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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 7/2009 )
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
The agitation of the world markets has had an impact on the bottom line of PC component makers as well as boutique shops. Going by the posts in the PC Perspective forums, it would seem that it is the boutique stores which are taking the biggest loss. A plethora of new members have been arriving, looking for advice on upgrading, buying for themselves or a family member, or simply an inexpensive upgrade. (Or an expensive one). Not only are these seekers welcome to visit and perhaps stay, we have recommendations, as well as an entire sub forum devoted to helping out.
Those who have had their systems for a while, there are other ways of seeking better value from their systems, some even managing to get performance as yet unavailable anywhere. Others are running into problems, but all problems do have solutions, unless the worst happens. If you haven't found the perfect solution that fits your wallet and your system yet, best head on down to the Trading Post. You'll be surprised what you can find and might even be pleasantly shocked to find out somebody wants what you want to get rid of. For the absolute best in free entertainment, the audio version of this weeks PC Perspective podcast is up and ready; Ryan's uploading of the video version has encountered a slight delay in the form of a Hawaiian vacation, but it will be arriving soon.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Bjorn3D | Subject: Graphics Card
Armed with only a hacksaw, the intrepid gamers at Bjorn3D have completed a successful heatsink transplant, the patient, one GTX275 that had a severe fever is now doing much better thanks to the Thermalright HR-03 GTX.
As the cure only required an investment of $50 and could be done in home, the procedure went ahead without delay and they are pleased to announce that what was a life threatening temperature of 86C has been reduced to a cozy 72C. The procedure is simple enough to do at home, if you follow the instructions found here carefully.
"If you feel that your new GTX275 is running too hot then you are not alone. I also can
not stand to see that temperature gauge go well into the 80's. If you are sick of these
temperatures (like me), then you will be glad to hear there is a solution. Thermalright
has had the HR-03 GTX out for awhile, but it has never been certified for the GTX275.
This is because a few of the GTX275's differ from each other, which causes some
obstructions so this cooler will not mount right.
If you happen to have the Leadtek version of the GTX275 then you are in luck, because today I will show you exactly what you have to do to get this cooler to fit perfectly on your GTX275. Don't worry, its nothing that takes an advanced knowledge of machining, just a few tools from the garage are all you will need. These include a saw, or any other cutting device such as a Dremel (I did it with a hack saw). Certainly a Dremel will make it much easier. You will also need a screw driver. Not too demanding hu? Thats enough talk, lets take a closer look at this cooler." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: Case and Cooling
If you think that the AMA Orc bears an odd name, you should see the actual heatsink its self. The usual heatpipe assembly is there, but the black spikes and red claws are certainly unique. As a Core i7 cooler it seems to prefer the heat, as it has the highest idling temperature but performs fairly well under a full load. It will certainly leave a lasting impression on anybody who sees it displayed in your system. Overclockers Club will be handing out experience points after you finish examining the orc.
"The AMA Orc looked cool, and didn't do too bad at cooling the i7 down. The design is very unique thanks to the plastic decorations, and the packaging looked good. The grammar and typo errors on the packaging are a minor nuisance and not nearly as bad as some mistakes I've seen in the past - although they are still present nonetheless. The heat sink looks promising, and performance wasn't bad nor was it stellar. Everything that was needed to install the heat sink was included which is always a plus. The packaging and heat sink both look cool. The major downfall was the performance This heat sink looks great but couldn't keep up with smaller heat sinks like the ZEROTherm Core 92, which had half the heat pipes. The base is finished to a mirror shine, but is not perfectly flat, and the packaging does have some minor grammar issues." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Mobile
Could it be a funky netbook? A monstrous iTouch? A Kindle killer? A glorified resurrection
of an old, much beloved childhood toy? It is hard to say what goes through the mind of Steve Jobs at the best of times and predicting what a product that as been talked about and opined on as this little device which may or may not have a possibly upcoming release date sometime in the near future is almost impossible. Cyril at The Tech Report does have a good feeling about it.
