Content and news by Rob Williams

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. Intel already announced that it will also cut prices of its Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors between now and the general availability of Conroe.

With most AMD price drops, we usually see the X2 series overlooked, but not this time. Apparently, they will be dropping up to 50% of their retail value? That seems too good to be true, but it may be worth it to wait another month if you are planning an AM2 rig.

Everyone knew the public release of Windows Vista Beta 2 was going to be a rather big event for Microsoft. Not only could it give customers a chance to try out its latest operating system, but it would also get feedback/commentary from the millions of consumers using Vista before its Q1 07 retail launch. According to Microsoft, its public launch of Vista Beta 2 has gone well beyond expectations and is labeled as the “Biggest software download event in history.”

Though it’s obvious that the download was popular, saying it was the biggest download event in history? Not that I doubt them, but are they talking actual bandwidth transferred or total completed downloads?

A few weeks ago DailyTech reported that a user at an Apple store had seen flaking on a black MacBook less than 24 hours after the MacBooks initial release, fortunately that seems to have been an isolated case. Last week DailyTech reported that some MacBooks had accidently left the factory with a clear piece of plastic covering the rear air vent. Now some users on the Apple support forums are reporting moderate to severe discoloration near the palm rest and other locations of their new white MacBooks. At least one user has posted images of the problem to Flickr.

Apple hasn’t admitted any problems yet, and the cause is still unclear. It’s hard to look at the discolored area and not blame it on heat though. Intel + left behind plastic piece = burn marks.

AMD and Microsoft put some heart and soul in to this event with the mind set of showing us new applications and new ideas. It was a great event really. You get to mingle with some great minds and really nice people. When your profession deals with technology and people, you have to have heart and soul.

No products were shown that were not previously known about, but the Tyan motherboard with 128GB RAM looks mighty tasty. If you are lucky enough to have an AMD Tech Tour go through your town next year, don’t hesitate to go!

Cases & Enclosures
• The Cash Box Case (Modded) – Modders-Inc

Cooling
• AeroCool Dominator CPU Cooler – Think Computers
• Akasa Thermal Compounds Round-Up – Technic3D
• Micro Cool NorthPole XE Whisper Cooler – Mod The Box
• ThermalRight Ultra 90 – Overclocker Cafe

Memory & Storage
• Corsair 1GB TWIN2X1024-8500 – Driver Heaven
• Corsair 1GB TWIN2X1024-8500 – Think Computers
• Crucial 2GB Gizmo! Overdrive Thumb Drive – 3D Gameman
• Western Digital’s Raptor WD1500ADFD Hard Drive – Tech Report

Motherboards & CPU’s
• AOpen EZ482 – Nordic Hardware
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 And Extreme Edition X6800 Performance Update – HotHardware
• Tyan Tempest i5000XL Preview – Phoronix

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Cooler Master iGreen Power 500W Power Supply – PC Apex
• Cooler Master iGreen Power 600W Power Supply – Viper Lair
• ever e Bluetooth Headphones and Audio Adapters – A True Review
• Sansun 2.1 Speaker 2186 – Technic3D
• Super Flower DigiMaster SF-610 Front Panel – Technic3D

Video Cards & Monitor
• Asus EAX1900 XTX 512MB – MaxitMag
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 6.0 Posted – Rojak Pot
• NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 – Rojak Pot
• Sapphire X1600 Ultimate vs MSI NX7600 – Bit-Tech
• ViewSonic VX2025wm 20,1″ Widescreen LCD – Technic3D

Etcetera & Contests
• Casio EX-Z60 6.0 MP 3X zoom Digital Camera – Bona Fide Reviews
• Computex 2006: Day 4 – NGOHQ
• Cooler Master Gives Away Aquagate Mini R120 – Overclockers Online
• HighSpeedPC Large Tech Station Giveaway – Virtual-Hideout
• Sony Vaio UX50 – Digital Trends

This past week when I was questing around Silithus I finally dinged to 60! I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost 8 months! So it’s about time! Yeah it took me a LONG time to get to 60, well I am very busy and at times didn’t play the game for weeks. Enough about that so what does being level 60 get you? Well as you can see I got 52 hit points, 51 mana, 1 talent point, and a few more stats. Seriously though there are a lot of things that open when you hit 60.

Check out the full article at Think Gaming.

