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Data Storage

Submission + - SandForce SSD controller put to the test (techreport.com)

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: A solid-state drive's controller chip largely determines its destiny, and now there's a new one on the market in SandForce's SF-1200. The chip uses a secret blend of compression, deduplication, encryption, and RAID-like redundancy that promises to enable cheaper flash technologies and extend drive lifespans. And it's no slouch in the performance department, offering phenomenal random-write throughput. The only problems? A relatively high cost per gigabyte due to aggressive overprovisioning and an apparent issue with transfers that don't take advantage of command queuing. The controller looks promising overall, and its SF-1500 twin has some interesting potential for enterprise applications.
AMD

AMD Multi-Display Tech Has Problems, Potential 138

Posted by Soulskill from the emptying-my-bank-account-is-a-problem dept.
EconolineCrush writes "While AMD's Eyefinity multi-display gaming tech is undeniably impressive at first glance, digging deeper reveals key limitations. Some games work well, others not at all, and many are simply better suited to specific screen configurations. A three-way setup looks to be ideal from a compatibility perspective, and given current LCD prices, it's really not all that expensive. But would you take that over a single high-resolution display or a giant HDTV?"
Displays

Submission + - AMD multi-display tech has problems, potential (techreport.com) 2

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: While AMD's Eyefinity multi-display gaming tech is undeniably impressive at first glance, digging deeper reveals key limitations. Some games work well, others not at all, and many are simply better suited to specific screen configurations. A three-way setup looks to be ideal from a compatibility perspective, and given current LCD prices, it's really not all that expensive. But would you take one over a single high-resolution display or a giant HDTV?
Data Storage

Submission + - Intel's X25-V SSD a good value for boot drives (techreport.com)

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: The cost per gigabyte of solid-state drives has never been competitive with their mechanical brethren. However, even budget SSDs can deliver phenomenal value if you consider IOps per dollar. Intel's X25-V is a perfect example. The drive offers impressive throughput with both multi-tasking and multi-user loads. At 40GB, it's also big enough for a neat and tidy OS and applications drive. Sequential write speeds are a clear weakness, but combining a few drives in RAID can help on that front and yield even more performance elsewhere. At $115 a pop, why not?
AMD

Submission + - AMD undercuts Intel with six-core Phenom IIs (techreport.com) 1

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: As Slashdot readers are no doubt aware, Intel's latest "Gulftown" Core i7-980X is an absolute beast of a CPU. But its six cores don't come cheap; the 980X sells for over a grand, which is more than it would cost to build an entire system based on one of AMD's new six-core CPUs. The Phenom II X6 line starts at just $200 and includes a new Turbo capability that can opportunistically raise the clock speed of up to three cores when the others are idle. Although not as fast as the 980X, the the new X6s are quick enough to offer compelling value versus even like-priced Intel CPUs. And the kicker: the X6s will work in a good number of older Socket AM2+ and AM3 motherboards with only a BIOS update.
Intel

Submission + - Intel goes after ARM with new Atom Z600 series (techreport.com)

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: Despite fueling a netbook revolution, the Atom processor has always been destined for smaller devices. Intel's pint-sized platform moves firmly into tablet and smartphone territory with the new Atom Z600 series, whose power draw has been cut dramatically. This detailed look at the "Moorestown" platform explores the extensive power-saving measures Intel employed to bring about a claimed 50X reduction in idle power draw. The article also delves into improvements to the Atom's underlying system architecture, its integrated graphics component, and its x86 CPU core. x86 compatibility looks to be the new Atom's biggest asset over competing platforms, but it remains to be seen whether that will matter as much with tablets and smartphones as it has with netbooks.
Data Storage

WD, Intel, Corsair, Kingston, Plextor SSDs Collide 56

Posted by timothy from the will-it-collide dept.
J. Dzhugashvili writes "New SSDs just keep coming out from all corners of the market, and keeping track of all of them isn't the easiest job in the world. Good thing SSD roundups pop up every once in a while. This time, Western Digital's recently launched SiliconEdge Blue solid-state drive has been compared against new entrants from Corsair, Kingston, and Plextor. The newcomers faced off against not just each other, but also Intel's famous X25-M G2, WD's new VelociRaptor VR200M mechanical hard drive, and a plain-old WD Caviar Black 2TB thrown in for good measure. Who came out on top? Priced at about the same level, the WD and Plextor drives each seem to have deal-breaking performance weaknesses. The Kingston drive is more affordable than the rest, but it yielded poor IOMeter results. In the end, the winner appeared to be Corsair's Nova V128, which had similar all-around performance as Intel's 160GB X25-M G2 but with a slightly lower capacity and a more attractive price." Thanks to that summary, you might not need to wade through all 10 of the pages into which the linked article's been split.
Data Storage

Submission + - WD, Intel, Corsair, Kingston, Plextor SSDs collide (techreport.com)

