Content and news by Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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Rob's Recent Content

Review Roundup for Oct 16

Published on October 16, 2006

NVIDIA nForce 680i Board Image Leaked

An image of an upcoming NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI based motherboard has been leaked on the AnandTech forums. DailyTech previously reported NVIDIA was replacing its nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition with the nForce 680i SLI. The motherboard is manufactured by eVGA and appears to be an enthusiast offering.

nForce 680i aside, this is a great looking motherboard! Of course, it’s not looks that matter but the performance, and we will obviously not be learning of that for a little while.

Published on October 14, 2006

AMD + ATI acquisition near complete

MARKHAM, Ontario – October 13, 2006 – ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) shareholders voted overwhelmingly today to approve the proposed acquisition of all outstanding common shares of ATI by an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). More than 99 per cent of the votes cast by shareholders were in favor of the transaction. No ATI shareholders have exercised rights of dissent in connection with the proposed acquisition.

This is one of the smallest press releases to come out of AMD, but one of the most important. Shareholders agree to the acquisition, so now they only need the courts approval. It’s unlikely that there will be any sort of objection, so the acquisition should be finalized on Oct 23… just 10 days away.

Published on October 13, 2006

G4 Folds Into E! Tent

Comcast is consolidating its West Coast entertainment networks, bringing G4 management under the E! Networks tent. E! and Style chief Ted Harbert has been given the newly created title of CEO, Comcast Entertainment Group. He will continue to report to Comcast Programming Group President Jeff Shell. G4 President Neal Tiles, who joined the network in September 2005, will now report to Mr. Harbert. G4’s executive staff will move into E!’s Los Angeles offices. Sources said layoffs among the G4 staff are likely, though Mr. Harbert said it’s too soon to tell.

When G4 merged with TechTV, many people were laid off. I emphasize “many”. Since that time, the entire network has turned into a huge Hollywood-type drizzle that simply was not “geeky”. Will this new change kill off more decent shows? Time will tell.

Published on October 13, 2006

PhysX goes PCI Express

AGEIA HAS ANNOUNCED the PhysX product line is to get a new boost, with the inclusion of a PCI Express based board. The PhysX PCI Express cards will be available, integrated into new PCs in time for this Christmas from “Ageia’s leading OEM system manufacturers” the firm said.

It’s no surprise that this is happening, but it’s definitely later than sooner. Launch PhysX’s should have been PCI-E, really. That aside, we still need to see way more supported content before one of these cards are truly worth the retail price.

Published on October 13, 2006

Novell will switch from ReiserFS to ext3

Coincidentally, the day Mahoney posted the proposal, Reiser’s house was searched by the police in connection to the disappearance of his wife. Mahoney claims his proposal was posted several hours before the news concerning Reiser broke and the timing was purely coincidental. On October 10, Reiser was arrested, based on circumstantial evidence linking him to his wife’s disappearance.

This is something I’ve predicted since I first learned about Nina Reiser. This would have be one mammoth coincidence… hardly believeable. Regardless, this should prove for the better anyway as ext development is strong.

Published on October 13, 2006

VoodooPC Shares All About HP Acquisition

DailyTech: Just to clarify, VoodooPC approached HP, and not the other way around, correct?

Rahul Sood: Correct. We started discussions with HP in January of 2005. I had face to face meetings with some HP people in July of 2005 as well. After Mark Hurd came into the picture things moved very quickly.

That’s quite interesting actually. I would have easily figured it to be the other way around. To glean much more information, definitely check out the full interview.

Published on October 13, 2006

More US and Canada PS3, Wii Pre-orders

EB Games Canada stores will begin accepting limited pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles on Monday, October 16, on a first come, first served basis. Due to extremely limited supply, we expect to reach our limit very quickly, most likely in minutes.

The question is.. is it even worth it to get up early and go pre-order, when the chances are so low? You have to act fast… I am still considering it.

Published on October 13, 2006

Review Roundup for Oct 13

    Motherboards & Processors
  • Abit AW9D Max – Overclock3D

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • Google, YouTube, and Apple – Digital Trends
  • Windows Vista RC2 Preview – TweakTown
Published on October 13, 2006

OCZ PC2-9000 Titanium Alpha VX2 DFI Special Edition

OCZ has been having a killer year so far, and they don’t seem to be planning on slowing down. They recently announced their highest rated memory, the PC2-9000 DFI Special Edition. Does it deliver?

Published on October 13, 2006

Principal sues students, parents over MySpace page

Anna Draker, who works at Clark High School in San Antonio, knows the kids behind the site well. She had been forced to discipline them several times, and was aware of their animosity to her, but apparently did not suspect the lengths to which they would go to get a bit of revenge. Ben Schreiber and Ryan Todd set up a MySpace page in Draker’s name earlier this year which “indicated by implication and by direct statement that Ms. Draker is a lesbian, which she is not.”

This is becoming increasingly common, but it’s interesting to see that it’s not only kids being affected. I’m actually all for Draker and hope to see her at least get the point across. This is just a new way, and an easy way, to publically humiliate people on a larger scale.

