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a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
Posted by
FAHEEM AHMED.!
comments (0)
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
a billingsgate knows exactly how it wants it
Posted by
FAHEEM AHMED.!
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PLAY AND HUMOR ARE A FUNNY BUSINESS ......................................................................................................- in both meanings of that phrase. We mostly think of them as delightful, fertile with laughter and refreshment - which is the kind of play and humor most of this issue is about. Yet they can also be funny-strange, riddled with paradox and even pain. Take, for example, the many things we associate with "clown" - from the happy laughter at a circus, to the folk image of the professional clown as a fundamentally unhappy person, to the use of "clown" to describe someone who is either incompetent or disruptive in a group. Likewise, there is clearly something wonderful in childhood play, yet most people have also had painful play experiences as children - experiences that can continue to block their adult playfulness. Why do we have such conflicting associations with play and humor? That question has kept reappearing as a strange undercurrent as we've gathered material for this issue - like a dark companion to our brighter image of play and humor. We've been tempted to ignore this uninvited guest, but it's been persistent, so we've decided to take the opposite, and perhaps riskier, approach. We are going to invite this question right into the center of our circle and use it as an introduction. Perhaps if we are willing to hear its shadowy tale, it will reveal some of that special wisdom that the darker side of subjects always seem to hold, and lead us to a richer, more powerful enjoyment of the wonderful gifts that play and humor have to offer us.
A good starting point for exploring this question is to notice that at the heart of both play and humor is the temporary setting aside of conventional rules, roles and expectations. If we are playing a structured game, like basketball, we temporarily set aside our normal roles and activities for another clearly specified set of roles and rules. If we are just being playful, most of the changes are unspoken, but there is a common understanding that we can, during our playfulness, pretend, behave in ways that we would not ordinarily, and do things that are not meant to be taken seriously. Humor is the same in a less active, more mental way.
This puts us into a curious double world, since our normal roles and expectations, while they may partially be set aside, do not disappear from our consciousness. The interplay between these two worlds creates a (usually enjoyable) tension, and this tension leads on to the subject of laughter.
Neil Schaeffer, a literary critic, says that "laughter results from an incongruity presented in a ludicrous context." Annette Goodheart, a therapist who makes extensive use of laughter for catharsis, says that "all laughter comes out of pain." I don't think I'd go quite that far, but it does seem to me that all laughter involves the release of tension. The process goes like this: Whenever we perceive something abnormal, our instinctual response is to give it more attention and view it (in part) as a potential threat. Past uncomfortable associations add to our sense of tension. If we then discover that it is not, in fact, a genuine threat, our tension can subside. If the timing of this rise and fall is right - slow enough so that we experience some genuine tension, but fast enough so that the processing is only semi-conscious - we often release the tension (including associations from the past) in laughter, or at least a smile.
Laughter is, of course, not the only way to release tension. Insight, caring, and changes in the conditions that gave rise to the tension can also do that, but humor can work when these others either can't or won't. Even better, humor and play often work as facilitators of insight, caring, and genuine change.
So humor and certain kinds of playfulness walk a delicate line. They must deal with subjects that can give rise to tension, and yet evoke that tension in ways that cause no ultimate threat. If the subject is too mild, the humor falls flat. If it raises unresolvable or overly painful tensions, it is seen as offensive, in poor taste or, at best, simply not funny. Both of these requirements are highly dependent on the audience and the situation.
This inescapable dependence of humor on tension, and the constant risk in humor that the tension it raises won't get released, provide part of the answer to why both pleasure and pain are so commonly associated with humor and play. To get at the rest, we need to go back to the "setting aside of rules and roles," and ask, "whose rules and why are we setting them aside?"
Play and humor of this type are expected to refresh, perhaps even stimulate, but there is no desire to produce any fundamental change. If anything, such play and humor serve to reinforce the status-quo. They are part of a cyclic but non- evolving world.
Yet many people feel they are stuck in unwelcome situations. Think, for example, of the way that many children feel about being in school. In this case, humor and play can become a safe cover for protest and resistance. The underdog probes the grey areas, playfully violating the expectations and desires of the powers-that-be, but always ready to pull back from a direct confrontation with some variant on "I was only kidding."
Alternatively, play and humor may become a route of escape. Rather than directly challenging the authorities or the situation that has you trapped, you simply spend as much time as possible living in your own imagination. Taken too far, this can be a road to insanity, yet many prisoners have kept themselves sane just this way.
The underdogs aren't the only ones who use play and humor as a tool of power. Throughout the centuries, those in power have often toyed with their "inferiors." Consider such grisly "play" as bringing someone almost to execution, and then, at the last moment, setting them free with a laugh that it was "all a joke." The message of power ("I can violate the rules") gets communicated without creating a martyr. At a milder, but more pervasive level, ridicule of underdogs usually flaunts the dominant group's power. In their ridicule, the dominant group violates their own rules of decency. The message is, "We can treat you as we would not treat each other, and you are powerless to stop us." Yet by doing it in a "playful" style, the dominant group can claim that they are really not as indecent as their ridicule suggests.
In these power-oriented examples, the "let's pretend, but don't take it seriously" quality in play and humor is used as a way to communicate without having to take full responsibility for the message. It is easy to look on this as a negative thing, but as long as oppression exists, the use of this approach by underdogs remains a valuable and relatively humane response.
In this case, play and humor may be an invitation to creativity and exploration. You say "Let's pretend" to tap into the creative power of the imagination, and you may use the results of this exploration in other areas of your life.
You may also have a more specific direction in which you want to grow. Role playing can then be a powerful way to begin training yourself for what may be a new "normal" set of roles and rules. One of the more effective new sport training techniques has people watch video tapes of skilled athletes, and then use their bodily imagination to inwardly experience, to pretend, that they are going through the same motions.
Another major area for expansion and growth is interpersonal relationships. A playful atmosphere can allow people to get to know each other "as people" beyond their normal roles.
Lest we get too rosy, however, remember that perhaps the most popular form of expansive play is based on "Let's pretend we can afford . . . " Now there's a game with a multi-trillion dollar level of enthusiasm behind it!
Play and humor based on growth motivation are usually pleasant at the time for those who chose it, but it can be threatening to others who are wary of such growth or who may have to pay for its consequences.
Looking back over all these different kinds of play and humor, we can see that, whatever the motivation, "setting aside the rules and roles" is an inescapable part of each, and (just like tension and laughter) that implies some risk of misunderstanding, unforeseen consequences, pain and hurt. This risk is acceptable, indeed is part of the fun, as long as the intentions behind the play and humor are friendly. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Yet hostile play and humor, by themselves, are not the root problem. As long as hostility exists, play and humor provide better outlets for its expression than many other avenues. The problem is that our culture is only slowly becoming adept at distinguishing between friendly and hostile play and humor. And as long as we don't have a good cultural recognition of this difference, then the tolerance we grant to the more common forms of friendly play and humor will continue to be a good cover for "breaking the rules" with the intention to at least avoid responsibility if not also directly to hurt.
It should not surprise us, then, if our society has some wariness towards play and humor. After all, which rules are going to get set aside and who will take responsibility for the results? Getting beyond this wariness will require more than simple appeals for "more play." It is going to take the development of a well recognized style of play and humor that releases their full positive power while minimizing the ways they can be abused.
David Spangler brings an interesting perspective to this by connecting the concepts of play and stewardship:
This is especially important now, as the seriousness of the world situation becomes more evident, with nuclear meltdowns, terrorism and counter-terrorism erupting, and economic and ecological mis-management continuing unabated. It is precisely because we are in the midst of deep cultural change and challenge that the need for caring play and humor is so great, for they are some of the best lubricants of graceful change. In the gentlest possible way, they enable us to slough off the no-longer-needed habits of the past, to open freshly to the wisdom of our hearts and of the present, and to experiment with new ways of being for the future.
The rest of the articles in this section explore play and humor, in themselves, with this spirit of combined caring and delight. The articles in the second section then illustrate how this kind of play and humor can have a positive impact on many of our most pressing challenges, transforming them into opportunities for love and laughter.wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
A good starting point for exploring this question is to notice that at the heart of both play and humor is the temporary setting aside of conventional rules, roles and expectations. If we are playing a structured game, like basketball, we temporarily set aside our normal roles and activities for another clearly specified set of roles and rules. If we are just being playful, most of the changes are unspoken, but there is a common understanding that we can, during our playfulness, pretend, behave in ways that we would not ordinarily, and do things that are not meant to be taken seriously. Humor is the same in a less active, more mental way.
This puts us into a curious double world, since our normal roles and expectations, while they may partially be set aside, do not disappear from our consciousness. The interplay between these two worlds creates a (usually enjoyable) tension, and this tension leads on to the subject of laughter.
Neil Schaeffer, a literary critic, says that "laughter results from an incongruity presented in a ludicrous context." Annette Goodheart, a therapist who makes extensive use of laughter for catharsis, says that "all laughter comes out of pain." I don't think I'd go quite that far, but it does seem to me that all laughter involves the release of tension. The process goes like this: Whenever we perceive something abnormal, our instinctual response is to give it more attention and view it (in part) as a potential threat. Past uncomfortable associations add to our sense of tension. If we then discover that it is not, in fact, a genuine threat, our tension can subside. If the timing of this rise and fall is right - slow enough so that we experience some genuine tension, but fast enough so that the processing is only semi-conscious - we often release the tension (including associations from the past) in laughter, or at least a smile.
Laughter is, of course, not the only way to release tension. Insight, caring, and changes in the conditions that gave rise to the tension can also do that, but humor can work when these others either can't or won't. Even better, humor and play often work as facilitators of insight, caring, and genuine change.
So humor and certain kinds of playfulness walk a delicate line. They must deal with subjects that can give rise to tension, and yet evoke that tension in ways that cause no ultimate threat. If the subject is too mild, the humor falls flat. If it raises unresolvable or overly painful tensions, it is seen as offensive, in poor taste or, at best, simply not funny. Both of these requirements are highly dependent on the audience and the situation.
This inescapable dependence of humor on tension, and the constant risk in humor that the tension it raises won't get released, provide part of the answer to why both pleasure and pain are so commonly associated with humor and play. To get at the rest, we need to go back to the "setting aside of rules and roles," and ask, "whose rules and why are we setting them aside?"
CHANGE OF PACE
The least controversial situation occurs when we have no quarrel with our normal rules, roles and expectations. In this case, we set them aside simply for the sake of recreation and health, for a change of pace, a relief from temporary boredom, or as a way of cleaning out the minor accumulated stress in our lives. With this motivation, we'll make jokes based on things like word plays - intellectually amusing, but otherwise innocent. Our play takes the form of well specified games and sports that reflect our normal values.Play and humor of this type are expected to refresh, perhaps even stimulate, but there is no desire to produce any fundamental change. If anything, such play and humor serve to reinforce the status-quo. They are part of a cyclic but non- evolving world.
POWER STRUGGLE
The opposite situation occurs when someone actively dislikes the rules and roles they are in. If both sides in this conflict can be included, humor and play can be very effective at melting the rigidities and tensions in the situation. They can provide a basis of commonality on which to resolve or diffuse the disagreement.Yet many people feel they are stuck in unwelcome situations. Think, for example, of the way that many children feel about being in school. In this case, humor and play can become a safe cover for protest and resistance. The underdog probes the grey areas, playfully violating the expectations and desires of the powers-that-be, but always ready to pull back from a direct confrontation with some variant on "I was only kidding."
Alternatively, play and humor may become a route of escape. Rather than directly challenging the authorities or the situation that has you trapped, you simply spend as much time as possible living in your own imagination. Taken too far, this can be a road to insanity, yet many prisoners have kept themselves sane just this way.
The underdogs aren't the only ones who use play and humor as a tool of power. Throughout the centuries, those in power have often toyed with their "inferiors." Consider such grisly "play" as bringing someone almost to execution, and then, at the last moment, setting them free with a laugh that it was "all a joke." The message of power ("I can violate the rules") gets communicated without creating a martyr. At a milder, but more pervasive level, ridicule of underdogs usually flaunts the dominant group's power. In their ridicule, the dominant group violates their own rules of decency. The message is, "We can treat you as we would not treat each other, and you are powerless to stop us." Yet by doing it in a "playful" style, the dominant group can claim that they are really not as indecent as their ridicule suggests.
In these power-oriented examples, the "let's pretend, but don't take it seriously" quality in play and humor is used as a way to communicate without having to take full responsibility for the message. It is easy to look on this as a negative thing, but as long as oppression exists, the use of this approach by underdogs remains a valuable and relatively humane response.
EXPANSION
The third situation is most like normal childhood play. You are neither completely content nor in a power struggle. You simply want to grow, to expand beyond the present limits of your own knowledge and skill, to take on a challenge. So you pretend to be something you are not (yet) in order to find out what it might be like, you "play around" with some ideas, or you "try on" a new activity.In this case, play and humor may be an invitation to creativity and exploration. You say "Let's pretend" to tap into the creative power of the imagination, and you may use the results of this exploration in other areas of your life.
You may also have a more specific direction in which you want to grow. Role playing can then be a powerful way to begin training yourself for what may be a new "normal" set of roles and rules. One of the more effective new sport training techniques has people watch video tapes of skilled athletes, and then use their bodily imagination to inwardly experience, to pretend, that they are going through the same motions.
Another major area for expansion and growth is interpersonal relationships. A playful atmosphere can allow people to get to know each other "as people" beyond their normal roles.
Lest we get too rosy, however, remember that perhaps the most popular form of expansive play is based on "Let's pretend we can afford . . . " Now there's a game with a multi-trillion dollar level of enthusiasm behind it!
Play and humor based on growth motivation are usually pleasant at the time for those who chose it, but it can be threatening to others who are wary of such growth or who may have to pay for its consequences.
Looking back over all these different kinds of play and humor, we can see that, whatever the motivation, "setting aside the rules and roles" is an inescapable part of each, and (just like tension and laughter) that implies some risk of misunderstanding, unforeseen consequences, pain and hurt. This risk is acceptable, indeed is part of the fun, as long as the intentions behind the play and humor are friendly. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Yet hostile play and humor, by themselves, are not the root problem. As long as hostility exists, play and humor provide better outlets for its expression than many other avenues. The problem is that our culture is only slowly becoming adept at distinguishing between friendly and hostile play and humor. And as long as we don't have a good cultural recognition of this difference, then the tolerance we grant to the more common forms of friendly play and humor will continue to be a good cover for "breaking the rules" with the intention to at least avoid responsibility if not also directly to hurt.
It should not surprise us, then, if our society has some wariness towards play and humor. After all, which rules are going to get set aside and who will take responsibility for the results? Getting beyond this wariness will require more than simple appeals for "more play." It is going to take the development of a well recognized style of play and humor that releases their full positive power while minimizing the ways they can be abused.
David Spangler brings an interesting perspective to this by connecting the concepts of play and stewardship:
"Play allows us to see our world as if for the first time, transcending habit and embracing the presence of the spirit of birth and creativity that is within all things. Stewardship is the complement to Play. It honors the form and structure of things, delighting in the familiar and nurturing what already exists. While Play allows the emergence of new forms, Stewardship enables existing forms to reach their fullest potential." (From Currents, Spring 1986, PO Box 663, Issaquah, WA 98027.)In our society, we often see play and stewardship as opposing qualities, with some personalities drawn more to one or the other. But when I set aside this stereotype and look around me with fresh eyes, I notice that many of the people whom I know as wonderfully playful are also deeply caring and sensitive, and in the same way, those who are most effective with their stewardship seem to have a lightness about them. What emerges for me is the sense that, rather than being in conflict, play and stewardship form a powerful synergetic team. Adrift on its own, play is vulnerable to becoming trivial and irresponsible, while stewardship without play is grim and heavy. Together, they support the most vibrant of lives.
