Content and news by Rob Williams

Internet Explorer fans can look forward to a public beta of the upcoming version 7 of that popular browser sometime in the first quarter of 2006. That fact, revealed on the Microsoft Developer Network web site today, may herald a return of the browser wars.

The term “Internet Explorer fans” makes me laugh, but either way this will be interesting. Check out the posting at Ars Technica.

THE UK MARKET is suffering like the US market was last week from a shortage of Microsoft Xbox 360s.

And, according to a report from consultancy Sungard, many people will just give up and buy other presents instead as the race to Yule turns into a shopping frenzy.

Whether this is accurate or not, I’m not sure, but it could be the case. No doubt Microsoft is busting their asses off trying to pump out systems for the holiday though. If they miss this holiday season, then they will certainly lose, since PS3 and Revolution are out next year. Read about it at the Inquirer.

Microsoft will pump $1.7bn into India over the next four years, in the process creating 3,000 new jobs. Most of the cash will, according to Bill Gates, go towards improving the software giant’s research and development capabilities.

Gates told a forum of Indian business leaders in New Delhi: “This amount is to be deployed across select focus areas over the next four years in line with Microsoft’s strategic vision for India,” adding: “We have 4,000 professionals in India today, we will increase it to 7,000 over the next three to four years.”

Check out the full read at The Register.

No lame forum registrations, no minimum post counts. To enter the contest, simply copy and paste the questions below into an email, and email the correct answers to [email protected], with CPU/Mobo Contest in the subject line.

It just doesn’t get any easier than this! Instead of wasting your next two minutes on deciding what you want to do, just shoot them an e-mail, you may be happy you did!

OCZ is a company well known among the enthusiast and overclocking crowd. We recently got a 2x512mb set of some Gold PC3500 GX, which uses UTT-BH chips, and is rated for 2-2-2-6 at stock speeds. It was quite fun to play with, go have a look!

These are some pretty nice modules, hitting 258MHz, although at a staggering 3.6v! Check out the full review over at Eclipse OC.

Whew, sorry for the late posting news! I woke up abnormally late today for some reason, but I kicked myself in the ass so don’t worry. There’s not a lot of reviews today oddly, but there are still a few great ones. There’s a fair amount of graphics cards being looked at, if that needs to be your next purchase. Extreme Tech takes a look at the new X1600XT card, but are hardly impressed. You may want to splurge on the 7800GTX that PC Stats is reviewing today.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master CM Media BTX-B260 Case – 3D Gameman
• Enermax Laureate Series Enclosures 3.5HDD and 5.25 CD/DVD – Think Computers

Cooling
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro – Technic3D
• Asetek WaterChill KT03AT-12VX – InsaneTek
• EverCool Copper Man Intel LGA775 – A1 Electronics
• Gigabyte G-Power Lite CPU Cooler – PimpRig
• Swiftech Apogee Universal CPU Waterblock – System Cooling

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Abit AN8 SLI – PC Modding Malaysia

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Enermax Liberty ELT500AWT 500w Power Supply – Cache-Community
• Seasonic S12-330 330W – Hardware-Review

Video Cards & Monitor
• ASUS EAX1800XL 256MB & HIS Excalibur X1800 XL 256MB PCIe – Hexus
• ATI Radeon Mobility X1600 GPU – Trusted Reviews
• ATI Radeon X1600 XT Video Card – Extreme Tech
• EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB – The Tech Zone
• Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/3550PCX, GeForce 7800 GTX, 512MB GDDR3 – Hardware OC
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 4.3 – Rojak Pot
• MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D512E 512MB – PC Stats
• XGI Volari 8300 Graphics Card Pictorial – Rojak Pot

Etcetera & Contests
• ATI Catalyst 5.12 Beta 8.20 – techPowerUp!
• Dream’eo Enza 20GB Portable Media Center – Design Technica
• Holiday Gaming Gear Guide – Design Technica
• Primera Signature Z1 CD/DVD Printer – Extensive Mods

Press Releases
• Women in Games International Conference in San Francisco Game Industry Leaders Discuss Hot Career Topics – Read PR

Asus’s new series of Main Station motherboards are designed specifically for high-end computer and workstation users. With the release of this series, Asus is concentrating on providing additional storage options, improved cooling performance, and scalability for the business user. The board will fully support the soon to be released Pentium XE dual-core CPU, which offers two independent 2MB L2 cache, 1066MHz front-side-bus, Hyper-Threading Technology, and Virtualization Technology for improved multi-thread operations.

