Tech News
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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. -
DFI Releases A Limited, Super High-End Motherboard
Published: Thursday, February 16, 2006 | By: DennisI so want one of these
"Top-of-the-line Performance
Capacitors store power and regulate voltage. Using s olid Aluminum electrolytic capacitors will add value to a motherboard's performance as they are capable of continued high-temperature operation at the rated operating voltage. Solid Aluminum capacitors also offer excellent impedance characteristics over a wide temperature range, which is desirable for filtering applications. This special edition LANParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Venus will provide users extra power and voltage control, two essential factors for the ultimate overclocking performance." -
NL: Review Block - Don't forget the RAM
Published: Thursday, February 16, 2006 | By: DennisEveryone needs memory, 128Megs, 1Gig, 2Gig, it's all the same provided you have enough to play your game.
- Corsair TwinX 2048-4000PT Evaluation @ Hi-Techreviews
- GeIL Ultra Platinum PC4000 Review @ 3DGM
- Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 Review @ NeoSeeker
- Kingston HyperX PC3200 Review @ ThinkComputers
- Mushkin 1GB HP3200 @ Techgage
Memory is one of our favorite things to review here at Ninjalane, it is also one of the most difficult to prove as being better than all the rest. -
AMD Socket-M2 CPUs to be unwrapped at CeBIT
Published: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | By: Dennis"Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has reached agreements with unspecified Taiwan motherboard makers for presenting its next-generation Socket-M2 processors at CeBIT 2006, industry sources noted.
By the end of this month, most motherboard makers will receive samples of AMD's next-generation 940-pin platform for sampling for the March 9-15 CeBIT exhibition, according to the sources. Those motherboard companies, however, will need to follow customer confidentiality agreements with AMD and only showcase the respective M2-based models during the show while not revealing detailed specifications.
AMD plans to stop production of its 939- and 754-pin platforms by the first quarter of 2007, the sources indicated."
