MaximumPC 2002 09

100 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com

LAB NOTES

Call It a Power Play!

LAB NOTES

Call It a Power Play!

LAB NOTES

IN THE LAB^

HANDS ON WITH THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

Why I’m buying, not building, a home server

M

y power bill is bad every month,

especially considering that I don’t

need a heater where I live. Sure,

my wife works at home all day, and we do

about 9,000 loads of laundry a week, but

my computer gear always gets the blame

when the big bill hits. So after I’d hooked

my wife on the benefits of an always-on

home server—streaming audio and video

as well as constant backups—I suggested

we invest in an OEM-built home server,

such as the HP MediaSmart EX475 that I reviewed this month (page

86). While the MediaSmart is underpowered compared to my last

gaming rig (which metamorphosized into my home server), it also

draws a fraction of the power, roughly 10 percent according to my

trusty watt meter. That along with setting the server to automatical-

ly turn off when it isn’t needed should make for substantial savings

on my power bill this winter.

WILL SMITH

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

GORDON MAH UNG

SENIOR EDITOR

As someone too

cheap to pay for any-

thing beyond basic

cable and standard

def, I’m surprisingly

pleased with Win-

dows Vista’s Media

Center capabilities.

With a Linksys Media

Center Extender and

a pair of ATI TV tuner

cards in my offi ce PC,

I get absolutely silent

access to more than

1,000 hours of TV on

my aged tube.

TOM EDWARDS

MANAGING EDITOR

This year, I managed

to do all my shop-

ping without step-

ping into the mall or

the post office. And

while this turn of

events has certainly

kept my blood

pressure down, my

hope is that by next

year teleportation

technology matures

to a point where I

won’t have to enter

an airport either.

NORMAN CHAN

ONLINE EDITOR

Will recently clued

me in to Boxee,

an amazing media

center front-end

that pulls Internet

video from sites like

Hulu, YouTube, and

Comedy Central. The

program is still in al-

pha, but the interface

is intuitive and video

streaming is seam-

less. Too bad it’s (so

far) only available for

Mac OS X and Linux!

NATHAN EDWARDS

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

This month I ventured

into the world of

Ancaria for my Sacred

2 review, which really

cut down on my sleep

time. I learned that

Ancaria has a lot of

rats in it! The HP Mini

1001xx, on the other

hand, is rat-free, and

has a really comfort-

able keyboard. I also

learned that the Ther-

malTake SpinQ is not

pronounced “spink.”

KATHERINE STEVENSON

DEPUTY EDITOR

What could be wrong

with upgrading my

Wi-Fi router to a new-

er model with WPA

encryption? Well, if

the router operates on

the 2.4GHz band—as

my new one does—it

can confl ict with the

two cordless phones I

rely on at home. That’s

the lesson I learned

this month. So I’m trad-

ing said router in for a

dual-band model.