[H] Enthusiast Archives: May 2006Archive Listing


Friday May 26, 2006

DX 10 Overview

DriverHeaven have their thoughts and impressions on DirectX 10 and how it will impact gaming and video card usage as we know it.

Yesterday I attended a briefing with ATi in London on behalf of Driver heaven regarding Direct X 10 and I wanted to share a brief overview of information behind this technology.

If you are looking for something a little meatier, then be sure and read our thoughts as well.

[H] Question & Answer

We’re going to try something a little bit different and fun. If you guys have any questions that you have been dying to ask an [H] staffer then send me an email at rich@hardocp.com with your question and who you would like to ask. If you’d like a couple of us to answer, please feel free to ask as well. I’ll pick out some of the great ones and we’ll compile them into an article for you guys to read. If you ever wanted our input on a particular issue, or just something you are curious about, this would be a great time to find out.

Go Mod Something!

Since we are on the verge of a long weekend, wouldn’t today be a good day to run out to the hardware store and get a project started? You could create a really awesome case mod like this one. Yes, he does indeed get points for having the coolest logo on his rig evar.

News Image

Why not go check out our Case Modding subforum and get some ideas.

[H] Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO Evaluation

If you have been thinking about buying a Sapphire X1600, our crack Enthusiast staff has their evaluation up for your reading pleasure. I would highly suggest reading this article before making any firm decisions.

The Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO is just not fast enough to keep up with the competition. What use are features if they cannot be used? The Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO is not even close to being fast enough for ATI's Adaptive AA, High Quality AF and/or HDR+AA in today's games. Though for only $99 a gamer should not expect that these features will be useable in the absolute latest games.

We also have a thread going for your comments, discussion and questions.

Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2 GB Dual Channel

Another thing you guys should know by now is that I do not build a box with anything else but Corsair as my ram solution. If you are looking for some for a new box, or just as an upgrade, be sure to take a look at the review from Hardware Secrets.

Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO memory kit uses two 1 GB CMX1024-3500LLPRO memory modules (219 MHz/DDR438, 2-3-2-6 timings) and is optimized to be used on ASUS A8N32-SLI motherboards series. CMX1024-3500LLPRO modules were the first to use CAS 2 latency, which is considered very aggressive in high-capacity modules (1 GB) with a 219 MHz clock. Let’s see how this kit goes on our review.

GeForce 7900 Inferno – Burn Baby Burn

It seems that the demon art of vendor overclocking is pushing many GeForce 7900 video cards beyond their abilities and into an early grave. It's one thing when you overclock the card, and another when it comes out of the box overclocked with a warranty.

Please see what our forum-goers have to say.

NVIDIA nForce 500 Chatlog

We had mentioned earlier that the good folks at Bjorn3D were having a chat with Nvidia concerning the nForce 500. The log of that chat is now up and answers a good many questions about the new chipset.

On the 23st of May 2006 we held a chat with NVIDIA talking about their new nForce5 chipset.

Hiper Type-R HPU4M580 PSU

If you are looking to add some juice to your box, you might want read up on the Hiper Type-R. Oh, and if you can’t read this, you might want to fire it through a translator first.

Von der britischen Firma Hiper, Hersteller von Media Center PCs, Netzteilen, Lüfter und Tastaturen, erhielten wir mit dem HPU4M580 ein Netzteil zum Test, welches im Bezug auf Leistung und Qualität der gehobenen Klasse angehört.

I’ve heard people say German and English are really similar, but I’m just not seeing it. Hell, is that German?

The Language of IT

The guys at VIA Arena take some to time examine the language of IT and actually use us as a prime example. The author seems to think that today’s language is catered to a broader audience but you can be the judge.

The IT industry might be just a teenager but many of the old school IT journalists are not far off middle age. Has the language all grown up? My mother still can't understand it! This editorial explores the the evolution of the language style of online IT media.

I don’t know about you guys but I certainly think bumpin’ a chubby is an easily understandable description.

AM2 Chipset Showdown: ATI vs NVIDIA

FiringSquad has fired up an AM2 and dropped in both red and green video cards to see exactly how they perform. You would obviously think that the Nvidia would have a clear advantage with the new NForce chipset, but you might be surprised.

ATI and NVIDIA have been locked in a bitter graphics war for the better part of roughly a decade now, although admittedly NVIDIA really wasn’t directly in ATI’s crosshairs those first few years. Over the course of this time both companies have seen their fortunes rise and fall, with neither company ever able to truly land a knockout blow to the other, which has led to a very competitive graphics industry.

You can also take a moment to read our take on the AM2 platform and what it means to you.

Sapphire Toxic X1900XTX

Nowadays, water cooling in a box can be found just about everywhere. t-break has a review of the Sapphire Toxic X1900XTX which is a specifically designed cooler for the 1900XTX. The big question always seems to be can a out of the box solution stack up? Read on and decide for yourself.

Generally, water cooling has been associated with enthusiasts and hard core overclockers, however, this perception has been changing over the last year or so. Companies like Gigabyte and Thermaltake have “ready-made” water cooling kits that don’t require much skill installing. While these kits don’t necessarily work as well as something put together by the enthusiast, they do get the job done. Today, we’re looking at one such solution- Sapphire’s X1900XTX graphics card which comes water-cooled out of the box.

Thursday May 25, 2006

Radeon X1900XTX Overclocking

Driver Heaven has a write up covering Radeon X1900XTX overclocking posted today that is worth checking out. For more information on the X1900 series make sure you head on over and read our article at [H] Enthusiast, you’ll be glad you did.

Perhaps the sole criticism one could find to the new series was the fact that the two models the X1900 line was comprised of at launch, the X1900 XT and the X1900 XTX, have only a small difference in clock speeds, with the XT running at 625 core / 725 mem, while the XTX running at 650 core / 775 mem. So the real question is: is paying premium for the XTX model justified? Are there any extras that come with that premium, such as higher overclockability? That's what we're about to find out in this article.