Here’s another NAS for you, this time from Western Digital. Their My Book Live Personal Cloud drive has three storage capacity options, ranging from 1TB thru 2TB up to a whopping 3TB. The My Book Live gets a few mixed reviews but most seem to indicate that the unit is pretty fast at data transfer but lacks a few bells and whistles of other similarly priced NAS such as a USB port for extra drives.
* Centralize and share media on your home network
* View your photo collection with your iPhone
* Stream media to your entertainment center
* Automatic backup with WD SmartWare for Windows
* Compatible with Apple Time Machine
* Leading-edge performance
* Play your music on any computer in your home
* Secure remote access
System Requirements
* Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista, Windows 7
* Mac OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard, or Lion
* DLNA/UPnP enabled devices
* Internet connection for remote access
Supported Browsers
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher
* Safari 4.0 or higher
* Firefox 3.6 or higher
Pros – Value for money, fast
Cons – No USB port for expansion, no standard NAS features
We’re normally quite keen on Western Digital gear, but the WD My Book Live Personal Cloud drive doesn’t quite do it for us. No USB port, standard NAS features? The Western Digital My Book Live gets a thumbs down from Our Picks.
An average score of 3.2 out of 5 based on these 3 reviews.
NAS seem to be the latest piece of hardware your average consumer seems to be investing in. One of the top models available is the DS212j Disk Station from the Taiwanese company Synology. Currently priced at $220 at Amazon, the Synology DS212j is a great entry level NAS solution for people wanting to centralise their media on their home network and also make it available over the net. The Synology DS212j NAS is a DLNA Certified Media Server, offers the honme user effortless backup and features the EZ-Internet wizard to guide you through setting the unit up for internet access.
* CPU Frequency : 1.2GHz
* Memory : DDR2 256MB
* Internal HDD/SSD : 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA(II) X 2 (with Disk Holder) (Hard drive not included)
* Max Internal Capacity : 6TB (2X 3TB HDD) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)
* USB 2.0 Port x 2
* 165 X 100 X 225.5 mm
* 0.94Kg
* LAN : Gigabit X1
* 18.3 dB(A)
* Power Consumption : 17.6W (Access) ; 5.5W (HDD Hibernation)
Synology DS212j Reviews
We managed to track down some reviews for you on the Synology DS212j NAS and glowing reviews they were indeed
Pros – affordable, excellent performance, support for 2.5” SSD, low power consumption, almost silent
Cons – no SATA 3 support, swapping drives means taking unit apart
Our Picks verdict
Well what more can we add? The Synology DS212j NAS seems to get a thumbs up from just about everybody and with a just a couple of minor cons we not going to buck the trend. Yes, the DS212j NAS solution gets a big thumbs up from us.
An average score of 4.69 out of 5 based on these 2 reviews.
Today we’re taking a quick look at the Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 notebook, for which unfortunately we’re unable to find any decent reviews. However the laptop is currently the bestselling laptop at Amazon so that must say something about it. The i15-N5040 sports a 15.6 inch display and is powered by an Intel i3 Core processor. The base model comes with 3 GB of memory and a 320 GB spinny drive and all for $460 which is not a lot more than a 12 inch netbook and it packs a lot more into its case.
* 2.53 GHz Intel Core i3-380M
* 3GB DIMM Memory (up to 8GB)
* 320 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
* 15.6-Inch Screen 720p
* Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* 19.9 x 13.9 x 4.2 inches
* 7 pounds
* 802.11bgn Wi-Fi
* 3 x USB 2.0 ports
* HDMI port
* VGA video output
* 3-in-1 Media Card Reader (supports SD, MS, MMC)
* 48 watt_hours 6 cell Lithium Ion Battery
* Intel HD Graphics for casual and mainstream gaming (supports Microsoft DirectX 10).
* 8x multi-format CD/DVD drive
* 0.3-megapixel webcam
* Built-in stereo speakers
* Fast Ethernet (10/100)
* Microphone and headphone jacks
Unfortunately there’s little in the way of reviews out there including Amazon customer reviews which seems a bit strange and on the video front we only managed to find this uncommented video presumably taken in a store.
So we can’t really give the Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 a thumbs up or down but of course if you have one of these suckers feel free to let us know what you think of it in the comment box below.
If you’re after a cheap graphics card to may be upgrade an old PC or replace an under-powered card, the EVGA GeForce 8400 may be just what you are after. The EVGA GeForce 8400 is currently on special at $35, a bargain at anyone’s price. The 8400 is a PCI Express 2.0 card sporting 512MB of memory and HDMI ouput.
Tablet’s appear to be all the rage at the moment and of course every computer manufacturer just has to have one in its PC range. So here’s HP’s tablet, the TouchPad. It comes armed with Wi-Fi connectivity, a 9.7 inch multitouch display and is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060 processor.
Apparently Toshiba’s Portege R835-P56x laptop is selling like the proverbial hot cakes and with a $800 price tag we’re not surprised. The 13.3 inch notebook is powered by an Intel i5-2410M Sandy Bridge processor, configured with 4GB of memory and has a nice 640GB HDD. It’s not a heavyweight monster either weighing in at a touch over 3 pounds, displays HD with the Sandy Bridge processor and has all the usual features. Interested? Then read on ….
* 15.6 inch widescreen LED backlight TruBrite TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA )
* Intel® Core™ i3-2310M Processor
* Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
* 3GB DDR3 memory
* 320GB hard drive (7200 RPM)
* DVD SuperMulti drive
* 1366 x 768 native resolution
* Bluetooth
* 802.11a/g/n wireless
* Integrated webcam
* HD Graphics
* HDMI port
* Gigabit Ethernet
* Fingerprint reader
* Graphite black metallic
* 14.9 in x 9.9 in x 1.2 in
* 5.3 lbs
* Stereo speakers
* 6-cell lithium ion – up to 8.7 hours
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(292 customer reviews)
(17 customer reviews)
(7 customer reviews)
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