DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Sorry for a lack of the usual weekly blog post. There were quite a few things I wanted to blog about, including my new computer and the drama that went with that, the October NPD figures as well, plus a few other things, but due to the first thing I mentioned (new computer drama), I just didn’t have the time. Basically, I bought a new computer but the RAM was faulty, and I didn’t get it resolved until Friday, and I’ve been busy installing everything since then. It’s settled down a bit now, and I’m actually typing this on my new Intel E8500 computer, so hopefully normality will return soon.

Let’s start with copyright news. If you live in Britain, then think of two other people that also live in Britain. Then at least one of you is an online pirate, according to the MPAA that is. I don’t know why the MPAA wants to brag about this, because if everybody is doing it, then it shows the problem is not that some people are dishonest, but rather, there’s a much bigger problem. Perhaps it’s the high prices, poor release schedules, the lack of legal alternatives and many other possible explanations. 

The owner of IsoHunt expands upon this point further by saying that it isn’t the copyright infringers that are in the wrong, but the law itself is the problem. The law currently fails to distinguish between several important differences, such as offering torrent files versus hosting actual pirated material, and whether sharing  1% of a file constitutes the same kind of piracy as sharing 100% of the file through P2P. And then there’s a whole bunch of stuff that’s perfectly legal, but still treated in the same way as the worst of piracy.  

Will the Obama administration help to preserve Net Neutrality?

A sign that real change may be coming to Washington DC, President-Elect Obama’s transition team will hand over the job of reviewing the FCC to two Net Neutrality advocates. This is great news for the fight for Net Neutrality, to prevent media companies from dictating what we can and cannot do with *our* Internet. Let’s hope this is signs of things to come, because the White House has for too long been in the pockets of those whose greed will ultimately be their undoing. All eyes will be on who Obama will pick to be the copyright czar, that newly created position by the Bush administration to grant the MPAA an office at the White House. If Obama picks a consumer friendly advocate to fill this position, then that will truly mean the battle-lines have been drawn and for once, the White House may be on our side. Change we need, indeed (but don’t be too disappointed if nothing happens, as is the way with Washington politics).

Microsoft has launched their US online store. Why is this in the copyright news section? Well, the store now allows for downloads for their popular software titles, instead of using the traditional CD/DVD model. This is a step in the right direction one feels, but the step is far too small coming from Microsoft as the downloads are offered at the same price as the DVD version. Drop the price of Windows Vista by half, and I think you’ll see Vista piracy drop dramatically. With my new computer purchase, I was eligible to get the OEM version of Vista for about half the price of the retail version. While the OEM version is limited to one computer, and it only comes with either the 32 or 64 bit version (I opted for the 64 bit one due to my system having 4 GB of RAM), and it lacks full support that comes with the retail version, the lower price more than makes up for it. Now if Microsoft can do something similar with downloads, then their online store might get a few more customers. Still with Microsoft, they also started banning a whole bunch of Xbox 360’s for using pirated games. Some are easy to spot, because they play games that haven’t even been released yet. And this time, it’s not only Xbox Live accounts getting banned, but also the Xbox 360 console itself – if you see cheap “too good to be true” Xbox 360’s on sale at eBay or something, beware. Xbox 360 piracy, and console piracy in general, is less of a problem than PC piracy. But there are probably only half a dozen must have games each year, plus many of them go on sale for peanuts without a short amount of time, so there’s really no need to pirate console games. I wager that people spend a lot more on DVDs than on games, but one good game can offer 10, 20 times the entertainment of a typical movie, at only about 3 or 4 times the price (at release). 

Onto Blu-ray news now, this holiday season is bringing mixed news for the only HD disc format left (this is the first holiday season where Blu-ray has been the sole HD format). While the spate of new Blu-ray releases will surely sell incredibly well to existing users, it’s the adoption of the format by new users that have the Blu-ray people worried. The price drops, discount hardware and movie deals are now happening on a scale I’ve never seen before, and without considering other circumstances, this would be a great time to Buy-Blu™. Unfortunately, those “other circumstances” happens to be the greatest economic downturn in nearly 100 years, so if there was a worse time to promote a new more expensive and optional format (competing against a firmly established budget alternative), this would be it.

