Random Question Thread: Tech

[Niiro]

I'm a bit confused, I assumed HDD's wrote from the center outwards like regular discs.

ie. the "start" would be the center and the "end" would be the outer edge

Here's a pic if it makes things any clearer. It lists the sectors each drive starts and ends at and the yellow bar visual representation at the bottom.

(G: is an external HDD)

Spoiler: show

Is going from left -> right (and likewise increasing in sector #) going towards the edge or the center of the drive?

[Jojimbo]

Ah, I have no idea then. I always assumed it went the other way because the outer edge is faster, I remember you can create a consistently faster disc by creating a partition so anything on that partition is faster (instead of it being potentially randomly thrown around).

[Arximiro]

How much power can a cigarette lighter put out? Is there a way to turn it into power outlets so I can hook a lap top up to it for example? I'm getting into trucking and I'm curious how much power I can get out of a lighter port since I don't think the cabs have plugins in them.

[Niya]

I'm a bit confused, I assumed HDD's wrote from the center outwards like regular discs.

Nope, HDDs start from the outer edge and move to the center, probably because the safe rest position of the read/write arm is outside of the data disk.

Also is there a "proper" way to safely expand an active partition?

As long as the space you want to add to the partition is behind it, Windows disk management works fine. Space that is "in front" of the partition is a bit tricky since you'd have to move the partition header etc. That's why disk management doesn't support it and you have to use special tools for it. But create a backup beforehand, moving/expanding a partition that way can cause data loss...

[Mrf]

How much power can a cigarette lighter put out? Is there a way to turn it into power outlets so I can hook a lap top up to it for example? I'm getting into trucking and I'm curious how much power I can get out of a lighter port since I don't think the cabs have plugins in them.

Just search Amazon or anywhere for power inverters, there is an 800 watt inverter for $44 on Amazon right now.

[Arximiro]

Yeah I've seen them, but I'm just curious how much power a cigarette lighter can put out. Is it enough to power a gaming tier laptop? Is it more than that, if so how much more? Watts, amps, volts etc are all foreign terms to me. I don't know how much of anything most devices take. Small Fridge, TV, Microwave, other random things. I just have seen from reading that they can only output so much, but I don't know if it varies from vehicle to vehicle, on the power of the fuse for the outlet, or other things.

Mainly concerned with being able to get a powerful laptop and having a way to charge it while out on the road.

[Niya]

How much the cigarette lighter can deliver depends on your car. A good hint is the fuse used to secure the lighter, look inside your car manual and/or the fuse box for that. Typical values are 10, 15 or 30 Ampere. Multiply that by the 12 Volt board voltage and you have a rough estimate on how much power your car can provide. If you have a 30A fuse, that would be 30A * 12V = 360W.
Now look at the power supply of the device you want to power. Multiply output V with output A and you have a rough estimate of how much W the device can drain at max.
You'll have to consider conversion losses since you have to convert the 12V DC of the car to whatever Volt AC you have in the US. And of course you shouldn't drain the car battery empty Take a look at the Ah (Ampere hours) value of your battery. Let's say you have a 50Ah battery and a laptop that drains 100W at peak. 100W / 12V = 8,3 A. So your battery would be completely drained after roughly 50Ah / 8,3 = 6h

Those are all estimates without losses of conversion considered, but it should be close enough ^^

[Arximiro]

Man that sounds rough. It'll be a semi so hopefully they just have built in power outlets, but who knows. I can't find any discussion really about semis having or not having power outlets. Although I see a lot of videos with guys that have HD tvs, refrigerators, and microwaves in their cabs.

[Siya]

In regards to the lighter put out... would you really have to worry about it if it was for a tablet only? I assume they pull a lot less than a laptop.

[Niya]

True, tablets need quite a bit less power. Notebook PSUs are most of the time somewhere between 50 and 300W (the latter being a 17" alienware... xD) while tablets usually need <=10W. Think the strongest tablet PSUs i know of were for some Samsung tablets, and those were 2A @5V.

[Jakson]

If I buy a new xbox 360, and I just unplug my hard drive from the old one and plug it straight into the new one?

[Siya]

Well no newegg black friday 7950 deal, think it would go on sale on cyber monday or should I just order it now? 299 is already pretty low it seems. Selling my old card + ipod touch to account for most of the cost, only really paying 100 for new card + 3 games .

[Corrderio]

When it comes to buying a TV to watch TV/play games on, what is the best type to get? LED? LCD? Plasma? And what else should I look for to avoid input delay other than gaming mode?

[Adajer]

If I buy a new xbox 360, and I just unplug my hard drive from the old one and plug it straight into the new one?

What? If you are asking can you use your old hard drive in a new xbox, yes you can. If it is a old hard drive from the older model of the xbox, you can still use it, you will just need some Torx screwdrivers and have to manually remove it from the casing. There are videos on youtube on how to do it. I personally took my old 120gb HD from the old xbox and put it into the 4gb slim model when my old one red ringed.

[Jakson]

Yeah, I just haven't kept up with xboxes in a while, didn't know if the 4gigs changed the format of the hard drives and did like elites where, I think, are completely different and incompatible.

[Isiolia]

Yeah, I just haven't kept up with xboxes in a while, didn't know if the 4gigs changed the format of the hard drives and did like elites where, I think, are completely different and incompatible.

Elites were the same. Main thing is Slim versus not, as the casing for the drives changed. With a Slim you can find the casing on Amazon or something, or just put in the system with some tape or whatever to keep it from shifting.

[Adajer]

That is what I did. The actual hard drive is the same physically in the original and the slim, they just have diferent casings. I took mines out of the old casing, I took some pieces of the foam the xbox came with and taped a piece on each side of the hard drive in the corner that there is no PCB so it wouldnt wobble, and put it into my xbox 4gb slim. Works just fine. No need to pay microsoft any extra money. Just need a torx 5 or 6 screwdriver. I cant remember the size I used.

[Draylo]

Random PSP question, I upgraded my firmware and it corrupted some save files. I know in the past when I did that I used something to fix it. From googling, I see there is "Magic Save" but I can't seem to get the program to pull up on the psp at all after DLing what I found. Any ideas?

[Tahona]

Would this be the appropriate place to ask about gaming headset recommendations? The Steelseries Siberia v2 are on sale and I was wondering if anyone had any comments on them.

[Caiyuo]

Someone else might chime in, but if it's for PC most every headset suggestion is met with buying a nice and comfortable pair of headphones paired with a clip-on mic. I can't speak for the benefits of wireless but I usually see that the regular PC headsets are fairly junky between either audio or the mic.