Legit Reviews

Considering that Hyperthreading hasn't changed between the processors, there might be no need for that. The 90nm Smithfields are based on two Prescotts, with the only difference being that they went back to using lower latency 1MB cache per core, instead of the higher latency 2MB cache found in the ...

Most "brand name" PSUs with decent amperage and wattage cost over $100. For the same price, you could get two Rosewills and use them with a relay. That's a gigawatt for $100. As far as sticker companies are concerned, I don't see anyone having a problem with Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, Gei...

Dual core processors were not designed to replace SMP, but rather facillitate multithreading on a single processor system. Symmetric multiprocessing distributes load evenly among processors(otherwise known as load balancing) and allows simultaneous use of more than one processor to execute a single ...

It's exactly the case. As stated by the article I posted earlier, Window XP's thread management is practically non-existent. It doesn't load balance like it's supposed to. The slight performance improvements come from architectural enhancements, not from the presence of another logical processor. If...

NCQ only improves latency, not bandwidth. At this point, unless hard drive latency can get into the nanosecond range, any attempts at improvement are futile. So, it's easy to say that the 1-2ms NCQ shaves off is negligible. As far as RAID is concerned, it strictly depends on what you use your deskto...

XP's microkernel has a serial thread scheduler, not a parallel thread scheduler, meaning that threads are not given an affinity mask when executed. The microkernel doesn't deviate from that when handling DPCs, so only the primary logical processor is considered, unless specified by the application. ...

I think you have more faith in XP than even Microsoft itself. Parallel scheduling doesn't exist on XP, period. It relies on software that supports SMP to manage that. Applications that demand quanta recieve it based on the execution priority of the application, not what XP deems appropriate for the ...

Silverstone Zeus 520 Watt Power Supply Pioneer DVD-120S 16X 1 GB Corsair XMS PC 3200 SoundBlaster Audigy ZS You might save some money by going with a Rosewill 500W PSU, Lite-On SOHW-1673S or whichever you prefer, PDP Systems memory, and a SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer. Is there a difference between NCQ...

I believe all of the threads were executed on the primary core, and that the secondary core wasn't even considered in any of the tests. Windows XP has no scope when it comes to thread management, so while it may support as many logical processors as available, it doesn't have a clue what to do with ...

Flash drives are slow even the $1000+ drives top out at 15mb/s because they are based on flash tech not DRAM tech. So solid state is much slower than traditional HD's right now. Flash is simply a non-volatile version of SRAM. However, there are also SRAM and DRAM solid state drives that are volatil...

There are enough websites out there... why bother cluttering the web with one more?

A RAID0 array is still the most viable method for derriving higher storage bandwidth. The only thing that's faster are solid state drives based on DRAM or SRAM, however, they aren't cost effective at all. When you consider the average internal bandwidth is limited to about 60MB/s(that includes even ...

Okay, Shader model 3.0....lets think about this, a technology embraced by one company, not the other, so who says it is the standard, and why didn't ATI decide to support it? Well, actually it's inherent in the DirectX 9.0C API, featured in HalfLife 2, Doom III, Far Cry, UT2k4, Unreal 2, SWAT 4, an...

Well, I disagree in the sense that there comes a point when you aren't going to see much or any difference betwen what the two cards offer. I've run a variety of setups and personally feel the X850, while about even with two 6600GTs in SLI, provides a great gaming experience...but you seem to be th...

I'm just an ATI fan, and am not sure exactly what your point is. My point is graphical quality is more important than performance when it comes to enjoyability. Since ATI did nothing but raise the bar for performance, I really don't see why an avid gamer would prefer an X8 over a 6 series. However,...

The problem is that these so-called "enthusiasts" are more willing to invest in any denomination of quantity, rather than quality. They're quick to jump at new technologies, while entirely neglecting to reflect on past ones. And through an avid pursuit for performance, they end up spending...

What else did ATI add to the x8 series, other than performance?


That's the only reason I'd lean toward the Geforce 6 series...

And so the revolution of fat-walleted enthusiasts begins...


At least this gives a reference of comparison for Intel's upcoming version of parallel GPUs.

However, that's not to say that either will matter in 6-8 months anyway.

Another question that comes to mind is why you'd want to invest in SLi. I honestly can't see SLi staying a viable solution, even in the enthusiast range for very long. It costs too much and provides very little benefit. If you take a look at some of the benchmarks, you'll see that the only benchmark...

Would it hurt to wait a month or two? What might 'fall' into your budget right now could undeniably fit more comfortably if it was a few hundred dollars cheaper. However, if you're absolutely dead set on getting it now, I would still give the Gigabyte a glance. I've had the most stable operation wit...