Tech News

Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad Review

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:42 PM by Rob Williams

When you think of PC games you usually think of a keyboard as your “controller”. That is what a large percent of PC users use for gaming on a PC. There are just some games that would be totally better with a controller; sports games, racing games, even some action games. A lot of PC users seem intimidated by using a controller, but it’s really easy and improves game play on a lot of games. So what controller will be up on the testing block today? The Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad.

Check out the full review over at Think Computers.

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OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 2GB Platinum Review

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:40 PM by Rob Williams

Up on the review block today is OCZ Technology’s EB DDR
PC-4000 2 x 1024MB Platinum Edition. Although we have seen countless
reports under Windows XP on how an extra 1024MB of system memory can be
beneficial, in particular games and applications, we have done this
comparison with the Linux 2.6.14 kernel and have discovered some
intriguing results.

If you *nix users are thinking of upgrading to a nice 2GB kit, you will want to check out the great review at Phoronix.

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Enigma5’s 2005 Christmas Wish List

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:20 PM by Rob Williams

Tis the holiday season, yet again. This is my Christmas wish list. Many of these items might be on your list as well. These items, in my opinion are the most wanted items of the 2005 holiday season. Everyone loves getting Christmas presents, so why not get what you wanted this year?

The time is flying so fast.. it seems like we just had holiday buying guides. Check out this guide over at Think Computers to see what Enigma5 wants this year.

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EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:10 PM by Rob Williams

XFX lose the fastest-clocked GTX 512 competition, though. EVGA submitted a final engineering sample of their e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB a few days ago. Clocked out-of-the-box at 600/900, the watercooled graphics board also challenges for the title of world’s most expensive consumer VGA board, tipping the money scales at a scary $1000. We shudder to think of the converted UK price, fully expecting it to be in the high £600 range, closing in rapidly on £700.

This is one race I love to watch! It’s great seeing all these special edition cards on the market, but they just keep going higher and higher in price. Check out the full preview of this awesome card at Hexus.

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OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:07 PM by Rob Williams

This product simply rocks in the latency department! It quite simply kicks butt with an extremely tight memory timing of 2-2-2-5. If that’s not enough, it can be overclocked for added performance. One cool feature is OCZ’s Xtreme Thermal Convection honeycomb heat spreader design. This not only looks amazing but allows for maximum cooling. Watch the Video to find out more…

I said it once, and I’ll say it again.. this is great memory for the price! OCZ did a great job with this kit, and you can view the video review at 3D Gameman!

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Nitro Ax Full Tower Server Case Review

Posted on November 26, 2005 12:04 PM by Rob Williams

I’m tired of reviewing the same type of cases. Same interior and a
different front face, that is the typical mid-tower today. Maybe that is
why I truly enjoy the server cases. They have plenty of room and great
cooling. The looks can be bland at times, but some are very professional
looking. No matter what though, they are innovative. That is why I was
excited when I-Star offered me the chance to review their Nitro Ax server
case.

Check out the full look at this beefy case over at A True Review.

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INQ challenges ATI, Nvidia

Posted on November 25, 2005 12:06 PM by Rob Williams

Instead of offering solutions to AGP market, which DOMINATES the overall share of PC computers out there, ATi overclocked the X1800XT and made a presentation running around the erroneous calculation which claims GeForce 7800GTX 512MB will “die” after 1170 hours. Also, the claim has been done that an average gamer can play 30+ hours on ATi’s X1800XT 512MB hardware and only mediocre 7.5 hours weekly before nV’s hardware will fail.

I really want to see this happen. If neither of them have anything to be scared of, then why back out? Check it out at Inq.

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ATI Catalyst 5.12 Beta

Posted on November 25, 2005 11:44 AM by Rob Williams
  • ATI Catalyst 5.12 Beta Drivers with WHQL Certification for Windows XP/2000/x64/MCE
  • ATI Catalyst Control Center
  • ATI Control Panel
  • ATI MCE Control Panel.
  • WDM

As always, NGOHQ is proudly hosting these drivers, and you can grab them here.

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Kazaa owners given ten days to conform or die

Posted on November 25, 2005 11:43 AM by Rob Williams

The popular file-sharing service Kazaa has been put on notice. Sharman Networks, the Australian company that purchased the Kazaa network and software in 2002, has been told by an Australian judge that they have until December 5 to either filter copyrighted music from its system or shut down their operations entirely.

