Asus makes big push into small form fact

ASUS IS MOVING into small form factor PCs in a big way. For the company, once known only as a motherboard manufacturer, it's part of a diversification strategy that helps Asus extend its reach into the consolidating - and increasingly competitive - market for PCs and related consumer electronics. Asus's barebone team, based at the company's headquarters in Taipei, has already developed a number of small PCs based around MicroATX motherboards, but recently turned out its first cube-shaped SFF PC, following a trail originally blazed by Shuttle Computer. The S-presso is immediately distinguishable from competitors by features like a moulded plastic case that give it a rounder, albeit slightly wider, shape than most other SFF PCs. The two models currently available both use the same motherboard, based around an Intel 865G/ICH5 integrated graphics chipset. The more feature laden S1-P111 includes a TV/FM Tuner card, and Linux-based instant-on software that can play DVD, CD, MP3 music or FM radio within a few seconds of power on. Read more

Posted: November. 29, 2004 @ 07:52AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Latest hardware reviews

PSU/Case: SunBeamTech Samurai Case NZXT Nemesis Elite Mid Tower Computer Case SilverStone SST-LC03 Logisys UV Blue Acrylic Case Cooling: 5.25" Drive Bay Kit-Multi-Function Hardcano 13 Thermaltake BigWater Watercooling Kit Thermalright SI-97 Memory: PQI PC4000-1024DBL TURBOmemory Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 Corsair TwinX1024-3200XL Memory

Posted: November. 29, 2004 @ 07:50AM GMT +10 by BenSW

AMD roadmap drops AthlonXP

AMD has updated its public roadmap. The biggest change: the death of its Athlon XP brand. AMD has fully committed itself to Sempron, and adds a couple of new 90nm processors to the line-up. Indeed, there's a clear shift toward 90nm over 130nm across the roadmap. Previous roadmaps have continues to list Athlon XP parts running right out into H2 2005, albeit with the company's "as market requires" caveat. As far as the XP line goes, the market clearly doesn't require it, and AMD has dropped all references to the brand, even though the latest roadmap goes no further into the future than the previous one. Instead, the roadmap shows a renewed focus on Sempron. Having shipped its 90nm Low Voltage Mobile Sempron, aka 'Sonora', it disappears from the H1 2005 column, to be replaced in H2 2005 by a new addition to the roadmap, 'Roma', simply described as a 90nm LV part. Read more

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 11:08AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Half-Life 2 smashes PC game sales record

Highly anticipated PC game Half-Life 2 has broken Australian sales records. The game has sold more than 20,000 copies since going on sale on 17 November, according to Vivendi Universal Games. Previously, Electronic Arts held the top spot with Sims 2. Half-Life 2 broke the old record by 50 percent. Vivendi Universal Games managing director Pascal Broshier said: "Half-Life 2's ground breaking technology and immersive gameplay mark a new era in PC gaming and we are proud to be a part of it." The 20,000 figure does not include copies purchased via 'Steam'. The new online delivery system is believed to account for an even larger number of purchased copies. Steam is administered by the game's developer Valve. Source: ITNews Australia

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 08:33AM GMT +10 by erock

ATI Tray Tools 1.0.1.410

Ray Adams has released a new version of his tweaker for Radeon cards: ATI Tray Tools 1.0.1.410! Heres whats improved: # Improved TV/Display support. A lot of bugs fixed. # Added support for Radeon X850 Series # Added Support for Enable/Disable Extended Desktop. Also added hot key for this operation. # Added Screenshots system. Look for options in "General Options" dialog box. Added Hotkeys for Screenshots. # Added new Apply 3D setting mode. You can switch it off in Options dialog box if its doesn't work for you. New method will be applied only if your device supports this method. ATT can automatically detect if your card doesn't supported and switch back to old method even if you enable new method in Options dialog box. # Audio options moved to "General Options" dialog box # Fixed some bugs in installation procedure. # Fixed bug with Hot Key editor. You can download this program here

