In exchange Intel  gets all AMDs lawsuits dropped and have AMD retract its support from state and international anti-trust cases against them.

Its good to remember that Intel has been the subject of intense legal actions for their anti-competitive practices involving rewarding OEMs  for not using AMD processors. AMD has been having trouble selling their processors lately because of Intel’s performance advantage since late 2006. This $1.25 Billion dollars should help AMD a lot but may sacrifice their long term stability. AMD has spinned off its fabrication to Global Foundries in an effort to reduce costs.

Read More at Anandtech.com

Cliffs:

• Beats all Intel Equivalently priced processors
• Its better to get its older sibling the Athlon X4 630 / 620 series released a month ago ( its a better buy )
• Doesn’t draw much power

AMD Athlon II X3 Reviews you can find online:

1. Anandtech – AMD’s Athlon II X3 435 & New Energy Efficient CPUs: Killing Intel Below $90
   
2. Toms Hardware - Athlon II X3 435: AMD’s Three-Core, 2.9 GHz, $87 Triple-Threat
   
3. inPai – The simulation of Athlon II X3 425 preview
   
4. Xbit Labs – AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU Review

AMD also released an additional 6 processors along with the new athlon X3s, energy efficient Athlon X4s, X3s and X2s

Athlon II X4 605e	2.3	GHz,	2MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$143
Athlon II X4 600e	2.2	GHz,	2MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$133
Athlon II X3 435	2.9	GHz,	1.5MB	L2	cache,	95W	TDP	$87
Athlon II X3 425	2.7	GHz,	1.5MB	L2	cache,	95W	TDP	$76
Athlon II X3 405e	2.3	GHz,	1.5MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$102
Athlon II X3 400e	2.2	GHz,	1.5MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$97
Athlon II X2 240e	2.8	GHz,	2MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$77
Athlon II X2 235e	2.7	GHz,	2MB	L2	cache,	45W	TDP	$69

I habitually visit CD-R King to browse for new products. Most of the time, I see too many people to even bother to get that product I want.

Sometimes, a product mesmerizes me so much that I put up with the long lines and wonderfully trained “sales representatives.” Today the mesmerizer is the CD-R King HeadPhone L-010 or the Cheapest HeadSet ever sold in the planet.

The sixty peso price tag is a revolution. It is something to write home about.  Something to tell your friends about. And most importantly something that even a kid in pre-school can “save” for. This is a headset aimed for the masses. It has set a new standard in retail pricing. But let’s find out if there is more to the CD-R King HeadPhones L-010 other than its low price.

Build Quality

Today I had to invent a new quality tier set. Low Quality Tiers, that is. Like most people I only think about have three types of quality, namely:

• Good Quality
• Normal Quality
• Bad Quality

Unfortunately it is very hard to describe quality with just words. Without touching the product you can never feel its heft, sturdiness, strength, pliability and other quality traits.

We all know what quality CD-R King brings. For sure the build quality of the CD-R King HeadPhone L-010 is below standard. To better understand the quality of this headset look at this new quality tier I had to invent:

• Good Quality
• Normal Quality
• Mediocre Quality
• Bad Quality: Toys that come with Happy Meals
• Bad Quality: Toys That come in Cereal Boxes
• Bad Quality: Toys that come with cheap Junk Food = CD-R King HeadPhones L-010

The Headphone or headset itself is small. It won’t be comfortable with long listening hours especially those with larger heads. The Headset will be well a great fit for ladies.

It is very light and feels flimsy. The weight could be an advantage for some though.

A few quality issues sprang up with my unit. One of the pillars that is used to adjust the headphones will not tuck all the way in. It might not make a difference to some but it is just worth mentioning so you can check your unit if you intend to purchase one.

Here are some pictures to illustrate that

*Note: Look at the uneven fit caused by the defective notch. That little notch  that blocked the pillars from freely moving into the slots really ruined what could have been a perfect fit.

