Legit Reviews News History
ABIT Cancels VT8 Motherboard & Use of VIA PT800 Pro Chipset
It is official; the ABIT VT8 motherboard will not make it to the retail market. Yesterday we confirmed the news through our contacts at ABIT?s head quarters in Taiwan. We first saw a pre-production board back in January, while meeting with VIA in Mexico. In the two months since our meeting with VIA little was seen from ABIT on the VT8 and now we know why.
"ABIT officially said that the decided not to use the chipset because it doesn't fit in with the current ABIT product development plan. They also noted that the PT880 Pro..."
Posted by | Wed, Mar 23, 2005 - 06:52 AM
Slow season for DRAM
A slow DRAM season means cheap prices for consumers as companies try to push out existing stock and cut their losses on the DRAM they already purchased.
"A combination of the slow season for DRAM and weak demand from China, Europe and US has led prices to follow a downward trend. On top of weak demand, DRAMeXchange is also seeing an increased shift from DDR production to DDR2. Major suppliers for both DRAM and NAND flash are also bundling DRAM with NAND flash to increase their DRAM sales. "
Posted by | Wed, Mar 23, 2005 - 01:08 AM
InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion
Looks like Ask Jeeves is being sold for a mere $1.85 billion dollar deal. Only time will tell it InterActiveCorp will be able to make it the next Google or Yahoo search engine.
"InterActiveCorp announced Monday that it has agreed to a $1.85 billion buyout of Ask Jeeves, a search engine that has long been overshadowed by Google and Yahoo. The New York-based Internet conglomerate, headed by media entrepreneur Barry Diller, said that it is hoping to move aggressively into the Web search market through the deal, and pointed to growth in the online advertising market as another major incentive in making the acquisition. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves says it processes approximately 42 million unique queries generated by American Web surfers each month."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 21, 2005 - 07:32 AM
Next hot trend for Cell Phones -- Reading Books
Your cell phone can do it all right? It Syncs with your PC, can bluetooth movies to your friends, and has an office manager that does everything but turn on the coffee maker. Are you currently reading a novel on it? If not you are missing out on the latest cell phone trend of book reading.
"In the latest versions, cell-phone novels are downloaded in short installments and run on handsets as Java-based applications. You're free to browse as though you're in a bookstore, whether you're at home, in your office or on a commuter train. A whole library can be tucked away in your cell phone ? a gadget you carry around anyway."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 21, 2005 - 07:21 AM
ASUS Enters Flash Memory Market
With Flash memory expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 160-170% over the next 3-5 years it is no suprise that ASUS is entering the flash memory market. ASUS used to sell DRAM before the 2001 memory bubble burst, so maybe Asustek can do better than their first dab in memory.
"Asustek Computer plans to begin producing small-size flash memory cards for both the OEM and own-brand market, according to market sources. Although the exact details and release schedule of the products have not been finalized, the sources hinted that the products will be designed for use with notebooks and mobile phones."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 21, 2005 - 06:55 AM
Abit and Epox confirm Nforce 3/4 problem
"EPOX AND ABIT confirmed our previous news where we reported that Nforce 3 and 4 have some problems with Athlon revision E CPUs. These companies also confirmed that it can be fixed at the BIOS level so it won't be such a great deal. "
Posted by | Fri, Mar 18, 2005 - 06:09 AM
Happy St. Patty's Day!!
Hope everyone is having a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day! And for those party goers, don't drink and drive... and look out for those who are not as responsible as the LR readers! ;) And I hope everyone wore some green today, or got punched.... err, I mean pinched! Seriously though, Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!
Posted by | Thu, Mar 17, 2005 - 09:35 PM
Windows XP May Gain Longhorn Features
"Windows XP may be updated to support a new file system technology that Microsoft is working on for the next version of Windows.
Called WinFS, the technology promises to make it easier for users to find data stored on their computer. WinFS was originally slated to ship as part of the next Windows release, code-named Longhorn. Microsoft, however, last August pulled WinFS from Longhorn to be able to make a 2006 ship date for operating system's release."
