Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on
Feature What really happened to the mission that grounded NASA's orbiter fleet?
On February 1st, 2003 at 08:00 CST residents of Texas witnessed the once mighty Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrate into a 12,000mph fireball. Almost 17 years to the day since the Challenger disaster, President G. W. Bush delivered the news to the world, “The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors.”
Space Shuttle Columbia …
How to launch people into space...
It's Not Rocket Science ...if you want them to survive the journey
Last time, I explored how difficult it is for computer hardware to operate in the noisy - from an electromagnetic radiation perspective - environment of outer space. Today’s topic is people. Don’t worry, I won’t be boring you with life support systems. That’s the least of a spacer’s worries. Before you need to worry about …
Ten Linux apps you must install
Product Round-up Here is the GNUs
Unless you are operating in the enterprise class, most Linux software is free, which is both a blessing and a hindrance. Sure, there are some truly fantastic apps out there, but all to often you have to wade through a mess of buggy unfinished projects with dependencies on other defunct code to get to what you want. To help with …
Chips in spaaaaace: old tech is in
It's Not Rocket Science Why what's cutting edge up there is older than what's à la mode down here
I hate to say it, but most of what you think about space-age technology is a total fabrication. It’s the stuff of sci-fi.
Perhaps the biggest misconception of all is that spacecraft are equipped with cutting-edge computing platforms that any self-respecting technophile would commit unspeakable acts to get their mitts on. …
Ten four-bay NAS boxes
Product Round-up Made for sharing
The storage needs of home users are ever growing, such that the capacity of dual-layer DVDs appears miniscule, and backing up CD looks desperate. Many are now turning to network accessible storage systems that not only allow data storage in the home, but also provide HTTP, FTP and cloud services for when you’re on the go. The …
Lenovo IdeaPad U410 14in Ultrabook review
Cheaper by design
As a MacBook Pro owner, and yet a fan of the ThinkPad range since the early IBM days, it would be easy for me to assume Lenovo's new IdeaPad U410 Ultrabook fills the gap as the ultimate middle ground model. Indeed, it's a ThinkPad descendant that looks like Lenovo desperately wants an Apple lawsuit.
Lenovo IdeaPad U410 …
Haynes Build Your Own Computer book review
Manual upgrade
As a journalist, engineer and car nut enthusiast, I can easily find myself spending hours upon hours poring over technical documents and workshop manuals, among them tomes published by Haynes. This time, however, I’m looking at something less mechanical and more digital: the latest in Haynes’ Build Your Own Computer series, …
Ten freeware gems for new Macs
Product Round -up Complimentary benefits
It seems that Mac OS is forever moving further towards a closed computing model, especially with the introduction of Gatekeeper in Mountain Lion. Don’t despair just yet though, Mac users can still take advantage of an abundance of free and open-source applications available in the traditional way.
We've put found ten top notch …
HP Z1 quad-core Xeon 27in PC
Review All in one workstation, anyone?
Extreme PC Week
PC users who secretly covet their cubicle neighbour’s 27in iMac but don’t want to leave the Windows world can begin to feel rather smug these days. HP's Z1 is its take on the all-in-one concept, but has the heart of a workstation. It's a handsome beast too, with a 27in display which also houses a Xeon server- …
Ten... freeware gems for new PCs
Product round-up Something for nothing
Reg Hardware PC Week
If you’ve just purchased a spanking new Windows PC, what to slap on there often leaves pause for thought. The trial bloatware that inevitably came with your machine might keep you busy for a while until the payment nag screens start. Yet those costs and curses aside, there are plenty of free apps out …
Ten... two-bay Nas boxes
Product Round-up Dual-drive data dumpsters
Network attached storage is the panacea for many of today’s data excesses, especially you’ve developed a music and movie habit, need a backup server or fancy your own personal cloud. Two-bay nas drives are an affordable option for file sharing, supporting mixed platform environments in addition to web HTTP and FTP services. …
Ten... FireWire 800 hard drives
Product round-up i.Linked in
FireWire interfacing has been around since the mid-1990s and, as far as Apple is concerned, looks set to be ousted by its new Thunderbolt technology in due course. However, it still features on most new Macs, is available for PCs and remains popular in desktop audio and video environments. It's also a convenient option for …
Netgear ReadyNas Duo v2 network storage
Review ARM twist tactics
Netgear’s ReadyNas Duo v2 appears to be identical to its predecessor from the outside, yet it actually represents a rather radical shift in hardware design for the company. This dual bay ReadyNas model does away with the Infrant Technologies IT3107 SPARC processor featured on earlier models and replaces it with a 1.6GHz ARM CPU …
Lindy wireless extender and projection server
Review Putting on a display
CES 2012 Week
With the demise of the traditional overhead projector, conference rooms and the like are typically found equipped with a multitude of easily accessible and switchable AV inputs for hassle-free presentations. Yet not all facilities offer cabling contentment and for the poorly-wired projectionist, the Lindy …
Acer Aspire 5749 budget 15in laptop
Review How much performance does 400 quid get you?
