Thread: Anandtech News

HP's EliteBook 8440w is the smallest workstation on the market, making it an intruiging notebook for on-the-run engineers and professionals who do a lot of CAD and simulation analysis work on their portable systems. But with the low end graphics chip necessitated by the smaller chassis, can it keep up with larger and more powerful rivals from other companies? Let's find out.



More...

We've had great feedback to the launch of GPU Bench and Bench in general - I'd like to extend a personal thank you to everyone who took the time to comment or write with suggestions on how to make Bench better. This is ultimately your site, we work for you, so I really do appreciate you guys being active in all of this - it makes my job a lot easier :)

The top requests we've seen are for things like mobile CPUs/GPUs, pricing data and of course a few HDDs in the SSD Bench. Rest assured that virtually everything you've asked for is on the to-do list and you can expect to start seeing some of that before the end of the year. Something that was very easy for me to do however was to add the WD VelociRaptor VR200M to our SSD Bench results.

HDD Bench is in the works and I'd prefer to keep the two separate for now, but I figure the fastest desktop HDD on the planet being in SSD Bench should be enough to give people an idea of how the SSD vs. HDD comparison stacks up.

It's back to work for me, I just wanted to let you all know that your voice is definitely heard and appreciated.



More...

The iPhone has an unusual problem. Its UI is fast and smooth enough that you want to browse the web on it. However the device is cramped enough that you don’t want use it for any serious web browsing. If you’re just looking to quickly read something it’s ok but logging in to websites, or interacting with a more complex web app is just a pain on a screen that small - regardless of how fast the device is. Apple’s solution is to turn you toward apps, or sell you an iPad. HTC and Motorola provided an alternative: increase the screen size of their smartphones.

Dell took it one step further, and for some reason called it the Streak.

When I first laid hands on the Dell Streak (originally called the Dell mini 5), I had been struggling with editing an AnandTech article on the iPhone 3GS in a Las Vegas cab. I believe the first words I uttered were - I would totally carry this.

The 5” diagonal screen gave me enough screen real estate that interacting with web pages isn’t a pain. It’s not the same experience you’d get with an iPad, but it’s maybe 60% there. And unlike the iPad, the Streak can double as a cell phone. Text is big enough where I found myself reading PDFs, emails and web pages more on the Streak than I would on any other smartphone. It felt like a true productivity device. Small enough to carry in my pocket, but large enough for me to get work done.

There’s a clear benefit to having a larger device - it’s easier to use. Text is easier to read, web pages are easier to navigate and presumably the keyboard is more pleasant to type on.

While the Streak definitely enables the first item on the list, the rest aren’t as clean cut.



More...

It started off as a simple enough memory review, but somewhere along the way we decided to dramatically expand the scope of our discussion and avoid the monotony of a typical memory piece. The end result? An in-depth look at some of the more fundamental aspects of SDRAM operation. If you'd like to expand your understanding of memory transaction minutia while learning more about which key performance factors need to be tuned and why, then have we got the article for you! Set some good time aside, grab a tall mug of your favorite, frosty beverage, and prepare for an exercise in reasoning. You're not going to want to miss what we have to share.



More...

Last week we had another G.Skill 2GB notebook memory giveaway, today I'm happy to announce the winner: littvay. Respond to my email with your full shipping info and I'll get your prize out to you right away.

Today's giveaway is an OCZ Z Series 850W power supply. It's modular, 80+ Gold certified and SLI ready. The full specs can be found here. I'll even toss in one of those gigantic OCZ mousepads we gave away earlier in the series.

Read on for full entry details!



More...

OCZ sent us a 850W power supply to give away and today we've got a winner: LKO. Respond to my email to claim your prize. Now let's give away some memory shall we?

We've been giving away a lot of 4GB kits for AMD and LGA-1156 Intel platforms, but where's all the X58 love? That changes today. G.Skill sent over a 6GB kit, the F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI to be specific. This DDR3-1600 kit is intended for X58 use so if you've got a Gulftown or Nehalem, get ready to enter.

Read on for contest entry details!



More...

With the back to school season in full swing now, manufacturers are all competing for a slice of a particularly delicious pie: college students. This is a group of users that need something powerful enough to do their work (and play the occasional game) but portable enough to tote around through classes and with enough battery life to survive a day running around campus. While more exotic builds from manufacturers like ASUS and HP may be making waves, Dell is looking to get their piece of the pie with a balanced blend of style and substance in the form of their Studio line. Does the Studio 14 hit all the right notes?

More...

Seagate recently announced the world's first 3TB 3.5" HDD. There's just one catch: it's external only. The FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3TB arrived in our labs over a week ago and we've put in a lot of hours testing this thing. Not only did we try it as an external drive but we cracked open the case and played around with it as an internal SATA drive to explore breaking the 2TB limit on present day PCs.

Read on for our full review!



More...

We've been looking forward to testing AMD's Nile Ultrathin platform since the first press releases went out. It's no secret that AMD's mobile offerings have trailed in performance and battery life for quite a while; in fact, pricing has been just about the only area where AMD could compete with Intel's mobile juggernaut. Nile—as well as the higher performing Danube platform—are supposed to increase performance by up to 38% in some cases while also boosting battery life. AMD claims some models will offer as much as 7.5 hours of mobility, which is a far cry from the sub-5 hour mark set by the old Congo platform. Does the Nile platform live up to the hype? Is there finally a reasonable alternative to Intel's CULV and ULV offerings?

AMD sent us a Toshiba T235D to let us see for ourselves, and frankly this is the first AMD laptop that I can recommend without a whole bunch of caveats. It's not going to be everything to everyone, but for the intended market there's plenty to like. The HD 4225 IGP is significantly better than Intel's old CULV with GMA 4500MHD, and roughly on the same level as the newer Intel HD Graphics found in Arrandale ULV. While Intel still has the outright CPU performance crown, there's also pricing to consider. So join us as we show how AMD's mobile offerings just got a much-needed kick in the pants.



More...

We've been waiting years for AMD to deliver another knockout microprocessor architecture rather than continue to play the value game. While we've been waiting for its next generation Bobcat and Bulldozer architectures since we first heard of them in 2007, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Bobcat, AMD's mobile architecture for netbooks, nettops and ultra mobile notebooks is due to begin production at the end of this year with systems on sale in Q1 2011. Bulldozer is in testing now, sampling to partners the end of this year and shipping sometime in 2011. And both are ground up redesigns.

Later today at Hot Chips, AMD will reveal more details about the architectures of both cores. And we've got the scoop here now - read on.



More...