- 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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DMP Joins Futuremark’s Handheld Benchmark Development Program
Saratoga, CA and Tokyo, Japan – September 13, 2005 – Futuremark
Corporation, a leading provider of performance-analysis software and
services, announced today that Tokyo-based Digital Media Professionals
Inc. (DMP) is joining its handheld benchmark development program. In
addition, DMP is licensing source codes for Futuremark’s SPMark04 3D
graphics test and forthcoming OpenGL ES benchmark suite.
“We are delighted to welcome DMP as a development partner,” said Tero
Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for
Futuremark. “DMP develops sophisticated real-time 3D graphics
solutions; their participation proves the global reach of our
benchmarks that have become de-facto industry standards,” Sarkkinen added.
Read: Full Press Release
North Water Xtreme Xchangers Review
The premise behind this product is that it has been designed to be placed as
an add-on component for an existing water cooling set-up. When installed
inline especially in the path of a cooling fan; the Xtreme Xchangers remove
heat away as coolant flows through it via passive cooling. North Water Xtreme
PC Cooling has taken a universal approach to the design by supporting all
available tubing sizes and fittings available, including compression fittings
seen on commercial based water cooling kits from Alphacool, Asetek, Innovatek,
NextCool and Xice.
This is a unique idea, and it actually works! If you are interested in making your water cooling even cooler, check out the review at Mod The Box.
E-Power Technology Silent Engine Tiger 550W Modular PSU Review
Today’s computers have become extremely power hungry. Because of things like high powered video cards, multiple hard drives, dual processors, and a whole list of available peripherals, never has the need for a rock solid power supply been greater. Using a cheap or under-rated power supply is a sure fire way to create random computer problems and severely handicap any efforts at overclocking your computer… Enter E-Power Technology with their new Silent Engine Tiger 550 watt power supply.
Yet another Modular solution, which is a great thing! Check out the look over at Big Bruin.
Foxconn nForce 4 SLI Review
The NF4SK8AA-8EKRS is not fantastically life changing and revolutionary, but isn’t bad either. In short, the board does what it says on the tin, works very well at stock speed, should be cheaper than the competition, covers all the necessary bases and has a sexy orange PCB. At the right price, it’s worth a look.
Check out the full review at Bit-Tech!
Thermaltake Swift ATX Case on a Budget
The first thing you will notice when opening the side is the unusual placement of the lower HDD rack, rather than sit flush with the front Thermaltake have mounted it about 1 ½ inches away from the front fan. Now the only reason ii can think this has been done is to ensure good airflow in the case. Also as I mentioned earlier the strange placement of the top 3.5 bay, before we take a look around the inside let us see what is included in the case.
Head on over to Xtreme Computing for the full review.
Thermalright V-1 Review
Thermalright is famous for making some of the best CPU heatsinks available. The V-1 is their first attempt at making a VGA cooler
and we take a look to see if they can extend their crown into the graphics section.
If you are looking for a very different looking GPU cooler, check out this review at InsaneTek.
Macromedia Studio 8 Now Available!
San Francisco – September 13, 2005 – Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced the immediate availability of Macromedia Studio 8, the essential suite for web designers, developers, video professionals, and graphic artists to design, develop, and maintain interactive online experiences. Combining the latest releases of award-winning Macromedia Dreamweaver®, Macromedia Flash® Professional, and Macromedia Fireworks®, and key productivity tools Macromedia Contribute™ and Macromedia FlashPaper™, Studio 8 offers a new level of expressiveness, efficiency, and simplified workflow to create websites, interactive media, and mobile content. For more information about Studio 8, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/studio.
“Studio 8 exemplifies our continued focus on delivering the best solutions for communicating rich information to global audiences across multiple mediums,” said Stephen Elop, chief executive officer, Macromedia. “With tremendous improvements to features and performance, we believe Studio 8 will fundamentally change the way people create and deliver digital content all over the world.”
Finally, the wait is over and the tools are out. You can expect our hard look at the products within two weeks!
Read: Full Press Release
OCZ DDR PC-3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme Review
One of the features I really like is the EVP, that’s basically OCZ saying “We know you are going to tweak this RAM to get the best performance possible, and that’s OK with us.” Features like this show how enthusiasts, gamers etc. have shaped the industry. It wasn’t to long ago that doing things like modifying voltage etc would void your warranty. These days manufacturers are providing end users with the tools needed to overclock and tweak their hardware without having to worry about voiding the warranty.
