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September 2006
Saturday Evening Reviews #2 (3 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 30-September-2006  20:40:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Intel Kentsfield Quad-Core CPU Coverage:
here on Anandtech.
here and here on LegitReviews.
here on HWSecrets.
here on Hexus.
here on Tech-Report.
here on XbitLabs.
here on HotHardware.
here on PCPerspective.
here on HWZone.
here on HardOCP.

Motherboards:
Epox EP-MF570 SLI AM2 board on PCStats.
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe LGA775 board on NeoSeeker.
Jetway HA01-SDGE AM2 board on OCW.
Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 AM2 board on Motherboards.org.
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 LGA775 board on MaxitMag.
Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe LGA775 board on PCModdingMy.
DFI LANParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G AM2 board on TweakTown.
MSI P965 Platinum LGA775 board on HWZone.

Cooling:
OCZ Technology Tempest CPU cooler on Virtual-Hideout.
Antazone AS-C1000 heatpipe CPU cooler on BigBruin.
nMedia System ICETANK CPU cooler on Bjorn3D.



Saturday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 30-September-2006  18:24:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Storage:
BUSlink 400GB External Firewire & USB2 HDD on ThinkComputers.
Vantec NexStar LX network storage on HardCoreWare.

Cases:
Spire Pininfarina tower on Techgage.
NZXT Lexa Classic on VIAArena.
Zalman HD135 HTPC case on TechPowerUp.
Gigabyte 3D Aurora (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Cooler Master Mystique 631 on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake Mozart Tx on LegionHW.
Cooler Master ITower 930 on HWZone.
SilverStone Milo ML01 microATX case on Phoronix.

Portable:
Palm Treo 750v PDA on TrustedReviews.
ASUS F3JM notebook on HWZone.

Cameras:
Fujitsu FinePix F30 Zoom digicam on BIOSMag.
Sony Alpha A100 digicam on Internode.



Miscellaneous Modding (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 29-September-2006  12:43:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There's a few interesting projects in the Worklogs subforum of our Modding forum at the moment. Check out these threads:

     

     

Also, yesterday we made a new Electronics forum, separating it from Modding. Enjoy!



Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 29-September-2006  11:18:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Cooling:
Thermalright Ultra-120 CPU cooler on ThinkComputers.
CoolerMaster NotePal P1 laptop cooler on Virtual-Hideout.
Gigabyte G-Pad notebook cooler on OCW.
OCZ Tempest CPU cooler on DriverHeaven.
Spire Rocketeer VI CPU cooler on DriverHeaven.

Power Supply:
Thermaltake ToughPower 750W PSU on RBMods.
GTR AP-480GX PSU on DansData.

Input Etc:
Saitek Gaming Mouse on OCClub.
Logitech G11 gaming keyboard on Techgage.
Logitech MX518 gaming mouse on TechPowerUp.

Audio / Visual:
Razer Barracuda HP-1 headphones on Phoronix.
Bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 sound card on Virtual-Hideout.
Sandisk Sansa e270 6GB mp3 player on UKGamer.
Corega Bluetooth Headset on HWZone.
Super Talent 2GB Mega Screen mp3 player on PCApex.
Samsung 971P LCD screen on OCOnline.
Xitel HiFi-Link for iPod nano on FutureLooks.
Thermaltake 7" Retractable LCD Monitor on OCrCafe.
Royal 8" LCD Picture Frame on GideonTech.
Matrox TripleHead2Go multi-monitor adapter on OCModShop.

Software:
Company of Heroes PC game on GamePyre.
Just Cause PC game on TrustedReviews.

Misc:
VIZO UFO USB 2.0 4-port hub on OCW.
BFG Ageia Physics Card on Guru3D.



Friday Morning (4 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 29-September-2006  01:40:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Intel's Developer Forum is well underway. They're showing off the quad-core Kentsfield CPUs as expected, but there's also talk of an 80-core CPU within a few years. More info here, here, here, here, here. PC-Perspective have a closer look at these planned terascale processors with more than 32 cores. Xbit have part 1 and part 2 of their IDF day 1 coverage posted. There's even a video of some quad-core gaming action.

From Ambush: Venture-funded Israeli startup Yoggie Security Systems is readying a tiny, Linux-based remote access device [that] runs sophisticated firewall, VPN, and monitoring software on a hardened Linux kernel. The pro model offers SPI firewall, VPN client, intrusion detection & prevention, HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP proxies, antivirus, antispyware, antispam, antiphishing. More info here.

Thermaltake are giving away prizes including CPUs, for whoever gets the highest scores in an online game.

HWSecrets report on Robson technology, which is how Centrino will use an integrated flash memory disk cache to speed up access and save energy. If you take a look on a typical disk access, the majority of the time is spent moving the mechanical parts of the disk rather than transferring data.

DVHardware explore the Run line in Windows. I must hit "ctrl-esc, r" a hundred times a day.. should really learn to use that Windows key. :)

the_rick spotted a multiple-format disk that could help end the Blu-Ray / HD-DVD war. By putting the same film on a single disk in the two competing formats, movie studios can save money and consumers do not have to worry if they are buying the right disk for their player.

From Oosh: As announced by Bungie here, Halo Wars (website here), a new RTS game based in the Halo universe, is to be developed by Ensemble Studies (of Age of Empires fame). Which further explains why Halogen was forced down the tubes by MS. Also announced, a new partnership between Bungie and Wingnut Interactive, a newly formed video game studio run by Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh, whom ofcourse are working on the Halo Movie too. What this project is, who knows? Exciting times in the world of Halo. :)

Interesting Forum Threads:
Video Card Comparison Chart in Video Cards.
Home-made radiators in Extreme Cooling.
Feedback on my Google Earth Realestate Site in Graphics and Programming.
Nagasaki Apocalypse in Photography.
10 days out from INBA bodybuilding comp in Sport, Fitness & Health.



Online Community Survey (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-September-2006  14:41:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg

We've been contacted by City University in Hong Kong who are doing a study into online communities etc.. sounds interesting. Anyway, I said I'd post it on OCAU for people to complete if they feel like it, and we'll apparently get a copy of the results once they're consolidated, which we may be able to use to get a feel for what people want from the forums etc.

More info in this thread.



Sponsor Specials (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-September-2006  12:03:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Remember to check out the Sponsor Specials Forum if you're shopping around. Currently there's specials on blank media, wireless gear, camera batteries and of course various PC components.


Thursday Morning (3 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-September-2006  11:26:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg

A judge has dismissed much of AMD's lawsuit against Intel, saying that international parts of it are outside their jurisdiction. In the ruling, Judge Farnan agreed with Intel, stating "AMD has not demonstrated that the alleged foreign conduct of Intel has direct, substantial and foreseeable effects in the United States which gives rise to its claim."

Quite a few people sent in this awesome RC plane with onboard camera that goes to VR goggles and follows your head movements and.. oh, just check out the video. :) A Canadian RC airplane enthusiast shows us some sweet unanticipated convergence between a model RC airplane and virtual reality gear.

madkat spotted this Half Life 2 mod where giant spaceships battle each other. Pilots coordinate strikes with invading infantry in order to take down the behemoth capital ships from both the inside on-foot and the outside with spaceships. Full of fast-paced action both in space and on foot, Eternal Silence offers a seamless blend of two exciting genres.

SharkyExtreme have a high-end gaming PC buyer's guide. This guide also represents the median between our Value Buyer's Guide with only a $1000 limit, and our Extreme Buyer's Guide with its massive $4000 budget.

Guru3D and Anandtech have buyer's guides also.

DailyTech report on a new low-cost liquidcooler from Asetek. Sadly it's not available for retail, but might appear in an OEM system near you soon. Still, it reminds me of the Aquagate Mini if you want something similar.

Tomshardware consider the best value gaming cards. This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don't play games but surf the Internet and edit video, the cards in this list are probably too expensive.

TechSpot check out how well Company of Heroes works as a benchmark. In total 14 graphics cards were tested from both ATI and Nvidia.



Thursday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 28-September-2006  02:21:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboards:
ABIT Fatal1ty AN9 32X AM2 board on OCTools.
ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition LGA775 board on OCWorkbench.
Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 AM2 board on PCStats.

Video Cards:
Leadtek WinFast PX7900 GS TDH on Bit-Tech.
Sapphire X1300XT on NeoSeeker.
Sapphire X1650 Pro on NeoSeeker.
HIS X1650Pro IceQ Turbo on ViperLair.
ATI Radeon X1950XTX 512MB on Motherboards.org.

Power Supply:
Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU on Bjorn3D.
Corsair 620W PSU (video review) on 3DGameMan.
XG Magnum 600 EX external 600W PSU on TechFear.

Memory:
Transcend 2GB DDR2-800 on BigBruin.
Ultra XL Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200 on Modders-Inc.

Storage:
500GB HDD Roundup on TheTechLounge.
SanDisk Extreme IV 2GB CF Card/Reader Bundle on TrustedReviews.
LaCie Two Big 1TB DAS enclosure on Hexus.
Maxtor DiamondMax 11 HDD on TechReport.



Forum Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 26-September-2006  21:06:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There's been a few reviews from people in the forums recently. First up is decayed.cell with the Super Flower 500W PSU:


Click for the thread!

Next up is MR CHILLED with his thoughts on the Tom Tom 910 in-car satellite navigation system with bluetooth and mp3 player:


Click for the thread!

Over in Photography we have Julz comparing the Bagman Snapshot Trekker camera bag with a Crumpler Base Toucher:


Click for the thread!

Finally, we have comments on the Pioneer PDP-436 Plasma with Pioneer DV-989 AVI-s (Elite) from s8n in Audio Visual. Enjoy!



Tuesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 26-September-2006  12:05:22 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases and Power:
NZXT Nemesis Elite Case at Madshrimps
A+ Case Twin Engine / XCLIO A380 at techPowerUp
Origen AE X11 HTPC Enclosure at HEXUS
Antec Performance One P180B Advanced Super Mid Tower at Futurelooks
Enermax Noisetaker 600W PSU at DriverHeaven
Straightpower 700w PSU at MaXit
Silverstone's Element Plus PSU at Silent PC Review

Cooling:
Thermaltake Aqua RX R-1 at techPowerUp
Cooler Master Hyper TX HSF at 3dGameMan
Scythe Infinity SCINF-1000 CPU Heat Pipe Cooler at PC Perspective
Thermalright Ultra-120 CPU Cooler at Pro-Clockers
CoolerMaster Blue Ice Pro Chipset Cooler at OCIA

Motherboards and Memory:
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition at Bjorn3D
Sapphire PURE CrossFire PC-AM2RD580 at bit-tech
OCZ PC2-6400 Special Ops Edition Urban Elite 2GB Kit at PC Modding Malaysia
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Special Ops Edition Urban Elite Memory at Pro-Clockers
OCZ PC2-8000 Titanium Alpha VX2 Dual Channel at Rbmods

PCs and Barebones:
Dell Precision 390 at BIOS
Dell XPS 700 at TrustedReviews
Shuttle XPC SN27P2 at TrustedReviews

Storage:
Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 SCSI Drive at StorageReview
Icy Dock MB453SPF 3 Bay Hot Swap SATA Hard Drive Enclosure at BigBruin
Brando 23-in-1 Card Reader and USB Hub Combo at Overclockers Online

Audio and Video:
Parrot Bluetooth Speakers at TrustedReviews
SteelSound 5Hv2 Professional Gaming Headset at ThinkComputers
Razer Pro|Tones m100 & m250 Headphones at ExtremeMHz
Datacolor SpyderTV Pro at XYZ Computing

Games:
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy at Trusted Reviews
FlatOut 2 PC Game at TechDomain

Other:
Sony Ericsson Z610i at HardwareZone
Nokia N93 at TrustedReviews
Samsung Q1 SSD - Solid State UMPC at TrustedReviews
Samsung NV10 Camera at Trusted Reviews



Tuesday Morning (16 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 26-September-2006  01:56:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Digit-Life have some info on upcoming goodies from AMD, including quad-core CPUs and its relationships with Dell and ATI.

They also report on a new motherboard from ASUS with three PCI Express x16 slots, suggesting the third is for GPU-based physics acceleration. However TheReg reckon they slipped up and hinted at an upcoming physics card from nVIDIA.

Meanwhile if you thought the Pentium name was dead, DailyTech seem to think it'll be back with Conroe-L CPUs from Intel. Three Pentium E1000 models will be available initially. These models include the Pentium E1060, E1040 and E1020 clocked at 1.80, 1.60 and 1.40 GHz respectively.

BCCHW compare a big hdd and a fast hdd. We realize they are not technically in the same class seeing as the Raptor is a 10k rpm drive, while the Samsung is a 7200 rpm drive, but we thought it would be an interesting comparision to see the diferences between the two.

LG have advised that they do not, in fact, have plans for a combined Blu-ray and HD-DVD player. A ray of hope in the standards war, however, is a disc that could be played in either type of player.

From Wayne: This guy made his own DIY car for $2500 out of two modified scooters. It is really efficient with an average efficiency of 85 mpg (36.1 km/litre) and a top efficiency of 100 mpg (42.5 km/litre) in "economy mode" which tops out at 64km/h.

From Bern: Nvidia have started releasing beta Linux drivers, starting with version 1.0-9625 for x86, AMD64/EM64T, Solaris x64/x86 and FreeBSD.

TweakTown spent some time with Brian Kim from Zalman. Nothing too deep mind you, but certainly enough to wet our taste buds and get us thinking about what Zalman has planned for the future in terms of company direction and new products.

OCModShop spotted some free USB memory utility software available for Tuesday only. Their links seem to be broken, so the vendor's site is here.



pvanr's G5 Conversion (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 25-September-2006  20:50:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg

The G5 PowerMac sports an undeniably sexy case - pvanr's project is to convert it to an SLI PC with watercooling, without butchering the G5 case. Quite a few nice details in this worklog, with lots of pics and details:


Click for the worklog thread!



Monday Afternoon (14 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 25-September-2006  16:25:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Gotta love 11-hour power outages..

A few people noticed that ATI have released Catalyst 6.9 drivers.

ExtremeTech have Top Tips about a range of PC-related topics. So my question is, should I make more than 1 partition? And if so should I have more than 2?

Weird Al has a new (?) song/video out called White and Nerdy, with a few funny geek references.

Battlefield 2142 has apparently gone gold now, with a release date of October 17.

Speaking of which, here's a mod that adds supersonic bullet cracks to BF2, adding to the "realism" of someone shooting at you. And remember that when you hear the crack the bullet has already passed you by so don't worry too much about it. The old saying is that "You never hear the one that hits you".

Nick spotted this exploding IBM laptop on slashdot. This used to be Alan's laptop, an IBM Thinkpad 600 with third-party batteries we bought separately: ie possibly not IBM's. Last night it exploded.

From James: Steorn energy. Steorn’s technology produces free, clean and constant energy. This provides a significant range of benefits, from the convenience of never having to refuel your car or recharge your mobile phone, to a genuine solution to the need for zero emission energy production. Unlike most people who make these kind of claims, they seem to be open about having their technology tested and verified. This represents a significant challenge to our current understanding of the universe and clearly such claims require independent validation from credible third parties.

DriverHeaven consider the world of MMORPG gaming. Since most of the world is only now getting proper broad band infrastructure it comes as no surprise that MMO games have only recently started to gain true popularity.

Dan has more letters. In this edition: Consoles vs PCs, remote PC control, UPS batteries and a Keyboard of Mystery.

HWZone have an interview with AMD about the merger with ATI. Hardware Zone managed to catch up with Bryan Low, the VP for Sales and Marketing in South Asia at AMD to answer our queries of the merger, current status and upcoming plans.



The OCAU Events are over! (22 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 24-September-2006  21:02:17 (GMT +10) - by Sciby

Well, with the end of the Sydney BBQ, two weekends worth of OCAU folk getting together to socialise, throw balls down lanes, shoot each other with lasers, pass people on the inside under brakes and other shenanigans has come to a close.

Thank you to everyone who came along to various events in both Brisbane and Sydney. Between event issues and cancellations, and extreme weather conditions at both BBQ's (Pouring rain in Bris, hurricane winds in Syd), everything went well and I'm pretty sure most folk had a good time. Well, no one's complained yet.

And yes, before other people ask, we will do more in the future and in other major cities, but we need a break first. ;)

Speaking of we, time to thank people: Thanks to Wolfy for assisting greatly in the organisation of things and for cooking at Brisbane; Travis, Brother of Wolfy for BBQ loanage; Bern, Wedgie, Sabz, Meowmix and TheTron for photos and videos in Bris; Er... I dunno if anyone took photos yet in Syd, but when they appear, I'll thank them too; Teddy for guiding us various places in Syd and making sure we didn't go insane and of course Agg, for... I can't remember. Some junk.

Anyway, thanks once again to everyone who turned up and made the two weekends a great time. Cheers!


(Agg on the left, myself on the right, yes, I know I'm pulling a bit of a fruity face, but that wasn't red cordial in my glass, ya know. :P )

For a recap on everything, links to related threads:
The main OCAU Weekend discussion thread.
The Paintball cancellation thread.
Various photo albums

Agg edit: thanks to Sciby for organising it all, and to everyone who took part. Hope you had a great time, we did. :)



Saturday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 23-September-2006  21:21:29 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases and Power:
Zalman HD135 HTPC Case at 3dGameMan
Thermaltake Armor Jr. Mid Tower Case at XYZ Computing
Tt Pure Power 250W at t-break
Straightpower 700W at techPowerUp

Cooling:
Scythe Infinity Heatpipe CPU Cooler at Bigbruin
Viscool V2 waterblock at Madshrimps
Cooler Master Mars HSF at 3dGameMan

Motherboards and Memory:
Abit IL-90MV Motherboard at Hardware Secrets
DFI Infinity 975X/G at Bit-Tech
Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC2-6400 at Techgage

Graphics:
Inno3D GeForce 7950GT 512MB at Tech Spot
Leadtek WinFast PX7900 GS TDH Extreme at HardwareZone

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda ES at Bjorn3D
OCZ 2 GB Dual SD Card at OCIA
Synology Cube Station CS-406 at HardwareZone

Software:
Super Monkey Ball Adventure (PS2) at DriverHeaven
Xbox Battlefield 2 Modern Combat at Rbmods
NVIDIA 1.0-9625 Display Drivers at Phoronix

Misc:
Asus AiGuru S1 Skype Phone at PC Perspective
DTech Bluetooth & USB 2.0 Hub at ThinkComputers
Samsung SC-DC164 DVD Camcorder at Tweak News
LG CU500 Mobile Phone at Digital Trends
Ergotron LX Desk Mount LCD Arm at TheTechLounge



Sydney OCAU Weekend events update. (3 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  18:29:29 (GMT +10) - by Sciby

We've had to juggle around a few things and look at options, but here's what we've got for this weekend. We've had the details in the huge weekend thread as well as the thread for alternative event suggestions after paintball was cancelled.

Anyway, if you'd like to come along, email me and let me know numbers!

SATURDAY:

1:30pm BOWLING AT AMF ENFIELD - 546 Liverpool Road - 2 games, $19.50 per person (for adults, dunno about under 18 prices, cheaper no doubt). Get 480/483 bus from Strathfield apparently.

AFTER THAT .. food.. somewhere.

6:30pm ZONE 3 CAMPBELLTOWN - info here. Walking distance from Leumeah train station.

SUNDAY:

12:30pm FREE BBQ AT P'MATTA PARK ROTUNDA, map here
No doubt followed by a few hours of throwing things around and general stupidity.

Please note that we WILL have OCAU Merchandise for sale at these events, hassle Agg or myself if you want to grab something, Polo Shirts (various sizes from S to 2XL) $15, Stubby Holders $5, stickers free if you buy something, no mugs or tshirts, all gone! So bring cash if you want to grab something.

See you there!



Friday Evening (9 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  18:02:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Frank sent word that Al Gore's movie about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, is now showing in Australian cinemas. There's a thread about this movie here in our Forums.

Here's a cool Temple of Nod PC, based on Command & Conquer. I planned to use aluminium-plates along with red transparent acrylic for the case. I also wanted to do some engraving on all of the acrylic, since that delivers a cool effect. I bought 1000 bright red LEDs to use in conjunction with the engraving - stay tuned to find out how that worked!

Timbot spotted some tiny Linux PCs. The 200xm-cf is powered by a 200MHz PXA255 XScale processor, and contains 64MB of RAM and 16MB of flash memory. Its I/O includes a 10/100 Ethernet port, along with a Type II CompactFlash slot suitable for storage devices (including microdrives) or CFIO peripherals such as WiFi cards.

GideonTech list their Top 10 Worst Movies for portraying technology. It's one thing to make a fantasy movie, it's another to dream up impossible technological feats in a modern day drama. Just because technical jargon would fly right over most people's heads, there's no reason to make up stuff. Independence Day doesn't even get a mention? Pfft!

Lil noticed this portable film festival. The Portable Film Festival is an international festival of short films just for portable devices. Sony PSPs, iPod videos, 3G phones, laptop screens, you name it. Films compete through an open vote by punters who review, argue and score the films online. And it’s all free.

SilentPCReview have an article considering exactly what silence actually means in terms of computing. Some years ago, Intel and Microsoft actually laid down guidelines for computers in certain applications, using the term "silent" as one of the descriptors. The response from acoustics engineers in the industry was swift and merciless.

Trilby sent in this cool customisable keyboard. The DX1 consists of a Pad on which you place Keys anywhere you want, and then you tell the computer what you want the Keys to do.

