Content and news by Rob Williams

A READER sent us a note that AMD will release Athlon 5000+ and FX 62 in socket 939 flavours. This is great news for many socket 939 supporters as we believed that 4800+ and FX 60 will be the last stop for you all. AMD certainly hasn’t made a big song and dance about it, but it clearly say on its website that it will support this old socket supporting DDR one with its new CPUs.

This is awesome news for those who don’t want to spend money on a new motherboard and ram. It would be very interesting to see how the same CPU compares on each platform. Perhaps the ultra low latency that DDR1 could provide may bring on better results? Check out the full posting at The Inquirer.

XM is facing problems with the FCC in regards to some of its portable XM tuners that ship with regular FM modulators. The devices from XM have been said to not meet radio device requirements set by the FCC that all consumer FM transmitters must meet. Many XM radios rebroadcast the XM feed over a low FM station so that inexpensive FM radios can play the audio stream.

Problems are following XM around like the plague lately. If you were considering purchasing one of these radios, you may just want to hold off. Check out the full posting at DailyTech.

Once we removed the cooler we discovered that the card actually uses Samsung 1.2 ns K4J55323QG-BC12 memory. It can maximally work at 1800MHz but we managed to overclock even more than that. The memory actually works at 1850MHz without any problems. The cooler is a little bit different from the reference one as it covers the memory chips as well. I guess that you have to cool the memory at such speeds.

This is some insane performance for a 7900GT. It beats the standard 7900GTX in most tests, and costs around $150 less on average. Plus, when you receive it in a massive box, it has to be good! Read the first impressions at The Inquirer.

It will find $2.5 billion to re-fit and expand its existing 200 nanometre Fab 30 in Dresden. It will decrease production at the 200mm fab in the second half of 2007, and pump up the volume on 65 nanometre tech on 12-inch wafers “by the end of 2007”. Essentially the existing 200 millimetre fab will be refitted and rejigged, and have its name changed to Fab 38. It will also build test facilities at Dresden in a separate building.

Anything that is going to further the process of getting 65nm AMD chips out of the door sounds good to me. But.. by the end of 2007? Read more at The Inquirer.

DailyTech recently come across a recent Intel roadmap that reveals details on the next generation integrated graphics core through 2007 until the launch of Bearlake. The graphics core will be integrated in the upcoming G965 chipset that is part of the 96x family. The roadmap shows the graphics core will be Microsoft Windows Vista Premium compatible with support for Aero Glass.

So even budget PC’s will be able to run Vista. However, if the rest of a system matches the quality of the GPU, I don’t want to imagine how slow that bulky OS will be. Read more at DailyTech.

Although it is nice to see Google making their tools available for the Linux platform, a Wine-based Picasa probably won’t impress very many Linux users. Wine isn’t known for being stable, and applications that run through Wine tend to integrate poorly with the rest of the system. Additionally, there are many well-designed native image management applications for Linux that are popular and easy to use. Native Linux applications like F-Spot, Digikam, GThumb, and Gwenview all provide better performance than Picasa on the Linux platform, and varying levels of roughly comparable functionality.

Building on top of Wine was an odd choice, really. Installing the program on my Gentoo box went fine, but the actual program will not even launch. That’s some stability right there! It looks like I will be sticking to Gwenview.. for now at least. Read the full article at Ars Technica.

The average PlayStation 2 game costs about $8 million. Studios often need large development teams–usually 40 or more people–to meet their tight deadlines. They spend money to license everything from comic book heroes to graphics engines. They record A-list actors. And if they burn their own CDs or do their own marketing, costs can really soar.

This is a shame too, because there are many solid indie titles out there. Just look at how well Darwinia and Rag Doll Kung Fu have done through the Steam system. Since retail publishing is the biggest punch to the stomach, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more and more indie publishers selling games as online downloads instead. Grab links and read more at Slashdot.

According to Intel’s roadmaps, the first wave of Xeon MP processors based on Intel’s Tulsa core will be slated for Q4’06. DailyTech has the following information on the 7100 series of Tulsa Xeon MP processors. Tulsa is compatible with Socket 604, on Intel’s Truland platform. Intel just announced its new LGA 771 socket, and it is not uncommon for Intel to produce multiple socket variants of processors during transition years.

16MB of Cache almost makes our desktop chips seem obsolete. The 7130 and 7140 are very beefy chips though, especially on the power side of things. Each requires 150W of power, understandably. It’s obvious that Intel wants to remain at the top in the server market, and they are doing a fair job of it. Read the full article at DailyTech.

Cases & Enclosures
• better-silent PC Case – Technic3D

Cooling
• Bluegears b-ice 120mm Fan – Think Computers
• Lamptron Products – Think Computers
• Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus VGA Cooler – Virtual-Hideout

Memory & Storage
• 1GB Verbatim Store’n’Go U3 Smart Drive – HWZone
• Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2 GB – Hardware Secrets
• Hard Drive Buyer’s Guide – TheTechZone
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB – GD Hardware

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ECS 945G-M3 – Driver Heaven
• ECS C19-A – Overclockers Online
• Foxconn Technology’s ‘Project Tritium’ – the Foxconn C51XEM2AA – Hexus
• Microprocessor History, Part 3 – BTX Form Factor

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Aerocool PowerWatch and PowerPanel and PowerUSB (5v/12v) – Pro-Clockers
• Giganta Lazer 4 Mouse Mat – XS Reviews
• OCZ GameXstream 700w PSU – Red & Blackness
• Revoltec LightFX & LightWriter – Driver Heaven

Video Cards & Monitor
• nno3D GeForce 7600GST – Legion Hardware
• Price Guide, May 2006 – AnandTech
• Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO – HardOCP

