The Smorgasbord

If you like this tutorial guide – please digg it!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

With all the people downgrading from Windows Vista to XP, I felt this was a pretty timely post. You can’t boot Windows XP from a floppy disc, but you can from a CD Rom if you need to reinstall or make a repair. Burning CD’s is so passe anymore – can’t you just boot Windows XP from a USB flash memory stick drive? Of course you can – if you know how!

What’s more – you can use applications you’ve installed on the flash drive as well to fix any PC problems you may have.

First – you’re going to need a program called PEBuilder – download it here. The PEBuilder Home page is here. PE Builder is “Pre-Installed Environment Builder” – basically think of it as a freeware way to build a “Windows” LiveCD (like Linux).

As the home page states it will give you:

• A complete Win32 environment with network support
• A GUI or graphical user interface (800×600)
• FAT/NTFS filesystem support
• You get the ability to:
• Do burn in testing with no installed OS
• Rescue files or boot a dead PC
• Perform Virus scan, remove trojans, fix problems, etc.

Microsoft already has a PE or Pre-Installed Environment utility – BUT, it’s only availble to big enterprise and OEM companies, AND it’s only command line (no GUI). Ok, now that you have to tool to build a PE, you need to get another tool to install that PE to a usb flash drive. So you need download PE to USB, a program that was specifically designed to use PEBuilder and install that PE to a flash drive.

Now I’m going to show you how to get this done in 5 easy steps:

1. Install PEBuilder
2. Copy your “i386″ directory from your Windows XP Pro SP2 CD to a folder in the PE Builder directory called “BartPE”
3. Extract the PEtoUSB files to the PEBuilder folder
4. Run the PE to USB program and select “Enable Disk Format”, “Quick Format”, and “Enable File Copy”. For “Source Path” select the “BartPE” folder
5. REBOOT with USB flash drive and you will have a running Windows environment on a stick! (enable usb boot in bios if needed)

If you have something to add or a suggestion about building a Windows booting Flash drive – please, comment now!

Oh – and if by some chance you need a geeky new USB flash drive – then I can tell you some of the best deals are on eBay! Here are some usb flash memory drive auctions on eBay right now!

I just had to write about this one real quick too, this is one of the most needed and coolest Ubuntu Linux tools I’d seen in a long time. This articles shows how to create your own live cd with Remastersys. What does that mean? It means that you can create your very own Live CD or DVD backup based of your own system! Backup all of your system settings and essentials – AND making it a bootable LiveCD you can use on any computer anywhere? How can you beat that! Be sure to bookmark this one and pass it on to your friends!

When I read this post on “best things to do with your old PC” it really cracked me up. This barbecue PC was probably the funniest for me, but they’ve also got one case turned into a coffee machine, many “mice” sculptures, and some very unique uses for old monitor cases. I think that you’ll enjoy these a lot! Have you ever “repurposed’ your old computer hardware for a completely new use? Comment if you have, we’d like to know about it!

This All-in-one Car Adapter is an FM Transmitter that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter, and it has a usb port and or sd slot in the back. Just plug in your flash drive, and voila – you’re listening to your mp3′s in the car! Some even have an input jack for mp3 player’s or cell phones! Pure Genius! Some of these come with play controls on the top and even include a wireless remote. The average cost is about $29.99 or less. Can you beat that? Every geek has a spare USB stick or SD card lying around. That’s the price you pay for a good car charger, and for about the same price you can get an car 12 volt adaptor that allows you to connect any device with an output jack, any sd flash memory card, or any usb stick or key – AND transmit them through your FM car stereo.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

For me, I always thought this thing was the coolest device because I carry my music and files to work on a USB key. Who needs an iPod when I have this thing? I keep some music on my phones SD card as well, and now I can connect either my phone (or the card) right in my car. If my son is in the car – we can connect his iPod to it, and if we’re on a long trip, we can connect the laptop if we want. You have all the options you want with one of these little devices. If you have trouble finding a good gift for that geek in your life – this would make an awesome gift idea for any geek, or for any gadget or music lover for that matter. Do you have a gadget that you love like this? Please share with us and add a comment below now!

I want to talk to you about the HDD Player. For about $30 or less, you can buy a HDD or Hard Disk Drive Multimedia Player Encolsure that will blow your mind! These external enclosures can be either Sata, eSata, or IDE – and they even have wireless and wired LAN versions. You won’t find these in a brick and mortar store anywhere – usually only on eBay or an online gadget shop? Why? Well, the big electronics giants would never want to see you have something this cool – EVER!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Because it’s keeps you buying their clunky, proprietary garbage. They want to tie you into DVD burners that won’t backup your legal store bought DVD’s, that don’t support ripped and burned DVD’s, and devices that use HDCP and DRM to limit what you can to with your own electronics! Your dvd player might only play DVD’s coded for North America – and you want a region free player that will play DVD’s from anywhere in the world!

What if you could have a device that would allow you to store all of your ripped DVD’s and movies, YouTube, MySpace and online video, your entire mp3 collection, in addition to the thousands and thousands of digital pictures you have accumulated!? You need a storage device – and entertainment storage device at the center of your house! With 500GB hard drives at an all time low – the time is right for a device like this! I’m telling you – it works great for me because I am so tired of plugging in my laptop to our 42″ flat screen just to watch some video I edited or something from our digital camera or camcorder.

