Review of the Kingston SSDNow V100 Solid State Drive

Andrew Edney
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0
Review of the Kingston SSDNow V100 Solid State Drive

SSD’s are becoming more popular, with people using them for their system drives because of their speed. Kingston have a few SSDs on the market, and last week we reviewed the SSDNow V+100 and here we take a look at their SSDNow V100 drive.

UWHS Review - Kingston SSDNow V100 Solid State Drive

Here is how Kingston describe the SSDNow V100:

Dramatically increase the performance of existing systems.

Kingston introduces its SSDNow V Series drives to help consumers and organisations of all sizes and consumers enhance the performance of computers with a Serial ATA (SATA) interface. By improving a computer’s performance and durability, SSDNow V Series drives help increase productivity, and extend the life of existing computers.

Who are Kingston?

From their website:

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader.
Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2010, the company’s sales reached $6.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success.

Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

Features

  • Performance — enhances productivity; makes users more efficient
  • Innovative — 2.5″ form factor; uses NAND flash memory components
  • Silent — Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts
  • Reliable — less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
  • Shock Resistant — No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions
  • Supports TRIM — ensures maximum performance on compatible Operating Systems1
  • Supports S.M.A.R.T. — Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology to help maintain a healthy drive
  • Guaranteed — 3 year legendary Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support

Specifications

  • Capacity — 30 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB
  • Storage Temperatures — -40° C to 85° C
  • Operating temperatures — 0° C to 70° C
  • Vibration operating — 2.17 G (7–800Hz)
  • Vibration non-operating — 20 G (20–2000Hz)
  • Sequential Speed —
    30 GB – up to 180 MB/sec. read, 50 MB/sec write
    64 GB – up to 200MB/sec. read; 110MB/sec. write
    128 GB – up to 200MB/sec. read; 160MB/sec. write
  • PCMARK® Vantage Advanced HDD Suite Score —
    30 GB – 18,900
    64 GB – 21,317
    128 GB – 20,177
  • Power specs — Active: 1.7 – 5.2 W TYP
    Power specs 3 —Idle: 0.05 – 0.7 W TYP
  • Life expectancy — 1 million hours mean time before failure, 64 GB/128 GB
    500,000 hours mean time before failure, 30 GB

Apple OS X 10 Lion – Will It Roar?

Andrew Edney
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7
Apple OS X 10 Lion – Will It Roar?

This week Apple announced that the next version of it’s operating system, codename Lion, will be released in July. So will it roar?

overview_hero1

One of the most interesting things about the announcement was that Lion will be available as a download from the Mac App Store, and the price will be $29.99 or £20.99 in the UK.

They haven’t given a specific date, just “July” so watch this space.

Apple say that there are over 250 new features in Lion, so rather than go through them all here, just pay a visit to the Apple website to find out more.

So if you are a Mac user, will you be upgrading to Lion?

I guess this means I will have to update my Mac Book!

Here is what Apple said this week:

SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air® or MacBook® Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork® and iLife® apps, as well as Safari®, iTunes®, Mail, FaceTime® and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé®, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is built into Lion and is the best place to discover great new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organize apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An incredibly powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion include:

  • Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
  • Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;
  • Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and
  • AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Pricing & Availability Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion will be the easiest OS X upgrade and at about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs.

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

The Digital Lifestyle Show #307 – Bad Prawns

Andrew Edney
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0
The Digital Lifestyle Show #307 – Bad Prawns

This weeks Digital Lifestyle Show has just been released – its show 307, and we are a man down!

DLS Show

Here’s what Ian says about this week show:

Just Andrew and I this week as Garry was feeling a bit unwell but we have a great show for you. It’s been a busy week with Windows 8 previews, E3 announcements and of course Apple’s WWDC conference. So we talk Windows 8, Xbox 360, watching Media Center TV on an iPad, iCloud, iOS and Windows Home Server news.

