My New Computer!!!

Its true!I FINALLY got a new desktop!

Here we go-

Processor-

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz

[sucessfully unlocked to quad core!!!]

Motherboard-

Gigabyte 890GX based

GA890GPA-UD3H

RAM

Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz

HDD

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM with 16MB cache

Video Chipset-

[onboard] ATI HD 4290, about 700MB memory at DDR3

[runs Doom 3 at ultra quality,at pretty playable framerates.Good enough for me, specially after using a 16MB DirectX 6 GPU for years!!!XD ]

Cabinet-

Zebronics Reaper T

Transparent side panel with LED-lit fans,LCD display for system monitoring

I'll post reviews about some of the components shortly.Please be patient!!!

DirectX 11 Gets Official with ATi!!!

With Windows 7, DirectX 11 has arrived anyway but now, we have some cool graphics cards to support it too- with ATi's brand new 5-series GPUs!
These come with full DX11 support, and OpenGL 3.2.
Currently, the lowest end card, is the 5750,coming with 720 stream processors and 725 MHz core clock.Quiet good.
Next, comes the ATi 5770, a card that sounds[take note:sounds]awesome.It comes with 800 stream processors and 850 MHz clock, similar to the 4890.Ideal if you want to experience DX11 with good performance, but are on a budget.The problem with this card is-its bottlenecked by its 128-bit bandwidth.This makes it worse than even a 4870.Not a great performer for extreme gamers.

Then the 5850 comes, with a strange 1440 stream processors[thanks to being chopped out from the next card] and 725 MHz clock.Yet,it performs really well, probably faster than a GTX 285.Really recommendable card.

The awesome 5870 comes next, boasting of 1600 stream processors and a 850 MHz clock!Similar to the 4870 X2, but at least you can save on the power aspect![4870 X2-680W, 5870-500W!]

More recently though, a new addition has come into this family, the all mighty 5970!!!
This crazy card has nothing less than 3200 stream processors! Time being, its one of the most powerful cards around......needless to say!

iPod Nano Gen. 5...... Records Video!!!!!!!!

Yep.Apple have done it again.They have taken their ultra popular nano and.......OK, just read on!
The nano has undergone many cosmetic changes, remaining mostly rectangular with the exception of the 3rd gen, which was square!3rd gen onwards featured a 2-inch screen.
The new nano is out to change all that, lets start from the simple, and advance towards the remarkable....
-The nano now sports inbuilt microphone and speaker, so you can listen to beats without earphones [something 1) I used to miss on my iPod mini and 2) I now enjoy on my second gen. iPod Touch!]
-It comes loaded with a pedometer, which can count every step you walk and loaded Nike+iPod
-It also has FM radio....with live pause!
-It also comes with a bigger 2.2-inch screen, with 240 by 376 resolution and roughly 3:2 or 16:10 aspect ratio, compared to the 2-inch 240 by 320 4:3 aspect ratio screen the 3rd and 4th offered.
-it still offers 8 or 16 GB storage...
and finally......
The nano 5 looks a lot like the nano 4 except for being slightly wider[thanks to the new display] and now, at the back, bottom left, is- a video camera!!!!Yes!The new nano has a video camera!
The camera records at VGA, ie 640 by 480 resolution at 30 frames per second!
Despite all this, it is just quarter-inch thick and weighs 36 grams!!!
This is the 'biggest' nano to hit the market yet!

How To Interpret Nvidia Graphics Card Numbers

The kind of choice of graphics cards in the Geforce range is dazzling, yet it can get pretty confusing too!!!

Nvidia Geforce cards use a code based system of identification and demarcation.Put simply, they use four digit numbers for their GPUs and also add suffixes, now mostly starting with 'G'.What does all this mean?!Read on and find out!
Numerical codes
Entry Level GPUs

• _200 eg: 7200 GS, 6200 GS etc.
• _300 eg: 7300 GS, 9300 GS etc.
• _400 eg: 8400 GS, 9400 GT etc.

