Legit Reviews News History
Motherboard components reportedly in shortage
Motherboard components such as MLCCs, solid capacitors and LAN connectors are reportedly suffering from tight supply due to the recent labor shortages, according to sources from motherboard makers. First-tier motherboard makers Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) are all aggressively placing orders to avoid the shortages causing any impact on their motherboard shipments.
Currently, motherboard MLCCs are mainly supplied by Walsin Technology Corporation (WTC) and Yageo, while solid capacitors are supplied by Sanyo Electric and Chemi-con. LAN connectors are supplied by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), the sources noted. Since the labor shortages are expected to improve significantly after April, while the motherboard market will have entered the slow season by then, the tight supply of components should improve, the sources noted.
Posted by | Fri, Mar 12, 2010 - 10:37 AM | Comments
March 12 News from Around the Web
CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced vs. CoolerMaster 690 @ Ninjalane and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
CoolerMaster has realized the desires of their customers and has reworked one of the most popular CM cases on the market today. We touched on many of the major highlights of the CM690II but when compared to the original CM690 you quickly realize that many of the subtle changes will go unnoticed.
Posted by | Fri, Mar 12, 2010 - 07:54 AM | Comments
Tomorrow is March 12th! Pre-Order Your Apple iPad
We all knew that the Apple iPad pre-orders were starting tomorrow, but did you know what time you can start to place those order? We have been told that sales will start being accepted at 8:30AM ET, or 5:30AM PST. It looks like the orders will be fulfilled on April 3rd if all goes as planned.
The high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or viewing photos. With iPad, there is no up or down. It’s designed to show off your content in portrait or landscape orientation with every turn. And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 10:19 PM | Comments
Intel Core i7-980X Six-Core Processor Performance Review
In the coming few weeks Intel will be launching the worlds first six-core desktop processor with the Core i7-980X desktop processor Extreme Edition. This LGA 1366 socket processor can be run in any existing Intel X58 Express chipset powered motherboard after a quick BIOS flash, so a new platform will not be needed. Read on to see what we think of the 980X in our testing!
The Intel Core i7-980X Desktop Processor Extreme Edition was found to exceed our initial expectations, which says a ton. Having six physical processing cores creates an amazing user experience when running multi-threaded applications. The enormous growth of HD media content in the home is driving the demand for computer systems that have the horsepower to deliver an enjoyable user experience for the consumer. If you have ever tried to create a Blu-ray movie or just tried to transcode some HD movies you know how much time it takes to work on a project and that can be frustrating for those that do it often. With the new Intel Core i7-980X Processor you can improve productivity, save power and the best part is that it can be a drop-in replacement for those with existing socket LGA1366 motherboard. Anybody that runs multi-thread applications is sure to appreciate a six-core processor.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 04:24 PM | Comments
WD Introduces New My Passport AV Portable Media Drives
WD recently introduced its new My Passport AV portable media drives. Designed specifically for video storage and playback, the new My Passport AV portable media drives deliver a plug-and-play experience for digital media enthusiasts. Available now at select retailers and WD's online store, the My Passport AV portable media drive is offered with 320 GB of capacity. The New My Passport AV portable media drives feature a 2-year limited warranty and are available now at select retail stores and WD's online store. MSRP for the My Passport AV portable media drive with 320 GB is $109.99 USD.
A large and increasing number of game consoles, camcorders, TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players and media players, including the WD TV® Media Player family, allow consumers to connect a USB drive and play the multimedia content from the drive on an HD TV. The My Passport AV portable media drive is designed to meet the requirements of this demanding video streaming environment. It delivers the formatting and low-power consumption that assures out-of-the-box compatibility with many leading CE (consumer electronics) devices.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 04:20 PM | Comments
Epic Games Brings NVIDIA 3D Vision Support to Unreal Engine 3
NVIDIA and Epic Games, Inc. today announced the addition of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology support to Unreal Engine 3. Today’s announcement means that licensees of the world’s most successful game engine will be able to take full advantage of integrated 3D Vision™ technology support and offer an unprecedented level of immersion in their upcoming games. Epic’s popular Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free version of Unreal Engine 3, will also benefit from the addition of 3D Vision support, bringing a theater-quality 3D development platform to the more than 200,000 current users worldwide.
