Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE

The Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE was designed for top gaming performance and overclocking. This is reflected in the very complete selection of tweaking controls and the extended adjustment ranges. The BIOS controls with wide adjustment ranges will allow overclockers to push the Fatal1ty to wherever the processor can go. read more here

Posted: November. 11, 2004 @ 10:13AM GMT +10 by Perc

XBox builds in workout

A PERSONAL TRAINER programme targeting unfit geeks who have spent far too long in front of their XBoxes has hit the shops. Peddled as a video game to fool the couch potatos, Yourself!Fitness lets you set up a personal profile and walk through a fitness evaluation. Then a virtual personal trainer will create a customised health and fitness plan that will have you kicking sand in the faces of muscle bound he-men at the beach. You can tell it is marketed at geeks rather that geekettes because the personal trainer is a nice looking girl who is unlikely to want to talk to people who spend too long in front of an XBox but, if she ever did, they would certainly listen. Maya can change your workouts based on your progress and your commitment to the program. Although we suspect that if they had a virtual strip version of the game it would create some of the fittest geeks in the galaxy. Source: theinquirer.net

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 05:43PM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Microsoft banks $100 Million for Halo 2

VOLISH VIDEO game Halo 2 hit the shops yesterday and netted more than $100 million on its first day out. In what punters are calling the largest launch in gaming history, Halo 2 has done better than most movie blockbusters on their first day. Odd really, because the plot of the game is fairly familar. Boy meets heavy assault weapon, boy must save the earth from aliens, boy never gets a girl in his life. The boy in this case is called 'Master Chief' which probably means he will have to serve up the aliens in a white wine sauce in sixty seconds to the approval of Lloyd Grossman. A Volish spokesChief said that more than 1.5 million units were pre-sold and one retailer sold 8,500 units in the first 11 minutes, while another sold 200,000 units by yesterday morning. Analysts expect Microsoft to flog more than 10 million units of Halo 2 mostly around November. The original Halo sold five million units and remains the best seller on the Xbox. Source: theinquirer.net

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 05:42PM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Boy sues mother for not buying him a PC

AN ELEVEN year old boy in central China has taken his mum to court for breaking a promise to buy him a PC if he did well at school. According to the China Daily, the mother told her son that if he ate all his greens and scored average marks of more than 94 per cent for his school work, she would buy him a computer. However, when the kid did so well that he managed to get this grade, she told him that she couldn't afford it. Unfortunately, the boy, from Xingzheng, Henan province, had also been helping his parents run their business and knew a thing or two about hiring briefs when people welch on deals. So he went to court asking a judge to make his mother honour the verbal agreement. However, it all had a happy ending apparently the judge reconciled the mother and son, although we don't know if he ever got his computer or not. What a heart warming yarn it all is. If true. Source: theinquirer.net

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 05:40PM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Abit unlocks its Pentium 4 boards

ABIT DEFINITELY wants to pass on the message that it is very serious about overclocking. It's following a direction Asus took just a few weeks ago. Abit will unlock its Pentium 4 boards for three products using new Intel chipsets. You will get this option on the AG8, AA8-DuraMAX, AA8XE, and the Fatal1ty AA8XE. This ability will allow you to overclock your FSB from the default 800MHz to 1066MHz. Intel won't like this a lot, as it only wants to offer this FSB with its own 925XE motherboard. You will be able to download new BIOSes from the Abit site soon enough. Source: The Inquirer

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 04:19PM GMT +10 by flawmatt

ATI almost ready to roll on hypermemory

WE'VE BEEN hearing that ATI has been having problems spinning its new Hypermemory marchitecture out the door, and that it has had to go back to the drawing board to have another fiddle with it. In the next two weeks, however, ATI will be taking to the road with working samples, to show the technology to a clamouring press. This, we are informed, means that we might just see boards with the technology shipping in time for the Christmas rush. ATI wouldn't tell us anything about the Hypermemory technology, other than to confirm that it would be "showcasing" it in a couple of weeks time. System builders are screaming at ATI to get it out the door, since they want to start building Longhorn-compliant DX9 PCs for corporate customers. Read more

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 02:46PM GMT +10 by BenSW

H&D2: Sabre Squadron Demo Released

Illusion Softworks has released a 178mb demo from their Hidden & Dangerous 2 expansion pack, Sabre Squadron. Including the Ponte Grande map, you will be able to play through the mission in singleplayer or hook up with some friends for some multiplayer lovin'. Hit the following mirrors to get downloading: Fileshack 3dGamers Worthplaying

