I purchased my first iPad right when they were first announced and I received it the first day of availability. In fact, I drove to the FedEx hub so I could pick it up as soon as the truck arrived from distribution. I purchased the top-of-the-line iPad 3G 64GB. I kept it for almost a year but decided to sell it in early 2011 shortly before the iPad 2 release. For a variety of reasons, I never purchased the iPad 2. On Friday, I decided to purchase the new iPad.

As a follow-up to my previous post, Flashing IT Firmware to the LSI SAS9211-8i HBA, I have been looking at other options for HBAs. Sometimes it might be appropriate to have an HBA that supports both internal and external drives or you might need support for more than eight drives. These are some additoinal solutions that should be considered.

I have recently written two posts centering on the Intel Server Board S1200KP and have now been made aware of an additional detail that is important about the S1200KP motherboard. When I originally found the board and wrote about it on February 19, I made a few assumptions about the board’s capabilities. Thanks to some comments on the two posts, I now know that my assumption was incorrect.

On anything but Windows, the choice of a web browser falls to a half dozen different options but only a few stick out as the very best choices. The three most commonly used browsers for non-Microsoft platforms seem to be Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and Firefox. My web browser choice seems to alternate between Chrome and Safari these days. This is the first post in a series about what I like and what I do not in these browsers.

Most professional users, myself included, have been frustrated with the lack of a Mac Pro model with any major updates since July 27, 2010. This is an unusual lag on Apple’s part with past updates being much more consistent. However, the horizon seems bright at last with hope for a new Mac Pro lineup. I think Apple’s hands have been tied which would make Intel the primary source of the delays.

In the process of upgrading my storage server, I wanted to upgrade the firmware on my recently acquired LSI SAS9211-8i SAS/SATA 6Gb/s PCI Express card to the latest IT version rather than the IR version it ships with. Apparently this process is a little bit easier on older 3Gb/s cards but not quite as simple on the 6Gb/s models. In addition, things get complicated with newer motherboards as well. Here are the steps to switch from IR to IT firmware.

Based on my post from earlier this week, I had some requests for a more complete picture of total system cost if a system was built with the components I outlined in that post. As with any computer system these days, component costs vary on any given day but these prices are current as of today. Also not included in the cost are sales tax or shipping charges that may apply to your location. Many of the components are available from Amazon.com which only charges sales tax in a few locations and shipping is often free, especially with an Amazon Prime Account.

When you live in a world of only one monitor, monitor calibration is rarely thought of unless you are doing color critical work such a digital photography or graphic design. When you move from a single monitor to multiple monitors, calibration becomes essential. I finally purchased an inexpensive monitor calibration device. I should have done this years ago.

I have been on a quest for an excellent Mini-ITX server motherboard that supports ECC memory for months. I contacted SuperMicro, my typical favorite manufacturer of server boards, but they said they have no plans for an LGA1155 (also known as Socket H2) Mini-ITX motherboard and are instead concentrating on their next generation motherboards. That was a disappointment but I kept looking. Last night, I finally discovered what I have been looking for.

I have been collecting the needed components for this workstation for a few months now and finally everything is coming together. Some of the particular parts I wanted for various reasons were out of stock at Amazon for quite a while. Some of the other parts I had not yet decided on but finally got the right parts.