y add a 4 port USB card when u have 4 ports on the motherboard plus front panel USB ports and wouldnt having BOTH a SATA controller and eSATA controller card cause a resource conflect where one will cancel out the other?
@macreviews94 oops sorry, I thought you were talking to me about my GPU...I have an 8100 also and mine does have a GeForce 2 MX. I'm not sure about uxbill's PC but it does seem like it is the same one
ur right new dell computers are pure juunk. i have a few that have to be 10+ years old. ,well i guess that is life for ya.also, i hate bestec psu's i wish that bestec would just stop making power supplies. old dells used psu's from Delta, Newton Power, and Lite On, and they last for ever. they even used Hipro and lasted nice vid
I am using an old 8100 as my main rig at the moment. It has a 1.3 GHZ CPU and 384 MB RDRAM. I have overclocked it so I can watch YouTube vids in 480p...it's a beautifully made computer for it's day.
@videoflyguy I don't think we'll see computers like that being offered by any major manufacturer ever again. They were very solid. I have the OptiPlex GX400 (same thing, different name, an optional built in audio speaker and a real reset button on the front) with P4 processors from 1.3-1.7GHz and they are workhorses to this day. I use them as loaners.
@uxwbill I have friends who have Optiplexes and you are right, DELL used to be such a great manufacturer. I bought a laptop from them recently and it has cheap plastic hinges, a 1.7 GHZ CPU, and it overheats alot. I am talking about the Inspiron M101Z.
@videoflyguy I have an 8100. The reason it still runs today is because of the real quality of the board and the components. I cracked open the power supply, and it's no cheap power supply. Great capacitor selection and overall design. Same thing applies to the motherboard. Great components and works well. Now, buy a new Dell and see the crap they put in it. The 8100 has Active PFC...which is ironic because the new Dells LACK Active PSU. The only problem I had with this computer was it's fans.
@ElektroHut i had some trouble with the fans too recently, I really love the craftsmanship Dell used to put into there machines, I have a Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop which i use primarily for internet while on the road, the chipset and CPU overheat constantly, the GPU is sluggish, and the fans are ALWAYS ON due to the overheating
@videoflyguy Poor shame really. I like their old stuff...and some of the new stuff, but only the workstation type machines. Fans: The main exhaust fan went kaput on me a few years ago. Made a terrible sound. Wound up removing the green shroud and Gorilla Glued an 80mm fan on the heatsink, which is better for cooling anyway. I'm a bit skeptical of the PSU fan also, and since it is old and has that dumb 16-pin connector, I can't risk losing it to a dead fan. So I got a new fan for the psu also.
@ElektroHut Thats whats happening now with my fan, its making this really loud noise...Thats also why i want to build a custom PC, so i can put what i want into it. When i finally get around to building it I will probably reuse the 8100 as a home file server. I have put many years with slight upgrades, RAM, HDD ect and it has been faithful through all of those years, I just couldn't bear to part with it. it should end its life as a 20 year file server if all goes well :)
@videoflyguy I built a computer about 2 years ago. Back then I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but when I discovered REAL electronics (not just plugging color coded cables into a motherboard), thats when I really started feeling cool.=D.It works well & wound up being a tad more expensive than the "comparable" Dell,however mine has all polymer capacitors,good fans,a quality power supply etc.I'm actually upgrading my 8100 now with 1GB of RAM and a CF Card, cuz im too cheap for a HDD or SSD.
@ElektroHut Thats awesome! So you found 1GB for the original 8100 mobo? RBRAM is really expensive in most places and also really hard to find. And using a CF card instead of a HDD is what im doing with my server for a boot drive atm.
@videoflyguy It originally came with 128MB (I think). I bought 256MB more around 2004-ish...and that was like $50. Yeah it used to be really really expensive. I think now everyone is just trying to get rid of their stock, because RDRAM is totally extinct. But because I'm SUPER cheap, I decided to buy some used RDRAM off off eBay. I got 1GB (4x 256) shipped for $15, which isn't even too bad by todays prices. So I'm happy. And I'm really excited about the CF card. I've heard lots of sucess stories
@videoflyguy And you might be really quite surprised by how well the 8100 would run Win7, if that is what you want to do. I think with a RAM upgrade and maybe a little better video card (ATI Radeon 92/96/97/9800, perhaps?) it would be entirely workable.
I'll bet you can find a deal on the RDRAM. One of my OptiPlex GX400 machines came with 1.2GB installed in it! Seller thought it had "128MB" instead of "1280MB"! I redistributed that a bit, leaving 1GB in that and taking some to another OptiPlex.
@uxwbill I think that would do it, I actually have a e-GeForce 7600GS (256MB) GPU from EVGA that im going to put in my 8100 one of these days. Its not much but if im short on cash from buying RAM ect i could put that in temporarily
@uxwbill Yeah totally.You can get a cheap GeForce 6200 which you can get for $20 if you look around. It has shader model 3.0 and a lot of new standards. Its pretty low power and super cheap.
I'd honestly recommend running a Linux distro on it, because you can get lightweight versions that will run really well on these types of machines. I have GX260 that I got for $30! with a 2.8Ghz P4, 1GB DDR, and a GeForce 6200 running Xubuntu...that is 90% as fast as my Athlon X4 , 4GB DDR3, and HD4650
@ElektroHut I forget about the GeForce 6100/6200 series, which is odd, because I find them to be brilliant value for the money and excellent video cards with low heat output and power draw.
I want to like Linux--I really do--and I run it regularly, but I'm not ready for it as my main OS. At least not yet. :-)
@ElektroHut For the most part, I think that Dell's quality carried through pretty well until the end of the Dimension lineup. It was when those were replaced with the Inspiron/Studio desktops that things started to go so wrong. Fortunately, the OptiPlex seems to be almost as solid as ever, which is why I still recommend those to people. It's certainly better than the "home grade" lineup.
The fans are a weak point, though I don't think I've seen but one PSU fan die...
