[H]ardNews 4th Edition

No AMD For Dell:

It looks like hopes for an AMD powered Dell computer have been shot down again. Nothing new, this is only the 4 billionth time that Dell “considered AMD” only to say “no” later.

Dell considered building PCs with chips from Advanced Micro Devices but now aims to keep Intel Corp. as its sole supplier, Dell's chief executive said on Wednesday.

More On AMD Dual-Core Demo:

For those of you who missed our post yesterday on this and AMD’s press release this morning, InformationWeek has posted information gleaned from AMDs dual-core demo announcement.

Multicore chips place two or more CPUs on a single piece of silicon. They are seen as the solution to power-consumption problems that have come to the fore as clock-speeds have increased beyond 3.0 GHz. At such speeds, single-CPU processors can often dissipate more than 150 W. In contrast, dual-core parts can reduce power consumption to more reasonable levels.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Danger Den RBX Waterblock @ OCModShop - Coolest Of 2004 Article @ System Cooling

Etc.:

Logitech Quickcam ORBIT Face-tracking Webcam @ ExtremeMHz - Icemat Audio Siberia Headset @ Phoronix - ATI TV Wonder Elite Review @ NextGen Electronics - Logitech Cordless Precision Xbox Controller @ Virtual Hideout - Icemat Siberia Headset @ DreamWare Computers - Casebuy USB Vacuum Cleaner @ PCmoddingmy - Sunbeam Night Magic, Lazerled & LED Projector @ Rbmods

Cases & Modding:

XGBox Viper Case @ XtremeResources

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Hotmail Outages:

According to Microsoft, a bad server caused the big Hotmail outage yesterday that caused tons of people to pull their hair out over losing their saved mail and such.

Microsoft is grappling with a Hotmail outage that's keeping some users of the e-mail service from using their accounts. A faulty server is apparently the root of the problem, according to a Microsoft customer service representative who confirmed the outage on Wednesday.

Ebay Sued:

Another day, another person wanting a class action lawsuit. This time, it is eBay that is the target. The complaint is pretty hokey though…read the story and you’ll see what I mean.

EBay Inc. is being sued by a Pennsylvania man who charges that it illegally forces up prices when certain high bidders raise their maximum bid to guard against last-minute offers, an attorney for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition - Press Releases

AMD Dual-Core Athlon64 Demonstration:

After garnering rave reviews for its multi-core server and workstation demos at LinuxWorld last week, AMD (NYSE: AMD) gave an encore performance today by demonstrating a dual-core AMD Athlon™ 64 processor, manufactured on 90nm technology. The demonstration took place at the company’s Sunnyvale facilities. AMD has now publicly showcased its broad portfolio of multi-core AMD64 technology, ranging from server and workstation to client systems.

NVIDIA To Present At Conference:

NVIDIA today announced that Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO, will be participating in the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor and Systems Conference in Dana Point, California on March 8, 2005. The Company’s presentation will be made available to the public via audio webcast. The presentation will take place at 9:30 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa in Dana Point.

MS Helping With HIV Vaccine:

Microsoft Research has pioneered promising new ways to combat one of humankind's most deadly viruses with advanced software typically used to analyze large computer databases and complex digital images, or to separate spam from legitimate e-mail. Today at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Microsoft Research will show how medical researchers can use machine-learning, data-mining and other software techniques to comb through millions of strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to find the genetic patterns necessary to train a patient's immune system to fight the virus. The first of these vaccine designs are currently undergoing laboratory testing.

[H]ardNews 11th Edition

LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D:

The crew at Neoseeker have the DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D socket 939 motherboard in house for a few rounds of benchmarks.

The DFI LanParty UT nF4-Ultra-D is going to make some major waves. The board design is top notch - putting the memory above the processor socket is a good idea as there is arguably more airflow there than on the far side of the board.

