Friday 30 November 2012

PC Format Magazine & Custom PC Magazine on AMD FX-8350

OK today I caught these two articles and was more interested in their overall scoring of this chip. To be honest they are both big name magazines and ones I have turned to since the dawn of time, almost literally and I think I owned issue 3 of PC Format prior to even owning a pc, think B-17 Flying Fortress featured in it, and Custom PC I had the first two dozen issues?!

Now over time one of these has changed and demeaned itself while the other is still a class publication and it is very disappointing as the one that has sunk low should know better. But they do not.

Now here we go and there is a big discrepancy between the two and I am going to go with one over the other as it made more sense. The Magazine that made no sense is the one out of the two that should know and I really do not know what has happened to it of late, but I could hazard a pretty good guess?!

PC Format scored the AMD FX-8350 gave it 4/5 STARS and said they had struck 'GOLD' this time around. They admitted they would rather go for the AMD FX-6300 though I would not at the prices I have seen the FX-8350 for?! But I can see why they would say that.

Custom PC Magazine gave it a measly 59% and totally shocked me. This is just utter madness and is typical of what I have seen from Custom PC since they were taken over and entangled or owned by BIT-TECH and have become biased beyond a joke.

In fact I am sure I emailed and tweeted as much to them a couple years back, oddly did not get an answer as I am obviously a lower life form so much I do not warrant an explanation.

Custom PC has turned from a real class magazine to utter trash and I have literally gone in a few years from buying just about every issue they produced to flicking though it, putting it back in Sainsburys while shaking my head and not buying a copy for three years now?!

It a company is involved is selling or manufacturing goods they should NOT be allowed to own a Magazine. Now anyone can say what they like about his but I would only tell you where to get off, you want an informed opinion when you read a magazine and an unbiased one. Simple as that or there is no point in shelling out the ludicrous prices they charge for them these days is there?!

Bearing in mind that of these two magazines it is PC Format that is more game oriented than Custom PC and with the former saying it would make a good budget rig and the latter basically sscaring their readers from buying it!

Now they have made it obvious for sometime that they are biased, well blatantly so to me if not to others but not much I can do about that, and I would go months and you could not find a mention of AMD anywhere in the mag?! Curious, do you own shares in Intel and nVidia by any chance?! LMAO!

Well does make you wonder!

Oddly this kind of behaviour is not only harmful to the industry, based on wrong facts really, but also harmful to themselves as if AMD disappeared so would Custom PC Magazine. After all with only Intel producing CPUs, nVidia producing GPUs and Tablets overtaking everything the very notion of a Custom PC Magazine would be, well pointless. Unless the switched it to an annual magazine?! LMFAO!!

No sorry I cannot see me ever buying an issue again after today which is a shame as I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread when it first launched. Will be PC Format only for me from now on!

It is a real shame that this sort of thing goes on really. God I hope they do not find this and do something really stupid like try and defend themselves as in my experience people like that do not do this very well...

...like that of someone on Squidoo who was obviously staff for the NHS and just came out with a throw away line which proved nothing nor explained what he was on about or even who or what he was defending. Umm if he was defending something ... I think he was, lol.

Just because your a member of staff, writer, Doctor nurse or whatever it does not mean to say that if you open your gob intelligent words come out and even when they do they need to be in the correct order?!

HEHEHE!

Still back to topic. It was encouraging to read PC Format say that and hats off to them for being straight down the line on everything over the past, umm 20 years?! lol.

As for Custom PC, how the hell do you give 59% to a CPU costing £165 that multi tasks a fraction slower than an 8 core Intel i7-3770k?! You bloody morons! LOL.

Sorry you deserve that, you are called Custom PC you know, maybe change your name to Custom PC Gaming PC For Rigs Built To Run Games Utilised for Intel Chips Only, or just CPCGPCFRBTRGUFICO?!

Hahahaha! Hmm should that last 'i' be a 'u'?

lol.

Too bad and a real shame.

Monday 26 November 2012

DEMISE OF AMD? I DOUBT IT! I BLOODY HOPE NOT!!!

I have been seeing many sites mentioning the demise of AMD along with talks of looking for a buyer and even complete disappearance of the company altogether.