"The rumor mill seems adamant: Apple will release a tablet device early next year. That little prediction has led TR bloggers Jason Fox and Cyril Kowaliski to argue over the possible pros and cons of the device. In his post, Jason sums up the rumors then questions the utility of what could end up as an overpriced, super-sized iPhone with a 10-inch display. Could the product flop like some of Apple's previous experiments? Cyril, meanwhile, draws a parallel with the flow of inaccurate rumors that came shortly before the iPhone's first unveiling in January 2007. He believes Apple knows what it's doing, and the final product may be quite different from what the rumors suggest." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Slashdot | Subject: General Tech
Skype has over 480 million accounts and carries roughly 8% of all international communications, but is not a money maker and now has an uncertain future. eBay paid $2.6 billion back in 1995 for most of Skype's technology and has put it down on their books as being worth $1.7 billion, still a hefty sum but also about a $1 billion loss. That is not the worst however, the key lies in their purchase of almost all of the technology that Skype uses, they did not get it all and have been paying a licensing fee to the Skype creators for the usage of that critical piece of technology. Those creators no longer wish to continue the licensing agreement, a move which puts Skype's future in serious jeopardy. Read more about this on Slashdot. "eBay is faced with the prospect of having to close down the hugely popular VoIP app Skype due to its reliance on proprietary code still owned by Skype's original founders, who are threatening to pull the plug on the licensing agreement they have with eBay." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCZ Technology | Subject: Case and Cooling
San Jose, Calif.-July 30, 2009-OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and PC components, today announced the immediate availability of the Z-Series power supplies, the latest high-end enthusiast offering excelling in both performance and ultimate efficiency. Featuring industry-leading 80+ Gold Certifications, the Z850 and Z1000 PSUs offer the highest efficiency on the market combined with a power output to meet exceptional system demands. The Z-Series is the ideal solution for today's high-end gaming systems and professional workstations, and are now shipping to OCZ's widespread resellers. The Z-Series power supplies are immediately available in 850W and 1000W configurations to meet the system needs for high-end gamers, professionals, and enthusiasts. The industry-leading Gold Certified Z1000 (1KW) and Z850 (850W) PSUs deliver over 90% efficiency at typical load, making them an excellent contender for high-end PCs and workstations that require maximum wattage and efficiency. Both the 1000W and 850W are available in modular and hard-wired configurations, offering choice and variety for case-modders, enthusiasts, and overclockers. OCZ Z1000 1000W 80+ Gold PSU
Featuring exceptionally clean DC output, a sophisticated architecture, and a complete array of connectors for your PC needs, Z-Series PSUs can power an impressive cross-section of high end components while contributing to energy savings. The Z-Series offers the most efficient design in its class, and comes backed by an industry-leading 5-Year warranty commitment and technical support for ultimate peace of mind. The Z-series is available at Newegg.com retailing for $299.99 (Z1000M), $289.99 (Z1000), $239.99 (Z850M), and $219.99 (Z850). 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: Storage
PhotoFast may not sound like a big name in storage, but believe it or not, their G-Monster V5 256GB is one of the fastest SSDs on the planet, though also one of the most expensive, at $1000. Tweaktown tested it out on an 8 core Opteron system and found that the system its self was a bottleneck for the drives performance. Even so, the G-Monster V5 has hitting almost 250 MB/s read speeds and 210MB/s write speeds. Head over to see the full performance numbers.
"When Jason at DVNation told me that the new PhotoFast G-Monster V5 was approaching the
limits of the SATA 3.0 spec, I really didn’t know what to think. PhotoFast has made a
big marketing push over the last couple of months and there was a time when it seemed
that every other day a new press release hit my inbox. Hitting my email inbox is quite
a bit different than hitting my door step and over the years I have pretty much come to
the realization that press releases aren’t worth much more than the paper they could be
printed on. Three days ago my initial thoughts of PhotoFast changed. This was the day I
finally put one of the companies solid state drives in my test system.
The PhotoFast G-Monster V5 might have a funny name, but don’t let it fool you. When this drive is installed the only thing funny is the goofy grin on your face. The drive does approach the limits of the SATA 3.0 spec; it also managed to saturate my aging nForce 3500 workstation SATA controller. This level of performance doesn’t come cheap but we will get into the pricing on the next page because the technology involved is way more important to worry about the price just yet." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
The little MSI AMD 785GM-E65 is a micro-ATX board with some nice features and a predicted MSRP of well under $100. There were a few corners cut to make the board truly affordable as a basis for an HTPC, such as only a 4+1 phase array instead of MSI's Dr.MOS technology and the use of an SB710 southbridge which does not support RAID5. If you are planning on building an HTPC using RAID5, you are doing it wrong. Check out Josh's preview to see the old school overclocking dipstick that can be found on a motherboard for the first time in ages.
