intelguy

Netbook or Smartphone?

intelguy — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:32:00 GMT

This should be an interesting topic. But it sounds stupid for some guys. Can you use your Smartphone to play Crysis? The answer is obviously not and of course, the netbook will not be capable of doing so either. So here comes the next question, if the netbook can’t be as entertaining as notebook (but you still can watch some videos or surfing the internet) why not buy a Smartphone? As you all know, some Smartphone like iPhone is rather good at video or audio. And the G1 is rather internet friendly. Will the Smartphone grab the market share of netbooks? Yup, at least, Steven Jobs and Google think so. No, at least Asus and Acer agree to disagree. Both of them have set higher anticipation of the new netbooks. These beautiful staffs are selling like hot cakes. It even helps Acer to replaced Dell as the world's number-2 notebook computer maker. But other vendors will not take that granted and all of them are plugging away at their own stuffs. Moreover, Acer has added 3G on its netbook and I think more and more vendors will follow this. A larger LCD and full sized keyboard will make it more appealing. Except for the basic internet surfing, netbooks are capable of doing more than Smartpones can do. With the Nvidia’s INO platform is officially announced, the netbooks even have the ability to compete against Notebooks. The Ino netbooks with 9400G video card will be playing 1080p movies. In this shootout, netbooks have slightly advantages, but for thing for sure, the netbook will never replace smartpones. You will never see a guy holding a netbook on the street to make phone calls. But you will see a lot of guys use the Smartphones to surf internet or to upload videos. The smartpones are trying their best to catch up with the netbooks. iPhone,G1,and coming G2 are the qualified competitors.

Another thing we should take into account is price point. For me, $400 is a barrier. At $399 I’m interested in one of these devices as a second laptop or something to have around the house. Above that price my interest wanes dramatically. I’d rather spent $200 getting a Smartphone.

So it seems that the answer is obvious and the question is silly. The netbook will never replace the notebook or the Smartphone. But it is the right device to be available at the market with the rational price range. For those who are only searching for a device for the internet surfing, emails and some basic daily use. The Smartphone will be not bad. But with some bucks more, the netbook will be better. The same function as Smartphone but with larger LCD and full sized keyboard, netbook will be an alternate.

But one thing for sure, the Smartphones are trying to catch up with netbooks. iPone, and G1 show us their quality. The year of 2009 will be a great year for smartphones although Mobile Phone Market Poise for Slowdown in 2009.

I’m Old Fashioned

intelguy — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:58:00 GMT

After the release of Intel core i7, I am outdated. The new processor with the memory controller is nothing new but the X58 motherboards with DDR3 slots are something new for me, although some P45 motherboards have shipped with DDR3 slots. The only reason I know nothing about DDR3 is that I am the guy who stuck with DDR 2 memory and enjoys the price/performance ratio. I know how dual channel works but I know nothing about tri-channel. A computer with 3GB or 6GB memory is very interesting. Maybe it is easier to choose between 32bit and 64bit OS. But there is some memory comes with 2x2GB, so does that mean they are not working at tri-channel? Or they are working as dual channel? These are interesting to know for me.

As we can predict so far, I will have to use ddr3 sticks if I wanna enjoy the advanced tech. and I am really interested in Intel core i7. Although my E8400 will not be outdated like myself in the near future but I do wanna get a Christmas gift like core i7+X58 with both Crossfire and SLI. Wow, what a platform. So it is time to Google around (not goof around) and do some homework and try my best to a guy know something about everything before my next upgrade. Hopefully don’t mess up by the ddr3 memory.

Aside from DDR3 memory, the core i7 is quite new for me although it seems that all the tech it applied is nothing new at all. But after read some reviews of core i7. it finally drives me to make up mind to go with Quad core. Maybe it will take years for games to take full advantage of the 3rd or 4th core. But the turbo tech is interesting. Intel was plugging away at the power consumption. With the enhanced Speedstep and the new Turbo boost technology, Core i7 consumes less power in idle mode due to more aggressive power-efficient modes and its ability to disconnect cores from the power supply line. That is so cool. I can’t wait for it any longer. Come on.

Moreover, in the earlier or anytime in the coming 2009, I do wanna give Windows 7 a shot. The reason why I dump vista is that it really gets in my hair. The BSOD, the weird freezes up, the unexpected crashes, OMG, I am doubt if the God will stand vista any longer. Lol

Anyway, try my best to be updated.

