News Archive

XYZ Computing's EIC, Sal Cangeloso (yet another tech editor whose name ends in a vowel), has posted an editorial regarding the future of Linux's coexistence with Windows. I don't use Linux regularly, but I have experimented with a handful of popular distros just to keep on top of the technology.  If more people did the same,...

It's not here just yet, but Wireless USB devices are on the way and they'll likely do wonders for cleaning that jumble of cables writhing around behind (or even on top of) your desk.  For a primer on what the technology entails, check out this concise article at Auphan Online....

Google has launched a free version of the 3D modeling software it acquired when it bought @Last Software last month. Google SketchUp, which is free for personal use, includes simple tools for creating 3D models of a variety of items, including houses, sheds, decks, home additions, and woodworking projects....

IGN reports Playstation Magazine's latest issue has the 411 on the official launch date on the PS3. According to the magazine, the long-awaited gaming console and its online service will arrive in early November for a cool $399. Sounded fishy to us, so we put in a call to Sony. What...

DigiTimes reports that both AMD and Intel are making moves which are frustrating motherboard vendors. With regards to Intel, vendors are less than thrilled to see the company aggressively pulling in the launch dates for Woodcrest, Conroe, and Merom. With products launching months ahead of schedule, motherboard vendors now need to creatively...

After searching through PriceGrabber, we found that Seagate's recently announced 750GB hard drive is in stock at no less than six online vendors. Being able to boast of having the highest capacity is a right which doesn't come cheap as prices vary from $499 to $540. Regardless, when a 500GB hard drive just isn't enough,...

The Revolution is over. Today Nintendo has announced that the console formerly known as "Revolution", shall officially be called "Wii"(pronounced "we"). "While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody...

Addonics Announces CardBus eSATA RAID5/JBOD Controller Terabyte Storage Capability, High-Speed Transfers, and TiVO compatibility for Notebook PCs SAN JOSE, CA (April 27, 2006) - Notebook PC users can now have high performance SATA technology, RAID 5 and a TeraByte of external storage capability via one CardBus slot with Addonics Technologies...

If you're looking for information on the ultimate mobile ATA hard drive, our friends at the Tech Report have the scoop.  Geoff just posted up a mobile hard drive round-up that'll arm you with the information you need to make an educated purchase. "To gain a better understanding...

Our buddy Fudo over at The Inquirer has just posted some new information regarding ATI's upcoming Radeon X1900 GT GPU. Apparently, yields for R580 are stellar as the assumed 500MHz core frequency for this GPU is supposedly going to be a stunning 575MHz. In similar fashion, the estimated 1GHz memory frequency is now said to be 1200MHz....

MadShrimps has posted a brief article which outlines a budget-oriented mission to overclock two different Intel CPU's well beyond 4GHz. Both the moderately priced Pentium D 805 and the Celeron D 356 were placed in an ASUS P5LD2 motherboard and cooled by a Thermaltake Sonic Tower heatsink. Seeing 4GHz in the rear-view mirror...

Looking to improve image quality on your TV? Hardware Zone has a neat device that can do just that. While you probably won't see much improvement with content like DVD's, it did manage to up the quality on VCDs and improve TV signal quality. "Our tests have concluded that...

First Nvidia decides that two video cards just wasn't enough, so they came out with Quad SLI. Now we have Nvidia rolling out some new image quality options, as they'll soon be introducing 32x Anti-Aliaisng. Well, I guess they had to do something with all that extra horse power.  Although this really isn't breaking...

Good Evening All!   Tonight we seriously have a HOT one for ya.  Voodoo PC's new OMEN CrossFire is on the test bench and we're poppin' the hood down on Sunset Strip for all to see.  2.95GHz of Athlon 64 power, coupled with a pair of Radeon X1900 XTs, expertly liquid-cooled throughout.  It's drool time people. ...

You think your broadband connection is fast? Think again.  Internet 2's network is getting revamped with a huge backbone that'll be able to pump some serious data, for use in high-bandwidth experiments.  Computerworld has some of the specifics posted in this article. "Internet2's...

Have you ever gotten fragged in your favorite game because your response time wasn't good enough to avoid enemy fire?  You swear you saw the shot coming, but just couldn't move your hand fast enough to get out of the way.  Perhaps some new technology in the works will help in these situations by linking the game action directly...

Traditionally a key Fab strictly for ATI's GPU production, Digitimes reports that UMC supposedly has landed an order from NVIDIA to produce 90u GPU's. Although few details regarding the deal are known, this is surely a move on NVIDIA's part to assist in keeping costs down and ensure that there is always enough...

Seagate Expands Desktop Hard Drive Lead With 750GB Monster Built on Perpendicular Recording Technology SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., April 26 -- Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX), the world's number one hard drive maker, today surged to new levels of areal density and storage capacity leadership with the introduction of the world's first desktop...

In a follow-up to the distinctive 5.0MP dual-lens EasyShare V570, Kodak has announced the new 6.1MP EasyShare V610. The dual Schneider-Kreuznach C-Variogon zoom lenses are still carried over with the V610, but this time one has a focal length of 38-114mm while the second lens goes from 130-380mm....

Today TheTechLounge has some flat screen goodness, writing down their thoughts on Dell's 2005FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD. It's a decent monitor for gaming and all around use, and you can grab one for about $420. "Dell has been a long-standing fixture in the LCD market. Ever...