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 02:41PM GMT +10 by BenSW

XBOX 2 Hardware News

MICROSOFT'S XBOX 2 hardware is starting to come together, according to reports, as final graphics details are thrashed out. Sources have told us that ATI is now starting to roll out the R500 part which will be the basis of Xbox 2, ahead of the machine's launch on January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show. R500 is a Shader Model 3.0 part, and will be similar to the R520 part that will be its next generation PC graphics chip. The tape out will be a relief to developers, who have been working on the 9800 class hardware that shipped in the Xbox 2 development kits. A spokesman for Nvidia told the INQ that he had had numerous requests from Xbox developers for GeForce 6800 cards, since coders were eager to start work on SM3.0 routines, regardless of the final render target. The tape out of R500 - which has been delayed, we are told, fairly substantially - means that Microsoft's coders now face a frantic 2 months of coding to create demo routines to make the most of the graphics hardware, so that they can wow the Las Vegas crowds. We are hearing conflicting reports about backwards compatibility of the Xbox 2 hardware with Xbox 1, which appears to be one of the reasons for the delay. One camp is telling us that ATI is having a hard time making Xbox software work because of all the Nvidia-specific routines that were programmed in games. Another source is telling us that Nvidia is being more than a little awkward about releasing details of how its chips work to its rivals, and that Microsoft is sitting awkwardly in the middle. The lacerations of pens on paper were rumoured to be coming from the offices of m'learned fiends. Read entire article @ The Inquirer

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 08:40AM GMT +10 by erock

New Forceware 66.93 WHQL

NVIDIA have made available today new Forceware drivers version 66.93. Download

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

15 Latest Virus/Worm Removal Tools

Like we all know the internet is a warzone and we all need to protect our systems against virus, worms, spam and spyware, we hate them all but we cant without them? Nevermind that! TC Mag have 15 latest removal tools posted and make sure you disinfect your system for once and for all! Inlcuded removal tools for: Evaman, Erkex, Korgo, Donk, Sasser, Opasa, Erkez, Blackmail, Gaobot, Beagle, Netsky, HLLW, Mydoom and Beagle. Link: http://security.tcmagazine.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=11

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 12:29AM GMT +10 by S.T.x

Overclocking AMD Athlon64 101 @ InsaneTe

Some frequently asked questions on Athlon64 are answered, we hope: For me, the most interesting technology of the AMD Athlon64 processor is not the 64-bit processing power. 64-bit desktop processors are bound to be made sooner or later. What I found interesting was the fact that AMD decided to have the memory controller on the CPU itself. This certainly raises a lot of eyebrows. Normally the motherboard Northbridge chipset is the memory controller, providing the transition between CPU processing and memory fetching. This is no longer the case. Compatibility will no longer be between motherboard and memory, but rather CPU and memory. The on-die memory controller has a lot of little secrets that not many people are aware of. Read More: http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=overclocka64

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 12:28AM GMT +10 by S.T.x

FireFox 1.0 Final

The wait is over. Firefox 1.0 empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. Join more than 8 million others and make the switch today — Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose. What's new in 1.0: # New options for controlling where links from other applications # New experimental options for controlling where links in web pages To make these experimental options appear, set browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs to true in about:config # Firefox is now available in 14 languages. # Sort by name" in Bookmarks should sort siblings, not children. # Information bar (blocked popup, missing plugin, etc) should be closeable. # View Source should use Find Toolbar. # Find toolbar loses content when new tab clicked. # Disable sites reloading onresize. (Many sites reload onresize to work around bugs in Netscape 4. This caused problems in Firefox due to tabs, the Find bar, and information bars.) Download here: http://www.mozilla.org/

Posted: November. 10, 2004 @ 12:24AM GMT +10 by S.T.x

NFS Underground 2 goes gold.

EA Games (Challenge Everything) sent out word that Need For Speed: Underground 2 has gone gold. Thanks to Blues for the info. This is a quick note to let you know that Need for Speed Underground 2 under the EA GAMES brand has gone gold for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC. The title will ship to retail outlets nationwide on Monday, November 15th. The sequel to the best-selling EA console game of all time (the original Need for Speed Underground has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide), Need for Speed Underground 2 challenges gamers to uncover the tuner underground in a massive free-roaming city spanning five distinct, interconnected neighborhoods and more than 125 miles of race-ready asphalt. Featuring dozens of the hottest tuner cars on the market, thousands of aftermarket upgrades and deep under-the-hood performance customization options, Need for Speed Underground 2 gives games a blank canvas for total automotive self-expression. The game also includes online play for the PS2, Xbox Live and PC, which rounds out an insanely deep single player experience, featuring more than 150 unique events and starring gorgeous, world-famous adrenaline junkie Brooke Burke. Source: Filefront.com

