Content and news by Rob Williams

With the iPhone 3G right around the corner, are you getting ready to make the 11th a fun-filled day? Many aren’t, and unless you have been living under a BlackBerry, you’d know that most people outside of the US are getting the roughest end of the deal.

The Canadian side of things has appeared on sites all over North America, but in actuality, Canucks aren’t seeing prices that come even close to other parts of the world. Don’t get me wrong, Rogers is using their monopoly to the fullest degree, but picture the poor folk in New Zealand, who have a 1GB / 600m plan that will run them $250 per month! The smallest plan, at $80, offers 250MB / 120m.

It’s also been found out that even though the AT&T plan pricing is relatively sane, the rock-bottom $199 price for the 3G will apply to new customers only. So if you are already in a plan with the previous iPhone, you can expect to pay around the same as you did for the first iPhone. Who knew when the iPhone first came out how much of a money-sucker it would be, and not even by Apple!

Another interesting point: all of us expecting to waltz into AT&T stores and pick up an iPhone for $199 will be sadly surprised. The $199 price is for new contract-holders only. If you’re an AT&T subscriber you’ll be paying $399 and $499 for your iPhone – about $100 less than the non-contract price.

Source: TechCrunch

Way back in April, EA Sports President Peter Moore opened the “PC is dying” floodgates by announcing that Madden 09 would not have a computer-counterpart. The reasoning was that the games are selling less and less, and less, with each year that passes. Fair enough, and understandable.

But, Mr. Moore has again gone ahead and re-opened the gates for more debate, but this time has omitted important facts that anyone who’s ever played an EA sports title on the PC is fully aware of. Moore on his blog states that piracy is a massive reason EA is choosing to step away from the PC, and sales go down each year. Again, fair.

But as Rock, Paper, Shotgun investigates, one of the potential reasons for decline might very-well be the fact that their sports titles on the PC get worse with age. While FIFA 06 received an 83% score from PC Gamer UK, FIFA 07 received a 71% and 08 received a 66%. Seems like a lot more than piracy is to blame.

I can agree that their PC games are lackluster, over the console counterparts. Not ever have I bought an EA-developed PC game and been floored. The graphics on the PC should be better, but they aren’t. Heck, NFS: Pro Street on the PC doesn’t even offer a 2560×1600 resolution, when every other current game does. Of course that’s a very limited issue with gamers, but it goes far beyond that. They half-ass their PC games, and that’s why they’re on a downhill slope.

But regardless of whether EA will admit it or not, that’s what they want. With the PC as a low priority, they can push more efforts towards the consoles, where all their money seems to be.

Also, conflating employee pay with return on investment is extremely disingenuous. Of course your employees deserve to be paid. However, if they produce substandard work not of a quality to see good sales, I’d suggest they should no longer be your employees. If employees are paid based on the sales of the product, rather than for their time creating them, then the products need to be really good.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

With so much X48 selection on the market, choosing the right board can be tough. To help make the choice easier, we are taking a look at three such boards all at once, ASUS’ DDR2 Rampage Formula and also the DDR3 ECS X48T-A and Intel’s DX48BT2.

Ahh, summer. The time for beaches, brews and babes. It’s also the time of year when computers are your worst enemy. As if the heat from the sun isn’t bad enough, we have CPUs reaching in excess of 50°C, resulting in a consistently warm room. It’s a disaster if you happen to be in an overly small room.

Well, Ars Technica might come to the rescue for you, with some tips on how to keep your computer, and in turn, yourself cool during this warm season. Their tips include underclocking and lowering voltages, and also to stay away from CRTs. That seems like a harsh choice, when strapping a house fan to one would be a far less expensive option.

Personally, I recommend simply making sure the computer is clean inside and out and has a superb airflow scheme. The better the airflow, the lower the temps. Past that, another good solution would be getting an air conditioner. Or, turning the PC off when it’s not being used. That might be the easiest solution of all…

If you happen to be using an older, workstation-class system, don’t underestimate its power consumption. I finally got around to slapping my Kill-A-Watt meter on my own rig, and was astounded to see that my system was drawing 300W of power at idle. Firing up Folding@Home + Unreal Tournament 3 pushed power consumption up to 420W—the most I’ve ever seen from any rig, including the ones I benchmark.

