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Est. 2003
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  Project Systems

HDHTS:
High-Definition Home Theater Server

Clear Acrylic Workstation w/ LCD

MSI MS-1057 barebones
"whitebook"

The BRAINIAC  Workstation
   
  Motherboards

Two Choices for the HDHTS:
  1. Asus K8N-DL
  2. Tyan Thunder K8WE

Asus NCCH-DL

Asus PC-DL

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H

Iwill DH800

Iwill DK8N

Paxville vs Clovertown vs Woodcrest
Dual Xeon Motherboards:
  1. Asus PVL-D/SCSI
  2. SuperMicro X7DAE
  3. Tyan S2692ANR
  4. Tyan S2696WA2NRF
  5. Tyan S5380G2NR
  6. Tyan S5382WAG2NRF
   
  2.5" HDDs

5x 100GB 5400RPM HDD Roundup:
    1. Fujitsu MHU2100AT
  2. Fujitsu MHV2100AH
  3. Seagate Momentus 54.2
  4. Toshiba MK1031GAS
  5. Hitachi Travelstar 5K100

3x 120GB 5400RPM HDD Roundup:
    1.  Fujitsu MHV2120AT
  2.  Seagate Momentus 54.2
  3.  Fujitsu MHV2120AH

Fujitsu MHX2300BT
300GB 4200RPM

Hitachi Travelstar 80GB
80GB 4200RPM

Hitachi Travelstar 5K160
160GB 5400RPM

Hitachi Travelstar 7K100
60GB 7200RPM

Samsung HM160JC
160GB 5400RPM

Seagate Momentus 5400.3 
160GB 5400RPM

Toshiba MK1234GAX
5400RPM 120GB

Western Digital Scorpio 320GB 5400RPM
   
  3.5" SATA/PATA HDDs

1TB HDDs Examined
    1. Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
  2. Hitachi Ultrastar A7K1000
  3. Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1000GB
  4. Western Digital Caviar SE 16 1TB GP

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 250GB

Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 400GB

Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 500GB

Maxtor DiamondMax10 300GB

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB

Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB

Western Digital RE2 500GB

Western Digital RE2-GP 1000GB

Western Digital WD1500AHFD
150GB "Raptor X"

Western Digital WD740GD
74GB "Raptor"
   
  SAS HDDs

Super SAS HDD Roundup:
    1.  Fujitsu MAY2073RC
  2.  Hitachi C10K147
  3.  Hitachi 15K300
  4.  Seagate Cheetah 15K.4
  5.  Seagate Cheetah 15K.5
  6.  Seagate Savvio 15K.1

Promise SuperTrak EX4650 +
  4x Fujitsu MBA3300RC  

Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1TB SAS
   
  3.5" U320 SCSI HDDs

Fujitsu MAU3073 73GB with
RAID 0, 1 tests

Fujitsu MAX3147 147GB with
RAID 0, 1 tests

Hitachi Ultrastar15K147 147GB with
RAID 0, 1 tests

Maxtor Atlas 15KII 73GB with
RAID 0, 1 tests

Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 147GB
with RAID 0, 1 tests

Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 300GB
with RAID 0, 1 tests
   
  Monitors

Dell 2405FPW

Gateway XHD3000
   
  Cases

JustPC Gazelle Cases

Lian Li PC-V2000B

Silverstone TJ05

Silverstone LaScala LC03V-B

Thermaltake Armor
   

CPU, MB, Mem, Graphics, Test Summary

   
  CPUs
AMD Athlon 64 X2 BE-2350
AMD Athlon X2 4850e
AMD Mobile Athlon XP "Barton" 2600
AMD Phenom 9500
AMD Opteron Dual Core 285

Intel Core2Duo Mobile T5600
"Merom" 1.83 GHz 667 MHz FSB 2MB

Intel Core2Duo Mobile T7200
"Merom" 2.0 GHz 667 MHz FSB 4MB

Intel Xeon 2.8GHz "Paxville"

Intel Xeon 5160 "Woodcrest"

Intel Xeon 5320 "Clovertown"
   
  Video Cards

Three Choices for the HDHTS:
  1. Asus EAX1600XT
  2. MSI NX7800GTX
  3. MSI NX7900GT

Video Card Compilation Summary

 

  Asus 8600GTS
  ATI X1950XTX, single and CrossFire
  GeCube X1650Pro
  GeCube X1650XT
  Zogis 8400GS
  Zotac 8800GT

DX10 Video Card Summary

 

   Foxconn 9600GT 512MB
   Zotac 8800GT 512MB
   Zotac 8800GTS Amp Edition
   
  TV Tuners

AverTVHD MCE A180

AutumnWave OnAir GT

DVico FusionHDTV5 RT Gold

DVico FusionHDTV5 RT Lite

DVico FusionHDTV5 USB Gold

nVidia DualTV MCE

Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250
   
  RAID Controllers

AMCC 3Ware New RAID Controllers
    1.  9650SE-16ML16-port SATA RAID
  2.  9690SA 8-port SAS RAID

6x SATA RAID Controller Roundup:
    1. AMCC 3Ware 9500S-8
  2. Highpoint Technologies 1820A
  3. ICP Vortex GDT8586RZ
  4. LSI Logic MegaRAID 150-6
  5. Promise Technology
      FastTrak S150 SX4-M

