VoodooPC - No CrossFire Either?

Subject: Editorial | October 4, 2005 - 04:08 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Rahul Sood, the founder of VoodooPC, has posted a blog entry on the lack of availability of CrossFire products.  Even more interesting is the fact that even though his company is listed as a launch partner for CrossFire, they haven't even received samples yet. 

When AMD, Intel, ATi, or NVIDIA launch something big, they always try to get companies like VoodooPC to test it ahead of time, offer feedback, and perhaps use it in our review systems.

Inquirer to Online Media: You are all Patsies!

Subject: Editorial | September 30, 2005 - 01:03 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Wow, this is quite the morning story.  I was sent a link today from

Take the Time to Reflect

Subject: Editorial | September 12, 2005 - 06:11 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in history.  Chances are even if you didn't remember it on your own you were reminded by the shows on TV and the flags at half mast.  I ran into a suprisingly high amount of people over this weekend that seemed completely oblivious to what importance this date had for us. 

Though I don't want to get into a political rant here, but I can remember on the first anniversary of 9/11/01 how the country had changed in the course of one year.  In the months after 9/11 everyone was involved

ECS Editor's Day

Subject: Editorial | August 30, 2005 - 04:12 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

As you might have been able to tell from my recent post enews showing the upcoming CrossFire motherboards from ECS, I was recently in attendence at the ECS Editor's Day in San Jose last week.  ECS has always been one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards in the world, but they have not been known to be an enthusiast class motherboard maker.  Recently, this has begun to change, as you can see by reading our

Interesting IDF Thus Far

Subject: Editorial | August 24, 2005 - 11:46 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Even though I wasn't able to make it out to this fall's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, I was still able to get a hold of the same information being presented to those in attendance.  Intel is introducing the world to a totally new micro-architecture that replace both the desktop NetBurst and mobile Banias architectures in the second half of 2006.  This new architecture looks like it is taking the best from both of Intel's current architectures and melding them into one that will be more than competitive with AMD's K8

Quakecon Bound

Subject: Editorial | August 10, 2005 - 09:07 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I think the title says it all. If you are going to the best LAN event in the world as well, look me up!

I'll post more when I see or hear it and expect a new product to be announced tomorrow at the show.

I'm still here!

Subject: Editorial | July 24, 2005 - 10:55 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I've been working on a lot of things behind the scenes recently and have been getting used to the new surroundings at the house.  Anyone that has moved into a new home can tell you all the "small" things that suddenly are required to keep on going.  I'll have some more updates for you tomorrow as things pick up yet again here.

Just wanted to make sure everyone knew I was here!  :)

Moving in progress

Subject: Editorial | June 27, 2005 - 12:26 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Well, it is day one in the new house, and after a whole day of unpacking and settling and water the grass and answering calls, I can say that...it looks like I have nothing done.  The garage is still full of boxes, the rooms seem empty, my office is in parts all across the multiple test tables and I am sitting here wondering what to do next.  I think that is going to be sleep, unfortunately. 

It took me two trips with a 15' rental truck to make it with all my goods and I didn't bring the second load in to the garage until after midnight last night.  I spent all

One more day...

Subject: Editorial | June 24, 2005 - 09:19 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Just one more day until moving day.  Tomorrow, bright and early, my helpful friends and I will pack up the UHaul truck and I will hopefully drive it safely an hour and half north to where my new house is finished and waiting.  I closed on it nearly 2 full weeks ago, but because of my recently trips and the 7800 GTX article that needed to be completed on time, I waited to move-in.  The office is now completely packed up with the expection of this single computer that I am typing on now; its a barren wastela

Constant Travelling

Subject: Editorial | June 11, 2005 - 11:53 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Since May 27th I have not been in my town or residence for more than 18 hours at a time.  And that has only been twice since the 27th.  Right now, after returning from a trip to SFO, I am getting ready to head out once again to take care of some family obligations for birthdays and graduations yet again.  It is really becoming a drain trying to do all the work I usually do at home on a notebook computer, without easy access to all the references and information I need.  And it doesn't show any signs of letting up really as some important launches are coming up this month

