Today we continue on our quest through the halls of the Taiwan Computex 2008. The quest for hardware & knowledge *coughs*

Check it out:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/computex-2008-day-2--moving-onwards/

Please visit our computex landing page, right here.

» Read full story

Here's some of the media attacks on video games. I'm sure some of you will find this funny...

» Read full story

Microsoft has further extended the life of Windows XP so that computer makers can include the operating system on low-cost desktop PCs, the company announced at the Computex trade show on Tuesday.

Microsoft has been under pressure from computer makers to provide a version of its OS for an emerging class of very low-cost laptops and desktops. Its new Windows Vista OS is widely seen as too resource-hungry for those machines.

In April Microsoft extended its deadline for selling Windows XP licenses for low-cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC. It had originally planned to stop selling most XP licenses on June 30.

At Computex on Tuesday it said it has now also extended the deadline for low-cost desktops. PC makers can now include Windows XP in those systems until 2010, the same as the deadline for low-cost laptops, said Rob Young, a senior director with Microsoft's OEM group.

In a statement, Microsoft said the extension applies to "nettops," a term coined by Intel to refer to low-cost desktops that have limited system configurations and are intended for simple tasks like surfing the Internet and sending email. Examples include the upcoming Asus Eee Box, which is on show here at Computex.

It was unclear what limitations Microsoft may put on PC makers to prevent them from installing Windows XP on more capable machines. Young said Microsoft and PC vendors are in general agreement over what constitutes a nettop and suggested that Microsoft won't specify the hardware configurations that vendors can use with XP.

Microsoft said it was responding to the growing popularity of nettops and netbooks, and to demands from PC makers to provide a suitable OS for those machines.

"We've had a lot of feedback from customers and partners, and they're very interested in seeing these devices with Windows on them," said Steve Guggenheimer, the head of Microsoft's OEM business, during a speech at Computex.

Microsoft's statement was ambiguous, saying only that it would extend the deadline for "the Windows offering" to include nettops. Young confirmed that the extension applies to Windows XP.

"We have seen much demand for Windows on the Eee PC," Jerry Shen, CEO of Asustek Computer, said in the statement. "It is great that Microsoft is addressing this customer demand and providing a Windows solution on these devices, which will provide a familiar computing experience."

Intel has said nettops and netbooks are intended as a second PC for the home or for people in developing countries who can't afford a full-featured PC. However, Guggenheimer acknowledged Tuesday that no one knows yet where the devices will prove popular.

"We've had standalone Internet devices come out before, not too many of them have been successful, but now we are getting towards the right price points," he said. "How they'll land and who will buy them we don't really know yet, but we'll wait and see."

Netbooks and nettops are intended to be powerful enough to consume content, such as streaming video, but not powerful enough for content creation tasks like video editing. Many will use Intel's new Atom chips or Via's low-power C7 processor.

The Eee Box is due to go on sale in July for about $300 and will be offered with Windows XP or Linux. It will come with a maximum hard drive capacity of 250G bytes and use 802.11n Wi-Fi for Internet access.
» Read full story

I just came across this video, it's pretty interesting. It shows John Carmack from ID software with his visions for space travel & his investments there. The video has been around since march 08. Tom Clancy is also here...

Horizon - Space Tourists
[Click here to check out the video ]


» Read full story

Today the Computex in Taipei officially kicked off, this is the first impression of booth visits and appointements we have had on the exhibit ground in the new Nangang facility.

Read the first official installment here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/computex-2008--day-1--the-festivities-begin/

Please visit our computex landing page, right here.

» Read full story

If you
» Read full story

Installing casino in your lodging has been more of a business than hobby. And knowing adding a bit of a flash to it can generate big dough, who doesn
» Read full story

Konami are imposing restrictions on what publications can and cannot talk about when reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4. No mention of 90-minute cutscenes please, and while you're at it, no talky-talky about install sizes either, K? IGN are cool with that. EGM, refreshingly, are not. Due to "limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments", the editorial team decided to refrain from giving the game a score, and in lieu of a "review" posted a lengthy roundtable discussion about the game instead. It's hardly a gloved fist on an Olympic dias, but it is nice seeing somebody do something about such an...unsavoury practice.
» Read full story

That's the deal Newegg is offering Tuesday.

