- 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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OCZ PC-4000 2GB Platinum XTC Memory
As mentioned earlier, I’m going to run the OCZ EL PC3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme 2x512Mb kit through the benchmarks with the EL PC4000 Platinum XTC 2x1024Mb kit for a performance comparison. The PC3500GX kit is the fastest memory kit I’ve had in my hands to date, so it is an excellent performance mark for comparison. I’ve been waiting for the day a 2Gb kit outperforms this 1Gb kit.
Check out the review at OCIA.
Thermaltake BigWater SE + Volcano 4005 Review
Hitting the Internet this morning is our overclocking
expedition with Thermaltake as we see how far a single-core Intel
Pentium 4 processor can be pushed when using a BigWater SE and Volcano
4005. Just how well can Thermaltake push the limits when it comes to
liquid cooling? The results in front of us today are certainly surprising.
Check out the full review at Phoronix.
Patriot PDC22G8000+XBLK PC2-8000 DDR2 Review
What sets this pair of PC2-8000 DDR2 memory apart from the competition is that it’s capable of three different frequency & timings settings. Patriot Memory’s PDC22G8000+XBLK DDR-2 is rated for a CAS Latency of 3 at DDR2-667 speeds, CAS 4 at DDR2-800 speeds, and to reach DDR2-1000 speeds a CAS Latency of 5. This pair of RAM is so utterly new, so bleeding edge that you can’t get them yet… so consider this your sneak peak!
Check out the full review at PC Stats.
Koncept Z-Bar LED Desk Lamp
Few tools are as indispensable as a desk lamp. Whether you are writing by hand, using the computer, or putting together a computer, working at a desk requires adequate lighting to be done efficiently and comfortably. While many people subscribe to the ill-advised “brighter is always better” school of thought, it should be remembered that there are a lot of other factors which go into choosing the right lamp. Luckily, we don’t have to concern ourselves with those choices, because the biggest thing right now in task lighting is the LED. That’s right, the humble light-emitting diode. Compared to a incandescent or halogen bulb, LEDs have a number of advantages which make them ideal for task lighting. We’ll get into these later, but for now it suffices to say that LED lamps have a lot to offer and are definitely worth considering.
Check out the full review at XYZ Computing.
Ultra Products Aluminus Case Review
With its amazing features, amazing looks, and its sturdy construction, there’s little not to love about the Aluminus case, that is, up until you hit the price tag as it is a bit pricey at $140.00 and that can be a determent to those on a budget. The case is extremely easy to tote around as it’s lightweight construction will make transporting it a breeze under any conditions. In the end the good far outweighs the minor issues we had with the case. Good Job Ultra.
Head on over to Motherboards.org for the full review.
CoolerMaster & OCIA.net April Giveaway
CoolerMaster has been sponsoring reviews and giveaways here at OCIA.net for several years now and we are pleased to be working with them again on what is easily the biggest giveaway news in site history. Each month this year, Coolermaster will be sponsoring a different giveaway here in the OCIA.net forums just for you guys! CoolerMaster is committed to giving back to the community as shown here by their efforts and generosity.
Check out the full details at OCIA.
A free weekend of Xbox Live Gold
Microsoft will offer free access to its Xbox Live Gold service from March 31 through April 2, the company said Thursday.
The company already offers full-time free access to a lower, silver level of its live service. Users there can create player profiles, maintain lists of friends, access the Xbox Live marketplace, play multiplayer online games, and send and receive voice and text messages.
Read all about it at ZD Net. If you own an Xbox or Xbox 360, be sure to check it out.
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Demo
GameSpot is proud to announce the world premiere of the Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends single-player demo! Journey to a fantasy world of mystic creatures and steam-powered war machines and choose your epic battle between the forces of magic, innovation, and technology!
You can grab the demo right over at GameSpot. Expect super slow DL speeds if you are not a GameSpot paid member.
Dell XPS 600 Renegade Systems Sell Out
When Dell put the systems on sale last week they were jam packed with the latest in technology and the price reflected that. The Dell XPS 600 Renegade system came with the Dell 3007WFP 30-inch flat panel monitor and prices started at $9,930. While we saw many publications joke about the rich buying these and some stated no one would buy these Legit Reviews found out that they sold out in under a week! Who is laughing now?
It certainly didn’t take long! Check it out at Legit Reviews.
NVIDIA ‘SoundStorm 2’ to power Playstation 3 audio?
Slides now online from Sony’s presentations at GDC include some juicy details about the Playstation 3 and the chips that power it. Among the slides is a high-level block diagram of a PS3 system that shows many of the system components connected as one would expect. But right there among them is an arrow shooting out of the side of the NVIDIA-supplied RSX graphics processor with a label that will raise some eyebrows: “8 Ch. Audio”. This suggests none too subtly that the RSX will provide the PlayStation 3’s audio capabilities as well as its graphics.
