Featured Reviews
Booq Boa Laptop Case Review
Today, we take a quick look at Booq’s newest briefcase-style case for laptops, the Boa Case. We have seen evidence of Booq’s high quality and functionality when we reviewed their Python XL Backpack case. Unlike the Booq backpack, the $215 Boa Laptop case is much more conservative case looking more like a traditional laptop carrier. For this price, the Boa has to be special. Read on to see what this case is all about!
Game Testing 2GB versus 4GB of Memory on Vista 64-bit
Inspired by the Corsair Performance Analysis of 4GB versus 2GB of memory we figured it would be fun to see for ourselves how gaming performance is impacted by adding more system memory. We got our hands on a 2GB and a 4GB set of Corsair DOMINATOR PC2-9136C5 memory modules and set off to see what happens to the average framerate in nine games at 1920x1200.
NVIDIA Hybrid SLI and HybridPower Benchmarked and Explained
Have you heard about NVIDIA Hybrid SLI and HybridPower over the past several few months? Having the ability to turn off a graphics card and run integrated graphics in order to save power and reduce noise sounds great in theory, but does it work? That is exactly what we have been working on here on the test bench and bring you our findings after spending countless hours with the ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe motherboard and the XFX GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card.
NVIDIA nForce 7 Series Arrives - ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe Motherboard
More than five months ago, NVIDIA announced the industry’s first hybrid technology for PC platforms during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. During this time, they also showed off the nForce 780a SLI motherboards that were due out in Q1 2008. It seems things got pushed back as NVIDIA is officially announcing the nForce 7 series today in Q2 2008.
ECS GeForce 8800 GT Video Card Review - N8800GT-256MX
The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB card has been around since November 2007 and now, six months later some very interesting versions of this card are appearing on the market. The ECS N8800GT-256MX is one of these cards! It appears that ECS has placed 512MB of GDDR3 memory on the N8800GT-256MX, but only enabled 256MB of the graphics memory through the BIOS. Once a quick BIOS flash is performed on the card it turned into a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB graphics card for the price of a 256MB card!
NZXT Tempest Mid Tower Gaming Case
The NZXT Tempest features breakthrough features in every category satisfying the high performance demands of PC Enthusiasts and Gamers worldwide. Tempest stakes its claim as Airflow King with 6 fans including dual intake(120mm), dual exhaust(140mm) with additional side and rear fans(120mm) all of which are included.LR takes a look at the Tempest to see what the 'king of cooling' is all about. Retailing for under $99 this might be one of the most popular gaming cases for 2008.
Legit News
May 14 News from Around the Web
Madshrimps posted their GeForce 9800 GTX Extreme Overclocking Experiment. Find this and other reviews from around the web by visiting our forums!
"The GeForce 9800 GTX product was received with mixed feelings; on the one hand you had an affordable high end VGA solution, but on the other hand it was not much of improvement over the 8800 GTX. One area where the 9800 GTX might shine through however is overclocking, the new GPU generates less heat, and with the help of some LN2 it will be interesting to see how high it can climb!"
Posted by | Wed, May 14, 2008 - 09:38 AM
Dell Tells Gamers That Alienware and XPS Systems Will Remain Industry Leaders
Dell issued a statement on Tuesday night, saying the XPS brand will live on but that more resources will go into Alienware. It seems the Wall Street Journal didn't lay down the facts correctly in a recent article and Dell has a blog post setting the record straight. With new gaming systems like the Dell XPS M1730 gaming notebook and the Dell XPS 730 H2C would you expect Dell to pull back?
XPS remains an important Dell brand with its heritage of premium performance. While closely associated with gaming, in the last year XPS has expanded well beyond a gaming brand – look at the XPS One, our first entry into the all-in-one market, the XPS M1330, an industry leading ultraportable or the XPS 420 desktop, designed for multi-media activities. How the WSJ missed all this is a little beyond us. And XPS gaming systems will remain an important part of our gaming product portfolio. We don’t plan an early phase-out of these systems as the WSJ incorrectly stated, and in fact will continue to refresh them to keep them on the front edge of gaming.
