Computer Techspot

OCZ RevoDrive x2 240GB, You Get What You Pay For

2011-02-18T14:26:00.000+08:00

OCZ has emerged as one of the clear innovators in the SSD world. Its initial foray into PCI-Express based SSDs wasn't great, but the recent RevoDrive – a PCI-Express card that sports two raided SSDs – impressed with speeds above and beyond that found on Serial ATA connections. We did worry that the drive lacked TRIM support, and showed a drop in speed once filled, but speeds were still in excess of those seen in SATA based SSDs.

The RevoDrive X2 follows hot on the heels of the RevoDrive, and uses the same basic x4 PCI-Express card design, but adds a small daughterboard that contains two more SSDs, bringing the total number of drives in the RevoDrive’s RAID 0 array to four. Each drive features a Sandforce 1200 controller chip and 60GB of MLC flash memory, all running via a Silicon Image controller.

We tested the RevoDrive x2 using the AS SSD benchmark. This gives more granularity than other I/O benchmarks, and shows more than just burst reads and writes. The RevoDrive x2 managed sequential read speeds of 661MB/s (the first RevoDrive scored 499MB/s) and writes of 342MB/sec, while the threaded tests showed reads of 427MB/sec and writes of 304MB/s. These are by far the fastest speeds we have seen, and while the increase over the original RevoDrive isn’t enormous, it’s still significant enough to show the advantages of the Quad raid implementation.

We followed up this testing by filling the drive with junk data and then deleting and retesting. The results barely changed, and we didn’t see the performance hit experienced with the first RevoDrive seri. Instead it seems that the Sandforce controllers are now properly managing empty space and garbage collection duties.

The RevoDrive x2 is certainly the fastest consumer SSD out there, but it comes with a price tag to match. While the pricing of the dual channel RevoDrive makes it a very tempting alternative to SATA based SSDs, the extra premium for this quad offering makes it a harder value proposition. That said, only this and OCZ’s proprietary-cabled IBIS drives are capable of these speeds, and this is a much saner option than the IBIS.

Computer Techspot

Current LAN Rig Kitlog, For Gaming On The Go

2010-09-07T20:03:00.001+08:00

You don't have to follow this exactly or at all but it's a good starting point. The idea is to keep the build cheap, portable and powerful. Note that the linked sites are Australian (we're Aussies) and therefore are in $AUD, peripherals are not included in this list.

CPU: Intel Core i5 760, Intel's budget quad core is more than you'll need in a chip.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_931&products_id=14941

Motherboard: Gigabyte P55M-UD4, great overclockability at a nice price in a mATX form factor.
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/123245/MOTHERBOARD_INTEL_SOCKET_1156/Gigabyte/GA-P55M-UD4.asp

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 2000MHz, great value memory with amazing overclock potential.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_912&products_id=12496

GPU: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD5850 Overclocked Edition, decent value, plenty of power, factory overclock with room to go higher.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_934&products_id=13811

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, plenty of space and performance without forking out for an SSD.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=13660

Power Supply: Corsair HX-650, cheap, modular, efficient more than enough power and a small footprint.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_354&products_id=12918

Case: NZXT Vulcan, cheap case with some handy features including support for full length video cards (5970) and water cooling, plenty of airflow, fan controllers and importantly for a LAN box, a handle but weighing only 5.8kg.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_238&products_id=14523

CPU Cooler: Stock Intel cooler, will easily do the job and even handle a mild overclock but the best thing, it's free.
Will come with the Intel Core i5 760

And the grand total comes in at $1320 AUD, plenty left over for all the snacks and energy drinks.

Computer TechSpot

Seasonic X-650, Awesome Efficiency, Quiet As A Mouse

2010-09-06T20:32:00.000+08:00

Seasonic's own brand of PSUs and the power supplies that it makes for other brands (most notably XFX) have probably won more awards than any other. In short, Seasonic PSUs are usually a great buy, although they're often quite expensive, as in the case of th M12D-850 ($270). The Seasonic X-650 is no exception; despite being rated at 650W it retails at a fairly pricey $200.

The X-650 has just one 12V rail rated at 54A, which should be enough for an overclocked PC packed full of drives and a high end graphics card. The latter is possible thanks to the X-650 having four 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors. There are also eight SATA and eight Molex modular connectors, so the X-650 provides plenty of choice for drives.

