Club 3D X800 XL PCI Express Reviewed

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 18, 2005 - 07:10 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Definitely one of the lesser known GPU vendors, the Club 3D X800 XL PCIe card is being reviewed by the gang at Viperlair today. 

I've not had a chance to look at a Club-3D product before; I've seen them in the shops occasionally along with other brands but for some reason I've not actually picked one up.

DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 18, 2005 - 07:07 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Bjorn3d has posted a review of the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR.  You can also check out my review here as well. 

DFI really set the stage for tweakers and overclockers with this board and are now reaping the benefits of its hard work and research. As of today (March 18), fifteen of the top twenty systems in the 3DMark05 hall of fame use DFI SLI systems!

ATI Raises Prices on GPUs??

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 18, 2005 - 07:03 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Scott Wasson of the Tech Report has a bit of an editorial on the price gouging on vendors and the new ATI video cards.  It turns out, it may not completely be the vendors fault after all...

The moral of the story, it seems to me, is clear: ATI's second set of lower pricing numbers for the X800 and X800 XL was essentially incorrect. In reality, in the market, the 16-pipe Radeon X800 XL competes with the 16-pipe GeForce 6800 GT.

Quick dip into Watercooling News & More

Subject: Cases and Cooling | March 18, 2005 - 11:45 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Not too much is happening on the watercooling front.  However, that doesn't mean the quality of the products is declining, as Legit Reviews can show you with their look at Corsair's new COOL.  Have a great friday! 

"With the majority of today's processors becoming hotter water cooling is something that is becoming more mainstream. Corsair has been doing watercooling for years with the Hydrocool 200 and has decided to bring out a new product called the COOL to replace their old unit.

Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Review @ Tech Report

Subject: Motherboards | March 17, 2005 - 02:53 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Geoff (that's pronounced "Jeff" for us Americans) of The Tech Report has posted his review of the Abit Fatal1ty AN8 motherboard today.  In case you also want to read what I had to say about it, you can read my review as well.

In addition to OTES exhaust coolers, Abit also bundles an OTES RAMFlow memory cooler with the board.

Reusing Defective Chips

Subject: General Tech | March 17, 2005 - 02:50 PM | Ryan Shrout
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I saw this post on HardOCP about an article at Wired.com that discusses fab companies being able to use chips that fail stringent quality tests for other uses.  Rather than quote the article, I am going to quote Steve of HardOCP's joke instead!  :)

There is an idea circulating that maybe some of the chips that are tossed in the trash every year by big companies can be 'good enough' for other things.

Understanding the Cell Microprocessor

Subject: Processors | March 17, 2005 - 02:47 PM | Ryan Shrout
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If you have heard anything about the recent announcements of the PS3 and the development of something called a "cell processor", then you'll want to read Anandtech's article on the architecture.  Anand finds out some damn detailed info on the new processing sytle, and what it might mean to you, very soon.

Cell's architecture is similar to the next version of Microsoft's Xbox and upcoming PC microprocessors in that it is heavily multithreaded.

Seventeen Magazine Offers Teens The Chance To Win

Subject: Mobile | March 16, 2005 - 09:59 PM | Joe White
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SUNNYVALE, CALIF.-March 15, 2005- Keeping in line with St. Patrick's Day's lucky green color scheme, this week Seventeen Magazine is giving away a modded AMD processor-based Averatec notebook in its monthly sweepstakes offering. The custom-painted green notebook is profiled in Seventeen's Freebies sweepstakes found in the print and online March issue, reaching more than 2.9 million teenagers. The lucky winner of the Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) 64 processor-based Averatec notebook will be selected Sunday, March 20.

U.s. Environmental Protection Agency Honors Amd

Subject: General Tech | March 16, 2005 - 09:56 PM | Joe White
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SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - March 16, 2005 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded AMD's Cool'n'Quiet(tm) technology with an ENERGY STAR(r) Certificate of Recognition for advancing computer energy efficiency. All AMD Athlon(tm) 64 desktop processors have the innovative Cool'n'Quiet technology, a system-level feature that lowers the power consumption of a computer whenever maximum performance is not needed. AMD received the certificate on March 15 in conjunction with the 2005 ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Intel Honors 17 Companies With SCQI Award

Subject: General Tech | March 16, 2005 - 09:52 PM | Joe White
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 15, 2005 -- Intel Corporation today announced the 17 winners of its Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) Award for outstanding commitment to quality and performance excellence in 2004. The SCQI, the company's most prestigious award for suppliers, recognizes companies that provided products and services deemed essential to Intel's business success. This select group will be honored at a ceremony in Burlingame, Calif. on March 15.

