Tech News
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Happy New Year
Published: Saturday, January 1, 2005 | By: DennisWelcome to 2005! I trust that all of your holiday activiies were well withn the legal realm and that nobody got hurt or arrested.
Take care and have a good one. -
Raidmax Samurai 908 Review Posted
Published: Thursday, December 30, 2004 | By: DennisI really have to hand it to Raidmax for creating a very unique gaming case; they did an excellent job in the bodywork and the paintjob is great. However the case doesn't really lend itself well to many modding possibilities except for enhancing what has already there.
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Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT Review @ Bjorn3D
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: DennisI think SLI will be big news in 2005 though I'm also getting the distinct impression that SLI is only SLI to nVidia.
"The comeback of SLI technology is another reason NVIDIA has more people leaning its way nowadays. Most of NVIDIA's current GeForce 6 series is available in AGP and PCI Express flavors. With the release of the 6600 line of cards, NVIDIA finally lauched its first native PCI Express GPUs, meaning they were designed for PCI Express." -
Intel to incorporate EDB security in various CPUs
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: Dennis"Intel plans to incorporate its Execute Disable Bit (EDB) security technology in several lines of CPU, including the 600-series 64-bit Pentium 4 lineup, Pentium M and 775-socket Celeron D models, in 2005, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers.
EDB technology is able to prevent certain classes of malicious "buffer overflow" attacks when combined with the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system, the sources added."
And that is pretty much the extent of that news posting. Can I hear a collective "Yay!"??
I didn't think it was that exciting either.
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Asustek shipment target is 10-12 million graphics cards
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: Dennis"Asustek Computer’s goal of shipping 10-12 million graphics cards in 2005, up about 33-62% from the 7.4-7.5 million units estimated for this year, will mean more competition for OEM and clone orders among Taiwan graphics-card makers in the coming year, market sources said.
If realized, Asustek will replace Micro-Star International (MSI) as Taiwan’s largest graphics-card maker, the sources noted."
That is a lot of video cards.
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Taiwan makers start delivering Pentium M motherboards
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: Dennis"DFI, a Taiwan-based motherboard maker, has started delivering its Pentium M motherboard, the 855GME-MGF, for desktops to its channels in the US, Japan and Europe, although not in large volumes, said a spokesperson for DFI.
The spokesperson stated that DFI could ramp up production of its 855GME-MGF motherboards, if the supply of Intel 855GME chipsets is sufficient."
There are a few reviews related to this announcement you can find them in the DFI Press Center -
MSI GeForce 6600 GT PCIe SLI Performance Review @ HardwareZone
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: Dennis"Days after SLI was publicly announced, NVIDIA hinted its next version of Media Communication Processors (MCPs) would include support for SLI technology. True enough, the nForce4 MCPs were launched recently and basically built upon the foundation of the nForce3 Ultra, but this time it supports the PCI Express I/O interface. There are currently three variations of this new MCP:- NVIDIA nForce4, NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra and NVIDIA nForce4 SLI. The basic nForce4 was designed for regular Athlon 64 Socket-939 systems with a PCIe I/O subsystem."
In an unrelated note while I was chatting with the guys from nVidia at Computex I stumbled over the SLI topic (in 3dfx terms) and asked if it was possible to link two PCI Express video cards in a similar manner. The guys were rather taken back by the question but answered properly by saying "there was nothing in the spec that says you can't”. I really didn’t think much of it though was rather intrigued by their reaction. About 3 weeks later they made the SLI announcement which of course tied everything together.
All I can say is "Damn, can I guess this shite or what?".
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Chaintech GeForce 6600GT AGP Review @ OCModShop
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: DennisThe nVidia midrange GPUs have always been very popular, they offer some good speed at a fraction of the price.
"Like I mentioned in the introduction this 6600 series was initially released only as PCI-Express. Because PCI-Express is not mature enough, many people are not able to make the move yet. There isn't a big difference between the PCI-Express and AGP versions of this card but there are some."
For this particular GPU the PCI-Express version can also be run in SLI mode. -
Hacker hits McDonalds China Web site
Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 | By: DennisThe way I see it Taiwan is a separate country but as we all know not everyone sees things the way I do.
"The world's largest restaurant chain is expanding fast in China and currently has 600 stores in what has become its eighth-largest market.
McDonald's English-language home page features a sign saying "I'm going to McDonald's" pointing at a drop-down menu listing China and Taiwan as separate "country/market" identities.
China has considered the self-ruled island of Taiwan part of its territory since it split away from the mainland after the defeated Nationalists fled there at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949."
The news is a little late considering but its still news, kind of. -
Phantom Robot ChipsMod IV Review @ Big Bruin
Published: Monday, December 27, 2004 | By: DennisThis is really one of the coolest Northbridge coolers that I've seen in quite awhile. The cooler comes anodized and appears to be available in a variety of colors.
"Installation of the unit is not difficult, but does take a little bit of time. Depending on your current Northbridge heatsink, you might have to remove it from the bottom of the motherboard, which could mean totally taking your system apart. Of course if you have an Intel system that uses the hook system, you won't have to do that."
I might have to get me one of these.
