What a week

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 8/10/2004 1:25 AM EST
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  • den628 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link

    When you do the RAID article, as mentioned above, I think it will be important to distinguish between hardware raid (with hardware xor) and raid where the CPU does the xor. A certain other hardware site posted a RAID review recently and did note which was which but they did not post CPU utilization :o
    So, please do post CPU utilization, and also it would be cool to compare the cards that have the CPU do their xor to some drives just hooked up to an SATA card and set up in raid through windows.

    Thanks
  • thespicemustflow - Monday, August 16, 2004 - link

    With a PC, you need PowerUser for power computing.
    With a Mac, you just need to be a user, the power (come with) Mac.! :-)

    A Power User with a PC do great things, very powerful... very hard tweak. Is't wonderfull what a smart guy do with harware a software!

    At college, a need power to teach video and cinematography, but my time is for my student,
    not to tweak a PC all the night :-) (Yes, it's fun, but... )
    Probably I don't have all the power of a PC. But a do lot of things with little budget, no sys-admin and 20 happy students. :-)

    If you want to write on the Mac view, you have 2 aspects on this subjet: a easy user (reader) or a ultimate wizard of Mac.

    Thanks!
    JH



  • at80eighty - Saturday, August 14, 2004 - link

    cheers on the wedding mate!
    have a blast during the honeymoon : p
  • Anonymous - Saturday, August 14, 2004 - link

    As far as the RAID article goes, I'd like to see a clearer distinction made between hardware and software RAID (and the "partial" hardware acceleration of a few boards). From what I've gathered from other sites, most RAID cards are just IDE controllers with software RAID drivers, not true hardware RAID. In those cases, its often simpler just to mount the drives individually and use windows/linux software RAID to limit compatibility and upgrade problems. This could account for the performance issues you found with RAID. Of course, even if there is a difference with the hardware RAID solutions, it might not be worth the cost, but I'd at least like to drool over it if there is a signifigant difference.
  • BelgarionOK - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link

    I too am looking forward to the Mac articles. I wonder if some of Apple's reluctance to get on board is due to the really long interval between the Mac articles/weblogs. I am sure the completely empty Macintosh section isn't encouraging them. Not that Anand hasn't had more important things/people/momentous events taking up his time, of course.
  • matman326 - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link

    Congrats on the wedding, I've been married 2 years now and let me tell you a small piece of advice....you are never right, as soon as the honemoon is over you will never be right again! Nah just messin I'm happy for ya.
  • Eug - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link

    "But if there's a boy, there might be an heir to Anandtech."

    What's wrong with a girl heir to AnandTech? ;)

    I'm looking forward to the new Mac article(s). I hope Apple gets on board soon. As a PC and Mac user, I really like the idea of an all-in-one PC and Mac AnandTech.

    P.S. If you do a high-tech wiring setup of your new house, I'd appreciate a description of it, even if it's just a blog.
  • Iris Li - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link

    Hi! I think of dropping some blessing to your wedding, and well, congratulations! Enjoy your honeymoon!
  • Prashanth Susarla - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link

    One nice benchmark under Linux would be to compile the kernel source. Hit upon a configuration you think would suit most typical users and see what kind of compile times you get for the source and modules compiles. I have great faith in this test.
  • Davediego - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link

    what REALLY needs to be compared with these new xeons is their 64bit capability. You've run tests on the opteron showing 32bit results, and 64bit results and the gain/loss therein. This MUST be done in part2 of the article, just running tests under a 64bit OS isn't enough, you've done proper 32/64bit comparision before, I'm sure you can do it again so we can really get an idea if Intels implimentation has performance gains or not.
  • Morten - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link

    On the RAID article:
    I'd like to see different RAID controllers than the one found integrated onto the Intel motherboards tested (Promise, Highpoint, maybe some of the more expensive ones). Also, I'd like other drives than the Raptor tested.

