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- Review: Intel Core i5-2500K
- Review: Intel Core i7-2600K
- Review: Foxconn H67S
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- Tutorial: How to tweak your laptop for gaming performance
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| Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST  Note: This Intel Core i5-2500K review also reviews the Sandy Bridge architecture as a whole, as well as the high-end Intel Core i7-2600K processor. Ready or not, here they come. Intel is rolling out a thoroughly overhauled range of PC processors based on its new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Our first taste of the new chips comes in the form of the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop CPUs. Thanks to the baffling array of chips, sockets and brands, we've barely got to grips with Intel's existing CPU range. Certainly Intel's main rival, AMD, has no answer in outright performance terms to the chips Intel already offers, but the relentless march of technology must go on. So, ignore the familiar Core i5 and Core i7 branding. These are all new processors and they're ready to roll. As it happens, Intel could actually do with more powerful and, crucially, more power efficient processors for laptop PCs. Deep down, that's what Sandy Bridge is really about. However, as we'll learn, Sandy Bridge has a lot to offer for the desktop, too, including exciting new features such as a hardware video transcoding engine and much-improved integrated graphics. At launch, it's not quite a full range of processors. In total, Intel is rolling out 14 new desktop CPUs based on Sandy Bridge under the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 brands. Pricing extends from around £75 to £250. The very top and bottom of Intel's desktop range will remain unchanged. The six-core Gulftown derivative of the Core i7 and the entry-level Pentium chips live on for now. Everything else is effectively for the chop. With new chips inevitably come new chipsets, but what you might not expect is the new processor socket. Known as LGA1155, it's almost identical to the existing LGA1156. It loses just one pin. Problem is, the two sockets are entirely incompatible. You cannot drop Sandy Bridge processors into any existing motherboard. Nor can you use any previous Intel processors with Sandy Bridge-supporting motherboards. Although Intel will absolutely deny it, we believe this change in sockets is unlikely to have been a technical necessity. Instead, at best, we suspect it represents a disregard for existing customers, and at worst a tactic designed to force whole a platform upgrade rather than drop-in CPU changes. Unfortunately, the new socket isn't the only dubious new feature that debuts with Sandy Bridge. Intel has also made a fundamental change to the chip's architecture that has killed traditional processor overclocking using the CPU bus stone dead. We'll come to the details later, but the bottom line is that Intel has brought overclocking under strict control. It's not completely gone, but it's only available where and when Intel allows it. However, don't let those negatives convince you the new Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K chips are stinkers. Compared to their closest equivalents from Intel's existing range – the Intel Core i5-760 and Intel Core i7-870 – the new chips are arguably in a different league. In fact, even the mighty six-core Core i7 980X isn't safe from Intel's remarkable new Sandy Bridge architecture. It's that good. In terms of basic layout, the Sandy Bridge architecture that underpins the new Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop processors is not a revolutionary redesign. For launch, Intel has cooked up dual- and quad-core derivatives. All Sandy Bridge processors are based on Intel's latest 32nm production process. Thus, in Intel's "Tick-Tock" jargon, we're talking Tock. In other words, Sandy Bridge is a new architecture on an existing silicon node. Familiar features such as HyperThreading and Turbo Boost reappear with a bit of spit and polish. Likewise, most of the so-called uncore features look like a carry over. The memory controller remains dual channel with support for DDR3 DIMMs up to 1,333MHz. As before, the on-die PCI Express discrete graphics interface delivers a total of 16 lanes. Multi-GPU platforms from AMD and Nvidia are supported, but again only in dual-card configuration with eight lanes per card. Dig deeper, however, and you'll dredge up some seriously significant changes. For our money, one of the most important is the newly integrated clock generator. In operating frequency terms, this change effectively binds the entire platform to the baseclock. Bump up the baseclock and all core and uncore elements of the chip, including everything from the PCI Express bus to the memory controller and the cores themselves, gain frequency in proportion. The upshot is that overclocking via the baseclock is no longer a goer. At best you'll manage an overclock in the low single digits above the standard 100MHz frequency. Instead, significant frequency adjustments with Sandy Bridge is done through the CPU multiplier. If you recall, Intel recently introduced a number of K series chips with unlocked multipliers. Until now, the special Ks didn't make much sense, such was the ease and effectiveness of baseclock tweaks. However, it now seems clear Intel was preparing the ground for the baseclock-locked Sandy Bridge architecture. For Sandy Bridge, the overclocking drill goes like this. K series chips are fully unlocked up to a theoretical 5.7GHz while all other Sandy Bridgers are unlocked to the tune of four speed bins. Given the baseclock of 100MHz, that means a maximum overclock of 400MHz for all non-K models. That's a major reduction compared to the typical 1GHz overclock possible via the bus or baseclock with most existing Intel processors. Overclocking aside, the other big change with Sandy Bridge involves video processing. For starters, Intel has given its HD Graphics a major kick up the backside. The result, Intel claims, is a more than doubling in performance compared the previous generation of Intel integrated graphics. Architecturally, the GPU has been has brought completely on-die. Remember, previous Intel processors with integrated graphics actually contained two separate chips in the CPU package, one chip with cores and cache, the other with graphics and uncore features such as the memory controller. At launch, all Sandy Bridge processors have on-die graphics. In terms of 3D performance, the detail spec changes include an upgrade from DX10 to DX10.1. However, much of the performance increase comes from the boost in clockspeed from a maximum of 900MHz to a maximum of 1,350MHz, model dependent. Things get a little more complicated if you further examine the different models. Among desktop variants, only the two K series chips tested here get the full-fat version of the new graphics core with 12 execution units, known as Intel HD Graphics 3000. All other models make do with the 6-unit Intel HD Graphics 2000. Odd as it may seem, we believe the other chips in the range do actually contain the full 12 execution units. Most likely for marketing reasons, Intel has decided to disable them on some models. The other big news involving the graphics core is a new video transcoding engine known as Quick Sync Video. It's a dedicated hardware core for accelerating 2D video encoding and