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Asus EAH5970 2GB GDDR5 Review

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:08:13 +0000

Introduction

Today marks a 'red'-letter day of sorts for AMD, which looks to reclaim performance leadership in the graphics cards industry with its new flagship ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics accelerator. Of all the products AMD has been working on over the past year, we bet this product won the most anticipation, since the "next big thing" from a company in the hardware industry often defines its market position, and competitiveness as a solution provider. The Radeon HD 5970 makes use of two AMD Cypress GPUs in an internal multi-GPU configuration. The accelerator is compliant with Microsoft DirectX 11, which forms one of the important features of the company's Windows 7 operating system, and is a next-generation multimedia API. AMD Cypress on the other hand, with the recently launched Radeon HD 5800 series products, has established itself as the industry's single most powerful graphics processor. For computer enthusiasts, replenished competition from either sides is always a win. Professional overclockers looking forward to the next big contest will naturally eye an accelerator that makes use of two of the most powerful GPUs on the planet. For the long-sighted buyer who is willing to splurge, this is potentially a one-time investment that secures future-proofing for long. The Radeon HD 5970 packs two AMD Cypress GPUs with 1600 stream processors each (total 3200), and holds 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface per GPU (total 2 GB of memory on board, across a 2x 256-bit wide memory interface). In this review, we will evaluate the performance, thermal, electrical, and acoustic characteristics of the ASUS EAH5970 Radeon HD 5970 graphics accelerator.

	GeForce GTX 280	Radeon HD 4870 X2	GeForce GTX 285	Radeon HD 5850	Radeon HD 5870	GeForce GTX 295	Radeon HD 5970
Shader units	240	2x 800	240	1440	1600	2x 240	2x 1600
ROPs	32	2x 16	32	32	32	2x 28	2x 32
GPU	GT200	2x RV770	GT200b	Cypress	Cypress	2x GT200b	2x Cypress
Transistors	1400M	2x 956M	1400M	2154M	2154M	2x 1400M	2x 2154M
Memory Size	1024 MB	2x 1024 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB	2x 896 MB	2x 1024 MB
Memory Bus Width	512 bit	2x 256 bit	512 bit	256 bit	256 bit	2x 448 bit	2x 256 bit
Core Clock	602 MHz	750 MHz	648 MHz	725 MHz	850 MHz	576 MHz	725 MHz
Memory Clock	1107 MHz	900 MHz	1242 MHz	1000 MHz	1200 MHz	999 MHz	1000 MHz
Price	$329	$429	$340	$299	$399	$500	$599

Packaging

ASUS ships their EAH5970 in a big and colorful package that communicates all important product highlights on the front, the back has more detail in multiple languages. You will receive:

Graphics Card
CrossFire Bridge
Dirt 2 Coupon (Steam required)
PCI-Express power adapter
Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter
Documentation + Driver CDs
DVI to HDMI Adapter
Leather CD case

Architecture

AMD's dual-GPU graphics cards in recent times have carried a simple design methodology: There are two graphics processors, each with its own memory and voltage regulation circuitry. One of the two ...

Thermaltake Toughpower 750w Review

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:39:38 +0000

Over the past few years the requirement for high-quality power supplies has become a real issue. Since processors and graphics cards have really started to suck down power, there has been a greater demand for power supplies to perform. Computers are generating a lot more heat these days, and this has got a lot to do with its components' high energy requirements. The latest and greatest desktop computers have indeed enormous power requirements reaching a point where anything under 400watts could be considered obsolete. While basic office type computers can get away with crummy generic 350w power supplies, more powerful gaming systems certainly cannot. Doing so would result in serious system instability issues that can even place components such as the motherboard at great risk. High performance power supplies maintain a constant flow of power, and at the same time continue to deliver enough power. Thermaltake offers a huge range of quality power supplies, designed for a wide range of different purposes. For example the Toughpower series consists of seven high powered units, all designed to deliver maximum performance. There is also the PurePower 350w power supply which features a completely passive design, meaning it is totally silent. The bulk of their power supplies form the PurePower series, in all there are ten power supplies ranging from 430w through to 680w. Today we will be reviewing a product coming from the Toughpower range, and is one of the bigger wattage items, outputting an impressive 750w. Thermaltake claims that the working efficiency of the Toughpower 750w can reach up to 85%, thanks to a new design that makes use of top grade components. As was to be expected the 750w does carry a price premium simply because such highly rated units are hard to come by. We still consider the Toughpower 750w is priced reasonably for an unit of its output and quality. There is also available a similarly designed unit rated for 600w output, also part of the ToughPower family, this unit is considerably more affordable. Despite being rated for such an extreme output, Thermaltake claims a very quiet operating volume for the 750w unit thanks to the use of a single 140mm fan. The unit features a single 20/24-pin power connector, one 4/8-pin power connector, dual PCI Express connectors, six 4-pin connectors, two 4-pin floppy connectors and six Serial ATA connectors. Furthermore, the unit features independent voltage circuit, over current, over voltage, short-circuit protection and Active PFC. Installation & Testing The power supply is probably one of the hardware components you can most easily install into a computer and the Toughpower 750w is no exception. Perhaps the most time-consuming part of a power supply installation is unplugging and removing the old one. The only important thing to remember is that the power supply should not be active or plugged to the wall while disconnecting all the cables inside your case. Assuming you do not need to remove an old power supply, the Toughpower 750w can ...

