Geek to Live: Top Firefox 2 config tweaks @ LifeHacker isn’t your typical Firefox tweaking guide - no, this is pretty advanced. Because of that, it’s pretty good. Now don’t let the word ‘advanced’ scare you away, it’s pretty straightforward to do considering the well-laid instructions. Here are my favourite 2:

Fetch only what you click

Fx .6 and up: Firefox has this wacky little feature that downloads pages from links it thinks
you may click on pages you view, like the top result on a page of
Google results. This means you use up bandwidth and CPU cycles and
store history for web pages you may not have ever viewed. Creepy, eh?
To stop that madness, set the network.prefetch-next key to false.

Limit RAM usage Dud!

All versions: Goodness knows I’ve done a good amount of belly-aching about Firefox’s voracious appetite for RAM. (It’s consistently the most memory-intensive process on both my PC and
Mac.) Happily a simple config tweak got Mem Use right back down to a
more comfortable number. Along with the previous prefetch mod, set your
browser.cache.disk.capacity to a value that fits your total RAM.

Update: Unfortunately, the ‘Limit RAM usage’ tip is a dud. Instead it’s a disk-cache usage setting (which can be tweaked in the Firefox’s options menu) which has nothing to do with RAM usage. Instead, see the MozDev Firefox Memory Usage FQA and MozillaZine Knowledge Base for memory saving tips. I recommend these few:

Firefox Memory Cache

By default, Firefox does not use a fixed size memory cache - it uses a percentage of system memory. Setting a fixed size memory cache can often reduce memory usage - 4 or 8MB is sufficient in most instances. To set a fixed size memory cache, add the following pref using about:config:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

This is an integer pref, and can be set to the size you want the cache to be (in kilobytes).

Memory Usage Upon Minimize

There is a pref that enables trimming Firefox memory usage when you minimize all Firefox windows. This pref is for Windows only. To enable it, set the following pref to true using about:config:

config.trim_on_minimize

Fast Back/Forward

Firefox 1.5 has a new fast back/forward feature (bfcache) that vastly
reduces the amount of time taken to display pages when the back/forward
buttons are used. This adds to memory usage. To disable this, set the
following pref to 0 using about:config:

browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers

You can also control the number of pages stored instead of disabling it entirely, this is documented in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base. Note that the amount of memory used will vary according to the size and content of pages.

Enjoy.

Fans of Opera Mini, remember that it’s available for the Nokia E61 as well. It’s useful when you want small-screen rendering of a website, usually when data-efficiency is needed to cut cost on data charges.

Download Opera Miniâ„¢ - Opera Software

More pictures galore. A continuation of Part I and Part II.

For a gaming rig, fast graphics is necessary, sometimes even more than a fast CPU. The Palit 7900 GS doesn’t disappoint here. It runs at a core clock of 500MHz and 1.4GHz memory, essentially overclocked out-of-the box. Reference NVIDIA 7900 GS is clocked 450MHz/1.3GHz for core and memory respectively. This probably explains why the heatsink is so darn huge! Be prepared to lose a PCIe slot because of it. Having such a large heatsink serves a few purpose - it’s barely warm to the touch and the fan is much silent because it’s a low RPM fan.

It’s SLI-capable! Basically, this means that I can buy yet another 7900GS and pair them up to increase performance. But of course, I wouldn’t do that - I’ll need to buy a new PSU because each card draws a lot of power.

See the extra power socket that connects directly to the PSU. PCIe doesn’t provide enough juice for the 7900GS.

This baby also sports dual-DVI goodness. Given that LCD prices are dropping all the time, it’s not unlikely that I’ll get a 2nd monitor in the future. I find that having a large screen space increases productivity dramatically. With dual-DVI, I can be ensured that both LCDs will get digital signals from the display card for good quality display. Unfortunately, HDCP support seems to be absent. But of course, being in Malaysia, I doubt HDCP will be of any use to me.

