Legit Reviews News History

CPU-Z 1.25 Released!

I was making my rounds looking for updates to various software we use for testing and noticed that there is a brand new version of CPU-Z out: 1.25!! Grab it if you need it! Here's a list of improvements:

  • nVidia nForce4 chipset support.
  • Intel Pentium 4 J support improved.
  • New button to refresh memory timings.

Posted by | Mon, Nov 15, 2004 - 02:39 PM

Microsoft to hire hundreds more in India

Software giant Microsoft has told the industry that they are seeking hundreds more "high-level" engineers.  Great news for the the people at Redmond right?  Nope... These jobs are in Hyerabad, India...

"HYDERABAD, India--Microsoft will hire several hundred new employees at its new Indian campus in the next year, its chief executive said on Monday--a move aimed at strengthening its presence in Asia's fourth-biggest economy.

The world's largest software maker, which inaugurated its Indian campus, its biggest outside the United States, currently employs about 800 people in product development and support services in this southern Indian city."

CNET News

Posted by | Mon, Nov 15, 2004 - 10:07 AM

SOYO to Quit Making Mobos!

This is pretty big news! SOYO has been a major motherboard provider for the past many years. The first system I build featured a SOYO motherboard for my Athlon 700MHz slot processor. SOYO tried to enter the enthusiast market with their Dragon Series of motherboards. Here's what Digitimes has to say...

"Second-tier motherboard maker Soyo Computer plans to phase out production of its motherboards and instead focus on development and distribution of computer-related upstream components and plastic materials, according to company spokesperson Dave Liu.

Soyo will also change its corporate name to Hao Teng Technology (translated directly from its Chinese name), Liu noted."

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Mon, Nov 15, 2004 - 06:13 AM

Intel's last Prescott P4, the 570J released today.

Per the Inquirer, the folks at Akiba PC Pricewatch have found the Intel 570J for sale in Japan. The processor will run at 3.80GHz, utilizing a 800MHz FSB (QDR) and a 1MB cache. This will be the last Pentium-4 based on the Prescott core, which was Intel's foray into, and the world's first Desktop CPU based on 90nm architecture. Although stopping short of the 4GHz mark, the .09-micron 570J should easily clock to 4.0GHz appealing to Overclocker's. The processor also features Intel's thermal and voltage monitoring which assists in the CPU running at lower temps, and consuming less power when idle (see quote). The 570J will be reviewed here at Legit. The following links' to the Akiba Japan page  http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20041113/etc_p570j.html 

"...It includes C1E - enhanced halt state, which lowers frequency and voltage to diminish power consumption and noise, and TM2 - thermal monitoring two...In January next year Intel will introduce its 6XX series, a set of Pentium 4 branded processors which will come with 2MB of level two cache." 

The Inquirer

Posted by | Mon, Nov 15, 2004 - 05:56 AM

Half Life 2 owners awaiting server activation

Since Valve and Vivendi have been in a legal tiff over the release of Half Life 2, it seems copies sold this past Tuesday may still be awaiting server authentication. As Charlie Demerjian of the Inquirer writes, Best Buy and Target stores whom sold copies three days early, apparently sold copies made by Vevindi, "blindsiding" Valve. In a ironic twist of fate, Valve now adhering to the original agreement they were none-too-happy with, place Vevindi in somewhat awkward position. Unfortunately for the avid Gamer's who stood in line to purchase the game originally, must once again "wait on line."

"...you can buy it early, install it early, and even do fetishistic things with the packaging materials, but you can't play it. To play it, you need to authenticate off Valve's servers..." Charlie Demerjian (the Inquirer)

The Inquirer

Posted by | Sun, Nov 14, 2004 - 05:08 AM

ATI CATALYST 4.12 Beta Released!

Although ATI won't say that this is the "special" driver for Half Life 2 we can say that it is and it has been released this afternoon!!  It's officially known as the Beta 4.12 driver and weighs in at 21.7mb in size.

