- 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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Tyan Tomcat i7230A S5160 Review
The latest Tyan motherboard to have entered the Phoronix
facilities was the K8E-SLI S2866, which was a Socket 939 solution with
an nForce Professional 2200 Chipset. Up for review today, we have Tyan’s
latest-and-greatest on the Intel server side of things, and making its
appearance, is the Tomcat i7230A S5160. The i7230A features dual PCI
Express connectors, two Broadcom LAN controllers, XGI Volari graphics,
and the Mukilteo Chipset.
Check out the full review at Phoronix.
NiBiTor v2.6a Released…
MVKTech has just released a new version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) software. NiBiTor is the original and defenitive BIOS tweaker that supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards. NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts to have full control over advanced features and functionality found on firmware on supporting cards. This to gain some extra performance, enable hidden features and extra stability on the NVIDIA graphics cards.
Check out the new release right MVK Tech.
Silverstone TJ06 full ATX Case Review
On a personal note this has been one of the easiest full installs that I have done in my six years working with computers, this is down to as I stated earlier to the massive amount of space in the motherboard area. I am so impressed with it in fact, that I think all enclosures should use this layout in some sort of config as it makes installing a much easier process.
Check out the full review Xtreme Computing.
Geek and Gamer Themed Apparel
While it may be easy to consider yourself to be a geek or gamer, it
has not always been easy to dress the part. Appalled by the paltry amount
of clothing available that is geared toward geeks and gamers and
embarrassed by the collection that did exist; two friends set out to create
a line of apparel that a geek or gamer may actually want to be seen in. The
result of their efforts is The Gravy Factory. Just who are these two
ambitious men and what does their Factory have to offer? Read on and find
out.
Check out the full article at A True Review.
SilverStone Zeus ST56ZF Review
Pumping out a full 38A on the single +12V rail is no joke and keeping it up to specifications at high loads during extreme temperatures is even harder. With efficiency near towards 80%, its no doubt why SilverStone claims that Zeus ST56ZF the most efficient single +12V rail PSU in the world. Read more as to why we found that the ST56ZF was showing numbers similar to the highly priced PCP&C Turbo Cool 510SLI unit.
Check out the full review at PC Modding Malaysia.
Lian Li PC-V2000B Plus Full Tower ATX Case Review
Lian Li has been making some of the most gorgeous aluminum Cases for years now. Previously I have used the Lian Li PC-65 and PC-75 and have always been fond of them. Things have gotten flashy lately with Cases, custom window panels, lights, gigantic fans – some of the new Cases I’ve found to just be downright tacky. When I first saw the Lian Li PC-V1000 and PC-V2000 line it was a breath of fresh air. Finally, here comes a Case that is just so perfect out of the box even the most hardcore modder will want to leave their dremel alone and just enjoy the natural beauty of the the PC-V2000.
Check out the full review at 3D Xtreme.
ATI Radeon X1300 PRO and X1600 XT Review
The best offerings in the X1300 and X1600 range are what we look at today, as the markers for their sub markets, so join us as we analyse RV515 and RV530 in a modicum of depth internally, before looking at the physical specifics and performance levels of X1300 PRO and X1600 XT.
Check out the full review over at Hexus.
UFO Aftershock Review
Science Fiction, probably one of the most popular themes of video games, in the past and most likely in the future as well, combine that with strategy role playing games and you have the makings of something great. UFO Aftershock is the sequel to UFO Aftermath from Cenega. I have to be honest I never played Aftermath, but you don’t have to in order to play Aftershock. I do enjoy strategy games and the C&C series is one of my all time favorites, I also enjoy RPG games as well. Aftershock combines both of those into one great game.
Check out the full review over at Think Computers.
Cooler Master Real Power 550W Review
Up on our bench tonight is the Cooler Master Real Power
RS-550-ACLY, which packs in 550W of power. One of the features for the
power supply includes an innovative power meter that fits in an
available drive bay.
Head on over to Phoronix for the full look.
Vantec NexStar 3 External 3.5" HDD Enclosure (eSATA/USB2) Review
This enclosure offers looks and performance all in one package. If you are in the market for an external enclosure that has the fastest performance then this would be it. While USB2 is fast, a direct SATA connection is much faster. Since most large capacity 3.5″ SATA Hard Drives are affordable, it’s a fantastic backup solution…
Check out the full review at 3D Gameman.
RAIDMAX Aurora RX-580F Review
One concern with modern PSUs is the ability to provide enough solid power for two video cards at the same time in a system. I mounted two CD-ROM drives, 2 7800GTs in SLI mode, a FX-60 CPU, 2GB of memory and a SLI motherboard and ran the system for 3 days. Stability was excellent and no problems were seen during the testing or daily use of this power supply.
Check out the full review over at Motherboards.org.
20 Years of Computer Viruses
The Register reports that twenty years ago today (19 January 1986), the first computer virus, Brain, was discovered. By modern standards, this was a minor virus, and it spread by floppy disks, which is a far cry from the network-aware worms of today. Still, though, it was the first noted virus, and we’ve had twenty years of pain and annoyance from it and its successors. Happy birthday, Brain, you and all your little virus friends – just know we’re doing our damndest to keep you from having more.