Posted by | Tue, Mar 15, 2005 - 09:16 AM
Bioterror CSIs Target Germs
"Back in 1346, it didn't take a CSI unit to uncover the culprits behind one of history's first cases of bioterrorism. Nobody could miss the plague-ridden corpses and heads catapulted over the walls of the ancient city of Kaffa, under siege by the Tartar army.
Nor could Kaffa residents ignore the subsequent epidemic, which led to their surrender and may have set off the Black Death."
Posted by | Tue, Mar 15, 2005 - 09:15 AM
The Blind Fragging the Blind
An awesome story..people like this are so inspiring.
"Michael Feir is an avid gamer. He spent so much time playing games in college he created his own online gaming magazine. But Feir doesn't play the best-selling games and has never seen World of Warcraft -- he's blind.
It doesn't matter. A growing library of computer games has been built specially for blind gamers, using sound instead of visuals to let players know what's going on around them."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 14, 2005 - 05:36 AM
Japanese Giants Launch Web Over Powerline System
"Three Japanese consumer electronics giants have created a new technology to transport Internet and media signals around the home via the electricity network, Panasonic said on Thursday. Sony (6758.T), Mitsubishi (6503.T) and Matsushita-owned (6752.T) Panasonic have set up the SECA powerline alliance.
They have developed a system to transfer 170 Megabits per second of data through the power lines of a home, Panasonic researcher Ingo Chmielewski told journalists at the electronics trade fair CeBIT.
He said the technology is already available and introduction depended on government authorization.
The speed is three times faster than wireless technology Wi-Fi and is fast enough for high definition television signals. Unlike wireless alternatives, the powerline technology performance is stable throughout the home. SECA will compete with existing technology from the HomePlug alliance of 50 companies, including Japanese group Sharp (6753.T). The two systems are not compatible.
HomePlug's current standard is only 14 Mbps but it is thought to be working on a faster version."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 14, 2005 - 04:46 AM
90nm 2.6GHz Operon for sale
Oh baby.......here comes the new chips.... Venice and San Diego can't be far behind.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 14, 2005 - 04:00 AM
Nintendo unveils wireless gaming plans
The GameCube successor is said to have WiFi on board for game play. Don't get your hopes up though because the new console is not currently on the timetable for 2005, but should "certainly" be so for 2006.
"The successor to the company's Game Cube home console, code-named Revolution, will let users play with other people through high-speed wireless Internet connections, company officials said."
Posted by | Sat, Mar 12, 2005 - 11:58 PM
Intel: x86 won't encroach on Itanium
We all know that Intel's goal is to provide a high-end processor for as many server makers as possible. Even with IBM's departure, Intel still has Itanium partnerships with Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, NEC, Silicon Graphics Inc. and Unisys. With x86 soon coming and Itanium CPU's in question CNET has a nice little three page article on the subject.
"Obviously, the Itanium ramp is more difficult than we forecasted when we started," Gelsinger said. And Intel might not have made the same decisions had it thought more carefully about the Itanium challenge, he said. "Introducing a new architecture is very hard. Had we laid out the business plan and really saw how long it took to get there, management and the board of directors might have made different decisions," Gelsinger said."
Posted by | Sat, Mar 12, 2005 - 11:52 PM
NVIDIA Introduces Two New GeForce 6 Series GPUs
" NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today expands its award-winning NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs) by unveiling two new products: a 512MB version of the performance-leading GeForce 6800 Ultra GPU and a new lower-cost AGP version of the GeForce 6200 GPU which brings Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 technology to even more affordable price levels.
?Whether you are an extreme gamer or someone looking for an amazing upgrade, NVIDIA has the right product,? said Ujesh Desai, general manager desktop products at NVIDIA. ?These two new products further validate our commitment to bringing leading-edge performance and features to both the AGP and PCI Express markets.?
"
Posted by | Fri, Mar 11, 2005 - 05:30 AM
CeBIT: Taiwan motherboard makers out in force to support Nvidia?s upcoming nForce4 SLI Intel Edition
"At least eight Taiwan motherboard makers have been preparing models using Nvidia?s new nForce4 SLI Intel Edition media and communications processor (MCP). All of the eight joined Nvidia on stage at CeBIT during the preview of the newest member of the nForce family. This was the first time the company disclosed the name of its upcoming MCP.
