I purchased an Antec P182 for my cousin’s new computer. I have past experience with the P180 and it has been nothing but good to me. I feel it is build solidly and sturdy.
To my surprise, as I was researching for the best price, I came across several reviews at Amazon.com and Newegg.com saying that the case sucked, how flimsy the door is, and that the screws for the motherboard strip easily.
I got a bit worried and started to think, uh oh, maybe I bought the wrong case and Antec just fell off the wagon as far as quality control goes. But come to find out, all of those people were wrong. I have no idea how they came up with the screws not fitting properly. I did not over tighten them nor did I use an electric screwdriver. I used an old fashioned phillips screwdriver.
The front cover is extremely sturdy and I have NO idea why these people are claming that it is flimsy. It’s far from.
Hopefully this mini-review will help some of you who are on the fence about purchasing the P182. Take it from me, who has been working in the IT sector for several years and have been building custom machines for the past 10 years, Antec cases are sturdy, and built to last.
I plan to pick up another P182 for my current computer and for my next build I will be using the Antec Mini P180.
Well, not necessarily. Windows XP will still be around, it’s just that it is no longer being sold. However, people are stating that Windows XP copies will still be floating around. I haven’t heard much if they’ll be marked up since they’re going to pretty much turn into collectors items.
Not really for collecting but just the fact that Vista sucks, and the majority of the customers, especially business customers know it and want to stick with XP. This means trying to find multiple copies and licenses since most businesses have hundreds if not thousands of computers.
Microsoft will support Windows XP until 2014. That’s quite some time but that is a big difference between support and make available Windows XP. If you were considering getting a new computer with XP, try to do it ASAP. Don’t wait as you may find out that you’re stuck with Vista.
I can assure you, Vista blows. It’s the same exact operating system that Windows ME was. The same type of problems, slow downs, random weird crashes, “not responding” messages constantly barraging you due to the fact that it can’t seem to process all that data. Not to mention the stupid UAC security. I honestly haven’t seen it help. I have seen countless computers come through the shop that have Vista on it and still being infected with viruses and spyware.
Sure a message pop ups saying do you want to allow this program access or do you want to allow this program to install? All people are going to do is say yes. Who are they to know that this program is bad? That’s all it takes is a simple click to say yes, install me, I want you, and UAC has no idea that this program that UAC just allowed to install is a virus or a piece of spyware.
Bah, I’m tired and getting sleepy. I’ll be back to rant more about Vista later. For now, it’s time to enjoy the weekend.
I built a new computer for my cousin. He is currently using Vista OEM. I attempted to perform a repair installation due to the unit blue screening. The blue screening is happening due to me changing the motherboard.
I thought it would be so simple, just like Windows XP, pop in the disk, go through the installation route but instead of installing it by formatting and re-installing, you press the mighty “R” key and have it delete all system files and keep all user files in tact. What The FLDJF:LJKS? Why would you do this Microsoft? WHY???????????????
Now I have to back up his data and do a clean install of Windows.
Yes, Vista does give you the “repair” options but those are not truly repair options. Honestly I have no clue what it tries to repair other than what it tells you on the screen. I believe it tries to do a system restore to an earlier point where things were working… but how does it know when it was working last?
Besides that, it is just so inconvenient. I hope that Windows7 will fix this.
What is Windows7?
Windows7 is the next incarnation of the Windows operating system. Not much details on it other than it’s supposed to be released by late 2009. I doubt that will happen but here’s hoping and I will be crossing my fingers.
The final build of FireFox 3 was released as of 6/17/08. Go here to pick it up. They’re trying to beat a world record by having as many people as they possibly can download and install FireFox 3.
The bug with Netsuite is still there. When you attempt to open up a text box to type in text, the box is kept small and not maximized. It’s hard to explain, I will see if I can come up with something better.
I built a computer for a friend and purchased this kit from Newegg. I received everything, put everything together, installed Windows and noticed I was receiving errors. I then ran Orthos stress test and found that it would error out after 5 minutes of testing.
I knew it. Bad memory. I went ahead and initiated an RMA with Newegg. I hoped it was just a bad batch. I received my second pair back and it lasted roughly 24 hours while stress testing with Orthos only for me to come back to a screen indicating a system file was missing – clear indication of memory problems.
I gave up and ordered my trusty ole reliable Crucial non-Ballistix as those are just as plagued with problems as this Mushkin kit.
So, if you’re going to buy value ram, don’t buy this Mushkin kit!
