Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Reference Phone Benchmark

Since Qualcomm released their next generation Snapdragon chip December of last year, they have finally released the benchmark scores for the Snapdragon 845 just one week before Samsung Galaxy S9's launch at February 25 during MWC 2018 in Barcelona. As usual, Samsung will be the first phone to carry the new chip, then soon be followed by other manufacturers like Google, Sony, and LG.

Qualcomm promised last year the upcoming Snapdragon 845 is going to have a 30% increase in performance, 2.5x the display output and 30% less consumption compared to the Galaxy Note 8 which has an 835 chip. 

According to Geekbench 4.0, the Snapdragon 845 scored 2,439 for single core performance and 8,200 for multi-core performance. Both of the categories are 27% faster in performance. Better yet, the 845 graphics test shows a buttery smooth video quality for its customer devices as it completely wipes the competition. 

Minded, I have to tell you that the testing was done by on a reference phone built by Qualcomm, it is just a phone they build by themselves solely for the sake of testing. It is supposed to resemble a real phone as close as possible (see picture on the right). With consumer products, the benchmark will be better due to software optimization. 

More Details Unveiling Intel-AMD Processor and Graphics Combo

Welcome, I apologize for the lack of content for the past month.

As CES 2018 is finishing in Las Vegas, I'm hoping for more interesting topics to talk about. Now, we have learned more details about the unprecedented partnership between the two computer chip rivals, Intel and AMD.

This chip will be launched under the 8th generation of Intel H series Core chips sometime this year, manufacturers like HP and Dell have already been confirmed. Like we've been covered before, this new Intel-AMD processor and graphics combo utilize an Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) that combines Intel's CPU, AMD's GPU and graphics memory in a small factor that fits in ultrabooks, or at least thin and light laptops. 

Performance wise, it is expected to beat NVIDIA's GTX 1050 4GB but not exceed the Ti version. Truthfully, the performance is anything but groundbreaking, however, considering the overall package you are getting, it's an excellent offer. Here are some benchmarks Intel has released themselves, no independent testing has been allowed just yet. 

Intel and AMD Teaming Up - wait...WHAT?!

Yes, you read that title correctly. And no, you are not hallucinating.

As insane as that may sound, Intel and AMD are actually collaborating. Combining Core processor with Radeon graphics unit, they are aiming for a massive performance gain in the thin and light laptops. After a year of working together, Intel's 8 Generation Core H-series processors will be paired with AMD Radeon Vega in a single, multi-chip modular package (MCM). HBM2 memory will be used, it is made possible by Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), which is an intelligent bridge that allows information to swiftly pass through between the discrete pieces of silicon.

For a more visual demonstration on how Intel and AMD pulled this off:

Samsung Galaxy S9 Leak - new design, new processor, headphone jack to keep

Just as Apple's iPhone X hit the market and into the consumers' hands, the design of the next flagship Samsung phone, Galaxy S9, has been leaked. The Chinese leaker, Ice universe, tweeted the massive resigned Galaxy S9. Ice universe was also the leak of the Note 8 with a 100% precision. In the picture, it seems like the Galaxy S9 will have a similar look in the front as the S8, which is not a bad thing at all since it already looks much sexier than opponents. In the back of the phone, it will sport a dual camera setup with an easier to reach fingerprint sensor.

Comparing to the iPhone X, not only the fingerprint sensor isn't getting removed, but also the 3.5mm headphone. But sadly, the Galaxy S9 isn't expecting to have a fingerprint sensor integrated into the display. Other leaks suggest the Samsung Galaxy S9 will be the first phone with a Qualcomm  Snapdragon 845 processor; just like the S8, Samsung has a period of exclusivity as they already purchased every bulk of 845 processors. Only time will tell in early next year, this is only a leak.

Read more: 

Forbes - https://goo.gl/VyaaN3

Intel Impressive Q3 Earnings, Stock 17 Year High, Strongest day for 3 Years

Just before everyone heads off to their weekend,  Intel posted an impressive Q3 earnings despite insurgency from AMD's Ryzen. Every Intel's division beat out expectations, certainly from the PC community due to the rise of AMD in 2017, which positioned itself as a strong and direct competitor to Intel's core business after a three-year break, Intel has been a monopoly within the time frame.


On Friday, Intel stock (INTC) closed up 7.4% at $44.40.

• Earning Per Share (EPS): $1.01 vs $0.80 expected
• Overal revenue: $16.15 billion vs $15.73 billion expected
• Client computing revenue: $8.86 billion vs $8.68 billion expected
• Data center revenue: $4.88 billion vs $4.79 billion expected

However, despite Intel's PC business still being the company's biggest earner, the revenue is basically flat compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, what's really making a growth is from their data center, Internet of Things (LoT), and memory businesses collectively grew 15 percent year-over-year. 

• Data center group grew 7% 
• LoT division grew 23%
• Nonvolatile memory group grew 37%
• Programmable solutions group grew 10%

Still managing to secure a 78% CPU market share, spreading focus above and beyond, Intel found itself in a really good position after AMD reentered the PC processor business attacking both mainstream and server levels.

