LR News History - Legit Reviews

Legit Reviews News History

AMD Launches ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 Graphics Cards

AMD today announced the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards, the latest additions to the award-winning ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics line up. These feature-rich graphics cards deliver exceptional gaming and HD multimedia performance at value prices. Both cards are based on the same technology found in the celebrated ATI Radeon HD 4800 series, including support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games and superior HD multimedia capabilities.

Delivering mainstream-class performance at a value price, the ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics card plays demanding game titles previously unplayable by cards in this price segment, and for less than USD $59 for a 512MB memory configuration. An even more incredible value, the ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card is the ideal introduction to the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series, priced for less than USD $39 for a 256 MB memory configuration, giving gamers and multimedia enthusiasts more features than products available from the competition today.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 30, 2008 - 09:20 AM

AMD says new 'Shanghai' chip is ready to go

AMD said Monday it is set to roll out its next-generation "Shanghai" chip--minus the mistakes of the last generation. The No. 2 processor maker wants to make one thing crystal clear: Shanghai is not Barcelona. The latter chip was rolled out in September 2007 to great fanfare only to be delayed a whopping eight months (or more, depending how the delay is calculated) due to production glitches and bugs. The chip was also hampered by speed (core clock frequency) limitations. This gave Intel an opportunity to regain ground it had lost to AMD in the server chip market.

Shanghai will be followed by a 45-nanometer desktop processor code-named Deneb, which is due to launch in the fourth quarter of this year or first quarter of 2009, AMD said. In the fourth quarter of 2009, AMD will add a six-core processor. "We'll take what we've learned from our 45-nanometer process and Shanghai core and bring out an Istanbul six-core product," Patla said. Like Shanghai, this will be targeted at servers with up to eight processor sockets.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 30, 2008 - 08:17 AM

September 30 News from Around the Web

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

Anyone who has heard of ATI video cards has probably heard of Sapphire Technology. Sapphire is the largest producer of AMD/ATI graphics products in the world, and do far more than rebrand a product with their own label. The Radeon HD 4000 series launched with tremendous success not long ago, and Sapphire has tweaked the design to produce their own high-performance Toxic Edition of the popular Radeon HD 4870 video card. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests their graphics card against the competition to find out if a factory-overclocked model is worth the money. ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 30, 2008 - 07:29 AM

Super Talent Shatters SSD Affordability Barriers 64GB for $179!!

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched a pair of new high quality SATA-II SSDs that shatter previous price barriers. The new drives are both part of the Super Talent MasterDrive LX series and offer an incredibly low price point; the 64GB model will retail for about $179, while the 128GB unit is expected to retail for under $300. Both models will begin shipping this week.

Backed with Super Talent’s 1-year warranty, the MasterDrive LX is built with NAND flash and uses a SATA-II 3Gbps interface that makes it 100% interchangeable with hard disk drives. These SSDs support sequential read speeds of up to 100 MB/sec, and sequential write speeds of up to 40 MB/sec. Integrated ECC, wear leveling and bad bit management functions dramatically improve the reliability and lifespan of these SSDs.

Posted by | Mon, Sep 29, 2008 - 06:55 PM

Corsair Introduces 64GB Portable USB Flash Drive

Corsair announced today that it is expanding its best selling Flash Voyager USB family lines with a new 64GB capacity offering. The new 64GB USB Flash Voyager has enough capacity for a library of DVD-length movies and tens of thousands of high-resolution digital images. Corsair 64GB USB Flash Voyager drives will be available immediately at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of $249.99.

"Corsair is always developing new and exciting flash products, and the 64GB USB Flash Voyager is no exception," said John Beekley, Vice President of Applications at Corsair. "With more storage space than most laptops, we can offer a full suite of features – whether it be backing up data, building a portable media library, or simply transporting huge amounts of data." added Beekley.

Posted by | Mon, Sep 29, 2008 - 03:29 PM

Toshiba Launches 256GB Solid State Drives with MLC

Toshiba Corporation today announced enhancements to its line-up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) with the addition of an industry-leading 256-gigabyte (GB) SSD and the launch of a series of small-sized Flash Modules for netbook computers ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and other mobile and peripheral applications. The new drives will be showcased at the CEATEC in Makuhari, Japan, from September 30 to October 4.

The new 256GB SSD mounts NAND flash memory on a 70.6mm (L) x 53.6mm (W) x 3.0mm (H) platform. The drive offers performance characteristics essential for today’s mainstream notebook PCs: highly reliable, high density data storage and support for fast data transfer rates, with a maximum read speed of 120MB a second and maximum write speed of 70MB a second, via a high speed SATA 3.0Gb/s interface.

