Content and news by Rob Williams

Up on our bench tonight is the Cooler Master Real Power
RS-550-ACLY, which packs in 550W of power. One of the features for the
power supply includes an innovative power meter that fits in an
available drive bay.

Head on over to Phoronix for the full look.

This enclosure offers looks and performance all in one package. If you are in the market for an external enclosure that has the fastest performance then this would be it. While USB2 is fast, a direct SATA connection is much faster. Since most large capacity 3.5″ SATA Hard Drives are affordable, it’s a fantastic backup solution…

Check out the full review at 3D Gameman.

One concern with modern PSUs is the ability to provide enough solid power for two video cards at the same time in a system. I mounted two CD-ROM drives, 2 7800GTs in SLI mode, a FX-60 CPU, 2GB of memory and a SLI motherboard and ran the system for 3 days. Stability was excellent and no problems were seen during the testing or daily use of this power supply.

Check out the full review over at Motherboards.org.

The Register reports that twenty years ago today (19 January 1986), the first computer virus, Brain, was discovered. By modern standards, this was a minor virus, and it spread by floppy disks, which is a far cry from the network-aware worms of today. Still, though, it was the first noted virus, and we’ve had twenty years of pain and annoyance from it and its successors. Happy birthday, Brain, you and all your little virus friends – just know we’re doing our damndest to keep you from having more.

Haha, not exactly something we want to celebrate. Check it out at Slashdot.

Compro Technology, a leading manufacturer of PC multimedia products, announced today VideoMate U880 is the world’s smallest USB 2.0 analog TV Box. Built-in the advanced high-quality silicon tuner, only with the pen drive size, provides the powerful features with TV watching, MPEG-1/2/4 formats scheduled recording, timeshifting, channel surfing, still frame capture, and supports universal TV system broadcasting reception (NTSC, PAL, and SECAM) without any external power adaptor required.

Check out the full release ComproUSA.

The student entrepreneur behind the milliondollarhomepage.com is facing the threat of legal action from the firm that paid more than $38,000 for the last 1,000 pixels.

Milliondollarweightloss.com secured the last slot on Alex Tew’s website after he auctioned it on eBay. But the FT reports that lawyers representing the weight-loss site are preparing to sue Tew in a US court for “breach of contract”, among other things.

It figures that a sensation like this would cause problems like these. It will be interested in see if Milliondollarweightloss will actually win a case. Check it out The Register.

It’s 5:30am. Your alarm clock goes off and you press the snooze for those critical 5 extra minutes of sleep. It goes off again, this time you get out of bed and you’re brain begins to ponder. No, you’re not thinking about what to wear to work/school or what the weather is like outside. You’re pondering the same thing that everyone else ponders when they first roll out of bed. What would it be like to play a 4 minute match in Quake 4 against Fatal1ty? Well today is your lucky day because I am going to tell you exactly what it’s like!

I can’t access the site, but I’m sure this would be a great article! Check it out here (If you can access it).

InsaneTek takes a fresh look at the Titan Robela watercase that we reviewed a few months ago. It’s a great case overall, but as they mentioned, when all your gear is in there, it’s one heavy beast! It’s also expensive, so you better have your wallet handy. For the worlds smallest PSU, you’ll have to check out Big Bruin today. The pico only comes in at 120W, but is it tiny!

Cases & Enclosures
• Vantec NexStar3 with eSATA Interface – Think Computers

Cooling
• Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 VGA Cooler – Virtual-Hideout
• Evercool STC-01 – Overclockers Online
• Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler – Viper Lair
• TITAN Robela – InsaneTek

Memory & Storage
• Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT PC4000 DDR500 Memory Kit – Mod The Box

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Intel Pentium-D 900 Series – GamePC

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Antec Phantom 500 500W Silent – Hardware-Reviews
• picoPSU-120 12V DC-DC ATX – Big Bruin
• Sansun Arctic 450W – techPowerUp!

