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Don’t Miss Our Latest Graphics Card Head-to-Head
In case you happened to have missed it, we posted an article yesterday which pitted NVIDIA’s GTX 260/216 against ATI’s HD 4870 1GB, two incredibly good cards for the under-$300 range. Our goal, though, was to see which came out on top, throughout both performance-related tests and also power consumption and temperatures. Because an article like this wouldn’t be complete without it, we also take a hard look at current pricing.
Overall, NVIDIA’s card came out on top, but you really need to check out the article to see what kind of differences we’re dealing with. In the end, the card proves to be less expensive, faster, have better power efficiency and runs cooler. It’s hard to ignore those hard facts.
ATI’s upcoming Catalyst 8.12 driver is supposed to include major improvements in some of the exact games we used in the above article though, so we’ll be revisiting the performance once that hits, to see if our conclusions can at all change. The fact of the matter is though, even if ATI’s new driver puts their cards on par with the GTX 260/216, NVIDIA still has a few other factors working in their favor, most notably better pricing. At least for now.
When all said and done, NVIDIA has without question won this round. ATI either needs to make great performance-related improvements with their 8.12 Catalyst driver or price their cards more competitively in order to earn your dollars. The numbers here speak for themselves. NVIDIA suffered a somewhat humiliating fate this past summer, but their holiday season is looking to make up for it.
Original Half-Life Turns 10
Ten years ago, one of the most influential 3D shooters to ever grace the PC was released. That of course being Half-Life. High-profile 3D shooters were released long before it, but Half-Life was the first to become so critically acclaimed. If you were a PC gamer at the time of its release, then you no doubt recall the incredible amount of “Game of the Year” awards that the game earned in its first year alone.
When’s the last time you saw a game with over fifty of these awards? To my knowledge, the only other PC game to supersede that accomplishment was Half-Life 2. Today, it has the privilege of being one of the top-rated games at Metacritic and even now, it’s still a blast to play. It’s also one game to enjoy Source engine upgrades, so the control is much smoother and today’s resolutions are supported. Not to mention it looks better in pretty-much every regard.
Until today, Valve was offering an incredible deal for the game… just $0.98, but I have a hard time believing that there exist people who still haven’t played this masterpiece. I’ve sunk so much time into this game, that to buy it ten times over, it still would have been worth it. Half-Life 2 Deathmatch is enjoyed by many, but even today, the original Half-Life offers a great multi-player experience as well. It might not be as pretty, but it’s far more fun, in my opinion. If you still haven’t played what’s considered to be a true classic, definitely give it a try.
Named Game of the Year by over 50 publications, Valve’s debut title blends action and adventure with award-winning technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players must think to survive. Also includes an exciting multiplayer mode that allows you to play against friends and enemies around the world.
Indie Game Developer Earns $250K in Two Months with iPhone Game
It might seem a little odd to some people, but mobile gaming is an extremely hot niche right now, and in some regards, it’s much more successful than typical PC/console gaming. Less money is generally made as well, since the games don’t sell as high as full-blown productions, but sometimes they can even make more, if the game is successful enough to push that much volume.
The good thing about mobile games is that it doesn’t take massive developer teams to create them. Some of the best are created by a single person, and if you are that single person, the potential to earn a good amount of cash fast is easy, as long as you can create a game people enjoy. In the case of Steve Demeter, creator of an iPhone game called “Trism”, sometimes the cash can roll in really fast.
This puzzle game took a few months to build, and even though it’s priced at a modest $5, it earned him $250,000 through the iPhone App Store in a mere two months. That’s the upside. The downside is that these results are not typical, and unless your game is near-perfect, it’s not going to sell as well as this. It’s made worse by the fact that the arena is becoming much more crowded, with many developers clamoring to the mobile segment… not surprisingly. Still, if you have a good idea, can code and don’t mind sinking your time into development, it might just pay off. Big time.
“A single one of these titles can be turned around for pennies by comparison in just weeks by a single hobbyist working in their off-hours,” said Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com and author of “Get Rich Playing Games.” “The overhead and barriers to entry are so low that virtually anyone can afford to take a crack, if not several, at hitting a home run.”
AMD Boasts 4GHz Air Overclocks on “Phenom II”, 6GHz on LN2
With Intel’s Core i7 processors now available, and kicking ass through most benchmarks, one has to wonder what’s up with AMD. How will they be competing anytime soon? It’s true… lately all we’ve heard from them has been related to their business practises, but there’s no need to worry… they definitely look to have some tricks up their sleeves.
Our friends at the Tech Report attended a press briefing this morning where AMD showed off their latest and greatest… 45nm “Phenom II”. While benchmark results weren’t revealed, raw clock frequencies were, and if you’ve been waiting for AMD to give people a great reason to consider them again, this might be it.