Download and listen to the show from here

Review of PerfectDisk 12 Home Server for Windows Home Server 2011

Andrew Edney
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26
Review of PerfectDisk 12 Home Server for Windows Home Server 2011

Today we announced the release of PerfectDisk 12, including the Windows Home Server versions. Here we review PerfectDisk 12 Home Server for Windows Home Server 2011.

UWHS Review - PerfectDisk 12 Home Server for Windows Home Server 2011

● Maximize streaming media performance
● Reduce back-up times
● Eliminate hard drive fragmentation
● Completely consolidate free space
● Bundles include PerfectDisk Professional for connected PCs

The main thing to note about PerfectDisk 12 Home Server for Windows Home Server 2011 is that the software is not integrated into the Dashboard. The PD12 application is a completely separate application so can only be accessed directly or via remote desktop.

Who Are Raxco?

From their website:

For over 30 years Raxco Software has developed award-winning defragmentation solutions and performance utilities that improve hard drive and server performance, simplify system administration and help our customers work more efficiently –at home and at the office.

Raxco has consistently been the first to support and receive certification on the latest Windows versions, including Windows 7, Vista, Windows Server 2008, and more. PerfectDisk’s innovations, such as the patented OptiWrite fragmentation prevention, patented SMARTPlacement optimization, Virtual Aware defragmentation for VMware’s vSphere/ESX Server and Microsoft’s Hyper-V, total free space consolidation, large drive support, Active Directory integration, single-pass defrag, and proactive enterprise console alerting and warning, continue to set the bar for the defrag market.

Why Do I Need It?

You might ask yourself why you would want to buy disk defragmentation software. Well the answer is that you may not want to. What do I mean by that? Well, put simply it is a matter of personal preference. Disk defragmentation software is one of those topics that often gets one of two similar responses – either “I must have it” or “I don’t want or need it”.

Personally I must have it. If you don’t know why you might want it, put simply, as files are stored, moved, deleted, updated and so on, over time they can be potentially stored on different areas of the disk rather than in a single block. This is called disk fragmentation. There could be thousands of parts of files scattered all over the disks on your home server. What this means is that it takes longer to read and write those files than it would do if they were all in the same place. That annoying delay waiting for that Word document to open? Could be disk fragmentation.

This is where disk defragmentation software comes into play. The software examines the disk and all of your files, figures out where the parts of the files physically on your drives are and attempts to move them together to make things run faster and smoother. This is a good thing – just imagine having hundreds of gigabytes of files scattered all over the disk.

What’s New?

Preconfigured to automatically optimize your digital life.

Optimize your entire Home Server environment so you can access your photos, music and videos quickly. PerfectDisk 12 Home Server speeds up processing times so your Home Server always runs like new.

Fragmentation Prevention with OptiWrite™

PerfectDisk’s new OptiWrite™ technology prevents most fragmentation on your drive before it occurs, which prevents your system from slowing down. OptiWrite™ detects when Windows is going to fragment files and intelligently redirects I/O to stop the fragmentation from occuring. System performance is maintained and the need to utilize CPU and Disk I/O resources to defragment files is greatly reduced. Because less defragmentation is needed, there is a direct benefit in the form of energy saved in both CPU usage and in the reading and writing to a disk. It saves users both in energy costs and in the time required to defragment a file system.

Intelligent Disk Optimization

For the limited fragmentation that can still occur, PerfectDisk’s patented SMARTPlacement optimization strategy optimizes disk drives according to your unique usage patterns. SMARTPlacement results in the most consolidated free space available, the elimination of most fragmentation before it occurs, and a reduced rate of fragmentation.

SSD Optimize is an optimization method for SSDs that focuses on free space consolidation without defragmentation of files. Solid State Drives are not affected by file fragmentation like traditional electromechanical disk drives. As such, it will leave files in a fragmented state while consolidating free space into large pieces.

