Intel and AMD, Price War Anew?

Sunday's announcement by Intel came as a surprise to me. I first read about it in a Twitter update to my mobile phone. I immediately went online to check the details. The highest cuts were on the higher-end CPU's and some of the prices were brought down by as much as 50%. The lower-end chips, the segment I have particular interest in, were brought down by about 10%. This is really aggressive pricing by Intel. With prices like these, it's now actually possible to build a budget quad-core machine. The most notable price drops were in specific models, probably to target similarly spec'd CPU's from AMD's line-up. Some of them were: Xeon 3230, from $530 to $266 (50% drop); Core 2 Quad Q6700, from $530 to $266 (51% drop); Core 2 Duo E6850, from $266 to $183 (31% drop); Pentium Dual-Core E2200 from $84 to $74 (12% drop); and the Pentium Dual-Core E2180 from $74 to $64 (14% drop). You can go to this link to view the whole list: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/10/101302/April_20_08_pricelist.pdf

Today's announcement by AMD pales in comparison. They announced a refreshed line-up for their triple-core Phenom chips. You can view the press announcement here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543_15434~125200,00.html. The price cuts by Intel in a way threaten the brilliant marketing move by AMD to segment the multi-core market. Initially, it seemed like a great idea. Create a sub-segment for people moving from dual-core but can't afford a quad-core processor, or otherwise think x4 is priced too high. It's rather unfortunate that something so brilliant could be usurped by something as simple as a price cut.

Did you hear about the hunger crisis?

Hi,

The world hunger crisis is all over the news this week. In just three years, the price of staple foods like wheat, corn and rice has almost doubled. If we don't do something soon, hundreds of thousands of people face starvation and a hundred million more could fall into extreme poverty.

I just took action with the ONE Campaign and you can too, here:

http://www.one.org/hungercrisis?rc=hctaf

Thinking of Overclocking?

Here are three helpful videos from ExtremeTech.com to aid you in your quest:

1. Overclocking101, Part 1 (Choosing the Right Components) -
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2280739,00.asp

2. Overclocking101, Part 2 (Cooling Solutions) -
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2282532,00.asp

3. Overclocking101, Part 3 (Overclocking via BIOS) -
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2285306,00.asp

$300-ish Budget PC

Hot on the heels of my post on building a relatively cheap dual-core system that can double as a multimedia machine, I've decided to post what I'm recommending to a friend looking to build a budget system. Considerations for this build were the common tasks this machine was going to be used for. He would use it to play DVD's, internet browsing and office work. His wife would use it for her Adobe Photoshop projects and printing.

I recommend this set-up because of the low-power draw from this AMD AM2 ATHLON 64 LE-1620. Another side benefit of choosing this particular processor is its ability to overclock, should the need arise that is. These processors actually overclock quite a bit, as proved by this post in XtremeSystems.org. The memory requirement for this is build is kept to a single 1GB DDR2 module from Geil because he'll be using Windows XP . Together with the software he will be using, a Gig is comfortable enough. Storage is relative conservative as well, owing to the fact that he won't be storing multimedia content. He'll be playing DVD's and storing family pictures. That's it. Before he uses up the space on that 160GB Seagate drive, prices for the 500 GB SATA drive would have dropped and an upgrade would be relatively cheap. The LG GSA-H55N will allow him to back-up his data and movie downloads. Playback on a living room DVD set-top unit is also a consideration so DVD±RW burner would be ideal.

These specs may seem sparse, but the main consideration is to keep the budget around the Php 10,000 mark. That's sub-$300 to you folks in the US. The following hits it right at the sweet-spot:

• AMD AM2 ATHLON 64 LE-1620 2.4 GHz - PhP 2,100
• EMAXX NF7050HD-PRO VGA/ LAN / PCI-E - PhP 2,350
• 1 GB GEIL DDR2 PC800 - PhP 1,100
• 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM SATA- PhP 2,100
• 20x LG GSA-H55N DL DVD±RW IDE Drive - PhP 1,250
• Generic ATX Steel Case - PhP 1,500
• TOTAL - Php 10,450

The prices are in Philippine pesos and quoted from Enigma Technologies, a local store in Angeles City, Pampanga. If you click on the links above, you'll see the prices for US online retailers. Couldn't find the EMAXX NF7050HD-PRO listed on any US online retailer. The ABIT AN-M2HD (Nvidia NF7050) board would be comparable, albeit pricier option. Also, Geil RAM isn't so popular in the US either. Kingston ValueRAM would be of a comparable quality and more widely available. Going by US prices, this build would cost around $340.00 and a few cups of coffee.

So there you go.

Ubuntu 8.04 Release Candidate is Out

I've eagerly anticipating the release of Hardy Heron, counting down the days these past two weeks. I've accumulated so much gunk in my hard-drive that I've needed to reinstall for some time now. I keep putting it off because I want to reinstall with Hardy Heron's final release on the 24th. I'm fighting off the temptation to go on and download the RC. I know it's just a simple "sudo apt-get-update" to get the final release in 5 days, but I prefer installing from the final release. I still can get over a bad install a few years back. I did an upgrade after installing the RC a few days before the release. I somehow broke the system during the upgrade. Besides, I want to see what's new in the install for myself. I've turned into someone who does enjoy the install process :-)