|
|
|
|
|
March 2009 |
There's some concern that the widespread Conflicker worm may do something dramatic tomorrow, or, may not. Experts have worked out that from midnight on 1 April, the Conficker program will start scanning thousands of websites for a new set of instructions telling it what to do next.
Takai spotted this half netbook half tablet on Gizmodo. The hardware I saw wasn't quite complete—the software was demoed on a prototype, and the final hardware above were just empty shells to give an idea of the design—so I cant comment too much on how well the end product performs, but I saw enough to consider this thing more than vaporware. Hrm, reminds me of this!
Gazza and Hagar sent word that action games are good for you. Far from being harmful to eyesight, as some had feared, action games such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, or Left 4 Dead provide excellent training for what eye doctors call contrast sensitivity, the study found.
The UK Government is considering "big brother" monitoring of social websites. Many people in Britain use social networking sites, like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to keep in touch with their friends. The Government move follows plans to store information about every telephone call, email, and internet visit made by anyone in the UK on a central database. Uh, what? Really?
Closer to home, the winner of the national broadband network tender will apparently be announced next week. Five consortiums are still in the running, after Telstra was dumped from the tender process almost three months ago on the grounds its proposal failed to meet requirements.
Western Digital have officially (and finally) entered the SSD race, thanks Sniper. Known for its line of Raptor and Caviar drives, Western Digital is in a good position to capitalize on SSD demand. Its VelociRaptor drive is currently the fastest consumer HDD on the market, but even it cannot stand a chance against the fastest SSDs. Now with SiliconSystems in its portfolio, Western Digital is poised to make a big impact on both SSD technology itself and its adoption rate.
Trish sent in this V8 engine made from lego. Cool project. :)
Phoronix compared some mobile-focussed Linux distros. Moblin is certainly turning into an interesting Intel creation, but how does its performance compare to other mobile-focused Linux distributions? We have benchmarked Moblin V2 Alpha 2 and compared it against what is likely their biggest competitor in the mobile space, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and the LPIA-based Ubuntu MID edition.
LegionHW meanwhile compared ATI Radeon HD 4890 vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 275. These new graphics cards are set to cost around $250 US, and at that price they should offer an impressive level of performance. The only question now is which delivers the best performance?
Xbitlabs looked at three GMC cases, 10 Chieftec PSUs and Radeon 4670 in CrossFireX.
Tonight at 7:30 AEST, the SBS Insight TV show has an episode on the internet filtering debate. Senator Conroy will be on the show, as will a representative from Electronic Frontiers Australia and other people on both sides of the debate. Tonight for the first time the Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy clearly outlines what content will make the blacklist and who will decide.
As usual, discussion continues in this giant thread and you can keep on top of things via the Wiki page.
Photography Gallery
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 30-March-2009 20:30:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Here's some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
Monday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 30-March-2009 14:30:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Cases:
Cooler Master Sileo 500 Silent Mid-Tower on OCOnline.
NOX Coolbay HX on VerdisReviews.
NZXT ZERO 2 Crafted Series Full Tower on JonnyGuru.
Silverstone Raven RV01 on ExtremeMHz.
Tagan A+ Cupid 3 Mini-ITX HTPC on Tweaktown.
Audio / Visual:
Chumby Chumby multimedia gadget on HWPacers.
Honeywell Airlite 740 Bluetooth headset on Bjorn3D.
Monitor Audio Radius HD Speakers on TrustedReviews.
Software:
Grand Ages: Rome PC game on GamingHeaven.
EvE Online: Apocrypha MMORPG expansion on YouGamers.
Torch Mobile Iris Browser 1.1.5 phone browser on TrustedReviews.
Misc:
Acer Aspire One D150 netbook on InsideHW.
Coolink Chillaramic Thermal Compound on VerdisReviews.
Flashlight-er Flashlight-er phone-charging torch on HWPacers.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400S CPU on InsideHW.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2680 and RocketRAID 4320 SAS/ SATA on OCOnline.
Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition Gaming Keyboard on OCIA.
NZXT Performance Power (PP800) 800W PSU on FutureLooks.
SanDisk Extreme III 4GB SDHC Flash Card on LegitReviews.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 1792MB Video Card on TheTechLounge.
Zowie P-RF gaming mousepad on DVHardware.
TIME Magazine have weighed in on the internet filtering proposal. The ACMA "blacklist", as it became known, was promptly posted online, becoming a handy compendium of internet depravity in one convenient package — courtesy of the Australian government.
Quan-time sent in this cool audio-tape art. Using these old tapes, iri5 has turned them into works of art in a series that she calls “Ghost in the Machine.” The series portrays celebrities and musicians such as Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Robert DeNiro, Jimi Hendrix, Ian Curtis, and Jim Morrison.
Tesla have a new electric sedan. The car will travel 300 miles on one battery charge, he said, and the battery can be recharged in 45 minutes. The car is big enough to carry five adults and fit two children in rear-facing seats in the trunk.
This is the first I've heard of this, but iNCOGNITO sent word of a parking tax hike in NSW. So, check it out and if you don't like it, sign the petition.
PCPerspective have a first glimpse of Larrabee, Intel's upcoming GPU. Larrabee is a many-core architecture design essentially based around a Pentium core with new features and vector processing units to better support floating point math used in graphics and parallel computing.
Sniper spotted this article about a huge cyber-spy network, apparently based mainly in China. Hacked systems were also discovered in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan. More info here.
TomsHardware report on a BIOS-resident virus that can survive reinstalls. Anibal L. Sacco and Alfredo A. Ortego of Core Security Technologies released a presentation detailing the exploit of this “persistent BIOS infection.”? Through the use of a 100-line piece of code written in Python, a rootkit could be flashed into the BIOS and be run completely independent of the operating system.
Monday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 30-March-2009 03:28:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Cooling:
Socket 1366 Cooler Roundup on DriverHeaven.
Cooler Master V10 CPU Heatsink on Virtual-Hideout.
Coolit Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling System on Motherboards.org.
Gelid WING 9 & Silent TC case fans on Bjorn3D.
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 Core i7 Specific CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
NZXT Sentry LX fan controller on PureOC.
Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer 92mm Heatsink on Frostytech.
Thermaltake ProWater 880i on OCClub.
Video Cards:
TwinTech Geforce GTS 250 XT OC Edition on CPU3D.
Galaxy GeForce GTX 260+ OC on Tweaktown.
HIS HD 4650 iSilence 512MB on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA Quadro CX workstation card on Motheboards.org.
PowerColor SCS3 Radeon HD 4650 512MB on Phoronix.
Sapphire HD 4870 Vapor-X 1GB on NeoSeeker.
TwinTech GeForce GTS 250 1024MB on Guru3D.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi LGA775 board on PCShopTalk.
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5p AM3 board on TrustedReviews.
Gigabyte EX58 Extreme LGA1366 board on HWSecrets.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 LGA775 CPU on LegitReviews.
DFI LanParty Jr X58 T3H6 LGA1366 board on NinjaLane.
MSI X58 Pro LGA1366 board on OC3D.
Sapphire PURE CrossFireX 790GX AM3 board on Tweaktown.
ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi LGA775 board on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
USB LED Message Cooling Fan Mouse on PCShopTalk.
Speedlink Mini Chat Keyboard on XSReviews.
Speedlink Formula Laser mouse on XSReviews.
ZOWIE Gear P-RF mousepad on SweMod.
Misc:
Kingston HyperX PC2-8500 4GB memory on Aselabs.
TP-Link TL-WR941ND Wireless N Router on Tweaktown.
Mophie Juice Pack Rechargeable Battery for iPhone 3G on FutureLooks.
Saturday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 28-March-2009 15:46:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Audio / Visual:
Hi-Den Vision HDMI 1080p Digital Photo and Video Viewer on Futurelooks.
Canon PowerShot SX200 IS on DigitalTrends.
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! USB Sound Card on TechSpot.
Marantz SR6003 A/V Receiver on DigitalTrends.
HP LP2475w - 24in H-IPS Display on TrustedReviews.
Teufel AC 9050 PH Headphones on TrustedReviews.
Storage:
ACARD ANS-9010 DDR2 SATA RAM-Drive on BenchmarkReviews.
ASUS SDRW-08D1S-U External DVD-RW USB 2.0 Slim Drive on LegitReviews.
In Win Na External HDD Enclosure on OCClub.
Linksys by Cisco Media Hub NAS Device on HotHardware.
OCZ Throttle 32GB Flash Drive on I4U.
Rosewill RX355-X2 External Hard Drive Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB portable HDD on EverythingUSB.
WD Caviar Green 2TB & Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB quiet drives on SilentPCReview.
WD Scorpio Blue 500GB Notebook Hard Drive on LegitReviews.
Western Digital RE3 1TB Hard Drives on PCShopTalk.
Portable and Pre-built:
Acer Aspire One D150 on InsideHW.
AMD's Yukon Platform and the HP Pavilion dv2 Unveiled! on HWZone.
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series Preview on HotHardware.
Choiix C-HL01-WS notebook stand/cooler on Bjorn3D.
HP Firebird 802 gaming PC on DigitalTrends.
ATP PhotoFinder Mini GPS Geotagging device on PureOC.
Toshiba NB100 netbook on HWZone.
Power Supply:
Antec 750 True Power New on Bjorn3D.
Coolmax CU-700B on RBMods.
Hiper Group M1000 1KW on Hi-TechReviews.
Thanks to aftahours, rodhamp, benro2 and others for these!
     
     
Break out the pink swimwear and temporary tattoos. Admiral and Cee are at it again this year, and have invited every OCAU member to participate in the annual MS Walk and Fun Run. This year they are aiming for over $100,000, which is more than any team has raised before.
In order to help them reach this target, you can either donate to the team, or sign up to participate and go around collecting donations.
All the money raised goes towards helping people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating disease of the central nervous system.
More details in the thread.
Dan has more letters! Lightning strikes, Linux and NTFS, Monkey Island 3, monitor resolutions and SATA power.
Apparently the Windows 7 RC will ship in May. Someone with butter fingers at Microsoft has prematurely let slip when the company plans to push out the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 by posting the download page early. Microsoft has refused to comment on when users can expect to see a near-ready version of Windows 7 arrive but many observers were expecting an April release. It also details hardware spec requirements for the operating system, including a PC running a minimum 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher, 1GB of system memory and support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB memory.
AMD are planning on shipping 32nm processors by Q4. AMD’s manufacturing spin-off, Globalfoundries, has started to obtain bulk 32nm process technology so that they can begin taking orders by Q4 2009/Q1 2010. Should these plans come full circle, it would allow Gobalfoundries, and AMD, to get a solid foothold in the 32nm market, making them competitive with United Microelectronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
The first email virus is turning 10. It appears we have been living with viruses all the time, but if we are looking back in history we find that certain types of viruses are actually not that old. For example, the email-aware virus is turning just 10 today. Melissa, the first virus of this kind, was estimated to have infected more than one million PCs and caused damage in excess of $80 million.
Earth Hour is once again approaching. The project, which began its life in the Sydney offices of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has gained considerable global attention already. “We initially had no idea whether Earth Hour would work at all. The plan was if it did, we’d roll it out across Australia and if that worked we’d roll it out in 2009 in the year that the big negotiations for Copenhagen happened."
Today's timewaster is Perfect Balance New Trials. Rotate and stack shapes, once again, and try to achieve perfect balance in this physics puzzle! 30 new brain taxing trials!
Friday Afternoon
(1 Comments)
(link)
Friday, 27-March-2009 14:24:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
If you missed the Q&A TV show last night, you can see the episode here. Meanwhile the classification board's website was hacked at a similar time last night.
We're a little late reporting this, but the home of Wikileaks.de domain owner was raided over the censorship lists, although ACMA say they had nothing to do with it. A statement on Wikileaks's website claims police were investigating the "distribution of pornographic material" and "discovery of evidence".
Scoobth sent in this Anandtech article on SSDs. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. We’re about to see a new wave of SSDs hit the market and it’s time to separate the fact from the fiction, the benchmarks from reality and the men from the boys. The last time I wrote an article about SSDs I ruffled quite a few feathers. That’s never my aim, but we’ll see what comes of this one.
There's some not-work-safe thumbnails on this page, but here's a video showing Windows 7 touch features on MSN video.
Mythbusters have been having fun lately, making a bang so loud it blew out windows in a nearby town. The explosion was so big it shook the town of Esparto, knocking Stephens off her couch and breaking her front window.
Phoronix have benchmarked some recent Linux kernels. With the release yesterday of the Linux 2.6.29 kernel, we have set out to explore how the desktop performance has evolved over the past six major kernel releases. On a few occasions in the past we have provided kernel benchmarks (at one point even benchmarking 12 kernels), but this time around we have included nearly two dozen benchmarks using the Phoronix Test Suite.
InsideHW look at dual channel vs triple channel memory with i7. If you plan to upgrade to Core i7 platform one of advantages will be triple channel memory mode and with this test we offer you a straight answer to question: Is triple channel memory mode faster and better solution than dual channel mode?
Tech Report have an article on MotionDSP's vReveal and Nvidia's CUDA. Another application hops on the general-purpose GPU bandwagon. But does consumer-grade video enhancement software really work, and how much can a GeForce GPU help with rendering performance? On a similar but less detailed note, PCPerspective have some sneak preview info on AMD and Havok's OpenCL physics acceleration.
LegitReviews have been playing with an NVIDIA Ion PC. This system is basically what one will find in a high-end netbook, but has been placed in a sleek and sexy small form factor case that has Home Theater PC (HTPC) or media PC written all over it.
Apparently there's a "reality TV" show out about hardcore gamers, called "WCG Ultimate Gamer". HardCoreWare share their thoughts about it. The idea behind WCG Ultimate Gamer is to find the best “overall” gamer by pitting them against each other in games covering various genres.
Interesting Forum Threads
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 26-March-2009 20:09:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
A quick snapshot of what's going on. You can also find new interesting things you might have missed via the Who's Online page, the New Posts page and the Live forum view.
Stories about Impulsive Last-Second Hardware Purchases in Overclocking & Hardware.
Ubuntu - run a local radio station with controls from windows? in Other Operating Systems.
Red Hat stocks rise on Oracle bid speculation in Other Operating Systems.
Installing from a pendrive? in Windows Operating Systems.
Workplace IDE poll in Graphics and Programming.
Intel to drop some desktop PC CPU prices 10-20%, launch new models in Intel Hardware.
New iPod Shuffles that talk to you in Apple Hardware & Software.
Apple adds DRM to new iPod Shuffle in Apple Hardware & Software.
Xserve G5 and Xserve RAID in Apple Hardware & Software.
