PC Tips World

R600 and PCI-Express 2.0

mente — Fri, 18 May 2007 10:25:09 +0000

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.

R600 was delayed. But why? Ask Rick Bergman

mente — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:41:00 +0000

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

Radeon 2900XT. Photos of retail version

mente — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:22:06 +0000

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

Revolution again?

mente — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:18:45 +0000

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:

*FEATURES*	Video & Audio Player / FM Tuner / Voice Recorder / Text & Photo Viewer
	2.5 inch 16 million color 24bit TFT-LCD - QVGA (320×240) Touchscreen
	SD / SDHC Memory Expansion
	Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)*
	DRM-protected content Support (PlaysForSure, etc.)

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

Playback
format

Music

MP3 : MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ~320kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo

WMA : ~256kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo

OGG : ~Q10, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo

FLAC : Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo

WAV : ~48khz, 16bit, mono/stereo

APE: TBD **

JetEffect (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, 3D Surround, Stereo Enhance) support

Movie

AVI : MPEG4 ~ 2Mbps, 320×240, 30fps, MP3 audio
WMV : WMV9 ~ 768kbps, 320×240, 30fps, WMA audio

TV OUT support (TV OUT Cable Optional)

Recording

WMA : 32~256kbps Recording and Playback
Voice Recording, Line-In Recording, External MIC support

Photo

JPG, No limitation on image size and capacity

Text

TXT file Viewer
Support up to 2MB

Folder Limit

500 folders and 5,000 files

Radio support

FM RADIO : 76Mhz ~ 108Mhz, 87.5Mhz ~ 108Mhz
WMA : 32~256kbps recording support

Display

2.5 inch 16 million color(24bit) TFT-LCD : QVGA (320×240) Touchscreen

Built-in memory

2GB, 4GB

External

SD Card and MMC Card Slot

PC interface

USB 2.0 High Speed

File transfer speed

Max. 35Mbps (Upload 40Mbps)

Power

Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)

Charge time

About 3.5 hours by adapter, About 7 hours by USB

Button

3 Button(MENU, VOL-, VOL+), POWER & HOLD Switch

SNR

95dB (A-Weighted)

Frequency Range

20Hz~20KHz

Max Output

16 Ohm earphone : 37mW + 37mW

Size

3.07 X 2.18 X 0.65 inches (78.0 X 55.4 X 16.6 mm)

Weight

3.21 oz (91 g) (Include Lithium Polymer battery)

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

ATI Intergrates Everything in Video Cards?

mente — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:42:24 +0000

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

Having R600 or G80 Onboard Means Many-cored System?

mente — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:32:19 +0000

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

Disaster?

mente — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:39:28 +0000

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

Difficulties in the work of computer engineer

mente — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:29:20 +0000

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.

Electric Protection May Cause Problems

mente — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:29:06 +0000

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.

Laptop and Desktop Comparison

mente — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:00:34 +0000

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.

Overall

Here we are. Someone of your friend decided to rid off his notebook. Or maybe you have seen nice laptop with very low price, as I did. Strange thoughts start visiting your mind. Now you have to decide whether to change your lovely desktop. You must remember several points for helping to decide whether you need this switch:

processor
discrete graphics and integrated graphics
hard disk
miscellaneous

I’ll review each point theoretically. Miscellaneous has items that can be reviewed in several sentences. In the end of the article I’ll compare 2 computers presented on eshop.

Processor

In laptop’s market there are not holy wars, like in desktop’s one. Situation here is too obvious. But at first some theory.

Maybe you know, maybe not, but laptop processor differs a lot from its desktop brother. They have different priorities. Desktop processor must be powerful anyway, it doesn’t have any limits. It can warm up enormously, use much power. Laptop processor differs. Its main priority is to save power and be quite cold, that small cooler can cool it down. On the second place is performance. It’s ideal situation. In a real world engineers have performance on one hand and power sufficiency on another. They have to find balance between them. The only thing I can tell you is that Intel has developed own mobile technology better than AMD has done.