Haha, not exactly something we want to celebrate. Check it out at Slashdot.
Compro Announced the Smallest Universal USB 2.0 TV Tuner Box VideoMate U880 (TV Stick)
Compro Technology, a leading manufacturer of PC multimedia products, announced today VideoMate U880 is the world’s smallest USB 2.0 analog TV Box. Built-in the advanced high-quality silicon tuner, only with the pen drive size, provides the powerful features with TV watching, MPEG-1/2/4 formats scheduled recording, timeshifting, channel surfing, still frame capture, and supports universal TV system broadcasting reception (NTSC, PAL, and SECAM) without any external power adaptor required.
Check out the full release ComproUSA.
Million $ pixel site faces legal threat
The student entrepreneur behind the milliondollarhomepage.com is facing the threat of legal action from the firm that paid more than $38,000 for the last 1,000 pixels.
Milliondollarweightloss.com secured the last slot on Alex Tew’s website after he auctioned it on eBay. But the FT reports that lawyers representing the weight-loss site are preparing to sue Tew in a US court for “breach of contract”, among other things.
It figures that a sensation like this would cause problems like these. It will be interested in see if Milliondollarweightloss will actually win a case. Check it out The Register.
What it’s like to play Fatal1ty
It’s 5:30am. Your alarm clock goes off and you press the snooze for those critical 5 extra minutes of sleep. It goes off again, this time you get out of bed and you’re brain begins to ponder. No, you’re not thinking about what to wear to work/school or what the weather is like outside. You’re pondering the same thing that everyone else ponders when they first roll out of bed. What would it be like to play a 4 minute match in Quake 4 against Fatal1ty? Well today is your lucky day because I am going to tell you exactly what it’s like!
I can’t access the site, but I’m sure this would be a great article! Check it out here (If you can access it).
Hardware Roundup for Jan. 20
InsaneTek takes a fresh look at the Titan Robela watercase that we reviewed a few months ago. It’s a great case overall, but as they mentioned, when all your gear is in there, it’s one heavy beast! It’s also expensive, so you better have your wallet handy. For the worlds smallest PSU, you’ll have to check out Big Bruin today. The pico only comes in at 120W, but is it tiny!
- Vantec NexStar3 with eSATA Interface – Think Computers
Cases & Enclosures
- Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 VGA Cooler – Virtual-Hideout
- Evercool STC-01 – Overclockers Online
- Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler – Viper Lair
- TITAN Robela – InsaneTek
Cooling
- Corsair TwinX2048-4000PT PC4000 DDR500 Memory Kit – Mod The Box
Memory & Storage
- Intel Pentium-D 900 Series – GamePC
Motherboards & CPU’s
- Antec Phantom 500 500W Silent – Hardware-Reviews
- picoPSU-120 12V DC-DC ATX – Big Bruin
- Sansun Arctic 450W – techPowerUp!
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- GeForce 6800 GS 256 MB – Guru 3D
- NVIDIA Jan’06 Updates – Rojak Pot
- Sapphire X1800 XT – PenStarSys
Video Cards & Monitor
- CES2006 Home Video Wrap-Up – Design Technica
- Compro Videomate X50 TV Tuner Card – PC Modding Malaysia
- Converting Videotape Into Video Files – PC Stats
- Datacolor ColorFacts Professional 6.0 – XYZ Computing
Etcetera & Contests
Counter Strike Source: CS_Militia Preview
In the early days of counter strike there was a map known as militia. A simple map it was, but nevertheless, a great one. It incorporated aspects of counter strike to appeal to a wide range of players, featuring a combination of stealth, tactics, sniping, and all out fire fights.
Check out this wicked new map right here.
LGP X2 The Threat v1.4 (BETA 3)
Reaching the closed testing environment just hours ago has
been the third BETA candidate for X2 – The Threat, which is presently
being ported to Linux by the developers at Linux Game Publishing. This
third candidate delivers many performance improvements and is the focus
of our benchmarking today to see how the second and third BETA updates
fair, after we had tampered with the initial build late last year.
Check out the full look at Phoronix.
Following the money: how Subway ads ended up in Counter-Strike
What this means is that Engage came up with a strategy to reach gamers only in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas, and the strategy they settled on involved placing Subway ads into the game Counter-Strike: Source. After all, what young man doesn’t work up an appetite for a good sandwich deal after a Saturday morning spent wasting terrorists?
I would personally be pissed off if I ever seen an ad in one of my favorite games. If I’m around saving the world from terrorists, the last thing I want to see is a damn Subway ad! Read all about it at Ars Technica.
Intel Loses Market Share to AMD
Sales of Intel-based desktop PCs fell 22.3 percent during the fourth quarter, according to Current Analysis. As a result, sales of AMD-based desktops took the lead during the pivotal fourth-quarter holiday shopping season. AMD chips were found in 52.5 percent of desktop PCs sold in U.S. retail stores during that period.
AMD certainly has had quite the increase. Well deserved too if I may add. Check out the posting at Slashdot.
Is 3DMark Really the "Gamers Benchmark"?