As mentioned by my friend Fudo in the Inquirer, we would release this driver as soon as we had some testing to validate the fix. CATALYST beta testers are also reporting that they donâ??t have the problem any more. It contains a fix for a problem a few people have mentioned dealing with the Punkbuster server. You will also notice that this driver is a beta of next months CATALYST 4.12.

ATI Technologies Inc.

Posted by | Fri, Nov 12, 2004 - 01:19 PM

Dell desktops may have defective thermal modules

Several Dell desktop models introduced in the third quarter of this year may have defective heat pipe thermal modules, which may cause the systems to run noisy or even shutdown, according to sources at Taiwan PC makers.

The built-in thermal module has just two heat pipes, while most industry solutions use three, and therefore the module may be less efficient at dissipating heat, the sources asserted.  The thermal module was designed and mostly manufactured by Foxconn Precision Components, a subsidiary of Foxconn Electronics. Dell went on to say that they are negotiating with the two thermal module makers on how to handle stock of about 200,000-300,000 modules with thermal issues.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Fri, Nov 12, 2004 - 12:29 PM

Web links help virus spread

Bofra is out and spreading around the internet pretty quickly!  It was the first of several types of worms that appeared on November 10th. They exploit a Windows vulnerability that was discovered only a few days earlier.  Go figure huh...

"Virus writers have begun using the power of the web to spread their malicious wares. A Windows virus called Bofra is turning infected machines into distributors of its malicious code. Those clicking on the poisoned links in e-mail messages sent out by infected machines may fall victim to the virus. The trick is being used to prevent the progam being caught by anti-virus software that combs through code contained in e-mail attachments. "

BBC Technology News

Posted by | Fri, Nov 12, 2004 - 05:57 AM

PCPower&Cooling Introduces ETX PSU's for 1st QTR

PCPower&Cooling will be introducing two new PSU's for 1st Quarter next year. The 700ETX, and 850ETX are designed primarily for dual video, dual processor environments. The latter will be introduced early in the 1st Quarter, with the 700ETX following soon after. Overclocker's as well as PC-Enthusiast's alike seeking a truly stable power source for their nForce-4 SLI motherboards, will certainly benefit from these hand built units, as well as those running dual Xeon Intel based boards. PCPower&Cooling indicated the ETX stands for "Extended ATX Form Factor" the units at 9" in depth, will be substantially deeper then the atypical 5.5" PSU, and will therefore require a minimum 20" case-depth to house them. 

"The 700 will be approximately $390.00 and the 850 will be approximately $490.00 each. The 700 has three +12 Volt Rails at 17 Amps each and the 850 has four +12 Volt rails at 17 Amps each, maximum of 66 Amps totalâ?¦"

Larry Aldridge, VP Sales PCPower&Cooling

PCPower&Cooling

Posted by | Thu, Nov 11, 2004 - 03:20 AM

Windows XP update starts to weed out pirate keys

"MICROSOFT HAS started implementing features in upgrades to Windows XP which specifically prevent users of pirated keys from upgrading parts of the operating system."

The Inquirer

Posted by | Wed, Nov 10, 2004 - 11:32 PM

Media Center PCs: The End is Nigh

"MEDIA CENTER PCs may promise yet another computing utopia but they are nothing more than a self-replicating virus that will wipe out a cherished way of life. You won't see it in the marketing brochures but to those of us with more than teenage bum-fluff on our chins, they spell the end of a tradition that stretches back to the Stone Age. From the first hairy ancestor to slink off to a quiet part of the cave to gather his thought(s) and scrawl a doodle on the wall with his own crap, men have always sought one thing after a hard day's dinosaur bashing: solitude."

The Inquirer

Posted by | Wed, Nov 10, 2004 - 11:31 PM

PCI Express Todayâ?¦

"There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the PCI Express bus and many other technologies released around the same time. For some reason most people were expecting PCI Express to dramatically boost the performance of todayâ??s high-end graphics cards. Despite the fact that there is no evident bottlenecking of the AGP 8x bus, people were still expecting a bus that offers twice the available bandwidth to make a difference. Of course for todayâ??s graphics cards the PCI Express bus offers us nothing!"