Faster Start-Up

Experience faster system start-up times with our proprietary boot file optimization. Improve start-up time by 20% or more.

Auto-Optimization for Complete Unattended Optimization

PerfectDisk’s exclusive StealthPatrol™ tab is used to set automatic fragmentation prevention and optimize your system when it isn’t busy. Auto-optimization affords you the flexibility to optimize your system when it is idle or when the Windows screensaver is active. Auto-optimization provides the flexibility to not run during certain periods of the day or when a user-defined application is running. No other defrag or optimization utility proves this level of flexibility.

Advanced Boot Time Defrag

An important factor in faster PC performance is a thorough boot time defrag. PerfectDisk’s advanced boot time defrag capability is able to defragment files that otherwise would remain fragmented such as the Windows pagefile.sys or the file system’s MFT (Master File Table) and provides the best boot time defrag operation.

Total disk defragmentation and free space consolidation

PerfectDisk offers the most comprehensive solution for defragmentation by optimizing virtually every file on the system, including the Master File Table (MFT), all NTFS metadata files, paging files, directories, and datafiles, and completely consolidating free space. And it does it all in a single pass. There’s also a Selected Files Defrag option that is useful for defragmenting very large files such as video files, rather than defragmenting the entire drive.

S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring

New S.M.A.R.T. monitoring capabilities monitor the status of physical drives. It generates warnings and alerts for hardware performance and reliability, helping you ensure you are aware of any potential hardware problems.

CPU and I/O – control Resource Throttling

Perfectdisk provides resource throttling capabilities to manage resource usage as efficiently as possible. I/O throttling allows PerfectDisk to run on very busy disks without imposing additional load on the disk. CPU throttling allows you to raise or lower the CPU priority at which it runs. PerfectDisk uses very minimal CPU resources in its standard processing.

Synology Announces Various Updates for DiskStations including AirPlay Support

Andrew Edney
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0
Synology Announces Various Updates for DiskStations including AirPlay Support

Today, Synology have announced a number of updates for their DiskStation boxes, including a VPN Center Package, a Mail Station Package Update and AirPlay Support.

IMG_3014

Here is the press release:

Synology® Announces Official Release of VPN Center Package, AirPlay™ Support, Mail Station Package Update for its NAS servers, and Official DSM 3.1 OS for USB Station 2

Taipei, Taiwan—June 8, 2011—Synology® Inc. today announced the official release of VPN Center Package and AirPlay™ support, along with the Mail Station 2 package update for its DiskStations and RackStations. The official DiskStation Manager 3.1 (DSM 3.1) for USB Station 2 was also launched.

With the official VPN Center package implemented, a Synology NAS server works as a VPN server to provide cost-effective remote access solutions. Businesses can establish virtual networks to achieve full connectivity between their office locations, and allow their employees to reach resources and data as if they were within the private network.

AirPlay support provides an alternative way to conveniently stream multimedia content stored on Audio Station. Users can switch to the Media Renderer mode on Audio Station, and play music on any AirPlay devices. With DS audio, iOS and Android devices can also be used for streaming music to any AirPlay compatible products.

The operating system of USB Station 2 is now officially upgraded to DSM 3.1. Sharing multimedia content and documents is made more efficient with revamped Audio Station and File Browser which offers searching criteria and document preview. AirPlay and AirPrint support enrich the capabilities of mobile devices. Other enhanced features such as RSS feeds and torrent search on Download Station are also available.

