in order to compete against chipzilla. And with the Phenom II, they are moving up into the midrange desktop market again.
With 16 Gb of RAM. Unh Huh. I'd like to see that built with a Core i7 for less than $1k.
Actually, a good point. Which is specifically why I mentioned the optional sideport memory. As far as onboard video "sucking for games", that's getting less and less true, particularly with AMD's 780/790 GX. It really is a contender for casual gamers. In any case, my favorite game uses DirectX 6, so its kindof moot to me.
OK, Mr. Anonymous Coward, I'll bite. All the boards (they're really the same board with minor differences) I mentioned are value boards, not enthusiast boards. So counting cables and mentioning heatpipes is kindof pointless. Biostar is a second-tier brand for sure, but these motherboards seem reasonably well-engineered and reliable. My own intention is to run a linux server, so frankly I don't need much in the way of cute gamer features anyway. I just want support of Phenom II, good performance, support for lots of memory, and reliability. As to why Phenom II, it looks like the best value proposition in a long while. As to why AMD, because I prefer the alternative choice, always have. As to n00bishness, I don't think so. The first general-purpose computer I programmed ran at 1 Mhz. My first laptop ran at 0.6 Mhz. I've been at this racket a little while now.
These are pretty good choices, with solid capacitors in the power supply section. 128M sideport memory is optional.
Bottom line, you want a 790GX northbridge and a 750 southbridge.
Or, to get significantly cheaper and still really quite decent, you can go with one of these. 780GX northbridge, 700 southbridge. Way south of $100.
Higher price... Incompatible socket... Lower frequency...
What's not to like?
These folkslook like they are about to start selling them. They have been saying they are due in stock today for a week now. I have no experience with them, so caveat emptor. The guy from Newegg I asked last night couldn't tell me when they would have stock. But I do notice a distinctive downward trend in Phenom X4 9xxx processors here in the last couple of days. Might be a clue.
Actually, it has. Ralph Nelson Elliott discovered these fractal sawtooth sweep patterns in market behavior in the 1930's. Basically, Elliott waves and their patterns are a quantification of mass psychology. Current Elliott wave authors of note are Robert Prechter, Jr. and Glenn Neely. Worth investigation.