[H]ardNews 1st Edition

Big Cooling:

Have you ever considered quieting down you computer with what looks to be a big blue radiator sitting next to it? If you have, Zalman now has a retail answer and NordicHardware has the coverage.

Zalman has taken the step into the fanless water cooling with all its problems perfectly.

GFFX 5900XT:

The latest GPU from NVIDIA, the 5900XT, is shown off on this Albatron video card at R&B. Our review of MSI's 5900XT flavor is here for comparison.

This card is very fast at stock speeds but overclocking was a bit sucky. It's alot faster than the Leadtek we reviewed earlier which was the same model.

HMC Software:

SteamedTurtle has a peek at some new "Home Media Center" software that is out on the market. I post this because it is absolutely one of the worst reviews I have ever read, and I felt compelled to share my pain with you today.

So, we all ask the question, "Why would we want this program?" Well, it can do many things; you can watch TV if you have a TV Tuner on your computer. (which we did not for this review)

We are evaluating a full line of video cards next week, without using any monitors or panels.

Cooling:

TIM install tips @ SilentPCForums - Socket A HSF Roundup in German - Evercool H2O Kit @ SystemCooling

Etc.:

PC Security Screws @ TechLounge - PC Cupholder/Lighter Combo @ OCerCafe

Modding:

EL Wire Kit @ Creative Mods - PolyGFX Case Mod Skins @ Spodes

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

BBB Smacks Apple:

The Better Business Bureau is asking Apple to stop claiming they have the “world's fastest, most powerful personal computer”. These ads were even banned in the UK because the claims Apple made were not supported. At this point it isn't clear what Apple will do, but even the UK banning didn't stop them last time. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus has recommended that Apple Computer discontinue comparative performance claims regarding its Power Mac G5 desktop. Acting on a tip from Apple rival Dell, the council's National Advertising Division (NAD) "determined that the evidence provided by Apple did not provide a reasonable basis for its broad unqualified claims that its Power Mac G5 is 'the world's fastest, most powerful personal computer' and that it 'edged out the competition on integer.'"

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Bump In SCOs Road:

A small company in Germany won a temporary restraining order against SCO, meaning SCO can’t go after them until the restraining order expires. Score one for the anti-SCO folks.

A tiny German software company has thrown some sand in the gears of The SCO Group Inc.'s roaring legal machine. Univention was one of three organizations last year to win a temporary restraining court order against SCO Group GmbH, forcing SCO's German subsidiary to stop spreading allegations about Linux copyright violations.

Pinpointing Gunfire:

Here is some some very cool technology for pinpointing enemy gunfire. We saw this technology demonstrated awhile back and it is extremely impressive.

The Pentagon is rushing into service in Iraq a pair of technologies developed under its advanced research arm: a Humvee-mounted sensor for pinpointing hostile gunfire and a "command post of the future" designed to cut down on combat leaders' travel and streamline decision-making

Soya Powered Planes?

An airplane can run on Soya oil? I’m not entirely sure I want to be on a plane running on soybeans.

Soya oil is just the thing to give aviation fuel a greener future, believe a group of US biochemists. They say that an aircraft fuel based on soya oil and traditional jet fuel will slash consumption of fossil fuel, and help slow the rise in greenhouse gas levels by using carbon from renewable sources.

3D Ballistics Matching:

Even matching ballistics is going 3D now. I wonder if you will need a high end video card now just to match bullets? Heh...get it? 3D card = 3D ballistics? Nevermind.

To determine a possible match between bullets fired from any particular weapon, an analysis of the bullet's surface must be made. Over the last decade, automated systems have been developed to perform this analysis. Most of these systems operate by comparing two-dimensional (2-D) images from the surface of the bullet.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

GDC Coverage:

GameSpot has posted its coverage of GDC 2004. Coverage includes Unreal Engine 3.0, Microsoft’s XNA demos and speakers from the show.

The annual Game Developers Conference, once a relatively small venue for game industry professionals, is now a much bigger attraction. Now, the gaming press arrives in droves, knowing that many of the hottest upcoming games will be on display, even as major news and announcements break straight from the show floor.

GDC Coverage II:

GameSpy has coverage of GDC this year as well, but it is their coverage of the 4th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards that caught our attention. The guys from Infinity Ward ( Call of Duty ) got “Rookie of the Year”.