Intel with Pentium M has easily beaten AMD with Turion 64 processor. Intel’s processor has less frequency, but also needs less power. Pentium M doesn’t need big cooling system, so you can save more power. Turion is nice processor, but can be easily warmed up and needs lot of power (my friend has laptop with installed AMD Turion; he can’t hold it down on his knees even for half an hour). AMD Turion has higher frequency than Intel Pentium M does, but don’t be cheated. Pentium’s frequency doesn’t equal to its desktop cousin. M series has other, improved architecture. Pentium 1.6 Ghz is Pentium 2.2 Ghz (at least). Turion frequency is equal to desktop brother. There are laptops with desktop processors. It’s rather old model, or high-performance one. Not the best choice if your main criterion is mobility, due to enormous power usage. Desktop processors, which can be found in laptop, are Pentium, and Sempron. Core 2 Duo for laptops has other architecture and priorities comparing with desktop Core 2 Duo. On the whole it is similar brand, but in details significantly different processor.

Let’s summarize. Laptops processors are a bit slower. But would you need desktop’s performance? Would you use all of processor’s power? If you use desktop just for documents, watching divx video and web-surfing I bet you wouldn’t. If you use computer for encoding video, gaming, watching high-def video or 3d modeling you would need all computer’s power. Your best choice would be desktop.

Discrete graphics and integrated graphics

Now we’ll speak about graphics card. Usually desktops under $1000 have discrete graphics. Laptops under $1000 often have integrated one. Remember the main rule for laptop? Save power and place. Integrated graphics card matches both of them. If you use computer just for office documents you can skip this chapter, because integrated graphics cards are made for you.

If you still reading this then you have to choose video. Integrated graphics card has only the basic functions. Old models even don’t have 3d accelerator. But we consider only new models up to $1000. Basically all models are equipped with Intel chipset, 915 or 945. These chipsets have integrated graphics card. But don’t expect to play modern 3d shooters. The best you’ll get from them is strategies or 3 years old shooters. If you want to watch HD forget about laptop. Or find another $1000 to buy laptop, which supports high-def video. Also you can wait till external PCI-E or XG-Station will be available. But, again, it’s more than $1000, so we don’t consider these.

Now we talk about discrete graphics on desktops. With $1000 you can buy 7600GT with HD support and you can play modern games with medium quality. You gain more noise with discrete graphics, if it has active cooling system (with cooler). Of course you can choose graphics card with passive cooling system. Usually it’s mentioned in the name of graphics card. Asus adds “Silencer” to the name of graphics card. But with passive cooling system you can’t overclock your graphics card strong enough because it will overheat and you gain broken card.

Conclusions about graphics card - if you don’t play 3d games, don’t use computer for professional 3d usage you can surely take laptop. If you’re hardcore gamer or 3d modeler, who needs mobility take more $1000 and wait for XG-Station or external PCI-E. Others will stay on laptop.

Hard Disk

Hard disk is a device that keeps all your information. Desktop hard disk is 3.5 inches. Laptop disk is only 2.5 inches. The main property that determines drive’s capacity is consistency per one disk. As you know maximum for laptop HDD is 300 GB per disk. For desktop HDD this value is 750 GB. Seagate discovered new technology that allows producing 1 Tb desktop HDDs. Hard disk must be not only big, but fast, too. Speed depends on RPM. You would ask what RPM means. RPM - rotations per minute. It was some sort of speed rating. Yeah, WAS. Nowadays all new models have 7200 for desktops HDDs and 5400 for laptop ones. It’s like CD-ROM or DVD-ROM speed. Remember 32x, 52x, 16x? Laptop hard disk has only 4200 or 5400 rpm, desktop hard disk has 7200 rpm anyway. I didn’t see desktop hard disks with 5400 rpm for last several years. But like incase of CD-ROM, RPM is not the only thing, which influences on HDD speed. Cache is important for writing and reading rates for HDD. For desktop computers maximum is 16 Mb, but these models aren’t cheap. Mainstream HDDs have 8 Mb cache. On laptops computers you wouldn’t find more than 2 Mb cache for HDD, especially in segment less than $1000 for laptop. HDDs have many technologies for noise reduction and S.M.A.R.T. I won’t explain what they are, because desktop HDDs and laptop ones have similar technologies.