NVIDIA Releases GeForce 182.47 BETA Driver with OpenGL 3.1 Support in Video Cards.
Nvidia PhysX multiple card setups etc in Video Cards.
Bargain 4x Drive RAID5 NAS - too good to be true? in Storage & Backup.
The Hunter (free game) in Games.
Crytek Announces CryENGINE 3 in Games.
Cockroaches taking over my house. Help needed. in Lifestyle.
CSIRO Robotics lab Open Day + Photos in Science.
Pentax to discontinue medium format film cameras in Photography.
Pentax 645 Digital is revived! in Photography.
Oz Housing Poll in Career, Education and Finance.
Muffler-mounted turbos in Motoring.
Shell V-Power for the price of RON91 in Motoring.
Exhaust back pressure theory - fluid mechanics in Motoring.
[SYD] RBS Grand Prix Challenge in The Pub.
Q&A With Stephen Conroy
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 26-March-2009 18:07:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Remember that on the ABC's Q&A tonight, the Minister for Communications, Senator Conroy, will be answering questions. It's on at 9:30pm "Eastern Australia Time" but check your local guides. You can submit questions via their site. There's discussion here and in the giant Internet Filtering thread here.
The team is looking for Nvidia GeForce 8XXX, 9XXX and 260/28X/295 GPU's (ATI GPU's Too!) to help increase our output. If you are ready to start, then check out this thread for instructions. Don't have a GPU to spare? Folding@Home works on your CPU as well! There's a guide to getting started here. If you have Sony Playstation 3 you should already have the client pre-installed and ready for you to start producing!
So, if you would like to help scientists learn about diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Osteogenesis Imperfecta - possibly help find a cure for it and put OCAU back in the number one spot - then drop by the Distributed Computing section (open to the public) and see how you can be a part of it.
 
Thursday Afternoon
(3 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 26-March-2009 16:37:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
It seems some ATM skimmers are being used in Melbourne. Yesterday, the ANZ bank reported more than $500,000 had been stolen from up to 5000 cards using a skimming device attached to an ANZ ATM for at least a month at the corner of Collins and Elizabeth streets in central Melbourne.
Apparently the latest leaked blacklist is close to the real thing, says Senator Conroy, thanks sid. “Does the [leaked blacklist] mean we are going to stop blocking access to the sites? No. People can continue to put up the lists if they are proud to do that,” Conroy said.
XbitLabs have a 13-way i7 Cooler roundup with a focus on overclocking. We are going to introduce to you a new cooler from Prolimatech and talk about the best cooling solutions and their performance on Intel Core i7 platform. Read our review including twelve products from Cooler Master, Noctua, Prolimatech, Scythe, ThermoLab, Thermalright, Thermaltake and Zalman.
Here's a mobile phone that looks fairly normal, until you notice the in-built shaver. As long as you give the battery can be full of electric shaving, and can also dial phone, dual sim card dual standby, listen to music, support Bluetooth and 8GB expansion. Oh, No, this is a cell phone. Mobile phone can also be a razor, it is amazed.
But you might want to avoid using it, what with killer SMS's doing the rounds. The extraordinary move by Egypt's health and interior ministries follows press reports that an SMS containing a special combination of numbers killed a man in the town of Mallawi south of Cairo.
One solution to a lack of network infrastructure in remote areas might be flying wireless hubs. A group of students from Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany, under the supervision of Professor Andreas Mitschele, are developing flying PCs that can go right over the top of an area of devastation, find a good place to land up high and create an ad-hoc network to get the lines of communication back.
PC Perspective looked at Windows 7 gaming performance. Does moving to Windows 7 beta mean a drop in PC gaming performance like it did with Vista or do Microsoft and the driver teams at AMD and NVIDIA have it all ironed out? We take you through gaming performance results on 7 graphics cards that totaled to more than 750 test runs.
Accelenation meanwhile examine what a GeForce GTX295 can do for an older PC. Well, not everyone can or wants to transfer their current system to a new one. However, they may be capable or willing to plug in a new graphics card with the hope it will let them play recent cutting-edge games. So will shoehorning in a monster like a GeForce GTX 295 card achieve this goal, or will the remaining system hold back the performance to such a degree that a card like this is pointless?
On a similar note, Tweaknews wonder if the economic collapse will bring back the computer tweaker mentality by forcing us to make the most of what we have. Recent trends dictate that consumers are spending money where it matters and sprucing up their computer rather than replacing it.
But this may all go away anyway, if we move to a model like OnLive, a cloud-based gaming service, thanks Phalanx. OnLive, a tech company that has been in self-described "stealth mode" development for seven years, has unveiled new technology that allows even the most complex PC games to be played on a television set or any PC. Some more thoughts on Engadget, and discussion here.
AFL and F1 2009 start this weekend
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 26-March-2009 02:19:37 (GMT +10) - by Wolfy
|
The 2009 AFL Season starts this weekend, with the first match tonight! If you're an AFL fan you may like to sign up for OCAU AFL Tipping 2009 before tonight's match between the Tigers and the Blues.
Also starting this weekend is the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, with the first race here in Australia at Albert Park. There are a number of interesting changes to F1 this year so it could be a challenge picking winners, but if you'd like to try, OCAU F1 Tipping details here.
While it's not a championship round, the V8's will also be racing at Albert Park, OCAU V8 Supercar Tipping details here, and looking at last weeks results, its not too late to join.
None of the OCAU NRL tippers managed to get all the games correct last weekend, and with NRL round 3 this weekend I'm not sure if it's going to get easier, so good luck to everyone.
Apparently an aussie IT worker has discovered a cache of 22,000 credit cards using Google. The discovered information, including card numbers, expiration dates, names, addresses, and CVV codes, could be the result of an outdated card processing server, or a simple storage space used by criminals. Google has since taken measures to block the cache of the directory listing where the discovery was made.
Crux of iiNet defence due by April - ISP iiNet undertook today to stop sitting on the fence on whether it will admit that its users have been infringing copyright, in a Federal Court hearing today for the court case brought against it by the Australian Federation for Copyright Theft. iiNet was dragged into the Federal Court in November as major film studios filed a case against the ISP for allegedly letting its users download pirated movies and television series.
Dr Mark Gregory from RMIT University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering believes that the web is like the "wild west" and that ISP's profit from lack of content filter. Australian internet service providers are against any internet filter because they reap large profits from content downloads, a RMIT academic said this week. "It is possible" to regulate the internet, Dr Mark Gregory from RMIT University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering said, likening the web to the "wild west" before criminals were brought into line.
Two Argentinean researchers have demonstrated how to pull off a "BIOS-level rootkit attack". A pair of Argentinean researchers has demonstrated a BIOS-level exploit that allowed the duo to potentially run a great deal of invisible code—which could remain installed even if the hard drive was wiped. Much has been made of this last bit, but malware attacks against the Basic Input Output System are anything but new.
Research in to the use of graphene (a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms) in electronics is gaining momentum with the latest news coming from the MIT where researchers have devised a graphene signal multiplier that could one day see CPU's operate in the 500 to 1,000 GHz range. The researchers at MIT have built an experimental frequency multiplier made from graphene. The multiplier is capable of taking an incoming electronic signal at a specific frequency and producing an output signal that it a multiple of the original frequency. One example of a use for the graphene frequency multiplier is inside a microprocessor to determine the clock speed of a CPU.
According to Ed Bott, MS Office 14 beta tester Microsoft Office 14 could be offered in a 64-bit edition. Within the migwiz.xml file, Bott found that each application within the Office suite were listed twice: once as the standard product name, and once again with a “_x64” suffix. This appears to indicate that fully native 64-bit builds of Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, Visio, and Word exist – and should be shipped as an option when Office 14 goes live.
It would seem that Dell is looking at buying Palm Inc. Whether a deal by Dell Inc. to purchase Palm Inc. is truly in the offing, an acquisition would make sense for both companies, three analysts said today. However, at least one additional analyst said the time has already passed for such a deal, which was first rumoured at least two years ago. Neither company could be reached to comment regarding a recent Dow Jones report that summarized many of the market conditions making a merger likely.
Wednesday Night Reviews
(2 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 25-March-2009 22:50:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Audio Visual:
Auzentech X-fi Forte 7.1 Soundcard on Guru3D.
Samsung Monochrome Laser Printer ML-2855ND on CCEReviews.
Olympus FE-5000 digicam on InsideHW.
Samsung YP-P3 Portable Media Player 4GB on HWZone.
Speedlink Vento 2.0 speaker set on XSReviews.
Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe Audio Card on HotHardware.
Third-Generation Apple iPod Shuffle on Digitaltrends.
Motherboard and CPU:
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU on XbitLabs.
EVGA X58 SLI LGA1366 board on Techgage.
Portable:
Acer Aspire 8930G Laptop on DriverHeaven.
Titan G4T Magic Pad Notebook Cooler on Bjorn3D.
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds 17-inch Laptop on ThinkComputers.
Winterface 1.31 Windows Mobile Shell on TrustedReviews.
Cases:
Antec Fusion Remote Max on Tech-Reviews.
Cooler Master Cosmos-S on Modders-Inc.
Video Cards:
HIS HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1 GB GDDR5 on TechPowerUp.
ASUS Extreme AH4870X2 Tri-Fan on LegionHW.
Storage:
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB Hard Drive on BigBruin.
OCZ Throttle eSATA 8GB Flash Drive on ExtremeOC.
Super Talent Pico C-Gold 8GB USB Flash Drive on CPU3D.
Cooling:
Thermaltake SpinQ CPU Cooler on CPU3D.
Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Software:
C&C: Red Alert 3 - Uprising PC game on GamingHeaven.
Zoho Writer word-processor on ITReviewed.
Input Etc:
OCZ Behemoth Large Gaming Mouse on Pro-Clockers.
Logitech G19 keyboard on DigitalTrends.
Razer Arctosa Gaming Keyboard on OCIA.
Microsoft Sidewinder X8 gaming mouse on HWLogic.
Logitech G9 Laser Mouse on DriverHeaven.
Misc:
BFG EX-1200 Watt Modular PSU on Tweaktown.
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB DDR3-1600 memory on PureOC.
Modem/Router Worm
(5 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 25-March-2009 17:07:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Mitsimonsta pointed out this worrying new worm which seems to have originated from Australia, and sets up a botnet by taking over home routers and modems. The malware contains the shellcode for over 30 different Linksys models, 10 Netgear models, and a variety of other cable and DSL modems (15 different shellcodes). A list of 6000 usernames and 13,000 passwords were also included, to be used for brute force entry to Telnet and SSH logins which are open to the LAN and sometimes even the public WAN side of the routers. Generally, routers do not lock a user out after a number of incorrect password attempts, making brute force attacks possible.
Discussion here.
Tuesday Afternoon
(5 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 24-March-2009 16:50:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
iiNet have pulled out of internet filter trials, although it must be said they were not involved in phase one of the trial. "It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes," Mr Malone said.
The USA has adopted an interesting collective online approach to monitoring their border with Mexico. The United States has unveiled an unlikely weapon in its battle against drugs gangs and illegal immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border - pub-goers in Australia.
It seems the NRMA now have a RoadTube website. RoadTube is your avenue to let politicians and others know about what bugs you on our roads and what you want done to fix it.
Bjorn3D have some serious RAID action happening. We have RAID in every flavor that our LSI RAID controller will handle with the drives we have available (10 Seagate Savvio 15K SAS drives).
Slightly less serious is this shooting a hard drive video from Techwarelabs. Been done before, but it's been a while. TechwareLabs takes aim as resident Firearms Specialist Dan Shannon fires upon several hard drives just for fun and to see how well a hard drive would protect you from several different types of rounds.
Here's a cool video about dolphins blowing air-rings underwater. These dolphins have a lot of fun blowing bubble rings from their blowholes and popping them.
From hobo-jo: Those watching the volatile stock markets at the moment may be interested to know that we now have a monthly stock tipping competition running on the OCAU forums. The March picks have been tracking well, with an average increase of 13% over the last 3 weeks (week ending 20/03). Certainly nothing to sneeze at in today's economic climate and doubling the increase we've seen in the All Ordinaries (XAO) over the same period. One tipper managed to pick a stock (MQG) which is trading at almost a 50% increase! You can check out the current month's competition in this thread. You can register your interest and check out the details for the April competition in this thread. It's a great opportunity to learn more about the stock market while competing with your peers.
Sciby spotted this video about a guy making a 3D wooden puzzle. Making some burr puzzles with my computer controlled box joint jig. Some other interesting projects from that guy too.
JonnyGuru report on Ultra suing modular PSU makers and now vendors for intellectual property infringement. Products named in the suit include but are not limited to the Antec Truepower Quattros at 850W and 1kW, and a half dozen Thermaltake Toughpower models. Enermax, Raidmax, and Rocketfish models are also named.
Juppy has a tutorial for making a digital photo frame that looks less obvious than the off-the-shelf ones. Well, it involves modifying an off-the-shelf one. I had a friend come over a few days ago and she saw the frame on my wall for the first time and commented something along the lines of "That picture on your wall almost seems to glow." I then told her it was a digital frame and at first she didnt believe me until the image changed.
From crag_v: Organised by the MRA and Netrider, the Ride for the Hills will take place on 5 April 2009, riding from St Kilda to Whittlesea. All proceeds go to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund. $20 per rider, $1 per pillion, lots of great prizes to be won, and an additional round of prizes for early registration online (front page of their site). Thread on OCAU.mc here. See you there!
Tuesday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Tuesday, 24-March-2009 16:11:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Storage:
Super Talent Pico-C 16GB USB Flash Drive on HWLogic.
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green Serial ATA HDD on TechARP.
Cooling:
AMA Aragon 900 Water Cooling Kit on OCClub.
ASUS Triton 81 CPU cooler on LegionHW.
Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler on XSReviews.
Titan Fenrir CPU cooler on Frostytech.
Xigmatek Thors Hammer on DriverHeaven.
Cases:
NZXT Guardian 921 Crafted Series Mid-Tower on Futurelooks.
NZXT Guardian 921 on OCOnline.
Input Etc:
Microsoft SideWinder X8 Wireless Gaming Mouse on I4U.
XTracPads Logic Hard Mouse Surfaces on VerdisReviews.
Power Supply:
Antec TruePower New Series 750W on PCPerspective.
BFG EX-1200 on Guru3D.
Chill Innovation CP-700M on SilentPCReview.
Cooler Master UCP 700W on JonnyGuru.
Coolmax CU-700 700W on Pro-Clockers.
Portable:
eMachines G520 and G620 notebooks on InsideHW.
Starlight Creations LaTosta Laptop Stand on Virtual Hideout.