This is especially important now, as the seriousness of the world situation becomes more evident, with nuclear meltdowns, terrorism and counter-terrorism erupting, and economic and ecological mis-management continuing unabated. It is precisely because we are in the midst of deep cultural change and challenge that the need for caring play and humor is so great, for they are some of the best lubricants of graceful change. In the gentlest possible way, they enable us to slough off the no-longer-needed habits of the past, to open freshly to the wisdom of our hearts and of the present, and to experiment with new ways of being for the future.
The rest of the articles in this section explore play and humor, in themselves, with this spirit of combined caring and delight. The articles in the second section then illustrate how this kind of play and humor can have a positive impact on many of our most pressing challenges, transforming them into opportunities for love and laughter.wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
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It’s the big week when Windows 7 is launched on Thursday, but one statistic that grabbed my eye was in a Wikipedia article stating that there are estimated to be three times as many XP computers in use today than Vista ones (68.49% XP versus 22.39% Vista). This suggests that XP is far from being the dinosaur system that the marketing people would have us believe. I’ve still got two XP desktops and no complaints, even though they are getting on a bit.
It also leads to questions about how popular Vista was with the general public and business world, and in this a recent BBC article a Microsoft executive admits that Vista never fully recovered from the early criticism, and they hope for better things with Windows 7.
Two quotes in particular that stick out is that of Annette Jump, a research director at a technology research firm who states that among companies “Vista is the worst-adopted operating system”, and another by the president of Microsoft International, Jean-Philippe Courtois, who opts for the understatement “We don’t feel great about Vista adoption.”
I’m still running the trial version of Windows 7 which is valid for 180 days, but won’t be camped outside the shops when it is launched.
Ian MacMillan, via e-mail“
At the time of writing we are at the eve of the official release of Windows 7 and as such we will soon be able to gauge the public reaction which is something Vista never seemed to recover from. Personally I feel that perhaps Vista drew so much early criticism because of the constantly shifting release date and unrealistic promises about what the software would offer. It wasn’t that Vista was ever particularly bad, it just wasn’t much better than XP and, unless it was being bundled with a new machine, there wasn’t much of an incentive to upgrade.
Windows is a big deal for Microsoft; at present it powers around 90% of the worlds computers and accounts for half of the operating profit that reaches the Microsoft coffers. For years critics have claimed that Microsoft’s virtual monopoly is about to end now that users are offered alternatives in the way of Linux, Mac OS and even newer “cloud” Operating Systems which are stored on remote servers.
Quite simply Microsoft cannot afford to have another ‘Vista’ as although they still retain a commanding lead in the marketplace, another slip up could permanently and irrevocably damage their presumed place as a future market leader.
So far however, all seems good with the new offering. I have been using the release candidate of Windows 7 for some months and have found it to be reliable, compatible, secure and even faster than Vista which we have to remember is a three year old Operating System now.
The company have also been working with other third party developers to ensure that application support on release is strong; by the time Microsoft rolled out the first service pack for Vista there were only 2,700 supported applications and by comparison Windows 7 will have 8,500 supported applications at launch. This is a sign that the company is going to avoid one of the biggest mistakes with Vista when it failed to prepare its partners for the new system.
From a business perspective, we will be stocking the new Operating System and so I hope that it does well but from a writers perspective I would be interested to see what were to happen if Microsoft were to drop the ball a second time aroun
d
It also leads to questions about how popular Vista was with the general public and business world, and in this a recent BBC article a Microsoft executive admits that Vista never fully recovered from the early criticism, and they hope for better things with Windows 7.
Two quotes in particular that stick out is that of Annette Jump, a research director at a technology research firm who states that among companies “Vista is the worst-adopted operating system”, and another by the president of Microsoft International, Jean-Philippe Courtois, who opts for the understatement “We don’t feel great about Vista adoption.”
I’m still running the trial version of Windows 7 which is valid for 180 days, but won’t be camped outside the shops when it is launched.
Ian MacMillan, via e-mail“
At the time of writing we are at the eve of the official release of Windows 7 and as such we will soon be able to gauge the public reaction which is something Vista never seemed to recover from. Personally I feel that perhaps Vista drew so much early criticism because of the constantly shifting release date and unrealistic promises about what the software would offer. It wasn’t that Vista was ever particularly bad, it just wasn’t much better than XP and, unless it was being bundled with a new machine, there wasn’t much of an incentive to upgrade.
Windows is a big deal for Microsoft; at present it powers around 90% of the worlds computers and accounts for half of the operating profit that reaches the Microsoft coffers. For years critics have claimed that Microsoft’s virtual monopoly is about to end now that users are offered alternatives in the way of Linux, Mac OS and even newer “cloud” Operating Systems which are stored on remote servers.
Quite simply Microsoft cannot afford to have another ‘Vista’ as although they still retain a commanding lead in the marketplace, another slip up could permanently and irrevocably damage their presumed place as a future market leader.
So far however, all seems good with the new offering. I have been using the release candidate of Windows 7 for some months and have found it to be reliable, compatible, secure and even faster than Vista which we have to remember is a three year old Operating System now.
The company have also been working with other third party developers to ensure that application support on release is strong; by the time Microsoft rolled out the first service pack for Vista there were only 2,700 supported applications and by comparison Windows 7 will have 8,500 supported applications at launch. This is a sign that the company is going to avoid one of the biggest mistakes with Vista when it failed to prepare its partners for the new system.
From a business perspective, we will be stocking the new Operating System and so I hope that it does well but from a writers perspective I would be interested to see what were to happen if Microsoft were to drop the ball a second time aroun
d
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One of the biggest growth areas for home computing this decade has been the humble network.
At the turn of the century it was most often the case that we used a single machine connected directly to a phone line whereas now it would be rare to find a home that hasn’t been networked to some extent. Applications range from wireless Internet on a laptop, file sharing between two machines, a hard drive set up to distribute media around the home, a wireless printer which all the family can access or a games console piggybacking the main Internet connection.
The conventional methods of deploying a network around your home are well known; you can either connect via a network cable or connect wirelessly over the airwaves and while usually suitable, both methods have potential disadvantages. A wired network is of course limited by a physical connection being needed between your devices whereas a wireless network can fall down if installed in to a house that doesn’t have favourable conditions; a particularly large house or one with particularly thick walls for example.
A route that few people are familiar with is that of AC Networking. Although not the ideal solution for many, it does have some quite distinct advantages if you find that a conventional wired or wireless network lets you down. To get started you simply need a minimum of two power line access points which can then be plugged in to any of the existing plug sockets in your home for the two to begin talking to one another. The technology works by modulating a carrier wave along the existing power cables in your home therefore your entire home wiring essentially becomes a network cable that can be tapped in to at will.
Because you are using the mains cabling that runs all throughout your house the distance or objects between the two points are irrespective while at the same time removing the need to lay dedicated network cabling. Plug your broadband router in to an power line adaptor downstairs and your computer in to one upstairs and with the minimum of fuss you’ll have a physical connection between the two.
You can restrict access to the network by implementing a number of security procedures similar to those present on a wireless network but owing to the fact your neighbours will be on a different wiring ring, these features are potentially redundant.
What makes the technology more useful is that you can combine elements of power line, wireless and conventional wired networking together in the one location by building on the strengths of all three technologies. You could for example have a wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor with a second router plugged in to a power line adaptor upstairs; by having two wireless routers in opposite ends of the same building the chance of being without wireless signal would be slim.
Alternatively, have the wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor downstairs but upstairs plug a power line adaptor straight in to a conventional wired network switch in a kids game room upstairs. They could then connect a PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC directly in to this switch therefore benefiting from a physical connection straight in to the router downstairs without having to worry about issues such as wireless signal strength.
Most modern day power line adaptors support 200Mbps which compares favourably to a standard wired network which would run at 100Mbps and a standard ‘g’ rated wireless network running at 54Mbps. Prices start at around £60 for a pair of power line access
At the turn of the century it was most often the case that we used a single machine connected directly to a phone line whereas now it would be rare to find a home that hasn’t been networked to some extent. Applications range from wireless Internet on a laptop, file sharing between two machines, a hard drive set up to distribute media around the home, a wireless printer which all the family can access or a games console piggybacking the main Internet connection.
The conventional methods of deploying a network around your home are well known; you can either connect via a network cable or connect wirelessly over the airwaves and while usually suitable, both methods have potential disadvantages. A wired network is of course limited by a physical connection being needed between your devices whereas a wireless network can fall down if installed in to a house that doesn’t have favourable conditions; a particularly large house or one with particularly thick walls for example.
A route that few people are familiar with is that of AC Networking. Although not the ideal solution for many, it does have some quite distinct advantages if you find that a conventional wired or wireless network lets you down. To get started you simply need a minimum of two power line access points which can then be plugged in to any of the existing plug sockets in your home for the two to begin talking to one another. The technology works by modulating a carrier wave along the existing power cables in your home therefore your entire home wiring essentially becomes a network cable that can be tapped in to at will.
Because you are using the mains cabling that runs all throughout your house the distance or objects between the two points are irrespective while at the same time removing the need to lay dedicated network cabling. Plug your broadband router in to an power line adaptor downstairs and your computer in to one upstairs and with the minimum of fuss you’ll have a physical connection between the two.
You can restrict access to the network by implementing a number of security procedures similar to those present on a wireless network but owing to the fact your neighbours will be on a different wiring ring, these features are potentially redundant.
What makes the technology more useful is that you can combine elements of power line, wireless and conventional wired networking together in the one location by building on the strengths of all three technologies. You could for example have a wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor with a second router plugged in to a power line adaptor upstairs; by having two wireless routers in opposite ends of the same building the chance of being without wireless signal would be slim.
Alternatively, have the wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor downstairs but upstairs plug a power line adaptor straight in to a conventional wired network switch in a kids game room upstairs. They could then connect a PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC directly in to this switch therefore benefiting from a physical connection straight in to the router downstairs without having to worry about issues such as wireless signal strength.
Most modern day power line adaptors support 200Mbps which compares favourably to a standard wired network which would run at 100Mbps and a standard ‘g’ rated wireless network running at 54Mbps. Prices start at around £60 for a pair of power line access
Posted by
FAHEEM AHMED.!
comments (0)
One of the biggest growth areas for home computing this decade has been the humble network.
At the turn of the century it was most often the case that we used a single machine connected directly to a phone line whereas now it would be rare to find a home that hasn’t been networked to some extent. Applications range from wireless Internet on a laptop, file sharing between two machines, a hard drive set up to distribute media around the home, a wireless printer which all the family can access or a games console piggybacking the main Internet connection.
The conventional methods of deploying a network around your home are well known; you can either connect via a network cable or connect wirelessly over the airwaves and while usually suitable, both methods have potential disadvantages. A wired network is of course limited by a physical connection being needed between your devices whereas a wireless network can fall down if installed in to a house that doesn’t have favourable conditions; a particularly large house or one with particularly thick walls for example.
A route that few people are familiar with is that of AC Networking. Although not the ideal solution for many, it does have some quite distinct advantages if you find that a conventional wired or wireless network lets you down. To get started you simply need a minimum of two power line access points which can then be plugged in to any of the existing plug sockets in your home for the two to begin talking to one another. The technology works by modulating a carrier wave along the existing power cables in your home therefore your entire home wiring essentially becomes a network cable that can be tapped in to at will.
Because you are using the mains cabling that runs all throughout your house the distance or objects between the two points are irrespective while at the same time removing the need to lay dedicated network cabling. Plug your broadband router in to an power line adaptor downstairs and your computer in to one upstairs and with the minimum of fuss you’ll have a physical connection between the two.
You can restrict access to the network by implementing a number of security procedures similar to those present on a wireless network but owing to the fact your neighbours will be on a different wiring ring, these features are potentially redundant.
What makes the technology more useful is that you can combine elements of power line, wireless and conventional wired networking together in the one location by building on the strengths of all three technologies. You could for example have a wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor with a second router plugged in to a power line adaptor upstairs; by having two wireless routers in opposite ends of the same building the chance of being without wireless signal would be slim.
Alternatively, have the wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor downstairs but upstairs plug a power line adaptor straight in to a conventional wired network switch in a kids game room upstairs. They could then connect a PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC directly in to this switch therefore benefiting from a physical connection straight in to the router downstairs without having to worry about issues such as wireless signal strength.
Most modern day power line adaptors support 200Mbps which compares favourably to a standard wired network which would run at 100Mbps and a standard ‘g’ rated wireless network running at 54Mbps. Prices start at around £60 for a pair of power line access
At the turn of the century it was most often the case that we used a single machine connected directly to a phone line whereas now it would be rare to find a home that hasn’t been networked to some extent. Applications range from wireless Internet on a laptop, file sharing between two machines, a hard drive set up to distribute media around the home, a wireless printer which all the family can access or a games console piggybacking the main Internet connection.
The conventional methods of deploying a network around your home are well known; you can either connect via a network cable or connect wirelessly over the airwaves and while usually suitable, both methods have potential disadvantages. A wired network is of course limited by a physical connection being needed between your devices whereas a wireless network can fall down if installed in to a house that doesn’t have favourable conditions; a particularly large house or one with particularly thick walls for example.
A route that few people are familiar with is that of AC Networking. Although not the ideal solution for many, it does have some quite distinct advantages if you find that a conventional wired or wireless network lets you down. To get started you simply need a minimum of two power line access points which can then be plugged in to any of the existing plug sockets in your home for the two to begin talking to one another. The technology works by modulating a carrier wave along the existing power cables in your home therefore your entire home wiring essentially becomes a network cable that can be tapped in to at will.
Because you are using the mains cabling that runs all throughout your house the distance or objects between the two points are irrespective while at the same time removing the need to lay dedicated network cabling. Plug your broadband router in to an power line adaptor downstairs and your computer in to one upstairs and with the minimum of fuss you’ll have a physical connection between the two.
You can restrict access to the network by implementing a number of security procedures similar to those present on a wireless network but owing to the fact your neighbours will be on a different wiring ring, these features are potentially redundant.
What makes the technology more useful is that you can combine elements of power line, wireless and conventional wired networking together in the one location by building on the strengths of all three technologies. You could for example have a wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor with a second router plugged in to a power line adaptor upstairs; by having two wireless routers in opposite ends of the same building the chance of being without wireless signal would be slim.
Alternatively, have the wireless router plugged in to both your broadband connection and a power line adaptor downstairs but upstairs plug a power line adaptor straight in to a conventional wired network switch in a kids game room upstairs. They could then connect a PlayStation 3, Xbox and PC directly in to this switch therefore benefiting from a physical connection straight in to the router downstairs without having to worry about issues such as wireless signal strength.
Most modern day power line adaptors support 200Mbps which compares favourably to a standard wired network which would run at 100Mbps and a standard ‘g’ rated wireless network running at 54Mbps. Prices start at around £60 for a pair of power line access
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i have an i phone i like it and play games yes
declared quite publically around a year ago that I was refusing to select an iPhone as my next contract phone, not due to the fact that I consider it a poor piece of technology but rather that it would have immediately made me ‘one of those’ people.
You know the type; you’re busy minding your own business but they’ll sit next to you and force you to endure a daily demonstration of the latest app that they’ve downloaded. They do this with such a self assured smugness that you’d swear that they’d invented the iPhone, not had it handed to them by their mobile phone provider.