Availability

The VPN Center package and AirPlay support apply to the following models: RS2211+, RS2211RP+, DS1511+, RS411, DS411+II, DS411+, DS411j, DS411slim, DS211+, DS211, DS211j, DS111, DS1010+, RS810+, RS810RP+, DS410, DS410j, DS710+, DS210+, DS210j, DS110+, DS110j, DS509+, RS409+, RS409RP+, RS409, DS409+, DS409, DS209+II, DS209+, DS209, DS109+, DS109, DS409slim, RS408, RS408-RP, DS508, DS408

They are available for free download at http://www.synology.com/support/download.php

The Mail Station 2 package update additionally applies to the following models: DS209j, DS109j, DS108j, RS407, DS207+, DS207, DS107+, DS107, DS107e, CS407, CS407e

It is available for free download at http://www.synology.com/support/download.php

Synology DSM 3.1 for USB Station 2 is available for free download at
http://www.synology.com/support/download.php?lang=enu&b=Others&m=USB Station 2

Synology at a Glance

Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) server products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families.

Raxco Software Releases PerfectDisk 12

Andrew Edney
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11
Raxco Software Releases PerfectDisk 12

Today saw the release of PerfectDisk 12 from Raxco Software. The versions that have been released include versions for Windows Home Server V1 and Windows Home Server 2011. There is also support for SSDs.

PD12 image

The PerfectDisk 12 product line provides smarter optimization for all system drives. Improvements have been made throughout PerfectDisk 12 that result in up to 30% faster analyzes and optimization passes so users can work and play even faster. Plus, it saves energy costs by reducing the use of CPU and disk I/O resources.

Numerous new capabilities and enhancements are included in PerfectDisk 12, highlighted by:

  • New OptiWrite™ technology prevents most fragmentation on your drive before it occurs by detecting when Windows is going to fragment files and intelligently redirects I/O so that most fragmentation does not occur. It is the only technology available today that can minimize free space fragmentation while preventing file fragmentation.
  • Exclusive StealthPatrol™ tab is used to set automatic fragmentation prevention and optimize your system when it isn’t busy. Users can select the desired automation settings in one location and PerfectDisk 12 will run in the background to keep all drives optimized and running at peak performance.
  • Improved SSD optimization that specifically focuses on free space consolidation without defragmentation of files to improve write performance.  SSD optimization is included free of charge in all editions of PerfectDisk 12.
  • Enhanced capabilities to optimize virtualized environments through auto detection and configuration of PerfectDisk based on virtual hard drive type including thin provisioned drives, linked clones and non-persistent drives.
  • New Short Stroke method improves optimization speed and support for thin provisioned drives.
  • New Zero Fill Free Space capability to assist with migration from physical to virtual environments, shrinking virtual drives and the recovery of valuable disk space.
  • Enhanced scheduling that provides the world’s most flexible scheduling options according to a user’s or businesses’ unique requirements.

The PerfectDisk 12 product line introduces the new PerfectDisk 12 Professional for Networks which includes the PerfectDisk 12 Enterprise Console for central management and control of all systems throughout the enterprise. PerfectDisk 12 Server and PerfectDisk 12 Exchange also integrate with the PerfectDisk 12 Enterprise Console, which is included as a free add-on to all PerfectDisk 12 Server and Exchange purchases.

“PerfectDisk 12 delivers real value with the OptiWriteTM fragmentation-prevention technology and new support for SSD optimization,” said Dr. Steven Gurgevich, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College Of Medicine, a Beta tester for PerfectDisk 12. “I’ve seen the perfect combination of faster systems yet reduced system resources and costs. And with enhanced support for thin provisioned drives, virtualization performance also benefits significantly. Raxco has covered all the bases for system performance with this release – it’s their best yet.”

“PerfectDisk 12 builds on the industry’s most powerful defrag and optimization engine with a quantum leap forward in performance, flexibility and reporting,” said Bob Nolan, president and CEO of Raxco Software. “Large enterprises, SMBs and consumers alike are looking to maximize their hardware investments to obtain the best possible computer performance, storage management, and information reporting on their PCs and servers. And from the glowing feedback we’ve received from our beta testers, we know PerfectDisk 12 delivers on all fronts.”

PerfectDisk 12 is available immediately via the Raxco Software website at http://www.raxco.com as well as favorite resellers everywhere. Free, fully functional 30-day trials are also available.