Circuit City filling for bankruptcy could have a negative effect on Blu-ray sales

With Circuit City filing for Chapter 11, other electronic stores such as Best buy reporting this is the worst holiday sales period they’ve seen in 42 years of retailing, this Christmas is turning blue rather than Blu. I personally think the BDA are doing all the right things at the moment. Lowering hardware prices, lowering movie prices, not relying as much on the PS3 (the PS3 hasn’t dropped in price to tempt consumers away from standalones) and plenty of good titles. But certainly there are external factors they cannot control. Right now, Blu-ray is living off the early adopter and PS3 crowd, the hard-core fans that will buy everything that comes their way, money being no object (relatively). And that’s reflected in the sales stats too, with titles that appeal to these types of consumers selling like hotcakes (do people still eat hotcakes?), while the more mainstream titles such as comedies or kids films doing quite poorly in comparison (a 94% to 6% DVD to Blu-ray sales ratio for this week’s Kung Fu Panda, for example, but as high as 17% for Iron Man). This holiday season will have to be about pushing Blu-ray mainstream, but it’s harder and harder now that people don’t have the cash or confidence to spend.

The other threat to Blu-ray is digital delivery. Here in Australia, video rental giants Video Ezy and Blockbusters are setting up download kiosks in their stores to allow people to download movies. This is the same Blockbusters that have been doing a lot of work to promote Blu-ray here in Australia, but this could signify a change in strategy. But one thing I will say is that Blu-ray players are perfect platforms to host online download services, and it might just be the trojan horse needed to make digital delivery mainstream.

Toshiba, their first holiday season without a HD format to support, are going full steam with their “upscaling is better than real HD” pitch. This time, it’s an HDTV that has the upscaling built-in; you don’t even need an upscaling DVD player anymore. Perversely, these TVs use the same processing chip as found in the most popular Blu-ray player so far, the Sony PS3. If you can remember from earlier in the year, Toshiba purchased Sony’s Cell processor manufacturing plant, and they said it at the time that they want to be the Cell to all forms of home electronics. And it’s not only Toshiba that is using the Cell processor, Leadtek are coming out with a PC graphics card powered by the Cell processor. That’s an interesting concept, and I will be very interested to see the benchmark scores for it.

Don't be tricked into buying expensive HDMI cable

And to round-up the HD news, have you ever had an experience where you are pressured by salespeople to buy expensive HDMI cable? The same con has been here forever with component cables, but at least it made some sort of sense with these analogue cables. But with these digital “picture or no picture” cables, there’s almost no difference between a $20 cable and a $200 one.  It makes as much sense as a computer salesperson trying to sell you expensive USB cable because it will prevent data loss. For most people who do not need 20m HDMI cables, there’s almost no advantage to buying expensive cable over cheap ones. The expensive ones may have better build quality, but if you buy a cheap one that break, you can replace it 10 times and still end up spending less. So don’t fall for the con. Buy reasonably priced HDMI cables that still have warranties and certification, and save the money on buying better equipment or more movies 

And finally onto gaming, the October NPD figures are out and I will analyse them early next week. The results prove quite positive for the Wi as usual, while the lower priced Xbox 360 sold almost 2:1 compared to the PS3, which actually dropped in sales compared to last month (usually never happens, this close to the holiday shopping season). Sony will go on about how their year-to-year increase (October 2008 compared to October 2007) is the biggest out of the 3 consoles, but our NPD analysis started around this time last year and I have the full analysis right here for October 2007. So yes, the PS3 increased 57% in sales compared to the same month last year, but PS3 sales were absolutely dismal last year this time (last out of all consoles, including the PS2), and it was outsold by the Xbox 360 by a 3:1 margin and by a 4:1 margin with the Wii (which is still outselling it by almost exactly the same margin). The biggest worry has to be the sale decrease compared to the September, despite LittleBigPlanet being released. LBP also didn’t do very well in the sales charts either, barely commanding a place in the top 10 which was once again dominated by the Xbox 360 (5 out of the top 10 titles, including the number one, and platform exclusive, Fable II) and the Wii with the rest.