Long time no Blog

intelguy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:23:00 GMT

I was busy upgrading my computer and it is time to upgrade my Blog. To upgrade hardware is always a pleasant process. I have just added 1GB more memory into my lappy. Wow, vista is finally speeding up. Thanks for the Kinston memory for its great compatibility. But to upgrade the software like Vista SP1 is not always a good experience. Not everybody wanna waste 2 or 3 hours to upgrade vista SP1 without any noticeable improvement. However, it seems that to upgrade blogs is always a nice thing to do whether it is in the right time or the wrong topics. Sometimes I started a new topic and talked it out of hat. That was so bad. Anyway, finally I am back and starting blog again.

After pursuit of high tech, I finally find out that I don’t need upgrade anymore. Yup, my rig is not the high end but it is almost overkilled. I use my rig for daily work but it can reach 40 ftp in some picky games. Wow, do I really need that much? Do I really need upgrade? When we buy the new tech products, maybe we don’t need them, but we just wanna give them a shot. And the sweetest thing is that the components have become dirty cheap, so we pay the bill without hesitate. ;-) It always reminds me of the famous sentence: it is the best time of the year and it is the worst time of the year.

I told myself I don’t need anything more in the next few moths but I can’t help thinking of new Intel i7 and sometimes curious about the next 32nm video card. Maybe I don’t care whether Nvidia or ATI to be the king of the next generation video card but do wanna know more details about how powerful it will be. And I do hope the Windows 7 can be better. I can’t stand vista any longer. Lol.

Nowadays the new technology is growing extremely fast and the influence that have in our lives is bigger. I am obsessed with the Internet and PC. I don’t think I can live in a world without them but I do hope all of us could live in a world without walls and fences. But we do need windows and gates. of course it is always my great pleasure to be in this fabulous community. I like it!

Stack up and Mess up

intelguy — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:15:00 GMT

It is a truth that universally acknowledged a man in possession of a single core must in want of a dual core or quad core processor. Breath, you are not alone. To pursuit the latest tech is our nature. And of course we are never satisfied. After dual core and quad core, we wanna six cores or eight cores. Moreover, we expect more from our pc and we try our best to squeeze the last drop of juice out of the rig. After the dual channel, the mem could run neck and neck with CPU. We still add more mem with higher speed although the RAM did not give us a hefty performance at all. 4GB memory seems to be a standard for any new rig. When I managed to add more memory to build dual channel, a guru (sort of) also told me some interesting combinations to be dual channel. Okay, it is my pleasure to share with you guys if you have 3GB or 1.5GB memory?

------------------------socket A DIMM 0     512MB

------------------------socket A DIMM 1     512MB --------------à dual channel :D

------------------------socket B DIMM 0     1GB

------------------------socket B DIMM 1

You can also combine dual channel with single channel via flex mode:

------------------------socket A DIMM 0     512MB --------------------------------à

------------------------socket A DIMM 1                      512GB---------- Dual channel

------------------------socket B DIMM 0     1GB ----------------à remaining 512 single channel

------------------------socket B DIMM 1

Sorry for the talking out of hat, ill move on.

The real bottleneck of a system might be HDDs, so after the HDDs are dirty cheap, we have another great idea, we tweak 2, 4 or even more HDDs in our rig. Buddy, you are right. To RAID is as popular as SLI and crossfire. But one thing for sure, in accordance with the evolve of the technologies, the price of these components are really compelling. I bought my second HDD with no hesitate, and of course ill raid. To speed up your system, go directly to stripping or RAID 0. For the sake of safety, Mirroring is always your best bet. And the wise solution is always a balance of multi consideration. RAID0+1 or RAID0 1 is up to grade. Don’t be upset by the fact that you motherboard does not come with a "R" ICH chipset, you can also buy a highpoint raid controller. or any other brands you trust.The same with video card, if you don't own a motherboard supporting SLI or Crossfire, it will be fine. You can buy a card with two GPUs build-in. such as 9800GX2, HD 4870X2, but to make sure that you do have a powerful PSU. Life is full of options indeed. do enjoy the colorful life.

