Legit Reviews News History
Danger Den releases "palm sized" pump
Danger Den has introduced one of the most compact PC watercooling pumps ever. The Danger Den DDC-12V is a svelte 2.4" x 2.4" x 1.5" and is powered via a molex connector drawing between 6V ~ 13V. At 13.2V the pump circulates 400LPH, and from the look of things the pump should be highly desirable for SFF. At just $74.99 MSRP even the price is small. Contact Danger Den for availability.
"...The flow rate and performance characteristics can be easily controlled by voltage variation....The rotor/impeller is suspended in the pumped fluid and the rotor is self-aligning so noise does not increase over time." Danger Den
Posted by | Mon, Nov 29, 2004 - 05:35 PM
Dual-Die Intel chip for sale on EBay
A photo of this bastard bantling of desktop silicium (read Server) can be viewed here. Whether the chip was ejected from an Intel livery van whilst speeding through pot-holed Berlin streets, or traded behind the Fab by disgruntled tech on smoke break remains to be seen. Irregardless of the abomination's source, it could be an item Phillips may want to purchase for their recent endavor? After all wouldn't a physical seperation of cache, and core (while temporally troublesome) resolve a plethora of specious engineering qualia?
Posted by | Sun, Nov 28, 2004 - 10:51 PM
AMD Roadmap drops Athlon XP
"AMD has updated its public roadmap. The biggest change: the death of its Athlon XP brand."
Posted by | Sat, Nov 27, 2004 - 01:10 PM
950W Power Supply Units Sneak into Market
950W??!!! This is getting a bit out of control.
"A Japan-based company has started to sell its power supply units with maximum output of up to 950W, which is the world??s highest performance for desktops. As modern central processing units and graphics cards continue to devour more and more power, high-end personal computer??s PSU requirements will continue to increase and such PSUs are likely to gain popularity."
Posted by | Sat, Nov 27, 2004 - 01:07 PM
Happy Thanksgiving from Legit Reviews
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Legit Reviews. In this time of sharing, and reason to give thanks, lets remember the young men and women serving all over the world. God bless those whom are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, time away from their loved ones, so that we may enjoy time with ours. In the spirit of sharing here's a new utility from Panopsys entitled ThrottleWatch. This free utility monitors TM1, and TM2 in Pentium processors.
Posted by | Thu, Nov 25, 2004 - 01:58 AM
Online hunting, Texas style
A website titled live-shot.com, allows users to participate in live target practice from the safety and warmth of their homes. Using a online program, perspective shooters access an actual 22-cal rifle mounted on a servo controlled platform and fitted with a high-power camera. At present you can choose among several "active" targets including paper which can be mailed to you. For an additional fee a DVD of your session can be sent to you as well. The site's founder John Lockwood is under the gun (pun intended) as he plans to move the shooting station onto his 300-acre Texas ranch next year, giving online-hunters an opportunity to kill live game. There's a list of species available at the site, all you need is a credit card and internet access, "handicapped hunters" welcome. I don't know about you, but I'm looking foward to online electro-shock site, where at the click of a mouse you can shock the founders of this site, and JFK Reloaded. (Disclaimer: no animals were harmed in the reporting of this story) Full story at MSNBC
Posted by | Tue, Nov 23, 2004 - 04:33 PM
Intel to introduce watercooling?
Tom's Hardware Guide recently published an article indicating Intel maybe seriously considering watercooling their CPU's. A prototype system built by Sanyo Denki (SAN ACE MC?) was sent to Tom's and the test results vs air-cooling were of course as expected. Watercooling was much more effective then air-cooling. From what could be gleaned reading the Tom's piece, the compact Sanyo Denki system would purportedly come sealed, be very easy to install, and maintainence free. In the evolution of the modern processor, Engineer's are faced with a conundrum. As CPU die-size continue to shrink the number of transistors within actually increases. With this ever increasing number of transistors occupying an ever decreasing amount of silicon real-estate, the heat generated is substantial. The P4 dissipates 115W and this heat must be removed as rapidly as it's generated. Watercooling is ideally suiited for thermal management as waterblock's do not require the large mass, nor the surface area air-cooler's do. Since it's primarily the water which is removing the heat, the waterblock's footprint need only be as large as the processor it rests upon. Read the full article here.
