The folks from Noontec Philippines gave me this new portable battery pack — a 4,000mAh PowerMe Polo. They’re the same guys who offered us the media player for review and actually gave it away to one of our readers.
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First time I knew of networked media tanks (NMT) was a couple of years ago when the local distributor of Popcorn Hour in the Philippines visited my pad and demoed the player to me. The NMT has improved since then and we got the newer Popcorn Hour A210 to play with.
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This is probably the biggest PC case I have ever seen. It’s the Raven RV01 by Silverstone. And, it doesn’t come cheap either — just a little over Php11,000 for this one alone. Obviously made for extreme enthusiasts.
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External mobile hard drives are pretty common nowadays and to get some attention, Freecom claims it owns the world’s smallest external HDD in the 2.5″ category.
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After over a week of playing around with the HDX 1000 Media Player, I am convinced that this is a great device to have especially if you’re mostly watching downloadable shows. It has some quirkiness but let me share why I think this media player is worth considering.
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Showcased at the CEBIT 2009 in Hannover, Germany is this special edition Level 10 PC case, created by Thermaltake and BMW Designworks.
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Hello! Are you a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic owner? Please take the quick survey here!
So, I returned back to the Nokia Store after the line has thinned and bought a unit to review. Will need a couple more days to cook up a full review but here are my first impressions and some more unboxing photos of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Update: Read our full Nokia 5800 Review.
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Been getting email requests to run an entry on cheap desktop PCs. The only way to address that is to pick for the cheapest parts available in stores and build them from scratch. Here’s what I ended up with…
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So here’s a thought. If the Intel Atom processor is being pushed to the desktop, why can’t people buy and build one of their own? Apparently, you can buy one of these tiny CPUs and build your own low-power desktop PC for cheap.
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In a live webcast this afternoon, Dell Executives at Beijing, China announced the new Dell Vostro series of laptops and desktops. The models are more targeted to small and medium business looking into affordable out-of-the box computing solutions.
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This could probably be the last media player you’ll ever need in your living room.The Popcorn Hour is an integrated video processor tucked inside a small portable casing that plays almost all of the popular media files out there, plus some more. It’s like the open source version of the Apple TV.
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Several weeks ago, Intel Philippines delivered this desktop PC at home for me to test. It was their top of the line Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz processor.
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Our current poll asks about how much portable storage people carry around nowadays. I didn’t realize I needed more than 4GB USB drive until my old laptop ran out of disk space from all the photos I’ve taken recently.
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I’ve always wondered why most mobile phones use their own video format (3gp) when there are so many other existing ones like Quicktime, MPEG, etc. It would have been easier to view from from your PC to your phone but I guess all those DRM and licensing is getting in the way. Then, there’s the Samsung Ultra Phone.
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HP is promoting its new kick-ass gaming PC called the BlackBird 002. From the outside, it’s looks like an alien casing of sorts but the inside reveals a whole enchilada of geeky goodness.
See specs and pictures after the jump.
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During our recent dinner over at Noem’s new home, she consulted me about getting a new desktop PC for her study/library. She already has a gorgeous white Macbook but she thought it would be better to get a desktop for those long-haul usage in the house. That should help ease the stress on the laptop battery too (since you won’t be using it that much when at home).
