Companies try to brand all of their products with the gaming slogan, and that leads to curiosities like trying to put it on the routers. Linksys introduced the WRT32X at CES, of dubious utility, and Asus has also done the same with the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300-Republic of Gamers, the popular gaming brand from Asus.
In appearance it is similar to other routers of the company that already are in the market (a characteristic form of spider with eight antennas), and with the maximum benefits in this sector: wifi of type 802.11 ac MU-MIMO, eight ports Gigabit Ethernet, Simultaneous use of three Wi-Fi networks (one at 1000 Mbps and two at 2167 Mbps), 1024 QAM modulation and 80 MHz bandwidth for connections, two USB 3.0 ports, and a full firmware with firewall and other security and configuration features.
Many, many times in this website have we talk about power supplies and each time, we have mention rails as something common without going to deep about them. Well, that ends with this article in which we are going to explain what rails are, how they affect PC performance and if it’s better to choose a power supply with a single and powerful rail or one with several.
In this article we’ll try to be as comprehensible as possible for people who don’t have any electronic or electrical notions, so we warn you if you do have this knowledge don’t be alarmed by seeing how rough this explanations are, since our aim is for this to be completely understandable for every user, having in mind that the purpose is to help choosing which option is more convenient whether a single rail or a multi rail power supply.
What are power supply rails?
First of all, let’s explain what a rail is. Rails are the channels through which the power supply feeds electricity to all the components in our computer. Generally we just talk about +12 V rails since these have the bigger impact in the computer but power supplies have also rails in the +3,3V y +5V channels of course.
Single Rail vs Multi Rail
Each rail of the power supply has an overcurrent protection (OCP) and is limited to one OCP per rail, this way if our power supply relies on just one +12 V rail, it will have one OCP as well. This means that everything we plug into the power supply will have the same rail and therefore just a single protection, so if any problem were to happen and the power supply protection fails, every component connected would be at risk.
In the other hand we have a multi rail power supply, which will have an OCP in each rail. So, not only can we divide the current by components (for example, on one rail the motherboard and processor, video card in another, and in a different rail hard drives) but also if something fails not every component will suffer the consequences, just the ones connected to that rail.
Pros and Cons
We’ll start by saying that you should not be alarmed; modern power supplies have lots of safeguards no matter how many rails they have. The first advantage of having a +12 V single rail power supply is that you will be able to feed more alternating current, and as you know, specially video cards need a minimum of intensity to work. For example a GTX 1080 NVIDIA graphic card needs a +12 V rail not only to provide certain power but also to supply a minimum of 30 amps of intensity.
Today Intel is launching its new line of desktop Core processors – the so called “7th generation” Kaby Lake line. As we have previously mentioned, the innovations in CPU technology offered by these new chips are pretty limited, the major innovation is their increased operating frequency.
The Core i5 and Core i7 Kaby Lake range is composed of:
i7-7700K : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 4.2-4.5 GHz, 91W, 339$
i7-6700K : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 4.0-4.2 GHz, 91W, 339$
i5-7600K : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.8-4.2 GHz, 91W, 242$
i5-6600K : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.5-3.9 GHz, 91W, 242$
i7-7700 : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 3.6-4.2 GHz, 65W, 303$
i7-6700 : 4C/8T, 8 Mo LLC, 3.4-4.0 GHz, 65W, 303$
i5-7600 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.5-4.1 GHz, 65W, 213$
i5-6600 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.3-3.9 GHz, 65W, 213$
i5-7500 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.4-3.8 GHz, 65W, 192$
i5-6500 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.2-3.6 GHz, 65W, 192$
i5-7400 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 3.0-3.5 GHz, 65W, 182$
i5-6400 : 4C/4T, 6 Mo LLC, 2.7-3.3 GHz, 65W, 182$
Compared to the previous line of processors, we can see an increase in operating frequency of between 200 and 300 MHz thanks to the “14nm+” technology Intel has incorporated into the new chips and all for the same price as the older generation. For all practical purposes however, due to the novelty factor and the absence of non-official suppliers, we can expect a temporarily increased retail price. It should be noted that these processors officially support DDR4-2400 RAM whereas the previous generation is limited to DDR4-2133, except when overclocking with the Z chipset – in which case they easily exceed DDR4-3000.
Technology advances and changes very quickly, but certainly one of the areas that is most affected by this fact is the graphics card, since new releases occur quite frequently and the feeling of being “outdated” is noticeable even if we only have a generation behind.
