Hardware 2.0

February 9th, 2010

ATI's newest GPU - The Radeon HD 5570

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 12:33 pm

Categories: AMD/ATI, Components, Gaming, Graphics, Hardware

Tags: ATI Radeon, ATI Technologies Inc., DirectX, Radeon, GPU, Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5570, Corporate Communications, Video Cards, Performance Management

It seems like a week doesn’t go by without ATI releasing a new GPU. Today we get a GPU that slots in between the HD 5450 and HD 5670 - introducing the Radeon HD 5570.

The Radeon HD 5570 completes the 500-series line-up. Priced at around $80 it fits in nicely between the HD 5450 which is priced at $50, and the HD 5670 which is priced at under $100.

Here’s the scoop on this card:

• Advanced performance, affordable price: The ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics card provides great game play in DirectX 11 titles such as Codemaster’s Colin McRae: DiRT 2, EA Phenomic’s BattleForge, GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as well as DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL titles. The ATI Radeon HD 5570 delivers up to a 60 percent performance improvement over the closest competing product in its class Based on frame rates measured using Devil May Cry 4 [1680x1050]. 
• Expanding the Desktop: The latest in ATI Eyefinity technology enables up to three displays to be used with a single ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics card, delivering a highly immersive gaming experience, and helping to boost productivity in home and office applications.
• Accelerate with ATI Stream technology: ATI Stream technology helps to speed up video transcoding and to improve video playback performance with applications such as Adobe Flash.  ATI Stream technology also delivers video enhancements that help enable better visual quality and sharper, more vibrant images.
• Immersive HD multimedia experience:  The ATI Radeon HD 5570 graphics card delivers the same rich HD multimedia capabilities as the enthusiast-class ATI Radeon HD 5870, with features such as HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for a premium media PC experience.

Here’s the spec: Read the rest of this entry »

February 9th, 2010

The Windows 7 honeymoon is over

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 9:39 am

Categories: Microsoft, Windows 7

Tags: Operating System, Windows 7 Honeymoon, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Thanks to the power of hindsight, it’s now quite apparent that Windows Vista was hated by a large proportion of the people who came into contact with the beleaguered OS. In contrast, Windows 7 has been receiving almost endless praise (even before anyone outside of Microsoft was even running the OS). But lately I’ve noticed the tide turning, and the shine is beginning to tarnish on Windows 7’s previously immaculate halo?

Over the past few weeks, Windows 7 has been hit by several problems, which while being high profile, may or may not only exist in the minds of the users. There’s been the battery issue, where users claim that Windows 7 is causing battery deterioration, and on top of that claims that a reliability patch released by Microsoft is actually causing problems. According to Microsoft, the battery issue is a non-issue and Windows 7 is working normally, and the company is investigating claims that the reliability patch is causing BSoDs and startup/shutdown issues.

Windows 7 has been good for Microsoft, driving not only strong sales and profits, but Read the rest of this entry »

February 9th, 2010

Field Report: Reported Windows 7 reliability fix problems

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:56 am

Categories: In the news, Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

I noticed that my ZDNet blogging colleague Mary-Jo Foley has covered the reports that Microsoft’s new reliability patch for Windows 7 might be causing some users to experience problems. I just want to add some field notes to this issue.

• I’ve heard from around a dozen readers who claim that there is some link between KB977074 and startup/shutdown issues in Windows 7.
• The issues reported seem vague and unspecific.
• While some affected users claim that uninstalling KB977074 helps, others say it does not.
• Alleged symptoms range from BSoD and long delays at startup, and slow shutdowns.
• No contacts in OEM supply chain are reporting complaints from users.
• Issue does not seem to be widespread. In fact, this issue might have little/nothing to do with the update in question, especially since uninstalling the update has no effect for some who claim to be affected.
• All systems here, along with all systems I scope out regularly, have no problems with this update.

Anyone out there with more to share?

February 8th, 2010

YouGov: Microsoft outpaces Apple in customer satisfaction

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 5:29 pm

Categories: Apple, Microsoft, Trends

Tags: Apple Inc., Customer Satisfaction, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Product Marketing, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Marketing, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

It seems that Windows 7 gave Microsoft a much needed customer satisfaction boost.