All cards with their second digit being any of the above three types represent Nvidia's affordable, discrete multimedia type of graphics cards.

For:

1. These are for those people who don't like integrated graphics chipsets which consume RAM and other resources from their computer.
2. People who want to watch movies in great quality without wanting overwhelming power.
3. An affordable discrete graphics solution.

These cards can play most games in great quality, but newer games will run at slightly reduced Frames Per Second[FPS] and lower graphics quality.

Mid Range GPUs

• _500 eg: 8500 GT, 9500 GT etc.
• _600 eg: 8600 GTS, 9600 GT etc.

For:

1. A discrete graphics solution that does more than just watching movies...
2. A slightly tight-on-budget gamer, since it will offer fantastic gameplay for most games and great performance for more modern games too.
3. Someone who wants to play games but doesn't want a wardrobe-sized cabinet with noisy fans and advanced power supply units.
4. An above average card for a good PC.

These are very convenient, since they offer awesome power at an affordable price.They offer very good gameplay too, even for new age games.All this and [usually] very reasonable power requirements.

Top-End GPUs....

• _800 eg: 9800 GX2, 8800 Ultra etc.

For:

1. The no-compromise gamer....
2. Professional video and photo editors, 3D rendering, whatever!!!
3. Perfect gameplay with mind-boggling graphic detail, high FPS and all
4. Future-proof gaming capabilities!!!

These cards can tackle games for years, eg: the Nvidia 6800 GT can still support games as advanced as Crysis, Race Driver: Grid and so on!

iPhone 3G's Successor arrives!

The title pretty much gives the new iPhone's name- intoducing the iPhone 3G 'S'!!!
I guess Apple must have read my previous posts about the iPhone 3G or something similar, 'cos they have FINALLY given it the few remaining features needed to make it a competitive smartphone in today's world.
The most important updated feature is the camera, which has been enlarged from 2 to 3 megapixels, which is minimum for photos of printable size with good clarity.Plus they have added video recording, which should be nothing to brag about, considering the fact that almost every phone posessing a camera usually allows you to take videos.The cool feature is that you can edit the videos you take........right on the iPhone!!!
It is also supposed to have a faster processor too, so playing games will be a breeze on the new device.Loading times should also be faster, for everything from web pages to games and other applications.
It now comes with a digital compass too!
These updates make the iPhone more reasonable to buy.
If only iPhones were available in GSM.......we could put any sim card we want!I guess thats wishing for too much[sadly!].

12.1 Snapper-cum-Caller!!!!

Yep, they have done it again.Sony Ericcsson have idou announced their latest phone-the 'Idou' which will come with a 12.1 Megapixel camera!!!
It will have a 3.5 inch touchscreen display.Not a lot else said about it, so I don't know much either....[sorry!]
Anyway, we'll see it when it comes!!!

Strange Complacency in the GPU World....?!

I have only finished my board exams recently, thus I have been rather silent for a while.Somehow, the GPU leaders Nvidia and ATi have been so too.Otherwise its nothing but hard competition between the two.Nvidia is bringing out some really big GPUs but ATi has already introduced their own DirectX 10.1 ready GPUs, while Nvidia is still sticking to DX 10?!?Mysterious..........


Under AMD's leadership, ATi GPUs have become much more popular, faster and affordable, all at the same time!Nvidia's latest GTX 295 graphics card comes with a crazy 1792 MB [896 x 2GPUs in one card,1.7GB] of pure graphics memory but it STILL uses GDDR3 speed to address all this memory.Comparatively, ATI has only got 512MB memory on their HD4870 graphics card, but it runs at a scorching GDDR5 speed, allowing it to reach teraflops!Moreover, it supports DX 10.1 which none of Nvidia's GPUs can.The 4870 supports OpenGL version 4.1 while the 295 supports only 2.1.Then again, all this for just 512MB graphics memory?That is REALLY upsetting isn't it?

