Computer Ed Radio

Politics and Computers Do Not Mix

Saw a news article this morning that has me seeing red, first a bit of background. China has created a wall of censorship around their nation when it comes to the internet. They want to limit the access their people have to certain sites. While I am a big believer in freedom of speech I can tell you what the Chinese are doing is not all bad. They censure out hate groups, control adult access very effectively and in recent years have passed laws that limit online game play to curb addiction. Now of course there is the ugly side of that as well but they did do some good and they are a sovereign nation, entitled to run their country as they see fit and their people allow.

With this in mind Google was one of the first to announce they would support the request by China to censure search results that occurred inside their borders. IN fact they made a big deal of it when they did it. Other search engines have since followed suite including Microsoft. China is a huge market,m any good company would be silly to ignore the potential.

Recently however Google has made flamboyant claims and has pulled out of China, saying censorship is bad. Remember this was the first of the major companies to embrace this when asked. So now suddenly we are seeing Google put forward by the US government as a poster child for other internet companies and used in direct attacks against Microsoft.

Google!? This is the same company that told the US government to buzz off when it asked for help with gaining information on pedophiles. This is the same company that screams about privacy and yet hid the fact they hold your data longer than any other search engine. This was the first company to say we should uphold local laws.

Now we see Microsoft under attack but not just under attack by a war of words, now by attempts to pass laws.

The Global Online Freedom Act, a bipartisan initiative pending in Congress, would force U.S. firms to disclose what materials they are censoring in foreign nations — including China — in effect airing search firms’ dirty laundry to the public.

So in other words we are being told by our government that if our companies do not willfully violate the laws of another sovereign nation, we will force them by law to act against the interest of that nation for us?

This is yet again another example of an arrogance that exists within our governments here in the US< be it State or Federal that our laws should supersede the laws of everyone else on the planet. When are we going to get it through our heads that the internet is not a US property but a world wide product that exists outside the ability of any individual country to govern?

The government really needs to step back and leave the computer industry alone. Every action they take shows in more glaring detail the STUPIDITY that exists within our elected officials as they blunder along trying to control subject matters they do not understand and getting advice from people that are more worried about kissing butt and getting a fact government paycheck than offering worthwhile knowledge.

Now while I have my political soap box out let me switch subject matter for a second. During our build of the Green Gaming PC we will air the last segment on the show today, I got a few emails and calls tell me I should drop this because going green was a political sham. Let me be clear I did not choose this topic for the build because I am an advocate of any position on global warming. I choose this topic for two reasons. First it is timely and something everyone is talking about, going green. Second because it is a great build idea.

I said from the start my concept of going green was first about the green in my wallet. It is just great happenstance that saving money can also mean being more environmentally conscious. But you know, so what? So what if I want to make sure I cut my energy consumption to make some abstract change to the way I feel I interact with the environment? Is this is bad thing?

At the end of the day the more I look at these issue the more I am saddened. We sit from a computer enthusiast view at a golden age. Computer pricing is low, quality is high, we have a wealth of options open to us and systems get easier to us. So what happens as this new community rises and prospers? A con man who’s only real skill is to make people think he cares despite all the proof he does not, decides with his con man fraternity that they cannot allow this continue since they do not have control. With no knowledge or skill in the subject matter at hand they begin to force this community to conform to the roles they set forth. Depriving it of what has made it prosper so they can have their piece of the pie. Sadly we sit by and let them con us again every few years and watch things erode.

March 28, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Green Gaming PC Conclusion (Part 3)

And so we come to the end of the Green Gaming PC Build. The data has been analyses and the results are in, lets look at our final build. But first we will again cover our criteria. The build had a cost limit of $1000. The system had to be able to run current mainstream games on a 1680×1050 monitor at a decent detail level with at least 2xAA enabled. The system had to be able to perform the functions any family would throw at, being a general purpose system, with reasonable performance. Lets see what we came up with.

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CPU

For the CPU I have chosen the AMD Athlon II X4 630. While it will not win any performance crowns this chip has a great price point as well as good energy efficiency. While the 910e delivers better energy efficiency it ends up losing the performance crown to the Athlon II. The lower cost of the Athlon II also is enough of a margin that the energy savings will not amount to the price difference in any reasonable period of time.