@uxwbill Optiplex is still very solid as well as Precision. They are more pricey and you're not going to find one at the local electronics store...but they are a lot better than Inspiron as you say. I got to look at one of the new Optiplex 390s and the motherboard atleast has polymer caps on the CPU and Rubycons/Nippon Chemi-con everywhere else. The power supply seemed to be a decent Delta one. They are good.My friend has a cheap Inspiron. Good god, quality is ABYSMAL! Well I'm off to bed. =p
@MixerVM Yeah, at some point in time. I'm already behind on Dell-related video requests and right now I can't upload anything longer than a minute or two. That's supposed to be fixed on Monday. I hope.
@ElektroHut For just about any CF card I'm aware of, you can choose either voltage without issue. 3.3V is typically easier on the adapter's LEDs (if you care about such things!) but the CF card won't really care either way.
I believe the CompactFlash standard mandates that cards can work from both supply voltages. If you can, check the technical specs or the back of your card for more info. If not, start with 3.3V and see if things work.
@uxwbill Thanks. I wonder why they even have a jumper on my converter for 3.3V or 5V. Maybe some older cards only use 3.3 or 5V, not both. I got a pretty decent card. Sandisk Extreme so maybe I can get some really good speed off this ancient computer. =D Thanks.
2000 is probably my favorite Non-7 entry in the NT Line. XP, i've been using it for far too long - It'll be a couple of years before i can stomach it again!
Quick question, do you know of any good NAS storage device i could use for my 2TB drive? I can rig it up to plug into my laptop through USB but i dont want the drive just sitting there because it gets fairly warm and could easily be damaged.
Hi you said in your video that a power supply failing can sometimes cause a motherboard to break, i have a powermac G4 and the power supply failed on that. I got a replacement power supply and put it in my powermac but when i turned it on it did not display any video also the internal cooling fans went to full speed. Do you think changing the motherboard on this computer would solve this problem?
My Inspiron 531 shows just how far Dell went down hill. I fitted a fan and a graphics card that was optional with the computer after a year and a half of ownership, the Bestec 300W PSU slowly got knackered, despite the computer drawing no where near 300W (it struggled even when idle!). Swapped it out for an (admittedly equally cheap) CIT 450W PSU, which has been fine ever since.
talk of freenas, rsync, and repurposing old pc get me all excited... anyway, despite having only 2 internal hd bay, I'd use more internal hd instead of external sata. I'd use the 2 to3 5.25 to 3.5 drive bay (using 2 cdrom bay to install 3 more external hd). Or I could just make a home made bracket for more hd in the empty space just below the HD bay. I think internal HD are cleaner and I don't like having too many external HDs.
Great video! Hope its not to long before you upload another i have two acer T180 P.C's and was woundering if you could tell me your thoughts on them and how you rate acer ect... I pade about £260 for them new about 3years ago and thay have been great so far, the two of them run windows xp and have service pack 3.
what would be wrong with my computer if all it will do when you plug it in is the fans will run just the power supply and computer fan run thats it no lights come on the screen wont read...what would be the problem...the motherboard bad??
Lets face it Bill...You're just a good old fashioned Genius!!!
I'm no way in your league I just have a Dell Netbook which was gifted to me with a damaged screen running 24/7 in a nice cool, dry discrete location with just over 4.5 TB of memory connected to it. The Netbook only has flash memory and the power consumption is minimal...It's also covered by a UPS along with the router. I keep the other 4 machines on my Network virtually empty...It makes life so much easier! :)
You must not shoot in HD. I keep all of my originals and the edited versions and after about seven months, had to erase some of the originals from the 1TB drive.
@pcwalker I'm not shooting in HD. The camera I've got now seems to come close to 720p, but it's not quite there. Even direct uploads such as this one don't show up as HD videos.
I need to get my videos organized too...I have a lot that need to be downloaded off this site. Although for me an external hard drive is what I will be choosing. A 500GB one or so would do, I just need to get a good brand that wont die. Samsung has been great to me.
Otherwise, sounds good, and if I ever have the need for so much space, I would consider doing this.
@clubcar98 I doubt that Youtube is going anywhere, but just in case they ever do, I'm hedging my bets and keeping all the source+finished files for my videos. Disk space is cheap these days.
Until recently, I would have recommended a Samsung drive in a Vantec NexStar 3 enclosure--and still would, if you get the USB/Firewire/eSATA model (Oxford 934DSA based). The USB and eSATA only model used to be based on a nice Sunplus IT bridge, now it's based on an Initio chip that's very buggy.
I worked as a MCSE for NCR besides working as a ATM and POS and had to setup a backup system for Lowes backoffice and they used a system close to yours they had 2 250 gb drives inside and 5 USB external drives all raided together using 4 drives raided as 1 large drive and 1 drive for parity. They used a proprietary software tat I still have a copy somewhere in the archives. I replaced 4 drives over 5 years and they never lost any information , They also had 2 DAT drives for external bckup
I'm surprised they lost so many drives. I have a security DVR (that I built) using four 500GB drives (RAID5+hot spare) and an Adaptec 2410SA true hardware RAID controller. These disks never get a break--they are written to 24/7. They've proven more reliable than I ever expected. Two of the originals from 2006 are still going, and when the others failed, that RAID controller switched effortlessly to the hot spare disk.
The two disks that failed both died of controller board failure.
i hope you have better luck with freeNAS than i have. there's nothing like conflicts in hardware.i have had my share of that.LOL your dell pc should be just fine for that. i was using a hardware raid setup and had to much conflicts with freeNas (sometime ago) might be better these days. it wasn't worth the headache and ended up using a dell inspiron laptop with external drivers. does our serialATA card have a onboard raid controller, or you doing the not so great software raid?
I've found that sometimes experimentation is needed. :-) Since the VT6421 and its boot-BIOS don't seem to support INT13H calls at all (unless maybe you build a fake RAID with the resident configurator), I thought I'd change it to a Silicon Image 3512. That was a serious error. The whole darn thing went down faster than a pint at closing time. Every other I/O device in the system was impacted, data corruption was the result!
I am using the FreeNAS built in software RAID1. I've tested it in this system with a few spare drives hooked up to the USB card and it seemed to work fine, if a bit slowly. Forcing a failure also showed the means of recovery to be pretty robust.
Hey Bill, great video as usual. I might be tempted to try FreeNAS again if I can stay away from the RAID. Too many problems if one of the drives goes bad or even worse the OS drive goes bad. I like to have my data on a drive which can be removed and installed in another system and be readable. My Hackintosh P4 server has been running fine and I still think that is the best way to go, but to each his own.
