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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 3/2009 )
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Modders-Inc | Subject: Storage
FTP hosting and basic secure file transfers used to be the domain of ISPs and hosting companies, but as the cost of storage and processing power has dropped remote hosting is becoming extinct. Apart from near instant fail-over and distributed backups, any enthusiast could slap together a file server that can handle multiple users. Now, with the advent of the Network Attached Storage device, setting up secure file transferring and sharing is almost plug and play. Take a look at the Synology DiskStation DS209+ over at Modders-Inc to see what the newest generation of NAS can do.
"Being able to host your own website, FTP, Multimedia Server or other web based products meant that you had to rent a dedicated server. Well those days may be in the past as you can now buy your very own NAS server to do all this work for you and it is actually simpler than you think." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Tweaknews | Subject: Display
If you are looking for a high quality monitor that comes with a load of extras, like audio, USB, and a webcam, take a look at Samsung's SyncMaster 2263UW. If space is an issue, then having almost all your common peripherals built into your monitor is a real life saver. Also worth mentioning is that the TFT display is of high quality, you will not end up with something that can do a lot of things poorly, this monitor excels at everythign it does. Drop in to Tweaknews for more information.
"The SyncMaster 2263UW is a great option for the consumer who wants an uncluttered workspace by having all webcam, audio and USB hub features bundled into their monitor. This monitor on its own proves that you can have your cake and eat it too for once. No longer does a multifunction monitor have to be a jack of all trades but a master of none." Here are some more Display articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Legit Reviews | Subject: Mobile
Based around a 1.6GHz T9550, 4GB of DDR2-400 and a Mobility Radeon 4650 the ASUS N81Vp gaming laptop is still relatively portable thanks to the 14.1" display and 6 cell battery. Don't underestimate that small screen, with a 1366x768 resolution you will be quite happy with the image quality and don't overestimate the battery, you have a bit over an hour on battery with the power savings turned off. Legit Reviews shows you how it looks, and how it performs, in their full review.
"If you are in the market for an easy system to take to LAN parties or interested in getting in some frags while on the road, the ASUS N81Vp would be a great choice. The ATI HD 4650 does a great job of playing your favorite games and will not disappoint! Also, if you are looking for a desktop replacement for an all-around powerful system, the N81Vp will likely meet your needs and last you well into the future with its durability. I would have no problem recommending this laptop to someone looking to spend ~$1200 on a laptop..." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Processor
The Core 2 Duo played havoc with
AMD's desktop CPUs, now the new Nehalem based Xeon's are making the Opteron line feel even more inadequate. The new Xeon W5580 will not be a popular CPU to build a gaming PC on, that has never been it's intention. It will find a home in servers working on hard computation like graphics rendering and detailed data analysis. The numbers that The Tech Report's benchmarks returned are incredible, especially with 12 or 16 threads being run on the fluid dynamics test. You should see the tests for yourself, as you probably won't be getting your hands on one soon.
"Intel's Nehalem-based Xeons are finally here, and they've left us gasping for air. This may well be the largest performance jump from one CPU generation to the next that we've ever seen. Idle power draw is way, way down, as well. The downside? We're still looking for one." Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
According to DigiTimes, the low price of the Phenom II processor has made the company a lot more popular. So popular that motherboard manufacturers are expecting a big jump in market share, their prediction is 30%. Computex will also bring about some more interest in AMD, with the rumoured release of the 780G+ chipset. They will pair that with the new Athlon II processors in a platform named Pisces, which undoubtedly will be cheaper than a Dragon platform.