This almost sucks. Well, not really since Kazaa is horrible. I hope to see it go. Check out the full read here.

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Interview with Peter Du Preez of Abit

Posted on November 25, 2005 11:40 AM by Rob Williams

Whoopty: Can you please give us your full name and job title at Abit?
Peter: My name is Peter Du Preeze. My Job title is a bit hard to describe. It changes with whatever job I’m doing. My main function is PR for UK, South Africa & now Australia, but I’m also Content editor for marketing and again recently given PM (Product manager) job for the MAX series of Motherboards. Basically a have a very challenging multifaceted job within ABIT marketing.

Head on over to Pro-Clockers for the full interview!

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Hardware Roundup for Nov. 25

Posted on November 25, 2005 11:39 AM by Rob Williams

There’s not too much going on today, but there are a ton of case reviews for you to look at. If you don’t need a new case, then check out some kick ass G. Skill memory over at Pure Overclock. If your gaming skills are less and perfect, look to MVK Tech for the review of a killer new mousepad from fUnc. It won’t fUnc with your heart. Modding your PC? Hardware Review is taking a look at a killer front panel that you will need to have.

    Memory & Storage
  • G.skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (2x1GB 2-3-2-5) – Pure Overclock
  • Seagate 5GB Pocket Hard Drive Review Rev. 2.0 – Rojak Pot
  • Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.9 Hard Drive Pictorial – Rojak Pot
    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • fUnc Industries sUrface1030 Archetype – MVKTech
    Video Cards & Monitors
  • Gigabyte GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT – Hot Hardware
  • Samsung SyncMaster 740B 17″ LCD – Tech Tastic
    Etcetera & Contests
  • Breathing Life Into Older Computers – Ase Labs
  • Matrix Orbital MX610 Front P
  • Matrix Orbital MX610 Front Panel – Hardware Review

    • 5 Buyer’s Guide – Design Technica

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Two Ways to win an RFO Beta Slot

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:53 AM by Rob Williams

Stratics has a few ways that you can do to get into the RFO beta. Of course, you need to put your thinking cap on and get to work. Check out the Fan Art contest, as well as the Limerick contest. Wow, that last one is different :)

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Quake IV Demo Released

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:51 AM by Rob Williams

If you’ve been waiting it out for a demo of this popular shooter, then your wait is finally over. Head over to FileShack to grab the file, which comes in at 326MB. It does not include multi-player, but we should be seeing that available in a demo in a week or two.

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ATI ‘approves’ Radeon X1800 XT overclocking

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:44 AM by Rob Williams

This is certainly a new spin on things. Will we be seeing ‘pre-overclocked’ ATI cards on store shelves in the future? Of course, this is nothing new to NVIDIA fans, since BFG and eVGA have been overclocking their cards for a while. If this proves true though, it’s evident that ATI is scared of NVIDIA and obviously need to do something to win back a lot of it’s customer base.

TI has told graphics card makers it will sanction attempts to overclock its Radeon X1800 XT chip – provided they take full responsibility for the “potential fallout”.

So suggests a leaked confidential advisory obtained by Anandtech. If accurate, the memo reveals a major change on ATI’s part – to date, the company has not approved of attempts to overclock its chips by more than a handful of megahertz.

Take a look at the full posting at The Register.

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ATI Founder Quits After 20 Years

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:43 AM by Rob Williams

ATI chairman and founder K Y Ho has decided to call it a day, and is quitting the company to “spend more time with family and pursue my personal interests”. Ho created ATI in 1985 and served as its CEO until 1 June 2004. On that date he handed the mantle of power over to Dave Orton, who joined the company in April 2000 as its President and COO. James Fleck, currently an independent director, will take over Ho’s role as chairman, albeit in a non-executive capacity.

End of an era? We’ll see how this plays out in ATI’s future. Check out the posting here.

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Perfect Launch? Not for the Xbox 360 it seems

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:29 AM by Rob Williams

Since the Xbox 360 was released two days ago, there have been numerous reported incidents all over the internet. The primary complaint is that the system is unstable, with games crashing at random, along with the entire system. I can vouch for this, because I have had this happen during NFS: Most Wanted and Project Gotham Racing 3 game play. Some have had far worse crashes than me, however. Some screen shots floating around show many artifacts on the screen after a crash, which forces you to manually shut off the system.

