We'd been hearing that HP's slick UMPC 2133 was going sport VIA processors, and now we've got some more info to back that up -- we just received what appears to be a full spec list for the upcoming machine, and it's VIA C7-Ms all around, with graphics courtesy of a VIA Chrome 9 chipset. According to our source, these will hit on April 7th, and it looks like those pricing whispers were pretty accurate as well: $600 will buy you a 1.2GHz C7-M, a 120GB drive, 1GB of RAM and Vista Home Basic, while $749 bumps you up to 1.6GHz and Vista Business and adds Bluetooth, another gig of RAM, and a bigger battery. There's also a mysterious $849 Vista Basic model listed as having "regional" availability (the others are listed as "Smart Buy") with Bluetooth and bigger battery, but we don't see why it's more expensive than the Vista Business version. Regardless, what really caught our eye was the $549 model that shares the same specs as the $600 unit, but looks to be running SuSE Enterprise -- another rumor that's come true. That could be the one that HP expects to sell like hotcakes -- after all, the goal is to have people buy these "without a thought," and that's certainly not going to happen at $749. We'll see soon enough, we suppose.

AMD today releases it's new B3 revision Phenom X4 processors. Solved and free's of the nasty TLB issues, the new and new, old CPUs are set to finally give Intel some reasonable competition and offer customers parts with a good performance-price ratio.

Coming in AM2+ form, the Phenon 9050 series CPUs go from 2.2 GHz (Phenom 9550), 2.3 GHz (9650) through 2.4 GHz (9750), and 2.5 GHz (9850 Black Edition) and all feature HyperTransport 3.0, a DDR2-supporting memory controller and 2MB of shared L3 cache. These B3 processors have 95W (9550, 9650, 9750) or 125W (9750 and 9850 BE) TDPs and are set to become widely available in April.

In the 8000 series we now spot the tri-core Phenom as well. The tri-core CPUs includes two Phenom parts that are set for "gamers and digital media enthusiasts" who want a good performance per price ratio and they are basically quad-cores with one busted and disabled core. Codenamed Toliman, the triple-core Phenom 8400 and 8600 are clocked at 2.1 GHz and 2.3 GHz respectively.

In terms of prices, the Phenom 9550 will be $209, the 9650 $215, the 9750 still $215 while the only B3 and highest-end Black Edition Phenom, the 9850 will cost $235, in 1000-unit tray quantities. The prices of the last three CPUs will go live on April 7 so that's probably the day they will start hitting the stores in sufficient numbers.

We're also expecting to see a 9850 Black Edition as well as the 9950 clocked at 2.6GHz, but these parts aren't listed yet.

AMD Phenom triple-core & quad-core processors
Model	Frequency	L2-cache	L3-cache	socket	TDP
X4 9850	2,5GHz	2MB	2MB	AM2+	125W
X4 9750	2,4GHz	2MB	2MB	AM2+	125W/95W
X4 9650	2,3GHz	2MB	2MB	AM2+	95W
X4 9550	2,2GHz	2MB	2MB	AM2+	95W
X4 9100e	1,8GHz	2MB	2MB	AM2+	65W
X3 8600	2,3GHz	1,5MB	2MB	AM2+	95W
X3 8400	2,1GHz	1,5MB	2MB	AM2+	95W

 

Far Cry 2 for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 is announced to be scheduled for release in the fall of this year, Ubisoft revealed in a production video released today.

In this video, Ubisoft Montreal producer LP Pharand says Far Cry 2 will see a simultaneous release for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Pharand adds, "The team has been working extremely hard and making sure that there are no compromises made for quality [or] features on each platform." The video also contains a brief clip of gameplay from the game.:

Corsair Flash Voyager 32 GB review

These are the flash memory sticks that Bruce Willis could carry around while making Die Hard 4.0, they've been laundered, baked, frozen, boiled, dropped, and even run over by a SUV in many third party reviews. After all the punishment it receives, these sturdy little freaks continue to work. Now available in a 32GB capacity. It's a small HDD in your pocket. With that file size you could even partition it, split into two partitions, and make one encrypted as the product supports EAS-256 bit encryption technology.

Read our review here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/corsair-flash-voyager-32gb-review/

ATI released a hotfix for owners of Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3850 and 3870 graphics cards that resolves a intermittent stuttering issue in various 3D applications.

You can grab the hotfix over here, it's available for Windows XP and Vista.

I was in doubt wether to post this or not, it needs to be validated. But check out this info that Creative labs has send out to the press:

Hello from Creative,

With respect for you and your readers, we wish to share this important information. With its recent driver updates, Asus is misleading its customers by suggesting that its sound cards now support EAX 5. Asus sound cards do not support EAX 5, nor do they support EAX 3 or EAX 4. There are a small number of PC game titles that specifically query the audio device on the system to see if EAX 5 is available before they will attempt to render more than 64 3D simultaneous audio voices. The new Asus drivers are falsely reporting EAX 5 capabilities in order to get these games to ouptut 3D audio on Asus sound cards. Asus customers are not getting a genuine EAX Advanced HD experience with this driver update.