it's in every single Sandy Bridge chip. Intel says it delivers at least twice the performance compared with previous architectures encoding video in software, but a little Intel birdie tells us you can often expect much more than that. Like pretty much every new Intel architecture Sandy Bridge also brings revised vector instructions. This time round, the new instructions are known as AVX and essentially compliment the existing SSE vector instructions. Oh and, if you care, the new graphics core supports HDMI 1.4 and, in turn, stereoscopic 3D video including Blu-ray 3D. Finally, regarding the chips themselves, a quick lesson in Intel's new nomenclature is essential. All Sandy Bridge processors get some kind of 2000 suffix. Core i3-2100 chips are dual-core processors with HyperThreading and are therefore quad-thread. The Core i5-2300, 2400 and 2500 series are a mix of dual-core with HyperThreading and quad-core without HyperThreading. Meanwhile, the Core i7-2600 series is quad-core with HyperThreading. If that wasn't complicated enough, you have the aforementioned K series chips with fully unlocked multipliers. Then there are T and S series models with lower operating voltages and power ratings. Overall, it's pretty baffling stuff. As for motherboards, all Sandy Bridge processors drop into the new LGA1155 socket. It's not compatible with any previous Intel socket. In total, five new chipsets arrive with Sandy Bridge, but only the P67 and H67 are really relevant to consumers. There's not a great deal to choose between them, but the key differences include support for the integrated graphics core and video out with the H67, while the P67 exclusively gets the latest version of Intel's Performance Tuning application and a few more options in terms of multiplier adjustment. Another motherboard-related tweak is the introduction of the EFI firmware with all Sandy Bridge boards. Developed by Intel and already used by Apple in all its Mac computers, EFI replaces the traditional BIOS firmware with a much more powerful platform that supports high resolution graphical user interfaces, faster boot times, larger boot disks (over 2TB) and more. With every new architecture comes a certain amount of intrigue. Intel's Sandy Bridge brings much higher clocks, but it's also interesting to note how performance compares on a clock-for-clock basis. To find out, we compared the new Core i7-2600K running at 2.9GHz with Turbo disabled to the old Core i7-870, again at 2.9GHz with Turbo disabled. Also worth noting is the performance of the new video transcoding core and the integrated 3D graphics. In their own way, both are frankly staggering. Stock clocked benchmarksCinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 39s Cinebench R10 single-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 2m 22s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i5-2500K: 27fps World in Conflict Intel Core i5-2500K: 91fps Memory Bandwith Intel Core i5-2500K: 18.6GB/s Idle power consumption Intel Core i5-2500K: 125W Peak power consumption Intel Core i5-2500K: 190W OverclockingMaximum overclock Intel Core i5-2500K: 4.4GHz Cinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 34s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i5-2500K: 32fps World in Conflict Intel Core i5-2500K: 98fps Clock-for-clock comparison (Turbo disabled)Cinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 46s Cinebench R10 single-thread Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 3m 5s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 27fps World in Conflict Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 88fps Integrated graphicsCall of Duty 4 @ 1,280 x 800 Intel Core i7-2600K – HD Graphics 3000: 32fps World in Conflict @ 800 x 600 Intel Core i7-2600K – HD Graphics 3000: 22fps Quick Sync Video transcode engine720p H.264 encode in software Intel Core i7-2600K: 45s 720p H.264 encodewith Quick Sync Video Intel Core i7-2600K: 12s First a quick précis of our review chips. The Intel Core i5-2500K is a quad-core, quad-thread chip with 6MB of L3 cache memory and clocks in at 3.3GHz standard and 3.7GHz maximum Turbo frequency. It's yours for approximately £160 unboxed and effectively replaces both the old dual-core Core i5-655K and quad-core Core i5-760. A partially locked Core i5-2500 is also available at the same clockspeeds for about £10 less. The £225 Core i7 -2600K, meanwhile, sports four cores, eight threads, 8MB of cache as standard and Turbo frequencies of 3.4GHz and 3.8GHz respectively. It slots in approximately where you would previously have found the likes of the Core i7-870 and Core i7-875K processors in the price list. Again, there's also a marginally cheaper Core i7-2600 alternative that lacks the fully unlocked multiplier. With all that logged away, it's time for some performance analysis. In a word, these chips are stunning. At stock clocks, the new Core i5-2500K comprehensively blows away an old Core i7-870. Put another way, the new mid-range chip hammers the old high-end offering. It's literally faster in every benchmark including video encoding, gaming and professional rendering and sometimes by a margin of over 10 per cent. As for the comparison to the old Core i5-760, it's brutal. The new chip is as much as 30 to 40 per cent quicker. Unsurprisingly, then, the new Core i7-2600K absolutely hoses its progenitor, the Core i7-870. We're talking 25 to 30 per cent more performance absolutely, positively everywhere. If that wasn't astonishing enough, the i7-2600K actually gives Intel's mighty Core i7-980X six-core flagship processor a real scare. The 980X is, for instance, only about 10 per cent quicker in the Cinebench rendering test and 20 per cent faster in HD video encoding. But it's slower for gaming. Remember, the i7-980X is a £750 processor. If you're wondering where the performance gains come from, much is down to increased clockspeeds, but the new processors would still be 10 per cent quicker even running at the same frequencies. Somehow, Intel has made the fastest CPU architecture on the planet significantly faster. As for overclocking, the news only gets better. Our i5-2500K hits the wall at 4.4GHz, while the i7-2600K motors on to 4.6GHz. That's courtesy of an air cooler. It's silly numbers, frankly. As if that wasn't enough, the Quick Sync Video hardware transcoding engine adds yet another dimension. Using a special build of Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso, it's possible to compare video encoding with and without the transcoder enabled. Our test video is crunched in 45 seconds in software mode. Flick the switch on the transcoder and it drops to just 12 seconds. Bonkers. Finally, there's the performance of the new Intel HD Graphics 3000. Here again, it's a story of massively improved grunt. Put simply, it's over twice as fast as the previous Intel HD graphics and massively quicker than any other integrated solution. It's genuinely up to the task of playing older games such as Call of Duty 4 at decent detail settings. Newer titles, however, require lower resolutions and defenestrated eye candy. We'll make no bones about it. Intel's latest processors present us with a major headache. On the one hand, there's a hell of a lot we don't like about the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K. All of which has to do with what we believe are probably silly marketing decisions, not engineering issues. We don't like the fact that Intel has locked down proper overclocking to certain models. We hate that Intel has limited the faster HD Graphics 3000 integrated 3D core to these two K series processors. We're thoroughly cheesed off that the new chips require a new socket, chipsets and motherboard. And we're borderline homicidal with rage regarding Intel's ludicrous branding scheme. But here's the thing. In simple CPU performance terms, the Intel Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K are staggering. They overclock like the clappers. The integrated graphics is way better than anything before and the transcode engine threatens to annihilate the very idea of running some software on discrete graphics chips before it's even taken hold. They're so good, in fact, they make nearly all of Intel's supposedly high-end chips for the LGA1366 socket instantly redundant. Bloomfield-based quad-core Core i7 processors are toast. Even six-core Gulftown Core i7s look marginal. Put simply, these new chips bring massive performance to a lower price point than ever before. How can you argue with that? Related Links
