Content and news by Rob Williams

A couple of weeks ago, Intel held the launch party for its latest technology: Viiv. If you’re not already familiar with Intel’s newest platform, Viiv is the combination of dual-core Intel processors, networking and motherboard technology combined with some special software sauce to form a new breed of living room PC We went along to the party to have a chat and see what was going on.

To see what VIIV is and where it’s going, check out the interview at Bit-Tech.

ALTHOUGH INTEL HAS BEEN STRUGGLING on the desktop front of late, things on the mobile side have been going just fine, thank you. In fact, the Pentium M has been doing so well that Intel’s desktop line will eventually be migrating to a processor based on a similar architecture. Heck, even Apple joined in on the fun. Near the top of the heap is the Pentium M 760, which features a 533MHz front-side bus, an operating frequency of 2.0GHz and a whopping 2MB of L2 cache.

Check out the full in-depth article at Tech Report.

WALTHAM, Mass. – Feb. 13, 2006 – Novell today announced Novell® Audit 2, a set of new tools for customers to monitor and audit user access and other network events across the enterprise, a critical requirement in complying with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and Basel II. Available immediately, the new solution creates a centralized view of network events across multiple platforms and enterprise applications to simplify compliance audits and reports. As a result, customers can control user access to information and resources, streamline auditing processes, and verify regulatory compliance more accurately with less staff.

You can read the full press release right here.

The Internet is filled with security potholes in the guise of adware, spyware and viruses. What if we found an extreme way to bypass those potholes and make your Internet experience safe once again?

This is a great guide that covers the bases well. Check out the read at techFEAR.

Happy Monday! There is a ton of stuff going on today, including reviews. If you are looking for a new AMD CPU to get your hands on, you may want to consider an Opteron. Xbit Labs is taking a look at the Optie 165 which is a lower end Dual Core version, but still has wicked potential. They have proved that it has overclocking potential, but I am sure it could even be pushed further if you have a great cooling setup. For a look at a good midrange card, check out the review of Sapphires X1600XT card over at Byte Sector. It packs a nice punch for the pricepoint, and is one of the few cards with Blue PCB!

Cases & Enclosures
• Antec P150 – XYZ Computing
• SanSun Bat – Overclocker Cafe
• Silverstone LC17 HTPC – Bjorn3D

Cooling
• AeroCool Video Magic (VM-102) Fanless VGA Cooler – Hi-Tech Reviews
• Zalman CNPS9500 – Techneek

Memory & Storage
• G.Skill F1-4000USU2 2GB – Technic3D

Motherboards & CPU’s
• AMD Opteron 165 – Xbit Labs

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Act-On MicMouse & Optical Mouse – PC Modding Malaysia
• Be-Quiet P6 DarkPower PSU – Driver Heaven
• Logitech G15 – CoolTechZone
• Matrix Orbital MX610 – Think Computers
• Thrustmaster Rally GT Force Feedback Pro – TweakPC
• Ultra Products 2nd Generation X-Finity 600W PSU – Big Bruin

Video Cards & Monitor
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 10.0 – Rojak Pot

• PowerColor Radeon X800 GTO 128MB PCI Express Video Card – Bona Fide Reviews
• Samsung 244T – Overclockers Online
• Sapphire Radeon X1600XT – Byte Sector

Etcetera & Contests
• Acer Aspire 9504WSMi – Trusted Reviews
• ARP-Zalman Survey Contest – Rojak Pot
• Asus DRW-1608P2S – Trusted Reviews
• BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.8.1 – Rojak Pot
• Last few days of the CPU magazine giveaway – Case Mod God
• Palm Treo 650 – Design Technica
• Vizo Master Panel – Pro-Clockers

Konami sent us its new tactics Shooter, The Regiment.Perhaps we will see whether it an equal representative of the tactics Shooter present and or others inspire can.

Check out the full review at Technic3D.

Are you looking for a modestly sized LCD monitor, that rolls in at a good price and really delivers the picture quality you want? We are taking a look at a 17" monitor from NEC that offers quite a bit in a relatively small package.

According to the San Fransisco Chronicle, in an effort to one-up AMD, Intel will be coming out with 4 core cpu’s in 2007.” From the article: “Chips with two cores have been the latest rage, with both Intel and AMD selling those microprocessors as their high-end offering. Apple Computer Inc.’s new iMac, which started selling last month, uses the dual-core chip … Not to be outdone, Randy Allen, AMD’s corporate vice president of server and workstation division, said Friday that his firm is working its own quad-core processor for release next year.

Hah, it didn’t take long for AMD to jump in with the announcement. I don’t want to even think how hot these chips could possible get. Check out the posting at Slashdot.

Overall, this case is one of the nicer cases I’ve had the opportunity to review to date. The aluminum door ties in with the silver paint on the main body of the case. The CCL is really bright and can light up the room when the door is opened.