I read about FreeNAS RAID and made a test setup with this very machine and several USB disks. Then I forced a failure with the power switch on one of the drive enclosures...took that drive away, put a new one in its place, prepared it and started the rebuild. It took a looooooong time over USB but it worked flawlessly.
There will be a removable drive used here and updated periodically with rsync. Copies, copies, copies...
@uxwbill I've had both a failure of a data drive and a failure of the OS drive. Data drive recovery was fairly simple as you said, but the OS drive failure is more complicated. Make sure you have a copy of the config file for FreeNAS as I didn't. Luckily I found another drive which I had setup the same way and was able to recover.
@mosslack I did have to learn the hard way once when I lost a drive while testing the Vectra. I really wasn't too surprised when it happened, that old Conner CP1080 gave more than a few warnings. :-)
After that, I created a folder on another PC containing the configuration files and I dated each one.
You must make really huge video files, because I have my video archive comfortably stored on one 500 GB external hard drive. The largest single video file I ever created was 1.2 GB, but most are in the several hundred MB range, since most of my videos are produced at a data rate of 8 to 9 Mbps. (My oldest videos back in 2008 were only around 1 to 2 Mbps, but they are by now only a small minority of the total collection.)
@vwestlife 500GB might well hold it. I'm guessing, and I want plenty of storage space for future expansion. I'm getting "dinged" here twice, though, because so far I have been shooting video with point-n-shoot digital cameras of some kind or another. If I was shooting on some kind of tape, the situation would probably be better.
And I'm loath to throw anything I've filmed out, in case I want to use the footage for something in the future or something happens to YT. (Hold your surprise. :-) )
I know what you mean about computers being cheap. The computer I'm using now, and I use for gaming and video editing is really good spec, but the case, being a prebuilt HP with various upgrades, the case is made of a combination of cheap plastic and metal, the top being plastic, sides being metal, and front being plastic too. Netbooks are ALL plastic. I luckily have an older (2005) laptop that's still in service and it's ALL metal, even the palm rest.
@gmcnewlook Even if not as technically advanced as the Dim8100/Opti400, the Dim4300 ended up being the better machine with more of a future. Intel insisted that Rambus was superior, and it was faster, yet it was horrifically expensive and not sufficiently better to the typical end user. Today, Rambus carries silly prices, even though the supply is pretty good.
Dells used to be good, I have a dimension 4300 that while is superly obsolete is still rock solid, my main rig is a second hand optiplex that was bulit in 2004 and it still works perfectly
While I'm an XP guy, Windows 2000 Professional is very nearly as good an operating system. IMO, it's got about 85% of what XP has. Just not as good wifi support and no Luna(could be good or bad).
Also, I remember the first Pentium 4s. That's the chip that AMD spanked for six years. :D
The only serious UI flaw in Windows XP these days is the behavior of the Explorer windows representing removable, CD and floppy drives...they will not remember their sizing! I'm definitely not a "Luna" fan at all. Windows Classic all the way! :-)
But I'm fully in agreement on AMD CPUs. I still have a preference for AMD to this very day, even if they don't have what they used to. (I'd love to see them do a take on an Intel Atom-like CPU...a hopped up Geode, maybe?)
@Jerkwad152 It doesn't take much to spank an P4. I have an old Pentium III 1400 box overclocked to 1.575GHz that just destroys the 1.8GHz P4-based Dimension 4400 sitting next to it. Cache probably has something to do with it; the P3 has 512KB of L2 while the P4 only has 256. The P4 struggles with 720p MKVs while the P3 plays 'em flawlessly. The P3 box even runs Windows 7 extremely well with 1.5GB of RAM.
yuck.. Segate is DEADLY!.. as are ANY drives over 1TB.. but I hope yours work.. I've seen MANY of them die though... 1TB is about the max on safe storage, and only from WD or Samsung..
@kinkyduffy every desktop Segate HDD I've seen has died.. every single one sold recently.. AND the laptop drives aren't much better.. I'm in the business, I see the shit every day mate; it's a shame they're allowed to be sold.
@famouswolfy Best and, sadly, probably cheapest AGP card you're going to find is 4650 or 4670. You can get a 4650 AGP on NewEgg for about $80. Quite a deal considering that AGP cards are very expensive.
@umajunkcollector Look at an OptiPlex. They're still pretty good, with a decent build quality. And while you may not be able to order anything super-high-end for a video or sound card at build time, you can add them later. Nearly all but the lowest end OptiPlex boxen have PCI express video card slots.
@uxwbill SFF machines are, of course, always a compromise. I've seen a somewhat above average number of the Dell SFF machines here, usually for PSU fan failure. It seems that they run the fan just as slowly as they can, so heat builds and eventually dries out the bearing.
@criind This is all for previously-processed video, so I'm not too worried about speed. It's been suggested that the higher data density of these drives also helps their speed.
Hi, I also have a pentium 4 pc as a home NAS, with two 1tb samsung sata drives hooked up to the motherboard, and two other drives connected to a sata controller pci card. It's quite good so far but the only downside is the pci sata controller card...if I copy files from the drives hooked up to the motherboard to the drives on the sata card, it's painfully slow. I guess this is because the bandwith of the pci bus. I also wonder how the ecogreen drives will perform, please keep us updated. Thanks
You'll love that samsung 2TB drive, but the Seagate is going to give you nothing but hell. It's sad for this former Seagate boy to admit, but ever since the 7200.12 series came out most Seagate drives are crap at best. I think the folks at Seagate took a serious step backwards in terms of Quality Control.... my 2 cents
@RedneckBlog Uh-oh. I was afraid that someone might mention that. :-) I've been very happy with every Samsung drive I've purchased to date, but I tend to agree about Seagate. Still, it seems that some people did manage to get a good one--and my other relative new Seagate drives are behaving well--so I hope they're on the right track. It would be too bad if they can't pull out of the quality tailspin they've suffered.
I know this will sound very low tech...but why not get a couple of free yahoo or hotmail accounts and store the videos off site? Then they would be retrievable on any computer with internet access. I enjoy your vids, keep up the good work
@toyrunner87 That's a good 'plan C' but only for last resort storage. Backing up raw video to the internet is a horribly tedious affair especially if your connection isn't all that fast. I have something like 500GB of videos from the last 4 years (video blogs, family videos, etc) and I think I could go crazy trying to back all that up to online storage....