Foxconn/Winfast NF4UK8AA-8EKRS:

Speaking of nForce4, socket 939 motherboards, Club Overclocker has just posted a review of the Foxconn/Winfast NF4UK8AA-8EKRS motherboard. According to ClubOC the board wasn’t stable when OC’d so overclockers will want to look elsewhere. It is hard to tell how this board actually performed because the review used only gaming benchmarks and the NF4UK8AA-8EKRS wasn’t compared to another motherboard.

Other than these somewhat major flaws, the board was solid at default speed, and a close look at the price tag reveals that that is what Foxconn's intentions were. Its just hard to really rate this board since it basically just needs a good BIOS, and some decent drivers.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

Dell Class Action Suit?

According to this story it seems that Dell is being slapped with a class action lawsuit alleging bait and switch tactics. Our guys in the forums have cashed in on countless Dell deals over the last few years, this is the first I have heard of anything on a “class action” level.

The suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on Feb. 14, seeks class action status in California and accuses Dell of "bait and switch" practices, false advertising, fraud and deceit in sales and advertising, and breach of contract.

Something that always sucks about class action lawsuits is the way the attorneys make millions and millions of dollars while the actual plaintiffs rarely get more than a $50 coupon.

[H]ardNews 9th Edition - Blair's Tech Ed.

FBI Warns Of Virus Hoax:

O.K., just a tip to virus authors / spammers…don’t spoof the FBI’s e-mail addy unless you like the idea of prison time. Sheesh, that is a stupid one.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning to the public today, noting that a mass e-mail scheme has been launched using the FBI as an alleged sender.

WinXP SP2 BSOD Patched:

Those of you who were waxing nostalgic over the return of the BSOD will be disappointed to know that Microsoft has released a patch to rectify the problem. Dang it. Makes you long for the old days of Win 95 / Win 98.

Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash.-based developer has posted a critical fix to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on its Windows Update site, and pushed it to users relying on Automatic Update.

Human Area Networking?:

This takes networking to a new level, doesn’t it? New technology that uses the human body to transmit data. I guess this means you could send data from a device in one and to a device you were holding in the other using only the body. Could you hold hands in a circle with a bunch of people and make a WAN?

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is pursuing research and development of an innovative Human Area Networking technology called RedTacton (*1) that safely turns the surface of the human body into a data transmission path at speeds up to 10 Mbps between any two points on the body.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Demo:

ShackNews has let us know they have the new Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory demo available for download. This bad boy weighs in at almost 600MB…dial-up users need not apply. Hell, even broadband users that are getting this at 100k/sec will need almost 2 hours to grab this one.

A hefty Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory demo is now available, allowing you to sample the single player part of Ubisoft's newest stealth action game.

More On Video Game Violence:

Please note that I said “more on video game violence” not MORON video game violence, although that would be fitting as well.

Gov. Blagojevich has proposed a law to make the sale of explicitly violent or sexual games to under-18 consumers a Class A misdemeanor, carrying a punishment of up to a year in prison or a $5,000 fine.

I said this 4 years ago, and I will say it again…if video games cause violence, how come Japan consumes 10x – 15x more video games than the U.S. even though they are only a fraction of our size and yet their violent crime rate is 1% of the U.S.? Shouldn't they be slashing everyone up with ninja swords and Karate chopping each other to death in Pokemon/Mortal Kombat style death duels by now?

Splinter Cell & Real World Violence:

Since we have mentioned Splinter Cell and video game violence in the same edition, I think it is only fair to point out PROOF that deadly moves learned by playing Splinter Cell as displayed here and here can only lead to one thing…ignorant lawsuits. Be careful, I think I saw the F-word in one of those comics. Gotta love the guys at Penny Arcade.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

Shuttle SN25P XPC:

Have you ever dreamt of a socket 939, nForce4 small form factor PC? Well, Sudhian has the Shuttle SN25P XPC SFF on the test bench today and they will tell you if your dreams have come true or if it was simply all a bad dream.

Shuttle has released the first small form factor system sporting NVIDIA’s latest and greatest nForce4 chipset. For those die-hard AMD fans out there looking to make a move into SFF, now just may be the time

Sapphire Hybrid X800XL:

HotHardware says that the Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X800XL is a great card for the money and even comes with a decent bundle. Here is a bit from the review:

Sapphire's bundle consists of a very good array of software and accessories, including two full version games, a tweaking / overclocking utility, Cyberlink's PowerDVD software, and an assortment of output adapters and cables.

