The Dell Vostro 200 in its mini tower/desktop case is a decent computer with just one exception.
NOISE.
When
powered on, the fans shoot up to their maximum RPM for a second or so,
then slow down. Depending on what you're doing
the fan noise is anything from the level of relatively benign white
noise to a constant or fluctuating jet engine like drone. Scanning for
malware, playing a graphics-intensive game, defragmenting the hard
drive, anything with lots of CPU activity prompts the Vostro 200's fans to go full speed.
I
found a simple solution to this dilemma. Inside the case there are two
80mm fans for cooling the CPU. One is mounted directly atop the CPU
heatsink, and the other is mounted vertically in a bracket along the
right-hand side of the computer to push air out ventilation holes in the
case.
I had a nice, quiet, 120mm NZXT "performance" fan lying around and decided to use it instead of the two 80mm turbofans that came with the system.
The
CPU fan atop the heatsink is clipped on with several plastic clips, I
simply removed each of these with pliers and discarded them since they'd
just be in the way of the wider 120mm fan. The exhaust fan alongside is
screwed to the case, so I removed it likewise and discarded it.
I
then removed the vast amounts of dust and dog hair that had accumulated
beneath the fan. As the case is lying horizontal to the desk, I decided
to loop some narrow zip ties
through the fan's screw holes and through holes in the rear grille of
the case. I secured the ties with enough tension to keep the fan
hovering just above the plastic and metal of the heatsink assembly.
It's
a mystery why Dell chose seemingly the loudest fans possible for this
computer. Or, perhaps it isn't so mysterious, perhaps loudness happens
to be an unfortunate side effect of cheap hardware. Or, perhaps they
wanted to make it seem especially sleek and high tech by having it mimic a 747 taking off.
Regardless, now the new 120mm fan runs at a quiet, constant speed, and keeps CPU temperatures well within normal limits, with no fear of liftoff.
The left channel of my Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card decided to die.
I carefully smoothed my headset cabling in case a break had developed in the typically very fine stranded wiring of the headphones, and also tried removing the plug with an MP3 playing and noticed that only one channel was being played back, the right with the plug fully inserted, left if I just slightly unplugged it. Just in case I plugged the headphones into my laptop; perfect stereo sound, so something's definitely up with the card.
I popped open the computer and examined the headphone jacks on the card. They appeared to be made of plain copper, and they seemed to have oxidation, much like an old penny.
I took a flat-bladed screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit and carefully scraped away at the copper surface, revealing shiny metal underneath, then blasted away any residue with some canned air.
Now my music is once again in glorious stereo!
This marks the 1-year anniversary since ditching DirecTV for the Sony SMP-N200 streaming media player.
The device features HDMI, optical, and RCA jacks, as well as an ethernet port.
So far, the experience has been great! Rather than paying around $900 a year for satellite, I'm paying just what I'd been paying before for internet, around $40 monthly, a decent compromise.
The interface of the player is very similar to that of Sony's Bravia series of TVs.
The remote enables navigation to the various options and settings. A great thing about this little black box is that you can browse the web, grabbing either streaming video from YouTube and elsewhere, or just general browsing. However, one trick is to use a smartphone app, Sony Media Remote, so that you gain the benefit of a keyboard; trying to "type" using the Sony's remote is an exercise in aggravation, to say the least.
For over-the-air TV, a Winegard antenna hung up near the ceiling of the living room plus a signal amplifier has managed to pull in 8 stations, six broadcast in my immediate area, and two more from towers about 40 miles away.
With the Sony SMP-N200 I can also stream downloaded video over my home's wireless network. To do this, I first needed to enable Homegroup on my Windows 7 desktop PC, and then I installed Nero MediaHome to act as a server for the Sony. Most any popular encoding format (AVI, MPG, MKV, WMV, and more) can stream from my computer to my TV with very little effort.
All in all, aside from the clunky remote, I'd give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars for the money I've saved thus far over cable or satellite.