"FedEX has been busy as of late delivering to my house, and today I received a gem from them. This micro-ATX motherboard based on the unreleased AMD 785G chipset is a shockingly complete motherboard with many high end components. Stuff usually relegated to full size ATX boards. Will this be the latest power-user micro-ATX board, and furthermore be the board of choice for HTPC users? More testing is needed to confirm that, but the first look is certainly impressive." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: General Tech
As mentioned earlier this month, the encryption scheme used on the iPhone is about as useful as fishnets for hiding your assets. That pales in comparison to what is going to be released as a proof of concept attack on Thursday. Those pesky security researchers have discovered a way to gain complete control over your iPhone, with just a simple series of 256 SMS messages. Now, when they say complete control, what they mean is that the remote attacker will be able to dial the phone, visit Web sites, turn on the device's camera and microphone and even better, they can send text messages, like say those magic 256 SMS messages to every single person in your contact list and phone book, therefore gaining control of those phones. The presentation on Thursday will have a visible character in the final SMS, a small square, however it is easy to make every single SMS invisible.
Don't feel too superior if you are a non-iPhone user, a similar texting bug in Windows Mobile devices allows the same type of remote control and there is a lovely little bit of malware that targets the Symbian OS; if you do not recognize the name, it only accounts for half of all cell phones on the market. More cheerful news by following the link at [H]ard|OCP. "Researchers plan on revealing details of an iPhone bug later today that allows hacker to take total control of your phone as well as every phone in your contact list. According to the researchers, Apple was notified more than a month ago of the flaw and, at this point, has done nothing to fix it." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
A new type of product is starting to become a common sight amongst enthusiasts, the self contained water cooling device. Previously it was Corsair's Hydro H50 water cooler, with its compact size it could fit in a system the size of a shoebox. New is the CoolIT Domino ALC water cooler, 14.0 x 12.5 x 15.5 mm
of high quality cooling. It is dead silent and powerful enough to take heat almost completely out of the equation when you are overclocking Core i7s and Phenoms. Consider it for your next build, but ensure you get a case without and side fans as they will be displaced by the CoolIT Domino.
"Put simply, we'd pay twice the price for a liquid cooling system this handy, simple to install, and effective. The Domino A. L. C. is one of CoolIT Systems' best efforts. Compared to a stock fan, it does wonders for allowing serious overclocking of a Core i7 920. It's nearly silent, super-efficient, and priced right." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Mobile
Inexpensive netbooks have really put a dent in the sales volume of the lower cost small laptops. The Atom might not have the power of a mobile dual core processor, but add in a decent onboard graphics solution and that Atom has no trouble playing back BluRay quality video. Laptop makers are left with a choice of focusing on netbooks as a replacement for their smaller laptops and not producing any laptops under 17" or they could slash costs on their smaller laptops. AnandTech has taken a peek at those laptops which have been reduced to under $500, from vendors like WalMart and Best Buy. Find out just what components go into a netbook priced laptop in their article.
"It used to be that getting any laptop for under $1000 was virtually impossible unless you were willing to buy used. Since 2000, we've seen a huge surge in laptop sales along with an accompanying drop in prices. We've had new laptops starting at under $600 since around 2005, but a quick look at the specs of the laptops in that old article will show you just how far we've come in four short years. For those that don't want to follow the above link, here's a quick recap." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: General Tech
At $50, when you can locate it, the Eagle Arion ET-AR504LR-BK 2.1 Soundstage
is a rather sweet deal. You get a pair of satellites each with dual 3" midrange and 1" tweeters and a 5.25" subwoofer with a peak power of 70W.
These speakers are not going to tax a high end 7.1 sound card, but they are also an order of magnitude cheaper. Overclockers Club gave them a try and strangely rated it lower than the 5.1 receiver and speakers that they usually used, which were most certainly not $50. On the plus side, the LCD display on the subwoofer was a big hit.