It is so interesting to goof around and read some news. To put more staffs together is our philosophy. We are trying to put more and more in the case and all of them are power hogs. A HD 4870X2 will consume 260 W, wow, that is cool. Maybe in the winter, we get another source of heat. To stack up is cool, but don't mess them up.

Enjoy your building. enjoy your upgrade or enjoy your messed up. lol

sorry,gtg bye "yawn"

All about Interfaces

intelguy — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:38:00 GMT

All about Interfaces

Well, I will start blogging with a bundle of questions. All these questions are about interfaces. How many interfaces does a pc have? USB, PCI, VGA, PCIE IDE, SATA…etc I don’t know. If you know, please tell me. Moreover, if you know anything about PCIE or SATA interface, do tell me. What is the bottleneck of a video card? And what is the bottleneck of a HDD? Okay, if you know the answer, tell me again. I will share my thoughts on these topics. And if I said something wrong, please correct me. Thank you in advance again and again.

Here we go.

My answer will be “no”, the interface is not the bottleneck of video card and HDD.

Let me start from PCIE. I don’t know much about how video card work. But pcie 2.0 can throughout 16GB/s. that is awesome. But the truth is the external interface is not a key factor of a good video card. Even the PCI E 1.0 can perform very well in the games or other applications. I have spent 3days to read about an article about the PCI E 2.0 in tom’s hardware. So if you have the same interest like me, okay, you can visit it here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2-0,1915.html will you come to the same conclusion like me?

As for HDD, It is more interesting. The internal transfer rate and the external transfer rate are totally different things. Yes, most of HDDs have average internal read rates are no more than 100MB/s, so the SATA 2.0 can never be the bottleneck. But I have heard that some RAID 0 disks can write data at an average rate of 567.9 MB/s.

http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/hard_drives/SAS/seagate/cheetah15K.6_450gb/p4.asp

Wow, so the interface must be a bottleneck of the HDD at that circumstance. But the truth is that Most of the time, a HDD will never saturate a SATA 1 interface. But the new interfaces do provide some possibilities. With its high speed transfer rate, we do benefit in RAID or other applications. Moreover, if someday we develop a new tech to speed up internal transfer rate of the HDD, the interface will be saturated or overloaded. I hope this will happen in the future. : D it is better to provide what we don’t need in advance as the old saying goes like “before it is too late”. And we believe that we do use all the bandwidth it can provide us if HDD will not be replaced by SSD in the future. God bless HDD.

It really gives a feeling that you are allowed to drive your car at the full speed in high way, but the sad truth is that your car is a junk which can’t run that fast. So drive your car slowly and enjoy your journey.

i need your input, so tell me what you think about it.

My new rig, my dear video card

intelguy — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:01:00 GMT

I am not a hard core gamer, so sad about this fact. I have tried so many times to be one but failed. So far I can only play a few games, but I am absolutely sure I am the one among the worst. Yes, if you have no chance to be the best, you can enjoy the feeling to be the worst. Don’t be sad about the reality, you can be the best in other fields. That is why we say the world is so fair.

So this can partially explain why I paid little attention on video cards. With my X3100 or even earlier GMA 950 onboard video card, I can do whatever I wanna do and these cards served me so well. The next reason I don’t own a decent card is that I was traveling around all this years, so the portable notebook was always my priority. After I have been settled down for a while, I do have the desire to enjoy a dedicated card with a brand new rig which I am planning to build by myself. Is there anything better than this? No, so far the new rig is my first priority.

And I will go directly to the AMD/ATI Redeon HD 4850. Yep, is there any reason why I should bypass this wonderful card with its reasonable price and my not the top end game requirements? For other components, I will go with E8400 and a P35 mobo. I also wanna buy two new HD to RAID. WOW, with this new rig, I can also overclock., I don’t wanna squeeze the last drop of performance out of the rig, but I will enjoy the whole process of doing it. Moreover, I will dual boot it with a Linux on it to enjoy each aspect of computer world.

With this new rig, I jumped to 4850 without wasting my time on 8400 8600 3850 etc. maybe my old dear cards are ready for grave. And with this whole new rig, I will have more choices to play games; maybe someday I will become a hard core gamer. I am not sure I am one of the best, but I am 100 percent sure I am the one who enjoys most.

