Several topics to cover today. Let's start off with the iPhone 5....
iPhone 5 - Initial Impressions
Well, I FINALLY got my iPhone 5 this past Saturday. Took about a month and a half through Best Buy's pre-order. Most that ordered via Apple or AT&T got theirs a lot sooner. However, I get extra Reward Zone points from Best Buy (Premier Silver) as well as 5% back via my Chase Freedom card this quarter. So to save extra money, it was worth the wait. Well, buying it that way was worth it, was the actual phone?
If you are already an iPhone 4 or 4S owner, it didn't seem like that big of a change...at first. Everything looks the same, but a longer screen and lighter weight. But after spending some time with it, I started noticing the big differences. First, the picture quality of photos taken with the camera are much better compared to my iPhone 4. They have the panorama mode which is pretty cool (usually have to pay for an app to do the same thing).
Another big difference I noticed was overall speed. The A6 dual-core processor has a lot of power, and I notice apps opening and operating significantly faster compared to my iPhone 4. Part of it is probably because I had a lot of junk on my old phone, but it's nice to cut down on lag. For instance, my CSR Car Racing game loads up in about 1/4 of the time. Once I'm in the game, there is no lag when I push buttons, compared to a lot of lag on my old phone. Yes, they probably made improvements for the iPhone 5, and I have less loaded on the new phone, but I can say it loads and plays about 5 times faster than before. That's a big jump.
Ok, enough boring details on stuff that might not matter to you. Here's one you might be interested in: 4G LTE. My iPhone 4 didn't have 4G, so it was limited to 3G. I've run tons of tests over the past two days to see how fast the LTE really is.
As a reference point, here are some numbers from other networks. Note that this is Chicago only, and just general averages.
3G:
Ping 100, Download 4MB/sec, Upload 1MB/sec
Wireless @ Home (Comcast Cable, 20MB/sec package with Speedboost):
Ping 30, Download 14MB/sec, Upload 4MB/sec
Wired @ Home (Comcast Cable, 20MB/sec package with Speedboost):
Ping 10, Download 23MB/sec, Upload 4.5MB/sec
Now we get to 4G LTE for AT&T. The amount of range was very unusual. I first tested it at my apartment, standing near the window:
Ping 100, Download 6MB/sec, Upload 1MB/sec
Pretty slow. Yes, faster than average 3G speeds, but no where near my wireless network at home. Then, I was in my car, driving to Microcenter to buy a heatsink for my Hackintosh (more later):
Ping 72, Download 24.96MB/sec, Upload 3.92MB/sec
Kept doing this all weekend, getting varied scores (as low as 3MB/sec download, and up to like 10MB/sec). Then finally, driving on the highway from the suburbs (don't worry, I was stuck in traffic and not moving), and I got this:
Wow, that is BLAZING. Beats my wired connection at home using a CAT6 cable. Now granted, you can buy more expensive cable internet packages and beat this number, and if you work in an office, they probably have faster lines, but this is really fast. So the conclusion is, yes the LTE in Chicago for AT&T can be unbelievable speed; however, this is more of the exception rather than the norm. Either way, the normal speeds I was getting was still good compared to my 3G, but probably on par with the 4G speeds of an iPhone 4S. in certain spots though, you can get almost 10 times the speed. I'm assuming as these cell service providers continue to build out their LTE networks, we'll see more stable high speeds, but until then, be ready for hit-or-miss speeds. Oh yeah, and all my old iPhone accessories are worthless now. I had a clock-radio and an iPod connector in my car. Funny thing about the one in my car was that I had already bought one adapter to get it to work with the iPhone 4 (worked with previous iPhones and iPods). This is what it looks like:
Yes those are a crapload of McDonald's napkins in my glovebox. Quit judging. So if I decide to buy the next adapter, then I will have a monstrous attachment to stick my iPhone on. Probably gonna pass on that and just use the SD memory slot for music, but still sucks for those who invested a lot into the cable. Although, a lot of people complain about it, but it was bound to happen at some point. I mean even Blackberry switched up their plugs a few times when they were real popular in like 2007 (i.e., micro-USB, mini-USB). I was at Microcenter the other day, and saw a ridiculous amount of chargers, speakers, and other accessories with the old pin connector. Assuming all that stuff will be discounted soon. Speaking of older iPhones, I took some photos of my Apple device collection. I'm super weird (and probably dumb) and never sold off any of my old devices. Don't really use them much, but still has some sentimental value to me (iPod was a graduation gift, iPhone 1 cost me $600, and iPhone 4, well that's just a backup if I break my new one).
Hackintosh - Overclockin Like a Mofo
That's right folks, I got everything with the Hackintosh up and running perfectly. And of course, that wasn't enough for me. While you were out hanging with friends, partying, interacting with other humans, I spent my Saturday learning how to overclock my processor on my new computer. Just like my wealth, this computer was self-made. Kidding, I'm broke (especially after buying all this stuff).
Anyway, I tried explaining overclocking to people, as well as the steps to do so, and I think it's a bit difficult to understand. So this is in no way a step-by-step instructional guide, just telling you what I did (and when I say you, I mean people who don't know ish about making computers). I was a lot like you a few weeks ago, now I consider myself an amateur computer builder. Add that to the resume sucka.