"Of course the Arion 2.1 system lost out to my 5.1 system; that was to be expected. However, overall I was impressed with what the Arion offered for its $49.99 price tag. I would honestly say, compared to some other 2.1 systems that I have heard, the Eagle Arion sounds better. The subwoofer produced great sound when it came to the bottom end. That is one of the main reasons I say it sounds better than most other 2.1 systems, as most hardly have any bass at all. Compared to the 8" woofer I used in my home theater system though, there is no contest as to which sounds better, but for a little one, it does sound great. The system would make a great portable system, no doubt about that. I could never realistically take my home theater system with me, so this is where the Arion shines. The LCD screen offers up a way of adjusting the sound level and effects while up close and personal. If you don't want to get up and adjust the sound or tone controls, you can use the included remote control. If you're looking for something to complement your gaming rig, but are on a budget, this isn't a bad place to start. Or if you want a system you could use with your laptop, then this is for you." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: CyberPower | Subject: General Tech
BALDWIN PARK, CA (July 24, 2009) - CyberPower, Inc. www.cyberpowerpc.com is celebrating the PC-platform release of the highly anticipated fighting game, Street Fighter IV, with a knock out gaming bundle. CyberPower will throw in a free copy of Street Fighter IV for customers purchasing a CyberPower gaming system with Nvidia 200 series graphics cards. The most storied franchise among arcade fighting games is finally available on PC. Street Fighter IV combines some of the classic elements from previous Street Fighters with realistic 3D backgrounds for a stunning visual experience. Street Fighter IV also features new characters, new moves, and new combos and earned rave reviews from the gaming community. Show off your skills against the world’s best or challenge your friends and family to a duel through online play. With CyberPower PC and Nvidia's GPU, you’ll have the power and performance to tackle your foes and enjoy the great game play that made Street Fighter one of the most famous fighting game franchises ever.
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
Microsoft and Yahoo have finally stopped anxiously batting eyelashes and brushing against each other when they pass each other in the halls. Unfortunately for the paparazzi, the relationship has not started with a bang, but rather a Bing. Yahoo will now use Bing to provide its search results, but in order to preserve its unsullied status has refused payment from Microsoft for any services rendered. Instead they would like to simply split the bills and write nasty letters to that noisy neighbour upstairs, Google. More at The Inquirer and at Yahoo as well.
"MASTERS of the will-they won't-they relationship, Microsoft and Yahoo, have finally got it together on advertising and search engine operations, with a view to take on the might of Google. Under this deal Yahoo is supposedly managing the ads side of the business and Microsoft will provide the necessary search engine platform. Rumours are that the two will share the revenues." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: Global Foundries | Subject: General Tech
While the current (and only) client of GLOBALFOUNDRIES is AMD, they have finally officially announced their first 3rd party partner for production. STMicroelectronics is choosing GF to be a partner for 40 nm low power devices, which can possibly power future cell phones. This is an exciting development for GF, as many around the industry were not entirely certain they could pull off being a successful foundry. Well, certainly one new client will not bring in billions of dollars of revenue, but it is a beginning. And an important one, considering that GF is still nowhere near providing a product line for other clients than AMD.
The 40 nm low power product line is interesting in that it will not be available until late 2010. Currently GF is producing parts comprised 65 nm SOI and 45 nm SOI technologies, but that is the extent of their lines. Oddly enough, 32 nm SOI and 32 nm bulk will be available before the 40 nm bulk and low power products. This may seem a bit backwards, but when looking at the industry, not every company needs to have a cutting edge process for their product designs. In this case, it appears as though the chip family that STM has in mind for production at GF will be pretty small, and going to a smaller process node could prove to be problematic to packaging said part (not to mention the redesign aspects of going from 40 nm LP down to 32 nm SOI or bulk. Hopefully for the industry and consumers alike, this will be the first of many such announcements from GF. Having more players in the foundry field, and especially players which have a proven track record of advanced process tech development, will benefit both consumers and designers alike. This means faster rollouts of advanced product lines, more cost effective and performant parts in a timely manner, and competition for the hard earned dollars from designers who need a partner to actually produce their ASICs. 
