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System Builder Marathon: Overclocking
 "After several days of system descriptions and basic testing, we reach the most anticipated portion of this month’s System Builder Marathon: the overclocking competition. All three of our new builds are purposely designed to offer the best overclocking performance for the dollar, which is almost certain to provide the biggest gains to the slowest processor. Yet excessive cooling provides a glimmer of hope for our most expensive system, and that’s where we’re starting this month." ~tomshardware.com
New AMD Phenoms up power efficiency
"AMD hasn't launched a new Phenom X4 processor since late last March, when the B3-based 2.5GHz Phenom 9850 hit the market. Today, the company is making up for lost time, debuting two new 65W energy-efficient Phenom X4s at 1.8GHz and 2GHz, while simultaneously releasing a new higher-end chip at 2.6GHz. This triple play is aimed at boosting the attractiveness of the company's quad-core products in the eyes of both consumers seeking energy-efficient parts and enthusiasts who want top performance from an AMD solution. Of the three chips launching today, we'll focus the majority of our attention on the new 2GHz Phenom, the 9350e. At $199, AMD's new 2GHz part isn't the company's cheapest quad-core, but the chip's 65W rated TDP is considerably lower than the X3 and X4 processors positioned at similar frequencies. The Phenom X3 8450 (2.1GHz), and Phenom X4 9550 (2.2GHz) are both 95W parts, which implies that we should see some excellent power consumption figures from the new CPU. The 2.6GHz Phenom X4 9950 does deserve a mention of its own; we'll discuss the processor briefly before moving on." ~arstechnica.com 12,000 Laptops Lost Weekly At US Airports
"It’s staggering to learn that up to 600,000 laptops are lost in U.S. airports annually, many containing sensitive information that companies must account for," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "IT departments must re-evaluate the steps they’re taking to protect mobile professionals, the laptops they carry, and company data stored on mobile devices." ~darkreading.com Apple wants Multi-Touch gesture language
"The new patent application from Cupertino, called “Gesture learning” gives a whole new meaning to gesture expansion. It describes how Apple may go about teaching you a whole new multi-touch gesture language, consisting of hundreds of words. Something like American Sign Language for touchscreens." ~unwiredview.com HIS HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Video Card
"The Radeon HD 4800 series video cards are currently available in three flavors; the 4850, 4870 and 4870 X2. The single GPU HIS HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Video Card is based on the RV770 core which is built on the 55 nanometer manufacturing process and has 956 million transistors. The core speed on this product is 750MHz and the 512MB of GDDR5 256 bit memory is 3.6GHz DDR. It comes with 800 stream processing units for vertex, pixel and geometry data, 40 texture units and 16 raster operators. The pixel fill rate is 27 GPixels/sec and the memory bandwidth is 115.2GB/s. If you've been waiting to purchase a high-end Video Card, it's arrived! This is the best performance vs. price video cards currently on the market, hands down! Watch the video to find out more." ~3dGameMan.com ECS Factory Tour
"That was quite a tour! I saw firsthand how a motherboard goes from raw material to a packaged product, with several eye opening steps in between. I never knew how many steps were involved in producing the actual PCB itself, and it was quite evident in the length of that part of the tour. The assembly part was also quite intriguing, with a single motherboard going from start to finish in a matter of minutes. I can see how ECS makes a claim of producing around 2 million boards a month with the number of assembly lines and people working each of them. The testing of each and every was what really impressed me. I was under the impression that only some of the boards would be randomly tested with the vast majority of them going straight into boxes. With ECS, not only is every board tested to ensure it works, but the company also goes ahead and stress tests random boards to verify strict quality control methods are being followed." ~overclockersclub.com Scythe Orochi CPU Cooler Review
"Is bigger better? Well that probably depends on what we are talking about. Right? Get your mind out of the gutter. Scythe sent us their new Orochi CPU cooler and they made no bones about hiding the bulge. This thing is huge, plain and simple. Scythe has manufactured some fantastic high performance coolers, as well as some respectable bang-for-buck quiet mid-range coolers. This time they set their sights on more size and less noise to try to get respectable performance out of the Orochi. They expect this cooler to be used as a passive cooler (fanless) or with a large nearly silent fan. So back to our original question: Is bigger better? Let's check out this monster and find out." ~hardwarelogic.com DFI Lanparty UT X48 T3R Preview
