BIOSTAR Group, the world renowned manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, industrial computing systems and peripherals, announces the new generation of TA970XE series motherboards for AMD AM3+ CPUs. Their capabilities are very close to the top TA990FXE and offer overclockers and gamers considerable power and flexible settings for a reasonable price.

The TA970XE board sports the ATX form-factor (305 x 225 mm) on a powerful AMD 970 chipset with the SB950 Southbridge. It provides stable and high performance with any Socket AM3+ CPUs of the Phenom II X6, Phenom II X4, Phenom II X3, Phenom II X2, Athlon II X4, Athlon II X3, Athlon II X2 and Sempron Series including the most powerful 6-core and 8-core AMD FX, AMD Phenom II and AMD Athlon II CPUs with the TDP up to 140 W.

BIOSTAR, a world famous manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, industrial computing systems and computer peripherals, expanded the T Series with the TZ68K+ motherboard based on the latest single-chip Intel Z68 chipset. The new board features the ATX form-factor (305 x 230 mm) and is aimed at system integrators and individual builders of high-performance desktop systems.

The BIOSTAR TZ68K+ motherboard fully supports all functional capabilities embedded into the latest version of the Intel Z68 chipset. They are a support for second-generation multi-core Intel Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 CPUs (Sandy Bridge) with TDP up to 95W for the LGA 1155 Socket, integrated SATA 3.0 ports (SATA600) and speedy PCI Express 2.0 interfaces for peripherals. One can also arrange RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays with the Matrix RAID function and make use of the Smart Response technology that allows caching storage devices with additional flash memory.

ATI programmers have released a hotfix that corrects the black screen and boot OS failure when Catalyst 8.12 is installed on Windows Vista, and two or more ATI Radeon HD 4850 video cards are working in CrossFire X mode. This issue only occurs when two or more ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphic cards are installed in the system with ATI CrossFireX technology. One single ATI Radeon HD 4850 card will not encounter this issue. To download the hotfix for both Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, please click here.

MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of high performance custom computers, is proud to announce the availability of the next generation of luxury gaming PCs. The F131 and ePhex, now featuring the Intel Core i7 processor family.

"We're proud to be an Intel launch partner," says Wallace Santos, CEO and founder of MAINGEAR Computers, "this revolutionary new chip is going to change the way people look at multitasking. It really puts your processing power where you need it most. Our F131 and ePhex lines will benefit from the ability to take on highly-threaded games with HyperThreading support across 8 cores. Also, it's anyone's game with either CrossFireX or SLI support on the same platform."

High-end laptop maker Alienware is now offering a new M17 laptop model that is not to be mistaken with the mighty M17x from the same company. Like most of its siblings, the new M17 is highly customizable. Starting at $1399, this 17-incher is the very first CrossFire X-enabled notebook, that can be outfitted with a Core 2 Quad / Extreme CPU, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, a WXGA+ (1440x900) or WUXGA panel with Clearview (1920x1200), an optional ATSC HDTV tuner, up to 1TB of HDD space in a RAID 0 array, a dual-layer DVD writer / optional Blu-ray reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, gigabit Ethernet and a AlienSense facial recognition sensor or a biometric fingerprint reader. Of course, with all the goodies your're looking at around $4000 price tag. The Alienware M17 is available now, for the full list of features or the purchase page please click here.

Pictures of the first prototype AMD 790GX motherboard with integrated Radeon HD 3300 IGP started sufracing yesterday. The upcoming AMD 790GX chipset not only supports CrossFire X and Hybrid CrossFire, but it also adds 3-way Hybrid CrossFire in the loop. 3-way Hybrid CrossFire combines an integrated graphics with two PCI-E 2.0 x8 slots that can be used in CrossFire mode. Just an example, imagine two HD 3870 X2 cards working in CrossFire X helped by an AMD Radeon HD3300 IGP graphics. When in 2D mode only the integrated graphics will be used and thus save power, but if the system is running at full throttle all three cards will be operating. Yes, the HD3300 IGP graphics won't give any significant boost in games and 3D apps, but at least it'll be built into the motherboard and will be working without requiring any additional interventions, so why don't use it? The AMD 790GX based products are expected to go on sale in May.

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.

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.

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.

TG Daily claims that ATI's CrossFire X support for up to four graphics processing units, will arrive in March when a new Catalyst 8.3 driver package is released. Version 8.3 will surface, as the number indicates, in mid-March. This will be the first ever driver to support CrossFire X and scale right the performance of triple and quad-GPUs within one system. TG Daily also indicated that "Catalyst 8.3 is an important milestone for AMD in 2008 and might mean much more than just another driver." Expect hardware review sites to publish their Crossfire X reviews in the second week of March when Germany's CeBit concludes. Meanwhile, Catalyst 8.2 is set to be released on February 13th.

Admittedly this isn't the first review of AMD's new 3870 X2 running in CrossFireX, but it does seem to give a better indication of real world performance. As in the previous test, this article shows unimpressive 3DMark scores, but as the author is quick to point out, 3DMark06 is known to be quite heavily dependent on the CPU so doesn't always give a reliable indication of real world GPU performance. More interesting are the benchmarks of Call of Juarez and F.E.A.R., which show performance increases of around 50% and 75% respectively. It's important to remember that AMD's CrossFireX driver is still in development, but these figures should give a rough idea of what is to be expected. You can read FPSLABS' full article here.

The title says it all. Sounds monstrously, but in reality benchmark results are not so promising. Maybe this is due to the fact that there aren't any official ATI X2 drivers at all, but time will show. Test system: INTEL Core 2 Duo QX9650, MSI X48 Platinum, Samsung M378BZ873CZ0-CF8 2x1024MB DDR3, Seagate Barracuda 10 SATAII 750GB (ST3750330AS/P，7,200rpm), Windows Vista. Read the full story here.

After the merger between AMD and ATI last year, some doubt was cast upon the relationship between ATI (the firm's graphics division) and major CPU rival Intel. However, it looks like any fears have been put to rest according to DigiTimes, which is claiming that Intel has received a license to support CrossFireX on its upcoming P45 chipsets. Both AMD and Intel have declined to comment.

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