Legit Reviews News History
Mushkin Announces XP-800AP 800W Power Supply Unit
Mushkin Inc. today announced the release of the XP-800AP 800W power supply unit (PSU). The XP-800AP provides gamers and enthusiasts with ample power to push multi-CPU and multi-GPU systems to their limits. The Mushkin XP-800AP 800W Power Supply runs $185.81 direct from Mushkin.
The XP-800AP unit provides a comprehensive set of features including active PFC, 110-240V input, VersaPlug modular cabling, four PCIe cables with 6/8-pin adaptable connectors, user-selectable single +12V rail/quad +12V rail, 900W peak power, thermally controlled 135mm fan, 64A output at +12V, EPS 2.91 support, and industrial-grade components. The unit is backed by a generous 5-year limited warranty and Mushkin’s industry-leading technical support personnel.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 07:15 PM
Internet failure hits two continents - undersea cables damaged
High-technology services across large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope. Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage.
The two cables damaged are FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen telecommunications companies, Beckert said. He added the options while those cables are repaired were re-routing traffic around the globe or using an older undamaged cable that has less capacity -- both of which would cause usage delays. Kuwait's Ministry of Communications said the problem could take two weeks to solve, according to a statement carried by the state news agency, KUNA.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 03:31 PM
January 31 News from Around the Web
Motherboard.org's ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP@n Motherboard Review and other reviews from around the web are in our forums!
There are an abundance of new advances and available feature options with this board and it actually has so many features it could easily have a score over our 100 point limit. The notable features include support for DDR3 memory, 3 PCI Express x16 slots (2 2.0 slots), support for Intel’s Yorkfield CPUs and the ability to overclock like no tomorrow, we reached a stable 4.2GHz on air cooling alone
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 03:12 PM
JPR Reports Astounding 4th Quarter for GPU Shipments
Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry’s leading research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, today announced estimated graphics shipments and supplier market share for the fourth calendar quarter of 2007. Traditionally, the fourth quarter is a period of growth for the computer industry as retailers and OEMs sell in the holiday season. This year, the industry saw biggest quarter-to-quarter jump in the last six years.
Total shipments for the quarter were 106 million units, up 17% over last quarter. Shipments were up 27% compared to the same quarter last year. Overall, Intel held its first place position claiming 41.1% against Nvidia’s 31.8%, while AMD moved up to 22.8%
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 12:58 PM
SanDisk Announces 32- AND 16-Gigabyte SDHC and 8GB SDHC Plus Cards
Giving photo enthusiasts the freedom to take more pictures and shoot more video, SanDisk Corporation today increased both capacities and speeds in its SanDisk Ultra II line with the introduction of 32- and 16-gigabyte (GB) SDHC cards and an 8GB SDHC Plus card. The announcement was made at the photo industry’s PMA 08 International Convention.
The 32GB Ultra II SDHC card, which is the industry-leading capacity and will be the highest capacity consumer flash memory card that SanDisk produces, will be able to store more than 8,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 40 hours of video3. A SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader – a $20 value – is packaged with the 32GB and 16GB cards, giving users a one-stop solution for capturing, storing and transferring their images. Beyond speed and capacity, the 8GB SanDisk Ultra II SDHC Plus offers both SD and USB functionality in one card. Designed with SanDisk’s unique, patented Hinge Lock technology, the card may be inserted into a USB port on any computer. This two-in-one SD-plus-USB feature eliminates the need to carry cables or card readers to transfer photos and videos from cameras.
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 12:38 PM
VIA EPIA EK Powers Next Gen Tranax Transactional Kiosk
VIA Technologies today announced that the VIA EPIA EK1000G Mini-ITX mainboard had been selected by Tranax for its latest TK1000 non-cash dispensing transactional kiosks. Stability is crucial in always-on systems, so the VIA EPIA EK maximum power consumption of just 19 watts means the Tranax TK1000 can be trusted to run continuously using less power and with fewer instability problems associated with less efficient platforms.
“We are delighted that Tranax selected the VIA EPIA EK board for their latest generation transactional kiosk,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Kiosks like the Tranax TK1000 must be available to serve the public every hour of the day, every day of the year, requiring the sort of stable, reliable and low heat producing embedded platforms provided by our VIA EPIA board family.”