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 12:06PM GMT +10 by BenSW

Halo 2 Midnight Madness Is Upon Us

What if some copies have already been sold through Ebay? What if a downloadable version has been available for some time now? The truth is Halo 2 will be welcomed tonight with the fanfare its popularity demands. GTA : San Andreas be aware, the Master Chief is coming. For a chance to catch up on tonight's Halo 2 related mayhem and a last minute chance to download the man himself to your desktop, read on. Long lines of clamoring fans? Check. Thousands of storesat midnight? Check. Genetically enhanced super soldiers? Check. The entertainment industry is bracing for a big night tonight as thousands of fans around the globe finally get their hands on a copy of Halo 2. Gamers, celebrities, adrenaline junkies and industry paparazzi worldwide will converge at hundreds of lively launch soirees and thousands of retail outlets when the game officially goes on sale just after midnight. Read more

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 11:04AM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Painkiller Expansion Gold

Description DreamCatcher Games announced Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell has reached gold status. The Expansion Pack for the award-winning Windows FPS, Painkiller, will begin shipping to North American retailers on November 11th and will begin releasing across Europe on November 24th. Picking up where the game's story left off, Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell offers multiple features to extend enjoyment of this spectacular shooter. Using code from the 1.5 update, the Expansion Pack includes an additional single-player chapter with 10 levels, as well as new multiplayer modes, maps and models. It will also offer an amplified arsenal of un-deadly weapons, bigger and badder bosses and the map editor Software Development Kit. read more

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 11:01AM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Packet8 Internet Phone

Gasoline, electricity, phone, and other utilities burn our hard earned dollars. Spending 40+ dollars a month on a phone bill is 40+ dollars that cannot go to buying those toys we want. How do we lower these bills? We can lessen our usage or we can use technology to allow us to get the same benefits for less cost. Packet8 does the latter by using the Internet to provide local and long distance phone calls for less than 20 dollars a month. Read more

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 08:10AM GMT +10 by BenSW

NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 Go vs. ATI�

This year we have seen a very heated competition between ATI and NVIDIA for dominance in the desktop GPU market. With NVIDIA making a very strong comeback thanks to their NV4x architecture, it was only a matter of time before we saw NV4x filter its way down to NVIDIA's mobile designs. Not too long ago, NVIDIA's mobile GPUs were a joke as far as market penetration was concerned. More recently, NVIDIA has made some gains but still yields to ATI as the dominant force in the discrete mobile GPU market. Today, NVIDIA is hoping to start to further erode ATI's mobile market share with the release of their very first NV4x derived mobile GPU - the GeForce 6800 Go. Read more

