QuakeCon 2007 Around The Corner

Steve Dougherty | | Jul 5, 2007 10:38 PM CDT

Good news for avid Quake fans, it has been confirmed that Nvidia are sponsoring QuakeCon 2007. This is set to take place at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas from August 2 through 5, and the organizers are expecting to draw around 6,000 gamers from around the globe. They anticipate it will be the largest and most successful QuakeCon to date.

The total prize pool will be a whopping $100,000. No doubt competition will be more fierce than ever, so get training HARD if you want to be in on the action!

In a recent announcement it's been mentioned that this year's QuakeCon event will also see the first ever "Quad Damage" tournament, this will span across all four Quake games. It will be a great way to find out who is the most multi-talented challenger out there, and worthy of being dubbed the true "Quake Master".

Continue reading: QuakeCon 2007 Around The Corner (full post)

ThermalTake Mozart iP iPod dock case

Lars Nilsson | Mobile Devices | Jul 5, 2007 12:24 AM CDT

ThermalTake has released a new case in its Mozart media center range, the Mozart iP. ThermalTake claims that this is the world's first case with an integrated iPod dock and we believe them. The dock is integrated into the fascia of the desktop case and it looks rather smart on the pictures. You can see the iPod screen and access the scroll wheel via a cut-out in the case. The dock will also charge your iPod while it's plugged into the Mozart iP.

What's more is that the Mozart iP comes with a dedicated remote control for the iPod dock and there's a special controller that fits into a rear slot in the case that allows the iPod audio to be easily mixed with the sound from your sound card and then passed onto the speakers.

Continue reading: ThermalTake Mozart iP iPod dock case (full post)

$9.99 for Audigy Alchemy drivers

Lars Nilsson | | Jul 5, 2007 12:24 AM CDT

It seems like Creative has caused quite a stir among its users by charging US$9.99 for its EAX enabling Alchemy Windows Vista driver for the Audigy series. It might seem cruel by Creative to charge for something that should be free, especially since you can still buy a brand new Audigy card. Most of this comes down to changes in the Windows Vista driver model and EAX is no longer supported in DirectX.

The Alchemy project allows Direct Sound commands to be translated into OpenAL commands and thus EAX will work. Creative released a free version of Alchemy for its X-Fi customers a while back and has been working on improving the Alchemy drivers since. However, Creative went out with a statement when the X-Fi version arrived that it was going to charge a small fee for the Audigy version of the same software.

You can now order the Audigy version of Alchemy from Creative's web shop for a $9.99 fee, although this has upset many Audigy users and it seems like a workaround has already appeared on the least of expected places, Creative's Forums. A user called daniel_k has posted a link and instructions to how to use the X-Fi version to get free EAX support for Audigy cards.

Continue reading: $9.99 for Audigy Alchemy drivers (full post)

Super Talent Expands DDR3 Options

Steve Dougherty | RAM | Jul 4, 2007 9:51 PM CDT

Memory maker Super Talent have released a new series of DDR3 modules this week, starting with the W1333UB2G8 kit. This kit comprises a couple of 1GB sticks rated for 1333MHz speeds with timings of 8-8-8-18.

However, the most exciting is their two DDR3-1600 kits. The best of the two happens to run fantastic timings (as far as DDR3 goes for now) at 7-7-7-18 with 1.8V, very nice indeed for 1600MHz modules. Then there's the other 1600MHz rated kit, operating with slightly looser (but still quite reasonable) latencies of 9-9-9-21.

Another highlight of the new family is the introduction of a 2GB DDR3 module, up until now I hadn't spotted a 2GB DDR3 module yet (only 2x1GB kits). This module is designed to operate at up to 1333MHz with 8-8-8-18 timings at 1.8V.

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Up close and personal with Shuttle

Lars Nilsson | | Jul 4, 2007 2:14 AM CDT

Yesterday, yours truly headed over to the Shuttle HQ here in Taipei for a visit to bring you the latest news of what Shuttle is working on and what will happen over the next few months. There has been a lot of turmoil about Shuttle recently and there have been some rumours about the company being sold, but they're not true according to the people we've spoken to. Shuttle is refocusing its product development and it is moving away from some of the low cost products it launched last year as they proved to be uncompetitive.

