Content and news by Rob Williams

The alternative gaming OS patron Ryan C. Gordon, or better
known as Icculus, has recently finished up work on the v3369 patch for
Unreal Tournament 2004 on Linux; and the Mac OS X and Windows 64-bit
builds will be pumped out shortly. Beyond the few critical fixes in the
Linux build, the retail version of Unreal Tournament 2004 v3369 now
include render-to-texture support for implementing such visual effects
as detailed shadows for the players as well as vehicles, motion blurs,
vehicle headlights, Hellbender license plate, and DM-Morpehus3
scoreboard. These latest implementations in this patch have been much
awaited by Linux users with the UT2k4 engine, and these latest
render-to-texture objects are the focus of our interest today.

Check out the full pictorial at Phoronix.

…So I decided to burn in core1 for a few days. So am running cpuburnK7 every night for about 6-7 hours now. Then turn it off for the day and try again in the evening. I’m now at the point I only need 1,45 vcore for both cores to let Prime run for hours on 2600Mhz…so I hope I can run 2700Mhz at vcore 1,520-1,540 So the temperature stays well beneath 50 degrees. I am really happy with this CPU, my aquamark was already 107.000 at 2500Mhz…

144 and 146 seem to be all the rage lately, but for Dual Core, then the 170 is a definite option. You can check out the full thread of the oc’ing experience at Hardware XL.

Linux From Scratch, a Linux distribution that lives by the
quote “Your Distro. Your Rules.” through allowing its users to create
their very own custom Linux system based upon their LFS builds and using
their step-by-step instructions in their numerous books. Released
recently from the LFS community has been version 6.1.1, which largely
consists of fixes since the v6.1 release. Part of this release is the
new x86-6.1.1 LiveCD with some of the new features being the XFce
Terminal improvements, jhalfs 0.2, rsync, sudo, and wireless_tools.

If you don’t like your OS to be completely bloated and want a challenge, then check out the pictorial over at Phoronix.

When we first realised the extent and detail of information that was being shared with other Xbox LIVE users, we did a bit of investigating. With the boss on the other end of the phone, I skipped about through my Xbox 360’s functions, each time challenging the boss to tell me what I was doing. Using Media Connect, he told me just a few seconds after I had started that I was viewing pictures… then playing music… then on the Xbox 360 Dashboard and then that I was in Xbox LIVE Marketplace looking for something to download. The sad thing is, he was right every time!

I quickly noticed this as well, but didn’t give it much thought. The fact that you can see what people who are not on your friends list is bad though, and there should at least be an option to block people from seeing what you are doing. Check out the full article over at Hexus.

Happy Monday! If you have a need for mass storage, then 500GB might be just what you need. Hardcore Ware is taking a look at four hard drives from Hitachi and Seagate, so check it out to aide in your purchasing decision. On the motherboard side, the eVGA nF4 SLI board is not exactly top notch, but it’s popular because of bundle deals around the web. If you want to know what you could expect from this board, you can check out the review at Motherboards.org.

Want top quality sound? NV News takes a stab at the Creative SB X-Fi Pro kit, which comes at a hefty price but includes everything you will need. Techniz also takes a look at the Coolmax CXI 600W which we reviewed last week. So grab your coffee, and get to readin’.

Cases & Enclosures
• NZXT Lexa – Extreme Resources
• Silverstone SUGO SG01 SFF – Think Computers

Cooling
• AeroCool HT-102 Heatsink w/ 8mm Heatpipes – Hi-Tech Reviews
• Antec VCool – Extensive Mods
• Cooljag JAC68YC Heatsink – Paradise|OC
• Swiftech H20-APEX Liquid Cooling System – Mod The Box
• Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 VGA Cooler – Big Bruin