Posted by | Tue, Nov 23, 2004 - 06:38 AM
SISoftware Sandra 2005 released
Per SiSoftware, the latest version 2005 caters to remote devices and offers extensive temperature, fan speed, CPU power and cooling system thermal resistence monitoring. Here's a link to Sandra 2005 Features Table, and to the download page.
"London, UK, November 21 2004 - SiSoftware has announced the availability of SiSoftware Sandra 2005, the latest version of its award-wining utility which now includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, PDAs1, Smart Phones1, small office/home office (SOHO) networks and enterprise networks."
Posted by | Mon, Nov 22, 2004 - 07:21 PM
Voodoo to release carbon fibre laptop
Voodoo PC plans to release a laptop constructed in a carbon fibre shell. The notebook will be part of the ENVY series, called the ENVY m:50. Some benefits of the material will be it's nominal effect on wireless signals and of course weight, tipping the scales at a svelte 3lbs. The notebook will feature a "Pentium M up to 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 100GB HDD."
Posted by | Mon, Nov 22, 2004 - 06:18 AM
ATI X850 graphic card series revealed
The Inquirer shares some pre-launch info on ATI's new X850 graphic cards. The cards will be based on ATI's .13-micron R480 core, which the Inquirer claims is "optimised R423 silicon" and are designed strictly for PCIe. Fastest of the three X850 series the X850XT Platinum, will run a 540MHz core and 590MHz/1180MHz GDDR3 memory. The cards should begin saturating the market by January 2005. In a related story prices for the cards will range from $549 for the Platinum, $499 for the XT, and $399 for the Pro. Of the three, the latter will have 12-pipelines, while the XT and PE shall feature 16-pipelines.
"ATI will claim the X850 will have much better availability than the disastrously not available X800 XT PE AGP card. Let's hope that it is right and bear in mind that the cards are PCIe only." The Inquirer
Posted by | Mon, Nov 22, 2004 - 05:35 AM
Online game JFK Reloaded recreates assassination
Has the Scottish company Traffic Games developed the world's first FPA (First Person Assassinator)? Dubbed JFK Reloaded, participants can take part in a simulated assassination of President John F. Kennedy travelling in the original Dallas motorcade. To be released on the 41st anniversary of the President's death, players are allowed three shots from the 6th floor window of the infamous Texas School Book Depository. Reuters reports, Kirk Ewing managing director of Traffic Games and senior executive at VIS claimed the game's purpose is intended to "exploit new technology" and "dispell conspiracy theories." Discuss this in our forums.
"Traffic Games said the objective was for a player to fire three shots at Kennedy's motorcade from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's digitally recreated sixth-floor perch...Points are awarded or subtracted based on how accurately the shots match the official version...as documented by the Warren Commission...Shooting the image of Kennedy in the right spots in the right sequence adds to the score...shooting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy lead to deductions...The game will be available via download for $9.99." Reuters
Posted by | Sun, Nov 21, 2004 - 08:56 PM
MagnaChip and Tezzaron to manufacture worlds first 3D chips
Silicon Strategies reports a partnership between Tezzaron, and MagnaChip the latter once the non-memory division of Hynix Semiconductor. The fruits of partnership will bring to market; " the worlds first and true three-dimensional chips." Tezzaron located in Naperville ILL., a "Fabless chip designer," announced re-programable 3D RAM chips which run above 500MHz, utilizing less then 2-ns latecnies. Tezzaron design's are based on manufacturing technology know as FaStack, in which 8" wafers are stacked using copper both as a bonding agent and interconnect. The IC's perform 3 - 10 times better then existing technologies due to the vertical interconnects just 10 microns in length. Although the 3D RAM is currently manufactured on a somewhat dated .18-micron process, the stacking manufacturing technique should significantly reduce costs. Magnachip will manufacture Tezzaron design's in their Seoul, South Korea foundry, including "3D IC's and sensors."
"Youm Huh, president and CEO of MagnaChip, is also bullish on 3D chips. '3D RAM is expected to become one of the fastest growing IC segments, led by growth in digital camera applications, cell phones and portable consumer electronics,' he said. 'The benefits to manufacturers include increased performance, lower cost of ownership, faster time to market and better product performance." Silicon Stategies
Posted by | Sat, Nov 20, 2004 - 03:32 PM
Intel NFORCE Boards Coming Soon?
