- 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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ECS KA1 MVP 30-day Test Drive
The ECS KA1 MVP is back for another round after a run through the techFEAR 30-day Test Drive. Are the rough edges pointed out in the initial evaluation still considered rough?
Check out the full look at techFEAR.
NEC MultiSync 70GX2 17inch Review
NEC have a released a little gem here and I have to say it certainly impressed me, the sharpness and color reproduction on the GX2 series was much better than I had expected, so much so that after returning the monitor I went hunting for prices.
Check out the full review at Xtreme Computing.
NCsoft launches Auto Assault
AUSTIN, Texas, April 13, 2006—NCsoft® North America announced today that Auto Assault® launched commercial service in North America, Europe and other select markets worldwide. Developed by Colorado-based developer, NetDevil®, LTD, Auto Assault is the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game set in a post-apocalyptic world featuring vehicle combat on an epic scale and fully destructible environments.
Oblivion: Elder Scrolls 4
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is quite simply a masterpiece. There’s so much to do in the game that it would take the better part of 100 hours to play the game one time through with one character doing every possible quest in the best of situations and even after over 40 hours of gameplay I have but touched upon the surface of Oblivion.. The thing with the game is you can start over with a totally different character and the game might be totally different, depending on what factions (Guilds) you align yourself with. Further, if you want to live your life as a vampire you can, now that’s an interesting character to be.
Check out the full review at GamePyre.
Live Memory Test: Overclock ‘Em Till They Crash
This time, we compared the test samples sent in by the manufacturers with identical modules bought from retailers. We wanted to find out whether manufacturers were sending us hand-picked modules that people cannot buy from retail outlets. Or to put it another way, we wanted to find out: are they cheating or not?
This is a live test that will take place over a few weeks, but it’s going to be extremely interesting to see how retail versions hold up to their review sample counterparts. Check it out at Toms Hardware.
Best Buy Pirating?
Winternals, the Texas software company known for programs such as ERD Commander 2005, has filed suit against electronics retailing giant Best Buy this week, claiming that the company has been using thousands of unlicensed copies of their software in stores across the nation. A judge has already granted a temporary restraining order against Best Buy, ordering them to refrain from using any unlicensed Winternals software.
What’s cool here, is how Winternals found out that Best Buy was using illegal versions. They simply called up the Geek Squad and identified the boot screen when the technician was fixing the computer. This could burn Best Buy bad.. chances are that Winternals is not the only software they use illegitimately. Read more at Ars Technica.
USB drive inflates when full
The USB flash drive by Russian designer Dima Komissarov has a built-in micropump that expands and contracts the storage device depending on the amount of data it’s holding.
When the drive is about to inflate you’ll see an error message on your screen: “There is not enough free space.” When switched off, the Flashbag stays pumped up, letting you estimate at a glance how many more pictures, books, albums and other space hogs you can stuff onto it.
This is pretty cool, but a gimmick nonetheless. I couldn’t imagine wanting to actually have some large bubble like device in my pocket. Check it out at News.com.
ATI Tray Tools 1.0.5.877 Released
Here at Guru3D.com we just released Ray’s ATI Tray Tools which is now at build 1.0.5.877 Just click the executable and you are good to go. Guru3D.com is the official English homepage for this utility.
You can check out the changelog and download it over at Guru3D.
Hardware Roundup for April 14
- NZXT Lexa – Overclocker Cafe
- Thermaltake Matrix VD2000BNS Aluminum Mid-Tower – Tweak News
Cases & Enclosures
- Kingston 512-MB microSD Memory Card – Legit Reviews
Memory & Storage
- ECS 945G-M3 – PC Stats
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Speakers – ThinkCE
- Pioneer DVR-R100 Dual Layer DVD Burner – XYZ Computing
- SteelSeries Steelpad 5L – techPowerUp!
- Topower Silent Green 600W Power Supply – Think Computers
- Ultra X2-Connect 550w – Guru3D
- Ultra X-Finity 500W PSU w/ Acive PFC – 3D Gameman
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Catalyst 6.4 Comparison – Technic3D
- MSI GeForce NX7300GS-TD256E PCIE – Phoronix
- PowerColor X1600 PRO AGP 512MB – Bjorn 3D
Video Cards & Monitor
- Apple Boot Camp Public Beta – Hexus
- Contest: CPU Magazine XBOX 360 Issue Giveaway – Modders-Inc
- Contest: Sapphire & HotHardware Giveaway – HotHardware
Etcetera & Contests
OCZ Technology Announces New Ultra-Slim Mini-Kart USB Flash Drives Thin Enough to Store in Your Wallet
Sunnyvale, CA—April 12, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the second addition to their reputable flash product line—the OCZ Mini-Kart USB 2.0 Flash Drive series. The ultra-slim design of the Mini-Kart makes data storage and transferring easier and more portable than ever.
You can read the full press release here.
