Hmm, not bad for an overclocking experience ? Intel added a socket LGA-1366 Xeon processor in its lineup today with the W3565 This Nehalem based quad-core processor is made for single-socket servers and workstations.

Comparing apples to apples the specs are nearly identical to the Core i7 960:

• 3.20 GHz (24 x 133 MHz)
• 8 MB of L3 cache
• QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) speed of 4.8 GT/s.

Compared to the W3570 the QPI speed is lower as that one has a QPI of 6.4 GT/s.

And now here's whay that is value ... The new W3565 is priced at $562, the W3570 is priced at $999.

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions unveils its multi-compatible CPU Cooler "Tranquillo" of its SILENT product line. The mainstream tower CPU Cooler "Tranquillo" uses 4 power heat pipes and a special heat pipe constellation to achieve best heat transfer from CPU core to the aluminium fins in its class. After precise software simulation and calculation during the development stage a unique heat sink shape was created to lower air flow resistance as much as possible.

A silent 120mm fan with the intelligent GELID PWM (Pulse Width Module) control has been chosen to make this heat sink more valuable. The fan blades were optimised to guarantee high airflow while running silently. The intelligent GELID PWM curve keeps the fan silent when no necessary cooling is needed and accelerates the fan speed whenever additional cooling is needed. The multi-award winning high performance GC-2 thermal compound is already included in the package. Additionally mounting clips for AMD 754/ 939/ 940/ AM2/ AM2+ and for Intel 775, 1366 and latest 1156 sockets as same as back plates for Intel LGA 775, Core i5 and Core i7 boards are all included. The cooler is RoHS and WEEE conformed and carries a 5 year warranty.

"The Tranquillo can cool any CPU from either AMD or Intel's latest Core i7 and Core i5 while maintaining low noise levels and at a great price. It's a great product for power users looking to upgrade their existing cooler for overclocking but also for the silent enthusiast interested in keeping noise to a minimum without having to install expensive liquid based cooling solutions," said Gebhard Scherrer co-founder and Sales Director of GELID Solutions Ltd.

The Tranquillo CPU cooler is available now and has a MSRP of USD 38 or 28 EUR.

 

Hehe .. Why throw away a perfectly good whiskey bottle? Jason Marton decided to take this once partying bottle by throwing in the innards of a personal computer within, where it holds an Intel Pentium III 733MHz processor (yes, it was measured in MHz back in the day), coupled with 256MB RAM, a 40GB hard drive and a miniITX power supply.

Not the beefiest model of them all out there, but it sure wins points for creativity.

  

While Windows 7 is generally better accepted compared to Vista's launch all those years ago, that doesn't mean the latest operating system from Microsoft is trouble free.

Word has it that Microsoft is already looking to roll out its first beta of Service Pack 1 to testers by December 2009, with a public beta to follow next January. All of that points toward an SP1 release before Windows 7 is out on the market for a year, and we still have no idea on what the expected changes would be apart from it offering a better overall computing experience.

The new entry-level Blu-ray player JVC XV-BP11 is a truly versatile high definition player, offering playback of high definition Blu-ray discs, plus playback of the AVCHD format, the high definition format widely used for HD camcorders, including the JVC HD Everio line. The new JVC XV-BP11 Blu-ray player is available approximately for $199.95.

Last month Gigabyte started their Beat me if you Dare campaign. Round two has just started and you can enter. The round one competition has been coming down to the crunch time. GIGABYTE GTX 260 Super Overclock Editions performance has been fully disclosed in the competition. The worlds record of NVIDIA GTX 260 has been refreshed and beaten many times. The GTX 260 overclocking capability has been ascending climb to a new high. Last call for uploading your ultimate score into Event Website! Beat Me If You Dare round one is due on 0:00 1st November, Taipei Time. Also, we look forward to a surprising score in the end of round one competition.

Contestants may use any brand of Graphics Card for each round only with assigned graphics chip. Moreover, there is no hardware limitation for participation. GIGABYTE, very open-minded, welcomes contestants all over the world to compete against the top scores benchmarked by our in-house overclocking team to win cash and prizes. GIGABYTE wishes to lead the industry by holding such a competition, presenting end users the most advanced designed graphics card. Beat me if you dare competition has been well acclaimed within poser users and forum topics raised by GIGABYTE has attracted plenty of responses.

