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pharoah88     23-Sep-2011 16:34  
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Windows 8 Security Feature Could Prevent Systems from Dual-Booting with Linux
Too much of a good thing may be a hindrance as Windows 8's secure-boot functionality could prevent some users from running both Windows and Linux.
Overheard: Intel's Core i7-2700K Available Next Month for US$331
Come October, we may expect the debut of the Intel Core i7-2700K for a price of US$331 hence, prospective buyers would not have to wait to long to get their hands on it.
New HTC Android Phones to Have 5GB Free Dropbox Service
HTC entered into a partnership with Dropbox to bring cloud storage service to its latest Android devices. Users can enjoy 5GB of free storage on their mobile devices.
Rick Bergman Bids Adieu to AMD
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) announces that its Head of Products Group is leaving the chip maker to pursue a new career opportunity at another organization.
 
 
pharoah88     20-Sep-2011 14:18  
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Windows 8 Faster Than Windows 7 at Almost Everything

Tuesday, 20 Sep 2011, 9:52am (3 hours 51 min ago)

Windows 8 Faster Than Windows 7 at Almost Everything



It looks like Windows 8 is going to play very well with upcoming Ultrabooks.

Our favorite tips and tricks website, Lifehacker, conducted a non-benchmark test of the highly anticipated Microsoft operating system and came up with some pretty fascinating figures.

Their test machine runs an Intel Core i7 (3.8GHz), 6GB  RAM, 2TB  HDD and an Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT.

The most interesting figure in the test was how Windows 8 dramatically improves boot-up times.

Windows 7 takes around 35 seconds from get from Windows screen to desktop, while Windows 8 takes less than half the amount of time, at 10 seconds  -- from a regular hard disk no less.

Meanwhile at HardwareZone, we're also testing out a developer's preview on a laptop, and we'll make sure that you readers will be able to read our thoughts on it as soon as possible, so keep a lookout for it.

 
 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 14:01  
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Battery Performance 

Before we dive into the battery life performance, there are several points that we’d like to share. The battery test results for the MacBook Pro were done on the Mac OSX, and not through Boot Camp Windows that is likely not as optimized for Apple products. The MacBook Pro's non-interchangeable batteries have also engineered to fit into the machine's profile  (more mass into smaller space = larger capacity), and unlike conventional batteries on laptops, they are not removable. Here's the specs table again but with added information pertinent to battery life and portability index calculation.
Specifications/Notebook HP Pavilion  dv6 Lenovo
IdeaPad Y560

Apple MacBook
Pro 15-inch
Processor Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0 GHz Intel Core i7-740QM 2.0 GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0 GHz
Chipset Intel HM65 Intel HM55 Intel HM65 Express
Memory 4GB DDR 3 4GB DDR 3 4GB DDR 3
HDD 750 GB GDD - 5400RPM 750 GB GDD - 5400RPM 750 GB GDD - 5400RPM
Video ATI Radeon HD 6770M ATI Radeon HD 5730M ATI Radeon HD 6750M
Battery 10.8V / 5130 mAH / 51.51 Whr 11.1V 5130 mAH / 56.9 Whr 77 Whr
Dimensions 37.8 x 24.68 x 3.11 cm 38.5 x 25.5 x 3.3 cm 36.4 x 24.9 x 2.41 cm
Weight 2.63 kg 2.7 kg 2.54 kg

The power-saving nature of the second generation processor requires less power, hence the 10.8V, 4770mAh battery.
 

 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 13:58  
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Now that we’ve cleared the details, the much more expensive MacBook Pro showed a massive lead over the Windows based machines, lasting just a bit less than its advertised seven hours. The HP dv6 however didn't do too badly as compared to its other Windows based brethren. Running on interated graphics, it managed a good three and a half hours, while playing the test DVD loop flawlessly. That's a good 100 minutes more than the Lenovo IdeaPad Y560. Moreover, when the discrete graphics took over, the notebook also managed to last for two and a half hours before giving up. Very decent for a modern multimedia Windows machine, that's likely just enough juice for users to perhaps enjoy a movie and a half.



What this means for the average consumer, is that battery life off the wall -- something which can make or break a notebook --  is good for a windows notebook of this price tier. The latest Sandy Bridge processors with integrated graphics also allows for the notebooks to turn off the power draining discrete graphics unit while maintaining a reasonable amount of graphical processing power for more mundane tasks like watching DVDs and surfing the net. As seen below, the MacbBook Pro still takes the lead but mostly because of the integrated battery giving it more capacity, plus the tighter integration of its OS  and hardware optimization.

