Archive for category Reviews
Throwing AMD Bulldozer A Bone
AMD - Bulldozer or Bobcat?
So the reviews are in, and it’s not a pretty picture. AMD Bulldozer has hit the street and reviews across the board show the new flagship CPU from AMD barely keeping pace with Intel’s “consumer tier” i5-2500k in performance benchmarks, while having the high end Intel i7 line of processors stomp it is almost every benchmark.
Tom’s Hardware had a retrospective on the AMD Bulldozer release and poised the question, “Did we expect too much from AMD Bulldozer?”. The writer takes the position that AMD marketing set expectations too high for performance and competitiveness in the marketplace by stunts such as the Guinness World Record for a processor hitting 8.4Ghz overclock.
So is it all doom and gloom for AMD? Can nothing positive come from the release of the AMD Bulldozer architecture? In this blog, my goal is to outline a couple important points we should all take from AMD Bulldozer and perhaps a give silver lining to the clouds currently gathering above AMD.
Google TV — Another stop in my quest to find my Home Theater Unicorn
Posted by eric in Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews on February 21, 2011
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been using a home theater PC/Media player in one form or another over the last couple years to stream videos off my network to my home theater.
Devices I’ve used at length:
- HTPC running Windows Media Center
- Western Digital TV Live!
Both of those devices were OK, but I felt that both had their limitations. Either lacking in features or usability. Both required use of their own inputs on my home theater and thus, were not very well integrated into the whole experience. Issues such as occasionally having to plug in a keyboard to the HTPC to address an issue, or the Western Digital TV Live not having certain features, like a web browser or Netflix (which I believe the newer models have).
My only expectation for a HTPC/Meida player really are:
- Ease of Use
- Integration into Home Theater
- Ability to stream many media formats (up to 1080p) and play back smoothly
- Ability to stream online content (specifically, Netflix)
- Web Browser
I recently was in San Diego visiting friends and one of them had the new Logitech Revue Google TV based device hooked up! I was intrigued because I’m a bit of a gadget guy and anything home theater related immediately catches my eye. After poking around with it for a half hour or so, I decided once the funds became available that I would purchase one myself and give it a whirl.
What really set the Google TV apart for me is that it’s not just another home theater component, but more an extension of your current DVR/STB by living “in-line” between your STB and your Television. In my eyes, this is what makes it a more valuable addition to any home theater.
So let’s dive into my expectations and how they were met:
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What a Difference a New Chipset Makes
Posted by eric in Hardware, Networking, Reviews on January 17, 2010
My system for the last few years has been a Dell Dimension 9200. I’ve done a few upgrades to it that were non-Dell standard but for the most part it has been completely stable and without issue. That was until recently… when I installed a new nVidia GTX 295 video card. I had thought outside of the SLI on a single card that I wouldn’t experience any issues. My mistake.
Soon after installing the GTX 295 I started experiencing strange issues. 3D Performance was in the pits, video playback had issues and even sound while playing a game was choppy and stuttered. I was at a loss for what could have been happening because I had the latest drivers from nVidia and did a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 Enterprise Edition.
Then I remembered last time I had the symptom of stuttering sound…
Review — Borderlands SUCKS and so does everyone on the Internet!
I was excited to try out Borderlands after reading a lot of the reviews on many gaming sites. Needless to say after about ten hours of playing this bore-fest it was on its way back to GameFly.
Perhaps my expectations for it were too high, expecting things like plot and decent graphics…. you know things games aren’t expected to deliver (apparently).
My qualms with Borderlands are simple…
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Review — Western Digital TV Live HD Media Player
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Multimedia, Reviews on January 10, 2010
I recently started creating backups of my home Blu-Ray library without any method to play these backups on my home theater. My media playback device of choice, the XBox 360, is unable to play any video files that are within an MKV container. I had played around with MP4 containers as an alternative but the Windows Networking component of the XBox 360 limited the file sizes to the FAT32 limit of 4GB, which is too small to host an entire 1080p movie and I was unwilling to split the backup into multiple files.
