Content and news by Rob Williams

CUPERTINO, CALIF. AND SUNNYVALE, CALIF., – JUNE 14, 2006 – Raza Microelectronics, Inc. (RMI®), a worldwide leader in advanced semiconductor solutions for the next-generation Information Infrastructure, and AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that the two companies have entered into a broad strategic relationship. As a key part of this cooperation, RMI will acquire the MIPS-based AMD Alchemy(tm) processor product line and operations from AMD, and AMD will become an investor in RMI. The Alchemy product line acquisition forms the basis for a broad strategic relationship between AMD and RMI to cooperate in a number of different areas, including the recently announced “Torrenza” platform.

You can read the full press release here.

Cases & Enclosures
• Biomech 550 (Modded) – Bit-Tech
• Thermaltake Armor Jr. Case – Hardware Logic
• Tuniq 2 PC Case – Think Computers

Cooling
• OCLabs Waterblock – Ninja Lane
• Thermalright Ultra-90 Heatsink – OCIA

Memory & Storage
• Super Talent DDR2-800 T800UX2GC4 – Phoronix

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Biostar TForce 6100 AM2 – PC Stats
• GIGABYTE M57SLI-S4 Motherboard – Motherboards.org
• World exclusive photographs of DFI LANParty nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition! – Hexus

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Cooler Master iGreen Power 430W Power Supply – Big Bruin
• Enermax Aurora Keyboard – XS Reviews
• iStarUSA TC-750PD2 750 Watt – TweakNews
• Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5000 – Fastlane HW
• Razer Krait Gaming Mouse – XYZ Computing
• Sytrin Nextherm PSU460 Server Power Supply – Virtual-Hideout

Video Cards & Monitor
• ASUS EN7900GT – Elite Bastards
• Gigabyte GV-NX79X512DB-RH – HotHardware
• GV-RX19X512VB Vs. GV-NX79X512DB – X-Bit Labs
• HIS Radeon X1300 IceQ Turbo 256MB DDR2 AGP – Bona Fide Reviews
• New Theater 650 TV Tuner Solution from ATI – AnandTech
• PowerColor Radeon X1900 GT 256MB – Guru3D

Etcetera & Contests
• 2006 Dads and Grads Gift Guide – Digital Trends
• iRiver H340 – PC Masters (German)
• Nintendo DS Lite – Digital Trends
• Nintendo DS Lite – Think Gaming

Windows Vista is system intensive, as we knew it would be. We set out to find out just -how- system intensive it is. We run a slew of benchmarks and gaming runs on both the 32-Bit and 64-Bit versions to see how they compare to XP.

Doing the math, that works out to only 1,000 gold per banned account. This is a fair chunk of virtual change for players at low levels, but it isn’t that much for a higher-level player—an epic mount costs nearly that much all by itself, for example. This seems to indicate that the gold farmers don’t have any magical method of extracting gold from the game, but are stuck doing the same repetitive tasks as the rest of us chumps (although perhaps with the assistance of extra tools to help automate this process).

It’s about 1,000 Gold per account, but also 1,000 accounts per day that they ban on average. It’s great to see a company take a strong stance on the matter.

Fancy watching the World Cup footie, but don’t sit anywhere near a TV? Have a terrible aversion to clear, colour pictures of international sport? Ever wondered what people do when they have too much time on their hands? Well, your luck is in, because it seems you can now watch matches live on Telnet, gloriously rendered in ASCII. Er, splendid?

Once again, someone with too much time on their hands comes along to impress. The site is currently not accepting new connections, so you will be lucky if you manage to get through.

It appears that the RIAA goes through a slightly different “stages of grief” than your average person. It starts with lawsuits, is followed by gibberish, and then comes denial. Believe it or not, the RIAA is now claiming that downloading and sharing of unauthorized songs has now been “contained.” Of course, reality doesn’t back that up. BigChampagne, the firm that tracks all of this stuff, notes that it appears to just keep going up, with no noticeable hesitation or decline due to the recording industry’s tactics.

It’s hard to have an ounce of respect for a company that sues kids, but how stupid do they think people really are?

