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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 8/2008 )
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
When someone asks a question of our forum members like this one, you know there is another victim of overclocking addiction. This addiction can be serious, and tends to start with just a few tweaks to your graphics card using the automated process included in the drivers. Next, someone will give them a little bit of BIOS advice which usually leads to memory tweaking and before you know it they are over volting and decrying the evils of synchronous busses. Some extreme cases even go so far as to begin modding and buying non-standard cases that make it easier to swap out parts.
Then come the third party tools and hardware modification to squeeze just a few more megahertz out of your graphics. Eventually, all hardware in the house like DVD players and receivers are tossed out to be replaced by more PCs, allowing them to enable their addiction from every room in the house, no matter what they migth be doing. Once they post all of their hardware on the PC Perspective Trading Post, so fellow victims can pick and choose what they would like and offer their hardware in trade ... all is lost. Don't worry too much, victims of OC addiction tend to be sedate and harmless ... unless you take their Internet connection away.
Josh Walrath | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
A few days ago I put up a post that covered some changes that we were going to see shortly from AMD in the channel. The one thing that stuck out was the lack of any mention of 45 nm parts coming down the pipeline. Usually the channel knows about these products a month or two in advance of the public, though of course news typically leaks out from these partners to the press fairly quickly in some instances. 45 nm is going to be a big deal for AMD for two reasons; the first is that it is a new, smaller, and more power efficient process as compared to the current 65 nm line, the second is that the revised 45 nm Phenom is supposed to be superior in per clock performance as compared to the current Phenom parts (as in dramatically faster, upwards of 20% if some sources are to be believed).
AMD has publicly stated that the first 45 nm parts will be sampled in Q3 of this year (July, August, September), but a full release will not occur until Q4. Unfortunately for desktop users, it appears as though the initial production will focus on server level parts. This is not terribly new or exciting, as AMD has done this in the past. Remember the Athlon MP showing up several months before the desktop version, the Athlon XP? How about Opteron hitting servers before the Athlon 64 on socket 754 was anywhere close to being available? Well, AMD certainly is not Intel when it comes to fab space and the necessary capital investment to introduce a new process in several Fabs at the same time. So, they are forced to do things a bit more piecemeal. In this case they have to ramp up production alongside the current 65 nm production machines. We have already seen near production quality silicon, and some of the earliest working samples have been from the March/April 2008 timeframe. AMD has promised to ramp their 45 nm products as fast as possible, but invariably timelines are always elongated due to a multitude of small (and sometimes large) issues that slowly extend full blown production well beyond initial expectations. So the first 45 nm parts will be aimed at the higher margin server arena, and this will dovetail in there in two ways. One of course is the better performance per clock, and likely higher introductory clock speeds. The other is the lower power consumption that the 45 nm parts will exhibit when run at clockspeeds similar to what current 65 nm Barcelona chips are running. In this case each good chip making it out the line will likely be priced about 2 to 4 times higher than they would if they were desktop parts. And because the server market is not as enamoured with high clockspeeds per socket, the lack of a part that can compete in the 2.8 to 3.0 GHz range will not affect prices. This will help provide AMD a good chunk of income while they work on refining their 45 nm process and the products being produced on it. Three to four months of solid production and tuning will allow for better and faster products to be introduced when AMD can more adequately fill the demand for these faster Phenoms on the desktop market. We can see what the current 65 nm Phenoms have done since the initial introduction of the B3 parts, and we can expect those kinds of improvements (and perhaps a bit more because the current 65 nm process is very mature and not much else can be added or changed as compared to their spanking new 45 nm line). When the first B3 parts hit the street it was pretty rare to get 3 GHz on these parts, but now it is much more common to get upwards of 3.2 GHz without the use of ACC. The latest news is that AMD will only start shipping the faster Phenom desktop parts based on 45 nm in early 2009. These parts will likely be 2.8 GHz and 3.0 GHz parts, and will be much more able to compete with the Core 2 Quads in terms of per clock performance. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel will be producing Core i7 for both the server market and the desktop market. This is probably another reason why AMD is aiming initial 45 nm production at servers, because they will likely have a power/performance lead over Intel in the 2P and 4P spaces. From my understanding, Intel will not introduce 2P and 4P Core i7 server based parts for a few months after the initial introduction of the new architecture. This will at least give AMD some more limelight in this very important market, and perhaps allow them to gain a few more points in market share. Furthermore, considering AMD's asset lite program, I am wondering if some of the spare capacity at AMD's fabs will be utilized by potential chipset and graphics chip production. While this has been talked about in the past, it has always been brushed aside. As we go into next year, and the transition to 45 nm, will AMD finally start shunting newly designed parts to their own lines vs. outsourcing to TSMC and UMC? Well, there is no one reason why this couldn't happen. AMD could easily develop a "standard cell" design which will utilize their specific process tech, and that standard cell will then be used to design GPUs and chipsets. If part of asset lite is to utilize AMD's fabs to their fullest, then this would be a good start. The first parts would have to be 45 nm products, because it really is not economical for AMD to step away from TSMC's 55 nm process and revert to AMD's 65 nm process. When we also consider that AMD still is looking to build the Luther Forest fab, they are going to need products to fill that factory up. Since 2005, AMD has not had a problem keeping up with demand with their current facilities. If they are looking to expand their facilities, then they certainly need to have the products to sell that are produced there. No graphics manufacturer has ever had their own fab, but it does not mean that it could be a losing proposition. With three major product lines being supported (graphics, CPUs, and chipsets) then there really is no reason why AMD could not effectively keep the majority of production in house. The two extra legs of that triumverate would help out in smoothing out production, so that the fabs can be utilized at a high percentage, even when one of the other product lines is doing poorly due to low demand. Also by consistently beating the competition by 6+ months to a new process node will allow more performance and features than the competition can offer per mm square of die space. Until then, we will have to console ourselves with the latest 65 nm Phenoms in dual, triple, and quad core varieties. Luckily we have the Radeon 4000 series of products to keep us company as well. Overall things are looking a lot rosier for AMD, but they are still not out of the fire. 45 nm will help, but further changes in the way AMD is doing business will need to be addressed. Hopefully asset lite will really be the cure for most of AMD's ills.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Motherboard
The motherboard market is going a little crazy; and being quite successful at it. While the days of the $1000 video card have finally passed, the new contender for bizarrely expensive components is the motherboard. ASUS
is at the head of this movement, thanks to their Republic of Gamers series. The newest is the Rampage Extreme, which [H]ard|OCP refers to as an "impressive piece of work" now holds top spot for fastest out of the box. Read about all the extras that ASUS has included, as well as the rather successful overclocking experiments.
"ASUS’ newest ROG (Republic of Gamers) branded board, the Rampage Extreme, sports both style and power. With its water cooled capable chipset cooling system, this just might be the board to beat the heat, and a few benchmarks." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Case and Cooling
AnandTech was so impressed by the NZXT Khaos case that the CyberPower system they reviewed came inside of they had to write a mini-review of the case it's self. There are some interesting ideas that went into this case, from integral watercooling fittings to the ability to house a pair of PSUs to it's handle and wheels. Drop by for a gander.
"We just reviewed the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XI system with a 4.0GHz QX9770 and SLI GTX 280s that comes in an NZXT Khaos case. We thought it would be good to provide a separate look at the case since it has some cool features and looks quite nice. The Khaos case has been available for several weeks now. It is a full-tower offering a lot of space, with five 5.25" drive bays and eight 3.5" drive bays for hard drives. The front has two large 120mm fans preinstalled. In the top-back are two additional 120mm fans that will provide additional airflow to the CPU area, one venting upwards and the other blowing out the back." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Tech Knowledge Arena | Subject: Mobile
Tech Knowledge Arena takes a look at the current state of laptop batteries and the new types we can expect to see in the not too distant future. Currently
Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium batteries are the main players, each with different benefits and drawbacks. Soon we may see fuel cell and virus powered laptops.
"When it comes to mobile computing, battery life is of utmost concern. With CPUs getting more powerful people wanting to use their mobile devices for more demanding tasks, batteries are not able to match their pace. Even though all the batteries work on the same general principle the chemical composition of each type differs. Mobile computing batteries have undergone many changes over the past several years and at present there are three discrete battery types on the market. Let’s take a closer look at each type." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
If what The Inquirer reports on is true and not a Photoshopped image,
someone has managed to get cards from the two different companies to work together. In this case, the nVIDIA card was handling the graphics while the Radeon was dealing with Physx. More proof that Physx can run on ATI products is good to see, but getting cards from the two different manufacturers puts to shame the news about the X58 chipset supporting SLI and the Hydra Engine.