Source: Ars Technica

It may have taken a while to get here, but the latest version of Gentoo, 2008.0, is now out and ready for your CD burners. The road to 2008.0 wasn’t easy. We originally saw a skipped 2007.1 release, followed by a very-delayed current release, but hopefully things will be smoother from here on out. One of the reasons for the delay are staffing issues, so if you have ever wanted to join a distro team and happen to like Gentoo, then the opportunity is there.

The latest release includes an updated installer, one that’s equipped with more drivers for better hardware support (I’ve yet to test X48/P45 support) and also a fresh coat of paint, using Xfce as the backdrop. In addition, packages have been upgraded to their latest stable versions, including the Linux kernel (2.6.24), gcc (4.1.2), glibc (2.6.1) and Portage.

Profiles have also been completely reworked, so for the best optimization, you can emerge –sync and then select a new profile using eselect profile list and eselect profile set after choosing the appropriate one for your machine. Performing an emerge -avuD world will enter you into 2008.0-land.

If you are interested in testing out the latest version, there are numerous versions available on the downloads page. If you are unsure of what Gentoo is or why I use it as my full-time OS, you can check out previous reviews and other Linux-related content right here.

Code-named “It’s got what plants crave,” this release contains numerous new features including an updated installer, improved hardware support, a complete rework of profiles, and a move to Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD. LiveDVDs are not available for x86 or amd64, although they may become available in the future. The 2008.0 release also includes updated versions of many packages already available in your ebuild tree.

Source: Gentoo Linux 2008.0 Forum Thread

We offer our sincere apologies to all who attempted to access the web site this weekend, as it was down from late Friday evening to supper time on Sunday. The stem of the issue goes beyond simple coding issues, but rather server and software configurations.

To make a long story short, we have now recovered, we are now better people and we now have wider waists thanks to the amount of beer required to get through the ordeal. The result is a far better running web site, and the intent to never let such an issue creep up again.

Along with the website being back online, we’ve imported some fresh code also, which doesn’t affect anything noticeable. But, that doesn’t mean bugs couldn’t have creeped in. If you happen to notice anything out of the ordinary, please don’t hesitate to let us know, and we’ll fix it immediately.

That all aside, we have some big plans for the site throughout the summer, so stay tuned as we work towards making the site much more feature-rich, more enjoyable to use and easier to look at. Thanks guys!

It’s that time again. We’re seeking to add several new authors to our staff, to ensure that we can continue to provide the best in cutting-edge PC hardware and software news, reviews, and industry analysis. You think you can do what we do? Here’s your invitation! We’re planning some serious growth in the near future, but we need people that can help make it happen.

All positions for Techgage are voluntary, but can be rewarding. In addition to being a great way to get your fix of the ‘shiny-shiny’, you get to build your reputation as a knowledgeable authority in the world of PC technology, and you get a cool Techgage.com email address. You’ll also join a spirited team of dynamic individuals who care deeply about providing our visitors with the best experience possible.

To be the best candidate for a position at Techgage, we suggest that you:

• Are passionate about PC technology (being opinionated is a plus!)
• Are a "self-starter" who is willing to work independently on projects
• Be able to write with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation
• Are generally knowledgeable in most areas of PC hardware (CPUs, motherboards, graphics, storage, peripherals, accessories), software (gaming, productivity, operating systems), or consumer electronics (home theater, audio, video, ‘connected home’ products)
• Have an entertaining writing style

Applicants must submit a writing sample of no less than 1200 words (we can help with this if necessary), or an example of previous work. We’d also like to know what area of PC technology you’re most interested in. To apply, send an email to Rob.Williams [at] Techgage [dot] com for consideration.

For those of you who don’t often look at the top of the page, you are missing out on some cool content. One of the most notable would be our in-depth look at NVIDIA’s PhysX technology, which is now supported right off of NVIDIA top-end GPUs, with more to be supported next month. Is it worth getting excited over? If developers begin to pick up on the technology, then yes, definitely.

The problem when AGEIA owned the rights to the technology was that they were selling the technology to be tied to an add-in card, which no one wanted to buy. With support built for a GPU, it blows the doors open for support, since everyone has one. Of course, the bigger the card, the better the capabilities, but at least the option will be there. We’ll be learning a lot more about this throughout the summer, so stay tuned as we’ll keep you up to date.

For those looking for a new tuner, you might be interested in our look at AMD’s brand-new All-In-Wonder HD card, which should be available in the weeks to come. It packs in HD 3650 performance and TV tuner functionality into the same card. Sounds great, but the proof of its value will be seen once we get one into our labs.

