- Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
- AMD Launches Ryzen PRO 7000 Series Mobile & Desktop Platform
- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
- NVIDIA Announces Latest Ada Lovelace Additions: GeForce RTX 4060 Ti & RTX 4060
- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Windows gaming on MacBook Pro
The new clincher, however, is Boot Camp. Using this application, it’s now possible to dual-boot Windows and OSX, and rebooting into either takes less than 30 seconds. This allows users to have the best of both worlds: the desktop environment and usability of OSX, with ability of Windows to play games.
Bit-Tech puts their MacBook Pro against some popular benchmarks, including Counter-Strike: Source and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. The results are not mind blowing, but if you own a MacBook Pro, then this will give you a general idea of the possibilities. Check out the full article here.
AMD Opteron Processor Marks Its Third Anniversary With More Server Market Share Gains
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — April 25, 2006 –Coinciding with the third anniversary of the launch of the AMD Opteron™ processor and AMD64 technology launch, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today it has seen an increase in its overall x86 server processor market share. Based on the 2006 first quarter numbers from Mercury Research, the AMD Opteron processor now accounts for 22.1 percent of the worldwide x86 server processors shipped in the first quarter, up from 16.4 percent in the 2005 fourth quarter. These new numbers, combined with today’s introduction of 12 new platforms that meet the AMD Validated Server guidelines, demonstrate strong demand and momentum for AMD Opteron processor-based solutions across various commercial customer segments.
You can read the rest of the release here.
Hardware Roundup for April 26
- ENlight EN-7473 HTPC Case – UK Gamer
- Lian Li PC-S80B Aluminum Server Case – Virtual-Hideout
Cases & Enclosures
- Six AMD Air Coolers Head to Head – Toms Hardware
- Spire DiamondCool II SP741B3 AMD Athlon64 Heatsink – FrostyTech
- Thermaltake’s “BigWater 745” Watercooling Kit – HardwareXL
Cooling
- OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 2x1024MB Dual Channel Platinum XTC – T-Break
- Patriot PC2-5300 2GB – Viper Lair
Memory & Storage
- Altec Lansing AHP 612 Wireless Headphones – Bona Fide Reviews
- Saitek A-350 Wireless Headphones – Think Computers
- WolfKing Timber Wolf Gaming Keyboard – nVNews
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Sapphire RADEON X1300 256MB – Modders-Inc
- Sapphire Radeon X1800 GTO – Hexus
- XFX GeForce 7900 GTX XXX Edition – Guru3D
Video Cards & Monitor
- Contest: Reader Survey for 2006 – Bit-Tech
- Linux: MCNLive Leuven – Phoronix
- MSI Digi Player 600 1GB MP3 Player – Trusted Reviews
- Pakuma AKARA K2 17inch Laptop bag – Xtreme Computing
- Samsung MM-A920 Cell Phone – Digital Trends
Etcetera & Contests
eBay Launches eBay Express Preview Site
As eBay has grown larger and larger over the years, the site has become a complex web of overpriced merchandise, awesome bargains, stellar merchants and scammers looking to make a quick buck. The company has launched what it calls “eBay Express” which gives buyers a more streamlined shopping experience more akin to Amazon.com. The preview version of the site will stay live for a few weeks while eBay gathers feedback from users. eBay Express listing are open only to sellers with top notch feedback ratings so that buyers can feel more secure in their purchase.
I have to admit, I am really liking where eBay is going with this. They apparently finally got some new designers, because the Express site is far better looking than the current eBay. Check out the news posting at DailyTech, and check out the eBay Express here.
Linspire launches Freespire
Linspire president and CEO Kevin Carmony announced today during his keynote at the Linux Desktop Summit plans for a free version of Linspire called Freespire. Carmony says that Freespire will be open to community contributions, with a completely open source version and a version that includes proprietary software.
I am not really a fan of Linspire in any shape or form, but at least they are finally offering a free version for those interested. You can read the full news posting at Newsforge.
