Tech News
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NL: Review Block - Motherboard Round Up
Published: Monday, February 6, 2006 | By: DennisHere is something new, A motherboard Round up!, review style... Comments not included.
FoxConn Boards
- Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS Review @ PCStats
- Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS Review @ Viper Lair
Gigabyte Boards
- Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
- Gigabyte GA-G1975X G1-Turbo @ HardwareZoom
- Gigabyte G1975X Board on Display @ TweakTown
- Gigabyte 8N-SLI Quad Royal Review @ TweakTown
Epox Boards
- EPoX EP-8NPA SLI for the Athlon 64 754 @ OcInside
Abit Boards
- ABIT AT8 Review @ techPowerUp!
- Abit Fatatality AN8 Motherboard SLI @ XS Reviews
For more review block action click the link below. -
XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition Review @ nV News
Published: Monday, February 6, 2006 | By: DennisXFX is one of the top mfgs when it comes to enthusiast ready video cards, most everything they offer has been hand tweaked and modified to get the best all around performance.
"The three X’s stand for eXtreme overclocking, eXtreme performance and eXtreme cooling. According to XFX, the XXX label represents a new level of graphics performance, which is achieved by only using parts from the top 10% yields."
The only downside is price since they are typically one of the more expensive brands out there.
Strange thing is the one time I comment on price everyone tends to write to discredit my claim. -
Palit 7800GT Blitz GeForce 7800 GT Review @ Hardware Zone
Published: Monday, February 6, 2006 | By: DennisFor those of you in the know, (or care) this is the company that bought the Gainward name. It's good to see they are pushing the envelope a bit.
"The GeForce 7800 GT has been in the market for quite a while so we are seeing minor modifications to the standard design from various vendors. The Palit 7800GT Blitz is not only overclocked like so many of the 'special editions' offered by practically every vendor, it uses faster and more expensive DDR3 RAMs rated at 1.4ns. On paper it certainly looks like a very speedy GeForce 7800 GT and we'll think you will agree after looking at its impressive specifications below:"
And the best part... The PCB is RED!!
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Asus A8R-MVP motherboard CrossFire on a budget @ Tech Report
Published: Monday, February 6, 2006 | By: DennisLeave it to Asus to break the mold. It's too bad other companies can't afford to be so bold.
"Fortunately, the CrossFire Edition chipset has an ace up its sleeve. Its north bridge is capable of interfacing with alternative south bridge chips, including those built by ULi. Asus has taken advantage of that capability with the A8R-MVP, a CrossFire-capable motherboard built with ULi's M1575 south bridge. The M1575 fills in many of the features missing from the SB450, and it shouldn't suffer from the I/O performance problems that afflict the SB450."
Phj34r my l33t ryme skillz -
4GB Xbox360 Hard drive @ xbox360Galazy
Published: Monday, February 6, 2006 | By: DennisConsidering how much I actually use my current xBox I really doubt I'll be spending any money on the 360. However for those that did here is a funky accessory for you.
"Now, I'm sure all of you are wondering how well this performs, and since it is a flash drive, it performs extremely fast. This drive uses the same Magicstor 4gigs microdrive that its predecesor for the PSP uses. We tried this system in several different ways and tried to transfer data as fast as possible, and did not experience any strange issues. But if you're looking for an alternative to the hard to find and expensive official Microsoft unit, then this is not the drive for you."
Flash memory without the boobs.
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Abit to change company name
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: Dennis"Following yesterday's announcement of USI's intention to purchase Abit Computer's motherboard business and brand, Abit announced a special shareholders meeting to discuss several items, including the disposition of Abit's Neihu building, changing Abit's company name, revising the company's "articles of incorporation", the disposition of the company's assets, and the release of the directors from non-competition restrictions imposed by Article 209 of Taiwan's company law."
Just think of how this effects poor ole Wendell.
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ECS PF22 Extreme @ Digit-Life
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisHere is another violet ECS board on the review block in that Russian lab called ixbt.
"The PCB layout is good: nearly everything is convenient, except for installing/removing memory modules in case of an installed video card. Both system fans on our sample worked fine during our tests. But ECS Extreme motherboards often come with fans that start howling after several days of work. The only jumper on the board (Clear CMOS) is easily accessible even when the motherboard is installed into a PC case. Brief description of its functions is published on the PCB. The 4-phase switching voltage regulator of the processor incorporates two filed-effect transistors per channel and thirteen 1800 uF capacitors."
Nice list, and of course it goes on, one of the Digit-Life signatures.
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ECS PF5 Extreme @ techPowerUp
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisECS has been known to make some pretty strange boards over the years and something about this one seems familiar, not in functionality or editor complains but in color and style.
"When I first hooked this board up to the test bench, I was surprised to see the PSU switch on an off repeatedly in fractions of a second, even though I never touched the power button. Usually this is caused by a short circuit. The PSU detects the short and turns off, then it turns on again, and so on."
Strangely enough I still have the board in question despite Soltek quickly killed it off for technical reasons. -
Running high VDIMM & low VCORE you risk to killing your Athlon 64 CPU
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: Dennis"Here's quote from Tony from OCZ who made the information public after he received the info from AMD themselves:"If you run a high vdimm and a low vcore with E die (revE, aka venice, san diego, manchester, toledo, newark, lancaster, denmark, venus, ..) you are running the risk of killing the cpu's. So if you have OCZ VX (or others) and you
are not raising the vcore on your cpu you stand a chance of pumping a lot of current into the memory controller and causing permenant damage."" -
Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 @ TechFreaks
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006 | By: DennisWe’ve been hearing good things about this keyboard. Strange thing is when Microsoft introduced the "Natural" keyboards back in the 90's the public was all pissed off saying they were not natural and in some cases were worse than a standard straight keyboard. Personally I like the style and even find it difficult to switch between the natural normal versions.
"You can not benchmark a keyboard. When it comes to purchasing a keyboard, especially an ergonomic one, people are looking for comfort. Sure, price and fancy buttons may play a role, but it all falls back to the feel of the keyboard. This is where Microsoft Natural keyboards excel. Naturals have always had, as their name would suggest, a more natural feel over regular keyboards. Microsoft's latest edition to their Natural line, the Natural Elite 4000, takes comfort to an entirely new level."
The 4000 series is split, dipped, and curved to provide better key access and comfort. I would tend to agree.