Stock speeds were not disclosed, but on an air cooling setup, one of their processors clocked to 4.0GHz with 1.55v, which is around what we’ve been expecting. Make no mistake, that’s a lot of voltage, and it’s too bad that it has to go so high, but if these CPUs are better-designed to handle such voltages (compared to Intel’s offerings), it might be alright. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
While we are used to seeing massive overclocks on Intel’s processors when using liquid nitrogen, we’ve never seen anything major on the AMD side… until now. At this event, the same CPU as mentioned above was clocked to 6.0GHz… something that’s sure to excite many of the more hardcore overclockers out there. It took -185°C temperatures to accomplish it, but that’s not the point!
This is a very exciting time for AMD, and enthusiasts alike. For a while, Intel has dominated the desktop space, especially where enthusiasts are concerned, but AMD is looking to improve that situation, and fast. “Phenom II” isn’t a major architectural upgrade like Core i7 was to Core 2, but by moving to the 45nm node, we’ll have lower power consumption and overall improved efficiency, lower temps, and as we can see, far better clocking-abilities. We should be learning more about these CPUs very soon, so stay tuned.
The slowest system-cooled with a heatsink and fan-managed to reach just under 4GHz with a 1.55V core voltage. With liquid cooling, AMD successfully pushed a 45nm Phenom II in another machine just over the 4GHz mark. That required kicking up the CPU voltage to 1.6V, however. For the other two systems, AMD took out the big guns.
GeForce 180 Driver Brings Multi-Monitor SLI, Dedicated GPU PhysX
I posted yesterday about Mirror’s Edge becoming the first PC game to fully utilize the PhysX physics engine, but what I somehow forgot about was the new 180 driver that brings some great new functionality to the table. Two major new features include multi-monitor SLI support and the ability to dedicate a GPU for PhysX use. This is also the first driver that allows SLI support on Intel X58 motherboards.
The ability to run PhysX on a dedicated GPU has been a desire shared by many gamers ever since NVIDIA first released support for the technology to run off of the GPU. In order to take advantage, you will need to use an 8, 9 or 200-series GPU. Anything older is not supported, sadly. The cards also have to include at least 256MB of memory, but that’s a rather simple target.
For those with an ATI card as their primary, you might be able to still dedicate an NVIDIA GPU for PhysX, but only if you are using Windows XP. Because of how Vista handles display drivers, it makes it virtually impossible to accomplish, but XP is much more lenient. In addition, NVIDIA doesn’t recommend dedicating a GPU if using an SLI setup, as performance will be hit. It works, but they said improvements are definitely en route.
The new driver has also been tweaked a great deal to offer performance to a handful of games, including Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, GRID and others. Overall, this is one of the most important driver releases from NVIDIA in a while, so if you have one of their GPUs, it’s definitely worth the time to upgrade.
Enables NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. Learn more here. (Note: GPU PhysX is supported on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory. This driver package automatically installs PhysX System Software version 8.10.13).
Mirror’s Edge PC Version to Support PhysX
To say that we’ve been waiting a while for a game to make good use of the PhysX engine would be a huge understatement. Since we first covered PhysX well over three years ago, we’ve seen some freeware games come and go, but rarely did we see good use of the technology in a commercial game. One exception would be Unreal Tournament III, where two downloadable levels utilized it to a good degree.
Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief, as NVIDIA has just announced that upcoming PC game Mirror’s Edge, will make heavy use of the technology. This game has been on many gamer’s radar for some time, as it attempts to stray away from typical gameplay and deliver one that’s totally unique. As you can tell from the screenshots below, the game definitely looks unique, too.
In previous PhysX-enhanced titles, we’ve seen realistic shattering glass, smoke, liquid, cloth and more, and all of that will be present in this game. Pushing things further, the physics enhancements can both affect the player and the overall gameplay. Ground fog, for example, will react to the player walking through it.
The screenshots below can give a quick glimpse of what to expect from the game, and the video below links to our Vimeo account which houses the preview video in its original 720p format. I can honestly say that this is one game I’m really looking forward to, and perhaps PhysX-support makes up for the game being delayed on the PC. The game’s received great reviews so far, so I’m hoping we can expect equally-impressive gameplay on the PC in January.
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With the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine, the world of Mirror’s Edge comes to life with real affects of wind, weapons impact, and in-game movements. Every-day objects within the game become part of the overall experience. Cloth, flags, and banners can now impact weapons and players; ground fog interacts with the player’s footsteps; explosions fill the air with smoke and debris; and weapon impacts are enhanced with interactive particles.
