Tom's Hardware have published a massive 11-Way P45 motherboard shootout. When Intel released its mainstream P45, the biggest news was that it supported PCI Express 2.0. Formerly available from Intel only on high-end X38 and X48 motherboards , many of us still failed to understand the significance of this bandwidth-doubling technology to current-generation hardware. After all, the first-generation x16 slots found on P35 Express motherboards are still fast enough for any graphics card, so why bother updating?
The Tech Report gets hands on with Acer's Aspire One netbook. Perhaps because netbooks are generally seen as accessories to a primary computer, Acer has designed the One with an aesthetic flair that is second only to the HP Mini-Note 2133. A pearl white finish with black trim and metallic orange hinge accents delivers more visual impact than the Eee. Discussion on the forum.
Canon have announced the introduction of the Canon EOS 50D. The replacement for the prosumer 40D, with a 15.1 Megapixel APS-C size sensor, ISO 100-3200 (expandable to 12800) and 6.3fps continuous shooting with a max. burst of 90 JPEGs with UDMA cards. Discussion on the forum.
TweakTown get busy with Western Digital's VelociRaptor. The Western Digital VelociRaptor is more than just a platter upgrade. The new controller takes advantage of Native Command Queuing and also reduces access time even more. Chris tests three generations of Raptors including the latest VelociRaptor in both single and RAID 0 modes.
HardwareZone preview Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 and Y530 netbooks. Some of you may have already seen Lenovo's latest netbook in action online since it's unveiling in Taiwan, but because the people over at Lenovo are really nice folks and we asked really nicely, we now have an engineering prototype to play with and for you to get a quick look at before the actual launch in September.
Meanwhile, Hot Hardware review Lenovo's ThinkPad X200 Ultraportable Notebook. The X200 is not as stylishly thin or technologically advanced as the X300 and its missing a few of the X300's novel features like an ultra compact optical drive. However the X200 still has plenty going for it, not the least of which is twice the processing power and half the price, compared to the X300. With a compact 12.1" chassis, full-power Core 2 Duo processor and ThinkPad durability.
Extreme Tech compared performance between 2GB and 4GB memory configurations. This article sets out to try to answer all kinds of memory questions herein. Using nearly identical motherboards to test both DDR2 and DDR3, we ran all kinds of performance tests, subjective and repeatable, synthetic and real-world.
Ever wondered where cell phones go to die? Technology Review has a photo essay on the process. If you've recently replaced your cell phone, you're not alone. More than half a billion cell phones were swapped for newer models in 2007, according to a study by the research firm Gartner.
Girls, girls and more girls! TechPowerUp have over 240 photos of girls from the recent Games Convention 2008. Not much to be said really... ;-D
AirQ reminded us that Photosynth has been released for free. The company demonstrated Photosynth, software that arranges photo sets in their real-world, 3-D context and allows people to navigate smoothly around the canals of Venice, for example, or zoom in to read the serial numbers on the space shuttle's heat shields. Check it out here, discussion here.
Microsoft apparently hired Jerry Seinfeld recently, to promote Windows Vista. More info here. Seinfeld will reportedly receive some US$10 million for his role in the curiously titled "Windows, Not Walls" campaign.
TGDaily have more info about NVIDIA's GPU problems which may be more widespread than originally thought. According to our sources, the failures are caused by a solder bump that connects the I/O termination of the silicon chip to the pad on the substrate. In Nvidia’s GPUs, this solder bump is created using high-lead. A thermal mismatch between the chip and the substrate has substantially grown in recent chip generations, apparently leading to fatigue cracking. Discussion here.
Tweaktown have a suitcase PC DIY guide. Up on the bench today we have a special DIY workshop tutorial in building your own LAN party case on a budget. We take an ordinary cheap flight case and mount a full PC inside so you can truck it to and from the party with ease.
PCPerspective keep on reporting live from NVISION 08, while HotHardware cover Jen-Hsun Huang's keynote. A few months ago, NVIDIA first told us about their plans to organize a massive event called NVISION that focused on all things in the visual computing field. NVIDIA planned to take over a number of major venues in downtown San Jose, including the convention center and a number of adjacent hotels, and invite experts and celebrities from the high-performance computing, gaming, video, movies, and graphics fields, to participate. Tech-Report have their coverage posted too, as do Modders-Inc.
