Hi all, Just wanted to give you some updates on the PC hardware front lines...
Many of you have bought, based on my recommendation, the Startech PCI1394MP firewire card. I like it because it has a reliable TI controller and its dirt cheap ($22). I have to sayl however, I am withdrawing my recommendation. In the past 3 months, the failure rate of these cards has dramatically increased. I am at the stage right now that I will be shipping a spare card with every computer I sell with this card until my stock is depleted. since I have about 15 in stock it gives me a little time to find a suitable replacement. I will be testing a Rosewill TI-based card this week which is PCIe and will let you know how that goes. I also seem to be "famous" for my recommendation of Windows XP over Vista/Win7. I have made this statement (especially before Win7 came out commercially) because the DPCs are lower with XP (either Pro or Home). I am, however, reversing my recommendation at this time. I still recommend you not use Vista, but heartily recommend Win7 Pro in the 32 bit version. Why have I changed my position? Twofold. First is that Microsoft is now jacking the price of XP up every 2-3 weeks and its now $30+ more than Win7 Pro. This will continue as they "motivate" us to buy Win7 (as well as stop installing and using Internet Explorer 6 which will not soon work on many websites on the net). Secondly, while Win7 is higher on average DPCs (100 vs 20us), it is rock solid at that level, it doesn't spike as much as XP and I have learned enough about tuning it that I feel you are still getting the most out of your computer. >From what I can see, Microsoft is no longer selling XP Home, so thats no longer a choice. So, to summarize: 1. Use the Startech PCI1394MP card with the understanding it can have a high failure rate. The card used to fail at boot time (hang the PCI bus so the machine would not power up) but lately its failing after usage and thats when I decided to find an alternative) 2. Get Win7 Pro x86 for your Flex computer. Its rock solid, you won't feel the slight decrease in DPCs and you will save some money. I would recommend you go to the full 4GB memory configuration however. On the commercial front, I will be making the changes to Win7 as the default OS on all my computers. You might have heard of a mysterious, even legendary computer called the "W4TME Signature TNT System" that was custom-built for a certain list moderator who will remain nameless. After building it, I was so impressed with it I have added it to my store under the name TNT System, it uses a brushed aluminum (aluminium for our British friends) Lian Li Cube (i.e. Shuttle type) case that is 15"x11"11. Loaded with an ASUS M4A785M-EVO motherboard and AMD x4 955 CPU, 4GB of Kingston DDR3 ram, dual video ports, its a real screamer that looks as good as it performs. Maybe we can get W4TME to produce a signature decal so it can ship with a custom exterior. On the testing front, I have been testing mini-ITX computers this past week. I have a Jetway AMD AM2+ motherboard with a X3 550 2.5GHz cpu in it that looks great on idle but the minute that you press any button that changes band, mode or filter settings, the DPCs spike to 2000us. Its almost like there is a constraint in handliing a large amount of commands to the radio. Not a candidate. Next up is a Zotac board with an Intel E9300 2.93GHz cpu. It has a snappy feel to it. I need a PCIe firewire card to test it which is part of my search for a replacement of the Startech card. Stay tuned, I will let you know how it develops! 73 Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER Amateur Radio: K3NC Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/ DXBase bug reports: email to ca...@dxbase.fogbugz.com Abroham Neal forums: http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/ _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