"Ninjalane has posted a preview article featuring the DFI Lanparty UT X48 DDR3 edition. This is a long awaited board, but what DFI board isn't?" ~ninjalane.com STALKER: Clear Sky Atmosphere Trailer
"A new trailer from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has been released, showcasing the official prequel to the survival FPS game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl due to hit the store shelves on August 29, 2008. Developed by GSC Game World, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a survival FPS game for PC based on a 'what-if' scenario of the second Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident. The story of the game brings the players one year prior to the events of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game in 2011. The protagonist is a mercenary who appeared at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions, Strelok and even the Zone itself. The main character will have to play the key role in the events, which led to creation of the Zone up to the point from which the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game begins." ~gamershell.com XtremeMac Tango X2
"ASUS finally antes up to the bang-for-the-buck table with a value-priced product in their Xonar family of performance audio cards. It's got a solid feature set, and debuts with ASUS' new DS3D GX 2.0 environmental DSP, but does it break new ground in the price/performance department?" ~techgage.com Sigma SP-700 700W Power Supply Review
"ThinkComputers liked Sigma's Shark 635W when we reviewed in in February. It was a decent, affordable unit with a unique exterior design. The quad 12V-railed, 700 watt SP-700 is Sigma's newest model, and it ditches most of the qualities which made the Shark so unique. Despite its exterior, the functionality of the unit is still pretty decent. Read on, through, and see where Sigma could improve the SP-700." ~thinkcomputers.org Microsoft Offers Office As $70 Subscription
"Consumers reluctant to pay $200 for Microsoft Office will have a new option starting later this month. The software giant plans in mid-July to offer subscriptions for the popular application bundle at $70 per year." ~allheadlinenews.com Mozilla sets official Guinness World Record
 "It’s official, open-source proponent Mozilla Corp. has succeeding in its efforts to drum up enough interest in its new Firefox 3 software to propel the Web browser into the hallowed pages of the Guinness Book of Records.
Prior to the official ‘Download Day’ release of Firefox 3 on June 17, Mountain View-based Mozilla Corp. had been gathering user pledges via its Web site in the hopes of securing a record-setting 8 million downloads of the software in its first 24 hours of availability. Thanks to the participation of Firefox devotees spread across 25 different countries, the number crunchers at Guinness have now confirmed that the Web browser was downloaded a total of 8,002,530 during its opening day, which duly sees Mozilla achieving its lofty aim -- although only just." ~thetechherald.com The $600 US stimulus check PC
"What happens when six hundred free greenbacks collides with an abundance of cheap hardware? You get Icrontic's $600 stimulus check PC. While you could busy your wallet with responsible tasks like bill paying or shed building, the dog days of summer call for reckless financial abandonment and an appreciation for the precipitous decline in the cost of swank components. Besides, it's what *The Man* wants you to do! Don't just do it for yourself, step up and do it for your *country*." ~icrontic.com Rainbow Six Vegas 2 v1.03 Patch(es)
"Ubisoft has issued the first patch for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, updating to v1.02 the PC version of the sixth iteration of the multimillion-selling Rainbow Six tactical shooter franchise. This update adds new Ranks, the High Stakes setting, a grenade indicator Icon, and more. Check full story for changelog." ~gamershell.com Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 v1.03 Patch (91.22MB) Managing Bookmarks in Firefox 3 With Tags
"Firefox 3 was recently released by Mozilla and they broke a world record in doing so for the most downloads in a 24 hour period. There is a reason the browser is so popular: it is flexible and well thought out. Out of the many new features available with the new version, one of them is the way it handles bookmarks. So, what’s new and what are my tips for using it?" ~pcmech.com Google Gears
