- 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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MSI NX6800TD-128E Geforce 6800 SLI Videocard Review
Over the next few pages PCSTATS will be reviewing a pair of PCI Express MSI X6800 TD-128E SLI-capable videocards in both single and SLI mode. We’re going to see just what kind of performance a user can expect from these high-end cards operating in tandem. By now, most consumers should be familiar with SLI benchmarks from 6600GT mid-range nVidia cards, so let’s take things up a notch! Each of the MSI NX6800 TD-128E videocards we’ll be testing are based on the nVidia Geforce 6800 GPU and sport 128MB of GDDR3 memory, SLI compatibility, full HDTV/S-Video/composite TV-out capabilities and dual-monitor support. The blue analog connection is for CRT monitors and the white DVI connector is for digital LCD displays.
These cards offer great performance, and in SLi mode they beat out the 6800GT by a nice little margin. Head over to PC Stats for the full look.
2048 MB DDR Shoot Out
The continual march of technological progress can be fascinating and exhausting at the same time. It was only a few months ago when 1024 MB of ram, a full gigabyte was more than any game could utilize. But as time has relentlessly brought more demanding applications and huge immersive multiplayer games, having more than a gigabyte of memory can now show a benefit to a significant portion of our readers.
Head over to AMD Zone for the full look!
Third-Party Tools Vendors Use AGEIA physX Technology for Stunning Artistic Innovations
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – August 2, 2005 – At SIGGRAPH 2005, AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that it is receiving broad support from third-party vendors of tools, plug-ins, game editors, and middleware. These innovative companies are using the AGEIA physX™ SDK (formerly called NovodeX™) to enhance the power of their tools in a variety of unique ways, while providing support for hardware acceleration using the AGEIA physX™ processor.
“It is truly fascinating to see the ways that tools vendors are using AGEIA physX technology, beyond even what we ourselves could have imagined at AGEIA,†said Andy Keane, vice president of marketing at AGEIA. “These vibrant entrepreneurial companies represent the future of creative tools and game development, and it’s very gratifying to see that AGEIA physX is a part of their vision.â€
“AGEIA is creating many interesting synergies by drawing on the talents of third-party tools vendors in the digital content creation space,†said Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research. “This strategy should pay off in their efforts to bring real-time physics simulation to mass-market game consumers.â€
You can check out the full press release here!
Mushkin DDR Redline XP4000 Review
After the success of the old “BH-5” PC3500 LVL2, Mushkin tries to continue the success story with the new Redline XP4000. They select the best Winbond UTT CH-5 and use them on these modules to have a big clearance above the specifications. The modules offer 250 MHz with tightest timings of 2-2-2, but require active cooling. We test these sticks at up to 3.5V and see how far they go.
Check out the full review at techPowerUp!
Thermaltake Rocket fanless AMD & Intel Water Cooler Heatsink Review
All that said for a heatsink system that does not make any noise and can be used on AMD Athlon and Intel Pentium 4 processors this Thermaltake Rocket is great.
Because of its performance, quality of manufacture and noiseless operation we are proud to award this Thermaltake Rocket our Editors Top Choice for a fanless water cooler heatsink system.
Head over to A1 Electronics for the full review!
Spire WisperRock V Review
Well, in my humble opinion there are to many companies making cooling solutions. There are so many out there to choose from anymore, I’m not going to list them, you know most of them I’m sure. Having this many companies making heat sink fan cooling solutions can be a problem, not everyone is going to be great. Truth is, most aren’t, and the ones that at one time were, have let their success go to their heads and let quality control fade away, thinking they will sell products on their name alone. Having cool names, cool packaging might sell products to a newbie, but at what cost really? Today for review I have a heat sink fan combo from Spire, called the Whisperock 5, sure everyone knows the name, they make a decent cooler right?
Check out the review at Think Computers.
KickButtComputers Signature Series Preview
Inspired by the American television shows Orange County Choppers and Monster Garage, a crew down in southern California has begun producing a quite extensive array of custom computer cases – dubbed the Signature Series. In this article today, we’ll be offering some rare looks at their first “themed” chassis off their workbench along with other insights on how KickButtComputers is aiming at creating an entirely new genre of computer case modifications.
Check out the full article at Phoronix!
Gigabyte 3D Aurora Review
Gigabyte just can’t seem to stop with great new inventions. Their aircooling coolers are very nice. Their watercooling is awesome.
Now their first case becomes a great choice to house your hardware.
Head over to InsaneTek for the full review!
Apple Releases Two Button Mouse!
