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:: PC Perspective . News
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.:Latest News
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
When it is your brain that has trouble starting up in the morning it is usually fairly easy to fix, with a massive influx of caffeine. When it is the PC that has trouble starting up, things can be a little more complicated, but is usually fixable with a little help from your friends. While you are fiddling around with your BIOS, and happen to have a newer B3 stepping Phenom, you might want to make sure the TLB fix has been disabled on your motherboard, and up the speed a bit to prove that we do still overclock here. If the heat is what is stopping you from getting those extra MHz, you could always try watercooling, you aren't the only one who would be trying it for the first time; or just stick with pushing your graphics harder.
However you chose to spend your time on the forums, enhance it with our Podcast, and enhance the podcast by leaving a voicemail or an email at the addresses Ryan mentioned several times ... and please tell us who you are!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Techware Labs | Subject: Storage
As you might expect, the Western Digital VelociRapter 300 GB HDD is focused on speed, though you might not expect it to out pace the 150GB model. That is exactly what happened in Techware Lab's testing however, with this being pretty much the fastest platter drive you can get your hands on. Sure, it will set you back at it's current pricing of a dollar per gigabyte, but look at these benchmarks and say you aren't thinking about it a little.
"Most of us try take advantage of a fast CPU or a ton of RAM, but we seldom remember what sits at the base of our system, remembering all of our operating system data - the hard drive. Today Jason Dumbaugh looks at one of the best performing drives on the market - the VelociRapter by Western Digital. With a 10,000 rpm spindle speed crammed into a 2.5 inch drive we are looking at blazing fast seek times with no compromise in storage space. Could this be the ultimate gaming drive of choice? The only question we are left with is whether or not this hard drive can survive Jason." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers Club | Subject: General Tech
Computer mice are getting population density that would make one think there was silo full of grain in every PC store. It seems that every company even slightly related to PCs have to release a mouse, keyboard or high quality mat. The newest is NZXT with their NZXT Avatar Crafted Series Gaming Mouse. The stats certain match up with other gaming mice, 6469 FPS, 650-2600 DPI, 5.8 Megapixels/second and up to 1000 USB reports/second, as well as claiming to be ambidextrous. Check out the review at Overclockers Club; it will give you something to do until Razer releases a graphics card.
"Your first time doing something is never easy and you never know exactly if you're doing it right or not. So is the Avatar a hit? NZXT definitely got most of it right, not a perfect shot, but nobody can truly achieve that. When it came to speed, not only was it the fastest, but it also allowed for a great level of customizability including four different speed settings, in 600 DPI increments. The Teflon feet might not seem like a big deal, but, surprisingly, it does make a noticeable difference. There is so little friction that it seems like the mouse is hovering over the surface and that gave it a boost on both the precision and comfort scale." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hardware Secrets | Subject: Case and Cooling
During the recent PC Perspective Podcast, you may have heard us mention the evolution of C-states in the CPU while we were discussing the Nehalem's ability to shut off power to certain cores while cranking up the speed of those remaining powered. If you were scratching your head about how that applied, or just need some reminding about what what each of states represents, drop by Hardware Secrets for a refresher.
"In order to save energy when the CPU is idle, the CPU can be commanded to enter a low-power mode. Each CPU has several power modes and they are collectively called "C-states" or "C-modes". In this tutorial we will explain what these modes are, what they do and the modes supported by each processor." Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Lounge | Subject: General Tech
Google's release of the Chrome browser has sparked a huge amount of prognostication from the tech community, much like Android when it was first announced. Tie that in with their win in the broadcast spectrum wars, ensuring that they, and other ISPs, have access to the C-block portion of the spectrum. Things are happening for Larry and Sergei, there is no doubt about that, but what the plan looks like in it's entirety is. The Tech Lounge has one plausible theory you can read about.