I’ve got everything installed in a couple of hours. Of course, I found out that I received a Parallel-ATA drive instead of the Serial-ATA drive that I ordered. Grrr… I couldn’t care less. I just had to get XP installed and a couple of games to test out its performance and stability so I proceeded to install everything. Of course, this meant that I will have to repeat much of the installation the next day but I’ve got time :). Installing a PATA drive is always a pain. I got it the Master-Slave config wrong yet again despite having assembled computers since a long time ago. I’m glad SATA drives have none of the Master-Slave crap.

The unpacking of a 19″ wide screen LCD. Rated at 5ms response and 700:1 contrast ratio. Why widescreen? Well, for one, movies are in 16:10 or 16:9 ratio these days and widescreens are better suited for them. With the excellent VLC Player, you can actually do a crop of 16:10 (my screen’s aspect ratio) and the video will take up the whole screen. Wicked! I’ll post a picture later on. See Part IV for images of widescreen video. Another reason is gaming. I’m a fan of first-person-shooters and I find widescreen gives a more natural depth-of-field.

To give a better perception of the screen’s size, here it is again beside the ATX case. No, that’s not my new workplace, it’s the living room.

Ah, finally, it’s alive! At this point, it’s complaining about invalid boot disk and all. Which is good because this means everything is OK, except for a missing OS. At this point, I’m going to install Windows XP Pro simply because it’s the best OS for gaming. Vista isn’t quite there yet and even if I could get hold of Vista RTM, I wouldn’t want 2 Windows on my computer. Maybe a 64-bit Linux (Ubuntu?) or a Solaris.

That’s all for today. I’ll be coming up with Part IV soon Part IV is up, displaying this beast in its proper habitat. As usual, higher resolution pictures available in my Google web album

As promised in Part I, here are some pictures during the assembly of the computer. Some of the images required touching up in GIMP - sharpening and some color level correction - because of the low light condition in which they were taken in.

The separate components before assembly. All neatly packed in their respective boxes. Boy did I end up with a lot of unwanted plastic and boxes which brings into mind - how much did these companies spend on packaging (and how much did I had to pay for them)?

This is the case that would house my new computer. ATX case, nothing special.

The Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. It’s an E6300. It’s dual-core, sports 2MB L2 cache, runs at 1.86GHz which was later overclocked to 2.8GHz. A whooping ~1GHz increase in clock speed. It’s a fine time for a overclocker to buy a computer

The same CPU housed in the motherboard - a Gigabyte GAPP965-S3. Intel’s new Socket T has a few nifty design to prevent wrong installation of the CPU. For example the CPU no longer has PINs (no more bend PINs, yay!), there are notches on the CPU and socket to prevent misaligned installations - it won’t installed if aligned wrongly. It also has a shim to avoid the slightly annoying incident of crushed processor (yeah, I’m being sarcastic here). Overall, the installation was easy enough.

The aforementioned motherboard. Sports the usuall array of connectors - USBs, SATA, IDE, PCIe, PCI slots - plus a few extras - gigabit LAN and optical out for audio, and some extra connectors because of the 8-channel audio. All of which, I do not use - I have WiFi at home and I don’t have any high-end audio equipment. I got the board because of its overclocking potential. You can also see the Intel heatsink installed. Not visible is the Core 2 Duo CPU, covered by the heatsink.

Some dual-channel DDR2 800MHz RAM goodness. Necessary for the 400MHz bus I’m gonna use to overclock my CPU. I could’ve gone with a set of cheaper 667MHz sticks but I want to minimize risk. Failure to overclock RAM is known to cause some nasty system instability and unlike the CPU, they don’t fail immediately so it’s harder to detect. And it sucks to have an overclock fail because of RAM.

Higher resolution pictures available in my Google web album. Ok, that’s it for now. I’ll post some more pictures later on in Part III.

