I admit to being enamored with the Touch capabilities. I used the Touch features whenever possible… for a few days. It became apparent very quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to type that way. Think about it – this is a desktop. It sits on my desk. I have to hold my arms up and out in front of me in order to type. Who the heck can do that for long, and why would you want to? I began wondering why the heck HP (and others) have even bothered to put touch-type functionality in a desktop, anyway. Yes, it’s “cool”. Yes, it’s fun. But it is in no way practical.

Even TechCrunch agrees with me. However, they are only partly correct in saying that Anyone who has used one for a long time will tell you that they quickly revert to using the keyboard and mouse.. I do use the Touch features to open and close programs, and to bring windows to the front. I may move things around or select them by touching them. That part is honestly easier and faster for me now than reaching for the mouse and clicking on them. The correct part of their statement is that I rely on my good old HP keyboard to do my typing with.

So… what is the answer here? Arrington’s article suggests using something like an architect’s desk. I’m here to tell you that won’t work, either. I don’t know about you… but there’s just no way I’m going to be able to sit with my head pointing down (and my neck getting kinks in it) to stare at my screen for several hours per day. Michael states: The desk should also be somewhat shorter than a normal desk – the bottom of the screen should basically be on your lap, and you would be mostly looking down on the machine.. Eh – no thanks to that. The whole “mostly looking down” part is what I don’t see as being much help in my quest to remain ergonomic.

I’m honestly not sure what the answer is at this point. I love the Touch features. I love the idea behind it, and the way they work. I don’t love having to hold my arms out in front of me to type, and I don’t love the thought of having to look down to see my screen. Trust me… if I could come up with the best solution, I’d likely be rich at this point.

What are your thoughts or ideas? Have you (or do you) used a Touch Screen computer? Do you find yourself reverting back to mouse and keyboard?

Better yet – have you come up with a viable solution? If so, I know a few people who would be very interested in hearing it.

We have contacted the winner, and received a reply with permission to use their full name. Congratulations to Ramkumar Venkatachalam of India! His comment (number 378), was drawn at random:

good old dvd’s in a pouch thats my backup strategy

It sounds like he’ll be putting the backup drives to good use.

Didn’t win? Don’t sweat it. Enter for a chance to win over $6,000 of HP hardware here, and at 49 other sites!

To the $6,000 Geeks to Go HP Magic Giveaway contest!

What?

One winner will receive a prize package valued at over $6,000! Including all of the following:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816 AIO Desktop PC
• HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC
• HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC
• HP Mini 1000
• HP MediaSmart Connect digital media receiver
• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO multifunction
• HP 564 Photo Value Pak
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium preinstalled
• Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition
• Microsoft Windows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X2
• Kung Fu Panda (DVD & Blu-ray)

Brought to you by HP, Microsoft, and geekstogo.com.

How?

At Geeks to Go we share the magic. Our tech experts provide free tech help in our forums. We share our technical knowledge with others in need. We get a magical feeling whenever we get a heartfelt thanks from someone we’ve been able to help.

This prize package contains an embarrassment of riches. We’re going to ask our contest winner to share the feeling that comes from giving magic. To enter our contest, simply reply in the comments with what part of the prize package you’d share, and with whom you’d share it (no full names please). The winner will be drawn at random from the qualified entries. So, while there’s no need for a long entry, I and others may enjoy reading them.

The holidays are a time for giving. Many organizations and individuals are in need. We recommend a donation to an organization, not an individual or relative, but the final decision is yours. If requested, we can mail your donation anywhere in the world. We also want to hear your story! If possible, take videos or photos of your recipient, along with a story of the donation. We’d like to publish it, and share your experience of giving magic.

When?

The winner will be drawn from qualified comments posted between December 04, 2008, and December 10, 2008 12PM (noon) CST. Our announcement will be posted shortly after noon (CST) on December 10, 2008 (subscribe to our RSS feed). The winner will also be notified via the email address they used to comment. If 24 hours goes by without a reply, a new winner will be chosen.

Who?

This is an international competition. We will ship the prize package, including any donated portion to anyone worldwide (as permitted by US law). Staff members of this site (including GeekU), previous winners from other sites participating in this contest, and employees of HP, Microsoft, and BuzzCorps are not allowed to enter — bummer.

The Rules

1. Entries accepted as comments in this post only. Entries in any other areas of the site will not be counted.
2. ONE entry per person. Those entering more than once will be disqualified (it’s easy to catch).
3. Contest dates and times. Only comments submitted between 12:01am CDT Dec 04, 2008 and 12:00pm (noon) Dec 10, 2008.
4. Geeks to Go is a family friendly site. Any submissions that break this rule will be disqualified, and removed.
5. This is an international competition. As allowed by US law, everyone is allowed to enter. Not allowed to enter are Geeks to Go staff members, and GeekU members. Nor, employees of HP, Microsoft and Buzzcorps. Previous winners of other HP Magic contests can not win again.
6. You must provide a valid email address with your comment. The winner will be notified using the email address provided. If no response to the notification email is received within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen.
7. A US winner will receive payment from HP, Microsoft and Buzzcorps to offset the tax liability.
8. Geeks to Go reserves the right to change the rules of this contest as needed.

