Intel's Nehalem to Launch Week of November 9th?

According to a few sources close to Fudzilla, Intel's first Nehalem processors will be launching in week 46, which equates to the week of November 9th. Whether or not product will actually be available that week is another thing, although it seems likely. We've already assumed that mid-November would be the launch anyway, so this rumor somewhat solidifies that.

You can expect our review of the new high-end processor prior to the release, so you can get a good idea of what you're in for, but let's quickly recap what makes Nehalem special. As we found out at Intel's Developer Forum just last month, Nehalem will include many new features not found on current-gen processors, such as Turbo Mode (renamed to Dynamic Speed Technology), three-channel memory (insane bandwidth) and far-improved power features that allows the CPU to shut cores off when not in use.

As we've already established many times before, Intel plans to launch three processors on the same day, or so it seems, which would be far different than their usual launch plans which usually sees the Extreme Edition launched first. The highest-end Core i7 965 will be clocked at 2.93GHz, the Core i7 940 at 2.93GHz and the Core i7 920 at 2.66GHz. All three CPUs share the same amount of cache and other specs.

A few sources have told us that first of Nehalem generation, Core i7 CPU codenamed Bloomfield will launch in week 46. The launch should take a place between 10th and 14th of November and we've learned that Japanese part of Intel might get a green light to start selling its units a bit earlier.

Source: Fudzilla

Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu - Which is Right For You?

If you are a frequent reader of our news (I'll assume you are), you are no doubt aware that I'm a Linux user, and a happy one at that. I'm not the type to discredit all other OS' out there though, because even I have a dedicated Windows' machine that I use for Adobe Photoshop and gaming. It's almost a necessary evil to use more than one OS if you happen to want Linux and have important tasks that need to get done that you can only accomplish in Windows, and I envy those who don't have to switch between both (what a time-saver!). But, I digress. If you finally decide to make the shift, how do you know which distro to choose?

Lifehacker hopes to take the complication out of figuring out which distro is right for you by taking a hard look at the three most popular on the market now: Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu. You might think that all distros are alike, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Although all have the same underlying kernel, it's the extra things that make a distro special, like the package manager, hardware detection, ease-of-use, et cetera.

Personally, I think all three of those distros are fantastic, but it all depends on what you are looking for. openSUSE is a bit on the friendlier side, so it's great for newer non-techy users, while Ubuntu is for almost everyone... those who know a lot about Linux and those who know little. Fedora is sweet because the developers build a distro that's ideal for the business environment, so stability is key. Those are just my opinions though. The article has even more.

Fedora is the free, consumer-oriented off-shoot of the enterprise Red Hat system, and is funded and founded by that same group. There's a focus on the latest free software and technologies getting onto the desktop quickly, and it supports 32- and 64-bit Intel platforms, along with PowerPC-based Mac hardware—the main reason Linux creator Linus Torvalds uses Fedora 9.

Source: Lifehacker

NVIDIA Set to Rename Current GPUs

Back in May, it became known that NVIDIA had plans to do something with their lineup's naming scheme... something to take out the complication for end-users. After all, enthusiasts like you who visit this site know the difference between a 9800 GTX and 9800 PRO, but the majority of people don't.

When that news was posted, I said, and I quote, "How they plan to do this is unknown, but I'm personally glad I'm not the one in charge, because I have no immediate ideas." Well as it stands now, I wish they did consult me, because the plans they have coming forward make things no-less confusing for the end-user... not from how I can see, anyhow.

According to TG Daily, NVIDIA's planning to rename all current 9000 series to G100, which will result in models such as G100, G120, G140, and so on. Alright, I'm willing to admit that such a numbering scheme would be good for now, because obviously, G140 is going to be better than G120, but what happens when ATI comes out with a Radeon HD 160 that happens to be ultra-low-end? Not to say they will, but they've stooped that low before (so has NVIDIA).

If I ran things, I think I'd just include a single digit as well as the year (NVIDIA GeForce One 2008, NVIDIA GeForce Two 2008), but that's impossible when even the companies themselves don't know what GPUs they'll be releasing over the course of the year. Oh well, we'll see how this goes. I don't expect it to make things any easier on the regular consumer though.

When the 2009 45 nm GPUs arrive, which seems to be the case around Q1 or Q2, Nvidia will have fully transitioned to the new branding structure: Enthusiast GPUs will be integrated into the GTX200-series, performance GPUs into the GT200-series, mainstream GPUs into the GS200-series and entry-level products into the G200-series.

Source: TG Daily

Tech Roundup - September 26, 2008

Motherboards & Processors
• Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45 - XS Reviews
• Intel Atom/ECS 945GCT-D - t-break

Displays & Video Cards
• AeroCool Modern-V Color LCD Display - 3D Xtreme
• BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore Core 216 - Bjorn3D
• Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample - TweakTown
• Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB Sonic Dual Edition - Hardware Canucks

Memory & Storage
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Flex II 4 GB - techPowerUp
• SAS Performance at SATA Pricing: Cost-Effective SAS RAID Controller - Bjorn3D
• QNAP TS-409U 1U NAS - OC ModShop
• QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo Five Bay NAS - TweakNews

Cooling
• Asus Triton 85 Heatsink - FrostyTech
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler - Think Computers
• GELID Silent 12 TC & PWM Fan - Overclockers Online
• Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler - Elite Bastards
• Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler - techPowerUp

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply - TweakTown

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• ASUS Eee PC 901 Linux Boot Performance - Phoronix
• F@H - 4,500+ Points a Day with a $49 GeForce 9600 GSO - Legit Reviews
• Samsung Rugby SGH-a837 - Test Freaks