Tech Link: CPU-Z v1.60 is out

The new version is out. The version supports the obvious: Ivy Bridge (and yeah, that AMD too). But you know the drill, so if you're aching to get the latest and greatest, head on to the website to download the tool.

Tech Link (Industry): Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel®

Intel released a very nice plan for CPU enthusiasts that is sure to be a hit for extreme overclockers. With plan selling for as low as $20, and $35 as the highest, enthusiasts that can buy $900 will be happy to have that extra protection.

The plan covers processors with "K" and "X" suffix and falls on Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ processors based on LGA2011 platform. Note that while Intel offers this plan, Intel is still playing it safe and not "endorsing" overclocking.

For the typical overclockers, this option is, just that, an option. What this plan really applies to is when enthusiasts starts pushing volts way beyond specification using exotic coolers. Of course, even casual overclockers using stock aircooler can avail of this, if only to get that secure feeling and guilt-free conscience if and when you break your CPU.

Here's the breakdown:

•  Intel® Core™ i5 2500K= $20
•  Intel® Core™ i7 2600K= $25
•  Intel® Core™ i7 2700K= $25
•  Intel® Core™ i7 3930K= $35
•  Intel® Core™ i7 3960X= $35

Tech Link: CES 2012 Coverage

If you are like me that always wanted to go to CES but never got the chance (*hint* work, budget, and family restrictions), then you're probably prowling the web for bits of information and whatever pieces you can sink your drooling mouth on about the latest and greatest upcoming gadgets in the future. But fear not, because of the popularity of the event, lots of tech websites have decent coverage, where they post pictures and even videos of products. Of course, I'm pretty sure some site will also post umm, the hot BOOTH BABES, but I digress. Here's some of my favorite sites, listed based on my preference (the first being my favorite):

• CNet
• PCWorld
• Engadget

Then there's the old-school gawking at some tech-sites like Tom's Hardware and Ars. I normally don't trust TehInq (yes, wrong spelling I know), but if you need more CES fix, you can also check it out.

As for the gadget I am excited about, I really would like to have a:

• Glass-cased Ultrabook ala HP's Envy. If only it has a dedicated graphics like Radeon or nVidia, then I'm pretty sure I'll snag one as soon as it is released. I guess I might have to wait a little longer though.
• Then I'm also rooting for a better DVR, DISH has some cool things brewing, but I am more a PC guy so I'm looking for a better solution than what Ceton currently has to offer. (And no, SiliconDust sucks, unless they improve their product, won't buy any SD product anymore).
• And lastly, I'm contemplating whether I'll get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 LTE. Or whether I should just skip it and get a Windows Phone since I never had one.

And so the noodle-every-night meal begins today. I'll save up and see what I can scrounge up to buy the cool gadgets.

Tech Link (Industry): Intel's Maloney Talks Mobile Growth, Industry Opportunities at Computex

Nothing new, err, I mean, it's not unusual to see Intel to take a stab at Computex and show off their new line of products in the near future and at times, readily available.A new category for mobile devices has been announced, and this time, Intel smarten up and trademarked it (Ultrabook™). Unlike in the past, they let one of their "coined term" be used up by anyone (i.e. netbook and nettop).

Another interesting tidbit is that, despite what detractors are saying, Atom™ is very well alive and kicking and yes, Netbook isn't dead. Atom™ will power the next-gen fanless, yep fanless, netbook platform. Read to get the full run thru of the announcement...

Tech Link (Industry): Weekly Address: Winning the Future at Intel

Future At Intel - three strong words, summarized into one word = Awesome! Intel hosting one of the world's most powerful man on Earth is just uber pimp. President Obama visited Intel to emphasize how technology and innovation can make for better future. President Obama met with CEO Paul Otelinni who announced that Intel will build a new Fab at Arizona. This means more employment, not to mention more Fab means better output for Intel and better output means more mass-produced processors and that could lead to even more cheaper and more innovative products! Check out the video at the White House Blog below...

Tech Link (Industry): Awesome New Rockin' Director At Intel

"In a few weeks, at the Grammys, people are gonna hold their Grammy awards and I’m going to be rocking it with my Intel badge. I’m going to say, ‘Puffy, your cologne’s nice, Kanye, you got nice shoes, but do you work at Intel?’"

- says the new celebrity Intel Employee. Intel Ads used to say, “Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars” but dang, this time around, Intel's rockstar is indeed everyones rockstar!

Brag: Sandy Bridge has arrive!

Ok, I got good news and bad news, not that you care anyway. But since it's my Blog, I'll just spew out the good and the bad. The good news is that, Sandy Bridge has arrived and the motherboard, BIOS, and OS are all humming along just fine. The bad news, I'll be off for a vacation and can't play around with it.

It's not the gift I am expecting for this Christmas, but hey, I can live with it. After all, who can complain getting the latest gadget from Chipzilla? So how about you? What are your wishes this coming festive season?