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 07:43AM GMT +10 by BenSW

ATI Smiling as 9800 Topples GF 4 MX

It seems that after a very long delay, ATI is now beginning to reap the rewards of its very expensive deal with Valve. Statistics coming back from Steam users, following the release of Half-Life 2, indicate some good news for the Canadian graphics giant. For over a year now the company stood to one side as Valve's troubles adversly effected the company's planning but ATI knew that if it remained patient it would eventually benefit from its choice to partner with Valve. According to figures released by Valve regarding the hardware profiles of Steam users, for the first time in recorder history the mighty GeForce 4 MX has been toppled from the top. The new King of Steam is ATIs 9800 series board which, surprisingly, even beats the 9600 series, a cheaper DirectX 9 card. This change in leadership was observed immediately following H-L 2s release in The U.S. and in the rest of the world. The leading quartet of boards is made up of two card from each manufacturer as the GeForce4 MX is still hanging to 2nd place, with the Radeon 9600 in 3rd and the GF 4 trailing in 4th place. The Steam figures are a testament to the excessive pricing by both manufacturers in their war for the speed crown, since their flagship boards, the 6800 Ultra and the XT800 XT PE both have a ludicrous 0.31 per cent share of Steam gamers. Other graphics setups worthy of a mention are Intel's 810 with 0.47 per cent and nVidia's TNT2 which still hangs on to a 1.38 per cent share. So Steam is also useful for collecting user hardware information, we are certain however that Valve asks for permission before collecting user information. Source: www.Megagames.com

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 07:37AM GMT +10 by BenSW

950W PS Units Sneak into Market

A Japan-based company has started to sell its power supply units with maximum output of up to 950W, which is the world’s highest performance for desktops. As modern central processing units and graphics cards continue to devour more and more power, high-end personal computer’s PSU requirements will continue to increase and such PSUs are likely to gain popularity. SNE, a Japanese maker of various hardware aimed at enthusiasts and overclockers, recently started to sell its 950W, 900W and 850W power supply units, claiming the world’s record PSUs. The devices, however, can draw peak wattage only in extreme cases. In typical cases the power of the PSUs is 750W, 700W and 650W respectively, which is still among the world’s top power supply units. PSUs from SNE can power typical ATX as well as EPS12V systems, which means that the devices can be used for both desktop and workstation/server computers. The power supplies are equipped with 5 connectors for Serial ATA, 4 connectors for mini-Molex and 4 connectors for Molex plugs. The top, 950W (model FSRP950LGA), PSU can draw 34A on 3.3V and 5V connectors and from 14A to 18A on various 12V connectors, which is not higher compared to top offerings from companies like Antec. This may mean that the PSUs from SNE are designed for server and workstation platforms that require extreme wattage to feed multiple hard disk drives and microprocessors, rather than ability draw extreme current on high-speed components, such as top graphics cards or latest processors. Read more

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 07:23AM GMT +10 by BenSW

South Korea bans Ghost Recon 2

Citing a plotline that goes "way too far", South Korea's Media Rating Board has rejected approval of Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2, according to American military newspaper Stars and Stripes. This (obviously) forced the game's Korean publisher to abandon its plans for a localization of the squad-based shooter. While disappointing, it is unsurprising that Ghost Recon 2 would rile South Korean censors. Its near-future storyline is set in the year 2007 on the PlayStation 2 and 2011 on the Xbox, and features commando missions into a conflict-wracked North Korea. Mass warfare on the Korean peninsula is a touchy subject, since North Korea is still technically at war with South Korea. That nation's capital, Seoul, has an estimated 11,000 artillery pieces aimed at it by its northern neighbor, whose Stalinist dictator, Kim Jong Il, has said he could turn the city into a "sea of fire" any time he wanted. It also won't be much of a shock that Ghost Recon 2 is not popular with the North Korean government either. A preview of the game at this year's E3 prompted one North Korean newspaper to write some choice words: "Through propaganda, entertainment and movies, [Americans] have shown everyone their hatred for us. This may be just a game to them now, but a war will not be a game for them later. In war, they will only face miserable defeat and gruesome deaths." Read more

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 07:10AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Q&A Updated

HCGamer has caught up with Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines for a quick chat regarding their upcoming RPG, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. They cover everything from combat to the engine. Snip: HCG: Are there going to be any combos during combat? If yes, how effective are they going to be? Could you make an example? PH: This time we've realized how much combat people really do in a game like this and made it more of a priority for us to get right. We did three whole new combat systems before settling on the one that's in the game now. We really are striving to get the kinetic energy of guys bashing each other with swords down, and do it right, because no one has yet. So it plays better, and it looks better. You're in control of it more. There are special moves you can perform and the blocking is active. So the timing of it becomes a key strategy in fighting. It's also bloody. Not from a standpoint of we want lots of gore, but I think when you really smack someone with a sword you expect a certain level of blood to come spewing out. Read the rest here

Posted: November. 28, 2004 @ 07:05AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Nvidia and ATI cards working together