I am starting to get a little envious however…..
It seems there are more to these apps than initially meet the eye; after years of dominance, both the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS portable games consoles are starting to lose ground to, bizarrely enough, a phone.
After just a few years in the industry, the Apple iPhone boasts over 21,000 game apps compared to the Nintendo DS which has over 3,500 titles or the Sony PSP which has just over 600. In defence of the Sony PSP, the majority of those 600 titles are large games created by recognised software houses whereas the majority of the 21,000 iPhone games are ‘bite-sized’ two quid offerings.
Personally I have always been of the disposition that if you are going to play a game on a mobile device then you probably want it bite sized anyway as you’re unlikely to get enough uninterrupted time to get immersed in a monster sized game. That having been said, with the latest iPhone boasting a faster processor and third generation Operating System there are already some fairly staggering games coming to market and some serious money is being pumped in to future game development.
The method of game distribution is also one of the primary advantages the iPhone has over the competition. The Sony PSP for example uses mini optical discs that not only do users have to carry around with them but additionally distributors have to worry about the costs involved in producing and distributing the software to the gamer. The iPhone by comparison stores games in the internal memory of the phone and users simply download games directly from the Apple website rather than buying them in a more cumbersome physical format.
It will be interesting to see how the turning fortunes of Sony and Nintendo will affect any planned successors to the DS or PSP and it is becoming apparent that dedicated portable gaming systems may have their days numbered. Unfortunately for Nintendo this is a market that they have relied on heavily since they released the GameBoy back in 1989 and they are ill positioned to launch a competing product to the iPhone. Sony Ericsson however remains a formidable force in the mobile phone market it can surely only be a matter of time before they retaliate with their own hybrid device.
declared quite publically around a year ago that I was refusing to select an iPhone as my next contract phone, not due to the fact that I consider it a poor piece of technology but rather that it would have immediately made me ‘one of those’ people.
You know the type; you’re busy minding your own business but they’ll sit next to you and force you to endure a daily demonstration of the latest app that they’ve downloaded. They do this with such a self assured smugness that you’d swear that they’d invented the iPhone, not had it handed to them by their mobile phone provider.
I am starting to get a little envious however…..
It seems there are more to these apps than initially meet the eye; after years of dominance, both the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS portable games consoles are starting to lose ground to, bizarrely enough, a phone.
After just a few years in the industry, the Apple iPhone boasts over 21,000 game apps compared to the Nintendo DS which has over 3,500 titles or the Sony PSP which has just over 600. In defence of the Sony PSP, the majority of those 600 titles are large games created by recognised software houses whereas the majority of the 21,000 iPhone games are ‘bite-sized’ two quid offerings.
Personally I have always been of the disposition that if you are going to play a game on a mobile device then you probably want it bite sized anyway as you’re unlikely to get enough uninterrupted time to get immersed in a monster sized game. That having been said, with the latest iPhone boasting a faster processor and third generation Operating System there are already some fairly staggering games coming to market and some serious money is being pumped in to future game development.
The method of game distribution is also one of the primary advantages the iPhone has over the competition. The Sony PSP for example uses mini optical discs that not only do users have to carry around with them but additionally distributors have to worry about the costs involved in producing and distributing the software to the gamer. The iPhone by comparison stores games in the internal memory of the phone and users simply download games directly from the Apple website rather than buying them in a more cumbersome physical format.
It will be interesting to see how the turning fortunes of Sony and Nintendo will affect any planned successors to the DS or PSP and it is becoming apparent that dedicated portable gaming systems may have their days numbered. Unfortunately for Nintendo this is a market that they have relied on heavily since they released the GameBoy back in 1989 and they are ill positioned to launch a competing product to the iPhone. Sony Ericsson however remains a formidable force in the mobile phone market it can surely only be a matter of time before they retaliate with their own hybrid device.
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ver good game
World of Warcraft (or WoW) is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Blizzard Entertainment. Warcraft initially started out as a series of three games ending in Warcraft 3 with World of Warcraft being set after these games.
When you start the game you need to create an avatar which you will control as you explore the fictional world of Azeroth. You have a choice of two sides; either the Alliance or the Horde with each side having a number of different races that you can play as including Trolls, Dwarfs, Humans, Gnomes and Orcs.
Depending on your gaming style you may choose to be a Warrior, who charges in and takes the full wrath of the enemies, or maybe a mage who blasts your enemies with spells from a distance. There are also many different classes including Priests, Rogues, Paladins, and Shamans, so there is almost always a way of playing to suit most people. Once you have your character you will need to quest to earn level ups, armour upgrades and new skills to improve your ability to tackle stronger enemies and bosses.
With approximately 12 million subscribers worldwide, World of Warcraft is one of the biggest online role playing games. Contrary to popular belief; it’s not just teenage boys lacking in social ability who play World of Warcraft as it genuinely does appeal to many.
Whilst travelling around you will bump into parents sneaking a quick hour in whilst their kids sleep, men and women who use Warcraft to relax after a hard days work, much in the same way many people will watch their soaps of an evening. The folklore in World of Warcraft is so deep and vast it’s almost like an interactive Lord of the Rings.
Admittedly you rarely actually meet the people you play with in Warcraft, but when you keep bumping into the same characters in game, or join a guild with a good group of players, you start to form acquaintances and friendships with the other players. There has even been a few couples who met in the World of Warcraft and ended up being happily married – you are able to make the game as social an experience as you want.
You have the option to group up with other characters, where your character will take on a particular role in the group; for example Priests heal, warriors tank and mages deal the damage. There is even the option of forming a raid group of up to 40 characters to try and overcome the extra strong bosses that are scattered across the lands.
You would think that all games must come to an end, however World of Warcraft is different in that you can always strive to earn better armour so you can defeat the strongest bosses in the game, or try and earn the in game achievements for different titles and rewards. Blizzard also periodically introduce expansions, which raise the maximum level, and introduce new content and areas to the game.
Like any good franchise the game has a plethora of accessories, merchandise and books to go along with it and along with millions of subscriptions across the world, Warcraft is clearly a highly lucrative business which will be around for a long time to come.
hiohiihihihih
World of Warcraft (or WoW) is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Blizzard Entertainment. Warcraft initially started out as a series of three games ending in Warcraft 3 with World of Warcraft being set after these games.
When you start the game you need to create an avatar which you will control as you explore the fictional world of Azeroth. You have a choice of two sides; either the Alliance or the Horde with each side having a number of different races that you can play as including Trolls, Dwarfs, Humans, Gnomes and Orcs.
Depending on your gaming style you may choose to be a Warrior, who charges in and takes the full wrath of the enemies, or maybe a mage who blasts your enemies with spells from a distance. There are also many different classes including Priests, Rogues, Paladins, and Shamans, so there is almost always a way of playing to suit most people. Once you have your character you will need to quest to earn level ups, armour upgrades and new skills to improve your ability to tackle stronger enemies and bosses.
With approximately 12 million subscribers worldwide, World of Warcraft is one of the biggest online role playing games. Contrary to popular belief; it’s not just teenage boys lacking in social ability who play World of Warcraft as it genuinely does appeal to many.
Whilst travelling around you will bump into parents sneaking a quick hour in whilst their kids sleep, men and women who use Warcraft to relax after a hard days work, much in the same way many people will watch their soaps of an evening. The folklore in World of Warcraft is so deep and vast it’s almost like an interactive Lord of the Rings.
Admittedly you rarely actually meet the people you play with in Warcraft, but when you keep bumping into the same characters in game, or join a guild with a good group of players, you start to form acquaintances and friendships with the other players. There has even been a few couples who met in the World of Warcraft and ended up being happily married – you are able to make the game as social an experience as you want.
You have the option to group up with other characters, where your character will take on a particular role in the group; for example Priests heal, warriors tank and mages deal the damage. There is even the option of forming a raid group of up to 40 characters to try and overcome the extra strong bosses that are scattered across the lands.
You would think that all games must come to an end, however World of Warcraft is different in that you can always strive to earn better armour so you can defeat the strongest bosses in the game, or try and earn the in game achievements for different titles and rewards. Blizzard also periodically introduce expansions, which raise the maximum level, and introduce new content and areas to the game.
Like any good franchise the game has a plethora of accessories, merchandise and books to go along with it and along with millions of subscriptions across the world, Warcraft is clearly a highly lucrative business which will be around for a long time to come.
hiohiihihihih
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see this review very good newz
Despite it being the second most used application on my work computer (behind the Mozilla Firefox browser), it’s still impossible for me to get excited about a new edition of the Microsoft Office suite.
With the final release due in a couple of months, Microsoft have provided a beta test version of Office 2010 that’s free for members of the public to download. The beta test version will run unhindered until October 2010 at which point users must decide whether they wish to purchase the final release or have it removed from their hard drive.
For the costs involved the majority of home users may still be better off with the free OpenOffice Suite (www.openoffice.org) as it should provide all the features you are likely to need at no cost. This having been said, the Office Suite has remained a popular flagship product over the years due to business users often requiring a specific function or application only present in the Microsoft offering. I, for example, use Outlook on a regular basis and haven’t yet found an alternative that suits my needs.
Having not been the biggest fan of Office 2007 (especially the ‘ribbon’ interface discussed in the past) I wasted no time downloading the 64-bit professional version of the beta to put it through its paces. I have now been using it for a couple of days it does appear notably faster than Office 2007 and certainty incredibly stable. The speed increase could easily be attributed to the fact that a 64-bit version of the application is now available to run on modern 64-bit computers.
Office Professional 2010 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. The home edition (also currently available in beta) includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. After the official release, computer manufacturers may choose to bundle new machines with a starter edition of Office which includes just Excel and Word; this version of Office will replace the aging Microsoft Works Suite.
Although the ribbon interface remains, it is certainly a lot clearer than that provided with Office 2007; the confusing Office orb has been replaced with the familiar file menu, there are fewer distracting borders, a neutral colour scheme and most importantly it is customisable to the users individual tastes. The applications look and behave like a ‘family’ now and have become more intuitive to use as a result of the more refined user interface.
An important new feature due for release in the final version but missing from the beta is the ‘Web Apps’ which will extend the Office functionality to a compatible web browser. Very similar in form to Google Docs, Office Web Apps allows users to collaborate, edit and share Office documents online. This is an incredibly important new feature that has no doubt come about due to the success of Google Docs and one that I would like to field test when complete.
This article isn’t long enough to go in to details about minor new features so I will summarise by observing that the changes made from Office 2007 to Office 2010 are evolutionary rather than revolutionary; very much in the same way that Windows 7 was an evolutionary change compared with Vista. Excluding the Web Apps there is nothing substantially new however the minor improvements are certainly welcome as is the chance to road test a new piece of software completely free of charge for a year.
Users interested in downloading the beta version of Office 2010 should visit www.microsoft.com/office/2010 to get their hands on a copy.
Despite it being the second most used application on my work computer (behind the Mozilla Firefox browser), it’s still impossible for me to get excited about a new edition of the Microsoft Office suite.
With the final release due in a couple of months, Microsoft have provided a beta test version of Office 2010 that’s free for members of the public to download. The beta test version will run unhindered until October 2010 at which point users must decide whether they wish to purchase the final release or have it removed from their hard drive.
For the costs involved the majority of home users may still be better off with the free OpenOffice Suite (www.openoffice.org) as it should provide all the features you are likely to need at no cost. This having been said, the Office Suite has remained a popular flagship product over the years due to business users often requiring a specific function or application only present in the Microsoft offering. I, for example, use Outlook on a regular basis and haven’t yet found an alternative that suits my needs.
Having not been the biggest fan of Office 2007 (especially the ‘ribbon’ interface discussed in the past) I wasted no time downloading the 64-bit professional version of the beta to put it through its paces. I have now been using it for a couple of days it does appear notably faster than Office 2007 and certainty incredibly stable. The speed increase could easily be attributed to the fact that a 64-bit version of the application is now available to run on modern 64-bit computers.
Office Professional 2010 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. The home edition (also currently available in beta) includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. After the official release, computer manufacturers may choose to bundle new machines with a starter edition of Office which includes just Excel and Word; this version of Office will replace the aging Microsoft Works Suite.
Although the ribbon interface remains, it is certainly a lot clearer than that provided with Office 2007; the confusing Office orb has been replaced with the familiar file menu, there are fewer distracting borders, a neutral colour scheme and most importantly it is customisable to the users individual tastes. The applications look and behave like a ‘family’ now and have become more intuitive to use as a result of the more refined user interface.
An important new feature due for release in the final version but missing from the beta is the ‘Web Apps’ which will extend the Office functionality to a compatible web browser. Very similar in form to Google Docs, Office Web Apps allows users to collaborate, edit and share Office documents online. This is an incredibly important new feature that has no doubt come about due to the success of Google Docs and one that I would like to field test when complete.
This article isn’t long enough to go in to details about minor new features so I will summarise by observing that the changes made from Office 2007 to Office 2010 are evolutionary rather than revolutionary; very much in the same way that Windows 7 was an evolutionary change compared with Vista. Excluding the Web Apps there is nothing substantially new however the minor improvements are certainly welcome as is the chance to road test a new piece of software completely free of charge for a year.
Users interested in downloading the beta version of Office 2010 should visit www.microsoft.com/office/2010 to get their hands on a copy.
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my pioneeravic is ...........At the top of Pioneer's AVIC line of navigation receivers, and indeed its entire line of car audio receivers, sits the AVIC-Z110BT. This grandest of car stereos features just about every bell, whistle, and whizbang that Pioneer has to throw at mobile audio and video. From GPS navigation that can be upgraded to receive traffic data to iPod integration with fully-indexed voice command, if it's available in the world of car audio, it's available in some capacity on the Z110BT.
Design
The AVIC-Z110BT's design is quite conventional as far as double-DIN navigation receivers go. The 7-inch color touch screen occupies the overwhelming majority of the non-removable, motorized faceplate. The screen features a resolution of 800x480 pixels and a wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio. Below the screen is and illuminated ribbon of buttons for (left to right) voice command, volume down and up, home, mode, skip back and forward, and eject/open. The illumination color of these buttons can be customized with one of eight default colors, a custom RGB value, or a scan mode that fades between the colors of the spectrum.
Tapping the eject button causes the motorized faceplate to slide and rotate downward, revealing the DVD/CD slot and an SD card slot. Touch-screen controls that appear when the unit is open allow for ejecting optical media, ejecting the SD card, adjusting the screen tilt, and closing the faceplate.
On its back are the connections for the standard wiring harness, an additional AV input/output wiring harness, the external GPS antenna, the external microphone, the AM/FM antenna input, and the USB/aux input harness. Other less commonly used inputs include an IP Bus input for connecting external accessories, a power connection for the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct antenna accessory (sold separately), and a port for a steering wheel control adapter (also sold separately).
Features
Perhaps the best way to describe the Z110BT is "feature packed." However, the bulk of its functions can be organized into three categories: navigation, audio/video playback, and hands-free calling.
Starting with the GPS navigation, the Z110BT delivers turn-by-turn directions featuring text-to-speech, which enables proper street names to be read aloud. When approaching a turn on a major road, the map is replaced with a visual representation of the turn. If that road is a major interstate or highway, the visual representation also includes lane data, which further helps to avoid confusion. Multiple destinations and waypoints can be added to the same trip. Custom points-of-interest can be added using Pioneer's AVIC Feeds software.
Pioneer's voice command functions work well with the navigation portion of the feature set, allowing for POI search and address entry using natural speech.