Misc: Shoutout to my friend bartman of OCXPH

I just want to wish my friend bartman of OCXPH goodluck and more power. I lend him a few of my golden babies, and last time we chat, he had a good run =). Here's hoping you get to show them OCers who's the bad ass of OCXPH, good luck with Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship 2010 competition!

Brag: Intel® Xeon® Processor X5660 is my poison!

One lazy day (yesterday), I was forced to have longer time to stay in the office. Not that I like it, nor do I have an option but more so because I need to. Wifey's got to attend an event and I can choose to spend my time going with her but I rather let her enjoy her time with her friends since it's a company event. Then there's also an option for me to just go at to the movie theater while waiting for her. Or I could do some loitering around the malls. None of them really interest me, so I told wifey that I'll just stay in the office and play with the hardware.

Misc: Intel® Desktop Board DH55TC can overclock!

I was doing some trivial testing with Windows 7 with a typical Intel board (Intel® Desktop Board DH55TC) and I decided to change something in the BIOS. Something caught my eye and decided to play around with it. That something is about changing Host Clock Frequency.

I thought it's probably because my board is an engineering sample, so I never really give it much thought. I know Intel is adding overclock options, but more on their so called "Extreme Series" board. So I did a quick BIOS update, since I'm using a Beta BIOS, just to check if that BIOS option will go away. But surprise, it stuck up. So the next thing to do is to see if it works!


And another surprise, it does work. It's rather limited, but the thing is, it works!!! I will try to play around with it more and see if I can run a few benchmarks too. It's probably be interesting for those who are looking for a decently price board from Intel but still longing for overclock.

Tech Link (Storage): Intel's X25-V & Kingston's 30GB SSDNow V Series: Battle of the $125 SSDs

It seems the headmaster guru leader tophonch Anand has an inside info about the deal between Intel and Kingston, but hey I suggest skip that part of "unvalidated" information and instead, focus on the article benchmark results. Check out the latest value SSD (which is my latest craze) review from AMDTech.

The story goes like this: Intel let Kingston build a value version of its X25-M G2 drives. This became the 40GB Kingston V Series Boot Drive. When Intel added TRIM support to the G2 drives, Kingston was told to wait. Kingston would get TRIM support when Intel launched its own 40GB version of the G2. Here’s where things get hairy. Intel and Kingston couldn’t work out terms for the TRIM enabled firmware on the V Series Boot Drives. Intel wanted too much money and Kingston wanted to keep the drive price below $100. The outcome? Kingston V Series Boot Drive owners never got official TRIM support and the product was dropped altogether.

Source:AMDtech

Brag: Oooo, 4GHz easy on my Intel® Core™ i7- 980X Extreme Edition

Yeah baby!!! I got 4GHz...well, not the best out there but hey, if you're as busy as me with my kids and what nots, you won't have enough time to tinker with these bad boys. I always want to play around and find the sweet spot of the QPI and the Multiplier combo but I guess gone are those days for me.

I mean, wow, so many hexa cores and a dozen of threads, I can only guess about the price. Yes, I think this would be "pricey" compared to what's out there right now, but considering how Intel price their EE (extreme edition process) and if it remains the same, then the price is very much "reasonable".

Case in point, the Intel® Core™ i7-975 Processor Extreme Edition and Intel® Core™ i7-965 Processor Extreme Edition both runs at estimated $999 bucks. And I'm pretty sure the older Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor used to cost as much.

Good luck and have fun, FanBoy out!

Tech Link (CPU): The Core i7 980X Review: Intel's First 6-Core Desktop CPU

Anandtech has an article about Gulftown. They seem to like it though their overclocking is quite lacking. I'm pretty sure that despite the performance, there will always be fanboys that will hunger for more!

It’s rare that anything we review has the longevity that Intel’s Core i7 Bloomfield platform has enjoyed. If you were one of the fortunate few to buy a Core i7 920, 940 or 965 back in November 2008, you’d still have one of the fastest desktop CPUs today in March 2010.

Source:AnandTech

Tech Link (Industry): Intel DH57JG “Jet Geyser” - Intel's First Mini-ITX H57

Bah, I have this board and I never got around to testing it. Anandtech has gotten their mouth wet and the author seems to like the board *oops*. Before I spill out any more beans and spoil your fun, go check out the article and drool with me...

It’s been a few years since we’ve written a full review featuring an Intel motherboard. The reason for that is simple; we just didn’t see some of the Intel boards as being competitive in terms of features, performance and pricing when compared to products from third party vendors. Probably not a good decision on our part because appearances can be deceptive... Take a look at our H55/H57 coverage and you’ll see that sub-vendors often struggle to get the basics right.

Source:Anandtech

Brag: Gulftown Stock Fan is so awesomesauce!

I forgot to post a picture of the stock fan that came with my "Gulfy". It's quite a looker I might say. It sports a copper core, heat pipes, and blu-lit fan.