VIA Arena

Posted by | Wed, Nov 10, 2004 - 11:29 PM

MS Office 12's Secrets Begin to Trickle Out

"Microsoft still isn't ready to talk publicly about Office 12, its next major release of its information-worker family of products. But the company is briefing selected partners and customers about the forthcoming family of Office desktop and server products."

Eweek.com

Posted by | Wed, Nov 10, 2004 - 11:26 PM

Review Round-Up

Today's Must Read Review:

Kyle Bennett sure thinks that the Geforce Go 6800 is a killer mobile GPU and goes on to say this: 

"The GeForce Go 6800 is undoubtedly the best mobile GPU we have every gamed with. The GeForce Go 6800 provided a better gaming experience than we see on many desktop computers. NVIDIA has something special in the GeForce Go 6800 and we hope to be seeing more notebooks using the technology soon as it will only help push LAN gaming and the experience that goes along with it out to the masses." -- Kyle Bennett

Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 @ HardOCP

Other Reviews Today:

Posted by | Wed, Nov 10, 2004 - 01:13 PM

Microsoft Windows XP64 still slated for end Q1 2005

I'll believe it when I see it.

"PEOPLE GETTING THEIR hopes up for an early release of Windows XP for 64 bit chips can relax a bit longer, they'll probably not be surprised to learn. According to sources at Intel Taiwan, the earliest we can expect to see such an operating system is at the end of the first quarter of next year. But, the same source added, Microsoft does not talk in terms of quarters of a year, but halves."

The Inquirer

Posted by | Fri, Nov 05, 2004 - 11:49 AM

What Athlon do I buy?

Here is a very nice little guide to AMD CPUs written by Thrax over at Shortmedia

""What Athlon do I buy?" To begin to answer that question here is a compiled list of all the current platforms and brief outlines for each including my personal recommendations for what's hot and what's not."

Shortmedia

Posted by | Fri, Nov 05, 2004 - 11:41 AM

FollowUp: More Single Layer to Dual Layer Modding

Legit Reader Dale has just tested the instructions listed in our latest Modding Review: Single Layer to Dual Layer.  The only difference being that he tested them with the Lite-On 812s Single Layer Burner. We had hinted in our article that it appears to be the case that the Lite-On 812s is the exact same drive as our Sony DW-U18A. So a big thanks to Dale for testing our instructions on his drive!

Here is a screen shot he emailed to me:

Originally a 812s DVD burner

"I followed your instructions and it works great no problems. I am able to burn normal DVD+R's and DVD-R's with no problems but i don't have any DL media to burn to. I will go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and buy some they have 3 for $30. Here is a screen shot. the AXV cd drive is an imulation from Alcohol 120%."

Posted by | Fri, Nov 05, 2004 - 07:52 AM

Review Round-Up

Today's Must Read Review:

John over at MadShrimps posted a review today on several low latency memory kits and was kind enough to link to our recent PCB article in his review.  Always good to know that people respect your findings in this community!

"We test a new batch of PC3200 and PC4400 rated memory from known and lesser known manufacteres on our Intel P4 test setup. With the introduction of Samsung´s TCCD revision F memory chips we might get performance only seen in the days of Winbond BH-5!"

Low latency PC3200 memory roundup on Intel @ Madshrimps

Other Reviews Today:

 

Posted by | Thu, Nov 04, 2004 - 05:43 AM

Firm claims auto-phishing emails discovered

"MESSAGE LABS said it has intercepted emails which auto-capture bank details when they're opened. It says it interecepted several emails at the end of October targeting three Brazilian banks, but the technique may be used for other banks. Usually, "phishing" emails work by masquerading as legitimate emails from banks and other online services. "

The Inquirer

Posted by | Wed, Nov 03, 2004 - 06:24 PM

Motherboard Industry Article @ AnandTech

Anand has released another article about his time and experiences with manufacturers over in Taiwan. Today's release is about the motherboard industry. Anand shares a lot of important information straight from the industry manufacturers. He covers topics ranging from AMD's SSE3 addition to the A64 line to why the 925/915 chipset motherboards from Intel are not selling well. This is definitely a must read for those who are in the market for a new system or even just an upgrade. All enthusiasts will also have to read this one!

