Tech News
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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.
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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. -
A Guide to Coolbits
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisFor the nVidia users out there that are into overclocking their video cards this guide at PC Mechanic might prove to be helpful.
"More and more, gamers, performance addicts, and adventurous computer enthusiasts are getting deeper and deeper into tweaking and overclocking their computers. To facilitate this process, and unlock a plethora of additional features related to the performance of your nVidia GeForce Video Card(s), Coolbits answers the call."
The article talks about making changes to the registry but you can just as easily create a .reg file and not only merge the changes but keep them for use later if you tend to reinstall Windows on a regular basis. -
NL: Review Block - Misc Cooling
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisDanger Den Maze 4 Acetal Top GPU block @ Geekextreme. Never actually installed one of these blocks before however every review of the block has been positive.
Alpha PAL-8150 Athlon64 Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
This is an excellent heatsink no matter how you look at it. The frostytech gang reviewed it with a Delta high speed fan which makes it quite a bit louder than most heatsinks on the market but that aspect can easily be changed with virtually no change in overall performance. Check out our review of the same heatsink below. -
DFI NF4 Ultra Infinity Review @ hi-techreviews
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisAthlon64 overclocking is actually pretty easy provided that you have a good processor and decent memory. In our review of the DFI Infinity the 250Mhz HTT mark was easily attainable without any Multiplier adjustments. The board could have easily gone higher however the performance returns tended to diminish.
"We were able to overclock the Infinity to a very respectable 250 MHz FSB with 1:1 memory timing which allowed us to achieve some rather remarkable numbers when we ran the Everest benchmarks. Overclocking this particular board is no different than any other NF4 board so those that are familiar with the process will have no problems feeling right at home tweaking all of the settings. " -
PCChips M861G v1.6a Review @ Hardware Hush Hush
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisBack in the day I remember that a good friend of mine had a PCChips internal modem, I think it was even a 28.8. Not sure why I remember that except that it was faster than mine (at the time)
"PCChips is, for decades, the queen of the very low-end motherboards and was, for ages, the number 1 motherboard manufacturer in the world (they lost their first position to ASUS as soon as ASUS decided to also focus the entry-level market). They bought ECS in the late 1990’s and since then they focused ECS brand for developed markets like USA and Europe and PCChips brand for underdevelopment markets, like South America. That’s why you may not have seen PCChips motherboards in the US, even though they are still around. In summary, PCChips and ECS are the same company."
Fancy board with everything you would need to build a very inexpensive system. -
GlobalWin SilentStream Water-Cooling Kit @ Tech-Mods
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 | By: DennisI wonder where we've seen this before.
"The top of the heatsink is allot different then the common water-cooling setup. The SilentStream has the pump right on the water-block. Another neat feature are the hoses, they're attached at the factory. This should eliminate any possible leaks in this vital spot. GlobalWin decided to go with a nice green/clear plastic on top instead of a neutral color."
If you guessed the Coolermaster Aquagate Mini you get a prize.