"Google wants to change the world. Knowing what they know and not doing anything with it is anathema. Being able to see what people want, how they think, all this is part of their intention to build something different. That isn't a bad thing, they're not out for control in a cravenly sense, and they aren't positioning themselves as a kind of benevolent dictatorship. And Chrome, in its simplicity, telegraphs their plan. Firefox replacement? Hardly. Microsoft replacement? Nothing like that. What Google is working on is an Internet replacement. Or rather, an alternative." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
[H]ard|OCP held off on their review of the HD4870 X2 until it's driver and BIOS had time to mature. They also pitted it against a pair of GeForce GTX 260 in SLI, just to make it fair for nVIDIA. How did it fare? If you are 2560x1600 widescreen gamer, you will want to see the benchmarks.
"The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is here in final form, sporting a new BIOS and brand new drivers, this video card is poised to take the performance crown. We will evaluate real-world gameplay experiences in Crysis, Age of Conan, Call of Duty 4 and Grid concentrating on high-resolution gaming with AA and providing A2A tests." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
A couple of weeks ago a rather large package arrived at our door with the tagline of "graphics card" attached. Hmm, usually they aren't THIS big I thought...
Notice the BFG GeForce GTX 280 card in front of the ECS Hydra GeForce 9800 GTX+ box; that should give you some kind of sense of scale.
Opening up the box we see all the goodness that makes up the ECS Hydra package. Included are two 9800 GTX+ graphics cards with some custom water cooled and active-fan cooled heatsinks, a Thermaltake BigWater 760 IS internal water cooling system and the appropriate fluids, connections and clamps.
The GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards are 55nm G92 GPUs that were initially previewed by us in mid-June as an answer to the AMD HD 4800 series of graphics cards. Notice that the cards are still dual slot designs so you don't really save any case or motherboard spacing by switching to this water cooled solution.
The Hydra-branded Thermaltake BigWater 760IS is a self-contained water cooling kit that we are pretty familiar with. It integrates the radiator, fan, pump and reservoir into a tight little package that rests inside a pair of 5.25" bays in your chassis.
Out the back of the BigWater are a pair of Y-split tube, one labeled for in and one for out. By simply attaching these to the corresponding in/out tubing on the two graphics cards and clamping it all down you will be up and running with a water cooled SLI graphics configuration!
I was a little disappointed to find out that these 9800 GTX+ GPUs are only running at stock settings out of the box: 738 MHz core clock, 1100 MHz memory clock and 1836 MHz shader clock. Obviously with some water cooling going on I expected to see these cards pushed a bit further by the manufacturer but if nothing else you can always overclock them yourself. Pricing is set to be $549 in the US this month setting it up as a strong contender with the likes of the GTX 280 and HD 4870 X2. We will obviously have a full review of the ECS Hydra GeForce 9800 GTX+ up very soon - so check back!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: futurelooks | Subject: Mobile
If you don't have an Altoids tin handy to make a MintyBoost, or just aren't that into creating your own homebrew projects, you may find you really like a company called Ecosol. Their Powerstick, a USB powered portable charger with a big pile of connectors that will let you hook up to and recharge just about anything. Check it out at AnandTech.
"To ensure that all of your portable electronics always have access to an emergency power source, the people at Ecosol created what they call the PowerStick. While it may look like an extra beefy USB flash drive, this handy little device actually serves quite a different purpose. With a 750mAh battery housed within, it can provide an emergency boost in power to your cell phone, BlackBerry, or portable music player." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Memory
If you pick up Corsair's DDR3-2133 kit, you had better make sure you have some experience overclocking, as you won't be able to find a motherboard that supports that speed straight out of the box. AnandTech did make it happen, using a DFI X48 board. Take a look at what they had to go through to get a stable system running these modules.