‘Tis the season for giving! In addition to the HP Magic Giveaway, we present 10 chances for you to win a Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive bundle. Winners will get their choice of either a FreeAgent Desk 1TB or FreeAgent Desk for Mac 1TB. AND your choice of a 500GB FreeAgent Go or 500GB FreeAgent Go for Mac portable drive.

The FreeAgent Desk, as its name implies, is intended for desktop use. Its 1TB (~1,000GB) capacity comes in a rainbow of colors, or a silver and white design to match the look and feel of a MacBook. The FreeAgent Go portable is much slimmer, and its 500 GB capacity is also available in your choice of 10 colors, or silver and white in the Mac version.

In addition to Geeks to Go, there are 9 other tech sites giving away bundles. Be sure to enter their contests for more chances to win! (Thanks to Xavier at Notebooks.com!)

Other Seagate FreeAgent Giveaway Sites (live contests are linked):

1. Notebooks.com
2. CrunchGear.com
3. BleepingComputer.com
4. GottaBeMobile.com
5. PlanetAMD64.com
6. Gadgetell.com
7. Paulstamatiou.com
8. Macenstein.com
9. DigitalHomeThoughts.com

How do you enter our contest?

Simply answer this question with a comment below:

How do you backup your important data?

If you don’t have a backup method, it’s okay to say, “I don’t have a backup plan”.

The winner will be chosen from the random pool of qualified comment from all entries received by 11:59PM CST on Friday Saturday, December 6th, 2008. ONE entry per person. Please use a valid email address when posting your comment, as that’s how the winner will be contacted. A reminder to enter your email address in the comment form, but not in the body of the comment (hide it from email harvesting spam bots). If no response to the notification email is received within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen

Backups are one of the most important, and often neglected task of home users. We recently ran a 5 part series, Options for Home Computer Backup. My current backup plan involves a Windows Home Server, online backup of photos (SmugMug), and a portable USB hard drive for notebook backup while traveling.

Our free computer help forums often have posts from people desperate to save their digital memories, because they lack adequate backups. Whether it’s a hardware failure, malware infection, or human error, protect your digital treasures with adequate backups. Seagate presents attractive options, and their 5-year warranty ensures peace of mind.

Update: We have a winner!

If you’re new to this site, we share magical moments every day, by providing free tech help. Our magical moments come from helping someone solve a technology problem. It could be as simple as removing the Language Bar, or as complex as removing the latest rootkit that your antivirus missed. If you have some magic to share, or just want to learn more, please visit our forums.

The Holiday Magic Prize Package:

• • HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC with Windows
  • HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC with Windows
  • HP MediaSmart Connect
  • HP Pavilion dv4-1145go Entertainment Notebooks with Windows
  • HP Mini 1000 series with Windows
  • HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO
  • HP 564 Series Photo Value Pack
  • Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate / Home Premium
  • Microsoft Windows XP (Mini 1000 units)
  • Microsoft Windows Live
  • Corel VisualStudio X2
  • Kung Fu Panda widescreen DVDs

What’s included? It’s an impressive array HP of hardware. An awesome 25″ touchscreen desktop, a notebook with a huge 18″ screen, a 14″ entertainment notebook, and an ultra small and light, Mini1000 netbook with a 10″ screen. Plus a MediaSmart Connect that makes it easy to share media from a computer with your HDTV (photos, music, even HD video). HP accessories include a wireless All-in-One printer/scanner/copier, and a Photo Value Pak.

Microsoft wraps up the software with Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows XP (Mini 1000). Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 (1 DVD w/ 3 licenses), and Microsoft Windows Live. Completing the package is Corel VideoStudio X2, and the movie Kung Fu Panda (2 widescreen DVDs; 1 Blu-ray disc).

Yes, one lucky winner takes it all, and there are 50 chances to win. To see all 50 participating sites, visit the official HP Magic site, or view the complete list after the break…

Each site is free to set their own contest rules, so be sure to check each site, review their contest, and enter to win!