 
 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 13:42  
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HP Pavilion dv6-6003TX: Divvying up the Sandy Bridge

Reviewed by Leo Boon Yeow on Fri, 17 Jun 2011

The Right Mix

The Right Mix



The trick to selling as many laptops as possible has evolved over the years. It’s now not enough to sell notebooks to us just based on specs alone. Since the turn of the century, Apple led the charge in turning your workhorse into something more -- a fashion accessory. This discovery alone led to fatter profit margins, propelling them into becoming the most valuable technology company in the world. So what is the world’s biggest technology company Hewlett Packard going to do to compete? Exactly the same, but with variations to suit a wider audience and range of price points.



 

Decking out it’s premium laptops with designer togs has proven to be a wise choice for HP. Branding collaborations with contemporary pop culture icons like Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga among many others has also proven to be extremely lucrative, keeping HP right up there in consumer’s minds when it comes to laptop desirability. It’s thanks to this competitive mindset that the object of this review, the 15.6-inch   HP Pavilion dv6-6003TX, one of the first second-generation Sandy Bridge machines on our hands, is able to look like what is does -- beautiful.



 

While it’s not as beautiful in an ENVY-able laser-etched design kind of way, its simple charms stem from the premium materials that HP has opted to use throughout the Pavillion line-up. In accordance to HP’s current design direction, soft curves accentuate every corner, making it very comfortable to hold in your hands. “Designer” finishing touches also come in the form of the “dark umber metal finish” (which actually means dark brown in laymen terms) found on the machine’s lid and palm-rest. This along with the glowing LED lit HP logo politely giving way to the metallic finishing found at the bottom left corner, invokes a sense of luxury rarely found on laptops under S$2000.  And for a list price of S$1799, you would get specs like a quad-core Intel Core i7-2630QM, 4GB of RAM as well as a powerful  ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6770M GPU. All in all, this gives the HP Pavilion dv6 the right mix of presentation, power and affordability.



 

Adding on the the list of luxuries that the HP dv6 has, is the “Beats Audio” branded sound experience that the laptop is touting. This “Beats” experience comes in the form of two speakers under the screen as well as two more under the palm-rest. Sound from the speakers are crystal clear, with no muddy tones even at the loudest volume. The caveat here is that to probably preserve the pristine speaker sound, the maximum volume is not as loud as you’d think it’d be -- so planning a party around the speakers (which aren’t supported by a built-in sub-woofer either) wouldn’t be a very good idea.



 

But the real magic is supposed to happen when you use the dual audio jacks found on the left side of the machine, as explained in an amusing “Beats” marketing video. In a nutshell, the construction of the well- grounded jacks are supposed to have minimal noise-introducing interference, thus leading to a cleaner sound. Such dedication to a full entertainment experience should be lauded -- fluff or not -- because it has become HP’s way of differentiation.

The usual suspects line the right side of the notebook, including two extra USB3 ports and an extra headphones jack. The others seen here are VGA, HDMI and LAN ports.
The notebook has “Beats” branded tweeters for a better sound experience, just what the doctor (Dr. Dre) ordered.
The brushed metal look is nice, but it really does very little to prevent smudges from fingers.
The HP dv6 has its interior decked out with a premium finishing, making it look more expensive than it is.
 
 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 13:37  
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HWZ's Overall Rating: 8.5
User's Rating: N/A
Design:
8.5
Features:
8.5
Performance:
8
Value:
8.5
Mobility:
7
THE GOOD
Liberal use of premium materials
USB3.0 ports
Reasonable battery life
THE BAD
Keyboard flex
Heavy
 

 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 13:35  
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HP Pavilion dv6-6003TX





Posted on 18 Apr 2011 
 
Launch SRP S$1799

In a metal chassis, the 15-inch HP Pavilion dv6 comes equipped with Beats Audio and quad speakers.

Other features include its HD BrightView display, a built-in HP TrueVision HD webcam that offers chatting capability even in low-light conditions, and an integrated numeric keypad with an illuminated touchpad.

 
 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 12:48  
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  1. Easy to install

      By Tracey the photo girl - Aug 25, 2010 - Full review provided by Logo for B& H Photo-Video-Audio B& H Photo-Video-Audio
    The Little Big disk external hardrive is easy to set up and install. It is a little bit heavy to carry around on location.Friends of mine recommended it to me since you can daisy chain multiple Little Big's together and take on location with you.
    0  out of  0  people found this review helpful.Was this review helpful? Yes  -  No

  2. What more can you ask for?

      By Raymond Photography - May 23, 2011 - Full review provided by Logo for B& H Photo-Video-Audio B& H Photo-Video-Audio
    I use the Little Big Disks for my photo library since they can be daisy-chained. The biggest selling point for me was that this drive is bus-powered so I don't always need to carry the power supply. Also, the drive speed is great!
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  3. Very well done Drive - Small, Fast....

