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.

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Other Resources: Best Laptops Compare Laptops & price in Australia

Written by admin on February 19th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Desktops.

AMD is almost ready to launch R600

Do you remember Ruby’s comparison? Well, according to this post AMD has working model of “new” Ruby. But it’s not the main spot. AMD has working R600 video cards. It’s just working prototypes for manufacturers. If manufacturers are happy, customers will be happy too (I hope). AMD still needs time to make sellable video card. Also card is needed to be reduced in size. But I hope they’ll do it quick enough.
Thinking about R600? You must start saving money, if you want to be in the first flight. Because it launches at the beginning of March

Written by mente on February 3rd, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Releases and Announcements and Conferences and Desktops.

China has own processors

According to this article China has already manufactured own processor called Godson II. It has frequency 500 MHz and its performance is on Intel Pentium III level. Several days ago Chinese scientists introduced new processor called Loongson 2E. You can call it “improved version of Godson II”. It has 800 MHz frequency and improved architecture. Processor isn’t well spread because there are just several motherboards for them. But I hope Intel and AMD will get new competitors soon. Maybe in next 10 years.

In February 200 laptops with Loongson 2E will be presented. Half of them will be taken by engineers at Chinese Academy of Science. Other half will go to people related to this academy. Its like “test release”. Company, invented Godson II and Loongson 2E is called Sinomanic. If you’ll find official site of this company please comment it

Written by mente on January 28th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Technologies and Desktops.

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:

Ask what has happened with subject.
Try to boot PC and check the symptoms of the victim (PC certainly).
Repeat second procedure several times and check whether it repeats.
Check contacts on motherboard, hard disk, CD-ROM.
Detect defect, which causes problems. Remember - there can be several defects. Defect is detected? Goto 8.
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.
If PC still doesn’t boot you have problem with main component of the PC (I will write about this in future).
Remove the defect.
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 admin on January 26th, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Desktops.

Video Sex Symbols

No, I won’t speak about video consoles. I’m going to speak about ATI’s Ruby. Do you know her? The girl who loves red color and skin-tight clothes will be rebuilt in 2007. No, don’t worry; Ruby’s style will be saved. According to HEXUS Ruby will get more polygons and new technologies, such like shaders 4.0. On the picture you can compare Ruby’s lips 2006 and the same in 2007.

On the left you can see Ruby 2007. Compare it with Ruby 2006 on the left. When I first saw this picture I thought that on the left is a real woman, from who Ruby was designed. I was wrong.
ATI don’t have working model yet. Waiting for renew Ruby!

Written by mente on January 24th, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Desktops.

Processor wars: AMD vs. Intel

Logos Preamble. Several months ago AMD announced Fusion processor. It’s a multicore processor with integrated graphics core. It doesn’t mean that processor will be just dual-core or quad-core. It will be many-core. Every core will be specialized in its own task. Seems to me they want to integrate chipset and simple video in processor. Nice decision I tell you. The cost of the entire system will be lowered and the speed rises dramatically. Everything in one box, nothing outside. Of course if you want to have powerful videocard you always can buy it. It will be better than integrated.But all of this was just lyrics. The main plot why this post has been written - Intel’s answer. It’s called Visual Computing Group (VCG). But Intel’s aim differs from AMD’s. AMD tries to improve performance. Intel’s main aim is:

We are focused on developing discrete graphics products based on a many-core architecture targeting high-end client platforms.

It means Intel wants to integrate graphics. No special core for specialized tasks. No integrated chipset. Just integrated graphics. But further they will expand it for CPU specializations. That’s why they’re looking for good specialists. I think their VCG will be developed faster than AMD’s Fusion processor. Fusion is perspective future and VCG is realistic technology. But I believe in AMD. Don’t say I’m AMD fan. Intel can surprise us too.

Written by mente on January 23rd, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Technologies and Desktops.

Open Source Phone is coming

I have found interesting video while I was browsing internet today. It’s an open source phone, called FIC Neo1973. It is based on Linux OS, has 2.8 inch TFT display with resolution 640×480, touchscreen. Phone has Samsung processor, built-in GPS system. Gadget has 128 mb SDRAm and 64 mb NAND flash memory. Interesting - will you lose all your data, when phone is low battery? Half-phone-PC is powered by 1200 mAh battery? Suppose it’s enough for this baby. I’m wondered why FIC doesn’t have Wi-Fi or at least Bluetooth. These standards are very popular now. But as you can see, it’s more similar with Pocket PCs than with phones. But developers decide to call it “smart phone”.
FIC

Now, OpenMoco is seeking for software developers for their gadget. I hope I have a free time, but I don’t think so. So - if anyone is interested to develop open source phone - welcome

Written by mente on January 20th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Technologies and Cellphones.

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

Snorting Valium Effects

Written by admin on January 19th, 2007 with no comments.
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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.

Radeon 2900XT and PCI-Express 2.0

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 admin on January 18th, 2007 with no comments.
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PCI Express 2.0 Specifications

On this week PCI-Sig has released PCI-Express 2.0 specifications. General improvements are:

Dynamic link speed management allows developers to control the speed at which the link is operating

Link bandwidth notification alerts platform software (operating system, device drivers, etc) of changes in link speed and width

Capability structure expansion increases control registers to better manage devices, slots and the interconnect

Access control services allows for optional controls to manage peer-to-peer transactions

Completion timeout control allows developers to define a required disable mechanism for transaction timeouts

Function-level reset provides an optional mechanism to reset functions within a multi-function device

Power limit redefinition enables slot power limit values to accommodate devices that consume higher power

But the main improvements are:

The interconnect bit rate is doubled from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to support high-bandwidth applications
Power source is doubled from 75W to 150W. Also 8-pin power-connector can provide additional 150W
The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance while reducing cost

Reverse support of PCI-Express 1.x video cards and motherboards

I want to discuss the main improvements. The interconnect bit rate is doubled. But do you know that video cards don’t use all bandwidth of PCIe? They always enlarge bit rate for future purpose, but this future never comes. New PCIe specifications come faster. Improvement for power source has 2 sides. First side - video card can be more powerful and use more power (good side). Second side - we have new 8-pin power connector (bad side). You’ll have to buy it before video card (of course if video card uses more than 150W). And of course, reverse support. It’s great that you can connect your old PCIe 1.x video card to new motherboard with PCIe 2.0 support and reverse. Upgrade step-by-step, as I call it.

Summarize this new standard. All improvements are extensive. PCI Express is developed. And it has big future

Written by mente on January 17th, 2007 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Releases and Technologies and Conferences.

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Laptop and Desktop Comparison

AMD is almost ready to launch R600

China has own processors

Electric Protection May Cause Problems

Video Sex Symbols

Processor wars: AMD vs. Intel

Open Source Phone is coming

Disaster?

R600 and PCI-Express 2.0

PCI Express 2.0 Specifications

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