The Inquirer have some startling info for us about the performance of AMD's upcoming Phenom 3GHz parts in conjunction with a pair of Radeon 2900 XTs in Crossfire.

They are claiming that they have had the chance to tinker with an early K10 system present at the Games Convention in Leipzig last week, and provide us with some (apparent) legitimate benchmarking scores which are quite crushing!

How's 30,031 points in 3DMark06 sound? Certainly a new world record right off the bat if it pertains to be true. Further information about the system benched is that the platform was running on the RD790 chipset along with Corsair's Dominator PC2-9136C5D memory modules, and the Crossfire setup was overclocked to GPU/MEM speeds of 830MHz/900 MHz respectively.

Using a rather exotic cooling setup, the Aussie boys from overclocking group Team Australia managed to hit 5.1GHz out of an Intel E6700 processor live at show during WCG Australia 2007.

Apparently later on they managed to hit 5.2GHz but we were not around to verify it, so we will just have to take their word for it.

They did it using a GIGABYTE P35-DS3P motherboard with settings of 511.5MHz FSB x 10 which actually puts them at 5115MHz. That is quite an impressive result considering it is a mid-range board but it is still not enough to beat our own record of 5.44GHz during Computex Taipei 2007. Keep in mind, we were using an E6850 processor and GIGABYTE's most high-end DQ6 P35 motherboard with settings of 605MHz FSB x 9.

Just last weekend we had the chance to attend WCG Australia 2007 (that is the World Cyber Games, baby!) and as one of the title sponsors of the Australian leg of the event, GIGABYTE were showing off a live demo of their forthcoming MA790-DQ6 motherboard matched up with the new AMD Athlon 6400+ and two Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB graphics cards in Crossfire mode.

Nathan, our man on the scene in Sydney, reported that the system was putting out over 12,000 points in 3DMark06 and we would assume that is at stock clocked settings. AMD will launch their AMD RD790 chipset, which includes support for their upcoming range of Phenom processors along with PCI Express 2.0 support, when the processors are ready and that date is still not really confirmed at this stage.

GIGABYTE's particular board pictured below supports a grand total of four PEG slots running at x16 each which supports rumors that AMD shouldn't be too far away from releasing Quad Crossfire to the world before the end of the year.

A little birdie sent us along some Foxconn marketing shots of the final revision of their X38A "Digital Life" motherboard based on Intel's soon to be released X38 chipset.

It is basically the same as the one we saw a few months ago at Computex in Taipei but here for the first time you get a first look at the final shipping revision.

We did not get a spec sheet, so we will just need to let the pictures do the talking and here they are...

Although there wasn't that much computer related at Cartronics, we found a couple of interesting things, the first being a 2 DIN in-car PC from a company called Giantec. It actually integrates quite easily into any card that can take a 2 DIN stereo unit and it's powerful enough to run Windows XP. The hardware might not be the most impressive around, but it seemed to do the job.

The model we looked at is called PCM600D and it comes with two different processor options, either a 1GHz or a 1.5GHz Celeron M and this have been paired with 512MB or RAM. An internal 2.5-inch hard drive caters for storage, although it seems like the company only offers 40 or 60GB. It has a front mounted slot-in DVD drive and a front USB port as well as a front microphone input.

YouGamers.com (a site put together by FutureMark which is dedicated to gamers), have just let us know about a competition they have going at the moment which could earn you four PC or console games of your choice.

The Caption'a'Shot competition just requires that you simply hunt down a screenshot of choice somewhere on the site, and then come up with a spiffy caption for it. The most amusing and suitable caption for the screenshot in question gets the four games of his / her choice.

You'll have to be quick though, as the comp comes to a close on friday 31st August. Simply head over to this section of YouGamers.com to sign up.

A huge acquisition has taken place today in the PC system builder market, none other than Acer have just grown substantially bigger having laid down approximately $710 million USD on Gateway.

Though Gateway was a much stronger force back in the early to mid 90s, they are still currently ranked as the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the U.S. with shipments tipping 20 million PCs each year.