AbsoluteVista
Barb’s Connected World
Bleeping Computer
BostonPocketPC
Carlos Alberto
CíberPrensa
Digital Home Thoughts
Digital Inspiration
Down-to-Earth Mama
Eliax
Gadgetell
Gear Live
GearDiary
Geek News Central
Geek.com
Geeks To Go!
Geeks!
GeeksRoom
Geekzone
Gotta Be Mobile
HackCollege
I Started Something
InfoWester
JK On the Run
La Bitácora de Erwin Ried
Last 100
Liliputing
Living – In Theory
MediaBlab
merlot mom
moosh in indy.
Morningside Mom
Neowin
Notebooks.com
Noticias Tech
One Day, One Job
OSNN
Planet x64
Slashdot Review
SlashGear
Stop, Drop & Blog
Student Bloggers
Study Hacks – Demystifying College Success
Techie Diva
Techmamas
The Digital Lifestyle
The Gadgeteer
Thoughts on poetics & tech
Unión de Bloggers Hispanos
Windows Connected

Recently, he was asked his opinions about netbooks. What is a netbook? The Asus Eee was probably the first to claim this new category. These $300-500 notebooks occupy a category previously dominated by small and light $2,500 notebooks. These minimal 9-10” systems are mostly geared to access the Internet. However, they have serious compromises. Pat argues that while netbook prices have gone up, notebook prices have come down. Battery life of the netbooks also fails to meet expectations, as well as no optical drive, small screen, and very small or no hard drive. What do you think about Pat’s comments, and about netbooks?

I have to start with a disclaimer. This unit has not been tested in an actual fire and this article will make no claims as to the amount of fire and heat this creation can stand. During the course of this article I am going to break the warranty on a few pieces of equipment. Follow these directions at your own risk. The author of this article and GeeksToGo.com assume no liability for those who choose to follow these directions.

What I needed:

1. NAS or other PHD (Portable Hard Drive)
2. Personal Fireproof Safe
3. Drill & Drill Bits
4. Category6 Network Cable
5. Fire Stop Caulk
6. Wire Cutters
7. Shrink Tubing
8. Soldering gun and solder
9. RJ45 Crimping Tool and ends
10. Hot Glue gun and sticks or Rubber Cement
11. Surge protector with RJ45 surge protection

For the purposes of this article, I chose the following equipment.

1. NewerTech miniStack NAS 750
2. SentrySafe H0100 Fire-Safe Waterproof Chest
3. 3M Fire Barrier Sealant (caulk)

I already had the NewerTech NAS from a previous review that I had written. The unit performed very well, and even though I really didn’t want to risk destroying such a useful device, I wanted to do this article more. Being Network Attached, the NAS gave me the flexibility to place The Tank anywhere in the house. This unit also runs very quiet and cool; both are necessary features when planning to run in a confined space.

I chose the SentrySafe (Model H0100) for many reasons. First, the unit costs about $25 and can be found at your local supermarket. I got mine at WalMart. It’s waterproof and UL Rated to withstand heat up to 1550 Degrees. It’s small in size to make it easier to place in an inconspicuous place. Even with its small size, it has more than enough room for my NAS, while still leaving a little space for breathing room.

The 3M caulk was the first thing I came across at Lowes. It’s easy to apply (comes in a caulk tube), waterproof, bonds to metal surfaces, won’t eat the plastic coating on wires, and dries quickly. 3M says the caulk restores fire rated construction to its original integrity, which is good since we will be drilling holes in our safe. When introduced to fire, the caulk expands to fill in the holes more thoroughly.

Now that we have the why, and what, let’s look at how…

Step 1 – Prepare the NAS I had to do a number of things to the NAS to make this work, most of which will void the warranty. Remember, continue at your own risk.

First I took apart the plastic case. It won’t be necessary with the NAS’s fancy new steel outer structure. The plastic will just take up room inside the safe. We need more room so that we have more airspace to help keep the drive cooler during normal usage.

I also removed the LED lights. Again, they aren’t necessary and only serve to generate heat. I considered re-wiring the LED activity lights and mounting them on the exterior of the safe, but that would require drilling another hole. I’m shooting for fewer holes for better protection. Function over aesthetics.

The NewerTech NAS comes with a small heat sink that can be found on the underside of the NAS unit to help disperse heat. For the time being, I am going to use the supplied heat sink to see if it will suffice in an enclosed environment. If not, I have an idea for a bigger heat sink to help keep things running efficiently.

In yet another attempt to void the warranty of this awesome piece of equipment, I cut the power cable. I cut the cable between the power block and the NAS, for two reasons. First, the power block expels heat, which we want to minimize inside the safe. Second, the end of the cable that plugs into the NAS is too big. To maximize fire protection, we want to keep the holes in the safe small.

I took an extra step by stripping off some of the factory shielding and replacing it with my own, much smaller shielding. That allowed the hole in the safe to be even smaller. I used the shrink tubing to protect the wires, and to assure that the bare wires didn’t short out on the safe walls.

Step 2 – Prepare the Network Cable Much like with the power cable for the NAS, I customized my network cable to minimize the size of the hole needed to go through the safe.

Remember when stripping or playing with network cabling, it’s important to keep the twists in the wire. These are important. I didn’t replace the outer shielding on the network cable. I ran the shielded part right up to the outside of the safe, but everything inside the case will be unshielded.

Step 3 – Prepare the safe Once I had the network and power cables customized, I tested to see how big of a drill bit I needed to make the holes in my safe. I recommend using a good quality drill bit as these safes are pretty well made.