If paired with the optional ND-MDT10 MSN Direct receiver, traffic and incident data can be shown on the map and can be avoided when calculating a route. Local POI search and fuel price search are also added to the Z110BT's capabilities with the receiver.
Pairing a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone opens up the options for hands-free calling and Bluetooth audio streaming. Once paired, the AVIC-Z110BT will automatically download and index your phone's address book, creating a voice tag for each contact that can be accessed using the voice command system. Calls can also be initiated by speaking a phone number or with a virtual 10-key pad when the vehicle is stopped.
The last bit of the puzzle is multimedia playback. The AVIC-Z110BT is able to handle DVD video, DivX video encoded DVDs, MP3-encoded and Red Book audio CDs, and read digital audio files from an SD card. Additionally, USB and analog auxiliary inputs allow the connection of portable storage devices, MP3 players, and iPods/iPhones. The deck supports MP3, WMA, and AAC audio files and WMV, MP4, and H.264 video files on USB devices or SD cards. iPod video playback is not supported out of the box, but an additional CD-IU50V iPod connectivity cable joins the USB and aux-inputs with a 30-pin dock connector, enabling video playback and faster data transfer.
When connecting an iPod, MP3 player, USB storage device, or SD card, the Z110BT will scan the files and metadata to create voice tags similarly to the way that it does for your phone's contacts. Once the scan is complete, you will be able to use voice commands to play any artist, album, or song. The system had issues recognizing some of the more complex names that we tested; but the majority of the time, the AVIC-Z110BT had no problem understanding what music we were asking for.
We'd say that the Z110BT does a good job of recreating the easy-to-use voice control that we'd come to love in Ford and Microsoft's Sync system, but there's a weakness. The AVIC-Z110BT's indexing takes forever to complete and devices must be reindexed if disconnected and reconnected. For a small 2GB SD card or USB key, this isn't much of an issue, but there were times when indexing a 16GB first-generation iPod Touch took well over half an hour, during which time the voice command cannot be used and access to the device is limited. That's far too long. Voice command is of limited use if it's only accessible for the last 10 minutes of your commute.
The home menu has a hidden feature. Tapping the Home key brings up the 3-icon home menu, but tapping it again brings up a user menu that can hold up to 15 quick links to functions. For example, if you find that you often search for gas prices, you can add a fuel price icon to your user menu for quick access.
To add a quick link to the user menu, double-tap the home key to bring up the user menu, then hit the customize button at the bottom of the screen. You'll be presented with 15 blank spaces for icons on the left and a scrolling list of available shortcuts on the right. Simply drag and drop the icons of your choosing to the into the spaces.
Installation
Because of a few of the advanced features available with the Z110BT, its installation is more involved than your standard car stereo and can quite tricky for the novice installer.
For example, in addition to the standard power and speaker connections that are the basis of all car stereo installs, an external microphone must be installed near the driver's head and connected to use Bluetooth calling and voice commands. The parking brake sensor must be tapped to use the video playback functions. Also, if you're planning to install a reverse camera, the reverse light power lead must also be tapped. A magnetic GPS antenna must be mounted with a clear view of the sky if you want turn-by-turn directions.
Where things get really tricky is finding and tapping of the vehicle speed pulse sensor, which in our case required disassembly of the instrument cluster and tapping into the speedometer wire. If your vehicle's connections aren't clearly labeled and you don't have access to a wiring diagram, this could be the trickiest part of your installation. If you choose to skip this portion, the GPS navigation will still work, but will occasionally give error and you won't benefit from the "dead reckoning" positioning when satellite lock is lost.
If you decided to add the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct Tuner (which we recommend) there's the final step of wiring the tuner in-line with the FM antenna and connecting a power harness to the Z110BT.
Performance
Aside from the long wait time for voice indexing files on an iPod, the AVIC-Z110BT performed superbly. Its menu transitions were snappy and there were no hangs or software crashes.
On the GPS side, its initial satellite location took 5 minutes in downtown San Francisco, but subsequent satellite lock times were substantially shorter.
Although we were unable to make use of the "dead reckoning" feature because of our vehicle's odd speed pulse signal, the AVIC-Z110BT did a fantastic job of holding our position as we navigated around town. However, people who spend a lot of time in tunnels or on long covered bridges will likely benefit from the increased accuracy that that this feature offers.
The Pioneer's audio quality was also good. We do most of our testing with a flat EQ curve, but there are four preset EQ curves and two seven-band custom user curves. Additionally, there are several advanced settings for crossover filters, virtual staging, and subwoofer control.
While the Z110BT's 22-watts RMS per channel (50-watts max) is good enough for most OEM speaker setups, audio enthusiasts with upgraded speakers will need to make use of the three 4-volt stereo preamp outputs to add external amplification. An interesting feature is that the rear channels can be bridged to create a 70-watt max subwoofer channel for people who just want to add a single small sub to, for example, a pickup truck that lacks rear speakers.
In sum
If there is one flaw that we can find in the AVIC-Z110BT, it's that the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct Tuner is a separate purchase. We can understand how Pioneer would think that separating the module would be a good cost saving measure. But after testing the Z110BT with the MSN Direct service, we can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to have access to the traffic and fuel price information.
Of the all-in-one in-dash solutions that we've tested, there is one device that matches the Pioneer AVIC-Z110BT almost feature for feature: the Eclipse AVN726E. Both of these units have GPS navigation, DVD and multimedia video, Bluetooth hands-free calling, and audio streaming. However, the difference is in the details and the Pioneer unit is just so much easier to use.
With its user customizable menus, contact importing, and voice control nearly every commonly accessed function, the Pioneer AVIC-Z110BT not only brings the features that we feel people want in their vehicles, but it also makes them safe and easy to use.
Design
The AVIC-Z110BT's design is quite conventional as far as double-DIN navigation receivers go. The 7-inch color touch screen occupies the overwhelming majority of the non-removable, motorized faceplate. The screen features a resolution of 800x480 pixels and a wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio. Below the screen is and illuminated ribbon of buttons for (left to right) voice command, volume down and up, home, mode, skip back and forward, and eject/open. The illumination color of these buttons can be customized with one of eight default colors, a custom RGB value, or a scan mode that fades between the colors of the spectrum.
Tapping the eject button causes the motorized faceplate to slide and rotate downward, revealing the DVD/CD slot and an SD card slot. Touch-screen controls that appear when the unit is open allow for ejecting optical media, ejecting the SD card, adjusting the screen tilt, and closing the faceplate.
On its back are the connections for the standard wiring harness, an additional AV input/output wiring harness, the external GPS antenna, the external microphone, the AM/FM antenna input, and the USB/aux input harness. Other less commonly used inputs include an IP Bus input for connecting external accessories, a power connection for the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct antenna accessory (sold separately), and a port for a steering wheel control adapter (also sold separately).
Features
Perhaps the best way to describe the Z110BT is "feature packed." However, the bulk of its functions can be organized into three categories: navigation, audio/video playback, and hands-free calling.
Starting with the GPS navigation, the Z110BT delivers turn-by-turn directions featuring text-to-speech, which enables proper street names to be read aloud. When approaching a turn on a major road, the map is replaced with a visual representation of the turn. If that road is a major interstate or highway, the visual representation also includes lane data, which further helps to avoid confusion. Multiple destinations and waypoints can be added to the same trip. Custom points-of-interest can be added using Pioneer's AVIC Feeds software.
Pioneer's voice command functions work well with the navigation portion of the feature set, allowing for POI search and address entry using natural speech.
If paired with the optional ND-MDT10 MSN Direct receiver, traffic and incident data can be shown on the map and can be avoided when calculating a route. Local POI search and fuel price search are also added to the Z110BT's capabilities with the receiver.
Pairing a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone opens up the options for hands-free calling and Bluetooth audio streaming. Once paired, the AVIC-Z110BT will automatically download and index your phone's address book, creating a voice tag for each contact that can be accessed using the voice command system. Calls can also be initiated by speaking a phone number or with a virtual 10-key pad when the vehicle is stopped.
The last bit of the puzzle is multimedia playback. The AVIC-Z110BT is able to handle DVD video, DivX video encoded DVDs, MP3-encoded and Red Book audio CDs, and read digital audio files from an SD card. Additionally, USB and analog auxiliary inputs allow the connection of portable storage devices, MP3 players, and iPods/iPhones. The deck supports MP3, WMA, and AAC audio files and WMV, MP4, and H.264 video files on USB devices or SD cards. iPod video playback is not supported out of the box, but an additional CD-IU50V iPod connectivity cable joins the USB and aux-inputs with a 30-pin dock connector, enabling video playback and faster data transfer.
When connecting an iPod, MP3 player, USB storage device, or SD card, the Z110BT will scan the files and metadata to create voice tags similarly to the way that it does for your phone's contacts. Once the scan is complete, you will be able to use voice commands to play any artist, album, or song. The system had issues recognizing some of the more complex names that we tested; but the majority of the time, the AVIC-Z110BT had no problem understanding what music we were asking for.
We'd say that the Z110BT does a good job of recreating the easy-to-use voice control that we'd come to love in Ford and Microsoft's Sync system, but there's a weakness. The AVIC-Z110BT's indexing takes forever to complete and devices must be reindexed if disconnected and reconnected. For a small 2GB SD card or USB key, this isn't much of an issue, but there were times when indexing a 16GB first-generation iPod Touch took well over half an hour, during which time the voice command cannot be used and access to the device is limited. That's far too long. Voice command is of limited use if it's only accessible for the last 10 minutes of your commute.
The home menu has a hidden feature. Tapping the Home key brings up the 3-icon home menu, but tapping it again brings up a user menu that can hold up to 15 quick links to functions. For example, if you find that you often search for gas prices, you can add a fuel price icon to your user menu for quick access.
To add a quick link to the user menu, double-tap the home key to bring up the user menu, then hit the customize button at the bottom of the screen. You'll be presented with 15 blank spaces for icons on the left and a scrolling list of available shortcuts on the right. Simply drag and drop the icons of your choosing to the into the spaces.
Installation
Because of a few of the advanced features available with the Z110BT, its installation is more involved than your standard car stereo and can quite tricky for the novice installer.
For example, in addition to the standard power and speaker connections that are the basis of all car stereo installs, an external microphone must be installed near the driver's head and connected to use Bluetooth calling and voice commands. The parking brake sensor must be tapped to use the video playback functions. Also, if you're planning to install a reverse camera, the reverse light power lead must also be tapped. A magnetic GPS antenna must be mounted with a clear view of the sky if you want turn-by-turn directions.
Where things get really tricky is finding and tapping of the vehicle speed pulse sensor, which in our case required disassembly of the instrument cluster and tapping into the speedometer wire. If your vehicle's connections aren't clearly labeled and you don't have access to a wiring diagram, this could be the trickiest part of your installation. If you choose to skip this portion, the GPS navigation will still work, but will occasionally give error and you won't benefit from the "dead reckoning" positioning when satellite lock is lost.
If you decided to add the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct Tuner (which we recommend) there's the final step of wiring the tuner in-line with the FM antenna and connecting a power harness to the Z110BT.
Performance
Aside from the long wait time for voice indexing files on an iPod, the AVIC-Z110BT performed superbly. Its menu transitions were snappy and there were no hangs or software crashes.
On the GPS side, its initial satellite location took 5 minutes in downtown San Francisco, but subsequent satellite lock times were substantially shorter.
Although we were unable to make use of the "dead reckoning" feature because of our vehicle's odd speed pulse signal, the AVIC-Z110BT did a fantastic job of holding our position as we navigated around town. However, people who spend a lot of time in tunnels or on long covered bridges will likely benefit from the increased accuracy that that this feature offers.
The Pioneer's audio quality was also good. We do most of our testing with a flat EQ curve, but there are four preset EQ curves and two seven-band custom user curves. Additionally, there are several advanced settings for crossover filters, virtual staging, and subwoofer control.
While the Z110BT's 22-watts RMS per channel (50-watts max) is good enough for most OEM speaker setups, audio enthusiasts with upgraded speakers will need to make use of the three 4-volt stereo preamp outputs to add external amplification. An interesting feature is that the rear channels can be bridged to create a 70-watt max subwoofer channel for people who just want to add a single small sub to, for example, a pickup truck that lacks rear speakers.
In sum
If there is one flaw that we can find in the AVIC-Z110BT, it's that the ND-MDT10 MSN Direct Tuner is a separate purchase. We can understand how Pioneer would think that separating the module would be a good cost saving measure. But after testing the Z110BT with the MSN Direct service, we can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to have access to the traffic and fuel price information.
Of the all-in-one in-dash solutions that we've tested, there is one device that matches the Pioneer AVIC-Z110BT almost feature for feature: the Eclipse AVN726E. Both of these units have GPS navigation, DVD and multimedia video, Bluetooth hands-free calling, and audio streaming. However, the difference is in the details and the Pioneer unit is just so much easier to use.
With its user customizable menus, contact importing, and voice control nearly every commonly accessed function, the Pioneer AVIC-Z110BT not only brings the features that we feel people want in their vehicles, but it also makes them safe and easy to use.
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HI ......Thousands of farmers' bank account details have been lost by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) after the Government body lost two back-up tapes of confidential data belonging to all English farmers.
The only RPA, which administers the single payment system of EU subsidy to English farmers, for the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), was heavily criticesed last week by the national audit office
And now formers weekly for youhas learnt that the RPA has lost confidential data belonging to any farmer who has ever claimed a single farm payment. Computer tapes containing the bank details, addresses, passwords and security questions of more than 100,000 farmers were discovered missing in May, at which point DEFRA was alerted.
The RPA, which is blaming the loss on its contractor IBM, discovered the problem in September, but at no time has the agency or DEFRA attempted to inform farmers about the breach. Leaked information was given to Farmers Weekly this week by frustrated civil servants working on the single payments system within the RPA and an external consultant who has been advising the agency.
These whistle-blowers were concerned that the RPA and DEFRA would remain tight-lipped over the incident and about the risks the breach posed to farmers. They claimed that 39 back-up tapes containing confidential details went missing after they were transferred from RPA offices in Reading to Newcastle. Thirty-seven of the tapes have since been recovered, but two remain unaccounted for.
DEFRA has admitted that tapes went missing, but told Farmers Weekly that the data was not lost in transit and was instead misplaced within the data centre.
A DEFRA spokeswoman said a thorough search was conducted to find the missing material and concluded that some tapes were misfiled and placed "on the wrong shelf". She described this as "bad book-keeping" by RPA-contracted IT consultants IBM, who run the data centre.
DEFRA said it assumed that the two tapes that were never found must have been destroyed. The breach of security is the latest disaster for the agency, which has faced a catalogue of errors since the single payment scheme was launched in 2005.
According to the whistleblowers, the error occurred after back-up tapes containing confidential details were sent between IBM and another IT consultant, Accenture. The tapes were last accounted for in June 2008, but it was not until May this year that IBM realised the data was missing and informed DEFRA.
The sources claim DEFRA tried to cover the error and it was only realised by the RPA in September when annual data checks were carried out. One source said the tapes had not been encrypted as they should have been.
"DEFRA knew about this and did nothing," the source said. "People should be made aware that their details have gone missing. "I know people at the middle management level tried to advise senior civil servants to do the right thing and tell farmers, but they're not listening."
In further security breaches, the sources claim members of the senior RPA management team have failed to report the loss of memory sticks and laptops which could contain farmers' information.
"It's symptomatic of the senior managers. There are a lot of good people working in the lower levels of the organisation, but we think the top-level board is rotten to the core."