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| Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST Note: This Intel Core i7-2600K review also reviews the Sandy Bridge architecture as a whole, as well as the mid-range Intel Core i5-2500K processor. Ready or not, here they come. Intel is rolling out a thoroughly overhauled range of PC processors based on its new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Our first taste of the new chips comes in the form of the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop CPUs. Thanks to the baffling array of chips, sockets and brands, we've barely got to grips with Intel's existing CPU range. Certainly Intel's main rival, AMD, has no answer in outright performance terms to the chips Intel already offers, but the relentless march of technology must go on. So, ignore the familiar Core i5 and Core i7 branding. These are all new processors and they're ready to roll. As it happens, Intel could actually do with more powerful and, crucially, more power efficient processors for laptop PCs. Deep down, that's what Sandy Bridge is really about. However, as we'll learn, Sandy Bridge has a lot to offer for the desktop, too, including exciting new features such as a hardware video transcoding engine and much-improved integrated graphics. At launch, it's not quite a full range of processors. In total, Intel is rolling out 14 new desktop CPUs based on Sandy Bridge under the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 brands. Pricing extends from around £75 to £250. The very top and bottom of Intel's desktop range will remain unchanged. The six-core Gulftown derivative of the Core i7 and the entry-level Pentium chips live on for now. Everything else is effectively for the chop. With new chips inevitably come new chipsets, but what you might not expect is the new processor socket. Known as LGA1155, it's almost identical to the existing LGA1156. It loses just one pin. Problem is, the two sockets are entirely incompatible. You cannot drop Sandy Bridge processors into any existing motherboard. Nor can you use any previous Intel processors with Sandy Bridge-supporting motherboards. Although Intel will absolutely deny it, we believe this change in sockets is unlikely to have been a technical necessity. Instead, at best, we suspect it represents a disregard for existing customers, and at worst a tactic designed to force whole a platform upgrade rather than drop-in CPU changes. Unfortunately, the new socket isn't the only dubious new feature that debuts with Sandy Bridge. Intel has also made a fundamental change to the chip's architecture that has killed traditional processor overclocking using the CPU bus stone dead. We'll come to the details later, but the bottom line is that Intel has brought overclocking under strict control. It's not completely gone, but it's only available where and when Intel allows it. However, don't let those negatives convince you the new Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K chips are stinkers. Compared to their closest equivalents from Intel's existing range – the Intel Core i5-760 and Intel Core i7-870 – the new chips are arguably in a different league. In fact, even the mighty six-core Core i7 980X isn't safe from Intel's remarkable new Sandy Bridge architecture. It's that good. In terms of basic layout, the Sandy Bridge architecture that underpins the new Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop processors is not a revolutionary redesign. For launch, Intel has cooked up dual- and quad-core derivatives. All Sandy Bridge processors are based on Intel's latest 32nm production process. Thus, in Intel's "Tick-Tock" jargon, we're talking Tock. In other words, Sandy Bridge is a new architecture on an existing silicon node. Familiar features such as HyperThreading and Turbo Boost reappear with a bit of spit and polish. Likewise, most of the so-called uncore features look like a carry over. The memory controller remains dual channel with support for DDR3 DIMMs up to 1,333MHz. As before, the on-die PCI Express discrete graphics interface delivers a total of 16 lanes. Multi-GPU platforms from AMD and Nvidia are supported, but again only in dual-card configuration with eight lanes per card. Dig deeper, however, and you'll dredge up some seriously significant changes. For our money, one of the most important is the newly integrated clock generator. In operating frequency terms, this change effectively binds the entire platform to the baseclock. Bump up the baseclock and all core and uncore elements of the chip, including everything from the PCI Express bus to the memory controller and the cores themselves, gain frequency in proportion. The upshot is that overclocking via the baseclock is no longer a goer. At best you'll manage an overclock in the low single digits above the standard 100MHz frequency. Instead, significant frequency adjustments with Sandy Bridge is done through the CPU multiplier. If you recall, Intel recently introduced a number of K series chips with unlocked multipliers. Until now, the special Ks didn't make much sense, such was the ease and effectiveness of baseclock tweaks. However, it now seems clear Intel was preparing the ground for the baseclock-locked Sandy Bridge architecture. For Sandy Bridge, the overclocking drill goes like this. K series chips are fully unlocked up to a theoretical 5.7GHz while all other Sandy Bridgers are unlocked to the tune of four speed bins. Given the baseclock of 100MHz, that means a maximum overclock of 400MHz for all non-K models. That's a major reduction compared to the typical 1GHz overclock possible via the bus or baseclock with most existing Intel processors. Overclocking aside, the other big change with Sandy Bridge involves video processing. For starters, Intel has given its HD Graphics a major kick up the backside. The result, Intel claims, is a more than doubling in performance compared the previous generation of Intel integrated graphics. Architecturally, the GPU has been has brought completely on-die. Remember, previous Intel processors with integrated graphics actually contained two separate chips in the CPU package, one chip with cores and cache, the other with graphics and uncore features such as the memory controller. At launch, all Sandy Bridge processors have on-die graphics. In terms of 3D performance, the detail spec changes include an upgrade from DX10 to DX10.1. However, much of the performance increase comes