Other complaints are related to heat dissipation and noise level, both of which I can verify again… are very noticeable. I highly doubt that the reported crashes are due to overheating, but rather system instabilities or bad code in the games. The problem seems to be most prevalent with PGR3, so it’s possible that there was a bad pressing, although I have had very little issues with my copy.

There is a lot to read on these problems though. You can check out the quick posting over at News.com, and see some user feedback. X-Box Scene has been doing an excellent job keeping up on top of things also. Check out their forums to see what the users are saying. If you are one of the users affected by these problems, speak out! Believe it or not, there are official forums for the 360, so vent and read others opinions there.

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Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 Rev 2 Review

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:27 AM by Rob Williams

Here we have the Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 VGA cooler. These coolers are becoming an industry standard of sorts when it comes to top of the line video cards. HIS started the trend and now many other top manufacturers like ASUS have added them to their high end offerings.

Leave it to such a modest company to produce such an awesome product, that’s certainly leading the way with air cooling. Check out the full review of this great product over at NGOHQ. For a look at Revision 3 of this cooler, you can check out our review here.

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Hardware Roundup for Nov. 24

Posted on November 24, 2005 9:24 AM by Rob Williams

Happy Holiday! It doesn’t seem that too many websites are taking a break today though, because there are reviews a plenty. If you are still deliberating about picking up the new 7800GTX 512MB edition, you may want to check out Cool Tech Zones review. If you are willing to hand over a hefty sum, then you will certainly have the high-end of all high-end… for a few months at least ;)

Building a small form factor PC? SilverStone produce some of the *best* HTPC cases and both Sudhian and Madshrimps are taking a look at one today. The biggest problem with SFF though, is the constant high heat situation. PrimoChill has come to the rescue, by offering a SFF water cooling case, which Grunt Ville is taking a look at. It’s expensive, but if you want the best cooling for your SFF, it may be a smart move.

If your PC is kick ass, then you will want sound to match. Red and Blackness seems to love the Creative T6060 5.1 sound system. The entire set looks classy and is a great size. It’s not extremely powerful compared to other speaker sets on the market, but it’s certainly worth the price.

    Motherboards & CPU’s
  • ECS KN1 SLI Extreme – [H]ard|OCP
  • Championing 64-bit & Dual-Core – HardwareZone
  • Updated AMD Socket 754 Athlon 64 & Sempron Motherboard List – A1 Electronics
    Etcetera & Contests
  • Contest: Apple iPod Video 30GB & Oppo Digital OPDV971H DVD Player – Design Technica
  • Contest: Four Zboards – two Call of Duty 2 keysets and two AOE III keysets – 3D Xtreme
  • Holiday 2005 PC Case Buyers Guide – Think Computers
  • XGI Targets OSS Drivers – Phoronix

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10 million Xbox 360s by the end of 2006

Posted on November 23, 2005 2:27 PM by Rob Williams

Microsoft corporate vice president Peter Moore has given the first firm indications of the company’s sales ambitions for the Xbox 360 over the coming year, which see ten million consoles being shipped by the end of 2006. “In the first 90 days, I believe we’ll be somewhere between two and a half and three million units worldwide,” he said, echoing projections made by Xbox division CFO Bryan Lee at an investment conference earlier this month.

Well, that looks to be near 7 times more than we currently have in population, so it should be a good holiday season. Check out the full posting at Games Industry.

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NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS Mini Review

Posted on November 23, 2005 2:11 PM by Rob Williams

A month ago, we revealed the existence of the GeForce 7800 GS. Today we have a mini review of it for our readers. First of all, you may want to print this article. Not because we write so well, but because it’s not everyday you hear a story like this one.

Check out the full review over at NGOHQ!

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LaCie presents.. new LEGO-shaped hard drives

Posted on November 23, 2005 2:05 PM by Rob Williams

The Brick design was created by renowned designer Ora-Ito who has worked on some interesting projects for Heineken, Adidas, the band AIR, L’Oreal, Vogue and many others. It’s the first of several cool HDD designs we’re rolling out in the next 6-12 months, all by different well-known designers. As Ora-Ito says: why should data storage be boring!? All are available for pre-order today. The red 250GB Brick is in stock now and other Desktop Editions will ship end of December. Mobile Editions will ship January 2006.

