News Archive

Mar 31st, 2008 18:23 Discuss (70 Comments)

Word is circulating that just four short months after the launch of GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2, NVIDIA will welcome its new high-end graphics cards to the world. Logically their names will be GeForce 9900 GTX and 9900 GX2. Both cards will be based on the GT200 GPU. Details are all you want I'd say, but unfortunately there's not much to know. According to VR-Zone, GeForce 9900 GTX is to replace 9800 GX2 and this gives us a clue that a single GT200 card will actually outperform a dual G92 card. The story also suggests that the GT200 will still be manufactured by the old 65nm process, and the PCB used for the new cards will probably be P651. The release date for both cards is also said to be in July. I know this comes just a day before April Fools' Day, but the report has been posted all over the web, so we can assume it's fairly legit.

OrigenAE announces T12 Touch Panel Screen

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Darksaber

Mar 31st, 2008 06:27 Discuss (10 Comments)

OrigenAE are pleased to announce the release of its versatile touch panel controller. The T12 is a 12.1" touch panel screen connected via VGA, power, IR and USB all through a single cable allowing for clutter free installation. It's unique design allows it to be used with any PC so you don't have to change or upgrade your existing media center setup to add the convenience of touch.

Xbox Live/Xbox.com Downtime on April 1st

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Mar 31st, 2008 04:32 Discuss (5 Comments)

Gamerscore Blog lets all Xbox owners know that the Xbox 360 Live service along with the Xbox.com web site will be down for routine maintenance on Tuesday, April 1, from 2-5 AM PDT (0900-1200 GMT). I don't know if this is true since April 1st is April Fools' Day, but at least be informed just in case.

Adobe AIR Alpha for Linux is Out

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Mar 31st, 2008 03:50 Discuss (5 Comments)

The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), which allows developers to take web applications to the desktop and store data offline, is finally coming to Linux. Adobe announced today that the pre-release alpha version of AIR for Linux is available immediately on the Adobe Labs site. Adobe shipped the 1.0 version of AIR for Windows and Mac last month but was forced to delay the Linux release. According to a FAQ on the Adobe site, the reason for the delay was that the AIR team had to "wait on the core Flash Player's support for Linux to be finalized." Adobe is also releasing an updated alpha version of the Flex Builder 3 for Linux to include support for AIR applications.

Intel, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners Close Transaction to Create Numonyx

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Mar 31st, 2008 03:35 Discuss (2 Comments)

Intel Corporation today announced that the company has finalized and closed its transaction with STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners to create a new independent semiconductor company Numonyx B.V. that will design, develop and manufacture NOR and NAND flash memory products. As part of the transaction, Intel has transferred the assets associated with its NOR flash memory business and certain assets related to the company's phase change memory initiatives to Numonyx in exchange for 45.1 percent ownership in Numonyx. ST Microelectronics acquired a 48.6 percent ownership interest in Numonyx. Francisco Partners acquired a 6.3 percent ownership interest in exchange for a cash investment of $150 million.

AMD Delivers Industry’s First 3D Workstation Graphics Card with DisplayPort

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Mar 31st, 2008 03:17 Discuss (19 Comments)

AMD today announced it is advancing application performance with stunning imagery through the introduction of the first commercially available 3D workstation graphics card with DisplayPort support. The ATI FireGL V7700 professional graphics accelerator provides superior rendering speed, 3D performance and color fidelity for Computer Aided Design (CAD), Digital Content Creation (DCC) and Medical Imaging professionals.

ASUS Eee PC 4G Windows XP Available on April 9th via Best Buy

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Mar 30th, 2008 13:26 Discuss (10 Comments)

According to ASUS, the first batch of Eee PC 4G with Windows XP will be hitting the U.S. retail market in the first half of April. The 7-inch screen laptop will be available at Best Buy for $399 starting April 9th. The hardware of the system will remain exactly the same as the first generation Linux Eee PCs. It will include the above mentioned 7-inch wide screen with 800x480 resolution, Intel CPU, Chipset and video, 512MB DDR2 memory, 4GB SSD disk, Windows XP Home preloaded, 1x LAN, 3x USB ports, memory card reader, integrated camera and 4400mAh battery for up to 2.8 hours of life.

NVIDIA BIOS Editor v4.0 Released

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Mar 30th, 2008 05:50 Discuss (2 Comments)

Version 4.0 of the popular NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) has been released, which brings a number of minor fixes as well as limited support for unknown devices. The listed changes are:

Added Support for GeForce 9800 GTX
Added Support for GeForce 9500 GT
Added Support for GeForce 8800M GTX
Added Support for GeForce 8600M GT
Fixed Bug with Fan Speed IC Settings

You can download the software from this page.

Wikipedia Reaches Ten Million Articles

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Mar 30th, 2008 05:48 Discuss (9 Comments)

Earlier this week the Wikimedia Foundation reached a significant new milestone: on Thursday, March 27, at 00:07 UTC the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The ten millionth article, a short biography of 16th century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, was created in the Hungarian Wikipedia by user Pataki Márta.

Blizzard Sues Michael Donnelly Over his WoW Glider Bot

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Mar 29th, 2008 17:37 Discuss (72 Comments)

Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting and other game actions. Both sides have submitted legal summaries to the US District Court in Arizona. Blizzard says Glide is a software bot which infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. In its legal submission to the court last week, the firm said: "Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time." Blizzard argued that Michael Donnelly's tool also infringed the End User License Agreement that all parties have to adhere to when playing the game. As result Blizzard wants Michael Donnelly to stop selling Glider and return all profits that he made from its sales. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold for the time being. Mr Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no "copy" of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgement in the case.

ASUS Eee PC Desktop (E-DT) Pictured

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Mar 29th, 2008 17:23 Discuss (21 Comments)

ASUS' long-promised Eee PC desktop has finally been pictured, according to shots sent into Hot Hardware. Dubbed E-DT, Eee's desktop brother will be equipped at first with a Celeron processor similar to the Eee, but will eventually move to Intel's Atom family of CPUs once they become available. ASUS promises that the system is due to ship by April or May and sell for between $200 and $300 US. The Taiwan PC maker also aims to further lower the price of the E-DT once it is available and start selling like hot cakes.

ASUS Intros My Cinema - PE9400 Combo TV Tuner

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Mar 29th, 2008 04:56 Discuss (13 Comments)

ASUS, producer of top-notch multimedia products, has today introduced the new PCI-express TV card, the ASUS My Cinema - PE9400 Combo. This versatile piece of hardware is able to support both digital (ATSC/QAM) and analog (NTSC) TV programs formats, and is embedded with a MPEG2 hardware encoder for reduced CPU loading with guaranteed high-quality video output - allowing users to enjoy versatility in an all-in-one PC multimedia package.

Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 8800 Cooler Review

Review VGA Coolers

Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme is the name of their newest graphics card cooler for GeForce 8800 cards. The Xtreme is also available in a version that supports ATI HD 2900 cards. The cooler uses 107 aluminum fins with three 80 mm PWM controlled fans to blow air over a large amount of fins for maximum heat dissipation.

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Sparkle Calibre P960 - GeForce 9600GT 512MB with Dual Fly Cooling

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Mar 28th, 2008 19:49 Discuss (20 Comments)

Sparkle Computer has introduced a non-reference GeForce 9600GT using a new Dual Fly cooling. The card comes factory overclocked with a core running at 700MHz, 1850MHz shader clock and 512MB GDDR3 memory at 2.0GHz using 256-bit memory interface. The most interesting part is the cooler though. According to the company's PR "This high-efficient Cooling System developed by SPARKLE itself consists of aluminum die-casting thermal base with copper core inside, three high-efficient heat pipes and dual cooling fans with 0.2 mm thin cooling fins. When the GPU starts working, the copper core inside the aluminum die-casting thermal base will quickly take the working heat from the GPU to the heat-pipe horizontally put inside the thermal base, and the heat will be equably and rapidly spread to the left part and right part of the aluminum die-casting thermal base, at same time, the two circular heat pipes also quickly bring the heat from GPU to the 0.2 mm thin cooling fins, now the strong wind pressure and airflow made by two cooling fans take all the heat out of the cooling module." The actual gain from Dual Fly is up to 10°C cooler GPU, 5°C cooler case temperature and less noise (around 29dB). The Calibre P960 is expected to be available soon.

TSMC Readies 40nm Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

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Mar 28th, 2008 19:08 Discuss (7 Comments)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently unveiled the foundry's first 40 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process technology. The new node supports a performance-driven general purpose (40G) technology and a power-efficient low power (40LP) technology. It features a full design service package and a design ecosystem that covers verified third party IP, third party EDA tools, TSMC-generated SPICE models and foundation IPs. First wafers out are expected in the second quarter of 2008.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Features Surface

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Mar 28th, 2008 18:36 Discuss (12 Comments)

Although Firefox 3 is still in research and development, Mozilla is already working on new features for the fourth version of its increasingly popular Web browser. Webware spoke with Mozilla vice president Chris Beard, who mentioned two specific new concepts for Firefox 4 that will evolve the online experience and add greater integration with content stored on computer hard drives. One of the new features is called "Prism," a next-gen software technology that would allow users to run Web-based content offline. For example, users would be able to visit websites and still access non-dynamic content even when they don't have an active Internet connection. The other big feature already unveiled for Firefox 4 is called "Weave." This is an option that would basically create a set of online preferences and settings that is stored for each user instead of each computer. In other words, users would be able to bring up their bookmarks, font settings and privacy preferences no matter which computer they use. This feature is set to be in its first stages in Firefox 3, but Firefox 4 will reportedly allow users to access these profiles on other browsers as well. Beard told Webware that these are just a hint of some of the "crazy ideas" the development team is working on for the next-next-gen browser.

OpenOffice Version 2.4 Released

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Mar 28th, 2008 18:07 Discuss (9 Comments)

The OpenOffice.org Community has released version 2.4 of its leading open source office productivity suite OpenOffice. OpenOffice.org 2.4 is available for immediate download and the new features are described in the release notes. OpenOffice 2.4 is compatible with all Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and Unix/Linux distributions.

DOWNLOAD

Sony Reports Possible Security Breach On PlayStation Network

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Mar 28th, 2008 17:06 Discuss (10 Comments)

Sony on Thursday reported that hackers may have penetrated security on the PlayStation network and gained access to some users' personal information. Sony said the security breach occurred at the PlayStation Store, a content download service of the network. "Although unlikely, it is possible that the passwords of a small percentage of PlayStation Network users may have been changed through unauthorized access," the company said. As a result, intruders could have seen users' personal information and used their online "wallets" at the store. However, because the system does not display users' entire credit card numbers, it is "very unlikely" thieves were able to steal them. Sony said it has fixed the problem and security has been restored. The company is now investigating the incident and is directly contacting customers who may have been affected. Sony has also created a support page for subscribers to ask questions and get more information.

Thermaltake Unleashes the Big Typhoon VP CPU Cooler

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Mar 28th, 2008 16:54 Discuss (27 Comments)

Building on the apparent success of the Big Typhoon 120 VX (CL-P0310), Thermaltake has announced a new high-end CPU cooler dubbed Big Typhoon VP. The product combines a copper base, six 6mm heatpipes and a big block consisting of 142 aluminum fins, with not one but two 120mm fans, one perpendicular to the base and one side fan which can blow air toward the GPU or RAM area. The extra fan features a 2-direction-installation option and can be placed at an angle between 0 and 45 degrees. The 120mm fans bundled with the Big Typhoon VP are rated to work between 1300 and 2000 rpm with a noise output going from 16 to 24dBA. Compatible with Intel LGA775 and AMD AM2/AM2+ sockets, the Big Typhoon VP weights in 822 grams and should be available soon.

Universal Abit to sell NVIDIA Graphics Cards Again

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Mar 28th, 2008 16:41 Discuss (7 Comments)

Abit, the company that once dominated the motherboard market and from time to time offered some of the latest NVIDIA graphics cards is now considering to reborn its VGA business. Now known as Universal ABIT, the firm is reported to start selling video cards again, covering only offerings from NVIDIA. Unfortunately, the report ends here. Possible ship dates haven't been revealed yet.

US Blu-ray Sales Reach 9 Million

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Mar 28th, 2008 16:05 Discuss (8 Comments)

Now after HD DVD is out and the format war is over, a research in the US shows Blu-ray disc sales have topped nine million since inception, with some three million of those discs flying off the shelves in 2008. The figures, published by Home Media Research, show average weekly sales of BD titles ranging from between 200,000 and 300,000. Big-sellers, such as the recent No Country For Old Men release, helped weekly sales reach 319,000, with the disc itself selling 68,000 copies in the week ending March 16th. The second place is for the Hitman title, who sold twice as low or 38,000 copies.

SAPPHIRE Launches Passive Cooled HD 3870 ULTIMATE Edition

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Mar 28th, 2008 15:41 Discuss (8 Comments)

SAPPHIRE Technology, industry leader in alternative cooling solutions for PC graphics, has just launched a new ULTIMATE Edition of the top of the range HD 3870 - topping it's previous claim for the fastest passive cooled graphics card in the World by delivering even more performance. The SAPPHIRE HD 3870 ULTIMATE Edition has 512MB of GDDR4 memory, running at 1125MHz (2.25GHz effective) and has a core clock speed of 775MHz, delivering the same exciting levels of graphics performance as the standard model - but featuring a totally fanless and silent four heatpipe cooler.

Dell Adds sub-1000$ Blu-Ray Equipped Inspiron 1525 Laptop to its Product Portfolio

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Mar 28th, 2008 15:24 Discuss (1 Comment)

Today, Dell announced that movie buffs can pick up the Inspiron 1525 with optional Blu-ray disc playback for under a $1,000 or $879 to be more precise. The award-winning Inspiron 1525 laptop features a 15.4-inch high definition wide aspect display with 720p resolution, various options of Intel Core 2 processors, up to 4GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, up to 250GB of disk space, Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, and more. It also includes an HDMI port for easy connectivity to high resolution displays and HDTVs. The Blu-ray player disc drive is fully backwards compatible, and will play as well as burn traditional DVDs and CDs. Consumers can also chose a Blu-ray DL burner drive, but this will add $480 to the overall price of the laptop. The Inspiron 1525 laptop with Blu-ray is available today in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Here's a link to Dell's Online store where you can customize and purchase the Inspiron 1525 laptop.

Gone in 2 Minutes: Mac Gets Hacked First in Contest

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Mar 28th, 2008 14:47 Discuss (31 Comments)

All hypes and myths about Apple being the most secure OS, or at least being the last OS to be hacked may have been busted by Charlie Miller on Thursday when he managed to hack an Apple MacBoock Air for 2 minutes flat during the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest. Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack. Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages. Miller, best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple's iPhone last year, took advantage of the new privileges given by the jury and within 2 minutes, he directed the contest's organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer. He was the first contestant to attempt an attack on any of the systems, and that was enough for him to win quick $10,000 and perhaps show how secure the MacBook Air was. Continue reading the full story with more details here.

OCZ and PC Power&Cooling Become an Official Sponsor for The GameStar League

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Mar 28th, 2008 13:36 Discuss (1 Comment)

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, components, and system builds, today announced its partnership with GameStar, one of the leading European Gaming Leagues. OCZ Technology has been close to the gaming community for years by delivering high-performance hardware specially tailored for their demands, and is proud to announce sponsorship of the GSL League (GSL), where Europe's best gamers will be competing in six different titles such as StarCraft, Unreal Tournament 3, Guild Wars and many more.

PQI Unveils New 4GB Phoenix Series DDR3 Kit

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Mar 28th, 2008 09:49 Discuss (2 Comments)

Power Quotient International (PQI) has released a new DDR3 dual channel memory kit. Part of the Phoenix Series of DRAM products, the Turbo Immortality Edition DDR3-1600 4GB (2x2GB, CL9-9-9-24)) dual channel kit is aimed at being paired up with the latest Intel X38, X48 and NVIDIA nForce 790i motherboards. The two modules also feature aluminum heat-spreaders with a phoenix graphics engraved on them. Set to work at 1600MHz DDR3 frequency and beyond, the XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) supporting modules make use of Elpida's 70nm 128Mx8 DRAM chips. The new 4GB kit is backed up by a lifetime warranty. Pricing and availability haven't been announced yet.

New GTA IV Trailer Released

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Mar 28th, 2008 08:57 Discuss (9 Comments)

Rockstar Games has uploaded what is the be the final trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV before the game's release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the end of next month. Titled Good Lord, What Are You Doing? AKA Everyone's a Rat, you can stream the trailer from RockStar's website or download the 70MB HD trailer here.

Intel to Delay P45 Chipset to mid-June

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Mar 28th, 2008 08:28 Discuss (7 Comments)

Intel is delaying the launch schedule of its P45 chipset from originally in May to mid-June, DigiTimes is reporting. The delay of the chipset is due to problems over compatibility between the chipset's PCI Express x16 port and graphics cards. Intel has notified its board partners that the problem should be solved two to four weeks behind the original launch schedule, with mass availability expected soon after that. Intel will now announce the P45 chipset during Computex 2008, however, actual motherboard shipments will not begin until mid-June.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Release Date Announced

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Mar 28th, 2008 02:56 Discuss (8 Comments)

GSC Game World today announced the planned release date for its upcoming survival FPS title S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. According to the agreed plan, the game will ship worldwide on August 29, 2008. Set before the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the prequel provides insight into the events that led to the atmospheric first-person shooter. The title will be available through both traditional retail channels and as a Steam-exclusive digital download. "Our intention to deliver the game simultaneously worldwide is both a challenge and big responsibility to the many fans of the game around the globe," said GSC World Publishing CEO Sergiy Grygorovych. "We are looking forward to achieve this ambitious goal in August." said Sergiy Grygorovych, GSC World Publishing CEO.

Interview: Alex 'Unwinder' / RivaTuner Review

Review Interviews

The VGA Tweaking Utility RivaTuner has changed a lot over the years, and so has its creator. TPU talks with 'Unwinder' about software development and the role he played in starting the softmod community.

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BFG Announces 9600 GT OC2

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Mar 27th, 2008 18:29 Discuss (15 Comments)

BFG Technologies announced today the BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT OC2 512MB PCI Express 2.0 graphics card for a suggested retail price of $249.99 USD.

Opera Gets Full Marks in Acid3

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Mar 27th, 2008 15:18 Discuss (14 Comments)

It looks like Opera's development team has done a good job of improving the browser's compatibility, as it has now managed to achieve an impressive score of 100 out of 100 on the Acid3 web standards test. Opera Software's Head of Core Technology, Lars Erik Bolstad, wrote:

Since the test was officially announced recently, our Core developers have been hard at work fixing bugs and adding the missing standards support. Today we reached a 100% pass rate for the first time! There are some remaining issues yet to be fixed, but we hope to have those sorted out shortly.

NVIDIA Responsible for the Most Vista Crashes

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Mar 27th, 2008 15:04 Discuss (89 Comments)

Data released by Microsoft has revealed that NVIDIA was responsible for 28.8% Windows Vista crashes during an unspecified period in 2007 - more than any other company. Microsoft itself was the next-worst offender, accounting for 17.9% of crashes, whilst AMD and Intel were much lower on 9.3% and 8.8% respectively. The cause of 17% of crashes is listed as being unknown, whilst other companies accounted for a total 18.5% of the crashes. The data was collected by Microsoft, and was ordered to be made public by a Judge regarding the ongoing "Vista Capable" lawsuit.

Unreal Tournament 3 Bonus Pack Released

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Mar 27th, 2008 15:01 Discuss (8 Comments)

Epic has today released a bonus pack for Unreal Tournament 3, which includes three new maps for the game. Gamers may already be familiar with Morbias and Facing Worlds, whilst Searchlight is an all-new capture-the-flag map. You can download the bonus pack from here, which is just under 160MB.

NVIDIA ForceWare Beta 174.74 Released

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Mar 27th, 2008 14:59 Discuss (4 Comments)

NVIDIA has updated its beta ForceWare driver to version 174.74, which supports just about all GeForce FX, 6, 7, 8 and 9 series graphics cards. The changes in this release include improved performance for DirectX9 and OpenGL applications, as well as a number of game and application compatibility fixes. Download locations are as follows:

Windows XP 32-bit - here
Windows XP 64-bit - here
Windows Vista 32-bit - here
Windows Vista 64-bit - here

Firefox 2.0.0.13 Released

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Mar 27th, 2008 14:58 Discuss (14 Comments)

Mozilla has released a new minor update for its popular Firefox browser, bringing the version number to 2.0.0.13. Six security issues have been fixed in this release, and if Firefox hasn't already prompted you to update it's recommended you click on "Check for Updates..." from the application's Help menu. Alternatively, you can download the update from this website.

OLPC XO's Geode LX 700 CPU Gets Overclocked

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Mar 27th, 2008 03:37 Discuss (6 Comments)

Our new day is starting with a lot of processor news. This story again will lead us to the heart of every personal computer, the CPU. Since the start of the One Laptop Per Child project, and its first born the OLPC XO laptop, users were complaining how slow the 433MHz Geode LX 700 CPU was. Now, thanks to the user bdleonard on OLPC News XO Hacks Forum who created a full guide, the OLPC XO CPU FSB and its PC2700 (166MHz DDR SDRAM) memory can be overclocked. Initial tests show that the Geode LX 700 CPU can be pushed up to 566MHz resulting in 30% overall improvement in processor speed over the stock 433MHz. Please know that overclocking may cause stability problems, data errors, and possibly hardware damage, and will generate excessive heat, a concern with the passively cooled XO laptop. Overclock at your own risk!

