Tri-core computing with AMD's Phenom X3 8750

With the incremental increase in multi-core computing AMD last year surprised pretty much anybody in the world when information leaked regarding a roadmap showing CPUs with not 1,2 or 4 cores on them .. no three cores. That's right, a triple core processor based on the Phenom architecture.

So then, recently AMD released their Phenom X4 50-series processors, with an all new fixed B3 core, with which they can now leave the past behind them and move forward with processors that can actually start competing with the competition. Today we'll look at a B3 based Phenom X3 xx50-series processor, the Phenom X3 8750.

Let's have a look at it:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-x3-8750-review/

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Fun story at Engadget today, we've already seen the MacBook Air bathed in gold and crystals, but it seems that people just can't leave well enough alone, with the folks at Computer Choppers (no strangers to gilded Macs) only the latest to spare no expense in taking the laptop to heights of tackiness that no one from Cupertino would ever dare dream of.

That includes 24kt gold plating over the entire laptop and, in a final stake through El Jobso's heart, an Apple logo ensconced in multi-colored sapphires -- not to mention a polished gold SuperDrive to go along with it. If your eyes can take it, have a peek:

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Hiper Media Center HTPC HMC-2K53A-A3 review
(Media Center HTPC Slimline barebone)

Hiper recently released a new model of their slim-line HTPC barebone chassis, with VFD (display) fully integrated mainboard and PSU. Pretty much you drop a HD, a slice of memory and a processor in this system and you are good to go since the mainboard even has support for multi-channel audio, VGA & HDMI output as it's based on the reputable AMD 690G chipset (mainboard with integrated graphics card).

And next to all that, it even comes with a pretty decent remote control, all that for 300 bucks.

Read the full review here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/hiper-media-center-htpc-hmc2k53aa3-review/

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Windows XP SP3 will be out in roughly a week -- Microsoft just confirmed that it's been released to manufacturing, and that it'll be in Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center on April 29th. No word on if OEMs and devs got access today like we'd heard, but it shouldn't be long now -- here's hoping that rumored 10 percent speed boost is for real.

 

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. 

Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas

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AMD introducedtwo new energy efficient processors, the Athlon X2 4450e and 4050e, pretty stealty release I might add. The CPUs have a TDP of 45Watt and by the looks of it, they are identical to the previously released Athlon X2 BE-2400 and BE-2350.

WHAT: AMD has released two new 45-watt processors, Energy Efficient AMD Athlon

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WD announced that it is now shipping WD VelociRaptor hard drives, the next generation of its 10,000 RPM SATA "Raptor" series of drives. Designed with an enterprise-class foundation, the new WD VelociRaptor hard drive is modified specifically for PC and Mac enthusiasts and professional workstations. According to the press release, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive comes packed with twice the capacity and a 35 percent performance increase over the previous generation. 

From the bloodlines of the WD Raptor, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built with enterprise-class mechanics and packs 300 GB of storage capacity into a 2.5-inch enterprise form factor. The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor drive is enclosed in the IcePack, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink -- a customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps this powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop chassis.

Features of the new WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:

• 10,000 RPM, SATA 3 Gb/s interface, 16 MB cache.
• 1.4 million hours MTBF.
• The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor drives are enclosed in a 3.5-inch enterprise-class mounting frame with a built-in heat sink.
• Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) - Optimizes performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.
• SecurePark - Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface.

WD VelociRaptor (model WD3000GLFS) hard drives will be available on Alienware's high-performance ALX gaming desktop by the end of April. At launch, Alienware will offer two 300 GB WD VelociRaptor hard drives in RAID 0 configuration on www.alienware.com. WD VelociRaptor hard drives will be shipping exclusively through Alienware this month and will be available through the company's online store and at select distributors and resellers mid-May. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD VelociRaptor 300 GB is $299.99 USD.

