Introduction and Design

The last three years have been great for ultraportables and netbooks. Laptops with displays below fourteen inches in size have exploded in popularity thanks not only to Intel's Atom, but also a wide selection of Intel ultra-low voltage products. Many of the laptops that we've reviewed over the past year, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 and the Alienware M11x, would have been impossible prior to the release of those processors. 

Mainstream laptops have enjoyed less progress, however. The 15.6" laptop remains the most popular category with consumers, but while it has enjoyed a boost in performance with the release of the original Core i series processors, issues like battery life and graphics performance remained largely unaddressed. These mainstream laptops have continued to represent a major compromise, as they've been unable to provide great battery life but also (unless supplimented with a discrete GPU) lack the chops to play any but the most basic 3D games. 

According to Intel, these flaws could soon be addressed. Intel's Sandy Bridge mobile processors are nothing short of the savior of mainstream laptops. These processors not only offer the typical improvements in speed but also drastically improved integrated graphics and provide much better battery life. 

Or, at least, that's what Intel says. They've said such things in the past, however - Intel's IGPs have often promised more than they can deliver. But every piece of hardware deserves a fair shake, and now it's time for Intel's Sandy Bridge to step up to the plate, appearing today in the form of the ASUS K53E. Let's see what is under the hood.

Introduction to the Dell U3011

The days of “Dude, you're getting a Dell” might be long gone but when you are talking about monitors it suddenly becomes apropos again. Dell has been making good quality, large size monitors for long enough to be recognized as a major player in the field and the 30” Dell U3011 is a perfect example of why. Anyone who has seen a true 16:10, 2560x1600 display has probably had the temptation to tell a smug owner of a 50”+ 1080p LCD TV that their computer monitor goes up to 1600p. That jump in resolution has far more effect on your enjoyment than slapping on 3D glasses to watch golf with golfball sized pixels.

This particular display is a CCFL backlit H-IPS TFT, using an LG LM300WQ5 panel and does indeed have a full 30” viewing area, the actual monitor is over 32” horizontally with the bezel included, something to keep in mind if you plan on using multiple displays. With that great size comes some difficulties, while nowhere near the weigh of a large sized CRT the over 20lbs of the U3011 can make removing it from the box and positioning it interesting to say the least. Also something to keep in mind is that according to Dell, in regular use this monitor draws 110W and can pull up to 250W when USB drives are in use and you’ve bought and installed a Dell Soundbar.

A Card Unlike Any Other

Introduction

In all honesty, there aren't many graphics cards that really get our attention these days.  There are GPUs that do that - releases like the Radeon HD 6990 and the GeForce GTX 590 get our juices flowing to see what new performance and features they can offer.  But in terms of individual vendor-specific designs, there are very few that make us "perk up" much more than just seeing another reference card come across the test bed.  

The ASUS ARES dual-5870 card was probably the last one do to that - and for $1200 is better have!  EVGA is ready with another card though that definitely made us interested, and for a much more reasonable price of $419 or so.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 460 2WIN is a custom built card that combines a pair of GTX 460 1GB GPUs on a single PCB to create a new level of performance and pricing that we found was unmatched in the market today.  And even better, the features improved as well by utilizing the power of both GPUs in an SLI configuration.  

Read on and see why the GTX 460 2WIN might be my new favorite graphics card!

Introduction and Features

ASRock is teaming up with Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel to bring back to life the Fatal1ty series of gamer-centric motherboards. Their latest creation is dubbed the P67 Professional and this particular LGA 1155-based motherboard pulls out all the stops in terms of quality components and enthusiast-level features. The use of premium gold caps, Japanese conductive polymer capacitors, and support for quad SLI and CrossfireX graphics configurations makes the P67 Professional a true head-turner for gamers looking for every edge to max out their system's gaming prowess.

Introduction and Design

You don’t hear much about Atom these days. It’s still there, still kicking, still being stuffed inside an endless stream of netbooks. Yet it’s also not very exciting, and hasn’t created much buzz. This isn’t a case of a journalistic blind spot; Atom just hasn't been update. The original was released in 2008, but Intel hasn’t released a major performance upgrade since. By comparison, the performance of mainstream mobile laptop processors has, in some benchmarks, doubled over the same time-span.  The processor performance of Atom, measured relative to the power of an average $600 laptop with a Core i3 dual-core, is actually becoming worse over time. 

Yet Atom has still dominated the laptop market because of one reason; there was no other alternative. For the first time, however, that’s changing. AMD has released its Fusion APUs, and we recently reviewed two different laptops with two different versions of that technology – the single-core E-240 in the Toshiba Satellite C655D and the dual-core E-350 in the Sony Vaio Y.

