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September 2008 |
Interesting Forum Threads
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Tuesday, 30-September-2008 16:57:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Tuesday night is usually our busiest night in the forums. Come join the fun. :)
Thermaltake Reveals the XPRESSAR RCS100 Phase-Change Cooling in Overclocking & Hardware.
Good games just about to come out! in Games.
Changes for daylight savings in Business & Enterprise Computing.
[PROJECT] .:BLACK:. - Watercooled Silverstone SG02-F in Modding.
Project: Daft Punk in Modding.
Cygnus X1. An improvised case build? in Modding.
Idea for "free" data transfer between ISPs in Networking, Telephony and Internet.
RAID controllers useful for home storage arrays in Storage & Backup.
Inspiron 13 review - One for students or road warriors in Portable & Small Form Factor.
Crysis Warhead drivers/performance in Video Cards & Monitors.
Showcase your Mac(s) in Apple Hardware & Software.
Windows 7 in Windows Operating Systems.
Oldest version of Windows you've seen still in use in Windows Operating Systems.
Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring in Motoring.
$30m V8 Supercar deal to go ahead in Motoring.
Top Gear Australia Premiere September 29 in Entertainment.
China's Quality Control in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
US Economy in Crisis in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
OMG <$100 night vision goggles in The Pub.
Response to Hitler on Hobart in The Pub.
SoakOps assassination and spy game in The Pub.
Tuesday Afternoon #2
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Tuesday, 30-September-2008 14:34:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Voting for the September OCAU Iron Musician is also under way now, so go check out the choons. Hello and welcome to this months Iron Musician Voting. As it is every month, we had a mixture of pumping D&B , some huge alternative progressive tracks, acoustic entries and even some modern Jazz.
Sabretooth noticed that, if you're like me and one of the elite 2% of humanity with red hair, you can visit Adelaide zoo for free for the next week or so, to highlight the plight of orangutans. Hopefully they won't make you part of the breeding program.
I had no idea this was going on, but Chris sent word of a successful private space flight by a company called SpaceX. Their Falcon 1 launch vehicle has achieved orbit on September 28, becoming the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth. There's a YouTube video of the launch here.
Your name could be orbiting the Earth soon too, on NASA's Glory satellite. Participants will receive a printable certificate from NASA and have their name recorded on a microchip that will become part of the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is Nov. 1, 2008.
HWZone compared two AMD 790GX boards from Foxconn and MSI. AMD's new 790GX chipset comes paired with a new Southbridge and a feature that's touted to improve the overclocking on Phenom processors. For enthusiasts looking for a quick and dirty CrossFireX setup, this seems like great news. We check out the facts with two motherboards from Foxconn and MSI. PCPerspective have their thoughts on the new chipset too.
Meanwhile InsideHW compared ATi Radeon HD 4670 vs. nVIDIA GeForce 9500GT in the budget arena. From launching of GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT and their price drop, nVIDIA did very little for this category of users.
ArsTechnica reckon Windows 7 will go public in late October. Attendees at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference next month are in for a treat: everyone going will get a 160GB hard disk with a copy of all the software on show, including Windows 7.
A Judge has ordered a new trial for an American woman convicted of pirating music on the internet, overturning the previous awarding of US$222,000 in damages to record companies. "Her status as a consumer who was not seeking to harm her competitors or make a profit does not excuse her behaviour. But it does make the award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages unprecedented and oppressive."
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 30-September-2008 13:37:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some news snippets from est:
Samsung's started making 16gb DDR3 modules, so perhaps now my dreams of a 64gb ramdisk are a little closer to fruition.
Just as I was thinking about upgrading from cable to ADSL2 it looks like Japan's one-upped us all again and are set to get synchronous 1Gb/s broadband to homes, more info here, discussion here.
Nintendo look to be releasing another DS re-jig I'll probably buy for some inexplicable reason even though I already have perfectly functional DS-lite, info here, here, here and here, discussion here.
UCLA maths nerds have found a new phenomenally huge (13 million digit) prime number.
Monday Night Reviews
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Monday, 29-September-2008 23:22:44 (GMT +10) - by Rezin
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Graphics Cards:
HIS Radeon HD4850 IceQ4 TurboX on Overclocker Cafe.
Palit Radeon 4850 Sonic on Pureoverclock.
AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB and Guru3D.
MSI GeForce 9800 GT 512MB on TweakTown.
Motherboards:
Intel Desktop Board DG45ID on Techgage.
EVGA 790i SLI FTW on Overclockers Club.
Foxconn Digitalife EFA on Pro-Clockers.
Asus Maximus II Formula on Bit-tech.
Cases:
Lian-Li XB-01 Xbox 360 Case on techPowerUp.
Antec Mini P180 on Benchmark Reviews.
Thermaltake Spedo on Bjorn3D.
Games:
PURE (PC, Xbox 360) on AnandTech.
Crysis Warhead (PC) on Slashdot.
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization (PC) on IGN.
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Limited Edition (PS3) on IGN.
Gears of War 2 Hands-on Preview (Xbox 360) on Bit-tech.
Storage:
Verbatim 500GB Portable Hard Drive on InsideHW.
Seagate FreeAgent|XTreme 1TB on Bit-tech.
Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UT+B on Virtual Hideout.
Western Digital RE3 on The Tech Report.
Portable:
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 on Laptop Magazine.
Sony VAIO VGN-TT198UBX on Laptop Magazine.
Navman S30 3D Sat-Nav on TrustedReviews.
Google turned 10 years old on the weekend, with more info here. So, that makes them only a few months older than OCAU. Which is a little depressing when you think about it. :)
Voting for August's OCAU Iron Photographer is now open. The theme was "Floating" and there's some great entries this month.
GoN went to Experimenta Playground. Our resident artist, holo` (Steven Perdikis) recently went along to the Experimenta Playground art exhibition currently visiting Adelaide, where every exhibit focusses on the concept of 'play'. They also have info about why the game Silent Hill: Homecoming has been refused classification and is therefore effectively banned from Australia.
TweakGuides have a Crysis Warhead guide posted. For the most part, tweaking Crysis Warhead and Crysis Wars is almost identical to Crysis. However there are a range of differences that I felt needed to be spelled out, so I've put together this brief Crysis Warhead Tweak Guide - to be used in conjunction with the original Crysis Tweak Guide. It should give you everything you need to know to get Crysis Warhead up to speed on your machine.
Kev sent in a YouTube video where that Hitler video we've seen remixed a million times is commenting on broadband in Hobart. In your area in Hobart.. Telstra Bigpond is the only broadband available to you.. Beware, strong language! And Nazis. :)
Bjorn3D wonder if SAS RAID setups, popular in enterprise systems, are cost-effective for enthusiasts. Although SAS HDD's are primarly aimed for the enterprise market whose main goal is to achieve the highest performance, the fact that you can find these drives in speeds of up to 15,000 RPM makes them a good candidate for enthusiasts as well.
HardCoreWare checked out budget overclocked CPUs, namely the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz) taking on the Intel Celeron Dual Core E1200 (1.6 GHz). The result of the overclocking brings each CPU well past 3 GHz (with the Celeron running at more than double its rated clock speed), so the battle becomes much more intriguing.
On an even smaller scale, XbitLabs consider the Intel Atom 230, Intel Atom 330 and VIA Nano L2100 CPUs for "nettops" and similar inexpensive power-efficient systems. These solutions and similar thin and light notebooks with little computational power but long battery life turned out very demanded and quickly became very popular.
China have had their first spacewalk. Astronaut Zhai Zhigang has become the first Chinese man to walk in space, clambering out of China's Shenzhou VII space craft in a technological feat that Beijing wants the world to marvel about.
Spore has been hit with a lawsuit related to the DRM included with the game. Spore publisher Electronic Arts told buyers that there are anti-piracy safeguards but didn't advise people the SecuROM program it used "is essentially a virus that installs itself without warning," the lawsuit alleges.
Some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 28-September-2008 03:21:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards:
Abit IX38 Quad GT LGA775 board on TechWareLabs.
Biostar TPower I45 LGA775 board on PCStats.
Gigabyte EP45-Extreme LGA775 board on TrustedReviews.
Asrock K10N78-1394 AM2+ board on Pro-Clockers.
Intel Atom/ECS 945GCT-D on TBreak.
Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H AM2+ board on LegionHW.
Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45 LGA775 board on XSReviews.
DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS LGA775 board on XbitLabs.
Abit AN78GS AM2+ board on TechWareLabs.
Foxconn P45A-S LGA775 board on HWLogic.
Input Etc:
OCZ Dominatrix Laser Gaming Mouse on OCClub.
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard on Techgage.
Cases:
Zalman GS1000 Full-Tower Chassis on Techgage.
NZXT Rogue SFF on Pro-Clockers.
Power Supplies:
OCZ 1000W EliteXStream on CPU3D.
Be Quiet Dark Power 1200W on DriverHeaven.
Silver Power SP-S850 on Bit-Tech.
Misc:
Trendnet TEW-672GR Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router on XbitLabs.
Crucial 32GB SSD Drive & External 2.5-inch Drive Storage Kit on ThinkComputers.
Saturday Evening Reviews
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Saturday, 27-September-2008 18:29:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ85 46in Plasma TV on TrustedReviews.
Olympus LS-10 Digital Recorder on TrustedReviews.
Antec MicroFusion 350 Remote control on NordicHW.
Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray on TrustedReviews.
COWON iAUDIO 7 MP3 Player on TheTechLounge.
JVC Everio GZ-HD40 120GB Camcorder on DigitalTrends.
Sony Walkman NWZ-B133F (1GB) on HWZone.
ASUS My Cinema-PE9400 COMBO PC TV Card on Virtual-Hideout.
Logitech Z-500 Wireless Notebook Speakers on TrustedReviews.
TVonics MDR-250 Freeview Receiver on TrustedReviews.
22" HP Debranded DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor on RBMods.
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Earphones on TechPowerUp.
Software:
Spore PC game on TrustedReviews.
Crysis Warhead PC game on TrustedReviews.
Spore PC game on GamingNexus.
Flat Out Ultimate Carnage PC game on GamePyre.
Spore PC game on Tweaktown.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning PC game on DriverHeaven.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning PC game on YouGamers.
Cooling:
Thermalright True Black 120 on HWLogic.
Zalman CNPS9300 AT CPU Cooler on PCPerspective.
Antec Notebook Cooler to go & Notebook Cooler on Mikhailtech.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
GELID Silent 12 TC & PWM Fan on OCOnline.
Asus Triton 85 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler on TechPowerUp.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel/AMD Processor Cooler on Tweaknews.
Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler on LegitReviews.
Glacialtech Igloo 7321 Silent E Heatsink on Frostytech.
Thermaltake RamOrb Memory Cooler on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
Asus EAH4870x2 TOP on CPU3D.
Foxconn 9500GT-256FR3 OC on FutureLooks.
Sapphire HD 4670 on Hi-TechReviews.
eVGA GeForce GTX 280 HC16 Hydro Copper on Guru3D.
ASUS GeForce GTX 260 TOP on Tweaktown.
BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 OCX Maxcore on Bit-Tech.
BFG GTX260 MaxCore and Zotac GTX 260 Amp2! on DriverHeaven.
Gainward Radeon HD 4850 Golden Sample on Tweaktown.
BFG GTX-260 OCX MaxCore Core 216 on Bjorn3D.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB on ThinkComputers.
ASUS EN9800GT 512mb PCI-E on OC3D.
HIS HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512 MB on TechPowerUp.
Zotac 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition on HWZone.
Motorsport
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Saturday, 27-September-2008 16:41:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Apparently there's some football thing on this weekend, but if you've been keeping an eye on our 2008 Motorsport Calendar you'll know there's two interesting motorsport things happening as well.
Firstly, Formula One is racing in Singapore for the first time ever. More interesting is that it's the first ever night race, held under lights, in F1's history. Keep on track of things with this thread in the Motoring forum.
Secondly, in the world of MotoGP, the championship will probably be decided at Motegi this weekend. Unfortunately it seems the current World Champion, Casey Stoner from Australia, will not be able to retain the title this year unless Valentino Rossi has some kind of disaster (which we'd certainly hope he doesn't!).
Check your local guides..
Interesting Forum Threads
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Friday, 26-September-2008 21:03:04 (GMT +10) - by Rezin
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Here's a few interesting threads for a quiet Friday night (or a lazy Saturday morning):
AFL Premiership Season 2008 in Major Sporting Events.
Metallica Death Magnetic - Discuss the music not Sound Quality! in Entertainment (TV, Movies, Music, Books, etc).
Caution to wc users in Extreme Cooling.
Ferrari Challenge - The Review ... Note: 2.00 patch now out! in Sony Consoles.
Folding Farm pictures in Team OCAU - Distributed Computing.
YOUR favourite racecar's - ever! in Motoring.
New toys - RadioPoppers in Photography.
Wipeout HD in Sony Consoles.
The Simple Snacks Sticky Thread! in Geek Recipes.
Tech is anoying me atm in Overclocking and Hardware.
Opinions on Dell 2709 for colour work? in Photography.
Inside a North Korean arcade in Games.
I knew this was going to happen to Ubuntu in Other Operating Systems.
China Launches Shenzhou 7 for First EVA in Science.
Jack Thompson (anti-gaming zealot) recommended for disbarment in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
What to look for in a 2nd hand road bike? and learner permit tips please! in Motoring.
Showcase Your Mac(s) in Apple Hardware & Software.
Folding with ATI - how? in Team OCAU - Distributed Computing.
Soundwave Festival 2009 [Lineup revealed] in Entertainment (TV, Movies, Music, Books, etc).
Do you shred your documents? in Lifestyle.
What do you name your drives? in Storage & Backup.
Overrated Games in Games.
Easiest way to clean fish tank? in Pets & Animals.
Large meteor and earth in Science.
Surge protection power board warranty and energy rating? in Electronics.
Best single slot vga options in Team OCAU - Distributed Computing.
Odds of choosing same card from two decks of cards? in The Pub.
A few people sent in this clever youtube page about a new Wii game.