When enthusiasts and overclockers are looking to upgrade their cooling
solutions, priority is given to the CPU cooler and quite often the Northbridge
is overlooked. The Northbridge chip is a vital part of a computers operation.
It is responsible for managing the RAM, CPU, AGP, and in some platforms, the
on-board audio data transfer. In doing so it generates a fair amount of heat,
which as we all know is bad. Heat will shorten the life expectancy of any
device, and can cause system instability, even in the average users computer.
Heat is even more of a problem for overclockers, and dissipating it is an
ongoing quest for the quietest most efficient products.

Check out the full review over at ModTheBox.

Just another update for those staying tuned to the Phoronix
Redblog. It is now day 10 in this 50 day ATI Linux review, and so far it
has proved to be quite a satisfactory experience. ATI Linux has
certainly been criticized in the past, but from the first-hand
experience thus far it has been satisfying — except for the sub-par
frame-rate performance, compatibility problems with a few distributions
(namely Fedora Core 5), and a few other minor issues. Of the topics
covered so far in this unique blog-like review, include Linux game
compatibility, FSAA performance, Big Desktop, and other ATI CATALYST
Linux details. For those not familiar with this red Linux endeavor,
checking out the preface and introduction would be recommended.

Check out the full article at Phoronix.

Whether you are wanting super cooling or a quieter unit, the multiple fan clip points allow the end user to select most any fan they want. As you could see from our ‘curiosity tests’, running the Ultra 90 without a fan is no more advisable than it is on any other actively cooled heatsink – so don’t. Aside from construction quality and several other very positive points we’ve noted, what I liked the best was ThermalRight’s getting back to basics and making this cooler fit onto the OEM socket lugs. Its refreshing on several levels to not have to worry about mainboard removal just to install a cooler and I applaud ThermalRight for doing this.

Check out the full article at Overclocker Cafe.

After looking at the Tyan Tempest i5000XL yesterday, today we
are featuring a small preview of the Tiger i7520SD S5365. Rather than
taking the Woodcrest LGA-771 route, the Tiger i7520SD features the
Lindenhurst Chipset and wields dual mPGA479 sockets for use with Intel’s
Xeon LV Sossaman processors.

Check out the full article at Phoronix.

A few months ago I was approached by one of our site sponsors, ATXPowerSupplies.com, in regards to a power supply cross reference guide they had in development. This guide would allow a visitor to enter the manufacturer, make and model of their computer and have a compatible replacement power supply recommended to them and available for purchase. Anyone who has done computer repair work knows it can be next to impossible to find a replacement power supply for a manufactured PC.

Check out the full article at OCIA.

Here is part 4 of Computex, which will also likely be the last part since things are wrapping up.

Once again, techPowerUp! has another roundup of companies they have checked out.

Arctic Cooling displayed their new PSU project at the show. They emphasize extremely high power conversion efficiency, up to 90%. Another product was the Fusion Supporter which improves the voltage quality and stability of your video card.

Arctic Cooling, DFI, ECS.

NGOHQ has even more Computex updates:

If you have been following our coverage so far, it goes without saying that we are running out of steam. We have been going strong for 4 days straight, starting with some serious Jet-Lag and continuing with less than adequate sleep. For this reason Day 3 is devoted to nothing else but the finest Booth Babes we could find.

Hexus doesn’t believe in stopping to breathe, as seen by their vast coverage:

• Flybook VM : an ‘airplane friendly’ notebook
• FOXCONN wax lyrical at Computex 2006
• All-in-one PSP charger, battery and cradle
• Rys takes one for the team!
• Flybook go anywhere with a 3.5G notebook
• Compro’s new gadgets impress this tired hack.
• Disney and A-DATA cash in on media cards
• EPoX’s Optimus series motherboards set to make an immediate impression
• Biostar’s mixing it up with innovative products

Motherboards.org has Day 1 and Day 2 coverage.

What a way to spend a first day – caught up in the contests and products of Gigabyte, impressed by the diversity and quality at ECS, and absolutely gobsmacked by Corsair’s performance. If there anything more that I can ask for? Well, actually yes, there is. Tomorrow’s article will cover Intel’s Keynote, as well as ASUS and Thermaltake’s booth, among others. I will also be taking a look at overclocking an ES Conroe chip on completely stock everything, and seeing where that’ll go.

Although Red Hat is currently Dell’s distribution of choice, the computer builder plans to support and distribute Novell’s increasingly popular SUSE Linux distribution as well. According to Parker, Dell is “in the process of approving Novell/Suse Linux as a ‘tier 1’ offering.”

