Tag: featured

WD Red 10TB hard drive-outstanding performance and stability
Western Digital’s Red series of NAS hard drives has verified to be a champion for the company, with outstanding performance and stability, making them the NAS drive of choice for numerous system designers. Until fairly recently, the biggest capacity was 8TB, but WD has simply bumped this to 10TB, making it one of the biggest mechanical drives on the marketplace.

The brand new WD 10TB model is limited to a optimum of 8 drives in a NAS, but that’s still a whopping 80TB of storage.It’s constructed using the HelioSeal helium-technology as prior WD Red drives, which replaces the air inside of the hard drive with helium. This is one seventh the density of regular air, and allows for much better overall performance and durability.
It’s created inside a typical 3.5-inch drive chassis, and also includes WD’s NASware 3.0 technology. This is designed to enhance hard drive reliability and system performance, as well as optimizing the drive for use in a multi-drive environment.
The drive contains a 256MB cache, while the 7 platters inside spin at 5,400RPM.There is a three-year limited warranty included, but not much more in the way of software for backing up older systems. Connectivity is through the SATA 3 6Gbps port, which is excellent for a
mechanical drive.
We used CrystalDiskMark to calculate performance, and noticed sequential read speeds of 211.5MB/s and write speeds of 212.4MB/sec. Heading down to 4K efficiency, we see
0.714MB/sec read speeds and 2.767MB/sec write speeds. This puts it on par with
other NAS drives, even though it’s by no means the quickest hard drive.

It’s not quite the most economical mechanical hard drive on the block, nor the fastest, but that 10TB in size will be valued by those with NAS products that don’t have a variety
of bays to fill. WD has nailed it once again with the latest iteration of the Red, and there’s
even a Pro version for $100 more that has a five-year warranty and runs at 7,200 RPM. To be sincere, we would probably pay out that little extra for the overall performance jump, but even at 5,400 RPM the WD Red 10TB does just okay.

WD Red 10TB specifications:
- Model Number: WD100EFAX
- Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s
- Capacity: 10TB
- Form factor: 3.5”
- Cache: 256MB
- RPM: 5,400
- Advanced Format
- Native Command Queuing
- Power Management-12VDC-/+10% (A, peak): 1.79
- Temperature (°C)
  - Operating: 0 to 65
  - Non-operating: -40 to 70
- Shock (Gs)
  - Operating (2ms, read/write): 30
  - Operating (2ms, read): 65
  - Non-operating (2ms): 250
- Acoustics (dBA)
- Idle: 20
- Seek (average): 29
- Physical Dimensions
  - Height (in/mm, max) 1.028/26.1
  - Length (in/mm, max) 5.787/147
  - Width (in/mm, ± .01in) 4/101.6
  - Weight (lb/kg, ± 10%) 1.43/0.65
- Warranty: 3 years
photo:WD
September 13, 2017
HP Pavilion Wave – mini desktop PC review

When there is one more segment nearly as favorite as ultra-portable convertibles, it’s mini-PCs. Have been driven
forth from the ever reducing amount regarding power required by the Processors, not to talk about SSDs as tiny as being a line of stamps. Among the most interesting miniPCs to combination our table recently will be the HP
Pavilion Wave.
One of the most exciting feature is the custom-case. It’s covered in Audio fabric,which tends to make that look more just like any speaker, rather than a computer. It’s also very small,and with a height regarding only 25. 9cm, and also a width of 16. 8cm. To be sincere, it’s the particular best,least-PC looking tiny personal computer we’ve
ever before noticed.But just before we get to the woeful overall performance, let’s require a more detailed look
at that remarkable design, which HP relates to as the ‘Tesla’ design and style. Fortunately,
HP has incorporated a wi-fi mouse and also keyboard with the PC, because the number of USB ports is not precisely prolific. There are dual USB 2 . 0, an individual USB 3. 0, last but not least
a USB 3. a single Type C on the backside of the case,together with a individual USB 3. 0 Sort A on the
front. There is also a HP 3-in1 sd-mmc. Hidden away at the backside are the video outputs also, with a one HDMI and also
DisplayPort, though there is simply no mention whether they can manage 4K at 60Hz.
We all attempted watching many Sony sample 4K videos, as well as the frame rate hovered close to 10fps. It’s no surprise actually, offered that they are the images are powered by an extremely lowly AMD R9 M470 with just
2GB regarding dedicated memory space. It’s furthermore most certainly not to the task of playing whatever more demanding than Solitaire.
Making matters more serious, we all couldn’t even run 3DMark, as the machine would collision each time, even right after updating the AMD and also HP drivers.The whole chassis works as a presenter, with tone pumped out of
the top vent. It use’s Bang and Olufsen Play internal audio speakers, and they are not too cheap. Having less subwoofer implies it will be rattling any tables, but for integrated speakers they certainly a good
job. The particular 1×1 Wi-Fi antenna-receiver is actually a little frustrating, given that 2×2 is the
normal these days, yet there’s also a Gb Ethernet port on the backside to ensure fast record transfers.
Given the interior potential is so small , it’s simply no big surprise that this model certainly is not up-gradable.So you’re discontented with what exactly your $999 becomes you, which to be honest isn’t a whole lot. Intel’s Core-i5 6400T is the conquering heart and soul of the system, even though it’s more of a struggling water pump than a
healthy and balanced source of strength. This chip design is practically a couple of years old, though it truly is thankfully a quad-core design and style ( there is no HyperThreading ,however ). The main problem
is its frequency, using a base of 2. 2GHz and also a Turbo of only 2 . 8GHz. HP provides endowed
this with a simple 8GB of DDR4-2133MHz storage, but where things definitely slow down is the hard disk drive. Instead than go with all the super-speed, ultra-small SSDs which can be now common place in mini-PCs,HP has preferred volume over top quality.
The Seagate ST2000 DM001 2TB Barracuda Pc hard drive is a scary fashion back to the times before SSDs. Using the Wave will be just like going back in time about three years, where it would consider more than a couple of seconds to spread out even the most basic of software. We’re positive that changing this to a snazzy NVMe would boost the speed on this device no end, but sadly instead you’ll spend nearly all of your time appreciating this specific machine’s stunning
good looks when you patiently wait for it to be able to do the most basic of jobs.
We’re apologies, but when overall performance is this terrible, we basically can’t recommend it, regardless of how damn fantastic HP Pavilion Wave it looks.