If you find yourself drowsy at work, perhaps you need a quick spell in a snooze pod. After no more than 30 minutes, the worker is woken as the chair moves back to an upright position and a combination of gentle vibration and pale lighting rouses them from their sleep. Awesome.
But if you're like me and wish you could just skip the whole sleep thing entirely, NewScientist say it might not be far off. Modafinil is just the first of a wave of new lifestyle drugs that promise to do for sleep what the contraceptive pill did for sex - unshackle it from nature. Imagine a prolific author in the future sometime. If people compare him to, say, Isaac Asimov, they'll have to bear in mind that Asimov spent (presumably) about a third of his life asleep. How barbaric!
Meanwhile, Jack Thompson has been disbarred, according to an article on Kotaku. Is it finally game over for Florida lawyer and violent video game opponent Jack Thompson? Judgment has been entered in the case that started last year and came to a head when Judge Dava Tunis recommended permanent disbarment for the bombastic, showboating law man.
Apparently Australia is in the grip of an illegal downloading epidemic. And they can just as easily download music and movies, although Mark and Kim generally restrict themselves to television shows. A cheap DivX-enabled DVD player lets them watch downloads on their television as easily as watching a movie, and at practically the same picture quality.
A grounded space tourist wants $21M in compensation. Daisuke Enomoto, 37, had completed training in Russia and planned to fly to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule in September 2006. But he was pulled from the three-member crew a month before liftoff, opening a seat for Dallas businesswoman Anousheh Ansari to fly instead.
Digit-Life looked at the MATLAB performance of AMD's Phenom processor. We'd like to draw your attention to the fact that we use results of the built-in MATLAB benchmark in their original raw form here, so don't be surprised to see most numbers below 1. The lower the result, the better.
GamesOnNet have some info on the AToM awards. The first of a series of four interviews looks behind the scenes to find out what exactly the Australian Teachers of Media awards are all about, who's eligible, what can be entered, and how they're starting to branch out into different formats.
InsideHW have a roundup of integrated sound cards. In the beginning of era of integrated sound cards, they weren’t for any recommendation because of many troubles. Even though the sound quality on certain models was satisfactory, by purchasing quality speakers, you could notice difference in sound quality compared to quality nonintegrated sound cards.
TechReport meanwhile compared budget video cards. So just how much money should you spend on a graphics card? The latest models for under 100 bucks might surprise you with their potency, both in games and HD video playback. We've lined up eight cards, ranging from $60 to $170, to see where the values are. Cheapskates everywhere, take note!
This is becoming a bit of an end-of-week tradition now. :) Beware, the last one is a bit huge!
    
    
AMD's Spider Platform
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Friday, 26-September-2008 13:46:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Dirtyd checked out AMD's Spider platform for us, in the shape of their Phenom 9850 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 video card and 790GX chipset with SB750 South Bridge. Lots of info and benchmarks in this 3 page review:
click for the review!
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 26-September-2008 13:35:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable:
Samsung X460 14.1in Notebook - Exclusive Hands-On Preview on TrustedReviews.
Packard Bell Compasseo 770 GPS on HWZone.
HTC Touch HD and HTC Touch 3G Preview smartphones on HWZone.
Dell Studio 15 notebook on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic ToughBook Executive CF-F8 notebook on TrustedReviews.
Sony VAIO Z Series - VGNZ17GN Explored notebook on HWZone.
From Tokyo With Love - Panasonic's Toughbook Refresh notebooks on HWZone.
Toshiba Qosmio G50-115 18.4in Entertainment Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Power Supply:
Rosewill RX630-S-B Xtreme Series 630W on BigBruin.
XIGMATEK NRP-MC851 850W on DriverHeaven.
QPower 1050W on XSReviews.
Antec NeoPower 650 Blue on OCModShop.
BFG Tech LS-680 680W on Big-Bruin.
Hiper Type R Mark-II 880W on Tweaktown.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX DDR2-1200 Dual Channel Kit on InsideHW.
Qimonda DDR2-800 4GB on Digit-Life.
OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Flex II 4 GB on TechPowerUp.
Cases:
GMC Noblesse AVC-S1 HTPC case on RBMods.
Antec Twelve Hundred on DriverHeaven.
Coolermaster HAF-932 Full Tower on CPU3D.
Storage:
QNAP TS-209 II Turbo NAS on Bit-Tech.
IStarUsa T5F-SS 3 1/2 SATA and SAS drive bay adapter on Bjorn3D.
OCZ Spyder 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive on Virtual-Hideout.
QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo Five Bay NAS on Tweaknews.
ineo NA303US External Hard Case and Docking Station on TechWareLabs.
Geek Recipes
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Thursday, 25-September-2008 18:50:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hungry? :) Some recent offerings from the Geek Recipes forum:
With the recent announcement of Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 Product Family, TGDaily take a first hand look at Photoshop CS4’s GPU acceleration capabilities. Recently, we had the opportunity to play with the beta version of CS4, code-named Stonehenge, for several days and we have to admit that we are deeply impressed. It is the first commercial software we are aware of that leverages GPU acceleration, which dramatically improves the performance of certain components of the application. Discussion on the forum.
AnandTech take a moment to debunk common power supply myths. Anyone building a computer system should eventually pose the question: How much power does the system actually require? This is an important consideration, since it's impossible to choose an appropriate power supply without actually knowing the demands of your system.
TweakTown examine Gigabyte’s latest Ultra Durable 3 motherboard technology. Tonight GIGABYTE is formerly taking the covers off its Ultra Durable 3 (UD3) motherboard technology here in Taipei at the famous Taipei 101 building, to a mass of international press and overclockers, who are in town for the 2008 GO OC overclocking event.
Chinese website Expreview review AMD’s upcoming Phenom 6500+ Black Edition. Kuma is the first (or last) dual core 65nm CPU in “Stars” family. Early in 2007 Kuma showed up in AMD roadmap. But after September AMD had made their decision that they would launch Phenom 8000 series Triple core, Because of marketing, Kuma delayed to 2008 Q2. Discussion on the forum.
HardOCP have published their Radeon 4800 & GeForce 200 Series buyers guide. How do figure out what will suit our needs? Also, is there such a thing as “GPU overkill” right now? We are here to answer these questions and find out what kind of gameplay experience and performance is delivered between $150 and $1100 using the newest generation GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA in single and multi-card configurations.
HardwareZone preview HTC’s upcoming Touch HD and Touch 3G. A week ago, HTC has officially revealed three new devices under its Touch family, namely the HTC Touch HD, Touch 3G and finally the Touch Viva. We've made a few calls and managed to secure a first hand preview of both the Touch HD and Touch 3G, so hit the jump to learn more about these new Windows Mobile 6.1 devices! Discussion on the forum.
A new version of TechPowerUp’s GPU-Z has been released. Some fixes included in this release: Added logging of sensor data to file, Added support for AMD RV730, clock reading support for Catalyst 8.9 on RV770 and RV730, support for NVIDIA 9400 GT, 9500 GT, 9600 GS, 9800M GS, 9600M GS, 9300M GS, 9200M GE, the option to disable polling for individual sensors and more.
For those using Windows Vista Ultimate, three new Windows Vista extras are now available through Windows Update. Microsoft Tinker is a puzzle based game where players get a set amount of moves to move a robot around a puzzle and solve the level. The DreamScene content pack adds some new high definition videos for use on the desktop and the sound pack allows you to set your sound scheme to that of Microsoft Tinker.
MSI R4670-2D512/D3 Review
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Wednesday, 24-September-2008 22:24:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Windwithme has another review posted. This time it's MSI's take on ATI's R4670 entry-level video card. Lots of photos and benchmarks as usual:
click for the review!
Interesting Forum Threads
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Wednesday, 24-September-2008 20:04:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A quick snapshot of what people are looking at:
Intel Updates Plans with Desktop CPU Lineup, October Pricecuts & Roadmap in Intel Hardware.
AMD's 45nm Phenom CPU naming scheme changed..This can't be right? Can it? in AMD Hardware.
Australian broadband stats: where have all the downloads gone? in Networking, Telephony & Internet.
Why do you buy expensive motherboards? in Overclocking & Hardware.
[OCAU]MrMordred2095 - Current GTR Evolution Nurburgring Lap Record Holder in Games.
DRM and you - how do you feel? in Games.
Crysis Warhead in Games.
I knew this was going to happen to Ubuntu in Other Operating Systems.
An update from Vijay on server issues in Team OCAU.
Your Job... Your Remuneration... Your thoughts? in Career, Education and Finance.
City of five million, just 739 houses for rent in Career, Education and Finance.
5 Lessons for the Next Financial Mania in Career, Education and Finance.
Adobe Creative Suite 4: New Photoshop + GPU Acceleration in Photography.
Show us your kits in Photography.
HTC Touch HD | 3.8-inch Touchscreen, 5MP Cam, Double Ram, 3.5mm Jack in Mobile Phones.
Spacecraft Accelerator in Science.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Black Hole in Science.
2008 F1 Singapore 3D Circuit Simulator with Mark Webber! in Motoring.
The Mathematics of a Guitar (900kb photo) in Musicians.
Does anyone else never watch free to air TV? in Entertainment.
I just had my first real nightmare in The Pub.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews #2
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Wednesday, 24-September-2008 17:35:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Glacialtech Igloo 7312 Silent E Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Forcetake MARS RAM Cooler on Frostytech.
Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2 Heatpipe VGA Cooler on Tweaknews.
Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler on FutureLooks.
Thermaltake V14 Pro CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
WolfKing Trooper MVP Laser Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard on DigitalTrends.
NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse on OCIA.
Thermaltake Soprano Aluminum Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Software:
Two Worlds Epic Edition PC game on Gamepyre.
Crysis Warhead PC game on Bit-Tech.
Flatout Ultimate Carnage PC game on DriverHeaven.
Google Chrome Browser on TechWareLabs.
Video Cards:
Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition on HWZone.
XFX 9800GTX+ SLI on Motherboards.org.
PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 on HotHardware.
PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 PCS+ on Bit-Tech.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB on Phoronix.
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclock on Guru3D.
Zotac 9800GTX+ Zone Edition on TBreak.
GeCube RADEON HD 3650 O.C. and Point Of View 9600 GSO/GT EXD on Digit-Life.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 24-September-2008 17:06:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards:
Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 LGA775 board on Motherboards.org.
ASUS Rampage Extreme X48 LGA775 board on LegitReviews.
Intel D945GCLF2 & Atom 330 on NeoSeeker.
Cases:
Danger Den Tower 26 on Bjorn3D.
Sunbeam UFO Acrylic Cube Case on Mikhailtech.
Aerocool Hi-Tech 7 Pro on TechPowerUp.
Lian Li TYR PC-X2000 on OC3D.
Cooler Master HAF 932 on HWLogic.
Lian-Li Tyr PC-X2000 Gaming and HTPC Case on Metku.
AeroCool AeroRacer Pro on HWSecrets.
Antec Twelve Hundred on Mikhailtech.
Rosewill RZLS142-AP on HWSecrets.
Audio / Visual:
Olympus SP-570UZ Digital Camera on HWSecrets.
Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 digicam on HWZone.
Sharp Aquos LC-46X8E 46in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder on TechWareLabs.
Apple iPod Nano 16GB on DigitalTrends.
Samsung LN-T4681F 46 Inch 1080P LED Backlit LCD TV on Tweaknews.
Apple iPod Touch 2nd Generation on HWSecrets.
Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ85 46in Plasma TV on TrustedReviews.
Olympus LS-10 Digital Recorder on TrustedReviews.
Altec Lansing T612 Speaker System on ThinkComputers.
Sponsor Specials
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Tuesday, 23-September-2008 21:37:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Remember to keep an eye on our Sponsor Specials Forum if you're shopping around. In there our many sponsors have discounts and specials on cases, TV tuners, laptops, pre-built PCs, office chairs, input devices, headphone amplifiers and a range of other goodies. Worth checking out!
Tuesday Night
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Tuesday, 23-September-2008 21:08:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Australia's first Qantas A380 touched down recently, and Sciby found a picture slideshow of the interior etc. Qantas expects to take delivery of three A380 by the end of this year, another eight by the end of 2009 and all 20 it has on order by the end of 2013.
OCClub have a video card roundup with more than 20 cards compared. It's comes as no surprise that the latest dual GPU cards, the Palit 9800GX2, and Sapphire 4870X2 score the highest. At the same time, it's interesting to see how close the single GTX260 and GTX280 cards compare in terms of performance, despite them being priced lower than the performance leader, the Sapphire 4870X2.
From BFM: Windows live are being nice and releasing more free stuff! With an article found here. From that article: In the new suite, unified via a common installer, are updated versions of Windows Live Messenger instant-messaging; Windows Live Mail (with a new and improved Live Calendar); Windows Live Writer blog-posting tool; Windows Live Movie Maker; Windows Live Photo Gallery, the Family Safety parental control tools and the Outlook Connector.
The Australian Telecommunications Users Group have blasted Nokia for a recent warranty policy change, thanks mpot. Nokia Australia spokeswoman Louise Ingram defended the manufacturer's decision to offer consumers the choice of an extended warranty and said it complemented Nokia's commitment to customer care. "Nokia has always offered a 12-month warranty for its handsets, as is required by law," Ms Ingram said.
Tweaktown checked out DFI's Auto Boost System. DFI haven’t just created a process to make overclocking easier, but also a community to bring overclockers together and try and increase the awareness. Today what we’ll do is have a look at how you go about setting up the whole ABS thing and see what kind of performance difference the stock and overclocked results give us.
LegionHW looked at CPU scaling with GeForce GTX 280. Today we are testing a range of CPU’s with the GeForce GTX 280, to try and determine what kind of processing power is required to power Nvidia’s flagship graphics card.
The FBI have swooped on an ex-Intel employee who apparently took some secrets to AMD with him, thanks Shane. Pani told his bosses that he was going to work for a hedge fund but in fact started work at rival AMD on 2 June and used his Intel laptop to access the company's servers and download commercially sensitive data.