Sadly this will still not be available on consumer desktops yet, but it’s only a matter of time. It’s good to see Dell finally starting to give customers a choice.

new drive is a 300GB beast, which at first doesn’t seem like very impressive in terms of specifications. However, this drive spins at a blistering 15,000 RPM and at that speed, no other line of hard drive is faster.

Don’t drool just yet. This is for SCSI only, and expensive. We need these on S-ATA..

With PureVideo HD, NVIDIA touts that better quality video can be seen, but essentially, PureVideo HD is an HDCP-aware version of its current technology. NVIDIA says that while the technology will be available in its GeForce 7000 series of GPUs, not all cards and products will support it, as not all boards will include the necessary HDCP transmitter.

This is all great and everything… but only available on 7600 cards? Hopefully we will see some 7900 action soon.

FiringSquad this week reported a response from AGEIA which attempts to explain the lack of value in ATI’s solution. According to AGEIA, measuring the performance of physics processing by simply looking at the number of gigaflops in a GPU is analogous to saying that “the more wheels I have on my car, the faster I will go.”

Many people said that AGEIA needed a killer app, which is true. The same goes for ATI though, and currently they haven’t announced a single supported game. Maybe AGEIA has nothing to be scared of afterall.

Cases & Enclosures
• NZXT Lexa Mid-Tower – Phoronix
• RAIDMAX X-1 – Modders-Inc

Memory & Storage
• ATMT HD362-P External Hard Disk – UK Gamer
• ATP ToughDrive 1GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive – Think Computers
• Corsair Twin2X1024-8500 – techFEAR
• EasyATA & EasySATA – Bjorn3D
• OCZ EB 2Gb PC3700 Kit – XS Reviews

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ASRock 939SLI-eSATA2 PCIe SLI AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 – OC Inside
• Intel’s Common Building Blocks For Notebooks – Legit Reviews

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• MobiBLU DAH-1500i Cube 2GB MP3 Player – XYZ Computing

Video Cards & Monitor
• GeForce 7600 cards go head to head at TR – Tech Report
• HIS X1600 Pro IceQ3 Turbo Single and CrossFire – Viper Lair

Etcetera & Contests
• 2006 Home Entertainment Show Wrap-up – Digital Trends
• Sapphire ATI Radeon Ultimate X1600PRO – TweakNews
• Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate Edition 256MB – Hexus
• Sharp Aquos LC-37P70E – BIOS Magazine

Our chap used PC6400 C4 memory and managed to get 2GB of the memory working at an amazing 1250MHz. We reached 11843 MB/s in Sandra benchmark – almost twice as much as you would get with Intel’s 955X chipset with PC 5300 memory at CL3. Corsair can brand this memory as PC 9600 and will be ready to ship in a month or two. The chap was using Asus AM2 board powered with Nforce 5 and managed to overclock Athlon 64 FX 62 at 3129 MHz. The FSB was running at 312.9 MHz and you actually do need this kind of the speed to show the real teeth of this memory.

I am impressed mostly by the fact that it’s a 2GB kit. Usually with new mindblowing speeds, they start off with 1GB, but Corsair doesn’t believe in the low-road apparently.

Users that want an AGP graphics upgrade but fear incompatibility when building a new PCI Express based system may be interested in another new HIS product. The new HIS X1600 Pro Dual DVI Dual Interface card offers compatibility with PCI Express and AGP equipped systems. The ATI Rialto bridge chip provides AGP compatibility while a couple of internal switches allow the switching between PCI Express and AGP interfaces. Samples shown at the show required a few jumpers changed to switch between PCI Express and AGP but HIS stated shipping models will have an auto switching system. Aside from the dual interfaces the X1600 Pro based card has the usual 500MHz core clock and 800MHz DDR2 memory with a 128-bit interface. CrossFire compatibility is retained in PCI Express mode while a single dual-link DVI port is added into the mix.

HIS is quite innovative, although I can’t see any of these products hitting the retail market. Either way, an AGP/PCI-E Hybrid is a cool idea.

As expected, the Windows Vista Beta 2 is available for public consumption, but their servers are currently under huge load. Wait a while and try again if you want to give the new OS a try.

You will be able to download either the 32-Bit or 64-Bit version, or both. If you are in the mood for even more Beta goodness, I highly recommend you check out the Office 2007 beta also. I have been using it for a few weeks and have become a fan.