"Wednesday night in San Jose." Not exactly words that inspire images of heavy partying and prestigious awards. But that's exactly what we got at the 4th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, held at this week's Game Developers Conference.

Intel Buys Envara:

Rumor has it that Intel has bought Wi-Fi chip maker Envara. Intel has really been stepping up its Wi-Fi efforts lately, this is the second Wi-Fi company in 6 months bought by Intel.

Intel has bought Israeli wireless networking chip maker Envara for $40m, local business site The Market has claimed. Envara was formed in March 2000 as a fabless chip producer, and has since launched its WiND series of multi-mode Wi-Fi chipsets.

Carmack Clear Up:

Apparently there are two versions of what John Carmack said at GDC. The good news is, the link we gave you guys to HomeLAN earlier was the “correct” account of what was said. Whew.

To follow-up on the discrepancy between the two accounts of John Carmack's address at the GDC yesterday, a reader named Rene Patnode who attended the talk offers his perspective saying the HomeLAN Fed account is the more accurate of the two: "I can tell you that HomeLan Fed is a LOT closer to the truth.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

Analyzing PCI-E Strategies:

Tech Report is analyzing PCI Express strategies from both NVIDIA and ATi. Both companies are producing PCI Express graphics cards, they are just taking different approaches to the same subject.

Although motherboards and core logic chips with PCI Express support aren't due out for weeks, ATI and NVIDIA have already announced plans to make current generation Radeon and GeForce FX parts compatible with the new interconnect technology. ATI and NVIDIA agree that PCI Express is the next big interface for graphics, but the two companies are initially supporting PCI Express in very different ways.

New Bagel Worm:

Another version of the Bagel worm has hit the net. Make sure you update your virus software. What kind of moron sits around modifying virus/worms? I’d tell you what kind of person if this wasn’t a family orientated website.

Yet another version of the Bagle worm is on the loose and is already causing trouble in parts of Europe. Bagle.U appeared early Friday morning and has begun spreading quickly, even though it contains none of the social engineering tricks that Bagle's author has used to help previous versions succeed.

IE Translator Plug-In:

Since we are always linking to articles that require a translator, Andy Killgore thought this IE Translator plug-in is just what everyone needed. Good idea.

Im Translator provides a wide range of possibilities to communicate with ease and convenience in different languages. With Im Translator you can enter multilingual text, check it for correctness, adjust unreadable messages, translate in different languages, print results and send email.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Internet Gambling:

This is either good news or bad news, depending on what side of the internet gambling debate you side with. Online overseas casinos won a decision by the World Trade Organization that says prohibiting online gambling violates international law.

The World Trade Organization, in its first decision on an Internet-related dispute, has ignited a political, cultural and legal tinderbox by ruling that the United States policy prohibiting online gambling violates international trade law.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

WinAmp 5.03:

Nullsoft has released a new version of WinAmp. The download is only 4.2MB and brings the popular MP3 player up to version 5.03.

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, Audiosoft, Audio Explosion, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins.

New FRAPS:

There is also a new version of FRAPS out as well. FRAPS is the benchmark utility we use to get frame rates in our video card reviews.

There have been numerous improvements to the video capture engine with much smoother movies for high-end machines. Direct X 9 capture speeds have also improved so you'll notice benefits recording the latest games. Benchmarking overhaul for enthusiasts and reviewers! Timed benchmarks are a new feature (automatically stops the benchmark after a fixed time period).

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

UN Wants The Internet:

Another United Nations summit discussing the U.N. desire to control more of the internet. Could you imagine the U.N. actually having control over the internet? Now that would be interesting.

Backing ICANN are groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the U.S. Commerce Department, which fear that greater U.N. involvement will unleash the world's most extensive bureaucracy on the Internet and stifle innovation online.

Extraditing Pirates:

Australia decided not to allow the U.S. to extradite a man to the U.S. to face charges of internet piracy. Maybe if we ask nice, our Australian friends will just “take care” of him for us.

An Australian judge on Wednesday rejected an attempt by U.S. prosecutors to extradite a man accused of helping lead a high-profile Internet piracy group. U.S. federal attorneys want to bring Hew Raymond Griffiths, a 42-year-old computer programmer to the United States to face criminal copyright charges.