This is a hopeful board, and has some great features. You can actually use either Crossfire or SLi with a BIOS flash, which makes your buying decision easier. Take a look at the very in-depth look at the new board and chipset at AnandTech.

This is obviously true, since one is 2.6GHz and the other 2.8Ghz. If 3D Mark supported dual core processors, I would be quite interested to see the differences.

Even though the FX 60 has two cores, the slower clock results in poorer performance. Two X1800 XT Master card edition in Crossfire with standard X1800XT scores 13560 with the FX 60 CPU while the FX 57 scores 14200 in 3Dmark05. It’s very simple – the faster clock beats its competition.

Check out the full posting here.

What’s one way to know video podcasts have gone mainstream? When Playboy announces plans to do their own. The company known for its centerfolds today said they would begin offering their own daily downloadable “Playboy Bodcast” on their website.

Wow, how retarded is this. I mean, the show is fine, but anything that includes ‘odcast’ should be shunned like the plague. Read more Design Technica.

I think we got ripped personally… because my plain white 360 is looking awful boring after checking out this Gizmodo article.

There are of course many auctions on eBay that sell sticker sets to allow you to skin your 360, but it’s not the same :(

Over the past week, the Australian government threatened to shut Kazaa down if Sharman Networks did not install filters to prevent illegal downloading of songs and movies. Well, Sharman Networks had a workaround in mind.

From Monday night, Australian users of the site were greeted with the message: “The download of the Kazaa Media Desktop by users in Australia is not permitted.”

How classy! Check out the full read here.

While there were indeed many disappointments to claw at the heels of success, Need for Speed Most Wanted turned out to be an absolutely amazing title. With the return of the cops, an entirely new dimension of Gameplay has opened wide up, one which was sorely lacking in the short lived Underground series. If you like race games you will love NFS Most Wanted. So Get ready armchair racers Most Wanted is right in time for the Holiday season, so rev up your engines.

This is a great game, but dang it get’s hard quick! Check out the full look here.

Lately, the theme of a lot of games has been World War II. Most of them have been first person shooters. Today I am looking at something a bit different; it is billed as a Tactical-RPG, or role playing game. It is from a well known company call CDV, they have lots of great games in their catalog, if you are a gamer I’m sure you own one of more of their titles. So, today for review I have Hammer and Sickle the PC game. I have been a long time fan of RPG games, but most I played were all fantasy based, so this is something different for me, I do like the WWII theme though, and who doesn’t like any game that allows you to shoot people?!

Check out the full review over at Think Computers.

On the ASUS A7G Notebook running an Intel 760 (2.0GHz), 1GB DDR2 memory, and the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 PCIe card we were able to hit an amazing 3797 3DMarks. To put this into perspective we can compare this to the ASUS Z71V notebook that we built uses the same chipset (i915PM). It features an Intel 770 processor, 1GB DDR2 memory, and a Geforce Go 6600. It scored 1706 3DMarks when run with the default drivers…

Now that’s a mobile GPU I wish I had in my notebook! My GeForce 5200 FX just doesn’t cut it anymore. Actually, it never cut it! Check out the full first look at Legit Reviews.

There are a few contests floating around today, and I am sure more will become available as the holiday nears. Both GamePyre and Motherboards.org are holding a contest where you could win an ECS mobo and Intel CPU. It’s not some small CPU either, but a Dual Core 3.0GHz P4! Check out the details here and here.

Tech Report realizes that most geeks don’t live in geek famlies, so how are your gifts possibly going to please you? They remedy this problem by having a kick ass contest where you can win some components to build a killer rig, including an X2 4200+! You can check out the full details right here.

If you are in need of a graphics card, then how does a Leadtek Winfast PX7800GT Extreme card sound? NGOHQ is offering up two of these babies. All you have to do is register in their forums and tell them how much you love them… how much easier could it get? Check out the details for this contest here!