    Desktop Editions

  • LaCie Brick Desktop Edition (USB) 160GB White – $119.99
  • LaCie Brick Desktop Edition (USB) 250GB Red – $149.99
  • LaCie Brick Desktop Edition (USB) 300GB Blue – $199.99
  • LaCie Brick Desktop Edition (USB) 500GB Red – $399.99
    Mobile Editions

  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB) 40GB White – $119.99
  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB) 80GB Blue – $149.99
  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB) 120GB Red – $299.99
  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB/FW) 40GB Blue – $119.99
  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB/FW) 80GB Red – $169.99
  • LaCie Brick Mobile Edition (USB/FW) 120GB Blue – $329.99

Check out the product page here!

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Hardware Round for Nov. 23

Posted on November 23, 2005 2:04 PM by Rob Williams

Well since I can barely drag myself off the Xbox 360, I will make this quick ;)

    Cases & Enclosures
  • Bytecc Backup Star One-Touch Backup External Enclosure – A True Review
  • Nikao Dragonfire Case – Extensive Mods
  • Vantec NexStar GX USB2.0 Hub & HDD Enclosure – PC Stats
    Cooling
  • 5-Way Radiator Round-Up – Phoronix
  • Zalman CNPS9500 LED High Performance Quiet CPU Cooler – 3D Gameman
    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Razer Green Copperhead Gaming Mouse – techPowerUp!
  • Saitek Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard – Think Computers
    Video Cards
  • Asus EN7800GT 2DHTV/256M/OSP/A Videocard – PC Stats
  • ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL – Hexus
  • GeForce 6800 XT 256MB – Guru 3D

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NZXT Lexa Classic Case Review

Posted on November 22, 2005 12:08 PM by Rob Williams

Some may consider NZXT to be the new kid on the block. And they are right. But when the new kid moved in they bought alot of new toys to play with in the form of new ideas. With a couple of legendary cases under their belts like the Nemesis and the Trinity made some of the older kids gather around and see what the fuss was all about. NXZT stepped away from the their robotic creations to come up with a new classic case. The Lexa. And it is bound to catch the eye of everyone in the enthusiast market.

Head on over to Pro-Clockers to check out the full review.

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Hardware Roundup for Nov. 22

Posted on November 22, 2005 12:07 PM by Rob Williams

Woot, Xbox 360 launch day! Congrats to all who were actually able to get one, because they are selling out fast. I am lucky to have pre-ordered mine, so it will keep me pre-occupied for quite some time. If you are in the mood for tech reviews, and of course you are, check these ones out.

    Cooling
  • Evercool Neon Crab & Spider Fan Filter – Techniz
    Memory & Storage
  • Western Digital Raptor WD740GD – Techware Labs
    Motherboards & CPU’s
  • GeIL Ultra PC2-5300 DDR2-667 – Phoronix
  • OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel – 3D Gameman
  • OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX – Case Mod God
  • VIA’s K8T900 Chipset Preview – Tech Report
    Video Cards
  • ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X1800XL 256MB – Driver Heaven
  • Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO² and GTO Ultimate – Beyond 3D

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Xbox 360 Launch Game Reviews

Posted on November 21, 2005 11:49 AM by Rob Williams

If you are going to be picking up a spanky 360 tomorrow, you may be clueless still as to what games you want to buy. I’ve compiled a quick list of my favorite reviews and previews for each game, that are published to date. Over the course of the next few days, more reviews will become available, especially for games that currently only have previews.

  • Amped 3 – IGN – 6.9
  • Call of Duty 2 – Gamespot – 8.8
  • Condemned: Criminal Origins – IGN – 8.7
  • FIFA Soccer 2006 – 1UP – 7.0
  • GUN – IGN – 7.9
  • Kameo: Elements of Power – IGN – 8.4
  • King Kong – 1UP Preview
  • Madden NFL 06 – IGN – 8.0
  • NBA 2K6 – Gamespot – 8.3
  • NBA Live 2006 – 1UP – 7.5
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted – Gamespot – 8.4
  • NHL 2K6 – IGN – 7.5
  • Quake IV – 1UP Preview
  • Perfect Dark: Zero – IGN Preview
  • Project Gotham Racing 3 – Gamespot – 8.8
  • Ridge Racer 6 – IGN – 7.0
  • Tiger Woods Pro Tour 06 – Gamespot Preview
  • Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland – Gamespot – 6.6

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