Legit Reviews News History

Antec Introduces Super-Premium Line of Power Supplies - Signature Series

Antec today announced the Signature Series, its newest and most advanced family of power supply units. Available in 850 Watts and 650 Watts, the Signature Series features several cutting-edge innovations that set it above the competition, several of which have never been offered in a consumer power supply. The Signature 650 and Signature 850 are available now and will retail for estimated street prices of $249.00 and $299.00, respectively.

The Signature Series utilizes active DC-to-DC voltage regulation as opposed to the standard passive magnetic amplifier method, providing for shorter transient response times and greater system stability. The Signature Series' transient response times can be as low as 10 microseconds, in contrast to the standard power supply transient times of 1000 microseconds (1 millisecond). In addition, the Signature Series boasts an advanced cooling system with a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) fan. By adapting its speed to the power output of the unit, a PWM controlled fan can run at speeds as low as 15% of its maximum, as opposed to a traditional fan which can only run at about 40%, thus ensuring the quietest possible operation.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, Jun 30, 2008 - 12:00 PM

Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP today

Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers today, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.

Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP. Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.

SiliconValley.com

Posted by | Mon, Jun 30, 2008 - 09:55 AM

Firefox 3.0 wins memory battle - uses less system memory

Mozilla's Firefox 3.0 browser uses memory much more efficiently than its rivals, according to an independent tester who wrote a memory-monitoring utility to track usage by Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE), Flock, Opera and Safari.

The poorest marks went to Apple's Safari 3 .1 for Windows -- Allen tested only the Windows versions of each browser -- which consistently consumed more memory the longer it was used. "Safari on Windows shows extremely poor memory management," he said. Other browsers, including Microsoft's IE 8 Beta 1, Flock's Flock 2.0, and Opera Software's Opera 9.5, were in the middle, memory management-wise, he argued.

InfoWorld

Posted by | Mon, Jun 30, 2008 - 08:51 AM

Samsung SDI to invest $529 million to up OLED output

South Korean display maker Samsung SDI Co said on Monday it would boost production of next-generation organic displays to six times the current level by mid-2009, spending $529 million in the process. The move comes as leading panel makers try to grab a piece of the fast-growing market for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) displays, which make better-quality, slimmer and more energy-efficient screens than liquid crystal displays.

Samsung SDI, which produces small-sized AM-OLED screens used in handheld devices, said in a filing with the local exchange that it would invest 551.8 billion won ($528.6 million) until mid-2009 to expand its AM-OLED output. When the investment is completed, its production capacity will reach 9 million units a month in 2-inch screen terms, compared with 1.5 million currently, the company said. Other makers are also moving fast to launch OLED products and build scale.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, Jun 30, 2008 - 08:50 AM

Asustek to launch new Eee PCs with bigger keyboards

Asustek is planning to launch new Eee PC models, the 904 and 905, which have an 8.9-inch panel but use a similar chassis and keyboard as the company's 10.2-inch models, according to sources at channel vendors.

The Eee PC 904 and 905 will adopt Atom processors and the major difference between the two and the previous 901 model is that they feature a bigger keyboard. Asustek is still evaluating whether to make changes to the two models' battery and storage capacity. The company expects the Eee PC 904 ad 905 to come out at a similar price range as the current 900 and 901, and will eventually replace them. Asustek is also considering whether to drop prices for the 900 and 901 to completely clear its inventory or leave them in the market to defend against Acer's Aspire One, noted the sources.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Mon, Jun 30, 2008 - 08:47 AM

AMD expected to grab 40% discrete graphics card market share in 3Q08

With AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800-series graphics cards successfully cutting into the US$200-300 mainstream market forcing Nvidia to cut the price of its previous generation GeForce 9800 GTX down to US$199, sources at graphics card makers see AMD's discrete graphics card market share as having a chance to increase to 40% in the third quarter this year from around 30% at the beginning of 2008. Since Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GTX does not provide advantages in power consumption or performance over the same priced Radeon HD 4850, graphics card makers are more optimistic over AMD's upcoming performance.

“The ATI Radeon 4800 series represents a 2X performance jump over the ATI Radeon HD 3800 GPU, the biggest generational increase since the game-changing launch of the Radeon 9700 in 2002,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “AMD made a strategic decision to focus on GPU designs that maximized our efficiency and allowed us to provide enthusiasts, performance and mainstream users with the most compelling value proposition at every price point. The ATI Radeon 4800 series sets a new industry standard in key metrics such as performance-per-watt, performance-per-mm2 of chip die size, and performance-per-dollar.” AMD customers expressed excitement with the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Fri, Jun 27, 2008 - 10:24 AM

Microsoft Hyper-V now available

Microsoft on Thursday released its Hyper-V virtualization technology, a day after it was widely reported the software was about to go into final release. People can now download Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 on Microsoft's Web site . The technology allows people to run multiple OSes -- including Linux -- using one physical hardware running Windows Server, and is available slightly ahead of the latest schedule Microsoft had for the software.