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Publisher Midway has released an video walkthrough from the open-world title This Is Vegas (PC, PS3, Xbox 360),, showcasing the title's party component and its multiple activities.

When a powerful businessman begins turning Vegas into a family-friendly tourist trap, you must start your own powerful empire and resurrect the famous adult playground. Party hard at the hottest clubs to make VIP connections.  Grow your bankroll by hitting high stakes tables.  Race the fastest cars on the underground circuit to raise your reputation.  Fight off enemies with fists and firearms to prove your strength.  Where you go and what you do is your call whether counting cards, seducing dangerous women, cruising the strip or starting bar brawls, there

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According to AMD's Dirk Meyer we can expect a significant number of new products from AMD in May and according to TG Daily this will actually include the Radeon HD 4800 series. The desktop versions should arrive soon but the RV770-based FireGL workstation boards aren't expected until mid-August. The clockspeeds of these new GPUs are still subject to change but the site mentions the Radeon HD 4870 will be clocked above 1GHz and the Radeon HD 4850 will have a frequency of about 800MHz. The chips will support both GDDR3 and GDDR5 memory and will feature 32 texture memory units (TMUs).

The new graphics card generation is expected to become available to system integrators and OEMs in GDDR3/GDDR5 variants with 256/512/1024 MB buffers. 256 MB GDDR3 cards are exclusively targeted at OEMs (as well as ODMs, Sis) and are unlikely to shop up in retail. Expect to see mainly 512 MB GDDR5 cards in retail for both the 4850 and 4870. Just like the GPU, the memory clock isn't set in stone either, but we were told that the GDDR5 memory is currently running at a physical clock of 1.8 - 2.2 GHz.

With a 256-bit memory controller, we're talking about 115 to 141 GB/s of bandwidth. This number equals the memory bandwidth record set by the 2900XT 1GB GDDR4 (512-bit interface with GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz DDR).

All specs are of course speculation, yet it looks like May is going to be an interesting month for sure.

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Reuters just noted that later today the studio will announce plans to release about 40 movies on the format in the second half of the year, including Doomsday. The only studio to support solely HD DVD from the beginning will come out with all three of its Mummy films: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King July 22 (sounds like someone's bitter about HD DVD and taking it out on Blu-ray owners to us), with catalog releases jumping over from red like Miami Vice, Knocked Up, American Gangster and others before the year is out.

July 22 will mark the first Universal high-def movies to ship in blue boxes, with the release of the first two Mummy movies and the spinoff Scorpion King film.

According to Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter, other catalog releases to make the transfer from HD DVD to Blu-ray Disc before the end of 2008 are American Gangster, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Miami Vice, End of Days, U-571 and Land of the Dead.

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Word out on the street is that to cut PS3 costs earlier than expected there will be upgaring the Cell architecture. At the moment, Sony sells the PS3 at a loss. The respected group of analysts is now earmarking August as the milestone month. Sony's CFO recently suggested that the move would occur in the second half of year -- a date analysts then pegged at November.

No precise info is shared yet the new expectations were provided by Nikko CG. However, it's safe to assume that the PS3's break-even event will be realized by a switch to a sub-65nm cell processor, sub-90nm RSX graphics chip, or both, since the smaller chips are less-costly to manufacturer.

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Four European countries are offering DVD movies on a format called DVD-D that is unique in that the content is erased 8 hours after the disposable disc makes its first rotation in a player. The format is also applied to software, with a 48-hour life span, either of which can be kept indefinitely until its first use, at which point the timer starts. Such DVD-Ds are available in Italy, France, Germany and Scandinavia at bookstores, gas stations and kiosks for about a third of the price of a traditional multi-play DVD.
After the 48 hours are up, inserting the disc into a DVD player will result in a No Disc message. Recordable DVD-D discs are also available, with a 4.5GB capacity. The blank DVD-D+R can be recorded at up to 8X speed, and can either be ordered with pre-recorded content in quantities less than 2,000, or bought as blanks. The client can then specify how long the data is to remain, having the option of one-time viewing only, or a time period of 8 hours, 48 hours or otherwise. Blank DVD-D+Rs available for purchase can be recorded with a 48-hour data life.

