- 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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Alienware Aurora 5500 Evaluation
Area 51 may still be a mystery to many, but after you read this evaluation you will know whether or not buying a big blue computer that looks somewhat like an alien head is a smart buy. We take a look at Alienware’s mid-range gaming PC.
It’s not too often that a sytem will survive [H]’s brutal testing, but surprisingly the Alienware came out with a great score. We’ll see if this greatness continues after the Dell acquisition ;)
Check out the full article at Hard|OCP.
AMD Channel Program Empowers More Partners To Deliver Superior Customer Value
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — March 27, 2006 –AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced more than 500 new participants have joined the AMD Commercial Systems Channel Program, further validating the company’s commitment to customer-centric innovation and collaboration among the growing worldwide AMD64 ecosystem of solutions integrators, value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors.
You can read the full release here.
Hardware Roundup for March 27
Welcome back from the weekend peeps! I hope you are ready to get back into the action, because there are many good reviews up today. Be sure to check out our review of the Corsair PC2-6400 PRO if you are looking for some good DDR2 to throw in your rig.
Budget doesn’t have to mean crap, and 3D Xtreme proves it in their review of the Directron Black Phantom tower. For only $60, it is missing a few features you’d come to expect, but it does come with a PSU. G. Skill is a well known in the memory world for producing super fast, quality modules. Bjorn 3D takes a look at a 2GB PC4000 kit that they manage to OC to over 300MHz. They broke through the 7000MB/s in SANDRA, so that says a lot about their potential.
- Cooler Master CM Media B260 mBTX Case – BTX Form Factor
- Directron Black Phantom Computer Case – 3D Xtreme
Cases & Enclosures
- Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooler – Motherboards.org
- Scythe Samurai Z CPU Cooler – Technic3D
Cooling
- G.Skill F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV DDR500 – Bjorn3D
- OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Gold Dual Channel – Madshrimps
- Thecus N2050 DAS Appliance – Hexus
Memory & Storage
- ABIT AW8 30-day Test Drive – techFEAR
- ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2 – techPowerUp!
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Enermax Liberty 500W PSU – Hardware Secrets
- SilverStone Zeus 650W – ST65ZF PSU – OCIA
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- EVGA 7800GS „Superclock“: The new AGP-Flagship? (German) – PC Masters
- NVIDIA 1.0-8183 Display Drivers (Leaked?) – Phoronix
Video Cards & Monitor
- Abit AN8 32X PCIE s939 Motherboard Competition – XS Reviews
- Colossus – The Worlds First Electronic Programmable Computer – A1-Electronics
- Give-Away – Cooler Master “Aqua Gear” – Big Bruin
- Netgear ProSafe VPN Firewall 50 – Trusted Reviews
- XFX 7600GS Giveaway – Game Pyre
Etcetera & Contests
Building Your Own Computer (DIY) Guide
Now that Legit Reviews has been doing system guides since the start of 2006 one of the most asked questions is how to put one of these systems together. We recently had a reader in the St. Louis area order in our March 2006 Do-It-Yourself Mainstream Intel System and we were there to document the build.
Head on over to Legit Reviews for the full guide.
Zalman HD160 HTPC Chassis Giveaway
Win yourself the new Zalman HD160 HTPC Chassis before anyone can buy it! This is a 2 week easter egg hunt and the winner gets the actual case reviewed on VH. Why? Why not! I want to give back to the people. This isn’t a sponsored contest. It’s coming out of my pocket. Check the VH front page or the forum link for all the details! Best of luck!
Check out the all the details over at Virtual-Hideout.
XFX 7600GS XT SLI Video Card Review
The XFX 7600GS is a good example of what kind of performance you can expect from a mid-level mainstream video card today. And, it’s got decent performance as well. The card is on Newegg today for a price of $143, putting it squarely against a X1600XT in price category. XFX has overclocked their card to a very nice 500MHz; just 50MHz slower than the 7600GT and 100MHz faster than NVIDIA’s reference clock.
Head on over to Motherboards.org for the full look!