Check out the full review over at Virtual-Hideout.

It has been quite a while since we last featured a DFI, or
rather Design For Innovation, motherboard at Phoronix but today we are
back again with them as we feature one of their products from the
Infinity series — the DFI NF4 Ultra. As the model name implies, the
Chipset used is NVIDIA’s nForce4 Ultra and it also features a Vitesse
Gigabit interface, four DDR-400 slots, and the usual innovations we have
become to appreciate from DFI thanks to their LAN Party series.

Check out the full review over at Phoronix.

That’s right, 512 MB of onboard memory on a midrange product! To accomplish this, Albatron shifted from the very familiar DDR3 graphics memory to DDR2. The core and memory speeds have also been dropped down from the GeForce 6600 GT. The big question that remains is can a product with half a gig of memory and slower core/memory speeds best a card clocked higher with 1/4 of the memory? How much difference will quadrupling the memory give and at what cost? The 6600 GT retails for around $130 at present so Albatron is taking on a real challenge with development of another card in the 6600 line given the success and bang for the buck of their current offering.

Check out the full review over at Overclockers Cafe.

AOpen is offering a wide range of products, many of them geared toward living room multimedia. The dual-core capable AOpen i945Ga-PHS is a motherboard designed to be used for building a Media PC. Its outstanding feature is integrated VGA with analog, TV and HDTV output without the need of any addon card. This gives you everything to build a very low profile Media PC.

Check out the full review at techPowerUp!.

Just as the bragging rights for dual-core chip supremacy are dying down, Intel gave the first glimpse of a quad-core chip coming next year. Clovertown, a four-core processor, will start shipping to computer manufacturers late this year and hit the market in early 2007. Clovertown will be made for dual-processor servers, which means that these servers will essentially be eight-processor servers (two processors x four cores each).

Obviously it will be quite some time before the home user will ever have a use for a Quad Core CPU, but it’s cool to know they are on the horizon. Check out the full posting at News.com.

The Associated Press is carrying a story about a NYC employee fired after Mayor Michael Bloomberg noticed a game of solitare on the employee’s desktop at work. Greenwood, who earned $27,000 a year and had worked in the office for six years, said in a telephone interview that he limited his play time to his one-hour lunch or during quick breaks when he needed a moment of distraction.

Oh man, what a reason to get fired for. Something like this is hardly uncommon, so consider yourself warned! Check out the posting at Slashdot.

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 9, 2006—NCsoft® North America has released Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny, an expansion that adds 800 megabytes of new content and features to Lineage® II: The Chaotic Chronicletm, the market’s premier player-versus-player (PvP) massively multiplayer online PC game. The expansion is one of the largest updates released in the MMO industry and is free to current Lineage II subscribers.

You can read the full press release here.

BELLEVUE, WA (February 9, 2006) – ArenaNet®, creators of the #1 selling online roleplaying game Guild Wars®, and NCsoft® Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announce today plans for a landmark event to preview Guild Wars Factions™, the highly anticipated follow up to 2005’s critically acclaimed game Guild Wars. On March 24, 2006, game players around the globe are invited to participate in the Guild Wars Factions Preview Event, an exclusive and one-time opportunity unlike any offered before.

You can read the full press release here.

When we reviewed the Sytrin Nextherm ICS-8200 air-conditioned
ATX enclosure early last year, we were not only impressed by the superb
chassis itself and cooling capabilities, but also the bundled power
supply. In fact, the power supply unit included with the Nextherm
ICS-8200 was likely one of the best we have ever seen bundled after
years of seeing flakey PSUs bundled with all sorts of ATX cases. Today
we have our eyes set on yet another Sytrin product, and today it is the
Nextherm PSU460 460W.

Head on over to Phoronix for the full review.

I have to applaud Thermaltake here. They have once again innovated and not just released ‘another’ case. The integrated slim optical drive in the front is really cool, and makes for a great media case, if you have the room. There are some obvious problems with that as well, like the fact that you must have room for the drive to open on the right.

Check out the full review at Xtreme Computing.

If you know modding, chances are you know AC Ryan. They make a lot of cool modder related supplies, but it’s not all just for modders. Need a new fan for your system? You don’t want the plain old black fans, or maybe you just want something different, well AC Ryan has the answer in their BlackFire line of fans and modding equipment. AC Ryan kindly sent me samples of their 120MM, 80MM and 92MM fans for review. So today we get the chance to take a better look at them, and maybe show you a cool alternative to the existing fans available today.

Check out the full review at Think Computers.

DESPITE THE FACT THAT NVIDIA launched its nForce4 SLI X16 chipset several months ago, motherboard manufacturers have been slow to adopt the new core logic. That’s understandable, since the X16 chipset really doesn’t offer much in the way of new features and performance. In fact, there are still only a few nForce4 SLI X16-based motherboards available on the market.

Check out the full review over at Tech Report.