Virtualization is becoming a key way companies are driving costs out of the datacenter by running OSes in virtual machines (VMs) rather than physically on servers. Microsoft aims to catch up to virtualization leader VMware in providing this technology for hardware systems not only running on Windows, but also Linux and other OSes. The company has said it aims to make virtualization a key part of its system-management strategy going forward, and is also expanding beyond hardware into desktop and application virtualization.

InfoWorld

Posted by | Fri, Jun 27, 2008 - 10:22 AM

Lian-Li launches the all new Tyr X500 HTPC/Gaming Chassis

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd has launched the Tyr X500 chassis designed as a stylish midi-tower HTPC/Gaming chassis. Combining the usual toned down profile of HTPC cases with the arresting larger profile of traditional Lian Li chassis; the Tyr X500 stands out in style. Similar to the X2000 Chassis, there is no hiding of this case as it proudly resembles multimedia speakers, and boldly displays your tasteful style.

Lian Li is well known for craftsmanship and quality, and the Tyr X500 is no exception. The stylish and unique side panels accept 2x 5.25” Optical Device Drives and one 3.5” drive, which are accessible from either the left or right side, while the front face is for ergonomics with a stylish diamond cut and airflow from side intake vents. Showcasing the new style, with an all black anodized interior, an easily removable front panel which covers 2x 120mm silent intake fans, protected by the removable and washable nylon dust cover and 2x 120mm exhaust fans, one for each heat zone. The top mounted multimedia ports include 4x USB 2.0 ports, 1x Firewire (IEEE1394), 1x E-SATA, and HD AC97 Audio ports. The patented tool-less latch allows easy access to the compartmented heat zones inside with enough room to support 300mm long VGA cards, plus 4x HDD’s. Other traditional Lian Li innovations have been improved upon such as the removable motherboard tray with holes for better CPU cooling and added anti-vibration couplings, as well as the specially filed and brushed finish to reduce sharp edges giving the case both style, and an aspect of safety.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Fri, Jun 27, 2008 - 10:20 AM

VIA Pico-ITX Goes Low Profile, Integrates Power Supply

VIA Technologies today announced the VIA EPIA P700 Pico-ITX board that couples more features within a streamlined, ultra compact footprint designed for low profile systems, with extended I/O port options through two companion boards.

Now featuring native S-ATA II support, Gigabit LAN, and support for GPIO, SM bus and LPC devices, the 10cm x 7.2cm VIA EPIA P700 is based on the VIA VX700 unified digital media IGP chipset and is powered by a 1GHz VIA C7 or fanless 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor. An integrated power adapter coupled with the 5-volt S-SATA power cable negates the need for a separate power daughterboard, saving considerable space for ultra compact systems.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Fri, Jun 27, 2008 - 10:16 AM

Sony PS3 losses in the Billions!

Sony has lost over $3 billion on the PS3, Mario and Master Chief seen hi-fiving. Think you paid too much for your Playstation 3? Don't expect any sympathy from Sony. In the company's fiscal 2008 annual report, Sony revealed that they've now lost roughly $3.3 billion (that's billion with a B) on the Playstation 3 since its launch. That breaks down to $2.16 billion in 2007, followed by a notably smaller but equally daunting $1.16 billion loss in 2008.

The reason? Pricing the console below its production cost. That's right - that hefty $599 you paid for the PS3 back when it first launched was significantly cheaper than the cost of producing it in the first place, and while the retail price has come down some, the losses keep piling up. Investors have reason to sweat. In a statement, Sony claimed "the large-scale investment required during the development and introductory period of a new gaming platform may not be fully recovered." They went on to note that they've invested a great deal of money into R&D for the console, a sum they might not be able to recoup if the PS3 "fails to achieve such favorable market penetration."

Yahoo

Posted by | Fri, Jun 27, 2008 - 12:23 AM

Corsair Memory Used in New Alienware Area-51 ALX Desktops

Corsair announced today that the recently relaunched Alienware Area-51 ALX high performance gaming platform now includes 4GB of Corsair’s award winning overclockable DOMINATOR DDR3 memory. Using Corsair’s DOMINATOR memory modules, the Alienware Area-51 ALX runs with rock-solid stability at the overclocked memory frequency of 1600 MHz.