Beat Me If You Dare will run a round two competition starting on November 1st and finishing on November 30th. Contestants may use any brand of GTX 275 Graphics Card and no hardware limitation for participation. Prizes will be awarded for the top 3DMark Vantage performance scores and benchmark fps score in Resident Evil 5.

The champion of each round will receive USD1,500 cash. Second prize is a GIGABYTE GTX295 graphics card, the latest high-end NVIDIA card with dual GTX200 GPUs. The third place winner in each round will receive a GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA GTX285 graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 GPU).

As an added bonus, any contestant that beats the benchmark set by the GIGABYTE team will double his/her prize. 

There will also be a lucky draw for all Beat Me If You Dare entries with the winner receiving a professional GIGABYTE gaming mouse, GM-M8000.

For further details about the GIGABYTE Beat Me If You Dare competition:

Please visit:
http://event.gigabyte.com.tw/BeatMeIfYouDare/

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GIGABYTE-VGA/138376338834?ref=nf

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/GIGABYTE_VGA

The latest download of Realtek's HD audio driver version available for Windows XP and Vista, it runs under Windows 7 too.

The HD audio driver version for Realtek chips is available for download on our server. This download offers both the Windows XP and Vista binaries, the files contain drivers for the 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. All Realtek HD audio chips, which are common on many motherboards and in notebooks, are supported.

Package R2.36
Realtek HD Audio Driver support all of Realtek HD Audio Codec .

    1. Vista/Windows 7 WHQL Supporting: ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC889, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC665, ALC260, ALC262,ALC267, ALC268, ALC269, ALC270, ALC272, ALC273, ALC887,ALC670, ALC275
    2. Windows 2000/XP WHQL Supporting: ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC889, ALC861VC, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC665, ALC260, ALC262, ALC267,ALC268, ALC269, ALC270, ALC272, ALC273, ALC887,ALC670, ALC275
    3. HDMI Device WHQL Support: ATI HDMI Devices
    4. OS Supporting: Microsoft WindowsXP, Widnows2000, Windows Server 2003, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows7 - x86/x64
    5. Pack with Microsoft High Definition Audio UAAV1.0a(5013)
    6. Add/Fix
        1.) Driver :
            1. Customizations.

        2.) Package :
            1. Fix some presentation string of Upgraded dialog in small VGA Mode

Download

Noctua today officially presented its long-awaited NH-D14 premium CPU cooler. Combining a massive six heatpipe dual radiator design with an exquisite NF-P14/NF-P12 dual fan configuration, the NH-D14 is built to further improve the renowned quiet cooling performance of Noctua's award-winning NH-U12P series.

"Our NH-U12P coolers are widely regarded as one of the best solutions on the market, so it makes us especially proud that we can offer a further substantial improvement in quiet cooling performance with the new NH-D14", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "The NH-D14 in Ultra-Low-Noise mode actually outperforms the NH-U12P at full fan speed, so we're confident that this cooler will appeal to overclockers and silent enthusiasts alike."

Providing more surface area, better heat-distribution and superior airflow efficiency than conventional tower style heatsinks, the NH-D14's six heatpipe dual radiator design was developed to provide ultimate quiet cooling performance with the supplied NF-P14 (140mm) and NF-P12 (120mm) fans. Both fans feature Vortex-Control Notches, SCD technology and SSO-Bearings in order to achieve a perfect balance of performance and quietness.

The NH-D14's asymmetrical design gives more clearance towards the RAM slots and thus ensures good compatibility despite of the cooler's size. Hanging out at the bottom of the fin-stacks, the NF-P14 fan doesn't only contribute to the NH-D14's superb CPU cooling capabilities but also provides massive airflow over surrounding motherboard components and heatsinks.

Topped off with a tube of Noctua's award-winning NT-H1 thermal compound as well as the new SecuFirm2

AMD has updated schedule to phase out several Phenom II X4 900 series CPUs, while launch a new model in 2010, according to sources at motherboard makersaccording to digitimes.

AMD has already stopped taking orders for Phenom II X4 910 (2.6GHz/95W) and 945 (3.0GHz/125W) CPU in fourth-quarter 2009 and will completely stop shipments in the second quarter of 2010.

The company will stop order placements for Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz/140W) and 925 (2.8GHz/95W) CPUs in the first quarter of 2010, while orders for the Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz/125W) are scheduled to end in the second quarter. In the second quarter of 2010, AMD will launch a 95W Phenom II X4 955 processor.

