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Gigabyte
3D Cooler Ultra GT Edition Review
hardCOREware.net
has posted a review on the Gigabyte 3D Cooler
Ultra GT Edition
Last
week, we saw an established PC company release
their first batch of motherboards. Today, we have
one of the biggest motherboard manufacturers releasing
their first batch of CPU coolers! The Ultra GT
Edition is the top line product - a full copper
multi-platform CPU with a side mounted blower
fan and 4 heatpipes - yum!
http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-216-1.htm
Athlon
FX 53 on Socket 940
While
I rarely post CPU reviews this one has caught
my eye. Why did it catch my eye? For the simple
reason that it seems extremely slanted toward
AMD. I have nothing against
AMD,
I just wish that if you do a CPU comparison of
the "high-end" product from one company
you better include the "high-end" from
the other company. In this comparison they do
not and then scream, "The AMD
CPU smokes the competition". Word advice
to any person doing a comparison review of CPU's,
"Include the high end from the competitor
as the 3.4GHz EE and 3.4GHz Prescott are available.
Without doubt, the new FX53 will cost quite a
bit. But if you look at the pricing of the P4
Extreme Edition, then it doesn’t look that
bad. Obviously, the rich kids that want the fastest
PCs will go for the FX53, while the 3800+ would
probably be the more popular solution as its just
a tad bit slower than the FX53 and probably a
lot less expensive.
http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=mobos&id=311&pagenumber=1
AMD's Socket 939 Offers More with Much of the Same
AMD has introduced its new dual channel Socket 939 Athlon64
platform just a few weeks before Intel's new architecture
launch. Our benchmarks show what AMD's
socket 939 brings to the table, with such features
as a HyperTransport speed of 1 GHz, and how its
performance matches up to its price.
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/index.html
Trend
Micro Tests Updated 'VirusWall' for Linux
Trend
Micro is ratcheting up its support for Linux with
the upcoming release of InterScan VirusWall 5.0
(ISVW), currently entering beta testing. InterScan
VirusWall is an all-in-one antivirus, anti-spam
and content security solution geared toward small-
and medium-sized businesses.
http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=1085738718
AMD Moves to Socket 939
Review:
Chipmaker AMD
has finally dumped registered RAM on the desktop with the
introduction of socket 939 motherboards and CPUs.
We take an in-depth look at what this means for
the Athlon 64 platform.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1603578,00.asp
Notes
from the Lab
The
lab hits the road this week, runs into the Sasser
worm and encounters lousy wireless connections.
Back at the San
Francisco lab, Jason Cross
rediscovers the value of saving his work.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1603579,00.asp
Windows
XP SP2 Delayed 'til September?
According
to German Site Heisse, Richard Kaplan (Marketing
manager of Microsoft) told at a Winxp sp2 session
that SP2 could be expected in September. Internal
documentation talks about q3 2004.
http://bink.nu/DesktopModules/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1932
Microsoft
Working Hard on XP SP2 RC2
Microsoft
is working into the night on the release candidate
2 of Windows XP service pack 2. Current builds
stand at 2142, a steady 22 builds on from the
current 2120 build that beta testers have access
to. The latest build (2142) was compiled on Friday
28th May at 12:19AM
meaning Microsoft are now working overtime in
order to get SP2 ready in time. RC2 has slipped
from the original predicted internal date of 26th
May to as late as 7th June.
For
those interested in build dates and numbers:
2138
(xpsp.040522-1636)
2139
(xpsp.040524-1730)
2140
(xpsp.040525-1946)
2141
(xpsp.040526-1840)
2142
(xpsp.040528-0019)
We're
hoping to see RC2 get compiled this week with
a release on or after the 7th June, if RC2 gets
compiled early this week then beta testers may
well see the long awaited update at the end of
the week. Either way there's a lot of testing
to be done to ensure that any problems with RC2
are reported and that all is well for the release
to manufacturing (RTM) in mid-July.
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=20778
RADEON
X800 PRO Performance with Pentium 4
After
writing our X800 PRO with Athlon XP performance
guide, Brandon
has readied one for the ubiquitous Pentium 4.
Come take a look at how the mighty X800 PRO scales
across Pentium processors ranging from the 2.0A
to the 3.2 - and learn to decide whether or not
the X800 Pro or the 9800XT are the better upgrade
options for your processor!
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/x800_pro_pentium4/
ATI to release X300 >> 08:50 PM - Brandon Sandman
Bell
This
Digitimes story reports on ATI's
X300, which is aimed to serve the needs of the
value market. According to the report, X300 will
be launched at Computex this week and will be
based on a 0.11-micron manufacturing process.
The article goes on to mention that ATI
plans to tape-out its first 0.09-micron chips
at the end of this year with volume production
slated for 2005.
http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=6601
Intel
to Discuss Alderwood, Grantsdale Platforms Tomorrow
Intel
Corporation will discuss its forthcoming chipsets
formerly code-named Alderwood and Grantsdale on
the 1st of June, 2004. The chipsets will not only
bring some performance enhancements, but will
ignite the brand-new era in the PC industry by
beginning the transition to PCI Express interconnection
that will eventually replace conventional PCI
bus that has been in use for more than a decade.
“These platforms represent the most compelling
platform architectural changes in a decade. Never
before has one platform provided the opportunity
for such revolutionary changes in how we live,
work, learn and play as the Intel i925X and i915
Express chipset family with the Intel Pentium
4 processor supporting HT technology,” a
source close to Intel said. New core-logic sets
from Intel - i915G, i915P, i925X and derivatives
– will bring dual-channel DDR2
SDRAM memory, PCI Express x16 and x1 lanes for
add-in cards, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator
900 (i915G only), 4 Serial ATA-150, high-definition
(Azalia) audio as well as some other important
capabilities, such as integrated WLAN or promising
RAID technologies. Intel’s i925X core-logic
set will deliver from 2% to 7% performance increase
over systems powered by Intel’s former flagship
offering i875P at the same clock-speed of central
processing unit, according to the information
from Intel. “The Intel 925X Express chipset’s
high performance architecture, delivers additional
system-level performance via enhanced memory pipelining
that enables a higher utilization of each memory
channel, improving data access. The result is
a performance optimized platform optimizing data
transfers between the processor and system memory
for platforms configured with 800MHz system bus
and DDR2
memory. The new Memory Controller Hub design includes
wider internal data buses that support dual-channel
DDR2 memory technology at 533MHz
or 8.53 GB/s of peak memory bandwidth, for improved
platform performance. The new architecture
also supports both asynchronous and true isochronous
data traffic, with dedicated internal pipelines
and specialized arbitration. In addition, the
Intel 925X MCH
has improved ‘electricals’ with optimized
ball-out for better latency with an additional
bypass enabled. These enhancements enable the
Intel 925X Express chipset to take full advantage
of the performance of these new high-speed interfaces,”
people familiar with Intel’s plans noted.
Traditionally, Intel’s high-end chipsets
have been outperforming mainstream core-logic
sets by a tiny margin because of higher memory
performance and lower latencies. In Q3 2004 Intel
will reportedly release i925XE chipset with 1066MHz
PSB and possibly some other
enhancements. Intel Corp.’s officials did
not comment on the report.
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