The available alternatives out there didn’t seem technically feasible as most D-Link and Linksys offerings are merely Windows Media Center Extenders with “support for MPEG-4/ASP” (read: DivX) but no support for MPEG-4/AVC or MPEG-4/VC1. The option of setting up another HTPC for my home theater wouldn’t be financially viable because at a base price of about $399 I might as well invest in a Blu-Ray burner to watch my backups.
Enter the Western Digital TV Live HD Media Player…
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Review: Intel SS4200-E NAS
Posted by eric in Hardware, Networking, Opinion, Reviews on September 12, 2009
Well, it finally happened. The D-Link DNS-323 NAS that I’ve been using for the past two years with a 750GB RAID1 finally filled up 
The DNS-323 has been a great NAS! I had my doubts at first with a D-Link product, since in the past their networking products that I’ve used haven’t been quality. So my issue was, how do I upgrade from a RAID1 on a two-drive NAS to a new fault tolerant system that has at LEAST 1.5TB of storage. I mean, if you’re going to upgrade you need to make it count, so doubling the capacity of my current NAS was the primary goal.
I did some research and with NewEgg running a sale on the hardware, I settled on the Intel SS4200-E NAS. On the spec sheet, this NAS met my requirements because it supported up to four drives, RAID5 and RAID10! Technical reviews I found of the device put it at the top of the chart when it comes to RAID5 performance.
Upgrading my HTPC — It’s Alive!
Posted by eric in Hardware, Internet, Miscellaneous, Multimedia, Reviews on August 24, 2009
A couple months ago I posted a blog entry about my plans to upgrade my Home Theater PC (HTPC) using the new Zotac IONITX
Intel Atom based motherboard. As a point of reference, I’m upgrading my HTPC from an underpowered, but pretty sweet at the time VIA EPIA-M 600M. My reason for using the 6000 at the time was I wanted a fanless setup to the HTPC would be as silent as possible.
The case I’ve been using is a Morex 3677B case, which is fairly small but still allows enough room for a 2.5″ Hard Drive and a Slim Laptop CD/DVD drive.
A couple gotchas I ran into while upgrading from the VIA board to the new Intel Atom based board:
Old School Game: Reuinion (and a Saved Game Editor)
Posted by eric in Gaming, General Software, Reverse Engineering, Reviews on June 9, 2009
Reunion Title Screen
Does anyone else remember playing Reunion back on their 386′s with a staggering 2MB of RAM? Lord knows I remember!
Reunion came out over fifteen years ago and I still feel the urge to play it now and then even today. It’s a great game and can be downloaded from many abandonawre sites across the internet.
I started playing again recently using DOSBox and I was amazed, because I didn’t even know the game had sound! 
When I played “back in the day”, my system didn’t have a Sound Card (because I couldn’t afford a Creative AWE32), so needless to say it was a whole different experience. The game has a fantastic production value and even when modern development languages, I’m not sure that even I’d be able to create a game of such depth a complexity!
Anywho, I began to get frustrated because I knew there were parts of the game I was missing because I couldn’t meet certain goals or didn’t have enough resources. Granted, I should have spent the time perfecting the game and working towards those achievements….. but it’s an old game and I don’t have as much free time as I did when I was thirteen years old
To that end, I sat down and studied the Save Game format for a while and also the (paltry) Save Editor that was included in the Abandonware version. I knew I could come up with something better that gives me even more options in the game. It took me a couple hours but I was able to come up with a pretty functional Saved Game Editor for Reunion that works around a couple glitches the previous version had.
I know, I’m a total cheater but it was a fun little project and I figure perhaps ONE person on the entirety of the Internet must need something like this as well, so I figure I’d throw it out there for anyone who needs it
Reunion Saved Game Editor – Download (92kb)
Upgrading my HTPC — It’s time to bring it up to date!
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, Multimedia, Reviews on June 2, 2009
Many moons ago I decided to build an Home Theater PC (HTPC) for miscellaneous computer uses that I might want to display on a TV…. OK, really it was just the thing everyone was doing at the time and I wanted a new project, so a small HTPC fit the bill. We’re all friends here, so no need to beat around the bush, right? 
So I built an HTPC. I built a GREAT HTPC. It was small, fanless and had everything I’d ever need. But I was disappointed though, only because the quality of the video combined with what I was ACTUALLY able to do with it let me down. I suppose it was my own fault because I had let my desire for the system to be completely silent and fanless impact its performance.
