Content and news by Rob Williams

In an extremely shocking announcement, Nokia said it will no longer put development time into the N-Gage, meaning no more new versions or updates. This comes as an enormous surprise after the N-Gage was so popular and awesome! Nokia also said it’s not done in the mobile gaming market yet. The company plans to crawl back into the mobile gaming market in 2007—reason: who knows? See you later N-Gage. Out of all of the taco-ear phones, you were my favorite.

It’s always sad to see a system go unsupported, but this really had nothing going for it, compared to the other portable game systems on the market. Check out the posting at Gizmodo.

Looking for a large mouse pad that will never warp or move? Then look no further – the Icemat 2nd Edition mouse pad is just the thing!

Take a look at our review of the Icemat 2nd Edition mouse pad and see what’s good and bad with this heavyweight!

Check out the full look at this cool mousepad at Rojak Pot.

This is a basic and simple to use hard drive benchmarking utility program that compares drives to an existing database provided by the software or allows you to compare drives head to head in a benchmarking drag-race.

Check out the full look at one of my personal favorite benchmarking tools at Think Computers.

The Internet sits are full dangers. On many Internet sites visitors are misleaded or are abused using your computer security leaks in your browser (for example) to provide spyware the opportunity to setup shop. Protect the privacy of your computer with Hitman Pro 2.

Check out HardwareXL for more info.

MVKTech has teamed up with Mushkin Enhanced Memory to offer our readers and audience a chance and some lightning fast memory. Back in June 2005 we reviewed Mushkin’s HP3200 REDLINE DDR400 1GB Kit and was very impressed with this ultra high performance ram, now MVKTECH is going to share that performance with you! If you want to get your hands on some of the fastest ram in its class, you know the gig, just post in our forum contest thread to win 1GB of Mushkin Redline series DDR400.

Check out the full contest details over at MVKTech and enter!

By now you’ve probably read numerous NVIDIA SLI guides for
constructing a Windows gaming rig but for your viewing pleasure today we
have our first Linux SLI primer, as the NVIDIA Rel80 drivers are on the
heels of a public launch, which bring fourth initial SLI support. In
this guide, we share some basic information for choosing graphics cards,
power supplies, and motherboards that are NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface
certified. In addition we share a few tidbits about the Linux software
setup along with screenshots.

It’s too bad that there are not more games in Linux to usually warrant an SLi setup, but hopefully now that it’s available, companies will be quicker to support it. Check out the great guide over at Phoronix.

The 2GB XMS3500LLPRO kit comes with LED activity lights that gives that bling factor to your rig and will surely turn heads. Although it may not be as cool as the Xpert series, these Pro series packs a punch. Rated at DDR438 or 218MHz, these modules offer low latencies at 2-3-2-6 1T with just 2.7V. This is great for most users as you will not need a motherboard with extensive VDIMM option as the 2GB XMS3500LLPRO kit works best with just 2.7V. Although we were able to run Memtest at 2-2-2-5, we were unable to boot into Windows due to the limitation caused by the on-processor memory controller. The 2GB XMS3500LLPRO kit also showed decent overclocking for a 2GB kit and operating DDR510 with only 2.7V is pretty impressive.

Check out the full article over at PC Modding Malaysia.

When I first heard that DFI is coming up with a new “Expert” version of this board, I was wondering if they could really improve things so much that it warrants a new product. Yes they did! There are a lot of improvements compared to the older LanParty NF4 series. For example you can finally run four 512 MB memory modules at 1T timing.

1T timing for four modules? Wow, this board just keeps getting better. It may not be worthy of an upgrade from your standard SLI-DR, but this board is the board you want for your SLi rig. Check out the full review at techPowerUp!.

When you think of PC games you usually think of a keyboard as your “controller”. That is what a large percent of PC users use for gaming on a PC. There are just some games that would be totally better with a controller; sports games, racing games, even some action games. A lot of PC users seem intimidated by using a controller, but it’s really easy and improves game play on a lot of games. So what controller will be up on the testing block today? The Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad.

Check out the full review over at Think Computers.

Up on the review block today is OCZ Technology’s EB DDR
PC-4000 2 x 1024MB Platinum Edition. Although we have seen countless
reports under Windows XP on how an extra 1024MB of system memory can be
beneficial, in particular games and applications, we have done this
comparison with the Linux 2.6.14 kernel and have discovered some
intriguing results.

If you *nix users are thinking of upgrading to a nice 2GB kit, you will want to check out the great review at Phoronix.

Tis the holiday season, yet again. This is my Christmas wish list. Many of these items might be on your list as well. These items, in my opinion are the most wanted items of the 2005 holiday season. Everyone loves getting Christmas presents, so why not get what you wanted this year?

The time is flying so fast.. it seems like we just had holiday buying guides. Check out this guide over at Think Computers to see what Enigma5 wants this year.