"When we first learned that Corsair was sending us this $515 kit for testing, we had just finished pushing the ASUS P5E3 Premium to its limits and found it to be a fantastic board for overclocking 1GB memory modules well in excess of 2000MHz. In order to obtain these results we used 2X1GB modules from Cell Shock that are based upon Micron's D9JNL part. These particular modules scaled all the way to 2160MHz at CAS 8 on the ASUS board, although it has to be said it took a decent amount of work getting there. Very impressive of course, but it's also no real secret that few of us really run our PCs with such a setup, simply because the voltages and time required to reach such lofty speeds is more than excessive for 24/7 operation. While the X48 chipset can achieve over 2100MHz with good DDR3, it does so at a real push needing more voltage to hold it'self together than most of us are prepared to use. The other logical choice for high-end DDR3 overclocking is the NVIDIA 790i chipset, but after significant testing, we realized it is no different. In fact, it's not nearly as stable when really pushed to the limit with these modules. Corsair's decision to quickly market a high-speed 2133MHz kit based on Samsung's new ICs certainly roused our curiosity. At the same time, we questioned how such kits would be qualified to run at stock specifications, never mind overclocking. Let's look at our first results." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Extremetech | Subject: Motherboard
When Extremetech reviewed the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme they found a lot to like about it. Full support for up to 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 out of the box, and supporting 1900MHz with a little tinkering on an overclock. It also sports onboard 7.1 sound with plenty of output options and 6 SATA connections. The board wasn't perfect, they ran into a small barrier which was eventually hurdled and didn't stop them from heartily recommending this board.
"You know those motherboards that carry features nobody wants, at a price nobody cares to pay? They have stuff you've never hear of, mysterious applets that you access before the board even posts, and they're touted as revolutionary? This isn't one of those boards, but it could have been. The difference is the price. The Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme costs about 2/3 of what one of those Swiss army boards runs for, and the features it packs are actually useful. It's a rare type of motherboard indeed, and worth a lingering and longing stare from anyone who considers himself a computer guru." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: CHW | Subject: General Tech
Thanks to CHW's sharp eye, or stealthy skills, we have an idea what AMDs processor roadmap for the end of this year looks like. There aren't any huge surprises but it is nice to have the timings confirmed. Let's hope the end of this year has them narrowing the performance gap between Intel's and AMD's chips.
"We have just published a piece of AMD procesor Roadmap for Q4 2008, there is a lot of inteertsting things like AMD Value Client which competes with Via's NANO and Intel's Atom. You can also see Deneb dates for launch and clocks speed." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Case and Cooling
The first ever Xigmatek power supply to hit [H]ard|OCP's test bench is the NRP-HC1001' a 1000W PSU with 4 12V rails. Unfortunately, it seems that Xigmatek spent more time and effort on the promotional material than they did on the PSU it's self. It did pass all of the tests that were thrown at it, but came in at the bottom when compared to other 1000W PSUs. That is not necessarily a problem; it also comes in at the bottom when it comes to it's purchase price.
"The "No Rules Power NRP-HC1001," complies with the newest Intel standard ATX 12V V2.2 and SSI standard EPS 12V V2.91 simultaneously. So this PSU actually follows more rules than others? Should you care and does an extra standard give you anything at 1000 watts?" Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Think Computers | Subject: General Tech
The ViewSonic VX1962wm 19-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor is perfect for someone without enough desk space to fit a 22" or larger LCD, but want the higher resolution that the larger monitors offer. With a 1680x1050 resolution and 2ms response time, it looks good on paper, and Think Computers testing proves that it does well in the real world as well. The colours impressed them, especially when they realized that no backlight bleed into the black portions, and the sleek design also helped win them over.
"Desk space, something we always want to have a lot of but the more gadgets we get the less space we have. Besides a case your monitor probably takes up the most space on your desk. With 22-inch and 24-inch monitors becoming the standard your desk space really becomes limited. Well ViewSonic wants to help you with that problem with the VX1962wm. This 19-inch display has a native resolution of 1680 x 1050, which is the native resolution of larger 22-inch displays. It also features a 2ms response time, 6000: 1 contrast ratio and a very sleek design. Let's takes a look!" Here are some more Display articles from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
AMD's graphics division has certainly been on the ball as of late. The 4000 series of Radeons have catapulted them back into the running, and there are certainly few weaknesses to these parts unlike the 2000 and 3000 series. AMD has also been quite aggressive in going after 55 nm production, and all of their major parts right now use that process node to great success. The HD 3000 series started the kickoff, then their integrated graphics parts quickly followed suit, and finally the 4000 series became the culmination of AMD's 55 nm design experience. NVIDIA has taken a different route for quite some time. Since NVIDIA was badly burned in the GeForce FX era by aggressively pursuing an advanced process that was not quite ready for their design, they have taken a far more conservative approach. While AMD was exploring the 80 nm and 65 nm nodes, NVIDIA kept their GeForce 8 series at 90 nm. When AMD went to 55 nm, NVIDIA had only just started producing their first 65 nm parts about two months earlier.