Cooler Master Elite 342 Casing

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:03:39 +0000

Introduction Elite 342 (RC-342) is a mini-tower that accommodates micro-ATX, built with a modern black design body and front panel. This chassis maintains Elite’s pedigree of compact-sized and quality build that would look great in any space. Elite 342 maintains a quiet environment while providing the option of adding 80mm or 90mm rear fans to provide the best ventilation possible for a compact system. Features

Front mesh design provides superior ventilation to maintain constant cooling
Front I/O panel provides easy access for users
Side panel security lock hole for higher security
Side ventilation holes for better cooling performance
Front 120 mm fan provides the best cooling solution
Removable HDD cage

Specifications

Samsung SyncMaster P2370 Slim LCD

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:21:24 +0000

Not everyone needs an LCD monitor is that is chocked full of additional features. You may not need to have a set of integrated speakers. Maybe you don’t want to have a USB hub or a wide range of input/output options. You just want something that looks slick and does its job well. If that’s the case, then the Samsung P2370 just might be the ticket. This is quite possibly the slimmest LCD as part of Samsung’s lineup, if not among the slimmest LCDs on the market today. The SyncMaster P2370 is a 23-inch widescreen monitor and the display portion measures just 30mm in thickness. That’s pretty darn thin. Features and Specs In line with the current trend toward multimedia-minded products, the Samsung P2370 features a 16:9 aspect ratio (like an HDTV) rather than the 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio that we’ve come to expect from computer monitors. Going through the rest of the feature list, we discover the following: * Screen Size: 23-inch wide (16:9) * Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels * Brightness: 250 cd/m² * Contrast Ratio: DC 50000:1 (1000:1 Typ) * Viewing Angle(Horizontal/Vertical): 170° / 160° (CR>10) * Dimensions (with Stand): 571.0 x 423.0 x 190.0 mm * Special Features: MagicBright3, Off timer, Image Size Colour Effect, Customised key, MagicWizard & MagicTune with AssetManagement, Windows Vista Premium, Safe Mode (DownScaling in UXGA) Inside the brown cardboard box, you’ll find the P2370 itself, as well as the glossy piano black stand, DVI cable, VGA-to-DVI cable, power supply and cable, a cleaning cloth, and instruction manual. This is all pretty standard fare, for the most part, though it is interesting that this monitor has an external power supply rather than one that is built into the unit itself. This aids in maintaining its slim and lightweight nature, I suppose, but it means that you’ll have another power brick on your desk or on the floor. When you take the rote of producing one of the thinnest LCDs on the market, you have to expect that certain sacrifices will have to be made. As I mentioned earlier, the Samsung P2370 doesn’t have the same bells and whistles that you may expect from other monitors. There are no built-in speakers, USB hubs, or any of that jazz. You get a thin monitor and that’s about it. The slim pickings, so to speak, extend to the back of the monitor as well. You’ll notice that Samsung has decided on DVI as the only input method. You probably won’t be using a VGA connection, but it would have been nice to see HDMI support perhaps. This is meant to be a 16:9 multimedia monitor, after all. You see, the goal is that the P2370 can take up as little space as possible, fitting on the smallest of desks without taking up too much room. That’s priority number one for this product. At least you get a true HD picture. Say Hello to Starlight Touch One thing that you have ...

Cooler Master Centurion 5 II Casing

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:54:53 +0000

Introduction The all new Centurion 5 II has been vastly improved from the inside. This mid-tower chassis is designed with increased drive bay capacity, more airflow thanks to the enhanced ventilation and fan options and easy-to-install features. This is a multi-purpose chassis that you cannot go wrong with. Features

Supports up to five fans and provide extreme airflow with substantial performance
Removable I/O module for flexible adjustment to your PC placement
Adapter for 2.5” / 1.8” HDD
Front 140 mm Blue LED on/off fan provides excellent cooling to HDDs
CPU retaining hole for easy CPU cooler installation
Cable management for quick cable routing and neatness
PSU bottom fan can be setup facing upwards / downwards (filter included)

Specifications

DFI P55 MI-T36, A Little Cutie

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:09:05 +0000

DFI unveiled the P55 MI-T36 to the public a couple of months ago. It's an exciting little board based upon the P55 chipset, cut back to the most desirable essentials in order to facilitate a shrink down to the mini-ITX form factor. It also offers plenty of overclocking features within the current BIOS.