“The combination of Unreal Engine 3 and 3D Vision makes already amazing games even more jaw dropping,” said Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games. “If you haven’t seen Unreal Engine 3 in 3D, you won’t believe how realistic it is! We’re excited to offer this technology for free to our licensees and can’t wait to see what people create with it.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 11:29 AM | Comments
Khronos Releases OpenGL 4.0 Specification
The Khronos Group today announced the release of the OpenGL 4.0 specification; a significant update to the most widely adopted 2D and 3D graphics API (application programming interface) that is used on all major desktop operating systems. OpenGL 4.0 brings the very latest in cross-platform graphics acceleration and functionality to personal computers and workstations. The OpenGL standard also serves as the basis for OpenGL ES, the graphics standard on virtually every shipping smart phone.
OpenGL 4.0 has been specifically designed to bring significant benefits to application developers, including:
- - two new shader stages that enable the GPU to offload geometry tessellation from the CPU;
- - per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions for increased rendering quality and anti-aliasing flexibility;
- - drawing of data generated by OpenGL, or external APIs such as OpenCL, without CPU intervention;
- - shader subroutines for significantly increased programming flexibility;
- - separation of texture state and texture data through the addition of a new object type called sampler objects;
- - 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations and inputs/outputs for increased rendering accuracy and quality;
- - performance improvements, including instanced geometry shaders, instanced arrays, and a new timer query.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 11:22 AM | Comments
TwonkyMedia Server Now Available on Select Thecus NAS Servers
Thecus Technology is officially announcing that the TwonkyMedia Server module is now available on N5500, N7700, and N8800 Series. TwonkyMedia is media server software and media manager that allows you to stream music, photos and videos from your PC or NAS to digital photo frame, Internet radio, TV, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.
The new TwonkyMedia server offers greater features and flexibility; it supports most DLNA-Certified and UPnP compliant devices, such as TVs, PCs, mobile devices and Digital Media Adapters (DMA). Compatibility wise, TwonkyMedia Server also supports an abundance of multimedia file formats, allowing users to stream virtually all types of videos, photos and music. Furthermore, TwonkyMedia Server can even support gaming consoles. Simply connect a PS3 or Xbox360 to the Thecus NAS, and users can immediately start streaming multimedia contents from Thecus NAS and enjoy them directly on their TV. It really doesn’t get any easier than this.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 11:18 AM | Comments
'Console Killer' OnLive To Launch in June
Maybe hoping to capitalize on a slow recovering economy, OnLive hopes to make consoles obsolete by offering streaming game content - eliminating the need for download, software purchases and ongoing hardware upgrades. This has been in the works for eight years so I would hazard a guess that they have worked out any bugs and performance issues dealing with latencies.
A gaming service that aims to kill off the traditional gaming console will begin streaming popular games over the internet in June this year. OnLive, which launched to much fanfare in 2009, announced details of its service at the GamesBeat conference.
Posted by | Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 10:25 AM | Comments
Intel Core i7 980X Processor Extreme Edition Preview
Intel Corporation today previewed platforms featuring the latest Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor and announced the latest release of Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel GPA) that will aid developers in optimizing game performance. In addition, Intel introduced a number of initiatives designed to spur innovation in the PC game developer community, and in support of the company's Visual Adrenaline and Intel Atom Developer programs.
