| Is It Time to Move to Solid-State Storage? |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: January 27, 2010 - 10:07 AM PST |
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Everywhere you look, people are talking about SSDs (Solid State Drives) and their advantages. You may think that everybody has already replaced their hard drive with an SSD but you. This is far from the truth; what happens is that most memory manufacturers are putting a lot of effort on marketing SSDs basically because their profit margin on regular memory modules has dropped tremendously in the past few years. Add the price drop on memory itself, and SSDs seem to be a good idea for them to make more money. So a lot of people talking about SSDs don’t mean that everybody is using SSDs, but that manufacturers are pushing people to talk about them. |
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| Power Supplies Re-Tested - Part 4 |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: January 22, 2010 - 10:50 AM PST |
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Today I retested one more power supply using our precision power meter. The conclusions haven't changed: |
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| Is CES Dying? |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: January 9, 2010 - 11:18 AM PST |
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A quick heads-up if you haven’t been to CES (Consumer Electronics Show, the largest trade show for consumer electronics, including computers) this year. This was the smallest CES I’ve ever been to. They simply shut down one of the exhibition halls (Sands Expo) and the first floor of the South Hall from the LVCC (Las Vegas Convention Center) was cut in half, with a black curtain in the middle of the hall so you wouldn’t fell that the hall was completely empty. On top of that, it seems that CEA (the company behind CES) is using some mob tactics to remove from Vegas companies that are not willing to pay their outrageous rates to have a booth on the show and decided to have meetings at hotel rooms instead. We saw, in person (we were inside the room when this happened), when the Palazzo hotel manager, a group of bellboys with several luggage carts and a group of security officers arrived to kick out a very well-known PSU/CPU cooler/case manufacturer (that asked us to remove their name from here, let's call them "company Z") from their hotel room because they were using the room to promote business. If you have never been to the CES, let’s quickly explain how it is configured. Part of the show happens on the Sands Expo, which is connected to the Venetian hotel (which, in turn, is connected to the Palazzo hotel, since they belong to the same group), and part happens on the LVCC. Because of the high prices to have a booth on the show floor, many manufacturers prefer to have meetings at hotel suites. This is not only cheaper, but also more convenient, because the show floor is really noisy, being a really annoying place to conduct meetings. It seems that CEA has an agreement with the Venetian where companies willing to use rooms for meetings have to pay an extra fee that goes to CEA, in order to cover the loss of business. This, by itself, we think is a big joke. Company Z booked a big suite at the top floor from the Palazzo. According to them, they asked if they would have any problem holding meetings, displaying products and giving a party. Apparently the booking agent said no. When the Palazzo management learned that company Z was displaying products at their suite, they asked them to remove all computers, saying that they were not authorized to display products inside the room. Funny thing is, they were o.k. with the party on the same night (the food was catered by the hotel). The next morning they got a visit from another manager that said that they need to remove all brochures from the table, because no meetings could be conducted on the room (so, they are ok with a big noisy party but not ok with meetings?). Then when the management saw that they were still getting journalists in and out their hotel room, they told they would have to leave and be charged in full for all days they have booked (and not for the two days they have stayed). We arrived at their hotel room shortly after this episode and as we were preparing to leave the room we saw the bellboys, security officers and hotel management coming in to kick everybody out (01/08/2010 around 5:00 PM). Since the Palazzo belongs to the same group as the Venetian and they are interconnected, we have the impression that CEA put some pressure on the Venetian/Palazzo management to make sure everybody paid the alluded CEA fee. In the end, company Z could not have the meetings they were willing to have, could only stay in Vegas for half the show, and the Palazzo has surely lost not only their business with company Z, but with other companies, as we are sure that this story will spread fast among all hardware manufacturers. The winner? All other hotels that don’t impose any kind of restrictions or overcharge for using a hotel suite to have meetings. The losers? The Palazzo, CEA and CES. PS: Jason from Dailytech had a meeting with company Z right before ours and we bumped at each other there. He posted a more detailed report on this incident. According to him, the value of the CEA fee for companies that decide to display products on their hotel rooms is of USD 10,000. |
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| Is HP’s webcam racist? |
| Author: Cássio Lima | Date: January 5, 2010 - 9:00 AM PST |
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A guy called Desi Cryer has posted a video on YouTube that suggest a problem on the facial recognition system present on the newest HP laptops that doesn’t work with black people. Facial recognition system automatically tracks user’s face. On the video, Cryer demonstrate how his HP webcam doesn’t follow him, but seems to have no trouble following his white co-worker Wanda Zamen. According to HP the technology used is based on algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose, and the camera might have difficulty "seeing" contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting. The company is investigating the problem. Below you can watch the video and see whether HP’s webcam is racist or not. |
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| New Apple retail store... sorry, it's a Microsoft store! |
| Author: Alberto Cozer | Date: January 2, 2010 - 10:27 PM PST |
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Last year Microsoft decided to compete with Apple in the retail market. One of the very first Microsoft retail stores was open in Scottsdale, AZ. Visiting the store I was surprised with how much it resembles the Apple stores. Ok, it's not really news that Apple "inspires" Microsoft for many years. When Microsoft announced it would be opening retail stores, we sort of expected them to somehow follow Apple's success recipe: clean and lean stores, ample spaces, well-trained employess, a local one-on-one support center and a collection of accessories and software for its products, all in one single place. But I think Microsoft is gone too far in this case. The Microsoft stores are not only inspired by Apple stores. They have the same look and feel of the Apple stores. It's true that the logos and the colors are slightly different, but anyone used to the layout of any Apple store will not have problems to find what is looking for at the Microsoft stores, with the products and areas located exactly as they are at the Apple stores. Still during 2009 other blogs and websites (click here to visit one of them) reported that Microsoft was offering higher wages than Apple to Apple retail stores employess willing to "change to the other side of the force". The strategy seems to be working. Below some pictures comparing the Apple store in Chandler, AZ with the Microsoft one in Scottsdale, AZ. 