Complete Guide of OLPC XO Laptop Overclocking

AMD Extends Energy-Efficient Processing Leadership with World’s First 65W Processor

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Mar 27th, 2008 02:59 Discuss (37 Comments)

AMD today announced the availability of the world's first energy-efficient desktop quad-core processor, providing customers with a cool and quiet digital media workhorse. With AMD Phenom X4 9100e quad-core processors, digital media enthusiasts and performance-hungry users can experience the powerful computing capabilities of a true multi-core architecture with a processor operating at a maximum of 65-watts.

AMD Launches Four New Phenom X4 Processors

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Mar 27th, 2008 02:49 Discuss (103 Comments)

AMD today announced immediate availability of four new high-performance AMD Phenom X4 processors for PC users in search of the Ultimate Visual Experience. Led by the AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition processor, each CPU features true quad-core design, and when matched to AMD 790 series chipsets supports up to four award-winning ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics cards. This enthusiast PC platform, codenamed "Spider," energizes the latest PC gaming titles, speeds high-definition video playback, and delivers amazing performance for advanced productivity and multi-tasking.

AMD Launches World’s First x86 Triple-Core Processors

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Mar 27th, 2008 02:43 Discuss (24 Comments)

AMD today announced the availability of AMD Phenom X3 8000 series triple-core processors, providing gamers and digital media enthusiasts with exceptional performance at mainstream price points. AMD Phenom X3 processors are designed to improve multi-threaded application performance over dual-core processors at the same clock speed. As the world's only triple-core x86 processor, AMD Phenom X3 processors bring multi-core technology to a broader audience in search of desktop PCs that easily handle today's digital entertainment workloads.

Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel Review

Review Other

The Porsche 911 Turbo wheel is an exact replica of the real wheel and comes with hand stitched leather and wireless technology for unrestricted racing fun. The pedals and choice of gear box round up the exclusive package. The gearbox is available as either 6+1 speed H-pattern gear stick or a sequential version.

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Mushkin Intros New Arctic White and Charcoal Gray EM2-6400 DDR2 Kits

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Mar 26th, 2008 17:39 Discuss (9 Comments)

Mushkin today announced the immediate availability of two new DDR2 kits, whose Frost Byte heatspreaders have been painted in "Arctic White" and "Charcoal Gray". The modules are available now in two different 4GB (2x2GB) kits: XP2-6400 800MHz (model number: 99658Ow/g) with CL4-4-4-12 latencies, and EM2-6400 800MHz (model numbr: 996557w/g) with CL5-5-5-12 latencies. Last two letters of the model numbers indicate the color of the heatspreaders, w for white and g for gray. All Mushkin products come with a lifetime warranty.

Far Cry 2 Confirmed for Fall 2008 Release

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Mar 26th, 2008 17:07 Discuss (19 Comments)

A video with Ubisoft Montreal producer LP Pharand posted on Youtube today, revealed the release plan for the next gen shooter Far Cry 2. The game is being developed from Ubisoft Montreal and will be simultaneously launched on PC, PS3 and X360 this fall. Unfortunately other details surrounding the game and its story remain brief. What's sure is that there will be no mutants or what so ever as it was previously reported.

Intel Desktop Board DX48BT2 Appears on Intel's Website

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Mar 26th, 2008 16:06 Discuss (7 Comments)

Chip maker Intel has just added the DX48BT2 motherboard to its website. Manufactured by Intel, the DX48BT2 Desktop Board offers the new X48 Express chipset with support for all Intel 45nmm Socket 775 processors operating up to 1600MHz FSB. It also has official support for DDR3 memory up to 1600MHz with XMP Extreme Memory Profiles. The board offers two PCI-e 2.0 16x and one PCI Express 1.0a x16 graphics slots. An 8-channel (7.1) Dolby Home Theater Audio codec and Gigabit LAN module are also presented.

Fedora 9 Beta Released

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Mar 26th, 2008 15:37 Discuss (2 Comments)

The Fedora Project has released its first beta for the upcoming Fedora 9 Linux-based operating system. While not intended for production use, the beta includes most of what you'll find in the final release of Fedora 9, including new Kernel 2.6.25-rc5, GNOME 2.22, KDE 4.0.2 desktop environment, Firefox 3 Beta 5, and numerous other improvements and enhancements. The final form of Fedora 9 is slated to arrive later this spring. To download, visit this download page.

ASUS Confirms Touchscreen Eee PCs

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Mar 26th, 2008 14:16 Discuss (3 Comments)

Kevin Lin, vice president of ASUSTeK's sales department confirmed today that the second-generation Eee PCs will include 8.9-inch touchscreen panels. Some systems may also incorporate GPS support for navigation, Lin added, also noting that the local price for the systems is expected to reach $500. The 8.9-inch Eee PC will adopt Intel's low-cost notebook platform, up to 1GB memory and upgraded SSD drives up to 12GB. Reports indicate that next-gen Eee PCs will possibly become available in May or June.

Asus Launches SDK for the Eee PC

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Mar 26th, 2008 12:53 Discuss (0 Comments)

ASUS has quietly released a Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the Eee PC. The SDK comes as a 1.2GB disc image that can be downloaded from the ASUS support site, and includes the following components:

Xandros Desktop Open Circulation Version 4.5
QT
Eclipse
QT plugin for Eclipse
Debian packaging wizard developed by Xandros

Detailed instructions for creating applications, icons and more are included in the user's manual.

NVIDIA Prepares New Mainstream G96 (D9M) Card for Launch

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Mar 26th, 2008 12:35 Discuss (8 Comments)

VR-Zone reports that NVIDIA plans to add another member to the GeForce 9 series soon with their G96 (D9M) card for the mainstream market. This G96 card will replace the current GeForce 8500 GT model and most likely it will be named GeForce 9500 GT. Final specs of the card include 550MHz core clock speed, 512MB (32MX16) GDDR2 memory clocked at 1GHz on 128-bit memory interface. The card will feature DVI-I, VGA and HDTV connectors.

MSI Updates GX600 Gaming Laptop

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Mar 26th, 2008 12:33 Discuss (8 Comments)

MSI has updated its GX600 gaming laptop, introducing the GX600-Enhanced model. The new notebook features improved hardware, including a 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor at 2.4GHz, up to 3GB DDR2 RAM and a 320GB hard drive. The system still comes equipped with a a GeForce 8600M GT 512MB graphics processor and a 15.4" non-glare LCD, as well as MSI's Turbo Drive Engine, which allows users to increase CPU speed by as much as 20% with the touch of a button.

ATI Planning HD 3850 X2?

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Mar 26th, 2008 12:11 Discuss (41 Comments)

ATI's recently launched HD 3870 X2 graphics card was mostly well received, and according to Chinese site HKEPC, the company may now try the same tactic with the HD 3850. The site reports that the HD 3850 X2 should go on sale during mid-2008 with a price tag of between $299 and $379 - which would put it right in the firing line of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS. It looks like the card will continue to use the RV670 core and feature GDDR3 memory, although the memory speed will be dropped from 2000MHz to 1800MHz, with a choice of 512MB or 1GB capacities.

Super Talent Ships World’s Thinnest 256GB SATA SSD

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Mar 26th, 2008 12:02 Discuss (7 Comments)

Super Talent Technology today launched the world's slimmest 256GB solid state drive (SSD). Only 12.5mm thick - 40% thinner than any other 256GB SSD available - the FSD56GC25H uses an industry standard 2.5-inch hard drive form factor and SATA interface, to achieve 0.1ms access times, and maximum read/write speeds of 65/50 MB/sec respectively. This SSD supports up to 1600G of shock and 16G of vibration, which is about five times greater than typical hard drives. The drive also supports ECC (Error-Correcting Code). "We designed this drive for applications that need rugged and reliable storage in a very compact form factor. This is the world's smallest and thinnest 256GB SSD", said Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James. "This product underscores our leadership in high density SSDs and demonstrates the technical capabilities of our Silicon Valley engineering team", Mr. James added. The FSD56GC25H drives are designed, manufactured and tested in Super Talent's headquarters in San Jose. Samples are available now. Super Talent sells directly to OEMs and does not give any retail prices.

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Cards on Sale

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Mar 26th, 2008 11:54 Discuss (14 Comments)

Although official release of the card is still scheduled for April Fools' Day, a number of European retailers are already listing NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card for pre-order. There are offerings from a number of companies including ASUS and Gigabyte, but the cheapest so far looks to be Palit's card, which has been given a price tag of €273 (about $430). The card comes equipped with a G92 core running at 675MHz, 128 stream processors at 1688MHz and 512MB GDDR3 memory at 2200MHz. The card is on sale at German site ComputerHandlung.de, and is listed under the XpertVision brand name.

Dell Prepares E6400 ATG

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D_o_S

Mar 26th, 2008 08:20 Discuss (2 Comments)

Dell has a semi-rugged notebook planned, dubbed the "E6400 ATG". The laptop should offer increased durability at little compromise to size and weight. It will either come with 14.1" WXGA normal or touch screen (with brightness 750cd/m2 or 650cd/m2, respectively}. The notebook will be dust-proof, shock-proof, and spill-proof to military standards.

The E6400 ATG will be an addition to Dell's line-up and will not replace the fully-rugged XFR D630.

Epic Demonstrates Unreal Engine Improvements on Gears of War 2

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Mar 26th, 2008 08:13 Discuss (6 Comments)

Gears of War was among the first games to make use of the Unreal Engine 3, so Epic Games has decided to show-off how much the engine has been improved since then. At a recent press conference the company used Gears of War 2 to demonstrate various improvements such as better lighting, improved efficiency, more realistic water effects, soft body physics and destructible environments. If you want to take a look at the video, which is just over six minutes long, head over to Shacknews.

Zotac Announces New NVIDIA Hybrid SLI Motherboard for AMD

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Mar 26th, 2008 08:12 Discuss (2 Comments)

Zotac has jumped the gun on this one a little bit, pre-announcing its new motherboard based on NVIDIA's upcoming nForce 750a chipset. This will be the first AMD chipset from NVIDIA since the nForce 590 was released back in May 2006, and will offer features such as Hybrid SLI, Hybrid Power and GeForce Boost. The board won't be capable of running triple SLI as there are only two PCI-E slots, but Quad SLI with two GeForce 9800 GX2 cards will be supported. The board should work with past, current and future AMD CPUs, provided that AMD maintains compatibility between AM2+ and AM3 processors. Zotac reckons it will be able to sell the motherboard for less than $150, which wouldn't be a bad price for someone wanting to use high-end AMD processors and NVIDIA graphics.

Fallout 3 to Have Over 200 Endings

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Mar 26th, 2008 08:10 Discuss (15 Comments)

Game developers have been gradually trying to create more-open games over the past few years, but it looks like Bethesda is planning to take a huge leap forward with its upcoming title Fallout 3, which will feature over 200 different endings to the game. The company's executive producer, Todd Howard, said:

Being that we are Bethesda, everything gets a bit big, so as of last week we're over 200 endings. That's not an exaggeration.

He explained that small changes and additions to the endings are multiplied by other factors influenced by the player's choices and decisions in the game, adding:

Fallout is probably twice the size that we originally had on paper. We've definitely gone overboard... It won't end up being as big as Oblivion, but it's approaching that. The game is easily a hundred hours.

Gearbox Signs In-Game Advertising Deal

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Mar 26th, 2008 08:06 Discuss (9 Comments)

Gearbox Software has reached a deal with advertising company Double Fusion to bring in-game advertisements to some of its future titles. Double Fusion will be providing the developer with dynamic advertising technology to deliver the ads and integrated sponsorships, although Gearbox has not yet disclosed which games will contain these adverts. The companies commented that they will "work together to ensure that all advertising programs are appropriate and add value to the gamers' experience." In-game ads look set to become more common over the next few years, with big names such as Microsoft and EA already having agreed to similar deals.

EVGA Launches e-GeForce 8800GT AKIMBO with 1024MB DDR3 Memory

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Mar 26th, 2008 03:52 Discuss (55 Comments)

Official NVIDIA partner EVGA has released a new e-GeForce 8800GT 1024MB G92-powered card part of the AKIMBO line-up. The AKIMBO cards feature a dual-slot cooling system that resembles the stock 8800 GTS 512MB cooler, and strangly enough all AKIMBO cards have standard clocks. The new 1GB GeForce 8800 GT model has 112 Stream Processors set to 1500MHz, a GPU clocked at 600MHz and GDDR3 memory at 1800MHz. The card is in stock now for $299.99.

Creative: ASUS Misleading Customers on EAX Drivers

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Mar 26th, 2008 03:18 Discuss (94 Comments)

PC sound card maker Creative Labs said in a e-mail message today that rival hardware manufacturer ASUS is misleading its customers by claiming that new drivers for ASUS sound cards support EAX 3,4 and 5, a set of environmental enhancements for sound in games. Responding to an announcement by ASUS that newly released drivers for its Xonar line of sound cards support EAX, Creative communications VP Phil O'Shaughnessy said that the drivers effectively trick games into outputting EAX-capable sound, but they don't actually fully support it. "There are a small number of PC game titles that specifically query the audio device on the system to see if EAX 5 is available before they will attempt to render more than 64 3D simultaneous audio voices," O'Shaughnessy said. "The new ASUS drivers are falsely reporting EAX 5 capabilities in order to get these games to output 3D audio on ASUS sound cards. ASUS customers are not getting a genuine EAX Advanced HD experience with this driver update. Furthermore, the several hundred games that support EAX 3 or EAX 4 for delivering in-game effects will not provide those effects from ASUS sound cards." he added. ASUS representatives are still awaited to comment on the story.

New ATI Hotfix Patches Various 3D Problems with Radeon HD Series

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Mar 26th, 2008 03:04 Discuss (50 Comments)

Owners of ATI's Radeon HD2xxx/HD3xxx series cards who are experiencing intermittent stuttering when running various 3D applications can now make use of the new Catalyst hotfix which is said to fix the problem. Available now for Windows XP (32/64-bit) and Windows Vista (32/64-bit), the 737-33033 hotfix can be downloaded here.

Thermaltake BlacX HDD Docking Station Review

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For those users out there that are constantly swapping around parts, Thermaltake introduces the BlacX HDD Docking Station. This USB 2.0 device is a variation of a hard drive enclosure that lets the user plug a bare drive into an opening on top, and then eject the drive with a push of a button. The BlacX is so simple and easy to use, anyone with extra drives laying around should think about picking one of these up.

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S3 Releases Vista WHQL Driver for Chrome 400 Series

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Mar 25th, 2008 17:34 Discuss (6 Comments)

This makes a refreshing change from the recent avalanche of NVIDIA beta drivers - S3 has just released its new 7.15.12.0129 driver for anyone running a Chrome 400 series graphics processor on Windows Vista. The driver features full Microsoft WHQL certification, and supports DirectX 10.1. As this is the first non-beta driver for the Chrome 400 series on Vista there are no changes to list, and the only known limitation is that MultiChrome is not supported in this release (S3's version of SLI/CrossFire). You can download the drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system from this page.

Microsoft Strips Xbox Live Gamertags of Confirmed Cheaters

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Mar 25th, 2008 16:26 Discuss (10 Comments)

Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb wrote on his blog today, that the Xbox Live Gamertags of confirmed cheaters have been corrected. He explained what his team is doing to the accounts of the most serious offenders:

Resetting the entire Gamerscore for an account to zero
The account will be unable to regain all previously obtained achievements and Gamerscore, however, the players will have the ability to gain future Achievements by earning them fairly, like the majority of the Xbox LIVE community does.
The account will be clearly labeled as a cheater for the community to view on xbox.com. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well.

"Xbox Live remains committed to keeping the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone," Hyrb wrote. To find out more about Gamerscore corrections read the FAQ on Xbox.com.

Microsoft Offers Free Support for Vista SP1 Installs

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Mar 25th, 2008 15:50 Discuss (11 Comments)

All Windows Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 will be given free support, Microsoft informed today.

We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1,

Microsoft blogger Brandon Le Blanc said. There are three options available under the free support plan: e-mail support, which will be answered within one business day; online chat, which has a current waiting time of around 40 minutes; and call, available only for users who have a software-assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription, or MSDN subscription, or for those who come under the Microsoft Partner Program. The free support is available for all users till March 19, 2009. Please proceed here.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Soundtrack Finalized

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Mar 25th, 2008 15:33 Discuss (5 Comments)

Sony has finished the list of tracks that will take place in the North American soundtrack for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the fifth installment of the billion-dollar selling racing franchise developed exclusively for PS3 by Polyphony Digital Inc. The official Gran Turismo 5 Prologue soundtrack will include an edgy soundtrack that mixes an aesthetic audio blending of indie dance rock, electronica, classic rock and brand new remixes by some of today's hottest recording artists such as Weezer, Mars Volta and DJ Shadow, among others. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be available in April for $39.99 SRP on Blu-ray Disc and as a download via PLAYSTATION Store.

World of Warcraft Patch 2.4.0 Released

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Mar 25th, 2008 15:14 Discuss (2 Comments)

Blizzard Entertainment has now released the long awaited 2.4.0 patch to their MMO World of Warcraft. The patch adds a new area to explore (the Sunwell Isle) with new quests, raids and dungeons along with support for a new global arena tournament and new UI improvements. You can download the patch via the game's auto-updater or manually via sites like FileShack. The full patch notes can be found here.

ASRock Launches World’s First DisplayPort Motherboard

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Mar 25th, 2008 14:37 Discuss (9 Comments)

To keep up with modern appliances with multi-ports, such as D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and the new DisplayPort, motherboard makers have got to be ready. ASRock is fully aware of the trend and released the world's first DisplayPort motherboard today! ASRock A780FullDisplayPort is a full-function embedded motherboard with four display outputs provided for all kinds of consumer appliances. Through the back panel I/O, you will find many output port options, such as D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, and Display port, and the MB also supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback and PCI-E Gen2 slot.

ASUS Launches Silent 9600 GT

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Mar 25th, 2008 14:21 Discuss (2 Comments)

With emphasis on providing quiet computing environments to users, ASUS has today introduced the ASUS EN9600GT SILENT/HTDI/512M graphics card. This ingenious piece of hardware incorporates the latest thermal solution - the V-Cool Heatsink, which features the V-Engine concept and Intercooler technology. This exclusive innovation guarantees absolutely quiet operations, and an efficient means of heat dissipation for the most stable performances. The unique design of the V-Cool Heatsink will lower GPU temperatures by 10ºC in comparison to reference designed boards with 0dB noise generation; while the integrated SmartDoctor feature provides users with the option to overclock the Shader Clock for even better graphical performances.

NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 WHQL Released - Quad SLI Support Enabled

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Mar 25th, 2008 13:40 Discuss (9 Comments)

NVIDIA today released ForceWare 174.53 WHQL driver package, which adds support for GeForce 9600GT and GeForce 9800 GX2, as well as added Windows Vista 32/64-bit support for Quad SLI. This release also brings new PureVideo HD features for GeForce 9800 GX2:

Dynamic Contrast Enhancement
Dynamic Blue, Green & Skin Tone Enhancements
Dual-Stream Decode Acceleration

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WD Starts Offering New My Passport Elite Portable Drives

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Mar 25th, 2008 13:32 Discuss (5 Comments)

Expanding on its popular portable storage offerings, WD today introduced its new My Passport Elite Portable USB Drives which are designed to make it easy to securely carry thousands of songs, videos or photos in style. Available now at select retailers and at WD's online store, the new fully-featured My Passport Elite Portable USB Drives include a luxurious, soft-touch finish that makes these drives easy to grip, comfortable to hold, and fashionable to carry.

AMD to Update Single-core Desktop CPU Lineup

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Mar 25th, 2008 10:35 Discuss (12 Comments)

AMD is planning to phase out its single-core Sempron LE-1150 processor by the end of this month and will launch a higher-end Athlon LE-1660 (2.8GHz) for its single-core CPU lineup, DigiTimes report. In addition to the Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 6000+ and 5600+, the company has also informed customers that final orders for its Athlon 64 X2 4200+ will be taken at the end of this month.

New 45nm Intel Quad-Core Xeon Server Processors Announced

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Mar 25th, 2008 10:31 Discuss (5 Comments)

Intel Corporation has further increased its energy-efficient performance lead today with the introduction of two low-voltage 45 nanometer (nm) processors for servers and workstations that run at 50 watts, or just 12.5 watts per core and frequencies as high as 2.50GHz. The Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor L5400 Series takes advantage of Intel's unique 45nm manufacturing capabilities and reinvented transistor formula that combine to boost performance and reduce power consumption in data centers.

ASUS EAH3850 Trinity Has Three RV670 Chips

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Mar 25th, 2008 10:27 Discuss (46 Comments)

Here's what happens when two GPUs aren't enough. The latest ASUS EAH3850 Trinity works with three mobile RV670 chips in CrossFireX and is cooled by a combination of aluminum heatsinks, copper heatpipes and an enclosed water cooling system. The three 55nm GPUs all have their dedicated memory and make use of a 256-bit memory interface. Featuring one 8-pin power connector, the Trinity also has four DVI connectors. The card's clocks and actual availability haven't been decided yet.

PLAYSTATION3 Firmware 2.20 Available

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Mar 25th, 2008 04:09 Discuss (11 Comments)

Sony released the latest firmware 2.20 for their PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) console this morning. In case you haven't read what's new in this update, please check our previous story here. Some of the new features include, support for Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 (BD-live), the ability to copy PS3 Music and Photo playlists to a PSP system, as well as playing DivX and WMV format files that are over 2 GB. All owners, may now proceed to their PS3 System Update menu.