Posted by | Mon, Sep 29, 2008 - 08:18 AM

Diamond Multimedia Gets Hit With Fraud By Disgruntled Former Employee

Early this week Legit Reviews was given information about how Diamond graphics cards were failing in Alienware computers and we reported on the story here. We contacted Diamond about the claims and confirmed them with Diamond and went as far as posting pictures showing the solution to the problem here. It seems that Diamond is still upset with the way the media has handled the situation and sent out a press release point the blame at a disgruntled former employee, who was terminated due to presenting fraudulent credentials. Diamond claims that this person was unable to solve a very minor problem that affected less than 200 cards and was fired after an investigation. Once he was fired Diamond says that this former employee sent the unsubstantiated stories to inflict harm. While we covered the story we just simple told you that Diamond had issues with certain cards and that was the truth. Crap happens and don't forget Legit Reviews was one of the very first sites to show you the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX resistor issue way back in 2006. We've been told by Diamond that the problem has been fixed and that under 200 cards were impacted.

“This is serious business,” said Bruce Zaman, CEO of Diamond. “We hired the man on the strength of his resume and a clean criminal background check,“ Zaman added. “When we dug deeper we found that the person was not who he said he was and promptly terminated him.” This is why any news service must check the background of the person making these allegations. Gossip becomes news and can hurt a business that has served the industry and the community well for more than 25 years. “Our employees can suffer the consequences of this kind of personal attack, too,” Zaman said. Diamond has taken steps to alert the press, both print and on line, to insure that the correct story gets out and the character and motive of the former employee are known. “It is incumbent upon the writers to get it right,” said Zaman. “They need to check the source just as the mainstream press does. If not done, their credibility can be compromised by the source.”

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 06:34 PM

EVGA GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Video Card For $36!!!

If you've been wanting to increased your F@H points per day or just want to upgrade the family PC this is a hard deal to pass up. Newegg has the EVGA GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB video card for sale at $99.99 and has a $50 rebate on it with free 3 day shipping. To make things even better Newegg has a $14 off coupon (code: VGA92613) For $36 this graphics card will turn in over 4500 points per day when running F@H as I showed you in this article. If you want to get into folding on the cheap this is the way. If you want to know how performance does check out this review where I benchmarked the EVGA GeFOrce 9600 GSO against the ATI Radeon HD 4670, GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 9500 GT.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO GPU offers a powerfully immersive entertainment experience designed for extreme high-definition gaming and video playback. Play the hottest DirectX 10 games with awesome speed and watch the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray movies with brilliant clarity. Featuring next generation GeForce and PureVideo HD technologies, the GeForce 9600 GSO GPU puts amazing graphics performance within your reach. Get the most graphics bang for your buck with a GeForce 9600 GSO GPU. With 96 processor cores supporting resolutions up to 2560x1600, PC gamers everywhere can now enjoy games at extreme HD resolutions without breaking their wallets.

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 02:41 PM

September 26 News from Around the Web

Find TweakTown's Hiper Type R Mark-II 880 Watt Power Supply Review and other reviews from around the web by visiting our forums!

"Founded in 2001 in the UK, Hiper, or High Performance Group as it is also known, offers a product line that includes enclosures, cooling, power and HTPC. Using a business model that includes listening to the needs of their customers, Hiper aims at making products that are not only top notch, but also affordable. Today’s piece will cover one of their performance oriented power supplies. The Type R series is geared for the enthusiast and has some features that Hiper feels will make it a sure bet. With so many choices now available, this will be a tall order, but we will delve into this relative newcomer and see if they can deliver."

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 02:05 PM

Tech industry still buoyant, Microsoft CEO says

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday he still sees a "certain buoyancy" among technology and telecommunications customers worldwide, despite recent U.S. economic woes.

"Our industry is not immune to what goes on in the global economy. And yet as I travel...given the current circumstances, people still see a certain buoyancy in the market," Ballmer told a meeting of Silicon Valley civic leaders. "At least, for now, people are feeling, I won't say optimistic, but better than you would be feeling if you are watching CNBC all day," he said of the financial TV channel. Ballmer, the leader of the world's largest software maker, said he was speaking generally of industry demand rather than his own business.

Reuters Technology News

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 10:35 AM

Gigabyte will not cut motherboard prices

Gigabyte Technology will not follow recent moves by rival Asustek Computer to cut its motherboard prices, according to Richard Ma, vice president of Gigabyte. Ma pointed out that if Gigabyte followed suit, it would only force Asustek to cut its prices further causing an impact on the whole industry. Gigabyte's strategy will be to focus on improving quality to attract consumers. Since Gigabyte already has a firm base in the motherboard channel market and most of the consumers who purchase mid-range or high-end motherboards put quality as their first concern, Ma believes these factors will help counter Asustek's price cut strategy.