The eight companies were: Abit Computer, Asustek Computer, Biostar Microtech International, Diamond Flower Electric Instrument (DFI), Epox Computer, Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry), Gigabyte Technology and Micro-Star International (MSI). Model names, such as the Asus P5ND2-SLI and Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal were also mentioned."
Posted by | Fri, Mar 11, 2005 - 05:26 AM
Google Responds to Cloaking Accusations
"Google has taken the unusual step of removing some of its own Web pages from its Web index after reports that the pages used a search-optimization method frowned upon by the search engine.
Search-engine watchers this week widely noted the appearance of so-called "cloaking" on a set of user support pages on Google's AdWords advertising program. The pages were displaying different title information to Google's Web crawler than to regular visitors to the pages.
In one specific example cited in discussions at the Threadwatch Weblog, a support page about an AdWords traffic-estimating tool had displayed a title to the Google crawler that included keywords such as "traffic estimator" and "traffic estimate" and ranked high in Google search results.
Some Webmasters use cloaking as a way to rank higher in search-engine results, often by feeding keywords to crawlers. But Google, in particular, is critical of the practice. In its guidelines for Webmasters, the Mountain View, Calif., company warns that it may permanently remove sites from its index that engage in cloaking."
Posted by | Fri, Mar 11, 2005 - 05:24 AM
AMD chips to launch in early April
AMD roadmap...updated 3/10/2005" A FILING ON the Ace's Hardware forum points to several AMD documents which demonstrate changes ahead on the chip firm's desktop chips.
The PDFs show that AMD is switching a number of its microprocessors over to Revision E on April the fourth.
And the person who filed the report said he thought that the 4200+ and the AMD FX-57 would likely be introduced on the same day."
Posted by | Fri, Mar 11, 2005 - 05:22 AM
Thursday Morning News (Almost Friday!)
Samsung going to release a cell phone w/ 7mp camera
Good news for cell phone camera users today as Samsung is showing off a 7mp camera at Cebit 2005. The bad news is that it looks more like a camera than a phone.
"The dual-face bar-type SCH-V770 boasts 16-million-color liquid crystal display (LCD), 32-megabyte external memory card, auto focus & optical zoom functions, and digital power amplifier that produces high quality sound and video recording function."
Is that a camera or a phone? Vote in the forums!
To find out more information or give your thoughts if it is a camera or a phone sound off on this forum thread.
Cell Phone Virus #2 Hits North America
'Commwarrior.A' is a virus designed to spread through multimedia messages and drain phone batteries. No "real big deal" yet, but this is starting to happen more often as this is the second cell phone virus to reach the US in a matter of months.
"A new mobile phone software virus started spreading this week via messages containing photos and sounds, the first of its kind and a threat to cellphones globally, data security firms said Tuesday. The Commwarrior.A virus tries to replicate itself by sending multimedia messages to people on the phone's contacts list, and also tries to do the same via Bluetooth wireless connections with other devices, eventually draining the battery."
CNN Technology News
Posted by | Thu, Mar 10, 2005 - 09:52 AM
Server Problems
Legit Reviews has been online since 2002 and we have made a lot of progress when it comes to hosting. We are now on our 4th hosting company who has and is serving us well. Right now we are working with our host on the dedicated servers trying to pin point some database issues on our servers. Till they are resolved we have shut down the forums and other SQL database applications to prevent them from becoming corrupt again. (We had over 400 tables go corrupt yesterday in our database)
The review database is being kept online and hopefully traffic will be slow till the site gets fixed. Please bear with us and expect the next full review to be on Friday.
- Nathan Kirsch
Posted by | Wed, Mar 09, 2005 - 06:58 PM
Press Releases
Here are a couple press releases that are worth a mention.
ATI CATALYST 5.3 Launched w/ support of OpenGL 2.0
Good news today for S3 and parent company VIA as they announce that the GammaChromeS18 is now available on the open market. Great news for VIA who have been trying to put a number of new products out the past few months.