Laptop computer must reduce power usage, so HDDs have built-in technologies for power saving. These technologies don’t have much influence on performance. So if you need big and fast hard drive your choice will be desktop computer. If it’s not so important you can use laptop. But you can always increase you capacity, by installing another hard disk in external mobile rack, even desktop hard disk.

Miscellaneous

This chapter includes points that don’t differ a lot from each other. They are RAM, monitor, different controllers. I’ll try to show the main differences only.

Speaking about RAM. Desktop ram and laptop ram are similar in functions, but have a bit different construction. Desktop memory is called DIMM, laptop ram is SO-DIMM. There are DDR and DDR2 in both computers. SO-DIMM is a bit smaller and has other shape.

Monitors have same construction. Except for laptop LCD has different resolution, because it has different from desktop LCD physical sizes. You won’t notice it. Even in games there won’t be differences, except for several, unadopted for notebook, games. Also laptop LCD has several technologies for power saving and true picture, without any reflections from day light. Different brands - different names, but same meaning.

Now I tell you about what laptop computer has, but desktop doesn’t. One of laptop’s advantages is several wireless (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) built-in controllers, card readers. Of course you can install it in desktop, but in laptop, you get them free. Laptop computer is equipped with PCMCIA slot. Farther laptop has different from desktop mouse. Really laptop doesn’t have mouse. Instead of mouse laptop has touchpad, sometimes trackball. But you can always plug in external mouse.

If I haven’t mentioned something it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It means that construction and functions are similar. Or I have just forgotten about it .

Practical Comparison

As a matter of fact desktop always has higher performance. Main plot of laptop, as you know, is your mobility. Laptop’s performance can be reduced, if it can increase uptime. Mobile processors have strongly decreased TDP. Discrete video will bring more performance.

I review only desktops & laptops under $1000. I have chosen one eshop to compare prices shopper.cnet.com. I took both price for laptop computer and desktop one. So specifications for both of them.

First is desktop computer. Under $1000 the best choice, as for me, is Velocity Micro Vector GX Campus Edition. You can see specifications clicking on the link above. Computer has installed Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB of memory, George 7600GS, 250 GB HDD, DVD-RW and other misc. I want to point out that it has card-reader and LCD monitor. Windows XP Home edition is installed. The price is $999, what is not so expensive for this computer. You can play modern games on it. This desktop computer is upgradeable, what is great advantage.

And now compare it with the best choice under $1000 for laptop. As a remark: my opinion is that Dell makes the best notebooks with competitive price and awesome specifications. So I was choosing from Dell only. It is called Dell Inspiring E1705. This laptop will have Core 2 Duo T2250 processor 1.73 GHz (do not compare it with desktop processor! remember why?), integrated graphics, 1 GB Ram, 80 GB HDD, 17 inch LCD. Not bad for a worker, but the worst choice for gamer. Integrated graphics, little HDD will not make you happy. You can not upgrade laptop computer, so your choice must be wise.

As a matter of fact you see that desktop computer is more powerful than laptop one. But do you need it? Will you use all of desktop abilities? Will you load processor full enough? Check it now, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and find out how many percents of CPU do you use now. If it is less than 30% and you do not like games you can sure enough switch your desktop to laptop. If not - stay with laptop and you will get the best performance.

In future I’m planning to write advices of choosing the best laptop for certain price. I hope you will enjoy it.

Other Links: Best Laptops Compare Laptops & price in Australia