To determine exactly how small of a hole I could get away with, I took my drill bits and made test holes in a piece of wood first. I decided on 2 different drill bits, one for the network cable, another for the power cord. Once I found the smallest holes possible, I was ready to drill. I’ve chosen not to include the bit size I used, because the bit size you need will vary depending on the cable used, and how much work you chose to do with the shielding.

Now comes the part where I drill holes in a perfectly good safe. Those with weak stomachs might want to stop here. Again, keep in mind that we’re breaking warranties here. As a note, some home safes are filled with sand, or at least a loose substance, inside the walls of the safe. This acts as insulation for the fireproofing. It’s important to keep this in mind when picking a spot to drill the hole. I picked a spot on the lower half of the safe in the back… near the hinges. I thought this would be the best place with the flattest surface for drilling. I first tested by opening the lid to be sure I wouldn’t pinch the wires when I opened the safe for any reason.

Now with my holes drilled, I quickly inserted the wires and caulked the holes both inside and out. I used my fingers to make sure I had a tight fit around the wires.  This again assures minimal loss of  insulation that was housed inside the cavities of the safe. Although the caulk says that it sets up in under 10 minutes, I left my creation overnight. I didn’t break anything loose as I was pulling and moving the wires while putting it together.

Step 4 – Put the wires back together Now that the wires are through the safe wall, and the caulk holding them in place is dry, it’s time to put everything back together. I started out by sliding the old shielding on the network cable to make the job look nice.  To place a new RJ45 end on the Cat6 cable so that the unit is ready for communication, I used my handy-dandy crimping tool. Ensure the Cat6 cable twists are still in place.

I used a soldering gun and more shrink tubing to repair the cut I made in the electrical cord. I also used a larger piece of shrink tubing around both the wires to keep them together, and to try to make it as safe as possible. A fireproof safe isn’t much good if the fire starts inside the safe!

Step 5 – Install what’s left of the NAS At this point the NAS is little more than a hard drive with an attached heat sink and a circuit board. To ensure that the circuit board doesn’t short out on the steel structure it will be housed in, it’s important to use either rubber cement or a hot glue gun. Either of those substances will insulate the electrical components from the steel.  I placed the top of the NAS under the drive to provide some extra insulation.

Don’t use too much glue because we want to leave as much airspace as possible inside the safe, but use enough glue to give a little airspace under the unit. You’ll have to judge for yourself the proper amount. Be sure you check clearance of the lid of the safe when it’s closed.

Step 6 – Setup outside protection for the NAS In the list of items used above, I noted a surge protector with RJ45 (Network) protection. If your data is protected from fire, it might as well be protected from electrical surges as well. Ensure that your drive and network connections are connected to the surge protector. Not only does this give us some more protection for our secure data, but it allows us easy access to be able to power the NAS on and off when necessary.

Construction done, now what?

Now that we’re done putting it together, it’s time to do some testing. I started with a simple test, with the safe open, to ensure that my customizations didn’t break anything. I turn on the NAS and tried to connect to it with my computer. Fortunately, everything worked just as it had when it was running in its own case.

Next, it’s time to do some long-term testing to see how the drive fares in the confines of the safe. For the purposes of this test I have a wired thermometer. I’ll close it inside the safe so that I can monitor temperatures.

My house is air conditioned and I keep it at a comfortable 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Most hard drive manufacturers recommend that a drive operate in temperatures between 32 and 140 degrees F. With a maximum temperature around 140 degrees F and a room temperature of 72 degrees F, I expect to have enough headroom to make this experiment work. Note – 140 degrees Fahrenheit is maximum temperature and is certainly not our target. Drives generally operate best at less than 100 degrees F.

Under normal operation, with no one writing to the drive, the temperatures inside the safe ranged between 75 and 80 degrees. We’re off to a good start. Considering the maximum temperatures provided earlier, I’m pretty happy with the current results.

After allowing the drive to idle for a few hours so I could record the temperature results, I thought it was time to move on to a little more strenuous test to see how the temperature would change when the drive was put to work. To make the drive work, I tried performing a full system backup from my laptop. That’s about 85GB of data and should take some time to complete. About midway through the backup, the temperature reached its peak at 97 degrees Fahrenheit. While this is certainly not an optimal temperature, it’s well below the maximum temperature and even below our target temperature of 100 degrees F.

Since short tests are not very conclusive, I decided to check the temperature as often as possible over the course of a week, so as to continue to monitor the temperatures inside the safe. During the course of my test week, with nightly backups and sporadic access to the drive for access to my storage data, I watched the temperature gauge as often as I could remember. The average temperature through the testing period was somewhere between 87 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The peak temperature I recorded during testing was 101 degrees F.

What can this creation handle?

The amount of fire your drive can withstand relies on the safe that you choose.  The better the safe, the better your drive will fare in the event of a fire.  For this test, I chose a cheap safe.  It’s effective, and will work, but isn’t the best option if you have very important data to protect.

