Some Pictures from Our Office

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: October 26, 2009 - 2:28 PM PST 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. click to enlarge 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. click to enlarge click to enlarge click to enlarge On the right wall we have our “Mickey Mouse Studio”, where we take pictures of cases. click to enlarge 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. click to enlarge 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. click to enlarge Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top

3rd Dan Black Belt Test

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: August 18, 2009 - 1:08 PM PST 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: Some recent pictures World Taekwondo Hanmadang 2008 My 2nd dan black belt test Trashing an Aiwa sound system My 1st dan black belt test Training for my 1st degree black belt Training Tae Kwon Do with my DVD player Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top

New Quiz: Digital Cameras

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: August 11, 2009 - 9:53 AM PST 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! Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (3) top

Corsair Addresses Noise Level on our HX750W and HX850W Power Supply Reviews

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: August 7, 2009 - 12:52 PM PST 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. click to enlarge Figure 1: +5VSB during test one. click to enlarge Figure 2: +5VSB during test two. click to enlarge 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. click to enlarge Figure 4: +5VSB during test one, Corsair testing. click to enlarge Figure 5: +5VSB during test two, Corsair testing. click to enlarge Figure 6: +5VSB during test three, Corsair testing. Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (5) top

New Quiz: Power Supplies - Part 2

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: August 5, 2009 - 8:06 AM PST I've just posted a new quiz on our "Test Your Skills" section: Power Supplies - Part 2. Enjoy! Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (4) top

Power Supplies Re-Tested - Part 3

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: July 3, 2009 - 8:57 AM PST We re-tested three more power supplies using our new precision power meter today: Antec CP-850 Dynex 400 W PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V More to come... Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top

And The Training Goes On...

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: June 26, 2009 - 7:02 AM PST In August I will perform my test for 3rd dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Tomorrow some pictures I took last week. The person holding the board on the second picture is my new master, Edmilson da Silva (5th dan). click to enlarge click to enlarge Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top

Power Supplies Re-Tested - Part 2

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: June 25, 2009 - 12:45 PM PST Today we updated five more power supply reviews. The new results didn't change our opinion or recommendation for these products: Antec EarthWatts 500 W Antec Signature 650 Corsair HX1000W Enermax Liberty ECO 500 W OCZ EliteXStream 1000 W It is a lot of work to update everything, but we think it is worthwhile. Tomorrow I will fix another batch. Stay tuned and thanks for the patience. Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top

Power Supplies Re-Tested - Part 1

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: June 24, 2009 - 2:19 PM PST Since we bought a new precision power meter and we discovered some issues in our efficiency readings, we decided to re-test as many power supplies as we can. Our conclusions about the majority of power supplies remained the same, however some units were "downgraded", having their awards REVOKED. We updated the following reviews today: Akasa Paxpower 500 W - DOWNGRADED Seventeam ST-380PAS Seventeam ST-550P-AM ASP Thermaltake Litepower 450 W Topower PowerBird 900 W Zalman ZM600-HP It is a lot of work to update everything, but we think it is worthwhile. Tomorrow I will fix another batch. Stay tuned. Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (2) top

What WePC Dreams Are Becoming Reality?

Author: Gabriel Torres Date: June 23, 2009 - 12:20 PM PST In the eight months that WePC is online, everybody gave lots of ideas on how portable computers could improve. In this relatively short period of time we’ve seen some ideas we discussed here becoming reality. Read full article here. Print Version | Send to Friend | Bookmark This Entry | Permalink | Comments (0) top