We’re very happy to announce that the a new version of Google Earth has been released. It features 3D textured buildings, some neat UI updates, better internationalization and, with this release, a native Linux version is available for download as well. The Google Earth team (with the help of Ryan Gordon) worked very hard to make this possible. Please see the Earth support site and check out the BBS for more information.

It’s good to see that Google is listening. Not even two weeks after releasing Picasa for Linux, they go ahead and release one of my favorite software programs. The program doesn’t require Wine to run, like Picasa did, and should run off any distro as long as you have a 3D card. I gave it a quick install in Gentoo, and it works flawlessly. Google.. please allow me to thank you.

The system is one of many systems under development from Google, to make it easier for online users to pay for items they buy through a trusted source, in this case, Google. However, news is out this week that GBuy is turning out to be much more than a PayPal competitor — Google has plans to turn it into an eBay competitor as well.

After months of speculation, it’s about time we are finally learning more details. I know I am not alone in saying that I will switch to GBuy if it’s cheaper than PayPal. PayPal hits you where it hurts, so hopefully a little bit of competition will help even things out.

The memos only mention the AM2 processors; however the AM2 parts are now priced identically with Socket 939 components. AMD has previously indicated that the aim of the AM2 processors was to be price competitive with its legacy components. Several of the dual-core components do not show a price drop, but it’s possible AMD has just not announced the pricing on these processors yet. The Athlon 64 FX model line will not receive any price reduction.

This was first talked about two days ago, but we now have prices. Does a 4200+ for $240 sound good to you? Splurging could get you a 5000+ for a mere $402. It still sounds too good to be true, really, but it will be interesting once July 24 hits.

WALTHAM, Mass. – June 12, 2006 – Novell today announced the creation of BanditTM, a groundbreaking open source project with a charter to unify disparate identity systems and provide a consistent approach to securing and managing identity. The identity services in development by the Bandit community are open source and will work with existing industry standards such as WS- * and Liberty Federation, and open source projects including Eclipse Higgins. Novell has already contributed significant engineering resources and code to jump start this effort. Ultimately, the goal of the Bandit project is to provide organizations with a consistent approach to enterprise identity management challenges such as secure, role-based access and regulatory compliance reporting.

You can read the full press release here.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 13, 2006 — Seeing your grandchild’s first steps from miles away. Hearing your friend’s laugh from across the country. Sharing your dorm room decorating skills with your parents back home. Those are the moments and experiences that will become the hallmark of Microsoft® LifeCams, an innovative new line of webcams that dramatically simplifies the video communications experience to let people see, hear and share life’s experiences in an extraordinary way.

You can read the full press release here.

Cooling
• Bluegears Cool WR Fan – Modders-Inc
• Forcetake JTS-0006 Heatpipe Chipset Cooler – HardwareXL
• Sharkoon SilentEagle 120mm Fan – Lan Addict
• Silverstone NT05 – MadShrimps
• Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus GFX cooler – Xtreme Computing

Memory & Storage
• Akasa AK-HC-01-WH – Combo reader and USB 2.0 hub – Xtreme Computing
• Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3 – SimHQ
• Kensington Travel Plug Adapter with USB Charger – XYZ Computing
• OCZ Ultra-Slim 1GB Mini-Kart USB 2.0 Flash Drive – Virtual-Hideout
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB – HotHardware

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Foxconn 975X7AA – Overclockers Online

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Fang Gamepad – GameApex
• iRiver U10 1GB Portable Media Player – Think Computers
• Kingwin Mach 1 PSU – Overclock Cafe
• OCZ GameXStream 700W – ByteSector
• Q3i ThermoHAWK 200 Touch-less Thermometer – ExtremeMHz
• SilverStone 750w ST75ZF – A1-Electronics
• Spire Rocketeer V SP-500W 500W Power Supply – Big Bruin
• Super-Multi DVD Writer Roundup – TrustedReviews