Rig as in a new computer. Pretty mean one too. For pictures, see Part II, Part III and Part IV Here are its guts:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (that means it runs at 1.86GHz)*
• Gigabyte 965P-S3 motherboard
• Palit NVIDIA 7900GS**
• 512MB x 2 800MHz Corsair DDR 2
• Maxtor 160GB Serial ATA hard drive***
• 16x NEC DVD writer
• Cooler Master 380Watt PSU

And these are its external components

• Cooler Master ATX case
• SD/MMC/CF/MS card reader
• 19″ Acer widescreen LCD
• Microsoft mouse and keyboard
• 2.1 Sonic Gear BlueThunder II speakers
• Aztech USB 802.11 b/g
• 800KV voltage regulator****

The speakers and NEC DVD writer were recycled from previous computers. I’m very satisfied with my Sonic Gear speakers, they’re still pumping out great sound after 2 years! The DVD writer is still top notch but that’s because it’s seldom used. Everything else is new. Spent the weekend assembling components purchased from different shops in Low Yat Plaza (de facto place to shop for geeks) and installing software. Also set up a new workplace for myself in the process. Except for some slight hiccups, everything was OK. The motherboard had some serious issues with an earlier BIOS that it came with (version F3, F6 is the latest). Apparently it overclocks the PCIe bus if I increase its FSB no matter what I set. Flashing it to the newest BIOS solved the issue. I also risked burning the Intel CPU because of a lose heatsink. My first experience installing a C2Duo heatsink. Then there’s the issue of missing items from my motherboard’s bundle - the ATX back bracket and driver CD. The seller also gave me a PATA hard drive instead of a SATA one. Both of these meant I had to make an extra trip back to Low Yat. Note to self: check and re-check your components before leaving!

I’m gonna post pics later on. Pics uploaded - see Part II, Part III and Part IV.

* The E6300 is running at an impressive 2.8GHz! If you’re interested, it’s running at 400MHz FSB, x7 clock multiplier, 1.35v (up from 1.325v), PCIe @100MHz, memory at 400MHz x 2. Its temperature is 48 C when the air-conditioning is on, 60 C otherwise.
** The 7900GS from Palit is a decent card. It comes with 256MB RAM running at 1400MHz and sports a 20-pipe 500MHz GPU. Awesome beast. This thing runs Battlefield 2142 @ 1440×900 AF/2xFSAA with good framerates
***Why the puny hard drive? Well cause I still have an external 250GB HD for backups and a 40GB portable HD. I reckon I won’t need so much for this PC. It’s just for games anyway
****Never underestimate the need for one. It’s a cheap investment to protect very expensive equipments

Just heard this from MyPDACafe.com the unbranded/unlocked Treo 680 and Treo 750v will be launched in Malaysia early December, though Vodafone branded 750v will be available from Celcom this week. Also rumoured is that the Treo 680 - the one many Palm enthusiast are waiting for - will be priced at RM 2288. This is certainly bad news because at that price range, the Treo will be competing against many Windows Mobile handsets which outclass the Treo. The only thing going for it would be Palm OS and its library of software. Hardware wise, the Treo lacks WiFi, sports a paltry 312 XScale CPU and homes only a 0.3 megapixel camera. Let me list out the features of similiarly priced smartphones which surpasses the Treo 680 (OS will not be considered, for obvious reasons):

1. iPaq 6915- WiFi, GPS, 400MHz CPU, 1.3 MP camera, WM 5.0, 128MB ROM (RM 24xx)
2. Nokia E61 - WiFi/3G(UMTS), true-color screen (RM 1799)
3. Dopod 818 Pro - WiFi, 2MP camera with macro, WM 5.0, 128MB ROM (RM 20xx)
4. iPaq 6828 - WiFi/EDGE, 400MHz CPU, 2MP camera, stereo speakers, FM radio, 128MB ROM (RM 22xx)

As you can see, the Treo 680 doesn’t compare well against the others - matching their price in the case of the Windows Mobile smartphones - yet loses feature-by-feature (OS aside). The Treo even compares badly against the Nokia E61, though this is given because the lack of touch-screen on the E61.

Indeed many feels, myself included, that the Treo 680 should’ve been Palm’s effort to enter the mass market, to entice those that would’ve not considered a smartphone to buy a Treo by pricing it aggressively given it’s toned-down specification. Palm however, feels content with shooting themselves in the foot again and again. It’s decision after decision similiar to this that I’m glad that Palm OS is no longer controlled by Palm Inc. Let’s hope Access can bring back the glory of Palm OS.