[H]ardNews 11th Edition

More Female Gamers?

A ton of people sent me this CNN link saying there are more female gamers than men. I am not sure where this “study” was conducted, but everyone who has EVER attended a LAN party knows that the female gamers is the gaming world equivalent of the “mythical unicorn”.

Challenging the stereotype that video gaming is the domain of teenage boys, an industry group Tuesday reported that more women over 18 than young boys are playing games and the average age of players has risen to 29. A poll released by the Entertainment Software Association and conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found 26 percent of game players are women 18 or older, while 21 percent are boys 6 to 17.

Speaking Of Myths:

CNN is on a roll today. This time they cover the Phantom console which has pretty much been shrugged off by everyone. I can’t find the pictures I posted of the Infinium Labs offices 8 months ago showing just a desk and two phones in a tiny office space located in a strip mall in next to a local art gallery in Longboat Key Florida. Anybody that lives near there, shoot me an e-mail maybe we can get some new pictures of the top secret Phantom facilities.

The juiciest rumor was that there never would be a console called Phantom. The conspiracy theory went that the whole thing was a hoax, concocted as a PR stunt. The "unveiling" hasn't seemed to quash those rumors.

More Professional Gamers:

Rounding out this triple header from CNN is this story about a new gaming league called the Global Gaming League.

The GGL™ will create fans and stars by producing world-class entertainment and events where professionally dedicated players will gain recognition for their lifestyle, skill and commitment to "V-Sports™." Top professional gamers and gaming teams will have the chance to qualify for live GGL™ Championship Events with the opportunity to earn cash, prizes, endorsements and respect.

Ummm, good luck. Hopefully these guys plan on breaking the mold of current professional gaming that usually takes lots of money from sponsors and the gamers themselves and distributes it among a select few top players…not to mention the top brass at the gaming league.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

BIOS Optimization Guide v8.0:

Adrian’s Rojak Pot has posted revision 8.0 of their extremely popular BIOS optimization guide. Arguably one of the best BIOS guides out there, it is definitely worth a look if you need help deciphering settings in your BIOS.

In the beginning, this guide consisted of only one page of short and simple explanations of several common BIOS options. Over the years, the explanation of each BIOS option has been fleshed out, improved upon and corrected. And today, it has become a database of over 200 BIOS options. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Danger Den Maze 4:

Mod The Box has the Danger Den Maze 4 watercooling kit in house for a round of testing. Danger Den is one of the pioneers in the industry and has put out top notch H20 products for years. Coincidentally I have just received a complete kit here for testing, CPU / Chipset / VGA blocks included, so we’ll have a look at this product for you here soon as well. For now, check out the MTB review.

The MAZE4 Power Water Cooling Kit represents the best of breed in terms of components that are both brand name and of high quality. While the components in this package are pre-selected, consumers also have the option of individually selecting a custom setup which best suits their own personal needs.

Mods & Ends:

SLK-900A HSF @ FuriousTech - GMC Trinity ATX Case @ OC Hardware - Flexiglow Bubble Light @ Blynknet - Lian Li PC37 @ Bit-Tech - Zalman Fan & Light Controller @ Cooltech Zone

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

TechTV For Sale:

Joe Alpert says that apparently TechTV is up for sale with an estimated going price of $250 - $300 million. Kyle has made a few appearances on the TechTV show The Screen Savers, maybe we should buy it and do an OCP-TV style channel...heh, would you guys watch? Now all we need is $300 Million…anyone, anyone?

Paul Allen, the entrepreneur and co-founder of software maker Microsoft Corp., is looking to sell his technology-related cable channel TechTV, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the situation. TechTV, owned by Allen's investment firm Vulcan Ventures Inc., is worth $250 million to $300 million, the paper said, citing sources.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

ABIT IC7-G MAXII:

Got Canterwood? Gonna get Canterwood? Read this ABIT IC7-G MAXII review if you are in the market for a Canterwood board. The IC7-G is one of the big boys on the block and for good reason. Check out the full review at TweakNews.

