[H]ardNews 13th Edition

ACON DOOM 3 Media Fragfest:

ABIT has sent along word of the ACON DOOM 3 Media Fragfest. The event gathers the world’s top IT media to an online DOOM 3 tournament to see who will be the deathmatch king o’ the world…or something like that. Hey…isn’t that Kyle’s picture? Looks like our fearless leader Kyle will be representing the [H]! Go vote for him so he can at least win one thing.

The ACON DOOM 3 Media FragFest gathers hardware and gaming media from around the world and pits them against one another in a DOOM 3™ Deathmatch tournament. Media participants will be grouped according to their geographic location (Americas/EMEA/Asia) and will play on servers located in their respective regions. In addition to the coveted ACON Media FragFest Open Cup, the winner that emerges from each of the 3 regions will win 2 power-packed PC upgrade packages that they can raffle off to their faithful readers, including memory, CPU, and a VIA-based ABIT motherboard.

[H]ardNews 12th Edition

Albatron Mars PX915Pro:

I know a lot of you are looking for an affordable LGA775 board and it seems The Crucible might just have something on the test bench to fit the bill. The Albatron Mars PX915Pro performed well in the review garnering a recommendation from the reviewer. Here is a quote:

The Mars PX915P Pro delivers a complete, quality package at a very reasonable price. Exactly what we expect from Albatron. Upgrading to the LGA775 platform now has an affordable, high quality alternative.

Say What!?!:

Although this sounds like something right out of a frickin’ science fiction book, apparently a living (disembodied) rat brain can control a fighter jet simulator. Holy crap that is freaky. Blame Scott McComb for this one.

A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator. Scientists say the research could lead to tiny, brain-controlled prosthetic devices and unmanned airplanes flown by living computers.

Super Cuts:

If you have ever wondered what a “difference” a simple haircut can make, wonder no more. Our friend EvilJohn, Director of the QuakeCon BYOC, has answered that question for you. Most QuakeCon BYOC attendees know the “old” John, hit the link and meet EvilJohn 2.0.

[H]ardNews 11th Edition

HyperTransport Still Having Problems?

Word from the folks at The Inquirer is that they have an official NVIDIA document that says the company is having problems with the 1GHz HyperTransport bus. Obviously none of this is confirmed by NVIDIA at this time but a future stepping of the chipset is supposed to fix this issue. Then again, that has been said before, the A02 stepping was supposed to fix the problem but failed to materialize. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out. Thanks to Mark for the linkage.

An NVIDIA official document we've seen has revealed some dark secrets of its currently shipping chipset. Three weeks ago we wrote a story about the Nforce 4 A01 silicon problem with 5X Hyper transport, which you can read here.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

ABIT KV8 Pro:

The VIA K8T800Pro based ABIT KV8 Pro motherboard is raked over the coals at PCPerspective today. If you are in the market for a socket 754 motherboard, check out this review. Here is a bit from the conclusion:

The Abit KV8 Pro is a very capable motherboard. It performed very well in our tests though equally matched the competing nForce 3.

Galaxy GeForce 6600:

Guru3D has the mid-range Galaxy GeForce 6600 in house for a little review action….well, I shouldn’t say little, the review weighs in at 17 pages in all. Good reading for sure.

If you try the newest titles you'll slowly get stuck on 1024x768, but even then you'll be able to play around with anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing settings. And for 150 bucks that's not bad at all.

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Google Maps?

It looks like Google has acquired Keyhole an online mapping service. Is Google the next big name in the online map service? The 3D map service is pretty damn cool, if you have never heard of Keyhole, you might want to check out the online demo on their website. Here is what Google's vice president of product management, Jonathan Rosenberg, said:

With Keyhole, you can fly like a superhero from your computer at home to a street corner somewhere else in the world -- or find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

ASUS Extreme AX800XT:

Looking for a high-end X800XT based card? Need a webcam? ViperLair has both bases covered with this ASUS Extreme AX800XT review. The AX800XT is a very nice card with dual DVI, features galore and yes, even a webcam is included in the bundle. Check it out:

If you have any desire to play the latest games with all the effects turned on, the ASUS Extreme AX800XT/2DT should be on your short list.

VisionTek Xtasy X800XT:

If you want a X800XT without the webcam, without the bundle and all the extras then the VisionTek Xtasy X800XT reviewed at Club Overclocker should fit the bill nicely. Something to keep in mind, VisionTek has one of the best warranties in the business.

So any way you measure it, the X800XT is a very capable card and VisionTek has done the chipset very proud.

