Most Read Articles of the Past Decade

4. Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse Review (link)

We have written a lot of mouse reviews at OCmodshop, but for some reason this one received so many hits that it dominated our article stats for several months.  Perhaps it was because it was because we took it apart and showed you the inside of the mouse.  Perhaps it was the thoughtful award-winning in-depth journalism that OCmodshop is known for.  Even though there have been more deserving computer rodents in our 10-year history, this one stands out as the most read.

3. Build Your Own Linux Firewall (link)

This project started out because we needed a good firewall for the OCMS servers.  We previously had only one Windows-based server, and discovered many of the security flaws of having Active Directory on the same server as IIS.  Instead of spending thousands of dollars on an appliance (and hundreds in yearly fees), we decided to build our own, and show you how to do the same in the process.  This suite of how-to articles is still one of our top articles today.

2. How to enable 4GB of Memory in Vista (link)

When this article came out, equipping your PC’s motherboard with 4 gigabytes of memory was a relatively new idea for the average user.  Sure, servers have been doing this for years, but the server market has been using Windows Server or Linux Servers, which either used 36-bit or true 64-bit memory addressing, which allowed them to access 4 gigabyte of memory.  The average user was stuck with the 32-bit version of Windows Vista and crippled motherboard chipsets, and had to really work to get their PC to use all of their installed memory.

This article listed the things you could try to see all of your installed RAM, but they didn’t work for most people, as we found from all the hate-mail we received.  We stated in this article that the true (and quickest) answer was to install a 64-bit flavor of Windows and get a newer chipset, a lot of people ignored this paragraph and instead chose to flood us with hate mail.

We started to notice a trend of how our articles that don’t directly address the problem and merely talk about it get the most hits.  Perhaps we’ll write more stuff that doesn’t get anything done…

1. How to mod your Xbox controller as a PC gamepad (link)

For some reason, this guide is still OCmodshop’s most read article, and still gets quite a bit of traffic today.  Back in 2003 when it was published, this was edgy stuff, but now doesn’t hold a lot of relevance, in my opinion.  We still get a bunch of emails and comments asking for help, as they have tried this project and cannot get it to work.   My short answer is to buy a cheap Xbox 360 controller and save yourself the headache.  Every modern PC since Windows XP automatically recognizes it, it has a “home” button, and nearly every modern PC game automatically uses it.

For whatever reason, you guys still read this article, so you have my thanks!

Thank you guys so very much for supporting OCmodshop for this past decade.  We are still ready, willing and able to bring you the best reviews, articles and guides on PC hardware and video games.