Batteries that have a built-in USB charger? Awesome! Info on DVHardware and TrustedReviews.

GideonTech wonder if AM2 is worth it. AMD touts this as a major technological breakthrough. Let's take a look and see if it's all talk or there's something to back that claim up.

TweakPC have a bunch of impressive pics.. I assume they're previews of games in 2007, coz the translation is a bit dodgy. Perhaps you still remember our diagram hammer article from the last year. Some the plays, which we showed in the last year are meanwhile available or to be supposed to appear shortly - there it becomes time again once a view in near and perhaps also somewhat further future balances.



Tomcat Officially Retires Today (17 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  15:22:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg

We reported back in July that the Grumman F-14 Tomcat had flown its last carrier mission in the US Navy. Well, reax sent word that today it has been officially retired, with the final official flight being to a museum. After today's ceremony, the Navy will mothball some F-14s in the Arizona desert and ship others to aviation museums.

Reax sent along a few pics, too:

     

     



Friday Midday Reviews #3 (1 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  12:20:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Video Cards:
MSI 7950 GX2 on ViperLair.
MSI 7950 GX2 on HotHardware.
ATI X1950 XTX on TBreak.
Gigabyte GeForce 7600GS & 7600 GT on TechSpot.
6-way 7900GS Group Test on Bit-Tech.
Sapphire vs GeCube X1300 XT cards on Hexus.

Phones and Cameras:
T-Mobile MDA Vario smartphone on UKGamer.
Samsung NV10 10 megapixel camera on HWZone.
Panasonic FZ50 digicam on Internode.

Misc:
Sumo Omni Bean Bag Chair on Techgage.
Sumo Lounge Omni Super-Sized Beanbag Chair on BigBruin.
Zalman Fatal1ty case on HWSecrets.
OCZ PC2-8800 (1100MHz) Gold Edition DDR2 memory on LegitReviews.
Targus Evolution 14" Ultra Portable Leather Laptop Case on LaptopLifestyle.
Apple iTunes 7 music software on TweakNews.



Friday Midday Reviews #2 (2 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  12:08:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Still have the flu. That'll teach me to go Outside.

Cooling:
Zalman VF700-Cu GPU cooler on TechWareLabs.
Titan NK34TZ LGA775 CPU cooler on DriverHeaven.
Thermalright HR-05-SLI chipset cooler on PCModdingMy.
Spire Verticool II SP601B3 CPU cooler on Motherboards.org.
Zalman Reserator 2 watercooling kit on Virtual-Hideout.
OCZ Cryo-Z CPU cooler on HWSecrets.
Zalman Reserator 1 V2 watercooling system (video review) on 3DGameMan.
Alphacool NexXxoS watercooling kit on Virtual-Hideout.

Motherboards:
Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 LGA775 board with onboard video on HWZone.
ASUS Crosshair "Republic of Gamers" AM2 board on TweakTown.
Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe LGA775 board on PCStats.
ECS KA3 MVP Extreme AM2 board on Bjorn3D.

CPUs:
Intel Pentium M 740 1.73GHz S479 CPU on PCStats.
Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo LGA775 CPU on NeoSeeker.



Friday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  11:49:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Storage:
ICY Dock external HDD enclosure on XbitLabs.
Verbatim Store'n'Go 2GB USB drive on OCModShop.
VIZO Voyager HDD cooler on RBMods.
ATP MicroSD/Reader Combo flash memory on HWSecrets.
Vantec NexStar LX network storage on Guru3D.

Power Supply:
Ultra 1200W Backup UPS on OCOnline.
Ultra Products X-Finity 500W PSU on XYZComputing.
Mushkin HP-550 PSU on ThinkComputers.

Input Etc:
Cyber Snipa Intelliscope gaming mouse on ViperLair.
Logitech G3 laser mouse on Metku.

Audio / Visual:
Apple iPod nano 4GB 2nd Gen on TheTechLounge.
Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 network media player on Hexus.
Thermaltake Embedded 7" Add-on LCD on TechPowerUp.
Toshiba Regza 47WL66E 47" LCD TV on HWZone.



Veridas outage. (17 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 22-September-2006  09:38:37 (GMT +10) - by captainpotato

*UPDATE*: This WP thread, apparently created by Veridas's John Russell is supposedly going to have an update about the outage soon.

As I am sure some of you know (well, those of you with alternatives for Net access, that is), Veridas's network has been down since Wednesday, with no indication as to what is happening yet (other than rumours, be they accurate or not...). Apparently some 30,000 customers are affected.

If you are affected (like I am), and are looking for information about the current status of the service (and cannot contact your ISP - like I cannot), Whirlpool is a good source of information (and misleading rumours and irate customers...), specifically:

- Front page news thread and replies, and
- This thread.



OCAU Podcast - Cathar Interview! (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-September-2006  18:35:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Episode 19 of the OCAU Podcast is now available for download. This delayed episode is a "Special Edition" devoted entirely to interviewing Australian watercooling legend Cathar. We chat about a range of topics including the development of his highly successful waterblocks, and the state of watercooling technology and the industry in general.

You can grab this week's episode via iTunes here (you might need to subscribe (free!) in iTunes before you can see the new episode), or download the files direct from our server:

Normal Quality - 19MB
High Quality - 63MB

If you prefer the raw RSS feed, you can get that here, or an XML version here.

Comments in this thread please!



Thursday Evening (6 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-September-2006  18:14:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Quite a few people sent in this ion cooling setup for a silent PC. More info here. By combining the ion cooling, lots of heat sinks and ram drives, the machine is truly silent. Ion buildup isn't just a problem for space ships anymore.

From Wayne: I thought you might want to put this on the news page. A new TV show premiered on ABC 2 on Tuesday night. It is called "Good Game" and is an Australian show which focusus on gaming and computer hardware stuff. I believe this is the first of its kind on Australian TV. Thread here. Their site is here and it's on ABC 2 on Tuesdays 8:00 - 8:30pm. Shame I can't get ABC2 here, bah.

Tweaktown checked out a couple of Conroe 975X motherboards and also upgraded one of their testbeds to Conroe too.

From Sparky1240: Some fairly in-depth information on the new P-RAM from Samsung. Called phase-change random-access memory (PRAM), the patents for this concept date as far back as 1968. While the idea is conceptually simple, the problem for the last four decades has been finding the right balance of chemical materials that will behave as predicted on paper.

Lindsay spotted a new Indian motorcycle on the way, but I have to say this motorcycle on a tank track looks like more fun, thanks waine_sahn.

TechReport compared Core 2 chipsets. Since the Core 2 processor relies on the chipset for its memory controller, one's chipset choice can also have a much more profound impact on performance.

Anthw27 wonders if ebay will replace banks one day. If I wanted to look 20 years out, I would say there will not be a banking industry as we know it today. Most of the functions that they carry out will be handled by online or electronic brokerages.

Dan has a new article: There's a common PC connector that turns fifty-four this year. It's finally dying out, but I still think that's pretty good going. Find out which one it is here.

Technibble have an explanation of the physics of good airflow. Just shifting the same stale air around isn’t going to help keep the components cool, in fact, it’ll only heat them up.

SharkyExtreme have updated their Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide. To do this, we pay special attention to the price-performance ratio of each component, making sure to match the hardware according to their value from an overall system performance standpoint. One of the few such guides that isn't an affiliate spamfest nowadays.



Thursday Midday Reviewfest (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 21-September-2006  12:12:49 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases and Power:
Thermaltake Mozart TX VE1000SWA at TweakNews
Sansun Galaxy at Overclockers Online
Zalman ZM360B-APS Power Supply at 3dGameMan

Cooling:
Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II Chipset Cooler at Hardware Secrets
Dangerden Watercooling at DNRhardware
Vantec Lapcool 3 at AOAForums
Spire SP512S7 CPU Heatsink at Motherboards.org
CoolerMaster Cool Drive Lite at Techware Labs

Motherboards and Memory:
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA & AM2V890-VSTA at Phoronix
Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H Core 2 Duo at hardCOREware
nVidia nForce 500 Series for Socket AM2 at TweakTown
ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 at HardwareZone
DFI LanParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G at Techgage
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB Special Ops Urban Elite at ThinkComputers

PCS:
Shuttle Smallest XPC X100 SFF at Silent PC Review
Shuttle SN27/P2 at DriverHeaven
Toshiba Satellite Pro P100 at DV Hardware

Graphics and Monitors:
PALIT nVidia 7950GT at DriverHeaven
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT at HEXUS
XFX 7900GS videocard at Madshrimps
Samsung SyncMaster 242MP 24" LCD Monitor at Bona Fide Reviews
Panasonic Viera TH-50PX600 50in Plasma at Trusted Reviews

Storage:
OEM 5GB USB Pen Drive at Monster Hardware
Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB Hard Drive Review at XYZ Computing

Audio and Video:
Toshiba Gigabeat S MES30VW Portable Media Center at Digital Trends
Razer Barracuda Hp1 Gaming Headphones at Overclockers Club
Abit iDome Digital Speakers at Trusted Reviews
ReQuest S4.2500 Music Server at Digital Trends
Iomega ScreenPlay Pro at HardwareZone
Creative Zen Vision:M at Digital Trends

Software:
PCMech: AutoPatcher at PC Mechanic
Galactic Civilizations II at DriverHeaven
PC Mesh Internet Cleanup at Bjorn3D

Other:
Vantec Slot Protectors at OCModShop
Garmin Nüvi 310 SatNav at UK Gamer
Samsung SGH D-900 Ultra Edition at HardwareZone



Wednesday Midday (6 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 20-September-2006  11:59:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Xbitlabs checked out how modern video cards perform in Vista. We want to fill in the blank and carry out a test of today’s graphics cards in the publicly available version of Windows Vista using a few popular games.

They also have some info on an affordable quad-core from Intel. Intel’s first quad-core microprocessor for desktops - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 - is projected to operate at 2.66GHz, use 1066MHz processor system bus and come equipped with 8MB level two cache (4MB unified L2 per physical die).

MadShrimps have a high-end PSU roundup, with 3 units compared. Today we're taking a look at some high-end power supply's from 3 well known brands : OCZ, Silverstone and Sharkoon. The PSU's we are looking at are 700-750W units, and there for geared towards the so called "enthusiast" community of dedicated gamers, high-end users and overclockers.

Adam spotted a new game on the way, focussing on schoolyard bullying. The game, produced by the makers of Grand Theft Auto and due for release next month, is promoted as an "action adventure in which you can rip your school apart".

Arthur sent in info about Microsoft’s Zune. The Zune digital media player from Microsoft is available in three colors: black, white and brown.

They also apparently have a YouTube wannabe on the way, thanks Nick. Soapbox will be offered to a limited number of users during an invitation-only test phase, but Microsoft said on Monday it will go fully live as a part of MSN Video within six months.