Techspot examined Crysis Warhead performance. Our take on this article will be all about hardware performance considering it is based on an enhanced version of the CryEngine 2. Crytek claims this optimized version allows for enhanced performance. And so today we plan to find out exactly how Crysis Warhead performs using a range of previous and current generation graphics cards.
Friday October 3rd is National Walk to Work Day, thanks Azzasv8lazer.
Forum Projects
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Tuesday, 23-September-2008 03:30:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some interesting things from the forums:
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 23-September-2008 01:15:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards:
Abit A-N78HD GeForce 8200 mATX on HCWare.
Intel Atom 330 Dual Core on ECS P945GC on Guru3D.
Intel DG35EC m-ATX LGA775 board on Virtual-Hideout.
ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi & P45R2000-WiFi LGA775 boards on Phoronix.
Asus M3N78 Pro AM2 board on InsideHW.
ASUS P5Q Premium LGA775 board on OCClub.
ASUS Rampage Extreme LGA775 board on Techgage.
Gigabyte GC230D Atom Mini-ITX on TechSpot.
Audio / Visual:
Altec Lansing Orbit MP3 iM237 Portable Speaker on TechWareLabs.
Sleek Audio SA6 Customisable Earphones on TrustedReviews.
Apple iPod touch 32GB (2nd Gen) on TrustedReviews.
TVonics DTR-Z250 Freeview PVR on TrustedReviews.
Denon AH-D2000 Headphones on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ800 58in Plasma TV on TrustedReviews.
Input Etc:
Razer Salmosa Gaming Mouse on HWZone.
Wolf King Trooper MVP Gaming Mouse on TechWareLabs.
Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Keyboard and Mouse on RBMods.
Prebuilt and Portable:
ASUS EeeBox Mini Desktop PC on Tweaktown.
Samsung X360 13.3in Notebook on TrustedReviews.
ATP GPS Picture Tracker on FutureLooks.
Samsung X360 13.3in Notebook - Exclusive First Look on TrustedReviews.
Navigon 2150 Max Sat-Nav on TrustedReviews.
Power Supplies:
Zalman ZM600-HP 600W on HWSecrets.
Silver Power SP-SS 500W on CPU3D.
Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W on NinjaLane.
Storage:
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB Retail and RAID Testing on PCPerspective.
iStarUSA T5F-SS Internal SATA Hot Swap Bay on APHNetworks.
QNAP TS-209 Pro Turbo NAS on NinjaLane.
iStarUSA HDD Docking Station + HDD Reader on Virtual-Hideout.
QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS on Bit-Tech.
Video Cards:
Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition on BenchmarkReviews.
Sapphire Toxic HD 4850 on OCOnline.
Sapphire HD4670 in Crossfire on Pro-Clockers.
Sapphire Toxic HD 4870 on Pro-Clockers.
XFX 9500GT Alpha Dog Edition on DriverHeaven.
XFX GeForce 9600 GSO 680M XXX Edition on Bit-Tech.
ASUS GeForce EN9800GT 512MB on ThinkComputers.
Under The Blue Moon
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Monday, 22-September-2008 16:40:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Sydney's Under the Blue Moon festival begins this coming Saturday. Fetch your eyeliner and oversized black boots, it’s that time again. The streets of Sydney’s inner west will be taken over by the now week-long dark-alternative festival, Under the Blue Moon, this September. Events guide here, more info here.
In fact, they're giving away a double pass to the launch party for OCAU people. So reply to this thread with your best "gothic haiku" and the one I like the most will win. :)
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 22-September-2008 13:44:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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For the first time since July 2001, two shuttles are on the launch pads at the same time at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. There's a cool (large) photo here. Endeavour will stand by at pad B in the unlikely event that a rescue mission is necessary during space shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission to repair NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, targeted to launch Oct. 10. More info here.
Wired looked at a history of robotic hands as well as some current technology. But copying the human hand hasn't been easy. Its complex muscular and skeletal structure offers a unique, tricky balance: It is dexterous, stable and precise, but also fast moving, strong and flexible. They also wonder if first-person shooters make you smarter.
HotHardware pulled apart one of those dell studio hybrid PCs on the weekend. So we were kicking around the lab for the weekend with nothing much to do (ok, ok, we have plenty to do but we decided to goof off). And what do any self-respecting Tech Geeks do with a little time on their hands? We take stuff apart of course.
A mobile phone with nude photos of Dick Smith employees on it will be on eBay soon, thanks Paul. The mobile phone at the centre of the Dick Smith Electronics preloaded porn scandal will on Monday hit eBay complete with the snaps that reduced a sickened Cairns woman to a state of shock.
Err, I might post this now, given the huge thunderstorm heading my way.. back in a bit.
Mazzanet sent along an updated version of his oddly popular Ball timewaster. See if you can spot the difference. :)
Some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
Sunday Morning
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Sunday, 21-September-2008 03:56:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OCAU member mazzanet wrote a simple but fun timewaster a few years ago and it's suddenly become popular - popular enough to overwhelm his webhosting! So we've mirrored it on OCAU - you can play it here. Spin the ball! Click the ball! Whee! Yes, that's all there is to it. :)
Loop Goose spotted an Australian competition from WD. In 25 words or less, we want you to tell us what colour WD Hard Drive you are and why? Each month we’ll determine the most creative and insightful entry and the author of that entry will receive a fantastic prize! On top of that, the 1st 200 entries submitted will receive a Rubik’s cube for simply letting us know what colour WD Hard Drive they are and why!
Bit-tech reckon widescreen LCDs will be 90% of the market by 2011. Not too surprising really. Birgit Sommerer, European product marketing manager for NEC’s LCD display division, also said that approximately 50 percent of NEC’s display shipments today are already wide-format LCDs.
Katilyst sent word about Portal Prelude, an unofficial prelude to Valve's Portal. Demo video here. This game is totally free and set to be released somewhere around the end of september 2008. It offers a bit more gameplay hours than the original Portal, with 8 chapters, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps, a brand new storyline and more than 400 lines of speech with english and french subtitles.
ASUS have apparently shipped a software cracker on a utility CD.. whoops. The startling discovery was made by a PC Pro reader whose antivirus software was triggered by a key cracker for the WinRAR compression software, which was located on the recovery DVD for his Asus laptop.
Bjorn3D checked out the AMD Fusion utility. So what is this little utility for? The aim for the utility is not really the enthusiast users who have their computers fine-tuned and optimized, even though as we will see it still has something to offer for them to. Instead the utility is aimed to the rest of us who use our computers for all sort of stuff and thus tend to have quite bloated installations of Windows.
The Large Hadron Collider has hit a snag which might delay its operation. While the failure was "not good news", he said glitches of this kind were not unexpected during testing.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 21-September-2008 03:42:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer Cooler on OCCafe.
Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer Cooler on MadShrimps.
Zaward Gyre ZCJ010 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler on i4u.
Auras TwinW SMF660 Intel CPU Cooler on MadShrimps.
AMA Serac 770 CPU watercooler on XSReviews.
Storage:
Lexar FireWire 800 Compact Flash Reader on TechPowerUp.
QNAP TS-209 Pro II Network-Attached Storage on ThinkComputers.
PEAKHARDWARE MicroSDHC 8GB Flash Card on Mikhailtech.
Cases:
Hiper Osiris on DriverHeaven.
Tagan A+ Curbic on HWSecrets.
Zalman's ZMachine LQ1000 on Bit-Tech.
Software:
Mercenaries 2 World In Flames PC game on GamePyre.
Mount and Blade PC game on Bit-Tech.
GTR Evolution PC game on GamingNexus.
EVE Online PC game on GamePyre.
Misc:
Wicked Lasers - "The Torch" Brightest Flashlight in the World on TechWareLabs.
AVA Direct Gaming PC Workstation on DigitalTrends.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 on OCClub.
Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 PSU on InsideHW.
Saturday Night Reviews
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Saturday, 20-September-2008 23:20:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable:
HP Pavilion dv7 notebook on HWZone.
Eee PC 1000H netbook on InsideHW.
Asus Eee PC 1000H - Windows XP Edition on TrustedReviews.
MSI Wind U100 netbook on CPU3D.
HP 530 Notebook on InsideHW.
Memory:
Team Group Xtreem DDR3-1866 2GB on Tweaktown.
Corsair Dominator DDR2 4GB PC2-8500 on FutureLooks.
Patriot Viper 4GB DDR3 1800 on Pro-Clockers.
Crucial Ballistix PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) 4GB on OC3D.
Mushkin XP3-16000 Ascent 2GB DDR3 on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Roundup on HWZone.
XFX 9600GSO 384mb vs Sapphire HD4670 512mb on OC3D.
XFX GTX 280 XXX on i4u.
BFG GeForce GTX 260 896MB MaxCore on PCPerspective.
Sapphire HD 4850 512 MB 100245L Own PCB Design on TechPowerUp.
ATI Radeon HD 4670 on Motherboards.org.
Gigabyte GV-R485OC-1GI Radeon HD 4850 1GB on Guru3D.
MSI's R4850 512M Radeon HD 4850 on HotHardware.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 on DriverHeaven.
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked on LegitReviews.
Friday Night Reviews
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Friday, 19-September-2008 20:34:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Icy Dock MB672 Internal Hard Drive Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Lexar Professional 8GB 300x UDMA Compact Flash on TechPowerUp.
Corsair 4GB and 8GB Voyager Mini USB Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
Motherboards:
Intel DG45FC LGA775 Mini-ITX board on SilentPCReview.
Abit A-N78HD AM2 Micro-ATX board on HardCoreWare.
ASRock AOD790GX/128M AMD 790GX SB750 AM2 board on OCWorkbench.
J&W MINIX 780G-SP128MB mini-ITX AM2 HTPC board on Bit-Tech.
DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS AM2 board on CPU3D.
Asus M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe AM2 board on TechWareLabs.
MSI P45 Platinum LGA775 board on XSReviews.
Intel DG45FC LGA775 Mini-ITX board on TrustedReviews.
Power Supply:
Antec Signature 850W on OCClub.
Enermax MODU82+ 525W on CPU3D.
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W on DriverHeaven.
Thermaltake Toughpower QFan 500W on JonnyGuru.
GlacialPower GP-AL650 650W on Bjorn3D.
Input Etc:
Silverstone RAVEN Gaming Mouse on ExtremeMHz.
Logitech Driving Force GT Racing Wheel on Techgage.
OCZ Alchemy Elixer Gaming Keyboard on HWLogic.
MSI Star Mouse GS-501 on Metku.
Razer Salmosa mouse on TechPowerUp. Mmm, samosas.
Coolmiester's Cosmos Skulltrail Project
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Friday, 19-September-2008 17:02:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Just spotted a very impressive custom PC project (of a commercial nature) in the Modding forum. Quite a bit of custom work going on - and check out the sexy watercooling:
click for the thread!
Friday Arrrrrrvo
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Friday, 19-September-2008 16:31:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Blisterin' barnacles, it be Talk like a Pirate Day again! Why, it seems but a few months that Cap'n Agg Spatchcock was here deliverin' news from the salty deep, but no, tis that time again.
Conceal your next haul of booty in this fine chest! LaCie's Neil Poulton-designed 4big Quadra storage solution is taking advantage of the latest 3.5-inch hard drives from Seagate and this enables it to be available in a 6TB configuration.
Blow me down, Windows now has multiple desktops, just like Linux! Microsoft’s Sysinternals team has released a virtual desktop manager for Windows XP and Vista that allows a user to create up to four separate desktops on the one OS.
I don't trust these land-lubbers, but there's a 3D browser lurkin' about the shallows. Melbourne-based software developer ExitReality has created software that can be quickly downloaded to computers and that converts standard two-dimensional web pages into virtual rooms, The Australian reported. Yaar, motion sickness while surfin' the web, tis a maritime experience indeed. Discussion here.
Those yellow-bellies at Optus have run down the Wireless Fusion flag, stopping the service due to excess demand. It will not be accepting any new Wireless Fusion customers but existing customers would still be able to use the popular service without disruption, Optus said.
Sniper spotted a PC tiny enough to hide in your eyepatch! Or at the very least your codpiece. CompuLab introduced a tiny fanless PC using 4-6 Watts of power. The Linux-ready "Fit-PC Slim" measures 4.3 x 3.9 x 1.2 inches (110 x 100 x 30mm), but includes a 500MHz AMD Geode LX800, Ethernet, VGA output, WiFi, and a 2.5-inch hard drive option, says CompuLab.
Those wily sea-dogs at Games On Net have put together a fine collection of piratey games. As in games for pirates, not games for piratin', not that I can stop you, and nor can the King! Yarr!
NVIDIA has hacked up its own crew, making 6.5% of them walk the plank! The job cuts come following dramatic changes to the company's business outlook during the second quarter and will be company-wide cuts.
Looks like it's mostly reviews in the news box today, so I'll bid ye well for now, and return soon with fistfuls of glinting goodies! Till then, may your shirts stay puffy and your stump stay free of splinters!
Interesting Forum Threads
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Thursday, 18-September-2008 21:47:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's a thermal compound giveaway for OCAU members in the Overclocking & Hardware forum. Also, remember you can win a prize by voting for the Aussies in Gigabyte's overclocking competition. Here's a few other interesting threads:
New Chinese chip maker - the next Intel? in Overclocking & Hardware.
Rate my cables! in Modding.
Custom Computer Chair made from a Car Seat in Modding.
Finally E8600 @5Ghz 32M Pi on H20! in Intel Hardware.
Intel Atom Dual Core is out! in Intel Hardware.
AMD Processor Roadmap Leaked: Quad-Core "Deneb" Phenoms in January in AMD Hardware.
Braid - challenges what gaming is all about in Games.
Google Chrome - I am in your browser, threading your processes. in General Software.
phpg - A Gallery For The Masses! in General Software.
Which Windows OS are you using for your main gaming PC? in Windows Operating Systems.
The FLOSS licensing mega thread in Other Operating Systems.
Programming - where to start? in Graphics & Programming.
Simple way to send files to mates over internet in Networking, Internet and Telephony.
A little tale from Bulgaria in Lifestyle.