"With the release of CATALYST 5.3 today, ATI is pleased to announce support for Open GL 2.0. The addition of Open GL 2.0 provides a platform to further leverage the power of our latest hardware to enhance the realism ofOpen GL-based games and applications. Users have the ability to enjoy increased visual realism in how scenes are rendered and in the use of shadows - bringing a cinematic gaming experience that much closer..."
For The Full Press Release & To Download the Drivers Visit This Thread
S3 Graphics Ships GammaChromeS18 PCI-E Cards
Good news today for S3 and parent company VIA as they announce that the GammaChromeS18 is now available on the open market. Great news for VIA who have been trying to put a number of new products out the past few months.
"Keeping pace with the latest developments in the graphics arena, S3 Graphics today announced the availability of GammaChromeS18, the first in the GammaChrome line of GPUs targeted at the mainstream graphics market, featuring full DirectX 9.0 hardware, a native PCI Express interface and S3G's signature Hi-Def(tm) native HDTV display capability for the ultimate visual experience..."
For The Full Press Release & To See Card Images Visit This Thread
Posted by | Wed, Mar 09, 2005 - 01:36 PM
Today's Reviews Around The Web
Dual nVIDIA 6800's on a single card:
HardSpell.com is showing off an ASUS card with dual 6800's this morning. The card looks like a monster and leaves me wondering if I can run two of these babies on an SLI motherboard. No interconnect is present, but would you need one since both cards already have dual GPU's?
Talk more about it in our forums on the thread about this card!
Reviews Around The Web:
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TC 64MB @ Guru3D
ATI ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT @ Hexus.net
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI and 3D1 @ TweakTown
Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI Motherboard @ PCSTATS
Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 Case @ ap0calypse.com
Thermaltake Armor VA8000 Case @ motherboards.org>
In-Depth Comparison of Serial ATA RAID 5 Adapters @ Tweakers.net
DoubleSight DS-1700 @ Modasylum.Com
Samsung Syncmaster 920T 19" LCD @ GideonTech.com
Sony VAIO VGN-S2HRP @ xbitlabs
HP Pavilion ZE2000 @ HotHardware
Posted by | Wed, Mar 09, 2005 - 09:13 AM
Athlon 64 4200+
" AMD IS CLOSE to releasing its next Athlon 64 CPUs. Busy people at the Xtreme Systems forum managed to get a CPU-Z snapshot of the AMD upcoming 4200+ CPU. That is what that site reckons.
This CPU is actually clocked at 2600MHz just the same as the FX55 but in the case of Athlon 64 4200+ the multiplier is locked higher. The 4200+ has 1MB of cache built on 90 nanometre marchitecture and works with 1.4 volts.
This looks like a San Diego core to us as it has SSE3 and it is built on 90 nanometre marchitecture.
This means that FX57 new AMD gaming CPU that should rock at 2.8GHz and have multipliers completely unlocked is close to its release. Maybe CeBIT? It would not be the first time. Helas.
"
Posted by | Wed, Mar 09, 2005 - 12:25 AM
Asetek releases very quiet cooler
" A DANISH based company that likes to cool things out and goes under the name of Asetek finally released a very nice and inexpensive CPU air based cooler.
The company is going to show this product at CeBIT and you will be able to see it in just a few days time. Asetek joined forces with German based Leonhardt Group Industries to bring what they call a highly effective cooler aarchitecture.
The VapoChill Micro PCU cooler is filled with hermetically sealed gas/liquid captured in chambers and exploiting phase change cooling principles. The company claims it's much more efficient than the currently heavily used heatpipe cooler principle.
We won't get into details how it actually works. The current retail version will support old P4 socket 478 and LGA 775 while it will work with all of the Athlon 64/FX/Sempron/Opteron using socket 754, 939 or 940.
The retail price excluding VAT is ?27 and price should end up around ?40 for a retail product with VAT. It will be available in volume starting May 1st.