Viacom to Acquire Xfire for $102 Million
What does the acquisition mean to you? It means that Xfire is now backed by one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media. It means that Xfire will continue to grow and enhance your gaming experience. Xfire was created by gamers, for gamers. We will always remain committed to improving gaming with your friends. MTV Networks shares this vision with us, and they will help us to continue building Xfire into a larger and more exciting community, one passionate gamer at a time.
At least they are in pretty good hands with Viacom. Xfire can only get better.. right? You can read up on the acquisition on their site right here.
Rambus Wins $306.9M in Patent Infringement Case
Rambus’ allegation that Hynix and other large memory manufacturers infringed on its patents in producing DDR DRAM, SDRAM and DDR2 DRAM memory techniques. The vast majority of the PCs and servers made during the last several years have used these types of memory.
Ouch, what a huge blow to Hynix. It will be interesting to see how this affects the prices of current DDR1 and DDR2 modules. Read the full posting at DailyTech.
America’s Army Cans Linux/Macintosh Clients
Ryan C Gordon, or also known as Icculus, has just updated his
finger with some very jaw-dropping information. It seems as though the
Macintosh and Linux client ports for America’s Army (the popular free
FPS game based upon the Unreal engine and is supported by the US Army)
is a drowning matter…
This comes at a surprise. AA was one of those games that Linux/Mac gamers could brag about because it was on their platform. Talk about pulling a rug from under your feet. Check out the full posting over at Phoronix.
OCZ Technology Announces High-Performance 60X and 133X Secure Digital Memory
Sunnyvale, CA—April 24, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the launch of its new Secure Digital™ (SD) flash memory cards designed to be the ideal storage solution for the latest media electronics and digital devices. Speed-rated up to 133X, OCZ SD Flash delivers fast and flawless performance and reliable storage for MP3s, digital images, and more.
You can read the full press release here.
Mushkin, Inc. to Launch Power Supply Line
The XP-650 is labeled as a 650W power supply, but has a peak output of 700W. The power supply has a combined 12V rail of 44A, which is more than enough to support SLI and CrossFire platforms. The XP-650 has four separate 12V rails all of which can be combined to form a single power rail thanks to what Mushkin is calling RailFusion Technology. When RailFusion occurs the green LED light on the back of the power supply will turn on letting you and anyone else look at the back of your case that you are pulling some serious power.
This is all great and everything, but they will have to be high quality to compete with others on the market. Can’t wait to see how they perform in reviews though. Check it out at Legit Reviews.
Hardware Roundup for April 25
- Antec P180 – A1-Electronics
- Aspire Q-Pack Micro-ATX Chassis – Virtual-Hideout
- Thermaltake Eureka VC8000BWA Aluminum Case – PC Perspective
Cases & Enclosures
- Spire VertiCool II SP601B3 AMD Athlon64 Heatsink – FrostyTech
Cooling
- A-data DDR2 667 Vitesta – Red & Blackness
- G.Skill F1-3200PHU1-512NS DDR 400 – Technic3D
- Patriot Memory PDC2G4000ELK – PC Stats
Memory & Storage
- Abit AN8 32X nForce4 SLI X16 – PC Perspective
- Microprocessor History, Part 1 – BTX Form Factor
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Ultra X-Finity 500W/500W+APFC PSU – Motherboards.org
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ATI Avivo vs NVIDIA Purevideo – FiringSquad
- Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 5.1 Posted! – Rojak Pot
- NGO ATI Optimized Driver v1.6.4 – NGOHQ
- PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO – Elite Bastards
- ViewSonic VX2025wm LCD Display – XYZ Computing
Video Cards & Monitor
- Canon PowerShot SD630 – Digital Trends
- Sony VPL-ES3 – BIOS Magazine
- U.S. Robotics’ USB Skype Speakerphone – BIOS Magazine
Etcetera & Contests
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Demo This Week?
