News for Friday, 6 March 2009

As usual, iFixit disassembled the freshly released iMac, bringing the 20" model into pieces and parts.

As expected too, changes when compared to the previous iMac models are minimal and subtle, and one still needs sucking pad to release the glossy plate covering the LCD panel.
If you plane to reproduce this procedure or to disassemble your iMac, you will have a hard time to avoid any dust to be trapped between the glass plate and the LCD panel. The best environment for such operation is a kitchen with all opening closed, any air flow switched-off and a cooking pot full of boiling water. Humidity will prevent dust to fly in the air. Wait a bit before opening the iMac that the air is saturated, and then proceed. If you notice some water condensation inside the glass plate after reassembling, do not worry it will disappear quickly after using your iMac.
Direct link to the article: Hhttp://www.ifixit.com

Cnet published a test of the new Mac mini and compared it with several entry level PC all of them based on tower format and using more powerful and/or cheaper component.
Despite its mobile hardware, the Mac mini demonstrates its capacities and remains a powerful solution in such a small format. Its power consumption of 28.4 W when fully loaded and 15.4 W when idle is 4 to 5 times lower than the values measured for its PC competitors. When one thinks of tons of carbon and power saving, such data might become a true decision point for many users when purchasing a small size computer.

While we are preparing an article to upgrade the Mac mini 2009 we noticed some information about the RAM modules that can be important for future owners.

As shown on this photo, Apple chose to use a single 1 GB RAM module instead of 2 modules of 512 MB each. If this is a good news for owners willing to upgrade their Mac mini to 2 GB, leaving a single RAM module installed will degrade graphical performance of the GeForce 9400M as the chipset will not be able to use double channel shared memory. By adding a second RAM module, the shared memory allocated to the GF 9400M shift from 128 MB to 256 MB.
So, if you planned to add more RAM in your Mac mini, and wanted to go for the entry level model with 1 GB, then rather purchase the model with 2 GB, and then add an additional 2 GB module to boost performance, the price difference is minimal. It could even sometimes be cheaper to buy the 1 GB model than replace the single RAM module with 2 modules of 2 GB each.

The war between NVidia and Intel is unceasingly bitter and worsens since NVidia wants to carry out calculations with its GPU and Intel wants to display images using its CPU.
One of the ways that NVidia could go would be to take on Intel completely by launching its own X86 processors. At least this is the opinion of Michael Hara on a Morgan Stanley technology conference webcast; he predicts that this will happen in the next 2 to 3 years.
NVidia has to be very sure of itself to manufacture processors as powerful as those of Intel who have decades of experience; however the thing becomes possible since they do not seek to offer complete X86 products; instead being satisfied to offer a something that does what their GPU and Cuda cannot do.
A rendez-vous in a couple of years to find out if this prediction is carried out, and if NVidia has success and also if AMD can survive with the presence of two adversaries.

ADATA has announced its new SSD 2.5" disk that reaches the record capacity of 512 GB.

In addition to its performances, 230 MB/s in reading and 160 MB/s in writing, it offers us the luxury of a capacity higher than the largest hard drive in this format, which is a new defeat for the traditional manufacturers of disks.
Admittedly, initially its price will be significantly higher, but since the tariff of the SSD will drop quickly, the disappearance of the hard disk could come about much more quickly than some expected.