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The quad-core project - Building the PC walkthrough

Last weekend we built two new quad-core PCs over at the PC Doc HQ.  I promised that you'd be first to see the results of our hard work (buildig these PCs is easy, the hard part is the photography ... hot lights, having to keep your arms out of the...

Tags: PC, Board, Quad-core, Heatsink, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Raptor X, HX520 PSU, Corsair, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2007-09-10

Additional Resources

Disks: why size means performance

OK, Smarty pants...How do I use only the outer-most sectors of my 500GB disk?Performance != reliabilitySeagate has progressively gotten worse with reliability - that's why they cut the 5-year warranty back down to 3 years. Western Digital has made great strides with reliability though. WD isn't focussing on...

Tags: Serial ATA, SSD, SAS Institute, SAS Drives, performance, disk

Discussion threads 2009-11-18

Best hard drive for a media center

Best hard drive for a media centerCool and/or Quiet is more importantI'd run two 5400RPM drives in Raid-0 to counter the lower RPMs. That way, it should help keep the temperatures down. Why? because temperature has a bigger impact on the drive bearings, so it's more likely to wear-out/noisier sooner....

Tags: Media Center PCs, Storage, Desktops, VelociRaptor, BEST HARD DRIVE, Media Center PC, RAID, Green Drive, desktop

Discussion threads 2009-03-13

Falcon Northwest Mach V (Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition)

As it often does, Falcon Northwest has provided with an ultra-high-end PC as a showcase for Intel's latest high-end desktop CPU. This $8,028 Mach V comes with the latest and greatest of everything and provides a useful benchmark of the performance we can expect to see from boutique gaming PCs...

Tags: Desktops, Games, Intel Core Microarchitecture, Falcon Northwest, PC, Intel Corp., hard drive, Mach V, game

Product reviews 2008-11-06

The $2,000 build-it-yourself gaming/video editing/photo editing PC

The $2,000 build-it-yourself gaming/video editing/photo editing PCWhy such an expensive processor?Surely you can cut a couple of hundred dollars off the price and not lose too much performance by getting a lower spec processor.That way you could keep both hard drives (great for keeping the data separate from the...

Tags: Corporate communications, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), video, PC, game

Discussion threads 2008-09-12

The 8GB/64-bit advantage - More RAM doesn't always mean better performance

The 8GB/64-bit advantage - More RAM doesn't always mean better performanceI'll give you one thing ...... you're fast!RE: ProofreaderYou missed, "As expected, the difference in score between a system running [b]8GB[/b] of RAM and one running with only [b]8GB[/b] was small when measured with PassMark PerformanceTest 6.1."I offer ZDNet the...

Tags: Memory, Vista x64, More RAM, RAM, performance

Discussion threads 2008-08-05

Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Jun/Jul 08

Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Jun/Jul 08The CaseI own the case that you show here. I've had it for several months and let me tell you, it's GREAT. A few thing other thing that you don't mention that's worth noting are the built-in cable routing ability, included...

Tags: Cable, Construction, Enermax, Hardware 2.0, hardware

Discussion threads 2008-05-28

Adventures with Ubuntu 8.04

Yesterday saw the release of Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" so I grabbed myself a copy of the .ISO and took a look. So, what's it like? First impressions Hardy Heron is what I've come to expect from an Ubuntu release. ...

Tags: Ubuntu, Western Digital Corp., PIII System, Video Cards, Memory, Processors, Hardware, Components, Semiconductors, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-04-25

XP SP3 performance gains - Nothing to write home about

Those who believed that Windows XP Service Pack 3 would provide the aging OS with a performance boost may well be disappointed. My benchmark tests show that the application of XP SP3 makes negligible difference to system performance. The Test Systems For this round...

Tags: Hard Drive, Result, Performance, Western Digital Corp., RAM, Performance Management, Microsoft Windows XP, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-04-25

Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Apr 08/May 08

OK, it's time once again for ... drum roll please ... The Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Apr 08/May 08. Here I've put together a list of the best high-end and mid-range components currently available, with some decent budget parts listed too, along with a few honorable mentions. These components are on...

Tags: ASUS, Card, Video Card, Performance, Board, Motherboard, CPU, List, Intel Core 2 Duo, RAM, Graphics, Intel Corp., LGA775, AM2, ASUS Maximus Extreme, Maximus Extreme, DDR3, PSU, Corporate Governance, Performance Management, Processors, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-03-28

Vista: 32-bit vs. 64-bit & RTM vs. SP1

To augment the benchmarking of Vista 32-bit versus Vista 64-bit that I carried out the other day I decided to run a few additional benchmarks to see which platform really is the fastest.  The results are quite interesting. The Test System If you read...

