Tech News November 2005

SilverStone Strider ST60F 600W @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Saturday, November 12, 2005

“SilverStone proved they were capable of providing a high end power supply with the ST65ZF. Their new Strider ST60F is their first modular power supply offering. Think it’s good? Of course it is.”

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Mushkin Redline XP4000 2GB
techPowerUp! :: Saturday, November 12, 2005

Mushkin has been well known for producing top-notch overclocker’s memory. Now they have released a 2 GB kit which features their brand-new reengineered heatspreaders. Even though it uses 6 ns rated memory chips from Infineon we could overclock them to 280 MHz, a great result for a 2 GB kit.

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Interview with Microsoft’s Jason Anderson @ Bytesector
Bytesector :: Saturday, November 12, 2005
“At X’05 Canada , Bytesector’s Anubha Momin and Leo Law had an opportunity to chat with Jason Anderson, Xbox Canada’s Group Marketing Manager. Here’s what he had to say about the Xbox 360, Xbox Live and the direction the Big M is taking in this next generation of Console Wars.”

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HEXUS.reviews :: Leadtek PX7800 GTX TDH MyVIVO Extreme 256MB and SAPPHIRE RADEON X1800 XT 512MB
Hexus :: Saturday, November 12, 2005

What we’ve learned today is that both ATI and NVIDIA’s partners know how to put a decent package together. Both cards, although expensive, offer something the other doesn’t, and neither is a bad buy. That’s not a review cop-out; it’s the plain truth.

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Evercool Ice Storm Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Saturday, November 12, 2005

“Overall Evercool Ice Storm is a nice HDD cooler although it can’t deliver very high performance, but it is still acceptable. The main advantage of the Ice Storm is its affordable price. With only $20, you can get a temperature monitoring plus cross flow HDD cooler, which is definitely a value buy.”

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DH Review: MGE XG Dragon Aluminium Case
Driver Heaven :: Saturday, November 12, 2005
We have reviewed several of XG’s products before here on Driverheaven, two power supplies – the MGE Xtreme Gamer Vortec 500w and the XG Magnum 500w plus one case; the MGE XG Quantum. Now we have had the opportunity to look at one of their newest case creations the XG Dragon aluminium.

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Seasonic S12-600W PSU @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Saturday, November 12, 2005
“Amidst all the reviews of flashy items with power and style at the forefront of their design, it can often be the case that a Plain Jane decent performer is overlooked. While the appearance of the Seasonic S12-600 isn’t going to win it any awards, its features and performance certainly will. 80% efficiency is not a common thing from the majority of PSU’s in the market place today, and neither is a 600w power rating.”

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1GB Apple iPod Shuffle
Big Bruin :: Saturday, November 12, 2005

Quote: The Shuffle may no longer be the latest product in the iPod line up, but as new models such as the iPod Nano and iPod Video have been rolled out, the Shuffle has gained a new appeal. The features and performance are still the same as when the Shuffle was launched, but now it sports a more wallet friendly price that makes it worth a second look.

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Jou Jye 480W SLi PSU Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Friday, November 11, 2005

check it out“I would recommend the JJ-480AUBA to those who do not overclock their SLi rig and do not have an army of peripherals to go along with it. Business users who put a lot of hard disks and RAID disks might also find this PSU useful because the high PFC rating and stable power output. Other than that, those who want a PSU good enough to power their SLi rigs without drawing or wasting additional power, this should warrant your serious consideration. Users who don’t suffer from overheating problems should also consider purchasing this PSU. The Jou Jye JJ-480AUBA is also great for those who love silent computing as its fan is so silent you wonder if its even switched on!”

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FlexiGlow CyberSnipa Gamepad Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Friday, November 11, 2005

” If you hit a key on your keyboard and the same key on the game pad, your computer gets the exact same signal. Saying that “functions are automatically mapped” implies that the game pad is doing something special. ”

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Blue Laser Wars – Blu-ray Vs. HD DVD @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Friday, November 11, 2005
We’ve been challenged numerous times to give an “educated” guess as to how the blue laser war will end, and when. It has come to a point where it is no longer about the technology nor the consumer. It is about who has the most to lose.

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WinFast 6150K8MA @ t-break
t-break :: Friday, November 11, 2005
We’ve already talked about the integrated video features in the chipset article, but to put it briefly, you get a SM3.0 capable Direct-X 9.0 GPU with PureVideo technology. FoxConn has a DSUB connector on the back panel and an S-Video TV-Out cable is included in the package, however, the header for connecting the TV-Out module is missing.