  6. Pacific Digital Talon ZL-150

SAS RAID Controller Roundup:
    1. Adaptec ASR-31605
  2. Areca ARC-1680
  3. LSI MegaRAID SAS 8708ELP
  4. LSI MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP

SATA-II RAID Controller Roundup:
    1. Adaptec ASR-31605
  2. Areca ARC-1220
  3. Areca ARC-1261ML
  4. Areca ARC-1680
  5. Highpoint Technologies 1820A
  6. LSI MegaRAID SAS 8708ELP
  7. LSI MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP
  8. Promise Technology
      SuperTrak EX16300

Promise Low-Cost SAS RAID Controllers
    FastTrak TX2650 2-port SAS RAID and
  FastTrak TX4650 4-port SAS RAID

Promise SuperTrak EX4650 +
  4x WD RE2-GP 1TB  

Promise SuperTrak EX4650 +
  4x Fujitsu MBA3300RC  

U320 SCSI RAID Controller Comparison:
    1. Adaptec 2230SLP
  2. LSI MegaRAID SCSI 320-2
  3. LSI MegaRAID SCSI 320-2E
   
  PC Audio

Auzen X-Meridian 7.1

Bluegears b-Enspirer

Logitech Z4-i Speakers

PlusDeck II PC TapeDeck
   
  Optical Drives

Pioneer DVR-A09XL

Pioneer DVR-110D

Nero Speed, EAC, Smartripper Summary:

 

  Emprex DVDRW1116IM
  Emprex BDV316G DVDROM
  JLMS XJ-HD166S
  Kenwood UCR421 72x
  LiteOn SOHW-1633S
  Plextor PX-716SA
  Plextor PX-760A
  Plextor PX-40TSi
  Plextor PX-40TSUWi
  Slot-load Slim DVD drives
   
  Input Devices

Acton Mini Optical Mouse

Acton MicMouse

Adesso WKB-4000US RF Keyboard

Adesso NuScan 1000 USB Barcode reader

Eluminx Illuminated KB

i-Rocks i-Mini and KR-6810
Illuminated keyboard

Logisys Illuminated KB

Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control

Logitech MX3000 Cordless Desktop

Sunbeamtech Acrylic Lite-Up Slim KB

Sunbeamtech BlueFlame Mouse

Sunbeamtech Solar Illuminated KB
   
  Notebooks, Other Portables,
and Accessories

MSI MS-1057 barebones
"whitebook"

Kensington FlyLight 2.0

Kensington Notebook Accessories:
90W AC/DC Power Adapter w/ USB
LiftOff Notebook Cooling Stand
Pocket Speaker
WiFi Finder Plus

SparkLAN WPEA-124N mPCIe 802.11abgn

Toshiba M200 2.0GHz Dothan
CPU Upgrade
   
  Memory Modules
and Accessories

Apacer PC2-3200 ECC Reg

Apacer PC2-5300 ECC FB-DIMM

CompactFlash card and
USB Flash disk Comparison:

    1.  Kingston CF/512
  2.  Kingston Data Traveler Elite 2GB
  3.  SanDisk Shoot&Store 128MB
  4.  SanDisk Cruzer mini 128MB
  5.  SanDisk Ultra II Compact Flash 2GB
  6.  Crucial Compact Flash 4GB

Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800

Crucial DDR2-667
PC2-5300 SODIMM

Crucial DDR400 ECC Reg

Edge Tech DiskGO 32GB USB 2.0

GeIL PC3200 DDR400

Kingston PC2-4200 ECC FB-DIMM

Qimonda / Aeneon DDR2-1066

Y-E Data YD-8V07 Combo FDD
and Flash Reader
   
  Networking

Airlink101 AGIGA8SW

Airlink101 Gigabit CardBus

Airlink101 Print Server

Airlink101 USB 2.0 802.11g

Airlink101 USB 2.0 Gigabit

Airlink101 Wireless 1-Port
USB 2.0 Print Server

SparkLAN MPEA-124N mPCIe 802.11abgn
   
  Miscellaneous

6x KVM Switch Shootout:
    1.  Belkin F1DD102U
  2.  Belkin F1DS104T
  3.  IOGear GCS1764
  4.  Linkskey LDV-002SK
  5.  Raritan SwitchMan USB
  6. TRENDnet TK-404KR

Addonics External 5.25"
Drive Enclosure

Avocent SwitchView DVI 4-port KVM

Linkskey 2-port DVI USB
KVM switch with Audio

Oyen Digital EB2 2.5" Enclosure

Syba USB 2.0 PCI Express x1 HBA
   
  Cooling Devices and Accessories

CoolerMaster White LED Fans

DangerDen Watercooling

Innovatek Watercooling

Logisys Remote Front Panel

Spire Verticool

Sunbeam 20-in-1 Panel

Sunbeam 3.5" Front Panel

Sunbeam Tech Chromatic Windmill

Thermalright SI-97

Thermalright XP-120

Thermaltake Hardcano 13

Thermaltake Big Typhoon

Vantec Vortex

Verax X21 Copper Heatpipes

Zalman Reserator 1 Plus
   
  Printers and Scanners

Brother MFC-440N

Brother MFC-7820N

Continuous Ink Systems

Epson Stylus Photo R200

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W

HP C7180
   
  Power Supplies and Accessories

Dual PSUs How-To

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W

Silverstone ST65ZF 650W

Seasonic Power Angel

Seasonic S12 600W
   

 

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