DEFRA admitted its data was not encrypted, but insisted information could not be accessed without specialised technical equipment and knowledge.
DEFRA and the RPA issued the following statement to farmers Weekly: "Since these incidents, procedures have been further tightened to prevent a recurrance. IBM have instigated a thorough review of their procedures to manage removable storage media, such as these tapes, as well as tightening access control requirements.
"The tapes are held in a secure IBM data centre and only IBM and Accenture technicians have access to them. Both IBM and Accenture were asked to review their security arrangements as a result of this incident." DEFRA said the risk posed to farmers was very low.
The only RPA, which administers the single payment system of EU subsidy to English farmers, for the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), was heavily criticesed last week by the national audit office
And now formers weekly for youhas learnt that the RPA has lost confidential data belonging to any farmer who has ever claimed a single farm payment. Computer tapes containing the bank details, addresses, passwords and security questions of more than 100,000 farmers were discovered missing in May, at which point DEFRA was alerted.
The RPA, which is blaming the loss on its contractor IBM, discovered the problem in September, but at no time has the agency or DEFRA attempted to inform farmers about the breach. Leaked information was given to Farmers Weekly this week by frustrated civil servants working on the single payments system within the RPA and an external consultant who has been advising the agency.
These whistle-blowers were concerned that the RPA and DEFRA would remain tight-lipped over the incident and about the risks the breach posed to farmers. They claimed that 39 back-up tapes containing confidential details went missing after they were transferred from RPA offices in Reading to Newcastle. Thirty-seven of the tapes have since been recovered, but two remain unaccounted for.
DEFRA has admitted that tapes went missing, but told Farmers Weekly that the data was not lost in transit and was instead misplaced within the data centre.
A DEFRA spokeswoman said a thorough search was conducted to find the missing material and concluded that some tapes were misfiled and placed "on the wrong shelf". She described this as "bad book-keeping" by RPA-contracted IT consultants IBM, who run the data centre.
DEFRA said it assumed that the two tapes that were never found must have been destroyed. The breach of security is the latest disaster for the agency, which has faced a catalogue of errors since the single payment scheme was launched in 2005.
According to the whistleblowers, the error occurred after back-up tapes containing confidential details were sent between IBM and another IT consultant, Accenture. The tapes were last accounted for in June 2008, but it was not until May this year that IBM realised the data was missing and informed DEFRA.
The sources claim DEFRA tried to cover the error and it was only realised by the RPA in September when annual data checks were carried out. One source said the tapes had not been encrypted as they should have been.
"DEFRA knew about this and did nothing," the source said. "People should be made aware that their details have gone missing. "I know people at the middle management level tried to advise senior civil servants to do the right thing and tell farmers, but they're not listening."
In further security breaches, the sources claim members of the senior RPA management team have failed to report the loss of memory sticks and laptops which could contain farmers' information.
"It's symptomatic of the senior managers. There are a lot of good people working in the lower levels of the organisation, but we think the top-level board is rotten to the core."
DEFRA admitted its data was not encrypted, but insisted information could not be accessed without specialised technical equipment and knowledge.
DEFRA and the RPA issued the following statement to farmers Weekly: "Since these incidents, procedures have been further tightened to prevent a recurrance. IBM have instigated a thorough review of their procedures to manage removable storage media, such as these tapes, as well as tightening access control requirements.
"The tapes are held in a secure IBM data centre and only IBM and Accenture technicians have access to them. Both IBM and Accenture were asked to review their security arrangements as a result of this incident." DEFRA said the risk posed to farmers was very low.
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hi my website is very good see about computers new and buy them ........... ok its my order
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When Apple announced their switch away from the PowerPC architecture to Intel's processors and chipsets, many were looking forward to having the ability to run Windows software on Apple hardware and Apple's operating systems on their non-Apple hardware Apple was able to eventually build their boot camp feature in Mac OS X 10.5 allowing Windows to run on Apple hardware. Those hoping to easily run Mac OS X on a standard PC don't have it so easy.
Even though running Mac OS X on a generic PC is not supported by Apple, it is possible to accomplish given the right hardware. A system that is made to run the Apple operating system is referred to as Hackitosh. This term comes from the fact that the software needs to be hacked in order to properly run.
Hackintosh computers have risen in popularity over the past year due to Apple's refusal to join into the netbook craze. With Apple's least expensive laptop computer costing $950, many people are willing to spend around $300 on a Windows based netbook, around $150 for a copy of Mac OS X and downloading some hacked bootloaders. This come in much cheaper than Apple's MacBook laptop yet give a functional albeit unofficial version of Mac OS X.
The trend has become so popular that a variety of sites are available that provide instructions on how to convert specific netbooks into a hackintosh. Boing Boing specifically mac os notebook capatibailaty chart that shows some of the most common netbooks available and how compatible their on at being converted to run Mac OS X
Even though running Mac OS X on a generic PC is not supported by Apple, it is possible to accomplish given the right hardware. A system that is made to run the Apple operating system is referred to as Hackitosh. This term comes from the fact that the software needs to be hacked in order to properly run.
Hackintosh computers have risen in popularity over the past year due to Apple's refusal to join into the netbook craze. With Apple's least expensive laptop computer costing $950, many people are willing to spend around $300 on a Windows based netbook, around $150 for a copy of Mac OS X and downloading some hacked bootloaders. This come in much cheaper than Apple's MacBook laptop yet give a functional albeit unofficial version of Mac OS X.
The trend has become so popular that a variety of sites are available that provide instructions on how to convert specific netbooks into a hackintosh. Boing Boing specifically mac os notebook capatibailaty chart that shows some of the most common netbooks available and how compatible their on at being converted to run Mac OS X
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its new which canAble to stream live video to any internet-connected PC, network cameras (or IP cameras, if you prefer) are an affordable alternative to expensive CCTV systems and perfect for increasing security at home.
Prices have remained fairly static over the past few years, and the £179 that D-Link's asking for its new DCS-2121 is about what we'd expect given its specs.
The DCS-2121's main claim to fame is a 1.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, enabling it to capture video up to a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024. It also features built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi, although if your wireless network coverage is less than perfect you can make use of its 10/100Mbps Ethernet socket instead.
We didn't encounter any problems during the installation process. The camera's web-based interface is both clear and well-designed. It comes with easy-to-follow wizards to help novices get things started, but also houses enough manual features to keep experienced users happy.
Both MPEG-4 and MJPEG (Motion JPEG) streaming is offered, with frame rates of up to 30fps. Somewhat annoyingly, though, if you want to use the camera's top resolution of 1280 x 1024 you'll be restricted to MJPEG streaming at 10fps.
Prices have remained fairly static over the past few years, and the £179 that D-Link's asking for its new DCS-2121 is about what we'd expect given its specs.
The DCS-2121's main claim to fame is a 1.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, enabling it to capture video up to a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024. It also features built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi, although if your wireless network coverage is less than perfect you can make use of its 10/100Mbps Ethernet socket instead.
We didn't encounter any problems during the installation process. The camera's web-based interface is both clear and well-designed. It comes with easy-to-follow wizards to help novices get things started, but also houses enough manual features to keep experienced users happy.
Both MPEG-4 and MJPEG (Motion JPEG) streaming is offered, with frame rates of up to 30fps. Somewhat annoyingly, though, if you want to use the camera's top resolution of 1280 x 1024 you'll be restricted to MJPEG streaming at 10fps.
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gigabyte is very good company Gigabyte has carved out an enviable reputation as a top tier motherboard manufacturer, but it still has some way to go before it overtakes Asus as the number one choice for enthusiasts. The GA-EP45-UD3P will certainly help it in this cause as it stands out as the finest P45-based motherboard we have yet tested, and as one of the quickest Core 2 solutions on the market.
With a £100 price tag, the GA-EP45-UD3P occupies the middle ground in Gigabyte's expansive P45 line up. The feature set is more representative of a board costing far more, however, as it is decked out with a plethora of high-end features. No fewer than eight SATA ports are provided for storage junkies, with six powered by the Intel ICH10R Southbridge and a further two courtesy of a JMicron controller that also provides the board's single IDE slot. Moving to the I/O panel and we are spoilt for choice, with a generous eight USB ports being joined by dual gigabit Ethernet connections, two types of Firewire, both flavours of SPDIF audio output and a couple of PS/2 ports for legacy input devices.
Elsewhere the board provides dual full-length PCI Express slots for Crossfire support as well as three 1x PCIE slots for newer add-in cards. A pair of conventional PCI slots provides support for older cards and perfect placement means that you'll have access to one of the latter and two of the former even with two double-height Radeons installed. The overall layout of the Gigabyte is outstanding, with plenty of space around the CPU socket for large heat-sinks and sensible placement of the memory slots that (just) allow access without having to remove the video card.
If we were being really picky we would have preferred SATA ports angled at 90 degrees on the outside edge of the board (as seen on Gigabyte's own P45-DQ6) but here they are suitably positioned for easy access. The floppy port is not placed ideally, but with these drives becoming scarce and many major stockists no longer even selling the disks, this is unlikely to be a problem for many.
The GA-EP45-UD3P's performance is extremely impressive with results in our suite of benchmarks almost identical to those of considerably more expensive X48 solutions. The board gave up an unnoticeable 2 percent compared to these flagships when used in Crossfire mode, proving that an 8x PCI Express 2.0 slot is plenty fast enough to get the best out of the fastest cards on the market.
What really impressed us were the outstanding overclocking options this board provides. Voltage adjustment options are expansive and we were able to take our Q9550 test chip to a new record speed of 3.9GHz with nothing more exotic than a beefy heat sink and fan. The maximum FSB we were able to obtain was even more impressive, with the Gigabyte only running out of steam once we pushed it beyond 550MHz. This means that even with the lowest of CPU multipliers you can be sure your chip will run out of steam long before the board even breaks a sweat.
Users familiar with Asus or MSI boards may find Gigabyte's BIOS layout a little confusing at first, but everything of importance is grouped sensibly into a single menu and we love the fact that profiles can be saved with ease to both pen drives and the board's own CMOS. Those who just want access to the main memory timing features are ably catered for, whilst those prepared to invest a lot more time in squeezing out every last MB/s will welcome the more advanced areas of the BIOS where a multitude of latencies, voltages and timings can be tweaked.
Overall the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P is a triumph. It offers all of the performance, features and overclockability of an expensive X48 solution for a very attractive price. Even with Core i5 just around the corner, this board proves that Socket 775 is still highly competitive and will remain an important part of Intel's product lines for some time to come
With a £100 price tag, the GA-EP45-UD3P occupies the middle ground in Gigabyte's expansive P45 line up. The feature set is more representative of a board costing far more, however, as it is decked out with a plethora of high-end features. No fewer than eight SATA ports are provided for storage junkies, with six powered by the Intel ICH10R Southbridge and a further two courtesy of a JMicron controller that also provides the board's single IDE slot. Moving to the I/O panel and we are spoilt for choice, with a generous eight USB ports being joined by dual gigabit Ethernet connections, two types of Firewire, both flavours of SPDIF audio output and a couple of PS/2 ports for legacy input devices.
Elsewhere the board provides dual full-length PCI Express slots for Crossfire support as well as three 1x PCIE slots for newer add-in cards. A pair of conventional PCI slots provides support for older cards and perfect placement means that you'll have access to one of the latter and two of the former even with two double-height Radeons installed. The overall layout of the Gigabyte is outstanding, with plenty of space around the CPU socket for large heat-sinks and sensible placement of the memory slots that (just) allow access without having to remove the video card.
If we were being really picky we would have preferred SATA ports angled at 90 degrees on the outside edge of the board (as seen on Gigabyte's own P45-DQ6) but here they are suitably positioned for easy access. The floppy port is not placed ideally, but with these drives becoming scarce and many major stockists no longer even selling the disks, this is unlikely to be a problem for many.
The GA-EP45-UD3P's performance is extremely impressive with results in our suite of benchmarks almost identical to those of considerably more expensive X48 solutions. The board gave up an unnoticeable 2 percent compared to these flagships when used in Crossfire mode, proving that an 8x PCI Express 2.0 slot is plenty fast enough to get the best out of the fastest cards on the market.
What really impressed us were the outstanding overclocking options this board provides. Voltage adjustment options are expansive and we were able to take our Q9550 test chip to a new record speed of 3.9GHz with nothing more exotic than a beefy heat sink and fan. The maximum FSB we were able to obtain was even more impressive, with the Gigabyte only running out of steam once we pushed it beyond 550MHz. This means that even with the lowest of CPU multipliers you can be sure your chip will run out of steam long before the board even breaks a sweat.
Users familiar with Asus or MSI boards may find Gigabyte's BIOS layout a little confusing at first, but everything of importance is grouped sensibly into a single menu and we love the fact that profiles can be saved with ease to both pen drives and the board's own CMOS. Those who just want access to the main memory timing features are ably catered for, whilst those prepared to invest a lot more time in squeezing out every last MB/s will welcome the more advanced areas of the BIOS where a multitude of latencies, voltages and timings can be tweaked.
Overall the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P is a triumph. It offers all of the performance, features and overclockability of an expensive X48 solution for a very attractive price. Even with Core i5 just around the corner, this board proves that Socket 775 is still highly competitive and will remain an important part of Intel's product lines for some time to come
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gigabyte is very good company Gigabyte has carved out an enviable reputation as a top tier motherboard manufacturer, but it still has some way to go before it overtakes Asus as the number one choice for enthusiasts. The GA-EP45-UD3P will certainly help it in this cause as it stands out as the finest P45-based motherboard we have yet tested, and as one of the quickest Core 2 solutions on the market.
With a £100 price tag, the GA-EP45-UD3P occupies the middle ground in Gigabyte's expansive P45 line up. The feature set is more representative of a board costing far more, however, as it is decked out with a plethora of high-end features. No fewer than eight SATA ports are provided for storage junkies, with six powered by the Intel ICH10R Southbridge and a further two courtesy of a JMicron controller that also provides the board's single IDE slot. Moving to the I/O panel and we are spoilt for choice, with a generous eight USB ports being joined by dual gigabit Ethernet connections, two types of Firewire, both flavours of SPDIF audio output and a couple of PS/2 ports for legacy input devices.
Elsewhere the board provides dual full-length PCI Express slots for Crossfire support as well as three 1x PCIE slots for newer add-in cards. A pair of conventional PCI slots provides support for older cards and perfect placement means that you'll have access to one of the latter and two of the former even with two double-height Radeons installed. The overall layout of the Gigabyte is outstanding, with plenty of space around the CPU socket for large heat-sinks and sensible placement of the memory slots that (just) allow access without having to remove the video card.
If we were being really picky we would have preferred SATA ports angled at 90 degrees on the outside edge of the board (as seen on Gigabyte's own P45-DQ6) but here they are suitably positioned for easy access. The floppy port is not placed ideally, but with these drives becoming scarce and many major stockists no longer even selling the disks, this is unlikely to be a problem for many.
The GA-EP45-UD3P's performance is extremely impressive with results in our suite of benchmarks almost identical to those of considerably more expensive X48 solutions. The board gave up an unnoticeable 2 percent compared to these flagships when used in Crossfire mode, proving that an 8x PCI Express 2.0 slot is plenty fast enough to get the best out of the fastest cards on the market.
What really impressed us were the outstanding overclocking options this board provides. Voltage adjustment options are expansive and we were able to take our Q9550 test chip to a new record speed of 3.9GHz with nothing more exotic than a beefy heat sink and fan. The maximum FSB we were able to obtain was even more impressive, with the Gigabyte only running out of steam once we pushed it beyond 550MHz. This means that even with the lowest of CPU multipliers you can be sure your chip will run out of steam long before the board even breaks a sweat.