Furthermore, the several hundred games that support EAX 3 or EAX 4 for delivering in-game effects will not provide those effects from Asus sound cards.

Thank you,

Here's an overview of the NPD chart's detailing the best selling PC games in the USA for the week ending March 15.

1. The Sims: FreeTime - Electronic Arts
2. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War Soulstorm - THQ
3. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision
4. Sins Of A Solar Empire - Ironclad Games/Stardock
5. The Sims 2 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
6. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
7. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
9. Frontlines: Fuel of War - THQ
10. Sim City 5: Societies - Electronic Arts

Check out the new features of the updated Unreal Engine 3 via an on-stage demonstration, pretty cool to be honest.

AMD is planning to phase out its single-core Sempron LE-1150 processor by the end of this month and will launch a higher-end Athlon LE-1660 for its single-core CPU lineup, according to sources at motherboard makers.

In addition to the Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 6000+ and 5600+, the company has also informed customers that final orders for its Athlon 64 X2 4200+ will be taken at the end of this month.

If you digg servers then this is sexy news, otherwise just go straight forward to our Quad SLI review ;)

Intel Corporation introduced today two low-voltage 45nm processors for servers and workstations that run at 50 watts, or 12.5 watts per core and frequencies of 2.5GHz. The Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor L5400 Series takes advantage of Intel's 45nm manufacturing capabilities and reinvented transistor formula.

According to the press release, Quad-Core Intel Xeon L5400 processors are as much as 25 percent faster and have a 50 percent larger cache size than Intel's previous-generation, low-voltage Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, while at the same time maintaining the low 50-watt thermal envelope. The quad-core L5420 and L5410 processors run at 2.50 GHz and 2.33 GHz, respectively, and feature 12MB of on-die cache and dedicated 1333 MHz front side buses.

Next quarter, Intel will also begin shipping a new dual-core low-voltage processor that will boast a 40-watt rating and clock speed of 3 GHz, with a 6 MB cache size and a 1333 MHz FSB. Intel is also extending the existing Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5400 series for embedded market segments by offering the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor L5410 with support for a 7-year life cycle.

Pricing and availability (in 1,000-unit quantities):

• Intel Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor L5420 2.50GHz 1333MHz 50W - $380
• Intel Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor L5410 2.33GHz 1333MHz 50W - $320

Today is the 25th, the press is "allowed" to publish results on new NVIDIA technology today. It's a topic we quite frankly already have covered before, yet back then on a different operating system. It was exactly that operating system which limited what we really needed and wanted to achieve, and that is utilizing more than two GPU's to render a game.

It's 2008, times have changed and obviously we'll play peek-a-boo with a Quad-SLI system. What do you need for Quad-SLI ? A pretty beefy system, that's for sure.

You can find the article at this URL:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/quad-sli-review-with-dual-9800-gx2-/

NVIDIA just re-released it's 174.53, this time with Quad SLI support for Windows Vista. Some of the release highlights:

• Added support for GeForce 9800 GX2, including Quad SLI Technology.
• Added new PureVideo HD features for GeForce 9800 GX2:
• Dynamic Contrast Enhancement
• Dynamic Blue, Green & Skin Tone Enhancements
• Dual-Stream Decode Acceleration*
• Microsoft Vista Aero display mode compatibility for Blu-ray & HD DVD playback*

Download:

ForceWare 174.53 XP (32-bit )
ForceWare 174.53 XP (64-bit )
ForceWare 174.53 Vista (64-bit )
ForceWare 174.53 Vista (32-bit )

Product supported are the GeForce 9600 & 9800 series.

While Panasonic's rugged Toughbook 30 has been strutting its stuff with a Core 2 Duo within, the poor, poor Toughbook 19 has been going without. No more, however, as Panny has just announced that it'll be boosting the speed and expanding the memory available in the beastly convertible tablet. Available now, the 5.1-pound rig is stuffed with a 1.06GHz U7500 processor (2MB L2 cache), up to 4GB of SDRAM, 80GB shock-mounted HDD, 10.4-inch daylight-readable display, a battery good for around seven hours, optional integrated WWAN / GPS / 2-megapixel webcam and a magnesium alloy case that won't mind getting trampled. So, what's the price for such an (almost) impossible-to-destroy machine? $3,199 and up, we're afraid.

Toughbook 19 joins flagship rugged Toughbook 30 in delivering Core 2 Duo technology for mission-critical applications in extreme environments; Eleven independently-verified mil-spec tests and more than 500 internal quality checks combine for unparalleled Panasonic reliability

Secaucus, NJ, March 25, 2008