GPU

The chipset of choice is the 5770. This chip provides outstanding performance at the resolution we want and has good energy efficiency. While the 5750 also meets the performance criteria and gives a little more energy savings the price difference makes this a tough call. It is easy to find 5770 based cards within $20 of the 5750. The energy savings at the end of the day did not amount to enough to be substantial and the performance difference does allow for higher detail levels. At the end of the day I figure we spend $20 and use a bit more power but have more potential down the road.

Motherboard

While we did not examine these for our articles I did compare some models to get a feel of what I wanted. Using my baseline build on a 770, 790Gx and 790FX I saw performance differences of less than 2% across the board. While the higher end boards might offer more glitz they do not offer more pow for the sake of our build. With this in mind I selected the Gigabyte 77TA-UD3. The board is reasonably priced, feature rich with plenty of USB ports as well as good onboard sound and is well built. While it lacks the ability to crossfire it does not suffer in any other area. Considering that crossfire does not fit the criteria of this build this was a perfect choice.

Memory

For RAM I made a chose based on my experience over the last 6 months and went with Patriot. I have used other brands but of late seen a lot of failures. Patriot however has been rock solid and delivered every time. I put in 4 Gig of DDR3 1333 to give stable and quick performance.

Hard Drive

As I said in the last post I was torn between the better energy efficiency of the Green from WD and the speed advantage of the Black. A comparison of the energy savings of the green did register a savings but not enough to really matter. While the Black might cost a bit more and use a little more power it made a noticeable difference during some load times.

Optical Drive

I leave this open for any choice you would like to make, they all are about the same. I recommend an SATA drive with Lightscribe however as my choice. SATA means you can ignore the big old ATA cables and Lightscribe is just neat.

Power Supply

We looked at three PSUs for this test and any of the three would be a solid choice. However at the end of the day the new Earthwatt Green series from Antec is to good a deal to pass up. It comes in at the same price point as the older model but ups the efficiency from 80Plus to 80 Plus Bronze. While the energy savings are not huge, they are essentially free. You will need to pick up a PSU cable but I was able to get one from free from numerous local shops for the asking. Also any geek you know likely has one.

Keyboard/Mouse

For this I went generic. I had enough budget to go nice but this tends to be a very personal choice and so I decided that a generic fit would get you running and you could pick up a model perfect for your individual taste when you are ready.

Case

Lastly we come to the case. I had some budget to work with and wanted to do something fun and different. My case chose is the Antec Skeleton. The Skeleton case offers excellent cooling of not just the CPU and GPU but for all components and the entire motherboard. The splash effect of the huge top fan helps keep the system dust free, well greatly reduced and is near silent in operation. There is also the intangible that this is a great conversation piece and looks really cool.

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As I said in our criteria we had a budget limit of $1000, the total for the above build using NewEgg pricing as of 24Mar10 comes in at $822. I am pretty happy that I have been able to come in under budget giving room to customize. If you wanted a more traditional case the Antec Three Hundred is a great option, especially the Illusion model. It provides a more traditional enclosure complete with excellent cooling and cutting the price even further.

I said it before and will say it again that this build and testing forced me to change some pre-conceived notions I had about the way a computer uses power. It was also a blast. To often people get caught up in reviewing parts about performance and nothing else. It was nice to let the performance fall from the lime light into the background and take a different look at computer components. I was also excited as I realized how inexpensively a GOOD gaming machine could be built. By making a few changes to the above build the price could be dropped to about $700.

I hope you have found this series of articles useful and enjoyed it as much as I did doing it. Next up I am beginning work already on a new project that I think you will all like to see, but until then you have to live with the suspense.

I would like to thank AMD, Antec, Thermaltake, Gigabyte, Patriot, MSI and Western Digital for providing parts used in this series.

March 24, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Green Gaming PC Conclusion (Part 2)

In part one we explored how the CPU impacted the power consumption of the PC and found that it has little real effect. The true impact comes form the way the computer is used and the power management settings. Next we turn our attention to the video card. The hope had been to take a look at the Powercolor 5750 mentioned in an interview we did with them. However further attempts at contact with Powercolor have gone unanswered and the card mentioned has not yet been seen on the market that I am aware of making it a non-starter for a choice.