MSI X-Slim X340 Preview on HWZone.
Video Cards:
Galaxy Geforce 9500 GT Voltage Modification and Overclocking on MadShrimps.
Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI Geforce 9600GT Rev.B on PCStats.
Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216SP on BenchmarkReviews.
Misc:
ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme LGA1366 motherboard on LegitReviews.
Hawking HomeRemote Pro Wireless Video Camera on RBMods.
Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe on Phoronix.
Photography Gallery
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 23-March-2009 14:49:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Here's some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
The Government are apparently planning to keep an eye on print and electronic media in a more efficient manner, including blogs, assuming they're using the word correctly. Soon after Senator Conroy praised Singapore's Government for reducing monitoring of blogs, tender documents issued by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy reveal it is looking for a "comprehensive digital monitoring service for print and electronic media".
Speaking of which, Stephen Conroy will be on the ABC's Q&A show soon, and you can submit questions to ask him.
Tech Report have an article on processor value. 17 processors. 22 benchmarks. 64 graphs. One epic study of how some of today's most popular enthusiast processors compare in terms of performance per dollar.
Lemming spotted this video on TED where Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame explains in great detail how he became obsessed with certain objects.
One problem with an intelligent power distribution grid is that it is vulnerable to attack, or so it seems. In the hands of a malicious hacker, this code could be used to cut power to Smart Grid devices that use a feature called "remote disconnect," which allows power companies to cut a customer's power via the network.
HotHardware have info on a tactile jacket that adds realism to movies. They call this "emotional immersion," and it is more akin to providing a sensation such as a "causing a shiver to go up the viewer's spine and creating the feeling of tension in the limbs" or "create a pulsing on the wearer's chest to simulate... [an] elevated heartbeat."
Meanwhile Australia is getting a new weather supercomputer. "I think the biggest impact that people will see in the shorter term is that the accuracy of the shorter-term forecasts - days one to four, or five – will get better," Chris Ryan, head of the Bureau's National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre, told news.com.au.
Dopefish spotted a WoW-themed soft drink. Do you choose the cherry-citrus tang of Horde Red, or the smooth wild fruit taste of Alliance Blue?
Internet Explorer 8 has been officially released and is available for download now. Coverage on HWZone and Digitaltrends. Discussion here.
Monday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 23-March-2009 02:37:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
CPU and Motherboard:
AMD Phenom II In-Depth Performance Scaling Analysis on MadShrimps.
A trio of affordable Core i7 motherboards on TechReport.
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 X58 LGA1366 board on PCPerspective.
EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM LGA775 board on iXBTLabs.
DFI LANParty UT X58-T3eH8 LGA1366 board on HWZone.
Storage:
Western Digital Caviar Green 2.0TB (WD20EADS) on FutureLooks.
Patriot Warp v3 SSD 256GB on HWT.DK.
Lenovo ThinkPad 128-bit AES Secure USB Hard Drive on EverythingUSB.
OCZ 8GB Throttle eSATA Flash Drive on Pro-Clockers.
Patriot Warp V3 256GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk on Tweaktown.
PromoLocker Customized USB Flash Drives on Bjorn3D.
Seagate Momentus 7200.2 200GB Notebook Hard Drive on LegitReviews.
Seagate FreeAgent Go with Dock on HWLogic.
Audio Visual:
Acoustibuds Earphone Adapters on OCModShop.
Gamecom 367 headset on XSReviews.
Apple In-Ear Headphones on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu-ray Player on TrustedReviews.
Portable & Prebuilt:
ASUS Eee Top - Touch Screen Desktop PC on LegitReviews.
Rock Xtreme 620 - 15.4in Gaming Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Dell Inspiron Mini 10 notebook on HWZone.
Cases:
Cooler Master Sniper on OCrCafe.
Cooler Master Sniper on NinjaLane.
In Win Matrix mATX on ThinkComputers.
NZXT Whisper on Guru3D.
Sunbeam Automaton on OCClub.
Misc:
TrendNet TV-IP422 IP security camera on SweMod.
Seasonic M12D 750W PSU on OC3D.
World In Conflict: Soviet Assault PC game on GamingHeaven.
OCZ PC3-16000 Reaper DDR3 on NeoSeeker.
Coolink Silentator CPU cooler on Bjorn3D.
Some interesting things from the forums:
Saturday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 21-March-2009 16:00:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Video Cards:
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 250 on HWZone.
Sparkle Calibre P980X+ geForce 9800GTX+ 512MB on ThinkComputers.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 2 GB Vapor-X on DriverHeaven.
NVIDIA Quadro CX Pro Graphics For Adobe CS4 on HotHardware.
Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 on XbitLabs.
GIGABYTE GeForce GTS 250 1GB on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W Power Supply on OCClub.
In Win Commander 850W on Hi-TechReviews.
Seasonic M12D 850W Modular on CPU3D.
Coolmax V-600 600W on Pro-Clockers.
Cooling:
Sunbeamtech Rheobus Extreme Fan Controller on PCShopTalk.
Zalman CNPS9900 LED CPU cooler on OCOnline.
CoolIT Domino A.L.C CPU Cooler on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 Thermal Paste on OCIA.
Cooler Master Hyper N520 dual 92mm fan cooler on SilentPCReview.
Input Etc:
Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Mouse on DriverHeaven.
Steelseries World of Warcraft Mouse on RBMods.
Logitech G9x Laser Mouse on Digitaltrends.
It's a shame that this is the first I'm hearing of this, but there's a protest march in Canberra tomorrow at 1pm, for those opposed to mandatory internet censorship in Australia. March in March is an upbeat event to give people an opportunity stand up, be heard, and hold the government accountable for their plans of forcing mandatory censorship on a very unwilling public.
Wikileaks Warns ACMA
(11 Comments)
(link)
Friday, 20-March-2009 16:08:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
There's been quite an interesting turn of events in the now explosively-growing net censorship story. Wikileaks, who published the list that the ACMA assure us is NOT their list, have responded to suggestions from ACMA that the Australian Federal Police may become involved.
Apparently whistleblowers are strongly protected under Swedish law, and Wikileaks is published from Sweden. Their response: Should the Senator or anyone else attempt to discover our source we will refer the matter to the Constitutional Police for prosecution, and if necessary, ask that the Senator and anyone else involved be extradited to face justice for breaching fundamental rights.
Discusson continues in this thread.
Thanks to SM and others for these!
     
     
OCAU V8 Supercars & NRL Tipping Competitions
(2 Comments)
(link)
Friday, 20-March-2009 01:03:48 (GMT +10) - by Wolfy
|
The 2009 V8 Supercar Championship starts this weekend with the Clipsal 500 at Adelaide's Street Circuit. This year OCAU is running a tipping competition for anyone interested in 8V Supercar racing, details in this forum thread - tips close later today!
Last weekend only one person (OCAU_johnny_utah) tipped all 8 winning teams in the OCAU NRL Tipping competition, so it's not too late to join you'll still get a few points, even if you start late. Tips for this weekend's NRL matches close later today.
Interesting Forum Threads
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 18:08:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Another quick snapshot of the forums:
French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu in Other Operating Systems.
VIA brings in new HD-capable chipset: VX855 in VIA Hardware.
What Netbook/Notebook To Buy? Ask For Advice Here! in Portable & Small Form Factor.
Awesome Hardware, Favourite Old Game in Video Cards.
NDS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars in Nintendo Consoles.
What is your password policy at work? in Business & Enterprise Computing.
One HD replaced 10 HD? in Audio Visual.
How long can you hold the bridges in Sport, Fitness and Health.
ACCC takes Telstra to court for blocking access seekers from exchanges in Current Events.
Pubs jack up cash fee with CashPod in Current Events.
BrisConnections shareholder revolts in Current Events.
Public Holidays and Trading Restrictions - Get Rid of the LOT! in Current Events.
Provisional Motorcycle License holders in NSW to hold license for 3 years in Motoring.
Ferrari F50 clutch install (pics) in Motoring.
Done any mods to your car that you regretted? in Motoring.
2009 F1 Australian GP Thread in Motorsport.
Movie: Far Cry (2008) [Dir: Uwe Boll] in Entertainment.
"Obama will move to block AIG bonus payments." in Career, Education and Finance.
Fortune in lost super grows to $12.9bn in Career, Education and Finance.
Has our generation lost our push? in Science.
Quick Poll: Happy that the Alcopops tax has been voted down? in The Pub.
Sheep herders with too much spare time on their hands in The Pub.
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 16:14:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Audio / Visual:
Aural Showdown - 2.1 Multimedia Speakers Shootout on HWZone.
24" HP Debranded HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor on OCIA.
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Headphone Amp Sound Card on FutureLooks.
Ultrasone HFI-680 Natural Surround Sound Headphone on FutureLooks.
Asus VH242H 23.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor on HotHardware.
Patriot Viper Series DDR3-1600 6Gb Kit on PCPerspective.
Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II speakers on ITReviewed.
Kodak Zi6 Pocket Camera on RBMods.
Samsung LN52A630 LCD TV on CCEReviews.
Pentax K2000 digicam on Digitaltrends.
BenQ E2200HD 22in LCD Monitor on TrustedReviews.
FiiO E5 Headphone Amplifier on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic Viera TX-L37G10 37in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-ray Player on TrustedReviews.
Samsung LE40LB651 40in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Vizio VSB210WS Soundbar on Digitaltrends.
Edifier Luna 5 iPod Docking Station on HWZone.
Apple iPod shuffle on HWZone.
Portable and Prebuilt:
Apple MacBook Pro on HWZone.
MSI 16in EX620 Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Digital Storm Custom Core i7 Gaming System on HotHardware.
GIGABYTE M912 Convertible Tablet PC Netbook on FutureLooks.
Amazon Kindle 2 e-book reader on HWSecrets.
Dell Adamo Ultraportable Laptop on ITReviewed.
MSI EX620 notebook on InsideHW.
Samsung NC20, 12.1" Mini-Notebook on VIAArena.
Acer Aspire One D150 - 10.1in Netbook on TrustedReviews.
Memory:
Patriot Viper Series DDR3-1600 6Gb Kit on
Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC3-12800 6GB Memory Kit on HWLogic.
GLOW Audio Amp One on MadShrimps.
GSkill 2000 MHz CAS9 triple channel DDR3 memory kit on Guru3D.
Kingston HyperX T1 1866 on Bjorn3D.
Software:
Warhammer 40K - Dawn of War II PC game on GamePyre.
Dark Horizon PC game on GamePyre.
Cooling:
Cooler Master V10 CPU Cooler on Techgage.
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler on BigBruin.
Thermaltake BigTyp 14 Pro CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
QPAD CT Gaming Mousepad on TechWareLabs.
SteelSeries Ikari Iron.Lady Laser Mouse on HWLogic.
Misc:
Asus Rampage II Gene X58 LGA775 board on TrustedReviews.
Kingston DataTraveler 64GB on PureOC.
Proporta Universal Emergency Charger Travel Kit on XSReviews.
Enermax Liberty EC 500W on OC3D.
Gigabyte 9600 GT (GV-N96TZL-1GI) 1GB on NeoSeeker.
AMD Athlon X2 7750 CPU on IXBTLabs.
Antec 900 2 Gaming Case on Bjorn3D.
ACMA Blacklist (Allegedly) Leaked
(5 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 14:41:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
The Australian Internet Censorship debate has taken a turn for the farcical, with not just one site, but the entire ACMA blacklist allegedly leaked onto the net. I guess this improves the situation slightly, because previously people could be fined $11,000 a day for linking things on the list - even though we're not allowed to know what is on the list, so we can't actually know if we're linking things on it or not!
Ahh, you might say, just don't link kiddy porn sites and you'll be ok. If only it were that simple: But about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist. Even the site listing the list has been added to the list. So has a list of sites banned in Denmark. Not the actual sites banned in Denmark, just a page listing the sites that are banned in Denmark. Given the content of the black list could in theory change at a near-constant rate, how are we meant to know what can and cannot be discussed anymore? Or do we just wait for the takedown notices to flood in?
Jeez, just putting this story together I very nearly linked a page on the blacklist. That would have been a fun experience, I bet. I can't believe how determined our Government seems to be, to make us look like the backwards cousins of the technology community.
Anyway, annoyed people are using this info to bait ACMA, testing their ability to censor the net. "If ACMA blacklists their own Wikipedia page, well that says it all doesn't it? If they don't, that is a very, very strong reason to call them hypocrites for making vastly different responses to two sites linking to the very same material."
There's a rapidly-growing thread about this here.
Update: This list is apparently NOT authentic - but it's certainly drawn a lot of attention to the problems associated with the ACMA maintaining, and then publishing (even if only to ISPs), a secret list of content they DON'T want people accessing.
Wow! Over 2 Million Points points per day! I'm impressed OCAU, this cooler weather must be helping - but lets keep pushing!
OCAU's Folding@Home team has been working hard this year, but we still need your help. While the team has been contributing over 2 Million points per day, we still need your help to increase this number and make sure we hold onto our number #2 spot in the ranking.
The team is looking for Nvidia GeForce 8XXX, 9XXX and 260/28X/295 GPU's (ATI GPU's Too!) to help increase our output. If you are ready to start, then check out this thread for instructions. Don't have a GPU to spare? Folding@Home works on your CPU as well! There's a guide to getting started here. If you have Sony Playstation 3 you should already have the client pre-installed and ready for you to start producing!
So, if you would like to help scientists learn about diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Osteogenesis Imperfecta - possibly help find a cure for it and put OCAU back in the number one spot - then drop by the Distributed Computing section (open to the public) and see how you can be a part of it.
Remember, every idle CPU, GPU and PS3 counts, so what can you commit to the cause?
Thursday Morning #2
(3 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 04:22:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
There's quite a buzz about a rootkit code to exploit major Intel CPU flaw which is apparently being released today. Thursday, March 19th, 1600 UTC, we will publish a paper (+ exploits) on exploiting Intel® CPU cache mechanisms. The attack allows for privilege escalation from Ring 0 to the SMM on many recent motherboards with Intel CPUs. Rafal implemented a working exploit with code execution in SMM in a matter of just a few hours. Discussion and more links here.
Apparently people in NSW can look forward to higher electricity bills, thanks Brains. A draft determination by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for 2009-10 electricity prices says Energy Australia customers can expect bills to rise by 21.5 per cent from July.
John Gatt, who you might remember as a VIA marketing guy from a while back, is doing a fund-raising bike ride to help put an end to Polio. I can't change my balding head or my bad eyesight but maybe I can get rid of that spare tire and help get rid of polio in the process.