Couple of problems...multiple accounts might be a TOS violation and I don't know that I feel like trusting anyone other than myself with this stuff.
But the other, more serious problem has to do with the Internet connection. Something might well explode if I tried forcing a few hundred GB through it. And that's to say nothing of the lynching that would probably come from various seriously irritated family members!
@midnit19 apparently, you dont know the purpose of this video... and next time, try to construct an english sentence that doesnt contain so many fails. M mean... pice? and what about interpunction? your EPIC FAIL made my day.
@famouswolfy Try a search for Radeon x800. It was the last AGP card i ever bought. I rember it having no problem playing Quake 4 @ 1440 x 900 max settings.
@uxwbill Love the computer videos. I'm an older Dell fan myself. I have a semi-off topic request though. I currently own a Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop. (It's the 1640... 1st generation with the Centrino 2 processor.) Now, I HATE laptops but I needed one for school. DDR3 memory in laptops had JUST came onto the scene, and this was one of only a few Dell models to offer it. I was sold. But anyways, whats your take on laptops? If someone can ONLY own a laptop, what do you recommend? Maybe a video? :)
@lynchburgcsi57 Rofl sounds like me i loved laptops then i bought a toshiba a500 and its plastic is so cheaply made it can completely flex the whole case D: now i'm moving back to my trusty old desktops.
@MacintoshUser1986 Saves power and heat...and meets the requirements for long term storage. Plus, the data density of these drives tends to offset the slower spindle speed somewhat.
I love these type of vids! btw, i remember I asked you about what linux flavour to use on my 1ghz junkie with 256mb of ram? Well, I install Xubuntu and now its an awesome file server. Even assessable from any place on the internet with FTP :)
The only thing that bothers me, is that it uses 100watts, which is kinda high as it is not in use most of the time. I wish i could get a cheap netbook and attach external HDDs to it!
You might get the power draw down lower if you pull any option cards you aren't using or turn off some onboard peripherals. It might be worth a look to see if the system BIOS allows you to enable CPU throttling...most modern CPUs will do this easily. (Even the one in this machine supports it, although the throttling is intended as a thermal protection measure.)
@uxwbill I already pulled all the crap out of it, but the HDDs use a ton of power. I also have another problem, the fan at 100% all the time. It runs 5600rpm all the time and I have no idea how to slow it down. If i don't figure that out soon enough, i will just put a resistor to make it run at half the speed.
About CPU throttling, i honestly don't really know what it is, but will google for help.
Leave the tach line attached to the motherboard (if one is used) and connect the power and ground leads to a five volt line from the power supply. If the fan won't start reliably, use the "seven volt trick" (do a web search) to run it.
A lot of older computers don't have working fan speed control or thermal monitoring hardware...or they didn't use/implement the features provided by the LPCIO/hardware monitor IC.
@uxwbill I did that and I get a LONG beep and the system shuts down. The fan runs, but I guess the system thinks its disconnected and shuts down... Gonna have to try something else
y add a 4 port USB card when u have 4 ports on the motherboard plus front panel USB ports and wouldnt having BOTH a SATA controller and eSATA controller card cause a resource conflect where one will cancel out the other?
Matthew55904 1 month ago
@Matthew55904 The four USB ports on the motherboard support USB 1.1 data transfer rates at most. The add-on card provides USB 2.0 support.
uxwbill 4 weeks ago
those had Delta/Newton psu's, and these last a long time.
brunoshow124 2 months ago
lol just read the description, I also have a "lowly" Dimension 2400 =P It was my main computer until 2007, with 256 mb of ram...
mrwireful10000 6 months ago
Is that a GeForce 2 MX?
macreviews94 6 months ago
@macreviews94 unfortunately no... ;(
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy Oh sorry lol that question was aimed at uxwbill, from the video it looked like the same card I have in my 8100
macreviews94 6 months ago
@macreviews94 oops sorry, I thought you were talking to me about my GPU...I have an 8100 also and mine does have a GeForce 2 MX. I'm not sure about uxbill's PC but it does seem like it is the same one
videoflyguy 6 months ago
ur right new dell computers are pure juunk. i have a few that have to be 10+ years old. ,well i guess that is life for ya.also, i hate bestec psu's i wish that bestec would just stop making power supplies. old dells used psu's from Delta, Newton Power, and Lite On, and they last for ever. they even used Hipro and lasted nice vid
brunoshow08 7 months ago
Comment removed
brunoshow08 7 months ago
I am using an old 8100 as my main rig at the moment. It has a 1.3 GHZ CPU and 384 MB RDRAM. I have overclocked it so I can watch YouTube vids in 480p...it's a beautifully made computer for it's day.
videoflyguy 9 months ago
@videoflyguy I don't think we'll see computers like that being offered by any major manufacturer ever again. They were very solid. I have the OptiPlex GX400 (same thing, different name, an optional built in audio speaker and a real reset button on the front) with P4 processors from 1.3-1.7GHz and they are workhorses to this day. I use them as loaners.
uxwbill 9 months ago
@uxwbill I have friends who have Optiplexes and you are right, DELL used to be such a great manufacturer. I bought a laptop from them recently and it has cheap plastic hinges, a 1.7 GHZ CPU, and it overheats alot. I am talking about the Inspiron M101Z.