from the boost in clockspeed from a maximum of 900MHz to a maximum of 1,350MHz, model dependent. Things get a little more complicated if you further examine the different models. Among desktop variants, only the two K series chips tested here get the full-fat version of the new graphics core with 12 execution units, known as Intel HD Graphics 3000. All other models make do with the 6-unit Intel HD Graphics 2000. Odd as it may seem, we believe the other chips in the range do actually contain the full 12 execution units. Most likely for marketing reasons, Intel has decided to disable them on some models. The other big news involving the graphics core is a new video transcoding engine known as Quick Sync Video. It's a dedicated hardware core for accelerating 2D video encoding and it's in every single Sandy Bridge chip. Intel says it delivers at least twice the performance compared with previous architectures encoding video in software, but a little Intel birdie tells us you can often expect much more than that. Like pretty much every new Intel architecture Sandy Bridge also brings revised vector instructions. This time round, the new instructions are known as AVX and essentially compliment the existing SSE vector instructions. Oh and, if you care, the new graphics core supports HDMI 1.4 and, in turn, stereoscopic 3D video including Blu-ray 3D. Finally, regarding the chips themselves, a quick lesson in Intel's new nomenclature is essential. All Sandy Bridge processors get some kind of 2000 suffix. Core i3-2100 chips are dual-core processors with HyperThreading and are therefore quad-thread. The Core i5-2300, 2400 and 2500 series are a mix of dual-core with HyperThreading and quad-core without HyperThreading. Meanwhile, the Core i7-2600 series is quad-core with HyperThreading. If that wasn't complicated enough, you have the aforementioned K series chips with fully unlocked multipliers. Then there are T and S series models with lower operating voltages and power ratings. Overall, it's pretty baffling stuff. As for motherboards, all Sandy Bridge processors drop into the new LGA1155 socket. It's not compatible with any previous Intel socket. In total, five new chipsets arrive with Sandy Bridge, but only the P67 and H67 are really relevant to consumers. There's not a great deal to choose between them, but the key differences include support for the integrated graphics core and video out with the H67, while the P67 exclusively gets the latest version of Intel's Performance Tuning application and a few more options in terms of multiplier adjustment. Another motherboard-related tweak is the introduction of the EFI firmware with all Sandy Bridge boards. Developed by Intel and already used by Apple in all its Mac computers, EFI replaces the traditional BIOS firmware with a much more powerful platform that supports high resolution graphical user interfaces, faster boot times, larger boot disks (over 2TB) and more. With every new architecture comes a certain amount of intrigue. Intel's Sandy Bridge brings much higher clocks, but it's also interesting to note how performance compares on a clock-for-clock basis. To find out, we compared the new Core i7-2600K running at 2.9GHz with Turbo disabled to the old Core i7-870, again at 2.9GHz with Turbo disabled. Also worth noting is the performance of the new video transcoding core and the integrated 3D graphics. In their own way, both are frankly staggering. Stock clocked benchmarksCinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 39s Cinebench R10 single-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 2m 22s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i5-2500K: 27fps World in Conflict Intel Core i5-2500K: 91fps Memory Bandwith Intel Core i5-2500K: 18.6GB/s Idle power consumption Intel Core i5-2500K: 125W Peak power consumption Intel Core i5-2500K: 190W OverclockingMaximum overclock Intel Core i5-2500K: 4.4GHz Cinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i5-2500K: 34s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i5-2500K: 32fps World in Conflict Intel Core i5-2500K: 98fps Clock-for-clock comparison (Turbo disabled)Cinebench R10 multi-thread Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 46s Cinebench R10 single-thread Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 3m 5s x264 HD video encode Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 27fps World in Conflict Intel Core i7-2600K @ 2.9GHz: 88fps Integrated graphicsCall of Duty 4 @ 1,280 x 800 Intel Core i7-2600K – HD Graphics 3000: 32fps World in Conflict @ 800 x 600 Intel Core i7-2600K – HD Graphics 3000: 22fps Quick Sync Video transcode engine720p H.264 encode in software Intel Core i7-2600K: 45s 720p H.264 encodewith Quick Sync Video Intel Core i7-2600K: 12s First a quick précis of our review chips. The Intel Core i5-2500K is a quad-core, quad-thread chip with 6MB of L3 cache memory and clocks in at 3.3GHz standard and 3.7GHz maximum Turbo frequency. It's yours for approximately £160 unboxed and effectively replaces both the old dual-core Core i5-655K and quad-core Core i5-760. A partially locked Core i5-2500 is also available at the same clockspeeds for about £10 less. The £225 Core i7 -2600K, meanwhile, sports four cores, eight threads, 8MB of cache as standard and Turbo frequencies of 3.4GHz and 3.8GHz respectively. It slots in approximately where you would previously have found the likes of the Core i7-870 and Core i7-875K processors in the price list. Again, there's also a marginally cheaper Core i7-2600 alternative that lacks the fully unlocked multiplier. With all that logged away, it's time for some performance analysis. In a word, these chips are stunning. At stock clocks, the new Core i5-2500K comprehensively blows away an old Core i7-870. Put another way, the new mid-range chip hammers the old high-end offering. It's literally faster in every benchmark including video encoding, gaming and professional rendering and sometimes by a margin of over 10 per cent. As for the comparison to the old Core i5-760, it's brutal. The new chip is as much as 30 to 40 per cent quicker. Unsurprisingly, then, the new Core i7-2600K absolutely hoses its progenitor, the Core i7-870. We're talking 25 to 30 per cent more performance absolutely, positively everywhere. If that wasn't astonishing enough, the i7-2600K actually gives Intel's mighty Core i7-980X six-core flagship processor a real scare. The 980X is, for instance, only about 10 per cent quicker in the Cinebench rendering test and 20 per cent faster in HD video encoding. But it's slower for gaming. Remember, the i7-980X is a £750 processor. If you're wondering where the performance gains come from, much is down to increased clockspeeds, but the new processors would still be 10 per cent quicker even running at the same frequencies. Somehow, Intel has made the fastest CPU architecture on the planet significantly faster. As for overclocking, the news only gets better. Our i5-2500K hits the wall at 4.4GHz, while the i7-2600K motors on to 4.6GHz. That's courtesy of an air cooler. It's silly numbers, frankly. As if that wasn't enough, the Quick Sync Video hardware transcoding engine adds yet another dimension. Using a special build of Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso, it's possible to compare video encoding with and without the transcoder enabled. Our test video is crunched in 45 seconds in software mode. Flick the switch on the transcoder and it drops to just 12 seconds. Bonkers. Finally, there's