When I got my Dell computer, along bundled with the software was Dell DataSafe Online - this is a free online service (with 2GIG Plan) to allow you to automate backing up for pictures, documents and other important files on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. While I discarded this to begin with – I have took another look at this and will explain how it works and how it is different from say dropbox.
Came across one of these the other day and found it quite an interesting idea for business needing a very small form factor computer which can be fitted behind a monitor / TV to drive a simple application. The goal of this machine is not power due to it been driven by an Atom CPU but its very small indeed and has the power supply fitted inside (no power brick).
This is an initial overview and brief review of the Dell SP2309W Monitor, I made a brief video which shows what it looks like on the desk as well as direct capture from the in-built webcam. This monitor was bought to replace 2×20” TFT Widesceen (1680×1050) which were attached direct to the wall via a wall mount.
I have been looking at getting some real estate in the monitor front for a while now and looked at various models. My Current biggest monitor is the 21″ which comes in at 1680×1050 and remember the issue her is resolution not how big the monitor is because after all if that was the case I might as well stick a 42″ TV on the wall and run it at 1920×1080 – yes it will be big but silly when you can get the same resolution from a cheap 22″.
Microsoft allowed anyone buying a new pc between July onwards this year to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 for Free and as I bought a Refurbished Dell – then I added my system tag to the said list and waited. Now a big company like Dell or Microsoft you would expect the wonders of automation and an email to be sitting inside my inbox telling me it was ready to ship right? Well no – a big company like dell like to make YOU do all the hard work it seems – shame on you Dell.
The Keyboard and Mouse that came with the Dell was a funny looking thing and it was not something I had intended to use as I have the Logitech 710 Set along with the Microsoft 6000 Set, so no shortage of decent Wireless Keyboard & Mice. I thought I would share with you though what came with my Dell as I have never seen anything like it nor can I find any images of it on the web or the Dell site….
There is a collection of web sites from named manufacture’s that sell refurbished goods at much cheaper then shop price. The Items were either returned, fixed and no needed and it could shave off a lot of money as a good alternative to a brand new product. Most Items also come with a full 12 Month Warranty as well.
My current desktop computer is a Acer which has been upgraded by way of the CPU and harddrives and seen as it#s an off the shelf thing, it has a standard 350 Watt power Supply and a rather limited case I would say. I pondered on upgrading what I have (cheaper) or buying a new one outright for the new technology. The current spec of the machine is Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz), 4 GIG DDR-2 Ram, 1TB + 250Gig HD, Geforce 7600GS.
The Dell GX620 USFF machine has a Pentium 4 640 CPU, which run Single Core 3.2Ghz and has the 64bit instruction set. I had a spare 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo lying around and as the Socket was the very same, it crossed my mind if it was possible to upgrade this machine with said CPU??
I let it cool down and made sure the BIOS was the latest then set about trying this CPU in there. I was met with an orange light, couple fans slowly spinning but not much else. Although I have seen Dell GX620 machines with a Core 2 Duo in there, I am guessing there motherboard was a later model. It was a shame though worth the try all the same.
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