Why AMD is less expensive, and less well known.

Subject: Cases and Cooling | May 30, 2005 - 12:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Register posted an article from Forbes, about the release of the A64 X2, and why the PC market isn't jumping all over the release date.

"Intel, with $34 billion in sales, can afford to pay for a lot of advertising - $2.1 billion in 2004 to be exact. A sizable chunk of that goes to a co-marketing program called "Intel Inside." The company doesn't disclose how much it spends on Intel Inside, but in its 2004 10-K filing with the U.S.

Analogue Case Pride & More

Subject: Cases and Cooling | May 30, 2005 - 11:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Sunbeam's Trio comes with a fairly strong PSU, a 120mm fan and a nice looking front panel.  Read about it in LANAddict's review.  Plus more news about the BTX from factor, if you haven't already seen enough, and an interesting looking case from Antec, that SilentPCReview hasn't finished testing yet.

Sunbeam has done a pretty outstanding job with the Trio! Although it is a steel case, its size helps keep the weight very manageable without sacrificing strength.

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!

Tubing in 1/2 or 3/8 & More

Subject: Cases and Cooling | May 27, 2005 - 11:49 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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GruntvillE has 2 12V pumps up for testing today.  The PolarFLO TT is the larger, prettier one, with barbs for both 1/2ID and 3/8ID tubing, and the Swiftech MCP-600 is the smaller, quieter performer, built only for 1/2 inch.  See which is right for you, then consider build flexible LED leads to highlight it.

Ever Want a 16 Core Opteron System?

Subject: Processors | May 27, 2005 - 10:38 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Yeah, me too.  But in the mean time you can look at this website that has some benchmarks from one of them.  How does a SiSoft CPU benchmark results of 171167 Dhrystone and 72739 Whetstone sound to you?  Did I mention the system had a 128 GB of memory???

Shortly after WinHEC 2005, IWill (the maker of some great motherboards and sweet sff products) generously allowed me to touch their highest performing Opteron system.  This was not your everyday dual or quad opteron system - it was an 8-way

Good News for DIY Builders Look at Win64

Subject: General Tech | May 27, 2005 - 10:33 AM | Ryan Shrout
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This may have been posted before, but I think it is worth another mention.  It looks Microsoft has changed its mind and will now allow users who merely built their systems to get the free upgrade to Windows x64 as well. 

BETA NEWS reported yesterday that Microsoft has tweaked its upgrade programme and has now entered a world closer to reality.

According to the site, Microsoft will now give users an upgrade to the 64-bit version whether or not they bought or built their PC.

VIA Launches the C7 Processor

Subject: Processors | May 27, 2005 - 10:27 AM | Ryan Shrout
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I highly suggest you all head over to the VIA C7 features webpage if you are at all interested in an ultra lower power processor.  There are some interesting bits of information, such as a comparison of the performance per watt against an Intel Pentium M.  And how does a total design power of 12 watts sound for a 1.5 GHz CPU?

Taipei, Taiwan, 27 May 2005 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the ne

Corsair Leads Industry in DDR2 Transition with Launch of XMS2-8000UL

Subject: Memory | May 27, 2005 - 09:56 AM | Chuck Smith
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Corsair raises the memory frequency bar to 1GHz with the launch of XMS2-8000UL.

Corsair Memory today unveiled XMS2-8000UL as its latest addition to the high performance XMS family of products.

Intel Only Going to Make 500k Pentium Ds in 2005??

Subject: Processors | May 27, 2005 - 02:02 AM | Ryan Shrout
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It looks like Intel may be having more problems than we might be seeing at first glance.  Yesterday we reported that Intel was having some chipset shortages that the motherboard vendors were reporting, and today we are hearing that a shortage of Pentium D processors is going to hit as well.  But this time, because of low demand.  At Computex, many Intel dual core capable boards will be on display, but with a maximum of 500,000 procesors by years end available in the market (this includes Dell, etc) end users may not

Intel Delivers New Features For Home And Office PCs

Subject: General Tech | May 26, 2005 - 09:09 PM | Joe White
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SANTA CLARA , Calif. , May 26, 2005 — Intel Corporation today unveiled two new platforms for home and office PCs. The new platforms, which combine key hardware and software technologies, are designed to provide consumers the ability to do more with their digital content simultaneously, and better allow businesses to enhance PC security, system management and collaboration capabilities.