Apple store entrance in Chandler, AZ. Click to enlarge.
Microsoft store entrance in Scottsdale, AZ. Click to enlarge.
Inside the Apple store. Click to enlarge.
Inside the Microsoft store. Different colors, but the same tables. Click to enlarge.
"Genius bar" for local support at the Apple store. Click to enlarge.
"Guru bar" on the back at the Microsoft store. A kind employee asked me to not take pictures too close to it to "protect the other customers privacy". Click to enlarge.
Accessories section at the Apple store. Click to enlarge.
Accessories section at the Microsoft store. Click to enlarge.
A panel at the Apple store celebrating the millions of applications at the Apple store. Click to enlarge.
A similar panel at the Microsoft store, representing the millions of applications for Windows. Click to enlarge.
Nothing wrong in copying a good idea, but I think new ideas, concepts, products and real competition adds more to the world. |
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| Five Things you Need to Know About Power Supplies |
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| Some Pictures from Our Office |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: October 26, 2009 - 2:28 PM PST |
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Some users asked us to post some pictures from our office/lab. Finally our office is a little bit more presentable and I could take some pictures today. Our office is comprised by two small rooms, with a total about 400 square feet. Below you can see how our office looks like when you open the main door. The big desk at the back is my desk. Due to lack of a better place, I am storing video monitors on top of the hutch. On the right side you can see a poster from the movie THX-1138, which I use as my avatar on our forums. On top of the first desk you can see some disassembled power supplies that I still need to write about. You can also see some boxes from cases that we have already reviewed and we are still about to review. 
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On the picture below you can see how the second room, which is our lab, looks like when you cross the door on the right. We have the power supply load tester on the right and a bench that we use to disassemble power supplies on the left. We use the bench on the right to test pictures from power supplies and other components, like motherboards, video cards, etc. When we are collecting data from video cards and CPUs we install our test bed on the bench from the left. 
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On the right wall we have our “Mickey Mouse Studio”, where we take pictures of cases. 
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On the shelves present on the left side we store video cards for future reviews and components for test beds, like CPUs, hard drives, optical drives, etc. The three computers you can see I use to run Folding at Home. 
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And finally against the wall that divides both rooms we have more shelves to store parts. I use the left shelves to store components that we haven’t tested yet (especially power supplies) and the right shelves to store parts we have already tested and that we need to hold for future reference, like motherboards. 
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| 3rd Dan Black Belt Test |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: August 18, 2009 - 1:08 PM PST |
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If you follow my website for long enough you already know that I train Tae Kwon Do since 1992 and I was about to test for my 3rd degree black belt. The exam was last weekend and it was really good. I posted some videos on YouTube, the highlight was definitely the breaking number four, where I had to break 13 boards with one strike (my hand is doing fine, by the way). Besides the four breakings and four forms (Poomsae), I have to perform several self-defense drills, sparrings (I uploaded the most difficult one, which was of me against two other guys). Now I have to train really hard to move to the next rank, 4th dan, which is the first "master" level. I hope to be able to test for my 4th dan in 2012. BTW, the window below is a "playlist", so you can see all clips in sequence or simply choose the one you want to watch. You can see some old entries about my Tae Kwon Do training: |
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| New Quiz: Digital Cameras |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: August 11, 2009 - 9:53 AM PST |
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Our contributor Sandy Berger has just posted a new quiz on our Test Your Skills section: Digital Cameras. Take this quiz to measure your knowledge about them! |
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| Corsair Addresses Noise Level on our HX750W and HX850W Power Supply Reviews |
| Author: Gabriel Torres | Date: August 7, 2009 - 12:52 PM PST |
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On our reviews with HX750W and HX850W power supplies we've seen a high noise level on the +5VSB (standby) output surpassing the 50 mV limit while the power supply was delivering 20%, 40% and 60% from its maximum capacity. Below you can see the screenshots we got with HX750W during tests number one (20% load, i.e. 150 W, with +5VSB delivering 1 A/5 W), two (40% load, i.e. 300 W, with +5VSB delivering 1.5 A/7.5 W) and three (60% load, i.e. 450 W, with +5VSB delivering 2 A/10 W). During tests number four and five noise was below the maximum allowed. 
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Figure 1: +5VSB during test one.
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Figure 2: +5VSB during test two.
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Figure 3: +5VSB during test three.
Worried about our findings, Corsair tested HX750W on a Chroma 8000 load tester (a far more advanced system than our SunMoon SM-268) configured with the same load patterns we used. The results for +5VSB noise were very different, as you can see on the screenshots below (maximum noise of only 13.8 mV). The only explanation we have is that somehow our equipment interfered with the outputs. This way any criticism regarding the +5VSB from these two power supplies we posted on the past should not be considered. 
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Figure 4: +5VSB during test one, Corsair testing.
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Figure 5: +5VSB during test two, Corsair testing.
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Figure 6: +5VSB during test three, Corsair testing.
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