Asus P-50GA 500w PSU reviewed

Asus doesn't deliver quality on the PSU side of things.

The electrolytic capacitor in charge of filtering the output from the active PFC circuit is Chinese from Samxon and rated at 85º C.
...
Electrolytic capacitors from the secondary are all from Ltec and labeled at 105º C, as usual.

Crapacitors, as I like to call them. SamXon are known bad capacitors, as are Ltec ones. The Ltec caps are 105ºC but I've had to throw away too many of them to consider that something good. This is not a first, on the "tips for a long lasting PSU post", I had already mentioned some lower end ASUS models with crapacitors.

Efficiency isn't particularly impressive either, mostly around 78% but it's not bad either. LC Power PSUs carry a good price and Teapo capacitors, which have been proven very reliable lately. Given the low price, I would rather go with that.

Head over to Hardware Secrets for the review.

A look at Intel vs AMD laptop battery life

Intel is the winner, unsurprisingly.

Although the power consumption, or at least heat output, in the desktop tips to the AMD side, laptops have been different beasts since the Pentium M debuted. Intel has been having quite the advantage in battery life, which just took a slight bump when the Core 2 originally debuted. The 45nm version of the chip quickly fixed the high heat output of the 65nm chips and the "new" 25W Core 2 Pxxx is one of the least power sipping processors available.

Figures below are for almost identical laptops, which differ in the processor and shipset - AMD QL-64 vs Intel T6500, both at 35W and 2.1GHz, while chipset duties are attributed to a mobile HD 3200(780G) and to the GM45.


The difference is of around 30% better for the Intel machine, which would widen even more if the 25W Core 2 P8xxx/P7xxx was used - a cpu which doesn't even seem to output half of those 25W in the machines I've played with.
The battery life of the AMD machine is not bad at all, it hovers over 3 hours, the Intel machine just adds up one extra hour on top of that, which even puts some netbooks to shame.

The reason for this is AMDs current inability to produce 45nm laptop versions of it's processors. Until then, there isn't really much competition in the laptop segment. I would still take the AMD laptop for the better integrated graphics, but I'm no road warrior nowadays. As for processing, it isn't considered here, but the Intel machine is a good amount faster.

Source: Anandtech

Kingston releases HyperX 2133MHz DDR3

The new memory kits are available not just in 2133MHz form but also 1333MHz, with the top bin able to work at CAS8 with 1.65v, the safe voltage limit given by Intel for Core i7 processors.

There are still no news about price, expect it to be steep.

Samsung N510 tips up

Ion based 11.6" laptop.

This is the new Samsung N510, a laptop with a 11.6" screen capable of 1366x768, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, Atom N270, 802.11n and HDMI + VGA connectors. This all weighs in just 1.4Kg. The inclusion of both VGA and HDMI connectors is perfect, since it allows the laptop to be connected to the usual projector and to be docked "decently" to a digital monitor - delivering the perfect picture that is expected nowadays and not the VGA supplied distorted signal. You know, VGA was great for analog devices, not LCDs.

Good news go just that far, the device is priced at 499eur, which is hefty for an Atom N270 based laptop which isn't even capable of running x86-64 code. The RAM is also on the low side and Samsung isn't known for highly durable devices.
Unfortunately, every single piece of Samsung hardware I've bought has broken down in a very short time frame. This includes DVD drives, CD drives, monitors(like all) and one LCD TV that was repaired 3 times in a month until it was exchanged for a Philips one.
I haven't owned any Samsung laptop(and given the track record I don't plan to) but I would like to hear your experience with them, leave me a comment below.

Source: Expreview

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 rev 2

Arctic cooling revises it's old favorite for cheap builds.

The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 and Freezer 64 are old favorites among silent PC and overclocking enthusiasts. The first one was targeted at LGA 775 processors, back from the Pentium 4 days, while the Freezer 64 was AMD compatible.
The new cooler adds compatibility with LGA 1366 and 1156, keeps the LGA 775 compatibility and unifies with the added support for AMD AM3/2/2+ and 939 sockets.

The price of this cooler is excellent at 21eur and the performance is well summarized by AC's charts:



It is an excellent cooler, probably the best at it's price range. While it can't compete with big towers like the TRUE and clones, it is an excellent choice for tight budgets and HTPCs. The fan used has fluid dynamic bearings and are among the best you can buy on the market. The performance delta and noise reduction more than justifies the extra cost over the stock cooler.

Intel keeps the Core i7 920 into 2010

After rumors that Intel would phase out the Core i7 920, a new leaked roadmap contradicts that. Core 2's are going away starting 2010.

The above roadmap states that Intel will be selling the Core i7 920 for the whole of 2009 and into, at least, the third quarter of 2010. These are good news, as the higher end Core i7 for LGA 1156 socket is not a very impressive processor for it's price.

Intel will be phasing out the current Core 2 lineup starting in 2010, in favor of the "Clarkdale" based Core processors, which feature an integrated graphics core, two cores and Hyper Threading support.

Source: PC Online China

Apple's hacked keyboards

Ever heard of virus in keyboards, I did. Apple is the latest victim of the exquisite attack.

A new hack that was demonstrated at DEFCON 2009 doesn't attack the software of Apple computers, rather it attacks the hardware.

Strangely it doesn't attack hardware inside the computer, rather the attack focuses on Apple's USB and Bluetooth keyboards. That means that once infected, the keyboard can’t simply be repaired with a firmware update. The man who devised the hack goes by K. Chen and says he goes by that name because of fear that he would be harassed by Mac fans.

Ingenious indeed. The said man is working with Apple to fix the issue, something unusual since these kind of hacks sell for gazillions of dollars in the black market of internet frauds. The said hack can allow the installation of a keylogger as early as the system starts to boot, allowing to steal passwords from encryption of HDDs in the system or internet accounts passwords.
The hack seems to take advantage that Apple allows the firmware of the keyboard to be rewritten, something that is not usual for such a data input critical peripheral.