"A LITTLE OVER A MONTH AGO a post at NGOHQ.com left gamers on the edge of their seats. A modded driver was running Physx on an ATI HD 3850. at the time we wrote about it here. Last night we spotted a post on Hardspell showing some more Radeon Physx… this time with a twist. The twist is this: the site claims these to be 9600GT and an HD 3850 running side by side, while the HD 3850 is providing Physx processing in FluidmMark Physx Series. There are 2 screen caps with CPU Physx and GPU Physx as well as GPU-Z. The scores get a solid boost from 759 marks to 2909 marks when ATI takes care of business." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
As Creative learned many years ago, a company can not live by selling sound cards alone. While Auzentech made a pretty big splash by offering pretty nice C-Media based cards (four years ago I would have laughed at that sentiment), it is a market that is not exactly growing, and has competition from the likes of Creative and other seasoned players. While I have enjoyed testing Auzentech cards down the years, I have been worried about how long they could sustain their business model. Designing, manufacturing, and distributing sound cards is not the way to make untold millions. So it seems that Auzentech is more than aware of their potential predicament and they are creating partnerships with other manufacturers that may not have access to the North American market.
The latest addition to Auzentech's lineup come from their new partnership with SIMS Audio. The parent company of SIMS has been in business since 1958 producing musical instruments, and for several years SIMS Audio has been producing high end pro-audio products for the PC. Auzentech of course does not design or produce these products, but since the parent company of Auzentech USA is also Korean, it is nice to see a bit of cooperation between manufacturers to offer users unique and interesting products that were previously unavailable here in North America. For the time being Auzentech will act as the distributor for SIMS Audio products, and from what I see they may have a nice little market for them. 
The Quartet is offered as a professional grade soundcard which is aimed at recording/mixing/editing. No information is given about what sound chip is sitting under that sticker, but I would guess it would be based on the VIA Envy chip. The big product that will be shortly introduced is a professional level multi-function sound editing card. The Quartet is a 4 x 4 channel I/O professional grade soundcard aimed at the home studio. It appears to have some very nice features, but again these are wholy professional in their nature and will not appeal to the casual gamer or audio enthusiast, and likely the price of this card will keep it out of the cases of those aforementioned users. But for those who do professional level of recording and mixing, this could very well be an interesting product for them to consider. The second most interesting products are their professional grade monitor speakers from Infrasonic, which is another member of the SIMS Corporation. No, these are not speakers that attach to your CRT/LCD monitor, but rather speakers that are found in actual recording studios that are aimed at overall accuracy rather than consumer grade stuff which focuses mainly on bass. The Blow series will likely not blow you out of the water, but for those again working on some serious recording, mixing, and editing, these monitor speakers could be just what the Dr. ordered. They promise to be quite accurate, but they are not designed to delve into the deep bass depths. In fact, these speakers are rated to go to 60 Hz, rather than the standard 20 Hz that humans can hear at the lowest. 
The Blow series are studio grade monitor speakers, and they have a studio grade price. The basic pair of Blow4's will retail for around $350. The high end Blow5D should hit around $500. There are a couple of odds and ends scattered about that recording artists might find interesting, but it is good to see Auzentech branch out a bit with the products that they are offering. The choice of SIMS products seems a solid one, and hopefully these products live up to their hype and specifications.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hardware Canucks | Subject: Processor
For just over $200 you can be the proud owner of a new AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core processor, about the same price you could expect to pay for a Q6600. Not only are the prices similar, both operate at 2.4GHz, but unfortunately for AMD the performance doesn't match up well. On the positive side, Hardware Canucks does feel that this is the beginning of an upswing for the K10 architecture and that this series is showing promise. See why in their full review.
"Today we will be looking at one of AMD's latest weapon in winning back the faithful who had lost their way and have been debating stepping into Intel's camp. The weapon that we are referring to is the bug fixed X4; or to be more precise the 2.4ghz 9750 X4 in its B3 revision. In this review we are going to put the X4 through its paces, both in Windows XP and Vista to see what this new processor is made of and compare it against the venerable Q6600." Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: General Tech
The Wolfking Trooper MVP mouse will give you several advantages over other players with lesser mice. Not only can you change the DPI on the fly, the mouse will tell you which setting you are currently at and there is a button that lets you chose your rate of fire. If you want four clicks for every time you hit the fire button, this mouse will let you do it. There were a few dissapointments from the mouse, as far as Overclockers Club was concerned, drop by to see if they bother you as well.
