ATI Launches and Ships New Radeon X1900 Graphics Processor

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 24, 2006 - 09:33 AM | Ryan Shrout
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ATI's official PR is out on the X1900 GPU.  You can read the whole thing on their website.  Be sure to check out my review of the new product line today as well.

ATI Launches and Ships New Radeon® X1900 Graphics Processor For Advanced Multimedia and Gaming

Radeon® X1900, All-In-Wonder® X1900 and Radeon® X1900 CrossFire™ products will engage and entertain customers while they breakthrough performance and quality barriers

MARKHAM, ON

X1900 XT adds some power to ATI's product line

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 23, 2006 - 06:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The HardwareZone examines the brand new ATI X1900 XT (512MB), the newest member in ATI's card line up.  With performance near par with the 7800GTX (512MB), and about $100 cheaper, this card is likely to raise some eyebrows.

Don't forget to come back, Ryan has posted a review of Asus' AX1800 XT TOP.

"Today ATI debuts its Radeon X1900 series.

Light up your electronic life

Subject: Cases and Cooling | January 23, 2006 - 04:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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TECHGAGE points out a very easy and economical way to make your case a little more interesting.  Logisys' LED Lazer lights let you chose Blue, Red, Green, Ultra-Violet (UV), or a Red, Green, and Blue each about $5.

"Are you looking to add some pizzazz to your computer but don't want to hand over a huge chunk of

change?

Revisiting the 1 GB RAM market

Subject: Memory | January 23, 2006 - 01:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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AnandTech takes a second look at 1GB RAM DIMMs (part 1 was here).  This go around they test 6 DIMM's, most based on Infineon memory modules, but one with Samsung and one with Micron.  Drop by and see if these new DIMM's offer more advantage than you might expect.

"There are many reasons to choose a 2GB kit over a 1GB kit or 4 512MB DIMMs.

Logitech's new unwired 5.1 speakers

Subject: General Tech | January 23, 2006 - 01:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Laptop Gamers grabs a set of Logitech's Z-5450 Wireless speakers, a 5.1 Dolby Digital system.  Check it out to see if the wireless setup has any negative effects on the sound quality.

"Leave it to Logitech to once again raise the bar for computer speaker systems. The Logitech

Z-5450 provides high performance sound with the innovation of wireless rear surround satellite

speakers.

Just because you're paranoid ...

Subject: General Tech | January 23, 2006 - 11:52 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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I don't mean to cast aspersions or alarm anyone, but it seems that the new owner of Zone Alarm is a little curious about what the people who use Zone Alarm are doing.  The Inquirer has posted an article about it, as well as a way to disable the "phone home" in the retail version.  If that and the various vulnerabilities get you down, check out the History of BASIC, it may put a smile back on your face.

"Now, the handsomely-named Mr Cringely has revealed that a colleague of his at Infoworld noticed

that Zone Alarm

AMD PROMOTES DIRK MEYER TO PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Subject: General Tech | January 23, 2006 - 11:32 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - Jan. 23, 2006 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today that Dirk Meyer has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of
AMD. Meyer previously served as president and chief operating officer of AMD's Microprocessor Solutions Sector (MSS) business. He will share the
leadership and management of AMD with Hector Ruiz, who relinquishes the president title and now is AMD chief executive officer and chairman of
the board.

NVIDIA Falling Back on Paper Launch Roots

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 21, 2006 - 11:01 AM | Ryan Shrout
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The gang at The Inquirer have an interesting editorial up today on the status of NVIDIA's most recent product launches.  The 7300 GS was announced this past week, but no cards have been found.  The quad SLI configuations were shown at CES, but you can't buy them yet even at Dell.  And those 7800 GTX 512s are still mighty hard to find. 

So the birth of the 7300GS may have been announced already but the hardware itself seems stuck somewhere in the birth canal.

Getting more out of your videocard

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 20, 2006 - 06:08 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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One the ways to get more FPS out of an old videocard is to replace the manufacturers cooling solution with a new, more powerful one.  Virtual-Hideout has a review of Arctic Cooling's Accelero X1 VGA Cooler, which is an inexpensive cooler that may help you get a few more Mhz out of the GPU or memory.