Check out our X800 series round up here for comparison purposes.

Gigabyte Radeon X850XT PE:

Legion Hardware has just posted a 16 page review of the Gigabyte Radeon X850XT PE. If you were looking for something to blow your whole tax return on, Pricewatch shows three Sapphire X850XT PE cards at $626, $665 and $778. Ouch.

Overall, if it's performance you want and it’s PCI Express that you've got, then the Gigabyte Radeon X850XT PE is for you. While the card can be considered very expensive, retailing for around $520 US at the moment, it’s the price you must pay for ultimate performance.

VIA Ships 100 Millionth AMD Chipset:

VIA today announced the unique achievement of 100 million core-logic chipsets for AMD Athlon™ processors. The 100 millionth chipset, a VIA K8T890, will be presented to AMD by VIA President and CEO Wenchi Chen at a ceremony to be held in San Francisco on Thursday 24th February. The VIA K8T890 is an advanced PCI Express™ chipset for the very latest AMD64 processors with support for a 1GHz/16-bit HyperTransport™ technology bus and a multi-peripheral PCI Express implementation, representing the foundation stone for the next hundred million chipset milestone.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

[H]umpday [H]ardForum [H]appenings is here. Got a few spare CPU cycles and nothing to do with them? If you said yes then get on a winning team and join the [H]orde. Speaking of processing power, how many of you have dual processor PCs? Then show them off in this thread here. There are some damn fine machines in that thread. Deal of the day are these Dell coupon codes for up to 25% off on LCD monitors. Dell also has that $229 2.53GHz server on sale again that is seriously worth plopping down the cash for. If you are broke and need cash, sell some of your old junk in our For Sale & Trade forum. As always, if nothing you see here is of interest to you, just drop into the forums and make a thread of your own. If it is a good topic…send me a link, I’ll post it here. We’ll see you in the forums!

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

512MB Video Cards:

Even though it is nearly impossible to find any high end graphics cards (from either ATi or NVIDIA) on store shelves, there are rumors all over the internet about 512MB X850XTs coming out and now word of a 512MB GeForce 6800 Ultra from Gainward.

Gainward have an exclusive SKU just for their SLI 'CoolFX' solutions. They have coupled the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra GPU with 512MB of 1.6ns (1.2GHz) G-DDR3 memory on each of the boards. This coupled with the water cooled units, these cards of course will run on the PCI-E bus.

*Update* ATi just confirmed that it will show off a 512MB X850XT this weekend. Unfortunately, I think their claim to “World’s First 512MB...” just got dashed by the 512MB Gigabyte 6800Ultra announcement above.

UMC Questions Prosecutor’s TSMC Link:

The chairman of UMC is questioning the prosecutor’s links to TSMC, citing the fact that the prosecutor studied law in a school sponsored by TSMC.

In an email distributed to UMC employees, Tsao said prosecutor Rong-Lin Chen studied law at a TSMC-sponsored school and was a student of Richard Thurston, vice president and general counsel at TSMC. TSMC declined to comment on the news.

$164 Million For 100,000 Domains:

How lame is this? Keyword advertising has turned into such big money that a company just coughed up $164 million for 100,000 domain names that host nothing but pay-per-click keyword ads.

The deal was driven by the growth of Internet keyword advertising, which has enhanced the value of domains that can attract traffic without any original content, allowing speculators to turn typos and search-optimized advertising sites into dollars.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Random [H] Sightings:

Both Matt Holmes and Simon Enouen, even though they are on different ends of the country, caught a late night Futurama [H] sighting. Yet another sighting comes in from Ed who happened to be getting a little GBA SP gaming action in when he spotted this [H] in the middle of his game. The last [H] sighting in this group is on the back of the old Camaro. It is pretty damn cool until you realize that is actually my car. I think that disqualifies me.