Lastly, you cannot miss Bill’s exhaustive look at 22 different CPU coolers, which he pit against the ultra-hot QX6850 Quad-Core processor. You might be surprised which coolers come out on top, and which fail miserably. It’s just too bad that we awarded an Editor’s Choice award to a cooler that, as it turns out, has been discontinued even before it could launch. Crazy!

PhysX is getting a lot of attention right now, but the reasons vary wildly. Since we haven’t taken a look at the technology in a while, this article’s goal is to see where things stand. We’ll also be taking an in-depth look at GPU PhysX performance, using both 3DMark Vantage and UT III.

Source:
NVIDIA’s PhysX: Performance and Status Report

Playstation 3 gamers have been waiting a while for trophy functionality, like Xbox Live’s accomplishments system, but the wait is finally almost over. On the official blog, they’ve just posted a video explaining everything you need to know about the new system, top to bottom.

Essentially, it’s not far different from the Xbox Live accomplishments, but it seems more intuitive (and not so slow to navigate). You can accrue different trophies in supported games, and they will automatically be added to your profile. As you earn more, they will combine with your overall trophies: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. The more you have, well, the better the person you are, of course!

In all seriousness, it looks like a great system, one that’s a bit better designed than the accomplishments on Xbox Live, but the biggest downfall is the fact that it’s only for certain games going forward, and it appears very few previously-launched games will add the functionality in. It would be possible with the help of a patch, but whether or not developers will care enough to release such a thing is yet to be seen.

No launch date announced for the new firmware that adds this functionality, but it should be very, very soon.

Super Stardust HD, a PLAYSTATION Network-exclusive released in June 2007, will be the first game to leverage Trophies and will offer a variety of trophies. Trophy support in Super Stardust HD will be available for first-time users who purchase the game soon after firmware v2.40 is released, while those who previously purchased and downloaded the title will be prompted to install a free patch.

Source: Playstation Blog

In my travels around the web, I continually see people inquiring about OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator and when it will be available. Well silly rabbit, it’s been available for a while now. It’s just that it’s not available on many of the websites you regularly shop at.

Currently, the best place to purchase it is Buy.com, which is somewhat unfortunate as they don’t have the cleanest track record when it comes to making customers happy. Amazon.com is also said to have been stocking it, but I couldn’t find anything on their site.

Canadian e-tailer NCIX.com also sells it, but they are currently out of stock and are taking special orders. So while the NIA is a little difficult to acquire, it’s not impossible. Hopefully the likes of NewEgg will take stock soon.

As a side note, Buy.com also stocks their barebone gaming notebook, for what seems like a great deal at $656. Bear in mind that you will need to purchase the CPU, hard drive and RAM on the side, but they are readily available on popular e-tailers. Finally, a gamers DIY done (seemingly) right! For my brief thoughts on both the notebook and NIA, please check out our Computex coverage.

It works by reading the pressure from your face/head and interpreting the signals to commands that a computer game can understand. Each time you play, you will need to run the calibrator for the most accurate control, and when done, you’ll be able to configure certain aspects to your liking.

Source: Computex ’08 Roundup

Today, Blizzard confirmed the inevitable. At the company’s World Wide Invitational, they broke the news that Diablo 3 was in development, and have since provided tons of promotional material on their website. Fortunately for most fans, they plan on keeping true to the original hack-and-slash Diablo formula, while updating the graphics and a few key gameplay elements.

Shacknews runs down the new feature set:

• Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary–the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.
• Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past: such as the fierce Barbarian.
• Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage–all powered by the Havoc physics system.
• Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier–and cooperative gameplay more fun.

Among these features, expect to see new classes, environmental destruction, larger enemies and a new health mechanism that doesn’t require drinking potions.

If you need to gauge my excitement for the game (especially after seeing the trailers), just know that my mouse is going to hate me.

PhysX is getting a lot of attention right now, but the reasons vary wildly. Since we haven’t taken a look at the technology in a while, this article’s goal is to see where things stand. We’ll also be taking an in-depth look at GPU PhysX performance, using both 3DMark Vantage and UT III.

Ahh, the summer is here, and the next two months hold some great conferences and trade shows, such as the Intel Developer Forum, NVISION and the first ASUS Republic of Gamers convention. But that’s far from all. One I’ll be attending next month is HOPE, or Hackers on Planet Earth.

