Content and news by Rob Williams

“I have been a fan of this PC subculture [HTPC] for some time as you may tell since two of my custom mod projects for bit-tech have been HTPC’s. With WindowsXP Media Center Edition within reach for the rest of us who would rather “do it ourselves” there’s even more motive. So when I came across a new model of case from a company I have yet to hear of, NMEDIAPC, I had to take a look. First glance shows a lot of potential but only a closer look will tell for sure.”

Looks like a quality HTPC kit, that doesn’t seem overly pricy. Check out the full review over at Bit-Tech.

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. — February 28, 2005 –AMD (AMD: NYSE) today announced the release of the Open Platform Management Architecture (OPMA) specification that defines a common hardware interface between the server platform and its server management subsystem. This specification will provide hardware vendors with a more flexible approach to system management when designing their commercial grade server products.

This may not apply to all of us, but you can check out the full press release on the official AMD site.

Tired of being tired? Well, that’s why there are caffeine packed products to help keep you awake to game all night.

“If you are a programmer, student or gamer you know about late nights and long hours. Odds are, when you are wearing down during those late nights, you are trying to get something in you that can keep you awake. You don’t always have to drink a caffeine or energy drink. Try a piece of gum, some chocolates or a mint. These don’t have caffeine you say, think again. CaseCooler.com provides lots of energy products and they let us try a few.”

Check out the full article on these products at A True Review.

“Today 3DXtreme is reviewing two of the latest Cases in the NZXT family, the Nemesis and the Nemesis Elite. Nowadays the Case that is used is just as important as the individual parts that are installed into it. NZXT offers some of the most unique looking Cases on the market while never leaving the product feel stripped of useful features. These new Cases add to the ever growing product line at NZXT.com.”

If you want a new tower that will scare your family, check out the review at 3D Xtreme!

“To usher in the Year of the Rooster, Team ARP organized a Chinese New year giveaway contest 3 weeks ago! Now, the BIG day is here. Let’s check out the winners!”

Dayum, a 400GB hard drive as a prize. Nice! Check out the results at the Rojak Pot.

“Team ARP is proud to announce a new giveaway contest! Let’s take a look at what’s at stake!”

Pretty sweet looking contest. Definately check it out over at the Rojak Pot.

“The Corsair XPERT DDR PC-3200 Memory comes with a programmable LED Display. This display is very unique & useful showing a frequency, voltage, temperature & more. The included software enables total control over what’s displayed as well. It’s fast memory, with a default timing of 2-2-2-5 & overclockable when the timings are relaxed. Watch the Video to find out more…”

The best ram just got better! Check out the full video review at 3D Gameman.

“When pulling the Coolink BAT1VS out of the shipping crate, we were stunned at its immense size but little did we know just how big it really was… When installing the BAT heatsink it covered up 26% of the motherboard! Although the unit may be massive, in both weight and size, it will be interesting to see if it can effectively drive down the CPU temperature.”

Wow, this is definately a very unique cooler, Lol. Check out the full review at Phoronix.

“In this review I will cover the Athlon 64 FX-55, AMD’s top of the line CPU. Socket 939 processors are 64 bit compatible ready for Microsoft’s next generation OS – Windows XP 64-bit. I will take a close look at this CPU, the included cooling solution, run some tests and post some hopefully interesting results. Since 64 bit applications and drivers are not final or widely available, I will test 32 bit performance in Windows XP Pro.”

What a dream CPU.. They have benchmarks available comparing this chip to the other high end FX chips, as well as a high end P4 CPU. Check out the full review at AMD Gamer.

“The A8N-SLI has had a recent BIOS revision that does a lot to solve its initial problems, tightening up stability especially when actually using SLI, and being ASUS, it’s got more built-in and bundled features than I’ve had hot dinners..

Its nemesis for this article is DFI’s LanParty UT nF4 SLI-D. DFI have their SLI board in a trio of configurations from the bundle-heavy nF4 SLI-DR, complete with Front-X ports, carry strap and diagnostic LED system on the mainboard, to the lite LanLartyUT SLI-D, which is the DR without the extra Silicon Image Sil3114 controller.”

Check out the versus challenge over at Hexus.

ATI has just launched a new contest, entitled “Go with ATI and Win”. In order to enter the contest, you need to purchase a complete system through an authorized dealer, that includes a PCI-E ATI graphics card. The purchase also needs to take place between March 1 – April 24, 2005.