Introduction and Design

Tech journalists are finicky beasts. A few years ago we were washing netbooks in praise, declaring that they promised a new era of accessibility and portability for the PC. But now the tables have turned – tablets have usurped the throne of “cool new thing” and tech news is all too eager to declare the netbook little more than a passing trend, soon to be booted out of the market by glorious touchscreen slates.

The truth, however, is not as extreme has the headlines suggest. Netbooks are another boring reality that won’t be going anywhere soon, despite declarations of death and injury.  But I can understand why they’ve lost the limelight. The improvements made to netbooks over the last three years have been incremental at best. While battery life has gradually grown, performance has barely moved. Intel, lacking competition from AMD, has had little reason to improve its Atom processors. 

Now AMD has finally brought an Atom competitor to the market in the form of its Fusion APUs. We already reviewed one laptop powered by Fusion, the Toshiba Satellite C655. That laptop, however, was equipped with AMD’s single-core E-240. It provided performance roughly on par with a dual-core Atom system we tested in 2010, but ultimately fell a bit shot of our expectations.

Introduction and the new Turks GPU

Introduction

It seems that the graphics card wars have really heated up recently.  With the release of the Radeon HD 6990 4GB and the GeForce GTX 590 3GB card it might seem that EVERYONE was spending $600 on their next GPU purchase.  Obviously that isn't the case and the world of the sub-$100 card, while way less sexy, is just as important.

This week AMD has announced a slew of new options to address this market including the Radeon HD 6670, HD 6570 and even the HD 6450.  Topping out at $99, the Radeon HD 6670 offers good performance, strong HTPC features and low power consumption.  NVIDIA's competition is still reasonable though as we compare how the now price-dropped GeForce GTS 450 sits into the stack.

Episode #150 is ready!

** UPDATE ** If you are looking for the most recent PC Perspective Podcast episode and information, make sure you bookmark the URL http://pcper.com/podcast as the new permanent home!!

This week we talk about the MSI 890FXA-GD65 Motherboard, ASUS N53S Notebook, IE10 running on NVIDIA Tegra, Viewer Voicemails, Questions, Hardware/Software Pics of the Week and much more!

Introduction and Features

MSI packed the P67A-GD65 with several high-end features that cater to a variety of users ranging from novice overclockers to hardcore enthusiasts looking for the best components at a competitive price. The B3 version of this board is fixed squarely under the $200 ceiling and includes highly-conductive polymerized capacitors, super ferrite chokes, and solid capacitors that should give this board a long lifespan and higher efficiency overall.

MSI brings out the big guns with military-grade P67A-GD65

Courtesy of MSI

Introduction and Specifications

Brushed aluminum has become synonymous with luxury electronics, and the ASUS N53’s (N53SV-A1) exterior is clad in it like a suit of armor. The lid and palmrest are both coated the velvet-smooth metal, resulting in an instantly impressive finish. The usage of aluminum on the N53 has a dark gunmetal tint – like the ASUS U33JC Bamboo laptop we reviewed some time ago, the N53 goes for elegance rather than flash.

It is not what you can add, but what you can successfully take away...

While MSI's original 890FXA-GD70 was a nice success story for the company, they were hoping to have a greater presence in the sub-$150 range of parts. To achieve this while not stepping on the toes of the 880G and 890GX stable of boards, MSI released a more focused board based on the now mature 890FX platform. The 890FXA-GD65 is aimed squarely at the budget enthusiast who asks a lot from their board without having to shell out the big bucks.Have I ever mentioned my fondness for midrange and budget enthusiast products?  I personally feel that it is one of the most interesting places in the market, where manufacturers struggle to pull off unique designs for the lowest price possible.  This is usually a point of extreme innovation where money is certainly an object to be conserved, but users demand a level of functionality and performance that can usually only be attained for much more money.  Being made of money is the problem here.  Most of us simply do not have the budget to buy an extreme motherboard at $300 to $400, a video card for $700, or a processor for $1000 for that matter.  Nope, the real world is a hard and cruel place for those of us without trust funds or a sugar mama (or daddy), or that rare individual with a high paying job who actually works for a living!  You know, guys like Jeremy Hellstrom.

Yeah, you saw right... that's a big "G" in orange on the right side of the box.

Introduction and Features

Today we have a double-header for you: two new PSUs in Corsair's Enthusiast lineup, the TX750 V2 and TX850 V2. Check out our review to see if these new contenders are destined for the PSU hall of fame and your next build!

