Misc hardware and tech questions

[Wolfdale75]

Hi Guys,

Can anyone offer either factual info or opinions on the following? All constructive replies very gratefully received! Thanks a lot.

1) Why does the (superior) Core i7 950 cost less than $275 but an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 at cost at least $330?

2) Where is the DNS server located – does my router or my ISP provide it?

3) Should I max out my Socket 775 setup (add: Core 2 Quad Q9650, more DDR2 RAM, SSD) and wait until the next gen, or invest in i7 now? I do office work and some light gaming.

4) Are PCIe-based SSDs going to be the way forward?

5) Is it possible to run a USB 2.0 device as USB 3.0?

6) Can you get additional laptop video memory in ExpressCard form? Is it worth investing in?

7) At what speed does the PCIe bus run?

8) What's the difference between a patch and a hotfix?

9) Why is there still no PnP cable to directly connect 2 PCs? USB has been around since 1994...

10) Why can't we buy RAM made from cache memory?

11) Is RAM faster to read than flash memory?

12) Why not make RAM non-volatile so it stores our most recently used, or most used, data and apps after the power is unplugged? No more RAM refreshing!

13) Is an SSD the single most noticeable performance upgrade you can make? I.e. not CPU, not RAM etc.

 

[Dangman]

1) Two reasons: Supply and demand and artificial inflation. Intel has stopped production of the Q9550 but there was a decent demand for them. As such prices went up. In fact at one point, you could get brand new Q9550 CPUs for around $160 from Microcenter. As for the artificial inflation thing, some people think that Intel is also keeping the Q9550 prices high in order to force people to considering their new Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs instead of the overpriced Core 2 Duo CPUs.

2) Generally your ISP have their own DNS servers. However you can use a 3rd party DNS server like OpenDNS with a few configuration changes in the router

3) If you can get the Q9550 or Q9650 for $150 to %165 shipped, then go for it if you still have a dual core or a Q6600 level quad-core CPU. If you can't find the Q9550 or Q9650 for that price, not worth it at all. As for DDR2 RAM, unless you have 2GB of DDR2 RAM or do extensive virtual machine, photoshop, or video editing work, you're better off saving your money since DDR2 RAM prices have risen quite steadily over the past few years.

4) No.

5) No. USB 2.0 does not come with the extra pins necessary for USB 3.0 speeds.

6) Nope. Generally, laptop GPUs cannot be upgraded or modified. The ones that can will cost a lot of money and will only show up in a handful of laptops.

However you can run add a expressCard GPU

7) PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots

8) Hotfix are basically just rushed patches to fix critical issues quickly where regular patches will take too long

9) There are. If the PCs have gigabit NICs, you just use a simple ethernet cable to connect the two PCs together. If you're using Windows XP, you can connect two PCs via a single firewire cable. There are PC to PC USB cables but those aren't widespread and the ones that you do find are generally cheap Chinese fakes.

10) N/A

11) Different technology and different interfaces.

12) Because it costs too much to do that.

13) Assuming that the rest of the PC is good and the motherboard can handle the speeds, yes a SSD is probably the most noticeable upgrade for a PC.

 

[Wolfdale75]

Hi Danny Bui, many thanks for your replies!

To respond:

1) I was actually asking about the Q9650, but I'm sure your explanation applies just the same

4) What do you anticipate to be the interface of choice for SSDs in the future then, if not PCIe?

6) Will I need an external monitor to make use of that ExpressCard GPU, or will it work with my laptop LCD?

7) Can you point me to the bus speed/frequency of PCIe 2.0 slots?

10) Why isn't RAM available made from cache memory?

11) So am I right in believing RAM is much faster read than flash memory?

12) HDDs can store data after the power is off and they are inexpensive. So can flash memory. Why is it expensive to have RAM do this too?

Thanks for your further input Cheers!

 

[Dangman]

1) What I said still applies. In fact, Intel has stated that the production of Q9650 CPUs have stopped. So that has driven prices even higher.

4) SATA 6Gb/s for the near future. PCI-e based SSDs has too many limitations for it to be completely widespread

6) It appears that I forgot to add a link in my response:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522180

Yes you do need an external monitor as well as a PSU, GPU, and that special adapter.

7) Wikipedia is your friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-E

Basically, 8 GB/s or 4 Gb/s for a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot.

10) Sorry I got to make sure: What exactly do you mean by "cache memory"?

11) Yes. Significantly faster.

12) Completely different designs thats relatively expensive thats why. RAM uses a design that requires millions of transistors and capactitors. Not to mention that DRAM is designed and is required to be refereshed thousands of times per second whereas flash memory and HDD platters are not. As a result, DRAM is significantly faster than flash memory. As a byproduct of all those factors, DRAM is now volatile.

Think about it: If they could have made DRAM non-volatile, they would have done so by now.