"AMD has revealed to its Taiwan motherboard partners that Pisces, a new entry-level desktop platform based on its Athlon II processors (Propus, Rana and Regor) and the new 55nm-based 780G+ IGP chipset (ATI Radeon HD 4200 GPU), is scheduled to be released before September this year. The 780G+ chipset will enter the design validation test (DVT) stage in April, while related motherboards will be showcased at Computex Taipei 2009 in June, according to industry sources in Taiwan. AMD declined the opportunity to respond to this report saying it cannot comment on unannounced products." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: Processor
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 30, 2009 - Intel Corporation introduced 17 enterprise-class processors today, led by the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. They are Intel's most revolutionary server processors since addressing the market with the Intel Pentium Pro processor almost 15 years ago. The new enterprise-class chips can automatically adjust to specified energy usage levels, and speed data center transactions and customer database queries. They also will play a key role in scientific discoveries by researchers who use supercomputers as their foundation for research, all whilst delivering great energy efficiency for reduced electricity costs. The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, previously codenamed "Nehalem-EP," offers several breakthrough technologies that radically improve system speed and versatility. Technologies such as Intel Turbo Boost Technology, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, integrated power gates, and Next-Generation Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) improved through extended page tables, allow the system to adapt to a broad range of workloads. "The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series is the foundation for the next decade of innovation," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "These chips showcase groundbreaking advances in performance, virtualization and workload management, which will create opportunities to solve the world's most complex challenges and push the limits of science and technology." Fifteen Billion Connected Devices As use of the Internet expands toward Intel's vision of 15 billion connected devices, the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series will also power an upcoming transformation for the Internet's infrastructure. The high-tech industry has rallied around a goal to run applications from optimized processors and computing hardware that are available on-demand and scalable to the masses. Often called cloud computing, this vision could flourish helped by the adaptability, capability and intelligence of the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. Greatest Intel Xeon Performance Leap in History1 With over 30 new world records2 the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series establishes new standards for two-socket performance while delivering gains of more than double the previous- generation Intel Xeon processor 5400 series.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: Graphics Card
SANTA CLARA, CA-MARCH 30, 2009 - NVIDIA, the inventor of the GPU, today introduced NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS, a ground-breaking technology that allows users and visualization applications, for the first time, to take full advantage of multiple NVIDIA Quadro GPUs from a single graphics workstation in a virtualized environment. This new technology delivers a faster, more efficient workflow to maximize productivity and lower the total cost of ownership for professionals in markets such as: digital content creation, sciences, manufacturing, and oil and gas. "In today's economy, organizations are turning to virtualization to increase productivity and maximize cost savings," says Jeff Brown, general manager of professional solutions at NVIDIA. "Now professionals working with visualization applications can benefit from virtualization." Built into the new Quadro FX 3800, Quadro FX 4800, and Quadro FX 5800, SLI Multi-OS allows users to tap into the advanced visualization and compute capabilities of the Quadro GPUs to experience full graphics performance within a virtualized system. SLI Multi-OS works in association with Parallels Workstation Extreme virtualization software and Intel's VT-d technology, assigning both the host and guest virtual machine its own dedicated GPU. Available in the new HP Z800 workstation, the combination of these innovative technologies delivers application performance nearly identical to systems configured with a dedicated operating system and GPU. "Working with NVIDIA to bring a new graphics virtualization usage model to life has required a deep commitment by both companies," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels, a leader in virtualization and automation software "By combining the existing Parallels FastLane architecture with NVIDIA's new SLI Multi-OS capability, even the most demanding professionals can now experience the advanced features and performance benefits of NVIDIA's Quadro GPUs in a virtualized environment. This is a first for the industry and the business benefits will drive greater engineering innovation and productivity." "SLI Multi-OS is the first technology to provide users working with multiple graphics-intense applications optimal visual quality and GPU performance from a single workstation within a flexible and virtualized environment," says Jim Zafarana, vice president and general manager, HP Workstations. "By offering this technology in our new HP Z800 workstations, we are giving our visualization customers the productivity and cost benefits of a virtualized workflow." The SLI Multi-OS capability is available now on the new NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800, Quadro FX 4800, and Quadro FX 5800 graphics solutions and supports selected combinations of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux operating systems. Current certified workstations include the new HP Z800. For more information on SLI Multi-OS, please visit: www.nvidia.com/object/sli_multi_os.html. For more information on NVIDIA Quadro solutions, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Pro-clockers.com | Subject: General Tech
The OCZ Behemoth Large Gaming Mouse is, as the name implies, a rather large mouse you would use for gaming. The size isn't a complete gimmick, the mouse sports two lasers allowing 3200 dpi accuracy and it sports a weight compartment as well; both features require a bit of extra space. Even more attractive is the price of this mouse, at $30, it is one of the least expensive gaming mice around. Check it out at Pro-clockers.
"It is, as if the mouse is apart of your arm when fragging along. When you get these types of feelings toward anything computer related OCZ understands. And when they know that you as a consumer needs something, chances are they are right in the midst producing something to suit your needs. And this something would be the new Behemoth gaming mouse. The Behemoth is aimed at the person that wants a large mouse with all the extras we find in mice like the Razers, Logitechs and Microsofts. Yeah, you get all the features of these mice but with the OCZ touch thrown in. Is the Behemoth the right mouse for you when you start your next frag session?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: X-Bit Labs | Subject: Graphics Card
Looking at the current pricing on Pricegrabber, for a HD4870 1GB you will need to invest just over $200 and for the non-X2 HD4850 you can spend under $150 with a little effort. These prices may come down in the very near future, but as it stands that is what it will cost you. The GTX260 can be had for a hair under $200, rounding out the current upper midrange card selection. There is a possible fourth choice, which is to pick up a pair of HD4670 cards for about $160 and run them in Crossfire. How viable a choice is this? Drop by X-bit Labs to see how they fare against each other.