DFI BIOS makes it easy to fake memory results
Just in case some readers here don’t have their ear as tightly
pressed to the ground as others, I will summarize and let you know what has
happened that can make it very easy to fake memory overclocks…and I don’t want any of our friends here buying bad memory because of this. again, if you are reading reviews, buying memory in forums, or on e-bay and using overclocking results as a guideline then read on as this may very well save you some hassle.
Basically, this is showing that it’s possible to inflate the memory MHz to deceive people. The performance will not increase though, so people who are aware of the memory scene should be able to tell the difference. Check out the full post in the Overclockers Online forums.
Crash Recovery & The Blue Screen of Death
In this article PCstats.com will walk you through the BSOD in many of its most familiar incarnations. We will not be exploring and cataloguing what each BSOD means, but rather providing a set of tools for troubleshooting that you can use to get around any Blue Screen Of Death, or constant crash issue. Just another step in PCstats’ never-ending quest to save your hard earned cash from going to the computer repair shop.
Check out the full guide at PC Stats.
Hardware Roundup for April 13
Whew, here comes an extra lengthy round-up today to make up for the past few absent news days.
- Cooler Master Centurion 532 – Viper Lair
- MS-Tech LC-45 – Technic 3D
- Thermaltake Matrix VX VD3000 – HotHardware
Cases & Enclosures
- Asetek Waterchill KT12A-12VX – DNR Hardware
- Jetart VC2000 VGA Cooler – Xtreme Computing
- MicroCool NorthPole XE Whisper – A1-Electronics
- Pentagram NXC 100-Cu – techPowerUp!
- Scythe Katana-Cu – Think Computers
- Scythe Mine Heatsink – Pro-Clockers
- Spire VertiCool II SP601B3 – A1-Electronics
- Titan Eagle VGA Coolers – Virtual-Hideout
Cooling
- Corsair XMS3500LL Pro Series Twinx Memory Kit- ModTheBox
- Mushkin 2GB XP2-5300 – Motherboards.org
- OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 Gold GX XTC 1 GB – Overclockers Online
- Super Talent T800UX2GC4 2GB PC2-6400 – Motherboards.org
- X-Micro Mini DisGo in black – TweakPC
Memory & Storage
- Abit A8N 32X – HotHardware
- ECS C19-A SLI nForce4 SLI Intel Edition – PC Stats
- Interactive AMD Athlon 64 Socket 754 Pinmod guide – OC Inside
Motherboards & CPU’s
- ATMT Storm MP3 Player – UK Gamer
- AuzenTech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect Sound Card – Think Computers
- Hiper HPU-4S525 525W PSU – Technic3D
- SilverStone Strider ST56F 560W – Think Computers
- SteelPad 5L Mouse Pad – Rojak Pot
- XTracPads Mouse Bungee – PC Modding Malaysia
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Acer 17″ LCD Computer – 3DXtreme
- Asus EN7800GT TOP Silent 2DHTV/256M – PC Stats
- ATI 8.24.8 Display Drivers (Linux) – Phoronix
- ATI Radeon X1800 Linux Preview – Phoronix
- Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 10.6 – Rojak Pot
- EVGA 7600GS 256MB – 3D Gameman
- ForceWare 84 Series Roundup – NGOHQ
- Gigabyte NX79T GeForce 7900GT – GamePyre
- Matrox TripleHead2Go – Guru3D
- Samsung SyncMaster 970P 19 Inch LCD Monitor – TweakNews
- Sapphire Blizzard X1900 XTX with watercooling – TweakPC
- VisionTek Xtasy Theater 550 Pro MCE Edition – Bjorn3D
Video Cards & Monitor
- Contest: Abit AN8 32X PCIE s939 Motherboard – XS Reviews
- Apple Mac mini Dual Core 1.66GHz – Design Technica
- Averatec 3715-EH1 – BIOS Magazine
- “Boot Camp: A Closer Look” – XYZ Computing
- Casio Exilim EX-S600 Camera – Design Technica
- CMU LAN 200 – ThinkGaming
- Contest: Cooler Master Centurion 532 Case Giveaway – Viper Lair
- Kensington iPod Entertainment Dock 500 – XYZ Computing
- Rock Pegasus 550N – BIOS Magazine
- Sling Media Slingbox Personal Video Broadcaster – Big Bruin
- The Booq Python XL Laptop Backpack – Legit Reviews
- The Facts About MySpace – Big Bruin
- “The Future of the PDA” – XYZ Computing
- Contest: Ultra XFinity PSU Giveaway – GamePyre
Etcetera & Contests
Crysis, Coming Exclusively To A PC Near You
Computer and Video Games reports today that Cyrsis, a next gen shootem’ up will be PC only: “It crossed our minds,” said Yerli on the next-gen question, “but we’re sticking with PC. One thing about our company is that we want to focus, we don’t want to do multiple things, we want to do one thing and do it well. PC is our focus right now, we were born there and we want to showcase what we can do there, before we made any move onto consoles.”
And who said PC gaming was dying? Thats right, its stronger than ever. I for one personally can’t wait for Crysis, it looks sweet. In case you haven’t checked out the HD preview, you can over at GameSpy.
