MaximumPC 2010 11

MaximumPC 2010 11, MaximumPC

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21
REMARKABLE
OCTO-CORE!
Exclusive facts and fi gures on AMD's
new line of performance CPUs
p. 8
Predator vs. Alien
Can Acer
’
s new system hold its own
against monsters like Alienware?
p. xx
p. 78
PC
PC
MINIMUM BS • NOVEMBER 2010
www.maximumpc.com
Build the
Ultimate
Gaming PC
...on a Budget!
It’s never been easier (or cheaper) to
build your own rig. Our step-by-step guide
reveals the parts, process and perfection!
p. 30
SMARTPHONE CAGE MATCH
Apple, Android, and BlackBerry duke it out
in an unsanctioned three-way OS battle
p. 18
TV
We answer seven burning questions about
Google's bid to merge TV and Internet
p. 62
3D MONITORS,
3D NOTEBOOKS
Too early to buy? Our Lab torture-
tests seven next-gen products.
Answers inside
p. 46
APPS
PC
PC
    Unleash your PC’s Potential…
Try
Each issue of
Maximum PC features:
Brutally honest product
reviews
Hard-hitting editorials
Tips to blast your
machine’s performance
Insightful and
innovative How-To’s
A CD loaded with new
software, utility and
game demos
Reserve your
2 FREE
Trial Issues today!
There’s no obligation.
To order, head to:
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WHERE WE PUT STUFF
CONTENTS
NOVEMBER
FEATURES
30
Gaming Budget-Build
A guided tour, from parts selection all the way
to OS install. Build your gaming rig with us.
46
3D Hardware
Check out this slew of new 3D laptops and monitors.
Is it time to take the 3D plunge?
59
Maximum Tech
We proudly preview our new publication
Is it time to take the 3D plunge?
59
Maximum Tech
We proudly preview our new publication
30
30
for hardcore technology enthusiasts.
DEPARTMENTS
Quickstart
08
NEWS
Details on AMD’s Bulldozer
eight-core CPU; 3D consumer cameras.
16
LIST
Nine nerd meccas of the world.
16
LIST
Nine nerd meccas of the world.
18
DEATHMATCH
Mobile OS? We put
Android, Apple, and BlackBerry in the ring.
R
&
D
64
WHITE PAPER
How AES secures
your data.
65
AUTOPSY
Livescribe Echo Pen.
69
HOW TO
Control your mouse with
a gamepad using XPadder; make
super-cheap phone calls with
VoIP; host an FTP server.
65
AUTOPSY
Livescribe Echo Pen.
69
HOW TO
Control your mouse with
a gamepad using XPadder; make
super-cheap phone calls with
VoIP; host an FTP server.
In the Lab
77
REVIEWS
92
LAB NOTES
96
BEST OF THE BEST
77
REVIEWS
92
LAB NOTES
96
BEST OF THE BEST
LETTERS
24
DOCTOR
94
COMMENTS
94
COMMENTS
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FEATURES
30
Gaming Budget-Build
A guided tour, from parts selection all the way
to OS install. Build your gaming rig with us.
46
3D Hardware
Check out this slew of new 3D laptops and monitors.
for hardcore technology enthusiasts.
DEPARTMENTS
Quickstart
08
NEWS
Details on AMD’s Bulldozer
eight-core CPU; 3D consumer cameras.
18
DEATHMATCH
Mobile OS? We put
Android, Apple, and BlackBerry in the ring.
&
D
64
WHITE PAPER
How AES secures
your data.