Gigabyte is conservative about its motherboard shipments in 2008 due to falling demand and the new price competition, but will still maintain its original goal of 20 million units, an increase of 4.5% compared to shipments of 19.14 million units in 2007. Since profits from the company's OEM motherboard business are low, Gigabyte is continuing to reduce its proportion of total shipments. The brand business currently accounts for 80% of total shipments. Shipments in July and August did not meet the company's original expectations, but demand in September has started to recover. Sequential shipment growth in the third quarter will be around 10-15%, stated Ma, adding that he expects shipments in October to be better than in September, and, with Intel set to launch its Core i7 CPUs and X58 chipset in November, sequential shipments growth in the fourth quarter will be around 10%. Graphics card shipments will be around 3.5-4 million units in 2008.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 10:33 AM

TSMC bracing for gloomy prospects in 4Q08, say investment banks

A number of investment banks, including Friedman Billings Ramsey (FBR), HSBC and Merrill Lynch, have issued a conservative guidance over the prospects for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the fourth quarter of this year.

FBR expects an 8-10% sequential decline in TSMC shipments in the fourth quarter due to order cuts from a number of sectors, including games consoles, digital video equipment, STBs, DVDs, flat panels as well as Bluetooth chips. TSMC is likely to see its shipments continue to decline 5-10% sequentially in the first quarter of 2009, FBR added. HSBC expects TSMC's capacity utilization rate to fall to 75% in the fourth quarter and further decline to 65% in the first quarter of 2009 – the lowest level in recent years.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 - 09:32 AM

September 25 News from Around the Web

Find reviews from around the web by visiting our forums! The following exerpt is from Tweaknews.net's QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo Five Bay NAS Network Attached Storage System Review.

"Even excellent products usually have some minor issue that I come across during a review, but it was difficult to find anything negative at all to say about the TS-509. Everything about the setup was easy, from installing drives to configuring RAID to setting up the many additional features it offers. Once it was up and running, finding what I wanted was also easy due to the neatly organized interface."

Posted by | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 - 08:22 AM

Diamond Multimedia President Shows Radeon HD 3870 Resistor Fix

Following a conversation with Diamond Multimedia president Bruce Zaman, I was sent a detailed picture that shows where a Zero Ohm value resistor needs to be added to the board to resolve the problem the Alienware systems are seeing. Bruce assured Legit Reviews that only Alienware systems are impacted by this as they had a sku that was different from the retail graphics cards. Diamond Multimedia has been very open about the issue that was leaked out recently and I really like how they have handled the entire situation. Diamond knows what is causing the issues and has fixed it. If you have an Alienware system that has a Diamond Radeon HD 3870-512MB DDR4 you might want to check it and make sure it has a resistor where the arrow below it pointing. If it doesn't you should contact Alienware and get it RMA'd.

HD3870 card failing with 750W PSU. Lower quality resistor in diamond card causing failure, not on original reference design which we signed up for.

Posted by | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 - 06:34 PM

September 24 News from Around the Web

Antec NeoPower 650 Blue PSU Review @ OCModShop and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

I give to you the Antec Neopower 650 Blue. The high efficiency modular power supply that will get you through hordes of zombies, and then some. The ultimate combination of high power, high efficiency and cool style for today's high performance PC systems. 650 watts of pure power, with 85% efficiency, cable management, and dedicated circuitry with a super-silent 120mm blue LED fan. Figured out why they call it the 650 Blue yet? I thought you would get it quickly. You're so smart..

Posted by | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 - 09:23 AM

Thecus Announces the AMD-based M3800 Media Stream Box

Thecus has worked closely with AMD and now introduces the all-new M3800 Stream Box. Coming this spring, the M3800 features AMD technology and delivers a complete media and storage solution perfect for the home. The M3800 is the complete package of digital storage and playback solution. Equipped with three 3.5" SATA bays, the M3800 brings the security of RAID 5 home and comes with all the standard Thecus NAS features such as download manager, iTunes server, web camera function, photo web server, etc. The most fascinating design concept is centered on the home theater. Featuring HDMI, component, and AV out, the M3800 can play digital content directly through your existing home theater system. No word on what the pricing will be for the M3800 Stream Box.

Based on the AMD Geode processor, the M3800’s design concept is centered on the home theater. Users can use the M3800 to centrally store, manage, easily access, and enjoy their movie and music files. The whole family can view their favorite blockbuster hits and listen to their favorite tunes without the hassle of having to locate files saved in different locations or multiple machines throughout the house.

