P2P Users Spend More than Non-P2P Users?

There are many media executives around the world who would do anything to believe otherwise, but according to a recent report done by Frank N. Magid Associates, Internet users who pirate media, whether it be music, movies or what-have-you, spend more of their hard-earned money on media products. These products can include anything from going to see a movie, to purchasing a new HDTV, to buying a game console.

I'm sure there are many who won't, but I wholeheartedly agree with this research. I admit that in the past, I used to be a rather rampant P2P'er, downloading a fair amount of music over time. Today, I don't usually download anything unless one of my favorite artists' album gets leaked a few weeks early, but in the end, they still get my money when the actual product hits the market.

For me, P2P was a game-changer where discovering new music was concerned. Before the likes of Last.fm, P2P was the absolute best way to sample new music - especially music that's not normally played via convenient means, unless it's mainstream. As I look over at my music collection, I see a few artists that I would have likely never discovered had I never took a chance on downloading their album. For a few of those bands, I now own every-single album they've ever made (The Thermals, for example).

Today, rather than download random albums via P2P, I use services like Last.fm to discover new artists and then YouTube to hear the music. It's at that point that I can decide whether to move forward with a purchase or not. That setup sure works better than the foolish 30s low bit-rate clips of music that services like iTunes avail you, I can tell you that much. While I became bored of P2P, many haven't (obviously), and I still believe that people who get to actually sample what they want to buy first are going to spend more than someone who doesn't have such a capability.

We compared a random set of Vuze users with a national sample of internet users ages 18 to 44, and results revealed that users of P2P technology spend considerable money on traditional media and entertainment. They are, in fact, important and valued customers of the traditional media companies. Our survey shows that the P2P user attends 34% more movies in theaters, purchases 34% more DVDs and rents 24% more movies than the average internet user. The P2P user owns more HDTVs and is more likely to own a high-def-DVD player, too.

AMD Releases 40W ACP Opteron 2419 EE

Earlier this summer, AMD launched their six-core Istanbul Opteron processors, suited for the server/workstation environment, and in doing so, consumers had an interesting choice when it came to building their large or small clusters. Launch Istanbul chips carried an "ACP" power rating of 75W (Intel and AMD grade their TDPs differently, so they cannot be directly compared), while a new chip launched today settles in at only 40W.

Not surprisingly, the Opteron 2419 EE isn't a high-clocked part, but rather becomes AMD's current lowest-clocked Istanbul part at 1.80GHz. By comparison, the company's also recently-launched HE parts start off at 2.0GHz and 55W, but overall, the 2419 EE still wins when looking at things from the performance per watt perspective, and that's what AMD is emphasizing.

Consumers who this is targeted for are those who need strong performance but absolutely need the best performance per watt possible. With the 2419 EE, consumers would be able to fit many more machines into a single cluster, resulting in much higher performance overall, with still-improved power consumption. In particular, AMD mentions Web 2.0 and cloud computing scenarios in its press release.

If there's one area where AMD wins big with this new launch, it's in the pricing. Although Intel's 6-Core Dunnington-based Xeon's would out-perform AMD's chip in most tests (similar to the desktop side), that company's least-expensive Sextal-Core offering is the L7455, at 2.13GHz and $2,729. Compare that with AMD's $989 price tag on their Opteron 2419 EE. It will be interesting to see if Intel follows-up soon with some more modestly-priced Dunnington offerings, or if the pricing on current models will change soon.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the immediate availability of the new Six-Core AMD Opteron EE processor at 40W ACP. Delivering up to 31 percent higher performance-per-watt over standard Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, the Six-Core AMD Opteron EE processor is tailored to meet the demands of customers who need strong performance, but must trim out every watt possible in a server system and reduce the datacenter's power draw.

CipherChain Enables Hardware-based AES Encryption to S-ATA Storage

If you're concerned about your computer's level of security, which would be a good idea, then chances are you take a fair amount of precaution with how you handle your everyday tasks. You likely also run various pieces of software that protect you against malware and other negative pieces of software, and you also no doubt use robust passwords in order to protect your sensitive data as much as possible.

But what about taking things a step further? Data encryption is nothing new, and even certain hard drive vendors have been, or will be, releasing products with built-in data encryption. Interestingly though, I stumbled on a site the other day for the company Addonics, which sells products with similar goals. The plus side though, is that you have fairly robust control over your setup, and their products allow you to encrypt any storage device.

The product in particular that caught my eye was CiperChain, a very small piece of silicon (size is comparable to a compact flash card), which can go anywhere in machine, and act as a proxy between your storage device and your S-ATA port. Once installed, the CiperChain will automatically encrypt all of your data on-the-fly with an AES 256-bit algorithm, and apparently has no noticeable performance drawback. How you are protected isn't with a password, but rather a proprietary key, which must be plugged into the CiperChain before the PC is boot up.

What I like about this device is that it's simple to use, and very configurable. It doesn't matter what your PC setup is like, because the company sells various mounts to allow you to store it anywhere in your PC, whether it be the typical HDD mounting area, or even a slot on the back of your computer. If you are ultra-hardcore about protecting you data, you can even daisy-chain an infinite number of these together which would effectively encrypt the encrypted data. Mind-boggling stuff! Pricing starts at $79, and scales depending on your accessories.

Similar to all other Addonics encryption products, the CipherChain is a pure hardware solution. This means that there is no software to run, no driver to install and no password to remember. There is very little user training required to use the CipherChain. All the user needs to do is to insert the correct Cipher key before powering on the system or the storage device. The CipherChain can be operated under any operating system and this makes the CipherChain an ideal security solution for organization with heterogeneous computing environment and legacy systems.

Tech Roundup - August 31, 2009

Motherboards & Processors
• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition - PCSTATS
• DFI LANPARTY Blood Iron G41-T33 - PCShopTalk
• Gigabyte MA770-UD3 - iXBTlabs

Displays & Video Cards
• MSI GeForce GTX 260 Lightning - TweakTown
• MSI HD 4890 Cyclone SOC 1GB - techPowerUp
• TERK HDTVo Amplified Directional HDTV Antenna - ModSynergy

Memory & Storage
• Kingston SSDNow V+ SSD - Benchmark Reviews
• OCZ Throttle 32GB eSATA Thumb Drive - PureOverclock

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Logitech Harmony 1100 Remote - TechJase
• Logitech Performance Mouse MX - i4u
• SteelSeries 5H v2 Gaming Headset - Tech-Reviews

Cooling
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler - Ninjalane
• Kingwin XT-1264 HTC CPU Cooler - Red and Blackness
• Thermaltake Massive23 ST Notebook Cooler - iGadget Life

Chassis & Power Supplies
• AeroCool Vx-E Gaming Chassis - Legit Reviews
• Antec Earthwatts 750W Power Supply - JonnyGURU
• Thermaltake Luxa2 LM200 HTPC Chassis - Pro-Clockers
• Thermaltake VI-ON 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - TestFreaks

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Sungale ID800WT Digital Photo Frame - CCE Reviews
• OS X Snow Leopard: The Complete Guide - Digital Trends