videoflyguy 9 months ago
@videoflyguy I have an 8100. The reason it still runs today is because of the real quality of the board and the components. I cracked open the power supply, and it's no cheap power supply. Great capacitor selection and overall design. Same thing applies to the motherboard. Great components and works well. Now, buy a new Dell and see the crap they put in it. The 8100 has Active PFC...which is ironic because the new Dells LACK Active PSU. The only problem I had with this computer was it's fans.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut i had some trouble with the fans too recently, I really love the craftsmanship Dell used to put into there machines, I have a Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop which i use primarily for internet while on the road, the chipset and CPU overheat constantly, the GPU is sluggish, and the fans are ALWAYS ON due to the overheating
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy Poor shame really. I like their old stuff...and some of the new stuff, but only the workstation type machines. Fans: The main exhaust fan went kaput on me a few years ago. Made a terrible sound. Wound up removing the green shroud and Gorilla Glued an 80mm fan on the heatsink, which is better for cooling anyway. I'm a bit skeptical of the PSU fan also, and since it is old and has that dumb 16-pin connector, I can't risk losing it to a dead fan. So I got a new fan for the psu also.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut Thats whats happening now with my fan, its making this really loud noise...Thats also why i want to build a custom PC, so i can put what i want into it. When i finally get around to building it I will probably reuse the 8100 as a home file server. I have put many years with slight upgrades, RAM, HDD ect and it has been faithful through all of those years, I just couldn't bear to part with it. it should end its life as a 20 year file server if all goes well :)
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy I built a computer about 2 years ago. Back then I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but when I discovered REAL electronics (not just plugging color coded cables into a motherboard), thats when I really started feeling cool.=D.It works well & wound up being a tad more expensive than the "comparable" Dell,however mine has all polymer capacitors,good fans,a quality power supply etc.I'm actually upgrading my 8100 now with 1GB of RAM and a CF Card, cuz im too cheap for a HDD or SSD.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut Thats awesome! So you found 1GB for the original 8100 mobo? RBRAM is really expensive in most places and also really hard to find. And using a CF card instead of a HDD is what im doing with my server for a boot drive atm.
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy It originally came with 128MB (I think). I bought 256MB more around 2004-ish...and that was like $50. Yeah it used to be really really expensive. I think now everyone is just trying to get rid of their stock, because RDRAM is totally extinct. But because I'm SUPER cheap, I decided to buy some used RDRAM off off eBay. I got 1GB (4x 256) shipped for $15, which isn't even too bad by todays prices. So I'm happy. And I'm really excited about the CF card. I've heard lots of sucess stories
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut sweet man, maybe i should go get some more RAM...it could keep my 8100 alive and running windows 7 in no time! lol
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy And you might be really quite surprised by how well the 8100 would run Win7, if that is what you want to do. I think with a RAM upgrade and maybe a little better video card (ATI Radeon 92/96/97/9800, perhaps?) it would be entirely workable.
I'll bet you can find a deal on the RDRAM. One of my OptiPlex GX400 machines came with 1.2GB installed in it! Seller thought it had "128MB" instead of "1280MB"! I redistributed that a bit, leaving 1GB in that and taking some to another OptiPlex.
uxwbill 6 months ago
@uxwbill I think that would do it, I actually have a e-GeForce 7600GS (256MB) GPU from EVGA that im going to put in my 8100 one of these days. Its not much but if im short on cash from buying RAM ect i could put that in temporarily
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@videoflyguy 7600GS is a great card for agp, if you already have one.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut I have one and I will probably install it soon, as long as i stop procrastinating...lol
videoflyguy 6 months ago
@uxwbill Yeah totally.You can get a cheap GeForce 6200 which you can get for $20 if you look around. It has shader model 3.0 and a lot of new standards. Its pretty low power and super cheap.
I'd honestly recommend running a Linux distro on it, because you can get lightweight versions that will run really well on these types of machines. I have GX260 that I got for $30! with a 2.8Ghz P4, 1GB DDR, and a GeForce 6200 running Xubuntu...that is 90% as fast as my Athlon X4 , 4GB DDR3, and HD4650
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut I forget about the GeForce 6100/6200 series, which is odd, because I find them to be brilliant value for the money and excellent video cards with low heat output and power draw.
I want to like Linux--I really do--and I run it regularly, but I'm not ready for it as my main OS. At least not yet. :-)
uxwbill 6 months ago
@ElektroHut For the most part, I think that Dell's quality carried through pretty well until the end of the Dimension lineup. It was when those were replaced with the Inspiron/Studio desktops that things started to go so wrong. Fortunately, the OptiPlex seems to be almost as solid as ever, which is why I still recommend those to people. It's certainly better than the "home grade" lineup.
The fans are a weak point, though I don't think I've seen but one PSU fan die...
uxwbill 6 months ago
@uxwbill Optiplex is still very solid as well as Precision. They are more pricey and you're not going to find one at the local electronics store...but they are a lot better than Inspiron as you say. I got to look at one of the new Optiplex 390s and the motherboard atleast has polymer caps on the CPU and Rubycons/Nippon Chemi-con everywhere else. The power supply seemed to be a decent Delta one. They are good.My friend has a cheap Inspiron. Good god, quality is ABYSMAL! Well I'm off to bed. =p
ElektroHut 6 months ago
i still can't get freenas to work...
novachevyguy 1 year ago
These cables turn sata into esata. i use them all the time and they work great!
just go to amazon and type in Tripp Lite P952-003
samlaxrocks 1 year ago
I miss old dells but the new latitudes aint bad :D.
TheDataZoo 1 year ago
Can you make a video of your Optiplex GX400's?
MixerVM 1 year ago
@MixerVM Yeah, at some point in time. I'm already behind on Dell-related video requests and right now I can't upload anything longer than a minute or two. That's supposed to be fixed on Monday. I hope.
uxwbill 1 year ago 2
@uxwbill Hopefully it gets fixed :D. i've missed your videos D:
TheDataZoo 1 year ago
@uxwbill One question bill. What voltage did you set the CF card to run at? My adapter has an option to run at either 3.3V or 5V. Thanks.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
@ElektroHut For just about any CF card I'm aware of, you can choose either voltage without issue. 3.3V is typically easier on the adapter's LEDs (if you care about such things!) but the CF card won't really care either way.
I believe the CompactFlash standard mandates that cards can work from both supply voltages. If you can, check the technical specs or the back of your card for more info. If not, start with 3.3V and see if things work.
uxwbill 6 months ago
@uxwbill Thanks. I wonder why they even have a jumper on my converter for 3.3V or 5V. Maybe some older cards only use 3.3 or 5V, not both. I got a pretty decent card. Sandisk Extreme so maybe I can get some really good speed off this ancient computer. =D Thanks.