THE DAY HAS come and we are happy to say that we saw ATI and Nvidia card working together in Nvidia own SLI setup. We have to thank our friend Lars Borsti from Pabster place who informed us that he made such a thing works. He plugged Geforce 6800 Ultra in first SLI graphic slot and X800XT card in second PCIe graphic slot and was able to run 3Dmark on both cards. Don't get too excited as cards where not working in SLI but you can chose to work with either 6800 Ultra or X800XT PCIe card. Still they are plugged at the same Asus SLI setup. As Lars suggested this is ultimate and answer on what to use Nvidia or ATI. We can agree that you can use it both. It will cost you a fortune but you will be able to run Half life 2 and Far Cry on ATI and Doom 3 on Nvidia and have Shaders 2.0b or 3.0 whatever your heart wants. Source: Theinquirer.net

Posted: November. 26, 2004 @ 08:45AM GMT +10 by BenSW

ATI rolls out X300, X800 mobile GPUs

ATI has extended its PCI Express-based mobile graphics processor line-up further upmarket and downward with the addition of high- and low-end chips to its Mobility Radeon X series. The X800 tops off the range, providing 12 pixel processing pipelines and six vertex shaders. The part is fabbed at 130nm using low-k dielectric insulation. It provides a 256-bit memory interface supporting up to 256MB of G-DDR 3 SDRAM. Unlike the Mobility X300 and previously released Mobility X600, the X800 is based on ATI's most up-to-date Radeon architecture and is equipped the HD versions of ATI's SmartShader, VideoShader and SmoothVision technologies. In that sense it has more in common with the Mobility Radeon 9800 that the other X-class GPUs - what defines the latter is PCI-E support rather than latest-generation technology. Read more

Posted: November. 25, 2004 @ 10:16AM GMT +10 by BenSW

AMD ships Mobile Sempron 3000+

AMD today extended its Sempron budget CPU family, adding a part rated at 3000+ to its thin'n'light-oriented Mobile line-up. Clocked at 1.8GHz, the new part contains just 128KB of L2 cache, paving the way for a 256KB L2 3200+ in the not-too-distant future. Like other Mobile Semprons for slimline notebooks, the 3000+ sports a 754-pin interface and incorporates its own Northbridge. Click Here The 90nm chip offers 3D Now! and SSE 2 support, and can work with Windows XP Service Pack 2's 'no execute' anti-virus system, which guards against memory buffer overrun attacks. AMD announced that PC makers Packard-Bell and Gericom had committed to ship notebooks based on the new chip in Europe, with an introduction "expected... in time for the holiday shopping season", AND said. The Mobile Sempron 3000+ is available in volume now. AMD did not provide a price

Posted: November. 25, 2004 @ 09:30AM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Latest Video Card Reviews

Asus Radeon X600 XT review by PCStats Albatron Trinity GeForcePCX 5750 PCIe review by TweakNews nVidia GeForce 6600 GT AGP review by Bit-Tech XFX GeForce 6800 GT PCIe review by GamePC Gigabyte Radeon X800 Pro review by InsaneTek GeForce 6600 GT vs Radeon X700 XT by LegionHardware Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT review by TeamHardware ATI Radeon X600 XT roundup by TweakTown MSI Radeon X800 XT review by Viperlair

Posted: November. 25, 2004 @ 08:04AM GMT +10 by erock

Java flaw could lead to Windows...

"A flaw in Sun Microsystems's plug-in for running Java on a variety of browsers and operating systems could allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows and Linux PCs. Security information provider Secunia posted information about the flaw that rated it a "highly critical" threat. The Java plug-in enables small Web programs, known as applets, to run safely on a user's computer. But the security flaw allows a malicious Web site accessed through a victim's browser to bypass those protections." Full story

Posted: November. 25, 2004 @ 02:38AM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer

AMD puts dual roadmap in place

CHIP FIRM AMD put a fresh revision of its server, desktop and notebook roadmap on its site, confirming our earlier stories that the current 130 nano Opterons will soon become dust. At the same time, it gave more details of its dual core plans. AMD has started producing 90 nanometre versions of its 800, 200 and 100 series codenamed Athens, Troy and Venus. The Athlon MP is practically unobtainable now, and will exist for as long "as the market requires". In the first half of next year, AMD will shift its FX and A64 chips to the San Diego, Venice and Palermo 90 nanometre SOI chips, displacing existing .13µ (micron) processors. Read more

Posted: November. 24, 2004 @ 08:17PM GMT +10 by BenSW

Valve shuts down 20,000 Steam accounts

VALVE SOFTWARE has disabled the Steam accounts of 20,000 people it has said were attempting to use pirated copies of Half-Life 2. In a statement released to Shacknews, Valve said that reasons for closing the accounts included credit card fraud, theft of other people's accounts and using cracked versions of Valve games. All these nefarious means, the Seattle-based company said, contradicted the Steam Subscriber agreement that players must sign up for. Read more

