@Site-News
News by: Pic0o
Posted On: 27 August 2010 - 07:44 AM |  USB 3.0 and Light Peak
I just read this article on USB 3.0. It mentions that the current Intel chipset mobos you see on the market have NEC USB 3.0 controllers on them, as Intel is brewing it's Light Peak interface. Both formats use a USB compatible end connector, but where the USB 3.0 has additional comm lines capable of 5Gb/sec (the extra are ignored when plugged into a 2.0 port), Light Peak uses Fiber Optics and can do 10Gb/s. You also get a substantially longer cable length allowance on Light Peak.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see what's on the market come December, as USB 3.0 Drives have recently come to the market, gunning for consumer use. Hopefully Intel will have something to push by the holidays, in hopes to avoid watching Light Peak be this generations FireWire.  |
Comments: 2 :: View Comments |
News by: Pic0o
Posted On: 24 August 2010 - 11:23 AM | WD Passport 320GB External HDD
I picked up a Western Digital 320GB Passport External Hard Drive a few months ago and have been using it to much success. There was an annoying attribute however, and that was the prompt to install the WD Backup software on any machine I plugged the drive into. I learned from a friend the backup app removes the drive listings in my computer, so it can do some automagic backup stuff. This was obviously flagged to No on each machine the drive saw, but I didn't want to be bothered with the prompt at all. I just want the drive to work like a big pen drive, with a mapped drive letter when I plug it in.
I was able to disable the VCD partition and any prompting via this WD article. I used the non-software installed method, so I just had to grab the app to disable the VCD. Did this, cycled power and GG.
Also of note while disabling the VCD, you may want to update the drive firmware. Doing this allowed the drive to be installed without needing to be prompted by the New Device Wizard on XP. I guess the chipset wasn't referenced correctly as it would always say no driver found, but still worked fine. Upgrading the Firmware actually seemed to also push the driver down, as I no longer had the '?' on the WD SES Device in Device Manager. On another PC, I had to have the driver download from Windows Update. This method did not work prior to me flashing to Firmware v1.032.
Onto Performance, the transfer speed is good and the drive functions consistently. I use this on Computers and Game Consoles, as I partitioned it with a FAT32 32GB partition for Xbox 360 and PS3 use and the rest of the drive is an NTFS partition. The consoles will see the FAT32 drive and I can also use it for Game Saves and such on my 360. If you want to do this on 360, make the partition, then format it for use on the 360 via the console in the memory section.
Once you format the drive on your 360, it will make a hidden Xbox360 folder allocated to whatever size you specified (16GB cap). From there, you can add anything you want to the FAT32 partition, just do not modify the Xbox360 folder, else your 360 will no longer view that drive as a storage device for Game saves and the like. Leaving the Xbox360 Folder alone, write anything else you like onto the drive, and it will also work on your PS3. You'll be able to play movies, music, save games and pictures on your PS3 without issue.
I am happy I picked this drive up as it serves all my storage needs nicely. If I want to watch a movie on my PS3, I just copy the flick to the \VIDEO folder on my FAT32 partition and I'm all set. You can also copy stuff back and forth to your PS3 without issue. For 360 Profile and Game Saves, just be sure to not modify the folder on a PC, and it will work great for having a mobile profile and having your game saves ready to go on another console.
If you want an external drive, that will serve you well, these guys are handy. The 320GB is about $100 in stores and pretty commonly in stock. I found this much more cost effective than a 32GB / 64GB pen drive. So long as you don't mind having a 2.5" external drive vs a pen drive, this should be your win. |
Comments: 0 :: View Comments |
News by: Pic0o
Posted On: 17 August 2010 - 01:38 PM | Core 2 Duo vs i5 Benchmarks
Hola. I have had these benchmarks for a bit, but finally got around to doing some comparisons today. To give you an idea of the timeframe, I built the Core 2 Duo rig somewhere in 2007, while the i5 machines were built within the last few months. Keeping the differences of spec in mind, you should be able to get a decent idea of how much of a performance bump you'd get, going from a Core 2 Duo to an i5 Rig.
