R600 and PCI-Express 2.0

And again about R600. As you, maybe have mentioned I’m ATI fan (now AMD). AMD demoes new chipset RD790 with PCI-Express 2.0 onboard. Massive production will start at the end of the year. But I’m interested in other. As you can see on the pictures there are Radeon HD 2900XT installed.

Any notice? If you haven’t mentioned - here is only one power cable connected. Why? Because PCI-Ex provides 150W. You won’t need so many cables in future.

Written by mente on May 18th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Announcements and Desktops.

R600 was delayed. But why? Ask Rick Bergman

As you know Radeon HD 2000 Series were released yesterday. First release date was autumn of the past year. So delay is about 6 months. But why? TG Daily took an interview with Rick Bergman. He explained it. Here is a cut from interview:

TG Daily: Let’s get right to it. The R600 arrives about six months late. What is the story behind this delay?

Rick Bergman: There are a couple of reasons. The first reason is that there were design issues that needed to be resolved. And then, later, we decided to retarget the product at a very attractive price point. We had a higher price point board coming down the line that involved a lot more cost around the bill of materials, memory devices and so on. And we wondered whether or not that was what the market was really looking for. So, we decided to introduce a $399 price point [for a high-end card] with a brand new technology.

This is a 700-million transistor chip, so as we debugged it, with the cache structures, DX10, the new architecture and so on, it just took us a little longer to iron it out this time.

As you see AMD decided to renew own card before release. I don’t think this was good idea. Half a year has passed. HD 2900XT isn’t the powerfull card, 8800GTX leaves it behind. So what we have for $399? High-end card, called Radeon, cheaper than 8800GTS, good overclocking abilities, but not the most powerful card in the world. Middle in high-end segment I say. That’s we were waiting for? AMD can’t answer Nvidia’s 8800 even after almost a year. I hope AMD’s marketologists will be shot.

If we’ll forget about R600 and read fully the interview we can find interesting thinkings. Rick Bergman says something about discrete graphics vs. intergrated one. I tried to make comparison in my own article, called Laptop and desktop comparison. Fusion (CPU with integrated GPU) will have 16 graphics cores and will satisfy gamer-”user of notebook”.

Well, I give you link. Hurry up and read this interview

Written by mente on May 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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Radeon 2900XT. Photos of retail version

As you know Radeon 2900XT version is officially released today. Several luckies even already tested it. What can I say? I’m dissapointed. Even Ruby won’t save AMD. Video card is similar to Geforce 8800GTS, but costs less (recommended price is $399). It needs more power (215 W) and is more buggy. During tests games exit with errors. I hope AMD will fix problems in future drivers. And now several photos of the 2900XT:

This photo shows excellent???? the exact site of the card:

Video card needs “just” 550-600 W PSU and special 8-end joint:

And here are cables, that you need to connect to your Radeon 2900XT. If you connect only one, without 8-end joint you can forget about overclocking

That’s all folks.

P.S. By the way there is continue of the story for buggy PC. I will write soon.

P.P.S. Sorry for few updates. I’ll try to do my best

Written by mente on May 14th, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Releases and Announcements and Desktops.

Revolution again?

Do you like something innovative? For example first smartphone fully open sourced and based on Linux. I don’t think that anyone can be surprised by mp3 player. But what about this one? It is called Cowon D2 and it has several innovative features. Which one? Just look at the picture

Nothing innovative? It just looks like nothing interesting. This is first player which has touchscreen! And not small touchscreen like my watches, but really big one. Almost like on Pocket PC. Of course with such screen this device can play videos. No high-def, but do you need it? Let’s look on it’s specifications taken from product’s page:

Here we see 2.5 inch touchscreeen as I told you. Other is usual stuff for portable mp3 player. 52 hours for playback is a lot. I don’t think it’s true, but I hope for good things. What’s next:

Specifications are usual for such sort of players. What can I mention is that Cowon D2 supports not only mp3 and wma, but flac, ogg, ape. Another company that produces player with multi support is iRiver. There are several editions of Cowon D2. Black and white as you see on the picture. And 2 GB and 4 GB editions.