Posted: November. 24, 2004 @ 08:15PM GMT +10 by BenSW

iPrimus rolls out 2Mbit+ ADSL

iPrimus has begun utilising more of the ADSL1 specification by announcing two new 2Mbit+ ADSL plans. Available only within 1.5km of an iPrimus enabled exchange, the plans have a minimum speed of 2048/384 but could potentially go up to 6144Kbps depending on line conditions. Source: Whirlpool

Posted: November. 23, 2004 @ 06:14PM GMT +10 by Cyclone

smoothwall.org Hacked

smoothwall.org, The site of a cut-down linux distro designed for firewalls, was hacked yesterday. For those who want to see, go to www.smoothwall.org Source: Whirlpool Forums

Posted: November. 23, 2004 @ 06:13PM GMT +10 by Cyclone

Sims 2 University Expansion Pack

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA’s Maxis™ Studio is developing The Sims™ 2 University, the first expansion pack for the highly-acclaimed The Sims 2 PC game. The Sims 2 University will ship this March and gives players of The Sims 2 the ability to watch their Sims become young adults and put childhood behind them as they settle into an all-new college town to live out their ultimate college fantasy. Sinjin Bain, Executive Producer and Maxis Vice President, highlights the company’s commitment to its loyal following, “We are thrilled toup a whole new stage of life for the Sims, allowing players to lead them through all the challenges of college and living the exciting university lifestyle of the dorms, parties and exams. This title is also the first in a line of expansion packs that will address our players’ desires, further develop The Sims 2 franchise and continually expand the world of the Sims creating almost endless gameplay and storytelling possibilities." Click here to see a few screenshots from the new expansion.

Posted: November. 23, 2004 @ 12:06PM GMT +10 by BenSW

Half Life 2 with Athlon XP

Wondering how Half life 2 will run on your lower end athlon xp system? Well heres a performance review of Half life 2, benchmarking the game on systems from the latest FX-55 down to the AthlonXP 2100+. Check it out here. Enjoy.

Posted: November. 23, 2004 @ 11:51AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Latest hardware reviews

Here are a few of the latest hardware reviews. Enjoy! ASrock K8Upgrade-1689 Intel's 925XE chipset with P4 Prescott Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25PT DDR RAM Mushkin Dual Chan 1GB CL4 PC2-4200 DDR2 ATI Radeon X600XT shootout (HIS vs. Abit vs. GeCube) Altec Lansing AHP712 Headphones Fujitsu MAU3147 15k SCSI Hard Drive Logitech MX1000 Mouse

Posted: November. 23, 2004 @ 11:47AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Nvidia may have Intel Pentium 4 licence

THE AGREEMENT between Nvidia and Intel to sign a "broad" cross licensing agreement is generating a whirlwind of rumours about the deal, largely because neither company will elaborate on the sparse two or three lines in the joint press release they issued last week. There's no-one more paranoid in the IT industry than chip companies, and when we asked Nvidia to comment on whether it would pay Intel a Pentium 4 licence fee, the firm's response was along the following bottom-clenching lines:"Unfortunately, we are not disclosing specifics of any particulars of the cross license or FSB license agreement. We are also not disclosing product details at this time. We will do that in the future." Read more

Posted: November. 22, 2004 @ 10:25AM GMT +10 by Tokemon

More Doom III expansion details

The new December 2004 dated issue of Computer Gaming World magazine is now out in stores and has some of the first details and screenshots about Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, the upcoming expansion pack to id Software's first person shooter remake. Developed by Nerve Software, the new expansion is set to have 11 levels, four new monsters, three new weapons (including the classic Doom II weapon the double barrel shotgun and a new Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun type of device called the Grabber) and the return of the enviromental suit from previous Doom games that allows you to go through contaminated areas unharmed for a brief period of time. The game will also contain four new multiplayer maps with support for up to eight players this time. The article also contains some plotlines for the expansion that we won't spoil here. Source: HomeLANFed.com

Posted: November. 21, 2004 @ 01:31PM GMT +10 by BenSW

Dell goes hot

Seems like our boys over at Dell had some heating problems. Which has been known here at Ausfx.com for a long time, well not the newest members, but those who are hardcores now, have definitly heard this. But now it seems that some units designed for office usage has a design problem... They overheat. Dell has sent their "Tiger team" down to the affected area, Taiwan to deal with this problem. But nevertheless, it will not be good PR. More info here: Digitimes.com article