    Intel has one of the best IDE controllers on the market. nVidia and VIA don't. I think users of nVidia and VIA based platforms (mostly AMD) will see a much bigger benefit of going for RAID compared to Intel users (atleast the ones using Intel's own chipsets).

    I have a nForce2 based system now, and the IDE controller is the worst I have ever experienced. If it gets a decent ammount of load, it chokes the whole system. You can't do anything :)

    Like for instance, I copied about 30GB of data from my main drive on the first IDE controller to an older 7200RPM drive on the second IDE controller (those were the only two IDE devices in the system). And I couldn't use the system while doing that.

    Now, I had many times done the same thing on my old system, which was a AMD/VIA hybrid chipset from Abit (KG7-RAID), and I never had that problem there. Probably because I was using the RAID controller.

    My point is, not everyone uses Intel :) Not everyone uses IC5R southbridge (or whatever it's called). I think a lot of users will see a much bigger benefit than Intel users, because of shitty IDE controllers. But then again, the same users may see a lot of benefit from just buying a PCI IDE controller. Something to think about anyway.

    Excellent work. Have a nice honneymoon :)
  • Joe - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    I just bought the new AirPort Express today. Size of a deck of cards. Looks like the wall iPOD charger. I plugged it into the electrical outlet on the back of my stereo. Then ran internet connection to Airport Express, a cable from Airport Express to input on Stereo. Now internet access wirless and can stream music wireless from iTunes to Stereo. Can also print wireless. Please do a review of this product. It so Apple. My local Apple store sold 80 of them in a heartbeat. I think Apple is next planning a remote to control the music if PC or Mac in a different room. Best solution would be to build that feature into the next generation iPOD. Anand, soon you are going to see the genius in what Apple has been doing in the most recent several years. And today Motion was released along with a very low price for Production Suite. If you are into pictures, music, movies, Apple is there.
  • ViRGE - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    It's unfortunate to hear that Apple is dragging their feet in helping you; if anyone from Apple is reading this, as a long time Mac owner and AnandTech reader, there's no one more qualified to write a "new to Mac" article for power users like Anand is.

    Oh, and while you're chatting with ATI/Nvidia about Macs Anand, please bug them about feature control panels for their cards; ATI's non-retail cards do not feature any sort of way to enable FSAA, ansiotropic filtering, or anything else like that, and even though it's not a gaming platform, in 2004 it shouldn't be an issue(especially since FSAA shouldn't weigh down the platform any more). Nvidia is in a similar situation too, unfortunately.
  • joe - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Hate to post here, but I cannot find a contact us link anywhere.

    I cannot register for the forums - I get a "you are forbidden" message after filling out the form.

    whats up?
  • mikecel79 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Congrats on the wedding! Have fun on the honeymoon.

    I live in CT also. As others have said not the most exciting place (or cheap for that matter) but it is pleasent.
  • DarylF2 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Anand, like many of your Mac readers I'm EAGERLY looking forward to your Mac content!

    Since you are building a house, perhaps you can also review some interior/exterior house design packages? It would be cool to see your take of them while you're in the process of designing and building your own home. I know there is a selection of these for Windows, but maybe you can find some Mac and/or Linux options as well.
  • Anonymous - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Congrats! It certainly seems like that you will be doing lots during the next couple years but I am sure you can pull it off. :)
  • Ahkorishaan - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Hey, congrats Anand, sounds like a busy couple years for you.

    I live in CT, not the most interesting place, but pleasant.
  • Robert - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    I think Vinney wants to finish law school before adding to the Shimpi family. :) But if there's a boy, there might be an heir to Anandtech. Woohoo! j/k :)

    Anyway, good luck my friend.
  • flyboy84 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    welcome to the northeast! enjoy your stay :-D
  • GTaudiophile - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Anand: You're missing a step between steps 2 and 5:

    "Make and deliver Anand Jr."

    :)
  • psiu - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link

    Congrats on the upcoming wedding, I just got married last year.

    It really puts things in a different light, priority wise.

    Good luck to both of you. :)

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