Intel is previewing its latest PC platform the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor, codenamed "Gulftown," the first 32nm, six-core processor with 12 computing threads. In addition, Game Developers Conference (GDC) attendees can see and experience applications enhanced for this new platform – including newly released Sega Napoleon Total War, the soon-to-be-released Ubisoft RUSE, Geomerics Enlighten and Cakewalk Sonar – all by visiting the Intel booth and Intel lounge area during the event.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 11:32 AM | Comments
Best Buy Begins Selling First Panasonic Full HD 3D System
Panasonic and Best Buy today continued their commitment to bringing 3D technology into American homes with the world's first consumer purchase and retail availability of Panasonic's Full HD 3D home entertainment system certified under the new Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) 3D standard, sold exclusively at select Best Buy stores via Magnolia Home Theater. Beginning today, Panasonic's Full HD 3D Home Theater System will be exclusively available at select Best Buy Stores via Magnolia Home Theater. The total combined SRP of the Panasonic Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System components is $2899.99. The system consists of a 50-inch class (49.9" measured diagonally) Panasonic VIERA VT20 Plasma 3D HDTV (TC-P50VT20 – SRP $2,499.95) which includes one pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (TY-EW3D10U), and the Panasonic BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (DMP-BDT300 – SRP 399.95). Additional pairs of 3D eyewear will be available with an SRP of $149.95. The individual components of the system will also be sold separately.
The new range of Full HD 3D capable VIERA Plasma HDTVs and a fully-featured 3D Blu-ray Disc player will bring a new era of immersive visual entertainment into consumers' homes, by creating a 3D experience that easily rivals the best that can be seen in cinemas. By delivering a full 1080p-resolution image to each eye, Panasonic's Full HD 3D technology offers consumers the highest possible visual experience. To enjoy Full HD 3D programming, users wear a stylish and lightweight pair of active-shutter eyewear. The sets are also Full HD TVs that display pristine 1080p content in two dimensions (2D) for conventional HD viewing.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 11:21 AM | Comments
Vuzix Offers 3D DVD Titles for its Video Eyewear
Vuzix Corporation today introduced a collection of 3D DVD titles now available for purchase on the company’s web store at vuzix.com . These DVDs are mastered for viewing on its Video Eyewear and compatible 3D television sets. The initial list of 14 movies, from “Jaws 3D” to “SOS Planet”, is just the start of a growing portfolio that will give owners of Vuzix Video Eyewear even more 3D viewing options.
Though 3D DVDs have been available for some time, they are hard to find and can sometimes have questionable quality. Vuzix 3D tiles are all in the latest Side-by-Side format; just one of the multiple formats supported by Vuzix Video Eyewear. In fact Side-by-Side 3D support was recently approved as a mandatory 3D format by the consumer electronics industry for upcoming 3D displays, ensuring Vuzix Video Eyewear users will have lots of future 3D viewing opportunities. Now movie buffs can bring home these DVDs, view upcoming 3D television broadcasts and new 3D Hollywood blockbusters on their personal big screen 3D Video Eyewear, without the high cost of purchasing one of the new 3D TVs expected to be available later this year.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 11:16 AM | Comments
OCZ Technology Launches Onyx Series SSDs
OCZ Technology today unveiled the OCZ Onyx SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, an ultra-affordable MultiLevel Cell (MLC)-based solid state storage solution designed for consumers looking to take advantage of flash-based storage technology. Offering a faster and more durable alternative to traditional hard drives in a cost-efficient SSD, the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives. Onyx SSDs feature HDD-dominating access times, up to 125MB/s read and 70MB/s write speeds, 64MB of onboard cache, and unique performance optimization to keep the drives at peak performance over the long term.
"As new technologies become available, OCZ continues to expand both our enterprise and consumer SSD lines, and one of our goals is to make SSDs more affordable to end-users. Our new Onyx series SSD does exactly that and is a perfect solution for netbooks, laptops, or home desktop PCs," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "Designed to offer the best of both worlds, the new OCZ Onyx SSD delivers the speed and reliability of solid state storage to mainstream consumers at an aggressive price point that makes the technology more accessible to customers who want to take advantage of all the benefits of the SSDs without incurring the high cost normally associated with the solution."