"Considering the recent reduction of prices on AMD/ATI's produces, we are interested to learn how appealing an even cheaper CrossFireX subsystem, based of two Radeon HD 4670 cards, may be. This simple affordable RV730-based graphics card is a perfect choice for HTPCs but is no good for gamers due to its low performance in modern games – it has only 8 raster back-ends and a 128-bit memory bus. The new recommended price of the Radeon HD 4870 is only $149 (for the version with 512 megabytes of memory) and buying two Radeon HD 4670 cards at once won’t be much of a saving. But is there an option of cheap upgrade if you’ve already got one such card? Let’s see how effective this anti-crisis solution is from a technical point of view." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
Join Steve Grever's return to PC Perspective with his review of the Thermaltake Element S mid-tower. This stylish case may draw inspiration from the 2009 Harley-Davidson VRSC Night Rod Special, as they both bear a highly polished black finish and red trim. Unfortunately it may also take a cue from older Harley models, there is a certain amount of noise and vibration cause in the case due to the lack of rubberized mounting. If that does sound like your kind of enclosure, check out the review in full.
"Overall, at this price point, the Element S definitely gives users something to think. Users will have to weigh the pros and cons in this case because we also can’t make up our minds completely about this case. If you like an extremely clean-looking case on your desk and can forgo some basic cable management and noise reduction options, the Element S certainly should be on your short list for your next gaming rig." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
Intel is piecing out the portions of information on Larrabee in tiny little tastes, trying to whet the appetite of an already well fed crowd. The Corei7 launch is barely in the past, the Core2 launch is also still fresh in peoples memories and the Phenom II is offering fair competition in certain scenarios on AMD's side. That rich feast of new architecture lies heavy on the belly so Intel has a bit of work ahead of them to get users hungry for more. If you feel you have the space, you can see the newest information on the structure and language of Larrabee in Ryan's article at the top of the page.
"It is important to note that this does NOT mean Larrabee hardware is also going to find its way to these developers hands yet; the software is essentially a Larrabee emulator that compiles and "runs" the code on the primary system CPU. The current setup will allow developers to start playing with as much as a 16-wide SIMD and to see how the programming model for Larrabee is similar to, and differs, from traditional x86 programming." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Western Digital | Subject: Storage
LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Mar. 30, 2009 - Western Digital Corp., a world leader in hard drive storage for computing and consumer electronics applications, today announced that it has completed a $65 million cash acquisition of SiliconSystems, Inc., Aliso Viejo, Calif., a leading supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market. Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive products to meet the high performance, high reliability and multi-year product lifecycle demands of the network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets. These markets accounted for approximately one third of worldwide solid-state drive revenues in 2008. The SiliconSystems' product portfolio includes solid-state drives with SATA, EIDE, PC Card, USB and CF interfaces in 2.5-inch, 1.8-inch, CF and other form factors. SiliconSystems has developed extensive intellectual property to address the stringent embedded systems market requirements to ensure data integrity, eliminate unscheduled downtime, protect application data and software and provide for data security and protection through its patented and patent-pending PowerArmor, SiSMART, SolidStor and SiSecure technologies. WD's storage industry leadership, worldwide infrastructure, and technical and financial resources will enable further growth in SiliconSystems' existing markets and customer relationships. SiliconSystems' intellectual property and technical expertise will provide additional building blocks for future products to address emerging opportunities in WD's existing markets. "We are delighted to have the SiliconSystems team join WD," said John Coyne, president and CEO of WD. "The combination will be modestly accretive to revenue and margins as a result of SiliconSystems' existing position as a trusted supplier to the well-established $400 million market for embedded solid-state drives. SiliconSystems' intellectual property and technical expertise will significantly accelerate WD's solid-state drive development programs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, providing greater choice for our customers to satisfy all their storage requirements." Integration into WD begins immediately, with SiliconSystems now becoming known as the WD Solid-State Storage business unit, complementing WD's existing Branded Products, Client Storage, Consumer Storage and Enterprise Storage business units. "WD's strong balance sheet, sales reach, and operations and logistics capability will allow us to greatly accelerate our penetration of our existing markets, while combining our engineering expertise with WD will enable us to develop new solid-state drives to broaden our overall product portfolio and address the emerging applications for solid-state storage in WD's existing customer base," said Michael Hajeck, a founder and CEO of SiliconSystems, now senior vice president and general manager of WD's Solid-State Storage business unit. "We are extremely excited to be joining WD and enabling an even stronger future for our talented team." A set of questions and answers related to today's announcement can be found on WD's website at http://www.wdc.com/en/company/investor/QandA.asp.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Editorial
If you missed my weekly show on TWiT Live (http://live.twit.tv/)
with Leo Laporte yesterday, we have the entirety of the show now
available for you here. In this episode we discussed Windows 7 gaming performance, the Caustic Graphics ray tracing accelerator, AMD and Havok showing off OpenGL physics, Bigfoot Networks Xeno card and the Fusion Render Cloud server-based gaming systems. Guest starring Paul Thurrott!