I’m a little late on announcing this on my blog, as the announcement was made a few weeks ago. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 will be releasing in August. This beta will be geared towards the consumer and not just the technical web designers. I feel that IE8 has ways to go and beta 1 was just so buggy that it was unusable. However, it was really a technical beta just for web designers and the such. So it is quite understandable that the beta hasn’t worked very well. I do have to say that it has a long way to go before being finalized.
I hope that beta 2 will be stable enough to switch to full time. The first beta of Internet Explorer 7 was stable enough for me to use up until the latter stages of the beta.
They’ve implemented some really cool features that I would like to touch upon in another post. They finally fixed the bug or maybe it wasn’t really a bug but rather a feature that didn’t exist. You can now create several links in a folder on the links toolbar and middle click it and what happens now is that it will open all of the links in the folder in new tabs. Prior to this, an Explorer box would open with all your links in it. I had suggested this to the IE team for quite some time while IE7 was in its beta stages only to be told that it is a feature that cannot fit into IE7 and will have to wait for the next iteration of Internet Explorer.
With that said, I’m glad they’ve continued development on the browser. If it wasn’t for FireFox, IE would still be at IE6.0 which we all know sucks and is extremely vulnerable to attacks. FireFox 3, on the other hand, is coming out soon. It is currently in its release candidate stages which means it is very close to going gold. I haven’t played around with it very much but a co-worker of mine has. There are a few annoying bugs that still need to be worked out. I still hear and read that it is slow and still uses up massive amounts of memory. That’s definitely something I wish they would fix.
I’ve started to use Windows Live Writer to write my posts on all of my blogs. I really enjoy the interface and the built-in spell checker. It beats using a Microsoft Word template and it beats having to log in to my control panel online. I can do everything from the desktop, which is much easier, IMHO. You can download the program from this web site. It is currently in a technical preview.
I noticed there were two updates to two major pieces of software that I use in shop on a daily basis.
The first being update being Memtest version 2.01 which can be downloaded here: http://www.memtest.org/download/2.01/memtest86+-2.01.iso.zip – You’ll need to unzip the file to your desktop and burn it with some type of burning program like Nero or Alcohol 120% (which I also use on a daily basis).
Second, Hitachi has updated their Drive Fitness Test tool to run diagnostic tests on hard drives. I find that the Hitachi DFT works on ALL hard drives and is very conclusive as to whether or not the hard drive you are testing is bad. Hitachi Drive Fitness Test can be downloaded here: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/dft32_v412_b01.iso
Same instructions as the Memtest, burn ISO image to CD and use away!
Microsoft and the Internet Explorer team just released IE8 beta 1.
You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx
Just a warning, it is extremely buggy. I’ve found a few things so far.
IE8 beta 1 does not work with Netsuite.com
IE8 beta 1 displays certain text really fuzzy. I believe it has something to do with the clear type feature.
IE8 beta 1 changes the default font type in Outlook Express 6.
I needed a new pair of headphones for my iPod. The ones that came with the iPod blew up again. I bought a cheap pair of Sony’s from Longs but was not satisfied. The sound that came out of the Sony’s was horrendous.
I went into the Apple store I saw the Shure SE110 Sound Isolating Earphone with Balanced Armiture Driver, White
which are the direct replacement for the Shure E2C headphones. I have been thinking about purchasing these for quite some time now. I have had them in my Amazon.com cart for a few weeks. As I read through the reviews, they seem to be a very nice pair of headphones with little problems.
So I say this is a good investment and leave the Apple store with a new pair of headphones. I come home to try them out and become sorely disappointed. There is absolutely no bass response with these headphones. Also, I’ve never used in ear canal headphones before. So unless you really like the feeling of something going deep inside your ears and then inflating up to keep the noise out, I don’t think you’d like these – I know I didn’t.
The weirdest issue of all was that it felt like I was wearing a doctor’s stethoscope. When I would put the headphones into my ears and start walking, I could hear the vibration all through the headphones. It was rather strange. It is the same sensation of putting on a doctor’s stethoscope and touching the portion that goes to your body. That is the best way I can explain the sensation I had when wearing these headphones.
The sound is obviously better than the regular iPod and basic Sony headphones but for $100.00 I was expecting more. The Shure series of headphones are highly praised all over the Internet. In this case, I found it to be lacking in a few departments. There are higher end models and apparently these are the cream of the crop for headphones. Unfortunately I do not have the money to spend on $500.00 headphones.
