Content and news by Rob Williams

The vast majority of us can’t afford to drop over $1000USD on graphics hardware. Instead, we must approach our love for graphics in one of two ways. Either we need to determine the minimum level of graphical quality we are comfortable having, or we must look for the fastest card we can afford within a certain price range. What ever perspective one might have, the end result usually ends up somewhere near the topic of this article: midrange graphics cards.

If you are willing to spend just under $300 for a great mid-range GPU, it looks like you may want the X1900GT. Throw a few more dollars on top and you will wind up with a 7900GT. Both cards offer some great performance, as evidenced by the article. All the cards also seem to have some good overclocking headroom; It’s hard to go wrong with a purchase of any of the cards. Good situation to be in ;-)

A recent upgrade to the iTunes Producer software used by studios to encode tracks for iTMS distribution may be a good sign for the discriminating audiophile community, as Apple has included the necessary tools to create lossless AAC content that could presumably be uploaded to the online store.

If this happens, then great. The poor audio quality has always been one of my complaints regarding the service. However, if Lossless was to ever happen, there is no doubt that there would be a premium price. At that point, it just makes more sense (or cents) to go out and buy an album you to do what you please with. I’m skeptical, but looking forward to seeing if anything actually progresses.

How do we select our finalists? We evaluate hundreds of candidates—some suggested by readers, colleagues and friends, others discovered during countless hours of surfing. Many of this year’s choices are shining examples of Web 2.0: next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips.

I must be out of the loop, because I have only heard of 7 out of all 50 sites mentioned. Included are YouTube and MySpace of course, in addition to The Morning News, Digg and Google Spreadsheets. Yes, I said Google Spreadsheets, and I don’t get it either.

Hiper is back with a new iteration of the uber-bling PSU. Cunningly named the Type-R II, it continues the design ethic with a new twist for PSUs. Look at the back of the unit – just the ATX cable and another 80mm fan. So where are all the connections? That’s right – on the bottom.

Now this is a unique PSU. I am not sure if I’d enjoy the connectors running out the bottom, but it’s an interesting concept. Also through the link, they preview the upcoming FSP Booster.

On Friday, Apple Computer, which has delayed a quarterly regulatory filing amid a stock-options accounting probe, said that it has received a letter from Nasdaq warning that it’s not in compliance with the exchange’s rules.

This could result in being bad for Apple if things don’t shape up quickly. Is this a sign of bigger things to come? Probably not, but hopefully it gets sorted out soon.

Larry Scantlebury had the temerity to die before the case was resolved, though. Again, the cause of death is unknown, but the RIAA did get a hold of a death certificate. It was filed as support for a motion to “stay the case for 60 days and extend all deadlines 60 days,” filed by the record labels’ lawyers.

Just when you thought it could not get any worse, it happens. It’s incredible just how heartless these people are, and what they will do for an easy buck. Oh what a massive music strike would do…

Cooling
• Alphacool NexXxos NVXP-3 GPU Waterblock – Overclock3D
• Eddie EK FC79 7800/7900 GPU Block – Overclock3D
• Thermalright HR01 940/939 Passive Cooler – Xtreme Computing
• Thermaltake W2 GPU Waterblock- techPowerUp!

Memory & Storage
• Crucial DDR2 PC2-5300 ECC Memory – 3D Gameman
• Sima Hitch USB-101 transfer device- Hexus
• OCZ PC2-8000 Titanium Alpha VX2 – PC Modding Malaysia

Motherboards & Processors
• Abit KN9 Ultra – Phoronix
• ASUSTeK PW5 DH i975X – Hexus

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Enermax Liberty 500W – Modders-Inc
• Ergodex DX1 Input System – InsaneTek
• Levicom M-Power M450 – Cooling-Station (German)
• Logisys Clear Acrylic Blue EL Keyboard – DragonSteelMods
• OCZ GameXStream 700W – Overclockers Online
• OCZ GameXStream 700W – Technic3D (German)
• OCZ GameXStream 700W – Virtual-Hideout
• Razer Pro Solutions 1.6 – Bjorn3D
• Seasonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W – PC Stats
• Shure E4g Sound Isolating Earphones – XYZ Computing
• Steelpad 5L Mousepad – Think Computers
• X-Finity 2G – 600 Watt Power Supply – Pro-Clockers

Displays & Video Cards
• Samsung SyncMaster 244T 24″ WUXGA LCD Monitor – Bona Fide Reviews

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• HyperKore X-Treme Gaming System Giveaway – Modders-Inc

Are you looking for huge storage that won’t hurt the pocketbook? Easily done, since the 500GB RE2 drive we are looking at today retails for around $250. Does it have the performance you are looking for?

Now please keep in mind that this article is in no way a power supply review. You have not just witnessed some sort of weird five-way power supply shootout. There are so many good things to say about ALL of the power supplies I used today. For example, the voltage drop going from 0A to 11A on both the Antec NeoHE and Corsair HX620W was actually LESS than the FSP600-80GLC power supply with fixed cables. But the focus of today’s article was to simply clarify some of the fuzzy math used to create fud over modular power supplies, therefore we focused primarily on the drop from the power supply’s PCB to the load.