Check out the full article at Tech Report.
Plexi Bending Tutorial
I get asked all the time “How did you bend the Plex for your UTMod?”. After trying to explain it to people and describe what a heating element was, I finally decided to write this handy How-to.
You can check out the full how-to at Modders-Inc.
Totally Redesigned 3dGameMan.com Site Launches
Established in 1998, 3dGameMan.com was based on limiting and outdated HTML code. To revitalize and refresh 3GM’s look and structure, the decision was made a few months ago to redesign it using PHP based Control Management Software (CMS). So with a tremendous amount of help from my web guy (Zach from ZeekTech.net), we set out to bring the visitor a more inviting experience. Using CMS as a base, we tailored the new site to reflect the old, giving it a sleek new look. We hope you enjoy the new 3GM. Check it out.
Looks like their hard work paid off, it’s a great update! Check it out at 3D Gameman.
Hardware Roundup for March 31
Happy Friday all. There’s a lot going on today, so don’t think of starting your weekend without catching up on some new reviews. Viper Lair is taking a look at a look at a new kit from Super Talent. The 2GB kit rolls in at PC2-6400 speeds, and they found DDR2-880 to be a great overclock. Super Talents not that well known of a company, but it’s apparently that they want to be very quickly. Bit-Tech has a 20″ widescreen LCD round-up today, so if you want to make such a purchase be sure to check it out.
- Antec P150 – Pro-Clockers
- Coolermaster Centurion 534 – AMD Zone
- Kingwin Supernova HTPC Enclosure – Virtual-Hideout
- SilverStone SG01 Evolution Sugo SFF Case – ModTheBox
Cases & Enclosures
- Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm Cooling Fan – Pro-Clockers
- Titan Eagle GPU Coolers – Pro-Clockers
Cooling
- SuperTalent PC2-6400 2GB Dual Channel Kit – Viper Lair
Memory & Storage
- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe – Neoseeker
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Enermax Liberty 620w Power Supply – XS Reviews
- SilverStone 600 Watt ST60F PSU – Guru3D
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- 20″ widescreen monitor group test – Bit-Tech
- EVGA GeForce 7600GS – GamePyre
- HIS X1900 XTX and HIS X1900 Crossfire Edition – Bjorn3D
- Sapphire X1900XTX 512mb – Red & Blackness
- Sceptre X37SV-Naga Widescreen LCD/HDTV – Hot Hardware
Video Cards & Monitor
- AVerMedia AVerTV Purity 3D MCE 500 Dual Tuner Card – Big Bruin
- “It’s a Great Time to be a Gamer” – Design Technica
- Lenovo 3000 J105 – BIOS Magazine
- Nexenta Alpha 4 Elatte (Linux) – Phoronix
- Spire Zoom Laptop Backpack – Think Computers
- Using Sonos with Ubuntu – XYZ Computing
Etcetera & Contests
AMD Picks up 9 High Profile Itanium Engineers
AMD has managed to wrangle away nine of Intel’s top processor engineers. Samuel Naffziger and his eight colleagues were apart of the design team that helped to develop the Itanium server processor.
On engineer would have been surprising enough, but NINE is just incredible. Talk about a blow to Intel… this is only going to make the battle much more intense. Check out the full posting at Daily Tech.
Help for an MMORPG Addict?
A friend of mine has had what many of us (his peers) are starting to consider a serious problem that we are becoming very worried about. He is addicted to World of Warcraft, and not in the same way the rest of us are. While most of us are able to disconnect from the game to take care of our own affairs, he plays to the exclusion of his friends, his job (he calls in sick a lot, it is starting to get noticed) and his life. How do you help someone who is actively throwing their whole life away to play a game?
Despite it seeming like a joke, this is actually pretty serious. I’ve known many people who have been completely swollowed by an MMO… it’s not pretty. Check out the posting at Slashdot.
XBox 360 Launches in Australia
SOMETIME maker of game gear, Microsoft has had a staggering success with the launch of its XBox 360 in Australia. Apparently this is the most successful launch of a console in Ozzie history, although the 45,000 pre-orders might have had something to do with that.
Check out the post at The Inquirer.
Ubisoft Acquires Complete Rights to FarCry
Paris, FRANCE – March 29, 2006 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s leading video game publishers, announced that it acquired all the remaining intellectual property rights related to the Far Cry property as well as a perpetual license to use the CryENGINE Far Cry Edition.
You can read the full press release right here.