"Now, this mouse is far from being bad - it does have some great advantages over its competitors. The ability to change the speed and DPI of the mouse on-the-fly just by the touching a button was awesome - no need to pause your gaming session just because you realize you forgot to switch the mouse's software to a faster setting. For general browsing, 800 DPI has a very good feel, and when I Alt-Tabbed back into game (I do it a lot), I could just switch back to 1600 or 2400 and quickly get into the action again! Also, being able to get up to four continuous shots in a single click has definitely proven useful in many situations." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Storage
If you are looking for storage in an extra large size, checking out Western Digital's Caviar Black 1TB makes a lot of sense. For reliability, it uses NoTouch drive head technology, meaning that the head is lifted from the platter while the drive idles, reducing the chance of a head crash and increasing the longevity. To others, the most important feature is it's full 7200 RPM speed, a first from WD in terabyte drives. Not only that, from The Tech Report's results this appears to be the fastest 7200 RMP drive currently around.
"While Seagate grabs headlines as the market share leader in the hard drive world, lately we've been more impressed with Western Digital's portfolio. The company's Black and Blue Scorpios fared very well in our latest mobile storage round-up, outpacing rival Momentus drives from Seagate. Then there's the radically redesigned VelociRaptor, which recently raised the bar for Serial ATA hard drive performance while riding a bold new form factor. For enthusiasts, the Caviar SE16 640GB offers the best blend of performance, capacity, noise levels, and overall value of any 7,200-RPM desktop drive. And let's not forget the power-efficient and nearly silent "GreenPower" Caviar GP drives with terabyte capacities." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Show and Expo
Ryan published a summary of NVISION08 yesterday, covering the highlights of the show and going into much more depth that he had time to do while experimenting with liveblogging. There was one big announcement that didn't make it into that article, because nVIDIA had been keeping it under their hats, ready to be pulled out when everyone was getting ready to leave.
Intel's X58 chipset will natively support SLI, no special logic chips required. Suddenly the not so exciting update to Intel's chipset lineup just became the new hot item, supporting both Crossfire and SLI. You won't get a watered down version either, it will support 2, 3 and 4 graphics cards, beating even nVIDIA's chipset which will handle 3 graphics cards plus 1 that handles physics computation. There is a bit of bad news tied in with good, not every motherboard will support SLI. There will be certain models that can, and certain others that will be missing the required code in the BIOS. "NVIDIA decided to wait until the 11th hour to drop a bombshell on the media with information on the first non-NVIDIA chipset to natively support SLI multi-GPU technology. Come in and see all the details of 'how' and 'why' as well as what it means to the rest of the NVIDIA world." Here are some more Shows and Expos articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hexus | Subject: General Tech
Premature rumours of Universal abit's demise, as far as their motherboard business was concerned, were flying around earlier this year, and firmly denied by abit. The rumours turned out to be a dire warning, as this morning HEXUS has confirmed that abit is shutting down it's motherboard production at the end of the year. They will still support existing products, but all new production will cease at the close of 2008. You can still expect to see a mobile Internet device from them in the near future, so the company is not completely shutting down. This may spell trouble for other second teir motherboard makers.
On the other hand, Steve Jobs is still not dead. "HEXUS.channel can exclusively confirm that Taiwanese technology company abit, which is associated primarily with high-end and gaming mainboards, will stop producing all mainboards at the end of 2008. HEXUS.channel has confirmed this as fact from sources close to South East Asian distributors, all of which will be notified by their abit sales contacts from today onwards. Apparently abit will continue to deliver mainboards until the end of the year and will honour RMAs and warranties for three years subsequently. Rumours of abit's demise from mainboards were circulating widely last May, prompting an emphatic denial from abit. Our sources tell us that abit still intended to continue with mainboards at the time and that this decision was only made in the last couple of weeks." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Lounge | Subject: Graphics Card
nVIDIA has displayed a fondness for odd memory buses and sizes recently. It started with the 640Mb 8800GTS and now continues with the EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB FTW, with a 448 bit memory bus. In the testing over at The Tech Lounge, they decided that this is their preferred card over the GTX 280, thanks to reduced power consumption, noise and heat as well as price. Read on and see if you agree.
