[H]ardNews 7th Edition

3.2GHz P4 On Linux:

The alternative OS guys chime in with their review of 800 MHz FSB 3.2GHz Pentium 4. We have seen the 3.2GHz CPU tested in just about every other environment, Windows, gaming and so on. Let’s see how the newest P4 does in a Linux environment.

Intel today has once again continued the game of leap frog with their arch-rival AMD. The new Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz with an 800MHz FSB is hoping to cement their lead as the king of processors.

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro:

Another Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro review today, this time around It is from the guys at GotApex?. Here is a clip from the review:

Many consider Sapphire Tech just another clone maker, but that's not really the case. They were first out of the gate with Powered By ATI cards, and have managed to make a name for themselves in producing a line of solidly built Radeon powered cards, though lacking in any kind of fancy packaging or features.

I was gonna make a “they make clones too?” joke here, but I decided against it at the last moment.

Inno3D GeForce FX5600 Ultra:

The Inno3D GeForce FX5600 Ultra is on the HardCoreWare test bench as we speak getting a little of their special attention..and I do mean special. Have a look.

The GeForce FX series has finally started serious market penetration. Before now, we had slim pickings, such as the mythical FX 5800 Ultra, and low-end FX 5200 cards. But now video boards based on the GeForceFX 5600 Ultra are hitting the shelves, at the magical high-sales sweet-spot of $200. But how good IS it?

VIA EPIA M10000:

TechSeekers is proud of their tiny package and what it can do. They reviewed the VIA EPIA M10000 comparing it against previous versions of the mini-PC package known as the EPIA, good stuff. Get your minds out of the gutter, what did you think I meant when I said "tiny package"? Sheesh.

I feel that the M-10000 is a great improvement over the M-9000. The fan is much quieter and the performance is much higher than the MHz difference would indicate. The M-10000 plays media files where the M-9000 would struggle, and I didn't come across any DivX file that would not play properly on the M-10000. The M-10000 is a good example of the essence of the M-Series ideal.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Getting Polled:

Nope, this polling will not leave you walking crooked. I wanted to see what the general overall feeling is about our two major video chipset makers are as of today. If you went to go buy a 3D gaming card today, at any price point, what would you buy? As always, click to your right.

[H]ardNews - Blair Tech Ed.

Material Helps Bits Beat Heat:

Researchers from the University of Delaware, the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS), and the Independent University of Barcelona (UAB) in Spain have discovered a way to shore up magnetic energy that promises bits only a few nanometers across—the span of a few dozen hydrogen atoms. The method could make it possible to store more than a trillion bits per square inch, according to the researchers.

Bad E-mail Habits:

If your business lacks a strict policy governing e-mail behavior, you could be putting yourself at risk of legal action. That's because e-mail in the workplace now qualifies as a business record, a new survey points out. e 2003 E-Mail Survey, released this week, was gleaned from contact with more than 1100 U.S. companies. Among the findings: Employees spend about one quarter of their workday on e-mail, and 76 percent report a loss of time due to system problems.

Easier Single-Electron Devices:

Physicists at Cambridge University in the UK and the Japan Science & Technology Corporation in Tokyo have exploited a "natural" system of tunnel barriers in nanocrystalline silicon to make a single-electron transistor that operates at room temperature. The researchers say that the technique used to fabricate the transistor is compatible with existing silicon technology and has "considerable processing advantages" over the techniques previously used to make similar devices.

How VDSL Works:

The use of fast Internet connections has grown rapidly over the last few years. As more people buy home computers and create home networks, the demand for broadband (high-speed) connections steadily increases. Two technologies, cable modems and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), currently dominate the industry. While both of these technologies provide Internet connections that are many times faster than a 56K modem, they still are not fast enough to support the integration of home services such as digital television and Video-on-Demand.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Fake PayPal Message:

I had a bunch of people send me this one this morning…and then I got one. There is a fake e-mail going around trying to scam you for your personal information, the e-mail reads:

As with ANY e-mail you receive like this, always call your credit card company, or in this case PayPal, first. Never respond to anyone asking for this kind of info.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Graphics Card Ed.

GeForce FX 5600 Ultra:

The other budget board with big promise is the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra reviewed at 3DVelocity today. Right now, bang for the buck is definitely a coin toss between the Radeon 9600 Pro and this card.

As a mainstream user the benefits of the GeForceFX 5600 Ultra are undoubted. The ability to own a fully DirectX 9.0 graphics card without having to sell the family car to pay for it is undoubtedly a tempting one.

FIC A92 Radeon 9200 64MB:

OCAddiction has the FIC A92 Radeon 9200 64MB card in house for a round of benchmarking and a little poking and prodding. Here is a clip from the review:

The 9200 I tested was only the 64MB version. From my experience with this card, FIC builds and packages a quality video card, but for a lack of better words, the ATI Radeon 9200 is a weak GPU. The 9200 is in very much the same position as the FX5200; neither card performs exceptionally well.