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 11:12 AM | Comments
Chinese group files complaint over faulty HP laptops
More than 100 Chinese consumers have filed an official complaint against Hewlett-Packard Co over faulty laptop computers, leaving the door open for a lawsuit against the U.S. technology company, a lawyer for the group said on Wednesday. Jiang Suhua, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, told Reuters the complaint centered on video cards which overheated and caused the laptop to malfunction. We are taking a wild guess here, but it looks like this goes back to the NVIDIA video card issue that caused NVIDIA some headaches over the past few years. This issue gives me yet another chance to post up this flier I saw at NVISION 08 again.
Jiang said the problems dated back as far as 2007 in some cases. When contacted by Reuters, HP said in a statement it had a program in November 2007 to offer a free repair for customers with affected HP notebooks. It declined to comment directly on the complaint.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 08:30 AM | Comments
March 10 News from Around the Web
G.Skill PC3-18400 (2300MHz) PI Series 4GB Kit @ TweakTown and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
"When I think of memory companies that want nothing but speed, only a few really come to mind and one of them would have to be G.Skill. While so many companies these days produce high end memory, we only really see a few leading the pack and when I say that I mean we see the same few companies ahead of everyone with most other companies playing catch up when it comes to speed. While most companies are sitting around the PC3-17600 mark these days, G.Skill as always has kicked it up a notch with a PC3-19200 kit and a PC3-18400 one which we have on hand today. Like most high performance memory kits at the moment, the modules are aimed at P55 platforms due to them coming in dual-channel packets."
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 08:07 AM | Comments
ASUS Unveils the World's Most Compact Five-channel Speaker - Cine5
ASUS today announced the launch of the ASUS Cine5 PC speaker which provides accurate 5-channel surround sound in personalized spaces such as study rooms. With its all-in-one design, the Cine5 delivers realistic and dynamic surround sound to satisfy consummate gamers and personal entertainment users. To deliver exceptionally full sound from a compact form factor, ASUS drew on its expertise in high-performance audio cards during the development.
The Cine5 is the first PC speaker in the world to offer leading surround sound presence with the new "EmbracingSound Theatre HD" technology. This patented technology leverages on a discrete 5-channel output to deliver full audio surround, which users can experience whenever they are directly in front of the speaker. In a First Player Shooter game, the Cine5 provides precise sound location that improves shooting accuracy and heightens gaming thrills. The Cine5 also revives 5-channel audio from any down-mixed 2-channel source—for a high-fidelity, multi-channel sound during PC gaming or movie sessions.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 07:22 AM | Comments
Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor Shows Off ATI Eyeffinity on Supreme Commander 2
Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor sat down with James Loe who is the key person behind the game engine for Supreme Commander 2 and show off what it can do on a Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. The video below shows them stress testing the system, so they show off the running 500 King Kryptors, a massive mech that features several very powerful cannons to make light work of weaker units, in one scene running on three display panels with one graphics card! The goal here is to see if they can break the game. Watch the video to see if they end up breaking the game engine!
Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor and James Loe having way too much fun testing out an insane number of on-screen units in their latest RTS, "Supreme Commander 2," on an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card in an ATI Eyefinity ultra-widescreen display configuration.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 07:02 AM | Comments
Prolimatech Announces Armageddon CPU Cooler
Prolimatech is preparing to release its newest CPU Cooler, the Armageddon. It's a 14cm CPU heatsink that excels when paired with a 14cm fan at 1000-1600RPM for solid performance that Prolimatech claims will easily beat rivals with larger designs. At 750g without a fan this is certainly a HSF with some weight to it, so we can't wait to get our hands on one to try out!
Megahalems was Prolimatech's first ever CPU heatsink and it quickly became the one to bead and paved the road for all others to follow. Months have passed and competition has once again heated up. One noticeable thing is that size has become larger and larger in these heatsinks. With Armageddon you don't have to worry if it will fit inside your computer case. It is slim. It is sleek and it is powerful! So strap on a 14cm fan and let Prolimatech show you that brawn can overcome size anytime of the day! Time to rid of the playing field. Armageddon!
