[kochi_hw_club] Debunking Popular Computing Myths
- From: Sameer Thahir <sameerthahir@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: kochi_hw_club@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 11:32:52 -0700 (PDT)
dear hardware club members
too bad the list has gone dry
please cooperate
and what is the idea for meeting
please tell
thanx piyush for ur part of advice.
heres some computer myths still existing around
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Debunking Popular Computing Myths
Sriram Sharma
July 17, 2003
Once and for all we settle some of the popular
misconceptions that people have about hardware and
software. Hopefully this should put an end to all the
ignorance of the past, and help you make informed
decisions.
Myth: AMD CPUs tend to burn up
This rumour has been circulating around ever since an
international web site showed a video of the effects
of removing a fan off a Thunderbird.
We still have readers at Ask TechTree asking us
whether buying an AMD Athlon processor is a good idea.
A lot of ill informed techies insist that AMD has no
temperature sensor and that it tends to overheat and
burn up when the fan does not work.
Reality: If the fan fails, you're fine. The
temperature will creep up and eventually the board
will shut down once it reaches the stipulated
temperature, if it hasn't already got a
shutdown-on-CPU-fan-fail feature.
AMD processors do tend to run a little hot, but they
certainly don't burn up or get damaged if the
processor runs too hot. Almost all the new
motherboards today have incorporated shutdown
temperatures, voltage sensors, and will automatically
shut down if your fan stops working.
The likelihood of a fan coming off the PC while
working is EXTREMELY REMOTE. And only and if only it
does, will the processor temperature shoot up to CPU
death levels. This is because all temperature sensors
are laggy in that they take a while (at least a
second) to adjust to the temperature change, so by the
time it notices that it's too hot and should shut
down, the processor's already dead.
We are not sure how the latest Thoroughbreds and
Bartons react to this, but we're betting on instant
death for the chip. If either AMD or Intel wants us to
try this experiment out with their latest processors,
they are free to send us a sample.
Myth: Intel processors run cooler and have quieter
cooling
We've come across a few incidents where people mention
they want to go with an Intel system because it's
"quieter" and/or "heats up less".
Reality: Recent AMD chips run as cool as P4Cs, and as
for them running quieter, it's all about the fan you
are using. Most Heat sink fan manufacturers offer both
Socket A and Socket 478 variants of their products,
you can buy yourself a super quiet Socket a HSF for a
little extra money.
Myth: A PC is better than a Mac for graphics work,
because it has more MHz and RAM
Adobe optimizes Photoshop for Mac hardware. In
addition Macs tend to have superior editing software
for media than Windows. All around, it has to do with
the software and not necessarily with the hardware.
Macs also have built in color management into the OS
(ColorSync) and builds the whole computer itself. That
makes for better quality control and stable setups.
Myth: Geforce FX cards are noisy
It's all about the fan. The only card, which was
actually noisy, was the 5800 Ultra, and it occupied
two slots on the PC, one for the card itself and other
for the custom-made cooler, which made all that noise.
Since then, they have come up with variants like the
5200, 5600, and 5900, which have regular coolers.
Neither are they noisy nor do they occupy a second
slot.
We aren't sure about the 5900 Ultras because we
haven't reviewed any so far. Going by reference
designs of the cards, it looks like they still occupy
a second slot, (though they don't use the FlowFX
cooler). The only manufacturer that we know of that is
changing from the reference 5900 Ultra design is Asus.
Myth: DDR RAM =2X SDRAM
Note that DDR stands for Double Data Rate, meaning
double speed and not double density. So 128 MB DDR RAM
is not equivalent to 256 MB SD RAM. This is what many
assemblers say to ill informed buyers "it's double
density RAM! 256 MB DDR=512 MB SDRAM!!"
Myth: Watts = Sound quality
Listen up people: Wattage is not an indicator of sound
quality or maximum volume. Perhaps you've seen sound
systems with labels that boast of 1000 watt PMPO, it's
a meaningless specification that sounds impressive,
but is a load of crap. As any audiophile will tell
you, PMPO is pure marketing crap. RMS, Frequency
response, SNL(Signal to Noise Ratio), and real world
tests would be more helpful in gauging the actual
sound quality of a speaker system.
Myth: LCDs are better than CRTs
No. Not at all. Colour definition, contrast, clarity,
and image response of LCDs are nowhere near CRTs.
Anyone serious about graphic work or want to achieve
any form of professionalism in the graphic-design
world better be on a CRT for the next 3 or 4 years.
LCDs aren't even close to a professional eye. The only
benefit of an LCD is its compactness, but at three
times the price of a CRT monitor, thats a huge price
to pay for desktop real estate.
Myth: Large buffers on my CD writer will ensure safe
burns
Reality: As long as your writer has buffer underrun
protection, your burns will be safe. Whether your CD
writer has a 2 MB or a 16 MB buffer should make little
difference, because in the case of a buffer underrun,
your 2 -16 MB buffer will be gone in a heartbeat. The
underrun protection will actually stop the drive while
it waits for more data, so the size of the buffer
ceases to be a factor.
Myth: Wattage of a PSU = Reliability
This is perhaps the most common misconception among
enthusiasts, and also the most damaging. A person
specs a system with a tight budget, picks a nice
board, video card, a large hard drive, etc. Then comes
the time to pick a PSU, and obviously it's the first
part you're going to cut down on so you can afford
that 80 GB hard drive. That generic 330W PSU looks
fine, right?
Reality: If you're going to hook up a lot of
components onto your rig, they may easily drain the
powersupply, and cause stability problems. Quality,
reliability, and stability are also extremely
important, and the only way to make sure you're going
to get all of those is to stick to a big brand.
If you are spending big money on a superpower rig, do
not skimp on a good power supply. Start with a good
PSU, and build your system around it.
Myth: Beta Software can make your PC crash
We had a huge flamewar on Techtree about this, about
how a leaked MSN Messenger beta version shouldn't have
been reported on our site.
Reality: Napster was in its beta stages for as long as
it lasted, most of the open source builds are still in
beta stage and they seem to work okay. The application
might not be rock solid stable, but it certainly won't
harm your computer in any way.
Myth: Two speakers ought to be enough! You only have
two ears!
Surround sound speaker systems (5.1 and 7.1) can
create a 3D effect to music or movies. If you hear a
sound say 50% through a speaker to your rear-left and
50% through a speaker on your front-left your brain
will tell you the sound is coming from your immediate
left. If that's changed to 75% 50% then the source
appears to be slightly further back, etc. This is how
having more speakers allows one to perceive better the
direction from which a sound in a game or movie is
originating.
Myth: You get what you pay for:
Yes, in some cases (such as power supplies, CD media,
RAM) it holds true. But too many times we have heard
people scoff at buying AMD CPUs, Lite-On drives,
monitors not made by Sony, and motherboards not made
by Asus. Price is definitely not an accurate judge of
quality, we've come across some really killer hardware
that was competitively priced.
So there you have it, a little bit of condensed
knowledge that should leave you a little bit wiser. If
you have any other myths that you would like to clear,
you can go right aheard and post in our comments
section.
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hope atleast some myths are cleared
bye
sameer
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