In addition to the Phenom II X4 900 series, AMD will also stop taking orders for several Phenom II X4 800, X3 700, X2 500, Athlon II X4 600, X3 400 series CPUs next year, leaving the Phenom II X4 820, Phenom II X3 740 and Phenom II X2 550 in its lineup. AMD will launch the 80W Phenom II X2 555 later in fourth-quarter 2009, and the 95W Athlon II X4 640 and 95W Athlon II X2 445 in the second quarter of 2010.

In additional news, AMD will also bring forward the launch of its six-core desktop CPU codenamed Thuban to the second quarter of 2010. Thuban adopts a 45nm process and socket AM3 packaging, while featuring six 512KB L2 cache, 6MB L3 cache, and a core frequency of 2.8GHz.

AMD reduced prices of several Phenom II and Athlon II CPUs: Phenom II X4 965 dropped from US$245 to US$195, Phenom II X4 955 from US$245 to US$175, Athlon II X2 250 from US$87 to US$69 and Athlon II X2 245 from US$66 to US$64, according to the company.

It certainly has been a while since we reviewed Enermax products, if memory serves me right the last Enermax PSU that we had in queue was the Galaxy Kilowatt DXX power supply. At the time (and still) considered a top notch product. We where exhilarated by it and I know for sure that our review cascaded an effect -- as a lot of our forum visitors actually purchased that Galaxy series of power supplies, which they still use and are happy with.

Times change and there is always room for improvement, Enermax started rolling our the Revolution series of power supplies. A highly stylish, highly efficient and modular power supply that is quiet as well.

Read review

 

NVIDIA and AMD, are expected to face GPU shipment delays due to new 40nm yield issues by the TSMC. It is expected that these issues are solved within the quarter, the two chip makers, which have either launched their latest GPUs or are about to announce their new 40nm-based products, could be affected by the reported problems.

Digitimes recently reported that TSMC's chairman and CEO Morris Chang has announced that the reported issues with the 40nm process technology are expected to be solved by the end of this quarter. The problems, which have led to a 40% drop in yield rates for the 40nm node, are related to certain chamber matching issues. TSMC's main customers for said manufacturing technology are GPU vendors NVIDIA and AMD. While the latter's new generation of 40nm-based graphics cards have already been launched on the market, the Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA is yet to formerly introduce the much-anticipated 40nm-based GT300 chips, according to previous rumors.

There were a number of reports regarding TSMC's 40nm yield issues over the course of the past months, although, back in July 2009, at an investors conference, Chang said that the yield rates for said process had improved to 60%, compared to the 20-30% in the second quarter of 2009. This has affected AMD, which launched its first 40nm card with the introduction of the Radeon HD 4770, the world's first graphics card with a 40nm GPU.

Nonono .. that's not the  new DX11 card folks !

NVIDIA is about to launch the Geforce GT240 -- on November 17th actually. Geforce GT240 is designed for mainstream market with support for DX10.1.The new cards mission is to replace Geforce 9600GSO / GT cards. Geforce GT240 has 96 cores and features GDDR3 memory working at 900MHz.Geforce GT240 is expected to be available at the price range of Geforce 9600GSO / GT.

Built on the GT215 core, the upcoming GeForce GT 240 graphics card will be based on a 40nm GPU, manufactured at TSMC, will boast support for DirectX 10.1 and will be featured with 96 Stream processors. Although details about its clock speeds are yet to be announced.

Some new photo's f a sample of Intel's upcoming six-core Core i7 "Gulftown" processor surfaced on the web over the weekend through bittech). This chip is expected to be released in Q1 2010. Of course we already have seen leaked photo's before.

Six-core

Twelve threads

Socket 1366 like 45nm Bloomfield

6

Recombu created a simple pair of virtual reality oggles using an HTC Magic and Google Street View. Interesting concept, but it's not exactly something you want people to see you wearing.

Using an HTC Magic and Google Street View we've made a simple pair of virtual reality goggles that let you immerse yourself in distant locations. You can also use these goggles with augmented reality apps -- although you probably don't want to walk around with them all day long.

Yeah .. it's not rather sexy and prolly will scare the girls away from you !

New slides from a Japanese website are AMD's roadmap for all platforms (CPU, GPU, IGP, Chipset) up to 2011. The biggest surprise is the 2010 GPU with a die shrink towards 32nm. The rumoured codenames were Park, Madison and Broadway. Click thumbnails.