Posted by | Thu, Jan 31, 2008 - 06:57 AM
Gateway Enables Blu-Ray & HD-DVD Movie Playback with Phenom
Still waiting on the HD format war to come to an end? Wait no longer. Gateway has introduced a series of AMD Quad-Core powered desktops that will enable customers to play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Movies via its Hybrid-Supermulti Drive. Starting at a bit under $1200, the Gateway GM5664 and GT5662 up the anti on those looking for an extreme multimedia rig.
The new Hybrid-SuperMulti drive lets customers watch both Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs, and features burning capability on any type of DVD or CD disc. Rounding out this media supercenter is an integrated TV tuner with remote control, so consumers can watch, pause and record their favorite live programming. The overall system performance of both new PCs is enhanced with the addition of DirectX(R) 10 support with ATI Radeon(TM) HD 2400XT graphics featuring 256MB video memory and HDMI output.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 09:51 AM
Judge extends Microsoft oversight for two years
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday to extend the U.S. government's antitrust oversight of Microsoft Corp for two more years, but stopped short of granting a five-year extension sought by states accusing the company of continuing monopolistic behavior.
District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she will extend the government's oversight of Microsoft until November 12, 2009, two years after its original expiration date, due to delays by Microsoft in filing technical documents to software licensees. The consent decree settled the landmark U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft in 2002. The decree covers the company's ties to computer makers, how its software works with other types of software and enforcement to ensure it does not repeat past practices.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 08:08 AM
Apple's Needs To Cut Prices On The iPhone
Apple CEO Steve Jobs will need to work some magic to hit his sales target of 10 million iPhones this year. Since the iPhone's launch in June, Apple has sold about 4 million devices, including 2.3 million during the important holiday season. To reach the 10 million mark, it needs to average 2.5 million phones in sales a quarter over the next four quarters -- or 200,000 more than what it sold during the big holiday season.
Some analysts say Apple will have to cut deals with more phone carriers outside the U.S., upgrade the iPhone and most importantly, drop the price in order to reach its ambitious sales target. Apple's sales efforts have been stymied by a sour economy that could put these pricey $400 phones beyond the reach of some consumers. There's also the problem of some 1.7 million "missing" phones -- the difference between phones that were sold by Apple and those that were activated by AT&T, the telecom carrier with exclusive rights to the iPhone.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 08:04 AM
Yahoo cuts 1,000 jobs to 'invest in future'
Yahoo announced plans to cut 1,000 jobs Tuesday - its largest layoff since the dot-com bust - as the economic slowdown and fierce competition from Google buffeted its Internet advertising business.
Yahoo's strategy involved becoming a one-stop Internet portal, featuring everything from mail to finance. Google copied Yahoo, but added superior technology, focusing first on lucrative Internet search advertising and later offering highly praised mail and finance, as well as productivity applications and other features. Yang said he was optimistic about the future. "We are not tinkering around the edges," Yang told analysts Tuesday afternoon. "We are making significant, and what we believe are game-changing, investments in Yahoo's future."
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 08:03 AM
More Taiwanese chip makers slash spending
Three more Taiwanese chip makers plan to spend significantly less money on new factories and equipment this year as a DRAM (dynamic RAM) glut and uncertainty about the global economy weigh. Lower capital spending forecasts in the chip industry are a sign the global IT industry is on edge about future demand. Analysts have expected DRAM makers to cut back on spending for a long time due to falling chip prices. Prices for mainstream DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) chips remain below production costs, and most DRAM makers have reported losses for the fourth quarter.
Powerchip Semiconductor, Taiwan's largest memory chip maker, Wednesday said it plans to spend NT$35.1 billion (US$1.09 billion) on new chip factories, technology and production line equipment this year, less than half the NT$86.3 billion it spent last year. Powerchip's smaller rival on the island, ProMOS Technologies, also more than halved its projected 2008 capital spending to US$800 million, down from US$1.84 billion last year. The company also put the expansion of its fourth 12-inch factory on hold pending a rebound in the DRAM market. United Microelectronics (UMC), the world's second largest contract chip maker, forecast its 2008 capital spending at US$500 million to US$700 million, down from US$900 million last year.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 08:02 AM
Asustek announces Eee family product lines
With Eee PC becoming a focus of the PC market, Asustek Computer has announced it is planning to launch a family of Eee products including: E-DT (desktop PC), E-TV and E-Monitor. All the products while have low-cost as their major selling point, according to Jerry Shen, president of Asustek.