With this in mind we started with the 5770 as our baseline and then piled in testing of the 5750 and the 5670. Lower end cards all failed to reach the minimum with any testing done. The 5670 was able to hit the bare minimum requirements of my testing for performance but was literally walking the ragged edge. Because it was so close to the bottom numbers I went ahead and dismissed it form the build. The 5670 does pretty well if you drop the resolution to 1440×900 but at 1680×1050 it just does not have the muscle to show it’s stuff.

This left me then with two video cards to choose from. Both hit the performance levels I was looking for and where able to have some head room so on performance they both qualified, lets look at the power differences.

Using my final build CPU, the Athlon II X4 630 I fired up the cards and looked at the system power readings.

While the technical specifications say the 5750 will draw 22 or so watts less in real life the number is actually a bit lower. In fact we are again to the idea of splitting hairs. Assuming an 8 hour play session every day for a year the 5750 will only save you about $3.15. That is really not much of a savings. 

When you realize the 5770 does have a decent performance edge, about 13% crossed the board, does not use enough additional power to be an issue and is right now only about $10 more than the 5750 the choice for video card is clear. The 5770 might cost a little bit more but at the end of the day it has enough edge to easily justify the cost.

The final component I did any heavy testing on was the PSU. Now this is likely the first component to come to mind for a lot of people but I saved it for last since it would be easier to judge the real impact once we had our other components figured out. So with my full build done I fired up three difference PSUs for testing.

The original plan had been to just compare two different 80Plus PSUs however after talking to Scott Richards I was sent the new Earthwatt line that is 80Plus Bronze certified. As you can see at the idle and general use power levels the PSUs where to close to call however as soon as the load went up the new EW line began to show it’s stuff. The difference is not huge for sure but considering that the new line is the SAME price as the original Earthwatt. I tried to find the Thermaltake PSU on Newegg but had no luck. At the same price with better efficiency the new Earthwatt line is a clear winner.

Lastly we come to the hard drive. I had considered an SSD, it would give super low power consumption to a spindle drive and a ton of speed. However for a general purpose machine that could do gaming, apps and other uses in a home the space was just to limited, plus the cost for a decent size drive, 120 gig, went outside the budge allocated.

I decided to test between the two opposite ends in the WD line up, a Caviar Black 640 and a Caviar Green 640. I fired up both drives and let fly.

The savings of 2 watts was offset by a noticeable performance difference in large file copies and load times on a number of games. The price difference on Newegg is $10 between these two drives. For most people the performance difference would not be a big deal but my testing showed it was noticeable when loading large files, a fairly annoying fact in gaming load times. Because the power savings was not that big of a deal I decided to again gain a bit of performance for a little extra money.

That concludes the testing I did for power consumption, the reason is these are the components that would have the most likely impact on power savings. True some motherboards can further reduce power consumption but the savings are usually in the 1 to 2 watt range at max and with the penalty of a higher cost. This factor into an almost zero performance advantage means these did not make any sense in the grand scheme of my build concept.

As promised I will deliver the final build of my Green Gaming PC Challenge build on Wednesday. I can tell you that my efforts to keep cost down have paid off nicely in the final build as I am able to put in a surprise that will make the build a little more fun. Check back Wednesday for the full build list.

March 22, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Green Gaming PC Conclusion (Part 1)

The concept was simple, the goal was to find the best mix of components for providing good gaming performance, energy efficient and reasonably priced. I must admit that I approached this build with some pre-conceived ideas of how I thought energy usage of a PC would work. Those where quickly destroyed as I began my testing.

When thinking of a Green PC most people would start with the PSU however that is actually one of the easiest things to look at. I decided to begin with the CPU.

For my initial testing I began with a base system as follows:

• CPU: Phenom II 965
• 4 Gig DDR3 RAM
• Gigabyte 770 based Motherboard
• Sapphire Vapor-X 5770
• Antec Earthwatt 500 PSU
• WB Caviar Black 640 Gig HD

This base system can provide an outstanding gaming experience at resolutions of 1680×1050, so I knew it had the horse power I needed. With this in mind I set about taking readings of the wattage pull the system provided from the wall. For measuring the wattage I used a Kill-A-Watt between the PC and the surge protector.

