On Monday August 20th 2007, Samsung announced its newest addition to their 1.8″ hard disk drive (HDD) line-up. A new 160GB 4200RPM business card size hard drive. Now some of you I’m sure, are wondering why this is such big news and why I’m even writing about it, well let me tell you.

1. Largest Capacity 1.8″ Drive
   This is the largest capacity 1.8″ drive that has ever been made. The next largest is only 120GB so this new drive is adding another 40GB which is quite a feat considering how small the drives are.
2. Can Be Used in iPod’s and Other Mp3 Devices
   This new hard drive will be able to be used in iPod’s and other Mp3 devices, increasing the amount of storage available by double or more. The current 80GB iPod can hold 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video. With this new drive you could double that to 40,000 songs and 200 hours of video. No one really needs that much capacity but I’m sure a few people will enjoy it.
3. Can be Used in HDD Camcorders
   This new hard disk drive can increase the size of the largest HDD Camcorder by more than double. This will allow for more recording and higher quality footage (pack more onto a single disk).

“Big deal! There are 1TB drives now” you might say and yes you’re correct. But the 1TB drives can’t fit into an iPod or a camcorder so this is a very big deal. Samsung hasn’t said when they’ll be shipping the new HDD but I hope it’s soon so I can upgrade my iPod.

So you have an extra case fan lying around your house from an old computer, but you don’t know what to do with it. In 3 easy steps I’ll tell you how to make an external fan that plugs into a USB port out of that old case fan. Now before we get started your going to need 4 things.

1. An old case fan.
2. A USB cable (one end needs to be a male end to fit into your USB port)
3. Wire cutters
4. Electrical Tape

If you don’t have these parts on hand you can buy them from your local hardware store and tech store for under $30. Lets now dive into how you go about creating this fan.

1. The first step in this process is preparing the case fan. From your fan you’ll see a braided group of wires (generally red, white and black) connected at the end with the power supply connector. The first thing you’ll do is cut the braided group near the power supply connector. Once you’ve cut the group untangle the wires about 5 centimeters (2″). After this take your wire cutters and cut off the white wire, this is the ground wire and its not needed for use. Strip back the wire casing on the red and black wires about 2.5 centimeters (1″). Once you’ve stripped back the wire casing you’re done with this step.
2. Now you’re going to cut open your USB cable. Cut off the one end of the USB cable. Now the USB cable has a fairly thick casing and you’re going to have to strip it. Once you’ve done this you’ll find two smaller wires (red and black) surrounded by a think piece of metal, cut it off or push it back to expose the small wires. Strip back the casing on these smaller wires and you’re on to the final step.
3. With the electrical tape, tape together the case fan and the USB cables. Now its fairly easy to do this. Tape the black wire from the case fan to the black wire from the USB cable and the red wire to the red wire. Once you’ve taped these together, go over the entire cable with electrical tape to make sure things don’t move around. You’re done!

All you have to do is plug it into a free USB port and enjoy the air. I’ve found that the fan doesn’t blow nearly as much as a commercial fan but for something that was free it’s not bad. Hopefully you’ve found this guide helpful if you have any questions feel free to email me at admin@easyctutorials.com