      By Gus - Mar 27, 2011 - Full review provided by Logo for B& H Photo-Video-Audio B& H Photo-Video-Audio
    I have 4 of these drives as part of my workflow. I use one as a primary Lightroom Drive and I back up to Lightroom Back Up on separate LaCie. I also back up internal hard drive to dedicated LaCie. I use Super Duper for these back ups. I use a dedicated LaCie as a travel Drive.
    0  out of  0  people found this review helpful.Was this review helpful? Yes  -  No

  4. Final Cut Pro Video Instructor

      By Clequire - Oct 26, 2010 - Full review provided by Logo for B& H Photo-Video-Audio B& H Photo-Video-Audio
    I Love this External Drive!!! When I connect my Firewire 800 to it I don't need to use the Power adaptor, it gets it's power from the Laptop. This unit is very Small and love how it has a esata connection for my big multicam projects. - A must have!!
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  5. Very Good!!!!!

      By MBorja - Sep 15, 2010 - Full review provided by Logo for B& H Photo-Video-Audio B& H Photo-Video-Audio
    Very reliably! Very Fast! Excellent for editing in FCP. I just don't like the blue light. Illuminates the whole room in the dark... Besides that, it is the best!
 
 
pharoah88     24-Jun-2011 12:39  
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LaCie Little Big Disk 1 TB External hard drive - 800Mbps(FireWire800)/400Mbps(FireWire)/480Mbps(Hi-Sp.USB)/3Gbps(eSATA) - 7200 rpm

LaCie Little Big Disk 1 TB External hard drive - 800Mbps(FireWire800)/400Mbps(FireWire)/480Mbps(Hi-Sp.USB)/3Gbps(eSATA) - 7200 rpm

$248  online

  23 reviews    
#4 in LaCie FireWire Hard Drives  »

External - USB - FireWire - eSATA - 1 TB - 7200 rpm - LaCie

Faster and more compact than most desktop hard disks, this small, lightweight portable powerhouse boasts high capacity and speed for its size. With built-in RAID 0 and four interfaces, it offers cross-platform compatibility with any PC or Mac and unrivaled burst transfer rates.… more  »

 
 
pharoah88     23-Jun-2011 19:07  
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  • My Book < em> 3.0< /em> 1 TB < em> External hard drive< /em> - 5.0 Gbps (SuperSpeed < em> USB< /em> )
    $80
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    My Book 3.0 1 TB External hard drive - 5.0 Gbps (SuperSpeed USB)

    External - USB - 1 TB - Western Digital
    The elegant My Book 3.0 external hard drives feature a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface with unmatched speed of up to 5-gigabit per second. The ...
  • LaCie Rugged XL 1 TB < em> External hard drive< /em> - < em> 3.0< /em> Gbps (eSATA) / 480 ...
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    LaCie Rugged XL 1 TB External hard drive - 3.0 Gbps (eSATA) / 480 ...

    External - USB - eSATA - 1 TB - LaCie
    The LaCie Rugged XL combines high-capacity storage with a user-centric design. Setup is effortless it's plug and play and offers customizable ...
    #2 in eSATA LaCie Hard Drives  »
  • My Book < em> 3.0< /em> 2 TB < em> External hard drive< /em> - 5.0 Gbps (SuperSpeed < em> USB< /em> )
    $113
    from 113 stores

    This site accepts Google Checkout

    My Book 3.0 2 TB External hard drive - 5.0 Gbps (SuperSpeed USB)

    External - USB - 2 TB - Western Digital
    The elegant My Book 3.0 external hard drives feature a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface with unmatched speed of up to 5 gigabit per second for the ...
    •  

     
    pharoah88         23-Jun-2011 19:00  
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    pharoah88         23-Jun-2011 18:59  
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    pharoah88         23-Jun-2011 18:57  
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    Review: Seagate’s USB 3.0 BlackArmor PS110 portable hard drive kit
    by Matt Burns on January 25, 2010
    Tags: , , ,


    seagate-ps110

    The future is here, everyone. Let’s check out the just-announced Seagate BlackArmor PS110 Performance kit. It’s Seagate’s first USB 3.0 product and it’s noice — where noice is slang for nice, and for the sole fact that it’s the first USB 3.0 drive I’ve tested. I’m a little excited.