ATi can sit back and relax for a while, since they only need worry about increasing their graphics memory but Nvidia has a lot to catch up on.

Once they do, ATi could have a lot to think about....

Nvidia's GTX Range Expanding!

Nvidia's Geforce GTX series has got some more to offer!
The new GTX 295 is a The GTX 295 is a really big GPU, considering the fact that it has two graphics processing cores on a singe graphics card!!!As I had earlier wished in one of my articles, dual core graphics cards are fast becoming a reality !This means that most of the constituents are also double.What I mean is- each core has 896MB of memory, so a single card holds 1792MB of solid Graphics memory!!!Like most Nvidia cards, it uses GDDR3.As usual,it supports directX 10.Nvidia's PhysX technology of course is present,so games should look stunning.Strangely, it supports only OpenGL 2.1, The GTX 275 itself supports 3.0, the ATi HD 4870 supports 4.1 ??!!
Other less powerful GPUs in the GTX range, apart from the first two GTX 260 and GTX 280 which started it all include:
GTX 285
Single core, powerful card.Has 1GB memory at GDDR3.Supports DX 10.
GTX 275.Again OpenGL 2.1!
Single core card.Has 896 MB memory at GDDR3.Supports DX10. OPENGL3.0?!?
Can't wait for the DX 10.1 ready cards to arrive!I'll keep everyone informed as much as I can!

7 Is a Lucky Number!

Tomorrow is my science modal exam but I stole a few seconds so that I could finally announce this-
INTEL HAS LAUNCHED IT'S FIRST REAL CONSUMER QUAD-CORE DESKTOP PROCESSOR!!!!!!!!!
The new 'i7' series of processors are real quad-core processors!
It ranges from 2.66 to 2.93Ghz..............and that is just for the 'normal' i7[ie-not the extreme version!!!]
It features 8MB cache.Each core is made of 45-nm transistors, like the Core2 Quad.The difference is-unlike the core2 quad, which uses 2 dual core processors in a single package, the i7 is a real quad-core processor, with 4 cores on a single block of silicon.
Think the regular i7's speed is cool?Guess what?
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The extreme edition speed is- 3.2 Ghz!X4!!!!
All i7s feature HT technology!!
Yes, makes your computer think it has 8 cores!!!
HT technology also improves performance by letting more applications connect to the same core, keeping the cores well occupied.
This will be some Phenomenal competition for AMD's-well, Phenom!!!
This processor has more than enough to satisfy any gamer out there.You video editors should be especially happy, it encodes video like lightning, faster than any other processor in the market.
Lets see it keep coming!

'i'ronic to the iPhone

I apologise for my earlier post about the iPhone, I guess some factors have managed to change my opinion about the iphone- for worse.
Yes, the iPhone looks like its got almost every feature imaginable in a high-end, expensive phone but all its features are pretty elementary.
Take the camera for example, that's what is most upsetting on the 'upgraded' iPhone 3G, since it first of all retains the predecessor's 2 megapixel sensor, which is nothing much considering the fact that most smartphones come with atleast 3.2MP.The worst part-it still cannot even record video!?
The iPhone 3G got GPS but even this is basic since it does not have voice navigation.
Even though it has got 3G, it has no secondary video call camera in front.
All these features are absolutely necessary in a good phone.I still love the multitouch facility, accelerometer and all that though....!!!
Hope Apple would fix all this by introducing an iPhone 3.5G or something, 3.5G technology should hit the world soon!
Just keep waiting till then....I guess!

Sorry For The Delays!

I've been encountering all sorts of fancy problems lately-both my 128MB RAMs failed, got 512MB [2x 256MB],one of those too failed, some weird internet problems prevented me from logging in to my account, then my exams began, the list goes on.My blogs most probably will be few and far between till my 10th gets over.:'(
I'll keep this thing up to date on pretty important or groundbreaking info anyway.Hope I get the time!

