Tech News
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AMD Opteron 165 and 180 processors @ The Tech Report
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisI'm working on building a sweet Opteron system and choose the 148 (2.2Ghz) 940 processor, Looking back the dual core would have been a better choice but I couldn't seem to let myself go below my Mhz barrier, (even if on paper its faster)
"This change has most likely provoked a whole other bundle of pyschological issues—namely, an identity crisis. Take the Opteron 180, for example. With 1MB of L2 cache for each of its two CPU cores and a 2.4GHz clock frequency, the 180 looks for all the world like an Athlon 64 X2 4800+. The main difference between the two? The name, pretty much. Now, that doesn't make the Opteron 180 a bad product—far from it, in fact—but it may never escape comparisons to its Athlon 64 doppelganger."
On the 939 front I'd be all over the slower dual cores and then overclock the sn0+ out of them. -
Corsair Nautilus500 External Watercooling Kit
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: Dennis"Fremont, CA (February 22, 2006) – Corsair® Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory products, took its acclaimed watercooling product line to a new level today with the release of the Nautilus500™. As the latest generation of external watercooling units, the Nautilus500 boasts the industry’s easiest installation procedure while delivering chilling performance of 30% more efficiency compared to air cooling.
Outstanding Cooling Performance
Designed with enthusiasts in mind, the new Nautilus500 brings 30% more CPU and 40% more GPU cooling efficiency without excessive noise. While overclocking is not guaranteed by any one component, the degree of system overclock generally correlates with the degree of component cooling. The new Nautilus500 brings a new cooling solution to overclockers with its all-copper CPU block and Micro Channel Technology™. The Nautilus500 CPU cooling block provides maximum heat absorption and most efficient heat transfer. Fan speed can be adjusted to suit individual needs. When high fan speed is enabled, cooling performance is maximized. When low fan speed is selected, the Nautilus500 cools effectively with minimum noise generation." -
XSPC X20 universal Liquid Cooling Kit review @ techniz
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisSudo self contained watercooling without the self container
"To date this is the biggest radiator I have seen on a water cooling unit, again it looked and felt very well made. The radiator has three main componets, the radiator itself, 120mm fan and rubber gasket.
The radiator is all black, with 2 white screw caps at opposite corners to each othe, these are for the in and outlet connectors and pipes. The radiator also has screen holes on both sides, for attaching the fan and gasket, and screw holes for attached the radiator to brackets or to a case."
You think that is big, check out the triple threat we reviewed from asetek! -
Western Digital Raptor X @ t-break
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisJust imagine 2 or 3 of these all working together in a Raid 1 or better yet a RAID 3 (if you have 3 drives).
"The new Raptor also has something added to it in terms of looks- WD adds a window on top of the drive and you can now actually see the disk spinning and the head moving. While that offers nothing in terms of performance, it does make the drive look very cool."
The only thing that would be cooler is to have the windows facing out so you can see them in action.
The only downside.... they are hella spensive! (at least right now) -
XFX Nvdia 6600GT PCI-e @ Marns CDA
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisToday we are going to take a look at the XFX 6600 GT PCI-e video card. In the past we examined the XFX 6600 GT AGP solution and as many of you know XFX makes probably dollar for dollar the cheapest NVIDA solutions on the market. Remember that is a generalization and I am talking averages.
I'd agree though these days the 6600GT is pretty easy to come by so prices are already rock bottom.
XFX rox btw, to bad my contact there in the marketing department often forgets to continue answering my emails.
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Taking the SLI Plunge – Part 2 @ Virtual-Hideout
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisI currently am not running SLI on my main system, during reviews SLI has always been a centerpiece of the system. The thing is I wanted to adopt to SLI early on instead of waiting for the technology to mature. So 2x Chaintech 6600GTs were purchased and the wait for an SLI motherboard was on.. Several months later the wait was still on until the DFI SLI-DR review. All this time I've been gaming on an XFX 5700 Ultra and when I get a chance to break out a dually 6600GT I'm all over it.
" Maybe the problem is I already had an Nvidia 7800GT, which I just bought and was a hair off the top of the line graphics card on the market, and then bought another 'exact match' 7800GT. So that's like going from a Mustang GT to a supercharged Mustang GT. Keep in mind, they look the same."
Its all in how you look at it, the Virtual Hideout people already have a top of the line video card so adding another one won't really tickle their tea bags (or fun bags if they happen to be so equipped) but moving from a 5700 Ultra to 2x 6600GTs is a night and day difference. -
Western Digital Raptor X @ The Tech Report
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisWhen it comes to hard drives I'm pretty particular as to what one I will actually spend my money on. Maxtor, IBM, and Western Digital are all top on my list and of them the Raptor is my fav.
"ALTHOUGH WESTERN DIGITAL'S 10K-RPM Raptor Serial ATA hard drives were originally intended for enterprise-class workstations and servers, enthusiasts were quick to employ them in personal desktop systems and gaming rigs. Marketing types tend to freak out when enthusiasts show such blatant disregard for artificial product segmentation, but Western Digital took it in stride. In fact, the company has even cooked up something special for the enthusiast community with the latest Raptor refresh."
I'm running 2 of the 36gig models in my system right now. -
EPoX 8NPA SLI Motherboard Review @ TweakTown
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2006 | By: DennisLeave it to Epox to release something outrageous.
"How many AMD Athlon 64 users remember Socket 754? Probably about 70% of the AMD 64 crew wouldn’t know of or fully remember Socket 754. It’s ironic due to the fact this is where AMD Athlon 64 started and the new Socket 939 come as a result of Intel’s overpowering DDR memory controller. Socket 754 was where AMD Athlon 64 launched the Clawhammer architecture using a 3200+ core with 1MB L2 cache. Unfortunately, AMD’s short sightedness not to include a dual channel memory controller in the original designs pushed Socket 754 towards the backburner rather quickly."
Funny thing is... I'm running a 754 3200+ in my main workstation right now and it runs like a champ! -
Nvidia to launch 90nm GeForce 7900 GPUs on March 9
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: Dennis"Nvidia is expected to launch its 90nm GeForce 7900 graphics processor unit (GPU), in GT and GTX versions, on March 9, according to sources at Taiwan graphics-card makers. In addition to the GeForce 7900 series, Nvidia plans to add the GeForce 7600 (codenamed G73) by the end of next month, the sources indicated.
Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce 7900 GPUs will have more competitive pricing than the Radeon X1900 from ATI Technologies, the sources noted.
ATI launched the Radeon X1900 GPU in January 2006, with the XT version priced at US$549 and the high-end XTX line priced at US$649."
Didn't the 7800 just come out?
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ECS KA1 MVP Review @ Overclockers Online
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisMy best guess is this is a Crossfire enabled board from ECS but to be honest I gave up on the review after seeing an entire page of "box shots" that have nothing to do with the motherboard in question.
"The last notable from the package of goodies is this ingenious little guy here. What ECS has done is developed a BIOS chip that can be placed on top of the existing BIOS chip that will override the one on the board and allow you to boot the system should something happen to your BIOS. No more corrupt BIOS from a bad flash resulting in RMA or waiting for a replacement chip. The TopHat Flash will have you back up and running in seconds. I think this is a great idea. "
This sounds good in theory but the two boards that fried on me also fried something other than the BIOS chip, so while this may save you from a bad BIOS flash (which shouldn't really happen if you know what you're doing) but may not actually save you in the event of BIOS failure from overclocking or random acts of static electricity.
