Tech News
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P67 Sandy Bridge Previews
Published: Monday, November 15, 2010 | By: DennisIntel P67 is due to be released in the next couple months but we are already starting to see boards, at least in pictures. Below we have some of the new designs from ASUS, we have already seen some P67 motherboard designs from Gigabyte.
Intel P67
- ASUS P67 Sandy Bridge Motherboards @ PureOverclock
- P8P67, Maximus IV Extreme and Sabertooth 2 @ Legit Reviews
- ASUS P67 'Sandy Bridge' Motherboards Preview @ Hardware Canucks
- OC3D: Asus P67 1155 Sandybridge Sneak Peak
- ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Quick Preview @ HardwareHeaven
- Asus details Sandy Bridge motherboard lineupIn other Sandy Bridge news we have some actual names to link with the various processors.
Intel updates Sandy Bridge processor lineupIntel is set to launch several Sandy Bridge-based low-power processors under its Huron River platform, Core i7-2640LM, 2620LM, 2630UM and 2610LM, as well as Core i5-2530UM, in addition to its Core i7-2920XM, 2820QM, 2720QM and 2620M, and Core i5-2540M and 2520M, according to sources from notebook players.
So far we have seen P67 boards from ASUS, Gigabyte and ECS but what about the other players in the market like EVGA and Foxconn?? Well according to my sources their silence is held based on threats from Intel to withhold product.
Every motherboard is dependent on the chipsets and Intel is more than willing to hand out chipset designs provided the mobo makers can honor the strict NDA. This is one of the joys of owning the sole license to processor architecture. Had nVidia been allowed to produce Sandy Bridge chipsets we likely wouldn't have seen preview products until right at launch day.
As we have seen there are some cases where Intel allows for that NDA to be broken in what can be described as, targeted marketing. In this case they are allowing the top sellers to release previews of their designs in hopes that it will enhance sales and basically telling everyone else to suffer. Of course these P67 previews are "worthless" in the hands of the public since the processors are not available. Even media outlets are denied product until Intel decides it is ok to release them.
This kind of begs the question "Why even bother?" -
NL: Review Block - Cooling Video and Storage
Published: Monday, November 15, 2010 | By: DennisStorage
- OCZ RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD Review @ HardwareHeaven
- OCZ RevoDrive PCI-E Solid State Drive Review @ OCIA
- Unsung Heroes: 14 Years of Hard Drive Performance
Cooling
- Cooler Master V6 CPU / Processor Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
Video
- Nvidia GTS-450 Graphics Card Review @ MissingRemote
- ASUS GeForce GTX 580 1.5 GB @ techPowerUp
- GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 480 SOC 1536 MB Video Card @ TT
- Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB Super Overclock @ PureOverclock -
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W Power Supply Review @ Kitguru
Published: Thursday, November 11, 2010 | By: DennisKitGuru has posted a review of the Silent Pro 1200w PSU from Cooler Master, it's a great unit, lots of power, features a clean and quiet design and is 80 Plus Gold certified.
We actually reviewed the Silent Pro 1200w PSU some months ago and while initial impressions were extremely good those opinions changed a few months after. One of the pastimes we enjoy is overclocking, and having a good PSU is really important to get the most from your sessions. Naturally our first choice was to use the largest one in our arsenal, which happened to be the 1200W Silent Pro. Initially we didn't find any issues with the cables but it would seem that, while convenient, the breakaway plugs are a royal pain in the ass to line up and install making system setup difficult and time consuming.
Our only hope is that future editions of the Silent Pro Series come with improved cables, though we're not holding our breath. -
COD: Black Ops - Biggest Game Release Ever?
Published: Thursday, November 11, 2010 | By: DennisIt not like nobody saw this coming.
The video game publisher estimates the first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops pulled in $360 million on its opening day in North America and the U.K.
Activision says 5.6 million copies of the highly-anticipated action game were sold. By comparison, last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- the previous "biggest entertainment launch in history" -- pulled in $310 million on launch day and sold 4.7 million copies.Not only does this set records in single game sales but also marks back to back sales records for Call of Duty releases. Now I just need to set aside some time to play.
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New Website for GeForce Card Owners - GeForce.com
Published: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 | By: DennisTo help raise awareness around new technology companies will usually setup websites to explain what the technology is, why it is good, and how to use it. A tried and true method of marketing. In the case of NVidia they did this for their nForce chipsets and again for SLI when it started to become popular.
A new website has been launched designed to help users get the most from their nVidia GeForce video cards called GeForce.com. GeForce.com is more than a simple propaganda website, but instead a website designed for the end-user to educate them on the benefits of GeForce products and offer up suggestions on how to configure game settings for the best possible quality.
