Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

Come nasce un processore

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Se vi siete mai chiesti come viene costruito un processore, date uno sguardo a questo articolo:

intel-mostra-come-si-costruisce-un-processore

Altre informazioni sul sito ufficiale Intel da cui sono state prese le immagini:

From Sand to Silicon: the Making of a Chip

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Xeon E5405… montati!

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Il “vecchio” Xeon E5335 (Clock speed: 2 GHz, Cache: 8 MB, Bus: 1333 MHz, Technology: 65 nm) sulla workstation di mio fratello lascia il posto a due new entry:

2 x Xeon E5405 (Clock speed: 2 GHz, Cache: 12 MB, Bus: 1333 MHz, Technology: 45 nm)

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My PCs’ story

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Here I would want to write all personal computers and game console family bought till now.
It is just for me, just to remember my past (and a bit of present).
I will start with first family’s PC (in reality only me and my brother played):

[~ 1991] Commodore 64C

You can see Commodore 64C’s photos and specification on wikipedia [eng]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64.
Don’t look first photo because our PC was Commodore 64C (C64C), a restyling of previous version. If I have time, I will take it and take a photo. We still have old game tapes, a tape recorder, two digital joysticks and… a light pen with which we could design on tv screen what we wanted. Was fantastic for that time! :)

[~ 1994] Nintendo Entertainment System

On far ’94, may be it was Christmas, my brother received the 8 bit N.E.S. See wikipedia [eng]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo#Nintendo_Entertainment_System_.28NES.29
We made a breakthrough! We didn’t have to wait from half an hour to one hour and half anymore for playing games (and sometimes Commodore’s tape crashed)! :)

[17 th November 1998]

That day I received my first assembled pc. Processor: Pentium II 350 MHz – Motherboard: Supermicro P65BA 440 BX – Hard Drive: 6,4 GB UDMA 33 – RAM: dimm 64 MB PC100 – Video Card: Matrox G200 SD 8 MB AGP – Floppy Drive 3.5” – Audio Card: Creative 16 bit – CD-ROM: Philips 40x – Speakers: 120W – Keyboard: IT – Monitor: Adi CRT 17” – Modem: U.S. Robotics 56KB – Printer: Epson Stylus color 640 – Operating System: Windows 98 SE.
We Paid 3.000.000 Lire (Tax included).
Now it is still alive, during “his life” I have obviously upgraded some components to work better on it: I installed 384 MB Ram, 40 GB Hard Drive, two 10/100 LAN Cards, USB 2.0 PCI card, CD-RW Drive (HP 9110i) and I changed two times the power pack. The monitor was throwed away on January 2008 ’cause sometimes the screen become cyan-blue…

[24 th May 2002]

First brother’s PC: a Pentium IV 1.8 GHz, 1 GB DDR400, 60 GB + 160 GB Hard Drives, 128MB Nvidia GeForce 3 video card, CD-RW Drive, DVD-RW Drive, Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 audio card, 19” flat CRT Philips screen. He sold it on 17 th February 2007 because he needs something better (a lot better) to do rendering, 3D modeling, graphic design,…

[04 th November 2006]

My old PII 350 MHz moved on the left to make room to my new Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6600 2.4 GHz Socket 775, 2 GB A-Data DDR2 800 MHz PC6400, 2 x Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 10000 rpm (raid 0, EZ-Backup) hard drives + 160 GB Maxtor IDE hard drive, 256 MB Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT Video Card, Nec 7173 18X Label Flash CD/DVD-RW drive, 19” LCD Eizo FlexScan S1910.

[23 rd February 2007]

…my brother’s truck arrived :) :) Motherboard: Tyan Tempest i5000PX (S5380); Processor: Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5335 “Clovertown” 2.0 GHz; 2 x 1 GB ECC Registered FBDIMM; Video Card: Ati Sapphire X1900GT GDDR3 256 MB 2 x DVI; 2 x SATA II 200GB Seagate Hard Drive (Raid 1).

[14 th February 2009]

Hard drive update on my pc.
Out: 160 GB Maxtor IDE hard drive.
In: 1 TB Samsung HD103UJ + 1 TB Western Digital WD10EADS

[4 th March 2009]

Processor update on my brother’s pc.
Out: Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5335 “Clovertown” 2.0 GHz
In: 2 x Intel Xeon Quad-Core E5405 “Harpertown” 2.0 GHz.