Equally amazing: That price includes three-day shipping. The Corsair Flash Voyager drive offers 4GB of storage

It's compatible with all operating systems and comes with the TrueCrypt encryption utility (Windows only) for securing your data. You also get a lanyard, USB cable, and 10-year warranty.

Flash drives are good for a lot more than just ferrying data. Check out Lifehacker's Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks to learn how to boot an operating system, assemble a PC repair kit, and more. In the meantime, grab this incredibly good deal before it's too late.
» Read full story

Enjoy the Tribal videos of Spore.

» Read full story

We posted a couple of photo's of the mayhem that is called t-minus one day at Computex. Exhibitors are working extremely hard to get their booths up-to par. And that's just not always an easy task.

This is a quicky couple of photo's before the real thing starts here in taiwan on Tuesday.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/computex-2008-preshow-impressions/

Please visit our computex landing page, right here.

 

» Read full story

Not technology related, though interesting nontheless.

Money fell from the sky in Indonesia today... and into the waiting arms of the country's poorest residents. The mad dash for the cash -which was thrown from a plane in a marketing stunt -left many cut, battered and bruised. A girl of 13 collapsed and had to be taken to hospital.

The 100million rupiah, or nearly

» Read full story

The game is looking like its going to be an epic entry into the Street Fighter collection, with all the classic characters you know and love coupled with new characters who are ready to kick as much bottom as possible.

Street Fighter IV will be hitting the 360, PS3 and PC sometime later this year.

Visit the site here

» Read full story

So ladies and gents, yours truly arrived after a nice 16 hour flight in Taiwan Taipei. The Computex 2008 report will be brought to you guys in cooporation with Point of View. Currently I've setup the good ol' laptop in their Taipei office. Later this afternoon we'll check into the hotel and probably briefly visit the new Nangang Computex facility where tomorrow the Computex will start. Starting from tomorrow (later in the day) we'll also start bringing you reports on the latest technology to be found at this Taiwan exhibit.

Please visit our computex landing page, right here.

Computex 2008: Pre-show impressions Computex 2008: Day 1 - the festivities begin Computex 2008: Day 2 - Moving onwards Computex 2008: Day 3 - The man with the hammer Computex 2008: Day 4 - Closer to the end

 

As you'll notice the streets congestion in Taipei is a little bit different than what we are used to in the western countries.

Here we arrive at the Point of View office, facilitated recently in-to a new location.

Inside the Point of View office, one of the meeting rooms. Basically The taipei office is used for a load of logistics, GPU and PCB arrangements, RMA procudures and so on.

» Read full story

This started out as a rumor today, but Intel has since more-or-less confirmed that licensing discussions between Intel and Nvidia for Intel's next-generation processors are not going well and the resulting conflict could have implications for high-end gaming PCs.

The story is that Intel and Nvidia are currently negotiating technology licenses for Nehalem, Intel's next-generation desktop CPU due out at the end of this year. As we were told from multiple desktop vendors who wish to remain nameless, Intel wants to license SLI from Nvidia for its Nehalem chipsets, and if Nvidia won't, Intel will withhold the license that would enable Nvidia to support Nehalem's memory controller, and thus Nehalem, on its own chipsets.

We have no official confirmation from Nvidia on this, and Intel's statement from PR manager Dan Snyder is vague, but it lends credence to the story:

"There is a disagreement between Intel and Nvidia as to the scope of Nvidia's license from Intel to make chipsets compatible with Intel microprocessors. Intel is trying to resolve the disagreement privately with Nvidia and therefore we will not provide additional details. It is our hope that this dispute will be resolved amicably and that it will not impact other areas of our companies' working relationship."

Intel has been after SLI support for its chipsets for years, but has thus far only been able to build it into its ultra high-end Skulltrail motherboards, seemingly a one-off. With SLI available across all of its chipset lines, Intel would be able to sell motherboards that support both AMD's and Nvidia's multigraphics card technologies. Right now Intel boards (with the exception of Skulltrail) only support AMD's CrossFire.