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Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT with Silent-Pipe II @ HardwareZoom
Hardware Zoom :: Friday, November 11, 2005

Quote – Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT, now with Silent-Pipe II technology, is a fanless solution for the enthusiastic gamers who want performance without noise. Unlike the traditional heatpipe cooling solution, Silent-Pipe II has a front-flow thermal module to create a natural system convection. Therefore a well-ventilated casing is necessary for the hot air to be removed by the PSU and CPU fans.

Even without any cooling fan, we manage to overclock the card from 500/1000 to 552/1200 with rock stability. The idle temperature was 47.2 degree and 73.3 degree when loaded. This is well within safety level but you should ensure that your casing is well-ventilated too.

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Foxconn WinFast 761GXK8MC-S Motherboard
PCStats :: Friday, November 11, 2005
“The Foxconn WinFast 761GXK8MC-S motherboard is based upon a new chipset from SiS which has a couple media-friendly assets. The SiS 761GX chipset supports all current AMD Athlon64 or Sempron processors, in this case on the socket 754 formfactor. The SiS 761GX is an integrated chipset which features SiS’ Mirage 1 graphics core. Elsewhere on the WinFast 761GXK8MC-S motherboard are two DDR memory sockets for up to a maximum of 2GB of PC3200 DDR memory. Onboard goodies are kind of thin outside of the integrated graphics, with just 10/100 LAN, SATA, and audio standing out. The microATX board includes one PCI Express x16 slot and three 32 bit PCI slots.”

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ASUS Z63A Whitebook Laptop Review @ Legit Reviews
Legit Reviews :: Friday, November 11, 2005
“The performance capabilities of the Centrino package are amazing. The ASUS Z63A is as fast as my overclocked Pentium-4 desktop in almost all computing tasks. The integrated graphics performed flawlessly in office tasks and DVD playback, and will run any games except for the most 3D-intensive titles… ”

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PimpRig Review // Das Keyboard – UberGeeks Only
PimpRig :: Friday, November 11, 2005
We have a new review up on a supah-leet keyboard that n00bs need not try to use. Here is a snip from the review: “The biggest changes made to the keyboard have included adding various shorcut buttons and/or changing the shape of the keyboard including splitting it and angling the sides to make “ergonomic” models. These changes while very helpful to some are still just minor aesthetic tweaks most of the time. Today we will be taking a look at a keyboard which I would consider to be the first successful major overhaul to the keyboard. The Das Keyboard is a special keyboard in that it offers functional changes which can also lead to the improvement of your typing skills.”

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Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Athlon64 Heatsink
Frosty Tech :: Friday, November 11, 2005

“The Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 heatsink is a mainstream cooler for AMD Athlon64 and Sempron socket 754/939/940 processors. The heatsink is completely made of copper components for the metals’ high thermal conductivity properties, and utilizes a Panaflo FBL08A12M fan for its lower noise generation. As with most of Thermaltake’s offerings, the model A1838 “Silent Boost K8” is quite affordably priced, although it is absolutely not a “silent” heatsink.”

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OCZ PowerStream 520watt ATX Computer Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Friday, November 11, 2005

“To be completely realistic, this in my mind is pretty well as close to a perfect power supply as you can get. It looks great, the build quality is absolutely immaculate and the aesthetics are surprisingly good for “just a power supply”. When you also kick in the fact that it has three adjustable voltage nails and rock steady power production and you have a no brainer for your next power supply purchase.”

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PrimoChill ICE UV Blue Water Cooling Fluid
Big Bruin :: Friday, November 11, 2005

Quote: PrimoChill ICE performs as advertised, with a noticeably lower temperature in our test system. Given the slick oily feel, and the fact that PrimoChill ICE lived up to the claims regarding lower temperatures, I am inclined to believe that it will also live up to the claims of longer pump life and reduced internal build up in any water cooling system.

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Review Update: X1600XT and F.E.A.R. results
Driver Heaven :: Friday, November 11, 2005
It was brought to our attention today over at Beyond3d that renaming FEAR.exe to pretty much anything else results in a performance increase on ATI hardware. (Thanks to PC Format for initially finding the bug). We tested this out and there doesn?t seem to be any IQ loss in FEAR with the renamed EXE. Therefore we’ve re-run the 1280 2aa 8af test shown above and here are the revised results.

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Fighting Commoditization Of The Encoder Business
Designtechnica :: Friday, November 11, 2005
‘In October 2005, Tandberg announced its intent to acquire Goldpocket Interactive. Goldpocket had been in play for at least two years, so this acquisition brings to an end much speculation regarding possible suitors.

More importantly, this acquisition offers two interesting insights about the technology market in general and the encoding market in particular.’

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World Exclusive picture from HEXUS of the forthcoming NVIDIA “TBA”
Hexus :: Friday, November 11, 2005
On Wednesday 5th October 2005 (coincidentally the launch day of the ATi RADEON X1800XT…) NVIDIA helpfully informed HEXUS of the new UK pricing for its GeForce 6xxx and 7xxx series products in the email detailed below.