Check out the full review over at Viper Lair! For comparison, you can check out our review of the memory here.
MGE Magnum 500W Power Supply Review
The Magnum 500w power supply propels MGE into a market they haven’t been before, highest end PSUs. Their newest offering presents many of the best attributes on the market and then adds a few others to top it off. There have been silent power supplies before from companies such as PC Power and Cooling or Antec, but none have taken it to the level that MGE has, a full size copper heatpipe. This alone will extend the life of the PSU, heat is one of the primary killers of computer parts. Combine that with a decent fan to provide some ventilation and airflow and you have a killer combination.
Wow, this PSU has been reviewed all over lately, but who couldn’t enjoy a completely silent one? Check out the full review at Got Apex!
Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 Motherboard Review
The Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 supports 533/800/1066 MHz FSB Pentium 4/D and Extreme Edition processors and can be equipped with up to 4GB of non ECC DDR2-667 memory. The board has plenty of onboard expansion ports, such as an additional IDE/RAID controller, dual Gigabit NICs, IEEE 1394a and Intel’s Azalia audio controller.
Head on over to PC Stats for the full review!
Novell Fuels Linux Growth in the Data Center
BARCELONA, Spain (BrainShare® 2005) – Sept. 12, 2005 – Novell today announced the rapid growth of business-critical applications running on Linux* in the data centre, as data centre software vendors Agresso, Carmen Systems, Jeeves Information Systems and Sage join Oracle, SAP and Siebel in supporting Novell’s SUSETM Linux Enterprise Server. In addition, Novell is launching the beta version of the most rigorous training and examination program for Linux certifications to meet data centre requirements. As a result, customers can run the critical applications they need on a cost-effective and proven Linux infrastructure in their data centres, with the full backing and global ecosystem of Novell.
“CIOs are under increasing pressure to align their IT infrastructure with changing business requirements while positioning themselves for growth,” said Hans Sparkes, head of Enterprise Linux, Unisys EMEA. “Our expertise, unique tools and enterprise-class services optimize organizations’ IT infrastructure and maximize performance through consolidation, migration and simplification. Our partnership with Novell provides customers with greater choice and flexibility at a significantly lower cost than with proprietary solutions.”
Check out the full press release at Novell.
Stratics: Planetside HoC Tonight
Don’t forget to join us tonight(September 12th) for our monthly House of Commons with the developers of Planetside. It will be at 5pm PST / 8pm EST in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC. Come chat with Planetside Developers and get your questions about the latest development in the game answered! You…..
Half-Life 2 on Xbox!
Many games make more money on consoles than they do on PC, and so publishers are always keen to have multi-platform releases. However, with Source being such a beast – even on modern day graphics hardware – a console conversion always looked unlikely. However, after a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ period, Half Life 2 is…..
ABIT AN8 Ultra Review
ABIT is a world renowned computer component manufacturer, known best for their high performance yet stable product lines. ABIT strives to push the technological limits through both proprietary BIOS enhancements, as well as integrated technologies like their uGuru dynamic overclocking chipset. This latest edition to their nForce4 lineup keeps in this tradition well.
Check out the full review at Hard|OCP.
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 SATA II Review
We all know that there are only a handful of companies who control the hard drive industry and each one of them has their own strength and spotlight product. Hitachi isn’t one of the names that come to mind very quickly, but it is one that is deserving of attention in many cases. Last year, I took a look at Hitachi’s 7K250 desktop SATA hard drive and was completely amazed by the performance offered. Today, I am going to be taking a look at their updated T7K250 drive, which is pretty much the same, but it supports the SATA II specification and is backwards compatible.
Check out the full review at ByteSector.
Altec Lansing FX6021 Speakers Review
Since the 1920’s the Altec Lansing Company has enjoyed a long and respectable history of researching, designing and manufacturing products for the audio industry. They continue this tradition today by building some of the finest audio products and devices available for personal, home and industrial applications. The FX6021 speaker set is no exception to their fine lineup of PC products. Although at first glance the price tag looks to be extremely high for a 2.1 speaker system, (and we do agree it is a bit steep) the engineering and overall quality somewhat justifies the street price. You may just find yourself saying WOW! I would buy these if they were $100 cheaper, and from this we hope Altec Lansing can take a hint from folks like us that spend all their extra money on the latest games.
Head on over to The Best Case Scenario for the full review!