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9100:

The Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9100 128MB card is in the hot seat at Byte Sector. Here is a quote from the quick and dirty two page review:

The Atlantis 9100 graphics card is a great card for the home user enthusiast, but I would not recommend it to heavy gamers, or even people starting to get serious about games. The Atlantis 9100 is great for people who are aspiring to become heavy gamers.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Radeon 9600 Pro:

Hexus is all over the Radeon 9600 Pro today showcasing the 9600’s great performance for a relatively low price tag. Hexus pit the card against a FX5600, which made for a very close race. Here is a bit from the review:

ATI have done a sterling job equipping 9600 Pro with a good AA engine and AF setup, courtesy of their SMOOTHVISION 2.1 technology. That hardware, along with the driver support that's no longer lacking, gives the 9600 Pro solid IQ enabled performance.

P4 At 3.2GHz:

Grab your pop-up stopper and head over to the Tech Zone to read their 3.2GHz Pentium 4 review. The review is your basic "missionary position" style review….you know what I mean, not very much in the way of gaming benchmarks and no overclocking either, but it gets the job done.

We have a new fastest kid on the block in the form of the Intel Pentium 4 3.2 with 800Mhz Front Side Bus. If you're the kind of person who simply must have the fastest CPU no matter what the price than the P4 3.2 is just your ticket! For the rest of us, the question isn't so easy to answer.

VIA EPIA M10000:

More VIA EPIA M10000 news today. The new fanless Tranquil PC was announced today aimed squarely at the office, school and HTPC market. Come to think of it, it’d be sweet to mod one of these into a school desk, wouldn’t it?

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions and Tranquil PC Ltd., a boutique company specializing in the research and development of compact, stylish PC systems, today announced the availability of the compact Tranquil PC - a low profile fanless PC system boasting an aesthetically pleasing small footprint and near silent operation for the discerning user.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

3.2GHz P4 Review:

Not to be left out, the fellas at Tweak3D have reviewed the Intel Pentium 4 at 3.2GHz. No real big overclocking experiments or anything like that, but a good review overall.

Amongst these advancements there are some that contribute more than others but when looked upon wholly potentially work together to deliver a better end user experience. Today we take a close look at Intel's latest and quite possibly biggest improvement to date, the recently announced 800MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors (including the 3.2GHz version) and i875P/i865 series (Canterwood/Springdale) chipsets.

GiGi GeForce FX5200 Ultra:

Say “GiGi GeForce” 5 times fast….heh. Anyway, the video card that makes you sound like you stutter is reviewed today by Explosive Labs. We all know by now that the 5200 Ultra is the bargain basement of the current chipsets and won’t win any speed contests, but if you need a cheap 3D accelerator, this might be the card for you.

In respect to Albatron's take on the NV34 core, we have a few things to say. The quality of the card is superb. The fact that Albatron used ram-sinks complete with thermal compound is certainly good to see. The large copper cooler that is seen throughout the larger portion of their line of video cards is definitely helpful when overclocking.

ATi Interview:

Richard Huddy of ATi is interviewed here. Thanks to ChefBoy for the linkage. Here is a quote from the interview here:

More G5 Pics:

In case you haven’t gotten your fill of the new G5. there are more pictures of the Apple G5 here. Nothing but pictures here.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

3.2GHz P4 Review:

We have had reviews of the 3.2GHz P4 from a hardware point, then from the flight sim guys…now, UKGamer steps up with a gamers perspective on Intel’s flagship processor.

The Pentium 4 'C' 3.2GHz doesn't offer a great deal of change, other than clock speed over its 3.0GHz counterpart. The 3.0GHz 'C' was the first CPU to support 800MHz FSB and make full use of 875P and 865 based motherboards. Be under no false pretences, the extra 200MHz won't mean a sea change in performance, however it will try and cement Intel's place on the top of the desktop processor performance tree, which is no bad thing for the Santa Clara giant.

GeForce FX Getting Props:

Biz Yahoo has a write up on NVIDIA’s latest. The GeForce FX 5900 Ultra is getting the accolades that the 5800 Ultra didn’t get because let’s face it, the 5900 Ultra is a better / quieter card. You can see our review here for a refresher.

Editor's Note: Actually this is not a Yahoo story at all but rather an NVIDIA Press Release written by NVIDIA. I don't remember a lot of press releases in the past to the likes of this one. It is apparent that NVIDIA's products are not flying off the shelves and selling themselves as we have seen in the past. Or at least that is what I would think with this sort of self-pimpage going on. I have an idea that NVIDIA desktop products sales are way down compared to 12 or 24 months ago. - Kyle

Coming on the heels of a successful launch of the GeForce FX 5900 series, top hardware editors worldwide have praised the new NVIDIA® GeForce FX 5900 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU) as the undisputed leader in performance, image quality and compatibility for the enthusiast PC gaming market.

See-Through Magnets:

What is light, see-through and magnetic? New ultra light transparent material that people think will have some seriously cool PC applications. Check it out. Thanks Wicker Bill.