TechPowerUp Reader Survey 08 - Results Review

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Cooler Master Cosmos S Review

Review Cases

The Cooler Master Cosmos S is the "sport" variant of the original Cosmos chassis. Coolermaster has taken various aspects of the Stacker series and fused them with the original Cosmos case. The door is gone and the plastic top has been redesigned to fit a triple radiator of your choice. The new Cosmos S is also made of Aluminum which makes it much lighter.

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CeBIT 2008: J & W Review

Review Tradeshows

J & W is showing off their complete range of new mainboards at the show. You will find the newest AMD based boards as well as some very interesting Intel and NVIDIA units on display.

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CeBIT 2008: GeiL Review

Review Tradeshows

GeiL is showing off their newest memory products. You will find XMP based DDR3 modules as well as very tight timing DDR2 memory modules at their booth.

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Alienware Adds Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz to Area-51 Tower

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Mar 24th, 2008 18:28 Discuss (8 Comments)

Quickly following on the heels of its GeForce 9800 GX2 update, Alienware on Monday afternoon refreshed the Area-51 gaming tower to add Intel's 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (12MB L2 Cache) as its best processor option. The new speed eclipses the 3GHz limit set by the older system and also brings with it a faster 1600MHz system bus. The option will launch as a higher-tier option alongside the earlier Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3GHz processor and will boost the price of the system by $1,650 to $3,749 while keeping the 2GB of RAM, GeForce 9600 GT video, and 250GB hard drive of the base system. Alienware estimates shipping systems configured with the new chip by mid-April.

Plextor Readies New Internal Blu-Ray Drives with LightScribe and HD DVD Capabilities

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Mar 24th, 2008 18:15 Discuss (10 Comments)

After our brand new TechPowerUp Reader Survey 08 results, it's time for some news coming from Plextor. The firm has released two new multifunction disc drives that combine next-generation Blu-Ray and HD DVD technologies. I'll start with the more sophisticated model the PX-B920SA, a Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray DL (50GB) burner that plays HD DVD discs and supports high-speed reading and recording of DVD and CD formats, including DVD-RAM and Dual/Double Layer DVDs. The internal drive features 4X BD-R write speed, Serial ATA (SATA) interface, 4MB buffer and Lightscribe disk labeling. Second in order is the PX-B300SA, a multifunction drive capable of only playing both Blu-Ray and HD DVD media, while DVD and CD burning features remain presented. Other than that, the PX-B300SA is identical to the PX-B920SA model. Both drives support Buffer Underrun Proof technology and come with one year full warranty. They are also bundled with a complete package of application software, including InterVideo WinDVD 8, Ulead MovieFactory 5.5 SE, and Burn.Now 4.5 SE. The PX-B920SA costs $599 while the PX-B300SA Blu-Ray/HD DVD reader ships for $499.

Fujitsu to Release World's First 7200 rpm 320GB 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drive

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Mar 24th, 2008 03:43 Discuss (9 Comments)

Fujitsu Limited today announced its new MHZ2 BJ series of 2.5" hard disk drives that feature a rotational speed of 7200 rpm and capacities of up to 320GB. The new disk is designed for use in high-performance PCs, such as high-end notebook computers and compact desktops. The MHZ2 BJ will be available in 80/120/160/250 and 320GB capacities, with SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface, 16MB buffer size, and 10.5ms (read) and 12.5ms (write) average seek times. Sales of the MHZ2 BJ series will begin at the end of June 2008.

Acer Not Planning Games Console

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Mar 23rd, 2008 14:35 Discuss (7 Comments)

It looks like reports that Acer is planning to make its own games console are wrong and simply the result of misinterpreted quotes. A UK spokesperson said:

That was a major misunderstanding as JT [James T Wong, Acer's senior vice president] was wrongly interpreted. Acer is not going to release any game console but the idea is to develop a high-end PC (so not a console) targeted at the serious gamer.

The original story claimed that Acer was working on an open console format to compete with the proprietary systems from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

Intel Eco PCs Uncovered

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Mar 23rd, 2008 12:17 Discuss (24 Comments)

These are the first close-up spy shots of Intel's next gen notebook Eco PC. Specs can be found in one of the pictures. All pictures of the Eco PCs are uploaded here.

Scythe Announces Orochi CPU Cooler

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Mar 23rd, 2008 12:03 Discuss (27 Comments)

Scythe has released a new fanless CPU cooler known as Orochi, a name which comes from the ancient Japanese snake monster with eight heads. The heatsink has been designed to maximise cooling performance when using either no fan or a low-fan speed in order to make your system as quiet as possible. It features 10 heatpipes and a large heatsink area, with the option of using Scythe's 25mm thick 140mm round fan to "optimize" cooling.

ASUS GeForce 9800 GTX Pictured

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Mar 23rd, 2008 11:45 Discuss (37 Comments)

TechConnect Magazine has acquired some pictures and specs of ASUS' upcoming EN9800GTX/HTDP/512M graphics card, which is expected to be released on April 1st. It will run at what are thought to be NVIDIA's reference clocks of 675MHz core and 2200MHz memory, with 128 stream processors at 1688MHz. This version will come equipped with 512MB GDDR3 memory, with a price tag somewhere below $350.

ASUS Splendid HD1 Video Enhance Card Upgrades Generic VGA to True HDMI

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Mar 23rd, 2008 11:35 Discuss (9 Comments)

Catering to the new era in multimedia technology, ASUS, producer of high quality audio and visual solutions, has announced the new ASUS Splendid HD1 video enhance card. This astounding piece of hardware is able to increase picture quality for HD content to deliver sharper, more vividly colored visual outputs. It can even enhance lower resolution inputs by recovering image clarity when viewing legacy content for viewing on LCD TV or monitors; as well as provide true HDMI with audio and HDCP.

NVIDIA Hybrid SLI Delayed

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Mar 23rd, 2008 11:27 Discuss (11 Comments)

NVIDIA representatives notified its board partners this week that its new Hybrid SLI technology has been delayed. NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI technology offers pretty much what the already launched AMD Hybrid Crossfire technology has. NVIDIA Hybrid SLI consists of a NVIDIA Hybrid SLI ready motherboard with integrated graphics, plus a discrete NVIDIA video card. When the PC is doing non-GPU intensive tasks the discrete GPU shuts down entirely, leaving all tasks to the integrated graphics for better power efficiency. When a 3D application or a game is started, both cards start working together, resulting in improved overall performance. NVIDIA is planning to start utilizing Hybrid SLI in all its future motherboards, from the bottom end to the top end expensive mobos. Back on the topic, the delay notification reads, "We are still experiencing delays in getting the kits sent as the product is experiencing delays, drivers are being fine-tuned and sales tools are being finalized." NVIDIA goes on to promise that Hybrid SLI samples will reach vendors in the second half of April, which means retail availability has been pushed into late May. The company does not state the reason for the delay. Cards that currently support Hybrid SLI include the GeForce 8500 GT as well as the GeForce 8400 GS. The chipsets that support Hybrid SLI include the NVIDIA nForce 720a and the nForce 730a.

ECS Unveils G10IL Netbook - ASUS Eee PC's Next Competitor

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Mar 22nd, 2008 13:25 Discuss (16 Comments)

Previewed during the latest Mobile World Congress, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has spilled new details on their ASUS Eee PC competitor, the G10IL. Based on the Intel Atom (Diamondville) microprocessor and Intel 945 GSE + ICH7M core-logic, the G10IL will be offered with glossy 8.2-inch or 10.2-inch display, up to 2GB of memory, optional solid-state drive and preinstalled Windows XP or Linux OS. ECS G10IL will be the first ultra-portable laptop to be available, with new models set to follow soon. Multimedia and network features include built-in 1.3MP webcam, tri-band HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet networking, a 56Kb/s analog modem, WLAN and Bluetooth, and a 4-in-one card reader. "In response to the demanding requirements of notebook offering advantages unattainable by others, Elitegroup Computer Systems today unveiled Simply Smart ECS G10IL notebooks where we made a giant stride possessing the power and features that is undoubtedly a winner in its class for today's sophisticated customers," a statement by ECS reads. The release date and pricing of the first ECS G10IL are still unknown.

SteelSeries Ikari Optical Mouse Review

Review Mice

The SteelSeries Ikari Optical gaming mouse is aimed at hardcore FPS gamers who want the best possible tracking. The optical version of the Ikari mouse looks just like its laser brother, but without the LCD display that indicates which profile is being used.

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Art. Lebedev Studio Optimus Upravlator Keyboard

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Mar 21st, 2008 14:21 Discuss (6 Comments)

There's always something new and cool coming from Art. Lebedev. Now after the Optimus Maximus keyboard is finally shipping, the studio has enough free time for another oddly named keyboard, the Optimus Upravlator. Optimus Upravlator is a completely new kind of input device aimed at the media professionals. It features a 10.8-inch color LCD (800x600 pixels resolution) with 12 see-through buttons occupying its surface. Each of them has five contact points-one in the center, top, bottom, left and right-which are freely assignable to user interface elements in the software of your choice. The device is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X and should be available for sale in the second half of 2008.

Toshiba Begins Mass Production of MLC Nand Solid State Drives

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Mar 21st, 2008 13:18 Discuss (22 Comments)

Toshiba America entered today into the emerging market for NAND-flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) with the company's first multi-level cell (MLC) NAND-flash-based SSDs. The initial drives to begin shipping this month are 128GB drives in a lightweight, 15 gram embedded module form factor. "Our first customer for these drives will be the PC Division of Toshiba Corp., in Japan, which will be the first to feature a 128GB SSD in a notebook PC, said Scott Nelson, vice president, memory for TAEC. "We believe that Toshiba MLC SSDs offer the right mix of cost and performance to satisfy today's demanding storage requirements for notebooks and Ultra Mobile PCs." To achieve performance levels of 100MB/second read and 40MB/second write in these first generation drives, Toshiba utilized a SATA II interface and an innovative MLC controller. As a result, Toshiba SSDs achieve better scores than today's 5400rpm and 7200rpm HDDs and comparable to selected SATA SLC NAND SSDs. The Toshiba 64GB embedded module MLC NAND SSD is also ready for mass production. Additional models in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch drive enclosures are also scheduled to sample next month.

Kingston HyperX DDR3 Series Become NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI Certified

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Mar 21st, 2008 11:49 Discuss (2 Comments)

Kingston Technology today announced its family of HyperX DDR3 memory modules have been SLI-certified by NVIDIA Corporation, as part of its program to offer gaming enthusiasts solid platform/memory compatibility, stability and performance solutions when building high performance systems using the new series of NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI platforms.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta Ready

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Mar 21st, 2008 11:38 Discuss (7 Comments)

After four Alpha releases, the first Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) beta has been released. Codenamed "Hardy Heron", 8.04 LTS comes in two versions: desktop and server edition. These new Linux-based distributions sport a number of application and file browsing improvements, as well as the Wubi installer: a new Windows-based installer which allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. Please see the release notes for details.

DOWNLOAD: Ubuntu 8.04 Beta

Firmware v2.20 Bringing BD-Live to PS3

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Mar 21st, 2008 11:21 Discuss (1 Comment)

Sony previewed yesterday on its official PS3 blog the next PLAYSTATION 3 system software update which is due to be out in the next few days. Firmware v2.20, will introduce a number of features to further enhance your PLAYSTATION 3, but most notably the update will enable the PS3 to support Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live. BD-Live allows you to obtain additional content and special features through Internet on BD discs that support this feature. On April 8th Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release The 6th Day and Walk Hard on Blu-ray; these titles will be among the first to take advantage of BD-Live.

LG Intros GH22 22x DVD Burner

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Mar 21st, 2008 10:20 Discuss (6 Comments)

LG announced today GH22, the company's latest 22x Super-multi DVD burner. LG's new drive comes to join Samsung's SH-S223 22x burner, scheduled for release later this summer. Specifications of the drive include 22x writing speed for DVD-R/+R, 16x for DVD+RW DL, 12x for DVD-R DL and 12x for DVD-RAM. The drive also comes with 2MB memory buffer coupled with Buffer Underun technology, Lightscribe for image burning directly on the surface of discs as well as the SecurDisc feature for data protection. Availability is expected in the second half of this year, priced at approximately US $30.

AMD Plans to Add Radeon HD 3830 ?

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Mar 21st, 2008 10:09 Discuss (15 Comments)

DigiTimes, citing unnamed industry sources claims that somewhere between April and May, we should expect ATI to launch new Radeon HD 3830 graphics card. The 3830 will have 128-bit memory interface, 320 stream processing units, 16 texture filtering units and 16 ROPs, and will support memory capacities of up to 256MB. The card will be positioned between AMD's Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3650 and will target the gap between NVIDIA's GeForce 9600GT and 8600GTS with a price lower than US$129. The release of Radeon HD 3830 may also lead to price reduction of several other members of the HD 3 series, the Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3850. AMD didn't comment on the story.

Qimonda Brings New Power Efficient Aeneon XTUNE DDR3 to NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI

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Mar 21st, 2008 09:56 Discuss (12 Comments)

Qimonda AG today announced it is supporting NVIDIA Corporation's nForce 790i SLI platform with its new 1GB Aeneon XTUNE DDR3-1600 DRAM modules. The combination of NVIDIA's first DDR3 ready platform and Qimonda's DDR3 memory technology offers gamers a path to intelligent scaling of graphics performance.

Ubisoft Acquires the Tom Clancy Name for Video Games, Related Books, Movies, and More

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Mar 21st, 2008 02:50 Discuss (10 Comments)

Today, Ubisoft announced that it has concluded an agreement with Mr. Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name, on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products. The price of this all cash acquisition is not currently disclosed.

NZXT Unveils Tempest - Mid-tower Steel Chassis

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Mar 21st, 2008 02:43 Discuss (26 Comments)

NZXT, a company specialized in PC enthusiasts and gamers chassis, is proud to announce the NZXT Tempest. Tempest is a mid-tower steel case which weights 11.2kg without the optional 500W ATX 2.0 PSU and comes with 6 fans included: dual intake (120mm), dual exhaust (140mm) with additional side and rear fans (120mm). With Tempest you'll also get cable managment system inside the case, pre-drilled holes at the back of the case for external watercooling, and support for the E-ATX standard. "With the Tempest's 6 120mm fans, we've created the Airflow King of cases. Combining the cooling capabilities with the space and storage features, the Tempest is designed to be the best enthusiast and gaming chassis in its class." Retailing for $99, the new Tempest case will be available from the first week of April from NZXT.

EVGA GeForce 9600 GT SSC 512 MB Review

Review Graphics Cards

EVGA's e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC comes at increased clocks compared to the NVIDIA reference design. Also the cooler has been adjusted slightly to match the company's color theme and design. With a price premium of just $10 over the reference card it can can deliver in both performance per Dollar and performance per Watt.

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S3 Graphics Launches Chrome 430 GT in the U.S. Market

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Mar 20th, 2008 14:35 Discuss (47 Comments)

S3 Graphics today informed that the S3 Graphics Chrome 430 GT desktop cards, are now available at online retail affiliate GStore. Engineered to be the first S3 graphics solution to deliver full DirectX 10.1 support, the 65nm-built Chrome 430 GT GPU is clocked at 625MHz while the 256MB of GDDR2 memory is set to work at 500MHz. Moreover the card supports the PCI Express 2.0 graphics card specification, plus D-SUB and DVI (with HDCP) connectivity. "S3 Graphics has once again delivered an outstanding product, leveraging our graphics, video, and power savings core competencies," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM for S3 Graphics. "The feature-rich Chrome 430 GT challenges the current discrete graphics landscape, bringing new functionalities previously seen only on high end desktops, bringing new meaning to the terms 'affordable gaming' and 'home entertainment'."

AMD Appoints Nigel Dessau as Chief Marketing Officer

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Mar 20th, 2008 09:16 Discuss (11 Comments)

AMD today announced the appointment of Nigel Dessau as chief marketing officer (CMO). He brings 22 years of technology sales and marketing leadership experience at IBM and Sun, and will be responsible for AMD's global marketing, image and campaign strategies.

Acer Planning To Join Console Market?

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NamesDontMatter

Mar 20th, 2008 08:18 Discuss (21 Comments)

Supposedly, a senior official at Acer (the Taiwan-based company that specializes in PC notebooks) told BetaNews they are thinking about producing a "PC-based game machine." Furthermore, according to Acer's senior vice president, James T. Wong, this game machine would operate off an "open standard" philosophy, in contrast to the "closed" systems (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii).

Armari reveals XCP computer

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D_o_S

Mar 20th, 2008 07:26 Discuss (16 Comments)

UK company Armari has decided to reveal its "top secret XCP über-PC project" to Hexus:

The above is a result of two years of research and development. The goal was simple: to build a computer that would offer the best performance, not staying away from exotic cooling technologies like liquid nitrogen, liquid fluorocarbon immersion, TEC, and phase-change. Unlike most benchmarking machines however, this one was designed to run 24/7.

Once the XCP goes into production, a liquid-cooled model, with appropriately extravagant hardware, should cost in the region of £10,000. The computer will be available in limited numbers.

Intel Bloomfield Motherboard Up Close and Personal

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Mar 20th, 2008 05:33 Discuss (27 Comments)

Intel Smackover Motherboard Up Close and Personal

As Intel's next-gen 45nm Hi-k Nehalem CPU architecture codenamed Bloomfield is being planned for the fourth quarter of this year, it's time to see some pictures of the motherboard that will become home for these new processors. The board pictured below is an early reference sample codenamed "Smackover" (see picture 1). Smackover will be released in Q4 together with the Nehalem server parts and it will be a triple-channel DDR3 high-end workstation/gaming platform. The motherboard has single 1366-pin CPU socket, four DDR3-1333 slots, three of which being colored blue to signal the triple-channel support and two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, likely bringing CrossFire to Intel's platform. The only heatsink installed is the one covering the ICH10 southbridge while the Tylersburg NB is left "naked". The board has no IDE or floppy connectors, but only six SATA 3.0 Gbps ports.

G.Skill Starts Offering 8GB and 16GB DDR2-800 Memory Kits

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Mar 20th, 2008 03:35 Discuss (35 Comments)

High-end memory manufacturer G.Skill has begun offering 4x 4GB (16GB) as well as 2x 4GB (8GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 kits for all proffesional users working with memory-hungry applications. G.Skil said that the memories are guaranteed to work on motherboards based on Intel P35, X38 and X48 chipsets and with the majority of AMD chipsets for the AM2 platform (AMD 790FX, 780G, 690G, nForce 590, 570). But before buying these kits, please refer to your motherboard manual and check if it supports that amount of memory. For example NVIDIA's nForce 680i and 780i chipsets support up to 8 GB of memory. The kits are tested to work at DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) speeds with CL5-5-5-15 timings and 1.8V.

Intel Plans to Launch Two Entry-level CPUs for Centrino 2

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Mar 20th, 2008 03:12 Discuss (1 Comment)

In order to defend its entry-level notebook market, Intel is planning to launch two 65nm Merom-based processors for its Centrino 2 platform (Montevina), according to DigiTimes. The CPUs will include the Celeron 585 with a core frequency of 2.16GHz priced at US $107 in thousand-unit tray quantities, and Celeron 575 at 2GHz with price of US $86. Both will support 667MHz FSB with 1MB L2 cache and have a TDP of 31W. In related news, Intel has also set the price for its Atom N270 notebook CPU (Diamondville) which forms part of the company's Basic Mobile Platform at US$44.

Apple Patch Tuesday Fixes 93 Holes in Mac OS X

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Mar 20th, 2008 02:48 Discuss (8 Comments)

Apple released a massive set of patches on Tuesday afternoon fixing more than 90 vulnerabilities in almost every component of its operating systems. Apple's "Patch Tuesday" patches fix bugs in both the client and server editions of Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. The Leopard bundle included fixes for AFP Client, Apache, Application Firewall, ClamAV, CUPS, macs, Help Viewer, Image Raw, Kerberos, mDNSResponder, OpenSSH, pax archive, PHP, Podcast Producer, Preview, Printing, System Configuration, UDF, Wiki Server and X11. The Tiger update fixes holes in AFP Client, AFT Server, Apache, AppKit, CFNEtwork, ClamAV, CoreFoundation, CoreServices, CUPS, curl, Emacs, file, Foundation, Help Viewer, Kerberos, libc, notifyd, OpenSSH, PHP, System Configuration and X11. Security Update 2008-002 is available here for Mac OS X v10.4.11, Mac OS X Server v10.4.11, Mac OS X v10.5.2, Mac OS X Server v10.5.2. For detailed information, please visit this website.

HIS HD 3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512 MB Review

Review Graphics Cards

The HIS Radeon HD 3870 IceQ3 uses the proven HIS IceQ3 cooling solution. It also comes with higher clocks out of the box which are among the highest we have seen so far from all manufacturers. The recent price drops from AMD make this card a solid choice for the sub-$200 segment.

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CeBIT 2008: G.Skill Review

Review Tradeshows

G.Skill is showing off their SATA I and SATA II based SSD offerings as well as some brand new passive and active cooling solutions for their DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules.

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Crysis Patch 1.21 Released

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Mar 19th, 2008 18:05 Discuss (1 Comment)

A hotfix update for Crysis has been released, updating Crytek's action game to version 1.21. The 37MB sized patch for Crysis fixes the known security hole in the game code which causes client and server crashes when playing online. Be sure to have patch 1.2 installed before, installing patch 1.21.