The cushioning that comes with the headset is actually good. Not as thin as I expected it to be. This surprised me.

The microphone boom has a nice firm hold throughout its greater than 180 degree arc. Look closely at the picture above. Once again, the lack of quality standards creep in with the mic holes facing the wrong way.  You can twist it around every now and then to put it into place.

Sound Quality

I listened to the following tracks over and over again for an entire day:

•  Pink Floyd - Another Brick on the Wall

•  Don Moen - I believe There is More

•  Kitchie Nadal – Breathe

•  Seal - Kiss From A Rose

•  Sweeny Todd - No Place like London

•  Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compare To You

•  Wham - Careless Whisper

•  Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart

•  Guns N' Roses - November Rain

•  Mozart - The Magic Flute

•  Metallica - Master of Puppets

•  Jewel - Foolish Games

•  Avril Lavigne – Complicated

•  Metallica - The OutLaw

•  Michael Jackson - Heal the World

•  Jackson 5 - I'll be There

•  South Park - For Whom Timmy Tolls

•  Sorry no R&B as I am incapable of judging it technically

*all are CD Rips with bit rate set to 320 Kbps

I compared the CD-R King Headphone L-010 to a Plantronics set

Having listened to these tracks over and over again,  I would say that the CD-R King Headset L-010 does surprisingly well against the Plantronics headset considering that the latter costs over sixty- times as much. Yes SIXTY-TIMES.

The headset seems to be tuned to give out a slightly bassy feel. Although it is a bit tight and in some songs details are noticeably lost. The difference in songs with a lot of details in the lower frequencies, like Master of Puppets, is like day and night. It doesn’t sound bad but definitely does not extend well enough to even begin to compare with the Plantronics Control set.

At mid frequencies it sounds surprisingly vibrant but sometimes over enthusiastic. One thing that really stood out was that the mids got muddy when the sound got busy. Very noisy songs like Champagne Supernova would sound muddied . On the plus side the CD-R King L-010 does surprisingly well in songs which provide a more flowing tune like Heal the World.

In the highs the headset seems sort of a bit tight. I had to admire that it never seemed to clip highs but the resolution just wasn’t there and like the lows details got lost when things get very aggressive.

On the plus side the maximum volume never really made the headset crackle or top out. I didn’t experience clipping and the sound was narrow highs and lows but surprisingly pleasant.

Recording Quality

The recording quality with this headset is horrendous. It is barely useful and I wouldn’t even advise it as a voice chat headset. You can forget about any kind of audio recording with this set.

Take note of the Wave forms and their corresponding audio file below

the CD-R King headset produces a very harsh noise. I plugged and re-plugged the pink lead thinking there was something wrong with it. I got the best sample I had out of probably six or seven runs. There simply is a world of difference between both of the headsets when it comes to noise. Listen to the audio particularly at the end of the sequence.

Conclusion

I wasn’t expecting much from this headset. For one it couldn’t even fit my head. This headset would be fit a girl with a smaller head. Audio Quality is good for its price ( I mean for 60 pesos it is a miracle that this thing even works – toy headsets at Divisoria are more expensive ). The sound was bit narrow in the lows and highs. But surprisingly, the CD-R King L-010 headset actually is a very capable music listening device. This is especially true for most people who really don’t care much about sound quality.

The CD-R King L-010 Headset would have gotten 5 stars if not for its horrendous recording quality. Buyers looking to purchase a voice chatting headset might be bothered by its very noisy mic.

Overall, this headset breaks barriers. For the longest time the bar was set at 150 pesos. Coming in at almost a third of the price, the CD-R King HeadPhones L-010 provides tremendous and unbeatable value for most people looking for the cheapest headset they can get their hands on.