The 9800 GTX+ is NVIDIA's first foray into the world of 55 nm chips. While it does not add anything new to the old 9800 GTX, it does run faster and slightly cooler/more power efficient. While NVIDIA obviously was planning on utilizing these smaller process nodes, it is likely that their schedule for transitioning to 55 nm was brought forward after they saw the success that AMD had with taking the R600 architecture, optimizing it, and transitioning it to 55 nm as quickly as they did. The latest round of graphics cards almost seems a verification that NVIDIA has been a little too conservative about new process nodes when we see that the 575 mm square + GTX 200 series of cards barely surpass the performance of the 276 mm square RV770. While NVIDIA has relegated a larger transistor percentage into making the GTX 200 a more effective general processing unit, the HD 4800 series do not give up much in terms of overall 3D performance as well as some impressive numbers when it comes to single and double precision floating point operations. This summer NVIDIA did release their 9800 GTX+ cards based on their first 55 nm part, the G92b. NVIDIA had promised that it would be the first part of July when we would see these parts, but it was actually in August when we first started to see them hit the streets. A few weeks is not a huge delay, but it certainly did not do NVIDIA any favors when considering that AMD had their Radeon 4850 out in force. At the beginning of this summer, when the GTX 200 series of cards were released, we started to hear that NVIDIA would be quickly transitioning their GTX 200 production to 55 nm. Some people refrained from buying cards because they expected these parts to start leaking out around early August if some rumor sites were to be believed. Well, it is now in the first week of September and I personally have not heard a single thing about a 55 nm GTX 200 derivative. And I am not entirely sure that NVIDIA will have one out anytime soon. 
While not exactly another 9700 Pro, the HD 4800 series have been giving the folks over at NV a headache. It also forced NV to drastically cut the prices on the new GTX 200 series of cards, which became a bit of an unpopular move with their partners and forced the companies to give early adopters a partial refund. The original G80 chip was big and was designed from the ground up to be a 90 nm part. The G92 was a partially redesigned G80 that was adapted for use on TSMC's 65 nm process. The GTX 200 was also designed from the ground up as a 65 nm part, but its complexity is far greater than that of the G80 or G92. NVIDIA almost doubled the amount of custom designed portions in the GTX 200 (going from 128 SPs to 240 SPs) as well as a much more complex cache heirarchy. My gut feeling here is that NVIDIA is having a harder time porting the GTX 200 design to 55 nm than originally thought. TSMC's 65 and 55 nm processes are quite similar, but from my understanding TSMC did change a few things around at the 55 nm node. So this is not exactly a case of an optical shrink, but there are also some physical material differences that must be accounted for in the design of a new GPU. It looks like the original G92b transition went "fairly" smoothly, but it still was not exactly on time. Now we are dealing with a part with revised SPs as well as the massive 1.4 billion transistor count, and I truly believe that NVIDIA is having a hard time getting the 55 nm versions out the door. If there was ever a chip that needed shrunk, it is the GTX 200. By going to 55 nm they should achieve around a 18% decrease in die size. So instead of the 576 mm square the new chip should be around 488 mm square, which is right around what the old G80 was in terms of die size. The second issue we may be seeing is that yields on their 55 nm process with this new, still large part, could be holding NVIDIA back from releasing these cards in a timely manner. This may not have been a big problem if the prices on the GTX 280 and 260 parts had stayed where they were initially, but because of the price drops NVIDIA cannot afford to release a new part at those prices if there is not enough product to fulfill demand. 
