Thursday, March 16, 2006

Hyper-Threading?

I just installed my new 300gb Seagate Serial ATA hard drive on my Dell Dimension 8400 computer. I had to change some settings in my BIOS in order for my system to recognize the new drive. However, while playing around with some settings, I discovered that my "Hyper-Threading" is turned off, which is no real surprise because that is the default setting. So I had 2 questions:
1. What is Hyper-Threading?
2. Why is the default BIOS setting off?

I remember always seeing the Intel w/ Hyper-Threading in the description of Dell Desktops. So I did a google search and found it that its suppose to increase performance using that technology.
"Hyper-threading enables multi-threaded software applications to execute two software threads in parallel, thereby improving system responsiveness. Intel Pentium 4 Processors enabled with HT Technology deliver performance and multitasking gains that result in increased productivity and efficiency."

So if this is a good thing, then why is it defaulted off on my computer? Well supposedly according to a forum, it doesnt work well with some software. So Dell didnt want more customer service calls.

So anyways, I turned it on noticed that when I loaded my photoshop elements or premiere elements that the loading start screen now says multiprocessor instead of single CPU. Hopefully I'll see an increase in performance.

So in summary, turn on your HyperThreading!


Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Jet Li's last movie!? - "Fearless"

Noooooo! If I had to pick a person that is my idol, it would be Jet Li. You would know why after watching one of his Hong Kong movies. Dont watch any of his US movies because they are horrible. Anyways, Jet Li is coming out with a new movie called "Fearless".


Sunday, March 5, 2006

Dell Super 600m Notebook Deal

I just got a REALLY good deal from Dell. I heard from a Dell Rep that they getting rid of their non-widescreen laptops. All of the Dell laptop you see now are widescreen (rectangular vs square) and silver. The only laptop that Dell was stilling selling but wasnt widescreen was the 600m. The 600m is a very solid laptop. Its surprisingly only 5.3lbs which is pretty light. My 700m is 5lbs because of my extended battery. So I got the laptop below for $506 TOTAL including tax and shipping. Did I mention the 1GB RAM and dvd burner?! The cheapest laptop on Dell.com is the B120 which is $449 PLUS tax. This deal is currently expired and lasted only about a day.

Dell 600m
# Celeron M Processor 360(1.40 GHz/400MHz FSB) 14.1-in XGA 32MB Video
# 1GB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
# 40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
# Integrated Modem and NIC Internal 56K Modem and Integrated Network Card
# Combo/DVD+RW Drives FREE 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
# Wireless Networking Cards Dell 1370 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
# Primary Battery 6-Cell Lithium Ion Battery (53Whr)