I finally got myself to run benchmarks on my home PC and my work PC. Long story short, work PC is definitely good for work and home PC is good for home. Short story with details, here are comparisons saved online in futuremark’s website:
PCMark Work 1.0 results comparison:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/pcm8wrk/43455/pcm8wrk/43413
3Dmark Firestrike results comparison:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/1697177/fs/1698375
More on this sometime soon…maybe.
The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and AMD’s “Kaveri” APU’s with the Steamroller microarchitecture are probably two of the most anticipated tech stuff that got me tuned in on the tech updates.
The Z1 compact was introduced at the CES 2014. It’s basically the Z1 but with a smaller size, resolution, and battery. But still, it’s nowhere near the midrange specs of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One Mini. I believe it’s the international version of the Z1 f that got me excited a few months back.
I’ve seen a comparison in size with the iphone 5 and it looks like the ideal phone for me. My cousin recently got himself a Z1. He’s a tall guy so I guess suits him well. The small person that I am makes me much more inclined to the Compact. Praises to Sony, by the way, for doing a mini, or now more appropriately a Compact, in its true sense, like Sony Ericsson did with the X10 Mini and Xperia mini some forgotten 3 to 4 years ago. Actually, for 2011, more like what they did with the Xperia ray. Okay…the mini, mini pro, neo, ray, and pro.
On the x86 side of things, yey AMD! With GCN 2.0, a slowly but surely improving Bulldozer architecture, and the fulfillment of HSA (once known/intended/idealized as Fusion), I’m looking forward to spending some cash again on a new PC. Or maybe I’ll be doing another ideal specs list. Yep, that’s a good idea.
Can’t wait to have these in the local market.
I’ll close out the year and have a Christmas post with specs lists. These are hardware lists with nothing on Windows. I really don’t know if I’d ask for a copy of Windows 7 or go with Windows 8.1. I’m leaning to Windows 8.1, though, given what I’ve written about it.
So now, if I were to buy a PC these days, it would have one of these 3 combinations:
| Intel Core i5 (Haswell) | AMD FX (Piledriver) | AMD APU (Richland) | |
| CPU | Intel core i5-4670K | AMD FX-6300 | AMD A10-6800K |
| MB | Z87 motherboard | AM3+ motherboard | FM2 motherboard |
| GPU | nVidia geForce GTX 760 | AMD Radeon R9-270 | (on-chip Radeon 8670D) |
| RAM | 2 x 4gb DDR3-1600 | 2 x 4gb DDR3-1866 | 2 x 4gb DDR3-2133 |
| SSD | 160 GB SSD | 160 GB SSD | 160 GB SSD |
| HDD | Seagate 1TB (2x in RAID 1) | Seagate 1TB (2x in RAID 1) | Seagate 1TB (2x in RAID 1) |
| ODD | dvd writer | dvd writer | bluray writer |
| MCR | 3.5" card reader | 3.5" card reader | 3.5" card reader |
| casing | Coolermaster 690 III | Coolermaster 690 III | Coolermaster Elite 361 |
| PSU | Coolermaster Silent Pro M2 700 | Coolermaster Silent Pro M2 700 | Coolermaster Silent Pro M2 600 |
| HSF | Coolermaster V8 GT | Coolermaster V6 GT | Coolermaster Vortex+ |
So I haven’t been able to blog properly. It’s been more than a month since my last update and I’ve got some unfinished and pending articles. Then I came across this a few days ago:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Winamp-to-Be-Discontinued-on-December-20-2013-402176.shtml
That almost broke my heart. Like my procrastination in techblogging, I actually just got to install Winamp on my desktop about a month ago. It felt good. I’ve been using Windows Media Player for my music for almost 3 years. I have Winamp on my 10-inch netbook, though, but since it got replaced by my 12-inch netbook months ago, well, I haven’t been using Winamp for a good amout of time. To think, I even made myself winamp skins during the Winamp 2.x days.
Then here comes hopeful news:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Wants-to-Buy-and-Save-Winamp-Report-402567.shtml
On my Windows 7 taskbar, I replaced IE with Chrome and WMP with Winamp. What if in the not so distant tech future, Winamp would be the preinstalled media player in Windows? That’s assuming the Windows OS thrives and doesn’t go self-destruct and MS doesn’t do a MechWarrior with Winamp.
I was getting ready to put Winamp in the same part of the tech past as MusicMatch, WinMX, and I can’t really think of more examples at the moment. Exactly! But there’s a glimmer of hope. Let’s keep ourselves hopeful.
I’ve been optimistic about Windows Blue when it was announced so when the open beta Started, I got myself copies of the 32 and 64-bit versions. I have the 64-bit version installed (in dual boot with Windows 7) on my secondary desktop PC (with a 22-inch monitor) but I don’t use it. My 12-inch netbook (also in dual-boot with Windows 7), however, boots to Windows Blue 32-bit
I found Windows 8.1 as a possible saving grace for Windows 8. It is, after all, still Windows 8. People liking it because of the return of the Start Button but still hate it because of the Start Screen. Let’s face it, the Start Screen interface and the Modern Apps are more for tablets.
Sony should definitely release the Xperia Z1 f internationally and not make it a Japan exclusive. Sony Ericsson did the mini concept right before. When the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini was released in 2011, it had practically the same internal hardware as the flagship that year, the Xperia arc. Actually, the internal hardware specs were shared by the arc, neo, pro, ray, mini, and mini pro. We have to admit, though, that the arc and its batchmates didn’t have top of the line hardware. But still, same internals at different sizes, that’s how it should be done.
Samsung and HTC offer the Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One Mini respectively. Good for their size but not as powerful as their larger flagship counterparts. I have to hand it to both, though, that their mini phones do look good and have decent sizes. They’re almost close to my ideal smartphone size which is the size of the iphone.
I’ll be waiting for this Z1 f. I’m even tempted to get the Lime variant. They call it Lime, but it’s still yellow to me.
Here are some sources about the Xperia Z1 f release:
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_launches_xperia_z1f_on_ntt_docomo_in_japan-news-6951.php
The usual distinction among PC’s is the CPU. It becomes a most fundamental specification or decription that overshadows the other parts. It is, afterall, central.
The motherboard’s importance becomes somehow underrated even though from a software point, the motherboard is the PC. It’s actually also called a mainboard. Replace the motherboard and Windows (software and licensing) treats it as a different PC. People don’t usually distinguish between motherboards as the PC’s performance is less dependent on this. As long as it can make the CPU and the other chosen parts, it’s already at least good enough.
RAM also has a similar case, with no obvious performance differences between frequency specifications. Performance varies, though, when you change the amount RAM and that is where overall system performance.
| | Work PC | Home PC |
| | Intel Core i7 system | Intel Core i5 system |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2600K | Intel Core i5-2500K |
| MB | MSI P67-C45 | Asus P8P67 LE |
| RAM | 4x 4GB Kingston DDR3-1333 | 8GB (2x4GB kit) G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1333 |