If you have been on the lookout for a hard drive enclosure, then you will want to check out both A1 and MVK Tech today. The Speeze and Spire enclosures both look pretty good, but are more basic than some others on the market. If our review of the newest Corsair 4GB thumb drive is too much to handle, then take a look at Techniz, where they are examining a Crucial model, weighing in at a wimpy 2GB ;)

techPowerUp! looks at the updated OCZ Gold 2GB modules today. Well, the only thing updated is the heat spreader, but they are some fine looking modules! Also on the storage front, Bit-Tech is throwing up a bout between Pioneer and Plextor, both wicked brands, to see who comes out on top. The winner may surprise you; it surprised me. Lastly, Overclockers Online and Guru 3D are both taking a glance at a new PSU from Thermaltake, and it looks to be a winner. It’s hard to describe how unique this product is, so definitely check out either of those sites for the review.

Cases & Enclosures
• ABS Stealth ATX Chassis – Viper Lair
• I-Star Nitro AX Full Tower Case – XYZ Computing
• Speeze GigaPod III 3.5″ external HDD enclosure – A1 Electronics
• Spire GigaPod III External Drive Enclosure – MVK Tech

Cooling
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 CPU Cooler – Red & Blackness
• Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R80 Water Cooler – Big Bruin
• Swiftech Storm G4 CPU Water Block – PC Modding Malaysia

Memory & Storage
• Corsair Twinx2048 4000 DDR500 – Ninja Lane
• Crucial Gizmo 2GB Flash Drive – Techniz
• Dual-Layer DVD Duel – Pioneer vs. Plextor – Bit-Tech
• Kingston 15-in-1 Flash Memory Reader – Legit Reviews
• OCZ Technology EL PC3500 GX Gold Edition Dual Channel – TweakNews
• OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2GB Gold GX XTC – techPowerUp!

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ASRock 939S56-M AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 PCIe – OC Inside

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• E-Power Silent Engine Tiger 650W – Insane Tek
• Hiper Cavier Aluminum Alloy Keyboard – Hardware-Review
• Thermaltake Pure Power PST 520W – Overclockers Online
• Thermaltake PurePower PST 520W – Guru 3D

Video Cards & Monitor
• BFG Technologies GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB PCI Express Video Card – Bona Fide Reviews
• MSI NX6800GS – T-Break
• XFX 6600 DDR2 & MSI X1300 Pro – Bit-Tech

Etcetera & Contests
• LED Light Bulb – A True Review
• NVIDIA 1.0-8174 Performance – Phoronix
• NVIDIA Linux SLI – Phoronix
• PC Club Enpower Nitro Extreme Evaluation – Hard|OCP
• Sharp M4000 Laptop – Design Technica

Press Releases
• OCZ Technology Announces Partnership with UK-Based VIP Computers – Read PR

Thumb drive not providing you enough space for your needs? Corsair’s Voyager thumb drives are very well respected because they are fast and very durable. This one is no exception, except that it offers you a full 4GB of space! Let’s take a look at this spacious drive, and see how it stacks up to the competition.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Dec. 5, 2005 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the completion of its acquisition of Macromedia, Inc. The transaction was finalized on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005. As a result of the acquisition, Macromedia common stock is no longer being traded and shares of Macromedia common stock were converted into the right to receive 1.38 shares of Adobe common stock.

You can check out the full press release here. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out, because these are two monsterous companies that both have amazing products. Adobe is now offering bundles that combines software from both companies, which you can see here. If you are a hardcore developer, you could get the Studio 8 + Adobe Creative Suite 2 for a mere $1,899USD, which is much cheaper than buying the software seperately.

At dawn on December 2nd 2005, Singapore hanged a citizen of Australia, despite a plea for clemency from the United Nations. Whilst Putfile is not a human rights campaigning organization, we believe that if a country must have the death penalty, there is no need for it be barbaric. It is enough of a punishment, and a deterrent, to take someone’s life in a painless manner, without having to be barbaric about it. Putfile prefers to not continue to provide our free uploading service to a country that executes prisoners by hanging, a method of execution which can take up to six minutes to painfully execute the victim.

This is quite a stance, and I agree with it. I won’t express my opinions about Singapores laws, because I could go on forever. Just check out the page over at Putfile.

The Best of E3, Editors Choice, People’s Choice and sequel to the Game of the Year, those are some mighty high accolades for any game. Call of Duty 2 takes you back into the trenches, cities and beachheads of Activision’s top selling World War II First Person Shooter game for another tour of duty as a member of American, British, Russian or German soldiers in a classic shooter that has some big shoes to fill.

Head on over to Think Computers for the full review.