Intel Honors 26 Companies...

Subject: General Tech | March 16, 2005 - 09:50 PM | Joe White
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 15, 2005 -- Intel Corporation today announced that 26 companies will receive Intel's Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for outstanding commitment to quality and performance excellence. These suppliers provided products and services deemed essential to Intel's business success in 2004. They excelled at meeting and exceeding high expectations and tough performance goals to distinguish themselves from the thousands of suppliers that worked with Intel last year. Winners will be honored at a ceremony in Burlingame, Calif. on March 15.

David Vigliarolo Bauer Of New York Named Top High School Scientist

Subject: General Tech | March 16, 2005 - 09:48 PM | Joe White
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WASHINGTON, D.C., March 15, 2005 - Intel Corporation awarded a $100,000 scholarship to David Vigliarolo Bauer of Bronx, N. Y. He is the first-place winner of the 2005 Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS), America's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition.

Bauer, 17, of Hunter College High School, designed a new method using "quantum dots" (florescent nanocrystals) to detect toxic agents that affect the nervous system. Bauer believes his research could save thousands of lives by rapidly evaluating individual exposure to these agents.

SLI Transforms 3DMark05 Leaderboard

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 16, 2005 - 11:50 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Today NVIDIA sent out a press wire stating "NVIDIA® SLI™ TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMS THE PC ENTHUSIAST SEGMENT" and I thought after reading that, hot damn let's see what's new.  This was the subtitle: Award-Winning Dual GPU Solution Sweeps 3DMark05 Hall of Fame.

Now I'm not against using the 3Dmark genre for testing, or for benchmarks, or even for comparison, but to say that because of SLI on the top of the 3DMark05 Hall of Fame NVIDIA has "transformed the enthusiast segment" is a bit much...

NVIDIA® SLI™ TECHN

Air cooling goes retro & More

Subject: Cases and Cooling | March 16, 2005 - 11:43 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Just because your heatsink is huge doesn't mean it has to look like a plain old copper square.  Take the new Beetle from Thermaltake, as reviewed by Overclockers Cafe.  This heatsink would look great in the middle of a fully lit, fully modded case ... especially if you went with a plush theme!

"When I first saw the new Thermaltake Beetle Cooler, I thought of beetles all right. Not the four winged type that eat roses but more of the 72' or 73' variety.

Gigabyte K8VT890-9 K8T890 Review

Subject: Motherboards | March 16, 2005 - 11:43 AM | Ryan Shrout
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Hardcoreware.net has reviewed the Gigabyte K8VT890 board based on the VIA PCI Express chipset.  They seem to find problems with the overclocking optins in the BIOS, but I wonder if they know the "Alt F2" Gigabyte trick?

Here is the "Advanced Chipset" section, this is where the memory tweaks SHOULD be. Nothing to be found; in fact, I just set up the benchmarking platform to double check that I had the CMOS is "Advanced Mode" when I took these pictures. Sure enough, these are all the tweaks you'll get.

ATI Mobility Radeon X700

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 16, 2005 - 10:59 AM | Ryan Shrout
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The gang at HardOCP have written up a bit on the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 core using an Acer Travelmate notebook. 

For the class of notebook that this is the Mobility Radeon X700 is at the top of its game. It allows the highest level of playable quality settings we have seen yet for this class of notebook. Though the gaming experience isn't going to be as great as a desktop replacement laptop you can still have a whole lot of fun on the go gaming with this notebook.

NVIDIA To Re-enter Integrated Graphics Market for AMD

Subject: Chipsets | March 16, 2005 - 10:57 AM | Ryan Shrout
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It looks like FIC may have spilled some beans at CeBit this year, as they had a motherboard at the booth touting the use of an "NVIDIA C51G" chipset. 

While NVIDIA is tight-lipped over the core-logic code-named C51, some details about the chipset are still available. The C51G is a two-chip value solution for AMD Athlon 64 market.

R.I.P. Voodoo Extreme's Billy Wilson

Subject: Editorial | March 15, 2005 - 01:38 PM | Ryan Shrout
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If you didn't know who Billy Wilson was, then you weren't into gaming.  If you never went to VoodooExtreme.com in its hayday, then you didn't know what you were talking about.  News reached me today that he passed away at the age of 33.  Wow, really makes you think about your own life, doesn't it? 

I talked with Billy numerous times over the years, and in conclusion, I'll leave you with a portion of an email that just shows what kind of humor this guy brought to the industry.  :)

I swe