DOWNLOAD: Crysis Hotfix 1.21

WD Launches the 640GB Caviar SE16 3.5-inch Hard Drives

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Mar 19th, 2008 15:56 Discuss (30 Comments)

WD announced today that it is now shipping in volume its WD Caviar SE16 640 GB 3.5-inch hard drives based on 320 GB-per-platter technology -- a platform that it has been shipping since January 2008 and is serving as the foundation of all of the company's 3.5-inch drive families. Ideal for data-intensive applications, high-performance computing and multimedia systems, the WD Caviar SE16 640 GB drives deliver high performance with their extreme areal density, 3 Gb/s transfer rate, and Native Command Queuing (NCQ). Its two-platter design promotes cool, quiet operation in a high-capacity drive.

PSP 3.93 Firmware Released

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:58 Discuss (5 Comments)

Sony has updated the firmware on its handheld PSP console to version 3.93, which can be downloaded by going to the Settings menu on the device and selecting Network Update. The changes in this version include expanded support for PlayStation Network titles and the introduction of 20 new players to the Internet Radio feature.

Apple to Offer Unlimited Music Downloads?

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:43 Discuss (8 Comments)

According to the Financial Times, Apple is currently in discussions with music companies regarding the possibility of providing users with unlimited access to music downloads. The plan would most likely involve customers having to pay a premium for iPods/iPhones and then being able to download as much music as they want - essentially embedding the cost of music into the price of the player itself. However, the discussions are apparently stalling a bit at present as the companies negotiate over pricing. Apple is reportedly offering only $20 per device, which is much lower than companies like Nokia, which is paying almost $80 per handset for a similar plan. Another possibility is that users may pay a subscription fee each month to have unlimited downloads, with the capability of keeping 40 to 50 tracks each year even if the subscription is cancelled.

NVIDIA ForceWare 174.53 Beta Released

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:30 Discuss (6 Comments)

NVIDIA has updated its beta ForceWare driver to version 174.53, which is intended for use only on the GeForce 9600 GT and the new 9800 GX2. The only changes in this release are new PureVideo HD features for the GX2 card. Download locations are as follows:

Windows XP 32-bit - here
Windows XP 64-bit - here
Windows Vista 32-bit - here
Windows Vista 64-bit - here

SAPPHIRE Launches Two New Motherboards

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:15 Discuss (20 Comments)

Following the introduction of the exciting new series of chipsets from AMD, SAPPHIRE Technology has just strengthened its mainboard offering with the introduction of two new products - the PI-AM2RS780G based on the AMD 780G chipset and the PC-AM2RX780 based on the AMD 770 chipset.

EVGA Announces nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:10 Discuss (7 Comments)

EVGA is happy to announce the 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, foundation for the world's fastest gaming PCs, delivering top performance for 1600 MHz FSB Intel CPUs with extreme CPU overclocking, and unmatched gaming for 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology. EVGA 790i Ultra offering new DDR-3 Technology supporting up to 2GHz providing world-record setting memory speeds and component control with ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture).

ASUS Launches Striker II Extreme Motherboard

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Mar 19th, 2008 11:00 Discuss (8 Comments)

Catering to gamers who want the ultimate in overclocking and gaming platforms, ASUS has released the ROG Striker II Extreme series of motherboards. Supporting NVIDIA's nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset for exceptional overclocking speeds, this powerful series of motherboards is also equipped with innovative technologies for enhanced graphical and thermal performance, versatile overclocking options; as well as a vast array of features that include device protection - making it the overclocker and gamer's first and best choice.

NVIDIA Launches 790i Chipset

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Mar 19th, 2008 10:47 Discuss (4 Comments)

Following the release of its GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card yesterday, NVIDIA has launched its new nForce 790i SLI and 790i Ultra SLI chipsets. Both versions support up to 1600MHz FSB and 2GHz DDR3 memory modules, as well as being capable of running Quad SLI. For full details, check out NVIDIA's product pages. The main difference between the two chipsets seems to be improved overclocking abilities for the Ultra model.

AMD Receives First Ever DisplayPort Certification for PC Graphics

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Mar 19th, 2008 09:08 Discuss (16 Comments)

Today it was announced AMD was extending its visual computing leadership with the first availability of products that conform to the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) first DisplayPort certification. The certification has been awarded to the ATI Radeon HD 3400, ATI Radeon HD 3600 and ATI Radeon HD 3800 graphics products, and the AMD 780G integrated graphics chipset. As the next generation of PC display connection technology, the DisplayPort interface delivers twice the output capacity of DVI, moving the industry forward to a new generation of brilliant display capabilities.

Alienware Area 51 m15x BIOS Update Released

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Mar 19th, 2008 07:58 Discuss (1 Comment)

If you were among the group of people experiencing overheating issues with your Alienware Area 51 m15x laptop, then there are some good news for you. A new BIOS update, version X29b P3A30 is now available. The update allegedly allows VGA fans to increase up to 5400 rpm and thus better cool the GPU. To obtain the new BIOS, you'll need to email the m15x support line (Area51_m15x@alienware.com). In reply you should receive a link to the BIOS .zip archive. Once you download the small file, Alienware recommends to follow the steps described in the Read full story marker.

NVIDIA to Launch GeForce 9800 GTX on April Fools' Day?

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Mar 19th, 2008 06:23 Discuss (22 Comments)

Rather unexpected and coming from nowhere, NVIDIA has decided to postpone the launch of GeForce 9800 GTX by one week from March 25th to April 1st. Not that it is something we haven't seen before, but it is funny that NVIDIA chooses to launch a flagship product on April Fools' Day. To complete the rumour, no reason was provided for the delay. Although the source is quite reliable, I'd say take this as false alarm till any further details go online. GeForce 9800 GTX will be priced at US$349 when released.

Intel and Microsoft Launch Two Research Centers

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Mar 19th, 2008 05:06 Discuss (0 Comments)

Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp. are partnering with academia to create two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers (UPCRC), aimed at accelerating developments in mainstream parallel computing, for consumers and businesses in desktop and mobile computing. The new research centers will be located at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Microsoft and Intel have committed a combined $20 million to the Berkeley and UIUC research centers over the next five years. An additional $8 million will come from UIUC, and UC Berkeley has applied for $7 million in funds from a state-supported program to match industry grants. Research will focus on advancing parallel programming applications, architecture and operating systems software.

AMD: First Barcelona Systems Set to Ship in April

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Mar 19th, 2008 04:34 Discuss (4 Comments)

The first systems running Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s new quad-core Barcelona chip are expected to hit the market in April, AMD executives said today. Pushing the delayed processor out into the market will give the company a boost in what has been a lagging competition with rival Intel. Kevin Knox, vice president of AMD's commercial business reported that a series of hardware vendors, including Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Dell Inc., will be launching Barcelona-based servers between now and the end of the second quarter. "We're pretty excited about that because it opens us up to a market we hadn't played heavily in before," said Knox, acknowledging that Barcelona is four to six months late because of the Transition Lookaside Buffer (TLB) bug in all Barcelona and Phenom chips. Now after the B3 stepping is finally starting to ship, AMD is gradually starting to place Barcelona chips in major server brands.

MSI P45D3 Platinum Cinco Pipe Motherboard Pictured

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Mar 19th, 2008 04:20 Discuss (21 Comments)

MSI's cooling solution for its upcoming Intel P45-powered motherboard, the P45D3 Platinum, is now out in the open. Set to cool the new mainstream LGA775 chipset the Cinco Pipe is Circu Pipe's successor. The whole cooling system is made out of copper, and features five heatpipes all along the CPU area, northbridge and southbridge. Aside from the chipset cooling, the P45D3 Platinum has four DDR3 slots, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots with support for CrossFire, six SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, integrated HD audio and just about everything you can dream of. The P45D3 Platinum will be released in Q2.

Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 Review

Review Graphics Cards

Today NVIDIA launches their GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU card. It comes with two G92 GPUs and uses a new cooling design where a single cooler sits in the middle and cools both GPUs. We have the card from Zotac on our testbench today which follows the reference design specification. Unlike many other publications all our testing was conducted in Windows XP because we think that's what the majority of users still plays on.

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CeBIT 2008: Corsair Review

Review Tradeshows

Corsair is showing off their 1000W power supply as well as XMP and EMP2 based memory modules. You will also find their newest 32GB Survivor and Voyager USB flash drives as well as an nForce 790 based PC up and running.

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CeBIT 2008: Gainward Review

Review Tradeshows

Gainward is showing off their Bliss series of cards. These include the new range of Golden Sample products using the GeForce 8800 GT and 9600 GT. You will also find a GeForce 9800 GX2 at their booth.

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OCZ Technology Unveils Ultra-Fast 2GHz DDR3 Modules Optimized for nForce 790i

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Mar 18th, 2008 17:41 Discuss (2 Comments)

OCZ Technology Group today unveiled blistering fast PC3-16000 DDR3 modules that are NVIDIA SLI certified to run at extreme 2GHz speeds on the next generation of NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboards also released today. Designed to offer enthusiasts the rock-solid stability and speed they've been demanding since the mainstreaming of DDR3 platforms, the OCZ PC3-16000 SLI-Ready series makes use of the unbeatable overclocking capabilities of the nForce 790i Ultra SLI platform and takes DDR3 to new heights.

EA Signs Agreement with Massive to Offer Dynamic In-Game Advertising on PC and Xbox

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Mar 18th, 2008 17:29 Discuss (22 Comments)

Electronic Arts and Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. and a leading network for video game advertising, today announced an expansion and two-year extension of their agreement to offer dynamic in-game advertising for EA video games. Under the new agreement dynamic ads will be incorporated into a number of titles including the next two editions of EA's Madden NFL football, NBA LIVE basketball, NASCAR racing and NHL hockey. Massive will continue to be the exclusive in-game ad network for the PC and Xbox 360 versions of EA's Need for Speed Carbon and Need for Speed ProStreet. Massive will also try to incorporate dynamic advertising into another popular EA racing title, Burnout Paradise. "EA strongly believes that dynamic in-game advertising is an important growth area for our business, and is one of many opportunities we are pursuing in growing the advertising market," said Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment Label at EA. "We selected Massive because they are the industry leader in this space with a global sales footprint, solid brand recognition and in-depth experience in video game advertising."

Alienware Updates Area-51 with 9800 GX2

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Mar 18th, 2008 16:54 Discuss (6 Comments)

Alienware this afternoon upgraded its Area-51 gaming tower to take advantage of NVIDIA's latest video offerings. The new system uses NVIDIA's just-introduced nForce 790i Ultra SLI mainboard and now has the option of adding a single GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card. These two GPUs on a single card will boost the price by $600. The new system will be available on April 10th.

Lexar Media Debuts Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000MHz Memory for Gamers

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Mar 18th, 2008 16:31 Discuss (9 Comments)

Lexar Media today announced the immediate availability of Crucial Ballistix PC3-16000 (DDR3-2000MHz) high-performance memory modules-some of the world's highest speed-rated DDR3 products to date. Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000MHz memory modules feature Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP) 2.0 and are SLI-Ready certified to work with new motherboards utilizing the new NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI platform. The NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI platform was designed and tested using Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000MHz high-performance memory.

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 Voltage Modifications

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Mar 18th, 2008 16:28 Discuss (8 Comments)

Introduced just a few hours ago, the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 can already be voltmoded thanks to the clever guys at VR-Zone. If you're lucky enough to receive your brand new dual GPU card soon, and the stock clock speeds and voltages are not enough for you, feel free to follow these steps here and voltmod your 9800 GX2.

Corsair Announces High-Speed Memory for NVIDIA 790i Ultra

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Mar 18th, 2008 14:52 Discuss (2 Comments)

Corsair announced today their NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI high-performance DDR3 partner memory offerings, including a record-breaking 2GHz module.

After extensive partnership efforts between NVIDIA and Corsair, the NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI platform was found to exhibit extreme overclocking capabilities with the latest in DDR3 memory architectures. All Corsair SLI-ready partner memory is pre-loaded with EPP2, the latest in memory performance specifications. EPP2 is designed to deliver an automatic memory performance boost for enthusiasts when used with the 790i Ultra SLI platform.

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Available for Download

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Mar 18th, 2008 14:44 Discuss (80 Comments)

The final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is here! Microsoft Corp. posted the final SP1 package of updates today, and it's now available free for everyone.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
32-bit version (434.5 MB) | 64-bit version (726.5 MB)

G.Skill Intros New DDR3 PC 14400 CL7 Modules with Antazone RamMod Cooler

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Mar 18th, 2008 14:30 Discuss (9 Comments)

G.Skill International Enterprise, a worldwide leader in extreme performance and reliability memory announced today the new DDR3-1800 CL7. The DDR3-1800 CL7 is for enthusiasts upgrading to the next generation platforms. The DDR3-1800 HZ Series is available in 2GB dual channel kits to meet the specific needs of gaming systems or high performance workstations.

Acer to Enter Games Market?

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Mar 18th, 2008 14:17 Discuss (14 Comments)

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are the three big names in the console market at the moment, but if a story from German site Gamestar is to be believed, Acer could soon be set to join in the action. Apparently the company's senior vice president, James Wong, cited the proprietary nature of current consoles as the firm's inspiration for creating an open-standard, PC-based "games machine". Unfortunately that's pretty much all Acer has revealed at the moment, and the story remains a rumour, but this could certainly spice-up future console wars a little bit if it's true.

NVIDIA in Acquisition Talks With VIA?

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Mar 18th, 2008 13:45 Discuss (36 Comments)

According to DigiTimes, sources at motherboard manufacturers are reporting that NVIDIA and VIA have held talks regarding a possible merger. Apparently the companies discussed three possible scenarios: a strategic alliance, NVIDIA acquiring just VIA's processor division and NVIDIA acquiring the entire company. However, it looks like no deal has been made yet due to VIA setting too high a price, although negotiations are expected to continue given that VIA is making losses at the moment. VIA has denied these claims, commenting that its main business is still focused on X86 CPUs and chipsets and therefore it is unwilling to give up these segments. It's not so long ago that rumours were circulating that NVIDIA may be planning a bid for AMD, although nothing has come of that story so far.

ASUS Launches Overclocking HD 3870 X2

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Mar 18th, 2008 13:23 Discuss (13 Comments)

Catering to avid users who require exceptionally fast graphical solutions, ASUS has today introduced the overclocking version of the latest generation of AMD dual RV670XT GPUs with the ASUS EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G graphics card. Equipped with the fastest DRR3 0.8ns memory modules, the EAH3870X2 TOP provides peak performance with GPU memory clock boosts of 6%; while both the EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G and EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G utilize specially designed dual fansinks for efficient heat dissipation compared to reference designed single fansink solutions. The EAH3870X2 TOP/G/3DHTI/1G also comes exclusively with two extra DVI outputs for a maximum of four-display video output; as well as the hottest DX10 game: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

Nehalem to Use Similar Cache Structure to Phenom

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Mar 18th, 2008 13:12 Discuss (15 Comments)

It looks like Intel has decided to adopt the same approach as AMD with the cache structure on its upcoming Nehalem processors, opting to go for small per-core L1 and L2 caches, with a large shared L3 cache. The new architecture will feature 64KB L1 cache per-core working in the same way as current Core 2 CPUs, but instead of a shared L2 cache each core will have 256KB of its own. All of the cores will then have access to a shared L3 cache of up to 8MB. AMD's Phenom CPUs work in a very similar manner, such as the 9600, which has 256KB L2 cache per-core and a shared 2MB L3 cache. The exclusive L2 caches give each core a pool of fast-access memory, while the shared cache acts as a buffer to trap data and instructions other cores may have requested, allowing another core to access it more quickly than using the main memory.

BFG Announces 100 Day Graphics Card Trade Up Program

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Mar 18th, 2008 12:49 Discuss (32 Comments)

BFG Technologies announced today the BFG Trade Up program. The program is designed to give customers a one time opportunity to exchange their current BFG graphics card within 100 days of the original date of purchase for a better model and only pay the difference in price, plus applicable taxes.

Palit Launches 1GB GeForce 9600 GT

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Mar 18th, 2008 12:43 Discuss (1 Comment)

Graphics card manufacturer Palit has introduced a new version of its GeForce 9600 GT graphics card featuring 1GB of memory, twice that of the standard model. The 9600 GT 1GB Sonic has a core speed of 700MHz and GDDR3 memory running at 2GHz. The card also comes equipped with HDMI, DisplayPort, Optical SPDIF and two DVI outputs. The card should be available immediately.

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 Launched

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Mar 18th, 2008 12:37 Discuss (11 Comments)

Although there's not yet been an official press release directly from NVIDIA, a number of graphics card manufacturers have today released their GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards. The card itself features two graphics processors with a reference speed of 600MHz core and 2000MHz memory, with 256 stream processors and DirectX 10 support. All cards released so far come equipped with 1GB GDDR3 memory. You can take a look at techPowerUp!'s own Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 review here. Companies that have already released a 9800 GX2 include Zotac, XFX, Point of View, BFG, Club 3D, Leadtek, SPARKLE, Inno3D, EVGA, Albatron, Walton Chaintech and Foxconn.

Apple Releases Safari 3.1

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Mar 18th, 2008 12:20 Discuss (2 Comments)

Apple today introduced Safari 3.1, the world's fastest web browser for Mac and Windows PCs. Safari loads web pages 1.9 times faster than IE 7 and 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari also runs JavaScript up to six times faster than other browsers, and is the first browser to support the latest innovative web standards needed to deliver the next generation of highly interactive Web 2.0 experiences. Safari 3.1 is available immediately as a free download at www.apple.com/safari for both Mac OS X and Windows.

ASUS Launches Smart OC HD 3850

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Mar 18th, 2008 12:15 Discuss (1 Comment)

ASUS, producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today introduced a new way for effective and simple overclocking with the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC/HTDI/1G. This new Smart OC Series will allow users to increase voltages only when needed with the simple push of a button - providing them with up to 12% performance upgrades. The EAH3850 SMART OC also comes with a patent-approved luminant LED DVI output and stylish back sustainer; while the exclusive Glaciator Fansink will keep the GPU 20ºC cooler than reference designed fansinks. On top of all this, the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC incorporates a large onboard memory size of 1GB - designed specifically to provide feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and the best multimedia playback at ultra-high resolutions and maximum quality settings.

OCZ Unveils the New PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860 Watt

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Mar 18th, 2008 11:51 Discuss (0 Comments)

OCZ Technology Group today unveiled the new Turbo-Cool 860 power supply from PC Power & Cooling. Built for absolute stability and reliability, the Turbo-Cool 860 features adjustable rails, ultra-high efficiency, and a lifespan at least twice the industry standard. NVIDIA SLI certified to the highest level, the heavy-duty Turbo-Cool 860 is the ultimate power solution for today's mission-critical and high-end gaming systems.

CeBIT 2008: Inno3D Review

Review Tradeshows

Inno3D is showing off a lot of different G92 based graphic cards as well as a few interesting mainboards. The company also produces internal and external TV tuners, which are also on display

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Epic Games Now on Steam

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Mar 17th, 2008 17:14 Discuss (20 Comments)

Epic Games and Valve, two of the PC industry's leading technology and content development studios, have inked an agreement to bring Epic's award-winning titles to Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world. The Epic hits now available on Steam include Unreal Gold, as well as Unreal II: The Awakening and the Unreal Tournament series of games, including the recently released Unreal Tournament 3, which has shipped over one million copies to date. All of Epic's titles available on Steam are offered in the Unreal Deal Pack, an incredible value for just $59.95. And, to celebrate the launch, all of Epic's games on Steam are available for 10% off their regular price. For more information or to purchase Epic's games via Steam, please visit Steam Games.

Transcend Unveils 2GB DDR2-800 FB-DIMM Modules for Apple Mac Pro

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Mar 17th, 2008 16:27 Discuss (5 Comments)

Transcend Information (Transcend), one of the world's leading memory module manufacturers, is proud to release its latest memory innovation: a 2GB DDR2-800 Fully-Buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) designed specifically for Apple's high-end Mac Pro system. The Mac Pro is based on the powerful Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 platform, and has a total of eight FB-DIMM memory slots, of which only two are used in standard configuration (2 x 1GB FB-DIMMs). Transcend's 2GB FB-DIMM gives Mac Pro users the option to fully populate all eight slots for a total of capacity of 16GB.

Fact Sheet - Intel Corporation's Multicore Architecture Briefing

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Mar 17th, 2008 16:22 Discuss (5 Comments)

Intel Corporation today discussed upcoming leading edge microprocessors and technologies. Intel's 45nm high-k metal gate leading manufacturing technology is enabling the industry to move to multicore processors in all market segments, and Intel discussed future products with four, six, eight and many computing cores coming to the market.

Gigabyte to Start Selling High-End PC Accessories

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Mar 17th, 2008 12:33 Discuss (32 Comments)

Well-known motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte looks set to diversify into the high end PC accessories market later this month, starting with the introduction of its new GK-K800 keyboard. The company will be targeting its products at gamers, and the initial focus will be on strengthening brand awareness. The GK-K8000 should be priced at around $113, and is likely to compete with similar offerings from companies such as Razer and Logitech.

BenQ Launches World’s Slimmest 24-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor

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Mar 17th, 2008 11:41 Discuss (15 Comments)

With the release of its new V2400W premium LCD display, BenQ not only debuts the world's slimmest 24" widescreen LCD monitor, but creates a new lifestyle trend in computer hardware design that targets the sophisticated, stylish consumer. The V2400W, in fact, recently received the internationally-renowned iF Design Award, a prestigious and coveted recognition of outstanding design that is vied for by the world's most elite companies.