If all of what I have written impresses you - run and buy it. As for me - I’ll stay without player. Read books

Written by mente on April 12th, 2007 with no comments.
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ATI Intergrates Everything in Video Cards?

The Inquirer called it SECRET WEAPON. I call it nonsense. ATI wants to integrate computer in single video card?! For what reason? I have no thoughts, but I hope it won’t happen.
Some information on this news: R600 will have sound on-board. Nothing spectacular, but High-Definition sound. Video card’s performance doesn’t suffer, because sound will be made on the dedicated chip. The sound signal can be transmitted via HDMI both with video signal. Already known that Realtek will produce chips for ATI. You can check it by visiting download drivers page on Realtek site

Look at the bottom of the image. See? Driver is released. Wait for video card . Of course it’s still rumours, but who knows… In the end is new image of video card with R600 implemented.

I don’t think R600 will be released really soon, as I wrote before. Of course if this post is true. Have a nice day

Written by mente on April 6th, 2007 with no comments.
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Having R600 or G80 Onboard Means Many-cored System?

Some sage from IT market is afraid that soon there won’t be war between Nvidia and ATI. It doesn’t mean there won’t this companies. According to TheInquirer GPU vs. CPU wars will start soon. I can’t decline this preposition. Future graphic cards will have such powerful GPUs that they can substitute CPU. Of course if you use OS just to launch game. If you archive something or encode video forget about this future.

Now something becomes obvious. Why did AMD buy ATI? Because they wanted to develop chipsets for their own processors? Right and wrong. Maybe right, but not exactly. Also AMD wants to come to graphics market. They can use CPU technologies for GPU in future and GPU technologies in discrete graphics. Uniting GPU and CPU technology they can get Combo unit. Intel and Nvidia will be an outsiders. Nvidia have never made CPUs and Intel has just come to this market. AMD has experienced stuff for this. And ATI didn’t cost too much, as Nvidia. As we know ATI was losing the fight for top graphics card when AMD bought it. Telling truth they are losing now, but not in future. AMD has wise chiefs and I hope you understand what I want to share with

Written by mente on April 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
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Disaster?

Time changes everything. IT market is changing frequently than others.But basic tendency stays the same - development and new achievements. Financial side of IT market was the same for last years. There were losers and winners, geniuses and idiots.

Even IT market had a stable time. When nothing revolutionary was invented or introduced. Just developing of existing achievements. This development has one big disadvantage - once it will stop. Now it happens with financial side of IT market. Resellers don’t know what to do. They don’t have anything new, extraordinal. The best they can offer is big sweet box, in which your new video card is (for example). No new functions, gadgets. How can you differ Sapphire from Gigabyte on the graphics card market? Except box there are no differences, I bet. Resellers exist just for financial purposes. The worst is that resellers can’t do anything. They depend on company-manufacturers. If company-manufacturer can’t invent anything else, what will you do? Several resellers decide to make new own products. For example, notebooks, like TheInquirer said. Bad tendency, but what can you do? If you won’t provide something new you are eaten by competitors. Cruel world, but it is real world

Written by mente on March 19th, 2007 with no comments.
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Difficulties in the work of computer engineer

You can think that the job of computer engineer is easy. Doesn’t boot? Unplug all useless and check again. If works - unplugged device is a key, if not - better buy new computer. Only two ways of solving problem.

This technics work only if computer doesn’t boot. But what if it boots? What’s next? How can you trace bugs? This time you would use your head and experience, if you have. No experience? Ask specialists in this case. But we’re ubnormal users. Imagine that computer specalist is far away. For example, you’re on the desert island. How you would change details is another question. However you don’t have access to any human resource. Where would you ask? Of course internet! So this post is a question to all of you.