Looks like Intel and NVIDIA have come to an understanding and are going to work together on some Intel platform boards. This should prove to be interesting as it will bring SLI technology to the Intel side of things now along with the nForce platform that is popular among AMD enthusiasts!
Head to our forums and give us your thoughts on the cross-license agreement!
"NVIDIA and Intel are working together to enhance the end-user computing experience,? added Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. ??NVIDIA??s product portfolio offers exciting technology options to Intel customers, including the NVIDIA nForce platform and the PCI Express-based SLI graphics technology solution."
Posted by | Fri, Nov 19, 2004 - 08:06 AM
IBM 64-Unix server benchmarks dominate competition
IBM's eServer p5 595 64p benchmarks have surpassed a 3m per minute transaction record, trouncing the HP Integrity Superdome producing just over 1m transactions per minute (tpmC). The $16-million p5 system utilizes 64 1.9GHz IBM Powers (IBM Power5) CPU's. HP's $8-million Integrity Superdome utilizing 64 1.5GHz Intel Itanium2 CPU's currently holds 3rd place in the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C results. IBM's $5-million eServer pSeries 690 featuring 32 1.9GHz Power4+ CPU's, holds second place as well with just over 1.025m transactions per minute. Given the IT world's dependence on such technologies the news bodes well for Big Blue, especially in price/performance. Full story.
"The new result gives IBM an excuse to bash HP and Sun Microsystems. IBM's Power5 chip appears to be the most solid readily available high-end processor on the market, giving both Intel's Itanium and Sun's UltraSPARC IV fits." Ashlee Vance in Chicago (The Register)
Posted by | Thu, Nov 18, 2004 - 11:54 AM
Reviews Around The Web!
Today's Must Read Review:
Adrian's Rojak Pot has just posted FINAL Part of the definitive Virtual Memory Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0!
"Even today, virtual memory is still very important component of the operating system. No matter how much memory you have, there is always a need for virtual memory. Therefore, its performance is of great importance. Optimizing the virtual memory system will greatly improve the performance of the computer." -- Adrian Wong
Virtual Memory Optimization Guide @ Rojak Pot
Other Reviews Today:
- Die Spammers Die! @ The Tech Zone
- Thermaltake Purepower Fanless @ auphanonline
- Enermax 470 watt Noisetaker PSU @ OCIA
- NZXT Nemesis Elite Edition Case @ techniz
- Nvidia Geforce 6800GT PCIe Videocard @ Tweaknews
- Gigabyte GO-M1600B Multimedia DVD Drive @ HardwareZoom
- SilverStone TJ-05 Review @ FastLaneHW
Posted by | Thu, Nov 18, 2004 - 08:58 AM
Tier-1 motherboard maker's will use VIA K8T890 chipset
PCI-Express and dual graphic card capable for AMD. Motherboard maker's including Abit, Albatron, ASUS, Gigabyte, Shuttle, and Soltek will manufacture motherboards based on the VIA (AMD64) K8T890 chipset, as well as the K8T890 Pro. The latter features VIA's DualGFX Express allowing the Enduser to combine the rendering power of two graphics cards for PCIe. The chipset will support the AMD Althon64, Athlon64 FX, Opteron, and Semperon processor's. The South Bridge chip, VIA VT8237 will support Serial-ATA, V-RAID, VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, and "Vinyl" VIA's on-board sound in 6 or 8 channels, as reported by The Inquirer.
"The K8T890 chipset is optimized to work seamlessly with the latest PCI Express graphics cards, featuring a PCI Express x16 connection for up to 4GB/s of dedicated graphics bandwidth per direction, and provides four PCI Express x1 connections...The VIA K8T890 integrates VIA??s Hyper8 technology supporting a 1GHz/16-bit HyperTransport processor-to-chipset link, that delivers up to 8GB/s of bandwidth to help ensure all AMD64 processor-based systems achieve their full performance potential...For connectivity to the South Bridge the VIA K8T890 features a high bandwidth Ultra V-Link bus to allow communication between the chipset North and South bridges at a blazing 1GB/s." VIA Technologies Inc.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 17, 2004 - 05:54 AM
Half-Life 2's Dark Side - CS: Source
Well, I have HL2 installed and unlocked. After my short preview, I found this article from HardOCP. Now I fear that my gaming experience with HL2 will not be as positive as it could have been with the fear of knowing Counter-Strike may never be enjoyable again. Its articles like this that reveal a deep dark side to HL2 and give companies like Valve a black eye. If you were already having second thoughts about purchasing Half-Life 2, this article may just sway you to save your money for the next big game to hit the market.