Vizo MirrorBox 32-in-1 Card Reader Review
VIZO offers a fine line of portable devices and computer accessories. Today’s item is the VIZO MirrorBox 32-in-1 Card Reader. Yup, I said 32-in-1. I thought I was styling with an 8-in-1 reader, but as usual I was wrong.
Check out the full review at Virtual-Hideout.
XP-64 Dead? DOA!
With Windows Vista on the horizon will companies finally adopt the 64bit architecture that they pretty much refused to adopt with Windows XP64, or will we the consumer be left waiting longer for those 64 bit drivers and applications that should have been here a couple years ago?
Check out the full article at Think Computers.
Aspire 550w Chameleon PSU Review
The light selector switch is good fun all the same, I can see someone with a multi-coloured PC having enormous Friday night fun with it. I sat for two full minutes having a Homer Simpson style “light goes green, light goes red, light goes green, light goes blue…” play time.
Check out the full review over at Xtreme Computing.
HP: The SLI Godfather?
According to some
information we have obtained from our sources and research, NVIDIA’s
motives for Linux SLI may largely dissent from the public opinion. In
this article today, there are a few comments we would like to share
about the big green manufacturer and their outlook on alternative
operating systems.
Check out the full article over at Phoronix.
Ultra X-Finity 600 Watt PSU Review
The X-Finity™ uses a new cabling system they call FlexForce cables. The FlexForce cables are good looking with a titanium finish. Ultra suggest the FlexForce cables offer 30% better airflow compared to stock cables. The FlexForce cables are lengthy and should be fine for just about any installation situation.
Check out the full review at Modders-Inc.
XG Duro 900W Power Supply w/ Quad +12V Rails Review
The XG Duro 900W Power Supply with Quad +12V rails is obviously going to turn heads. No matter how you swing it, 900 watts is a lot of power. Some may say it’s way too much power and not necessary. This is probably true for your average computer user. MGE is not targeting the average mom and pop computer user with this product though. Rather, it’s is geared towards the hardcore computer gamer…
Check out the full video review over at 3D Gameman.
ATI Presentation: The Product Stack
In this presentation ATI talks about “The Product Stack” which is one way to measure how much bang you get for your buck. There is a comparison of different price segments against what the competition from NVIDIA has to offer. Also there is a hint of “cable-free CrossFire mode” with upcoming Catalyst 6.5.
There’s some odd grammar in there, but they do prove accurate to an extent. “You have to wonder if the GS part means Goes Slower”… ouch! Check out the full slide at techPowerUp!.
Microcool NorthPole XE Whisper Chipset Cooler Review
..the whisper part about the fan, its true. This thing is just about dead silent, only measuring around 18db. So if anyone is looking for a cooling solution for their chipset, give the Microcool NorthPole XE whisper a shot.
Check out the full review over at Virtual-Hideout.
AeroCool 620W Zerodba Power Supply Review
Besides the stability, another aspect of this PSU that really impresses me is the specifications. With a combined total of 38A supplied to the +12V rails, this PSU greatly surpasses the 30A requirement for a high-end SLi PC according to this page over at SLI-Zone!
Check out the full review at Legit Reviews.
Crucial Gizmo Overdrive 512mb Flash Drive Review
Since the advent of USB drives, they have gone through some drastic changes. From clunky, low data rate transfer USB1.0 drives, to a slight speed boost with USB 1.1, finally we had USB 2.0. With high speeds now available, “Cool” USB has become the new thing, from earrings to Lego bricks. Enter the Crucial Gizmo 512mb pen drive, a very clean, professional looking drive there to cater for all your data transfer needs, but does it make the cut? Read on to find out.
Check out the full review at XS Reviews.
G.Skill F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV Review
G.SKILL presented their new 2GB F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV DDR memory kit at Cebit. If you are looking for a well overclocking 2GB memory kit you should definitely take a look. Even though it comes with CL3 timings, it will also run at CL2 and CL2.5. It can do all its overclocking magic at only 2.6V so this may also be a good choice for users of budget motherboards which do not offer allow voltage adjustments in the BIOS.