The price cuts for the Xbox 360 are happening all around the World, including Australia. What I found interesting was a quote from Microsoft’s marketing manager:

You can buy a Wii and an Xbox 360 for less than a PS3, or you can buy an Xbox 360 and a stand-alone Blu-ray player for less than a PS3

You can clearly see Microsoft’s marketing strategy here, and they are not ashamed at all to mention the Wii and even standalone Blu-ray players, and quite clearly position the Xbox 360 as a companion to both of these devices, rather than a competitor. If you can’t beat them, drop prices so you can join them, I guess is what this means. And with the holiday season, you can pick up an even cheaper Xbox 360, for example get a new Xbox 360 plus Rock Band for only $199 from Dell’s Black Friday special. That’s a sweet deal, if you can get your hands on it.

Okay, that’s all I have time for this week. Once I finish installing my new computer, I will hopefully have the NPD analysis up and have time to scour the net for more worthy news items. See you next week.

CNN's fake holograms were pointless

Obamania is sweeping the world. I watched the election coverage because I love elections, or anything where you get to find out a result at a set date (sports, exams …). I think I can be considered quite knowledgeable on the US election, at least this one, so once I saw PA go blue, it was pretty much all over for McCain. Ohio, Virginia, Florida all going Obama’s way just meant that, as I had predicted, the election will be called for Obama once the polls close in the west. I’m sure the networks would have preferred it to have lasted a bit longer, but there’s only so much one can take in regards to fake holograms. The most  disappointing thing for me was that I had put some money on Obama winning between 311 and 338 Electoral Votes, but he got (it looks like right now) 365 EVs – it’s all Indiana and North Carolina’s fault (plus Nebraska’s single split EV). I did put money on Obama getting more than 338 to hedge my bets, so I didn’t lose any money, but I didn’t win any either which was a shame.

Better news is that it seems my third replacement PS3 (fourth overall) is problem free at last. Fingers crossed. I did go computer shopping, but I ended up buying a system that’s totally different than the one that I thought I would buy last week. That’s just so typical, isn’t it. And despite all the distractions, there happened to be quite a bit of news this week, so let’s get on with it.

Starting with copyright news. Following up on last week’s news about MPAA winning against the Chinese DVD manufacturer GoWell. Apparently what happened was that GoWell made a DVD player that played back copied CSS protected discs – not ripped discs, just discs that you copy with Windows Explorer or something which is still encrypted. Normal DVD players won’t play these files, but GoWell made one that did, which is why it got into trouble with the MPAA. GoNotSoWell, it seems.

Real Networks want the public's help in their fight against the MPAA

In the other MPAA case, Real Networks is appealing to the public for support. They are promising free licenses to RealDVD for all trial subscribers once they win the case. If a free license isn’t important for you, then making a stand against the MPAA is. They may have had a case against GoWell, but CSS in itself is a ridiculously crap encryption that can be broken just by sneezing on it, and to see so much money being wasted on licensing and defending just seems like such a waste. Also a waste is all the money the MPAA spends on lobbying politicians, and no sooner had Obama accepted McCain’s concession, the MPAA issued a statement to clarify their intent to work with the new administration on matters of copyright. The kind of people who voted for Obama, especially the younger generation, won’t stand for yet another administration that’s far too friendly and accepting of the MPAA’s position, and I hope President-Elect Obama stands firm on the principle of fair use.

BD+ broken?

Copy protection schemes, like Blu-ray’s BD+, are only effective when people aren’t actively trying to find ways to circumvent it. But people are, and they have, which brings the dream of Blu-ray playback on Linux systems one step closer. Remember that CSS was broken as a way to get DVD video working on Linux, so you would think that the BDA had learnt that lesson and officially licensed a Linux based decryption software to prevent people hackers from doing it the hard way.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to fighting piracy. Stick or carrot. The stick approach, like what EA has been  doing lately and getting into trouble with, doesn’t seem to work too well. EA has had to back down time after time, but stories of more snafus won’t help. This time, EA forgot to print one character from the CD key for the game Red Alert 3 and their solution is for customers to guess it by entering all 36 possible options (or send in a picture of their improperly printed CD key for verification). If there was one company that could do without one more DRM related scandal, it was EA. The other approach, carrot, is to not try and prevent people pirating stuff, but work with it for everyone’s benefit. A new technique for online video sharing sites allows ads to be inserted into videos whenever copyrighted work is detected. Not the most ideal solution, but it’s better than having the video removed. One can also fight piracy on the pricing front, and that’s what Warner is doing in China with low-cost online rentals. Why can’t they do low-cost online rentals here? And even the lack of copy protection can be seen as a promotional tool, with DRM-free MP3s now getting a new “MP3 100% Compatible” logo to promote the fact. The anti-DRM movement has helped to fight piracy more effectively than DRMs, it seems.