Meet the mouse that reinvented the wheel. The scroll wheel, that is. At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. Click, roll, squeeze and scroll. This mouse just aced the maze.
It definitely has the Apple styling, very clean looking. It’s seriously about time that they released a two-button mouse! Check out all the info here.
Crucial Technology Announces 1GHz Ballistix Memory
Meridian, Idaho, August 02, 2005 — Crucial Technology today announced the immediate availability of its leading-edge Crucial® Ballistix™ high-performance memory modules, including 1GHz PC2-8000 (DDR2-1000), the fastest Ballistix module to date. In addition, Crucial is releasing PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) and PC2-5300 (DDR2-667) low-latency memory, designed specifically for computer gamers and power users seeking maximum system performance and stability at a competitive price-point. The new DDR2 PC2-6400 and PC2-5300 modules are optimized to provide leading-edge performance in motherboards based on both the Intel® 925XE and 955X Express chipsets.
Crucial’s Ballistix high-performance DDR2 line now includes the following modules in both 512 megabyte (MB) and 1 gigabyte (GB) densities:
– Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 (DDR2-1000), CL5-5-5-15, 2.2V
– Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 (DDR-800), CL4-4-4-12, 2.1V
– Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 (DDR2-667), CL3-3-3-12, 2.1V
Wow, Ballistix have finally seen the 1GHz light. The 5-5-5 timings are a little high, so I’m interested to see how these will perform in some reviews. The memory is expensive though as it stands, $330US for a 1GB stick and $166US for a 512MB. You can check them out over in Crucials Store.
Titan Releases WaterCase TWC-A88
• Deluxe water cooling chassis
• Excellent heat dissipation for CPU, GPU and inside the case
• CPU : compatible with Intel P3, P4 (Socket 478/775)
compatible with AMD K7, K8 (Socket 754/939/940)
• GPU : compatible with most ATI and NVIDIA VGA cards
• Easy installation
• Super cooling radiator design with 12cm x 2 silent fans to provide ultimate heat dissipation
• Cool light multi-function LCD panel to monitor the water level, water pump status, fan speed, noise level and temperature
• Alarm for pump failure, fan failure, low water level, and over temperature.
• Compatible with Micro ATX, Standard ATX and Extended ATX (Dual CPU) motherboards.
• Including tool-free 5.25†and 3.5†device brackets and tool-free PCI slots.
These are great looking cases, and it you are interested in checking them out, head over to the Titan-CD website!
OCZ @ NewEgg LANFest 2K5
This year’s NewEgg LANFest could not have been more fun and exciting for OCZ Technology! The premier annual gaming event took place in the Pasadena Conference Center this past weekend and welcomed gamers of all ages, expertise, and interests to participate in several tournaments, computer hardware raffles, and case mod contests.
There are a lot of great looking pics over on the OCZ site. Looks like the event was a massive success! Check out all the pictures here.
Ultra USB Hubs Review
The USB 2.0 Hub has the advantage of nicely spaced out ports, LED indicators for power and usage, and of course the bonus of USB 2.0 speeds. Being a powered hub you shouldn’t have to worry about power hungry USB devices drawing to much power and shutting down your ports, and the power adapter itself is quite universal with an input rating of 100-240v; a simple plug adapter and the hub can be powered up anywhere with a socket.
Check out the full review over at Viper Lair!
Thermaltake Golden Orb II Review
Quite some time ago Thermaltake produced the Golden Orb CPU Cooler. Now the successor Golden Orb II is released for Socket939 and LGA775. It features a huge heatsink with a nice looking gold-fin design and two blue LEDs which light up the cooler during operation. Is it as cool as it looks?
Check out the full review over at techPowerUp!
Contest Giveaways Continue at Stratics
Stratics Contest Giveaways continue this week. Readers can sign up to win: * Rapid Reality’s MMOCenter Giveaway. 5 MMOCenter Pre-Orders each week which include access to closed betas. This contest runs through August 20th. * Turbine Entertainment’s Asheron’s Call:Throne of Destiny Giveaway. This includes 5 free 1-year accounts and 10 signed boxes,…..
OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX Dual Channel Review
Overclockers and enthusiasts these days usually pursue one of two goals: to reach DDR600+ memory speeds at slightly relaxed timings, or to maintain tight 2-2-2-5 timings while pushing up to around DDR520+ speeds. If you’re looking for the latter, then OCZ’s new Gamer eXtreme PC-3500 might be the perfect modules for you.
Check out the full review at Phoronix.