Check out the Gallery to see more pictures

Cliffs:

• $ 160 ( USD ) Retail Price
• Ati 4870 can be found cheaper ( it’s still faster than the 5770 )
• Very good power consumption
• Cool Running Card
• Not Faster than the HD 4890 as it was rumored to be ( slower than 4870 )
• Cooler than most if not ALL cards

Here’s a list of reviews for the very attractively priced ATI Radeon HD 5770. Can’t wait for this to arrive here!

• Hard OCP – AMD ATI Radeon HD 5770 and HD 5750 Review
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 @ Bit-Tech
• Asus Radeon HD 5770 Benchmarked at ExPreview

Core Components

Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300

Price: 3250 Pesos

This month the Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 beats out the E5200 on Processor of choice for the JuanPC. The price difference between them is practically nil. The Pentium E5300 can be found as low as 3250 pesos. While the E5200 is severely priced compressed at around 10 pesos less. Even if the E5300 were a bit more expensive JuanTech would still choose it because of the slightly higher multiplier compared to its older sibling. That would make a slight difference in overclocking for those who wish to squeeze out the most performance for their peso.

My heart goes out to AMD for its situation right now and really wanted to recommend the Athlon II X2 against chipzilla’s Pentium E5300. In fact, we delayed this article hoping that AMD’s board prices here in the Philippines would lower a bit. Weighing in 2.9Ghz with 2MB cache the Athlon II X2 245 would have won the JuanPC processor slot for this month if not for the motherboard situation.

Unlike the Pentium Dual Cores which have a slew of performance budget boards to choose from AMD’s motherboard situation seems to be compromised. Nothing really comes close to the value offered by the Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C

Price: 2450 Pesos

This little Gigabyte board still continues to amaze me. This is perhaps the best value board ever created. It can take the Pentium Dual Core E5300 beyond 3.5ghz easily. Provided you have a chip that overclocks decently. The BIOS options for overclocking are great. Press CTRL-F1 at the BIOS page to enable the enthusiast settings for this board.

The software that it comes with is quite good actually. Even showing power savings over a period of time. Its cool and small with performance unbeatable at its price range.

Quote from our last JuanPC Guide

Never before came a value platform that was as easy to overlock as Intel’s G31 chipset. The choice of the G31 chipset is important in building the JuanPC because we needed a motherboard that could provide great performance at a price that we’d love. The Gigabyte’s GA-G31M-ES2C fit the bill perfectly. ( Click here to read more about it )

]]> http://www.juantech.com/2009/10/08/juanpc-october-2009-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/30/amd-ati-radeon-hd-5850-reviews-online/ http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/30/amd-ati-radeon-hd-5850-reviews-online/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:45:05 +0000 Mark http://www.juantech.com/?p=106 Reviews of the new AMD Ati Radeon HD 5850 All over the web.

Cliffs:

• $ 259 ( USD ) Retail Price
• $120 Dollars cheaper than the top end HD 5870 ( $379 USD )
• Performs within 15% of the HD 5870
• 15% Faster than the HD 4890
• Faster AND CHEAPER than the Nvidia GTX285
• Cool

Here’s a list of reviews for the very attractively priced ATI Radeon HD 5850. Can’t wait for this to arrive here!

1) Anandtech.com

AMD’s Radeon HD 5850: The Other Shoe Drops

2) Tom’s Hardware

Radeon HD 5850: Knocking Down GTX 295 In CrossFire

3) Hardocp

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 5850 Video Card Review

4) Guru3D

Radeon HD 5850 Review ( Crossfire X )

5) TechReport

AMD’s Radeon HD 5850 arrives

6) Hot Hardware

AMD ATI Radeon HD 5850 Performance Review

7) PC Perspective

AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB Review – Cyprus gets a bit cheaper

