The Video NAS Project Part 1

Please expand the whole description!

After 263 videos (and counting!), I've stretched the disk storage that I have to its limits. I have borrowed storage capacity from wherever I've had it, which isn't good practice for different reasons. I need to get all these videos into one place, with some fault tolerance and the ability to make easy backups that can be transported offsite. This Dell Dimension 8100 should be more than up to the task with its 1.5GHz Pentium 4 CPU, Intel i850 chipset and (luckily!) a relatively plentiful 512MB of installed RDRAM. It's in very good condition--even the outer plastic shell still looks good. (It usually falls victim to various boo-boos over the years.)

Storage is cheap, and a lot of work has gone into making the videos you have seen so far...there's no point in putting this off any longer. This is part 1. There will be more parts to this project as I assemble all the needed pieces and test them.

Dell actually used to build some really solid hardware, despite their sometimes harebrained marketing. Look at the steel in this case! It's nothing compared to a PS/2, but very good for a computer produced in the early 2000s. It was assembled in Round Rock, TX by Trend Technologies. Today, they've totally cheapened everything out in most of their computers. Only the OptiPlex and Latitude are left standing, and who knows how long those have left?

Even the lowly Dimension 2400 (a brilliant computer as long you install a decent amount of RAM and don't expect it to be something it isn't) is better than what they are selling today.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• uxwbill
• FreeNAS
• video
• storage
• project
• Dell
• Dimension 8100
• part 1

[Matthew55904]

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?

[uxwbill]

@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.

[brunoshow124]

those had Delta/Newton psu's, and these last a long time.

[mrwireful10000]

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...

[videoflyguy]

@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

[macreviews94]

@videoflyguy Oh sorry lol that question was aimed at uxwbill, from the video it looked like the same card I have in my 8100

[videoflyguy]

@macreviews94 unfortunately no... ;(

[macreviews94]

Is that a GeForce 2 MX?

[videoflyguy]

@ElektroHut I have one and I will probably install it soon, as long as i stop procrastinating...lol

[ElektroHut]

@videoflyguy 7600GS is a great card for agp, if you already have one.