ElektroHut 6 months ago
2000 is probably my favorite Non-7 entry in the NT Line. XP, i've been using it for far too long - It'll be a couple of years before i can stomach it again!
poopskinTheLiar 1 year ago
Quick question, do you know of any good NAS storage device i could use for my 2TB drive? I can rig it up to plug into my laptop through USB but i dont want the drive just sitting there because it gets fairly warm and could easily be damaged.
misterpc23 1 year ago
i subscribed :) you seem to know what you are doing
misterpc23 1 year ago
Hi you said in your video that a power supply failing can sometimes cause a motherboard to break, i have a powermac G4 and the power supply failed on that. I got a replacement power supply and put it in my powermac but when i turned it on it did not display any video also the internal cooling fans went to full speed. Do you think changing the motherboard on this computer would solve this problem?
Thanks :-)
alistairstuart2009 1 year ago
I have a Dimension 8100
macreviews94 1 year ago
Windows 2000 was my favorite ^_^
CWM480 1 year ago
My Inspiron 531 shows just how far Dell went down hill. I fitted a fan and a graphics card that was optional with the computer after a year and a half of ownership, the Bestec 300W PSU slowly got knackered, despite the computer drawing no where near 300W (it struggled even when idle!). Swapped it out for an (admittedly equally cheap) CIT 450W PSU, which has been fine ever since.
Lukeno52 1 year ago
talk of freenas, rsync, and repurposing old pc get me all excited... anyway, despite having only 2 internal hd bay, I'd use more internal hd instead of external sata. I'd use the 2 to3 5.25 to 3.5 drive bay (using 2 cdrom bay to install 3 more external hd). Or I could just make a home made bracket for more hd in the empty space just below the HD bay. I think internal HD are cleaner and I don't like having too many external HDs.
up0 1 year ago
I also agree that Windows 2000 Pro is the best Windows.
invnd1245 1 year ago
Great video! Hope its not to long before you upload another i have two acer T180 P.C's and was woundering if you could tell me your thoughts on them and how you rate acer ect... I pade about £260 for them new about 3years ago and thay have been great so far, the two of them run windows xp and have service pack 3.
flipflop595 1 year ago
what would be wrong with my computer if all it will do when you plug it in is the fans will run just the power supply and computer fan run thats it no lights come on the screen wont read...what would be the problem...the motherboard bad??
codylovesfords 1 year ago
Lets face it Bill...You're just a good old fashioned Genius!!!
I'm no way in your league I just have a Dell Netbook which was gifted to me with a damaged screen running 24/7 in a nice cool, dry discrete location with just over 4.5 TB of memory connected to it. The Netbook only has flash memory and the power consumption is minimal...It's also covered by a UPS along with the router. I keep the other 4 machines on my Network virtually empty...It makes life so much easier! :)
88GTi 1 year ago
You must not shoot in HD. I keep all of my originals and the edited versions and after about seven months, had to erase some of the originals from the 1TB drive.
pcwalker 1 year ago
@pcwalker I'm not shooting in HD. The camera I've got now seems to come close to 720p, but it's not quite there. Even direct uploads such as this one don't show up as HD videos.
uxwbill 1 year ago
I need to get my videos organized too...I have a lot that need to be downloaded off this site. Although for me an external hard drive is what I will be choosing. A 500GB one or so would do, I just need to get a good brand that wont die. Samsung has been great to me.
Otherwise, sounds good, and if I ever have the need for so much space, I would consider doing this.
clubcar98 1 year ago
@clubcar98 I doubt that Youtube is going anywhere, but just in case they ever do, I'm hedging my bets and keeping all the source+finished files for my videos. Disk space is cheap these days.
Until recently, I would have recommended a Samsung drive in a Vantec NexStar 3 enclosure--and still would, if you get the USB/Firewire/eSATA model (Oxford 934DSA based). The USB and eSATA only model used to be based on a nice Sunplus IT bridge, now it's based on an Initio chip that's very buggy.
uxwbill 1 year ago
I worked as a MCSE for NCR besides working as a ATM and POS and had to setup a backup system for Lowes backoffice and they used a system close to yours they had 2 250 gb drives inside and 5 USB external drives all raided together using 4 drives raided as 1 large drive and 1 drive for parity. They used a proprietary software tat I still have a copy somewhere in the archives. I replaced 4 drives over 5 years and they never lost any information , They also had 2 DAT drives for external bckup
ncrdisabled 1 year ago
I'm surprised they lost so many drives. I have a security DVR (that I built) using four 500GB drives (RAID5+hot spare) and an Adaptec 2410SA true hardware RAID controller. These disks never get a break--they are written to 24/7. They've proven more reliable than I ever expected. Two of the originals from 2006 are still going, and when the others failed, that RAID controller switched effortlessly to the hot spare disk.
The two disks that failed both died of controller board failure.
uxwbill 1 year ago
i hope you have better luck with freeNAS than i have. there's nothing like conflicts in hardware.i have had my share of that.LOL your dell pc should be just fine for that. i was using a hardware raid setup and had to much conflicts with freeNas (sometime ago) might be better these days. it wasn't worth the headache and ended up using a dell inspiron laptop with external drivers. does our serialATA card have a onboard raid controller, or you doing the not so great software raid?
MrOne2watch 1 year ago
I've found that sometimes experimentation is needed. :-) Since the VT6421 and its boot-BIOS don't seem to support INT13H calls at all (unless maybe you build a fake RAID with the resident configurator), I thought I'd change it to a Silicon Image 3512. That was a serious error. The whole darn thing went down faster than a pint at closing time. Every other I/O device in the system was impacted, data corruption was the result!
So the VT6421 went back in...
uxwbill 1 year ago
I am using the FreeNAS built in software RAID1. I've tested it in this system with a few spare drives hooked up to the USB card and it seemed to work fine, if a bit slowly. Forcing a failure also showed the means of recovery to be pretty robust.
uxwbill 1 year ago
Hey Bill, great video as usual. I might be tempted to try FreeNAS again if I can stay away from the RAID. Too many problems if one of the drives goes bad or even worse the OS drive goes bad. I like to have my data on a drive which can be removed and installed in another system and be readable. My Hackintosh P4 server has been running fine and I still think that is the best way to go, but to each his own.
mosslack 1 year ago
I read about FreeNAS RAID and made a test setup with this very machine and several USB disks. Then I forced a failure with the power switch on one of the drive enclosures...took that drive away, put a new one in its place, prepared it and started the rebuild. It took a looooooong time over USB but it worked flawlessly.