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 06:56 AM | Comments
Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System Announced - up to 322 Tbps
Cisco announced yesterday a major advancement in Internet networking - the Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS) - designed to serve as the foundation of the next-generation Internet and set the pace for the astonishing growth of video transmission, mobile devices and new online services through this decade and beyond. The Cisco CRS-3 triples the capacity of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, with up to 322 Terabits per second, which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
With a proven multi-chassis architecture, the Cisco CRS-3 can deliver up to 322 tbps of capacity, more than tripling the 92 tbps capacity of the Cisco CRS-1 and representing more than 12 times the capacity of any other core router in the industry. With more than 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system, the Cisco CRS-3 is designed to transform the broadband communication and entertainment industry by accelerating the delivery of compelling new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 06:42 AM | Comments
OWC Announces Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2.5" 1.0TB Drive
OWC has announces their Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini, a 2.5-inch, 1.0TB FireWire/USB-bus powered portable storage device. Compatable with both Windows and Apple OS, the FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, eSATA interface delivers up to 300MB/s data transfer and the fanless design is sure to keep the unit silent. Pricing for the models start at $120 for the 250GB (5400RPM) model, while the 1TB (5200RPM) goes for $299.
Measuring a compact 3.8" W x 5.5" L x 1.1" H, the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini offers storage capacity up to 1TB - enough space for up to 1,000,000 JPEG photos, 500 DVD movies, 76 hours of digital video, or 350,000 MP3 songs - in its fanless, aircraft grade brushed aluminum enclosure. Because it's bus-powered, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini doesn't require an AC adapter, which makes it ideal for in-the-field business professionals, creative/entertainment professionals, students, and anyone else needing to back up data, transport large files between computers, gain additional storage capacity, and even perform video editing and live music recording.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 02:15 AM | Comments
AMD Foundation to Sponsor Video Game Design Award
AMD today announced the AMD Foundation and has awarded a grant to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in support of AMD Changing the Game Campaign. The $65,000 grant will be used to help fund the Alliance’s new video game design category for the 2010 and 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization that runs The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the most prestigious and longest-running competition in the United States recognizing teenagers’ intellectual creativity, innovation and artistic talent. Through this competition, scholarships and other activities, the Alliance annually reaches more than three million students in seventh through 12th grades, and 400,000 Art and English teachers. Including the new video game design category in the competition increases the reach of the program to math and science teachers and presents video game production as an art form requiring imagination, technical skill, planning and storytelling.
Posted by | Wed, Mar 10, 2010 - 02:03 AM | Comments
U.S. considers some free wireless broadband service
U.S. regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.
The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later. One way of making broadband more affordable is to "consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low cost wireless broadband service," the FCC said in a statement.
Posted by | Tue, Mar 09, 2010 - 09:25 PM | Comments
Topeka 'renames' itself 'Google, Kansas'
OK, so it's temporary but the Mayor of Topeka, Kansas would like to temorarily rename the city to Google as in - "Google, Kansas -- the capital city of fiber optics". His hope is to garner attention from Google to allow them to be among the first to receive their fiber-optic technology.
At 79, Bill Bunten doesn't exactly understand the Internet boom. The Topeka, Kansas, mayor has an e-mail account, he said, but his assistants take care of most of his online communications and tend to search the Web for him. But Bunten believes so firmly that younger residents of Kansas' capital city will benefit from faster Internet connections that he wants Topeka -- which he describes as a place of many lakes and the site of a burgeoning market for animal-food research -- to change its name for a month.
Posted by | Tue, Mar 09, 2010 - 07:50 AM | Comments
.xxx Internet Domain Name Plan Resurrected
A proposal that has been lingering since first introduced in 2001, considerations are again on the table to implement the .xxx domain name extension to explicitly identify sites containing pornographic content. Let the domain name grab begin!
A plan to create an internet domain specifically for adult websites will be resurrected three years after it was rejected by internet regulators. The net's governing body Icann will reconsider the .xxx scheme on 12 March. Icann had previously given the domain the go ahead in 2005, but reversed the decision two years later amidst protests from US conservative groups.