Woman Loses $400,000 to Nigerian Scammers
Online scams are nothing new, and by now I’m sure most people visiting this site are bored stiff of even hearing about them. One of the more rampant scams on the Internet for a while has been tied to the country of Nigeria, where there are apparently many ready to find a sucker on these and other shores to make a quick buck. In a recent case, it was revealed that people continue to fall for such ploys, some to the worst possible degree.
In the case of Janella Spears of Oregon, her naivety cost her an incredible $400,000. She originally was contacted by some Nigerian scammer who promised huge payoffs for small donations. Originally, the money she was asked to send didn’t total much, but after the scammers realized how naive she was, they ended up stealing over $400K, which is hard to even comprehend.
This wasn’t a quick transaction, either. The entire event took over two years to finish, and despite her family telling her that it was a scam, she continued until she was broke. It’s easy to outright flame someone like this, but the important thing to gleam from it is that people actually still do fall for these scams. Hard to believe that the largest known Nigerian online scam to happen, happened now, even years after they’ve been known about.
When Spears began to doubt the scam, she got letters from the President of Nigeria, FBI Director Mueller, and President Bush. Terrorists could get the money if she did not help, Bush’s letter said. Spears continued to send funds. All the letters were fake, of course. She wiped out her husband’s retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car. Both were already paid for.
Left 4 Dead Redefines What Co-Op Modes Should Be
It might be a bit hard (read: very hard) to wait for Half-Life 2: Episode Three to surface, but Valve hasn’t been slack in delivering updates to their current games to give us something to do. To help make us forget HL2 for a while longer, they just released a brand-new title called Left 4 Dead that furthers their stance on just how important multi-player gaming is.
With L4D, they took things to the next level. While some games offer co-op gameplay as an option, Valve encourages it to such a great degree, that the single-player campaign is highly discouraged by all of the reviews I’ve seen so far. Ars Technica is one such site to take a look at the game, and overall, “Left 4 Dead was a game that was made with love” just about says it all.
Their review puts the game in a great light, noting that the Source engine still has what it takes to deliver a great-looking experience, the audio looks (or sounds) to be top-rate, and despite the fact that the game is short, the replayability is high, which is something I’ve read in every review I’ve taken a look at. Overall, Valve has a winner on their hands, and I only wish I had time to play it now.
It’s surprising that a game that only has five to six hours of content has been made infinitely replayable via the AI that mixes things up. Every time I step into a level I move slowly and cautiously; you never know what you’re going to see around the corner. The camraderie that comes with playing with good friends and defending their characters is also a big draw; you’ll be recounting the stories of your exploits to bored wives and girlfriends for the next few months.
NVIDIA Helps Create “Personal Supercomputers”
Over the course of the past year, NVIDIA has been actively pushing their GPUs as excellent performers outside of gaming, and for most of us, this was a rather new concept. We quickly found out, though, that GPUs were indeed superb performers when executed in a certain manner.
It goes without saying that where GPGPU programming is concerned, we’re still in its infancy, but over the course of the past year, I’ve slowly become more of a believer in what the technology can accomplish. If you care at all about the progress of research in the medical field, then just taking a look at how much more a GPU can accomplish with Folding@home when compared to a normal CPU will help make you a believer.
“Personal Supercomputer” is a term that’s been thrown around quite a bit in the past, but when dealing with scenarios that can execute off of a GPU architecture, then it’s far easier to accomplish. To help make this point even clearer, NVIDIA has published a release that unveiled their “Personal Supercomputer” platform, which numerous vendors are currently supporting. Each configuration will vary, but the fastest ones will include the Tesla C1060. The largest configurations in a single-chassis/rack unit will deliver upwards of 3.732 TFLOPS of computing power.
By using their GPUs, NVIDIA claims, you can achieve “Cluster Class” performance with 1/100th of the available space, and at 1/10th the overall power consumption. Those claims are huge, but believable. I’m no coder, and I certainly don’t handle any supercomputers, but I’m still not entirely confident that GPUs can replace CPUs for any kind of SC computing, but if you’re lucky enough that GPUs will work out just fine, the performance benefits are nothing short of jaw-dropping.
“GPUs have evolved to the point where many real world applications are easily implemented on them and run significantly faster than on multi-core systems,” said Prof. Jack Dongarra, director of the Innovative Computing Laboratory at the University of Tennessee and author of LINPACK. “Future computing architectures will be hybrid systems with parallel-core GPUs working in tandem with multi-core CPUs.”
No Immediate Price-Cuts for Intel Core 2, Upcoming Models Leaked
Those who were hoping for immediate price-cuts of Intel’s Core 2 line-up are out of luck, as the company posted their updated processor pricing list yesterday and listed not a single one. The lone update to the list was of course the addition of the Core i7 line-up, which I’m assuming every-single person reading this already know enough about. If you don’t… you might be doing too much snoozing and not enough reading the top of our page!