When you are shopping for a new performance overclocking motherboard, there are only a handful of manufacturers that are by far the leaders in quality, workmanship, features and reliability. One name that is always mentioned is Abit. With a fan base getting stronger and stronger by the day and engineering that seems to just keep on improving their product, Abit is going stronger than ever and has wedged itself into a tight group of the best tier 1 motherboard manufacturers in the world.

Internet Dying?

The internet as we know it is dying according to this article at CircleID. I think the internet we all fell in love with has been gone for awhile but like any good drug, we are all hooked now anyways.

There are indications that the Internet, at least the Internet as we know it today, is dying. I am always amazed, and appalled, when I fire up a packet monitor and watch the continuous flow of useless junk that arrives at my demarcation routers' interfaces. That background traffic has increased to the point where it makes noticeable lines on my MRTG graphs. And I have little reason for optimism that this increase will cease. Quite the contrary, I find more reason to be pessimistic and believe that this background noise will become a Niagara-like roar that drowns the usability of the Internet.

Chaintech Zenith 7NJS Ultra:

For those of you on the AMD side of the fence looking at getting a mainboard, this Chaintech Zenith 7NJS Ultra review is one to check out. The Zenith line of boards from Chaintech are renowned for all the goodies that come with them. If big bundles is your bag, check out this review.

I must say, this board has proved to be a sheer joy. From the piles of extras and add-ons to the built-in cutting edge technology such as ATA133 and DUAL DDR400; I can’t imagine what more I could ask for. Or could I?

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

90nm Process Healthy:

Intel wants you to know its 90nm process is on track and on the way, despite what some goofball analyst said last week.

Responding to comments from an analyst, Intel Corp. today (Aug. 26, 2003) re-iterated that its 90-nm process technology is on track and "healthy." *snip* During a conference call last week, Andy Bryant, Intel's CFO, said the company's 90-nm process is on track and the upcoming 90-nm chips would be delivered by year's end.

Here is an Intel slide presentation on going to 90 that we posted back in August.

ONEbox Media Center:

With all the talk about HTPCs and the popularity of the VIA Mini-ITX platform, it was only a matter of time before we saw something like this. The Niveus Media’s ONEbox Media Center is now available sporting some pretty impressive specs for a set top box like a 1GHz VIA C3, ATi Radeon 7500, 160GB hard drive and more. Here is a clip from the official press release:

Blacklisting The World?

Here is today’s ”blame it on those damn crappy spammers” story. Ugh…can’t we just move all spammers to a deserted island that has no net access and leave them there? Thanks to SmartDrv for the linkage.

As of today, Osirusoft, distributer of the SPEWS and open relay blocklists, among others, is no longer operational. Servers using these lists (including the FTC) are currently rejecting ALL email. This shutdown seems to be in response to a several-week-long DDoS attack on Osirusoft, SPEWS and others, resulting in both sites being down.

[H]ardNews - Repost

New Duron:

We posted this over the weekend and now that the mainstream press has picked it up we are getting tons of email showing us what we "missed". Shame on you guys for not reading on Saturdays!

Seriously, here is the PDF linked below from AMD that will tell you all you could ever want to know about the new Duron.

This information is a bit more solid than the "he said she said" of the tech tabloids. AMD has posted the AMD Duron™ Processor Model 8 Data Sheet. Thanks Ben Peddell. Thermals are on page 21 with frequencies of 1400, 1600, and 1800MHz noted. Socket A is still around too. I don't see this being a big concern to enthusiasts, unless you are responsible for building corporate work stations.

[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed.

Amazon Sues Spammers:

Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday it has filed federal lawsuits in the United States and Canada against 11 online marketers that the Internet retailer claims are using its name without permission to sell products ranging from health pills to automobile warranties. Amazon is seeking millions of dollars in punitive damages to deter others from sending E-mails falsely labeled as coming from the company.