Nvidia, on the other hand, has kept SLI close, often citing compatibility and certification concerns as the reason why no other chipset vendor has been able to offer SLI-capability. But if Nvidia loses out on Nehalem for its next-generation chipsets, the high-end desktop market will become more fragmented than it's been in years. Nvidia has been able to offer SLI-supporting chipsets for both AMD and Intel processors, but if this split happens, on one side we'll have Nehalem and CrossFire-based systems, the other will offer SLI (and possibly CrossFire, if hacks used in the past continue to work) and AMD CPUs.

In light of this rumor, Nvidia's recent marketing push encouraging upgraders to pick a graphics card before a quad-core CPU takes on new significance. If Nvidia knows high-end PC gamers will have to make a choice later this year, better to plant the seeds in its favor early. Intel probably has less to worry about, because gamers who demand SLI with a fast Intel processor can still use Nvidia's NForce 790i chipset, which supports the current generation of Intel Core 2 Extreme chips.

UPDATE 5:48pm PT - Intel released an additional statement after this blog was posted. "We are not seeking any SLI concession from Nvidia in exchange for granting any Nehalem license rights to Nvidia," the company said.

Watcher
» Read full story

Frighteningly enough, this isn't the first (or second) time that we've seen scientists pat themselves on the back for creating a mind-reading machine, but a dedicated team from Carnegie Mellon has just announced a computer that "has been trained to read people's minds by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words." In a completely unsurprising move, gurus familiar with the development are suggesting that the breakthrough could be used to better understand how the brain organizes knowledge, and eventually, treat language disorders and learning disabilities more effectively. That's all gravy from here, but when this stuff starts passing as evidence in court, you'll know it's time to seriously investigate a relocation to Mars.
» Read full story

Jim Louderback, CEO of internet TV network Revision3, is considering legal action against anti-piracy firm MediaDefender after an internal investigation revealed it to be the source of a Memorial Day weekend Denial of Service attack against Revision3

» Read full story

So if you have a lot of money to burn, dig gaming and water-cooling .. chances are pretty big that you are going to like this product. Earlier this month we already told you about the GeForce 9800 GX2 Hydro Copper 18 waterblock.

EVGA decided to release is as an actual card. The e-GeForce 9800 GX2 Hydro Copper 18 comes with that waterblock, will offer 1/2'' and 3/8'' fittings and should provide efficient cooling for the two G92 chips, the VREG, I/O chip and memory. Though that will be 100% dependable on your radiator and tubing of course.

A tad dissapointing is the fact that the new card has default frequencies - 600 MHz for the G92 GPUs, 1512 MHz for the 256 Stream Processors and 2000 MHz for the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory.

I'm pretty sure availibility will be limited, yet the e-GeForce 9800 GX2 Hydro Copper 18 is in stock and costs $699, you do get a lifetime warranty warranty with it though.

But dang .. yummie ...

» Read full story

So ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to touch base and let you guys know that Guru3D will be attending the Computex in Taiwan next week. In collaboration with Point of View technology we'll travel half way around the globe where we'll arrive on Monday.

Starting around that timeframe say late Tuesday we'll try and bring you the latest info on the hottest products at the exhibit. Pretty much any big player in the hardware industry will be present at Computex which makes it a great opportunity to have a browse. Computex this year will be especially interesting as the TAITRA organization has opened up a completely new facility (TWTC Nangang), 5 kilometers away from the original TWTC buildings. The interesting part is that both location will be used actively meaning that visitors will have to travel in-between buildings (5 km away), rather unusual.

Anyway, just a quick heads up on what to expect next week. We are looking forward bringing you some good info & photo's on this event, which we'll present to you in the same style as our CeBIT articles.

The Computex 2008 landing page can be found here, be sure to keep an eye on it as the good stuff will be posted here >> http://www.guru3d.com/category/computex2008/

Again expect that landing-page location to be updated after Monday/Tuesday.

» Read full story

W1Zard has been busy lately. GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

0.2.3

• Fixed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260/280 (GT200) support. Everything is working and tested now
• Removed bogus 190
  

» Read full story