Currently GF is not talking about other companies who could be jumping on the bandwagon. We do have a short list though. It is no secret that the graphics division of AMD will be going with GF once the 32 nm bulk process is open to manufacturing. NVIDIA of course is likely to jump on board, as they cannot afford to be at a manufacturing disadvantage to AMD/ATI. For NVIDIA, changing foundries is not a big deal. When things look better at another place, they have jumped ship before. IBM was a partner of theirs for the GeForce FX 5700 and 5900 series of cards. UMC is a consistent partner for lower end models. If GF's 32 nm bulk process is clean, then the obvious interest is graphics, but the second big interest would be getting Tegra onto 32 nm ASAP. NVIDIA still believes that Tegra is the breakout part for the company to hit the real big time, and if they can get out a good, fast, feature packed Tegra design at 32 nm and take advantage of the size and power features of that process, then they are poised to offer a cutting edge part to phone and MID manufacturers that should be leading edge. TSMC is not taking this lying down. They have significantly boosted their R&D staff, and are making a huge effort to not only fix their ailing 40 nm process, but also aggressively pursue 32 nm nodes and beyond. Time will tell if they actually succeed, but I personally think that GF has a big leg up on the competition due to their process war with Intel at the high end of manufacturing technology. If GF can get out their 32 nm bulk process as promised in 1H 2010, then they will have customers streaming to them. Fab 1 Module 1/2 are big fabs, and they can put out a lot of wafers a month. Still, if a lot of designers come to them for parts, they could hit a wall in terms of how much they can actually handle. It will be interesting to investigate this again once GF has both 32 nm SOI and bulk going at the same time next Spring.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
[H]ard|OCP actually managed to get a hold of a retail box XFX HD4770 dual-slot card, the YDFC model
as the YDLC is a single slot card. It is still a 40nm process GPU with 640 stream processors and 512MB of GDDR5, what is special about the card is that XFX has always been nVIDIA only, this is the first AMD silicon they have released. Their 'double lifetime' warranty still applies, they are not taking anything away that you'd expect to see on their nVIDIA offerings. Check out what this $100 card can do, and hope that the 40nm problem goes away soon so that the card can actually be purchased.
"We take our first look at a full retail boxed version of the Radeon HD 4770 from XFX. We’ll test its overclocking ability, take its temperature, and see what kind of performance it puts out while taking it for a spin around the block in real world gameplay testing. This dual-slot Radeon HD 4770 has a lot to offer at an attractive price." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Techware Labs | Subject: Memory
GeIL has two new DDR3 kits on the market, consisting of six 2GB 1600MHz DIMMs, one with CL 7-7-7-24 timings and one with 8-8-8-28. How does 12GB of affect performance? You will have to drop by Techware Labs to see the actual results. First the 6GB tests to gain both a benchmark of performance for the GeIL chips, but also to benchmark against a Corsair 6GB kit. Then onto the 12GB testing to compare it to the previous results in the hope that the outstanding 6GB scores scale up with the extra memory. The only question remaining is the MSRP. "There's only so much a CPU can do. With today's games and software as demanding as they are, wouldn't you like to have an UNGODLY amount of RAM? Join Jason as TechwareLabs investigates the GeIL Evo One 12GB DDR3-1600 Hexa kit." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: iXBT Labs | Subject: System
Giving people the information need to build better gaming machines is the main focus of tech review sites, with better file servers and other, perhaps more profitable, PC purposes running a distant second. iXBT has decided to break the mold by putting together an article on how to build a better office PC. Over a dozen CPUS, ranging from a $31 Sempron to a $220 C2 Quad, 7 different motherboards and even 3 discreet AMD graphics cards along with 1GB of both DDR2-1066 and DDR2-800. Drop by for a look at what the various configurations offer in terms of productivity.
"Unlike gaming PCs, office configurations are chosen with the help of universal benchmarks. In practice, the most adequate tests for office hardware these days are SYSMark 2007 and PCMark Vantage. We compiled the results obtained in these benchmarks with different processors, graphics cards, and memory sizes. Traditionally, there's an interactive configuration calculator for your convenience." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Storage
As Allyn has proved, the new technology used in the second generation has almost completely removed the fragmentation over time problem. You can see that confirmed by The Tech Report's review of the drive, where they tested the response times of drives before and after heavy testing. They still anxiously await Win7 and the TRIM commands that will help Indilinx and Samsung controlled drives performance; the question is can it help them close the gap between themselves and Intel.