They're right, VHS is just about dead. Sometimes it's hard to even find them in stores. If you've got some home movies though, or anything on a VHS tape you wish to preserve, copying the content over to a DVD is the way to go. The folks at Hardware Secrets can start you off with the hardware you'll need in the first part of...

PLEXTOR ROLLS OUT WIRELESS PROJECTOR ADAPTER Device Eliminates VGA Cables by Receiving Presentations via Wi-Fi Broadcast FREMONT, Calif. - April 24, 2006 - Plextor Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, today announced the PX-PA15AW Wireless Projector Adapter.  The new device uses wireless...

HKEPC has some exclusive info regarding Intel's next generation integrated graphics platform. Apparently, the upcoming G965 IGP will support DirectX10 as well as Shader Model 4.0. Rounding out the features, we also find a new limit of 256MB of shared memory, Anisotropic Filtering (finally), and hardware H.264 decoding, and...

Microsoft is releasing a new test version of Internet Explorer, the market-leading Web browser that is facing competition from smaller players. The new beta, available today for free download, includes fixes for problems that were causing Internet Explorer 7 to stop working. This is Microsoft's third beta of Internet Explorer 7 made available...

Gamers around the world will rejoice in the news that Viacom is purchasing XFire, a free program that automatically keeps track of when and where gamers are playing PC games online and lets their friends join them, for $102 million. We are very pleased to announce that Xfire has entered...

These patent infringement cases seem to be everywhere these days. This is a huge one though, as Hynix has been ordered to pay Rambus $306 Million. While that's a lot of cash, Rambus could be looking at even more money from others as a result from the court ruling. "The verdict, though,...

OCZ Technology Announces High-Performance 60X and 133X Secure Digital Memory Sunnyvale, CA - April 24, 2006 - OCZ Technology Group, a leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the launch of its new Secure DigitalTM (SD) flash memory cards designed to be the ideal storage solution for the latest...

Intel Unveils Game-Changing Direction For Business PCs Intel(R) vProTM Technology Delivers Strengthened Security, Cost Reduction and Energy-Efficient Performance SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 24, 2006 - The way the world views and uses business PCs is about to change with the introduction of Intel Corporation's new Intel(R) vProTM technology,...

HyperTransport Consortium Maintains Interconnect Performance Leadership with New 3.0 Specification Sunnyvale, Calif., April 24, 2006 -- HyperTransportTM Technology Consortium, a standards organization dedicated to developing the industry's lowest latency, highest bandwidth interconnect technology, today released version 3.0 of the HyperTransport...

Engadget reports that Apple has just posted the new flagship 17" MacBook Pro to their website. Armed with a 17" LCD with a native 1680x1050 resolution, a 2.16GHz Core Duo CPU, and a dual layer burner this new notebook will surely be a highly sought-after item. Somewhat surprisingly, the pricing for the new 17"...

IT Review has somehow managed to get ahold of some pictures and information regarding MSI's upcoming motherboards based around AMD's new Socket AM2 platform. Here, we find some juicy information on flagship boards such as the MSI K9N SLI Platinum which is based off the NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI chipset. In...

The Washington Post has just published an interesting article outlining the author's disappointment with Intel's VIIV campaign. Although there has been ample marketing dollars thrown at this campaign, there has been little no no innovation in terms of hardware to give consumers any compelling reason to opt for a VIIV certified...

HKEPC has managed to get their hands on one of the coolest new boards of the year. The AOpen i975Xa-YDG is a Core-Duo (Yonah) based motherboard which supports ATI's Crossfire multi-GPU configuration. Without question, the Core Duo architecture is an efficient powerhouse when compared with Intel's current desktop...

OC Workbench has posted a brief article which outlines the features and benefits of Intel's new Core architecture. Here, the author steps through Intel's entire lineup from the mobile platform all the way through to multi-processor server platforms. If you're planning on upgrading your hardware in the near future, you'd...

In an attempt to cut down on the Xbox 360's power issues, MS will switch to a version of the Xenon CPU fabbed on a 65nm die process, beginning in 2007. The CPUs will be made by Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore, under license from IBM and Microsoft. The launch of the Xbox 360 was not without its problems. From low inventory to repeated...

The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia will unveil new multimedia phone models, including an N73 camera phone, at an event in Berlin next week. With its new N-series phones Nokia will take a step toward more stylish and lighter models, but it is still a long way from rival Samsung's...

Finally! There's hope for all of you wanting to run The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on anything below a SM2.0 capable card. It certainly doesn't look as great as it would with a newer graphics card, but if you're just dying to play the game with your current hardware, you do have the option. Head on over to Oldblivion.com...

With the popularity of portable MP3 players, it's always good to check out the market's latest additions. Today ExtremeMHz has published their review of Toshiba's Gigabeat F40 40GB player, which looks to be a good alternative to Apple's IPod. "Toshiba Gigabeat players are...

Hi Folks!  Just a quick note here to let you all know we've published our evaluation of a new Asus motherboard design to bring Intel's Core Duo processors to a micro-ATX Desktop platform.  There are only a couple of these type boards on the market and they just scream HTPC.    Check it out......

Movies have always featured computers that perform actions based on user voice commands. Although voice interfaces are still not common place in homes today, for many years software has been available for speech recognition. Anandtech has posted an intresting article, discussing all aspects of speed recognition software currently...