Posted by | Wed, May 14, 2008 - 09:16 AM
Nokia sees half of cellphones with GPS in 2010-12
Nokia plans to add navigation to half of the phones it sells within a few years to find new revenue streams amid decreasing handset prices, a senior official at the world's top cellphone maker said. It sells five models with built-in GPS and has unveiled four more which will ship in the coming months.
"We are planning to ship 35 million GPS units this year," Halbherr said, adding "and many more location-enabled phones that use cell-towers to orient themselves on the map". "You will see few 'E' or 'N' Series phones without GPS," he said. Last year Nokia sold 437 million phones, and it expects the volume to grow more than 10 percent this year. It sold 38 million phones in its multimedia range "N Series" and some 7 million "E Series" business phones.
Posted by | Wed, May 14, 2008 - 09:11 AM
ProMOS China fab mass production schedule not affected by quake
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Sichuan province of China will not affect ProMOS Technologies' 8-inch fab mass production schedule set for the third quarter of 2008, according to company chairman ML Chen.
Chen indicated that operations at ProMOS' Chongqing fab in Sichuan province is normal, with electricity supply not being affected by the earthquake. Only a few lithography equipment stopped operating during the quake but operations resumed soon afterward, he said. ProMOS is well prepared for any earthquake due to its rich experience gained from its Taiwan operations, Chen stressed. As already scheduled, ProMOS will gradually relocate its 8-inch wafer production facilities from Taiwan to the China fab. The 8-inch fab in Taiwan, which is now running at peak utilization rate, will transition to produce 12-inch wafers after all equipment is relocated. The company plans to complete the transition by the end of 2008.
Posted by | Wed, May 14, 2008 - 09:09 AM
VIA Unveils the World’s Lowest Power x86 Processor on the World’s Smallest Board
VIA Technologies today announced the VIA EPIA PX5000EG Pico-ITX board that features the extremely power efficient 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor, offering embedded developers an uncompromisingly compact, highly integrated board.
“The introduction of the VIA EPIA PX5000EG elevates the VIA EPIA range of innovative embedded solutions to new heights of thermal and energy efficiency in an extremely miniaturized form factor,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA EPIA Pico-ITX form-factor continues to evolve, addressing the embedded industry’s needs for greater efficiency and miniaturization.” Developed exclusively by VIA, the Pico-ITX form factor squeezes a full feature set into a mere 10cm x 7.2cm. A complete system in the palm of your hand, the VIA EPIA PX5000EG includes both LVDS/DVI and VGA support, integrated 5.1 channel audio, fast 100/10 Ethernet, both IDE and S-ATA drive support and up to six USB ports and a COM port.
Posted by | Wed, May 14, 2008 - 09:08 AM
More Than 550 Million GPS-Enabled Handsets Will Ship by 2012
In the wake of personal navigation devices' success, cellular carriers have started to offer on-board and off-board navigation solutions, as well as a range of LBS (Location Based Services) such as friend finder and local search on GPS handsets. Community and social-networking-related functionality, such as the sharing of POIs (Points of Interest) and geo-tagged pictures, is also becoming popular and is expected to boost GPS-enabled handset uptake as carriers, handsets manufacturers, and service providers look to capitalize on the LBS trend.
"While most CDMA handsets are already GPS-enabled and GPS is set to become a standard feature in GSM smartphones, GSM feature phones are next on the agenda to be equipped with GPS technology," says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. "GPS chipset vendors increasingly target handsets, looking for new markets and spurred on by the recent dramatic growth of personal navigation devices." However, as GPS begins to penetrate lower-end phones, the cost, power consumption, and footprint of GPS chipsets will have to be further reduced. This will be made possible by single chipset technology and the emergence in 2009 of combination chips integrating GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi all on one die. Major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, NXP, and Atheros are well positioned to develop such solutions following the acquisition of GPS chipset vendors Global Locate, GloNav, and u-Nav, respectively.
