Tech News

Hardware Round-Up for April 10

Posted on April 10, 2006 10:36 AM by Rob Williams
    Memory & Storage
  • OCZ EB PC4000 2GB Platinum Memory Kit – XYZ Computing
    Video Cards & Monitor
  • Basis knowledge part 2: Take a look on LCD technology – 3D Chip
  • GeForce 7800GT Voltage BIOS Softmod – NGOHQ
  • Gigabyte’s GeForce 7 Series – TweakTown
  • Philips 230WP7NS 23″ WUXGA LCD – Bona Fide Reviews
  • Samsung LE32T51BX 32″ HD Ready LCD – UK Gamer
  • Sapphire Blizzard Radeon X1900 XTX – HotHardware
  • Sapphire Radeon X1300Pro – ByteSector

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OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum Enhanced Latency XTC DDR2 Memory Kit Review

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:39 AM by Rob Williams

If you are looking for PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM with some bling bling to it, you might be interested in the OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum Enhanced Latency XTC DDR2 memory kit. Find out in this review if this is the DDR2 memory kit you’ve been looking for!

Head on over to Rojak Pot for the full look.

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Guide to making acrylic fan grills

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:38 AM by Rob Williams

For the cutting, I used a slow speed and about 1/4 power. This let me move along at my own pace and kept the acrylic from jumping. If you were using metal, you’d want to use a faster speed to keep the edges from bending while cutting.

Check out the full guide at GideonTech.

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Gigabyte Giveaway at Motherboards.org

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:36 AM by Rob Williams

We are running a new contest this month on the MotherBoard Homeworld, but you have to enter to win. This month our contest sponsor is Gigabyte who can be seen at www.giga-byte.com and make a large variety of PC products. The first prize in this months contest is a pair of CrossFire ready X1600 Pros. These are entry level CrossFire cards, which showed great promise in our tests.The second prize is a new Gigabyte 945 VIIV Edition Motherboard and third prize is a goodie bundle. Usually we have a questionare to be filled out to enter the contest or forum posts are required, but this months winner will just be randomly drawn from those who enter the contest. Good Luck to all those who enter!

Check out the full details at Motherboards.org!

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3dGameMan Giveaway: Site Grand Opening

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:35 AM by Rob Williams

3dGameMan teams up with Cooler Master, Crucial, Hiper Group, SilverStone, Thermaltake and Ultra Products to bring you Giveaway 27: Site Grand Openin

Head on over to the new 3D Gameman site for the full details.

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Ninja programmer Chuck speaks about Oblivion driver

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:34 AM by Rob Williams

HEXUS: Can you write me a patch to turn the Oblivion gates pink, so my girlfriend will want to play it with me?
Chuck @ ATI: Sure, no problem. But be careful, you might get what you wish for. I forced my wife to try Zuma and now she’s on my laptop playing it 24/7!

Check out the full interview at Hexus!

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Lian Li PC-60 II Plus Case Review

Posted on April 9, 2006 11:30 AM by Rob Williams

A 120mm octagon shaped shroud is mounted onto a slide to help PULL and channel air off whatever video card set up is installed and OUT of the case. This shroud keeps warm air from blowing sideways and recirculation within the case. At each corner of the shroud is a thumb screw that holds the 120mm fan in place. These screws also allow the user to position the lateral placement of the fan on the bracket wherever they wish. Very nice. An extra bonus here is that the fan is powered off a 3-pin power connector and comes with a 4-pin Molex adapter. This lets folks power the fan normally or plug it into a fan controller of sorts if they choose.

Check out the full review over at Overclocker Cafe.

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Microsoft buyout of ailing Sony possible

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:43 PM by Rob Williams

All this added up, you have to ask yourself. Will the next Playstation you purchase post-PS3 run a Microsoft operating system and have backwards compatibility for PS1 PS2 PS3 Xbox and Xbox360? Putting your rabid love for Sony aside, this doesn’t seem as far fetched as it once did, when the Sony name wasn’t covered in enough red tape to fill the Grand Canyon.

Check out the full speculation at Bona Fide Reviews.

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Subscribe to Auto Assault, Win a Tabula Rasa Beta Test Slot

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:40 PM by Rob Williams

The Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa teams are running an interesting contest where Auto Assault subscribers could win Tabula Rasa beta slots! Your readers can find out about the contest by clicking the “Win a Tabula Rasa Beta Slot” image on the Auto Assault and the Tabula Rasa websites (www.autoassault.com; www.playtr.com).