Original news post via Dailytech

MSI NF750-G55 SLI motherboard

MSI uses an old chipset on the new AM3 platform.

Ever since acquired ATI and started launching it's branded chipsets, Nvidia has been pulling back on chipset development. The latest to come out from the green quarters is the nForce 980a, which is not more than the one year old nForce 780a chipset.

MSI has used the lower priced nForce 750a, which lacks the NF200 bridge that would allow it to support Triple SLI. The chipset has no problems supporting Hyper Transport 3.0 and since it has an integrated graphics core, MSI provides VGA, HDMI and DVI outputs in the motherboard. The chipset choice is decent but doesn't bring any inovation to the market place.

This new motherboard is a decent proposal from MSI that features a good layout that allows two PCIe x1 cards to be used even when using SLI with two dual slot cards. The PCI card will be blocked with a dual-slot graphics card. Insane overclocking may not be allowed since the motherboard only has a 4-pin 12v connector, instead of the more capable 8-pin one.
The usage of solid capacitors all around and high quality inductors speaks very highly of the build quality, something that MSI has been very keen on lately.

Intel Core i7 870 reviewed

First leaked benchmarks show good performance from the new "Lynnfield" core.

PC Online China has reviewed the upcoming Intel Core i7 870 for the LGA 1156 socket, which is expected to debut at $562 around September.
The new Core i7 has a clockspeed of 2.93GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz. Part of the processor are 8MB of shared L3 cache and 256KB of L2 cache per core, coupled with a dual channel DDR3 controller.


Performance in games will be greater than the Core i7 920 for LGA 1366 platforms due to the higher clockspeed. The extra bandwidth helps the i7 920 keep above the Core i5 750 but not by much. I would expect that benchmarks in Unreal Engine 3 based games, like UT3, to show a more distinct advantage, possibly bringing it to the i7 870 territory, due to the way that the engine better utilizes memory bandwidth. UT3 is one of the few games that really likes DDR3, whereas other games don't show a big boost when going from DDR2.

More of the same in real world and synthetic benchmarks.

The said bandwidth advantage

The lack of hyperthreading in the Core i5 hurts it here.

Same story.

Super Pi is mainly computational bound and single threaded - it is then clockspeed bound, churning out predictable results.

The Core i7 870, if the $562 pricing rumor is true, will be a grossly overpriced processor. With the Core i7 920 delivering close to the same performance in games and not lagging behind much in the rest, it's price of around $250 will surely be an extra motivation. Even if decent $100 LGA 1156 motherboards are made available for purchase when "Lynnfield" debuts in September, that's still a very big difference in price. Take notice that the LGA 1366 platform is expected to support the upcoming "Westmere" based hexa-core Core i9 processor, it's pretty much a no brainer between the two.
More interesting choices will be the 2.8GHz Core i7 860, at $284, and the Core i5 750, at $196. The i7 860 will still be slightly faster and a whole PC should end up slightly cheaper than the Core i7 920 build. I would still go for the LGA1366 based PC but the price premium must be taken into consideration by each buyer.
The Core i5 is a very good choice for cheaper systems and it's only a shame the lack of HyperThreading. Only 3D rendering and transcoding tools will probably miss it, games won't anytime soon.

Overclocking, as can be pictured in the first image, was good enough to achieve 4GHz and bench, which is decent enough. If you're planning on overclocking, the best processor still is the Core i7 920, as it will certainly be paired with a more mature motherboard BIOS and it's highly unlikely that the new LGA 1156 processors can substantially overclock more, given the similarities between the cores and the same 45nm process being used. The extra bandwidth available will also make the Core i7 920 shine, as it will be a major strength for two CPUs that will end up clocking about the same.

Sony's PS3 hardware costs cut down 70%

Costs cut down, price staying the same for a while.

Sony has been loosing a good amount of money on every PS3 sold since the launch. The initial loss is thought to amount to more than $300 per console(studies pointed to a cost of $800 per console) and the previous, more recent values point to a cost of $400 for the cheaper model, which is being sold at $399.
A representative for the company has now stated that the console has seen a reduction of 70% of the original value, meaning that it now sits at $240 per console. It is unusual that Sony is reluctant to drop the price to $299 for the current models, which are being phased out in anticipation for the launch of the PS3 slim, especially when it would be making money or loosing very little.

Sony is still the third player in the current console wars having sold 23 million units and is trailing the Xbox 360 by around 8 million and the Nintendo Wii by around 28 million units.

Source: SeekingAlpha

J&W mini ITX AMD 785G motherboard

J&W builds a mini-ITX AM2+ motherboard based on the AMD 785G chipset.

Building on the same updated AMD 785G chipset as the ASUS M4A785-M Evo, this new motherboard from J&W is a very well built motherboard, which uses only solid capacitors and big ramsinks in everything that outputs heat - durability seems a goal with this motherboard.
J&W included both DVI and HDMI outputs in addition to the standard VGA port and there's also a very useful eSATA connector. There's also 128MB of sideport memory that will give a small to graphics performance.

Don't expect this to be a cheap motherboard but one that will target a very specific niche of industrial computing, car PCs and mini PCs. Seems a decent proposal if you are on the market for that.

Specifications:


Source: INPAI

Memory prices update

Since the last update in the 26^th of July, memory prices have risen considerably, amounting to a total of 8% for DDR2 chips and close to the same value for DDR3 chips. It is a good time to grab some DIMMs if you need them, as in the next two to three weeks these price changes will be reflected in the retail market.
DDR prices have also risen slightly, albeit by not as much.