But do not worry, it is normal since each new generation of cards introduces changes that make people think that their card is useless and needs to be upgraded, but the reality is very different, since the same card will continue to perform as well as it did a few months ago.
And what about those with old graphics cards? That is a good question, and to answer we’ll be making this guide, in which we will talk about the generations of graphics cards that have become “obsolete”, at least in theory, and we will see the ones that are still capable of performing well today.
It’s possible that while trying to connect your Smartphone to the PC via the USB port this one won’t recognize it, but let’s calm down, and don’t despair, the Free Android (El Androide Libre) is here to the rescue.
In this post we’ll leave you a few possible solutions so you can connect your android to your PC without any problems. Or at least we’ll try.
Not detecting the USB connection? Let’s start with the basics
Many times we turn something small into a big deal unnecessarily. It happens to all of us that when something fails we immediately go to the complicated answers, without realizing that the solution is right in front of us.
Changing your laptop’s hard drive or installing an additional one is a very simple task. Here we show you how to do it and what you should keep in mind.
1: Check your computer’s specs
Before buying anything, the first thing we have to do is check our computer’s specs. This is very important since, even if you’re going to replace your existing unit, you must check the compatibility of the models that you plan to install.
For that you must check the technical specifications of your laptop online, and closely examine the storage specs. This way you will know which units it supports, although it’s not always easy to find our model, even looking at several websites. This isn’t infallible, and there will be occasions where you will have to look for another solution.
One of the matters that worries most of the users when configuring a new PC is the known topic of the bottleneck originated by the CP, something understandable since each graphic card may have determined requirements and may need a processor of lower or higher capacity.
Beforehand, I would like to clarify in a vast and transparent way what the bottleneck originated by the CPU is, since it is a big enough topic and I believe that not everyone has completely understood it, not even after reading this publication, that I believe you should read.
This bottleneck implies that one or more of the components offers a lower performance to the one provided by other system elements, and as they are supposed to work together with these, they are slowing or limiting their true potential. This is the simplest definition I can provide.
Let’s clear the field of misunderstandings right away: while it is possible, of course, to compare the features of the iOS and Android operating systems, thinking you can compare the technical specifications of the iPhone with those of Android smartphones is a mistake – and also pretty sketchy -. Let’s see why.
Which is better: an iPhone or an Android smartphone?
When you try to compare one of the latest iPhone models with a top-range Android smartphone, you’ll be often shocked to hear that Apple phonesonly integrate 2 GB of RAM, whereas with one of the most convincing Android devices have at least 4 or even 6 GB of RAM. (Read More: How much RAM does Android smartphone need?)
Only the iPhone 7 Plus has recently introduced 3 GB of RAM (DRAM LPDDR4).
Still, an iPhone can guarantee high performance, absolutely comparable with those of “rival” smartphones in the Android universe..
So much so that – with the passage of time – different forks of Android were created, i.e. versions derived from the original Google code. Just think about Amazon’s FireOS, RemixOS and to all the various Android “custom ROMs” (i.e. CyanogenMod) installed on mobile devices.
Android must, therefore. have to deal with thousands of possible hardware configurations, completely different from each other.
With the arrival of Qualcomm’s new SoC Snapdragon 835 and 8 GB RAM devices, “top of the range” Android smartphones will always be “filled” with more and more memory.
But how much RAM should a smartphone have? Should you buy a 4 GB smartphone or one with more RAM memory?
RAM capability has, in fact, become one of the biggest features flaunted around by Android smartphone producers. Much more than its predecessors were.
RAM actually has a lot more of an impact on consumers than previous models, which are increasingly coming in second.
How much RAM does a smartphone need?
Smartphones typically use eMMC or UFC memory for “non-volatile” data storage.
RAM, however, guarantees noticeably faster access time in terms of storage: ample portions of the operating system and of the app being used are ran with RAM so as to reset the “bottle neck” coming from storage access.
MSI is keeping up the good work in its gaming laptop sector by updating its various models with the latest developments announced at CES 2017. This means that we can expect the arrival of models with the newest Kaby Lake processors and the GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti mobile graphics cards. These new models also bring something more than CPU and GPU performance to the table.
There is a new line aimed mostly at gamers, the GE72MVR, GE62MVR, GE72VR, GE62VR, GE72 and GE62 series as well as the GP and GL series (I had the opportunity of trying out one of these units, the GE72 7RE Apache Pro). In the classification of processors, Kaby Lake is a step up from the competition with a 10% increase in performance compared to previous versions. What is even more interesting are the new graphics cards: the GTX 1050 and the GTX 1050 Ti which come with 2 and 4 GB of VRAM.