The good news is that Shuttle has a solid launch schedule of new products that will be arriving in a steady stream over the next couple of months, with the first products appearing later this month. Shuttle also has a new marketing team onboard and is focusing on making its products better than ever. A wide range of new features will be incorporated, some more useful than others, but it looks like Shuttle has no intention of giving up.

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AMD Prepares Phenom FX Lineup

Steve Dougherty | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Jul 3, 2007 7:30 PM CDT

Dailytech have gotten a hold of AMD's latest roadmap which confirms their plans for the remainder of the year and into Q1 2008.

The most interesting info plucked from the roadmap is in regards to their upcoming "Phenom FX" range of processors. Under this new naming scheme, AMD will announced both the Phenom FX-80 and FX-90 series, with the 80 series designated to single processor systems whilst the 90 series is suited specifically to 4x4 dual processor configs.

AMD expect to launch the FX-80 series towards the end of the year, with the 90 series to debut early next year.

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HIS goes the full Monty with 5 new cards

Lars Nilsson | | Jul 2, 2007 12:10 AM CDT

HIS has announced its entire range of AMD Radeon HD 2600/2400 based graphics cards and apart from the Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 version, HIS has its own designs up and running. HIS launched a total of six new cards and four of the new cards feature HIS' new "Hi-Fi" concept design with gold plated DVI connectors, a black back panel and blue PCB.

There will be two IceQ version, one 2600 XT GDDR3 card and one 2600 Pro DDR2 card. The clock speeds for the IceQ version of the 2600GT wasn't revealed, but the 2600 Pro will have the GPU clocked at 650MHz and the memory at 1050MHz. Both cards will be available with 256 or 512MB.

Continue reading: HIS goes the full Monty with 5 new cards (full post)

Asus launches new 22-inch gaming LCD

Lars Nilsson | Gaming | Jul 1, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

The PG221 22-inch gaming monitor from Asus was announced earlier today and it has some rather interesting features that set it apart from your average 22-inch LCD display. It has a resolution of 1,680x1,050 which is pretty much the norm for a display this size and Asus has coated it with a reflective coating. This is not to everyone's liking, but it is great for high contrast stuff like games and video.

But it's the rest of the specifications that makes this display interesting, it has a built in pair of 5W speakers and a small 15W subwoofer hanging off the stand. This isn't the first time we've seen this from Asus, but it keeps things neat and tidy if you don't have a lot of desk space for a set of speakers.

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Palit goes HDMI on HD 2600 Pro

Lars Nilsson | Connectivity & Cloud | Jun 30, 2007 12:09 AM CDT

Palit has just announced its Radeon HD 2600Pro Sonic, which features a built in HDMI connector, making it easier to connect the card to HDMI enabled displays and HD TV's. The card retains one DVI and get a D-Sub connector as well, although it's missing a TV-out connector, but if your TV already has HDMI, why bother with analogue?

The card itself looks quite generic and it features a fairly standard cooler. The HD 2600Pro Sonic has 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.4GHz and the GPU is clocked at 650MHz. This is the first Radeon HD 2600 Pro card to feature GDDR3 memory and it should allow for a performance boost against the competition.

Continue reading: Palit goes HDMI on HD 2600 Pro (full post)

Korean NAS/HD video player has it all

Lars Nilsson | Internet & Websites | Jun 29, 2007 1:43 AM CDT

A Korean company called SavitMicro has launched an interesting device, it's a NAS and HD video player in one. It's called the cineDISK CD36HD and its one of the most feature packed devices of this type we've ever seen. Not only is it a NAS (it's actually a NDAS devices), although it only has 10/100Mbit Ethernet, it can also connect to your PC via USB 2.0 for some faster file transfers and it has two USB 2.0 host ports for external drives. There's also a version available with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

So far it's not that remarkable, as there are plenty of devices like this on the market already. What sets the cineDISK CD36HD apart from every other such device is the fact that it connects up to your TV. Around the back you'll find DVI-D, Component video, S-Video and composite video outputs. It supports up to 1080p resolution, but there's no mention of HDCP support. It has a set of stereo RCA jacks, an optical and coaxial S/PDIF and finally even analogue 5.1-channel RCA jacks. Pretty impressive to say the least.

Continue reading: Korean NAS/HD video player has it all (full post)

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