The stock 65 nm GTX 280 gets awfully close to the theoretical 225 watt power limit that can be supported by PCI-E and the 6 pin/8 pin power combination. Even a half node shrink could do wonders for this product. I could certainly be wrong here, and that 55 nm GTX 200s are rolling off the line as we speak and are being implemented into current products without us knowing it. That is likely not the case though, as we saw with the introduction of the G92b parts with the GTX+ moniker. The second part of this post deals with the latest leak about dual core Phenom parts being released by AMD. It appears that the first parts coming to the market will be clocked at 2.3 GHz at the highest, yet AMD is positioning this part as a faster unit than the previous 3.2 GHz Athlon X2. While the Phenom design is faster per clock than the older Athlon, it is not that much faster. We also know that the dual core Phenom, while based on the Phenom architecture, was worked on by a different design team than the quad core Phenoms. This part was always intended to be introduced later than the quad cores, with the older dual core Athlon 64s handling that particular market until the dual core Phenoms were released. Putting 2 + 2 together here, we can likely assume that there are some signficant design changes with the dual core Phenoms as compared to the B3 revision quad core Phenoms. I am guessing that many of the architectural enhancements that will make their way into the upcoming 45 nm parts were first implemented into the dual core Phenom design at 65 nm. So while in fact these parts are running at 2.3 GHz, their performance will exceed that of a dual core Athlon 64 part running 900 MHz faster. We also must figure that the dual core Phenom will be faster per clock than the current quad core Phenoms. So if a user only is focusing on single and dual threaded applications, then the dual core Phenom may be a better buy for the money. This is being positioned as a budget enthusiast/gamer's chip for the time being. 
Does the 65 nm dual core Phenom have more in common with the upcoming (though still distant) 45 nm Phenoms? I'm guessing that it does. So while some folks may be running benchmarks with B3 Phenom chips with two cores disabled, those scores will likely not accurately simulate the performance of these upcoming dual core Phenom parts from AMD. We also have no idea how much overclocking headroom we have with these chips, but from everything that I have heard these chips will not exactly be powder puffs when it comes to performance.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: DriverHeaven | Subject: System
The Cyberpower Gaming Infinity Quad Elite system offers you a lot of power without much work, though it will take a good chunk of your money. You do get what you pay for from Cyberpower; the full review at DriverHeaven certainly proves that. The list of components read like most gamers wish list and the Anubis case is the icing on the cake. Go take a look, but be prepared to feel envious.
"Not everyone wants to build their own PC and with the plethora of hardware available, sometimes it can be tricky getting a high performing system working just the way you want it. If you are less experienced or just fancy having a rig built custom made, for you, then Cyberpower specialise in competitively priced gaming machines. How does a watercooled, overclocked Q9550, ATI HD 4870 X2, 4GB of DDR2 ram, 750 GB Sata II HDD with a 780W PSU all running on an Asus P5Q Pro P45 motherboard sound? What if they sweetened the deal by throwing in the gorgeous Hiper Anubis Case?" Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: General Tech
PAX has been offering hands on time with a several games that fans are waiting with baited breath for. StarCraft 2 was not among them, but Fallout 3 was and AnandTech has posted an HD video of the first glimpses of the world beyond the vault doors. Drop by for a look at what Bethesda has done to one of the best post-apocolyptic games series around.
"Straight from this year's Penny Arcade Expo comes a five part video demonstration of the much anticipated Fallout 3. The demonstration is being shown off using the Xbox 360 hardware. Fallout 3's official release date is October 28th for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, with standard and collector's editions available for all three platforms. Enjoy!" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TECHGAGE | Subject: General Tech
Google's plans to grab ultimate rule the web were moved ahead with the release of Chrome, their new browser. Multiple threads, memory management improvements and various other new features are included in this 'reinvention' of the browser. You can pick up a copy yourself and give it a try yourself, or you could read a bit about it before you jump right in. TECHGAGE is a good place to start if you are going to go that route.
