Ok, so here’s the heart of my new HTPC system.  I realised that IGP (integrated graphics) are finally at the point where I can ditch my graphics card (and get good money on Ebay!) and still get top Media Centre performance – this thing will do HD MKV and Blu Ray decoding smoothly with its built-in ATI HD3200, and uses less electricity and generates less heat.  All good for the living room HTPC!

Dan

Again, does it count when I don’t actually get the thing out of the box?!  It’s a processor and a heatsink – what’s the point?!  This is going into my new HTPC build.  It’s the perfect CPU – 2.6ghz so plenty of horsepower for Vista HP for now, and Windows 7 once it’s stable enough for the living room.  The other benefit of course is that it’s 45nm, so runs very cool, sips lightly at the electricity, and requires very little cooling (therefore very quiet).

Dan

New background spotted on the installation process in Windows 7.0 Build 7057.

Sorry no posts recently – too much fun playing the SSD!  Lots of unboxing to come though…

It occurred to me the other day when I was testing the SSD that the most significant element of the boot up period was actually the Dell initialising it’s BIOS, and obviously that time is a constant on the boot whatever the hardware attached.  So I thought I’d time it, and it turns out that the BIOS takes a full 16 seconds to initialise!

That means the final scores on the doors are:

Vista 64 + Seagate Barracuda: boot up time (excluding BIOS) = 3 minutes 0 seconds

Windows 7 64 + Samsung SSD: boot up time (excluding BIOS) = 0 minutes 25 seconds

Does make me wonder if other motherboards get through this quicker – anyone have any other experiences they’d like to share?  Pop them in the comments.

Dan