[H]ardNews 11th Edition

Radeon X800XL All-In-Wonder:

HotHardware says that the Radeon X800XL All-In-Wonder is the best of the All-In-Wonder cards to date. Personally, I’d have to agree. If you want a great all around card that has respectable gaming performance, ViVo functionality and TV on your PC, definitely give this card a look.

The All-In-Wonder X800 XL is the latest in a long line of "wonders", and the finest one we've seen thus far. ATI continues to provide an excellent collection of extra software, cabling and other hardware to make the All-In-Wonder X800 XL a truly all in one solution.

FREE Ceramic White PSPs:

You should head over to my alter-ego site Hypothermia and drop your name in the hat to win of two ceramic white PSPs. You can enter once a day to win, so get in it to win it.

I will be giving away two ceramic white PSPs starting Friday. If you want to get your name in the hat, hit the link. As always, you can enter once a day until the contest closes. Good luck!

Misc. Mods & Ends:

Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse @ Tweaknews - X-micro Video MP3 400 @ Hardware Pacers - Corsair 2GB TWINX PC4400 DDR550 Pro Series Memory @ BonaFideReviews - PowerColor Heat Buster @ Maximum CPU - BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.5.3

[H]ardNews 10th Edition - Blair's Tech Ed.

PS2 Price Cuts?

Is Sony on the verge of cutting PS2 prices? Chris Morris’ “Game Over” column takes an educated guess at Sony’s plans to counter the Xbox 360 launch next month. After posting profits that were down a whopping 73%, Sony better do something, that’s for sure. Personally, I am predicting $99 consoles (Xbox & PS2) this holiday season. Mark my words.

Let's be honest: It's not the youngest kid on the video game block; in fact, it's the oldest. It's still the strongest, though, and doesn't intend to give up its sales crown - even for the short term - without a fight. That could conceivably mean a price cut.

New IBM Supercomputer:

Sure, the new IBM supercomputer can do 280 trillion floating point operating per second but can you Play F.E.A.R. or Quake 4 on it?

In a ceremony at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California Thursday, officials from the Department of Energy and IBM celebrated completion of the world's fastest supercomputer, and said IBM's Blue Gene/L system had doubled its previous performance.

Fiber-Optic Data Transfer Record:

O.K., so you take the computer from the story above and hook it to the net using this fiber-optic technology from Japan and you could download the entire internet in 30 seconds. Well, at least the good parts.

Kansai Electric used fibre-optic cables on power-transmitting steel towers to achieve the speed of one terabit per second, which is more than 100 times faster than inter-city data transmissions currently in use, a spokesman says.

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad Royal:

Most of you will remember the Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad Royal spy photos we showed you here awhile back. Well, Wayne Soong let us know that Akiba PC has an actual Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad board in house and, I have to admit, quad SLI looks pretty cool. Whether or not it is even practical is another thing all together, but the pictures are mouth watering. There are a handful of pics of the board loaded with four video cards on Akiba, I snagged on image to get you started:

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

HiS Radeon X800GT & X800GTO:

Guru3D has both the HiS Radeon X800GT and the X800 GTO video cards in house for a little review action. Will either of these cards suit your needs? What is the difference between a GT and GTO? These questions are answered, and more, in the full review:

Only time will tell, but one thing is a sure fact, there are a lot of ATI fans out there with a budget that have been looking out for this product and it will sell for sure. A huge plus has to be the price versus performance ratio, but also do not rule out the versatility the card offers.

HiS Radeon X800 GTO:

The crew at Noticias3D also have the HiS Radeon X800 GTO on the test bench today. The review isn’t in English but, since it is Friday, why not take a walk on the wild side and read it without a translator!

Tras informarnos un poco ya nos hemos situado y nos lanzamos al análisis de esta pequeña joya de HIS, alguien se preguntará si HIS fabrica algo que no sean joyas, y la verdad es que razón no le faltará.

PowerColor X800 GT Xtreme Edition:

Speaking of taking a walk on the wild side, The Tech Zone has just reviewed the “Xtreme Edition” PowerColor X800 GT. Is this card really extreme? Or is it all in the name. At least we know the card looks good:

The Xtreme is a very good looking video card, with its red PCB and big cooler, the Xtreme will look good in any computer case. The graphic card matched perfectly with our purple ECS KN1 SLI motherboard and funky Corsair RAM.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

Welcome to the TGIF edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! First of all, Friday means Folding, if you aren’t Folding for a cure then you NEED to be!! If you need to know why we DC hit this thread up. If you have the desire to Fold but your hardware is lacking, check out the distributed computing parts swap thread and get that box running. So now you have the desire, the hardware but you just don’t know “HOW” to get Folding, this thread will tell you everything you need to know. We need everyone folding that we can get… and besides, it is so simple to do, even I fold for the [H]orde. Now that we have Folding taken care of, let’s talk about the Half-Life 2: Lost Coast screenshot thread. The other hot topic today is the thread about our NVIDIA SLI mainstream editorial. Moving on to some of the [H]ot deals, our deal of the day has to be this All-In-Wonder X800XL for $289. Runner up in the DotD is this $159 MSI 6800 PCI-E video card. As always, have fun in the forums. We’ll see you in there!