Antec Phantom 500 Silent PSU Review
Obviously, the best way to quiet down a system is to minimize the number of fans in it. Fanless video cards and power supplies have become increasingly popular for that very reason. Adam reviewed the original Phantom 350 back in November last year and was pretty impressed by it. Today, it’s time to look at its 500W big brother – the Phantom 500.
Yet another gorgeous looking and powerful fanless PSU! This one seriously looking great, especially if you have a black case. Check out the full review over at Bjorn 3D.
Beware of Firefox Buffer Overflow
A new, unpatched flaw that affects all versions of Firefox could let attackers surreptitiously run malicious code on users’ PCs, a security researcher has warned.
The problem lies in the way Firefox handles web links that are overly long and contain dashes, security researcher Tom Ferris said in an interview via instant messaging late on Thursday.
Check out the full posting at Silicon.
Half-Life 2 on Xbox!
Many games make more money on consoles than they do on PC, and so publishers are always keen to have multi-platform releases. However, with Source being such a beast – even on modern day graphics hardware – a console conversion always looked unlikely. However, after a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ period, Half Life 2 is definitely coming to Xbox and, what’s more, it’s almost done.
The sad thing is, that a lot of quality is lost. Textures are weakened and there is no AA, of course. Still, if you’ve never played HL2 (!) you should check it out, or wait to see if they will make a better looking version for the Xbox 360. Check out the screenshots and more at Bit-Tech.
eBay buying Skype for 2.6 Billion!
eBay has agreed to buy the fast-growing Internet start-up Skype in a move to add free Web telephone calls to its online auctions and fuel growth, the companies confirmed Monday.
The auctioneer said it plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for the Web communications company. It would make a further payout of up to $1.5 billion by 2008 or 2009 if financial targets are met, giving the deal a total value of up to $4.1 billion, executives of the two companies said.
Who would have originally thought that Skype would get so popular? $2.6 Billion is unbelievably high.. hopefully eBay can do things right to improve it. Check out the posting at News.com.
Rockdirect Pegasus 650 Laptop Review
Rockdirect’s Pegasus is a laptop that does well in most areas. It’s not tied down by the extra weight associated with pure desktop-replacement models, yet, thanks to a novel 5% guaranteed overclocking feature, offers you the performance associated with the next processor up in the Pentium M line at no extra cost. Pure CPU performance, then, is excellent. The use of ATI’s Mobility Radeon X700 MXM graphics card offers reasonable gaming performance for the money, although you probably won’t be able to run the latest game at the laptop’s native WSXGA+ setting. The Pegasus 650’s battery life is enhanced by another novel feature, that is, the ability to toggle between onboard and discrete graphics at the flick of a front-mounted switch. Neat, eh?
Check out the full review at Hexus!
AN8 Fatal1ty SLI Review
ABIT have long been known for their motherboards. Their boards usually
targets overclockers, but recently this
has changed to gamers and modders. ABIT was also known for their daring (and
sometimes annoying) lack of features.
However, the AN8 Fatality SLI packs features that is not only functional,
but convenient and long overdue. Other manufacturers
can learn a thing or two from ABIT. Found out why we like this board so
much.
Head on over to Tech-Hounds for the full look.
In-depth Apple iPod nano 4GB (black) Review
Following the tradition of the iPod, the iPod nano’s casing is very smooth, complete with rounded edges and no screws or extruding parts with the exception of the hold switch. The reflective metal backing smoothly transitions into the acrylic face of the nano, polished so well that you can see your reflection. In a word, the iPod nano is beautiful.
I can’t get over how thin this thing is! I think this would be my next player choice for sure. Check out the full review at EverythingUSB.
XG Magnum 500watt Fanless Power Supply Review
It only leaves us to recommend this XG Magnum 500watt fanless, noiseless power supply for its quality of manufacture, design and well it works for us here and we give it our Editors Award for a fanless power supply. Another way to reduce the noise from computers.
It’s nice to actually have an alternative now. Usually fanless PSU’s are in the 300w range, so 500w is killer. You can check out the full review over at A1 Electronics.
HIS X700 IceQ AGP 128MB GDDR3 Video Card Review
Today we have a fresh look at what could quite possibly be the very last AGP based video card ever reviewed on BFR. Are we sad? No, not really. AGP has managed to stay around in the graphics market for quite a while, mainly due to business reasons, and we think a final goodbye is well overdue.
Check out the full review at Bona Fide Reviews!