Nvidia starts sampling Intel Nforce 5

TAIWAN HAS ALREADY seen the first batch of C19 chipsets and tier one motherboard manufacturers are playing with them as we speak. C19 is Nvidia's well kept code name for its Pentium 4 chipset project. Without a doubt, it’s a Pentium 4 SLI capable chipset and it's already started shipping/sampling. R&D departments of tier one motherboard companies are playing with them and they should have some sample boards ready even now. It's not yet ready for retail shipping but this actually might happen in very early 2005. This will make Nvidia dominant in the SLI market for a while and we can only hope that ATI will make its SLI work in early Q2, as we suggested before. Read more

Posted December. 03, 2004 @ 07:12AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Nvidia has canned NV48

ATI's RADEON X850XT PE is the last speed refresh that we will see this winter. Usually ATI's announcement comes close to Nvidia announcement but this time it won't happen. Nvidia decided to cancel its NV48 project and reliable sources are claiming that you won't see those cards at all. According to the original plan we were supposed to see those cards in Q1 2005 but Nvidia realised that it made no sense at all to push a 20 to 30 MHz faster card. Read more

Posted December. 02, 2004 @ 08:47AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

X850XT PE out at 540/1180 MHz

ATI LIFTED ITS now famous NDAs on the X850 and new X800 cards but our friends, the NDA reviewers, received only faster X850 cards. R430, X800XL and standard are still not ready. You will have to go to the review sites to get some of the performance numbers but they are not that magnificent, compared to the famous Florentine Lorenzo the Magnificent. It is without a doubt, the fastest single card for some games but it cannot go against more expensive but still mucg faster SLI setup. It can not even go against 6800 Ultra in Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 but it wins in all the other games. It's dual slot cooling, and no one seems to bother about it and it's $50 more expensive than the last generation that was a rather expensive $499. It should be available so let's hope that you will get it in January as ATI promised but life taught me to be a bit sceptical about launch dates. I must be getting old. At least they are not a secret anymore. Source: www.Theinquirer.net

Posted December. 02, 2004 @ 08:47AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch & SDK Released

Valve Software has released an updated SDK for all you mod makers out there, but the really exciting news is the release of a multiplayer deathmatch mode! They have also announced a deathmatch map making contest, with the winner taking home a cash prize of $5,000. Click here for all the details!

Posted December. 01, 2004 @ 08:00PM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

101 Gbit per second

What kind of future internet connection speeds will you be getting? Well, if the Supercomputing Bandwidth Challenge is anything to go by, something like 101 Gbit per second (Gbp/s) is pretty close to the mark. That was the sustained data transfer rate recorded between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles during the challenge. This is more than four times faster than the previous record set last year. Made possible because of the Fast TCP protocol developed by Professor Steven Low and his Caltech Netlab team, the data transfer speed is equivalent to downloading 3 DVD movies every second! It was made possible by the se of seven 10 Gbp/s links to Cisco 7600 and 6500 series switch-routers provided by Cisco Systems at the Caltech Center for Advanced Computing. There were also three 10 Gbp/s links to the SLAC/Fermilab booth near Chicago. The applications of these kinds of internet transmission rates are staggering. Source: www.techspot.com

Posted December. 01, 2004 @ 10:09AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Intel outlines future plans

HIP FIRM Intel has given its customers more details about the 6XX range of Pentium 4 processors, according to an internal document seen by the INQUIRER. As we've reported earlier, the 6XX range of processors will have 2MB of level two cache, will have bus speeds of 800MHz, and will also support the firm's EM64T technology. So far, Intel has only incorporated the 64-bit features of EM64T in its Xeons and in processors designed for workstations. The chips, which are set to launch next year, are already sampling to customers, and the firm is contemplating releasing them in late February of next year. The processors will be compatible with the 915/925 Express chipsets and future chipsets codenamed Glenwood and Lakeport. They will also include a better "Halt State" for power management when PCs are idling, and a fresh version of Speedstep technology. The tech, called the Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology (EIST), means system noise can be reduced. Read more

Posted December. 01, 2004 @ 07:30AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

ATI's X800XT PE is Dells toy

THE MOST UNAVAILABLE ATI card of all time, the Radeon X800XT PE will remain that way unless you decide to get it with a Dell machine. Dell "Gamer's edition PCs", a well designed machine, comes with the X800 XT Platinum edition card and such machines are usually available. In retail it takes weeks before you can get a pre-ordered X800XT PE card. Surprise, surprise. Friends of the INQUIRER from the US, Europe and Canada were waiting for the X800XT PE cards for weeks and most of them cancelled their orders after constant and persisted delays in the shipping date. Even ATI's own web shop cannot get you a card. You might be waiting for weeks or months now for your pre-ordered card and there is a fair chance you won't get the card at all. ATI's web site told "customers" in September that they will have more cards in October than delayed it to November and at the end of November most of them are still waiting and hoping to get the cards. Read more

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 08:55PM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro in shortage