Video Cards & Monitor
• Crossfire: ATI’s Answer to SLI – Tech-Hounds
• GeForce 7600 GT Zalman VF900 LED Edition – 3D Chip
• HIS X1800GTO IceQ3 Turbo – Bjorn3D
• PowerColor Radeon X1900 XT 512MB, SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900 XT & X1900 XTX 512MB – Hexus

Etcetera & Contests
• AlphaShield Pro Hardware Firewall – 3D Gameman
• Apple MacBook 2.0GHz – Digital Trends
• Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti – Draft-n Router – TrustedReviews
• Motherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 3 – Motherboards.org
• Samsung Helix XM2go YX-M1Z – XYZ Computing

If you are left handed, you know the trouble of finding a suitable gaming mouse. Logitech tries to mend that problem with their G3, an ambidextrous solution. Does it deliver the goods as well as the MX 510 and G5 though?

Like a good soccer match, the monthly sales battles between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 2 have a lot of exciting back-and-forth. So far, however, the PlayStation 2 has remained in control of the match, outselling the Xbox 360 in six of the seven months since the Xbox 360’s debut. The situation is a strong reminder that Sony’s PS3 gamble, while huge, has a little more cushioning than is commonly recognized.

I think it’s obvious that the Playstation 2 is generally far more budget concious. The 360 is brand new, and doesn’t offer near the selection and pricepoints that the PS2 does.

Last week, graphics card maker ATI announced a plan to use their Crossfire multi-GPU set up to enable physics effects in PC games with hardware, using an ATI graphics card as the physics chip in a 1X1 or a 2X1 setup. They also announced that support for Havok’s physics software Havok FX.

It’s hard to be ‘sold’ on this idea right now. The technique is similar to the PhysX card, except here you can just a third GPU, unless you don’t mind sacrificing your highest frame rates. It’s been said about the PhysX, and it is said here… we need to see some killer app’s. 2 or 3 games are not going to cut it.

If you haven’t already purchased a DS Lite but plan on doing so this week, Circuit City and Best Buy are both giving away a free copy of Brain Age for every DS Lite sold. Everybody loves a free game!

It looks like you can actually print the coupon off yourself, o go grab it if you are planning to purchase from Circuit City.

It is important to find a processor device with cores designed for a much faster clock than their nominal rating at a speed of up to 4 GHz without problems. With such a CPU and given the right combination of additional parts, you can truly build a high-end PC. And But won’t such a project cost an arm and a leg? Think again: Using our select list of components, costs start at about $720 – including a quiet water cooling rig.

It’s hard to believe that you can build any dual core system for $720, but Toms has done it. They have even gone as far as including a quiet water cooling. Of course, there’s no doubt you will be skimping out on a few parts, so they give an alternate route that will bring you up to a still modest $1,200.

Corsair plans to release 8 GB memory stick. The company continues its tradition to double the previous USB key capacity. The new stick should be known as Corsair Flash Voyager 8192 MB or similar. This will be more than the capacity of a DVD and you will sure be able to place a lot of documents on this small, rubber-shielded memory stick.

8GB thumb drives are not new, but it wasn’t too long ago that they retailed for over $400. With prices dropping, I hope we can see this retail for what the 4GB did when it retailed, or even lower.

The DS Lite seeks to do away with the problems people have with the original DS (which has started being called the DS Fat online) and put the DS back in the news, getting mugs like me to talk about it. The system is smaller, sleeker, and the lines are more modern than the odd angles of the first DS. They also updated to screen to be brighter and clearer.

The new version is much better looking than the first release. The brighter screen may be reason alone to pick up the Lite if you already own a DS, because it’s apparently leaps and bounds above the first one. Besides the small buttons and the game cartridge sticking out, Ars gives it their thumbs up.

The Xbox 360 game console, iPod music player, and plasma televisions are going shape-shift to become, well, we don’t know what yet. Maybe the Xbox 360 will turn into a PS3, the plasma into an LCD, and an iPod into Steve Jobs?

I have never been a fan and am not sure if previous movies/shows contained this product placement. If I were to watch a cartoon though, I don’t think I’d be happy seeing such blatant advertising. It’s just speculation though, so we’ll see.