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
Inspired by a recent Facebook post I saw, I give you "A brief history of NVIDIA and Intel."
Step 1: CUDA 
Step 2: Larrabee 
Step 3: 
(The best part about this image is that NVIDIA actually handed out these drinks to media after an NVIDIA-hosted event.)
Step 4: Lawsuits 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
One of the most popular threads in the Cases'n'Cooling forum is the making of an incredible case mod, both in video form and still pictures. The case its self is jaw droppingly amazing for anyone who doesn't feel an instinctual revulsion to anything designed by H.R. Geiger, and the details in the making of may lead you toward some modding ideas of your own. You will also spot some nice finds for those looking for a unique case, without the metal and Styrofoam work.
In the graphics forum you can find a problem of a different sort. Often threads compare two video cards of similar cost or performance and try to determine which of the two cards is more suited to the user. This member makes a living from their current PC setup, which involves having dual monitors. The problem is, how do you get two monitors to match perfectly, something that can be very important to a web designer or graphic artist. Our Windows forum is still one of the best places, except for this, to find out about Windows 7. Quite a few of our members are trying it out in all sorts of interesting ways. If you missed out on the beta, or would rather live vicariously through others, then this is the place for you. Otherwise, spend some time in the Hot Deals forum and the Trading Post. There's a good chance you won't leave empty handed.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Extremetech | Subject: Motherboard
Pulling out and replacing motherboards stands near the top of the list of time consuming and fiddly tasks upgrading or repairing PCs will give you, right up there with swapping heatsinks. ExtremeTech want's to share the benefit of their long experience of playing with motherboards by offering up 30 tips to keep in mind while working with your motherboard. Having a container handy to put the screws in may not sound like a huge revealation, but it can really help.
"It happens to all of us eventually, the ExtremeTech staff probably more than most. Whether due to failure or obsolescence—or after you've run out of alternative upgrade paths—it comes time to pull a motherboard out of a working system and replace it with something different. That's a job. It requires you to pull all of your expansion cards, disconnect and work around all the cabling, wrest the big board from sometimes-tight quarters within a case, prep the new board, wiggle it into that possibly cramped quarter, and, when you think you're all done, you still have to coax Windows through the trauma of waking up with new hardware. " Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Guru of 3D | Subject: Case and Cooling
BFGTech is going big with their new PSU, the 1200W EX. For $250 you can have enough power to run any PC you might have a mind to build, and you won't have to worry about heat, noise or size. Guru of 3D didn't actually have a stress tester powerful enough to load this beast to 100%, but in the testing they did do, the PSU remained cool and quiet. Also worth mentioning is that BFG fit this much power into a regular sized ATX PSU casing. You won't have any troubles fitting this into a tight case, though you won't be able to fit the four graphics cards this PSU deserves into a mATX case, so that may not matter much.
"BFG today launches their new EX-1200 power supply. A beast of a PSU that is reasonably affordable. A power supply that is silent, efficient, has long cabling, is pure quality, has an ATX size chassis, is completely themed dark and perhaps after all these years might be able to replace my kilowatt PSUs. As what BFG is bringing to the table is comforting. This 1200 Watt piece of machinery is fairly close to what I consider perfection in terms of design and requirements .. and with a price just under 250 USD, BFG might have something really special on their hands." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
It is a good time to be an IP lawyer in the semiconductor industry; there is a legal free for all going on. The newest case is Intel versus nVIDIA and nVIDIA versus Intel, as they are both suing
each other over the cross licensing agreement that may or may not be changed. As it stands, Intel is planning on denying nVIDIA access to the necessary licenses to produce chipsets for the Nehalem processor, while nVIDIA feels that Intel's current IGP as well as Larrabee both
utilize nVIDIA patents. Follow the drama at DigiTimes.