In other related news, DailyTech found themselves with a leaked list of upcoming non-Core i7 processors, including 65W versions of the Q9550, Q9400 and Q8200 Quad-Core chips. These will be priced at $369, $320 and $245, respectively. This equates to a $52 – $54 price hike compared to their 65W counterparts. Personally, I’m not quite sure that power savings of a 65W CPU will ever negate the $50 premium, but prices are very unlikely to remain high for too long.
Another notable release is the Q9000 2.0GHz Quad-Core mobile part. It will become the first “affordable” Quad-Core offering for notebooks and will sell at $348/1,000. It’s still high compared to desktop counterparts, but far more affordable than previous mobile offerings. Lastly, for those looking to pick up an Intel X-25M SSD, it might pay off to wait, since it’s set to drop $75 on November 30th. You can see even more releases and price-drops over at DailyTech through the link below.
Intel also hasn’t forgotten about its other businesses when it comes to price cuts. Intel’s multi-level cell (MLC) X25-E solid state drives (SSDs) have been burning up the benchmark charts thanks to its highly optimized memory controller. The street price for the 2.5″ 80GB X25-M — and its 80GB 1.8″ X18-M counterpart — will drop from $600 to $525 on November 30. 160GB variants of the X25-M/X18-M will show up in the first half of 2009 and will initially be priced at $990.
SlySoft’s Virtual CloneDrive Offers Superb Disk Image Mounting
Yesterday, I posted about a cool little application that allowed you to both create and mount ISO disk images, but little did I realize, that application pales in comparison to some of the free competition. Thanks to one of our eagle-eyed readers, we now see what might be the ultimate free solution.
SlySoft, creators of the ultra-popular AnyDVD and CloneDVD applications, offer a completely free tool called “Virtual CloneDrive”, which improves upon ISODisk in almost every-single way. Rather than limit you to just the .ISO format, CloneDrive supports that, as well as DVD, CCD, IMG, UDF and BIN files. Nero’s NRG format isn’t supported, not surprisingly. I think it’s safe to say that by using proprietary formats like that, you are only going to suffer a headache down the road.
When launched, the application will offer a few simple questions, as seen below. You can select up to 15 virtual drives, which the OS will see as “BD-ROM Drive”. Yes, that’s right. This application doesn’t only mount CD and DVD images, but can also handle Blu-ray. You can also set the application to mount previously used images when next used, as well.
You can’t create images with this tool, but there are many others out there that can do it for you. CloneDrive definitely looks to be the best solution available for mounting disk images though, and you can’t beat the price. Thanks to Ron for the heads-up!
Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.
Dell Offering Core i7 PC with Included 20-inch Widescreen for $999
I don’t make it a point to look around and hunt for great hardware deals, but while visiting Dell’s website last night, I happened upon one of their “XPS Winter Savings” deals that seemed too good to be ignored. Until the 19th (6AM PST), the company is offering a fully-featured XPS machine, complete with Core i7 processor and 20-inch widescreen monitor… for $999.
So how good is this deal? If you were to build your own Core i7 machine right now, the least-expensive motherboard would set you back $220, while the CPU itself would bring the tally up another $300. Tack on 4GB of RAM ($75), a 500GB hard drive ($65), ATI’s HD 3450 ($30), ODD ($25), chassis ($80), miscellaneous peripherals and modest PSU ($150), and the total would sit at $945.
So where exactly is the steal? Well on top of the pre-configured PC, they also throw in their SP2009W 20-inch widescreen, valued at $240. So in total, the machine to build separately would cost $1,185, or $999 through this offer. It’s not a mind-blowing deal, nor is it a deal most of our audience is looking for, but for a PC that offers Intel’s latest and greatest, looks good and comes complete with a monitor for $999… it’s definitely an interesting deal.
This deal expires first thing tomorrow morning, but it’s not the only one Dell is offering. You can keep checking back to their event page to scope out the latest deals.
Windows 7 to Implement “Action Center”, Reduce Number of Balloon Pop-ups
When Windows Vista first launched, the biggest complaint from most people (and the a humorous target of Apple) was the number of “nag” notification screens, or an overzealous number of questions that aren’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things. We posted last month that the developer team was working towards reducing these nags, and last week, they followed-up by admitting they have even more work to do.
According to the blog post made last week, Windows 7 will add in an “Action Center” (picture below) which will offer central control over both notifications and security features. Here, you’ll be able to look at key issues important to the system at the current time (such as the need to update Windows), and also handle tweaking of the notification options. There’s also an action here to restore your computer to an earlier time, which is nice, since that’s one feature that’s always been complicated to find.