TGDaily have more interesting stuff about using your GPU for general computation, thanks Murray. Simply by adding the horsepower of graphics cards to an existing computer, the company claims that the original system can be accelerated by a factor of 20x.

LegionHW compared the 7950GT and X1900XT in the "value performance" video card arena. Therefore, while the GeForce 7950GT has successfully bridged the gap between the 7900GT and 7900GTX, it has also brought some much needed competition to the Radeon X1900XT.

From n2o: found a site hosted by Amnesty International promoting the freedom of speech on the net. hope we can get people to sign the pledge for internet freedom. Interesting. Amnesty International, with the support of The Observer UK newspaper, is launching a campaign to show that online or offline the human voice and human rights are impossible to repress.

Here's a pretty cool forum thread that had me flashing back to childhood.. Mitch01's Guess The Nostalgic Toy thread in The Pub.



Wednesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 20-September-2006  11:54:07 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases and Power:
APEVIA X-Pleasure Aluminum Case at ThinkComputers
Cooler Master Stacker 830 at HEXUS
SilverStone ST50EF-Plus High-Efficiency PSU at PC Perspective

Cooling:
Apack Zerotherm CF900 Copper Heatpipe Cooler at Tweaknews
Gigabyte 3D Rocket II HSF at TweakTown
Vantec Stingray WaterCooling Kit at Virtual-Hideout
CoolerMaster Aqua Turtle HD Cooler at Techwarelabs
Titan Amanda TEC (Thermal Electronic Chip) Cooler at X-bit Labs

Input:
Bluetake BT500+ Bluetooth Rechargeable Super Mini Mouse at Futurelooks
Logitech MX and VX Revolution Mice at HardwareZone
Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 at 3dGameMan

Cameras:
D-Link Securicam DCS-2120 IP Camera at Trusted Reviews
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T50 Camera at Digital Trends

Motherboards and Memory:
Biostar TForce 590 SLI De Luxe at Hardware Secrets
SIS 771/966 chipset for AM2 at OCW
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum RAM at PC Apex

Other:
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade at Trusted Reviews
Systemax Sabre Intel Core 2 Extreme Gaming PC at HotHardware
Intel Clovertown Quad Core Processor at MaXit
Creative Zen Vision M Video Tour at Digital Trends
XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme at HardwareZone



Tuesday Arrrrrvo News (6 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 19-September-2006  17:21:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Ah-harr! The whispers among the lads is that Old Redbeard Agg has gotten slack with his piratey newsposting today. The next whiny cur to say that gets keelhauled!

Smoken sent in these songs recored on xrays by pirates (not the nautical kind) in the 1950's. Pirates, bones and merry jigs, tis a perfect news story for today.

There be a few duels on the decks tonight. Corsair's Dominator and OCZ's Gold Edition have at it on the DDR2 front at 1.1GHz, while Intel P965 motherboards from Gigabyte and Foxconn battle it out at Tech-Report. Meanwhile an unruly mob of AM2 motherboards have an all-in brawl at TrustedReviews.

Land-lubbers can tweak their America's Army gaming, thanks to an updated guide.

Nick lifted his eyepatch to find dastardly deeds afoot, with an analysis of 20,000 MySpace passwords entered into a scam site.

Hexus lop the dongles off CrossFire and SLI setups and examine performance. Yarr, you'll need more than a peg-leg to recover from that.

Piracy be a tricky thing these days, but PC Mechanic hope to explain copyright and fair use so you can avoid being scuttled by Her Majesty's finest.

Confounded by cursed function keys? The Dread Pirate Timbot spotted a guide to some long-forgotten functionality.

Techgage meanwhile have a mighty booty for the taking, with a map to 10 free Linux games.

Back to the briny depths for me - I think one of the scurvy dogs from the Brisbane Weekend has given me the flu. :( Ye can talk up a storm with your shipmatey chums in this thread.



OCAU Podcast Episode 20 (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 19-September-2006  14:08:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Episode 20 of the OCAU Podcast is now available for download. In a departure from tradition, Episode 20 is being released before Episode 19, which should hopefully be available soon (and is devoted to an interview with Cathar). In Episode 20 I'm joined by Sciby and John Selby, and we chat about Dell & AMD, Intel's VT, alternative PC interfaces, the power consumption of portable devices, folding on GPUs and PS3s, land speed records and misc other stuff. We also have an "Apparently It's A Fact" from Scythe. I must however warn you that the words "paradigm", "coalesce" and "convergence" all make an appearance.

You can grab this week's episode via iTunes here (you might need to subscribe (free!) in iTunes before you can see the new episode), or download the files direct from our server:

Normal Quality - 19MB
High Quality - 50MB

If you prefer the raw RSS feed, you can get that here, or an XML version here.

Comments in this thread please!



Paintball Sydney - CANCELLED (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 19-September-2006  10:39:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Righto, due to some confusion it seems we are NOT booked into paintball after all in Sydney and we didn't really have enough people anyway. So, people who are coming to Sydney, or people who live in Sydney and know stuff to do, let me know in this thread if there's something else cool we can do on the Saturday.


Monday Night Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 18-September-2006  22:29:15 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases, Cooling and Power:
Cooler Master Mystique 632 Case at Overclockers Online
NZXT Apollo Case at Phoronix
Spire Pininfarina Case at Overclockers Online
Asetek WaterChill Complete WaterCooling Kit at Virtual-Hideout
Enermax Galaxy 850W EGA850EWL PSU at Bjorn3D
NorthQ 4800-400 RC PSU at DriverHeaven

Keyboards and Mouse Pads:
Zboard Merc Keyboard at Rbmods
Internet Multimedia Super-Slim Keyboard at ThinkComputers
SteelPad QcK+ at techFEAR
QPAD|CT Gaming Surface at techPowerUp

Portable Devices:
Samsung SGH-Z400 Mobile Phone at Trusted Reviews
ASUS P525 Smartphone at CNET
2G iPod Nano at Ars Technica
Sena Treo650 Lateral Case at GideonTech
JVC Everio GZ-MG505EK HDD Camcorder at Trusted Reviews

Software:
Apple iTunes 7 at WindowsAtoZ
Reservoir Dogs: PC Game at Gamepyre

Misc:
OCZ Secure Digital Dual at XYZ Computing
Logitech Harmony 880 Remote at Techgage
Vantec IDE to USB Adapter at OCModShop
Samsung SH-S182M LightScribe DVD Writer at ExtremeMHz
Nintendo Wii Preview at Trusted Reviews



Brisbane OCAU Weekend (22 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 18-September-2006  21:01:24 (GMT +10) - by INerTIal

Well the Brisbane OCAU weekend was a roaring success and much fun was had by all. I had a great time at the BBQ and really enjoyed meeting all the weird and wonderful OCAU people who showed up. The karting on Sunday was an ABSOLUTE BLAST and will be one I will remember for a long time. The bowling that night was also great and was a pure laugh riot as well. The first major lot of photos are up from Bern (as per usual :-D). If you do have a gallery up somewhere please post the link in the comments for this post and I will do my best to add it to the news post.

Bern's Gallery
Bern's Photos

In case you were wondering. Yes AGG did come first in the OCAU Kart Championship. (/me grumbles something about prior experience)

Edit: Sabretooth's pics from the BBQ are here.
Edit: TheWedgie's rather drunk bowling pics are here.



Sunday Night (8 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 17-September-2006  22:57:32 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Talk like a pirate day is coming up on the 19th of September. For those who haven't mastered the art yet and want to get in on the action, Joanna sent in a link to this instructional video.

There's apparently a software glitch in Segways' line of electric scooters. Those who have one might want to chase this up for the software upgrade. Those who have one and have stacked it, you've just found yourself a valid excuse for doing so.

MadboxPC have an article covering some new MSI graphics cards on offer. Site isn't in english, but you can see the pics and specs okay. If you'd rather push your current nVidia card a bit further before upgrading and aren't too good with a soldering iron, you might want to check out this BIOS volt-mod how-to that has been posted on AOA Forums. You'll have to push pretty hard to compete with Kinc who just reached 16,000 points in 3dmark06.

Genesis sent word that Seagate reckons 2.5TB desktop drives will be here by 2009. He also pointed us to the story about a Iraq Veteran who was fitted with a bionic arm. She's a former marine who lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident two years ago and now has a new robotic arm she can move just by thinking.

Hardware secrets have put up an All CPU Sockets article. It includes a table containing all sockets and slots used by all PC processors released to date, with examples of compatible CPUs and pinouts. So definitely worth bookmarking if you're in to pin modding.

Some more information about Nintendo's Wii. The release date in Oz will be the 7th of December bundled with "Wii Sports" and carry a price tag of $400. More information at Nintendo and Gameworld. Gameworld also have a live blog feed from the European Wii Press Conference.

If you can't decide on what game to play next, perhaps have a read of DriverHeaven's article about games you should have played, but probably didn't. Wonder if they're playing any of those games at the World Cyber Games finals which is covered by ThinkGaming.

Finish up tonight with a couple of guides. DV Hardware have posted a quick guide on how to boost your notebook's battery life and DigitalHardware have a guide to buying a high-end digital camera.



Saturday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 16-September-2006  21:04:20 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases, Cooling and Modding:
Raidmax Smilodon Case at 3DGameMan
Titan Amanda TEC Cooler at ThinkComputers
Zalman Reserator 1 Plus WaterCooling Kit at Virtual-Hideout
Cooler Master NotePal P1 at HardwareZone
MGE Extreme Neon at TWL
Ultra Cable Sleeving Kit at Modders-Inc

Graphics Cards and Displays:
HIS X1900GT IceQ3 Dual DL-DVI VIVO 256MB at HEXUS
XFX 7950GT XT at Neoseeker
XFX passive 7950 GT at bit-tech
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 512MB at HardwareZone

Motherboards and Memory:
MSI K9N Platinum at EclipseOC
ASUS P5NSLI nForce 570 SLI at Tech ARP
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 at PCSTATS
Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF at HotHardware
Corsair XMS2 DOMINATOR PC2-8888 at Legit Reviews

Audio:
Sennheiser HD 201 Headphones at DV Hardware
Sennheiser PMX70 Sport Earphones at DV Hardware
Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect Sound Card at BigBruin
Apple iPod Nano 2GB at DigitalTrends

Misc:
Fuji F30 Digital Camera at Internode
Test Drive Unlimited XBOX Game at TrustedReviews
Grisoft AVG Free Edition Antivirus at TweakNews
Vantec SATA/IDE to USB at ThinkComputers



DRM in Australia. (49 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 16-September-2006  00:30:27 (GMT +10) - by captainpotato

As I am certain many of you are aware, the Free Trade Agreement that was signed between Australia and the United States has a few implications for the IT world. As reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald, draft legislation will effectively prohibit the use of devices and services designed to circumvent copy control technological protection measures, with fines for users of such technology, and even larger fines and possible prison time for distributors of such techology.