Taking into account the specs of the safe, this creation should withstand 1500 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.  It’s also waterproof, so the efforts of the firefighting team shouldn’t damage the drive either.  I would say it was well worth the $40 I have invested in it (in addition to the NAS device).

Final thoughts.

Basically this is a risk-vs-reward project.  To complete this project, you risk breaking the warranty on some equipment. You will be putting your equipment investment at risk by putting it into a fairly inhospitable working environment. There is also no guarantee that in the event of a fire, your drive will be totally protected, such as in a 1500 degrees F fire lasting longer than 15 minutes .

The reward is a drive that is potentially fireproof and waterproof   a drive that can withstand almost anything you can throw at it. You’ll have a safe place to keep your important files that you should never have to touch, and one that is always connected.

If Corsair were to offer this power supply as a modular unit to limit the tangle of leads to deal with when it’s installed, it would be nearly perfect.

Well now I’ve been given the opportunity to review one of Corsair’s new modular power supplies and it’s got a tough act to follow.  The HX620W claims many of the same attributes of it’s bigger cousin, it’s powerful, efficient, quiet, cool, customizable, and it’s dual GPU ready.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the box is that the HX620W is not 100% modular.  It has the 20/24 pin connector, a 4 pin connector, and an ATX 8/4 pin connector hard-wired to the unit.  Still, this is a huge improvement when compared to the tangle of cables the TX750W sported.   In all fairness, I installed this power supply in the same cases I used in the TX750W review, one a top mount and one a bottom mount.  Let’s look at the top mount case first.

When installed as a top mounted unit, the few hard-wired cables it has are on the side nearest the mainboard, they are of adequate length to reach their intended connectors, and offer only the necessary connections to power the mainboard.  The cables are not overly long and the extra length is easily routed cleanly.  I then dug into the Corsair logo baring vinyl pouch and see what kind of cables I got to play with.

The cable assortment comes in it’s own pouch with a Velcro closure, and there’s quite a bunch to choose from.  The HX620W is supplied with two PCIe cables, three SATA cables (8 connectors total), four 4 pin peripheral cables (8 connectors total), a peripheral to fan power adapter (2 connectors), and a peripheral to floppy cable (2 connectors).  There are varying lengths of each, so this is looking very promising.

A clean install in a top mount configuration is a snap!  The cable are long enough, and short enough to make all the connections cleanly.  I only needed a couple of cables in the AOpen case as it’s getting a little old, but the cabling turned out much cleaner using the HX620 than the TX750.  No big wads of cables stuffed into every available drive bay with this unit and airflow in the case is not restricted at all.

Ok, we’ve got a definite improvement over the TX750W in the top mount configuration.  Let’s see how it does in the Antec 900 case.  That’s the one that caused so much grief with cables restricting the airflow.  The only place to tuck them away was in front of the front mounted case fans.  Not a good plan.

Like the TX750W, the HX620W must be mounted upside down in the Antec case.  This places the hard-wired cables to the outside, away from the mainboard, which caused problems with getting the cables routed to their intended targets cleanly.  The 4 pin plug on the ASUS mainboard is clear at the top, right behind the input/output panel.  About as far away from the cable as it can be.  The TX750W spanned the distance, but just barely, and it took some creative cable routing to get it there cleanly.  With the  HX620W, this cable was a perfect fit as it is several inches longer than it’s counterpart on the TX750W.  The 20/24 pin cable was also the perfect length for this installation.  My ASUS board doesn’t require the 4/8 pin cable, but it tucked away nicely under the drive bays, leaving the fans completely unobstructed.  Now for the modular cables.

There’s a peripheral connector at the back about midway up this board.  Using the closest connector in the power supply and running the cable beneath it and up the back of the board, the last connector on the cable was just long enough to fit cleanly.  That left one peripheral connector out in the open, but it’s tight against the back of the case and barely noticeable.  There’s another peripheral connector required at the top front of the case to provide power to the front panel ports and the top mounted 250mm fan.  No problem here, either.  Using the longest peripheral cable from the Corsair goodie bag, I reached it with length to spare.  Because the modular cables are flat, it was easy to tuck the extra length of cable above the optical drive bay.

That left the SATA drives to connect.  Using the longest SATA cable to connect the optical drive was a cake walk.   Again, the remaining length was tucked above the optical drive cage.  One short cable connected the two SATA hard drives with a bend of cable tucked under the drive bays.  Done deal!  And it’s clean both in appearance and where air flow is a concern.  While the cables could have been a couple inches longer in every case, they are adequate as they are… more so than those of the TX750W.

I was very impressed with the TX750W’s performance.  Let’s see how the HX620W compares to it.  I can already tell it’s quiet.  My case fans drown it out completely.  Efficiency is best measured over time, but  Corsair has been  awarded 80 PLUS Certification across the entire Corsair line of power supplies, including the award winning modular HX Series, powerful TX Series and value-performance VX Series, so I think we can take them at their word on that.