"The GTX 260 is exceptionally powerful, quiet, even power-miserly. It too has dropped in price--you can find them for around $200 (!) with a rebate, anyway--although EVGA's FTW is... more. However, I believe that the price premium is totally fair with the Step-Up Program, warranty, and ridiculous overclocking potential. If the 280 is a heavyweight, then the 260 is a ninja. And everyone knows that ninjas are cooler." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Online | Subject: Case and Cooling
If you have never heard of Topower, you are not alone. That didn't stop Overclockers Online from reviewing the PowerBird 900W. Buying a PSU, especially a high wattage model, from a company you've never heard of is not usually a good idea, but you can feel safe with Topower from the test results in the review. Six 12V lines of 20A each, modular cabling and a nice finish on the paint job add to an already solid product.
"For Topower's first showing here at Overclockers Online, they have done a great job. The PowerBird series combines the best of performance, features, and of course, affordability. For the $200 dollar range, Topower has its audience sorted out. While the PowerBird isn't a value oriented power supply, for the price, it's a solid contender in the high end power supply market." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Case and Cooling
Spotswood has a very interesting idea for a case, a kick drum. Available in three sizes, and with an optional kit that allows you to put drum skins on the case. Without the drum kit, you simply have a cylindrical casing for your PC, with included mounting brackets and such that will make it a little easier to install than a home made case. AnandTech
still doesn't recommend this case for anyone who is just getting into building their own PCs, this is a case for those with a bit more experience.
"In our search for something workable, we stumbled upon a very interesting oddity at Spotswood Custom Computers: a round, wooden PC case. It even looks like a kick drum. Hell, you can even get one with drumheads on it. How awesome is that for an extension of music room décor? Of course, with look taken care of, we do need to investigate functionality. This thing needs to be capable of everything any other computer case is able to handle and more. Can it meet your look-and-feel needs while also providing a robust computing solution?" Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Slashdot | Subject: General Tech
As more information slowly bleeds out of Blizzard, we begin to get an idea of what StarCraft II is going to look like. The newest preview movie covers a Terran assault on a Zerg base (choose the HD version or it will look more like gameplay from the original Gauntlet). You can also follow links that discuss how the single player campaign will work, and why you will be limited in troop tech at the beginning and how to get the more expensive troops as you progress.
"Blizzard had a playable demo of StarCraft 2 running at Leipzig, and Kotaku's Michael McWhertor had a chance to sit down and spend some time playing the Zerg. The Zerg weren't available in previous demos; the Protoss and Terran campaigns were showcased earlier. GameSpy took the opportunity to interview two Blizzard employees about what people can expect from the game. Gameplay footage is also available which shows a Terran vs. Zerg battle." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Slashdot | Subject: General Tech
nVIDIA has
no plans to get into the x86 CPU business according to one of their SVPs, Chris Malachowsky. They are quite happy to be the bigger fish in a pond with only two fish and a few minnows, as opposed to opening themselves up to the fierce competition in the CPU marketplace. See as how they are currently having trouble defending their place at the top of the GPU food chain from
AMD, that seems like a smart plan. Follow the link at Slashdot for more information on this as well as a few shots at Larrabee.
"A senior vice president of Nvidia has denied rumours that the company is planning an entry into the x86 CPU market. Speaking to PC Pro, Chris Malachowsky, another co-founder and senior vice president, was unequivocal. 'That's not our business,' he insisted. 'It's not our business to build a CPU. We're a visual computing company, and I think the reason we've survived the other 35 companies who were making graphics at the start is that we've stayed focused.' He also pointed out that such a move would expose the company to fierce competition. "Are we likely to build a CPU and take out Intel?" he asked."I don't think so, given their thirty-year head start and billions and billions of dollars invested in it. I think staying focused is our best strategy." He was also dismissive of the threat from Intel's Larrabee architecture, following Nvidia's chief architect calling it a 'GPU from 2006' at the weekend." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: 3DCenter | Subject: Processor
Yesterday AMD sent out a nice little email to their channel partners detailing some upcoming products that will be detailed more thoroughly on September 1. The first bit of info is that an updated version of the Phenom 9950 is going to be released, and the big news about this is that the TDP has been dropped from 140 watts to a much more palatable 125 watts. I have a sneaking suspicion that the 9950 that AMD sent me with the 790GX motherboard is one of these 125 watt processors, because at full bore it is approximately 64 watts higher in power at the socket than the 9350e (which is a 65 watt processor) on an identical system. This is good news for AMD, as their top end processor is now easier to get a motherboard for. It also should give a little bit more headroom for overclocking. AMD's 65 nm process has certainly had an interesting history, and they have certainly refined it enough to make their quad core parts a lot less power hungry than they initially were.