InnoDisk Intros 2.5-inch Hi-Speed SATA 10000 128GB SSD

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Mar 17th, 2008 05:43 Discuss (10 Comments)

InnoDisk today released an ultra fast high capacity solid state disk for high end applications - the FiD 2.5-inch SATA 10000. It delivers high-performance sustained read and write rates up to 110 Mbytes/sec and 90 Mbytes/sec, burst read rates up to 300 Mbytes/sec and supports Serial ATA 2.0-3Gbps a standard. With InnoDisk advanced flash management technology, FiD 2.5-inch SATA 10000 offers a random read and write rate of over 9500 and 550 inputs/outs per second (IOPS) for a 512-byte transfer. The FiD 2.5-inch SATA 10000 will be available from Q2 2008 in capacities ranging from 32GB to 128GB. The 128GB costs $3580 while the 32GB model can be yours for as much as $780.

Adobe Flash Lite and Reader LE Licensed by Microsoft

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Mar 17th, 2008 04:35 Discuss (2 Comments)

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced that Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash Lite software, Adobe's award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile devices, to enable web browsing of Flash Player compatible content within the Internet Explorer Mobile browser in future versions of Microsoft Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft has also licensed Adobe Reader LE software for viewing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents including email attachments and web content. Both Adobe products will be made available to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide, who license Windows Mobile software.

Dell UltraSharp 2009W Goes on Sale

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Mar 17th, 2008 04:08 Discuss (9 Comments)

Dell has started selling a new UltraSharp widescreen LCD, the 2009W. Meant to be a 20-inch 16:10 widescreen monitor, the UltraSharp 2009W features 1680x1050 pixels native resolution, 102% color gamut, 2000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and fast 5ms response time. In terms of connectivity, the 2009W has VGA and DVI with HDCP plus four USB 2.0 ports. Available now directly from Dell, the price tag for this new UltraSharp is $289.

Microsoft Announces Acquisition of Rapt

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Mar 17th, 2008 03:42 Discuss (0 Comments)

Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to acquire Rapt Inc., the leading provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers. Rapt's technology, along with its information and advisory services offerings, will become key components of the Atlas Publisher Suite, part of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. With the inclusion of Rapt, the Atlas Publisher Suite allows Microsoft to provide its customers with integrated asset and inventory management, forecasting, yield and sales management, and ad delivery and operations.

Tom Clancy's EndWar Released

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Mar 17th, 2008 03:39 Discuss (33 Comments)

Ubisoft has quietly announced that Tom Clancy's EndWar, a brand new real-time strategy wargame in the Tom Clancy series of video games, is now available in the UK. Developed by Ubisoft's Shanghai studio, Tom Clancy's EndWar is built from the ground up as a revolutionary war playable on PC, PLAYSTATION3, Xbox 360, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. The game takes place in 2020 during the World-War III and offers fully destructible 3D battlefields, massive battles with more than 1000 units, multiplayer game mode and a lot more. You can visit Tom Clancy's EndWar web page for more information.

Prey 2 Details, Concept Art Emerge

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Mar 17th, 2008 03:22 Discuss (6 Comments)

Shacknews was able to confirm that a follow-up of Human Head's first person shooter Prey is in development. A few details were revealed through a website which was removed right after Shacknews discovered the sequel information. The site contained a low-res concept art image and the following sentence:

This time, abandoned and framed for the disappearance of his family, Tommy escapes an Earth that no longer wants him for a future that cannot survive without him

Prey 2 is listed for release on PC and Xbox 360, but no other specifics have been released thus far.

CoolIT Systems Releases NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Series VGA MTEC Coldplate

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Mar 17th, 2008 02:43 Discuss (16 Comments)

CoolIT Systems announced its new NVIDIA VGA MTEC Coldplate. This newest addition to CoolIT's line of MTEC coolers is perfect for PC Enthusiasts who already have a custom liquid cooling system along with NVIDIA's 8800 GTX/Ultra series graphics cards. The MTEC Coldplate is available now from CoolIT Systems.com for $109.99.

PC Enthusiasts can take their cooling setup to the next level by replacing their traditional water blocks with the MTEC Coldplate

said Geoff Lyon, CEO of CoolIT Systems.

The NVIDIA 8800 series is an extreme graphics card that requires extreme cooling performance to reach its full potential. That's what the NVIDIA VGA MTEC Coldplate delivers.

AMD Updates Desktop CPU Launch Schedule

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Mar 17th, 2008 02:37 Discuss (9 Comments)

AMD is planning to launch B3 stepping quad-core Phenom 9050 series CPUs including 9850, 9750, 9650, 9550 and 9150 within the next 1-2 weeks, however the top-end 9850 will only reach a core frequency of 2.5GHz, instead of the original goal of 2.6GHz. The company expects to be able to deliver higher core frequencies in the third quarter this year, according to DigiTimes citing sources at motherboard makers. AMD will later launch triple-core Phenom 8750, 8650 and 8450 CPUs with power consumption of 65W scheduled for April. Prior to that, the company will launch the Athlon 64 X2 5800+ to fill the gap in the mainstream market. For the dual-core CPU market, AMD will launch the Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Black Edition and 4600+ by the end of March and will follow with Phenom-based Athlon 6250 and 6050 CPUs by the end of the second quarter. The company has also informed customers that final orders for Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 6000+ and 5600+ (89W versions) will be taken till the end of March.

Inno3D Launches i-Chill ZEROtherm Hurricane GeForce 9600GT

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Mar 17th, 2008 02:23 Discuss (3 Comments)

Inno3D introduced last week the new i-Chill ZEROtherm Hurricane equipped GeForce 9600GT. Boasting overclocking speeds up to 750MHz/1625MHz/1940MHz core/shader/memory this card utilizes the ZeroTherm HC92 Cu 8800 3-in-1 cooler. Ideal for both active or passive operation, it is made of a large copper heatsink with 4 heat-pipes and 92mm fan. The fan can be removed at any time, making the card virtually silent and 100% passive cooled. If you're not that kind of person, you can always put the supplied fan back on its place and enjoy low temperatures. Other than that the card comes with 3 years warranty, gold plated DVI and TV-out, top A1 solid capacitors, and a free game included in the bundle.

Windows Vista SP1 to Hit Windows Update on Tuesday

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Mar 17th, 2008 02:11 Discuss (11 Comments)

According to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from TechARP.com that correctly called SP1's ship date last month, Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience. Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, said users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs on February 4th, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. Hopefully, next week the long awaited Vista update will become available once and for all.

HIS Launches Two New HD 3850 AGP Cards

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Mar 16th, 2008 18:03 Discuss (21 Comments)

Admittedly HIS isn't the first company to launch an AGP HD 3850 (SAPPHIRE, PowerColor and GECUBE already have, possibly others), but it is refreshing for any users still running an AGP platform to see new cards being released. HIS has introduced two versions of its AGP HD 3850 - a standard version running at reference speeds and an IceQ 3 Turbo version overclocked from 668MHz to 720MHz core frequency and 1656MHz to 1820MHz memory. Both feature 512MB GDDR3 memory and use the AGP 8X interface. The cards come equipped with all the standard HD 3850 features that you would expect, such as DirectX 10.1 support and AVIVO, although pricing is not listed on HIS' website. It's slightly surprising to see AGP models still being released, as you would have thought most people that are likely to upgrade to a card like this would already have a PCI-Express motherboard, but HIS obviously thinks there is still a market for these cards.

BTC Launches Cheetah Gaming Keyboard and Mouse

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Mar 16th, 2008 15:13 Discuss (19 Comments)

Behavior Tech Computer Corp. is introducing the new 9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse kit with high-tech gaming hardware specially designed for PC gamers.

Sleek-Audio SA6 Earphones Review

Review Headphones

Sleek-Audio SA6 is the name of a brand new pair of earphones with customizable performance. The earphones feature both a treble and bass tuning system that allows the user to alter the audio performance according to their needs and preferences. This is not done via electronics as one might expect, but by physically replacing parts of the earphone.

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GTA IV Online Modes Detailed

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Mar 15th, 2008 15:37 Discuss (39 Comments)

Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV is almost certain to become one of the biggest hits of 2008, and now some details about the game's online capabilities have finally been released. According to Spain's official PlayStation magazine, the game will support up to 16 players on one server, offering a choice of 15 different game modes. Each of the modes will be set in the single player maps, with options including deathmatches, races, mafia work, turf wars, cops 'n' crooks, car jack city, bomb da base II and free mode. GTA IV is scheduled for release on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on 29th April, although the online features may vary on each console. As you would expect, options such as weapon selection, police interference and traffic density can all be modified.

ASUS Unveils Desktop Eee PC

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Mar 15th, 2008 15:20 Discuss (30 Comments)

ASUS' Eee PC met with surprising success when it was launched last year, offering users a small, simple and cheap notebook to perform basic tasks such as browsing the internet and creating office documents. The company is now planning to try and build on that success by launching a desktop variant of the Eee PC, currently being called the Digital Home System EP20. Unfortunately there are very few confirmed details - all that's known is that it will be smaller than a typical desktop PC and come equipped with the same Linux operating system as the Eee PC (based on Xandros Linux). The system is also expected to feature one of Intel's new Atom processors, which could allow for both single and dual core versions. ASUS commented that prices should start around $199, although DailyTech speculates that the real figure may be closer to $299.

Manhunt 2 to go on Sale in the UK

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Mar 15th, 2008 14:45 Discuss (12 Comments)

Following months of disputes between Rockstar Games and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the Video Appeals Committee has finally given the go-ahead for Manhunt 2 to go on sale in the UK. The BBFC originally refused to give the game an age rating, essentially preventing it from being sold within the UK, feeling it was too gory for children and 'vulnerable adults'. However, having taken the matter as far as the English High Court, Rockstar has now been given permission to sell the title with an 18 certificate.

EA Launches Hostile Takeover Bid for Take-Two

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Mar 15th, 2008 14:39 Discuss (26 Comments)

Following failed talks with Take-Two's management, games developer Electronic Arts has instead decided to directly approach shareholders with its takeover bid. EA has kept its offer at $26 per share, which would give the deal a total value of around $2 billion. EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, said:

This is a great opportunity for Take-Two shareholders. We believe Take-Two investors will see our tender offer as the best way to maximize the value of their investment in Take-Two. This tender offer provides a clear process to complete the proposed transaction. For EA shareholders, the combination would add additional intellectual properties to our already strong portfolio and welcome Take-Two's talented creative teams to the great development organization we've built at EA.

Take-Two has issued a notice to all of its shareholders urging them not to accept the offer, but EA has set a deadline of 11th April - two weeks before the release of the eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto IV.

ATI Launches New ATI FireMV 2260 Graphics Card

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Mar 14th, 2008 13:28 Discuss (12 Comments)

AMD today announced it is improving the visual experience for financial traders while simultaneously helping to reduce power consumption needs for some of the world's largest financial institutions. The new ATI FireMV 2260 2D workstation and desktop accelerator card enhances "trader density" in financial institutions, where IT managers seek to maximize productivity in every bit of workspace, overcrowded with people and hardware, while improving power consumption and cooling needs.

Intel to Launch its First Quad-core Mobile CPU in 3Q08

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Mar 14th, 2008 02:18 Discuss (20 Comments)

Intel outlined plans to launch its first quad-core CPU for notebooks, the Core 2 Extreme QX9300, in the third quarter of this year with pricing set to US $1038 in thousand-unit tray quantities. While not expected to become standard in performance laptops, the new CPU will have some enviable characteristics. It will be manufactured using the company's advanced 45nm process, and have a core frequency of 2.53GHz (1066MHz FSB). Using a socket P package, the chip will include 12MB L2 cache and maximum TDP of 45W.

Lancool Metal Boned K7 Review

Review Cases

The Lancool brand is created by Lian-Li and combines the flawless, understatement exterior with the sturdy bones of steel. This makes for the name "Metal Boned K7". The case is meant for LAN Parties and offers the same innovations found in the more expensive Lian-Li branded cases.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky DirectX 10 Screenshots

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Mar 13th, 2008 15:27 Discuss (52 Comments)

DirectX 10 games have never looked so good. PCGH posted today a story showing the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky DirectX 10 screenshots, and an exclusive 4:31 minutes long in-game footage from CeBIT 2008. The game is running on Windows Vista and video cards from NVIDIA's 9 series, probably GeForce 9800 GX2. If you ask me, this game puts Crysis to shame, and most important it runs smooth!

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Priced

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Mar 13th, 2008 15:05 Discuss (47 Comments)

According to NordicHardware, several leaked slides have revealed the price of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX card to be $349 (one even said $299-$349, but the higher value seems much more likely). The card should go on sale on March 25th, and the reference specifications have a G92-420 core running at 675MHz with 512MB of GDDR3 memory at 2000MHz.

Windows 7 Confirmed for 2010

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Mar 13th, 2008 14:48 Discuss (66 Comments)

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is on track for release in 2010. During its internal "MGX" global sales meeting this week, Microsoft witnessed that the code name for Vista's successor is "Windows 7" and the project is due to see light in approximately three years.

We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release

a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email. Outside of the confirmation quoted above, Microsoft did not comment more on Windows 7.

Sony Releases PS3 2.17 Firmware Update

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Mar 13th, 2008 14:15 Discuss (4 Comments)

Sony has updated the PS3's firmware taking it to version 2.17. Unfortunately there are very few improvements with this update - under the main features in this version Sony lists only "The operating stability of some PLAYSTATION 3 format software has been improved." The simplest way to update the firmware is via the PS3's system menu.

AMD Processors to Receive Price Cuts?

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Mar 13th, 2008 13:22 Discuss (12 Comments)

An unofficial source is claiming that AMD plans to reduce the prices of its current processors in early April, which could suggest that new models are on the way. According to the information, prices on just about all Phenom and Athlon 64 X2 CPUs will fall, along with the company's low power Athlon 64 processors and budget Sempron processors. If this is true, that would hint at an April launch for AMD's upcoming Phenom 9550, 9650 and 9750 CPUs. No information about how much we can expect prices to drop by has been released, but the introduction of new Phenom models should help AMD compete better with Intel's Core 2 Quad range.

Corsair Announces World's First High-Performance Mac Memory Upgrade Modules

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Mar 13th, 2008 12:51 Discuss (7 Comments)

Corsair announced today the world's first high performance memory modules made especially for the Mac. The new Corsair memory modules are the industry's first low latency modules specifically tuned for the new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop computers.

Atari Joins Steam

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Mar 13th, 2008 12:43 Discuss (7 Comments)

Valve has revealed that Atari has become the latest big name addition to the list of publishers distributing their games via Steam, with a number of well known titles going on sale. Nine games are now available for download; Act of War: Direct Action, Act of War: High Treason, ArmA: Combat Operations, Atari 80 Classics in 1, Death to Spies, Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge, Indigo Prophecy, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum and Tycoon City: New York. Two more major titles from Atari which will go on sale in the coming weeks are The Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2. Nizzi Renaud, Atari's Vice President of Online Entertainment, said:

Atari is excited to team up with Steam and deliver great games through a digital platform that our fans have asked for. We look forward to making an extensive collection of games, across many genres, available to Steam's extensive, globally-connected community.

Apple Sued Over iTunes Technology

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Mar 13th, 2008 09:09 Discuss (18 Comments)

Apple Inc. was sued Wednesday over allegations its iTunes online music store and iPod music players are illegally using a patented method for distributing digital media over the Internet. Atlanta-based ZapMedia Services Inc. sued Apple in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the Cupertino-based company of violating two ZapMedia patents. ZapMedia wants royalties on Apple's sales of iPods and iTunes music, which reached nearly $11 billion last year. The success of iTunes has helped make Apple the No. 2 music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to market researcher NPD Group. The patents in question cover a way of sending music and other digital content from servers to multiple media players, a broad description that could also apply to a wide swath of other companies selling digital media and the devices to play it. ZapMedia applied for the patents in 1999. One was granted in March 2006, the other on Tuesday. ZapMedia said it met with Apple to discuss licensing, but Apple rebuffed the offer. "When someone takes our vision and our intellectual property without a license after several attempts, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us," Robert Frohwein, ZapMedia's general counsel, said in a statement.

Intel X48 Shipping This Week

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Mar 13th, 2008 09:03 Discuss (10 Comments)

Although Intel has not yet officially announced its high-end X48 chipset, some first-tier motherboard makers started shipping boards in small volumes a few days ago, DigiTime reports. The report claims that both ASUSTeK Computer and GIGABYTE Technology have already started shipping their motherboards, and wide product availability is expected for this week. Manufacturers like MSI and DFI will follow soon.

Acer Presents the Aspire 6920 series Gemstone Blue

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Mar 13th, 2008 03:01 Discuss (5 Comments)

Acer, the third largest vendor in the global PC market, today presented the Aspire 6920 line, a brand new notebook PC series designed to bring the enjoyment of High Definition (HD) anywhere you go.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Patch 1.006 Released

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Mar 13th, 2008 02:49 Discuss (12 Comments)

New patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, updating the game to version 1.006 is now available. Weighing in at just a few megs, the update offers multiplayer fixes and a new anti-cheat system.

DOWNLOAD: US Release | Non-US Release

OCZ Introduces 32GB and 64GB High-Speed SATAII Solid State Drives

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Mar 13th, 2008 02:39 Discuss (28 Comments)

OCZ Technology today unveiled ultra-fast OCZ SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drives, a lightweight and efficient alternative to conventional hard disc drives. The OCZ SATA II drive is designed to stay abreast of the performance features of high-end notebooks, and is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing. With blazing access times combined with excellent reliability, the OCZ SATA II 2.5" SSD is the answer for enthusiasts demanding the most advanced storage for their notebooks and systems.

Sapphire HD 3870 Toxic Review

Review Graphics Cards

Sapphire's new HD 3870 Toxic is built on the same Vapor-X cooling technology that the HD 3870 Atomic uses. This means that the card comes with a single slot cooling solution making it a premier choice for Quad CrossFire systems. The accessory package also includes an HDMI cable, PowerDVD and a 3DMark license, not bad for a $40 premium.

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CeBIT 2008: Apevia Review

Review Tradeshows

Apevia is showing off their present cases in new colors, as well as their newest X-QOII and X-Supra series. You will also find their multi color LED fan Warlock PSUs with up to 1100W at their booth.

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CeBIT 2008: Lexar & Crucial Review

Review Tradeshows

Lexar & Crucial do not have a booth at CeBIT, but we got the chance to meet up with them and take a look at some of their products.

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CeBIT 2008: Nanya & Elixir Review

Review Tradeshows

Nanya & Elixir are also present at CeBIT, with a small booth, showcasing a few of their memory products. This ranges from JEDEC DDR2 and DDR3 DIMMs over FB-DIMMs to DDR3 SODIMMs.

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TUL and AMD Announce the Ultimate Digital TV Experience for European PCs

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Darksaber

Mar 12th, 2008 17:53 Discuss (11 Comments)

TUL Corporation - a leading manufacturer of AMD Multimedia cards today has announced the new ATI TV Wonder 600 Hybrid PCI Express and TV Wonder 650 Hybrid PCI enabling the ultimate digital TV experience for European PC owners. Available through TUL(PowerColor brand) across Europe , ATI TV Wonder provides customers with an exceptional digital video recorder for their PC. The TV Wonder family of products is AMD LIVE! Ready and Certified for Microsoft Windows Vista - delivering The Ultimate Visual Experience and strengthening the value of multimedia PCs.

GeForce 9800 GX2 Goes on Sale

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Mar 12th, 2008 16:45 Discuss (85 Comments)

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card is now available to pre-order from shopblt.com, for a price of $598.41. Although the release date is still unconfirmed, the site has an estimated time of arrival as 03-22-2008, which could well be the official launch day. The actual card being listed is from PNY Technologies, although no extra details are given.

Microsoft Downplays Blu-ray for Xbox 360

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Mar 12th, 2008 16:36 Discuss (14 Comments)

Microsoft has commented that there are still no plans in place to introduce a Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360, despite comments by Stan Glasgow which seemed to hint that such an add-on could be on the way. A spokesperson for the company said:

There are no plans to introduce Blu-ray. In response to Stan Glasgow's statement that Blu-ray is a possibility for Xbox 360, we have made no such announcement. Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.

So Xbox 360 owners could find themselves without the ability to watch new HD movies in the coming months as film producers stop selling HD DVDs.

Alienware Area 51 m15x Hit by Overheating and Cracking Issues?

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Mar 12th, 2008 13:50 Discuss (25 Comments)

Members of the NotebookReview.com forums alarmed yesterday that some of Alienware's high-end Area 51 m15x laptops might be affected by overheating and cracking issues. While some reported strange overheating issues during operation, others can't seem to find the right words and describe why their new laptops are starting to crack? Alienware replied that it is aware of the problems and is trying to collaborate with owners. The manufacturer also reported that once the issues are isolated, their customer service technicians will immediately help owners of the damaged laptops. Until then, follow these two threads here and here.

Samsung Introduces New Series of High-End Desktop Displays

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Mar 12th, 2008 13:09 Discuss (2 Comments)

Samsung Electronics America announced today at the spring Press and Reseller Summit in New York City its newest models of high-end contemporary monitors, the SyncMaster 953BW, 2053BW, 2253LW, and 2253BW. Delivering industry-leading performance to design-conscious markets, these full-featured, ultra-sleek monitors advance Samsung's signature style with a unique "crystal" edge, piano-black glossy finish and uncluttered minimalist design.

iPhone SDK Downloads Top 100,000

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Mar 12th, 2008 13:03 Discuss (7 Comments)

Apple today announced that more than 100,000 iPhone developers have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in the first four days since its launch on March 6. The iPhone SDK provides developers with the same rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools that Apple uses to create its native applications for iPhone and iPod touch. "Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone."