This conference takes place bi-annually in New York City, at the historic Hotel Pennsylvania. That hotel is set to meet its grim fate next year, as it will be torn down to make more room for, get this… a new office building! So, this is the last conference to be held there, hence the theme, "The Last Hope".

For those unaware, HOPE is a conference that’s sole purpose is to inform. All of the keynotes and workshops revolve around hacking in some regard, and it’s almost impossible to find a subject here you will not be interested in. Of course, we all know that hacking doesn’t always equal evil, but rather is a great hobby that involves learning and tinkering – both very good things.

For a list of all the talks, check out the complete list of official ones. Some notable speakers are Steve Rambam, Mitch Altman, Adam Savage and Steven Levy, but there are countless other great speakers and topics scheduled as well. If anyone here is planning to make the conference, feel free to post in the thread, and perhaps we could meet up!

There will be three days and nights of speakers along with all sorts of activities to keep you entertained and enlightened. We have a tremendous amount of space for us to make use of and it’s all right in the middle of the city, across the street from Penn Station. You still have time to get involved in this historic event, whether by attending, volunteering, speaking, or creating something new that none of us have thought of yet.

Source: The Last HOPE

NVIDIA is the target of a lot of backlash the past week, since releasing updated PhysX drivers that optimize higher-end GPUs to handle the workload. The drivers themselves aren’t the problem, but rather inflated 3DMark Vantage scores. Because the benchmark utilizes PhysX libraries in a few tests, adding in acceleration can increase the overall score by a fair margin, putting NVIDIA cards right into the leaderboards.

In a normal system, the algorithms are sent straight to the processor, and as you are probably aware, the processor isn’t so good for specific calculations like this, whereas the GPU excels, and that’s evident by running this test. Many are calling NVIDIA cheaters, but I think they are far from it. The physics calculations have just shifted from the CPU to the GPU, where they calculate faster.

Why people care so much about high 3DMark scores is beyond me, but what many are overlooking is the fact that this driver not only inflates what is apparently the most important number in computing, but it also opens up PhysX capabilities in any of the games that support it, including Unreal Tournament III. I gave this a quick test last night and was impressed. Finally, cool physics done from a GPU in a game people actually play.

Right now it’s limited to higher-end GPUs, and from quick tests, I believe it might be due to the amount of processing power the physics actually need. I’ll be testing it more, and report further when I have a few findings. If you have a 9800 GTX or GTX 260 / 280, feel free to give them a go.

During the benchmark install, a runtime library is updated to allow the test to run on the GPU and then during the test, it addresses the benchmark DLLs to the GPU instead of the PPU or CPU. Nothing within the benchmark is changed at all. No software libraries or even a line of code changes in the benchmark whatsoever. The only thing that changes is that installer, nothing else.

Source: HotHardware

ATI’s All-In-Wonder cards might have been killed off in 2006, but they are being brought back to life now in the form of the All-In-Wonder HD. The new card is based on the Radeon HD 3650, offers all of the benefits of the TV Wonder series and is priced at $199.

Proper competition from AMD in the mid-range scheme of things might have taken a while to happen, but it does happen with the HD 4000 series. We are taking a look at the smaller of the two new models, which offers exceptional performance for the price of $200.

It’s still a bit early to instill confidence in rumors, but this one seems reasonable. Industry-tracking site DigiTimes is reporting that by the end of the year, Intel will launch three different processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture. The fastest model will debut at 3.2GHz, similar to today’s LGA775-based QX9770, while the others will be clocked at 2.93GHz and 2.66GHz.

If history is any indicator, Intel will launch the 3.2GHz part first and label it as part of the ‘Extreme’ series. After some time has passed, they’ll follow-up with the lower-clocked offerings, which are still likely to be priced higher than current Yorkfield mid-range offerings.

As we are already aware, the X58 chipset will launch at the same time as the first processor’s launch, which will end what we know as the FSB, thanks to the introduction of the QuickPath Interconnect architecture. As for further specifics, such as pricing and model names, that won’t be known until later this year, though leaks are sure to happen before then.

In other news, Intel has updated its processor schedule in will begin to phase out its Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and 6800 after July this year, the sources revealed. Additionally, the performance-level quad-core Q9550 and Q9650 will both phase out in the first quarter of 2009. Intel will leave its quad-core Yorkfield processors for the mainstream market and their life cycle will not end until the end of fourth quarter 2009.