Acer’s Aspire line has become synonymous with affordable computing power, providing an air of quality even towards the lowest end of the pricing scale. With an asking price of £399, the 15.6in Aspire 5749 isn’t going to break the bank and it certainly won’t be shattering records, but can so little money buy reasonable …
Kingston Technology HyperX 240GB SSD
Review May the SandForce be with you
Following OCZ’s great success with its SandForce SF2281-based Vertex 3 solid-state drive, it seems everyone is jumping on the SandForce bandwagon now. I recently tested Patriot Memory’s Wildfire SSD from, and today I have the latest addition to Kingston Technology’s HyperX product line.
It too uses an SF2281 controller, which …
Ten... Desktop USB 3.0 HDDs
Product Round-up SuperSpeed storehouses
Despite somewhat lacklustre adoption of the interface in the last 18 months, USB 3.0 is starting to gain a foothold in the consumer market as availability increases and prices fall down to more reasonable levels.
The current offerings of USB 3.0 portable hard drives in our recent round-up turned out to be a pleasant surprise …
Hauppauge Colossus HD PCIe card
Review TV and gaming captured
When I first looked at the box containing the Hauppauge Colossus I wasn’t quite sure as to what its exact purpose was. I saw the words “HD Video Recorder,” “PCI-Express,” and “HDMI” thinking I could use it to record almost anything and then I noticed the asterisks.
Hauppauge Colossus Hauppauge's Colossus: break out the old VHS …
Patriot Wildfire 120GB Sata 3 SSD
Review Upgrades all round
Patriot Memory’s latest Wildfire Sata 3 SSDs come with the promise of read and write speeds in excess of 500MB/s along with read and write IOPS in the 60K region. All of this blazing speed is available in 120GB (£240), 240GB (£420) and 480GB capacities – a 60GB version is in production, but not currently available in the UK. …
PCTV NanoStick T2 USB TV tuner
Review Freeview HD telly on the move
Ten years ago, investing in a PC TV tuner seemed a neat way of watching while you work – integrating the gogglebox with laptop or desktop duties. Today, the idea is more questionable given access to on-line video streaming and download services from the likes of YouTube and the BBC iPlayer respectively.
PCTV Nanostick T2 PCTV's …
Ten... Portable USB 3.0 HDDs
Product Round-up SuperSpeed pocket drives tested
USB 3.0 has been with us for nearly two years now, not that you’d notice, as adoption and availability of peripherals has been somewhat slow. However, things are looking up now as more and more portable HDDs are coming to market featuring the not-so-new interface. Here at Reg Hardware, we've put together a round up of the …
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s 14in Core i5 laptop
Review Suits more than suits
I have always been a fan of ThinkPads, ever since my father brought home a beaten 560e featuring a 150MHz Pentium which was rejected from the corporate pool due to travel abuse. Even though half of its 1GB disk was bad sectors I ran it well into this century and with all the cheap tat that is flooding the market these days, I've …
Samsung Series 470 250GB 2.5in SSD
Review Solid-state stunner
Reg Hardware first reviewed a Samsung SSD - the South Korean giant's first, and a device aimed at computer makers rather than upgrade-hungry punters - way back in March 2009. Rather keen we were on it too.
But that was two years ago - how has Samsung managed to improve matters in the meantime?
Samsung Series 470 Samsung's …
Intel 510 250GB Sata 3 SSD
Review Performance benefits
Having recently covered Crucial’s new M4 SSD, it seemed only natural to go further in-depth with it’s Intel counterpart, the 510 series. Both of these drives feature Marvell’s 88SS9174 controller, with the Intel drive using the BKK2 revision, and a SATA 6Gb/s interface.
Intel SSD 510 Sata 3 performer: Intel's SSD 510
Intel …
Crucial M4 256GB Sata 3 SSD
Review Life in the fast lane
Following on from its impressive debut in last month’s SSD roundup, it seems in order to look further into Crucial’s M4 SSD, specifically the 256GB version of this Sata 3 capable device.