ATI doesn't 'Flop' these Radeons!

Just six months ago, I would have rolled my eyes on hearing the name 'ATI'.Now however, it raises my eyebrow, to say the least!
ATI's latest offering, the Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 touches speeds of teraflops!
What is a teraflop?Basically a measure of a computer's performance.If you think your calculator is fast, it operates at just about 1o FLOPS[FLoating Operations Per Second].1 teraflop =1000000000000FLOPS!!!Really fast!
The HD 4870 uses DDR5 interface, which is three times better than DDR3!!!
This is made possible thanks to ATI's tie up with AMD.ATi can now consume AMD's resources- money, processors, all.
These GPUs come in pretty cheap too, best of all!They handle DirectX 10.1.
Intel's larrabee too should be coming around soon, we have to see what that offers.........
Till then, these monsters of the HD 4 series should give some sleepless nights for rivals....if any!
Games never looked this good!!!

$200 iPhone!!!

Two things I didn't like about the iPhone initially were- 1)it's asking price and 2) lack of 3G despite it's high price.
Apple is all set to change all that, with the latest iPhone- the 3G.The new iPhone is priced at just $199!!Remarkable!
The new iPhone '3G' is half the price of the previous 2.5G entry-level one.As its name suggests-it even has 3G [Third-Generation] capabilities, allowing ultra-fast Internet surfing, downloads chatting, just to mention a few!!!
It's battery life.Best of all- it even comes with GPS!
It's going to be brought to India by Airtel and Vodafone.You won't get it's full potential till someone introduces 3G to India though.One slight let-down is the fact that it still doesn't have a front-facing secondary camera for easier 3G chatting, unlike it's rival- the Nokia N95 etc.
The 8 GB model is the one selling for $199, while the 16 GB is $299 [essentially-$200 and $300].
This is great news, considering how expensive it was when it was just launched.You'll have to wait till July 11 to go grab one though.
Now we can say- 'I phone, You Phone, We All Phone!!!'[cheaply, most importantly!].

No Dangerous Wild Cat This!

AMD has released their 'Puma' range of notebook processors.The all familiar AMD Turion was pretty hopeless against the really powerful Centrino Duo.
Strangely, I've heard that the puma range will not be able to match the Centrino range anyway?!?!Whats the use of bringing out a new range of processors then, if it can't even beat what its rival already has?!This doesn't even save power compared to the Turion range either!It uses 65-nm transistors, which was offered by Intel ages ago.This means it doesn't stand a chance against Intel, who now uses 45-nm ones.Speed, energy efficiency all go to Centrino.
Then again, the Puma does have better graphics capabilities than Centrino's current 'Santa-Rosa' platform, with better Direct X 10 capabilities.
All in all, I still think Centrino is better.

HD? Full HD?? XHD???All described here!

You must be going nuts, hearing all these terms everywhere-TVs, GPUs, Disk players and so on.
What does all this mean?Read on.
When you watch your regular cable TV or VCD, the quality of picture that you see is in SD or Standard Defenition.This has 640 vertical 'lines' of small dots called 'pixels' and 480 horizontal ones[The number of such lines is the called the resolution of the TV,in this case-640x480].This makes a good quality picture but not as well defined as what we see around us.Let us keep this as the basis for comparing the others listed below-
HDTV [also-HD ready]
This has more lines- 1080 vertical lines and 768 horizontal ones[1080x768].This provides more detail in what you watch, about 3.5 times more detailed than what SDTV offers.This is still not as good as what our eyes can see.
Full HD
This comes with 1920 vertical lines and 1080 horizontal ones[1920x1080].This can show images that are 5 times more detailed than SDTV.You can see snowflakes, grains of sand and other fine things much more clearly.This is very close to all the eye can see, but still is not all.
Extreme High Defenition[XHD][2560x1600]
This is THE best available right now.This has 2560 vertical lines and 1600 horizontal lines for, true to its name, extreme detail!This offers about 7.5 times the detail of SDTV!!!As of now, this is mainly for over-the-top computers with latest graphics cards, software etc.