Posted by | Tue, May 13, 2008 - 10:04 AM
HP to Acquire EDS for $13.9 Billion
HP and EDS today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase EDS at a price of $25.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $13.9 billion. The terms of the transaction have been unanimously approved by the HP and EDS boards of directors.
Acquiring EDS advances HP's stated objective of strengthening its services business. The specific service offerings delivered by the combined companies are: IT outsourcing, including data center services, workplace services, networking services and managed security; business process outsourcing, including health claims, financial processing, CRM and HR outsourcing; applications, including development, modernization and management; consulting and integration; and technology services. The combination will provide extensive experience in offering solutions to customers in the areas of government, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, communications, and consumer industries and retail.
Posted by | Tue, May 13, 2008 - 09:57 AM
AMD planning to outsource CPU production to TSMC in 2H08
In addition to its GPU production, AMD is planning to also outsource CPU production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the second half of this year, according to industry sources. Although Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD did not mention any plans to outsource production during the company's recent investors conference, the industry sources revealed that TSMC has already started testing procedures for a SOI manufacturing process in order to land manufacturing orders for AMD's Fusion CPUs.
The increase in outsourcing could allow AMD to sell off some of its manufacturing equipment and help lower the company's operating costs, noted sources at AMD's partners. AMD's current goals are to return to profitability in the first half of 2009 and to grab back a 30% worldwide market share by the second quarter in 2009, noted the sources.
Posted by | Tue, May 13, 2008 - 09:54 AM
Sun Microsystems Offers Quad-Core AMD Opteron Based Systems
AMD today announced enterprise customers now have more choices for rack-mount and blade systems based upon Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with the launch of eight new innovative servers from Sun Microsystems. All systems are specifically designed to take advantage of the enhanced power management and virtualization capabilities offered with Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors and the overall system efficiency and scalability of AMD's Direct Connect Architecture.
Sun has expanded its line of AMD Opteron processor-based servers with the new Sun Fire X4140, Sun Fire X4240 and the industry's only 4-socket x64 AMD Opteron processor-based server in a 2U form factor, the Sun Fire X4440. In addition, the Sun Fire X2200 M2, Sun Fire X4100 M2 and Sun Fire X4200 M2 servers are now available with the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. The Sun Blade X8440 and Sun Fire X4600 M2 servers are planned to be available by the end of June 2008.
Posted by | Tue, May 13, 2008 - 09:52 AM
Accelero XTREME 9800 Helps Improve GeForce 9800 GTX Cooling by 33%
Swiss cooling solutions provider ARCTIC COOLING today announced the launch of the Accelero XTREME 9800, a new exceptional cooler of the Accelero Xtreme series for the latest nVIDIA GeForce 9800 series graphics cards. The Accelero XTREME 9800 offers a 6-year limited warranty and is said to be 33% cooler than the stock cooler. It will be available in June 2008. The MSRP is US$53.95 and 34.95€ (excl. VAT).
Designed based on the acclaimed Accelero XTREME 8800, the Accelero XTREME 9800 is an even more powerful cooling solution for enthusiasts. Five 6mm heat pipes and 107 fins dissipate heat from the GeForce 9800 GTX card. Together with three 80mm PWM fans that transfer heat efficiently, the Accelero XTREME 9800 achieves 240 Watt cooling capacity, resulting in a 29°C temperature reduction from the stock cooler. In addition to the outstanding cooling performance, using the Accelero XTREME 9800 will also bring gamers a better overclocking experience and an extended service life of the graphics card.
Posted by | Tue, May 13, 2008 - 09:50 AM
May 12 News from Around the Web
Find reviews from around the web by visiting our forums! The following is from TweakTown's review of the Palit 9600GT Sonic 1GB Graphics Card.