Stability is more important, though, and the X-650 had no problems in this area. It passed all the tests thrown at it, with all its outputs remaining well within the limits of the ATX specification. What was most impressive, though, was its efficiency. This topped out at 89 per cent at 50 per cent load, and a remarkable 90 per cent at full load.

The unit was so cool running as a result of this awesome efficiency that its 120mm fan only needed to start spinning after a few minutes at 100 per cent load. This indicates that it has an awesome trick up its sleeve - in many systems, the X-650 will be silent as the fan doesn't even spin up under 50 per cent load (300W).

Over the course of a few years, the Seasonic X-650 could pay for itself, thanks to its high power efficiency. Compared with PSUs just a few years old, you'd be using up to 70W less for the same power this makes a big difference for people like us who have our computers on nearly 24/7.

Computer TechSpot

Build Your Own PC Part 1

2010-09-04T16:48:00.000+08:00

Building a system is not a small task, and it can also be an expensive one. But it doesn't have to be as hard, or as expensive, as it may first appear - as long as you have a clear idea what you want, and what your priorities are when building.

The key aspects for most people considering a new system will be the budget you have available, how long you intend the computer to last, what you're going to use it for, and whether you have any components you want to, or could, hang on to.

We've also provided a primer for picking the key parts of a system, just in case you want to get to business immediately.

Build to a budget

When you have limited money to spend, building to a budget is your best option. Set yourself a minimum and a maximum you're willing to spend, and if you're planning your entire system around a rigid budget, check out our "Good enough" section, too.

Even if you're flexible with your money, it pays to set a maximum and stick to it. It's remarkably easy to be talked into a little bit extra here and there that you may not need, and that won't add to the overall performance, but will make a serious dent in your wallet.

One tip that I would certainly recommend is to decide how to divide your budget between the components required for a new system. It's affected by the overall budget, but see her suggestions for a low, mid-range and high-end system below.

When factoring in to your budget, make allowance for the components you absolutely need, and those that are optional extras (as well as which ones can be readily upgraded later). What you'll need is a processor, RAM, hard disk drive or SSD for storage, a motherboard and case.

You may need a power supply - they often come included with a case, which provides good value. If you're building a system with high power needs, it may be worth allocating budget to buy one separately. Other components we've considered are peripherals.

You may need an optical drive, such as a DVD writer, but if you've had a previous system, you may be able to scavenge your old one. Similarly, consider carefully before spending on a new monitor, keyboard and mouse if your old ones are still serving you well. Generally, processing parts such as the graphics card, CPU and RAM will be outdated, and should only be used if suitable.

Also consider re-using your OS, if it's not an OEM version. We recommend 64-bit Windows for new systems, if you can afford it, and Windows 7 has several advantages over Vista in terms of security and managing system resources.

Depending on your needs and how large your budget is, you may be able to get away without needing a dedicated graphics card. If you only use your system for the basics, for example, the integrated graphics processor that comes with many budget and mid-range motherboards should be adequate. It's a relatively easy step to upgrade later if you change your mind, or you find your system is sluggish.

It's a good idea to allocate a proportion of your budget to each component, and try to find the best you can for your money. If storage is your key requirement, for example, then you may want to budget a couple of hundred dollars for hard drives.

If on the other hand you're sure you'll have money later and will want to upgrade, then an expensive motherboard may be a good investment, combined with a cheaper processor.

We've given an idea of the kind of proportion a part might take up in a cheap, mid-range and high-end system, but be prepared to be flexible and adapt if you find a good deal.

Build for the future

While building to a budget is great (and an important part of any system building exercise), sometimes you'll want to build a system that you can hand down to other family members after you're done, or turn into a server, so you'll want to know that it will last several years without drama.

While many components have basic 1 year warranties, if you're after a system that will remain fuss-free it's worth looking for parts that have longer warranties. As an example, the Western Digital Velociraptor hard drive has a five year warranty, compared to the 1 year for most standard 7200rpm drives. The cost is commensurately higher, however.

Another key area for a long-term build is the motherboard, which determines the capabilities of your system. It's worth looking for a motherboard with as many bells and whistles as you can - more features included often means more future-proofing.

