Hardware News & Reviews
DIY Buyer's Guide
Socket 1156 – Super Mid-range
| Part | Product | Price | Supplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOB: | Asus P7P55D Pro | $217.00 | MSY |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5 750 | $234.00 | MSY |
| HSF: | Noctua NH-U12P SE | $89.00 | PCC |
| RAM: | G.Skill Ripjaws F3-16000CL9D-4GBRH | $145.00 | MSY |
| VPU: | Sapphire HD5850 1GB | $368.00 | PCM |
| HDD: | 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (32MB) | $99.00 | CEN |
| DVD: | Pioneer 218 DVDRW (SATA) | $43.00 | MSY |
| PSU: | Corsair HX-620 | $159.00 | PCC |
| CAS: | CoolerMaster CM 690 with window | $115.00 | PCC |
| TOTAL: | $1,469.00 |
Socket 1366 – Higher End
| Part | Product | Price | Supplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOB: | Asus P6T X58 | $285.00  $15 | MSY |
| CPU: | Intel Core i7 920 | $379.00 $15 | COA |
| HSF: | Noctua NH-U12P SE | $89.00 | PCC |
| RAM: | 6GB Corsair DDR3-1600 C7 | $245.00 | PCC |
| VPU: | Sapphire HD5850 1GB | $368.00 | PCM |
| HDD: | 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (32MB) | $99.00 | CEN |
| DVD: | Pioneer 218 DVDRW (SATA) | $43.00 | MSY |
| PSU: | Corsair HX-620 | $159.00 | PCC |
| CAS: | CoolerMaster CM 690 with window | $115.00 | PCC |
| TOTAL: | $1,782.00 |
Latest Hardware News/Reviews
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| Archive | DDR3 | SSDs | P55 |
- Sorry, it's been AGES since I last posted. I've been busy working on the implementation of a WebSphere Commerce website for a large Aussie retailer. There's been plenty of news – the most significant of which was the launch of ATI's new category killer the HD5970. Easily the fastest card on the market and making nVidia fanbois (like myself) think about changing teams. Of course the big thing about the ATI 5-series cards is their support for DX11. Here is a selection of reviews and a rundown of titles currently available or coming out on DX11 – looks to be picking up some steam…
Other minor stories are the proliferation of second edition P55 mobos sporting USB3 and SATA 6Gbps. It's my take that USB3 will be more useful in the short term, while the drives and controllers mature on the SATA (III) 6Gbps interface.
And while you're here, why not have a go at Ice Fu, my Java Applet platform game :)- ATI's Dual HD5970:
- P55 Mobos:
- In Australia, ASUS has released it's new -E series P55 motherboards featuring USB3 and SATA 6Gbps support. They come at a moderate premium to the standard boards in terms of price. Strangely, the Asus P7P55D-E-PRO and the Asus P7P55D-E-EVO seem to be selling at the same price – which makes the Asus P7P55D-E-EVO a pretty sweet deal.
- Techspot have an interesting Intel P55 Motherboard Roundup. This doesn't include the revision 2 boards – but if you don't need USB3 or SATA 6Gbps, then the review of other features is very comprehensive.
- Asus P7P55D PRO Reviewed @ Tech Gage
- Asus Maximus III Formula @ Hardware Canucks
- Some reviews of the exciting Lucid Hydra technology – allowing a mix of GPUs from any manufacturer/camp:
- P55-specialty RAM:
- SATA 6Gbps is hot news… But there is a downside with the current Intel motherboard implementations – in order to enable the bandwidth required, some PCIe lanes need to be 'stolen' from the GPU subsystem. Tweaktown have a particularly good article explaining the details and showing how ASUS have a clever solution to avoid the pitfalls
- ASUS U3S6 the first to experience the hard disk USB3.0 & SATA6Gb
- ECS Readies USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s Addon Cards, Too
- 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT @ Neoseeker
- SATA 6G Implementation Preview - Ironing Out The Creases
- Coming under the heading of 'tech I would love to own'…
- Corsair Obsidian 800D – already on sale in Aus, albeit for ~$400, this will definitely be my next case. Heaps of space, great cable management and quiet 140mm fans. This is a real winner
- Enermax Revolution 850W – if you don't have the money of the 1250W version, which is my personal favourite PSU, then the Enermax Revolution 850W has to be right up there. I have been running several incarnations of PCs on my Enermax Noisetaker 600W and they make the most reliable PSUs money can buy. Highly recommended
- A look at the 100-core Tilera Gx – moving from the virtual world to the 'just plain dreaming' world, wouldn't we all like a 100-core CPU? :)
- And finally a collection of other hot reviews…
- Nvidia quash MSI's Lucid powered ‘Big Bang’ board – in a big blow to some upcoming promising technology, nVidia is rumoured to be derailing the Lucid Hydra (multi-brand, multi-GPU) chip via code in its Forceware drivers ;(. After having a shocking year, nVidia seem determined to ruin everyone else's fun too.
- Lynnfield i5 or i7 - This is the Question – world famous OCer Chainbolt answers the question on everyones' lips - i5 or i7?
