The skeleton and brain of a computer is the motherboard and CPU. A CPU is the Central Processing Unit. This is most like our brain.
The mother or main board is like out nervous system or skeleton. It is the large circuit board that every part of the computer plugs into, including the CPU. It holds everything together.
For detailed information on CPU’s see the video: (jump to TM 6:07 to skip the explanations and see the benchmarks.
There is a lot of jargon in the video, I’ll get the important stuff explained.
First the TL:DR, the video shows there is very little difference between the various CPU’s. When it comes to frames per second. The three tested CPU’s are about equal. However, if you are going to use Intel’s HD Graphics without a dedicated graphics card, he shows there is a difference and the 6th generation CPU wins. So, laptop people… go for 6th gen CPU or a dedicated video chip.
As I built my new computer and researched hardware I realized I was falling behind in my technical knowledge. I had to sort out a number of things to be able to intelligently decide which was best technically and for the money. This article is on the aspects of storage devices and proves a lot of information on SSD’s.
SSD M.2 Connectors
I wrote Hardware: Disk Performance Compared to provide just performance information. I was concerned with performance of Second Life™ an OpenGL based game/virtual world. Here I’ll get into the complications behind getting good performance, cover how to make comparisons for the best buy, and provide information on how it affects Second Life performance.
Numbers
To get the most for your money you are going to have to be able to see through the advertising hype. So, as you read specs and try to make comparisons you’ll run into a variety of designators for data transfer rates and storage volume. They are all worded to make a product sound good.
Let’s start with the upper case ‘B’ and the lower case ‘b’, which have specific meanings. In the simplest use 1B = 8b, or 1 byte equals 8 bits. A bit is a 0 or 1. A byte is a total of eight 0’s and 1’s. (For more on this see Online Conversion, a tutorial.)
In some places we see 6GBps used to mean 600Mbps. This can look like B = 10b. Here because they are talking about data moving from storage devices through the transfer path they add in the data overhead of 2b (bits) for error correction and 1B does equal 10b in THEIR math. They are taking some liberties in their ad copy. One often has to CAREFULLY look at the numbers and determine the context intended to understand the size of a ‘byte’ being discussed.
In some ways the B’s, G’s, and M’s are misleading in how they are used. It is easy to make a case for that being deliberate. The actual data being moved is 8b/10b = 0.8 * 6000Mb raw data = 4,800Mbps actual usable by you data. But, manufactures like the bigger number and they are literally moving 6Gbps. It just isn’t all your data that is getting reported. They assume the knowledgeable user will infer their true meaning. I suspect they know a whole bunch of people won’t.
Unless you are comparing devices and protocols on a way technical level thinking in terms of data rates as 6GBps verses 4.8GBps doesn’t matter much. Consider. Is 6GBps SATA III faster than 3GBps SATA II? Yes. Is 4.8GBps faster than 2.4GBps? Yes. The difference wouldn’t change the take away that SATA III is faster than SATA II regardless of which numbers you use. Nor when comparing prices does it really change what we decide.
The take away here is to be sure you use the same measures for your comparisons. Also understand these are the THEORETICAL values of maximum performance which is seldom achieved.
I just getting to where I can use my new computer for most of my daily tasks. I am still researching what aspects of the new computer most affect Second Life™ viewer performance. One of the more effective things one can do is look at data storage speed. Here is what I find.
RAM Disk Performance – New Computer
I used Crystal Disk Mark to measure storage performance on both the opld and new machines.
RAM Drive
The above image is the benchmark for my RAM Disk in the new computer. I purchased DataRAM’s RAMDisk software. I devoted 5GB of my 32GB of RAM to a RAM Drive.
It automatically writes the contents of this drive to my Western Digital hard drive at power down. At startup it inserts the data back into the RAM Disk.
No video this week. I recorded one. But, it is too much of a mess to try and clean up.
Wetcat | The Book of Daniel – Fund-raising event ♥
There is a new Bento Viewer out: Second Life Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.319688. This is the one that came out earlier this week. It is in RC stage now. If you login with your ‘old’ Project Viewer, it should automatically update. If you log into the ADITI grid and update you may get a second update when you log into the main grid, AGNI. It will be the same viewer version you already got but, the viewer is confused so it updates again. Some people have seen their viewers update twice.
Everyone is excited by the new Bento heads. They are pretty neat. I am also excited about Bento Wings. I have a collection of prim/sculpty wings in my inventory. Some are way gorgeous. But, they are mostly just there, when worn. Project Bento is going to change that. We will be able to animate the Bento Wings in ways not before possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpGUKowqim8
Damien Fate has a Bento Wings Kit out. See: FATEplay – Animated Wings Template. This is one of those Full Perm with an agreement type things where all the mesh and animation stuff is done. You only need to supply textures.
These show some of what can be done with Bento Wings. I expect some really impressive wings to start appearing.