Here's what Acer have to say about the decision :-

DailyTech are back at it again with some quick and dirty benchmarks of Intel's forthcoming Penryn quad-core CPU codenamed Yorkfield. Their spies are definitely better than ours at the moment.

This processor will release soon and looks much better on paper compared to the current Core 2 Kentsfield quad-core CPU. For starters, the new CPU has extra and faster L2 cache (2 x 6MB vs. 2 x 4MB), new SSE4 instruction set and also should consume less power considering its manufactured on a 45nm process which should be delight to overclockers worldwide.

We just got back from checking out the all non-inspiring CarTronics Taipei 2007 show and we were less than impressed with what we saw.

Besides one or two fancy car computers mounted inside an equally impressive Mercedes, we didn't see much at all which took our interest. Lars might update you with some of the stuff he saw but don't expect too much. Only some basic GPS equipment which didn't knock our hats off at all - not that we were wearing any to be knocked off.

There were some decent rear vision mirrors with built-in GPS, digital TV and camera (which can be position at the back of your car for easier parking) but that was about the extent of it all.

Over the past couple of days Microsoft and Razer has both launched new gaming mice and it wasn't too long ago that Logitech launched a new model, but today an unexpected announcement dropped into our mailbox from SteelSeries who announced not one, but two new gaming mice. SteelSeries is probably better known for its mouse mats or gaming surfaces as they like to call it and headsets than its mice, although they've offered a couple of tweaked Microsoft mice.

The two new models goes under the Ikari brand and are called Ikari Optical and Ikari Laser professional gaming mice. According to the press release, these two new mice have been under development for 15 months with the help of some 20 professional gamers along with input from some further 5,000+ gamers.

Engadget has scored some info about the upcoming Dell XPS M1730 notebook which will launch on Monday if their sources are right. It's also one of the first notebooks to feature the new mobile PhysX M100 card from Ageia. As if that wasn't enough, this 17-inch notebook will feature either a Core 2 Duo T7300 to T7700 or a Core 2 Extreme X7800 CPU.

The graphics horsepower will come from a GeForce 8700M GT and the chipset is the Intel PM965 which supports up to 4GB of DDR2 memory. Other features include an ExpressCard 54 slot, Bluetooth 2.0, DVI, HD audio, a 2Megapixel web camera, a selection of various Wi-Fi and SATA hard drive options and an optional Blu-ray drive.

Dell has also fitted it with an LED backlit keyboard, some flashy lights and a small gaming LCD display which apparently will display various system information. We're not so sure about the retro Compaq style keyboard though, it doesn't really seem to go with the rest of the design. We're not so keen on the off centre touchpad either, but this is a trade-off Dell has done because they've added a numerical keypad. At 4.8kg this is a pretty heavy piece of equipment, but it looks like it might be worth it, if you think you'll remotely be able to afford one.

A Japanese company called Princeton has released what has to be the world's smallest Bluetooth 2.0 adapter with EDR at 14 x 19 x 4.5 mm (WxDxH) and 5.5g. The PTM-UBT3S is barely any bigger than the USB connector and it shouldn't have to be removed from your notebook when you pack it up in your bag. It's only a Class 2 device, although a 10m range should still be enough for most users.

It also features A2DP support for use with stereo Bluetooth headsets and other Bluetooth audio devices. It offers supports for a wide range of other Bluetooth profiles such as DUN (Dial Up Networking), FAX, FTP, PAN and BIP to select a few. It also works with both PCs and MACs.

If you're a frequent reader of TweakTown, then you might remember that we wrote about a pre-announcement from Razer last week. Well, the site has now been updated and the new product is here in the shape of the Lachesis, Razers latest high-end gaming mouse. Lachesis or Lachesis Muta Muta is apparently one of two things according to Razer, 1. The largest pit viper in the world and 2. Latin for bringer of silent death. It's good to see that Razer is sticking with the snake names.

Although the Lachesis doesn't have some of the features of Microsoft's SideWinder mouse or Logitech's G9, such as adjustable weights, swappable feet or handgrips, it's got something that one-ups both of these mice, a 4,000dpi 3G laser sensor. This offers twice as high resolution as the competing mice from Microsoft and Logitech, so if you need an extra sensitive mouse, then you know where to look.