XFX lose the fastest-clocked GTX 512 competition, though. EVGA submitted a final engineering sample of their e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB a few days ago. Clocked out-of-the-box at 600/900, the watercooled graphics board also challenges for the title of world’s most expensive consumer VGA board, tipping the money scales at a scary $1000. We shudder to think of the converted UK price, fully expecting it to be in the high £600 range, closing in rapidly on £700.

This is one race I love to watch! It’s great seeing all these special edition cards on the market, but they just keep going higher and higher in price. Check out the full preview of this awesome card at Hexus.

This product simply rocks in the latency department! It quite simply kicks butt with an extremely tight memory timing of 2-2-2-5. If that’s not enough, it can be overclocked for added performance. One cool feature is OCZ’s Xtreme Thermal Convection honeycomb heat spreader design. This not only looks amazing but allows for maximum cooling. Watch the Video to find out more…

I said it once, and I’ll say it again.. this is great memory for the price! OCZ did a great job with this kit, and you can view the video review at 3D Gameman!

I’m tired of reviewing the same type of cases. Same interior and a
different front face, that is the typical mid-tower today. Maybe that is
why I truly enjoy the server cases. They have plenty of room and great
cooling. The looks can be bland at times, but some are very professional
looking. No matter what though, they are innovative. That is why I was
excited when I-Star offered me the chance to review their Nitro Ax server
case.

Check out the full look at this beefy case over at A True Review.

Instead of offering solutions to AGP market, which DOMINATES the overall share of PC computers out there, ATi overclocked the X1800XT and made a presentation running around the erroneous calculation which claims GeForce 7800GTX 512MB will “die” after 1170 hours. Also, the claim has been done that an average gamer can play 30+ hours on ATi’s X1800XT 512MB hardware and only mediocre 7.5 hours weekly before nV’s hardware will fail.

I really want to see this happen. If neither of them have anything to be scared of, then why back out? Check it out at Inq.

• ATI Catalyst 5.12 Beta Drivers with WHQL Certification for Windows XP/2000/x64/MCE
• ATI Catalyst Control Center
• ATI Control Panel
• ATI MCE Control Panel.
• WDM

As always, NGOHQ is proudly hosting these drivers, and you can grab them here.

The popular file-sharing service Kazaa has been put on notice. Sharman Networks, the Australian company that purchased the Kazaa network and software in 2002, has been told by an Australian judge that they have until December 5 to either filter copyrighted music from its system or shut down their operations entirely.

This almost sucks. Well, not really since Kazaa is horrible. I hope to see it go. Check out the full read here.

Whoopty: Can you please give us your full name and job title at Abit?
Peter: My name is Peter Du Preeze. My Job title is a bit hard to describe. It changes with whatever job I’m doing. My main function is PR for UK, South Africa & now Australia, but I’m also Content editor for marketing and again recently given PM (Product manager) job for the MAX series of Motherboards. Basically a have a very challenging multifaceted job within ABIT marketing.

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

There’s not too much going on today, but there are a ton of case reviews for you to look at. If you don’t need a new case, then check out some kick ass G. Skill memory over at Pure Overclock. If your gaming skills are less and perfect, look to MVK Tech for the review of a killer new mousepad from fUnc. It won’t fUnc with your heart. Modding your PC? Hardware Review is taking a look at a killer front panel that you will need to have.

Cases & Enclosures
• Antec P150 Case – Extreme Tech
• Antec P180 Case – AMD Zone
• Mountain Mods Bob Slay Acrylic Cube Case – Mod The Box
• Nikao Dragonfire Mid-Tower Gaming Case – Mod The Box
• NZXT Lexa Aluminum Mid Tower – XtremeComputing
• XG Dragon Special Edition Case – Think Computers

Cooling
• Raidmax Glacier CPU Cooler – Big Bruin
• Vantec Stingray – STG100 – Case Mod God

Memory & Storage
• G.skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (2x1GB 2-3-2-5) – Pure Overclock
• Seagate 5GB Pocket Hard Drive Review Rev. 2.0 – Rojak Pot
• Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.9 Hard Drive Pictorial – Rojak Pot

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• fUnc Industries sUrface1030 Archetype – MVKTech

Video Cards & Monitors
• Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT – Hot Hardware
• Samsung SyncMaster 740B 17″ LCD – Tech Tastic

Etcetera & Contests
• Breathing Life Into Older Computers – Ase Labs
• Matrix Orbital MX610 Front P
• Matrix Orbital MX610 Front Panel – Hardware Review

5 Buyer’s Guide – Design Technica

Stratics has a few ways that you can do to get into the RFO beta. Of course, you need to put your thinking cap on and get to work. Check out the Fan Art contest, as well as the Limerick contest. Wow, that last one is different :)