Linux PCs In China:

HP, Dell and IBM are planning on selling Linux PCs in China. A rumor has it that SCO will sue the whole country of China if the do (kidding, kidding).

Major PC vendors including Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and IBM, have all been promoting Linux-based PCs in China. Legend Group, the largest provider of IT products in China, has also joined the effort. Legend is going to launch Linux-based PCs in April, according to sources.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

DFI LanParty Pro875B:

People in need of a Canterwood based board that comes with everything but the kitchen sink should check out this DFI LanParty Pro875B review at Legion Hardware.

When looking at the boards packages I think DFI are pushing the limits at the moment. The LanParty Pro875B comes in a box the size of a small brief case, and it’s not empty by a long shot. The board package is loaded with goodies from rounded cables to transport bags.

AOpen AK86-L K8T800:

If your are upgrading to the Athlon64 platform, check out this AOpen AK86-L K8T800 socket 754 mainboard review at Hexus.

An example of what sensible engineering and excellent documentation can create, the AK86-L is good enough for most users' needs. The low price is an added bonus that's kind of hard to pass up.

Opteron Workstation Boards:

Linux Hardware takes a peek at two Opteron workstation mainboards, one from Tyan one from IWill.

In this review we take a look at the two main contenders in the Opteron workstation category. We've already covered one of these boards, the Tyan Thunder K8W, in an earlier review so we'll be using it as be benchmark against the new board, the Iwill DK8X.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

MSI GFFX5900XT-VTD128:

For budget video card seekers, this MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128 combines good performance with good features for an overall great buy. You can see our review here for comparison purposes.

Couple the MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128's affordable price with its excellent bundle and feature set, and it's easy to declare this card a winner. About the only thing that would make us apprehensive about buying a 5900XT today, is the impending release of new cards by both NVIDIA and ATi.

Evercool WC-201 H20 Kit:

SubZero Tech has taken a look at the Evercool WC-201 watercooling kit and strongly advises against you purchasing this unit.

After taking a year off my life due to stress of installing this thing, I expected at least mediocre performance. However I got much less. I got performance less than that of the stock Intel heatsink. I got a major disappointment. Why on earth would anyone choose to blow their money on this unit?.

TwinX1024-4400PT Platinum:

Need better memory? Check out this Corsair TwinX1024-4400PT Platinum review at PCStats today.

It should be pretty clear that PC4400 DDR is enthusiast memory through and through. If you run a high-end Intel system, Corsair have developed their TwinX1024-4400PT line of memory modules just for you.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

GDC News:

Our pal JCal over at HomeLAN has a pair of news items I thought you guys might really find interesting. The first item pertains to John Carmack’s comments at GDC on DOOM 3 and how close the game is to being completed. The second item on the list is about the next Unreal Engine and what it looks like. Here is a quote from that news post:

We saw some pictures on the way that we thought were either some very detailed artwork or real 3D models of the characters and environments in Epic’s next game. Nope. According to what Epic folks told us, we were looking at actual in game screenshots from UnrealEngine3, the next generation game graphics engine from the Cary, NC based developer. For a while, we didn’t believe it. We though those shots of monsters and environments were so realistic, in textures and in lighting, that they couldn’t be in game graphics.

[H]ardNews

Apex Drops VIA for NVIDIA:

We have been hearing rumblings of this since January, but the official press release just came across my desk. Apex Digital, the company behind the ApeXtreme Gaming Console, featured in our article here, has undergone some extreme spec changes.

ONTARIO, CA March 25, 2004 - Apex Digital Inc., America’s number one seller of DVD players, has finalized the specifications of its revolutionary ApeXtreme (pronounced Apex Extreme) DVD player/Personal Video Recorder/PC game console, it was announced today by company President Steve Brothers. At the heart of the system will be AMD’s AthlonXP2000+processor chip; video will be supplied by NVIDIA’s nForce2 IGP graphics processor; all of which will be integrated on a motherboard produced by Biostar. The ApeXtreme will also utilize NVIDIA’s GeForce4 MX graphics card to supply smooth, crisp graphics. Additionally, the company has added Personal Video Recording (PVR) functionality to the device since it was originally unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).