Sniper sent word that IBM may be in talks to buy Sun Microsystems. Buying Sun would help IBM widen its lead over Hewlett- Packard Co. in the $US53.1 billion market for computer servers. More here.
Apple have released announced iPhone firmware 3.0, although I haven't updated mine yet. Apparently it brings cut and paste, MMS and a few other things, thanks Timbot. More info here on Gizmodo.
Thursday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 03:46:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Video Cards:
ASUS GeForce ENGTX295 on Tweaktown.
EVGA GTX 280 Triple SLI on Motherboards.
Inno3D GeForce GTX 265 iChill Accelero XXX on Guru3D.
PaLiT GeForce GTX 260 55nm on LegitReviews.
Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216 SP on HWZone.
Cooling:
Best CPU Cooler Performance LGA1366 - Q1 2009 on BenchmarkReviews.
AMA Aragon 900 Liquid Cooling System on HWLogic.
Cooler Master V10 Hybrid Heatpipe/T.E.C. CPU Cooler on Tweaknews.
Coolink Silent Savior HDD Cooler on VerdisReviews.
Noctua NF-R8 Case Fan on VerdisReviews.
Scythe Kama Angle and Thermal Elixir Scyte-1000 on Tech-Reviews.
Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler on XSReviews.
Spire TherMax II CPU Cooler on Bjorn3D.
ThermoLab BARAM CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Cases:
5 Beautiful HTPC Cases Reviewed on TechSpot.
Antec Fusion Remote Max HTPC Enclosure on Metku.
Cooler Master Sileo 500 Mid Tower on ExtremeOC.
Cooler Master Sniper on DVHardware.
CoolerMaster CSX Stacker 830 Red Flame Edition on OCClub.
Lian-Li PC-E8 MID Black on Motherboards.org.
NZXT Whisper Classic Series Full-Tower Enclosure on PCPerspective.
Thermaltake Xaser VI on PureOC.
Thermaltake V9 Gaming Case on Modders-Inc.
Storage:
1TB Hard Disk Drives Roundup: 14 Solutions Reviewed on XbitLabs.
In Win NA 3.5" External HDD Enclosure on Virtual-Hideout.
File-System Benchmarks On The Intel X25-E SSD on Phoronix.
G.Skill Titan 128GB SATA SSD FM-25S2S-128GBT1 on BenchmarkReviews.
Icy Dock MB881US-1S-1 External Hard Drive Docking Station on Tweaknews.
Lite-On eSAU108 External Slim DVD Writer on Tweaktown.
Maxtor Central Axis Business Edition NAS Server on HotHardware.
Sandisk ImageMate Multi-Card USB 2.0 Reader on LegitReviews.
VIA ARTiGO A2000 Storage Computer on ThinkComputers.
Power Supply:
Nexus Value 430 PSU on SilentPCReview.
ANTEC True Power 750W on FutureLooks.
Antec Truepower New 750W on JonnyGuru.
FSP Everest 900 on Pro-Clockers.
Hiper S625 on DriverHeaven.
OCZ Fatal1ty 700W on LegionHW.
Arctic Cooling Fusion 550R on Techniz.
FSP Group BoosterX 5 450W Plus GPU PSU on TechWareLabs.
Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W on Hi-TechReviews.
Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 on DriverHeaven.
Motherboards:
Zotac GeForce 8200 ITX WiFi AM2+ board on LegitReviews.
Asus M4A78T-E AM3 DDR3 on Bjorn3D.
Asus Rampage II Gene X58 LGA1366 board on CPU3D.
Apparently Joel Johnson and Rob Beschizza from Boingboing.net have discovered an unidentified chip inside the headphones on Apple's third-gen iPod shuffle. This chip has been the subject of DRM speculation, however, according to Apple this mysterious chip is part of their "Made for iPod" licensing program. A mysterious chip in the new Apple iPod Shuffle that became the subject of rumours over the weekend has been explained away as just a mundane control chip for the new audio player. However, the design of the chip is indeed defined by Apple as part of its "Made for iPod" program, meaning that it's unclear whether Apple will try and defend it as its own intellectual property.
Apple held a special 'invite-only event' at Apple's headquarters in California, USA where they unveiled their next-generation operating system for its iPhone. The next-gen mobile OS for Apple's mobile communications devices will bring Bluetooth connectivity, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, and greater integration with external peripherals, as well as cut and paste, improved sync, and support for MMS messages.
An associate professor of physics at Lehigh University, Ivan Biaggio has developed a new organic material, "composed of small organic molecules with high nonlinear optical susceptibilities", that could unlock the full potential of optical telecommunication and data processing. Biaggio uses an analogy to explain the new material and how it helps increase the transmission speed of data in optical networks. He says, "The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart in your yard. In the morning, the bricks will be covered with snow and barely discernible. The snowflakes will have filled every vacant space between and around the bricks. What you will see resembles a phenomenon that, when it occurs at the smallest of scales on an integrated optical circuit, could hasten the day when the Internet works at superfast speeds."
It would now seem that NVISION '09 hasn't been cancelled but rather "delayed". "Since the economy is affecting everyone's ability to travel, this year we plan to focus our attention on the core of the GPU development community with a more concentrated event," NVIDIA's Derek Perez told Ars when we asked him about this morning's DigiTimes report that NVISION '09 has been cancelled. "Details will be announced soon on this developer event, as well as the next NVISION."
ATI has rolled out their monthly graphics card driver update in the form of Catalyst 9.3 with the latest iteration bring us support for yet to be released Windows 7. Both NVIDIA and ATI already have drivers for the beta version of Windows 7, released to the public at the start of the year, but, now, ATI is claiming official support with Catalyst 9.3 - the first unified Vista/7 software package.
It appears that Google has re-introduced Chrome to the beta channel. Since we took the "beta" tag off Google Chrome in December, we've been updating two release channels: developer and stable. With our latest release, we're re-introducing the beta channel for some early feedback — and if you're reading the brand new Google Chrome blog, you are probably just the person to give it a try.
First pictures along with confirmed specs of AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 4890 have surfaced. There really isn't much to say about this "new" card, as AMD has only done some minor changes to the PCB, mostly to cope with the extra power demands for the higher clock speeds compared to the Radeon HD 4870. The expected clock speeds have also been confirmed with the GPU clocked at 850MHz, which is 100MHz faster than the Radeon HD 4870. The 1GB of GDDR5 memory is clocked at 975MHz (or 3,900MHz effectively), resulting in 75MHz or 300MHz faster than the Radeon HD 4870 depending on how you want to count. More pictures here...
ExtremeTech take a look at the graphics performance between Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Through lots of Windows OS updates and many driver revisions, most of the kinks have been worked out, and Vista is now quite stable and a good performer. But the damage has been done, and the OS will forever have a reputation for being a big, bloated, slow performance hog that crashes all the time. In no area was this more apparent than with 3D graphics.
Facebook has been awarded a massive $873 million in damages from a Canadian spammer, however, they are unlikely to see much of that money. The spammer was identified as Adam Guerbuez of Montreal, owner of Atlantis Blue Capital, but it's unlikely Facebook will be able to get much of the awarded cash. However, Facebook says it will bleed Guerbuez dry anyway, just to make a point.
Our favourite Federal Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy has refused iiNet-backed Tech Wired Australia request to access the expert panel's recommendations on the NBN bids under the freedom of information act. The department sent a 17-page document to Tech Wired, listing its reasons for refusing the request, which in summarised form added up to the panel's report being exempt under sections 34 and 36 of the Freedom of Information Act. The exemption was based on the report being a document which was made for the purposes of Cabinet consideration and that it wasn't in the public's interest to disclose it since the factors against disclosure of the report outweighed the factors in favour of disclosure of the report.
Cisco has announced that it is "entering the server business". At an international launch event held over the company's telepresence video conferencing system, Cisco president and CEO John Chambers confirmed that the company had developed a series of blade computing systems, based around Intels' Nehalem processor, which will be called the Unified Computer System (UCS). Neither technical specifications nor pricing were revealed, however, with Cisco promising further updates in April. - June Aussie launch for Cisco's blades
Dell has officially unveiled their new luxurious Adamo laptop, described as "the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design". The Adamo laptop, pictured below, features a 13.4in screen and is available to pre-order from adamobydell.com with prices starting at $1,999. Described as "the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design", the system is available in Onyx or Pearl designs, features an edge-to-edge 720p glass display, is crafted from a single piece of aluminium with a scalloped backlit keyboard, and claims to be the world's thinnest laptop.
Another product that could be viewed as "the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design" is Thermaltake's Level 10 concept chassis. Thermaltake's Level 10 concept chassis was arguably the star of the show at CeBIT '09. Pictured below, the eye-catching enclosure - designed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA for Thermaltake's 10th anniversary - is unlike any chassis we've seen before. Unfortunately, Thermaltake aren't revealing any further details just yet - stating only that this concept would eventually become reality, and is on track to be fully detailed at COMPUTEX in June. Thankfully, the folks at BMW Group DesignworksUSA can't seem to contain their excitement. In a press release, they've stated that Level 10 is "a high-end gaming tower prototype that was inspired by the gaming word itself".
Apparently Ericsson can transmit data at more than 500Mbps over copper wiring........in the lab. Equipment maker Ericsson says it can use copper wiring to transmit data at more than 500Mbps in the lab—but it requires channel bonding and short line lengths. While fiber is the future, DSL and copper wiring may have some life left in them yet.
Graphics card sales have fallen by 42.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. According to the report, the discrete graphics card market started to shrink in the second quarter of 2008, in which sales of graphics cards were 6.7 per cent down on the same period in 2007. However, graphics card sales then nosedived towards the end of the year, with sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 plummeting by 42.7 percent when compared with the same period in 2007.
Crackberry have a new BlackBerry...... nuff said!
Intel has issued a warning and is threatening AMD to terminate a long-term intellectual agreement which according to Intel, AMD has breached. We spoke to AMD's Michael Silverman, and asked some questions. We asked AMD where it thinks Intel is wrong, and what would happen if Intel did go through with the termination. This is what AMD gave back to us: "Intel’s action is an attempt to distract the world from the global antitrust scrutiny it faces. Should this matter proceed to litigation, we will prove that Intel fabricated this claim to interfere with our commercial relationships and thus has violated the cross-license," said Silverman, AMD public relations.
Earlier this year Sony has unveiled their new P series of notebooks. Now it looks like Lenovo has released a competitor to the P series with their sleek looking Lenovo Pocket Yoga netbook. Pocket Yoga is shaped just like a large wallet, that fits easily into your pocket. Covered in leather and topped off with a “belt” around the middle, the surface is meant to be “warm and considerate” rather than cold, plastic or metal. Li details that the “pocket Yoga” inherits the 360-degree soft hinge design from the company’s Yoga notebook. Its hinge supports three modes, locking into each position. The thing that impressed us most was not the touch screen or the hinge but that fact that that decorative belt we mentioned earlier becomes a pretty nifty mouse.
Is Apple losing the plot? That is the question Nick Farrell from The Inquirer is asking. APPLE IS KNOWN FOR A LOT OF THINGS, being overpriced, having nice design, attracting fan boys who religiously believe that Steve Jobs is a Messiah. But for years the build quality of the gear has never been questioned. Now it seems that Apple has reverted to the days of the Apple II which used to catch fire even if you looked at it in a funny way or did something to place the electrics under pressure... such as turning it on.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy explained that the reason why some ISP's were not chosen for the first round of ISP filtering was because they were greedy. "Some of them, cheaply, took the opportunity to try and get the Commonwealth to fund an upgrade in their own equipment," he said, speaking at the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) conference. "Some of them came to us and said look, we can do this no problem, zero dollar costs. So obviously we were able to start with them."
3 Mobile has launched a new push email service. Email on 3 supports Microsoft Outlook accounts, as well as a range of web-based email services including Windows Live, Yahoo, Gmail and a selection of local ISP accounts. New messages from up to six of your email accounts are pushed to your handset so that you receive them as you would already receive SMS messages.
Nvidia has decided to cancel Nvision 2009 convention in a move to save the company some dollars. Nvidia originally planned to hold Nvision 2009 again in Q3, but has revealed that the economic decline reduced the number of attendees considering visiting the show this year. On another note, the company added that it will still host several smaller forums this fall.
Sapphire has unveiled their new Pure Crossfire 790GX motherboard. The new Pure CrossfireX 790GX AM3 motherboard has four DDR3 memory slots with support for up to 16GB of memory, a 5+1 phase CPU power circuit design, two PCI-Express x16 slots working at x8 when both are in use, and features integrated Radeon HD 3300 class IGP with dedicated 128MB of DDR3 Sideport memory. The back panel features four USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet port, eSATA, audio and DVI, D-Sub and HDMI with audio outputs.
I'm guessing the Avalon Airshow was on last weekend, given these threads in our Photography Gallery forum:
Better late than never!
     
     
Here's some of the most recent new demos on AusGamers Files:
Walkie Tonky Prototype Demo (17MB): Walkie Tonky is a physics-based action game which puts you in the shoes of a giant robot invading Earth. Smash and kick your way forward using the robot's every limb to cause mayhem and clear the road ahead. All is experienced with a presentation that binds visuals and audio together, and an engaging control scheme.
Codename Panzers: Cold War Multiplayer Demo (522MB): With support for online and LAN play, the multiplayer demo showcases the Domination mode and features the Islands of Hope map in which the players are charged with seizing control of a nuclear weapon. Players will have access to the full range of units available in the multiplayer game, and will be able to capture several Points of Interest including a radar station, HQ and radio station, each of which affords special strategic and tactical advantages. More info here. There's also a single-player demo available.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X Demo (1.3GB): In this demo, players will dominate the skies for the first time and battle planes, tanks and amphibious assaults and have the opportunity to dogfight with other elite pilots in a stunning panoramic boss scene.
The Last Remnant Demo (1GB): Imagine a vast, war-torn battlefield, scarred by years of conflict. Countless enemies surround the player, who is backed up by his own army. Threatened by numerous foes and saved in the nick of time by allies, players will feel the true tension of a soldier on the battlefield. In The Last Remnant, as many as seventy units will duke it out at once in fierce yet beautiful battles.
Monsters vs Aliens Demo (617MB): Based on the upcoming DreamWorks Animation 3D feature film, the Monsters vs. Aliens video game puts the fate of the planet in players’ hands as they lead a dynamic team of five misfit monsters on a mission to save the world…as only they can. The game allows fans to experience the movie’s action and humor while playing as The Missing Link, the macho half-ape, half-fish; the gelatinous, indestructible and always hungry B.O.B.; and Ginormica, the 49-foot-11-inch tall woman and Insectosaurus, the 350-foot tall grub.