As the images below demonstrate, the HX620 is every bit as stable as it’s larger cousin.  There were some slight voltage fluctuations at lower voltage levels, but none greater then .1 volts, well within listed specifications.  There is no apparent difference in the unit’s output whether at rest or under load.  Running in SLI has no effect on out put, though the PSU temperature rises slightly when using dual graphics cards and rendering complex graphics at high frame rates.  Still, the HX620W does not get as hot as other unit’s I’ve tested under similar loads.

Corsair  HX620W on the left – Corsair TX750W on the right

Top to bottom are Vcore1 voltage, +3.3v, +5v, and +12v legs.

The HX620W does, indeed, meet or exceed the claims of Quiet and Cool.  The output is stable through all ranges and loads I was able to place it under and ripple voltage is nearly immeasurable.  I found this to be a very strong running power supply under all the conditions I placed it under, but it’s actually the unit’s installation flexibility that sold me.  Because of it’s modular design and lengthy cables, it’s very easy to install the HX620W cleanly to maximize air flow through the case…which is an important feature for anyone who uses their computer vigorously.

As one who isn’t happy until I’ve found something to complain about, I do have a complaint.  In a bottom mount situation, the logo is upside down.  This would be easily remedied by applying the offside logo upside down.  It would not be seen in top mount applications and the logo would be right side up in a bottom mount application such as mine.  Seriously, that’s the only thing I could find wrong with this power supply and at less than $170, I would not hesitate to recommend the HX620W to anyone wanting an exceptional power supply in this output range.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Windows Home Server, or WHS, is based on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 platform, but has been re-packaged to make it much more friendly for the home user. It uses a simple console interface to provide management functions, such as adding users, configuring backups, and managing shared folders. The typical WHS device is a computer that is connected to your home network and managed through another PC on the network. It’s capable of performing a headless boot, meaning there is no requirement for a keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Because it doesn’t require these devices, it can be tucked into a corner and takes up relatively little room. I have mine sitting in my basement, next to my router. Out of sight does not mean out of mind, however; this system is always running, monitoring the health of your network and helping to keep your critical data safe.

How it Works: As mentioned, the WHS resides on your network and is managed through other PCs. This is done through the Home Server Connector software. When this is installed on a PC, it automatically finds the WHS and creates a connection to it. That computer is then identified on the server, which will list the computer name and operating system, as well as it’s backup status.

You can define a schedule for performing backups. WHS defaults to performing backups between 12 am and 6 am, as that’s typically time period in which computers are not being used. When the server connector software is installed, it automatically configures the PC for backups. Backups will occur if the computer is on, even if it’s in sleep or hibernate mode; the computer will wake up, perform the backup, and go back to sleep. If there are multiple PCs, they will back up one at a time. You can also perform manual backups, and define how long WHS keeps the backups.

Like Sugarsync, WHS gives you options that some of the other backup solutions don’t, notably remote access. User accounts can be created on the server, and remote access capability can be allowed for individual accounts. As part of setting up WHS, you can create a domain name, such as myfamily.homeserver.com. From here, you have access to any computer on your network that is configured for remote access, as well as access to and shared folders on the server. The remote computer access is a big plus, as it gives you access to Outlook (or whatever email program you use) and other programs on your PC, whereas Sugarsync only gives you access to any data you sync online.

A basic WHS configuration includes at least 2 hard drives, which are automatically configured as hot-swappable backups. If one drive fails, the other will still have all the data that has been saved to it. The failed drive can be easily replaced, and WHS will recognize it. Additionally, more storage space can be easily added, which gives a lot of flexibility in expanding your backup space as needed, while also ensuring that your data is safe.

WHS gives several options for recovery. If you only need to recover a folder or files, you can open the appropriate backup and restore it from there. WHS keeps monthly, weekly, and daily backups, and you can choose how long to keep those. It defaults to keeping the monthly for 3 months, the weekly for 3 weeks, and the daily for 3 days, but these can be changed. If you accidentally delete a file today that you need, you can go back to yesterday’s backup and retrieve it. If you realize a month later that you needed something, you can go back to the previous month’s backup and recover it from there.

You can also do a system recovery. If your system files become corrupt or your hard drive crashes, you can boot from the WHS recovery disk and then restore your drive that way. It also saves your drivers in a separate file every time it backs up, so if you ever need drivers, such as during a re-install, you have access to them. Again, this is something that sets WHS apart from other backup solutions, as this is done automatically.

What I Like about WHS: This can easily be a configure-and-forget type of backup system, and the ease of configuring the backups makes it simple. It’s a great solution for a multi-PC household, as each of the PCs can be defined on the server and set to backup automatically. The built-in redundancy adds to the peace of mind you get from knowing your important data is backed up. The fact that you can reach your data remotely is also a plus. Now that I’ve gotten it configured and set up, I don’t have to spend any time managing the server. WHS can download and install updates and reboot as needed, with no intervention from me, and the backups run as scheduled. WHS will monitor the health of your network too, notifying you if a PC hasn’t been backed up as scheduled, checking the health of the hard disks, and monitoring the state of your router configuration to make sure that it is properly configured for remote access.