Check out the full review at techPowerUp!.
Modders-Inc: A new and exciting Modding and Hardware site!
Modders-Inc.com is a new website that is driven by the main people that helped make Casemodogod what it is. This group has been together for some time now and know what it takes to be a great modding web site. Modders-Inc is gearing up to bring you best Modding/Hardware and Gaming site possible!
You can check them out right here/a>!
If you port a game, at least do it right!
The movie “The Godfather” is widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made. Earlier this week Electronic Arts released a new game based on the film. This game was originally made for the Xbox and has now been ported to PC. It follows in the same vein as games such as Mafia and GTA: San Andreas, and has been getting a lot of positive feedback. However, EA forgot something relatively important with this port.
Check it out at NGOHQ.
Hardware Roundup for March 24
- ASRock Free External 3.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure – A1-Electronics
- Tuniq Symmetry ATX Case – Big Bruin
Cases & Enclosures
- Thermaltake Silent Boost RX K8 CPU Cooler – ModTheBox
- Thermaltake Silent Boost RX K8 CPU Cooler – Virtual-Hideout
- Zalman VF900-Cu VGA Cooler – OCIA
Cooling
- OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC 2GB Dual Channel – Pro-Clockers
- OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum XTC – techPowerUp!
Memory & Storage
- ECS KA1-MVP Extreme – Motherboards.org
- Interactive AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 Pinmod guide v1.1 – OC Inside
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Silentmaxx Fanless 400W ATX PSU – Pro-Clockers
- Silverstone ST56ZF 560W PSU – Technic3D
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A Radeon X1900 XTX – PC Stats
- Gigabyte Radeon X1900XT – PC Masters (German)
- Leadtek WinFast 7900 GTX Extreme – Bjorn3D
- NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.8425 – NGOHQ
Video Cards & Monitor
- Mini-ITX Project Part III – Linux PVR – XYZ Computing
- Recasting the Concept of Podcasting: Part I – Design Technica
Etcetera & Contests
Vista gamers need 2GB plus of memory
Trust me you need 1GB memory just to work in Word or Paint using vista. People were claiming that the machine used 400MB of physical memory but it will work like a beaten horse with 512MB. It works slow even with 2GB.
Either Microsoft has a serious memory leak on their hands, or they really have a memory intensive OS on their hands. Needing 1GB of ram to run Office reliably is foolish. Read more at The Inquirer.
Intel Kentsfield quad core slated for Q1 2007
THE LATEST Intel roadmaps seen by the INQUIRER promise its OEMs that its Kentsfield quad core desktop processor will be available during the same month Microsoft will ship consumer Vista. Only the absurdly cynical would regard this as anything other than a complete coincidence.
I can’t imagine what a Quad Core CPU will have a serious use for other than servers, really. I do suppose when games take full advantage of Dual Core, then there will be still plenty of breathing room left. Check out the info at The Inquirer.
AMD PDF Leaks Surprise Athlon X2 5000+ Info
Matthew Werner emails to tell us that the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processor information was accidentally leaked by AMD earlier this week — and is still visible.
Well this looked like it was going to be an AM2 exclusive, but apparently not. Check out the full posting at Daily Tech.
Multiple live CDs in one DVD
Live CDs do a great job of advertising Linux distributions. In addition to general-purpose live CD distributions, there are lots of task-oriented live CDs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could carry multiple live CDs on one DVD disc? Nautopia.net has put up a script that you can use to make a custom DVD to boot multiple live CDs.
This is really cool actually. Instead of wasting a bunch of CD’s, you can compact them to one DVD. You can check out what Linux.com has to say right here.
PayPal Goes Mobile
PayPal has gone mobile. MobileCrunch breaks the news (with images) of PayPal’s (un) surprising move onto mobile phones. According to the site, money can be sent,received and goods purchased all via PayPal from your mobile phone.
It’s unknown just how unsecure this is, and it looks like you won’t even need a password to send payments. I can’t access their Mobile page for some reason, possibly because I am in Canada. Either way, this could be interesting… Read it at Slashdot.