Bjorn Nyland, a popular Youtuber among EV owners and Tesla fans, recently did a very simple power consumption test with the Tesla Model S 70D facelift, Model X P90DL and Hyundai Ioniq.
The results are somewhat surprising, as they reveal cheapest car, the Hyundai Ioniq, to be the most efficient of the three. On the other hand we should have expected such results, as the cheap car is much lighter and has very few features, when compared to the luxury sedan and SUV.
As you can see from the figures above, the Ioniq is exceptional when it comes to city traffic at relatively low speeds. Its top speed is just 150kph/93mph, as it has only a 88kW/117hp motor and 28kWh battery at 32.000USD, while the cheapest Tesla Model S 70 has a 245kW motor and 70kWh battery pack. The model S and X used in this test are both AWD (Model S with two 192kW/259hp motors and the Model X 90D with ~700hp total), so that's where the extra weight comes from.
AMD RyZen 7 is not recommended for gamers, who don't stream or anything else while gaming, as 4 of the 8 cores remain mostly unused in today's games. Most games are optimized for 4 cores, so RyZen 5 makes much more sense for gamers, as they can spend less money on the CPU and more on the GPU, making the system much more affordable and balanced.
In terms of raw CPU performance the AMD RyZen 5 1400/1500X 4c/8t is on the same level as the previous generation AMD FX-8000 processor lineup, while the power consumption is just 50% of the AM3+ platform... but for gaming, obviously the new platform is much better, as it features PCI-Express 3.0 and up to DDR4-3600Mhz memory, alongside the fast M.2 SSD storage slot.
AMD RyZen 5 1600/1600X 6c/12t has more power than Intel's Core i7-7700 4c/8t, but it's not as good a deal gaming, as the RyZen 5 1400 4c/8t. This processor is recommended for heavy multitasking on a very low budget.
The good news about these processors is that they all contain two quad core modules, with 2 or 4 cores disabled symmetrically, so the 16MB L3 cache, PCI-Express lanes and memory controllers remain intact - they are the same as in the RyZen 7 lineup.
In some situations it would be faster to have a single module, as the four cores could be directly connected to everything, instead of going through the Infinity Fabric between CPU modules, CPU and RAM, CPU and video card...etc. BUT some reviewers did a simulated comparison, and came to the conclusion that in real world gaming it doesn't make a noticeable difference.
The big question in my mind is whether AMD will release some low end processor (RyZen 3 or Athlon category) with only one module, as they would be faster and more efficient than current FM2+ and AM3+ quad core processors, even though they would be limited to single channel memory and 8 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes for the main graphics card slot. It remains to be seen if AMD will consider such products at least for low end laptops, where single channel memory is actually quite common.
PewDiePie is the best Youtuber, as he has an unimaginable number of subscribers (54M+) and views ... and is growing every day. He recently had some troubles with "the real media" (Wall Street Journal), which ran a campaign against him, accusing him of some immoral things, based on some scenes from his videos, taken out of context... a real mess. They basically destroyed PewDiePie's side projects, he lost a lot of money, but luckily his Youtube channel is still intact, so he still has a significant income... but more importantly, the majority of his subscribers support him and advertisers still advertise on his channel ... and give him free stuff :)
MainGear live built an awesome liquid-cooled PC for him, and shipped it a few days ago. It's a beast, with two nVidia GTX Titans and wrapped in PewDiePie-designed skin. MainGear and PewDiePie are giving away a similar system, in a red case, but the specs are a bit more modest:
When I moved, about 10 years ago, I threw away most of my old computer parts, including my first PC called "8088XT 10Mhz Turbo System" up to my 80486DX 100MHz mainboard and processor. What I still have, is a 900MHz Athlon processor with mainboard, an AMD K6-2 350MHz board and CPU ... and several other defective mainboard I have replaced for friends over the years. Today I took pictures of some old hardware parts, which can't really be used anymore, as they aren't compatible even with Windows XP, which is really old (15+ years).
This is a 10Mbps network card, which I bought for about 15 USD and used it in our first neighborhood network in ~2001. At first we used coaxial cables with terminators at each end and had very frequent problems. On it we shared a 128Kbps unlimited internet connection (paid about 40 USD/month, out of which 5USD were for the cable modem) and played multiplayer games like Starcraft, Warcraft 2 ...etc.
Later we switched to a switch-based network and the card went into my sister's PC, as it only supported 10Mbps on the UTP cable too.
This was our first switch ... to be more exact it's the replacement switch for the original one, which died after a thunderstorm. It was mostly our fault, as we strung a cable between two apartment buildings right between the tops. Lighting didn't strike it directly, but our building's lightning rod got struck and created an electromagnetic field strong enough to fry ALL our switches and a couple of network cards.
All in all this was our first real network, running at 100Mbps between 6 users, later between ~25 users, as we expanded our network and got faster and faster internet.
This is a simple 100Mbps network card, which survived the lightning strike, because it was not in a PC at that moment, as its connector was broken and the cable kept falling out ... At one point it was installed in a Pentium II 266Mhz server, which I built for better bandwidth management and user blocking with the Wingate app. The server had 3 network cards, as I managed to combine two 256Kbps internet connections together (for browsing only).
This is an ATI Rage Pro Turbo AGP video card with 8MB memory. I didn't use it at all, as I got it from one of the old PCs I bought for peanuts ... I only wanted the cases, as they had 6 x 5.25" bays.
I used this IDE/ATA133 controller card in the large computer case, which had 6 x 5.25" bays (I later added two more bays). At one point I installed 8 DVD writers in it with two of these cards and could copy four DVDs on-the-fly, but only at 4X (15 minutes/4.7GB).