There is certainly potential for companies to distribute demo programs or software on DVD-D discs, provided of course the discs can be copy protected first, as it's not clear what, if anything, prevents users from copying the DVD-D's content before the data self-erases. The discs and packages are fully recyclable.

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Yikes .. When ASUS launched the original Eee PC 701 4G in late 2007, the notebook was praised for its relatively low price, respectable performance for an inexpensive notebook due to its internal solid-state drive (SSD), and compact dimensions/weight. ASUS announced its second generation model in early March along with a few notable upgrades to its screen and storage capacity.

Unfortunately, those upgrades come at a price that pushes the Eee PC 900 squarely into an even higher price bracket. When the Eee PC 900 launches on May 12 in the United States, it will be priced at $549 for both Linux and Windows XP versions.

The Linux version of the Eee PC will come with a 4GB SSD + an additional 16GB internal flash module for a total of 20GB of storage space. The Windows XP model -- due to the licensing fees associated with Windows -- will only feature an internal flash module of 8GB leaving it with just 12GB of total storage space.

The other notable upgrades for the second generation Eee PC include the larger, 8.9" 1024x600 display, 1GB of DDR2 memory, Multi-Touch trackpad, and the inclusion of a 1.3 MP webcam (up from 0.3 MP). Otherwise, the Eee PC still includes an undersized keyboard, three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, and an Intel Celeron-M processor which can run at 630 MHz or 900 MHz.

It should be interesting to see if the Eee PC can manage to maintain the momentum of its predecessor given the higher price. It's true that the higher price affords a better user experience, but it may also push potential consumers to look at larger 15.4" alternatives in its price range.

However, for those that are strictly looking for an ultra-portable machine, the Eee PC 900 makes quite a statement as do competing offerings like the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and the Everex CloudBook Max.

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A new NVIDIA ForceWare driver appeared on the web which is being served on-line by one of NVIDIA's partners. It's revision build 174.93 XP for  Windows XP 7 Vista. Bare in mind this to be considered a beta driver, use it at your own risk. There are several discussion open on these drivers in the Guru3D NVIDIA driver forums, check them here.

Download:
 ForceWare 174.93 Vista (64-bit)
 ForceWare 174.93 Vista (32-bit)
 ForceWare 174.93 XP (32-bit)

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Congratulations ladies and gentlemen, Team Guru3D has broken through the 200th place barrier and we are now ranked at 167 out of 117339 with 11.5 million points. Thanks to all folders efforts here, what a great accomplishment. We have roughly 350 active GPUs and CPUs crunching data.

If you have not done so, please join Team Guru3D and start helping out pushing us forward for the good cause.

Team Stats : standford, extremeoc

Please join the folding team at (for information):

• Folding for Guru3D landing page
• Folding for Guru3D discussion and forums threads 

Don't be a wuss, join us !

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Overclocking with advanced air-cooling can take Intels Skulltrail platform from 3.2 GHz to 4 GHz pretty easily, even our review showed that. Now, 4.5 GHz is manageable with a modest water-cooling system. Not surprisingly, there is a lot more capability in this platform if take an extreme Skulltrail a bit more extreme.
 
According to a forum post on XtremeSystems, an overclocking community sites,

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Intel will cut prices of its processors. There are some big price cuts for the old 65nm chips but the price action on the new 45nm processors are just really small:

High-end model that will get reduced in price is the Core 2 Quad Q9550 at 2.83GHz and 12MB cache and it will get 2 dollars cheaper from its current $527 to $525. These are, of course, the wholesale prices. The very popular Core 2 Quad Q9450 at 2.66GHz and 12MB cache will drop from $319 to $317. The Core 2 Quad Q9300 at 2.5GHz and 6MB cache will drop from $270 to $268.