R
&
In the Lab
LETTERS
24
DOCTOR
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PC
A THING OR TWO ABOUT A THING OR TWO
ED WORD
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director
: Jon Phillips
Editor in Chief
:
George Jones
Deputy Editor
: Katherine Stevenson
Senior Editor
:
Gordon Mah Ung
Reviews Editor
: Michael Brown
Senior Associate Editor
: Nathan Edwards
Online Managing Editor
: Alex Castle
Online Features Editor
: Amber Bouman
Online Assistant Editor
: Alan Fackler
Contributing Writers
: Loyd Case, Tom Halfhill, Paul Lilly, Thomas
McDonald, Quinn Norton, Zack Stern
Copy Editor
: Mary Ricci
Podcast Producer
: Andy Bauman
Editor Emeritus
: Andrew Sanchez
ART
Art Director
:
Natalie Jeday
Contributing Art Director
: Mark Rosenthal
Photo Editor
: Mark Madeo
Associate Photographer
: Samantha Berg
Contributing Photographer
: Patrick Kawahara
BUSINESS
VP Tech and Living/GM
: Kate Byrne, kbyrne@futureus.com
National Sales Director
: Jane Evans, jevans@futureus.com
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: Anthony Losanno, alosanno@
futureus.com
Account Executive
: Greg Ryder, gryder@futureus.com
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: Joe Pomparelli, jpomparelli@
futureus.com
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: Andrea Recio-Ang, arecio-ang
@futureus.com
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:
Robbie Montinola, rmontinola@
futureus.com
Advertising Coordinator
: Jose Urrutia, jurrutia@futureus.com
CONSUMER MARKETING
VP Consumer Marketing
: Rich McCarthy, rmccarthy@futureus.com
Circulation Director
: Crystal Hudson, chudson@futureus.com
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: Bill Shewey, bshewey@futureus.com
Consumer Marketing Operations Director
: Lisa Radler, lradler@
futureus.com
Renewal & Billing Manager
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Business Manager
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Elliot Kiger, ekiger@futureus.com
Sr. Online Consumer Marketing Director
: Jennifer Trinkner,
jtrinkner@futureus.com
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: Mike Frassica, mfrassica@
futureus.com
PRODUCTION
Production Director
: Michael Hollister
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: Larry Briseno
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: Dan Mallory
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Email
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Tablet?
SmartTablet?
Tabletphone? Bah!
a little dizzy. I can’t even imagine what it’s doing to everyday consumers. Just as
we were pushing the last few pages of this issue to press, we received the very
interesting, but category-blurring Asus Eee 1215N. This netbook has a dual-core Atom
processor, a 12-inch screen, and a 250GB hard drive. It costs around $500. A 12-inch
screen? On a netbook? I have a 3-year-old ThinkPad X61t laptop that’s the same
exact size.
If you are familiar with Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup, you know that the “t” in the
notebook’s model number designates a pen-based tablet system. In 2010, these Think-
Pads have essentially been reduced to “legacy tablet” status. In the
meantime, the tablet category is becoming trickier and trickier to deci-
pher. For now, the iPad is the prototypical tablet, but it’s substantially
bigger than Dell’s highly anticipated Streak, which is itself only about
25 percent bigger than a regular smartphone. Aren’t touch-screen
smartphones pretty much tablets, anyway? Not that this clarifi es
things, but the N900 is smartphone-size, but Nokia calls it a tablet. It
even comes with a stylus. According to my logic, this would make the
N900 a hybrid smartphone cum legacy tablet, otherwise known as a
“legacytabletphone.”
In an ironic twist, convergence—the point at which all of our devices
are linked to each other, theoretically providing a seamless computing
experience—is rapidly creating divergence. And it’s confusing.
Thankfully, the desktop PC still stands tall. I’ll confess to
considering the possibility a few years ago that the desktop’s days
were numbered. However, when you consider all the tasks a single
moderately powered PC is capable of, and then consider all the forms
of content these portable devices are capable of generating, the PC
suddenly begins to feel even more essential. As a server, a photo/video production
system, a storage device, a home theater, and more.
Then there’s gaming. Desktop PCs are capable of providing thrills and a level of
immersion that console systems can’t match. (By the way, this month’s cover story
offi cially marks our entry into monthly PC building projects. Based on all the feedback
we received, deciding to build a budget gaming rig was a no-brainer. Next month, we’re
going to try to squeeze as much power as possible into a small formfactor box.)
In the meantime, starting today we’re going to make a concerted effort to help
consumers understand tablets, smartphones, and more with a brand-new magazine.
