To all the readers,
I want to inform you people that this blog has been moved to agrotime-blog.com, if you have any bookmarks or anything or that nature from the previous url of agrotime.wordpress.com, you will be fine, it will simply redirect you to the new url. Thanks for visiting, and continue to stop by, I’ll keep updating the site with new content.
Thanks Everybody for your support =)
-Mragrotime
For those at home looking for the best bang for their buck dual core system with lots of ram (not for games), Mragrotime has used his tech knowledge and gone to newegg in your behalf, here is the system I have layed out for you.
The system specs are as such:
The system is a 2.0ghz allendale core 2 duo on a p35 gigabyte motherboard equiped with 4gb of a-data value ddr2 800hmgz ram with a 250 gig sata 2.0 seagate 7200.10 hardrive, rosewill case with 350 watt built in power supply, an 8400 gs
by gigabyte and an asus 20x dvd-r burner (retail)
The total cost of the system is at 376$ before shipping!
________________________________________________________
Here are the parts:
70
cpu
Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052
75
motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128084
64
ram
A-DATA Value Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211271
65
hard drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262
31
case with psu
Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply with 20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147010
36
gpu
GIGABYTE GV-NX84G256HE GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125080
35
optical drive
ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135156
The has patiently awaited the sequel to perhaps the largest series in the world of gaming, grand theft auto. Grand theft reached its must-have status that sells consoles with the release of gta 3, which was the series first foray into using a 3d game engine. Gta 3 and its two successors on ps2 were system sellers, and the newly released gta 4 appears to be no exception. I played my copy for the first time last night on xbox 360. I was impressed as always of acting hilarious antics one has grown to expect from the series, but I did have a gripe with the way cars handle. Rockstar changed driving from arcade crazy controls to tighter more realistic controls that have not seemed to go well with the audiences I have spoken to at this point. That aside gta 4 is a must have.
Nvidia rocked the world when they originally stated that they would release their 8800gt gpu at an msrp price of 200 - 250$, while it outperformed their already available 8800gts 320mb and 8800gts 640mb gpus (both with more expensive msrp prices) while still being available on the market. Anandtech.com called nvidia crazy, and I actually agree with such sentiment. Look at the high volume vendors such as newegg.com, you will find not a single 8800gt in stock at the moment, the cheapest 8800gt available for preorder upon restock is at 270$, the most expensive is at 320$, at the same time you will find the cheapest 8800gts 320mb which the 8800gt destroys in benchmarks to be priced at 300$, and the cheapest 8800gts 640mb to be priced above 340$. Nvidia only had 50,000 8800gt’s at launch which seems obvious now as the only 8800gt I can find in stock is on amazon.com for 340$! How on earth did nvidia think that releasing the 8800gt before getting rid of their previous 8800 gts inventory would be good for business? I don’t envy sony’s business stance in most cases, but they have always been intelligent of selling out of a give sku of a playstation model before releasing their newer sku, this is something nvidia should have done. I have the utmost respect for nvidia though, as I write this post from a 7950gt 512mb, and desire an 8800gt. We will find ourselves in interesting transition times in the short term future though, as we see nvidia transition out the 8800gts series and transition in the 8800gt, as well as Ati transition out the hd2900xt and in with the hd3850’s. We can only ponder the future of pricing schemes of the gpus that will be transitioned out, and when exactly the future generation of gpu’s, mainly the geforce 9 series will make a debut.
Ati/Amd has just released their hd 3850 graphics card! The card is basically a refresh of the original hd 2900 card and is built on a 55nm process making it a much cooler running and less expensive to manufacture card. The card is roughly 10 - 20 % less powerful than nvidias recently released and highly popular 8800 gt card, yet is supposed to be released at the 220 $ price point which is significantly less than the 250 $ msrp 8800gt which has been selling in the upwards of 300$ price point. Hopefully Ati/Amd will have plenty of these cards available, as we have seen 8800gt’s sell out faster than grateful dead beany babies as of lately. Its very refreshing to see nvidia and ati release very powerful mid range cards, but leaves us with the ongoing question of when will the next full iteration come to market, as these recently released cards of simply refreshes of the current generation of cards.
We have all been waiting for some time now for two things, one for hd capable players, whether it be blue ray or hd-dvd to become affordable, and two for the format wars between those two formats to be resolved with a clear winner to become the new “dvd”. Toshiba has recently announced the availability of 100$ hd-dvd players, which is finally an accessible price point for the masses. I’m interested in getting one simply based on the fact that all hd-dvd players upscale existing dvd’s to 1080i, while also giving you the option to watch true high definition movies as well. Most high end dvd players ranging from 50$ - 100$ have this ability, therefore adding the ability to view hd-dvd content at that price range is very impressive. We are still waiting for a bargain blue ray player to reach the masses, most see the PS3 as the the most bargain based player as it also comes equipped with the functionality to play games. We are also waiting for the format wars to end, it still appears that many studios are publishing to one format and not the other as they have contracts with only one side. You can watch spiderman 3 (a sony film) on blue ray and dvd, yet not hd-dvd, you can watch transformers on hd-dvd and dvd, yet not on blue ray. As great news as this is having affordable hd-dvd players reach the market, we are still plauged with the question of will the movies you want to watch be available for it, and the even bigger question, will hd-dvd or blue ray win the format battle, yielding your player obselete like vhs rendered the beta max.
Sony has finally downscaled the fabrication process of its Cell CPU utilized within its Playstation 3 console, replacing the systems previous 90nm Processor. This has reduced the power consumption of the unit by 70 watts while arguably lowering the amount of heat the unit outputs. The Xbox 360 has gotten a lot of publicity just recently with the introduction of the falcon 65nm Xbox unit (65nm CPU), which gamers now hope will be the red ring of deathless 360 sku, I know I’m on my 2nd 360. Intel, always the leader in the fabrication process competition, is just about to release their 45nm CPU line Penryn. Smaller fabrication processes are a blessing, less heat, more transistors possible on die, and more ability to over clock, which of course only applies to the intel chip in this post (as I wouldn’t over clock a 360 unless I wanted to burn down the whole neighborhood=).
Nvidia is about to release the first refresh of its geforce 8 series graphics cards, not a moment too soon. It appears that everyone that has been waiting to upgrade to a directX10 graphics solution will be awarded for their patience. The new geforce 8800gt is build on a 65nm fabrication process, which is quite desirable in contrast to the previous 8800gts and 8800gtx cards that were built on a 90nm process, and the 8600gts that was build on a 80nm process. The 8800gt will be priced between 200$ and 250$, and features full video decode, finally a high end dx10 part from nvidia that will do that! The 8800gt is a steal at 200$ or so, it beats the 8800gts 320mb and 640mb cards in every benchmark imaginable, and its only a small step bellow the 8800gtx. Based on nvidia’s previous pricing scheme of the 8800gts and gtx, this card is priced at half of how it performs. I’m currently running a 7950gt 512mb card in my rig and have been waiting for a truly compelling reason to upgrade, the 8800gt is my reason now. This card is going be to the most talked about card in the industry upon its release, mark my words. Nvidia has done it again.
I admit, I was a little excited to see that Agrotime was ranked 94th on the WordPress growing blogs list for October 18, 2007. Hopefully this blog will continue to grow, if not I would still be happy if anyone has learned anything, or enjoyed some of my rantings about new trends and products in the field of technology. =)