Users familiar with Asus or MSI boards may find Gigabyte's BIOS layout a little confusing at first, but everything of importance is grouped sensibly into a single menu and we love the fact that profiles can be saved with ease to both pen drives and the board's own CMOS. Those who just want access to the main memory timing features are ably catered for, whilst those prepared to invest a lot more time in squeezing out every last MB/s will welcome the more advanced areas of the BIOS where a multitude of latencies, voltages and timings can be tweaked.
Overall the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P is a triumph. It offers all of the performance, features and overclockability of an expensive X48 solution for a very attractive price. Even with Core i5 just around the corner, this board proves that Socket 775 is still highly competitive and will remain an important part of Intel's product lines for some time to come
With a £100 price tag, the GA-EP45-UD3P occupies the middle ground in Gigabyte's expansive P45 line up. The feature set is more representative of a board costing far more, however, as it is decked out with a plethora of high-end features. No fewer than eight SATA ports are provided for storage junkies, with six powered by the Intel ICH10R Southbridge and a further two courtesy of a JMicron controller that also provides the board's single IDE slot. Moving to the I/O panel and we are spoilt for choice, with a generous eight USB ports being joined by dual gigabit Ethernet connections, two types of Firewire, both flavours of SPDIF audio output and a couple of PS/2 ports for legacy input devices.
Elsewhere the board provides dual full-length PCI Express slots for Crossfire support as well as three 1x PCIE slots for newer add-in cards. A pair of conventional PCI slots provides support for older cards and perfect placement means that you'll have access to one of the latter and two of the former even with two double-height Radeons installed. The overall layout of the Gigabyte is outstanding, with plenty of space around the CPU socket for large heat-sinks and sensible placement of the memory slots that (just) allow access without having to remove the video card.
If we were being really picky we would have preferred SATA ports angled at 90 degrees on the outside edge of the board (as seen on Gigabyte's own P45-DQ6) but here they are suitably positioned for easy access. The floppy port is not placed ideally, but with these drives becoming scarce and many major stockists no longer even selling the disks, this is unlikely to be a problem for many.
The GA-EP45-UD3P's performance is extremely impressive with results in our suite of benchmarks almost identical to those of considerably more expensive X48 solutions. The board gave up an unnoticeable 2 percent compared to these flagships when used in Crossfire mode, proving that an 8x PCI Express 2.0 slot is plenty fast enough to get the best out of the fastest cards on the market.
What really impressed us were the outstanding overclocking options this board provides. Voltage adjustment options are expansive and we were able to take our Q9550 test chip to a new record speed of 3.9GHz with nothing more exotic than a beefy heat sink and fan. The maximum FSB we were able to obtain was even more impressive, with the Gigabyte only running out of steam once we pushed it beyond 550MHz. This means that even with the lowest of CPU multipliers you can be sure your chip will run out of steam long before the board even breaks a sweat.
Users familiar with Asus or MSI boards may find Gigabyte's BIOS layout a little confusing at first, but everything of importance is grouped sensibly into a single menu and we love the fact that profiles can be saved with ease to both pen drives and the board's own CMOS. Those who just want access to the main memory timing features are ably catered for, whilst those prepared to invest a lot more time in squeezing out every last MB/s will welcome the more advanced areas of the BIOS where a multitude of latencies, voltages and timings can be tweaked.
Overall the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P is a triumph. It offers all of the performance, features and overclockability of an expensive X48 solution for a very attractive price. Even with Core i5 just around the corner, this board proves that Socket 775 is still highly competitive and will remain an important part of Intel's product lines for some time to come
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hii its very good result giver ok must have this The Radeon HD4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo is the fastest single-core card HIS has produced to date, taking AMD/ATI's Radeon HD 4870 GPU, adding a custom cooling solution and overclocking both the core and memory clock speeds, with twice the standard memory to boot.
Just in case you have forgotten, here's a quick recap on the HD4870. The HD4870 (RV770) core is built on a 55nm process with the die measuring 260mm², but still somehow AMD managed to pack it with 956 million transistors, thanks mostly to the 800 stream processors that handle the vertex, pixel and geometry shader data and the 40 texture units. Needless to say it supports both DirectX 10.1 and multi-card CrossfireX set-ups.
The core clock runs at 750MHz while the 512MB of memory runs through a 256-bit memory interface which can support GDDR3, 4 and 5 and it's GDDR5 that gives the HD4870 its punch. The memory clock may only run at 900MHz but because of the way GDDR5 works (the memory frequency is double the data rate) the memory has an effective speed of 3.6GHz instead of just 1.8GHz if GDDR3 or 4 is used. This gives the HD4870 a massive bandwidth of 115GB/s.
Just in case you have forgotten, here's a quick recap on the HD4870. The HD4870 (RV770) core is built on a 55nm process with the die measuring 260mm², but still somehow AMD managed to pack it with 956 million transistors, thanks mostly to the 800 stream processors that handle the vertex, pixel and geometry shader data and the 40 texture units. Needless to say it supports both DirectX 10.1 and multi-card CrossfireX set-ups.
The core clock runs at 750MHz while the 512MB of memory runs through a 256-bit memory interface which can support GDDR3, 4 and 5 and it's GDDR5 that gives the HD4870 its punch. The memory clock may only run at 900MHz but because of the way GDDR5 works (the memory frequency is double the data rate) the memory has an effective speed of 3.6GHz instead of just 1.8GHz if GDDR3 or 4 is used. This gives the HD4870 a massive bandwidth of 115GB/s.
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the world renowned company now give another note book for you Sony doesn't do netbooks, but if it did the Vaio P would be one. It is small and neat. It weighs just 0.6kg and it measures 245 x 120 x 19.8mm. Picture those measurements in your mind and you'll visualise a wide, thin notebook, which is precisely what the Vaio P is.
Its wide format allows for a large keyboard that is extremely comfy to use, and a wide format screen which might only measure 8-inches across diagonal corners, but which offers 1,600 x 768 pixels.
These criteria, plus the general build quality, which oozes style and pizzazz, are enough to capture the imagination. And there are other things to draw the attention, like a webcam, GPS, 3G support via a SIM and Draft-N wireless support.
There are seven different models currently available, and the least expensive of them will cost you £850. You could get two good netbooks out of that. But of course, Sony doesn't call the Vaio P a netbook, even though it runs an Intel Atom Z520 processor. OK, then.
While it might look stunning, that screen is actually a serious pain to live with. It simply isn't an ergonomic format. The width pixel count is great, but in terms of height there are too few. Web browsing was difficult as we had to keep panning up and down. Writing text was irritating as we couldn't see a great many lines on a page. And there is another problem: the screen resolution means that what you see is rather small. If your eyesight isn't wonderful, you may find yourself squinting.
The keyboard, though, is a thing of greatness. Sony knows how to do keyboards and the one here, with its isolated keys, was responsive under the fingers. Fast touch-typing was easy. Wisely, Sony didn't squeeze the keyboard to fit in a touchpad. Instead there is a pointing stick which you can tap for a left mouse click. There are two small mouse buttons beneath the keyboard with a central one for scrolling.
Battery life was disappointing and we found we only got about an hour when using a SIM. We also tried a mobile broadband dongle and the system didn't seem to like that at all, crashing often enough to be really irritating. In fact, running full Windows Vista might not have been a good choice for Sony. With 2GB of RAM, Vista struggles.
There is a Linux-powered 'instant-on' environment for those times when you don't want to wait for full Windows to boot. That gets you into features like Web surfing, picture and video viewing, and music listening. It'll cover entertainment needs, but if you want to write much text or be otherwise productive, you are probably going to need the Windows boot.
Its wide format allows for a large keyboard that is extremely comfy to use, and a wide format screen which might only measure 8-inches across diagonal corners, but which offers 1,600 x 768 pixels.
These criteria, plus the general build quality, which oozes style and pizzazz, are enough to capture the imagination. And there are other things to draw the attention, like a webcam, GPS, 3G support via a SIM and Draft-N wireless support.
There are seven different models currently available, and the least expensive of them will cost you £850. You could get two good netbooks out of that. But of course, Sony doesn't call the Vaio P a netbook, even though it runs an Intel Atom Z520 processor. OK, then.
While it might look stunning, that screen is actually a serious pain to live with. It simply isn't an ergonomic format. The width pixel count is great, but in terms of height there are too few. Web browsing was difficult as we had to keep panning up and down. Writing text was irritating as we couldn't see a great many lines on a page. And there is another problem: the screen resolution means that what you see is rather small. If your eyesight isn't wonderful, you may find yourself squinting.
The keyboard, though, is a thing of greatness. Sony knows how to do keyboards and the one here, with its isolated keys, was responsive under the fingers. Fast touch-typing was easy. Wisely, Sony didn't squeeze the keyboard to fit in a touchpad. Instead there is a pointing stick which you can tap for a left mouse click. There are two small mouse buttons beneath the keyboard with a central one for scrolling.
Battery life was disappointing and we found we only got about an hour when using a SIM. We also tried a mobile broadband dongle and the system didn't seem to like that at all, crashing often enough to be really irritating. In fact, running full Windows Vista might not have been a good choice for Sony. With 2GB of RAM, Vista struggles.
There is a Linux-powered 'instant-on' environment for those times when you don't want to wait for full Windows to boot. That gets you into features like Web surfing, picture and video viewing, and music listening. It'll cover entertainment needs, but if you want to write much text or be otherwise productive, you are probably going to need the Windows boot.
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hi i use this its great but costly plz buy it !When it comes to buying a new Core i7 motherboard, Foxconn is clear that one size does not fit all. It has come up with three distinct groups of motherboard that use the Intel X58 chipset. Renaissance and Renaissance II are Digital life models with full Dolby surround sound audio. Blood Rage and Blood Rage GTi support four PCI Express 2.0 graphics slots that allow the avid gamer to pack in a stack of graphics cards, and there are other goodies such as an X-Fi audio riser card.
In the mid-range we have Flaming Blade and Flaming Blade GTi, with dual PCI Express 2.0 graphics slots with support for both CrossFireX and SLI. The GTi sounds as though it should be the sporty model with extra go-fast stripes but it is, in fact, the more basic model of the two. In essence the Flaming Blade that we are reviewing is a GTi with an array of extra gadgets such as a second Gigabit LAN port, two eSATA ports on the I/O panel and micro buttons for Clear CMOS, Power and Reset.
One notable feature of the Flaming Blade and Blood Rage models is that they have three DDR3 memory slots where most Core i7 motherboards have six slots. Intel is the odd one out as its DX58SO has four slots. Foxconn says that the three slots can support up to 12GB of DDR3-1800 and you can buy a 6GB triple channel RAM kit for little more than £100 so the three slots don't act as a limitation.
There is plenty of room on the Flaming Blade for the various ports and connectors but we don't get the sense of space that we would have hoped for, considering that there are only three memory slots and two graphics slots.
The I/O panel carries eight USB ports, dual Gigabit LAN, two eSATA, one PS/2 port for a keyboard and six analogue jacks and optical S/PDIF for the Realtek surround sound audio. There's no Firewire on the Flaming Blade and you don't get any brackets in the package to make use of the two USB headers on the board. If you have case-mounted USB ports you'll be just fine.
The layout of the board doesn't suffer from anything that could be classed as a problem but we weren't completely happy with two aspects of the design. The eight-pin EATX power connector is too close to the CPU socket for our taste and the six SATA connectors stand vertically when we much prefer the laid-down alternative.
Foxconn makes a feature of the Quantum section in the BIOS where the overclocker will find almost every feature they could hope to see in terms of voltage and clock settings. The notable exception is that the Quantum BIOS doesn't include preset profiles, so you have to work out the settings for yourself.
We were able to raise the speed of our Core i7 965 Extreme from 3.2GHz to 3.78GHz at 27x140MHz, which is slightly less than we achieved with the more expensive Blood Rage GTi that reached 27x150MHz, or 4.05GHz. There's a significant difference between the two models, as Flaming Blade has six-phase power regulation while the Blood Rage has 12-phase, but we would have hoped that the extra hardware would be worth more than 10MHz on the base clock
Foxconn - Flaming Blade features - Verdict
Flaming Blade is a budget version of the more expensive Blood Rage and it delivers plenty of performance and a decent list of features at a fair price. There's nothing about Flaming Blade that stands out as an actual problem, but neither is there anything that really grabs our attention. Which is, perhaps, what you'd expect of a mid-range board.
Foxconn - Flaming Blade price
£176.25
In the mid-range we have Flaming Blade and Flaming Blade GTi, with dual PCI Express 2.0 graphics slots with support for both CrossFireX and SLI. The GTi sounds as though it should be the sporty model with extra go-fast stripes but it is, in fact, the more basic model of the two. In essence the Flaming Blade that we are reviewing is a GTi with an array of extra gadgets such as a second Gigabit LAN port, two eSATA ports on the I/O panel and micro buttons for Clear CMOS, Power and Reset.
One notable feature of the Flaming Blade and Blood Rage models is that they have three DDR3 memory slots where most Core i7 motherboards have six slots. Intel is the odd one out as its DX58SO has four slots. Foxconn says that the three slots can support up to 12GB of DDR3-1800 and you can buy a 6GB triple channel RAM kit for little more than £100 so the three slots don't act as a limitation.
There is plenty of room on the Flaming Blade for the various ports and connectors but we don't get the sense of space that we would have hoped for, considering that there are only three memory slots and two graphics slots.
The I/O panel carries eight USB ports, dual Gigabit LAN, two eSATA, one PS/2 port for a keyboard and six analogue jacks and optical S/PDIF for the Realtek surround sound audio. There's no Firewire on the Flaming Blade and you don't get any brackets in the package to make use of the two USB headers on the board. If you have case-mounted USB ports you'll be just fine.
The layout of the board doesn't suffer from anything that could be classed as a problem but we weren't completely happy with two aspects of the design. The eight-pin EATX power connector is too close to the CPU socket for our taste and the six SATA connectors stand vertically when we much prefer the laid-down alternative.
Foxconn makes a feature of the Quantum section in the BIOS where the overclocker will find almost every feature they could hope to see in terms of voltage and clock settings. The notable exception is that the Quantum BIOS doesn't include preset profiles, so you have to work out the settings for yourself.
We were able to raise the speed of our Core i7 965 Extreme from 3.2GHz to 3.78GHz at 27x140MHz, which is slightly less than we achieved with the more expensive Blood Rage GTi that reached 27x150MHz, or 4.05GHz. There's a significant difference between the two models, as Flaming Blade has six-phase power regulation while the Blood Rage has 12-phase, but we would have hoped that the extra hardware would be worth more than 10MHz on the base clock
Foxconn - Flaming Blade features - Verdict
Flaming Blade is a budget version of the more expensive Blood Rage and it delivers plenty of performance and a decent list of features at a fair price. There's nothing about Flaming Blade that stands out as an actual problem, but neither is there anything that really grabs our attention. Which is, perhaps, what you'd expect of a mid-range board.
