Content and news by Rob Williams

Cases & Enclosures
• ICY DOCK Modiflash 722 Mobile Dock – Pro-Clockers
• Ultra Defender & Grid Cases – 3D Gameman

Cooling
• Antec Notebook Cooler S – XYZ Computing
• Thermaltake TMG AT2 – techPowerUp!
• Vantec IceberQ 6 VGA Cooling Kit – Virtual-Hideout
• Vizo Sleet DDR Cooler – DragonSteelMods

Motherboards & Processors
• abit AN9 32X – techFEAR
• ABIT IN9 32X-MAX First Look – TweakTown
• Foxconn 975X7AB – Viper Lair
• NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Chipset Of nForce 600i Series For Intel – Digit-Life

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Altec Lansing FX5051 USB 5.1 – EverythingUSB
• Anydrive 3 – BurnoutPC
• Edifier MP-300 Portable 2.1 Multimedia Speakers – ModTheBox
• Icemat Siberia In:Ear – XS Reviews
• Super Talent Mega Screen MP3 Player – Bjorn3D
• Tagan Turbo Jet 1100W Power Supply – Big Bruin
• Ultra X-Finity 500W APFC – Overclockers Online
• X-micro VDO MP4 F610 Media Player – Overclockers Club

Displays & Video Cards
• ASUS GeForce EN8800GTX – Motherboards.org
• XFX Geforce 8800 GTX – TweakPC

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• Building an affordable AM2 Gaming System – TechSpot
• Foxconn And EVGA Motherboard Give-Away – GamePyre
• Netgear EVA700 – BIOS Magazine
• NVIDIA Pushes Vista to a Whole ‘Nother Level – Digital Trends
• Ubuntu: The Imperfect Operating System Alternative to Windows – TweakNews

Microsoft’s solution is for users to buy another $99 20GB Xbox 360 hard drive and to use a $40 memory card to store your gamer profile. The simple alternative would be to just allow gamers to use their own external hard drives and USB thumb drives for downloads, but that isn’t likely to happen…at…all.

What a sick “solution”. To download high-def content, they recommend you paying $100 for a measly 20GB worth of space. The easier solution would be to release a 100GB version of the drive and sell it for the same price. They’d still be making huge coin, and at least THAT would sell.

Microsoft announced today that Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing. Vista will mark the first big shift in Microsoft consumer operating systems in over 5 years. With Vista, Microsoft promises increased security with an improved firewall and Windows Defender and User Account Control. Other fresh additions include integrated desktop search, Internet Explorer 7.0, Windows Sidebar, Windows Sideshow, built-in system diagnostics, improved gaming support, fully integrated Speech Recognition as well as support for Windows SuperFetch, Windows ReadyBoost and Windows ReadyDrive.

It’s happening folks… no turning back now! For better or for worse, it’s on the way. Oddly, I am looking forward to Vista, only to see how things pan out. Things can’t get much worse security wise… right?

Who says Microsoft has not got broad shoulders. Witness this neat little app – BlueScreen Saver 3.2 – available for download from Microsoft’s very own website. Could it be that Microsoft has developed an unexpectedly wry sense of humor? Or maybe it just wants to get its back on whiney sysadmins – (what the hell are they still doing with NT, anyway).

Maybe Microsoft has a good sense of humor afterall. Now they should release the screensaver for Linux and Mac!

ASUS today announced its new Striker Extreme motherboard for extreme enthusiasts. The new Striker Extreme is part of ASUS’ new Republic of Gamer series engineered for enthusiasts with a touch of style. The new Striker Extreme features NVIDIA’s recently announced nForce 680i SLI core-logic and rated to run processors up to a 1,333 MHz front-side bus. Intel quad-core processors and NVIDIA Quad-SLI technologies are also supported on the Striker Extreme.

This is a wicked looking board! It’s built specifically with enthusiasts in mind, so we can expect some insane tweaking ability here. This board also features the brand new 680i SLI chipset, and fully supports Quad-Core Kentsfields. If there is a downside to this board, it would have to be the price… $400!

Like a particularly devastating “summon” spell, Square Enix bombarded North American retailers last week with 1.5 million copies of Final Fantasy XII. The publisher announced today that the mass shipment represents the largest day-one North American availability of any game in the publisher’s history.

Kudos to Square Enix on this one! Despite the fact that it’s on an “old” console, it sure seems to be selling like hot cakes, especially in Japan.

