[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Innovation Killed the Upgrade?

The Tech Report has a very interesting article that asks the question whether innovation killed the upgrade? It is true that we live in a time when often your whole package needs upgrading…not just a CPU or video card anymore. As always, a good read by the gang at the Tech-Report.

Remember way back when a motherboard would last at least one or maybe two meaningful CPU upgrades? My, how things have changed. These days, most major CPU upgrades require new motherboards and often new memory sticks, making the processor upgrade process potentially more expensive and involved than it used to be—and perhaps needs to be. Were we really better off in the good old days? After all, those CPU upgrades produced systems with the latest and greatest processors running on stale motherboards with old memory technology. By today's standards, that doesn't sound like much of an upgrade, does it?

AOpen AK77-8XN:

Our Irish buddies over at Tech Seekers have posted up a review of the AOpen AK77-8XN mainboard. If you are looking for a board to base your new AMD system around…could this be the black beauty you are looking for? Or should you take a pass? I’ll let the gang over there fill you in.

The AOpen AK77-8xN is quite a good solid board, and as with all KT400 based boards, performance is quite good also. (Although nForce2 is the preferred choice now) The board was complete stable during all tests right up to 180MHz FSB. So if you like to overclock then this is not a bad choice.

Mods & Ends:

Chameleon Case @ PCAbusers - 64mb USB Drive @ Techfreaks - Case Venting System @ Xtremods - Sunbeam Rheobus @ OCModshop- TweakMonster Light Kit @ OCIA