Foxconn - Flaming Blade price
£176.25
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amd vs intel!!!!!! isnt crazyyyyyy!!!. The Intel Core i7 processor may be priced high enough to be beyond the reach of most PC users, but the platform has helped to bring down the price of DDR3 memory from ludicrous levels to a cost-per-gigabyte that's on par with good quality DDR2.
now look This also makes AMD's socket AM3 platform a far more tempting buy, since for the price of an Intel i7 920 with a motherboard you can buy the fastest quad-core Phenom II, plus a top-notch board as well as the necessary RAM.
and thats all Here we are looking at AMD's new flagship, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Built with the same manufacturing process as its 955 predecessor, the chip is architecturally identical to other 45nm Phenom II X4 chips but its clock frequency has been upped to 3.4GHz. This means it has 2MB of L2 cache, 6MB of unified L3 cache and a memory controller compatible with both AM3 (DDR3) and AM2+ (DDR2) motherboards.
now look This also makes AMD's socket AM3 platform a far more tempting buy, since for the price of an Intel i7 920 with a motherboard you can buy the fastest quad-core Phenom II, plus a top-notch board as well as the necessary RAM.
and thats all Here we are looking at AMD's new flagship, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Built with the same manufacturing process as its 955 predecessor, the chip is architecturally identical to other 45nm Phenom II X4 chips but its clock frequency has been upped to 3.4GHz. This means it has 2MB of L2 cache, 6MB of unified L3 cache and a memory controller compatible with both AM3 (DDR3) and AM2+ (DDR2) motherboards.
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listen its asuus company ok just read its good The Crosshair III Formula is yet another addition to the Asus Republic of Gamers line-up, but this time it's based around AMD's latest AM3 socket and 790FX chipset, unlike previous Crosshair boards which used Nvidia chipsets. The AMD chipset brings with it DDR3 and Crossfire X support as well as a nice surprise in the shape of a more reasonable price tag.
The third generation of Crosshair motherboards is tidily laid out with plenty of space around the major components despite it being filled to the gunwales with features. There's support for up to 16GB of 1600MHz (via overclocking) DDR3 memory in four DIMM slots, two full speed x16 PCI-E graphics card slots, integrated Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, e-SATA and five SATA II ports with RAID support.
If you are wondering about the odd number of SATA ports, the answer is quite straightforward: AMD's SB750 Southbridge supports six SATA ports, but as ASUS has built an e-SATAOne look at that rear I/O panel and you'll notice something is missing: yes, that's right, there are no audio ports. Instead of relying on an integrated solution for the audio, Asus has bundled a reasonably high-end SupremeFX X-Fi audio card which calls the top PCI-E x1 slot home. But don't worry; there are two remaining PCI-E x1 slots for your... erm... oh yes, your TV card, perhaps.
If you are one of those people who like to have power and reset buttons on the motherboard then you'll be quite pleased by the massive red power button and its accompanying black reset button. Next to these sits a useful little 'MemOK' button which loads failsafe memory settings, so if you decide to go mental with overclocking the memory and the board refuses to boot, pushing this button will enable you to get into the BIOS again to calm things down. There is also a handy 'Clear CMOS' button on the rear I/O panel.
As you might expect for a ROG board there is a pretty comprehensive BIOS, so people who like to tinker about with their motherboards are well catered for, and for those taking their first tentative steps into the murky world of overclocking the CPU, Level Up profiles will automatically overclock the processor for you.
A feature that is sometimes overlooked by motherboard manufactures is support for case cooling fans, but that is something no-one can accuse ASUS of with the Crosshair III Formula, as there are no fewer than eight fan headers on the board. All are four-pin, which enables PWM fan control, offering better thermal control of any case fans.
Bundled in the box is a useful little gizmo in the shape of an external LCD Poster, which plugs into the motherboard with a sufficiently long cable to allow the little screen to sit on the top of your PC and display any POST issues in English instead of the usual codes
on the rear I/O panel it leaves just five ports to be built onto the board itself.
The third generation of Crosshair motherboards is tidily laid out with plenty of space around the major components despite it being filled to the gunwales with features. There's support for up to 16GB of 1600MHz (via overclocking) DDR3 memory in four DIMM slots, two full speed x16 PCI-E graphics card slots, integrated Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, e-SATA and five SATA II ports with RAID support.
If you are wondering about the odd number of SATA ports, the answer is quite straightforward: AMD's SB750 Southbridge supports six SATA ports, but as ASUS has built an e-SATAOne look at that rear I/O panel and you'll notice something is missing: yes, that's right, there are no audio ports. Instead of relying on an integrated solution for the audio, Asus has bundled a reasonably high-end SupremeFX X-Fi audio card which calls the top PCI-E x1 slot home. But don't worry; there are two remaining PCI-E x1 slots for your... erm... oh yes, your TV card, perhaps.
If you are one of those people who like to have power and reset buttons on the motherboard then you'll be quite pleased by the massive red power button and its accompanying black reset button. Next to these sits a useful little 'MemOK' button which loads failsafe memory settings, so if you decide to go mental with overclocking the memory and the board refuses to boot, pushing this button will enable you to get into the BIOS again to calm things down. There is also a handy 'Clear CMOS' button on the rear I/O panel.
As you might expect for a ROG board there is a pretty comprehensive BIOS, so people who like to tinker about with their motherboards are well catered for, and for those taking their first tentative steps into the murky world of overclocking the CPU, Level Up profiles will automatically overclock the processor for you.
A feature that is sometimes overlooked by motherboard manufactures is support for case cooling fans, but that is something no-one can accuse ASUS of with the Crosshair III Formula, as there are no fewer than eight fan headers on the board. All are four-pin, which enables PWM fan control, offering better thermal control of any case fans.
Bundled in the box is a useful little gizmo in the shape of an external LCD Poster, which plugs into the motherboard with a sufficiently long cable to allow the little screen to sit on the top of your PC and display any POST issues in English instead of the usual codes
on the rear I/O panel it leaves just five ports to be built onto the board itself.
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hi visiters listen this great news At the end of 2008 Intel released the Core i7. Aimed purely at enthusiasts, this range of CPUs took performance to a whole new level and also gifted gamers Crossfire and SLI support on a single, stable platform.
Unfortunately the technology was priced at a level that placed it beyond the reaches of the mainstream, with not only the CPUs starting at over £200, but the motherboards also costing at least twice as much as comparative Phenom and Core 2 alternatives.
Couple that to the relatively high price of triple-channel DDR3 memory kits and system integrators struggled to get the cost of a base unit below £750. With AMD finally eclipsing even the fastest Core 2 CPUs with its Phenom II X4 965, Intel could no longer leave this ageing technology to represent the mainstay of its processor fleet. Enter the solution to Intel's dilemma. Enter the Core i5...
Core i5's Lynnfield architecture is a direct evolution of the Core i7, with essentially the same chip topology minus a channel on the memory controller. Gone too is the QPI which, like AMD's Hyper Transport bus, provided an ultra-fast link to other processors and system components. This doesn't matter however, as Lynnfield gains an on-chip PCI Express controller providing an ultra-low latency link between the video card and the chip.The technology also gets a new socket; LGA 1156. At roughly the same size as an LGA 775 processor, socket 1156 will also support a range of 800-series Core i7 products. These differ architecturally from their Core i5 siblings in only one way; the inclusion of Hyper Threading.
Hyper Threading is a technology that allows each core to execute two threads simultaneously and can provide significant gains in performance when faced with either heavy multi-tasking, or programs that have been optimised for multiple cores.
Both socket 1156 families of chips benefit from a new and improved implementation of Intel's Turbo mode, however, which can disable idle cores and put the resulting thermal improvement to good use by heavily overclocking the active ones. Turbo mode is nothing new; Socket 1366 Core i7s also have it, but due to more extensive power saving features on idle cores, Intel is able to be much more aggressive this time around. With just one or two cores active the i5 750 can increase its multiplier all the way up to 24x, allowing for a clock speed increase of 20 percent to 3.2GHz.
Intel is also launching a new chipset along with socket 1156; the P55. This does away with the ICH10R Southbridge required by the X58 and handles storage, USB and PCIe 1x buses directly, but also lacks the ultra-wide 36-lane PCI Express capabilities of its bigger brother.
This makes the platform less well suited to high-end multi-GPU gaming configurations, but as this only makes up a small proportion of the PC market, it won't be a problem for many. The best news for mainstream users is the pricing of socket 1156 boards. Although the ludicrously expensive high-end market is still well-served, we have already seen low-cost P55 boards for around £90, which is a good £45 less than the cheapest Socket 1366 equivalents.
So, how does the cut-down yet souped-up Lynnfield perform? At 2.66GHz the entry-level i5 750 part is clocked at the same speed as the Core i7 920, and across the spectrum of our tests it provided stellar performance. In programs that make effective use of multiple cores the Hyper Threading capabilities of the 1366 part see it coming out on top (by 3-4 percent in video encoding and Photoshop respectively), but in less well-optimised applications the i5 actually has the lead thanks to its more aggressive Turbo mode implementation (1-2 percent in Sysmark 2007).
Gaming also seems to benefit as FarCry 2, Left 4 Dead and Crysis Warhead all showed small leads for the i5 (by around 1-3 percent), whilst multi-tasking is again better served by the premium i7 parts.
What's abundantly clear is that the i5 is consistently faster than the Q9650; the fastest mainstream Core 2 Quad. It's also slightly faster than the Phenom II X4 965, though not in every situation. At under £150, however it's considerably cheaper than AMD's finest, making it a much more compelling choice. Unless AMD can bring its processors in line with Intel's pricing or significantly ramp up clock speeds, it's in for another difficult quarter.
hi this is best abvout i5 na!
Unfortunately the technology was priced at a level that placed it beyond the reaches of the mainstream, with not only the CPUs starting at over £200, but the motherboards also costing at least twice as much as comparative Phenom and Core 2 alternatives.
Couple that to the relatively high price of triple-channel DDR3 memory kits and system integrators struggled to get the cost of a base unit below £750. With AMD finally eclipsing even the fastest Core 2 CPUs with its Phenom II X4 965, Intel could no longer leave this ageing technology to represent the mainstay of its processor fleet. Enter the solution to Intel's dilemma. Enter the Core i5...
Core i5's Lynnfield architecture is a direct evolution of the Core i7, with essentially the same chip topology minus a channel on the memory controller. Gone too is the QPI which, like AMD's Hyper Transport bus, provided an ultra-fast link to other processors and system components. This doesn't matter however, as Lynnfield gains an on-chip PCI Express controller providing an ultra-low latency link between the video card and the chip.The technology also gets a new socket; LGA 1156. At roughly the same size as an LGA 775 processor, socket 1156 will also support a range of 800-series Core i7 products. These differ architecturally from their Core i5 siblings in only one way; the inclusion of Hyper Threading.
Hyper Threading is a technology that allows each core to execute two threads simultaneously and can provide significant gains in performance when faced with either heavy multi-tasking, or programs that have been optimised for multiple cores.
Both socket 1156 families of chips benefit from a new and improved implementation of Intel's Turbo mode, however, which can disable idle cores and put the resulting thermal improvement to good use by heavily overclocking the active ones. Turbo mode is nothing new; Socket 1366 Core i7s also have it, but due to more extensive power saving features on idle cores, Intel is able to be much more aggressive this time around. With just one or two cores active the i5 750 can increase its multiplier all the way up to 24x, allowing for a clock speed increase of 20 percent to 3.2GHz.
Intel is also launching a new chipset along with socket 1156; the P55. This does away with the ICH10R Southbridge required by the X58 and handles storage, USB and PCIe 1x buses directly, but also lacks the ultra-wide 36-lane PCI Express capabilities of its bigger brother.
This makes the platform less well suited to high-end multi-GPU gaming configurations, but as this only makes up a small proportion of the PC market, it won't be a problem for many. The best news for mainstream users is the pricing of socket 1156 boards. Although the ludicrously expensive high-end market is still well-served, we have already seen low-cost P55 boards for around £90, which is a good £45 less than the cheapest Socket 1366 equivalents.
So, how does the cut-down yet souped-up Lynnfield perform? At 2.66GHz the entry-level i5 750 part is clocked at the same speed as the Core i7 920, and across the spectrum of our tests it provided stellar performance. In programs that make effective use of multiple cores the Hyper Threading capabilities of the 1366 part see it coming out on top (by 3-4 percent in video encoding and Photoshop respectively), but in less well-optimised applications the i5 actually has the lead thanks to its more aggressive Turbo mode implementation (1-2 percent in Sysmark 2007).
Gaming also seems to benefit as FarCry 2, Left 4 Dead and Crysis Warhead all showed small leads for the i5 (by around 1-3 percent), whilst multi-tasking is again better served by the premium i7 parts.
What's abundantly clear is that the i5 is consistently faster than the Q9650; the fastest mainstream Core 2 Quad. It's also slightly faster than the Phenom II X4 965, though not in every situation. At under £150, however it's considerably cheaper than AMD's finest, making it a much more compelling choice. Unless AMD can bring its processors in line with Intel's pricing or significantly ramp up clock speeds, it's in for another difficult quarter.
hi this is best abvout i5 na!
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Polywell Computers is not very well known in the marketplace as a high performance system builder, but they do offer some very powerful workstation systems and in the case of the Poly i790SLI3, a gaming oriented PC. Since they aren't a prestige manufacturer and more of a system integrator, they tend to use more stanardized parts. Let's see what they have to offer ...
Processors:
For the base Poly i790SLI3 system and their pre-configured models, Polywell uses the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor. Those that want additional performance can elect to upgrade to an E8500 dual core processor, the Q9450 and Q9550 quad core models or the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and QX9770 processors. Unlike many of the other performance systems on the market, Polywell does not offer any overclocking on this performance system.
Memory:
Most performance systems tend to come equipped with 4GB of memory standard. The memory options for the Poly i790SLI3 are very limited. Three of the configurations only features 2GB of total memory and only a single configuration offers 4GB. The 4GB version only comes with 1333MHz DDR3 memory for hte customized version while the 2GB configurations are available in 1333MHz, 1600MHz or 2000MHz speeds. Pre-configured models come with the 2000MHz speed memory in 4GB.
Hard Drives:
Polywell's i790SLI3 provides a large amount of storage space in the hard drive configurations. The system offers a selection of 74GB or 150GB 10,000rpm hard drives or 7200rpm drives with capacities from 320GB to 1TB. Three different drive sets can be setup to provide anywhere from a little less than a terabyte across two drives all the way up to 5.5 tebabytes across six drives. Definitely one of the most flexible in terms of storage on the market.
CD/DVD Drives:
The base setup of the Poly i790SLI3 comes with two dual layer DVD burners that both support LightScribe. Users can elect to remove one of these two drives to save a bit of money. The other option is to upgrade one of these two drives to either a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD reader drive or a Blu-Ray writer drive to support the high definition video formats.
Graphics and Displays:
The Poly i790SLI3 is predictably based around the NVIDIA nForce i790 chipset and thus is designed for multiple NVIDIA graphics cards. Polywell offers a selection of single or multiple cards based on either the GeForce 9800 GTX or 9800 GX2 graphics cards. Users of the 9800 GTX can elect to use three of the cards to build a three way SLI configuration. The 9800 GX2 is only available with two cards to provide a quad SLI setup. Regardless of the card setup, the i790SLI3 offers a large amount of graphics performance.
Audio:
The default audio setup for the Poly i790SLI3 is to use the on-board audio processor along with a Logitech two speaker setup. If you want to get a higher quality audio solution, the only option available in the Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty that supports EAX HD for enhanced audio. It would be nice to see more card options available. Speakers can be upgraded to a 5.1 Logitech speaker setup or a THX certified speaker set from Creative.
Software:
There are three operating system options for the Poly i790SLI3. The base setup is the Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition. Users can elect to downgrade to either the Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition or Windows XP. In terms of application software, Microsoft Office 2007 basic is included with the system with options for the Small Business or Professional editions. Norton Internet Security 2008 is available for security.