The second announcement is that a new Black Edition product will be hitting the streets, this time based on the Toliman core. The new Phenom 8750 BE will have the same 2.4 GHz clockspeed as the non-unlocked version, but considering AMD's progress in getting better performing Phenoms out the door as of late, it should be pretty easy to take these numbers to 3.0 GHz and above. Throw in a dose of ACC and it could be a pretty cost effective enthusiast part for the AMD side. This appears to still be a 95 watt part. While it is not exactly new and exciting, it is another good option for people working within a set budget who want multi-core performance and the ability to tweak their processors. The final announcement deals with the legendary "Kuma" processor. Originally AMD was going to release a dual core version based on the Phenom architecture shortly after Phenom came to market. This was not to be. Then came rumors that Kuma was cancelled and the first dual core part based on the Phenom architecture would be a 45 nm part and aimed at the budget arena. Apparently that was just a rumor, and Kuma is in fact coming to town. The first iterations of this product may not be mind-boggling though. Many had assumed that since it was a dual core version of Phenom, that it would be clocked significantly higher without breaking 65 watts. This does not appear to be the case though, as some leaked materials point to the fastest Kuma product being 2.3 GHz and possibly a 45 watt part. AMD is going to offer the high end Kuma as a Black Edition, so overclocking this part could be somewhat interesting. I would imagine that the upper end of the OC spectrum would be near the same as what the current Phenom Black Editions are able to do, but these still should pull less power at that speed and be slightly cooler. AMD is not sitting still while they are ramping up 45 nm production, and they certainly cannot afford to considering that the first 45 nm parts will all be aimed at the server market where margins are a whole lot fatter. Until enthusiasts can get their hands on desktop 45 nm parts at the end of this year, they will have to be content to continue playing with these more refined 65 nm Phenom parts. On September 1 we should be hearing a lot more about these upcoming parts.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Madshrimps | Subject: Memory
As watercooling becomes a more popular solution, we are seeing more components that are built with watercooling in mind. One of the more recent is the OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Flex II Water Cooled Memory, running at 2Ghz with 8-8-8-30 timings @ 2T. Not only did OCZ set these modules up to allow for watercooling, they include a full set of water-cooling adapters and tubing. Head to Madshrimps to see how these modules perform.
"Today we take a look at OCZ latest addition to the Flex series : the Flex II DDR3 kit. As a matter of fact, this is our first DDR3 review in the house - better late than never I suppose - so have a look what DDR3 water cooled at 2Ghz can bring to your doorstep." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Mechanic | Subject: Mobile
One segment of the market that just hasn't grown the way enthusiasts would like is the ability to make your own laptop. The 15" laptop chassis that OZC provides is fairly customizable, except for one small component. You are stuck with a 8600M GT as your graphics chip, that is not customizable. Check out the full deal at PC Mechanic.
"If you usually build your own desktop PC, you may have toyed with the idea of building your own laptop? Unfortunately, laptop barebones are quite hard to get by, unless you put out an order for a few thousand from your favorite ODM. OCZ is looking to change this, by letting you customize – and build – your own 15-inch gaming laptop." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: Graphics Card
NVIDIA continues to offer consumers more choice with the addition today of the GeForce 9400 GT. The GeForce 9400 GT delivers unsurpassed value by enabling end users to enjoy gaming, HD video, enhanced visual effects, and smoother Vista performance for retail prices as low as $59.
So far there only seems to be one place to get it, we will keep you posted as others appear.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
On the second day of Ryan's second foray into live coverage of a show, new features have been added, along with new content. First off you enter your email for a reminder to arrive before his coverage starts, secondly we have been promised live video, to make it feel even more like you are there. If you missed yesterdays coverage of Jen-Hsun's keynote, it is still available.
