Content and news by Rob Williams

From Tyan’s 8-way product launch to Abit’s Happy Hour, we will be providing Computex Taipei 2005 coverage throughout the entire event. What we have here before the start of the May 31st show is a pre-show synopsis.

Check it out at Phoronix.

When Australian applications consultant Martin Pot bought an LCD monitor last December, he got an unwanted extra: a dazzlingly bright blue LED, or light-emitting diode, just below the screen. Pot found the LED “distracting” and “annoying,” and finally resorted to covering it up just to get some work done.

I’m guilty of this too.. my PC has four fans that have blue LED’s. I love it though.. but some other colors would be nice.. I suppose. Read about it at Wired.com.

AMD is warning customers of potentially mislabeled PC and server chips after helping foil a counterfeit ring in Taiwan.

As previously reported, the company alerted authorities to a problem in Taipei late last month. Raids at four sites led to multiple arrests for “re-marking” or reselling re-marked AMD Athlon, Athlon XP and Opteron processors.

Read about it at Internet News.

O’Neal, who is currently leading the Miami Heat against the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals, has joined a Department of Justice task force that tracks down sexual predators who target children on the Internet.

Good for him.. it’s definitely an honorable job. Read all about it here.

TechSmec.com has always been a believer in the saying ‘you reap what you sow’ and the plain and simple fact is that in today’s era of the internet you can’t really expect someone to take nude photos of you without them showing up online at some point in your lifetime. However, that’s just what Oregon woman, Cecilia Barnes, aged 48 expected when her then boyfriend took naked pictures of her.

Yeah, and next time I fall in my house, I’ll sue the carpet manufacturer. Check it out here.

The arrival of PhotoMail for Yahoo’s mail users takes a drag and drop approach to sharing images with friends or family.

Those images can be residing on a computer, the Yahoo Photos picture sharing service, or from results of a Yahoo Image Search. PhotoMail runs on Windows PCs with the 2000 or XP operating system in place along with IE 5.5.

Read more at Web Pro News.

Microsoft has confirmed speculations that the new Netscape 8.0 could disable Internet Explorer and restrict it from displaying XML-files. David Massy, a senior Microsoft program manager, in his web log, has written that users who have Netscape 8.0 and use Internet Explorer to visit an XML file or XML file with an XSLT transformation would see a blank page displayed instead of the original content on the page.

You know a browser is good, when it requires another browser to run. They say it’s not a large problem, so you shouldn’t uninstall the browser. Har har. Read about it here.

Keep in mind that these settings also overclocked the CPU. I did this because I believe someone would buy PC4000 with the intention of overclocking the CPU. It does give higher results compared to just increasing the memory speed, but that is what I believe people would want to see – what would I achieve by being able to increase the FSB above stock setting to 250MHz. Just keep this in mind when reading the results – the ability of a CPU to achieve 250MHz FSB let Alone 265MHz depends on other factors such as cooling, motherboard.

The ram looks good, but it’s the benchmarks that matter! Check it out at Xtreme Computing.

Today we have another entry into the ‘Gamer’ Mouse pad selections. This is an interesting entry to say the least, I’ve never quite seen a pad like this before and was very interested to get it for review. Battle Pad was kind enough to send me 2 of their BattlePad Pro series of mouse pads, one in Black and the other is Clear.

Head over to Think Computers for the full review.

To state the obvious, where the Pentium D 820 thrives is in multi-threaded applications that take full advantage of both its cores concurrently. When that happens, its performance beats out the fastest and most expensive single-core models with comparative ease. Above all else, what the £200 Pentium D 820 does is bring real dual-core goodness to the masses.

There are a lot of benchmarks to be had, so check it out at Hexus.

We put together all the hardware we currently adore and slap them all in one nicely decked out case. The result is a high performing system without the high cost. Keep in mind that this is an article on what we would suggest to use, not a typical “buyer’s guide”.

Check out the full article at InsaneTek.

Fremont, CA (May 27, 2005) – Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory and cooling products for enthusiasts and overclockers, today is pleased to unveil XMS2-8000ULTM as its latest addition to the high performance XMS family of products. First in the industry to ship DDR2 memory modules at factory default frequency of 1GHz, Corsair once again demonstrates its leadership position in high performance products and commitment to support platform transitions.

Available immediately in both single module and dual kit packages and rated to run at aggressive latency settings of 5-4-4-9, the new XMS2-8000UL was developed in collaboration with ASUS® Computer for its latest Intel® i955X chipset based motherboard, the P5WD2 Premium. Backed with a life time warranty and a potential to be overclocked to 1066+ Mhz, Corsair’s new XMS2-8000UL complements ASUS’ P5WD2 Premium motherboard as the ultimate choice for enthusiasts. In SiSoft Sandra memory test performed at Corsair, overclocking XMS2-8000UL memory to 1066 MHz delivers an incredible 17% memory performance improvement compared with DDR2-667. Leveraging Intel processor’s native support for multi-threaded tasks, Corsair brings new memory capability to the platform to run memory intensive applications such as 3D games concurrently with other demanding applications.

