Panache Mini Thin PC

Specifications

Dimensions (WxHxD): 306 x 65 x 267 mm; Weight: 3.125 kg; Processor: Intel Atom 330, 1.60 GHz; Chipset: Intel 945G; Memory: 1 GB DDR2-533; Hard disk: 80 GB; Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet.

Price Rs 9,900

Website www.panache.co.in

Warranty 1 year

Netbook and nettop manufacturers have been cashing on the older generation Atom based platform for a long time. The Atom has been descirbed as versatile and affordable but can it be powerful? We tested a small form factor PC that features Intel’s first dual core Atom processor, this was fun!

# Features

The Panache Mini Thin PC is a small form factor PC (nettop) that has hardware commonly found in most netbooks and nettops such as Asus’s Eee PCs and Eee Box. However, the most significant difference is that of the processor. Most netbooks feature the Intel Atom N270, but this Thin PC features the Atom 330. Although both processors are clocked at 1.60 GHz, there are two main differences. The N270 has 512 KB L2 cache and 47 million transistors and the Atom 330 has 1 MB L2 cache and 50 million transistors.

Other features include 1 GB DDR2 RAM clocked at 533 MHz, an 80 GB 3.5-inch (7200 rpm) hard drive, gigabit Ethernet, and onboard graphics and audio. It even has the standard ports such as VGA, four USB (plus two in front), Ethernet and audio and there is a serial (COM) and a parallel port for backward compatability of hardware. It also has an S-video port so you can connect your TV to watch movies on it. A noticeable downside is the absence of an optical drive. On opening the case, we noticed that although the front panel has an optical drive bay cover, there’s very little room in the cabinet to accommodate a standard optical drive. In any case, this also rules out installing an operating system using a disc, unless you buy an external (USB) optical drive.

On the whole, it has pretty much everything else that makes a basic PC, all you need is a monitor, an operating system, a keyboard and a mouse and your PC’s ready!

#Build quality

Here’s something for the space-conscious people, who want their desks neat and tidy. The Panache Thin PC is slim, ruggedly built, easy to install and can hide behind your LCD monitor. Although not much to look at, it seems plain and is ideal for SOHO or a basic home PC environment. It’s more of a simple PC and may not impress people who prefer the stylish Asus Eee Box.

#Performance

It would be unfair to compare the performance of this PC to that of a mainstream desktop PC, so the closest comparison is the Asus Eee Box B202 which features the Atom N270 processor and the same amount of RAM. This one really trounces the competition in overall performance, thanks to its dual core Atom processor with double the amount of L2 cache. We’d say that if you install Microsoft Windows XP on this PC, it will surely suffice for applications such as Microsoft Office, media players, light image editing and even for light gaming.

Verdict: Although an entry-level user-upgradeable desktop PC cost around twenty percent more than the Panache Mini Thin PC, you won’t get the compactness that this baby offers. So considering the price, all-in-all it’s a great buy!

Here comes india's fastest wireless broadband !!!

# Wireless Broadband for laptop & desktop

# 20 times faster with speed upto 3.1Mbps on the move

# Fastest uploads at a speed of upto 1.8 Mbps

# Downward compatible with Reliance High Speed 1X network to ensure seamless connectivity across 20000 towns & 5 lakh villages, as well as along major highways, railway routes, airport lounges and remote locations in India

# Optimized for running rich media / heavy applications such as video conferencing, video streaming, electronic surveillance, online multiplayer gaming and heavy file transfers.

# Simply plug & play

# Some other service prroviders such as tata have released their tata photon + with same fratures as mentioned above but currently available in less than 5 cities whereas reliance's is avalaible across 35 cities in india

# Only disadvantage is that only available in selected cities

Speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines

1.Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

2.When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that TCP/IP really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although Windows XP and Windows XP have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size. You can do this with the registry entries below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters]

"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001

"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180

"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00

"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.

NTFS V/S FAT

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

#FAT16

The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

#FAT32

The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

#The Advantages of NTFS

The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

#When to Use FAT or FAT32?

If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer, you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

Bing - latest search engine by microsoft

Bing is a decision (search) engine from Microsoft officially announced on May 28, 2009. It combines technology from the Farecast and Powerset acquisitions, as well as new algorithms and a more colorful page design, to attempt to understand the context behind the search, which Microsoft claims gives users better results.

Bing as a brand is also an attempt to eliminate the confusion caused by Microsoft’s “Windows Live” branding. Bing is now everything “search” related, whereas Windows Live encompasses the remnants of Microsoft’s consumer software products.

Microsoft says its just an improvement over windows live search

While it has overtaken google in some areas but still you can say "GOOGLE SEARCH " is the ultimate winner when both are compared.

Some further improvement in it can pose a great challenge to google search

You can experience bing at www.bing.com.