LinXity NG v2.0 for Windows (42MB): LinCity-NG is a City Simulation Game. It is a polished and improved version of the classic LinCity game. Within the scope of the GoTM project at happypenguin we have created a new iso-3D graphics engine, with a completely redone and modern GUI.
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Trial Version (3.1GB): The fifth entry in the gonzo racing series, Burnout Paradise gives players license to wreak havoc in Paradise City, the ultimate racing battleground, with a massive infrastructure of traffic-heavy roads to abuse. Gone is the need to jump in and out of menus and aimlessly search for fun like many open world games; in Burnout 5, every inch of the world is built to deliver heart-stopping Burnout-style gameplay. You can unlock this to the full game, which explains the scary download size.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Demo (1.8GB): F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2005 smash hit game, F.E.A.R., is a blend of advanced visceral combat mixed with seamless game pacing set inside a sinister and paranormal universe that begins shortly before the ending of F.E.A.R. A Special Forces squad is on a routine mission when the city of Auburn is rocked by a supernatural explosion.
Keep on top of things in the world of gaming via our Games forum.
Monday Afternoon
(6 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 16-March-2009 17:35:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Good Game are having a Zombie Special tonight. With 4 zombie games coming out in quick succession plus a creeping desire to eat human grey matter, it's the only logical choice! .. Good Game airs Monday nights on ABC2 at 8:30pm, and late Fridays before Rage on ABC. More info on their site.
From Mach1.9pants: A review of the new Wide Screen modes available to users of Matrox's TH2Go by the owner of the widescreengamingforum.com.
From Boxie: It looks like PowerColor have a comp on, some basic questions with obvious answers about Stalker: Clear Sky and their HD4870 cards.
Quan-Time spotted this quite neat Sixth Sense project. 'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. Videos at the bottom.
PC Perspective have some new details on Larrabee architecture from Intel. Rasterization is important to discuss simply because if Intel has any plans to make headway into the existing gaming or professional markets, support for that rendering method is a MUST.
LegitReviews have a guide to insulating when using LN2 and Dry Ice. We'll be insulating the board for liquid nitrogen benching and we'll show you how effective this insulation method is in preventing harmful condensation from forming on the board. More fun stuff like that in our Extreme Cooling forum.
Tweaktown report on AMD Phenom II performance with DDR2 and DDR3. AMD has designed AM3 processors to be able to slot into AM2+ boards to run with their DDR2 memory controllers. However, you can also place the CPU into an AM3 based board to take full advantage of the DDR3 memory controller.
Flect spotted this article about a new phone service from Google. Google has strengthened its mobile services with the debut of a service called Voice that could be a challenge to Skype and other phone firms.
BLeR meanwhile sent in this virtual PC online service. Your free G.ho.st® ("ghost") Virtual Computer (VC) includes a desktop, file storage and applications. Your VC lives securely in the internet cloud and is accessible from any computer or mobile phone in the world via this Web page.
OCWorkbench have more info about unlocking the 4th core of an X3 CPU. ASROck has first AMD 780G+SB710 board that unlocks the 4th core from AM3 X3 710 processor. The board's model name is ASRock. With P1.10 BIOS, we can just set the AOD ACC open to Auto in BIOS. After a system reboot, the 4th core appears. Any OCAU people had any luck with unlocking their 4th cores? I'm surprised this isn't a bigger story.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 16-March-2009 14:54:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Time for some news catchup! Let's start with some (more) reviews:
Motherboard and CPU:
ECS 945GCT-D (Mini-DTX) LGA775 board on LegionHW.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 vs E8600 LGA775 CPUs on MadShrimps.
GigaByte EX58-UD4P LGA1366 board on Bjorn3D.
MSI's X58 Pro LGA1366 board on Bit-Tech.
AMD Phenom II X4 810 CPU on InsideHW, our review here.
Cooling:
Thermaltake V14AX CPU cooler on OCCafe.
Cooler Master V10 CPU cooler on LegitReviews.
Software:
Shellshock 2: Blood Trails PC game on GamingHeaven.
Perimeter 2: New Earth on GamingHeaven.
Empire Total War PC game on GamePure.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Walkthrough) on OCModshop.
Band Manager PC game on GamePyre.
Video Cards:
Video card performance roundup in Tom Clancy HAWX on Guru3D.
Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 on VR-Zone.
Asus EN9400GT Silent Edition on SilentPCReview.
AMD FirePro V8700 1GB workstation card on Phoronix.
Misc:
TRENDnet TV-M7 Wireless IP Monitor on DigitalTrends.
TEW-664UB & TEW-672GR Dual-band Wireless N Adapter & Router on PCShopTalk.
NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse on ViperLair.
Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 PC3-12800 6GB kit on OC3D.
Sunday Morning Reviews
(2 Comments)
(link)
Sunday, 15-March-2009 01:54:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Storage:
Super Talent Luxio 64GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
PromoLocker Custom USB Flash Drives on ThinkComputers.
OCZ Apex Series 120GB SATA II SSD on HotHardware.
In Win 'NA Hard Drive Enclosure on Hi-TechReviews.
Cases:
ThermalTake Element S Case on NinjaLane.
Super Talent Luxio 64GB High-Capacity Luxury USB Drive on OCClub.
SilverStone RV01 Raven on NinjaLane.
Cooler Master ATCS 840 on PureOC.
LinkSys Cisco Media Hub 405 network storage on DriverHeaven.
Cooler Master Storm Sniper on InsideHW.
Cooler Master Elite 360 on OCIA.
Cooler Master Sniper on RBMods.
Portable:
Asus S121 netbook preview on TrustedReviews.
Garmin Nuvi 265WT GPS on DigitalTrends.
Cameras:
Casio EXILIM EX-FH20 Digital Camera on HWZone.
Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 rugged camera on DigitalTrends.
GoPro's Hero 5 POV Video Camera on FragThePlanet.
Audio / Visual:
Western Digital's WD TV HD Media Player on Tech=Report.
Dell Wasabi Portable Photo Printer on HWZone.
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro Sound Isolating Earphones on TheTechLounge.
Panasonic Viera TX-L32X10 32in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Player on TrustedReviews.
LG 50PS8000 50in Plasma TV on TrustedReviews.
Tritton AX Pro Precision Gaming Headset on HWLogic.
Speedlink Medusa NX headset on XSReviews.
Pioneer BDR-203BK Blu-Ray Drive on ITReviewed.
FiiO E3 & E5 Portable Headphone Amplifier on TechPowerUp.
Power Supply:
Tuniq Potency 650W on DriverHeaven.
In-Win Commander 850W on Bjorn3D.
Saturday Afternoon
(8 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 14-March-2009 14:05:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
There's a bit of chatter about Whirlpool being asked to remove a post by ACMA. On March 10, ACMA issued Sydney web hosting company Bulletproof Networks with an "interim link-deletion notice" for allowing its customer, the Whirlpool internet community website, to post the link to an anti-abortion web page blacklisted by the regulator. But to me it doesn't seem like this is all that new and revolutionary, as ACMA takedown notices, while rare, are nothing new.
Meanwhile a study has shown internet filtering to be ineffective in fighting terror, but Senator Conroy requests us to have faith in net filtering. Speaking at the annual ATUG conference today, Senator Stephen Conroy described some of this opposition as "conspiracy theories."
NSW Police have busted some people using eBay to sell stolen goods, up to $4.5M worth. Police said the items were purchased with fake credit cards bearing account details stolen from legitimate card-holders. Discussion here.
Here's some (possibly disturbing) pics of a guy who lost the tip of a finger, so replaced it with a USB finger drive. It is a 2Gig USB drive inside silicon finger.
The Shuttle launch was delayed, in case you were wondering - and meanwhile the crew of the International Space Station scrambled for their Soyuz lifeboat due to a near miss from some space debris, thanks Dopefish. The object -- about 5 inches across, and moving at nearly 20,000 mph -- passed within 3 miles (4.5 km) of the station early Thursday afternoon, the U.S. space agency reported.
Sniper spotted a new Fusion-io SSD card. How much faster? Fusion-io quotes top sustained bandwidth of 1500MB/s for reads and 1400MB/s for writes, with a respective 185,000 and 167,000 IOPS.
XbitLabs compared five 640GB HDDs from Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital, while DriverHeaven looked at three SSDs from Intel, Patriot and Super Talent.
Timuscat sent in this article about low-tech fixes. Today, many people are finding their own tricks for fixing misbehaving gadgets with supplies as simple as paper and adhesive tape. Some, like MrAzar's plastic bag, are open to argument as to how they work, or whether they work at all. But many tech home remedies can be explained by science.
Today's timewaster is Indestructible Tank AE. Kind've unusual, you have to use the explosions of your enemy to fling your tank up at them. :)
Dirtyd has taken a look at an HTPC solution from AMD, their "AMD Live!" platform. It's designed to run cool and quiet while packing enough grunt to handle high-definition playback and enough connectors to fit neatly into your home theatre setup:
Click for the review!
OCAU Sports Tipping, NRL Season starts today.
(0 Comments)
(link)
Friday, 13-March-2009 02:11:12 (GMT +10) - by Wolfy
|
Tonight's two NRL matches, between the Storm and the Dragons and the Broncos and Cowboys are the first matches of the NRL 2009 season. This means that if you'd like to participate in the OCAU NRL Tipping 2009 competition it would be a good idea to sign up and enter your tips before tonight's deadline.
If NRL is not your thing, check out OCAU AFL Tipping 2009 or one of the MotorSport tipping competitions found here in the MotorSport forum, all of which start in the next few weeks.
Thursday Evening Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 12-March-2009 18:15:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Motherboard and CPU:
ASRock X58 SuperComputer Intel X58 LGA1366 board on ThinkComputers.
MSI X58 Pro LGA1366 board on TrustedReviews.
Asus M4A78T-E AM3 board on CPU3D.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S Processor on LegitReviews.
ASRock AOD790GX/128M AM2+ board on BenchmarkReviews.
ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX LGA1366 board preview on Atomic.
Asus P6T LGA1366 board on OCClub.
Jetway NF76-1G5-LF ICS VIA C7 board on PCShopTalk.
Asus P6T LGA1366 board on RBMods.
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R Ultra Durable 3 LGA1366 board on FutureLooks.
Power Supply:
Topower Powerbird 1100SE on Pro-Clockers.
Tagan SuperRock TG880-U33II 880W on Tweaktown.
Portable:
Asus Eee 1002HA netbook on DigitalTrends.
Toshiba Portege R600 notebook on InsideHW.
Dell Studio XPS 16 with RGB LED Display notebook on TrustedReviews.
Asus N10J-A2 netbook on FragThePlanet.
Software:
Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection PC game on GamePyre.
Combat Wings - Battle of Britain PC game on GamePyre.
Video Cards:
Galaxy GeForce GTS 250 1GB on TechPowerUp.
Palit GeForce GTS 250 2GB on Tweaktown.
nVidia GeForce GTX 285 on TrustedReviews.
Asus Radeon HD 4870 Matrix on SilentPCReview.
Galaxy GeForce 9800 GT 1024MB on Guru3D.
Nice to see a boost to production this week :D
OCAU's Folding@Home team has been working hard this year, but we still need your help. While the team has been contributing over 1.7 Million points per day, we still need your help to increase this number and make sure we hold onto our number #2 spot in the ranking.
The team is looking for Nvidia GeForce 8XXX, 9XXX and 260/28X/295 GPU's (ATI GPU's Too!) to help increase our output. If you are ready to start, then check out this thread for instructions. Don't have a GPU to spare? Folding@Home works on your CPU as well! There's a guide to getting started here. If you have Sony Playstation 3 you should already have the client pre-installed and ready for you to start producing!
So, if you would like to help scientists learn about diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Osteogenesis Imperfecta - possibly help find a cure for it and put OCAU back in the number one spot - then drop by the Distributed Computing section (open to the public) and see how you can be a part of it.
Remember, every idle CPU, GPU and PS3 counts, so what can you commit to the cause?
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 12-March-2009 14:55:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Storage:
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green on PCPerspective.
Super Talent Godfather 8GB Rubber Flash Drive on ThinkComputers.
SuperTalent Godfather Series 16GB USB Drive on PCStats.
Vizo Luxon Advanced 3.5" HDD Enclosure on VerdisReviews.
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x Dual Layer SATA DVD Re-Writer video review on eTeknix.
SuperTalent Luxio 64GB AES-256 Encrypted USB Drive on PCStats.
Thecus N4100 Pro network storage on TechPowerUp.
Input Etc:
Evolution Gaming Gear MP2 Mouse Pad on OCOnline.
Nova SliderX 600 Gaming Mouse on ARM3D.
XTracPads Ripper XXL Mouse Pad on VerdisReviews.
Cases:
NZXT Zero 2 on HWSecrets.
Chieftec HM-01B HTPC on BigBruin.
Thermaltake SD100 Mini Mini-ITX on LegionHW.
Thermaltake Element S on DriverHeaven.
Coolermaster Storm Sniper Gaming Chassis on DriverHeaven.
Rosewill Conqueror on Bjorn3D.
Cooling:
Noctua NF-B9 Case Fan on VerdisReviews.
Cooler Master V10 CPU Cooler on Bjorn3D.
Scythe Ninja Mini CPU Cooler on TheTechLounge.
Thermaltake SpinQ Heatpipe CPU Cooler on Hi-TechReviews.
Thermolab Baram CPU Cooler on LegitReviews.
BFG Technologies have unveiled their new water cooled GeForce GTX 285 H2O graphics card. Looking for a single-slot solution that will stay cool under hot situations? Danger Den has the answer despite its dangerous name, co-developing a very cool solution with manufacturer BFG Technologies. With the Thermo Intelligence Water Cooling solution, BFG's latest GeForce GTX 285 graphics card--the GeForce GTX 285 H2O--will deliver up to a 42°C lower GPU operating temperature than "reference" cooling solutions using standard air cooling.
According to an article on InfoWorld, Internet Explorer 8 will be the last version of the browser. IE8 is the last version of the Internet Explorer Web browser. At least, that's what I'm hearing through the grapevine. It seems that Microsoft is preparing to throw in the towel on its Internet Explorer engine once and for all. And just what will be its replacement? I’m getting conflicting stories on that one. Some are still claiming that Microsoft will go with WebKit, which, thanks to the popularity of Apple's Safari browser and also Google's Chrome, is rapidly becoming a de facto standard for all non-IE and non-Firefox implementations.
Users of Norton Antivirus software were sent "into a frenzy by triggering their firewalls with an unsigned security patch". In what a blogging Symantec Sherlock Holmes called, "a case of human error," a diagnostic patch named PIFTS.exe was sent out "unsigned", causing firewalls to prompt the user for access to the Internet. Spooked users trying to figure out if they'd been targeted by some kind of hack began bombarding Symantec message boards for information.
