Thursday, August 31, 2006

Passive vs. Active CPU Cooling. Three Silent CPU Cooling Solutions - Comparison

10:00 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Building a powerful yet silent personal computer is always a challenge. High performance CPU demands powerful and in many cases, noisy cooling solutions, capable of spreading immense heat from the CPU core. For such demands Thermalright has developed a number of passive CPU coolers.

PC Perspective has compared three of Thermalright’s top-of-the-line CPU heatsinks. Three contenders included the Thermalright HR-01, the XP-120, and the Ultra-120 microprocessor passive cooling solutions. All three Thermalright coolers are constructed with solid copper bases, multiple heatpipes, and large cooling fin arrays. The HR-01 and Ultra-120 are tower-style coolers while the XP-120 has a lower profile.

The author tried to find out how the HR-01, which is designed for passive cooling, compares to the XP-120 and Ultra-120, which rely on active cooling with a fan. All testing was performed on dual core Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 955 CPU inside a closed mid-tower case.

“We have now confirmed what was suspected all along – a little airflow can make a big difference when it comes to keeping components cool. In passive mode the HR-01’s relatively large surface area makes up for minimal convection airflow and produces good cooling results. Increasing airflow thru the HR-01 with the Thermalright 120mm Fan Duct dramatically improves performance. Using a fan to force air thru the much smaller surface area of the XP-120 produces similar results to the HR-01. And the Ultra-120 demonstrates what can be done when both surface area and airflow are increased for outstanding cooling performance. Each of the three Thermalright heatsinks offers certain advantages for specific cooling configurations,” concluders PC Perspective.

• PC Perspective: Passive vs. Active CPU Cooling with Thermalright Coolers.

Advertising Goes into Games. Electronic Arts Signs Video Game Ad Deals

9:59 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Electronic Arts Inc., the world’s biggest video game publisher had struck deals with two in-game advertising providers, taking its first steps into the online advertising business.

Reuters reports that EA has signed an agreement with Massive Inc., which Microsoft Corp. bought earlier this year. The agreement involves four games and the first of those will be Need for Speed: Carbon, the latest iteration of its popular racing series due in late October.

“You’ll see more agreements like this with other titles in the future,” said Chip Lange, EA’s vice president of online commerce, adding that the company plans to negotiate with all providers of online in-game advertising.

“Some video game fans say that adding advertising to certain titles, particularly sports games and those that are set in urban landscapes, add realism. Others chafe at the idea of having ads in products that can cost up to $60,” writes Reuters.

According to market research firm Yankee Group has said in-game advertising is “poised for explosive growth,” forecasting revenue of $730 million by 2010, compared with $55 million last year.

• Yahoo! News: Electronic Arts Signs Video Game Ad Deals.

Building a 802.11n Wi-Fi Network Today. Draft 802.11n Router Coverage

9:38 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

The popularity of Wi-Fi networks grows day by day, but some people stick to cable because of its much higher connection speeds. To address the need for higher transfer rates, members  of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designed a new standard for wireless local area network (WLAN) protocol. While the 802.11n standard for wireless connections hasn’t been yet finalized, some companies started to roll out products with the draft-802.11n  specification already.  

The proposed standard is known as 802.11n and is designed to eventually offer speeds up to 600Mb/s with average data transfer rates around 200Mb/s and ranges extending up to 200 feet indoors. The current shipping draft-802.11n products advertise speeds up to 300Mb/s with data transfer rates reaching 130Mb/s and indoor distances up to 150 feet. The current 802.11g standard offers speeds up to 54Mb/s with sustained transfer rates around 24Mb/s operating at distances up to 100 feet indoors.

With a number of draft-802.11n standard devices hitting the market, AnandTech has examined the performance level of several solutions, including Belkin N1, Linksys WRT300N, NetGear WNR834B routers. The products are based on the Broadcom Intensi-fi chipset for Linksys/NetGear offerings and Atheros XSpan chipset for Belkin router.

