![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
Maarten over at ShackNews let me know they have the new F.E.A.R. 1.02 patch available for download. Dial up users might shy away from this one, it weighs in at over 116MB.
A new F.E.A.R. patch is now out, updating Monolith's first person shooter to version 1.02. This new release adds an additional multiplayer map, fixes some localization errors and gets the game for an upcoming SDK release.
Pure Overclock has a review of the Inno3D GF 7800GT posted today that you might want to take a gander at. While it doesn’t really have any big marketing gimmicks or stand out features, it is a solid performer with a decent price.
If you must have a factory overclocked card then you’ll have to look elsewhere, but if your looking for a reasonably priced 7800 GT and aren’t afraid to overclock the card yourself then this should be on your short list.
Google is hiring programmers to work on making OpenOffice “better”. Why that is mighty nice of them. Hopefully they can turn OO into a leaner, meaner open source office suite. After the reports last week showing extremely poor performance compared to MS Office, this could be just what OO needs.
Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, a demonstration of its affinity for open source initiatives and one the company believes also shows sound practical sense. OpenOffice has its roots in Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite of programs. Five years ago, Sun turned its proprietary software into an open-source project.
AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that German game developer FAKT Software GmbH will be leveraging the full power of the AGEIA PhysX processor for its upcoming Crazy Machines II. The announcement is the result of an agreement that enables FAKT Software to use the AGEIA PhysX SDK to implement comprehensive physics dynamics in Crazy Machines II. This physics functionality will take on a new, breathtaking dimension for gamers using PCs equipped with the AGEIA PhysX processor.
AMD has posted a new processor pricing chart. Athlon 64 4000+ prices are set at $341, mobile 4000+ prices are only $7 more than that. AMD X2 dual core 4200+ processors coming in at $408. Oddly enough, you can find the 4000+ on the street for $334 with free shipping.
Prices below are subject to change without notice. This listing reflects pricing for direct AMD customers in 1000-unit tray quantities, except when designated as PIB quantities.
Most of you remember the [H] PC-in-a-pumpkin we posted last week, well it would seem that the fine folks at C|Net liked it too! The original article we linked can be found here. Our second [H]sighting this week comes from forum member “dthind” from this year’s BlizzCon.
There are three organizations that have partnered to offer insurance policies to corporations that use open source software. The policies cover up to $10 million dollars in damages, including profit losses from potential infringement cases. Cool stuff.
The insurance will cover up to $10 million in damages, including profit losses related to noncompliance with an open-source software license. The policy could, in some cases, cover the cost of repairing code that was found to infringe on open-source licenses such as the General Public License, which is used with the Linux operating system.
You should head over to my alter-ego site Hypothermia and drop your name in the hat to win of two ceramic white PSPs. You can enter once a day to win, and tomorrow is the last day to enter so get in it to win it.
I will have be giving away two ceramic white PSPs starting Friday. If you want to get your name in the hat, hit the link. As always, you can enter once a day until the contest closes. Good luck!
There is another review of the oh-so-popular ATi All-In-Wonder X800XL on the net today. This time around it is the crew at Sudhian doing the reviewing but the conclusions are always the same: good gaming performance, great TV / ViVo functionality all in one package.
The dual-display capabilities with a single DVI and VGA ports makes the AIW X800XL ideal for a desktop and HTPC environment. Component, S-Video, and composite outputs make the AIW X800XL compatible with a variety of SDTV and HDTV sets.
Grab a translator and head on over top Noticias3D and check out their review of the ABIT AW8-MAX, unless you feel like roughing it and going without a translator. Either way you should be O.K. because the pictures and graphs are universal. You can see our review here for comparison purposes.
En definitiva es una placa con un rendimiento a la altura, con algunos extras interesantes, estable y silenciosa. Aunque para aprovecharla al máximo recomendamos un procesador y memorias potentes con los que poder sacar todo el jugo a este producto.
BFR has awarded the HiS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo an editors choice award, saying that the X800GTO is basically a good deal for the money. Here is a clip from the full review:
It seems as though the X800GTO is truly a winner when it comes to price versus performance. The X800GTO performed very well in all of our benchmarks, which again seemed CPU/Memory bound at the lower, less graphic intensive settings.