Memory & Storage
• Hitachi vs. Seagate 500GB HDD – Hardcore Ware

Motherboards & CPU’s
• Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLI – Pro-Clockers
• DFI LAN Party UT NF4 UltraD – Lost Circuits
• EVGA nForce4 SLI Edition – Motherboards.org
• Gigabyte GA-G1975X – Hexus
• Tyan Tomcat K8E-SLI S2866 – Phoronix
• VIA EPIA MII 12000 – Case Mod God

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Antec Neo HE 500 – PC Perspective
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Pro – NVNews
• CoolMax CXI Series 600W – Techniz
• Logitech G5 Laser Mouse – Pro-Clockers
• Razer Copperhead High Precision – Virtual-Hideout
• SANSUN Thermal Monster Fan Controller Unit – Cache-Community

Video Cards & Monitor
• Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 9.6 Posted – Rojak Pot
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT Review – Rojak Pot

Etcetera & Contests
• Antec ATX 12v Power Supply Tester – Think Computers
• boynq Designer USB Gadgets 2.0 – EverythingUSB
• Designtechnica Podcast 12/2/05 – Design Technica
• Designtechnica Talk Back: What’s Behind the Microsoft/CableLabs CableCARD Agreement? – Design Technica
• Digital Projection in Your Home Theater – Bona Fide Reviews
• Samsung 970P LCD Display – XYZ Computing
• Samsung SPP-2040 Photo Printer – Overclockers Online

Press Releases
• EMC #1 in External Disk Storage Revenue for 7th Consecutive Quarter; EMC #1 in NAS for 8th Straight Quarter in Canada – Read PR
• Novell Revolutionizes Identity Management to Enhance Security and Compliance Across the Enterprise – Read PR

If you like ATITool, please help improving it by posting this contest.

This contest is open to everybody and lasts until Dec. 31st. Check out the full details here!

The contest rules are as usual, one posted reply to this thread is allowed per day, multiple posts in one day will disqualify. You dont need any other forum posts and is open to contestants worldwide! This contest will run until December 10th 2005 at 12:00am.

Check out the full contest details at 3D Xtreme.

Both of these Evercool heat pipe CPU coolers are quite good especially Ice Man; HPC-925. They have same retail price; 35USD. With the low price to get such good performance cooler is considered a great deal since most of the heat pipe coolers would set you back around 50USD. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages so it will be dependent on the user to find out which cooler is more suitable for you.

Head on over to PC Modding Malaysia for the full look.

Now I don’t know about you but I personally think 2 gig kits are pretty expensive and I believe around 50-60 percent of gamers won’t be planning this sort of upgrade due to the cost involved. So step forward Crucial’s 3200 value 2 gig kit. Priced at $321 dollars (or $289 if you visit Crucial before Christmas) and £219 respectively would it be good enough to make the gamer used to performance ram with low timings make the switch to a value 2 gig kit as the price is too high and out of there reach for a low latency performance 2 gig set? Well that’s what we are here to find out.

Check out the full review at Xtreme Computing.

Today’s first look at the PF22 will go over the spec, board layout and some performance, before our full review next week covers everything else. Looking for an Intel mainboard that does Crossfire so you can get your gaming rocks off? The PF22 might be just the thing.

Check out the full first look at Hexus.

Is bigger always better? With us today is the SilverStone
Nitrogon NT03, which is only 72mm tall but is able to pack the cooling
performance of a heatsink twice its size; in fact, the heatsink is able
to cool Socket 478. LGA-775, 754, 939, and 940 CPUs and for our testing
today we threw it up against a roasting hot Intel Pentium D.

Check out the full review over at Phoronix.

Logitech sits right at the head of the class when it comes to producing all kinds of input devices. From web cams to keyboards there is no denying their dominance in this market. Chances are in your computer experiences you have used a product or two from them. Myself, I am a huge Logitech fan, currently having three mice MX300, MX518 and a MX700. Today Logitech was nice enough to send me one of their newest mouse, the G5 Laser mouse. Will it live up to my trusty MX518? We will see.

Head on over to Pro-Clockers for the full review!