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For more information:
MarketWatch: https://goo.gl/nkVjnL
CNBC: https://goo.gl/y9Yc19
Hot Hardware: https://goo.gl/zREaeo
PassMark Software: https://goo.gl/S5NAz5

Intel Announced its 8-Generation Desktop Processors

After Intel released laptop versions of these Coffee Lake processors back in August, its now the desktop's turn. The main difference between Coffee Lake and the previous generation is the core count. Intel increased the core count across the board, the i3 processors are now 4 cores (up from 2), the i5 processors are now 6 cores (up from 4), and the i7 processors are now 6 cores with hyper-threading. (Note: full line-up below)

Intel claims the new chips are now 32% faster than the previous generation and 65% faster than the generation from 3 years ago. And i7-8700k as the "best gaming desktop processor ever." The structure is still fairly similar to the last generation, coming out as a 14++nm node. But Intel promised later 8 generation chips will be 10nm architecture. Lastly, the motherboard chipset has to be Z370 in order to fit these.

Full Line-up at Launch:

• i3-8100, 4 cores / 4 threads at 3.6GHz (approximately $117)
• i3-8350k, 4 cores / 4 threads at 4.0GHz (approximately $168)
• i5-8400, 6 cores / 6 threads at 2.8GHz boost to 4.0GHz (approximately $182)
• i5-8600k, 6 cores / 6 threads at 3.6GHz boost to 4.4GHz (approximately $257)
• i7-8700, 6 cores / 12 threads at 3.2GHz boost to 4.6GHz (approximately $303)
• i7-8700k, 6 cores / 12 threads at 3.8GHz boost to 4.7GHz (approximately $359)

Intel New X-Series Enthusiast CPU - $1999 Core i9 & 7900X Overclocked to 5.7GHz on Liquid Nitrogen

Intel's Skylake-X enthusiast HEDT family of processors has officially announced at Computex in Taipei a couple of days ago. Expanding Intel's high-end lineup, from 4 cores to 6 cores to 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 then a maximum of 18 cores / 36 threads. The new Core-X series includes both Intel's Skylake-X architecture as well as the Kabylake-X architecture. The new chips will be running under the X299 platform on the LGA 2066 socket.

 Overclockers are already putting them to full use:

Renowned overclocker Elmor broke the 10-core Cinebench world records with Intel's latest i7 7900X 10-core $999 chip. By using liquid Nitrogen to cool the processor, he was managed to achieve 5.7GHz. 

Building a New PC - Finale

Welcome, to this last part of Building a New PC series. In this finale, I will be putting all the components that I mentioned in the previous post together. Here is the very general guide on building a PC, I strongly advise you to learn from YouTube videos and experience builders in online communities. 

First of all, I took out the motherboard, it's the first thing that should be worked on because everything in the computer is directly connected to the motherboard. Then I placed the motherboard on the product box because cardboard isn't conductive and we are dealing with technology here. 

After that, I placed the CPU in the socket and the RAM in the slots (remember to open them first)

Then, it's time to install the CPU cooler. For mine, I wanted to change the fan on the Corsair H60 Cooler because it's way too loud for me. So I bought one Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 fan, it's a really quiet fan but still remains in high-pressure.

Lastly, I fitted my motherboard in the case, and DO NOT forget to install motherboard shield first. It's the silver shiny rectangle that goes in the back of your case. Then once the motherboard is screwed in, I installed the CPU cooler and the radiator is facing upward. It is not an idle position due to m-ATX case space limitations. Facing upward makes the air harder to blow against gravity, that's why most radiators face the back of the case. 

Then I put in the PSU and routed the necessary cables to the back, and left the unnecessary ones in the front due to limitations on cable management. Most people custom PC route as many cables to the back as possible for air flow and beauty (if the case has a side window). Once that's done, I installed the GPU, SSD and hard drives. Finally, I connected all the cables to different parts and to the motherboard for powering the whole system. If you are going to use the same or a smaller case than me, you better have good patience because everything is really tight together. 

Since this case doesn't have a side window, I didn't care much about cable management as long as the PC has a good positive air flow. If you want a PC with a side window, go for a modular PSU because they are much easier to work with and you can take out any unnecessary cables. Also, modular PSUs don't have ugly ketchup and mustard cables like mine. And LED lights are always necessary for windowed PCs.

Building a New PC - Part 3

Continuing on this series, I then listed all the parts I need in a Microsoft Word document and check the compatibility of each component. Many people use PCPartPicker.com which checks all the compatibilities from the components for you, but I like to check them myself because it's more enjoyable and going through all the details of each component is an important step. After checking, I ordered new parts for my next PC from Amazon. Here is the complete spec list:

Intel i5-7500 @ 3.4 GHz
ASRock B250M Pro4
Kingston HyperX 8 GB DDR4
MSI Gaming X GTX 1060 6GB
Corsair H60 (with Be Quiet Dark Wing 3 fan)
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
Western Digital 1TB
Cooler Master Silencio m-ATX case






















In case you haven't realized, my next PC build is aiming for silent yet not compromised mid to high-end PC that is also fast with low temperatures. With the Be Quiet Dark Wing 3 fan, MSI Gaming app to control the GPU fan speed, and the foam dampening materials on the case, the noise level is reduced drastically from my last PC build.