Posted by | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 - 08:56 AM

Diamond Multimedia ATI Radeon HD Video Cards Fail At High Rates

I just got my hands on some very interesting confidential reports from some computer manufacturers that state Diamond ATI video cards have a rate of failure that is higher than the companies acceptable values of failures at manufacturing site and/or field incidents. Anything above 1% failure calls for a shut down of production at companies like Alienware and it seems their Diamond Radeon HD 3850, 3870, 3870 X2 and 3870 R2 are failing at rates between 3-14% based on the Initial Field Incident Rate (I-FIR) in the report that we were handed. It seems that Alienware has dumped Diamond as a vendor as a result of this and sent back thousands of cards they didn't use. It seems the problems between Diamond and companies like Alienware go back a long time as the report has a page with the title of 'Intermittent Problems' and talks about 100% failure rates on Diamond Radeon HD 2900 XT video cards.

The failure rate in the field (customers) is 13.42% for the months of March and April. The line reject rate or failure in manufacturing is about 6.18 % for the past 13 weeks. Both rate are extremely high and unacceptable. Lower quality resistor in Diamond card causing failure, not on original reference design which we signed up for. Diamond cards again changed without notifying us [the system builder].

Posted by | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 - 08:45 AM

NVIDIA and AMD Graphics Cards Set To Boost Performance in Adobe CS4

Today Adobe announced Creative Suites 4 with a lot of great new features, including native support graphics processing units (GPUs). Adobe is the latest in a trend of visual computing companies grabbing on to the massively parallel processing power of GPUs for more than just rendering pixels to the screen. Adobe Creative Suite 4 is the most important addition to this trend because of its market position as the leading artistic tool suite. NVIDIA has published a few marketing slides today about Adobe CS4 performance and how it can be approved with their video cards. One of the more interesting bits of news was the fact that there is a CUDA plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 that is said to deliver 7x the performance of a CPU. Very interesting and this is something that AMD can't match.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 uses NVIDIA Quadro or GeForce GPUs to create a digital canvas that is interactive in ways that are simply not possible without a GPU. NVIDIA GPUs enable real-time image rotation, zooming, and panning, and make changes to the view instantaneous and smooth. Adobe Photoshop CS4 also taps the GPU for 2D and 3D compositing and high-quality antialiasing, making jagged edges of text and objects a thing of the past. Brush resizing and brushstroke preview, 3D movement, high-dynamic-range tone mapping, and color conversion are also accelerated by the GPU.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 23, 2008 - 04:42 PM

SanDisk Announces Extreme IV CompactFlash (CF) Memory Cards

SanDisk today announced that it is now shipping an upgraded family of SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash (CF) memory cards to better meet the needs of professional digital photographers. The entire series of SanDisk Extreme IV high-performance memory cards has received a 12.5-percent speed boost up to 45 megabytes per second (MB/s)1 and the newly-released 16-gigabyte (GB)2 card is twice as large as previous capacities. A 16GB SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash will set you back $399.

SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash 45MB/s (300X) memory cards offer advanced technologies that are fully compatible with all CompactFlash cameras including the latest UDMA-enabled cameras. SanDisk Extreme IV CF cards have undergone internal testing with many leading manufacturers’ cameras and DSLRs, such as Canon’s EOS series, Nikon’s D300 and D3 cameras, the Sony Alpha A700, and the Olympus E500 and E3 cameras. Depending on the camera used, the increased performance of the SanDisk Extreme IV memory card line may help reduce the delay between shots, enabling photographers to take more photos overall.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 23, 2008 - 04:30 PM

NVIDIA GeForce Power Pack Downloaded One Million Times

Graphics is more than just fast frame rates. And with the adoption of NVIDIA CUDA technology, developers can use the power of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs in ways never before possible. Only NVIDIA GeForce GPUs offer the ability to deliver fast frame rates and more realistic, immersive experiences, which would explain why more than a million downloads of the first ever GeForce Power Pack occurred in less than two weeks.

GeForce Power Packs are freely available content that allow consumers to experience first-hand new NVIDIA technologies that are fundamentally changing the way applications are designed, played, and experienced. For total immersion, the gaming environment has to “feel” as real as possible, and characters must be able to move and interact with the objects in the environment that have a compelling, dramatic impact on game play. PhysX technology provides developers the ability to include effects such as trees that bend in the wind and water that ebbs and flows naturally, and additional objects in the environment that dramatically impact the gaming experience.

Posted by | Tue, Sep 23, 2008 - 04:09 PM

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