The PerfectDisk 12 product line includes PerfectDisk 12 Home Premium, PerfectDisk 12 Home Server, PerfectDisk 12 Professional, PerfectDisk 12 Professional for Networks, PerfectDisk 12 Server, PerfectDisk12 Exchange, PerfectDisk 12 Hyper-V, PerfectDisk 12 vSphere, PerfectDisk 12 VMware Workstation, and PerfectDisk 12 Enterprise Console.

Pricing starts at $24.99 for single copies of PerfectDisk 12 Home Premium, $39.99 for PerfectDisk 12 Professional and $99.99 for PerfectDisk 12 Server. Quantity discounts and special-priced bundles are also available.

Stay tuned for our reviews shortly.

Two Minute Review of the Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory

Andrew Edney
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0
Two Minute Review of the Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory

In another of our Two Minute Reviews, we take a look at the new Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory.

UWHS Review - Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory

The new HyperX Plug and Play (PnP) series of high-performance enthusiast memory are the first modules to scale the higher memory heights that are a part of the second generation Intel® Core i5 and i7 CPUs. The memory is programmed with faster frequencies and when ‘plugged’ into a system using the Sandy Bridge chipset, will automatically ‘play’ at either 1600MHz or 1866MHz in both desktop and notebook PCs.

The modules are programmed using JEDEC-compliant settings, allowing 1600MHz and 1866MHz frequency support. It is as simple as plugging in the memory and turning on the machine, as the system automatically recognizes faster memory speed with no further BIOS settings required. Users will notice performance gains as overclocking is automatic with the HyperX Plug and Play modules. In addition, the modules are backwards compatible with previously released DDR3 systems on the market.

Who are Kingston?

From their website:

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader.
Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2010, the company’s sales reached $6.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success.

Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

What’s in the Box?

The box contains the 2 4GB sticks and some paperwork.

UWHS Review - Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory

Fitting the Memory

Fitting the memory was simply a case of removing the back cover of the laptop and fitting it in place.

UWHS Review - Kingston HyperX Plug and Play DDR3 Laptop Memory

HP ProLiant MicroServer Now With £100 Cashback Offer Extended Yet Again

Andrew Edney
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0
HP ProLiant MicroServer Now With £100 Cashback Offer Extended Yet Again

Since December, HP have been running a £100 cashback offer on the purchase of their HP ProLiant Microserver. Every time the offer runs out they extend it, and now they have done it again.

201010221051462

We love the MicroServer here at UWHS, so this offer is really great. Where else can you get something like this, including a hard drive, for around £120 after cashback?

The offer is only valid if you purchase a 1X250GB ProLiant Microserver (part code 633724-421), so make sure you get the right one!

Just do a search on Google to see the best offers and stock.

Once you have your MicroServer, just visit the HP page for details on claiming your £100 back.

Don’t forget to check out Tim’s article and video here

Have you got one? What do you think?

Acer Announce the Acer AC100 Microserver

Andrew Edney
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2
Acer Announce the Acer AC100 Microserver

Acer have announced their new Acer AC100 Microserver – and it is perfect to run Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials.

AC100_01AC100_02AC100_03AC100_04

The Acer AC100 delivers essential server-class features and expandability along with unique Acer utilities1 and Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Essentials to ensure the success of startup and small-size businesses. The ultra-micro tower server is ENERGY STAR certified and features an 80 PLUS efficient power supply that saves space and energy while keeping your employees and office highly productive.

Features

4 x hot-pluggable hard drives
Intel® Xeon® E3 or Core™ i3 or Pentium® series processor
2 x DDR3 ECC unbuffered DIMMs
6 x USB ports
eSATA port
Gigabit LAN port (RJ-45)
Video port
Recovery button
Pad lock and Kensington lock slots

Operating Systems

• Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1

AC100 model options

AC100

AC100 standard comes in a wide range of specs to fit any customer need

AC100s

AC100s is preloaded with pre-built RAID and Windows Small Business Server 2011
Essentials. The preload package is the simplest way to deliver strong server
functionality in an easy-to-use package, and is perfect for the small office and SOHO
environments.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced, but that should be forthcoming soon, so watch this space.