Video Cards & Monitor
• GeForce 6800 GS 256 MB – Guru 3D
• NVIDIA Jan’06 Updates – Rojak Pot
• Sapphire X1800 XT – PenStarSys

Etcetera & Contests
• CES2006 Home Video Wrap-Up – Design Technica
• Compro Videomate X50 TV Tuner Card – PC Modding Malaysia
• Converting Videotape Into Video Files – PC Stats
• Datacolor ColorFacts Professional 6.0 – XYZ Computing

In the early days of counter strike there was a map known as militia. A simple map it was, but nevertheless, a great one. It incorporated aspects of counter strike to appeal to a wide range of players, featuring a combination of stealth, tactics, sniping, and all out fire fights.

Check out this wicked new map right here.

Reaching the closed testing environment just hours ago has
been the third BETA candidate for X2 – The Threat, which is presently
being ported to Linux by the developers at Linux Game Publishing. This
third candidate delivers many performance improvements and is the focus
of our benchmarking today to see how the second and third BETA updates
fair, after we had tampered with the initial build late last year.

Check out the full look at Phoronix.

What this means is that Engage came up with a strategy to reach gamers only in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas, and the strategy they settled on involved placing Subway ads into the game Counter-Strike: Source. After all, what young man doesn’t work up an appetite for a good sandwich deal after a Saturday morning spent wasting terrorists?

I would personally be pissed off if I ever seen an ad in one of my favorite games. If I’m around saving the world from terrorists, the last thing I want to see is a damn Subway ad! Read all about it at Ars Technica.

Sales of Intel-based desktop PCs fell 22.3 percent during the fourth quarter, according to Current Analysis. As a result, sales of AMD-based desktops took the lead during the pivotal fourth-quarter holiday shopping season. AMD chips were found in 52.5 percent of desktop PCs sold in U.S. retail stores during that period.

AMD certainly has had quite the increase. Well deserved too if I may add. Check out the posting at Slashdot.

3DMark is no doubt one of the most popular benchmarking programs in the world, with everyone from newbies to power-users running and testing it on their machines. The vast majority of hardware sites incorporate this ubiquitous application into their video card reviews, and no PR blurb would be complete without an anticipated 3DMark result figuring central to the report. Many people love this small program that tells you how powerful your graphics hardware is, or alternatively if you need to spend hundreds of dollars upgrading your components.

Futuremark seems to add every other technology available, but NGOHQ points out that they are missing one. Check out the read right here.

This interview was conducted with Martin F. Krafft, the author of “The Debian System”. Despite Debian GNU/Linux’s important role in today’s computing environment, it is largely misunderstood and oftentimes even discounted as being an operating system which is exclusively for professionals and elite users. In this book Krafft, explains his concept of Debian, which includes not only the operating system but also its underpinnings. Debian is not only a robust and scalable Linux distribution, but it has many other features which are worth looking into, like its open development cycle and rigorous quality control. The importance of Debian on the open source software community should not be underestimated- in addition to being one of the most secure and stable distributions available, it has also been the foundation for Knoppix, Ubuntu, and Xandros.

This is a fantastic interview if you love Linux or Debian in general. Check it out at XYZ Computing.

GeIL announces the official release of its record breaking DDR2 Value series PC8000 product clocking at 1000 Mhz, joining the GeIL performance module family. The DDR2 PC8000 1000Mhz Value is capable of reaching such high frequency with the CAS of 5-5-5-15.

Model Number: GX21GB8000DC & GX22GB8000DC

Specification:
• PC2-8000 DDR2-1000MHz
• CAS 5-5-5-15
• Available in 1GB & 2GB (64Mx8) Dual Channel Kit
• Hand-picked 64Mx8 DDR2 Chips
• 240 pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered DIMM
• Brushed Aluminum Heat Spreader
• Working Voltage: 1.9V – 2.3V (Currently 2.3V)
• Retail Package
• Lifetime Warranty

Check out the full press release for these speedy modules right here!