Introduction

Corsair Memory continues to expand their PC power supply offering with the introduction of three new units in their Enthusiast Series; the TX650 V2, TX750 V2 and TX850 V2.  All three new Version 2 power supplies have been designed to deliver clean, stable, continuous power at an affordable price for your high-end gaming rig or workstation.  Along with the TX650 V2, the TX750 V2 and TX850 V2 that we are reviewing today feature premium quality components, an energy-efficient design (80Plus Bronze certified) and quiet operation.  All of the Enthusiast Series power supplies are backed by a 5-year warranty and lifetime access to Corsair's comprehensive technical support and customer service.

Barts sees a lower price

The Radeon HD 6790 1GB is a new $150 graphics cards based on the same Barts architecture found in the Radeon HD 6800-series of cards. Obviously there are fewer shader processors and lower clock speeds, though the 256-bit memory bus remains for better memory throughput. The goal is obvious: unseat the GTX 550 Ti (and the GTX 460) from NVIDIA as the best option for this price segment. Does it succeed?

Introduction

The hits just keep coming.  In a time of the year that is traditionally a bit slower (after CES but before Computex) the world of the graphics card continues to evolve and iterate at a blindly pace.  Since January we have seen the release of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti and the Radeon HD 6950 1GB cards, the Radeon HD 6990 4GB dual-GPU behemoth, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti budget card and even NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 590 dual-GPU card.  It has been a busy time for our GPU testing labs and the result is a GPU market that is both stronger and more confusing than ever. 

Today AMD is releasing another competitor to the ~$150 graphics card market with the Radeon HD 6790 1GB based on the Barts architecture we first tested with the HD 6800-series in October 2010.  When NVIDIA released the GTX 550 Ti in this same price field, AMD was dependent on the higher priced HD 6850 and the previous generation HD 5770 to hold its ground, both of which did so quite well.  The GTX 550 Ti was over priced at launch and is only now starting to see the correction needed to make it a viable selection.

AMD had different plans though and the Radeon HD 6790 will enter into the $150 space as the performance and pricing leader if neither of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 550 Ti or GTX 460 768MB can make a stand.

Radeon HD 6790 Specs and Reference Design

The new Radeon HD 6790 will sit in the current product stack from AMD just below the HD 6850 and above the currently available HD 5770 offerings.  For those that might have already done their research, yes there is indeed a Radeon HD 6770 being sold by AMD but it is only offered to OEMs for now while end users are left without it. 

According to this roadmap from AMD the HD 6790 will be the only 6700-series selection from AMD for the retail channel until at least Q3 of 2011. 

Just Like Zacate Before It...

AMD let leak today that late last month the Singapore packaging facility shipped the first Llano products for revenue. This is a big event for AMD, as their Future Really is Fusion. I take a look at what all this means for the company, as well as cover how their motherboard partners are going to handle part of the transition to AM3+.Way back in early November, 2010 it was reported that AMD began their first revenue shipments of the Zacate/Ontario processors to their partners.  This was big news for AMD, as they expected these processors to make quite the impact in the market.  It took a while for the first processors to actually hit the market in final form, and it wasn’t until after CES in early 2011 that we actually saw products that were available to consumers.  Things really did not take off until as recently as February, and the demand for these chips is still at a very high level.

So today’s announcement on the AMD Blog site that the packaging arm of AMD in Singapore has shipped the first revenue Llano based parts is very important for the company.  While Llano is not based on the next generation Bulldozer CPU architecture, it does feature what could be argued as the fastest and most advanced integrated graphics processor in the world.  AMD is still aiming for solid CPU performance by including a fast four core Phenom II based processor, with some IPC improvements that should help it keep competitive in most workloads.  But the real star will be the graphics.  While we have seen some big leaps forward over the past few years in integrated performance, this should be a significant landmark in graphics technology.  AMD was one of the first to provide users with acceptable 3D performance in the original AMD 690G chipset, and improved it with the 780, 785, and 800 series of integrated graphics.  The integrated part inside the Llano should be quantum leap ahead in features and performance as compared to anything else out there.

The happy group of workers with the plain, brown colored box holding the first revenue shipment of Llano based processors.