Once I attained my baseline numbers I found my preconceptions quickly falling away. This system according to a PSU calculator is supposed to max out at near 400 watts. With this in mind I expected that a run of a hard video game would come at least close to full load. However running Dragon Age and Dirt 2 to provide some examples of newer games I was surprised at little little load was put on the PSU. So after double and triple checking my numbers I came to realize my original thoughts where wrong and moved on to test my next CPU.

The method of testing was fairly simple. Each CPU was first tested to see if it could meet minimum performance requirements of providing over 30 FPS at 1680×1050 for the gaming with a good detail level and AA enabled. Once a CPU passed that test I moved on the power usage testing to see what difference in total system load was made.

The CPUs used for this test where the Phenom II 965, 945 (95 TDP) and 910e. I also tested the Athlon II X4 630. Some quick power consumption reports are below.

Now looking at those numbers you would be quick to conclude that the 910e delivered by far the most energy efficient load and you would be right. However a close examinations of what those numbers mean when compared to price might lead to a different conclusion. According to the Department of Energy the average cost of power in the US for a home was $0.12 per KWH. Using this number lets see what we can save with the 910 over the other end of the scale, the 965.

If we assume a 100% for an 8 hour period every day we will see a savings of $25.93. Not as much as you would think is it? The kicker here though is that it is HARD to push a PC to a full load for extended periods. So lets try again with some new numbers, lets assume you play Dragon Age for 8 hours a day, what is the difference then? Eight hours of DAO played 365 days a year on a 910e will save you $15.77 over using a 965 processor.

Okay but you say, I still save money and use less energy, that was the point right? Really? Lets consider these numbers but this time lets use the 910e and compare it to the Athlon II 630. The Athlon chip can be bought at the price of about $100, the 910e is coming in at around $175. So lets look again at that 8 hour a day full load run. Running at full load the 910e will save you an average of $7.71 over the 630. When you consider the price difference is $75 you can see you would need about 10 years for the 910e to save you enough money in power usage to make up for the cost difference of the chip.  So much for saving power saving you money.

A comparison of the two chips found the 630 was actually faster in most testing. The lack of an L3 cache was offset by the higher clock speed of the 630. Both are quad core and provide excellent multitasking and both can easily handle most of today’s games at the 1680 resolution with a good graphics card.

While the 910e does deliver a lower power load and produces less heat as well the fact that you can save almost half the price get equal or better performance and show only a minor difference in CPU power consumption the clear choice for me was the Athlon II X4 630.

Now I want you to understand the numbers I used for this calculation where a bit extreme. To understand what I mean I setup my Kill-A-Watt to record and report the KWH usage of my PC over a 48 period of Saturday and Sunday. During my weekends I do a lot of gaming, being it MMOs or games like Dragon Age, Demigod or others. I also do a lot of work with audio files preparing for the show on Sunday and a ton of web usage. In other words my usage over the weekend is likely a bit harder than the average user but will still give solid base data. With this in mind my 965 based system came in at 3.5 KWH, the 910e delivered 3.3 KWH. Using these numbers and extending out to a year we see that the 910e will save us $4.50. In other words not enough to matter.

The reason for these close numbers is simple, I used Cool-n-Quiet. This combined with sleep modes using Windows 7 set at Balanced provides some excellent energy savings and brings the processor more out of the equation for energy savings. In fact so much so that The 945 which is faster and cheaper than the 910e is able to deliver very close to the same energy load as the 910e and 630.

At the end of the day the processor can make some difference in the power but the way the system is used makes a much bigger difference in the power consumption of the system than the CPU. With this in mind the extra cost of the “e” series of CPUs is not justified in everyday use, let alone a gaming machine.

On Monday I will post my findings when comparing GPUs and PSUs and on Wednesday I will post my final completed build in it’s entirety.

March 20, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

One Step AT A Time (MSI 890GXM-G65)

AMD continues to make small improvements to their current platform as they have shown with their most recent CPU refresh. None of the recent chips brought anything new to the table besides incremental speed bumps. Oh occasionally we will see the TDP drop but the new releases tend to be small improvements to the existing design. This may not be as sexy as whole new chips but it is a solid move forward that shows even an existing design can continue to evolve.