"Palit are back again with another 9600GT. While this model is a Sonic variant, this one also sports 1GB of memory. What’s cool about this card is that more often than not you have two options when it comes to getting a card other than stock. You can get yourself one with more memory, which generally comes under the “Super” naming scheme; the other option is that you get yourself an overclocked model. This comes under the “Sonic” naming scheme for Palit. Today we’ve got ourselves a 1GB card which also happens to be overclocked. Unfortunately Palit has called it the 9600GT 1GB Sonic; personally I think they should have called it the 9600GT 1GB Super Sonic which just sounds plain cool, and since the card carries with it an overclock and more memory, it’s more than appropriate."
Posted by | Mon, May 12, 2008 - 07:58 AM
AMD Announces Five New 65W Low-Power Opteron HE Processors
AMD today introduced the industry's first energy-efficient x86 server processors with four processing cores and an integrated memory controller all in a low 55-watt ACP thermal envelope. Blade and rack systems based on five new low-power Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE (Highly Efficient) processors are now widely available from global OEMs and solution providers.
Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE processors are available in both the 2300 and 8300 Series for two-, four- and eight-way rack servers and blades. The new processors have set new performance records among comparable x86 energy-efficient processors, such as top scores for SPECfp_rate2006 in both two- and four-processor configurations, offering businesses of all sizes the exceptional scalability and efficiency benefits of AMD's unrivaled Direct Connect Architecture.
Posted by | Mon, May 12, 2008 - 07:49 AM
Microsoft Windows XP SP3 cripples some AMD based PCs
Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 sends some PCs into an endless series of reboots, according to posts to a Microsoft support forum. Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft and a prominent Windows blogger, has worked with users to tentatively identify the problem as involving only machines using processors from Advanced Micro Devices.
According to Johansson, there appear to be two separate issues. One affects only AMD-equipped PCs sold by Hewlett-Packard. "The problem is that HP, apparently along with other OEMs, deploys the same image to Intel-based computers that they do to AMD-based computers," said Johansson. "Because the image for both Intel and AMD is the same all have the intelppm.sys driver installed and running. That driver provides power management on Intel-based computers. On an AMD-based computer, amdk8.sys provides the same functionality." Running the "intelppm.sys" driver on an AMD-powered PC isn't normally an issue, but on the first reboot after a service pack installation, it causes "a big problem," Johansson said. The machine either fails to boot or crashes and immediately reboots.
Posted by | Mon, May 12, 2008 - 07:41 AM
RIM unveils BlackBerry Bold/BlackBerry 9000
Research in Motion officially took the wraps off the highly anticipated and much-rumored smartphone, complete with a new name. The "Bold" is in reference to the smartphone's gorgeous display, but it's also bold in that it represents a number of new moves for the company. Pricing will also depend on the carrier, but RIM is guessing it will be in the $300 to $400 range and expected worldwide availability is "this summer."
As we just mentioned, the device gets its name from its screen. The BlackBerry Bold features a half-VGA (480x320 pixel resolution), 65,000-color display, and during some initial product testing, research group participants repeatedly called the screen "bold" and "brilliant." The Brilliant moniker didn't really jive with the company, thus the BlackBerry Bold was born.
Posted by | Mon, May 12, 2008 - 07:38 AM
Intel gains SSD orders from Google, say sources
Google plans to switch some of its servers over to solid-state drive-based (SSD-based) storage supplied by Intel in order to lower electricity consumption, according to sources at memory makers. The more power efficient SSDs will be installed at severs at Google's US headquarters.
Intel will supply flash chips and Marvell the corresponding controller ICs, the sources detailed. Shipments are slated for late second quarter, they added. With the increasing use of SSDs in server applications, a shortage for 16Gb and 32Gb NAND flash chips could become a possibility, the sources commented.
Posted by | Mon, May 12, 2008 - 07:34 AM
Nvidia CEO discusses his beef with Intel - Larrabee Ticks Him Off
Brooke Crothers over at CNET Networks got a chance to speak with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang this week about why NVIDIA is going after Intel so publicly. It seems that Jen-Hsun is upset that Intel been dropping hints about its upcoming high-end graphics chip, called Larrabee, with relatively few specifics. "Larabee is a PowerPoint slide," Huang said. "I haven't met a product on my PowerPoint slide that I don't like. You know, they're floating Larrabee out there just to put a shadow over us, cast a cloud over us. They've already slipped it two years from the time they talked about. They would love to slip it another four years and leave a cloud over me." It looks like Jen-Hsun has put his boxing gloves on and is in it to win it. Since I used the 'in it to win it' line, we'll keep our fingers crossed that Jen-Hsun has better luck than Hillary Clinton with that saying.