Here is some more information:

Smart investment for growing businesses

A brand-new Intel® architecture drives the AC100 ultra-micro tower server with an industry-leading 32 nm processor, greater memory capacity, and higher performance to handle large workloads more efficiently. A PCI Express® x8 expansion slot and multiple USB/eSATA ports are available for external expansion. Four hot-swappable hard disk drives for up to 6 TB of data storage satisfy the demands of growing businesses.

Server-class reliability and security

The AC100 is packed with dependable server-class hardware: an integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller transmits data quickly and safely; ECC memory protection enhances data integrity and reliability; pre-configured RAID 0, 1, 5 models1 ensure data security; and automatic backup protects valuable data and enables secure remote access from the web.

Friendly UI and add-ins optimize office productivity

Acer Dashboard1 and Acer ITSmart1 include powerful utilities to ease office IT operations and increase employee productivity: Sever Health Monitoring, Client PC Power Saving, Printer Sharing and Fax Notification, Intel® vPro™ Management2

Cost-effective expandability, green computing

The AC100 is designed with a tool-less micro tower chassis that allows easy component access, reducing maintenance and service costs. What’s more, this tower server is ENERGY STAR® certified and equipped with an 80 PLUS® power supply for maximum energy efficiency.

Learn more from the Acer website

Well you didn’t think I would miss an opportunity to plug my next book would you? I am working together with Charlie Russell and Sharon Crawford on an SBS 2011 Essentials book.

SBS 2011 book

You can pre-order the book from Amazon today.

Announcements from the Boxee Event in London

Andrew Edney
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2
Announcements from the Boxee Event in London

Tonight is the Boxee event in London and there have been some pretty interesting announcements.

boxee_logo1

Here is what they have said so far:

Tonight we’re in East London sharing some new partners, showing off the iPad, and establishing a beachhead for further European growth.  Here’s a quick run through of tonight’s announcements.

LAUNCHING TONIGHT

BBC iPlayer
Following some recent technical changes, BBC iPlayer is back and is better than ever. With a fresh new look, this is the BBC your way, giving you on demand access to all that the BBC has to offer from the past seven days. There’s nothing else to do, other than sit back, relax and enjoy your favourite BBC programmes from the comfort of your sofa at a time that suits you.

COMING SOON

Blink Box
As the UK’s largest online movies and TV website, BlinkBox is a perfect match for our first major rental service dedicated to Great Britain. They’ve partnered with pretty much every major studio to offer a huge selection of movies and TV at competitive prices and a load of free stuff as well (see one of my favorites, Summer Heights High for free).  Tonight we’ve announced a partnership with them to bring their shows and movies to both the Boxee library as well as to a special Blink Box app so UK users can enjoy everything the service provides. Work starts in September with a release currently slated for the end of the year.

SNEAK PEEK – Boxee for iPad
Tonight we’re also giving people a sneak peek at the Boxee iPad App.  The goal was to create something that stood on its own to bring Boxee to the iPad – videos your friends have shared, featured items, your watch later queue, as well as video files from your local network (using the new Boxee Media Server).  Of course if you’ve got a Boxee Box as well, you’ll be able to use the iPad app as a way to send stuff to your TV.

We were very excited to see the event in London sell out and we think it speaks volumes about the demand for Boxee not only in the UK but across Europe in general so we hope this will be the first of many events and announcements for our European users.

Apple Release iTunes 10.3

Andrew Edney
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0
Apple Release iTunes 10.3

Today Apple has released iTunes version 10.3, including the new iTunes in the Cloud beta.

itunes

iTunes in the Cloud beta lets you automatically download new music, app, and book purchases to all your devices. Or you can download only the stuff you want to just the devices you want. It’s all part of iTunes 10.3.