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:51AM GMT +10 by BenSW

GeForce Go 6800 | Notebooks

SINGAPORE — NOVEMBER 8, 2004 — NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today announced the GeForce™ Go 6800 graphics processing unit (GPU). The next generation architecture and support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, allows the GeForce Go 6800 to deliver the best graphics performance available on notebooks today . Combine this exceptional visual quality and performance with NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology, for video features previously only found in consumer electronic devices and the GeForce Go 6800 is enabling a new class of performance notebooks. “The GeForce Go 6800 is allowing notebook vendors to create an outstanding consumer entertainment device,” said Rob Csongor, general manager, mobile GPUs, NVIDIA Corporation. “With a mobile GPU that delivers stunning content, jaw dropping video and unparalleled graphics performance, these notebooks are sure to please any PC enthusiast.” Built with full Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 support, the GeForce Go 6800 accelerates all current DirectX 9.0 titles as well as enabling stunning, previously unseen visuals in new Shader Model 3.0 content. For more information on DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3.0 content please visit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_13020.html. The GeForce Go 6800 is the first GPU in the next-generation GeForce Go 6 series, with a revolutionary new architecture for delivering the highest graphics performance per watt, critical for enabling excellent graphics performance in notebooks. The first GeForce Go 6800 notebooks available for sale today deliver Futuremark 3DMark03 scores in the range of 7,500 to well over 9,000, several thousand points over the best consumer notebook scores ever recorded . The GeForce Go 6800 mobile GPU’s advanced architecture introduces full 64-bit high dynamic range shader precision, displacement mapping, geometry instancing and other features unique to the GeForce 6 Series of mobile GPUs. In addition, the GeForce Go 6800 mobile GPU delivers full floating point support throughout the entire pipeline, vastly improving the quality of images in motion. High performance notebooks available now Leading notebook vendors have selected the GeForce Go 6800 GPU for their performance notebook solutions. Alienware, Eurocom, Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic PC, Iru, MV, Prostar, Sager, and VoodooPC all have notebooks featuring the GeForce Go 6800 GPU available immediately, with more partners to be announced at a later date. “By working closely with NVIDIA and using the unprecedented performance of the GeForce Go 6800, Sager is very pleased to introduce a notebook that outperforms any notebook previously available, at a price point which is attractive to mainstream consumers,” said Sager president, Tony Yuan. “We think Sager customers will be astounded with the leap in graphics performance and visual quality available now in our new GeForce Go 6800 based notebooks.” “Alienware customers always expect the latest graphics technology on all of our gaming rigs,” said Frank Azor, senior vice president for Alienware Corporation. “By partnering with NVIDIA on the GeForce Go 6800 launch we are able to deliver the fastest GPU available for notebooks today.” “The GeForce Go 6800 re-defines the performance you can expect from a laptop. It’s literally twice as fast as the competing graphics solutions we have to offer, putting it in solid competition to a lot of current desktop PCs,” said Kelt Reeves, CEO of Falcon Northwest. “From the minute we saw what the GeForce 6800 Go could do we couldn't wait to offer it in our FragBook line of enthusiast notebooks." “After running comprehensive testing on various notebook graphics solutions it was a no-brainer for VoodooPC to choose a PCI Express solution from NVIDIA,” said Rahul Sood, president and CTO, VoodooPC. “The NVIDIA Geforce 6800 Go is our dream come true; it blew away our expectations and it puts us on top of the notebook performance category.” Previews: Anandtech Extremetech Hexus

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:45AM GMT +10 by erock

Audigy 4 quietly launched

Creative is selling a "limited edition" version of the Audigy 4 on its web site. But there's not a great deal to distinguish it, as far as we can see, from Audigy 2. However, a major distinguishing feature consists of the words "limited edition". Presumably the kit is signed personally by the engineers that put the machinery together. Source: The Inquirer | Product Link

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:27AM GMT +10 by erock

ATI Radeon Xpress Preview

Radeon Xpress chipset preview @ Driverheaven: Looking at that list of features and the one that’s immediately worth talking about is the onboard graphics. As mentioned previously it’s based on the X300, pipeline configuration and is as follows 2 pixel pipelines with 1 texture unit and 4 vertex units per pipeline. Interestingly, the Vertex Shader performance is assisted by the CPU so the faster the CPU you have the better your onboard graphics will perform. With the onboard graphics there is also one very surprising, but excellent, feature. The board has onboard DVI in addition to VGA.

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:24AM GMT +10 by erock

500GB ultraviolet disks?

Pioneer has developed a technique which will allow optical drives to store 500GB of data. That's according to the Nikkei Business Daily, which reported that the technique will use ultraviolet lasers, which emit shorter wavelength rays than blue lasers. The paper reported that Pioneer uses the beam to write data holes in a master disk, each separated by 70 nanometres. That gives a data rate 20 times more than the blue laser Blue-ray disk. While there are technical problems creating data cavities so small, Pioneer has, apparently, solved problems associated with scattering of the laser by developing a carbon mask using photosensitive resin. Source: The Inquirer | Link to article

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:21AM GMT +10 by erock

ATI DX9 Chip for AMD64 and Sempron

MARKHAM, ON/ Munich, Germany (November 8, 2004) - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), today announced the availability of a powerful new chipset family for AMD desktop platforms - the RADEON® XPRESS 200 series. Built on the principles of performance, connectivity and reliability, RADEON XPRESS 200 provides AMD customers with a best-in-class platform for enthusiast gaming, high definition home entertainment, and rock-solid enterprise computing. The chipset series supports Socket 754 and 939 AMD desktop processors and is comprised of the RADEON XPRESS 200 with integrated graphics and the pin-compatible RADEON XPRESS 200P, which allows for high performance add-in graphics. With the introduction of the RADEON XPRESS 200 series, ATI is delivering its fourth generation chipset and providing systems integrators and OEMs with unparalleled levels of choice, flexibility and performance in the design of next-generation AMD-based desktop PCs See ATI site for more