the performance of the new Intel HD Graphics 3000. Here again, it's a story of massively improved grunt. Put simply, it's over twice as fast as the previous Intel HD graphics and massively quicker than any other integrated solution. It's genuinely up to the task of playing older games such as Call of Duty 4 at decent detail settings. Newer titles, however, require lower resolutions and defenestrated eye candy. We'll make no bones about it. Intel's latest processors present us with a major headache. On the one hand, there's a hell of a lot we don't like about the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K. All of which has to do with what we believe are probably silly marketing decisions, not engineering issues. We don't like the fact that Intel has locked down proper overclocking to certain models. We hate that Intel has limited the faster HD Graphics 3000 integrated 3D core to these two K series processors. We're thoroughly cheesed off that the new chips require a new socket, chipsets and motherboard. And we're borderline homicidal with rage regarding Intel's ludicrous branding scheme. But here's the thing. In simple CPU performance terms, the Intel Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K are staggering. They overclock like the clappers. The integrated graphics is way better than anything before and the transcode engine threatens to annihilate the very idea of running some software on discrete graphics chips before it's even taken hold. They're so good, in fact, they make nearly all of Intel's supposedly high-end chips for the LGA1366 socket instantly redundant. Bloomfield-based quad-core Core i7 processors are toast. Even six-core Gulftown Core i7s look marginal. Put simply, these new chips bring massive performance to a lower price point than ever before. How can you argue with that? Related Links
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| Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST  Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors are stupidly, impossibly, hilariously quick. By some metrics, they're the most impressive new CPUs in memory. However, one of the downsides is the requirement for a new motherboard. Still, if you're going to make the migration to a new Sandy Bridge system, why not consider a small-form-factor board, such as the Foxconn H67S? As the name suggests, the Foxconn H67S is based on the new H67 chipset and therefore supports the heavily revised integrated graphics core that appears in each and every Sandy Bridge CPU. The new core is available with either six or 12 execution units, respectively known as the Intel HD Graphics 2000 and 3000 models. It's by far the best integrated graphics chip we've ever seen in terms of 3D performance, and also offers an impressive 2D feature set including HDMI 1.4 video out and support for Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D. Of course, this tiny mini-ITX motherboard also works with discrete graphics through a 16-lane PCI Express port. And don't forget, all Sandy Bridge processors come with the intriguing Quick Sync Video transcode engine that promises to make mincemeat of those tedious video conversion jobs. The potential for massive power in a puny package is utterly compelling. It's early days for Sandy Bridge motherboard testing, and it will take time to generate a reference point for comparative performance. That said, we do happen to have Asus' Maximus IV Extreme on hand to provide some early context. The Maximus is an enthusiast-class board based on the P67 discrete chipset, and therefore probably represents the fastest possible platform for Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPUs, including the astonishing Core i7-2600K. As our benchmarks show, the H67S isn't quite running on all cylinders. The main problem is sub-optimal support for Intel's Turbo Boost feature. Professional rendering, Cinebench R10 Time – faster is better Foxconn H67S: 38 seconds Video encoding, x264 HD Frames per second – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 32fps Gaming, World in Conflict Frames per second – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 90fps Memory bandwidth, SiSoft Sandra Gigabyte per seconds – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 14.1GB/s ** P55 chipset and Intel Core i7-870 Any mini-ITX motherboard comes with compromises. After all, with board dimensions of just 170mm by 170mm, it's simply not possible to squeeze in a full feature set. In terms of building a high performance PC, however, there's no denying the health of the Foxconn H67S's chops. The LGA1155 socket and H67 chipset allow for Sandy Bridge processors up to and including the Core i7-2600K. That's a quad-core chip with a top Turbo frequency of 3.8GHz and performance to flatten anything this side of a £750 Intel six-core chip. Make no mistake, this board promises true enthusiast-class performance. The same applies to 3D throughput. A full 16-lane PCI Express port makes this minuscule motherboard compatible with the most powerful pixel pumpers, including Nvidia's latest bad boy, the GeForce GTX 580. OK, finding a mini-ITX case and power supply that can accommodate such a monster isn't easy. But a few solutions do exist. Just imagine the possibilities. Of course, this is an H67-based board, and that means you also have the option of a more power-efficient platform using the integrated Intel HD Graphics core inside every Sandy Bridge-class processor. As we discovered in our review of the Core i7-2600K, the HD Graphics 3000 core with 12 execution units is the fastest integrated chip ever. For the first time, playing relatively modern games such as Call of Duty 4 on an integrated GPU is genuinely feasible. Just as important for a low-power system that might well serve as a home cinema system, the 2D video feature set is top notch, with hardware acceleration for all the key codecs, as well as Flash video. What's more, the HDMI 1.4 port forms part of a box-fresh feature set that includes support for Blu-ray 3D movies. Thanks to the SATA 6Gbps interface that comes as standard with every H67 chipset, the Foxconn H67S also offers the quickest currently available storage interface. If all that sounds like a recipe for a flawless victory, the lack of USB 3.0 ports and a pretty threadbare EFI interface (that's the new firmware replacement for BIOS) are reminders that you're not quite getting the full desktop experience. The Foxconn H76S delivers a surprisingly full feature set for such a small board. But does it also pack a similarly hefty punch in terms of performance? That all depends on your reference point. With an Intel Core i7-2600K processor on board, this thing will absolutely hose anything based on Intel's outgoing LGA1156 socket. It beats the likes of a high end, full-ATX PC powered by the old Core i7-870 chip with an extremely large stick. To take just one example, you'll get 90 frames per second in the historically CPU-crushing RTS game World in Conflict with the H76S and i7-2600K combo with a decent graphics card. The Core i7-870 manages just 78 frames per second. It's a similar scenario in other benchmarks, including video encoding. Few existing PCs can match the performance this motherboard is a capable of courtesy of Intel's awesome new Sandy Bridge chips. However, switch your frame of reference to a full sized ATX board running the same 2600K processor and the picture isn't quite so rosy. The P67-based Asus Maximus IV Extreme is measurably quicker across