"It is entirely HardOCP??s opinion that Counter Strike:Source, in its current version, is not ready for an official launch and at best should still be considered ??BETA Software.? Even worse, many gamers and Counter Strike server admins are seeing the official launch of CS:Source as an atrocity and a virtual thumb in the eye to the serious online gaming community, in which Counter-Strike is based."
Posted by | Tue, Nov 16, 2004 - 09:52 PM
Hynix and ST-Micro to construct $2-billion DRAM Fab
Hynix Semiconductor, and ST-Microelectronics have combined efforts to construct a $2-billion "front-end" Fab facility in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China. Concentrating on wafer's for DRAM and NAND Flash, the plant will cover some 18,000 square meter's of clean room manufacturing space, and employ approximately 1,500. The joint venture will focus on high volume 8-inch wafer production beginning in 2006, and 12-inch wafer production by 2007. Hynix will contribute just over 60% of the facility's total cost, with ST-Micro incurring the remaining costs. Currently the companies are filing for appropriate government "approvals" and making financial arrangements, as reported by ElectronicNews. Hopefully the little storm cloud hanging over Hynix has lifted, as the last four years have gone far beyond soap-operatic to Greek tragic between Hynix, Micron and their perspective governments. It all began when Micron was to purchase Hynix as the DRAM maker was deep in debt. Apparently the South Korean government stepped in and bailed out the DRAM maker, coincidentally leading to tariffs imposed on Hynix chips as the only US maker of DRAM, Micron then cried foul. This most recent venture is a business savvy move on the part of Hynix, and hopefully will imbibe the SDRAM market with greater quantities of quality IC's.
"For Hynix, this venture allows the company to secure 300mm manufacturing facilities, and could resolve existing and potential trade issues. Meanwhile, STMicroelectronics said this venture assure the company of access to cost-competitive DRAM products and technology." ElectronicNews
Posted by | Tue, Nov 16, 2004 - 03:35 PM
Largest Digital Photograph
Photo stitch programs similar to the one used to make this incredibly large digital photograph are really cool! My Cannon digital camera came with some stitch software and it is awesome! I was able to make a huge panoramic picture of a sunrise off the coast of Cancun, Mexico without the need of an actual panoramic lens! Anyways, here's a quote from slashdot's post on the subject... I'm gunna go buy HL2!
"Dutch research institute TNO has unveiled what it believes is the largest digital photograph in the world. The image contains 2.5 gigapixels or 7.5 gigabyte worth of data. It is composed of 600 single images shot by a computer-controlled pan-tilt unit in 7 second intervals. Afterwards, all photos where stiched together using the capacity of 5 high-end pc's in about 24 hours time."
Posted by | Tue, Nov 16, 2004 - 10:04 AM
Half Life 2 Benchmarks dominated by ATI
Just hours after it's "real" (server activation) release, Half-Life 2 benchmarks have been published at The Inquirer. Early results indicate ATI's core technology is the favored catalyst for the game's graphic engine. In the high performance graphic card catagory between the X800 XT PE and 6800 Ultra, ATI clearly dominates. Comparing the X700 XT to nVidia's 6600 GT in PCIe, results once again favor ATI. Finally, in mainstream performance for both AGP and PCIe ATI's masterdom remains consistent. ATI's command over the competition may not come as much of a surprise since they've been working with Valve on the game for some time. Originally scheduled for release last year the game was delayed after source code was stolen. As far back as October, 2003 ATI and Valve were attempting to appease the game's devotees with special offers. Let's hope the battle to get Half-Life 2 in the hands of gamers has ended peaceably, so the 3D battle can begin.
Posted by | Tue, Nov 16, 2004 - 05:21 AM