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: General Tech
NVISION 08-SANTA CLARA, CA - AUGUST 26, 2008 - NVIDIA Corporation today announced that Futuremark Games Studio has selected NVIDIA PhysX technology for its upcoming first-person shooter game, Shattered Horizon, which was officially unveiled last week at the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany. "Shattered Horizon has a real space setting that offers gameplay, tactics, and freedom of movement that cannot be found in any other shooter," said Jukka Mäkinen, Head of Futuremark Games Studio. "PhysX is essential in helping our game designers create a realistic and fun zero-gravity combat experience." Shattered Horizon is a multiplayer first-person shooter where players fight in zero gravity surrounded by rocky debris from a huge explosion on the Moon. With simple and intuitive controls players have complete freedom of movement to create gameplay and tactics impossible in games constrained by gravity. The game's stunning lighting effects and zero gravity physics give the look and feel of real space, bringing to life an extraordinary and epic vision of the future. NVIDIA PhysX technology is the world's most pervasive development platform for physics acceleration in interactive entertainment. Consisting of a robust physics engine, API, and middleware software, NVIDIA PhysX technology provides developers the ability to add additional levels of realism into their games across all major gaming platforms, including Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. On the PC, PhysX technology harnesses the power of any CUDA-enabled general-purpose parallel computing processor, including any NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series or higher GPU, to handle 10-20 times more visual complexity than what's possible on today's traditional PC platforms. All of the 80 million plus GeForce 8 Series and higher GPUs in the field are CUDA-enabled, the largest installed base of general-purpose, parallel-computing processors ever created. "We are excited to be working with Futuremark on their first original game," said Roy Taylor, NVIDIA vice president of content relations. "By utilizing the advanced features that NVIDIA PhysX technology provides, Shattered Horizon will deliver a compelling, visual, and highly interactive experience to gamers." NVIDIA PhysX technology is already included in more than 140 shipping titles for Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and the PC. For more information on NVIDIA PhysX technology, please visit: www.nzone.com/physx. For more information on Shattered Horizon, please visit: www.shatteredhorizon.com 
Crates ... in space!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: General Tech
ArcSoft, Inc. announced today that ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, its universal multimedia player, now supports NVIDIA CUDA which provides DVD upscaling through Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Devising its SimHD post processing technology with NVIDIA CUDA, ArcSoft is accelerating TotalMedia Theatres DVD upscale performance on GPUs to deliver viewers a close-to-HD video from the standard definition multimedia files and DVDs, offering them a sharper and more vivid picture in real time. "The newly released, CUDA-powered SimHD technology is available in TotalMedia Theatre to allow viewers to obtain a HD-like viewing experience from not only DVDs, but also other standard definition multimedia files,"said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group. "We are pleased to be partnering with NVIDIA to deliver excellence in high-definition video on the PC." "CUDA provides our software partners an environment to develop high-level applications utilizing NVIDIA GPU accelerations," said Patrick Beaulieu, NVIDIAs Product Marketing Manager, Multimedia Group. "ArcSoft SimHD technology in TotalMedia Theatre sets a great example which harnesses the power of NVIDIA GPUs for much-enhanced video processing." TotalMedia Theatre utilizes general purpose GPUs (GPGPU) to provide sufficient power for intensive post processing technology such as SimHD. The application is compatible for use with NVIDIA GeForce 8 and 9 series GPUs. ArcSoft will continue working to deploy other technologies on NVIDIA CUDA. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre with SimHD technology will be available in Q4, 2008. For a live demonstration, visit NVIDIA (booth 220) at NVISION 08, taking place at the San Jos McEnery Convention Center in downtown San Jose, CA. For more information about the product, please visit http://www.arcsoft.com/intouch/totalmediatheatrepr.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Extremetech | Subject: General Tech
If you remember the original SideWinder, you have good idea what the new X5 model looks like. Otherwise, ExtremeTech's description of it being "loosely inspired by Master Chief from Halo and the Mazda Senku concept car" is fairly apt. The new model includes the ability to program macro buttons and higher DPI, but retains the originals extra large size. As a MMORPGer or FPSer you may like the idea of the "spin on a dime" button, and if you have hands that swallow smaller mice, you may want to invest in one of these.
