EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW For The Win review

eVGA decided to make a new cheaper mainboard opposed to 780/790, designed it l33t and sexy. They named their new baby the eVGA nForce 750 FTW. Where FTW literally means "For The Win". Now if you send a product with "FTW" in the actual name then as a company you need to have some pretty big balls, as any reviewer will see if that product lives up-to the reputation.

Read the full review here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/evga-nforce-750i-sli-ftw-for-the-win-review/

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S3 Graphics today announced the S3 Graphics 4300E graphics processor for embedded markets, bringing the latest in HD video playback, graphics rendering, display connectivity, and power management to developers of gaming, digital signage and other multimedia intensive embedded applications. The S3 Graphics 4300E incorporates two dual-link DVI transmitters, each with integrated HDMI and HDCP and an integrated LVDS transmitter. Integrated support for twp analog displays is also included.

The S3 Graphics 4300E processor uses proven low leakage 65nm process technology and features an energy efficient multimedia architecture that scales from 300MHz to 600MHz. The graphics and HD video cores can be coupled with the latest DDR2 and DDR3 memories supporting up to 256MB of local graphics memory. The multimedia processor also incorporates a high speed serial link PCI Express 2.0 compliant bus supporting x1, x4, x8, and x16 lane widths, in addition to PCI Express ASPM for further reducing operational power to allow astonishingly low heat, fanless configurations.

The S3 Graphics 4300E also features S3 Graphics integrated HD Audio controller and codec. The S3 Graphics 4300E will debut at Embedded Systems Conference, taking place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California on April 15

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A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right. The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13 2029. Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second (1.9 miles), at up to 35,880 kilometres above earth -- and the Apophis asteroid will pass by earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres. If the asteroid strikes a satellite in 2029, that will change its trajectory making it hit earth on its next orbit in 2036.

Both NASA and Marquardt agree that if the asteroid does collide with earth, it will create a ball of iron and iridium 320 metres (1049 feet) wide and weighing 200 billion tonnes, which will crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The shockwaves from that would create huge tsunami waves, destroying both coastlines and inland areas, whilst creating a thick cloud of dust that would darken the skies indefinitely.

The 13-year old made his discovery as part of a regional science competition for which he submitted a project entitled: "Apophis -- The Killer Astroid."

Update - as it seems this news false as reported here.

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Great story on Dailytech today, doing the blunt copy-paste here. In an openly sarcastic blog entry, Microsoft's Eric Ligman tore into users who have been exploiting a workaround to allow a Vista upgrade to install on a computer that did not previously have a Windows OS, such as a new PC.  Ligman, Microsoft's senior manager of community engagement for small business in the U.S., had no sympathy for these users, who he labels as "clueless" criminals.

It was reported last winter that by using an 11 step process, a cheaper Vista upgrade could be installed on a PC with no pre-existing operating system.  This gaping loophole was apparently left wide open by Microsoft and stood in contrast to previous versions of Windows that required a copy of the previous Windows OS, with no exceptions. 

While many noted that the OEM version of Vista tended to be cheaper, the upgrade version did have some advantages, in that you could switch between 32-bit and 64-bit versions (OEM only allowed one specific OS), it had a more flexible license allowing easier reinstalls, and it could be found at significantly cheaper if you were a student. 

In the Windows Secrets newsletter early this month, Associate Editor Scott Dunn asserted that he believed that Microsoft purposefully left the loophole open to encourage savvy users to adopt Vista.  Said Dunn, "the fact that the upgrade back door is still present in Vista SP1 is a strong indication that the feature has at least the tacit support of Microsoft officials."

In his blog Ligman offers up a raving retort, arguing:

So if you see anyone stating, or writing, that buying an upgrade by itself (Windows Vista Upgrade for instance) without having a full license first gets you the rights to run the software, just realize that what the person is actually stating is,

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Some news from the AMD front today as it seems that 45nm AMD chips can do 3GHz in the lab. In 2008, AMD will introduce Deneb FX for the replacement for the AMD Quad FX platform, as well as Deneb for the mainstream.

Propos and Regor will also replace Kuma and Rana in the lower market segments. Socket AM2+ being named in the late 2006 might actually have been the original AM3 socket, but as naming conventions changed, so that the next generation of consumer desktop socket capable of DDR3 will be socket AM3.