Chaintech VNF4 Zenith VE Review

Subject: Motherboards | May 26, 2005 - 05:39 PM | Mark McKee
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For those of you looking for an Nforce 4 board, you might want to check out the review of the Chaintech VNF4 Zenith VE over at MBreview.

 "Overall, we were pleased with the BIOS that Chaintech has chosen to utilize with the VNF4 Zenith VE. Given that the board really isn't geared towards the high-end crowd, I was slightly surprised to see the voltage adjustment capabilities that we found.

Intel Releases 820 and 670 Processors

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

Intel 820 and 670 Processor Reviews

Subject: Processors | May 26, 2005 - 12:09 PM | Ryan Shrout
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There are only a handful of the Intel 820 (2.8 GHz dual core) and 670 (3.8 GHz single core) reviews on the web this morning.  I am still in the middle of benchmarking my set of CPUs, I should have an article up during Computex next week.

• Tech Report evaluates both processors in their usual, in-depth fashion with some mild humor.  Twins be damned!


• Anandtech has reviewed the 670 processor as well, just another sp

Intel Chipset Shortage Remains

Subject: Chipsets | May 26, 2005 - 12:03 PM | Ryan Shrout
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In other chipset news, it looks that even though Intel is saying no chipset shortage exists, the motherboard vendors in Taiwan have very different opinons. 

Intel recently stated that the tight supply has improved, as the company is able to meet both shipment and lead-time goals for most motherboard makers.

ATI's MVP "CrossFire" Will Boost ATI Chipset Sales

Subject: Chipsets | May 26, 2005 - 12:02 PM | Ryan Shrout
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File this one under, duh.  Digitimes is reporting that when ATI launches their upcoming multi-VPU technology at Computex, the demand for their chipsets that support this technology will increase dramatically.

ATI Technologies, which reportedly is set to roll out its long-anticipated multi-VPU 'Crossfire' technology at the upcoming Computex Taipei, may see a boost in its chipset shipments as well, local motherboard makers predict.

The new multi-VPU Crossfire will be a comparable technol

IPod Plug-In Sets Music Free

Subject: General Tech | May 25, 2005 - 10:00 AM | Chuck Smith
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Good news for IPod owners today, Wired News reports of a new plugin that allows IPod users to bypass ITunes and manage their music collection with Winamp instead.

The plug-in, called ml_iPod, allows iPod users to bypass iTunes and manage music collections in Winamp instead. The iPod is supposed to work with iTunes only. A new version of the software was released Monday.

Foxconn Roadmaps Leak Upcoming Chipset Info

Subject: Chipsets | May 25, 2005 - 09:55 AM | Ryan Shrout
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I found these roadmaps in my inbox this morning that appear to have come from a Foxconn presentation of some kind. 

First up is the Intel roadmap; we can see that the NVIDIA chipsets are in red, the Intel chipsets in blue and the SiS chipsets are in green.  NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI is shown here as the Q2 2005 product and if you look to Q4 of 2005, you'll see another product called C60G and C60D.  These are very likely the upcoming integrated g

Corsair Unveils New High Speed Additions to its Family of Flash Products

Subject: Memory | May 25, 2005 - 09:52 AM | Chuck Smith
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Corsair unveiled today, new high speed additions to its award winning family of flash products.

Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory and cooling products for enthusiasts and overclockers, today is pleased to announce expansion of its popular flash memory products. Adopting the industry's popular speed designation, the new Corsair Secure Digital (SD) and type I Compact Flash (CF) media are now rated at blazing fast 60X (9 MB/sec) or 80X (12MB/sec).