The end goal is to rid as many needless notifications as possible, including both the UAC screens and systray balloon pop-ups. Going forward, Windows 7 hopes to deliver only the most important messages and nothing else that will disrupt your work. All of the lesser-important messages will be stored within the Action Center for later review. Sure sounds like a step in the right direction!
It is also action based so the layout emphasizes messages and the corresponding solutions with even more detail. Additional actions are available if you expand the UI to view them. Finally, we know that we won’t always have messages about the issues a person might be having on their machine. To make sure you can solve those issues, we provide top level links to Troubleshooter and Recovery options.
OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator, More Affordable than Ever
Over the weekend, I was strolling around some e-tailers checking up on prices of a few things, and one thing I stumbled upon was OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator, or NIA for short. This gaming peripheral, if you are unaware, straps to your head like a normal headband, and allows you to use your brain signals for simple commands in your games. Odd, but true.
I first tried the device at Computex this past summer and was impressed overall. It’s certainly not going to make you a better player, but for now, that’s not the point. It’s going to be a while before anything like this will be perfected, so for now, it’s all about having fun and experimenting.
When the NIA was first released, it was priced at over $200, which still seemed like a reasonable deal given the uniqueness, but I found it on the weekend at Newegg for only $119.99, which becomes $99.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate. It’s not cheap by any means, but it’s not expensive either, given what it is. Some gaming mice cost almost just as much, and they are nowhere near as unique. So if you are looking for a way to spice up some of your gaming, even if it won’t make you a better player, definitely keep an eye on it.
OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator (nia) marks a new era in gaming. Rather than being a substitute for a mouse, the nia is a pioneering new peripheral to be used in conjunction with your mouse for a more immersive gaming experience. The nia is compatible with any PC game using keyboard input… past, present, or future.
Adobe Releases 64-bit Alpha Flash Plugin for Linux
Ask anyone running a 64-bit Linux operating system what they’d like to see improved most under the OS, and their answer might be to have native Adobe Flash support. Users of 64-bit Linux distros have been in a Flash predicament for quite a while, although lately the side-effects aren’t as blunt as they once were.
Although there is no 64-bit plugin for any platform at current time (Adobe is really, really slow on that ball), it was made worse and more complicated for Linux since 32-bit emulation needed to be brought in. Even now, 64-bit Linux users, like me, have to run a 32-bit version of Firefox just so Flash can operate. Sadly, even then, issues of stability can arise at the most inopportune times.
At their MAX 2008 conference in San Francisco, Adobe will be announcing multiple notable announcements with regards to the Flash platform, but at the same time, they’ll also release the initial 64-bit plugin, which is considered to be in Alpha phase. The plugin can be grabbed on their Adobe Labs site, but be aware that it’s a very early release, so issues can and probably will occur.
Linux was chosen as the initial launch platform is because users there have been the most vocal for quite some time (and for good reason). Windows and OS X will have support in the future, once all the bugs are worked out with the Linux version, we can assume. All I can say is… it’s about time.
These new innovations include technology previews of Adobe Flash Catalyst and the next version of Adobe Flex Builder, code named Gumbo. Adobe also announced the availability of Adobe AIR 1.5 and an alpha version of Adobe Flash Player 10 software for 64-bit Linux operating systems. The Adobe Flash Platform is tightly integrated with the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family, the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow.
Intel Makes Core i7 Official, Processors Ready for Purchase
It’s been a long wait, but today marks the official launch of Intel’s latest processor lineup, Core i7. Although the origin of the name itself is still a mystery, the performance that the new models offer is not, as seen in the preview article we posted a few weeks ago. We still plan to follow-up to that article, but are awaiting a few more motherboards to test with, so we can get the full story.
Although today marks the launch of the new processors, some e-tailers began selling the new models over the weekend, such as NewEgg and Mwave. Those two actually happen to be the only two right now I can find that are currently selling (or have them even listed), but more will undoubtedly pop up during the week.
Of the two e-tailers mentioned above, Mwave undercuts NewEgg’s prices by a rather healthy margin, although since I have no experience with them, I can’t personally attest to their customer service in order to recommend them for the purchase. At the time of this post, here are the links and prices for all three models at both stores:
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz – Mwave ($289.00)
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz – NewEgg ($319.99)
- Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz – Mwave ($575.00)
- Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz – NewEgg ($599.99)
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20GHz – Mwave ($1,039.00)
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20GHz – NewEgg ($1,069.99)
(Click for 1920×1200 desktop wallpaper.)