Anyway, with the new 45nm silicon chip called Deneb, we'll also see the return of the FX series in just a few months. The FX series always have been the high-end parts of the Athlon series. Whether this is any kind of indication of what to expect, we're not sure, but it seems like AMD is trying to get the frequencies up.

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ATI (AMD) just released new Catalyst drivers with revision build 8.4 for their Radeon line of graphcis cards. 

Highlights of the Catalyst 8.4 Windows release include:

ATI Catalyst support for Stanford Universities new beta Folding@Home GPU client (for the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series, and ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series)

• Stanford has recently release a new Folding@Home GPU beta client, found at http://folding.typepad.com/news/2008/04/gpu2-open-beta.html and is supported on the ATI Radeon HD 2400 and higher and ATI Radeon HD 3400 and higher series of products under Windows XP and Windows Vista.  (Currently only one of the GPU cores on the ATI Radeon HD 3870X2 can be used by the new beta Folding@Home GPU client)
• The new Folding@Home beta GPU client delivers significant performance improvements in folding calculations, and enables users to fold far more complex proteins
• Please see the Stanford
  

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Zoltan from HoCBench released his HOC Unreal Tournament 3 Benchmark. Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games and is the next installment of the Unreal series after Unreal Tournament 2004. The third generation Unreal Engine was designed for DirectX 9/10 PCs, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Its renderer supports many advanced techniques including HDRR, per-pixel lighting, and dynamic shadows, and builds upon the tools available in previous versions of the engine.

System requirements

• Windows XP / VISTA
• The latest drivers for your graphics card
• v1.2 patch

Feature

• Fixed resolution from 640
  

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Memory maker Crucial has made its entry into the solid state drive market with 32GB and 64GB SSDs. Both models have read speeds of up to 100MB/s, the 32GB model has a write speed of up to 60MB/s while the 64GB model only has a max write speed of 35MB/s.

Featuring an industry-standard 2.5

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Alienware has updated its Aurora gaming desktop line to include an upgrade option for the AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition processors, which feature the latter company's HyperTransport technology.

As reviewed here on Guru3D the Phenom 9850 is a quad-core processor that provides users increased system bandwidth and true multitasking, while also supporting up to four ATI CrossFireX video cards. In addition, users can run either 32-bit or 64-bit applications without additional hardware, and the processor's Cool'n'Quiet technology reduces power consumption, heat output and noise.

When configured-to-order, the base model Aurora featuring the new Phenom processors, as well as an Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 memory, and a 250GB hard drive, costs $1449.

A pre-configured model is also available, offering dual ATI Radeon 3870X2 graphics cards, 4GB of memory, and a 500GB hard drive. This model sells for $2049.

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A Chinese website is showing off photos of a motherboard based on the AMD 790GX chipset. This is an engineering sample of an Unika motherboard that, as you can see, still has no coolers installed. ccording to their local manufacturers, UNIKA Shuangmin was the first to make a ready product on this core logic.

Hynix HY5PS121621c DDR2 - Those who need more than the integrated AMD Radeon HD3300 core, can use PCI Express 2.0 and CrossFireX support (2 slots at 8x).

The AMD 790GX based product is to go on sale in May.

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Ubisoft has released the first patch (~ 50MB) for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, bringing the PC version of the tactical shooter sequel to version 1.01.

The update adds voice chat support, a fix for spawn camping, bug fixes, and more.

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Graphics card company eVGA will soon bundle it's graphics cards with a home grown overclocking utility. Well, not exactly home grown ... a little Guru3D grown perhaps ;)

The application will be called Precision and allows people to easily tweak & overclock their graphics card's and set fan speeds. There is no information yet when the product is due to be released and which products will be supported by this tool. We do have a screenshot though.

Gosh that monitor does look familiar doesn't it ?

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Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 DHX DDR2 DIMM Dual Channel Kit

You know what, here at Guru3D we are making a plea to move forward towards 4GB in a PC, and that's mainly due to it's current price. What we'll do today is have a look at a Corsair 4 GB Dual-channel memory kit, two DIMM modules, priced at

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Remember the GeForce 8800 GS ? It seems that NVIDIA is going to replace the GeForce 8800 GS with the GeForce 9600 GSO in May. The 9600 GSO is still based on the same G92 core with 96 stream processors but NVIDIA will give board makers a bit more freedom in their designs in terms of own PCB design to and determine their own clocks. This 'old' card will still have 384 MB of GDDR3 memory.