The E-DT, a desktop PC which will not be sold with a monitor, is scheduled to launch in April or May this year and will be showcased at CeBIT 2008. The first E-DT will adopt an Intel Celeron processor, while later generations will adopt Intel's Shelton'08 platform with Diamondville processors and the 945GC chipset. The company has set the price of the PC at between US$200-300 and will try to push it down to US$199. The E-Monitor will be an all-in-one device similar to Apple's iMac and Dell's XPS One. E-Monitor will cut into the 19-21-inch market and will come with a built-in TV tuner. Pricing is set at US$499, compared to the iMac's price of US$1,199-2,299 and the XPS One's price of US$1,499-2,399. E-Monitor will also be based on Intel's Shelton'08 platform and will be launched in September this year.
Posted by | Wed, Jan 30, 2008 - 08:01 AM
Legit Reviews Folding Team 38296 Breaks 15 Million Points
The Legit Reviews Folding team has reached a new milestone today as Team 38296 has broken the 15 million point mark! The team has completed over 46,000 work units since it was created and has had 151 people contribute work units over the years. The Legit Reviews folding team is free to join and always welcomes new members, so if you are interested in the team check out the folding forums here or our various articles on folding here, here and here.
The goal of F@H and Stanford is to apply this new technology to dramatically advance the capabilities of the project, applying their simulations to further study of protein folding and related diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease, Huntington's Disease, and certain forms of cancer. With these computational advances, coupled with new simulation methodologies to harness the new techniques, Stanford believes they will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, and make even greater impacts on our knowledge of folding and folding related diseases.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 29, 2008 - 07:56 PM
Futuremark Announces the Futuremark Games Studio
Futuremark has announced the formation of a group named the Futuremark Games Studio. "Futuremark Games Studio is committed to developing original IP games with the highest quality game play combined with our established track record of creating blow-your-socks-off visuals", said Tero Sarkkinen, CEO of Futuremark Corporation. "For years, our fans have been asking us when will we start making games. Very soon they are going to get it - and then some!" Futuremark Games Studio already has its first game already in development, but declined to say anything other than it will be an original world class game.
Over the past 10 years Futuremark's team of brilliant artists and engineers has created remarkably beautiful demos and benchmarks for a variety of clients to show off the abilities of their platforms. Although the new studio will demonstrate its ability to seamlessly integrate the latest technologies into its engines, its mission is to build world class games that bring new and entertaining game play to gamers. This includes games and their engines that deliver stellar performance even on modest platforms right up to the most enthusiastic levels of performance hardware
Posted by | Tue, Jan 29, 2008 - 01:00 PM
Analyst Claims Quarter of Apple iPhones Are Unlocked
More than a quarter of people who bought Apple Inc's iPhone are using them on wireless networks other than AT&T's, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S., a "stunning" number that will pressure the company's business model, an analyst said on Monday. Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said analysis of sales numbers from Apple and AT&T Inc revealed about 1.45 million phones were "missing in action" at the end of 2007.
About 480,000 of those were believed to be held by AT&T as inventory, leaving another 1 million phones, or 27 percent of the total, that Sacconaghi said were "unlocked" so they could work on non-AT&T networks. Apple executives said last week the number of unlocked phones was "significant" but declined to give an estimate. Most analysts had estimated the portion of unlocked phones at under 20 percent. Spokespersons for Apple and AT&T declined to comment.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 29, 2008 - 09:33 AM
PCB makers hit by heavy snow in China
Taiwan-based printed circuit board (PCB) makers are seeing their production in China affected by severe snowfall that is causing transportation chaos and power shortages in the eastern and central parts of the country, with some makers running at only 30-40% of their capacities. Changshu and Kunshan, which host the production bases of many Taiwan PCB makers, are two of the eastern Chinese areas being hit hard by heavy snowfall.