Wal-Mart: The Dr. Evil of Game Development?
Escapist magazine reports today that of all things, that Wal-Mart plays a very important part in the development of video games: “Publisher sales reps inform Wal-Mart buyers of games in development; the games’ subjects, titles, artwork and packaging are vetted and sometimes vetoed by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart tells a top-end publisher it won’t carry a certain game, the publisher kills that game. In short, every triple-A game sold at retail in North America is managed start to finish, top to bottom, with the publisher’s gaze fixed squarely on Wal-Mart, and no other.”
Looks like they have their own underground layer full of people controlling what gets published. Check out the full article over at The Escapist.
Spring 2006 Interactive CPU Charts Update
Processors have always had quite an appeal to many people; it is fascinating to keep track of their technical developments and ever-increasing performance levels. The processor landscape is in the process of changing fundamentally, however – clock speed is no longer the main criterion for performance.
This is a one stop shop for comparing any current CPU to another in a huge array of benchmarks. Check out the very in-depth interactive chart at Toms Hardware.
Retail Ageia PhysX card available
WE didn’t expect any AGEIA cards before May, as Asus told us we’d have to wait for May to get them. But AGEIA’s other exclusive partner BFG actually has PhysX cards in retail already. BFG is shipping the Ageia PhysX Accelerator – OEM (GX-021-BG) and you can buy this piece of marchitecture for £193.82 including VAT.
It looks like you can only by the card overseas from one specific site. Quick searchs on NewEgg and Tigerdirect came up empty. Check out the posting at The Inquirer.
OpenSUSE wins Best of Show award at LinuxWorld
OpenSUSE, a community-driven distribution project sponsored by Novell and used to test technologies included in Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop distribution, received the coveted Best of Show award. Novell also received recognition for Mono, the open source .NET implementation, which was named Best Application Development Platform.
This is really not too much of a surprise, but congrats to Novell! Check out the full posting at Ars Technica.
AMD Tech Tour Bundles
You’ve saved the date; now take a sneak peek below at the exciting bundle opportunity for all Spring 2006 AMD/Microsoft Tech Tour attendees. Learn first-hand about exciting and innovative offerings from AMD and Microsoft, co-sponsors for this year’s Tech Tour. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to network with other professionals. Explore the potential of AMD64 technology and preview Microsoft Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
If you are planning to go to the Tech Tour, you can see what bundles will be available for purchase over at HardOCP.
Linux Helping Oracle
In its biennial survey of the world’s largest databases, WinterCorp, a database research and consulting company, reported that Oracle dominated its list of 175 large databases. For the first time, databases running on Linux appeared on WinterCorp’s list — and all of them came from Oracle.
Check out the full posting at Slashdot.
Google Wins Rights to Aussie Algorithm
Orion works as an add-on to existing search engines to improve the relevance of search and won praise from Microsoft founder Bill Gates last year. […] Orion finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the key word. It then returns a section of the page, and lists other topics related to the key word so the user can pick the most relevant.
There’s no telling how much the algorithm sold for, but this is a pretty big deal. Apparently Microsoft and Yahoo were both eyeing it also, so we’ll have to wait and see if this can actually improve Google in a noticeable way. Check out the full posting at Slashdot.
Halo MMO In The Works, Next GTA On Xbox 360?
E3 is soon approaching and that usually means the rumors are out parading in the streets. Anyhoo, according to Gamersreports, the new GameInformer magazine has listed some new rumors with GameInformer still behind the supposed next Bungie game in the works labeled “Forerunner”. Another one is that Bungie is looking into developing a MMO based off the Halo universe.
Haha, a Halo MMO is quite the speculation. I am not sure if I like or dislike that idea. 3D Shooters have not exactly succeeded that well in the past. Check out the full posting at Xbox 365.
Screaming Bee LLC Releases MorphVOX 2.0
Screaming Bee LLC is proud to announce the release of MorphVOX 2.0 voice-changing software, designed to work with games or chat programs. MorphVOX is a Windows PC tool used to change the voice of a person online. It is useful for gamers who want to role-play a character that is of a different gender (or species) than the player.
Guild Wars Factions Championship in Leipzig, Germany
BELLEVUE, Wash.–April 6, 2006–Hot on the heels of a massive global preview event for Guild Wars Factions(TM), ArenaNet(R), developer of the award-winning online roleplaying game Guild Wars(R), and NCsoft(R) Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announce today the date and location of the Guild Wars Factions World Championship. The Guild Wars Factions World Championship event will take place at the biggest European electronic game show, GC Game Convention in Leipzig, Germany August 24 – 27, 2006.
Auto Assault Trading Card Game Explodes
DENVER, CO – Worlds Apart Productions announces today the immediate availability of public testing for the Auto Assault™ Trading Card Game (TCG), the digital trading-card game based on Auto Assault® the fastest, most destructive MMO ever, published by NCsoft and developed by NetDevil.