As a reminder, the i7 920 and 940 both have locked multipliers, meaning the overclocking will be via increasing the Base Clock only, while the Extreme chip has a fully unlocked multiplier (up to 40x) to allow even higher clocks to be seen. It’s still a little early in the game to take a guess at typical overclocks for either of the three new models, but for a point-of-reference, we hit a stable 3.60GHz on the Core i7 920 using near-stock voltages on the ASUS P6T Deluxe.
Need to know even more? Be sure to refer to our preview article from a few weeks ago and also our “Choosing the Best Memory Kit“, which might just save you some cash in what will be an already expensive upgrade.
ISODisk Allows Simple Mounting of Your ISO Disk Images
One question I hear quite often is, “How do I mount a disk image?”, and for the most part, I don’t have a great answer. Well, until now, that is. The need to mount ISO images can vary from person to person, but for me personally, I like to backup my DVDs of music concerts by converting them to ISO format and then watch later on the PC (surprisingly, VLC does a decent job of reading the ISO directly).
So you have an ISO image and need to mount it… what to do? Well thanks to Lifehacker’s investigative sleuthing, we found an application called ISODisk, and really, the name is all you need to know. Not only does the application allow you to create ISO images of CDs/DVDs, but it allows you to mount up to twenty at a time.
The reason there is a limit at all is likely due to how Windows handles assigning drive letters. With twenty-six letters in the alphabet, there has to be a limit somewhere! The tool doesn’t allow mounting of disk images in formats other than ISO, but if ISO is all you deal with, then this free tool deserves to be “mounted” in your toolbox.
ISODisk is a FREE and powerful ISO disk image file tool, allows you to create virtual CD/DVD driver up to 20 drivers, mount an .ISO disk image and access the files on it as if it were burned to CD or DVD. This free program can quickly create ISO image file from CD/DVD-ROM, with ISODisk, you don’t need install any other virtual drive software. Once you map the archive to a virtual drive, you can be able to view the contents in Windows Explorer.
ASUS’ Xonar Essense STX Designed for High-End Headphone Users
Last summer, you wouldn’t have imagined a company like ASUS would release their own audio card, much less do a good job with its design, but as we first saw in our review of their Xonar D2, we knew they meant business. They weren’t simply strolling into the audio market to add their name to the pile… they managed to outperform some of the better-known competition.
I’ll admit that I’ve become somewhat of a Xonar fanboy. Shortly after Rory reviewed it, I ran out and got one (aka, I sat at the computer and ordered one) and have been loving it ever since (especially since it works under Linux!). The thing is, though, I generally use speakers less than 5% of the time while on the PC, so when I first learned of the company’s new headphone-specific audio card back at Computex, I couldn’t wait to learn more.
Well, our friends at Hardware Canucks have got an early preview, and so far, the card is looking incredibly drool-worthy for anyone with a higher-end pair of headphones. It should be made clear that the new Xonar Essence STX isn’t some wimpy card, and to take full advantage of what it offers, you are going to want a good pair of headphones. I think generally speaking, if your headphones cost less than what the card will cost at launch, you are likely missing out on what makes the card so special.
The article doesn’t mention the chipset used, but we can assume it would be similar to the one used on the original D2/D2X/DX. It uses similar DAC chips as well, Burr Brown 1792A, offering a killer 124dB SNR. The card also has independent power planes to split the headphone output from the microphone input, which is designed to keep the signals clean. Add swappable opamps, EMI shielding and other cool features… this might just be the killer-app for headphone users. We’ll be sure to get one in soon and have Rory put it through its paces, so stay tuned.
There are many high end audio components on this card and the sections have been designed and positioned on the PCB with maximum sound/signal quality in mind. There are quite a few noteworthy sections and additions to the Essence that haven’t been seen on a sound card meant for the mainstream up until this point.
NVIDIA Releases 4GB Quadro FX 5800
Last month, NVIDIA unveiled a special Quadro model, CX, which was designed with Adobe’s latest CS4 suite in mind. One that offers the perfect blend of speed and features to give all of what professionals will need while sitting at their desk. Today, the company announced a new Quadro model that targets a slightly different crowd. One that has far more complex tasks to take care of.
The 4GB FX 5800 is designed with some mind-boggling calculations in mind, with prospective customers including those from the gas and oil industry, medical imaging, 4D interactive modeling, scientific visualization, et cetera. Sadly, like the other Quadro cards, NVIDIA deliberately omits certain pieces of information about the card on their website, but we can assume that GDDR3 is being used here, which offers 102GB/s of bandwidth.