Tags: Result, 32-bit, Microsoft Windows Vista, RTM, 64-Bit, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Network Technology, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Networking, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-02-22

Vista 32-bit vs. Vista 64-bit - Benchmarked

My benchmarking marathon last week seemed to generate more questions and requests for further benchmarking.  A popular request from you, Constant Reader, was to see Windows Vista 32-bit benchmarked against Windows Vista 64-bit.  You asked, I delivered.  Enjoy! The Test System ...

Tags: 32-bit, Microsoft Windows Vista, Results Let, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), 64-Bit, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-02-21

Some systems showing incredible SP1 performance boost - Day 6

[UPDATE: Mark Russinovich Technical Fellow in the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft emailed in to point out that he's written a detailed post on his blog explaining the reasons behind some of these dramatic improvements.  Thanks Mark!]  Some systems on which I've installed Windows Vista SP1 are showing...

Tags: Performance, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Performance Management, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-02-12

Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Feb 08/Mar 08

OK, here it is folks - The Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Feb 08/Mar 08. Here I've tried to compile a list of the best high-end and mid-range components currently available. These components are on this list because I firmly believe them to be the best either in terms...

Tags: Video Card, Performance, Board, Motherboard, CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo, RAM, Graphics, Intel Corp., LGA775, AM2, ASUS Maximus Extreme, Maximus Extreme, DDR3, PSU, Corporate Governance, Performance Management, Processors, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-02-12

The SP1 upgrades continue - Day 2

Today I carried out the most critical SP1 upgrade so far - I upgraded my main system. This is a Core 2 Extreme monster that's been running Vista Ultimate 64-bit. All the SP1 upgrades I've done so far have been 32-bit upgrades. How did the upgrade go?...

Tags: Performance, Microsoft Windows Vista, SP1, Remote Desktop Connection, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Performance Management, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-02-08

Hands-on with the AMD Spider - Phenom 9700, 790 chipset and Radeon 3850 graphics

A few days before Christmas I got my hands on an AMD "Spider" Phenom 9700-based system.  Since my head was ringing to the tune of "Jingle Bells" at the time, and because I had troubles downloading a needed BIOS update, all this conspired to mean that I didn't really get...

Tags: Platform, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, Radeon, Crysis, Chipsets, Performance Management, Games, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Personal Technology, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2008-01-08

Hardware 2.0 "Best Kit List" for Dec 07/Jan 08

Overall, I get more email asking me for kit and component recommendations that pretty much anything else, and that volume increases dramatically as the Holiday season comes into full swing.  Also, over the Christmas period many people will have received new peripherals, tech toys and games and this will force...

Tags: ASUS, Video Card, Motherboard, CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo, RAM, Digital Equipment Corp., Graphics, Intel Corp., PSU, Video Cards, Chipsets, Processors, Hardware, Components, Semiconductors, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2007-12-20

On the test bench - AMD 'Spider' Phenom 9600-based system

Today I'm going to be spending some time fitting up a new system on the test bench - this one is an AMD "Spider" Phenom 9000-based system.  I've read the reviews and been through the benchmarks but I want to get beyond that and find out how this platform feels and...

Tags: ASUS, Western Digital Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Serial ATA, Chipsets, Ethernet, Video Cards, Storage, Hardware, Semiconductors, Components, Networking, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2007-12-18

To RAID 0 or not to RAID 0?

When I blogged about building our quad-core PCs, many of the questions that I got related to RAID 0.  Many people wanted to know if I was going to be utilizing a RAID 0 array to improve performance while others wanted to know why I hadn't chosen to make use of a RAID 0 array...

Tags: RAID, Storage, Hardware, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Blog posts 2007-10-05

The quad-core project - Building the PC walkthrough

The quad-core project - Building the PC walkthroughThe quad-core project - Building the PCSo you scored a 5.3 on a Quad Core??? Whooppee doo! I scored that on my 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, an 160Gb SATA HDD and an Nvidia 7950GT.2 suggestions...First, if you research you'll...

Tags: Nokia Corp., RIM BlackBerry, quad-core, PC, Hewlett-Packard Co., Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Discussion threads 2007-09-10