W.I.L. Hardware Tech-News Highlights for September/October 2006

Top (hardware and software) tips greatest hits from ExtremeTech – link.

Free gadgets need free software – link.

Systems

Open BIOSes for Linux – link.

What is a “silent” computer? – link.

Build a quiet, efficient Home Theater PC – link.

Superquiet superclocked DIY Core 2 Duo system illustrates silent PC tactics – link.

Build your own Windows Vista system – link.

The Linux-based Koobox Mini PC is a full PC in a very small, quiet package, and well worth a look – link.

Shuttle’s XPC X100 is its smallest PC yet, but it is still not quite as refined or as quiet as the iMac. It will do better as a media center than a home PC – review.

Shuttle’s SD37P2 SFF for Core 2 Duo falls short – review.

One Laptop Per Child project update – link.

Asus’s Lamborghini VX1 laptop is not a bad machine, but neither is it the laptop equivalent of its famous namesake – link.

Bill Todd’s recycled, fanless, silent woodbox computer – link.

CPUs, motherboards, chipsets

Hardware virtualization slower than software? – link.

Intel Core 2 Duo vs. AMD X2 AM2 top to bottom comparison generally shows advantage to former – link.

Rambus demos next-generation PCIe silicon – link.

SGI to drop MIPS, Irix, move to Itanium, Linux – link.

– AMD

AMD’s K8L architecture analyzed – link.

AMD: Apple will eventually use our chips – link. Apple has already used AMD chips – link.

AMD stakes Opteron future on direct connect architecture – link.

New SIS 771/966 reference board is destined to become the ultra-cheap entry level platform of choice for AMD’s AM2 platform – link.

Albatron’s KI51PV-754 uniquely blends GeForce graphics, nForce core logic, and support for Turion and Athlon 64 processors on a Mini-ITX motherboard. Execution is hampered by a handful of questionable design decisions and missing features – link.

– Intel

Intel Developer Forum Fall 2006, day 1 – link 1, link 2. Reg Hardware’s complete IDF Fall 2006 coverage here.

Intel has truly moved past the anxiety that follows abandoning the “boost GHz at all costs” mentality that served the company well for so long. Now it tells software engineers, who will no longer automatically receive a boost simply because the chipmakers kicked GHz higher, that they “have to follow Moore’s Law” – link.

Intel Core 2 Duo, Conroe rocks, dominates in games, and is cool and easy to overclock as well – link.

Intel quad-core line-up revealed – link 1, link 2. Intel says quad-core is just the beginning – link. Intel pledges 80 cores in five years – link.

Intel 4MB cache low-voltage Meroms, clocking at 1.50GHz and 1.33GHz, expected in January – link.

Intel Pentium M 740 1.73GHz socket 479 single-core CPU performance is very good as long as you pair it up with enough memory, but it fails to compete with all the dual-core muscle out there and, surprisingly, even with an AMD Sempron 3600+ – link.

Graphics

PC desktop graphics market worth $6 billion, but integrated graphics continues to grow – link.

“Merged” CPU-GPU in 2008, says AMD chief technologist – link.

ATI unveils “world’s first” strained silicon GPU – link.

ATI All-I–Wonder line of graphics cards to be one of the first victims of AMD-ATI merger – link.

Sapphire adds DVI output to integrated-graphics PCs – link.

Silent, i.e., passively cooled, graphics cards roundup leaves Editor’s Choice of Gigabyte 7600 GS for the best price/performance ratio and Gigabyte 7600 GT for best pure performance. All cards tested offer acceptable performance for non-gaming tasks, and most will at least handle some moderate gaming, while remaining completely silent – link.

How modern graphics hardware performs under Windows Vista Beta 2 – link.

Sapphire X1600 PRO 256 MB HDMI graphics card is great card for anyone that wants to use HDMI connection, providing a nice video quality, crisp picture on LCD and Plasma TV’s – link.

Memory, storage

Choosing the right memory for Core 2 Duo platform - Part 1, Part 2.

Introducing PC2-8800 memory that is capable of being clocked at a record-breaking 1.1GHz – link.

OCZ’s Platinum PC2-6400 2GB memory module (rev2) is a cheap buy and comes out as a top notch choice for midrange models – link.