Building a New PC - Part 2

For the next week, I auctioned the CPU, RAM and the GPU off eBay. This was my first time using eBay so I went online and searched up the prices other people have put up for the products that I was selling. Also, I looked some other useful hints about auctioning off eBay. I found out that, in order to have a good auction sell, I needed to start my auction around 7:30 PM on a Sunday and set to end in 7 days, also I set the price at a relatively low price. This tactic is very useful because around that time on Sunday, eBay gets the most traffic on their site, then, when the auction ends, it will end at another high-traffic time period. So when I started, I immediately got multiple watchers on my products, and closer to the end, they were bidding like crazy, because the auctions also end on a Sunday with lots of traffic.

After researching, I took multiple pictures for each product, and fill out as much information as possible on eBay and set the shipping for free (because when people are searching, it will show a banner that can attract people). For the CPU, I had an i5 4590, I set the starting price at $60; For the RAM, I had 16 GB DDR3 and set it at $40; lastly for the GPU, I had MSI GTX 960 4GB and set it at $60. For all of them, I didn't put up a buy-out price because I wanted to see how high people are willing to place their bid at. I thought maybe when there's no limitation, people are willing to bid higher than I predicted.

As it turns out, the final prices were $140, $90 and $135. They were all higher than I predicted. Before you think, the prices are so much lower than the original prices, you need to take account that these are old and outdated hardware. And I compared to other auction with the same products, by using my tactic, I even sold mine much higher than others who were experienced sellers with positive reviews.

Here are the photos I took:

To Be Continued...
Next episode -- Choosing my next PC parts and building it

Interested? Stay tuned for more this series and share this on social media. Thanks a lot and enjoy!

Building a New PC - Part 1

About a month ago, I broke my first ever custom PC that I built for myself. It was over a year old, and I have cherished it ever since it's completion. However, I broke it when I was unplugging and cleaning the system case fans, I was suppose to fully turn off the computer and even the power supply unit (PSU). Instead, I made a extremely childish move by forgetting turning them off and leaving the PC on sleep mode. So after cleaning the fans, I installed the fans back in and realized the PC was refusing to turn back on, because the system keeps running for 2 seconds and then shuts down, and the cycle never ends. It was at that moment that I've realized that I (so-called) fried my motherboard.

After some thinking, I found out I have two options: either I spend a $100 on a old motherboard with 1150 socket and DDR3 RAM slot, or sell the CPU, RAM and the GPU then wait for AMD's Ryzen to come out in March 2nd. (This was back in mid February, and Ryzen chips were rumored to have much better performances at a faction of Intel's cost)

So I decided to sell the parts and leave the CPU cooler and SSD behind, because they can be used in my next PC build. Immediately, I jumped right on the Ryzen hype train just like 90% of the PC enthusiast.

Extra: I published a blog with all the Ryzen chip leaks (performance, price, etc)
Check it out here: Newly Leaked AMD Ryzen Full Lineup

To Be Continued...

Next episode -- How did I sold the PC parts at the highest price possible as a first time eBay seller?
                         Deciding what to buy for my next build.

Interested? Stay tuned for more of this series and share this on social media. Thanks a lot and enjoy!

Newly Leaked AMD Ryzen Full Lineup - Prices, Specs, and Clock Speeds

All of the next generation of desktop processors from AMD have been leaked, along with their pricing, specification, and comparison with Intel's CPU. The Zen micro-architecture would be the most powerful and efficient ever created by the company. Yesterday, a benchmark showed AMD's 8 core, 16 thread $389 Ryzen 7 1700X competing favorably with Intel's $1099 Broadwell-E i7 6900k.

The original list from the leak is an internal product list from a Chinese retailer. Several retailers already released prices for Ryzen 7 1800X and 1700X and 1700 due to pre-orders. But today,we have the full list of base and turbo clock speeds of the chips and the price comparison with Intel's lineup.

*Disclaimer: The accuracy of the leaked lists may vary

Here is the full list:

Here is the original leaked list and translations:
*CPU starts with R7, R5, R3 are AMD Ryzen
*CPU starts with I7, I5, I3 are Intel chips

R7 with 8 cores, 16 threads are the high-end AMD Ryzens starting at $320

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R5 with either 6 cores 12 threads, or 4 cores 8 threads are the mid-range starting at $229 or $175

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R3 with 4 cores 4 threads are the low-range starting at $129

For more information, check out these articles:

• Forbes: AMD Ryzen Biggest Leak Yet: Amazing Benchmarks And Prices Starting At Just $129
• WCCFtech: AMD Ryzen Full Lineup Prices, Specs & Clock Speeds Leaked - 8 Cores Starting At $319, 6 Cores At $229 & 4 Cores At $129
• TweakTown: AMD Ryzen leaks: R7 1800X costs $499, line up is STRONG