International Data Group (IDG), which is also responsible for the MacWorld Expo and many other events, will be holding the show on October 18-20, 2007, confirming previous reports. Unlike E3, the event will be open to the public.

Since this is a public event, I hate to think of how packed this place will be. E3 was filled to the brim as it was! It’s also difficult to tell at this point how exactly this will compare to E3 overall. At least someone took the initiative to replace E3… that’s all that matters ;-)

Fremont, CA (November 8, 2006) –Corsair, a worldwide leader in high performance enthusiast computer products, today launched the world’s fastest DDR2 memory, the TWIN2X2048-9136C5D DOMINATOR. Designed for the new NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI media and communications (MCP)-based motherboards, the new DOMINATOR extends Corsair’s leadership in ultra high performance memory.

You can read the full release here.

Sunnyvale, CA—November 8, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative ultra high performance and high reliability memory, today unveiled the new and improved OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready branded memory product family. The new PC2-7200 SLI-Ready and PC2-8500 SLI-Ready modules now feature the first ever exclusively designed heatspreader for NVIDIA.

You can read the full release here.

WALTHAM, Mass. – Nov. 7, 2006 – Novell today published additional details on the agreements announced with Microsoft on Nov. 2, outlining the substantial commitment made by both companies to address customers’ growing requirement for Windows and Linux interoperability. The details were made available by Novell in a filing with the SEC. The financial terms of the agreements include payments for pre-paid SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions, sales, marketing and development commitments, and payments under the patent cooperation agreement. The company also provided answers to a series of questions raised by the open source community in an FAQ posted on its website. Novell reinforced its commitment to working with the open source community and to fully meet the requirements of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”) which governs the distribution of Linux and other free software.

You can read the full release here.

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Seoul, Korea, Nov. 8, 2006 – Intel Corporation announced today the industry’s first volume shipments of 65-nanometer (nm) NOR flash Multi-Level Cell (MLC) products, including the industry’s first 65nm 1Gigabit (Gb) monolithic part for cell phones. These new products are based on Intel’s StrataFlash® Cellular Memory (M18) architecture and are drop-in compatible with Intel’s high-volume, 90nm-based flash chips, ensuring an easy migration path for cellular Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs.)

You can read the full release here.

Cases & Enclosures
• Silverstone LC16M – OC Modshop
• Thermaltake Mozart TX – Virtual-Hideout

Cooling
• Noctua NF-S12 120mm Fan – ModTheBox
• Scythe Kama Bay 5.25 System Cooler – HardwareXL
• Zalman CNPS9700 LED Cpu Cooler – Red & Blackness

Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium – TweakTown
• Nvidia nForce 680i SLI Chipset – Tech Report

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Apevia Iceberg 680w Power Supply – OCIA
• Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller (Playstation 2) – Bjorn3D
• Polycom Communicator C100S USB Skype Phone – Buzz Me Baby!
• SteelSound 5Hv2 – TweakNews
• Ultra Fan Commander – Modders-Inc
• Zippy (EMACS) GSM-6600P and PSL-6720P Power Supplies – Big Bruin

Displays & Video Cards
• BFG 8800 GTX & XFX 8800 GTS – Technic3D
• Say Hello To DirectX 10 – Digit-Life
• XFX GeForce 8800 GTX and eVGA 8800 GTS – Legit Reviews

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• 2006 Holiday Game Guide – Digital Trends
• Anatomy of a Podcast: White Roof Radio – TheTechLounge
• Brando USB LED Music Xmas Tree – DragonSteelMods
• Overclockers Online Birthday Contest – Overclockers Online

One of the most popular racing franchises is back with their thirteenth installment. The game takes the best of “Underground” and “Most Wanted” to deliver an exhilarating experience.

The day many have been waiting for is finally here, the launch of G80. For those unaware, these are much more powerful cards than last gen, and are the first to support DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0. Of course, there are many reviews around the web:

DirectX 10 isn’t here yet, DirectX 10 games aren’t here yet. Do you really need this video card now? We can’t answer that for you, but we can say by looking at our evaluation data that we’ve seen real benefits in the here and now with today’s games. We were able to run at higher in-game settings, higher resolutions, higher antialiasing settings, faster performance and better image quality all around. – Hard|OCP

Amazing! That is the long and short of what we have covered today. To keep with tradition, Nvidia has these new cards available right now. There are e-tailers willing to sell them to you if you wish to spend the suggested price of $599 for GeForce 880GTX and $449 for GeForce 8800GTS. After seeing the results and what will be in store for the future, let us leave you with one more thought: the games are just around the bend, and not only will DX10 hardware play them when they arrive, but more importantly, they can play your games better NOW. – Toms Hardware

