If you are visiting Paris, you must know about rue Montgallet. This is the nice little geek secret here. A street (and a couple of neighbouring ones) where you will find literally one computer shop every other door step. Prices are as low as they can get in France.
I usually start from the top (Metro station Montgallet), moves down the street collecting prices, possibly continuing in rue de Charenton. Then, having decided about the model-price I want to buy I come back to the metro. This is done very easily because for most products the prices are displayed in lists outside the shops. If it’s not listed, the prices is not worth asking for inside.
This is the first-hand observation I made this week. I wanted to add 2GB of RAM memory to my main PC (going from 2GB to 4GB RAM allows to accelerate all my activities in Photoshop when I open more than 3 or 4 12-mega-pixel images at the same time). So, as the normal Parisian geek I am, I ran to the Paris Mecca of PC computing: Montgallet street.
There, I could buy 2 memory modules in a matched XMS2 set of DDR-2/800 PC6400 (CAS5) from Corsair for a mere 41€ and observe that -if you accept lower performance or less famous brands- prices can go as low as 19€. This is the right time to buy RAM!
However, I should also indicate that DRAMexchange announces a possible small increase of RAM prices during this Summer. Maybe the beginning of a small recovery for a market that has been very favorable to the customer for a long time?
Important notice for those intending to do exactly like me: Under Windows (at least if you do not use the 64-bit version of the OS), installing 4GB of RAM will only provide 3.5GB of really available memory. But at this price, I have no issue with wasting 512MB…
If you have an old collection of PC MS-DOS games that has been sleeping at the bottom of a drawer, you may have two approaches: A/ you prefer to forget the old pixels and buy new games, B/ you were so found of those that you want to play even on your newest PC. However, it is difficult because most of these run only in a DOS box, but are so unusable because of the speed of the processor and the limited compatibility of the sound and graphics.
Now DOSBox.com offers a real solution with a free emulator.
Usable for MS-Windows, most Linux boxes, some Apple OS and OS/2.
Intel has several Developer forums per year in the world. In Spring 2008, they went to Shanghai in order to reveal the future of computers, mobile data and processors. Oddly enough, I also was in Shanghai at the same time.
I observed not the forum itself, but people going to the Forum (located in the Shanghai International Convention Center). Some of them were cramed in the Sofitel Jin Jiang Oriental Pudong (Tong Jin Jiang Pudong Hotel). Man! Do they think that the attendees are dumb? Any person (probably identified by his/her westerner/caucasian appearance) staying more than 30 seconds in the lobby would be met by some Intel-appointed people asking “are you here for the Intel forum?” and immediately trying to help you to the shuttles.
This is nice, I suppose, if your lost. But it seems that the Intel people were guessing that any IDF participants would have to be too dumb to see the buses stopped in front of the hotel doors.
Was it an evaluation of the mental capacity of developers or of journalists?
Actually, this is DRAM manufacturers that have these nightmares. While prices have been regularlyfalling down for months (consumers love it), the financial results of most of the manufacturers are falling through the floor. It has been quite long in the making, but we can expect that there will be some consolidation when some manufacturer close their DRAM activity or sell to the competition within 2008.
Prices may keep plumetting but sales are stabilizing, and this could be the end of it in 2008.
2008 will be the year of the triple core CPU. AMD started to ship the Phenom chips in various configurations.
As said before, this is a great way for AMD to differentiate itself, but the prices are not expected to go down immediately. Either because AMD does not want to shoot itself in the foot or because the quantities will not be huge for a few more weeks.
Let’s wait for the next price war between Intel and AMD, remembering that most games do not take advantage of more than 2 cores.
According to a nice comparison article facing Intel and AMD on dual core CPUs (at XBit Labs), Intel is now the best supplier for processors: at the same price, its CPU are more powerful, except for games where the cheaper AMD ones are leveling the ground.
This is more or less what has to be concluded from reading the articles currently published about the compatibility (more supposed than real) between the new AMD 4-core processor and the existing AM2-socket motherboards. But it seems that AMD will have to be a little more patient.
This is not a very good omen for the financial come-back of Intel’s main competitor that is still depending a lot of this year’s launch of 3- and 4-core processors.
According to Apply Daily (via Digitimes), VIA reorganized itself with the consequence that they will concentrate on their own line of CPUs and supporting chipsets, leaving the chipsets for Intel and AMD aside.
It may come as a surprise to some of you, but with the newest PC equipped with more than 1 gigabyte of DRAM, the 32-bit version of the Linux kernel is usually showing issues around the use of 2-4GB of central RAM.
Manufacturers of DRAM chips and NAND Flash modules still see the market as one long nightmare they cannot wake up from. There is a permanent oversupply that does not seem to be reduced by the end-of-the-year purchases. Taiwan DRAM makers are worried because they do not even see a reason why this should improve in the coming weeks.
This means that if you need either DRAM modules to upgrade your computer or Flash memory cards, you are both quite alone on this market and prices should be nice to you.
Since it appears that finding this information about the Crysis video game is a bit difficult, you can follow the link to Crysis minimum requirements here.
As plenty other people you may have already downloaded the Crysis demo because you wanted to taste the PC game of the end of the year. But some Internet web site went further and stressed the demo to the point that you can get a good feeling of what this video game will be capable of. Here is an interesting list:
What you will notice is that plenty of these web sites consider that a normal display must have 1440×900 or 1680×1050 resolution to play Crysis confortably (I did not say “to play cheaply”).
Previous Entries
If you have an old collection of PC MS-DOS games that has been sleeping at the bottom of a drawer, you may have two approaches: A/ you prefer to forget the old pixels and buy new games, B/ you were so found of those that you want to play even on your newest PC. However, it is difficult because most of these run only in a DOS box, but are so unusable because of the speed of the processor and the limited compatibility of the sound and graphics.