"Intel has updated its X25-M SSDs with new 34nm flash chips, tweaks to reduce latency and speed random write performance, much lower prices, and the promise of TRIM support for Windows 7. We've tested the gen-two drive against its peers, and the results speak for themselves." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
Asustek and Acer are focusing their attentions on the thin end of the mobile market, choosing to not launch any netbooks, instead it is ultra-thin notebooks or CULVs whatever label you wish to give them. The Eee line will expand with 12", 13.3" and 15" models along with 12" and 14" variants that will not have an optical drive. Acer already has 13.3", 14.1" and 15.6" models, it will work on including discreet graphics cards and optical drives in those models and are abandoning the dual boot Windows XP/Android
netbook for the foreseeable future. Drop by DigiTimes for more tidbits on these two companies mobile plans.
"Asustek Computer and Acer will not offer any new netbooks in the second half of 2009,
as Intel plans to push the launch of its entry-level products including the Pine Trail
-M platform to the first quarter of 2010, according to industry sources.
The vendors will instead focus on ultra-thin notebooks during the second half of the year." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Maximum CPU | Subject: Case and Cooling
Lenovo, and IBM before them, were known as producers of expensive notebooks with a very simple aesthetic and the power to do what travelling business people needed done. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook departs on a completely different course; it has a bright red exterior shell with a white battery and when opened revels a white keyboard, shell and bezel. It is reminiscent of cracking open a cooked lobster or crab. It sports a 10.2" screen, weighs 2.5lbs and is based around a 1.6GHz Atom N270, 1GB of DDR2-667 and the Intel GMA 950. Overall, Maximum CPU were impressed but wished that Lenovo would put more than 2 USB ports on this netbook. "Once upon a time, if you wanted a 'ultra-light' laptop, you would have to spend close to $1500. However, times sure have changed. Now netbooks which are smaller and more powerful than yesteryear’s Ultra-lights can be commonly found in the $300 – $500 range. Today we are going to take a look at Lenovo’s S10 netbook to see just how it stacks up." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Big Bruin | Subject: General Tech
To start off with the bad news, the following handy product will run you $380.
The Startech.com KVM Console to USB 2.0 Crash Cart Adapter is a small device with a USB plug on one end and both a USB and VGA cable on the other end. The package also comes with a USB to PS/2 adaptor and a small flash drive with the program that needs to be installed on the laptop or computer you will be using to control the headless computer. There is no software to be installed on the computer you intend to control, so even if you just met it for the first time, the Crash Cart should work. It supports Windows, Linux and Apple machines and can give you access right at boot, to allow you to enter the BIOS of the machine you are controlling. There are a lot of features for controlling, changing display ratios and more; which you can see on Big Bruin. "I can see the Startech.com KVM Console to USB 2.0 crash cart adapter as an invaluable item in an IT professional's tool kit, providing an easy way to access terminals, industrial computers, headless servers, and other applications where you might not keep a keyboard, mouse, and monitor installed at all times." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Guru of 3D | Subject: Case and Cooling
For July, Guru 3D's rig of the month was built by a young Estonian forum member with a penchant for ThermalTake. A surplus of LEDs really make the case shine in the dark and help highlight his components with a nice green hue. Perhaps his biggest hurdle was dealing with the prices in Estonia, he estimates a total price of 2800-2900
Euros which translates to $4000 USD. Keep that in mind if you are headed to Europe!
"Meet Margo at the age of 19, Margo has been a Guru3D aficionado for a while already and can be found often in our forums, he shares our passion of building nice PCs. Margo is a Student. His PC will be the Rig of the Month July 2009, and he has built his PC with some interesting components and has them all lit up with a lot and lot of colors." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Motherboard
While it is slightly painful to refer to a $193 motherboard as a budget board, when you are talking about an X58 based board like the Gigabyte EX58-UD3R it is reasonably accurate. Some trimming has been done, most noticeably on the RAM as there are only 4 slots, limiting the total capacity of RAM to 12GB but keeping support for triple channel. A pair of PCI-E x16 slots support both flavours of multiple GPUness and the back plate still sports a goodly amount of connections and the 8 SATA ports should keep your storage system happy. [H]ard|OCP does warn that to overclock this board you may need to fiddle with voltages to get the base clock up where you want it to be, but the board did respond once it received a bit more juice.