Let’s move onto Blu-ray. Sony/Universal are coming out with a vending machines that sells Blu-ray movies and PS3 games. It’s funny that Universal is helping Sony out, because if you look at the companies that have contributed most to Blu-ray, it’s Paramount (Iron Man, Transformers), Warner (I Am Legend, The Dark Knight) and now Universal. All three were HD DVD studios, two of them exclusive until the very end. Interesting.

The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is set to break all Blu-ray sales records

The other HD DVD exclusive party was Wal-Mart, and now they’re bigging up Blu-ray too by devoting more shelve space to Blu-ray for the holiday shopping season. The low cost players that have started to arrive will suit Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy, something that wasn’t possible last year this time which forced them to go HD DVD exclusive for standalone HD players. The lower hardware prices, movie sales and in-store promotions are all part of the big holiday promotional push for Blu-ray, which is set to cost up to $25 million dollars. Money well spent, or waste of it during harsh economic times? Regardless, analysts all predict Blu-ray player prices will nosedive in the next month and a bit. HD DVD’s price crash was seen by probably the very same analysts as a sign that it was doomed, but this time without any real competitors around, the outlooks if fairly different. The Dark Knight on Blu-ray, which is predicted to sell by the truck load, and coupled with cheap Blu-ray players, should see uptake increase. If it works, this could be the most significant holiday season for Blu-ray – the one that decides whether it can replace DVDs, or merely supplement it as a niche format.

And as I normally like to do at the end of the HD section, there’s a bit of news about H.264. DivX 7 is nearly ready for release, with the first beta player being released with H.264 support.

And in gaming, PS3 sales bottomed out last week, but bounced back during the week thanks to GTA IV I think. Just goes to prove that games sell consoles, more than the other way around. Unfortunately for the PS3, it has the lowest attach rate (the average number of games people buy for the console) out of the big 3, with the Xbox 360 way in front followed by the Wii. The Xbox 360 being released earlier helps it, plus the lower prices of the console. The Wii and it’s fun (and hype) factor is helping it too. The PS3’s excellent Blu-ray and media hub functions, is making things worse when it comes to games attach rates. Console manufacturers make money off games more than consoles (that’s if they’re not losing huge amounts of it by selling them below cost, like Sony does with the PS3), so attach rate is everything (especially if your consoles has sold in greater numbers, like the Xbox 360).

In other PS3 news, firmware 2.52 has been released to fix problems with 2.51 which was released to fix problems with 2.50 (which was released to fix problems with …). Sony really need to do better release testing when it comes to their firmware, and there are more reports that 2.52 is borking PS3s by making the not reading disc problem appear after updates. It’s only a matter of time before someone launches a lawsuit, if Sony’s not careful. Sony is also patenting a Wiimote like controller for the PS3.

Will we ever see a slim, sexier Xbox 360?

The NPD October figures should be released next week, and it is widely expected that the Xbox 360 will do extremely well thanks to recent price cuts. But Microsoft is hinting that the last round of cuts will be the last round, period. It was always a matter of time before price cuts are so large that they no longer make any financial sense. The next logical step, at least in my mind, would be for them to make a more reliable and “sexier” version of the 360 – doing that, even for higher prices, will drive sales.

One company not looking to drive up more sales is Nintendo, who thinks they will have enough Wii stock for this holiday season, but you never know. If you want one for Christmas, for yourself or as a gift, please take my advice and buy one today, just to be safe.