"The biggest question I was asked in Taiwan was about why I felt the 915 chipset wasn't selling well. I'll touch on this more in the chipset section of this article, but with Taiwan coming to us for answers you get an impression of the current situation."

AnandTech

Posted by | Wed, Nov 03, 2004 - 01:56 PM

Intel Plans to have Wireless in 2005 Desktop Chipsets

Now that the election hype is coming to a close, it is time to start-up our regular tech-related news posts. Today Digitimes posted an article relating to Intel's 2005 Chipset plans.

"Sources at Taiwan PC makers pointed out, however, that the new development is in line with Intelâ??s roadmap, which indicates that its Lakeport chipsets, to be launched in the second half of 2005 for the dual-core Smithfield platform, will feature a Caswell 2 module for wireless connectivity."

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Wed, Nov 03, 2004 - 10:48 AM

Bush Wins, Kerry Concedes!!

You can pick your favorite news source to learn about the news or read the full story... but news sources around the world are announcing that Kerry is choosing to avoid a drawn out re-count and has called President Bush to concede. Its nice to see that "good sportsmanship" was the result in this year's election!

Posted by | Wed, Nov 03, 2004 - 09:02 AM

Election Results - Stay Updated!!

CNN has their dedicated Election Results page up. Check here often throughout the evening if you are not around a TV. Parents, let your kids stay up late to find out the winner of the 2004 Presidential Election!

"270 Electoral Votes to WIN!"

CNN

Posted by | Tue, Nov 02, 2004 - 03:33 PM

Presidential Election

Just wanted to remind everyone that is a US Citizen to vote tomorrow for the President of the United States.  Tomorrow should be the largest turnout for an election ever, but be patient and wait for your time to vote!  It does matter!

President Bush is seeking a second term but Democratic nominee John Kerry and independent Ralph Nader want him out of the White House. Each has a range of views on the key issues involved in the November election.

To find out where each nominee stands look HERE!

CNN

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 02:32 PM

Intel 3.46GHz 1066FSB & 925XE Chipset:

Intel launched the 3.46GHz 1066FSB processor and the 925XE chipset yesterday. Here is a list of websites that have reviews posted!

Legit Reviews
[H]ard|OCP
The Tech Report
Hexus
HotHardware
PCPerspective
Gamers Depot
SimHQ
MBReview
Sudhian
HardCoreWare
TweakNews
HardTecs4U

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 02:25 PM

OpenBSD provisional wing scores success

"THE OPENBSD community's campaign to get hardware users to distribute its software is netting some success. According to OpenBSD Association spokesman Theo de Raadt, hardware vendors have responded positively to 'activism' on the part of members of the OpenBSD community. "

The Inquirer

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 06:31 AM

Via K8T890 boards expected in two weeks

"WHILE ABIT'S K8T890 board is almost ready, we have learned that it might take two more weeks until they ship to reviewers and a little bit later to customers."

The Inquirer

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 06:27 AM

File Sharers Win More Protection

"lleged file sharers must be given a notice explaining their legal rights before their internet service provider hands over any personal information to the music labels, a Pennsylvania judge ruled, making it still harder for the music industry to use the courts to intimidate people suspected of piracy."

Wired News

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 06:23 AM

VoodooPC Adopts NVIDIA nForce4 SLI, Claims Worldâ??s Fastest PC

"VoodooPC, a leading maker of high-performance personalized computer systems, plans to announce on Monday the launch of the worldâ??s fastest gaming computer, the Voodoo RAGE SLi, which will become the worldâ??s first AMD-based machine with PCI Express bus."

X-Bit Labs

Posted by | Mon, Nov 01, 2004 - 06:21 AM

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