- Patriot Viper II Sector 5 PVV34G2000LLK – DDR3-2000 C8 action from Patriot
- Corsair Dominator 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Review – a solid if not spectacular performer
- ECS Elitegroup P55H-A – top range performance on a budget
- CentOS 5.4 vs. OpenSuSE 11.2 vs. Ubuntu 9.10 Benchmarks – a comparison of the latest in free LINUX distros. Bit of an Ubuntu fanboi myself, but there is much to like from all offerings reviewed
- A collection of reviews from across the Net…
- Core i7 930 Arriving Q1 2010 – a little speed bump on the i7 920. Who knows whether this will be built with the 32nm transistor tech?
- In case you didn't know, the Unity3D Game Engine is available for free download. It uses javascript to do much of the scripting for the engine – which is pretty neat. I will hopefully be building something to sit on top of this engine to present on the software page with my associate @ supercalifrigginawesome.com. Watch this space…
- MSI Unveils Big Bang Trinergy P55 – the one I am waiting for is the (Big Bang) 'Fusion' version which will have a Lucid HYDRA chip onboard, allowing any video cards (even nVidia/ATI mix) to work in harmony. Still this board looks impressive.
- Asus P7P55D Deluxe and EVO – a not terribly informative review focussing more on differences (or lack thereof) of features between the EVO and Deluxe models and skipping a performance review
- Xigmatek Balder SD1283 HDT – yet another spin-off of the widely acclaimed 1283 HDT CPU cooler series…
- Cogage TRUE Spirit LGA1366 CPU Cooler – a budget 1366 cooler with reasonable performance. If you have the dosh, get the superior Noctua NH-U12P SE
- Sticking with the hot topic of new IO tech, more news and products out today in the area…
- Seagate Barracuda XT 2Tb SATA 6gbit/s Hard Drive Performance Review @ Tweaktown. Pretty impressive numbers…
- ASUS SATA 6gbit/s and USB3 Add-on Card – and finally, the card from ASUS (for Intel P55) to make it all happen
- HighPoint Announces its First SATA 6Gbs Host Adapter Based on PCI-E 2.0 – the PCIe2.0 interface paired with a RAID SATA 6Gbps adapter has the potential to provide in the order of GB/s real effective read speed. Now that's what I call fast!
- Gigabyte Details the P55A Series Motherboards Support USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps – the 2nd revision Gigabyte P55(A) boards are among the first to support SATA 6Gbps. These boards are currently available at PC Case Gear in Aus – for slightly more than the non-A version equivalents
- FusionIO ioXtreme PCI-Express SSD Sneak Peek – Utilising the old PCIe standard, these SSD cards provide incredible read and write speeds. With their low profile, you can imagine the potential to use heaps of these in RAID in a server to deliver some major IO bandwidth at massive speeds. " You're looking at a product that offers 300MB/sec average write throughput and 750 - 800MB/sec of average read throughput"
- For arcade fans (and aren't we all) Hori – a well renowned Japanese arcade manufacturer – has released the Hori Xbox360 Fighting Stick EX2, currently for sale @ $109 @ PC Case Gear. This stick is for your Street Fighter II-type games. Been wanting one for ages. There is also some news on the web about how to set it up for use in Windows
- On the topic of gaming, some news about Bioshock 2 Alone Among the Dead on our dedicated Gaming page.
- And a review of the top-of-the-line EVGA P55 Classified 200. More P55 motherboard reviews in our dedicated P55 review page
- In terms of new tech, SATA 6Gbps (or SATA III) is an exciting new technology. A new drive paired with a capable controller promises to deliver more dizzying speeds from HDDs and SSDs alike. Seagate's new XT series is now on sale in Aus. It will be some time until we see real performance gains. Only some P55 chipsets currently support the new SATA 6Gbps IO controller. In other news…
- Sorry, been off for a while and unable to post. No major hardware releases - but lots of news and reviews. Most notably, nVidia is losing the battle for GPU dominance and is pulling out of Socket 1156 chipset developement. Some trouble on the horizon for the graphics giant ;( Here's a look at what else is going on in the world of hardware:
- Graphics Cards
- P55 Mobos:
- P55-specialty RAM:
- Other noteworthy stories:
- Aussie Youngpro wins the world OC, Super Pi division, on a P55 mobo with G.Skill PS DDR3
- Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme CPU Cooler
- A Great Ship Needs Deep Waters: 14 Power Supply Units with 1000W+ Capacity
- 10 Low-Budget AMD Motherboards
- Shtax of reviews around covering the exciting launch of AMD's new Radeon HD5870 and HD5850. Too many to list. But here are a selection of the important ones:
- HD5870 PCI-Express Scaling – TechPowerUp look at the scaling of the HD5870 in XFire on 4x/8x/16x PCIe connections on the X58 motherboard. There is a lot of hype around in forums that you need a chipset with 2x16x PCIe interface to run XFire or SLI on a high-bandwidth video card – like the HD5870. But the numbers just dont bare that out. Looks as though the P55 boards with 2x16xPCIe lanes (operating at 2x8x) will be more than adequate for running a super high performing multi-GPU setup
- Radeon HD5870 CrossfireX Review – compares the HD5870, single and XFire against a very broad range of cards currently on the market
- AMD Radeon HD 5870 X2 Pictured – some early views of the giant-killer HD5870X2 – surely the highest performing consumer graphics card on the market
- AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Bringing About the Next Generation Of GPUs – Anandtech explains the full set of functionality behind the board, not just benchmarks
- xtreemcom.com: Hey George, you said the p55 controller gives more headroom? That's a bonus given the cheaper price. Or do you mean because of dual-channel v tri-channel?