Both machines were running Windows XP (SP2 on both I believe at the time of benchmarking).
The Core 2 Duo 6400 is the older rig, rocking @ 2.13GHz
The i5 650 is @ 3.20GHz
Both of these are Dual-Core CPUs. They are also running @ stock clocks. I have been sticking with Intel boards for the office machines, as they have grown on me, and I dig the reliability.
The Bench data was obtained with SisSoft Sandra Lite 2009.SP4, and since it was almost 3 years between the 2 models, the versions of Sandra do vary. However, the raw numbers should still prove valid to give an idea on performance gains. Re-doing the Core 2 Duo benchmarks, as some metrics are completely different.
I will list the scores from each benchmark, and attach the Screencaps in 2 additional posts for you. 
Performance Gains of i5 650 over Core 2 Duo 6400:
- Cache: 187.33% Increase
- CPU Arithmetic: 264.59% Increase
- CPU Multi-Media: 251.51% Increase
- Cryptography: 758.39% Increase
- .Net Arithmetic: 287.83% Increase
- .Net Multi-Media: 243.61% Increase
- Memory Bandwidth: 147.37% Increase
- Memory Latency: 104.81% Faster
- Multi-Core Efficiency: 432.26% Increase
- Power Management: 246.88% Increase
I am re-running the benchmarks on the Core 2 Duo rig with the same version of Sandra, so I can chart more effectively. These are done, and as you can see, the i5 blows the doors off the Core 2 Duo in this benchmark run. The Memory sees a dramatic jump, as the boards go from running DDR2, to DDR3.
Another huge improvement is with the latency of the multi-cores. The i5 rocks an inner core latency of 14ns, while the Core 2 Duo is @ a latency of 114ns. Serious business right there.
As you can see, the benchmarks certainly show the i5 taking some big strides over the Core 2 Duo faction of CPUs. Now you know that a budget Core 2 Duo rig may be less in your interests, if you wanted to save some bucks. |
Comments: 2 :: View Comments |
News by: Pic0o
Posted On: 15 July 2010 - 10:47 PM | Custom iPhone rings
Before I go to bed, I wanted to note my success making some custom rings for my new phone. I rocked this guide, and the below steps helped me make a bunch of my own rings.
Import your Non-DRM song into iTunes and rock the below.
- Right-click the song and select "Get Info."
- Click the "Options" tab.
- Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e., 2:01) format.
- Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ringtone is no more than 40 seconds long.
- Click "OK."
- Right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC." Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.
- Right-click the ringtone and select "Delete."
- Click on the "Keep Files" button.
- Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under "Music > iTunes > iTunes Music" and under the band's name. It will have an extension of m4a.
- Replace the m4a extension of your ringtone with m4r. You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.
- Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.
- Double-click the ringtone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library.
- Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.
If you want custom sounds for SMS, that is an entirely different beast. OpenSSH on your phone is a prerequisite from what I have seen, so I guess you also inherently need to jailbreak it too? |
Comments: 0 :: View Comments |
|
@Security-News
@User-Videos
| Sheep Magic | Posted By: Pea :: On 23 May 2010 - 12:25 PM
View Topic :: Comments @ (3) |
| Gun Video Updates! | Posted By: J0k3r :: On 04 December 2008 - 06:28 AM
View Topic :: Comments @ (4) |
| My HK Clone after proper tuning | Posted By: J0k3r :: On 02 November 2008 - 08:31 AM
View Topic :: Comments @ (4) |
| M1X3R's Car vs a group of friends | Posted By: J0k3r :: On 02 November 2008 - 08:29 AM
View Topic :: Comments @ (5) |
@Forum-Topics
@Music-Suggestions
| Users browsing the forums: 35 | Active members: 1
Active Guests: 34
Active Anonymous: 0 | |
|