Two older models, the Q6700 with a 2.66GHz clock speed and 8MB cache and a 1066MHz FSB speed will drop from the current $527 to $268. The ultra popular 65nm Kentsfield Q6600 with its 2.4GHz clock and 8MB cache will drop from $250 to $227.

All dual core 45nm E8x0 series Penryn based models will drop $2 and as of next week, the E8500 with 3.16GHz clock 6MB cache and FSB 1333 will drop to $266, the E8400 with a 3GHz clock and 6MB cache and FSB 1333 will drop to $187; and finally, the E8200 clocked at 2.66GHz with 6MB cache and FSB 1333 drops to $167.

The older 65nm E6850 at 3GHz and 4MB cache drops to $266, the E6750 at 2.66GHz and 4MB cache drops to $187, and the E6550 at 2.33GHz and 4MB cache drops to $167.

The 4-series of Core 2 Duo processors will drop slightly in price. Starting with the E4700 with 2.60GHz clock, 800MHz FSB speed and 2MB cache drops $2 to $137, the E4600 with 2.40GHz clock, 800MHz FSB speed and 2MB cache drops from $139 to $117 while the E4500 with 2.20GHz clock 800MHz FSB speed and 2MB cache drops $2 to $117.

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Nvidia admitted that its most-recent chipset for Intel Corp.

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NVIDIA has quietly upgraded the higher end of its workstation card line via the Quadro FX 4700 X2. A professional cousin to the GeForce 9800 X2, the Quadro shares the same tactic of incorporating two mid-range graphics processors into a single card; the approach offers more performance than a single chip but without consuming more than one PCI Express slot. While core clock speeds are unavailable, the combined card holds 2GB of video RAM clocked at 800MHz (1.6GHz effective).

The California electronics firm also separates the FX 4700 X2 from the home model with advanced multi-monitor support on top of the SLI performance enhancements available for a single display. Extra space is used on the card to provide four dual-link DVI outputs that each can support very high resolution screens, ranging from 2560x1600 on most 30-inch displays to 3840x2560 ultra-high density monitors from IBM. The combined effect can generate as much as a 15360x2560 image. Stereoscopic imagery is also supported from the card, which is available today but isn't yet given a list price.

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After the initial success of the Eee PC of which 1 million units had been sold in just 5 months, Asus now launches a new version of the trendy gadged, the new Eee PC 900.

This new generation packs in a whole range of hardware that includes a 8.9 inch widescreen, a 1.3M pixels webcam, the new FingerGlide and 12GB and 20GB storage capacities for Windows and Linux platforms respectively, all keeping the overall weight under 1kg.

Mobility is one of the major factors attributed to the Eee PC

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To fulfill the heavy demand of Internal DIY Liquid cooling system from worldwide gamers Thermaltake has launched a brand new series of DIY liquid cooling system- ProWater series. The first model to be introduced is the new PW850i that incorporated the latest production mechanism and technology of the internal liquid cooling world.

The Thermaltake P500 Pump used in PW850i has high water volume of 500L per hour to support the heavy operations of liquid cooling systems; the hard-wearing ceramic bearing further increases the life span of the pump. The professional designed inlet and outlet will eliminates possibilities of air blockage.  Thermaltake PW850i also adopts the automotive style radiator with the Thermaltake exclusive dimple dimpled tubes, DDT technology rather than the traditional ones and the adjustable fan (1300~2400 RPM); CPU heats will be transmitted efficiently in the coordinated system environment. In order to avoid possible low coolant level dangers, level marks have been added on the new huge transparent tank in PW850i, making coolant maintenance and monitoring easier than ever before.

Thermaltake all new PW850i Internal DIY Liquid Cooling System will satisfy all cooling demands in any system environments. Thermaltake PW850i Internal DIY Liquid cooling system will definitely be your best choice for a quiet and efficient liquid cooling system!

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