Security is an important topic these days. However, it’s typically only recognized as important by professionals. If security were to suddenly turn into a mainstream selling point, though, then perhaps it’d make more sense for companies like Intel to promote it.
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) has already been adopted by the United States government—including the NSA—along with many other institutions. Intel’s 32nm Clarkdale-based CPUs (only the Core i5-600-series, so far) now promise significant performance benefits for AES encryption and decryption via new instructions. Today we’re looking at the real-world benefits of Intel’s AES-NI functionality, comparing a dual-core Core i5-661 with AES New Instructions (AES-NI) to a quad-core Core i7-870, which lacks the new encryption acceleration capability.
Encryption is used much more intensively than you might suspect. Consider Internet sites that hold you sensitive personal information, or utilize sensitive data for transactions. They all use protocols like Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). VoIP, instant messaging, and email may also be protected with these protocols. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and electronic payments are other popular encryption applications.
However, TLS and SSL are cryptographic protocols for secure communication, while AES is a general-purpose encryption standard. It can be used to encrypt individual files, data containers, archive files, entire drives (including thumb drives), and even multi-drive volumes. AES can be implemented in software, and there are products based on hardware acceleration as well, since encryption/decryption represent a rather significant workload. Solutions like TrueCrypt or Microsoft’s BitLocker, which is part of Windows Vista and Windows 7 Ultimate, are capable of encrypting entire partitions on the fly.
(for the rest of the first page, and all the other pages, hit up Tom’s)
I relish making changes to my primary work PC only slightly more than dental surgery. Things can go wrong. My productivity vanishes. I’ll deal with work-arounds for months before cracking open my case for an upgrade.
And yet, I just published a story called “Can Bargain SSDs Give Windows A Quantum Performance Leap?” for Tom’s Hardware, and what I’d found when doing that story blew my mind. I was used to measuring Windows startup times in minutes, literally being able to make lunch in the time it took to go from power off to having all of my normal apps loaded. I built a similar configuration on my bench, placed it on Western Digital’s VelociRaptor (the fastest SATA hard drive around), and got a full load time of 65 seconds. Then I cloned the configuration to Kingston’s entry-level SSDNow V-Series SSD and saw the load time plummet to only 27 seconds. Feeling like Will Smith at the controls of some fresh alien tech, I hollered, “Oh, I have got to get my Windows 7 one of these!”
We heard a lot of off-the-record praise from readers after publishing our recent feature on laptop SSD upgrading. Experienced users tend to populate our forums, but those who have never done a hands-on system upgrade tend to hang out invisibly in the background and it seems they appreciated a step-by-step guide to the upgrading process. It’s primarily for this latter group that we’re returning now with a companion piece on how to take your desktop PC through the same process…only I’ve added a new twist, as you’ll see below . . .
Shipping within a couple of months with the WiFi (802.11n) variant, and a month later for the added AT&T-only 3G capability (a small boo for not opening that up to other carriers).
Light and thin, and borrowing heavily from the iPhone and iTouch, it looks like it could spell trouble for competitors (new iBooks vs the Kindle / Nook, as well as the smartphone / netbook arena).
Hi-Rely RAIDFrame: External Disk-To-Disk Backup Via eSATA
“Are we ready for high-capacity RAID solutions for our backup needs? Today we’re looking at an external device from Highly Reliable Systems that connects to your machine through a single eSATA interface and supports up to 15 drives in a 3U enclosure.”
This external Blu-ray burner offers four ways to connect to a PC or Mac.
Looking for an external (or internal) drive to store all those “special files” on disk? Look no further than OWC’s Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray burner, using a Pioneer BDR-205 and costing a whopping $349.99 USD. This Blu-ray drive supports burning up to 50 GB of data or high-definition video on BD-R dual-layer media at 12x speed; the drive burns at 2x when using BD-RE. Or, if you prefer sticking to the old-school DVDs, consumers can cram 8.5 GB on a dual-layer disk at 16x; CD-R media burns at 40x.