And that’s all the news we have for this relatively busy week. Obamania will subside I think, as reality of the current situation sink in (two wars, global economic crisis, terrorism, disease, environmental disasters, and of course the big one, movie piracy). Those of us that have wasted countless hours following the election will now have to find something better to do, so the question is then can we fill our empty lives with something else to worry about? Yes We Can!

Update: The real picture of the Xbox 360 Slim, now that it's available

Update: Seems a lot of people are finding this page on Google or somewhere when searching for pics of the Xbox 360 Slim, so instead of providing just the pic for the prototype one, here’s the real one to the right.

Just got my PS3 back again. So far so good as I couldn’t see any external damage (like the last one), and early uses suggest that at least the wireless controller/remote problem hasn’t happened yet. The XMB not loading quickly problem also isn’t present, which I’m beginning to think might be related to the wireless problem.

More will be posted here in due time.

Update (9th November): Well, it looks like this replacement PS3 seems to be alright. No wireless controller drop outs, no Blu-ray playback problems, no hanging before loading the XMB. It has 2.43 firmware installed by Sony tech support, but I haven’t upgraded it to 2.52 yet until I’m convinced that it doesn’t break more stuff. There have been reports though of the same problem as my original PS3 (drive no longer reads any discs after firmware update), though that may have been people using pre 2.40 fw updating straight to 2.52 (and thus inheriting any problems brought on by 2.42). I’m starting to wonder though if the actual firmware updating process, not the firmware itself, is to blame for the disc reading problem, because that’s two firmware releases now where people have complained about the same problem happening. Sony need to come out and say something I think, because it’s too much of a coincidence for so many people to have exactly the same problem occur immediately after firmware updates.

Only two more months to go before the year’s out. I just remembered that it’s now more than a year since I started the WNR. I really didn’t think I would keep this going for so long, since my attention span when it comes to these sort of things is pretty short. It’s been far longer than that since my last new computer though, so I’ve decided to get a new one this month, maybe even as soon as this week. I posted my buying specs in the “If I were to buy a new computer today” feature I wrote this week. Yet another refurbished PS3 should be arriving tomorrow, fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed that it’s finally okay this time.

Let’s start with copyright news. The Viacom vs Google legal battle continues with Google claiming that Viacom’s copyright cops are more than capable of controlling content on YouTube, so there’s no need for Google to intervene. It certainly does seem that media companies are surprising apt at providing and controlling content online, mainly for promotional purposes. You can’t really have it both ways though, to use the Net and it’s viral characteristics to promote your stuff, while clamping down on sharing and free expression.

21 months for doing this - fair sentence or too harsh?

Ever wonder what kind of punishment you get for camcording and bootlegging films in theatres? 21 months is the sentence for a guy who did just that and got caught. Was it worth it? Depends on how much money he’s made already and how much of it has been stashed from the sight of the police, I suppose. I don’t mind the authorities going after the providers/source of pirated content, it’s when they go after the users of it that doesn’t sit well with me. Those stupid “you wouldn’t steal a car” PSAs at the start of DVDs also don’t sit well with me, and apparently, it’s not just me. The latest movie length episode of Futurama features a spoof of the well known anti-piracy clips, which is ironic because I suspect these Futurama episodes are one of the most pirated shows around.

Can’t believe that the DMCA is now 10 years old. It seems it was only yesterday that it took its first steps to trample on consumer rights. The EFF has been keeping a document of all the unintended consequences of the DMCA is an updated document, and you can read it here. Lots of stories about how the DMCA has hurt not pirates but consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. At best, the DMCA has been ineffective. At worst, it’s one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever come out of Washington D.C, and knowing all the crap that comes out of there, that’s saying something. Digital copyright is an important issue, but surely there must be some common ground between content owners and consumers, because neither group can exist without the other. Will the “Change We Need” feature changes to the DMCA? Doubt it, not as long as Hollywood’s deep pockets are helping those in Washington D.C stay in Washington D.C. But we can always hope …

Further proof of the DMCA’s reach, as Hollywood this week successfully sued Chinese DVD player manufacturers for not complying with CSS copy protection. Now I don’t actually know what was behind all of this, just how a DVD player can help to break CSS. Was it because it upscaled DVDs to 1080i through DVI (against the CSS license)? Was it because it could play copied CSS encrypted discs across a network (also against the CSS license)? Or did it have a hidden menu setting that could allow CSS to be turned off (does nothing really)?