Right now, for example, an X58 board has true USB 3, as compared to the P55/H55 boards, which have a workaround version. While there were virtually no USB 3 gadgets available at time of writing, it's a certainty that there will be in the next year or two, and it's likely to become the dominant standard quite rapidly.

Also keep an eye out for system bottlenecks - hard drive speed is a limitation at the moment that SSDs help to get around. SATA 6GB/sec is a key change that improves speeds around the system.

Opting for a new motherboard with capabilities in these areas will help reduce the effect of bottlenecks if you upgrade the system later. It's not worth factoring into a system that may only be used for two years, but may be vital for one used past that point.

AMD Ditches the ATI Brand

2010-08-31T16:58:00.001+08:00

Just as AMD’s upcoming Fusion APU’s eliminate the need for a dedicated ATI graphics card, the company has decided it no longer needs the ATI name either. From now on their flagship GPUs will be branded simply “AMD Radeon”, although existing models will still carry the ATI logo. The change probably doesn't mean much for you, beyond some packaging and ATI-free badges on your computers. But for AMD as a company, it’s a sign of the times.

Logos after the rebrand

Here's their logic behind the rebranding, the ATI name is well known and has a strong association with graphics products. So why ditch those three little letters now, when they've taken AMD so far? The company is promoting a Fusion future , and pushing a new kind of product. By bringing all their components under a single company name, it’s likely that AMD is hoping to alleviate confusion among consumers. And by keeping the Radeon and FirePro lines, AMD’s market research says they get to hold on to the brand recognition that ATI developed.

On another note, it seems that the upcoming APU products are undergoing a name change of their own, as “Fusion” will be going the way of the “Nintendo Revolution.” Instead of continuing under the banner we’ve known them by, AMD’s APUs will be consolidated under the AMD Vision branding introduced last fall.

Computer TechSpot

Logitech Z313, Aural Fast Food

2010-08-30T17:17:00.001+08:00

Speakers are often one of the components that are an afterthought; usually decided upon at the end of a build when cash reserves might be dwindling. The market for cheap sound is a large one, and the Logitech Z313 speakers sit smack bang in the middle of it with a price tag of around $50. That cash will net you an inoffensively small subwoofer with two decent looking satellite, and a control pod that offers volume control and a power switch.

Set up is simple enough that an infant could configure them left long enough, requiring only power and a 3.5mm audio source. Annoyingly the cables are quite short at just under two metres for all distances, restricting the Z313 to use in smaller desks. Setting up the sub underneath a desk, with two satellites up top, we set about listening to Set Me on Fire by Pendulum on CD.

Due to the nature of the incredibly small speakers in the satellites the higher frequencies came out quite clearly, though the subwoofer struggled to keep up with lively low frequency beat, muddying up the mid range in the process. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound particularly great either - just recognisable as the song. Interestingly the sound became much clearer and more enjoyable at the highest volume, though it wavered markedly as the tiny 25W RMS rating struggled to produce consistently loud noise.

The Z313s are less impressive in Modern Warfare 2, giving no sense of situational awareness and a detached feeling that made the action seem far away, a problem intensified by tinny-sounding gunshots and grenade blasts that lacked punch. They're more than enough to play the game, but not to get right into the action.

In a way these speakers are like a cheap cheeseburger: they'll give you noise that is somewhat appealing at first for a nice price, but once you're finished listening you may not want to go back for a second bite.

Computer TechSpot

OCZ Vertex 2 100GB, The Fastest SATA 2 SSD On The Block

2010-08-30T10:20:00.000+08:00

The SSD market is more hotly contested than a bunch of starving plane crash survivors squabbling over the last can of beans. With so many manufacturers stepping into the fray, and all of them offering what is essentially an aluminium wedge of flash chips with a controller, it's hard to determine exactly which product is good, which is bad - and which to steer clear of.

There is one company that appears to have done the legwork on SSDs thus far however, and OCZ has had a near perfect record with solid state technology (their PCIe based offering non withstanding). The Vertex was a great example of this, and it's been thrown back to the engineers for some tweaking: just add in a SandForce controller to replace that dusty Indilinx, cram 100GB's worth of decent multi-level flash chips in (with 7GB reserved by the controller for error correction) and sell it for four hundred bucks.

