[H]ardNews 9th Edition

VidCard Sales Slow?:

Apparently the sales of video cards are now feeling the pinch of a tight economy. Last month it was the motherboard makers that were feeling a bit of a slowdown.

Despite strong business in the second half of 2001 and early this year, graphics card makers are now faced with shrinking demand in the marketplace. Demand has dropped as integrated chipsets, such as Intel’s 845G and Nvidia’s nForce 2, have brought a new level of competition to the low-price sector and as high-end demand from PC-gamers is eroded by the increase in usage of game consoles like Sony’s PlayStation2 (PS2) and Microsoft’s Xbox.

Apparently the memo that video card sales are suppose to be slowing down never made it over to ATi, they are shipping their new line of Radeons hand over fist, some people predicting they might not even be able to keep up with demand.

Mini ITX Motherboard:

The name of this board, the Via Epia-800 sounds like something I should be taking for heartburn: “Epia-800 will stop your heartburn for hours…guaranteed”. All kidding aside, it would make an ass kicker of an MP3 / DVD box for sure..

A quick overview, it's a fully integrated motherboard, with onboard graphics INCLUDING S-Video and composite out, onboard 5.1 Sound, and onboard 10/100 LAN. As well as a VIA C3 800mhz chip, which doesn't give off much heat, requiring only a very small heatsink and fan to cool it. And to top off what seems like a perfect package, it's a tiny 17cm square, and comes in at around £95 (UK), which is very reasonable.

peE-Mail:

I am surely going to hell for this. I just sent a Pee-Mail to my mother-in-law. DOH!! Ken, reminded me how much fun it is sending these to your friends. Heh…sick.