US Sponsored Anti-Censorship:

A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian. This month Anonymizer began providing Iranians with free access to a Web proxy service designed to circumvent their government's online censorship efforts.

SuperComputer Stuff:

The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is now home to the United States’ fastest operational unclassified supercomputer. The laboratory’s 11.8 teraflops industry-standard HP Integrity system came to full operating power this week, marking the next advance in high-performance computing designed to enable new insights in the environmental and molecular sciences, including chemistry, biology, climate and subsurface chemistry.

Global Warming Victims:

While most of official Washington was captivated with the fight on the Senate floor to pass an energy bill before Congress left town for its August vacation, a vicious campaign was under way behind the scenes to smear two leading scientists for pointing out serious flaws in the science behind the theory of human-caused climate change.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Radeon 9600Pro Review:

Legit Reviews has posted their impressions of the Radeon 9600Pro today. If you are in search of a budget video card with balls, the Radeon 9600Pro will serve your purposes well. You can see our review of this very same card here for comparison purposes as well as our adventures in overclocking the 9600Pro here.

As I mentioned in my introduction, the ATI Radeon 9600 PRO is not the newest video card on the market, but still offers great gaming performance with a "budget" price tag for the average gamer. The retail ATI 9600 PRO does not come with a solid bundle, but it does come with the reputation of being, "built-by-ATI" and that does mean you'll get certain quality from your purchase.

Leadtek FX5900 Ultra 256MB:

And the Academy Award for longest GFFX name goes to the Leadtek A350Ultra TDH MyViVO Edition 256MB FX5900 Ultra. This is the same GFFX from Leadtek that has the odd dual fan heatsink that has somehow become the trademark of Leadtek.

The A350Ultra that we received is built on reference Nvidia's design; however, it is shipped with Leadtek's own heatsink design, more on that later. The card is caged in an aluminum enclosure, with one fan blowing cool air into the enclosure and the other extracting the heat. The back panel effectively acts as a heatsink for the ram chips on the backside of the board.

Chaintech GFFX 5600Ultra:

While we are still on the subject of video cards, the Chaintech APOGEE FX71 GFFX 5600Ultra is reviewed by the OcTools gang. This is one of those cards that has the case modder in mind and comes with a built in light on the heatsink. Kind snazzy don’t you think?

Chaintech has once again wowed us by producing the best looking VGA card we have seen out of the box, the FX71 Apogee FX5600 Ultra. Its innovative design and cooling technique has definitely contributed not only to its effectiveness but to the overall look of the card as well.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Halo PC Interview:

For all of you Halo junkies out there, Gamers Depot has a Halo PC interview with my buddy Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software. The interview also includes a handful of new screenshots as well.

Square Apples:

Remember the small Apple computers that looked like a high tech Kleenex dispenser? Appretnly they are still very popular in Mac circles, so much so that there are articles on finding & upgrading your cube.

You can easily place a 120 gig, 7200 RPM hard drive in your Cube for under a $100. Basic PC100 memory is cheap, so placing three sticks of 512 meg ram in the Cube is an inexpensive and easy upgrade. Replacing video cards and processors are not for the faint-hearted and those upgrades are normally much more expensive.

VIA To Release KT880:

VIA set to release a dual channel DDR400 chipset called the KT880 for the K7 platform? Digitimes says it is so, have a look for yourself.

VIA Technologies will release another chipset supporting the K7 platform from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), according to the company. The KT880 chipset, supporting a 400MHz FSB (front-side bus) and dual-channel DDR400 memory, will be the latest and last entry in VIA’s K7 chipset line.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

New Duron Line:

AMD is reviving the Duron for another go around the block. The processor will come in 3 flavors 1.4GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz and sold mainly overseas. The article also talks about the AthlonXP being extended to make up for the delay in the Athlon64.

