The Fallen Paladin

Ever since Intel wiped the floor
with AMD’s arse with the release of Intel’s Core 2 Duo in 2006, they
haven’t really had much competition from AMD. So, I guess they aimed to
beat the only manufacturer left to beat - themselves. And man, oh man,
do they know how to deliver a good product or what? Intel’s new Nehalem
chips are bound to break every computing speed record set by its
predecessors. How does a 20-50% lead on today’s fastest processors
sound? All I can says is RAWR~

Good thing this is slated for a December release.

Now I know what to buy this christmas!

Check out this article from AnandTech for more details.
   

We have only had the phone for a few hours
but we needed to get inside its casing, what follows is our dissection
of the Apple iPhone. Please note that we’re doing this so you are not
tempted to on your recent $500/$600 expenditure, while it is quite
possible to take apart using easy to find tools we’d recommend against
it as it will undoubtedly void your warranty and will most likely mar
up the beautiful gadget’s exterior. Do whatever you wish to your
iPhone, but do so at your own risk

Yup, we’re at it again!

Quoted from the Team EAX Website:

Team
EAX is proud to announce our new Hybrid Chiller Project. It will still
be based on phase change cooling technology, but with a certain twist.
Instead of directly cooling the CPU processor, this device will cool
the liquid on a separate Liquid Cooling System. Think of it as steroids
for your existing H2O kit. The final device will allow for independent
operation of the Liquid Cooling System. That means if you don’t need
sub-zero temps, you simply flick the chiller switch off, and the Liquid
Cooling System will operate normally. The whole system does this
without the need of a liquid reservoir.

Hehe,
over a month of hard work is now starting to pay off. Last night we
were able to do a test run for our single stage phase change cooler.
LOL, what can I say, it’s so cool! (pun intended, lolz)

Personally
I can’t wait to slap this on a processor and overclock the hell out of
that proc. Hehe. That’s why I’m now doing the retention module designs
so we can get to the next part of the project.

I’m gonna post a new gallery for the actual brazing and charging processes on the Team EAX website soon.

For the mean time, here’s a shot of the test run.

Gonna do another run in the lab soon, with a digital thermometer. That way we can see how cold this thing actually gets.

See ya’ll soon.

Those watching the development of our Phase Change Project
may find it curious as to why the progress rate seems to have died
down. Well technically, it hasn’t. We’re still on track and we have
made numerous advancements. Although there wasn’t enough time to
properly document everything. We were kinda busy with the Final Exams
and other final requirements for our subjects.
Hey, we’re still students after all.

But
do not despair, we will post updates soon, as soon as our mini
Christmas break is over. Our group’s operation will resume on the 26th.

Meanwhile, here’s a little something to tide you guys over.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

_______________________________________________________
For an index of entries related to the Phase Change Project, click here.

Here
it is, my wishlist item number three! Well, sort of. I did wish for the
Corsair PC2-6400 Dominators, but those things turned out to be far more
difficult to source out that I had anticipated. And so, I just went
with another high-overclocking DDR2 kit, this one from TeamGroup.

This 2 GB Dual Channel DDR2-800 kit from TeamGroup can operate at its
rated speed on 4-4-4-10 timings, using 2.0 - 2.2 volts. The modules are
made using Micron D9GMH chips, which are fairly good overclocking
chips. Upon Initial testing, these babies reached DDR2-900 speeds at a
tighter 4-4-3-8 timings using 2.2v, so that can give us an idea of how
far these can go.

I ordered the kit with the heatspreader unattached as to check on what
thermal tape is actually used on these things. Turns out they’re
already using 3M’s thermal tape so it’s already pretty good. The heat
spreaders are open on the top area, allowing air to pass through, so
that can give better performance when paired with active cooling (which
I also plan to use).

Ok, just when I got my Team Xtreem 2
x 1GB DDR2-800 (D9GMH) dual channel kit, here comes Hynix announcing
memory chips that will totally decimate D9GMH chips performance. It’s a
good thing volume production of the new chips are slated for H2 2007,
and availability may come a little later.
That gives me just over half a year to milk my current DDR2-800 kit.

Hynix has some very fast memory modules

Hynix Semiconductor today introduced what it claims is the
industry’s first 60nm 1Gb DDR2 DRAM, and boasts 1GB and 2GB UDIMMs boast
operating speeds of 800MHz.

Hynix claims that as the 60nm process ramps manufacturing
cost of the 1Gb DRAM is expected to decline up to 50 percent when compared to first
generation 80nm technologies. The resulting 1Gb package size will allow Hynix
to cost-efficiently manufacture 4GB and higher density RDIMMs (Registered DIMM)
and FBDIMMs (Fully Buffered DIMM).

Planar dual-row assembly, made possible by the small package
size, will eliminate the need to stack components in some modules, reducing
overall manufacturing costs. Very Low profile (VLP) modules would also be
enabled by the small package.

“Our 60nm process has been highly stable, even under worst
case conditions,” says Mr. Hong Sung Joo, Hynix VP of Product Development.
“Additionally the 3D transistor architecture and triple-metal layer process
significantly improves speed-power characteristics of the components,” he said.

The 60nm process-based 800MHz DDR2 DRAM components will go
into volume production in the first half of 2007.

Yeah, I know. I was like ‘WTF’ too when I read that the Internet has a
patron saint. Actually, WTF is all that’s going through my head right
now. Harhar. I know I’m a PC addict, but I never imagined needing a
patron saint for computers and the internet.

And look, they even have an internet prayer:

Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us
to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the
divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we
beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop
and doctor, during our journeys through the Internet we will direct our
hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with
charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ
our Lord. Amen.

Hehe. Be sure to check out the article on Ars Technica as well.