According to security vendors Symantec, Sophos and Kaspersky their internet security software will block legalised hacking attempts by NSW Police. "Symantec's commitment, first and foremost, is to securing its customers' information and as such, Symantec software will block all attempts to compromise its customers' information, regardless of where the threats are coming from," a Symantec spokesperson said in a statement.
Ars Technica has posted an in-depth article on in-flight internet access, the technology behind it and what we can look forward to. If you want to escape the Internet, taking flight will no longer be an excuse. Internet access has arrived on dozens of planes flying domestic US routes, with hundreds of aircraft across seven airlines expected to be online by the third quarter of 2009. Early reviews indicate that at least two competing in-flight Internet services work consistently and offer reasonable speeds. In this article, we'll take an in-depth look into why WiFi up high failed once, and we'll examine the technology behind its recent rebirth. We'll also look at the cost of using the Internet at 35,000 feet, which airlines have made which choices, and what the future brings for entertainment and coverage.
Google's new behavioural ads have some privacy groups worried. Google's newest advertising strategy, behavioural targeting, has finally arrived. The strategy, referred to as "interest-based" advertising, will go beyond current targeted advertising practices and track your Internet usage habits in order to serve an ad that the search giant hopes is better suited for you. This means that, instead of visiting a music site and simply getting music-related ads, you might visit a music site and getting ads for the newest "Cats Meowing Christmas Carols" album—because Google knows you spend 95 percent of your Internet time at Catster.
Engineers Planning Waterworld-esque Floating City at Sea - With two thirds of the Earth covered in water, many have long envisioned building colonies on the high seas. While such ideas have been around for hundreds of years (or earlier depending on your interpretation of the Atlantis myths), the engineering expertise need to implement them remained out of reach. Now, modern engineering has finally caught up to such dreams, and some are planning to build the world's first test floating city. The Seasteading Institute has announced detailed plans for a floating city tethered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Francisco.
AMD's upcoming RV790 chip will have a different pin layout out to the RV770. The PCB and the pin layout will be different for RV790 and we also heard that the new board will have two power connectors, one 6-pin and one 8-pin, but this doesn’t come as surprise as 4870 has two.
Hyundai Mobile have unveiled their new mobile phone watch in the shape of the 'MP-910'. It uses a 132 x 176 pixel 65k colour touch screen display, has support for Bluetooth 2.0 for streaming calls directly to a wireless headset, supports SMS and MMS (come on, if a watch can do it Apple...), and lasts a remarkable 70 hours in standby and a more typical three hours in call.
Interesting Forum Threads
(4 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-March-2009 16:19:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
A quick snapshot of what's going on. You can also find new interesting things you might have missed via the Who's Online page, the New Posts page and the Live forum view.
Photo of a sexy Thermaltake case (yeah, I know...) at CeBit in Overclocking & Hardware.
Watercooling fluids - My quest for the "Perfect Fluid" in Extreme Cooling.
Post Photos Of Your Portable and Small Form Factor Devices in Portable and SFF.
Economic collapse pushing more to free software in Other Operating Systems.
Microsoft vs. TomTom - yet another Linux attack in Other Operating Systems.
Good FPS games for a 4 year old in Games.
New Black Rock Racer Titled Split Second | PC, 360, PS3 in Games.
Rage quitting in Games.
Is XML scaleable? in Graphics and Programming.
Digital TV Interference Occuring In The House in Electronics.
Confirm my h-bridge please? in Electronics.
Telstra to roll out 100mbit DOCSIS by Christmas, 200MBit planned in Networking & Internet.
NXE To Be Mandatory Update For New Games in Microsoft Consoles.
Ghetto macro in Photography.
The networks are losing us in Entertainment.
Cat food - processed vs raw in Pets & Animals.
Drivers win as license demerit points slashed in Motoring.
General question regarding guitar practise in Musicians.
B1B Lancer lands at Melbourne in Current Events.
Concert promoters may have to pay for police in Current Events.
Spending habits you've given up because of this recession in Career, Education and Finance.
Wednesday Afternoon
(4 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-March-2009 15:03:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Samsung have a quite neat marketing video showing off the power of Solid State Drives when money is not an issue. 24 of them in RAID together! More info on Gizmodo and TomsHardware: All of Microsoft Office opens in half a second. 53 programs from the test rig's Start menu open in 18 seconds. The complete system defrags in about 3 seconds. Discussion here.
HWZone have an AMD 790FX AM3 motherboard shootout, with a board each from ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. Now that AMD's AM3 Phenom II processors are available, it's time we look at the DDR3 motherboard options. We check out how vendors have refreshed the enthusiast class AMD 790FX chipset for these new processors in this shootout.
We've seen this kind of thing before, but here's another cool video example of a webcam 3D hologram thingy, thanks Timbot.
iXBT examine the upper mid-range of the graphics card market, comparing GeForce GTX 260 and RADEON HD 4870 1024MB. Today we'll not just examine two RADEON HD 4870 1024MB cards, we'll also compare them with two competitors from the similar price range: GeForce GTX 260 (216 stream processors, 896MB).
Driverheaven meanwhile look at budget ATI cards from XFX. As our readers already know, XFX are new to the ATI game however we have already had the chance to look at a range of their new products and today we are going to take a look at their 4830 and 4350 alongside Sapphire’s 4670 Ultimate.
MadShrimps report from CeBIT, covering CPU, VGA and laptop coolers that should be hitting the streets soon.
NASA's next shuttle launch is in just under a day from now, but in the meantime they have announced new streaming video from the International Space Station, as it celebrates its 10th birthday in orbit. The video link is here - I was watching a live spacewalk last night and some cool views of Earth, but it seems to be some kind of test signal now.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 11-March-2009 00:29:08 (GMT +10) - by BlaYde
|
Cooling:
Gelid GC1 Thermal Paste on Bjorn3d
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 on Bjorn3d
Evercool RF-8 Rifling 80mm Fan on RBMODS
Asus Axe Square CPU Cooler on Tech-Reviews
Mobo / Ram / CPU:
Crucial Ballistix Triple Channel DDR3-1600 3Gb kit on CPU3D
Mushkin 6GB (3x2GB) XP series DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Kit on Overclock3D
ASRock N7AD-SLI Motherboard on VH
Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D 1600 Dominator on Viperlair
AMD Phenom II 720 X3 Black Edition on OCIA
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H AM2+ on LegitReviews
eVGA X58 3X SLI on Overclockers Club
G.Skill Triple-Channel 1600MHz DDR3 Memory Kit on Benchmark Reviews
Crucial Ballistix Tracers 6GB Kit on Bjorn3d
Power Supply:
Corsair TX850 850W on Think Computers
X-Spice Croon 850 Watt PSU on Hi-Techreviews
Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050W on jonnyGURU
Thermaltake ToughPower QFan 850W on Techniz
Xigmatek NRP-MC651 PSU on DriverHeaven
Mixed Bag:
Win an Icy Box NAS with 2TB Storage on Overclock3D
Super Talent The Godfather 16GB USB Flash Drive on Overclockers Club
NZXT Avatar Gaming Mouse on Pureoverclock
Samsung SE-T084 Slot-in External Slim DVD-Writer on Ocerclockers Online
Navman S300 T Sat-Nav on TT
Apple iMac 24in. (2.66GHz) on ITREVIEWED
Asus Xonar Essence STX - PCI-E Audiophile Soundcard on Overclock3D
Panasonic Viera TX-P37X10 37in Plasma TV on TT
Commander in Chief: Geo-Political Simulator 2009 on Gamepyre
SuperTalent Luxio 64GB AES-256 Encrypted USB Drive on PCSTATS
I was busy with family stuff on Friday so we didn't have our usual misc pics post.. so here it is! Thanks to octagonalman and others for these:
     
     
Seagate, AMD and SATA-io have demoed the new 6 Gbps SATA 3 standard during the Everything Channel Xchange Conference in New Orleans. According to the demo, the SATA2 drive (a 7200.12 Barracuda) topped out around 288 MB/sec, running just below the standards top theoretical speed. The SATA 3 drive, a Seagate Barracuda SATA 3 prototype, reached a staggering 589 MB/sec, more than double the speed of the SATA 2 setup.
Intel researchers are working on a new display linking technology which will enable multiple mobile devices to work together to create a larger display. While there doesn’t seem to be much information to go on at the moment (just that little snippet on Intel’s press site), we love the idea of everyone putting their iPhones or Storms together to check out a video or photos. Like Intel says, “Imagine you and 3 friends placing your mobile devices together while on the road to review the video of the day's events.” Socializing and holiday snaps aside, this could prove a really useful took for business folk on the go for the likes of PowerPoint and slide shows.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has confirmed that a computer error was responsible for the sudden drop in altitude of a Qantas Flight 72 over WA last year. Moments after the pilot of Qantas Flight 72 had switched off autopilot, one of the Airbus A330-303's air data inertial reference units (ADIRUs) "started providing erroneous data" spikes, according to an ATSB interim report released today. The ADIRU is a core component of the aircraft's navigational systems, and is used to capture and relay air data sensor information such as position and altitude which is then fed into the aircraft's flight control computers. The Airbus A330-303 was equipped with three ADIRUs.
According to Microsoft, desktop virtualization is costly and inappropriate for most. Many in the tech community believe that virtualization is the wave of the future. It allows for hardware consolidation, power savings, legacy support – this all adds up to potentially increased productivity and cost savings. However, some are not wholeheartedly on the virtualization bandwagon. Microsoft is among these detractors. Despite efforts to support virtualization and offering virtualization products, Microsoft remains reticent on the issue and has at times spoken out, in effect, against virtualization.
AMD has unveiled their latest professional ATI video card, the ATI FirePro 2450. The card is a low profile, half-length graphics card that offers support for four monitors. The video card can support four different DVI or VGA monitors via dual VHDCI connectors and included breakout cables and adapters. The card has a total of 512MB of GDDR3 memory and is a native PCI Express x16 unit. Support for DirectX 10.1 and PCI Express 2.0 is built-in. ATI says that the card consumes a maximum of 32W at full load and an average of 17W for 2D business usage. The quad monitors can be ran at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 each, making native 24-inch LCD resolution possible.
According to Fudzzila and their sources, AMD's upcoming graphics chip the RV790 might be branded Radeon HD 4890. t is definitely going to be faster than Radeon HD 4870 and it beats GTX 260, even the 55nm one, and we are quite sure it will come close to GTX285 performance, but there is a realistic chance Nvidia might still be faster with the 285. Bear in mind that HD 4890 is the name that ATI is throwing to many people, but the company can change this in a heartbeat. They did it before with 38x0 when everyone expected a 2x00 generation card.
Former US vice president, Al Gore, is pushing for the creation of a new green .eco domain name. "This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole," said Mr Gore. Dot Eco plans to apply to ICANN - the regulatory body that oversees domain names - for the creation of .eco later in 2009. Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his campaign on climate change and an Oscar for his film An Inconvenient Truth - a documentary about global warming - is the co-founder and chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Bit-tech have taken the time to review a couple of games; Tom Clancy's End War and Race Pro, the Xbox 360 exclusive. There was a time when racing games primarily involved racing. The realism of the racing differed – there were arcade games such as Outrun and Sega Rally, and there were simulations such as Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix titles – but the core of the gameplay was racing. Then came Gran Turismo and agonising over upgrades, tune-ups and paintjobs in the garage became as important as split-second decisions about braking and overtaking on track.
Photography Gallery
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 9-March-2009 20:33:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Here's some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
It hardly seems like summer is over, but many major sporting competitions are about to commence their 2009 season. This year OCAU is running a range of Sports Tipping Competitions for both football and motorsport events ... just to make things a little more interesting. :)
The National Rugby League season kicks off this weekend! Information and details about OCAU NRL Tipping 2009 can be found in this forum thread.
Next Friday will also see the Grand Final of the AFL NAB Cup, featuring the Cats Vs the Magpies. (Go Cats!)
The Australian Football League Season starts on Thursday March 26th, so join OCAU AFL Tipping 2009 and place your tips.
The 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series gets the green light around the streets of Adelaide in less than two weeks. Details about OCAU's V8 Supercar Tipping in this forum thread.
The following weekend, the V8's will join F1 at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix. The 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship starts in Albert Park on 26-29 March, OCAU F1 Tipping details here.
If all that was not enough, the first Moto GP race of 2009, the Grand Prix of Qatar, will be held on 12 April. I know that many members of OCAU's Motorcycle Club will be watching with interest and OCAU MotoGP Tipping information can be found here.
So if you're lucky enough to attend some of these events live, or if it's just time to set the TV, buy munchies and stock up the beer fridge, check out OCAU's Tipping Competitions and get ready for another enjoyable year of spectator sport.
Monday Afternoon
(6 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 9-March-2009 13:26:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
TomsHardware are reporting that you can disable almost every major feature of Windows 7. According to an update on the Windows 7 Engineering site on MSDN, users will be allowed to disable almost every major feature that ships with the operating system--yes, including Internet Explorer 8.
InsideHW have looked at CrossFire and SLI vs single cards. Secondly, graphics cards have become also cheaper so users now face a dilemma: if they already have a graphics card from mid or high-range class with motherboard that supports CrossFire/SLI, is it better to sell that one and buy new one, or to buy same graphics card and make CrossFire/SLI system?
IGN wonder if it's worth moving to the new Nintendo DSi when it comes out in early April. There's only one way to decide, and that's by taking two polar opposites and jamming them together in a battle royale until whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Yes, it's Good Cop / Bad Cop.
MadShrimps have a preview of a 1000GB SSD from OCZ. Using a hardware based x8 PCI Express raid controller and 4x250Gb SSDs in RAID-0 they can offer an out of the box 1TB super speedy drive. PCIe 1.x x1 offers 250mb/s throughput, so their x8 card on a first generation PCIe motherboard has a theoretical limit of 2000mb/s, so there’s some headroom left!
SilentPCReview looked at the AMD Maui HTPC platform. Maui, on the other hand, is AMD's internal codename for a project that combines a motherboard with the 780M mobile chipset and unique audio amplfier cards utilizing chips from D2Audio specifically for use as a home entertainment component.
