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Rainbow Six: Lockdown Review
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown is the fourth installation of the
multi-million unit selling FPS franchise. Available on the PlayStation 2,
Xbox and GameCube since September last year, the PC version has only just
made it to stores worldwide. The console versions took the series in a
slightly different direction than before, offering a more action-oriented
experience at the expense of some of the tactical challenges of the games
before it. Purists, however, will be pleased to know that the PC version is
not a direct port of its console counterparts. And although the game may
still be a slight departure from its predecessors, it’s still a heck of a
lot of fun – even if unoriginal in terms of gameplay and graphics and
lacking the exhilaration and intense action of previous titles in the
franchise.
Check out the full review over at BIOS.
SLI Patch
A while back Asrock published a SLI enabling patch for their ULi chipset based motherboards that have two PCI-Express slots. Various rumors suggested that the patch would also function under other chipsets as well, and allow users with other chipsets to use SLI on their non-SLI motherboards. Unfortunately the original version of the patch installs only on ULi 1695/7 chipsets – you couldn’t use it if you didn’t have a motherboard with that particular chipset.
You can grab the patch over at NGOHQ.
HyperTransport Link Investigation
So how much does the HyperTransport Link’s speed really effect an overclocked system’s performance? We aim to find out. Come have a look as we find out how much life the HT Link’s current specification still has in it.
Check out the full article at Eclipse OC!
Corsair Announces Committed RAM Allocation from Infineon, and Continued Support for AMD Enthusiasts
Fremont, CA (March 1, 2006) – Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory products, today announced broad availability of Infineon’s Rev. C DDR SDRAM-based XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kits. Known to have the best overclocking characteristics, the XMS 3500LL PRO modules using Infineon’s Rev.C DDR SDRAM deliver more overclocking headroom and latency flexibility than any other RAM. Starting today, all of Corsair’s XMS-3500LL PRO modules will be built exclusively with custom-sorted Infineon’s Rev. C DDR SDRAM.
You can read the full press release here. The previous modules used Inf Rev. B, so it will be cool to see if the overclocking ability is indeed increased.
Games maker kills off box sales
“Savage: The Battle for Newerth” was flogged for $49.99 in 2003. S2 made only $20 on the sale of each game.
However using Online Sales the game will sell for $29.99 and S2 will make $28 a game. It will not have to spend a long time chasing up retailers or channel partners for the money either.
If more game companies would mimic this, it would be fantastic. At least you could buy HL2 and other games off Steam the same way. It saves boxes and clutter in my room! Check out the post at The Inquirer.
Geforce 7900 GTX Duo cards emerge
Nvidia plans to introduce 7900 GTX cards with two chips per card. Those cards should fit and work with normal Nforce 4 SLI motherboards. This is Nvidia’s well kept secret – at least it was. Normal Quad SLIs have four different graphic cards, especially designed by Nvidia. This new SLI will let you plug two new cards, each with two GPUs in your Nforce 4 SLI motherboard and it should work.
Now this setup would be a pure monster to cool. I really have no idea how you could combat the heat that the cards emit, because they are so close to each other. Regardless, I can’t wait to see some scores! Check out the posting at The Inquirer.
Windows Vista to support upgrades on the fly
With six separate versions of Windows Vista on the way, Microsoft has a marketing challenge on its hands. How will the company properly inform users as to which versions support which features? One part of the plan is now becoming clear: all four “consumer” versions of the OS will be available to users even after installation. How? They’ll all be available for “instant online upgrade” once Windows Vista is installed.
Finally, I agree with something that Microsoft does. Right now, if you own a copy of XP Home, you have to buy a new copy of XP Pro in order to upgrade. This will allow someone to buy a new Dell, say, with Vista Basic, which he can later upgrade for a fee. Hopefully the fee’s will be in line with actual retail prices and not bloated. Check out the full article at Ars Technica.