Sea Kayak Trip in Lifestyle.
Upcoming electric cars and technology in Motoring.
Porsche ups their stake in VW in Motoring.
Zeiss ZE range including 21/2.8 distagon in Photography.
Top Gear Australia Premiere September 29 in Entertainment.
POLL: id RAGE Press releases in Game Consoles.
Can someone explain this dinosaur conundrum to me in Science.
Great Australian dream for $1 in Career, Education & Finance.
A few more from here and there..
     
     
Keeping with its monthly release schedule, AMD/ATI have released their Catalyst 8.9 software suite for Windows and Linux. It comes with the usual list of bug fixes and performance enhancements, including new features like OverDrive support for QUAD CrossFireX configurations, OpenGL 3.0 extension support. Discussion on Forum.
TweakTown analyse AMD's new Catalyst version 8.9 drivers and see how they perform under XP and Vista. This month, looking through the release notes for the latest incarnation of Catalyst drivers we see that a few performance increases have been promised. We'll see if these performance increases translate to any of the games we use.
X-Bit Labs compare ATI’s Radeon HD 4870 X2 against two Radeon HD 4870’s in CrossFire. Today we decided to discuss the performance of two ATI Radeon HD 4870 solutions - from VisionTek and Club 3D - in order to determine if a CrossFire tandem like that could become an alternative to the top-of-the-line ATI Radeon solution.
Bit-tech share their thoughts on Microsoft's DirectX 11 after attending the recent Nvision conference. Microsoft said from the outset that DirectX 11 will be an expansion of DirectX 10.1, adding new functionality and features, while also focusing on improving scalability and also efficiency for both for the developer and the hardware.
TechwareLabs have published a review of Intel's new Q9650 3.00GHz Quad Core Processor. Crysis, Call of Duty 4, and Half Life 2: Episode 2 are some of the most demanding games out on todays' market. Why have two cores when you can have four? With this in mind, Intel creates one of their newest, most successful chips, the quad-core Q9650. With a blazing 3.00GHz CPU speed, and a whopping 12MB of L2 cache, this chip is a real monster!
Researchers at the University of Rochester say they have developed the first true 3D processor called the “Rochester Cube.” The next major advance in computer processors will likely be the move from today's two-dimensional chips to three-dimensional circuits, and the first three-dimensional synchronization circuitry is now running at 1.4 gigahertz at the University of Rochester.
Hardware Canucks preview the Gigabyte M912V Touch Screen Netbook. Gigabyte has entered the market with a zinger – developing one of the most affordable tablet PCs and pairing it with the netbook outline. Our article gives a report of our hands on look at the Gigabyte M912V, the latest evolution of the netbook.
Nvidia released a new WHQL version of its PhysX System Software. Version 8.09.04 supports both Windows XP and Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) and allows PhysX acceleration on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory.
Rivatuner has been updated to version 2.11. RivaTuner is a complete powerful tweaking environment, providing you everything you may need to tune NVIDIA GPU based display adapters.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 21:48:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some interesting things from the forums:
Wednesday Night Reviews
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 21:25:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Tagan A+ Monolith Full Tower on HWLogic.
APEVIA X-Master AL/500 on OCClub.
Raidmax IceCube SFF Micro ATX on Modders-Inc.
Lian Li PC-X500 on I4U.
Thermaltake Armor+ MX on OCOnline.
Thermaltake Xaser VI MX Mid Tower on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake Spedo on LegionHW.
Thermaltake Spedo on OC3D.
Storage:
Thermaltake VI-ON USB & e-Sata Drive Enclosure on Bjorn3D.
n-Trance N-Tegrity 1GB Secure Storage on HWPacers.
Sans Digital Mobilestor MS2UT+(B) Two Bay External Raid USB2.0/eSATA enclosure on Tweaknews.
Tagan Icy Box IB-3218 Enclosure on NGOHQ.
Thermaltake Vi-on 3.5 Hard Drive Enclosure on OCClub.
Thermaltake BlacX Hard Drive Docking Station on LegitReviews.
Intel X25-M SSD on TrustedReviews.
Tagan ICY BOX IB-NAS4220-B NAS on Virtual-Hideout.
Audio / Visual:
TekNmotion Yapster Gaming Headset on OCIA.
Sharp Aquos LC46X20E 46in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Press Releases
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 18:22:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Canon have officially unveiled their EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera. Building upon the qualities that made the EOS 5D camera so successful, Canon has coupled the creative power of a full-frame CMOS sensor in a relatively compact and affordable camera body, together with groundbreaking HD video capture that opens the door to a much wider range of imaging possibilities for photographers. More info on DPReview and discussion here.
  
IBM has some new high-performance servers featuring 6-core Intel Xeon CPUs. The first single x86 server to burst through the 1 million transactions per minute barrier on a TPC-C benchmark. This was achieved with an 8-socket System x server running 64-bit IBM DB2 9.5 on Red Hat Linux® 5.2. More info here.
Presumably those servers are based on these new Xeons from Intel. With up to six processing cores per chip and 16MB of shared cache memory, applications built for virtualized environments and data demanding workloads, such as databases, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and server consolidation, experience dramatic performance increases of almost 50 percent in some cases. More info here.
Super Talent have some speedy new Solid-State Drives. These new SSDs are based on a sophisticated new multi-channel SATA-II (3.0 Gbits per sec) controller. The MasterDrive OX uses MLC NAND Flash to transfer data at speeds up to 150 MB/sec (sequential read) and 100 MB/sec (sequential write). The MasterDrive OX is offered in capacities up to 128GB, and is backed with a 1-year warranty. More info here.
The University of Rochester have a new 3-D processor. The next major advance in computer processors will likely be the move from today's two-dimensional chips to three-dimensional circuits, and the first three-dimensional synchronization circuitry is now running at 1.4 gigahertz at the University of Rochester. More info here.
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 16:07:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's a Mythbusters video demonstration on the nVIDIA site. TV celebrities and scientists, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, world renowned for their work as hosts of the Mythbusters television show, have built a one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen, awe-inspiring machine that demonstrated the difference between a GPU and CPU. What transpired included two robots, thousands of paint balls and the Mona Lisa herself. You've got to see it to believe it!
Speaking of nVIDIA, they seem to have updated the GeForce GTX 260 with 24 extra shaders, totalling 216. TechPowerUp, HotHardware and Guru3D checked out cards with the new core.
From scon: The first of the regular round of IRON CHEF OCAU tournament has come to a close and now it is time for you, the OCAU public to choose whose cuisine will reign supreme! There was some great creativity shown with Pizza Towers, Dessert Pizzas and even a Nacho Pizza! Exercise your OCAU responsibility and cast your vote here! The prize is a custom member title of OCAU IRON CHEF so choose wisely!
From RnR: Google has submitted a patent application for floating data centres powered in part by wave power. The patent application envisages huge floating data centres situated off the coast of major population centres using renewable wave power to generate electricity. The cold sea water could also be used to cool the hardware.
Phoronix compared Linux distros on an EeePC 901. Following our Linux desktop encryption benchmarks of the ASUS Eee PC 901 and Intel Atom N270 CPU we have a performance comparison of Xandros, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mandriva on this low-cost netbook PC.
From IntelInside: iFixit have disassembled the new, colourful iPod Nano 4G and new iPod Touch.
Apparently social networking has de-throned porn in terms of web popularity. Bill Tancer, a self-described "data geek", has analyzed information for over 10 million web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing.
Tweakguides have a new guide for STALKER: Clear Sky. However because there are two entirely new rendering modes, a whole range of additional settings and new tweaks, as well as tweaks which no longer work in Clear Sky, I've written this STALKER: Clear Sky Tweak Guide to allow users to fully understand and customize Clear Sky thoroughly to better meet their needs.
TechReport have some thoughts on the perfect netbook. Perfection wouldn't be too hard to achieve, either, since all the elements of my ideal netbook are already available from one manufacturer or another, just not all in a single system. Read on for this editor's perfect netbook formula.
HWSecrets want to tell you everything you need to know about motherboard voltage regulation. In this tutorial we will present an in-depth trip inside the motherboard voltage regulator circuit, showing you how to identify this circuit, how it works, what the most common projects are and how to identify good-quality components.
Pipe Networks have a new pipe on the way. Pipe Networks has cleared one of the last major hurdles in its plan to build an optic fibre network between Sydney, Guam and Papua New Guinea with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granting it landing rights in Guam.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 14:13:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Time for some news catchup, methinks. First up, some reviews:
Power Supply:
Akasa Essential Power 350W on DriverHeaven.
BFG LS-Series 680W on Virtual-Hideout.
XIGMATEK NRP-HC1501 (1500W) on DriverHeaven.
Video Cards:
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Vs. ATI Radeon HD 4870 CrossFire on XbitLabs.
Zotac GeForce GTX 280 AMP! on XbitLabs.
XFX 280GTX XXX Edition on OC3D.
ASUS EAH4870 Radeon HD 4870 on TechARP.
Palit Geforce 280 GTX on TechWareLabs.
Cooling:
EVERCOOL Transformer 6 and TITAN CoolIdol CPU coolers on XbitLabs.
Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283 H.D.T. CPU cooler on Tweaktown.
Cooler Master Sphere CPU cooler on ThinkComputers.
Arctic-Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo VGA cooler on LegionHW.
Scythe Zipang CPU cooler on Bit-Tech.
Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU cooler on Hi-TechReviews.
Cooler Master GeminII S on XbitLabs.
Gigabyte OC Comp
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Wednesday, 17-September-2008 12:41:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OCAU members Deanzo and Dinos22 are representing Australia in the Gigabyte Open Overclocking Competition finals in Taiwan later this month. To show your support (and possibly win a motherboard for yourself) you can vote for them on the Gigabyte page. Some people are reporting that website not working, so see how you go. You can apparently vote once per day!
Discussion and more info including website problem workarounds and how to enter the motherboard draw here.
Ars Technica interview Tim Sweeney, co-founder of Epic Games and the brains behind every iteration of the widely licensed Unreal series of 3D game engines. At NVIDIA's recent NVISION conference, Sweeney sat down with me for a wide-ranging conversation about the rise and impending fall of the fixed-function GPU, a fall that he maintains will also sound the death knell for graphics APIs like Microsoft's DirectX and the venerable, SGI-authored OpenGL.
Tom's Hardware have updated their VGA Charts for 2008. Our largest and most up-to-date 3D comparison covers 101 different graphics cards configurations spanning five technology generations. The test includes the Radeon X800 , X1000, HD 2000, HD 3000, GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9 families, as well as the new HD 4000 series from AMD and both of the GTX 200 models from Nvidia.
Blizzard have finally announced the release date for Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion for its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), will arrive in stores on November 14 in Australia. Thanks Shannon.
Hardware Secrets take a look Inside Intel's Atom Architecture. Atom is a low-power CPU from Intel with very low power dissipation (less than 3 W), targeted to laptops or handheld devices with internet access – dubbed MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices. In this tutorial we will explore the architecture used on this CPU.
Driver Heaven review EA's latest PC game, Crysis Warhead. Anyone who has played Crysis has strong opinions about the game. You either loved the ground breaking graphics and open landscapes, or you loathed the fact you needed the pc equivalent of a small nuclear power plant to run it. The followup Warhead is more action oriented which manages to keep all the strong points of the first game and adds new gameplay elements while lowering the computer requirements. A sure success? ... let's find out. Discussion on the forum.
Hexus compare four Intel coolers head-to-head from manufacturers Xigmatek, Cooler Master and Akasa. Today we're looking at just four CPU coolers for Intel LGA 775 CPUs. All of them use the standard push-pin mounting mechanism for nice-and-easy installation, eschewing the need to remove the motherboard from the case to mount backplates.
NeoSeeker review the Asus M3A78-T, 790GX and AMD's Phenom 9950. Ever since the AMD 790GX chipset launched, I wanted to get my hands on a nice 790GX board. The new feature set greatly interested me; especially the inclusion of side port memory for the IGP and Hybrid CrossFireX, and the potential for improved overclocking.
HardwareZone examine Intel's X25-M Solid State Drive. Intel's offerings, the X18-M and the X25-M claim to stand out from the other offerings in the market, as Intel has its own proprietary controller that gives its own SSDs a higher data throughput and lifespan. While we didn't manage to gather other SSDs at the point of testing in such short notice, nevertheless we went ahead to take a stab at the X-25M that Intel has so kindly loaned us.
Apple have released Mac OS X Update Version 10.5.5. It includes the latest batch of security updates, Address Book, Spotlight, and iPhone sync enhancements. Recommended for Mac OS X Leopard versions 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3 and 10.5.4.
Early Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 16-September-2008 02:03:44 (GMT +10) - by Rezin
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Graphics Cards:
BFG GeForce 9600 GT OCX on Hot Hardware.
Palit HD4850 Sonic Radeon HD 4850 on OCWorkbench.
Zotac 9800GT AMP Edition on t-break.
Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic 512MB on Think Computers.
Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4850 512MB on Big Bruin.
Motherboards:
ASROCK AOD790GX/128M AMD 790GX+SB750 on OCWorkbench.
ASRock AOD790GX/128M on CPU3D.
Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S on bit-tech.
Foxconn Concerto G45 on Tweak Town.
Sapphire PURE 780G on Techware Labs.
Gigabyte EP45-Extreme on Bjorn3D.
Biostar TP43D2-A7 & TP45D2-A7 on InsideHW.
Audio / Visual:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro on TechSpot.
Sanyo CE22LD94DV-B 22in LCD TV/DVD on TrustedReviews.
Toshiba XD-E500 Upscaling DVD Player on TrustedReviews.
iLuv i222 Bluetooth Stereo Backphones with DSP on Futurelooks.
Microsoft LifeCam NX-3000 on Hardware Pacers.
Portable:
Webraska 7.5 Pocket PC Navigation on TrustedReviews.
Gateway T-6836 14.1" Notebook on Techgage.
Sony Ericsson c902 Cybershot Mobile Cameraphone on Rambling Thoughts Blog.