AMD’s Radeon HD 5850 Review

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:28:39 +0000

Today the other shoe drops, with AMD launching the 5870’s companion card: the slightly pared down 5850. It’s the same Cypress core that we saw on the 5870 with the same features: DX11, Eyefinity, angle-independent anisotropic filtering, HDMI bitstreaming, and supersample anti-aliasing. The only difference between the two is performance and power – the 5850 is a bit slower, and a bit less power hungry. If by any chance you’ve missed our Radeon HD 5870 review, please check it out; it goes in to full detail on what AMD is bringing to the table with Cypress and the HD 5800 series.

	ATI Radeon HD 5870	ATI Radeon HD 5850	ATI Radeon HD 4890	ATI Radeon HD 4870
Stream Processors	1600	1440	800	800
Texture Units	80	72	40	40
ROPs	32	32	16	16
Core Clock	850MHz	725MHz	850MHz	750MHz
Memory Clock	1.2GHz (4.8GHz data rate) GDDR5	1GHz (4GHz data rate) GDDR5	975MHz (3900MHz data rate) GDDR5	900MHz (3600MHz data rate) GDDR5
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Frame Buffer	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Transistor Count	2.15B	2.15B	959M	956M
TDP	188W	151W	190W	150W
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 40nm	TSMC 40nm	TSMC 55nm	TSMC 55nm
Price Point	$379	$259	~$180	~$160

AMD updated the specs on the 5850 at the last moment when it comes to power. Idle power usage hasn’t changed, but the final parts are now specified for 151W load power, versus the 160W originally given to us, and 188W on the 5870. So for the power-conscious out there, the 5850 offers a load power reduction in lockstep with its performance reduction.

As compared to the 5870, AMD has disabled two of the SIMDs and reduced the core clock from 850MHz to 725Mhz. This is roughly a 15% drop in clock speed and a 10% reduction in SIMD capacity, for a combined theoretical performance difference of 23%. Meanwhile the memory clock has been dropped from 1.2GHz to 1GHz, for a 17% overall reduction. Notably the ROP count has not been reduced, so the 5850 doesn’t lose as much rasterizing power as it does everything else, once again being 15% due to the drop in clock speed. With the reduction in power usage, AMD was able to squeeze Cypress in to a slightly smaller package for the 5850. The 5850 lobs off an inch in length compared to the 5870, which will make it easier to fit in to cramped cases. ...

AMD’s DX11 GPU, Eyefinity and 6 Display Outputs

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:08:01 +0000

Introduction

That's six Dell 30" displays, each with an individual resolution of 2560 x 1600. The game is World of Warcraft and the man crouched in front of the setup is Carrell Killebrew, his name may sound familiar. Driving all of this is AMD's next-generation GPU, which will be announced later this month. I didn't leave out any letters, there's a single GPU driving all of these panels. The actual resolution being rendered at is 7680 x 3200; WoW got over 80 fps with the details maxed. This is the successor to the RV770. We can't talk specs but at today's AMD press conference two details are public: 2.15 billion transistors and over 2.5 TFLOPs of performance. As expected, but nice to know regardless. The technology being demonstrated here is called Eyefinity and it actually all started in notebooks.

Not Multi-Monitor, but Single Large Surface

DisplayPort is gaining popularity. It's a very simple interface and you can expect to see mini-DisplayPort on notebooks and desktops alike in the very near future. Apple was the first to embrace it but others will follow. The OEMs asked AMD for six possible outputs for DisplayPort from their notebook GPUs: up to two internally for notebook panels, up to two externally for conncetors on the side of the notebook and up to two for use via a docking station. In order to fulfill these needs AMD had to build in 6 lanes of DisplayPort outputs into its GPUs, driven by a single display engine. A single display engine could drive any two outputs, similar to how graphics cards work today. Eventually someone looked at all of the outputs and realized that without too much effort you could drive six displays off of a single card - you just needed more display engines on the chip. AMD's DX11 GPU family does just that. At the bare minimum, the lowest end AMD DX11 GPU can support up to 3 displays. At the high end? A single GPU will be able to drive up to 6 displays. AMD's software makes the displays appear as one. This will work in Vista, Windows 7 as well as Linux. The software layer makes it all seamless. The displays appear independent until you turn on SLS mode (Single Large Surface). When on, they'll appear to Windows and its applications as one large, high resolution display. There's no multimonitor mess to deal with, it just works. This is the way to do multi-monitor, both for work and games. Note the desktop resolution of the 3x2 display setup I played Dirt 2, a DX11 title at 7680 x 3200 and saw definitely playable frame rates. I played Left 4 Dead and the experience was much better. Obviously this new GPU is powerful, although I ...

