Fractale Design R3 Black Casing

This nice Fractale Design R3 casing replaces my older Coolermaster Centurion 534 with Lian Li EX-34N kit.

The case comes with ample fan slots for top, side, bottom, front and back. For key intakes, there are also provisions for fan filters to be used. In addition, cable routing holes and points for wire ties allows for a clean internal look in addition to enhancing the internal air-flow.

 

It is not often that one will come across a casing with ample HDD bays for the motherboard's SATA slots, typically in a 6+2 configuration. For new age users that only needs minimum number of optical drive or SATA hotswap bay, this casing is the way to go. This is in addition to the inclusion of 2.5" internal disk mounting for use with those 2.5" SSD drives.

Inside the Fractale R3 Black casing, notice the ability to neatly arrange the wiring and hide away the wires.

Ample slots to hide wiring and to tie cables together.

Space available for 3.5" and 2.5" internal disks built-in, and also allows you to keep the screws within your casing.

The only problem with this casing is that the side panels do not sit flush and there is an annoying gap for the casing. In addition, the legs are of different sizes which makes it a bit odd.

Top view of the Fractale Design R3.

Team Fortress 2 Dedicated Server throwing Steam Validation Rejected on join

If your Team Fortress 2 Dedicated Server is giving you "STEAM Validation Rejected" or the following log entry below...

S3: Client connected with ticket for the wrong game

You might want to workaround the issue by...

First validating your dedicated server files...
1. Go to folder X:/.../steamapps/YOUR_ACCOUNT/source 2007 dedicated server/
2. Create a new "steam_appid" file, without extension.
3. Open it and write: 440
4. Save changes
5. Try running the server again

Dlink DNS343 RAID 5 Benchmark

Dlink DNS343 RAID 5 performance, best compared to SmallNetBuilder's NAS chart. This unit is also another unit lacking real world performance data.

Raid 5 performance using NAS tester


Raid 5 performance using ATTO Disk Benchmark


Raid 5 performance using Intel NAS Performance Toolkit (NASPT)
This will be useful when comparing to the SmallNetBuilder NAS Charts v4++.

Buffalo Linkstation Quad Pro LS-QVL8.0TL/R5 RAID 5 Benchmark

This benchmark is for interested purchasers of this NAS, which I simply cannot find any performance data for. This NAS is rather affordable and the performance is much better than I expected.

The following tests are done with a empty RAID5 array (0% full), 4x Samsung disks pre-built at factory (Buffalo LS-QVL8.0TL/R5), no jumbo frames in used.

Raid 5 performance using NAS tester


Raid 5 performance using Crystal Diskmark


Raid 5 performance using ATTO Disk Benchmark


Raid 5 performance using Intel NAS Performance Toolkit (NASPT)
This will be useful when comparing to the SmallNetBuilder NAS Charts v4++.

Sharing your internet over a WiFi PAN

Have you ever been in a hotel room with only one ethernet connector, or your hotel charges for each WiFi connection? With Windows 7, it is possible to share your internet connection over WiFi using either Connectify (for all wireless adapters) or Intel MyWiFi application (for select Intel adapters).

Since the Connectify route has been well covered, I will only focus on the Intel route.


Steps for internet sharing using Intel MyWiFi...
1. Install updated Intel MyWiFi drivers using the custom install, selecting the Intel MyWiFi utility. See the instructions for more details.
2. Launch the Intel MyWiFi utility.
3. Enable Internet Sharing and set up wireless security.
4. Connect other internet devices to your mobile WiFi hotspot.
5. Enjoy!

Official Synaptics driver for multi-touch and gestures

An official driver from Synaptics with mouse gestures, momentum and 3 finger gestures. It also bundles along with a updated UI settings. There is no reason to be using a hacked or third-party driver anymore!

Available directly from Synaptics...

Windows 7 Media Center XMLTV EPG

Windows 7 gains better support for multiple tuners and DVB-T and many other refinements (includes digital over-the-air EIT data). However, in regions where EPG data is unsupported and we have to rely on TVxB to grab EPG data for analog or cable channels, a tool similar to wmcGuideServiceProxy by epgStream for Windows Vista is required for Windows 7.

Enter Big Screen EPG for Windows 7 (more screenshots). It allows you to import XMLTV EPG data into Windows 7 and provides further channel and provider mappings, channel logos and series identification support.

While I cannot get it to work with my cable STB setup when I tried with Windows 7, I have no doubts that the future with Windows 7 will lie with this EPG importer. For now, I will still stick to my well tested Windows Vista MCE with TVxB, wmcGuideServiceProxy and Webguide with LiveTV streaming.