ATI PLANS TO fight Nvidia's 6600GT with its Radeon 9800PRO cards. Of course we are talking about AGP cards as there is no such thing as 9800PRO PCIe. It's a chimera. Regardless of ATI's dreams, we know there is a huge shortage of 9800 PRO cards in both shops and through distributors. Oddly, an Asian source tells us that there's no shortage in Mr Raffle's little colony, Singapore. In fact there appear to be floods of them over there. Many sources close to ATI and the ones that are actually selling those cards tell us that you can of course place an order but it will take quite a few of what we call in the trade "weeks" before you see the cards. With 6600GT AGP already available, ATI's partners might be in trouble as they need all the 9800PROs that they can get. Or not get, as is the case. We hope that the situation is going to change but in the last few commercial weeks remaining in this year of delays, things don’t look too bright in the northern hemisphere. Read more

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 08:53PM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Lycos Releases Spam Fighting Screensaver

Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes will it make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data. Source: www.warp2search.net/

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 03:27PM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Sony IBM Unveil PS3 Engine

IBM, Sony Corporation and Toshiba Corporation unveiled for the first time some of the key concepts of the highly-anticipated advanced microprocessor, code-named Cell, they are jointly developing for next-generation computing applications, as well as digital consumer electronics. The four companies also announced that they would reveal technical details of Cell at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) to be held from February 6th to 10th, 2005, in San Francisco. Specifically, the companies confirmed that Cell is a multicore chip comprising a 64-bit Power processor core and multiple synergistic processor cores capable of massive floating point processing. Cell is optimized for compute-intensive workloads and broadband rich media applications, including computer entertainment, movies and other forms of digital content. Read more

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 03:26PM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

In South Korea, email is for old people

Want to feel old? A survey of a middle, high school, and college students in South Korea found that over two-thirds of students there rarely or never use email and supposedly young people are starting to think of email as something overly formal that you use only for business purposes or to communicate with your less tech savvy parents or grandparents who are still stuck in the Nineties (when email was king). For them it’s all about text and instant messaging, and by comparison, even email seems like an incredibly slow way to communicate. Do they even have postal service in Korea anymore?

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 11:07AM GMT +10 by Tokemon | top

Half Life 2 Causing Headaches?

Hundreds of buyers of "Half-Life 2," the hotly anticipated shooting game released last week, are reporting in developer Valve Software's user forums that they feel queasy and often develop a bad headache after playing the game for as little as an hour. Far from sounding aggrieved, enthusiastic players greet the incipient hurling as evidence of the game's sophisticated graphics. "I am impressed and sickened (http://www.ausfx.com/spacer.gif) by the level of detail," one player wrote. Players have all kind of theories for beating the curse of the green gills, from taking Dramamine 30 minutes before playing the game to adjusting monitor settings to avoid possible conflicts with overhead lights. We look forward to "Half-Life 3" being packaged with an airsickness bag and a Scopolamine patch Source: CNET News

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 09:35AM GMT +10 by flawmatt | top

Latest hardware reviews

Galaxy GeForce 6600 256 MB PCI Express Inno3D GeForce 6600GT-PCI-Express Corsair TwinX1024-3200XL Memory Review Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu Ultra Silent CPU Cooler CoolRiver Deluxe Watercooling Kit 1A-Cooling SET-5Z280V1 Water Cooling Kit MSI MS-7093 ATi Radeon Express 200P (RX480) Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 Motherboard Asus P5AD2-E - 1066FSB & DDR2-711

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 09:07AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

nForce 6.31 REMIX Beta Drivers

New NVIDIA nForce Remix drivers are available! Featuring: Audio driver version 4.57 (WHQL) Audio utility version 4.50 Win2K ethernet driver version 4.58 WinXP ethernet driver version 4.58 GART driver version 4.40 Memory controller driver version 4.40 SMBus driver version 4.45 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files Installer version 4.58 Win2K IDE 2.7 driver version 4.64 (WHQL) with 4.74 raidtool WinXP IDE 2.7 driver version 4.64 (WHQL) with 4.74 raidtool Download them here

Posted November. 30, 2004 @ 08:59AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

RadLinker 2.023

A few version of RadLinker has been released. Heres whats new: # Removed the RadClock service as it is no longer needed. # Created a new installer to help solve installation problems. # Fixed some problems with standby/hibernation modes with laptops. Download here

Posted November. 29, 2004 @ 10:36AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Winamp 5.06 Flaw Allows Attacks

eWEEK reports users of America Online Inc.'s Winamp media player are at risk of remote code execution attacks because of a flaw in the software, according to a warning from a security research firm. The flaw, which Secunia rates as "highly critical," has been reported in Winamp versions 5.05 and 5.06. Prior versions also may be affected. Full story here

Posted November. 29, 2004 @ 10:33AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

SiSoft Sandra 2005

SiSoft have released an updated version of their popular benchmarking and system information program, Sandra. Sandra 2005 has a few new features including a client-server setup, cooling/power monitoring and multi-core CPU support. As well as SMP (multi-processor) and SMT (multi-threading/Hyper-Threading) support we have added multi-core support for future AMD and Intel CPUs. The benchmarks have been optimised to schedule the optimum number of threads on the optimum (virtual) CPU on both multi-core and Hyper-Threaded computers. Download here

Posted November. 29, 2004 @ 10:30AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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 | top

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