Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Viewer Mail #2 - The Dell Optiplex GX110 and the cast of M*A*S*H
Lee M., from Canada, wrote me the other day (say two months ago) and asked the following question:
Lee M., I researched your answer right away, then promptly forgot about replying - mainly because I had no idea and I was still frazzled from completing my Ph.D. I found out however that my chassis' name is... Trapper, following the M*A*S*H theme. I have the huge mid-tower version. Three possible CD-ROM bays, the high life for me. Below, I post pictures to the site to let others know just how big it is (but how small it really is vs. the speakers and the TV itself.) The PVR-250 looks lonely inside the cavernous beast. But, it is quiet.
Lee responded to an e-mail, requesting a follow-up to his story:
I'm currently in the contemplation stage of building my own PVR, and as
coincidence would have it, I have my eye on an Optiplex GX110 P3 866 MHz and
already own an Hauppague PVR250.... My question is this: What type of case is your GX110? I assume you bought the beige model, is it a Small Desktop Chassis (Hawkeye) i.e. one CD-ROM bay, or the Medium Desktop Chassis (Hunnicutt) i.e. dual CD-ROM bay?
The reason I ask is because the power supply differs between the two cases, which may affect compatibility with PCI cards. I'm concerned the Hawkeye won't power two PCI cards. In case you're wondering, the power supply for all post 1998 dell cases can be upgraded, but requires an adaptor to use ATX supplies.
Lee M., I researched your answer right away, then promptly forgot about replying - mainly because I had no idea and I was still frazzled from completing my Ph.D. I found out however that my chassis' name is... Trapper, following the M*A*S*H theme. I have the huge mid-tower version. Three possible CD-ROM bays, the high life for me. Below, I post pictures to the site to let others know just how big it is (but how small it really is vs. the speakers and the TV itself.) The PVR-250 looks lonely inside the cavernous beast. But, it is quiet.
Lee responded to an e-mail, requesting a follow-up to his story:
A funny thing happened on the way to the auction.... My other computer is an Athlon XP2500 tower with TV out, so I decided to set it up in the living
room to show my girlfriend the possibilities of HTPC. I had several movies
ready to go, but one look at the tower (she rarely ventures near my home
computer) and one listen to the stock fan was enough for this project to be
scrapped. She couldn't stand the thought of seeing my desktop on the TV screen
either, it reminded her of work :) There would be no inexpensive PVR in a
beige case. My PVR would have to be small and fan-less. It's the only
diplomatic solution.