Lenovo Goes Gold Green With New Line of LCD Monitors

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Mar 12th, 2008 03:20 Discuss (2 Comments)

Lenovo today announced that nine ThinkVision monitors are now EPEAT Gold qualified, making Lenovo the only computer manufacturer to offer such a distinction. EPEAT, or "Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool," is one of the most highly sought environmental designations in the tech industry. EPEAT's "Gold" designation means that the manufacturer has risen to the organization's highest plateau of environmentally responsible efforts, achieving 23 "must have" criteria involving eliminating environmentally harmful material, product longevity, energy conservation, performance and more; and 75 percent of various optional criteria such as having batteries that are free of lead and low levels of mercury in light sources. The new Lenovo monitors designated EPEAT Gold qualified are: ThinkVision L151, L171, L171P, L194 Wide, L190X, L220X Wide, L174 and L197 Wide. Additionally, the ThinkVision L174 and L197 Wide introduced new technology to reduce power consumption. Lenovo engineers were able to accomplish this by reducing the number of bulbs used in the system from four to two, while adding new brightness enhancement films to ensure greater operating performance. The L174 is priced at $239.99 while the L197 Wide is priced at $259.99. Both monitors will be available on a rolling schedule April 18th through May 9th, depending on the country.

OCZ Introduces Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler

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Mar 12th, 2008 02:34 Discuss (15 Comments)

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the OCZ Vendetta 2, an efficient new CPU cooler with a powerful 120mm fan design for maximum performance. Utilizing a distinctive stacked fin design and trend-setting heat-pipe direct touch (HDT) design combined with a large low-noise fan, the Vendetta 2 is built to solve the cooling challenges of today's most powerful processors.

Blastflow Launches Water Cooling for Skulltrail

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Mar 12th, 2008 02:28 Discuss (2 Comments)

Blastflow, a subsidiary of British boutique PC manufacturer Vadim Computers, just announced its latest product, the Blastflow Tidal Skulltrail SB Block: If you are worried about the heat produced by your sparkling new Skulltrail PC system, this copper cooler for the Southbridge and SLI bridges might be the solution. The new Tidal Skulltrail SB Block is manufactured using a combination of polished copper and transparent acrylic top, which provides enough cooling power for the two NVIDIA nForce 100 chips and the single ESB2 Southbridge. The watercooler weighs about 314 grams and uses standard 1/4" bsp thread connections. Pricing of the Tidal Skulltrail SB Block has not been announced.

Take-Two Forms New Release Dates, Announces Bioshock 2 is in the Works

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Mar 12th, 2008 02:05 Discuss (5 Comments)

Take-Two Interactive today clarified a number of release dates for its upcoming titles, and officially confirmed that a sequel to 2K Boston and 2K Australia's underwater shooter BioShock will arrive during the company's fiscal fourth quarter in 2009. The publisher revealed that Gearbox Software's Borderlands (PC, PS3, X360) and 2K Czech's Mafia II (PC, PS3, X360) are positioned for release sometime in Take-Two's 2009 fiscal year, which runs from November 1, 2008 through October 31, 2009. Additionally, Rockstar San Diego's Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3, X360) was confirmed for release in the company's FY2008 fourth quarter, pinning the title's release window between August 1 and October 31, 2008. Back to BioShock 2, the game is under development by the Novato, California-based studio 2K Marin. The new development house is rumored to consist of several former 2K Boston and 2K Australia employees. The publisher also announced that BioShock creator Ken Levine will be involved in the development of the sequel, though his role on the project was not specified.

VVIKOO GeForce 8800 GT Max 1024 MB Review

Review Graphics Cards

Even though the GeForce 8800 GT has already been out for a while, it still has the punch to play all the latest games. The VVIKOO 8800 GT Max 1 GB comes with the Zalman VF1000 pre-installed and also features double the video memory. But is there any performance to be gained by going from 512 MB to 1024 MB of memory?

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XFX Cuts 8800 and 9600 Prices

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Mar 11th, 2008 15:42 Discuss (25 Comments)

XFX, one of the main NVIDIA GeForce graphics card manufacturers, has decided to try and outsell rivals by cutting prices on its 8800 GT, 8800 GS and 9600 GT cards. All three standard versions of the cards will now be $30 cheaper thanks to mail-in rebates being offered by online retailers such as Newegg and TigerDirect. This means that the 512MB 8800 GT will now sell for $189 including a copy of Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, the 384MB 8800 GS will now cost $119.99 and the 9600 GT has a new price tag of $149. The overclocked versions of the 8800 GS and 9600 GT are also seeing price drops of $30 and $20 respectively, which means they will now be sold for $139.99 and $179.

Internet Explorer 5.5 Beats IE 6 and 7 in Web Standards Test

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Mar 11th, 2008 14:39 Discuss (77 Comments)

Some readers may already be familiar with the Web Standards Project, which claims it "fights for standards that reduce the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any site published on the Web." The Acid Tests provided by the project are commonly used as a benchmark to see how compatible different browsers are, and Internet Explorer has found itself on the end of much criticism when it comes to this, being beaten by nearly all competing browsers such as Opera, Firefox, Safari and Konqueror. However, in the recently launched Acid Test 3, the ancient Internet Explorer 5.5 manages to outscore both IE 6 and 7, reaching a still rather miserable 14% compared to 12% for the other two. Meanwhile, Konqueror leads the pack with 62%, with Firefox in fourth on 52% and Opera a little way down the table at 46%, ahead of Safari on 39%. In terms of beta browsers, Safari is well out in front on 90%, and IE 8 trails at the bottom on 17%.

Microsoft Intros Aero-styled Keyboards

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Mar 11th, 2008 13:26 Discuss (4 Comments)

Microsoft today hoped to translate the visuals of Windows Vista into a new pair of keyboard and mouse sets. Though they work with most USB-equipped computers, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 and the wired Digital Media Keyboard 3000 are styled after the Aero Glass interface found in Microsoft's own operating system and incorporate shortcuts designed for the platform. The 7000 includes shortcut keys for Favorites in Vista on the ergonomic keyboard itself along with a Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 that has a button usable for task switching through Flip 3D (also reusable in other operating systems). The Digital Media Keyboard 3000 also has media keys, image zoom, and a Flip 3D switcher along the edges. The premium Wireless Laser Desktop ships first in April for $130 and will be followed by the Digital Media Keyboard in June for $30.

AU Optronics Announces the World’s First 16:9 Full HD 24-inch LCD Desktop Monitor

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Mar 11th, 2008 12:59 Discuss (8 Comments)

AU Optronics today announced the world's first 16:9 Full HD TFT-LCD with 1920x1080 resolution for desktop monitor. The 16:9 wide format 24-inch LCD display is perfect for both desktop computers and full HD 1080p capable TVs.

Microsoft Promises to Fix the Windows Home Server Corruption Issue in June

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Mar 11th, 2008 12:42 Discuss (2 Comments)

Microsoft today reported progress on the corruption issue with the Windows Home Server-based computers that have more than one hard drive. First reported in December 2007, an update to the KB article was posted today that provides more information regarding symptoms, cause, status and guidance. You can read the KB here. The Windows Home Server team plans to release beta test versions of a fix over the next few months. The final version of the patch is currently estimated for June 2008, although that date could change as testing progresses.

Sun and Microsoft Expand Investment in Interoperability With New Center in Redmond

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Mar 11th, 2008 12:17 Discuss (2 Comments)

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced two new milestones in their ongoing alliance: the official opening of the Sun/Microsoft Interoperability Center on Microsoft's Redmond campus for optimizing Microsoft applications on Sun Fire x64 server systems storage, and the availability of the Sun Infrastructure Solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. More information on the Sun Infrastructure Solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is available here.

ASUS Intros Vento A1 Series PC Cases

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Mar 11th, 2008 06:41 Discuss (30 Comments)

ASUS, producer of high quality chassis and components, has today released the new ASUS VENTO A1 series gaming chassis. This aluminum chassis incorporates an exquisitely handcrafted design, and features exceptional ventilation for performance and stability, hassle-free installation and optimized scalability - making it the gamer and power user's number one choice.

Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4 Released

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Mar 11th, 2008 06:35 Discuss (6 Comments)

Mozilla has released the 4th public beta version of Firefox 3. Here are a few of the updates packed into Firefox 3 beta 4:

Full page zoom - Up until now, Firefox would let you make text larger or smaller, but there was no way to increase or decrease the size of all the content on a web site (something you've been able to do with Opera for years). Now you can choose whether the zoom feature works for text or full pages.
New download manager - The new download manager shows active time remaining, and the status of downloads. You can also search your downloads and see the site where your downloaded files are from.
Improved OS integration - Firefox 3 beta 4 includes specific icons and themes for Windows Vista, OS X, and Linux (using the native GTK theme).
Improved memory usage

Firefox 3 beta 4 also includes a ton of other tweaks and bug fixes described in the release notes.

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Intel Set to Take Leap in SSD Drives

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Mar 11th, 2008 06:28 Discuss (12 Comments)

Intel announced plans to enter the SSD market this year with vigour, eliminating the competition in the eyes of makers like Samsung, Toshiba, and SanDisk. At the moment, Intel offers small-capacity chip-level technology that provides end-product sizes ranging up to 16GB. But this modest line of products is about to get a big boost in the second quarter of this year when Intel will start offering 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs ranging from 80GB to 160GB in capacity, according to Troy Winslow, marketing manager for the NAND Products Group at Intel. Currently, the fastest SSDs from companies like Samsung approach 100MB/second for reading data. "What I can tell you is ours is much better than that," Winslow said. "We will be supplementing our product line with a SATA [SATA 3 Gb/s] offering," he also pointed. Unfortunately, with this all details revealed end. The full story can be found here.

Imation SSD Products Powered by Mtron Now Available

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Mar 11th, 2008 05:59 Discuss (2 Comments)

Imation Corp., a worldwide leader in removable data storage, today announced the availability of its Solid State Drive (SSD) solutions. Imation brings its global marketing, distribution and technical service expertise to its solid state drives that are powered by Mtron, a technology powerhouse in SSD solutions. Imation's SSD portfolio includes the MOBI 3000 Series for high performance end users, and the PRO 7000 Series, ideal for enterprise, corporate and IT infrastructure applications with extreme performance needs. The products use industry-leading solid state storage and controller technology to accelerate the performance of high availability enterprise applications.

Art. Lebedev Studio Working on New Optimus mini Model

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Mar 11th, 2008 05:51 Discuss (0 Comments)

Art. Lebedev Studio, creator of the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard, informed that it has started working on a completely new design of Optimus mini, their first portable OLED keyboard with three keys. The new mini 3.0 will feature one small sensor display divided into three (maybe more) zones. It may also have wireless capabilities, but don't count on that for now since it's writen in the wish list. Pictures of the new project will be available soon. Meanwhile you can read our review of the old Optimus mini.

Price of OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator Confirmed: $159

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Mar 11th, 2008 05:18 Discuss (22 Comments)

TG Daily has learned that the price of OCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) will be well below the predicted $299 price tag. Ryan Petersen, co-founder and CEO of OCZ Technology confirmed that the suggested retail price of the NIA will be $159. "We want people to buy the thing, not to just look at it and think that they cannot afford it," he said. "We don't care about making money off it, we care about making people love it," Petersen also added. OCZ officially announced the Neural Impulse Actuator on March 3, 2008. Mass production of the mind-controlled gaming device is set so start soon after the already finished CeBIT 2008.

CeBIT 2008: Girls Review

Review Booth Babes

After an exhausting six days at CeBIT 2008 we bring you pictures of the hot booth babes and all other pretty girls that were working there. By popular request we have added ultra high-res versions for all 231 pictures.

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CeBIT 2008: EVGA Review

Review Tradeshows

EVGA is showing off a lot of different high-end NVIDIA parts. This includes the 790i board and two versions of the GeForce 9800 GX2. Other nice highlights are the foldable EVGA display and external USB graphic card.

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CeBIT 2008: Cyber E Sport Review

Review Tradeshows

Flexi Glow is now called Cyber E Sport. They encompass four product lines. Cyber Snipa, Siren, Gamepwr and Orbita. They are presenting products of all four brands at their booth.

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ZOTAC Extends its Warranty to 5 Years

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Mar 10th, 2008 16:39 Discuss (7 Comments)

Hong Kong VGA and mainboard manufacturer ZOTAC recently informed that it has extended the warranty on all its graphics cards and motherboards from two to five years. All users who have purchased ZOTAC product, will need to register here 14 days after the purchase date. This will extend their warranty from 2 years up to 5 years (3 years in China). After the 2 years regular warranty, ZOTAC will directly offer the warranty to the customer.

Intel Mobile Processors Pricing Unveiled

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Mar 10th, 2008 15:33 Discuss (11 Comments)

The first quad-core mobile part, the Core 2 Extreme QX9300 for Montevina Platform will come along in Q3 for $1038. Intel has also added two new Celeron processors for the Montevina Value Platform: Celeron 585 and 575 based on the older 65nm Merom core. Lastly, the Atom N270 (1.66GHz/533FSB) for Basic Notebook Platform will arrive in Q2 for S$44.

AMD Reveals New Griffin Mobile Processors

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Mar 10th, 2008 15:22 Discuss (7 Comments)

ComputerBase has revealed AMD's notebook processor roadmap for 2008, which list four "Griffin"-based chips. "Griffin" CPUs are part of the upcomnig "Puma" notebook platform. The roadmap shows AMD Turion 64 Ultra and AMD Turion 64 dual-core models, with 2MB and 1MB of L2 cache respectively. Both CPUs support DDR2 800MHz memory and have clock speeds ranging from 2GHz to 2.4GHz. Their power consumption ranges between 32 Watts and 35 Watts. There is also a single core Athon 64 chip with 1MB of L2 cache, DDR2 667MHz support, clock speeds starting from 1.9GHz, and a power consumption of 31 Watt. AMD also lists a range of "Sable" Sempron single-core chips with 512KB of L2 cache, 25W power consumption, and clock speeds starting from 2GHz. Codename "Sable" stands for the lower-end "Griffin" CPUs. Along with the new CPUs, "Puma" will deliver the RS780 mobile chipset with the DirectX 10 ready HD3200 integrated graphics and the Unified Video Decoder (UVD). In addition, the RS780 includes PowerXpress technology for dynamic switching between integrated and discrete graphics to extend battery life, as well as PCI Express 2.0 and HyperTransport 3.0 technologies. AMD has announced that the "Puma"/"Griffin"-powered laptops will start shipping at the end of the second quarter of 2008.

IBM and Hitachi Form Research Collaboration to Study Chip Characteristics

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Mar 10th, 2008 14:12 Discuss (1 Comment)

International Business Machines Corporation and Hitachi today announced that they have signed a unique, two-year joint semiconductor metrology research agreement in order to speed the pace of semiconductor innovation. The agreement marks the first time Hitachi and IBM have collaborated on semiconductor technology - the two companies currently work together on enterprise servers and other products.

MSI Wind Laptop: Another Eee PC Competitor?

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Mar 10th, 2008 14:00 Discuss (8 Comments)

It seems just about every company wants to jump on the subnotebook bandwagon nowadays, with MSI being the most recent addition to the list. The Wind Laptop will feature a 10" display, an Intel Shelton CPU with speeds ranging from 1.0GHz to 1.6GHz, a 2.5" HDD or SSD, 1GB RAM and a seven hour battery life, with either Linux or Windows as an OS. There is no information about when this is likely to become available, but prices are expected to be between €299 ($458) and €699 ($1072) depending on which model you go for.

RivaTuner 2.08 Released

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Mar 10th, 2008 13:51 Discuss (1 Comment)

Just one week after the last version was released, Guru3D has updated RivaTuner to version 2.08 which you can download from here. The changes are as follows:

Minor bugfixes:

RivaTuner no longer crashes when RivaTuner module activation launcher item is scheduled to run at Windows startup.
Fixed association between low-level refresh overrider rules and target display adapter, broken due to low-level profiles association related changes in the previous version.
Minor UI and localization fixes.

Early Intel Nehalem Performance Projections Leaked

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Mar 10th, 2008 13:14 Discuss (15 Comments)

A leaked PDF from Sun Microsystems' website (which has now been removed) suggests that Intel could have something quite impressive up its sleeve with its upcoming Nehalem processor. The processor was already rumoured to feature three channels of DDR3 memory per core compared to two channels of DDR2 per core on AMD's Barcelona and upcoming Shanghai CPUs, and it seems that could give the Nehalem quite a performance boost. Extrapolated figures from ZDNet based on data in the slide are shown in the graph below, and as you can see, the Nehalem on average scores twice as highly as a 2.3GHz Barcelona and almost 40% better than a 2.8GHz Shanghai in SPEC CPU tests. As always with benchmarks on unreleased hardware it's important to remember that the data may not be accurate and synthetic benchmarks don't always reflect real-world performance, but if these are at all reliable then Intel's next generation of processors could be a huge leap forward.

Microsoft Lowers Estimated Retail Price of Xbox 360 in Europe

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Mar 10th, 2008 12:56 Discuss (5 Comments)

Microsoft today announced it is lowering the estimated retail price (ERP) for its Xbox 360 family of consoles in Europe. Now with an entry-level ERP of €199.99/£159.99, Xbox 360 is a mass market entertainment proposition with something to offer for every interest and budget. From Friday, 14th March, Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will have an ERP of €269.99/£199.99 - a saving of €80/£50 on the current ERP. The Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a massive 120GB hard drive enabling consumers to store huge quantities of content downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace as well as their own music, will have an ERP of €369.99/£259.99 - a saving of €80/£40. The Xbox 360 Arcade console, perfect for those wishing to make their first foray into the gaming and entertainment world of Xbox, will have an ERP of €199.99/£159.99 - a saving of €80/£20. The new ERPs are part of Microsoft's ongoing strategy to make the console affordable for even wider audience of potential buyers.

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen Talks About Eee PC 900

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Mar 10th, 2008 03:12 Discuss (5 Comments)

Laptop Magazine scored an hour-long interview with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, and while most of the details they got out of him were already unveiled at CeBIT this week, they did manage to squeeze some new info about the future Eee PC 900:

The US pricing for the Eee PC 900 will be around $499 at launch, with plans to drop the price within a few months
While initial reports have suggested that the Windows XP model will sport a 8GB of flash memory and the Linux version will have 12GB, Shen says the Linux model might have as much as 20GB of storage
ASUS is looking into offering a hard drive option, but any units the company releases between now and June will have SSD only
ASUS is not abandoning its custom Xandros operating system
Units with built-in WiMax and HSDPA could be released in Q3 2008
Future models could use Intel's Diamondville processor
More color options are coming in a few months

Microsoft Replacing the 20GB Xbox 360 With a 60GB Version ?

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Mar 9th, 2008 13:42 Discuss (18 Comments)

A new rumor that the 20GB version of Xbox 360 will be replaced by a 60GB HDD model is spreading around the net. TrustedReviews citing "rock solid source" claims that Microsoft will probably launch the new gaming system sometime in Q2 2008, unfortunately there's not a sign of any price or proof that this is true. The link to the full story is placed as news source, but there you won't find anything more than what I just said.

Circuit City and Future Shop Allowing HD DVD Trade-In

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Mar 9th, 2008 06:59 Discuss (10 Comments)

Circuit City and Canadian retailer Future Shop are both running schemes which will allow owners of HD DVD hardware to trade-in their current players to receive a discount on Blu-ray hardware. An internal memo from Circuit City states:

We do not want to upset our valued customers. For this special circumstance, we are happy to offer an exchange for a Blu-ray player (customer pays any difference in purchase price) - even if it has been several months since the customer made their HD DVD player purchase. If the customer does not want a Blu-ray player, we can issue a gift card refund for their original purchase price. For products purchased in the last 30 days, handle as usual.

Meanwhile, Future Shop is allowing customers to return their HD DVD players between 7th March and 3rd April to receive a $100 discount off either an LG or Samsung Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player - even if their HD DVD player was purchased at another store. However, HD DVD movies are not eligible for a refund or trade-in at either store.

Intel Yorkfield Processors Next Week?

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Mar 9th, 2008 06:42 Discuss (82 Comments)

Following delays due to issues with the processor system bus on Intel's Yorkfield processors, it looks like the 45nm quad-core chips may finally go on sale sometime during the next few days. Industry sources are claiming that the processors have now gone into mass production, meaning the 45nm Core 2 Quad Q9300, Q9450 and Q9550 should be available from next week. The Q9550 and Q9450 will run at 2.83GHz and 2.66GHz respectively, with a 1333MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache. The Q9300 will run at 2.5GHz with an L2 cache of 6MB. Intel's official prices for the Q9550, Q9450 and Q9300 are $530, $316 and $266 respectively. The 45nm manufacturing process should allow the chips to run cooler and potentially allow more headroom for overclocking.

ECS Planning Eee PC Competitor

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Mar 9th, 2008 06:29 Discuss (13 Comments)

Not wanting to miss out on its chance to share ASUS's surprising success, ECS is now planning an 11" competitor to the Eee PC. The G10IL will be a sub $500 notebook with three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, a VGA connection and built in HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access). So far no other hard specs such as processor speed or memory have been given, but WiFi and Bluetooth are both quite likely. Like the Eee PC there will be no built-in optical drive.