It has manual speed control (hi, lo) and has a retention frame commonly found on after market coolers. The fan has an Intel logo on top, and the heat pipes are nicely "embossed" compared to other heatpipe cooler where heatpipe ends are just "protruding".

Brag: Intel Gulftown CPU-Z is up and validated

As I used to say back in the "old days", the Dark Force is strong, alive, and kicking. Oh dear, I need to find where I stashed all my decent RAM. Oh yeah, the motherboard is a workstation board.

I'll tinker around and see if there's some tweaking options for this board. If there is, I'll probably overclock it a little. Hmmm, I need to "steal" someone else's video card too, probably a decent GTS 250. But sorry, I can't show any benchmark whatsoever. And oh, you can click on the image of CPU-Z to get to the validation thingie.

If you want to see Task Manager, temperature, voltage, and other CPU details, click this link (not a virus, I assure you)!

And oh, if you're saying how come its frequency is so low, well I uploaded another CPU-Z validation here!

Sorry for this incoherent mubling disguised as a post trying to pass it like a readable blog entry, till next, FanBoy out!

Brag: Intel Gulftown Processor sighted at...FanBoyReview!

Ok, what's the cooooooooolest Valentines gift you have received yesterday (post it in the comments)? Ok, "physical" contact isn't included, I meant gift as in "tangible" thing. Mine is, umm, to say it modestly, is a CPU! Yeah, a CPU. It is, none other than, a six-core (yes six core), 3.33Ghz, 12MB L3 Cache! Read on to see more pix of processor on a Jollibee napkin, yeah, it's on a napkin! (Note, I know the markings is blurred, it's just so you check out the rest of brag and go read it more...)

Ok, first I will post the obligatory "Intel" processor box. Ok, it's not really obligatory and I just made that up, but I think it's kinda cool to say something like that, don't you agree? Anyway, if you're the type of person who always get processors before they are launched, you'd be pretty familiar of this kind of box. Of course, if you get more than one, you usually get a "tray" of CPUs...

And here's the shot of the processor in all its glory (I tend to say "All it's glory" because my vocabulary is limited, bleh). As is usual of me, I erased some of the CPU markings so as to, umm, let's just say, "cover my tracks". This is in case my cover is blown, and so I won't have any one nibbing at my heels trying to track me down. (I know, markings are still blurred, but wait till you get to the Jollibee part)!

Oh geeeeeez, it's the innards of the CPU. Well, you get the point, I got to show off the underside trying to make it sound cool!

And last but not the least, here's the "Jollibee" shot. Its marking says Q4EG so go Google it to check out teh interwebz for infoz...

p.s. I'll post CPU-Z screenshot and validation tomorrow. Fanboy out!

Misc: Going back to roots...

Work has always been very heavy, stressful, and hectic the whole year of last year. I can barely take a break, whew. I feel like I need to take a rest every week, which shouldn't be the case.

I figure, I need to find a break, R&R. Going to mall and buying gadget crossed my mind, but then again, I don't have the luxury to just go out and get stuff which I like. Still, I told myself, even just a DVD movie would be good enough, but heck, can't find anything that pique my interest.

So since I practice "personal discretionary spending", I decided to just play with hardware like I always used to. Come to think of it, this is the very reason I took my course, and apply for work at my company: COMPUTER!!!!!!!! Goin' back to my "roots" is always fun!

I rummage thru the lab equipment, and found one that I always have been interested with, Intel® Desktop Board D201GLY. I know, it's pretty old (well, relatively old), and lo and behold, I find it cute that this board still sport legacy devices: IDE/PATA, serial port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse and other nifty stuff...

I install an OS, trusty old Windows XP, and had fun with it. I will share in my future post about my experience with this board. For now, FanBoy out, I need to pee and grab some snacks...(phew, I didn't expect this post to be a mouthful)

Brag: 8Core Penryn, Yorkfield FTW

Yep, I just got back to posting my regular bragging blog. But hey, it's not like I'm not absent for like a month so sorry for that. Anyway, this CPU-Z has been taken quite a long time and I haven't posted it so just to celebrate my "comeback", I posted it for all to see.

If anyone is wondering, this is the server version of the processor I posted just below this post (yes, tha's like more than a month old). Check it out and join me with my drooling.

And yes, I'm back again in posting, but I can't be sure if I can post as regularly as possible. Things have gotten more interesting in my life and well, it takes a lot of my time. But that's good!! Till next bragging...

Tech Link (Processor): First Penryn (wolfdale) Numbers

metro.cl of xs managed to find a link containing numbers to early Penryn benchmarks. If you are wondering how the chip performs, then check it out. From those images in that forum link, I say it's looking good.

Ok got this link by MSN,

Here you can see a lot of screenshots, the ones without a CPU-Z by the side, specially Super Pi 1M, take it with a huge grain of salt.

Source:First Penryn (wolfdale) Numbers