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 10:14PM GMT +10 by Sweeper

Give me a 1Gbps Internet Connection

HKBN Launches Hong Kong's First 100Mbps and World's First 1Gbps Residential Broadband Services... HONG KONG, Nov. 16 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (''HKBN''), a wholly owned subsidiary of City Telecom (H.K.) Limited (Nasdaq: CTEL; Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 1137.HK), is pleased to announce the launch of their symmetric 100Mbps and 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) residential broadband services, branded ''BB100'' and ''BB1000,'' respectively. We believe that BB100 is Hong Kong's first and BB1000 will be the world's first residential broadband service at such high speeds. These service offerings push Hong Kong's broadband market to a new technology pinnacle. BB100 Symmetrical 100Mbps Service for HK$268/month (US$35/month) We believe HKBN is the first operator in Hong Kong to release BB100 Internet access service providing up to 100 Mbps for both upstream and downstream bandwidth. While being 16 to 155 times faster than the most popular ADSL service currently offered in Hong Kong, HKBN intends to capture all market segments by charging only HK$268/month (US$35/month) for unlimited 100Mbps local and 20Mbps international access. In addition, for the extreme bandwidth users, HKBN will offer a BB100 unlimited option with 100 Mbps local and international access for HK$1,980/month (US$254/month). BB1000 1,000 Mbps Service by Second Quarter 2005 Read full article here

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 03:42PM GMT +10 by erock

Thursday Afternoon Roundup

Check out these articles Next gen AMD Opterons to have 1207 pins Processor Technology Scaling Issues GeForce 6600GT AGP Preview at Hardware Analysis 67.02 Beta Drivers Released How To Build Home Theater PC Gates announces new Windows update tool GeForce 6600 GT Press Release from NVIDIA HardOCP Benchmark Demo For Half-Life 2 Longhorn to be 64Bit only, no 32Bit

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 03:40PM GMT +10 by erock

HL2 Benchmark Guide

Need to know how to benchmark HL2? Check out the following guides @ Hard|OCP & Tech Lounge

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 03:26PM GMT +10 by erock

3DMark03 Patch

A new patch for 3DMark03 has been released: What's New? - Patch changes the program's build number to 3.5.0; - Benchmark scores do not change between the build 3.5.0 and build 3.4.0; - Updated System Info module with support for the latest CPU and graphics hardware; - Updated version of the Entech library, which is used to detect the clock frequency of the graphics chip core and memory; - Fixed all reported & reproduced bugs Download from here

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 03:24PM GMT +10 by erock

Half life 2 benchmarks revealed!

After over a year of waiting, half life 2 was finally released at midnight yesterday, countless gamers have started playing and the buzz (unlike DOOM 3) has been pretty much unanimous: Half-Life 2 is a winner! Over the past 24 hours, we’ve been busy “working” on Half-Life 2, with the goal to determine which graphics cards run best with Valve’s latest shooter. We’re here today to present our preliminary results. Read the full performance review here Source: FiringSquad.com

Posted: November. 18, 2004 @ 08:36AM GMT +10 by BenSW

CherryOS

MXS — a software development company that specializes in video streaming, custom applications and web development — announced the immediate availability of CherryOS software. The announcement signaled a breakthrough in emulation development by providing a software emulator which allows Windows PC users to run Apple’s OS on x86 computer architecture, while preserving network capabilities and access to the host computer’s hardware resources. Trail downloads are scheduled to be on November 25. Source: CherryOS

Posted: November. 17, 2004 @ 02:09PM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer

Half Life 2 is OUT!!!

Yes, you heard right, if you have purchased it over steam or have an ATI/HL2 voucher, you can begin unlocking the game and start playing, great work Valve, it's about time ;)

Posted: November. 16, 2004 @ 06:23PM GMT +10 by Cyclone

Intel Pentium 4 3.8ghz reviews

Here are a few reviews of Intels latest offering, the Pentium 4 570J 3.8GHz LGA775 CPU. THE PENTIUM 4 3.8GHz PROCESSOR should be nothing more than 200MHz speed bump for the Pentium 4, a minor waystation on the road to the 4GHz milestone, but things haven't turned out as Intel had planned. With the cancellation of the 4GHz Pentium 4, this processor represents a sort of high-water mark for the Pentium 4's speed-demon approach to performance. This may be the highest clock speed we see on any Pentium 4 processor for months, and it finally gives Intel a direct competitor to the faster grades of the Athlon 64, the 3800+ and 4000+. The P4 570J also threatens to show up the P4 Extreme Edition 3.46GHz, Intel's new uber-flagship part whose performance was a bit of a disappointment, even with a new 1066MHz bus. Beyond that, the new Pentium 4 570J processor does offer a little more than just another 200MHz, as that J lurking at the end of its model number suggests. Chipmakers often slipstream minor revisions of their chips into production over time, and this new stepping "E" of the P4 "Prescott" core packs two such enhancements. Read the full for this new cpu at any of these sites below: ExtremeTech.com review Firing Squad Review Hexus.net Review TechReport Review