the board. The gap isn't huge, but given the highly integrated nature of the Sandy Bridge architecture – almost everything important housed in the CPU die itself – it is a little surprising. The explanation is actually quite simple. The Foxconn H67S is not making full use of the Turbo Boost feature. At first we thought it was merely faulty default Turbo settings in the EFI menu. However, even with the correct Turbo ratios manually dialled in, the board refuses to clock the i7-2600K higher than 3.5GHz. It should Turbo up to 3.8GHz. Adding to the impression of a board not quite ready for retail is memory stubbornly refusing to run faster than 1,066MHz. These problems inevitably have a knock-on effect regarding overclocking. Foxconn has populated the EFI menu with few overclocking features. There are no voltage or memory options, for instance, and no global multiplier setting. Only the per-core Turbo ratios are adjustable. In theory, anyway. In practice, 3.5GHz is as good as it gets. In truth, we're not too worried about overclocking headroom with this sort of board. But we would like to see the CPU delivering nearer its full potential at stock settings. We liked With CPUs edging ever closer to system-on-a-chip status, it makes sense for motherboards to get smaller and smaller. The Foxconn H67S delivers fully on this concept with puny mini-ITX proportions combined with a very solid overall feature and performance that thoroughly spanks previous-generation platforms. We disliked We can forgive the H67S for lacking huge overclocking headroom. It's not awfully relevant to small form factor computing. However, this board's current inability to fully leverage Intel's Turbo Boost is disappointing. A firmware upgrade is surely on the cards. An upgrade to USB 3.0 would be nice, too. Related Links
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| Tutorial: How to recover a damaged Zip or Word file Posted: 02 Jan 2011 04:00 AM PST  If you've had problems with corrupt files, you'll know how annoying it can be. The following is an all-too common problem. "I recently had some problems with corrupt files. I'd archived some work to a flash drive. Believing it was no longer relevant, I deleted the original files and left my drive in a drawer." "Months later, I needed to refer back to them. I plugged in my drive and copied the files back to my PC. However, one of the Zip archives won't extract due to corruption, and I also can't access a Word file. Is there a way to get any data back?" Obviously you need to address how you archive older material to ensure that problems with physical media won't harm your data. Your story also highlights the need for multiple archived copies. Data corruption is frustrating because it's often caused by small failures in storage media that affect larger files by introducing frame shifts in the data, or removing essential information in file headers. This renders the files impossible to open in the conventional way. However, there are ways to access the remaining data and rescue at least some of the files. Let's start with the Word file. If it was a .doc file produced by a version of Word earlier than 2007, you may be able to rescue the text using Notepad. Launch Notepad and choose 'File | Open'. In the 'Open' dialog, change the file type to 'All Files' and browse to your .doc file. Select it and click 'Open'. Amid the mess of formatting characters, you'll find your original text – copy and paste it into a new document. Text recovered this way loses all formatting, plus any other elements in the file. For a more sophisticated method, try Repair My Word, a free download. Download and launch the executable, click 'Repair/open' and browse to the file you want to fix. Recovered text is displayed in the main window. Click 'Save' to save it as an RTF file.
Neither of these methods works on the newer .docx files. These are less vulnerable to corruption, but there's no simple, free method to get at the text if one is damaged. Docx Repair is available and costs $45 (around £28). You'll need to buy it to save recovered documents, but there's a free version that displays recovered text so you can check it works before you buy. You may have problems with Zip files, because they can contain multiple other files that are lost if you can't open the archive. DiskInternals Zip Repair is available as a free download. It examines any archive, extracts usable data and creates a new copy that you can use to recover the files. Launch Zip repair and choose 'Next'. Browse to your damaged Zip file and open it. Provide a location and name for the repaired file and click 'Next'. The program then scans and fixes your archive, saving a new copy for you to open. 
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| Tutorial: How to tweak your laptop for gaming performance Posted: 02 Jan 2011 03:00 AM PST  With laptop sales continuing to rise – up by 43.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Gartner – it would appear that more and more of us are riding the technology wave. Keeping up to date with the latest advances in laptop computing enables us to work longer, faster and, generally, for less. The good news for gaming is that this relentless march of technology means it's no longer necessary to own a dedicated gaming laptop to enjoy the odd game now and again. Of course, PC gamers who are serious about their entertainment will still benefit from pricey GPU technology – particularly if they're going to be playing cutting-edge games – but these days even netbooks are capable of keeping you amused. There are several factors that have helped increase the gaming potential of even the cheapest laptops, and the improvements made to processors are leading the way. With the likes of the Core 2 Duo trickling down to budget machines, and the wonderful Atom coming in dual-core spins, there are cores aplenty to keep modern multi-threaded games going at a healthy pace. Not only that, but memory capacities have continued to increase as well, with a previously unimaginable 1GB now available as standard in many laptops, and it's generally easy to upgrade your machine's offering to 2GB or more yourself. Integrated graphics The biggest advances in gaming PCs, however, have come through improvements to integrated graphics engines. Even Intel's oft-maligned Graphics Media Accelerator has come on in leaps and bounds, and with a little care and attention can be cajoled into playing games that would once have required a desktop PC costing many thousands of pounds. You may need to pick lower quality settings to get some games working at reasonable speeds, but that's not too great a sacrifice. The only potential problem comes from the handful of games that demand DX10 hardware, but even this isn't quite as limiting as it sounds, because Intel offers support for the DX10 API with the GMA X3100, 4500 and HD ranges. Besides, most games still offer a DX9 codepath for compatibility reasons, and all of Intel's chips support that revision of Microsoft's gaming API. Don't worry about DX11 yet either – it's been available for a while, but there are no DX11-only titles out there right now and few are in development. As with desktop gaming, your display is the biggest barrier to smooth frame rates. The higher the resolution, the lower your framerate. In fact, apart from anti-aliasing, which improves the look of games significantly, screen resolution is the one factor that affects performance more than any other. Drop the resolution