It took approximately three months before we saw initial penetration of Zacate based parts in the retail market, and we can expect about the same amount of time for Llano.  This will be the first 32 nm part that AMD has released, which is around 18 months after Intel launched their first 32 nm parts.  AMD and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have wanted to cut that gap, but nobody else in the world has the fabrication resources that Intel does.  I would imagine that many of these first Llano parts are actually aimed at the notebook market, where they could make the biggest financial impact as well as provide some TDP/clockspeed leeway which allows GLOBALFOUNDRIES time to work on higher clocked versions to improve yields and bins.

We will see desktop parts shortly after, and can expect a fair supply by early July.  This should be hitting OEMs as they are preparing for the “Back to School” launches in early August.  AMD is truly offering what looks to be standalone graphics card performance on a CPU, all at around 95 watts TDP for the average desktop part.  Combined with a true quad core processor and an ample amount of L2 cache per core, we should see performance that rivals that of a high end Athlon II X4 combined with a HD 6550 graphics card.  All combined in one nice little package, and for a slightly lower cost (and a lower cost of goods for the manufacturer).

Earlier last week we were informed that quite a few motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI will be compatible with the upcoming AM3+ based Bulldozer products.  Because none of these current boards are built to utilize CPU graphics, they likely will not be compatible with Llano.  This really wouldn’t make any sense anyway, since current AM3 processors would work just as well as the first generation of Llano processors.  But the current AM3 motherboards should not have a problem with the first generation of Bulldozer processors.

Gigabyte is shipping boards with the block socket denoting AM3+ compatibility.

Asus and MSI are providing BIOS updates to their 800 series of motherboards.  Asus looks to provide BIOS updates for 890FX, 890GX, and some 880G based boards.  MSI is concentrating on the 890FX and 890GX series, but leaving out the 880 and 870 parts.  Gigabyte is actually shipping “Black Socket” AM3+ compatible boards, and these comprise nearly their entire current lineup of 800 series of boards.  Users have spotted the black socket 870 boards for sale around North America, but so far they have been a handful of boards.  From all indications these are not actually AM3+ sockets, but are in fact AM3 but in a black plastic to convey Bulldozer/AM3+ compatibility.  The AM3 socket actually has 941 pin holes, but AM3 CPUs feature 938 pins.  AM3+ will features 942 pin holds, but the assumption is that the actual chips themselves will have a few pins less than 942.  Hence the ability to fit into current AM3 boards even though AM3+ processors will have more pins.  There will likely be certain tradeoffs with using an AM3 board with AM3+ processors, and these look to be related to power efficiency and maximum turbo clockspeed targets.  Current AM3 boards do not look to have the vast VCore switching that AM3+ boards will have, and we could see some limitations provided the HT 3.0 bus of current AM3 boards as compared to the updated HT 3.1 revision in AM3+.

Rumor has it that the Bulldozer release will be around June 20, while Llano will be officially unveiled in the first week of July.  That may or may not hold true, depending on how well AMD is able to ship these products.  Computex will likely see a lot more information slip out, as well as the ubiquitous motherboard support and floor samples being freely viewed by the public.  The official release of AM3+ motherboards should occur by the end of this month, and perhaps in early May.  AMD has a great need to seed the market with these motherboards, and they are also backwards compatible with AM3 processors.  We also may see the first integrated support of USB 3.0 in these motherboards, as AMD has received USB 3.0 certification for the Hudson FCH core logic chips.  There is still confusion as to how these are going to be placed in the market, or if they are even compatible in conjunction with the AMD 900 series of northbridge chips.

These are certainly exciting times for AMD.  The HD 6000 series of graphics chips are doing well in the market.  They are now truly competitive at the high end again.  Their CPUs have been holding their own, especially due to the help that Intel gave them with the Sandy Bridge issue.  They are about to release what looks to be a very power CPU architecture in Bulldozer, and they will be rewriting the books when it comes to integrated graphics performance and capabilities.  Certainly AMD will not overtake Intel, but we as consumers do need a strong and competitive AMD for the sake of our own wallets.

Introduction and Specifications

Thermaltake set a new standard for creativity and design when they introduced the original Level 10 case at Computex in 2009, but many PC builders couldn't afford the $800 price tag. In 2011, Thermaltake recognized the need for a consumer-level gaming case that featured many of the modern design elements and features that made the original Level 10 case so popular. The release of the Level 10 GT shows Thermaltake's commitment to the enthusiast community and does it at a more competitive price of $280 at most retailers.