Posted: November. 16, 2004 @ 09:53AM GMT +10 by BenSW

ATI Optimized driver 1.7

4 hours before Valve unlocks one of the most anticipated games ever, TechConnect hooks you up with two new sets of ATI drivers that meant to boost Half-Life 2 & Counter-Strike source performance by about 5-20% and ofcourse it also improvesL for old and new games by about 20%. We have created two different versions to suit the different type of cards, but we recommend everybody to use the Ultra version unless you don't have a chipset that supports this driver. In that case you may download the Lite edition... TC ATI Optimized Driver v1.7 Ultra Supports:9500,9550,9600,9700,9800,X300,X600,X700,X800 * Based on Catalyst 4.12 beta * Optimized for Half-Life 2 * TwoL drivers for your selection Download: ATI Optimized driver 1.7 - Ultra TC ATI Optimized Driver v1.7 Lite Supports: All Radeon cards, use it if your card is not listed in the Ultra support list above * Based on offical Catalyst 4.11 * Optimized for Half-Life 2 * TwoL drivers for your selection Download: ATI Optimized driver 1.7 - Lite

Posted: November. 16, 2004 @ 09:45AM GMT +10 by BenSW

45 New Bios Updates

TechConnect Magazine have done their best to provide us with all the latest BIOS updates available. Heres what they have in store: ASUS has 15 bios updates, ABIT has 12 bios updates, Ahas 5 bios updates, ECS/ELITEGROUP has 4 updates, SOLTEK has 4 updates and IWLL has 5 bios updates Thanks TCMagazine View the list of Bios updates here

Posted: November. 16, 2004 @ 09:36AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Interesting Newsbits

Nvidia already shipping A02 and A03 versions of nForce4 ATI, ULI gang up on Nvidia, Via AMD64 joint push ATI R480: Launch date is certain PCI Express Reference Guide Virtual Memory Optimization Guide Rev. 4.0 Part 4! Intel East Fork: Centrino-like Desktop Platform

Posted: November. 15, 2004 @ 07:13PM GMT +10 by erock

The Final Hours of Half-Life 2

Gabe Newell is about to make a promise. It's 11am on an overcast morning in Bellevue, Washington, and Newell, the impresario behind Valve, lumbers into the company's starkly decorated 10th-floor conference room. He pulls out an Aeron chair, plops himself down, and runs his stubby hands through his reddish-brown hair. "OK," he says, taking a deep breath. "During any project there comes a time to draw a line in the sand and put a stick in the ground and say, 'This is it. We're ready,'" he says. "That moment, I'm happy to say, is right now. We finally know when this game is going to be done." The game he's referring to is Half-Life 2, the sequel to Half-Life, one of the best-selling PC first-person shooters of all time. For years gamers have impatiently waited for definitive news on the sequel. Now Gabe is ready to announce a release date. As Newell talks about the game's imminent completion he speaks with such conviction that you half expect him to give you the exact minute and second the game will be released. He sounds that sure of himself. Read More Source:Neowin

Posted: November. 14, 2004 @ 08:56PM GMT +10 by S.T.x

Drivers: Catalyst Driver Comparison @ Ra

ATi releases almost every month a new version of their Catalyst drivers. Often they fix bugs and improve the compability and sometimes they also increase the performance in different applications. In this comparison we don't want to test the improvements in games or bug fixes, but the increases in speed with the newer versions. Beyond that we also tested the modded drivers Omega, DNA, and Evolution. Drivers tested: # Catalyst 4.11 # Catalyst 4.11b / Omega 2.5.9.0 / DNA 3.1.4.10b / DNA 3.1.4.10 # Catalyst 4.10 / Evolution 1.0 # Catalyst 4.9 / Omega 2.5.7.6 / DNA 3.0.4.9 # Catalyst 4.8 / Omega 2.5.6.7a / DNA 2.8.4.8a Here Source:Warp2search

