Tech News
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Gigabyte H55M Reviews
Published: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | By: DennisThere are some interesting things to note about the new Core processors from Intel (Core i7 and Core i5). Core i7 comes in 2 different socket configurations that also require completely different chipsets. Core i5 comes in 2 "core" configurations but share the same socket requirements but require different chipsets depending on what features you are intending to use.
P55 and H55 are the current 1156 enabled chipsets (Core i5). P55 is the mainstream option for desktop systems without onboard graphics. H55 is basically the same thing but enables you to use the on-die GPU found in some Core i5 processors.(the dual core ones)
Gigabyte currently has one of the most popular H55 motherboards on the market, and here we have a couple of reviews for you to look over.
- Gigabyte H55M-S2H Budget 1156 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- Gigabyte H55M-USB3 - The Ultimate $100 H55 Board? @ TechgageWe're still waiting for our H55 sample, but we hope to see it real soon.
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ASUS RoG Maximus III Extreme LGA 1156 Motherboard Preview @ Hardware Canucks
Published: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | By: DennisASUS is such a big company its sometimes hard to remember that they actually still do some enthusiast and workstation class computer hardware.
ASUS has long been known for their Republic of Gamers series of motherboards and while they have products already in place for both of Intel’s P55 and X58 platforms, they felt it was time to take things to the next level. The Maximus III Extreme follows closely in the footsteps of the original Maximus III Formula but adds a bevy of new features that are sure to make enthusiasts go weak in the knees.
Gotta love their color scheme, it's almost like everyone else had the same idea.
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STOP! Using the latest 196.75 NVidia Drivers
Published: Saturday, March 6, 2010 | By: WillLooks like some people video cards are getting fried from the fan running to slow with this new driver. So NVidia has put on there Facebook page to stop using the new driver and rollback to the 196.21 versions.
"NVIDIA We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our website. Thanks, and stay tuned for updates."
You have now been warned!
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Fake Intel Core i7 920s at the Egg
Published: Saturday, March 6, 2010 | By: WillWell this is a warning to everyone. If you bought a Intel Core i7 920 recently from Newegg open the box right away if you haven't. Looks like somefake CPU have been sent out. Looks like Newegg is taking care of the situation very well. Here is an article over at HardOCP that seems to sum up the problem very well.
Newegg Selling Fake Intel CPUs
"Did you just order an Intel Core i7-920 CPU from Newegg? Have you opened the box yet to check and see what is inside of it? We highly suggest you do."
Here is an image of the fake heatsink used. We borrowed from HardOCP.
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NL: PC Game Reviews Roundup
Published: Friday, March 5, 2010 | By: WillHere is one of those new PC games getting reviews done now for everyone to read.
Aliens vs Predator (PC) @ GamingHeaven
"People who grew up in the eighties know two things - the first being that Aliens was amazing and the second being that Predator was also amazing. This would lead anyone from that time to arrive at the conclusion that combining the two would be very much a wining idea. So it proved across various systems, the nostalgia mash-up delivering what many of us had hoped for down the years."
Aliens vs. Predator (PC) @ TweakPC
We took a look at Rebellions Aliens vs. Predator. Classical gameplay, nice graphics, so all good? Let's see!
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ASUS TUF SaberTooth 55i @ Bjorn3D
Published: Friday, March 5, 2010 | By: WillThis board has everything to make it look cool and even has the cool name of SaberTooth. Still does the features and the overclocking potential make this an awesome board? Let's read on to find out.
We over at Bjorn3D.com are going to be looking at one of ASUS's newest additions to their motherboard line up. This motherboard is built upon ASUS's outstanding continuation of high quality and their attention to detail. This motherboard uses Intel's P55 chipset, like other motherboards based on the this chipset, the ASUS Sabertooth 55i motherboard can support any 1156 socket CPU. It can be configured to run either Nvidia's multi GPU configuration SLI, or ATI's multi GPU configuration Crossfire X. But like all other P55 based motherboards, this motherboard only supports Dual Channel memory.
The ceramic heatsinks is just to cool.
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WD SiliconEdge Blue 256GB SSD Review @ HotHardware
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | By: WillWell the time has come for the big boys of Hard Drive land to step in the SSD market. Looks like Western Digital has the first foot in. Let's see what WD has to offer us end users.
"Storage is going solid state and the move to acquire Silicon Systems back in March of 2009, was a very deliberate course of action for WD that spoke clearly about their intentions. We've heard rumblings of offerings forthcoming from WD's primary competitor, Seagate, as well but today WD makes it real with their new SiliconEdge line of SSD products. We've taken a 256GB SiliconEdge Blue drive out for a spin, or perhaps lack thereof, and have our impressions posted on the pages ahead of WD's first foray into solid state drive technology..."
Wonder where the other guys are at?
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Indilinx Barefoot Firmware Testing with the RunCore Pro IV SSD @ Tweaktown
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | By: WillWith all of the problems with some of the Seagate hard drives I don't think it is to uncommon anymore to update your Hard Drives Firmware. Still it is rare to see many of the manufactures showing the newest firmware for there drives. So this is a good educational article for people.
"When we first tested the RunCore Pro IV solid state drives we had no idea that the Indilinx Barefoot firmware would be updated more often than your typical motherboards BIOS. Some people may be a little disheartened by this since it can be a pain to update firmware every couple of months, but for the most part enthusiasts welcome the additional features and with them performance advantages that come from the latest in technological achievements.
When it comes to firmware updates for solid state drives, the company that manufactured your drive DOES MATTER! While going back through my collection of drives to update them to the latest firmware, I found several manufacturers that either do not list publically new firmware updates or are so outdated that it isn't even worth the hassle. TweakTown has looked at more SSDs over the past year than any other hardware review site, so we have quite a few to play around with on any given day."Free performance sweet.
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EVGA W555 Information Round Up
Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | By: DennisThis isn't really a review style round up but more of an informational post about the forthcoming dual board from EVGA.
We of course got to see the board first hand at CES and even talked with Shamino about the various aspects, limitations, and available options. As many have guessed this is a dual Xeon board so you'll need dual Xeon processors
Techgage posted a mini-rant related to the EVGA W555 in response to a posting over at Bright Side of News, (which is nothing more than a FAQ / Q&A).
There is one lucky guy to have already gotten one of these super sweet boards, Movieman over at XtremeSystems scored the sweet deal of a lifetime, and has pics to prove it. The story broke in several places at once. Wrigleyvillain was nice enough to post the good news in the Ninjalane Message Forum, while the HWBot guys micro-blogged on twitter about the good news.
Sadly, no W555 for us just quite yet, but we have our fingers crossed, 4 leave clovers nearby, and credit card on standby (for procs. mems, and cards) just waiting for the much anticipated release.
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Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX Motherboard @ TechwareLabs
Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | By: WillAMD has just released that new 890GX/SB850 chipset that brings with it the ability to use the new 6-core Phenom. II. That is not all they also are first to the gate with USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0Gb/s native on the chipset. So check out this awesome Gigabyte board sporting all the new technology.
"Check out the new Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H Motherboard. This is Gigabytes first board to include AMDs new 8-series chipset, the 890GX. Check out what's the future holds inside! The new Phenom II X6, Thuban will also be supported by the 890GPA-UD3H."
Nice jump in front for a little bit for AMD.