Kingston HyperX KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX 2×2GB Review

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:49:31 +0000

Introduction

Intel's Nehalem cores launched last year to much fanfare and striking levels of performance over past generation processors. One new feature was the use of a tri-channel memory configuration that offered huge memory bandwidth and excellent memory performance. Now that the latest iteration of the Nehalam architecture has been released to the masses, the fact is that this new generation is meant for the mainstream users and not simply the uber elite, high end user. To keep the costs in line with the mainstream mantra, Intel chose to go back to a dual-channel memory configuration. This, of course, presents the opportunity to bring out new sets of memory designed to work with the Intel Corei5/i7 Lynnfied processors and P55 chipset motherboards . If the performance delivered by the last set of Kingston HyperX modules is indicative of what I can expect from this set of modules, then I can't wait to get to testing them out to see just where they perform. This set of Kingston HyperX modules includes two 2GB modules rated to run at latencies of 8-8-8-24 at 1600MHz, using no more than the Intel specified 1.65 volts. Why only 1.65v? So you do not cause irreparable harm to your new Core i5 baby as it is based on the same architecture as the 9 series Core i7 processors. If you have been around long enough to remember the early Athlon 64 chips suddenly dying because of running the vdimm brutally high while keeping the CPU core voltage low, Intel is giving guidance so that they do not have the same issue. Since the memory specification on the i5 caps out at 1333MHz, how do you run these modules at 1600MHz? Well, since we are an enthusiast community, you have to overclock the Corei5 processor to reach the 1600MHz mark; something that is easily achievable with a moderate clock increase. This set of modules does not carry the T1 heatspreader design, so will heat be an issue for this kit? Only one way to tell! Now let's look at the modules and see just what they are made of and if they deliver on the promise of performance.

Closer Look

The Kingston HyperX modules come in a retail blister pack. Information on the label includes the kit model number KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX, the size of the modules and the top level memory specifications on the bottom of the label. This label serves a dual purpose; to provide the consumer information about the memory, as well as serving as a security seal for the modules, proving they have not been tampered with. The rear of the package does not provide any information and merely shows the knockouts where the modules are locked in to prevent damage. The HyperX KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX set of modules consists of a set ...

Intel Lynnfield Core i5 750 and Core i7 870 Processor Review

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:23:38 +0000

Introduction

Intel is on the verge of transitioning to 32nm. We'll see the first parts this year. What do you do with your 45nm fabs when you start moving volume away from them? Make really cheap quad-core Nehalems of course: I'm talking $196. I'm talking faster than AMD's entire lineup. I'm talking about arguably the best processor of 2009. I'm talking about Lynnfield, and here's its backside: I spent much of the past year harping on AMD selling Nehalem-sized Phenom IIs for less than Intel sold Nehalems. With Lynnfield, Intel actually made Nehalem even bigger all while driving prices down. Like I said, what do you do when you're still making boatloads of money in a recession and are about to start emptying your 45nm fabs? I should clear things up before we progress much further. Lynnfield is the codename for mainstream 45nm quad-core Nehalem, while Bloomfield refers to the first Nehalem launched at the end of 2008:

Processor	Manufacturing Process	Die Size	Transistor Count	Socket
Bloomfield	45nm	263 mm²	731M	LGA-1366
Lynnfield	45nm	296 mm²	774M	LGA-1156

Despite being cheaper, Lynnfield is larger than Bloomfield. The larger die is due to one major addition: an on-die PCIe controller.

Bloomfield, The First Nehalem, circa 2008

Lynnfield, Nehalem for All, circa 2009

The pink block to the right of the die is the PCIe controller, that's 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes coming right off the chip. Say hello to ultra low latency GPU communication. You'd think that Intel was about to enter the graphics market or something with a design like this. Sacrifices were made to reduce CPU, socket and board complexity. Gone are the two QPI links that each provided 25.6GB/s of bandwidth to other CPUs or chips on the motherboard. We also lose one of the three 64-bit DDR3 memory channels, Lynnfield only has two like a normal processor (silly overachieving Bloomfield).

Intel's Bloomfield Platform (X58 + LGA-1366)

The sum is that Lynnfield is exclusively single-socket; there will be no LGA-1156 Skulltrail. While the dual-channel memory controller isn't really a limitation for quad-core parts, six and eight core designs may be better suited for LGA-1366.

Intel's Lynnfield Platform (P55 + LGA-1156)

The loss of QPI means that Lynnfield doesn't have a super fast ...