What I Don’t Like about WHS: I consider myself pretty technical, and I do have experience with Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003, but I still didn’t find WHS that easy to work with. I installed the OEM software on my own hardware. There is a degree of networking and technical expertise that might put this out of the normal home user’s comfort level, at least during the configuration and troubleshooting stages. Preconfigured options like the HP MediaSmart may be the best option for most people.

This solution is also more of an energy hog; the WHS and all the PCs connected to it must be on in order for the backups to take place, and the best time to run backups is when you’re not using the PCs; this usually means you have to leave all the PCs on when not in use, which is not something I typically do. However, Windows Home Server does offer the option to wake computers up from standby or hibernate to run scheduled backups.

Cost may also be a prohibitive factor for many. If you already have the hardware, the OEM software has a street price of about $150. If you go with the preconfigured hardware and software, I found prices ranging from $450 to $900, depending on the configuration. Finally, this is not a portable solution; if you’re forced to evacuate your house, for example because of fire or flood, you can’t easily pick this up and take it with you. You’d be wise to consider additional off-site backup. While it offers peace of mind as far as recovering from a hard drive failure or accidentally deleting files, it may not be the right disaster recovery solution.

Conclusion: While a Windows Home Server isn’t for everyone, if you have a multi-PC home network, or a home business, this is a robust backup solution. While it can be expensive, the extra features such as remote access and shared folders are added benefits to this choice. We’ll explore all the features of Windows Home Server in another review. If you’re looking for a basic backup strategy without bells and whistles, there are other options that we’ve reviewed that may better suit your needs.

In this, the third part of the home data backup series, we’ll discuss the various options one has in creating a backup solution using external Hard Drives.  We’ll look at what’s available on the market and how best to use them.  Ideally, a backup solution should be easy to create and even easier to use.  Once we’ve looked over a little of what’s available, we’ll build a large capacity backup solution that will handle just about anyone’s requirements for secure data storage, will be easy to use, and will give more bang for the buck than most commercially available solutions.   Let’s talk briefly about some of the devices available on the market.

Simple USB Enclosures: There are a wide variety of enclosures available that will utilize either a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hard drive to create an external drive of the size you choose.  You’ll find everything from a “Plain Jane” box to cases that have bells, whistles, flashing lights, and sirens.  Well…maybe not sirens, but  there are some pretty flashy units available out there and you can build a viable backup solution that fits your tastes by simply adding an internal HDD to the enclosure of your choice.  Prices range from less than $20.00 to over $150.00 (not including the HDD’s or backup software).

External Hard Drives: If you don’t want to build your own device, there are also external hard drives available that need only be connected to the machine and you’re off and running.  Just about every manufacturer that offers hard drives also offers these devices and with the “plug and play” ease of use, they are a good choice for anyone needing external storage solutions.  Prices range from about $50.00 (60GB) to about $2000.00 (6TB).  They do not include backup software.

External Backup Solutions: Again, there are a wide variety of external backup solutions available from a variety of manufacturers.  Some are reasonably priced…some can be pretty spendy.  If you need a lot of space (a Terabyte or more), be prepared for a little sticker shock.  You’ll find most of the offerings start at a little over $250.00 (1TB) and range to well over $1000.00.  These devices will usually include the software needed to backup your computer.

Software: There are quite a number of applications available that will back up your data, your system, or both.  Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, Genie Backup Manager, Roxio BackOnTrack, and NovaBackup all come to mind and are all very adequate backup applications.  These range in cost from $50.00 to $70.00.

Let’s build a backup solution!

For this project, I want to build a 1TB (~1,000 GB) device that’s expandable  with an automated backup capability that is affordable and versatile.  I chose Galaxy enclosures for this as they offer hot swappable drive bays, and offer more versatility when configuring the drives.   This is a very convenient feature in most respects, but will likely not be used much by the normal computer user.  The drives can be configured to be used as a single large drive, or you can use the drives separately

First, I used Galaxy Metal Gear’s 3508UC One Button Backup enclosure which includes PCCloneEX Software.  These are metal enclosures that have locking access doors for security, have active cooling, and connect up via either USB or FireWire.  Pressing the button on the front of the enclosure starts the backup.

This enclosure offers several attractive options including hot swappable drive bays (2) as already mentioned.   Hot swapping allows one to remove and replace drives without powering down the enclosure or having to use the “Safely Remove” feature in Windows. The enclosure also has the ability to utilize all the drives installed in it as a single large drive, or the drives can be configured to show as separate drives, and you can use drives of different sizes together.  Each configuration can be handy depending on the circumstances.

I installed two 1TB SATA HDD’s, first as a single large drive.  I immediately found a problem with this (stated in the documentation supplied with the unit).  This configuration uses JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) which combines the installed drives into a single logical drive.  This is known as Spanning or Concatenating  the drives and it has it’s draw-backs.  Removing one drive, whether purposely or through a hardware failure, will effectively destroy the data on both drives.  Not what you want in a backup solution.  When configured as separate drives, however,  I was presented with a very viable backup solution and the drives can be removed and installed at will.