Outages and Upgrades
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Tuesday, 16-September-2008 01:39:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's been a couple of outages over the last few days, both related to our database server locking up. I swear, as soon as I buy new hardware the existing servers start sulking and misbehaving. It happens every time!
This afternoon I'll be near the datacentre for other reasons, so I'll drop in and take a quick look at the servers as it's been a while. If I have time I should be able to upgrade the memory in one or both existing servers, and if I'm really lucky I might be able to swap bourbon in to replace beer. We'll see.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is: there may be some periods of OCAU unavailability today (Tuesday). Don't panic, it's just me fiddling with things. :) I tend to add information about outages (when I'm aware of them) to the OCAU Status Blog, so it's worth bookmarking that page.
Tech ARP have just published a guide to overclocking NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards. Only the factory-overclocking of the ASUS ENGTX260 TOP allowed it to achieve a rough parity in performance with the Radeon HD 4870. Fortunately, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 is pretty overclockable. Best of all, NVIDIA provided all the necessary tools for easy overclocking, with complete access to core and memory clocks as well as fan speed.
The Tech Report gathered 20 netbooks to compare features, performance and portability, and share their picks for the best netbooks on the market. The number of netbook flavors available is simply staggering, and although the underlying hardware of many of these units is similar, key differences distinguish each one from its peers.
Guru3D pits 13 graphics cards against the soon to be released S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky PC game to see how they perform. Clear Sky will support three ranges of hardware, DirectX8 through 10. It will run fine if your computer coped with the original game. We however will focus at the very best image quality settings .. as this is Guru3D.com
If you're using Windows Home Server's built-in firewall and have made the mistake of using the "Restore Defaults" option, this guide will get you back in business. If you open the options for the Windows Firewall on your Windows Home Server, there is an advanced tab with an option to "Restore Defaults." I figured this would restore the Firewall to the state it ships with Windows Home Server. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case; it restores the Firewall to a BLANK state, losing all the necessary exceptions for WHS to function properly.
The World Science Fiction Convention will be held at the Melbourne Convention Centre in 2010. Aussiecon 4 will include panel discussions on a variety of science fiction subjects, such as technology of the future, writing, publishing, and the philosophical and sociological implications of the genre's works.
3M will be launching their first pocket-sized projector at the end of September. I immediately plugged it into a DVD player and watched Blackhawk Down on my desk—literally, on it, as I aimed it at my white Ikea desktop.
Some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
So many photos to choose from this week, it was hard to narrow it down to just twelve :)
Geek Stage Comedy, Sydney Wed 14th
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Sunday, 14-September-2008 17:53:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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This from Ben: I'm Ben Waterhouse, producer of the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Revue. We're a bunch of UNSW computing students that are putting on a geeky sketch comedy show in just under a week's time.
We'd like to invite Sydney OCAUers to our show as a community get-together on Wednesday the 17th, and we've reserved a whole bunch of seats for the occasion.
We're also inviting the Atomicans and the guys from Whirlpool, and have a new Gigabyte motherboard to raffle off at the end of the night to the forum with the best turnout. So if your members bring friends, they'll increase their chances of winning.
Book tickets here, discussion and more info here.
Sunday Evening
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Sunday, 14-September-2008 17:48:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's a hail warning for a huge area around Sydney at the moment. Take cover!
ISP-level internet filtering creeps ever closer in Australia, with live trials coming up soon. As part of the federal budget, the Government allocated $125.8 million for a range of internet security initiatives, including the filtering program, over four years. Urrgh.
Microsoft have revealed their second Seinfeld Vista ad. Personally it seems as bewildering as the first one.
San Francisco's rogue admin has a few more tricks up his sleeve, with a terminal server hidden on the network somewhere. After a dramatic jailhouse meeting with San Francisco's mayor one week after his arrest, Childs handed over the data, but DTIS Chief Administrative Officer Ron Vinson said Wednesday that the city now expects to spend more than $1 million to clean up the mess.
Expect to see more robots helping out as the population becomes older, thanks AirQ. "Many years ago how common was it to see computerised cash registers? The day will come when robots become as common as computers are today." Not too surprising, I guess.
As long as those robots obey Asimov's three laws, like these, we should be ok. And hopefully they'll have a big red "I'm now in Evil Mode" light on their chest like in iRobot. Bicchi coordinates the EU-funded Phriends project to create a new generation of robots which is both intrinsically safe and versatile enough to interact with humans. “The most revolutionary and challenging feature of Phriends is designing and building robots capable of guaranteeing safety in physical human-robot interactions (pHRI),” the robotics specialist explains.
ZDNet report on the recent iTunes 8 upgrade, but apparently a bluescreen issue on some Windows machines has been fixed. The only issues I had with it is it keeps trying to install Safari on my PC and it seems to have naughtily associated itself with blank CD insertions, grr.
SecretSquirrel sent in a discussion about Firefox's EULA and Ubuntu. Mozilla Corp asked that this be added in order for us to continue to call the browser Firefox. Since Firefox is their trademark, which we intend to respect, we have the choice of working with Mozilla to meet their requirements, or switching to an unbranded browser.
Next Friday is Talk Like a Pirate Day, thanks Curtis. If you’re not ready yet, you can learn more about this international holiday on the About TLAPD page or practice some phrases from the PiratePhrases page.
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
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Sunday, 14-September-2008 16:45:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
QNAP 509 Pro NAS System on DriverHeaven.
Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16GB on SysOpt.
A-DATA EeePC 8GB SDHC and Turbo 266X 8GB Compact Flash on FutureLooks.
Cooling:
Cooler Master GeminII S CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Swiftech Apogee GTZ CPU waterblock on PureOC.
Audio / Visual:
Creative Zen Mozaic 2GB mp3 player on TrustedReviews.
Tritton AX Micro Bluetooth Headset on LegitReviews.
Input Etc:
SilverStone Raven SST-RVM01B Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Microsoft's SideWinder X8 Mouse (w/ BlueTrack) on MaximumPC.
Misc:
Samsung ML-1640 Mono Laser Printer on InsideHW.
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H AM2 motherboard on TechWareLabs.
A group calling itself the Greek Security Team gained access to a system at CERN around the same time the Large Hadron Collider was to be run for the first time. The system the hackers managed to access was CMSMON, which monitors the CMS software system as the vast detector takes data, during collisions between particles to study the energies and physics in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, which created the universe. Discussion in this thread.
Crytek's Crysis and Crysis Warhead can now be pre-purchased at Steam's online store, due to be released next Thursday. Discussion in the Crysis and Crysis Warhead threads.
Hardware Secrets look at the main features offered by Intel's Atom CPUs. Atom is a low-power CPU from Intel with very low power dissipation (less than 3 W), targeted to laptops or handheld devices with internet access – dubbed MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices. In this tutorial we will explore the architecture used on this CPU.
Obi-AB noticed that a university in Belfast will be offering the UK's first Jedi course. According to its publicity material, the course, Feel the Force: How to Train in the Jedi Way, teaches the real-life psychological techniques behind Jedi mind tricks.
Sharky Extreme have published their latest Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide. There have been some noted hardware advancements since our previous guide update, including a few new AMD and Intel chipsets, and a plethora of ATI and NVIDIA enthusiast-level graphics cards. The overall look and feel of both system configurations will not change completely, but there will definitely be some upgrades and improvements in the key performance areas.
Think Computers has a guide to lowering your Radeon card's temperature using the Catalyst Control Center. While researching HD 4850 card prices at NewEgg for a review, a line on a user review caught my eye: "after I did the fan speed mod in CCC.". Huh? Fan speed mod? … After a quick Google, I found out that the fan speeds in Catalyst could be very low, even so low that the fan is spinning just enough to say it is on. There is a fix for this, a band-aid until ATI fixes the problem, but a fix nonetheless.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 14-September-2008 04:02:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Saw Bill Bailey tonight. Brilliant. :)
Video Cards:
Palit - ATI Radeon HD 4870 on TechWareLabs.
Sapphire Toxic HD4850 on Hi-TechReviews.
Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT 512MB on APHNetworks.
GIGABYTE 9800 GT on Bjorn3D.
Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition on Guru3D.
Power Supply:
BFG Tech LS Series 680W on ThinkComputers.
GlacialPower GP-AL 650A 650W on Mikhailtech.
E-Power Thunder 550W on HWLogic.
Audio / Visual:
Denon AVR-1509 AV Receiver on TrustedReviews.
Samsung SyncMaster 305T 30-inch LCD on Phoronix.
Portable:
MSI Wind Notebook video review on DigitalTrends.
Dell XPS M1730 Notebook on PCPerspective.
Apple Macbook on NBCompare.
Apple Macbook Pro on NBCompare.
Toshiba Portégé M800-106 13.3in Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Yesterday marked fifty years since the first integrated circuit, or microchip, was demonstrated by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments on 12 September 1958. The original chip might not be much to look at, but then Texas Instruments admits that Kilby often remarked that if he'd known he'd be showing the first working integrated circuit for the next 40-plus years, he would've 'prettied it up a little.'
Apple have released iPhone Software Version 2.1 that contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following: Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops, significantly improved battery life for most users, improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength and much more. Discussion on the forum.
Tom's Hardware compared the latest 1TB hard drives from Hitachi and Western Digital. These new drives do not simply represent additional choice in this market. They have undergone substantial revisions to not only increase performance, but also to improve efficiency. Falling cost ensures great price per gigabyte ratios, increased energy awareness and improved performance per watt scores.
Hexus get busy with a pair of the latest Radeon HD4670 graphics cards from AMD. What we see here is that two-card HD 4670 suffers a little, which is to be expected in a multi-GPU environment. Simplifying if it some, the pleasing thing, we suppose, is that two cards offer better value than either a Radeon HD 4850 and GeForce 9800 GT, based purely on 3D performance.
Western Digital has just announced that it has started shipping new, high-capacity 2.5-inch Scorpio Blue hard drives. Utilizing industry-leading 250 GB-per-platter technology, the new WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB and 400 GB SATA hard drives are designed for notebook computers and portable storage devices.
HotHardware round-up a trio of Intel X48 based motherboards from ASUS, ECS and Intel. In this article we will be looking at the latest high-end desktop chipset from Intel, featuring support for DDR2 and DDR3 memory, support for 45nm dual- and quad-core processors, and PCI Express 2.0 connectivity with 16 lanes devoted to each PEG slot and compatibility with ATI's CrossFire technology.
AnandTech have published their hands-on preview of Sony’s A900 full-frame digital SLR. The culmination of the Sony push into the Digital SLR market was unveiled on September 8, after 18 months of hints, speculation, and closed case exhibits at photography events. It is likely that anyone out there who follows photography has at least heard of the A900 - Sony's flagship DSLR and the first to showcase the new Sony 24.6MP full-frame sensor. Discussion on the forum.
Digit-Life round-up BFG’s pre-overclocked GeForce 8800 GT, 9600 GT, GTX 280 graphics cards. BFG products are popular among users. This company is headquartered in the U.S., but all its plants are located in China. BFG is a close partner of NVIDIA, so only makes graphics cards based NVIDIA GPUs. Today we're going to examine three very interesting graphics cards from BFG.
Friday Afternoon Reviews #2
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Friday, 12-September-2008 13:55:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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BTW I've gotten a few scam emails today about an "Australian nuclear facility leak" or something, obvious trojan attached to the mail, don't open the attachment etc. At least the spammers are putting in an effort today instead of just belittling my wang. :)
Input Etc:
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard on I4U.
Microsoft SideWinder X5 Gaming Mouse and X6 Gaming Keyboard on Metku.
Optimus Maximums Keyboard on DigitalTrends.
Cooling:
Evercool Transformer 6 CPU Cooler on Virtual-Hideout.
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 CPU Cooler on OC3D.
Glacialtech Igloo 7223 Light E Heatsink on Frostytech.
Jetart NP8800 miniStand Laptop Cooler on TechWareLabs.
Video Cards:
Palit HD4850 on OCClub.
Force3D HD4870 Freezer DHT on OCrCafe.
Galaxy 9600GT OC on XSReviews.
Memory:
G.Skill 2x2GB PC2 8800 (F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI) on OCOnline.
Kingston HyperX XMP-1800 2GB DDR3 Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
CSX Diablo3 2000 DDR3 on NordicHW.
Chaintech APOGEE GT DDR2-1150 4GB Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Portable:
Dell Studio 1535 notebook on InsideHW.
HP Pavilion dv5-1011ea 15.4in Blu-ray Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Asus' Lamborghini VX3 notebook on TechReport.
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 12-September-2008 13:16:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards & CPU:
MSI P45 Platinum LGA775 board on XbitLabs.
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA775 board on XbitLabs.
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 "Wolfdale" LGA775 CPU on HardCoreWare.
Software:
Warhammer Mark Of Chaos Battlemarch PC game on GamingHeaven.
Spore PC game on YouGamers.
Audio / Visual:
Lenovo ThinkVision L220x Monitor on XbitLabs.
Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 Noise-Cancelling Headphones on HWZone.
JVC LT-42DR9BJ 42in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
ASUS VW223B LCD Monitor on TBreak.
Bose Computer MusicMonitor on HWZone.
Storage:
Intel Mainstream SATA SSD on OCAHolic.
HighPoint RocketRaid 2640x4 Raid Controller on TechWareLabs.
Synology DS207+ SATA NAS Server on XbitLabs.
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 Terabyte Hard Drive on OC3D.
iStarUSA xAGE HDD Docking Station on TechPowerUp.
Promise SmartStor NS2300N Home Digital Media Server on XbitLabs.
Misc:
Lowepro Inverse 200 AW Camera Bag on Futurelooks.
Thermaltake Toughpower Power Express 650W VGA PSU on ThinkComputers.
GMC Noblesse K-2 Ebony Case on DriverHeaven.
Early Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 12-September-2008 01:25:49 (GMT +10) - by Rezin
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Cooling:
NZXT Sentry LX High Performance Fan Controller on ThinkComputers.
Zalman CNPS9300 CPU Heatsink on Hi-Tech Reviews.
Swiftech Apogee GTZ Water Block on OverClock Intelligence Agency.