There is also talk of the next FX architecture, codenamed Steamroller, likely called the AMD FX-8550 and FX-8520 if previous naming conventions are followed but I seriously doubt this too.

The way I see it and I know not his motives but there is a character out there that seems to be feeding much of this frenzied information and there are too many idiots out there who are so quick to want to repeat anything that is a case of sensationalising for the goal of getting hits.

Right at the source of all this is the OBR hardware website and never before have I ever come across such on opportunist that leans so far in one direction that you have to come to no other conclusion that he is either on the payroll of the blue company or indeed has been promised something. I know now what country he is based in but maybe there are certain things 'missing' from his country he has been promised?!

So much is his incessant ramblings on false information on AMD's products, guessing correctly did not make him correct the first time around, that it stands out that he is in pursuit of something or some benefit from all this.

In fact what I find most interesting is the way he reacts on his site when he does GUESS it correctly and he comes over as surprised and the use of exclamation marks run riot everywhere. A message to the site owner is this, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right and from what I have read you do not even manage it 50% of the time so do not over-react and leap about the place when you do guess correctly...

...to anyone truly intelligent and not just banding about figures prised from a piece of software you will be seen for what you are.

Not only that only a complete MORON would want to see AMD disappear and that is a fact, no two ways about it, signed sealed and delivered for free. A MORON!

That is outside of those that have shares in the big blue company or have been promised certain ... benefits should the green company disappear.

If there are Intel fanboys baying for AMDs blood then they are morons too I am afraid and should get out of IT and computers as it is for intelligent people and not idiots! Or at least keep your statements and opinions to yourselves and do not invite ridicule and attack from people that have 50% more grey matter than some of you do?! LOL!

Hopefully I have guesses correctly on AMD and in a few months time some engineering samples of Steamroller will be out in the wild as since the introduction of Bulldozer and the SLIGHTLY disappointing figures I had ear-marked Steamroller, AMD FX-8550, Kaveri, call it what you will, as the big thing in AMDs  goals and our wants!

Mention Intel's Haswell, despite my surname being Haswell, and I will tell you to get a life!!!

Do not promote the capability of something that not only do you know nothing about but not even had an engineering sample released.

My estimations are based on things now very likely to be implemented on AMDs chips in the very near future, certainly in 2013. These are based on things I have read and what is likely to be achievable by what is now long overdue on AMD CPUs and must be not far away now, a die-shrink and FPUs per cored, ending this module is only one core with hyper-threading, yes that is why it has two cores dickheads?!

I see Haswell as more of Intel selling you an eight core chip that does not work!

So with Christmas 2012 and 2013 fast approaching I will be keeping an eye out for anything doing the rounds out there as well as any news on the 1090FX motherboards, if that is indeed what they will be known as, following recent naming convention again?!

Sometimes i do not to get to cheack around the Internet for this news as I am concentrating on facts that I DO have and not supposition and when this manages to stretch for a couple of weeks or a month I then have a good feeling I will pick up something new, from all the waffle banded about by bedroom  and armchair experts.

Oddly here is something else I had thought of, I had seriously considered what I would do if AMD vanished and we returned to those dark old days of years gone by? I thought it would be time to jump ship, NOOO ROTTEN APPLE?! LMAO. I honestly do not know what I would do but may have to consider something I never would have before. BBBRRRrrrrrr, a shiver just went down my spine?!?!?!

LMFAO!!

Sunday 25 November 2012

Sweex Optimuo 4GB

How does it come to be that you can buy a Music Player that does not even read its own built in memory right here in the UK?

This one looked very cool and nano looking and not really wanting to spend a vast amount of money on one of the big names who for some reason REFUSE to manufacturer portable players of Lossless, MP3s and Videos without an SD Card reader when their phones, which primarily errr phone, have them installed on all but the cheapest models?!

Here then is a picture of my Sweex Optimuo refusing to read its own memory and to be fair it only does this 50% of the time and the other 50%?

Well it then refuses to read the best SD Cards in the industry and even Sandisk Ultra Cards?!

Now this would not be so bad if it had 32GB instead of its 4GB and I could then put a 32GB card in it and put the same favourite songs and albums on both and know that I could then ALWAYS listen to what I wanted without fail?!