Bern sent in an article about riding motorcycles helping your brain. In one test, which required the men to remember a set of numbers in reverse order, the riders' scores jumped by more than 50 percent in two months, while the non-riders' marks deteriorated slightly, he said. Hrm, better head over to OCAU's motorcycle club forums, then. :)
Computerworld compared that Microsoft video we mentioned earlier to a 1993 video by AT&T. Some technologies seen in the video , such as electronic toll collection services, were available even then; others are here today; a few still have not yet surfaced. It's otherwise a remarkably realistic look at where we would be and now are.
iFixit pulled apart a new iMac 20", thanks Phalanx. The rear of the glass has a metallic bezel, as well as seven alignment posts. The magnets that help hold the glass in place are in the iMac's aluminum front bezel.
TechWareLabs have a video explaining and demonstrating the dreaded hard drive click of death. Many of us have experienced the dreaded "Click of Death" that immediately tell us that our hard drive is dead or dying. What does the click of death look like? What causes it? Can I fix it by freezing my hard drive or giving it a whack? See a live demonstration of the click of death and hear an explanation for what causes it and some misconceptions for the common fix.
NASA have given the green light to launching the shuttle Discovery on March 11th. The Discovery crew members are set to fly the S6 truss segment and install the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station. The S6 truss will complete the backbone of the station and provide one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew of six. This will be another night launch, so always worth watching on NASA TV.
Some interesting things from the forums:
Sunday Afternoon Gargantu-Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Sunday, 8-March-2009 17:13:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Motherboard and CPU:
Sapphire PC-AM2RS790GX Pure 790GX AM3 board on OCClub.
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Overclocking on iXBTLabs.
Video Cards:
Galaxy GeForce GTX 285 Overclocked on Tweaktown.
PNY & XFX GeForce GTX 285 on LegitReviews.
Leadtek Winfast GTX 260 Extreme+ on OCClub.
Sparkle GeForce 9800 GTX+ on BigBruin.
Nvidia GTX295 Quad SLI on OC3D.
Case and PSU:
Cooler Master ATCS 840 case on Motherboards.org.
GMC R-4 Bulldozer case on RBMods.
IKONIK Zaria A10 Case & Vulcan 850w PSU on Virtual-Hideout.
Thermaltake Spedo Advanced Package case on Motherboards.org.
Topower PowerBird 1100 Watt Special Edition PSU on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Honeywell Securadrive external HDD on Bjorn3D.
Eagle Tech Consus I-Series & iNeo external drives on PureOC.
Eagle Tech ET-CSMDSU2-BK 3.5" Dual Enclosure on Bjorn3D.
IcyDock MB673SPF-B 3-Bay Tooless Hard Drive Bay Module on PCStats.
Super Talent Luxio Series 64GB USB Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
Super Talent Luxio 64GB Flash Drive on ThinkComputers.
Patriot WARP 128 GB SSD on TechWareLabs.
Synology DS209+ network storage on Bjorn3D.
Synology Disk Station DS408 on OCClub.
Input Etc:
OCZ Alchemy Elixir Gaming Keyboard on ARM3D.
Razer Lachesis Gaming Mouse on DVHardware.
Microsoft SideWinder X8 Wireless Gaming Mouse on HWZone.
Portable & Prebuilt:
HP Compaq Mini 700 - 10.2in Netbook on TrustedReviews.
Dell XPS 625 Phenom II Gaming System on HotHardware.
Intel's Convertible Classmate PC on TechReport.
HP Compaq 2230s - 12.1in Business Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Memory:
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 PC2 8800 CL5 on Techniz.
OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 6GB kit on TrustedReviews.
Cooling:
Thermaltake Fanless 330 VGA Cooler on Techniz.
Thermaltake SpinQ CPU Cooler on PCPerspective.
Coolink Chilla Ramic thermal interface material on Bjorn3D.
Thermaltake V14Pro (CL-P0472) CPU Cooler on XtremeComputing.
Thermaltake V1AX, Socket 1366 Cooler on ViperLair.
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU cooler on OCCafe.
Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Xigmatek Achilles S1284C CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Xigmatek Dark Knight CPU cooler on PureOC.
Evercool Zodiac Notebook Cooler on RBMods.
Xigmatek Talisman NPC-D721 Laptop Cooling Pad on FrostyTech.
Thermaltake RamOrb Memory Heat Spreader on FrostyTech.
Noiseblocker MultiFrame Case Fan Series on VerdisReviews.
Audio / Visual:
HIS Multi-View DVI multi-monitor connector on Bjorn3D.
Samsung PY-P3 8GB portable media player on TrustedReviews.
Toshiba SD-P71S Portable DVD Player on TrustedReviews.
iLuv iMM173 Dual-iPod Clock Radio on TechReviewSource.
NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Vision Gaming on GamePyre.
BenQ M2200HD Monitor on TrustedReviews.
Kodak EasyShare V1273 12MP Digital Camera on ThinkComputers.
Shure SE530PTH Headphones on DriverHeaven.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 on DigitalTrends.
SanDisk Sansa slotMusic Music Player on FutureLooks.
Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset on Tweaktown.
Samsung 2433BW Monitor on InsideHW.
Sony MDR-XB700 Extra Bass Headphones on HWZone.
eStarling ImpactV Wireless Digital Photo Frame on TechWareLabs.
LG 42LF7700 42in LCD TV on TrustedReviews.
Pioneer Elite SC-07 Receiver on Digitaltrends.
Samsung LN40A650A 40-inch LCD HDTV on PCStats.
Software:
Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition PC game on GamePyre.
Steinberg Cubase 5 music software on ITReviewed.
Forum Foraging
(3 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 7-March-2009 23:05:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
I thought I might quickly mention the last few forums that have been created on OCAU. Most of these are not particularly new because we don't make new forums all that often, but you might not have noticed them:
- Motorsport, under Motoring, covering the various racing championships.
- MMORPGs, under Games, covering WoW, EvE Online, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and similar games.
- Motoring What/Where, to handle the zillions of "what car should I get for $x" threads. :)
- Musician Marketplace, under Musicians, where many guitars and other instruments are bought and sold.
- Nintendo Consoles, Microsoft Consoles and Sony Consoles, expanding the Game Consoles forum.
- For Sale - Non PC-Related, fairly self explanatory, split off from For Sale - PC Related.
- Lifestyle, covering holidays, home-building and other domestic issues.
- Science, with lots of brain-hurting topics.
- Musicians, for those who want to play, or who can play, or who like to show off. :)
- Electronics for some well-grounded discussion..
- Geek Grog and Homebrew for some less sensible topics - see also our huge Homebrew Wiki page.
- Motoring Marketplace, buying and selling cars and bikes etc.
- Photography Marketplace, as above, but lenses and tripods, etc.
- Memory - finally a PC-related forum! Best to end this listing here, then. :)
Saturday Night
(3 Comments)
(link)
Saturday, 7-March-2009 21:57:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
From Peter: Just a note to let anyone in Brisbane know that there's a free clean-up of electronic waste in Brisbane this weekend if you have anything electronic you can't get rid of. Locations are at Northgate, Rochedale, Newmarket, Darra, Lota and Toowong. For more info go to this page.
Kogan Technologies have quite cheekily released a 37" LCD TV they're calling the Kevin37, because by sheer coincidence it will cost $900, which the Government is apparently giving everyone soon. The 1366 x 768 HD screen will even come with a free promotional T-shirt in the style of the Kevin 07 campaign shirt.
Speaking of cheeky TV, there's a funny video here, parodying the Freeview service in Australia. Freeview: More of the Same!
Microsoft meanwhile have a video showing the future, or at least, one view of some of the whizzo devices we might have by then. Some of these conceptual clips are old, but overall it looks like something of a computing utopia to us, and according to Elop these are all representative of currently active projects.
Apparently we had a near miss with an asteroid recently, thanks Seb. In astronomical terms it was a close call. Estimated to be between 30 metres and 50 metres wide, it passed almost seven times closer than the moon. Discussion here.
Qantas have had their three A380 Airbus planes grounded. "Qantas is an early customer of the A380 and naturally, as with any new aircraft type and like other operators of the A380, we expect the occasional issue to arise,'' the airline said in a statement.
TonyL pointed out a new case from Corsair at CeBIT. Something else that is very interesting is that the Corsair case comes with four hot swappable hard drive caddies that slip into a standard SATA backplane. The corsair case can hold six 3.5" hard drives and has five 5.25" optical drive bays, so you should have plenty of room to get things up and running. More pictures here.
From White Rhino: The Iron Photographer competition has a new format. You can discuss the February competition entries here and then cast your vote here. The March comp is also running and accepting entries up until the end of the month; it is a free challenge so there is no excuse to not enter.
Friday Morning Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Friday, 6-March-2009 04:08:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Video Cards:
ASUS ENGTX260 HTDP 896M A on Motherboards.org.
ATI RADEON HD 4830 Crossfire on PCShopTalk.
Radeon HD 4650 512MB iSilence4 on Guru3D.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 GDDR4 on ASELabs.
Motherboards:
ASRock N7AD-SLI LGA775 board on Phoronix.
ASRock X58 SuperComputer LGA1366 board on Motherboards.org.
Asus P6T6 WS Revolution LGA1366 board on HotHardware.
Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P AM3 board on CPU3D.
ECS A780GM-A Ultra Black Series AM3 board on LegitReviews.
Jetway NF94-270-LF ICS Atom board on PCShopTalk.
Storage:
Seagate & WD 2.5" HDDs at 500GB on SilentPCReview.
Seagate FreeAgent Desk for Mac 1TB External Drive on FutureLooks.
Icy Dock MB561US-4S Quad Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure on Tweaknews.
In Win `Na Hi-Speed USB/eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
D-Link DNS-313 network storage on XbitLabs.
Patriot 64GB Xporter Magnum USB Flash Drive on CCEReviews.
Sandberg 2.5 Fingerprint HDD enclosure on XtremeComputing.
Input Etc:
Mionix Saiph 3200 Gaming Mouse on ARM3D.
Mionix Saiph 3200 mouse on XSReviews.
Mionix Seiph 3200 Mouse and Alioth 400 Surface on DriverHeaven.
Software:
Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box PC game on GamePyre.
Check Point ZoneAlarm Extreme security software on ITReviewed.
FEAR 2: Project Origin game on TheTechLounge.
Harbinger game on GamePyre.
Saints Row 2 game on GamePyre.
Cases:
Cooler Master Black Label Limited Edition Bundle on I4U.
Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Mid-Tower on LegitReviews.
Hiper Osiris Mid-Tower on Techgage.
LanCool (Lian Li) Metal Boned K6 on OCOnline.
NZXT Zero 2 on HWLogic.
MSI Makes Instant-On OS for Desktops With Winki - MSI is now doing its Linux-based instant-on OS, but curiously enough, it’s not currently targeted for netbooks. It’s named the Winki and it features a dock at the bottom that cribs shamelessly from Mac OS X. Like all other instant-on operating systems, the main purpose is to grant the user with quick access to the usual internet activities.
Intel's Vision of of Programmable Matter - A new video report by CNN reveals a very interesting concept being explored by researchers at Intel known as "programmable matter".
Windows 7 to allow IE disabling - According to Chris Holmes, build 7048 of Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer as one of many Windows components that can be turned on or off via a "Windows Features" dialog box. The control panel exists in the public beta version of Windows 7, but IE8 is not listed among the features that can be turned on and off.
New Windows 7 Build Leaked To Torrent - On Monday, someone managed to leak a new 32-bit build of Microsoft Windows 7 to global torrents. Today, the x64 version was also unleashed via torrent.
Opinion: Windows 7's UAC is a broken mess; mend it or end it - The changes Microsoft has made to Windows 7's UAC render it little more than a pesky annoyance. If this is the path the company wishes to go down, it should stop doing things by halves and kill it off altogether.
Sizing up a possible NVIDIA-made x86 processor - The "NVIDIA is secretly working on an x86 chip" rumor that Charlie at the Inquirer has been flogging since at least 2006 has just been given a major boost, and by none other than NVIDIA itself.
MIT Researchers Perfect the Art of Nano-Origami For Construction - Two of the hottest fields in computer research are nanoelectronics and 3D circuits. A new project from MIT looks to use a novel origami-like construction technique to meld these fields, creating miniature 3D circuit elements.
CeBIT 2009 Coverage (Part I) - CPU3D is glad to bring you Part I our exclusive coverage of the CeBIT 2009 Exhibition. The CeBIT exhibition is undoubtedly Europe's largest hi-tech computer show, and it's one of the world's biggest. Staged in Hannover, Germany every year... the CeBIT exhibition not only caters for the European market, but also various other markets around the world.
Integrated graphics to be as dead as a dodo - The integrated graphics chip market will be as dead as dodo by 2012 according to a report by Jon Peddie Research. In a report with the imaginative title "Integrated graphics chip market to disappear by 2012" the analyst outfit said that the popular integrated graphics processor chipset will depart this planet after 2012.
How AI in Games Works - Simulating even primitive intelligence is extremely demanding, so how does a basic PC go about simulating human intelligence in multiple game characters at once?
EFF creates anti-snooping site - EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said the Surveillance Self-Defence project offers citizens a legal and technical toolkit with tips on how to defend themselves in case the government attempts to search, steal, subpoena or spy on their most private data.
Red Hat faces another patent infringement lawsuit over JBoss - A little-known software company has filed a lawsuit against Red Hat alleging that JBoss infringes on one of its patent on object-relational technologies.
Thursday Midday Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 5-March-2009 11:55:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Power Supply:
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W on Phoronix.
Enermax Revolution85+ 1,050W on PCPerspective.
Hiper S625 625W on JonnyGuru.
Video Cards:
Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216SP 55nm on Tweaktown.
ASUS Extreme NGTX295 on LegionHW.
Memory:
Patriot Viper DDR3 1600 Tri Channel 6 GB Kit on Bjorn3D.
Crucial Ballistix Tracer Blue PC3-12800 6GB Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Audio / Visual:
Denon DHT-FS5 A/V receiver on DigitalTrends.
Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 USB Headset on TechWareLabs.
Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera on ITReviewed.
Portable:
ASUS N50Vn 15.4" Notebook on Techgage.
MSI GT725 Laptop on DriverHeaven.
Asus X59GL notebook on InsideHW.
Photography Gallery
(0 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 4-March-2009 20:15:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Here's some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum:
NVIDIA GeForce 250 GTS
(0 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 4-March-2009 17:19:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
NVIDIA have launched their GeForce GTS 250 GPU. The NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250 graphic card delivers world-class HD graphics performance plus GPU-accelerated NVIDIA® PhysX™ gaming effects, lightning fast video and image processing, and full NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ support allowing you to game in true stereoscopic 3D. There's a bit of a hubbub about this card because it's essentially a rebranded 9800 GTX+, which was essentially a 9800 GTX, which itself wasn't substantially different to the 8800 GTS. However, this card is slightly smaller in size, with a memory increase to a max of 1GB. Word has it it'll be slightly cheaper than the 9800+, too.
