Component video is YPbPr, VGA is RGB. Just because component cables are commonly Red Green and Blue does not mean they carry RGB. Even if you can get 576 interlaced 25 fps out of VGA it still would not work unless the video system supports outputting YPbPr. There are passive converters from VGA->S-V...

Yes, but what's your point? My point is that you didn't state your requirements clearly. Are you saying crappy software can't be the cause? We are talking about routers that run Linux. OpenWRT vs Debian doesn't matter, it is the same code doing the important routing part and it is all kernel code.

Just set the BIOS to AHCI and leave the Microsoft AHCI driver alone. It works fine, no need to mess with it.

Well that is a bit more than just a basic router then. Home routers that are unstable are caused by crappy hardware or not enough memory. Neither of those will be solved by a full Linux distro and for memory would likely be worse. The better ones run Linux anyway with the same routing you would be u...

Neither of those use cases is particularity demanding. Pretty much anything but the lowest end bottom of the barrel routers would work fine.

Why the Linux requirement? For your use cases the OS is pretty much irrelevant.

How many network segments do you need? 2 or 3 is pretty easy with cheap ITX boards. Additional ports are better left to a switch. I use this for my router/webserver/iSCSI target: http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4497 For just a router it is overkill, it's very fast for how cheap...

Google earth will run just fine on Baytrail or Kabini, it really isn't that demanding. I've personally run it in the past on systems with Intel "Extreme Graphics", 810 to 865 chips. It wasn't too bad if you didn't turn on too many options or 3D buildings. To be fair that was older versions, the curr...

edh, I'm not so sure the XP EOL will really change much in the free junk supply. Companies have either already upgraded, or are obvious to the issue. You would be surprised at how many "IT professionals" don't even realize the EOL is coming. Either that or they can't make the case to the higher ups ...

I've gone through a few SSDs of various types and sizes and when I upgraded to a 256 GB 840 pro it was the only time I noticed the speed jump when the old drive was already an SSD. It was not nearly the jump from HD->SSD, but it was noticeable even outside of benchmarks.

Some of the Supermicro workstation boards aren't that expensive compared to a higher end Z87 board. Take a look at the X10SAT for example. Or just google for boards with the C226 chipset. The Asus P9D WS is in the same price range as well, but has 2 fewer SATA ports vs the Supermicro. A Pentium CPU ...

I would advice at least an intel i5, but not the I????k versions. The i5 has support for vt-d instructions, which are especially made for virtualization, it speeds up vm's a lot. VT-D is for I/O virtualization (passing real hardware through to a VM), it has nothing to to with a VM's processing spee...

There are PCIe risers available, including flexible ones. Examples: http://www.logicsupply.com/components/accessories/riser-cards/pciex1-lpr/ http://www.logicsupply.com/components/accessories/riser-cards/exp1-362-10/ it helps that the wireless network card doesn't have to be exposed outside the case...

Thanks I'll try changing the dhcp.I don't think its a whitelist issue as I have reset the lynksis so its not blocking anything. The network here is dsl, so The telephone wire goes through an adapter and to the Ethernet cable. There's no other device involved. Is the "adapter" just a basic DSL modem...

Nice review, but your network speeds seem very low given what you describe of your setup. Not just for the Microserver, but all your tested systems. I've seen much better speeds on much lower end equipment very regularly. A G2020T should be able to saturate even a crappy gbit NIC without breaking a ...

There are a few features that the K processors lack. TXT, TSX, VPro and VT-D (not VT-X, they have that). If you were going to run a dedicated virtualization box, or needed the security features of TXT or needed remote management you might care. For 99.9% of home users these missing features are a no...

Basically the K versions allow full overclocking.

I'll throw in a vote for the Mugen 4 as well. I recently upgraded from a Mugen 2 to the 4 and it is excellent. The Mugen 2 has served me well over the last few years and several builds, but the smaller size and slightly better performance of the 4 was worth it to me. I have a Sycthe cooler in every ...

I have one which I use as a backup drive. In my non scientific opinion it is fairly quiet for a HD, but noticeably louder than the 1.5 and 2 TB greens that SPCR did review.

Here is my advice:

Is there some feature advertised by your MB that is not working that you want? Ex, fan control? If so, read through the docs of the utilities until you find what you need.

If everything you need is working to your liking? Don't install the rest! Useless bloat is useless bloat.

fastturtle: In general I agree with you. There is nothing wrong with the MS AHCI driver. The Intel AHCI driver is in some cases a couple of % faster, but really it makes no significant difference. However, if you want to use RAID5 on Windows there is nothing even close to IRST outside of expensive h...

IRST vs AHCI mode is something set in your BIOS setup. If set to RAID mode the controller appears as the IRST SCSI controller and must use the IRST driver. If set to AHCI it appears as a standard AHCI controller and uses any suitable AHCI driver. If you install IRST while the controller is set to AH...

IRST mode (RAID Mode) and ACHI are not the same at all. When in IRST mode all disk access goes through the IRST driver, not the ACHI one. Windows thinks disks attached to the IRST controller are SCSI/SAS disks, not ACHI/ATA. It's quite clear in device manager in Win 7 and below, Win 8 seems to hide ...

Install the SSD toolbox, it is useful for firmware updates and info about your SSD health. Unless you are going to use SRT (SSD caching a hard drive) and/or RAID you don't need IRST. While it doesn't have any effect on performance, it is better to not use it unless required. Disk utilities are more ...

Just to continue the off-site discussion, has anyone used Crashplan's free 'cloud' backup solution? I have used it an it works well. It is a great "set it and forget it" type solution. At a previous job I was able to use my work PC with a big external drive as a remote destination. When that no lon...

Using explorer or a command prompt: No*. Using a third party copy tool: Ask them.

* Copying big files with low RAM in your system may cause swapping.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon All Xeons labeled E5 appear to be part of various Ivy Bridge configurations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Ivy_Bridge-based_Xeons There are no Xeons labeled E5 that have any connection with Haswell. It seems the new MP is using old...

It really depends on what you want to do and what you have a budget for. What do you want to run that isn't working properly now? If you can post what you are trying to do then we can give you a better idea of what would be the most benefit. While your CPU is old, the VIA Chrome graphics on your MB ...

If you are not getting any sign of life at all then swap the PS to try. Disconnect/remove everything except CPU/RAM/Video. Even try without video, it should at least turn on if the board/CPU/PS are good. Basically you need to narrow down the issue by swapping out components. If you use known good fo...

Do you have a PC speaker hooked up? Do you get a beep code? If you completely turn off the power for a while then turn it back on does it do the 3 reboot thing again? If so then there is a good chance the board is ok. It's trying to boot, but something critical like the CPU or RAM is bad. Swap those...

My now 7 year old HP 1018 only uses 4 watts at idle. I can't see newer printers being significantly worse unless they have networking functions done badly.

My Canon multi-function inkjet uses 7 watts at idle, but it has a WiFi connection running.