Etcetera & Contests
• Contest: Noctua NHU9 and Coolink 92mm Competition – XS Reviews
• Linux: NVIDIA 1.0-8XXX Driver Round-Up – Phoronix
• Laptop: Rock Pegasus 650 Dungeons and Dragons – Bit-Tech

Even though the set of “new features” proved to be closer to a ruse than anything else, nothing can truly mar the exceptional Gameplay found throughout the 12 (13 if you count the “Ending) new levels – just enough to make the game long enough that the gamer doesn’t feel ripped off, let alone frustrated. Overall, Eidos has left enough of the core elements alone that Gameplay is true to the franchise, while integrating newer ideas. But more to the point – Blood Money did what I love best in a franchise – hit a mark, and raised the bar, so that the next title can be just as good, just as fun, and just as compelling, and every bit as enthralling as the original, and it’s offspring.

Check out the full review over at GamePyre.

Hate loud computer noise? Arctic Cooling has an all-in-one solution that already has the proper fan layout and directional airflow you need. However, it also has it’s fair share of problems. Does the bad outweigh the good, in this ‘case’?

“We have definitely not been communicating that,” UK spokesperson Jennie Kong confirmed. “It’s false speculation. We don’t have any further knowledge about this topic—either officially or unofficially, to be frank.”

“There has been no official comment on this since the story that came up a few months ago—it hasn’t changed since then, and we’re quite surprised by why this has popped up again, to be honest.”

Good chances really are that Sony was planning on this originally, but backed out after they finally gained a clue. Who can really trust Sony at *all* anymore? Check out the full posting at Ars Technica.

Two New York teens have been arrested after trying to extort $150,000 from the makers of MySpace, the popular online community site. MySpace discovered the intrusion earlier this year and blocked it. The Los Angeles-based company also reported the incident to authorities. During the course of the investigation, threats were made that unless $150,000 was paid, new exploit code would be released, according to the statement.

Haha, it’s hard to feel sorry for idiots. This may teach other’s to think twice about extortion on any company. Check out the full read at Slashdot.

Intel’s newest roadmap has an unusual addition: Conroe-L. Intel defines Conroe-L as a single core processor, which we assume is based on the Conroe Core 2 Duo architecture. The most recent roadmaps have Conroe-L designated as a Q2’07 component as a supplement to Cedar Mill chips.

Single Core CPU’s are being slowly being phased out now. By the time three quarters roll around, there will be even less demand for them. It looks as though they will replace the lower-end P4 and Celeron D chips, so they will be good for budget PC’s. You can find out more info at Daily Tech.

Ultra Products introduced the MicroFly (small form factor) case just a short time ago and not too long after that a small design flaw was found. If you are using a 6 inch deep power supply, the X2 and 600W offered by Ultra, two small tabs are in the way. These issues have been correct by Ultra Products, unfortunately a few cases did get shipped out. The fix for this is super easy and takes very little time to complete and I will show you how I corrected this issue.

If you have one of these problematic cases, check out the informative how-to at Modders-Inc.

As we come off a successful week of giving away 4 Deskpad XXL’s, this week up for grabs are 3 of the 1GB Corsair Flash Voyagers! That’s right, yet again, 3 prizes means 3 winners! Get your hump over and enter!

If you are too cheap to buy one, then you need to enter the contest at Virtual-Hideout to see just how useful they can be.

The new retail package, which was not part of the Office 2007 lineup announced back in February, will offer nearly all the components available to large businesses in one $679 product. A Microsoft representative said on Thursday that the new entrant in the lineup was “created as a result of customer feedback,” but didn’t offer more details on its origins.

Is it just me, or does “Ultimate” just not sound that professional… for a professional product? Either way, this will be the ‘ultimate’ version, but will primarily be used in very large businesses only. Read more at NeoWin.

The Buffalo RUF2-S 4GB unit is FAST FAST FAST. Faster by far than anything else we have or have had in the shop. Four gigs of storage will be a big draw to many with the ability to store and carry large blocks of media. Four gigs is even large enough to carry an episode of LOST. The Buffalo’s size and feel was compact and balanced. The snug snap fit cap that can be secured on the opposite end during use also is a huge plus. As we said already, this cap is not one that is going to fall off after six months of use.

Unless you are a big fan of simplicity, you will find this drive ugly. However, the Read/Write speeds are quite good compared to other 4GB drives out there. But is that extra speed worth the $230 price tag? Considering you can get a Corsair Voyager 4GB for around $100, it’s hard to even consider a purchase. Check out Overclocker Cafes full review here.

Former Infinium Phantom ‘console’ developer and current Lapboard accessory creator Infinium Labs has revealed multiple new details in financial filings, including the fact that it’s changing company name to Phantom Entertainment, as long as shareholders approve. But with the SEC prosecuting former CEO Timothy Roberts, ‘accumulated losses since inception of $69,331,794’, and _another_ former CEO, Kevin Bachus, now suing the company for back pay, will the company ever release a product?

That’s the question right there… will ‘Phantom’ ever release absolutely anything? I almost want them to release something, just to see if they are capable of even a crappy product. Grab links and check out the comments at Slashdot.

Western Digital silently updated two of its Raptor series drives: the 36GB WD360ADFD and 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM models have been blessed with doubled buffers to 16MB each. The performance specifications have improved over the 8MB cache models along with a slight increase in power consumption. The new models also add Native Command Queuing to the list of features, a change from the older Tagged Command Queuing method.

Buffer to disk transfer rates are slightly increased in the new versions. Both models have also been made quieter in idle state, which is always welcomed. It’s really hard to justify picking up a 36GB drive nowadays, but the 74GB may be worth looking into. More info at DailyTech.