Power PC on Apple, Asus Mobos, Plextor Products & More

Good morning folks!  As you've probably noticed, the bulk of the recent news has centered around the release of the Doom 3.  Lots of benchmarks, screenshots, console commands and cheats have started circulating.  And yes, we'll be doing a piece of our own shortly as well.  For now though, it's time for some news.  I'll call this one the "Doom 3 Free Edition" - 100% News, 0% Doom 3...everyone needs a break...

 PowerPC on Apple: An Architectural History, Part I @ ARS:

"The 601 could spend a ton of transistors (at least, a ton for its day) on a 32K cache because its front end was so much simpler than that of the Pentium. This was real advantage for using RISC at that time. The chip made its debut in the PowerMac 6100 to good reviews, and it put Apple in the performance lead over its x86 competition. The 601 was definitive in firmly establishing the cult of Apple as a high-end computer maker."

 ASUS P5GD2 i915P & P5AD2 i925X Premium @ HEXUS.net:

"Intel's 900-series of chipsets attempt to modernise motherboard design from almost every angle. The cost of such modernisation is mediocre speed and, perhaps, limited overclockability. ASUS has done a good job in releasing a couple of boards that are packed to the rafters with useful features, from dual Gigabit LAN to integrated WiFi. Given the P5GD2 Premium's P5AD2 Alderwood-matching performance, it has to be the pick of the two. So if you absolutely want to run the latest cutting-edge kit, it's a good a choice as any. My reservations, however, lie more with Intel's chipset than with ASUS' efforts."

 HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II VIVO LIMITED EDITION @ Bjorn3D:

"I always admire companies that try to do something special with their products. HIS is one of those companies. With their IceQ line of ATI cards, they have gained a very good reputation. Today, I am looking at the king of their cards, the HIS Excalibur X800 XT IceQ II VIVO LIMITED EDITION. Yes, a long and complicated name, but somehow it does fit with this card since it is anything but simple."

 Plextor ConvertX M402U Review @ Hardextreme:

"For preserving home movies a solution like this can't be beat! I've used capture cards in the past, which require that you capture video and audio to a certain format before conversion / compression, thus taking hours in the process. Plextor's ConvertX eliminates the extra step in the conversion process and captures audio and video in Real Time. The WinDVD creator software included in the bundle effectively captured and organized my video files."

 Plextor PX-AV100U Digital Video Converter @ Club Overclocker:

"Being the leading company providing quality disk burners whether its CD-ROM, DVD, or even Software, Plextor is a name we have all come to know and trust as far as the best you can buy. Of course Plextor products do come at a price, but perhaps that's of no concern when you have the ultimate guarantee of getting the best there is. Having a Plextor product is a sign of prestige. Burners, software packages, or even what we have on the bench today, a digital video converter, the edge that Plextor products have and have always had, is that they never fail to deliver exactly what you buy them for. For some that can be a hard concept, but from our experience, we have never had a single Frisbee from a single one of our previous Plextor reviews. Today at ClubOC we will push our CD and DVD burners to the side and focus on the digital video converter offerings from this fabulous company."

 Native Command Queuing [NCQ] Technology Explained @ CoolTechZone:

"Hard drives are the most mechanically-driven data-devices in a computer system. Due to this, hard drives are quite inefficient and are the usually culprits for keeping your system from its true potential. Obviously, mechanical devices are significantly slower than their electronic counterparts, and thus, one can only wait for the first fully electronic hard drive."

 HIS 9550 VIVO Review @ GruntvillE.com:

"Built upon the 9500 VPU, this card should also be quite able to handle those late night jaunts into the gaming world. If you're tight on money or just can't justify spending a months car payment on the latest and greatest for a little extra eye candy then you're reading the right review. At just over one hundred dollars this little DX9 capable beauty just may be what you're looking for."

 Evercool PC Air Conditioner Review @ HardwareZoom:

"The PCAC itself is mostly made from plastic, except for the motor and the fins which are metal. Next to the motor, there is a small PCB board which is most likely for routing the power as there is a capacitor and two 3-pin power headers, one wired to the turbine motor while the other is for plugging in the 3-pin power cable. There is also a metal knob at the side to adjust the fan speed. The fin blades of the blower seems to be made of aluminium and are curved to help "catch" the air better."

That should keep you occupied for a while.  If it doesn't be sure to come back a little later, I'm sure we'll have some more of the good stuff for you...