According to research carried out by YouGov, the number of respondents giving Microsoft a positive grade for customer satisfaction jumped to 67% in the week following the launch of Windows 7 (October 22, 2009), up from 64% where it stood the day before the OS hit the shelves. By December 31, Microsoft’s satisfied customer percentage jumped to 73%, the highest rating Microsoft has had since YouGov began the survey in 2007.

Compare this to Apple. When Snow Leopard was released (August 28, 2009), the new OS boosted the number of satisfied customers by only 1%, to 65%.

Impressive gains for Microsoft, but what will be even more impressive is if the company can hold onto these gain over the coming year.

February 8th, 2010

Microsoft: Windows 7 isn't trashing your battery

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:44 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Battery, Microsoft Corp., Sinofsky, Engineering, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Last week I posted on how there’s was a growing believe that a flaw in Windows 7 was causing Windows 7 to permanently trash notebook batteries. Today, Microsoft’s president of Windows and Windows Live division Steven Sinofsky responds.

Sinofsky has posted an extensive response to the issue on the Engineering Windows 7 blog, but I’ll extract the highlights for you here:

• We have seen no reproducible reports of this notification on new hardware or newly purchased PCs. While we’ve seen the reports of new PCs receiving this notification, in all cases we have established that the battery was in a degraded state.
• Our OEM partners have utilized their telemetry (call center, support forums, etc.) and have let us know that they are seeing no activity beyond what they expect. It is worth noting that PC manufacturers work through battery issues with customers and have a clear view of what is to be expected both in general and with respect to specific models, timelines, and batteries.
• In our telemetry from RTM code customers, only a very small percentage of users are receiving the “Consider replacing your battery” notification, and as expected, we are seeing systems older than ~1.5 years.  We’re seeing relatively fewer notifications compared to pre-release software as the average age of the system decreases.
• Microsoft has received 12 customer service incidents in addition to pulling 8 additional incidents from various forums. To date (for a total of 20 incidents), none of these have shown anything other than degraded batteries. 

My ZDNet colleague Mary-Jo Foley has coverage of the issue here.

Over the past few days I’ve been getting feedback from some users convinced that their battery took a hit after installing Windows 7. That said, follow-up questions seem to highlight several factor that might contribute to the problem:

• Old batteries (+2 years old)
• Third-party batteries
• Third party chargers

At the moment, I feel that the problem here has more to do with people being told that there’s an issue. Once people get a little information (especially bad news), they begin to obsess over it (whether that be SMART info relating to hard drives, CPU or GPU temperatures, or battery state), so I’m tempted to say that this is what’s we’re seeing here.

Still, I’m interested in hearing from folks who still think that this is an issue. Get in touch with me via TalkBack section, via email, or via Twitter (@the_pc_doc).

February 8th, 2010

Apple's Mac: If not Intel CPUs/Boot Camp, what's behind the success?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 9:24 am

Categories: Apple

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Desktops, Hardware, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

If you bought your first Mac at some point during the last few years, what was it that drove you to make the switch?

The other day I added my thoughts to a piece written by Chris Seibold over on Apple Matters. Seibold suggested that Apple’s success with the Mac platform is down to the company’s shift to Intel CPUs, and he has data that shows strong correlation. I suggested that CPU brand wasn’t a strong enough driving force and suggested that Boot Camp, an easy way to run Windows on Macs (technology made possible by the fact that Macs ran Intel processors), was the driving force.

But it seems that many of you don’t agree with this at all. Putting aside the pointless ad hominem arguments and the obvious crazy tinfoil hat garbage, I’m curious to hear from folks who were previously using a different platform (be it Windows or Linux) and who switched to Mac at around the time that Apple switched to Intel processors (let’s say from the end of 2006 onwards). I want to know one thing:

What made you give Mac a chance?

Was it price, advertising, because friends and family had one, halo effect from other Apple products … let me know!

Feel free to drop me a note either in the TalkBack section, via email, or via Twitter (@the_pc_doc).

February 8th, 2010

Build your own high-performance video/photo editing PC ... for under $1,500

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 7:28 am

Categories: Components, DIY PC, Data Storage, Graphics, Hardware, Performance

Tags: PC, LG Electronics Inc., High-performance, Video, Photograph, CPU, RAM, High-performance Video Photo, Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU, Corporate Communications

Continuing my “Build your own” series, I’m going to follow on from building a Home Theater PC and today look at building a how to build a high-performance video/photo editing PC … for under $1,500.

There are several requirements for a high-performance video/photo editing PC that differ from your average PC. In fact, even a high-performance gaming PC might not be ideally suited to photo and video editing.