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Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme & Scythe S-FLEX SF21E Fan

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Pochi giorni fa ho sostituito il dissipatore+ventola standard del mio pc con:

Pregi

  1. La temperatura del processore è scesa di 6-7 gradi rispetto a prima.
  2. Silenziosità.

Difetti

Purtroppo, quello che avevo letto in alcuni forum mi si è presentato davanti:

  1. Il montaggio ha richiesto molto lavoro (vedi link installazione), ma ne ho approfittato per pulire con molta accortezza tutto il case e la scheda madre.
  2. La superficie della parte di dissipatore che sta a contatto con il processore era convessa.
  3. Una volta montato, il dissipatore sembra quasi che non sia ben fissato e che non faccia pressione sul processore. Se si prova a muovere (anche applicando poca forza), ci si riesce. Questo fatto, tuttavia, non sembra comporti problemi.

Non ho ancora provato ad eseguire una “lappatura” come spiegato su: http://www.pcsilenzioso.it/forum/showthread.php?t=5958 e non so se mai lo farò perché il mio sostanziale abbassamento di temperatura l’ho avuto.

Alcuni link utili

Quando volevo comprare il nuovo dissipatore, un altro candidato era il Noctua CPU Cooler NH-U12P, con ventola già in dotazione. Ci sono molti test in rete effettuati con questi due dissipatori; fate una veloce ricerca e troverete molto materiale a riguardo.

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Testare la velocità di un hard drive

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Potete testare la velocità di un hard drive con il semplice comando:

hdparm -tT /dev/<nome_device>

Al posto di <nome_device>, inserire il nome del vostro device: hda, sda,…

Se avete Windows e volete fare lo stesso questa prova, basta che scaricate, masterizzate e avviate una distribuzione Live di Linux (ormai quasi tutte le distribuzioni sono avviabili da cd/dvd).

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Really portable laptops

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

I want to show you two new particular laptops that two friends of mine pointed out:

Were you looking for light laptops? Here they are!

Giving a fast view, the Asus seem to be a computer for kids, but it’s not… or not only :)
You have basic programs to work. It is powered by Linux (but it is compatible with Windows XP). You can use Wireless and ethernet connection. Only 7” screen (800×480) and 4 GB Solid State Disk drive; disk capacity is the only limit I noticed. Processor: Intel Celeron M353 900 MHz. 512 MB DDR2 RAM. Weight: less then 1 Kg!! Price: about 300 dollars… and in Italy? 299 Euros.
An interesting link: http://www.hwupgrade.it/articoli/portatili/1881/eee-pc-4g-un-notebook-asus-a-299-euro_index.html [IT]

Macbook Air is the world’s thinnest notebook!! It is, of course, beautiful and elegant. LED screen, 64 GB solid state disk! Built-in iSight camera, Intel Core 2 Duo processor,… Weight: 1,36 Kg and height: 1,94 cm!! Fantastic! The only limit? Price: from 1799 dollars… and in Italy? from 1699 Euro. It’s not fair! :.( I don’t add anything else, but I suggest you to watch this guided tour: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/ [EN]

Special thanks to Stefano & Ivan ;)

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My new mouse

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Thanks to all my university friends, a new fantastic touch of technology is living on my desk: Logitech MX Revolution

You can see infos and specs here: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/428/130&hub=1&cl=it,it. I received it for my birthday.

Thanks everyone!! :)

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My new low noise chassis fan: Noctua

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Today I bought a new fan to make my 2 Raptor HDs ready for hot summer :)

I think I paid it a lot: 21,90 Euros, but I’m very happy: I wanted an ultra silent fan and I have it! :) It is a: Noctua NF-S12

Here there are specifications:

Size: 120x120x25 mm
Bearing: SSO-Bearing
Blade Geometry: Straight-Blade-Design
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%): 1200 RPM
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 600 RPM
Airflow: 81 m³/h
Airflow with U.L.N.A.: 41 m³/h
Acoustical Noise: 17 dB(A)
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A.: < 6* dB(A)
Input Power: 1,44 W
Input Current: 0,12 A
Voltage Range: 4-13 V
MTBF: > 150.000 h
Box contains:
1 Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
4 Vibration Compensators
1 3:4-Pin Adaptor
4 Fan Screws
Warranty: 6 years

*extrapolated values

I haven’t installed the U.L.N.A. because I want maximum airflow, but I think that with the adaptor it will become really inaudible!

Noctua official site: http://www.noctua.at/

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Memory test – How to create a floppy

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

Do you want to create a floppy disk with whom you can run memory test[*] on a pc? If the answer is “yes I do”, go on :)

You can download one of these 2 nice utilities from:

and follow instructions to create a floppy disk.

