Tech News
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NL: Gaming Review Roundups
Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | By: WillNinjalane is always on the look out for new and interesting games for the PC. So here is a couple for everyone to take a look at.
Darksector Game Review @ ocaholic
"Half human and half mutant killing machine. Souds like a bad B-movie but that's ATARIs new 3rd person shooter Darksector. With Digital Extremes and D3 as publisher which already brouht us Resident Evel 4 ATARI tries to impress with the new Evolution Engine, Zombies, scary and inconvenient weapons. How good this all is we will show you on the following pages."
Demigod Review (PC) @ OCModShop"In Demigod, Stardock has deftly blending Real Time Strategy and Role Playing. The game tasks players to become a god through a series of challenges and battles. The two main player types are generals and assassins and each has their own style. While playing as an assassin, players control a character and earn money and experience as he defeats enemies and can earn weapons, new skills, and spells as his experience grows."
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Prolimatech Megahalems CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Canucks
Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | By: WillWell it looks like those crazy beavers at Hardware Canucks have gotten ahold of a monster sized heatsink. A new comer to the cooling industry is Prolimatech, and from the look at the review. These guys are going to fit right into the enthusiast crowd.
"Even though the high-end air cooling market is cluttered with pretenders, every now and then a heatsink comes along which causes up to stand up and take notice. A few short months ago, a new company named Prolimatech released their Megahalems CPU cooler and suddenly the best of the best had a new competitor on their hands. But can this upstart become the new king of the hill?"
I wanna try one of these guys out on my monster hot i7 920.
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MSI N260GTX Lightning Black Edition Video Card Review @ Hardware Secrets
Published: Monday, May 18, 2009 | By: WillIn the sea of boring reference type video cards. MSI has opened up our eyes to something very cool in new designs. Read this review and admire the cool style the Lighting Black Edition has to offer from MSI.
"It's been hard to evaluate video cards these days as there is no difference between a model from one manufacturer and a model from another one based on the same graphics chip, since they are all identical and provided by the chip manufacturer (nVidia or AMD) and the only thing the video card "manufacturer" does is to add their sticker to the video card and put the card in a box with the "manufacturer" logo. This is why we were so excited to review a model where the manufacturer actually added something really unique to the video card: MSI N260GTX Lighting Black Edition comes with an overclocking panel (called AirForce) that can be installed on your case or desk, allowing you to overclock the video card by touching some buttons, making overcloking easy especially for the newbie. Other features were added to the video card as well: double the memory compared to the standard model (1,792 MB vs. 896 MB), 10-phase voltage regulator circuit, solid aluminum caps, ferrite chokes, low RDS(on) transistors, test points on the board for you to check the GPU and memory voltages using a voltmeter and a better cooler."
I'm liking the new look.
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NL: Gaming Review Roundups
Published: Friday, May 15, 2009 | By: WillHere is some PC gaming to help to fully utilize those big bad graphic cards.
Sacred 2 Fallen Angel - PC Review @ Gamepyre
Sacred 2 is a game that I will be playing for a while. It fits my need for a new RPG and it adds something different to the genre. The unique characters and the ability to use mounts for fighting and not just riding, makes Sacred 2 slightly different then the standard role playing game. The characters are detailed. The game reminds me a lot of Diablo II in terms of game feel, but adds a more complicated leveling up system like that of the older Baulder's Gate series. The game is enormous in size and story. It can take Sacred 2 with PhysX adds an ambiance to a game that until this point, I have yet to experience in a game.
Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood (Preview) @ GamingHeavenCall Of Juarez was released a few years ago and was quite the success in the gaming community. As a wild west style FPS with an impressive engine it was used in many cases as a benchmarking utility for new graphics cards at the time. The follow up Bound In Blood is due for release this year and again has the same two character mechanic. We recently spent some time with a few of the levels which we found out is actually a prequel to the first title.
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NVidia Releases New Drivers for Window 7 and Vista
Published: Friday, May 15, 2009 | By: WillThis driver release marks the world’s first stereoscopic 3D driver for Windows 7, available only from NVIDIA. This driver release also supports Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit.Driver download links- Full CD Kits
- v1.08 Windows Vista 32-bit / 64-bit http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_3D_vision_winvista_CD_1.08.html
- v1.08 Windows 7 32-bit / 64-bit http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_3D_vision_win7_CD_1.08.html
- 3D Vision driver only (requires 185.85 GeForce driver)
- v185.85 Windows Vista 32-bit / 64-bit http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_3D_vision_winvista_185.85.html
- v185.85 3D Windows 7 32-bit / 64-bit http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_3D_vision_win7_185.85.html
Release Highlights- Adds support for Mitsubishi new 2009 Home Theater TVs. Please check under “Product Supported” for a full list of new models.
