Posted 09/10/09 at 09:16:24 PM by Ryan Whitwam

LG has chosen CEDIA as the venue to show off its new N2R1 NAS box. The product’s aim, according to the press release, is to protect digital media files. The unit is capable of up to 2TB of RAID storage, and has a built-in DVD burner. Other specs include DLNA, Ethernet, and WiFi. Unfortunately, the wireless networking is limited to 802.11g. With 2TB of storage, you might want to wire this one in via Ethernet.

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Posted 09/09/09 at 08:48:12 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Adaptec seems to have come up with a new use for sold state drives. The new MaxiQ RAID controller cards use a modified 32GB Intel X25-E SSD, in conjunction with Adaptec software, to dramatically increase RAID array performance. How dramatically? The company is claiming a fivefold performance boost. The system also requires no operating system drivers, meaning it should be compatible with all setups.

SSDs are known for their performance, but have yet to catch up to standard rotating drives in capacity. The new Adaptec system aims to get the best of both worlds with huge read/write speeds, and the capacity people are accustomed to. The kits won’t come cheap, though. Each 32GB module has a retail price of $1295.

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Posted 08/20/09 at 06:00:03 PM by Nathan Edwards

Power users who want to take advantage of RAID are typically stuck between a rock and a hard place: their motherboard’s integrated RAID (the quality of which can vary wildly between chipsets) and expensive discrete controllers. HighPoint’s RocketRAID 2640x4 attempts to bridge the gap by offering better-than-onboard performance at a price much lower than fancier discrete cards.

As expected, the RocketRAID 2640x4, which has four SAS/SATA 3Gb/s ports but no onboard processor or memory, performed better than our test bed motherboard’s onboard RAID controller but couldn’t match the performance of the $450 Adaptec 5405, which boasts an onboard 1.2GHz processor and 256MB DDR2 cache.

Setting up the RocketRAID 2640x4 is simple: Drop in the card, hook up the drives, power up your computer, and hit Ctrl+H during boot. HighPoint’s BIOS makes creating and maintaining RAID a snap, and its Windows drivers are easy to install from the included disc.

Continue reading this review after the jump!

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Posted 08/05/09 at 05:00:10 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

I have RAID 0 on my PC and store my OS on it. But what else goes there? Do I install my games to the RAID or to my other drive? I also have games imaged so I don’t need the CD/DVD. Should those games be on the RAID or not? Are there any apps that would do better on the RAID? As it stands, I install most of my apps to the RAID 0 (Firewall, antivirus, Yahoo!, etc.). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Read on for the answer to Martin's question.

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Posted 07/28/09 at 11:25:46 AM by The Maximum PC Staff

I have 2TBs of movies that I’m afraid I’ll lose if the NAS device they’re stored on fails. Is it possible to recover the files on these hard drives by putting them in another device, or do I have to have the same product I’m using now? Making DVDs for 2TB of files is not realistic and I don’t really want to buy another 2TB of hard drives just for backup. How long can I expect a typical hard drive to retain data before it fails? One year? Five?

Read on to see our answer for Norm.

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Posted 06/29/09 at 12:37:56 AM by The Maximum PC Staff

I’m building a new system consisting of an Intel Q9650 processor, an EVGA 790i Ultra SLI mobo, an EVGA GTX 280 videocard, 2GB of Corsair Twin 3X2048-1600C7DHXG memory, a SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI soundcard, three SATA 500GB 5000AAKS Western Digital hard drives, and a retail version of Windows XP Pro with SP2. My BIOS is Phoenix Award. I have all default settings for everything in the BIOS except I disabled HD Audio.

When I try to load Windows, I get a generic blue screen that tells me to run a system diagnostic, do a memory check, and remove any mismatched memory or newly installed hardware. I’m wondering if I might have a conflict with the Corsair memory. The motherboard’s spec sheet states that it supports dual-channel DDR3 800/1,066/1,333, and SLI-ready memory up to 2,000MHz.

In a recent review of the 790i Ultra, you used 2GB of Crucial 1,333MHz on the mobo. Was this memory EPP 2.0, or do you need EPP 2.0 at slower speeds? My RAM is rated at 1,600MHz, but the BIOS tells me that EPP 2.0 is not detected. I have the latest BIOS version, but there is no listing for enabling SLI memory under the Advanced Chipset section in the FSB & Memory Config subsection. Does this appear if EPP 2.0 memory is detected? Can I run higher-speed non-EPP 2.0 memory, or would this create a conflict with Windows?

I also read in the “BIOS Tweaks” article (November 2008) that not addressing the AHCI issue could cause Windows to not load. I would like to eventually set up a RAID, but can I disable AHCI to load Windows or do I need to load AHCI drivers at the
F6 point?

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Posted 05/26/09 at 12:30:00 PM by David Murphy

So here's the deal. You have a ton of extra storage sitting around your house/apartment/basement. That's great. So what's the problem? It's just sitting there, doing you absolutely no good. You've maxed out the SATA ports on your desktop rig, but would love for a way to make use of your hard drives in some manner that's geekier than a doorstop, a height extension for your coffee table, or a crude weapon.

Have you thought about building your own server?

Woah, woah. Don't skip over this article just yet. It sounds complicated, but crafting up your own personal server for your files (and multimedia) isn't that complicated. In fact, for some of the free solutions I'm about to show you, all you need is a working PC that accepts USB keys. That's it. Plug it in, fire up the software, and you'll have a brand-new storage array that's ready to receive your file backups and music files in equal measure. And why is that important? Because you're probably not running a RAID array on your main PC--if your primary drive goes, that's it. Game over. End of story. And if you're the most backup-conscious person around, wouldn't it be nice to have a low-powered PC that serves up multimedia for any networked computer in your abode? I thought so.

All this and more awaits you in the land of home servers!

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Posted 05/07/09 at 05:00:51 PM by Andy Salisbury

Sure, you wanted to add some extra network storage with a NAS, but you just weren’t able to find anything stylish enough. Well, if a basic aluminum exterior with a single blue light is your definition of fashionable, look no further.

LaCie’s Big Disk and d2 network storage systems pack 1.5TB of storage (with an eSATA port for expansion) and 3TB of storage (by slapping two drives together using RAID 0) respectively. Both of them support a multitude of backup software, and play nice with DLNA-compliant devices.

The d2 Network and Big Disk Network are currently available for $190 and $380 respectively.

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