APCB, which has production facilities in Kunshan, said that power rationing is undermining its production, as its own generators have been unable to support full operations. Orders for optoelectronics PCBs are strong, but the weather conditions and the electricity shortages are expected to affect 5% of its overall shipments, APCB said. Plotech, which also runs PCB production in Kunshan, is also having problems with its shipments, according to industry sources. Some makers have only 30-40% of their capacities running, which is forcing them to halve their shipments, the sources said.
Posted by | Tue, Jan 29, 2008 - 09:31 AM
ASUS Unveils AMD Radeon HD 3870X2 Graphics Card
ASUS today released the ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G and EAH3870X2/G/HTDI/1GM featuring dual on-board AMD Radeon HD 3870X2 graphics processing units (GPUs). The EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G comes equipped with 1GB of the fastest DRR3 0.8ns memory and two additional DVI outputs to ensure a pulsing and engaging gaming experience. The unique dual fan sinks on the new ASUS cards promise efficient heat dissipation, resulting in more system stability. The ASUS EAH3870X2 series will be available through ASUS authorized dealers in North America this week, with an introductory MSRP of $449.
The new EAH3870X2 series is the first one in the world to come equipped with 1GB of the fastest 0.8ns DDR3 on-board memory. The unique combination of high memory capacity and specially sorted memory speed means the ASUS cards are capable of processing the most complex graphics without delay at the highest resolution and with maximum quality settings to deliver the ultimate visual realism.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 28, 2008 - 11:50 AM
Intel Becomes Largest Purchaser of Green Power in the U.S.
Intel Corporation said today it will purchase more than 1.3 billion kilowatt hours a year of renewable energy certificates as part of a multi-faceted approach to reduce its impact on the environment, making Intel the single-largest corporate purchaser of green power in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The company said it hoped the record-setting purchase would help stimulate the market for green power, which should lead to additional generating capacity and ultimately, lower costs.
The purchase placed Intel at the top of EPA's latest Green Power Partners Top 25 list, and also at the No. 1 spot on EPA's Fortune 500 Green Power Partners list. The EPA's Green Power Partnership program encourages and recognizes voluntary green power purchases as a way to reduce the impact of conventional electricity use. "We have a long history of commitment to the environment and energy efficiency is an important consideration in everything we do, from building transistors to designing microprocessors and running our factories," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini, who is also a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a global group of leaders working to achieve an effective global climate treaty at next year's UN Environmental Summit in Copenhagen.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 28, 2008 - 10:18 AM
CoolIT Announces Liquid Cooling for ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 GPUs
Right on the heals of AMD announcing the availability of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 earlier this month, CoolIT Systems debuts the third installment in the Reference Series line of liquid cooling systems designed to quietly and effectively cool Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.’s highly anticipated performance graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. In recent testing, the liquid cooled cards were stably clocked up to over 900MHz core clock speed and the memory pushed to 1GHz with no thermal issues.
“We’re extremely excited about the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 as it sets a new standard in high definition gaming performance leadership for AMD” said Dr. Gamal Refai-Ahmed, AMD Fellow and Chief Thermal Architect, AMD Graphics Product Group. “Using AMD’s micro-channel technology in a closed loop liquid cooling design, CoolIT is once again enabling users to exploit the full potential of 55nm ATI Radeon HD 3800 series architecture while still maintaining a single slot form factor.”
Posted by | Mon, Jan 28, 2008 - 10:16 AM
AMD Introduces The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Video Card
AMD today announced the immediate availability of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics processor, expanding the visual boundaries of PC entertainment well beyond the 1080P High Definition (HD) threshold. The industry's first graphics processor to break the Teraflop (one trillion floating point operations per second) barrier, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 nearly doubles the performance of the award-winning ATI Radeon HD 3870 introduced in November 2007. Legit Reviews has posted a review on the Radeon HD 3870 X2 here.
Through an elegant yet aggressive design, the 55 nanometer process-based ATI Radeon 3870 X2 combines two ATI Radeon HD 3870s on a single graphics board, connected through integrated CrossFire(TM) technology. ATI Radeon 3870 X2 is also the first performance-leadership graphics product in the world to support Microsoft's upcoming DirectX(R) 10.1 technology. The ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers a new class of price and performance leadership with unbelievable enthusiast value at a suggested retail price of US $449.
Posted by | Mon, Jan 28, 2008 - 10:09 AM