There is no question that Oblivion is definitely one of the best looking games of 2006 thus far and as you would expect, it seriously beats on even the fastest 3D Graphics cards from either NVIDIA or ATI.  We'll be incorporating it into our benchmarking suite here, as soon as we get a consistent repeatable method of testing it.  Until...

Engadget has posted a blurb regarding some leaked information on Seagate's upcoming 750GB Barracuda hard drive. Thanks to perpendicular recording, capacity jumps from 500GB up to a massive 750GB of space. Rounding out the specs, we have SATA II support, 7200rpm speeds, 16MB of cache, and 4.16ms latencies. For those...

The Register is claiming that Panasonic is preparing to launch one of the industry's first Blu-Ray players in June. The strange aspect of this launch however, is the fact that the player will not be able to play Blu-Ray movies out of the box as there is no bundled software to support this functionality. So essentially, everyone purchasing...

The Inquirer reports that NVIDIA has just launched their first 1GB graphics card with the arrival of the new Quadro FX 5500. Based on the powerful G71 GPU, this new graphics card will be packed with a whopping 1GB of GDDR3 memory. For those who can't afford the high price of the 1GB model, there will be 512MB and 256MB variants...

Claiming a "triple boot," the open-source project that first claimed the ability to boot OS X and Windows in the same machine has now added Linux to the mix. The open-source project that first came up with a way to dual-boot an Intel-based Mac into either Mac OS X or Windows XP...

The NEW WaterChill Xternal system is launched! The NEW WaterChillTM Xternal system incl. SOFTWARE based control panel is by far the most powerful external water-cooling unit on the planet. The Xternal offers superb cooling performance assuring rock solid stability and high overclocking potential. The unique software utilizes flawless control...

MySpace seems to be making the news a lot in the past few months. We've linked to a few stories before, where people have been arrested for content they've posted on the popular service. This is a little more serious though, as it appears a few kids(ages 16-18) planned a shooting spree at a Kansas school. They posted information...

It's another year for AMD, and the folks over at AMD Zone have a talk with AMD's Damon Muzny about the chip company's plans for 2006. Going a little beyond AMD, Damon also discusses his thoughts on Intel's Netburst architecture, and addresses the rumor of DDR3 appearing with their AM2 socket....

OCZ Technology Announces the PC2-6400 Gold GX XTC Sunnyvale, CA - April 20, 2006 - OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the addition of PC2-6400 DDR2 to the Gold XTC series. OCZ Technology now offers a complete line of gamer-grade XTC DDR2 solutions ranging...

Apple Computer Inc. expects the average selling price of its iPod digital music players to decline in the current quarter from the prior period, the company's CFO said on Wednesday. "We expect them to be down a little bit in the June quarter," Apple's Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer...

Paris Hilton is taking her celebrity status to the very small screen. The hotel heiress/reality TV star has agreed to use her likeness in a series of mobile video games. The deal between Paris Hilton Entertainment Inc. and Paris-based mobile game publisher Gameloft includes a game geared...

The folks at HKPEC have posted a great scoop on what seems to be an unknown upcoming GPU from NVIDIA. The GPU is dubbed "Tritium" which is defined as, "A rare radioactive hydrogen isotope with atomic mass 3 and half-life 12.5 years, prepared artificially for use as a tracer and as a constituent of hydrogen bombs."...

The rapid pace of mobile phone installation and the development of wireless networks are together driving robust growth in the use of phones for browsing. People are turning to mobile phones for Internet use more quickly than they're adopting laptops for the same purpose in many parts of the world....

Sony Lowers Price of PlayStation 2 to $129.99 FOSTER CITY, Calif., April 20 -- Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. today announced that it has made its PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system more affordable than ever throughout North America. Effective immediately, consumers can purchase the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment...

If you're up for a good read, head on over to Hardware Secrets to check their latest 'how stuff works' article. Today they cover mostly the audio side of analog-digital conversion, and manage keep the explanations fairly easy to understand. "Signals in the real world are analog:...

First off, a new Quake 4 patch as been released, updating the game to 1.2 and fixing the widescreen problem found in the 1.1 patch. The 1.1 patch was originally pulled due to "a problem with the widescreen functionality that may harm a user's monitor". If you've already downloaded the 1.1 patch, you can download the 1.1 to...

In their latest review, Hardware Zone has pitted the MSI NX7600GT-T2D256E against ASUS's EN7600GT 256MB. While you're not going to see any kind of clear performance winner, you do get a chance to see what kind of bundle MSI provides, the card's overclocking potentional, and decide if it's worth the $179 price tag....

Intel First-Quarter Revenue $8.9 Billion Operating income $1.7 billion ($2.1 billion excluding share-based compensation) EPS 23 cents (27 cents excluding share-based compensation) $585 million in cash dividends $2.9 billion used to repurchase 138.5 million shares SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 19, 2006 - Intel Corporation today announced first-quarter...

Digitimes reports that Intel is currently being favored over VIA for UMPC designs. Apparently, the price differential of $400 or more does not outweigh the strength of the Intel brand name for consumers. That's a shame as many find the UMPC designs very compelling until their heart stops beating after seeing the sticker price....

Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that ATI's Radeon X1900 GTO which was slated to launch the end of this month has been delayed. With supply of the Radeon X1800 GTO which we reviewed diminishing in the channel, ATI needs this card to fill the price-point until they can launch the RV560 and RV570 GPUs. Unfortunately,...

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it has developed a 2GByte MultiMediaCard (MMCmicro) that combines four 4Gbit NAND flash devices. This is the smallest, fastest and highest capacity memory card for mobile phones, developed only three months after Samsung led the industry by launching a 1GByte MMCmicro. "The 2GByte high-performance...

Tuesday marked the first day of availability for HD DVD discs, with two studios releasing three movies in the next-generation optical disc format. The releases are intended to coincide with the launch of the first HD DVD player from Toshiba. Warner Home Video shipped "The Last Samurai" and "The Phantom of the Opera" while Universal shipped...

Microsoft received a bit of good news earlier, as an appeals court ruling has barred people who bought their software directly from Microsoft, from filing suits for antitrust violations. This does not affect a previous case in which Microsoft has to pay more than $1 billion to settle other class-action suits....

Golf ball fan now available in 120mm version Sharkoon Silent Eagle 120mm / with 1000 or 2000 rpm / suggested retail price: $14.69 Sharkoon is introducing a new version of its golf ball case fan: the Silent Eagle is now also available in a 120mm size. The larger model moves more air than an 80mm fan at the same rpms and noise level. The particular...

Intel's current line-up of desktop processors may not have won over the minds of many enthusiasts, but their mobile processors have been on the cutting edge for some time.  The Tech Report takes a new Core Duo though, and puts it through the wringer using a new micro-ATX mobo from Asus.  Interesting performance results to say...

XYZComputing.Com has posted up some information regarding Seagate's latest enterprise class hard drive that features new perpendicular recording technology.  It's not a desktop hard drive by any means, considering it's only available in SAS, Ultra320 SCSI, and fibre channel flavors, but the tech will surely trickle down in...

We recently decided to procure a new Sony VAIO VGN-SZ150P/C Notebook for testing and evaluation here.  During the first couple of weeks of testing, it never occurred to us frankly that our unit perhaps wasn't representative of the material as described in its specifications and at the online reseller we bought it from.  Here...

DELL'S FASTEST CONSUMER NOTEBOOK UNITES POWER, BOLD LOOKS FOR GAMERS ON THE MOVE ROUND ROCK, Texas, April 18, 2006 - Mobile gamers now can bring the firepower of dual-core processors and 512 MB graphics to their next tournament thanks to Dell's fastest consumer notebook, the XPSTM M1710, introduced today. For serious gamers looking...

Apparently, yields on the new 80u process at TSMC still need major improvement as DigiTimes reports that ATI has reportedly chosen to cancel all plans to use this process this year. Both RV560 and R570 will now be produced on the more mature 90u process this year, though no plans are known for the entry level RV505 and RV535 which were...

ExtremeTech have posted a preview of NVIDIA's new flagship mobile GPU dubbed the GeForce Go 7900 GTX. Installed in a new Dell XPS M1710 gaming notebook, this new mobile GPU is able to provide framerates that are on par with some of the fastest desktops money can buy. If you're into the thought of gaming on the run or a frequent...

If you're craving for more Oblivion (XBox 360) content, you may or may not be happy to know that Bethesda has released a new quest which can be purchased for 150 with their online service. Bethesda has been trying out the pay for content concept since Oblivion's release, and has been met with a fair amount of criticism. "Now that the...

OCZ Technology Announces the Premium DDR PC-3200 Titanium XTC Series Sunnyvale, CA-April 17, 2006 - OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the first Titanium XTC products-PC-3200 EL Titanium DDR 1GB module and 2GB Dual Channel kit. The OCZ Titanium series...

SST Announces Single-Chip Controller Targeting Portable Applications Mobile Platform Controller Combines Keyboard Controller, Power Management Controller and 8 Mbits of LPC Firmware Flash SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.), a leader in flash memory technology, today announced the industry's first single-chip, fully...

Vivendi Universal Games Mobile Announces Six New Titles Line-up Includes 'SWAT Force,' Recipient of IGN Editor's Choice Award and 'Mobie' Nomination     LOS ANGELES -- Vivendi Universal Games Mobile ("VUG Mobile") today announced its second and third quarter mobile game titles for 2006. Among...

Hello HH fans. Today is the day NVIDIA chose to officially announce their new DX10-class GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, and the rest of the mainstream GeForce 8 family of products. We pulled together a few GeForce 8600 GTS and GT cards, tested them with some popular games and benchmark tools, and have posted our thoughts for all too see....

MVKTech has a preview of NVidia's 7900GX2 Quad SLI cards. This review has some excellent information about the layout and specifications of each board as well as awesome photos of these high profile cards. NVIDIA has taken advantage of their leading position when it comes to multi-GPU technology, which they have introduced quite successfully...

Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television later this year, potentially paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke in televised poker. Major League Gaming, the world's...

AnalogicTech Announces New 2MHz Step-Up DC/DC Converter Optimized for OLED Applications Advanced Architecture Combines Fast Transient Response, High Stability, and Low Leakage Current SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Advanced Analogic Technologies Incorporated (AnalogicTech) (Nasdaq: AATI), a developer of power management semiconductors for mobile consumer...

