WoW – It’s gettin HOT here in Arizona – Back porch thermometer says 108F!

Good thing I upgraded my system fan yesterday…

It’s The Little Things

My case fan has been failing for a while. Knowing summer is coming I knew I had to get a replacement soon!

Did some on-line digging around…

I use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) fans in my systems so that I can vary the airflow in the case based on the temperature. I use SpeedFan to interface to the motherboard fan controllers to do this.

Found a nice case fan by Thermaltake – Thunderblade 120cm and LEDs so that I can tell at a glance that it’s on and running… on occasion it does get quiet in my office… but usually only at night. 

Right now it’s at top speed and the sound is *very* reasonable. I even used the provided rubber mounting grommets to see how those will work out going forward.

Thermaltake has always had a great reputation with me, and the price of only $7.99 for a PWM fan???  Pffft… I’m all over THAT! (LOL)

But… who wants to pay shipping on a $7.99 fan only!  That would make no sense at all.

Time For An Internal Card Reader

I typically will make my clip-art for the blog – digital cameras make this just too easy! Keeps the copyright dragons from invading my office as well.

I had been hunting for the cable to connect the camera with USB, and ended up using my HP Notebook to copy the files from the card to the network clip-art repository. Run over to the HP, copy the pics, run back to the workstation… just too much ‘busy’ work.

While seeking out the case fan, I started wondering what Card Readers are costing these days.

Rosewill has also been a fine source of decent products for fair pricing.

This is the Rosewill RCR-AK-IM5002 USB2.0 75 in 1 internal Card Reader and it’s an impressive little device for under $20.

Please notice – It’s got 3 USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, and every memory card interface you could want – including Micro SD. (Shweeet!)

It’s nice to have the eSATA on the front face, and I have really needed the extra USB ports for a while… so it was a great use of the $20 in my opinion.

With a new Ivy Bridge in my future, I really wanted to go with a USB 3.0 Card Reader. These are a bit more expensive, and judging from the comments not all the current USB 3.0 Card Readers function well.

If you choose to go with a USB 3.0 Card Reader do pay attention to the user comments. It may just save you some trouble down the road!

Computer Is Working Better, And So Am I

The end result of this massive retail *binge* of $28? It’s easier and, more importantly, less aggravating to get work done now.

With the office starting to heat up, the fan is ramping up… and I easily imported the pics for this post with the card reader.

Sometimes it IS the simple things that will keep you smiling.

So what are your computer ‘points of pain’? The little things that bug you, and what will you do about it???

Trust me, it’s so nice when you streamline little things like this.

Till we talk again, Be Safe Out There!

Patrick Seeber . President of Seeber Consulting

Quality Computer Service & Repair Tucson AZ