"
Posted by | Wed, Mar 09, 2005 - 12:23 AM
CeBIT: the show readies to kick off, Taiwan sets new record
"Long acknowledged as the world?s leading technology tradeshow, CeBIT starts again this Thursday, March 10 in Hannover, Germany with the strongest ever attendance from Taiwan. According to preliminary data from organizers Deutsche Messe AG, 777 exhibitors will represent Taiwan this year, surpassing the 2004 record of 702 companies by more than 10%. Once again, and now for nearly a decade, Taiwan ranks as the number two exhibiting region after host Germany.
The world?s leading news agencies are already reporting from Hannover that an enthusiasm is returning to the industry, which is still thought to be able to generate stellar growth. After three slow years, CeBIT this year will welcome 6,270 exhibitors, up from 6,109 in 2004. After Germany and Taiwan, China has 310 exhibiting companies, the US 209, South Korea 202, Great Britain 193 and Hong Kong 176. For the first time, more than 1,600 companies have been registered directly from Asia and these companies will occupy about 39,000 square meters of floor space."
Posted by | Tue, Mar 08, 2005 - 05:09 PM
Counter-Strike and Warcraft III on ACON5 roster
"ACON5 is slated to kick off March 9 in the UK followed shortly after in China March 26, according to Abit gaming brand manager Lester Lau. The ACON5 gaming tournament, sponsored by Abit, Intel, ATI Technologies, LG Electronics, Corsair and Creative will be held in over 20 countries and territories, with 16 semi-finals, said Lau.
According to Lau, thousands of gamers helped last year?s ACON4 event become a major success. ?This year?s event will have more locations and bigger prizes, as well as the addition of a new game into the contest,? .
The gamers will first compete in regional ACON5 qualifiers. During each qualifying event, the winners will win the right to represent their region at the ACON5 Finals. From there, the winners will be flown, all expenses paid, to the ACON5 finals. Last year, Warcraft III: Frozen Throne was chosen to be the official game. This year, ACON5 organizers have added one of the world?s number one online games, Counter-Strike, to the roster. This year, Abit was able to garner Valve and Blizzard?s official support for the ACON5 event, Lau said."
Posted by | Tue, Mar 08, 2005 - 05:08 PM
In life after the bubble, tech takes a backseat
"Five years ago Thursday, a pin pricked the Internet bubble.
And in that five-year span, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has fallen by more than half, corporate America has pulled back its IT spending, a large swath of jobs have been cut across a number of industry sectors, consumer confidence has waned, and the tech sector, which garnered the biggest benefit during the go-go years, has suffered a black eye.
"It took 86 years for the Red Sox to win the World Series. It may take a little less for the Nasdaq to hit 5,000 again," said Richard Peterson, chief market strategist at Thomson Financial."
Posted by | Tue, Mar 08, 2005 - 05:06 PM
Intel Talks About Gaming & Multi Threads
Who said that Intel doesn't care about gamers? Today we get a PR from our Intel contacts saying that they are going full steam ahead with dual-core-based software! We hope that all our friends in the gaming industry get all the help they need from Intel!
"SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 8, 2005 - Intel Corporation today announced it has been working closely with game developers on threading their games and has expanded seeding of its dual-core-based software development platforms. These efforts will fuel gaming software and features such as physics, artificial intelligence, character animation and world simulation that can take advantage of multiple CPU cores and threads. "
Posted by | Tue, Mar 08, 2005 - 04:46 PM
Monday Reviews
Intel's BTX Form Factor - An Analysis and Opinion
BTX based systems are (very) slowly surfacing, but what is this BTX all about anyway? We take a look at what it consists of and whether we think it will be any good. AMD also provided us with a response regarding their systems and the BTX standard.
"I can count the number of commercially available BTX mainboards and chassis' in this country on one hand. I can count the number of UK retailers selling packaged Pentium 4 processors with the Type 1 BTX Thermal Module on the fingers of no hands."