RAID 0, 1, 5, 6.... "This one goes to 11..."  Wait, it's like double redundant, which is well... redundant I guess.  Aww never mind.  Let the boys at Hardware Secrets sort it out for you. "RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems are used to increase the performance and/or reliability of the hard...

Hong Kong's Largest New Trade Shows Opened Today at AsiaWorld-Expo HONG KONG, April 15 -- Global Sources opened two China Sourcing Fairs at AsiaWorld-Expo -- the largest trade shows ever to be held at the new, state-of-the-art venue. The April 15-18 China Sourcing Fairs are: -- Electronics & Components: Hong Kong's most comprehensive...

Today's top-shelf computer games look pretty stunning, especially when you run them using a PC with a powerful graphics chip and a speedy processor. But you have to admit, even the best games still don't look completely realistic. From the way explosions appear, to the way water flows, to the way a character falls down, there's...

World Cyber Games said on Thursday that Microsoft Corp. has signed on as the premier sponsor for its global video game tournaments through 2008. Under the terms of the alliance, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Games for Windows business units will provide hardware, games and marketing support for...

The Inquirer is reporting today, that AMD's legal team had Microsoft subpoenaed in their anti-trust lawsuit against rival Intel. In addition to information regarding Microsoft's decisions to develop 64-bit versions of Windows, AMD wants data regarding Microsoft's thoughts on AMD's viability and other technologies like...

Samsung says it has developed a new "3D" package, which reduces space requirements and increases performance capabilities of today's multi-chip packages. The company plans to use the technology to improve its NAND Flash packaging starting in 2007. Memory stacks are widely use...

Some Mac users are reporting problems with Apple's Boot Camp, the software that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows. Ironically, some users have said been stuck with Windows, with their hardware left unable to reboot the Mac OS. In a discussion thread on Apple's technical support Web site,...

Originally tapped by Valve to work on Counter-Strike's AI, Turtle Rock Studios has been charged with continuously adding new content and fixing bugs with the popular online FPS. FiringSquad had a chance to sit down and discuss the game industry, online game distribution systems, and their thoughts on the FPS genre....

With Intel expecting dual-core CPUs to be installed in 70% of all shipped notebooks this year, they have a good amount of faith in their new Centrino Duo technology. X-Bit labs has put some time into exploring this new tech, which makes for a good read if you're currently looking for a new notebook....

Hello Everyone, We've teamed up with the good folks at Sapphire again for another exciting contest. Things are going to be somewhat different -- and a bit more fun -- this time around though! Here's what we're going to be giving away to the lucky winners. Yes, that's winners with an "s"... 1st place - Blizzard Radeon...

The Inquirer is reporting that Intel is facing some major issues regarding FSB speeds with their upcoming processor architectures. Apparently, there are some major bandwidth considerations which must be made as multiple cores will all be fighting for real estate to dump data. Could Intel be forced to look beyond the traditional FSB and use...

AMD Reports First Quarter Results First Quarter EPS of $0.38 Driven by Record Sales of AMD OpteronTM Processors and Record Gross Margin SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- AMD today reported sales of $1.33 billion, operating income of $259 million, and net income of $185 million, or $0.38 per share for the quarter ended March 26, 2006. These results include...

Nested within a story on DigiTimes which covered the financial aspect of the last few months in the motherboard industry, there is a blurb regarding the launch of Intel's Conroe CPU. Apparently, motherboard vendors are looking towards a launch in the third quarter meaning that Intel would likely have a healthy performance advantage...

OCZ Technology Announces New Ultra-Slim Mini-Kart USB Flash Drives Thin Enough to Store in Your Wallet OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the second addition to their reputable flash product line-the OCZ Mini-Kart USB 2.0 Flash Drive series. The ultra-slim...

Microsoft's next major operating system release isn't quite ready for prime-time just yet, but we're sure many of you are wondering whether or not your rigs will be able to handle Vista when it arrives. The crew at PC Mechanic aims to answer some questions about Vista's hardware requirements in this article. Some...

If you want to get a head start and brush up on some of the technologies incorporated into Intel's upcoming "Core" microarchitecture, Hardware Secrets has a new tutorial posted that'll give you some background. And be sure to check out our preliminary Conroe performance metrics while you're at it. "The new Intel Core...

CoolTechZone has published some preliminary info regarding ATI's next-generation R600 GPU. Here, their sources are indicating there will be an amazing 64 pixel/vertex shaders which will reside in a unified shader architecture. Based on either an 80u or 65u process, it will be interesting to see how far ATI can push frequencies or...

PC Perspective has just posted a review of the EPOX EP-9U1697 GLI motherboard based on the ULI M1697 chipset. Despite being a very low cost board, the ULI chipset can utilize a patch which "unlocks" SLI functionality. Although not officially supported, the benchmark results seem to indicate that everything...

AOpen Showcases Innovative Intel(R) Viiv(TM) Technology and MoDT-based Products and Launches the MoDT Bootcamp at the 2006 Intel Channel Conference SAN JOSE, Calif., April 12 -- AOpen(R) Inc., an award-winning, global leader in PC component design and manufacturing, today announced that it will showcase several of its award winning Mobile...

Apple Computer Inc. unveils the third generation of its desktop management software, Apple Remote Desktop 3. The company's latest software, immediately available for sale, was designed to work with the new Intel-based Macs and carries more than 50 new features that it said would improve software...

