Content and news by Rob Williams

ATI silently lowered its warranty from three years down to a single year on the majority of their desktop graphics cards, which has created some upset and confused consumers. The warranty change was found by consumers who visited the Warranty Service and Repair page on ATI’s website. Cutting warranties is nothing new as many will recall…

This is a very interesting read for sure. Check out the full article at Legit Reviews.

Dell’s E510n PC comes with no operating system installed and is geared for customers who want to use open-source software such as Linux.

News.com made this comment in a super quick news posting, but it’s definitely interesting. It’s also about time. Now if only we can get AMD on Dells, then I will stop complaining about Dell. Check it out at News.com.

Smaller than the ML-22[50/51N], but larger than the ML-1750, the ML-2010 is an excellent hybrid, merging the cost-effective economy of the 1750 with the more professional design of the 2250 series. For the more casual home user, the ML-2010 might actually be a more effective choice than a larger model such as the ML-2250 or the ML-2251N. With a larger model, the warm-up time is much greater, and the time until the first page comes out is extended.

Check out the full review at XYZ Computing.

For the first time since the advent of commercial digital music downloads, a recording has passed the 1,000,000 mark in download sales. The song, former Billboard #1 “Hollaback Girl” from Gwen Stefani’s debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., had sales of approximately 995,000 downloads as of Friday, September 30. The recording has averaged 15,000 downloads per week since it’s release on November 25, 2004.

Wow, that’s quite an accomplishment. I seriously do not like this song, so that shi*’s Bananas.. B a n a n a s! *shrug* Check out the full news post at iLounge.

Just like its flagship desktop counterpart, the GeForce Go 7800 GTX is a 24 pipeline GPU built on a .11 micron fab process. Complementing the 24 pipeplines, we have a full 8 Vertex Shaders and 16 ROPs (Render Operators). These added features also increases die size and transistor count. The G70’s 300 million transistors weigh in at roughly 80 million more than the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra, so that gives us an indication that this new G70 mobile part is an absolute powerhouse. Surprisingly enough though, this new mobile GPU shares the same overall footprint and power characteristics as the previous flagship GeForce Go 6800 Ultra. Again, please reference our initial review of the desktop GeForce 7800 GTX for a full analysis of the G70’s architectural features.

Head on over to Hot Hardware for the full review!

I must say I was quite excited after looking over the spec shet sent from Enermax, especially as this will allow for system growth options on my end. Let’s get down to business and see what this PSU has to offer.

Check out the full review at PimpRig!

Mesquite, TX – October 3, 2005 – id Software™, Raven Software and Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) have confirmed Earth’s invasion of Stroggos with the announcement that QUAKE 4™ PC has entered manufacturing and will begin shipping to retail stores nationwide on Tuesday, October 18. The long awaited sequel to QUAKE II®, QUAKE 4 enlists gamers in the role of Matthew Kane, a member of the Earth Defense Force’s legendary Rhino Squad, to penetrate deep into the heart of the Strogg war machine and engage in a series of heroic missions to destroy the barbaric alien race.

I can’t wait for this one! You can check out the Official Site for more info, although not too much is there to be seen yet.

In preparing to self-release our new album, we thought long and hard about how best to use the internet. Given our unusual history, and a long-held sense that the practice now being demonized by the music biz as “illegal” file sharing can be a friend to the independent musician, we have decided to embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century, put our money where our mouth is, and make our record, Little By Little…, available for download via Bittorrent, and at our website.

It would be great to see more bands take such a stand. If their music really does kick ass, then people will buy it. The kicker here is though, that they heard it first for free and legally. Personally, I am a strong believer that BitTorrent is good for music, especially with lesser known bands. You may remember Harvey Danger from a few years back when they had a smash single, “Flagpole Sitta”. The new album is not quite my style, but there are a couple really great songs here. “Cream and Bastards Arise” is a great tune :)

You are able to download the album over at Harvey Danger.com and also view their stance here. Also feel free to add your two cents about this topic in our forums.