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:18AM GMT +10 by erock

Nvidia's NV41 already shipping

As reported on the inquirer: NVIDIA IS ALREADY shipping NV41 PCIe cards. Those cards are meant to quietly replace NV40 in the cheaper segment of high end market. You can be sure that you won't get NV45 + BR2 6800 standard cards as NV41 is native PCIe chip. Cost wise, Nvidia will save some for PCIe bridge and PCB with NV41 cards. As soon as you get Geforce 6800 PCIe card in your hands there is a good chance that you will hold NV41 marchitecture, but NV41 is present in only 6800 PCIe standard cards. Geforce 6800 Ultra PCIe and 6800 GT PCIe will remain NV45 or should we say NV40 + BR2 chip. Read More

Posted: November. 09, 2004 @ 07:15AM GMT +10 by erock

NSW ADSL coverage boosted

Telstra will increase ADSL coverage in NSW to 85% by spending $7million upgrading RIMS in its network. The changes will make ADSL available to 75,000 more New South Welshmen. RIMS (Remote Integrated Multiplexer Systems) are kerbside units that are connected to main exchanges via a fibre-optic cable. Houses are then connected to the RIM via normal copper phone lines. However, the presence of RIMs can prevent ADSL from being delivered to these premises, and dial-up speeds are often degraded too. Source: Whirlpool

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:54PM GMT +10 by Cyclone

2 Choices for Halo 2

Halo 2 will have 2 different versions you can buy. The games are both the same but you can buy the limited edition that comes with a second DVD loaded with bonus content. It includes an art gallery, from concept to game, featurettes on game design, animation, music,the making of Halo 2: Behind the scenes of Bungie Studios, and Deleted cinematics and characters. The price for the limited edition will be around $62US and the regular will cost $49.99US. The game will be out on November 9. Sources:Outpost Outpost

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 02:46PM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer

Email worm poses as Osama videogram

Emails claiming to contain video clips of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden are likely to be example of a new computer worm. The Famus-F worm normally arrives in the form of a bilingual English and Spanish email, with the subject line "More terrorism this year". The message body states: "Last speech from Bin Laden. Please forwards this video to everybody." and includes a password - "cnn". If executed, the worm attempts to forward itself to email addresses found on infected computers. It also drops a number of files onto the hard drive. Fortunately, Famus-F is not spreading very successfully. Even so, vigilance is advisable. The worm is yet another example of virus writers using a topical subject to trick users into running malicious code. In July virus writers tried to trick users intong a Trojan horse on their PC by passing malicious code off as a "suicide photographs" of bin Laden. This wasn't particularly successful, but that didn't stop the repeated use of the ploy in attempts to spread the Hackarmy Trojan in the last four months. source:The Register

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 09:49AM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer

Halo 2 sold on eBay

EARLY COPIES of Halo 2, this Yule's Xbox Must-Have, have been turning up in gamers' hands over this weekend as US stores ship copies early. The game is released on Tuesday in the US, and Thursday in the UK. According to the Associated Press, a Microsoft spokesman said that the company had been "working really hard to keep the 'Halo 2' plot twists a secret so everyone can have an equal opportunity to enjoy them". It seems that equal only applies if you're American, since Europeans still have that 2-day wait to stay off-line in a media blackout until they can pick the game up for themselves. Stores often ship games early to ensure that gamers get their copies in time for release day - having to wait until a day after for your copy to arrive if you're buying online can be a real incentive to go to a local store instead. Perhaps to carry favour for the next pre-order, some stores will send out copies extra early so that their customers get the game first - a similar tactic was employed by some e-tailers in the UK with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas last week. November is a bumper month for games. Aside from GTA last week and Halo 2 this week, Half-Life 2 is out on the PC the next Tuesday, followed by the Nintendo DS the week after, along with the latest in the cross-platform Need For Speed franchise and Metroid Prime on the GameCube Source: The Inquirer

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:20AM GMT +10 by erock

Exclusive Pics: Unreal 3 Engine

MaximumPC released a special edition Fall 2004 3D Tech Guide featuring a highly defined picture of Malcolm. This edition includes some exclusive photos of the capabilities of Unreal Engine 3: In addition, they provided some details about the how the characters are generated and the new NovodeX physics engine. Also, Tim Sweeney states Epic's continued support for the mod community! Check them out

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:14AM GMT +10 by erock

Star Wars: Episode III Screenshots

Following the recent Lucasfilm Ltd. title announcement of the Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith™ motion picture, LucasArts already revealed that it will release the Star Wars: Episode III video game on May 5, 2005, two weeks before theng of the film. Currently under development, the third-person action/adventure game will deliver the ultimate Jedi action experience as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi join forces in fierce battles and heroic lightsaber duels until one’s lust for power and the other’s devotion to duty leads to a final confrontation between good and evil. Today GameConnect have the first screenshots of the Star Wars: Episode III video game...