What may this mean for the average Australian? Mod chips (even for legal backup uses) would most likely be targeted, as would the use of software such as DeCSS to display commercial DVDs on operating systems for which no licenced decrypter is available (Linux, for instance).

On the positive side, it would become legal under new legislation to rip CDs to play on mp3 players, and limited exemptions for libraries... but will we be giving up too much in exchange for such new freedoms?



Friday Night (2 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-September-2006  21:48:20 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

If you have nothing planned for the weekend, perhaps consider downloading and playing the FEAR Extraction Point Demo that is currently available for download at Ausgamers. Of course there are the OCAU gatherings on the east coast this weekend for those in that area. Others might want to check out Last Train to Freo highlighted to us by allabouttrust.

Pro-Clockers have an article stepping through an HTPC Buildup using NMediaPC products. If you are after something quieter to sit in the entertainment centre, you might want to add a CoolIT Systems Home Theatre PC Liquid Cooler that Futurelooks have previewed. Using one of these Solid State hard drives will make it even quieter still.

With Multi-Core CPUs and Multiple GPUs becoming more and more mainstream don't skimp out on power supply. If you're wondering how much power you're going to need for the next big upgrade, or want to see if you're underpowered, check out the eXtreme PSU Calculator. Speaking of multi-core, Antonio informed us of an article at Anandtech which discusses the Mac Pro. Seems that Kentsfield (quad core) support is there straight out of the box!

Here's something everyone needs to read. Bit-Tech have posted an article on the top 10 unique game controllers. I remember the "NES Zapper" from my childhood and the good times and cursing it bought to me and my school chums. Another good one was sent in by Jonathon Boles about the Apple Product Life Cycle. It definitely puts a spin on Apple's Showtime event, which is covered by HardwareZone.

Finally, the TechZone have had a look at the state of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). Tough to believe we are now on the third generation of Internet in such a short time (starting in the early '80s). Darn thing just keeps getting better, more versatile, more indispensable. IPTV is now entering the picture and EVERYONE is wildly enthusiastic about the $$$. So...who will reap the profits? I don't know, but it's looking good for those of us who get bad DigitalTV reception.

Have a fun and safe weekend!!



OCAU Brisbane Events This Weekend! (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-September-2006  10:36:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg

This weekend the first of the 2006 OCAU Weekends takes place in Brisbane. It's probably a little late to book in for most things, but if you want to come along for a free BBQ at the Roma St Parklands at 12:30pm tomorrow (Saturday), feel free! Please put your name down on the booking form tho - there's no charge for the BBQ, but we need to know how many snags and cans of drinks etc to provide, so numbers in advance is good. :)

Sydney next weekend! The discussion thread for both weekends is here.



GeForce 7950 GT Reviews Hit The Web (2 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 15-September-2006  02:02:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg

About a week ago NVIDIA announced the GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT. It seems that the 7950 GT has become available for review, with quite a few websites releasing reviews today. This is essentially a 7900 GT with faster clocks and twice as much memory.

Coverage on 3DAvenue, Anandtech, Bjorn3D, Guru3D, HotHardware, LegitReviews, Motherboards.org, PC Perspective, Rage3D and TechReport.



Thursday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 14-September-2006  21:22:24 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Cases, Cooling and Power:
Cooler Master Mystique 632 Case at Gamepyre
Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatpipe CPU Cooler at BigBruin
Vizo Orbiter HDD Cooler at RBmods
OCZ Tempest CPU Cooler at Techgage
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU at Viper Lair

Graphics Cards and Displays:
ATI Radeon X1900XT 256MB Video Card at Legit Reviews
XFX GeForce 7950GT Extreme at TweakTown
VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCI at TechSpot
BenQ FP241W 24in Widescreen Monitor at TrustedReviews

Motherboards:
ECS 945GTY-M MoDT 945GT S479 at OCW
MSI P965 Platinum at HEXUS

Input Devices and Audio:
Logitech Harmony 895 Remote at UKgamer
Logitech G3 Gaming Mouse at HardwareZone
SteelSeries SteelSound 5H v2 USB Headset at 3DGameMan
SteelSeries Gaming Kit at Bit-Tech
Das Keyboard II on TechFear

Misc:
FastStone Image Viewer at PC Mechanic
Alienware Aurora m9700 Laptop at BIOS
Canon PIXMA MP160 Multi-Function Device at TrustedReviews
Ultra 1500 VA UPS at PC Mechanic



Thursday Afternoon (10 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 14-September-2006  13:16:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg

A zillion people sent word of new Apple goodies. There's info on the keynote speech here, with info on the new set-top-box here. New iPods and new iTunes stuff also. Discussion in this thread.

Xbit have part 2 of their Core 2 Duo memory article. In this review we will be testing a few overclocker-friendly DDR2 SDRAM kits from Corsair, GeIL, OCZ and Patriot currently available in shops.

Hapkido spotted an interesting article about watercooling in datacentres. The SprayCool technology uses inert liquid in a closed loop system, directly applied to server chips. It's currently selling as an aftermarket attachment for x86 servers and racks.

PCPerspective have a mobile GPU battle between NVIDIA's GeForce Go 7900 GTX and the 7900 GS. We pit two similarly configured Dell XPS M1710 laptops against each other to test everything from performance to power consumption to see which GPU you should get.

HardCoreWare have an 8 PSU roundup. All of these units are compliant to at least the ATX12V 2.01 spec; some are 2.20. Some units have EPS12V connectors and multiple PCI-E connectors, while others do not. What does all this mean? We explain all that as well.

TheTechZone explain how to take control of Vista. Meanwhile, Hexus check out DirectX 10 on Vista.

Raven78 spotted this Xbox360 turned into a laptop.. interesting.

T-Break had a bit of a chat with AMD about upcoming products etc. Next, we spoke about upcoming AMD products and were informed that the K8L is very much on schedule. For those not familiar, the K8L is AMD’s upcoming quad core CPU that will consume no more power than their current dual core solutions at identical speeds.

A few people at TrustedReviews consider their top 5 games of all time. So, after constantly just talking about it in the office, we decided to round up our top five games of all time and tell you guys about them – just in case you missed some of them over the years.

From John: Just found a reference to OCAU in a law textbook I'm reading for my research: Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks. It mentions Overclockers Australia on p83 with regards to Folding@Home teams. You can download the book here. Yochai Benkler is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His research focuses on the effects of laws that regulate information production and exchange on the distribution of control over information flows, knowledge, and culture in the digital environment. His particular focus has been on the neglected role of commons-based approaches towards management of resources in the digitally networked environment. He has written about the economics and political theory of rules governing telecommunications infrastructure, with a special emphasis on wireless communications, rules governing private control over information, in particular intellectual property, and of relevant aspects of U.S. constitutional law. Not bad for OCAU to be cited by a prof @ Yale, the #1 law school in the US!



Wednesday Night Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 13-September-2006  22:15:26 (GMT +10) - by PuGZoR

Cases/Modding:
Ultra Grid ATX Case on TechPowerUp
Ultra Grid ATX Case with 500W V-Series PSU on Modders-Inc
Sunbeamtech Zorro ATX Case on BigBruin
NZXT Apollo on DriverHeaven
Cooler Master iTower 930 Case on 3DGameMan
Apevia X-Discovery Case on ThinkComputers
Aerocool Turbine 2000 120mm LED Fan on GideonTech
Lian Li PC-G50 on XYZ Computing

Mobile Media:
SpeckProducts iPod Nano Cases on TheTechLounge
Altec Lansing M602 Mobile Audio System for iPod on ThinkComputers
Klipsch iGroove on DigitalTrends (Video Review)
Astone Xinc Ultra Digital A/V Player on Hardware Zone
Altech Lansing inMotion iM500 iPod Speakers on Hardware Zone

Cooling:
Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra+ Watercooling Kit on Virtual Hideout
ThermalTake 745 Bigwater Watercooling Kit on Virtual Hideout
Scythe Katana CU CPU Cooler on TechPowerUp
Gigabyte 3D Galaxy II Watercooling Kit on LegionHardware

Storage:
Samsung SpinPoint T HDD on TechReport
Super Talent Fireball 2GB on Pro-clockers

Video Cards:
ATI X1900XT 256MB on NeoSeeker
Connect3D Radeon X1900GT on TechReport

Memory:
Kingston HyperX 2GB PC2-8000 on Techgage
Corsair Twin2x1024-8500 C5 PC2-8500 DDR-2 on PCStats
Corsair Dominator Twin2x2048-8888C4DF on Bit Tech

Motherboard:
Asus P5W DH Deluxe Socket 775 on Pro-clockers
Asus P5W64-WS on HotHardware
MSI K9A Platinum on HardOCP

Input Devices:
Wolfking Timberwolf Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 on LaptopLifestyle

Audio/Visual:
Razer Barracuda HP-1 Gaming Headphones on TechFear
Audioengine 5 Speakers on DigitalTrends
Sennheiser PC120 and PC30 Headsets on TrustedReviews

Power:
NZXT Precise 650W PSU on Techgage
Corsair HX620q Modular PSU on Virtual Hideout

Cameras:
Canon PowerShot S3 IS Digital Camera on TheTechZone
Kodak Easyshare Z650 Digital Camera on TrustedReviews
Fujifilm Finepix F30 on DitigalTrends

Monitors:
Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP on BIOS Magazine UK

CPU:
AMD Sempron 3600+ 2GHZ Socket AM2 on PCStats

Other Stuff:
Gateway FX510XG Core 2 Duo Gaming System on HardOCP
Logitech Play Link on HardOCP
Samsung SPJ-A640 Camera Phone on Bona Fide Reviews



Wednesday Afternoon (12 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 13-September-2006  16:59:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg

TomsHardware got their hands on a four-core Kentsfield processor from Intel. They unsurprisingly have a huge article with benchmarks etc.

Here's a cool flash version of the 3-rotor Enigma cypher machine, as used by the Germans in WWII and eventually broken by Alan Turing and the folks at Bletchley Park.

HWGN have an NVIDIA roundup of graphics cards. I’ll be starting off at the bottom of the pile and working my way up to the elite, top of the range, 'burning a hole in your pocket', cards. Unfortunately the only benchmark they use is 3DMark, but it gives you an idea of each card's general position in the range.

From DarthDVD_AU: Do you want some portal action but you cant wait until next year... try out naracular drop from the guys that are producing Portal. The guys (and 2 girls) showed their final project (before they graduated from digipen a game development institute), and before the end of the persontation got hired on the spot. please watch the following videos on 1up.com for more back ground information. the game narbacular drop can be found here.

Motherboards.org checked out AMD's 4600+ and 3800+ from an energy efficiency perspective.

SilentPCReview meanwhile reviewed the Scythe Infinity CPU cooler, Samsung Spinpoint T hard drive and a high-end SFF from PC Design Lab.