Posted by | Tue, Mar 09, 2010 - 07:40 AM | Comments
MSI announces availability of Wind U160 with 15 hour battery life
MSI Computer has announced the availability of the 2010 iF Product Design Award Winning Wind U160. The U160, MSI’s second netbook to feature the new Pine Trail platform, is powered by the Intel Atom N450 Processor. The incredibly efficient and Energy Star compliant U160 boosts a 15 hour battery life when running in MSI’s exclusive ECO mode. This allows users to get through a full day of work or school without having to bring their adapter. The MSI Wind U160 costs just $379.99 and is available now at Fry’s (Fry’s product number L1600) and online at Newegg and Buy.com.
Abandoning the traditional clamshell form, the Wind U160 ushers in a new era of netbook design. From the illuminated MSI logo on the netbook’s outer surface to the power button placed on the U160’s cylindrical hinge, the newest Wind model sports a slim new footprint. Just 0.98 inches at its widest point, the U160 is the thinnest Wind model to date. The newest edition to the Wind family will also ships with 10-inch backlit LED display, 1 GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, a 6-cell battery, Bluetooth connectivity and Microsoft’s Windows 7 Starter. MSI also included its user friendly EasyFace facial recognition security software to help U160 users protect their information.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 02:33 PM | Comments
Ubisoft DRM servers go down, punishing customers but not pirates
UbiSoft's DRM Servers down for an extended period of time is upsetting gamers accross the globe. Ubisoft put in place technology that requires users to have a constant internet connection to play even the single player campaign in the game Assassin's Creed 2. It has been down to long and the only ones able to play the game are the pirates.
At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games. Fast forward ten hours and it seems that the problem still hasn't been resolved, despite the assurances from a Ubisoft representative that the servers were 'constantly monitored' "I don't have any clear information on what the issue is ... but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I've been told these servers are constantly monitored," said 'Ubi.Vigil', adding, "I'll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won't happen in the future."
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 12:38 PM | Comments
ASUS AMD 890GX Series Motherboards Can Unlock Disabled AMD CPU Cores
ASUS continues its innovation leadership with the first AMD 890GX based motherboards featuring SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0, and exclusive core unlocking technology. Previous generation solutions relied on AMD’s Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) technology for core unlocking and did not always unlock the core and cache intelligently. With the removal of ACC from the newly introduced 890GX chipset, ASUS’ new Core Unlocker Technology intelligently scans the installed processor to properly determine which cores and cache can be unlocked. In seconds you can maximize your system performance and tackle those intensive processing applications with ease.
Users can determine how to implement this innovative technology by sliding a switch on the motherboard, changing a BIOS setting, or simply pressing the “4” key when the machine first starts. Core Unlocker makes it simple thanks to ASUS’ award winning Turbo V EVO hardware and software. The M4A89GTD PRO Series also features enhanced overlocking performance, auto-tuning technology, improved power savings, and class-leading cpu/chassis fan controls with our exclusive Fan Expert software.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 11:00 AM | Comments
Kingston 30GB SSDNow V Series Boot Drive Review
Using Solid-State Drives (SSDs) as boot drives is an economical approach to getting into the SSD hardware realm without spending a ton of money, which is one of the reasons many have been waiting on the sidelines. Kingston would like to invite you in with their $80 30GB SSDNow V Series boot drive and we'd like to do the introductions.
The idea of an SSD boot drive like the Kingston 30GB V Series drive works well of a lot of users who just can’t dump a load of money into a drive but would really like to get rid of the HDD bottleneck in their system. Performance for this drive was right on with the expectations set by Kingston. The unfortunate part of that is the write speed, which at 50MB/s, falls below hard drive speed and frankly, is disappointing. There were some benchmarks that did show writes exceeding this but they still barely rival most platter drives. While you'll still see a nice performance boost by upgrading from an HDD in Windows and application loading, there are going to be some aspects of your daily use that you may see no change or even a loss in performance due to the writes. Such is life when you are only paying $110 (or $80 for the launch special) for a low capacity SSD...