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:12AM GMT +10 by erock

HL2 Set for Worldwide Release

Half-Life 2 Fallout reports the question that has been on everybody's lips is at what time will Steam unlock on the 16th and what will that mean for retail release times?

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:10AM GMT +10 by erock

Halo 2 Review

Gameconnect Magazine have a review on Halo 2. If your looking foward to this game check this one out!

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:07AM GMT +10 by erock

How a CPU is Built

While it's nice to just look at the finished product itself, sometimes it's useful to go back and look at how it's made. Especially today in the silicon industry, where both major players in the x86 desktop market are having issues with their top end products Source: Warp2Search

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:02AM GMT +10 by erock

Google Snooping Gmail Accounts?

Is Google's Gmail bot doing more than just highlighting advertisers key words? According to spdrivers.net, a user is complaining that Google cancelled his account because of some suspicious files on his account. Read here Source: Warp2Search

Posted: November. 08, 2004 @ 07:00AM GMT +10 by erock

Hitman After Blood Money in 2005

Eidos announced the return of the world's deadliest assassin in Hitman: Blood Money. Developed by Io-Interactive, Hitman: Blood Money will be released worldwide in spring 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. When assassins from Agent 47's contract agency, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has entered the fray. For Agent 47 it's business as usual, until suddenly he loses contact with The ICA. Sensing that he may be the next target, he travels to America, where he prepares to make a killing. Read more

Posted: November. 07, 2004 @ 07:34PM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Valve announces Source SDK

MODDERS, START YOUR ENGINES! OK, awful but fitting pun. Valve announced the Source SDK today, it it should be available via Steam now. It is listed as the precursor to the 'full' SDK which should arrive as soon as Half-Life2 does. No word on the differences between them, but I would assume it doesn't have the unreleased assets that come with HL2. If you want more info about building the MODs that so many will opine about, but scant few will actually do, go here

Posted: November. 07, 2004 @ 07:32PM GMT +10 by Tokemon

Sunday Morning Reviews

Sapphire Radeon X800XT PCI-E on VR-Zone. NVIDIA PCI-Express GeForce 6800 GT on Bjorn3D. XGI Tech Volari V8 on Phoronix. 48 BIOS updates @ TCMagazine Radeon X800XT and GeForce 6800GT @ Lost Circuits Leadtek GeForce 6600 PCIe review by Digit-Life Abit Radeon 9600 XT review by Hexus

Posted: November. 07, 2004 @ 08:02AM GMT +10 by erock

OC-Crackhouse.com

Long time and continuing AusFX staff and mates have started up a website that is dedicated to overclocking and so on. If your a keen overclocker and want to learn off some pros or you just wanna have a chat about computer stuff... Go check out OC-Crackhouse.com there looking at getting some more members join the forums. As long as you keep coming to AusFX.com, and posting its all good. hehe but yeh just giving a shoutout to these guys who need a bit of a kick start!

Posted: November. 06, 2004 @ 11:29PM GMT +10 by erock

R480/R430 taped out

The Inquirer reports that the R480/R430 from ATI have been taped out and are now running... heres a clip from the story: R480 is ATI's December PCIe update while R430 will be a cheaper core that will replace some of the slower X800 cards. We still have to investigate the R430 but we see it as an NV41 competitor. As expected, thode two new PCIe only boys will have their Fire GL version codenamed R480 GL and R430 GL. We spotted one new card here RV410 GL that is nothing else than X700 based Fire GL card. Full Report

Posted: November. 06, 2004 @ 02:25PM GMT +10 by erock

ATI to fix Punkbuster problem in 4.12

MANY OF MY gaming friends told me that there is a serious problem with 4.10 drivers and games that use this tool. Many servers are using it to prevent cheats during a game play. The list of affected games appears to be quite long. Call of Duty, America's Army, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam, Enemy Territory, Far Cry, Joint Operations, MOH Pacific Assault, Quake 3 Arena, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, RTCW, Soldier of Fortune II and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow are affected. In a usual scenario, a game will hang after half an hour of playing and up to now the only solution is to downgrade to earlier drivers. Catalyst 4.9 doesn’t have a problem with this tool as far as we know. ATI said that it is aware of the incompatibility and has already finished a beta driver that is fixing the problem. ATI is still testing it and will release the beta as soon as its ready enough. This bug will be fixed in Catalyst 4.12 - that will come in early to middle of December. While we are talking about Catalyst we should mention that Rage 3D will have an IRC chat with ATI's Matthew Tippett, a software manager for Linux to answer your questions. This will take place on Thursday Nov 11 at 4-5 pm EST. Source: The Inquirer