"The Gigabyte EX58-UD3R represents a budget X58 motherboard, if there is such a thing. While the feature set is somewhat limited when compared to other more robust X58 boards, the EX58-UD3R's performance and overclockability is anything but limited." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Allyn Malventano | Source: Fusion-io | Subject: Storage
Much of the below press release is industry jargon, but what you can take home from this is Fusion-io paired an ioDrive with a Dell PowerEdge and MS SQL Server to produce a solid, high performing product that puts out some impressive stats. This should make companies want to adopt the tech, which leads to volume sales and ultimately drives down the cost of consumer-grade products (in this case PCI-e SSDs). The potential end result? Cheaper ioXtreme SSDs for the rest of us.
The 80GB ioXtreme is expected to sell for $895. Possibly cheaper as other Fusion-io products catch on.
SALT LAKE CITY – July 27, 2009 – Fusion-io announced today the first TPC-H benchmark test results leveraging solid-state storage (SSS) technologies. With off-the-shelf components from Dell, Fusion-io and Microsoft, the tested system achieved 28,772 QphH (Query-per-Hour Performance Metric) on a 100 gigabyte (GB) database, at a cost of only $1.47 per database transaction. The performance results and the total cost-of-ownership (TCO) savings for this complete system dramatically improved the price/performance ratio in database transactions using readily available, industry standard components. Savings from power usage, floor space and other infrastructure costs will lead to even greater reductions in data center TCO.
Unlike TPC-H benchmarks for traditional disks, the tested configuration from Dell, Fusion-io and Microsoft required very little tuning to achieve the performance of more than 160 hard disk drives. The system demonstrated that the raw power of solid-state technologies largely eliminates the need to spend IT energy tweaking and tuning to achieve optimum database performance. “At a cost-per-transaction, inclusive of the server, software licensing and storage, the Fusion-io solution, which used solid-state technologies, reduced the cost of database transactions by almost half,” said David Flynn, CTO, Fusion-io. “For a new storage technology using standard software and standard servers, these results are nothing short of astounding. Fusion-io’s technology completely eliminates the need for exotic solutions, which typically are integrated at a substantially greater cost.” “These performance numbers showed that there are mainstream applications that can realize dramatic improvements in both price and performance by combining high-end, solid-state storage with the world’s best industry-standard servers and software,” said Paul Prince, CTO, Dell Enterprise Product Group. “In the past, high-performance SSDs were simply too cost-prohibitive to be taken seriously and these results confirmed that such configurations are a very real consideration for many applications in enterprise IT solutions.” “This configuration, which used off-the-shelf software from Microsoft and Fusion-io, takes database price/performance to a whole new level,” said David Powell, director of performance for SQL Server at Microsoft Corp. “This test proved that solid-state technologies can now be used to reduce costs while providing unparalleled performance for the enterprise, in a system that’s easy to configure and maintain.” Measurement Results: • System: Dell PowerEdge T610 • Database Scale Factor 100 GB • TPC-H Power 38,550.7 • TPC-H Throughput 21,475.1 • TPC-H Composite Query-per-Hour Metric (QphH@100GB) 28,772.9 • Total System Price Over Three Years $42,132 • TPC-H Price Performance Metric ($/QphH@100GB) $1.46 These results were accomplished using a single Dell PowerEdge T610 server equipped with four Fusion-io 80GB ioDrives, running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64. The complete results are available on the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s Web site, at: http://www.tpc.org/tpch/results/tpch_result_detail.asp?id=109060201. The TPC-H benchmark is described in more detail on the Web page: http://www.tpc.org/tpch/. To learn more about Fusion-io’s solid-state storage technology, go to www.fusionio.com. ABOUT FUSION-IO Fusion-io is a leading provider of enterprise solid-state technology and high-performance I/O solutions. The company’s solid state storage technology closes the gap between processing power and traditional storage, delivering a new type of application centric storage for database, application and system administrators. The result is a world of possibilities for performance-starved applications.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
One terabyte drives are fairly common now, but they come in 3.5" which is rather unfriendly for mobile users. Western Digital is introducing 1TB 2.5" drives at a premium price. Roughly double the cost of their larger brethren, there still many who will be clamouring for a chance to store 500GB of old unread email on their laptop so that they can complain the mail store runs slowly on their laptop as well as their desktop. Others will be happy to store HD content for playback, without having to use an optical drive and drain their batteries even more quickly. WD didn't name any names when The Inquirer asked about manufacturers who will be putting this drive in their systems, but WD did mention an new external HDD enclosure that they will be selling that does contain their 1TB drive.