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 10:48 AM | Comments
Intel to Launch Eight-core Nehalem-EX This Month
Intel will release its fastest and highly anticipated eight-core Nehalem-EX server processor later this month, a company executive said last week. The processor will be targeted at four-socket servers, said Shannon Poulin, Xeon platform director at Intel. Each physical core will be able to run two threads simultaneously, giving the chip 64 virtual processing cores on servers. Intel has said that server chips based on Westmere will contain up to six cores. The company last month said the six-core chip contained 1.17 billion transistors and 12MB of cache. The six-core chips will deliver improved performance and power savings compared to earlier quad-core chips, according to Intel. The Westmere-EP chips will fall under the Xeon product line and will be made using the 32-nanometer process. The last refresh for server chips was in March last year, when the company announced a range of Xeon 5500 series and 3500 series chips based on the Nehalem architecture. The chips were made using the 45-nm process.
Intel is targeting the chip at high-end systems running data-intensive applications such as databases. IBM earlier this week said it would implement Nehalem-EX chips in its System x EX5 servers. The chip will be made using the 45-nanometer process, and be based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, which integrates the memory controller and improves system speed by cutting data bottlenecks that plagued Intel's earlier chips. Intel is also including new technologies like MCA recovery error correction that could make servers more fault tolerant and provide greater uptime, he said. The processor will be able to detect system errors originating in the CPU or system memory and correct them by working with the operating system. Some of these technologies have been adapted from Intel's high-end Itanium processors, which are based on a separate chip architecture and go into fault-tolerant systems.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 10:46 AM | Comments
AMD Open Physics Initiative Expands Ecosystem with Free DMM
AMD today announced that, along with partners Pixelux Entertainment and Bullet Physics, it has added significant support to the Open Physics ecosystem by providing game developers with access to the newest version of the Pixelux Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), a breakthrough in physics simulation. In addition, to enabling a superior development experience and helping to reduce time to market, Pixelux has tightly integrated its technology, DMM, with Bullet Physics, allowing developers to integrate physics simulation into game titles that run on both OpenCL- and DirectCompute-capable platforms. And both DMM and Bullet work with Trinigy’s Vision Engine to create and visualize physics offerings in-game.
“With today’s announcement, the incredible physical simulation effects seen in the latest games and blockbuster films can be used by all developers – a tremendous milestone for the industry,” said Mitchell Bunnell, chief executive officer, Pixelux. “Working closely with AMD and Bullet’s main author, Erwin Coumans, we’ve enabled tight integration of our DMM2 system and Bullet Physics, giving developers a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use physics pipeline they can use to create things that have never been seen before”.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 10:28 AM | Comments
BioShock 2 DLC Available March 11 Worldwide
2K Games announced today that the Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack, the first in a series of single and multiplayer downloadable content for BioShock 2, will be available on March 11, 2010 from both the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows-LIVE for 400 Microsoft Points, and from the PlayStation Network for $4.99.
Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack, the first of several planned downloadable packages, contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character's development in BioShock 2's multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:
- Rank increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
- New playable characters - Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
- 20 new trials*
- A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
- Five additional masks
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 10:25 AM | Comments
Spire TherMax Eclipse II CPU Cooler Announced
Following up to the success of the original DT heat-pipe TherMax series, Spire has introduced the TherMax Eclipse II CPU Cooler. The TherMax Eclipse II has five 8mm Direct Touch U-Shaped sintered powder heat-pipes with a black-nickel finish and stamped heat-sink fins. The TherMax Eclipse II CPU Cooler is compatible with the latest ATX boards based on LGA 775/1156/1366 for Intel and socket AM2/AM3/940/939 for AMD. The TherMax Eclipse II (SP984B1-V2) will be available in the second half March 2010 with an MSRP of $52.99 in the states or €38.95 in Europe.