Submitted by J. Dzhugashvili
J. Dzhugashvili writes: New SSDs just keep coming out from all corners of the market, and keeping track of all of them isn't the easiest job in the world. Good thing SSD roundups pop up every once in a while. This time, Western Digital's recently launched SiliconEdge Blue solid-state drive has been compared against new entrants from Corsair, Kingston, and Plextor. The newcomers faced off against not just each other, but also Intel's famous X25-M G2, WD's new VelociRaptor VR200M mechanical hard drive, and a plain-old WD Caviar Black 2TB thrown in for good measure. Who came out on top? Priced at about the same level, the WD and Plextor drives each seem to have deal-breaking performance weaknesses. The Kingston drive is more affordable than the rest, but it yielded poor IOMeter results. In the end, the winner appeared to be Corsair's Nova V128, which had similar all-around performance as Intel's 160GB X25-M G2 but with a slightly lower capacity and a more attractive price.
Hardware

Submission + - System guide recommends five desktop PC configs

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: The Tech Report has updated its system guide, providing a comprehensive set of recommendations for desktop PCs at around $500, $850, $1400, and well over $3,000. This latest guide takes into account recent releases like Intel's six-core Core i7-980X and Nvidia's Fermi-derived GeForce GTX 400-series graphics cards. It also features a new one-off build designed to be a quiet yet powerful microATX system. Recommended reading for anyone putting together a new desktop PC.
Intel

Submission + - A six-core desktop CPU? How many cores is enough? (techreport.com) 2

Submitted by Dr. Damage
Dr. Damage writes: Less than two years after introducing its quad-core Core i7 processors, Intel will soon unveil a six-core CPU for the desktop that works as a drop-in replacement for older Core i7-900-series parts. The first previews of the six-core "Gulftown" reveal a chip with 50% more cores and cache that fits into the silicon area and power/thermal envelope as the quad-core it replaces. Performance in multi-threaded applications scales up nicely, but clock speeds—and thus single-threaded performance--remain the same. Do we really need six cores on the desktop? That depends, it would seem, on what you do with your computer.
AMD

Submission + - Radeon HD 5830 compared... to GeForce 7900 (techreport.com)

Submitted by Dr. Damage
Dr. Damage writes: AMD has a new $239 graphics card out, the Radeon HD 5830, that might be a good upgrade for some folks. What if you're upgrading from a graphics card in that same price range that's two, three, or four years old? How much of an improvement can you expect? And is the new Radeon a good value for the money? This review compares it, and a host of today's other graphics cards, to products dating back up to four years ago, including a couple of GeForce 7900s.
Graphics

Submission + - Nvidia's DX11 GF100 graphics processor detailed (techreport.com)

Submitted by J. Dzhugashvili
J. Dzhugashvili writes: While it's played up the general-purpose computing prowess of its next-gen GPU architecture, Nvidia has talked little about Fermi's graphics capabilities—so much so that some accuse Nvidia of turning its back on PC gaming. Not so, says The Tech Report in a detailed architectural overview of GF100, the first Fermi-based consumer graphics processor. Alongside a wealth of technical information, the article includes enlightening estimates and direct comparisons with AMD's Radeon HD 5870. The GF100 will be up to twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 285, the author reckons, but the gap with the Radeon HD 5870 should be "a bit more slender." Still, Nvidia may have the fastest consumer GPU ever on its hands—and far from forsaking games, Fermi has been built as a graphics processor first and foremost.
Intel

Submission + - Intel caught cheating in 3DMark benchmark (techreport.com) 3

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: 3DMark Vantage developer Futuremark has clear guidelines for what sort of driver optimizations are permitted with its graphics benchmark. Intel's current Windows 7 drivers appear to be in direct violation, offloading the graphics workload onto the CPU to artificially inflate scores for the company's integrated graphics chipsets. The Tech Report lays out the evidence, along with Intel's response, and illustrates that 3DMark scores don't necessarily track with game performance, anyway.
Intel

Submission + - $199 Intel Core i5 packs punch at bargain price (techreport.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today, Intel is bringing its quad-core, eight-thread 'Nehalem' architecture to the mainstream with three new processors: the Core i5-750, Core i7-860, and Core i7-870. These CPUs start at just $199, and they fit inside new motherboards featuring Intel's also-new P55 Express chipset. (P55 boards should be quite affordable, too, with prices starting below $150.) For the low-down on the new hardware, you should check out The Tech Report, which has published thorough reviews of the new Lynnfield chips, the P55 chipset, and three different P55 motherboards designed to accommodate them. The results are surprising: despite the lower CPU and platform prices, Lynnfield can match or outdo the original Core i7-900 series, not to mention older Core 2 Quads and (unfortunately for AMD) the fastest Phenom IIs. More surprising still, Lynnfield systems have extremely low idle power utilization, well below that of even current dual-core CPUs.

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