Fujitsu has launched it's LifeBook T2010 in Australia and the company claims it's the worlds lightest A4 sized convertible tablet PC. The LifeBook tablet PCs are generally well built and features decent hardware considering their size. The LifeBook T2010 is based on an Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 CPU which is clocked at 1.2GHz with 2MB of L2 cache and operates at a 533MHz bus.

It's paired up with the new Intel GM965 chipset which features integrated graphics and an Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN or a 3945BG wireless card for full Centrino branding. It's also got a 12.1-inch widescreen display with 1,280x800 resolution that features an active digitizer for the pen input.

If you've been playing with computers for as long as we have, then you might remember the Microsoft SideWinder range of gaming peripherals from the mid 90's. Well, SideWinder is back and Microsoft has launched a new gaming mouse as the first product in the revived brand.

Microsoft has pulled out all the stops in terms of the marketing campaign for the new SideWinder mouse. There's a dedicated website which you can find here, called the Site of Champions. But what really matters is the hardware, at least if Microsoft intends to sell any of the new mice.

Luckily it looks like Microsoft has done their homework and this one will give Logitech a run for their money. If this or the Logitech G9 will be your choice is a difficult matter, since they're both very similar and very different. For starters, this is the first Microsoft mouse to incorporate adjustable weights, but Microsoft hasn't taken it as far as Logitech, as you're limited to 5 and 10 gram weights with a maximum of 30g.

As we draw closer to NVIDIA's next-gen GPUs (namely G92 and G98), more details are surfacing about them.

The Inq report that their top-end G92 chips will be launched with a GPU clockspeed of at least 800MHz, with an Ultra variant to show up a bit later down the track running even higher. These cards should deliver massive performance boosts over the current 8800 series, which are by no means slouches as it stands.

G98 however is said to be a mainstream chip which is designed to take on AMD's ATI RV670 series. These will take over where the 8600 leaves off, a 256-bit controller will be the main improvement.

AGEIA has announced that they're taking its PhysX PPU technology to the notebook market with the new PhysX 100M mobile processor. AGEIA is actually showing it at the Leipzig Games Convention which is happening right now. No word on partners as yet, but apparently the new PPU is available in system now.

We're not sure how significant this is, as AGEIA hasn't exactly managed to get a lot of game support as yet. However, it is currently the only PPU option on the market, as we've yet to see any kind of physics related hardware or software solutions to become available from AMD and Nvidia.

Logitech has announced a new set of 5.1-channel speakers called the G51 which are targeting gamers. The cool feature here is that the G51's can turn a stereo source into 5.1 surround sound. Although don't expect this Matrix mode to be as good as the real deal, as audio up-mixing is never as good as the real deal. However, it will get you in-game music through all your speakers, something you don't always get.

Logitech is also using something they call Frequency Directed Dual Driver to create a 360 degree sound field that is meant to eliminate odd sounding surround sound created by poor speaker placement. The G51's are rated at 155W RMS, which is the real deal, so you could have the neighbours over if you're note careful.

Nexus have handed out a couple announcements today, the first of which introduces their new "Caterpillar" desktop PC chassis with its primary focus on silence.

The case is equipped with two silent 120mm fans which are mounted with rubber mounts to prevent resonance, and the inside walls of the case are all covered with wave-foam absorption material to really quieten things down.

The case itself uses the sort of metal mesh often seen in the audio industry to keep aesthetics pleasing to the eye.

Anand managed to sneak an early revision Penryn Wolfdale (upcoming 45nm Intel CPU) clocked at 2.33GHz through the cracks.

They benchmarked it against the Core 2 Duo E6550 which is also clocked at 2.33GHz - to sum it up, the new Wolfdale dual-core is faster, not so much in general applications but in gaming it skips ahead quite well in certain games.

Pretty good considering it's an early revision and they're not even testing with an X38 motherboard which will take the platform to its fullest potential.