There will be a removable drive used here and updated periodically with rsync. Copies, copies, copies...
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill I've had both a failure of a data drive and a failure of the OS drive. Data drive recovery was fairly simple as you said, but the OS drive failure is more complicated. Make sure you have a copy of the config file for FreeNAS as I didn't. Luckily I found another drive which I had setup the same way and was able to recover.
mosslack 1 year ago
@mosslack I did have to learn the hard way once when I lost a drive while testing the Vectra. I really wasn't too surprised when it happened, that old Conner CP1080 gave more than a few warnings. :-)
After that, I created a folder on another PC containing the configuration files and I dated each one.
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill Smart man! I usually don't learn those lessons until I've lost something important. Guess my head is just too hard :)
mosslack 1 year ago
You must make really huge video files, because I have my video archive comfortably stored on one 500 GB external hard drive. The largest single video file I ever created was 1.2 GB, but most are in the several hundred MB range, since most of my videos are produced at a data rate of 8 to 9 Mbps. (My oldest videos back in 2008 were only around 1 to 2 Mbps, but they are by now only a small minority of the total collection.)
vwestlife 1 year ago
@vwestlife 500GB might well hold it. I'm guessing, and I want plenty of storage space for future expansion. I'm getting "dinged" here twice, though, because so far I have been shooting video with point-n-shoot digital cameras of some kind or another. If I was shooting on some kind of tape, the situation would probably be better.
And I'm loath to throw anything I've filmed out, in case I want to use the footage for something in the future or something happens to YT. (Hold your surprise. :-) )
uxwbill 1 year ago
I know what you mean about computers being cheap. The computer I'm using now, and I use for gaming and video editing is really good spec, but the case, being a prebuilt HP with various upgrades, the case is made of a combination of cheap plastic and metal, the top being plastic, sides being metal, and front being plastic too. Netbooks are ALL plastic. I luckily have an older (2005) laptop that's still in service and it's ALL metal, even the palm rest.
talldude123 1 year ago
Oddly enough, I could've had a 8100 but my mom thought the 4300 was better in spec
gmcnewlook 1 year ago
@gmcnewlook Even if not as technically advanced as the Dim8100/Opti400, the Dim4300 ended up being the better machine with more of a future. Intel insisted that Rambus was superior, and it was faster, yet it was horrifically expensive and not sufficiently better to the typical end user. Today, Rambus carries silly prices, even though the supply is pretty good.
uxwbill 1 year ago
Dells used to be good, I have a dimension 4300 that while is superly obsolete is still rock solid, my main rig is a second hand optiplex that was bulit in 2004 and it still works perfectly
gmcnewlook 1 year ago
@gmcnewlook I value works and paid for over "new and shiny" any day of the week. :-)
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill well i did pay 229 for it, but still cheaper for what i need it to do rather then buying a new machine
gmcnewlook 1 year ago
While I'm an XP guy, Windows 2000 Professional is very nearly as good an operating system. IMO, it's got about 85% of what XP has. Just not as good wifi support and no Luna(could be good or bad).
Also, I remember the first Pentium 4s. That's the chip that AMD spanked for six years. :D
Jerkwad152 1 year ago
The only serious UI flaw in Windows XP these days is the behavior of the Explorer windows representing removable, CD and floppy drives...they will not remember their sizing! I'm definitely not a "Luna" fan at all. Windows Classic all the way! :-)
But I'm fully in agreement on AMD CPUs. I still have a preference for AMD to this very day, even if they don't have what they used to. (I'd love to see them do a take on an Intel Atom-like CPU...a hopped up Geode, maybe?)
uxwbill 1 year ago
@Jerkwad152 It doesn't take much to spank an P4. I have an old Pentium III 1400 box overclocked to 1.575GHz that just destroys the 1.8GHz P4-based Dimension 4400 sitting next to it. Cache probably has something to do with it; the P3 has 512KB of L2 while the P4 only has 256. The P4 struggles with 720p MKVs while the P3 plays 'em flawlessly. The P3 box even runs Windows 7 extremely well with 1.5GB of RAM.
CavemanPerson 1 year ago
@CavemanPerson i think you can imagine how well my dual PIII-S 1.4GHz with 2GB ECC SD-RAM performs :D
only downside is that i can't really overclock it but meh.. the 2nd CPU takes care of that "performance problem" xD
Knaeckebrotsaege 1 year ago
i store mine on a 1tb western digital external
naterade21 1 year ago
yuck.. Segate is DEADLY!.. as are ANY drives over 1TB.. but I hope yours work.. I've seen MANY of them die though... 1TB is about the max on safe storage, and only from WD or Samsung..
Sansui350A 1 year ago
@Sansui350A yea they are mine just went out
naterade21 1 year ago
@Sansui350A Seagate isn't that bad. I must admit though, Any 1 TB+ HDD's are bad lol
kinkyduffy 1 year ago
@kinkyduffy every desktop Segate HDD I've seen has died.. every single one sold recently.. AND the laptop drives aren't much better.. I'm in the business, I see the shit every day mate; it's a shame they're allowed to be sold.
Sansui350A 1 year ago
@Sansui350A I have a seagate and it's been fine for a few years
kinkyduffy 1 year ago
@famouswolfy Best and, sadly, probably cheapest AGP card you're going to find is 4650 or 4670. You can get a 4650 AGP on NewEgg for about $80. Quite a deal considering that AGP cards are very expensive.
Markworth 1 year ago
I have an old Dell Demension.
I'm thinking about upgrading after six+ years of reliable use.
But I too feel Dell went to hell.
I do not want e-machine, Compaq, HP or Dell.
So that leaves Gateway or home made.
The last couple of years I junked four Dell Optiplex mini GX junk that my daughtor got on ebay (cheep), two had bad fans.
btw, I've seen many confusers toasted from failed 3$ fans. It's good maintenance to REPLACE those fans after a few years, very cheap insurance.
umajunkcollector 1 year ago
@umajunkcollector Look at an OptiPlex. They're still pretty good, with a decent build quality. And while you may not be able to order anything super-high-end for a video or sound card at build time, you can add them later. Nearly all but the lowest end OptiPlex boxen have PCI express video card slots.