"Nvidia has officially filed a counter suit with the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware against Intel for breach of contract. In the suit, Nvidia accused Intel of making an opportunistic bid to redefine the terms of their 2004 cross-licensing agreement in order to make it impossible for Nvidia to make any kind of chipset covered by the license, while "conveniently" preserving Intel's access to Nvidia's IP portfolio. By publicly announcing that Nvidia is not licensed to sell chipsets for next generation Nehalem CPUs, Intel has caused alarm among Nvidia's customers, which is having an impact on sales, even for chipsets that are not under dispute, said Nvidia in the suit." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: VIA Arena | Subject: System
Taipei, Taiwan, March 27, 2009 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms will showcase the VIA EITX-3000 Em-ITX board at ESC Silicon Valley 2009. Designed for ultra-thin, high-performance, fanless embedded systems at temperatures ranging from -10o to 70o Celsius, the VIA EITX-3000 uses unique processor placement to deliver leading performance in remarkably hot and cold environments. The VIA EITX-3000 places the energy-efficient VIA Nano processor and VIA VX800 media system processor on the reverse side of the board, making greater real-estate available for passive cooling apparatus and thus negating the need for system fans. This makes the VIA EITX-3000 an exceptional choice for high performance systems in always-on applications such as high-end POS, Kiosk, ATM, HMI, factory automation, POI and digital signage. Designed to facilitate hassle-free ultra-thin design of high performance, fanless systems, the VIA EITX-3000 is the first VIA product to use the recently announced Em-ITX form factor specification. Using a choice of either 1.3GHz or 1.0GHz VIA Nano Ultra Low Voltage processor, the VIA EITX-3000 couples industry leading performance-per-watt with a thin, fanless design courtesy of its extensive I/O coastline. The added horsepower of the VIA Nano processor is supplemented by a full array of features including dual gigabit networking, multi-configurable dual on-board LVDS and a VGA port. Four on-board serial ports can be configured through BIOS selection while an on-board DC-DC power converterwith variable power input (DC 7V ~ 36V) supports both AT and ATX modes, configured via onboard switch. For further I/O options, the VIA EITX-3000 can also take advantage of a range of VIA developed EM-IO expansion 
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Processor
In what can only be called a "yeah, we knew this was coming" moment, Digitimes has word about a potential start to an NVIDIA and VIA merger.
According to the story, VIA technologies, makers of the VIA Nano and C7 processor among other things, has plans to sell as much as 300 million new shares of stock at around $0.30/share in the coming weeks. What is perhaps more interesting, is that NVIDIA is apparently in talks with VIA to buy up the majority of those new shares. While neither side is confirming anything about the deal today, it just makes sense. NVIDIA is in need of a way to be on level ground with Intel and AMD, both of which have, or will have, high performance CPUs and GPUs sometime in 2010. As the lone company still traveling solo with just GeForce under its belt, an acquisition or merger with VIA would at least POTENTIALLY give them an x86 license and a decent CPU product to enter into the total platform market. 