The DOMINATOR family of memory represents the ultimate in performance technology engineering from Corsair. DOMINATOR is designed with the highest performing IC overclocking capability and Corsair’s patented DHX cooling. DHX technology is an innovative quad-layer heat sink design that optimizes memory performance and reliability by maximizing thermal dissipation. With DHX Technology, heat is removed via two paths – the leads of the BGA chips into the PCB (conductive cooling) and the back of the BGA packages into the custom designed extruded aluminum heat sinks (convective cooling). This allows DOMINATOR modules to achieve outstanding overclocking performance, while remaining stable and reliable.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Jun 26, 2008 - 11:09 AM

June 26 News from Around the Web

Sapphire HD4850 Review @ OCC and other reviews from around the web can be found in our forums!

"The Sapphire HD4850 utilizes ATI's design of their newest core using a 55nm manufacturing technology, the RV770 using 512MB of GDDR3 memory. I had expected to see some great numbers from the new card, however what I saw was way beyond what I expected. The stock benchmarking scores of the HD4850 beat the 9800 a few times and got beat a few times by it, however once the Sapphire HD4850's core was overclocked to 670MHz and the memory was pushed all the way up to 1100MHz, it was able to compete with the competition's newest card, the GTX 280. When the card was overclocked, unlike the PowerColor HD4850, the temperatures of the GPU were sitting around 82-86 degrees Celsius under load, while these temperatures are not very good and are quite high, I felt that they were safe enough for me to be able to run some benchmarks."

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Jun 26, 2008 - 11:08 AM

Astek First With Water Cooled ATI Radeon HD 4870 Video Card

Asetek's LCLC liquid cooling solution is now available for AMD's latest ATI Radeon HD 4870 family of graphics cards. The unique, single-slot liquid cooling solution was able to drop the GPU temperatures found on the 4870 by as much as 26 degrees. Our HIS Radeon HD 4870 ran at 83C under full load, so a 26C drop would be huge!

To meet the demands of advanced gaming or graphics-intensive applications, Asetek's highly integrated solution lowers the GPU temperatures found on the 4870 by as much as 26 degrees, enabling it to run significantly cooler in extreme performance modes of operation. And, since the Asetek solution is totally liquid cooled, the graphics card can run completely silent, except for the system heat exchanger fan that typically runs at a quiet 30 dB(A).

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Jun 26, 2008 - 08:59 AM

NVIDIA's PhysX-enabling Forceware 177.39 beta drivers now available

In case you missed it in the forums last night, NVIDIA's released Forceware 177.39 beta drivers that add PhysX support to the GeForce 9800 GTX, GeForce GTX 280, and GeForce GTX 260 video cards. These drivers have raised questions about NVIDIA cheating on 3DMark Vantage and have been the talk around the water cooler in offices around the world for more than a week now.

NVIDIA's GeForce v177.39 release highlights are as follows:

  • Beta release for Windows Vista.
  • Adds support for GeForce 9800 GTX GPUs.
  • Adds support for NVIDIA PhysX Technology for GPU PhysX hardware acceleration on GeForce 9800 GTX, GeForce GTX 280, and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs. The GeForce v177.39 driver package includes NVIDIA PhysX System Software v8.06.12. The Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack can be downloaded here.
  • Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI™ technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI Technology with GeForce 9800 GTX, GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs.
  • Supports CUDA™ Technology.
  • Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
  • Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, and known compatibility issues.
  • Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Jun 26, 2008 - 08:52 AM

AMD Announces New ATI All-in-Wonder HD Tuner Card

AMD today expanded The Ultimate Visual Experience for North America with the ATI All-In-Wonder HD, combining award-winning ATI Radeon Premium graphics and ATI TV Wonder HD tuner technology card in one PCI Express 2.0 solution. As the newest multimedia powerhouse to join the long line of All-In-Wonder offerings, ATI All-in-Wonder HD transforms the PC into a highly immersive digital video recorder for HDTV and analog TV, plus expands the realm of exceptional gaming with cinematic HD graphics for mainstream PCs. The ATI All-In-Wonder HD has a manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) of $199.

ATI All-in-Wonder HD prepares you for brilliant TV, sharp images and smooth playback on a wide variety of HDTVs and displays. With support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1, gamers can play the top HD games with life-like 3D graphics, stunning realism, and great shading effects. Full support for PCI Express 2.0 technology allows for twice the throughput of current PCI Express 1.0 cards, which means gamers will be ready for demanding graphic applications. ATI All-in-Wonder HD further expands TV viewing capabilities with support for Windows Media Center bundled with Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate editions, as well as Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. The ATI All-in-Wonder HD complements media-rich AMD LIVE! PCs.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, Jun 26, 2008 - 08:44 AM

Palit Announces The Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Card

Palit just announced the Palit Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. Armed with AMD’s fastest and most advanced unified architecture to date, the Palit RadeonTM HD 4870 delivers an unbelievably immersive gaming experience without the high performance price tag. The Palit RadeonTM HD 4870 offers the best performance per dollar in the world! Be sure to check out our review on the HIS Radeon HD 4870 graphics card here.