That bandwidth is a little strange given the sheer amount of memory being used, and when you consider that the GTX 280 is featured as having 141.7GB/s of bandwidth potential. So it appears in these specific industries, it’s not so much the memory speed that matters, but simply how much of it is there to take. So, how much will 4GB cost you? Not surprisingly, it’s priced right along with what you’d expect to see hardware cost in these industries… $3,499. This might just be the most expensive Quadro to date.
“The size and complexity of data is growing at an exponential rate. The challenge for today’s professional is to make sense of the mountain of data by distilling it into a form they can comprehend, analyze and use to make impactful decisions,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. “At stake can be billions of investment dollars, or even people’s lives.
Palit Introduces Three-Slot Graphics Card
Remember when the first dual-slot GPUs came out? I’m not certain, but I believe it could have been the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra. The dual-slot likeness didn’t matter too much though, as the card was powerful enough to earn those two spots. That’s still the case today, and given that the latest GPUs can run upwards of 80°C with relative ease (especially ATI’s HD 4000 series), dual coolers are an actual necessity.
Well, how about taking things to the next level? By next level, I mean by creating a triple-slot GPU! That’s right. Palit’s upcoming Revolution 700, based on the HD 4870 X2, takes up three slots in your PC thanks to it’s extremely bulky cooler. As this card can run extremely hot during full load though, the reason behind this is obvious.
The cooler itself seems pretty similar to Palit’s own HD 4870 Sonic we reviewed last month, except it’s a lot more solid here. The cooler still uses a dual-fan design, and includes a multitude of thin fins throughout the entire bottom, with most of the “free space” appearing between the fans themselves and the fins (there seems to be a slight gap). Oddly enough, this card doesn’t come pre-overclocked, except on the memory, but I’m willing to bet it’s going to keep the card much, much cooler than one with the reference cooler design.
The company just announced its Revolution 700 Deluxe, which runs on two 750 MHz GPUs like the 4870 X2 reference design, but offers 2 GB of GDDR5 memory that runs at 3800 MHz instead of 3600 MHz. There are two PWM fans as well as four heat pipes to cool the entire package, which comes in a 3-slot design.
dBpoweramp’s CD Ripper Works Like a Dream Under Linux
Yesterday, I posted about running Office 2007 under Linux with the help of CrossOver Linux, and to quickly follow-up, I’ll say that I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with it, Excel specifically, and I’m incredibly impressed by its performance and stability. The worst problem I’ve had so far are slight redraw issues, which are easily fixed, so there are no real deal-breakers yet (except for the font-rendering, perhaps).
You may recall me whining a few weeks ago about a hard drive issue that could have ruined my day, but didn’t, thanks to TestDisk. Well as it turns out, while all my important data remained safe, I started to find a lot of my music skipping throughout certain tracks, and it became obvious that the hard drive issue caused more than just a headache.
Being an idiot, I didn’t have hard backups of the music (I was holding out on purchasing a large backup HDD… joke’s on me), so I had to make plans on how I wanted to re-rip the CDs. Well, ever since I posted about dBpoweramp this past March, about how great it was to convert large music collections, I shortly after became equally impressed with their CD ripper. But the problem of course, that it was designed for Windows, nothing else. That tends to be a problem when you have hundreds of CDs to rip and you don’t run Windows.
Well, I was happy to report earlier this year that dBpoweramp’s converters work well in Linux, and I can now say the same thing for their CD Ripper… something I wasn’t quite sure was going to work. It wasn’t as simple as just installing the application, for me at least, but I think it depends on the distro. My problem in particular was with incorrect symlinks for the ODDs, but that was easily fixed.
As you can see in the above image, the application looks exactly as it would in Windows, and I can attest to the fact that it’s very stable and reliable. I’m always wary of running applications through Wine when they need to be stable (especially when it comes to ripping perfect music), but I did many comparative tests, and I can say that the CD Ripper is just as stable under Linux as it is under Windows, so if it works, you don’t need to have any concerns about it causing problems with your resulting rips.
At the time of writing this post, I’ve ripped exactly 45 albums with the ripper, and I didn’t once have an issue. I can honestly say that the application is so stable, it’s just as good as having a native Linux ripper. Oh, and if you happen to be wondering why I don’t use some Linux ripper instead, it’s because I like the AccurateRip functionality and all of the features that dBpoweramp’s ripper includes. The ease-of-use helps also.
Features Not Likely to be Seen in Windows 7
With Windows 7 en route, everyone has their own opinion on what the new OS will have, and what it probably won’t have. Of course it’s too early to speculate on much, but Gizmodo decided to have a Photoshop contest that had entrants conjure up some screenshot of something Windows 7 would not have, and some are truly hilarious.
After looking through all the posted entries, I’d have to say my favorite is the same one chosen for first place, which is shown below. It’s a good throwback to the Windows 3.x days, when computing was much, much simpler. Another great entry is Microsoft Kill. It’s designed so well, it almost looks like a real application.