Aerocool Modern-V Fan Controller on Overclocked Inside.
Motherboards:
ECS A790GXM-A Black Series on Hardware Secrets.
ECS A790GXM-A on CPU3D.
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R on Overclockers Club.
MSI P35 Platinum Combo Intel P35 Express on PCSTATS.
Gigabyte & Foxconn AMD 790GX Motherboards on InsideHW.
Gigabyte GA-GC230D Atom Mini-ITX on bit-tech.
Asus M3A79-T Deluxe on TrustedReviews.
Graphics Cards:
Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic on Legion Hardware.
Palit ATI Radeon HD 4850 on Techware Labs.
Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 on PCSTATS.
AMD ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB on bit-tech.
Leadtek WinFast PX9500GT on Bjorn 3D.
Cases:
Thermaltake Matrix on Overclockers Club.
Apevia X-Sniper Tower on Pro-Clockers.
Antec Three Hundred (translated) on CowcotLand.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Thursday, 11-September-2008 17:01:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Just a quick snapshot of what's going on in the forums:
Mini review for Asus 4850 Non-Reference in Video Cards & Monitors.
How much storage do you have - September 2008 in Storage & Backup.
Targus Chill Mat cooling pad review in Portable and Small Form Factor.
New HP EliteBook 6930p: 24 Hour Battery Life in Portable and Small Form Factor.
Apple Releases New iPod Nano, iPod Touch & iTunes 8.0 in Apple Hardware & Software.
All girls soldering workshop in Electronics.
Distance sensor in Electronics.
Breath of Fresh Air (PS3 retrospective) in Game Consoles.
Strats - US vs MIM vs CIJ - E series, F series?? in Musicians.
Michael Moore to release free film in Entertainment.
Top Gear Live in Motoring.
Japanese tuning firm Trust/Greddy declares bankruptcy in Motoring.
Lowepro Flipside 200 Mini Review in Photography.
Looking for a "sporty" DSLR in Photography.
Top 10 amazing physics videos (wired.com) in Science.
New telescope with 3 Gigapixel camera in Science.
Anyone seen the new Red Bull Cola? in Geek Food.
The Birthplace of Global Warming Skepticism in Current Events.
Commander Keen all over Adelaide! in The Pub.
OMG, OCAU is still alive? in Site Discussion.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 11-September-2008 15:40:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Well, the Large Hadron Collilder works. Look ma, no headcrabs! Here's a funny webcam page for the LHC. Hint: it's not real. Meanwhile, FatMan spotted an interesting article from last month about how they stop the beams when needed. In experiments, researchers found that an 86-microsecond exposure of the beam would bore a hole 40 meters into a block of copper.
The iPod was apparently invented by a furniture salesman, or at least, he had the original idea. "I can't even bring myself to buy an iPod for myself," he told the newspaper. "Apple did give me one but it broke down after eight months." lol.
Metallica's much anticipated new album will be out at midnight tonight, it seems.. not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not. Anyway, there's a big thread about it in the Entertainment forum.
MadShrimps compare Geforce 9500 GT SLI vs Geforce 9600 GT Performance. Not too long ago NVIDIA launched their new entry level video card, the Geforce 9500 GT. Today we take a closer look at what extra performance can be had when you add a second card in your system; we compare the performance of the 9500 GT in SLI to a single 9600 GT.
GamingNexus have an interview about an upcoming SBK World Superbike Championship game. SBK has always been the benchmark for any motorcycle game developed, and SBK08 is a new beginning on next-gen platforms. This is the title that every passionate player was waiting for since 2001 and it’s pretty different to any other racing game made until now. SBK is about the real sensations you can feel as a fan of bikes – the races, the speed and the glamour. Hrm, I've never found a motorcycle racing game that I've really enjoyed.. hopefully this one will be good.
NZGamer interviewed a Kiwi game author who created a cool-looking flying game, thanks Scott. But how straightforward is it really? And what sort of chances are there for kiwis hoping to make it big on the international scene? To find out, NZGamer tracked down Lawrence Hodson, creator of the very cool Sharky's Air Legends, a game that's already been making a serious impression on the powers-that-be, featuring in several Microsoft showcases, demonstrating just what the XNA toolkit's capable of.
While we're talking interviews, there's another one on IGN about the game Dead Space. IGN: Dead Space has been banned in a handful of nations now. Did you have any issues getting the game through the stringent Australian Classification Board? Glen Schofield: Australia is getting the full, complete version. No cuts.
AMD ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
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Thursday, 11-September-2008 12:52:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have unveiled the ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series mainstream graphics cards. Comprising the ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 and the ATI Radeon™ HD 4650 graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series leverages the leading technology found in the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series, including support for the latest DirectX® 10.1 games, superior HD multimedia capabilities and industry leading performance-per-watt, all delivered at affordable prices for the mainstream graphics segment.
Coverage on Anandtech, Guru3D, HWZone, HotHardware, LegitReviews and NeoSeeker.
Discussion here in our massive HD4000 series thread.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 22:18:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some interesting things from the forums:
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 16:39:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Less than half an hour until they fire up the Large Hadron Collider for some test runs (but not the big experiments yet). Discussion here, webcams here, webcast here.
There's a new trailer for the upcoming James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace". Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond in Casino Royale. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr White who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined. Looks good! Discussion here.
Anandtech are the latest to check out Intel's new solid-state drive, the X25-M. There's 4 more reviews linked in earlier newsposts also. No one really paid much attention to Intel getting into the SSD (Solid State Disk) business. We all heard the announcements, we heard the claims of amazing performance, but I didn't really believe it. After all, it was just a matter of hooking up a bunch of flash chips to a controller and putting them in a drive enclosure, right?
Tweaktown checked out fifteen USB 2.0 flash drives. By now, few can deny the convenience of having a small size, high volume storage device that is able to travel with them in the same manner as a set of keys or wallet.
OCIA have a Core 2 Overclocking Basics article, while BenchMarkReviews cover GeForce overclocking. Slightly more extreme is this Twintech 9600 GT Overclocked With Phase-Change Cooling on MadShrimps.
Here's a few more video card reviews: Powercolor PCS HD 4670 512 MB on TechPowerUp, Diamond RADEON 4870 X2 on LostCircuits, Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 in Crossfire on Tweaktown and GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 on Futurelooks.
"Light The Night" Fundraiser
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 13:22:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Team.AU and OCAU member Youngpro, who was recently diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, is raising money for the Leukaemia Foundation's first annual Light The Night fundraiser. The Leukaemia Foundation runs a lot of invaluable services including transport and counseling for patients, accomodation for families and funding for research. You can help by donating to Youngpro's team here.
Wednesday Middayish
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 12:54:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Microsoft are offering their Hyper-V virtualisation software for free, thanks Sniper. The software comprises Hyper-V itself, plus a cut-down Server Core installation of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008, and as such is a stand-alone version of the virtualisation solution.
TechReport look at some revised Xeons from Intel. Although much of the focus in recent weeks has been on upcoming chips based on the next-generation Nehalem microarchitecture, Intel isn't yet finished advancing its 45nm processors, as witnessed by today's introduction of a new revision of its dual-socket Xeon server/workstation-class CPUs. This new E-stepping silicon brings a bit of a clock frequency increase and some minor reductions in power draw to the Harpertown Xeons.
Guru3D have an interview with Adrian Silasi from SiSoft. We believe the industry is seeing a shift from the model where heavy computational workload is processed on a traditional CPU to a model that uses the (GP)GPU. While in the past the GPU was only used for games and graphics, programmable shaders have changed this perception. With the release of GPGPU programming languages it is now possible to compile most algorithms to run on a (GP)GPU without the developer knowing anything about programmable shaders. You can grab the latest Sandra from our mirror of course.
TrustedReviews have an editorial about TV and the internet. The BBC's iPlayer shows just how good the Internet can be for delivering TV content, but it's only available in the UK. Unfortunately TV companies are intent on limiting their content to domestic viewers, rather than global ones.
ModMyMachine have another tutorial video posted. This time it's Mounting a water cooling block on a HD4870 X2 graphic card.
Tweaktown compared motherboard energy-saving features, namely ASUS EPU 6, MSI DrMOS and GIGABYTE DES Advanced. Over the last six months the idea of going green with each motherboard manufacturer has picked up. Ideas and thoughts of a cleaner and greener PC industry are now taking hold. GIGABYTE can be thanked for kicking this off. Not only have they been the first to introduce solid state components across the entire line of boards, but also the first to introduce a hardware based voltage switching system that allows the board to physically shut down un-used phases when the CPU is at idle and during lower states of activity; very impressive.
Wednesday Morning Reviews #2
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 11:23:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
ATI HD Radeon 4850 vs NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GTX on MadShrimps.
Palit 9800GT Sonic & Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic on DriverHeaven.
ASUS Extreme N9800GT HybridPower on LegionHW.
Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 on TechSpot.
ECS GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra SLI on Guru3D.
PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 on HWZone.
HIS HD 4850 IceQ4 512MB on TechPowerUp.
Software:
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames PC game on Bit-Tech.
Google Chrome browser on Bit-Tech.
Devil May Cry 4 PC game on GamePyre.
Cooling:
Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer on OCClub.
Akasa Blue Aurora CPU heatsink on Bit-Tech.
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 Heatsink on Hi-TechReviews.
Noctua NC - U6 Chipset Cooler on TechWareLabs.
nPowerTek NPH-775-140HC Heatsink on Frostytech.
Input Etc:
NZXT AVATAR Crafted Series Gaming Mouse on FutureLooks.
OCZ Dominatrix Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.
Razer Lachesis 4000DPI Mouse on Phoronix.
SiSoft Sandra 2009
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 03:45:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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SiSoftware have released the latest version of their popular system information and benchmarking utility, Sandra 2009. Among other things it now has a GPGPU benchmark. For more info and to download from our local mirror, see our mirror page:
click for the mirror page
Apple's "Lets Rock" Event
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 03:08:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Apple's special event is currently underway, where no doubt some big announcements will be made. Engadget, ArsTechnica, MacWorld and Gizmodo have live coverage. There's a discussion thread here about it.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 02:45:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Memory:
OCZ Flex II 4GB PC2-9200 DDR2 on LegitReviews.
Aeneon Xtune DDR PC3-12800 on XSReviews.
Power Supply:
SilverStone Nightjar ST45NF 450W Fanless on PCPerspective.
Enlight Sniper Power 650W on DriverHeaven.
Cases:
CoolerMaster Centurion 590 on TechWareLabs.
Rosewill Conqueror on TechReport.
Cooler Master HAF 932 on HWSecrets.
Apevia X-Sniper on OCrCafe.
Storage:
Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive on LegitReviews.
Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive on TechReport.
PQI 8 GB Class 6 SDHC memory card on TechPowerUp.
Thecus N3200 3-Bay SOHO Network Storage System on BigBruin.
Seagate FreeAgent Go 120GB Portable Hard Drive on ThinkComputers.
Thecus N5200BR NAS Server Review with 5 drives in RAID 6 on LegitReviews.
Early Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 10-September-2008 02:01:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards and CPU:
Biostar TA790GX A2+ AM2 board on TrustedReviews.
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 CPU on OCClub.
DFI LANParty DK P45-T2RS PLUS LGA775 on HWZone.
Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H AM2 board on Digit-Life.
Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme LGA775 board on LegitReviews.
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H AM2 board on Motherboards.org.
ECS GF8200A AM2 board on Virtual-Hideout.
Audio / Visual:
JVC LT-32DE9BJ 32in LCD TV / PVR on TrustedReviews.
Matrix Orbital GX Typhoon MCE in-bay mini-LCD on OC3D.
iLuv i910 Noise Canceling Stereo Earphones on FutureLooks.
CenOmax 7" Digital Photo Frame on TechWareLabs.
BenQ MP512 ST DLP Projector on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Player on TrustedReviews.
Philips HTS8140 Ambisound Home Cinema System on TrustedReviews.
Flip Ultra Camcorder on HWSecrets.
Codless Vantage Headset on GamingNexus.
Prebuilt and Portable:
Smooth Creations Trek 08 prebuilt gaming PC on NordicHW.
Acer Aspire One netbook on InsideHW.
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 laptop on DigitalTrends.
Samsung R510 15.4in Notebook on TrustedReviews.
SMH Article
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Tuesday, 9-September-2008 17:02:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Thanks to everyone who pointed out that overclocking, and OCAU, have received quite a prominent mention on the Sydney Morning Herald website today - front page and specifically this article.
If you're an SMH reader visiting OCAU for the first time today, welcome! Feel free to browse or join our busy forum, browse some extreme modded and extreme cooled PCs in our PC Database, and see what you can find in our Wiki. Make yourself at home!
Discussion here.
Early Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 9-September-2008 01:58:54 (GMT +10) - by Rezin
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Motherboards:
Foxconn A7DA-S 790GX on Overclockers Club.
Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R Intel P45 DDR3 on ThinkComputers.
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R on HardwareLogic.
Graphics Cards:
Palit Radeon HD4870X2 on PCSTATS.
MSI Radeon 4850 R4850-V101 on Motherboards.org.
AMD HD4870 X2 Crossfire on t-break.
GeForce 9400 GT 1024 MB Wall-E Edition on techPowerUp.
Cases:
Hiper Osiris Mid-Tower Enclosure on TweakTown.
Raidmax Iceberg Mid Tower on Pro-Clockers.
NZXT Khaos on Bjorn3D.
Cooler Master Cosmos S on AnandTech.
Storage:
Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Hard Drive on PC Perspective.
Intel X25-M 80GB SATA Solid State Drive on HotHardware.
LITE-ON Blu-Ray Disc Player on Techware Labs.
Power Supplies:
Cooler Master Silent Pro PSUs on AnandTech.
Akasa PowerMax 1000W Gaming PSU on bit-tech.
Audio:
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatalt1ty sound card on PureOverclock.
Logitech Z-5500 Digital Speaker System on The Moditory.