HEXUS.review - Intel's BTX Form Factor
Reviews Around The Web:
Soltek SL-K890 Pro 939 Motherboard @ hardcoreware.net
Foxconn WinFast NF4K8MC-ERS nForce4 Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
Soltek K8T890 @ t-break
Thermaltake Rocket @ Legion Hardware
Spire CoolGate Pentium 4 Heatpipe Cooler @ Adrian's Rojak Pot
Thermalright XP-90 Heatsink @ mikhailtech.com
Koolance VID-NV2-L06 GPU Cooler @ SystemCooling
Gigabyte Neon Cooler 775 & Neon Cooler 8 @ Legion Hardware
3.4GHz Intel LGA775 Pentium 4 @ Club Overclocker
Intel 660 and 3.73GHz XE @ Bytesector
HIS X850XT and X850XTPE @ Hardware Avenue
MSI and XFX 6600 GT AGP and PCI-E Video Cards @ HardOCP
Albatron Trinity PC6600GT PCI-E @ Club Overclocker
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 11:53 AM
Nvidia gets refresh on SLI driver
" WHILE IT WILL REMAIN beta until Nvidia finishes testing it, a beta release of Forceware 70 has been available on the firm's site for a few days now.
Nvidia tested 60 games and applications and added it to the SLI ready list. This driver also brings support for 6200 with the Turbo Cache series, better video support called PureVideo and of course better SLI support.
Sources close to Nvidia said this driver has much better SLI support and lets you do many things that you could not manage with Forceware release 65. "
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 05:30 AM
Firefox developer feels like throwing in the towel
" FIREFOXER Mike Connor is complaining in his blog that the development of the Mozilla-sponsored alternative browser isn't getting the attention it deserves from its parent.
An exasperated Connor says he?s "on the verge of just walking away indefinitely" from the project because of its "glacial pace of development."
The problem, says Connor is that there are only half a dozen folk who review the product and they?re not active enough right now. At least, not as active as him, he suggests."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 05:29 AM
TwinMOS launches DDR2-533 SO-DIMM for Sonoma platform
"TwinMOS Technologies announced today that it has completed the R&D for its DDR2-533 SO-DIMM. The product is designed to support the Intel Sonoma platform, as well as Intel?s next generation Napa platform.
However, TwinMOS did not reveal its production schedule and when contacted, could not confirm when the DDR2-533 SO-DIMM would hit the market.
The company stated that it designed the DDR2-533 SO-DIMM for the Sonoma platform in accordance with the 4-bit prefetch architecture of DDR2 specifications and to support bandwidths up to 4.3GB/sec. The products will operate at 1.8V, and features on-die termination (ODT)."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 05:26 AM
A Cut Above
" Let's say you're a big-league pitcher, blessed with a good but not great arm. You've played several seasons in the majors, yet you've never managed to hold down a steady place in a starting rotation, mainly because you can't get quite enough velocity on the ball. You work with different pitching coaches and sports psychologists. You try new exercise and diet regimens. Ultimately, you decide that your innate talents aren't going to take you to the all-star level you've always dreamed of. You need a little help. "
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 05:25 AM
AMD set to detail multi-OS plan
"SAN FRANCISCO--Advanced Micro Devices will detail its "Pacifica" virtualization technology by the end of this month, enabling software companies to start working with the feature, which makes it easier for a computer to run several operating systems simultaneously
The Pacifica technology is scheduled to arrive in processors in 2006, later than the comparable Vanderpool Technology--now officially called Intel Virtualization Technology--that is promised to appear this year in Intel chips. What's not clear is whether the two technologies will be compatible, raising the prospect of complications for some software makers."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 07, 2005 - 05:23 AM
Will mobile phones ever replace the MP3 player?
Every year I am seeing cell phones doing more and more, but the next improvement that I am really looking forward to is in the music realm. Spare me the $200-$400 MP3 player and give me a mobile phone loaded with a few gigs of flash memory.
"Nokia and Microsoft have agreed a deal to work on delivery of music to handsets, while Sony Ericsson has unveiled its phone Walkman and Motorola is working on an iTunes phone. Can mobile phones replace the MP3 player in your pocket? Full-length music downloads on mobile phones have not taken off so quickly - held back by technical challenges as well as issues over music availability. But the mobile music industry is confident that the days of dedicated MP3 players are numbered. "
Posted by | Sun, Mar 06, 2005 - 07:46 PM
Friday Reviews
The Tech Report's CPU Decoder Page Updated
Looks like Scott and the gang now have 240 processors listed on their site to help guide you to finding the right CPU or to tell you what the heck you own.