photo:HP

June 26, 2017
Review SilverFast Ai Studio 8 Scanner Software

Digital Ice and similar dust and scratch cleanup tools for scanning color negative and non-Kodachrome slides was a boon for those looking to archive/digitize their film files. This software-hardware solution worked with numerous scanners by isolating the offending dust and scratches on a separate infrared channel that it then dumped when the final scan was made.

The only problem was that because of the distinct nature of their emulsions, black-and-white negatives and specifically Kodachrome slides could not benefit from this procedure. This made cleanup of these images a particularly laborious task that required patience, skill and select image editing programs.

That’s all changed with a new breakthrough in scanning technology from LaserSoft Imaging called SRDx, which can work with scanners without the need for installed IR-channel capability. SRDx, which comes in SilverFast’s Ai Studio 8 scanner software, is a dust and scratch removal clean-up tool for black-and-white negatives and Kodachrome.

The company is rigorous in their updates and is always developing new tools for making quality scans from any format the scanner can handle.

Overall, SilverFast scan software works on a quite logical basis, with tools that follow the workflow from left to right and top to bottom. At first, the software can be daunting, but the company has numerous videos and tutorials available on their site, as well as a training offering.

The overall scan procedure is not within the purview of this article, but simply stated you set the film type, desired resolution (which will depend on your scanner capabilities), set up contrast, brightness, saturation for color and tonal relationship for black-and-whites etc. using the various and sophisticated tools provided.

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May 10, 2017
Epson WorkForce WF-3620 review-ALL-IN-ONE

The Epson WorkForce WF-3620 is exactly such a printer. It’s equally well suited to a home office as it is a demanding household, to support a mixed output of photos, letters and homework. Unusually for something we review – it’s been around for a couple of years. This is our first opportunity to test the WF-3620, though, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we saw.

First, you’ll be immensely relieved to hear it includes a fax modem, because you just never know when the 1980s might get in touch. It’s also equipped with wired and wireless networking, plus duplex print, scan, copy and faxing. There’s a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), and USB, SD and Memory Stick slots, so you can scan to or print from an inserted device – the only obvious omission is direct PDF printing. Epson claims a 20,000-page-per month duty cycle, which is reflected in the sturdy 250-sheet input and 125-sheet output trays, while the scanner lid sits on beefy hinges that extend to cope with thicker books or stacks of documents. The design isn’t perfect, however: opening the WF-3620’s scanner lid fl ips open the dust cover on the single-sheet special media slot at the rear. The WF-3620 uses a combination of touchscreen and physical buttons, but it’s not entirely idiot-proof. The screen can take time to register touches, and the layout of the top level of the menu baffled me for a minute.

Tested over a wired network connection, it reached 17.4 pages per minute (ppm) when printing black text, and almost 5.4ppm on our far more complex colour graphics test. Photographs aren’t this printer’s forte, though: it delivered one 6 x 4in print every two-and-a-half minutes, and quality isn’t up there with HP’s similarly priced Oi ceJet Pro 6960. Photocopies are quick: a single mono copy took 13 seconds, while using the ADF to copy ten pages took less than a minute and a half. In colour, the equivalent tests took 17 seconds and two-and-a-half minutes. Scans were fast, too, with a 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) capture of an A4 sheet needing only nine seconds, and a 1,200dpi scan of a 6x4in photo taking 33 seconds. The quality of those scans is impressive, even by Epson’s high standards; the results are unusually sharp and display an excellent dynamic range. Prints and photocopies are also very good, if not perfect: colours lack saturation, and draft-quality text was very faint. The WF-3620 takes XL-rated colour inks, which last for 1,100 pages each, and an XXL black cartridge that’s rated for 3,400 pages. Epson has stopped estimating the page life of the additional maintenance box that catches waste ink in WorkForce printers, but based on earlier models it’s likely to be tens of thousands of pages, and costs less than $70 to replace.

The WF-3620 performs well, has some great features, and is reasonably cheap to buy and run. It’s not ideal for photographers, and the interface takes a little getting used to, but it’s a near perfect MFP for home or small-oi ce use, and a cut above the cheap MFPs you’ll fi nd on the supermarket shelves. In particular, it has an edge over its closest OffceJet rival from HP thanks to its longer-lasting cartridges. As such, this is now the printer we recommend in our A-List as the best All-in-one machine.

source:pcandtechauthority.com.au

April 12, 2017