12562448
submission
EconolineCrush writes:
Tired of paying the Windows tax on notebooks? Asus' Eee PC 1201T budget ultraportable comes without a traditional operating system and sells for only $380. The 12" system has promising specifications, sporting an Athlon Neo processor, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It weighs just 3.2lbs with a 6-cell battery and can even handle light gaming duties. However, battery life in Ubuntu is considerably shorter than it is under Windows. Are there any better options for would-be laptop Linux users?
12529490
submission
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.
12494700
submission
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?
12301462
submission
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?
12159256
submission
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.
12136638
submission
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.
11935442
submission
J. Dzhugashvili writes:
Earlier this week, AMD introduced its new Leo enthusiast platform with six-core Phenom II processors starting at just $199. By now, reviews of not just the processors themselves, but also new motherboards based on the simultaneously launched AMD 890FX chipset have made their way onto the web. The verdict might surprise you. While Intel still wins from a power efficiency pesrpective, the new Phenom II X6s dethrone the famous Core i5-750 in value comparisons, and 890FX motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI show AMD has a more compelling overall enthusiast platform than Intel. 890FX mobos don't just have more PCI Express lanes than their Intel X58 counterparts; they have built-in Serial ATA 6Gbps connectivity and excellent all-around performance, too. Could AMD be on its way to becoming an enthusiast darling at the high end once again?
11686930
submission
EconolineCrush writes:
Surround sound makes games and movies much more immersive, but it hasn't translated well to headphones. No one's come up with a surround headphone design that's really caught on, and software-based speaker virtualization schemes don't always work right. Psyko Audio Labs thinks it's solved the problem with a new 5.1-channel headset that uses waveguides to direct sound accurately to the user's ear from five discrete speakers mounted in the headband. It's a unique approach, and one that reportedly offers a lot of positional audio precision. However, the heaphones appear to otherwise have rather poor sound quality, which seems like a tough pill to swallow given their $300 asking price.
11686092
submission
J. Dzhugashvili writes:
One would think putting a 2.26GHz Core i3 processor and a discrete Nvidia GPU in a laptop wouldn't have the most positive impact on battery life. That doesn't seem to be the case with Asus' new U30Jc, which managed to stay up for a whopping 7 hours and 12 minutes in a real-world web browsing test using the standard battery. The key to the laptop's success seems to be Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching tech, which dynamically enables and disables the included GeForce 310M 512MB depending on what applications the user is running. Battery life and performance aside, the U30Jc seems to be a nice little laptop, with a 13.3" 1366x768 display, brushed aluminum panels, and a relatively portable size. Apparently, though, its touchpad needs a little work.
11396372
submission
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.
10334482
submission
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.
10077878
submission
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.
9654556
submission
Dr. Damage writes:
How do current $74 CPUs compare to the $133 ones? To exclusive $1K Extreme Editions? Interesting questions, but what if you took a five-year-old Pentium 4 3.8GHz and pitted it against today's CPUs in a slew of games and other applications? The results are eye-opening.
7227922
submission
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.
6368741
submission
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.