From Arv: Swedish DJ - has #1 eurodance songs about an irc bot and warcraft3 dota. Video clips with subtitles can be found here (and on youtube, googlevids): anna, dota. I can’t believe this guy’s songs are #1 on the top40 in Scandinavia… (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) BassHunter has recently released an album entitled "LOL <(^^,)>". More info here.

TweakTown overclocked a GeForce 7900 GS from Palit. Was it just one good overclocker out of the batch? Or is this going to be the next “in” graphics card for people on a budget?

From Eric: KENNETH Ray Brooks is sore, embarrassed and awaiting trial after his attempt
to rob a Florida bank ended with his trousers exploding. Ok, so it's got nothing to do with technology, it's just damn funny!


Thetron sent word that his "tech/geeky based show vodcast video distributed over the internet" has its first episode up, covering action from Motherlan 06. Check it out here, there's a few OCAU people involved.



ArgusTuffed's Radbox (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 12-September-2006  12:39:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There's an interesting watercooled project in the PCDB, from Argus Tuffed. A dual Xeon box with rigid copper tubing throughout, and an external radiator box with a spring-mounted pump to reduce vibration. Nice work!


Click for the PCDB entry! (14 pics)

More details in this thread in Extreme Cooling.



Tuesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 12-September-2006  12:23:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Storage & Memory:
Areca ARC-1220 RAID Controller on XbitLabs.
Mushkin Redline XP2-8000 2x1GB memory on RBMods.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB HDD on Techgage.
Vizo Paragon 2.5" HDD Enclosure on XYZComputing.
Seagate Barracuda ES HDD on TechReport.
Vantec NexStar 3 external enclosure on OCModShop.
Super Talent Fireball 2GB flash drive on Bjorn3D.

Cooling:
OCZ Tempest CPU cooler on Phoronix.
Apack Zerotherm CF800 LGA775 CPU cooler on TweakNews.
Titan Amanda TEC-based CPU cooler on Virtual-Hideout.
Danger Den nVidia Watercooling Kit & MAG II-LE Pump on OCModShop.
Scythe Infinity CPU cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler on MaxitMag.
Koolance PC4-1025KB 1kW Liquid Cooling System on PCPerspective.
Titan Amanda TEC-based CPU cooler on OCOnline.

Video Cards:
GeCube Radeon X1650 PRO Platinum on HWZone.
Zogis Overclocked GeForce 7300 GT on HWSecrets.



Press Releases (22 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 11-September-2006  14:37:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Actiontec announced that the Enermax Galaxy 1000W PSU will be available in Australia from September 20. The result: Five 12V rails, which are an integral part of the upcoming revision of EPS12V PSU design guide by Intel, which will specify 1000W class PSU’s and respective technical requirements especially five rails as a must to be versatile enough to power QUAD CORE & QUAD CPU systems as well as QUAD graphics (GPU) systems (= TRIPLE QUAD). Moreover, it can power even TRIPLE QUAD + 24, because it is modular. Besides 6 natively connected drives, up to 18 additional drives can be connected. The sophisticated 6-pin sockets allow SATA and PATA connection without restrictions. More info here and pics below:

     
click to enlarge

Antec announced a retroactive five-year warranty for their premium PSUs, previously only covered for 3 years. Antec's high-efficiency Neo HE and TruePower Trio lines of PSUs will be warranted for five years from the date of purchase for parts and labor. All Antec products have previously been backed by its industry-leading Three-Year Warranty. The new warranty will be retroactive to all selected PSUs purchased prior to the announcement of the new cover. More info here.

ASUS have two new CPU coolers employing heatpipe technology for AMD CPUs. More info here and pics below:

  
click to enlarge

Foxconn have announced a range of GeForce 7 series video cards. "Foxconn has leveraged its expertise in the PC components business and worked closely with NVIDIA to develop this complete range of graphics solutions," commented Vincent Yuan, General Manger of Foxconn Channel Services Division. More info here.

OCZ released some ATI CrossFire certified PC2-5400 memory, with ATI-branded heatspreaders. Tested and qualified under ATI’s renowned certification program, the PC2-5400 CrossFire series not only meets a high standard of quality, but guarantees superior compatibly with CrossFire technology. More info here.



Sunday Evening (16 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 10-September-2006  18:12:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Lots of motorsport on TV tonight, both Formula 1 and MotoGP. I better grab some extra beers..

Reaper sent word of a Transformers convention in Sydney soon. The main attraction is the entire massive collection of Griffins transformers that he will be shipping down from Brisbane to Sydney for the event.

If you're a Second Life user, you should pay attention to this security announcement. Detailed investigation over the last two days confirmed that some of the unencrypted customer information stored in the database was compromised, potentially including Second Life account names, real life names and contact information, along with encrypted account passwords and encrypted payment information.

Someone considered one of the world's worst spammers has had his appeal rejected. Thousands of people fell for his scam, grossing Jaynes' operations up to $750,000 per month, investigators said.

3DGameMan have part 2 and part 3 of their video guide to Building a KICKASS Gaming Rig.

From Sparky1240: Halogen - A modification between EA’s Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour, and Microsoft / Bungie’s Halo - has received a cease and desist letter; Arguing that it was infringing upon intellectual copyright. This is a sad day; firstly, because there was much hype and anticipation over this modification, which is run by and done by many volunteers - all doing it for fun, and out of love of the games they play. Secondly, it puts into question fan based modifications - what can you do; and where is the line between intellectual copyright, and when does it become your own work?

A few people sent in these light-emitting shirts from Philips. Coming soon to a rave near you, no doubt. I wonder what happens when it rains.

Matt spotted some TV's with frickin' lasers in them. As if shopping for new flat-panel, high-definition television is not hard enough, Mitsubishi is scheduled to announce this week that it has developed commercial television that uses colored lasers to display bright, deep images on large, thin, lightweight screens - surpassing images seen on film.

Here's a translated-from-German review of a free horror game called Penumbra. The Gruselshocker Penumbra is used of Frictional Games from Sweden as technology demo for the internal 3D-Engine as well as for Newton Game Dynamics physics engine. The play is free of charge, atmospherically close, but turn out unfortunately somewhat briefly.

Adam sent word of SydneyFood.tv, a streaming video guide to restaurants in Sydney.

Matt meanwhile has a ISP config finder website for Australian ISPs. It's essentially a work in progress database of ISP configuration information all in one spot.

Tweaktown have a DDR2 memory roundup with a focus on overclocking. Today we are taking a look at DDR-2 in our roundup of 8 modules from various companies in various speeds to see just what each company has put out and just what can be obtained from our Athlon 64 X2 AM2 platform.

XbitLabs meanwhile help you choose the right memory for Core 2 Duo systems. In this first article we are going to talk about system memory with respect to the Core 2 Duo, particularly we will try to find out which memory parameter has a bigger effect on performance of Core 2 Duo systems, bandwidth or latency.

SiliconAngel reminds everyone that September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Best not forget, ye scurvy dogs, yarr!

Just going outside today has a bit of a nautical feel to it actually, we've had a spot of rain:

  



Sunday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 10-September-2006  16:06:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Cooling:
ASUS Silent Square CPU cooler on HWZone.
Thermalright Ultra-90 CPU cooler on MadShrimps.
SilverStone Nitrogen NT06 CPU cooler on Phoronix.
Thermaltake W3 chipset waterblock on TechPowerUp.
ASUS Chilly Vent & Chilly Vent Lux CPU coolers on LegionHW.

Power Supply:
CaseBuy Tech's EZ PSU Tester 3 on TechTastic.
Ultra X2 550W Modular PSU on FutureLooks.
Spire Rocketeer III 500W PSU on RBMods.
Thermaltake ToughPower 700W PSU on OCOnline.

Audio / Visual:
Super Talent Mega Screen MP3 Player on Techgage.
Anyreal DPF-8800 8-Inch Digital Photo Frame on ThinkComputers.
HP LP2465 24-inch LCD Monitor on DigitalTrends.
Mirai DML-522W100 22in LCD Monitor on TrustedReviews.
Creative Zen Neeon 2 mp3 player on HWZone.

Prebuilt & Portable:
Apple MacPro video tour on DigitalTrends.
Lenovo 3000 N100 Notebook on TrustedReviews.
Alienware Aurora 7500 gaming PC on PCPerspective.
Alienware Aurora m7700 gaming laptop on UKGamer.

Cameras:
Samsung NV3 digicam on TrustedReviews.
Sony DCR-SR100 HDD camcorder on DigitalTrends.

Software:
City Life PC game on GamePyre.
Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 on GideonTech.
Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy PC game on Bit-Tech.

Misc:
OCZ PC2-8000 Titanium Alpha VX2 DDR2 memory on TechARP.
AeroCool PowerWatch Multifunction Colour Panel on ExtremeMHz.



Shuttle Atlantis Launch (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 9-September-2006  23:30:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is due to launch in just under two hours from now. The hatch into Atlantis' crew cabin has been sealed for flight following the strapping in of all six STS-115 astronauts inside the ship. Commander Brent Jett and his crew are now setting switches and bringing the orbiter's systems online as the countdown to an 11:15 a.m. launch ticks on.

With this mission, NASA is ready to get back to building the International Space Station, marking the first time in almost four years that a space station component has been added to the orbiting outpost. ... During their three spacewalks, crew members of Atlantis will install the P3/P4 integrated truss and a second set of solar arrays on the space station, doubling the station’s current ability to generate power from sunlight and adding 17.5 tons to its mass.

You can keep track of things by watching NASA TV live over the net, as well as reading the mission blog and this forum thread.



Saturday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 9-September-2006  11:48:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboards:
Biostar TForce 590 SLI Deluxe AM2 board on PCModdingMy.
ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP LGA775 board on Virtual-Hideout.
MSI K9N SLI Platinum AM2 board on ViperLair.
Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe LGA775 board on HWZone.
ASUS P5W64 WS Professional LGA775 board on Hexus.
MSI K9A Platinum AM2 board on Motherboards.org.
VIA EPIA CN13000 mini-mobo and CPU on Hexus.
Asus P5NSLI LGA775 board on Bit-Tech.
Abit AW9D MAX LGA775 board on NordicHW.

CPUs:
Intel Merom T7600 on OCWorkbench.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400 on NeoSeeker.
AMD AM2 4600+ EE 2.40GHz on TechGage.

Video Cards:
VisionTek Radeon X1600XT AGP on TechSpot.
XFX GeForce 7900GS Extreme on Tweaktown.
XFX GeForce 7900GS on Motherboards.org.
ATI EAX1900XT on OCClub.
Galaxy GeForce 7300GT on Bit-Tech.
NVIDIA GeForce 7900GS on HWZone.



Saturday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 9-September-2006  02:33:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Shuttle launch delayed 24h.