Posted: November. 06, 2004 @ 02:22PM GMT +10 by erock

Latest hardware reviews

ABIT Radeon 9600 XT 256MB Video Card (R9600XT-VIO) ASUS P4S800D-E ASUS K8N-E Deluxe Crucial Radeon X800 PRO 256MB Corsair 1GByte DDR2 Twin2X Matched Memory Pair Enjoy

Posted: November. 06, 2004 @ 12:57PM GMT +10 by BenSW

ATI’s Geometry Instancing not enough..

Microsoft’s Certification Puts Graphics Innovations Under Fire At least some NVIDIA’s ForceWare drivers cannot pass certain WHQL tests as Microsoft’s Display Compatibility Test does not pass pixel shaders 3.0 along with some other pixel shaders tests on the drivers version 66.81. Earlier this year Microsoft’s test rejected another important technology – Geometry Instancing, but on ATI’s CATALYST drivers. OEMs Beg for WHQL The Microsoft Display Compatibility Test kit is intended for testing display adapters and chipsets along with their drivers in order to verify their compliance with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems and Microsoft DirectX 7, DirectX 8.1a and DirectX 9.0c specifications, which means that the test determines whether one or another hardware/software feature functions properly. Typically DCT is required to pass WHQL validation, which is important for OEMs and large system builders as well as end-users. Read more

Posted: November. 06, 2004 @ 09:00AM GMT +10 by BenSW

AMD to Follow Intel Corp. with SSE3 in 2

Future AMD Athlon 64 microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices that are scheduled for release in early 2005 will support SSE3 technology, a capability that is now available only on Intel Pentium 4 processors. Read more here

Posted: November. 05, 2004 @ 04:37PM GMT +10 by flawmatt

nForce 6.14 Beta

There are new nForce drivers available, version 6.14, consider this as beta and use at your own risk! Windows XP users must install service pack 1, at a minimum, without you cant use USB2.0. Installation of DirectX 9.0 or higher is required in order to use NVMixer. This nForce Win2K/XP driver package contains: - Audio driver version 4.56 - Audio utility version 4.50 - Win2K ethernet driver version 4.58 - WinXP ethernet driver version 4.58 - Network management tools version 4.58 - GART driver version 4.40 - Memory controller driver version 4.40 - SMBus driver version 4.46 - Installer version 4.57 - Win2K IDE 2.7 driver version 4.70 - WinXP IDE 2.7 driver version 4.70 - WinXP IDE in-the-box driver version 4.70 Download

Posted: November. 05, 2004 @ 03:34PM GMT +10 by erock

PS2 Sales Triple With New Slimline

Sales of Sony's PlayStation 2 console edged ever closer to the seven million unit mark in the UK last week, as the launch of the slimline redesigned PS2 console - dubbed PStwo by the media - drove a threefold increase in weekly hardware sales. Almost 50,000 units of the redesigned console are believed to have been snapped off shelves all over the UK when it launched last Friday, pushing the PS2 way out ahead of Microsoft's rival Xbox. PlayStation 2 enjoyed well over double the sales of Xbox last week despite a gain for the Xbox which saw its sales picking up by seven per cent. The GameCube barely registers on the scale, though, being outsold by a factor of 17 to one by the PS2. Nintendo is rather more successful in the UK handheld market, with the GBA SP experiencing a 31 per cent sales rise and coming in ahead of the Xbox on the chart, if both handhelds and home consoles are considered together. While the launch of the new model of PS2 is obviously a key factor in driving sales of the console, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas factor has to be considered as well -with Rockstar North's PS2-exclusive game driving more money through tills in the UK last weekend than any film has ever clocked up at the box office on itsng weekend here. Source: Game Industry

Posted: November. 05, 2004 @ 09:22AM GMT +10 by erock

Intel P4 3.8ghz released soon

It's probably the last increase in this processor's clock speed In two weeks, Intel will increase the clock speed of its Pentium 4 processor for possibly the last time as the company heads into a new era for its desktop processor designs. The Pentium 4 570 processor is a 3.8-GHz chip with 1MB of Level 2 cache. It will feature the fastest clock speed of any Pentium 4 processor for an indefinite period of time, and will lead Intel's mainstream desktop segment when it is released on November 15, an Intel spokesperson confirmed Monday. Read full article @ PCWorld