1. Anandtech.com - AMD’s Radeon HD 5850: The Other Shoe Drops
2. Tom’s Hardware - Radeon HD 5850: Knocking Down GTX 295 In CrossFire
3. Hardocp - AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 5850 Video Card Review
4. Guru3D - Radeon HD 5850 Review ( Crossfire X )
5. TechReport - AMD’s Radeon HD 5850 arrives
6. Hot Hardware - AMD ATI Radeon HD 5850 Performance Review
7. PC Perspective - AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB Review – Cyprus gets a bit cheaper
8. TweakTown - ATI Radeon HD 5850 CrossFire Video Card Review
9. Hexus – AMD ATI Radeon HD 5850 single-card and multi-GPU evaluation

]]> http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/30/amd-ati-radeon-hd-5850-reviews-online/feed/ 0 http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/26/cd-r-king-esata-hdd-docking-station-review/ http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/26/cd-r-king-esata-hdd-docking-station-review/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:31:25 +0000 Mark http://www.juantech.com/?p=90 Here’s a sneak picture preview of the docking station available at CD-R King. We are currently working on a review for it.

Cliffs
-Says supports upto 500GB
-Wondered if I could plug in my 1TB Seagate
-Didn’t work and smelled like burned silicon ( both the drive and Station )
-Tested 1TB Seagate attached to internal SATA Port still works
-Tried a 320GB SATA I drive, works flawlessly
-CHEAP! Almost half the price of the old CD-R King HDD Docking Station ( Just 550 Pesos )

Wait for the benchmarks on this. All I can say for now is its fast!

Here’s a few pictures for all of you

]]> http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/26/cd-r-king-esata-hdd-docking-station-review/feed/ 0 http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/25/cdr-king-multimeter-tester-review/ http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/25/cdr-king-multimeter-tester-review/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:26:55 +0000 Mark http://www.juantech.com/?p=75 I needed a tester to check on my car’s battery and alternator. So I went to CDR King to get 1.

Here are the pictures of the 220 Peso ( $4 USD ) tester / multimeter.

I’ll update it with a review as soon as I use it more.

Good thing?
-It works ( for now )

Bad thing?
-It took me an hour in line to get this!

]]> http://www.juantech.com/2009/09/25/cdr-king-multimeter-tester-review/feed/ 0 http://www.juantech.com/2009/06/16/juanpc-june-2009-edition/ http://www.juantech.com/2009/06/16/juanpc-june-2009-edition/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:44:33 +0000 Mark http://juantech.com/?p=30 Processor Pentium E5200 3160 Motherboard Gigabyte-GA-G31M-ES2C 2450 Memory Kingston Value Ram 2×1 gb Kit 1600 Harddisk Seagate 7200.11 320gb 16mb 2350 Case Duke DUO8A-BK 1640 Total: 11200

Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200

Intel’s Pentium Dual Core E5200 is a remarkable chip. Costing just over 3000 pesos its price given the performance it delivers is unmatched. The Athlon 64  X2 5200 is the nearest priced offering from AMD but the E5200 offers much more performance. Also the E5300 set to replace the E5200 running 100mhz faster is a bit too expensive right now locally.

For every Juan out there the E5200 should be fast enough to handle day to day things like web browsing, browsing and manipulating pictures, doing your word and power point documents. Also if you do more intensive tasks like gaming and multimedia encoding, you can overclock the E5200 easily to as much as 50% of its clock speed. ( from 2.5ghz to 3.75ghz ).

At the JuanTech.com Labs we overclocked our E5200 sample easily to 3.75ghz without any special coolers, expensive motherboards and performance ram. At that speed this processor will end up matching the performance of Core 2 Duos costing three times more! This makes the Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 the best value processor you can buy right now.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2C

Never before came a value platform that was as easy to overlock as Intel’s G31 chipset. The choice of the G31 chipset is important in building the JuanPC because we needed a motherboard that could provide great performance at a price that we’d love. The Gigabyte’s GA-G31M-ES2C fit the bill perfectly. Priced at only 2500 pesos this is  motherboard of choice for the JuanPC. It comes with solid capacitors, dual bios, and a lot more features along with a solid software bundle.

