Seagate Hard Drives - Problems?

As some of you may have noticed there's been a fair bit of hoopla across the internet lately about a firmware bug in Seagate 7200.11-series hard drives. Some 7200.11 drives have indeed experienced "bricking", (an error which causes them to cease functioning altogether) but so far none of our customers (or us) have seen the problem occur on an Uberclok PC. From what we can tell through our own experience, as well as through reading accounts on the internet, this is happening mostly to the 1TB model, and only rarely happening to the 500GB and 1.5TB models we use, if it really is happening at all. (Uberclok uses Samsung 1TB hard drives.)

We have a lot of confidence in Seagate - we have experienced a very low rate of drive failures with their products, and their price/performance ratio is excellent. Nevertheless, Seagate shot themselves in the foot by releasing a firmware update for these drives that caused more trouble than it solved. Consequently, their image took a bit of a hit this week, and we're left with the harsh reality that some customers are going to want another choice. Starting tomorrow, we will offer alternatives to our Seagate hard drives.

GTX 285 now shipping!

It lagged a bit behind its dual-GPU sibling (the GTX 295) but the world officially has a new fastest single-GPU card - the GTX 285! We now offer it on both the Ion and Reactor, and personally, I'm a bit more excited about this one than the 295. It's faster, has more memory, and works its magic on all games and applications (as opposed to the SLI-on-a-stick method employed by the 295 - not all games and apps respond well to SLI.)

There doesn't seem to be any reason to offer the GTS 280 any longer, but if the pricing drops enough, we may bring it back.

Interesting Game Review...

Not that this has a WHOLE lot to do with our business, but I thought I'd point out an unusually provocative review that happened over at Official XBox Magazine. Their review of Dead Space, by author Meghan Watt, came out with a surprising 6.5 out of 10 for the AAA-title game back in October. The number was surprising because it was such a mega-hyped game before release, and so many other reviewers REALLY liked it (the aggregate score at metacritic is in the mid-80's).

I stumbled across the review because I'd finally gotten around to loading it up on my Fury tonight, only to come to the astonished realization that it was, for me, a steaming pile of crap of a game, especially compared to what I'd been playing recently (Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Mass Effect, and Call of Duty 4). The very first thing I noted (and this is irrelevant to the review) was that it was unmistakably a console-to-PC port. So was Mass Effect, but you weren't constantly reminded of the fact by sluggish mouse performance, an inability to map the arrow keys, and a distracting option navigation system. When it really got bad, though, was all of five minutes into the game when it became obvious that the characters were flat, the writing was stilted and unbelievable, and the story made no sense (example: there are scattered wall-cupboards throughout the game which open automatically to dispense money. Sign me up for that navy.) It really felt like an even MORE annoying version of Doom 3. (Calm down, I liked Doom 3 for about halfway through.)

Anyway, the point is, I stopped the game after an hour to see why I'd heard such good things about it, and found Meghan's review. The interesting thing isn't that she was one of VERY few reviewers who didn't like it, but rather the eight pages of vitriolic responses! They were mostly posted by dozens of readers who apparently all want their game reviews homogenized and uniform. Many of the responses are longer than the article itself, and some had to be removed by the staff. These people got MAD, many of them before they'd even played the game themselves, mostly because they felt that if OXM took a position that was out of step with other reviews, they were not to be trusted! It was like they felt betrayed. They're still posting too, having called for Meghan's dismissal as recently as two days ago.

I guess the Emperor is playing Dead Space in his New Clothes...

You can see the article and the responses here.

PS - Meghan, you're my hero. You saved me from several more hours of frustration...

Surprise! GTX 295 shipping NOW!

Our distributor surprised us with immediate availability today! Will wonders never cease - the nVidia channel partners are getting much better at this. GTX 295 is now an option on the Fury and Ion. (You won't see it as an option for Video Card #3 on the Fury, so if you were hoping for Sextet SLI, keep dreaming...)

GTX 285, 295 announced + 3D glasses are back!

Just in time for just missing Christmas, nVidia announced their latest and greatest on the high-end video card scene. Here's the lowdown:

GTX 285: single-45nm GPU 1GB memory 648MHz 240 cores
GTX 295: dual-45nm GPU 896MB memory 576MHz 240 cores

Compare that to the current top-end cards:

GTX 260: single-65nm GPU 896MB memory 576MHz 192 cores
GTX 280: single-65nm GPU 1GB memory 602 MHz 240 cores

Much of the hype seems to be on the dual-GPU GTX 295, but don't be surprised if the real winner turns out to be the GTX 285. Here's a few things to remember:

1. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
I can't believe the vendors are once again hawking the total amount of on-board video memory on a dual-GPU card as its "available memory" or just "memory". Shame on them! The GTX 295, like any current dual-GPU nVidia card, is essentially two video cards in SLI mode, just in one physical enclosure. In SLI mode, the total amount of effective memory is the same as the lowest amount of memory available to either GPU, NOT the combined total available to both. Think of this as an 896MB card, especially if you're thinking of gaming on a 24" monitor or larger. Time will tell if the GTX 285 or the 295 is a better choice for high-res gaming, and the fact that the GTX 285 has more available memory will play a big role in that. Stay tuned, and stay skeptical ;-)

2. Availability is totally up in the air. Nobody really knows whwn these cards will hit the retail & distribution channels, but it shouldn't be more than two weeks from now. (Unless it is.)

3. Early adopters: be prepared for driver weirdness for a month or two. These aren't just tweaked versions of the current GTX-200 series; they're completely new animals, and there will almost certainly be growing pains.

Also announced today: the return of 3D glasses! It's been done before with headache-inducing results, but nVidia thinks they can provide a solid experience with stereoscopic 3D hardware. Their new 3D glasses (which we'll be adding to our offerings shortly) supposedly work with any GeForce card newer than (and including) the 8600 GT (possibly requiring a video card BIOS update) as well as with hundreds of existing games - no patch needed. See the list here. The one caveat: you need a compatable monitor. We'll be offering the Samsung 22" SyncMaster 2233RZ as soon as it is available to us, and larger monitors will probably not appear unlett the technology proves itself first.

More to come...

Core i7 Speed Targets Set

Each time we start shipping PCs with a brand new generation of CPUs (like the Core i7's) we have to build enough systems to get a good feel for the overclock range of the chips before we can publish minimum overclock speeds. This happens because all CPU's are not created equal, and some roll off the Intel or AMD assembly line with a greater overclocking potential than the others.

That time has come. We'd like to thank those of you who took the plunge by ordering systems from us without knowing a minimum speed. Here is what you can expect from our Core i7 PCs:

Core i7-920: 3.5GHz
Core i7-940: 3.7GHz
Core i7-965: 3.9GHz

Again, those are minimum values, and many of our customers will receive faster chips, but this is what we can guarantee.

We did a side-by-side comparison of a 4.0GHz Core2-based PC and a 3.5GHz Core-i7, both with the same video card (4870X2) and 4GB of memory - the i7 was about 20% faster in most games. So while the Core2 Ion is still an excellent choice for the cost-conscious, you really are getting something for the extra money with the Fury.