New "Bourbon" Server
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Monday, 8-September-2008 15:49:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I bought us some new (well, secondhand) server hardware recently, and it'll go into service in a couple of weeks. The new server is called bourbon and its first role will be to replace the current beer server. The new server is not particularly exciting in terms of hardware - it's almost identical to beer, both being Dell PowerEdge 1850 1RU machines, but bourbon has slightly faster CPUs, 3 times as much memory (12GB) and nearly 5 times as much disk space. This will let us take some of the webserver load off BBQ and let it focus on doing database work only. More disk space will allow us to consider things like forum image attachments. Beer will then give us some redundancy for Bourbon (I already have an entire spare chassis and other spares for BBQ) and also makes it easier for us to move to the latest version of PHP, MySQL and the SLES operating system without having to run the site on one server while the other is being upgraded. One possible future plan would be to have both Beer and Bourbon as "front-end" servers after BBQ is replaced by something else that takes up less rack space, but that's still some way off yet.
Anyway, here's the PCDB entry for the new server if you're interested:
Click for the PCDB entry! (9 pics)
For more pics of a basically identical chassis, see Beer's entry. And of course the database workhorse is BBQ.
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 8-September-2008 13:25:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OCAU member Andrew357 will be participating in the upcoming MS Sydney to the Gong Ride to raise money for MS sufferers. You can donate and support him here if you like. Unfortunately I can’t offer you a pretty lady in a Bikini or my awesome self in budgie smugglers or a mankini; but I’m asking the crew at OCAU to dig deep for what is a reasonable and worthy cause.
Mick spotted an interesting blog post about bittorrent use in Australia. For years Australia's copyright enforcers have privately admitted they have no intention of dragging local file-sharers through the courts US-style. The Australian arm of the copyright police - Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft - now publicly admits it has no interest in prosecuting file-sharers.
As mentioned earlier, Jerry Seinfeld is teaming up with Microsoft to promote Vista. The first ad is now on YouTube and has everyone pretty much scratching their heads. Still, it's part of a larger campaign so perhaps all will become clear later.
Speaking of YouTube, we have linked this before but Mindy reminded me of it. The Large Hadron Rap is a funny musical explanation of what the LHC hopes to achieve when it's turned on soon. It's become quite a YouTube hit. Apparently they're activating the LHC in only a few days, so keep on top of things in the giant thread. And keep an eye out for headcrabs.
HWZone went a Samsung party to launch some new LCD TVs, while TechWareLabs have some new Dell keyboard and mouse spy shots. A new Dell mouse seems to be a shot across the bow for Logitech. The text around the sensor reads "LaserStream Technology" which is a trademark used by Agilent Technologies, a company that sold laser technology to Logitech.
Phoronix looked at Intel Atom Disk Encryption performance. While the ASUS Eee PC 901 doesn't have its solid-state disk drives encrypted by default, if you are storing any potentially sensitive information on this netbook -- or any mobile device for that matter -- you really should encrypt the data.
Spore should be officially out any day now, but there are apparently leaked copies around. Bit-Tech, TrustedReviews and GamingHeaven have all published reviews. Maxis are responsible for many addictive PC games, Simcity and the Sims are the first that spring to mind. Spore, however is their most ambitious project so far as you take control of a lifeform as it evolves from a cellular organism to the end result of being capable of intergalactic space travel. Is the game a classic however or just a rather nice diversion?
From Junglist: Good Game won't be airing this Monday night on ABC2, nor the next week, due to the paralympics. We'll still air on Friday night, and our free download & stream will be up as normal on Monday. This week is an episode choc full of games, even moreso than usual, as we start gearing up for the holiday rush. Check it out on their site.
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 8-September-2008 03:22:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
HIS Radeon HD4870x2 on OCrCafe.
Palit Radeon 4850 Sonic on Mikhailtech.
Asus HD 4870 X2 TOP on DriverHeaven.
ASUS ENGTX260 TOP GeForce GTX 260 on TechARP.
ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition on Tweaktown.
Portable:
ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf on ThinkComputers.
HT Touch Pro smartphone on HWZone.
Asus U6V-2P001E 12.1in Centrino 2 Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Nokia 6210 Navigator smartphone on TrustedReviews.
HP iPAQ 912 Business Messenger smartphone on HWZone.
Cooling:
Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE Heatsink on Frostytech.
ASUS Lion Square HSF on TBreak.
XIGMATEK CPU Coolers on DriverHeaven.
Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler on Digit-Life.
Zalman CNPS9300 AT on XSReviews.
Zalman CNPS9300AT Heatsink on Frostytech.
Titan Cool Idol TTC-NK75TZ(RB) CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Asus Lion Square CPU Cooler on HWLogic.
Power Supplies:
BFG Tech ES Series 800W on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake ToughPower Power Express VGA 650W on TechWareLabs.
Cases:
Tuniq 3 on TechWareLabs.
Zalman GS1000 full-tower on Pro-Clockers.
Nexus Clodius on RBMods.
NZXT Sentry LX on OCOnline.
LanCool PC-K1 on 3DXtreme.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1800 Dual Channel Kit on BigBruin.
OCZ ReaperX PC2-6400 Low Latency 4GB Kit on HardCoreWare.
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 on TechWareLabs.
Some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
Thank you to all those who take the time to upload and share their photos on a regular basis :)
Password Trouble?
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Sunday, 7-September-2008 16:51:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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If you're having trouble logging into the forums today, it may be because your password was automatically reset by our forum software. As part of an upgrade last night, accounts with certain insecure passwords were reset, and an email was sent to the address in UserCP containing the new password. If you haven't been keeping your UserCP email up to date, you won't have received that email and hence won't know your new password. If you're having trouble logging in, drop me an email.
It's worth checking your email setting in UserCP regardless, to make sure you have a valid email. Otherwise if we receive a lot of bounced error messages due to an incorrect email we may have to limit your account until it's fixed. We receive literally thousands of bounced emails every day now, so please keep yours up to date. Thanks!
Valve's digital distribution network, Steam, has slashed nearly 50% off every id Software game on its network. This offer even applies to the id Super Pack, which includes everything from their earliest classics, to games like Doom 3 (22 Games in Total), for a measly $34.99. Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are the only games i've noticed without any major price reduction.
Virus Bulletin this month released the results of a major comparative of the latest security products. The test covers a range of metrics, including detection rates over various types of malware including adware and spyware, false positive rates, scanning speed, proactive detection, and response times to outbreaks. So how does your anti-virus protection rate?
Bit-tech have published a review of Acer's G24 widescreen gaming monitor. The G24's glossy surface and orange skin may be fit into the love-it-or-hate-it category for features but there's no doubting the reflective screen does bring benefits in terms of the super sharp image quality and improved colour saturation compared with other matte TN panels. It's also pretty quick too, making the G24 an easy recommend for gamers looking for a 24-incher.
Tom's hardware compiles an article to help users find the best video card for their hard earned money. Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.
VentureBeat has a lengthy story about the issues surrounding the Xbox 360's “Red Ring of Death.” This is the unauthorized tale of how Microsoft lost its chance to become the leader in the biggest market it has attacked beyond its twin monopolies in Office and Windows software.
AnandTech get hand's on with Nvidia's latest mainstream card, the Geforce 9500GT. So with so many similarities, why release this part? There won't be an endless supply of G84 hardware going forward. Thus the G96 comes along with nearly the same specs selling at the same price. The decreased die size of the 65nm G96 (as opposed to the 80nm G84) will also help to increase profits for NVIDIA and board partners on this hardware while they sell at the same price point.
Virtual-Hideout have published their coverage from this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). This past weekend, my work schedule changed and freed up some time. On a spur of the moment change, we pillaged the Penny Arcade Expo also known as PAX 2008 in Seattle, WA at the Convention Center. I must say that the event seemed to be well organized. With the exception of the CC staff, the PAX crew were on the ball.
Lavalys yesterday announced the general availability of version 4.60 of its EVEREST family of products. These include the widely used PC diagnostic and benchmarking tool EVEREST Ultimate Edition and the increasingly popular IT asset management and network monitoring solution EVEREST Corporate Edition. This release brings several improvements and bug fixes in direct response to customer feedback.
The Tech Report review Asus' Eee PC 901 netbook. If you hang around these parts at all, you're surely familiar by now with Asus' little Eee PC laptops. These miniature, low-priced laptops were initially inspired by the One Laptop Per Child effort aimed at providing laptops to kids in developing nations, but the Eee PC has become something of a minor phenomenon in more traditional PC markets.
Mozilla developers have made Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 available to download, for those wanting the test out the latest revision.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Saturday, 6-September-2008 14:28:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Did you know Saturday is the quietest day of the week for our forums? :) So you have the servers all to yourself.. and about 500 other people.
Adding a PCI slot on mobo in Modding.
VMWare Workstation 6.5 Beta - Does linux finally have fast games support? in Other Operating Systems.
FarCry 2 coming 2008 in Games.
Flatout - Ultimate Carnage in Games.
Which operating system(s) do you use? in General Software.
Si "SteelVine" port multipliers in Storage & Backup.
Z5500D Warning in PC Audio.
New Metallica album out soon in Entertainment.
CP-Violation and baryon asymmetry in the universe in Science.
Large Hadron Collider in Science.
A Rant about Phenylethylamines in Science.
NASA's ARES 1 Going off the Rails in Science.
Is your browser colour-space aware? in Photography.
2008 Belgian Grand Prix in Motoring.
Study finds Maserati gets you laid, VW Polo does not in Motoring.
Burnout machine, lets get the ideas flowing in Motoring Technical.
Discouraging a wombat in Pets & Animals.
Hungry Jacks Stacker! Om nom nom nom in Geek Food.
Internet Vigilantes - mob mentality to the extreme in Current Events.
Boss GT-10 Review in Musicians.
Saturday Morning Reviews
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Saturday, 6-September-2008 04:18:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Western Digital VelociRapter Hard Drive on TechWareLabs.
Vizo Mirrorbox Card Reader on TechPowerUp.
Mapower MAP-TB32 Dual SATA RAID Enclosure on BigBruin.
Eagle Consus I-Series SATA to USB enclosure on Guru3D.
Thermaltake Vi-On Actively Cooled SATA/USB2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure on Tweaknews.
A-DATA 16 GB 350x Turbo Compact Flash Card on TechPowerUp.
LiteOn DH-4B1S-08 Blu-ray Burne on TechWareLabs.
Video Cards:
Sapphire HD 4870 X2 on Hi-TechReviews.
Leadtek GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB Extreme on TheTechLounge.
BFG GeForce GTX 280 OCX on DriverHeaven.
ASUS ENGTX260 TOP GeForce GTX 260 on TechARP.
S3 Graphics Chrome 440 GTX 256 MB on TechPowerUp.
ASUS EAH3850 X2 1GB on Virtual-Hideout.
ZOTAC GeForce 9500 GT ZONE Edition on Tweaktown.
XFX 280 1GB on OCClub.
Power Supply:
Cooler Master Silent Pro M 500W on DriverHeaven.
Enermax Revolution 85+ on Bit-Tech.
Antec Signature Series 850W on ThinkComputers.
Input Etc:
Razer Goliathus Speed Edition Mouse Pad on Bjorn3D.
NZXT Avatar Crafted Series Gaming Mouse on OCClub.
NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.
WolfKing Timber Wolf Gaming Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews.
OCZ Dominatrix Gaming Mouse on TechPowerUp.
RAZER Lycosa Gaming Keyboard on OC3D.
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Gaming Keyboard on I4U.
Logitech V550 Nano on DigitalTrends.S
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 5-September-2008 17:08:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The world finals of Gigabyte's Overclocking Championship are being held later this month. You can vote on that page (for the Australian team naturally!) and win some prizes if they win. Discussion here.
XbitLabs looked at 400GB hard drives in RAID. In our today’s article we are going to talk about the ability of seven different 400GB 3.5" hard disk drives to work in RAID arrays of various types. We will test solutions from Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital.
Sony is recalling 440,000 VAIO laptops due to overheating issues. Sony Corp. (SNE) said Thursday that the recall involves 19 models in the Vaio TZ series manufactured between May 2007 and July 2008. Discussion here. Some sources say it's worldwide, but this one says it only affects USA purchases, thanks Slade. Anyway, worth checking if you've got one.
MoMan69 spotted this Intel press release (from IDF in August) about our robot future. Intel researchers are also investigating how millions of tiny micro-robots, called catoms, could build shape-shifting materials.
They're also gearing up to announce their 6-core processors soon. Intel on September 15 is expected to roll out the Intel Xeon 7400 series Dunnington processor targeted at the server market, the final member of the "Penryn" family of processors, according to sources at server vendors. Penryn will be followed by the Nehalem microarchitecture, due to appear initially as the Core i7 processor in the fourth quarter.
Canon Australia have a photography competition running, with $50,000 worth of Canon prizes to be won. Please note this year's Photo5 is open to both professional and amateur photographers so make sure you enter the correct category. Photo5 is only open to Australian residents and entry is limited, register by 30 September 2008. Discussion in the Photography forum here.
Dell have unveiled their Inspiron Mini 9, a tiny netbook which I assume competes with the EeePC and MSI Wind etc. More info here on PC World. But the sub-$500 Mini 9 carries a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive, making it a good starter machine for basic computing at a reasonable price.
A few people noted that the upcoming Life with PlayStation feature will be integrated with Folding@Home, presumably adding a truckload more processing power to Stanford's project. More PS3 folding info here.
PC Authority Awards
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Friday, 5-September-2008 16:23:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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It looks like PC Authority are running their Reliability and Service Awards Survey again. You can win some stuff by telling them what you think about online vendors and products in Australia. As usual I encourage you to remember your experiences (good and bad) with our sponsors and other companies over the last year.
The survey page is here.
Friday Morning
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Friday, 5-September-2008 04:07:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis is rolling out to the launch pad as I write this. This afternoon, Atlantis' crew members are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy for an equipment test Friday in preparation for their mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope has already rewritten the books on astronomy and will remain operational for at least another five years following the upgrades. Atlantis is targeted to launch Oct. 8 on mission STS-125.