Microsoft Corp. warns of three "critical" security flaws in its Windows operating system that could allow attackers to take control of a computer. Microsoft, the world's top software company whose Windows operating system runs on 90 percent of the world's computers, issued patches...

Well if you're looking for some information on Power Supplies, Hardware Secrets has 10 pages of PSU goodness. No, this isn't any kind of PSU roundup. In their latest article you'll find information about different types, how to calculate a PSU's power, efficiency, and more....

48 Schools Named Finalists For Intel And Scholastic Schools Of Distinction Awards Elementary, Secondary Schools Honored for Innovative Programs that Support Student Achievement NEW YORK, April 11, 2006 - Forty-eight schools have been named as finalists for the Intel and Scholastic Schools of Distinction Awards. The awards honor schools for...

ClubOC has tested Gigabyte's version of the Radeon X1900XTX. They seem to have been impressed with the offering from Gigabyte. Check out how the card performs and what unique features it offers at ClubOC. Although I doubt it can compare in features to the Sapphire Blizzard we recently reviewed....

There is an interesting Q&A posted on the Seattle Times web site with Apple co-founder, and personal idol of mine, Steve Wozniak.  If you want to learn more about Woz, and gain some insight into the beginnings of Apple Computer and his relationship with the other Steve, take some time and check this out. "Q. You were working...

The net has run rampant with links to a new Shockwave version of the infamous Quake III. Hardcore gamers trapped at work during the week can rejoice as they can refine their fragging skills from the comfort of their cube. If you have some spare time at work, do yourself a favor and test your skills at one of the most popular games...

Foreign website PC Inpact reports that various vendors have been informed that ATI is changing the name of the Xpress 200 (RD480) chipset. Dubbed Xpress 1600, the new name will better illustrate the differences between itself and the new Xpress 3200 (RD580) chipset. Here, the Xpress 1600 is equipped with 16PCIe to distribute between...

X-bit Labs sends word that ATI is preparing to provide OEM's with a new Radeon X1900 GT graphics card sku. Supposedly equipped with 36 pixel processors and 12 texture units, this card will not differ much from the 48 pixel pipeline R580 GPU used on the flagship Radeon X1900 XTX. In fact, the enthusiast community will be...

Fujitsu said it's going to launch desktop personal computers equipped with Blu-ray disk drives in June in Japan, becoming the first company to release PCs compatible with the next-generation optical disks. The announcement comes one day after Toshiba Corp. unveiled a plan to launch in...

Sun Fire(TM) x64 Servers and Sun Ultra(TM) x64 Workstations, Boosted by Solaris(TM) 10 and Sun(TM) Studio 11, Deliver 16 New World Records SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 11 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced the availability of Sun Fire(TM) x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers and Sun Ultra(TM) Workstations powered by the newest, highest-performing...

NGOHQ put together a death match competition between all eight versions of Nvidia's ForceWare 84 Series drivers to see which one provides the best performance. See which one came out victorious. The software always had a great influence over our hardware. We always like to see the manufactures keep updating their software and to solve...

If you're a 7800GT owner that's not ready to take the plunge and do a hardmod to raise the voltage on your video card, you can still raise it by using a simple BIOS update(softmod). NGOHQ has the file, and some forum discussion on the matter. "Not everybody knows how to perform a voltage mod. Today we're giving 7800GT users a...

The MySpace scene has just exploded in the past year, inhabited mostly by those in their teens. It's a great place to keep up with old friends, find new friends, and even advertise music. But like with most things on the internet, there are some problems associated with it. Bigbruin.com has spent some time writing about the site, and provides...

Maxtor has announced that they are cutting 900 jobs in Singapore in preparation of Seagate's acquisition. Maxtor has been in financial trouble for a while, with expected net losses of $104 million this fiscal year. Once the merger is complete in May, Seagate will become the world's largest hard disk manufacturer. Read the full story...

PC Perspective has finally solved a longstanding issue regarding lockup issues for some GeForce 7900 GTX owners. Apparently, yields for G71 are not quite as high as some graphics card vendors originally thought as the random lockups have been attributed to overly optimistic factory overclocks on frequencies. In theory, it is...

Anand has just posted a performance preview of AMD's upcoming Socket AM2 platform for your viewing pleasure. Beyond the obvious physical socket change, AMD is making the move away from DDR and switching over to DDR2 memory. Although AMD had an exceptionally efficient DDR memory controller in its architecture, there have been rumors...

DigiTimes reports that ATI is officially claiming that their new SB600 southbridge will make its debut in May. With ATI's initial southbridge designs being less than stellar in the eyes of the community, many motherboard vendors chose to opt for a southbridge designed by ULI. With NVIDIA acquiring ULI, many design wins for ATI chipsets...

Having a PSU to test various parts can be a handy thing to have, and for a few bucks you can make one without too much trouble. Modders-Inc.com will show you how to make one, but if you're not comfortable with hardware and basic wiring, you might want to hold off on building one of these....

If you're still unaware of what these two Anti-Aliasing methods actually do, bit-tech will help clear things up for you. In their latest article, they explain(and show) how these new AA methods used by Nvidia and ATI to improve image quality on transparent textures. "It would...

After their initial launch, new GeForce 7900 and 7600 series cards have been slow to roll in here, although they are plentiful in the retail channel.  Regardless we are now getting product in from XFX and many others here shortly.  In the mean time, check out TweakTown's look at Gigabyte's offering... I personally use a Radeon...