A Digital Copy standard for DVDs on the way?

But even Hollywood seems to be trying to find a way around CSS, by providing digital copies of movies along with the DVD. The DVD Forum is currently discussing this, and I think it’s a good idea. To try and stop people making digital copies is just plain silly and pointless. Might as well cash in and provide them with it in the first place. The problem now is that every studio have their own standard in regards to digital copies (Sony’s one plays on the PS3/PSP, Fox’s one is iPod compatible …). If the DVD Forum can sit down and add digital copy support to the official DVD specs, then that’s a move in the right direction. I just hope they don’t stuff the specs with DRM. At the very least have no more than tagging type DRMs, because anything more, and the digital copies are useless. The next logical step would be to have establish a similar standard for Blu-rays as well.

Speaking of Blu-rays, the format is apparently dead, according one slightly pessimistic blogger on ZDNet. The last few week’s worth of Blu-ray sales data has been very positive for the format, so I don’t really understand where all these “Blu-ray is doomed” stories are coming from.

Bringing back the free movies promotion may help Blu-ray this holiday season

But I can understand the frustration seeing Sony apparently trying very hard to ruin a perfectly good format, with lousy hardware pricing (only now becoming more sensible), marketing, licensing and many other things which helps to fuel Hollywood’s greed at the expense of actually getting Blu-ray into people’s homes. But I think things have changed a bit recently, and I think the fear that Blu-ray may be doomed has actually forced Sony’s hand somewhat. There are new hardware promotions (free movies are back), pricing deals that bring together studios and online retailers such as Amazon (see some of them here – lots of new hardware deals recently, like the Amazon/Warner $100 off deal). The range of good releases have been very helpful for the format as well. In fact, all of this reminds me of last year, except it was HD DVD doing all of this, which may or may not be a good sign. With the exchange rate problems here in Australia, and local high pricing, I haven’t purchased a Blu-ray movie in ages. The last one I got was the Godfather Trilogy Blu-ray, which I only purchased because the online store I got it from made a pricing error, so I got it for $USD 30 express delivered. Now that’s value for money.

Speaking of value for money, some Netflixsubscribers are not seeing it in the $1 extra per month that Netflix charges for Blu-ray rentals. I don’t rent that many movies, so I can’t comment, but $1 doesn’t seem too much for me.

Also some good news on the H.264 front, as Windows 7 Media Center will natively support the format that is now widely used on everything from cell phone video to HD broadcasts. I’m sure Microsoft originally intended their VC-1 codec to have taken over the industry in the same was as H.264, but it didn’t work out and so supporting H.264 is the only logical step left. It’s not the first time Microsoft tried to get people to use one of their proprietary formats, failing, and then go back to doing what they should have done in the first place which is to support the industry approved format.

And finally in gaming, Sony’s recent huge losses on the market means that the PS3 will not get a price cut, as Sony says they have a business to run. To be fair, the PS3 is selling well enough given the high price, and prices can always come down when desperation calls for it. Sony will just have to hope that by that time, the cost of manufacturing a PS3 will have dropped enough so they won’t have to lose their shirt to provide discounts, to prevent the PS3 falling further behind. In other PS3 news, a new hotfix firmware has been released to fix several problems with the 2.50 firmware. The forced 60 Hz output is what caused people to report the black & white display problem, for TVs that don’t support PAL 60 I guess.

Microsoft’s new Xbox Experience comes out this month, and there are several previews up for it already. One of the new features takes something from the PS3 playbook by offering HDD installs for games, and testing shows that it only shaves a few seconds off the loading time after the several minute long install process (plus all that HDD space used up). I would be more interested to see what effects it has on performance, as streaming from the HDD should be faster than from a DVD right?

So that’s another week over and done with. The US elections this week, so don’t forget to vote, even if you’re not actually a US citizen. Just write who you want to vote for on a piece of paper and send it to “Election Counting Place, Washington D.C., USA” – remember, every vote counts (except ones of this type, possibly). Also, this is the 58th WNR I think, which is just amazing to me because it only feels like the 55th one what with all the fun I’ve had writing it. I’m going computer shopping this week as well, so I may not have as much time to find and post news. At least that’s the excuse I’m going with this week … see you in 168 hours time.