Coverage on HWZone, Tweaktown, NinjaLane, Guru3D, TechPowerUp, PC Perspective, HotHardware, Tech Report, DriverHeaven, Bjorn3D, Techgage, LegitReviews, TomsHardware, Hexus and OCClub.
Discussion here in our Video Cards forum.
Oldnewby's Cygnus X1
(1 Comments)
(link)
Wednesday, 4-March-2009 12:49:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
This has to be one of the most impressive scratch-built PC's I've ever seen. Oldnewby has a hugely detailed worklog with zillions of photos. Some of the detail in the work is amazing - and the (almost) end result is this:
Click for the worklog!
There never seems to be a dull moment in the world of technology and patent, trademark or copyright infringement lawsuits. Currently things are heating up between Intel and Psion who is countersuing Intel over the "trademark infringement of the term Netbook". Last month Intel filed suit seeking the cancellation of the trademark for the term Netbook, held by the Canadian-based firm Psion Teklogix. Psion is now countersuing Intel for roughly $1.2 billion, along with punitive damages and for ownership of the web address netbook.com. Psion's lawsuit matches Intel's lawsuit tit for tat, while denying Intel's allegations and attempting to draw out Intel's actions as malicious.
Over in Sweden the Pirate Bay trial has entered its 10th day where prosecutors presented their closing statements to the court. As the trial of The Pirate Bay wraps up in Sweden, prosecutors gave their best summary of the case today, saying that site admins could not legally turn a blind eye to the enormous copyright infringement taking place at the site. Prosecutor Hakan Roswall also demanded a one-year prison sentence for the defendants.
There are also calls for The Pirate Bay's Norwegian ISP, Telenor to "cut off the torrent tracking site's connection". THE PIRATE BAY'S NORWEGIAN internet Service Provider (ISP) Telenor has told representatives of the entertainment industry to shove their demands where Long John Silver couldn't see 'em even with his good eye and a very long spyglass.
And while we're still on the subject of suing, here's another story from the US where a teenager is suing Facebook and classmates for allegedly bullying. Denise Finkel, who is now a student at the University at Albany, filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan accusing the former classmates of creating a password-protected Facebook group "calculated to hold the plaintiff up to public hatred, ridicule and disgrace."
MSI is set to launch a new 10.2-inch, Atom N280 based Wind U123 in April. Unlike the Wind U120, the U123 will be upgradeable to 2GB of RAM. According to MSI, it will be available in four colors including white, metallic black, blue, and burgundy red. It will also be available with six cell and a nine cell battery options. MSI also plans on releasing its MSI Wind U115 (see our mini-review from CES) in late March which packs both a hard drive and an SLC solid state drive. The Intel Atom Z530 powered netbook will priced at over $500.
Looks like Corsair is getting in to case manufacturing. Corsair sent us some pictures of a prototype case they are showing off over at CeBit. The case on display is a prototype and will have about 25 changes made to it before going into production. The all black beauty should be available in early in Q2 and will cost roughly US$250-$300.
Not long ago we read a story about a new card counting iPhone application which had the US Casino owners worried. Today we learn about another new iPhone application that could prove to be "deadly". Yep, someone has come up with an application that uses Hollywood special effects to create the sound of realistic gunfire on your iPhone. According to the makers RnSK Softronics,each gun is "carefully crafted," all the way down to the "specific look, realistic options, and unique animations" of the real world gun they're based on. There's even a safety to keep things responsible. But all it will take is for it to go off at the wrong time, like an American Airport customs hall, or have a neighbour reporting that she hearded gunfire from a fanboy's basement and the coppers will pump the iPhone user so full of lead that when he sits down he makes iPencil marks.
Microsoft has showcased 35 research projects they are working on at last week's TechFest 2009. The gathering of hundreds of researchers, as well as the broader group of Microsoft employees and product managers, happens at the company's headquarters in Redmond and creates a sort of forum for these colleagues to exchange ideas, show off their latest innovations, and form partnerships that lead to the creation of shipping products. | More Headlines: | Gaming Headlines: |
Remember to keep an eye our on Sponsor Specials Forum if you're shopping around. In there many sponsors have special offers and deals on media players, laptops, netbooks, office chairs, web hosting and a range of PC components. There's even dietary supplements!
OCAU's Folding@Home team has been working hard over summer, but we still need your help. While the team has been contributing over 1.68 Million points per day, we still need your help to increase this number to stop us falling behind.
The team is looking for Nvidia GeForce 8XXX, 9XXX and 260/28X/295 GPU's (ATI GPU's Too!) to help increase our output. If you are ready to start, then check out this thread for instructions. Don't have a GPU to spare? Folding@Home works on your CPU as well! There's a guide to getting started here. If you have Sony Playstation 3 you should already have the client pre-installed and ready for you to start producing!
So, if you would like to help scientists learn about diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Osteogenesis Imperfecta - possibly help find a cure for it and put OCAU back in the number one spot - then drop by the Distributed Computing section and see how you can be a part of it. Remember OCAU is Team 24!
Facebook is becoming an increasingly popular target for malware. Facebook has been targeted by malicious hackers seeking to steal valuable data from members. The social network site has been hit by five separate security problems in the last seven days, say security experts.
AMD is on track to ship 32-Nm chips In 2010. Dirk Meyer, chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices, said Friday the chipmaker plans to "ramp up" production of next-generation 32-nanometer processors in the middle of next year with volume production starting in the fourth quarter.
Intel Recruits TSMC To Produce Atom CPUs. Intel has surprised the industry by announcing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwanese silicon chip maker TSMC to manufacture Atom CPUs. Although TSMC is already employed by AMD, Nvidia and VIA to make chips, it's not often you see Intel requiring the services of a third fabrication party.
The TechReport review Seagate’s new Barracuda 7200.12 1TB drive. Rather than relying on higher spindle speeds to sustain a steady diet of incremental performance improvements, hard drive makers have instead increased the precision and speed with which drives can flow data back and forth to their spinning media.
GPU Cafe reveals Nvidia's Geforce GTX 200M Series mobile GPU's. Moving to the 55nm manufacturing process has also allowed Nvidia to claim upto 80% higher performance/watt, since its essentially within the same power budget as the 9800M GTX but with higher performance.
AMD finally spins off manufacturing capacities into The Foundry Company. Advanced Micro Devices on Monday officially closed its manufacturing-capacities spin-off deal and become fabless chip manufacturer. The move will allow the company to stop investing into new leading-edge foundries and process technologies, but will also mean that the company will cease to be fully-integrated chipmaker and will have to rely on manufacturing capacities owned by The Foundry Company.
HardOCP compare ASUS’ GTX 260 55nm and 4870 Dark Knight 1GB graphics cards. Today we have a double review for you from ASUS with a GeForce GTX 260 (216 core 55nm) and a HD 4870 battling for your dollar. First we take a look at the latest reincarnation of the GeForce GTX 260 with the ASUS ENGTX260 which has a die shrink. We also look at the ASUS EAH4870 Dark Knight that might prove to be a step up from a reference card.
DailyTech are reporting that AMD will be dropping prices on their Radeon 4850 and 4870 video cards. DailyTech has learned from industry sources that ATI, the graphics division of AMD, is working with its board partners and several major e-tailers to lower prices on some key products.
On the weekend Bungie celebrated its one billionth online Halo 3 match – Yes One Billionth. Saturday night, while many of us were stuffing food into our faces, plenty of folks were still playing Halo 3. At precisely 6:36pm PST, in a three minute and nineteen second game of Infection on Foundry, four players participated in Halo 3's one billionth match.
Nvidia have released GeForce 181.71 drivers for Windows 7. For the people running Windows 7 32-bit, you can get drivers here. Those of you running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 can get your drivers here.
Bit of an outage there.. should be ok now tho.
From Chris: The Iron Musician entries for this month have closed - it is now time to vote for this month's champion. The topic was "3 chords only" and it was a real test of the composition skills of our competitors.Check the thread out here.
OC3D have info on a 'Marine Cool' concept motherboard from ASUS. It features a ceramic backplate which should assist with heat dissipation more efficiently than conventional motherboard design, and a UPS battery backup hidden behind it. Not many more details yet.
Tweaktown compared VGA performance in Vista and Win7. Today we want to see how VGA performance looks under the new Windows 7 in comparison to the now very well established Vista. We want performance to be close to Vista, but with Windows 7 still being in its Beta stage, we're not going to hold our breath.
Dopefish spotted this creepy Einstein robot. The ground-breaking model, which recognises and responds to human emotions, uses 31 motors and a patented flesh-like material called Frubber to make lifelike facial expressions.
PC Perspective looked at professional graphics cards. Professional 3D developers are finally getting their hands on the latest GPU technology from NVIDIA and AMD in the form of updated Quadro and FirePro designs.
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
(2 Comments)
(link)
Sunday, 1-March-2009 15:01:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
|
Input Etc:
Mionix Alioth 400 mouse mat on XSReviews.
OCZ Neural Impuse Actuator controller on Tweaktown.
Motherboard and CPU:
ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi LGA775 board on HWZone.
EVGA X58 SLI LGA1366 board on TrustedReviews.
MSI Eclipse LGA1366 board on Bjorn3D.
ASUS M3A78-T AMD 790GX AM2+ board on PCStats.
ASUS Striker II NSE nVidia nForce 790i SLI LGA775 board on PCStats.
AMD Phenom II X4 - 810 (AM3) Processor on CPU3D, our review here.
Cooling:
Scythe Elixer Thermal Grease on PCShopTalk.
Tuniq TR-1 Thermal Material Remover on OCCafe.
Noctua NH-U12DX Xeon Heatsink on Phoronix.
CoolIT Domino A.L.C. watercooling kit on ExtremeOC.
Titan Fenrir CPU cooler on InsideHW.
Arctic Cooling Accelero TWIN TURBO VGA Cooler on Techniz.
NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller on Techgage.
Storage:
IcyDock MB674SPF-B 4-Bay Tooless Hard Drive Bay Module on PCStats.
Super Talent Godfather 2GB Swivel Flash Drive on ThinkComputers.
Patriot Warp v2 Series 128GB SSD on Guru3D.
OCZ Apex Series 120GB SATA II SSD on LegitReviews.
In-Win 'Na External HDD Enclosure on Bjorn3D.
OCZ Technology Solid Series SSD Drive on OCIA.
Thecus N4100 Pro NAS on Motherboards.org.
Eagle Consus ET-CSPESU2-BK 2.5 enclosure on Bjorn3D.
SanDisk 16GB Mobile Ultra microSDHC Card on LegitReviews.
Misc:
Sony PRS-505 E-Book Reader on Tweaktown.
StarTech 4-in-1 USB VGA Docking Station on TechSpot.
MNPCTECH Spring Loaded Case Handles on Modders-Inc.
Sharkoon PC Jump Start remote power button thingy on DVHardware.
It’s been a while since the OCAU Wiki has been mentioned..
2009 Motorsport Calendar – Listing of the 2009 events in various motorsport championships.
Australian Internet Filtering – A detailed listing regarding the Government's Plans for Internet Filtering.
LAN Party Listing – Listing LAN party event groups around Australia.
Aquariums – A comprehensive guide to tanks, fish, filtration, plants and much more.
Homebrew – A guide to the wonderful world of brewing beer at home.
Programs & Links For Overclockers – Handy programs and links to manufacturer websites.
Australian Apple iPhone 3G – Variety of handy information and popular applications.
OCAU Forum Greasemonkey Scripts - Handy scripts that can enhance your forum experience.
Vista Compatibility List – User updated list of games that are compatible with Windows Vista.
Audio Visual & Graphical – List of codec's, editors, conversion and media playback tools.
Photo Printing Vendors – Online based photo printing services available throughout Australia.
Playstation Network IDs – OCAU member listing for the Playstation Network.
Team Fortress 2 – Handy information/links and OCAU player listing.
Blu-ray – A comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Programming Interfaces & Utilities – A variety of languages/editors and websites.
Xbox GamerTag Contact List – OCAU member listing for the Xbox Live Network.
Freeware & Open Source – A variety freeware, GPL & Open Source software.
New System Recommendations – Pre-design systems for a variety of applications.
Online Vendors – A lengthy listing of Australian PC vendors, categorised by state.
MythTV – Everything you need to know about MythTV.
Remember, the beauty of a Wiki is that you can make your own pages or edit other people's pages if you have information to share. So, what can YOU add? :)
Who would put five Intel Core 2 Q9400 processors in one case? Cooler Master’s engineers that’s who! Our engineers put themselves to the test by building a 5-in-1 system that has never been done before. Today, we are proud to announce that with a single Real Power M1000W we are able to power up 5 full mini-itx systems in a closed ATCS 840 chassis. YouTube Video Link.
The results of Whirlpool's 2008 Australian Broadband Survey are now available. The survey was conducted over a four week period — from 31 December 2008 to 1 February 2009, during which the survey was successfully completed and verified a total of 19,763 times.
AnandTech take an in-depth look at dual GPU performance and scaling, as well as releasing a second article focusing on triple GPU configurations. Some time has passed since the last time we studied the issue, and now that we've fully broken in our Core i7 system, 64-bit Vista, and recent graphics drivers, it's time to get to it.
TweakTown compare the VGA performance of Microsofts public beta of Windows 7 against Windows Vista. Today we want to see how VGA performance looks under the new Windows 7 in comparison to the now very well established Vista. We want performance to be close to Vista, but with Windows 7 still being in its Beta stage, we're not going to hold our breath.
HardOCP analyse F.E.A.R. 2's Gameplay Performance and Image Quality with some of the latest video cards on the market. F.E.A.R. 2 is here for all of you to get your Alma fix. But is Alma Wade the only terrifying part of the game, or will the performance make you want to crawl out of your skin too? We'll find out with seven of today's most popular video cards.
PC Perspective has published their NVIDIA and AMD professional graphics roundup. Both NVIDIA and AMD have updated their respective professional graphics lines in the last month or so and we sit down with a pair of Quadros and a pair of FirePro cards to see which has the ability to be the best performer AND which is the best value.
Bit-tech take a look at Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology and how it works. Microsoft's new Sidewinder X8 mouse incorporates its BlueTrack tracking engine, which boasts speeds and specs far in excess of those of laser or optical mice. Here we delve into the technology behind the numbers, and interview Microsoft on the technology and its future.
Guru3D has now updated its tweak utility RivaTuner to Version 2.24. Users can download the latest version here.
AMD updated their OverDrive utility to Version 2.1.6. AMD owners can download the latest version here.
|
|
Advertisement:
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.
|
|
