Page Views

Of course I have alot of data about who and when people vist the web site. For some reason the web site hits have been up and down every other month for about four months now. May is a down month with around 120,098 visitors.

The strange thing about this month is that although visits are down 8,000 hits from last month, the page views are about the same. Last month had 306,683 page views and this month had 308,376 page views.

So I guess new web hits are down, but once I get a hit, more pages are visted.

The Google CTR is also down almost 1%, but that has to do with other issues.

WRT300 IEEE-802n Review

I went out again to see what people were saying about the new wireless-n spec devices

Now I see that some hardware chip manufaturers have issues with producing chip-sets to the draft standard, which really is very different then the 'just up-load new firmware' posts I've seen in the past.

Also that the IEEE.80211n specification is sensitive to environmental conditions which may explain the other negative posting I've have seen.

More over that the IEEE-80211n standard may interfere with IEEE-802.11g wireless networks ~ which I want to keep.

I only want to up-grade my wireless hub to IEEE-802.11n, keeping the rest of my system as IEEE-802g until I get a few dollars out of it 'g' devices.

So, again no wireless-n up-grade tonight. interfacebus: Linksys WRT300n Review

AM2 Socket's are out

I guess the new AMD processor socket is out. The 940-pin AM2 socket which replaces the 939-pin cpu socket.

I also understand AM2 motherboards are out.

I'll wait abit for an AM2 motherboard until I see some more options and read a few reviews.

The next up-grade is to get a new motherboard for my 5500 Alienware PC. The up-grade would be an AM2 Motherboard. The Am2 motherboard supports the DDR2 specification, but I really want to up-grade to it to support other AMD processor up-grades.

As an addition to the listing of Motherboard Manufacturers, I added a sperate page just to deal with AM2 MotherBoard Manufacturers.

Linksys WRT300n Review

So I wanted to upgrade my wireless router, which is a Linksys Wireless-B BEFW11S4. The BEFW11S4 operates using 802.11b technology ~ 10Mbps.

Two of the three reviews for the WRT300n I saw were negitive. So I'll take a pass tonight.

All my other gear is 802.11g, execpt the router. So just by geting the 802.11n router and operating it as a Wireless-G device I would up-grade my transmission speed from 10Mbps to 54Mbps.

More: interfacebus: WRT300 IEEE-802n Review

Listing of Wireless Routers

m7470n Review

I'm still really happy with the HP m7470n computer [AMD X2 4200+]. It does seem to be faster than the Alienware PC I was using [AMD 3800]. There are a few minor issues I do have with it.

First; the 300 watt power supply is pointless, it's not large enough to fully load the extra expansion slots on the PC ~ like adding a high end video card. Second; the documentation seems inaccurate. The HP site shows a m7470n populated with expansion cards which did not come on my computer. The store site indicates the PC has a video card, which it does not. Finally much of the front of the PC is dedicated to a large removable hard drive bay. I don't have an HP removable drive and don't really need one.

I like the fact it does not have a front door ~ I hated the door on the Alienware PC

I have yet to add the 10,000 rpm Raptor to the system yet. I have also not done anything with the TV card or any thing to do with multi-media ~ I just run a web site.

There are a few additional posts on the m7470n
interfacebus: New Video Card

interfacebus: On-Board Video

interfacebus: New Computer

My only other comment concerns Open Office which I use on this PC. Seems really slow, but I am not using the quick start option. Open Office did not come with the HP PC, I loaded that software.

Be careful with card additions; I think I'm allowed 10 watts per slot. The video card I added uses around 70 watts. It was the lowest grade video card at the store with two video inputs ~ still a good card.

Listing of Computer Manufacturers

New AMD Socket

Both my desk top computers use the AMD Socket 939 processor. The socket 939 accepts either a Single or dual core AMD processor, and DDR I memory sticks.

The next generation AMD socket is called the AM2 socket. The AM2 socket comes in a 940-pin package and supports either DDR I or DDR II [DDR2] memory modules. The AM2 processor socket has the same cache size as the Socket 939 processor.

There are a number of AM2 processor speeds, I only list the higher grade ones I may up-grade to:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-62: 2.8GHz clock, 1MBx2 L2 Cache, 125W
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60: 2.6GHz clock, 1MBx2 L2 Cache, 125W
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+: 2.6GHz clock, 512kB x2 L2 Cache,89 watts
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+: 2.4GHz clock speed, 1MB x2 L2 Cache, 89 watts

So the Alienware PC is using an AMD 3800 single core processor, while the HP m7470n PC is using an AMD Dual core 4200 processor.

The next up-grade will be a new motherboard for the Alienware 5500 to accept the new AMD processor socket AM2. Moving to the new AM2 motherboard may keep the up-grade current for a longer amount of time. The difference between DDR I and DDR II makes no difference from the numbers I've seen.

