ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB

 ATI just released today's fastest graphic card with HD 5970, check its performance on link below to see its performance in gaming and synthetic benchmark.

ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB: The World's Fastest Graphics Card : Introduction - Review Tom's Hardware

GeForce GT 240: Low Power, High Performance, Sub-$100

nVidia has just been released GT 240 for around $100 and less. Check it out on link below to see its performance and power consumption with another $100 cards..!!

GeForce GT 240: Low Power, High Performance, Sub-$100 : Introduction - Review Tom's Hardware

Overclocking, The Basic

Today we will tell you about overclocking your PC system. Overclocking will cause your PC components like CPU, memory, and GPU or Graphic Card to run faster than before. For example the default clock speed of your CPU is 2.4 Ghz, after overclocking your CPU can run at 3.2 Ghz clock speed resulting greater performance of your CPU.

The most question we heard about overclocking is, "Can overclocking damage computer hardware?". Then we said the answer can be yes or no. Usually, temperature is our enemy when we want to overclocking our system, because this is the main reason of hardware damage in overclocking and system instability. But if you properly monitoring your system temperature with additional CPU cooler, good PC casing with good air ventilation, etc, then it will no problem to overclock your system.

The purpose of overclocking is to gain more performance from your system in daily computing, productivity, and gaming. With overclocking you can get the most out from your system with little additional cost and get the same performance with more expensive system.

Things you must notice in overclocking :
1. Your CPU specs ; to determine how far you can push it. for example I got a Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz, so in air cooled, 3 Ghz to 3.2 Ghz is great. or maybe E7500 @ 2.93 Ghz, you can push it to 3.6-3.8 Ghz on air.
With water cooling, you can push it more..!

2. FSB (Front Side Bus), CPU multiplier, Memory RAM speed ; this gotta be difficult to understand, but we will try to explain it as simple as we can...
So here's the example.... Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz , 1066 Mhz FSB , 9x multiplier (all in default condition)
In this case, FSB in CPU's spec = 4 x actual FSB.. So 1066 Mhz in CPU's spec, then the actual FSB is 266 Mhz... ( 1066 / 4 ).
So what actual FSB for? combined with CPU multiplier, in this case is 9x, then actual FSB * multiplier = CPU clock speed. -> 266 Mhx * 9 = 2400 Mhz

Okay, and what memory RAM speed for? the memory speed is the maximum actual FSB you can reach for overclocking. For example PC6400-DDR2, with 400 Mhz speed memory per dimm. So with this type of memory you can raise your actual FSB to 400 Mhz. Try to get 1:1 ratio between memory speed and actual FSB, because it's usually more stable and you get the full bandwidth memory transfer from RAM to CPU.

Okay, how can I know if my system is stable or not? You can test your CPU stability with CPU torture program like Prime95 to stress all of your CPU cores. Usually people stress their CPU about 18 hours to see if the system are stable enough and the temperature of the system are in normal state.
When testing you system got blue screen or freezing, then check the temperature first. When the temperature is normal so it's time to raise your CPU and system voltage which can be raised from the motherboard's BIOS. try to raise it about 0.1 or 0.125 for the voltage to make sure you are not overvoltage it and damaged your hardware. For safe temperature and voltage can be found on the internet, but I will try to find the links for you later.

Overclocking GPU is more simple than overclocking your CPU. Simply download rivatuner and install it. And inside the rivatuner, you can raise your core speed, shader speed, and memory speed of your GPU. You can also set the fan speed, monitoring your GPU temperature and many more. I will try to post an article to show you how to use Rivatuner for the first time.
To test your GPU, usually people test it with 3D Mark 06, a very useful program to benchmark your system performance and also to test the stability of your system. If you can pass all the test without error, then usually your system are stable enough.

That's all from us, if you are not understand enough you can always ask us via e-mail, we will be happy to answer your question.

Part 1: Building A Balanced Gaming PC

This article from To's hardware shows you how important to balancing your system. in this case, between CPU and GPU, so you can choose wisely when build a new pc or upgrading and get the optimal result.

Part 1: Building A Balanced Gaming PC : Balanced Platform Series Introduction - Review Tom's Hardware

nVidia 300 series "Fermi" Rendering Capability

Visuals stemming from Nvidia's Fermi may make you do a double-take.

Memorex used to have a very catchy slogan: is it live, or is it Memorex? That very slogan came to mind when viewing a few outlandishly realistic renders here on a Chinese forum. Thanks to Nvidia's Fermi hardware, virtual realism has taken a huge step towards mimicking reality to the point of asking: is it real, or is it a render? A "dramatic upgrade" doesn't justify the visual leap Nvidia has made in virtually recreating faces and environments.

Fermi, the company's next-generation CUDA architecture, is jammed pack with more than 30 million transistors and a maximum of 512 CUDA cores "enabling supercomputer performance," as the forum post states. If the leaked images are indeed genuine--showing fantastic ray tracing goodness, facial hair, and even defined skin pores (sans zits)--then gamers have a lot to look forward to when Nvidia launches the GeForce 300 series... possibly by the end of the year.