We can expect many variants of cards with different types of cooling coming up to be branded as Overclocked Editions.

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Okay, l33t stuff for the aging geeks, in fact our forum moderator Marty would 'love' this. Automatic sprinkler systems can be super convenient, but they can also be a waste of resources if they turn on right before, after, or during a rainstorm. Time to upgrade!

This weekend the New York Times reported on the Cyber-Rain XCI. The system networks to your home computer to access the latest weather reports for your area before turning on the hose. The $350 kit includes a wireless controller that connects to your existing sprinkler system. A wireless access point connects to your computer. The two nodes talk to each other in order to make the most out of the upcoming weather.

The controller also lets you configure up to eight zones, so if you succulents in one area of the yard and tropicals in the other you won't be dousing or droughting either.

I see some very funny WarHacking moves here though ;)

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For the more professional users like graphic artists, CAD/CAM pros, animators and others for whom size matters, the 30-inch NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi desktop LCD monitor may be just the ticket. The 4-megapixel (2560 x 1600 or WQXGA) display provides 102% color gamut relative to NTSC and 97.8% of the Adobe RGB color space, NEC says.

It also employs HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) through its DVI-D connector (there's second DVI-I jack), allowing users to play encrypted content - meaning that even if NEC targets the graphics professional, it hasn't forgotten the gamer with the deep pockets and wide open desktop. As the MultiSync name implies, the LCD3090WQXi syncs up with non-native resolutions and scale them to full-screen. Price is $2,200.

The LCD3090WQXi is biggest of NEC's 90-series monitors and also the newest of a small band of 30-inch monitors. Others are from Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, and Samsung. (Don't confuse them with 30-inch LCD TVs with lower resolution and prices.) 30-inch monitors with fewer multimedia features or that have been on the market for the better part of the past year are priced in the mid- to low teens with some closing in on $1,000. Newer, higher-end 30-inch monitors provide scaling processors, multiple inputs, a broader color space, and they're priced around $2,000. These 30-inch displays face three challenges: Not every PC can drive the native 2560 x 1600 resolution; they take up a big chunk of desktop real estate (27 inches across for the NEC); and the next common monitor size down, a 24-inch, 1900 x 1200 pixel WUXGA LCD display, typically sells for under $500.

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Next to the trailer earlier this week, Massive Entertainment has released some new images of its upcoming expansion and console port World in Conflict: Soviet Assault (PC, PS3, Xbox 360). World in Conflict: Soviet Assault will feature a brand new campaign, new units (chronoplane), as well as the option to call the reinforcements or new units to the battlefiled by using the context menu or voice communication via the headset, same as in Tom Clancy's EndWar.

Soviet Assault will be released on the PC as an expansion to the original World in Conflict.

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An interesting tidbit was posted on MTV Multiplayer as they published details on an interesting study from the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Group (EEDAR) showing that games promoted with trailers sold better than games with playable demos offered prior to the games release.

"While demos may be effective at producing word-of-mouth, the EEDAR found that the highest selling games on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 produced buzz via Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network with trailers alone. There are some other interesting bits extrapolate, so lets look at how the sales break downThough demos have become commonplace a few weeks ahead of a games release, the EEDAR found that trailers are more effective than hands-on time with the product. Short and Zatkin actually recommended publishers start producing demos only after release to avoid interference with the final weeks of polish."

It doesn

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We can

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It looks like Dell's ran into issues with its highest end monitor, the scrumptious DisplayPort-packing 30-inch 3008WFP.

Engadget heard it'd mysteriously vanished from the site with nary a trace, so we pinged the folks in Round Rock. This is what they had to say:

"The Dell 3008 monitor has been well received since launch and has been very popular with customers. In February we experienced a small technical issue with the product that has been long resolved. [Um, it's only April? -Ed.] Currently the monitors are on extended lead times and in order to manage demand, the 3008 is not available on dell.com. We are managing orders on a prioritized basis and hope to have the product available to all customers in the near future."

So there you go, down but not out. Expect 'em back, um, eventually.

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