June Gets Busier

Subject: Editorial | June 6, 2005 - 03:47 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I already knew that June was going to be a busy month for me, with a final walk through on my new house tomorrow and a closing on the 14th.  Plus we are planning on moving in by the end of June if at all possible.  Other than that, we have birthdays, graduations, outtings and other friend and family obligations that are right in the middle of of everything as well.  Did I mention we are going to have a lot of products being announced or briefed this month as well?  Both NVIDIA and ATI are going to be touting their next gen GPUs over the next 60 days, so stay tuned for al

Computex or ... bust?

Subject: Editorial | May 30, 2005 - 11:35 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I guess up until this point, I have been pretty lucky.  For more than 5 years I have been attending conferences and shows like Computex without much of a hassle.  Oh my, how this year has been different.

Taiwan Bound

Subject: Editorial | May 29, 2005 - 03:04 PM | Ryan Shrout
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I just finished up packing for my trip to Computex in Taipei, Taiwan and I head to the airport in less than an hour.  The total travel time for one way on this trip: 26 hours.  Oh ye haw. 

I have a very busy 5 days planned, even having several meetings the day before the show starts, which is unusual for me.  I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can in the form of articles, news posts and blog entries.  Keep checking back!

Intel Releases 820 and 670 Processors

Subject: Editorial | May 26, 2005 - 04:06 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Today Intel officially released the Intel 820 processor which is a dual core Smithfield CPU running at 2.8 GHz.  It has 2 x 1 MB L2 cache and an 800 MHz FSB.  Performance on it so far looks to be right where we expect it to be: low on single threaded apps, acceptable on multi threaded apps, and really good for multitasking machines as well.  I currently have mine in our 945G reference board for testing, hopefully it will be done in time that I can write the review on the flight to Computex.

The other CPU released was the Intel 670 processor that runs at 3.8 GHz on a P

AGIEA PhysX Article Online

Subject: Editorial | May 24, 2005 - 10:10 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I have just let loose the AGEIA PhysX preview article I was alluding to yesterday.  I think you'll find this article to be among the better out there on the subject as we take a much deeper look into what work AGEIA has to do before this idea can take off, and unfortunately for them, its a lot of work.  With a long development cycle on PC games getting only longer, the amount of time that will pass before we see anything substantial making use of this suprisingly expensive

Back from E3

Subject: Editorial | May 23, 2005 - 05:43 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I got back from E3 late last night, and unfortunately fell straight to sleep.  There wasn't a lot of excitement going on there from a hardware point of view, especially with both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 missing in action for playable demos.  I am putting the finishing touches on an article I think you'll find very interesting, though it falls outside the boundes of what current technologies are out there.  It should be up in the morning tomorrow. 

I think I might have enough info on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 GPUs to get a short article comparing the

Off to E3

Subject: Editorial | May 17, 2005 - 11:42 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

Well, in about 6 hours I'll be on a plane to LA for this years Electronics Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as the mecha of the gaming world.  While the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution announcements have all already been shown, now its time to get the nose on the floor and hunt out information on the hardware behind these beasts!

Look for updates in my weblog and on the main site during the show!

Fighting With Dual Core

Subject: Editorial | May 16, 2005 - 04:35 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: blog

I happen to come across an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor in my mail box today and am currently engrossed in attempting to test it.  I say attempting because the motherboard I am using and the one I have an updated BIOS for is giving me fits.  Somehow, when using the X2 processor, any use of the USB bus locks the system, but with the same board, bios, bios settings, etc and an FX-55 or a 3700+, the system is just fine with USB usage.  I have no idea what is going on, but I am pretty sure we have a BIOS issue not a processor issue.

In other news, I found out that my clos