[H]ardNews 7th Edition

Exploit Released For Unpatched Windows Flaw:

An exploit has been released for that unpatched Windows flaw we told you about last week. Making matters worse, there are a handful of malicious sites out there already trying to take advantage of the flaw.

Several security groups are reporting that it is extremely easy to get whacked by this vulnerability/exploit just by visiting one of a growing number of malicious Web sites that are now employing this attack. F-Secure's blog post on this indicates that -- because the vulnerability lies in the way Windows parses WMF image files -- Firefox and Opera users also can get infected -- although they at least have to agree to download and run a file first.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Intel Pentium XE 955 & 975 Chipset:

PCPerspective says that the Intel Pentium XE 955 & 975 chipset consumes less power, runs hot but performs well across the board. For a second opinion, you can see what Lost Circuits had to say here.

The Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor and the accompanying 975X chipset mark yet another attempt by Intel to retake some lost ground on the performance computing and enthusiast level market.

P5N32-SLI vs G1-975X Comparison:

T-Break has a bit of a LGA775 motherboard shootout posted that pits the ASUS P5N32-SLI against the Gigabyte G1-975X. Who comes out on top? Read the review to find out.

Today we take a look at two motherboards for the Pentium platform that are being targeted as gaming boards. Yes, we know that sounds a bit of an oxymoron considering that AMD CPUs hold the performance crown in games at the moment, however, that doesn’t stop two of the biggest motherboard manufacturers from releasing and packaging them as gaming boards.

Video Capture Card Advice:

I need the help and advice from all you video editing experts out there, so listen up! I need a PCI video capture card that can accept VGA / DVI input or RGB input. I am currently using the S-Video input on an ATi card but I need something that I can plug a VGA cable or RGB component cables straight into. If you know of an adapter box that works, I’d be interested in hearing what you guys are using as well. Drop me a line here with your suggestions. Thanks!

[H]ardNews 5th Edition - [H]ardForum [H]appenings

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

Welcome to the [H]umpday edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! In another unabashed attempt at getting you guys to Fold, I am telling all of you to get your butts FOLDING!! If you need to know why we DC hit this thread up. If you have the desire to Fold but your hardware is lacking, check out the distributed computing parts swap thread and get that box running. So now you have the desire, the hardware but you just don’t know “HOW” to get Folding, this thread will tell you everything you need to know. We need everyone folding that we can get… and besides, being on a winning team kicks ass. Now that we have Folding taken care of, let’s talk about the big discussion of the day…Gaming: What Will 2006 Bring? Definitely good discussion going on there! Deal of the Day is this 300GB HD for $69.99 after rebates. Runner up in the DotD department is this dual Xeon 1U rack barebones for $299. As always, have fun in the forums, all the cool kids are doing it.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Virus Disguised As MSN Messenger Beta

There is a new virus out there that is disguising itself as MSN Messenger Beta to trick people into installing the virus. Most of you are smart enough not to fall for this kind of stuff BUT we all know people who would fall for it, so spread the word.

The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user's MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA."

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler @ BigBruin - Sharkoon Red Shock HSF @ A1-Electronics - Innovatek Water Cooling Kit @ MVKTech

Etc.:

A4Tech X-718 Gaming Mouse @ VR-Zone - Sunbeamtech NUUO 550W PSU w/ Fan Controller @ OCInside - Zalman Theatre 6M Headset @ The Moditory - Sapphire Theatrix 550 Pro TV Tuner @ AMDReview - Razer Copperhead and Logitech G5 @ A True Review

Cases & Modding:

Silverstone LC16M HTPC Case @ SFFTech

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

ECS KN1 SLI Extreme:

The gang at techFEAR has posted the conclusion to their “30 day test drive” review of the ECS KN1 SLI Extreme motherboard today. For more information on this board, have a look at our evaluation here.

The ECS KN1 SLI Extreme is one of the most stable products we’ve seen (at techFEAR and other associations). During the 30-day Test Drive, we kept two instances of Prime95 running under another user 24 hours a day.

Pioneer Unveils Blu-ray PC Drives:

As mentioned in our press release edition earlier today, Pioneer has taken the wraps off their new Blu-ray disk drive for the PC.

According to the Japanese electronics giant, the new drive will write and read single-layer BD-R and BD-RE discs and read single-layer and double-layer BD-ROM discs, without cartridge. It is designed to ensure high reliability in high-density recording and playback with Blu-Ray discs as well as with DVDs, the company said.

Free CBS Sitcoms:

CBS made two of its sitcoms available as free streaming downloads in an effort to expand its audience by attracting more viewers for video and sell more advertising at the same time.

For this week only, the shows -- "Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother" -- will each have two previously aired full-length episodes available on Yahoo Inc.'s television site ( http://tv.yahoo.com ) and its video search.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition - Press Releases

Xbox 360 Powers Nissan URGE Concept Car:

Nissan North America Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have merged automobile design and gaming technology to create the first-ever fully integrated gaming system within a vehicle. Conceived by Nissan Design America Inc. (NDA) and equipped with the Xbox 360™ next-generation video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play “Project Gotham Racing® 3” using the car’s own steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game on a flip-down seven-inch LCD screen. “PGR® 3” is developed exclusively for Xbox 360 by Bizarre Creations Ltd. for Microsoft Game Studios.