AMD's soon to be launched Netbook platform, Congo, is now renamed to simply "2nd Gen UT". With 2010, we have the Danube platform, with AMD's first notebook quad-core CPU. In terms of GPU, 2009 is listed as ATI M9x, which is Mobility HD 4000 series. Once again, it is listed as 40nm, though the only 40nm GPU is RV740

These happen to be famous avenues in Manhattan, so the Manhattan family codename fits in well. However, notice the fab process - 32nm! Manhattan was widely rumoured to be straight derivates of desktop 40nm Evergreen GPUs. Even more surprising is that it appears the DX10.1 from M9x carries on into Manhattan. Barring typos and confusing slide designs, these are both major surprises. It would appear Manhattan is not a 40nm Evergreen based GPU, but rather a 32nm M9x shrink, something that seems very unlikely. We will look out for clarification on this information.

Moving on to 2011, and Fusion hits notebooks. Sabine platform is based around the same Llano APU found in desktops. Brazos is the low-voltage platform, which seems to be manufactured at 40nm - for the complete APU. 

GPU for notebooks remains next-gen Northern Islands at 32nm. The 2011 platforms increases battery life (battery life being a constant criticism for AMD's notebook platforms) by a significant amount [via vrzone].

Hidden away .. I wonder why. If you're running Borderlands on a Windows 7 platform, chances are you aren't actually running the game in DirectX 10. Why? The bro's over at ShackNews posted a very easy fix that will switch to the DirectX 10 render path and a few tweaks that will give you more visual eye candy to look at.

1. Go to the directory --> C:\Users\[Your user Name]\Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config a. Find the file WillowEngine.ini (make a copy and rename it as a backup)
2. Find the section [SystemSettings]

Change the following settings to True, you will see if you are currently in DX9 as well.

• AllowD3D10=True (this is the key one to enable the DX10 render engine)

Also change the following

• MotionBlur=True
• DepthOfField=True
• Bloom=True
• UseHighQualityBloom=True
• FogVolumes=True

As expected and rumoured earlier last week, eVGA now officially announced their GeForce GTX 275 Co-OP PhysX. This card takes a GTX 275 dedicated for graphics and then adds a GTS 250 dedicated for PhysX and combines them on one single card.

Recap: next to being being/having a GTX 275 the card thus has a GTS 250 embedded tied to 128MB of it's own memory.

press-release: the EVGA GTX 275 GPU with CUDA technology delivers astonishing gaming performance with dazzling gaming effects along with incredible GPU computing performance for everything from video transcoding to video and photo editing. Pair that with the raw PhysX power of the GTS 250 PPU and you have a card ready to take on any of the latest games with full power.

Performance

• NVIDIA GTX 275+GTS 250
• 633+738 MHz GPU
• 240+128 Processing Cores
• 400 MHz RAMDAC

Memory

• 1280 MB, 448+192 bit DDR3
• 2268+2200 MHz (effective)
• 127.0+52.8 GB/s Memory Bandwidth

NVIDIA PhysX technology adds an element of realism never before seen in gaming. With an EVGA GPU and PPU in your PC, experience dynamic PhysX effects like blazing explosions, reactive debris, realistic water, and lifelike characters.

This card gives you the ability to run SLI + PhysX, or 3-way SLI + PhysX on any motherboard that supports it.

More info here

So as much as I like the idea, effort and innovation .. why not just get a more high-end card and flick on PhysX ? Current math shows that it only takes 10%~20% of your shader capacity anyway with a (GT200 series GPU). It seems as a very complicated design to something that doesn't need to be at all as it already works fine embedded in Single-GPU solutions.

Same with video transcoding .. why do it over that GTS 250 when you have the power of GTX 275 at hand ? It just doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me personally.

Each month here at Guru3D.com we feature one of you guys, your PC, your DIY project. It is quite honestly amazing how much detail and dedication you put into an PC, and every now and then it really shows.

Tom Michiels's PC is the the Rig of The Month October 2009. Meet Tom at the age of 34, Tom has been a Guru3D aficionado for a while already digging through our articles, he shares our passion of building nice PCs.

His PC will be the Rig of the Month October 2009, and he has built his PC with some interesting components. This rig is the showcase of a somewhat more simple design yet you can tell he's an aficionado alright thanks to component usage.

Check out his rig here.