The integrated graphics processor bundled with the G31 chipset, the Intel GMA 3100, won’t be able to play the latest 3D games out there but is enough to accelerate the Aero Interface that comes with Vista and perhaps your older 3D games.

This board comes with a limitation of being able to handle only two memory modules.  We built the JuanPC with 2×1GB sticks.  You can choose to go with two 2 gigabyte sticks.  Four gigabytes is plenty for most every Juan out there running day to day tasks. So this limitation of the G31 chipset should be much of an issue.

An alternative would be the EMAXX IG31-AVL. Priced at an unbelievably low price of BELOW 2000 pesos this could be the perfect board for those who don’t like to overclock.

]]> http://www.juantech.com/2009/06/16/juanpc-june-2009-edition/feed/ 2 http://www.juantech.com/2009/06/08/test-post-4/ http://www.juantech.com/2009/06/08/test-post-4/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:23:12 +0000 JuanTech Admin http://juantech.com/?p=17

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse metus quam, suscipit et viverra eu, lobortis tincidunt sapien. Mauris lorem massa, ultrices non blandit eget, pellentesque ut purus. Proin rhoncus tincidunt ornare. Suspendisse pulvinar tellus sed nisi vulputate quis adipiscing sapien aliquet. Nunc mollis euismod facilisis. Curabitur at elit purus, id pellentesque mi. Vivamus lacinia ante vel justo varius pulvinar. Fusce vel sagittis ante. Ut posuere fringilla mauris a sagittis. Sed hendrerit felis eu sem blandit dignissim. Quisque in est eget augue porta faucibus in faucibus lectus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Mauris est turpis, tempus id consequat in, pulvinar a lacus. Vestibulum pellentesque odio metus, ut lacinia ipsum. Praesent et nisl turpis, non placerat nulla. Maecenas vulputate mollis elementum. Duis venenatis turpis sit amet ligula venenatis nec dapibus nibh molestie. Aliquam consequat turpis sed enim viverra fringilla. Proin euismod viverra est, ut ultricies neque scelerisque quis.

Nam luctus porta justo, et elementum lorem imperdiet vitae. Pellentesque sagittis adipiscing lorem at pellentesque. Morbi eget lorem ligula, non consequat nulla. Donec scelerisque faucibus dui ut fringilla. Nullam tempor, augue a rutrum laoreet, magna tellus elementum nunc, sit amet porttitor elit magna ac odio. Suspendisse potenti. Cras quis velit nibh, et feugiat felis. Suspendisse volutpat elit volutpat felis imperdiet mollis. Morbi euismod tellus id est vulputate sit amet semper ligula vulputate. Ut suscipit, leo luctus mollis tristique, massa dolor fringilla lacus, et sagittis magna turpis id felis. Nulla facilisi. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Suspendisse eget dolor nisl. Vestibulum mollis enim a mi gravida luctus. Proin pellentesque erat nec est gravida eu placerat mauris blandit. Sed euismod, orci vel luctus convallis, leo nisl gravida velit, non tristique massa odio vitae leo. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse ut volutpat tellus. Mauris a lacus non lacus sagittis lobortis sit amet id magna.

Etiam quis mauris quis lectus convallis viverra. Donec elementum nibh dignissim justo iaculis nec tempus mi convallis. Donec odio nunc, semper sed vestibulum ac, pretium sit amet leo. In ut sapien sapien, at viverra quam. Curabitur aliquet convallis commodo. Sed risus nulla, accumsan in tristique sit amet, vulputate ac libero. Sed semper, tortor id interdum pulvinar, quam massa ornare nulla, sed malesuada eros turpis sed leo. Sed feugiat tempus mi sit amet fringilla. Nulla vitae mauris est, at semper lorem. Cras tincidunt cursus ornare. Praesent rutrum ante sed sapien placerat pretium ut non nulla. Sed eget massa quis ligula fermentum adipiscing eget vel sapien. Suspendisse.

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