Content and news by Rob Williams

In short, the i945G (or i945P) is a reasonable proposition for all but the die-hard enthusiast who needs the ability to run two graphics cards in tandem. I hope that motherboard manufacturers quickly release versions equipped with the ICH7R southbridge. You’ll then be able to purchase it with, say, a Pentium D 820. Perfect for huge and varied storage potential, decent sound, and the loveliness that a dual-core CPU brings.

Check out the full review at Hexus.

Patriot Memory has started off on the right foot, Tight timings, and great overclocking along with things you expect, such as lifetime warranty. Let’s hope they continue this pursuit, as I enjoy being able to pick from more than one or two vendors when it comes to performance oriented gear.

If you are in the market for some DDR2 memory, check out the review at Hexus.

Going heavy on the bare brick work with tasteful power tool adornments, XFX have stood out once again with a stand designed to look anything but chic. While all the other vendors strive to present slick stands and reps, the XFX crew are lounging around, swigging Heineken whilst ogling pin-ups of Carmen Electra and Brooke Burke. Check that out here.

The LCD Monitor Adapter runs at an efficiency of 80% (that’s good, by the way) and knocks out 60W at +12V with built-in short circuit and over voltage protection. Supplied with a range of pins to fit most brands of LCD. Read about it here.

You can read these and a lot more over at Hexus.

Multimedia functions have always been pushing the limit of USB 2.0 – maxing at 40MB/s or maybe 50MB/s realistically. When Tritton decides to combine a Netchip NET2280 PCI-to-USB controller and a VGA chip together, most people are skeptical as to how USB can handle the load. You’ll see that the Tritton’s SEE2 SVGA USB Adapter reviewed today may not be everyone’s choice for adding a second display, but the USB video card has its strengths that are overlooked.

The full review can be had over at Everything USB.

To our mind it seems more sense to have dual GPUs on a single video graphics card which would alleviate all the associated problems of having two graphics cards such as special motherboards and so on let alone that they would cost less to buy.

Check out the full read at A1 Electronics.

PCI EXPRESS HAS gotten a bit of a bad rap, at least on the graphics front, because it hasn’t yet offered a significant performance boost over AGP 8X. Today’s games and applications weren’t designed with PCI Express in mind, and they don’t really take advantage of its 4GB/sec of bandwidth. However, PCI-E has enabled some interesting new budget graphics cards. Rather than relying solely on on-board memory, these cards also leverage a portion of system memory, which thanks to PCI Express’ plentiful bandwidth, can offer pretty decent performance.

Head over to Tech Report for the full article.

Greetings from the Central Wastelands! We’re back from E3, tired and weary, but did we have a great time! We appreciate everyone stopping by the booth, jamming with The Mutaytor (weren’t they awesome?!), and playing Auto Assault in droves. Now that E3 is done and gone, the in-depth previews, booth reviews, and Comment (0) -->

This product has four big attributes: it’s affordable, looks fantastic, has great build quality, & is feature loaded. There are plenty of drive bays; 5×5.25″, 1×3.5″ (Ext.), & 5×3.5″ (Int.). It has a 120mm blue LED fan at the front & an optional 80/90/120mm fan can be installed at the back. For convenience there are 2 USB, 1 Firewire, Mic & Headphone jack along with the power/reset button, & power/HDD LED at the front top. Watch the Video to find out more…

Check out the full video review at 3D Gameman.

Today was another extremely busy day. Tyan launched their 4+4 Opteron server motherboards. Abit hosted a tech forum which featured a shootout between Fatal1ty and some Taiwan UT2K4 champs. We even got to take a crack at Fatal1ty! Also an ATI representative talked about the new ATI Crossfire technology and we have complete coverage of that too. Afterwards there was Abit Happy Hour. Read on to find more information about this, the second day, at Computex Taipei 2005.

LOTS of great pictures from day two! Check it out at Phoronix.

Dual-core processors work pretty much as you’d expect them to. At their most basic, both Intel and AMD have taken two mostly (or in the case of Intel, fully) functional processor cores and joined them together in a single processor die. Each core functions and processes data independently, and the two are co-coordinated by the operating system software. In this article, PCSTATS is going to focus on both company’s versions of this technology, how it works, and the kind of performance boost you can expect from it. Currently only certain of AMD’s Opteron server-class processors are available with dual cores, but very shortly AMD will release the Athlon 64 X2 line of dual-core desktop processors. Intel has taken the opposite approach, already releasing the ‘Pentium Extreme Edition 840’ desktop dual-core chip, while its ‘Pentium D’ and dual-Xeons lines are not far behind.

Check out the full article at PC Stats.

MARKHAM, Ontario – June 1, 2005 – Novell today introduced the Mono® Kickstart program to provide for the first time developer support to organizations using Mono for new application development or migrations. Mono is a comprehensive open source development platform based on the .NET framework that allows IT and independent software vendor developers to build Linux and cross-platform applications (MacOS X, IBM S/390 and Sun Solaris) with unprecedented productivity, using popular programming languages such as C#, Java and VB.NET. The Mono project is a community initiative sponsored by Novell. As a result of the Mono Kickstart program, it is now far easier to build and develop applications on Linux and other platforms, allowing developers to get software to market faster and more cost effectively.

Wow, the ability to code for Linux in C#? Sounds great except it’s for professionals only.. considering it’s expensive. Check out the full press release here.