This month, we’re launching
Maximum Tech
, which applies our Lab’s pragmatism and
enthusiasm to consumer electronics. If you like what we’re doing here, you’ll love
Maximum Tech
. Finally, if you’re curious about the Asus Eee 1215N, check back here
next month for a full review.
THE NERD
IN CHIEF’S
PICKS
3D Laptop and
Display Shootout
p. 46
Budget Gaming
PC Build-It
p. 30
Maximum Tech
Teaser
p. 59
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he defining line between devices continues to blur, and for once it’s making me
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QUICKSTART
THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
THE NEWS
Is for Wimps
Company details its eight-core Bulldozer CPU, which breaks ground
by using a modular approach
—GORDON MAH UNG
The company says its next-generation
Bulldozer CPU core will take a unique
approach to computing that goes beyond
Hyper-Threading, a change some believe
could off er phenomenal performance.
Bulldozer represents a fairly big break
from how today’s multicores are constructed.
Today’s dual-, quad-, and hexa-cores are based
on single-cores strung together. They can share
L2 or L3 cache, but generally are partitioned
off from each other. With Bulldozer, the basic
building block of a multi-core chip changes
from a walled-off single-core to more of a
duplex. Two cores are tightly intertwined and
share fetch, decode, fl oating-point scheduler,
and dual 128-bit fused-multiply-accumulate
units, or FPUs. AMD says each module includes
dedicated integer schedulers, pipelines, and
L1 cache.
This, AMD says, is far superior to Intel’s
reduce power consumption and shrink the die
size, which in turn lowers the cost to produce
the chip. AMD says the server version of its
Bulldozer chip should deliver 33 percent more
cores and a 50 percent increase in “through-
WITH BULLDOZER, THE BASIC BUILDING
BLOCK OF A MULTI-CORE CHIP
CHANGES FROM A WALLED-OFF SINGLE-
CORE TO MORE OF A DUPLEX
Hyper-Threading, which can bog down when
the same resources are under load.
Hyper-Theading was introduced by Intel
in 2002 and takes
a single-core and
shares its resources
by creating a virtual
core. In the Pentium 4
days, HT added a 10
to 15 percent per-
formance increase,
and in Core i7 chips,
performance can
be boosted 20 to 25
percent, depending
on the application.
Just adding dedi-
cated, partitioned
cores is a “brute
force” approach that
wastes resources,
AMD says. With its
shared resources,
Bulldozer can
put” in the same power envelope as a 12-core
Magny-Cours Opteron chip.
“One of the important things here is that
Bulldozer is one of the fi rst all-new designs
from AMD in a decade,” says analyst Nathan
Brookwood of Insight 64. Brookwood says one of
the more exciting design changes in Bulldozer is
its ability to dynamically reallocate resources on
single-threaded tasks. On a traditional dual-core,
the resources for each walled-off core cannot be
combined. In Bulldozer, all of the resources of
the module can be thrown at a thread.
“The single-core performance on some
fl oating-point applications is going to be
mind-boggling,” Brookwood says.
AMD offi cials say Bulldozer is being
targeted at servers and performance desktop
machines. The good news is that Bulldozer
will be drop-in compatible with most current
high-end servers. The bad news is that it won’t
be compatible with existing AM3 boards.
Instead, AMD says it will introduce a new
AM3+ socket. These sockets will be backward
compatible with older chips so you could
drop a Phenom II X6 in it. According to AMD,
Bulldozer will be built on a new 32nm process
at Global Foundries.
The chip company also released more
details on its Bobcat CPU. For more on that, see
our Fast Forward column on the next page.
DEDICATED
COMPONENTS
SHARED AT THE
MODULE LEVEL
SHARED AT THE
CHIP LEVEL
FETCH
DECODE
INT
SCHEDULER
FP
SCHEDULER
INT
SCHEDULER
CORE 1
CORE 2
L1 DCACHE
L1 DCACHE
SHARED L2 CACHE
In AMD’s modular
chip design, the
distinct processing
cores share many
resources for
greater effi ciency.
SHARED L2 CACHE AND NB
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THE NEWS
THE NEWS
AMD: Hyper-Threading
AMD: Hyper-Threading
Y
ou can’t say that AMD is ever boring.
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