Storage:
Icy Dock MB722 HDD enclosure on ThinkCompters.
Lacie Brick desktop HDD on HWZone.
Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB USB flash drive on OCClub.
Vantec NexStar LX network storage (video review) on 3DGameMan.
ICYDOCK MB122 SKGF and Modiflash 722 HDD enclosures on Virtual-Hideout.
Telstar TLD-3500 network attached enclosure on BigBruin.
Synology USB NAS Station USB-to-NAS gadget on EverythingUSB.

Input etc:
Logitech G7 cordless mouse on Modders-Inc.
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard on LaptopGamers.
Saitek Eclipse II illuminated keyboard on Techgage.
Logitech diNovo Cordless Desktop on LaptopGamers.

Cases:
Spire Pininfarina on Tweaknews.
PC Design Lab Qmicra SFF case on PCApex.

Audio:
Razer Barracuda HP-1 8-Channel Gaming Headphones on Modders-Inc.
Razer Barracuda headphones on XYZComputing.
Razer Barracuda headphones on ThinkComputers.
JBL On Time iPod Dock on DigitalTrends.



Peter Brock dead after car accident (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 8-September-2006  15:51:41 (GMT +10) - by gords

It has been confirmed that Peter Brock has died while taking part in a car rally in Western Australia.

News coverage:
The Sydney Morning Herald
ABC News
NEWS.com.au

Here is the thread in the Current Events forum.



Quick Friday News (3 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 8-September-2006  12:55:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg

NASA's much-delayed STS-115 Atlantis Shuttle mission is scheduled to launch early tomorrow morning our time. The conditions at Kennedy Space Center for Friday's launch look promising with only a 30 percent chance that weather could ground the flight.

Flatout spotted some more info about folding on PS3, and a Cell-powered supercomputer in the works. The machine, codenamed Roadrunner, could be four times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM. The new computer is a "hybrid" design, using both conventional supercomputer processors and the new "cell" chip designed for Sony's PlayStation 3.

From Mr -=E=- Man: Yeah, technology is getting smaller..... but it's not so small that this wouldn't be uncomfortable!!! FOUR prisoners in an El Salvador jail hid mobile phones, a phone charger and spare chips in their bowels so they could co-ordinate crimes from their cells, prison officials said today. I'll bet they're just glad they didn't have to do that in the early 90's!

From Slug69: Apple will pay $A131 million to rival Creative Technology to settle patent lawsuits over technology for navigating through songs on the iPod. Does this help settle the Zen vs iPod arguments in the forums?



BF2 v1.4 Patch (8 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-September-2006  12:36:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg

The v1.4 patch for BF2 is available on AusGamers. As well as a zillion bug fixes, there's some new stuff:

- New level: Road to Jalalabaad (Conquest 16-32-64, Singleplayer, Co-op)
- New Server Option: No Vehicles mode

GAMEPLAY TWEAKS

- The vehicle drop has been modified to help prevent exploits such as blocking enemy vehicles, destroying vehicles and commander assets, or as an alternative to artillery.
- C4 tossing distance has been reduced.
- A prone->crouch delay has been added.


Full Patch - 556MB
v1.3 to v1.4 Patch - 147MB



Sydney Paintball - Last Chance! (4 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-September-2006  04:37:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Ok, we may end up having to cancel the paintball event planned for Saturday 23rd September in Sydney unless we get more numbers. So if you're thinking about coming, do it, it's always awesome. If you're already coming, bring a friend or two! If we don't have enough numbers by tomorrow (Friday) at 5pm, we may have to cancel our booking!

So, register today! More info in this thread.



Congrats to Team OCAU.mc! (27 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-September-2006  04:24:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Congrats to Team OCAU.mc aka Numpty Bros Racing, who competed in the Wakefield Park 5 Hour motorcycle race on the weekend. Despite some complications (like wind, rain and, at one point, hail on the track) they came first in their class!


click for more pics

Lots more pics here, here and here.

There's an official thread here in the OCAU.mc forum, and another photo report here. Note that your OCAU Forums login won't work there, you'll need an OCAU.mc login (also free) to view/participate. It's a cool community with nearly 5,000 members - so if you do ride, or you'd like to, feel free to join up!



NVIDIA 7900 GS and 7950 GT (5 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-September-2006  03:33:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg

NVIDIA have released two new GPUs, the 7900 GS and 7950 GT. "These new GeForce 7 Series GPUs are designed to deliver an extreme high-definition gaming and video experience at prices any gamer can afford," said Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop GPUs at NVIDIA. "Gamers can now get more performance and features at these popular price points than ever before."

Coverage on 3DAvenue, Anandtech, Bjorn3D, ExtremeTech, FlingingSquids, Guru3D, HardOCP, HardWareZone, Hexus, HotHardware, LegitReviews, NeoSeeker, nV News, PC Perspective, Tech-Report and XbitLabs.



Thursday Morning (13 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 7-September-2006  03:12:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Here's a bit more about the ionic cooling technology doing the rounds. Besides sometimes creating visible light and wreaking electrical havoc, corona discharges make the ionized air molecules move.

Panasonic join the battery recall club, with 6,000 lithium-ion batteries recalled from their notebook customers. Note: this time they're not made by Sony!

NGOHQ wonder why we would buy BF2142? When complaints abound about BF2 v1.3..

An interesting one from winterstide, driving on maps with photos. So far only a couple of US cities, but a cool concept.

Will you one day be slotting an AI chip into your PC, next to the physics chip and GPU? Called the Intia Processor, the AI chip would work in conjunction with optimized titles to improve nonplayer character AI.

Here's another Floppy RAID article, this time under OS X, thanks Tim.

You know it's all going to go wrong when someone makes an artificially-intelligent robot and calls it Crusher.

From Mr -=E=- Man, someone multitasking badly. A 34-year-old saleswoman was caught driving down a Swiss motorway while she was using her laptop computer and chatting on a handheld mobile phone, police in northeastern Switzerland said. All that while dodging goats, amazing!

Ambush spotted 53 professional photography techniques, which reminds me, it's time to replace my ageing Nikon CP990. Remember we have a busy photography forum with its own marketplace now, too.

Looks like we won't be getting PlayStation 3's until March 2007, 4 months behind North America, thanks Dan.



Wednesday Night Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 6-September-2006  23:42:45 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Graphics Cards:
XFX GeForce 7900 GS XT at Bjorn3D
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS Shootout at Guru of 3D
ATI Radeon X1950XTX at Sudhian
PowerColor X1650 PRO at Bjorn3D
XFX GeForce 7900 GS 480M Extreme & 7950 GT at HotHardware
eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS Superclocked at HEXUS

Cases, Cooling and Power:
Mozart Tx Case at Legion Hardware
Spire Pininfarina Case at Hi-Tech Reviews
Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R120 Kit at Driver Heaven
Apack Zerotherm BTF80 Cooler at Tweaknews
OCZ Tempest CPU Cooler at XSReviews
CoolMax CUG-600B Green Power 600W at Big Bruin

Motherboards and Memory:
DFI nForce 590-SLI at t-break
ECS 945G-M3 Viiv at ViperLair
ASUS CROSSHAIR and M2N32-SLI Deluxe at HEXUS
Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF at HEXUS

Misc:
LG Fusic Mobile Phone at Digital Trends
ASUS WL-500g Premium at Phronix
Shure E500PTH Noise Isolating Headphones at TrustedReviews
Dell XPS 700 Desktop at bit-tech
Canon PIXMA MP510 at BIOS
Toshiba Satellite Pro A100 at TrustedReviews



Wednesday Night (3 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 6-September-2006  22:58:08 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

A bit of a short one tonight, but expect some more reviews soon...

If you're a Windows user considering giving Linux a go and run an ATi graphics card in your system, you might be interested in the ATi Linux Blog. Originally documenting a 50 day trial of using ATi graphics in a Linux box, it is now being updated again to discuss new Linux software and driver updates. Considering Vista is tipped to cost up to $670 in Australia, switching to Linux might become a lot more appealing!

Ever wondered why it's so frustrating when your family and friends ask you to build a PC for them? Hardware3D have written an article on why it's difficult. You could always just handlball them to Techpowerup who have posted a guide to building a computer, so they can do it themselves. Then you are free to spend your time building yourself a kickass gaming rig.

While we're on the topic of guides, here are a few more. Digital Grabber have a step-by-step guide to reinstalling WindowsXP and Technibble have a how-to outlining the replacement of your GPU fan. TheTechZone have a PDA and Handheld Computer purchasing guide and Virtual-Hideout have a Motherboard Tray Mod article for those who like to frequently change their CPU cooler.

Several people sent word that there will be a show on the ABC premiering on the 19th of December called Good Game. Marketed as A program for gamers by gamers, I wonder if they know these tips on how to protect your eyes. Still with gaming, we were sent a link to a cool video on YouTube showing some dude playing Starcraft in Linux with a touchscreen.

To wrap it up here is an interesting article sent in by Murray Chapman. Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have crafted a micromotor that is powered by the movement of bacteria. A special protein causes the bacteria to all move in one direction, pushing against the feet and thereby spinning the motor at a speed of about two rotations per minute.



Tuesday Night Reviews (3 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 5-September-2006  22:59:34 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Power Supplies and Cases:
Corsair HX620W Power Supply at Hardware Secrets
Coolermaster Mystique ATX Case at Madshrimps
Zalman HD135 HTPC Case at MetkuMods
Apevia BeastPower PFC680W-BL Power Supply at ThinkComputers

Graphics Cards:
ATi X1650 Pro and X1300 XT (Translated from Spanish) at MadboxPC
Albatron 7300GT PCI-E at Red & Blackness
Albatron 7300GT 256MB at Overclockers Online
Palit 7300GT Sonic 256MB at sc3n3
Sparkle Calibre P790+ 512 MB (SLI) at Guru of 3D

Audio and Visual:
Razer Barracuda HP1 Gaming Headphones at Virtual-Hideout
Altec Lansing AHP612 Wireless Headphones at Techgage
iPod FM Tuners / Transmitters at TheTechLounge
Viewsonic N3260w 32 Inch Widescreen HDTV at XYZ Computing

Games and Applications:
Gauntlet Seven Sorrow for Xbox at Red & Blackness
Prey for PC at HardwareForums
SiSoftware Sandra 2007 Professional at techFEAR
The Settler II - The next Generation (Translated from German) at Technic3D

Misc:
SteelPad QcK Heavy Mouse Pad at techPowerUp!
Dell XPS 700 Desktop at BIOS
Western Digital 500GB HDD (WD5000KS) at C.O.D.
Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard at ExtremeMHz
APIOTEK 12-in-1 Express Card Adapter at Tech ARP



Tuesday Evening (7 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 5-September-2006  18:59:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Heads up - a program claiming to be a new video codec is apparently an adware trojan. zCodec also accesses a particular IP address to randomly select and download one of a collection of files.