It’s been a couple of month, but I thought now would be a good time to do the fifth edition of ““If I were to buy a new computer today”. The personal reason why it was a good time to update this feature was that I’m in the process of buying a new computer myself. Yes, the trusty old AMD 2600+ is being put out to pasture.

Back in September 2007, I first wrote about what I would be looking for in a computer if I were buying one today. To get a better idea of the kind of system I’m looking for, please refer to the original blog entry, but to sum up, it would be a system for playing the latest 3D games as well as a system ready for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback, but one that is reasonable in price and without the need for overclocking. This is still the system that I will “imagine” to build today, which is slightly different to the requirements of the computer that I will buy this month. My computer will be more work related, will still require Blu-ray/HD DVD playback, but less emphasis on gaming.

So let’s not waste any time. Here are the specs of the computer, including comparisons with the last specs from May (as compared to May: upgraded parts in blue, lower prices in green, higher prices in red). Note that some parts have risen in price due to currency fluctuations (the $Aus has been hammered lately).

Ok, as mentioned above, the currency fluctuations here in Australia has been crazy over the last month or so, partly to do with the world economic crisis. So we have a situation where a PC that’s much more expensive in Australian dollars, but much cheaper in US dollars. The AUD was probably overvalued back in May, and now it may be undervalued, so that explains the price differential. For those earning US dollars, now is a great time to buy a computer here in Australia though thanks to the generous exchange rate and computer retailers not having caught up yet. And I have taken this opportunity to upgrade a few parts to make the system fresh enough for the second half of 2008.

Let’s go over each specification. As usual, I will provide alternatives, including rival AMD/ATi offers.

CPU: We’ve gone quad! The Q8200 represents a good value quad core processor that uses the 45nm process shared by the more expensive quad-core chips, but at a price that’s closer to the original Q6600 (65nm). Performance wise, it’s similar to the E8200 in dual-core only apps, but faster than the Q6600 and E8400 in quad-core enabled applications, which are more and more common these days. For future proofing, we’re going with quad core.
Alternatives: For a few dollars less, you can get the Intel E8500 dual-core processor or the AMD Phenom 9950 quad-core. Of these two, the 9950 is better value, and it is much faster than the Q8200. The Q8200 is less power hungry, but if you take into account the performance of the 9950, it is probably more worth it for the extra power it uses (get the 125w version).

Motherboard: (Update) We’re going with the Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R, which is basically the same board as last time except it supports DDR3 only. Didn’t see the point of keeping DDR2 support when we’re not using it, and this way, you can have up to 4 DDR3 slots rather than being limited to 2. The price remains the same. It’s a very fully featured board (HD audio, RAID, 0/1/5/10), with all the options you would expect and outputs galore.
Alternatives: For your AMD processor system, you might consider the Gigabyte MA790X-DS4 for $175. This is a very similar featured motherboard to the EP45T-DS3R and it uses AMD’s latest 790X chipset.

RAM: Still sticking with the same DDR3 memory as in May. Prices have dropped again during this time. As mentioned before, there really is no benefit to getting DDR3 memory unless you are overclocking to the max (and even then, DDR2 is probably enough), or if you prefer the power saving nature of DDR3 memory. The only other advantage is that they may be easier to sell off in the future once DDR3’s superior bandwidth is actually useful. 
Alternatives: If you plan on overclocking your system, faster DDR3 memory can be had. At this stage, there isn’t much benefit to get DDR3 anyway until faster FSB speeds are available, so you might save a bit of money and get 4GB of PC-6400 (800 MHz) rated low latency (C4) DDR2 instead (you will need to make sure the motherboard you get supports DDR2). You can also opt for the C9DHX range of DDR3 memory from Corsair, with has enhanced cooling, but it’s mostly unnecessary if you don’t overclock your memory. With the AMD system, you can only use DDR2, which is great as it’s much cheaper and you can actually get 4 GB for the same price as 2GB of DDR3.

