The Intel Gift That Keeps On Giving...... The Core/Core 2 Duo

In early 2006, Intel began shipping their new product, code named "Yonah" and "Merom". These new CPUs were designed to take back the crown and restored the luster which AMD had taken in the preceding years. This story really starts a decade before when, from the mid-90s till close to 2000, Intel had been clearly the leader in the processor industry, although AMD had given it a very decent run for their money with the K5/K6 architecture during those years. However, those chips were always seen as being the inexpensive alternative if you couldn't afford the real thing! So, in 1999/2000 Intel was the monarch of all it surveyed with the PIII "Tualatin" follow-on to the "Katmai" and then great "Coppermine" processors. 

Then this happened! Netburst...... otherwise known as P4 (or Pentium 4). It turn out to be a wrong turn in the Intel roadmap. Simple put; they fell in love with speed. I was working in the IT world at that time and remember it clear as yesterday. "Netburst" was the next big thing, it could do everything fast. It was so fast, it required a new type of RAM.... RAMBUS (RD RAM) and even a new socket...... the Socket 423. I remember having to do a budgetary tapdance just to buy system memory for those machines because it was so expensive (and my predecessor had under-spec'd the hardware when that group of machines were bought. They were Dell Optiplex GX400 and a thorn in my side for the next 3 years. The P4s got faster AND hotter, AND faster AND HOTTER. The CPU game went this way for 5 years, until the "Smithfield" Pentium D processors came out in May of 2005. In fact, they ran so hot that most major manufacturers never made P4 small form-factor machines. The Pentium D was essentially 2 of the "Prescott" cores on one die, but it was a change that would be a harbinger of really big things to come. The other shoe dropped in January of the following year when the "Presler" chip was launched. Sure it was still a P4 based Penitum D, BUT it was built on the 65nm process. AND chips were made to go into the new LGA 775 socket which would soon become the host to the really big change.

That same January, Intel slipped the "Yonah" Core Solo and Duo onto the market in notebook form only. This was followed in July with the notebook "Merom" and in August by the Desktop "Conroe" Core 2 Duo processors. These weren't just the "same old, same old": Intel had gone back to it's roots of the last PIII "Tualatin" chip that valued cool-running efficiency versus the flat-out speed of the P4 line. The new architecture put Intel back into the drivers seat where it's been ever since. Not only that, but this series of chips dating back to 2006 weren't replaced till the "Clarkdale", "Core" Series of 2010, weren't just long lived, but can still run current operating systems and quite a lot of productivity software as well. If you're someone who uses a computer to do simple tasks such as websurfing, checking email and consuming some media, the later, "Wolfdale" (desktop), or "Penryn" (notebook) work fine. Now, if you're a media creator....... then I'd say look elsewhere!

If you're wondering where I'm going with this; then here it is! We have 2, ThinkPad T500s in our house right now that are about to go to new homes. My son's old lower-spec'd machine that has integrated Intel graphics, on a 1280 x 800 screen, and my wife's nicer switchable graphics (integrated Intel GMA 4500M or ATI Radeon HD 3650) on a 1680 x 1050 screen. These machines have run very well over the last 3 years that we've had them. My son's only got replaced this fall when he needed to carry a machine to and from school daily. However, in the last couple of weeks, I've run into opportunities to sell both machines. One will go for $150 and the other for $175. Both buyers were happy to be able to get them for those prices and they'll do a good job for the new owners. 

 

Their replacements will be a T530 running 3rd generation i5 bought for $135. It'll need a HDD, but I planing on moving her 512Gb SSD over to it. I'll have to spend about $20-30 for a new palmrest but at the end of the day, this machine will have pretty much cost me $0. My son's current X220 was bought for about $80 (after shipping) from an eWaste dealer. It didn't come with a drive, but did have 4Gb of RAM. I was able to move his old 160Gb Intel SSD into it as well as add another 4Gb of RAM that I had on hand. So that exchange will have made me about $50. This whole story really isn't about the great deals I got on the new machines, but really that those old Core 2 Duo ones were such a great generation that they were still viable enough to get me enough pay for their own replacements!

It's A New Audio/Video Age.... In The New Home

We have arrived!!! ....After all those years of reading Audio-Video Interiors, planning, building, and accumulating, I've finally built the home theater that's as good as it's going to get ......for me. Much of what we wanted in this particular house (other than the adjacent greenbelt), has to do with the space it affords us. While the previous house was all about the practicality aspect of home buying and having everything we needed with nothing that we didn't: this house was about not compromising. Well, at least in our solidly school teacher-middle income world anyway. At the core of this house, is a game/family/media room which is so big, that we had to cut it into a two-thirds/one-third split with a large cabinet/bookcase system that we're building in to the back section! As much of a audio-video nut (within reason) as I've been, I've never had a home-theater that wasn't a double-duty living room! However, that didn't stop me from accumulating all the equipment necessary to run a full-scale home theater. Let's just say that it was a little over-spec'd for the spaces it was operating in......