Or you can use your loved Ubuntu installed on your pc (that install memtest by default).
So, insert a formatted floppy on your floppy drive, open a shell and digit:

sudo dd if=/boot/memtest86+.bin of=/dev/fd0

Done! ;)

Remember to select “first boot from floppy drive” in your BIOS before to use memtest.

[*] A memory test is useful to understand if your pc’s ram work well or not.

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Wired & Wireless speed

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Here it is a collection of informations about speed on wires or air applied on PCs.
It comes from my curiosity that sometimes asked “is it better USB 2 or Firewire? Sata or SCSI or SAS?”
Pay attention because these speed is maximum bus speed, but in reality it depends on physical devices limits.
Note: Mb/s means Mega bits per second, MB/s means Mega Bytes per second, Gb/s means Giga bits per second.

Velocità su cavo e in aria

Di seguito c’è un insieme di informazioni sulle velocità dei dati che viaggiano su cavo o in aria.
E’ partito tutto dalla curiosità di sapere ad esempio “meglio USB 2 o Firewire? Sata o SCSI o SAS?”
Fate attenzione perché queste velocità sono le massime velocità del bus, ma in realtà tutto dipende dal limite fisico dei device.
Nota: Mb/s sta per Mega bits al secondo, MB/s significa Mega Bytes al secondo, Gb/s sta per Giga bits al secondo.

USB

  • USB 1.0: 1.5 Mb/s
  • USB 1.1: 12 Mb/s
  • USB 2.0: 480 Mb/s
  • USB 3.0: 4800 Mb/s

[Maximum 5 hubs connected together, maximum 127 peripherals. Maximum cable length: 50 m]

Firewire 400

  • S100: about 98 Mb/s
  • S200: about 197 Mb/s
  • S400: about 393 Mb/s

[Maximum cable length: 4.5 m or 72 m only with regenerative devices]

Firewire 800

  • S800: about 786 Mb/s

[Maximum category 5 cable length: 100 m]

Parallel ATA (PATA)

  • UDMA 0: about 16.7 MB/s
  • UDMA 1: about 25.0 MB/s
  • UDMA 2: about 33.3 MB/s
  • UDMA 3: about 44.4 MB/s
  • UDMA 4: about 533.6 Mb/s – 66.7 MB/s
  • UDMA 5: about 800.0 Mb/s – 100.0 MB/s
  • UDMA 6: about 1026.0 Mb/s – 133.0 MB/s

Serial ATA (SATA)

  • SATA I: about 1.2 Gb/s – 150 MB/s
  • SATA II: about 2.4 Gb/s – 300 MB/s

Parallel SCSI

  • SCSI-1: 5 MB/s
  • Fast SCSI: 10 MB/s
  • Wide SCSI: 20 MB/s
  • Ultra SCSI: 20 MB/s
  • Ultra Wide SCSI: 40 MB/s
  • Ultra2 SCSI: 40 MB/s
  • Ultra2 Wide SCSI: 80 MB/s
  • Ultra3 SCSI: 160 MB/s
  • Ultra320 SCSI: 320 MB/s
  • Ultra360 SCSI: 640 MB/s

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

1.5 Gb/s, 3.0 Gb/s, 6.0 Gb/s

Internet SCSI (iSCSI)

Implementation/network-dependent.

Fibre Channel (FC)

1 Gb/s, 2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, 8 Gb/s

Ethernet

10 Mb/s – 1.25 MB/s, 100 Mb/s – 12.5 MB/s, 1 Gb/s – 125 MB/s, 10 Gb/s – 1250 MB/s

Infrared Data Association (IrDA)

2.4 kbit/s to 16 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s data rates are under development.

Bluetooth

  • Bluetooth 1.1, Bluetooth 1.2: 721 Kb/s
  • Bluetooth 2.0: 2.1 Mb/s

802.11x

  • 802.11a: 54 Mb/s (Typical: 24.7 Mb/s)
  • 802.11b: 11 Mb/s (Typical: 5.9 Mb/s on TCP, 7.1 Mb/s on UDP)
  • 802.11g: 54 Mb/s (Typical: 24.7 Mb/s); another version of 802.11g called SuperG has 108 Mb/s theoretical data rate
  • 802.11n: 540 Mb/s (Typical: 200 Mb/s)

Please inform me about mistakes.

Per favore, informatemi di eventuali errori.

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