We don't know what percentage of the company NVIDIA would own IF it did buy all 300 million shares of new stock, but regardless of the ratio, if it happens, it would cement to the industry NVIDIA's plans to take on Intel in all product categories. VIA Technologies plans to sell 300 million new shares at a price ranging from NT$9-12 (US$0.27-0.35) per share through private placement, the company has announced. Nvidia is reportedly in talks with VIA to take up a portion of the new shares, according to market sources. VIA commented that possible candidates for the private placement will be made clear after a shareholder meeting scheduled on June 19. Nvidia declined to comment market speculation.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AMD | Subject: Case and Cooling
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - March 26, 2009 - AMD, Inc. and Havok, the premier provider of interactive software for physics simulation and content development, are presenting new, optimized executions of Havok's physics middleware on AMD platforms at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The demonstrations include the first OpenCL supported execution of Havok Cloth. Havok offers a complete modular suite of products that help visual and interactive content developers create more realistic games and cinematic special effects. As the latest software developer to take advantage of ATI Stream technology to leverage multi-core architectures and accelerate execution of highly parallel functions, like real-time cloth simulation, Havok will enable game developers to offer improved performance and interactivity across a broad range of OpenCL capable PCs. AMD has recently introduced optimized platform technologies, such as "Dragon" desktop platform technology, which balance performance between the CPU and GPU with ATI Stream technology to deliver outstanding value. "Havok is committed to delivering highly optimized cross-platform solutions to our game customers and we are pleased to be working with AMD to ensure that gamers enjoy a great user experience when running Havok-powered games on AMD platforms," said David Coghlan, vice president of development for Havok. "Unlocking the parallel processing capability of AMD's hardware provides real advantages to our customers, and the greater the total computing resources available, the better the gaming experience developers can deliver." "Havok's awesome toolset has allowed us to deliver astonishing physics interactions in our games, including detailed real-time destruction and complex ragdoll models, and we are excited about using ATI Stream technology to pursue more astounding in-game accomplishments," said Andrey Iones, chief operating officer of Saber Interactive. "We are excited that AMD and Havok are working together and leveraging an open standard like OpenCL." Additional detail on ATI Stream technology can be found at www.amd.com/stream.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AMD | Subject: Graphics Card
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - March 26, 2009 - AMD today announced the availability of the ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator for the high-end market, ideally suited for graphics professionals working in engineering, digital content creation and scientific fields. These professionals need a 3D graphics accelerator that can quickly handle large models and shader-intensive applications, while delivering accurate color reproduction and superior visual quality. The ATI FirePro V7750 delivers features that matter most to these users at $899 MSRP. "Creating astounding visuals for movies is a tremendous challenge - it has to look absolutely perfect, but time is always of the essence," said Jabbar Raisani, visual effects expert, Troublemaker Studios. "The ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator helps me achieve flawless effects fast by speeding up rendering so I can focus on creating content rather than waiting for it. I need stable and robust performance graphics hardware to get the job done quickly and the ATI FirePro V7750 is the perfect solution." "AMD technology helps me stay ahead of the artistic curve. Their new workstation graphics are playing a key role in the realization of my upcoming movies," said Robert Rodriquez, Director, Troublemaker Studios. "With the introduction of the ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator, AMD's ATI Professional Graphics group is well positioned to increase its presence in the high-end segment of the market, complementing our solid showing in the entry-level and mid-range," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, AMD Professional Graphics. "Professional content creators will appreciate the ATI FirePro V7750's outstanding application performance, 1GB of frame-buffer memory and 30-bit display pipeline - all available for under a thousand dollars."
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: MVKTECH.NET | Subject: Storage
For $140 you can pick up the Patriot Xporter Magnum 64GB USB flash drive or for $100 you can pick up a 1TB WD Caviar Green drive. For the latter, you can't really expect it to hold up to being carried around in your bag or swapped around with friends. For the latter, you are paying a lot more per gigabyte, but you can expect to be invulnerable to normal usage. If big time storage is not your thing, and instead you much prefer mobility then drop by MVKTECH for a look at Patriot's biggest USB drive yet.
"Stronger, bigger and faster that is just what we are all seeking for when we are looking for a flash memory stick. And that is exactly what Patriot had in mind as well when they released the Xporter Magnum 64GB memory drive. Their mission is simple, and this is to be the vendor of choice for the computer and consumer electronic industries with a commitment to service and quality. Which is exactly what they have been doing over the last few years, building up a strong service with high quality products and as such becoming a choice for many out there looking for memory related hardware. With a wide variety to choose from and capacities reaching 64GB, you can literally take everything with you." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: System
Soapbox derbies are frowned upon in this risk averse society and build a CB radio is passe, perhaps the best way to get your kids into electronics is building an HTPC. You are into TV, and it's guaranteed that children are too, so harness that addiction into something constructive. Not only does it involved TV, but the cases and components offer you a lot of choice, with enough limits from the form factor to stop those choices from becoming overwhelming. Take a look at the Tagan Cupid 3 Mini-ITX HTPC case that Tweaktown just reviewed; not only is it interesting looking enough to keep kids interested, it is small enough that you will benefit from having a small pair if hands help you to place components.