Fast forward a couple years later and I have this shoe box sized PC sitting below my computer desk at home. What should I do with it?
Continue reading “Upgrading my HTPC — It’s time to bring it up to date!” »
Car Hacking — Installing an iPod Adapter in my 2004 Acura TSX
Posted by eric in Audiophile, Hardware, iPhone, Multimedia, Reviews on January 31, 2009
My car is old. Ok, not REALLY old but old enough that it doesn’t have an AUX input or an iPod adapter. I drive a 2004 Acura TSX with Navi and recently canceled my Sirius subscription to save money, so I wanted to be able to plug in my iPhone 3G and listen to Pandora or songs off my iPod.
I checked around the net for models that were supported by my car (which was hard because it was a 1st generation, 1st year TSX). I know there’s an MP3/DVD Player option as well as an XM head unit available for the 2004 TSX, but no iPod adapters from Honda. I finally decided on the DICE Electronics R4 Kit for Honda/Acura because it had received positive reviews and seemed a pretty simple install
I purchased the DICE iPod Kit from a reputable seller on eBay for $139 + tax and had it within a few days. The unit itself is pretty small (only a couple square inches) and has inputs for the iPod cable as well as AUX input. It’s a good thing the unit is so small because it has to fit up in the dash
Installing the unit in my car took about all of 2 minutes. Literally.
(Sorry about no pictures, I’ll add them as soon as I’m able to!)
Step one was to remove the storage bin that is located below the factory radio. This is where the factor XM or MP3 player would go. Simply open the bin and pull it out towards you. There are two clips on the bottom right and left as well as clips on the top.
Pull out the storage bin carefully as the light above is still attached to it. Carefully remove the light taking care to not break the housing. Once the bin is out your radio compartment will be exposed. Just a warning: be careful in there! Unless you’ve unhooked your battery, there’s still live current as well as some wires for the airbags Don’t kill yourself over an iPod hookup
Step two is wiring it in. You’ll see one wire running straight up into the stereo. Unplug this. This is the wire that will plug into the daisy chain provided by the DICE iPod kit. Plug the other end of the DICE iPod kit into the factory radio.
Step three is running our cables however you choose (into the glove box, storage bin, middle console) and putting the storage bin back in! Presto! Done!
I used a Dremel and cut out a small section of the bin to run the cables through. To keep it clean looking, I used a bit of rubber (read: old mouse pad) to cover the Dremel spot and cut a slit down the middle allowing the cables to run through it. This helps seal up the bin without having a gaping hole into my dash. Also, for the sake of future use I added a small amount of hot glue to the connectors that are plugged into the DICE iPod Kit so (god forbid) someone pulls on the cable too hard it wont unplug from the DICE iPod Kit while still in my dash. I didn’t add a LOT of glue, just a small drop to hold them in place nicely.
Finished storage bin with iPod & Aux Cables
A few “gotcha’s” about this unit and the 2004 Acura TSX. The ‘XM’ mode of the DICE iPod Kit only works with Honda/Acura models with an actual ‘XM’ button. This wasn’t introduced until the 2005 model year. The 2004 Acura TSX only has a “CD/AUX” button. Because of this, the DICE iPod Kit cannot work and will not be detected in XM mode. You have to set the unit to “CDC” (CD Changer) mode.
Other than that, the unit works great! It’s able to charge my iPhone 3G while I’m listening to music as well as allowing me to stream my iPod and any audio from my iPod straight into my factory radio!
Setting the DICE iPod Kit to ‘iPod’ mode allows you to control the iPod manually on the screen and not with the wheel controls. I find this much easier than trying to navigate the songs using a ‘track up’ & ‘track down’ method on my steering wheel. Also, in ‘iPod’ mode, the DICE iPod Kit acts as a standard audio source. Meaning it’ll play Pandora and send ring tones to your factory radio without having to use the AUX input, like iPod adapters from other manufacturers!
I hope this helps someone else out there in the same situation I was in Please feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be sure to post pictures of my setup as soon as I get them!
Cheers!
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