DirectX March Update Released

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Mar 9th, 2008 06:11 Discuss (25 Comments)

Microsoft has released a new update for DirectX, which is recommended for all users of Windows 2000 and newer (including Vista and Server editions). You can download the web installer here (validation required), or the 69.5MB redistributable version here. There doesn't seem to be any information about the changes in this version, although they are most likely to be minor performance and security updates.

NVIDIA ForceWare Beta 169.44 Released

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Mar 9th, 2008 06:03 Discuss (4 Comments)

NVIDIA has updated its beta ForceWare driver to version 169.44, which supports just about all GeForce 6, 7 and 8 series graphics cards, although the 9600 GT is not listed as being supported. This driver is intended for use with the recently released Crysis 1.2 patch, and the download locations are as follows:

Windows XP 32-bit - here
Windows XP 64-bit - here
Windows Vista 32-bit - here
Windows Vista 64-bit - here

ASUS Showcases Bamboo Products at CeBIT 2008

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Mar 8th, 2008 13:57 Discuss (23 Comments)

The huge numbers of visitors present at ASUS' booth during CeBIT 2008 were treated to a dazzling display of innovative technology that included the ever-popular Eee PC, the ASUS-Lamborghini PDA handphone, and the exclusive EPU energy saving technology in the motherboard range. In addition to these new product lineups, ASUS has also included new concept products at this year's CeBIT 2008 exhibition. A leading company in the new digital era, ASUS has brought forth a new concept line that focuses on alternative material design aimed at helping save the earth. ASUS is committed to green computing, and this new lineup of concept products serves to keep users in touch with the future of environmentally friendly technology.

CeBIT 2008: mCubed Review

Review Tradeshows

mCubed is well known for its unique HTPC cases which feature large heatsinks on the outside. Their newest products, like the updated HFX micro and a storage box and amplifier for the micro series.

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CeBIT 2008: Revoltec Review

Review Tradeshows

Revoltec is showing off a number of accessories for gamers: mice, gaming surfaces, headphones and notebook coolers.

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CeBIT 2008: Cooler Master Review

Review Tradeshows

Cooler Master has their Cosmos S case on display as well as a number of beautiful hand airbrushed cases. Also two new PSU series have been announced, with one being for the enthusiast and the other one for quiet PCs.

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Powercolor HD 3650 Xtreme 512 MB Review

Review Graphics Cards

AMD's new HD 3650 is basically an improved version of the 2600 XT without any major technological advances other than a smaller die size resulting in cheaper cards. PowerColor's HD 3650 Extreme comes equipped with 512 MB of fast GDDR3 memory and runs at higher clocks than the AMD reference design.

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Valve to Split The Orange Box on April 9th

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Mar 7th, 2008 12:20 Discuss (9 Comments)

Valve has confirmed to Joystiq that The Orange Box -Valve's acclaimed compilation containing Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - will be split into separate PC titles on April 9th. Valve has yet to officially announce pricing details, but retailers currently list Portal at $19.99 and the other two packages at $29.99 each. Expect more details soon.

ASRock Announces Penryn1600SLIX3

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Mar 7th, 2008 11:16 Discuss (29 Comments)

Built explicitly for PC enthusiasts, NVIDIA 680i SLI Chipset is the right one for them. ASRock proudly announced its NVIDIA 680i SLI motherboard to you today with ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi! Why did I say proudly announce? The reason is simple. ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi is the worldwide only 680i SLI MB that supports Intel Penryn Quad Core Yorkfield CPU & 3-Way SLI. ASRock once again proved its creativity, cost-effectiveness and considerate. There is a wide range of CPU selection for this motherboard, from the mainstream Core 2 Duo E6550 CPU, Q9300, Q9400 CPU to the high-end QX9770 CPU.

OCZ Cryo-Z Phase Change Cooler Tested

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Mar 7th, 2008 04:06 Discuss (28 Comments)

Usually that's not the right place for posting reviews, but this one deserves special attention. The crew at TweakTown has obtained a final sample of OCZ's Cryo-Z value phase change cooler. First introduced back in January at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, Cryo-Z is still unavailable for the mass. Let's hope that's about to change now, since this story shows the sub-500$ cooler in all its glory. Read the full test here.

Sony and Microsoft Discuss Blu-ray for Xbox 360

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Mar 7th, 2008 02:45 Discuss (22 Comments)

The Financial Times citing an unnamed senior executive reports that rivals Sony and Microsoft are discussing the possibility of offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. Sony Electronics US president Stan Glasgow also noted that the company was holding discussions with both Microsoft and Apple over Blu-Ray. The report even claims that there is also the possibility of an internal Blu-ray drive being incorporated into a new, more expensive Xbox 360 model, as it is already done in the PlayStation 3. Currently all Xbox 360 consoles support the HD-DVD format only, but since Toshiba abandoned production last month, Microsoft has no choice but to reconsider Blu-ray as vital step forward. Microsoft refused to comment on the story.

Crysis Patch 1.2 Released

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Mar 6th, 2008 16:28 Discuss (23 Comments)

The second patch for Crytek's highly-acclaimed Crysis is now available. The 361MB download includes:

Added mod loader to main menu
Increased damage of most player-fired weapons and decreased damage of most AI-fired weapons
Added auto team balance
Added grenade indicator for enemy and friendly team
Added additional audio feedback (headshot/body) on bullet impact
Fully implementing Crytek's internal anti-cheat-solution
Added numbers to energy bar in PowerStruggle for quicker reference
Added team colors to kill/death messages
Team killed players no longer drop their weapon
Improved vehicle handling under braking and boosting
Greatly increased AAA damage vs. VTOL and Helicopter
Reduced collision damage for players hit by vehicles at lower speeds
And more

Patch 1.2 can be applied to both vanilla Crysis (v1.0) and Crysis v1.1.

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New Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Info Emerges

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Mar 6th, 2008 12:39 Discuss (43 Comments)

Sony has revealed the full feature list of Polyphony Digital's PS3 racing title Gran Turismo 5 Prologue this morning. The game will include six tracks including Suzuka Circuit, Eiger Nordwand, Fuji Speedway, London City Track, Daytona International Speedway and High Speed Ring. Prologue will also feature a Drift Mode, an in-depth car tuning system, two player split-screen racing, 16-player online races, and new online and offline racing events. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will hit the PlayStation 3 on April 17 for a price of $39.99, available for download on the PlayStation Store or at retail. Last but not least, 25 new hi-res screenshots were also provided thanks to the guys over at Shacknews.

Ziff Davis Media Files for Bankruptcy

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Mar 6th, 2008 12:07 Discuss (11 Comments)

According to The New York Times, Ziff Davis Media - publisher of PC Magazine, EGM and 15 other magazines - is about to enter a prepackaged bankruptcy by the end of this week. Company officials had no comment on the potential bankruptcy, but acknowledged that there would be a financial restructuring by Friday. The company, which is principally owned by the investor group Willis Stein & Partners, had sought approval for a plan, arranged in May with key creditors, that would have cut its $450 million debt by $155 million and cut its annual interest payments $30 million without a bankruptcy proceeding. But a publishing official close to the situation said that the arrangement had failed to win the approval of 95 percent of the bondholders, as required by the agreement. "Over the past nine months, we have shored up our core properties, invested in our developing assets and exited poorly performing business sectors," said Robert F. Callahan, chairman and chief executive, through a spokesman. "We have almost deployed a financial restructuring plan that significantly reduces our debt. We will emerge stronger and more profitable." Continue reading the full story here.

Alienware Launches ‘World’s Fastest Gaming Desktop’

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Mar 6th, 2008 12:06 Discuss (31 Comments)

Alienware has just launched what it is claiming to be "the world's fastest gaming desktop." The Area-51 ALX CFX comes equipped with a quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, overclocked from a stock speed of 3.0GHz to 4.0GHz with the aid of liquid cooling. It also features an Intel X38 Express chipset, up to 4GB DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz, the option of dual Radeon HD 3870 X2s running in CrossFireX and a range of hard drive capacities up to 2TB (including two 64GB solid-state drives), all powered by a 1000W PSU. To get maximum performance you'll need to spend a minimum of $7,488, but if you want a few extra bells and whistles such as acoustic dampening, system lighting and a better keyboard you could easily surpass the $10,000 mark.

Sony Top Rated Games Publisher of 2007

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Mar 6th, 2008 11:05 Discuss (25 Comments)

According to a graph compiled by Next Generation, Sony Computer Entertainment America managed to achieve the highest average game rating for titles released during 2007, edging out Nintendo and Capcom. SCEA attained an average score of 77.9%, with Nintendo close behind on 75.1% and Capcom in third place on 74.2%. EA and Microsoft didn't do too badly, managing 71.3% and 69.2% respectively, with two of the biggest disappointments being Ubisoft and Activision, which came in with average scores of 63.1% and 61.9%. I've attached the graph of results below, along with graphs from 2005 and 2006. The graphs are based on data from Game Rankings, which collects average review scores from a number of online gaming sites.

All Xbox 360 Prices Slashed on March 14th?

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Mar 6th, 2008 05:35 Discuss (50 Comments)

A number of industry sources have indicated that Microsoft is due to cut the price of all Xbox 360 SKUs in Europe. According to TechRadar backed up by numerous UK retailers, the price of every Xbox 360 SKU is to be slashed by as much as €50 on March 14th across Europe. If true, the Arcade Xbox 360 will retail for around GBP 150 in the UK - cheaper than Nintendo's Wii console - the Elite will sell below GBP 240 and the Premium at just under GBP 200. Microsoft of course declined to comment on the story before press time, as expected.

Alienware Adds CrossFireX Option to the ALX Desktop System

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Mar 6th, 2008 05:09 Discuss (11 Comments)

As a result of the now officially driver lined CrossFireX support, Alienware has updated their elite ALX desktop computer to include pair of Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards, delivering 2GB of graphics memory to the already hi-end gaming station. Claimed to be "the first-ever quad GPU gaming solution supporting DirectX 10.1," the Area-51 ALX also utilizes the power of a 3GHz Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor overclocked to 4GHz, 2GB of low-latency RAM, two 10,000 rpm 150GB WD drives and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. Adding the dual Radeon HD 3870 X2 CrossFireX option bumps the price by $500 up to $5,649. The company expects to ship the Alienware ALX CrossFireX systems by early April. For more information, please visit Alienware.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Available for Download

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Mar 6th, 2008 01:12 Discuss (17 Comments)

Coming as a big surprise for me, the first public beta of IE8 was published by Microsoft this morning. Internet Explorer 8 can now be installed from virtually anyone on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Download the apropriate version from here. See also the release notes for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm Now on Steam

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Mar 6th, 2008 00:59 Discuss (13 Comments)

THQ's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is now available on Steam. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is the third and final expansion to the genre-defining and critically-acclaimed RTS, Dawn of War. The digital purchase of this game will cost you $39.95.

CeBIT 2008: Akasa Review

Review Tradeshows

Akasa has a few new cases at their booth and is also displaying new hard drive enclosures for both 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives. Their aftermarket GPU coolers are up and running on Radeon HD 3870s and their latest heatpipe CPU cooler can also be viewed in its final shape.

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CeBIT 2008: A-DATA Review

Review Tradeshows

A-Data is presenting their new Gamer series DDR2 and DDR3 memory as well as new additions to their Nobility and Disney series of flash drives. They are also presenting their newest cooling solutions for their memory.

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CeBIT 2008: Mushkin Review

Review Tradeshows

Mushkin is showing off their memory line-up as well as their newest addition - NVIDIA based graphic cards. You will also find their new 800W power supply up and running.

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Thermaltake V1 CPU Heatsink Review

Review CPU Coolers

Thermaltake's V1 CPU heatsink has a classy, elegant design like no other. The all-copper construction and subtle scrolls make this heatsink stand out from the rest. While the V1 is not Thermaltake's flagship cooler, it still performs very well.

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ASUS Officially Launches Eee PC with Microsoft Windows Operating System

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Mar 5th, 2008 17:56 Discuss (15 Comments)

Amidst great expectations, ASUS today launched the ASUS Eee PC pre-installed with Microsoft Windows XP. This new offering of the ever-popular Eee PC promises to let users enjoy an efficient online and work management experience with the incorporated Windows Live and Microsoft Works features. This will help create additional opportunities for students and other personal PC users who desire a portable and affordable PC to easily access the Internet virtually anywhere.

Patriot Memory Announces Solid State Drives Capacities up to 256GB

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Mar 5th, 2008 17:53 Discuss (5 Comments)

Patriot Memory today announced they will add Solid State Drives (SSD) to their flash memory solutions product line. Available in capacities up to 256GB, solid state drives are the next generation of data storage that offers greater access speeds and increased reliability over current hard disk drive technology.

ASUS Launches Lion Square CPU Cooler

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Mar 5th, 2008 17:50 Discuss (8 Comments)

Catering to users who require functionality as well as efficient cooling, ASUS has released the latest Square Series CPU Cooler - the Lion Square. Inspired by the Sword Lion shield, the Lion Square borrows the character of the shield - the impressive face of lion totem, and its spirit, symbolizing strength and courage, to represent the outstanding efficiency of the new launch. The Lion Square incorporates several innovative features that include: double-sided high density wave fins, dynamic fan speed control and four copper heat pipes to deliver quiet and high-performance heat dissipation from the Intel Core2 Extreme / Core2 Quad Quad-Core CPU and AMD Athlon64 FX/X2 Dual-Core processors.

ATI Catalyst 8.3 Available

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Mar 5th, 2008 16:25 Discuss (50 Comments)

The long awaited ATI Catalyst 8.3 is finally here! This driver package brings lots of new features, some of them being CrossFireX support, added Hybrid graphics support and full DirectX 10.1 compatibility.

ATI Catalyst 8.3 Release Notes Highlights
ATI Catalyst 8.3 for Windows XP/Vista 32/64-bit

Sony to Release Cradle for PSP

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Mar 5th, 2008 16:15 Discuss (8 Comments)

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan today announced that it would release Cradle (PSP-S360）for the new slim and light PSP (PSP-2000) in Japan on April 24th, 2008 at a recommended retail price of 4,800 yen ($46). A set of Cradle & D Terminal AV Cable (PSPJ-15013) will also become available at a recommended retail price of 6,500 yen ($62). Cradle plays the role of a docking station that allow users to enjoy various entertainment content such as movies, videos and pictures on their TV sets. There's also a card type remote control included in the bundle with some basic functions. For more information please go here.

Mushkin Announces XP3 DDR3 eXtreme Performance Memory Modules at CeBIT

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Mar 5th, 2008 11:31 Discuss (11 Comments)

Mushkin today announced its new XP3 series DDR3 modules at the CeBIT Mushkin booth (Hall 21, Stand A09). "It's our pleasure to announce the XP3 series modules at CeBIT this year", said Brian Flood, Mushkin director of product development. "Our latest eXtreme Performance modules provide enhanced bandwidth over the aging DDR2 technology and allow overclocked multicore processors to perform to their fullest."

Part Numbers:

991600 - 1GB XP3-12800 (DDR3-1600) CL7-7-6-18 1.85-1.9V
996600 - 2GB (2x1GB) XP3-12800 (DDR3-1600) CL7-7-6-18 1.85-1.9V
991601 - 2GB XP3-12800 (DDR3-1600) CL7-7-6-18 1.85-1.9V
996601 - 4GB (2x2GB) XP3-12800 (DDR3-1600) CL7-7-6-18 1.85-1.9V
991602 - 1GB XP3-14400 (DDR3-1800) CL8-8-7-20 1.9-1.95V
996602 - 2GB (2x1GB) XP3-14400 (DDR3-1800) CL8-8-7-20 1.9-1.95V

The XP3 modules will be available worldwide in the beginning of April.

NVIDIA DX10 Mobile GPU Specs Leaked

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Mar 5th, 2008 10:27 Discuss (6 Comments)

New details of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9300M and 9500M DirectX 10-compatible mobile graphics chip series have surfaced ahead of the GPU's launch. The 9500M GS will contain 32 stream processors running at 950MHz, while the core is clocked at 475MHz. The GPU will be linked to 512MB of GDDR3 or DDR2 memory, clocked at 700MHz and operating over a 128-bit bus. The 9300M G has 16 stream processors. They're clocked to 800MHz, while the core runs at 400MHz and the memory at 600MHz. The memory interface is 64 bits wide. Again, there's a choice of GDDR3 or "cost-competitive" DDR2, and the GPU will access up to 256MB of it.

Samsung Could Deliver 256GB SSD Drives in 2009

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Mar 5th, 2008 09:06 Discuss (6 Comments)

Samsung Electronics could deliver 256GB solid-state drives next year, quadrupling the capacity of SSDs it is currently shipping to PC makers, the company informed. Now Samsung is only producing 64GB SATA 3.0 Gbps 2.5" SSD drives, but the company is planning on releasing samples of 128GB SSDs in the middle of this year. A spokesman also commented that Samsung is trying to double SSD capacity every 12 months, leading to information that 256GB SSDs may become widely available sometime in 2009. The current price of a 64GB single-level SSD is around $600. SSD drives have no moving parts. They're more power-efficient, lighter and up to two times faster than today's conventional mobile hard drives.

Samsung Ships New 2.5-inch Mobile Hard Drives

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Mar 5th, 2008 08:33 Discuss (0 Comments)

To meet the growing storage needs of laptop users, Samsung Electronics on Tuesday introduced a 500GB hard drive that could provide a notebook PC with as much as 1TB of storage. The Spinpoint M6 is a 2.5-inch hard drive fitted with three 167GB platters spinning at 5,400 rpm. Priced at $299, it will ship to PC makers and retail stores later this month. Samsung also announced the Spinpoint MP2 hard drive, a 2.5-inch drive with 250GB of storage. Aimed at desktop replacement notebooks, workstations, and blade servers, it provides quicker read and write speeds than the M6 because of its 7,200 rpm rotation speed and extra-large 16MB cache. With the MP2, the company also provides an optional chip that protects a hard drive from vibrations caused by other hardware components. The Spinpoint MP2 is priced at $299 too and will be available through retailers soon. An 80GB version of the hard drive is also available, according to the company. Both drives come with an optional free-fall sensor, which parks the head and turns the hard drive off in the event of a fall, protecting the data on it.

Seagate Ships its New Cheetah 15K.6 Hard Drives

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Mar 5th, 2008 08:00 Discuss (11 Comments)

Seagate Technology announced it will begin shipping its new Cheetah 15K.6 hard drive this month. Designed for the world's most demanding enterprise storage environments, the Cheetah 15K.6 drive is Seagate's highest-performance hard drive ever in a 3.5-inch form factor, with a 28% increase in sustained data transfer rates compared to previous generations. With this new performance on tap, the Cheetah 15K.6 drive remarkably consumes significantly less power, using up to 61% less energy in both idle and operational modes.

Micron Launches Aptina Imaging: A CMOS Image Sensor Division

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Mar 5th, 2008 07:49 Discuss (0 Comments)

Micron Technology, today launched Aptina Imaging, creating a separate division and new identity for its CMOS imaging business. Operating as an independent division within Micron allows Aptina to better focus on delivering high-quality imaging solutions to its global customer base.

OCZ Technology Exhibits New Industry-Leading Innovations at CeBIT 2008

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Mar 5th, 2008 07:23 Discuss (0 Comments)

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, computer components, and systems, today unveiled its next generation of pioneering products to the global PC market at CeBIT (Hall 21, Booth 29). Proving its innovative solutions are always ahead of the curve, OCZ will showcase its group of leading-edge products that have been greatly anticipated by the enthusiast community.

CeBIT 2008: Foxconn Review

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Foxconn is showing off various mainboards, as well as the latest and greatest graphic cards. You will find a quad GPU based system up and running and we had the chance to take pictures of the 9800 GX2 up and running.

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ATI Catalyst 8.3, Hybrid CrossFire and CrossFireX Announced

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Mar 4th, 2008 18:08 Discuss (83 Comments)

AMD today announced its latest graphics driver release to advance the Ultimate Visual Experience for PC gaming enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. Expected to be available for download starting March 5, ATI Catalyst 8.3 is a milestone software update in delivering both CrossFireX for Windows Vista - the world's first quad-GPU support, and scalable, cost-effective three GPU support - as well as ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for casual gamers. These multi-GPU capabilities provide gamers a more realistic and immersive experience allowing them to play at high resolutions with demanding image quality settings, and at a better value than competing multi-GPU solutions.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace Beta - Now Publicly Available Worldwide

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Mar 4th, 2008 15:05 Discuss (1 Comment)

Microsoft released today the first public beta of Office Live Workspace, an online tool for Office that works in cooperation with the desktop application suite. Office Live Workspace enables users to view/access their documents online and share their work with others, even if their computer doesn't have Office installed. However, if they want to make edits, they have to download it and make changes in the appropriate Office application. Microsoft has also made a plug-in available for Office that makes accessing a workspace a bit smoother. It also enables users to edit things such as notes, lists, calendars, tasks, and contacts in the Web application. Office Live Workspace is now available worldwide in English. People can sign up for free here and will be granted immediate access to the service. The beta will be offered in various languages later this year. Microsoft also hopes to release the final version of Office Live Workspace later this year.