"With an expected availability of around the end of February 2006 and a proposed MSRP of around

$33 USD, I think it's a pretty good value.

The Raptor gets an upgrade

Subject: Storage | January 20, 2006 - 03:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The 3rd generation of Raptors has appeared, and HotHardware has managed to trap one, and test it.  These new drives are bigger, and also faster than the older 74Gig Raptor that held the SATA speed record, until now.

There's no denying WD's WD740 Raptor series of performance desktop and enterprise drives have

earned a solid reputation in the enthusiast community as some of the fastest SATA drives on the

market.

Evercools new thermal goop makes a great bundle

Subject: Cases and Cooling | January 20, 2006 - 03:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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While the Evercool STC-01 that Overclockers Online reviews make not be the top performing thermal paste on the market, it is a very solid product.  Hopefully we will see it in heatsink bundles soon, and on store shelves.

"After an interesting battle among the thermal interface gladiators,
we have a verdict. Evercool has earned its place in the thermal interface
market. Though not the best performer, the Sidewinder STC-01 is hardly a
loser.

Rocket Bikes for everybody!

Subject: General Tech | January 20, 2006 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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MAKE:Blog has found a guy who runs Bad Brothers Racing, and has an interesting project on the go, combining a Yamaha YR-50 motorcycle, and a turbine engine.  Cheer them on, it may be the quickest way to get your own jetbike!

"For many years now, I have tinkered with all kinds of interesting projects, and have found a lot

of fun in the realm of DIY gas turbine engines. These engines are based around turbochargers, but

are in every sense real jets.

Call of Duty 2 stands for inspection

Subject: General Tech | January 20, 2006 - 11:53 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Guru of 3D has done a full dress inspection of Call Of Duty 2, and presents the results for your approval.

"Developer Infinity Ward obviously doesn't believe in small things, but rather aims towards grand

scale of epic proportions. The first Call of Duty did this for the most part with some of the most

immense battles and a scale and level of intensity never before witnessed on a PC.

This has helped set the Call of Duty series above the rest of the crowded World War II genre.

MESH puts together a killer system

Subject: Systems | January 19, 2006 - 06:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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HEXUS reviews a great system from MESH, their new Titan X1800 FIRE.  As you might guess from the name, it is based around a pair of x1800's, running in Crossfire mode.  The performance is amazing; it is a fairly expensive system, but you certainly get your moneys worth.

If you are more into building your own systems from scratch, the PCPerspective Hardware Leaderboard was updated recently, drop by and get some ideas for great hardware to put into your next system.

"MESH, pu

New Catalysts for the New Year

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 19, 2006 - 06:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Neoseeker checks out the new 6.1 Catalyst release, and they even find some nice surprises.

"Since the RELEASE NOTES didn't mention any performance improvements, we got curious and have

worked up a quick run of benchmarks for ATI's Catalyst 6.1 release compared to the 5.13.

EVGA's newest motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | January 19, 2006 - 02:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP reviews EVGA's latest s939 motherboard, the K8-NF41, a very feature rich board.  Give them a moment of your time, and see just what this board can do.

"The K8-NF41 is EVGA's latest motherboard for the Athlon 64 socket 939 line of processors.

Intel Board Adopts Majority Vote Standard for Election of Directors

Subject: General Tech | January 19, 2006 - 01:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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ANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 19, 2006 — Intel Corporation announced today that its board of directors has amended the company's bylaws to adopt a majority vote standard for the election of directors in uncontested elections, beginning with the next election of directors in May. The new standard, which requires each director to receive a majority of the votes cast with respect to that director, further underscores Intel's focus on corporate governance and provides for a greater level of accountability of directors to stockholders.

Intel Declares Regular Cash Dividend

Subject: General Tech | January 19, 2006 - 01:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 19, 2006 — Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared a $0.10 per share quarterly dividend on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on Mar. 1, 2006 to stockholders of record on Feb. 7, 2006.

In November the company announced a 25 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, to $0.10 per share.

Intel's Pressroom has more info.