WoW Now Has Over Six Million Subscribers
Blizzard Entertainment, the company that created the very popular World of Warcraft MMORPG, has announced that it will release a localized Spanish version of the game soon. The Spanish version will be released and hosted by the Blizzard Europe team, who will also offer 24/7 in-game support and customer support.
Wow, talk about a successful game! Check out the full news posting at Daily Tech.
Microsoft sets date for Origami
Microsoft has revealed a date for unveiling its Origami Project, setting the stage for a debut next week, according to a posting on its site. Microsoft’s Origami Project, which is believed to be a small tablet computer, is scheduled for debut on March 9, according to a posting on Microsoft’s Origami Project site.
Check out the full read at News.com. Sounds like an intriguing product, but how cool could it possibly be to be ketp so secretive?
Wikipedia racks up 1 million articles
Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind the online encyclopedia written by its readers, said late Wednesday that an article about the Jordanhill railway station in Scotland became its millionth one. Wikipedia was created in January 2001. At present, it is growing by about 1,700 articles every day.
Congrats to Wikipedia! Read the full post at News.com.
The Impact of Violent Gaming
IGN has an article up looking at the impact of violent videogames. It discusses some of the rationale on the gaming industry side for having violent images in their games, and the reactions from politics and lawmakers to these games.
The article is a great read, and the mario with guns picture is enough reason to check it out. Check out the posting at Slashdot, and the article here.
Hardware Roundup for Mar. 2
There’s lots of stuff going on today, but be sure to check out our latest contest! Pro-Clockers is taking a look at the latest version of the Logisys Yin Yang case, which uses a red color instead of the original green. OC Inside has a great new article up where you can learn how to do a pinmod to your S939. It actually seems a lot easier than you’d think, although it still could be risky. techPowerUp! travelled to the recent ATI Tech Day, and showcase the progress of a world record taking place. Very interesting if you want to see how it’s done!
- Antec P150 Quiet PC Case – ModTheBox
- Logisys Assembled Red Acrylic Clear Yin Yang Case – Pro-Clockers
- Thermaltake Rhythm HTPC Liquid Cooling System – Big Bruin
Cases & Enclosures
- Akasa AK-873 AMD64 Cooler – Xtreme Computing
- Noctua NH-U12 Low Noise Heatsink – Frosty Tech
Cooling
- When and Why to Use an External Hard Drive – HDD Saver
Memory & Storage
- ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2 – Phoronix
- ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200 Preview – techPowerUp!
- Gigabyte GA-G1975X G1-Turbo – Technic3D
- Interactive AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 Pinmod guide v1.0 – OC Inside
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Ultra X-Finity 500W Power Supply w/ FlexForce Cables – 3D Gameman
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ABIT RX700 PRO 128 PCIE – XS Reviews
- ATI Tech Day Seville: Breaking the world record – techPowerUp!
- EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GS CO AGP – nV News
Video Cards & Monitor
- Dell Dimension 9150 – BIOS Magazine
- Motorola SLVR L7 Phone – Design Technica
- Performance System Building Guide – OCIA
- VectorLinux SOHO 5.1.1 – XYZ Computing
Etcetera & Contests
Microsoft sees Dance Dance Revolution in e-mail
The software maker’s research unit has developed a prototype e-mail program in which cubicle dwellers can wade through e-mail and delete messages using their feet. The StepMail program uses a standard dance pad, such as might be used with a video game such as “Dance Dance Revolution.”
Wow, that’s definitely a new spin on things. Is this a sign of Microsoft running out of things to do, or simply a new way to get excercise? Check out the full article at ZD Net.
Nvidia Geforce 7900 cards are very overclockable
Everyone wants to clock those cards to 700MHz and some of the partners might actually be able to do it, ship it and to support the warranty at such a high clock speed. The magical overclocking number is 710MHz and the guys who tested it could not go more than that. The cards are throttling at 720MHz and that’s as high as you will reach with air.
If they are that good on air, then water cooling will only help them along even more. Maybe this will be a worthy upgrade from a 7800. Read more at The Inq.