Note: This is a bare-bones system so I’m not including peripherals (keyboard, mouse and monitor), OS or a case in the listing.

Here are my requirements:

• Fast (but not super-fast) CPU
• Lots of RAM
• Plenty of storage
• Fast storage
• Ability to burn CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray

OK, let’s pull the parts we need together!

CPU

OK, I’m looking for power, but I don’t want to pay crazy money for that power. For this design I’ve chosen an Intel Core i7 processor, but rather than blow nearly $1,000 on the 975 Extreme Edition, I’ve gone for the more modest 920.

The Core i7 920 is a 2.66GHz, quad core part that’s built using 45nm architecture. Not only is it a quad core part, but each core is capable of handling two threads each.

This part is also supports Intel’s Streaming SIMD Extension 4.1 (SSE 4.1)making it ideally suited to dealing with multimedia (such as video encoding and decoding).

Some downsides are that this CPU needs a specific motherboard (Socket LGA 1366) and DDR3 RAM, both of which add to the price of the system.

Price: $290

Next –>

February 5th, 2010

As $9.99 ebooks evaporate, Amazon's Kindle will suffer

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 3:33 pm

Categories: Entertainment, Hardware

Tags: Amazon.com Inc., E-book, Amazon Kindle, iPad, E-books & E-Readers, Personal Technology, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

It seems that Amazon’s dream of the $9.99 ebook for the Kindle is dead. First it was MacMillan who strong-armed the book giant, then HarperCollins, and now Hatchette. Where does this leave the Kindle?

As it stood, with ebooks for the Kindle costing $9.99, Amazon had an advantage over Apple’s iBooks store for the iPad. That made the iPad a poor buy compared to the Kindle for book lovers. Now that publishers are pulling out of the flat-fee deal with Amazon and setting their own prices (which will, of course, be higher no doubt), that advantage will likely disappear.

What’s happened here is pretty obvious. Initially Amazon had the publishers Read the rest of this entry »

February 5th, 2010

Is Apple paying UK customers $300 to get faulty 27-inch iMacs back?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:45 pm

Categories: Apple

Tags: Apple iMac, Apple Inc., U.K., Refund, Desktops, Retail, Hardware, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Gizmodo is running a piece (and I have independent, albeit unofficial, confirmation of this) that Apple is offering UK customers with faulty 27-inch iMacs a refund plus 15% on top to buy back the systems because there’s no ETA on spares for repair.

Here’s what a UK-based Apple Authorized Service Provider/Reseller had to say:

The short of it is that apple doesn’t have any 27″ LCDs in Europe and there is a backlog of 230 machines that are waiting on this part, with no eta on shipping. So to keep customers happy(ish) they’re paying them. That’s right apple is now (quietly) offering people a full refund and 15% of the price extra, and they are arranging a free pick up of your machine. I’m not 100% if this is the case in the US, but it’s happening over here in the UK.

As far as i know it’s both Apple stores and 3rd party retailers, but the refund itself comes from Apple not the 3rd party retailer. We’ve had two customer that have both gotten there machines’ refunded plus the 15%.

That 15% works out at around $300 extra for each system.

That seems like a mighty fine deal. Anyone in the US been offered such a deal?

February 5th, 2010

Are Mac sales driven by "Intel Inside"? I think it's more to do with "Windows Inside"

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 10:58 am

Categories: Apple

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Intel Corp., Sales Strategy, Desktops, Sales Force Management, Sales, Hardware, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Over on Apple Matters there’s an interesting piece by Chris Seibold that suggests there’s a correlation between Apple switching to Intel CPUs and the dramatic increase in Mac sales. Is it really “Intel Inside” that’s selling Macs? Or is it more to do with “Windows Inside”?

Pre switch Mac sales were flattish. After the first Intel powered Macs came out sales trending decidedly up and once the transition was complete Mac sales took off.

Seibold then goes on to look at, and dismiss, the notion that Mac sales were driven by Vista (or user’s poor reaction to the OS) and Mac OS X refinement. Breaking down the sales into desktop Macs and notebook Macs, Seibold concludes that it’s the superior Intel processor in the notebooks that’s driving sales, given that it’s an explosion in portable sales that are really driving Mac sales.

It’s a compelling read (and I encourage you to read the piece), but I’m not convinced.

Why?

Because I have a Read the rest of this entry »