Few months backward. I completed company’s order for 13 computers. Reminder: twelve simple computers and one power computer for chief of the company. Everything was fine, computers worked their money, I earned good reputation and some money. But last week boss of this company has called me. He asked me to check his computer, because computer didn’t work right. When I came, first I asked him what’s wrong (remember?). He said computer rebooted several times. I checked all cables and than powered on system. All seemed normal, but I had to believe him because he was smart boss. My opinion was that memory had errors. I changed memory and went away. Next day he called me and said bug remained. I came again and this time I changed PSU. But it didn’t help. On a next day I received new call from boss. Detail, which was broken as for me, was motherboard. I switched it. Computer worked fine for several days and then I received new call. This time I was really annoyed. What it could be? I won’t explain all what I switched, but I can tell you what is left untouched. Processor and hard disk were the same all the time. Now I don’t have any access to this computer. But I still want to solve this problem. Has anybody met this? How have you solved this problem? I’m desperate now. This is my first unsolved problem.

Written by mente on March 5th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Desktops and Troubleshooting.

Electric Protection May Cause Problems

Last week my friends called me. He asked me to check his computer. “It doesn’t boot even”, - he said. Well, thanks god he lives in near house and I went. Took some beer and knock in door. He welcomed me and invited inside. His computer is rather old - Athlon XP 2000+ and GeForce 5200. Others components are rather newer. The PC was already screwed up, so I just looked inside. I must stop here and tell you what is main in troubleshooting:

1. Ask what has happened with subject.
2. Try to boot PC and check the symptoms of the victim (PC certainly).
3. Repeat second procedure several times and check whether it repeats.
4. Check contacts on motherboard, hard disk, CD-ROM.
5. Detect defect, which causes problems. Remember - there can be several defects. Defect is detected? Goto 8.
6. If you can’t detect defect unplug everything, which won’t influence on PC boot: sound cards, hard disks, CD-ROMs. Leave only one RAM installed.
7. If PC still doesn’t boot you have problem with main component of the PC (I will write about this in future).
8. Remove the defect.
9. Enjoy.

These rules are basic. Try to match them and I bet you will find at least defect. Advice - if you can, try to substitute broken component for some time. You can be wrong. In private case you can vary, but in general follow rules.
I have done almost similar these rules in my case. I tried to power on PC, but nothing happened. System didn’t start up, even coolers didn’t work. I thought it was motherboard or PSU. If the motherboard was broken it would at least powered on and coolers work. This didn’t happen. My thoughts was - PSU definitely. So I told my thoughts to my friend. Of course he was upset, but what we could do? He gave me money and I bought new PSU.

Imagine our surprise when we, after PSU was installed, powered on system. Guess what happened? Nothing! Similar symptoms. But this time cooler on PSU turned a little. So it had started and then stopped. At this moment I have realized my mistake. Electric defence on PSU didn’t let desktop working. Using my knowledge and sixth point I found out that it was hard disk. It was rather old as all system. Western Digital with 20 GB capacity (sorry, I don’t remember exact model). I apologized my friend and that time he gave me money for hard disk. Hard disk was bought and now my friend is happy with newly installed hard disk (Western Digital 80BB, not too far from old one).
Conclusions? I made several mistakes. I didn’t check my thoughts. I could change PSU and try one more time. But I was hurry and bought new component. The main conclusion, which I understood from this case - never speed! You never know what is real problem.

Written by mente on February 26th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Desktops and Troubleshooting.

Laptop and Desktop Comparison

Several weeks ago I had a choice to change my own desktop to same-cost laptop. I have made my choice and I want to share gathered information with you. This is some sort of review. Several paragraphs were written on my PPC, when I was underground going home, so mistakes can be found. I hope this article will help your choice, like it helped me.

I must warn you - I have made some limits. Desktop’s or laptop’s price mustn’t be over $1000. Also I don’t consider Apple products such as Mac book, PowerBooks, etc. Desktop has installed Microsoft Windows. So laptop has. Nothing extra ordinal in configurations.

(more…)

Learn More: Best Laptops Compare Laptops & price in Australia

Written by mente on February 19th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Laptops and Technologies and Desktops and Reviews.

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