Gigabyte GeForce 6800:

The coolest thing (pun intended) about the Gigabyte GeForce 6800 reviewed by CoolTechZone has to be its copper heatpipe cooler. The price point and overclockability isn't too bad either.

If you are looking for something that will fit your limited budget and perform higher than its market value, we suggest giving Gigabyte’s 6800: In Solid Copper Flavor a serious consideration.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

[H]umpday [H]ardForum [H]appenings brings you another installment in the DOOM 3: Project Mars City mod thread. Check out the latest pictures. The K8N NEO2 multiplier issues is still being debated in the forms. Have comments? Leave them in this thread. The For Sale & Trade forums are bustling with activity today. There are a bunch of people, just like you, that are buying, selling and trading all kinds of stuff. Deal of the day has to be free water cooling couplings from Colder Products. Worth checking out, even if you are just cashing in on the free stuff. As always, the forums offer a way to interact with thousands and thousands of people every day, all day long. Don’t see a thread here that interests you? Get in the forums and make your own thread. We’ll see you in there.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

NVIDIA Answers TheInq:

Yesterday there was a story at TheInq claiming that the GF 6800 series was broke and that there was “a big chance that video processing fuctions will never work in Nvidia 6800 cards”. Today, Fuad has received a little guidance from NVIDIA on the subject. Apparently all that was needed was new drivers, which NVIDIA is already working on. So all is well that ends well, no need to panic.

WE WROTE this article yesterday but Nvidia has given us guidance on the subject. Nvidia 6800 generation indeed has hardware video support up and running. It will work just fine if you download new drivers which are expected soon and will appear on its web site.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

ABIT AA8 DuraMax:

TweakNews has posted a 11 page ABIT AA8 DuraMax review that is worth checking out for sure. You can see our review here for comparison purposes.

Throughout the five days of testing, overclocking, gaming, benchmarking and stress testing, I threw absolutely everything I could at it and did it ever come close to failing?......Not even slightly. It would be an outright lie if I called it anything other than an excellent motherboard.

PCI-Express Basics:

If you need a basic explanation on PCI-Express, this OCModShop article should help you get up to speed. Here is a quote from the article:

In this article I’ll be covering some of the technical details of PCI Express (or PCI-E for short) and how it stacks up with what is currently available on the market, and what this means to average users and power users alike.

UFO Lawnmower?

You ain’t seen nuthin’ until you seen a flying lawnmower. Yes, I said flying lawnmower. Watching the damn thing take off and land is funny as hell, definitely the download of the day. Check it out. Blame this one on [H]ardforum member Renegade_Azzy.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

K8N Neo 2 Falsifies Its Multipliers?:

According to this write up at Sudhian, the MSI K8N NEO2 multipliers have problems…big problems. The issues seems to be with setting your multiplier manually in the BIOS to a half (.5) multiplier and not getting the results you are expecting. Check out the write up, especially if you have this board.

According to Everest, however, our half-multiplier settings do not exist at all. Instead, when a half-multiplier setting is called for, the motherboard “approximates” the value of one by raising the front side bus further. This occurs ONLY on half-multiplier settings and occurs consistently; we tested all the way down to 8.5x and at a variety of bus speeds between 200 and 250 MHz.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Scythe FCS-50 Heatlane @ Phoronix - CoolForce 2 VGA Cooler @ HardwareHounds - SilverStone FP52 "Eudemon" Multifunction Fan Controller @ 3DVelocity

Etc.:

Cable Sleeving Shoot-Out @ BurnOut PC - SmartJoy FRAG @ Hawaii Gamer - D-Link AirPlus ExtremeG @ DataFuse - Enermax Noisetaker EG475P-VE SFMA 2.0 470W PSU @ BigBruin

Cases & Modding:

Advanced Keyboard Modification : LCD4me @ The Modfathers - Ultra Dragon Glossy ATX Case @ CaseModGod

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Ex-RIAA CEO Talks Creative Commons:

I was actually very surprised to hear the attitude taken by ex-RIAA boss Hilary Rosen in this Wired article. Actually hearing her praise creative commons was a tad bit of a shocker for sure. There are other things as well that you might find interesting about the former CEO of the RIAA by reading what she said in this article.

I'm still cynical about its origins, but I've come to love Creative Commons. The organization seeks to calm some of music's roiling waters, from unlawful sampling to file-sharing. As the RIAA continues to use the courts to discourage the illegal, widespread distribution of songs through peer-to-peer systems, there has been a chilling effect on other, legitimate uses.