"Now users who log in to their dashboards will notice a new button in the top right-hand corner called "turbo." Clicking it will make use of Google's Gears, offloading some of the data from the cloud into your browser cache. In this case, it's the latest 200 files from your WordPress media library, the same files you access to stick into blog posts." ~webware.com DirectX Versions
"DirectX is a programming interface that allows programs (like games) to talk with your PC hardware (like your video card). There are several DirectX versions available and in this short tutorial we will explain what the main differences between them are." ~hardwaresecrets.com PS3 2.40 firmware upgrade live
"The 2.40 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 is now available. The free update, which Sony has been talking up for the past several days, adds a smattering of new features, including in-game access to the XMB (Cross Media Bar) home screen, custom soundtracks, a new trophy system, and a shortcut to Google searches." ~tweaktown.com How To Replace Memory Heat Spreaders
"Welcome to another session of void-your-warranty, as today we will look at upgrading the stock heat spreaders on a pair of Kingston DDR2 memory modules. What we will do here is run through a step-by-step of removing the plain flat aluminum spreaders that come with most RAM modules and upgrading them with some Nexus HXR-550B Heat-Pipe memory coolers." ~tweaktown.com Does Your Browser Need an Expiration Date?
 "Over 600 million users are surfing the Web with a potentially unsafe browser, according to a Swiss study released this week. The solution? An "expiration date" for the software, the authors suggested.
The study, authored by ETH Zurich, Google, and IBM, examined the Google logs of users browsing the Web between January 2007 and June 2008, and tried to determine which users were using the most recent, patched version of their respective browsers. No personal information was collected, the study's authors said.
What they found was that most users – 52.4 percent – who surfed with Internet Explorer had failed to upgrade to IE7, considered by Microsoft to be the most secure version." ~pcmag.com
Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU Cooler Review
"Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU got a special treatment from the Intel thermal management department; a fancy large CPU cooler with 110cm LED fan and copper heat column. How does it compare to the other Intel reference coolers? Is it an alternative for 3rd party heatsinks, let us find out!" ~madshrimps.be Linspire will become part of Xandros
"According to announcements this morning, enterprise Linux distributor Xandros will purchase consumer Linux maker Linspire, in a move that had been rumored for several weeks with little details coming from either company. According to Xandros, the deal was officially signed on June 19, but it appears both companies tried to slip the announcement under the rug." ~betanews.com OCZ Tech. Introduces the Latest DDR3 Kits
"Sunnyvale, Calif.—July 2, 2008—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the expansion of its Intel® Extreme Memory modules lineup, the latest memory solution that implements a high-performance specification optimized and predefined for the Intel X38 and X48 chipsets. The new modules are rated at DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 and feature the all-new Intel branded black XTC heatspreader. With a long history of providing the most innovative products to the enthusiast community, OCZ is excited to take advantage of Intel’s interest and development of overclocking platforms with these latest additions to the series." ~ocztechnology.com AMD improves CPU market share
"If we believe the public statements of AMD executives, then the company’s market strategy has always been based on maintaining and growing market share at virtually any expense. So far, this game cost AMD more than $4.3 billion, but according to iSuppli, AMD may have reached a point where it may have stabilized its market share and could have a foundation for growth in the future. However, iSuppli’s numbers indicate that AMD is walking on very thin ice." ~tgdaily.com Symphonic Designs Tube Amplifier
"For the high end audio enthusiast the holy grail has always been vacuum tubes. Nothing else is capable of producing as clear or powerful sound. We take a look at the Symphonic Designs Vacuum Tube Amplifier which mates old with new in its design which integrates an iPod dock and even bluetooth. Do we like this "lifestyles of the rich and famous" priced amplifier? Or do we think it needs some more refinement. Read our review to find out." ~techwarelabs.com |
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