Tech News
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Is Nvidia (NVDA) A Buyer For AMD (AMD)?
Published: Friday, December 7, 2007 | By: DennisI found this on the news wire today, and even though its an old post the theory is quite interesting.
Mubadala Development Co, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, put $622 million into AMD (AMD) last week to buy 8.1% of the company at $12.70 a share. The market did not like the deal. The stock traded at $12.64 and moved down more after hours. Wall St. understands that all AMD has done is buy a little time. The chip company has $5.1 billion in long term debt and had an operating loss of $226 million in the last quarter. Larger rival Intel (INTC) its pressuring AMD sales and margins.
There has been a lot of speculation around what each of the "big three" companies is planning to do. On the AMD side they already acquired ATI which is a big supplier of Crossfire graphic solutions for Intel. Of course Intel is rumored to have their own dual graphic solution on the market around Christmas which is likely only to run on Intel chipsets, thus negating CrossFire all together.
Then there is nVidia, hands down the graphics leader with an excellent chipset platform for both Intel and AMD. nVidia also has SLI technology that runs on their chipsets. So what would nVidia gain from buying AMD? The way I see it, nothing. nVidia would likely take out the ATI CrossFire solution and consume the AMD processor line. In doing so they would lose Intel support and thus the strongest performance platform around (Intel Core processor + nVidia SLI).
So what would be to gain? Not much, actually I'd classify a move like this to be somewhere between chopped bread and the HP+Compaq merger. (ya pretty dumb) -
ASRock plays Frankenstein; creates modern motherboard out of old parts
Published: Thursday, December 6, 2007 | By: DennisASRock's latest AliveDual eSATA2 motherboard combines theM1695 chipset, originally designed by ULi, with Nvidia's nForce 3 250,which launched in 2003, to create a modern mash-up that may soundbizarre, but is also strangely compelling.
Thanks toAMD's commitment to backwards compatibility, the AliveDual eSATA2 willstill be able to rock quad-core Phenom X4 CPUs, if that is what youwant, and ASRock has had the foresight to build in support for up to8GB DDR2 memory.
Another consequence of ASRock's weirdscience is that the AliveDual eSATA2 sports not only a PCI Expressslot, provided by the M1695, but also retains the nForce 3's AGP slot.
Althoughthe motherboard's market is not large, the very unique design means itwill still see demand in certain markets, especially in Europe, ASRockbelieves.
Click on the link below to see a photo of this amazing board. -
Nvidia to launch GeForce 9 series in February
Published: Saturday, December 1, 2007 | By: DennisNvidia is ready for its next-generation GPU launch.According to sources at graphics card makers, the company plans tolaunch its GeForce 9 series GPU after the Lunar New Year in February.
Thefirst chip to rollout of in GeForce 9 family will be the D9E, ahigh-end product that adopts 65nm manufacturing. The new product willalso support DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1, revealed the sources.
Inaddition to the D9E, Nvidia will roll out a mid-range GeForce 9 familyproduct named D9P in June 2008. The new GPU will adopt 55nm processing,the sources pointed out.
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Nvidia to launch Intel-based nForce 780i chipset in December
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 | By: DennisNvidia is planning to launch its Intel-based nForce 780ichipset in December this year, however mass shipments will not occuruntil January next year, according to sources at motherboard makers.
ThenForce 780 SLI chipset will be available to two forms, the nForce 780iSLI (C72 XE) supporting Intel and nForce 780a SLI (C72 P) supportingAMD, noted the sources.
The nForce 780i will targetIntel's X38 chipsets as its major competitor. It will support PCIExpress 2.0 and 3-way SLI technology with three PCI Express x16 slots.Motherboard pricing will be around US$200, noted the sources.
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Happy Turkey Day
Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007 | By: DennisFor those of you in the US that happen to stumble over to Ninjalane we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat well and enjoy the day.
BTW if you're of age we find that some good brew tends to help with the trippin fin overload.
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NL: Review Block - Mobos
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 | By: DennisWhen it comes to motherboard reviews we typically read thru and make full comments. This time around you'll have to do the reading and make comments for yourself.
Motherboards
- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP@n @ InsideHW
- ASUS Blitz Formula (SE) Motherboard Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
- ECS P35T-A Motherboard Review @ Virtual-Hideout
- Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP Motherboard Review @ HardwareLogic
- MSI X38 Diamond @ t-break
- Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i Motherboard Preview @ HardwareXL
- MSI P6N Diamond @ HotHardware
Of course we will also have a few motherboard reviews in the near future so stay tuned.
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NL: Review Block - Cases n Cooling
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 | By: DennisBe sure to check out our latest case review, the SilverStone JT10.
Cases
- Gigabyte iSolo 210 Case Review @ HardwareLogic
- Antec Sonata III Midsize Tower Computer Case @ Bonafidereviews
- Antec Performance One P190 @ NordicHardware
- SilverStone TJ10 Case Review @ Motherboards
- SilverStone TJ09 at Overclockers Online
- Coolermaster COSMOS - Spacey Design - ATX Case Review @ Madshrimps
- Xion Dazl Case Review @ Hardware Canucks
Cooling
- Alphacool NVXP-G8 waterblock @ Overclock3D
Even more hardware review news to follow -
NL: Review Block - Memory
Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 | By: DennisJust a "small" list of memory reviews, don't forget about memory this holiday season.
- OCZ 2x1GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Platinum EB Review @ Hardware Canucks
- A-Data Vitesta DDR2-800 Extreme Edition Memory Review @ OCModShop
- A-DATA Extreme Edition DDR2 800+ 2x1GB RAM @ APH Networks
- OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX 4GB DDR2 Memory @ Pro-Clockers
- Patriot Memory PDC32G1600LLK 2GB DDR3-1600 Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS
- TakeMS Mach2 1066MHz 2GB Kit @ InsideHW
- Patriot Memory PDC32G1866LLK 2GB DDR3-1866 Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS
- A-DATA Vitesta Extreme Edition DDR2-800 2GB Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS
- Patriot PDC24G6400LLK DDR2-800 4GB Memory Kit Review @ PCSTATS
More reviews to come. -
Uniblue RegistryBooster 2 Tweaking Software Review @ Tweaknews
Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | By: DennisNothing says hardware review like reviewing.. software.. humm..
This software is without a doubt one of the easiest and fastest ways to optimize system performance by cleaning up the Windows registry. I noticed an immediate improvement in startup and shutdown times and programs open faster as well. Overall, the computer just runs a whole lot smoother and it only took a few minutes from start to finish. The interface is straightforward and designed in such a way that just about anyone will feel comfortable using it, and with backups automatically performed there's little to worry about in the way of any problems arising.
software is like filling up with 110 octane fuel and changing your spark plugs. It runs better but that's about it.
oh and phj34r not we won't be posting stuff like this very often, that is unless I get one email saying that software review is the bomb, -
Swiftech Apogee Ultimate Liquid Cooling Kit @ Motherboards
Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | By: DennisSwiftech has been a big name in cooling over the years and while their blocks are usually rather simple the Apogee system is a little different.
"If you want a liquid cooling system that is functional, flexible and able to be customized to whatever your needs may be, Swiftech is your kind of company. This system uses a self-powered Apogee drive water-block combined with a triple radiator, three fans and dual Stealth VGA coolers. This was done in order to make one bad ass liquid cooled super system based on NVIDIA’s SLI platform. As you can see from the results we were able to overclock our 3.0GHz QuadCore X6850 to 4.0GHz without any warranty voiding mods or outlandish voltage increases."
We still like the Danger Den stuff but really the DIY market has really hit a lull.