The crew at Hardware Fanatics has posted an interesting interview with ATi’s Senior Product Manager, Terry Makedon. There is actually a lot of good info in the interview, here is a bit on Linux driver support:
It’s not a matter of time, but rather a matter of how many people. Our plan is to have a team that is proportional to the size of each market. So, hypothetically speaking, if the whole PC market is 90% Windows, 5% Linux and 5% Mac, our development teams are structured to roughly reflect those proportions.
Welcome to another edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! I like to think of Mondays as Moddays, so let’s start things off with a few of the cool mods we currently have going in the Case Modding forum. The DOOM 3: Project Mars City case mod thread has been updated with more info and pictures. Really cool G5 case mods are always a favorite here in the forums. This one is getting off to a good start. This guy has a great way of using spare parts. What is that you say? You don’t have spare parts lying around? How bout using a trash can then? Damn fine looking mod too. Moving on to the Deals of the Day, we have this 160GB hard drive for $40 with a mail in rebate and this Radeon X850XT-PE for $199. Damn good deals no matter how you look at it. Get em’ while the getting is good! As always, have fun in the forums, we’ll see you in there!
Brian Briggs and the BBSpot crew have come up with this year’s Top 11 Geek Halloween Costumes. While most of you may laugh at the absurdity of it all, I actually DID see a smoking hot Cat5-Woman on Halloween last year, so don’t laugh!
11. Cat5-Woman
The new AIM worm is doing more damage than expected. Apparently AOL users are good at clicking on links and infecting themselves. Weird.
The unnamed worm delivers a cocktail of unwanted software, including a so-called rootkit, security experts at FaceTime Communications said Friday. A rootkit is a tool designed to go undetected by the security software used to lock down control of a computer after an initial hack.
ASUS VR Cooler @ Motherboards.org - Aquaero 4.0 Water Cooling Kit @ Technic3D - Thermaltake Blue Orb II @ PC Modding Malaysia - Water Block Review @ A1-Electronics - Thermalright SI-120 Heatsink @ Ap0calypse
Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse @ BigBruin - ePower Lion EP-450P5-L1 @ SilentPC Review - Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse @ Bit-Tech - Enermax Liberty 620W PSU @ Phoronix - Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse @ OCIA - Antec Phantom 500 @ Club Overclocker - OCZ 2GB Rally USB 2.0 Flash Drive @ Bjorn3D
Raidmax Ninja 918 Silver ATX Computer Case @ Tweaknews - XG Ninja 2 Case @ Think Computers - Tuniq Symmetry I Mid-Tower @ SystemCooling
[H]appy Halloween to all of you from us here at [H]ard|OCP. Hopefully everyone has fun tonight. Be safe, keep an eye out for the kids tonight and have a blast. Here is another [H]ard pumpkin, next to his friend “puke” pumpkin, ready for the evenings festivities. Blame Greg Matthews for giving his pumpkin the vodka, now look what happened…at least the pumpkins have good taste in vodka…whoddathunkit?
There is a new version of nVHardPage out today, bringing this popular little tweak tool up to version 3.2.
Do you seek an easy way to en/disable overclocking options or vsync option in your ForceWare drivers without the burden of importing registry entries or the need to go in that registry yourself ? Basically CoolBits and more within your fingertips. Our NVIDIA tweaking tool underwent quite some changes.
Finally, something to stick in that damn 1x PCI-E slow you have on your motherboard. AkibaPC has a brand new ATi Rage Theater 550 Pro PCI-E on display today. This will interest you for sure if you want a capture card / TV card and you have a new motherboard with all of those open little 1x PCI-E slots.
We have a brand new batch of free tech publications for you guys (magazines / whitepapers) out today for you guys, all are FREE for the taking. First up we have a free subscription to Game Developer Magazine, a magazine written specifically for creators of entertainment software and provides technical and industry information for professional game developers. Next up is a free subscription to IT Solution Journal, an "information suite" available exclusively to qualified IT professionals. You can also get a free subscription to INFOSTOR a magazine dedicated to storage professionals. Finally, we have a very interesting whitepaper that covers how an enterprise data integration platform enriches a service oriented architecture and how a SOA provides an ideal framework for data integration technology. As always, grab them if you want them, try them if you haven’t. They are all completely free.