Overall Impressions:
Polywell's i790SLI3 system is something that users could easily build form parts they purchase on their own. For example, the case is a standard Antec 900 case that can be purchased from many retailers rather than one specially designed for Polywell. This is probably the biggest drawback to the i790SLI3 system. After all, by buying the parts and putting it together on their own, they can get the system for much less than Polywell charges.
Much of the focus of the Poly i790SLI3 system is on the graphics systems. Users have a very limited selection of configurations with either the 9800 GTX or 9800 GX2 cards. While this gives the system some very strong performance, it would be nice to see some additional options using the 8000 series cards from NVIDIA as a means to reduce costs for those that would like some good performance but a much lower price.
The biggest strong point for the Poly i790SLI3 is the hard drive options. Polywell offers some of the most diverse options for drive configurations possible. Of course, very few people will need 5 gigabytes or more of storage space, but it is one option available for those willing to configure the system that way.
What is most surprising about the Poly i790SLI3 is the choice of processors for the pre-configured models. Rather than a higher performance processor with quad cores or from the unlocked Extreme series, Polywell elects to use a much more mainstream Core 2 Duo E8400. This is a good processor and has excellent overclocking potential, but Polywell does not overclock it and packs it in a system well above what one would expect such a processor in.
The end result of the Polywell Poly i790SLI3 is that it is a highly flexible option for those that want a high performance system that they don't have to build. Of course, one could build a similarly equipped system on their own for a much lower price
Processors:
For the base Poly i790SLI3 system and their pre-configured models, Polywell uses the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor. Those that want additional performance can elect to upgrade to an E8500 dual core processor, the Q9450 and Q9550 quad core models or the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and QX9770 processors. Unlike many of the other performance systems on the market, Polywell does not offer any overclocking on this performance system.
Memory:
Most performance systems tend to come equipped with 4GB of memory standard. The memory options for the Poly i790SLI3 are very limited. Three of the configurations only features 2GB of total memory and only a single configuration offers 4GB. The 4GB version only comes with 1333MHz DDR3 memory for hte customized version while the 2GB configurations are available in 1333MHz, 1600MHz or 2000MHz speeds. Pre-configured models come with the 2000MHz speed memory in 4GB.
Hard Drives:
Polywell's i790SLI3 provides a large amount of storage space in the hard drive configurations. The system offers a selection of 74GB or 150GB 10,000rpm hard drives or 7200rpm drives with capacities from 320GB to 1TB. Three different drive sets can be setup to provide anywhere from a little less than a terabyte across two drives all the way up to 5.5 tebabytes across six drives. Definitely one of the most flexible in terms of storage on the market.
CD/DVD Drives:
The base setup of the Poly i790SLI3 comes with two dual layer DVD burners that both support LightScribe. Users can elect to remove one of these two drives to save a bit of money. The other option is to upgrade one of these two drives to either a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD reader drive or a Blu-Ray writer drive to support the high definition video formats.
Graphics and Displays:
The Poly i790SLI3 is predictably based around the NVIDIA nForce i790 chipset and thus is designed for multiple NVIDIA graphics cards. Polywell offers a selection of single or multiple cards based on either the GeForce 9800 GTX or 9800 GX2 graphics cards. Users of the 9800 GTX can elect to use three of the cards to build a three way SLI configuration. The 9800 GX2 is only available with two cards to provide a quad SLI setup. Regardless of the card setup, the i790SLI3 offers a large amount of graphics performance.
Audio:
The default audio setup for the Poly i790SLI3 is to use the on-board audio processor along with a Logitech two speaker setup. If you want to get a higher quality audio solution, the only option available in the Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty that supports EAX HD for enhanced audio. It would be nice to see more card options available. Speakers can be upgraded to a 5.1 Logitech speaker setup or a THX certified speaker set from Creative.
Software:
There are three operating system options for the Poly i790SLI3. The base setup is the Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition. Users can elect to downgrade to either the Vista Home Premium 32-bit edition or Windows XP. In terms of application software, Microsoft Office 2007 basic is included with the system with options for the Small Business or Professional editions. Norton Internet Security 2008 is available for security.
Overall Impressions:
Polywell's i790SLI3 system is something that users could easily build form parts they purchase on their own. For example, the case is a standard Antec 900 case that can be purchased from many retailers rather than one specially designed for Polywell. This is probably the biggest drawback to the i790SLI3 system. After all, by buying the parts and putting it together on their own, they can get the system for much less than Polywell charges.
Much of the focus of the Poly i790SLI3 system is on the graphics systems. Users have a very limited selection of configurations with either the 9800 GTX or 9800 GX2 cards. While this gives the system some very strong performance, it would be nice to see some additional options using the 8000 series cards from NVIDIA as a means to reduce costs for those that would like some good performance but a much lower price.
The biggest strong point for the Poly i790SLI3 is the hard drive options. Polywell offers some of the most diverse options for drive configurations possible. Of course, very few people will need 5 gigabytes or more of storage space, but it is one option available for those willing to configure the system that way.
What is most surprising about the Poly i790SLI3 is the choice of processors for the pre-configured models. Rather than a higher performance processor with quad cores or from the unlocked Extreme series, Polywell elects to use a much more mainstream Core 2 Duo E8400. This is a good processor and has excellent overclocking potential, but Polywell does not overclock it and packs it in a system well above what one would expect such a processor in.
The end result of the Polywell Poly i790SLI3 is that it is a highly flexible option for those that want a high performance system that they don't have to build. Of course, one could build a similarly equipped system on their own for a much lower price
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ABS Computers has really shifted its focus away from being a general computer provider to simply one that builds high performance desktop PCs for gaming. In this shift, they have also reduced the number of models they offer. The Ultimate X Striker desktop is focused on Intel's Core 2 platform of processor along with NVIDIA's graphics technology. It may not be the latest and greatest but it still is designed all for performance. Let's take a look at what they have to offer Since this system is all about performance, users have the option of two of Intel's Core 2 Extreme processors. The first is the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 quad core processor. This is an older Intel processor that uses a larger architecture but still provides some very strong performance. A newer Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor that runs at the same clock rate but with a higher amount of cache and smaller traces is also available. Because this processor uses the 45nm design, it runs cooler and has a bit more potential for overclocking. Factory overclocking is available at an extra charge for either a 10% or 20% boost.
Memory:
The Ultimate X Striker is designed around the older NVIDIA GeForce 680i SLI chipset. Because of this, it uses the DDR2 memory standard that limits its performance and overclocking potential but helps keeps the costs down. Surprisingly, ABS only offers two memory options of either 2GB of Corsiar XMS2 TwinX PC2-6400 DDR2 or 4GB of Patriot eXtreme Performance PC2-6400 DDR2. It would be nice to see an option for up to 8GB of memory on the system or faster DDR2 memory for better overclocking.
Hard Drives:
Hard drive selections are fairly limited with the Ultimate X Striker. There are three drives to choose from on the system. The default setup uses two Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm Serial ATA drives in a RAID 0 setup. This gives it limited storage space but very fast performance. Larger drive options are available with a 500GB or 750GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 drive. These drives if purchased in a pair can be configured in RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for data reliability. A third drive is also available for extra storage.
CD/DVD Drives:
Optical drive selection is extremely limited for the ABS Ultimate X Striker. Users essentially have the option of either a single Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7190A 20x dual layer DVD burner or having two of them in the system. It would be nice to see an option for a newer Blu-ray compatible drive being offered with the system now that the format war has been settled.
Graphics and Display:
As the Ultimate X Striker is based off NVIDIA technology, it is no surprise that most of the graphics options use NVIDIA based cards. Users have the choice of either the new GeForce 9800GTX single core card or the GeForce 9800GX2 dual core card. Two identical cards can also be setup in the system to generate either a dual or quad SLI configuration to provide the system with some outstanding 3D graphics performance. If you would rather use an ATI based card, ABS does offer a Radeon HD 3870 card.
Audio:
Integrated audio has come a long way in the PC market. Because of this, ABS has decided that the default audio setup for the Ultimate X Striker is to use the integrated ADI AD1988B HDA compatible solution on the motherboard. This is a very strong audio configuration that provides very clean audio. A Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer expansion card is available for those that want a hardware audio solution that also supports EAX for added audio effects in PC gaming. Speakers do not come with the system but an optional Logitech 5.1 audio setup is available.
Software:
For operating systems, users can select between the 32-bit versions of Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate editions. No 64-bit versions are available at all which explains the 4GB limit on memory. No other productivty, security or gaming software comes with the system. Users will need to suppl all other software themselves.
Overall Impressions:
The Ultimate X Striker is designed for the PC gaming market and it does do well in this segment. It does fall short of being a truly top performing though from some of the basic architecture decisions. The system is based around an ASUS motherboard using the NVIDIA 680i SLI chipset. This is a somewhat older chipset that can't fully support many of the newest processors and memory. As a result, it falls behind systems for processing power compared to a system using DDR3 and the QX9770 processor.
What the Strike does make up for those is the graphics. Most of the Intel based platforms that support DDR3 cannot support the NVIDIA SLI configurations. They may be able to run multiple ATI cards in a CrossFire setup, but ATI's graphics cards are still behind those from NVIDIA. In addition, the power supply and motherboard can even support the quad core SLI using two of the 9800GX2 cards. This gives it some superb 3D graphics performance.
Extra performance is available from the Striker through factory overclocking, but it comes at an additional cost. Many performance gaming systems now seem to offer this service for free or at least included with the base system cost. It does use a liquid cooling system that could conceivably allow for higher performance, but the Galaxy II system isn't know as one of the higher performance cooling setup. The optional Zalman air cooling system will likely perform just as well.
One other area that is a bit disappointing for the Ultimate X Striker is the software. The 64-bit versions of Vista are really the only way to support more than 4GB of memory in the system and it doesn't have many of the compatibility issues as it did when it was first released. This leaves me to wonder why ABS does not offer it with their system.
The end result of the ABS Ultimate X Striker is that it is a strong PC gaming platform, but it fails to really reach the top of performance that is available. It certainly is a good option for those looking to get a strong gaming system. It is just a bit too bad that there aren't more options available to compensate for some of the performance gaps of the architecture
Memory:
The Ultimate X Striker is designed around the older NVIDIA GeForce 680i SLI chipset. Because of this, it uses the DDR2 memory standard that limits its performance and overclocking potential but helps keeps the costs down. Surprisingly, ABS only offers two memory options of either 2GB of Corsiar XMS2 TwinX PC2-6400 DDR2 or 4GB of Patriot eXtreme Performance PC2-6400 DDR2. It would be nice to see an option for up to 8GB of memory on the system or faster DDR2 memory for better overclocking.
Hard Drives:
Hard drive selections are fairly limited with the Ultimate X Striker. There are three drives to choose from on the system. The default setup uses two Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm Serial ATA drives in a RAID 0 setup. This gives it limited storage space but very fast performance. Larger drive options are available with a 500GB or 750GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 drive. These drives if purchased in a pair can be configured in RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for data reliability. A third drive is also available for extra storage.
CD/DVD Drives:
Optical drive selection is extremely limited for the ABS Ultimate X Striker. Users essentially have the option of either a single Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7190A 20x dual layer DVD burner or having two of them in the system. It would be nice to see an option for a newer Blu-ray compatible drive being offered with the system now that the format war has been settled.
Graphics and Display:
As the Ultimate X Striker is based off NVIDIA technology, it is no surprise that most of the graphics options use NVIDIA based cards. Users have the choice of either the new GeForce 9800GTX single core card or the GeForce 9800GX2 dual core card. Two identical cards can also be setup in the system to generate either a dual or quad SLI configuration to provide the system with some outstanding 3D graphics performance. If you would rather use an ATI based card, ABS does offer a Radeon HD 3870 card.
Audio:
Integrated audio has come a long way in the PC market. Because of this, ABS has decided that the default audio setup for the Ultimate X Striker is to use the integrated ADI AD1988B HDA compatible solution on the motherboard. This is a very strong audio configuration that provides very clean audio. A Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer expansion card is available for those that want a hardware audio solution that also supports EAX for added audio effects in PC gaming. Speakers do not come with the system but an optional Logitech 5.1 audio setup is available.
Software:
For operating systems, users can select between the 32-bit versions of Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate editions. No 64-bit versions are available at all which explains the 4GB limit on memory. No other productivty, security or gaming software comes with the system. Users will need to suppl all other software themselves.
Overall Impressions:
The Ultimate X Striker is designed for the PC gaming market and it does do well in this segment. It does fall short of being a truly top performing though from some of the basic architecture decisions. The system is based around an ASUS motherboard using the NVIDIA 680i SLI chipset. This is a somewhat older chipset that can't fully support many of the newest processors and memory. As a result, it falls behind systems for processing power compared to a system using DDR3 and the QX9770 processor.
What the Strike does make up for those is the graphics. Most of the Intel based platforms that support DDR3 cannot support the NVIDIA SLI configurations. They may be able to run multiple ATI cards in a CrossFire setup, but ATI's graphics cards are still behind those from NVIDIA. In addition, the power supply and motherboard can even support the quad core SLI using two of the 9800GX2 cards. This gives it some superb 3D graphics performance.
Extra performance is available from the Striker through factory overclocking, but it comes at an additional cost. Many performance gaming systems now seem to offer this service for free or at least included with the base system cost. It does use a liquid cooling system that could conceivably allow for higher performance, but the Galaxy II system isn't know as one of the higher performance cooling setup. The optional Zalman air cooling system will likely perform just as well.
One other area that is a bit disappointing for the Ultimate X Striker is the software. The 64-bit versions of Vista are really the only way to support more than 4GB of memory in the system and it doesn't have many of the compatibility issues as it did when it was first released. This leaves me to wonder why ABS does not offer it with their system.
The end result of the ABS Ultimate X Striker is that it is a strong PC gaming platform, but it fails to really reach the top of performance that is available. It certainly is a good option for those looking to get a strong gaming system. It is just a bit too bad that there aren't more options available to compensate for some of the performance gaps of the architecture
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Why Overclock a Computer?
The primary benefit of overclocking is additional computer performance without the increased cost. Most individuals who overclock their system either want to try and produce the fastest desktop system possible or to extend their computer power on a limited budget. In some cases, individuals are able to boost their system performance 25% or more! For example, a person may buy something like an AMD 2500+ and through careful overclocking end up with a processor that runs at the equivalent processing power as a AMD 3000+, but at a greatly reduced cost.
There are drawbacks to overclocking a computer system. The biggest drawback to overclocking a computer part is that you are voiding any warranty provided by the manufacturer because it is not running within its rated specification. Overclocked parts that are pushed to their limits also tend to have a reduced functional lifespan or even worse, if improperly done, can be destroyed completely. For that reason, all overclocking guides on the net will have a disclaimer warning individuals of these facts before telling you the steps to overclocking.
The primary benefit of overclocking is additional computer performance without the increased cost. Most individuals who overclock their system either want to try and produce the fastest desktop system possible or to extend their computer power on a limited budget. In some cases, individuals are able to boost their system performance 25% or more! For example, a person may buy something like an AMD 2500+ and through careful overclocking end up with a processor that runs at the equivalent processing power as a AMD 3000+, but at a greatly reduced cost.
There are drawbacks to overclocking a computer system. The biggest drawback to overclocking a computer part is that you are voiding any warranty provided by the manufacturer because it is not running within its rated specification. Overclocked parts that are pushed to their limits also tend to have a reduced functional lifespan or even worse, if improperly done, can be destroyed completely. For that reason, all overclocking guides on the net will have a disclaimer warning individuals of these facts before telling you the steps to overclocking.