- New 3D Vision game profiles. Please visit this website for a full list of game ratings.
- AC-130: Operation Devastation
- Battlestations: Pacific
- Battlestations: Midway
- Dark Horizon
- Dark Sector...
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Radeon HD 4770 X2 X3 X4 - Dual, Triple, Quad CrossFire Benchmarks @ TweakPC
Published: Thursday, May 14, 2009 | By: WillLooks like a good read for the economic times to check out cheap solutions for the PC gamer. You might start with one, but you'll end up with four.
The Radeon HD 4770 is a real bargain. How is the performance, if we use up to four of these cards? Here are dual, triple and quad
CrossFire (X) benchmarks. It is worth a look!I think these are going to be a huge hit for the gamer on a budget.
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Lamptron FAN-ATIC 5-Port Military Switch Baybus Review
Published: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | By: DennisHere is what motherboards.org has to say about the latest Lamptron fanbus controller.
At the end of the day this is really a novelty item, but it also has its usefulness as well, so it's still cool for someone looking for some customizing accessories for their PC. If you have a PC that requires many fans to keep it cool at one point and then less cooling at another this product should your needs just fine. Availability may be an issue at any retailer's store, but online you should be able to locate one without a problem. There are no negatives to this product, it's cool looking efficient and does what it claims to without hassle.
We have reviewed a few things from Lamptron and have really enjoyed the style and functionalliy of them all, and while fanbus controllers seem to be a thing of the past they still have a valid use in todays computers.
Keep an eye on Lamptron in the future they do have a super slick controller in the works that should be everything they have released in the past to shame.
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CoolerMaster HAF 922 Launch Day
Published: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | By: DennisIn addition to our review of the super new case from CoolerMaster these other fine sites have reviews posted as well.
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Review @ OCC
- Cooler Master 932 HAF Full Tower Case Review @ Gamepyre
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Review at Overclockers Online
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Review @ Neoseeker
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Mid Tower Case @ Tweaktown
- Cooler Master HAF 922 Mid-Tower @ Techgage
- Coolermaster HAF 922 Mid Tower @ Pro-Clockers
- Cooler Master HAF 922 @ LanOC ReviewsSeems that Gamepyre didn't get the memo on launch day
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Computex to go ahead as scheduled despite swine flu concerns
Published: Friday, May 8, 2009 | By: DennisThis is good to hear. My first Computex was during the SARS outbreak when they had postponed the show to allow folks to recover and to allow them time to clean up the city. Since then people are very smart about their health, when people are sick they wear masks, they also avoid contact with people, it's a great system.
If people here in the US did the same we might have less pig sickness reports but with any new health concern it's best to get it out in the open and instill panic into the people.
Computex Taipei 2009 will be held as scheduled from June 2-6 despite growing concerns of an outbreak of swine flu, according to show organizers, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TETDC) and Taipei Computer Association (TCA).
Taiwan has not yet had a single case of swine flu reported, which indicates that Taiwan has an excellent quarantine system to prevent disease spreading, according to the TCA.
The TCA said it will prepare a complete quarantine process at Computex to allow visitors to enjoy the exhibition.Oh and the "quarantine system" that I have seen is rather simple, for folks entering the country you pass thru a "health" monitor that will quickly pick out people that have a fever. SARS attacked people with fevers so they would pull you aside and try to discuss with you the concerns. It was my first time in the country and I was pretty excited and already feeling the effects of the humidity and well I got picked out of the crowd to get my temperature checked. It was high but I was released, they should have given me a card or something.
Never got SARS and for the most part made it back alive.
The years attending Computex after that you pass thru the same health monitor but its more of a checkpoint than health screen.
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NL: Video Card Roundup
Published: Thursday, May 7, 2009 | By: WillNinjalane has the new Radeon HD 4890 review today and decided to share the wealth.
- ASUS ENGTX260 Matrix GeForce GTX 260 Video Card Review @ ThinkComputers
- Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B Radeon HD 4770 Review @ Motherboard
- Zotac GTX 285 Graphics Card Review @ Tech-Reviews
- ASUS Radeon EAH4870X2 Tri-Fan Graphics Card @ Tweaktown
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 512MB and CrossFire performance review @ Elite Bastards
- Diamond HD 4770 Review @ OCC
- Sapphire HD 4890 Atomic Edition Review @ OCCEnjoy!