Then came problem two…the software supplied with the unit is barely adequate.  Pressing the button to start the backup in reality only starts the PCCloneEX application.  Then you’ll have to tell it what you want to back up.  It will back up the data (files and settings), but will not back up the system state, and it will only run under Windows.  If you have your system go down through hardware failure or operating system corruption, you will have to get the machine running and install the PCClone software in order to recover your data.  That’s ok, I suppose, but it’s not the solution I wanted.  I wanted a full recovery option. So, keep the enclosure, toss the software, and forget the “One Button Backup”.

I chose to use Acronis True Image software in place of the supplied PCCloneEX, but there are others available for around the same price.  Now I had the option for scheduled backups to the location of my choice with the ability to make a full drive image and add incremental backups to that as the system and data changed.  I now have the backup solution I was after at a very reasonable price for the size, convenience, and capabilities of the device.  I can literally restore the machine to it’s current configuration in minutes instead of hours.  I can back up all of my computers to this single drive and still have room for nearly unlimited incremental backups.  Total cost of this 2TB backup solution was $489.96…including the Acronis software, which is about in line with retail offerings, but is far more versatile.

Some of us require a little more piece of mind, so I decided to try a redundant array.  For this I used the Galaxy Metal Gear 3538UEP enclosure which provides several RAID configurations, but comes with no backup software.  No biggie. I wasn’t impressed with the software anyway.  It still offers two hot swappable bays,  but also gives you the ability to build in some redundancy by using RAID 1, commonly called a mirrored drive array.  When data is written to a RAID 1 array, it is written to all disks simultaneously and the data will remain accessible so long as one disk in the array continues to function.   This process will see both drives, but only report them as a single  drive, or half of what is actually installed.  To use the RAID configurations, both installed drives must be of the same type and capacity so, when compared to the first enclosure, it seems you are a little more limited with how you can configure the drives.  However, when you backup using this configuration, it is written to both drives simultaneously, effectively creating two separate and viable backups at the same time.  Should one drive fail or the data become corrupt, you still have a viable backup available.  A nice option, indeed.

Again, I used the Acronis True Image Software to automate the backups and was able to backup multiple machines to the single array, with room to spare.  Total cost of this solution was $529.96 (including software) which is still comparable to commercially available backup solutions.  While these prices seem quite high, they can be easily scaled by changing the size of the HDD’s you use.  If you only want 1 TB of storage, you can install one 1TB HDD or two 500GB drives, which will bring the price down significantly.

If you are running on Vista (Ultimate or above), you won’t need the software as Vista has it’s own backup feature, though it only saves your data, not the system state.  This can represent an additional savings of $49.99 providing you are interested only in securing the data.  Under these circumstances it would be possible to build an impressive automated 1TB backup solution for about $230.00 ($280.00 if you include the Acronis software). Or, about the cost of a plain Jane external HDD of similar capacity.

Some folks will not need such large capacities, redundancy, or security. A good solution for these users would be good backup software, and a commercially available external drive that fits their budget.  Good backup solutions can be acquired that fit just about any budget and there are many different software choices when it comes to backups.

As for me, I settled on the 1TB mirrored array and am secure in the knowledge that I can restore any of my systems and the data they contain in minutes from either of two viable system images.  As for the enclosure, I chose not to use for the backup solution. I’ll be using that as a large capacity storage drive, and will be able to use it for any purpose that requires installation of a drive to one of my machines — such as data recovery or formatting.

Let’s recap!

The Software: The solutions I chose, while adequate under most circumstances, do not provide a complete backup solution right out of the box.  The software provided (PCCloneEX) is slow and will back up data only.  I was not impressed.  However, using the third party software (Acronis True Image) allowed for a complete system backup and gave me the option to schedule either complete or incremental backups at a time of my choosing and without input from me.  Additionally, the backup software can be used with any external storage device of adequate size to provide a backup solution.

The Hardware: The Galaxy Metal Gear enclosures perform admirably, are easily configurable, and provide the potential for a massive amount of storage.  The actual assembly required amounted to sliding the HDD’s into a bay, closing the bay door, and flipping a switch. Setting up took literally minutes to accomplish. The hardware I used allowed a great deal of scalability (both in capacity and price), several storage configurations, and is readily available through many retail outlets, as well as from several online shopping sites.  The hard drives I used as backup media (WD 1TB SATA) can be easily removed and stored in an offsite facility or fire proof safe for security.  Restoring the system takes a fraction of the time it would take to install a new system, and all the support software required to put things back as they were.

I didn’t end up with a one button backup solution as I had hoped. Instead I have a fully automated backup solution that is simple to use, has a significant storage capacity, and is very reliable.  Having good backups of your data is not just important, it’s critical.

Happy computing!