Advertising in games gets organised
Gilbert said that the idea of sticking advertisements in computer games was still in its infancy and is ripe for the picking. He expects rapid growth in the area over the next few years. All they have to do is talk games companies to build in scenarios for product placement. Maybe you take time out from clubbing innocent victims with a softball bat for a quiet virtual frothy coffee from Starbucks.
Yay, I personally can’t wait to see advertising plastered throughout all my games. Read all about it at The Inq.
SLI – Two Years Later Remains Nvidia’s Marketing Masterpiece
So in layman’s terms SLI is a method whereby you can throw extra video cards into your system so as to make it run faster whilst using higher quality settings. That is fantastic – how could any enthusiast not embrace such a feature?
Head on over to NGOHQ for the full read!
AMD’s lawyers call on Skype
As part of its ongoing antitrust case against Intel, Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday served Skype with a subpoena demanding documents related to its deal to make one feature in Skype 2.0 available exclusively to Intel users.
The feature in question is the ability to have 10-Person conference calls, but it was to only work with Intel Dual Core. You can read the full article at News.com.
Hardware Roundup for Mar. 1
The new ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe board has been released today, and many sites have a review available. Bit-Tech had this to say about the board, “ATI seems to be on something of a roll. Its X1900 series is current the fastest graphics platform out at the moment, and the RD580 chipset seems to finally be a mainboard chipset that gamers and enthusiasts can really get enthusiastic about.”
There are a lot of mousepads being reviewed today. TweakNews is taking a look at a pad from Good Work Systems which seems a little advanced, and I can actually say that about a mousepad! It’s a tad small, but they gave it their top award! techFEAR and OCIA have some great contests going on today, so head over to those sites to win!
- Asys Freedom Tower Full Case – Pro-Clockers
- Thermaltake Mozart Media LAB – Guru3D
- XG Viper 2 – Bjorn3D
Cases & Enclosures
- Coolermaster Hyper48 KHC-L91 Heatsink – Frosty Tech
- Kingwin AS-3000 Water Cooling Kit – AMD Zone
Cooling
- ASUS A8R-MVP Crossfire – Motherboards.org
- ASUS A8R-MVP Crossfire – AnandTech
- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe – Bit-Tech
- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe – Hard|OCP
- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe – HotHardware
- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe – Motherboards.org
- Gigabyte 8I945GMH-RH. – Legion Hardware
- ECS C51G-M754 – Hardware Secrets
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Corepad Deskpad Moustmat – XS Reviews
- Good Work Systems Launchpad Gaming Mousepad System – TweakNews
- Icemat Black 2nd Edition – techFEAR
- Saitek A-250 2.1 Wireless Speaker System – Think Computers
- SteelPad QcK+ Mousepad – Gruntville
- VIZO Gemini Cordless Optical Mouse – Virtual-Hideout
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ASUS EAX 1300 Pro – GamePyre
Video Cards & Monitor
- CoolerMaster & OCIA.net March Giveaway – OCIA
- How to Buy a Digital Camera – Design Technica
- March Xbox 360 Contest – techFEAR
- Samsung SCX-4521F Multifunction Laser Printer – Bona Fide Reviews
- XtFlux-GA Thermal Paste – Overclockers Club
Etcetera & Contests
Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck
Many users view Windows XP (and Windows 2000, and previous Windows versions) as unsafe. No matter how many patches and updates Microsoft releases, the foundation of the OS itself—the kernel—is designed and built in a way that prevents it from being truly secure. The only solution, it is argued, is to redesign and rebuild the kernel with a focus on security and stability.
This is a great article that shows what we can expect to see in Vista. There’s so much ‘bad’ press going around, it’s good to see some good reasons to anticipate Vista. Check it out at ExtremeTech.
Launch date for Blu-ray; Meet the $40 movie.
The eight Sony movies that will usher in Blu-ray are: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, The Last Waltz (MGM), Resident Evil Apocalypse and XXX. Three weeks later, on June 13, six additional titles will be released: Kung Fu Hustle, Legends of the Fall, Robocop (MGM), Stealth, Species (MGM), SWAT and Terminator (MGM). Other studios are currently preparing to announce their own launch titles.