Since those rules are nuts, there is another option. To enter this contest without purchase, you may submit a short succinct statement about “ Why I Want an ATI RADEON® PCI Express Graphics Card“

Check out the full rules and contest page over at the official ATI website.

RADEON® X800 XL and RADEON® X850 XT now available for AGP customers

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT) today enhanced its family of graphics products for gamers and enthusiast PC users by announcing and shipping AGP versions of its popular RADEON® X800 XL graphics cards and RADEON® X850 XT graphics processors.

So if you are like me, and haven’t upgraded to PCI-E yet, here’s your chance to use the top end PCI-E cards in your AGP slot. Check out the full PR here.

“We are particularly concerned with efficiency values, an aspect that is frequently overlooked. The more efficient the power supply is, the less energy is converted to heat inside the unit. Less heat means the fans inside the unit spin more slowly while kicking out the same level of power, which translates into significantly less noise. Less heat also means that the components of the supply are under less strain, thus boosting the life of the power supply as well as that of the other components installed inside the computer.”

They have put 21 PSU’s against each other. The Benchmarking results are impressive. There is definately a noticeable difference between some, so definately check out this article before your next PSU purchase.

AnandTech has posted a comparison of four top notch SLi motherboards.

“Even if you don’t care at all about SLI, you should look carefully at these motherboard features and test results because the only real difference in nForce4 SLI and Ultra boards is in some of the most recent games and a few synthetic benchmarks. Running one video card, the SLI and Ultra boards from the same manufacturer should provide the same results – and we have posted single video card results in all benchmarks for comparison.”

Check out the full comparison at AnandTech. It’s alengthy article, so be sure your coffee up is full :)

HIS has been pumping out great graphics cards for awhile now, and this ones apparently no exception. T-break has a review on their 850XT IceQ II series.

“We recently looked at HIS’ x700 pro based card and were impressed by its looks and performance. While the x700 PRO is more of a mainstream card, today we have their very high-end x850XT. Like their x700 PRO, the x850 is cooled by their iceQ technology although it’s a newer version.”

Check out the full review at T-break.

“Once in a while you’ll come across a video card that runs so hot, that the OEM graphics accelerator cooling system just can’t keep up when gaming for hours on end. Some OEM cooling systems are of cheap design and burn out only after a few months of use. They there are times that your video card cost you nearly a month’s pay and you just want extra cooling to prolong it’s life. Whatever your needs may be, Kingwin has the solution; the KWVC-3 video card cooling system.”

Check out the full review at ClubOC.

“Taking a quick look around the pc hardware market, more specifically power supplies, you don’t see a lot of hype and advertising for the mid range power supplies. The talk is always about the bigger, stronger products, geared towards pushing your system to the edge and beyond. Well what about those people who don’t need to overclock, and are simply satisfied with what will get them by? In steps our next product for review, sent over by a relatively unknown, but uniquely designed and well stocked company, ATXPowerSupplies.”

Tru dat. Check out the full review at Controlled Insanity.

Jef Raskin, the computer interface expert who launched the Macintosh project for Apple Computer, died Saturday at age 61.

“Raskin, who named the Macintosh after his favorite fruit, joined Apple in January 1978 as employee No. 31. The Macintosh was launched in 1984, but Raskin left Apple in 1982 amid a well-documented dispute with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.”

Check out the small biography of him at News.com.

As small form factor PC’s are becoming more common, companies like Shuttle aim to design a system that can pack a ton of power, into a small box. HardOCP is taking a look at the SB95P V2 which is based on the i925XE chipset.

“The system uses the Intel i925XE chipset, boasting support for all LGA775-based processors including the latest 1066MHz FSB models, DDR2 RAM modules operating in Dual Channel modes up to speeds of 533MHz officially, and PCI Express x16 type video cards. The SB95P V2 is a small form factor solution, which means that you need an LGA775 CPU, DDR2 memory, and a PCI Express x16 video card for a complete system.”

Sounds like the beginning of a great lan party PC right there. Check out the full review over at [H]ardOCP.

According to The Register, downloadable music tracks prices may be going up.

“Several big labels are in talks with online music retailers to get them to increase prices,according to the FT. The labels are looking to increase the wholesale prices shops pay for tracks. Sites in the US typically sell tracks for 99 cents each. The wholesale price is currently 65 cents per track, according to the FT.”

If they jack the price per track by even $0.10, then that is another $1.00 or more per full album. The price rise could even be larger than that though. It’s noted in the article a possibility of allowing music companies to charge variably per track.. more popular the track, the more it would cost. Check out the article at The Register.