Posted: November. 14, 2004 @ 08:48PM GMT +10 by S.T.x

Alienware Announces the Ultimate Half-Li

Half Life 2 is nearly here and Alienware have announced a killer system for your HL2 gaming pleasure. Check it out here "The Aurora City 17 includes the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor offering unprecedented performance for an extraordinary level of realism and awesome 3D graphics. When it came to deciding the choice of video subsystem, Valve specified the high performance graphics of the same ATI Radeon X800XT graphics platform. Rounding out the specifications of the limited edition system, Valve insisted on a capacious 2GB of system RAM and dual 10,000RPM SATA Raptor hard drives ensure the fastest loading times." Source:Warp2search

Posted: November. 14, 2004 @ 08:47PM GMT +10 by S.T.x

Latest Antivirus and Spyware Roundup

Its time to update your computer with the latest reference files and or other security tools. Does your computer act strange? Then it could be spyware and all the other nasty software floating arround the internet. We have a list with the latest updates and tools for the maximum security against virusses, spyware, spam and more. Go Here! Source:Warp2search

Posted: November. 14, 2004 @ 08:44PM GMT +10 by S.T.x

Microsoft uses Pirated Sound Forge

Someone has just discovered that Microsoft has been getting dirty and hardc0re. I got a kick out of it and I think anyone here who reads this will get a kick out of it too: Today I started using a library for inputting/outputting to sound files (wav, aiff, whatever). There's a test program that comes with the library to query files. To see if I had compiled everything OK I decided to check it out. I searched for .wav files on my hard drive. First thing I came across was the the Windows Tour files (which ship with Windows XP). Here's what the utility outputted. === File : c:WINDOWSHelpToursWindowsMediaPlayerAudioWavWMPAUD1.WAV Length : 354468 RIFF : 354460 WAVE fmt : 50 Format : 0x2 => WAVE_FORMAT_MS_ADPCM Channels : 2 Sample Rate : 22050 Block Align : 1024 Bit Width : 4 Bytes/sec : 22311 Extra Bytes : 32 Samples/Block : 1012 No. of Coeffs : 7 Index Coeffs1 Coeffs2 0 256 0 2 0 0 3 192 64 4 240 0 fact : 4 frames : 349439 data : 354304 LIST : 66 INFO ICRD : IENG : Deepz0ne ISFT : Sound Forge 4.5 End bpred idelta (1, 1) (16, 16) ---------------------------------------- Sample Rate : 22050 Frames : 350152 Channels : 2 Format : 0x00010013 Sections : 1 Seekable : TRUE Duration : 00:00:15.879 Signal Max : dB) Sound Forge saves the name of the registered user to the IENG ('Engineer') field, which means ... Microsoft used Radium's distro of Sound Forge 4.5!!! And shipped the proof with Windows XP =) (in all seriousness, they probably contracted the work out to a studio who used it, but still ...)" Check it out for yourself and see if it's true. Take a look at the file he checked in the Windows Tour files - "C:\WINDOWS\Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\" Navigate to the above location and use toepad toany one of the WAV files in the folder and scroll to the bottom and you can see deepzone's name all the way at the bottom!!!!!! Source:www.warp2search.net

Posted: November. 14, 2004 @ 08:40PM GMT +10 by S.T.x

ATI Hypermemory New Chipset Details

Just as ATI was announcing the availability of its new chipset family for AMD 64 desktop platforms, the Radeon XPress 200, another more important ATI innovation is being prepared for its market debut. ATI is reported to be experiencing some problems with its new secret weapons but the company is expected to be able to showcase it within a couple of weeks. According to most industry analysts it is more than likely that ATIs Hypermemory technology, will make it to a pre-Christmas launch, good news for a company that has gradually taken over the graphics market and is now in a very comfortable position. Read more

Posted: November. 13, 2004 @ 12:55PM GMT +10 by BenSW

ATI Catalyst 4.12 Betas Released

And again a new beta version of the ATI Catalyst driver series is now available. Random hanging has been observed with certain games on certain systems when using the PunkBuster server. To resolve this issue, please download CATALYST 4.12 Beta Release which resolves the majority of cases of this hang. You can get them here.