Details of the contest are below (click this link for full details: http://www.autoassault.com/community/promotion_01.html). Currently we do not have a date for Tabula Rasa’s entry into closed beta testing. Winners will be notified first when they win and again when it is time for them to enter the Tabula Rasa beta test.

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Thermalright V-1 Ultra Review

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:39 PM by Rob Williams

A name that is synonymous with computer enthusiasts and
overclockers when it comes to cooling manufacturers is Thermalright.
While Thermalright has experimented with GPU and Chipset coolers in the
past, their product efforts primarily focus upon AMD and Intel CPU
cooling solutions. Up on the review block today we have the Thermalright
V-1 Ultra GPU cooler, which appends a third heatpipe over the V-1 original.

Check out the full review at Phoronix.

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Thermaltake Matrix VX Case Review

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:36 PM by Rob Williams

One of the first things that will grab your eye on this case is its sleek looks. Then, when you lift it, you will be amazed! This case is designed to be light in weight. Speaking weight, wow! At only 3.8kg, this is the lightest case I’ve ever reviewed, and that’s spectacular. Being lightweight means much easier transportation, whether you are moving it around within the home/office or carting it to LAN parties. Thankfully it’s also very sturdy! The overall look and design is excellent and it even has great air circulation because of the two included 120mm fans…

Head on over to 3D Gameman for the full review!

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April Giveaway: PowerColor X1300 PCI Express Video Card

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:33 PM by Rob Williams

The prize this time is a PowerColor X1300 PCI Express Video Card. We reviewed this card a few months ago but it has a lot of life left in it. All you have to do to win is stop by, join the forums, and have some fun! It’s easy to enter and easy to win. Joining just takes a few seconds.

Check out the full details at XYZ Computing.

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The Future Of Handheld Gaming: GoForce 5500

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:28 PM by Rob Williams

NVIDIA had their latest mobile graphics processor, the GoForce 5500, running a number of heavy 3d applications on an ARM11 development platform powered by one of Freescale’s i.MX31 applications processors . NVIDIA was able to run their GoForce 5500 on this platform and got Quake III Arena running between 28-35 frames per second at a VGA resolution of 1024×786. NVIDIA informed us if they ran the demo in XGA that the frames per second would decrease to around ~22FPS…

I am not sure how impressive I really find this, because the PSP can handle such graphics also, albeit at lower resolution. Still, it’s intriguing. Check out the full read at Legit Reviews.

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Gaijin Entertainment to Integrate AGEIA PhysX SDK into Dagor Game Engine

Posted on April 8, 2006 12:25 PM by Rob Williams

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & MOSCOW – April 7, 2006 – AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced at the Russian Developers Conference (KRI) that Russian game developer Gaijin Entertainment is integrating the AGEIA PhysX™ SDK into their Dagor Game Engine, a popular middleware solution for Russian game developers. Gaijin will also provide first-line support for the AGEIA PhysX SDK—an important benefit in the region where English is not widely used.

You can read the full release here.

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Hardware Roundup for April 7

Posted on April 7, 2006 10:30 AM by Rob Williams

Morning peeps! Slow news day today sadly. Lots of stuff going on around the house today that’s taking me away from the PC =/

    Cases & Enclosures
  • Aspire X-Qpack Micro ATX – PC Masters
    Memory & Storage
  • Corsair TWIN2X1024-8500 Memory – Hexus
  • GEIL Ultra-X nForce4 Edition PC3200 400MHz CL2 5-2-2 – Think Computers
  • Kingston U3 DataTraveler Flash Drive – Legit Reviews
    Motherboards & CPU’s
  • ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe Motherboard – Viper Lair
    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Logitech Cordless Presenter – A True Review
  • Mouse Grips v2.0 – techFEAR
    Etcetera & Contests
  • Averatec’s 1050 Ultra-Portable Laptop – BIOS Magazine
  • Building a Silent Media PC – Bjorn3D
  • Interview with Sapphire CEO K D Au – Hexus
  • Ninja programmer Chuck lets PC outclass Xbox 360 in Oblivion visuals – Hexus
  • Windows Vista Delayed…And you really expected it not to be?! – Think Computer

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Rayman is back?!

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:28 AM by Rob Williams

Proving once again that you can’t keep a good…thing…down, Ubisoft has announced that its colorful armless and legless mascot Rayman is returning for a fourth installment. The game is currently under development at Ubisoft’s Montpellier studio, and is scheduled for release on current- and next-generation consoles.

I can’t wait, I love this series! Check out the full news post at GameSpot.