Its just like using a thick tipped felt pen and a fine tipped pen or pencil for a drawing, the pencil's demarcations will be a lot more clearer than that made by a felt pen.The pencil image will be sharper and clearer.
Basically what all this means is your pixel size will be different.the smaller the pixels, the finer the image you see.
Higher resolutions enable better contrast between colours, sharper, more precise images and better detail.Movies and games appear more realistic, engrossing etc.
I hope you got an idea of what all this means now!

Core2 Quad....x2!!

Yeah!Intel's latest motherboard has arrived, with slots for two quad-core processors like the Core2 Quad and multiple GPU capbilities as well!
I dont really like the idea though, at least not for Core2 Quad processors, which are not even really quad-core.You will have 8 cores on your PC, but not 8 core performance.It would be best to wait for a real quad-core proc to arrive and then you may consider using two of them on a Skulltrail but otherwise it's gonna be a waste.If you think you will really put all the cores to good use, then go ahead but I dont recommend it otherwise.Read about the Tyan motherboard for AMD[16 cores?overdrive! ] which I wrote for further reasons not to go for this.
This could be so that Intel could compete with some of AMD's latest processors.This could be interesting to be future ready though!

Blu-Ray Reigns Supreme!

Yep, the winner of the format war has been announced, Blu-ray has won over HD-DVD.

This occured when Toshiba, the backbone of HD-DVD called it quits, obviously leaving Blu-ray to nab it all.Some movie company also stopped production of movie titles on HD-DVD too, I forget which one though, sorry!

The Blu-ray[25GB] is better in terms of storage, having about 10GB more than HD-DVD[approx 15Gb] and then there's the ultimate- the dual-layer Blu-ray disk, with a whopping 50 GB worth of storage!!!!!Naturally, Blu-ray is more expensive than HD-DVD though.All that extra space will be needed, considering the size of todays HD movies.

Chances are though, it'll be a while before Blu-rays become common.BD players are priced pretty high for now.The Sony PS3 is a good bet, it even comes with a bluetooth remote, i.e.- you don't have to point it directly at the PS3 to give a command!!!Typical of Sony to come up with such outta-this-world ideas! PS3 aside, there are others like LG, Samsung, Pioneer Etc, Etc.Most probably, people are going to take a while to get accustomed to BDs.

This makes the path into the HD era more straightforward & confusion free finally!

Nvidia 9-series has landed!

It has memory ranging from 256MB all the way upto 1GB!The prformance gains are marginal, I hear.Only the top-end 9800GX2 is slightly better than the all familiar 8800.It is somewhat faster too.Its also capable of XHD, or Extreme High Defenition, which is even more detailed than Full-HD.I still feel they could make it a lot better.It is a lot like a rebadged 8-series.It is kind of upsetting as I expected a lot more than this.Not GDDR4 or anything, this.
So dont jump to get one....yet.
I guess we could wait for a better 9900 GTX to come up soon....!

Intel Centrino 45nm unveiled!

Centrino now takes advantage of Intel's 45-nano meter transistors, with pretty cool results!!
Most importantly, power consumption has gone down.It features slightly higher clock rates and more Level 2 cache[upto 6MB!].These are labelled the 8[T8100,T8300] and 9 series[T9300,T9500].Best part is-high clock processors are cheaper than before.

Nvidia's 8800 goes mobile!

Nvidia's flagship GPU, the 8800 is gonna be available for laptops now!
This doesn't come with the 768 MB that its desktop counterpart offers, but still offers a really modest 512 MB.Also, companies like Dell offers SLI too on their XPS M1730 gaming laptop, giving a total of 1 whole GB of graphics memory, on a portable notebook!!!Coupled with some powerful Centrino duo processors, your games will look simply AWEsome!!
This is SO cool isn't it?