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Sex.com Hijacker Arrested:

Remember the guy that forged some documents to get Sex.com a few years back and was sued for $65 million before he magically disappeared? Well, he was just arrested in his mansion in Mexico. I really shouldn’t laugh…wait a minute, yes I should. Hahahahahhaha!

Four years after dodging a $65-million court judgment by fleeing the country, former online-porn mogul Stephen Michael Cohen was arrested by Mexican authorities in Tijuana and handed over Thursday to U.S. agents.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Soitec Interview:

DigiTimes has just posted part one of an interesting three part interview with Christophe Maleville, process engineering manager with Soitec. The interview covers the future of SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology, where it is heading, the benefits and what it currently has to offer.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Swiftech H20-Apex Liquid Cooling System @ OCIA - Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ InsaneTek - Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 Case Fan @ LAN Addict

Etc.:

Triple Header PSU Round Up @ 3DXtreme - Ergonomic Mouse Round Up @ TechSpot - Samsung Syncmaster 173P+ 17inch LCD Display @ PCStats - Scythe Silent BOX SBX-1000 @ MadShrimps

Cases & Modding:

Aspire X-Plorer Case @ Viperlair

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Windows Vista, HDCP and Digital Rights Management:

PCStats has posted a new article that covers Windows Vista and Digital Rights Management. Interesting reading for sure.

Part of the feature set of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista (ne Longhorn) operating system is support for High-Definition (HD) content, either through television signals, HD or Blu-Ray DVDs, or Internet video. Along with this support though, is a new set of restrictions designed to ensure the sanctity of HD content and protect it from copying.

More Video Game Laws:

It looks like another state might be jumping on the bandwagon and trying to pass a law that restricts the sale of mature video games to minors. Do we really need to pay for a new law to enforce what is already common sense?

Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla's SB492 bears striking resemblance to recently passed California bill. In a stroke of déjà vu that gamers are quickly becoming familiar with, Florida state Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla (R-District 36) has introduced a bill that seeks to restrict the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

MS Threatens To Pull Windows From S. Korea:

It looks like Microsoft is threatening to pull Windows from S. Korea because of possible anti-trust rulings by the KFTC. Whew, for a second there I thought they were talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"If the KFTC enters an order requiring Microsoft to remove code or redesign Windows uniquely for the Korean market, it might be necessary to withdraw Windows from the Korean market or delay offering new versions in Korea," Microsoft said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Thursday.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast:

If you own a retail copy of Half-Life 2, head on over to the Steam website and download Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The download is just under 320MB, grab it if you want it.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, a single-player level custom-created to showcase High-Dynamic Range lighting (HDR) in the Source engine, is available now to all owners of HL2. As a technology showcase, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast's system requirements are very high. During installation, Steam will prompt you if your system does not meet the recommended configuration. We hope you enjoy it.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition - Press Releases

Motorola And Intel Team Up:

Motorola Inc. and Intel Corporation today announced their plan to collaboratively foster greater industry momentum for WiMAX and to advance the use of mobile WiMAX technology, based on the proposed IEEE 802.16e standard, for both fixed and wireless broadband applications. Intel and Motorola plan to collaborate on specification efforts within the WiMAX Forum in an effort to ensure that network and device interoperability issues are addressed adequately.

NVIDIA And Hybrid Team Up:

NVIDIA Corporation announced today that the Company is working with Hybrid Graphics Ltd. to deliver a one-stop, native-accelerated 3D API stack for mobile phone manufacturers and developers. Until now, mobile phone OEMs would typically purchase silicon and high-level software from different vendors – increasing integration time and reducing system performance.

[H]ardNews 12th Edition

Albatron K8SLI nForce4 SLI:

Overclockers New Zealand has posted a short review of the Albatron K8SLI nForce4 SLI, socket 939 motherboard. While the board in this review was quite the overclocker, we had quite different results in our review earlier this month.

The Albatron K8SLI exhibits an extraordinary level of overclocking potential, reaching 332MHz "FSB". (Note overclocking is NOT guaranteed and may vary from sample to sample.) Based on our sample, Albatron K8SLI entered the same realm as the famous DFI LanParty series!!

Microsoft Makes More Money:

Microsoft’s first quarter earnings were up by a 24%. For those of you without a calculator, that is $3.13 billion dollars. Wow.

"We continue to see healthy demand for our products, and customer excitement is high for our next wave of product innovations kicking off next month with the launches of Xbox 360, SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005," he said.