Performance is the best we've seen yet; returning sustained reads of 230.5MB/s, bursts of 249.9MB/s and access speeds of 0.1ms - though this is only marginally higher than the MX-DS 100GB drive. When full of junk data the drive returned slower averages of 201.4MB/s and bursts slightly higher at 257.4MB/s, so aim to keep some free space for top performance. OCZ also throws in a convenient 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, and the drives controller supports TRIM.

It's surprisingly snappy to use, with 2GB of small files copying in just seconds, and the three year warranty is a nice touch. While it is possible to grab the aforementioned MX-DS SSD for slightly cheaper than the Vertex 2, an extra year's worth of warranty and small performance increases do provide a tempting choice worth a HOT 9.2/10.

Computer TechSpot

Current kitlog for the Home Theatre PC:

2010-08-29T23:48:00.004+08:00

You don't have to follow this exactly or at all but it's a good starting point. The idea is to keep the build cool and quiet with low power draw. Note that the linked sites are Australian (I'm an Aussie) and therefore are in $AUD, peripherals are not included in this list.

CPU: Intel Core i5 760. Plenty of power for HTPC duties and a video encoding champ.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_931&products_id=14941

Motherboard: Gigabyte P55M-UD4, mATX board that doesn't skimp on storage or speed.
http://www.foxcomp.com.au/ProductDetail.asp?ID=11280

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 2000MHz, 4GB of fast memory is plenty for running multiple HTPC media streaming apps.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_538_913&products_id=12496

GPU: Option 1: XFX GeForce GT 220 1GB, cheap, quiet card perfect for blu ray playback and that's about it.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_977&products_id=13627

Option 2: Gigabyte ATI HD5750 Silent Cell 1GB, more expensive silent card that will also handle games on the side, plenty of power here.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_963&products_id=14995

Hard Drive: Western Digital Green 1.5TB, voluminous, power efficient drive that will easily hold all your pr0n, videos and music.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=13198

Power Supply: Corsair HX-650, modular, quiet and more than enough power for a HTPC and then some.
(You may want to buy a cheaper lower wattage PSU, in that case perhaps the Corsair HX-520?)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_354&products_id=12918

Case: Silverstone Grandia GD04, stylish exterior, 3x120mm fans and plenty of room.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_608&products_id=13150

CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken, tiny profile at 58mm tall and quieter than a sponge.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_23_845&products_id=12767

Audio Card: ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim, amazing sound and a must have for Blu-Ray playback, all in a small card.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=211&products_id=12048

Disk Drive: LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Drive, great Blu-Ray drive.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=658_660&products_id=14062

Wireless Card: TP-Link TL-WN951N, zippy 802.11N card for wireless HD video streaming.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=200_328&products_id=7823

And the grand total comes in under $1650 AUD, now go and enjoy your movies.

Computer TechSpot

Palit GTX 470, A More Palatable Version Of This Card Than We've Seen Before

2010-08-29T19:14:00.001+08:00

The GTX 470 seems to be the perfect card for many manufacturers: the TDP is within realistic limits for aftermarket cooling, the core is generally pliable enough to squeeze out a factory overclock, the PCB and power delivery system can be tweaked for a more cost-effective design and more importantly - there actually seems to be a decent volume of cores for them. This brings us to Palit's offering of the GTX 470, and while it has all the things listed above minus the factory overclock, it still has a lot of challenges to overcome.

Firstly and most importantly, Palit has custom designed the PCB and cooling system to great effect. Though the heatsink is a relatively standard affair (take a lump of copper, throw in a few heatpipes and whack some aluminium fins in there), its two fans do a much better job of cooling the card evenly along its length, and also keeping the power regulation under control. It looks visually interesting enough, but the performance of the cooler is great - idling at 40 degrees (Celsius) with an impressive load temp of 78 (cooling results will vary from case to case). That leaves Palit's design a whole ten degrees cooler at load than the reference cooler design, while generating similar noise levels.

This is made even more impressive by the specifications of the GF100 'Fermi' core Palit has chosen to run inside the card, boasting 448 CUDA cores and 1280MB of GDDR5 memory on a 320 bit bus. That particular core engenders a TDP rating of 215W, so Palit's cooler is very welcome here.

