Tech News

D&D Online: Online House of Commons Chat!

Now posted over at the Official DDO Site: The Dungeons & Dragons Online team and Stratics are pleased to announce the first ever DDO House of Commons Chat on Thursday, April 14, 2005 at 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific. This is your chance to ask questions to the DDO Developers and learn Read More Comment (0)

Chaintech SE6600G Review @ AMDZone

“With Nvidia’s 6600GT line of cards, great performance has hit the midrange cards at speeds that once seemed unattainable. This and the further proliferation of PCI express motherboards into the market have made PC gaming affordable for all with the newest cards from ATI and Nvidia. Today we look at Chaintech’s version of Nvidia’s 6600GT PCI express graphics cards, the SE6600G to see how it stacks up against the hefty competition.”

Check it out at AMDZone.

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Pioneer DVR-A09XL 16x DVD±RW @ CDRLabs

“With specs and features like this, the DVR-A09XL sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from Pioneer’s new writer, we’ll take a look at some of the drive’s features and then see how it compares to the 16x DVD±RW drives from Sony, NEC and Plextor. Does the DVR-A09XL have what it takes? Is it the fastest DVD writer around? We’ll answer these questions and more as we take a look at the Pioneer DVR-A09XL.”

Check it out at CDRLabs.

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DFI nForce4-DAGF Motherboard OC Preview @ Madshrimps

“I recently got my hands on a new motherboard, the nForce4-DAGF is a budget minded solution from DFI as it goes on sales for less then 110USD, let’s see if it has DFI’s great OC blood.”

Looks like a very solid mobo. This very well could be the next uber value board. Check it out at Madshrimps.

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Neocron 2: Interview with Reakktor @ GGMania

GGMania had the opportunity of interviewing two guys from Reakktor. GGMania: Can you give us an overview of Neocron 2, telling us what the game is all about? Holger Nathrath & Nick “Nidhogg” Milner: Neocron is an action-packed, cyberpunk online world where you can fight, trade, work, love or just live your Read More Comment (0)

HIS X850XT Platinum IceQ II @ Viperlair

“Between the HIS card and ATI’s card, the performance and features are identical, so the main advantage of the HIS X850XT-PE is the improved cooler. While we knocked it earlier, it does run quietly and cools on average about 12°C cooler than ATI’s cooler. Other than that, deciding between the cards is going to boil down to pricing and availability.”

Check it out at Viper Lair.

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Gigabyte AirCruiser GN-BC01 802.11g Wireless Desktop Router @ PC Stats

“Today we’re going to bring a bit of European flavour to PCstats with a review of Gigabyte’s AirCruiser GN-BC01 802.11g internal wireless PCI router. This device incorporates a fully wireless home router/Internet sharing device onto a PCI card which you install directly into your desktop PC. The internal form factor of the Wifi Router AirCruiser GN-BC01 is new to us though, so we’re interested to see how it performs and what kind of range it gets compared to conventional external wireless networking routers.”

Check out the review at PC Stats.

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NCsoft: Online Store Open for Business

AUSTIN, Texas, April 6, 2005—For some people, just playing NCsoft’s® popular online games isn’t enough. And for those seeking more out of their game-playing experience, there’s now the PlayNC™ online store. At the new PlayNC store, located at http://store.plaync.com, visitors can purchase items such as t-shirts and posters for their favorite NCsoft Read More Comment (0)

SavRow Katana 3D-9 Portable Workstation @ Hexus

“In terms of performance, the Katana clearly is comparable to a desktop PC. You sacrifice some speed but for DCC this is probably the fastest portable money can buy right now, largely in part because of its high-spec NVIDIA Quadro FX Go1400 graphics accelerator.

Other firms will be close behind, and using the same chassis, too, since it’s one of the few available that can take two hard disk drives and two optical drives. But simply put, SavRow got there first. “

Check it out at Hexus.