Ageia’s PhysX Needs a Killer App
Ageia and their diligent team of press relations folks have been working overtime to make us believe in the PhysX game physics engine, but it is just going to take more than talk to win over the enthusiast.
Some good points are made here. The overall fact is true though, we need to see more killer apps for the PhysX card to make the $250~ pricetag worthwhile. Hopefully this is just the beginning of many game announcements. Check out the article at [H] Enthusiast.
Windows Vista Release May, Oddly, Help Linux
The Eclipse Foundation, a tech consortium pushing open-source software to develop new software programs, is betting that the transition to Vista will boost the appeal of its so-called rich-client platform. The platform is designed to make it easier to write software that runs equally well on Windows, Linux and other operating systems.
This certainly couldn’t hurt. Check it out at Yahoo.
Hardware Roundup for March 30
Tech Report is taking a look at the brand new board from ABIT, the AN8 32X. It turns out to be a great board, but there are better offerings out there for extreme overclocker’s. It’s also odd that there is only a single lan port! Hardware Review takes a look at a great keyboard/mouse combo for your HTPC or even your standard PC. The keypad can split off of the keyboard, and the kit includes an MX1000. It was good enough to get a 95% score on their scale. For a high-end ATI round-up, check out Firing Squad. They are taking a look at cards from five different companies, including ASUS, MSI, PowerColor and Sapphire. Check it out to see who came out on top.
- Cooler Master Ammo 533 Case – Extensive Mods
- Sansun Bat Case – Think Computers
Cases & Enclosures
- Alphacool Watercooling Starter Kit – Bit-Tech
Cooling
- Crucial Gizmo! Overdrive 1GB USB Flash Drive – Big Bruin
- Vizo Master Panel – A1-Electronics
- Vizo MirrorBox 32-in-1 Card Reader – XS Reviews
Memory & Storage
- ABIT’s AN8 32X – Tech Report
- Intel Duo Couture Event Coverage – Rojak Pot
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Logitech diNovo Laser – Hardware-Review
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 10.5 – Rojak Pot
- Gigabyte 7900 GTX – Technic3D
- Radeon X1900 XTX Roundup: ASUS, ATI, MSI, PowerColor & Sapphire – Firing Squad
- Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO2 Limited Edition – Gaming Nexus
Video Cards & Monitor
- HP Photosmart R927 – Design Technica
- Modding the Large HSPC Tech Station Guide – Virtual-Hideout
- NiBiTor v2.8a Released – MVKTech
- X-Micro WLAN 11G mini Combo Finder/Adapter – Xtreme Computing
Etcetera & Contests
Asus to ship Ageia PhysX add-in boards
Asus will begin shipping a dedicated physics processing board based on Ageia’s PhysX PPU in May, the company said today. The card contains 256MB of memory dedicated to environment calculations designed to make virtual worlds feel more real to game players.
Since BFG and ASUS are releasing what look to be identical cards, I wonder what card will turn out to be cheaper? Check out the full posting at Reg Hardware.
Panasonic Blu-ray player to cost ‘under $1,500’
Panasonic’s Blu-ray Disc player, the DMP-BD10, will set consumers back a whopping $1,500 when it ships in the US in September – up to $500 more than Sony’s offering. Actually, Panasonic said the DMP-BD10’s price will be “less than $1,500” – so our money’s on a $1499.99 price tag…
Wow. Who wants to be the first to jump on this bandwagan? Read more at Reg Hardware.
Blizzard sued by gamer
A 24 year old WoW player is suing the games maker after he was stopped from selling his guide on how to play the game on eBay. Brian Kopp of Bronson, Florida claims he was improperly barred from selling copies of his own unofficial gaming guide.
I hope this dude wins… Of course if he included screenshots then it may be a harder case to win, but who knows. This could affect a lot of people who make a living the same way though. Check out the read at The Inquirer.
Apple Joins BAPCo
Gearlog is reporting that Apple has joined up with Windows benchmarking consortium BAPCo as a full blown member. From the article: “This is significant because it means that Apple has now committed to Windows-based performance testing, and it will influence industry-standard testing methodologies going forward, possibly including Mac OS X testing.
This is quit a surprise really.. but cool. Looks like Apple takes Windows even more seriously than some of thought. Check out the read at Slashdot.
Ballmer Babies Banned From iPods and Google
In a recent Fortune interview with Steve Ballmer, the newer kinder Microsoft CEO is not only ready to take on the videogaming, search, music download and mobile markets – but he’s also laying down the law in his own house. Steve says that his kids are not allowed to use Google or have an iPod.
Haha, what a twisted, twisted man. Funny nonetheless though. You can check out the quick interview at CNN.com and view the posting at Slashdot.