The 8800 GTX will consume about 125W of power, and NVIDIA recommends at least a 450W power supply and about double if you’re going to setup SLI. That said, the latest 8th generation GPUs from NVIDIA is about efficiency as well. Despite going up from 82W (7900GTX) to 125W, their performance per Watt has jumped nearly 100% in synthetic testing. We’re still in the process of benchmarking, but we can tell you that performance has increased dramatically. – Viper Lair

Each year we reviewers write how impressed we are with a new generation graphics cards. This year it’s a little more than that. Not only did the performance increase. Nope, we have a new version of DirectX, Shader model, architecture and yes higher raw computing graphics card. – Guru3D

NVIDIA’s new GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX cards are mighty strong performers. Throughout our entire battery of benchmarks, both cards put up framerates at, or near the top of the charts. The GeForce 8800 GTS outperformed a GeForce 7900 GTX in every test we ran. It did, however, missed the mark set by a Radeon X1950 XTX in a couple of high-resolution tests, and trailed a GeForce 7950 GX2 on a few occasions, but the features and enhanced image quality offered by the 8800 GTS offset any of these results in our opinion. – HotHardware

Here is a quick list of other reviews:

• Bjorn3D – XFX 8800GTX
• Boot Daily – MSI 8800GTX
• GamePyre – eVGA 8800GTS
• Neoseeker – BFG 8800GTS
• Nordic Hardware – NVIDIA 8800GTX
• Hexus – NVIDIA 8800GTX
• Motherboards.org – XFX 8800GTS
• techPowerUp! – NVIDIA 8800 Preview
• Tech Report – NVIDIA 8800

And related articles:

• DailyTech – NVIDIA Announces nForce 600i Family
• HotHardware – NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
• Toms Hardware – What Direct3D 10 Is All About

At a recent Microsoft event to promote upcoming games and the new Video-On-Demand service, a retail Xbox 360 unit was shown with an 80GB hard drive installed. While it’s 20GB short of the previously rumoured 100GB hard drive, it still offers a fourfold increase in storage capacity for users to download their new content onto.

This time, it’s not a hoax. The fact that they so easily allowed the “70GB Free” to be seen should be a good indicator that one is on the way. Finally, I may be able to download a new demo without clearning the last one off first!

There are choices for the photographer who wants a combination of manual and automatic options in a 10-megapixel sub-$1000 DSLR. In this comparison review, we’re looking at the three most prominent cameras – the Sony Alpha A100, the Canon Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80.

I don’t agree entirely with the authors conclusions, but after reading through the article you may have a good idea of what you are looking for. I personally love the D80 due to it’s great build and image quality, and also the huge collection of compatible lenses. The Canon is also great this this regard. All three cameras are priced right for the most part, but you will want to dig deep and ask around before you jump on such a decision.

Microsoft has a solution: the “Windows Internet Computer Name” — a unique domain name for your computer. There is one small catch though: you have to be using the next-generation networking protocol IPv6 which, although thoroughly integrated into Windows Vista, isn’t supported by most home routers yet.

IPv6 has been around for a while, but has not been picked up quick. Will Vista be the final push to get the technology to become commonplace? I guess it would depend on how useful the feature for Vista is. Of course, if you are more tech saavy, you could setup your own domain to access your computer remotely while avoiding IPv6.

Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead. In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn’t get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened.

Even more proof that some things just shouldn’t be left entirely to technology. Of course, nothing will be done about this, and who can be sure the overall results will be accurate at all?

Since the announcement of the Novell-Microsoft agreement on November 2, we have been flooded with questions from the open source community about what this deal means to the Linux, the open source community, and even what this deal means for Novell. We will use this page to answer as many of those questions as possible.

While these answers make sense for the mostpart, they do nothing to instill faith that this is going to work out. Could Novell have opened a door that leads to their demise? Probably not, but with the hardcore reaction from the community, it’s not going to be a smooth ride. On a side note, Microsoft has just passed Novell a nice, big sum of cash.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 2006 – Intel Corporation today announced at the Web 2.0 Conference today that it is collaborating with several software companies on the launch of SuiteTwo, a business Internet suite. The integrated suite, a family of interconnected services combined to improve productivity and enable high-engagement marketing, is comprised of business Web 2.0 capabilities from leading software companies, including Six Apart, Socialtext, NewsGator, SimpleFeed and SpikeSource.

You can read the full release here.