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Aerocool GT-1000 Gold-Plated Heatsink Review @ MikhailTech

“As you may have guessed, the entire heatsink is gold plated. This is more of a cosmetic feature, but it doesn’t hurt performance either. There are a total of 36 thin copper fins with 3 heatpipes coming up from the thick copper base on each side. This is a typical setup for heatpipe-style coolers. The little black mini-heatsink at the bottom offers no real cooling benefit; as we’ll see shortly it has more to do with installation. You’ll also find an aluminum shroud surrounding the cooler with mounting holes for 80mm and 92mm fans on both sides. This allows you to place fans on both sides of the GT-1000, though it’s not really necessary. Finally, there’s also an aluminum carrying handle up top so you don’t get your greasy fingers all over that shiny gold (like I did).”

Check it out at MikhailTech.

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Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R120 @ InsaneTek

“Cooler Master introduces the first true all-in-one watercooling kit that’s ready to go right out of the box. A kit like this is a good first step for future watercooling enthusiasts.”

Check out the review at InsaneTek.

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Evercool HPC-925 Ice-Man Heatpipe Cooler Review @ 3D Xtreme

“Today 3DXtreme has the pleasure of reviewing a new cooler offering from Evercool, the HPC-925 Ice-Man. This cooler uses heatpipe technology to provide a cooling solution for a range of processors from AMD K7 and K8 to Intel P4’s. While we’ve seen a lot of heatpipes and have had mixed results, can we expect this one to be any different? Let’s find out…”

Check it out at 3D Xtreme.

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Asus Extreme N6600TOP/TD/128M/A Videocard Review @ PC Stats

“The Asus Extreme N6600TOP/TD/128M/A PCI Express x16 videocard uses a vanilla GeForce 6600 GPU, but backs it up with Samsung GDDR3 memory (128MB, 2.0ns DRAM). ASUS has also set the GPU and memory clock speeds of this card considerably higher than that of a stock GeForce 6600, accordingly the speeds are 400Mhz core and 900MHz memory. The Asus Extreme N6600Top videocard natively supports TV-Output as well as dual analog monitors (care of the included DVI-analog converter). The N6600TOP installs into a PCI Express x16 slot, and is SLI compatible too.”

Check out the review at PC Stats.

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NGO Presents Glonim V1.41

NGOHQ has released Glonim 1.41 which is a Windows tweaker.

● Add animations in many styles to when most windows open and close.
● Tile your own bitmap images on the back of windows and application backgrounds.
● Make windows transparent whilst they are being dragged.
● Change the window styles to put shadows behind windows.
● Make the Taskbar partly transparent, adjust its transparency in realtime, and put a bitmap on it on pre-XP machines.
● Put free memory, the day of the week, or your own custom (short) caption in the Start button.
● Remove the shading behind desktop icon text on pre-XP systems.
● Exclude applications if you want it to.
● it’s fast, easy to use, requires only a small amount of memory, it is compatible with practically any application, does not require any installation, and it works on almost all 32-bit Windows PCs.

You can check it out at NGOHQ.

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EPoX EP-5LWA+ i925XE Mainboard @ Hexus

“EPoX, with its EP-5LWA+ i925XE motherboard, has done things a little differently that most other tier-1 manufacturers. Whereas they’re happy to load on every conceivable feature known to man and bundle in everything but the kitchen sink, EPoX has been more conservative. The end result is a motherboard that’s comparatively light on features, but, crucially, comes in at £30 or so cheaper than the competition. £120 or so buys you a capable Alderwood board that’s laid out well, has decent overclocking options and utter stability.”

Check it out at Hexus.

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[H]ard|OCP 500 Q2-05

“Let’s face it; we all want new hardware to push our computer systems to the next level. However, some of those new components can be hard on the wallet, so we’re here to show you what can be done with $500 while keeping an eye on performance and future upgradeability. This guide does assume that you are upgrading a current system in which you can still use your case, power supply, and drives.”

Check out the article at Hard|OCP.

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Lian Li PC-V65 Plus Aluminum Case @ Overclocker Cafe

“How many times have you drooled over a high end case and just started dreaming. ‘If I had that case, I’d put in some 120mm fans and some extra duct work and replace all the chrome screws with black ones and get a color coordinated LCD thermal display and… and…’ We’ve all had that dream at one time or another. Well apparently, so have the folks at Performance PCs. They have basically taken a Lian Li PC-60, already a fantastic box, and pulled out all the stops with Lian Li accessories as well as lots of other mods to make one of, if not the most functional case on the planet. The PC-V65 Plus is not for the faint at heart with a $339 price tag. Can a case really be worth that much? Read on and let’s pour over this box and you be the judge.”