Posted: November. 13, 2004 @ 10:53AM GMT +10 by Cyclone

4.11 Catalyst drivers released

Download the new drivers here Here is a list of problems that Ati have fixed in these drivers. # Breed: Playing the game with the display device set to 1024x768 32bpp and AA set to 6x along with AF set to 8x and texture preference set to high performance no longer results in the game failing to respond # HALO: Attempting to launch the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 PCI-E series installed no longer results in the game failing to load. # Joint Operation Typhoon Rising: An error message is no longer displayed when exiting the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X700 installed. This issue occurs when the game option for Quality Performance is set to 1600x1200. # Postal 2: The staircase now displays spots of red instead of becoming entirely red when a protester is killed using a machine gun # Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 7500 series installed no longer results in the building looking bright and appearing to flash # Serious Sam: Playing the game under Windows XP with either an ATI RADEON™ 9000, 9200, or 9250 installed no longer results in Truform not being applied toL models # Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The Windows XP operating system no longer randomly fails to respond when loading multiple levels # Will Rock: Display corruption and missing textures are no longer noticed in the game # CATALYST 4.11 includes a memory allocation bug fix for all AGP RADEON™ products with 256 of MB of memory that significantly improves performance for applications that make intensive us of graphics memory # Importing files that have been captured using Pinnacle Media Center into Windows Movie Maker 2 no longer results in the Windows XP operating system failing to respond when an ATI RADEON™ X300 or X600 is installed # Display corruption is no longer seen when preview the 3D Pipes screen saver when the display device is set to 2048x1536 16bpp # Using Windows Movie Maker 2 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X300 or X600 installed no longer results in corrupt colors being displayed in the preview window # CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: The profile manager is now functioning properly when attempting to launch games such as Doom 3 and Quake 3 # CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Using the option "Restore factory defaults" no longer modifies the previously saved Custom view # CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Changing the position of the gamma slider for display adapter 1 no longer changes the position of the gamma slider for display adapter 2.

Posted: November. 13, 2004 @ 06:32AM GMT +10 by BenSW

Half Life 2!

One of the mostly anticipated games of the year Half Life 2 will be released within around four days. It is simply the continuation of the great games of Half Life. In this game you play as Gordon Freeman as you do in the normal Half Life. In this version you simply contiue the fight against the monsters of Xen in the streets. It should win game of the year if it is as good or better than the original Half Life. The graphics will be lots better and Gordon Freemans hand gun is supposed to be Gold. Half Life 2 Will be great!

Posted: November. 12, 2004 @ 01:28PM GMT +10 by NightWolf

Google Gmail give POP3 access

Google gave POP3 access to its gmail users on Wednesday, and will be available to all gmail users in 2 weeks. This will allow users to read their mail when they are offline, and on their mobile devices. Google's decision to make POP access free will bring another competitive strike for Google. Read More

Posted: November. 12, 2004 @ 03:10AM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer

Understanding PCI-Express

VIA-Arena have an article about understanding PCI express. Despite the fact that there is no evident bottlenecking of the AGP 8x bus, people were still expecting a bus that offers twice the available bandwidth to make a difference. Read Article | Source: OCAU

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:14PM GMT +10 by erock

R480 and SLI details emerge

ATI will introduce three version of its R480 card. We are not surprised to hear that ATI will have three cards branded XT PE, XT and PRO. History is repeating itself. R480XT Platinum Edition is likely to be clocked at 540MHz while it memory should rock at 1180MHz. This is 20MHz core and 60MHz memory speed upgrades from fastest of AGP X800 XT Platinum Edition card. Just for the record, R480 cards are PCI Express only. Its memory will work at an impressive 590MHz. The second card, the R480XT should be clocked at 520MHz while its memory will work at 1080MHz. It will be interesting to position this card against X800XT PCIe express as this card is clocked at 500/1000MHz or 20MHz core and 80MHz memory slower. Both X800XT PE and R480XT are 16 pipes cards with 256MB of memory and will use a 256 bit interface. Read more @ The Inquirer

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:09PM GMT +10 by erock

Video Card Reviews

MSI NC6800 Ultra-T2D256 GF 6800 Ultra on HWZ. Albatron GeForce PC6600 on PCStats. ATI Radeon X800 Pro on OCProjects. VisionTek Xtasy X800XT on 3DVelocity. ATi Radeon X800 Pro review on CoolTechZone. Prolink GeForce 6600 review on Guru3D. Club 3D OmniChrome S4 review on TrustedReviews.

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:08PM GMT +10 by erock

Microsoft Goes Xbox Live Ban Happy

As seen on Voodoo Extreme: Over a hundred people on the Xbox-Scene forums are reporting that they were banned from Xbox Live Monday, just one day before Halo 2 was due to launch. Reports from the various victims indicate that even slight modifications such as replacing a broken DVD-ROM from home results in lifetime bans. If you have a modified Xbox, you are presently advised to steer clear of Xbox Live until those clever Xbox modifier chaps can work out some sort of fix, it at all possible. Read more

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:03PM GMT +10 by erock

Official Halo 2 Skin

If your into Halo 2 check out the offical windows media player skin here

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:01PM GMT +10 by erock

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