There’s a lot of reviews going around today, so get your reading glasses on. If you are behind the times and haven’t yet read an AMD FX60 review, then check out UK Gamer today. If you are interested in how the latest ATI drivers will work for you in Linux, Phoronix, as always, has put together some thorough benchmarks for your consumption. 3D Gameman has a double hitter today, with a look at two great looking Ultra PSU’s.

Cooling
• Noctua NH-U9 AMD Athlon 64, Intel Pentium 4 Heatsink – A1 Electronics
• Scythe Samurai Z CPU Cooler – Extensive Mods
• Thermalright V-1 Ultra VGA Cooler – Think Computers

Memory & Storage
• Swissbit Cirrus WHITE USB 512mb USB Drive – Think Computers
• Thecus YES Box N2100 – Hexus

Motherboards & CPU’s
• AMD Athlon 64 FX60 – UK Gamer
• EPoX EP-5LDA+GLI 945P – HotHardware

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• 180s Tek Fleece by JVC Ear Buds – Design Technica
• Logitech Z4 2.1 Speakers – Case Mod God
• Maxtill Mouse Pad Roundup – Pro-Clockers
• Saitek Eclipse Special Red Edition Illuminated Keyboard – 3D Xtreme
• Ultra X-Connect X2 550W Power Supply w/ FlexForce Modular Cables Review – 3D Gameman
• Ultra X-Finity 600W Power Supply w/ FlexForce Cables – 3D Gameman

Video Cards & Monitor
• ATI X1800 CrossFire – Legit Reviews
• ATI v8.21.7 Display Drivers (Linux)- Phoronix
• Catalyst 6.1 Comparison – Technic 3D
• Gigabyte GeForce 6800GS – Legion Hardware

Etcetera & Contests
• Creative Notebook WebCam Live – UK Gamer
• Futuremark 3DMark06 – UK Gamer
• Keeping Windows Clean – BTX Form Factor
• Red Hat Fedora Core 5 Test 2 (Linux) – Phoronix
• Samsung ML 2010 Laser Printer – Bona Fide Reviews
• Viliv P1 20gig Portable Media Player – Xtreme Computing

Saratoga, California USA – January 18, 2006 – Continuing forward in the development of advanced game performance benchmarks, Futuremark announced today the release and immediate availability of 3DMark06. A more comprehensive and unrestricted benchmark than previous versions, 3DMark06 includes an array of 3D graphics, CPU and 3D feature tests for overall performance measurement of current and future PC gaming systems. With this broader design approach, 3DMark06 will be the benchmark of choice for all PCs with top-of-the-line graphics hardware and CPUs. Futuremark predicts that 3DMark06 will emerge as the most complete 3D graphics benchmark for Windows XP, paving the way for new benchmarks targeted at future OS environments such as Windows Vista.

Of course you can check out our in-depth review of the product. Other sites who have also reviewed it are: Guru3D, Hexus and Technic 3D. The race to 10K is on!

We take the latest version of the popular benchmark for a test-drive to see what’s new, what’s changed and what you need for a good score. To put it simply, 06 is like 05, but on steroids. Let’s take a look..

Mozilla Firefox has achieved an market share of over 20 percent in Europe, according to the latest figures released by French Web metrics firm XiTi. XiTi, which based its figures on a sample of 32.5 million Web site visits that took place on Sunday 8 January, said that Finland has the highest proportion of Firefox users, followed by Slovenia and Germany. It found that the open source browser is used by 38, 36 and 30 percent of users in these countries respectively.

Here I thought that Firefox was immensly popular over here, but it seems to be even moreso across the waters. I am sure that it will only continue to get better… Check it out at OS News.

Rambus has accused Micron of patent infringement, alleging the US memory maker has sold products containing its DDR 2, GDDR 2, GDDR 3 and other “advanced” memory technologies without permission.

Rambus is already battling Micron in the Delaware District Court, but the new filing, made late last week, opens a new front in the war, this time in the US District of Northern California – Rambus’ preferred location for litigation.

Haha, will this ever end? Seriously though, this is a tad ridiculous. Read about it at The Register.