VUNet report on a traceless browsing mode for IE8. Many industry pundits have been quick to point out the most obvious use of the feature, nicknaming it "porn mode," in reference to the ability to view adult sites without leaving a trail for employers or family members to follow.
PCPerspective, have Nehalem microarchitecture details, while HWSecrets look in detail at QuickPath Interconnect. QuickPath Interconnect is the name of the external bus used by the Intel forthcoming CPUs with integrated memory controller, like the Core i7. In this tutorial we will explain how this bus works.
The industry crunch claims another scalp, with long-term OCAU sponsor SecretNet ceasing trading. Things have been increasingly difficult the last two years for SecretNet. We have watched a large number of competitors, both friendly and hostile, strain and collapse. We've even seen some of our own distributors collapse under the changing marketplace that has now faced the industry.
I've actually known Andypoo and SecretNet since before OCAU began, and of course Andypoo is an OCAU admin and has appeared on our podcast several times. SecretNet's focus has always been on customer service. They carved out a little niche of their own with their amazingly automated website, system builder function and family-service feel. SecretNet customers tended to be extremely loyal and it was obvious why. It's a real shame to see them go but I completely understand and support their decision. Andypoo of course already has plenty to keep him occupied, now living in Estonia, and our best wishes go to the rest of the staff.
The Nigerian high commissioner has apparently suggested that Australians ripped off by scams are as guilty as the fraudsters. He said media coverage of fraudulent activity stemming from Nigeria had given the country "a bad image" and "those who want to transact business with us are always very suspicious". Discussion here.
Gary spotted some handy tips for optimising Photoshop CS3 performance. Some obvious ones, some less so. If there is a damaged font on your system and you have WYSIWYG font preview turned on, your computer can slow significantly. If you turn off font preview and your computer performance improves significantly, test for a damaged font.
Mpot noticed this cool video about using Wiimotes to make an interactive multi-touch whiteboard. Also the 3D head-tracking we saw a while ago.
Digit-Kife ponder the NVIDIA nForce 700a and GeForce 8000 Chipsets. The idea to integrate a graphics core into all chipsets looks quite natural for NVIDIA, which strategical task has always been to promote its own graphics solutions in its chipsets.
HWSecrets want to tell us about wireless USB. Wireless USB (WUSB) products are finally arriving at the market and in this article you will learn more about this technology and see some usage examples.
Wired report on Olympic gadgets, thanks AirQ. Nike's MaxSight contact lenses filter out reflections caused by the sun and enhance contrast -- details appear a bit clearer and colors pop more.
From mshagg: Not sure if you guys are aware of the newest thing in PC sim racing - iRacing. This is from the crew who made the Nascar 1/2/3/4/2002/03 series, GPL etc. A few of us on the forums have been driving for a few weeks, some of them months. Anyways it goes live to the public tomorrow morning, local time (there’s a countdown on the website). Up until now its been beta testers and invitations via their mailing list, so we all get to see how it does as a commercial product now.
SMH have an article on case modding, with a few big names mentioned from Australia and overseas. No mention of OCAU though, boo. ;) Anyway, discussion here in the Modding forum, naturally enough.
Lucid's HYDRA technology attracted a lot of interest at IDF, with people suggesting it could make ATI's Crossfire and NVIDIA's SLI obselete. Techgage checked it out, as did Tech Report. Their claims sounded odd and perhaps too good to be true. But not only were they were present on the show floor at IDF, they were showing a demo of working silicon. Remarkably enough, it appears they may just be on to something big.
NVIDIA have their own big event, NVISION 08. Techgage report on it, as do LegitReviews. NVISION 08 is a first-of-its-kind mega-event that has been designed to take attendees behind the scenes of the visual revolution.
Interesting Forum Threads
(2 Comments)
(link) Sunday, 24-August-2008 16:55:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Firstly a quick shout out to hardcore overclocker Youngpro who has been having some health issues recently. Get well soon mate and get back to pushing stuff to the limit! :)
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