I saw her budget worth just over 50k and I thought I’d give her another option to look at. Here’s my recommended set up for the stay-at-home problogger and entrepreneur mom:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core (2.0 GHz) – Php4,250
MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 – Php 4,110
(Socket AM2, 4 SATA slots, 4 DIMMs, 1 PCI-E 16X; 2 PCI-E X1; 3 PCI; 10 USB, Gigabit LAN; RAID (0, 1 & 0+1); SATA2; ATA133, Realtek 7.1 CH HD audio)
2 x 1GB Corsair 667MHz DDR2 RAM – Php 3,840
320 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA – Php4,520
Lite-On 20x DVDRW w/ Lightscribe – Php 1,920
PowerColor X1550 256MB GDDR2 128-bit Dual DVI/TV – Php 3,430
2 x 19″ Samsung 940BW (1440 x 900) – Php 19,990 (Php 9,995 x 2)
Mars 722 Thermal Advantage 500 watts casing (with A4tech mouse & KB) – Php 1,720
Powercom Ace UPS 650 volt-amps – Php 1,770
Total — Php 45,550
The final set up should look like this:
The original quote to her by PCExpress was an Intel Pentium 925 3.0GHz and a 22″ AOC LCD screen. We skipped the Core 2 Duos entirely and I think the AMD Athlon x2 3800 still has the best bang for the buck. The dual monitor set up needed the x1550 for dual DVI support. Prices were taken from several sources including PCX and RSun Computers. I just love the mobo too — 10 USB 2.0 ports, 4 SATA2 slots and 4 DIMM slots of up to 4GB of RAM — lots of room for upgrades and add-ons.
Oops, I forgot the OS. You can get Windows XP Pro Home Edition for Php 4,580 or Windows Vista Home Basic at Php 5,250. Again, there’s always Ubuntu for free.
I was at PC Express in Pasong Tamo late afternoon having one of my desktop PCs checked and repaired. At first, I thought it was just the power supply which causes the PC to die down whenever all peripherals are plugged in. Turns out a faulty (or shorted?) HDD is causing all the mess. I never thought a shorted HDD could cause the PSU not to power up. I ended up buying a new HDD (why do I keep on replacing a new HDD every year?). I thought Seagate HDDs are one of the toughest around?
While waiting for the techs to install the new HDD, I walked around inspecting some of the newer cases on display. This one got my full attention — an Asus Vento 3600 Gaming Case.
First time in ages I’ve seen a beautiful chassis. Where are those guys selling expensive PC casing in Greenhills? The Asus Vento 3600 comes in four colors — green, blue, red and black — though I only saw the last two in the shelves. They really look like shiny brand new Ferraris (the paints they used looks like ones for cars). I asked the sales guy and he said it costs a whooping Php10,000 ($200). Now that’s already the same price as a Pentium 3.4 GHz Dual Core CPU.
I’m looking to upgrade one of my desktop PCs so I’m scouting for a good deal around. (I’m actually selling the old one to a friend so this will be a replacement rig.)
Athlon64 X2 3600 Dual Core – Php 7,200.00
Asus M2V-TVM K8M890/V-PCIe/S/L – P 3,450.00
Kingston 1GB PC667 DDR2 - Php 5,600.00
Seagate 250GB Barracuda SATA - P 4,250.00
Viewsonic 19 inch VG1921 wide - P 12,650.00
Samsung TS-H552B 16x Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive – Php2,800
Creative SB Ectiva SE 5.1 – Php1,150
Inno3D 7100GS 256ddr2 64bit dvi – Php 2,650
Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop Black – Php1,150
Casing: Php2,000
Total: Php 42,900
And a costly one if I might add.
I’m hoping to get it under 40k so probably, I’ll wait a little while more. Once I get this set up, I’m good to go with the World of Warcraft. 
Jayvee left a *smug* comment in my last entry about Macs and PCs. While replying to his comment, I realized that the introduction of Intel procs into Mac boxes will actually open the gates to popularizing Mac clones, the same way we had cheap IBM PC clones for decades.
Well, you can buy just any PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo or something, a really nice display, casing and all, install OS X Tiger of Leopard and you’ve basically have all that features and functionalities that *allegedly* makes the Mac better.
But what if you can get the same basic *advantages* and install it on a Php25,000 PC or maybe an XPC? What will happen to the Mac mini?
How about laptops too? What will stop the Chinese to manufacture low-cost Mac clones now that you only need the Mac OS? And people could actually get cracked versions too.
What will Mac fanatics feel once that thick line separating the Mac and the PC goes silk thin? What’s the lowest cost of acquisition for Mac nowadays — Php50k? How about Mac clones for half the price?
Good times for some, bad times for others.
