Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Now (Score 1) 291

by xt (#45298021) Attached to: GPUs Keep Getting Faster, But Your Eyes Can't Tell

My recipe for a gaming PC was a SilverStone Fortress FT03-Mini, a Be Quiet SFX 300W PSU, an Asrock H61 mini ITX MB, an i5-2400 with a Scythe Kozuti, an MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr, 8GB of RAM and an SSD. All fans are set to their lowest speed.

It's silent, almost inaudible when not gaming and produces a muted sound when under full load, like an AC unit. I share the office with my wife and I can game wearing headsets while she studies and she doesn't mind. Temperatures under full load are OK as well, CPU 65oC and GPU 80oC with a room temperature ~25oC. Small, noiseless and good looking. The case costs a mint though.

Comment Re:New Mac Pro is old news... (Score 1) 464

Apple has its strengths, but it is firstly a design company and then an engineering one, where it makes sense for its products and no one else makes something that fits. Function always follows form, the G4 Cube is a nice example and perhaps even the new Mac Pro will prove my point once it's available and tested.

Combine that with excellent marketing (eg do recall the backpedaling on the significance of unavailable features once competition has them, shows they are useful and Apple finally makes them available) and the ability to ride trends as they start and define them (eg smartphones existed long before the iPhone and failed, but Apple was the first to correctly evaluate the then current state of technology and market demand) and you have Apple.

As far as technology goes, I agree with the other Anonymous Coward; if you get outside the consumer space, Apple isn't as innovative as it appears within. My example might not be the best, but I believe it does serve to show my point even in the consumer space; small size, excellent finish, comparable idea of cooling method, available at least a year before Apple's product. It cannot be your idea of similar because it has to follow PC component standards (like Mini-ITX for the motherboard), while Apple can just go custom. That's an advantage Apple enjoys due to its target market, but it isn't innovative by itself.

Comment New Mac Pro is old news... (Score 1) 464

Let me introduce you to the SilverStone Fortress Mini. I have one under my desk, it takes standard components, screams quality, uses the same cooling principle and is near silent. Apple does not innovate nearly as much as some people think, but is quite adept at creating arquably valuable closed ecosystems, both hardware and software.
Science

Submission + - Tractor beams are getting closer, sort of (arxiv.org)

Submitted by xt
xt writes: A recently submitted paper in arXiv claims that by using Bessel beams it is theoretically possible to pull particles towards the light source, opening up new avenues for optical micromanipulation (the direction of the force is size dependent, so it could be used for particle sorting). There is also a simpler article translated in English (original article in Greek).
Science

Submission + - German scientists create 'super-photon'

Submitted by xt
xt writes: A team of physicists, lead by the University of Bonn's Martin Weitz, have managed to create a Bose-Einstein condensate (detailed explanation here) out of photons, previously thought to be impossible. The research was published in the journal Nature and has possible applications on solar energy technology and shortwave lasers, which would be well-suited to the manufacture of computer chips as the process uses lasers to etch logic circuits onto semiconductor materials. Seems like Moore's law is safe again!

Submission + - Boltzmann equation solved, the new way

Submitted by xt
xt writes: The Boltzmann equation is old news. What's news is that the 140 year old equation has been solved, using mathematical techniques from the fields of partial differential equations and harmonic analysis, some as new as five years old. This solution provides a new understanding of the effects due to grazing collisions, when neighboring molecules just glance off one another rather than collide head on. We may not understand the theory, but we'll sure love the applications!

Slashdot Top Deals

You know you've been spending too much time on the computer when your friend misdates a check, and you suggest adding a "++" to fix it.

Close