3DMark is no doubt one of the most popular benchmarking programs in the world, with everyone from newbies to power-users running and testing it on their machines. The vast majority of hardware sites incorporate this ubiquitous application into their video card reviews, and no PR blurb would be complete without an anticipated 3DMark result figuring central to the report. Many people love this small program that tells you how powerful your graphics hardware is, or alternatively if you need to spend hundreds of dollars upgrading your components.
Futuremark seems to add every other technology available, but NGOHQ points out that they are missing one. Check out the read right here.
Interview with Martin F. Krafft, Author of "The Debian System"
This interview was conducted with Martin F. Krafft, the author of “The Debian System”. Despite Debian GNU/Linux’s important role in today’s computing environment, it is largely misunderstood and oftentimes even discounted as being an operating system which is exclusively for professionals and elite users. In this book Krafft, explains his concept of Debian, which includes not only the operating system but also its underpinnings. Debian is not only a robust and scalable Linux distribution, but it has many other features which are worth looking into, like its open development cycle and rigorous quality control. The importance of Debian on the open source software community should not be underestimated- in addition to being one of the most secure and stable distributions available, it has also been the foundation for Knoppix, Ubuntu, and Xandros.
This is a fantastic interview if you love Linux or Debian in general. Check it out at XYZ Computing.
GeIL PC2-8000 DDR2-1000MHz Value Series
GeIL announces the official release of its record breaking DDR2 Value series PC8000 product clocking at 1000 Mhz, joining the GeIL performance module family. The DDR2 PC8000 1000Mhz Value is capable of reaching such high frequency with the CAS of 5-5-5-15.
Model Number: GX21GB8000DC & GX22GB8000DC
- Specification:
- PC2-8000 DDR2-1000MHz
- CAS 5-5-5-15
- Available in 1GB & 2GB (64Mx8) Dual Channel Kit
- Hand-picked 64Mx8 DDR2 Chips
- 240 pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered DIMM
- Brushed Aluminum Heat Spreader
- Working Voltage: 1.9V – 2.3V (Currently 2.3V)
- Retail Package
- Lifetime Warranty
Check out the full press release for these speedy modules right here!
Hardware Roundup for Jan. 19
There’s a lot of reviews going around today, so get your reading glasses on. If you are behind the times and haven’t yet read an AMD FX60 review, then check out UK Gamer today. If you are interested in how the latest ATI drivers will work for you in Linux, Phoronix, as always, has put together some thorough benchmarks for your consumption. 3D Gameman has a double hitter today, with a look at two great looking Ultra PSU’s.
- Noctua NH-U9 AMD Athlon 64, Intel Pentium 4 Heatsink – A1 Electronics
- Scythe Samurai Z CPU Cooler – Extensive Mods
- Thermalright V-1 Ultra VGA Cooler – Think Computers
Cooling
- Swissbit Cirrus WHITE USB 512mb USB Drive – Think Computers
- Thecus YES Box N2100 – Hexus
Memory & Storage
- AMD Athlon 64 FX60 – UK Gamer
- EPoX EP-5LDA+GLI 945P – HotHardware
Motherboards & CPU’s
- 180s Tek Fleece by JVC Ear Buds – Design Technica
- Logitech Z4 2.1 Speakers – Case Mod God
- Maxtill Mouse Pad Roundup – Pro-Clockers
- Saitek Eclipse Special Red Edition Illuminated Keyboard – 3D Xtreme
- Ultra X-Connect X2 550W Power Supply w/ FlexForce Modular Cables Review – 3D Gameman
- Ultra X-Finity 600W Power Supply w/ FlexForce Cables – 3D Gameman
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ATI X1800 CrossFire – Legit Reviews
- ATI v8.21.7 Display Drivers (Linux)- Phoronix
- Catalyst 6.1 Comparison – Technic 3D
- Gigabyte GeForce 6800GS – Legion Hardware
Video Cards & Monitor
- Creative Notebook WebCam Live – UK Gamer
- Futuremark 3DMark06 – UK Gamer
- Keeping Windows Clean – BTX Form Factor
- Red Hat Fedora Core 5 Test 2 (Linux) – Phoronix
- Samsung ML 2010 Laser Printer – Bona Fide Reviews
- Viliv P1 20gig Portable Media Player – Xtreme Computing
Etcetera & Contests
Futuremark 3D Mark 2006 Released
Saratoga, California USA – January 18, 2006 – Continuing forward in the development of advanced game performance benchmarks, Futuremark announced today the release and immediate availability of 3DMark06. A more comprehensive and unrestricted benchmark than previous versions, 3DMark06 includes an array of 3D graphics, CPU and 3D feature tests for overall performance measurement of current and future PC gaming systems. With this broader design approach, 3DMark06 will be the benchmark of choice for all PCs with top-of-the-line graphics hardware and CPUs. Futuremark predicts that 3DMark06 will emerge as the most complete 3D graphics benchmark for Windows XP, paving the way for new benchmarks targeted at future OS environments such as Windows Vista.
Of course you can check out our in-depth review of the product. Other sites who have also reviewed it are: Guru3D, Hexus and Technic 3D. The race to 10K is on!