    Features:
    • USB 3.0 interface
    • Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
    • 7,200 RPM drive
    • 500 GB
    • 0.47 inches  thin
    • $179 MSRP


    Pros:
    • Fast
    • Includes a USB 3.0 PC Card
    • Bus powered with included USB power cable


    Cons:
    • Takes a USB port to power the PC card


    Review:

    Seagate has the right idea. This drive comes with a USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter. Mainly because only about four people in the whole world actually have a USB 3.0 computer right now. The rest of us will need the PC Card in order to fully take advantage of the faster USB 3.0 speeds — or you could just use the drive in USB 2.0 mode as it’s backwards compatible, but that’s no fun.

    seagate-ps110-5The PC Card needs a little help powering the drive, so an included cable sucks what the PC Card needs off a powered-USB port. It’s bus-powered, though, when used in USB 2.0 mode.

    The PC Card drivers are locked away on the hard drive instead of coming on a CD or flash drive. This turned out to be a problem for me as I couldn’t get the computer to recognize the hard drive even under USB 2.0 mode until I switched it on line in Disk Management. But once I had the drivers, I fell in love with USB 3.0.

    It’s all about the speed. Nothing else really matters, as we’ve been hearing about USB 3.0′ s performance numbers for some time now. Thankfully, this drive holds up to the hype.

    Disclaimer: The internal SATA drive in my notebook is only a 5400 RPM drive. However, that’s what’s most common in notebooks anyway and, therefore, the benchmarks below are a good indication of real world results. Stay tuned for a full  comparison  against a Firewire 800 and eSATA drive. Benchmarks via HD Tune Pro 4.01.

    The first chart compares the drive in both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 mode against my not, while the second one shows file write/read speeds with USB 3.0 on the left and USB 2.0 on the right. (click to embiggen)

    seagate2

    usb speeds

    There you have it. The Seagate PS110 is stupid fast for a semi bus-powered portable hard drive. And to think that this is just a first-gen USB 3.0 device. They are bound to get faster and faster. The future is looking mighty good thanks to USB 3.0.

    But I don’t know if I would buy this hard drive just yet. Right now it retails for $179 and it’s only a 500GB hard drive. Other options offer a lot more storage for the same price. But then again, this might be the fastest, bus-powered portable hard drive on the market. In other words, you must decide between speed and storage capacity. Personally, I would go for the larger drive until the price drops.

     
     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:41  
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    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:25  
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    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=140
     

     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:23  
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    Did you know...
    It's easy to install an internal hard drive in your computer.
    Here's how
     
     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:14  
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    Western Digital does not believe in SSDs, Santa Claus

    By Tim Stevens posted November 24th 2008 7:55AM
    Western Digital does not believe in SSDs, Santa Claus
    The holidays are upon us and, at a time when many are set to celebrate their faiths and beliefs, Western Digital's Senior VP for Marketing Richard Rutledge is clarifying one of his company's: now is not the right time for SSDs. Apparently WD only " enters markets that exist," and while we could understand about him being unsure of the many spiritual entities banded about this time of year, we're rather confident the competition are believers, and they have plenty of milk and cookies laid out for holiday shoppers. Rutledge did indicate WD is looking at creating both low-end SSDs for smartphones and ultraportables as well as high-end ones for " enterprise" applications, but only " when they present appropriate opportunity." Hurry up and get with the program, WD, or you're going to be left crying and holding a lump of coal while all the other companies bring their increased revenues to show and tell.
     
     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:11  
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    The Beauty of Solid State Drives

    By Roma On January 20, 2011 · 2 Comments


    As soon as I clicked ‘Publish’ my previous post about Mac, I noticed my Mac slowed down and crashed a few programs asking to report the crash to Apple. I’ve been noticing the slowness since morning and wasn’t sure what was going on. So I closed all my programs (which caused some more crashing) and decided to restart my computer. It did not boot back and once the Apple logo appeared computer simply shut down. I tried googling on iphone for similar behavior. On one of the forums it was suggested to press apple+S and hold until command line loads on boot. Then I tried to do a disk check by entering


    /sbin/fsck -fy


    This returned an error that the disk cannot be repaired. A few more attempts and the disk was not accessible at all. My Solid State Drive (SSD) Crucial 256GB died the 3rd time.

    This is an excerpt from earlier post about my SSD experience:


    I do not suggest buying Solid State Drives from Crucial. Here’s why: I got this SSD in November of 2009. 2 months later it died. One day I was just not able to turn on computer and BIOS was not even showing there was a drive connected. All data was vanished instantly. Good thing I do automatic backups every night. I have returned the SSD to Crucial and got a replacement 2 weeks later. The replacement SSD was  DOA and I had to return it again. I finally got the working drive and using it till today, but I’m not much confident I can trust this company and making sure every day that the backups are running. I checked reviews of the particular SSD and found out that many other users have had same issues. As for the drive’s performance, to be fair, it is very FAST just like many other SSDs on the market today.