Feature I hope isn’t going to be included? One that keeps track of how much time is spent on the PC… I don’t think I could face that sad reality.
For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I asked you guys to imagine some Windows 7 features that we’re not likely to see come its release next year. And while we have the predictable barrage of Blue Screen of Death jokes, we also have a bunch of other clever and awesome takes on Microsoft’s next big OS.
First Experience with CrossOver Linux
Last week, Codeweavers, a company that aims to see Windows-based software running on both Mac OS X and Linux, decided to give away all their software since gas prices plummeted (or something), and not one to sit on the sidelines, I decided to put my name in for a code and finally give their solutions a try.
All of Codeweavers’ products utilize Wine at their base to enable the emulation, but they have various enhancements that allow easier installation and compatibility. In my short time with both Crossover Games and Crossover Linux, I am pleased overall, although I have a lot more testing to take care of before I can realistically conclude on how much of a lifesaver they are, since most applications they support are known to run in standard Wine with some tweaking.
One application in particular that I’ve never been able to see running under Wine can be seen in the below image. Whenever I’ve tried to install Office 2007 in the past, with a standard Wine install, the setup process would error out before it could finish. Not here, and as you can see, both Excel and Word look great.
I actually have to admit that Office 2007 works a lot better than I expected it to. Over the course of a half-hour, the application didn’t hang up once, or ever felt unstable. I even ran a 70MB file through Excel and it kept on truckin’. I’m rather impressed. Sadly, there’s one slight issue that will still force me into rebooting into Windows: fonts. Yes, the font-rendering is not perfect, and to me, that matters (especially when the graphs are used directly in our reviews!).
I’ll be giving Crossover Games and Linux a more thorough look over the course of the next week and will report new findings when I have something useful to say.
CodeWeavers is the leading corporate backer of the Wine Project. Wine is an open source software initiative that is systematically re-implementing the Win32 API under Unix. Wine makes it possible for PCs running Unix-based operating systems (like OS X and Linux) to run Windows application as if natively.
Amazon Aims to Rid “Wrap Rage”
Running to pick up a cool new gadget or even something simple, like a PC microphone, can be a fun experience. At least until you realize that you need a machete to tear through the tightly-sealed clamshell packaging. Though I don’t have quotes, I do recall at one point reading that multiple people are rushed to the emergency room each year simply because they cut themselves bad enough on this packaging. Nuts!
Well I think it goes without saying that this type of packaging is needless. While it normally does do a great job in keeping our latest toys protected, it’s needless that the only way to open them is with a box cutter or scissors. Luckily enough, it seems Amazon is keen to eliminate this packaging as well, and have launched a new program called “Frustration-Free Packaging”, where they work with manufacturers to use simpler packaging that might not look as snazzy, but is far easier to open. Oh, and an added bonus is that it uses way less material.
All I can say is, “about time!”, and I really hope to see this catch on fast. I’ll admit that while typical packaging looks great, there is so much waste, and as we can see here, it’s really not needed. So far, companies to jump on board are Mattel, Fisher-Price, Microsoft and Transcend… with hopefully more en route.
Amazon is working with leading manufacturers to deliver products inside smaller, easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard boxes with less packaging material (and no frustrating plastic clamshells or wire ties). One of the first products to launch with Frustration-Free Packaging is the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, which is now delivered in an easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard box.
Don’t Miss Our Core i7 Performance Preview!
Just in case it wasn’t obvious enough at the top of the page, be sure not to miss our in-depth look at performance with Intel’s latest processors, part of the Core i7 line-up. Inside, we put all three new models through our usual battery of tests, and also pick apart the performance gains from specific new features, including QPI and HyperThreading.
If there’s one thing you’ll quickly see, it’s that HyperThreading deserves to be back, as the performance gains seen throughout all of our results are nothing short of spectacular. There were a few applications that didn’t experience a real gain, but for those that did, the increases ranged from 10% – 40%… truly incredible.
Bottom line? You have a reason to be looking forward to Core i7, without question. This first article certainly won’t be our last though, so keep checking back this week as (if time permits), I’d like to toss up two more pieces, one that takes a deeper look at overclocking (even if the overclocks are going to be less-than-stellar), and also an in-depth look at gaming performance, between the two architectures.
So stay tuned… there’s more good stuff on the way.
Intel has once again further secured their spot as the CPU leader with the Core i7. With each new processor launch, we expect to see performance increases, but with i7, some of the increases are mind-blowing. For those who use 3D design tools or video-creation tools on a regular basis, Core i7 was built for you, as the performance seen there definitely blew away the predecessor.