But what makes this device really cool is its quad interface, offering four ways for consumers to connect the burner to a Mac or PC. Offering pure Plug & Play support, the Mercury Pro provides FireWire 800 (two ports), FireWire 400 (one port), USB 2.0 (one port), and eSATA (one port). The drive also includes cables for each connection.
For $449.99 USB, OWC is also offering this bundle, throwing in Roxio’s Toast 10 Titanium Pro but it’s only compatible with Macintosh hardware, requiring Mac OS X v10.5.x. Of course, Windows users have a plethora of more advaned burning utilities.
Western Digital today revealed its latest addition to the My Book external hard drive series, boasting compatibility with the new, hot & juicy SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. Granted consumers will need a new motherboard with built-in USB 3.0 technology or install a PCI-e card with a SuperSpeed interface, consumers can now store meaty data on an external drive up to 10 times faster than the old and decrepit USB 2.0 interface.
“Consumers no longer have to wait for technology to keep up with their ideas. With the new super speed My Book 3.0 drives, consumers have the speed they need for resource-intensive video editing, animation, and graphic design applications,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.
Consumers can purchase the USB 3.0 My Book drive in two tasty flavors: a standalone drive or as a kit with an included USB 3.0 PCI-e (gen2) adapter card. Naturally the latter would be ideal for those who don’t have an itch (or the funds) to replace the entire motherboard, but want the extra burst of speed. Currently WD is offering the My Book 3.0 drives in 1 TB capacities only, but expect to ship 2 TB drives in the coming weeks.
Want one now? WD has the drives up for sale over on shopwd.com and at “select retailers.” The price difference between the standalone and the kit version isn’t the huge gap we expected either: $179.99 for the standalone and $199.99 for the drive/PCI-e version.
Power hungry, are you? ASUS has just the rig for you, as it just launched its newest Republic of Gamers laptop here at a CES press event. The G73hj is doing its darnedest to make every other gaming lappie out there look downright weak, with this one boasting a Core i7-720QM CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 8-channel HD audio, up to 1TB of HDD space and DirectX 11 compatibility thanks to the internal ATI Radeon HD 5870. You’ll also get a spacious 17.3-inch display, a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, Blu-ray / DVD combo drive, 8-cell battery, a 2 megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, an 8-in-1 card reader and a mini-VGA connector. Naturally, Windows 7 Home Premium will be running the show, and this thing is far from being slim and sexy. There’s no word yet on a price and release, but we’ll keep you posted.
OK, I knew I was missing out on another complete style of computing. Pipes, sure, but cigarettes? I hope these coders have roll-back capability via SVN or similar, depending on what they’re drinking!
Xray 5.25″ Drive Bay Kit A2021 (Discontinued Item)
Xray 5.25″ Drive Bay Kit A2021 (Discontinued Item)
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All Thermaltake discontinued product provide a high level of functionality and meet “new product specifications.” These products have not been used prior to your purchase. Thermaltake discontinued product indicates that the product has been ended of its lifetime and no longer available at any vendors, but available only from Thermaltake. All discontinued products are offered 90 days limited warranty against manufacture defect.
The mighty Gulftown will be one of the Core i7 boys.
Along with the revamped Nehalem-based Westmere chips, Intel will be bringing a hexacore variant codenamed Gulftown.
Many figured that this new class of desktop chip with its six cores and twelve threads would put it in a class that Intel would see fit to name Core i9 – but if leaked Intel slides are to be believed, Intel is keeping it within the Core i7 family.
Chinese website PCOnline shows a slide that clearly describes an Intel Core i7-980X Processor Extreme Edition as one built on a 32nm process with 12MB Intel Smart Cache and a 130W TDP.
While this leaves some of us wondering what, if anything, Intel will slot into a possible Core i9 class, the positive side is that Intel won’t have to print up a whole different set of system badge stickers for the new Gulftown CPU.
This is just the latest in a string of Gulftown leaks. Last month, a Polish website got its hands on an engineering sample and put the chip through its (quick) paces.
