Remembering… Batch Files

Back to a time when scripting was king

Windows is a great operating system for modern users. Within reason, it’ll provide everything you’ll ever need in terms of your work and administering the system, all from its fancy-looking graphical user interface.

Sadly, though, there’s rarely a need these days to drop back to the command prompt and tap away at the keyboard like someone possessed. Obviously you can opt to enter CMD into the Windows Run menu, and use it to reveal your IP address, ping another computer or even rename several file types to another type, but it’s nothing compared to the old DOS and Windows 3.11 days, when the command prompt still ruled supreme.

Magix Video Sound Cleaning Lab

Improve your video productions with this handy tool

I think it’s fair to say that the video quality output from modern video cameras is excellent, particularly if you have one of the new 4K variety. However, the same cannot be said for the sound quality, which hasn’t changed much in the last five years. Unless you use an external microphone fitted with a wind shield and one that’s also capable of extraneous noise cancellation, the sound you get will in most cases be pretty abysmal. Of course, most video editing systems are capable of rudimentary audio editing to correct that, but this latest product from Magix addresses the problem with tools specifically designed for the job.

HP LaserJet Pro M501n

An interesting laser printer, with some great new features

The LaserJet Pro M501n is part of HP’s newest range of M5-series printers for businesses, workgroups and small offices. It has a small footprint, measuring just 418 x 376 x 289mm, and it weighs a tad over 11kg. It has a 1.5GHz processor, backed up with 256MB of memory, a duty cycle of up to 100,000 pages and a recommended monthly page volume from 1,500 up to 6,000 pages.

As for connectivity, the LaserJet Pro M501 features a gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port and a secondary USB type-B port. It also features HP ePrint, Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service support, via HP’s embedded JetAdmin web service.

ASRock E3V5 WS

ASRock supports the new Skylake Xeon chips with this board

Those interested joining Intel’s Skylake adventure will undoubtedly be aware of the Z170, B150 and four other chipsets that stratify this market. Surely, with six chipsets to choose from, there should be one for every possible market slice?

As proven by the ASRock E3V5 WS and its Intel C232 chipset, not necessarily. In addition to the consumer-level chipsets, Intel decided to throw in two additional ones specifically for workstation use: the C236 and C232. These are, in many respects, equivalent to the Z170 and B150 in the general purpose range, and boards using them are priced accordingly.

Asus B150i Pro Gaming Aura

System builders will be attracted moth-like to the Aura of the Asus B150i Pro

Unless you’re determined to get an overclockable Skylake CPU and need a Z170 chipset to tweak it, Intel has a wide selection of alternative platforms for its latest processors. Of these, the B150 offers an interesting combination of performance and pricing, which is why Asus placed it in its diminutive but punchy Asus B150I Pro Gaming Aura.

The B150 doesn’t overclock or allow for voltage adjustment, and it has just six USB 3.0 ports and only eight PCIe lanes – enough for a single x16 PCIe. If you’re building a full size system, then the PCIe limitations might put you off, but with a tiny media-centre-centric platform like the B150i Pro Gaming, PCIe lane limits are almost irrelevant.

Seagate 8TB NAS Hard Drive

Running low on NAS drive space? Not any more

The recently released Seagate 8TB NAS optimised hard drive is one of the largest capacity drives we’ve ever tested. Just stop a moment to think about it. 8TB: that’s a ridiculously huge amount of space on a single drive.

Of course, business users will be accustomed to such large capacities, but the home user generally has just a few terabytes to play around with in their current NAS setup. The introduction of a pair of 8TB drives will certainly keep even the most prolific downloader happy for some time to come.

StarTech Dual-Bay 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID

As a salute to the Spice Girls, StarTech embraces when two become one

Anyone who's had a number of computers up to this point will have some spare items, often drives from long deceased laptops.

The S252BU33R by StarTech is a means of easily taking 2.5” SATA drives and repackaging them for reuse by a desktop system through USB.

Without any scale reference, this looks like a typical 3.5” dual drive enclosure, but at just 90mm high and 50mm, wide it’s much smaller and occupies significantly less desk space.