We've just put the finishing touches on an update to our CPU Decoder Ring. Among the changes are the addition of the newest CPUs (including the Opteron x52 and Pentium 4 6xx series) as well as some older chips that didn't make it into the last update. Additionally, columns have been added to show support for both the NX bit and 64-bit capability. A quick query reveals that 240 processors are currently represented on the chart.
Reviews Around The Web:
Intel 660 3.6Ghz & 3.73Ghz EE 64bit Pentium 4 Processors @ Tweaknews.net
Intel's 64-bit Technology @ PCSTATS
P4 600 Series 64-bit Performance @ Lost Circuits
Intel Pentium 4 660 and EE 3.73 GHz @ Behardware.com
DDR-2 PC-5400 Shootout - OCZ vs. Corsair vs. Kingston @ TweakTown
Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC4000 2x512MB @ DevHardware
Corsair XPert TWINXP1024-3200XL @ ipKonfig
Corsair XPERT Memory - TwinXP1024-3200XL @ OCTools.com
Corsair TWINXP1024 3200XL (Xpert) @ Rbmods
Gigabyte 8IPE775 Pro @ Hardware12v
Asus P5GDC-V Deluxe 915G Motherboard @ PC Perspective
DFI LANPartyUT NF4 Ultra-D @ Legion Hardware
MSI K8N Neo3-FSR @ TrustedReviews
AOpen i915Pa-PLF Motherboard @ PCSTATS
SiS 756 Reference PCI-E Motherboard @ OCW
Posted by | Fri, Mar 04, 2005 - 03:09 PM
Targeting AMD and ATI, ULi finds its niche
"ULi Electronics was spun off from ALi, to focus on core-logic chipsets, about two years ago. DigiTimes recently met with ULi CEO and president Alex Kuo to talk about how the company evolved in that time from a notebook-chipset maker to a niche player in the desktop market, specializing in southbridge chips and single-chip K8 AMD core-logic solutions. Kuo also spoke about partnerships and the challenges he faces managing a niche player in a competitive market. "
Posted by | Fri, Mar 04, 2005 - 01:57 AM
Intel rethinking the living room PC
"The lukewarm response for the EPC--a living room computer that functions as a DVD player, a digital-video recorder and a media storage vault that sort of looks like a VCR--is prompting the company to rethink the design and function of the devices, said Don MacDonald, general manager of Intel's home product group.
Future living room units will be smaller, more stylish and likely less costly, he said. They could possibly even be integrated with movie delivery or other content services. Equally important: The fact that the box is a PC will be heavily de-emphasized."
Posted by | Fri, Mar 04, 2005 - 01:53 AM
Forum News
Today in the forums we have some interesting threads going on. We are having yet another motherboard away! Rich is giving the Chaintech nForce 4 Ultra AMD A64 939 motherboard to the forum member who can come up with the most creative reason as to why he should have it. In other news we show off how Corsair and Kingston are now best chums in the memory industry. If you haven't yet checked out the thread on turning an old CRT monitor into a fish tank it is worth doing. Then after you are done checking that out the computer stuff you can read how a woman has listed some USED breast implants on eBay that are going for over $14,000!!!
I'm heading back from San Francisco today, so expect more IDF content soon. We have had 20+ meetings with all the big companies and a bunch of information to pass along!
Posted by | Thu, Mar 03, 2005 - 09:24 AM
Growth rate slips for Firefox usage
" New research shows the growth rate of open-source browser Firefox is slowing, while Microsoft's browser market share continues to dip.
Two tracking surveys released Monday showed that Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser has dipped below 90 percent market share.
IE, which comes preinstalled on the vast majority of computers, had already dipped below the 90 percent threshold in a November survey by OneStat, a Dutch Web metrics firm. At the time, Microsoft pointed to WebSideStory's results, which showed it was still above 90 percent. "
Posted by | Thu, Mar 03, 2005 - 01:44 AM