Crucial M4 Crucial's M4 really shows what SSDs can achieve thanks to its Sata 3 interfacing
First off, the usual; Crucial has made the M4 …
Seven... SSD sizzlers
Product Round-up Speed-boost upgrades for your laptop
While there’s no escaping the fact that solid-state drives are still expensive, they are steadily getting cheaper and the capacities are increasing. For the average PC user to be convinced that it is a must-have upgrade, the performance benefits would really need to be experienced.
Costs aside, no doubt concerns as to whether a …
Synology DS411slim Nas box
Review The little big store
As technology progresses further into the twenty-first century, the most obvious trend is the miniaturisation of just about everything. While these changes have taken most aspects of new technology by storm, conventional storage however, has been left wanting.
Synology DS411slim Synology's DS411slim four bay Nas relies on 2.5in …
Plextor PX-L611U portable DVD writer
Review Optical extras on the go
As Blu-Ray climbs to the top of the optical storage ladder, one might assume that manufacturers of optical drives would cease production of anything that doesn’t feature this technology. However, Plextor has seen fit to launch the PX-L611U, a smart external DVD writer.
Plextor PX-L611U Etching ahead: Plextor's PX-L611U
While …
iXtreamer dock with IPTV
Review Media hub for iFans
If you’re an iDevice owner and fancy hooking it up to your telly – but would rather not pay £80 for the rather basic combination of Apple’s Universal Dock equipped with component or composite cables – then the iXtreamer is one option that stands out from the multitude of iThing third party docking systems.
Xtreamer iXtreamer …
Iomega SSD 128GB USB 3.0 drive
Review SuperSpeed performance anxiety
Kingston Tech is not the only SSD manufacturer now bringing out USB 3.0 external drives. Iomega’s unimaginatively named SSD Flash Drive comes in three capacities: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. With the latter costing £624, it's a purchase that demands a significant leap of faith.
iomega SSD Iomega's SSD Flash Drive joins the …
Aavara PCE122 HDMI extender
Review The long run
Ever fancied watching a Blu-ray movie in the garden? Always wondered what it would be like to isolate your Xbox 360 so you could hear the gameplay over the sound of the jet engine Microsoft calls a DVD drive? Many of us would probably like to, but 50 metre HDMI cables tend to go for £300 apiece – not exactly what you'd describe …
Buffalo Linkstation Pro Duo 2TB Nas
Review Putting in a performance
Apart from the silver-on-red “V” sticker, Buffalo's V-Series Linkstation Pro appears identical to the original LinkStation Duo Nas box. Even on the inside there are many similarities, such as Buffalo’s remote WebAccess, DLNA and iTunes DAAP media streaming along with a BitTorrent client and are standard. Likewise, the V-Series …
Samsung SH-B123 internal 12x BD-Rom drive
Review Speed reader?
Some feel that optical media is dying in favour of digital distribution, however, in this world of high definition content there are still those who'd rather not abandon shiny plastic discs and hence, we have Blu-ray. This is not to say that Blu-Ray is not an important development in digital optical media technology, a 50GB dual …
Western Digital My Book Live Nas box
Review Homelan security?
Western Digital’s My Book line of drives spans nearly all areas of external storage, supporting fast modern interfaces from FireWire 800 and eSATA to USB 3.0. Yet the My Book Live is network drive and, in terms of connectivity, sports nothing more than a DC input and a gigabit Ethernet port.
Western Digital My Book Live Silent …
Kingston HyperX Max USB 3.0 128GB external drive
Review SSD on the go
Kingston Technology's HyperX Max is the company's latest SSD offering that will be hitting the shelves next month. Packaged as an external drive, it's available in capacities from 64GB to 256GB.
Kingston HyperX Max SuperSpeed storekeeper: Kingston Technology's HyperX Max
Entirely bus-powered and measuring in at 74 x 119 x …
Synology DiskStation DS411+ Nas box
Review Dual core storehouse
From the outside, the Synology DiskStation DS411+ appears pretty much identical to the DS410n – a fairly heavy duty home and small business four-bay Nas box, reviewed recently. However, internally, the DS411+ is is quite a different beast, aimed at the small and medium business sector.