"At this point in building and reviewing products, I have had my hands in quite a few types and models of cases. Not too long ago I was greeted with an e-mail asking if I would like to review a mini-ITX case. I accepted the challenge and went on Newegg and got a hold of a ZOTAC mini-ITX motherboard to go along with parts I already had on hand, ready for a build. The case finally arrived at my door from A+, one of three of the Cupid series. I asked for the Cupid 3 for reasons I will address later, but there is also a Cupid 1 and a Cupid 2 in this line-up. Growing up as a kid, I spent my winters building model cars and planes, which is what I liken this mini-ITX build to. With the interior space being very limited with the basic idea of the mini-ITX form factor, one needs to take their time and make sure everything is secure and in its proper place. Making sure you have a bit of extra time and patience is the key to making it all go together smoothly. The anticipation has gotten to me; I think it’s about time we get down to business and show what the A+ Cupid 3 has to offer the HTPC community." Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
One of the more exciting
technologies we have been in continuing discussion about here at PC Perspective is OpenCL (and DirectX Compute) and how it will change the paradigm for heterogeneous computing. At the Game Developer's Conference this week AMD and Havok teamed up to offer up some short demonstrations of what I believe is the first publicly shown implementation of cross-processor OpenCL. It is definitely the first that we are excited about if nothing else.
What the duo is showing off are a couple of subsets of Havok ported to and running on the OpenCL platform. Both Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction are at least far enough along in development to be shown to the public. By moving these application APIs to OpenCL, Havok is enabling them to run on any OpenCL compliant processor - an AMD Phenom II or AMD Radeon HD 4870, for example. They were able to switch on the fly from CPU-driven computing of the physics models to GPU-accelerated physics with a simple button press - indicative of what developers will be able to do in software. Unfortunately, at this time, performance results of such a switch were not shown as AMD simply stated that today's demonstration was a proof-of-concept and development is still heavily ongoing. 
An example of Havok Cloth The Khronos group officially ratified OpenCL 1.0 recently that with that complete, AMD, NVIDIA, Intel and others are working hard to get their products driver stacks ready for the new compute language. AMD now has a working driver for its CPUs and GPUs, though not available to the public, and that is what the Havok physics APIs be demonstrated are utilizing. The power behind this announcement is easy to see - now that Havok can run its APIs easily on either a CPU or GPU, the ability to accelerate physics in a way we had hoped would come about with technology like AGEIA PhysX is much more attractive. While currently today PhysX only runs on NVIDIA GPUs, OpenCL products will run on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs as well as Intel and AMD processors enabling heterogeneous computing algorithms across both product lines. This will also make it much likely that developers will take the additional time to program for such accelerated physics as the install base will have essentially doubled. As for addressing the "effects physics versus gameplay physics" debate, the OpenCL implementation of Havok's APIs might help with this as well. The software developer will be able to query the system it is running on to determine how much processing power it actually has (based on predefined standards from an OpenCL "host") and adapt the algorithms accordingly. If a gamer has a slower CPU but a really fast GPU, for example, the physics models might be able to be increased dramatically; if a user has a higher end CPU but lower end GPU then the same algorithms could be run, just slightly slower, and likely adapted down in quality effects. This is still a work in progress from all parties - OpenCL driver stacks from hardware vendors and the first OpenCL software from developers such as Havok and others. It will be VERY interesting to see how this progresses as we get into 2009. AMD Demonstrates Optimized Executions of Havok Middleware on AMD platforms – Balanced Platform of CPU + GPU Processing Delivers Optimal Game Experience – SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.— March 26, 2009— Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.(NYSE: AMD) and Havok, the premier provider of interactive software for physics simulation and content development, are presenting new,optimized executions of Havok’s physics middleware on AMD platforms at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The demonstrations include the first OpenCL supported execution of Havok Cloth™. Havok offers a complete modular suite of products that help visual and interactive content developers create more realistic games and cinematic special effects. As the latest software developer to take advantage of ATI Stream technology to leverage multi-core architectures and accelerate execution of highly parallel functions, like real-time cloth simulation, Havok will enable game developers to offer improved performance and interactivity across a broad range of OpenCL capable PCs. AMD has recently introduced optimized platform technologies, such as “Dragon” desktop platform technology, which balance performance between the CPU and GPU with ATI Stream technology to deliver outstanding value. “Havok is committed to delivering highly optimized cross-platform solutions to our game customers and we are pleased to be working with AMD to ensure that gamers enjoy a great user experience when running Havok-powered games on AMD platforms.,” said David Coghlan, vice president of development for Havok. “Unlocking the parallel processing capability of AMD’s hardware provides real advantages to our customers, and the greater the total computing resources available, the better the gaming experience developers can deliver.” "Havok’s awesome toolset has allowed us to deliver astonishing physics interactions in our games, including detailed real-time destruction and complex ragdoll models, and we are excited about using ATI Stream technology to pursue more astounding in-game accomplishments,” said Andrey Iones, chief operating officer of Saber Interactive. “We are excited that AMD and Havok are working together and leveraging an open standard like OpenCL.” Additional detail on ATI Stream technology can be found at www.amd.com/ati.stream About AMD Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: InsideHW | Subject: Mobile
Before you completely ignore them, realize that the 17" Acer eMachines G520 runs just over $500 and the G620 model is only a bit more. Both are capable of 1440x900 resolution and have 2GB DDR2, a DVD-RW and a 160GB HDD, the differences lie in the chipsets and CPUs used. The 520 has a 2GHz Celeron M 575 running on an Intel GL40 chipset with Intel X4500MHD powering the graphics. The G560 hides a 2GHz AMD Athlon X2 QL-60 on a nVIDA 9100M. Niether one will beat any speed records, but at a similar price to a netbook and without any of the eyestrain, InsideHW's review is worth a look.