DDsD spotted this funny unplug your friends page. It's an epidemic. It can strike anyone. It begins harmlessly enough... maybe with a cell phone, an online social network profile, or an IM. But before long, the electronic screens invade every corner of your life. I should probably send one of those messages to myself.
HotHardware rounded up four solid-state drives for comparison. On the following pages, we thought we'd level-set the features, performance and pricing landscape for you with respect to the current state of SSDs. Today, we have a look at four different SSD offerings, two from OCZ, one from Mtron and another from Super Talent. Is a Solid State Disk in your future? We'll try to help you answer that question in this full performance evaluation and showcase.
BMW have a demonstration car with a flexible skin. For instance, the headlights of the concept can be exposed or hidden by the car's skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine. This idea extends to the interior, where BMW designers have made visible only those instruments that are required at a certain time, while the rest of the time the same fabric interior "blinks" them out of view.
MadShrimps consider anti-aliasing scaling with XP and Vista using two high-end video cards. In this in-depth article we take a look at the performance of the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 280 and ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 when anti-aliasing is enabled. We test 8 different games at several different AA levels under Windows XP as well as under Windows Vista. How does performance scale when you go from XP to Vista, how much impact does enabling AA have?
Google's Chrome browser apparently has some security issues, thanks AB. Should users wish to be prompted before every file download, they should choose "Ask where to save each file before downloading" on the "Minor Tweaks" tab in the "Options" dialog, Lamb said. Techgage and HWZone have posted their thoughts on this new browser, and there's a big thread here in our forums.
HWZone have posted their full IFA 2008 coverage from Berlin, Germany. IFA is of course the Internationale Funkausstellung, apparently the world's largest Consumer Electronics trade fair.
Digit-Life keep examining the best video card and CPU combinations. After the previous analysis named "Graphics Cards + Processor: Gaming Combo", in which we had tested graphics cards with AMD GPUs, we are ready for a sequel to the fixed-budget research, now with graphics cards based on NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. We have updated the list of games and have run all tests at the 1680x1050 resolution.
TechSpot meanwhile consider gaming mice. Meet the cream of the crop: from Logitech, the G5 and G9 mice. Microsoft is represented by the Sidewinder and Habu mice, while Razer rounds out the group with the Lachesis gaming mouse.
Thanks to decayed.cell, MyDixiesNormous and others for these!
     
     
Thursday Morning Uber-Reviews
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Thursday, 4-September-2008 02:50:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
Logisys Ultra Slim Soft Touch Illuminated Multimedia Keyboard on TechWareLabs.
NMEDIAPC Wireless Keyboard with Track Ball & Remote Combo Set on ThinkComputers.
SteelSeries IKARI Laser and Optical Gaming Mice on Metku.
Stix 200 Wii-like PC Controller on I4U.
Cases:
Zalman HD160XT Plus Premium HTPC Case on Tweaknews.
Thermaltake DH-101 Home Theatre PC Case on TechWareLabs.
NZXT Tempest Crafted Series Mid-Tower on PCPerspective.
Hiper Osiris on Bit-Tech.
Antec 1200 Ultimate Gamer Case on Pro-Clockers.
Storage:
Thecus N3200 Networked Area Storage server on Bjorn3D.
Seagate Cheetah X15K.6 Hard Drive on HotHardware.
iStarUSA xAge-N99-US USB 2.0 Hard Drive Docking Station on LegitReviews.
Mahogony USB Drive on GideonTech.
ATP ToughDrive Camo (8Gb) USB Flash Drive on CPU3D.
Coolmax HD250 Series 2.5 Enclosures on Pro-Clockers.
Power Supplies:
Cooler Master Silent Pro RS-700 on HWZone.
Corsair HX620W on Digit-Life.
GlacialPower GP-AL650 on Virtual-Hideout.
PCPC Silencer 610 on SilentPCReview.
Video Cards:
PowerColor HD4870 PCS+ on OCClub.
PNY GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB XLR8 on TheTechLounge.
Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB on Techgage.
Palit HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 512 MB on TechPowerUp.
Palit 9800GT Super+ 1GB Single/SLI on Motherboards.org.
Sapphire's Radeon HD 4870 X2 on Bit-Tech.
ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ Zone Edition on BenchMarkReviews.
Foxconn 9500GT-256FR3 on Bjorn3D.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 260 AMP! Edition on FutureLooks.
Audio / Visual:
CyberSnipa Sonar 5.1 Headset on RBMods.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 on DigitalTrends.
ViewSonic VX1962wm 19-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor on ThinkComputers.
Panasonic SA-BX500 AV Receiver on TrustedReviews.
Samsung PS50A556 50in Plasma TV on TrustedReviews.
Microsoft LifeCam VX-7000 webcam on HWPacers.
Hanns.G HG281DJ 28in LCD Monitor on TrustedReviews.
Samsung LN40A650 40inch LCD HDTV on OCOnline.
Motherboards:
ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe / Mempipe LGA775 board on Digit-Life.
AMD 790GX - FoxConn A7DA-S AM2 board on Guru3D.
Biostar TA790GX A2+ ver 5.0 AM2 board on OCWorkbench.
MSI P45 Platinum LGA775 board on InsideHW.
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard LGA775 board on TBreak.
ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA775 board on HWLogic.
Zotac NF610i-ITX LGA775 board on SilentPCReview.
GIGABYTE EP45-Extreme on Tweaktown.
Prebuilt and Portable:
Cyberpower Gamer Infinity Quad Elite prebuilt PC on DriverHeaven.
NDrive G280R Sat-Nav on TrustedReviews.
Alienware M17x gaming laptop on DriverHeaven.
Misc:
CrazyPC EL Neon Wire Kit on Viperlair.
TRENDnet TEW-624UB 300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 Adapter on Tweaktown.
Ecosol Powerstick USB-Powered Portable Charger on FutureLooks.
Samsung SCX-4500 laser printer on ExtremeMHz.
Sony Reader PRS-505 - eBook Reader on TrustedReviews.
Arctic Breeze Fan Cooler on TechWareLabs.
Geil Ultra DDR3 2x1GB memory on OCClub.
Remember to keep an eye on our Sponsor Specials Forum if you're shopping around. In there our many sponsors have discounts and specials on video cards, office chairs, amplifiers, notebooks and a range of general components. Something for everyone :)
With Intel's Nehalem (Core i7) set for release this year, motherboard manufacturers are preparing a variety of motherboards based on the Intel's X58 chipset. Windwithme was kind enough to share photos of the latest Intel X58 based motherboard from GIGABYTE, named the GA-X58-EXTREME.
Click for the thread!
Another review from windwithme! This time it's AMD's HD4870 X2 2GB VS. HD4850/4870's in CrossFire. Loads of photos and benchmarks as always:
Click for the thread!
Google Chrome Beta is now available for the public to download. On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff - the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go. Discussion on the forum.
Jalopnik got the chance to test drive the new KITT from the new Knight Rider show. As a child of the 80s and former member of the Knight Rider faithful (I happily toted the Rider lunchbox until third grade) it was nearly impossible to stifle my internal yelp of anticipation when first presented with the keys to the new KITT for an exclusive first drive.
Legion Hardware compare CPU Scaling With The AMD's latest Radeon HD 4870 X2. Today we are testing at a range of CPU's with the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card, to try and determine what kind of processing power is required to push this new dual-GPU monster to the limit. In total there are 40 CPU configurations tested, including processors from the Intel Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo series, along with a number of AMD Phenom X4 and Athlon64 X2 processors.
The Tech Report review Western Digital's Caviar Black 1TB hard drive. The Black's platters are simply an evolved version of what's available in the 640GB Caviar SE16. Upgrades have been applied elsewhere on the drive, too, including a bump in onboard cache to 32MB. So was the Caviar Black 1TB worth the wait? Can WD extend its hot streak and add the terabyte performance crown to its already impressive palmarès?
Bit-tech have published their ATI RV770 architecture analysis. There is a hell of a lot to like about the Radeon HD 4800 series and RV770 is arguably one of the best ATI graphics processors we’ve ever seen. It’s very clear that RV770 was all about architectural efficiency and on that front, AMD has really achieved. RV770 caught Nvidia by surprise and it wasn’t until the company cut its prices that it became competitive again.
Tom's Hardware take a look at AMD's processor release history. Last month we shined a spotlight on Intel with a history of the company's most notable processors. This month it's AMD's turn, as we summarize the last 25 processor released from AMD's labs.
GIGABYTE announced the first annual GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship (GO OC) - to be held in Taipei, Taiwan on Thursday, September 25th, 2008. The GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship promises to be the industry's largest global overclocking competition in history with overclockers from 23 countries including Australia, battling for first place at the 3F Ballroom of the prestigious Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.
Tech ARP have updated their desktop CPU comparison guide. These days, there are so many CPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different models. Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications.
Bit-tech have published the entries for their August Mod of the Month contest. One of the entries is dimtec's Tachikoma. About one of the only things that is considered to be cooler than a model mod is a robot mod - and that's at least in part due to how rarely they're ever seen. … It's that exact case that I found sitting quietly in the corner of the forums this month - the sleepy but brilliant Tachikoma by dimtek.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is now available as a free download to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the series. You can download this from the Electronic Arts site, Internode's Games On Net or the 3FL Gaming Network. Discussion in this thread.
IBM Australia has offered staff generous bonuses to work through industrial action, according to the Australian Services Union. The union has predicted serious operational disruptions, including disruptions to wage and social services payments, and delays to flights if the industrial action goes ahead. IBM clients that rely on the group include Westpac and Qantas, and critical government services providers the Australian Customs Service and Medicare.
Many victims of the eBay trader Ebusiness Supplies have reportedly not received a refund from PayPal Australia. Usually when goods purchased are not delivered PayPal will tap into a seller's account to reimburse a buyer. So hopes were raised when PayPal managing director Andrew Pipolo publicly said the company, not EBS, would refund all affected customers from a special fund. However, it has emerged that PayPal's own staff may have reneged on Mr Pipolo's pledge.
StarDock have announced the "Gamer's Bill of Rights" and they hope that other publishers will embrace these "rights" too. According to Stardock, the objective of the Gamer’s Bill of Rights is to increase the confidence of consumers of the quality of PC games which in turn will lead to more sales and a better gaming experience.
Forum Projects
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Monday, 1-September-2008 21:29:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some inspiration from the Modding forum:
Monday Evening
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Monday, 1-September-2008 18:03:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hurricane Gustav looks like it will reach New Orleans in about 4 hours or so. Everyone is a lot better prepared than when Katrina, a similarly sized storm, hit 3 years ago with the loss of 1800 lives. Most people have evactuated New Orleans already, so here's hoping the devastation and loss of life will be significantly less this time. There's a thread here in Current Events keeping track of things, and people are watching 3 drunk guys on a webcam too.
There's been a record 9 entries into our Iron Musician competition for August. You can listen to the entries and vote for your favourite here.
HWZone report on IFA 2008 in Berlin, while MSI's European Overclocking Challenge is covered on OC3D. HWZone also have part 1 and part 2 of Comex 2008 coverage from Singapore.
In yet another case of a hard drive that should probably have been physically destroyed rather than sold, some UK taxpayer data was sold on eBay. According to the Daily Mail, the computer was sold on eBay to a Scottish computer expert for just £6.99 (US$14). The expert then used data recovery equipment to discover around 35,000 files, including council tax bills, photographs of council staff and internal memos.
NVIDIA apparently has confirmed their QPI license, meaning they can make motherboard chipsets for Intel's Bloomfield and other future CPUs. Discussion of these future CPUs here.
Andy sent in an article about virtual hotels in virtual worlds. I just finished writing this post about hotels in Second Life, World of Warcraft and other MMOs.
Guru3D have updated RivaTuner to v2.10. GeForce 9x00 support has been added as well as ForceWare GeForce drivers up-to 177.92 and AMD ATI Catalyst 8.8 support. With this release comes support for ATI Radeon 4800 class graphics adapaters and better GeForce GTX series 200 support as well.
Sniper noticed this 4-Terabyte solid-state drive tech being tested by IBM. Compared with the fastest industry benchmarked hard disk drive system, Quicksilver not only improved performance by 250 percent but did this in less than one-twentieth of the response time, one-fifth of the floor space, and with 55 percent of the power and cooling requirements, IBM said.
ZDNet have an interesting article about CAPTCHA-solving farms in India. No CAPTCHA can survive a human that’s receiving financial incentives for solving it, and with an army of low-waged human CAPTCHA solvers officially in the business of "data processing" while earning a mere $2 for solving a thousand CAPTCHA’s, I’m already starting to see evidence of consolidation between India’s major CAPTCHA solving companies.
I haven't watched it fully yet, but BFM sent in this Australian Story episode about an Australian geek having a hard time in the real world. Daniel Meadows lives his life on the internet. Through his video diaries on YouTube, the shy young recluse has found friendship and fame. When love beckoned in the real world, Daniel Meadows left the security of his parent's home to follow his heart across the globe. But his American dream became a border security nightmare, sparking a frenzy of outraged vlogging and blogging around the world.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 1-September-2008 17:13:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Lian Li PC7B Plus II Mid-Tower on BenchmarkReviews.
Tagan A+ Black Pearl WCR on APHNetworks.
Cooler Master HAF 932 on TechWareLabs.
Moneual MONCASO 972 HTPC Enclosure on Virtual-Hideout.
NZXT Guardian 921 Mid-Tower on OCIA.
Video Cards:
Palit GeForce 9800GT Sonic 512MB on ThinkComputers.
ASUS HD4870-X2 on T-Break.
Portable:
Lenovo ThinkPad T500 on InsideHW.
Touch Keyboards for Windows Mobile on TrustedReviews.
Philips GoGear SA5285/02 8GB media player on TrustedReviews.
Memory and Storage:
SilverStone Treasure TS01 RFID HDD Enclosure on Phoronix.
Geil EvoOne DDR2 on OCClub.
Misc:
LG 47LG7000 47in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Topower PowerBird 1100W Modular on Tweaktown.
MSI X48 Platinum LGA775 motherboard on PureOC.
RAZER Destructor Precision Gaming Mat on OC3D.
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