"WESTERN DIGITAL HAS unveiled what it claims is the world's first one terabyte 2.5-inch hard disk drive. Falling within WD's Scorpio Blue range, this 333GB per platter SATA drive is priced at €205($338ish). There's also a 750GB version for €140($230ish)." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
Putting together a PC on the cheap is not a hard thing to do in this market, as long as you are not looking to break 3DMark records. For a simple HTPC, there are a $50 graphics cards which will give you enough power to pump out HD content to a TV or monitor. Size really isn't an issue either, though some will spend a little extra for that special box. Once you are up and running, even on an HTPC, as long as you can connect to the net either directly or indirectly, wired or wireless, make sure you are aware of the nasty things which roam the tubes.
Once you have made the decision to spend your summer in front of a PC, temperatures can become a big issue, especially for those of us who are dedicatedoverclockers. Temperatures can vary greatly, depending on where you are, Phoenix AZ will certainly require a resident to pick up a more powerful cooler, than say someone who lives in Alaska and just happened to have won a sweet, kick-ass new machine! Assuming you are up and running, both graphics companies have released new drivers, AMD's support Win7 and nVIDIA's come with a caveat. If you are running, that means it is time to tune into TWiCH and the PC Perspective Podcast. On the other hand, if you aren't running fast enough, it's time to visit the Trading Post!
Allyn Malventano | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: Storage
***Public Service Announcement***
Intel has informed me of a bug in the X25-M G2 shipping firmware (02G2). This bug is specific to setting a hard drive password in your BIOS. If you have set a BIOS HDD password, then subsequently change or disable that password, the SSD may become inoperable. Intel is correcting the issue in firmware and will be posting a fix shortly. In summary:
***End Public Service Announcement***
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Benchmark Reviews | Subject: General Tech
For a true audiophile, an onboard sound solution just won't cut it, nor will it get the most out of high end speakers. The ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim can help, thanks to a pair of HDMI ports, Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound formats are both fully supported. The card also drops CPU usage to almost zero for sound processing, a great advantage if you are running a low power or underclocked CPU. Benchmark Reviews put the card and its software through a series of tests to try to define its performance a little less subjectively, something that can be hard to do with an audio review.
"You don't have to be an audiophile to appreciate the enhanced surround sound effects from Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio found on most Blu-ray Disc movie discs over the standard Dolby Digital or DTS formats found on standard DVD movie discs. The lossless audio compression formats and/or the two extra channels of sound output really adds a significant amount of realism to the whole movie watching experience. The problem is most HTPC owners don't have the ability to experience these enhanced formats due to a lack of sound cards on the market that can support these formats. Benchmarkreviews has the ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim sound card that does just that. Benchmark Reviews have put it through a series of tests and have determined whether HTPC owners can rejoice or not." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: Graphics Card
At $250 the Sapphire HD4890 Vapor-X 2GBruns about $40 more than the vanilla version, but also sports twice the memory as well as a nice improved cooler. That cooler has allowed Sapphire to raise the core GPU speed by 20MHz to 870MHz and the memory by 100MHz to 1050MHz and is capable of hitting 950MHz and 1200MHz with a little tweaking. In addition, the cooler is significantly quieter than the stock fan. See what the extra gigabyte of GDDR5 does for performance at OCC.
"So what does the Sapphire HD 4890 Vapor-X 2GB do well? Well, for one it offers up excellent cooling without the noise penalty that the reference cards present when you push the fan speed toward the max level. This card was barely audible three feet away from the case and was not heard over the white noise in my test room. The temperatures delivered by this card are almost identical to those of the Vapor-X 1GB card I tested. With the clock speeds at the factory default 870/1050 settings and the fan controlled by the driver, I measured 48 degrees Celsius at idle and 75 degrees Celsius while under load. Much lower than the reference cooling, and again it is dead silent in this configuration. Once overclocked and bumping the fan speed to 100%, I measure 43 Celsius at idle and 70 Celsius under load. Both better than the driver controlled numbers at the default clocks and leaps and bounds ahead of the reference cards. Having run through a few HD 4890 cards, the limits are relatively easy to reach without resorting to BIOS or hardware tweaks. The 1GB model reached 970MHz on the core and 1195MHz on the memory. The 2GB model reached very similar clock speeds of 950MHz on the core and 1200MHz on the memory, no slouch in the overclocking department even with the additional memory. That looks like some pretty close binning." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
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