LMAO!




http://www.flickr.com/photos/89426160@N05/8217716040/       NO NAND FILES (INTERNAL)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/89426160@N05/8216630087/       SCREEN CORRUPTED


It also alters the volume level, decides what it wants to play when it IS deciding to read its own memory, the buttons are stupidly arranged by someone seriously drunk or high and the screen quality is appalling and the pictures of this player are deliberately misleading.

I was nder the impression it showed album covers?! You must be joking?!

It is also slow and unresponsive.

The volume level was good though and was better than anyone smartphone I owned, well when it was not turning its own volume down though. Adjusting volume was badly designed too and do not think you get dedicated volume buttons, oh no. You press the volume button on one end and then go to other buttons to go up and down.

I quite literally could have got a 5 year ols to design the buttons in a more logical fashion!

Avoid Sweex at all costs. LMAO I know I will!

Thursday 15 November 2012

SEARCHING FOR A GRAPHICS TABLET ... or TABLET!

Right for my new found plans and what I want to do I think that a tablet is unavoidable as a necessity.

Now when I say tablet you may think of an Apple iPad type device but I was thinking more a straightforward graphics tablet to created my own artwork. So much easier than a mouse I can tell you.

So I been having a look at the Wacom Bamboos and ones I know from the past but to get anything wireless you are looking at over £300...

Now two things have emerged out of this search on is actually paying for something that will actually pay dividends and the other is that the Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 with its Smart-pen has just launched?!

This includes a four core processor! SD Card slot, hmm why do tablets and phones all have SD Card slots when MP3 players do not?! Ohh not going down that road again ... yes so I CAN acquire a dreaded tablet via Littlewoods ... SHUDDER, but it will allow me to complete my current project to a much more professional and polished level!

So I will see how it goes with my project and maybe in a months time I may have to join the tablet crowd after all after swearing I would never do it?!

It will be useful to surf the net and browse Amazon's website on it than using my smart-phone or dragging my hot 17 inch Hewlett Packard Pavilion DV7 upstairs at night!

I might not even need the laptop any longer and then only needing to build a rig?! Groan! After I spent a month slowly upgrading the RAM to 8GB too?! Typical!!

LMAO!!

The Best Laid Plans...

Tuesday 6 November 2012

AMD FX-8350 LOOKING GOOD

OK so as I already stated the AMD FX-8150 bulldozer based chip was not THAT disappointing. Was a little but not as bad as people made out. Power consumption was the big deal for me mainly while the speed could have been a little better.

Well now we have both and best of all? I have seen this new AMD FX-8350 CPU chip priced at £164?! Considering that the FX-8150 was around £220 to £250 this is simply ... staggering!

What an absolute beauty?! I am salivating over a new rig I can tell you! When? Well that I cannot tell you?!        

:( BOOHOO!!! LMAO!

Despite a few depraved, misguided and dishonest Intel fanboys, or possibly people on Intel's payroll, I have seen and read good things of the new AMD FX-350 CPU.

It has improved on the AMD FX-8150 somewhat while also reducing power consumption by a far degree too! Oddly I found some sites that insinuated that this was not the case with their graphs up showing hardly an improvement at all. These people masquerading and trying to rubbish the products of others this way in the hope of bring about its demise should be careful...

In my opinion and despite the fact that certain companies have already been fined for anti-trust and anti-competitive practises it is my belief that the people responsible, should they be behaving in this way, then once caught should go to jail and take to board members of the company with them. No ifs and no buts. I cannot think of any other reason why the power consumption graph was slanted in the way that it was. Disturbingly sad practises and what I find amusing is that their fanboys, the ones not on the payrolls, will react very badly towards a company should this come to light. As the company in question would obviously be doing it so that they can then be charged over £1,000 for a CPU instead of £300 to £500 as yes they sis used to cost these amounts once upon a time. Anyone that thinks otherwise is no more than a fool. But then this is what you are all being treated as anyway!

Still back on topic from what I have seen is somewhat of a relief and what I pondered about even with bulldozer I am not wondering even more about Piledriver, what if it finally gets that all important and long overdue DIE-SHRINK from the current 32nm to 28nm or lower still?!