You new it wouldn't take long for robotics to take on a more curvacious appeal.  The good folks at Kyoto University have created the "FT" (Female Type) bot...   "Woman type (Female Type)" it designated "FT" from the initial. At 35 centimeters and weight 800 gram in height 6 head bodies. 13 months being temporary, to...

ATi has released a beta Cat 6.3 driver with the "Chuck" patch to allow High Dynamic Range Lighting (HDR) and Anti-Aliasing (AA) to be enabled in Oblivion at the same time. HDR with AA was only previously available on Xbox 360, and is now possible on the PC platform with ATi cards. Crossfire support was also added in this patch, with...

Josh from PenStarSys has just posted his latest take on the state of 3D. Josh always has some insightful commentary on the 3D industry in these articles and he gives enough history and background information to make even a newbie feel like an expert after reading. "NVIDIA started out in something...

Rahul Sood has posted some benchmarks in his blog of an Intel powered Apple iMac running Windows XP.  There were some graphical anomalies, and overall Rahul characterized performance as being similar to a "mid-range notebook".  Not earth shattering performance by any means, but interesting info nonetheless."We finally benchmarked...

The post is not in english, but the pictures at HKEPC tell the whole story.  It seems that some (perhaps all) Radeon X1800 GTO cards can be easily modified to unlock the additional 4 pipelines lurking within the R520 GPU.  HKEPC used an HIS card, and simply flashed the BIOS with a modified version that unlocked the additional pipelines....

The uniqueness of these CPU Coolers makes the article. They're not kidding when they say "wild", especially when it comes to the silent coolers. Odd looks aside, some of them manage to cool pretty well. "With the fans finally spinning down, we can see that through mounting difficulties,...

This is not your average overclock, that's for sure. The folks over at Madshrimps managed to get the chip running at 3650MHz, and a little beyond. The setup isn't practical for any kind of long term use, but it's cool to see how far you can push some of these newer chips. "At -190°C you might...

Three Thermaltake CPU Heatsinks @ Motherboards.org Ideazon MERC Gaming Keyboard @ [H]Consumer Asus N4L-VM DH Yonah Desktop Motherboard @ PC Perspective GEIL Ultra-X nForce4 Edition PC3200 400MHz CL2 5-2-2 DDR @ ThinkComputers.org Intel Dothan 780 Overclocking with Liquid Nitrogen @ Madshrimps Gigabyte Radeon X1300 Pro Silent-Pipe II @ Legion...

New NVIDIA(R) Dual-Analog TV Tuner Turns PCs Into Home Entertainment Centers SANTA CLARA, CA—APRIL 5, 2006— NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today introduced the NVIDIA DualTV tuner, the first TV tuner for PCs to offer two TV tuners on a single card with comprehensive...

OCZ Technology Announces PC2-5400 EL Platinum Edition XTC The new OCZ PC2-5400 Platinum XTC with 3-3-3 timings delivers the ultimate balance of speed and access latencies for unparalleled memory performance Sunnyvale, CA—April 5, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability...

Kingston Launches Fully Buffered DIMM Memory Modules Kingston FB-DIMMs Offer Cutting-Edge Solutions, Driving the Market to a New Standard by Breaking the 16GB-Memory Barrier. Fountain Valley, CA – (April 5, 2006), Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent worldwide leader in memory products, today announced the release of its...

ATI Starts Spring Off With A Bang -- Enter the "Spring Loaded CrossFire" contest to win great ATI prizes From April 4th to May 15, 2006 hardcore gamers will have the chance to win one of nine CrossFire prize packs featuring two Radeon graphics cards, an Asus motherboard and three fantastic game titles. To enter, just visit www.ati.com/springloaded....

PC Perspective has just posted their review of the Gigabyte iRAM storage device. Essentially a PCI card full of DIMM slots, the card uses memory modules to act as an incredibly fast hard drive. Should you like the idea of blistering fast load times and increased performance, you should certainly take a look at this ingenious new product. You...

Victor Wang has posted some interesting infomration over at XtremeSystems regarding Intel's upcoming Conroe processor. Using a Conroe sample running at 2.4GHz and an Intel 965G motherboard, he was able to run a healthy suite of benchmarks and has posted the results for your viewing pleasure. Should the retail processors provide similar performance,...

Although we don't usually talk about Apple here at Hot Hardware, there is a stunning new development with Mac systems today that certainly warrants our attention. Apple has officially released a public beta of a new piece of software called "Boot Camp" which will allow all Intel-based Macs to seamlessly dual-boot with Windows XP...

Fudo over at the Inquirer reports that he has confirmed with high ranking sources that ATI's refresh of their R580 GPU will remain at 90u and not be fabbed on a smaller 80u process as originally suspected. Apparently, there will be some design changes beyond just higher core and memory frequencies. Although the current R580 core is arguably...

VIA Launches First Single-Chip Embedded Chipset, the VIA CX700, at ESC 2006 Ground-breaking high performance all-in-one x86 chipset for ultra compact embedded systems underscores VIA's leadership in x86 miniaturization and integration, garners broad industry support Fremont, California, 4th April 2006 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator...