It looks like smoked glass, weighs no more than balsa wood and it's magnetic. An ultralight transparent magnet could, for example, simplify the design of memories in which a laser beam reads out information stored on a magnetic hard disk, say developers Martí Gich of the Barcelona Institute of Materials Science.

Free 2.4GHz Processors:

I snagged up ten 2.4GHz socket 478 Celerons last week for a little giveaway action at my alter ego site Hypothermia. There are 5 left, so go drop your name in the hat and see if you can’t win one of these for your next project box, back-up rig or LAN box. Get in it to win it.

I decided to get ten 2.4GHz Celeron processor for my current contest instead of a couple high-end CPUs. These 2.4GHz Celerons would go really good in your back up box or LAN rig. Since we have ten, this contest will go for ten days with a winner being selected each day... So what are you waiting for...get in it to win it.

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Mobile Quadro FX Go700:

Fresh off the NVIDA press wire is news of the NVIDIA Quadro® FX Go700 mobile workstation graphics solution. This means that professionals as well as regular users alike can get Quadro based goodness on the go for presentations work on the road or just a mobile graphics workstation. Check out this snippet from the PR:

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today introduced the NVIDIA Quadro® FX Go700 mobile workstation graphics solution. Designed for professional users who demand exceptional performance and flexibility, the NVIDIA Quadro FX Go700 is the first mobile workstation solution to bring the power of full programmability to market—allowing engineers and artists to accurately represent real-world material characteristics, such as corrosion between metals or highlighted human hair, in real-time within application software.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

2.4GHz “C” Review:

OcPrices has a write up on the latest sweetheart of the OC world, the 2.4GHz "C" Pentium 4. Most of these jewels are hitting the 3GHz mark, with others being able to really hit some phenomenal OCs. See the OcPrices gang get a fairly easy 1GHz OC out of their CPU.

The 2.4C is the most overclockable chip I've seen for a LONG time and as soon as you get one with a good stepping you should hit 3Ghz + with ease. Invest in a better than stock heat sink and some good RAM and you will tear through your applications and games faster than ever.

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro:

The Radeon 9600 Pro is definitely a leader in the bang for the buck category dishing out great performance and a small price tag. The Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro reviewed at VR Zone certainly follows that tradition, but let’s see what else you get:

The Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro is one of the first Radeon 9600 Pro graphic cards to hit the market, and as like expected proved itself worthy of the Sapphire name, with a few speed bumps along the way.

Girls less Confident:

This study says girls are less confident on computers than men. Well, at least we have an advantage over them somewhere….right guys?

Girls in Canada's high schools are less confident on computers and the Internet than boys and use them less, says a study that describes a new kind of digital divide in Canadian society. The new digital divide, says the study released yesterday by Statistics Canada, is not about access to computers and the Internet — that gap has all but disappeared, it says — but about a gender gap when it comes to attitudes and opportunities in a knowledge-based economy that relies heavily on a computer-literate work force.

Waitadamnminutehere….this just mean most computer geeks are guys! I demand a re-count!

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

Home Network Set Up:

I am surprised at how many people cannot set up their own network, and I am not just talking about Mom and Sis either. Hardware Lab has the “how to” for home networking posted today. Most of what you’ll read in the four page guide you should already know, but just in case you forgot…here it is:

So you have two, three, four maybe more computers at home. You want to access the Internet on them all and share a printer. You could purchase a separate line for each of the computers and buy a data switch for the printer. But that would be too expensive and would cause too much hassle. The answer is to setup a small home network.

AMD Cuts 2Q Outlook:

Looks like SARS is still taking its toll on the bottom line for overseas manufacturers. AMD is the latest company to post lower than expected results because of the scare of SARS. Thanks Joe.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday warned of lower-than-expected second-quarter sales. Blaming the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the company said that its revenue for the quarter ending Sunday will total about $615 million, or $100 million less than it had forecast in April when it reported first-quarter earnings.

Game Benchmarks:

We have talked about “in-game” and “game-based” benchmarks until we are blue in the face over the last year. Massive Development, creators of AquaMark3, made an announcement regarding their upcoming game benchmark letting us know they have several downloads available right now giving you a sneak peek at their upcoming project. Take a look.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

VIA Mainboard Changes:

Steve reported to you guys earlier about this article over at Digitimes that states:

VIA Technologies is said to have decided to terminate the operations of its VIA Platform Solutions Division (VPSD) and will transfer all the division’s products and assets to First International Computer (FIC) now that it has settled its patent infringement lawsuits with Intel, according to sources.

I am getting a few of you that are confused on this. VIA is not getting out of the chipset business, they are simply moving that mainboard division over to FIC which can be categorized as a "sister company".

We did talk to VIA's Richard Brown, International Director of Marketing, and he emphasized that while the mainboard business structure at VIA is changing, that VIA would still be very much concentrating on their Mini-ITX product line that has been so successful for them.

We will surely be seeing their AthlonXP, Pentium 4, Opteron, and Athlon64 chipsets lines continue.