down as low as it will go (maintaining the aspect ratio where possible) and you should be able to hit the all-important minimum of 30fps. If you manage to reach the heady heights of 60fps, you can try increasing the detail level or resolution to improve the game's fidelity. Either way, experimenting with games settings is essential and can be fruitful. Getting your game running smoothly is an important factor if you want to enjoy some serious gaming on the move, but don't underestimate how important the input side of the equation is. A mouse of any description will improve most games notably, with the likes of the Logitech G9 being the preference for many. Don't forget to disable the touchpad to stop unwanted movement at vital moments – you can usually do this via a shortcut on your laptop, such as [Fn]+[F3]. A USB keyboard isn't quite so essential, but can help if you have a smaller laptop with cramped keys. Serious mobile gaming If you're looking for a serious mobile gaming experience, you'll need a machine with plenty of RAM, an SSD or fast hard drive and a recent GPU, such as Nvidia's GeForce GT 460M engine or AMD's Mobility Radeon HD 5850. These options come at a price, and despite the big names, they lag behind desktop components by quite a margin. Fortunately they're still capable of driving the latest and most demanding games at reasonable settings and resolutions. If you have a powerful desktop computer as well as a laptop or netbook, then there's another option for playing games on the go in the form of game streaming services. StreamMyGame runs the game on your desktop and streams it over your local network to your laptop or netbook. The free-to-use client limits the resolution of the stream, but upgrading the service is affordable and the inherent lag isn't anywhere near as bad as you might expect. If nothing else, this experience will give you a taste of what it might be like playing games hosted on the cloud – something that many experts predict will be the future of gaming. There are plenty of ways to use your laptop or even a humble netbook to punctuate your working day with a little entertainment. It's worth taking a look at the likes of Good Old Games, which has taken a selection of classic PC games and re-released them to work on modern versions of Windows. The system requirements are generally quite modest, and there are some stunning games to be had for only a few pounds. 
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| Review: Oppo BDP-83SE NuForce Edition Posted: 02 Jan 2011 01:30 AM PST  If the Oppo BDP-83SE NuForce Edition looks familiar, it's because it is. This is a Special Edition of Oppo's long-lost European Blu-ray debutant, the BDP-83, with some additional pixie dust from NuForce. NuForce is an American brand, which is best known for selling high-performance amplifiers and pre/power solutions. It offers a CD player and media server, but this modified Oppo is the company's first venture into the world of Blu-ray. The original BDP-83 was reviewed way back in 2009. At the time, the brand was on the verge of setting up a UK base to develop its Blu-ray range. At the last minute, though, that plan seemed to collapse, and the BDP-83 was never given its proper release. Oppo's invasion of the UK was over almost as quickly as it had begun. So what's the story with this NuForce Edition? To find out more, we'll need to take a peek under the hood. The player itself is the same battleship grade deck we saw on the standard version. It looks expensive and is reassuringly heavy. The unit has a distinctive textured front panel, with centrally placed mecha-deck and a USB input neatly disguised by a rubber bung. A universal model, it can play Super Audio CDs and DVD Audio discs, as well as the usual roster of BD, DVD and CD platters. Back panel connections include HDMI, component and 7.1 analogue audio outputs, stereo phono outputs, coaxial and optical digital audio, LAN and a second USB port. For an audiophile special, it's perhaps surprising that balanced outputs haven't been added. Dream streaming For a BD player with audiophile pretensions, you might not expect too much in the way of networked media playback, but this BDP-83 SE has some surprises in store. From its home screen, you can scour your network for attached PCs and NAS devices and then start scrabbling around for content. Regretfully, file support is not that extensive. While it could see and play MKV-wrapped hi-def material and MPEGs, it was oblivious to AVI and DivX over my network. Playback from local USB flash drives fared better. From here, MKV playback was joined by those errant file types. The player can even play .srt subtitles. Audio playback is limited to MP3s; surprisingly there's no support for more esoteric music file formats, such as FLAC. That said, I was impressed to find that when the player streamed music from my audio server, it also recognised and displayed the sleeve artwork I had sitting in the folder. The deck also has access to a very modest online content portal, dubbed Blu-TV. Contrary to its salacious handle, there's little of interest here to inflame the extremities. The current Blu-TV offering breaks down into innocuous widgets, games and channels. At the time of writing, only one channel is available: Urban Trek – a UGC (User Generated Content) guide to US cities, with Flickr pictures and hotel and restaurant reviews. Navigation is hopeless, so I didn't feel inclined to persevere. Unless you really feel a need to play Solitaire or Sudoku through your Blu-ray deck, I don't think this will get much use. DAC'll do nicely NuForce's stated objective is to improve the analogue audio performance of this deck above the base model. So the power supply has been blessed with some new circuitry and Sabre DACs drafted in to replace the original's Cirrus Logic DACs. A single 8-channel Sabre DAC feeds the multichannel analogue output, while the stereo feed gets a particularly high-end audiophile solution, in the shape of an ESS Sabre32 DAC divided equally between the two channels. NuForce has made other less obvious (but quite inventive) changes, including removing redundant capacitors from the stereo signal path (it assumes the player will be partnered with pre-amps and AVRs which already have DC blocking circuits) in an effort to maximise signal quality. The company has also disabled the player's muting circuits, which silence any DAC operations which may generate noise. This tweak is a little contentious, as those muting circuits are there for a reason and that's to prevent unpleasant pops and buzzes. You need to get into the habit of turning on the player before your amp, as well as killing the volume when you hop from PCM to DSD in the Audio Setup screen. Just to reiterate, all these audio improvements relate to the player's analogue board. You will not benefit if you just route audio over HDMI. Reflecting its refinement, the deck delivers a very low 155.4ps of analogue jitter. The BD83's audio settings allow SACD DSD to bitstream directly to compatible (in all probability Sony) receivers; however, the engineers at NuForce suggest that converting to PCM in the player (aka Forced PCM Mode) before going to the Sabre32 DAC is 'close to identical'. It's a suck-it-and-see exercise. For me though, t'was not an issue. I wasn't using any DSD compliant hardware, so everything PCM was the only way to go. Crystalline quality In use, this bespoke BDP-83 is undeniably accomplished. Video quality is