Electronista points out that a second set of forum users have noted that Nvidia confirmed the launch of notebook versions of Fermi. While the supposed release date is a vague "near future," it's estimated that the chipsets will be aimed at the mid-to-low end laptops. The GTS 360M will serve as the company's mobile performance chip, and the GT 325M and GT 330M will be geared towards mainstream models. Low-end systems will likely integrate the GeForce 310M and 305M GPUs.

 Source : Tom's Hardware

Rating a Graphic Card’s quality through the product’s name and series number

One of the simplest ways to rate a VGA chipset currently, is actually done through noticing the series number and the title of the product given by each graphic card manufacturer. For example, from nVidia you’d be familiar with 9600 GT, GTX 280, and 8800 ULTRA, while from its main competitor, ATI, there are HD 4870X2, 4670, 5770, etc.

To go into details, for nVidia serial numbers,

    1st digit    : Card series (e.g. 8800 GTX would mean that it is coming from the nVidia 8 series)
    2nd digit    : Ranging from 1-9, the higher the numerical value, the better it is (e.g. for 9600 GT,         it is considered as ‘mainstream performance’, while for 9800 GX2, it is notified as         ‘enthusiast performance’, and for 9400 G, it’s just ‘entry-level performance’)
    3rd digit    : Either ‘0’ or ‘5’, with ‘0’ being the standard version and ‘5’ being the improvised         version of the same series

    While the serial letters/word that follows, ranging from standard to excellent (from left to right consecutively):
SE, LE, GS, GSO, GT, GTS, GTO, GTX, Ultra, GX2

    Similarly for the 200 series, the same guidelines applies, except for the part that in this series the 4th digit does not exist (which usually comes in as ‘0’ in the standard products anyways)

As for the ATI products,

For the 3000 series onwards,
    1st digit    : Card series
    2nd digit    : Ranging from 1-9, the higher the numerical value, again, the better it is
    3rd digit    : Consistently given the number ‘3’, ‘5’, or ‘7’; the higher numerical value the better         the performance capacity

    For products below the 3000 series, the 3rd digit is non-existent, and is replaced by letter signatures:
XTX, XT, XT PE, XL, Pro, GTO, GT (left to right is in order of performance level, left being the worse and right being the best of them)

How much VGA memory capacity do we really need?

The value of your graphic card memory capacity is most significant in supporting the chipset performance level, and is most obvious for avid gamers who are playing high resolution games with maximum graphic set ups.

However, most uninformed consumers are making the common mistake of actually judging the performance of the VGA based on the chipset VRAM, while in actual fact the one that matters is still the chipset itself. For example,

1) While purchasing both the ATI HD 4670 and ATI HD 5770 that has the same memory capacity of 512 MB, it is still pretty obvious that the 5770 is a much more capable unit as a whole.

2) Between GeForce 9600 GT 1 GB and ATI 4870 512 MB, the 4870 outruns its compatriot by quite a distance ahead, even though it’s performing on a lower memory capacity.

For graphic cards with identical chipsets but different VRAM capacity, such as the ATI 4870 with 512 MB and 1 GB memory capacity, then in this case yes, the one with the bigger memory capacity would be the better choice. Although, we must also take note that regardless of the fact that between the 512 MB and 1 GB chipsets the difference in their performance level is quite visible, between the 1 GB and the 2 GB chipsets the difference is actually almost unnoticeable.

CONCLUSIVELY, judging the performance level of the graphic cards must be based upon first and foremost, the chipset itself, and then followed by its memory capacity. In any case, most well-reviewed and recommended VGAs usually do have enough memory capacity attached, thus worrying is never a must for customers who’d spend ample time to gather the necessary information.

For further reading on the matter, you could visit http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428.html.

Next, I shall elaborate further on ways of scaling the performance and choosing the best graphic cards existing in the market today.

The right specs for the right laptop

There have been quite a number of times when my friends would ask me, “What kind of specs do you look out for when purchasing a laptop?”
One of the first things a person should be asking him/herself when purchasing a laptop are: What are you going to use the laptop for? Gaming? Graphic designs? Programming? Or just plain ol’ text writing?

The cost of the laptop is one very credible attribute anyone could easily based their judgments upon; the more expensive the product is, the better it is, and this applies to almost every electrical appliances sold in the market, including laptops. However, the question is whether a person really needs all the specs provided, which is why anyone looking to buy a laptop should actually adjust their budget with a list of specs that suits their needs the most, and not just purchase the most expensive notebooks.

It’s just like when a person decided to buy street-race cars like Mitsubishi EVOs, Mazda RX-8 and Nissan GT-R, while all the person does was drive a few blocks away to get some food, which is in actual fact is still very much within walking distance.

 Another question that people should ask themselves when buying a laptop is their own personal budget, i.e. whether their given financial position allows them adequate freedom to purchase the product they want.

For gamers and graphic designers, the performance of the VGA/GPU becomes the main issue. While for daily home and office usages, integrated graphic adapters would suffice.