Thermaltake finally creates Level 10 case for semi-budget users

New Level 10 GT (left) and original Level 10 (right)
Courtesy of Thermaltake

A Headset for All Seasons

After being impressed by the Corsair SP2500 2.1 speaker system, I geared up to give their headphone audio a try. The technology that Corsair has implemented into their headphones certainly looks impressive, but only when we hear the sound will we know how well they accomplished this feat. Read on to see if Corsair can be the next Grado Labs in portable audio.A few weeks back I was able to listen to, and review, the SP2500 speakers from Corsair.  These impressed me a great deal with their clarity, depth of sound, and overall representation in all three major aspects of computer audio (music, movies, and gaming).  These were the first Corsair audio products that I had a chance to listen to, but they were not the first that Corsair had released at that time.  Some months before the release of those speakers, Corsair had introduced the Gaming Audio HS1 USB headphones.

Pardon the quality of the picture, my camera is dying.  The boys is well constructed and protects the headphones nicely.

Introduction and Features

PC Power & Cooling's Silencer 760W delivers clean, stable power with excellent efficiency at an affordable price. However, don't let the name mislead you; this PSU isn't what many users would consider silent

.Introduction
                   
The Silencer 760W sits in the middle of PC Power & Cooling’s Silencer series of high performance power supplies.  It can deliver up to 760W of clean, reliable power with excellent efficiency for mission critical workstations and high-end gaming systems.  The Silencer 760W incorporates all hard-wired cables and comes with four PCI-E connectors, NVIDIA SLI certification, is backed by a 7-year warranty, and typically sells for $129 USD.

(Courtesy the OCZ Technology Group)

Introduction, Specifications and Packaging

Less than a month after the introduction of the 510 Series SSD, Intel has released the 320 Series. This is essentially a 'G3' X25-M, running at the usual SATA 3Gb/sec speeds. While it won't be as fast in a straight line as the 510 series, the 320 has the extremely nimble 10-channel controller under its belt. Check out our review to see how it fared against the competition, as well as against the other Intel models.

Introduction:   

 

Today we take a look at the third generation of Intel's native SSD controller solution. What started life as the X25-M series has now been dubbed the 320 Series. This falls in line with Intel's new naming scheme, where all SSD lines get some form of a 3-digit number. 3xx Series are SATA 3Gb/sec, while 5xx Series are 6Gb/sec.

 

The X25-M series got off to a shaky start in life, as the initial shipping version was plagued by some long-term fragmentation issues discovered by yours truly. The plague was short lived, thankfully, as Intel stepped up to the plate and corrected these problems in firmware. The second generation model was released without a hiccup, but the addition of TRIM support via firmware saw some problems as well. Those were eventually ironed out and all was good once again.

 

Last month we saw Intel launch the 510 Series. The unit did not live up to our expectations from an Intel controller - mostly because an Intel controller it was not. Just as they were blind sighted and rushed a 6Gb/sec motherboard solution to the market, Intel did the same with the 510, opting for a Marvell controller. Sure they worked some of their own firmware magic into it, but there is only so much you can squeeze out of a given piece of hardware. Their Sandy Bridge launch did not go so great either, as some of our readers are still getting their motherboards replaced with correctly functioning B3 versions.

 

The 320 Series boasts 25nm flash memory. PC Perspective got a first hand look at 25nm production early last year. We had been waiting for this memory to make an appearance in an Intel part, and our wait is finally over. To revisit what 25nm flash does for us, check out this pic:

 

 

 

From left: 130nm (128MB) in 2003, 90nm (512MB) in 2005, 50nm (1GB) in 2007,
34nm (4GB) in 2009, and finally 25nm (8GB) flash now being produced at IMFT.
To the far right is the now standard flash memory TSOP packaging.

 

A single die of 25nm flash holds a whopping 8GB. While multiple dies can be stacked inside each chip package, the more you stack, the greater chance a failed part will cause a TSOP to be considered bad during the production process. For this reason, larger die capacities and fewer dies per chip make things cheaper to produce all around. This should make for some competitive pricing as well.

 

 

Specifications:

An important note: the 320 series, while packaged and sold to consumers, is also rated for enterprise use. This is the first MLC based Intel SSD to make such a claim. The ratings above were for consumer applications. Here are the ratings for enterprise usage where the drive will see heavy random writes spread across 100% of the available drive capacity:

 

 

Intel is failing *way* conservative, assuming no use of TRIM and 100% of the drive full of 4k random writes. This would make many other SSD's choke completely, so I'm shocked to see Intel be brave enough to even provide such a rating. I hit our sample really hard for half a day and was not able to get IOPS to fall as far as their rating.

Packaging:

 

  

 

Our 320 series sample came in the standard OEM packaging with the new style of sticker. The retail packaging comes with a CD and 3.5" adapter bracket in the box.