Softimage to Support AGEIA physX Technology
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – August 1, 2005 – At SIGGRAPH 2005, AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc, will support the AGEIA physX™ SDK with the upcoming release of SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® version 5.0, Avid’s award-winning digital character and visual effects software.
Artists have created some of the most memorable game characters using SOFTIMAGE|XSI software, and their real-time interactivity will increase with XSI v.5.0 by taking advantage of AGEIA’s state-of-the-art physics simulation engine for rigid body dynamics and high-precision actual-shape collision handling. In addition, Softimage plans to offer support for hardware-accelerated simulation using the AGEIA physX processor.
Sweet, maybe more reason to look forward to the PhysX! Check out the full press release here!
ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory 128MiB Review
My evaluation of such low-end hardware using the latest graphically challenging games might seem pointless at first glance. Look twice and you’ll see that while both HyperMemory and TurboCache boards were generally really unhappy with the latest games, analysis of UT2004 shows that in older games (and to some extent new ones at very low resolution) they’ll do fine. If your aim is to build a really cheap PCI Express-based gaming box for the kids, or to use a card as a stop-gap solution before you pick up something more powerful, they do fine.
Check out the full review over at Hexus.
Thermaltake Silent 775 Intel LGA775 CPU Cooler Review
The Intel P4 LGA775 socket series CPU’s are some of the most thermally demanding chips on the market. Unfortunately, the lack of aftermarket thermal solutions is puzzling. We take a look at one of the few LGA775 solutions and see how it does at taming the heat.
Check out the full review over at Futurelooks!
Hackers race to expose Cisco Internet flaw
Computer hackers worked through the weekend to expose a flaw that could allow an attacker to take control of the Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO – news) routers that direct traffic across much of the Internet.
Angered and inspired by Cisco’s attempts to suppress news of the flaw earlier in the week, several computer security experts at the Defcon computer-security conference worked past midnight Saturday to discover and map out the vulnerability.
This is quite a big problem that should be fixed quick. There are patches available for the routers, so now it’s a matter of just patching them. Check out the news post at Yahoo.
New world record for unamplified wireless networking
After part of the team drove a trailer loaded with equipment to Utah Hill, near Beaver Dam in the state of Utah, iFiber Redwire used a fascinating collection of homemade antennas, surplus 12 foot satellite dishes, home-welded support structures, scaffolds, ropes and computers to wirelessly connect to their comrades who were located southwest of Las Vegas at the top of Mount Potosi. The final result was a full 11 Mbps data transfer rate over a distance of 125 miles, a new world record for an unamplified wireless networking connection.
Insane! That’s an unbelievable distance, especially for an unamplified setup. Huge grats to the team! Check out all the information here.
AMD cuts desktop CPU prices by up to 25%
Prices for AMD’s mainstream Sempron lineup fell by up to 25%. In addition, AMD cut prices for dual-core Athlon 64×2 processors 8-12%. AMD also launched the Athlon 64×2 3800+ processor, which at US$354, is the company’s lowest priced dual-core processor.
I have already noticed this. I see the 3200+ Venice for around $230CAN.. that’s awesome! Check out the full news post at DigiTimes.
Antec Vcool Expansion slot VGA cooler Review
Antec contacted LR and wanted us to take a look at an updated PCI Slot cooler that was “better” than anything that we have looked at. Being that it is in the middle of summer in sunny Las Vegas we figured it was only fair to put the new Antec Vcool multi-speed VGA cooler to the test.
Check out the full review at Legit Reviews.
Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooling System Review
As the major processor makers cram more transistors on a wafer, the amount of heat processors generate increases. While air cooling techniques are still sufficient to handle the greater heat output, much better solutions exists. Using a kit with parts pre-selected can often times be better than a similar do-it-yourself system and also cost much less. In this review we will look at the water cooling alternative with a complete kit provided by Gigabyte Technology – the 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooling System.
If you want to get a liquid cooling setup going, then definitely check out this great looking one at Bjorn3D.
Thermaltake Big Water SE 12cm Liquid Cooling System Review
The BigWater SE includes an all-copper waterblock with blue LED built in, 120cm radiators, and a newly-designed DC 12V black motor. The output of 90 LPH will support all your liquid cooling needs in the system – yet it is only as quiet as 18dBA. For the reservoir, Thermaltake has utilized the unused 5.25†bays in the system in order to save room in the system. With the face plate displaying how much coolant is in the liquid cooling system, the user will always know how much water is in the system and when to refill the coolant.
Check out the full review over at Techniz!