The Full Frame

With this year’s new tech releases just about to start shipping for Q2 retail cycle we are getting some interesting news out of China and Korea about early leaked shipments of AMD’s new “Thuban” 6 core desktop processors.

Surprise surprise! We see this: LOCAL MIRROR OF SITE, REAL ONE WENT DOWN A series of benchmarks posted publicly early yesterday morning featuring AMD’s new non-opteron 6 core (hexacore) processor at its stock speed of 3.2 gHz.

Comparing these results to other readily available CPU benchmarks for the i7 and company we see that AMD’s newest processor comes in to be midway between Intel’s i7 860 and the i7 965 and takes a healthy lead from the defacto standard i7 920 that has dominated the rigs of gamers and enthusiasts across the industry. At an “assumed” US retail price of $295 we can be sure that this will change the gaming and power computing landscape of 2010.

Table of Pricing AMD – http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/22/amd-six-core-cpu-prices-and-clock-speeds-unearthed/

Granted top spots for performance still go to Intel hardware with hyperthreading features that effectively double the core count AMD is doing great work with 6 logical cores. AMD stands to take a healthy lead across the industry due in part to the fact that the new Phenom II x6 processors will be fully backwards compatible with AMD’s AM2+ socket (utilizing DDR2 memory standard) at well as their newer AM3 socket (DDR3 memory), so that means that the vast majority of gamers using AMD rigs will be able to purchase and drop in this CPU as a direct upgrade! With news of Intel’s next generation of processors being completely incompatible with the late 2008 LGA 1366 “i7” socket Intel is effectively stranding its current user base.

Time will tell, but this a great and simple upgrade until AMD Bulldozer architecture (supposedly with hyperthreading) hits stores in the next year or two.

As with any leaked information take the pricing and reviews as a grain of salt but we can expect AMD to become competitive in the marketplace in the next few months, and that my friends benefits us all.

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Today I received my 30 day supply of Shakeology Greenberry and after my workout I decided to give it a try and I can truthfully say that the taste of this shake (I only mixed it with water) was very disappointing. The “grass” smell of the shake is really strong and when you take that first sip you can actually feel like your just drinking a glass full of grass. The after taste is a little hint of berry but it is quickly overpowered by the “grass” taste. Besides the disappointing taste, the price was outrageous $119.95 not including shipping and handling. The coaches from beachbody.com (the only company that sells this product) claim that this is the best tasting shake ever! well they are lying because interestingly enough they get a portion of the sales if you are a teambeachbody member and have a coach; therefore, they are going to advertise this very strongly. The company has a money back guarantee if you don’t like their product which is a good thing. I’m still going to give it a try for the whole month (force myself to drink it) since it does give you that full feeling after drinking it but I personally will not buy it again after this cycle.

This is my review of the Esmeril Racing Turbo Kit for the Mazda RX8

http://esmerilracing.com/

I bought this kit during the Christmas special of 2007. I purchased the kit for $5000 without engine management. At the time of this purchase this was the single most powerful turbo kit that one could buy for the RX8.

Click Picture to begin Slideshow:

Track Review

So I did a track day today. I had to call it quits since my gauge pod came off my dash and was flopping around, making it difficult to take corners whilst trying to hold the gauge pod. I did get a good impression of the kit though.

Ambient = 60 degrees.
Session run time = max of 20 minutes.
AFRs = tuned to 10.2-11.0 @ 10psi
Tires = Azenis RT 615s, 30% thread left.
Max track straight = 1/8 mile

Well, there was a little smoking (small puff from under hood) as the heat shielding got further settled into high heat use. I did a nice warmup lap before I got her into boost before every session.

Cars I murdered on the straights (couldn’t catch me, I just kept pulling away):

C5 z06 vette
another c5 z06 vette
04 GTO
Elise
R32 Volkswagen
G35
s2000
05 M3

Watching me pull hard from a vette is truly an exhilarating experience. Truly this power/weight ratio is something to be reckoned with! (continue reading…)