The Ultra X-Connect 500W Power Supply offers excellent power, looks great, and has two quiet 80mm fans. The modular cable connections are an extremely unique feature for this product; its modular design really makes this one stand out from other power supplies. Say goodbye to that web of cables you thought would never be neatly organized! Watch the Video to find out more…

Check out all the details over at the 3D Gameman Forums.

FREMONT, Calif. — June 1, 2005 — With sales of notebook PCs on the rise, Logitech (SWX:LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI) today announced that its growing family of notebook computer mice includes two new mice with battery management

Features: the Logitech® V200 Cordless Notebook Mouse and the Logitech® Cordless Mini Optical Mouse.

Logitech, the world’s leading manufacturer of computer mice, now offers four mice made specifically for notebook PCs, all highly compact and portable, but differing in design and features to meet the varying needs of notebook PC users.

The Logitech V200 Cordless Notebook Mouse combines an unmatched battery life of up to one year with virtually interference-free 2.4 GHz digital cordless technology – making it ideal for mobile professionals who need the best wireless technology and don’t want to hassle with changing batteries frequently. Meanwhile, the affordable Logitech Cordless Mini Optical Mouse is a good fit for value-conscious notebook PC owners who are frustrated by using a touchpad and want a reliable cordless mouse to improve their computing experience.

Both new mice make going cordless easy. Each features a convenient battery-light indicator that notifies users when the batteries are running low. Also, both mice are plug-and-play – they include a miniature USB wireless receiver that is paired individually with the mouse during manufacturing. When the receiver is plugged in, the mouse works immediately. When not in use, the USB receiver conveniently snaps onto the base of the mouse. This action automatically switches the mouse power off, saving battery life, while also making the mouse and receiver easy to transport.

You can find out more about the V200 here, and about the Mini Optical here. I like the fact that you can easily plug away your receiver when not using it!

Running custom gear from the cards means that the SN26P comes ready fitted with twin Leadtek PX6800GT TDH 256 MiB DDR3 PCI-e graphics cards, so this baby is going to cost a bit more than the average barebones system you’d normally be able to pick up from Shuttle. I suppose you’d call it skinny rather than barebones? Check it out here.

In Hall 4 at Computex, if you look hard enough on VIA’s joint show area with S3 Graphics, you’ll see them showing off a K8T890 Pro reference board running NVIDIA SLI. Check it here. Utilizing the Guru chip and connector on ABIT Guru mainboards, the Guru Clock lets you adjust overclocking settings on the fly without leaving the game or app you’re already in. Check it here.

You can find this and a LOT more at Hexus.

While most of the graphics talk at Computex centres on ATI’s Crossfire, it could be months before the consumer can buy it. Talking to an ATI board partner revealed that while it’s on show at Computex, it’s on show using engineering sample silicon and a driver that’s not quite ready, and they fully expect it’ll be sometime in July before they have final product to push out and a driver to rely on. Read about it Hexus.

NVIDIA’s G70 graphics processor, likely to be bound up in a range of products carrying GeForce 7 branding, may have an Ultra version waiting in the wings, to counter any ATI high-end product launch. Read about it here.

Talking to VIA yesterday confirmed that even though its board partners have mainboards out there that run an FX just fine, that board revisions may be brought out to properly support Athlon X2 from an electrical standpoint. Check it out here.

Never a company to sit back and hug the wall at the disco, CoolerMaster have unveiled what has to be one of the biggest, boldest and brashest, yet most practical cases yet. Read about it here.

When we say odd-ball we really do mean it! MSI have a dual 6800Ultra graphics board… OK we’ve seen something like that before so it’s not that odd. So, how about an X800 with an AGP and PCIe connector? Now we’re talking! Check it here.

For all of you out there currently sucking on or licking a DVD disk you’ve burned yourself, STOP. The media you just removed from your face was not safe for consumption. Read about that here.

On the day of installation I had to abandon any testing as the air con was down and room temp was at 34c, this would have been slightly unfair on the product as it is passive and I normally temp test with a room temp between 24-28. once the air con was fixed it and it was time to get temp testing, Although I had left my radiator in the loop I will show a temp readout for with and without the reservoir.

Check out the full review at Xtreme Computing.

I just loved the screw less design. It’s very easy to seat new HD’s or whatever inside your casing. The one slight negative though has to be the blue colored LED fan in the case with the window. It’s a little noisy where the internal backside fan simple is extremely silent. i might just be picky though. This case is also advertised as ‘Silent cooling system’ and if you state that you simply can’t include such a fan. It’s not irritating though, but clearly can be heard when enabled.

Not just a review, but a contest as well! Check it out at Guru 3D.

Today 3DXtreme is presenting a review of the latest in CPU Cooling technology from our friends at Thermaltake. Thermaltake has been delivering their world class products to 3DXtreme for some time now and we are always excited with each new product. Thermaltake’s products just seem to get better and better. The Big Typhoon is a massive CPU cooler using a 12CM Fan and six heatpipes however this Cooler only generates 16 dBa of noise.

Check out the full review at 3D Xtreme.

You want a rock solid, dependable, Socket 939, NF4, PCIe solution for your HTPC? WinFast has a motherboard with your name all over it. If you don’t expect to overclock, or to use the onboard sound, you will be happy with what the Winfast NF4K8MC has to offer.

Check it out at Viper Lair.