    As I said I could not trust this Crucial SSD and I was right once again. The $700 SSD turned unusable and all data was destroyed. I went to a local Microcenter retail store and purchased  Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive for a little over hundred bucks. That is almost 7 times cheaper than SSD and hopefully more reliable and as fast as SSD at small peak usage like starting up computer, opening programs and copying files. This drive is a combination of 500GB HDD and 32GB SSD. Seagate promises up to 80% performance increase and up to 300mbps transfer. I think I will stick with this drive from now on and once I get a new Crucial SSD replaced by  warranty  will sell it on  eBay.

    At ASPnix we are experimenting with some SSD drives from Corsair and Kingston (Intel) on a very powerful servers as boot drives only. We don’t store any data on them and so far haven’t had any issues. If we experience any issues I’ll definately post a review here.

    What about you? Have you had any issues with HDD, SSD, Hybrid Disks lately?
     
     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:08  
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    Solid State Drives (SSD) Reliability Myths

    By Roma On February 1, 2011 · Leave a Comment


    Today is the day. It’s the day when I finally realized the Solid State Drives are not ready for the ‘prime time’. They don’t fit either personal/home requirements nor enterprise.

    At ASPnix we have posted this Announcement today:


    As many of our customers know in the past 3-5 days mail server has become quite unstable and has been restarting every few hours.

    Windows logs did not show much so we were having trouble identifying the issue.
    We have tried to reinstall SmarterMail and had a feeling there was an issue with either disks or network adapter drivers.

    This was one of our best servers on the network with monster 2TB RAID10 and SSD boot drive.

    Today we finally found the issue on the day it became completely obvious. SSD boot drive stopped responding and the server did not boot after restart.

    This was not the first time we experience SSD drives die and luckily the total of four SSD failures we have experienced on our work computers and not servers.

    We have just replaced the boot drive in mail server with a nice 1.5TB spinning drive and reinstalled windows.

    All Mail data is on a RAID10 which was attached to this new server, so all data is safe, of course!

    We are finishing up SmarterMai configuration on new boot drive and the server will get back online within about 15-30 minutes.

    This was a great lesson to us and we won’t be using SSD drives on any of our servers as the technology doesn’t seem to be ready.

    We apologize for the inconvenience and we believe the mail server will be stable from now on.

    If you have any questions please let us know. We’ll be happy to provide more details on the issue.


    The post was earlier edited and after couple clients’ concerns and one line was removed because it was a personal emotional opinion.

    The line that was removed stated:


    The SSDs are a joke and not ready for either personal or enterprise use.


    I completely think so and thus you read my opinion here in a personal blog. Over the past 16 months I had to return SSDs 4 times. I have returned 3 Crucial Drives and 1 Corsair.  All of them showed the same  symptoms. Unlike spinning hard disk drives that start make some noise and show bad blocks, SSDs slow down fast within a few hours and turn off completely. If you don’t make backups every hour, you will most likely loose some data. I do backups daily online and weekly to an external drive and still managed to loose some important data.

    I wasn’t sure if it was just me or many people have similar issues. At first I thought maybe my disk-intense work makes them all die but after reading different reviews this became clear I’m far not the only one.

    If you search online for SSD failures or SSD reviews, you will find thousands similar complaints. Just read the comments to the above articles. It seems the technology is just not ready and not mature enough. Normal spinning drives fail a lot too, but over the past few decades we got used to them and got a feel of when they fail and how they behave. For some reason I had higher expectations of the SSD drives and the technology is promising, but it will take many years for SSD to drop in price, become more mature and finally replace good old spinning magnetic drives.

    I cannot tell you not to buy SSD if you really want you should try them out, but please make sure you backup your data every hour and enjoy the 200Mb/sec speeds.

    I’m currently testing a hybrid drive from Seagate which is 4GB SSD + 500GB HDD (32MB cache, 7200rpm) = 2 in 1, model  ST95005620AS. They promise upto 300Mb/sec speeds while offering 500GB capacity at a little over $100. I believe it’s a great deal and time will show if this hybrid technology is a good transition from magnetic HDDs to soon to be the “de-facto” new standard – SSD.

    What do you think about HDD vs SSD? What experience have you had with SSD? Share in comments please!
     
     
    pharoah88         22-Jun-2011 16:06  
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