Tired of hearing your readers complain about their under-performing rigs? Throw them a bone and pass along this opportunity to win a smokin' new XPC barebones rig plus a whopping 2GB of RAM and a graphics card in the Crucial "Bad to the Bones" sweepstakes. Details: Crucial Technology and Shuttle teamed up to get three lucky winners well on...

The Oblivion tweak guide from Tweakgudies.com is finally out. Mr. Ghazi has been hard at work, trying out just about every option in the ini file, and has delivered a very comprehensive guide on how to tweak it. There's no miracle tweak to dramatically boost performance without reducing image quality, but you'll find some decent ones that...

If you're looking for a fully configured small form factor system, [H]ard|OCP's subsidiary, [H]Consumer may have just posted something of interest.  They've evaluated Polywell's Mini-Box2 939NP, and they seemed to like it quite a bit.  The system earned an 8.4 on the Hard-O-Meter....

Intel, Red Hat Launch Global Solution Acceleration Program Program Provides Customers with Tools and Technical Data to Help Accelerate and Optimize Advanced Linux Solutions LINUXWORLD, Boston, April 4, 2006 – Intel Corporation and Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, today announced the...

EMC, Intel Form OEM, Technology Relationship SAN DIEGO, Storage Networking World, April 4, 2006 – EMC Corporation and Intel Corporation today announced a multi-year storage original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and expanded technology agreement focused on the growing storage requirements of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)....

According to this article on the Reuters UK site, disappointing sales of movies and other media on Sony's proprietary UMD (Universal Media Disc) spells doom for the format.  And how about that dig by the Universal Studio's rep?  It seems Universal isn't too pleased with Blu-Ray's potential either....

Josh from PenStar Systems has some interesting comments posted regarding Intel's upcoming 45nm process. Intel's manufacturing prowess is well known, but Josh seems to think many in the industry are a bit too optimistic at the moment.  Of course, time will tell... "For the past four months...

The Inquirer reports that ATI is preparing to bring their dual GPU "Gemini" technology to the company's refresh of their flagship R580 GPU. Here, two GPU's will be placed on a single PCB allowing for Quad-Crossfire configurations using standard dual PCI-Express graphics card slots. A few years back, ATI did a similar thing with their...

Ease into the morning HH style here and milk that cup of jo a little bit longer.  First, maybe some light calisthenics for your brain with ol' Sully ought to get the blood flowing.  Then you can  peruse Sean's evaluation of Alienware's performance notebook that is actually more like carrying around a double sausage pizza versus...

No, the company isn't going anywhere, but it's formal name is gone, and the company is to be simply known as "AOL". It's not the first name change though, back in 1985 it started out as Quantum Computer Services, and switched over to America Online in 1991. "AOL had 19.5 million...

The folks over at Sharky Extreme had a chance to interview Joni Clark, Seagate's PC/Mobile Product Marketing Manager. So, will we ever see a 10K/15K RPM SATA Drive to compete with Western Digital's Raptor? "Joni Clark: On December 21, 2005, the Boards of Seagate and Maxtor announced that...

AMDZone has posted a listing of the dates for AMD's tech tour with Microsoft. The event kicks off in Burlington, Mass on May 1st, and ends in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on June 29th. Is it heading to your town?...

Intel Capital, PIPEX Create Broadband Wireless Company In The UK Companies Form PIPEX Wireless to Deploy Wireless Broadband Services Based on WiMAX Technology LONDON, April 3, 2006 – Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital investment organization, and PIPEX Communications PLC, a major United Kingdom-based telecommunications provider,...

The Inq is reporting today that ATI is preparing a new X1900-based card to compete head to head with NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GT, the Radeon X1900 XL.  There aren't many details available, but Faud speculates that the XL will feature a single-slot cooler and it's GPU will be clocked at 500MHz+....

DigiTimes reports that Intel's next generation IGP slated for launch prior to Windows Vista will be equipped with enough performance features and functionality to pose a legitimate threat to ATI, VIA, and SiS. This new IGP will support DX9, Shader Model 3.0, OpenGL 1.5, Advanced De-Interlacing, MPEG-2 hardware acceleration, and HDMI output....

It looks like the folks at eVGA have another GeForce 7900 card in the works, that'll likely be clocked even higher than their already pre-overclocked CO Superclocked model...    We're sure eVGA will be releasing more details in the days ahead, but for now they've disclosed that the e-GeForce 7900GT KO Superclocked features a custom...

Today Microsoft has announced they will provide technical support for running Linux distributions with Windows using their Virtual Server 2005 R2 software. They've also made Virtual Server 2005 R2 a free download, where as they used to charge a fee based on the amount of physical processors.""We've made a long-term commitment to make sure...

Intel Launches 'Discover The PC' Initiative Technologies Specifically Designed to Provide Greater Access to Personal Computing SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 30, 2006 – Intel Corporation today announced the "Discover the PC" initiative to make the benefits of PC technology more broadly available to people in developing nations. The initiative...

An interesting thread over at the StarForce forums has been developing for the past few days. It all started when a link was provided by a StarForce employee, taking users to OnlineSecurity ON's website where they explain the "truth" about StarForce Drivers. As some found out however, the site has close ties to StarForce itself."To...

Good morning folks.  If any of you are shopping for hardware this morning, you might want to check out our HOT Deals @ HH section of our forum.  There's always some good stuff listed in there, even during the wee hours of Sunday morning.  Here's a sampling of what's listed...   eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT CO 256MB...