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PC World tries out Boot Camp

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:22 AM by Rob Williams

XP on a Mac is refreshing, but Microsoft’s idea of an “exciting new look” feels a little last century.Eager to get our hands on a real, dual-booting Apple/Windows hybrid, we ran the Boot Camp installer on a 20-inch iMac and found the process amazingly smooth. It took about an hour. Graphics drivers–the major remaining performance hurdle under WinXPonMac–were solid and responsive under limited testing on our iMac.

For ‘Beta’ software, Boot Camp seems to run remarkably solid. I still would rather see Windows app’s be emulated properly under OS X, but this is a great start. Read more at PC World.

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Microsoft Acquires Lionhead

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:15 AM by Rob Williams

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. on Thursday said its in-house video game studio acquired Lionhead Studios, the British developer started by the famed game maker Peter Molyneux. Most recently, Lionhead was responsible for “Fable.” Released on Microsoft’s
Xbox platform, the game has sold more than 2 million units worldwide.

It’s hard to tell right now whether this hurts Lionhead more than anything. On one hand though, it may give Molyneux more ‘time’ or freedom to pump out some great games. You can read the release at Yahoo.com.

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Kingston FBDIMM Sneak Peek

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:10 AM by Rob Williams

The next generation of DDR2/DDR3 DRAM technology is on display at HotHardware.com. These sticks are meant for server applications right now but down the road Intel will be introducing them to the Desktop. FBDIMM employs AMB (Advanced Memory Buffer) chip technologies for a full high speed serial interface to DRAMs.

It’s obvious that they are not for enthusiasts right now, because the clock speed and latencies are nothing really impressive. If these type of modules catch on, it looks like everyone will need to redesign new heatspreaders! Check out the news at HotHardware.

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Crucial’s ‘Bad to the Bone’ Sweepstakes

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:09 AM by Rob Williams

Tired of your under-performing rig? Are you ready to take on the challenge of building your own high-end computer? Well we’re throwing you a bone and giving three lucky winners the opportunity to get a HUGE head start building a smokin’ new computer. Crucial Technology, Shuttle, and Logitech teamed up to offer the Crucial “Bad to the Bone” sweepstakes.

You can check out the full details of the contest at Crucial.com!

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OCZ Technology Announces PC2-5400 EL Platinum Edition XTC

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:06 AM by Rob Williams

Sunnyvale, CA—April 5, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today launched the PC2-5400 Platinum XTC Series with enhanced latency. By integrating 3-3-3 timings, these next generation DDR2-667 solutions are the fastest available in the PC2-5400 speed-grade.

You can read the full press release right here.

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The Godfather PC Review

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:05 AM by Rob Williams

Well, what can we say? The game was fun, we guess. It wasn’t a whole hell of a lot more than a diversion – no gratification or satisfaction, no leaps or bounds in Gameplay and a beautiful story that’s poorly delivered? What the hell EA! After playing through this game, we found it to feel more like a “rent it for your dusty console” title than a “Buy this ASAP, so it’s box may forever adorn your shelf, and disk may forever stay in your drive” title.

Check out the full review at GamePyre.

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Hardware Roundup for April 6

Posted on April 6, 2006 11:05 AM by Rob Williams
    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • AeroCool Zerodba 620W PSU – Neoseeker
  • Kingwin Sound Xtream Multimedia Player – Virtual-Hideout
  • Speed Link Medusa Gamer Headset – XS Reviews

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Futuremark Appoints Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Posted on April 5, 2006 3:05 PM by Rob Williams

Saratoga, CA – April 5th, 2006 – Futuremark Inc., developer of the world’s most popular benchmarks for PCs and handheld devices, announced today the appointment of Oliver Baltuch as vice president of sales and marketing, North America. He will report directly to Tero Sarkkinen, President of Futuremark Inc. Baltuch will be responsible for driving Futuremark’s business in North America. Oliver’s role encompasses recruiting new IT industry partners into Futuremark’s Benchmark Development Programs, driving the marketing and sales of benchmark products and promoting an array of Futuremark services including technology demos and performance analysis projects.

You can read the full release here.

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The Great Worklog Contest Winner

Posted on April 5, 2006 3:04 PM by Rob Williams

April 2006 – The Great Worklog Contest has seen an overwhelming support from the modding & worklog community. More than 120 modders with 180 worklogs in 9 languages on 43 worklog forums.

We would like to thank all modders, readers and the community for the great support and understanding. Hope you had fun! The competition was very close and we are very impressed with many of the works. In selecting the winner, we not only looked at the quality and design of the mod. The deciding factors very much lay on the forum interaction on the worklog.

You can read a lot more about the contest winner at AC Ryan.

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