I have to admit, I've been really busy doing station matters since last Monday article on full-tower cases. In our next article we'll tackle another case form, but for today it's all about external data storage.

So today, we're going to look at a data loss problem that I recently suffered. Last week, I had an external hard drive crash at home. There was 250GB (actually a little less) of data ranging from photos, graphics, audio production, videos, and other backed up files that I will never get back. It's lost forever, because I'm not paying thousands of dollars for a recovery firm to try to rebuild the drive. That Acomdata 250GB USB drive was the greatest addition to my home office's data challenges. It's 480MB/S USB transfer speed tied together with a Western Digital hard drive, made for a great affordable product. For a little over $100 (at time of purchase) it added simple storage that every home office needs. But if you are trying to share an external drive's data across a home network, it can be a minor inconvience having to go through your "Network Places" everytime or mapping it to a drive in your "My Computer" folder.

A second option is by using Network Attached Storage or NAS. Much like an external drive that plugs into a computer by a USB cord, NAS's are connected by an ethernet cable into your network's router. With those on gigabyte networks, you'll get higher bandwidth speeds with a NAS then you would by using an old USB cord. If you're looking for a large 1terabyte (up to 5terabyte NAS drive), then you might want to shell out the $600 plus on the Thecus N5200B Pro Bay NAS. Nearly half the price is the Thecus N3200 NAS Box with many of the same features as the N5200B.
 

But if you're not made of money, look for a drive enclosure that comes with a RJ-45 port (an ethernet port), like the Eagle Tech Consus M-Series.All three of these models are enclosures that you can add a drive to easily.
 

If speed is what you need, look for an enclosure that uses a eSATA connection. This eSATA format transfers data at 3.0GB per second. That's the fastest external connection method currently available. The only format that could rival eSATA is USB 3.0 that operates at 4.0GB per second, but this technology is still a few years away from being released to the public.

If you're looking for a eSATA enclosure that's CHEAP!! Looking into the ThermalTake EA3006 Aluminum 3.5" Silver eSATA External Enclosure. For that price and speed, nothing can beat it.

For more storage reviews, check out ReviewMagnet.com.

Last week, I talked about the different computer case sizes and what a Home Theater PC case is.

For today's article, we'll dive into the larger of the size forms called Full-Tower (see image 1. & 2.).
 

One of the most widely known computer case brands, ThermalTake, offers a large line of full-tower cases including the Armor + ESA. The "ESA" stands for Exhasut System Architecture which is basically an improved cooling management system. Think of it like fans from all directions blowing on your critical computer's parts keeping them cooler without the need of addition cooling. A few days ago, Think Computers reviewed the Armor + ESA computer case giving it a 10 out of 10 score. Pretty high marks for a case that ThermalTake has been making and improving for several years now.
 

Another full-tower maker (but one less radically designed) is Antec and their Twelve Hundred case. The Twelve Hundred case boasts similar cooling architecture with a top mounded 140mm fan, but adds the addition of blue LED fans.

ThermalTake Armor + ESA (Full-Tower Case)	Antec Twelve Hunderd Case (Full-Tower Case)

One advantage that full-tower cases have over their smaller brethren, is with the larger size comes their expandability. You'll have the room to add water cooling, extra hard drives, extra peripheral cards (maybe a SLI video card setup) and any case mods that your heart's desiring.
 

On the downside of the full sized tower design is that is weighs more than a mid-tower or small fator form (SFF) case. BUT, if you're still thinking about the big featured full-tower design, you might want to look for an all aluminum case. The only downside of an all aluminum case is that you'll probably pay $20 extra dollars for the lighter metal.
 

If you're looking for a big case for lots of components, go with a full tower aluminum case. For more case reviews, head over to ReviewMagnet.com.

I've got to say when I'm starting to build a PC, the first bit of research is always what case do I want and what do I want it to do for me. Now there's all sorts of different size, shapes, and colors of PCs to choose from.
 

Ten years ago, the choice was simple a beige case that was either medium or large in size. If you bought a medium size or mid-tower case it didn't have much room to upgrade for extra essentials like cooling or storage. The other larger size of the two, a full-tower, was a steel behemoth that weighted 50 lbs. or more. So the choices were clear, big or medium. I remember building my first computer in 2000 that was a mid-tower. I thought it was the coolest computer ever since it was black, not that beige that all PCs of the 90's were cloned to look like.

Fast forward eight years later to today and you have nearly infinite colors and sizes of computer cases to choose from. Mini-ATX, mid-tower, full-tower, HTPC, micro-ATX, small form factor (SFF), and some others that don't have a form name to designate their size and shape.

Today, I'll lay out one the newest case form sizes.

Just one more Home Theater component. If you are an audiofile who loves a home theater system, but want a computer to tie your massive surround sound setup, the HTPC size might be something for you to look into. HTPCs or Home Theater PCs are designed to look just like other audio components. Their smaller horizontal size and sleek design may lack the cooling most computer people would like, but if you're building a computer only for watching movies or listening to music, then you would need the fastest computer on the block. One HTPC that does a good job is the Moneual MonCaso 972S HTPC Case Another HTPC case you might want to check out is the SilverStone Lascala LC13-E Case.

If you'd like to check out more HTPC case reviews or just more info on all case sizes, head over to ReviewMagnet.com.

Last night a regular caller to Primetime Sports wanted a recommendation for buying a new video card for his computer. After picking his brain for a few minutes on what graphics card he was thinking about purchasing (Nvidia 8800 GTS from NewEgg). I asked him to give me 24 hours so I could recommend a better video card for the money and performance. The caller was looking to upgrade from an older Nvidia GeForce 6800 series video card to the 8800 series, but since the 8800 is a year plus old chipset it should be easily beaten by other newer/cheaper Nvidia or ATI card.

3DGameman Radeon HD 3870 card review.

TigerDirect video reviews of the HD 3850 and the HD 3870.

Now, although the cards in both video reviews from different manufacturers than the PowerColor card on Newegg, it is still the same card. The reason they look different is because of the additional ZEROTherm VGA cooler. Trust me, the extra cooling will save your bacon if you are playing a graphics intensive game like Crysis, COD4, Half-Life 2, or GRID.

I'm not a big fan of mail-in rebates, but in this case it's worth it. If you have $200, buy two cards and do a crossfire configuration.

If you're looking to upgrade to the 3870 card, make sure your power supply is fast enough and has a six-pin molex power cable. If you already have a PCI-E motherboard and PCI-E compatible power supply, then you should be fine. Do yourself a favor and look inside your computer to check your settings. If you aren't sure if your computer's power supply can provide enough power for this card, click here to check your computers settings.

If you'd like more video card reviews, log onto ReviewMagnet.com. If you have comments, questions, or have a link to a great deal, email it to the ReviewStud.

Sometimes you just don't have enough hard drive space and expanding by adding more internal and external drives isn't an option. Well, if you have a wired network for you computer, then a NAS or Network Attached Storage might just save your computer from the dreaded full hard disk error message. An NAS is as simple as plugging an ethernet cable from your router into the NAS and then plugging in the power. Depending on the maker, you might need to install drivers from a CD, but adding extra storage space can't be hard enough.

Here's one NAS unit that you should check out.

Synology Disk Station DS508 NAS Enclosure Review from Hexus.

Like always for more NAS reviews, check out ReviewMagnet.com.