Sony Confirms PS3 In-Game Messaging On the Way

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Mar 4th, 2008 13:39 Discuss (46 Comments)

Sony Computer Entertainment's UK boss, Ray Maguire, has confirmed rumours that Sony plans to include in-game messaging in one of its upcoming PS3 firmware updates. Sony initially sparked rumours when it uploaded a "Friends & Messaging" icon onto its website, which commented about using a USB headset or Eye Camera to engage in voice and video messaging. Maguire told MCV:

Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer [and] firmware update 2.4.

Maguire also revealed that Sony has managed to sell over one million of the consoles in the UK.

GeForce 9800 GTX Close-Up Pictures

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Mar 4th, 2008 13:27 Discuss (28 Comments)

There are not many details on this unfortunately, but WE.PCINLIFE seems to have acquired a number of close-up images of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GTX, which will be the company's first high-end single GPU 9 series graphics card. There are 18 pictures in all, with some of the better shots shown below.

AMD Launches Puma Mobile Platform

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Mar 4th, 2008 13:17 Discuss (5 Comments)

After first announcing it last April, AMD has now officially launched its Puma mobile platform, which is set to go head-to-head with Intel's Centrino platform. Puma is AMD's first attempt at a complete mobile platform and provides much stronger specifications than the company has had previously. In order to be branded as part of the Puma platform, notebooks must come with a Griffin CPU, RS780M chipset and WiFi adapter, with the option of a discrete graphics card. AMD has integrated a number of power saving features into the Puma platform, including the ability to dynamically change individual CPU core frequencies depending on processor load and PowerXpress technology, which can automatically switch from discrete external graphics to less power-hungry integrated graphics when running on batteries - without the need to reboot. Puma certified systems are expected to ship from the end of the second quarter this year, with prices ranging from around $700 to $2,500 at launch.

Albatron 9800 GX2 Pictures

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Mar 4th, 2008 12:01 Discuss (10 Comments)

Graphics card manufacturer Albatron sent us some pictures of its upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2 today, which are shown below. The company commented that NVIDIA is allowing it to display the cards at CeBIT 2008, but as the launch date is not officially until later this month it was not able to provide any specifications.

PowerColor Launches GDDR4 HD 3870 X2

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Mar 4th, 2008 11:32 Discuss (47 Comments)

TUL Corporation today announced that it is introducing a high-end graphics solution, PowerColor HD 3870 X2 with Samsung GDDR4 memory that is designed to bring incredible performance and life-like graphics to all gamers.

Dell Launches IT-Friendly Rugged Laptop

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Mar 4th, 2008 11:23 Discuss (6 Comments)

Dell today unveiled its first fully ruggedized laptop, the Latitude XFR D630. The system is one of the only in its class to simplify IT with seamless integration into existing infrastructure and deliver extreme durability without compromising performance. The rugged laptop, intended for government and commercial customers, is available today in the U.S. and starts at $3,899.

AMD Demos 45nm Native Quad-Core Processors

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Mar 4th, 2008 11:08 Discuss (31 Comments)

AMD demonstrated at the CeBit electronics exhibition its first 45nm quad-core chips running multiple operating systems and a range of processing intensive applications. The processors were produced in Dresden, Germany, in AMD's Fab 36 300mm manufacturing facility, using an advanced 45nm process co-developed with IBM.

AMD Officially Launches AMD 780 Series

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Mar 4th, 2008 11:05 Discuss (10 Comments)

AMD today announced the availability of the industry's most advanced motherboard GPU, the AMD 780 Series, delivering a rich computing experience for casual gamers and multimedia enthusiasts as the core of quiet and energy-efficient PC designs. When paired with an AMD Phenom 9000 series quad-core processor or Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, the AMD 780 Series delivers significant enhancements in gaming and high-definition experiences for mainstream PC customers. The AMD 780 Series motherboard GPU is scheduled to be widely available from more than 40 AMD partners at launch. Global OEMs are expected to offer AMD 780 Series-based PCs starting in Q2 2008.

Nokia Brings Microsoft Silverlight on Mobile Phones

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Mar 4th, 2008 05:12 Discuss (1 Comment)

Nokia today announced plans to make Microsoft Silverlight available for S60 on Symbian OS, the world's leading smartphone software, as well as for Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets. Adding support for Silverlight will extend opportunities for developers to create rich, interactive applications that run on multiple platforms in a consistent and reliable way.

Microsoft: IE8 to Support Standards From the Start

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Mar 4th, 2008 05:00 Discuss (5 Comments)

Aiming to demonstrate that its commitment to interoperability Microsoft said Monday that it is shifting its plans for the next version of Internet Explorer to make the program more friendly to Web standards. The software maker said that a planned standards compatibility mode will now be the default rendering engine when IE8 makes its debut. Now IE will finally be able to render the Acid2 browser test correctly. "We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8's default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action," IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog posting. With IE8, Microsoft plans to have three rendering modes: the new standards-compliant mode, the IE7 rendering engine, as well as an option for displaying older Web sites. Because of the default shift, Web sites that want IE8 to use its IE7 engine will have to add a tag to their site's code. Microsoft hasn't said when the final version will be out, but a beta version of the browser is due out in the first half of the year.

Sony Japan Confirms Skype for PSP on March 18th

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Mar 4th, 2008 04:48 Discuss (8 Comments)

Sony has announced that Japanese PSP users will be able to use Skype services from March 18th. The software will be included in the next system update scheduled for this month, with Sony releasing official microphones to coincide with the communications service. Skype was originally due for Japanese release in January, but was delayed as Sony hardware failed to meet Skype specification. Sony Japan has also unveiled a new limited edition PSP bundle for the local market. The PSP Matte Bronze Value Pack will go on sale April 24th, priced JPY 23,800 (USD $227), and will come with the handheld, a pouch, hand strap, cloth, 32MB Memory Stick Duo and D Terminal AV cable. In addition, SCEJ will also release an official PSP Cradle & D Terminal AV Cable for the PSP Slim & Lite, also due for release April 24th.

ASUS ROG Presents Full Lineup of Gaming Products at CeBIT 2008

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Mar 4th, 2008 03:21 Discuss (11 Comments)

In the ever-evolving world of computer gaming, gamers need top-notch solutions to keep up with current trends and requirements. This is where the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) steps in. With a goal and promise for gamers to experience the finest in terms of gaming, ASUS ROG unveils the latest hardware geared for the future of gaming at CeBIT 2008.

CeBIT 2008: New Silverstone Mid-tower Case

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Mar 4th, 2008 03:09 Discuss (5 Comments)

Silverstone has the odd new product at CeBIT 2008, the main one being a mid-sized ATX tower that HEXUS.net managed to sneak an exclusive look at earlier today. What's worth seing in this aluminum chassis are the two 200mm fans inside, one mounted up front against the hard drives, the other up on the top. This pre-production sample also has 5x bays for optical drives, along with space for up to seven 3.5-inch HDDs.

GIGABYTE Wants to Water-Cool Your Memories

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Mar 4th, 2008 02:57 Discuss (11 Comments)

There's something cool from GIGABYTE, too. Captured at CeBIT this is their new memory cooling solution. Featuring a self-contained water cooling system the unit is powered by a single fan header on the motherboard and features a pair of fans cooling a small radiator situated above the DIMMs. The system features two heat spreader units which allow the liquid inside the system to move the heat away as quickly as possible. There's also a pump underside the radiator. The only downside is that only 2 memory modules can be cooled.

Lian Li Case for Your Xbox 360

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Mar 4th, 2008 02:44 Discuss (46 Comments)

Lian Li has prepared something special which might interest all Xbox 360 owners. This is a pre-production sample of a brand-new custom Lian Li Xbox 360 chassis. Made from aluminium, the enclosure features enough space for all the internal components of the console along with pre-prepared water-cooling holes in the rear. In addition, the chassis has all the necessary outputs like HDMI ready to be connected at the back of the case. There you'll also find a single low-speed 120mm exhaust fan. Release date for this case is still unknown, but expect price around $80 USD when it hits the shelves.

Razer Salmosa 1800dpi 3G Mouse Enters the Speed of Light

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Mar 4th, 2008 02:32 Discuss (9 Comments)

The Razer Salmosa is the quickest entry level gaming-grade mouse armed with the fastest tracking optical sensor in the world. Designed to be one of the lightest and most compact mice of its class, it is the ideal mouse of choice for finger-tip grip gamers who seek both speed and control.

Salmosa features the 1800dpi Razer 3G Infrared sensor, which enables movement speeds of up to 2.25 times faster than other regular gaming mice. The Razer Salmosa also comes with additional toggle switches on the bottom of the mouse that enable gamers to make 800/1800dpi and 125/500/1000Hz polling rate adjustments - without the need for any software drivers. Please visit Speed of the light site for more information.

CeBIT 2008: Albatron Review

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Albatron is showing off the latest Intel and AMD based mainboards, as well as the newest GeForce 9 based graphic cards. You will also find some very unique entry-level GPUs as well as interesting ITX based mainboards at their booth

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CeBIT 2008: We are on site! Review

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CeBIT 2008 will kick off on March 4th this year. This marks the beginning of an exciting week, filled with the newest technology at the world's largest show.

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VVIKOO GeForce 9600 GT Turbo Review

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VVIKOO's GeForce 9600 GT Turbo brings many changes over the NVIDIA reference design. You can see one of the first DisplayPort implementations, an HDMI output, two DVIs and optical SPDIF-in. The card also features the Zalman VF-1000 cooler which makes sure the card stays cool at all times. Since the card runs cooler, the card comes overclocked straight from the factory.

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OCZ Technology Enters Mass Production of its Neural Impulse Actuator

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Mar 3rd, 2008 16:00 Discuss (10 Comments)

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and components for enthusiasts and gamers, is pleased to announced the Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) has begun mass production and launch into channel is imminent. A prototype was debuted last year at CeBIT 2007 which generated a newfound excitement in the global gaming community.

ASUS R.O.G. Pinot Noir Motherboard Previewed

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Mar 3rd, 2008 15:54 Discuss (27 Comments)

The nForce 790i-powered Pinot Noir motherboard, part of the latest ASUS Republic of Gamers series, is now being showcased at CeBIT. What's uncommon about this motherboard is the unique water cooling solution for its major components. Furthermore this board can work with the latest Intel 45nm CPUs and utilize 4x DDR3 modules, three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots and six SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors.

Samsung Introduces Five New Desktop Displays

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Mar 3rd, 2008 15:39 Discuss (5 Comments)

Samsung Electronics America, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation, today announced its new series of high-performance monitors ranging from 17 to 22-inches - the SyncMaster 743BX, 943BX, 943BWX, 2043BWX and 2243BWX - designed to help enterprise users drive productivity in even the most demanding work environments.

ASUS Eee PC 900 Details Uncovered

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Mar 3rd, 2008 15:07 Discuss (15 Comments)

Blog site Eee Site uncovered today details of the next generation Eee PC that will sport a larger display, more RAM, and more storage space. Here are some hints:

The new model will be named the Eee PC 900
1GB of RAM will be standard (up from 512MB)
SSD storage capacities of up to 12GB will be available
The overall size should remain the same since the Eee PC 900 will use the same case as the current 700 series
The base price will jump from 299€ to 399€, not sure what that means for the US prices as computers usually

Expect official press release very soon.

RivaTuner 2.07 Released

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Mar 3rd, 2008 13:59 Discuss (6 Comments)

On this page you can download the latest version of RivaTuner. RivaTuner v2.07 comes with some minor bugfixes:

Fixed default values for Direct3D Intellisample slider and "Clamp negative mipmap LOD bias" option.
State of global OSD visibility setting is no longer lost when any other option is being changed immediately after changing the global OSD visibility setting in the properties of bundled RivaTunerStatisticsServer application.
Minor UI and localization fixes.

You can read what's new in this version here.

A-DATA Debuts New DDR3 Memory Kits

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Mar 3rd, 2008 13:40 Discuss (13 Comments)

A-DATA is on display at CeBIT with some very innovative memory modules. In this scenario the focus is primary on cooling, not the highest clocks. These DDR3 memories will come in three flavours: basic version with regular heatsinks only, a heatsink with two fans attached and even a version that can be cooled by LN2.

Micron and Nanya Sign Joint Development Partnership

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Mar 3rd, 2008 13:15 Discuss (3 Comments)

Micron Technology, one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Nanya Technology Corporation, a global leader in advanced memory semiconductors, jointly announced today that the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to explore potential technology sharing, joint technology development and development of a new joint venture. A joint development program for DRAM development and design would be created and focus on sub-50 nanometer technologies. Definitive agreements are expected to be signed in the next few months.

GIGABYTE Announces MA78GM-S2H Motherboard

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Mar 3rd, 2008 13:00 Discuss (5 Comments)

GIGABYTE is proud to announce its latest GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard featuring the AMD 780G chipset, the first DirectX 10 IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) solution for the AM2+ platform, providing the ultimate in IGP graphics performance.

Based on the AMD 780G chipset, the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H offers outstanding future CPU headroom with support for AMD AM2 Athlon64 series processors as well as the very latest AM2+ Phenom series processors with ultra low latency, high bandwidth (5200MT/s) Hyper Transport 3.0 technology.

AMD 780 Chipset - Like Never Before... Marketing video

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Nyte

Mar 3rd, 2008 09:30 Discuss (63 Comments)

AMD has released a YouTube marketing video for their upcoming 780 chipset. The 780 chipset is the first of its kind to utilize ATI Hybrid Graphics technology. This technology enables the user to combine the performance of both the integrated graphics chip and a standalone discrete graphics card for an affordable Crossfire-like solution.

Two New PS3 Bundles On The Way to Europe

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Mar 3rd, 2008 03:40 Discuss (35 Comments)

In addition to the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 released in the US and Canada, Sony has two new PS3 bundles being readied for the European market. These include a special Gran Turismo 5 Prologue version which will launch alongside the game in the Spring. The pack includes the game, 40GB console and one Sixaxis controller. The second bundle is a Movie Pack, with a 40GB console, single controller and three Blu-ray movies replacing the usual game: Spiderman 3, 300 and Casino Royale. Both bundles are expected to come in at the current price points.

MSI Prepares 2GB Version of GeForce 9600 GT

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Mar 3rd, 2008 03:27 Discuss (44 Comments)

Taiwan-based Micro-Star International is preparing a 2GB GeForce 9600 GT version in addition to the five 9 series cards already released. The upcoming card features Quimonda memory chips and has a red PCB plus dual-slot cooler. In addition to the extra memory the card also comes with a DisplayPort connector. The 2GB-equipped card will be clocked at 650MHz, 1625MHz and 1800MHz for the GPU, Shaders and memory. Expect it to become available soon.

Foxconn Quantum Force Dreadnought nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard Pictured

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Mar 3rd, 2008 03:00 Discuss (5 Comments)

Foxconn continues to impress with yet another high-end Quantum Force motherboard. Again only for Intel processors, the NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI powered board offers full 3-way SLI and Intel 45nm CPUs support, as well as built-in northbridge water cooling. This Dreadnought version supports up to 8GB of DDR3 only memory. The two removable BIOS chips, the post LED indicator and the 8-phase power are only a few of the great things presented in this mobo.

Innovatek GeForce 9800 GX2 GPU Block Yours for 197 Euro

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Mar 3rd, 2008 02:39 Discuss (21 Comments)

Still unreleased the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 can already be fitted with a 197 Euro water block. Set to cool all the card's vital components like GPU, RAM, the bridge chip and PWM area on both PCBs this block is Quad SLI ready and able to fit on all reference GeForce 9800 GX2 cards. Unfortunately, German is not my best language and that's the main reason for the brief introduction. Readers seeking for more information can click here.

Intel Silverthorne and Diamondville Become Atom and Centrino Atom

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Mar 3rd, 2008 02:05 Discuss (6 Comments)

The Intel Atom processor will be the name for a new family of low-power processors designed specifically for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a new class of simple and affordable Internet-centric computers arriving later this year. Together, these new market segments represent a significant new opportunity to grow the overall market for Intel silicon, using the Intel Atom processor as the foundation. The company also announced the Intel Centrino Atom processor technology brand for MID platforms, consisting of multiple chips that enable the best Internet experience in a pocketable device.

Foxconn ELA P45 Motherboard Unveiled

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Mar 2nd, 2008 17:20 Discuss (24 Comments)

Foxconn "ELA" P45 will be typical representative of a high-end Intel motherboard powered by Intel's P45 performance chipset paired with the ICH10R south bridge. As seen in the pictures and board specs, the "ELA" P45 will support the latest 45nm Intel Core 2 processors with FSB up to 1333MHz, up to 8GB of 1066MHz DDR2 memory and three PCI-e 2.0 16x graphics slots. The board's design and color scheme does not differ much from other Foxconn products. The remaining part of the lies beneath.

Kingston Achieves Unprecedented DDR3 Memory Speeds

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Mar 2nd, 2008 15:25 Discuss (4 Comments)

Memory manufacturer Kingston has managed to achieve unprecedented memory speeds using overclocked HyperX DDR3 modules combined with NVIDIA's next-generation core-logic. The company managed to take its memory from stock speeds of 2.0GHz to 2.13GHz (a 6.5% overclock) using NVIDIA's nForce 790i chipset without any special cooling systems, although no details of voltages or latencies were disclosed. Up until now, the fastest DDR3 memory has only been capable of running at 2GHz - a figure which Kingston, A-Data, Walton Chaintech and Corsair have all managed to reach. The modules used, which were the so-far unannounced Kingston HyperX PC3-16000 (KHX16000D2K2/2G) modules, will be available during the first quarter of this year - so presumably within the next month.

US Universities Tempt Applicants with iPhones and MacBooks

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Mar 2nd, 2008 15:10 Discuss (51 Comments)

Two American universities have decided to try and attract more students by offering free iPhones and MacBooks. Oklahoma Christian University is offering all new students attending New Student Orientations a brand new MacBook, and current college students will be given the opportunity to trade in their current laptops to receive one. In addition to this, the University will also offer students an iPhone or iPod touch, depending on whether they're willing to pay the contract fees. Meanwhile Abilene Christian University in Texas is offering a similar deal to all freshmen, giving them the choice of an iPhone or iPod Touch. Dr Dwayne VanRheenen of ACU said:

Because 93 percent of ACU students bring their own computers with them to college, we are choosing to take them to the next level by providing converged mobile devices.

IBM Unveils a Prototype Green Optical Network Technology

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Mar 1st, 2008 12:41 Discuss (8 Comments)

IBM Researchers today unveiled a prototype technology that could bring massive amounts of bandwidth in an energy efficient way to all kinds of machines - from supercomputers to cell phones - that could revolutionize the way people access, use and share information across many different applications. The new technology uses light instead of wires to send information and could allow, for example, the transmission of 8 trillion bits (terabits) per second of information - equivalent to about 5,000 high-definition video streams - using the power of a single 100-watt lightbulb.

Dell Adds More 45nm Penryn Offering

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Mar 1st, 2008 12:30 Discuss (5 Comments)

Dell on Friday quietly updated its Latitude range to add Intel's 45 nanometer Penryn Core 2 Duos as an option. The 14-inch D630 and 15.4-inch D830 can both be custom-fitted with either a 2.5GHz or 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo on top of existing 65 nanometer chips. Both new optional Penryn CPUs offer 6MB of Level 2 cache, 800MHz FSB and lower power consumption which leads to improved battery life. The two pro systems otherwise appear to remain unchanged outside of prices. Either Latitude starts just below $1,400 with a 2GHz, previous-generation Core 2 Duo, 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and built-in Intel graphics. Adding the Penryn processors contributes $130 to the price for the 2.5GHz processor and $390 for the 2.6GHz edition.

Enermax Intros MODU82+ and PRO82+ Power Supply Units

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Mar 1st, 2008 08:45 Discuss (13 Comments)

Leading manufacturer of high-end computer products Enermax recently decided to release MODU82+ & PRO82+ as the successors to its "Liberty DXX" series, leading the power supply industry to new heights. These new power supplies are setting new benchmarks for the PC PSU industry by reaching 82-88% efficiency at 20%, 50%, or 100% load. These are also some of the quietest units in the world thanks to two new patented technologies: SpeedGuard and AirGuard. SpeedGuard allows the 120mm PSU fan to operate only at 400 to 500 rpm when the power supplies are under 50% load, while AirGuardis a mechanical design which bends the housing around the air-inlet to the fan and it helps to reduce the total noise level by up to 2 dBA. Besides being two of the first that complies with Intel's ATX12V v2.3 standards, MODU82+ and PRO82+ also offer three +12V rails (up to 25A on each rail) and four 6+2P (8P) PCI-E connectors for the latest graphics setups. MODU82+ is a modular PSU that comes with 3 different models: 425W, 525W, and 625W with MSRP of $109, $144 and $165, respectively. PRO82+ does not feature modular connectors and comes with 4 different models: 385W, 425W, 525W, 625W with MSRP of $79, $99, $129, $155. They are available now at NewEgg.com, Micro Center, PC Club and ASI Corp.

Hotfix for 3DMark 06/05/03 and PCMark 05 Released

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Mar 1st, 2008 08:05 Discuss (12 Comments)

Futuremark has released a 2.5MB hotfix for their popular benchmark applications. Set to work with 3DMark03 Build 3.6.0, 3DMark05 Build 1.3.0, 3DMark06 Build 1.1.0 and PCMark05 Build 1.2.0, this hotfix updates the GPU core/memory clock detection library for enhanced compatibility and support for new hardware. It also adds three new files: Direcpll.dll (4.10.1.94), Entech.sys (5.0.1.1), Entech64.sys (5.0.1.1).

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NVIDIA ForceWare Beta 174.20 Released

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