The HDD or Hard Disk Drive Enclosure Multimedia Player

Most of these hard drive enclosure boxes will do the following:

• Play mp3′s
• Play mp4′s
• Play Divx movies
• Play AVI videos
• Play DVD’s
• Play Audio CD’s
• Play VCD’s
• Play SVCD’s
• Play JPG pictures (slideshow)

Most come with a remote, some even play AVI and Windows Media WMV and WMF formats. I’ve even seen quite a few new ones that EVEN have a memory card reader slot. Also, many have optional connectors for either a TV (AV cable or s-video) or PC (VGA connector). You can usually use up to a 80GB+ hard drive, and depending on which case you get, it can be either 3.5″ PC form factor, or a notebook HDD. The one I mentioned with the memory card reader, it even has a one-touch button to copy everything from a memory card to the hard drive without having to hook it up to a PC at all. Most also have 5.1 channel digital audio output support as well. These things work with Windows PC’s from 95, to 98, 2000, Windows XP and Vista, in addition to Mac and Linux, and NTSC or PAL formats. They even have handheld ones with an LCD screen – so you don’t need to hook it up to anything!

You can get an AWESOME deal on one of these on eBay. As always, but from reputable sellers with lots of positive feedback, know how much shipping is in advance (usually $10-$30 depending on there it’s being shipped from and it’s weight), and read all the details to make sure that your HDD player does exactly what you want when you get it. Ask the seller questions in advance so you know what you’re getting.

Also, if it’s still not clear – let me point out why this is one of the coolest things out there. You can put your pictures on it. Put your music on it. Convert and rip movies and dvd’s to it. Watch them on any PC you take it to, or any TV you hook it up to. Copy pictures from your digital camera flash card with the touch of one button, and watch them on your television in seconds. No more figuring out how to burn downloaded movies to DVD, VCD, or SVCD. Imagine all the money you’ll save on blank DVD’s and CD’s alone. Just copy to this drive and watch on your TV, then delete when you’re done. If the hard drive dies or is too small, just replace it with another one. These are cool, you will use yours all the time ( I know I do ).

I’m going to show you some HDD player auctions ending on eBay soonest below. If you want to see everything, just…

Click to view all HDD Player auctions on eBay right now

US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:05:20 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $150.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:07:36 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $10.90 End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:08:14 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $10.90 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $99.98 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:15:16 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

US $32.95 End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:16:34 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $32.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $27.95 End Date: Thursday Jul-29-2010 19:16:37 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $27.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

here’s even more hdd players on eBay now:

also – if you’re looking for region free dvd player for your home entertainment center, or a region free portable dvd player – here are bunches of options new and used on eBay right now:

I’ve seen a lot of case mods, but this is a very unique one. It’s a smaller scale version of a drum (you know, like a rock star’s drum from a drum kit) modded out to accomodate a motherboard, fans, hard drive, optical drives, and it even has a header with usb/firewire jacks including audio with headphone and microphone. As a custom case mod the things that make this really cool are:

1. it’s not a one off (you can buy one)
2. the design is high quality long lasting materials
3. the components are VERY well cooled
4. the display is awesome from all angles!

If you’re a drummer – you have to get one of these…right now! If you’re a musician, get one too. I mean what are the chances of getting a guitar or bass case mod anyway? If you’re a music wannabe – even more perfect! The design is well thought out, and this could be your last PC case for many years. Visit Spotswood Custom Computers for more info. Oh – and here’s a video to give you a complete picture of what it looks like and how it goes together:

I’ve build hundreds of PC’s and probably repaired even more computers over the last 10 years. For the most part – it’s always been cheaper to build a PC for someone that acually buy one outright. I often wonder – is that still the case? I’ve upgraded a thing or two here or there, but I haven’t done an entire “case build” computer in a couple years now. When I read the ExtremeTech article “Building Mom a $400 PC” – it pretty much answered my questions. Joel’s goal was to build a new computer for his mother (case and internals only), that would basically be a simple workstation for surfing the web, email, and printing out some greeting cards. Sounds like what most of the friends and family I built and repaired computers for do as well. And it really made me wonder, since you can get a complete computer with LCD monitor, laser mouse, keyword, and case for under $500-$600 brand new from Dell is it still worth building one?More…
The second page of the article lists the parts Joel bought, and he got out for just $379. Not bad considering he bought an $89 case and power supply. He got an Asus MB, a nice AMD Athlon 64 CPU, 2GB of DDR2, 256MB Sapphire graphics card, 80GB hard drive, and 18x DVD+/-RW for that same price as well. So far – I’m pretty impressed! As I read on in the article he describes how he put the old system hard drive in an empty external usb enclosure to get the data from when the new system was up and running, and the new build went pretty smoothly. The new PC went together, and everything seemed fine, for a few days. Then there was all kinds of crashing and issues, which he figured out through testing were both the graphics card and the ‘cheap’ memory he bought. One he returned the memory and graphics card – and went with a slightly better brand (of memory) and the motherboard onboard GPU, everything was rock solid stable and fine. His end cost was $348.

So I guess the answer is YES, you can still buy a very reasonable and stable custom computer and build it yourself. You MAY have to search for the best deals on some parts, BUT stick with better brands – cheaper is NOT always better. If you’re looking for parts to upgrade, or want to build a new one from the ground up – here are the some of the most reputable places I know of with good prices, quality service, and a decent return policy. Please, comment now to add your two cents in the mix!!

Tiger Direct

The TechGeek

Computer Parts on eBay