I personally would love to see how The Fifth Element looks on Blue-Ray, and now it’s only a matter of time. Really though… who wants to pay almost $40 for a single movie? Check out the full article at Ars Technica.
Why Won’t Dell Promote Its Linux Desktops?
In this article, Steven Vaughn-Nichols proclaims “Last Thursday, when I wrote about Dell’s new Linux desktop, was one of the most frustrating days of my professional life. My eWEEK colleague John Spooner and I tried our best to get Dell to confess that they really had released an honest-to-God Linux desktop.
Head on over to Slashdot for the full post.
OCZ Technology Announces New Ultra-Low Latency 2GB Dual Channel Kits
Sunnyvale, CA—February 27, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the release of the PC-4000 EL DDR Platinum XTC 1GB module and 2GB dual channel kit. The industry-leading OCZ Platinum series PC-4000 with 3-3-3-8 timings features extremely low latency for a 1GB capacity product, and is designed specifically to address the unique demands placed on PCs by enthusiasts and gamers.
Read the full press release here.
Novell Continues Linux Market Leadership in China
WALTHAM, Mass. – Feb. 28, 2006 – New research from CCID Consulting, China’s leading industry analyst firm, shows Novell continues to lead the Linux* market in China. Novell holds a 25.1 per cent share of the Linux market in China, surpassing other local and international Linux distributors. Novell’s success in China reflects a strong commitment to Chinese open source development and to Novell’s growing customer base in this rapidly expanding market.
Read the full press release here.
Hardware Roundup for Feb. 28
Hexus has the inside scoop of some upcoming Akasa products, and some of them are looking sweet! If you are in love with your iPOD, you will love their Zen case. It really does look like an iPOD casing, which is cool if that’s your thing. Legit Reviews takes the new Corsair Nautilus for a spin, and they love it! If you are a noobie to water cooling (as I am), then this kit will fit you perfectly. For the biggest storage solutions out there, GamePC has a roundup of some 500GB hard drives.
- Exclusive sneak-peek: Akasa’s latest gems – Hexus
- Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 – Frosty Tech
- DynapowerUSA Blackwidow Case – Mikhail Tech
- SilverStone Storage MS02 – Phoronix
- Ultra Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case – 3D Gameman
Cases & Enclosures
- Arctic Cooling Accelero GPU Coolers (X1/X2) – Pure Overclock
- Corsair Nautilus 500 Water Cooler – Legit Reviews
- Zalman CNPS7000B CPU Cooler – Overclockers Club
Cooling
- 500 GB Hard Drive Shootout – GamePC
Memory & Storage
- Epox EP-9GF6100MJ – PC Modding Malaysia
- GIGABYTE GA-8N Quad Royal SLI – Motherboards.org
- Intel 955XE and D975XBX – Technic3D
Motherboards & CPU’s
- SilverStone Strider 600W Modular PSU – Xtreme Computing
- Thermaltake ToughPower 550w Power Supply – A1 Electronics
- VOQ V11 Professional Smartphone – Think Computers
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ATI Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire – Xbit Labs
Video Cards & Monitor
- February Contest Winners Announced – Gamepyre
- Gentoo v2006.0 (Linux) – Phoronix
- The Task Killer In Windows XP – Rojak Pot
- Why 7.1 Surround Sound is Overkill For Most Homes – Design Technica
Etcetera & Contests
In Search of True DDR2 Bleeding Edge Memory
As you upgrade to an Intel socket 775 motherboard that requires DDR2, which memory modules will keep your machine at the top of the food chain when it comes to overclocking? Or which devices are better suited for more routine, yet high-end computing needs? We procured 16 DDR2 DRAM modules after asking vendors to send us their finest to find out.
This is a truly in-depth look at a huge range of DDR2 products out there. The Corsair modules seemed to take the cake in terms of speed, but they prove expensive also. Take a look at the large article at Toms Hardware.