Not exactly a round-up, but even after reading you may have a good idea of which PSU to buy. You may just feel differently about modular supplies after reading.

Do you want a powerful, high tech and cheap hard disk? We alwas are looking for high performance products with low price, and this 250GB hard disk from Seagate is one of that products. Featuring NCQ, vertically storage and low noise is one of the bests hard disk on the market. Some weeks ago we tried one with 750GB and now we are presenting its little brother to you.

Not everyone wants the biggest and best hard drive out there, especially when 250GB models come so cheap! For a performance and in-depth look, check out the review here. The sites in Spanish, but the link will translate.

Desktop PC owners have enjoyed this level of flexibility for years and a migration to a Notebook platform quickly reminds us how we have taken this all for granted. Consumers are starting to demand the same level of flexibility that they enjoy with Desktop PCs now their Laptops, however. The large value-added resellers like Dell, HP and Sony have heard our cries and have begun offering more options on their products, but it’s still not enough for many people. Bare-bones laptops, coined “Whitebooks”, appeared on the scene promising to offer the same level of upgradeability and customization enjoyed by desktop barebones PCs.

This is a great article if you are wishing to build your own laptop. It will take a lot of effort though. Even moreso than building a complete desktop!

Is it worth $30? Hell yeah! The Fang didn’t automatically make me l337 (I’m still a Private-First Class in BF2), but it definitely helped make me a better gamer since access time to hard to reach keys or commands were at my fingertips. It kept me alive longer, and made my gameplay quicker and more precise.

This thing is surprisingly cool looking. Appears to have a great build quality also.

This week the Khronos group, which is responsible for developing and maintaining OpenGL, has released a report indicating that OpenGL support will now be natively supported in Vista without layering over Direct3D. Using standard Windows installable client driver (ICD), OpenGL will be fully accelerated and be fully compatible with Windows Vista’s Aeroglass UI. In fact, Khronos says that by the time Windows Vista ships, Aeroglass performance on OpenGL will be superior to that of Direct3D.

Performance is to be better using OpenGL, however the user is required to download the ICD manually in order to take advantage of it. At this point, anything that helps Vista run smoother is quite welcomed.

The fact that Dell would choose to pair mobile AMD processors with ATI chipsets and graphics controllers shouldn’t come as a surprise to many — there are already a number of AMD-based notebooks that use this combination. However, the news takes on an even greater significance now that AMD has acquired ATI. With AMD and ATI engineers working together as one to build powerful, high performance platforms with great stability for server, notebook and desktop platforms, it makes the products even more attractive to manufacturers.

Hardly surprising, but nothing wrong with it either. Only problem may arise for those hardcore gamers that desire multi-GPU in their AMD laptop. That fact may push some consumers to other manufacturers.

Jack Thompson – lunatic lawyer or genius marketing executive? I really can’t decide. He’s at it again, ensuring that Rockstar’s new game ‘Bully’ will become the most sought after title by kids everywhere this year. Once more he is trying to push for a ban on a software title that he admits that he’s never even seen.

Jack Thompson really is one guy most people love to hate. He gives us so many reasons to spite him, but he never slows down. It’s humorous that Anti-Bully activists actually appreciate the game, but that will not likely sway Mr. Thomspon in any way. Maybe he should watch the trailer before jumping to arms?

The second Beta for GNOME 2.16.0 is now out. GNOME 2.15.91 marks the API/ABI, feature, string, and UI freeze in the GNOME 2.16.0 candidate. We had used GARNOME with GNOME 2.16.0 Beta 2 and now have some visuals today showing a portion of the improvements in GNOME 2.16.

If you are pondering giving the beta version a try, check out some shots at Phoronix to decide. There haven’t been any groundbreaking changes, but it’s worthy of a look.

Nvidia notes in the reviewer’s guide that “Quad-SLI is designed for extreme HD gaming at 2560×1600 with very high levels of anti-aliasing and filtering (i.e. 8X SLI-AA and 16X-AF). At resolutions lower than 1920×1200 and with low filtering settings, CPU-bound behavior is more prominent, and Quad-SLI may perform a bit slower than standard SLI due to additional driver overhead managing four GPUs.”

If you are thinking of splurging on Quad-SLI, you will probably want to wait unless you plan on running 2560*1600 with high AA and AF. The main issue is the latencies at lower resolutions cause games at 1600*1200 and lower to actually run slower on Quad-SLI.

a Connecticut boy who has been very ambivalent about the fame part of the job since his breakout role as the young sci-fi geek in “Galaxy Quest,” was shocked at how deeply affected people have been by the ads. “I didn’t really know about computers,” he says. “I didn’t even have one — though I do now,” he adds quickly, “a Mac of course. But I was very surprised at how passionate people are about their computers, how deeply attached.”

The joys of advertising. I hated those commercials before, and even moreso now. If you hate them also, brace yourself as there are 20 more on the way.

A never-shipped 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP graphics card has popped up on eBay to tempt fans of historical GPUs. Speaking of fans, this boy has four of ’em, one each for the four VSA-100 graphics chips the board sports – along with 128MB of frame-buffer memory.

The card is currently at $685US, so most people will just want to browse. I think the most impressive thing about the card is the sheer size. It’s huge!