The enhanced cooling also lends a helping hand when it comes time to overclock, and unlike other GTX 470's, the Palit card went as high as 781MHz, a whopping 28 per cent (+173) overclock. We were also able to squeeze out a 5 per cent (+44) increase for the memory clock speed, nothing particularly breathtaking.

Performance in games was solid, pulling playable average frame rates (36fps) in Crysis and a flawless showing in grid (67fps). The GTX 470 should be more than capable at playing most games at decent settings for the foreseeable future. Uniengine shows good scores with tessellation-optimised architecture, though the gap between it and the 5850 closes when tessellation is disabled. 3DMark Vantage pulls a nice P17890 score, though this is inflated somewhat by PhysX.

Though performance at stock speeds is good, our overclock resulted in a big performance boost scoring a P21859 3DMark Vantage score, a 22 per cent increase (3969 points) at no cost other than the time taken to get the overclock stable. The fact the card is so good at overclocking is interesting; but even more so is why Palit didn't give it a factory overclock. A bit of a disappointment is the fact that the packaging boasts that a free game is included, but this was simply a copy of the free demo 'Supersonic Sled' available from Nvidia. Also a disappointing note is the fact that only two of the cards display ports can be used at the same time (due to Nvidia's chip design).

The card comes in at the reasonable price point of $350, while this is more than ATI's equivalent card the 5850, the GTX 470 supports CUDA but more importantly PhysX and performs much better under tessellation, key elements of future DirectX11 games. Ultimately Palit's card takes the disappointing reference GTX 470 and makes it a whole lot better. The bundle may be quite lacking but the price point is creeping closer to the 5850, the build is very solid with far better cooling than the reference design and huge potential for overclocking, and the big performance gains that come with it earn this card a HOT 8.8/10.

Computer TechSpot

Mach Xtreme's ArmorX RAM Ain't Half Bad

2010-08-29T11:49:00.000+08:00

Mach Xtreme (MX) is so new to the memory market that the dust has barely had time to settle, and nor does it appear to be doing so any time soon - MX has hit the ground running with a dual-channel memory kit running at 2300MHz with 8-11-8-28 timings. At these XMP profile settings we noticed slightly better wPrime scores and slightly lower PiFast scores than the G.Skill Pi series kit , though they're very similar.

Serious Heatsinks

Overclocking was much improved due to the unique heatsinks on the two sticks (each mounted in an alternating fashion so they can be installed side-by-side), boosting the frequency up to 2520MHz at the maximum. We even lowered the timings somewhat and kept frequencies higher, though the best result is hard to call - 2520MHz seems fastest, but potentially due to the overclocked processor.

For $220 this kit is the fastest we've seen yet, shaming slower triple-channel kits, though you need to tweak them heavily to get them to their best. We give this kit a HOT 9.0/10.

Computer TechSpot

XFX Launches The Mother Of All Limited Editions

2010-08-28T16:07:00.000+08:00

XFX has quite literally come out guns blazing with its latest ATI card, no doubt in an attempt to gun down any current or future Fermi based Nvidia cards. The card comes with what has to be one of the coolest cases ever (take that ASUS), yes what you see below is in fact a highly detailed plastic model of the FN P90 SMG designed to house the ultra high spec 5970.

Aside from the awesome case the 5970 Limited Black Edition bundle also comes with a LAN bag for holding peripherals. Also included are six mini display port to HDMI(4) and DVI(2) adaptors, crossfirex bridge and the usual stickers, manuals, etc which are packaged in boxes made to look like ammo clips for your new gun. The level of detail on XFX's part is amazing.

The card itself will pack a serious punch with two R870 cores clocked at 850MHz, add to that the 4GB (yep, 4) of GDDR5 memory on a 512 bit bus and we can expect some ~~good~~ huge frame rates. The two cores are also placed further apart on the custom PCB than a stock 5970, with each having its own dedicated heat sink. This should keep the card cool and quiet even under extreme load and give you some nice headroom for overclocking. The card will also be capable of ATI's multiple monitor set up, Eyefinity 6, with six mini display ports on the back of the card.

ASUS's recent 5970, Ares, has similar specifications and boasts a 32% performance increase over a stock 5970. The Ares also costs about $1200 so for those that can afford it it should be priced at over $1000, a small fortune to part with for the pinnacle of graphics processing power.