eva2000: It's more due to design of P55 vs X58. X58 has uncore frequency requirements (uncore needs to be 2x mem frequency) and uncore on air/water is usually limited to around 4000mhz which means DDR3-2000Mhz mem frequency is usually the normal ceiling unless you push way higher cpu vtt/uncore volts and vdimm as well as colder cpu cooling (sub zero cpu cooling on x58 helps much higher ram clocks). P55 doesn't have such requirement so uncore frequency stays much lower to X58 uncore frequency even when memory is overclocked. Dual vs Triple channel is also part of the reason but not so much… - Kingston HyperX DDR3 2133MHz 4GB Kit @ Bjorn3D
- Kingston HyperX DDR3 4GB 2133MHz Memory Review @ Legit Reviews
- Triple-Channel DDR3-1600 SDRAM Kits Roundup @ X-bit labs
- Activating NVIDIA SLI on all motherboards, detailed HOW-TO – an absolutely amazing story and set of drivers/processes for enabling SLI - nVidia's multi-GPU tech - on ANY motherboard with 2xPCIe graphics card slots. They have tested against a whole lot of chipsets and OS combinations. Great article!
- With the massive parallel processing power of today's GPUs, companies are preparing some standards to harness this processing power for basically any means. There are two major standards in this field; DirectCompute (M$) and OpenCL (nV). On the topic of OpenCL: Nvidia delivers the first public OpenCL GPU drivers (the story) and the drivers
- A successor to the hugely popular first version… Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme CPU Cooler. Unfortunately, there are no performance comparisons with other major coolers… looks sweet anyway
- K|ngp|n is at it again, breaking all world records and all our hearts by achieving 6+GHz with Intel's Gulftown 6-core. The yet to be released processor – on the socket 1366 platform – will destroy all current records. But for the price, it better. Not for the mainstream or budget constrained user…
- The big news in hardware this week is the proliferation of information on AMD's new Radeon HD5800 series. First benchmarks are surfacing already and the products are even getting their first listing. The products look to be giant-killers, wiping the floor with nVidia's flagship offerings. The nVidia 300-series cards will need to come out very soon to combat this AMD onslaught:
- First Radeon HD 5870 Performance Figures @ Czech Gamer
- HD5870 VS GTX 295
- HD5870 VS GTX 285
- HD5850 VS GTX 285
- Motherboards:
- CPUs (Lynnfield Quad-cores):
- The big news of the day is AMDs new DX11-enabled Radeon 5800 series. Some pics and specs out. But also news on EyeFinity – a technology allowing up 6 to monitors per graphics card – up to a total of 24 (4-gpu set-up). Reviews:
- AMD Next Generation ATI Radeon Eyefinity Technology @ HardOCP
- Eyefinity pushes over 24 million pixels with one next-gen Radeon @ Tech Report
- Beginnings of the Holodeck: AMD's DX11 GPU, Eyefinity and 6 Display Outputs @ Anandtech
- AMD Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology In Action @ Hot Hardware
- AMD Shows off 24 Panel Eyefinity on DirectX 11 Graphics Cards @ Legit Reviews
- The first set of official reviews for the P55 chipset came out today. This is the must-have mainstream motherboard - supporting Intel's new Lynnfield quad-core i7 and i5 processors. For a complete wrap-up, see the dedicated P55 motherboard review page
- Leadtek 7600GT: Single card and SLI
Reviewing the Leadtek 7600GT and comparing a single 7600GT to an SLI set-up.
| Archive | DDR3 | SSDs | P55 |
Crucial Links
- Overclockers Australia – News, forums and an active Aussie hardware community
- XtremeSystems Forums – Forums featuring the worlds best overclockers and a broad hardware community
- i4memory – A completely comprehensive site reviewing all aspects of memory and hosting a vibrant community forum. From the famous Australian overclocker Eva2000
- supercalifrigginawesome – The latest in technology and gaming
- Static Ice – best Aussie PC Parts search engine
- MSY – cheapest parts around. In most Aus states
- PCM – Another cheap store – but better service. Located in Oakleigh
- PCC – PC Case Gear – Huge range of essential gear and mods
- SCO – Scorpion Technologies – great service and good deals
- CPL – Computer and Parts Land – cheap prices
- TechPowerUp – All the latest in hardware and software downloads
- Xbit Labs – Very reputbale review site
- Anadtech – Reputbale review site with an angle