excellent, but it's no different from the standard BDP-83. There's copious fine detail and a solidity to its images, which is reassuring, but as you might expect, there's no provision for playing 3D material. The setup menu offers a fair amount of control over image quality. In addition to brightness and contrast, you can also manage the levels of detail and edge enhancement, noise reduction, etc. Perhaps more intriguing are the output options associated with the HDMI feed. The player uses Anchor Bay VRS deinterlacing and you can also apply CUE-Correction to remove Chroma Upscaling Errors. Of course, in most instances, the Auto setting is the best overall option, but at least cinephiles can feel smug that their player offers more than the mainstream competition. So what of the player's audio performance, I hear you ask, and specifically the quality of its analogue PCM output? For my main audition, I disabled all audio over HDMI and laced up the main stereo phono output with some heavy-duty Monster interconnects. One of my most revealing hi-res platters is by Emi Fujita. Called Camomile Best Audio, it's a Japanese SACD recording of MOR covers, with a stunning mid-range presentation. Delivered via this NuForce special, Fujita's vocals sounded absolutely beautiful, never more so than with a luxuriously unplugged version of Walking in the Air. Stereo imaging is extremely precise, with an airy grace that goes a long way to justifying the ticket price. Once I started to listen, I didn't want to stop. Are the new Sabre DACs better than high-end solutions from Burr-Brown? Unable to do specific A/B comparisons, it's impossible to say for sure. However, I found the deck to be deliciously precise, with an upper mid-range of crystalline clarity. When it comes to bitstreaming out DTS-HD MA over HDMI, the performance onus inevitably shifts from the player to the decoding electronics, but there are no issues here with timing or musicality. Lou Reed's Berlin (Blu-ray) is a wondrously atmospheric live concert shot by Julian Schnabel at the St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, 2006, and the Oppo revels in Reed's nuanced, mellifluous performance. Marvellous indulgence The bottom line is that this is a superb disc-spinner. Built on an already fine chassis, it delivers spectacular analogue audio from both high-resolution discs and standard CDs. It's even obliging when it comes to MP3s over a network. Of course, at £1,300 it's an indulgence, but if you're in the market for a Blu-ray player that can hold its head up high in the company of dedicated high-end CD players, there's nothing wrong with that. Oppo's Special Edition BDP-83, modified by Californian specialists NuForce, is an intriguing proposition. If you want a BD player for audiophile music playback that doesn't cost silly money, it's an essential audition. Related Links
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| In Depth: How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops Posted: 02 Jan 2011 01:00 AM PST  The smart mobile user shouldn't overlook Linux. The question is, which distro should you pick? You'll get a different answer depending who you ask. You'll probably be pointed in the direction of Arch for performance, Debian for stability and Ubuntu if you want easy access to the biggest collection of apps. If that's not enough choice to make your head spin, Slackware has its fans too – particularly among people who use older laptops. As you read on, we'll look at a range of different scenarios that should be familiar to mobile users, and explore Linux distros that will help you survive and flourish in these situations. To make everybody's life easier, we'll limit ourselves to pre-packaged live Linux distros. We'll also stick to live CDs as much as possible throughout this tour. This is important if you're working on a corporate laptop and can't install software. With our advice, you'll be able to work in Windows, and when you're done, transform the machine into a bespoke system, laser-targeted for your needs and wants. Linux for gaming Linux is a wonderful platform for gaming, whatever your preferred genre. There's plenty to choose from, including real-time and turn-based strategy titles, puzzle games and first-person shooters. To get started in the world of Linux gaming, we recommend a trip to http://live.linux-gamers.net. Here you'll find a huge collection of games. The concept behind the distribution is boot and play – just pop a USB drive, CD or DVD into your laptop, the distro will boot and you can start gaming. This approach is particularly useful if your laptop has been configured by an overzealous system administrator – the sort who robs you of the right to even adjust the time on your work machine. Usefully, http://live.linux-gamers.net segregates by genre, and offers them as two releases: a 'lite' edition that fits on a CD, and a 'big' edition with tons of games that fits on a DVD. The distro also goes some way to curing a major Linux bugbear: graphics drivers. Games rely on getting the very best from your graphics card, so to help in this endeavour, the bootable live DVD contains your collection of games and also both the Nvidia and ATI proprietary drivers. Moving on, you should also check out Fedora Games Spin, which has over 100 games built-in. If you can't find what you're looking for there, you should also try the SuperGamer2 distro, which only fits on a 7.8GB dual-layer DVD. Finally, there's the Ubuntu-based Ultimate Edition for Gamers, which includes Wine and the PlayOnLinux app for playing Windows games on Linux. If Windows games are what you're after, you'll also need to download Cedega and CrossOver Games. These tools aren't included in any distribution, but for maximum compatibility it's best to download the latest releases from the developers' original websites anyway. Making movies When it comes to editing movies you've captured while on holiday, there's no time like the present. You'll find it easier to edit footage when things are fresh in your mind. To transform your hotel room into a movie-editing suite, you should grab a copy of Ubuntu Studio for audio, video and graphic enthusiasts. It's available as an installable DVD only, not as a live CD. It's also well worth checking out 64 Studio. It's a cracking distro aimed squarely at anyone interested in creating multimedia content. Don't be put off by its name – it will work on 64- and 32-bit machines. If you're not keen on committing to a full install of Linux, you can explore moviemaking with live distros. Top of your list should be Puredyne. It's got tools for streaming audio and video, along with information on its online wiki about how to use these tools. Alternatively, ArtistX includes a huge range of video and audio editing tools. Office work Linux is ideal for working on the go, when you need a distro that's stable, secure and works well with the apps you need. With this in mind, there isn't much choice beyond Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE. Of these, the first two are fantastic desktop distros. OpenSUSE looks professional, and is well integrated with the OpenOffice.org suite and Evolution email client. It's available in two installable live CD flavours, depending on your choice of desktop environment, as well as a 4.7GB DVD image with lots of software. You also have access to a large collection of proprietary software on the mirrors or via the non-OSS add-on CD. 
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