Dell Reviles “Future Proof” Desktop

We all know that the future is great, and that technology is advancing exponentially. The issue is that a product you buy now will most likely be outdated a year from now. Dell has decided that they are not going to be bullied around by constantly advancing technology, and has developed a “future proof” Vostro 430 desktop PC. This innocent looking box is fully configurable with the most advanced tech out there which includes, your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors and ATI or NVIDIA discrete graphics, along with up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, an optional Blu-ray drive, a 19-in-1 memory card reader, a couple of PS/2 and serial ports to support your older devices and, of course, plenty of room for further expansion (including no less than 10 USB ports). Surprisingly this powerful box starts at $699. You can get the high end options for under $1,000, Lets just hope all that tech does not end up like the rest of them; Outdated!

Synology Debuts 4 Bay Compact NAS

Synology's just-announced DS409Slim NAS which is nice simple and very compact. Despite its puny size you can fit four 2.5 inch hard drives, along with some standard issue NAS specs like a 1.2GHz Marvell processor, 128MB of RAM, a pair of USB ports, and a single eSATA port. It can handle up to 2 TB of space. Look for this later this month at a price of $400.

Carbon Ring Storage Provides 1,000 Times Higher Memory Density

There is terrifying news. We've almost maxed out the density limits of magnetic memory, as it becomes increasingly harder to shrink the necessary grains in the process. In simple terms, we’ve maxed out on the amount of memory a computer can have. Don’t start fretting about this, because there may be a solution. A team of German scientists, have been doing more than just standing around and watching this happen. Colbalt (an element responsible for keeping you’re data safe) usually needs around 50,000 atom fleet for each grain, but boffins from Dresden have found a way to shrink that to 50 (that's good). Without the geeky technological details, attaching carbon rings to the cobalt reproduces the requisite hexagonal close packed structure, which leads to reduced space requirements. If this is viable, we can expect another race which hard drive makers try to make the competitions capacity look measly. The details are here.

How to Add an Extra Hard Drive

1. Check if you need the IDE (parallel ATA) or Serial ATA. While older computers support IDE (Parallel ATA), new ones may only support Serial ATA. If you are not sure, open the computer case and try to determine the type of the used drives from the view. It is safer to use the same type that is already installed, even if the sockets for another type also appear to be present.

• IDE drives use a wide, flat ribbon cable and may have jumpers that need to be set.
• SATA drives have a thinner cable and no jumpers to worry about.

2. Make sure you have room for an extra hard drive, here's one way to do this:

1. Restart your computer and go into the BIOS menu.
2. Go to the "Standard CMOS Settings."
3. In this menu, you will find four settings labeled as follows: PRIMARY MASTER:, AUTO/PRIMARY SLAVE:, SECONDARY MASTER:, SECONDARY SLAVE:. Change all fields to auto detection.
4. Reboot your computer
5. On the first or second screen, you will see something like the screen above and it will say detecting (drive(prim/sec)) : (name of the drive if present). If any of them say none, remember which drive it is. If all of them have a drive name, all your bays are filled and you can't add a new hard drive without removing a disk drive or hard drive. Consider making an external USB drive.

3. Get the actual hard drive. Go to your local computer store or buy online from Newegg or another retailer. Make sure that the type (SATA or IDE (PATA)) matches. If you plan on replacing your existing hard drive (see warning on replacing drives), be sure to get one with enough space to compensate for what you're losing.

4. Shut down your computer.

5. Unplug all of the cords from the back of your computer and pull the computer out from the desk.

6. Remove the case screws. If you have a Dell, you only need to push down on the release latch(s) on the back or sides. If you're having difficulty, it's a good idea to consult your manual on how your particular case is removed. Put the screws in a safe place so you don't lose them. Remove the side panel and place it out of the way.

FIG. 2:The thumb screw.

FIG. 3:The ribbon cable connection.

7. Find the area where all the flat ribbon cables (or SATA cables, which are smaller and usually red) connect to the main board.(fig. 3) Find the cable that corresponds to the free drive that was detected in step 1-6, either primary or secondary.

8. Set the jumpers so the drive knows whether to act as a master or slave. The jumpers are the set of pins on the back of the hard drive. They'll have a couple of rubber or plastic blocks covering some pins. Find the diagram or instructions for your new drive on to set the jumper for the master/slave. Note that if both the master and the slave are available on the slot you are using (primary or secondary), set the hard drive to master. (fig. 4) Note that if you are using a SATA drive, the jumpers do not need to be changed, because each SATA device uses its own cable, and multiple IDE devices can share a cable.

FIG. 4:The jumper in the slave position. If it says to remove a jumper completely, put it on the single pin so you don't lose it.

9. Find the empty bay in your computer case. Using the screws that came with the drive or computer case, mount the drive. (fig. 5)

FIG. 5:The hard drive mounted in it's holster.

10. Connect the cable that you found in step 6 to the hard drive. If it won't go in, make sure that the safety bump is aligned with the hole.(fig. 6)

 

FIG. 6:The ribbon cable installed.

11. Connect a Molex power cable, (a smaller connector with red, yellow, and black wires.)(fig. 7) A SATA drive will have a different type of power cable on the power supply.

FIG. 7:The power cable is installed.

12. Put the side panel back on the computer and put the screws back in.

13. Plug all of the cables back into the rear of the computer, and connect them to their power sources if you unplugged them.

14. Boot up the computer. Go into your BIOS at startup (most likely by pressing F10 or DEL as the computer starts). Check the BIOS auto detect to ensure the second drive is detected. On the screen that shows that primary master/slave, secondary master/slave you should see the name of your new hard drive.