Recently AMD took another step forward with it’s motherboard chipset this time.  The 890GX is a logical progress of their existing 780, 785 and 790 GX series. This new chipsets sports all the features of the other chipsets with improvements made to the onboard graphics, adding SATA 6 and USB 3 and some general tweaking.

I apologize now for the quality of the photos I will be posting. Device malfunction of my digital camera took place during testing and I was forced to resort to the camera in my phone.

This chipset was launched simultaneously on MSI, Gigabyte and Asus boards, AMD was kind enough to provide me with an MSI board for this  review. The 890GXM is part of the Gaming series of boards marketed by MSI. This means the board is all solid capacitor in design and build to handle even 140 watt TDP chips. This particular board is a micro ATX design which is a great thing. While many pundits will throw up their nose at the use of a micro ATX board for all but specific builds I am of the option it is the best all around board to use.

As a system builder, not just a reviewer, I like the idea that I can find a single board size for all my builds. Be it small or large cases the micro ATX design fits all of them. In large cases I love this layout even more as it gives me a lot of room to work around the board and not feel cramped.

One of the chief complaints from pundits and enthusiasts about the micro ATX design is that they are usually cheaper builds. MSI has  stepped up and it’s recent micros are as solidly built as any full ATX board and featured packed as well. This particular board sports 2 PCIe slots all setup for crossfire support. This is one of the features that is part of the 890GX chipset and this allows for 2 8xPCIe slots or a single 16X.

As you can see the board provides excellent cooling for the 890 chip as well as the power components around the CPU. This board is fully certified for the use of 140 watt TDP processors and the cooling on the board helps to open up overclocking options if you are so inclined.

The comes with a solid onboard sound solution built around the ALC889/ ALC892 chip. While some shun the use of onboard sound I have found from my own testing that many of the current solutions offer great sound and at a much better value than buying a discrete solution. The Realtek chip used on this board delivered outstanding playback using a set of Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 speakers for testing. The music a smooth and clear, video and gaming playback where as good as you could want. Capable of full surround sound support as well this onboard solution will not disappoint.

The back panel also sports 4 USB2 and 2 USB 3 ports, your now standard gigabyte LAN and an ESATA port. This provides pretty much every connection option that you could want.

While I lack a USB3 device at this time for testing the reviews across the net show serious speed coming from external HD enclosures when using USB3. With this in mind the ESATA seems a little meaningless to me since USB based external is really the norm even at USB2.

Internally the board has support for 5x SATA 6 connections allow for a nice range of RAID options. There are also 4 more USB connectors allowing for some USB connection options using back plate and front of case setups. Pretty feature rich for a micro ATX board. There is however a limitation due to the size, you only have a single PCIe x1 and PCI slot for expansion. This is not however as big a deal as it sounds. Most PCs today can get by just fine with the integrated components and only the enthusiast market really worries about card expansions anymore.

Finally we come to the onboard video, the 890 is a step forward using the 4290, a mild upgrade of the 4200. While it is still not a good GPU for gaming it does offer a better solution than AMDs rivals for the basic home system if some light gaming is thrown at it. I have been able to play Star Trek Online, WoW and EVE as well a number of stand alone games of older make. With STO I had to tune down the graphics a bit, the same with EVE but could get acceptable play rates at 1440×900, barely.

No one seriously believes that any of the integrated solutions right now are usable with modern games and goo detail level. However this does offer a gateway of sorts to the average user looking to check out gaming. The GPU does support full HDMI and setting it up on a high def TV it will deliver. With this in mind it makes a solid solution for a multimedia PC. At the end of the day however it is only a minor bump over the integrated chips it is replacing.

This MSI board from a system builders or DIYers point for view is a near perfect storm of the new 890GX boards. The micro ATX form factor means this board will fit in any case. It has enough features to be a very usable gaming platform and the price is low enough it can work okay as a budget platform with advanced features. As a system builder the fact it can accommodate the range of case and the crossfire options means it can work for higher end gamers, this board makes a perfect all in one solution to reduce inventory and simplify ordering.

I have had the chance to see the Gigabyte and Asus boards as well and at the end of the day I think the MSI 890GXM-G65 is the best of the lot. While it is a currently a bit more expensive than slightly older solutions the added cost comes with added potential. Overall I think this is a near perfect board of choice for a DIY or system builder.