Advanced Micro Devices has brought its Duron chip back from the dead and will probably extend the life of its Athlon XP chip, in an attempt to take back market share in the budget-PC market. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker confirmed Monday that it has begun selling three new Duron chips--running at 1.4GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz--in China, Latin America and other developing markets. An AMD representative, however, emphasized that the new chips are available only in developing markets in limited quantities.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

Ultimate HTPC Article:

HTPC News, being brand new to the community, had already come out swinging with their very first ultimate HTPC review. Basically this was a guide to building a nice home theater PC for those of you who need pointers. Today, they followed it up with this SnapStream software review.

Well, I hope that some people will find this little look into my world of HTPC's helpful, and possibly answer some questions about what hardware works well together. I also hope that it will get some people a little more interested in the software that is available, as well as the wonderful hardware that is now on the market.

Getting Cubed:

OCAddiction has a cool looking SFF called the e-Cube from AMS on the review bench today. This isn’t just an ordinary SFF either. Unlike most small form factor PCs, this one is very easy to get inside of and work on…through the convertible top. Yes, I said convertible.

The upgraded design comes into play when you want to install your components. You've seen the handle on the top of the box, well it's held on with four machine screws. Simply removing the two front screws allows the entire top of the box to flip open via a hinge on the back.

Wrap That Rascal:

We are talking about case wraps for your PC folks, not safe sex. Case wraps are a cheap and easy way to add a little bling bling to your old ATX case.

Today we look at a product designed to remove some of the blandness of a standard computer case and give it the look of a hand painted airbrush job. The folks at CrazyPC sent us a sample of their Casewrap adhesive backed vinyl case covering.

The product must work, check out the first picture in the review…the dog is mesmerized.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

GFFX Cheaper:

Lake Bluff, IL – (August 26, 2003) – BFG Technologies, Inc., a leading U.S.-based supplier of advanced 3D graphics cards, announced today that the Asylum™ GeForce™ FX 5900 high performance 3D graphics card is now available at Best Buy, Best Buy.com and Fry's Electronics for $299.99.

Back Up:

I do it when no one is looking and usually while I am in bed. Yes, I back up my entire C: drive, and PCStats talks about why you should to and how you can.

If you do not wish to use the built in Windows backup software, there are several other choices available for archiving and making drive images. Of course, there are many comprehensive commercial packages available, but there are also several excellent freeware utilities.

Non-paste Paste:

The guys over at Nanotherm have a new approach to mating HSF and CPU interfaces. PirateSoftware tells us about the new PCM+.

Wow. Now there are only a few times that I'm ever this impressed when looking at something new and computer-like: this is one of these times.

PC3700:

Hexus has a look at PC3700 from Corsair.

The Samsung chips on this sample of XMS3700 do not like low latencies in any way, shape or form. Previous Corsair modules used premier Winbond BH chips, chips which didn't mind lower latencies if accompanied by lower speeds. These chips, however, would barely function at 2.5-3-3-7 at DDR400 speeds. That's not a major criticism, because the modules aren't required to do anything other than perform to specification, which they do without question.

This is what we have found to be the case with all major brands of DDR500. They are not capable of running the low latencies we are used to even at DDR400 levels. So don't assume that your DDR500 will run as well as your DDR400...at 400MHz.

Netgear DOS:

Network hardware maker Netgear has warned its customers of a flaw in some of its router products that could set off an "accidental" denial-of-service attack.

Thanks Joseph Alpert.

GFFX 5900U:

If you have not seen the reference card reviews yet, PCStats gives you the full NVIDIA GeForceFX 5900 Ultra tour.

As a consumer, I'm quite happy that nVIDIA is back in the game as well. Like the ever lasting Intel/AMD fight, if ATi or nVIDIA were ever to go under who would stop the victor from charging us through the nose for high end videocards? You think they're expensive now, just imagine if the world didn't have nVIDIA or ATi to counter each other!