The Blue Orb II is silent and cooling performance is very good however for the overclockers out there this cooler was unable to challenge the Big Typhoon and the Freezer 64 Pro when Prime stability was factored in. Priced around $40 this would be a great replacement cooler to the stock AMD64 unit.

Check out the full review over at 3D Xtreme.

Now we’re allowed to officially write about that creamy white box that’s been sitting here for the last 10 days, Team HEXUS has passed the time reading all about Microsoft’s latest console on pretty much every gaming site on the web. I swear, if we see just one more picture of the front of an Xbox 360, unless it’s got a naked and oiled Kiera Knightley dangling off it, I’m going to scream!

Check out the full story here. For the record, I can’t get my butt off the 360 :(

It seems that there is a serious compatibility issue between some of the Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10 SATA series with an early firmware revision and some nForce4 based motherboards. Some of the effected motherboards are the ASUS A8N series, the DFI LAN Party NF4, and some MSI nForce4 based boards. The problem lies between onboard SATA controller and the hard drive.

Head on over to NGOHQ for the full posting.

After our last round up, we’re pretty dismayed with both the performance of
GeForce 6800GT and Radeon X800XL in newer games. For the most part, these cards
are just barely making the grade with minimum fps of 30 fps (with AA and AF) or
even less than that. So, like most gamers out there, we want an even faster card,
30 fps minimum is just too low for real fluid gaming. Obviously, this means
taking a look at the even faster GeForce 7800GT and GTX. This time, we put three
GeForce 7800GTX and two GeForce 7800GT to the test, they are the ASUS EN7800GT
TOP, Gigabyte 7800GTX Turbo Force, Winfast GeForce 7800GTX TDH and ASUS EN7800GT
and Gigabyte 7800GT

Check out the full look at Tech-Hounds.

In all, we have assembled a field of 25 candidates using the PCI Express interface. Of those, 21 are single-board solutions while the remaining four are SLI configurations. Cards range from the GeForce FX 5900 and the Radeon X600 to today’s high-end cards such as the GeForce 7800 GTX and the Radeon X1800 XT with its 512 MB of video memory. All of these cards can be compared across 50 charts detailing the results of seven benchmarks run at various screen resolutions and different quality settings.

I always enjoy these charts, because it gives a good round-up and comparison of all the latest cards. It’s then just up to you to decide which one fits your budget. Check out the full round-up over at Toms Hardware.

Without getting into the nitty gritty details, NVIDIA provides boards to our developers for their in house game development. These boards are meant for the sole purpose of inhouse engineering and QA. In the case of the recent GeForce 7800 GS PCI Express reviews that you may have seen, some of these developer boards were mistakenly given out to end users at an event the developers sponsored. These boards were never meant to ship in the open market.

Since the 6800 GS is such an amazing card, it really sucks to not see a 7800 version. I guess it’s just too similar to the GT. Check out the posting at AnandTech.

Adobe Systems Incorporated and Macromedia, Inc. today announced they have either received or been notified they will receive all regulatory clearances necessary to complete Adobe’s pending acquisition of Macromedia. The companies expect to close the transaction on December 3, 2005. Does this mean the end for Fireworks and Freehand?

You can check out the full press release here. It’s going to be quite interesting to see what happens in the near future. Products could be discontinued or merged, or kept as they are. I’m hoping this is for the better, because both are amazing companies. Check out the Slashdot post here.

Nonux, a Slackware-based distribution basically keeping its
residence to the Netherlands and other Dutch communities, has released
their v2.0 release that includes the 2.6.14.2 kernel, GNOME 2.12.1, and
a good deal of other package updates. This distribution is designed
primarily for Dutch office use and bundled into a single ISO are both
the LiveCD and install variants. For reference, the system failed to
operate properly on two of the three systems we had tested with Nonux v2.0.

This is a great looking distro, that you may want to check out, especially if you love Slackware. Check out the full pictorial Phoronix.