Synology DS411+ For business and demanding …
Buffalo USB 3.0 ExpressCard 34
Review SuperSpeed interfacing for your laptop
With USB 3 storage now gathering momentum, fitting a SuperSpeed interface to your computer seems like an option worth investing in now. Even laptop users aren’t left out of this buss ride, if there’s an ExpressCard 34 slot available. Such cards are still quite a rarity, with Buffalo’s IFC-EC2U3UC dual-port adapter being among …
Kingston Technology DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 32GB
Review SuperSpeed storage on your keyring
The DataTraveler Ultimate is the a natural progression in Kingston’s pocketable USB flash drive range. Featuring SuperSpeed USB 3.0 support devices are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. For something likely to live on a keyring, the Ultimate has an impressive performance, which, according to Kingston Technology, will …
Apple MacBook Pro 17in Core i7 BTO notebook
Review The anti-glare alternative
Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro line earlier this year with Intel's Core i CPUs. While the glossy screens and unibody construction are now a familiar sight, Apple does offer several build-to-order tweaks that aren’t likely to appear on the shop floor. Ram and SSDs upgrades aside, MacBook Pro 15in and 17in users can opt for an …
Freecom Mobile Drive CLS storage
Review Portable drive array with archiving ambitions
The turn of the century spelled the death of VHS and cassette tapes, along with the plastic cases they came in. Fast-forward to 2010, and you can once again store your data in a translucent case with a paper label adorned with an indecipherable scrawl.
Freecom CLS The new tape? Freecom's Mobile Drive CLS
Indeed, the …
Acer Aspire 5940G 15.6in notebook
Review Media takeout
If you’re after a well-crafted machine, adorned with a range of features from a media controlling touch panel to the old favourites eSATA and ExpressCard/54, then Acer’s Aspire 5940G could well fit the bill. There’s even a fingerprint reader, a 4-pin FireWire 400 port and a whopping sub-woofer.
Aspire 5940G Home entertainer: …
Buffalo USB 3.0 PCI Express card
Review SuperSpeed drives and cards compared
In an age where the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface has yet to be officially supported by Intel, storage vendors in particular, are keen to build the best add-on PCI Express adapter card to take advantage of this fast connectivity.
Buffalo USB 3.0 Card SuperSpeed upgrade, anyone? Buffalo Tech's IFC-PCIE2U3
Currently, NEC’ …
Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB solid-state drive
Review Serious capacity... serious price
Reg Hardware has covered plenty of solid-state disks before, but never anything to match the capacity of Kingston’s latest high density SSD. Back in January, Kingston announced the SSDNow V+ series, the higher spec members of its family of “value” drives with capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB.
Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB …
Iomega eGo Desktop USB 3.0 external HDD
Review Faster, master
As USB 3.0 emerges from its infancy and begins to take strides towards industry standardisation in 2011, more and more manufacturers are keen to launch products which demonstrate their ability to utilise the benefits of the newly revised interface.
Iomega eGo Desktop USB 3.0 Iomega's eGo Desktop USB 3.0: nippy
Today’s …
Synology DiskStation DS410 Nas box
Review Box clever
Synology’s DS410 is a four drive Nas aimed at the small business market – or home use if overkill is your thing – with claimed read speeds of up to 110MB/s in RAID 5 whilst keeping power consumption down to 56W.
Synology DS410 Synology's DiskStation DS410 four-bay Nas
Initial impressions are as expected, a high build quality …
Synology DiskStation DS210j Nas box
Review The ultimate budget home server?
Synology’s Disk Station 409 Slim was one of Reg Hardware’s favourite Nas boxes of 2009. With the DiskStation DS210j, the company addresses the needs of home users for around half the price of the Slim. An unpopulated device, the DS210j has two Sata drive bays with RAID support and more features than any hi-tech household could …
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 portable hard drive
Review SuperSpeed USB and military-grade toughness?
Although it has been said that it won't become mainstream until it is officially adopted by Intel in 2011, USB 3.0 - aka SuperSpeed USB - is steadily emerging from the shadows with more and more manufacturers bringing support for the protocol to the eager masses.
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Shock and awe: LaCie's Rugged USB 3.0 has …
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 4TB Nas box
Review Hard'n'heavy
Iomega has introduced its second-generation StorCenter ix2-200, aimed at the 'prosumer' home user and which offers a wealth of features ranging from a BitTorrent client and remote access to surveillance camera support.
Iomega StorCenter ix2 Iomega's StorCenter ix2-200
While most other Network Attached Storage (Nas) …
Acer Easystore H340 2TB Nas box
Review For the heavyweight home user
Sporting four 3.5in drive bays, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230, all governed by Windows Home Server, the latest edition of the Acer Aspire Easystore H340 series certainly piles on the features in a bid to replace any other storage/streaming/server type device you have ever bought. Sold in three configurations from 1 …
Asus Home Server TS Mini
Review The ideal Nas box for newcomers?
Pitched as a competitor against the likes of the Acer’s easyStore line of Windows Home Server-based Nas boxes, Asus brings us the TS Mini home server. Based on Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, the TS Mini can be configured with up to 2GB of 800MHz DDR 2 memory and houses two 3.5in Sata drive bays.
Asus Home Server TS Mini …