What’s new in iTunes 10.3

Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.
• Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.
• Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

iTunes is still saying that 10.2.2.12 is the latest version, but if you visit the Apple website you can download 10.3.

Download iTunes 10.3 now

Drive Bender for Windows Home Server 2011 v.1.1.4.1

Andrew Edney
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Drive Bender for Windows Home Server 2011 v.1.1.4.1

Today saw yet another update to Beta 3 of Drive Bender for Windows Home Server 2011 released, taking it to version v1.1.4.1 only a couple of days after v1.1.4.0.

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This is a major Drive Bender update as it addresses a long running bug that has caused numerous performance and reliability issues.

Here is what is included in the beta 3 update:

Release v1.1.4.1 – beta (2011-06-07)
– Bug fix: Under high CPU usage, a number of file system errors could occur. This bug also effected other areas of the application, and could have cause a number seemingly unrelated issues. This bug has been known to cause :-
* Sync / copy applications displaying errors with some files.
* WHS client backups failing.
* WHS backup service crashing.
* Client applications / services crashing.
* Memory leaks on large file transfers.
* Drive Bender slow down after a period of time.
* Excessive C drive usage due to the large log files being generated.
– Bug fix: Deleting a file can sometime leave an orphaned duplicate file.
– Update: Log files are now limited in size.
– Issue: On occasions a deleted file will NOT go to the recycled bin.
– Bug fix: Restarting the Drive Bender service could sometimes cause the service to hang.
– Update: Drive balancing and health monitoring now pause during heavy read / write activity.

For more information check out the Drive Bender website

Acer RevoCenter powered by Windows Home Server 2011 announced at Computex

Andrew Edney
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4
Acer RevoCenter powered by Windows Home Server 2011 announced at Computex

Back in April we reported on the first shots of Acer’s new Windows Home Server 2011 box – the Acer RevoCenter. Now it has been officially announced at Computex.

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So it looks like one more Windows Home Server will be on the market, although these are still Atom powered, which worries me that they will be a little underpowered if you want to do lots with media! Time will tell I suppose.

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/series/revocenter

Steven Guggenheimer also demonstrated Windows Home Server 2011 ecosystem at his keynote.  The original video linked below was packed full of Microsoft goodies.

How To Recover A Tranquil PC Leo HS4 Windows Home Server 2011 Box

Andrew Edney
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0
How To Recover A Tranquil PC Leo HS4 Windows Home Server 2011 Box

With Windows Home Server V1, different companies provided different methods to perform a server recovery. Now that the first Windows Home Server 2011 server is available in the guise of the Tranquil PC Leo HS4, it’s time to see how its done now.

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Check out our exclusive review of the Tranquil PC Leo HS4 Windows Home Server 2011 box

So assuming that you want, or need to perform a server recovery, or reinstall on your Windows Home Server 2011 box, you will need to perform a number of steps and you will need special media to do it.

In Windows Home Server V1 days, Tranquil provided a cool USB key credit card that you connected to your Home Server to do the reinstallation.

Tranquil Recovery Key

With Windows Home Server 2011, they only provide a Server Recovery DVD.

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Have no fear though as the Server Recovery DVD contains everything you need to perform the recovery.

Well ok, not everything, you will need a USB flash drive of at least 8 GB – so make sure you have one to hand when you want to do the recovery.

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First, pop the DVD into the DVD drive on one of your PCs. You will see the Getting Started screen which will walk you through creating a bootable USB flash drive with the recovery software on, or you can skip this step and go straight to recovery steps if you previously created the flash drive. Click Next to continue.

Tranquil Server Recovery step 1

Insert a USB flash drive of at least 8 GB. Click Next to continue.

Tranquil Server Recovery step 2

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