MARKHAM, Ontario – Oct. 4, 2005 – Novell today announced that Woodbine Entertainment Group, a billion-dollar provider of racing, gaming and entertainment products, has chosen Novell for secure collaboration and automated desktop management. The Canadian-based company is providing employees with reliable tools that support its e-mail intensive work environment, reduce administration costs by 80 per cent, streamline resource management and improve virus protection. As a result, Woodbine is lowering overall costs and dramatically increasing productivity.

Read: Full Press Release

Let me start off by saying that I only buy 3 different manufactures of power supplies: PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, and Antec. I have had great luck, no failures, and rock solid results with all 3 of those companies. However, after testing out this power supply and seeing how stable it performs, I would now consider HEC Group when I need a new power supply unit.

If you are looking to buy an up to date PSU with plenty of power, check out the review of this one at Big Bruin.

Co-developed by SanDisk and M-Systems, the open-standard U3 platform allows users to take their applications, not just data, with them to any USB-equipped Windows PC and to launch them with as little as two clicks. True, while applications have been tweaked by users to run directly off a flash drive, applications written for U3 smart drives don’t require a geek to set up, and are 100% legal to operate. And now, we have one of the first U3 tutorials that give you a step-by-step guide to this new portable USB apps platform.

Head on over to Everything USB and read all about it.

Our second design Universal AMD & Intel heatsink system which is silent and yet gives astounding cooling performance. If nothing else our heatsink designs will have give you some ideas and for those of you who have not moved to water cooling we hope you see just how easy it is and how safe to do.

Check out the review at A1 Electronics.

When I first opened the front door I was ready to put this case in the pit of shame as my first impression was that the door was held shut with a magnet on that door stop at the top, however I was soon put right on this matter once I realized that, yes it was a magnet holding the door shut, but it was placed in the section of the door that sits around the lock and outputs.

Check out the review at Xtreme Computing.

OCZ’s first 2GB solution runs under their Gold series. The memory comes with loose timings, but it does manage to overclock
extremely well. OCZ never fails to impress when it comes to enthusiast memory.

Head on over to InsaneTek for the full review!

ATI, HardOCP is not your personal PR bitch, so don’t treat us like one again. You’re on thin ice and you should be ashamed of your actions this year. We at HardOCP don’t want to be a mouthpiece for vaporware in order to keep your stock price up. So from now on, if it is not the real deal, just keep it to yourself.

Read the full posting at Hard|OCP.

VDrift, the cross-platform open-source driving simulator designed for drift racing, recently released its 2005-10-02 source that now has initial network multi-player support, ghost car relay option, SCans build system, and terrain detail options. This game, which is based upon the Vamos physics engine, is now one step closer to becoming a viable…..

From a performance standpoint, game experiences were consistently higher than a 6600GT, although in some games it was a close call. Doom 3 was happy to run at 1280×1024 although this was without any AntiAliasing or Anisotropic filtering.

Head on over to Viper Lair.

We have another mouse in the house; someone needs to call the exterminator. Almost every computer user owns a mouse, or an equivalent like a track pad or track ball. Without a mouse, your computer is pretty much useless. This device alone, receives the most use out of any other input peripheral you can think of. If it is essential that you use one, so why not spend a few extra dollars and buy a nice one? OKION has sent me one of their mice, the Artisticâ„¢ Optical Mouse which is a corded mouse with a sleek look. Lets get on with the review and see how it performs.

Check out the full review at Extensive Mods!

Functional panels for our computers have been around for a while now, but Logisys took the standard functional panel with USB, Firewire, fan controller, and temp monitors and tricked it out one more. They created “The first remote panel in the world designed for media PC and for enhancement of all computers”. The Logisys FP800BK includes almost everything you could want in a front panel device, plus you can turn your PC on and off with its handy remote!

Head on over to techPowerUp! for the full review!

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – October 3, 2005 – AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, announced today its closing of $27 million in new financing. Led by Granite Global Ventures, financing also came from new investor Hercules Technology Growth Capital along with current investors Apex Venture Partners, BA Venture Partners, CID Ventures, HIG Ventures, and VentureTech Alliance.

Read: Full Press Release