So with this new video card, I build this new rig. And with this new rig, I start a new journey of exploiting PC world. I love you my dear video card and I love you AMD. I hope AMD/ATI will cash in on the new 4800 series.

Why windows vista is so bad?

intelguy — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:40:00 GMT

Yep, there are a lot of people said bad things about vista. And I have to confess I am the one. But is vista so bad? Maybe.

I have complained about it compatibility. A lot of applications were not used in vista that is Achilles' heel of vista. And it freezes sometimes but I have to say xp will also freeze but not as much as vista did. Other boring thing is that each application I will run must be confirmed by myself with a second’s black screen. That sucks. It was designed for customers’ security though. And I have to say it eats too much memory. Although it recommends 512MB memory for home basic and 1GB memory for home premium/business/ultimate. But I recommend you to buy at least 2GB memory because the memory will not cost you so much in recent days. 1GB memory is not enough if you have the habit of leaving 6 or 7 windows open. Some times if you react too fast, it will freeze. ****, we have to wait for vista. What does the advanced technology mean?

But is vista really so bad. I don’t think so. At least it looks nice. But there must be a tradeoff between performance and appearance. Frankly speaking I do like the bells and whistles. And moreover it owns a small toolbar which some interesting functions are added. But it wastes more time to start the computer. So I have to cancel it.

Vista is not so bad, because XP is not perfect. But the question is what are you expecting from vista? Maybe the more we expected, the more we will be disappointed. And like most of guys, I am looking forward to Windows 7; will Microsoft satisfy each of us? That is another question. But the truth is windows 7 will debut in 2009, why we hold on for a year to wait for window 7? So the question: why Microsoft to release window vista? To let us warm up, that might be the best answer.

Dilemma: Life is full of choices, isn’t it?

intelguy — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Is life really full of difficult choices? Do we always choose the best of the available choices?

In this world, too many things are all much of a muchness. So we have too many choices, for good thing is that a bird in hand is worth nothing at all. But the bad side is that it is difficult to choose between them. It is the dilemma of making choices among choices.

Take my second laptop as an example.
The first thing is to surf around and around to make some senses to me. Which brand? This is the first question in front of me. Yes, some vendors make good notebooks, but I can’t buy all their notebooks to prove that they make good ones. My first one is Acer and all its function and features rock. But I do wanna change my taste for a new journey and new experience with another brand. So the loyalty to the certain brand encounter with the charming offense of diversity, that is the first dilemma.

After 2 or 3 days consideration, I decide to give Dell a shot. Then I try to figure out the details, the cpu, memory, video card, hdd, display size… In this part there are several vital wars included. The first war, Intel beat AMD. As to this shootout, I do know that Intel is good but I do not know why AMD is not good. OMG! If there was only one notebook available, I must be living 1 or 2 years longer. After all these things settle down, I think I could take a long breath. Yep, you are right.

But another thing pops up, I think I need a camera, so the day I decide to own a camera, all my dreams are full of Nikon, canon, Samsung... oh, the beautiful dreams delight me always. Suddenly, a sentence comes into my mind, which is “only the paranoid survive”. So the dilemma becomes paranoid. All these stuffs become easy. To stick to certain brands is not a bad thing.

My first Blog here

intelguy — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:12:00 GMT

I still remember the first time I got an account in this community and the first time I posted here, all these first times were an interesting journey for me. Now it is the first time to post my blog here. I am really excited about this.

It is very strange that we always care more about our first time. Even years later we still remembered the first day we went to school, the first time we won a contest, and the first time we fell in love with a girl. Of course we will never forget the first taste of failure and the first lesson we learnt from the failures. Maybe this is only the nature of human beings. The only reason we can remember is that we can’t forget as long as memory lasts.

It’s even stranger that we are all quite good at sharing our first time with others. Sometimes we told the same story to the same person again and again. : P at this point, I suddenly recall my grandma who passed away last year. My grandma always told her story. I was always curious about her love story with grandpa. Unfortunately, Grandpa passed away at a time when my papa had not met my mom, so I had no chance to see him or talk to him. Fortunately, grandma gave me a full picture with her vivid narration. I missed her so much. There is no chance for me to listen to her repeated story any more.

So much for my first blog and if I tell you my first time experience next time, do remind me if I have already told you. If not, don’t pretend to *** up your ear, you know, there is nothing new for my first time experience.