Content and news by Rob Williams

After almost three months, Linux 2.6.17 has been released. The changes include support for Sun Niagara CPUs, a new I/O mechanism called ‘splice’ which can improve the performance greatly for some applications, a scheduler domain optimized for multicore machines, driver for the widely used broadcom 43xx wifi chip (Apple’s Airport Extreme and such)..

There are a lot of changes, but the site that has the list is under a slashdot attack. Read about it at here, and upgrade if you are feeling brave.

A burglary of an ING Financial Services agent’s home has left 13,000 District of Columbia workers and retirees at risk. The Social Security numbers and other personal data of the workers were stored on a laptop that the ING worker took home. The theft reportedly took place on Monday, June 12, but the company waited several days to confirm what pieces of data were on the laptop. After a delayed response from the company, it was revealed the laptop was not password-protected and the sensitive data was not encrypted.

Do these companies think? If I have a computer that contains private information of over 10,000 people, you can be bet it would be encrypted, let alone password protected.

What is needed for the developing world is a new kind of computer. Something durable, able to stand long journeys over poor or even non-existent road systems. A computer that can get a working supply of electricity without needing a stable power infrastructure. A system that can offer networking, web access and all the trappings of a modern western workstation using only free software. Most importantly it has to be a system that can be built from scratch for as little money as possible, with the magic number being touted as only $100 US, meaning that countries can afford to buy them.

If you haven’t heard about the OLPC yet, check it out. It’s amazing just how feature packed the laptop is for a projected $100. They also list direct competitors, but the laptop still looks the best.

At $299, Ageia’s card is expensive. Admittedly, enthusiasts are used to paying a lot for their cutting-edge gear, while in this case the actual value that the card offers games has yet to be seen. Graphics cards sold today support HDR rendering and pixel-shader effects, the benefits of which are easy to see in countless screen shots published everywhere on the Internet. However, most people do not know what the advantages of Ageia’s physics card are.

If you are still unsure whether the PhysX is worth it at this point in time, maybe this article will help. It appears the PhysX has really odd behavior during lan play, and they have the video to prove it.

Peter du Preez the Content Editor and Marketing Manager of Abit, graciously invited Driver Heaven to their headquarters in Taipei Taiwan. Along with the questions, we were able to see and show their upcoming motherboard lines for the new Conroe, M2, and Viiv platforms. With the new branding, the new logo, what’s in store for Abit?

If you are an abit fan, then you can appreciate the tour Driver Heaven took. It looks like they may be moving over to heatpipe chipset coolers soon, and the rumor is confirmed: No more GPUs.

Cases & Enclosures
• Silverstone TJ07 – Xtreme Computing

Cooling
• Swiftech MCX159-CU – Bjorn3D
• Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II Northbridge Chipset Cooler – Red & Blackness
• Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 Cooler – Pro-Clockers

Memory & Storage
• Patriot Memory 2GB PC2-5300 – Overclockers Online
• Thermaltake Muse eSATA – Technic3D

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Processors Price Guide – AnandTech

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Cooler Master iGreen Power Supply – Modders-Inc
• SilverStone Zeus ST75ZF 750w Power Supply – OCIA
• Sunbeamtech NUUO 550W Power Supply – Big Bruin
• Super Talent 2GB MEGA Screen MP3 Player – XYZ Computing
• VIZO Gemini Cordless Optical Mouse – Think Computers
• VIZO UFO 4 Port USB 2.0 Hub – Virtual-Hideout
• Zboard Merc Keyboard – XS Reviews

Video Cards & Monitor
• Asus EN7900GT – PC Stats
• GeForce 7600 GT and 7600 GS – Technic3D (German)
• Gigabyte GeForce 7300GT Turbo Force – Legion Hardware

Etcetera, Complete Systems & Contests
• Computex Day 4 Coverage – Motherboards.org
• Insider Information on the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 – Digital Trends
• Lenovo 3000 N100 – BIOS Magazine
• Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 Preview – Rojak Pot
• NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.9131 – NGOHQ

The biggest east coast LAN party to take place every year is held right in Louisville, Kentucky and known as MillionManLAN (and sometimes LanWar). It boasts a 1000 attendee event filled with never-ending fun, professional gaming tournaments, and a special Bring-Your-Own-Xbox section in addition to the normal Bring-Your-Own-Computer. This year the conventional LanWar was tied together with a new organization to host the World Series of Video Games.

Check out the full read at Think Computers.

The Thermaltake MUSE LanDisk is an external enclosure for one 3.5″ HDD. In addition to USB connections it also supports 10/100 MBit Ethernet making this a nice entry-level NAS system. The installation is extremely easy and can be performed without tools in a few minutes. When connected to the Ethernet interface a nice and easy to use web-based configuration page is available to change the settings.

Check out the full read at techPowerUp!.

The package consists of two 1024MB memory modules which have been implemented
using DDR SDRAM chips. The part number designation of this particular package
is suited to run on dual channel supported motherboards at 466MHz DDR (2.8v)
with a low latency setting of 3-3-2-8 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS).

Check out the full read at ModTheBox.

Sapphire is a well-known ATi partner. Their graphic cards and motherboards are popular world-wide. It seems that Sapphire has shipped many X1800GTO2 units to world-wide shops already. Sapphire introduced the GTO2 line with their X800 boards. The GTO2 name is quite popular due to its price, overclocking, and its high potential unlocking extra pipelines.

Check it out at NGOHQ.