Especially for avid gamers, I would recommend buying a laptop with class 2 VGAs which would ensure the necessary performance that can last for games coming out in the following 1-and-a-half year or so.

To check for which class does your VGA falls under, do visit www.notebookcheck.net and check out the GPU comparison section.

Apakah saya butuh gaming equipment?

Apa itu gaming equipment? ya perlengkapan seperti mouse, keyboard, mousepad, headphone yang khusus dibuat untuk meningkatkan performa anda dalam bermain game.

Apakah saya perlu membeli gaming equipment ini? Tergantung, bila anda ini termasuk casual gamer yang tidak begitu menekuni game2 ya tidak usah.... Namun bila ada rasa bahwa gw pengen improve di game-game tertentu, contohlah DotA atau CS.... Ya boleh anda beli gaming equipment ini...

Tapi kan mahal2...? Ya jelas... harga mouse razer 600 ribu lebih... tapi apakah worth...? Bila anda yang suka bermain DotA tiap hari... 1 hari bisa bermain 2-4 kali... sangatlah worth.... kenapa? Saya sendiri memiliki Razer Copperhead dan Razer Destructor, dimana saya beli agar performance saya dalam bermain DotA dapat meningkat...

Saya ambil contoh Razer Copperhead, yang mempunyai tombol macro di samping mouse, dimana sangat berguna dalam permainan DotA untuk menggunakan item yang harus di klik. Efek setelah memakai mouse ini, saya tidak perlu repot2 memakai guinsoo, blink dagger, dagon, portal, dsb... hanya dengan memijit jempol sajah sehingga reflek JAUH lebih cepat dan tentu hal ini menyangkut hitungan hidup atau mati pada saat big war... Feature lainnya?
DPI yg 2000 kepake ga..?? Saya sendiri memakai 1600 DPI dalam bermain DotA... sebenernya sensitivity ini sih personal feeling yah.. ada yang suka cepet, ada yang suka lambat.... Saya sendiri suka yang cepet agar tidak usah melakukan banyak gerakan tangan jika keadaan battle field sedang memanas,
1000 Hz Ultra Pooling paan ya? Yah mouse ini menginput data 8X lebih cepat dari mouse standard.... Emank efek y...? Well, klo yg ini sih emank agak kurang bs di rasakan sih, namun lo klo sering maen dota pasti sering kan ketemu saat yang berhubungan kurang dari 1 detik... Misal lo lagi portal buat kabur, tinggal setengah detik lagi selamat eh kestun... Kan saat lo ngeklik portal itu ada delay meskipun sangat cepat jaraknya... (mili sekon). Yah dengan contoh tersebut lo bs dapat gambaran dah.. ato lagi maen CS ngeLAN gitu, di belokan tau2 ketemu dan masing2 pemain mengklik pada saat yang sama, yg satu make razer, yg satu pake mouse biasa, tentu dengan skill yang sama dapat kita prediksi pemenangnya....

Mousepad ngaruh ga sih? Klo lo bermain game FPS kek CS, dimana headshot itu penting, maka jawabannya sangat pengaruh. Feeling ngeaim lo jauh lebih enak dengan mousepad yg bagus sehingga presentase lo mendapatkan headshot lebih banyak. Untuk game seperti Dota, mungkin kurang begitu terasa, namun dengan mousepad gw, destructor, copper gw ini jadi enteng sekali sehingga gerakan mousenya ngebantu gw dalam creeping atau sedang mengejar dan dikejar hero... contohlah Tiny, blink -> avalance -> toss, itu lo musti klik ke target lo terus musti klik lagi ke daerah tujuan toss. Campuran copper dengan destructor membuat hal tersebut lebih akurat dan cepat (macro, DPI, tambahan presisi gerakan dari mousepad)

Ah gw pake mouse logitech jelek aje menang koq.... Yah memank skill di sini lebih berpengaruh, namun bila anda melawan yang mempunyai skill sama atau lebih jago? Gaming equipment ini menambahkan presentase kemungkinan tim anda menang... Klo lo lawan orang cupu ato AI terus yah wajar lah ya....
Yang ikut WCG, ADC, E-sport, dsb itu make gaming equipment bukan buat gaya aja ya, tapi supaya presentase menang dapat meningkat dan performance mereka bertambah dengan equipment ini.

Jadi klo gw pake gaming equipment, bikin gw menang? Well, di sini gaming equipment itu MEMBANTU menang bukan MEMBUAT menang. Skill dan latihan tetap menjadi faktor utama, dengan tambahan gaming equipment maka skill lo baik reflek dsb dsb meningkat sehingga chance lo menang juga meningkat...

Lo promosi Razer ye? Engga tuh, gaming equipment bukan cuma razer aje, ada steel series, logitech, dkk.... Cuma gw kan belinya razer dan gw udah ngerasain bedanya dari mouse biasa dengan copperhead, yah boleh donk gw share apa yang gw pake dan gw alami... Yang penting itu teknologi mouse tersebut dan enak ato engganya mouse itu di tangan lo.

Sekian sharing dari saya....