OPS is a set of in-game settings that aims to maximize image quality while maintaining 30 frames per second or more. An OPS is determined by playing through a key portion of the game using automated software, analyzing the framerate, then altering the in-game settings accordingly until the average framerate reaches 30 fps or more. The software reports back the optimal playable setting, the average framerate, and where possible, minimum and maximum framerates.
For a given NVIDIA GPU, we generate OPS for three resolutions so you can pick the one that suits your monitor. On high-end GPUs, settings up to 2560 x 1600 are available. On low end GPUs, OPS targets resolutions around 1680 x 1050.The site is currently in beta but has a handful of games available, and settings for all current NVidia GPUs.
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nVidia GTX 580 Launch Day
Published: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 | By: DennisWell it would seem the rumors were true, big green did have an ace up their sleeve that on the surface seems to fully complete the Fermi circle.
As many of you know the Fermi architecture was designed to support 512 CUDA cores but due to heat concerns the first cards were released only having 480 cores. While NVidia was flushing out the 400 level product offering they were also refining the Fermi design to both improve performance and lower the power envelope.
GF110 was the latest iteration of Fermi and appears to be the baseline used to create the new GTX 580. Combine a full 512 stream processors with higher clocks and you get a significant performance increase across the board.
Here are some reviews from around the web
- Zotac GeForce GTX 580 review @ t-break
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580: A New Flagship Emerges
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 @ Bjorn3D
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 SLI @ techPowerUp
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB @ techPowerUp
- GeForce GTX 580 review
- GeForce GTX 580 SLI review
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GF110 Fermi Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 SLI Launch Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 graphics processor
- HEXUS.net - reviews :: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 graphics card review
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Review @ Hardware Canucks
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580: Back in the Game @ InsideHW
With any luck we'll have a similar review posted in the next few weeks and some product photos and specs posted a little later today. -
COD: Black Ops - just one day away (Nov 9th 2k10)
Published: Monday, November 8, 2010 | By: DennisThe latest installment of the COD (Call of Duty) franchise is due to be released tomorrow and thus far is destined to rival the Modern Warfare 2 release as being the top grossing game of the year.
I have noticed some interesting trends in the site logs, it would seem that the Popular Foxconn BlackOps motheboard review has been getting some good google hits lately and I suspect that people searching for info on the game are getting the review instead.
Who knew that an X48 based, and highly overclockable, motherboard from Foxconn could be so popular over 2 years after its initial release.
Might be time to setup the X48 for some COD: Black Ops action!!
In other BlackOps news a new commercial for COD: Black Ops has been released, check it out. -
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC review @ Guru3D
Published: Monday, November 8, 2010 | By: DennisSOC cards are more than a retooled PCB. They feature things like a hefty factory overclock, voltage adjustments, dual mode bios, and custom WindForce 2X cooler. Basically everything you will need so you won't have to mod the card later.
Gigabyte has released a handful of GeForce GTX 460 cards, based on the reference design with a slight overclock, yet also an SOC series graphics card which is a factory overclocked model with the new WindForce 2X based cooler sitting on top of that GPU.
Now we've already seen a couple of models based on this cooling solution, but the Gigabyte card really is something special as it is the fastest factory clocked 1024MB SKU out on the market.We recently looked at the GTX 470 edition of this card and found it to be quite nice, could even be better with a touch of LN2.
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NL: Review Block - Round Up Style
Published: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | By: DennisHere are some review highlights that hit our news inbox.
Memory
- G.SKILL Ripjaws F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 2x4GB DDR3 RAM review @ APH Networks
- OC3D: Kingston H20 6GB 2000MHz DDR3 Review
- Avexir Standard Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 C9 @ reviewstash
- Mach Xtreme Armor 2133 CL9 Review @ XSReviews
- Mushkin Redline Dual-Channel PC3-12800 6-8-6-24 @ ocaholicCooling
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Canucks
- DeepCool Ice Matrix 400 Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
- Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler Review on Technic3D
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
Storage
- OC3D: WD VelociRaptor 600GB RAID review
- Seagate Momentus XT 500GB @ Techgage
- OCZ Revo 120GB @ PureOverclockCases
- AZZA Hurrican 2000 @ techPowerUp
- Lian Li PC-V354 Review @ XSReviews
- AZZA Tech Hurrican 2000 Full tower Enthusiast Gaming Chassis Review @ OverclockersHQVideo Cards
- Mid-Range NVIDIA GPU Battle: GTX 460 vs. GTX 470 @ HotHardware
- Lantic Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card in CrossFire Overclocked @ Tweaktown
- HD 6870 and HD 6850 vs. GTX 460 1GB: An Overclocking Study @ Hardware CanucksThe month before the holiday shopping season is typically slow for reviews, but there is still stuff out there.
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GIGABYTE 6 Series Motherboards Exposed
Published: Monday, November 1, 2010 | By: DennisI know we have all seen photos of these new P67 boards from Gigabyte but I don't believe they were ever accompanied with actual specs.
Well, we got em!