"Notebooks have obvious advantages over desktop configurations but also have one drawback: price. Now we can introduce to you two models that overcome that last obstacle that can unsettle you in deciding whether you will go for notebook or desktop. Since screen size does matter if you decide to get a notebook, we found two 17 inch models: Acer eMachines G620 and G520. After first encounter with eMachines notebooks we weren’t that impressed with design but now some things have changed and impression is not that bad. These are still black models made out of average quality plastics but on the other hand with lowest price in their league…" Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: General Tech
nVIDIA card owners now have an application that performs a similar task to AMD's Badaboom, which was released not that long ago. It is provided by the same company that created FixMyMovie in days gone by, but promises to be more effective. vReveal harnesses nVIDIA's new CUDA programming environment to offer a magic 2x button, which promises to take your crappy 320x240 phone cam pictures and upscale it to 640x480. Don't expect to be able to use that on pictures with above 576 lines nor make use of SLI while you are upscaling, but it still beats the fuzzy alternative. The Tech Report has some comparision shots up that you can try, as well as a look at the difference in speed between CPU and GPU processing with vReveal.
"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?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: X-Bit Labs | Subject: Case and Cooling
Prolimatech Megahalems is a large name, which befits a 790g heatsink that has six heatpipes. Prolimatech is a new comer to the cooling market, so it is appropriate that in it's first review on X-bit Labs it is accompanied by over a dozen other well established coolers. Not only can you see how this new cooler performs, which is impressive, but you get a round up of all of the top Core i7 heatsinks. Which one comes out on top is revealed at the end, though it isn't terribly surprising to find out that three fans are better than two. Of course that rating only counts toward its efficiency and says nothing about the noise levels.
"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 are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
Looking at the raw stats, the MSI R4870 MD1G is just a normal 4870, there is no factory overclock. Looking at the card, the lack of an enclosing assembly really stands out, instead it is the oval shaped heatsink and fan that grab your eyes. MSI claims that the change in cooler should allow the GPU to operate about 20C cooler than the normal heatsink assembly you see. Drop by [H]ard|OCP and you can see how the cooler does and how this card can perform against other HD4870s as well as the GTX260.
"MSI is back under the spotlight with a slick new video card with a sleek new cooler. MSI claims a 20 degree temperature reduction on this Radeon HD 4870 1GB, but is that accurate or just a lot of hot air? We'll find out exactly what potential buyers can expect out of this low-priced dynamo!" Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCMODSHOP | Subject: General Tech
Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a Star Wars Battlefield style game, you can play in first person or third and even control others during the game. It has two single player campaigns, one following the familiar story of a hobbit and his ring, the second a parallel evil campaign allowing you to try to succeed where Sauron failed. All the major battles and landmarks are to be covered in the single player campaign and the screenshots and promo movies seem to capture the ambiance of Tolkien's
Middle Earth. There is also a multiplayer aspect, allowing for Conquest, Capture, the Flag, and Hero Deathmatchs, which can include mounts and artillery. Drop by [OC}ModShop for a look at how you can express your inner Olog-hai.
"Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a solid release from Pandemic Studios and EA that will delight fans of the novels and films as well as gamers who crave lots of action and options in their games. The game allows players to decide to play for the path of good or evil and once that decision is reached, then the real fun begins. If you chose the path of good, then you will follow Frodo on his mission to destroy the ring. Should you decide to ally with evil, then the game shows a world where the ring was not destroyed and allows you lay waste to the land." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
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