“Last month, we saw enthusiasts worldwide overclocking our ultra low latency XMS2-5400ULTM memory modules to over 1GHz. This month, we are pushing the envelope further with the introduction of the native low-latency 1GHz parts” said John Beekley, VP of Applications Engineering at Corsair. “Corsair’s engineers have achieved a milestone in memory development with the XMS2-8000UL. Combined with the availability of performance motherboards such as the ASUS P5WD2, we expect adoption of high performance DDR2 memory to explode,” continued Beekley.

XMS2 8000UL Part Numbers

CM2X512-8000UL – Single Module of 512MB

TWIN2X1024-8000UL – Matched Pair of 2 x 512MB modules (1GB kit)

The world’s first running demonstration of the new XMS2-8000UL will be showcased at the 2005 Computex trade show in Taiwan (May 31 – June 4, 2005). Both single module and matched pair packages will be available immediately through Corsair’s authorized resellers and distributors worldwide. For more information and specifications of the new XMS2 8000UL products, please visit http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/xms2.html

Sunbeam has done a pretty outstanding job with the Trio! Although it is a steel case, its size helps keep the weight very manageable without sacrificing strength. The three gauges that inspired the name are quite useful and also add a welcome accent to the case as a whole without being overbearing or obnoxious. The tool-free installation of drives and add-in cards is also very welcome, although the add-in card portion could use a little refining. All in all, I think the Trio is an excellent case!

Check out the full review at Lan Addict!

With its new technique ATI will be able to do 8x, 10x, 12x and even 14x FSAA. That surely sounds insane but if you want to have even better picture quality this is one choice that you will have. A 14 times Full Scene Anti Aliasing sounds like an interesting idea now when most of people are using 4X only.

Even at 8x AA things are crisp and clear, but I can’t believe they are going past 10x AA. Read all about it over at The Inquirer.

“Chicago (IL) – If even two graphics cards in your PC are not enough, what about four? SLI typically is limited to two cards within one system, but sources told Tom’s Hardware Guide that Gigabyte will soon offer a “Quad” motherboard with slots for up to four Nvidia-based SLI cards.”

This has been rumored for awhile, but now there’s even a picture of the motherboard! If you have a system with FOUR GPU’s, I can imagine you are going to need one heck of a cooling system. Check out the posting over at Toms Hardware.

We have received info regarding the upcoming Blizzard card from Sapphire, which is touted as being the first Liquid Metal cooled GPU.

Basic Liquid Metal Cooling Loop System Variable Components:
Liquid Metal
Electromagnetic Pump
Source Exchanger
Ambient Exchanger
Fan (low DB)

LM Loop Features:
Extremely high heat transport capability
Extremely high heat flux densities
Low thermal resistance
Low power consumption
Scalable heat removal/power consumption
Light weight, orientation independent solutions
High reliability – no moving parts in pump
Silent pump performance, Low acoustic noise

You can get an image of the prototype card, in our forums, although the final design could be different. Can’t wait to see what this card will be capable of.

Looking for a quality cordless Keyboard/Mouse set? Logitech released the MX3100 a few months back, which includes the ultra precise MX1000 laser mouse, in addition to a keyboard with tons of functionality. Read on to see if the MX3100 is all it’s cracked up to be.

“Well we had a very successful E3 last week – thousands came by the NCsoft booth and saw Auto Assault up close and personal. We’ve got links to a lot of the press and fan site impressions, and some more images from the show. Check out our E3 2005 page for all Comment (0) -->

“It has been two months since we last looked at a display product, and that was on the Samsungs 711t. As many of us know, Samsung is one of the world leaders when it comes to display technology. They have consistently produced quality products that have gained them award after award. The technology behind LCDs has gradually improved with the manufacturing process, getting better everyday. The end result is that the picture is getting better and the prices are getting lower; the perfect combination for end users like you and I who go out and buy them.”

There’s a lot of info to be had, on both monitors, and you can read about it at Overclockers Online.

“The Netcraft Toolbar blocks phishing Web sites that have been reported by other users. A version of the plug-in for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has been available since December of last year. More than 7,000 phishing sites have been detected and blocked since then, Netcraft, which is located in Bath, England, said on its Web site on Tuesday.”

Check out the full read here. You can also get links to download the toolbar here as well.