Source: DigiTimes

As I recently explained in our ASUS U6E 12.1" review, bigger is no longer necessarily better. Today, most people are not satisfied with their PCs unless it’s small, quiet and robust. Hard to put all three of those together, but it can be done. Well, there still linger people who think that bigger is better, and wow, does Lian Li have you covered.

The company has just released their Tyr X2000 ‘HTPC/Gaming Chassis’, that’s not so much large as it is FREAKING HUGE. As you can see in the photo below, it’s capable of supporting a full eATX motherboard with plenty of room for airflow. At the bottom can be found hard drive bays for six drives, with no real expandability past that. But when was the last time you really used more than SIX hard drives?

I digress. On top, a power supply can be mounted in addition to your ODDs and 3.25" accessory, be it a floppy drive (??) or something else. Pricing is not mentioned in the press release, but chances are if you have to ask, it’s not going to be for you.

Update: It looks like the selling price will be around $520USD. The case will only be available to the US through NewEgg, in systems that they apparently pre-build to sell. Canada and the rest of the world will sell the case naked via the usual e-tailers.

The Tyr X2000 is aligned to become the most unique HTPC/Gaming Chassis on the market today allowing unprecedented high performance components to be encompassed in the home theatre environment without compromising on looks and appeal. The stylish and unique side panels accept 2x 5.25" Optical Device Drives and one 3.5" drive, which are accessible from either the left or right side, while the front face is for ergonomics and airflow. The 6x hot swap RAID SATA HDD bays can contain terabytes of multimedia for your viewing pleasure while the spaciously zoned interior can accommodate virtually any system you can think of.

Source: Lian Li Tyr X2000 Microsite

If you are excited about the GPU market right now, then good, you sure have the right to be. It’s been a little while since ATI released a GPU to cause alarm for NVIDIA, but it’s happening now with the HD 4850. Despite being a mid-range offering, it’s more powerful than what would be considered high-end just a few months ago, and that, in itself, is impressive to think about.

Though our review is not yet ready, I couldn’t help but make a post and build up some anticipation. The main reason for excitement would be the fact that the HD 4850 is faster in almost all of our tests than NVIDIA’s 9800 GTX. The reason that’s impressive is because the HD 4850 debuts with a $200 price tag. In most of the games we’ve tested, even 2560×1600 proved more than playable… especially with Half-Life 2 and Call of Duty 4.

Overclocking is not entirely impressive, but still reasonable. The fact is though, if you have this card, you should find little need to even want to overclock it, unless you are one of those who feels dirty unless there is a good OC in place. Add to the fact that the card at stock speeds is hot, overclocking feels even less important.

Credit: Techgage / Rob Williams

Right now, the HD 4850 is a fantastic choice for someone looking to spend $200 on a new GPU. For those looking for something smaller, I still whole heartily recommend NVIDIA’s 9600 GT, because at ~$140, it’s still the king of that segment. Considering how much more power could be had for that extra $60 though, it can be a difficult decision to make.

The best part of the HD 4850 is the fact that it’s available right now at numerous popular e-tailers. NewEgg alone offers eight different models… all priced at $199.99. NVIDIA will launch their 9800 GTX+ next month, which might shake up the decision-making process a little bit. That will most likely ride on pricing, though, so don’t be surprised to see this new card even lower than its $199.99 SRP by that time.

Last Thursday, I posted about the upcoming ASUS Republic of Gamers convention, and already there is a major change. Due to scheduling issues, the convention has been pushed back from July 18 – 20 to August 8 – 10. Despite the change, we’ll still be there with bells on.

For the uninformed, the Republic of Gamers convention is essentially one big LAN party, with hopes to bring in around 1,000 gamers. It takes place at the Hyatt Regency right in the heart of Dallas, Texas. The event will be BYOC and BYON (bring-your-own notebook). Food will cost, but some should be free, with the rest being very cheap.

In addition to the LAN party itself will be a few workshops, one handled by Kyle Bennett of Hard|OCP. Overall, it should be quite an interesting time, and I for one am extremely interested to see how well this one goes. If it goes well, we can be sure to see it happen as an annual event.

Welcome to the Republic Of Gamers Convention, brought to you by ASUS and Intel. ROGCon will be heating up Dallas, Texas this August 8th to 10th by bringing old school LAN party fun to a whole new level. ROGCon will be open to the public and will feature a 24-hour BYOC where 700 gamers can show-off their skills.

Source: Republic of Gamers Convention