What was interesting from this email was the omission of the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra… but of particular interest was the first item on the list…

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OCZ Rally Dual Channel USB Flash Drives Review Posted!
Tech ARP :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

Quote – “OCZ Technology is the latest manufacturer to join the flash drive party. Their brand-new OCZ Rally flash drives boast a really slim profile and dual-channel performance.

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News – X-Micro Mini DisGo
Techniz.co.uk :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

The X-Micro Mini DisGo will provide the needs for home and even office users. The Mini DisGo sports an aluminum case with lots of advantages. It was specially design for portability, performance and reliability for storage and even backup purposes. The X-Micro Mini DisGo high speed and high capacity drives are ideal for any storage need, including digital music, movies and photographs. The transfer speed for the Mini DisGo is very fast during our testing. Beside this 20GB model that we reviewed, it also available with the size of 5GB, 30GB and 40GB to meet your needs.

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Intel Roadmap Update @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

“Gone are the days when processor names were something as simple as their clock speeds. If you wanted a nice and powerful 3GHz processor, you simply asked for a P4 3.0GHz and that was it. Ever since Intel has decided to revamp its naming conventions, the confusion makes you wonder if the whole idea of renaming was a smart move.”

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News: XFX’s Revo64 Serial ATA RAID card
The Tech Report :: Thursday, November 10, 2005
SUPPORT FOR MULTI-DRIVE arrays in core-logic chipsets has made RAID more accessible to enthusiasts and mainstream users alike. Of course, high-end motherboards have supported RAID for a while, but these days it’s difficult to find even a mid-range mobo that doesn’t support multi-drive arrays. Heck, RAID can even be found on budget motherboards costing well under $100. And there are plenty of RAID add-in cards, too.

The market may be brimming with multi-drive goodness, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for something new. You see, most affordable RAID solutions, be they add-in cards or motherboard implementations, are software-based solutions and lack dedicated onboard memory. Most stick to supporting a mix of RAID levels 0, 1, 10/0+1, and 5, as well. We haven’t seen much in the way of RAID 3 or hardware acceleration, and that’s where XFX’s new Revo64 comes in. Based on technology from Netcell, the Revo64 combines byte-level striping with hardware-accelerated parity calculations and onboard memory to provide a potentially potent mix of performance and fault tolerance with as few as three hard drives. What’s more, the Revo works its magic without requiring drivers, giving the card instant compatibility with newer versions of both Windows and Linux.

At first glance, the Revo64 looks too good to be true, especially considering its affordable street price. Does it live up to the hype? Join us as we explore the technology behind XFX’s Revo64 and take an in-depth look at its performance.

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Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 Rev3 @ InsaneTek
InsaneTek :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

“Arctic Cooling has done it again. The NV Silencer 5 Rev3 made for the Geforce 7800 series is an excellent cooler that performs in dead silence. It also allowed a slightly higher overclock too!”

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Cooler Master AquaGate Mini R120
Overclockers New Zealand :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

No filling is required as the unit comes pre-filled. No cutting lengths of tubing either, it’s pre-assembled. No fancy sensors or fiddly power connectors are required either, with the whole unit driven from a single 3-pin-fan connector, like a conventional heatsink’s fan. If the performance of this unit is up to par, you’d have to say it’s a compelling way to get liquid-cooling to the masses.

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NorthWater Xtreme Xchangers Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

Quote: ” the Xchangers allowed me to maintain consistently low temperatures while running my fans at lower speeds. The Xchangers also reduced the tendency of my CPU to become hot in response to elevated GPU loads ”

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Antec Minuet II Micro ATX Case @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Thursday, November 10, 2005

Quote: “The Not long ago I got a Biostar Micro ATX motherboard combo from Geeks.com for review, after the review was done I kinda said, ‘Ok, now what do I do with a Micro ATX motherboard, considering I don’t really have a case made for Micro ATX form factor?’ Well the folks over at Antec solved that problem for me; they sent me a very nice and sleek looking mATX form factor case for review. Problem solved! Today I have for review the Minuet II from Antec, like all Antec cases it is well designed and refined in nature, not very flashy, but not dull either in any way. When I got the Minuet II, I looked at it and said this might make a great Home Theater PC case, its small size is great, and it looks very sophisticated. A while ago I did a review of the Silverstone Lascala series HTPC cases, and being a full ATX case it was rather large for an HTPC, but functional and good looking nonetheless. I wanted something smaller from my HTPC, and I think the Minuet II will fit the bill very nicely. Let’s check it out shall we?”

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