The Palit Radeon HD 4870 graphics card is equipped with 800 stream processors running 750 MHz and 512 MB of GDDR5 memory operating at 3.6 GHz on a 256-bit bus delivering unprecedented 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Palit RadeonTM HD 4870 offers 1.2 TeraFLOP of compute power for 160 Watts of power. More compute power equates to more realism in games, faster transcoding of media files and amazing video playback of Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, Jun 25, 2008 - 11:01 AM

Coolink releases Chillaramic thermal compound

Coolink today released its new Chillaramic thermal compound. Thanks to ceramic nano particles, Chillaramic achieves outstanding thermal transfer while not being electrically conductive. Chillaramic is easy to apply, easy to clean off and comes in big 10g tubes that will last you through more than 30 applications without breaking your wallet. The suggested retail price $8.90 USD for one tube of Coolink Chillaramic.

Based on ceramic nano-particles, Chillaramic doesn't only provide excellent performance but also completely eliminates the risk of short circuits, making it perfect for crucial applications. Both novice and experienced users will appreciate the fact that the paste is very easy to apply and to clean off. Tailor-made for the cooling enthusiast, Chillaramic doesn't require a longer burn-in time and can be used with air, water and evaporative cooling systems. Last but not least, the paste comes in big 10g tubes which are sufficient for at least 30 applications on today's CPUs.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, Jun 25, 2008 - 08:54 AM

Rumor: MSI to partner with Intel to target China's Internet cafe market

Intel has recently signed a contract with Micro-Star International (MSI) to add the motherboard maker as one of its Platform Administration Technology (PAT) 4.0 partners, with the companies targeting the products to Internet cafes in China, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.

Intel's latest PAT 4.0 will support Intel's 45nm products and MSI expects to launch eight PAT 4.0-based motherboards with some models scheduled to appear this month, added the paper. According to Intel, its PAT provides simple manageability designed to easily maintain clean and stable systems in a network environment, such as those in Internet cafes and educational computer labs.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Wed, Jun 25, 2008 - 08:52 AM

Microsoft Extends Support for Windows XP To 13 Years

With many business and individual PC users rejecting Windows Vista, Microsoft took an unprecedented step this week by promising support for Windows XP for a full 13 years. That is three years longer than it has allowed for previous Windows operating systems. In a letter sent to customers this week, Bill Veghte, a Microsoft vice president, also seemed to confirm that Windows 7 will be released in 2010. That OS, Veghte wrote, will ship "approximately three years" after Vista became available in January 2007.

Meantime, security patches and updates to Windows XP will be provided until April 2014, Veghte promised. In what could be considered an understatement, he wrote, "Our ongoing support for Windows XP is the result of our recognition that people keep their Windows-based PCs for many years." Many large businesses have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista, which has been plagued with widely publicized problems, including incompatibilities with drivers for legacy hardware and applications. Upgrading to Vista could also be very expensive for enterprises that would need to upgrade older hardware. Many businesses and individuals have opted to buy Windows XP on new PCs. While June 30 remains the cutoff date for selling Windows XP, retailers such as Dell are still selling preconfigured PCs with XP. And enterprises with volume licensing contracts will still be able to install XP even on new machines.

Yahoo

Posted by | Wed, Jun 25, 2008 - 02:42 AM

Dell extends Windows XP sales one week

Dell on Friday extended sales of PCs equipped with Windows XP by a week, citing customer demand. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker will sell three XP-powered configurations of the Inspiron 530 desktop and one model of its XPS 630 desktop through the early hours of June 26, Dell announced on its Web site late last week. Dell touted "Extended by popular demand" on the page, and added that the deal will end at 5:59 a.m. central time on Thursday.

Previously, Dell had said it would shut down sales of Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional on June 18, saying that it needed to stop taking orders then in order to meet Microsoft 's requirement that it ship XP-equipped systems no later than June 30. "We're offering select configurations through June 26," said Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden on Monday. "We're not offering any components or accessories on these systems that might cause a delay in shipping," she said when asked how Dell could change its last-sale date and still make the Microsoft-mandated deadline.

InfoWorld

Posted by | Tue, Jun 24, 2008 - 10:05 AM

NEXT