"Sure, the Internet has no shortage of web browsers, but it's not often that someone comes along and tries something different, and believe it or not, it's Google this time around. We're taking a look at the first beta release of their Chrome browser, which happens to be ultra-fast, stable, intuitive and lightweight, all at the same time." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: SiSoftware | Subject: General Tech
London, UK, September 1st 2008 - We are pleased to launch SiSoftware Sandra 2009, the latest version of our award-winning utility, which includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers and networks. At SiSoftware from version to version we focus four key areas of software development to make sure we give our users the best software experience. Quite simply our four drivers are:
Looking at these in more detail:
With each release, we add new support and compatibility for the latest hardware, architectures and operating systems, and this is no exception. SiSoftware continues to work with hardware vendors to ensure the best support for new emerging hardware. New modules
Key features
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: GIGABYTE Technology | Subject: General Tech
City of Industry, CA, August 29, 2008 - GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to today announce the first annual GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship (GO OC) - to be held in Taipei, Taiwan on Thursday, September 25th, 2008. The GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship promises to be the industry's largest global overclocking competition in history with overclockers from 23 countries including Australia, China, France Germany, Greece, HK, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Middle East, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Vietnam battling for first place at the 3F Ballroom of the prestigious Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to the contestants, GIGABYTE has also invited worldwide media here to Taipei to witness first hand history in the making. GIGABYTE regional OC competitions are now in full swing worldwide to decide who has the overclocking skills to qualify as contestants for the GO OC. This is the first time that GIGABYTE has gathered so many of the world's elite overclockers in one venue to showcase their unique overclocking capabilities and fight for the title of worldwide champion, so the competition will be fierce. "GIGABYTE is a proud supporter of the overclocking community and we look forward to hosting the GO OC which will bring together overclockers from around the world," commented Johnson Lin, CEO of GIGABYTE UNITED, INC. "GIGABYTE is devoted to designing high-end performance products that meet the special demands of the enthusiast power user. Hopefully they will all have a good time here in Taiwan and we look forward to seeing them smash several world records." There will be two competition events during the GO OC event, one is "Battle for the Best P45 OC", and the other is "Free Style Contest". The winner will not only gain the title of worldwide overclocking champion, but will also receive more than US$ 5,000 value prize including a cash reward and products provided by GO OC venders. As top overclockers know, first class hardware is the key to achieving a successful record-breaking overclock. That is why GIGABYTE is proud to have industry-leading hardware vendors to sponsor this year's GO OC including Intel, ATI, Corsair and Western Digital.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: Storage
There is a growing business in providing external hard drives as a back up medium. Many of the solutions by companies you have never heard of offer a terabyte or more of storage, no features and will run you over $1000 dollars. On the other side are many of the names that enthusiasts love and trust, offering plenty of features and over a terabyte of storage for well under $1000. Take the device that Tweaktown just reviewed, Western Digital's My Book Mirror Edition which offers a pair of terabyte drives in RAID1. You can back up a full terabyte of data and have it mirrored to a second drive, all for under $400.
"The Western Digital My Book has been around for a few years and has several versions in its product line. Prices range from just under 100 Dollars for the My Book Essential 160 GB to just under 600 Dollars for the Studio Edition 2 TB and features eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire connections. Today we are going to take a look at the Mirror Edition, a dual drive external product that is available in 1 or 2 TB capacities. What makes the Mirror Edition unique in the over saturated external drive market is its ability to store data in RAID 1. The Mirror Edition in RAID 1 stores your data on two drives in full, giving you two copies of everything. Since hard drives can unexpectedly fail, rendering them and the data stored useless, it is important to keep a back up of the data you never want to lose." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Bjorn3D | Subject: General Tech
The new affordable gaming mouse from RAZER has been saddled with a rather unfortunate name, the Salmosa, which sounds like a popular South Asian snack which for some strange reason was filled with funny smelling ground salmon instead of potato, and which might send you to the hospital if you eat it. That aside, if you are looking for a high quality mouse without a dozen extra buttons and a big price tag, check out Bjorn3D's review.