• The dual-tower cabinet that I designed and help build was over-sized.
• The B&W ASW675 was too much sub for every room it ever lived in.
• The KEF iQ5 tower speakers were too much speaker for a seated position less than 15' away from it.
• The fully self-powered 2nd-Zone system never came into play in the old house at all.
• Having 2 other secondary monitors was more conceptual than useful. 
• Even the 48" Vizio main monitor was too big for the space between the cabinet towers.

Then we moved this summer. If I hadn't said so in previous posts, this house is kind of a "fixer-upper". Not in the truest sense of the term, but in reality of constantly having something to work on, YES..... yes it is! In fact, I'm avoiding going to paint our previously orange-leaning Peach bathroom a more soothing light-blue, by writing this piece! But, as they say; "the bones are there". Actually, there's a little meat on them as well.

 Denon AVR-3802 A/V Receiver

B&W ASW600 Powered Subwoofer

B&W LM-1 5-Speaker Sets

Two sets of each of the above...... were left at the house......

Along with 7 sets of 6.5" in-ceiling speakers. I don't know that they are the B&W CM65s, but I wouldn't bet against it since all the other speakers were made by them and are of that vintage. Believe me, I know. Ironically, in the last couple of years before we moved out here to the Dallas area, I sold this exact equipment at the audio store I worked at in Lubbock! Those in-ceiling speakers are mounted in locations all over the house run through level controls in those spaces. One group terminates behind where my main system now resides upstairs and the other downstairs in what my wife calls the "living room" that adjoins the kitchen. It's really more "family room", but she's the boss!

Speaking of the wife.... things in the house were progressing..... slowly, but progressing till she couldn't handle the smell of the pet-stained carpet any more. First went the downstairs carpet about two months ago, the game/media room about a month ago, then we decided to speed up the process about two weeks ago and ordered new carpet. So the rest of the upstairs rooms got their carpet ripped out and we lived on sub-floor for a week. Saturday, the installers came and installed the carpet. At the same time, my father-in-law was working on the built-in in the back of the room.

 

It's been awhile since I've had my A/V equipment set up properly in a carpeted room with decent acoustics. Wow! It sounds great! 

Oh yeah: can't forget the new 55" Sony 4K TV as well. This is just a start. Yes, there's still stuff to do, and the room will actually sound better when we load the built-in with books and decorative items, so that end of the room will deaden down some more. For now; it's a pretty good start. 

Old School Camera Equipment Finds

I've been out of the camera/photography end of my blog topics for a while now, but I recently jump back into it in a big way! Along with the misc digital camera items that I buy and use, I've also been accumulating a sort of "ad hoc" collection of old photographic equipment. This stuff has ranged variously from rather ancient selenium light meters all the way to "user-grade" film cameras. I won't say SLR (although the vast majority have been 35mm cameras of the that type). There have been the occasional 35mm "rangefinders", vintage flash units and even some old little 16mm ultra-compact "spy cameras". However, the majority of my energies have been put into acquiring Tamron Adaptall lens. Why those you ask?

The Adaptall-ness of them of course!  Yes, some of it has to do with the fact that they are very fine lenses and in some cases (particularly the zooms), stack up quite nicely against the far more expensive OEM brands such Nikon, Canon, Minolta etc. However, it's really their unique Adaptall/Adaptall-2 system which allows these lenses to be used on a wide range of cameras made by a variety of manufacturers. .....And since my collection includes (among others); a Minolta XE-7, a Konica TC, and a Contax 139, I'd like to have one set of lenses that I can use with everything. The Adaptall lenses allow me to do this.

 

I had already found a couple of the Adaptall-2 lenses (the 28-50mm, 70-150mm) that I've been very happy with; then a couple of weeks ago; this happened.....

 

These 3 lenses (along with a Soligor 28mm/f2.8 in M42 threadmount) appeared on the Goodwill Industries auction site listed as a "untested" package. So $20 later with $10 of it as shipping, I more than doubled my Adaptall-2 inventory without even duplicating any of the lenses that I already had! The top one 35-135mm/f3.5-4.2 CF zoom, the bottom one an 80-210mm/f3.8 CF zoom, and the capper in the middle..... 60-300mm/f3.8-5.6 zoom from the SP (Super Performance) line! They all work fine and came to $5 per lens including the Soligor and a whopping $$6.67 per if we just count these Tamrons. Wow! Granted, one came with an Olympus OM mount and two came with Canon FD mounts, so I'll have to buy some more Minolta, Contax mounts if I don't want to switch out, but that's fairly inconsequential considering.

 

 While I was on a roll this week, I also scored a Vivitar 285 flash from a local charity resale store for $5...... no, you did not mis-read that. It was $5.... well, actually $4.99, but who's counting that penny anyway! When I got it home, put new batteries in it to check for function, I also pulled out the voltage meter to check out the trigger voltage. These can range from 6v all the way up to 300v+ which will kill modern digital cameras; my unit came in at 6v! Score again!!! I'd say it was a pretty good photographic equipment week.