Micron samples 1Gb DDR3 chip – link. Samsung shows working DDR3 memory – link.

Compact Flash goes to 16GB – link.

SuperTalent has half-length flash-based IDE hard drive – link.

Corsair Voyager 4GB USB stick stores a lot of stuff, and is indestructible. It is small, cheap, practical and works at the sufficient speeds. 8GM drives to follow – link.

S-ATA 6G and xS-ATA break cover – link.

Samsung’s Spinpoint T Series HD400LJ 400GB, 7,200 RPM HDD upholds Samsung’s reputation for low noise. There is no question that this drive is suitable for a quiet system. Its one real competitor, the Western Digital Caviar SE16, has quieter seek noise but the Spinpoint T has smoother idle noise – review.

Seagate’s Barracuda ES 750GB HDD is based on perpendicular technology. It is expensive but with a low CPU utilization, a 5-year warranty and performance that trounces everything but the latest Raptor, this is a drive that you should consider if you want the best and biggest mammoth drive – link.

Maxtor’s DiamondMax11 has adequate cache memory, high spindle speeds, generous platter densities and NCQ support, and thus really excels at multitasking applications and easily beats the competition – review.

Iomega’s Rev70GB backup system looks like the company’s older products, but the media itself has been revamped to 70GB and shrunk to a 2.5” laptop drive size. The drive supports USB 2.0 with a maximum data transfer rate of 30MB/sec, short of SATA specification but fitting well the purpose of an affordable back-up system – link.

Icy Dock’s eSATA enclosure delivers capably, but so far no external enclosures come with low-noise features – link.

Researchers patent three way DVD format that DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD on one disk – link.

No room for a third high-definition optical drive format – link.

Cases, power supplies, cooling

mCubed’s HFX mini fanless HTPC “heatsink case” simply works as an enclosure for a very quiet system. With some custom optimisations and a slightly different storage setup it would be very close to the holy grail of combining top-notch performance and cutting-edge features with nearly silent operation – link.

NZXT’s Apollo case is made up of steel chassis and is a screwless model, with two 120mm silent fans, support for four internal drives, a magnetic closing door, and a see-through smoked acrylic look. No bundled PSU, but still a decent buy – review.

Antec Earth Watts 430 EA-430 80-Plus Certified ATX12V v2.2 PSU has excellent electronics and is pretty quiet, but not the quietest. Its “Green” aspects may be oversold, but it is efficient – link.

Silverstone’s Element ST50EF-Plus 80-Plus Certified 500W ATX12V 2.2 PSU proved itself a worthy product, despite a few quibbles – review.

The Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 430 PSU is well packaged, well made, and is very quiet – link.

Seasonic S12 Energy Plus 50W & 650W PSUs provide efficient power for high power use rig connoisseurs – link.

Asetek compact and inexpensive water cooler chills multi-cores up to 250W – link.

Scythe’s Infinity SCINF-1000 Socket 478/775/K8 CPU heatsink is very quiet, well-performing, and easy to use. It should be able to cool just about any CPU with a minimum of noise, so long as compatibility issues can be avoided – review.

VGA heat-pipe cooler roundup 2006 – link.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

Dell E207WFP 20.1” TFT widescreen monitor has a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, 5 ms response time, and HDCP support from a HDCP-DVI port. At only $289 it can be considered an absolute bargain considering it will future-proof your purchase and allow you to view any HD DRM-invested material you want on Vista – link.

PDT’s new Eye-Theater only boosts a 320x240 resolution but is actually so small that it will barely cover your eyes and can actually be compared to watching a 50” screen when viewed 8’ away – review.

New laser television to kill off plasma in the 40”+ market? – link.

Linux-based LiveKiosk offers low-cost browsing – link.

Rediscovering Bluetooth, on Linux – link.

PC squeezed onto an iPod – link.

Shinco Portable DVD 10.2” SDP-1250 is the top-of-the-range portable video player. It plays DVDs, and music and DivX movies – review.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is the best BlackBerry yet. It does everything RIM is famous for, seamless email and communication, and packs it into the same space as a normal mobile phone – review.

Open source router on par with Cisco, users say – link.