Before the data is written to the drive it is compressed, so that would not affect the quantity of writes. Of course it does. If the data is compressed 50% before it is written then potentially only 50% as many sectors need to be written. In the past storage manufacturers always assumed 50% compres...

The Intel SSD in question is an X25. I can't remember where I found the 14TB figure now. Also keep in mind that Intel are using an SSD controller that does compression now, where as my older drive does not. They don't state what average level of compression they assume. I use SSDs for my main system...

I just checked my laptop. The Intel tool reports 1.46TB of writes in around 5 months of moderate use.

I was surprised by how much data gets written at first. I used TrueCrypt on an older machine and it also keeps those stats, which is when I first noticed.

26GB is nothing. Also don't forget that writes are amplified. My machine has 16GB of RAM so it isn't even page file thrashing.

What worries me is the steadily reducing amount of spare capacity on SSDs. I have an older Intel SSD that is rated for a maximum of 14TB of writes. It ran out of spare capacity after about 18 months in my main computer (used mostly for web and software development). Had it replaced under warranty an...

If the 7950 is quiet at idle does it follow that the 7970 will be too? They are both the same chip but the 7970 has more available shaders, which should be in a low power "off" state when in 2D or light 3D modes.

Would be nice if there were more info on how secure this drive is. Hardly any manufacturers talk about it.

Sandforce SSDs encrypt the data, but the problem is controlling the encryption key. Where is it stored? Is the ATA password used to generate it, or hashed in some way and combined with it?

The 120W model should be fine. I am going to try that model, they are only £15 on fleaBay.

It looks like the software in the screenshot is claiming 98% efficiency from the PSU. Somehow I doubt that is true.

I discovered another flaw with the Microserver. The rear USB ports are too recessed to accept some USB devices. I have a wifi dongle and a USB to Serial converter that won't insert far enough into the slot to be detected. They work fine in the front USB sockets.

The temperature sensor is working, the fan kicks in at 100% and then drops down to around 1100 RPM and stays there.

There is no way that even the PSU fan on its own is anywhere near the 22dB HP claimed.

I took the DC PSU out of my Atom system which idles at 22W. In the Microserver it idles at 28W in the BIOS with no HDDs (so obviously can't boot up). The HDD makes about 5-6W difference so we can say about 34W with it, and then drop down 8-10W once booted due to power saving in Windows. As it happen...

faugusztin wrote:My N40L with 4xWD10EADS and 8GB RAM is idling at 48W from socket at BIOS boot screen (no OS installed right now).

Looking at your location you are on 230V, right?

The fan noise is much more than that of the HDD. That isn't all that surprising to me, reading many threads on many forums a lot of people say the fan isn't particularly quiet. I'm not really worried about it though, power consumption is my concern. Tomorrow I'll see if I can try a DC-DC PSU. As you...

The PSU is a 200W model, but of course it could be different inside. I'm on 240V as well so it should be more efficient if anything. Mine came with 2GB of RAM and 1x 250GB Seagate HDD but appears to be the same model mobo and CPU wise. My meter is accurate. I checked it with a couple of lightbulbs j...

I just got one of these and can't reproduce the review's results at all. Mine is far, far louder than the review sample and the best idle power consumption I can get is 45W. That is with a 2.5" Western Digital HDD and the 2GB of RAM it came with. The stock Seagate 250GB HDD adds another couple of wa...

I have a CurrentCost meter and it works well. Shame Google gave up on PowerMeter though.

Most (all?) UK models seem to be battery powered. I'm wondering why that is because Japanese and US meters are not, and it seems obvious to use the mains power. My guess is that it is safety related. I am tempted to try attaching a plug-in PSU in place of the batteries in one of mine to see what hap...

Man, I remember when the 4870 was hardcore. I actually bought one. Then a couple of days ago a friend emails me asking if he can run this new helicopter sim so I take a look at the minimum spec and it says Radeon HE 4850. So the 4870 is maybe six months away from becoming a door stop in the PC gamin...

Well there is a hint in the price tag. It suggests that their yields are low. In that light it makes perfect sense to write off two of six cores if your process can barely turn out that many. It will be interesting to see what the 4 core version using the same silicone will cost.

I think Intel are just mocking AMD now. Bulldozer is such an epic failure.

I was really disappointed too because I like AMD gear. They stick to the same CPU socket for a long time and across ranges (how many do Intel have at the moment, at least 5 or 6) and you get all the features even on the low end models (virtualisation extensions, AES, ECC RAM support etc), and their ...

Looks interesting, price point will be key. I wonder if the coil whine could be reduced...

The VFD looks like a missed opportunity. It would have been perfect for displaying a progress bar or time remaining in XBMC. Might be replaceable with a bit of hacking.

It looks like you used about 10x too much thermal paste there.

Any kind of non-TRIM garbage collection is limited by the fact that the SSD can't tell what data is in use and what can be dumped. Only the PC which can read the filesystem knows that. Mike, maybe you should run some more tests to determine the effects of this. Basically fill the drive with lots of ...

If Bulldozer CPUs do work in AM3+ boards that will be excellent. AMD are producing some really good value kit - the 6x00 GPUs are amazing and cheap, AM3 mobos are fairly cheap and there is a good selection, AM3 CPUs are cheap... They are robust as well, particularly their chipsets and on-board graph...

Interesting! The ADE7755 outputs a square wave with frequency proportional to power consumption. Do the meters also show line voltage? In that case there must be other hardware measuring that. In mine they used a dual op-amp. One to measures voltage by scaling approx ±600v to 0-5v, for more precisel...

There must be a specialized integrated circuit, not just op amps. Here is my meter EL-EPM02HQ (a good one): http://www.bildites.lv/images/myt0q3andj5okvwcg2zy_thumb.jpg http://www.bildites.lv/images/vxu4wrlo9zxlkombzcp_thumb.jpg It was a while ago when I opened it but basically there was an op-amp ...

Thanks, that is very useful. As for the five year thing in the UK the law says that goods must last a "reasonable length of time". For computers that is generally recognised as being 5-6 years. Therefore if your SSD failed in the 5th year you could go back to the place of purchase and either have it...

Formatted TB Written Capacity before failure 160GB 29 144GB 68 128GB 104 _96GB 150 The 160GB drive is a bit worrying. On a machine which used TrueCrypt for the system partition you can see exactly how much data is read or written to the drive. In my experience with Windows XP x64 between 1.5 and 2G...