GR:AW PC could be on your PC sometime next week according to this post by a moderator in the French Ubisoft forums. The best translation I can come up with at this time is…
“Well, the demo is out next week! One of the folks that were at the fan’s day yesterday asked the question and one said for them that the demo is due out next week but no exact date was specified.”
Keep your eyes peeled on the official sites for the exact date and content of the demo. Forum discussion here.
Check out the full posting at Bluesnews.
NCsoft Announces E3 Lineup
AUSTIN, Texas, April 24, 2006—NCsoft® Corporation is celebrating its fifth year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) May 10-12 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The company, whose North American business was born at the 2001 Expo, will demonstrate the most diverse offering of massively multiplayer online (MMO) game titles and multiplayer products at this year’s show. All products will be shown in booth #1046 in the convention center’s South Hall.
Check out the entire release here.
Samsung Now The Largest Semiconductor Company In The World
The Korean Stock Exchange recently announced that Samsung Electronics is now the largest semiconductor company in the world ahead of Intel Corporation. This morning, Intel Corporation had a market capitalization of $112B USD. Samsung Electronics, on the other hand, closed trading on Friday with a market cap of $120B USD.
$8B is quite a substantial lead, but part of it is due to the fact that Intels falling stock prices over the past few quarters. Check out the full post at Daily Tech.
Apple’s Intel-Macs Begin Shipping with Windows XP Pre-Installed
One of the largest online Apple dealers, MacMall, has announced that it is now shipping iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac Minis with a choice of Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro pre-installed as an option. According to both MacMall’s website and Apple’s online store, a identically configured 1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro can be pre-installed with Windows XP Professional for $100 — which is actually a discount.
Wow, I can’t believe we have seen the day. Heck, upgrading from MCE or Home to Professional through the Dell website costs $120! So now it’s actually cheaper to buy Windows when you buy a Mac. Check out the full read at Daily Tech.
Reuters Partners with Novell to Offer Reuters Market Data System on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
NEW YORK (Linux on Wall Street Conference) – April 24, 2006 – Reuters (LSE: RTR; NASDAQ: RTRSY) and Novell today announced an alliance in support of Reuters Market Data System (RMDS) on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell® for financial institutions worldwide. Novell and Reuters have been working together to extend the performance and support benefits of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to RMDS customers.
You can read the full press release here.
AMD Accelerates And Simplifies Production, Management, And Delivery Of Digital Media At NAB
NAB, LAS VEGAS, BOOTH SL-555 — April 24, 2006 –At the National Association of Broadcasters convention today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) demonstrated growing momentum for AMD64 technology adoption in broadcast and digital media pipelines for the production, management, and distribution of digital media content.
You can read the full press release here.
Hardware Roundup for April 24
- Aerocool XFire Cooler – Pro-Clockers
- G-Cooler Liquid CPU Cooler – Think Computers
- Sansun Bat Case – AMDZone
- VIZO Opera Portable 2.5″ HDD Enclosure & Multimedia Player – Virtual-Hideout
Cases & Enclosures
- Swiftech MCR-320 “Quiet Power” series Radiator – OCIA
- TerraTec’s PHASE X24 FW – BIOS Magazine
- Thermaltake Bigwater 745 – Dual Rad Cooling – Xtreme Computing
Cooling
- G.Skill F2-4200PHU1-512SA – techPowerUp!
- OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2GB Dual Channel Platinum XTC – Bjorn3D
Memory & Storage
- Asus N4L-VM DH Motherboard – Core Duo On The Desktop – HotHardware
- MSI RD480 Neo2-FI Evaluation – techFEAR
Motherboards & CPU’s
- BlueTake iPhono Plus Bluetooth Stereo Headset – LAN Addict
- Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3100 – Modders-Inc
- Thermaltake Purepower TWV 500W PSU – Overclockers Club
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- PowerColor X1900XTX 512MB – Overclockers Online
Video Cards & Monitor
- Getting Ready For Vista – Making a Forward-Looking Hardware Choice – Design Technica
- Living with Sharp’s M4000 WideNote ultraportable – Tech Report
- Sony ACID Pro 6 – BIOS Magazine
- Toshiba Gigabeat F40 40GB Digital Audio Player – Extreme MHz
- Trekker 35 Palm Microscope – UK Gamer
- Ubuntu v6.06 Dapper Drake Beta 1 – Phoronix
Etcetera & Contests
The BoxHeads LAN – April 2006
The BoxHeads, one of the largest LAN organizations in
Michigan, which attracts visitors from all over the Midwest and Canada,
had held its first LAN event for the year. While their venue was the
limiting factor, yesterday’s event was for 144 gamers and a complete day
full of various gaming and hardware activities.
Check out the full article at Phoronix.
Act Of War: High Treason Review
I’m a big fan of Act of War Direct Action and had very high hopes for High Treason. What disappoints me is there isn’t enough that’s new in the game. They tout naval combat as one of the big new features of the game. What ended up in the add-on was like it was an afterthought. The naval units appear in a few missions but not in the Skirmish or Multiplayer modes. purchased this game off Direct2Drive, a service where you can buy the game install it on the hard drive and not worry about having the DVD in the drive to play the game. It was released in Europe on March 26th. The release date for retail in the United States is supposed to be on May 30th, a full month and a half from now.
Check out the full review at GamePyre.
Samsung SPP-2040 Digital Photo Printer Review
At first glace its hard not to be impressed by the compactness of the unit
measuring a mere 180mm (W) x 136mm (D) x 66mm (H). Samsung has specifically
designed this unit to take up very little desktop space and the SPP-2040 is
very light weight at 2.4 lbs. Like rival digital photo printers currently on
the market, the SPP-2040 has the capability to print 4″ x 6″ color images in
approximately 60-75 seconds at a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi. The highlight
for this specific model is that it allows consumers to easily manipulate their
photos without the need of a computer.
Check out the full review over at ModTheBox.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Today Guru of 3D brings you a rather interesting article. It’s game review with a hardware point of view of that fantastic title Oblivion (PC). We look at all it’s aspects, then have a look at the game with four different PCs (yes both ATI and NVIDIA platforms). We’ll also have a brief look at the Chuck patch recently released by ATI that allows you to enable both HDR and AA at the same time. All in all a very extensive game review with a Guru’s point of view.
Check it out at Guru3D.
SteelSeries SteelSound 5H USB Headsets Review
Luckily, there are plenty of choices in the gaming
headsets market. One of which is the SteelSound 5H from renowned gaming
gear company SteelSeries. SteelSeries SteelSound 5H headsets are available
with or without a USB soundcard. In this review, I will be taking a look at
the headsets with the sound card.
Check out the full review over at A True Review.
Jing Ting Force Chipset Cooler Review
“Having the DFI Lanparty UT nForce4 Ultra-D motherboard is a great
thing. Not only are you presented with a rock solid motherboard, but
it’s built for the tweaker in all of us. From the ability to hack the
board to allow SLI to the slew of overclocking settings in the BIOS, the
Ultra-D has it all.
Actually, I take that back. It does lack one thing, the use of a decent
nF4 chipset fan.
Check out the full review at GideonTech.
Sapphire Pure CrossFire Motherboard Review
In terms of features, the PC-A9RD580 motherboard from Sapphire is in a decent position, due to the inclusion of Crossfire support, 8 SATA ports, and generally high performance for the AMD Athlon 64 platform. This Crossfire platform motherboard is stable, fast, overclocks well, and has an excellent layout to boot, all good qualities for the enthusiast user. The board has excellent looks as its PCB is a sort of cream colored white that looks cool especially with blue light hitting it. Check this one out, you may find something you like here.
Check out the full review at Motherboards.org.