A die shrink improves efficiency, though sometimes this necessitates a new technology to be implemented, ad reduces power consumption and heat. This allows clock speeds to be raised further still so in effect there is every possibility that a die-shrink of an AMD VISHERA CPU can see base clock speeds rise from the current 4.0GHZ to anywhere from 4.4GHZ and even maybe 5GHZ, the latter will largely depend on AMD surprising me with a die shrink that is more so than that going around the rumour mill that is the Internet?! Say 22nm or even 20nm. Who knows what these companies are really up to and it can be anyones guess, though technically this is ultimately down the the fabs that produce the CPUs for AMD and they are Global Foundries, once a part of AMD, and TMSC.

I presume this shrink will come in the form of the Steamroller chip but will not show until around October 2013 but I hope this comes earlier. Or perhaps Piledriver will get a shrink and Steamroller will have design implementations to improve things further forward and more efficiency.

As for the single clock brigade harping in about IPC, well I would rather have a 8 core chip that will handle multi-core programming when its common place than have an expensive Intel chip that in 3 years time can still run 2012's software and games at an alarming pace?! LMAO!!

I must admit I am now eager to build a rig based on an AMD FX-8350. I would like to hear of an advancement on the 990FX motherboard chipsets too though and even in a few months time it will be interesting to see if there are any advancements on the 8350 with any revisions.

Let us hope the next 6 months will be fruitful and pleasantly surprising. Maybe we can then say 'welcome back AMD you were sorely missed!' while the top brass at the evil blue empire rad headlines in the papers and choke on their caviar on toast! Hehe.

CROSSING THOSE FINGERS.

FIND A FLAC-KING PLAYER?!?! LOL!

I have been after a new music player for a year now.

After recently seeing an rather rare and nice set of headphones going for a third of their RRP it has become more of a priority now to find this player.

It is a nightmare out there for these it really is! Trying to find one you do not have to take a mortgage out for that has all I require and one that I am happy with and gets good reviews is ridiculous to say the least.

May companies charge a way over the top premium for an extra memory, when 16GB extra over 16GB is £7 or £14 for two sets of 16GB and those are prices for Sandisks, no cheap rubbish. But many of the famous companies insist on NOT including an Micro SD Card memory slot on their device because they want YOU to pay THEM £50 or more extra for what should cost £7!

I want to play lossless, or FLAC, audio files which take up a great deal of memory. I have also noted that the storage capacity of these SO-CALLED dedicated Music Players have hardly moved on in the last 18 months. They are obviously anything but true MUSIC PLAYERS as they do not cater for these audiophiles and instead that of people using highly compressed MP3 files.

Odd too is how all the major electrical stores do not sell ANY of the players out there that DO have memory card slots, which is odd when they SELL memory cards?!

This was true of PC World, Tesco and Sainsburys!

I did see a Sony NWZ A856 16 GB player going at a reduced price of £95 but, of course, no slot. The 32GB version is over £200, indeed I saw it for over £300 on Amazon?!

I do like the sound, no pun intended lol, of the Cowons and in particular the iAudio 10 but no slot yet again but the Cowon J3 looks and sounds perfect and WITH the memory card slot but no longer in production?!?!

AAAAARRRRRRRG!!!

LMAO!

I want a player that...

Is not limited by these stupid EU volume laws and limitations

Plays FLAC FILES

ABLE TO STORE MORE THAN HALF A DOZEN FLAC FILES (OK that is sarcasm there lol) so 32GB should be minimum

Does not have a battery that dies in a couple of hours.

Does not cost the price of Richard Branson's island?! (Oh OK more sarcasm then! lol)

Has a good audio quality.

Bizarre then that after looking at dozens and dozens of these things (if I see ONE MORE player on Amazon I am going to head-butt my laptop screen!!) I have failed to find a single one that is currently available for sale at a sensible price?!

My word! What a mess this is all for corporate greed yet again. We only need AMD to go bust (joking as they wont) and e really will be stagnating again and big names ceasing production of certain things because they fail to understand that people do not trust them as they feck around trying to control what a customer does with the product they just shelled out a shed load of cash for!

Are you listening Sony & Apple?

I loved these two companies and the one of the ones I like currently is Samsung. But all my life it has always followed that the company I like that is innovative with great products turns big, corporate, greedy, controlling and evil so I guess all my current companies will end up on my hated list in a few years, lmao!

God I hope not!