"Though it looks like the SideWinder from a year ago, the X5 doesn't behave exactly the same. This "lite" version doesn't have
weight tuning options, removable Teflon pads, or an LCD screen. Microsoft felt these features were non-essential for a gaming
mouse, but they did leave in what is important: three on-the-fly dpi switching buttons, two vertical side buttons, and a fast
and accurate laser sensor. Dpi can be dipped as far down as 200dpi, and as high as 2000dpi, which is plenty fast, and slow,
for the versatile gamer."
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Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Techware Labs | Subject: Case and Cooling
Thermaltake's DuOrb CPU cooler bears a resemblance to their DuOrb VGA cooler, save for the size. This cooler is large enough to fit a pair of fans and looks a little like a Chinook helicopter, if said helicopter had differnet coloured LEDs on it's blades. Techware Labs liked the performance they saw, though you may find some careful measurements of your motherboard, especially the RAM placement, before you pick up one of these coolers.
"Bigger is better right? Then it follows that two fans are better than one in which case the DuOrb not only has two but adds heatpipes and enough bling to satisfy even the most aggressive case modder. We stuck the DuOrb into our test rig for some overclocking and testing. Does the DuOrb cool as good as it looks?" Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Show and Expo
It seems there are some cranky people just waiting to get the attention of attendee's to NVIDIA's NVISION 08 conference! We are not sure who is passing these leaflets out, but Ryan was accosted by them and forced to take pictures of their propaganda! Ok, maybe he wasn't forced, but Ryan does appreciate a bit of drama now and then!
The first obviously talks about the potentially large number of "flawed" chips that NVIDIA has sold to OEMs around the world. While these are mainly relegated to notebooks, accusations have surfaced that nearly all of NVIDIA's current chip inventories could be affected by this substrate flaw. 
The second is the Wall Street Journal article talking about the chip issues that NV is having, and I am guessing this was given out to give a bit of background to what is happening.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: bit-tech | Subject: System
mCubed has just released an HFX Mini HTPC case, which promises a cheap alternative to other passively cooled HTPC cases. Unfortunately, from bit-tech's testing it looks like they managed to get both meanings of the word cheap to apply. While certainly less expensive that other similar cases, the use of riser cards and the inconveniently tight design mean you should read through the article carefully before running out and buying one.
"If you compare it to other passively cooled HTPCs on the market, like the Hush PC UK-E1200 or the Hoojum Cubit PCs then it is undoubtedly cheaper -- if only by a few hundred pounds. Moreover by shopping around on eBay for the internal components you can knock off considerably more of that price. What you get in overall quality is not that much different from the competitors' machines. The case is well-built, all sorts of necessary bits and bobs are included, and some aspects of it are very cleverly and well designed indeed. On the other hand, I get the feeling that mCubed is not entirely honest with its customers. It is definitely not trying to rip people off, the price of most of its components being commensurate with their high quality. But the riser cards seem rather extravagantly priced, you need to buy a lot of "optional" extras to make for a complete kit which tots up the price, and while being squarely pitched at the consumer whose only previous experience has been to put together a generic PC, it becomes quite obvious that at least a medium level of modding skill is required to make a decent system." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
At [H]ard|OCP, you can catch two reviews of nVIDIA's best offerings, the ASUS ENGTX280 TOP and ASUS ENGTX260 TOP. The GTX280 will set you back about $500, the GTX260 is just over $300. The price is perhaps the biggest hurdle facing nVIDIA; certainly the GTX280 can beat an HD4870, but considering that AMD's card can be had for under $300, and the HD4870 X2 for $500, can the performance gap justify the price?
"Prices continue to drop on GeForce GTX 280 video cards, and the ASUS ENGTX280 TOP is now priced very competitively; but is it a great value? We'll compare it to a stock GeForce GTX 280, a Radeon HD 4870 X2 and a Radeon HD 4870 in real-world gaming scenarios to find out!" Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
With his notebook in hand, to liveblog a second conference, this time NVISION08. The conference isn't due to start until 1pm PDT, so there is still a bit of a wait for it to begin. Don't forget about it, they're announcing a 3D 22" LCD, and have guests like Buzz Aldrin, Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage, Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose. Even better is the always inflammatory Jen-Hsun Huang, who will be opening up the conference. If you miss the liveblog, you can always read the full text after the fact, and talk about it in the forums.
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