Hardware

How to decide if a computer upgrade will pay for itself in power savings

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money , , , , , , ,

I occasionally read an offhand comment where someone says he or she just bought a new computer, and the new computer is so much more power efficient than the old one, it’s going to pay for itself.

I wonder if they did the math, or if that’s what the salesperson told them. Because while I can see circumstances where that assertion would be true, but it typically would involve extremes, like replacing an aged Pentium 4 computer with, well, a netbook. They probably didn’t do that.

Part of the reason I got into computers professionally was because I was tired of hearing lies from salespeople and technicians. So let’s just take a look at this claim.
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Farquhar discovers power-sipping AMD Fusion motherboards

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , ,

AMD just announced its next-generation Fusion CPU/GPU combo. I’m not quite comfortable with AMD’s APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) moniker, because CPU-GPU integration isn’t about speed so much as it’s about reducing price and power consumption. This version of Fusion is intended to compete with mainstream Intel CPUs. Pricing isn’t available yet.

And that reminded me to go look and see what’s going on with first-generation AMD Fusion motherboards. I’m not so much interested in Fusion as a netbook/low-end notebook solution as I am for a power-sipping PC. Looking at the reviews online, it looks like I’m not alone in that. I don’t think I can afford to run multiple 750-watt fire-breathing dragons at home, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Give me a cool, quiet PC that doesn’t get bogged down in Visio, and I’m happy.
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SSD tweaks and why they sometimes don’t work

Dave Farquhar Hardware

Tom’s Hardware has an interesting study on various SSD tweaks and the effects they have. Along with a very good insight.

If you’ve ever wondered why certain tweaks are a matter of fierce religious debate, it’s because some tweaks make things better on some drives, and worse on others.
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How to find IDE pin 1 and floppy pin 1

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing
How to find IDE pin 1 and floppy pin 1

If you mess around with old PCs, you’ll need to know how to find IDE pin 1 and floppy pin 1 on old drives. Sometimes there will be a mark by pin 1. The connector should even be keyed so you can’t insert the connector upside down. Usually it’s one or the other, but sometimes it’s neither.

Typically a red stripe indicates pin 1 on the cable side, and either a silk screened indicator or a square solder joint on the connector side. 

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Hybrid drive options roll in

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , ,

OCZ introduced a hybrid hard drive, featuring 60 GB of solid state storage caching a 500 GB conventional hard drive, priced at around $350 and due in July. It’s on a plug-in PCI Express x4 card.

The idea has some merit.
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How to have two hard drives when you only have a single 3.5″ bay

Dave Farquhar Hardware ,

Sometimes you need to put two internal hard drives in a system, but only have a single 3.5″ bay available. This is common in small computers, like HP Slimline and whatever Dell’s equivalent is.

There are two ways to do it. Both have tradeoffs.

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Windows, ARM, emulation, misconceptions and misremembered history

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I keep reading stuff about Windows and ARM and, well, I think people just aren’t remembering history.

I’m not saying that Windows 8 on ARM will save the world, or even change it substantially. It probably won’t, since Microsoft tends not to get things right the first time. But will I automatically write off the project? No. It could prove useful for something other than what it was originally intended. That happens a lot.

But I’m more interested in clearing up the misinformation than in trying to predict the future.
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Do tablets cut into PC sales?

Dave Farquhar Hardware , ,

I see multiple reports that PC makers are seeing tablets cut into the sales of traditional PCs.

The two items don’t compete directly, but when consumers have limited disposable income, I can see them either buying a less-expensive PC so they can also buy a tablet, or hanging on to an aging PC another year or two in order to afford a tablet. If you already have a PC, and it works well enough, the second strategy certainly can work. Tablets are a new big thing, and we’re still coming out of a recession, so everyone isn’t flush with cash right now.
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More on the new Intel 320 SSD

Dave Farquhar Hardware, security , , , , , , , ,

A few weeks ago, my security go-to guy, Rich P., bought a new Intel 320 SSD for his netbook.  With my encouragement, of course. It finally arrived this weekend, and he installed it. Rich reports not only faster speed, but also a 30-minute improvement in battery life over the WD Scorpio Black it replaced.

He told me the secure erase function, to enable AES, had a snag. But he solved it. I’m documenting it here in case you ran into the same thing he did.
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I have seen the future, and it’s cheap

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , ,

The computer of the future costs $25.

Its specs aren’t overwhelming–700 MHz ARM CPU, 128 MB RAM, Ubuntu Linux–but it could be a general-purpose computer for some people. Or a thin client. It could also be a tinkerer’s delight, which I think was the developer’s idea.

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