Virtual-Hideout is at it again with their 14th consecutive weekly giveaway! Up for grabs this week is not one but TWO Large Tech Stations courtesy of HighSpeedPC.com! These babies are a must have for every computer geek. Entry is simple, just clean your workspace and submit a picture! Contest ends June 24th!

Check out the full details at Virtual-Hideout.

Data leaks are bad. Data leaks by government agencies are slightly more irritating. But how about a data leak at a government agency, thanks to a state employee getting a computer infected with a trojan by surfing porn? In another triumph for reactive security, the trojan sat on the computer undetected for four months, and only came to light after the employee got caught surfing porn at work and was fired.

Hard blocking porn from the computers could have prevented this to begin with, but now you know.. don’t surf porn at work.

The IcyDock MB453SPF-B multi-bay backplane module is a box the size of a couple optical drives stacked on top of one another that stores a handful of serial ATA hard drives in compact, individually hot swappable drive caddy’s. When internal hard drive space in a computer case is full, or if quick access to hard drives is called for, this box will allow you to add up to three SATA hard drives in the space normally occupied by two 5.25″ optical drives.

Now this is a great looking product. It would be useful if you need to hot swap OS’ constantly.

LR — With Intel’s next generation processor coming out, Core 2 Duo, what are your thoughts on the gaming industry? Should we expecting a busy summer or should buyers wait for Vista to launch in 2007.

AAC — That is a hard question to answer. Conroe is going to be something special. Between it and AM2 there will be many new products available. If I was buying now I would definitely make sure the system I build is ready for Vista. But I am expecting this summer to be pretty busy once people see the new processor (Core 2 Duo).

Check out the full interview at Legit Reviews.

Nexuiz, an open-source multi-platform game designed for
classic death-match game-play, has come yesterday with Nexuiz version
2.0. Nexuiz v2.0 comes just days after its one year anniversary of their
inaugural v1.0 release. While this isn’t like some free and open-source
games that have poor graphics, Nexuiz 2.0 is surprisingly good, and even
supports High Dynamic Range! Nexuiz 2 brings several competitive
features to the table such as a single-player campaign mode, new
particle effects system, and more. We at Phoronix have taken a quick
look at this latest update.

I have to admit, this game is looking good. Going to download it and give it a try.

Intel was first to adopt DDR2 memory when they had launched
their LGA-775 socket nearly two years ago with the Grantsdale and
Alderwood Chipsets. Intel Corporation is first again to introduce the
latest in memory technology: FB-DIMM. FB-DIMM is short for Fully
Buffered Dual Inline Memory Module, and is primarily designed for
mission-critical server environments that require maximum performance
with minimal errors. FB-DIMMs are designed to bring the best traits from
DDR2 memory while combining a new point-to-point serial memory
interface. Some of the key benefits for Fully Buffered DIMMs include
enhanced reliability, greater bandwidth, improved scalability, and
higher capacity per memory channel. We at Phoronix have the first
performance preview of the new DDR2 FB-DIMM memory modules on the Xeon
Greencreek platform.

These are the first benchmarks of any FB-DIMM I have seen, and it does obviously make a difference. As for the price though, that may be what will hold you back from a purchase for your server.

Coming out almost two months earlier then was originally
anticipated is the long-awaited Phoronix Forums. Yes, they are finally
here! We have expanded upon our leading Linux-based hardware reviews and
articles to now include more community involvement through the use of
our brand spankin’ new web-forums. While we will classify our forums as
Beta until early July, when they shall be officially announced, they are
ready for public testing today. During this time, we welcome any user
feedback — positive or negative — about our forums so that we are able
to prepare the appropriate changes in a timely fashion. We anticipate
that this will shortly turn into one of the largest Linux-centric
enthusiast hardware forums. Feel free to check out our forums, sign-up,
and provide any feedback.

I love the color scheme they chose for the forums, they look quite sharp. I think we could take a lesson. Check out their forums here.

Thermaltake has plans to make 1200W PSU. It should be ready in roughly two months time. The firm already has 800W and 1000W units almost ready and did demonstrate those at Computex but we learned that they won’t be the last of them for the 2006. We also learned that this PSU will have four lanes and some incredible number of Amps per power lane and it should cost around $/€250 at launch date.

Let’s be serious here. If you have a PC capable of remotely hitting 1200W, I want to see pictures. Either way, this thing is a true beast.

Microsoft has pulled the plug on Windows Vista Beta 2 downloads from VistaTorrent.com. It’s not really surprising considering that Microsoft had no control over the quality of the torrent being provided (despite Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington’s good intentions). Microsoft kindly worded its displeasure in the unauthorized distribution of its software to Chris and Jake in an email.

I may be one of the few who didn’t see this coming, because of the good intentions. Either way, if you are desperate for a torrent, I am sure some of the usual trackers house some.

AMD’s Opteron Revision “F,” or Opteron CPUs that use DDR2 memory, has officially been postponed to August 1, 2006 according to US distributors. The same US distributors earlier claimed that AMD would ditch its 2x1MB L2 cache components for the AM2 socket. AMD’s internal roadmap had originally proclaimed July 11, 2006 as the embargo date for the DDR2 Opterons, though almost immediately rumors that the new socket was delayed cropped up at The Inquirer.

If you were holding off your AM2 system build until Opterons were released, then your wait is now even longer. On the bright side, we should be seeing Intels ‘AMD’ killer released mid-July, which could change your perspective.