As for the 890GX platform? It is yet another example of AMD taking a step and not a leap, but this is not a bad thing. The 890GX is a good progression forward offering a nice bump of new features without overwhelming us with a new design.

March 14, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Do As We Say, Not As We Show

The computer industry is ripe with websites that show you how to overclock. They talk you through the basics, explain the possible gains. They give direct examples and test every CPU and GPU for the potential to go beyond the limits imposed by the manufacturer. They spend time minimizing the risks and all with the blessings of the hardware companies, or do they?

I have spoke over the last few weeks with the big three chip makers for the PC, Intel, AMD and nVidia and all of them say the same thing. If you overclock your chip, be it video or cpu, you void the warranty.

Now I spent a lot of time surfing the web, looking at enthusiasts sites and you know I do not see that in those forums where they preach the mantra of overclocking. The hardware companies claim they do not support overclocking but is that really true?

Lets take AMD as an example. In a recent interview and AMD rep said on the air that overclocking your CPU voids your warranty. Yet look at the AMD product line and support software. Black Edition CPUs are unlocked, for the express purpose of easier overclocking. AMD Overdrive, a free software package, on it’s release was touted by AMD as an “easy” way for novices to overclock their system. AMD Fusion, also free, was sold to us as a way for someone to easily overclock their CPU when they need the most power. Please let us not forget that AMDs drivers for their video cards has overclocking features built in.

You would think that at LEAST the Black Edition chips would be overclockable without voiding the warranty, wrong! EVERY CPU is warranty voided if overclocked.

So we have a company designing and giving away tools to make overclocking simple for the masses and yet we do this and we get no support? We have components DESIGNED to overclock easily but we lose support if we do this?

There is more, they even went so far as to design a chipset whose major claim to fame was the ability to overclock further than a previous chipset.

Oh but it gets better. A look at any press deck I have received over the last few years all show material on overclocking the chips. In other words they encourage reviewers to talk about and show overclocking. It gets worse when you release one of the marketing campaigns by AMD was about how great their processors overclocked and they even took a tour to set a world overclocking record. Remember this is a company that will publically state that overclocking is bad and will not support a chip that does it.

I want to be sure you all understand the implication here. Voiding the warranty does not JUST mean if overclocking damages the chip. What we are saying is if you overclocking and for ANY reason the chip fails you have to buy a new one, end of story. If could be a bad chip but if it was run outside factory specs you are done.

It gets even more strange when you think about the fact that the chips they design for easy overclocking at the top of the specific lines. We are not talking about the lower speed chips that would benefit the most from the overclock, we are talking the higher end speeds.

When I confronted people at AMD about this contradictor position I was given the usually do not do it with a wink. They realize that there will always be an enthusiast side that will press the edge of the envelope. The goal of all of this is to in essence court that small fringe by making it easier for them to push the boundaries.

You know I actually understand their position but once again we see an AMD marketing department that is inept. They push the marketing for that small fringe that is actually a huge minority in the marketplace. They create an illusion for novice builders through slick marketing and pushing hardware sites in a specific direction that overclocking is without risks and okay. Then they hide the warnings about warranties and support away quietly.

Now in fairness the Overdrive package does have a warning it shows but lets get real, after you have been told how easy it is by a ton of sites, by a company marketing for you to try it and selling you parts designed to make it easy will you really be scared by the warning and not want to take a stab?

For years we had warnings that smoking would kill you. We even had it in big letters on the packages. It was not until the marketing campaigns came out and laws where passed restricting smoking that we saw any real decline in numbers.

If AMD will not support their chips overclocked then stop trying to get people to do it. Over better yet if you put forward all this effort have balls as a company and step up and officially support it. You have a product line dedicated to making it easy, just support that line officially. This telling us one thing and then winking while handing us the tools to do otherwise is hypocrisy at the extreme.

By the way before anyone things I am just bashing AMD on this, wrong! Intel and nVidia are just as guilty.

It is time for these companies to crap or get off the pot on overclocking. Either support it since you encourage it, or drop the encouragement and make it clear you do not support it.

March 7, 2010 Posted by Computer Ed | Uncategorized | 5 Comments