Laptop Power Inverter

I picked up that auto power inverter for the notebook computer tonight. The unit is a 140 watt adapter; 12 volt vehicle power to 120 volt AC moble power.

The power inverter is made by CyberPower, model # CPS140BI with a 180 degree swivel head, one 3 prong AC plug, a green power/surge LED [surge protected].

The specifications are;
Output Voltage: 120 Vac, 60Hz
Output Power: 140 watts [Continuous power]
Input Voltage: 10.8Vdc to 15.8V DC
Input Current: 12A max

Normally power inverters provide the maximum instantanious current [power] in large font, and it's up to the buyer to insure it will handle the user's Continuous power requirements. This unit only gives the Continuous power, leaving the maximum power to be computed; 12 Amps x 15.8 volts = 189.6 watts.

The HP ze4805wm laptop PC uses 75.05 watts: 19Vdc x 3.95A

I turned the car on, pluged the unit in and powered-up the laptop. I let the PC boot up and then I turned it off. I didn't notice any heat coming off the power inverter.

Power inverter manufacturers
Laptop manufacturers

The CyberPower CPS140BI cost me $29.94. The weight must be 3 pounds lighter then the unit I did have. Also this fits in the console, while the older Vector Force 350 unit needed to be placed on the floor under your feet.

Power Inverter

I have a Vector Force 350 [VEC024] power inverter I use to power the laptop for car trips. The Vector supplies 350 watts to 2 AC outlets. The unit is 6" x 8", and about 3 inches high; Aluminum construction with one small fan.

I saw this really small plastic power inverter at the store, swivel head, 140 watts. I didn't get it because I wasn't sure what the notebook current draw was. The unit didn't have any weight to it, which bets the 3 or 4 pounds of the Vector.

The HP ze4805wm requires 3.95 amps from 19 volts dc, or 75.05 watts.

I started a page listing for Portable Power Inverter Manufacturers.

The main page for the web site is interfacebus.com

New Wireless Card

Now that my Alienware computer is my secondary system, I added a Wireless card to it to allow the computer access to the network.

I added a PCI Adapter; Wireless G card [with SRX]. SRX is the Speed/Range eXpansion providing upto 8x faster, and 3x farther coverage. Sounds about right, as the computer sees 5 other wireless networks outside my house ~ which it did not see before.

Of course with all other Linksys products I have it does not work out of the box. I loaded the CD/Software as per instruction, then the hardware after a power down/up. But the CD never auto ran at start-up, and it will not let me back in with out reloading the driver again....

The PCI expansion card is the Linksys WMP54GX which is compatible with Wireless-B 802-11b, and Wireless-G 802.11-G; 2.4GHz

Of course this is some of the equipment used to generate the interfacebus.com web site. interfacebus is a trade mark of interfacebus.com

New Video Card

I added a new video card to the HP m7470n PC tonight. I added an ATI Radeon X 1300 Pro video card with 256MB of RAM and supplying one VGA port and one DVI port.I need the two ports to handle the two LCD monitors I use. I also understand that the on-board VGA connector will accept another monitor but I have not attempted that yet. I did not go into the BOIS to disable that other video connection as described in the doc's.
The HP m7470n does appear to be faster than the Alienware PC it replaces, but I'm still working with it. ~ loading software and files. The HP computer is now my main computer [for now].

The Alienware is just behind me running on a single 17" LCD, while I use the HP7470 on two 19" LCD screens. The room is some-what cool at 81.5 F, with the AC and fan running, but the exit air from the HP is 101.3F. Normally the Alienware exit air would be up 10F.

The HP only comes with a 300 watt power supply which is vary disappointing for a PC over $1000. The PC's I looked at on-line were all 600W.

I think, just by plugging in the new video card I'm over driving the Power supply! An empty slot but you can only plug in a $25 video card ~ so why up-grade at all.....


Status update; I ended up giving the computer away about a year and half later.
That was a nice video card though.

A few months ago I finally end up giving the Alienware computer away too.

And I also no longer see a need for a VGA input.
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Graphic; ATI Radeon X 1300 Pro video card.

On-Board Video

So I popped the cover on the HP Pavilion m7470n PC and it does not have a video card. The store doc indicated that there was one 16x PCIe slot and it was occupied [by the video card], but the slot is empty, and I see the ATI ASIC on the Motherboard. That's the reason for the VGA connector up near the I/O connectors. Also the reason for the video memory indicated as shared ~ meaning that there is no video memory, it shares the main memory.

This was the highest price computer the store had in stock. I don't mind having to buy a video card, but now I have to worry about fit issues.

There are no spare slots for another hard drive, but they do provide for a bottom mounted HD to the bottom of the chassis. SATA connector is there, providing a slot for my 10,000 rpm drive.