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The page set is now done so we now have a core for reviews.
Finally finished some new table styles to better support more sophisticated comparisons.
We will now be reviewing software (not games) on the site with a new section. The goal is to compare programs from a given category so that users can make more informed choices.
Lots of new equipment in the shop. The workstation now is equipped with the M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard which is capable of supporting a pair of video cards. Our TX850V2 is suitable for a pair of single GPU video cards which matches the capacity of the motherboard. Using DDR3 means our server can now use all of our DDR2.
We now have an Phenom II 965 BE CPU for the workstation so the server now has the Athlon64 X2 4200+ which is adequate for Sever 2012.
We are now focused on expanding the DDR3 stock which is now much less expensive. DDR3 is also available in larger capacities.
We also finally upgraded the network to gigabit Ethernet and wireless-n. 10 gigabit Ethernet remains far too expensive for widespread use but prices are falling exponentially.
We will need another AM3 or better CPU to be able to modernize the server and be able to better leverage Hyper-V. Game servers are one popular application that is easy to be migrated to a private cloud. QA testing is an obvious beneficiary for virtual machines as well.
The PSU on the server is an older model. Lower capacity power supplies have not yet seen the efficiency improvements seen at the high end of the market. The EPA goals may be unrealistic as development costs to achieve 80 PLUS Platinum is very high. Our TX850V2 is 80 PLUS bronze however 18 months down the road we now see 80 PLUS gold models are now more widely available as Corsair et al modernize their designs with each product cycle.
We have purchased many testing devices including low cost USB thermometers and a 2 channel USB oscilloscope. One of the more handy devices is a low cost PSU tester that can identify a defective PSU quickly. We also have digital meters for load testing.
We are designing a new tester as our old one is obsolete. We have about 50% of the parts already.
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