So here we go. When you buy a processor/CPU, the "brain" of the computer, it comes with a little fan that you stick onto the processor. Because the more thinking that brain does, the hotter it gets (unlike super models, the more they think, the less hot they get). Har har har. Shut up.
Step one is to remove the old one. There is this stuff called thermal paste (also called thermal grease) that comes on the fan when you buy the processor. it's like this silver gunk that helps the heat move between the processor and the fan unit. You have to remove it from the processor (and the fan if you want to use it again). So I watched Youtube videos, and found out you need isopropyl alcohol to remove it. They recommend using a coffee filter to do so, because it doesn't have lint on it (and you want the thing as clean as possible).
Old heatsink fan with the thermal paste gunk on it:
Processor with the thermal paste on it:
What I used to take it off:
Then, I bought this bad boy. It was on sale at Microcenter. It's one of the cheaper, but well-rated ones (they have all sorts of crazy ones, some are huge with multiple fans, they have liquid cooling systems, but I'm not that big of a nerd so I got a cheap one):
Everyone online who reviewed this thing said the instructions that came with it were garbage. I agree. I watched a Youtube video posted by the manufacturer. Much easier. So to install this thing, you have to have a backplate on it. Meaning, this thing is going on your motherboard (the "body" of the computer that the brain sits on, and has a bunch of arms and legs to connect all your other stuff). Luckily, the computer case I bought has this handy cutout on it, so I didn't have to completely remove everything I had built the other day, I just popped off the side panel, and screwed in the backplate. So far, so good.
Next was applying a new layer of thermal paste. There are like 5 ways to do this, everyone swears their method is the only way to do it. Do you drop some on it and that's it? Do you drop some on and spread it around? Do you put it on the processor or the heatsink fan? I decided to do the spread method. Sounded more fun. The easiest way to describe this process is painting your nails. Now I've never painted my nails, so maybe that's why I sucked at this, but you want a thin layer across the whole processor. It should be even and smooth. Too much, and when you stick the fan on it, it will smush and go all over the place (and break your ish). Too little, and the heat won't transfer well enough. Basically what this thing is, is a metal box that sucks the heat out of the processor, then there is a fan on it to blow that heat out of your computer. Kinda like when you got in trouble as a kid, you took the blame then your parents would tell you to leave. Well, maybe that was just me.
Ok, so I have something to admit. I wasn't going to post this (and I DEFINITELY didn't take pictures), but after I got this thing installed, I looked at the photo on the box, and realized I installed this the wrong way. It should have been vertical, but I installed it horizontal. I almost cried (I got teary eyed, but I swear it was the isopropyl alcohol or the thermal paste or something). I went online and looked, and everyone has it set up so the fan blows the heat out the back of the computer, while mine was set up to go out to the top. Son of a.
So I took it off, reapplied the thermal paste (which is such a pain), cleaned the heatsink, then put it back on the right way. As seen below.
And I'm done! Why would I go through all this to put a different heatsink/fan on my processor? Because I want to overclock it. Think about your favorite baseball player, then think of him taking steroids. Overclocking is injecting steroids into your computer, except it's legal, and you don't need a needle. Ok that was mean, but I don't watch baseball. You should already assume that after I just told you I spent my weekend working on my computer.
When you overclock, you are telling the computer to perform faster than the default settings. When you do this, you likely need to increase the voltage going into the processor (called VCore). If you want to do this, get a motherboard that can do this, some can't. So I went through the BIOS (the motherboard setup program when you first turn on your computer), and changed my settings so I can overclock. My processor is a 3.4GHz processor, that can go into "turbo" mode and get up to like 3.8GHz or something like that. Yo that ish is weak. So I bumped mine up to 4.1GHz. Then I ran some tests. You have to make sure it doesn't start getting really hot, or else you will either burn out the processor, or decrease the life of the processor. After installing my heatsink fan and overclocking, my temperatures stay under 55 degrees celsius, which is pretty good. If you start getting to high, then you can mess up your system. For some reason, all the internet nerds who do this, say that hitting like 80 degrees celsius is "going TJ Maxx." Not sure who thought of that one, maybe someone named TJ. Or maybe someone who loves shopping at TJ Maxx. Either way, I would have just said "max," but if you are the one who figures something out like that, then I guess you can call it whatever you want. So, nice one TJ.
What did all of this actually do, you might be asking. Well there is a program called Geekbench. It basically runs tests on your computer and spits out an overall score. My iMac I bought just under 2 years ago has a score of 5800. When I first built my computer, mine was like 9700. Then I overclocked my RAM memory, and it jumped to 10400. After overclocking? See for yourself:
Note that I ran this using the 32-bit version of Geekbench, my 64-bit score would be higher (but that version costs money). And, since this screen shot, I actually jumped another 200 points by increasing my overclock. How does that stack up against the Mac's that are currently on the market?
Mac Geekbench Scores
What this means, is that I just built a computer for $545 that scores higher than a MacBookPro Retina display laptop (the 2.6GHz i7 with Turbo Boost to 3.6GHz). How much does that laptop cost? Oh, just $2,799. Now the difference in price isn't just markup, it's an amazing resolution screen, solid hardware (and it has better video graphics than what I just built), so it's not a direct comparison by just looking at that score. I just wanted to show you the potential of building your own computer. That being said, I'm selling Jerome for the low low price of $2,799. Think about it. Jerome, iPhone, they've both been koreanvented. Isn't it time you do the same?