Gizmodo have a couple of screenshots from a 16-way Windows machine.. hmm, reminds me of this.

Here's a cool 747 simulator, complete with mobile cockpit, made by an Australian guy! The approximate size of the simulator is 13ft wide x 11ft long and 9ft high. It will include every switch and panel in the 747-400.

PCPerspective cover active vs passive cooling using Thermalright coolers. What we really want to find out is how the HR-01, which is designed for passive cooling, compares to the XP-120 and Ultra-120, which rely on active cooling with a fan.

There's a whole pile of classic literature available for free on Google now. Now, with the help of our wonderful library partners, we're able to offer you the ability to download and read PDF versions of out-of-copyright books from some of the world’s greatest collections.

DarthDVD_AU spotted an interesting comment that new consoles are too weak for the upcoming Crysis game.

The RAAF is getting look and shoot technology for its F/A-18 Hornet fighters, thanks Sciby. By aiming a crosshair, projected on the helmet visor, over the desired target and pressing a button, pilots can quickly and easily aim weapons and their radar.

CyberNet have a report on the best antivirus software. Interesingly, this free software from AOL (basically a rebranded Kapersky antivirus) scores extremely well.

TechnologyReview report on spintronics progress. The promise is clear: spintronics could lead to computers that turn on instantly and electronics that use far less battery power, and also overcome the looming limits to Moore's Law.

Darren spotted this seamless triple monitor. The display measures 50" diagonally and has a 350 cd/m brightness along with a 500 to 1 contrast ratio. The response time at 16 ms is not that great compared to modern LCD monitors designed for gaming. Buyers will need a graphics card that can handle three DVI inputs.

ExtremeTech have a hi-res slapdown between SLI and Crossfire. Of course, all that graphics horsepower isn't meant to sit idly by while you run games at 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD monitor. You want a big, expensive, hi-res display, to go along with it.



Think Outside Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse (3 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 4-September-2006  21:59:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Ambush reviewed a cool little keyboard and mouse from Think Outside. It's mostly intended for use with PDAs of course, but as it connects via Bluetooth you could use them on your compatible phone or even a PC. The keyboard even folds up for ease of transport with your PDA.


Click for the review!

Digg members, please Digg this review!



Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin Killed (11 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 4-September-2006  16:54:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg

A zillion people sent word that Aussie character Steve Irwin, AKA The Crocodile Hunter, has died. Paul's comments probably summarise it best: Steve Irwin has been killed in a freak accident where a stingray drove its spike through his chest whilst filming a documentary. The guy did wonders for the tourism industry in Australia as well as raise awareness of our wonderful country and the creatures that inhabit it. Almost always a positive bloke and a hyperactive one at that, we all knew he would die some day from one of Australias creatures, but most of us had our money on a Croc doing the job. True Legend!

Love him or loathe him, he was definitely a character and at 44, gone too young. Info here, here, here, here, here and here.



Monday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 4-September-2006  12:22:13 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Motherboards and Memory:
ASUS P5NSLI at Bjorn3D
Abit AW9D-MAX at Bit-Tech
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA at Legit Reviews
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition at Techgage
Asus P5NSLI at HotHardware
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi (Translated from the German Version) at Au-Ja
Buffalo FireStix PC2-6400 2GB DDR2 Memory at Virtual-Hideout
ECS KA3 MVP and MSI K9A Platinum XPress 3200 at PC Perspective

Graphics and Displays:
MSI NX7300GS-TD256E GeForce 7300 GS 256MiB at HEXUS
Acer 19" Widescreen LCD + ATI AIW VE Video Card at Red & Blackness
Palit 7900GT Sonic 512MB at Driver Heaven
HIS X1650Pro 256MB at 3DGameMan
Samsung LN-S4051D 40" LCD TV at Bytesector
ATI X1950XTX at Neoseeker

Cases and Cooling:
Antec Fusion Media Centre Case at ThinkComputers
ThermalRight Ultra-120 Heatsink at 3DGameMan
Enermax Chakra ATX Case at Phronix
Zalman HD135 HTPC Case at Madshrimps

Misc:
Dell Latitude D420 Notebook at TrustedReviews
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard at ThinkComputers
Samsung YP-U2 Audio Player at Overclockers Online
Wicked Lasers "Nexus" green laser at DansData
Titan Quest PC Game at TechDomain



Riverfire (28 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-September-2006  23:01:27 (GMT +10) - by INerTIal

Bern and myself went to the rather spectacular "Riverfire" fireworks here in Brisbane this evening and although we didn't get the greatest spot we did manage to still get some pretty decent pics. There is also an AWESOME video that I took with my camera of the F-111 flying over at the end of its "Dump'n'Burn".


Go to last page
Bern's ever so slightly more infocus and wobble free gallery.


LemMinG's Gallery
My rather amateur wobbly and oversaturated gallery.


Gallery Thread

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Saturday Morning Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-September-2006  01:26:29 (GMT +10) - by PuGZoR

Saturday Morning News

Video Cards:
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH on X-bit Labs
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX (R580+) on Digit-life
Silent GPU Roundup on AnandTech
3D Fuzion GeForce 7600 GS on Bit-Tech
Inno3D 7300GT 256MB on VR-Zone
MSI NX7950GX2 on nV News
MSI NX7600GT-VT2D256E on FutureLooks

Cooling:
Thermalright Ultra 90 CPU Heatsink on TechPowerUp
Premium Socket 939 Heatsink Round-up on TheTechLounge
SilverStone FM121 120mm Fan on DragonSteelMods
CoolIT Freezone on The Inquirer
XSPC Plexi Bay Black Reservoir on Overclock3d
Thermalright SI-128 CPU Heatsink on ModTheBox

Storage:
Verbatim Store'n'Go USB HDD on OCModShop
9-Way External 3.5" HDD Enclosure Roundup on X-bit Labs
I-O Data BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer on CDRLabs
Plextor PX-755SA Burner on 3DGameMan
Akasa Integral LAN Disk Enclosure on XtremeComputing
Wolverine Flash Pac 7040 Portable Data Storage and 7-in-1 Memory Card Reader on Futurelooks
Seagate Sata2 320gb vs. Western Digital Sata2 320gb on OverclockersClub

Cases/Modding:
Antec Fusion on OverclockersOnline
SilverStone TJ02 Case on EliteBastards
Antec Minuet 300 mATX Case on OCModShop

Motherboards:
Asus P5W DH Deluxe on gD Hardware
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 on HardOCP
Asus M2R32-MVP Radeon Xpress 3200 CrossFire Motherboard on Hexus.net

Memory:
OCZ DDR2 PC2-8000 Platium 1GB Kit on CPU3D

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 on GamePC

Input Devices:
Logitech VX Revolution "freewheeling" Cordless Mouse on RegHardware

Power:
Ultra 2000VA 1200W UPS on DriverHeaven

Other Stuff:
Clever Power VGA Booster and CPU Stabilizer on MadShrimps
Creative Zen Vision W on HardwareZone
Apple Mac Pro on AnandTech
Tyan Transport GT20 (B2865) on Penstarsys
Lego Mindstorms NXT on Arstechnica
KEF KHT-3005 Home Theatre Speakers on CoolTechZone



OCAU:Drive (0 Comments) (link)
 Saturday, 2-September-2006  01:05:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Don't forget OCAU has a dedicated automotive news page, part of our busy Motoring Forum:

www.ocau.com/drive

We also now have a dedicated Motoring Marketplace for buying and selling vehicles and related stuff.



Friday Afternoon (5 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 1-September-2006  14:57:00 (GMT +10) - by Cryogenic

Don't forget that it's Father's day on Sunday so time's running out to buy him something nice. I'm sure he'd appreciate one of these as much as me.

First up, Rodgrech sent word that there will be an early start to the bushfire season in NSW. There will also be a NSW Rural Fire Service Open Day on the 16th of September. Would make for a fun day out with the kiddies.

Digital Trends have posted some reasons why Vista will Rock for Gaming. No matter if you can't tell Company of Heroes or Crysis from a cantaloupe. The OS still boasts numerous sweeping improvements guaranteed to generate excitement in virtual circles. And yes, that goes for both casual and diehard enthusiasts. I must admit, I found the chess game bundled with the beta version of Vista quite entertaining.

I'm sure everyone will appreciate this one. Nick sent in a link to an article about waiting for email responses. Ever sit there waiting for an email response and wonder what's going on? Did they get it? Did it get filtered? A study looks at the responding habits of a large group of corporate users.

On to hardware, it may or may not surprise you that some brands don't actually manufacture all of their products! Subsequently, if you have a burning desire to find out who really manufactured your PC power supply, Hardware Secrets have an article which shows you how to find out.

TechSpot have had a look at the overclocking performance of Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6700 processors with particular focus on whether the 4MB cache is worth the extra dosh. Meanwhile, TrustedReviews have done an AGP Graphics Card Group Test to see how AGP is fairing performace-wise nowadays. Speaking of analysing performance, Tech-Hounds have also just finished part two of putting Benchmarking on Trial.

Here are a few guides to broaden your tech skills. Technibble show us how to install laptop ram, whilst OCC step through the delicate task of removing the IHS from A64 and Opteron processors. And to appeal to the d00f d00f fans out there, Hardware 3D outline the hooking up of a PC to some car audio gear.

To wrap it up, PC Perspective have written an article comparing the passive and active cooling solutions from Thermalright. Our three contenders include the Thermalright HR-01, the XP-120, and the Ultra-120. What we really want to find out is how the HR-01, which is designed for passive cooling, compares to the XP-120 and Ultra-120, which rely on active cooling with a fan.

Enjoy the weekend!



More Press Releases (16 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 1-September-2006  12:41:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg

ASUS have what they're calling the ultimate gaming LCD monitor, the PG191 with 2ms grey-to-grey response time and built-in webcam and speakers. Pictures below, and there's an interactive preview of the monitor here.

   
click pics to enlarge

Corsair introduced "Dual-path Heat Xchange" (DHX) memory technology. Under the name XMS2 DOMINATOR, this DHX technology will be showing up on both Corsair parts designed for extreme overclocking and on memory designed for performance computing and gaming. More info in this PDF and the product page. Coverage on LegitReviews, too.

Intel released their mobile Core 2 Duo processor range, previously known as "Merom". The dual-core processing power of the Core 2 Duo processor helps people handle the toughest of multi-tasking scenarios no matter where they are. Coverage on DailyTech, HotHardware, LegitReviews, PC Perspective, TGDaily and TrustedReviews.

Nintendo announced that the DS Lite will soon be available in black, in Australia. Previously only the white model was available here.

Toshiba announced a range of USB thumb drives up to 16GB in size. The four models in the TransMemoryTM U3 series will be launched on the global market at the end of November, while the TransMemoryTM 16GB Limited Edition will be available from the end of December, exclusively through Shop 1048, Toshiba's online shop. More info here.




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