Huang will tear into Intel when he thinks it's warranted. And Intel may have reason to be worried about the content of Huang's candor. Despite Intel's colossal size and and clout, Nvidia--not Intel--supplies the defining chip for the most savvy computer users: game enthusiasts. They depend on Nvidia graphics chips to deliver the spectacular visuals of games like Crysis. And few people will deny that computing is becoming more visual. The GPU is essentially a parallel-computing engine that is extremely efficient at running visual (and scientific) software--that is, many of the popular graphics, video, and photo applications now running on PCs.
Posted by | Fri, May 09, 2008 - 11:08 AM
Judge Hits TorrentSpy With $111M Damages
In what has to be mixed news for anyone who uses a BitTorrent client, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court awarded the judgment to the Motion Picture Association of America, the MPAA announced late Wednesday. The court entered a default judgment against the operators of TorrentSpy in December, saying they had destroyed evidence related to an MPAA lawsuit against them. Ahh, TorrentSpy, we hate to see you go - at least you didn't take down your members though.
Last May, another judge ordered TorrentSpy to keep server logs, user IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and other information in support of the MPAA's lawsuit against the site. Cooper ruled in December that TorrentSpy had ignored that order.
Posted by | Fri, May 09, 2008 - 11:06 AM
Video games don't create killers, new book says
Playing video games does not turn children into deranged, blood-thirsty super-killers, according to a new book by a pair of Harvard researchers. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, a husband-and-wife team at Harvard Medical School, detail their views in "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do", which came out last month and promises to reshape the debate on the effects of video games on kids.
The pair reached that conclusion after conducting a two-year study of more than 1,200 middle-school children about their attitudes towards video games. It was a different approach than most other studies, which have focused on laboratory experiments that attempt to use actions like ringing a loud buzzer as a measure of aggression. "What we did that had rarely been done by other researchers was actually talk to the kids. It sounds bizarre but it hadn't been done," Kutner said.
Posted by | Fri, May 09, 2008 - 11:02 AM
AMD Reveals Its Future Server Lineup
AMD is planning to launch its 45nm server processor Shanghai in the second half of this year, which features HyperTransport 3.0, instruction-per clock enhancement (IPC) and will have its L3 cache increased from 2MB to 6MB, while the company will launch a six-core server processor codenamed Istanbul in the second half of 2009. The processors will fit with the current Socket F1 (1207) and will feature the company's Direct Connect Architecture.
In 2010, AMD expects to introduce its third-generation AMD Opteron processor socket G34 platform, which will offer features including DDR3 memory capabilities and AMD's RD890 chipset for non-coherent HyperTransport 3.0, along with an additional HT link. The company will also launch socket G34-based processor codenamed Sao Paolo in the first half of 2010, the processor will incorporate DDR3 memory, an additional HyperTransport 3.0 link and six-core design, while a 12-core processor codenamed Magny Cours will also leverage these features and launched in the first half of 2010.
Posted by | Fri, May 09, 2008 - 11:01 AM
Circuit City Opens Its Books to Blockbuster
Circuit City, the electronics retail chain, has effectively put itself up for sale. Circuit City announced today that it has hired Goldman Sachs & Co to help explore strategic alternatives, and would allow the video rental company Blockbuster to examine its books in its unsolicited takeover bid to acquire Circuit City.
The announcement indicated that some progress for Blockbuster’s bid, which is valued at more than $1 billion in cash. Many on Wall Street have called the deal a long shot, in part because of the difficulty of financing it.
New York Times Technology News
Posted by | Fri, May 09, 2008 - 10:59 AM