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 06:10PM GMT +10 by erock

NVIDIA SLI boards edge closer

AN EMAIL filed over at HardOCP has information on the latest shipping date for nForce 4 boards with SLI capability. The email from mainboard maker MSI states that MSI will be one of the first two companies to market with nForce 4 SLI boards. Boards using the standard nForce 4 chipset will be available at the end of November, according to the company, whilst products using the SLI variant - including the K8N diamond and K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI will hit retail shops in the middle of December. This ties in with what our own tech-mole, Fudzilla, has been hearing on the Taiwanese Beer-Vine. Nvidia is currently showcasing SLI on Intel Tumwater platforms, using dual-Xeon processors. Whilst these are scoring pretty hot performance figures, we fully expect the AMD/Nvidia solution to hit an extra 25-30% performance over these rigs when equipped with a single FX55. Source: HardOCP | The Inquirer

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 06:06PM GMT +10 by erock

6800 Ultra/GT finally available

NVIDIA PROMISED us that its shortage of Geforce 6800 Ultra and GT cards is about to become a thing of the past. Nvidia is fulfilling its promises as now it's not that hard to buy them in etailer as it was. We are of course talking about AGP cards and 6800 GT PCIs cards only. One shop in particular was keen to say that it is getting Geforce 6800 Ultra and especially GTs on a weekly basis. Overclockers UK has quite a few in stock. You can see that there are quite a few GTs available while you might have to wait for Ultras for a few days. Source: The Inquirer

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 06:04PM GMT +10 by erock

ATI’s Next-Gen Product ‘R520’ Taped out

ATI Technologies’ next-generation high-end visual processing unit code-named R520 has been taped out, reports Beyond3D web-site citing analysts from Goldman Sachs research firm who had presumably been at ATI’s Analyst Day last week. The news confirms ATI is on-track to launch its new high-end product in the first half of 2005. A high-ranking source close to ATI Technologies confirmed X-bit labs that the chip had been taped out, which means that the completed design of the processor has been sent to an ATI’s foundry partner. The source said the chip would be made using 90nm process technology, presumably at TSMC, and will be launched commercially in the first half of next year. Not much is known about the architecture and capabilities of the code-named R520 product that was initially referred as the R500. What is clear at the moment is that the new graphics chip will sport Shader Model 3.0 – pixel shaders 3.0 and vertex shaders 3.0 – bringing additional programming capabilities to ATI’s graphics processors as well as some other innovations. ATI’s architecture will not resemble that of the previous generation products and NVIDIA’s GeForce 6 architecture known as NV4x, particularly ATI will implement efficient flow-control, a crucial feature for pixel shaders 3.0, that will not bring speed penalty it does on existing SM3.0 hardware, according to sources. Read full article at X-Bit

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 06:02PM GMT +10 by erock

Flatout Demo released!

The guys over at Bugbear Entertainment have released a 167mb demo from their upcoming racing title, FlatOut. Including a couple tracks to burn some rubber in, you can grab this bad boy from the following mirros: Nzone Fileshack 3dgamers Enjoy.

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 05:13PM GMT +10 by BenSW

Apple shuts down iPodDownload

IPOD MAKER Apple has come down hard on a man who made an add-in that allowed file-sharing on iPods. iPodDownload's creator has stopped distributing the iPodDownload software after a visit from Apple lawyers who applied pressure. Sylvain Demongeot said on the iPodDownload Web site that Apple threatened his web-hosting company and his site was held hostage for an hour until he agreed to withdraw the plug-in. The handy little iPodDownload add-on enabled iPod owners to copy songs from the music player to an iTunes library. No harm in that shurely? Just in case the visit from the briefs was not enough, Apple has re-written its latest version of its online jukebox software, iTunes 4.7 to disable the plug-in. Aapple spinsters admitted that it did break compatibility with iPodDownload but didn't say why reducing the functions of iPods was a good thing. The firm has often used new versions of iTunes to disable support for third-party software that add file-sharing abilities and maybe they are worried about being sued by the record industry. For those after more positive iPod news, Apple enthused that the iTunes 4.7 which was released comes with features such as support for the iPod Photo and the ability to find and delete duplicate tracks in a music library. But no filesharing. Source: The Inquirer

Posted: November. 04, 2004 @ 01:39PM GMT +10 by flawmatt

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