The TherMax Eclipse II is ready to best cool the extreme hot 130W to 150W Micro-processors made by Intel and AMD. Universally compatible with the Intel 1156/1366/775 platforms in combination with the AMD AM3/AM2/940/939 platforms giving professionals and gamers a huge scope to utilize this impressive Diablo. Another welcome new feature are the possibility of mounting two fans simultaneously for even better cooling results. Simply installed with the included Anti-vibe rubber fan mounts installation is made tool-free and easy.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 09:56 AM | Comments
March 8 News from Around the Web
ASUS Maximus III Formula motherboard review @ Elite Bastards and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!
Looking for a high-end Intel P55 chipset motherboard with an eye towards some hardcore overclocking? ASUS' Maximus III Formula might be just the board to tempt you as part of the company's Republic of Gamers range, and today we take a look at this particular part to see if it can live up to its potential.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 09:31 AM | Comments
QNAP Launches TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP Rack Mounted NAS Servers
QNAP Systems today expanded their popular Business Series Turbo NAS lineup with two new 1U rack-mounted, 4-drive models, the TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP. These new models, with up to 8TB of storage (using 2TB hard drives), have been certified as compatible with VMware's vSphere4 (ESX 4.0) virtualization platform, ideal for departmental file sharing, storage, and advanced server applications in the office environment. VMware's vSphere is the industry's first cloud operating system that offers a way to reduce IT costs and increase responsiveness. The new TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP Business Series Turbo NAS servers are available from March through QNAP global commercial distributors, resellers, and retailers.
The new models are differentiated with the TS-459U-RP containing redundant power supplies. Should one power supply fail, the other will continue to supply the power for the entire system and alert the administrator via email or SMS to the failure. The TS-459U-SP contains a single power supply, and can be upgraded to the –RP configuration with installation of a second power supply module, sold separately. Both models support RAID 0/1/5/5+ hot spare/6, and JBOD, with online RAID capacity expansion, online RAID level migration and RAID recovery. Both models also feature 256-bit AES volume level encryption for maximum data security. The TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP models feature 5 USB ports (1 front panel & 4 real panel) and 2 e-SATA ports for storage expansion and printer sharing. Both models support advanced features including DOM architecture with fail-safe dual OS, scheduled power on/off, Wake on LAN, and HDD S.M.A.R.T,
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 07:36 AM | Comments
Active Media Products Releases 1.8-Inch PATA Turbo ZIF SSD
Active Media Products today released new 32GB and 64GB 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs that support read speeds up to 100MB/sec and, thanks to their DRAM cache, reach write speeds up to 85MB/sec. These new Turbo ZIF SSDs are available now through Amazon with the 32GB model (N32G-PATAZIF-ZT) running $169.95 and the 64GB version (N64G-PATAZIF-ZT) at $299.95.
With no moving parts, SaberTooth ZT is rugged enough for use in industrial, embedded and network computing applications where a very compact yet high speed storage solution is needed. Its PATA / IDE ZIF interface supports PIO mode 4 and UDMA mode 6. It also supports SMART commands. The ZT includes excellent ECC, wear leveling and bad block management technologies that improve reliability and extend endurance. These drives have the same physical dimensions as industry standard 1.8-inch HDDs, measuring only 2.8 x 2.1 x 0.2 inches (71 x 54 x 5 mm), making them an easy plug-in replacement in many laptops and netbooks.
Posted by | Mon, Mar 08, 2010 - 07:32 AM | Comments
PREVIOUS | NEXT
Search
News History
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- 0000
Hot Topics
- Corsair TX750 Power Supply For Sale...$85.00
- ASUS ARES - Dual Radeon HD5870 GPUs and 4GB RAM
- Command and Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight Blank Screen Fix
- AMD Releases First ATI Catalyst Application Profile
- NZXT Sentry 2 Performance Touch Screen Fan Controller Review
- Mac computers
- Wanted Molex to Sata Power
- NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 3.0 released
- too many fans for motherboard
- New GPU Client Coming Next Week