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill SFF machines are, of course, always a compromise. I've seen a somewhat above average number of the Dell SFF machines here, usually for PSU fan failure. It seems that they run the fan just as slowly as they can, so heat builds and eventually dries out the bearing.
uxwbill 1 year ago
I have found that while 5400 rpm drives will work with iMovie. The 7200 rpm drives makes iMovie much happier.
criind 1 year ago
@criind This is all for previously-processed video, so I'm not too worried about speed. It's been suggested that the higher data density of these drives also helps their speed.
uxwbill 1 year ago
Hi, I also have a pentium 4 pc as a home NAS, with two 1tb samsung sata drives hooked up to the motherboard, and two other drives connected to a sata controller pci card. It's quite good so far but the only downside is the pci sata controller card...if I copy files from the drives hooked up to the motherboard to the drives on the sata card, it's painfully slow. I guess this is because the bandwith of the pci bus. I also wonder how the ecogreen drives will perform, please keep us updated. Thanks
benpinter1988 1 year ago
I wish I was you D:
Ltb0b 1 year ago
You'll love that samsung 2TB drive, but the Seagate is going to give you nothing but hell. It's sad for this former Seagate boy to admit, but ever since the 7200.12 series came out most Seagate drives are crap at best. I think the folks at Seagate took a serious step backwards in terms of Quality Control.... my 2 cents
RedneckBlog 1 year ago
@RedneckBlog Uh-oh. I was afraid that someone might mention that. :-) I've been very happy with every Samsung drive I've purchased to date, but I tend to agree about Seagate. Still, it seems that some people did manage to get a good one--and my other relative new Seagate drives are behaving well--so I hope they're on the right track. It would be too bad if they can't pull out of the quality tailspin they've suffered.
uxwbill 1 year ago
Good idea with the screws, Good vid
HDXFH 1 year ago
I know this will sound very low tech...but why not get a couple of free yahoo or hotmail accounts and store the videos off site? Then they would be retrievable on any computer with internet access. I enjoy your vids, keep up the good work
toyrunner87 1 year ago
@toyrunner87 That's a good 'plan C' but only for last resort storage. Backing up raw video to the internet is a horribly tedious affair especially if your connection isn't all that fast. I have something like 500GB of videos from the last 4 years (video blogs, family videos, etc) and I think I could go crazy trying to back all that up to online storage....
RedneckBlog 1 year ago
Couple of problems...multiple accounts might be a TOS violation and I don't know that I feel like trusting anyone other than myself with this stuff.
But the other, more serious problem has to do with the Internet connection. Something might well explode if I tried forcing a few hundred GB through it. And that's to say nothing of the lynching that would probably come from various seriously irritated family members!
uxwbill 1 year ago
thank god you didnt buy those pos wd drives:)
itscool1968 1 year ago
man thats a pice of shit get a new "amd motherboard" and get a nice cpu and youll be set dude
midnit19 1 year ago
@midnit19 Not really...
uxwbill 1 year ago
@midnit19 apparently, you dont know the purpose of this video... and next time, try to construct an english sentence that doesnt contain so many fails. M mean... pice? and what about interpunction? your EPIC FAIL made my day.
nelizmastr 1 year ago
@midnit19 your comment doesnt make sense.. do you even know the purpose of this system?
nelizmastr 1 year ago
@famouswolfy Try a search for Radeon x800. It was the last AGP card i ever bought. I rember it having no problem playing Quake 4 @ 1440 x 900 max settings.
BlueFoxTV 1 year ago
@uxwbill Love the computer videos. I'm an older Dell fan myself. I have a semi-off topic request though. I currently own a Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop. (It's the 1640... 1st generation with the Centrino 2 processor.) Now, I HATE laptops but I needed one for school. DDR3 memory in laptops had JUST came onto the scene, and this was one of only a few Dell models to offer it. I was sold. But anyways, whats your take on laptops? If someone can ONLY own a laptop, what do you recommend? Maybe a video? :)
lynchburgcsi57 1 year ago
@lynchburgcsi57 See what you think here in a little bit...
uxwbill 1 year ago
@lynchburgcsi57 Rofl sounds like me i loved laptops then i bought a toshiba a500 and its plastic is so cheaply made it can completely flex the whole case D: now i'm moving back to my trusty old desktops.
TheDataZoo 1 year ago
Nice project but why only 5400/5900 rpm drives?
MacintoshUser1986 1 year ago
@MacintoshUser1986 Saves power and heat...and meets the requirements for long term storage. Plus, the data density of these drives tends to offset the slower spindle speed somewhat.
uxwbill 1 year ago
I love these type of vids! btw, i remember I asked you about what linux flavour to use on my 1ghz junkie with 256mb of ram? Well, I install Xubuntu and now its an awesome file server. Even assessable from any place on the internet with FTP :)
The only thing that bothers me, is that it uses 100watts, which is kinda high as it is not in use most of the time. I wish i could get a cheap netbook and attach external HDDs to it!
andruha11234 1 year ago
You might get the power draw down lower if you pull any option cards you aren't using or turn off some onboard peripherals. It might be worth a look to see if the system BIOS allows you to enable CPU throttling...most modern CPUs will do this easily. (Even the one in this machine supports it, although the throttling is intended as a thermal protection measure.)
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill I already pulled all the crap out of it, but the HDDs use a ton of power. I also have another problem, the fan at 100% all the time. It runs 5600rpm all the time and I have no idea how to slow it down. If i don't figure that out soon enough, i will just put a resistor to make it run at half the speed.
About CPU throttling, i honestly don't really know what it is, but will google for help.
andruha11234 1 year ago
Leave the tach line attached to the motherboard (if one is used) and connect the power and ground leads to a five volt line from the power supply. If the fan won't start reliably, use the "seven volt trick" (do a web search) to run it.
A lot of older computers don't have working fan speed control or thermal monitoring hardware...or they didn't use/implement the features provided by the LPCIO/hardware monitor IC.
uxwbill 1 year ago
@uxwbill I did that and I get a LONG beep and the system shuts down. The fan runs, but I guess the system thinks its disconnected and shuts down... Gonna have to try something else
andruha11234 1 year ago