“With several network benchmarks available, we needed a consistent means of comparing the throughput of our test components in real world settings. We chose IXIA's IxChariot 6.30 test suite along with their Performance Endpoints software due to their industry wide acceptance as analysis tools. We install the Performance Endpoints software on each client to execute the transactions sent by the test script from the console program. This allows us to capture the performance metrics for test throughput, transaction rates, and response times. We use IxChariot's standard throughput script for our testing with TCP and UDP enabled,” explains the author.

As expected the “Draft N” products performed nowhere near their theoretical performance level. The author also reports that he had come across multiple problems with drivers and firmware as well.

“The Draft N routers we tested today had excellent maximum and very good average throughput in the same room tests and also at the 40 foot mark in a typical home setting without encryption enabled. We are concerned with the minimum throughput capability of the Belkin and Linksys routers in all distances along with their performance hits when enabling encryption. The NETGEAR Draft N router faired better in this area but none of our units could match the overall consistency of the NETGEAR RangeMax 240 based on the third generation Airgo chipset. During testing we found our Draft N routers to be particularly sensitive to antenna positioning and the wireless adaptor cards to be very sensitive to placement. If we placed our notebook next to a window at the 40 foot range we could expect our signal strength to drop upwards of 15% and watched minimal throughput scores almost hit zero several times,” concludes AnandTech.

“Even though we have not finished our testing, we have to strongly recommend that users wait if possible until 802.11n is ratified and approved,” underlines the author.

• AnandTech: Draft N Router Coverage: When the “n” in 802.11n Really Means “Not Yet”.

Phone with Skype, Without PC. Philips to Release Standalone Skype Phone

9:37 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Getting Skype Off the PC

Until recently, using Skype involved turned on personal computer. Now Philips is trying to change that by introducing a phone that was especially designed to take advantage of Skype services without running the PC.

A news story by BusinessWeek Online says that electronics giant Philips is introducing a phone for Skype that doesn’t require users to have a PC at all. The Philips VOIP841 can be plugged into a broadband connection and traditional landline, and you can make calls using Skype - as well as a regular landline - with a single device. The model, expected to become available in late 2006, is the first Skype cordless phone that doesn’t require support from a booted-up home PC.

“The devices have the potential to radically change the way people access the Skype service and could step up the pace of growth if they’re well-received. Internal trials indicate that users of the Philips phone rely on SkypeOut, a service allowing PC users to call regular or mobile phones, twice as much as an average Skype customer,” says Manrique Brenes, director of hardware at Skype.

”An earlier Skype-compatible Philips phone, the VOIP321, was announced in January and combines Skype and landline calling, though it needs a PC outfitted with Skype to be up and running somewhere in the house. That handset has been selling incredibly well. The new model will further simplify the user experience,” says Nick Dosanjh, general manager of the communication and connectivity group at Philips.

• BusinessWeek Online: Getting Skype Off the PC.

Microsoft Vista Operating System Gets a Price. Microsoft Windows Vista Launch Date Possibly Set

1:28 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

According to a news-story by Reuters, Internet retailer Amazon.com has started taking early orders for Microsoft’s long-delayed Windows Vista operating system, offering versions of the product from $100 to $399.

“The software will be available on January 30. The date was an estimate based on informal conversations with Microsoft and others in the computer industry,” said an Amazon spokesman.

Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos declined to comment on Amazon’s pre-sale, saying the software maker is still finalizing its pricing model. It has not set a release date for the new version of Windows, which sits on more than 90 percent of the world’s personal computers.

“Vista will be sold in more versions than Microsoft’s current Windows XP operating system, with different lines targeted at consumers and businesses. Amazon’s pricing ranges from $100 for a basic upgrade version of Windows to $399 for a full “ultimate” version of the operating system, according to the retailer’s Web site,” continues the news story.

• Yahoo! News: Microsoft Windows Vista Goes on Sale at Amazon.

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