Pioneer Launches PC Based Blu-ray Drives:

Pioneer Electronics Inc. today announced one of the industry’s first Blu-ray Disc computer drives, expected to revolutionize digital and high-definition media storage. The new Pioneer BDR-101A will utilize shorter wavelength blue lasers in order to store up to 25 gigabytes of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc. It is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2006. This first generation product will be targeted primarily to professional users and serious enthusiasts, generally the first to adopt new technology.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & 975X Express Chipset:

There is another review of Intel’s Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & 975X Express Chipset out today, this one comes courtesy of the folks at HotHardware. What did Dave and the crew think of Intel’s latest and greatest? Read the full review and find out, here is a clip to get you started:

The Pentium Extreme Edition 955 processor performed well overall throughout our entire battery of benchmarks. Due to the processor's relatively high-clock speed, dual execution cores, HT technology and 1066MHz bus, the synthetic benchmarks, 3D rendering tests, and audio encoding tests ran best on the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 / D975XBX platform.

Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GTX:

Noticia3D has a review of the Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GTX posted today. Unless you can read the quote below, you’ll need a translator. For more general information on the 7800 GTX make sure you check out our evaluation of the MSI branded card here and the 512MB version here.

Han pasado varios meses desde la salida de la serie 7 de Nvidia y la GeForce 7800 GTX sigue siendo casi el producto estrella del mercado gráfico. Sólo la ATi X1800 XT es capaz de competir con esta tarjeta y la falta de su disponibilidad, al menos en nuestro país nos hace casi descartarla.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

Xbox 360 Demo Disk Hackers?

It would seem that people are making a big deal out of the fact that the Xbox 360 demo disks are unprotected and that some 1337 h4X0rz have created an ISO from the unprotected demo disk. The funny part is, all of the games on the demo disk are readily available in other places (magazine disks or Xbox Live!) so the only thing interesting about this is that people are now going to try hacking the demo games.

They say this demo contains no media protection and therefore it will run on the Xbox 360 when burned to a DVD-R disc. The disc contains playable demo's on the disk such as Call of Duty 2, which could also be hackable, as PI speculates."

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & 975X Chipset:

Need more info on the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & 975X chipset? Well, you are in luck, head on over to PCPerspective and get all the information. While you are there, make sure you check out their Athlon 64 X2 3800+ vs. 4800+ overclocking article. The results might surprise you.

And while we are not going to argue the fact that up until today AMD did have the advantage, the point is that this issue is usually exaggerated. AMD has the advantage on gaming benchmarks and Intel has traditionally been better at media and content creation, but with more powerful GPUs the differences in gaming are getting narrower. Intel should never be counted out.

Dell Snubs Firefox:

Despite rumors to the contrary, Dell says that it has no plans to ship Firefox with its PCs destined for Australia.

"There are currently no plans to ship Firefox on desktops or notebooks in Dell Asia Pacific at this time," a spokesperson for the PC manufacturer told ZDNet Australia last week.

New Trojan Stalking Spanish Users?

All you MSN Messenger users should be aware that there are two Trojans on the loose that are harvesting all the info they can from unsuspecting surfers.

The first Trojan, named Nabload.U, downloads a second Trojan if a user clicks on a Spanish-language instant message in Messenger while also displaying two URLs that download a configuration file. The message appears to be from a personal contact, according to a Panda news release.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition - [H]ardForum [H]appenings

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

Welcome to another edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! Let’s kick things off with a few of the cool mods we currently have going in the Case Modding forum. Water cooling aficionados will really dig on the plans for Project: Parallel HEX. A lot of work went into the design and that water cooling set up will be awesome. Speaking of water cooling, this case mod is well on its way to being a nice water cooled system. I know most of you think that the forums are all about computers but I should remind you that our Hobbies forums have all kinds of cool stuff in there like Firearms & Knives, Photography & Video, Music and Musicians and even talk about comic books. I have pictures of my X-Men #1, Daredevil #1, Fantastic Four #1, Iron Man #1, Avengers #1 and Captain Marvel #1 in this thread. Definitely something to check out. Moving on to the Hot Deals section our Deal of the Day can be found in this thread, great deals on hard drives, motherboards, monitors and more. Runner up in the DotD department is this 160GB hard drive for $59.99. Get in on it while the getting is good! As always, have fun in the forums, we’ll see you in there!!

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

No More “Intel Inside” Logo:

According to the folks at The Economic Times, Intel is abandoning the “Intel Inside” slogan and will unveil a new logo/slogan in January. I wonder if this means that little “dum-dum-ding-dum” sound played in every commercial will be replaced as well.

Motherboards don’t look, I’m changing! ‘Intel Inside’, the iconic logo of the world’s most dominant semiconductor manufacturing company, which has imprinted itself on the consciousness of consumers across the globe, is likely to undergo a transformation early in the new year, according to industry sources.

New Year’s Day Delayed:

New Year’s Day is delayed this year…by one second. Scientist will adjust atomic clocks around the world to compensate. I plan on just counting down from 11 (while everyone starts at 10) to compensate.

The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this week.