Published on October 12, 2006

DFI LANParty UT RD600-T2R/G first pictures

DFI has almost readied its long awaited RD600 motherboard, and a few pictures of the board have already been leaked to DailyTech. The new motherboard will carry DFI’s established LANParty UT branding and cater towards enthusiasts. As previously reported the board is named LANParty UT RD600-T2R/G.

The board has few notable features, some similar to what the SLI-M2R/G AM2 board had. Four S-ATA ports located on the side of the board, and another four in a standard spot. Fan connectors are well placed… much better than previous DFI boards. The biggest improvement may very well be the fact that your GPU’s will -not- hit the southbridge. About time.

Published on October 12, 2006

AMD LIVE! PCs from Dell, Alienware Now Available

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. — October 11, 2006 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the availability of new AMD LIVE!™ PCs from Alienware and Dell, expanding the selection of popular, easy-to-use PCs designed to help simplify today’s digital lifestyle. The AMD LIVE! PC is a full-featured media center computer powered by the award-winning AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor and created to enrich consumers’ experiences when enjoying digital movies, music and photos throughout the home and on the go.

This is a huge win for AMD and equally huge loss for Intel. You can read the full press release here.

Published on October 12, 2006

Intel launches an IT blog

Welcome to the IT@Intel blog. This site features several of Intel’s top IT leaders, who share their perspectives and invite discussion on the issues they and other IT managers are facing today. The blog offers an “inside look” at Intel’s IT operations and provides opportunities for you to exchange ideas directly with the IT experts who keep Intel’s business running and growing.

Now all Intel buffs have a blog to refer to! So far it’s been kept well updated, so it should prove to be some good reading.

Published on October 12, 2006

KDE 3.5.5 Released

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.5, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE now supports 65 languages, making it available to more people than most non-free software and can be easily extended to support others by communities who wish to contribute to the open source project.

You can read all about it here. Nothing new seems to really grab my attention, but over 1,200 updates are included. If you are still using an older version of KDE, it may be a worthy upgrade.

Published on October 12, 2006

Corsair Launches Nautilus GPU Water Cooling Blocks

Fremont, CA (October 11, 2006) – Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance enthusiast computer products, took its acclaimed water cooling product line to a new level today with the release of the Nautilus GPU water blocks supporting the latest NVIDIA® GeForce™based graphics cards in both single and dual SLI™ configurations. The Corsair Nautilus GPU water blocks are the perfect accessory for the Corsair Nautilus500 external liquid cooling system, and other third party liquid cooling solutions that utilize 3/8” tubing.

You can read the full release right here.

Published on October 12, 2006

Psychonauts now available

Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of digital entertainment products, and Valve® announce Psychonauts is now available on Steam®, the leading online platform for PC games, for $19.99. Psychonauts is Double Fine Productions’ critically acclaimed, mind-bending comedic action / adventure about a young circus performer’s desperate quest to save a summer camp for psychics from a mysterious, brain-stealing lunatic.

You can learn more of this strange game here. To purchase, just hop on Steam and do your thing!

Published on October 12, 2006

Review Roundup for Oct 12

    Cases & Enclosures
  • Zalman FC-ZE1 Fatal1ty Chassis – Hexus

    Memory & Storage
  • Corsair Flash Readout 1GB Flash Drive – Think Computers

    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Frontier Labs NEXBlack – Bjorn3D
  • SteelSeries SteelSound 5H V2 – Phoronix
  • X-MICRO X-VDO MP4 F610 Player – 3D Gameman

    Displays & Video Cards
  • DirectX 10 Interview with Microsoft – Boot Daily
  • Gigabyte 7600GT Silent-pipe II – ClubOC
  • NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.9291 – NGOHQ

Published on October 12, 2006

Logitech releases new $99 5.1 speakers

The X-540 system enables people to enjoy the experience of surround sound even with two-channel audio sources, by including matrix surround-sound technology. And for those playing games using a flat-panel display with no convenient place to set a center-channel speaker, Logitech’s patent-pending integrated center-channel clip gracefully and securely attaches the speaker atop the monitor, saving desk space. With a dedicated center channel and acoustically matched front and rear satellites, the Logitech X-540 system produces balanced surround sound.

This looks like quite the solid setup.. over 140W into a sub $100 set is nice! You can read a lot more on the new kit here.

Published on October 11, 2006

Go get your PS3 Pre-Order! Oops, too late

Those hoping to get their hands on a PlayStation 3 at launch time had today circled on their calendars. More precisely, this morning. GameStop and EB Games started taking preorders for the very limited number of consoles they will have available at launch time. Launch quotas appeared to vary by store, but were generally in the 5-16 PS3 range, and GameStop warned would-be PS3 buyers that their supplies would evaporate quickly.

If you are in Canada, you may still be in luck as the pre-orders have apparently not happened there.. yet. Still, to be sold out this quickly is insane. The sad fact is that many of the pre-orders popped up on eBay already… of course for no less than $1,000.

Published on October 11, 2006

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