Anyways, into a large box in the attic they'll go, along with other interesting parts, which I'll include in a later blog post.
Elon Musk's company, Space X, has reached another milestone. After recovering a total of 8 rockets after launch, now they re-launched and re-landed the first of the 8. BUT that's not all, they also recovered the nose cone, which protects the rocket's cargo and costs millions of dollars.
Although there's a long way to go until they achieve full re-usability in 24 hours, this is a very important step, as they practically doubled the life of the Falcon 9 rocket (1 launch vs. 2, at this moment). The end goal is indefinite re-usability, just like with airplanes.
This is the rocket they've re-launched and re-landed:
Despite all the pessimistic critics and stock market analysts, who can't keep their mouths shut, Tesla is on track to deliver its first cheap electric car, the Model 3, before the end of this year (2017).
Elon Musk, the CEO and (co-)founder of Tesla, is already driving daily in the most promising release candidate, in order to catch the biggest problems before they start mass production.
The production of the Model 3 will start soon, but not for average civilians - only Tesla and Space X employees will receive the first few thousand cars, so they'll be able to catch even the smallest problems and provide engineer-level feedback as fast as possible.
Theoretically the Model 3 production line is already functional, but it still needs some fine-tuning, before mass production starts. First they'll produce the simplest orders, as the first months of any production line is about quality. When everything works well, they'll add options like sunroof, second motor, special seats...etc... just like they did with the Model S/X production line, but without many of the mistakes they made in the past. Things are going so well, that they simply skipped a step in the preparations for production, as precision is much better than expected.
The first Model 3 configurations will include Autopilot Hardware V2 (probably with minimal software functionality at first), rear motor (probably without Insane/Ludicrous modes), battery packs up to 75kWh, one 15" touchscreen in the middle, basic seats, basic steering wheel, folding mirrors, tow bar, fast DC charging ...etc.
The biggest competitor against Tesla Model 3 is the Chevy Bolt, which has a rated range of 235 miles (EPA) with its 60kWh battery pack, but it's also slightly more expensive at 36,600 USD MSRP.
(Un)fortunately these two pure electric cars have almost nothing in common, as they look different, feel different, accelerate differently and have very different built-in features. In my opinion, most buyers won't have any problems deciding which one they want, as Model 3 is clearly high/superior tech, and the Bolt is more like an uglier/practical traditional car.
It seems that in the battery department, which should be the most important in any EV, Tesla has no competition, as they make the cheapest, safest and best managed (cooled/heated) battery packs. Owners of Model S/X cars report about a 10-15% range loss in very hot and very cold climates, where the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, eGolf and others lose up to 50% of their rated range, as they use different battery packs and less/no thermal management.
In this picture you see a part of the Tesla Model S battery pack. It's built using thousands of cylindrical Li-ion cells (more or less like in laptops) and yes, those flat metal tubes contain the
circulating liquid coolant and touch every cell (through a non-conductive thermal pad, for safety reasons) in the pack. This relatively simple thermal management system can also use the heat generated by the battery pack to heat the cabin, which in most EVs is lost energy and/or additional stress on the batteries.
The Model 3 battery pack will be very similar, but will use slightly fewer and bigger cells, in order to cut down cost. These new battery cells are already produced in the Gigafactory on a large scale, but most of them go into stationary storage called Power Wall 2 (home use) and Power Pack (industrial use).
In the gaming desktop market, Intel shouldn't be too worried yet, as 8core/16thread RyZen processors aren't good at high FPS (75+ FPS) games in 1080p, while Intel's Kaby Lake Core i7-7700K processors have a better IPC, higher frequency and about 30% more FPS in most games at 1080p.
The answer is Kaby Lake X, with a twist. So Intel Core i5-7640K and Core i7-7740K will be launched on a new socket type called LGA 2066, with Intel X299 chipset. This new platform will support up to 44 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and 4 memory channels, but these Quad Core Kaby Lake X processors will only be able to use half of that (2 memory channels and 20-28 PCI-Express lanes).
Another interesting move, made by Intel, is the introduction of a new server platform with a huge LGA 3647 socket, which will run Xeons with many many cores.
It's a bit odd, that the press didn't really report on these platform, as everyone was focused on AMD RyZen. Speaking of which, AMD is also preparing 12-32 core processors for the workstation and server markets. These new processors will offer a far better value for the price, but won't fit in AM4 sockets, unfortunately. These new chips will require AM44 socket motherboards with X390 or X399 chipset (presumably the first is single socket and second is multi socket), so it seems that AMD is also going in that direction, with larger sockets.
This diagram was obtained from unknown sources. Presumably it's an ASUS motherboard, but nobody can confirm or deny it, as usual ...
This is the chipset diagram, and it looks extremely promising, as it features 44 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and 4 memory channels, although they are marked in a strange way: MC1, MC2, MC1, MC2 ... that should mean 4 channels.
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4c/8t is on the same level as the previous generation 
processor lineup, while the power consumption is just 50% of the AM3+ platform... but for gaming, obviously the new platform is much better, as it features PCI-Express 3.0 and up to 
memory, alongside the fast 
storage slot.
/
6c/12t has more power than 
4c/8t, but it's not as good a deal gaming, as the RyZen 5 1400 4c/8t. This processor is recommended for heavy multitasking on a very low budget.
lineup.
motherboard
Kaby Lake processor
RAM (2x4GB)
GDDR5 video card
Professional power supply
SSD