"Ever been in that late night gaming session and find that mysterious red glow coming from your mouse had annoying? Tired of trying to pick from 13 programmable buttons to reload your weapon? Do you just need a Basic two button with scroll wheel mouse that gives you accuracy without all the bells and whistles to many overpriced Mice offer? Our friends over at Razer were nice enough to send us a Razer Salmosa Gaming Mouse for evaluation. They bill it as a Basic Gaming Mouse falling in the mid range DPI category. As always we were excited to get a new mouse at Bjorn3D because sometimes it's not the big expensive items that improve your computing experience. Maybe you just need a good high quality basic Gaming Mouse like the Salmosa or the worlds best Stocking Stuffer for the Holidays. (It's gotta beat that book of Lifesavers we all get) If you ask us keep all the junk in that Stocking and just nail one of these puppies to the wall by the Stocking." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: GIGABYTE Technology | Subject: Motherboard
City of Industry, CA, September 1, 2008 - GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is proud to announce their entire lineup of Intel P45 and P43 chipset based motherboards have just received a DDR2 memory performance upgrade. By upgrading to the latest BIOS, GIGABYTE P45 motherboards are able to support native 1333MHz DDR2 memory, while the GIGABYTE P43 motherboards are able to support 1200MHz DDR2 memory natively. In addition to providing industry-leading memory support, GIGABYTE has equipped their latest P45 and P43 motherboards with a comprehensive toolkit of features including Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced, GIGABYTE's Ultra TPM, Smart Backup - Plug & Play Hardware RAID, and a host of other features that not only maximize performance and energy efficiency, but also provide the highest levels of data security. GIGABYTE P45/P43 Unique Features New GIGABYTE Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced
Designed with advanced users in mind, Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced allows users to take advantage of energy savings with or without the use the Dynamic Energy Saver Utility, for always-on, hardware based power savings. GIGABYTE has also retooled Dynamic Energy Saver to allow overclockers to experience the benefits of multi-gear power phase switching while overclocking, providing ultra stable, ultra smooth overclocking performance. Ultra TPM - Industry's highest level of data Security via onboard TPM
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
The NZXT Tempest is rather aptly named as it has a total of six 120 and 140mm fans and has enough space inside to accommodate watercooling if you are so inclined. Either way it will give you a nice quiet case that keeps your temperatures reasonable, and it's other features will keep you happy as well; which is why Lee gave it a PC Perspective Gold Award. One warning should come with the case ... the top exhaust fans certainly remove a significant amount of heat, but if you like to enjoy a cold beverage while you surf or game, be careful, those blow holes also offer a way to accidentally share some of your beverage of choice with your PC.
"The NZXT Tempest mid-tower enclosure is a good looking case that delivers excellent airflow with minimal noise. The steel chassis is sturdy and provides solid value. Nine interchangeable drive bay locations permit a lot of flexibility and there is room inside for up to eight HDDs with active air cooling. Overall I like this case a lot and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good balance between excellent features and great value." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Guru of 3D | Subject: Graphics Card
RivaTuner 2.10 has arrived at the Guru of 3D. The newest version brings much wanted support to all those owners of new nVIDIA 200 series cards as well as the 4800 series from AMD, allowing those who have grabbed the new cards more overclocking options that are available in the drivers. SLI/Crossfire is still giving them some problems though.
"Rivatuner has been updated towards version 2.10 In this release we have included a huge number of new stuff to keep you busy, obviously GeForce 9x00 support has been added as well as ForceWare GeForce drivers up-to 177.92 and AMD ATI Catalyst 8.8 support. With this release comes support for ATI Radeon 4800 class graphics adapaters and better GeForce GTX series 200 support as well." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Elite Bastards | Subject: General Tech
PAX is the big name in gaming conferences after helping E3 finally pass away, remembered as a good conference gone bad. It is not the only conference going; there was Gamefest 2008 (aka Microsoft Game Technology Conference) in June and July which had some interesting news come out of it. Elite Bastards showed up and got an ear-full about DX11 and what it will mean for gamers and future games. Microsoft describes DX11 as strict superset of DX10(.1) and as backwards compatible, in the sense that DX9 compatible hardware will be able to handle the new instructions, though it seems it will be Vista only. Read on for a better idea of how DX has changed.
"So, with DirectX 10 and 10.1 improving so much in Microsoft's eyes, where do they head next with the API? In short, by building upon DirectX 10 by making DirectX 11 a superset of its functionality, adding in some new features (which we'll be looking at in this article) while improving scalability, performance, and the ease of development for the platform. Perhaps most important of all (considering the controversy of DirectX 10 being Windows Vista only) is the news that DirectX 11 will be available on both Windows Vista and any next-generation version of Windows, and will run quite happily on DirectX 9 and 10 hardware - Indeed, DirectX 10 graphics board owners might even gain some benefits from the move to DirectX 11, as we'll discuss later." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
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: |