HDD: After reading good review of the Samsung 750 GB drive, I’m including it in the specs. The extra 250 GB is obviously an improvement, but probably not as important as the price drop that comes with it.
Alternatives: If money is more important than space, then getting the 500 GB drive for $24 per drive ($95) may be worth it.

Video Card: A new quarter, so a new GPU to go along with it. The Nvidia GTX260 is their latest card that will give you a performance boost over the 9800 range. It’s not the best value card, I must admit, as you can get a card that’s nearly half the price but much better than just half the performance.
Alternatives: As mentioned, you can get a cheaper card that is not as powerful as the GTX260, but much cheaper. The Nvidia 9800 GTX+ at $299 is tempting as it gives similar performances to the GTX260 in games that don’t benefit too much from having more stream processors, but the cheaper ATi Radeon 4850 is the best value at $249 and it will give you similar performances to a 9800 GTX+.

Sound Card: Still going with a on-board solution. Until HDMI audio output gets sorted out, it’s probably not worth getting a new sound-card for your PC. HDMI audio output would allow the pass-thru or decoding or several of the new HD audio formats, which is not possible through SPDIF/optical due to insufficient bandwidth.

Optical Drive: Still sticking with the Pioneer Blu-ray reader drive. Not much point in buying a Blu-ray writer at the moment as media prices are still high, and prices are sure to drop any day now.
Alternative: The LG GGC-H20L is also at the same price, but reads HD DVD. It’s also a lightscribe DVD writer.

Monitor: An upgrade with 2 more diagonal inches, and full HD resolution (1080p) to fully take advantage of Blu-ray playback. Prices have come down a lot, although the price I’m quoting here includes a local cashback offer.
Alternative: If money isn’t an issue, then you can get the Samsung 2493HM for $100 more. It is an improved model on the 2433BW. If you want HDMI, DisplayPort and equally excellent quality, then the Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP is worth considering, although it costs an arm and a leg at $669.

Case: A change here, but mainly for those that want something in silver, not black. It’s a quiet case too, also part of the Antec Sonata family like the Sonata III featured here previously.
Alternatives: There are lots of alternatives to cases, and it depends largely on taste. The one that I’ve seen lots of good reviews for is the Antec P182 case, but the style is not really to my taste and it costs more than the Sonata III despite not including a power supply unit.

You might now be wondering what are the specs of the work computer that I plan to buy, so I’ll tell you. For the optical drive, I already own a LG GGC-H20L that will go into the computer. The monitor is also taken care of after I purchased a Dell 24″ on discount (and I mean discount – $499 down to $258, or only $US 176). The rest of the system, shown below, consists of a few parts that are the same as the selection above, plus the rest from the “alternatives” selections:

AMD Phenom 9950
Gigabyte MA790X-DS4
Corsair 2 x 2GB 8500 C5D Twinx
2 x Samsung 750 GB SATA
Asus Radeon 4850 512 MB
Antec Sonata Designer

(Update)

I eventually went with a different system altogether, and one that’s much closer to the system recommended by this post. Here are the specs:

Intel E8500
Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R
OCZ 4GB 1333 C9
2 x Western Digital 640GB WD6400AAKS
Asus 512 MB 4850 

In a normal situation, you would be better off going with cheaper DDR2 memory, with the extra $100 savings going towards a better GPU or CPU (or rent), but I got a special deal with this package so even though getting DDR3 memory is a bit of an overkill, I’m sticking with it.

Whether you go with the selected system, or my work computer, the value for money has never been greater. For $US 1,400 (or just $US 950 for my work system, although the monitor and optical drive is not included in the price), you can get a system that plays all the latest games at high detail and resolution, plus Blu-ray on a monitor that displays all 1080 lines of resolution. And it can do some work too!

With Intel’s new line-up just around the corner, all of this will be come outdated rather quickly, but if you don’t mind buying a system with little upgrade potential, then now or waiting another month or two is a good time to buy (I haven’t upgraded a PC in years, they last longer than before and by the time you need more power, it’s cheaper to just buy a new one than to upgrade almost every single component). I suspect the next edition of this feature will have a vastly different PC from the one above.

See you in a few month’s time …