Tech News
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Intel's Skulltrail dual-socket enthusiast platform @ The Tech Report
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 | By: DennisYou know I was extremely excited about Skulltrail, heck I waited for a product like this since the advent of P3 SMP systems back in '00. Sadly Intel removed the ability to do SMP on anything but their Xeon line leaving the rest of us to ponder our existence.
Well Skulltrail brings many things to the table, Dual Xeon processors, Quad channel DDR2 memory support, and 4 16x PCI Express slots supporting up to 4 GPUs at a time. The Tech Report had this to say after getting the cold shoulder from nVidia bout 3-way and Quad-way SLI.
Skulltrail is a niche product, and it's not one I care particularly about, but these shenanigans make me angrier than anything I've seen from this industry in a good while. This is the kind of crap that makes folks give up on PC gaming and go buy an Xbox. I don't believe for a minute that this is about anything other than vindictiveness. I've heard credible rumors that Nvidia has seeded some PC makers with three-way SLI drivers that work perfectly on Skulltrail. I've also heard whispers that Intel is paying as much as $100 per motherboard for those nForce 100 chips. Yet Nvidia is still locking them out. Sheesh.
On the bright side, Skulltrail ought to work fine with AMD's CrossFire X when it arrives—even though, heh, the D5400XS's PCIe x16 slots are driven by Nvidia silicon. Imagine that.Seems like we lost yet another nVidia fanboy.
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DFI makes headway in Japan market
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 | By: DennisI guess they are implying that Japan is a hard market to get into, I wouldn't know. If anyone has any insight into this drop us a line.
Taiwan-based industrial PC (IPC) maker DFI has obtained orders for digital signage, arcade gaming machines and office automation devices from clients in Japan, according to the company.
While there are relative high requirements for product quality in the Japan market, DFI has succeeded in competing for orders by virtue of its competitive quotes, the company pointed out.
DFI expects average monthly revenue of US$1.0 million from the Japan market, with devices to be used in digital signage and office automation applications accounting for a large portion of the shipments, the company noted. -
Intel to launch X48 in mid March
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2008 | By: DennisThis is what they are claiming, we'll have to wait and see what materializes from this.
Intel has informed motherboard makers that it will definitely launch its X48 chipset in mid March, two months later than its original launch date, according to industry sources. The X48 chipset was originally slated for launch in January, but Intel pushed it back as inventory of X38 had yet to be cleared, the sources said.
Some makers, such as Gigabyte Technology and Micro-Star International (MSI), have already announced details of their X48 motherboards, but Intel's delay in officially launching the new chipset is preventing the mobo makers from setting shipping schedules of their new motherboards. -
NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA Technologies
Published: Monday, February 4, 2008 | By: DennisWay to go guys!
SANTA CLARA, CA — FEBRUARY 4, 2008—NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AGEIA Technologies, Inc., the industry leader in gaming physics technology. AGEIA's PhysX software is widely adopted with more than 140 PhysX-based games shipping or in development on Sony Playstation3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. AGEIA physics software is pervasive with over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX SDK.
I can't wait to see what comes next!
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NL: Review Block - Mems and Cools
Published: Friday, February 1, 2008 | By: DennisJust a few reviews from around the web
Memory
- G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 2x1GB Kit Review @ Hardware Canucks
- CSX Diablo Overclocking 2 GB DDR-2 kit- 1200 MHz @ Hardwareoverclock Austria <-- cool modules
- A-DATA Nobility N702 4GB USB Flash Drive @ techPowerUpCooling
- CPU Cooler Roundup @ DragonSteelMods
- Scythe NINJA Copper CPU Cooler @ 3DGM
- Cooler Master Hyper TX2 CPU cooler review @ Elite BastardsCases
- GMC R2 Toast Mid-tower Review @ Mikhailtech <-- Check out the optical drive in this case.
- NZXT Rogue Super Cube @ TweakPCThats all for now.
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Shuttle's XPC SP35P2 Pro SFF barebones system @ TechReport
Published: Friday, February 1, 2008 | By: DennisIntel's P35 Express has reigned as the enthusiast chipset of choice for Core 2 processors since its introduction last May, and for good reason. The P35 delivers a fantastic combination of performance, features, and overclocking potential with a low enough price tag to allow for a wide range of affordable motherboards. But what if you desire a system smaller than your average mid tower or even Micro ATX enclosure?
I thought the SFF movement was dead? who knew?
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Nvidia to launch nForce 790i chipset in 2Q
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008 | By: DennisNvidia is planning to launch the next generation nForce 790i chipset in the second quarter this year. The chipset adopts Nvidia's C73 northbridge and MCP55 southbridge, and will support Intel processors with FSB up to 1600MHz, according to sources at motherboard makers.
The chipset will also feature 3-way SLI and Hybrid SLI technology and support DDR3 memory. Motherboard makers generally expect DDR3 memory pricing will start to drop in the third quarter of 2008. The nForce 790i is positioned by Nvidia as a high-end product and so the motherboard should attract high-end gamers who will be willing to pay a premium for DDR3 memory.
The nForce 790i will be released in two versions, nForce 790i Ultra SLI and nForce 790i SLI. The difference between the two is that the former has better overclocking ability and will support SLI memory modules up to DDR3 2000, the sources detailed.
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NL: Review Block - Part 3 Wrap-up
Published: Monday, January 28, 2008 | By: DennisHere are the last 6 for the evening. Tomorrow is supposed to be a snow day so depending on how things go there may be more
Motherboards
- Gigabyte 6Quad GA-P35-DQ6 Review @ Gamepyre
- Neoseeker MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Intel X38 Express Motherboard Review @ PCSTATSCases
- Sunbeamtech Freezing Storm ATX Case @ LAN AddictVideo Cards
- MSI NX8600GT Twin Turbo Video Card @ Viper LairNetwork Cards
- KillerNIC: a statistical analysis @ NordicHardware -
Sunbeamtech Rheobus Extreme @ Pro-Clockers
Published: Monday, January 28, 2008 | By: DennisCasemodding is a lost art, these days the creativity has been substitute by case mfgs and the real extreme mods don't look (or function) as real computer cases. It seems you can either go big with a mod and risk having outdated hardware when you finally complete the project or go mild and not get any fanfair at all.
Silly intro to a rheobus review but it seemed fitting.
There are many rheobus out there to look at. And most of them have lighted dials and multiple channels to configure several fans. The advantage of this one from Sunbeamtech is its ability to support multiple fans as well. But on each independent channel. You can connect as many fans as you want to each channel just as long as you don't exceed the 2.5 A limitations. This would be thru the useage of splitters but it is all possible.
Not sure you really need 6 fan channels but I think someone said that about dual channel memory controllers.
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Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT i-ChiLL Review @ NVNews
Published: Monday, January 28, 2008 | By: DennisIt has seriously been a very long time since we've heard the name Inno3D here in the Ninjalane Labs. In fact the last time we can recall was during the twinview article back in 01.
Its good to hear they are still alive and kicking.
Compared to the results from the stock cooler, the Accelero X1 fan lowered temperatures four additional degrees at half the RPM. Better cooling with less fan noise.
The cooler on this card is huge and instead of having the fan off the end of the card its found at the top. Kind of a nice design actually.