Wow, $339 for a case! Check out the review at Overclocker Cafe.

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Gizmo! Hi-Speed USB 512MB Flash Drive @ Xtreme Resources

“The USB Flash drive technology is becoming more popular as each day passes. Since flash drive technology is progressing at a rapid rate and newer drives are faster, larger and more affordable, many users find them as an easy way out from the restraints of the old, very limited capacity and slow floppy disk drives and the single write capability of the optical disks. Flash disks are progressing because of their high speed and ease of use, they are similar to small hard disk drives that fit into your pocket and you can simply and quickly utilize by placing them into an USB slot. Crucial took a step forward with their Gizmo! Flash drive design, releasing the 3rd version of their USB Flash drive several weeks ago, claiming it to be smaller and faster than previous models. Let us put the new Flash drive to the test and see what the little Gizmo drive can really do.”

Check out the review at Xtreme Resources.

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Epox 9NPA+ Ultra Motherboard Review @ Motherboards.org

“Expansion options on the board are varied and worthy of note. EPoX includes 3 PCI Express X1 slots, a PCI Express X16 slot for the video card and 3 regular PCI slots for backwards compatibility. Few PCI Express devices exist at the moment, aside from video cards. The positioning of the PCI Express X16 slot is not the greatest. The PCI Express X16 slot is directly above the IDE controller ports. This makes airflow a concern of the board. In fact a long video card, like a GEFORCE 6800 Ultra may cause the first IDE port to be covered. Using our standard GEFORCE 6800GT reference board caused the end of the video card to rest against the first IDE cable. The positioning of the PCI Express X1 slots and PCI slots allows for 2 PCI devices and 3 PCI Express devices to be installed, even when a 2-slot video card is installed.”

Check it out at Motherboards.org.

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SWG: RoTW: Preview at Gamespot

“Going online in most massively multiplayer games usually involves creating a pointy-eared elf character to venture into a persistent world where hobgoblins guard piles of treasure, and where thousands of other players await to help you wallop said hobgoblins and relieve them of said treasure. It’s a slightly different story in Star Read More Comment (0)

D&D Online: Alpha Sign-ups now available!

Turbine, Inc. has officially started taking Alpha Program player registrations as it unlocks the gates to Stormreach, the frontier city from the highly-anticipated MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons® Online. “Fans have long waited to venture into the far away world and epic fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons Online, and now Turbine is anxious Read More Comment (0)

Dungeon Siege 2: Preview at Killer Betties

Dungeon Siege 2 from Gas Powered Games and Microsoft is nearing release. They were kind enough to send me a preview build, which included about 6 hours of the potential 60 hours gameplay that is going to be available in release. I spent the last few days playing through it. I don’t Read More Comment (0)

Dungeon Siege 2: Games Domain Preview

“The original Dungeon Siege was criticized for being too linear and a little thin on the gameplay. The common joke was that it was an interactive screensaver where you sometimes had to tell your character to drink a health potion. And although this was obviously an exaggeration — sometimes you drank a Read More Comment (0)

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion: Evil Avatar Interviews Bethesda Softworks

bapenguin: Lets talk about the shadow comment Kathode. We’ve seen lots of screenies, but no shadows yet Jashin: Hold it. You can’t get into shadows just like that! kathode: Heh bapenguin: Haha Jashin: Start with graphics first! bapenguin: Works for me. Jashin: Oblivion’s pretty easy on the eyes, wouldn’t you agree, bap? Read More Comment (0)

Age of Empires III: CaVG Interviews Lead Designer Greg Street

Computer and Video Games caught up with AoE III’s Lead Designer, Greg Street. In a previous interview, you said that one of the reasons for choosing AoE III’s time period was that, despite military technical advancement, combat fundamentals of the period weren’t too dissimilar to those portrayed in Age of Kings. Is Read More Comment (0)